Crazy as it sounds, but all this freezing weather is the result of the North Pole losing pressure to keep its arctic weather belt intact... perhaps cinch up that belt tighter, North Pole.  The North Pole is approximately 36 degrees Fahrenheit warmer since 2016, compared to only being 5 degrees warmer recorded in 1979.  Sea levels have risen dramatically too.  Make note of the historic Fisherman's Point shacks in South Portland, Maine yanked out to sea on January 14 of this year; truly historic and ironic.  I remember my 5th grade science teacher in 1977 speaking of catastrophes to come by year 2050.... boy was he off by a decade or two. Or was he?

All of what is happening are only samplings or precursors , if you will, of what is touted to come. Whether, no pun intended, to substantiate or dismiss the scientific guestimates of climate change patterns requires the same amount of work and years of studying environmental impacts and causes to stand on either side of that fence. I won't bore you with scientific study analysis from our scientists because there has been plenty: scientific studies are referenced on the very city billboards that turn into flying debris from the record amount of hurricanes and tornados in recent years.  And this coastal flooding isn't new, but what is new is the frequency and intensity. 

In a previous blog post, I mentioned the Polar Vortex. This Arctic shift to the southern hemisphere is because the climate is a little broken, maybe a little more than a little, but not yet a lot.  We will get to that point later in this article.  The rise in sea levels are related to this Polar Vortex as well as most all recent unique weather conditions currently being experienced locally in the United States and internationally.  The U.S. Eastern seaboard and Gulf of Mexico are most affected, where the hightides and nuisance flooding had been predicted to rise four times a year and eightfold per year by year 2050 (1).  However, those occurrences are happening in more irregular frequencies as of to date. Florida is predicted to experience future catastrophic flooding, and today the state of Maine is experiencing flooding never before seen.

Now about fixing what is broken. Could there be a chance of a reprieve?  Understand the cogs of motion are already spinning and grinding against each other, damage has already been done and more is to come.  But climate and environmental scientists are currently developing processes to stop a complete environmental meltdown.  Safeguarding a certain degree of collateral damage, such as loss of human life, property damage, whole towns and cities decimated, is what is at stake for the future. There is no fixing of the environment, not in the immediate sense, but there is healing, which will take decades, if not centuries, to repair the damage from all that has affected our planet.

Perhaps many of you feel this climate change to be just a natural occurrence.  Sure, listen to the marketing mechanisms of oil and gas producers delivered as "education,"  keep driving that SUV, big luxury car or hot rod like so many mimicking the fantastical world of the Fast and Furious big screen series. There must be another way to look tough and act cool without that furiously fast car.  And what about your children's futures?  What then, where to next, if weather is unpredictable, big coastal cities are unliveable, and certain industry jobs are no longer options?

Perhaps if we all had paid attention to our 5th grade science teacher back in the 70's, we would have acted upon the climate change warnings.  And as you read this from your comfortable chair, consider that we as a species need to move forward quickly to mitigate the dangers of Climate Change, from demanding muscle cars be "muscled" out, scrutinize climate-change-denying politicians and educating our children about the importance of living with environmental decision-making at the forefront of every purchase. Our future is at stake!

(1) https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/flooding-in-the-united-state...

Sources:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-arctic-is-warming-four-ti...

https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/flooding-in-the-united-state...

https://www.neefusa.org/story/climate-change/increases-coastal-flooding

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44632

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4406948-what-is-the-polar-...

Image Source: Bradley Carroll, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The International Atomic Energy Agency has approved and is monitoring a slow discharge of radioactive cooling water in the Pacific Ocean from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.

Immediately following the 2011 Tohoku earthquake of a magnitude of 9.1mw, a 15-meter tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, causing three cores to melt completely.  The plant had been offline since the disaster but can no longer accomodate the resulting contaminated wastewater needed for cooling its fuel rods.  The Japanese nuclear agencies developed a plan to release filtered nuclear cooling water into the Pacific Ocean over a regulated time-table.  The contaminated water is processed to reduce concentrations of radionuclides except for one radioactive isotope of hydrogen called tritium that cannot be filtered out. "Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen, and hydrogen is part of the water itself (H20). So it is impossible to create a filter that could remove the tritium."¹ 

According to Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), "annual radiation levels from the release of the tritium-tainted water are estimated at between 0.052 and 0.62 microsieverts if it were disposed of at sea and 1.3 microsieverts if it were released into the atmosphere, compared with the 2100 microsieverts (2.1 mSv) that humans are naturally exposed to annually."²  The IAEA and the government of Japan have assessed the levels released to be safe enough for the environment however that assessment has not abated related political disagreements and cultural harrassments from neighboring countries.

