[TheClimate.Vote] August 21, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News

[Richard Pauli]

/August 21, 2017/

*Solar eclipse: Why the sun is not responsible for recent climate change 
<https://www.carbonbrief.org/why-the-sun-is-not-responsible-for-recent-climate-change>*
With a total solar eclipse sweeping across North America, everyone is 
suddenly paying attention to the sun. One of the most common sceptical 
arguments against human-caused climate change is that changes in solar 
activity, rather than just CO2, is playing the biggest role.
At first glance, it seems to make intuitive sense: the sun is a massive 
nuclear fusion reactor a million times larger than Earth, it is 
responsible for almost all the energy reaching our planet, and in the 
past few decades scientists have learned that solar activity varies 
significantly over time. Indeed, changes in the distribution of sunlight 
reaching the Earth clearly change the temperature dramatically on a 
daily and annual timescale.
However, since 1970 global temperatures have shot up by almost 0.7 C, 
while the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth has actually 
declined. Similarly, the upper atmosphere is cooling while the lower 
atmosphere warms, a clear fingerprint of warming from greenhouse gases 
rather than the sun.
This evidence suggests we can rule out a major solar influence on recent 
warming.
Satellites have been directly monitoring the amount of the sun's energy 
reaching the Earth since the late 1970s. Before that, researchers kept 
careful records of the number of "sunspots", dark patches on the surface 
of the sun that are strongly related to solar output....
"If the warming at the surface was related to solar forcing, the upper 
atmosphere would also be warming. But it hasn't been – it has been 
cooling, exactly as predicted from the effects of CO2 increases."
three lines of evidence show that solar variations are not driving 
modern climate change, says Dr Mike Lockwood, 
<http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/%7Espate/about/> a solar physicist at the 
University of Reading. <http://www.reading.ac.uk/>
https://www.carbonbrief.org/why-the-sun-is-not-responsible-for-recent-climate-change

*(video) Greenland by Drone <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK35UUA6ZnY>*
Climate Denial Crock of the Week
Peter Sinclair  August 20, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK35UUA6ZnY
One new tool I took to the Greenland ice this summer - a drone.
Game changer.
https://climatecrocks.com/2017/08/20/greenland-by-drone/


*(Audio) On the Media  "Gutted" 
<http://www.wnyc.org/story/on-the-media-2017-08-18>*
*How The Environment Got Political 
<http://www.wnyc.org/story/otm-how-environment-got-political/>* 
http://www.wnyc.org/story/otm-how-environment-got-political/
GOP lawmakers deem the EPA a job killer that does nothing but burden 
businesses with regulations. In the eyes of the American public, the 
environment ranks low on the list of priorities the government should 
address.
But flash back to the late 1960s, and it's a very different story. The 
environment was a bipartisan issue, and a Republican president created 
the EPA in 1970 in response to public pressure. So how did we get here? 
How did the environment go from universal concern to political 
battleground - with the EPA caught in the crossfire?
With the help of Richard Andrews, professor emeritus of environmental 
policy at UNC Chapel Hill, and William Ruckelshaus, EPA administrator 
under presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, Brooke considers the 
tumultuous history of the EPA, its evolving relationship with the 
public, and its uncertain future.
*How To Answer "Is This Caused By Climate Change?"* 
<http://www.wnyc.org/story/otm-caused-by-climate-change> 
http://www.wnyc.org/story/otm-caused-by-climate-change
The scientific field of "extreme weather attribution" offers answers 
that journalists have long avoided.
Journalistic ethics have long tabooed rushing to judgement about the 
cause of this tornado or that flash flood. But now, with mathematical 
rigor and clarity, scientists in the field of "extreme weather 
attribution" can make such connections in some cases.
Heidi Cullen, chief scientist at Climate Central, believes the media are 
failing to contextualize current weather coverage - similar to 
misleading reporting leading up to the financial crisis. She speaks with 
Bob about how journalists can embrace this form of science and more 
precise language to better explain global warming's role in extreme 
weather events.
http://www.wnyc.org/story/on-the-media-2017-08-18


