How Bad Is Global Warming?

[zangtang]

poetic maybe, but ascribing localised Karmic comeback?........

but then, no forests in Texas, so how would we know?

[Nordic]

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new ... 98/?no-ist

Why Are Chilean Beaches Covered With Dead Animals?
Warm waters have turned the country's once-pristine coast into a putrid sight

By Erin Blakemore
SMITHSONIAN.COM
MAY 4, 2016

Compared to other countries, Chile is almost all coast, and that geographical fluke means that the country is known for its beautiful beaches. But that reputation may be on the wane thanks to a new sight on Chilean shores: dead animals. Lots of them. Heaps of them, in fact. As Giovanna Fleitas reports for the Agence France-Presse, the South American country’s beaches are covered with piles of dead sea creatures—and scientists are trying to figure out why.

Tales of dead animals washing up on shore are relatively common; after all, the ocean has a weird way of depositing its dead on shore. But Chile’s problem is getting slightly out of hand. As Fleitas writes, recent months have not been kind to the Chilean coast, which has played host to washed-up carcasses of over 300 whales, 8,000 tons of sardines, and nearly 12 percent of the country’s annual salmon catch, to name a few.

At least some of the damage to fish appears to be due to fish farming, which encourages toxic algal blooms. But as with so many strange sea phenomena in the last year, El Niño, which warms the equatorial Pacific, appears to be at least partly to blame. The warm water brought on by the phenomenon put stress on coral reefs near Hawaii and appears to have delayed the arrival of whales to the islands. Meanwhile, off the shores of Chile, the warm water appears to have provided great conditions for toxic algae. The blooming creatures poison fish and other marine life that eat them, and this year the bloom is blamed for losses of nearly a billion dollars among Chilean fishers.

Algae also suck oxygen from the water itself—a change to which Pacific Ocean creatures appear to be particularly vulnerable. In a newly published paper in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers warn that declining oxygen levels worldwide kill animals, but that the diversity of life in the Pacific Ocean is at particular risk. That long-term danger isn’t helped by algae that blooms in response to short-term phenomena like El Niño.

The rising tide of dead animals is raising health concerns, as when thousands of squid washed up on shore earlier this year. At the time, reports Latin Correspondent’s Steven James Grattan, health officials were criticized for not clearing coasts of about 10,000 rotting, dead squid sooner. (They eventually did so with the help of heavy equipment.)

So how should Chile get rid of the rest of the festering fish and withering whales on its once-pristine shores? WIRED’s Sarah Zhang has some advice for those faced with a dead whale: “Don’t blow it up.” Instead, she recommends that scientists study the carcasses and take chunks back to their labs...or bury the whales on the beach where they met their sad, smelly end.

[PufPuf93]

The only problem with Stamets' 'solution' is #8. Stamets. As I've stated, there is no know technology capable of filtering nano-particulates from an incinerator's emissions. Therefore, while it is an excellent idea to utilize fungi to absorb radioactive, burning them would only increase airborne radioactive particulates.

However, supposing such a program was enacted, it would be far better to collect the radioactive fungi and treat it like we would any other highly radioactive waste by placing them into long term storage.

Are you aware of electrostatic precipitators?

They have been used to reduce emissions on some (but not most) biomass energy facilities for over 30 years. They are much more expensive than alternatives.

No technology is 100% at a point source but a point source is often more complete than non-point source and more subject to control (such as secondary capture).

So how about secondary capture and long term storage? Seems obvious.

An efficient wet electrostatic precipitator for removing nanoparticles, submicron and micron-sized particles

Carbon emission taxes are more directly related to carbon emission reduction than carbon offset credit schemes.

Highlights

• A wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) with high efficiency was designed and tested.

• The present WESP enhances nanoparticle collection efficiency by condensational growth.

• Wall-cleaning water keeps both the collection electrodes and wires clean for long-term operation.

• Good agreement between the present predictions and experimental data was obtained.

• The present model can be used to facilitate the design of the wet electrostatic precipitator.

