1. RISING SEAS
Sea levels are now rising 4 times faster than in 1900.
Sea levels could rise up to 18 ft by 2058.
2015 & 2016: warmest years on record.
2. SOLUTIONS: Green Technology & Legislation
3. • Miami is spending $400,000,000
to build sea walls, but the sea is
seeping under its limestone
foundations.
• Increasing sea levels are
encroaching on fresh water
supplies.
4. “It’s as if the country was being attacked
along every border, simultaneously,” said Andrea
Dutton, a climate scientist at the University of
Florida and one of the world’s leading experts on
rising seas. “It’s a slow, gradual attack, but it
threatens the safety and security of the United
States.”
As the problem worsens, experts are warning
that national security is on the line. Naval bases,
in particular, are threatened; they can hardly be
moved away from the ocean, yet much of their
land is at risk of disappearing within this century.
5. 1. RISING SEAS
• Sea levels are now rising 4 times
faster than in 1900.
• Sea levels could rise up to 18 ft
by 2058.
• 2015 & 2016: warmest years on
record.
2. SOLUTIONS: Nuclear
Technology & Legislation.
6. 19
The rate of sea
level increase
correlates with
the blue line of
the CO2
increase.
Sea level rise is a proxy for
global temperature, since
it is due to thermal
expansion (50%) and the
melting of ice (50%)
SEA LEVEL RISE
IS A BETTER MEASURE OF
GLOBAL WARMING
THAN AIR TEMPERATURE
8. Increasing CO2 gas density in our atmospheric blanket is warming our
planet via the Greenhouse effect.
8
9. Blue: Sea level change from tide-gauge data (Church J.A. and White N.J., Geophys. Res. Lett. 2006; 33: L01602)
Red: Univ. Colorado sea level analyses in satellite era (http://www.columbia.edu/~mhs119/SeaLevel/).
Sea level rise has increased to 12 in/century at
present from 3 in/century 1870– 1924.
12 in./100
years.
7.5 in./100 years
3 in. /100 years
11. GREENLAND IS MELTING: Reflecting snow replaced by absorbing
water & land. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/06/viking-weather/essick-photography
14. CORRELTAION BETWEEN TEMPAND CO2 INCREASE
1880 – 1980: CO2 increased 47 ppm.
1980 – 2017: CO2 increased 52 ppm. 14
15. This global temperature chart is updated at Columbia University by Dr. Makiko Sato.
Data is based on GISTEMP analysis (mostly NOAA data sources) as described by Hansen,
Ruedy, Sato & Lo
2016 & 2015
Warmest years
On Record
“CO2 warming
should emerge
from the noise of
natural variability
(1981)” Hansen
17. Sea levels could rise by 1 m (3 ft) by 2050. Could we take action to
prevent a 5 m (18 ft) rise by 2058? The lifetime of CO2 is 100 years.
Atmos. Chem. Phys., March 2016.
J. Hansen et. al.
1 M TIPPING LEVEL
19. NASA photos of Thwaites Glacier, size of Mexico,
Western Antarctica.
Richard Alley, a glaciologist at Penn State University,
an author of the last IPCC report: “If the Thwaites Glacier
breaks free from it rocky berth, it would raise sea levels 10 ft.”19
21. Absorbed CO2 increases acidity, reduces the calcification rate and
nature’s ability to sequester carbon.
INCREASING ACIDIFICATION THREATENS THE BOTTOM OF THE FOOD CHAIN
22. THE “WICKED PROBLEM” OF CLIMATE CHANGE:
WHAT IS IT DOING TO US AND FOR US?
63nd Conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age
of Science, www.iras.org
June 24—July 1, 2017. Star Island off Portsmouth, NH.
• Climate change is complex with causes and consequences in
economic, ecological, ethical, and technological realms.
• How can global warming be a catalyst for spiritual and
societal transformation?
23. Solomon H. Katz, Ph.D is a leading expert
on the anthropology of food, U of Penn.
He was editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia
of Food and Culture published by Scribner
(2003). Prof Katz was Chair of the AAA Task
Force on World Food Problems.
Barry Costa-Pierce, Ph.D, Chair of the
Department of Marine Sciences, University
of New England. Biddeford, Maine. Pioneer
of the field of “Ecological Aquaculture” and
helped develop the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization’s global protocols.
Can World Food Production Keep up with
Population Growth in the Face of Climate
Change & Sea Acidification?
24. Solar PVs on historic Star Island form the largest off-grid array in New England
27. 2. SOLUTIONS:
ADAPTATON, MITIGATION,
NON-CO2 EMITTING SOLAR,
WIND, & NUCLEAR
TECHNOLOGY
Do nothing different: then complain and blame.
The poor will suffer the most. Pope Francis “On
Care for our Common Home.”
28. SOLUTIONS TO GOBAL
WARMING from CO2
Electric Cars powered by
• Windmills
• Solar Cells
• Nuclear Fission Power
Plants
Electric cars get
the equivalent of
100 miles per
gallon.
29.
30. U.S. solar industry is creating new jobs at nearly 20 times
the rate of the overall economy.
