[TheClimate.Vote] August 23, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News

Richard Pauli richard at theclimate.vote
Wed Aug 23 06:59:39 EDT 2017 

/August 23, 2017/

*Hundreds of firefighters battling largest wildfire ever recorded in 
B.C. 
<http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/largest-wildfire-1.4257021>*
19 wildfires have merged to create massive fire burning in the 
province's Interior
Hundreds of firefighters and dozens of aircraft are working to contain 
the largest wildfire ever recorded in British Columbia's history.
Nineteen wildfires have merged in the province's Interior, creating a 
single blaze that's estimated to be more than 467,000 hectares in size, 
according to fire information officer Kevin Skrepnek with the B.C. 
Wildfire Service.
The massive Plateau fire, which stretches 130 kilometres from one end to 
the other, is located on the Chilcotin Plateau, 60 kilometres west of 
Quesnel and 60 kilometres northwest of Williams Lake.
Skrepnek says crews are making good progress on the fire, but because of 
its size, it's expected to continue burning for some time.
"Just given the sheer scale of this fire, you know it is going to be 
active for some time to come and it's going to be quite some time before 
we would be even close to calling it contained or calling it under control."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/largest-wildfire-1.4257021
*B.C. remains under a state of emergency as 138 wildfires continue to 
burn across the province. 
<http://globalnews.ca/news/3585284/b-c-wildfires-map-2017-current-location-of-wildfires-around-the-province/>*
This season is now B.C.'s worst fire season in history and it is far 
from over.
Approximately 4,400 British Columbians remain out of their homes and 
about 21,000 remain on evacuation alert.
In addition, the provincial state of emergency has now been extended 
until Sept. 1.
The B.C. Wildfire Service has provided a map of where the fires are 
located (it may not load in high traffic times so you might need to be 
patient).
B.C. wildfires map 2017: Current location of wildfires around the province
https://emergency-maps.lightship.works/#/map/vHJGzBFIShqqPPRimUmS7Q/details


*Solar Energy Passes Eclipse Test 
<https://climatecrocks.com/2017/08/22/solar-energy-passes-eclipse-test/>*
The sun may have gone into eclipse mode Monday but the California 
electric grid did not.
Power system officials across the state reported no major reliability 
issues, even though solar power took a dramatic dip as the moon obscured 
a large portion of the sun Monday morning.
That provided a real challenge for California grid operators, given that 
Monday marked the first eclipse seen throughout the contiguous United 
States since 1979, when solar power represented just a blip on the 
nation's energy landscape.
The California Independent System Operator oversees the operation of 
about 80 percent of the state's electric power system, transmission 
lines and electricity market and the CAISO control room was ground zero 
Monday to see how the power system would react.
As it turned out, no news was good news.
https://climatecrocks.com/2017/08/22/solar-energy-passes-eclipse-test/


*Climate Change May Shrink the World's Fish - National Geographic 
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/climate-change-study-ocean-fish-size/>*
A new study suggests warming sea temperatures could result in smaller 
fish sizes.
Warming temperatures and loss of oxygen in the sea will shrink hundreds 
of fish species - from tunas and groupers to salmon, thresher sharks, 
haddock and cod - even more than previously thought, a new study concludes.
Because warmer seas speed up their metabolisms, fish, squid and other 
water-breathing creatures will need to draw more oxyen from the ocean. 
At the same time, warming seas are already reducing the availability of 
oxygen in many parts of the sea.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/climate-change-study-ocean-fish-size/
*Climate change could shrink fish by as much as 30 percent, new study 
claims 
<https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/22/climate-change-could-shrink-fish-by-30-percent-study.html>*
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/22/climate-change-could-shrink-fish-by-30-percent-study.html


