[TheClimate.Vote] June 6, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Tue Jun 6 09:54:04 EDT 2017
/June 6, 2017
/*
Senior diplomat in Beijing embassy resigns over Trump's climate change
decision
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senior-diplomat-in-beijing-embassy-resigns-over-trumps-climate-change-decision/2017/06/05/3537ff8c-4a2e-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html>*
The No. 2 diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing resigned Monday,
telling staff his conscience would not permit him to formally notify the
Chinese that the United States is withdrawing from the Paris climate accord.
David H. Rank, a career Foreign Service officer of 27 years, had been
acting ambassador until former Iowa governor Terry Branstad (R) was
confirmed as the new ambassador last month. Rank held a town meeting
with embassy employees to explain he had offered his resignation and it
had been accepted.
As the head of the embassy until Branstad arrives, it was Rank's
responsibility to deliver a formal notification of the U.S. intention to
withdraw from the climate pact.
According to a State Department official, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity to be more candid, Rank was unwilling to deliver the demarche.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senior-diplomat-in-beijing-embassy-resigns-over-trumps-climate-change-decision/2017/06/05/3537ff8c-4a2e-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html
*Climate change*raises new risk: Are inland bridges too low?
<http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/climate-change-raises-risk-inland-bridges-low-47856974>
A century-old train trestle stands as one of the trophies of Des Moines'
push to spruce up its downtown. Bicyclists and pedestrians pose for
pictures beside the brightly painted beams of the Red Bridge and gather
on viewing platforms overlooking the Des Moines River.
But little more than a decade after it was restored, crews went back to
the site with a crane to hoist the span 4? feet higher, at a cost of $3
million, after experts concluded that the river's flooding risk was
nearly double earlier estimates. Climate change was likely to blame.
"It was like a bomb was dropped off in our lap," City Engineer Pam
Cooksey said of the revised flood forecasts from the Army Corps of
Engineers. The findings suggested that the bridge could act as a dam
during bad storms, sending waves of backed-up floodwater into the
refurbished business district.
Climate change is often seen as posing the greatest risk to coastal
areas. But the nation's inland cities face perils of their own,
including more intense storms and more frequent flooding. Even as
President Donald Trump has announced his intention for the U.S. to
withdraw from a global climate agreement, many of the nation's river
communities are responding to climate change by raising or replacing
bridges that suddenly seem too low to stay safely above water.
The reconstructed bridges range from multi-lane structures that handle
heavy traffic loads to small rural spans traversed by country school
buses and farmers shuttling between their fields. The bridges are being
raised even in states such as Texas, where political leaders have long
questioned whether climate change is real....
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/climate-change-raises-risk-inland-bridges-low-47856974
*(video rant) Paris Agreement: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
<https://youtu.be/5scez5dqtAc>*
Donald Trump plans to withdraw the United States from the Paris
agreement on climate change. That's bad news for anyone who happens to
live on this planet.
The Last Week Tonight YouTube channel for more almost news as it almost
happens: www.youtube.com/user/LastWeekTonight
Find Last Week Tonight on Facebook like your mom would:
http://Facebook.com/LastWeekTonight
Follow us on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news:
http://Twitter.com/LastWeekTonight
https://youtu.be/5scez5dqtAc
*A Covert Campaign to Withdraw from the Paris Accord
<http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/in-the-withdrawal-from-the-paris-climate-agreement-the-koch-brothers-campaign-becomes-overt>*
President Trump may be the face of America's climate policy, but it's
the Kochs and their fellow fossil-fuel barons who really own it.
By Jane Mayer ... Republican Party on these issues tried to hide their
sway, manipulating politics from the wings. But what became clear this
past weekend is that they can remain anonymous no longer. With their
success dictating America's climate policy, the fossil-fuel industry's
political heavyweights have also won new notoriety. Charles and David
Koch, the billionaire owners of the Kansas-based fossil-fuel leviathan
Koch Industries, used to attract attention only from environmental
groups such as Greenpeace, which labelled them "the Kingpins of Climate
Denial." ..
President Trump may be the face of America's withdrawal from the Paris
climate accord, but, as deeper reporting is making clear, it's the Kochs
and their fellow fossil-fuel industry donors who really own the policy.
