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Submission + - Taiwan President Supports Phasing Out Nuclear Power (taipeitimes.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: Taiwan should not arbitrarily abandon any energy options if it does not want to suffer from electricity shortages, President Ma Ying-jeou () told the National Energy Conference yesterday.

Addressing the two-day conference, which opened in Taipei yesterday, Ma agreed with calls for Taiwan to phase out nuclear power, but proposed doing so gradually and in a way that would not cause power shortages, increase electricity rates or violate the nation’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions.

Submission + - 2014 one of the warmest years on record globally (metoffice.gov.uk)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: Provisional full-year global mean temperature figures show 2014 was one of the warmest years in a record dating back to 1850.

The HadCRUT4 dataset (compiled by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit) shows last year was 0.56C (±0.1C*) above the long-term (1961-1990) average.

Nominally this ranks 2014 as the joint warmest year in the record, tied with 2010, but the uncertainty ranges mean it's not possible to definitively say which of several recent years was the warmest.

Colin Morice, a climate monitoring scientist at the Met Office, said: "Uncertainties in the estimates of global temperature are larger than the differences between the warmest years. This limits what we can say about rankings of individual years.

"We can say with confidence that 2014 is one of ten warmest years in the series and that it adds to the set of near-record temperatures we have seen over the last two decades."

Comment Protecting the one planet we've got (Score 1) 200

It is interesting that "pushing out into the Solar System not just to visit, but to stay" is part of a speech that emphasizes keeping Earth habitable. This is opposite to the SF "Run Away! Run Away!" meme. Given how long space colonization will take, this is actually the reality. Earth must be preserved to have the time and investment available for an ambitious effort.

Submission + - Paris Terror Spurs Plan for Military Zones Around Nuclear Plants (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: Lawmakers in France want to create military zones around its 58 atomic reactors to boost security after this month’s Paris terror attacks and almost two dozen mystery drone flights over nuclear plants that have baffled authorities.

“There’s a legal void that needs to be plugged,” said Claude de Ganay, the opposition member of the National Assembly spearheading legislation to be considered by parliament on Feb. 5. The proposals would classify atomic energy sites as “highly sensitive military zones” under the control of the Ministry of Defense, according to an outline provided by de Ganay.

Submission + - Earth Protection Returns to NASA (nasa.gov)

Submitted by mdsolar
mdsolar writes: A press release announcing 2014 is the warmest year on record ends this way: "NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites, as well as airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet."

Back in 2006, that language about protecting the Earth was dropped from NASA's mission statement. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07... Welcome back!

Comment Mistaken View (Score 1) 441

by mdsolar (#48828587) Attached to: Why We Have To Kiss Off Big Carbon Now
A high price would allow using the resource more slowly, but it does not support keeping it in the ground, in fact, just the opposite. It is clear that the only oil we can still burn is oil that cost very little to produce, so a cap on the price of oil is what is really what would work to keep from burning too much. http://www.nature.com/nature/j...

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