[TheClimate.Vote] December 26, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/December 26, 2017
/
[New Yorker & video <https://youtu.be/Wk2jVPIO4SA>]
*As Winter Snows Disappear, Dogsled Racers Are Trading Skis for Wheels 
<https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/as-winter-snows-disappear-dogsled-racers-are-trading-skis-for-wheels>*
By Meera Subramanian
Northern Wisconsin is still a frigid place come winter. But, as climate 
change has warmed the state, the certainty of snow has gradually 
vanished, leaving traditional dogsledding races frequently cancelled for 
lack of good powder. Enthusiasts have responded by adapting the sport 
itself. The Redpaws Dirty Dog Dryland Derby was the first competition of 
its kind in the area, created in 2006 to extend the racing season into 
the spring and fall. In lieu of sleds, dogs pull three-wheeled rigs and 
modified bicycles; in some cases, a musher simply lashes herself by 
bungee cord to a single dog and runs behind him. (The event is called 
canicross.) Unlike the long-distance sled races, such as the Iditarod, 
which covers a thousand miles of Alaskan wilderness, dryland 
competitions tend to be short sprints of a few miles...
video: Without Reliable Snow, Dogsledders Turn to Dryland Racing 
<https://youtu.be/Wk2jVPIO4SA> https://youtu.be/Wk2jVPIO4SA
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/as-winter-snows-disappear-dogsled-racers-are-trading-skis-for-wheels


[Iceland]
*Spades, saplings and sheep: Iceland battles to restore long-lost 
forests <http://news.trust.org/item/20171225200102-53e7c/?source=gep>*
by Marcello Rossi
Planting trees is "among the least painful ways" to meet the country's 
goal to slash carbon emissions, experts say
REYKJAVIK, Dec 25 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - An hour's hike across a 
vast expanse of dried lava leads to the top of Mount Blahnjukur, a 
nearly thousand-metre-high active volcano whose summit allows, on clear 
days, a sweeping view of a landscape dotted with vast glaciers and 
windswept moors.
A striking feature of this austere beauty in Iceland's southern 
highlands is that it features almost no trees. But that's not because 
the country is too cold for forests.
Archeological evidence indicates that over a quarter of the island's 
countryside was covered with trees until the 9th century, when Viking 
settlers arrived and began chopping them down for timber and to clear 
space for farmland and grazing.
Now the country's exotic, moonscape-like scenery is a lure for tourists. 
But the lack of trees has also caused problems - and now some Icelanders 
are committed to bringing them back.
Today, especially in southern Iceland, reforested sites are popping up 
with a variety of trees, from non-native spruce to native birch...
Iceland's effort to replant relatively slow-growing trees is unlikely to 
have a significant impact on global climate emissions, said Christopher 
Martius, a team leader for climate change, energy and low-carbon 
development at Indonesia-based Center for International Forestry Research.
But "it would send a signal of solidarity with other countries and the 
international community and one of commitment to the goals of the Paris 
Agreement" on climate change, he said.
http://news.trust.org/item/20171225200102-53e7c/?source=gep


[Statistics]
*Cutting-edge statistics yield new insight into attributing, projecting 
climate change 
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171221122538.htm>*
Projecting the future of extreme weather events and their impact on 
human life, the environment and vulnerable ecosystems locally and across 
the globe remains a complex task in climate research -- and one in which 
statisticians are increasingly playing key roles, particularly through 
the development of new models. The December issue of CHANCE examines 
complexities of intense, massive data collection and statistical 
analysis techniques in climate research and features new proposed 
statistical methodology that could be a "game changer" in understanding 
our climate system and in the attribution of extreme climatic events...
Changes in events related to atmospheric circulation, such as storms, 
cannot be characterized robustly due to their underlying chaotic nature. 
In contrast, changes in thermodynamic state variables, such as global 
temperature, can be relatively well characterized. "Rather than trying 
to assess the probability of an extreme event occurring, a group of 
researchers suggest viewing the event as a given and assessing to which 
degree changes in the thermodynamic state (which we know has been 
influenced by climate change) altered the severity of the impact of the 
event," ...
"Incorporating all of these uncertainties is daunting, largely because 
of the computational challenges involved," and to an extent, "whatever 
we say about the behavior of ice sheets in the future is necessarily 
imperfect," note the authors. "However, through such cutting-edge 
physics and multiple observation data sets that piece the information 
together in a principled manner, we have made progress."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171221122538.htm


[imagery]
*This High-Fashion Photographer Gave Everything Up to Save the Planet 
<https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/michel-comte>*
Years after turning his back on fame and fortune, Swiss-born Michel 
Comte is finally getting recognized for his ultimate mission
For decades, photographer Michel Comte was a powerhouse in the fashion 
world, best known for the intimacy and seductive magnetism that his 
portraits exuded. His lifelong passion for nature, however, was lesser 
known.
"Concerns with the environment have been part of who I am for as long as 
I can remember," says the Swiss-born photographer, who traces his 
passion back to seeing his grandfather's 1914 photographs of the Alps. 
For the avid climber, a chance meeting with a group of scientists in the 
Tibetan Himalayas and their warning of global warming triggered his 
awareness of climate change. During subsequent climbs, his sense of 
urgency increased with the visible retreat of glaciers' masses, and the 
absence of snow in certain areas of British Columbia and Mount Kilimanjaro.
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/michel-comte


