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The total amount of heat added to the Earth’s oceans since 1991 is about 60% higher than mean values previously measured , according to a new study published in the journal Nature on October 31, 2018.   The authors, Laure Resplandy and a team of coworkers from the U. S., China, France and Germany, made this evaluation using a completely alternative way of measuring how much heat is retained by the oceans (see Details below). It has been understood for many years that about 90% of the heat retained by the Earth system (ocean, melting glaciers, land and air) is absorbed by the oceans .   This is graphically depicted in the following image, which shows the excess amounts of heat from each of the four main contributors to the total increase in heat content of the entire Earth system since 1971.   Accumulation of heat in the Earth system’s components over 1970-2011, referenced to assigning zero for 1971, in zettajoules (where “zetta” signifies 10 21 , i.e., 1 followed ...

Limiting Greenhouse Gas Emission Rates and Global Temperature Increases.   A new report on the state of the global climate (see Notes) finds that the world has not made enough progress in minimizing the increase in the long-term global average temperature (referenced to the temperature in pre-industrial times).   Restraining the temperature increase to the necessary extent demands rapid, widespread technological and socioeconomic changes to the world’s energy economy, leading to elimination of greenhouse gas emissions, that are unknown in human history.   The temperature increase depends, in almost a straight-line fashion, on the accumulated burden of added carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere: the more GHGs, the higher the global average temperature becomes.   In other words, the world has made insufficient progress in recent years in reducing the use of coal, petroleum and natural gas (fossil fuels, which produce CO 2 when burn...

Electric storage batteries based on zinc instead of lithium are now in widespread usage around the world, even though their existence is poorly recognized.   A report in the New York Times describes a zinc-air battery produced by the company NantEnergy.   The company received development grants of US$5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.   It has already deployed its batteries in Asian and African villages, and in cell towers in the U.S., Latin America and Southeast Asia.   Its founder, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, stated that 110 villages have established local microgrid systems, using electricity generated on site by solar arrays.   Dr. Soon-Shiong anticipates that use of the batteries will expand greatly in telecommunication towers, and expects use to spread to home energy storage and electric vehicles as well.   He foresees a potential market of US$50 billion. The zinc battery has several advantages over lithium-based batteries.   Zinc has a ...

On July 29, 2018 an op-ed  by the social psychologists Leaf Van Boven and David Sherman reported that majorities of both Republicans and Democrats agreed that “climate change is happening, threatens humans and is caused by human activity — and that reducing carbon emissions would mitigate the problem.” They summarize the results  of two national polls, in 2014 and 2016, that they administered (together with a third colleague; here we’re omitting some details of the way the experiments were carried out).   Important conclusions they present include:   ·         “…most Republicans were in basic agreement with most Democrats and independents on this issue.” ·         Probably the “problem is not so much that Republicans are skeptical about climate change, but that Republicans are skeptical of Democrats — and that Democrats are skeptical of Republicans.” ·         I...