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Trump transition team for Energy Department seeks names of employees
involved in*climate*meetings
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/12/09/trump-transition-team-for-energy-department-seeks-names-of-employees-involved-in-climate-meetings/>
Washington Post -1 hour ago
The Trump transition team has issued a list of 74 questions for the
Energy Department, asking officials there to identify which
department employees and contractors have worked on forging an
international*climate*pact as well as domestic efforts to cut*the
nation’s carbon output....
*This potential clash could prompt a major schism within the federal
government, with many career officials waging a battle against
incoming political appointees....
One question zeroed in on the issue of the "social cost of carbon,"
a way of calculating the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions.
The transition team asked for a list of department employees or
contractors who attended interagency meetings, the dates of the
meetings, and emails and other materials associated with them....
The social cost of carbon is a metric that calculates the cost to
society of emitting a ton of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The
Obama administration has used this tool to try to calculate the
benefits of regulations and initiatives that lead to lower
greenhouse gas emissions....
Another question appeared to delve deeply into the mechanisms behind
scientific tools called "integrated assessment models," which
scientists use to forecast future changes to the climate and energy
system. It also asked what the Energy Department considers to be
"the proper equilibrium climate sensitivity," which is a way that
climate researchers calculate how much the planet will eventually
warm, depending upon the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the
atmosphere....
"My guess is that they’re trying to undermine the credibility of the
science that DOE has produced, particularly in the field of climate
science," said Rob Jackson, a Stanford climate and energy
researcher, in response to the question about the Integrated
Assessment Models.*
*
Leaked Document: Trump Wants to Identify Officials Who Worked on
Obama*Climate*Policies
<http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/bloomberg-energy-document-leak>Mother
Jones
Donald Trump aides are attempting to identify Department of Energy
staffers who played a role in promoting President Barack Obama's
climate policies, according to details of a leaked transition team
questionnaire published by Bloomberg Thursday night.
According to Bloomberg:
The transition team has asked the agency to list employees and
contractors who attended United Nations climate meetings, along
with those who helped develop the Obama administration's social
cost of carbon metrics, used to estimate and justify the climate
benefits of new rules. The advisers are also seeking information
on agency loan programs, research activities and the basis for
its statistics, according to a five-page internal document
circulated by the Energy Department on Wednesday. The document
lays out 65 questions from the Trump transition team, sources
within the agency said.
Bloomberg goes on to say the document was confirmed by two Energy
Department employees, who said agency staff were "unsettled" by the
request. Someone in Trump's transition team also confirmed the
authenticity of the document to Bloomberg.
more at https://theintercept.com/2016/12/09/david-schnare-trump/
CNN host Chris Cuomo spars with congresswoman in tense exchange
over*global warming*
<http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-cuomo-marsha-blackburn-climate-change-2016-12>
Business Insider -5 hours ago
"Of course you can be a believer in clean air and clean water and
realize that when you work at*global warming*or*climate change*, as
it is now popularly called, that it is cyclical and you have to look
at it in terms of centuries, not in terms of*...*"*It’s not some
though, congresswoman,*"* Cuomo quipped. *"*You know — it’s an
overwhelming scientific consensus on the notion of whether man-made
activities negatively impact global warming. It’s not an open debate
within the scientific community. It is a big majority and a small
group of people that resist it.*"*...
Cuomo reiterated that he was *"*talking about the basic science*"*
and whether she and Pruitt agreed with it....*"*The fact is that
there is still debate about that and the participation of human
beings in this,*"* Blackburn said. *"*We all will agree we want the
Earth to stay healthy. We want clean air, we want clean
water.*"*...The congresswoman said, however, that it was important
to *"*make certain that we are able to have the energy that is
necessary to fuel a productive economy.*"**
*
**NASA Nears Finish Line of Annual Study of Changing Antarctic Ice
<https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-nears-finish-line-of-annual-study-of-changing-antarctic-ice>*
Operation IceBridge, NASA’s airborne survey of changes in polar ice,
is closing in on the end of its eighth consecutive Antarctic
deployment, and will likely tie its 2012 campaign record for the
most research flights carried out during a single Antarctic season...
"We are probing the most remote corners of Spaceship Earth to learn
more about changes that affect all of us locally, such as how ice
sheets are contributing to sea level rise," said NASA Deputy
Administrator Dava Newman on her very first flight over Antarctica
with the IceBridge team on Nov. 17. "At NASA we explore: not only
space, but also our home planet."
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-nears-finish-line-of-annual-study-of-changing-antarctic-ice
Rift in Antarctica's Larsen C Ice Shelf
<https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/rift-in-antarcticas-larsen-c-ice-shelf>
On Nov. 10, 2016, scientists on NASA's IceBridge mission
photographed an oblique view of a massive rift in the Antarctic
Peninsula's Larsen C ice shelf. Icebridge, an airborne survey of
polar ice, completed an eighth consecutive Antarctic deployment on
Nov. 18...
