[TheClimate.Vote] June 21, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Wed Jun 21 09:26:43 EDT 2017
/June 21, 2017
/
*Dust on desert winds reduces air pollution
<https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/jun/20/dust-on-desert-winds-reduces-air-pollution>*
Study of Gobi sand blowing over east China finds air stagnates and
human-made *pollution rises when dusty winds die down*...
People in China breathe more easily when dust-laden winds blow in from
the Gobi desert. Paradoxical as it sounds, desert dust helps to keep
human-made pollution down, a new study shows....
This research showed that when the winds were slack the lack of desert
dust in the air allowed more solar radiation to reach the surface. This
lessened the temperature difference between land and sea, reducing winds
even further and helping the air to stagnate over east China, creating
the perfect conditions for a build-up of pollutants produced by people.
The effect was most pronounced during the winter monsoon season...
Thefindings, published in Nature Communications,
<https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15333> suggest that air pollution
in eastern China increases by as much as 13% when the desert winds are
at their slackest...
Observational data from dozens of sites backed up the model findings,
showing that the air became cleaner two or three days after the winds
brought dust into the region...
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/jun/20/dust-on-desert-winds-reduces-air-pollution
*(audio) Struggling Honduran Farmers Cope With Climate Challenges
<http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/06/20/honduras-farmers-climate-challenges>*
World leaders have called President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris
climate accord "regrettable" and "disappointing." But for Honduran
farmers, climate change is personal.
The country has the dubious distinction of being ranked No. 3 in the
world on the list of countries most affected by global warming between
1996 and 2014. Among Hondurans' challenges are storms, water shortages
and pests, and now, they risk losing millions in USAID money earmarked
to fight back.
Here & Now's Karyn Miller-Medzon visited Honduras, where she met with
affected farmers.
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/06/20/honduras-farmers-climate-challenges
- more:
Development assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean in Trump's
"skinny budget"
<http://latinamericagoesglobal.org/2017/05/just-facts-development-assistance-latin-american-caribbean-trumps-state-skinny-budget/>
http://latinamericagoesglobal.org/2017/05/just-facts-development-assistance-latin-american-caribbean-trumps-state-skinny-budget/
2500 Cities Have Taken Up the*Climate*-*Change*Fight
<https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/how-cities-are-taking-up-the-climate-change-fight>
More than 2,500 cities have now listed climate-change pledges on the
Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (NAZCA) portal launched as part
of the 2014 Lima-Paris Action Agenda, HSBC notes.
"We think this is extremely important because NSAs [non-state actors]
can move quicker in implementing climate change policies and measures,"
reads the report.
Cities and other NSAs tend to be faster than countries at making
decisions, and are more accountable to their local electorates. They may
also have greater control over which budgets can be assigned to
climate-change mitigation policies. (Some experts, however, warn that
cities are having serious problems implementing their own climate goals.)
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/how-cities-are-taking-up-the-climate-change-fight
Exxon, Shell, and BP support a Republican plan to do something about
*climate change*
<https://thinkprogress.org/businesses-call-for-climate-tax-815dd8d00a18>
A carbon tax has long been touted as the free-market climate action path.
A group of major businesses, including Johnson & Johnson, General
Motors, and fossil fuel giants ExxonMobil, BP, and Shell, announced
Tuesday they have joined a Republican-led council that proposes to put a
$40 tax on carbon emissions.
The companies, along with a list of high profile business people and two
environmental groups, are part of the Climate Leadership Council, whose
platform was written by former cabinet members James Baker and George
Shultz.
The council's plan calls for starting fee of $40 per ton on carbon
emissions, which rises over time and is returned to taxpayers via the
Social Security Administration. It also includes a "border carbon
adjustment" - in which goods coming from outside the United States would
be charged for their carbon footprints - and "significant regulatory
rollback," intended to take carbon regulations out of the hands of the EPA.
https://thinkprogress.org/businesses-call-for-climate-tax-815dd8d00a18
Mann receives Schneider award for outstanding climate science
communication | Penn State University
<http://news.psu.edu/story/472084/2017/06/19/research/mann-receives-schneider-award-outstanding-climate-science>
SAN FRANCISCO - Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric
science and director of the Earth System Science Center, Penn State,
will receive the seventh annual Stephen H. Schneider Award for
Outstanding Climate Science Communications from Climate One at the
Commonwealth Club.
The $15,000 award is given to a natural or social scientist who has made
extraordinary scientific contributions and communicated that knowledge
to a broad public in a clear and compelling fashion. The award was
established in honor of Stephen Henry Schneider, one of the founding
fathers of climatology, who died suddenly in 2010.
The jurors for the award state that Mann exemplifies the rare ability to
be both a superb scientist and powerful communicator in the mold of
Schneider.
