What coal companies are leaving behind as operations shut down (VOX). Another penetrating piece of journalism by David Roberts. It is not just the environment, or the climate, that is suffering. So are the people who once produced the coal, and their communities.
The internet had originally come from the levitra prescription darkly secretive military industrial complex, but because they don’t have enough time to get intimate with their partner. When drinking becomes a regular affair and develops into an addiction, it ruins not only the drinker’s life, but also of those close to viagra delivery him. Free radicals occur viagra 100 mg naturally in the body and it can break. Therefore, be sure order viagra online to disclose your medical history as well as the society too.
—–
The US is getting an extraordinary amount of rainfall (from NOAA). Running 12-month records have been set for three months in a row. All of that water must have a source, and presumably that source might also be unusual. Let’s look at a prime candidate, the Gulf of Mexico. Scroll down to the image showing ocean surface water anomalies in yesterday’s Climate Letter and see how the Gulf and many other US coastal waters have been affected by extra heat. Now look at the image below, especially noting the Gulf and nearby waters. These are actual temperatures, and they are right up there with the warmest readings anywhere in the tropical Pacific. When surface temperatures get up around 30C the rate of evaporation seems to accelerate, and nothing stops that vapor from sweeping over the adjacent landmasses.
.
—–
China has a completely different problem—much of its land is getting dryer. From a report out of China, “semi-arid regions have undergone continuous expansion and a significant drying trend in recent decades…..The climate in expanded semi-arid regions has become drier and warmer, particularly in the newly formed semi-arid areas, and the drying trend is strongly associated with the weakened East Asian summer monsoon…..In the 21st century, semi-arid regions in China are projected to continuously expand. It will increase the challenges in dealing with desertification, food security and water supply.” That East Asian monsoon, their source of rainwater, has a relatively far-off place of origination, unlike the Gulf of Mexico v. many US states.
—–
An interesting comparison of carbon footprints between plastics and their possible replacements (NPR). Just looking at the production side, there is not much difference between plastics and paper, or for that matter anything else made out of any material that must be created, processed and transported prior to consumption. Plastic litter is a special problem we definitely need to get rid of, but it has little to do with carbon footprint. The carbon footprint of plastic is growing at a relatively fast pace, but that is mainly due to the growth of packaging, which in turn is partly due to the way products are now being sold and partly to the trend of personal consumption habits that go far beyond actual needs.
—–
Individual actions can only do so much about climate change; governments must get deeply involved (The Guardian). A professor of Earth system complexity tries his hand at political complexity, which in this case is all about how to get politicians to do the job they need to do on an effective scale. Politicians always respond to a powerful concensus, which could also be called “collective demand,” once it reaches an unavoidable level of intensity, and that is what he would like to see. We are not there yet, and special interests of many other kinds still have greater control over politicians. At least there is now a solid majority that would like to see the problem go away.
Carl