[TheClimate.Vote] Nov. 11, 2016 - Daily Global Warming News for voters, candidates and officials

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    Politics - Donald Trump Could Put*Climate Change*on Course for
    'Danger Zone'
    <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/us/politics/donald-trump-climate-change.html>

New York Times 	 -‎1 hour ago‎ 	

	
	
	

    The world, then, may have no way to avoid the most devastating
    consequences of*global warming*, including rising sea levels,
    extreme droughts and food shortages, and more powerful floods and
    storms.....Mr. Trump cannot legally block other countries from
    fulfilling their Paris agreement commitments, nor can he quickly or
    unilaterally erase Mr. Obama’s climate rules....But he can, as
    president, choose not to carry out the Paris plan in the United
    States. And he could so substantially slow or weaken the enforcement
    of Mr. Obama’s rules that they would have little impact on reducing
    emissions in the United States, at least during Mr. Trump’s
    term.....That could doom the Paris agreement’s goal of reducing
    carbon dioxide emissions enough to stave off an atmospheric warming
    of at least 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the point at which, many
    scientists say, the planet will be locked into an irreversible
    future of extreme and dangerous warming....."With Mr. Trump in the
    Oval Office and Republican majorities in both houses," Mr. Sterman
    wrote, "there is little hope that the Clean Power Plan will survive
    in the Supreme Court or for federal action to meet the U.S.
    commitment under the Paris accord. Worse, other key emitter nations
    — especially India — now have little reason to follow through on
    their Paris pledges: If the U.S. won’t, why should developing
    nations cut their emissions?"....The Clean Power Plan is the
    ambitious centerpiece of Mr. Obama’s climate change legacy and the
    key to his commitment under the Paris accord. At its heart is a set
    of Environmental Protection Agency regulations intended to curb
    planet-warming pollution from coal-fired power plants. If enacted,
    the rules could transform the American electricity sector, close
    hundreds of coal-fired plants and usher in the construction of vast
    new wind and solar farms. The plan is projected to cut United States
    power plant emissions 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.


    Al Gore offers to work with Trump on*climate change*.  (Good luck
    with that)
    <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/11/10/al-gore-offers-to-work-with-trump-on-climate-change-good-luck-with-that/>

Washington Post 	 -‎10 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

    ... the harmful effects of*global warming*. "President-elect Trump
    said he wanted to be a president for all Americans," Gore wrote on
    the website of the*Climate*Reality Project, the advocacy group he
    founded with a mission of helping accelerate the*...*


    'Game Over' for*Climate*? Report Warns Warming Is Still
    Underestimated
    <http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/11/10/game-over-climate-report-warns-warming-still-underestimated>

Common Dreams (press release) 	 -‎11 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

    Greenhouse gases are rising so fast that it could soon be "game
    over" for the*climate*, a leading scientist warned in response to a
    new study published Wednesday that finds the planet could be heading
    for more than 7°C warming within a lifetime The study, published in
    the journal Science Advances, reported that the United Nations' most
    accurate estimates on the "business as usual" rate of global warming
    may actually be vastly underestimated.....The U.N.'s
    Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently estimated
    that continuing to use fossil fuels at current rates would put the
    Earth on track for an average temperature rise of 2.6°C to 4.8°C
    above pre-industrial levels by 2100...But the authors, a team of
    climate researchers and scientists at the University of Hawaii at
    Manoa, the University of Washington, the University of Albany, and
    the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, say the range for
    that same time period is actually  4.78°C to 7.36°C. That's because
    the climate has "substantially higher sensitivity" to greenhouse
    gases during warm phases, they write—which ultimately means that
    "within the 21st century, global mean temperatures will very likely
    exceed maximum levels reconstructed for the last 784,000
    years."...The results correspond with other recent data that finds,
    despite all the pledges made in the landmark Paris climate
    agreement, the planet is still on track for at least a 3°C global
    temperature rise. Scientists have long warned that catastrophic,
    irreversible damage would come at 2°C.....President-elect Donald
    Trump, who has denied that climate change exists, has vowed to
    withdraw from the Paris agreement, and his transition team is rife
    with fellow deniers and fossil fuel industry lobbyists. Green groups
    on Wednesday reacted to his win by calling on people around the
    world to mobilize against his anti-environmental policies "for the
    sake of our brothers and sisters around the world and for all future
    generations."...Professor Michael Mann of Penn State University told
    the Independent that the study "does indeed provide support for the
    notion that a Donald Trump presidency could be game over for the
    climate."...."By 'game over for the climate,' I mean game over for
    stabilizing warming below dangerous (i.e. greater than 2°C) levels,"
    he wrote in an email to the outlet. "If Trump makes good on his
    promises, and the U.S. pulls out of the Paris [climate] treaty, it
    is difficult to see a path forward to keeping warming below those
    levels."....Dr. Tobias Friedrich, one of the authors, said, "Our
    results imply that the Earth's sensitivity to variations in
    atmospheric carbon dioxide increases as the climate warms.
    Currently, our planet is in a warm phase—an interglacial period—and
    the associated increased climate sensitivity needs to be taken into
    account for future projections of warming induced by human
    activities."..."The only way out is to reduce greenhouse gas
    emissions as soon as possible," he said...
    *Nonlinear climate sensitivity and its implications for future
    greenhouse warming
    <http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/11/e1501923>*
    Furthermore, we find that within the 21st century, global mean
    temperatures will very likely exceed maximum levels reconstructed
    for the last 784,000 years. On the basis of temperature data from
    eight glacial cycles, our results provide an independent validation
    of the magnitude of current CMIP5 warming projections.   YouTube
    Video: *6 Degrees Warmer: Mass Extinction? | National Geographic
    <https://youtu.be/O8qmaAMK4cM?list=PL513A1C0ACD1C5FD2>***...  If the
    world warms by six degrees, oceans will turn into marine wastelands
    and natural disasters become common events. 
    ...https://youtu.be/O8qmaAMK4cM?list=PL513A1C0ACD1C5FD2


