[TheClimate.Vote] November 7, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Tue Nov 7 09:53:44 EST 2017
/November 7, 2017
/
*Citing Climate Change 'Death and Destruction,' Philadelphia Group Sues
U.S. Government
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/11/06/climate-change-lawsuit-philadelphia-donald-trump/>*
By Bobby Magill
An environmental group and two Pennsylvania children filed suit against
the Trump administration Monday, accusing the federal government of
using "junk science" to reverse federal climate policies and knowingly
increasing the "damages, death and destruction" that result from climate
change.
The suit, filed by Philadelphia'sClean Air Council
<http://cleanair.org/>and the two children, asks the U.S. District Court
to stop any Trump administration action that would increase greenhouse
gas emissions and would make the effects of climate change worse.
The case builds upon an Oregon federal court case,Juliana v. United
States
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/07/13/the-kids-climate-case-against-the-u-s-government-a-timeline/>,
which was filed in 2015 by a group of 21 children asking the court to
recognize a stable climate as a constitutional right and force the
government to cut carbon emissions. That case also inspiredproposed
legal action
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/09/27/youth-climate-lawsuit-portugal-wildfires/>on
behalf of six Portuguese children that would try to force 47 European
countries to cut their climate pollution.
The Clean Air Council case takes aim at what it describes as the Trump
administration's goal todeconstruct
<http://www.climatecentral.org/news/early-context-trump-budget-21198>the
administrative state:reversing
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/business/the-deep-industry-ties-of-trumps-deregulation-teams.html>federal
regulations, casting doubt on established climate science and repealing
numerous Obama administration climate policies, including the
Environmental Protection Agency'sClean Power Plan
<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/09/climate/document-clean-power-plan-repeal.html?_r=0>.
The lawsuit says the Trump administration's climate policy rollbacks
rely on "junk science," which are part of Trump's "war on facts." The
suit cites 115 of President Trump's tweets denying established climate
science or calling it a hoax and numerous other administration
statements countering the accepted scientific consensus. One of those
statements was made by White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney,who
said in May
<http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/334744-budget-chief-no-crazy-climate-spending-like-obama>that
the government will no longer fund "crazy" climate action...
The Clean Air Council lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration is
knowingly ignoring those dire warnings, and its climate policy rollbacks
violate the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment and the Public
Trust Doctrine, <https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/public_trust_doctrine>
which requires the government to manage public resources for the common
benefit of current and future generations....*
**"We're arguing that the government has a duty to not knowingly
endanger the public," said Ruth.*
An EPA spokesperson said the agency would not comment on pending litigation.
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/11/06/climate-change-lawsuit-philadelphia-donald-trump/
-
*public trust doctrine
<https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/public_trust_doctrine>* Definition
from Nolo's Plain-English Law Dictionary
The principle that certain natural and cultural resources are preserved
for public use, and that the government owns and must protect and
maintain these resources for the public's use. For example, under this
doctrine, the government holds title to all submerged land under
navigable waters. Thus, any use or sale of such land must be in the
public interest.
Definition provided by Nolo?s Plain-English Law Dictionary.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/public_trust_doctrine
*2017 set to be one of top three hottest years on record
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/06/2017-set-to-be-one-of-top-three-hottest-years-on-record>*
Data so far this year points to 2017 continuing a long-term trend of
record breaking temperatures around the world, says World Meteorological
Organization.
Petteri Taalas, secretary general of the WMO, said: "The past three
years have all been in the top three years in terms of temperature
records. This is part of a long term warming trend. We have witnessed
extraordinary weather, including temperatures topping 50C in Asia,
record-breaking hurricanes in rapid succession in the Caribbean and
Atlantic reaching as far as Ireland, devastating monsoon flooding
affecting many millions of people and a relentless drought in East Africa."
Richard Betts, professor of climate impacts at the Met Office Hadley
Centre, said: "We expect developing countries to be hit the hardest in
terms of human impact. Flooding will be a particular threat in south
Asia, particularly due to increased rainfall and rising sea levels, and
partly because of the large and growing numbers of people who have
little choice about being in harm's way."
Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of WMO, said at the Bonn conference
that he saw little likelihood of the warming trend being reversed in the
short term. "This trend can be expected to continue for the coming 50
years. In this system, once you reach a certain level it does not drop
soon."
