Alaska on track for its warmest year

Boston, Dec. 27: Stanford scientists have outlined new steps that 143 countries around the world can take to attain 100 per cent clean, renewable energy by 2050.

The roadmap, published in the journal One Earth, uses the latest energy data available in each country to offer more precise guidance on how to reach those commitments. It comes ten years after the publication by scientists of the first plan for powering the world with wind, water, and solar.

Prof. Mark Z. Jacobson from the Stanford University in the US and his team focussed on lowcost, stable grid solutions in 24 world regions encompassing the 143 countries.

They project that transitioning to clean, renewable energy could reduce worldwide energy needs by 57 per cent, create 28.6 million more jobs than are lost, and reduce energy, health, and climate costs by 91 per cent compared with a business-as-usual analysis.

The roadmap includes new countries in its analysis and accounts for recently built clean, renewable infrastructure in some countries. “There are a lot of countries that have committed to doing something to counteract the growing impacts of global warming, but they still don't know exactly what to do,” said Prof. Jacobson.

It calls for the electrification of all energy sectors, for increased energy efficiency leading to reduced energy use, and for the development of wind, water, and solar infrastructure that can supply

80 per cent of all power by

2030 and 100 per cent of all power by 2050.

The new model suggests that the efficiency of electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles over fossil fuel vehicles, of electrified industry over fossil industry, could substantially decrease energy use.

The efficiency of electric heat pumps over fossil heating and cooling, along with the elimination of energy needed for mining, transporting, and refining fossil fuels, will have the same effects. The would require an initial investment of $73 trillion worldwide, but this would pay for itself over time.

Anchorage (Alaska), Dec. 27: Alaska is set to finish 2019 with a record average high temperature after a year of extremes ranging from a sweltering summer and rampant wildfires to vanishing sea ice and winter rains where heavy snows were once the norm.

Wildlife suffered from the chaotic weather, with mass die-offs of seabirds and marine mammals struggling to cope with ecological upheaval.

The turmoil is part of a rapid warming pattern in which Alaska — at the leading edge of climate change due to its proximity to the Arctic — is heating at twice the rate of the planet as a whole.

“Even with the current cold snap, I don’t see any way that 2019 is not the warmest year on record,” Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist with the University of Alaska at Fairbanks’ International

Arctic Research said in a tweet.

“Will every year be as warm as this? No. But the escalator is going up,” said Mr Rick Thoman, with the university’s Alaska Centre for Climate Assessment and Policy.

Alaska’s warmest year on record was 2016, when annual temperatures averaged 32.5º Fahrenheit , or just over 0º Celsius. That was the first time the benchmark crept above freezing, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

For 2019, the statewide average through November stood at 34.5ºF, a year-to-date high that tops nearly a century of record-keeping.

The spring melt on major rivers came earlier than ever and the uppermost layer of permafrost across the Seward Peninsula was thawed the entire year.

Centre,