[TheClimate.Vote] June 26, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News

[Richard Pauli]

/June 26, 2017/


    How*Climate Change*Will Transform the Way We Live
    <http://fortune.com/2017/06/25/climate-change-heat-waves/>

(Fortune,  Laura Entis) Earlier this week, nearly 50 flights out of 
Phoenix were cancelled. At 120 degrees, the temperature forecast 
exceeded the airline's 118 degrees maximum operating temperature.
It's difficult not to connect the delays to climate change-scientists 
estimate the planet's overall temperature has increased by 1.8 degrees 
since preindustrial times. Last year was the hottest on record, followed 
by 2015, followed by 2014.
As the world continues to warm, such plane delays will become more 
common, says Camilo Mora, an associate geography professor at the 
University of Hawaii at Manoa. And that's just the beginning.
Here's how he predicts global warming will impact day-to-day life in the 
U.S. within the next century.
*For much of the U.S., summer will take place indoors.*
According to a study co-authored by Mora, if carbon emissions aren't 
reduced, by 2100 New York City will experience about 50 days per year of 
heat and humidity conditions that has resulted in death (up from about 
two days now). Meanwhile, in cities such as Orlando and Houston, this 
threshold will be crossed for the entire summer, making it unsafe to go 
outside for extended periods of time.
*Power outages will result in deaths.*
In this brutally hot version of the future, in many U.S. cities air 
conditioning will become a literal life saver. Power outages, like the 
one that swept through Northeast and the Midwest in 2003 -- leaving 50 
million people without electricity-will no longer be an inconvenience, 
but a national emergency.
*Roads and train tracks will melt and buckle under the heat.*
Like chocolate, asphalt can grow mushy under the blazing sun. As the 
temperatures becomes more extreme in the summers, highways will "start 
to melt," says Mora. Howard Robinson, chief executive of the Road 
Surface Treatments Association, told the BBC that roads begin to soften 
when their surface temperature exceeds 50C (122F).
... as a species, "we suffer from short-term memory," he says. When, 
earlier this week, a heat wave hit the Southwestern states, climate 
change was in the news. But "next week, when the heat wave is gone, 
everyone will be talking about something else."
Instead of putting your head in the sand, Mora urges action, even if 
it's minor: "consume less," he says. Try to drive less, turn down your 
thermostat, or reduce your meat intake.Climate change is tied to 
government policies, but it's also "the combination of so many of us 
using things we don't need," he says. "We can't afford to not think this 
is a problem."
http://fortune.com/2017/06/25/climate-change-heat-waves/

/
/


    *Climate change*label leads to climate science acceptance
    <https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170621103214.htm>

Labels matter when it comes to acceptance of climate science, suggests 
new research. For example, explain authors of a new report, the US 
public doubts the existence of 'global warming' more than it doubts 
'climate change.'
On the heels of President Donald Trump's decision to pull the United 
States out of the Paris climate agreement, a new Cornell University 
study finds that labels matter when it comes to acceptance of climate 
science.
The U.S. public doubts the existence of "global warming" more than it 
doubts "climate change" -- and Republicans are driving the effect, the 
research shows.
In a nationally representative survey, 74.4 percent of respondents 
identified as Republicans said they believed that climate change is 
really happening. But only 65.5 percent said they believed in global 
warming. In contrast, 94 percent of Democrats replied "yes" to both 
questions.
Some Republicans may discredit climate science because they may not like 
the policies that have been proposed to address the problem, said the 
study's co-author, Jonathon Schuldt, assistant professor of 
communication at Cornell.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170621103214.htm
- More:


    Saying 'climate change' instead of '*global warming*' decreases
    partisan gap by 30 percent in US
    <https://phys.org/news/2017-06-climate-global-decreases-partisan-gap.html>

"Our results suggest that Trump's emphasis on 'global warming' may be an 
effective rhetorical strategy that resonates with his Republican 
constituents, who express more skepticism in response to that term in 
particular," said Schuldt.
https://phys.org/news/2017-06-climate-global-decreases-partisan-gap.html


    Severe weather slams both coasts
    <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/severe-weather-slams-both-coasts/>

