[TheClimate.Vote] December 18, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Mon Dec 18 07:53:09 EST 2017
/December 18, 2017
/
[KING-TV video]
*'Beyond a perfect storm': Wind-driven California fire nears record
<http://www.king5.com/article/news/nation-now/beyond-a-perfect-storm-wind-driven-california-fire-nears-record/465-d094584c-de4d-4a21-ac44-bb33447e7e37>*
"Critical fire weather combined with ... single-digit relative
humidities will continue to support fire growth," the California
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) ominously warned.
Firefighters furiously digging containment lines to protect exposed
communities drew a modest reprieve when early morning wind gusts eased
later in the day.
Two people have died, including firefighter Cory Iverson, and 1,000
homes have been destroyed or damaged as the blaze sweeps through more
than 420 square miles. That's about 6 square miles less than the largest
California wildfire on record - the Cedar Fire, which killed 15 people
near San Diego 14 years ago....
http://www.king5.com/article/news/nation-now/beyond-a-perfect-storm-wind-driven-california-fire-nears-record/465-d094584c-de4d-4a21-ac44-bb33447e7e37
-
[LA Times]*
Thomas fire continues to grow as strong, shifting winds bring new
dangers
<http://beta.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-thomas-fire-ledeall-20171217-story.html>*
The massive Thomas fire continued to grow Sunday even after an epic
battle to protect homes along the Santa Barbara County coast Saturday
proved successful despite intense winds.
The third-largest wildfire in modern California history was burning a
massive swath from Santa Barbara to Ventura, fueled by intense Santa Ana
winds, with gusts topping 70 mph early Sunday in some valley and
mountain areas. The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory in
the region...
"This is the worst fire condition I've seen in the last 32 years," said
Capt. Dave Zaniboni, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Fire
Department. "It could have been a lot worse. We could have easily lost
firefighters or had more homes destroyed. It was a great effort by
firefighters."...
The fire started less than two months after a series of wildfires roared
through Northern California's wine country, killing more than 40 people
and incinerating thousands of homes.
California's fire season was until recently viewed as starting in April
and running through October. Now year-round fire issues have become the
"new normal," said state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara.
"These fires are very complicated and very dangerous, and Mother Nature
does not share her playbook with us," she said.
http://beta.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-thomas-fire-ledeall-20171217-story.html
*Germans most worried about climate change, analysis shows
<https://www.carbonbrief.org/germans-worried-climate-change-analysis-shows>*
People living in Germany are the most worried about climate change,
according to new analysis of 18 countries published this week.
The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) examined data collected
by the European Social Survey on public attitudes to climate change of
16 European countries, Russia and Israel.
Of these 18 countries, it found Germans are the most concerned, with
44% "very or "extremely" worried about climate change. At the other end
of the spectrum, just 15% of Poles say they are "very or "extremely"
worried.
Meanwhile, 15% of Russians say that the world's climate is definitely
not changing, compared to an average of 3% across all countries included.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/germans-worried-climate-change-analysis-shows
*
Life on Planet Trump: Should we be worried or merely terrified?
<http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/12021-life-planet-trump-should-we-be-worried-or-merely-terrified>*
Whatever your view on Trump's policies or behaviour, nothing is more
important than the mental health of one of the most powerful men in the
world, one who theoretically has his finger on the nuclear button.
Public concern goes back to the beginning of his presidency. The
respected liberal American independent magazine, the New Republic, which
for over 100 years has influenced political and cultural thinking in
Washington, carried an article on 17 February, just four weeks after
Trump's inauguration: "A Medical Theory for Donald Trump's Bizarre
Behaviour". In this piece, physicians noted that many medical conditions
exhibit their first symptoms in the form of psychiatric issues and
personality changes, quoting one in particular, neurosyphilis, seen 10
to 30 years after the initial infection. Commonly recognised symptoms
include irritability, delusional thinking and grandiosity. Dementia,
squinting and patchy hair loss can also be seen in the later stages. All
this, of course, was simply conjecture by the New Republic, but if Trump
does indeed have neurosyphilis, which is progressive but treatable, he
would be in good company. Al Capone had it; so did composers Frederick
Delius and Franz Schubert. Less exalted company would be Adolf Hitler,
Mussolini and Ivan the Terrible, all of whom were believed to have the
disease.
