More than half of jobs in UK solar industry lost in wake of subsidy cuts | Environment | The Guardian

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Change in government’s energy policy blamed for job losses just as solar power eclipses coal in electricity generation

Terry Macalister Energy editor:  The solar power industry says it has seen the loss of more than half its 35,000 jobs due to recent changes in government energy policy, just at a time when solar power has eclipsed coal as a major generator of Britain’s electricity.

Experts believe ministers had cut subsidies too far and too fast, praising the “seismic”, record-breaking growth of solar in recent years.

This month the Solar Cloth Company became the latest to be put into administration, following the liquidation and 170 job losses at Solarlec two weeks ago.

Source: More than half of jobs in UK solar industry lost in wake of subsidy cuts | Environment | The Guardian

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Connecting the climate change dots | Summit County Citizens Voice

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Pole to pole and across the world’s oceans and mountains, climate change impacts are adding up

By Bob Berwyn:  For any Summit Voice readers not following my Twitter or Facebook feeds, here’s a list of links to my recent stories for InsideClimate News.

Of greatest interest here in the West is a new University of Utah study that projects a dramatic upward shift of the snowline in the Rockies and coastal ranges in California, Oregon and Washington. Less spring snowpack at lower elevations has huge effects on we manage our water, and could also result in more early season wildfires: Unabated Global Warming Threatens West’s Snowpack, Water Supply.

In mid-May I wrote about the latest update to NOAA’s annual greenhouse gas index, which showed that atmospheric CO2 concentration showed its biggest annual increase on record in the past year. The index also showed a surge in Methane, an etremely potent heat-trapping pollutant: Far From Turning a Corner, Global CO2 Emissions Still Accelerating.  Continue reading: Connecting the climate change dots | Summit County Citizens Voice

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The past week in Australian nuclear news

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GR:  Here’s an opportunity to add your voice to the conversation on climate, nuclear power, and nature conservation.

Christina Macpherson:  With 3 weeks to go until the federal election, watching the performance of our major parties is a pretty unedifying sight. If I hear the words “Jobs and Growth” one more time, I will do an Elvis Presley, and throw a tomahawk at the TV set. (Did Elvis really do that? But I digress) Today PM Turnbull mouthed a few motherhood statements about climate, but no policy there. Labor is better, with a promising renewable energy policy. (Of course, neither are breathing a word about Australia importing nuclear waste. Nor is Nick Xenophon, the rising star who might hold the balance of power after the election) ) The Greens have an economically sound renewable energy plan.

I have emailed all Labor MPs, Senators and Candidates, asking each if they want to hold to Labor’s strong anti-nuclear policy, which bars importing nuclear waste, or if they would agree to change it. Few replies, so far, and most replies simply dodge the question Australians! You could send your own or use the sample at the end of this email. Contact details for Australian politicians and candidates are here.

On the State scene, South Australian Labor Premier Weatherill and Liberal Opposition Leader Steven Marshall are off together for a little nuclear lovefest in Finland, to look at Finland’s (not yet operative) nuclear waste repository.

The planned South Australian high level nuclear waste one will need to be up to 28 times the size of Finland’s. That’s around 112 square kms or 5,500 Adelaide ovals, 400 metres underground – and that’s not taking into consideration the 470,000 m3 of low and intermediate level nuclear waste.  Source: The past week in nuclear news « Antinuclear

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France to formally ratify Paris climate accord on June 15 – Minister | Reuters

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President Francois Hollande will formally sign the Paris climate agreement on Wednesday, June 15, making France the first industrialized nation to ratify the landmark accord, Environment Minister Segolene Royal said on Friday.

France’s Senate adopted a bill authorizing the government to ratify the agreement on Wednesday after a near unanimous vote by the lower house in May, Royal told a carbon pricing forum in Paris.  Source: France to formally ratify Paris climate accord on June 15 – Minister | Reuters

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Meanwhile, In India: Family Planning Beyond Sterilization

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Population Control in India

GR:  Beginning in the 1950’s, India has had the most proactive population control program in the world.  From quotas, and often-forced sterilization to meet them, to paid sterilization, the country has tried–and failed to control population growth.  The article below discusses some of the reasons and some of the alternative approaches.  What’s missing is a global program similar to the one taking shape for climate change.  Instead of planning a massive increase in coal-fired energy production, it would be much better if India would invent and lead a world-wide movement to reduce the human population.

Joe Bish, Population Media Center.–If India is going to avoid a population time bomb, experts say, it has to move away from sterilization as the preferred form of contraception. 

As an introduction to her essay below, author Christine Chung writes: “Despite half a century of efforts to reduce population growth, India faces challenges in delivering a family-planning program that goes beyond female sterilization to help couples delay and space out their children.”

