One thing you can say about the Los Angeles Times, they are consistent in their miscoverage of global warming.

On January 27, they committed “journalistic malpractice,” as climatologist Michael Mann tweeted, for omitting any mention of global warming whatsoever in their article seeking to explain why the U.S. “seems to have largely escaped winter.”

On Groundhog day, coincidentally enough, they did it again.  Hmm.  Maybe this is like the movie and they are just going to keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again…..

As the L.A. Times “explains” in the article:

“It’s mild,” said Pastelok, a meteorologist from AccuWeather, in one of the bigger understatements of the season.

“The departures have been way above normal this season, maybe in a top five or top 10 category,” he said when asked to rank how unusual the winter from the Plains eastward had been in terms of temperatures and lack of snow.

The situation has stymied forecasters, who study previous years’ patterns to predict the future. This year has been unique because even when there have been cold snaps, they have been extremely brief and followed by long, mild stretches.

If only scientists had predicted years ago that spewing billions and billions of tons of heat trapping greenhouse gases into the air would cause more frequent extreme heat waves — ones that covered a bigger area and lasted far longer than before.

And no, confusionists and their enablers, those scientists didn’t say that global warming would be responsible for 100% of all heat waves.  But we are now pushing so far beyond the historical norm that we are seeing  unprecedented uber-extreme heat waves (see Hansen et al: “Extreme Heat Waves … in Texas and Oklahoma in 2011 and Moscow in 2010 Were ‘Caused’ by Global Warming”).

The good news is that while the L.A. Times remains clueless, NBC news got the story just right — global warming piles the heat on top of whatever natural variability, like La Niña, we see.  Here’s their excellent story on the heat wave so unusual, people were “calling it JUNuary”:

Again, one can always tell the difference between good  journalism and not so good journalism by whether they quote real climate scientists who have actually studied the issue in question.

In this case, they went to the source, Dr. Gerald Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).  You can read about his work here:  “Record high temperatures far outpace record lows across U.S.”  NCAR explained their findings in a news release:

Spurred by a warming climate, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States, new research shows. The ratio of record highs to lows is likely to increase dramatically in coming decades if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to climb.

“Climate change is making itself felt in terms of day-to-day weather in the United States,” says Gerald Meehl, the lead author and a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). “The ways these records are being broken show how our climate is already shifting.”

Of course, it’s not warm winters that cause the big problem, it’s the blistering summers.

Here’s a Stanford release for Climatic Change study (PDF here) I wrote about in June:

Stanford climate scientists forecast permanently hotter summers

The tropics and much of the Northern Hemisphere are likely to experience an irreversible rise in summer temperatures within the next 20 to 60 years if atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations continue to increase, according to a new climate study by Stanford University scientists….

“According to our projections, large areas of the globe are likely to warm up so quickly that, by the middle of this century, even the coolest summers will be hotter than the hottest summers of the past 50 years,” said the study’s lead author, Noah Diffenbaugh, The study, based on observations and models, finds that most major countries, including the United States, are “likely to face unprecedented climate stresses even with the relatively moderate warming expected over the next half-century.”

I interviewed Diffenbaugh for my book, Hell and High Water, and in 2008 wrote about his earlier work in a post titled, “When can we expect very high surface temperatures?”

Bottom line: By century’s end, extreme temperatures of up to 122°F would threaten most of the central, southern, and western U.S. Even worse, Houston and Washington, DC could experience temperatures exceeding 98°F for some 60 days a year.

The peak temperature analysis comes from a Geophysical Research Letters paper that focused on the annual-maximum “once-in-a-century” temperature. The key scientific point is that “the extremes rise faster than the means in a warming climate.”

The results, depicted above (in °C), are quite remarkable, especially when you consider that this is just the A1B scenario. In 2100, A1B hits about 700 ppm with average global temperatures “only” about 3°C (5 F) warmer than today.

In fact, on our current emissions path, a 3C temperature rise will happen much sooner (see Hadley Center: “Catastrophic” 5-7°C  warming by 2100 on current emissions path and M.I.T. doubles its 2095 warming projection to 10°F — with 866 ppm and Arctic warming of 20°F).   And remember, the worst-case scenario is that this happens by mid-century [see Royal Society special issue details ‘hellish vision’ of 7°F (4°C) world — which we may face in the 2060s!]

On our current emissions path, these record temperatures could be seen closer to 2060 than 2100:

… values in excess of 50°C [122°F] in Australia, India, the Middle East, North Africa, the Sahel and equatorial and subtropical South America.

