[TheClimate.Vote] June 22, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Jun 22 09:24:01 EDT 2017
/June 22, 2017/
*It's So Hot in Phoenix, Planes Can't Take Off
<http://www.climatecentral.org/news/phoenix-heat-wave-planes-takeoff-21558>*
Brian Kahn By Brian Kahn Published: June 20th, 2017
An intense heat wave is crippling the West this week, sending the
mercury above 120°F in places like Phoenix. In a sign of just how hot
things are getting, some airlines have had to cancel flights because of
the heat.
American Airlines said it cancelled 50 flights out of Phoenix Sky Harbor
aboard Bombardier CRJ aircraft on Tuesday because the planes can't
operate above 118°F.
Heat waves are intimately tied to climate change as rising background
temperatures make them more intense and common. The latest batch of heat
will cook an area from northern California to western Texas, a region
home to some seven of the 10 fastest-warming cities in the country.
Temperature records have already fallen across California and heat will
build throughout the week. Sacramento, San Jose, Palm Springs, Fresno
and Death Valley all set daily highs on Monday. But the hottest
temperatures aren't even expected to arrive until Tuesday. They'll last
through Thursday, and forecast highs mean the region could set all-time
records.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/phoenix-heat-wave-planes-takeoff-21558
*(video) Drone Shows Destruction of Deadly Portugal Fire
<https://youtu.be/7t4McTRvqgE>*
Associated Press Published on Jun 18, 2017
Drone video showed Sunday's aftermath of Portugal's forest fire that
killed at least 61 people, many of them trapped in their cars as they
tried to flee. The country's prime minister called it "the biggest
tragedy" for Portugal in decades. (June 18)
https://youtu.be/7t4McTRvqgE
Democrats Hold Alternative Hearing on *Climate Change*
<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/democrats-hold-alternative-hearing-on-climate-change/>
The discussion was meant to show that lawmakers are not yielding the
climate discussion to those who reject mainstream science
For a few hours yesterday, climate science was not the target of attacks
in Congress.
Researchers, diplomats and policy experts warned about the dangers of
ignoring clear research showing that humans are warming the planet at an
alarming rate in an unofficial hearing hosted by Democratic lawmakers.
The discussion was an alternative to the recent hearings in the House
Science, Space and Technology Committee, run by Chairman Lamar Smith,
the conservative Texas Republican who has accused federal climate
scientists of engaging in a global conspiracy. He has subpoenaed
researchers whose work negates the idea that climbing temperatures have
paused, a key talking point for climate skeptics...
"Of all the tragedies of the Trump administration, potentially the
greatest is the destruction of our climate science, the withdrawal from
Paris, the gutting of the EPA, the appointment of Pruitt and, absent
Trump putting us in danger of a nuclear war, the thing that could affect
the lives of billions of people on this planet is climate change, and
the U.S. has given up its leadership," said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.).
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/democrats-hold-alternative-hearing-on-climate-change/
Why this leading shareholder advisory firm is now studying *climate
change*
<http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/21/why-this-leading-shareholder-advisory-firm-is-now-studying-climate-change.html>
A leading shareholder advisory firm is buying up environmental data and
analytics companies, because its says investors are increasingly
concerned about the impact climate change will have on their portfolios.
Institutional Shareholder Services said it is buying the investment
climate data division of South Pole Group, a Zurich-based environmental
advisory firm on Monday.
The division, formerly known as Climate Neutral Investments, provides
data and analytics to asset owners and investment managers on the impact
of climate change on portfolios.
ISS said the company built the world's largest database of company-level
climate change data and pioneered investment carbon screening tools that
can screening for climate change implications for more than $2 trillion
of assets under management.
"We can come in and work with an investment manager now, and say, we
have helped to identify governance risk, now we can actually build a
view of the climate footprint of your portfolio and provide insight into
where specifically that is coming from," ISS Chief Operating Officer
Stephen Harvey told CNBC in an interview.
