Monitoring Pollution

Temperature Extremes In Both Hemispheres

Philip Proefrock

Recently, there have been a couple of extreme climate effects noted. Record high temperatures have made the news on two continents in the northern and southern hemispheres.

In the United States, to the surprise of no one who experienced it, 2012 was the hottest year on record by more than a degree, with hundreds of new temperature records set throughout the year. The average national temperature was a full degree higher than the previous record. A degree of temperature may not seem like much, but when talking about an average over a year, that's a huge spike. "Normally, records are broken by a tenth of a degree or so."

And, in Australia, recent temperatures have gotten so hot that the Bureau of Meteorology has had to add new colors to those it uses on its interactive weather forecasting chart. Until now, the temperature maps have gone up to 50 degrees C (122 F), but that hasn't been enough for recent high temperatures. Now, the new scale extends to 54 C (129 F).

via: @drgrist and NPR

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Japan Drops Nukes then Reverses Policy

Philip Proefrock

A few days ago, the Japanese government announced its plans to begin to phase out nuclear power with the country aiming to end all nuclear power by 2040. But less than a week later, the announced policy policy was already backing away from that commitment.

Of course, Japan suffered an enormous environmental crisis in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami when the Fukushima nuclear reactor complex suffered a series of explosions and meltdowns of some of the reactors, contaminating the region with radioactive material. There has been strong public sentiment in Japan favoring an end to the use of nuclear power in the aftermath of the crisis.

The government had initially announced plans to end all nuclear power by 2040. But only a few days later, this decision was evidently reversed in an announcement of the new energy policy that leaves more room for continuing use of nuclear power. Business interests had lobbied hard for changes in the policy.

Other countries have taken steps to phase out nuclear power, but they generally have stronger programs of renewable power already in place. Japan is particularly poor in fossil fuel resources, but could be well situated for renewable sources including wind, wave, and tidal, as well as solar.

image: CC BY-SA 3.0 by Digital Globe/Wikimedia

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Sweden Wants to Import More Trash

Philip Proefrock

Sweden is a country with an especially good national recycling program and broad public participation. It is so good that only 4 percent of household waste goes into landfills. Sweden also has a lot of district heating plants, which produce electricity and hot water that is distributed for heating to nearby homes and businesses. Many of these plants rely on trash incineration to generate the heat to run the systems. Trash incinceration provides 20 percent of the district heating in Sweden. These plants also generate the electricity for 250,000 homes.

The problem is that Swedish power plants need more trash to feed these plants than the country is producing, so the country is looking to import trash from its European neighbors to fuel these plants. At present, they are importing waste from neighboring Norway to fuel these plants.

Getting rid of trash and producing energy may seem like a win-win, but trash incineration plants have serious downsides. They produce large amounts of dioxins which can be released into the atmosphere. There are also toxins and heavy metals in the ash that remains after the material is burned, and that needs to be disposed of carefully.

Fortunately, the Swedes realize the limitations in trash burning. "This is not a long-term solution really, because we need to be better to reuse and recycle, but in the short perspective I think it’s quite a good solution," Ostlund concluded.

image: CC by Mikael Lindmark/Wikimedia Commons

via: Living on Earth

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Satellite Data Shows Enormous Greenland Ice Melt

Philip Proefrock

In mid-July, an astonishing, estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet covering Greenland was melting due to a high temperature dome of warm air. Scientists at NASA noticed this late in July, and were shocked at what they found.

Most of Greenland is a big ice sheet. In the summer, large areas of its surface melt, though much of the water quickly re-freezes. Under more normal conditions, 40 or 50 percent of the area can have melting, but virtually the entire ice sheet melting was unprecedented. The 97% area was so extraordinary that the scientists who first discovered this initially thought that there was a problem with the satellites providing the data, and they didn't release the information until they had checked their findings with two other instruments.

The melting took place exceptionally rapidly, as well. "The melting spread quickly. Melt maps derived from the three satellites showed that on July 8, about 40 percent of the ice sheet's surface had melted. By July 12, 97 percent had melted."

Scientists are not yet sure how much of an impact this event will have on sea level rise or how the ice sheet will be affected long term. But it is another unusual event that further shows evidence that the climate is not behaving in the ways it has in the past.

via: NASA

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Arctic Sea Ice on Track for Record Low Levels This Year

Philip Proefrock

Earlier this year, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels in the Arctic reached the unhappy milestone of 400 parts-per-million. Now, information coming from the National Snow & Ice Data Center indicates that this year's Arctic sea ice is on pace to shrink to its smallest levels ever.

One of the clearest examples of the effects of global warming and climate change is the receding of the Arctic ice cap. The NSIDC indicates that this year's sea ice is already slightly smaller than it was in 2010, which was the previous record for this time of year. It is also smaller than it was in 2007, which was the year that had the ice cap shrink to its smallest size in September of that year.

Starting the summer with the smallest Arctic cap on record is not an auspicious sign, for the Arctic or for the planet.

image: NSIDC

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