[TheClimate.Vote] Feb 22 , 2017 - Daily Global Warming News for All -
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Wed Feb 22 10:13:06 EST 2017
/February 22, 2017 EPA's Scott Pruitt's court-ordered emails 7,500
pages /
http://www.exposedbycmd.org/Scott-Pruitt-Missing-Emails
*(Press Release) OKLAHOMA AG RELEASES 7,564 PAGES IN RESPONSE TO CMD
REQUEST* <http://www.exposedbycmd.org/Scott-Pruitt-Missing-Emails>
Under court order, Oklahoma Attorney General's office releases
previously withheld emails and holds back others; more emails
expected on January 27
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — As a result of an Open Records Act request
and lawsuit filed by the Center for Media and Democracy, on Tuesday
night the Oklahoma Attorney General's office released a batch of
more than 7,500 pages of emails and other records it withheld prior
to Scott Pruitt's nomination as EPA Administrator last Friday...
The AG's office withheld an undetermined number of additional
documents as exempted or privileged and submitted them to the Judge
Aletia Haynes Timmons for review. A number of other documents were
redacted, and CMD will be asking for the court to review those as
well. On February 27, the AG's office has been ordered to deliver
records related to five outstanding requests by CMD....
"Despite repeated attempts by Pruitt and the Oklahoma AG's office to
stonewall CMD and the public, we've won a major breakthrough in
obtaining access to public records that shine a light on Pruitt's
emails with polluters and their proxies," said Nick Surgey, research
director at the Center for Media and Democracy. "The newly released
emails reveal a close and friendly relationship between Scott
Pruitt's office and the fossil fuel industry, with frequent
meetings, calls, dinners and other events. ...."There are hundreds
of emails between the AG's office, Devon Energy, and other polluters
that Senators should have been permitted to review prior to their
vote to assess Pruitt's ties to the fossil fuel industry."
*Among the documents released late yesterday, CMD has found:*
-- The oil and gas lobby group American Fuel & Petrochemical
Manufacturers (AFPM) coordinated opposition in 2013 to both the
Renewable Fuel Standard Program and ozone limits with Pruitt's
office. While AFPM was making its own case against the RFS with
the American Petroleum Institute, it provided Pruitt with a
template language for an Oklahoma petition, noting "this
argument is more credible coming from a State." Later that year,
Pruitt did file opposition to both the RFS and ozone limits.
-- In a groundbreaking New York Times Pulitzer winning
series in 2014, Eric Lipton exposed the close relationship
between Devon Energy and Scott Pruitt, and highlighted examples
where Devon Energy drafted letters that were sent by Pruitt
under his own name. These new emails reveal more of the same
close relationship with Devon Energy. In one email, Devon Energy
helped draft language that was later sent by Pruitt to the EPA
about the limiting of methane from oil and gas fracking.
-- In 2013, Devon Energy organized a meeting between Scott
Pruitt, Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society and coal industry
lawyer Paul Seby to plan the creation of a "clearinghouse" that
would "assist AGs in addressing federalism issues." Melissa
Houston, then Pruitt's chief of staff emailed Devon Energy
saying "this will be an amazing resource for the AGs and for
industry."
Last week, the Oklahoma County Court found Scott Pruitt in violation
of the state's Open Records Act for improperly withholding
responsive public records and ordered his office to release
thousands of emails in a matter of days. CMD's lawsuit has driven
unprecedented attention to Pruitt's failure to disclose his deep
ties to fossil industry corporations, with Senators on the
Environmental and Public Works Committee declaring CMD's records
requests a matter of "federal importance."
In her ruling, Judge Timmons slammed the Attorney General's office for
its "abject failure" to abide by the Oklahoma Open Records Act.
The judge gave Pruitt's office until Tuesday, February 21, to turn over
more than 2,500 emails it withheld from CMD's January 2015 records
request, and ordered the office to turn over an undetermined number of
documents responsive to CMD's five additional open records requests
outstanding between November 2015 and August 2016 by February 27. No
deadline has been yet set for a further three outstanding open records
requests.
Full document set: http://www.exposedbycmd.org/Scott-Pruitt-Missing-Emails
The guilt of record warmth in Chicago —*climate change*?
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-warm-weather-met-0222-20170222-story.html>
Chicago Tribune -3 hours ago
"It's scary, that's my first thing," Massey said. "Because in all my
life I've never seen a February this warm. It's like, what's going
on that we're not hearing about? The fear is we're just going to get
hit with some major snowstorms next. — that this is just the calm
before the storm — or that we're going to have snow in June."...
