[TheClimate.Vote] March 5, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News for All -
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sun Mar 5 09:46:38 EST 2017
/March 5, 2017 Tough discussions/
https://youtu.be/V69l7zbFeAk
(video) Watch Bill McKibben Talk*Climate Change*Battle on 'Real
Time'
<http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/bill-mckibben-talks-climate-change-battle-on-real-time-w470412>
RollingStone.com -3 hours ago
On a particularly bad day for Earth's wellbeing – the EPA revealed
massive budgetary cuts while the Trump administration waffled on the
Paris Agreement on climate change – environmentalist and 350.org
founder Bill McKibben appeared on Real Time With Bill Maher to
discuss the dire situation and how the American people can fight back.
"The level of complete corruption from the fossil fuel industry that
marks this administration is like nothing we've ever seen,"
https://youtu.be/V69l7zbFeAk
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/24/roaming-charges-exxons-end-game-theory/
*Roaming Charges: Exxon's End Game Theory
<http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/24/roaming-charges-exxons-end-game-theory/>*
by JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
Despite what you may have heard from the Sierra Club, Rex Tillerson
is not a climate change denier. He is something far more dangerous.
Tillerson knows climate change is taking place. He was in position
to possibly do something about it, evaluated his options and coolly
chose not to change course...
...One of the big problems confronting Tillerson the day he took
over the reins was the fact that the very scientists at MIT and
Stanford who had been cashing Exxon's checks for decades to churn
out white papers questioning whether fossil fuel emissions were a
driving force beyond climate change, had begun to change their
tune... MIT's Global System Model, largely underwritten by Exxon,
forecast a 2.4-degree-centigrade rise in global temperatures over
the next hundred years. By 2006, those same scientists had more than
doubled that estimate. Exxon faced the prospect of being betrayed by
their own bought science.
During the early days of the Iraq War, Exxon set up a special team
to run war games on how the invasion would affect the oil industry
in terms of pricing, supply and distribution
networks....Tillerson...decided to use a similar technique to help
chart the company's new climate change strategy.
Tillerson wanted his secret squad of climate change gamers to answer
four questions:
1. Is climate change real?
2. Is the threat serious?
3. Are there any effective actions that can be taken to halt or
reverse climate change or mitigate the damage?
*4. Are the world's leading carbon emitters likely to impose binding
limits on emissions in time to prevent runaway climate change? *
The answer to the first two questions was "yes". The answer to the
third question was "maybe" and the fourth "no".
The lesson Tillerson took from this assessment was that climate
change is a serious threat and no government has the will or perhaps
even the means to confront it. Thus, the only responsible thing to
do for the shareholders of Exxon was to push forward aggressively
with exploration and development of new oil fields and ventures,
from Amazonia to Russia, before some other company captured the
reserves. Internally, this became known as the "end game" scenario.
As CEO of Trump's foreign policy enterprise, Tillerson seems likely
to impose this cynical template on the world at large by forging new
alliances with old rivals in kind of a Pax petroliana, where the
body count of hot wars will be replaced by the hidden, slow deaths
caused by an atmosphere gone lethal.
http://blog.ucsusa.org/brenda-ekwurzel/a-dozen-doozies-setting-the-record-straight-on-richard-lindzens-letter-to-president-trump
*A Dozen Doozies: Setting the Record Straight on Richard Lindzen's
Letter to President Trump
<http://blog.ucsusa.org/brenda-ekwurzel/a-dozen-doozies-setting-the-record-straight-on-richard-lindzens-letter-to-president-trump>*
The climate deniers are at it again. If I had to guess, I'd say they
wanted the climate deniers in Congress and fossil fuel funded think
tanks to have a letter to wave around every time someone mentions
the fact that 97% of climate scientists agree that human-caused
climate change is underway. And perhaps they wanted something
whenever reference is made to a letter by 376 Nobel laureates and
members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences asking President
Trump to commit to the Paris Climate Agreement and calling it a,
"…historic and vital first step towards more enlightened stewardship
of Earth's climate system."
This latest denier effort is a letter
<http://blog.ucsusa.org/wp-content/uploads/annotated-lindzen-letter.jpg>
from Richard Lindzen along with a petition signed by 300 plus
people. John Abraham, a climate and energy researcher at University
of St. Thomas (MN), has already reviewed the petition signers and
found many to have limited to irrelevant credentials related to the
causes and consequences of a disrupted climate.
Download a high-resolution version of this letter.