The essay may best be read in the context of a recent report issued by the Population Foundation of India (PFI), which demonstrated that the country is on track to fail in the commitments it made towards the Family Planning 2020 initiative. PFI found that the central government needs to pony up another $2.3 billion USD (Rs 15,800 crore) over the next 4 years to have a realistic shot at meeting their goals around contraceptive prevalence. Even more bothersome on the financing front, it seems India has gone the “devolution” route, wherein the central government has, to some extent, passed responsibility for family planning programs to the state governments. If so, it is worth remembering that such a scheme was major contributor to Indonesia’s family planning program stalling out in the past decade.  Continue:  Meanwhile, In India: Family Planning Beyond Sterilization

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Air pollution now major contributor to stroke, global study finds | Science | The Guardian

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GR:  Air pollution harms all species of plants and animals.  Fortunately, the most toxic concentrations are in human cities and homes where animal numbers are lower.

Science editor.–Scientists say finding is alarming, and shows that harm caused by air pollution to the lungs, heart and brain has been underestimated

Air pollution has become a major contributor to stroke for the first time, with unclean air now blamed for nearly one third of the years of healthy life lost to the condition worldwide.

In an unprecedented survey of global risk factors for stroke, air pollution in the form of fine particulate matter ranked seventh in terms of its impact on healthy lifespan, while household air pollution from burning solid fuels ranked eighth.

Source: Air pollution now major contributor to stroke, global study finds | Science | The Guardian

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The Great Barrier Reef and the subtle power of ‘psychological distance’

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This photo released on 20 April, 2016 by XL Catlin Seaview Survey shows a turtle swimming over bleached coral at Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Don HIne.–If the federal government wants Australians to ignore the Great Barrier Reef as it dies beside us, it has done a masterful job by scrubbing all mentions of the reef from the latest UN climate change report.

The government’s actions have been described as Soviet in style and intent but the political thuggery pales compared to the activation of a subtler and more powerful effect known as psychological distance.

Psychological distance is a construct that measures the “distance” of an event or object in terms of geography, time, cultural similarity and factual certainty. If something is nearby, likely to occur soon, involves people like you, and the facts are certain, that “something” is considered psychologically close. The closer it is, the more likely you are to perceive it as concrete and be willing and able to act on it.  Continue:  The Great Barrier Reef and the subtle power of ‘psychological distance’ | Don Hine | Australia news | The Guardian

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Australian researchers call for more coastal monitoring in the face of expected climate change impacts

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Bob Berwyn–June storms highlight impacts of rising seas, shifting storm patterns.

Just after the Australian government announced massive cuts to the country’s science agency, researchers are warning that there’s more of a need than ever to track climate change impacts.

A series of recent storms that lashed Australia’s east coast are reminder that rising sea level presents a growing threat to coastal communities, according scientists with the University of New South Wales.

“The damage we’ve seen is a harbinger of what’s to come,” said Ian Turner, director of the Water Research Laboratory at the University of New South Wales. “Climate change is not only raising the oceans and threatening foreshores, but making our coastlines much more vulnerable to storm damage. What are king high tides today will be the norm within decades.”  Continue.– Australian researchers call for more coastal monitoring in the face of expected climate change impacts | Summit County Citizens Voice

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Record Drop in Coal Burning Raises Question — Is Peak Fossil Fuel Use Happening Now? RobertScribbler

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Peak oil, gas, and coal.

It’s a possibility that many who believe the fossil fuel industry’s false dependency mantra look at with fear and trembling. Because, for years, that industry, through various public relations efforts, has perpetuated a myth that a loss of access to fossil fuels would ruin the modern global economy. That fossil fuels were so high-quality no other energy source could effectively replace them.

It’s a myth that, in many ways, competes with the threat of human-caused climate change for space in the public’s collective imagination. One that is not without a few valid supports. For the shifting of energy use away from one set of sources and on toward another set is a massive, disruptive undertaking even in the case where the new energy sources are superior to the old.

.. (This is what a real existential threat to global civilization looks like. From the 1880s to the six month cold season of 2015-2016, global temperatures warmed by 1.38 degrees Celsius. At the end of the last ice age, it took about 3,000 years for as much warming to occur as human fossil fuel burning has achieved over just the last 136 years. Dealing with what is a problem of geological scale ramping up with lightning speed will require a necessarily rapid reduction to zero fossil fuel burning over the coming decades. Recent swift curtailments of coal use provide some hope that such a reduction may be possible. But rates of fossil fuel use will have to peak soon and be cut even more swiftly to prevent a very rapidly intensifying global emergency. Image source: NASA GISS.)

Source: robertscribbler | Scribbling for environmental, social and economic justice

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