    These Kids Are Suing the Federal Government to
    Demand*Climate*Action. They Just Won an Important Victory
    <http://time.com/4567012/federal-government-lawsuit-climate-change/>

TIME 	 -‎4 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

    A group of young Americans suing the federal government to demand
    increased efforts on*climate change*won a notable battle Thursday,
    as a federal court rejected the government's request to dismiss the
    case.


*Conservatives elected Trump; now they own climate change 
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/nov/10/they-elected-trump-now-conservatives-own-climate-change>*

    Anyone who voted for Trump shares the responsibility for the climate
    damages resulting from his presidency.... It is now virtually
    certain the world will not meet any of its climate targets. If Trump
    (and the Republican-controlled Congress) stand by their pledges, we
    will see a major rollback of the tremendous progress that has been
    made on reducing emissions. A Trump presidency will likely set us
    back at least a decade, perhaps longer. And that is a decade we
    can’t afford....The world will blow past the 2C (3.6F) target set in
    Paris. This means it will be difficult to avoid the worst
    consequences of climate change....The election also affects how we
    should talk about climate change. In the US, and in many other
    countries, opposing steps to cut carbon pollution has become a
    litmus test for conservative politicians. So, in this sense,
    conservatives now own climate change. I can just imagine the
    slogans, "Climate change, brought to you by your neighborhood
    conservatives."....George W Bush was the worst president ever on
    climate change. Back then, with the reality of climate change not as
    widely known, it is conceivable to give voters a pass. But not now.
    Anyone who voted for Trump shares the responsibility for what is now
    inevitable. ...It’s really too bad because many conservatives
    certainly don’t want to destroy the Earth’s climate. Furthermore,
    there are some conservatives who do take climate change seriously.
    However, when a central belief to conservatism results in decades of
    inaction, it makes it impossible to avoid staring facts in the
    face.... Conservatives own climate change....Conservatives own the
    consequences of climate change.
    They own the increased droughts, more severe storms, sea level rise,
    and floods.
    They own the heat waves, the loss of habitat and the shifting
    climate zones.
    They own the climate refugees, the resulting political strive, and
    climate conflicts.
    They own it all.
    Liberals, both in the US and around the world, have tried to work
    with conservatives to devise practical plans that will reduce the
    threats of climate change. In the past few years there was real
    progress.
    We had hope.
    Now, we can look forward to the US going backwards. Becoming the
    world’s laggard on climate change (again). Once again, America’s
    leaders will describe climate change as a hoax or as a
    non-threat....So, I’d like to rename climate change to "Climate
    Change, brought to you by Conservatives". I will spend the next four
    years reminding people that the climate change we are seeing, and
    the climate change which is now unavoidable could have been stopped.
    I will count up the economic and social consequences of climate
    change which could have been stopped. These are now the liability of
    conservatives. The financial costs of adapting will also be owned by
    conservatives....They asked for it, they got it. Our job is to never
    let them forget it.
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/nov/10/they-elected-trump-now-conservatives-own-climate-change


