portugal

Heatwaves And Alpine Mountain Climbing | Earth Wise

August 25, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

From June to August, there were persistent heat waves affecting parts of Europe that caused wildfires, evacuations, and heat-related deaths. Nearly 12,000 people died from heat stroke or other causes associated with the high temperatures. The highest temperature recorded during this period was 116.6 degrees F in Pinhao, Portugal on July 14th. The RAF base in Coningsby, Lincolnshire recorded a temperature over 104 degrees on July 19th, the highest ever recorded in the United Kingdom.

Among the effects of the multiple European heatwaves has been the cancellation of climbing tours up some of the most iconic peaks in the Alps, including Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn. The high temperatures and rapidly melting glaciers have made the climbing routes too dangerous. Overall, climbing cancellations occurred on about a dozen peaks, including the Jungfrau in Switzerland, which cancelled tours for the first time in a century.

In previous years, during warm summers, some of these climbing routes were closed in August, but the glaciers were already in a condition that usually only happens at the end of summer or even later.

The combination of heat and glacier melt can be treacherous. In July, 11 people were killed at Italy’s Marmolada glacier by falling ice and rock.

Glacial melt in the Alps is rapidly accelerating. The Forni Glacier, the largest valley glacier in Italy, has retreated two miles since 1860 and its area has shrunk by half. Forecasts are that it will retain only 20% of its current volume by 2050 and may disappear entirely by the end of the century. Half of the 4,000 glaciers in the Alps are expected to disappear by 2050.

**********

Web Links

European Heat Waves Force Closure of Classic Climbing Routes in Alps

Photo, posted September 4, 2020, courtesy of Dmitry Djouce via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Floating Solar | Earth Wise

June 7, 2022 By EarthWise 1 Comment

The largest floating solar array in Europe, 12,000 panels sitting on top of the Alqueva Reservoir in Portugal – will come online in July. Installing floating solar arrays, which are sometimes called “floatovoltaics”, produce renewable energy while shielding significant expanses of water from the sun’s heat. These dual benefits have led to floatovoltaic projects in multiple countries around the world.

The city of Cohoes, in New York’s Albany County, has proposed an 8,000-panel floating solar array on the city reservoir. Federal funding of $3 million for the project was obtained by local Congressman Paul Tonko and, in May, utility National Grid donated $750,000 towards the project. Engineering work will shortly be underway on the 3.2 megawatt grid of solar panels.

The city of Cohoes pumps its drinking water supplies from the Mohawk River into the 10-acre, manmade reservoir. The surface of the water is the largest undeveloped open space in the city. Such reservoirs constitute prime sites for solar arrays since the space cannot be used for other purposes. In addition, covering the water’s surface with the solar panels greatly reduces evaporation and helps to inhibit the growth of algae.

There are currently only 14 floating solar arrays in the U.S. and all of those are privately owned. The Cohoes municipal array will be the first of its kind. There are nearly 500 reservoirs in New York State and 24,000 nationwide that could be sites for floating arrays. Drought-stricken Western reservoirs like Lake Mead and Lake Powell could be ideal locations of solar arrays. Those reservoirs lose huge amounts of water to evaporation. There are estimates that floating arrays could provide as much as 10% of the nation’s electrical needs.

**********

Web Links

National Grid gives Cohoes $750,000 for floating solar array project

Photo, posted August 25, 2010, courtesy of Martin Abegglen via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Climate Change And Hurricanes In The Northeast | Earth Wise

February 9, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a new study led by Yale University, more hurricanes are likely to hit Connecticut and the northeastern U.S. as global warming continues to increase temperatures in the region.

Hurricane Henri made landfall in August as a tropical storm on the Connecticut/Rhode Island border. In September 2020, subtropical storm Alpha made landfall in Portugal, the first subtropical or tropical cyclone ever observed to make landfall in the mainland of that country.

Tropical cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons are typically intense and destructive in the lower latitudes.

The study concludes that violent storms could migrate northward in our hemisphere and southward in the southern hemisphere as a result of warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

The research predicts that tropical cyclones will likely occur over a wider range of latitudes than has been the case on Earth for the last 3 million years.

In Connecticut, Hurricane Henri was not the only tropical storm to affect the region in 2021. The remnants of Hurricane Ida brought damaging winds and torrential rain that felled trees and flooded streets and basements.

The northern expansion of such violent storms is going on as water levels in the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound keep rising. Because of melting glaciers thousands of miles away, water levels in Long Island Sound could rise by as much as 20 inches by 2050, enough to submerge parts of Groton’s shore and cause regular flooding in roads and neighborhoods.

Future hurricane prediction is an inexact science, but the ongoing trends do not bode well for the region.

**********

Web Links

More hurricanes likely to slam Connecticut and region due to climate change, says study

Photo, posted October 29, 2012, courtesy of Rachel via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The U.S. Military And Climate Change

July 9, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to new research by scientists from Durham University and Lancaster University, the United States military is one of the largest climate polluters. The U.S. military consumes more liquid fuels and emits more greenhouse gases than most countries.

The study, published in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, finds that if the U.S. military were a country, it would be the 47^th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, falling between Peru and Portugal. And this only takes into account the emissions from its liquid fuel consumption. For this study, the U.S. military’s 2015 consumption was compared with the 2014 World Bank country liquid fuel consumption.

In 2017, the U.S. military purchased more than 269,000 barrels of oil a day, emitting more than 25,000 kt- CO2e by burning those fuels. The Air Force accounted for $4.9 billion worth of this fuel, followed by the Navy at $2.8 billion, the Army at $947 million, and the Marines at $36 million.

The Air Force and the Navy are not only the U.S. military’s largest purchasers of fuel, they also use the most polluting types of fuel. The Air Force is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases at more than 13,000 kt CO2e, nearly double that of the Navy’s 7,800 kt CO2e.

Despite this study’s findings and a general uptick in awareness, it’s unlikely that the U.S. military’s dependence on fossil fuels will change. That’s because the military continues to pursue open-ended operations around the globe, and the lifecycle of its existing military equipment insures dependence on hydrocarbons for many years to come.

***********