*Trump Attorney Sues Greenpeace Over Dakota Access in $300 Million 
Racketeering Case 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/08/22/dakota-access-trump-greenpeace-racketeering>*
By Steve Horn   Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Energy Transfer Partners, owner of the Dakota Access pipeline 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/energy-transfer-partners-bakken-oil-pipeline-through-iowa>, 
has filed a $300 million Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations 
(RICO) lawsuit against Greenpeace and other environmental groups for 
their activism against the long-contested North Dakota-to-Illinois project.
In its 187-page complaint 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Energy%20Transfer%20v%20GP%20-%20Complaint%20NDakota%2017cv173.pdf>, 
Energy Transfer alleges that "putative not-for-profits and rogue 
eco-terrorist groups who employ patterns of criminal activity and 
campaigns of misinformation to target legitimate companies and 
industries with fabricated environmental claims and other purported 
misconduct" caused the company to lose "billions of dollars."
In the case, Energy Transfer is represented by lawyers from the firm 
Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, one of the namesakes of which is Marc 
Kasowitz 
<https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/marc-kasowitz-trump-russia/528147/>. 
Kasowitz is a member of the legal team representing President Donald 
Trump <https://www.desmogblog.com/donald-trump> in the ongoing 
congressional and special counsel investigation of his 2016 presidential 
campaign's alleged ties and potential collusion with Russian state 
actors. The press release announcing the filing 
<http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/energy-transfer-files-federal-lawsuit-against-greenpeace-international-greenpeace-inc-greenpeace-fund-inc-banktrack-and-earth-first-for-violation-of-federal-and-state-racketeering-statutes-300507851.html>of 
the lawsuit details that Kasowitz attorney Michael J. Bowe 
<http://www.kasowitz.com/professionals/xpqProfDet.aspx?xpST=ProfessionalDetail&professional=22d56dda-130b-4201-a604-f305f6a8de58&op=ceA&ajax=no> 
is leading what the firm describes as an ongoing probe into the 
environmental groups' "campaign and practices."...
Greenpeace, though, sees the lawsuit as an act of "bullying" and in the 
category of "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation," or SLAPP.
"This is the second consecutive year Donald Trump's go-to attorneys at 
the Kasowitz law firm have filed a meritless lawsuit against 
Greenpeace," Greenpeace USA General Counsel Tom Wetterer said in a press 
statement. "They are apparently trying to market themselves as corporate 
mercenaries willing to abuse the legal system to silence legitimate 
advocacy work. This has now become a pattern of harassment by corporate 
bullies, with Trump's attorneys leading the way."
https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/08/22/dakota-access-trump-greenpeace-racketeering
  more: -
*Energy Transfer Files Federal Lawsuit Against Greenpeace International, 
Greenpeace Inc., Greenpeace Fund, Inc., BankTrack And Earth First! For 
Violation Of Federal And State Racketeering Statutes 
<http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/energy-transfer-files-federal-lawsuit-against-greenpeace-international-greenpeace-inc-greenpeace-fund-inc-banktrack-and-earth-first-for-violation-of-federal-and-state-racketeering-statutes-300507851.html>*
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/energy-transfer-files-federal-lawsuit-against-greenpeace-international-greenpeace-inc-greenpeace-fund-inc-banktrack-and-earth-first-for-violation-of-federal-and-state-racketeering-statutes-300507851.html


*Study: Earth's temperature record was broken three years in a row, and 
you can thank humans for that 
<http://www.post-gazette.com/news/environment/2017/08/22/michael-mann-climate-change-antropogenic-global-warming-extreme-weather-penn-state-geophysical-research-letters/stories/201708220125>*
"I think it is fair to say that that there is considerable worry among 
scientists.," Mr. Mann said. "[Mr. Trump] has appointed a dream team of 
climate change deniers to run his administration and we have seen an 
agenda of disenfranchising government climate scientists, pulling out of 
international agreements,canceling government climate reports. It's 
pretty much a worst case scenario as a far as executive action on 
climate change is concerned."
Mr. Mann said that while it's important to note, track and understand 
global temperature averages, it's the extreme weather and conditions 
that result from those temperature  increases that are most likely to 
impact humans and the natural world.
"Extremes can take many forms," he said. "In this case, we're showing 
that extremes as measured by successive record global temperatures, are 
strongly impacted by global warming. But other types of extremes - 
extreme weather events like heat waves, thousand-year floods, extended 
summer drought, are also becoming more frequent as a result of climate 
change."
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/environment/2017/08/22/michael-mann-climate-change-antropogenic-global-warming-extreme-weather-penn-state-geophysical-research-letters/stories/201708220125