Hot on the heels of this article, Psychology Today, a magazine formerly
owned and published by the American Psychological Association, published
a post "The Elephant in the Room: It's time we talked openly about
Donald Trump's mental health". This post immediately went viral with
close to a million reads. One was from Dr John Gartner, whose earlier
petition warning on Trump's mental health was signed by more than 60,000
mental health professionals. This petition also contained a request that
Trump be removed from office according to the 25th amendment.
More recently, psychiatrist Dr Bandy Lee of Yale University wrote to
Congress, warning that Donald Trump poses a "clear and present danger to
the world". In a follow-up letter to the New York Times on 30 September,
Dr Lee referred to a recently published book, of which she is the
editor: The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental
Health Experts Assess a President....
http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/12021-life-planet-trump-should-we-be-worried-or-merely-terrified
[Seattle Times]
*UW's robotic fleet will probe under Antarctic ice shelves for clues to
future sea-level rise
<https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/uws-robotic-fleet-will-probe-under-antarctic-ice-shelves-for-clues-to-future-sea-level-rise/>*
By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times science reporter
Later this month, a University of Washington researcher will heave a
half-million dollars' worth of robotic sensors into the frigid waters
off Antarctica - and hope for the best.
If all goes well, the drones could gather some of the most extensive
measurements ever from beneath the continent's vast and vulnerable
Western ice shelf. If things go wrong, the bots could vanish into the
labyrinth of cavities and crevasses under the ice, never to be heard
from again...
The glaciers that cover Antarctica are buttressed by floating ice
shelves up to a third of a mile thick. If global warming causes the
shelves to collapse or melt, the glaciers could flow more rapidly into
the ocean and accelerate sea-level rise....
The UW team tested the instruments in Puget Sound before crating them up
for shipment to New Zealand, where they'll be loaded onto the South
Korean icebreaker R.V. Araon. UW oceanographer Jason Gobat and Pierre
Dutrieux of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University will
deploy the drones from the ship during its 50-day polar science mission.
The four Argo floats will be swept under the ice and won't be able to
communicate with the scientists in Seattle until - and if - currents
flush them back into open water. The three Seagliders are programmed to
initially venture short distances under the edge of the ice, then back
out to transmit data and receive instructions.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/uws-robotic-fleet-will-probe-under-antarctic-ice-shelves-for-clues-to-future-sea-level-rise/
[DeSmogBlog]
*Why Has One of the World's Biggest Funders of Environmental
Conservation Also Given $4 Million to a Climate Denial Group?
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/12/14/pew-charitable-trusts-funding-climate-denial-texas-public-policy-foundation-hartnett-white>*
The Pew Charitable Trusts, one of the world's biggest funders of
environmental conservation groups, has given almost $5 million since
2011 to an organization that rejects the overwhelming evidence that
human-caused climate change is dangerous, DeSmog has found.
Between 2011 and 2015, financial returns show the Pew Charitable Trusts
gave $4.7 million to the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), while
giving millions more to dozens of worthy conservation causes.
Kathleen Hartnett White, who is President Donald Trump's nominee to lead
the White House Council on Environmental Quality, heads TPPF's Armstrong
Center for Energy and the Environment.
Hartnett White, who hopes to chair the influential federal council, also
rejects the science linking fossil fuel burning to dangerous climate change.
Some of the groups that have received major grants from Pew have been
outspoken in their criticisms of Hartnett White, describing her as a
"climate change denier" who was unfit for the role. The Pew Charitable
Trusts confirmed the grants, but said they were unrelated to work on
climate change.
Senate Democrats are accusing Hartnett White of plagiarizing her
responses to questions from the Committee on Environment and Public
Works. Hartnett White was unable to answer basic questions about climate
change during her nomination hearing...
DeSmog asked the Pew Charitable Trusts why it would give more than $4
million to a group whose work was in contradiction to the many other
organizations it generously supported.
Pew did not answer this question, but in an email response, spokesperson
Felisa Neuringer Klubes said: "I can confirm that Pew made grants to the
Texas Public Policy Foundation totaling approximately $4.74 million
between 2011 and 2015. Those grants were in support of the foundation's
work to advance state-level policy reforms of juvenile justice and adult
sentencing and corrections reform, as well as efforts to expand access
to dental care by encouraging states to license dental therapists. The
foundation is one of several hundred organizations that Pew partners
with on a wide variety of issues."
