Fast,cheap, and imperfect? US public opinion about solar geoengineering

ABSTRACT

Solar geoengineering, which seeks to cool the planet by reflecting a small fraction of sunlight back into space, has drawn the attention of scientists and policymakers as climate change remains unabated. Unlike mitigation, solar geoengineering could quickly and cheaply lower global temperatures. It is also imperfect. Its environmental impacts remain unpredictable, and its low cost and immediate effects may result in ‘moral hazard,’ potentially crowding out costly mitigation efforts. There is little understanding about how the public will respond to such tradeoffs. To address this, a 1000-subject nationally representative poll focused on solar geoengineering was conducted as part of the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) of the US electorate in October–November 2016. The importance that individuals place on solar geoengineering’s speed and cost predicts their support for it, but there is little to no relationship between their concerns about its shortcomings and support for its research and use. Acquiescence bias appears to be an important factor for attitudes around solar geoengineering and moral hazard.     

Climate engineering and human rights

ABSTRACT

In this Forum, three scholars discuss how climate engineering will pose novel human rights challenges, and may well force reconsideration of how human rights are applied as a guide to action. Following a short introduction, the first section introduces three competing approaches to human rights, arguing views which emphasize fairness or attempt to maximize satisfaction are more promising than one viewing human rights as inviolable ‘side-constraints’. The second section draws lessons from climate migration that are relevant for climate engineering in terms of incorporating a human rights approach to duties, rights, and participation. The final section compares the ‘needs-based’ and ‘rights-based’ approaches to humanitarian work in the face of climate change and climate engineering, raising concerns for duty-bearers and right-holders. The Forum’s conclusion draws together points of overlap and suggests a path forward for policy and research on this topic.     

Investigation of modified horizontal wing cut twisted tapes fitted with rod and spacer at trailing edge on heat transfer properties in Double Glazing V-Trough solar water heaters

An experimental analysis of heat transfer efficiency in double glazing solar water heating system having full-length Horizontal wing cut twisted tapes having twist ratio 3 fitted with rod or spacer of dimensions 125 mm, 250 mm, and 500 mm as length at the trailing edges has been dealt in this work. The experimental results have been compared with a plain tube with similar operating conditions and concluded that variation in the Nusselt number, as well as friction factor, are ±12.56% and ±10.17%, respectively. The result of empirical correlation concludes that Nusselt number is maximal for horizontal wing cut twisted tapes having rod or spacer at its ends while comparing with full-length horizontal wing cut twisted tapes. The friction factor is low for full-length horizontal wing cut twisted tapes than the horizontal wing cut twisted tapes fitted with rod or spacer. The horizontal wing cut twisted tapes fitted with rod has superior performance than twist fitted with spacer.     

太阳模拟器大功率短弧氙灯放电特性试验测试

目的增强太阳模拟器氙灯驱动运行的可靠性,给太阳模拟器研制提供技术保障,针对太阳模拟器大功率短弧氙灯放电特性进行试验研究。方法设计太阳模拟器的大功率短弧氙灯放电特性测试方法,然后通过理论计算和实际测试验证氙灯电源初始电流对短弧氙灯放电特性的影响,并采用增设优化电路的方法对其放电特性进行改善。结果在初始电流为70 A和120 A两种情况下,弧光放电电流到达谷值以后的电流稳定度分别为1.8616和0.9867,增设优化电路后,再次进行短弧氙灯放电特性测量,将初始电流降低到60 A,而稳定度可达到0.5409。结论改善后的电路基本可实现短弧氙灯放电理想状态,完成了对短弧氙灯进入电流击穿阶段后形成的稳定弧光放电电流特性的优化,大大提升了氙灯点灯成功率,为增强太阳模拟器可靠性提供了试验支持。     

Investigating the effectiveness of safety countermeasures at highway-rail at-grade crossings using a competing risk model

Introduction: Highway-rail at-grade crossings (HRGCs) are critical locations where a railway and a roadway intersect with one another. Crashes at those locations often result in fatalities and economic and social damages due to the impacts on both road and rail users. The main purpose of countermeasures at HRGCs is to permit safe and efficient rail and highway operations. Method: Countermeasures at highway-rail grade crossings (HRGCs) considered in this study include all traffic control devices and other warning and barrier devices at or on approaches to crossings. In general, active devices are commonly accepted as more effective countermeasures than passive devices. However, many of the previous effectiveness studies are either at the project level or were conducted without considering the before-improvement condition. This study focuses on the network-level marginal effectiveness of countermeasures on crash rate and severity levels during the 29-year study period from 1990 to 2018 by fully considering before-improvement control levels. A competing risk model (CRM) is able to accommodate the competing nature of crash severities as multiple outcomes from the same event of interest, which is crash occurrence in this study. Subsequently, CRM is used in this study as an integrated one-step estimation approach that investigates both crash frequency and severity likelihood over time. Results: The study findings indicate that adding audible devices to crossings already equipped with gates will result in a considerable annual decline in crash occurrence likelihood (0.25%). The same device installed at crossings already controlled by gates and flashing lights results in less reduction in crash occurrence likelihood of 0.14%. Moreover, adding a stop sign to the active crossing controls of gates, standard flashing lights, and audible devices will lead to a decrease in the probability of crash occurrence and severe crashes (injury and fatal). However, adding stop signs to crossings equipped only with crossbucks will increase the crash occurrence.     