Whether responsibility for such a consequential move will redound to
their favor remains to be seen. But it's worth remembering that Fred
Koch, Charles and David's father and the founder of the family company,
had a favorite admonition. He warned his boys to keep a low profile and
stay below the surface, because, as he put it, "It's when the whale
spouts that he gets harpooned."
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/in-the-withdrawal-from-the-paris-climate-agreement-the-koch-brothers-campaign-becomes-overt
*How a 'Climate Change Musical' Became a Right-Wing Punching Bag
<http://www.americantheatre.org/2017/06/05/how-a-climate-change-musical-became-a-right-wing-punching-bag/>*
It had science, it had art - in other words, the Civilians' 'Great
Immensity' was a perfect target for conservatives. Its director, Steve
Cosson, responds.
The Great Immensity, created by the Civilians, which was a recipient of
a $697,177 grant from the National Science Foundation. The NSF's budget
in 2017 is $7.4 billion; under President Trump's 2018 budget proposal,
the number would be cut to $6.7 billion...
"I think it's the executive branch's attempt to really just silence and
censor climate science, and that's feeding an attack on science more
broadly," he explained last week in a phone interview. "And I think the
fact that we were an arts grant actually made it an easy scapegoat for
them to go after the science funding." He also notes that the NSF
doesn't just fund research; it also funds museum exhibitions, films, and
live performances geared toward presenting scientific research to the
general public in an accessible way.
This isn't the first time Great Immensity has come under fire from
conservative politicians. The musical, which ran at Kansas City
Repertory in 2013 and at the Public Theater in 2014, follows a woman
named Phyllis, who, while searching for her missing husband, uncovers a
plot to disrupt a climate summit in Paris. The Civilians used their NSF
funding to conduct interviews at the Panama Canal and in Arctic Canada,
and collaborated with scientists at the Princeton Environmental Institute...
The musical became a target after its highly publicized New York run. In
2014 House Representative Lamar Smith, R-Texas, told Fox News, "I
support basic research, which can lead to discoveries that change our
world, expand our horizons and save lives. But NSF has funded too many
questionable research grants. Spending taxpayer dollars to fund a
climate change musical called The Great Immensity sounds more like a
waste of taxpayer dollars - money that could have funded higher-priority
research." Or just be cut: Trump's budget proposals include massive cuts
not only to climate science research but to environmental protections,
medical research, and disease prevention (the Environmental Protection
Agency faces a $2.5 billion cut and the Center for Disease Control a
$1.2 billion cut, among others).
http://www.americantheatre.org/2017/06/05/how-a-climate-change-musical-became-a-right-wing-punching-bag/
*Press Release: Leaders in U.S. Economy Say "We Are Still In' on Paris
Climate Agreement* <http://lowcarbonusa.org/wearestillin#press-release>
Washington DC - Over 1,000 U.S. governors, mayors, businesses,
investors, and colleges and universities, representing the broadest
cross section of the American economy yet assembled in pursuit of
climate action, today declared their intent to continue to ensure the
U.S. remains a global leader in reducing carbon emissions.
Together, these leaders are sending a strong signal to the international
community and the 194 other parties to the Paris Agreement about the
continued commitment of the United States to ambitious action on climate
change absent leadership at the federal level. In the aggregate, the
signatories are delivering concrete emissions reductions that will help
meet America's emissions pledge under the Paris Agreement.
Signatories number over 1,000 and include some of the most populous
states and cities in the U.S., including California and cities like New
York, Los Angeles, and Houston as well as smaller cities like
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Dubuque, Iowa. A mixture of private
universities, state schools and community colleges, both small and
large, have added their institutions to the statement. More than a dozen
fortune 500 companies in addition to hundreds of small businesses have
also signed the statement
The statement calls the Trump administration's decision to pull the U.S.
out of the climate accord "a grave mistake that endangers the American
public and hurts America&rsuo;s economic security and diplomatic
reputation." The signers all understand that the Paris Agreement is a
blueprint for job creation, stability and global prosperity and that
accelerating the United States' clean energy transition is an
opportunity - not a liability - to create jobs, spur innovation, promote
trade and ensure American competitiveness. By declaring that "we are
still in," the signatories are putting the best interests of their
constituents, customers, students and communities first while assuring
the rest of the world that American leadership on climate change extends
well beyond the federal government.
