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To: Brumar89 who wrote (1069600)	5/16/2018 8:26:59 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576910

"How often do we hear global warming blamed for all sorts of bad weather? Pretending that we can solve the problem by building lots of wind mills and solar farms simply distracts attention from the practical things which really could make a difference." How often do we hear it blamed for good weather? Pretending we are pretending we can solve it is a denier thing. It's here, so the best we can do is hold it down to a low roar, which means solar and wind and EVs and efficiency and storage and..... Solar Installed Across Entire California School District Posted by Betsy Lillian May 10, 2018 Solar array at Rose Ferrero Elementary School, one of Soledad USD's new solar projects across the district. In a community celebration on Thursday, May 3, Soledad Unified School District in Monterey County, Calif., commemorated the official start of its district-wide solar program with a ceremonial “flip the switch” event for students, staff, neighboring school districts, community partners, and elected officials. Through a partnership with a local team from ENGIE Services U.S., Soledad USD’s new 1.7 MW solar project symbolizes the district’s commitment to the theme of the event itself, “Earth Day, Every Day.” Soledad USD, which serves nearly 5,000 K-12 students, partnered with ENGIE starting in early 2016 to create a plan to reduce district energy costs and positively impact the environment. Leveraging two 0% loans from the California Energy Commission (CEC), district leaders worked with ENGIE to secure $4.8 million in CEC state funding to start solar work at Soledad High School in late 2016, with work at additional school sites occurring through spring of this year. Remaining program costs will be covered by savings resulting from the generation of solar power, the district expects. Specifically, the district is expecting the following outcomes from the solar project: $10 million in energy savings over 25 years;1.78 million kWh generated annually – or enough clean energy to power 143 homes for a year;Approximately 68% of the district’s electricity needs met through solar production;1,326 metric tons of greenhouse-gas emissions reduced annually; andOngoing STEM engagement activities, including hands-on experiences, career day presentations from energy engineers, and an online dashboard that connects real-world data to classroom learning.Superintendent Tim Vanoli says, “The reason our theme for this event is ‘Earth Day, Every Day’ is because we have truly integrated our belief in the power of renewable energy into all school sites. Not only do we celebrate sustainable actions, we can really live them on a daily basis now that we are producing clean energy that will power our district and offset greenhouse gases – in addition to saving us $10 million in energy costs over the life of this project.” solarindustrymag.com

To: Brumar89 who wrote (1069600)	5/24/2018 12:04:15 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576910

Global warming made Hurricane Harvey more destructive Posted on 23 May 2018 by John Abraham Last summer, the United states was pummeled with three severe hurricanes in rapid succession. It was a truly awesome display of the power of weather and the country is still reeling from the effects. In the climate community, there has been years of research into the effect that human-caused global warming has on these storms – both their frequency and their power. The prevailing view is that in a warming world, there will likely be fewer such storms, but the storms that form will be more severe. Some research, however, concludes that there will be both more storms and more severe ones. More generally, because there is more heat, there is more activity, which can be manifested in several ways. Regardless, there is very little doubt that a warmer planet can create more powerful storms. The reason is that hurricanes feed off of warmer ocean water. In order to form these storms, oceans have to be above about 26°C (about 80°F). With waters that hot, and with strong winds, there is a rapid evaporation of moisture from the ocean. The resulting water vapor enters into the storm, providing the energy to power the storm as the water vapor condenses and falls out of the storm as rain. As a large hurricane passes over warm water, it sucks in heat not only from the top layer of water but also from quite deep in the ocean, at least 160 meters (approximately 525 feet) or more. The main way heat is pulled out of the ocean is through the aforementioned evaporation process. There are also smaller effects from mixing the ocean waters and blocking sunlight to the ocean. Basically, when a hurricane passes over warm waters, the ocean “sweats” and cools off – a process enabled by the strong winds. The image below shows this evaporation and condensation process. Diagram of evaporation and rainfall within a hurricane. Illustration: Trenberth et al. (2018), Earth's Future A very recent publication in the journal Earth’s Future studied the impact of hurricanes on warm oceans in order to understand how warm waters fuel the storms and also how storms affect the water temperatures. With Hurricane Harvey, a near perfect natural laboratory was available in the Gulf of Mexico. Temperature measurements are plentiful there and the scientists were able to measure the total ocean heat content in the upper 160 meters just before Hurricane Harvey passed and compare the heat measured after the storm. What they found was very interesting. As seen in the image below, before the storm (top frame), the ocean heat content was very high (red colors). After the hurricane passed (bottom frame), the waters were notably cooler. Cooling off of ocean waters because of Hurricane Harvey. Illustration: Trenberth et al. (2018), Earth's Future The scientists calculated that the waters lost approximately 6 x 1020 Joules of heatbecause of Harvey. That’s about 10 million times as much energy as the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Then the scientists used rainfall data and calculated how much heatfell in the form of rain. The results were a nearly perfect match with the energy taken up by the storm. That is, they were able to balance the energy and water flows into and out of the storm to a very high level of accuracy. Click here to read the rest skepticalscience.com