Siberia continues to be that fabled canary:
Neither Dallas nor Houston has hit 100 degrees yet this year, but in one of the coldest regions of the world, Siberia’s “Pole of Cold,” the mercury climbed to 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) on June 20.
If confirmed, the record-breaker in the remote Siberian town of Verkhoyansk, about 3,000 miles east of Moscow, would stand as the highest temperature in the Arctic since record-keeping began in 1885.
The triple-digit record was not a freak event, either, but instead part of a searing heat wave. Verkhoyansk saw 11 straight days with a high temperature of 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 Celsius) or above, according to Rick Thoman, a climate scientist at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. The average June high at that location is just 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 Celsius).
This week, Ust’-Olenek, Russia, about 450 miles north of the Arctic Circle, recorded a temperature of 93.7 degrees (34.3 Celsius), about 40 degrees above average for the date. On May 22, the Siberian town of Khatanga, located well north of the Arctic Circle, recorded a temperature of 78 degrees Fahrenheit — about 46 degrees above normal. [WaPo]
Disquieting, to say the least. Any change on the CO2 measurement front?
No improvement there. Oh, wait, maybe a graphic representation will calm my nerves:
Siberia doesn’t look too awful, but world-wide that’s an awful lot of red.
Maybe this will turn out to be good news:
What is the aim of this project?
The SUN-to-LIQUID project is developing a technology that produces aviation fuels from water, carbon dioxide (CO2) and the power of the sun.
How could this technology be explained to a high school student?
Concentrated solar radiation is absorbed in a solar reactor that converts water and CO2 into synthesis gas – a gas mixture comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The synthesis gas is then delivered to a gas-to-liquid plant where it is converted into jet fuel. [International Energy Agency]
I wonder about its long term stability. My thought is, rather than deliver it to the airports to be burned, just store the stuff in caverns. I suppose it’s too slow to actually be effective, though.
