World Meteorological Organization
30 min ·
TAKE TWO
Some parts of the observing system are already affected. Most notably the significant decrease in air traffic has had a clear impact. In-flight measurements of ambient temperature and wind speed and direction are a very important source of information for both weather prediction and climate monitoring.
Commercial airliners contribute to the Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay programme (AMDAR), which uses onboard sensors, computers and communications systems to collect, process, format and transmit meteorological observations to ground stations via satellite or radio links.
In some parts of the world, in particular over Europe, the decrease in the number of measurements over the last couple of weeks has been dramatic. (see chart below provided by EUMETNET).
The AMDAR observing system has traditionally produced over 700 000 high-quality observations per day of air temperature and wind speed and direction, together with the required positional and temporal information, and with an increasing number of humidity and turbulence measurements being made.

A lot of people have an “Oh, shit” moment with climate change — something that wakes them up to the scale and severity of the crisis. What was your moment?
I think it happened in two phases. The first moment happened at Standing Rock. I was there with native communities and leaders. It was their land, secured via treaty with the United States, that we decided to violate because a fossil-fuel company had essentially purchased our politics. Just standing there, [seeing] people organized against these massive tanks, these armed guards. [But] it wasn’t the U.S. military that people were standing up against; it was a militarized corporation — a fossil-fuel corporation. That, to me, was the “Oh, shit” moment in terms of what it’s actually going to take — because it’s not just about the science, it’s about the systems that protect all of the power that goes into defying the science.

But in terms of the cost and the scale, the second “Oh, shit” moment happened with Hurricane Maria the following year. I lost my grandfather in the aftermath of Maria.

https://www.rollingstone.com/...res/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-on-how-to-build-a-green-new-deal-965807

YMLADRIS: U.S. to Announce Rollback of Auto Pollution Rules, a Key Effort to Fight Climate Change

A good year for solar: Agrivoltaics in vineyards – pv magazine International
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/03/31/a-good-year-for-solar-agrivoltaics-in-vineyards/

Out of 1,000m² of vines planted with [the] black grenache [red wine grape], 600m² were covered by our dynamic agrivoltaic system,” the Sun’Agri spokesperson said. The 280 panels used have a generation capacity of 84 kW, were placed at a height of 4.2m and can be moved in real time using an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm the French agrivoltaic specialist has been developing for more than a decade.

The algorithm is said to be able to determine the ideal tilt of the panels according to the sunshine and water requirements of viticulture, growth model of the crop, soil quality and weather conditions. “Artificial intelligence is programmed to favor the growth of the plant,” said the Sun’Agri representative. “In the event of extreme climatic hazards – drought, heatwave, hail, frost, heavy rain etc – the AI ​​controls the panels to protect the crops.”

Conventional wisdom holds that rising living standards are fueled by oil. What if that’s wrong?
Researchers found that recent improvements in life expectancy are only weakly coupled to increases in carbon emissions

Koronavirus: noční můra globalizovaného světa – A2larm
https://a2larm.cz/2020/04/koronavirus-nocni-mura-globalizovaneho-sveta/

Cassandra's Legacy: The March of the Holobionts: Why Gaia is one of us
https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-march-of-holobionts-why-gaia-is-one.html?m=1

there is the related concept of "holobiont" -- a term originally invented by Lynn Margulis, the co-discoverer, with James Lovelock, of the idea of "Gaia" as a homeostatic planetary system. Once you learn what a holobiont is, your view of the world changes completely. The evolutionary unit of the ecosystem is not the organism, but the holobiont: an ensemble of creatures that cooperate with each other without sharing the same genetic code as multicellular organisms do: a tree is an organism, a forest is a holobiont. The forest holobiont includes not just trees, but all the animals together with the microbiome of fungi, bacteria, archaea, viruses, and everything.

That opens up a whole new evolutionary frontier: multicellular organisms transmit genetic information by the complex process of sexual reproduction followed by competitive selection. Holobionts do something similar, but they don't have a genome that they pass to their descendants by sexual transmission, they have a hologenome that successful holobionts can transmit using different strategies. And that answers a difficult question: who is Gaia, exactly? You guessed it, the Queen of Heaven and Earth is a holobiont! As a Goddess, She may not be benevolent and merciful, surely not all-powerful, but she does what she can. She is one of us.

TADEAS: (kinda related)

The Corona Crisis is Not a Black Swan: Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Universa Inv. & NYU Tandon)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Tb2pXXUSzmI

a tady slusnej seznam clanku k vyvoji okolo green hydrogen

Green Hydrogen — New Zealand Hydrogen Association
https://www.nzhydrogen.org/green-hydrogen

World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm To Power UK 'Gigastack' Green Hydrogen Facility
https://www.intelligentliving.co/worlds-largest-offshore-wind-uk-gigastack-green-hydrogen/

The largest offshore wind farm in the world – Ørsted’s 1.4GW Hornsea 2 – is almost ready. When it is, it will power the production of green hydrogen under a program called the “Gigastack” project, which was newly-awarded additional funding of £7.5m ($9.7m) by the UK government. Green hydrogen is seen as the ‘missing link’ in the energy transition. While it is growing in popularity, offshore wind is simultaneously emerging as a critical potential power source for producing it in bulk.