There's severe weather on both coasts this first weekend of summer. In 
the west - the extreme heat is still on -- and it's fueling an outbreak 
of wildfires in several states. In the east, what's left of Tropical 
Storm Cindy has left a big mess to clean up...
Torrential rain drenched the Northeast with up to three inches falling 
in parts of New Jersey, a powerful punch from what's left of Tropical 
Storm Cindy, two days after it made landfall along the Gulf Coast.
They're cleaning up in Fairfield, Alabama after an EF-2 tornado ripped 
through town, leaving one person injured in a liquor store that was 
nearly flattened.
In other parts of Alabama, flash floods swamped cars and stranded drivers.
Farther west, extreme heat is fueling a 37,000 acre fire in Utah. Flames 
have been burning out of control for days, destroying 13 homes.
"A fire of this magnitude just does what it wants," said Jesse Bender of 
Bureau of Land Management.
More than a dozen wildfires are burning in Arizona, where the governor 
has declared a state of emergency.  Many of the fires are burning in 
record-breaking, triple-digit temperatures.
It reached 119 degrees in Phoenix this week, so hot that the air was too 
thin for some planes to take off.
The oppressive heat is expected to continue throughout the west this 
weekend, with triple-digit temperatures in Portland, Oregon. Farther 
north in Seattle, they could break a record this weekend, with 
temperatures expected to be in the 90s there on Sunday.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/severe-weather-slams-both-coasts/