<http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/images/2017/02/annotated-lindzen-letter-high-resolution.jpg>
http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/images/2017/02/annotated-lindzen-letter-high-resolution.jpg
Trump to Undo Vehicle Rules That Curb*Global Warming*
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/us/politics/trump-vehicle-emissions-regulation.html>
New York Times -13 hours ago
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is expected to begin rolling back
stringent federal regulations on vehicle pollution that contributes
to*global warming*, according to people familiar with the matter,
essentially marking a U-turn to efforts to*...*
Yale University Climate Opinion Maps Show What Americans Think
About*Global Warming*
<https://weather.com/news/climate/news/yale-university-climate-change-maps>
The Weather Channel -21 hours ago
The Climate Opinion Maps give Americans an interactive glimpse into the
country's view of threats from*global warming*. The survey results are
sortable on the study's website, allowing users to see the Americans'
opinions on climate change at a state*...*
http://www.twincities.com/2017/03/02/transcript-umn-president-kaler-takes-down-trump-over-global-warming/
Transcript: UMN President Kaler takes down Trump over*global
warming*
<http://www.twincities.com/2017/03/02/transcript-umn-president-kaler-takes-down-trump-over-global-warming/>
TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press -6 hours ago
University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler explained*global
warming*Thursday during his sixth annual State of the University address.
Kaler, who holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and is a member of the
National Academy of Engineering, criticized powerful skeptics — among
them President Donald Trump — for acting in their own interests instead
of addressing the problem.
Following are Kaler's prepared remarks on the subject:
I don't usually quote others, but this from the British philosopher and
scholar Bertrand Russell is as relevant today as it was 100 years ago.
Here's what Russell said … and pardon the 19th century gender specificity:
"If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he
will scrutinize it closely, and — unless the evidence is
overwhelming — he will refuse to believe it.
"If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a
reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it
even on the slightest evidence."
Then, Russell added: "The origin of myths is explained in this way."
The University of Minnesota does not operate on myths.
...Let me come back to Bertrand Russell's words and the current
attacks on facts and science.
Allow me to put on my chemical engineer hat for a moment.
It is an unavoidable fact of chemistry that the combustion of a
hydrocarbon in air leads to the production of carbon dioxide.
It is an unavoidable fact that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.
Greenhouse gases include water vapor, ozone, carbon dioxide, and
methane and they capture outgoing infrared energy from the Earth,
thereby warming the planet.
Consequently, increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the
Earth's atmosphere will cause changes in the convective patterns in
the atmosphere, and the climate we experience will change.
It is an unavoidable fact that if the mean temperature of the oceans
increases, the water level will rise.
This is because the coefficient of thermal expansion for water is
positive.
And it is an unavoidable fact that many coastal regions are not far
above the current average sea level and therefore are vulnerable to
flooding and ultimately inundation.
That's even before the ice melts.
So why in the world would we not plan for this? We don't plan
because some powerful voices call climate change or global warming a
hoax and well-organized groups with great financial and political
power call it a scam.
And someone — someone — once Tweeted, "The concept of global warming
was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S.
manufacturing non-competitive."
In fact, climate change and what is known as global warming was
studied by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group
created by the United Nations including thousands of scientists from
over 100 countries.
For their work, they shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. And evidence
shows the climate IS changing.
So here we are back to Bertrand Russell's words — we are an
institution that is dedicated to the honoring of facts and science,
not myths.
We are also dedicated to the thoughtful, unbiased scrutiny of
culture and values.
There can be no wavering.
If our ability to conduct our research at this University is
hindered by those with self interest or political agendas, we must
fight that.
We are committed to academic freedom and to the facts.
Our ethos is this: If our studies and research are legal and
ethical, we will follow science and inquiry where it leads us. That
is at our core.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/huge-experiment-the-continent-that-climate-change-has-not-forgotten-20170302-gupeq8.html
*(video+text) 'Huge experiment': The continent that climate change has
not forgott*en
<http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/huge-experiment-the-continent-that-climate-change-has-not-forgotten-20170302-gupeq8.html>
Peter Hannam
It's a curious fact that should you find yourself at the bottom of the
ocean almost anywhere on the planet, the water temperature will be
uniformly near zero degrees.
That hasn't always been the case. Tropical seabeds 65 million years ago
were about 15 degrees when temperatures were higher, says Ian Simmonds,
a professor at Melbourne University's School of Earth Sciences.
http://climatenewsnetwork.net/deep-ocean-danger-temperatures/
*Deep ocean danger as temperatures rise
<http://climatenewsnetwork.net/deep-ocean-danger-temperatures/>*
Warming seas and increasing acidification could mean starvation and
extinction for creatures that live in the abyss of the deep ocean.