Meanwhile, phase 2 of the Gigastack industrial-scale green H2 (hydrogen) facility is in the works. The project is a collaboration between Danish wind giant Ørsted, Element Energy, Phillips 66 Limited, and ITM Power, who will lead the undertaking. Their goal is to deliver zero-carbon hydrogen using ‘stackable’ 5MW electrolyzers – ones produced in gigawatt-scale factories for large-scale generation. The electrolyzers will “split” hydrogen from water via an electrical current supplied by offshore wind farms.

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The zero-carbon green hydrogen produced can be used for long-term energy storage and as a replacement for fossil fuels in transport, industrial processes, and heating. Clean hydrogen could help make the entire global energy system carbon-free.

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Industrial sectors, such as metal manufacturers, are beginning to explore the benefits of renewable hydrogen as an alternative fuel and power source. Gigastack could further accelerate that trend by bringing costs down on an industrial scale.



Gigastack Feasibility Study with Ørsted
https://www.itm-power.com/...hydrogen-through-gigawatt-scale-pem-electrolysis-manufactured-in-the-uk

In Phase One (feasibility), ITM Power will develop the designs and finalise the material requirements to deliver a low-cost 5MW stack. ITM Power will also refine concepts to maximise the throughput of the proposed semi-automated manufacturing facility to meet the demands of bulk hydrogen supply. Ørsted will investigate potential synergies between offshore wind farms and electrolysers to identify scenarios that can provide affordable electricity and a sufficient load factor to allow economic operation of the electrolysers. Finally, Element Energy will conduct market analysis of potential end users, explore business models for the operation of large electrolysers in the energy system and define a roll-out strategy for the first 100MW electrolysers.

In Phase Two, the 5MW stack would be built and tested both in-house and in a representative wind-hydrogen scenario. Construction of the semi-automated manufacturing facility would also begin. Finally, the business case for large electrolysers would be refined, enabling commercialisation.

This project is a unique opportunity to develop green hydrogen production for the UK and establish the country as a centre of excellence in electrolytic technology. A portfolio of solutions are required to ensure reliable volumes of hydrogen and security of supply and this study will advance the development of green electrolytic hydrogen.

First European Off-Grid Solar-Hydrogen Powered House Developed in Devon | Homebuilding & Renovating
https://www.homebuilding.co.uk/...european-off-grid-solar-hydrogen-powered-house-developed-in-devon/

The house possesses a number of exciting features, such as:

It generates all its own power through the solar array
It is fully autonomous
It can store electrical energy indefinitely through the hydrogen store.

As well as being the UK and Europe’s first fully off-grid solar-hydrogen house, it is also the world’s first, certified hydrogen fuel cell Passivhaus.


PROGRESS AT THE AUTARKIC HOUSE, EUROPE’S FIRST OFF-GRID SOLAR-HYDROGEN POWERED HOUSE – Rural Solutions Limited
https://ruralsolutions.co.uk/progress-autarkic-house/

Exciting progress is being made at the Autarkic House in Devon.

This innovative house, designed by architect, StudioExe, will be the first solar-hydrogen powered, off grid house in Europe.

Foundations have been set and walls are going up, as you can see from these fabulous drone images courtesy of the client and photographer, Andrew Morris.

Green Hydrogen Is About To Go Mainstream | OilPrice.com
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Green-Hydrogen-Is-About-To-Go-Mainstream.html

experts are predicting that the biggest obstacle to bringing green hydrogen to market--its capital cost--is about to come down. “Everybody is predicting that the cost curve will come down, just as it has with solar and wind power,” Recharge News wrote last month. The article titled “Why green hydrogen is key to the global energy transition” continues: “Though, to get the price point right, you have to reach economies of scale. Then it’s just a matter of when the industry is primed to take the next step.” involvement from major players like Royal Dutch Shell is already getting us closer to that threshold.

And now, we may be even closer thanks to a breakthrough this month by a group of Japanese scientists from the Tokyo University of Science, who have managed to efficiently produce green hydrogen in a novel way

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“the set-up uses just a few basic ingredients - light from a mercury-xenon lamp, a solution of water and methanol, and a particular type of rust (or iron oxide) called α-FeOOH.” In the lab, this combination was a smashing success, with a hydrogen yield 25 times greater than existing methods that use titanium dioxide catalysts.

“One of the biggest challenges in hydrogen fuel production is teasing hydrogen atoms apart from other molecules, and keeping them that way without the entire thing blowing up,” the Science Alert article continues. “In the new method, by swapping titanium with rust, the hydrogen gas generated seemed to be blocked from recoupling with oxygen, making the separation of the elements easier, and reducing the risk of explosion at the same time.”

This cheap, stable catalyst combo could be the winning ticket to get green hydrogen to market. If so, this would have seriously positive implications for some of our dirtier industries, and any reduction in emissions is a very good thing on the eve of peak oil and catastrophic climate change.


Hydrogen Production System by Light‐Induced α‐FeOOH Coupled with Photoreduction
https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/chem.201903642