In addition to this statement, since President Trump's announcement to
withdraw from the Paris Agreement, at minimum 211 Climate Mayors have
adopted the Paris Agreement goals for their cities, currently 9
Governors have formed the bipartisan Governor's Climate Alliance, and at
least 17 governors have released individual statements standing by
Paris. Today's statement embraces this rapidly growing movement of
subnational and civil society leaders, by announcing that not only are
these leaders stepping forward, they are stepping forward together.
To view the full statement, quotes and list of signatories, visit:
www.WeAreStillIn.com
http://wearestillin.com/
*Climate Change Laws of the World - search the legislation and
litigation databases
<http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/research-theme/governance-and-legislation/>*
The Sabin Center at Columbia Law School and the Grantham Research
Institute at the London School of Economics are launching the most
comprehensive online database of global climate change legislation and
litigation today, and will offer an overview during a webinar starting
at 9:30 AM EST. Click
http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/research-theme/governance-and-legislation/
Explore our interactive country map.
<http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/countries/>
Climate Change Laws of the World databases cover climate change
legislation and policies in 164 countries, up from 99 countries in 2015.
They include the world's 50 largest greenhouse gas emitters and 93 of
the top 100 emitters. Together they account for nearly 95 per cent of
global greenhouse gas emissions. The databases also feature climate
litigation cases from 25 countries. The data are maintained jointly by
the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at
the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the Sabin
Center on Climate Change Law at the Columbia Law School. Explore the
data by clicking on the map or selecting a country from the dropdown menu
http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/countries/
*Climate Scientist Michael Mann endorses Rebecca Otto for Minnesota
Governor
<http://rebeccaotto.com/top-climate-scientist-endorses-rebecca-otto-for-minnesota-governor.html>*
June 5, 2017, State College, PA - One of the world's leading climate
scientists, Dr. Michael E. Mann, is weighing in on the Minnesota
governor's race with a resounding endorsement. The creator of the famed
"hockey stick" graph says that three-term Minnesota State Auditor
Rebecca Otto is the best candidate to succeed outgoing Governor Mark
Dayton because of her decades-long focus on addressing climate change on
a personal and professional level and her plans to create jobs in the
new clean energy economy...
"Rebecca Otto is a shining example of the kind of integrity and
leadership we hope for in our elected leaders but too rarely see:
someone who puts their money where their mouth is. I'm proud to support
Rebecca Otto for Governor of Minnesota, and urge everyone who is
concerned about climate change and clean energy to join me in supporting
her. After studying the evidence, Rebecca and her husband Shawn became
national leaders in charting ways for governments to reduce fossil fuel
energy use...
Rebecca wants to make Minnesota a national leader in tackling climate
change and creating well-paying new jobs in the clean energy economy,
and I'm confident she will achieve her goal with our support. We need
her leadership to help move the ball forward globally on this pressing
issue."
http://rebeccaotto.com/top-climate-scientist-endorses-rebecca-otto-for-minnesota-governor.html
FEATURE:*Climate change*and the world's oceans
<http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=56908>
The vital link between oceans and climate change is among the issues at
the forefront of discussions at the United Nations Ocean Conference
taking place in New York from 5 to 9 June.
The oceans, which cover three quarters of the Earth's surface, play a
vital role in the global climate system, generating oxygen and absorbing
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Changes to the climate, brought
about by increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, will
thus lead to changes in the oceans, including sea-level rise and ocean
acidification, which will put marine ecosystems and coastal communities
at risk...
More than 93 per cent of all the heat people have added to the planet
since the 1950s has been absorbed by the oceans – but at a price, Ms.
Lövin stressed. Rising ocean temperatures and increased acidification
are now becoming apparent in melting Arctic sea ice and coral bleaching.
Immediate mitigation, protection, restoration and adaptation actions are
needed.
*Healthy oceans, stable climate*
"Whether on the coast or in the high seas far away from all,
safeguarding biodiverse marine sites is vital for ensuring the
sustainable long-term use of precious natural resources,
*Impact of sea-level rise*
The oceans are experiencing "major stress" from climate change,
according to Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. "Globally, the
sea level has risen by 20 centimetres since the start of the 20th
century, due mostly to thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of
glaciers and ice caps. Some regions are experiencing even greater sea
level rise.
