Cool stuff, though limited to the lab right now. Non-toxic plastic that doesn’t require oil to make. Hopefully they don’t let an oil company come along and buy this out.
Very cool. While perhaps it could make a dent in oil-based plastics, I’m not sure how it would scale up despite the claims; I’d think mass production to strongly diminish our oil needs would require a huge amount of prickly pear plantations and would have their own impact. Regardless, it’s a great step in the right direction.
Yeah, that’s something they are just beginning to explore. If nothing else, it might open the door for other non-traditional ideas. Or perhaps they can isolate specific compounds that can be man-made.
8 million without piped water - for 5 months!
Chennai, a city of eight million on the Bay of Bengal, depends on the fall monsoon to provide half of the city’s annual rainfall. Last year, the city had 55 percent less rainfall than normal. When the monsoon ended early, in December, the skies dried up and stayed that way. Chennai went without rain for 200 days. As winter passed into spring and the temperature rose to 108 degrees Fahrenheit, its four water reservoirs turned into puddles of cracked mud.
Some parts of the city have been without piped water for five months now.
Basically, Los Angeles with water supplied by tankers…
It’s been a week of 90+ in central NC so far, and …
CraigM
5545
Its been like that in Chicago. Friday is projecting at 98° with 70% humidity
Nesrie
5546
We’re barely hitting 90s here. Now this is more like what happened when I was younger, but for the last several years… we’d be pushing triple digits if not in triple digits by now.
CraigM
5547
I remember last year, this is about the time I arrived, and it was brutal. I think we had a week straight of 95+ in Portland at the beginning of August.
It hasn’t yet hit 90 here.
Nesrie
5548
We hit 99 in May, got our sun in February (super early, turned the pools green), and then it was so cool in early June wasn’t sure we’d be able to do water sports when my family arrive (we did but the river was 52). A part of me is worried this isn’t right, we are usually triple digits and waiting out some sort of fire… but another part of me knows that super hot and fires wasn’t the normal when I was a kid.
So in summary, weather is all over the place.
CraigM
5549
Fair enough. But all I know is my wife was rather pleased with my weather reports from out here, as she’ll be joining me in two weeks.
Lower humidity+ lower temps + generally little snow in winter, plus no mosquitos, and she is looking forward to it.
RichVR
5550
Fear not. Climate change is not real. Burn more clean coal. Our children and grandchildren will not live in a post apocalyptic hellscape.
Nesrie
5551
I used to think misquotes were a real problem here, the handful that get me at night if I stay out there too long, then I visited Florida a few times and discovered the larger more aggressive versions I now call their true state bird.
When we don’t get cold enough, they can get pretty nasty in some areas, nothing like over there though.
I just read that CA is basically banning natural gas in new buildings, so now I am questioning whether or not natural gas is as bad as coal… of course renewable energy is better than both… but natural gas is seen as a positive around here, something people want to especially cook with.
We’ve had a rather mild summer here in LA but I imagine the worst is yet to come. August and September are often the worst.
Northern New York is going to hit mid-90s all weekend. Plus thunderstorms and high humidity. Oppressive.
Personally, I’m loving the ‘traditional’ summer we’re having here in Seattle- temps in the 70s/low 80s, rain at least one day most weeks. Last year we had a month and a half straight with multiple days per week in the 90s, and that sucked. I hated living in San Diego (my teenage years) for weather like that, and I hate that the PNW is moving that direction.
Natural gas is a lot better than coal (it’s how the UK made almost all its emissions gains between Kyoto and Paris), but most homes these days don’t heat/cook with coal. And electric hobs/ovens have come a long way. If the alternative is electricity sourced from renewables, then it’s going to be cleaner. If Wikipedia’s accurate, then about half of California’s energy production is natural gas, and most of the rest is “clean”, so depending on efficiency it should be a net win even now.
MikeJ
5556
But depending on who you ask, it loses a big chunk of that edge in the form of methane leaks along the way.
