Energy

The worst nuclear disaster you’ve never heard of | Beyond Nuclear International

|

The worst nuclear disaster you’ve never heard of | Beyond Nuclear International

In the history of nuclear disasters, it’s easy to forget that a radioactive explosion back in 1957 near an obscure village with an unpronounceable name in the Ural Mountains was the true original.

And while engineering heroics have finally been brought to bear on the smoldering sarcophagus at Chernobyl, and robots troll the wreckage of Fukushima, this catastrophe by many accounts continues to churn radioactivity into the environment and to sicken a hostage population.

None of us were ever supposed to know anything about it, and if not for a series of untimely revelations, we probably still wouldn’t.

Climate Strike

|

Climate Strike!

Earth

The latest attempt to increase awareness around climate change is the Climate Strike protests that popped up around the world 🌍 last week.

Most reasonable people agree 👍 climate change is happening and that the ever increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the air is problematic – you personally may be only dumping a few tons a year into the air but there are millions who live in cities that are dumping trillions of tons into the atmosphere. 🌆

What to do about it? On paper 📄 the trendy green technologies of the day are often brought out – solar panels, wind turbines, LED light bulbs 💡 and of course electric cars 🚙 . But when you look at the math – land use, cost and technology limitations – the math is hard to make work. Most of the technologies proposed are just swaps of fossil and more energy intensive technologies for slightly less energy intensive ways of doing things. ⚡

You have those who advocate behavioral changes – eat less meat 🍖 and dairy 🐮, recycle ♻ more, use public transport 🚍. Maybe buy more products made from hemp 🌿, buy trendy green things and skip the straws and the plastic water 💦 bottles. Those things certainly feel good if you are interested in the saving the earth 🌎. But they aren’t systematic changes.

You have governments like New York State promising they’ll work for ambitious climate goals. 🗽 They make long lists of promises and laws 📑 but their promises don’t always add up to their actions as they dig deeper into the next generation of fossil technologies ⛽ ignoring the consequences of their own actions.

What’s the solution? I don’t know for sure but I think sin taxes on fossil fuels can help. 💰 Oil, coal and natural gas are underpriced, they are too cheap to burn, distorting the value of the energy ⚡ services they provide. I like most people don’t want to pay more for electricity or gas for my big jacked up truck 🚚 but I know if it hurt in my pocket more I’d be a lot more responsible with my use of energy.

But of course, the politicians don’t want to implement unpopular policies, because they want to be reelected and loved by their constituents. And if they get voted ❎ out of office, their replacement will just roll back 🔙 their unpopular policies.

Climate models aren’t certain. So why are scientists so confident? – CSMonitor.com

|

Climate models aren’t certain. So why are scientists so confident? – CSMonitor.com

When planning for the future, certainty can be hard to come by. That’s certainly the case when it comes to climate change. Yet scientists still urge confidence in their models. Why?

Modern life is made up of predictions and models of what we think that future looks like. We expect the economy to grow at 2 or 3 percent a year in real dollars over time and inflation to exist at a similar rate. Models aren't perfect but what is the alternative? If we have no trust in the models we can't plan for the future.

Slow-Moving Atlantic Storms Like Imelda and Dorian are Growing More Common | Weather Underground

|

Slow-Moving Atlantic Storms Like Imelda and Dorian are Growing More Common | Weather Underground

melda, Dorian, Florence, Harvey, and Idai are examples of storms we have been seeing more often in recent decades: ones that move more slowly over land, resulting in increased flooding and damage. The forward speed of tropical cyclones (which includes all hurricanes, tropical storms, and tropical depressions) has decreased globally by about 10% since 1949, according to a 2018 paper in the journal Nature by NOAA hurricane scientist Dr. Jim Kossin. As a result of their slower forward motion, these storms are now more likely to drop heavier rains, increasing their flood risk. Most significantly, the study reported a 20% slow-down in storm translation speed over land for Atlantic storms, a 30% slow-down over land for Northwest Pacific storms, and a 19% slow-down over land for storms affecting the Australia region.

Elon Musk knew SolarCity was going broke before merger with Tesla, lawsuit alleges – Los Angeles Times

|

Elon Musk knew SolarCity was going broke before merger with Tesla, lawsuit alleges – Los Angeles Times

When Tesla bought SolarCity in November 2016, Elon Musk billed the deal as a match made in green energy heaven: Combine a hot electric car company with the nation’s then-largest provider of solar rooftop panels to create a one-stop shop for clean energy customers.

What Musk did not discuss at the time was that SolarCity was in deep financial trouble.

Just weeks after the merger, SolarCity auditor Ernst & Young concluded the company lacked “sufficient cash to meet its obligations” as a stand-alone company, according to court filings unsealed Monday that include previously redacted material.