*Ocean health and economic prosperity*
"Trouble for the oceans means trouble for people. Human well-being and
health, economic prosperity, and a stable climate depend on healthy oceans,"
*Global warming and the Polar Region*
The effects of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, one of the leading
causes of global warming, are felt most intensely in the Polar Region.
both the Artic and Antarctica are warming twice as fast as the rest of
the world. Glaciers and ice shelves are melting and sea ice and snow
coverage are shrinking.
*Climate change and water supply*
According to the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the planet's
freshwater and oceans are inextricably linked through the earth's water
cycle. The agency notes that 97 per cent of the world's water is in the
ocean and the ocean supplies almost all the water that falls on land as
rain and snow. Of the small portion that is fresh water; about a third
is in in the ground and a mere .3 per cent in accessible surface waters.
*Oceans are part of the solution*
Humanity owes much to the oceans in many aspects of life: providing
invaluable ecosystems, climate regulation and cultural support to the
millions of people who live near the sea,
He adds that oceans, seas and marine resources are increasingly
threatened by human activities, including increased CO2 emissions,
climate change, marine pollution, unsustainable extraction of marine
resources, and physical alterations and destruction of marine and
coastal habitats.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=56908#.WTY2C-v1Bpg
Kick This Rock:*Climate Change*and Our Common Reality
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/opinion/kick-this-rock-climate-change-and-our-common-reality.html>
Samuel Johnson, once tried to refute the Irish philosopher George
Berkeley's view that nothing is material by kicking a rock. "Thus I
refute him!" he reportedly declared. For a long time, I thought this
proved that Johnson should have kept to literary criticism and left
philosophy to the professionals....
Almost everything we encounter on the internet - from our Facebook
newsfeed to the ads you see when reading this article - is
personalized to fit our interests. That's wonderfully convenient. But it
also speeds up polarization by feeding into the basic human
susceptibility to confirmation bias. ("I'm right; everybody says so.")
The result is the now familiar feeling that the left and right are
really living in distinct realities. It is as if there is no point of
reference, no rock to kick because our information bubbles - our
epistemic worlds - are constructed to fit our political bias...
Reality finds a way. And that, fundamentally, is why, to cite the most
telling recent example, leaving the Paris climate change accord is
foolish. Even if we continue to bury our heads in the sand or put our
fingers in our ears, the planet's climate has altered. And those changes
will eventually burst our bubbles whether we like it or not...
We need to start reconnecting with the obvious truth that we do live in
a common reality. That's as important politically as it is
metaphysically. Democracies don't work if we don't acknowledge that we
all live in the same world, facing the same problems - even if we
disagree over how to solve them. Without a common reality, we would have
nothing with which to engage. Forget that, and we'll still end up
engaging with it, whether we like it or not. Because sometimes, the rock
kicks back.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/opinion/kick-this-rock-climate-change-and-our-common-reality.html
Affirmation of commitment to progress on*climate change*
<http://news.stanford.edu/2017/06/05/affirmation-leading-research-universities-commitment-progress-climate-change/>
The presidents of 12 research universities, including Stanford, have
affirmed their commitment to progress on climate change.
Today, we reaffirm that commitment, which is consistent with the Paris
Agreement...
The scientific consensus is clear that the climate is changing largely
due to human activity, that the consequences of climate change are
accelerating, and that the imperative of a low carbon future is
increasingly urgent.
http://news.stanford.edu/2017/06/05/affirmation-leading-research-universities-commitment-progress-climate-change/
*This Day in Climate History June 6, 2015
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-perils-of-engagement/2015/06/05/1d3392ea-094c-11e5-9e39-0db921c47b93_story.html?hpid=z3>-
from D.R. Tucker*
In the Washington Post, Bill McKibben observes:
"Divestment won't move Exxon Mobil directly - that's impossible; the
company is dug in, and someone else will simply buy the stock when
it's sold. But divestment will undercut the industry's political
power, just as happened a generation ago when the issue was South
Africa and hundreds of colleges, churches, and state and local
governments took action. In the words of Nobel Peace Prize recipient
Desmond Tutu, who helped spearhead the anti-apartheid drive, 'we were
not only able to apply economic pressure on the unjust state but also
serious moral pressure.' Divestment is one tool to change the
zeitgeist, so that the day arrives more quickly when the richest and
most powerful can no longer mock renewable energy and play down
climate change."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-perils-of-engagement/2015/06/05/1d3392ea-094c-11e5-9e39-0db921c47b93_story.html?hpid=z3/
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