By Tim Radford
LONDON, 3 March, 2017 – Climate change could dramatically alter the
least accessible, most unknown habitat on the planet − the deep ocean floor.
Warming seas, the increasing acidification of the oceans and the loss of
oxygen from seawater could destroy ecosystems in the ocean's dark abyss,
and drastically change the biodiversity of the deep sea, according to
new research.
Around 70% of the planet is covered by water. The deep ocean floor,
kilometres below the surface, remains largely unexplored, but repeated
dives and exploration by submersibles have revealed glimpses of an
extraordinary and unexpected set of ecosystems, far from the sun's
radiation.
However, a new study published in Elementa journal warns that changes at
the surface could have profound consequences far below.
https://www.elementascience.org/articles/10.1525/elementa.203/
*Major impacts of climate change on deep-sea benthic ecosystems
<https://www.elementascience.org/articles/10.1525/elementa.203/>*
Abstract
The deep sea encompasses the largest ecosystems on Earth. Although
poorly known, deep seafloor ecosystems provide services that are
vitally important to the entire ocean and biosphere. Rising
atmospheric greenhouse gases are bringing about significant changes
in the environmental properties of the ocean realm in terms of water
column oxygenation, temperature, pH and food supply, with
concomitant impacts on deep-sea ecosystems. Projections suggest that
abyssal (3000–6000 m) ocean temperatures could increase by 1°C over
the next 84 years, while abyssal seafloor habitats under areas of
deep-water formation may experience reductions in water column
oxygen concentrations by as much as 0.03 mL L–1 by 2100. Bathyal
depths (200–3000 m) worldwide will undergo the most significant
reductions in pH in all oceans by the year 2100 (0.29 to 0.37 pH
units). O2 concentrations will also decline in the bathyal NE
Pacific and Southern Oceans, with losses up to 3.7% or more,
especially at intermediate depths. Another important environmental
parameter, the flux of particulate organic matter to the seafloor,
is likely to decline significantly in most oceans, most notably in
the abyssal and bathyal Indian Ocean where it is predicted to
decrease by 40–55% by the end of the century. Unfortunately, how
these major changes will affect deep-seafloor ecosystems is, in some
cases, very poorly understood. In this paper, we provide a detailed
overview of the impacts of these changing environmental parameters
on deep-seafloor ecosystems that will most likely be seen by 2100 in
continental margin, abyssal and polar settings. We also consider how
these changes may combine with other anthropogenic stressors (e.g.,
fishing, mineral mining, oil and gas extraction) to further impact
deep-seafloor ecosystems and discuss the possible societal
implications.
"We will likely see a shift in dominance to smaller organisms. Some
species will thrive, some will migrate to other areas, and many will
die. Parts of the world will likely have more jellyfish and squid, for
example, and fewer fish and cold water corals."
He and colleagues looked at forecasts, derived from 31 Earth model
systems developed for climate change research, to predict how oxygen
levels, acidity, temperature and food supply would change for the
creatures of the deep ocean floor by 2100...
The deepest reaches of the North Atlantic, Southern and Arctic Oceans
could become between 0.5°C and 1°C warmer. In mid-ocean – at between
3,000 metres and 200 metres depth – temperatures in the Pacific and
Arctic could become 4°C warmer...
Sea creatures are finely attuned to a particular water chemistry and
temperature, and marine biologists have repeatedly observed shifts in
fish populations with changes so far of only a fraction of a degree. A
shift of 4°C in an ecosystem has no precedent in human history.
*Climate Change*This Week: The Extinction Connection, Major
Investors Urge Action, and More!
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/climate-change-this-week-the-extinction-connection_us_58b8b5ece4b0fa65b844b176>
Huffington Post -13 hours ago
Cooling, And Oh So*Climate Changing*are air conditioners and
refrigerators, which leak highly potent*climate changing*gases
ultimately to the atmosphere, where they speed*climate change*. Laws
keep changing the gases used, but never mandate vetting .
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170303081326.htm
What global*climate change*may mean for leaf litter in streams and
rivers <https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170303081326.htm>
Science Daily -2 hours ago
"This process is not as obvious as the melting of ice caps and impacts
on a charismatic creature like the polar bear, but it is an important
indicator of global*climate change*," *...**Carbon emissions to the
atmosphere from streams and rivers are expected to increase as warmer
water temperatures stimulate faster rates of organic matter breakdown.
