old, coastal californians will use any excuse in the book to oppose anything that might facilitate population growth
As I understand it, the main issue with a large scale desalination plant is that you're pumping a ton of waste product back into the ocean. Waste product in this case being highly concentrated salt water. You'd think it would just disperse and be fine. And it does for a small scale residential system. But a large enough plant to produce water for a city would raise salt levels to a point of harming marine life.
Bidens climate team is so fucking terrible. They’re proposing a network of pipelines for captured CO2 across the Midwest. The idea being you capture CO2 and then pump it into the ground in large caverns that can retain the carbon. Like, let’s create a whole new expensive pipeline system and product that makes energy more expensive, keeps coal and gas relevant, and doesn’t address the real problem.
It's not proposed, it's happening. Has nothing to do with Biden, it's some private company wanting to make a fortune off the carbon offsets for ethanol plants. Saw the plans for that shit well before the bbb started. I work in an area where they are trying to put it in, probably going to end with eminent domain happening because the local govts get bought off. They're offering very little for how invasive it could end up being. Seems like most people are opposed. Also seems like bullshit that it will work.
We already have a relatively new desal plant in California to answer those questions. Below is an article regarding a University of Santa Cruz study comparing the surrounding ocean before and after the Carlsbad desalinization plant was constructed in California 2nd link is the actual study https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190131143433.htm https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/11/2/208 Tl;Dr Marine life was relatively unchanged (in an area that had some industrial activity prior) Salinity was higher than expected and plume extended further than expected Makes suggestions on how they could further improve this by changes to dilution and diffusing process So in my opinion desal can be done in a less impactful way than people think if the appropriate considerations are made.
There’s an AA convention in Palm Desert this weekend. A bunch of people from my club are going. Fuck that.
German energy policy has been some of the most inept shit I’ve seen. Say they are going green while on one hand shutting down nuclear power plants and on the other firing up coal power production.
Off the Scale': Warmer Arctic Ocean Fueling Climate Feedback Loop Faster Than Previously Known "This is one of the scariest reports I have ever seen," said one climate scientist in response to new study. Spoiler JON QUEALLY June 15, 2022 New scientific research published Wednesday shows the waters in the North Barents Sea are warming at a rate that is much more rapid than most climate models have predicted, with worrying implications about feedback loops for the larger Arctic region and far beyond. Extending between the north coast of Norway and Russia in the eastern Arctic Ocean, the North Barents Sea has been warming at a rate nearly seven times that of the global average, the study shows. The researchers used temperature data over four decades to determine that the trends in the region—the "fastest warming place known on Earth"—should be seen as an "early warning" of what could happen elsewhere. "We expected to see strong warming, but not on the scale we found." Published in Scientific Reports, the new findings offer further confirmation that feedback loops in the Arctic are taking hold but could be doing so at a faster rate than previously understood. "The warming pattern is primarily consistent with reductions in sea ice cover and confirms the general spatial and temporal patterns represented by reanalyses," states the abstract of the study. "However, our findings suggest even a stronger rate of warming and [sea ice concentration (SIC) and sea surface temperature (SST)] relation than was known in this region until now." Researchers behind the study, reports High North News, warn the increased warming is likely to fuel "increases in extreme weather in North America, Europe and Asia." The scientists say the Barents sea region offers a window into how warming is already impacting the Arctic more broadly and what more rapid warming could look like elsewhere in the future. "We expected to see strong warming, but not on the scale we found," Ketil Isaksen, a senior researcher at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute who led the study, told the Guardian. "We were all surprised. From what we know from all other observation points on the globe, these are the highest warming rates we have observed so far." "The broader message is that the feedback of melting sea ice is even higher than previously shown," he said. "This is an early warning for what's happening in the rest of the Arctic if this melting continues, and what is most likely to happen in the next decades." Bill Mcguire, emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University of College London, said the findings were among the most dire he's ever seen. While land-surface temperatures are rising and oceans warming across the globe, Isaksen said his team's research helps show that "what’s happening in the far north is off the scale.” As the Guardian reports: It was already known that the climate crisis was driving heating across the Arctic three times faster than the global average, but the new research shows the situation is even more extreme in places. Sea ice is good at reflecting sunlight but is melting away. This allows the darker ocean below to absorb more energy. Losing sea ice also means it no longer restricts the ability of warmer sea waters to heat up the Arctic air. The more ice is lost, the more heat accumulates, forming a feedback loop. According to Dr. Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute who was not part of the research team, "This study shows that even the best possible models have been underestimating the rate of warming in the Barents Sea." "We seem to be seeing it shifting to a new regime, as it becomes less like the Arctic and more like the North Atlantic," she told the Guardian. "It's really on the edge right now and it seems unlikely that sea ice will persist in this region for much longer."
Sometimes I feel like quitting my job and just going on a months long road trip to ecologically vulnerable areas, just so I can see some cool stuff before it is irrevocably altered by the coming hellscape.
I'd say Glacier National Park is definitley my number one. As for the rest, I'd probably try to do stuff around the Colorado River since the situation is pretty dire right now. And California's coast line, since it's one of the most vulnerable areas in the country.
If there’s global warming then why are the water sources drying up? Shouldnt the polar ice caps be melting and making more water? QED, rubes
One of the groups I have been following is NuScale, a developer of smaller modular reactors. It looks like recently they have been getting a bit of good press and are making positive progress towards offering a more affordable and dependable reactor model which could be used to offset the instability of solar/wind. https://www.state.gov/united-states...nnovative-clean-nuclear-technology-in-europe/ It’s a long uphill climb but it’s encouraging.
Don’t know where else to put this. Refinery, distribution, & transmission hub in my hometown of Medford, OK today. ONEOK is the owner. Not great Bob.
Granted it's still in midrange forecast stages, but if the heatwave forecast for most of Europe and the UK (that is showing up on multiple computer models) verifies, it would be unprecedented in recorded history and very scary.