*Trump disbands federal advisory committee on global warming 
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/08/20/the-trump-administration-just-disbanded-a-federal-advisory-committee-on-climate-change/?utm_term=.cf37d2b5afdc>*
"We're going to be running huge risks here and possibly end up hurting 
the next generation's economic prospects"
By Juliet Eilperin    20 August 2017
$ (The Washington Post) - The Trump administration has decided to 
disband the federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment, 
a group aimed at helping policymakers and private-sector officials 
incorporate the government's climate analysis into long-term planning.
The charter for the 15-person Advisory Committee for the Sustained 
National Climate Assessment - which includes academics as well as local 
officials and corporate representatives - expires Sunday. On Friday, the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's acting administrator, 
Ben Friedman, informed the committee's chair that the agency would not 
renew the panel.
The National Climate Assessment is supposed to be issued every four 
years but has come out only three times since passage of the 1990 law 
calling for such analysis. The next one, due for release in 2018, 
already has become a contentious issue for the Trump administration.
Administration officials are currently reviewing a scientific report 
that is key to the final document. Known as the Climate Science Special 
Report, it was produced by scientists from 13 different federal agencies 
and estimates that human activities were responsible for an increase in 
global temperatures of 1.1 to 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit from 1951 to 2010.
The committee was established to help translate findings from the 
National Climate Assessment into concrete guidance for both public and 
private-sector officials. Its members have been writing a report to 
inform federal officials on the data sets and approaches that would best 
be included, and chair Richard Moss said in an interview Saturday that 
ending the group's work was shortsighted.
"It doesn't seem to be the best course of action," said Moss, an adjunct 
professor in the University of Maryland's Department of Geographical 
Sciences, and he warned of consequences for the decisions that state and 
local authorities must make on a range of issues from building road 
projects to maintaining adequate hydropower supplies. "We're going to be 
running huge risks here and possibly end up hurting the next 
generation's economic prospects."
But NOAA communications director Julie Roberts said in an email Saturday 
that "this action does not impact the completion of the Fourth National 
Climate Assessment, which remains a key priority."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/08/20/the-trump-administration-just-disbanded-a-federal-advisory-committee-on-climate-change/?utm_term=.cf37d2b5afdc


*Curbing Climate Change: Why It's so Hard to Act in Time 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/08/19/curbing-climate-change-why-its-so-hard-act-time>*
..Today the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is just 
over 400 parts per million, rising by about 3 ppm yearly. Given the 
political, technological and economic time lags that we face, it's 
likely that we will hit at least 450-500 ppm before we can seriously 
curtail our carbon emissions. The last time Earth's atmosphere contained 
this much carbon dioxide was several million years ago, during the 
Pliocene era. Global temperatures were much higher than 2°C above 
today's average, and global sea level was at least 6 meters (nearly 20 
feet) higher.
We haven't seen comparable temperature or sea level increases so far 
because of time lags in Earth's climate response. It takes a while for 
our elevated carbon dioxide levels to trigger impacts on this scale. 
Given the various time lags that are in play, it is quite possible that 
we have already exceeded the 2°C rise over preindustrial temperatures - 
a threshold most scientists say we should avoid - but it hasn't shown up 
on the thermometer yet.
The Conversation    We may not be able to predict exactly how much 
future temperatures or sea levels will rise, but we do know that unless 
we curb our carbon emissions, our planet will be a very uncomfortable 
place for our grandchildren and their grandchildren. Large-scale social 
changes take time: they are the sum of many individual changes, in both 
attitudes and behaviors. To minimize that time lag, we need to start 
acting now.
Timothy H. Dixon is Professor of Geology and Geophysics, Natural and 
human-caused hazards, sea level rise and climate change at the 
University of South Florida.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the 
original article.
https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/08/19/curbing-climate-change-why-its-so-hard-act-time