She added that the Pew Charitable Trusts is "an independent, nonprofit
organization, committed to developing effective, evidence-based,
nonpartisan policy solutions to solve today's most challenging problems."
https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/12/14/pew-charitable-trusts-funding-climate-denial-texas-public-policy-foundation-hartnett-white
[Unintentional Irony]
*The EPA Headquarters Reportedly Got Hit With A Sewage Leak And People
Pounced On The Irony
<https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/we-must-stop-the-leaks>*
These metaphors are getting rather heavy-handed, no?
A plumbing problem at the headquarters of the Environmental Protection
Agency caused water fountains to overflow with smelly black sewage
Friday morning, according to E&E News
<https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2017/12/14/stories/1060069063>.
[disgusting photograph
https://twitter.com/RobertMaguire_/status/941715143150526465/photo/1]
"There is a water line back up in the William Jefferson Clinton North
Building that is causing the hallway water fountains to leak throughout
the building in the 400 and 500 Corridors," the email reportedly said.
"GSA is working this issue right now. There is no estimated time for
resolution."
An EPA employee reportedly said it has since been cleaned up.
Plumbing problems are apparently a common occurrence at the EPA
headquarters. One former employee told E&E News there would sometimes be
"very odd smells coming out of those drinking fountains."
"I can't imagine that anyone would actually drink out of those drinking
water fountains,"
https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/we-must-stop-the-leaks
https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2017/12/14/stories/1060069063
*The Permanent Lie, Our Deadliest Threat
<https://www.truthdig.com/articles/permanent-lie-deadliest-threat/>*
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/permanent-lie-deadliest-threat/
*Hurricane Harvey studies: Yesterday's 100-year storm is today's 30-year
storm
<https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/12/more-studies-examine-role-of-climate-change-in-hurricane-harvey/>*
...Although a 1,000-year storm is bound to happen somewhere in the world
fairly regularly, it's still ultimately "bad luck" when it happens to
you. A number of chance events had to line up to make Hurricane Harvey
as extreme as it was. But on the list of things humans did that made
Harvey and its effects worse than it otherwise would have been, climate
change cannot be ignored.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/12/more-studies-examine-role-of-climate-change-in-hurricane-harvey/
*
AUSTRALIA'S GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS HIGHEST ON RECORD...
<http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/australia_s_greenhouse_gas_emissions_highest_on_record>*
Australia's emissions over the past year were the highest on record,
when relatively unreliable emissions from land use are excluded,
according to estimates by the carbon consultancy NDEVR Environmental...
The government's official public release of data on emissions is now six
months behind and NDEVR Environmental's estimations attempt to mirror
that methodology. Released in partnership with Guardian Australia, the
results have proven very accurate when compared with data eventually
released by the federal government.
The ever-increasing emissions are taking Australia further from both its
carbon-reduction commitments made in Paris and the much bigger
reductions demanded by the science-based targets, recommended by the
government's Climate Change Authority.
In both 2015 and 2016, the government quietly released data showing
rising emissions on the days before Christmas, with this year's data
still not released just two weeks out from Christmas.
And, for the past two years, documents released under freedom of
information laws have shown the government has had the data for months
before releasing it...