Abstract

An efficient wire-to-plate single-stage wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) was designed and tested to control nanoparticles, submicron and micron-sized particles emitted from semiconductor manufacturing processes. Tungsten-wires of 0.36 mm in diameter were used as discharge electrodes and a fixed voltage of −15 kV was supplied to generate the electric field and corona ions. Fine water mist at room temperature was used to quench the high temperature exhaust gas to enhance particle condensation growth and improve the collection efficiency of nanoparticles. Experimental results showed that without fine water mist, nanoparticle collection efficiency was 67.9–92.9%, which was greatly enhanced to 99.2–99.7% when the WESP was operated with fine water mist. A predictive method was developed to calculate the particle collection efficiency equation η(%) in the form as η(%) = [1 − exp(−α(NDe)β + γ)] × 100%, in which α, β and γ are regression coefficients and NDe is the Deutsch number. Good agreement was obtained between present predictions and experimental data. For longer term operation, the periodic wall-cleaning water was used to clean discharge electrodes and collection electrodes regularly. In the field tests, the total collection efficiencies (40 ⩽ dp ⩽ 8100 nm) of the WESP were found to maintain greater than 98.7% and 97.3% for continuous operation for 35 and 22 day at fab A and fab B, respectively.

Keywords
Wet electrostatic precipitator;
Deutsch–Anderson equation;
Heterogeneous condensation;
Particle control

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 6614005309

[Elihu]

Peace beats remediation technology

[PufPuf93]

The only problem with Stamets' 'solution' is #8. Stamets. As I've stated, there is no know technology capable of filtering nano-particulates from an incinerator's emissions. Therefore, while it is an excellent idea to utilize fungi to absorb radioactive, burning them would only increase airborne radioactive particulates.

However, supposing such a program was enacted, it would be far better to collect the radioactive fungi and treat it like we would any other highly radioactive waste by placing them into long term storage.

Regarding long term storage and specifically biomass energy waste and tangentially speculated radioactive fungi ash:

This pdf gives a good overview of ash from biomass energy facilities.

http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/pubs/fact ... ionFac.pdf

Wood ash is much cleaner than the ash from waste incinerators and purity can be controlled by characteristics of the wood fuel and whether bottom ash and fly ash are kept separate or combined in the process flow.

If only "clean" waste is burned, the ash can be used for soil amendment or cement.

If "dirty" waste is included, there will be heavy metals and other contaminants and the ash will be require landfill or even "special" landfill. "Dirty" waste includes heavy metals from paint or other wood treatment, there are methods for removing ferrous metals and other specific contaminants. In California a biomass plant was built to burn rice remnants that would otherwise be open-air burned. The boiler required an expensive fluidized bed combustor and the ash was extremely high in silicon to the degree than the ash required expensive disposal in a specialized landfill for hazardous wastes.

One must keep in mind that the biomass waste fuels would otherwise be open air burned or landfilled in theory and this is reflected to a large degree in permitting and may be to a lesser degree in financing. There is still a cost incentive to obtain fuel from sources not subject to landfill or open air burning or to "waste" better left on site for ecological reasons. Organic material is undesirable in landfill because it does not compact stable and emits methane once in place from anaerobic respiration, much worse for GW than open air burning or left in place where the combustion or oxidation produces CO2.

Controlled burning of biomass waste for a boiler reduces green house gas emissions and produces a stable waste - ash - readily landfilled or sometimes disposed ecologically or with utility.

The biggest problems I see with collecting radioactivity with fungi are: (1) Efficient gathering of the radioactive fungi; and (2) Purity of inoculation with the desired fungi.

[PufPuf93]

Peace beats remediation technology

Oh hell yeah.

War is the most wasteful, dirty, and destructive activity of humans.

[PufPuf93]

poetic maybe, but ascribing localised Karmic comeback?........

but then, no forests in Texas, so how would we know?

There are nice forests (and forest industry in Texas).

From wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Texas_forests

"The forests in the U.S. state of Texas have been an important resource since its earliest days and have played a major role in the state's history. The vast woodlands of the region, home to many varieties of wildlife when Europeans first arrived, provided economic opportunities for early settlers. They continue to play an important role economically and environmentally in the state.

The most dense forest lands lie in the eastern part of the state in the Piney Woods region. In particular the Big Thicket region, just north of Houston and Beaumont, has historically been home to the most dense woodlands. The Big Thicket was mostly uninhabited until heavy settlement from the U.S. began in the mid-19th century, and was even used as a refuge by runaway slaves and other fugitives. The Rio Grande Valley in South Texas was home to a large palm tree forest when Spaniards first arrived, though today very little of it remains.

