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'Weather models have flipped the switch': Hurricane season coming to life in the Atlantic

           

As hurricane activity starts to ramp up, Meteorologist Bobby Deskins is tracking a wave in the Windward Islands that's expected to bring heavy rain to the Southeast early next week. USA TODAY

usatoday.com - by Doyle Rice - August 29, 2018

The sleeping giant may be about to awaken.

Hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico is forecast to ramp up over the next couple of weeks. "Weather models have flipped the switch on the Atlantic hurricane season and see multiple areas of development possible, starting mainly this weekend," weather.us meteorologist Ryan Maue said.

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Resilience Hubs White Paper - Shifting Power to Communities and Increasing Community Capacity

CLICK HERE - Resilience Hubs White Paper - Shifting Power to Communities and Increasing Community Capacity (10 page .PDF document)

usdn.org

Summary

Resilience Hubs are community-serving facilities augmented to:

1.  support residents and

2.  coordinate resource distribution and services before, during, or after a natural hazard event.

They leverage established, trusted, and community-managed facilities that are used year-round as neighborhood centers for community-building activities. Designed well, Resilience Hubs can equitably enhance community resilience while reducing GHG emissions and improving local quality of life. They are a smart local investment with the potential to reduce burden on local emergency response teams, improve access to health improvement initiatives, foster greater community cohesion, and increase the effectiveness of community-centered institutions and programs.

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Electric Scooters’ Sudden Invasion of American Cities, Explained

           

Turns out there’s a lot of latent demand for a quick and cheap way to get around.

vox.com - by Umair Irfan - August 27, 2018

 . . . Amid the feverish passion for and against scooters, there’s a larger reckoning taking place about rapid changes to our cities and public spaces. The scooters are forcing conversations about who is entitled to use sidewalks, streets, and curbs, and who should pay for their upkeep.

They’re also exposing transit deserts, showing who is and isn’t adequately served by the status quo, and even by newer options like bike share. That people have taken so readily to scooters shows just how much latent demand there is for a quick and cheap way to get around cities.

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Solar on Every Home? NREL Outlines Pathways to Ultra Low-Cost Residential Solar

           

Figure 1. Average estimated annual residential rooftop PV market capacity potential from 2017 – 2030 (Source: NREL)

sepapower.org - by Jeffrey Cook - August 16, 2018

If the solar industry reaches this Department of Energy (DOE) target, it could dramatically alter the energy market and present a future where residential PV becomes a standard, cost-effective home installation, versus a luxury or long-term investment. A recent NREL report — Cost-Reduction Roadmap for Residential Solar Photovoltaics (PV), 2017-2030 — models a set of pathways that the industry could follow to realize this future. The analysis focuses on two key markets for residential PV cost reduction: installing PV at time of roof replacement and installing PV at time of new construction. These two market segments were selected because each offers significant cost reduction opportunities while representing a 30 gigawatt (GW) annual market nationwide (see Figure 1).

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How Wind Energy Creates More Dependence on Fossil Fuels

           

'Any informed student of wind energy ... understands that'

michigancapitolconfidential.com - by Jack Spencer - March 2, 2015

Truth has a habit of emerging from unexpected places. An article in the Daily Kos about the desire to end dependence on fossil fuels for energy needs reveals a “nasty little secret” about wind energy: It relies on fossil fuels.

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Flooding From Sea Level Rise Threatens Over 300,000 US Coastal Homes – Study

           

Oceanfront homes in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Houses on the US coastline could risk being flooded every two weeks. Photograph: Alamy

Climate change study predicts ‘staggering impact’ of swelling oceans on coastal communities within next 30 years

CLICK HERE - Union of Concerned Scientists - Introduction - US Coastal Property at Risk from Rising Seas

CLICK HERE - Union of Concerned Scientists - Underwater: Rising Seas, Chronic Floods, and the Implications for US Coastal Real Estate (2018)

CLICK HERE - Union of Concerned Scientists - When Rising Seas Hit Home: Hard Choices Ahead for Hundreds of US Coastal Communities (2017)

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West Antarctic Ice Melt Poses Unique Threat to U.S.

           

Sea level rise contributions from ice melt in different areas, including Greenland (a), West Antarctica (b), East Antarctica (c) and median of global glaciers (d). Values are ratios of regional sea level change to global mean sea level change. Adapted from Kopp et al. 2015.

axios.com - by Andrew Freedman - June 14, 2018

News of Antarctica's accelerating ice melt garnered worldwide headlines yesterday, as scientists revealed that 3 trillion tons of ice has been lost to the sea since 1992 — mostly from the thawing West Antarctic Ice Sheet and Antarctic Peninsula.

Why it matters: The location of the ice melt is important for determining the future of coastal communities, according to climate scientists. And, due to West Antarctica melting, it turns out that the U.S. coastline will be hit extra hard . . .

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Hurricanes Are Strengthening Faster Than They Did 30 Years Ago

                   

A new study found that hurricanes intensify more quickly now than they did 30 years ago. Hurricanes from 2017 like Irma (center), and Jose (right) are examples of these types of hurricanes. Hurricane Katia is seen on the left.  (Photo: NOAA)

usatoday.com - by Doyle Rice - May 10, 2018

With the start of hurricane season just three weeks away — and memory of last year's disastrous storms still fresh — scientists reported that powerful hurricanes are strengthening faster than they did 30 years ago.

Four of the monster hurricanes last year (Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria) all intensified rapidly — when the maximum wind speed increases at least 29 mph within 24 hours . . .

 . . . According to a study out this week, the main cause appears to be a natural climate phenomenon that warms the seawater where hurricanes typically intensify in the Atlantic.

