Lethal Heating: 06/27/20

27/06/2020

(US) Retired Easthampton Engineer Builds 30-Foot-Tall ‘Sea Level Rise Ruler,' Plans To Drive It Across The East Coast To Raise Awareness About Climate Change

MassLive Media - Jackson Cote

Easthampton resident Vinny Valetutti’s constructed a 30-foot-tall “Sea Level Rise Ruler” to raise awareness about the dangers of rising sea levels due to climate change and ice caps melting. (Courtesy Olivia Greeley)

Easthampton resident Vinney Valetutti’s monstrous “Sea Level Rise Ruler” is far from 12 inches long.

The construction spans a whopping 30 feet and currently sits on a wooden platform attached to the Western Massachusetts man’s car.

With his structure, the former engineer is seeking to raise awareness about the dangers of rising sea levels due to climate change and ice caps melting.

“I simply hope to make people aware of the reality of sea level rise, as it is a unique part of the global warming discussion,” Valetutti said in a statement. “People tend to not focus on sea level rise because, at first glance, the daily effect is insignificant, but ice melt has a cumulative effect.”

Valetutti, a retired professional engineer who is passionate about energy conservation, stays up to date on the science of climate change. He was inspired in 2019 by Greta Thunberg, a 17-year-old Swedish girl who become internationally recognized for her environmental activism.

Using his background in engineering, Valetutti constructed a traveling flagpole that can hold a 30-foot-tall banner that replicates a ruler, with exact measurements in feet, according to the Easthampton resident.

“I marked the 11- and 22-foot levels in red, because those indicate where our sea level would rise if only 5% or 10% of Antarctica and Greenland were to melt,” he said. “When people stand next to the flagpole and see how high that really is, it shows how legitimate and scary the reality of rising sea levels is.”

The ruler has been sitting in Northampton, but Valetutti is hoping to drive his moveable education tool across the east coast, according to his statement.

“I wanted to take a stance on the side of climate change that is not always talked about - rising sea levels due to global warming,” the statement said.

Valetutti stressed how rapidly sea levels could rise and how little the problem is discussed.

“Sea level rise is real. It is scary, and there is no way to time it,” he said. “Mother Nature can work fast.”

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(AU) The Surprising Way Renewables Can Help Farmers Cope

Sydney Morning Herald - Peter Hannam

It turns out that with solar panels, even the grass is greener during a drought.

That's the experience of Dubbo grazier Tom Warren, who says condensation dripping off the panels arrayed across 55 hectares of his farm provided a moisture source that was the envy of neighbours.

Sheep and solar mix well, Mr Warren said, with condensation from the panel providing extra grass for his flock during the drought. Credit: Janie Barrett

"During the drought, everybody around here was feeding sheep [by hand]," Mr Warren said on Tuesday as sheep grazed among the rows. "We only had to feed these sheep for about three months."

The Berejiklian government is relying on the good word of such landholders to help accelerate the roll-out of large-scale wind and solar, particularly in its three designated renewable energy zones.

Tom Warren, a farmer whose land hosts a solar farm near Dubbo, says more renewables will help revive regional economies. Credit: Janie Barrett

This week, the government said the plan to foster installation of 3000 megawatts of new-generation capacity in the Central West renewable zone had drawn interest from investors for nine times that amount.

So strong was the response, Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean said, that "there's absolutely room to increase the capacity". The other two zones, in New England and the Riverina, are also likely to attract strong interest.

Some 450 jobs would be created in the first zone based on the 3000MW goal, drawing in new industries, Mr Kean said.

"It will see Dubbo and the Central West become the powerhouse of NSW and the powerhouse of our nation," he predicted. "It's a win for NSW, delivering cheap, clean energy."

Deputy Premier and Nationals leader John Barilaro, who has often advocated coal and gas over renewables, has lately been more supportive of the jobs wind and solar farms can bring to rural communities.

"We need to build diversity in our local economies," Mr Barilaro said at the Dubbo solar farm.

"The ability for a landholder to have a solar farm or have wind turbines ... gives him off-farm income," he said. "It means you can future-proof the regions."

Deputy NSW Premier John Barilaro (left) with Dubbo MP Dugald Saunders and Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean (right), at the South Keswick solar farm near Dubbo. Credit: Janie Barrett

Mr Kean said "no one would be a bigger beneficiary than the farmers" but consultation would be key.

"We want to work with you," Mr Kean. "We want to get the balance right between our state's energy needs and also to support the agricultural production that we rely so heavily on from this region."

Mr Warren said he would welcome visitors to his farm, run by France-based renewables developer Neoen, if they needed reassurance about the benefits of clean energy.

“It’s tremendous,” Mr Warren said of the potential for renewable energy’s growth. “This can drive the decentralisation of industry — this to me is the future of regional Australia.”

