clair031

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 ...