[TheClimate.Vote] June 11, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News

Sun Jun 11 03:47:34 EDT 2017

/June 11, 2017/

    Trump wages battle against regulations, not*climate change*
    <http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/trump-wages-battle-regulations-climate-change-47957221>

While President Donald Trump's beliefs about global warming remain 
something of a mystery, his actions make one thing clear: He doesn't 
consider it a problem for the federal government to solve.
Trump's recent decision to pull out of the Paris climate deal was just 
his latest rapid-fire move to weaken or dismantle federal initiatives to 
reduce carbon emissions, which scientists say are heating the planet to 
levels that could have disastrous consequences.
Trump is waging war against efforts to curb U.S. dependence on fossil 
fuels. He's done that through executive orders targeting climate change 
programs and regulations, massive proposed spending cuts and key 
appointments such as Scott Pruitt as chief of the Environmental 
Protection Agency.
To what degree Trump will succeed remains to be seen. Despite the 
fanfare of his Paris announcement, including a pledge that his 
administration will halt all work on it, formally removing the U.S. from 
the accord could take more than three years.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/trump-wages-battle-regulations-climate-change-47957221

*NASA Data Suggest Future May Be Rainier Than Expected* 
<https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-data-suggest-future-may-be-rainier-than-expected>
A new study suggests that most global climate models may underestimate 
the amount of rain that will fall in Earth's tropical regions as our 
planet continues to warm. That's because these models underestimate 
decreases in high clouds over the tropics seen in recent NASA 
observations, according to research led by scientist Hui Su of NASA's 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
... High-altitude tropical clouds trap heat in the atmosphere. If there 
are fewer of these clouds in the future, the tropical atmosphere will 
cool. Judging from observed changes in clouds over recent decades, it 
appears that the atmosphere would create fewer high clouds in response 
to surface warming. It would also increase tropical rainfall, which 
would warm the air to balance the cooling from the high cloud shrinkage.
Rainfall warming the air also sounds counterintuitive - people are used 
to rain cooling the air around them, not warming it. Several miles up in 
the atmosphere, however, a different process prevails. When water 
evaporates into water vapor here on Earth's surface and rises into the 
atmosphere, it carries with it the heat energy that made it evaporate. 
In the cold upper atmosphere, when the water vapor condenses into liquid 
droplets or ice particles, it releases its heat and warms the atmosphere.
The new study is published in the journal Nature Communications. It puts 
the decrease in high tropical cloud cover in context as one result of a 
planet-wide shift in large-scale air flows that is occurring as Earth's 
surface temperature warms. These large-scale flows are called the 
atmospheric general circulation, and they include a wide zone of rising 
air centered on the equator. Observations over the last 30 to 40 years 
have shown that this zone is narrowing as the climate warms, causing the 
decrease in high clouds.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-data-suggest-future-may-be-rainier-than-expected

(letters) The Politics of*Climate Change* 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/opinion/the-politics-of-climate-change.html> 

"How G.O.P. Shifted on Climate Science" 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/us/politics/republican-leaders-climate-change.html> 
("Trump Rules" series, front page, June 4) described how the Koch 
brothers (and other moneyed and oil interests) were able to transform 
the Republican Party's position on climate change to an ideology of 
denial and inaction. Faced with Republican intransigence in Congress, 
President Barack Obama chose to confront the climate threat through 
executive action during his second term.
Rather than what your subheadline calls "Democratic hubris," his course 
of action was a strategy of last resort. It's the Republicans, not the 
Democrats, who are guilty of hubris, in their denial of climate change 
in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence. Unfortunately, their 
hubris and arrogance may lead not only to their downfall, but may doom 
the rest of humankind, too.
BETSY MARTIN   ALEXANDRIA, VA.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/opinion/the-politics-of-climate-change.html

*(video) Algae on Ice: Director's Cut 
<https://climatecrocks.com/2017/06/09/algae-on-ice-directors-cut/>*
Made a few minor adjustments on this one.
Still worth a look if you have not seen.
Positive feedback is great from your boss.
Not so great from an Ice Sheet.
This is the kind of communication you get for your contributions to Dark 
Snow Project. <http://darksnow.org/support/>
https://climatecrocks.com/2017/06/09/algae-on-ice-directors-cut/