Potential Priority Energy Zones identified by NSW government

Garth Heron, Neoen's head of development in Australia, said his firm had lodged interest for five projects within the Central West renewable zone. If they proceeded, they would total more than 1GW of solar, wind and batteries and require at least $1 billion to build.

Falling costs of renewables and storage meant they were becoming more competitive against new coal and gas plants and were closing in on existing coal plants. "Average wholesale power prices in Australia are about $70-$90," Mr Heron said. "We'd be looking at two-thirds of that in terms of firmed power [involving both renewables and batteries]."

The company already has 1.3GW of capacity in Australia, making the country Neoen's biggest single market. That tally will pass 2GW within 18 months even before any new Central West projects start.

"It's a great time to be in this sector," Mr Heron said. "This is the tipping point."

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(AU) Reserve Bank Warns Of 25% GDP Loss By 2100 Unless Action Taken On Climate Change

The Guardian - Adam Morton

Australia’s central bank joins 60 others, including the Bank of England, to warn of climate risk to the economy and financial sector

The Reserve Bank of Australia building in Martin Place. The RBA and other central banks have sounded an urgent warning about the risk of climate change to the global economy. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

More than 60 central banks, including the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Bank of England, have warned that global GDP could fall by 25% by 2100 if the world does not act to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

They suggested if the world acted to limit emissions to net zero by about 2070, giving a 67% chance of limiting global heating to 2C above pre-industrial levels, the impact of the climate crisis on global GDP could be about 4%.

The estimates are included in scenarios published by the Network for Greening the Financial System, a collection of 66 central banks and supervisors and 13 observer institutions. Described as the first of their kind, the scenarios are designed to guide bankers and financial regulators, including Australia’s Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), in assessing the climate risks to the economy and financial sector.

Their launch follows warnings from financial regulators of the economic threat posed by the climate crisis. Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney last year warned it was possible the transition needed to tackle the climate crisis could result in an abrupt financial collapse, and the risk of collapse would grow the longer action was delayed.

In Australia, APRA board member, Geoff Summerhayes, warned climate change posed a material risk to the entire financial system and urged companies to start adapting.

In a statement released overnight Wednesday, the Network for Greening the Financial System said the changes to the climate were unprecedented. Frank Elderson, the chair of the network and an executive board member of De Nederlandsche in the Netherlands, summarised: “Climate change leads to financial risks and therefore remains a vital issue for central banks and supervisors to address.”

The network said understanding the financial risks and economic costs required it to examine scenarios stretching decades ahead.

It considered three possibilities: under its orderly scenario, climate policies would be introduced soon and gradually tightened, limiting the risk of physical damage – including extreme weather events – and the impact of the transition to low emissions. It would be expected to lead to a “relatively small” economic impact of about 4% of global GDP by 2100.

Under the “disorderly” scenario, climate policies would not be not introduced until 2030, and the emissions reductions needed would be more abrupt than in an orderly world. It was estimated to have a significantly larger economic impact, with nearly a 10% reduction in global GDP.

In the third scenario, described as a “hot house” world, action to deal with the climate crisis would be limited to current policies only. Countries’ international commitments would not be not met and physical risks would be greatly increased as global emissions kept rising until 2080, leading to more than 3C of warming.

The network estimated the physical damage caused under this scenario could wipe out up to a quarter of annual global GDP by the end of the century. But it warned this could be an underestimate as it was not possible to adequately account for all risks, particularly from high impact events such as significant sea-level rise, extreme weather and societal changes that could be triggered by climate-related migration and conflict.

“As a result, damages in this scenario will be larger than models suggest, particularly in regions with lower resilience and capacity for adaptation,” the network said.

Emma Herd, chief executive of the Investor Group on Climate Change, said the scenarios clearly demonstrated that climate change was a systemic economic threat that would undercut prosperity and job security. She said a low-emissions transition was inevitable, and would be cheaper and much less damaging if there was early action.

In Australia, it would require a stable long-term policy framework and a commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050.

“The alternative is sitting on our hands which will continue to expose Australia to decarbonisation efforts across the world while not gaining access to new opportunities that will stem from modernising the economy,” she said.

The scenarios will inform an APRA climate risk variability assessment that was expected to be finished by September before being delayed by the Covid-19 shutdown. Herd said they should lead to companies consistently disclosing their exposure to climate risk, rather than “cherry picking” scenarios that suited their business strategy.

“Governments should also apply these climate scenarios to their own policy decisions, including Covid-19 economic recovery efforts, to ensure taxpayer expenditure is not put at risk by locking in support for carbon-intensive activities,” she said.

On Thursday, the Australian Energy Council – representing all major electricity and gas companies – joined business groups, banks, major miners, the ACTU, institutional investors, all state governments and the federal opposition in calling for the government to adopt a target of net zero emissions by 2050 consistent with the Paris agreement, and for the introduction of stable national policies to set a path to the goal.

It followed the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, setting out Labor’s hopes for a bipartisan agreement to end more than a decade of political brawling over climate and energy policy. The government rejected both calls.

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