[TheClimate.Vote] September 14, 2016 - Daily Global Warming News for voters, candidates and officials
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*Ship found in Arctic 168 years after doomed Northwest Passage attempt
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/12/hms-terror-wreck-found-arctic-nearly-170-years-northwest-passage-attempt>*
The long-lost ship of British polar explorer Sir John Franklin, HMS
Terror, has been found in pristine condition at the bottom of an
Arctic bay, researchers have said, in a discovery that challenges
the accepted history behind one of polar exploration’s deepest
mysteries....HMS Terror and Franklin’s flagship, HMS Erebus, were
abandoned in heavy sea ice far to the north of the eventual wreck
site in 1848, during the Royal Navy explorer’s doomed attempt to
complete the Northwest Passage....All 129 men on the Franklin
expedition died, in the worst disaster to hit Britain’s Royal Navy
in its long history of polar exploration. Search parties continued
to look for the ships for 11 years after they disappeared, but found
no trace, and the fate of the missing men remained an enigma that
tantalised generations of historians, archaeologists and
adventurers....Now that mystery seems to have been solved by a
combination of intrepid exploration – and an improbable tip from an
Inuk crewmember....On Sunday, a team from the charitable Arctic
Research Foundation manoeuvred a small, remotely operated vehicle
through an open hatch and into the ship to capture stunning images
that give insight into life aboard the vessel close to 170 years ago.
*Climate change*'significant and direct' threat to US military:
reports
<http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climatechange-idUSKCN11K0BC>
Reuters -2 hours ago
A separate report by a panel of retired military officials, also
published on Wednesday by the Center for *Climate*and Security, said
more frequent extreme weather is a threat to U.S...."There are few
easy answers, but one thing is clear: the current trajectory of
climatic change presents a strategically-significant risk to U.S.
national security, and inaction is not a viable option," said a
statement published on Wednesday by the Center for Climate and
Security, a Washington-based think tank.
Military experts say*climate change*poses 'significant risk' to
security
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/14/military-experts-climate-change-significant-security-risk>
A coalition of 25 military and national security experts, including
former advisers to Ronald Reagan and George W Bush, has warned
that*climate change*poses a "significant risk to US national
security and international security" that requires more attention
from the US federal government....The prominent members of the US
national security community warned that warming temperatures and
rising seas will increasingly inundate military bases and fuel
international conflict and mass migration, leading to "significant
and direct risks to US military readiness, operations and
strategy".*...*"*It’s hard to energize people now, but it’s too late
when the water is around your ankles,*"* he said, *"*People can say
the temperature hasn’t followed the models but I can read a
thermometer and a flood gauge. We need to do this threat analysis
now.*"**
"It's Time We Were Heard": Another Day in Court for*Climate*Kids
<http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/13/its-time-we-were-heard-another-day-court-climate-kids>
Common Dreams (press release) -5 hours ago
In a federal courthouse in Oregon on Tuesday, 21 youths and their
supporters argued that by failing to act on*climate change*, the
U.S. government has violated the youngest generation's
constitutional rights. .... Olson will argue that the federal
government, by failing to adequately regulate greenhouse gas
pollution and by continuing to lease new federal lands and waters
for fossil fuel extraction, as recently as this year, is violating
the kids' constitutional right to life, liberty, and property.
(Warming is causing the seas to rise, for example, and one plaintiff
lives in coastal Florida). She'll also claim that children are a
class that's being discriminated against when it comes to climate
change: They're not causing this problem, and yet they will be
disproportionately subjected to its dire consequences....The aim of
the suit is to have a court—the Supreme Court, if the suit advances
that far through the legal system—to require the federal government
to address climate change more aggressively through laws and
regulations. Lawyers in the case draw comparisons to the federal
response to Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court
decision that required the desegregation of schools. In that case,
"judges found there were fundamental constitutional rights to
equality and courts supervised the enforcement of those rights,"
Mary Christina Wood, a law professor at the University of Oregon,
told Bill Moyers.com last year. Our Children's Trust is hoping for a
similar outcome on the issue of climate change.
*Media Call Out Trump For Dodging Science Questions And Providing Vague
Answers
<http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/09/13/media-call-out-trump-dodging-key-science-questions/213045>*
Climate change stands out as perhaps the most egregious area of
disagreement between the two candidates, given its stakes and the
significant scientific consensus that humans have caused it. Trump,
who has previously called global warming a "hoax," referred to
climate change in quotation marks and suggested that "there is still
much that needs to be investigated." Clinton offered an abbreviated
recap of her plan to address the issue and called it "a defining
challenge of our time."... Global warming may be the issue with the
most obvious contrast, but it is far from the only area where the
difference is stark. On protecting ocean health, for instance,
Clinton wrote more than 400 words, citing a federal law that
protects fisheries and alluding to a plan to promote coastal
restoration.... Trump wrote just two sentences on the same topic,
saying he would "establish priorities" about how the federal
government spends money (presumably with little room for oceans).
Trump also questioned the premise of questions of biodiversity,
public health and food. "The implication of your question is that
there should be central control of American agriculture by the
federal government," Trump wrote in response to a question on food.
