[TheClimate.Vote] May 6, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sat May 6 09:50:01 EDT 2017
/May 6, 2017 /
https://www.axios.com/ivanka-to-meet-epa-administrator-before-crucial-paris-climate-meeting-2392605333.html
*Ivanka to meet EPA head before crucial Paris climate meeting
<https://www.axios.com/ivanka-to-meet-epa-administrator-before-crucial-paris-climate-meeting-2392605333.html>*
Ivanka Trump will meet with EPA administrator Scott Pruitt on
Tuesday morning at the White House before a crucial meeting
regarding President Trump's decision to stay or leave the Paris
climate accord.
The president's daughter, who serves as a senior White House
advisor, is passionate about combating global warming and turned
heads when she brought climate activist Al Gore to Trump Tower
during the presidential transition.
Sources inside the White House say the president's inclination has
been to pull out, but Ivanka has set up a process to go through the
decision and ensure he hears all the facts before making his
decision....
Pruitt thinks the Paris accord harms American competitiveness and he
and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon are aggressively
urging the president to withdraw from the climate deal.
A few hours after Pruitt's meeting with Ivanka on Tuesday, there'll
be a larger meeting at the White House to discuss whether to stay or
leave the deal. It's possible, however, that the decision will
remain unresolved after Tuesday.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/05/climate-change-innovations-fake-meat
Offshore wind, clever concrete and fake meat: the top*climate change
*innovations
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/05/climate-change-innovations-fake-meat>
The Guardian -4 hours ago
People in the US and beyond concerned about climate change may be
alarmed at the Trump administration's policies and attitudes - but
there are plenty of businesses and innovators doing work at various
scales.
Oliver Milman explores some of the best examples of climate
change-tackling innovations and innovators.
*Community solar*
Large-scale solar is a booming industry in the US, with the sector
now employing twice the number of people involved with coal mining.
But the decarbonization of America's energy system is happening at a
more local level, too...
*Vegetarian meat*
Agricultural activities currently contribute about 10% of America's
total greenhouse gas emissions each year, largely due to the methane
expelled by cattle...
Low-carbon concrete
Worldwide use of concrete is soaring, largely due to a building boom
in China and, to a lesser extent, India. In fact, China has used
more cement since 2011 than the US did during the entire 20th century...
*Lawn treatments*
A technology company called WISErg has developed a product called
the Harvester, which transforms food waste into fertilizer than can
be applied to lawns. The product, launched in 2014, has helped the
company get more than $30m in investment...
*Offshore wind*
Wind currently supplies around 5% of America's electricity but the
sector is on the up thanks to the introduction of offshore wind farms...
*Electric cars*
Electric vehicle sales jumped 70% in 2016, following a disappointing
previous year, with more than 30 different models on sale by the end
of the year. Tesla, Chevrolet, Nissan and Ford lead the way, with
more than half of sales occurring in California, which mandates a
certain slice of auto sales must be electric.
*Geoengineering*
Even the sober assessment of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) leaves much to guesswork when it comes to
meeting emissions reduction goals. If the world is to avoid 2C or
more of warming, as-yet undeveloped technology will need to be used
to extract carbon dioxide from the air at some point, due to the
patchy progress in cutting emissions...
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/rahm-emanuel-recoups-climate-change-info-deleted-from-epa-website/
Rahm Emanuel recoups *climate change*info deleted from EPA website
<http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/rahm-emanuel-recoups-climate-change-info-deleted-from-epa-website/>
Chicago Sun-Times -4 hours ago
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is accusing President Donald Trump of trying to
erase, what Al Gore has called the "inconvenient truth" about*climate
change*, and doing his part to recoup that information. Emanuel has
created a new city website titled, "*Climate*
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/warren-buffett-faces-down-climate-change-in-weekend-votes/article/2622296
Warren Buffett faces down *climate change*in weekend votes
<http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/warren-buffett-faces-down-climate-change-in-weekend-votes/article/2622296>
Washington Examiner -4 hours ago
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway faces a
number of votes related to*climate change*this weekend as part of its
annual shareholders' meeting on Saturday.
