[TheClimate.Vote] December 14, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/December 14, 2017
/
[PBS Newshour: video and transcript]
*Climate change is part of California's perfect recipe for intense 
wildfire 
<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/climate-change-is-part-of-californias-perfect-recipe-for-intense-wildfire>*
Long before the current devastation in California, scientists had built 
a strong case linking a changing climate to more wildfires. Since hotter 
weather promotes drought and drought increases the chances of fire, 
rising temperatures have intensified the risks. ..
Transcript: 
<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/climate-change-is-part-of-californias-perfect-recipe-for-intense-wildfire#transcript> 
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/climate-change-is-part-of-californias-perfect-recipe-for-intense-wildfire#transcript
*Miles O'brien: *Normally, California's winter rains begin in October 
and November. But, this year, it's been a hot and dry fall and summer.
*Radley Horton: *The overall trend with climate change, we think, is 
going to be towards drier winters and, for sure, warmer weather that's 
going to increase the amount of evaporation. You would effectively need 
more rainfall just to maintain the fire risk that you had in the past 
and not see it go up.
*Miles O'brien: * But a fire of this magnitude also requires moisture as 
well, in advance, to create the fuel. And, last winter, California got a 
huge amount of precipitation.
*Park Williams: *And that has led to an abnormal amount of vegetation 
growing in the hills around the cities of Los Angeles and the 
surrounding areas. And it's now that vegetation that's burning.
*Miles O'brien: *The unusually wet winter followed by the long stretch 
of hot, dry weather needed one more thing: hot, dry winds whipping down 
from the high desert toward the ocean.
In the north, they call these winds Diablo, in Southern California, 
Santa Ana...
*Gov. Jerry Brown:* This is kind of the new normal. With climate change, 
some scientists are saying Southern California is literally burning up, 
and burning up as maybe a metaphor or a description, but not just in the 
fire right here, but what we can expect over the next years and decades.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/climate-change-is-part-of-californias-perfect-recipe-for-intense-wildfire


*ALEC, Corporate-Funded Bill Mill, Considers Model State Bill Cracking 
Down on Pipeline Protesters 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/12/11/alec-model-bill-pipeline-protesters>*
By Steve Horn <https://www.desmogblog.com/user/steve-horn>
At its recent States & Nation Policy Summit 
<https://www.alec.org/meeting/2017-states-nation-policy-summit-nashville-tn/>, 
the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/american-legislative-exchange-council>, a 
group that connects state legislators with corporations and creates 
templates for state legislation, voted on a model bill calling for the 
crack down and potential criminalization of those protesting U.S. oil 
and gas pipeline infrastructure.
Dubbed the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act 
<https://www.alec.org/model-policy/critical-infrastructure-protection-act>, 
the model legislation states in its preamble that it draws inspiration 
from two bills passed in the Oklahoma Legislature in 2017. Those bills, 
House Bill 1123 and House Bill 2128, offered both criminal and civil 
penalties which would apply to protests happening at pipeline sites. 
Critics viewed these bills as an outgrowth of the heavy-handed law 
enforcement reaction to protests of the Dakota Access pipeline.
At the time the bills were still under proposal, the Oklahoma American 
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) criticized them, saying they had the 
potential to quash free speech and the right to assemble as protected by 
the First Amendment....
Even before the ALEC model bill's introduction, dozens of anti-protest 
bills 
<https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/rights-protesters/anti-protest-bills-around-country>were 
introduced in statehouses nationwide in 2017...
The ACLU, which created a map 
<https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/rights-protesters/anti-protest-bills-around-country> 
tracking where various anti-protest bills were introduced and their 
status, sees this trend as a threat to essential democratic rights 
enshrined in the First Amendment.
https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/12/11/alec-model-bill-pipeline-protesters


