14 February 2017, Think Progress, Sinking from drought, California is now also flooding. After weeks of rain, Northern California’s surface water systems have been pushed to the breaking point, even while the effects of a five-year drought continue to threaten the state’s long-term groundwater supplies. More than 180,000 people were evacuated Sunday afternoon after spillways for the Oroville Dam in Northern California showed signs of possible collapse. The potential flooding comes as California begins to emerge from its historic, drought. But despite the overabundance of water on the surface, drought conditions underground have likely had a permanent impact on the state. Even under the best conditions, it could take half a century for underground reservoirs to refill. Recent analysis from the California Institute of Technology shows that drought — combined with water use — has caused parts of California to sink, perhaps permanently. Some places show up to two feet of subsidence over the past two years. That’s because as surface water from rain and snowmelt has decreased, farmers have been using more groundwater from reservoirs. “Subsidence caused by groundwater pumping in the Central Valley has been a problem for decades,” write the authors of a new study, which uses NASA data to track California’s sinking. Pumping groundwater reduces the support below-ground aquifers give to the surface, causing it to sink. In recent years, that process has been sped up, as California’s drought has reduced the surface water available to farmers. While surface water can come in the form of rain, or snowmelt, groundwater sits in aquifers and is the result of a slow build up of water below ground. Read More here
Monthly Archives: February 2017
10 February 2017, Carbon Brief, Guest post: Why NOAA updates its sea surface temperature record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is one of a number of climate agencies that pieces together global temperature from thousands of measurements taken each year across the world’s land and oceans. Last weekend, an article in the Mail on Sunday sparked interest in the way NOAA constructs its temperature record. The claims in the article, widely rebutted shortly after its publication, focused on the most recent version of NOAA’s sea surface temperature (SST) record. I have been involved in the development of this dataset since 2011 and it is due to be updated again shortly. However, an early draft of the journal paper about this update appears to have been circulated amongst media without the permission of the authors (including myself). I have, therefore, decided to make some observations here in a personal capacity that may help make better sense of how the dataset is produced and what it shows. Peer review The status of the new version of our dataset – nominally labelled “ERSSTv5” – is that we have submitted a paper to a journal, and it is undergoing peer review. As is the academic norm, the authors wish to respect the review process and did not give their permission for the draft to be shared with the media. To be clear, the authors have expressly not given permission for the draft to be used or quoted in the media. To be equally clear, at this juncture, copyright of the paper remains with the authors. The peer review process on the paper has only just begun, therefore it is premature and incorrect to analyse the dataset in detail before the paper is published. Peer review is an essential step towards eventual acceptance of any new research. It is highly unusual – and, in my view, undesirable – to discuss the specifics of submitted manuscripts in a public manner before this process has concluded. Peer review will, inevitably, point out ideas which shall serve to strengthen any given analysis. I shall, therefore, not be discussing specific scientific aspects of the draft paper and shall refer to it below only to the barest extent required. If and when the paper is published, this will be the appropriate time to discuss its findings in depth and I would be delighted to do so. Read More here
1 February 2017, Renew Economy, Eight reasons why Dr Finkel is great news for Australia’s energy future. Our electricity grid looks likely to progress more systematically to a cleaner more secure future thanks to Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel being brought in – to lead the analysis and policy recommendations. For those who could not make Tuesday night’s 2.5 hour session in Adelaide with him, here are some of the key comments made by him and his team:
1. Dr Finkel and SA’s Chief Scientist Leanna Read both see the grid becoming 100% renewable powered as the end point.
2. Dr Finkel is walking the talk: all electricity at his home is sourced from green power electricity and he is an electric car user.
3. He and his team will travel shortly to other renewable energy leading regions with few grid interconnections to share best practices for SA (Texas and Ireland), to high penetration locations committing to further quick transitions to distributed renewables (California, New York, Denmark, France, UK and Germany) and meeting GE and Siemens who are leading in creating distributed grid systems and controllers and grid storage. Read More here