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Category: climatology

https://youtube.com/watch?v=h5jBjso6l6I

If 150,000 volt stun guns aren’t enough to deter criminals, law enforcement might want to give Rob Flickenger a buzz.

The IT expert, who also has a bit of a reputation as a DIY mad-scientist, has a shocking new invention: a real-life lightning gun. Built over a period of at least 10 months, the zapper is the end result of combining the aim-and-shoot functionality of an aluminum-encased Nerf gun with the electrical power supplied by an 18V drill battery.

The gun, which some of you might have guessed, is essentially a weaponized version of a Spark Gap Tesla Coil. To generate a high-voltage discharge, Flickenger designed a system that channeled the power drill’s 18V of power into a ZVS driver circuit, which in turn drives a flyback transformer, thereby raising the voltage to about 20,000V. All of this is admitted pretty technical, so if you want a detailed explanation of how it works, check out his site Hackerfriendly.com, where he goes through the finer points of the technology.

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There’s no way to store toxic coal waste that’s completely safe. There’s also no way to mine and burn coal that doesn’t threaten communities, our waterways and our climate. Duke needs to stop burning coal, clean up its toxic mess, and invest in abundant, affordable clean energy sources like solar and wind. #2048istoolate #BeyondCoal #YEARSproject with Sierra Club.

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I call them “BATS”.

Can bacteria generate radio waves?

On the face of it, this seems an unlikely proposition. Natural sources of radio waves include lightning, stars and pulsars while artificial sources include radar, mobile phones and computers. This is a diverse list. So it’s hard to see what these things might have in common with bacteria that could be responsible for making radio waves.

But today, Allan Widom at Northeastern University in Boston and a few pals, say they’ve worked out how it could be done.

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The El Niño-Southern Oscillation has been responsible for widespread, simultaneous crop failures in recent history, according to a new study from researchers at Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and other partners. This finding runs counter to a central pillar of the global agriculture system, which assumes that crop failures in geographically distant breadbasket regions such as the United States, China and Argentina are unrelated. The results also underscore the potential opportunity to manage such climate risks, which can be predicted using seasonal climate forecasts.

The study, published in Science Advances, is the first to provide estimates of the degree to which different modes of such as ENSO cause volatility in global and regional production of corn, wheat and soy. Such variability caused nearly 18 percent volatility in global corn production from 1980 to 2010, for example.

“Global agriculture counts on the strong likelihood that poor production in one part of the world will be made up for by good production elsewhere,” said Weston Anderson, a postdoctoral research scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and lead author on the study.

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Carbon offsetting initiatives have been offered by private companies – including British Airways and Shell – for many years. These voluntary schemes give customers the choice to pay a premium, on the understanding that the company will offset some greenhouse gas emissions. Since carbon offsetting became an option, projects around the world have resulted in a saving of approximately 994m tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) equivalent. But given that global CO₂ levels in 2018 were 33.1Gt, it’s fair to say that a lot more could be done.

The UK could become net zero emissions tomorrow if the government wished, but it would cost the tax payer dearly. In 2017, the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions were 460m tonnes. If, for example, the government used the Gold Standard offsetting scheme, at an average cost of £10/tonne, that would amount to an astonishing £4.6 billion bill. Most would agree this would be an excessive cost for the government to bear, and anyway the public, private and third sectors should share responsibility for tackling emissions.

Local authorities have an important role to play in meeting this target, given their ability to work with residents, charities and businesses to make meaningful changes at a local level. Some local authorities are leading the way by setting ambitious targets: Liverpool City Council aims to become the UK’s first “climate positive” city by the end of 2020. The council has formed a partnership with a private sector organisation – the Poseidon Foundation – to achieve this through carbon offsetting.

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