*Doctors must respond to changes in the politics of climate change 
<https://www.statnews.com/2017/08/22/climate-change-doctors/>*
We call on medical professionals to redouble their efforts to keep the 
health effects of climate change front and center in the national debate 
over budgeting priorities...
Public health research is one of the casualties of the recent partisan 
policy debates on climate science and the war over international 
agreements. Because mortality and morbidity estimates show dire 
connections with climate change indicators like heat waves, episodes of 
unexpected flash flooding, extreme storm events, and the like, this 
retreat from the climate reality is a critical mistake that will cost 
this country lives and billions of dollars...
Clinicians can be on the front lines of the resistance by making it 
known to their patients and the public that climate change is an 
enormous risk to the future of public health. By continuing their own 
education on the growing climate-related health risks by keeping up with 
current literature and current events and by tracking climate-related 
health issues in their own offices, they can educate themselves and 
their patients about their personal climate-related risks and about the 
even more dangerous, irresponsible, and politically driven national 
risks of negative action on climate change emanating from Washington. 
Informing patients, one by one, of the health risks of a changing 
climate is surely one of the simplest and most valuable ways that 
clinicians can take productive action...
The combined medical community can play a pivotal role in opposing 
efforts to dismiss or ignore the value of rigorous climate-change 
science. Speaking up against climate denial isn't just scientifically 
accurate. It is essential for promoting and protecting the health of all 
Americans, today and in the future.
https://www.statnews.com/2017/08/22/climate-change-doctors/


*Truth or Lies?  Separating Fact from Fiction in the Age of Fake News 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/truth-or-lies-separating-fact-from-fiction-in-the_us_599c6cf0e4b0ac90f2cbaa21>*
In their insightful essay, The World at Our Fingertips, Stuart Pimm and 
Jeff Harvey offer a set of basic guidelines to assess what we hear and read:
- Follow the data. Is the statement supported by evidence or does the 
data trail go quickly cold?
- Follow the credentials. Have the authors/speakers done any research or 
other work to establish expertise in the subject? Do they cite 
peer-reviewed sources?
- Follow the language. Do the authors/speakers substitute personal 
attacks and sweeping statements for data and analysis?
Follow the money. Who is paying for that statement; what may they have 
to gain by doing so?
It may be comforting to believe human activities are not warming the 
planet or that polar bears are not threatened with extinction. But the 
evidence shows both claims are false.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/truth-or-lies-separating-fact-from-fiction-in-the_us_599c6cf0e4b0ac90f2cbaa21


*ORION Magazine  One Good Turn 
<https://orionmagazine.org/article/one-good-turn/>*
by KATHLEEN DEAN MOORE
The morning of October 11, 2016...
It took all the strength they had to crank the heavy wheels on the 
valves. But when they had closed the valves on all five pipelines, the 
entire flow of crude oil from Canadian tar sands came to a stop....the 
entire flow of crude oil from Canadian tar sands came to a stop.
The shutdown was an act of moral necessity, the Valve Turners explained. 
Global warming caused by burning fossil fuels is a desperate emergency, 
so shutting the emergency valves was exactly the right response - an act 
of sanity in a dangerously surreal world...
Not only that, it was also a call to conscience against an industry that 
has shown itself willing, for the sake of enormous profit, to take down 
the natural systems that support life on Earth. Those five pipelines 
carry 2.9 million gallons of crude each day. This amounts to 15 percent 
of US daily fossil fuel consumption - as it happens, about the 
percentage by which fossil fuel use must be reduced each year in order 
to prevent runaway climate catastrophe...
The action was "the biggest coordinated move on US energy infrastructure 
ever undertaken by environmental protesters," Reuters News Agency said, 
an action that "shook the North American energy industry."...
https://orionmagazine.org/article/one-good-turn/