One of the first steam sawmills in Texas was planned in 1829 in what is now modern Houston. After the Texas Revolution lumber production increased steadily such that by 1860 there were reportedly 200 saw mills in the state. The construction of railroads throughout the eastern part of the state led to boom in lumber production starting in the 1880s. The following 50-year period in which the Texas timber industry flourished came to be known as the "bonanza era". Though the growth of the industry provided significant economic benefits to Texas, a lack of regulation allowed business owners to exploit many individuals including appropriating private property and forcing laborers to accept poor working conditions and low wages.

By the start of the 20th century timber was one of the leading economic engines of Texas and had become the state's largest manufacturing enterprise. Lumber barons, such as John Henry Kirby, were among the wealthiest people in the state. By 1907 Texas was the third largest lumber producer in the United States.[1][2] The subsequent clearing of fields for oil exploration and the related demand for lumber through the first half of the 20th century destroyed much of the remaining forest lands in the state. By the 1920s lumber production was in decline and the onset of the Great Depression devastated the already flagging industry.

In recent times preservation efforts, such as the creation of the Texas Big Thicket National Preserve in 1974, have helped to stabilize parts of the Texas woodlands. As of 1999 Texas remains in the top ten timber producing states in the United States."

The increased CO2 and associated greening applies to all land-based ecotypes whether forest or grasslands or swamps or desert or agriculture lands as does the importance and ubiquity of fungi. CO2 levels and the amount and characteristics of green plants and fungi (plus bacteria and other micro- and macro- flora and fauna) are the stasis seeking mechanism of the natural world.

[zangtang]

Did not know that, consider self duly called out & freshly dun taken back to school on the Texas timber misspeak......

[Luther Blissett]

http://api.twistage.com/videos/709ea74e ... 0/play.mp4

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3059791/inf ... ign=buffer

March of 2016 was the Earth’s hottest month since 1880—the year when we started recording temperatures. And to make matters worse, it marked the 11th consecutive month in which that whole "hottest month" record was broken.

As the tires on your Prius were melting into rubbery puddles, University of Reading climate scientist Ed Hawkins crafted this spiraling visualization (spotted by CityLab) of 137 years of global temperatures using data from the U.K.’s Met Office.

Why a spiral? Hawkins calls the effect "visually appealing." We’re inclined to agree, but might add that by essentially taking a line graph and twisting it around itself, Hawkins squeezed ~1,644 points of data into a captivating image with a single focal point—that, as a bonus, doesn't require some ultra-wide monitor to parse.

Note how quickly the line approaches the 1.5° C barrier. At the 2015 Paris climate talks, UN leaders agreed to limit global warming to 1.5° C as a target. That metric isn’t random, it’s a critical threshold for our entire ecosystem, affecting issues across the board from the rise of our seas to our ability to grow food.

The visualization paints a bleak picture for our future. But if you really want to get depressed, consider that according to NASA’s measurements, we already broke the 1.5 degree barrier back in February.

[PufPuf93]

Did not know that, consider self duly called out & freshly dun taken back to school on the Texas timber misspeak......

No spanking intended.

I did timber stuff for 35 years, even a tiny bit in Texas.

The office where I worked had a client that developed a new sawmill in East Texas circa 1990.

To get timber to the sawmill, they purchased several large heavily cutover corporate timber parcels (+/- 15,000 acres) and lobbied the US Forest Service for timber supply.

My part was quick and had to do with the US Forest Service. We did not ask the US Forest Service to increase harvest but rather to change their timber sale program to harvest different trees and do alternative land and vegetation management practices. The new sawmill would buy lesser valued trees that had no market with the then status quo industry and where their removal could be better justified on an ecologic basis; specifically, the trees land managers at the USFS would prefer to harvest by thinning rather than the large trees (by Texas standards) existing industry exclusively demanded. I have been to Texas but in that specific case my work was from Oregon and California by phone and snail mail. I built a letter file to be included in a financial packet and for permitting followed up by occasional reminders to the US Forest Service and monitoring their timber sale activity copied to the client. The client were able to judge the log procurement operations by our input once operational but I was on to other things after my quick and dirty to set the tone with US Forest Service.

