The Gulf Stream and Its Link to Climate Change

The gulf stream and its link to climate change
The gulf stream running normally divides the cold arctic winds and warm southern winds. Professor Jennifer Francis of the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University explains how the gulf stream has recently been slowed at times, how this can be attributed to warming of the north pole, and how this contributes to extreme weather and temperatures.

Summary

The video is a good explanation of a fascinating phenomenon. The topic can be wordy at times, but she clarifies her purpose clearly and understandably.

World News

• 6/5/2013   China Aims at Europe’s Wines After Solar Panel Action
  
  In an escalating and increasingly hilarious tiff between two major world powers, China seemingly arbitrarily threatens Europe's wine imports as the EU's first round of tariffs go into effect. "Seemingly" because the EU's trade commissioner owns a large stake in wine vineyards in Tuscani.
  
  
• 6/4/2013   Europe Imposes a Tariff on Chinese Solar Panels, for Less Than Expected
  
  China gets an early (and temporary) slap on the wrist for solar panel price dumping. The EU couldn't decide what powerful interests to listen to and so languish in meager threats as China lashes back (see above).
  
• 9/6/2012   EU initiates anti-dumping investigation on solar panel imports from China
  
  A good step-by-step explanation of the EU's anti-dumping investigation into Chinese solar panels. Looks like we'll have tariffs by December 5th, 2013.
  
  
  
• 5/14/2013   The Future of Solar in Latin America
  
  Looks unsurprisingly like Brazil will lead the way with excellent sun and a bustling economy to boot. The DR doesn't inspire my confidence politically, and Mexico's 25% renewables by next year seems absolutely, but may be a reason they will even more resources in solar to at least make an attempt.
  
  
• 4/22/2013   In China, Breathing Becomes a Childhood Risk
  
  The pollution readings we were all shocked by in Beijing last month are starting to be examined a little bit closer. The NYT reports that health problems from pollution are creating brain drain and the educated are moving away. Based on how concerned parents are in the states about even trivial problems, it wouldn't surprise me.
• 4/9/2013   Vietnam launches electric motorcycle program in cooperation with Japan
  
  The Vietnamese government is encountering some resistance to replacing the millions of gas-powered scooters roaming Hanoi and Saigon, but it could fight air pollution, save money, and quiet their busy streets if successful.
  
  
• 11/9/2012   Viet Nam embraces wind power
  
  Vietnam is slowly ramping up support for green energy, but as Professor Duong Ngoc Huyen of Hanoi University of Technology says, "beside the energy, Vietnam has some other different issues to worry about: food, infrastructure, literacy, etc".
  
  
• 4/1/2013   Air Pollution Linked to 1.2 Million Premature Deaths in China
  
  Many people complain about outsourcing to the Chinese, but not too many people talk about how we are also outsourcing all the pollution that comes with production.
  
  
  
• 3/31/2013   Tamar gas field has given Israel energy independence
  
  Israel is probably the country most in need of energy independence, but, domestic benefits aside, natural gas pollutes and discourages green energy investment by dropping energy prices. In this case, it looks like the Israeli people won't see much of this on their monthly bill.
  
  
• 9/25/2012   1st Geothermal Plant in Vietnam Gets Approved
  
  Historically Vietnam hasn't invested heavily in renewables, but with new investment from Germany and the US and policies like net-metering on the way, things are beginning to develop.

New Tech News

• 7/25/2013   CSP Key Players Focus on the Desert
  
  Spain is still the world's leader, but the US currently has the largest CSP in the world and is building 4 more over 250MW in Cali and AZ and have 4GW of additional capacity planned (but only 1 with heat storage!. With only 7.7GW of PV capacity installed total, we may be seeing the new direction that solar is going in the US.
  
  
• 7/9/2013   CarLab Mixes Natural Gas and Gasoline...
  
  CarLab's conversion is ~3x cheaper than a battery and ~25% cleaner than pure gasoline, but storage is under pressure and downright dangerous for a large fast-moving metal object. Boom! Why Prof. Tim Zhao of HK UST told me they were NOT considering gases as a possible replacement for gasoline, only liquid and aiming for fuel cells.
  
  
• 5/30/2013   Elon Musk Has Plans For A New, Magical Form Of Transportation Called The 'Hyperloop'
  
  Win or lose, this is how all billionaires should think all the time. What better way to invest your excessive funds than on technology that will leapfrog mankind into the future? As an American, building the world's most expensive and slowest bullet trains years after every other developed country is about as impressive as building the 4th tallest skyscraper in the world to show how we're not phased by terrorists.
• 4/25/2013   In Two-Way Charging, Electric Cars Begin to Earn Money From the Grid
  
  These cars provide part of the energy storage needed the intermittency of solar or wind energy. Currently, on a cloudy day or when the wind dies down the system reverts to coal or gas, needed to be constantly running as a backup, but with this system it could sneak a few kilowatts from everybody's cars to keep the grid producing. It also incentivizes people to drive less because they earn money when their car is plugged in.
• 5/1/2013   Cross-Country Solar Plane Expedition Set for Takeoff
  
  Bertrand Piccard, hot-air balloonist and enlightened philosopher, has finally completed his solar plane to cross the US and later the world. Watch his TED Talk. Its monocrystalline panels power batteries that can keep it in the air 24 hours a day at about 45mph. The one other application mentioned in the article is to keep drones from having to refuel: killer solar robots from the sky!
• 4/23/2013   19-Year-Old Student Plans to Clean Up the Ocean
  
  After watching a documentary on the pacific garbage patch last year, I was pretty sure that we have absolutely no chance of preventing plastic from continuing to pile up. It's not great to solely rely on tech to dial down our environmental damage, but it's nice to know this kid created a potentially effective cleaning system that could finish the task in 5 years.
• 9/25/2012   1st Geothermal Plant in Vietnam Gets Approved
  
  This sounds great, but Hot Dry Rock geothermal has never been shown to work and I've had a source from the company that passed on this project, Ormat, that says it is dead on arrival. Apparently the problem is that too much of the water injected into these 3-4 km deep wells dissipates into the ground instead of being pumped back out, yielding uneconomical efficiencies.
• 1/29/2013   Has Belgium cracked the problem of storing Wind Power?
  
  Belgium is building a pumped-water electricity storage island to store wind power when the breeze dies down.