Whether the record-breaking warmth is a sign of climate change, or
of a harsh spring to come or just a burst of unseasonable weather is
difficult for experts to discern. The warm spell is too short a time
period to determine its true cause, climate scientists say. And
meteorologists point out that there are natural variances in weather
over time....
"It's very extraordinary. I have to keep reminding myself this is
February and not March or April. It's kind of weird," said Jim
Angel, the Illinois state climatologist.
Angel said it's hard to draw a direct connection between stretches
like the past few days and overall climate change because bursts of
extreme temperatures are too short to allow for deeper conclusions.
Illinois has always had great variability in its weather, he said...
A wider snapshot of the state's weather over the last century,
however, shows that Illinois winters have warmed 1.8 degrees, Angel
said. What's happening, he said, is harsh winters are being replaced
with milder ones. The polar vortex winter of 2014, however, was a
notable exception...
Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, a professor at Texas Tech
University, agrees it's impossible to know if the recent warm spell
is due to overall warming trends this past decade across the country
— which points to climate change — or a natural, periodic shift in
weather...
Still, "the reality is any conditions we have these days are
different than they would've been 50 or 100 years ago because we've
changed background conditions," she said, pointing to data that show
there are now more than twice as many record-breaking high
temperatures compared to a decade ago...
The unseasonably warm conditions may have ramifications for the
state's apple orchards and fields of winter wheat, he added. Apple
trees may begin to shake out of their dormancy earlier because of
the warm temperatures, then suffer when the cold returns, Angel
said. Winter wheat, planted in the fall to remain dormant until
spring, may also begin to green early only to be blasted when
temperatures plummet...
"From a farming standpoint, this is not good news," Angel said...
"If we don't go much below 20 or 25, we'll probably be OK; but if we
happen to pretty quickly drop down colder than that for any length
of time, it will probably cause some damage," he said...
The consecutive days of warmth have caused buds to sprout on trees
and daffodil leaves to pop out of the dirt, Taylor said. Although
there has been that stimulation of growth, for the most part, she
said, plants should not be significantly affected...
Gillespie wasn't worried about any negative ramifications of the
warm spell or concerning himself with what forecasters call the
inevitable return of typical winter cold...
"I just take it one day at a time in Chicago; man, that's all you
can do," Gillespie said. "You never know what tomorrow can bring."
https://cleantechnica.com/2017/02/21/30-years-presidential-quotes-climate-change/
(Quiz) 30 Years Of Presidential Quotes On*Climate Change*
<https://cleantechnica.com/2017/02/21/30-years-presidential-quotes-climate-change/>
CleanTechnica -11 hours ago
Replace the specter of the Dust Bowl with the growing threat of*climate
change*and FDR's sentiment is even more compelling today.
http://massclimateaction.podbean.com/e/bostons-sciencemarch-america-runs-on-science-the-climate-hawks-companion-podcast/
*Boston's Science March- "America runs on science!" The Climate Hawk's
Companion Podcast
<http://massclimateaction.podbean.com/e/bostons-sciencemarch-america-runs-on-science-the-climate-hawks-companion-podcast/>*
Listen in to some of the speakers at the February 19, 2017
#ScienceMarch in Boston.
Speakers include Prof Naomi Oreskes,
"It is not political to defend the integrity of the planet"
https://theconversation.com/red-state-rural-america-is-acting-on-climate-change-without-calling-it-climate-change-69866
Red state rural America is acting on*climate change*– without
calling it*climate change*
<http://theconversation.com/red-state-rural-america-is-acting-on-climate-change-without-calling-it-climate-change-69866>
The Conversation US -20 minutes ago
In response to real threats and public demand, cities across the United
States and around the world are taking action to address*climate
change*. We might think this is happening only in large, coastal cities
that are threatened by sea-level rise or*...*
http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/21/14684630/california-atmospheric-river-flood-storm-evacuations-rain-arkstorm
Every 200 years California suffers a storm of biblical proportions —
this year's rains are just a precursor
<http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/21/14684630/california-atmospheric-river-flood-storm-evacuations-rain-arkstorm>
The Verge -10 hours ago
The last freak rainstorm turned the Central Valley into a lake, and
we're due for another one...
The severe flooding may feel like a whiplash development in a state
that's been locked in drought for five years — and in an
"exceptional drought" for three of them. Still, California has seen
worse: massive floods have swept through the state about every 200
years for the past 2,000 years or more, climate scientists Michael
Dettinger and Lynn Ingram recount in a 2013 article....
