Workers flee Japan nuclear plant as smoke rises

FUKUSHIMA, Japan—

Containment at three reactors at Japan's crippled nuclear plants is currently intact, U.S. nuclear regulators said, although a plume of smoke from two buildings Monday temporarily stalled critical work to reconnect power lines and restore cooling systems.

Workers are racing to bring the nuclear plant under control, but the process is proceeding in fits and starts, stalled by incidents like the smoke and by the need to work methodically to make sure wiring, pumps and other machinery can be safely switched on.http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fgw-japan-smoke-20110322,0,4352750.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29

America's concern over global warming declines

A poll indicates the U.S. residents are less concerned about global warming than they were three years ago.  Gallup's Environment poll indicated that 51% of Americans say they worry a great deal about climate change and global warming, when in 2008, it was 66%. This decline can be seen as a result of Americans' changed knowledge and opinions about global warming. The poll found 43% of Americans to believe that the news exaggerates the seriousness of global warming while 26% believed the news to be generally correct. Less agreement was found on what American's thought were causing global warming, but still coming in at more than half, 52% believed temperature increases are mainly caused by pollution from human activities.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20044283-501465.html

Is Coagulation Geoengineering's Achilles' Heel?

WoE: Do you find there is a taboo of sorts against studying geoengineering among Earth scientists? It’s fairly unusual to see the topic come up at conferences, so your poster caught our eye.

English: There is more acceptance of studying it in just the last couple of years. I think scientists are facing the reality that countries aren’t doing much to slow the emissions of greenhouse gases. Eventually, we may have to choose between the risks and consequences of climate change and the risks and consequences of climate engineering. The only way to make an educated decision about that is to study it.

“Plume of unknown etiology” moving over Alaska

McIDAS images of GOES-11 0.65 µm visible channel data (above; click image to play animation) showed an interesting “dark plume” feature that was moving in an arc from far northeastern Russia, across the East Siberian Sea and Chukchi Sea, and finally over far northwestern Alaska on 16 March – 17 March 2011.

When viewed from a more western angle using MTSAT-2 0.73 µm visible channel images (below; click image to play animation), the plume feature (which can be seen moving over far northwestern Alaska in the upper right portion of the images) also exhibited a darker appearance, similar to that seen on the GOES-11 visible imagery. This darker appearance was due to backward scattering of light from the particles within the plume.

Arctic Ozone Thins

Unusually chilly temperatures in part of the Arctic atmosphere and iridescent ice clouds there are triggering significant depletion of the protective ozone layer, according to recent, ongoing observations by NOAA scientists and international colleagues.

“This is pretty sudden and unusual,” said Bryan Johnson, a research chemist in the Global Monitoring Division of NOAA’s Earth System Laboratory (ESRL) in Boulder, Colo., and leader of ESRL’s Ozonesonde Group.

The stratospheric ozone layer protects Earth from damaging ultraviolet radiation, but chlorine and bromine from air pollutants such as chlorofluorocarbons and similar compounds can eat away at ozone in the right conditions: Temperatures below -78C (cold enough to form nitric acid-containing ice crystals in the relatively dry atmosphere) and sunlight (to trigger chemical reactions on ice surfaces).

Tsunami in Japan 3.11 First Person Footage

This is first person footage from the tsunami in Japan. I knew that a tsunami is incredibly destructive, but I guess I didn't realize how powerful 10 feet of water can be -- this is easily illustrated by entire buildings floating away towards the end of the video.

BBC: Renewable heating scheme unveiled

Subsidies for renewable heating systems in England, Scotland and Wales have been announced by the UK government.

Money will be given to those who choose technologies such as wood-chip burners instead of cheaper, but more polluting, fossil fuel heating systems.

Industry experts say the scheme is the first of its kind in the world. The government hopes it will haul the UK proportion of low-carbon heat from the current 1% towards the EU average of 10%.


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