The sawmill (and attached biomass cogeneration plant with wood waste boiler) is still in operation. By cogeneration is meant steam from a wood waste boiler turned a turbine for electricity (mostly sold to utilities but also powered the sawmill) and the process steam also was used in the dry kilns for quality lumber. The smaller logs from the forest thinning that at the time only the new mill could process made more waste (sawdust, bark, edging, planer shavings that went to fuel) by proportion than larger logs. Most of the small logs were from tops of larger trees previously left in woods and often open air burned and smaller trees that had lost the between tree competition (and were on their way out in a straight nature process) but were otherwise not economic to harvest, often burned in forest operations, and contributed greatly to wildfire risk. About 30% of the National Forest timber harvest subsequently came from thinning of natural and plantation stands of southern pine compatible with the new sawmill where as the prior local National Forest harvest was almost all larger trees in clear cuts. The new sawmill also was initially the only market for what had historically been waste trees in the conventional clear cut harvests. The change in timber sale methods and trees subject to harvest and sale were what we asked for as consultants. The facility cost about $70 million to develop and build 25 years ago.

[PufPuf93]

poetic maybe, but ascribing localised Karmic comeback?........

but then, no forests in Texas, so how would we know?

Too late to edit above.

Note this was my thought and not from wiki:

The increased CO2 and associated greening applies to all land-based ecotypes whether forest or grasslands or swamps or desert or agriculture lands as does the importance and ubiquity of fungi. CO2 levels and the amount and characteristics of green plants and fungi (plus bacteria and other micro- and macro- flora and fauna) are the stasis seeking mechanism of the natural world.

[Iamwhomiam]

PufPuf, I'll address your comments on biomass shortly.

This weekend several Break Free from Fossil Fuels demonstrations are planned in various locations around the world. Albany, NY is one of the focus points with very many expected to participate. But hey, sometimes it's good to get a head start on the weekend:

Rancor, protests greet top energy official
Amid shouts, FERC chairman driven from stage at Desmond conference

By Brian Nearing Updated 5:45 pm, Wednesday, May 11, 2016


A protestor interrupts as Norman Bay, left, Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), gives the key note during the Independent Power Producers of New York 30th Annual Spring Conference & Showcase at The Desmond on Wednesday May 11, 2016 in Colonie , N.Y. (Michael P. Farrell/Times Union)

COLONIE -- Climate protesters drove the head of federal energy policy from the stage Wednesday during a conference of power plant owners in Colonie.

Near the end of a speech to the Independent Power Producers of New York, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Norman Bay was interrupted and confronted by about a half-dozen protesters at the Desmond Hotel and Conference Center.

As the protesters shouted about the risks of man-made climate change and demanded that he answer, Bay tried to leave the podium, and appeared uncertain of where to go before IPPNY President Gavin Donohue quickly whisked him away through a side door.

Shouting broke out between protesters and conference attendees, with some of the former yelling "genocide" due to impacts of climate change. "Why are you signing the death warrant for so many people?" one protester demanded of Bay.

One audience member yelled, "What, now we are Nazis?" while others shouted at banner-holding protesters that the "circus is over" and to leave.

( Video and more photos at Link )

One protester was Igor Vamos, a media professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a founder of the Yes Men, a media protest group that has staged fake press conferences to draw attention to social issues like climate change. The team has made several films.

Vamos and other protesters were members of Break Free Albany, an anti-fossil fuel group that plans to disrupt oil train traffic at the Port of Albany on Saturday, said organizer Aly Johnson-Kurts.

"The World Health Organization predicts there could be up to 100 million deaths worldwide from climate change by 2050," she said. "Continuing to develop more fossil fuels is completely unacceptable."

Johnson-Kurts said several hundred protesters will gather at the port Saturday and block the tracks, preventing trains from moving, until they are removed or arrested by authorities.

The group is also planning a kayak flotilla Friday evening on the Hudson River to draw attention to the issue of crude oil trains from the Midwest coming into the port.

On Wednesday, Vamos was carrying a microphone and video camera to record the event, and as he was leaving the room, a man who was attending the conference confronted him and tried to wrench the equipment from his hand.

State Police showed up quickly and finished escorting Vamos and other protesters out of the hotel.

