[TheClimate.Vote] July 17, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News

[Richard Pauli]

/July 17, 2017/

*Climate change is 'great opportunity' says Richard Branson - video 
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2017/jul/16/richard-branson-climate-change-great-opportunity-virgin-group-video>*
The Founder and chair of the Virgin Group speaks during a panel 
discussion in New York on Friday and says the threat of climate change 
actually offers 'one of the great opportunities for this world'. Branson 
urges the business sector to step forward and 'fill certain gaps that 
some governments are leaving behind' in tackling the problem
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2017/jul/16/richard-branson-climate-change-great-opportunity-virgin-group-video




  For Mental Fitness, Take A Hike


      Studies show that reconnecting with nature can make us happier,
      smarter, and healthier–especially if it's in an unfamiliar
      place.For Mental Fitness, Take A Hike
      Studies show that reconnecting with nature can make us happier,
      smarter, and healthier–especially if it's in an unfamiliar pla


/New Videos from Potholer54//-//Peter Hadfield is a British journalist 
and author, trained as a geologist, who currently runs the YouTube 
channel Potholer54, which has over 130,000 subscribers./
*(video) Can we trust peer-reviewed papers? 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIlBsfTx3Kc>*
Published on Jul 16, 2017
26 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIlBsfTx3Kc
Latest claim: The Greenland ice sheet is growing 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEieWJghRNY>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEieWJghRNY
Are humans contributing only 3% of CO2 in the atmosphere? 
<https://youtu.be/CcmCBetoR18>
https://youtu.be/CcmCBetoR18
Response to Bill Whittle's "Is climate change real?" 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7aZ6vqCk2E>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7aZ6vqCk2E


*Schroders issues climate change warning 
<https://www.ft.com/content/ba3bb744-688a-11e7-9a66-93fb352ba1fe>*
Schroders, the UK's largest-listed asset manager, has issued a stark 
warning about climate change, cautioning that global temperatures are on 
course to rise faster than expected, potentially putting trillions of 
pounds of investors' cash at risk.
The fund house, which manages $520bn for investors across the world, 
said its analysis of the biggest drivers of climate change, including 
oil and gas production and political action, suggested global 
temperatures are poised to rise by 4 degrees above pre-Industrial 
Revolution levels.
Andy Howard, head of sustainable research at Schroders, said investors 
would not be able to avoid the "force of nature colliding with financial 
markets in the years and decades ahead", as governments attempt to 
control temperature rises.
https://www.ft.com/content/ba3bb744-688a-11e7-9a66-93fb352ba1fe

*
Arctic heat is becoming more common and persistent 
<http://www.climatecentral.org/news/arctic-heat-more-common-and-persistent-21614>*
Warmer air and water is fueling a negative feedback loop - temperatures 
rising faster than rest of the world
BRIAN KAHN, CLIMATE CENTRAL*
*The Arctic is a bastion of cold, blustery weather. But in the latest 
sign of how quickly changes are happening, new research published this 
week shows that the Arctic has seen more frequent bouts of warm air and 
longer stretches of mild weather.
The new findings show that while warm snaps have occurred even as far as 
back as the 1890s, a massive shift is afoot in the region, which is 
warming twice as fast as the rest of the world.
The North Pole region has been ground zero for these changes. Since 
1979, the number of warm events has doubled and the number of days with 
mild air has tripled. There are now 21 days of mild weather at the North 
Pole in an average winter compared to just seven mild winter days at the 
start of record keeping.
An international team of scientists used data from buoys, land and a 
ship mired in winter ice in 2015 - as well as historical records from a 
19th century expedition - as the basis for the new study, published 
Tuesday in Geophysical Research Letters. 
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL073395/abstract>*
*http://www.climatecentral.org/news/arctic-heat-more-common-and-persistent-21614*
*-more:*
Geophysical Research Letters
Increasing frequency and duration of Arctic winter warming events 
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL073395/abstract>
Plain Language Summary
*During the last three winter seasons, extreme warming events were 
observed over sea ice in the central Arctic Ocean. Each of these warming 
events were associated with temperatures close to or above 0°C, which 
lasted for between 1 and 3 days. Typically temperatures in the Arctic at 
this time of year are below -30°C. Here we study past temperature 
observations in the Arctic to investigate how common winter warming 
events are. We use time temperature observations from expeditions such 
as Fram (1893–1896) and manned Soviet North Pole drifting ice stations 
from 1937 to 1991. These historic temperature records show that winter 
warming events have been observed over most of the Arctic Ocean. Despite 
a thin network of observation sites, winter time temperatures above −5°C 
were directly observed approximately once every 3 years in the central 
Arctic Ocean between 1954 and 2010. Winter warming events are associated 
with storm systems originating in either the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. 
Twice as many warming events originate from the Atlantic Ocean compared 
with the Pacific. These storms often penetrate across the North Pole. 
While observations of winter warming events date back to 1896, we find 
an increasing number of winter warming events in recent years.*
*http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL073395/abstract*