As you can see from the map, extreme temperature peaks are only slightly lower over large parts of this country. The study notes:

Such temperatures, if lasting for some days, are life threatening and receive relatively little attention in the climate change debate.

On our current emissions path, we may well exceed the A2 scenario and hit A1FI, 1000 ppm (see here).  In a terrific March 2010 presentation, Climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe has a figure of what the A1FI would mean:

Mother Nature is just warming up.

The time to act is yesterday.

Related Post:

• Science stunner — On our current emissions path, CO2 levels in 2100 will hit levels last seen when the Earth was 29°F (16°C) hotter:  Paleoclimate data suggests CO2 “may have at least twice the effect on global temperatures than currently projected by computer models”

Trulia's released its latest Metro Movers Report, which looks at where people live now and where they're searching for houses--it covers October 1 through December 31, 2011 (the last edition showed Angelenos were itching to get to Riverside). Besides finding that everyone seems to want to move to Florida, this time around they looked at where locals want to move within their own cities. Here are the top five zip codes that Angelenos are checking out in Los Angeles:

-- 91436, Encino
-- 90036, Fairfax/Mid-Wilshire/Hancock Park
-- 90066, Mar Vista
-- 90064, West LA/Cheviot Hills/Rancho Park
-- 91604, Studio City

Where people are who are looking to move to LA

And the report also looks at which out-of-towners are checking out houses in LA. The top four locations are all SoCal:

And it analyzes where Angelenos are looking to move when they look to move out of town. Riverside has been dethroned by Santa Ana/Anaheim/Irvine, but still comes in second. Number three is that bastard New York:

· Where Are House Hunters Searching? [Trulia]
· Report Shows That Angelenos All Want to Flee For Riverside [Curbed LA

The Silver Lake Reservoirs Conservancy has been instrumental in the many improvements to the Reservoir complex over the past few years—the new path along Silverlake Blvd. is one of them, along with the opening of the Meadow last year. In this top photo, we see some folks enjoying the path, or at least getting their important daily dose of exercise!

The popularity of the Meadow (just go there any weekend afternoon and see all the kites and kids!) made it imperative to provide a safe way to cross busy Silverlake Blvd., especially since all the parking spaces are located across the street from the Reservoir complex. Thanks to Councilmen Eric Garcetti’s and Tom LaBonge’s help, the City of Los Angeles installed a pedestrian crosswalk by the classic Neutra ” VDL” house just across the boulevard from the Meadow (bottom photo). 

Come on out and enjoy with us!

And in the heart of it all, is Graumann’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

Tix:                   $30 in advance at…

If you’ve ever wanted to get fit, tour Culver City and/or talk turkey with the mayor, here’s your opportunity.

The Culver City Bicycle Coalition together with Mayor Micheal O’Leary have come together to create a Mondays with the Mayor morning community bike ride.

According to the coalition’s blog, every Monday morning those interested can hop on their bikes and take a tour of the city while discussing community issues with the mayor, including how to improve bike conditions in the city.

Barring inclement weather, cyclists will meet every Monday morning at 8 a.m. Syd Kronenthal Park at the east end of the Ballona Creek Bike Path, 3459 McManus Avenue, Culver City, 90232 beneath the canopies near the community room.

Cyclists should be ready to leave by 8:10 a.m. and the coalition promises that the ride will be an easy one.

Be sure to like Culver City Patch on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. 

Look before you cross.

Especially if you're jaywalking, because it's dangerous and illegal—and starting today through the end of February, Santa Monica Police Department's motor officers will pay extra attention to you if you do.

Specifically, they'll zero in on pedestrians who jaywalk, walk against a red light or "don't walk symbol" and who fail to yield to the right-of-way of oncoming traffic.

Each month throughout 2012, the department's traffic enforcement division is cracking down on different illegal driving habits. Last month, it was cell phone use. Although not a driving behavior, "pedestrian violations" are one of the leading causes of collisions.

• Related: Pedestrian Safety: 8 Simple Rules

The greater Los Angeles area is considered to be one of the most dangerous metropolitan areas in the country for pedestrians, according to data tracked by the national advocacy group, Transportation for America.

Santa Monica itself is notorious for such accidents. Walkers are routinely hit—sometimes killed—as they cross without traffic lights on major thouroufares and in busy downtown intersections. In August of 2011, Transportation for America mapped out 24 pedestrian deaths as having occurred in Santa Monica from 2000-09.

