[TheClimate.Vote] August 20, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News

[Richard Pauli]

/August 20, 2017/

*More GOP lawmakers bucking their party on climate change 
<http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/19/more-gop-lawmakers-bucking-their-party-on-climate-change-241800>*
But if the Republican Party is undergoing a shift on climate, it is at 
its earliest, most incremental stage.
LOS ANGELES — While President Donald Trump continues to dismantle 
Obama-era climate policies, an unlikely surge of Republican lawmakers 
has begun taking steps to distance themselves from the GOP's hard line 
on climate change.
The House Climate Solutions Caucus, a bipartisan backwater when it 
formed early last year, has more than tripled in size since January, 
driven in part by Trump's decision in June to withdraw the United States 
from the Paris climate accord...
"Strangely, President Trump helped us," said Bob Inglis, a former 
Republican congressman whose views on climate change contributed to his 
defeat in a South Carolina primary in 2010. "His withdrawal from Paris 
dramatically increased the number of [internet] searches about climate 
change and increased interest … People are getting more and more 
uncomfortable with the nuttiness of these positions."
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/19/more-gop-lawmakers-bucking-their-party-on-climate-change-241800


*Brazilian downpours oust familiar drizzle 
<http://climatenewsnetwork.net/brazilian-downpours-oust-familiar-drizzle/>*
Misty rain is giving way to fear of flash floods as Brazilian downpours 
cause chaos in the country's biggest city.
Now that gentle rain is just a memory: instead, people frequently run 
the risk of being trapped in streets suddenly turned into raging 
torrents; cars are flattened by falling trees; hillside shanty dwellings 
are swallowed up by mudslides. The city has also got much hotter.
After analysing meteorological data for the region over the last 74 
years, a group of scientists from São Paulo University (USP) found an 
increase both in the frequency of rainy days and in the volume of rain. 
Professor (retired) Maria Assunção Faus da Silva Dias, of the Institute 
of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences at USP, said the aim 
of their research was to verify if the forecasts about changing rain 
patterns were becoming a reality.
     "We discovered that where it rains a lot it will rain more, and 
where there is drought there will be more drought"
In previous studies, climatologists had foreseen that one of the main 
effects of climate change would be the exacerbation of extreme effects, 
including an increase in the frequency and intensity of storms and 
severe droughts.
http://climatenewsnetwork.net/brazilian-downpours-oust-familiar-drizzle/


*Using radio to confront climate change in Peru 
<http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/07/radio-confront-climate-change-peru-170724102823601.html>*
Radio hosts us indigenous language radio broadcasts in Peruvian Amazon 
to raise awareness and rally isolated villages.
[Neil Giardino/Al Jazeera]   @NeilGiardino
Pahoyan, Peru - In June, indigenous communities in the Central Peruvian 
Amazon marched in the sweltering jungle city of Pucallpa to condemn 
widespread deforestation in their communities and to commemorate 
Amazonian victims of environmental conflict. In the remote village of 
Pahoyan, Antonio Rojas Shuna got word of the protest quickly and in his 
native language, but not on TV or the internet.
Radio is the bridge between the city and indigenous communities.
In the age of instant access to digital information, radio is redefining 
its purpose in isolated villages in the Peruvian Amazon, where Spanish 
is a second language and signs of climate change are everywhere.
His village is struggling to find ways to adapt to deforestation, 
36-year-old Mahya told Al Jazeera. Severe flooding has caused Pahoyan to 
seek higher ground three times in recent years. This February, the 
village road became a river.
"Radio is the bridge between the city and indigenous communities," said 
Moises Cardenas Sanchez, host of the environmental programme Prensa 
Libre Intercultural, one of nearly a dozen Shipibo-language radio 
programmes in Pucallpa...
"Our Shipibo ancestors never had these problems," said the 50-year-old 
elementary school teacher, with a hint of hopelessness in his voice...
He has recently begun teaching his students about their obligation to 
protect their forests.
"When I hear these programmes in my language it makes me want to stand 
up and do something about it," he said.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/07/radio-confront-climate-change-peru-170724102823601.html


