[TheClimate.Vote] March 23, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News for All - Ivanka MacGuffin, No investigations in Maine, Sen Whitehouse Grills Gorsuch
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Mar 23 09:28:54 EDT 2017
/March 23, 2017 Ivanka MacGuffin, No investigations in Maine, Sen
Whitehouse Grills Gorsuch/
http://theweek.com/articles/686479/ivanka-trump-climate-macguffin
*Ivanka Trump, climate MacGuffin (Pacific Standard)
<http://theweek.com/articles/686479/ivanka-trump-climate-macguffin>*
The great director Alfred Hitchcock often spoke of the "MacGuffin,"
a plot device that appears to move the story forward but merely
leads to a dead end. (Some enjoy eating them as red herrings.)
Ivanka Trump is our most dangerous MacGuffin in the climate arena -
the MacGuffin dressed in pearls.
Media reports have Ivanka Trump trying to convince her father to
remain within the Paris climate accord. The minute you start
thinking that Ivanka is having a moderating influence on her father,
or that any of this is serious, stop. This is green-washing of the
highest order, and Ivanka's so-called efforts to convince her father
not to throw the historic accord out the window are unconvincing
given the harsh reality: The Paris agreement does not require the
United States to do anything. ..
Ivanka's efforts to convince her father are a ruse. If she were
serious, she'd be pleading with her father not to decimate the
Environmental Protection Agency - as his proposed budget appears
to do. That proposed budget includes cuts of 20 to 30 percent in
funding for core enforcement and research, and proposes cutting the
Office of Research and Development, which oversees most climate
research, by 40 percent - a move, as Science magazine reports, that
would cause the EPA's research capacities to "implode."
This administration is dropping a MacGuffin a minute. While we're
watching Ivanka, the action is decisively shifting outward, to other
countries, like China, for example, which is expected to invest
hundreds of billions of dollars in renewable energy technologies,
and jobs, over the next three years, while its use of coal plummets.
In this country, cities and states have been carving out a parallel
universe of climate initiatives while Washington falls apart. States
including California, New York, and even Texas are showing steady
increases in the use of renewables. Last week, the women mayors of
15 of the world's biggest cities - including Paris, Madrid,
Washington, D.C., Sydney, Barcelona, Cape Town, Warsaw, and
Bangalore - gathered in New York City to articulate their
commitment to "low-carbon cities of the future." They're part of a
larger global alliance of more than 90 cities, C40 Cities,
collaborating on initiatives to shift away from energy sources
reliant on fossil fuels. Ivanka Trump, according to a C40
spokesperson, was not scheduled to attend.
https://psmag.com/meet-the-women-mayors-fighting-climate-change-bd069c3aec1e#.b4w0snf1r
*Worldwide, Women Mayors Are Fighting Climate Change
<https://psmag.com/meet-the-women-mayors-fighting-climate-change-bd069c3aec1e#.b4w0snf1r>*
At a gathering of women mayors from around the world, we saw good
evidence that there should be more of them.
The meeting was hosted by the C40 Cities network, a global group
focused on the role of cities in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
This year, the group has its first woman chair, Paris Mayor Anne
Hidalgo (who also happens to be the first woman mayor of Paris). In
her opening remarks Hidalgo stressed that bringing more women into
the process will lead to better climate outcomes — and she and C40
have ideas for how to make that happen.
"It's not a coincidence that the president of the United States
is not particularly concerned with climate or women's issues. That
tends to go hand-in-hand."
The New York event marked the launch of the Women4Climate
initiative, part of a new effort to boost women's leadership on
climate at the local level through mentorship and knowledge-sharing.
But Wednesday's event was more of a public brainstorm. Following a
historic Women's March on Washington, and on the heels of
International Women's Day, the radical roots of which were
celebrated this year as never before, the emphasis at this C40
meeting felt especially urgent.
One of the best ways to prioritize climate change may well be to get
more women in power.