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2017/05/04/stanford-researchers-explore-global-warmings-impact-on-mosquito-borne-disease/
Stanford researchers explore*global warming's*impact on
mosquito-borne disease
<http://www.stanforddaily.com/2017/05/04/stanford-researchers-explore-global-warmings-impact-on-mosquito-borne-disease/>
The Stanford Daily -19 hours ago
A team of Stanford researchers modeled the impacts of climate change
on mosquito-borne diseases. Their analysis could help predict the
diseases' spread...
Researchers found that a temperature of 29 degrees Celsius (84F)
allows for the highest rate transmission of viruses through
mosquitoes, with the rate decreasing in both hotter and cooler
weather. According to Mordecai, diseases may actually decrease with
future warming in areas where temperatures are already close to
optimum for virus spread.
http://source.colostate.edu/csu-leads-3-8-million-study-understand-impacts-western-wildfire-smoke/
*CSU leads $3.8 million study to understand impacts of western wildfire
smoke
<http://source.colostate.edu/csu-leads-3-8-million-study-understand-impacts-western-wildfire-smoke/>*
As Western wildfires get bigger and meaner, a team of Colorado State
University researchers want to find out how smoke from those blazes
impacts air quality and weather.
A comprehensive look at wildfire smoke
Very few samples of western U.S. wildfire smoke exist – at least not
with the level of chemical specificity this study will capture. The
payload on the C-130 will be maxed out with the instrumentation it's
set to carry. Once the data is collected, it will be distributed to
the researchers involved in the study, who will then look at a
number of factors, like nitrogen composition, optical properties of
smoke particles, and the changes smoke and clouds cause in each other.
"There have been many field campaigns that have opportunistically
measured wildfire smoke, but none completely devoted to it at this
scale for western wildfires," said Fischer.
While Fischer's scientific contribution will be to understand how
secondary products in smoke are formed, other researchers and
universities will rely on their own areas of expertise to analyze
the data accordingly. The Environmental Protection Agency may
utilize the measurements to develop and test their air quality
models. The research expertise being leveraged from organizations
outside of CSU is testament to the breadth of the campaign.
see also
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2004JD004840/full
http://www.colorado.edu/today/2017/04/17/new-era-western-wildfire-demands-new-ways-protecting-people-ecosystems
*New era of western wildfire demands new ways of protecting people,
ecosystems
<http://www.colorado.edu/today/2017/04/17/new-era-western-wildfire-demands-new-ways-protecting-people-ecosystems>*
The western U.S. has seen a 2-degrees-Celsius rise in annual average
temperature and lengthening of the fire season by almost three
months since the 1970s; both elements contribute to what the authors
refer to as the "new era of western wildfires." This pattern of
bigger, hotter fires, along with the influx of homes into fire-prone
areas-over 2 million since 1990-has made wildfire vastly more costly
and dangerous.
"For a long time, we've thought that if we try harder and do better,
we can get ahead of wildfire and reduce the risks," said
Schoennagel, who also is an adjunct faculty member in CU Boulder's
Geography Department. "We can no longer do that. This is bigger than
us and we're going to have to adapt to wildfire rather than the
other way around."
As part of this adaptation process, the authors advocate for actions
that may be unpopular, such as allowing more fires to burn largely
unimpeded in wildland areas and intentionally setting more fires, or
"controlled burns," to reduce natural fuels like undergrowth in more
developed areas. Both these steps would reduce future risk and help
ecosystems adapt to increasing wildfire and warming.
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170504-there-are-diseases-hidden-in-ice-and-they-are-waking-up
Extreme Life Bacteria *There are diseases hidden in ice, and they are
waking up
<http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170504-there-are-diseases-hidden-in-ice-and-they-are-waking-up?ocid=ww.social.link.googleplus>*
Long-dormant bacteria and viruses, trapped in ice and permafrost for
centuries, are reviving as Earth's climate warms
Climate change is melting permafrost soils that have been frozen
for thousands of years, and as the soils melt they are releasing
ancient viruses and bacteria that, having lain dormant, are
springing back to life.