[NYTimes Climate Fwd:]
*Temperatures in Alaska Were So High That Computers Said 'No Way'* 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/climate/climate-newsletter.html>
Computers don't believe how warm it's getting in the Arctic
Henry Fountain    @HenryFountain
Average air temperatures were so high last month at a monitoring station 
on the north coast of Alaska that computers rejected the readings as 
flawed. But there was nothing wrong with the data or the instrument that 
recorded it. Rather, temperatures had soared because of shrinking sea 
ice in the Arctic Ocean, one of the more obvious effects of climate 
change...
..There was less sea ice than usual off Utqiagvik (commonly known as 
Barrow), home to a cluster of instruments that have recorded 
temperatures and other climate data for decades.
The lack of ice caused air temperatures in the area, near the 
northernmost point in the United States, to be unusually high. (Arctic 
waters, though cold, are relatively warmer than ice, so they warm the 
air more.)
NOAA's computers have a software algorithm that constantly compares data 
from each of thousands of monitoring stations to detect problems like 
faulty instruments. That algorithm decided the November readings from 
Utqiagvik were too strange to be real. It rejected the data - and 
previous monthly readings going back about a year.
The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as other regions, and since 
the late 1970s sea ice, which reaches maximum extent in March and 
minimum in September, has been shrinking by about 13 percent per decade 
compared to the 1981-2010 average...
...Utqiagvik has been warmer for years. Average November temperatures 
there since the turn of the century are some 7 degrees Fahrenheit higher 
than in the last two decades of the 20th century. The warming occurs 
because less loose ice drifts south to the region in the fall than in 
years past, leaving more open ocean...
He said they planned to gradually restore the data now that they can 
assure the computer that it's real.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/climate/climate-newsletter.html


[YALE Climate Change Communication Dec 13, 2017]
*Politics & Global Warming, October 2017 
<http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/politics-global-warming-october-2017/>*
Today we are pleased to release a new report on Politics & Global 
Warming in the United States. Drawing from our most recent nationally 
representative survey, we find substantial changes in climate change 
beliefs, bipartisan support for a variety of climate and clean energy 
policies, demand for action by companies, citizens, and governments, and 
individual willingness to get politically involved.
The Trump administration has taken numerous actions to reverse the 
climate policies of the Obama administration. Some of these actions have 
received substantial media coverage, like the decision to withdraw from 
the Paris Climate Agreement and stop the Clean Power Plan. These attacks 
on climate science and policy appear to be having an effect on 
Republican registered voters:

         72% of registered voters think global warming is happening, but
    this belief has declined 7 percentage points among Republicans since
    the 2016 election.
         Only 54% of registered voters think global warming is mostly
    human caused, and this belief has declined 8 percentage points among
    Republicans since the 2016 election.
         A record number of registered voters are now worried about
    global warming (63%, 8 points higher than May of 2017. Among
    Republicans, worry levels declined from the fall election to May of
    2017, but then increased over the summer and early fall almost back
    up to their 2016 levels.

Executive Summary at 
http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/politics-global-warming-october-2017/2/
http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/politics-global-warming-october-2017/


*Theresa May puts tackling climate change back on Tory agenda 
<https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/12/theresa-may-puts-tackling-climate-change-back-on-tory-agenda>*
Prime minister says there is a 'moral imperative' to help vulnerable 
countries as she prepares for summit in Paris
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/12/theresa-may-puts-tackling-climate-change-back-on-tory-agenda


