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  2. Another Week in the Ecological Crisis, February 9, 2014

Another Week in the Ecological Crisis, February 9, 2014

By illconsidered on February 11, 2014.

This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup

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Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years

February 9, 2014

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Here's a wee chuckle for ye:

The C40 cities and climate meeting went down this week in Johannesburg:

I have yet to hear of a single country protesting this matter:

Here is an interesting example of how the media make news:

Scientists report the conditions necessary for effective marine protected areas.
What is the headline?
Marine protected areas don't work.
It is surely just a coincidence that the Abbott govt. wants to undo the marine protected areas Labour set up ...
A clip from the Abstract:
Here we show that the conservation benefits of 87 MPAs investigated worldwide increase exponentially with the accumulation of five key features: no take, well enforced, old (>10 years), large (>100km2), and isolated by deep water or sand.

What do we have for warnings this week?

Here's one of those studies I'd like to see replicated:

    • 2014/02/07: Eureka: Fish biomass in the ocean is 10 times higher than estimated
      The stock of mesopelagic fish changes from 1,000 to 10,000 million tons With a stock estimated at 1,000 million tons so far, mesopelagic fish dominate the total biomass of fish in the ocean. However, a team of researchers with the participation of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has found that their abundance could be at least 10 times higher.

How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?

And on the Bottom Line:

Who's getting the subsidies?

John Cook and friends continue their point-counterpoint articles:

A note on theFukushima disaster:

It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. The previous Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said decades. Now the Japanese government is talking about 30 years. [Whoops, that has now been updated to 40 years.]
And the IAEA is now saying 40 years too.
[Now some people are talking about a century or more. Sealing it in concrete for 500 years.]
We'll see.
At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.
Meanwhile...
It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima. Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information. One has to evaluate both the content and the source of propagated information.
How knowledgeable are they [about nuclear power and about Japan]?
Do they have an agenda?
Are they pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear?
Do they want to write a good news story?
Do they want to write a bad news story?
Where do they rate on a scale of sensationalism?
Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down-ness?
One fundamental question I would like to see answered:
If the reactors are in meltdown, how can they be in cold shutdown?

Not much good news coming out of Fukushima:

 

Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:

    • 2014/02/07: Asia Times: Japan holds to dangerous plutonium separation plan
      Nearly three years after the Fukushima accident, the fate of nuclear power in Japan remains highly uncertain, with government officials still unable to settle on a new nuclear energy policy. Yet perhaps the most risky element of the Japanese nuclear complex appears to be moving forward with little official consideration: the operation of a massive facility in Rokkasho to separate plutonium in spent nuclear fuel.
    • 2014/02/04: EurActiv: Russian nuclear plant divides Hungarians ahead of election
      Hungary's centre-left opposition is mobilising support against a deal between the government of Viktor Orbán and Russia to build two additional reactors in the country's only nuclear central. Parliamentary elections are due on 6 April.

The Arctic melt continues to garner attention:

As for the charismatic megafauna:

Greenland's Jakobshavn Glacier is setting a speed record:

As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

While in Antarctica:

The food crisis is ongoing:

Food Prices are still problematic:

Regarding the genetic modification of food:

Regarding labelling GM food:

And how are we going to feed 9 billion, 10 billion, 15 billion?

How are things going in the Philippines post-Super Typhoon Haiyan?

In the Western Pacific, Tropical Storm Edna circled while Fletcher bothered the Gulf of Carpentaria:

 

 

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