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/21/why-this-leading-shareholder-advisory-firm-is-now-studying-climate-change.html
*Climate Change*-Induced Migration from Central America
<https://www.lawfareblog.com/climate-change-induced-migration-central-america>
Central America's governments ultimately hold the responsibility for
implementing programs to help the region's citizens to adapt and build
resilience to climate change, and the United States and international
community can and should continue to provide support. Yet in the absence
of effective programs or policies, the migrants who are forced out of
their homes because of droughts or extreme weather conditions don't have
many options. They can't claim refugee status because changing weather
patterns don't meet the thresholds that international refugee frameworks
demand. And other protections, such as the Temporary Protected Status
that the United States granted to Hondurans after Hurricane Mitch in
1999, are unlikely to find favor under the current administration.
This inaction leaves climate-displaced individuals in a tough situation.
The last time I heard from the group of Honduran migrants that I met
along Mexico's southern border, one was working without documents in
Mexico City and two others were staying in a shelter along the U.S.
border and wondering how to raise the money necessary to cross into the
United States. If the U.S. and Mexican governments hope to keep these
Hondurans, and others just like them, at home amid changing weather
patterns, it will take not only a focus on creating jobs and improving
security in the region, but also efforts to boost the region's
resilience to an increasingly unpredictable climate.
https://www.lawfareblog.com/climate-change-induced-migration-central-america
*Wildfires Light Up Portugal
<https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=90427&src=nha>*
On June 17, 2017, lightning reportedly ignited a deadly wildfire that
spread across the mountainous areas of Pedrógão Grande-a municipality in
central Portugal located about 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of
Lisbon. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on
NASA's Terra satellite captured a daytime image of smoke billowing
northward from areas of active burning on June 18. The following night
the blaze continued to burn so bright that it was visible from space.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP
satellite captured a nighttime image of the fire at 2:48 a.m. local time
(01:48 Universal Time) on June 19, 2017 (top). For comparison, the
second image shows the same area in the predawn hours of June 16. Turn
on the image-comparison tool to see the fires brighten the rural
landscape between the urban areas. Note that some differences in
brightness and sharpness are due to the presence of more cloud cover in
the June 19 image. The fire was imaged by a special "day-night band"
that detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared
and uses light intensification to detect dim signals.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=90427&src=nha
*London mayor issues emergency air quality alert amid heatwave
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/20/london-mayor-issues-emergency-air-quality-alert-amid-heatwave>*
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has triggered the capital's emergency
air quality alert as soaring temperatures combined with southerly winds
are expected to bring dangerously toxic air to large parts of England
and Wales on Wednesday...
The emergency alerts will see warnings displayed at bus stops, on road
signs and on the underground.
Researchers said the toxic air was caused by high ozone levels brought
up from industrial parts of France by a southerly wind. They also warned
that particulate levels – from motor vehicles and other fuel burning –
were expected to be "moderate, with high again a strong possibility"...
Nitrogen dioxide emissions, mostly from diesel cars, cause 23,500 of the
40,000 premature deaths from air pollution each year, according to the
government's own data. In April last year MPs said air pollution was a
public health emergency.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/20/london-mayor-issues-emergency-air-quality-alert-amid-heatwave
*
**Why you need to know about mice, ticks, warm temperatures and Lyme
disease
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/why-you-need-to-know-about-mice-ticks-warm-temperatures-and-lyme-disease/2017/06/16/cd7a4ab8-4aef-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html?utm_term=.b234a714bcf0>*
New Hampshire USA by Melissa Banigan, Washington Post
Twice in the same week, Lois Wood woke to find ticks crawling over her
bare leg in her New Hampshire home. A few nights later, she spotted a
mouse running across her bed.
A mother of seven, Wood tries to shrug off her tiny bedfellows. "It's a
common rural problem," she says, although she admits that she has "never
experienced anything like this in my own bed."
The recent appearance of vermin and pests in Wood's bedroom coincides
with the warming temperatures related to climate change. The past three
years have been the planet's hottest on record, and it is in this
changing climate that many pests thrive, negatively affecting human health.