*From heatwaves to hurricanes, floods to famine: seven climate change 
hotspots 
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/23/from-heatwaves-to-hurricanes-floods-to-famine-seven-climate-change-hotspots>*
Global warming will not affect everyone equally. ...seven key regions to 
see how each is tackling the consequences of climate change: 
http://edge.ensia.com/hot-spots/
Mapping the world's climate hotspots and identifying where the impacts 
will be the greatest is...
... a subjective appraisal of the seven most important climate hotspots, 
based on analysis of numerous scientific models and personal experience 
of observing climate change in a variety of places. Delta regions, 
semi-arid countries, and glacier- and snowpack-dependent river basins 
are all in the frontline. But so, too, are tropical coastal regions and 
some of the world's greatest forests and cities.
*Murcia, Spain*
... climate change impacts are already visible not only in the vicinity 
of Murcia, but across much of the Mediterranean basin.
The World Resources Institute concurred in 2015 that the Mediterranean 
basin was a climate hotspot when it placed 14 of the world's 33 most 
water-stressed countries in 2040 in the Middle East and North Africa 
region. "Drought and water shortages in Syria likely contributed to the 
unrest that stoked the country's 2011 civil war.  Dwindling water 
resources and chronic mismanagement forced 1.5 million people, primarily 
farmers and herders, to lose their livelihoods and leave their land, 
move to urban areas, and magnify Syria's general destabilisation,"...
The fast-growing, heavily populated region is climatically vulnerable, 
it concluded. The food supplies and the social balance of places like 
Palestine, Israel, Algeria, Lebanon and Jordan are all highly sensitive 
to even a small change in water supplies. As climate change intensifies, 
communities face grave threats from both droughts and floods.
*Dhaka, Bangladesh*
I met Honufa soon after she arrived in Dhaka 10 years ago. Erosion and 
saltwater intrusion on her family's land on one of the low-lying islands 
in the mouth of the Ganges River had forced the young Bangladeshi woman 
to leave her village for the capital. She had taken a boat and then an 
overnight bus and ended up in a slum called Beribadh.
Honufa is a climate refugee, one of thousands who have struggled to grow 
their crops. Millions are likely to follow her if current trends continue.
"In the next 20 years we would expect five to 10 million people to have 
to move from the coastal areas," says Saleemul Huq, director of the 
Bangladesh-based International Centre for Climate Change and 
Development. "The whole country is a climate hotspot, but the most 
vulnerable area is the coast. Dhaka is the place where people head to," 
he says.
"We are beginning to see sea levels rising and increased salinity in 
coastal areas. It is a slow onset, which will get worse. It is a climate 
change phenomenon and not something we had before."
*Mphampha, Malawi*
Late last year, the temperature in southern Malawi in southern Africa 
rose to more than 46C. A long regional drought crossing Zimbabwe, 
Zambia, Madagascar and Tanzania had scorched and killed the staple maize 
crop and millions of people who had not seen rain for more than a year 
depended on food aid.
Long-term climate data in southern Africa is sparse, but studies backed 
by oral evidence from villagers confirm the region is a climate hotspot 
where droughts are becoming more frequent, rains less regular, food 
supplies less certain, and the dry spells and floods are lasting longer.
With more than 90% of Malawi and the region depending on rain-fed 
agriculture, it does not need scientists to tell people that the climate 
is changing.
"I know what it is to go hungry," says Elvas Munthali, a Malawian aid 
worker. "My family depended on farming. The climate is changing. Now we 
plant maize at the end of December or even January; we used to do that 
in November."
Patrick Kamzitu, a health worker in Nambuma, says: "It is much warmer 
now. The rains come and we plant but then there is a dry spell. The dry 
spells and the rains are heavier but shorter."
...rains, floods, strong winds, high temperatures and droughts were all 
becoming more common...
Looking ahead, scientists expect average annual temperatures across 
southern Africa to soar, possibly as much as 3C by the 2060s, to 5C by 
the 2090s - a temperature that would render most human life nearly 
impossible. But estimates vary greatly. Rainfall, says USAid, could 
decrease in some places by 13% and increase in others by 32%....
*Longyearbyen, Norway*
The temperature in Longyearbyen on the Svalbard archipelago about 650 
miles from the North Pole, averaged about -4C in April. If that sounds 
cold, consider that it was nearly 8C warmer than the 30-year average for 
the time of year, and that April was no outlier. The average temperature 
for the whole of 2016 in Longyearbyen was near freezing. Usually it is -10C.
...There are many ways the Arctic is changing. You see it in melt season 
starting earlier than it used to and taking longer to freeze up, in the 
melting of the Greenland ice sheet and the Arctic glaciers, the warming 
of permafrost temperatures, in increased coastal erosion, the northward 
migration of the tree line and species, and in how local communities can 
no longer keep their food in the ground because the thaw increased."..
Both Stroeve and Holmén are by nature cautious scientists, not given to 
dramatic statements. But both say they are astonished, even scared, by 
the speed at which the Arctic changes are happening.
"Given our current emission rates of 35 to 40 gigatons [of carbon 
dioxide] per year we should see ice-free conditions in September in 
about 20 years," says Stroeve.
Longyearbyen residents are getting used to more extreme weather and 
coming to terms with what it means for them. The town has created a new 
risk assessment map and an avalanche warning system. Some parts of the 
town may be deemed unsafe and will have to be moved. Others may be 
protected by snow fences or walls....
*Manaus, Brazil*
When Carlos Nobre, one of Brazil's leading climatologists, lived in 
Manaus in the 1970s, the population was a few hundred thousand and the 
highest temperature ever recorded in the city had been 33.5C. The city 
was surrounded by cool, dense forest and the greatest river on Earth. 
Heat waves were rare and floods regular but manageable.
Today Manaus has more than 2 million people, and it and the wider Amazon 
region are changing fast. In 2015, Nobre says, the temperature in Manaus 
soared to 38.8C. "The Amazon is tropical and very hot, but when I lived 
there the hot spells were rare," he says. "Now we see many more of 
them." Not only that, he says, but dry seasons are longer by a week than 
they were a decade ago and weather is more erratic.
"When we see a dry season of over four months, or deforestation of more 
than 40%, then there is no way back. Trees will slowly decay, and in 50 
years we would see a degraded savanna. It would take 100-200 years to 
see a fully fledged savanna."
The Amazon then would be unrecognizable, along with much of Earth...
*New York, US*
New York state may seem an unlikely climate hotspot, but research 
confirms its status in the top league of potential change. Drawing on 
the US national climate assessment and research by leading federal 
agencies and academics, it calculates that temperatures statewide have 
risen about 1.3C since 1970, spring begins a week sooner than it did 
just a few decades ago, there is less winter snow and more intense 
downpours. Meanwhile, sea levels are rising at nearly twice the global 
rate and birds and fish populations are all moving north.
Even more dramatically, the latest scientific projections suggest 
trouble ahead. By the 2050s, says the New York Department of 
Environmental Conservation, sea levels could rise nearly 76cm (30 
inches), storm surges and flooding will be more common in coastal areas, 
and West Nile virus and many other diseases could be prevalent....
Pope identifies three groups of cities which he thinks will lead others 
on climate: "Cities in Nordic countries that will be meticulous about 
everything. Then there are a few in Latin America and Africa, which will 
be unbelievably creative. A third group is in east Asia and China, which 
will do things on a massive scale."
*Manila, Philippines*
The Philippines is regularly ranked in lists of the top few countries 
most affected by climate change. "We are already experiencing climate 
change impacts, including sea-level rise, hotter temperatures, extreme 
weather events and changes in precipitation," says Sano, who has now 
left government to direct Greenpeace SE Asia.
"These in turn, result in human rights impacts, such as loss of homes 
and livelihoods, water contamination, food scarcity, displacement of 
whole communities, disease outbreaks, and even the loss of life."
Scientists widely agree that the country, along with nearby Indonesia, 
Vietnam and Cambodia, is a hotspot. Analysis of 70 years' of government 
data, published in the International Journal of Climatology last year, 
shows a small decrease in the number of smaller typhoons that hit the 
Philippines each year, but more intense ones. It is not conclusive 
evidence, but previous studies have suggested the increase may be due to 
rising sea-surface temperatures since the 1970s....
"The challenge now is to rapidly adapt farming to climate change with 
modern varieties and feed a fast-growing global population, half of 
which depends on rice as a staple food. One billion people go hungry 
every day. In the 1990s, rice yields were growing 2% a year; now they 
are just 1%. Temperatures here have risen 2-4C. Climate change will 
reduce productivity. Rainfall is unpredictable and rice is grown in 
areas like deltas that are prone to sea level rises. ..
But *the bottom line* is that climate hotspots intersect, and nowhere 
will we escape the changes taking place. What happens in the Amazon 
affects West Africa; the North American growing season may depend on the 
melting of Arctic ice; flooding in Asian cities affected by warming on 
the high Tibetan plateau. And urban areas ultimately depend on the 
countryside.
We're all in a hot spot now.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/23/from-heatwaves-to-hurricanes-floods-to-famine-seven-climate-change-hotspots
http://edge.ensia.com/hot-spots/
/
/


