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[Recovery]: from The Hill, Wed Dec 11 2013:
Report: US solar installations skyrocket
More American homes installed solar panels in the third quarter of this year than ever before, with 52 percent more going on line than in the same period last year, according to a new report. The report, from GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association, finds that 31,000 American homes installed solar panels in the third quarter.
Overall, the U.S. installed 930 megawatts worth of solar panels, up 35 percent from the same time last year.
The U.S. is expected to install more solar panels than world leader Germany for the first time in 15 years, the report finds.
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Sounds like World War III.
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[Read more stories about: climate impacts, renewable energy]
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[Climate Chaos]: from Politico, Wed Dec 11 2013:
John Podesta will recuse himself from Keystone, White House aide says
In news sure to deflate the hopes of climate activists, green energy advocate John Podesta will recuse himself from issues related to the Keystone XL oil pipeline when he begins working as a special adviser to President Barack Obama, a White House aide confirmed to POLITICO late Tuesday.
Environmentalists had spent Tuesday cheering the White House's selection of Podesta as an adviser on issues including climate and health care. His opposition to the pipeline is well known, fueling speculation that his new role portended a rejection of the project -- much to the dismay of Keystone's supporters.
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Squashing the raised hopes of environmentalists will now be called "Pulling a Podesta."
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[Read more stories about: climate impacts, carbon emissions, death spiral]
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[Climate Chaos]: from Huffington Post, Wed Dec 11 2013:
U.S. Supreme Court Hears Arguments In EPA Air Pollution Case
U.S. Supreme Court justices offered President Barack Obama's administration some encouragement on Tuesday as they weighed the lawfulness of a federal regulation limiting air pollution that crosses state lines, mostly emissions from coal-fired power plants.
Although it was unclear how the court would rule, a majority of the eight justices hearing the case at points in the 90-minute argument voiced some support for the regulation, which has been challenged by some states and industry groups.
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Who'd want to wear those robes in a global warming future?
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[Read more stories about: airborne pollutants, carbon emissions, climate impacts]
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[Climate Chaos]: from Guardian, Wed Dec 11 2013:
Newly discovered greenhouse gas '7,000 times more powerful than CO2'
A new greenhouse gas that is 7,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the Earth has been discovered by researchers in Toronto.
The newly discovered gas, perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA), has been in use by the electrical industry since the mid-20th century....
"This is a warning to us that this gas could have a very very large impact on climate change - if there were a lot of it. Since there is not a lot of it now, we don't have to worry about it at present, but we have to make sure it doesn't grow and become a very large contributor to global warming."....
"PFTBA is just one example of an industrial chemical that is produced but there are no policies that control its production, use or emission," Hong said. "It is not being regulated by any type of climate policy."
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Can we quit discovering shit, and try to fix the shit we know about?
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[Read more stories about: airborne pollutants, anthropogenic change, global warming]
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[Species Collapse]: from ThinkProgress, Mon Dec 9 2013:
The 2014 Shrimp Season In The Gulf Of Maine Has Been Canceled
They're small and sweet, beloved by locals and tourists alike, and will soon be indefinitely unavailable. The Northern shrimp population in the Gulf of Maine has officially collapsed and a moratorium on shrimping is being recommended for the 2014 season. Restaurants in Maine are rushing to get their hands on whatever is left over from last year's catch....
"I think everyone was startled by what we saw in 2012, and there was a lot of pressure to close down the fishery for the 2013 season," said John Annala, Chief Scientific Officer at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. "The survey this summer found just 20 percent of the 2012 record low, so it has fallen off incredibly sharply."
Perhaps most worrying is the fact that juvenile shrimp have not been picked up in a survey since 2010. Northern shrimp live about five years, so the lack of younger shrimp for three years straight may mean empty nets for years to come.
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Those juvenile-delinquent shrimp are playing hookey!
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[Read more stories about: ocean warming, ecosystem interrelationships, falling fertility, holyshit]
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[Climate Chaos]: from Climate Central, Mon Dec 9 2013:
Study Adds to Arctic Warming, Extreme Weather Debate
A new study for the first time found links between the rapid loss of snow and sea ice cover in the Arctic and a recent spate of exceptional extreme heat events in North America, Europe, and Asia. The study adds to the evidence showing that the free-fall in summer sea ice extent and even sharper decline in spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is reverberating throughout the atmosphere, making extreme events more likely to occur.
The study, published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change, is the first to find correlations between rapid Arctic warming and extreme summer weather events, since previous research had focused on the links between Arctic warming and fall and winter weather patterns.
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What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic!