*Avoiding Two Degrees of Warming 'Is Now Totally Unrealistic' 
<https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/06/oppenheimer-interview/529083/>*
Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton scientist and longtime observer of UN 
climate talks, says that the world has lost its last shot at staving off 
dangerous global warming.
Michael Oppenheimer has been thinking about climate change about as long 
as most Americans have been alive. For almost four decades, he has 
worked on answering the phenomenon's two most pressing questions: How 
dangerous will climate change get? And what can humanity do about it? So 
after President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the 
Paris Agreement on Thursday, Oppenheimer was one of the experts I most 
wanted to hear from.
... It's a fascinating problem intellectually, and if we had all the 
time in the world, it would be terrific: Today's setback would just lead 
to tomorrow's advance. The trouble is the clock has been ticking, and 
we're running out of time to avoid very serious consequences, some of 
which have already started to occur....
So when you see someone come along and sort of cavalierly, with a 
mouthful of lies, just sort of blow off the latest incarnation of 
progress on this issue, it can be temporarily discouraging, very 
discouraging. But look: I'm sure humanity is going to muddle through. 
I'm sure that relatively well off countries, and relatively well off 
people, will muddle through. I'm very worried about people who have less 
resources, countries that are poor, and the whole natural world. All 
those are the ones that suffer first. Of course, all of us, eventually, 
are going to suffer if we don't bring this under control.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/06/oppenheimer-interview/529083/

    Exxon calls NY prosecutor's*climate change*probe 'harassment' in
    filing
    <http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/09/exxon-calls-new-york-prosecutors-climate-change-probe-harassment.html>

-Exxon Mobil Corp asked a New York court on Friday to reject another 
subpoena request from Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
-Exxon argued the prosecutor's recent claim to have found evidence Exxon 
misled investors was false and that he was abusing his investigative powers.
-The company said Schneiderman's allegation it had neglected to estimate 
the impact of future environmental regulation on new deals was "frivolous."
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/09/exxon-calls-new-york-prosecutors-climate-change-probe-harassment.html

*MIT Climate CoLab Seeks High Impact Proposals on Addressing Climate 
Change <https://climatecolab.org/contests>*
Dear Colleagues,
  MIT Climate CoLab (www.climatecolab.org), an online crowdsourcing 
platform of nearly 90,000 members, seeks high-impact proposals on 
addressing climate change. Seven new contests are now open on the 
platform (https://climatecolab.org/contests), on a variety of 
climate-related sub-topics such as energy supplies, land use change, 
shifting attitudes & behaviors, adaptation, carbon pricing, and more. 
Entries are due September 10, 2017.
Winners will be invited to MIT, join the Climate CoLab winners' alumni, 
and be eligible for the $10,000 Grand Prize—to be selected from among 
top proposals across contests. All award Winners and Finalists will 
receive wide recognition and platform visibility from Climate CoLab.
  We welcome you to spread the word about this opportunity widely with 
your networks
Facebook: www.facebook.com/climatecolab
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/5074465
MIT's Climate CoLab launches 7 new climate contests. Anyone from around 
the world is invited to submit proposals on how to tackle a climate 
change related problem, and work collaboratively with others on open 
innovation on climate. Contest topics range from climate change 
adaptation, energy, land use, carbon pricing, and more! Submit proposals 
by 9/10/17 at climatecolab.org.contests.
Want to problem-solve on climate change? MIT's Climate CoLab invites 
you to submit your proposals to one of 7 new climate contests recently 
launched on the platform. Topics like energy supply, land use change, 
adaptation, shifting behaviors
https://climatecolab.org/contests