    Schwarzenegger And Macron Troll Trump Over*Climate Change*
    <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/schwarzenegger-macron-meeting_us_594f49eae4b0da2c731c04d5>

New best bros Arnold Schwarzenegger and French President Emmanuel Macron 
teamed up in Paris to talk about the Paris climate agreement and global 
warming. They also pulled off a selfie video not-so-surreptitiously 
aimed at you-know-who: that other president.
The video, posted to Schwarzenegger's Twitter on Friday, is labeled: 
"With President Macron, a great leader." The former California governor 
notes on the vid: "I'm here with President Macron. We're talking about 
environmental issues and a green future."
Macron pipes in: "And now we will deliver together to make the planet 
great again."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/schwarzenegger-macron-meeting_us_594f49eae4b0da2c731c04d5


*Grizzly Bears Are Now the Victims of the Trump Administration's Climate 
Denialism 
<http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/06/we_can_t_trust_this_administration_s_climate_decisions.html>*
We can't trust this administration to make science-based decisions.
By Susan Matthews
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced Thursday that the Yellowstone 
grizzly bear will no longer be listed as protected under the Endangered 
Species Act. The grizzly's population has rebounded and it now "stands 
as one of America's great conservation successes," he crowed.
A species being removed from the ESA is rare and, in normal 
circumstances, should be celebrated. It means that a population has 
recovered enough to no longer require extra protections, which should be 
considered a good thing. And the grizzly bear has: When the species was 
listed in the 1970s, it was estimated that a mere 150 existed. Today, 
there are about 700 individuals.
This decision, however, seems unlikely to be met with applause. As the 
New York Times reports, environmental organizations are already lining 
up to sue to stop it. And 125 Native American tribes have banded 
together to oppose the delisting because they weren't consulted in the 
decision-making. Also, any good feelings animal lovers get from the 
words "conservation success story" are likely to be squashed by the fact 
that the delisting means the bears could now be hunted. People really 
don't like it when charismatic megafauna get killed.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/06/we_can_t_trust_this_administration_s_climate_decisions.html


*Letter to Capital Gazette from 13 yr old  - Cllimate change 
<http://www.capitalgazette.com/opinion/letters/ph-ac-ce-letters-0624-20170623-story.html>*
I am 13 years old and concerned about my future. Quite frankly, I was 
appalled by Wayne Adamson's letter (The Capital, May 29).
First, man-made climate change is a fact. There is no doubt about it, 
but it is well known that some organizations have made it their jobs to 
cast doubt about climate change. There are also many people like Mr. 
Adamson who have bought into that doubt, but that doesn't change the 
science.
Let me point out that Mr. Adamson is in his late 70s, according to his 
Facebook profile, Therefore it might be convenient and comfortable for 
him to say climate change doesn't exist. That way, he can continue 
living his life without making changes or difficult decisions and have 
no guilt or regret.
I don't have that luxury because I am 13. I am going to have to pay with 
my future if I don't do something about climate change. For those of us 
who do have an interest in the future, whether you will be living it or 
your children or grandchildren will, we know it can't hurt us to make 
sure we have clean water, clean air and a healthy world to live on.
KALLAN BENSON
Crownsville
http://www.capitalgazette.com/opinion/letters/ph-ac-ce-letters-0624-20170623-story.html