But a new study suggests these decay rates may not increase as much as
expected. In fact, the study indicates average breakdown rates may
increase 5 percent to 21 percent with a 1 degree to 4-degree Celsius
rise in water temperature — half as much as the 10 percent to 45 percent
increase predicted by metabolic theory....*
*https://phys.org/news/2017-03-evidence-tropical-thermostat-theory-global.html*
*Evidence disproving tropical 'thermostat' theory: global warming can
breach limits for life
<https://phys.org/news/2017-03-evidence-tropical-thermostat-theory-global.html>*
New research findings show that as the world warmed millions of
years ago, conditions in the tropics may have made it so hot some
organisms couldn't survive.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2017-03-evidence-tropical-thermostat-theory-global.html#jCp
Longstanding theories dating to the 1980s suggest that as the rest
of the earth warms, the tropical temperatures would be strictly
limited, or regulated by an internal 'thermostat.' These theories
are controversial, but the debate is of great importance because the
tropics and subtropics comprise half of the earth's surface area,
greater than half of the earth's biodiversity, as well as over half
the earth's human population. But new geological and climate-based
research indicates the tropics may have reached a temperature 56
million years ago that was, indeed, too hot for living organisms to
survive in parts of the tropics.
https://climateandsecurity.org/2017/03/02/munich-security-conference-climate-on-the-agenda-whats-next/
*Munich Security Conference: Climate on the Agenda – What's Next?
<https://climateandsecurity.org/2017/03/02/munich-security-conference-climate-on-the-agenda-whats-next/>*
Climate change was higher on the Munich Security Conference agenda
than it has been in previous years, with a more-prominent panel and
mentions by other speakers during the event, including EU High
Representative/EC Vice-President Federica Mogherini, UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres, and Bill Gates...
The panel "Climate Security: Good COP, Bad Cops" was given the
central question: how can the security community help put nations of
the world on a path to exceed commitments on climate change and
sustainable development?...
Panelists spoke effectively to the "what": how climate change is
impacting their countries/regions, the nature of climate and
security interactions, what they're doing to meet climate goals and
the need for countries to keep their commitments to the Paris
climate agreement...
They identified climate change as a global megatrend that must be
addressed in order to "build a culture of prevention for long-term
peace and prosperity," and noted the security community's broad
acceptance of climate change as a security issue: that this
community, "with its long-term view, knows that what's happening now
is just the start."
...To the panel's central question: having security community
members communicate their analysis of climate security risks in this
fora, along with what's at stake (where does the science tell us we
are at, what are the implications for the security community's
ability to maintain stability), and detail how this analysis has
informed decision-making in other branches of government (what
inter-agency processes have worked, lessons for other governments),
would lay the groundwork for substantively addressing this
high-probability, high-impact driver of insecurity going forward...
In her introduction, former Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs and
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinoza noted that the
narrative on climate change needs to shift to security. She said:
"This story, this narrative, this link between a stable climate and
human development needed for security – this is the story that needs
to be told. More people need to understand, because this story's
ending is uncertain. It is currently being written."...
She's right. However, the security community's been trying to tell
us that since 1990. In this context, it's time for world leaders to
develop concrete next steps for ensuring that our response is
commensurate to the threat.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-computer-model-princeton-stouffer-manabe-vindicated-30-years-global-warming-a7609976.html
*Climate change computer model vindicated 30 years later by what has
actually happened
<http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-computer-model-princeton-stouffer-manabe-vindicated-30-years-global-warming-a7609976.html>*
Sceptics have long sneered at climate models but one made in the late
1980s has proved remarkably prophetic..
Nearly 30 years ago, scientists developed a computer model of the
Earth's climate that predicted the level of global warming – to the
ridicule of 'sceptics' at a time when there still seemed to be a debate
over the issue.
Now two leading researchers have compared the model's results with what
actually happened over the last three decades and, to their surprise,
found they were "very similar"..
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/54589791
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/54589802/
/http://www.msnbc.com/the-ed-show/watch/i-was-wrong-ed-says-dont-build-pipeline-183554627935
/*This Day in Climate History March 5, 2014
<http://www.msnbc.com/the-ed-show/watch/i-was-wrong-ed-says-dont-build-pipeline-183554627935>
- from D.R. Tucker*
/• MSNBC's Ed Schultz declares that he was wrong to support the Keystone
XL pipeline.
http://www.msnbc.com/the-ed-show/watch/i-was-wrong-ed-says-dont-build-pipeline-183554627935
• MSNBC's Chris Hayes discusses the American right's obsession with the
Keystone XL pipeline.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/54589791
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/54589802/
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