Climate Letter #595

A study of toxic algae blooms in the North Pacific and Arctic.  The neurotoxins created have been deadly to numerous species and whole ecosystems on a massive scale.  Considerable warming of the waters is seen as the primary cause, and there is no end in sight.  You may recall that the blooms can stretch for thousands of miles.  This is a major consequence of global warming, here and now, that should never be forgotten or overlooked.

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Shale gas wells leak far too much methane.  From a new study, “The United States alone could be responsible for between 30 percent and 60 percent of the global growth in human-caused atmospheric methane emissions since 2002 because of a 30 percent spike in methane emissions across the country.”  That is a huge amount.  Atmospheric methane has been growing about as fast as CO2 lately, from a base already much enlarged.  Non-US increases probably rival the US figures, which doesn’t leave much room for those who estimate the size of emissions that originate from melting hydrates and the like in the far north.
Extra comment:  Specific pulses of methane are short-lived, but that is not true of the constantly-replenished amounts measured in the atmosphere, which normally tend to move up or down in the same direction as CO2 over the course of long-term cycles, and often faster.  The relative strength of CH4 to CO2 molecules that exist in the air on a single-day basis is rarely publicized, but almost certainly exceeds 86 times by a wide margin.
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An update on battery storage activity for privately produced electricity.  Australia is far and away the center of experimentation and competitive efforts, and the level of interest and activity is apparently accelerating.  Costs and performance both keep improving.  Whatever develops will soon find its way to the rest of the world, which should give utilities plenty to worry about.
Here is an example from a small, fast-moving competitor:
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Another review of the “hard landing” study.  This subject was brought up in yesterday’s Climate Letter.  Today I found a review that lays out the meat of the study in a more orderly way.  There could be still more emphasis on the obvious fact that the amount of work that needs to be done, in order to completely replace fossil fuel energy, plus all of the structures and equipment that are employed to make it function, is simply stupendous, even beyond comprehension.  Also, the sooner we get started, and begin to see results, the more likely it is that we will gain a little extra time at the finish line.
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Climate science.  This story is for those who have a taste for ancient climate history, specifically the PETM event, which is a leading example of what happens when there is a large and rapid buildup of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.  The best available information is summarized in this report, which ends with a suggestion that climate sensitivity, as currently defined, might actually be greater than 4.5C in response to a doubling of CO2.
Carl

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