[TheClimate.Vote] August 17, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Aug 17 11:06:16 EDT 2017
/August 17, 2017/
*For Crop Harvests, Every Degree of Warming Counts
<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/for-crop-harvests-every-degree-of-warming-counts/>*
Scientific American
By Adam Aton, E&E News on August 16, 2017
The world can expect three to seven percent less yield for each degree
rise in temperature.
Each degree of global warming will cut into harvests of the world's
staple crops, according to a new study that takes a broad view of the
agricultural research field.
Wheat, corn, rice and soybeans make up two-thirds of humans' caloric
intake. Each crop reacts differently to rising temperatures, and the
effects vary from place to place. On average, though, the world can
expect 3.1 to 7.4 percent less yield per degree Celsius of warming,
according to the research...
The findings draw from a meta-analysis of more than 70 studies of
models, statistical regressions and experiments. Twenty-nine researchers
published the paper this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences...
Corn proved most sensitive to rising temperatures. Evidence suggests
global corn harvests could decline 7.4 percent per degree Celsius of
warming.
Rice, a main food source for developing countries, could decline an
average of 3.2 percent. Some research pointed toward an even greater
impact - as much as 6 percent - while statistical regressions suggested
almost no impact...
And soybeans, the world's fourth-most important commodity crop, could
yield 3.1 percent less per degree. Although soybeans offered the most
uncertain results, the researchers estimated American harvests could
decline an average of 6.8 percent per degree, while Chinese harvests
might not see any statistically significant changes.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/for-crop-harvests-every-degree-of-warming-counts/
*12-Step Climate Change & Global Warming Action Plan For India
<https://cleantechnica.com/2017/08/16/12-step-climate-change-global-warming-action-plan-india/>*
August 16th, 2017 Actions Needed to Reverse Climate Change and Global
Warming in India:
*1. Introduce a carbon tax: *Capturing carbon and planting trees
could help slow and eventually reverse global warming trends. A
carbon tax could be used to deter more emissions and some of the
cash could then be put into important solutions on the other side of
the coin, such as capturing carbon and planting trees.
*2. Exponentially increase the deployment of renewable energy:
*Aggressively expand large-scale deployment of both centralized and
distributed renewable energy - including solar, wind, hydro,
biomass, and geothermal - to ease the strain on the present
transmission and distribution system - and to allow more off-grid
populations to be reached. Provide incentives to kickstart renewable
energy programs for massive solar rooftops - over 100 million - and
with home energy storage batteries.
*3. Develop a national renewable energy (RE) policy: *Enact and
deploy a comprehensive new energy roadmap with innovative RE
policies. In addition, set National RE Standards such as 20 percent
by 2020, 40 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050 - to create
demand, new industries and innovation, and a new wave of green jobs.
*4. Electrifying transportation: *Expedite a move to electrify
transportation by encouraging expanded use of electric vehicles (EV)
and plug-in hybrids, alongside deployment of solar-powered EV
charging stations around the country. Develop and implement
time-of-day pricing to encourage charging of vehicles at night and
other times when peak demand is low. Adopt nationwide charging of
electric cars from solar panels on roofs, carports, and
solar-powered EV charging stations around the country. In addition,
like China is doing, launch the public transportation system of the
future with "zero-emission" battery-powered electric buses in all
major cities. India must make a massive shift that will lead to
widespread adoption of EVs in the next 5 to 7 years.
*5. Energy efficiency: *Promote energy efficiency in the economy,
notably in industry, transportation, buildings, and appliances. Make
energy efficiency a high priority by expediting the development and
implementation of cost-effective energy efficiency standards. To
reduce the long-term demand for energy, engage states, industrial
companies, utilities, and other stakeholders to accelerate energy
efficiency investments such as large-scale, nationwide use of LED
lamps, etc.
*6. Utility-scale projects:* Plan for the long term - phase out
conventional energy subsidies and develop a long-term plan to
replace fossil with utility-scale renewable generation. We can no
longer ignore the effect of pollution and climate change on health
of our citizens.
*7. Renewable Innovative Financing Solution: *Provide innovative
financing (e.g., tax-free solar bonds or green infrastructure bonds,
etc.) to instill more confidence from potential investors and
decrease the cost of financing for renewable energy projects. Create
and fund a national smart infrastructure bank to accelerate local
demand for renewable energy.
*8. Decentralized energy: *Avoid future fossil fuel investments in
India and, instead, emphasize nationwide deployment of
community-scale solar projects and microgrids with storage. India's
present 40 GW solar target should be extended to include
photovoltaic panels on the rooftop of every home in India,
generating enough power to reduce the country's massive dependence
on fossil fuels.
*9. Microgrids: *Aggressively invest in a smart, two-way grid and
also microgrids. Invest in smart meters, as well as reliable
networks that can accommodate the two-way flow of electricity.
