Swiss nuke plants are in great shape

The government of Switzerland has certified that its four nuclear power plants are safe from earthquakes.

I'd expect nothing less of the Swiss. And I also would expect very few major earthquakes in Switzerland, too.  Maybe their decision for full phase-out by 2034 will reverse when the climatic path toward melting Alpine glaciers becomes all the more  obvious.

The Republican Climate Brainiacs on attack

Over on Watts Up with That?, chief of the site Anthony Watts went after science writer Chris Mooney in the "By this logic, Chris Mooney should be blaming Obama for not seizing the opportunity to talk about global cooling last winter" post. Many of his followers joined in the condemnation chorus. Which all nicely ties in with Mooney's theses, well-supported by research, in the book. And I enjoy the taste of irony in that.

I felt it necessary to reply, if only to illustrate exactly what cognitive contortions the climate denial crowd has to go through to overlook the obvious.  My reply is shown below.  

One of Mooney’s points regarding how those with the Republican brain think about subjects is the cognitive necessity to ignore or discount that which contradicts their points. A destructive derecho fueled by extraordinary high temperature differential? It happens every four years or so around here. NEVER MIND that it was one of the most powerful derechos ever recorded in the Mid-Atlantic, causing more destruction than anything other than a hurricane, according to the Governor of Virginia. The massive heat wave? Heat waves happen all the time, it’s natural variability. NEVER MIND that all-time high temperature records are being set (as for last year in Oklahoma and Texas), not just daily temperature records. NEVER MIND the increasing ratio difference between record highs and record lows. Temperature stations are sited incorrectly, or increasing trends are caused by ‘urban heat islands’? Of course that makes sense. NEVER MIND that phenologic data of numerous kinds show earlier springs and later autumns, the behavior of numerous animal species is changing, or species are declining, in directions consistent with climate warming. The massive fires out West, last summer and this? No big deal, summer is fire season. NEVER MIND that pine bark beetles are ravaging higher altitude forests, creating optimum fuel conditions under dry weather, and also causing soil erosion and water loss in the Southwest as pinyon pine and juniper die off. The decline in sea ice extent in the Arctic? Let’s hang on to the hope that the extent won’t go below the minimum of 2007. NEVER MIND that the sea ice volume is at all time lows, as is multi-year ice.

That’s what many of the discussions at this site amount to — cognitive reassurance for those who need to know that NEVER MIND is a way of dealing with a reality that they can’t deal with.

As for this post: NEVER MIND. It’s meaningless, because all the trends that go against the necessary belief structures are meaningless to those who are cognitively unable to consider them.

Some sense on the GOP side

Believe it or not, there are a few Republican Congressmen and candidates that aren't kowtowing to the King of the Republican Revolution, Grover Norquist, because they aren't signing on to his ridiculous pledge against taxes.  I wish that he could be relegated to insignificance in a short period of time, but unfortunately the dieless brainhards (sorry, I meant brainless diehards) are still hoping that Jim DeMint will magically run for President with Marco Rubio by his side.  That would be a surefire prescription for disaster if they got elected, but a rubber stamp, Etch-a-Sketch candidate would be just about as bad.

Fewer Republicans signing on to the Pledge against Taxes

Baltimore Orioles Pitching - who are these guys?

After Jason Hammel and Wei-Yin Chen, with Arrieta, Hunter, and Matusz sent down,  the Orioles are trying a long reliever, Miguel Gonzalez*, as a starter, and  who else have they got?  Chris Tillman?  Maybe. Where's Zach Britton when you need him?  (Actually, he's just about ready to go.)

*Game update - he did well, holding the Angels without a run (Daren O'Day let a two-run homer go, but that was it in a 3-2 win), but this is not a sustainable pitching rotation.

Orioles trying something completely different

Finding hope in a fancy toilet

In my previous post, I wrote about the hope that fougerite gives us.  In this post, I write about a truer hope from new technology - a new toilet that saves water (a lot) and which takes the waste we humans produce (a lot) and turns it into electricity.   The reason I found this so hopeful is that it addresses directly the fact that we humans are so wasteful, and makes us less so.  If similar steps could be taken for major sectors like transportation and home enerrgy use, and recycling of just about everything, and even capturing otherwise wasted food, we'd really be taking steps in the direction that we as a collective humanity need to go.

New toilet turns human waste into electricity and fertilizer

What the heck is 'green rust' ?

So green rust offers hope for the future.  But that beggars the question -- what exactly is 'green rust' ?  It appears that it is an oxidation product of iron (Fe), but rather than the normal case of Fe³⁺ (which creates red rust), this is rust utilizing Fe²⁺. 

I got that from this:  Iron (II) hydroxide

"If the solution was not deoxygenated and the iron reduced, the precipitate can vary in color starting from green to reddish brown depending on the iron(III) content. This precipitate is also known as "green rust" in the crystal lattice of which iron(II) ions are easily substituted by iron(III) ions produced by its progressive oxidation."

So it turns out that recently natural iron (II) hydroxide was found, and it is named fougerite.

And apparently fougerite gives us hope:

 Evidence of oceanic "green rust" offers hope for the future

But why?  WHY?

This is why:

"The high reactivity of green rust is the reason it could be so much help in cleaning up polluted sites. The rust reduces elements like chromium, uranium and selenium, significantly reducing their solubility and mobility in the environment, and in some cases absorbing them into the rust's molecular structure."

So now I know.  And now anybody reading this knows, too.

Saving the Southwest -- beyond hope?

Dying trees in Southwest set stage for erosion, water loss in Colorado River 

In addition to the increased fire risk, the results of which we have currently witnessed in Colorado, the loss of drought-resistant trees is setting the stage for more problems in the near future.  Even though the evidence is stark, it's too bad many of the West's citizens choose not to see it or understand it.  Mostly those of the Republican persuasion, sad to say. 

"Pinyon pine and juniper are naturally drought-resistant, so when these tree species die from lack of water, it means something pretty serious is happening," said Wendy Peterman, an OSU doctoral student and soil scientist with the Conservation Biology Institute. "They are the last bastion, the last trees standing and in some cases the only thing still holding soils in place."

"These areas could ultimately turn from forests to grasslands, and in the meantime people are getting pretty desperate about these soil erosion issues," she said. "And anything that further reduces flows in the Colorado River is also a significant concern."

Recent drought in Arizona and New Mexico is causing decline of pinyon pine (Pinus edulis Engelm.) across 12 000 km² of the Southwest (Breshears et. al 2005).