"Regardless of uncertainty at the national level, mayors can lead
at the city level on climate change," she said.
"Once you stop thinking about making sure that women are at the
table, you're also going to end up in a situation where climate
change is less of a priority," Fuchs said. "It's not a coincidence
that the president of the U.S. is not particularly concerned with
climate or women's issues. That tends to go hand-in-hand."
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/03/22/bill-would-bar-discrimination-toward-climate-change-doubters/
*Bill Would Bar Discrimination Toward Climate Change Doubters
<http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/03/22/bill-would-bar-discrimination-toward-climate-change-doubters/>*
By MARINA VILLENEUVE and PATRICK WHITTLE, Associated Press
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine laws protect people from discrimination
based on factors such as race, disabilities and sexual orientation,
and a Republican lawmaker wants to add a person's beliefs about
climate change to that list.
Rep. Larry Lockman has introduced a bill that would limit the
attorney general's ability to investigate or prosecute people based
on their political speech, including their views on climate change.
It would also prohibit the state from discriminating in buying goods
or services or awarding grants or contracts based on a person's
"climate change policy preferences."
Lockman, an independent business consultant, told the Associated
Press that he believes it's an open question whether human activity
is the primary cause of climate change.
"We need to have a vigorous public debate on that question," he said.
Peer-reviewed studies, science organizations and climate scientists
say that the world is warming from man-made forces.
Lockman wants to*prohibit the state attorney general from
investigating, joining an investigation or prosecuting any person
based on that person's protected political speech.*
https://www.carbonbrief.org/donald-trumps-budget-means-us-spending-climate-change
*In-depth: What Donald Trump's budget means for US spending on climate
change
<https://www.carbonbrief.org/donald-trumps-budget-means-us-spending-climate-change>*
On Thursday, President Trump unveiled his first budget proposal.
Entitled "America First: A budget blueprint to make America Great
Again", the document outlines how the new administration plans to
"reprioritise Federal spending", redirecting funding away from a
suite of government agencies in favour of increases in defence and
immigration enforcement spending.
A statement by President Trump insists the proposed cuts are
"sensible and rational", adding:
"Every agency and department will be driven to achieve greater
efficiency and to eliminate wasteful spending in carrying out their
honorable service to the American people."
It's worth noting that the document is only a "blueprint", laying
out the president's priorities for the 2018 fiscal year. The full
federal budget will be released later this Spring and must first
pass through Congress for approval. In the meantime, it's worth
looking at which research programmes the new administration has in
its sights and the consequences of the proposed cuts for climate
science.
Four 'Earth-viewing' programmes scrapped at NASA
The president's proposed budget allocates $19.1bn for the US
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), representing a
0.8% cut from current levels.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/arctic-sea-ice-sets-record-low-peak-for-3rd-year-21268
*Arctic sea ice sets record low peak for third year in a row
<http://www.climatecentral.org/news/arctic-sea-ice-sets-record-low-peak-for-3rd-year-21268>*
Constant warmth punctuated by repeated winter heat waves stymied
Arctic sea ice growth this winter, leaving the winter sea ice cover
missing an area the size of California and Texas combined and
setting a record low maximum for the third year in a row.
The area of the Arctic Ocean covered by sea ice usually hits its
winter peak in early to mid-March, as the freeze season ends with
the re-emergence of the sun above the horizon...
This year's maximum was likely reached on March 7, the NSIDC said
Wednesday, when sea ice covered 5.57 million square miles, the
lowest in 38 years of satellite records. This area came in just
under 2015's maximum of 5.605 million square miles (the NSIDC
slightly revised its numbers last summer, so 2015's maximum actually
ranks lower than 2016) and 471,000 square miles below the 1981-2010
average, an area larger than California and Texas combined...
Arctic sea ice was also thinner this winter than in the past four
years, according to data from the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2
satellite...