"That is totally inappropriate." [Time, 9/13/16]
*Western US faces wildfires explosion
<http://climatenewsnetwork.net/western-us-faces-wildfires-explosion/>*
Wildfires used to hit California only in the latter part of the
year, but changing climate and persistent drought mean they are now
a constant threat.... five drought years mean there is no moisture
in the vegetation...."When we get these fires now, we are seeing
what we call explosive fire growth," Mohler told the NPR radio
network...."And now the explosive fire growth statewide is
unfortunately the new normal. We’re seeing fire conditions that are
unprecedented. In my 22 years [in the fire service], I haven’t seen
fire move like I have this year."...
CO2,*Climate Change*Seen As Waste Disposal Challenge
<http://www.climatecentral.org/news/co2-climate-change-waste-disposal-challenge-20692>
Climate Central -7 hours ago
That's why some scientists are increasingly looking at*global
warming*as a waste disposal problem. They say that thinking of
emissions in terms of trash that needs to be taken out may draw more
attention to something called negative carbon emissions*....*"*If
you dig up a ton of CO2, you have to remove a ton of CO2,*"* he
said. *"*If I were to dump garbage in front of my house, my
neighbors would be upset with me, and I would not make things less
tense if I promised to research the problem and figure out how to
reduce my garbage production by embracing more modern methods and
much higher efficiency. In the end, I have to get rid of the
garbage....both carbon dioxide removal and drastic emissions cuts
are necessary to stop global warming....*"*We can’t stop (emissions)
in time to avoid harmful climate change, and we need to start
working backward as soon as we can,*"* Lackner said. *"*Of course,
we need to do all the other things as well to stop emissions.
Negative emissions combined with positive emissions will not get us
there.*"*
*
Rifts are forming in the GOP on*climate*and clean energy. Here's how
they could be exploited.
<http://www.vox.com/2016/9/13/12862360/gop-climate-clean-energy-faison>
Vox -7 hours ago
Last week, I wrote about new research showing that partisan
polarization on*climate change*is worse than ever. In a nutshell,
fewer than half of US Republicans acknowledge anthropogenic*climate
change*or worry about its impacts. This is rather alarming*...*
Scientific organizations must be braver in
confronting*climate*denial
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-supran/scientific-organizations_b_11990708.html>
Huffington Post -6 hours ago
Exxon is a company that has spent decades perfecting the art
of*climate science*disinformation. Decades orchestrating, funding,
and perpetuating campaigns designed to confuse the public, sabotage
science, and slander scientists, many of whom are AGU ...AGU’s
decision is an implicit sanction, however unintentional, for Exxon
to attack science and scientists. It is a failure to protect the
integrity of science - and scientists themselves - against those who
undermine our very raison d’être: truth and knowledge.
Record-smashing August means long-awaited 'jump' in*global
warming*is here
<https://thinkprogress.org/global-warming-jump-419da72c9215>
ThinkProgress -2 hours ago
We appear to be in the midst of the long-awaited jump in global
temperatures. And that means "The kinds of extreme weather we have
seen over the past year or so will be routine all too soon, but then
even worse records will be set," as Kevin Trenberth*....That’s where
we are. Global temperatures often jump over a couple years, then
they rise more slowly, like a staircase (or ladder) where the steps
are sloped up. The climate science deniers make a lot of noise
during the short periods of slower warming, and stay strangely quiet
during the jumps. Go figure!...Trenberth explains that *"*the nature
of the changes going on now suggest that we have made another step
up the ladder to another rung, and we won’t go down again.*"* That
means the recent bouts of extreme weather *"*will be routine all too
soon, but then even worse records will be set. It is not something
to welcome and it is hard to plan for.*"*.*
Russian scientists are 'besieged' by polar bears at a remote Arctic
post
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/09/13/russian-scientists-are-besieged-by-polar-bears-at-a-remote-arctic-post/>
Washington Post -5 hours ago
A team of Russian weather experts claim that their station on an
ice-covered Arctic isle is "besieged" by polar bears, according to a
report by Russian news agency TASS....The five researchers charged
with staffing the outpost on Troynoy Island say that there are about
10 adult polar bears as well as cubs circling their base. A female
polar bear spends nights perched outside the station's windows,
making it dangerous for the scientists to exit. They have reportedly
run out of flares and have lost at least one of their dogs to the
arctic beasts...The presence of the polar bears has made carrying
out meteorological observations difficult, reports TASS. Russian law
outlaws killing polar bears, a globally-listed endangered species,
so scientists in the Arctic are mostly equipped with flares and guns
with rubber bullets.
*Arctic residents issued rubber bullets to shoot at polar bears
<http://siberiantimes.com/ecology/others/news/n0384-arctic-residents-issued-with-rubber-bullets-to-shoot-at-polar-bears/>*
It is illegal to shoot and kill polar bears but now residents in the
Siberian Arctic are being issued with rubber bullets amid fears of
attacks by the animals. Flare pistols are also used to scare away
the bears....Two places in the Siberian north are in particular
danger - the villagers of Amderma, population 350, and the occupants
of a lonely weather station on the island of Vaygach, between the
Pechora and Kara seas. Until now the two female scientists and one
male engineer have had no weapons to protect themselves from the
bears which come close....One of the women reported: 'They sleep
near the houses. Two of them walk together. They are aggressive.
Recently they fought together near our house.'...Employees of the
station go out twice daily to take measurements at the sea. 'This is
dangerous: these people need to walk a few hundred metres,' reported
WWF Russia....The meteorologist added: 'So we go, your head rotating
360 degrees. Yesterday we came out and a bear was near the house.
Three times our engineer fired a small flare pistol and the bear was
not even scared. We managed to scare it off with a flare, but not far.'
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