Forty to 90 percent of white-footed mice carry Borrelia burgdorferi, the
spirochete bacterium that causes Lyme disease, and they provide the
first blood meals for blacklegged ticks, also known as deer ticks, which
can transmit the disease to humans.
Everything is changing year after year," Haddad says. "Our rodenticide
sales to distributors have increased about 15 percent over the past two
years."
Siligato adds: "West Nile virus has killed many birds of prey along the
East Coast, meaning there are more mice. To say it's just climate change
isn't exactly accurate, but it's probably a part of the story."
The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, a research and education
organization in New York's Dutchess County, has predicted that there
will be a rise in reported Lyme disease cases in 2017 along the Eastern
Seaboard because there was a bumper crop of acorns in 2015. Acorns are a
favorite food of the white-footed mouse, and the population of the
species has been shown to increase two years after a surge of the nuts.
More mice means more opportunities for tick nymphs to have their first
blood meals.
The website of the city health department warns that blacklegged ticks
have been collected in four of the city's five boroughs, with some of
them testing positive for B. burgdorfergi. But how many New Yorkers
would think to look at the website to learn about ticks? And even if
they did, how many would also consider the mice that transmit Lyme?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/why-you-need-to-know-about-mice-ticks-warm-temperatures-and-lyme-disease/2017/06/16/cd7a4ab8-4aef-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html?utm_term=.b234a714bcf0
*CLIMATE DIPLOMACY What quantitative analyses tell us about climate
change and conflict
<https://www.climate-diplomacy.org/news/what-quantitative-analyses-tell-us-about-climate-change-and-conflict>*
Whilst a growing number of studies are appearing that analyse the
statistical relationship between climate change and violent conflict,
the implications for policy makers often remain unclear. In this
article, Adrien Detges points out what quantitative analyses can tell us
about climate change and conflict and highlights their limitations.
In recent years, a growing number of studies have appeared that analyse
the statistical relationship between climate change and violent
conflict. Whilst this research offers a comprehensive and systematic
assessment of emerging climate-security risks, its results remain
ambiguous, and are often misinterpreted. This is all the more serious,
as quantitative evidence dominates current discussions on the security
implications of climate change and, therefore, has a major bearing on
policy-making.
In response to this problem, adelphi has published a concise overview of
the quantitative literature on climate and conflict
<https://www.climate-diplomacy.org/publications/climate-and-conflict-reviewing-statistical-evidence-summary-policy-makers>,
which discusses the main findings of this literature and draws key
lessons for policymakers.
Matters are further complicated by the fact that there is no single
agreed-upon measure of climate change and that researchers use a
plethora of different indicators ranging from changes in average
temperature to measures of disaster-incidence instead. Unsurprisingly, a
literature with such heterogeneity in research designs does not converge
towards a single robust finding, but has rather produced what experts
such as Idean Salehyan have called 'a cacophony of different
findings'. ...
That said, quantitative climate-conflict analysis is still a young
discipline with its uncertainties and obvious limitations. Some of these
relate to gaps in relevant data and are likely to be attenuated in the
near future, as more and improved data become available. But others are
inherent to the method itself, and become apparent when applying
statistical techniques to concepts such as identity or animosity, which
are difficult to measure and quantify. Caution is thus advised before
taking the results of single quantitative analyses at face value.
Instead, a systematic cross-evaluation of evidence from quantitative and
qualitative sources is recommended.
https://www.climate-diplomacy.org/news/what-quantitative-analyses-tell-us-about-climate-change-and-conflict
*Climate change an accelerant to instability in unexpected ways
<http://www.climatecodered.org/2017/06/climate-change-accelerant-to.html>***
A hotter planet has already taken us close to, or past, tipping points
which will generate major changes in global climate systems such as the
oceans, polar sea ice and ice sheets and large permafrost carbon stores.
The impacts include a hotter and more extreme climate, stronger storms
and cyclones, drought and desertification, and coastal inundation.