31. 2016 NISSAN
LEAF®
As low as:
$27,700*Net value
after
federal tax credit
106City MPGal
107 mi range.
3 year old Leaf $10,000
Mitusbishi i
ELECTRIC CARS
32. 2012 Chevy Volt:
90 miles/gal running quietly on 40 mile battery
40 miles/gal highway with gasoline generator.
33. ALL ELECTRIC 2017 CHEVY BOLT EV
• Over 200 mile range
• $30,000 with Federal Rebate.
34. How fear of nuclear power is hurting the
environment | YouTube 2016 TED Talk by Michael Shellenberger
Solar energy is only available 26% of the time and
wind 33%.
Nuclear is 24/7.
We are decommissioning nuclear reactors faster
than the increase in wind and solar.
To make up for this net decrease, we are
increasing our burning of fossil fuels, raising
carbon dioxide emissions, and warming our planet.
35. Germany Runs Up Against the Limits of Renewables
by Richard Martin. May 24, 2016 MIT Technology Review
Even as Germany adds lots of wind and solar power to
the electric grid, the country’s carbon emissions are rising.
Will the rest of the world learn from its lesson?
At one point this month renewable energy sources
briefly supplied close to 90 percent of the power on
Germany’s electric grid.
At night when the wind is not blowing, they are burning
more dirty coal to generate electricity because they are
phasing out their nuclear power plants.
36. NASA’s Dr. James Hansen , MIT’s Prof. Kerry
Emanuel, and two other top climate scientists have
recently written an open letter (Scientific American,
Dec 2015)
They stated, “Modern nuclear technology can
reduce proliferation risks and solve the waste
disposal problem by burning current waste and
using fuel more efficiently. Innovation and
economies of scale can make new power plants
even cheaper than existing plants.”
Engineers at MIT are designing a nuclear plant
that could be moored at sea, like an oil rig.It would
cost about one-third less than a conventional plant
and take about half the time to build. Floating
reactors wouldn’t be in anyone’s backyard (NIMBY).
37. Bill Gates is funding new clean energy, but
it's not solar or wind
http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-talks-private-nuclear-fission-plant-
terrapower-2016-4
Gates said that TerraPower's nuclear pilot
plant will be built in China. The economics,
safety, waste, and all the key parameters are
dramatically improved.
The traveling wave reactor converts
depleted uranium, a byproduct of the
nuclear-fission process, into usable fuel.
38. THORIUM MOLTEN SALT (MSR) NUCLEAR REACTORS
Demonstrated 1965-1970 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• Consume nearly 100% of their fuel, compared with 3% for older
reactors with solid uranium fuel.
• MSRs eliminate need for Yucca Mountain storage by consuming
nuclear waste.
• Thorium fluoride molten fuel for MSRs is of no weapons value.
• Thorium fuel is more abundant and cheaper than uranium.
• MSRs require no expensive containment since they operate
close to atmospheric pressure.
39. Safer Nuclear Power, at Half the Price
Transatomic is developing a new kind of molten-salt reactor designed to
overcome the major barriers to nuclear power.
by Kevin Bullis. March 12, 2013 Technology Review
Transatomic Power, a MIT spinoff, is developing a nuclear reactor that it
estimates will cut the overall cost of a nuclear power plant in half. It’s an
updated molten-salt reactor, a type that’s highly resistant to meltdowns.
A conventional nuclear power plant is cooled by water, which boils at a
temperature far below the 2,000 °C at the core of a fuel pellet. Even after the
reactor is shut down, it must be continuously cooled by pumping in water.
Using molten salt as the coolant solves these problems. The salt, which is mixed
in with the fuel, has a boiling point significantly higher than the temperature of
the fuel. The reactor has a built-in thermostat—if it starts to heat up, the salt
expands, spreading out the fuel and slowing the reactions. That gives the
mixture a chance to cool off. “It’s walk-away safe,” says Dewan, the company’s
chief science officer. “If you lose electricity, even if there are no operators on
site to pull levers, it will coast to a stop.”
The company’s biggest challenge might come from China, which is investing
$350 million over five years to develop molten-salt reactors of its own. It plans
to build a two-megawatt test reactor by 2020.
40. Trump Could Fuel A Nuclear Energy Boom In 2017
By James Stafford - Dec 06, 2016
http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Trump-Could-Fuel-A-Nuclear-
Energy-Boom-In-2017.html
When I asked MIT Prof of
Nuclear Science &
Engineering,
Ian Hutchison about this
he replied, “The
Republicans are less scared
of nuclear energy than the
Democrats.”
MIT is presently designing
tethered off-shore nuclear
reactors
42. 1. RISING SEAS
• Sea levels are now rising 4 times
faster than in 1900.
• Sea levels could rise up to 18 ft
by 2058.
• 2016 & 2015: warmest years on
record.
2. SOLUTIONS: Nuclear
Technology & Legislation.
43. 2. SOLUTIONS:
ADAPTATON, MITIGATION,
NON-CO2 EMITTING SOLAR,
WIND, & NUCLEAR
TECHNOLOGY
Do nothing different: then complain and blame.
The poor will suffer the most. Pope Francis “On
Care for our Common Home.”