DemocracyNow video
*Bill McKibben: Trump's Presidency Comes When the Warming World Can 
Least Afford It 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XNiwBpGX-A&feature=youtu.be>*

    "The damage from this election will be measured in geological time" 
    On the same day Donald Trump was elected, the World Meteorological
    Organization reported that the five years from 2011 to 2015 were the
    hottest on record, with hundreds of thousands of deaths likely due
    to global warming from human activity. The report found
    human-induced climate change was directly linked to extreme events,
    including an East African drought and famine in 2011 that claimed
    over a quarter-million lives, and "Superstorm" Sandy in the U.S.
    that caused $67 billion of damage in 2012. Delegates at the United
    Nations climate summit in Marrakesh, Morocco, are expressing panic
    over Tuesday’s election results, saying President-elect Donald Trump
    may threaten the future of any international agreement to slow
    catastrophic climate change. Trump has said he will "cancel the
    Paris Climate Agreement and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to
    U.N. global warming programs." Trump has also promised to promote
    coal power and fracking, and says he will allow for oil and gas
    drilling on federal lands. He has also promised to ask TransCanada
    to renew its permit application for the Keystone XL pipeline. For
    more, we’re joined by Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org. He’s the
    author of several books, including "Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough
    New Planet." His recent article for The New York Times is titled
    "Why Dakota is the New Keystone."


*The carbon bubble: why investors can no longer ignore climate risks 
<https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/oct/27/investment-advice-retirement-portfolio-tips-climate-change-financial-risk>*

    The financial risks posed by climate change and bad investments
    could make an ugly dent in your retirement savings, a new report
    warns...a growing number of investors who see global warming not
    only as a looming environmental problem but also an investment risk.
    Some fund managers are ringing alarm bells as well. BlackRock, the
    world’s largest asset manager with almost $5tn in assets, issued a
    report last month recommending investors include climate risks in
    their decisions....


*A warm climate is more sensitive to changes in atmospheric CO2 
<http://phys.org/news/2016-11-climate-sensitive-atmospheric-co2.html>*

    Increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations cause an imbalance in the
    Earth's heat budget: more heat is retained than expelled, which in
    turn generates global surface warming. Climate sensitivity is a term
    used to describe the amount of warming expected to result after an
    increase in the concentration of CO2. This number is traditionally
    calculated using complex computer models of the climate system, but
    despite decades of progress, the number is still subject to
    uncertainty....The new study, which included scientists from the
    University of Washington, the University at Albany, and the Potsdam
    Institute for Climate Impact Research, took a different approach in
    calculating climate sensitivity: using data from the history of
    Earth. The researchers examined various reconstructions of past
    temperatures and CO2 levels to determine how the climate system has
    responded to previous changes in its energy balance....Read more at:
    http://phys.org/news/2016-11-climate-sensitive-atmospheric-co2.html#jCp


*(Editorial today) This day in Climate History November 11, 2016 * 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/us/politics/donald-trump-climate-change.html>*<http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/11/10/fuel-divestment-movement-grows-boston-campuses/uOKCKYo71b6QhMVaKmQQNK/story.html>:  
 From D.R. Tucker  ----------
*

    November 11, 2016:  The New York Times reports:
    "For a look at how sharply policy in Washington will change under
    the administration of Donald J. Trump, look no further than the
    environment....."Mr. Trump has called human-caused climate change a
    'hoax.' He has vowed to dismantle the Environmental Protection
    Agency 'in almost every form.'..."And in an early salvo against one
    of President Obama’s signature issues, Mr. Trump has named Myron
    Ebell of the business-backed Competitive Enterprise Institute to
    head his E.P.A. transition team. Mr. Ebell has asserted that
    whatever warming caused by greenhouse gas pollution is modest and
    could be beneficial. A 2007 Vanity Fair profile of Mr. Ebell called
    him an 'oil industry mouthpiece.'  .."Global warming may indeed be
    the sharpest example of how policy in Washington will change under a
    Trump administration. President Obama has said his efforts to
    establish the United States as the global leader in climate policy
    are his proudest legacy...."But if Mr. Trump makes good on his
    campaign promises, experts in climate change policy warn, that
    legacy would unravel quickly. The world, then, may have no way to
    avoid the most devastating consequences of global warming, including
    rising sea levels, extreme droughts and food shortages, and more
    powerful floods and
    storms."....http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/us/politics/donald-trump-climate-change.html

*
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