Ice shelves are the floating parts of ice streams and glaciers, and
they buttress the grounded ice behind them; when ice shelves
collapse, the ice behind accelerates toward the ocean, where it then
adds to sea level rise. Larsen C neighbors a smaller ice shelf that
disintegrated in 2002 after developing a rift similar to the one now
growing in Larsen C.
The IceBridge scientists measured the Larsen C fracture to be about
70 miles long, more than 300 feet wide and about a third of a mile
deep. The crack completely cuts through the ice shelf but it does
not go all the way across it – once it does, it will produce an
iceberg roughly the size of the state of Delaware.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/rift-in-antarcticas-larsen-c-ice-shelf
*(TED video) The reality of climate change | David Puttnam |
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBjtO-0tbKU>*
...And the Duty of Care. David Puttnam looks at Climate Change
through different lenses, all of which reveal the unsustainable ways
in which we are living. Climate Change is real, but throughout
history humans have failed to set political and economic concerns
aside for our greater good. Will we ignore this latest warning?
"Disregarding human suffering in pursuit of profit" ..
Lord David Puttnam produced award-winning films including Chariots
of Fire, Bugsy Malone, and The Mission. He now works at the
intersection between education, media, and policy. In 2007 he was
appointed Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Draft
Climate Change Bill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBjtO-0tbKU
*Paramount Sets ‘Inconvenient Truth’ Sequel To Open Sundance Film
Festival
<http://deadline.com/2016/12/inconvenient-truth-2-coming-from-paramount-with-sundance-2017-premiere-1201867970/>*
Ten years after the success of the Academy Award-winning documentary
An Inconvenient Truth, Paramount today announced it will release a
sequel. Directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, the Participant Media
film will follow former Vice President Al Gore in his efforts to
fight climate change. Ahead of a theatrical release, the film is set
to premiere opening night at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival...
Unlike the original An Inconvenient Truth, which mixed documentary
footage with an adaptation of Gore’s inspirational slide
presentation about the dangers of global warming, the sequel
features the former Vice President traveling the globe to tell a
story of change in the making. ...The film is produced by Richard
Berge and Diane Weyermann and executive produced by Jeff Skoll,
original director Davis Guggenheim, Lawrence Bender, Laurie David,
Scott Z. Burns, and Lesley Chilcott....
"Now more than ever we must re-dedicate ourselves to solving the
climate crisis," said Gore in a statement. "But we have reason to be
hopeful; the solutions to the crisis are at hand. I’m deeply honored
and grateful that Paramount Pictures and Participant Media have once
again taken on the task of bringing the critical story of the
climate crisis to the world."...
http://deadline.com/2016/12/inconvenient-truth-2-coming-from-paramount-with-sundance-2017-premiere-1201867970/
*Most of Greenland ice melted to bedrock in recent geologic past –
‘Unfortunately, this makes the Greenland ice sheet look highly unstable’*
<http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/most-greenland-ice-melted-bedrock-recent-geologic-past-study-says>
<http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/most-greenland-ice-melted-bedrock-recent-geologic-past-study-says>Scientists
have found evidence in a chunk of bedrock drilled from nearly two
miles below the summit of the Greenland Ice Sheet that the ice
nearly disappeared for an extended time in the last million years or
so. The finding casts doubt on assumptions that Greenland has been
relatively stable during the recent geological past, and implies
that global warming could tip it into decline more precipitously
than previously thought. Such a decline could cause rapid sea-level
rise. The findings appear this week in the leading journal Nature....
Scientists have found evidence in a chunk of bedrock drilled from
nearly two miles below the summit of the Greenland Ice Sheet that
the ice nearly disappeared for an extended time in the last million
years or so. The finding casts doubt on assumptions that Greenland
has been relatively stable during the recent geological past, and
implies that global warming could tip it into decline more
precipitously than previously thought. Such a decline could cause
rapid sea-level rise. The findings appear this week in the leading
journal Nature....
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/most-greenland-ice-melted-bedrock-recent-geologic-past-study-says
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v540/n7632/full/nature20146.html
The Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) contains the equivalent of 7.4 metres
of global sea-level rise1. Its stability in our warming climate is
therefore a pressing concern. However, the sparse proxy evidence of
the palaeo-stability of the GIS means that its history is
controversial (compare refs 2 and 3 to ref. 4). Here we show that
Greenland was deglaciated for extended periods during the
Pleistocene epoch (from 2.6 million years ago to 11,700 years ago),
based on new measurements of cosmic-ray-produced beryllium and
aluminium isotopes (10Be and 26Al) in a bedrock core from beneath an
ice core near the GIS summit. Models indicate that when this bedrock
site is ice-free, any remaining ice is concentrated in the eastern
Greenland highlands and the GIS is reduced to less than ten per cent
of its current volume. Our results narrow the spectrum of possible
GIS histories: the longest period of stability of the present ice
sheet that is consistent with the measurements is 1.1 million years,
assuming that this was preceded by more than 280,000 years of
ice-free conditions. Other scenarios, in which Greenland was
ice-free during any or all Pleistocene interglacials, may be more
realistic. Our observations are incompatible with most existing
model simulations that present a continuously existing Pleistocene
GIS. Future simulations of the GIS should take into account that
Greenland was nearly ice-free for extended periods under Pleistocene
climate forcing.