Mountain Climate Change - Issue 55 <http://www.icimod.org/?q=28197>*
prepared for members of Mountain Forum, Mountain Partnership and other 
regional and global networks. This thematic digest is also available on 
our website.   The complete list of digests is available 
<http://www.icimod.org/?q=1522>.
Recession of Himalayan glaciers alarming: ISRO
12 Jul 2017
Analysis of satellite images have revealed an "alarming recession" of 
glaciers in the Bhilangna basin of the Garhwal Himalayas from 1965, 
scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have said.
http://www.icimod.org/?q=28197


news.com.au
*Backlash against doomsday article that predicts a climate change 
induced apocalypse 
<http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/backlash-against-doomsday-article-that-predicts-a-climate-change-induced-apocalypse/news-story/bf95087d2f7c5f7f9c198f7e59532927>*
HUMANS boiled alive and "death smogs" are predicted for Earth. Some 
scientists are scathing, others say it's spot on.
AUSTRALIAN scientists have said a hugely controversial article that 
predicts a climate change driven apocalypse is "scary" and "embellished" 
but entirely plausible despite the extreme scenario dividing 
climatologists worldwide.
David Wallace-Wells' startling - and unashamedly doom ridden - essay in 
New York magazine, entitled ' The Uninhabitable Earth ', has ruffled 
feathers.
"I promise, it is worse than you think," he says in the opening line of 
the article published last week.
Even if Australians manage to survive major cities being in "permanent 
extreme drought" or poisonous sea "burps" it's likely we'll be finished 
off by "rolling death smogs" or "perpetual war" instead, the article states.
Mr Wallace-Wells' piece has been heavily criticised. But not by the 
climate sceptics - it's climate scientists who are up in arms, claiming 
it is "irresponsible" and "alarmist".
Respected climatologist Michael E Mann, director of the Earth System 
Science Centre at Pennsylvania State University, has said the 
"extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence … [and this] 
article fails to produce it."
Richard Betts, from the UK's University of Exeter told website Climate 
Feedback,
the Earth becoming uninhabitable within the timescale suggested was 
"pure hyperbole."
But Australian climate scientists news.com.au spoke to said while some 
of the descriptions of the future earth were fanciful (one called them 
"dramatised"), fanciful didn't mean they were false.
"It's absolutely true these things could happen," said Dr Liz Hanna, 
President of the Climate and Health Alliance and a researcher into the 
health impacts of climate change at the Australian National University 
(ANU).
"It's alarming but not alarmist."
Professor Will Steffen of the Climate Council of Australia said the 
predictions were not from "ultra greenies" but were a sober assessment 
of the societal collapse extreme climate change could bring.
Dr Hanna agreed the bleak future prophesied was more plausible.
"Could parts of the world become uninhabitable? A definite yes.
"Darwin is already problematic in the build-up and could become 
problematic for everyone aside from extremophile for much of the year."...
Dr Hanna says she has little time for the argument that such apocalyptic 
descriptions should be kept from the public.
"Some say that people will be paralysed by fear, 'what can li'l old me 
do about it?'
"But if we tell people how grizzly it could become, it might not lead to 
paralysis - it could jolt them into action," she said.
"By the time people go 'shit we're in real trouble now,' it could be too 
late."
http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/backlash-against-doomsday-article-that-predicts-a-climate-change-induced-apocalypse/news-story/bf95087d2f7c5f7f9c198f7e59532927


Global Weather Hazards
*Continued heavy rainfall causes flooding in Sudan and Nigeria 
<http://www.fews.net/global/global-weather-hazards/july-14-2017>*
About FEWS NET
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network is a leading provider of early 
warning and analysis on food insecurity. Created by USAID in 1985 to 
help decision-makers plan for humanitarian crises, FEWS NET provides 
evidence-based analysis on some 34 countries
http://www.fews.net/global/global-weather-hazards/july-14-2017