http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/australia_s_greenhouse_gas_emissions_highest_on_record
[news video compilation]
*Climate & Extreme Weather News #86 (December 8th to 16th 2017)
<https://youtu.be/gKM2WexQfvs>*
00:13 The USA: Thomas Fire & Snow Storms
10:57 Italy: Emilia Romagna floods
15:56 The UK: Winter storm
17:38 The Philippines: Tropical Storm Urduja
19:51 Indonesia: Jakarta flood
22:21 South Africa: Vaal tornado
25:12 Australia: Queensland thunderstorms
32:13 December temp anomalies, Arctic update & Greenland study
https://youtu.be/gKM2WexQfvs
[AGU video Humor (part wake) - "not for the general public per se" ]
2017 Fall Meeting - U54A: The Use of Humor in the Communication of
Geophysical Science
<https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm17/preliminaryview.cgi/Session24607>
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Published on Dec 16, 2017
U54A: The Use of Humor in the Communication of Geophysical Science
Friday, 15 December 2017 16:00 - 18:00
Roger S Pulwarty, NOAA Physical Sciences Division, Earth System Research
Laboratory
U54A-01 Time to quit my day job? My not-so-quiet crusade to become the
funniest climate scientist at NASA
Josh K Willis, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Cecile Penland, NOAA Boulder
Gavin A Schmidt, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Joellen L Russell, University of Arizona
Richard B Alley, Pennsylvania State University
Session ID#: 24607
Session Description:
The use of humor has been shown to be an effective mechanism for
communicating science. Exemplars of this approach have successfully used
humor to engage audiences across the geophysical sciences in
understanding and appreciating of the intricacies of their science. We
propose to bring together in a single session, a cross-section of
talented communicators of researcher who can display how they
incorporate humor in the effective communication of their science. Our
session will bring together a cross-section of speakers from AGU's
sections/focus groups to feature their use of humor in the presentation
of their science followed by a discussion by a panel of experts
critiquing examples of the best and worst use of humor in the
presentation. We will ask each of the AGU section/focus group
presidents to nominate the scientist from their community who is most
notorious for, and effective in, their use of humor in communicating
their research.
9820 Techniques applicable in three or more fields
The imperative of humor in the portfolio of communication strategies
(Invited) (255675)
James W C White, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, United
States and Richard B Alley, Pennsylvania State Univ, University Park,
PA, United States
The Once and Future Battles of Thor and the Midgard Serpent (or the
Southern Ocean's Role in Climate) (Invited) (292433)
Joellen L Russell, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States
Abstracts:
Time to quit my day job? My not-so-quiet crusade to become the funniest
climate scientist at NASA/(Invited)/
<https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm17/preliminaryview.cgi/Paper218672.html>(218672)
*Josh K Willis*, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States
Science Is A Laughing Matter/(Invited)/
<https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm17/preliminaryview.cgi/Paper237685.html>(237685)
*Paul R Weissman*, Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ, United States
A Spoonful of Humor Makes the Math Go Down./(Invited)/
<https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm17/preliminaryview.cgi/Paper255404.html>(255404)
*Cecile Penland*, NOAA Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States
The imperative of humor in the portfolio of communication
strategies/(Invited)/
<https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm17/preliminaryview.cgi/Paper255675.html>(255675)*
James W C White*, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, United
States and Richard B Alley, Pennsylvania State Univ, University Park,
PA, United States
The Once and Future Battles of Thor and the Midgard Serpent (or the
Southern Ocean's Role in Climate)/(Invited)/
<https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm17/preliminaryview.cgi/Paper292433.html>(292433)
*Joellen L Russell*, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm17/preliminaryview.cgi/Session24607*
**This Day in Climate History December 18, 2014
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/opinion/gov-cuomo-makes-sense-on-fracking.html>
- from D.R. Tucker*
• The New York Times editorial page observes:
"Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday announced a statewide ban on the
extraction of natural gas using a controversial drilling process
called hydraulic fracturing. This was not an easy decision, but it was
the right one. Many geologists and industry leaders believe that the
deep shale formations underneath the state’s southern tier, known as
the Marcellus Shale, contain bountiful supplies of natural gas. But
extracting the gas, the governor concluded, carried — at least for now
— unacceptable risks to the environment and human health.
"In making what amounted to his first major decision since his
re-election last month, Mr. Cuomo embraced the conclusion of state
health officials that important health issues remain unresolved and
that it was impossible to declare that hydraulic fracturing is safe
for the environment or human health...
"Though he did not intend it as such, Mr. Cuomo’s decision sends an
important message to both the industry and the Obama administration,
which is drawing up new rules aimed at ensuring that wells are
carefully drilled, that fugitive methane gases are captured and that
wastewater is disposed of safely. The message from New York is that
not only ordinary citizens but health officials and state leaders like
Mr. Cuomo have serious doubts about all of these issues — doubts that
a strong regulatory regime might help answer."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/opinion/gov-cuomo-makes-sense-on-fracking.html
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//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/20171218/a0d41420/attachment.html>
More information about the TheClimate.Vote
mailing list