*
**ON THE THAWING TUNDRA, RESEARCHERS RACE TO UNDERSTAND BLACK CARBON'S 
CLIMATE IMPACT <https://ensia.com/features/black-carbon/>*
The wood and fossil fuels we burn affect extreme warming in the Arctic, 
and solutions begin with understanding how and how much.
WRITER  Madeline Ostrander   @madelinevo
In the global scale of things, black carbon's impact is neither as 
important nor as long-lasting as that of CO2. But take a bit of soot out 
of the air, and the effects are almost instant....
...the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates black carbon as a 
component of "particulate matter": Little particles are also a health 
hazard because they can penetrate human lung tissue, enter the 
bloodstream, and contribute to asthma, bronchitis, and heart and 
respiratory diseases...
... new sources of black carbon are creeping into the Arctic as the ice 
thaws. Between 2008 and 2012, marine traffic in the U.S. Arctic went up 
108 percent. In the summer and fall of 2016, the Crystal Serenity became 
the first luxury cruise liner to travel across the Arctic Ocean from 
Alaska to New York City. In late April this year, President Trump signed 
an executive order with the aim of reviving offshore drilling in the 
Alaskan Arctic and elsewhere, a move that prompted a lawsuit from 
several environmental groups. Oil companies are drilling more than a 
dozen exploratory oil wells in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway....
Since Pratt began her field work in Alaska five years ago, she's has 
made several journeys into the waters of the Chukchi Sea and onto the 
sea ice with local guides in Utqiaġvik. "It's actually pretty amazing. 
You can see the changes in the ice just in that time frame," she said. 
"It's quite shocking actually to see it firsthand."
https://ensia.com/features/black-carbon/
- See also:
*BLACK CARBON: A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE? 
<https://ensia.com/features/black-carbon-golden-climate-change/>*
Soot is second only to CO2 in creating climate-changing conditions - and 
so offers big hope for reducing the threat....
And black carbon's impact isn't confined to the Arctic. It also alters 
the atmosphere in ways we don't fully understand: affecting cloud cover, 
absorbing the sun's heat and warming the air. Recent studies have shown 
that black carbon has a complex but powerful impact on global climate 
change - and could offer an important opportunity for slowing it down.
The good news is that black carbon's outsize influence may make it a 
powerful lever for combating climate change.
https://ensia.com/features/black-carbon-golden-climate-change/


*This Day in Climate History June 26, 2006 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/26/washington/AP-Scotus-Greenhouse-Gases.html?pagewanted=print>  
-  from D.R. Tucker*

    • June 26, 2006: The Associated Press reports:
    "The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether the Bush
    administration must regulate carbon dioxide to combat global
    warming, setting up what could be one of the court's most important
    decisions on the environment.
    "The decision means the court will address whether the
    administration's decision to rely on voluntary measures to combat
    climate change are legal under federal clean air laws.
    "'This is the whole ball of wax. This will determine whether the
    Environmental Protection Agency is to regulate greenhouse gases from
    cars and whether EPA can regulate carbon dioxide from power plants,'
    said David Bookbinder, an attorney for the Sierra Club.
    "Bookbinder said if the court upholds the administration's argument
    it also could jeopardize plans by California and 10 other states,
    including most of the Northeast, to require reductions in carbon
    dioxide emissions from motor vehicles.
    "There was no immediate comment from either the EPA or White House
    on the court's action.
    "’Fundamentally, we don't think carbon dioxide is a pollutant, and
    so we don't think these attempts are a good idea,’ said John Felmy,
    chief economist of the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group
    representing oil and gas producers.
    "A dozen states, a number of cities and various environmental groups
    asked the court to take up the case after a divided lower court
    ruled against them.
    "They argue that the Environmental Protection Agency is obligated to
    limit carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles under the federal
    Clean Air Act because as the primary ‘greenhouse'’ gas causing a
    warming of the earth, carbon dioxide is a pollutant.
    "The administration maintains that carbon dioxide -- unlike other
    chemicals that must be controlled to assure healthy air -- is not a
    pollutant under the federal clean air law, and that even if it were
    the EPA has discretion over whether to regulate it.
    "A federal appeals court sided with the administration in a sharply
    divided ruling.
    "One judge said the EPA's refusal to regulate carbon dioxide was
    contrary to the clean air law; another said that even if the Clean
    Air Act gave the EPA authority over the heat-trapping chemical, the
    agency could choose not to use that authority; a third judge ruled
    against the suit because, he said, the plaintiffs had no standing
    because they hadn't proven harm.
    "Carbon dioxide, which is release when burning fossil fuels such as
    coal or gasoline, is the leading so-called 'greenhouse' gas because
    as it drifts into the atmosphere it traps the earth's heat -- much
    like a greenhouse. Many scientists cite growing evidence that this
    pollution is warming the earth to a point of beginning to change
    global climate."
    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/26/washington/AP-Scotus-Greenhouse-Gases.html?pagewanted=print


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