As climate shifts, Cincinnati mayor boosts solar investments

Cincinnati may seem an unlikely location for the nation’s largest city-owned solar array. But when Mayor John Cranley announced last year that he intended to create just that, the plan was in many ways a natural fit. Over the past decade, the Ohio city has taken increasingly aggressive steps to decarbonize its energy supply – and it’s seeing impressive results.

February 2018 flooding in downtown Cincinnati. 

Unusual weather patterns have added new urgency to these efforts.

“Over the last few years we’ve seen a surge in major storm events that’s triggered a rash of stormwater related issues – sewer backups, flash flooding, landslides,” said Oliver Kroner, who works in the city’s Office of Environment and Sustainability. “We’ve even had some river flooding just over the last couple of weeks for the first time since 1997.”

Last year, the city spent $50 million responding to storm-related issues.

Read the Yale Climate Connections story by Sarah Wesseler - “As climate shifts, Cincinnati mayor boosts solar investments.”

Coral Sea tropical low 'unlikely' to intensify into cyclone, but heavy weather still on the way

A tropical low in the Coral Sea is continuing to move towards Queensland's south-east, but the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says it is unlikely to intensify into a cyclone.

Mike McMaster and Max Wilson head into the surf on
the Sunshine Coast which has wild winds expected.

But gale-force winds and dangerous surf are still expected to impact the southern coastline from Wednesday.

The system is about 1,300 kilometres north-east of the Sunshine Coast and will keep tracking south on Tuesday, but is not expected to cross the coast.

On Tuesday afternoon, BOM forecaster Dean Narramore said winds would pick up on Tuesday night around the Fraser Island coast area.

Read the ABC News story - “Coral Sea tropical low 'unlikely' to intensify into cyclone, but heavy weather still on the way.”

It'd be wonderful if the claims made about carbon capture were true

The International Energy Agency warned this week that, under current energy policies, Australia is unlikely to meet its 2030 climate commitments.

‘The only way CCS on coal will ever be built at scale is with
a carbon price so high it’d kill the rest of the coal sector.’

While the agency had lots to say about the plunging costs of renewables and the need for strong market signals to encourage the retirement of old and inefficient coal generation, Josh Frydenberg, the federal environment and energy minister, seized on the agency’s support for carbon capture and storage (CCS) – despite the technology’s long history of big promises and meagre results.

Last April, Frydenberg visited the newly opened Petra Nova CCS project in Texas. In a video posted to social media the minister, decked out in the obligatory hi-vis vest and hard hat, yells above the noise that the $1bn project is “helping to reduce the carbon footprint by some 40%”.

Read the comment by Simon Holmes à Court on The Guardian - “It'd be wonderful if the claims made about carbon capture were true.”

ANALYSIS: No market for Trump’s huge coastal oil exploration plan

Many energy analysts say flat prices, exorbitant costs, civic opposition, climate concerns and new transportation technology make major new offshore drilling enterprises unlikely, at least outside the Gulf of Mexico.

Energy analysts say flat prices, exorbitant costs, civic opposition,
climate concerns and new transportation technology make major
new offshore drilling enterprises unlikely.

With characteristic flamboyance, the Trump administration has set in motion a grand scheme to lure energy companies to explore for oil and gas across virtually all of America’s outer continental shelf, a deep marine domain encompassing billions of acres of ocean bottom.

Drawing a distinction from the Obama administration’s concerns about climate change and restricting offshore fossil energy development, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke cast President Donald Trump’s offshore drilling campaign as a study in American strength. “We’re embarking on a new path for energy dominance in America,” Zinke said. “We are going to become the strongest energy superpower.”

Read the Providence Journal story by Keith Schneider - “ANALYSIS: No market for Trump’s huge coastal oil exploration plan.”

Energy regulator says 'no concern' despite soaring temperatures this weekend

Temperatures are set to soar in the southern states this weekend, but the energy market regulator says we're unlikely to see blackouts or calls to reduce power consumption.

The regulator said blackouts were unlikely
this weekend despite the heat.

While much work has been done to create strategic reserves and to improve storage capabilities, one inescapable reason for this is luck and timing.

Weekend days tend to place less demand on the energy market as commercial and industrial activity is reduced.

It's also early January, so not all businesses are back in full swing.

Read the ABC News story by Henry Belot - “Energy regulator says 'no concern' despite soaring temperatures this weekend.”

The aroma of coffee filters through climate change

Because of climate change the
 daily caffeine hit could become difficult
to find and more expensive.

Maybe climate change is about to get the attention is should have had for years and maybe it will arise in a most unlikely way.

The warming of our planet is shifting climatic zones and within that reducing those areas in which coffee can be successfully grown.

And so now the millions of coffee drinkers in Australia, and of course all around the world, will suddenly find and pay for their daily caffeine-hit somewhat more difficult.

Maybe, just maybe, that understandable injury to their lifestyle might be enough to trigger their interest in mitigating climate change or working with an adaptation idea.

Writing in today’s Melbourne Age in a story headed: “Brewed awakening may leave a bitter aftertaste” environmental editor, Tom Arup, has warned of a significant disruption to coffee production as the planet warms.