Future Hope column, June 9, 2017 <https://beyondextremeenergy.org>
*Climate Leaders Don't Support Fracking 
<https://tedglick.com/future-hope-columns/climate-leaders-dont-support-fracking/>*
By Ted Glick
       Thanks are due to US Senators Mazie Hirono, Ron Wyden and Bernie 
Sanders for their votes in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources 
committee a couple days ago against Trump's two nominees to be FERC 
leaders. They aligned themselves with the FERC Vacancies Campaign, a 
network of 170 mainly grassroots groups which have been fighting the 
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's rubber-stamping ways when it 
comes to new fracked gas pipelines proposed by the gas industry.
      It was painful to hear Democratic Party committee leader Maria 
Cantwell talk before the committee vote about her intention to support 
Trump's nominees because of the importance of getting a quorum back at 
FERC so they can keep doing their thing. I worked hard back in 2009 and 
2010, when I was employed at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, in 
support of a cap-and-dividend CLEAR Act she and Susan Collins had 
co-sponsored as an explicit alternative to seriously problematic 
cap-and-trade legislation. But here she was 8 years later fronting for 
Trump's pro-fracking, pro-fossil fuel industry nominees.
        So I stood up and spoke out. In words I felt were so awfully 
appropriate for Senator Cantwell and so many other Democrats, I said, as 
loudly and clearly as I could, "Climate leaders don't support fracking 
and new fracked-gas pipelines and infrastructure. FERC is all about the 
expansion of fracking. 30 years FERC has been operating and rubber 
stamping all the pipeline proposals except one. FERC has rubber stamped 
them. Don't support FERC. It's got to change."
        That was all I could say in the time it took for Capitol Police 
to grab me and move me out of the room. Minutes later Jess Rechtschaffer 
and Sid Madison also spoke up along similar lines and were removed the 
same way. All of us were arrested. Jess and Sid were released later that 
day after paying a small fine; I was held overnight and then released at 
6 pm the following day.
       We had not planned for me to interrupt Cantwell, but as the 
designated first speaker/disrupter, I just couldn't sit silent when she 
so painfully spoke up for business-as-usual at FERC. There is little 
doubt that she's aware of our movement's concerns; her top energy staff 
people were met with weeks ago; I personally spoke at length with one of 
them in April, and energy and climate are a personal priority for her.
       Of course, President Obama was a supporter of (some kinds of 
limited and incremental) climate action too, but 'til the day he left 
office he was a cheerleader and open supporter of fracking despite all 
of the science showing how dangerous it is because of methane leakage 
and methane being 86 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than CO2.
       Part of the explanation for this state of affairs  is the 
wimpishness of a number of Big Green groups on the fracking issue. 
Though there are few which are still outright supporters of methane gas 
as a "bridge fuel" to a renewables-based energy system, there are more 
than a few whose commitment to ending the current gas-and-pipeline-and 
export-terminal-rush is weak to barely there.
      That's why it's so important that the FERC Vacancies Campaign has 
emerged over the last months when FERC has been without a quorum. Though 
most of the 170 groups are local grassroots groups, there are also 
national, regional groups and state groups that have signed on.
       Without question, the movement to stop the gas rush is getting 
stronger and more connected. Most immediately, we need to flood the 
Senate, all the US Senators, with calls, emails and tweets demanding 
that they vote against business as usual at FERC by voting against 
Trump's two FERC commissioner nominees, Robert Powelson and Neil 
Chatterjee. That vote could happen as early as next week, so the need is 
great for people to take action.
*More information can be found at **http://beyondextremeenergy.org**.*
       Beyond this immediate campaign, our movement needs to step up and 
be more supportive of direct action campaigns on the ground at locations 
where new pipelines, compressor stations, gas-fired power plants and 
export terminals are being proposed. We need to figure out ways to keep 
exposing and putting the pressure on FERC. And we need to build upon the 
outreach to Senators, and House members, that has been taking place to 
keep the issue of fracking, fracking infrastructure and all new fossil 
fuel infrastructure an on-going, live one on Capitol Hill, in local 
elections, in the media and everywhere else we can.
       Climate leaders don't support fracking, and those who claim to be 
leaders who do need to feel the heat of our popular movement.
Ted Glick has been an organizer with Beyond Extreme Energy since its 
founding three years ago. Past writings and other information can be 
found at http://tedglick.com, and he can be followed on Twitter at 
http://twitter.com/jtglick
https://beyondextremeenergy.org
https://tedglick.com/future-hope-columns/climate-leaders-dont-support-fracking/

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