[letter to Congress]
*Who's behind a letter asking Congress to end the wind production tax 
credit? <http://www.energyandpolicy.org/wind-ptc-letter-congress/>*
A new letter asking Congress to end the wind production tax credit has 
ties to the Institute for Energy Research, a group that has received 
funding from the fossil fuel and utility industry and is a close ally of 
the Trump administration.
The Energy and Policy Institute downloaded a PDF of the letter 
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4326173-Tax-Reform-Letter-12-10-2017FINAL.html> 
from WindAction.org 
<http://www.windaction.org/posts/47629-2017-letter-to-congress-end-the-wind-tax-credits#.Wi7izXeZM_W>, 
an anti-wind website run by the New Hampshire-based Lisa Linowes. A look 
at the "Document Properties" seemed to identify "Chris Warren" as the 
"Author" of the file:   An individual named "Chris Warren" worked as the 
director of communications for the Institute for Energy Research (IER) 
from June of 2012 to May of 2017, according to Warren's LinkedIn 
profile. <https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-warren-3a15343a/> While at 
IER, Warrenworked to oppose the wind PTC 
<http://www.windaction.org/posts/40255-house-hearing-on-tax-extenders-does-not-include-wind-subsidies#.Wi8JaHeZM0o>.
The Energy and Policy Institute attempted to contact Warren via his 
LinkedIn account about this new anti-wind letter to Congress, but has 
not received a response yet. ...
IER has received funding from fossil fuel and utility interests, 
including the Koch network 
<http://beta.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-kochs-climate-20161205-story.html>, 
coal producer Peabody Energy 
<http://www.energyandpolicy.org/peabody-energy-funding-climate-denial-anti-renewable-energy/>, 
and the Edison Electric Institute 
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4320972-Edison-Electric-Institute-2016-990.html>. 
The group also has strong ties to the Trump administration 
<https://thinkprogress.org/obscure-think-tank-gains-influence-1644feb0b813/>. 

Members of Congress who receive the "Linowes letter" should know about 
Linowes' ties to the Institute for Energy Research, and the fossil fuel 
and utility interests that this group represents.
  Posted by Dave Anderson - the policy and communications manager for 
the Energy and Policy Institute.
https://www.desmogblog.com/user/steve-horn


*Johns Hopkins University to divest holdings in major coal producers 
<https://hub.jhu.edu/2017/12/12/thermal-coal-divestment-board-vote/>*
Board of trustees votes to eliminate investments in type of fossil fuel 
that contributes more climate-changing greenhouse gases per unit of 
electricity than any other...
The board's vote directs the university to stop buying the stocks and 
bonds of companies that produce coal for electric power as a major part 
of their business, and to sell from its endowment or other investments 
any securities it directly owns from those companies, on a schedule that 
minimizes financial loss...
The board decision responds to a student group's divestment proposal and 
more than two years of campus debate on whether Johns Hopkins should 
hold securities related to fossil fuels. Scientists have determined that 
burning those fuels contributes to global climate change.
The trustee vote applies to companies that produce thermal coal, the 
type burned to generate electricity. Thermal coal has been found to 
contribute more to the production of greenhouse gases per unit of 
electricity than any other fossil fuel, in addition to its harmful 
effect on public health...
"This decision places Johns Hopkins within a relatively small group of 
university peers that have made public divestment commitments related to 
sustainability and affirms our institutional dedication to the issue," 
said Ronald J. Daniels, president of the university.
The vote marks only the third time in the university's history that the 
trustees have barred a particular type of investment because of broad 
social concerns. In the 1980s, Johns Hopkins divested from companies 
doing business in the then-apartheid state of South Africa. In 1991, the 
trustees voted to end all direct investments in tobacco company stocks 
and bonds.
"In taking this rare step, the trustees determined that thermal coal 
poses a unique threat to public health and to the environment," Daniels 
said....
Friday's decision bars future purchase of stocks or bonds of companies 
that earn more than 35 percent of their revenue from thermal coal, the 
type burned to generate electricity. The university also will not buy 
into any partnerships with 35 percent of more of their total investment 
in companies whose primary business is to produce thermal coal.
https://hub.jhu.edu/2017/12/12/thermal-coal-divestment-board-vote/


