[TheClimate.Vote] July 25, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Tue Jul 25 09:13:06 EDT 2017
/July 25, 2017/
*California Shows How States Can Lead on Climate Change
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/24/opinion/california-climate-change-cap-trade.html>*
California, which has long been a pioneer in fighting climate change,
renewed its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions last week by
extending, to 2030, its cap-and-trade program, which effectively puts a
price on emissions. It's a bold, bipartisan commitment that invites
similarly ambitious policies from other states, and it sends a strong
signal to the world that millions of Americans regard with utmost
seriousness a threat the Trump administration refuses to acknowledge,
let alone reckon with.
The cap-and-trade program, which had been set to end in 2020, is the
most important component of California's plan to reduce planet-warming
emissions by 40 percent (from 1990 levels) by 2030. The extension, along
with a companion bill to reduce local air pollution, was passed by a
two-thirds majority of the State Legislature, including eight crucial
votes from Republicans. They defied a Republican president who has not
only reneged on America's global climate commitments, but has tried to
undo every climate policy put into place by former President Barack
Obama....
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/24/opinion/california-climate-change-cap-trade.html
*Scientists just found a surprising possible consequence from a very
small amount of global warming
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/24/it-was-really-a-surprise-even-minor-global-warming-could-worsen-super-el-ninos-scientists-find/?utm_term=.604de5a83bf5>*
Even if we meet our most ambitious climate goal - keeping global
temperatures within a strict 1.5 degrees Celsius (or 2.7 degree
Fahrenheit) of their preindustrial levels - there will still be
consequences, scientists say. And they'll last for years after we stop
emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
New research suggests that extreme El Niño events - which can cause
intense rainfall, flooding and other severe weather events in certain
parts of the world - will occur more and more often as long as humans
continue producing greenhouse gas emissions. And even if we're able to
stabilize the global climate at the 1.5-degree threshold, the study
concludes, these events will continue to increase in frequency for up to
another 100 years afterward. The findings were published Monday in the
journal Nature Climate Change.
"It was really a surprise that what we find is after we reach 1.5
degrees Celsius and stabilize world temperatures, the frequency of
extreme El Niño continued to increase for another century,"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/24/it-was-really-a-surprise-even-minor-global-warming-could-worsen-super-el-ninos-scientists-find/?utm_term=.604de5a83bf5
- more:
*We may have even less time to stop global warming than we thought
<It+is+also+important+to+bear+in+mind+that+the+2+degree+Celsius+target+is+a+%E2%80%9Cnormative+goal,%20a%20value%20judgment,%E2%80%9D+said+Reto+Knutti,%20a%20climate%20expert%20with%20ETH%20Zurich%20who%20was%20familiar%20with%20the%20new%20study%20but%20did%20not%20contribute%20to%20it.,,%E2%80%9CThere+is+no+magic+hard+threshold+that+separates+%E2%80%98safe%E2%80%99+from+%E2%80%98dangerous.%E2%80%99+Not+all+impacts+scale+with+temperatures,%20and%20what%20is%20dangerous%20to%20one%20person%20may%20seem%20okay%20to%20another,%E2%80%9D+Knutti+said.+%E2%80%9CThis+is+only+partly+the+science+issue+of+trying+to+quantify+how+warm+the+world+was+before+humans+started+to+substantially+mess+with+the+climate.+It+is+just+as+much+a+political+problem:%20If%20countries%20at%20some%20point%20are%20made%20responsible%20not%20just%20for%20their%20current%20but%20also%20for%20their%20past%20emissions%20%28the%20polluter%20pays%29,+then+it+matters+when+we+start+the+historic+blame+game.%E2%80%9D>*
At least since 2013, one of the biggest concerns in the climate change
debate has been the so-called carbon budget - a fixed limit to the
volume of carbon dioxide emissions that we can put into the atmosphere
before irrevocably committing to a considerably hotter planet.
As of 2011, that budget was about 1,000 billion tons of carbon dioxide
before the planet is likely to careen past a 2 degrees Celsius (3.6
degrees Fahrenheit) rise in temperatures, which is above what is
believed to be the Earth's temperature before industrialization. The
budget shrinks by about 41 tons a year, more recently put at about 600
billion tons (or 15 years of emissions) by a group of scientists and
climate policy wonks.
But now, a team of prominent climate scientists say the budget is
probably even narrower. The problem is how you define "preindustrial,"
or when you consider human-caused perturbations of the atmosphere to
have begun. Many analyses have taken the late 19th century as the
starting point, but the new study in Nature Climate Change suggests
significant human influence was afoot by at least 1750, and may have
contributed as much as one-fifth of a degree Celsius of warming (0.36
degrees Fahrenheit) before the late 1800s....
It is also important to bear in mind that the 2 degree Celsius target is
a "normative goal, a value judgment," said Reto Knutti, a climate expert
with ETH Zurich who was familiar with the new study but did not
contribute to it.
"There is no magic hard threshold that separates 'safe' from
'dangerous.' Not all impacts scale with temperatures, and what is
dangerous to one person may seem okay to another," Knutti said. "This is
only partly the science issue of trying to quantify how warm the world
was before humans started to substantially mess with the climate. It is
just as much a political problem: If countries at some point are made
responsible not just for their current but also for their past emissions
(the polluter pays), then it matters when we start the historic blame game."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/24/we-may-have-even-less-time-to-stop-global-warming-than-we-thought/?utm_term=.35d3228b2831
*(podcast) No Place Like Home #14 Rising From the Ashes
<https://soundcloud.com/noplacelikehome/14-rising-from-the-ashes>*
We're joined by filmmaker Michael Bonfiglio to talk storytelling,
climate change, and his new film 'From The Ashes,' that tells the story
of coal pollution, our nation's shift beyond coal, and the need for an
economic transition in coal communities. We also chat about the viral
New York Magazine climate article by David Wallace-Wells, hotly debated
online and now the most read article in the magazine's history.