[from China]*
**Climate change destruction is the 'New Normal' 
<http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2017-12/24/content_50157583.htm>*
Two years ago, then French President Francois Hollande hosted the United 
Nations Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP 21), at which the 
Paris Accord came into effect with the full support of the vast majority 
of nations forming Planet Earth...
Many world leaders, including British Prime Minister Theresa May and 
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, were there. Most glaring was the 
absence of President Donald Trump, who has promised to pull his country 
out of the Paris Accord...
However, the climate change denier Trump has appointed like-minded 
people to head every related American institution, and together they 
have wasted no time making it clear that times have changed and science 
has been forced to take a back seat.
With Big Oil influencing U.S. environmental policy, now, more than ever, 
America's environmentalists are sorrowfully singing the Doomsday Blues.
Less than one year after Trump took office, the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency (EPA) has delivered on six of the eight demands made 
by the American Petroleum Institute (API), rolling back or delaying 
implementation of all the stronger measures introduced during the eight 
years of the Obama administration relating to environmental and public 
health protection.
The American deniers, and their counterparts around the world, continue 
to turn their backs on science and close their eyes to the increasing 
evidence that it is humans who are responsible for the whole grim saga 
of climate change, despite Mother Earth, year after year, offers more 
proof to those still harboring doubts.
While the One Planet conference participants talked, the worst fires in 
the history of California - the largest American state - blazed in six 
separate infernos that destroyed more land than the entire state of New 
York or the island of Singapore, destroying almost 1,000 homes and 
displacing nearly 250,000 people.
At the same time - and also during the Paris meeting - parts of Europe 
experienced the worst blizzards in years, unusual snowfall forcing 
closure of British airports (including the main London facility, 
Heathrow), as well as highways, businesses and schools, like never before.
Just a couple months ago, two major earthquakes and three successive 
hurricanes hit Mexico and the Caribbean island chain, causing unforeseen 
deaths and damage in small countries already affected by rising tides.
Scientists in the U.S. and across the world are warning that such 
negative climate change effects must now be seen as the "New Normal." 
But Big Oil and Dirty Coal are again set to hasten and deepen the 
damaging effects as the deniers keep shutting their eyes to what 
everyone else clearly sees and feels.
U.S. scientists have just reported that Arctic ice is melting at the 
fastest rate in the last 1,500 years, and is partly responsible for the 
unusual weather behind both the California fires and the sharper cold 
snap hitting the American south and east.
They have confirmed that global warming made Hurricane Harvey, hitting 
Texas last August, 15 percent more intense and the costliest of all, 
more than the previous superstorms Sandy and Katrina combined.
The One Planet conference did feature some interesting sidelines, 
including the French president's claim that its overall objective was to 
"Make Our Planet Great Again" and his offer of jobs in Paris to 13 
American Climate Change scientists - both seen as clearly intended jabs 
at his American counterpart.
And the "New Normal" will continue to feature across the USA - and 
everywhere else - for as long as people in poor countries most 
vulnerable to climate change continue to be short-changed by rich countries.
Earl Bousquet is a contributor to china.org.cn, editor-at-large of The 
Diplomatic Courier and author of an online regional newspaper column 
entitled Chronicles of a Chronic Caribbean Chronicler.
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily 
those of China.org.cn.
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2017-12/24/content_50157583.htm

<https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/12/23/conspiracy-theory-psychology/815121001/>
[USA Today]
*Conspiracy theories: Here's what drives people to them, no matter how 
wacky* 
<https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/12/23/conspiracy-theory-psychology/815121001/>
Trump has also said climate change is a Chinese-manufactured hoax meant 
to hurt U.S. industry. His characterization of Russian election meddling 
as a "made-up story" designed to discredit his election victory was 
deemed 2017's lie of the year by fact-checker Politifact last week.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/12/23/conspiracy-theory-psychology/815121001/*
*

[Samantha Bee on Zinke]*
**Who is this A-Hole? Sam Bee on Ryan Zinke 
<https://climatecrocks.com/2017/12/25/who-is-this-a-hole-sam-bee-on-ryan-zinke/>*
https://youtu.be/-ocql0O5SAU video
*Sure Ryan Zinke believes in climate change, he just doesn't care about 
stopping it whatsoever. <https://youtu.be/-ocql0O5SAU>*
Get A Load of This A-hole: Zinke | December 13, 2017 Act 2 | Full 
Frontal on TBS
and*
**Apocalypse Soon | December 20, 2017 Act 2 | Full Frontal on TBS 
<https://youtu.be/-EpNtcI_kf0https://youtu.be/-EpNtcI_kf0>*
Trump has finally done something and surprise! It may trigger the End of 
Days.
https://youtu.be/-EpNtcI_kf0 video
https://climatecrocks.com/2017/12/25/who-is-this-a-hole-sam-bee-on-ryan-zinke/


*This Day in Climate History December 26, 2016 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/26/opinion/states-will-lead-on-climate-change-in-the-trump-era.html?ref=opinion&_r=0>  
-  from D.R. Tucker*
December 26, 2016:
The New York Times editorial page observes:

    "State governments will serve as an important bulwark against any
    attempt by President-elect Donald Trump to roll back the progress the
    United States has made in addressing climate change. And that's good
    news for the planet.
    "Over the last decade or so, most states have reduced their greenhouse
    gas emissions by promoting energy efficiency and renewable fuels.
    These trends should continue as clean energy costs continue to decline
    and, in some parts of the country, fall below the cost of dirtier
    fuels like coal.
    "The Brookings Institution reported this month that between 2000 and
    2014, 33 states and the District of Columbia cut carbon emissions
    while expanding their economies. That list includes red states run by
    Republican legislatures, like Alaska, Georgia, Tennessee and West
    Virginia."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/26/opinion/states-will-lead-on-climate-change-in-the-trump-era.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

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