In a 2005 study, NASA scientists successfully revived bacteria that
had been encased in a frozen pond in Alaska for 32,000 years. The
microbes, called Carnobacterium pleistocenium, had been frozen since
the Pleistocene period, when woolly mammoths still roamed the Earth.
Once the ice melted, they began swimming around, seemingly unaffected.
Two years later, scientists managed to revive an 8-million-year-old
bacterium that had been lying dormant in ice, beneath the surface of
a glacier in the Beacon and Mullins valleys of Antarctica. In the
same study, bacteria were also revived from ice that was over
100,000 years old.
How much should we be concerned about all this?
One argument is that the risk from permafrost pathogens is
inherently unknowable, so they should not overtly concern us.
Instead, we should focus on more established threats from climate
change. For instance, as Earth warms northern countries will become
more susceptible to outbreaks of "southern" diseases like malaria,
cholera and dengue fever, as these pathogens thrive at warmer
temperatures.
The alternative perspective is that we should not ignore risks just
because we cannot quantify them.
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2017/04/25/researchers-show-connection-between-extreme-weather-and-climate-change/
*Researchers show connection between extreme weather and climate change
<http://www.stanforddaily.com/2017/04/25/researchers-show-connection-between-extreme-weather-and-climate-change/>*
Using a four-pronged framework, Professor of Earth System Science
Noah Diffenbaugh '96 M.S. '97 and his research team have found a
direct connection between extreme weather events and human impact.
The team's study, published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences magazine, outlines an objective approach to
determining whether or not extreme weather events – such as the
flooding in northern India in June 2013 or the slowly-subsiding
California drought that began in 2012 – can be linked to climate
change over the course of several years. The researchers discovered
that, for a substantial number of recent extreme weather cases,
there is indeed a connection.
"Our results suggest that the world isn't quite at the point where
every record hot event has a detectable human fingerprint, but we
are getting close," Diffenbaugh stated in an interview with Stanford
News.
/
/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/06/nyregion/hitting-ground-limping-for-whitman-chaos-her-wake-sharp-elbows-her-future.html?pagewanted=all
*This Day in Climate History May 6, 2001
<http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/06/nyregion/hitting-ground-limping-for-whitman-chaos-her-wake-sharp-elbows-her-future.html?pagewanted=all>
- from D.R. Tucker*
The New York Times reports on EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman's
persona-non-grata status in the George W. Bush administration:
"Mrs. Whitman was greeted like a political star when she arrived
here several months ago to run the Environmental Protection Agency.
Not a single senator, not even her Democratic rivals, opposed her
appointment.
"But no sooner had the former New Jersey governor unpacked her bags
than she found her authority undercut by the very man who had lured
her to Washington, George W. Bush.
"The most recent snub occurred when the White House openly
contradicted a claim she made on national television two weeks ago
that the administration might back away from its plans to open up
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling amid growing
opposition in Congress.
"Only weeks earlier, Mrs. Whitman declared that Mr. Bush intended to
fulfill a campaign pledge to lower carbon dioxide emissions from
power plants -- only to find that the president had decided against
that
"So it is not surprising that the public embarrassments Mrs. Whitman
has had to endure at the hands of her new boss are giving rise to
questions about her ability to lead the environmental agency, though
she and the White House insist that there is no strife and that she
is an important voice in the administration...
"The recent setbacks also threaten to undermine the credibility of
Mrs. Whitman, a politician whose plain-spoken manner and seemingly
moderate political views had made her one of the nation's most
prominent governors and at one point a potential vice presidential
candidate.
"Indeed, Mrs. Whitman's nomination to head the environmental agency
cheered many people on the left -- despite her mixed record on the
environment in New Jersey -- who were wary of the conservative
Republican crowd that had moved into the White House. But those very
same people are no longer so optimistic that her voice will be heard
within the new administration."
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
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