Afterward, Bay declined comment. His speech consisted of technical FERC issues on transmission and markets, and if Bay had any thoughts about several planned natural gas pipeline projects in New York to carry gas from Pennsylvania, he kept that to himself.

Last month, the state rejected key water quality permits for the Constitution natural gas pipeline project to carry gas from Pennsylvania to Schoharie County roughly near the Interstate 88 corridor. FERC had already approved the Constitution project and usually, state approval of such permits has been a routine matter.

Bay did not speak to the Constitution issue.

Donohue said protesters were "aggressive," "disruptive," and "out of line." He said that FERC headquarters in Washington, D.C. had warned him that protests were possible.

"We were keeping an eye out, but we did not see anything before this... the protesters disguised themselves in suits and ties to blend in" before bursting unannounced into the conference room.

There was a meeting of police officials in another conference room and two State Police officers took the protesters out of the building. They quickly left the property.

FERC also faces lawsuits from gas pipeline opponents in New York and Pennsylvania who claim the agency is a rubber-stamp for pipeline projects.

This month, FERC moved to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the environmental group Delaware Riverkeeper Network, said network leader Maya van Rossum. That lawsuit claims the commission is biased toward industry, has staff and commissioners who routinely leave to get jobs in the energy industry, and had never rejected a pipeline proposal — which was the case until FERC rejected an Oregon proposal in March, shortly after the lawsuit was filed.

Delaware Riverkeeper seeks to invalidate a 1986 federal law under which FERC relies on fees collected from energy companies based on natural gas pipeline shipments. These payments account for 20 percent of total FERC revenue. The lawsuit seeks to have the 1986 FERC funding law declared unconstitutional because of its potential to make the agency biased in favor of pipeline project approvals. It also seeks to have declared unconstitutional two specific FERC powers — its authority to grant eminent domain rights to pipeline companies, which allows private property to be taken over the objection of landowners, and its authority to pre-empt local and state law.

Also pending against FERC is a lawsuit filed by Stop the Pipeline and other groups over the Constitution pipeline proposal.

http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Protestors-disrupt-power-plant-owners-Colonie-7462672.php#photo-10050154

[fruhmenschen]

See Earth’s Temperature Spiral Toward 2°C

Published: May 9th, 2016




http://www.climatecentral.org/news/see- ... d-2c-20332

By Andrea Thompson

The steady rise of Earth’s temperature as greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere and trap more and more heat is sending the planet spiraling closer to the point where warming’s catastrophic consequences may be all but assured.

That metaphoric spiral has become a literal one in a new graphic drawn up by Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. The animated graphic features a rainbow-colored record of global temperatures spinning outward from the late 19th century to the present as the Earth heats up.

[Iamwhomiam]

PufPuf, I've been gathering information from two old computers in order to respond to you and to argue intelligently and convincingly demonstrate why biomass burning is dirtier than burning coal. It's been a bit of an arduous task to refresh my poor memory. It would be ideal if you could locate a Title V air permit for a biomass incinerator, perhaps one you're familiar with so we could both use the same evidence for one facility.

My area was municipal waste management rather than woody biomass, but the permitting for stationary sources of reportable and regulated emissions is the same, regardless of fuel source. I do have many allies who work specifically in biomass and forestry and will be drawing in part from information they've shared with me over the years. It's too late for me to begin now, but I surely will tomorrow. Sorry for taking so long to give you a proper response,

[Luther Blissett]

Tons of links at Energy Justice Network.

Biomass incineration releases the same types of pollutants as coal burning, including carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), dioxins/furans, acid gases, radioactive pollutants and toxic metals like arsenic, chromium and mercury. For some pollutants, biomass air pollution can be worse than emissions from coal-burning, depending on the types of biomass and coal, and the pollution controls required. New biomass incinerators are not held to the same air pollution control requirements as new coal power plants are. Ash from biomass incineration concentrates high levels of toxins, but instead of being handled as hazardous waste, it's often sold as farm fertilizer, entering the food system.

A 2012 Wall Street Journal investigation found that 85 of 107 operating biomass incinerators were cited for violating air or water pollution laws in the previous five years. Fires and explosions are far too common at the incinerators themselves, their wood piles and in transportation. The extensive transportation needed to supply low-energy biomass fuels also releases diesel exhaust and more climate pollution.