- Learn more about "From the Ashes' film here:
www.fromtheashesfilm.com/
- Read "The Uninhabitable Earth" in New York Magazine here:
nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/…-hot-for-humans.html
- No Place Like Home is hosted by Mary Anne Hitt and Anna Jane Joyner
- We are produced by Zach Mack
- Additional production help by Daniel Tureck
- Our theme music is by River Whyless
- And we are supported by the Sierra Club
https://soundcloud.com/noplacelikehome/14-rising-from-the-ashes
*University establishes Environmental Resilience Institute*
<http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2017/07/university-establishes-environmental-resilience-institute>
New interdisciplinary institute will study changing global environment
by Spencer Culbertson Courtesy University of Virginia
The University recently announced the creation of the new Environmental
Resilience Institute, an interdisciplinary institute intended to study
environmental changes.
"Understanding the environment, how much change is natural and how much
is caused by human activity, the ways a changing global climate affects
societies, and what actions we can take to create a more desirable
future is a complex challenge requiring the actively collaborating
investigative minds of researchers and practitioners in many disciplines
– the environmental sciences, economics, public policy, engineering,
architecture, international law, behavior, the humanities, education,
and others,"...
"One of the things that a top drawer topic for the Resilience Institute
is to look at coastal environments and their resilience to the
combination of sea level rise and other kinds of activities that are
occurring in the coast,"..
The work the institute aims to do will help coastal communities
understand what changes are happening on the coast by working directly
with the local communities and governments.This is just the first of a
number of programs the institute wants to study.
The University is already very involved in research about the coasts.
The Virginia Coast Reserve Long-Term Ecological Research program is
located in Oyster, Va. and studies the Eastern Shore.
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2017/07/university-establishes-environmental-resilience-institute
*Blowing the Whistle on the Trump Administration's Attempt to Ignore
Climate Change
<http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/science/2017/07/a_government_scientist_has_blown_a_whistle_on_climate_change.html>*
The latest government employee to speak out is a scientist worried about
rising seas' effect on Alaskan communities.
Joel Clement is the latest example of a public servant who has shown us
what integrity can look like for civil servants in the Trump
administration. Clement was the director of the Department of Interior’s
Office of Policy Analysis. Last week, he was involuntarily reassigned to
the department’s revenue office—an area in which he has no expertise. He
courageously declared his role as a whistleblower, penning an op-ed in
the Washington Post about the move, writing:
I am not an accountant — but you don’t have to be one to see that
the administration’s excuse for a reassignment such as mine doesn’t
add up. A few days after my reassignment, Interior Secretary Ryan
Zinke testified before Congress that the department would use
reassignments as part of its effort to eliminate employees; the only
reasonable inference from that testimony is that he expects people
to quit in response to undesirable transfers. Some of my colleagues
are being relocated across the country, at taxpayer expense, to
serve in equally ill-fitting jobs.
In doing so, Clement has shown us that it is possible to behave
ethically while staying on and working for the Trump administration.
It’s been a weird time for federal employees. In the Trump
administration, loyalty is prized over duty. We have seen a few
different paths taken for employees committed to fulfilling the missions
of their office. Former U.S. Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and
erstwhile FBI Director James Comey were fired for doing their jobs.
Walter Shaub, the principled former Office of Government Ethics director
who repeatedly called out the Trump administration’s failures to comply
with ethics rules, chose the path of "noisy exit."...
In publicly declaring himself a whistleblower and staying within the
government to assert his rights, Clement sends a powerful message:
Leaving government service or engaging in head-down self-censorship are
not the only options for retaining professional integrity. Exercising
the right to blow the whistle is the vehicle by which dedicated public
servants can continue to choose duty over blind partisan and political
loyalty.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/science/2017/07/a_government_scientist_has_blown_a_whistle_on_climate_change.html
*This Day in Climate History July 25, 1977
<http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0F11F8395E137B93C7AB178CD85F438785F9>
- from D.R. Tucker*
July 25, 1977: The New York Times runs a front-page story by Walter
Sullivan entitled: "Scientists Fear Heavy Use of Coal May Bring Adverse
Shift in Climate."
"Highly adverse consequences" may follow if the world, as now seems
likely, depends increasingly on coal for energy over the next two
centuries, according to a blue‐ribbon panel of scientists.
In a report to the National Academy of Sciences on their
two‐and‐a‐half‐year study, the scientists foresee serious climate
changes beginning in the next century. By the latter part of the 22d
century a global warming of 10 degrees Fahrenheit is indicated, with
triple that rise in high latitudes.
This, it is feared, could radically disrupt food production, lead to a
20‐foot rise in sea level and seriously lower productivity of the oceans.
The focus of concern is the addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
by fuel burning. While that gas represents less than one‐tenth of 1
percent of the atmosphere, it acts like glass in a greenhouse. That is,
it permits passage of sunlight to heat the earth but absorbs infrared
radiation that would otherwise return some of that heat to space....
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0F11F8395E137B93C7AB178CD85F438785F9
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