Situation Report

US Generates More Electricity from Renewables Than Coal for First Time Ever

Wed, 2019-06-26 19:11 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The San Gorgonio wind farm near Rancho Mirage in California. The falling cost of renewables and gas causing coal to be dislodged as a favored energy source for utilities. Photograph: Xinhua/Barcroft Media

In April, renewables provided 23% compared to coal’s 20% - ‘The fate of coal has been sealed. The market has spoken’

theguardian.com - by Oliver Milman - June 26, 2019

The US generated more electricity from renewable sources than coal for the first time ever in April, new federal government data has shown.

Clean energy such as solar and wind provided 23% of US electricity generation during the month, compared with coal’s 20%, according to the Energy Information Administration.

This represents the first time coal has been surpassed by energy sources that do not release pollution such as planet-heating gases.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about US Generates More Electricity from Renewables Than Coal for First Time Ever
Log in or register to post comments

With More Storms and Rising Seas, Which U.S. Cities Should Be Saved First?

Fri, 2019-06-21 10:12 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Lower Manhattan is vulnerable to flooding from storm surges and sea level rise. John Taggart for The New York Times

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - High Tide Tax - The Price to Protect Coastal Communities from Rising Seas (27 page .PDF report)

nytimes.com - by Christopher Flavelle - June 19, 2019

As disaster costs keep rising nationwide, a troubling new debate has become urgent: If there’s not enough money to protect every coastal community from the effects of human-caused global warming, how should we decide which ones to save first?

After three years of brutal flooding and hurricanes in the United States, there is growing consensus among policymakers and scientists that coastal areas will require significant spending to ride out future storms and rising sea levels — not in decades, but now and in the very near future. There is also a growing realization that some communities, even sizable ones, will be left behind.

Country / Region Tags:

United States

General Topic Tags:

Climate

Sea Level

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about With More Storms and Rising Seas, Which U.S. Cities Should Be Saved First?
Log in or register to post comments

'Everyone Would Have Left': Putting Lessons From Hurricane Michael To Work

Sat, 2019-06-08 01:38 — Kathy Gilbeaux

A boat moved by Hurricane Michael rests near a canal in May in Mexico Beach, Fla. Seven months after the hurricane made landfall, the town is still littered with heavily damaged or destroyed homes and businesses. Scott Olson/Getty Images

npr.org - by Greg Allen - June 7, 2019

As another hurricane season begins, emergency managers and other officials throughout the Southeast and along the Gulf Coast are applying lessons they learned last year during Hurricane Michael. Those lessons include how they conduct evacuations . . .

. . . we're going to start seeing a lot of things change . . .

. . . Among those likely changes: how people prepare for storms, how many evacuate and how strong new construction on Florida's Panhandle will need to be to survive hurricanes like Michael.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about 'Everyone Would Have Left': Putting Lessons From Hurricane Michael To Work
Log in or register to post comments

Sea Level Rise Up: Realities & Opportunities - Keynote: Tampa Bay’s Blue-Green Economy in Times of Sea Level Rise

Sat, 2019-05-04 23:43 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Dr. Michael D. McDonald, Coordinator, Global Health Response and Resilience Alliance - St. Petersburg College - Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions

Though the Tampa Bay area is ranked as the nation’s second-highest at-risk metropolitan area from climate change effects, it can thrive during the decades of rapid changes ahead by becoming a leader of the rapidly emerging Blue-Green economy. Tampa Bay has a set of extraordinary opportunities in the management of health, human security, and prosperity not only for its 3.5 million residents, but also as a model for how urban areas can face the challenges of sea level rise and broader climate change. The speaker will discuss how the region’s already well-established record for sound policy, adaptive markets, climate-smart infrastructure, compassion and social equity represents a foundation for transformation into a formidable force for resilience. He will explain how the diversion of trillions of dollars from petroleum-dependent industries into transformative climate resilience initiatives represents a new world of opportunities to forge a bright climate-resilient future for the region.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Problem

Situation Report

National Storm Surge Hazard Maps

Tue, 2019-04-30 08:31 — Kathy Gilbeaux

https://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=d9ed7904dbec441a9c4dd7b277935fad&entry=1

This national depiction of storm surge flooding vulnerability helps people living in hurricane-prone coastal areas along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), Hawaii, and Hispaniola to evaluate their risk to the storm surge hazard. These maps make it clear that storm surge is not just a beachfront problem, with the risk of storm surge extending many miles inland from the immediate coastline in some areas. If you discover via these maps that you live in an area vulnerable to storm surge, find out today if you live in a hurricane storm surge evacuation zone as prescribed by your local emergency management agency. If you do live in such an evacuation zone, decide today where you will go and how you will get there, if and when you're instructed by your emergency manager to evacuate. If you don't live in one of those evacuation zones, then perhaps you can identify someone you care about who does live in an evacuation zone, and you could plan in advance to be their inland evacuation destination – if you live in a structure that is safe from the wind and outside of flood-prone areas.

National Hurricane Center - National Storm Surge Hazard Maps - Version 2
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/nationalsurge/

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about National Storm Surge Hazard Maps

Underwater: Rising Seas, Chronic Floods, and the Implications for US Coastal Real Estate (2018)

Mon, 2019-04-29 10:01 — Kathy Gilbeaux

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Union of Concerned Scientists - Underwater - Rising Seas, Chronic Floods, and the Implications for US Coastal Real Estate (28 page .PDF document)

ucsusa.org - June 2018

Sea levels are rising. Tides are inching higher. High-tide floods are becoming more frequent and reaching farther inland. And hundreds of US coastal communities will soon face chronic, disruptive flooding that directly affects people's homes, lives, and properties.

Yet property values in most coastal real estate markets do not currently reflect this risk. And most homeowners, communities, and investors are not aware of the financial losses they may soon face.

This analysis looks at what's at risk for US coastal real estate from sea level rise—and the challenges and choices we face now and in the decades to come.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about Underwater: Rising Seas, Chronic Floods, and the Implications for US Coastal Real Estate (2018)
Log in or register to post comments

How Climate Change Is Fuelling the U.S. Border Crisis

Wed, 2019-04-10 10:08 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Outside the small village of Chicua, in the western highlands, in an area affected by extreme-weather events, Ilda Gonzales looks after her daughter.

newyorker.com - by Jonathan Blitzer - Photography by Mauricio Lima - April 3, 2019

. . . In most of the western highlands, the question is no longer whether someone will emigrate but when. “Extreme poverty may be the primary reason people leave,” Edwin Castellanos, a climate scientist at the Universidad del Valle, told me. “But climate change is intensifying all the existing factors” . . . Farming, Castellanos has said, is “a trial-and-error exercise for the modification of the conditions of sowing and harvesting times in the face of a variable environment.” Climate change is outpacing the ability of growers to adapt.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about How Climate Change Is Fuelling the U.S. Border Crisis
Log in or register to post comments

Central Florida Disaster Resilience Initiative Phase 1 Stage 3 Discussion

Tue, 2019-04-09 08:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

April 12, 2019

Central Florida Disaster Resilience Initiative participants discuss the work that was done in Phase 1 Stage 1 and Phase 1 Stage 2, following which they discuss future Central Florida DRI plans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bob0-162Ydc

Country / Region Tags:

US - SouthEast

General Topic Tags:

Communication

Community

Disaster Risk Reduction

Resilience

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Situation Report