Much of the reason for this thinness and smaller ice area was the
consistent warmth throughout the autumn and winter. Across the
Arctic Ocean, temperatures during this period were about 4.5°F
(2.5°C) above average, with parts of the Chukchi and Barents seas
coming in at 9°F (5°C) above average. (The Chukchi Sea lies between
Alaska and Russia, while the Barents Sea sits to the north of
Scandinavia.)
http://www.businessinsider.com/rex-tillerson-exxon-email-climate-change-schneiderman-2017-3
Exxon admits it lost up to a year's worth of Rex Tillerson's 'Wayne
Tracker' emails
<http://www.businessinsider.com/rex-tillerson-exxon-email-climate-change-schneiderman-2017-3>
Business Insider -40 minutes ago
Exxon must turn over all relevant management documents to the court by
March 31.
The letter describes how Tillerson's "Wayne Tracker" emails were
exempted from a "file sweep" that protects personal emails on
Exxon's server from automatic deletion. The emails, ranging from
September 5, 2014 to September 16, 2015, were classified by Exxon's
system as non-personal, and were wiped...
A secondary search, with broader terms, turned up some of the
missing "Wayne Tracker" emails, though none from September 5, 2014
to November 28, 2014...
"Tillerson was the only custodian who used a secondary account, and
ExxonMobil is aware of no email account, other than the Wayne
Tracker account, for which this issue has arisen," the letter reads.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/mar/22/global-warming-is-increasing-rainfall-rates
*Global warming*is increasing rainfall rates
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/mar/22/global-warming-is-increasing-rainfall-rates>
The Guardian -11 hours ago
A new study looks at the complex relationship between global warming
and increased precipitation
It's a well-known scientific principle that warmer air holds more
water vapor. In fact, the amount of moisture that can be held in air
grows very rapidly as temperatures increase. So, it's expected that
in general, air will get moister as the Earth warms - provided there
is a moisture source. This may cause more intense rainfalls and snow
events, which lead to increased risk of flooding. ..
But warmer air can also more quickly evaporate water from surfaces.
This means that areas where it's not precipitating dry out more
quickly. In fact, it's likely that some regions will experience both
more drought and more flooding in the future (just not at the same
time!). The dry spells are longer and with faster evaporation
causing dryness in soils. But, when the rains fall, they come in
heavy downpours potentially leading to more floods. The recent
flooding in California – which followed a very intense and prolonged
drought – provides a great example...
A new clever study by Dr. Guiling Wang from the University of
Connecticut and her colleagues has looked into this and they've made
a surprising discovery. Their work was just published in Nature
Climate Change. They report that the peak temperature (the
temperature where maximum precipitation occurs) is not fixed in
space or time. It is increasing in a warming world. ...The authors
also looked at how we characterize the temperature/precipitation
relationship. Traditionally, we have related precipitation events to
the local average temperature. However, it's clear that there's a
strong relationship between the peak temperature and the
precipitation rates. In fact, relations reveal that precipitation
rates are increasing between 5 and 10% for every degree C increase.
The expected rate of increase, just based on thermodynamics is 7%....
It falls upon city planners and engineers to design infrastructure
that is more able to accommodate heavy rains and manage water. This
means designing river containment areas or flood plains, reinforcing
buildings and houses, and increasing the capacity of storm drainage
in urban areas, just to name a few. These modifications present
costs but not preparing for increased flooding poses even greater
financial and social costs. Moreover, storing water from times when
there is too much for the inevitable times when we have too little
(drought), results in better water management and multiple benefits.
This shows why climate science is so important. The US government is
in the process of decimating our climate science infrastructure. The
current US congress and our president have lost the battle of
science - they have no reputable scientists to hide behind in their
climate change denial. But, what they are doing instead is
decapitating our ability to predict and plan for the future. By
defunding organizations like NASA, the EPA, and NOAA, they are
making us fly blind into a future.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/mar/22/global-warming-is-increasing-rainfall-rates
World abandoning coal in dramatic style raises hope of avoiding
dangerous*global warming*, says report
<http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/world-abandoning-coal-avoid-global-warming-danger-climate-change-fossil-fuels-greenhouse-gases-power-a7641886.html>
The Independent -21 hours ago
Such a dramatic slowdown, they argued, meant that the world could now
hope to keep*global warming*to within two degrees Celsius above
pre-industrial levels, the point at which climate change is thought
would become particularly dangerous.
