NASA has confirmed that the Arctic sea ice this year has hit yet another record low cover. Every year the sea ice in the Arctic grows and dwindles following the seasons. At the height of winter NASA’s satellites measure the maximum reach of the ice cover and it seems it has been reducing steadily for the past 13 years. This year is nothing new just that the ice growth recession was somewhat more intense than previous years.
Meanwhile the El Nino induced heat wave is creating a major drought in the world’s most important rice exporter. Farmers in in Thailand are suffering from the lack of water to the extent that the Thai government has asked that the much anticipated Thai New Year festival, Songkran be muted to water sprinkling instead of water splashing. Tourist usually flock Thailand for this fun festival where people splash each other with water but in a show of solidarity with the difficulty farmers are facing Songkran related festivities this year has been advised to me conservative with water. In Borneo Malaysia's Sabah state raging peat fires exasperated by dry weather has caused the closure of many schools in affected districts as the bullish heat continues to swelter the region.
In the US renowned philosopher and scientists Noam Chomsky chimed in on the US presidential race when speaking about the possibility of a Trump presidency. His biggest fear is that the current effort by the Obama administration to heighten awareness on climate change and push for the advancement of renewable energy in US power production will be rolled back. He rates the dangers of the ignoring climate change or just flat out denying it as the most dangerous position to take for the future of any country let alone the planet. He believes that climate conditions are changing at rates hundreds or even a thousand times faster than expected. Its time we all think very seriously about what its going to be like for our children in two decades and decide how best to prepare them for changing nature of all things.
On the progress front scientists from the Chinese University Hong Kong (CUHK) have made an important breakthrough in the production of hydrogen fuel. It has always been a holy grail for futuristic energy science to be able to harness power from hydrogen gas produced from splitting water molecules. Up to now the process has been too complicated and costly. Some scientist have gone the way of studying plant photosynthesis to figure how plants do it so effectively but duplicating that process in a lab is also complicated and costly. However in a muted breakthrough CUHK scientists in Hong Kong who have discovered a cost effective method of splitting water molecules by adding red phosphorous to water and exposing it to the sun–lo and behold hydrogen is produced and at room temperature at that. The amount of H2 gas produced is still too small for industrial scale use but further research is underway to optimise the process. Red phosphorus is abundantly available (and cheap) and it is a stable compound. I imagine within the next decade scientists are going to find an effective process of splitting water molecules to its constituent parts, hydrogen and oxygen to re-combust and form water and lots of energy that can be turned to electricity. It will be another victory in the push to sustain human civilisation on green energy.
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