Climate change impacts basic resources such as food and water, which
allow human societies to survive. Scarce resources, declining crop
yields and rising prices become catalysts for conflict.
This makes climate change a key component in international relations as
it aggravates pre-existing problems to function as a "threat
multiplier", causing escalating cycles of humanitarian crises, political
instability, forced migrations and conflicts. The war in Syria and
conflicts across the Sahel from Darfur to Mali have a major
climate-change fingerprint.
http://www.climatecodered.org/2017/06/climate-change-accelerant-to.html
This is an extract from*Disaster Alley: Climate change, security and
risk* <https://www.breakthroughonline.org.au/disasteralley>**published
today by Breakthrough National Centre from Climate Restoration.T
he first responsibility of a government is to safeguard the people. But
the accelerating impacts of climate change will drive increasingly
severe humanitarian crises, political instability and conflict, posing
large negative consequences to human society which may never be undone.
The Asia–Pacific region is considered to be "Disaster Alley" where some
of the worst impacts will be experienced. Australia's political,
bureaucratic and corporate leaders are abrogating their fiduciary
responsibilities and are ill-prepared for the real risks of climate change.
In this striking new Breakthrough report we look at climate change and
conflict issues through the lens of sensible risk-management to draw new
conclusions about the challenge we now face..
https://www.breakthroughonline.org.au/disasteralley
*This disturbing map reveals how climate change is already affecting
your health, based on the state you live in
<http://www.businessinsider.com/how-climate-change-affects-your-state-2017-6>*
Climate change is already beginning to wreak havoc upon the planet. In
the short term, we're facing more winter storms, miserably hot summers,
and a longer allergy season. In the long term, entire coastlines will
likely disappear, threatening communities and wildlife.
On a more local level, experts say the US will be unrecognizable in 100
years.
But just how is all of this affecting you - your state, your coastline -
right now?
A recent report from the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and
Health <http://medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org/reports/medical-alert/>
reveals that different geographic regions in the US are facing a range
of effects, many of which are already taking shape today. Some of them
are as geographically specific as to affect only one state.
Check out how your area stacks up:
*Heat, heat, heat*
Climate change lengthens summer months and makes them hotter and more
humid. During these episodes, it's more likely that people will suffer
heat-related illness like heat stroke or dehydration. People most at
risk include those who works outdoors, student athletes, pregnant women,
and people without access to air conditioning.
*Bugs and more bugs*
Shifting regional climates are allowing many diseases spread by insects
like mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas to flourish beyond their present confines.
*Erratic weather*
Droughts, wipe-outs, and floods like Hurricane Sandy have become
increasingly common. As we saw with Sandy, these storms can have a
devastating impact on infrastructure including public transit and
electricity, interfering with access to health care facilities.
*Dirtier air*
Allergy seasons are already getting worse as a result of air pollution.
Why? Carbon dioxide, one of the primary drivers of climate change, makes
plants grow faster and increases the amount and potency of their pollen.
Rising temperatures also lengthen allergy season, and drier, warmer
conditions increase wildfire risk, which can exacerbate respiratory
conditions like asthma.
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-climate-change-affects-your-state-2017-6
*This Day in Climate History June 22, 2014
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/opinion/sunday/lessons-for-climate-change-in-the-2008-recession.html>
- from D.R. Tucker*
In the New York Times, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson observes:
"There is a time for weighing evidence and a time for acting. And if
there's one thing I’ve learned throughout my work in finance, government
and conservation, it is to act before problems become too big to manage.
"For too many years, we failed to rein in the excesses building up in
the nation's financial markets. When the credit bubble burst in 2008,
the damage was devastating. Millions suffered. Many still do.
"We're making the same mistake today with climate change. We’re staring
down a climate bubble that poses enormous risks to both our environment
and economy. The warning signs are clear and growing more urgent as the
risks go unchecked."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/opinion/sunday/lessons-for-climate-change-in-the-2008-recession.html
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