广西不同石漠化等级下SPAC水势梯度及其环境效应

以野外观测为基础,对广西不同石漠化等级(无石漠化、轻度石漠化、中度石漠化和重度石漠化)下土壤-植被-大气连续体(Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Continuum,简称SPAC)系统中的水势日变化、气象因子日变化过程进行了研究。结果表明:随着石漠化程度的增加,大气水势降低,大气水势对不同石漠化程度的反应敏感。岩溶区石漠化等级下植物和土壤水势较低,不同石漠化条件下的植物叶水势在-7.79±0.43~-2.68±0.11 Mpa之间,土壤水势在-4.00±0~-0.08±0.04 Mpa之间,重度石漠化等级下植物处于萎蔫状态。植物在正午受到的水分亏缺程度为:重度石漠化中度石漠化无石漠化轻度石漠化。无石漠化下植物叶片水势与大气温度呈正相关关系,与大气相对湿度呈负相关关系,轻度石漠化、中度石漠化和重度石漠化下植物叶片水势与大气温度呈负相关关系,与大气相对湿度呈正相关关系。水分在SPAC系统中运移,其能量消耗主要集中在叶片-大气的过程。叶-气水势差差值大小为:中度石漠化重度石漠化轻度石漠化无石漠化。随着石漠化程度的增加,SPAC水势梯度提高,各介质层水势差的增大,提高了水分循环和能量交换的强度。     

基于灰色理论的废弃电路板金属回收模型研究

电子废弃物的资源化既能实现资源的二次利用,又能防止环境污染,具有重要的理论意义和应用价值.运用灰色理论对离心复合力场回收废弃电路板金属过程中反冲水、转速和浓度等操作参数对分选效果(精矿品位和精矿的回收率)的影响进行了研究,建立了基于GM(0,N)灰色模型的离心复合力场回收废弃电路板分选模型.经验证模型精度较高.     

微生物-光-电化学耦合技术降解污染物和回收能源的研究进展

微生物电化学技术能同时实现污染物去除和能量回收，但存在污染物去除种类有限及产能效率低的局限，近几年将可再生的太阳能引入微生物电化学技术的微生物-光-电化学耦合技术应运而生。本文简要介绍了微生物-光-电化学耦合技术的发展背景和研究现状，对该技术现有的耦合形式进行分类，并对各种形式的耦合机理进行详细的阐释，最后对其未来的发展进行了展望。     

Modeling urban solar energy with high spatiotemporal resolution: A case study in Toronto,Canada

This research presents a method to determine the maximum potential for the capturing of solar radiation on the rooftop of buildings in an urban environment. This involves the modeling of solar energy potential and comparison to historical building energy demand profiles through the use of 3-D solar simulation software tools and geographic information systems (GIS). The objective is to accurately identify the amount of surface area that is suitable for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations and to estimate the hourly PV electricity generation potential of existing building rooftops in an urban environment. This study demonstrates a viable approach for modeling urban solar energy and offers valuable information for electricity distributors, policy makers, and urban energy planners to facilitate the substantial design of a green built environment. The developed methodology is comprised of three main sections: (1) determination of suitable rooftop area, (2) determination of the amount of incident solar radiation available per rooftop, and (3) estimation of hourly solar PV electricity generation potential. A case study was performed using this method for Ryerson University, located in Toronto, Canada. It was found that solar PV could supply up to 19% of the study area’s electricity demands during peak consumption hours. The potential benefits of solar PV was also estimated based upon hourly greenhouse gas emission intensity factors as well as Time-of-Use (TOU) savings through the Ontario Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program, which allows for better representation of the positive impacts of solar technologies.     

Efficiency enhancement in solar air heaters by modification of absorber plate-a review

This paper outlines a complete review on modifications made on the absorber plate of solar air heaters in order to improve the turbulence and heat transfer rate, thereby efficiency. Corrugated sheets, fins, extended surfaces, wire mesh, porous medium, etc., are a few of the modifications used. Most of such alterations in the absorber plate resulted with an increase in efficiency but associated with drawback of increased pumping power due to raising friction factor. Pumping power is considered here as a predominant comparison parameters of various solar air heaters with different absorber plate in terms of effective efficiency.