"Professor Mike Mann has been a world leader in scientific efforts to
understand the natural variability of the climate system and to
reconstruct global temperature variations over the past two millennia,"
http://news.psu.edu/story/472084/2017/06/19/research/mann-receives-schneider-award-outstanding-climate-science
USAToday After Paris*climate change* pullout, give up on Trump and
Congress for now
<https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/06/20/climate-change-give-up-on-trump-congress-pressure-corporations-henry-waxman-column/102754204/>
Henry Waxman, -- *To confront our greatest common threat, we need to
put pressure on corporations. That's where the most change can be made.*
The withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate accord is one
of President Trump's most irresponsible moves yet.
But let's not kid ourselves, it was not reasonable to expect Trump to
keep us in the Paris accords - or to meet our obligations even if we
stayed in. Given his short and stunningly terrible record on climate and
the environment, we can reasonably conclude that this likely never will
be a climate-friendly administration.
I believe it is time to accept that. At least until 2018, we will not
make any real progress in reducing America's greenhouse gas emissions
through federal policy. At best, we will be able to defend existing
climate, renewable energy and other environmental programs and budgets.
Even that goal, while essential to holding U.S. emissions steady, will
be hard enough for dedicated advocates to achieve....
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/06/20/climate-change-give-up-on-trump-congress-pressure-corporations-henry-waxman-column/102754204/
Are Carbon Taxes The Solution To*Global Warming*?
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/06/19/are-carbon-taxes-the-solution-to-global-warming/>
That all said, getting taxes on carbon to the price where they actually
do the job that they are required to do hasn't occurred anywhere in the
world yet. British Columbia's revenue neutral carbon tax was stopped at
$30 per tonne, which is at least $60 below the minimum necessary for the
scale of the problem. Australia shut down their carbon tax foolishly,
even though it was reducing emissions at its low price of $23, and
didn't get anywhere near high enough to make a significant different.
Carbon taxes aren't the entire solution. But they are part of the tool kit.
Taxes change behavior. They aren't punitive.
And don't forget the reason why carbon taxes appeal to some libertarians
and conservatives despite their aversion to government in general:
revenue neutrality. In this model, when government revenues increase
through a carbon tax, they decrease via tax cuts elsewhere. The typical
model is to reduce income taxes.
That all said, getting taxes on carbon to the price where they actually
do the job that they are required to do hasn't occurred anywhere in the
world yet. British Columbia's revenue neutral carbon tax was stopped at
$30 per tonne, which is at least $60 below the minimum necessary for the
scale of the problem. Australia shut down their carbon tax foolishly,
even though it was reducing emissions at its low price of $23, and
didn't get anywhere near high enough to make a significant different.
Carbon taxes aren't the entire solution. But they are part of the tool kit.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/06/19/are-carbon-taxes-the-solution-to-global-warming/
Australia warned it has radically underestimated*climate
change*security threat
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/21/australia-warned-it-has-radically-underestimated-climate-change-security-threat>
As the Senate launches an inquiry into the national security
ramifications of climate change, a new report has warned global warming
will cause increasingly regular and severe humanitarian crises across
the Asia-Pacific.
Disaster Alley, written by the Breakthrough Centre for Climate
Restoration, forecasts climate change could potentially displace tens of
millions from swamped cities, drive fragile states to failure, cause
intractable political instability, and spark military conflict.
Report co-author Ian Dunlop argues Australia's political and corporate
leaders, by refusing to accept the need for urgent climate action now,
are "putting the Australian community in extreme danger".
"Global warming will drive increasingly severe humanitarian crises,
forced migration, political instability and conflict. The Asia Pacific
region, including Australia, is considered to be 'disaster alley' where
some of the worst impacts will be experienced," the report, released
this morning, says.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/21/australia-warned-it-has-radically-underestimated-climate-change-security-threat
***Climate Change Implications for Wildfire in Alaska: Randi Jandt
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef0wk1CBFgk>*
Randi Jandt is a Fire Ecologist for the Alaska Fire Science Consortium
located in Fairbanks, Alaska.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef0wk1CBFgk
<http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/the-vine/75723/leaving-global-warming-the-bureaucrats>*This
Day in Climate History June 21, 2010
<http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/the-vine/75723/leaving-global-warming-the-bureaucrats>
- from D.R. Tucker*
In the New Republic, Brad Plumer writes that if the Senate can't pass
cap-and-trade, the EPA should move ahead with regulating carbon
emissions. He further observes:
"In the long term, though, we'd really need a price on carbon to
transform the country's energy sector and give people incentive to
develop new clean-energy technologies—having the EPA just flatly tell
polluters that they have to adopt this or that specific
pollution-cutting gizmo isn't very good for innovation. But hey, maybe a
few years from now we'll have a Congress that's ready to address this
problem. Odder things have happened."
http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/the-vine/75723/leaving-global-warming-the-bureaucrats
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