*
As India's Climate Changes, Farmers In The North Experiment With New 
Crops 
<http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/08/20/543881831/as-indias-climate-changes-farmers-in-the-north-experiment-with-new-crops>*
August 20, 20177   Julie McCarthy/NPR
Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday
Dust is just one factor. The capital city and much of northern India are 
routinely shrouded in man-made pollutants. In fact, Delhi vies with 
Beijing for the dirtiest air in the world...
Many of India's 1.3 billion people - a fifth of the world's population - 
face pollution that is cutting short lives, stunting children's 
cognitive development and putting public health under terrific stress.
Air pollution is the leading risk factor for most deaths and 
disabilities in India, a country that's home to 13 of 20 of the world's 
most polluted cities...
The country's dilemma is stark: To lift millions from poverty, it will 
require ever more energy. But most of India's electricity is generated 
by coal-burning power plants. Millions of new cars choke the roads each 
year. Add to the mix the burning of garbage and crops, and it's a toxic 
cocktail that makes India the third-largest contributor of greenhouse 
gas emissions in the world, after China and the United States...
India is turning to its greatest source of clean, renewable energy: 
sunshine...
It's drenched in it 300 days of every year. Already, solar energy is 
changing the landscape across New Delhi, and the deserts of Rajasthan. 
But pollution is diminishing its power.
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/08/20/543881831/as-indias-climate-changes-farmers-in-the-north-experiment-with-new-crops
*Air Pollution Casts Shadow over Solar Energy Production 
<http://pratt.duke.edu/news/solar-pollution>*
JUNE 26, 2017
According to a new study, airborne particles and their accumulation on 
solar cells are cutting energy output by more than 25 percent in certain 
parts of the world. The regions hardest hit are also those investing the 
most in solar energy installations: China, India and the Arabian Peninsula..
The study appears online June 23 in Environmental Science & Technology 
Letters...
The resulting calculations estimate the total loss of solar energy 
production in every part of the world. While the United States has 
relatively little migratory dust, more arid regions such as the Arabian 
Peninsula, Northern India and Eastern China are looking at heavy losses 
-- 17 to 25 percent or more, assuming monthly cleanings. If cleanings 
take place every two months, those numbers jump to 25 or 35 percent.
http://pratt.duke.edu/news/solar-pollution


*Cli-fi: 'Game of Thrones' finally embraces the climate change metaphor 
<https://thinkprogress.org/game-of-thrones-climate-change/>*
.. it's only now, in the middle of the show's seventh and penultimate 
season, that the metaphor has finally started to come into focus. At 
last, Game of Thrones is earning the label "CliFi," science fiction or 
fantasy with a climate change twist.
But, finally, with the two most recent episodes, a major thrust of the 
show has shifted to whether the (relatively) "good guys" led by Jon 
Stark, can actually come up with the concrete evidence needed to 
persuade the two warring queens that the threat is real, imminent, and 
what they need to focus on to survive.
In this season's third episode, Jon asks Tyrion Lannister (Cersei's 
dwarf brother, now adviser to Daenerys) the defining question: "How do I 
convince people who don't know me that an enemy they don't believe in is 
coming to kill them all?"
Jon is as frustrated as any climate scientist. He had risen to head of 
the Night's Watch, and now is King of the North. He's actually seen and 
fought a battle with the White Walkers, who are led by the Night King. 
And he saw them raise an Army of the Dead - wights, or reanimated 
corpses - from those who died in the battle. Like climate change, this 
is going to be an impossible fight to win without everyone's help.
Tyrion gives two classic explanations for the skepticism with which 
Daenerys greets Jon: "She's not about to head north to fight an enemy 
she's never seen on the word of a man she doesn't know," and "people's 
minds aren't made for problems that large. White Walkers, the Night 
King, Army of the Dead, it's almost a relief to confront a comfortable, 
familiar monster like my sister."
In Episode 5, Jon figures out that the only way he is going to convince 
skeptics, especially Cersei, is by providing irrefutable evidence.  For 
climate scientists, that often involves taking skeptical politicians up 
to the frozen north to see Greenland melting before their very eyes 
(though even that doesn't always work).
Since that isn't feasible here, Jon decides to take a team up to the 
frozen north to capture a wight to bring back as evidence to persuade 
the queens, particularly Cersei. On Earth, it's not clear what evidence 
could persuade Trump and his team of climate science deniers. They deny 
even the most well-established science.
https://thinkprogress.org/game-of-thrones-climate-change/


*Doomsday Clock Ticking Away: Will Humankind Survive Global Warming? 
<https://sputniknews.com/environment/201708201056625085-global-warming-danger/>*
NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies... the average global 
temperature was almost one degree Celsius higher than the average for 
July between 1951 and 1980.
Speaking about the chances of natural disasters caused by global warming 
increasing in the near future, and what kind of catastrophes people 
should be looking out for, he said we have already seen a huge increase 
in the frequency of extreme events such as cyclones, droughts, floods 
and all other sorts of extreme climate conditions.
"We are only expecting these to increase as global temperatures continue 
to rise. One thing is clear: the rates of these natural disasters are 
going to increase and impact humans around the world," Dr. Crowther warned.
https://sputniknews.com/environment/201708201056625085-global-warming-danger/


*This Day in Climate History August 21,  -  from D.R. Tucker
*

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