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/03/22/bill-would-bar-discrimination-toward-climate-change-doubters/
Bill Would Bar Discrimination Toward*Climate Change* Doubters
<http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/03/22/bill-would-bar-discrimination-toward-climate-change-doubters/>
CBS Boston / WBZ -2 hours ago
Larry Lockman has introduced a bill that would limit the attorney
general's ability to investigate or prosecute people based on their
political speech, including their views on*climate change*. It would
also prohibit the state from discriminating in
https://eos.org/research-spotlights/including-ozone-complexities-in-climate-change-projections
Including Ozone Complexities in*Climate Change*Projections
<https://eos.org/research-spotlights/including-ozone-complexities-in-climate-change-projections>
Eos -9 hours ago
When carbon dioxide levels rise, they cause stratospheric ozone
concentrations to*change*, which in turn induces an equatorward
translation of the jet, which opposes the effect of increased carbon
dioxide.
https://youtu.be/DKfP63NH4DM
*Alive and Well: Microbes Add to Melting of Greenland Ice Sheet (video)
<https://youtu.be/DKfP63NH4DM>*
YaleClimateConnections Video 4:43
Scientists are investigating a new "positive feedback" in Greenland's
melting ice sheet - as climate warms, more microbial growth on the ice
sheet is darkening ice, and hastening ice melt and sea level rise.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/21/whitehouse_grills_gorsuch_on_dark_money_and_citizens_united.html
*Watch Sen. Whitehouse Grill Gorsuch About Dark Money, Corporate Power,
and Citizens United
<http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/21/whitehouse_grills_gorsuch_on_dark_money_and_citizens_united.html>*
Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Neil Gorsuch's
nomination to the Supreme Court has not revealed a great deal about
the nominee. Gorsuch has proved adept at avoiding substantive
answers, citing his commitment to impartiality as reason to remain
silent on important issues. But Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
rattled Gorsuch with a series of increasingly tough questions about
corruption, corporate spending, and Citizens United. Noting that
outside groups are spending millions of dollars urging Gorsuch's
confirmation—and previously spent millions attacking Judge Merrick
Garland—Whitehouse brought up Philip F. Anschutz, a secretive
billionaire with ties to Gorsuch. He then asked Gorsuch about the
constitutionality disclosure requirements for political
contributions and expenditures. Gorsuch refused to answer directly,
of course, but the resulting colloquy is quite fascinating.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/21/whitehouse_grills_gorsuch_on_dark_money_and_citizens_united.html
Senator Whitehouse had an amazing statement linking Citizens United,
the fossil fuel industry, Senate action on climate, and fossil fuel
subsidies. It's really really excellently laid out.
We posted the clip to facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/priceofoil/videos/1850302538329162/
And posted to twitter:
https://twitter.com/david_turnbull/status/844685736993419265
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/scott-pelley-and-catherine-herrick-on-global-warming-coverage/
*
This Day in Climate History March 23, 2006
<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/scott-pelley-and-catherine-herrick-on-global-warming-coverage/>
- from D.R. Tucker*
In a CBSNews.com interview, "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley
explains why he doesn't cite the views of climate-change deniers in
his stories:
"'If I do an interview with Elie Wiesel,' he asks, 'am I required as
a journalist to find a Holocaust denier?' He says his team tried
hard to find a respected scientist who contradicted the prevailing
opinion in the scientific community, but there was no one out there
who fit that description. 'This isn't about politics or
pseudo-science or conspiracy theory blogs,' he says. *'This is about
sound science...'There becomes a point in journalism where striving
for balance becomes irresponsible.'"*
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