Japan, trying to prevent another disaster of overflowing untreated contaminated material, is mitigating the risks involved to dispose treated water to make room for more unfiltered wasterwater. Considering their own economy and health are at risk, Japan took a decade to develop a technical process to disperse the water over decades so as not harm the environment.  The IAEA and other international nuclear agencies are providing oversight to monitor release of tritium into the ocean will have minimal impact to the ecosystem and consequently may impart diplomacy with environmental concerns from all countries.

Footnotes:

(1) https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety...

(2) https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety...

References:

https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety...

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/24/1195419846/fukushima-radioactive-water-japan

Images: Image composed by WJ (courtesy of zumwinkle.com) 

Background image: Underwater photo of coral reef.jpg
Jerry Reid, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Japanese flag: War flag of the Imperial Japanese Army.svg
Thommy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

30 years ago, a corporate entity by the name of CADIZ Inc. proposed a plan to pump out 16 billion gallons of water each year from the driest desert in North America, the famed Mojave Desert.  In year 2010, opposition from late activist Elden Hughs and other Sierra Club members were vigilant to keep CADIZ from realizing their plan.  Almost a decade later, CADIZ Inc. had finally been approved by the Trump-era U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Corporate entities with lobbying powers have the will to entice or pressure most anyone as was the case with Southern California Water district board member Bryan Urias, who had decided against purchasing any water from CADIZ Inc. As it appears, there are people with a conscience who can look beyond the horizon and people like Urias could see the ecological disaster from such a project to drain the Mojave Desert.  However, this article really isn't a case against CADIZ Inc, but as an example of the struggle between conservatorship and commercialism and all that entails.

The planet is dying, or the reality is the planet is becoming less inhabitable and it's life that is on a precarious edge of disaster.  The planet will survive and it will eliminate us humans in the interim to do so, but we humans are doing the act upon ourselves as we enjoy shooting ourselves in the foot and then again in the other foot.

Humans have vices, that is a given, though some humans have deeper, overwhelming obsessions with power and wealth and it is that dollar that will be used for such endeavors.  And there are voices who try to speak through those filters to reach an unassuming public whom are not aware, engaged nor empowered to contribute a voice to make logical and reasonable decisions.  It is a huge struggle to reach those ears, and organizations like the Sierra Club are not enough to fight the good fight.

Luckily, on September 14, 2022, a U.S. District federal judge vacated the Trump-era U.S. Bureau of Land Management decision that would have allowed Cadiz Inc. to repurpose a mothballed oil-and-gas pipeline to drain a large aquifer in the Mojave Desert. The current U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) under President Biden had sent a motion to the court to dismiss the prior agency's approval of the pipeline that would had traversed Mojave Trails National Monument and other protected public land in southeastern California.

This is life mimicking the arts.  As the Death Star slowly comes around from out of the shadows to align it's target, a small force intervenes to save the day.  Message to you readers, don't let Planet Earth become that Death Star, it won't end well for all of us.

Sources:

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/judge-vacates-appr...

https://socalwatersierraclub.org/campaigns/cadiz/

https://angeles.sierraclub.org/july_2019_issue

https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/2018/03/22/california-w...

Photo by Thomas Farley, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

As long as fossil fuels are used in energy power plants, vehicles, heating and ac for buildings, sequestration efforts will never successfully reduce CO₂ emissions enough to reverse pollution health damage.

A study analysis by the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA makes the case for complete replacement of all fossil fuel use is the only solution to both emssions reduction and substantial social cost.

Data from a coal plant with carbon capture and use (CCU) and synthetic direct air carbon capture and use (SDACCU) equipment netted 10.8% of the CCU plant's CO₂-equivalent (CO₂e) emissions and 10.5% of CO₂ removed from the air by the SCACCU plant over a period of 20 years.

The low capture rates are due to uncaptured combustion emissions from natural gas used to power the emissions reduction equipment, uncaptured upstream emissions and in the case of CCU, uncaptured coal combustion emissions.  Contrary to the efforts of using such emissions reduction equipment, both CCU and SDACCU plants increased air pollution and total social costs relative to no capture.

Using wind as an alternative to using natural gas to power the carbon capture equipment reduces CO₂e but still allowed air pollution emissions to continue and increased the total social cost relative to no carbon capture. 

In terms of total social cost liabilities, no improvement in CCU or SCACCU equipment can change the conclusion of low reduction rates while fossil fuel emissions exist.  Conversely, wind power never incurs a carbon capture cost nor increases air pollution and fuel mining expenditures. Sequestration has proven to be more costly than actual replacement of the use of fossil fuels.

Sources:

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2019/ee/c9ee02709b

https://www.c2es.org/content/carbon-capture/

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-much-carbon-dioxide-can-united-states-stor...

Photo by Brendan O'Donnell / Unsplash