*Boston Sounds the Alarm:*
The City of Boston released a 400-page report
<http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=b9dd541e15&e=cab6c88302>
Thursday that predicts the effects of climate change and provides a
roadmap for the city to adapt. The report predicts a catastrophic
storm affecting 90,000 Bostonians and causing $14 billion of
damage within 50 years if immediate action is not taken, and details
the impacts climate change would have on specific neighborhoods in
the city. In the report’s forward, Mayor Marty Walsh wrote that
implementing climate resilience plans will "create jobs, improve
public spaces and public health, and make our energy supply more
efficient and resilient." (WBUR
<http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=685810295c&e=cab6c88302>,
Boston Globe
<http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=28f246083e&e=cab6c88302>
$, Boston Herald
<http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=a24e4e1858&e=cab6c88302>,
NBC
<http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=ce708aad9f&e=cab6c88302>,
NECN
<http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=024c8c562a&e=cab6c88302>)
(ClimateNexus)
*Roundup Gone Gonzo: Fear and Loathing at Koch-Funded Trump "Shadow
Transition Team" Event*
Science gives way to science fiction at an ominous meeting of fossil
fuel elites
Wednesday there was an eight hour climate denial event, hosted by
both the Heritage Foundation, which has been described as Trump’s
‘shadow transition’ Team, and the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The following is a rare denier roundup written in the first person.
It is my account of a day-long descent into madness, watching the
livestream all day...
There was a great diversity of speakers across the six sessions.
There were speeches by men from Congress, men from think tanks, men
from fossil fuel companies and lobby groups, men from science and a
man of law addressing the gathering. Women were also allowed at the
event, to give the introductory and dinner keynote addresses and
allowed an occasional emceeing role...
I tuned in 10 minutes late thinking I’d catch the tail end of the
introductory remarks. Instead, I was immediately greeted by Rep.
Lamar Smith making an apology for Senator Mike Lee not being
there — he was voting on something, apparently. Before long, Smith
was bragging about the 25 subpoenas he’s issued as chair of the
House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. In the 21 years
prior, the committee had issued… one...
But then, he predicted that "there won’t be near as many subpoenas
in the coming Congress." Because when his fellow fossil fuel friends
are running the show, what could he possibly want to investigate?...
What he does intend to do, however, is force the EPA to violate
privacy laws. He describes it as making sure the EPA makes the data
on which it bases regulations public. All the data. Which would mean
making private medical records public, violating HIPPA and other
patient protection laws...
Smith did say something we can all agree with: "Regulations should
be based on sound science, not science fiction." But it was science
fiction that would emerge as something of theme of the day... [This
very special Denier Roundup is continued at Nexus Media News.]
*Climate Change*Is Causing Widespread Extinction
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161208152136.htm>
Science Daily -18 hours ago
Extinctions related to*climate change*have already happened in
hundreds of plant and animal species around the world. ... This
result is particularly striking because*global warming*has increased
mean temperatures by less than 1 degree Celsius so far.
*More dire data, less climate change concern?*
<http://www.dw.com/en/more-dire-data-less-climate-change-concern/a-36711491>
As climate change becomes more apparent, are people becoming
fatigued on the topic?...
...The unanticipated feedback loop could result in release of
emissions amounting to that of the entire United States, research
showed. This would blast the planet well past the 2 degree Celsius
(3.6 degree Fahrenheit) limit, beyond which scientists say climate
change could become catastrophic.
"It's something that scientists have theorized for quite awhile, but
had not yet been proven," he told DW. Crowther started this research
to disprove this hypothesis, he told DW. "But now, all the data
suggests it's even worse than we thought."
Crowther says he, too, is concerned that as climate science becomes
ever more alarming, people seem less and less alarmed.
"My personal opinion is that it's become too much of a politicized
issue," he says. There's no debate when that happens, he says,
"there's just people shouting at each other."
"Any time people bring new information to the table, it just
reinforces the fury on both sides of the argument, and they just
shout at each other and nobody gets anywhere."
Crowther notes that there is no other way to stop the soil feedback
loop than to limit overall emissions - which is why Trump's threat
to scrap US emissions limits and pull the US out of the Paris
climate accord is so worrying.
"This data reinforces the need to meet the targets that were set at
Paris, because now we know that cutting greenhouse gas emissions is
even more critical than we thought."
In the meantime, many are asking what it will take to give the topic
the critical mass necessary for political action.
*This Day in Climate History December 10, 1997
<http://youtu.be/Ibl63YlTtI4>- from D.R. Tucker
*
**December 10, 1997: President Clinton hails the progress UN
negotiators have made regarding the Kyoto Protocol in brief remarks
at JFK Airport in New York. http://youtu.be/Ibl63YlTtI4
*
* ======================== #### ===========================
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