*Climate Change and Migration in Pakistan 
<http://thediplomat.com/2017/08/climate-change-and-migration-in-pakistan/>*
Aymen Ijaz is a researcher  at a think tank in Islamabad.
Islamabad needs to start working on proper plans to handle the human 
impact of climate change.
Climate change is an inexorable and contemporary threat with drastic 
impacts on the survival and living patterns of mankind. Pakistan ranks 
seventh among the most adversely affected countries by climate change on 
the Global Climate Risk Index 2017. Pakistan has suffered the 
devastating impacts of natural disasters and climate change in the 
recent years, witnessing an earthquake in 2005 and heavy floods in 2010. 
Climate change have rapidly increased in Pakistan, causing and 
exacerbating disasters, forcing people to flee their homes and seek 
shelter elsewhere, thus leading to a climate-induced migration....
The population near the Indus delta have witnessed large scale migration 
due to sea-intrusion, coastal floods and rainfalls. Climate change is 
also affecting agriculture and business sectors in Pakistan's semi-arid 
regions, resulting in migration of farmers and others from rural to 
urban areas. Unfortunately, very little literature is available on 
climate-induced migration and environmental refugees in Pakistan...
Climate change is an inevitable threat and can trigger large-scale 
climate-induced migration in environmentally fragile areas in Pakistan. 
The government would be wise to formulate relevant policies and 
strategies to deal with climate-induced migrants and environmental 
refugees. The humanitarian capacity to deal with the displacement of 
people must be improved. The socio-economic and health problems faced by 
climate refugees and climate-induced migrants in Pakistan must also be 
addressed.
http://thediplomat.com/2017/08/climate-change-and-migration-in-pakistan/


*People Furthest Apart on Climate Views Are Often the Most Educated 
<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-furthest-apart-on-climate-views-are-often-the-most-educated/>*
For attitudes on global warming, political identity is a more important 
signal than academic acumen or scientific literacy
...researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that respondents with 
the most education and the highest scores on scientific literacy tests 
had the most polarized beliefs.
On climate change, the researchers found that political identity was a 
more important signal of where respondents stood than their academic 
acumen or scientific sophistication.
"For example, there's no political polarization on climate change with 
greater understanding of the greenhouse mechanism that drives global 
warming," he wrote in an email. "Similarly, a number of studies have 
found that telling people about the 97% scientific consensus on 
human-caused global warming has a neutralizing rather than polarizing 
effect."
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-furthest-apart-on-climate-views-are-often-the-most-educated/


*This Day in Climate History August 23, 1971 
<http://web.archive.org/web/20120129225919/http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/The-Lewis-Powell-Memo/>  
-  from D.R. Tucker*
August 23, 1971: Attorney and future Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. 
Powell Jr. writes a memo to the US Chamber of Commerce urging a greater 
special-interest pushback against public-interest groups. The memo 
becomes the template for efforts by the fossil-fuel industry to generate 
faux-outrage over, and ginned-up opposition to, efforts to regulate 
greenhouse gases.

    "One of the bewildering paradoxes of our time is the extent to which
    the enterprise system tolerates, if not participates in, its own
    destruction.
    The campuses from which much of the criticism emanates are supported
    by (i) tax funds generated largely from American business, and (ii)
    contributions from capital funds controlled or generated by American
    business. The boards of trustees of our universities overwhelmingly
    are composed of men and women who are leaders in the system.
    Most of the media, including the national TV systems, are owned and
    theoretically controlled by corporations which depend upon profits,
    and the enterprise system to survive."

http://web.archive.org/web/20120129225919/http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/The-Lewis-Powell-Memo/ 


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