The most recent was a series of storms that lasted for a
near-biblical 43 days between 1861 and 1862, creating a vast lake
where California's Central Valley had been. Floodwaters drowned
thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of cattle, and forced the
state's government to move from Sacramento to San Francisco...
More than 150 years have passed since California's last, great flood
— and a team of researchers with the US Geological Survey have
predicted what kind of damage a similar flood would cause today.
Their simulation, called the ARkStorm, anticipates that a stretch of
the Central Valley 300 miles long by 20 miles wide would be
underwater. Cities up and down the coast of California would flood.
Winds would howl 60 to 125 miles per hour, and landslides would make
roads impassable...
This winter's heavy precipitation has already caused a slew of
problems; California's governor Jerry Brown called a state of
emergency after December and January's storms to ensure that 50
counties would be able to get funds to repair the damage. Last week,
the Oroville Dam's crumbling emergency spillway triggered the
emergency evacuation of more than 180,000 people..
Now, the state's Department of Water Resources is turning its
attention to the Don Pedro Dam in Tuolumne County, California —
about two hours due west of Yosemite National Park. The dam
operators opened the spillway Monday afternoon, which will mean
higher water levels in the river system for a while, says Jon
Ericson with the California Department of Water Resources. People
who live along the Tuolumne River are being encouraged to move to
higher ground, the LA Times reported on Monday..
In a typical year, around nine atmospheric rivers shower California
with precipitation. They're a critical source of about a third to
half of the annual water in a state where the summers are usually
bone-dry. But they also frequently go hand in hand with devastating
wind storms, which can cause billions of dollars of damage,
according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature
Geosciences....
That's the situation we're in now, Ralph says, with about 30
atmospheric rivers since October 1st — and it's something we can
expect to see more of. As global temperatures continue to climb, the
air can hold more water vapor — which means calmer winds, but warmer
and wetter atmospheric rivers, more often. And that means more flooding.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170221101028.htm
Winners and losers:*Climate change*will shift vegetation
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170221101028.htm>
Science Daily -10 hours ago
Projected global warming will likely decrease the extent of
temperate drylands by a third over the remainder of the 21st century
coupled with an increase in dry deep soil conditions during
agricultural growing season. These results have been presented in
Nature Communications by an international collaboration led by the
US Geological Survey and members from seven countries, including
Scott Wilson at the Climate Impacts Research Centre (CIRC) at Umeå
University in Sweden...
"I was impressed by the scope of the computer model: with many
components of the water cycle calculated daily for 30 years, at
20,000 sites. All of this to simulate the current climate as well as
16 possible future climates. The variety of possible future climates
gave pretty consistent outcomes, lending credibility to the
results," says Professor Scott Wilson, visiting researcher at Umeå
University and researcher within CIRC...
"For example, with the expansion of subtropical drylands as
temperate drylands warm cool season crops such as wheat and potato
would no longer be economically viable," says Scott Wilson.
"Further, these subtropical drylands are home to aggressive diseases
such as dengue and schistosomiasis. Given the predicted changes to
dryland habitats globally, the outcome of this research is essential
for developing strategies for adaptation by policy makers."
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2017/02/21/conflicts-of-interest-could-possibly-trump-climate-change-denial/
Conflicts of interest could, possibly, trump*climate change *denial
<http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2017/02/21/conflicts-of-interest-could-possibly-trump-climate-change-denial/>
National Geographic -10 hours ago
Over the weekend, Donald Trump's Palm Beach country club,
Mar-a-Lago, was the location where he interviewed two candidates for
National Security Advisor. The previous weekend, the club's open
dining room was where Trump and his advisors discussed how to
respond to a North Korean missile test. Trump's insistence on
conducting government business at his beach club—after doubling
membership rates—sits at the top of a rather lengthy list of his
conflict of interests...
Mar-a-Lago is a national historic landmark. It is the former home of
Marjorie Merriweather Post, a leading socialite of the post-war era
who owned General Foods. The estate can also become the primary
motivating force for bringing a climate denier like Donald Trump to
finally accept scientific facts...
In three decades, parts of Trump's beach club could be at least a
foot under the ocean's surface, according to an analysis
commissioned last year by the Guardian. But the immediate risk is
nothing to sneeze at—much of it could face a 3-6 feet storm surge
the next time a tropical storm or hurricane strikes. While the main
building should be just about safe from anything under a category 2
hurricane through 2046, the ongoing surge of property damage could
compel just about anyone to reconsider whether climate change is
real or a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese...