*10. Solar Roadways: *India should also take advantage of its vast
network of roads across the country and the sun that beats down on
them and turn them into energy-creating solar superhighways. The
idea of solar panel roads is to replace traditional asphalt roads
with glass-based "solar panels that you can drive on" in a bid to
turn roads into sources of renewable energy.
*11. Develop energy storage: *This includes thermal storage, grid
battery storage (e.g., Tesla Powerwall home battery backup),
compressed air/gas, vehicles-to-grid/home, pumped hydro, fuel cells
or other hydrogen storage, flywheels, superconducting magnets, and
supercapacitors. Develop a "Hydrogen Economy" plan. India can export
sunshine around the world by converting solar energy into "Liquid
Hydrogen Fuel."
*12. Transform India into a global solar manufacturing hub:*
Establish R&D facilities within academia, research institutions,
industry, government, and private entities to guide technology
development.
https://cleantechnica.com/2017/08/16/12-step-climate-change-global-warming-action-plan-india/
*An Inconvenient Sequel review - Trump looms over Al Gore's urgent
climate-change doc
<https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/16/an-inconvenient-sequel-truth-to-power-review-al-gore-climate-change>*
4 / 5 stars
New challenges - and a science-dismissing US President - make Gore's
sequel to his 2006 film feel both cinematic and compelling
Eleven record-breaking summers on from An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore
doubles down.
Cohen and Shenk don't deviate radically from that film's formula. Again,
excerpts of Gore's orations (manna for bar chart aficionados) are
bolstered with visits to natural disaster sites (as Irwin Allen foresaw,
extreme weather is inherently cinematic), while behind-the-scenes
diversions find our host battling to discuss temperature hikes with an
election-crazed media and an expert-intolerant public.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/16/an-inconvenient-sequel-truth-to-power-review-al-gore-climate-change
*Congress, it's time to step up on climate change
<http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/346837-congress-its-time-to-step-up-on-climate-change>*
BY DANIEL COHAN,
Environmental policy has followed a recurrent pattern this year.
Industry pushes Scott Pruitt's EPA to undo an Obama-era protection for
clean water, clean air or climate. Litigation then counteracts those
rollbacks. For example, an appeals court reinstated a methane leak rule,
and a lawsuit prompted EPA to stop delaying an ozone smog rule.
Those roles were reversed last week. The U.S. Court of Appeals in
Washington overturned an Obama-era rule phasing down the use of
hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) - refrigerants that are extremely potent at
warming the climate. In this case, Trump's Justice Department and U.S.
chemical companies had actually asked the court to uphold the rule.
The court's ruling may be just a temporary setback for a narrow rule.
But it also highlights a more fundamental problem: Congress has failed
to enact comprehensive climate legislation
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/346837-congress-its-time-to-step-up-on-climate-change
*What is the Climate Solutions Caucus?
<https://citizensclimatelobby.org/climate-solutions-caucus/>*
The Climate Solutions Caucus is a bipartisan group in the US House of
Representatives which will explore policy options that address the
impacts, causes, and challenges of our changing climate. The caucus was
founded in February of 2016 by two south-Florida representatives Rep.
Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) and Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) who will serve as
co-chairs of the caucus.
"The Caucus will serve as an organization to educate members on
economically-viable options to reduce climate risk and protect our
nation's economy, security, infrastructure, agriculture, water supply
and public safety," according to documents filed with the Committee on
House Administration.
Membership will be kept even between Democrats and Republicans.
https://citizensclimatelobby.org/climate-solutions-caucus/
*The Dark Side of Resilience
<https://hbr.org/2017/08/the-dark-side-of-resilience>*
Resilience, defined as the psychological capacity to adapt to stressful
circumstances and to bounce back from adverse events, is a highly
sought-after personality trait in the modern workplace. As Sheryl
Sandberg and Adam Grant argue in their recent book, we can think of
resilience as a sort of muscle that contracts during good times and
expands during bad times.
In that sense, the best way to develop resilience is through hardship,
which various philosophers have pointed out through the years: Seneca
noted that "difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body"
and Nietzsche famously stated "that which does not kill us, makes us
stronger." In a similar vein, the United States Marine Corps uses the
"pain is just weakness leaving the body" mantra as part of their
hardcore training program.
Large-scale scientific studies suggest that even adaptive competencies
become maladaptive if taken to the extreme. As Rob Kaiser's research on
leadership versatility indicates, overused strengths become weaknesses.
In line, it is easy to conceive of situations in which individuals could
be too resilient for their own sake.
For example, extreme resilience could drive people to become overly
persistent with unattainable goals. Although we tend to celebrate
individuals who aim high or dream big, it is usually more effective to
adjust one's goals to more achievable levels, which means giving up on
others. Indeed, scientific reviews show that most people waste an
enormous amount of time persisting with unrealistic goals, a phenomenon
called the "false hope syndrome." Even when past behaviors clearly
suggest that goals are unlikely to be attained, overconfidence and an
unfounded degree of optimism can lead to people wasting energy on
pointless tasks.