[AGU meeting]
If you can't join us in New Orleans, you can still witness breakthrough 
research and talks from prestigious speakers. 
<https://fallmeeting.agu.org/2017/virtual-options/>
There are two easy ways to watch:
     Live: Stream content live during the meeting. Sign up here to watch 
live via AGU On-Demand.
     Later: View video on AGU's YouTube channel after the meeting. All 
recordings will be available on YouTube by early January.
Some sessions will not be available live. Featured content includes:
     Union Sessions
     Named Lectures
     Keynotes and Honors Ceremony
     Selected Scientific Sessions
https://fallmeeting.agu.org/2017/virtual-options/


[United States of Petroleum]
*Government's secret alliance with Big Oil 
<https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/>*
Members of the National Petroleum War Service Committee ...helped create 
the American Petroleum Institute.
by Jie Jenny Zou
The Great War began in 1914 with cavalrymen on horseback and ended four 
years later with armored tanks and airplanes. It was, as one scholar put 
it, the "first war to run on oil."
To ensure a steady flow of fuel, petroleum executives met regularly with 
federal officials in Standard Oil's 
<https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-standard-oil-building>oak-paneled 
boardroom on Wall Street. The same industry broken up as an illegal 
monopoly in 1911 had become a quasi-arm of government.
As the Allies brokered peace in the spring of 1919, the American 
Petroleum Institute <http://www.api.org/> was born in a ballroom at New 
York's Biltmore Hotel. Among its founding members were the same 
regulators entrusted to oversee the industry....
Over the course of a century, API has embedded itself in the U.S. 
government. Decades ago, the institute embarked on a campaign to sell 
Americans on a fossil-fuel future, despite having heard dire warnings of 
climate change as early as 1959. With more than 650 corporate members, 
the group now encompasses every sector of the oil and gas industry, from 
drilling to plastics manufacturing.
Big Oil's influence has come at a steep cost to the public. From Kyoto 
to Paris, the institute has helped block or stall action on climate 
change, consistently putting profit ahead of health. API is now working 
to undermine bedrock environmental laws that promise Americans clean air 
and water - all while promoting deeper and riskier drilling in places 
long off limits.
Though the institute has for decades championed free-market economics, 
its success has been predicated on government buy-in at every level. 
Since the Wilson administration, API's directors have enjoyed unfettered 
access to the White House and federal agencies, thwarting or slowing 
progress on everything from leaded gasoline to smog. With Donald Trump 
in the White House, the organization sees an unprecedented window of 
opportunity.
The story, in three chapters:
1.
*A CENTURY OF INFLUENCE*
*The unlikely partnership between Big Oil and the White House 
<https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/century-of-influence>*
How the industry stalled action on climate change from the inside and 
sold America on fossil fuels
https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/century-of-influence
2.
*FUELING DISSENT*
*How the oil industry set out to undercut clean air 
<https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/fueling-dissent>*
After casting doubt on climate change for decades, industry consultants 
have turned their attention to air pollution
https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/fueling-dissent
3.
*VENUE OF LAST RESORT*
*Wave of climate lawsuits threatens the future of Big Oil 
<https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/venue-of-last-resort>*
Fossil-fuel interests are working to seed the courts, long viewed as 
apolitical
https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/venue-of-last-resort
https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/


[press release]
*Afghanistan launches US$71 million initiative to prepare rural 
communities for climate change 
<http://www.adaptation-undp.org/afghanistan-launches-us71-million-initiative-prepare-rural-communities-climate-change>*
The Government of Afghanistan, with the support of the United Nations 
Development Programme (UNDP) and the Least Developed Countries Fund, has 
launched a new multi-million dollar project aimed at insulating 
vulnerable Afghan communities from the worst impacts of climate change...
In 2012, more than 380 disaster incidents - including flooding - were 
recorded in 195 districts and resulted in 479 deaths and damage to 
almost 30,000 homes. In 2014, heavy, sustained rainfall in April caused 
flash floods in 27 districts which resulted in more than 150 deaths and 
the displacement of approximately 16,000 people...
To read the full media release, please go to:
http://www.adaptation-undp.org/afghanistan-launches-us71-million-initiative-prepare-rural-communities-climate-change


