Or Wooden Airports?
Month: April 2024
As Extreme Rains Increase, “Ghost Streams” Come Back to Haunt
Above, new flood maps adjusted for climate enhanced rain events show big increases in incidence of 100 year floods. New York City and the northeast are particularly vulnerable, and expensive to fix. But there are solutions being tried.
The PBS video points out how long forgotten water features, buried under concrete and development, still make themselves felt during extreme rain events.
Below, Detroit’s “Ghost Streams” – hidden footprint of historic waterways, predict flooding risk, and hit primarily low income people of color.
Setting out by foot or by bike, Joanne Coutts has mapped more than 200 miles of buried creeks and wetlands across Detroit’s landscape over the last year-and-a-half.
Her work is part of a growing interest in buried and forgotten historical waterways to better inform water and flood management in the present. When heavy rain pours, buried ghost streams flow, contributing to flooding in Detroit’s most vulnerable neighborhoods and causing significant damage, University of Michigan-Dearborn researchers found.
Since 1905, 85% of the city’s historic streams have been buried for urban development, leading to long-term ramifications for Detroit’s most vulnerable residents.
These streams and wetlands are a little-examined flood risk, according to a new study published in City and Environment Interactions. Using historical maps to identify once-active waterways, researchers compared the streams to flood risk data and historic Home Owners’ Loan Corporation redlining maps, finding that flooding disproportionately impacts redlined neighborhoods.
Continue reading “As Extreme Rains Increase, “Ghost Streams” Come Back to Haunt”In Mexico: No Water? No Problem. Drink Coca Cola.
Mexico running out of water.
The Free market has a solution.
Thanks Exxon: Toxic Tropical Worms Show Up in Quebec
Hail Hydra:
When the worm is cut into pieces, ..each piece turns into a new, individual hammerhead worm, up to three feet long, and secretes pufferfish venom.
In case anyone needed more nightmare food.
An invasive and harmful worm capable of growing to three feet long has been discovered in Ontario, Canada. The hammerhead land planarian is toxic and, experts warn, can pose a threat to pets, small children and small animals.
“They’re here. People are surprised to see them because they are very unusual. People are not used to seeing them. They are originally a semitropical organism,” John Reynolds, a laboratory biologist and worm expert, told CTV News Toronto.
According to iNaturalist, an online platform where people can report sightings of invasive species, the initial presence of hammerhead worms in the province dates to a couple of years ago, but the number of sightings in the province have increased over the past 12 months — with reports as recent as yesterday.
The flatworms are native to southeast Asia and thrive in moist soil, and have been a longstanding issue in the United States and Quebec. Now, they are making their way to new locations, possibly via greenhouse plants.
“The predatory land planarian is no friend of earthworms. In fact, they are parasites that eat earthworms and can wipe out entire populations,” said Howard Garrett, a gardening and landscaping expert in Texas, on his website The Dirt Doctor.
“It seems that it is only a destructive pest that needs to be gotten rid of,” Garrett said.
Used EVs Rapidly Becoming Affordable
There are some asterisks, but this is cool.
Until recently, a cheap electric car was a contradiction in terms. The average price of an EV in 2022 reached $66,000, about $18,000 more than a comparable gasoline vehicle. The cheapest ones couldn’t compete with budget gasoline cars. Used ones, if you could find them, sometimes sold for close to the original price.
But the gap is shrinking fast. In some cases, it no longer exists. New EVs are expected to reach price parity with gas cars around 2027. Used EVs, in some cases, are already there or sell for less thanks to generous government incentives, rising supply and fierce competition.
Automotive analysts say the market for buying a used EV has never been this good or this big: Used electric car sales hit a record of about 400,000 vehicles last year, double the volume in 2020, as prices sink to record lows.
And used EVs may be key to decarbonizing our roads. “For every new car, there are two used ones on the road,” says Liz Najman, a climate researcher at Recurrent, a start-up monitoring EV battery health. “To meet any climate targets, we need to have people comfortable driving in a used EV.”
“It is the best time ever to buy a used EV,” says Drury. “In almost every and any aspect, it’s better today than it ever has been.”
Almost every model has seen price cuts after Tesla sparked a price war by aggressively slashing sticker prices to defend its shrinking market share, now down to 51 percent of the U.S. EV market.