Last year, there were 105 such collisions in Santa Monica. Five people died:

• Unnamed Homeless (next of kind have not been located): Struck Oct. 26 while crossing against a red light at Lincoln Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard;
• William Smerling, 82, of Los Angeles: Struck July 20 while walking in a crosswalk at 26th Street and Georgina;
• Corina Montero, 80, of Los Angeles: Struck July 14 while walking outside of a crosswalk on Pico Boulevard and 26th street;
• Melissa Del Aguila, 24, of West Los Angeles: Struck by a taxi driving while running into the street in the 2400 Block of Wilshire Boulevard;
• Lewis Williamson, 64, Homeless in Santa Monica: Struck Feb. 21 while crossing Ocean Avenue north of Arizona

"I'm new here. So far my big challenge is getting started. I do have a question. I do want to eat organic. Let's say I get a small plant, like an herb, from Home Depot or a similar store, I plant
it and grow it organically with no man-made chemicals are pesticides. Does that make the plant organic? Is it kind of organic? If I keep it growing year-after-year and grow it organically, will
...

Deep in the heart of Silicon Valley, an office building home to Google is about to become a prototype for a cleantech product that’s capable of harvesting the sun’s power in a whole new way.

The product in question is EnFocus Engineering’s Diamond-Power panel—a high-tech module that’s one part skylight, one part solar panel.

Offering building occupants a real alternative to artificial lighting, the Diamond-Power panel can control the sun’s power more efficiently than any skylight on the market while utilizing the sun’s full range of light better than the average solar cell.

“In many situations people have plenty of daylighting, but they don’t switch the electrical lights off so there’s no savings,” says EnFocus’ President and Chief Technology Officer Jason Lu. “The point of our product is to provide a good lighting source so people actually can leave their electrical lights off.”

The Power of Daylight

Even when it’s not being used to create power, sunlight still has an abundance of potential. After all, what better source of free, nonpolluting lighting is there than natural daylight? Plus, there are tangential benefits: studies have shown students perform better, shoppers stay longer and buy more, and workers tend to be more productive.

Still, streaming sunlight into a building can lead to a host of cleantech conundrums. Solar heat gain is the primary one, and it’s why many glass-walled office buildings need air conditioning even in the winter.

The light coming through the skylight is cool. One advantage you have is you’re not adding heat load to the building.

“What this system does is take that hot light and efficiently transport its power to the grid,” explains Stan Sutton, President of Inland Metal Technologies, a provider of the skylight’s materials as well as an investor in the company. “What you get as a byproduct of it all is light that isn’t directly from the sun. This means the light coming through the skylight is cool. One advantage you have is you’re not adding heat load to the building.”

A second advantage is that the remaining spectrum of light is similar to what you’d experience standing under a tree on a sunny day—there’s plenty to read by, but it’s not hot and glaring.

“The reason the light is better distributed is that we select a portion of the sunlight that is already diffused,” he explains. “It’s much more comfortable, and also it doesn’t change that much when you’re under a cloud.”

The Ultimate Multitasker

Its ability to make the full spectrum of light useful is what makes the Diamond-Power panel stand out in the realm of cleantech. “We’re using what is typically the waste light that photovoltaic technology can’t use well,” Lu says.

Using triple junction solar cells, the panel captures roughly 80 percent of sunlight, converting close to 40 percent into power while allowing 20 percent of waste light into the building for illumination.

These highly efficient cells, coupled with the glass and the aluminum structures that hold it together, make the Diamond-Power skylight quite the multitasker in solar power use.

“With the solar skylight, what you have is daylight passed through—and it’s not glaring, it’s not hot,” Sutton explains. “And because it’s putting power back into the grid, it’s offsetting the cost of consuming the power for artificial [lighting]. You’re attacking both sides of the equation. You’re powering up the grid a little bit, and you’re also reducing the heat load, thus consuming less power from the grid.”

One of the reasons Google liked it is the aesthetics. People look at it and say it looks awesome.

Lu points out that using daylight as interior lighting first is actually the most efficient use of solar energy there is.

“Normally when energy is converted into electricity, we lose a lot of energy in that process,” Lu points out. “Conversion, unfortunately, is low-efficiency. And when you use electrical lighting, you have to convert that power back into light. That process is also, unfortunately, very inefficient.

“If you look at it that way, when we directly use sunlight, we are actually using the light much more efficiently than electrical light.”