*US government report finds steady and persistent global warming 
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/dec/06/us-government-report-finds-steady-and-persistent-global-warming>*
The US Global Change Research Program recently released a Climate 
Science Special Report. It is clearly written - an authoritative summary 
of the science, and easy to understand.
The first main chapter deals with changes to the climate and focuses 
much attention on global temperatures. When most people think of climate 
change, they think of the global temperature - specifically the 
temperature of the air a few meters above the Earth surface. There are 
other (better) ways to measure climate change such as heat absorbed by 
the oceans, melting ice, sea level rise, or others. But the iconic 
measurement most people think of are these air temperatures, shown in 
the top frame of the figure below....
These data from the USGCRP report are roadmaps. They show where we have 
been. They only give a suggestion about what will come in the future. 
With this in mind, all we can say is the world is changing and all the 
changes we observe are consistent with a warming world. A common sense 
view would help us understand that if we don't change course, these 
trends will continue. But just by looking backwards in time, it is hard 
to predict where we will be in five or ten decades.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/dec/06/us-government-report-finds-steady-and-persistent-global-warming


[tool or toy?]
*You can pay $900 for a robot that won't admit climate change is real 
<https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2017/12/12/16764376/jibo-robot-ai-climate-change-siri-alexa-google-assistant>* 

I thought it was about artificial intelligence, not artificial stupidity
When it was first launched with an Indiegogo campaign in 2014, Jibo was 
touted as the "world's first social robot 
<https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jibo-the-world-s-first-social-robot-for-the-home>" 
capable of holding a conversation and recognizing familiar faces. You 
can now have Jibo on your kitchen counter (for $899 
<https://buy.jibo.com/>), but as you try to chitchat with it, don't ask 
whether climate change is real, because it'll reply in its boyish voice: 
"I've heard that's a complicated topic," and add nothing else.
https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2017/12/12/16764376/jibo-robot-ai-climate-change-siri-alexa-google-assistant


*This Day in Climate History December 14, 2006 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIdoaaYklJ8>  -  from D.R. Tucker*
December 14, 2006: MSNBC's Keith Olbermann condemns the latest sleazy 
action by overrated novelist and climate-change denier Michael Crichton:

    "In his last novel, he dismissed global warming.  So a political
    columnist for the 'New Republic' who went to Yale named Michael
    Crowley ripped him for it.  Now Crichton's got a new book out, in
    which he’s created a minor character who is a child rapist, and
    described as a political columnist who went to Yale, and who’s named
    Mick Crowley.  Crichton’s publisher, Harper Collins, is owned by
    Rupert Murdoch.
    "The real Michael Crowley is understandably upset that Crichton gave
    his name to a child rapist, but look, Mr. Crowley, it could have
    been worse; Crichton could have used your name for a character based
    on himself.  Author Michael 'Vengeance is Mine' Crichton, today's
    Worst Person in the World."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIdoaaYklJ8

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//Archive of Daily Global Warming News 
<https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html> 
//
/https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote//
///
Send email to subscribe <a%20href=%22mailto:contact at theClimate.Vote%22> 
to this mailing. /

        *** Privacy and Security: * This is a text-only mailing that
        carries no images which may originate from remote servers.
        Text-only messages provide greater privacy to the receiver and
        sender.
        By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain must be used for
        democratic and election purposes and cannot be used for
        commercial purposes.
        To subscribe, email: contact at theclimate.vote with subject: 
        subscribe,  To Unsubscribe, subject: unsubscribe
        Also youmay subscribe/unsubscribe at
        https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote
        Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Paulifor
        http://TheClimate.Vote delivering succinct information for
        citizens and responsible governments of all levels.   List
        membership is confidential and records are scrupulously
        restricted to this mailing list.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/attachments/20171214/12dd5aea/attachment.html>