[TheClimate.Vote] Sept 28, 2016 - Daily Global Warming News for voters, candidates and officials
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The World Passes 400 PPM Threshold. Permanently
<http://www.climatecentral.org/news/world-passes-400-ppm-threshold-permanently-20738>
Climate Central -6 hours ago
In the centuries to come, history books will likely look back on
September 2016 as a major milestone for the world's*climate*. At a
time when atmospheric carbon dioxide is usually at its minimum, the
monthly value failed to drop below 400 parts per million......The
carbon dioxide we’ve already committed to the atmosphere has warmed
the world about 1.8°F since the start of the industrial revolution.
This year, in addition to marking the start of our new 400 ppm
world, is also set to be the hottest year on record. The planet has
edged right up against the 1.5°C (2.7°F) warming threshold, a key
metric in last year’s Paris climate agreement.
*Climate change*could wipe out many food cereals by 2070
<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2107252-climate-change-could-wipe-out-many-food-cereals-by-2070/>
New Scientist -1 hour ago
*Global warming*could rapidly threaten grasses including staple
foods such as wheat and rice that provide half of all the calories
consumed by humans....Wheat, rice, maize, rye, barley and sorghum
are all edible grasses that yield nutritious grains. In many parts
of the world and throughout history, wheat or rice famines have led
to widespread starvation...The new research looked at the ability of
236 grass species to adapt to new climatic niches – the local
environments on which they depend for survival....Faced with rapid
climate change, species wedded to a particular niche can survive if
they move to another region where conditions are more suitable, or
evolve to fit in with their altered surroundings....The study found
that the predicted rate of climate change was typically 5,000 times
faster than the estimated speed at which grasses could adapt to new
niches....Grasses are an important food source for humans —
especially rice, wheat and corn. And, they wrote, evolutionary
adaptation seems particularly unlikely for domesticated species and
even local declines may be devastating for some human populations.
Teaching Middle Schoolers*Climate Change*Without Terrifying Them
<http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/09/27/492860897/teaching-middle-schoolers-climate-change-without-terrifying-them>
NPR -3 hours ago
Bertha Vazquez has taught earth science for more than twenty-five
years. "For many years I covered the basic standard, probably like
most people in the country do....A study in the journal Science this
spring found that half of U.S. science teachers spend less than two
hours on climate change each year....And teachers in Florida may be
no exception. Florida is one state that has not adopted somewhat
newly designed science standards that are gaining popularity and
teach about human-induced climate change....So, Vazquez says, the
next day in class she resolved to do more. The school where she
teaches, George Washington Carver Middle School, sits just eight
feet above sea level; several of the surrounding neighborhoods are
even lower....She thought, by the time her students were adults with
families of their own, storm surges could bring waves lapping at
their front doors. "If we just despair, it leads to inactivity," she
says. "So I thought, 'If they're doing positive things, it will be
helpful.' "... Vazquez's students meet climate scientists in class
and calculate how many desalination plants it would take to turn
rising seas into a sustainable source of fresh water (too
many)....Finally, there are students like Penny Richards. She says
after a year in Vazquez's class, she reads climate news while she
rides the bus to school....In class, ... she tries to balance the
fear that comes with taking climate science seriously, and measured
optimism. She draws on examples of past environmental successes —
like how the ozone layer is on the mend — to show what collective
action can accomplish.... "In your lifetime, you're going to see a
sea change," Vazquez explains to her students at the end of class.
"I don't want you all to walk out of here like, 'Woe is me, it's
going to be over!' "... Privately, though, she acknowledges a
cognitive dissonance in teaching about the onset of a planet-sized
crisis while smiling at sixth-graders.... "You can't depress the
hell out of them ... if you want them to start looking for
solutions," she says. "So I don't really go there. Do I feel that
way personally? Yes ... but in class I put on my happy face.".... A
pivotal moment in Vazquez's class often comes when her students open
an app called Eyes on the Rise, where they plug in their address and
learn how far they live above sea level...."One kid will say, 'I'm
10 feet above sea level. I'm going to be OK,' " Vazquez explains.
"I'll say 'Yeah, you'll be on a little hill, but what about
everybody else around you? We're all in this boat together.'
"....For students like seventh-grader Penny Richards — the one who
reads climate news on the bus — that's a sobering moment. "Miami's
basically at sea level. I live next to a canal," she reasons. "Life
as we know it, we're going to have to move to an entirely different
setting soon if we don't do something about this, because my entire
neighborhood will be underwater." ....The operative phrase there, of
course, is "do something." Penny and her classmates think we can.
Deal emerges to curb*greenhouse-gas*emissions from aviation
<http://www.nature.com/news/deal-emerges-to-curb-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-aviation-1.20680>
Nature.com -10 hours ago
The International Civil Aviation Organization is mulling new rules
to fight*climate change*. Governments will begin final negotiations
this week on a plan to curb carbon emissions from international
aircraft flights beginning in 2020.
This court case will decide if Obama's signature*climate*policy goes
down in flames
<http://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2016/9/27/13063282/clean-power-plan-dc-circuit-court>
Vox -1 hour ago
Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a
far-reaching rule that would, for the first time ever, regulate
carbon dioxide emissions from America's existing coal- and gas-fired
power plants - one of the biggest sources of*climate**...*
*Global Warming*Trend Warms the US West, Leaves East Shivering
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27092016/global-warming-trend-warms-only-us-west-leaves-east-shivering>
InsideClimate News -3 hours ago
A pattern of warm and dry winters in the West, paired with frigid
conditions in the East, has become more frequent since 1980, a trend
that reflects the influence of*global warming*on the atmosphere in
the Northern Hemisphere. The pattern, described ina new study in the
journal Atmospheres
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016JD025116/full>as a
"North American winter temperature dipole," has been costly,
including a multi-year drought in California and economically
disruptive snowstorms in the Northeast, according to the scientists
who analyzed climate trends in North America....
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