In July 2022, the price of a used Tesla Model Y (2021 model year) was $71,000. Today, it’s $32,000, reports Edmunds. Most remarkably, a used Tesla Model 3 is now cheaper than the average used gasoline vehicle. The average Model 3 sold for about $25,000 in March, roughly 15 percent below the average for all used cars.
Continue reading “Used EVs Rapidly Becoming Affordable”More Conversations with Crazy Uncle Bob: Why Not Nuclear?
Uncle Bob may think that, if it weren’t for pesky hippy protesters, we’d be running the economy on nuclear power now, but Uncle Bob would be wrong.
“Old” “nuclear was hobbled by technical snafus and resulting dodgy economics.
“New” nuclear will be getting a chance to prove itself, but it will be subject to the demands of the market as well.
A new nuclear reactor reached commercial operation in Georgia on Monday, completing a project whose delays and sticker shock helped upend the near-term prospects for nuclear power in the U.S.
The first two reactors at Plant Vogtle, operated by Southern Co., opened in the 1980s. Adding two new reactors cost more than $30 billion, more than twice the initial estimates, and are a major reason no other large nuclear-power facilities are under development in the U.S. and the industry focus has shifted to smaller designs.
Still, Plant Vogtle is now the nation’s largest nuclear plant, as well as its largest generator of carbon-free electricity, and its arrival comes as public perceptions of nuclear power have been shifting. The two newest reactors can each deliver power to around 500,000 homes and businesses, according to Georgia Power, a unit of Southern Co.
Chris Womack, chairman and chief executive of Southern Co., called the Vogtle expansion a “hallmark achievement.” “These new Vogtle units not only will support the economy within our communities now and in the future, they demonstrate our global nuclear leadership,” Womack said.
Southern also operates another nuclear plant in Georgia, and last year about a quarter of its generation in that state was nuclear.
Continue reading “More Conversations with Crazy Uncle Bob: Why Not Nuclear?”In a Trump Admin, You’ll Have to Pay Extra for That Tornado Warning
An already-written transition plan for a contemplated new Trump administration would privatize the National Weather Service and break up NOAA, which is considered a hotbed of radical climate conspirators.
Think about this next time you see the skies turn dark with an angry greenish tinge.
Right now, all people can access high-quality forecasts for free through the NWS. But if forecasts were conducted only by private companies that have a profit motive, crucial programming might no longer be available to those in whom business executives don’t see value, said Rosenberg.
“What about air-quality forecasts in underserved communities? What about forecasts available to farmers that aren’t wealthy farmers? Storm-surge forecasts in communities that aren’t wealthy?” he said. “The frontlines of most of climate change are Black and brown communities that have less resources. Are they going to be getting the same service?”
Private companies like Google, thanks to technological advancements in artificial intelligence, may now indeed be producing more accurate forecasts, said Andrew Blum, author of the 2019 book The Weather Machine: A Journey Inside the Forecast. Those private forecasts, however, are all built on NOAA’s data and resources.
Continue reading “In a Trump Admin, You’ll Have to Pay Extra for That Tornado Warning”Tornado Outbreak Leaves Trail of Gnarly YouTubes
UPDATE: We have a winner.
Climate Change is gonna be bitchin’ on youtube.
Some of the craziest Tornado vids in memory created in the last week.
Electric Aviation Gains Foothold
The airplane is not meant to move too many passengers or cargo. When it comes to people, there is only room for nine of them, aside from the ones in the cockpit. In cargo configuration, it was designed to have a maximum takeoff mass of 18,400 pounds (over 8,300 kg).
The plane is supposed to be powered by a pair of electrical power units produced by a company called magniX. You may know the name as it recently teamed up with NASA for the Electric Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD) program being conducted at the Glenn Research Center.
The powertrain Alice uses is called magni650 and each unit is capable of delivering up to 934 horsepower. With two of them installed, the aircraft should be capable of reaching top speeds of 299 mph (481 kph). The battery pack installed on board should keep it going for as much as 290 miles (467 km), meaning the thing has been specifically designed for short trips between nearby locations.
PBS Newshour on Space Weather and the Active Sun
And no, it’s not what is making the earth warmer.