*How climate change strangled a Jurassic ocean ecosystem 
<https://cosmosmagazine.com/palaeontology/how-climate-change-strangled-a-jurassic-ocean-ecosystem>*
When a warming world depleted the ocean's supplies of oxygen, 
extinctions followed and recovery took hundreds of thousands of years.
183 million years ago, oceans around the world started running low on 
oxygen. Though the cause of what is called the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic 
Event (T-OAE) is uncertain - most likely global warming triggered by 
huge volcanic eruptions – scientists do know it lasted for several 
hundred thousand years and caused mass extinctions.
In a paper published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, 
Palaeoecology, researchers have traced the effects of the T-OAE in 
detail on a marine ecosystem at what is now the Ya Ha Tinda Ranch fossil 
site in Alberta, Canada. It is of interest to scientists because it 
demonstrates how different ecosystems react to severe climate change.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/palaeontology/how-climate-change-strangled-a-jurassic-ocean-ecosystem
-more:
*Oxygen-starved oceans can take a million years to recover 
<https://cosmosmagazine.com/climate/oxygen-starved-oceans-can-take-a-million-years-to-recover>*
A new model may explain why an ancient crash in the ocean's oxygen 
levels lasted a million years and led to almost another million years of 
catastrophic fires, writes Andrew Masterson.
Depleted oxygen levels - known as anoxia – continued for one million 
years. When it returned to pre-crisis levels, it was accompanied by an 
upsurge in forest fires, which lasted for around 800,000 years.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/climate/oxygen-starved-oceans-can-take-a-million-years-to-recover


*Everything You Need to Know About Wildfires in One Map 
<http://www.climatecentral.org/news/us-wildfires-one-map-20447>*
By Brian Kahn     Published: June 15th, 2016
Summer's heat is settling in early in parts of the West, and is forecast 
to arrive in earnest this weekend. With sweltering days ahead, the 
rising specter of wildfires isn't far behind.
To get the big-picture, we've created a brand new wildfire tracker that 
shows where every wildfire is burning with a side of climate. (66 second 
video https://youtu.be/dKPUWAx6M-M)
*WHY IT'S IMPORTANT*
U.S. forests sucked up approximately 250 million metric tons of carbon 
in 2010, offsetting more than 15 percent of all of the nation's carbon 
dioxide emissions. Wildfires threaten to turn forests from a carbon sink 
into a source of emissions by releasing that stored carbon into the 
atmosphere, something already happening in California. Wildfires also 
have serious health consequences. From 2002-13, fires in the western 
U.S. routinely caused air quality to be 5 to 15 times worse than normal 
in cities within 100 miles of fires. Increasing fires also mean 
increasing costs to fight them. The U.S. Forest Service and Department 
of the Interior together spend $3.5 billion a year to fight fires, three 
times what they spent in the 1990s, and a figure only expected to grow.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/us-wildfires-one-map-20447
http://wxshift.com/climate-change/climate-indicators/us-wildfires
https://youtu.be/dKPUWAx6M-M