Designer Style

Although traditional skylights present myriad cleantech challenges, they’re still a favorite for many businesses due in part to their visual appeal. There’s hardly a high-end hotel that doesn’t have a glass atrium; newer government buildings sport them; even shopping malls have enough foresight to know shoppers would like a patch of sun here and there as they stroll through.

“Humans in general do better in daylight—we are an animal that needs the blue light of daylight,” Sutton remarks. And certainly, there is an element of beauty associated with the look of a skylight and simply getting that sunshine from the outside into the inside that all the physics and chemistry and engineering out there might never be able to quite pin down.

The Diamond-Power skylight antes up on this quotient, too.

“We were at the annual solar show in San Francisco, Semicon, and we had probably 500 people come by,” Sutton says. “The comment most everyone had is that this is a beautiful piece of sculpture.”

Says Sutton, “It’s highly attractive; it’s cool-looking. It has an aesthetic and it doesn’t need to be hidden or covered up. One of the reasons Google liked it is the aesthetics. People look at it and say it looks awesome.”

Illustration by Chaz Russo

 Layla Bellows is a writer and editor based in Atlanta. She focuses on sustainability in the built environment, including materials and design, as well as its relationship to renewable energy and resources.

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2. SolOptics Solar Film Increases Panel Output 10%
3. California Doubles Solar Power Installations in 2008

The project doesn't have a name yet, but it's scheduled for a fall 2012 opening...

Continue reading "Gino Angelini to Open New Restaurant in WeHo" >

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has filed two proposals with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that, if approved, may allow you to choose electricity generated by solar energy instead of fossil fuel-based energy, whether you own a home or not.

SDG&E is applying to begin two pilot programs. Information for each of them (and they’re worth checking out) is detailed below.

Note: for pricing on a residential solar system, click here.

Share the Sun Solar Farms

The first program, called “Share the Sun,” would allow solar contractors to purchase and install their own “solar farms” on their own or purchased property. San Diego customers would then be able to purchase a portion of the electricity generated from the provider installations.

You would be able to choose the size of the portion you wish to acquire, and would receive credit on your electricity bill for the value of the solar energy generated. In effect, this program would be similar to group-buying or community solar gardens.

Get a percentage of solar energy through SunRate

The second pilot program, called “SunRate,” would indirectly allow customers to purchase solar electricity produced by SDG&E’s own solar projects. SDG&E would establish a “green” rate that would reflect the cost of the solar energy generated by these projects.

In a twist that puts the power right in your hands, you could choose to have 50 percent, 75 percent or 100 percent of your electricity at the new, green rate. Although you would have to agree to a year’s subscription, the price (and reduction in energy costs) would be guaranteed for the term of the contract.

Why are utilities going solar?

In California, a utility’s renewable energy portfolio must represent 20 percent of that utility’s total energy distribution by 2013, and 33 percent by 2020. SDG&E has been showing progress towards reaching those goals, with several solar farms of their own up and running–and with more planned.

Recently, however, SDG&E proposed that the CPUC allow them to demand a “network usage charge,” a $20 to $30 a monthly fee, on homeowners who own or lease residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. The CPUC struck down the proposal.

SDG&E provides service to 3.5 million customers in San Diego and Orange County. The company is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy. Recently, Sempra Energy stock hit a new 52-week high. Before applying to the CPUC for the two pilot programs, SDG&E met with solar providers, community leaders and policymakers for input.

SDG&E is also proposing that the CPUC oversee a series of workshops where interested parties would be able to help shape the pilot programs to ensure transparency. Homeowners in San Diego can already save quite a bit on solar costs due to rebates, incentives and the like.

Should the CPUC approve the two pilot programs, many residents in the area will have the opportunity to go solar without installing a home solar power system at their own homes. As solar energy produced by larger solar installations typically costs less, residents may have the chance to lock in cheaper rates for their electricity, proving, once again, that going green can add green to the wallet, too.

A New York hedge fund manager's plan to demolish an eye-catching steel-and-glass home in Malibu and build a two-story California Mission-style residence has neighbors in a lather over the potential loss of ocean views and what some decry as the waste of a perfectly good house.

The blaze damaged about 10 lockers in the boy's locker room in a school gymnasium after it was reported shortly before 2 p.m., the Santa Monica Police Department said. No injuries were reported, but the fire caused moderate smoke damage to the room.

Arson investigators from the Police and Fire departments were trying to determine a cause. No other information was immediately available.

Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Robert D'Andrea at (310) 458-6679 or the main line at the Police Department at (310) 458-8495.

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L.A. Councilman Eric Garcetti being tweaked by fake tweets