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[Read more stories about: anthropogenic change, arctic meltdown, climate impacts, ecosystem interrelationships, feedback loop]
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[Biology Breach]: from The Telegraph, Mon Dec 9 2013:
Smog makes you funnier and smarter, Chinese media claims
Toxic air pollution may be pulverizing the alveoli of hundreds of millions of Chinese but it is also making them more equal, more humorous and even more intelligent, state media claimed on Monday.
In a controversial and widely mocked comment piece entitled, "Five unexpected gains the haze has brought", a journalist from state television channel CCTV argued that while Chinese people might "hate" the pollution, it was not a "completely useless" phenomenon.
For while filthy air was a dangerous "enemy", it was simultaneously bringing "major benefits" including making people more united, more sober, more equal, more humorous and better informed.
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Everybody knows smog makes you sexier, too.
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[Read more stories about: airborne pollutants, deniers]
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[Biology Breach]: from Associated Press, Mon Dec 9 2013:
Environmentalists, unions seek to fix gas leaks
Unions and environmentalists have found one point of agreement in the bitter debate over the natural gas drilling boom: fixing leaky old pipelines that threaten public health and the environment. It's a huge national effort that could cost $82 billion.
The leaks are a problem because methane, the primary component of natural gas, is explosive in high concentrations and is also a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.
The Department of Transportation estimates that more than 30,000 miles of decades-old, decaying cast-iron pipe are still being used to deliver gas nationwide.
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Boy, the cost of duct tape has skyrocketed!
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[Read more stories about: airborne pollutants, anthropogenic change, contamination, methane release, toxic leak]
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[Climate Chaos]: from New York Times, Mon Dec 9 2013:
Eastern States Press Midwest to Improve Air
In a battle that pits the East Coast against the Midwest over the winds that carry dirty air from coal plants, the governors of eight Northeastern states plan to petition the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to force tighter air pollution regulations on nine Rust Belt and Appalachian states... governors have long criticized the Appalachian and Rust Belt states, including Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan, for their more lenient rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants, factories and tailpipes -- allowing those economies to profit from cheap energy while their belched soot and smog are carried on the prevailing winds that blow across the United States.
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We need to build sky fences that go up to the heavens.
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[Read more stories about: airborne pollutants, carbon emissions, ecosystem interrelationships, health impacts]
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[Climate Chaos]: from BBC, Thu Dec 5 2013:
Meet the US Army's hybrid hellion
A fuel-efficient, lightweight hybrid vehicle that could keep soldiers safe? It might sound like mission impossible, but such a machine is already roaming the earth -- albeit ...
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[Recovery]: from The Nation, Thu Dec 5 2013:
The Pope Versus Unfettered Capitalism
Condemning the "new tyranny" of unfettered capitalism and the "idolatry of money," Pope Francis argues in a newly circulated apostolic exhortation that ...
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[Species Collapse]: from PLoS One, Wed Dec 4 2013:
Pesticides + Fungicides = Weak in the Bees
Pesticide exposure and pathogens may interact to have strong negative effects on managed honey bee colonies. Such findings are of great concern given the large numbers and ...
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[Recovery]: from Politico, Mon Dec 2 2013:
A green movement of all stripes
In Appalachia, greens are banding together with the Tennessee Conservative Union to oppose mountaintop mining. In Georgia, the Sierra Club and Atlanta's tea party have formed ...
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[Biology Breach]: from Politico, Mon Dec 2 2013:
The $38 billion nuclear waste fiasco
Doing nothing often has a cost -- and when it comes to storing the nation's nuclear waste, the price is $38 billion and rising.
That's just the lowball estimate for how ...
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Apoc-o-Meter
from the last 7 days
or visit our:
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Humoring the Horror of the
Converging Emergencies
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Random Sample PANIQuestion:
What effect does soot have on snow?
a) It provides skiers more traction.
b) It warms the snow up to 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit, causing it to melt.
c) It adds it that "Dickens-esque" touch.
d) None. Since the snow has no consciousness, it does not know the soot is there.
e) It gives it a marbling effect, adding to the overall aesthetic.
Answer: It warms the snow up to 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit, causing it to melt.
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The ApocaDocs try to make fun of the horror of environmental collapse
by locating a handful of news items every day, and giving each a
punchline. The stories are categorized into five main topics: Species Collapse (ecosystem
interrelationships, invasive species, the sixth extinction, pesticide
effects, and more); Resource Depletion (peak oil, peak
phosphorus, overfishing, topsoil loss, aquifer declines, and more);
Biology Breach (toxic runoff, radiation, GMOs, pharmwater,
contamination, and idle destruction); Climate Chaos (global warming,
weather extremes, ocean warming, and more); and Infectious Disease
(pandemics, viruses, antibiotic resistance). To avoid deep depression,
we also include stories of Recovery
(alternative energy, innovations, species restoration, better policies, social
change, and the like).
For more information, see About The ApocaDocs.
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