*
****HOW EXTREME HEAT COULD LEAVE SWATHS OF THE PLANET UNINHABITABLE 
<http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/extreme-heat-global-warming>*
/by   William Langewiesche    Vanity Fair
Last year, in Kuwait, the earth's hottest recorded temperature topped 
129 degrees, a tie with Death Valley's sizzling 2013 high. Recalling his 
own near-lethal brush with such temperatures - now the leading cause of 
weather-related fatalities -  Wunderground blogger and recordkeeper 
extraordinaire,  Christopher Burt investigates how it could alter Earth 
forever:/
The human body sheds its internal heat and cools itself mostly through 
perspiration and evaporation, but only up to a point. There is no one 
temperature that defines the upper limit of safety, because the critical 
measure depends on humidity, physical activity, acclimatization, health, 
personal physiology, and-in war zones-such necessities as body armor. I 
know from travels in North Africa and the Middle East, as well as a week 
once spent in Yuma, Arizona, that at 110 degrees merely breathing begins 
to hurt. If people drink copiously, they can continue to function as 
long as the air is dry and the nights cool off. At 120 degrees, it is a 
different matter.
*heatstroke*-a rise in body temperature beyond 104 degrees, leading to a 
life-threatening collapse of basic biophysical functions that can take 
many forms. I was probably not much at risk, because I was healthy and 
able to lie low, but there are no guarantees. The human body is an 
elaborate heat exchanger, constantly adjusting itself to maintain a 
narrow core temperature between about 98 and 100 degrees by balancing 
heat gain with heat loss through the skin. .... People die of the cold, 
but in the modern world only because they fall into water or go driving 
off into a blizzard without carrying adequate emergency supplies. Heat 
waves are something else. As the air warms up, the skin's convective 
heat-shedding capacity weakens and then reverses. Depending on the level 
of internal heat being generated metabolically, there comes an air 
temperature where evaporative cooling-sweating-can no longer keep up, 
and body temperatures begin to climb out of control...
The point at which this starts is largely dependent on humidity. In the 
United States, the National Weather Service publishes a heat index that 
takes humidity into account, producing "apparent temperatures" as they 
are felt, and attaching four color-coded warnings to them-caution, 
starting at 89 degrees; extreme caution, 10 degrees higher; danger, at 
105 degrees; and extreme danger, at 130 degrees. In the danger zone, 
fatal or permanently debilitating heatstroke is possible. In the 
extreme-danger zone, heatstroke is likely no matter how you try to hide. 
And, again, these are apparent temperatures, with humidity factored in. 
At a 120-degree dry-bulb temperature, like that measured by an ordinary 
thermometer, you enter the extreme-danger zone. Add in 25 percent 
humidity and the apparent temperature becomes 138 degrees. When it comes 
to extreme heat, you can no more escape the conditions than you can shed 
your skin...
*Beyond Help*
Here's how you succumb. First you recoil from the heat on a tarmac, then 
you go into town and feel permanently hot. After sunset you go to the 
roof of a hotel. You sweat a lot. In a dry desert climate like that of 
Death Valley or the Sahara, the sweating feels more like thirst than 
like moisture. You drink but don't feel less hot. In humid heat, like 
that of New York or Chicago, the excess sweat that drips from your chin 
does nothing to cool you. If you want to survive, you try to find shade 
and sit out the worst. It does not matter if you are bored and do not 
have a book to read. If you are on a battlefield in body armor, or must 
labor in the heat so that your family can eat, you may ignore your 
instincts, but you do so at your peril. At some point the equilibrium 
between heating and cooling breaks down-probably for the first time in 
your life-and your core temperature begins to climb. This can happen 
within minutes if you are physically active, but otherwise may take 
longer. Hot nights are especially dangerous because relief matters and 
the effects of heat are cumulative. Anyway, now you are in trouble....
The first stage is known as heat exhaustion. You sweat profusely and may 
feel some combination of weakness, nausea, headache, and uneasiness-due 
mostly to dehydration. It is common for athletes, soldiers, and 
farmworkers to go through this. If they rest in the shade and drink 
plenty of fluids, preferably containing electrolytes, they typically 
suffer no permanent consequences. On the other hand, if you are already 
resting in the shade and perspiration is not doing enough, you have 
already crossed the Rubicon and will progress to the next stage. Water 
no longer helps-your body has moved beyond its reach. Your mind is still 
clear, but as your core temperature continues to rise the body reacts by 
diverting increasing amounts of blood to the surface capillaries, in a 
desperate search for the cooling that it craves. Your skin may redden 
from the reaction. Robbed of sustaining blood flow, vital organs and 
tissues begin to malfunction. A systemic breakdown leading to permanent 
damage or death is about to occur. This is the final stage-heatstroke. 
It typically occurs when your temperature surpasses 104 degrees, though 
it can happen a bit earlier or later depending on circumstances. One 
indication may be that you simply stop sweating. Again, the diversion of 
blood flow appears to lie at the root of the disaster, only now your 
organs are not merely malfunctioning but being destroyed. Your liver, 
kidneys, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, spleen, brain, and heart are all 
under mortal attack. That same heart is racing, trying to circulate your 
blood. As brain functions are affected, you are likely to become 
confused, agitated, and possibly combative, before suffering seizures 
and falling into a coma. Immediate medical intervention is required to 
lower your temperature-either in an ice bath or by powerful evaporative 
cooling-but you may have reached the point of no return. With multiple 
failures occurring, and the entire cardiovascular system under enormous 
stress, the specific path to death depends on individual weaknesses. In 
many cases the end comes with a heart attack.
The global record appears to be held by Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where the 
air temperature in the shade was 108 degrees and the dew point 95 
degrees on July 8, 2003, making for an apparent temperature of 176 
degrees. Such conditions are not survivable for long. In 2010, two 
climate-change researchers using computer modeling and calculations of 
human cooling capacities predicted that large parts of the earth may 
become uninhabitable during heat waves in future centuries. The study 
was based on a scenario of rapid global warming and was probably a bit 
shrill in its view of the consequences-mass migrations and war-but the 
science was solid and easy to believe. After all, large parts of the 
planet are already uninhabitable, at least for some percentage of the 
population some percentage of the time. And the heat waves are hitting 
harder, and coming more frequently than ever before.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/extreme-heat-global-warming


*This Day in Climate History July 17, 2008 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/washington/18gore.html?fta=y>  -  
from D.R. Tucker*
July 17, 2008:  In a speech at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., Al 
Gore calls upon the United States to move away from fossil fuels 
completely by 2018.
Like a modern Jeremiah, Mr. Gore called down thunder to justify the 
spending of trillions of dollars to remake the American power system, a 
plan fraught with technological and political challenges that goes far 
beyond the changes recently debated in Congress and by world leaders.
“The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk,” 
he said in a midday speech to a friendly crowd of mostly young 
supporters in Washington. “And even more — if more should be required — 
the future of human civilization is at stake.”
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35jWlIknSFw
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/washington/18gore.html?fta=y
http://youtu.be/YEuU42qijmo

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