It's fairly obvious that Trump has not considered the climate-change
risk to his real estate holdings in Florida and elsewhere, even
though 13 of his 17 golf resorts and associated real estate
developments and four additional hotels are on or near the ...Even
though they may be worried about sea-level rise, however, many
developers will not change their business practices until government
regulations compel them to, according to one developer I spoke with.
The real estate industry, he told me, is like any other sector in
that it depends on the government to set up a level playing field in
which they compete...
Trump is, of course, in the rare position of establishing
regulations that impact his businesses. He can certainly push for
weaker rules that allow more flood-prone developments to be built.
And he has already shown an eagerness to weaken regulations that
restrict greenhouse gas emissions...
But what will happen when the 2017 hurricane season hits? And, if
2017 is a dud like 2015—which forecasters are starting to predict
already—what about 2018? Or 2019 or 2020? Can a major hurricane
cause major damage to Mar-a-Lago and then, amidst the resulting
media storm, finally turn on the switch that compels Trump to
protect his real estate holdings?
If so, he would not be able to reinstate everything that he rolled
back, of course. And the majorities in Congress who welcome his
climate denial would balk if he tried to stem the tide of denial.
But really, what choice does he have? His business empire is heavily
tilted towards the coast. He can increase the federal insurance
programs that protect coastal residential areas from flooding or
build sea walls and other infrastructure to help his properties
weather the coming storms, but sooner or later he will have to
either address the problem at its root or divest from the coast...
It is in his long term interest to reduce the risk his investments
face from climate change. And his short-term interests would benefit
as well. Mar-a-Lago members, after all, are paying $200,000 upfront
plus $14,000 every year to watch foreign policy in action. They're
not paying to play tennis while wearing floaties.../Dan Klotz is a
veteran writer and advocate on conservation efforts and the health
and sustainability of our food systems./
http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060050316
*Inside the buried memo that could decide pipeline's fate
<http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060050316>*
Ellen M. Gilmer, E&E News reporter Published: Tuesday, February 21,
2017
An overlooked memo from the Interior Department's top lawyer could
play a critical role in the fate of the Dakota Access pipeline, and
the Trump administration is considering erasing it.
Obama-era Interior Solicitor Hilary Tompkins late last year issued a
formal legal opinion outlining reasons the government should conduct
further study before granting final approval for the controversial
oil project.
The 35-page memo <https://solicitor.doi.gov/opinions/M-37038.pdf>
says the existing environmental assessment for Dakota Access suffers
from fatal flaws, including inadequate consideration of tribal
treaty rights and uneven treatment of the project's impacts on
native and non-native populations.
The Trump administration quietly suspended the opinion two weeks ago
as it prepared to approve the pipeline and halt deeper environmental
study.
The document, known as an "M-opinion," is dated Dec. 4, 2016 — the
same day the Army Corps of Engineers agreed to do more review — but
it only recently surfaced in legal filings at a federal court in
Washington. It includes powerful ammunition for tribes that have
long pushed for additional review of the oil pipeline.
"It's hugely significant," said Earthjustice lawyer Jan Hasselman,
representing the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. "It is potentially
determinative of the outcome in the case."
Others have cast doubt on the memo's importance. Army Corps
officials dismissed it in a recent legal review, and some court
watchers have characterized it as an attempt by the Obama
administration to provide cover for its decision to delay pipeline
approval.
'That's why we have courts'
What's clear is that the Trump administration wants to take a second
look. Interior removed the memo from the solicitor's website last
week, along with three other opinions that could affect Dakota Access.
Links to the documents now connect to a letter from acting Secretary
Jack Haugrud noting that the opinions have been temporarily
withdrawn until political appointees can decide whether they should
be reinstated, modified or revoked.
From the memo at: https://solicitor.doi.gov/opinions/M-37038.pdf
"In light of these considerations, I do not believe that the DAPL is
one of "those obvious
circumstances where no effect on the environment is possible," 191
or that the Corps'
determination that there are minimal threats to tribal rights is
"close to self-evident and would
not require an extended document incorporating other studies." 192
Instead, there is ample legal
justification for the Corps to exercise its discretion to suspend or
revoke the existing Section 408
pennit and/or postpone a decision on the proposed easement
conditional on additional analysis
and government-to-government consultation concerning the
tribal-specific issues discussed in
this Memorandum, and to ultimately issue an EIS addressing these
topics. If the Corps
ultimately does decide to authorize the easement, additional tribal
consultation is necessary to
develop conditions for the authorization that will protect the
Tribes' rights and interests in and
around Lake Oahe."