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When Cheap Doesn’t Cut It: Why Energy Buyers Should Look at Value, not Just Cost

submitted by Krae Van Sickle

           

 

Figure 1: Distribution-scale solar costs more than wholesale power, but it costs less if you fairly value all benefits

rmi.org - by Titiaan Palazzi Thomas Koch Blank - May 1, 2018

“New Record Set for World’s Cheapest Solar.” A headline like this makes for great social media fodder. The downward trend in renewables prices is fantastic—it’s the most important driver for the growth of solar and wind energy.

However, when your business or utility is comparing different energy projects, looking at cost alone is not enough. Even energy projects at very low costs can be “out of the money” if the value created by a project is less than its cost.

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How Storms, Missteps and an Ailing Grid Left Puerto Rico in the Dark

           

A transmission tower and downed lines in the mountainous terrain of eastern Puerto Rico. Workers from the island and throughout the United States have worked to restore power after Hurricanes Irma and Maria last September.

It took months to restore electricity in Puerto Rico after hurricanes dealt a one-two punch. Many homes are still without power, and the system’s future is far from certain.

nytimes.com - by JAMES GLANZ and FRANCES ROBLES - Photographs by TODD HEISLER - May 6, 2018

 . . . After Maria and the hurricane that preceded it, called Irma, Puerto Rico all but slipped from the modern era . . .

 . . . an examination of the power grid’s reconstruction — based on a review of hundreds of documents and interviews with dozens of public officials, utility experts and citizens across the island — shows how a series of decisions by federal and Puerto Rican authorities together sent the effort reeling on a course that would take months to correct. The human and economic damage wrought by all that time without power may be irreparable.

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Following Five Healthy Lifestyle Habits May Increase Life Expectancy by Decade or More

sciencedaily.com - April 30, 2018

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Impact of Healthy Lifestyle Factors on Life Expectancies in the US Population - https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032047 - Circulation. 2018;CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032047

Summary:  Maintaining five healthy habits -- eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, keeping a healthy body weight, not drinking too much alcohol, and not smoking -- during adulthood may add more than a decade to life expectancy, according to a new study.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLES WITHIN THE LINKS BELOW . . .

CLICK HERE - These 5 healthy habits could help you live a decade longer, study suggests

CLICK HERE - Healthy lifestyle may prolong life expectancy in US adults

 

 

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A Dramatic New Proposal in Utility Regulation

       

DC just proposed a first-of-its-kind regulatory body—and utilities should pay close attention.

CLICK HERE - Joint Release: Councilmembers Allen and Cheh to introduce bill modernizing DC’s energy grid

icf.com - by Steve Fine and Matt Robison - April 17, 2018

Two Washington, D.C. City Council members proposed a remarkable change in utility regulation last week. Mary Cheh and Charles Allen introduced a bill to create a Distributed Energy Resource Authority (DER Authority): a first-of-its-kind regulatory body that would be empowered to undertake traditional utility planning functions, and with a specific mandate to assess any proposed utility grid investment greater than $25 million and open it up to competitive bids.

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Wind and Solar Costs Continue to Drop Below Fossil Fuels. What Barriers Remain for a Low-Carbon Grid?

           

Energy Innovation's Michael O'Boyle and Silvio Marcacci outline the barriers to high-penetration wind and solar in the least-cost era

The following is a viewpoint from Michael O'Boyle, electricity policy manager for Energy Innovation, and Silvio Marcacci, communications director for Energy Innovation

utilitydive.com - by Michael O'Boyle, Silvio Marcacci - March 21, 2018

Wind and solar are now cheaper than virtually anyone predicted, and renewable technologies have reached an inflection point: Rapid cost declines made renewable energy the cheapest available sources of new electricity, even without subsidies, in 2017.  In many locations across America, building new wind energy projects is cheaper than running existing coal-fired power plants.

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Seabed Mining Can Decide the Fate of the Deep Ocean

           

An artist’s rendering of a deep-sea vehicle designed by Dutch company IHC to harvest polymetallic nodules from the seabed.  Royal IHC

greenbiz.com - by Todd Woody - September 28, 2017

At the International Seabed Authority’s ocean-side headquarters, delegates from dozens of countries strolled through breezeways adorned with the works of Jamaican artists as the United Nations-chartered organization’s annual meeting began its second week. No one, however, was entering a conference room where the seabed authority’s Legal and Technical Commission (LTC) was in session and men in dark suits stood watch. A sign advised that the meeting was "closed."

Behind heavy wood doors, the 30 members of the commission convened in secret to discuss, among other things, confidential contracts issued to corporations and state-backed companies to explore and potentially mine vast, barely explored deep-sea habitats that scientists believe play a key role in the global ecosystem.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Are We Ready for the Deadly Heat Waves of the Future?

           

HEAT ISLANDS  Heat claims more lives than floods, hurricanes and other weather-related disasters. How will cities cope as temperatures rise?  ULTRAFORMA/ISTOCKPHOTO

When days and nights get too hot, city dwellers are the first to run into trouble

sciencenews.org - by AIMEE CUNNINGHAM - April 3, 2018

Since 1986, the first year the National Weather Service reported data on heat-related deaths, more people in the United States have died from heat (3,979) than from any other weather-related disaster — more than floods (2,599), tornadoes (2,116) or hurricanes (1,391). Heat’s victim counts would be even higher, but unless the deceased are found with a fatal body temperature or in a hot room, the fact that heat might have been the cause is often left off of the death certificate, says Jonathan Patz, director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

As greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere, heat’s toll is expected to rise. Temperatures will probably keep smashing records as carbon dioxide, methane and other gases continue warming the planet. Heat waves (unusually hot weather lasting two or more days) will probably be longer, hotter and more frequent in the future.

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