Month: November 2022

French Nuclear Giant Warns of Low Generation

Wall Street Journal on French Nuclear Giant EDF:

EDF warned of lower power generation this year across its nuclear reactors in France, dealing a setback to the country’s efforts to ride out Europe’s energy crisis amid a spell of unseasonably warm weather.

EDF, the world’s largest owner of nuclear plants, said its French fleet of reactors are expected to produce between 275 and 285 terawatt-hours of energy in 2022, compared with a previous estimate of between 280 and 300 terawatt-hours.

The reduced outlook follows a spate of strikes by nuclear-plant workers that delayed maintenance work at some of its reactors during the fall, as well as prolonged outages at reactors under repair for corrosion problems, EDF said.
The situation changed drastically this year, when France swung from being one of Europe’s largest exporters of electricity to a net importer because of issues with its reactors. The outages worried officials that France and the broader region might run short of electricity in the winter, when power demand in Europe peaks.

EDF has absorbed huge losses this year because the company was forced to buy replacement power on Europe’s wholesale market, where prices have soared, for sale to retail clients at much lower prices.

A Meteorologist Runs for Congress with Climate Theme

Consider a donation to Eric Sorenson, a long time TV meteorologist for many years, who has explained climate science as part of his broadcasts in Northwest Illinois routinely.

He is now running for an open congressional seat, and deserves your support.

Below, I interviewed a number of TV Mets on the challenges of climate communication.

Europe is “Planetary Ground Zero” for Climate Impacts

Johan Rockström is Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor in Earth System Science at the University of Potsdam

Full video here.

Wayward Jet Makes Late Season Weather More..uh.. Interesting

Weather is a freaky thing, and nobody knows for sure what’s going to happen today, but that sharp demarcation across the middle of North America indicates the kind of loopy, extreme jet stream that scientists say is becoming more common, and related to climate change. (compare temperature anomalies above to path of jet stream, below)
This is the topic of my upcoming video, and maybe several, as I’ve spent time talking to scientists who have developed and championed this idea, Jennifer Francis, Kai Kornhuber of Columbia U, and Judah Cohen at MIT.

In late 2021, we saw extreme examples of what this means in the real world, with the extreme tornado outbreak across Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee on December 10, and 5 days later the unprecedented “Christmas Derecho” that set records across the upper midwest.
Today, some kind of severe weather is expected in the southern plains area, generally, too early to tell exactly what. Not unprecedented in November, but perhaps an indicator of what will become more common? As jet stream undulations become more extreme, and the Gulf of Mexico stays warmer, longer into the cold season, big masses of warm and cold air are going to be crashing into each other with increasing frequency. Given what we’ve already seen in October of this year, I suspect this won’t be the last day of unstable weather we’ll see this year.

Below, Kentucky family seeks shelter during last year’s December 10 outbreak, and my video describing the completely off the chart December 15 Derecho event.

Continue reading “Wayward Jet Makes Late Season Weather More..uh.. Interesting”

In Brazil, Election Respite for Rainforest?

Nature:

Scientists breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday as Brazil narrowly elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as president, ousting the current leader, who they say disregarded science, weakened environmental policies and disparaged minority groups.

Overcoming the reputational damage of a 19-month stint in prison on corruption charges that were tossed out in 2021, Lula received nearly 51% of the vote in a runoff election against the right-wing incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro. Lula, a leftist labour leader and former president, will take office in January.

“Today is a very hopeful day here in Brazil,” says Elisa Orth, a chemist at the Federal University of Paraná in Curitiba. Orth has watched students walk away from science over the past several years, while Bolsonaro slashed research funding and attacked scientists, academics and others. With Lula, Orth says, “we voted for somebody who believes in science, who believes in education”.

Many scientists and academics had lined up in favour of Lula, who garnered international fame during his first two terms in office, from 2003 to 2010, for promoting sustainable development, lifting millions out of poverty and sharply reducing deforestation in the Amazon. His Workers’ Party invested heavily in science, innovation and education.

By contrast, during his presidency, Bolsonaro cut science budgets, curbed the enforcement of environmental laws and promoted misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines during the pandemic, which killed more than 685,000 people in Brazil. A former army captain, Bolsonaro repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of Brazil’s electoral system in the run-up to the election, leading many to fear that he might attempt a coup. He had not yet conceded the election and had made no public comments on the outcome by the time Nature published this story.

As of now, following some doubts, it looks like Mr Bolsonaro will cooperate with an orderly transfer of power.

After some early doubts, Mr Bolsonaro has apparently agreed to an orderly transfer of power.

It remains concerning that Mr Bolsonaro’s strongest supporters are in the very areas where destruction of the rainforest is most egregious. Similar to MAGA Republicans in the United States, it would appear that right wing Brazilians feel not just apathetic to the natural world, but actually hostile.

Monga Bay:

  • In a close runoff, incumbent Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was defeated in his reelection bid against former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
  • Bolsonaro, however, won in eight of the 10 Brazilian municipalities with the biggest deforestation rates in the Amazon forest last year.
  • Bolsonaro won in the majority of the 256 municipalities in the Arc of Deforestation, which accounts for about 75% of the deforestation in the Amazon, as well as in Novo Progresso, in Pará, where ranchers, loggers and land-grabbers orchestrated a significant burning of deforested areas in 2019.
  • Historical, economic, social and religious elements explain the preference for Bolsonaro in a swath of Brazilian territory where people have been encouraged to cut the forest down.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil on Oct. 30 in a close runoff with incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro. But voters of eight out of the 10 most deforested Brazilian municipalities in the Amazon in 2021 chose Bolsonaro.

Continue reading “In Brazil, Election Respite for Rainforest?”