*Global warming: July continues the upward trend 
<http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/global-warming-july-continues-upward-trend-170818081255733.html>*
Last month was only 0.05 degrees Celsius below the record set in 2016.
NOAA's National Centre for Environmental Information (NCEI) has just 
released its Global Climate Report for July, and for those concerned 
about the future of our planet, it makes for grim reading.
In records stretching back to 1880, July 2017 was the second warmest 
July ever recorded.
The average land and sea surface temperature was 16.63C. That is 0.83C 
above the 20th-century average and only 0.05C behind the record year of 
2016.
Nine of the 10 warmest Julys on record have occurred since 2005, with 
only 1998 (a strong El Nino year) preventing a clean sweep for the 21st 
century.
NCEI also point out that July is the 41st consecutive July and the 391st 
consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th-century average.
Every month of 2017, so far, has been in the top three warmest for that 
particular month. To date, it is the second warmest January to July 
period on record, just 0.14C behind last year, which was the warmest on 
record.
Although it is unlikely that 2017 will exceed the warmth of 2016, it is 
expected to be just behind it, making the warmest years on record, 2016, 
2017 and 2015.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/global-warming-july-continues-upward-trend-170818081255733.html


*Greenland: how rapid climate change on world's largest island will 
affect us all 
<https://theconversation.com/greenland-how-rapid-climate-change-on-worlds-largest-island-will-affect-us-all-82675>*
The largest wildfire ever recorded in Greenland was recently spotted 
close to the west coast town of Sisimiut, not far from Disko Island 
where I research retreating glaciers. The fire has captured public and 
scientific interest not just because its size and location came as a 
surprise, but also because it is yet another signpost of deep 
environmental change in the Arctic.
I have considered only a handful of the major environmental shifts in 
Greenland over the past few decades, but the effects of increasing 
temperatures are being felt in all parts of the earth system. Sometimes 
these are manifest as extreme events, at others as slow and insidious 
changes.
The different parts of the environmental jigsaw interact, so that 
changes in one part (sea ice decline, say) influence another (polar bear 
populations). We need to keep a close eye on the system as a whole if we 
are to make reliable interpretations – and meaningful plans for the future.
https://theconversation.com/greenland-how-rapid-climate-change-on-worlds-largest-island-will-affect-us-all-82675


*Is climate change to blame in Freetown?* 
<http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/climate-change-blame-freetown-170817133120465.html>
Humanity may have worsened the conditions on the ground but is the 
weather worse anyway?
Rob McElwee
The deadly landslide 
<http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/sierra-leone-mudslide-survivors-describe-shock-anger-170817094624457.html>in 
Freetown, Sierra Leone on Monday morning was undoubtedly partly the 
result of deforestation. During the rainy season, Sierra Leone is one of 
the wettest places on earth, statistically. And from that point of view, 
it is a surprise that such disasters don't happen more often...
That finding came from a scientific paper published in 2006, 
<https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-87-8-1057>a study using a worldwide 
database. A more recent investigation has found that the number of these 
storms has increased in sub-Saharan Africa, by a factor of three, since 
1982.
That latter conclusion came from another scientific paper, 
<https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v544/n7651/full/nature22069.html#ref1> 
published this year, discovering evidence that looks like a clear link 
to a warming climate. It is a well-established expectation that 
temperatures will rise, as a global average, and that local variations 
will be vastly different...
And as you cannot change the laws of physics, the resulting 
thunderstorms, grouped as mesoscale convective systems, now have more 
vigorous construction. They also have the necessary shear in wind 
direction and strength within the thunderheads to create an efficient 
up- and downdraught circulation.
This increase in the intensity of these major storm systems looks like a 
result of climate change. The climate forecast sees the Sahara warming 
more which leads directly to a future of more intense rainfall events, 
especially in the Sahel. Resultant devastating flooding and landslides 
will become more common.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/climate-change-blame-freetown-170817133120465.html