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16022017/arctic-sea-ice-extent-nasa-global-warming-climate-change
*Researcher's 1979 Arctic Model Predicted Current Sea Ice Demise, Holds
Lessons for Future
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16022017/arctic-sea-ice-extent-nasa-global-warming-climate-change>*
Study from decades ago proved remarkably accurate in showing how
global warming would affect the Arctic's sea ice, currently in steep
decline.
By Sabrina Shankman..
Claire Parkinson, now a senior climate change scientist at NASA,
first began studying global warming's impact on Arctic sea ice in
1978, when she was a promising new researcher at the National Center
for Atmospheric Research. Back then, what she and a colleague found
was not only groundbreaking, it pretty accurately predicted what is
happening now in the Arctic, as sea ice levels break record low
after record low...
Parkinson's study, which was published in 1979, found that a
doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide from preindustrial levels
would cause the Arctic to become ice-free in late summer months,
probably by the middle of the 21st century. It hasn't been ice-free
in more than 100,000 years..
Although carbon dioxide levels have not yet doubled, the ice is
rapidly disappearing. This record melt confirms the outlook from
Parkinson's 1979 model...
"It was one of these landmark papers," said Mark Serreze, director
of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. "She was the first to put
together the thermodynamic sea ice model."
What's more, collection of better data on sea ice over recent years
has strengthened the models, making their predictions even more
reliable—and disturbing.
https://skepticalscience.com/expect-to-see-more-emergencies-like-oroville-dam.html
*Expect to see more emergencies like Oroville Dam in a hotter world
<https://skepticalscience.com/expect-to-see-more-emergencies-like-oroville-dam.html>*
The evacuation of nearly 200,000 people near Oroville Dam is the
kind of event that makes climate change personal. A co-worker of
mine was forced out of his home for several days by the emergency
evacuation, and another friend was visiting Lake Oroville and
happened to leave 15 minutes before the evacuation order was issued...
Like many extreme events, the Oroville emergency is a combination of
natural weather likely intensified by climate change. California
regularly sees "atmospheric rivers" that deluge the state with
rainfall, but in a hotter world, scientists anticipate that they'll
be amplified by an increase in the amount of water vapor in the
atmosphere...
Northern California is in the midst of its wettest rainy season on
record – twice as wet as the 20th century average, and 35% wetter
than the previous record year. It proved to be almost too much for
America's tallest dam to handle. Water managers were forced to use
Oroville Dam's emergency spillway for the first time ever, which
then began to erode, posing the threat of a failure and catastrophic
flooding of nearby towns.
https://peoplesclimate.org/
Peoples Climate Movement April 29, 2017 <https://peoplesclimate.org/>
WE RESIST. WE BUILD. WE RISE.
Washington DC March for jobs, justice and the climate
Join the People's Climate Movement this April 29th in Washington,
D.C. and across the country to stand up for our communities and climate.
Throughout the first 100 days in office, the People's Climate
Movement is organizing a country-wide arc of action, culminating on
April 29th in Washington DC in a powerful mobilization to unite all
of our movements. To change everything, we need everyone.
https://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/02/21/climate-change-glossary-%E2%80%93-understanding-global-warming-z
Climate change glossary – understanding *global warming*from A to Z
<https://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/02/21/climate-change-glossary-%E2%80%93-understanding-global-warming-z>
IRINnews.org -8 hours ago
Even as we shake our heads over the changing weather, or moan about
the fumes belched from the vehicles in our cities, climate change
still feels a distant problem...
That's partly because the solution seems to lie with governments and
industries, and partly because journalists struggle to engage with
the public on the issues...
It's a tricky story to tell. The most extreme effects of global
warming will occur in the future; fear-based reporting tends to
backfire; and journalists need a decent understanding of the science
to hold the authorities to account...
The obscure and impenetrable language of climate change does not
help. So, as part of a project with the Open Society Foundations to
help the media better report on (and for all of us to better
understand) global warming, IRIN has produced this glossary of terms...
If you want to know the difference between adaptation and zoonoses,
you'll find it here – and a lot more besides...
The glossary is the first in a series of fact files that will be
released in the coming weeks...
PDF document
https://assets.irinnews.org/s3fs-public/irinfactfileclimatechangeterminology.pdf
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/02/climategate_distortions
*This Day in Climate History February 22, 2010
<http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/02/climategate_distortions>
- from D.R. Tucker
*
The Economist calls out the Daily Mail for promoting the notion that
climate change "stopped" in 1995.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/02/climategate_distortions
http://youtu.be/cp-iB6jwjUc
*
*
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