Along the same line, too much resilience could make people overly
tolerant of adversity.
In sum, there is no doubt that resilience is a useful and highly
adaptive trait, especially in the face of traumatic events. However,
when taken too far, it may focus individuals on impossible goals and
make them unnecessarily tolerant of unpleasant or counterproductive
circumstances. This reminds us of Voltaire's Candide, the sarcastic
masterpiece that exposes the absurd consequences of extreme optimism: "I
have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in
love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our more
stupid melancholy propensities, for is there anything more stupid than
to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw
away, to loathe one's very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the
snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?"
Finally, while it may be reassuring for teams, organizations, and
countries to select leaders on the basis of their resilience - who
doesn't want to be protected by a tough and strong leader? - such
leaders are not necessarily good for the group, much like bacteria or
parasites are much more problematic when they are more resistant.
https://hbr.org/2017/08/the-dark-side-of-resilience
*How to Evaluate, Manage, and Strengthen Your Resilience
<https://hbr.org/2016/06/how-to-evaluate-manage-and-strengthen-your-resilience>*
David Kopans
https://hbr.org/2016/06/how-to-evaluate-manage-and-strengthen-your-resilience
*Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure
<https://hbr.org/2016/06/resilience-is-about-how-you-recharge-not-how-you-endure>*
Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielan
https://hbr.org/2016/06/resilience-is-about-how-you-recharge-not-how-you-endure
*
Trump Has Broad Power to Block Climate Change Report
<https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-has-broad-power-to-block-climate-change-report>*
Influential advisers press the Trump administration to subject a draft
climate change report to a "red team" review that many scientists decry
as misplaced.
Earlier this month, someone involved in the government's latest report
on climate change provided The New York Times with a copy of the version
submitted to the Trump administration for final approval. The main
intent of the leak, according to several people tracking the report, was
to complicate any attempt to suppress the study or water down its findings.
Publication of the document inflamed an already-fraught debate about
climate change. Administration officials and Republican lawmakers
accused the leaker and journalists of manufacturing a dispute. They said
the report, which was required by law, was moving through a normal
process of White House review.
The report was submitted in late June and the Trump administration has
broad authority to review its findings. Any one of a number of
government agencies can block its release, which is ultimately subject
to presidential review.
...author Katharine Hayhoe has been busy on Twitter:
"Our 600 page climate report in one tweet:
It's real
It's us
It's serious
And the window of time to prevent dangerous impacts is closing fast"
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-has-broad-power-to-block-climate-change-report
*Climate fiction forum sees TV drama as one solution to global warming
<http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/climate-fiction-forum-sees-tv-drama-as-one-solution-to-global-warming-20170815-gxwew4.html>*
Garry Maddox
For marine ecologist Adriana Verges, the problem of climate change is so
urgent that scientists need clever new strategies to draw more attention
to it.
And one of them is developing TV dramas that focus on not sci-fi but
cli-fi - climate fiction.
Dr Verges, who lectures at the University of NSW, came up with the idea
of teaming scientists with leading screenwriters for a forum that is
being held at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
After briefings from specialists in climate science, geo-engineering,
psychology, human health, renewable energy, politics and history,
screenwriters will crunch ideas for new shows in a forum that also
involves ABC TV, production company Jungle, Screen Australia and Create NSW.
"For ages scientists have been using our graphs and our data and our
facts to try to communicate our science but it's been demonstrated that
this doesn't really work very well," Dr Verges says. "It very rarely
influences people's opinions and hardly ever motivates action.
"Storytelling, in contrast, is emerging as a very clear way to
communicate environmental issues."
"Ironically, people sit around in Hollywood try to work out ways of
creating a story about an evil genius trying to destroy the planet," he
says.
"And now we have real identities like [Adani chairman] Gautam Adani and
former Exxon chief [and US Secretary of State] Rex Tillerson, who The
Guardian once characterised as 'the man who sold the world' for pursuing
company profits while disregarding the impact on global climate."
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/climate-fiction-forum-sees-tv-drama-as-one-solution-to-global-warming-20170815-gxwew4.html
*This Day in Climate History August 17, 2000
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EbnKxBNcvI>- from D.R. Tucker*
August 17, 2000: At the Democratic National Convention, Vice President
Al Gore, the Democratic Presidential nominee, declares:
"In my first term [in Congress], a family in Hardeman County, Tennessee
wrote a letter and told how worried they were about toxic waste that had
been dumped near their home. I held some of the first hearings on the
issue. And ever since, I've been there in the fight against the big
polluters.
"Our children should not have to draw the breath of life in cities awash
in pollution. When they come in from playing on a hot summer afternoon,
every child in America, anywhere in America, ought to be able to turn on
the faucet and get a glass of safe, clean drinking water.
"On the issue of the environment, I've never given up, I've never backed
down, and I never will.
"And I say it again tonight: we must reverse the silent, rising tide of
global warming."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EbnKxBNcvI
/
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