*Let Monday's eclipse be a call to action on climate change 
<http://www.idahostatesman.com/living/religion/article168082097.html>*
BY RABBI DAN FINK
AUGUST 18, 2017 4:54 PM
Talmud teaches: "When the sun is eclipsed, it is a bad omen for the 
entire world."
This is not surprising. Nearly every ancient tradition shared this view. 
Shakespeare describes an eclipse as a "stain on the sun that portended 
no good." The English word "eclipse" comes from the Greek, "ekleipsi," 
which implies, at its root, abandonment. In a prescientific world, the 
sun's unexpected diminishment and even disappearance must have been 
utterly terrifying. Without its light and heat, the Earth would be a 
lifeless, frozen hunk of rock. What could be more traumatic than the 
sun's abandonment?
Times have changed. This weekend, millions of people across the U.S. 
will go significantly out of their way to view the Great American 
Eclipse. As writer Ross Andersen notes: "The primary emotion most of us 
now feel upon glimpsing an eclipse is wonder." The moon, which is, 
amazingly, both 400 times smaller than the sun and also 400 times closer 
to Earth, perfectly blocks the sun, so day turns to night and the sun's 
corona glitters in the darkened sky. Here in Idaho, many will witness 
what will be a once-in-a-lifetime event.
I share the wonder. I don't believe in the kind of God who makes 
everything happen for a reason, micromanaging the Creation with divine 
signs and portents. Eclipses are not omens in response to our sins; they 
are entirely predictable and will occur whether we are sinful or 
saintly. Like other celestial mechanics, they are, in fact, powerful 
reminders that we human beings are not the center of the universe.
Yet I am convinced that with a bit of post-modern interpretation, Talmud 
still has something significant to teach us on these matters. My 
conviction that eclipses are not sent as inherently purposeful messages 
from an omnipotent deity need not leave them absent of moral 
significance. As fundamentally meaning-making creatures, we human beings 
are strongly inclined to find our own purposes in events after the fact. 
This eclipse might still serve as a powerful sign for humanity if that's 
how we consciously choose to understand it.
How, then, might we interpret both the fear and wonder of this week's 
solar eclipse in a contemporary context?
I suggest we take it as a call to action on climate change. On Monday, 
Aug. 21 — or, by the Jewish calendar, the eve of Rosh Chodesh Elul, a 
month devoted to reflection and repentance — the source of life on Earth 
will, for a moment or two, go dark, from coast to coast across the 
world's most powerful nation. And then, just as scientifically 
predictably — and, at the same time, still miraculously — the light and 
warmth that sustain us will return. Let this awesome event serve as a 
reminder that unless we change our behavior as a species, in the future, 
we may not be so lucky. The damage that we are doing to our planet — and 
our own civilization — with our profligate devastation of Earth's 
natural systems is not so easily undone. May the temporary eclipse of 
the sun awaken us to the wisdom of philosopher and naturalist Kathleen 
Dean Moore: "To let the world slip away — the starfish and sea anemones, 
the green and fecund marshland, the glacial streams — to let it slip 
away because we're too busy, or too comfortable to change, is a sin 
against creation."
Now is the time for turning, in action and in prayer. Let us conclude 
with the words of poet Daniel Landinsky, inspired by the work of Persian 
Sufi mystic Hafiz:
Even
After
All this time
The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe
Me."
Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the
Whole Sky.
Dan Fink is the rabbi for the Ahavath Beth Israel congregation.
The Idaho Statesman's weekly faith column features a rotation of writers 
from many different faiths and perspectives.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/living/religion/article168082097.html

//
*This Day in Climate History August 20, 2011 
<https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/08/20/1009012/-65-70-Protesters-arrested-in-front-of-the-White-House-w-video-photo-update> 
-  from D.R. Tucker*
August 20, 2011: Several dozen climate activists are arrested in 
Washington, DC at the start of a two-week civil-disobedience campaign 
against the Keystone XL pipeline. Over 1,200 are arrested by the time 
the campaign concludes.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/08/20/1009012/-65-70-Protesters-arrested-in-front-of-the-White-House-w-video-photo-update 


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