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/06/2017-set-to-be-one-of-top-three-hottest-years-on-record
*Full List of On Demand Content from Nov 6, 2017 COPS23
<https://unfccc.cloud.streamworld.de/ondemand>*
https://unfccc.cloud.streamworld.de/ondemand
-
Summary from ECO ClimateNetwork.org
*CURRENT ISSUE / ECO ISSUES7 NOV, 2017 <http://eco.climatenetwork.org/>*
Eco 2, COP23, CMP13, CMA2, Fiji, Nov 2017
http://eco.climatenetwork.org/
-
COP23 UNCC Press Conference (27 mins)
*James Hansen - Young People's Burden: Averting Climate Disaster
<https://unfccc.cloud.streamworld.de/webcast/james-hansen-young-peoples-burden-averting-climate>
*( Abibimman Foundation / video press conference /hear 13:45 and on/)
https://unfccc.cloud.streamworld.de/webcast/call-for-resources-for-youth-climate-action
*(Opinion) The Climate Risks We Face
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/opinion/climate-report-global-warming.html?_r=0>*
RADLEY HORTON, KATHARINE HAYHOE, ROBERT KOPP and SARAH DOHERTY
We helped write the "Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National
Climate Assessment, Volume I, <https://science2017.globalchange.gov/>"
released on Friday by the United States Global Change Research Program.
This comprehensive report - the most up-to-date climate science report
in the world - is an outstanding example of federal science in action,
and is especially noteworthy given the current political climate.
The bottom line is that this report confirms and strengthens what the
vast majority of climate scientists have known for decades: that climate
is changing and humans are primarily responsible...
The report also highlights growing reasons for concern. For example,
ocean acidification, which occurs when atmospheric carbon dioxide is
absorbed by seawater, is taking place at what is thought to be the
fastest rate in at least 66 million years. Coupled with reductions in
oxygen content in near-coastal American waters, this poses a significant
threat to coastal fisheries and ecosystems. Much of the western United
States is facing a growing threat of more severe drought and larger
wildfires as higher temperatures, reduced snow pack and earlier spring
snow melt reduce water availability during the warm season...
While climate models incorporate many important processes, they cannot
include all aspects of the climate system and all of the possible
interactions within that system. Vicious cycles between these climate
components may push the Earth into states much different from the past:
for example, one with a much smaller West Antarctic Ice Sheet and much
higher sea level, or one without coral reefs and with greatly reduced
marine biodiversity. Surprises can also come from compound extreme
events like droughts, floods, heat waves, hurricanes and wildfires that
may occur in multiple places at the same time, or sequentially in one
place. What is clear is that, even though we cannot quantify all of the
possible changes to every element of the climate system, the risks to
things we care about - from the health of our children, to the future
economic viability of our low-lying coastal cities and infrastructure -
are real and growing...
And more and more businesses, whether by choice or in response to
investor demand, are asking: What risks do we face, if we do not plan
for a changing climate?
All humans share this planet. We depend on it for the food we eat, the
water we drink, the air we breathe, the natural resources it provides
and the places where we live. For that reason, all Americans need to
understand the risks we face, and the impact our choices will have on
our future.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/opinion/climate-report-global-warming.html?_r=0
*Ageing satellites put crucial sea-ice climate record at risk
<https://www.nature.com/news/ageing-satellites-put-crucial-sea-ice-climate-record-at-risk-1.22907>*
Scientists scramble to avert disruption to data set that has tracked
polar ice since the late 1970s.
https://www.nature.com/news/ageing-satellites-put-crucial-sea-ice-climate-record-at-risk-1.22907
-
RealClimate (comment)
*O Say can you See Ice…
<http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2017/11/o-say-can-you-see-ice/>*
Filed under: Arctic and Antarctic Climate Science Instrumental Record -
gavin @ 6 November 2017
Some concerns about continued monitoring of sea ice by remote sensing
were raised this week in Nature News
<https://www.nature.com/news/ageing-satellites-put-crucial-sea-ice-climate-record-at-risk-1.22907>
an article in the (UK) Observer: Donald Trump accused of obstructing
satellite research into climate change
<https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/nov/05/donald-trump-accused-blocking-satellite-climate-change-research>.
The last headline is not really correct, but the underlying issues are real.
Since the late seventies, there have been almost continuous observations
of polar sea ice by passive microwave sensing
<https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/study/passive_remote_sensing.html>
on multiple polar-orbiting satellites. This is the preferred technique
since microwaves from the surface can penetrate clouds (which are
abundant in the polar regions) and can be detected during the day and
night – again, important for the wintertime at the poles...
The current workhorse satellites for this measurement are the (aging)
DMSP F-series (managed by the UASF). ...
.. The last satellite in the series (F-20) was built two decades ago and
kept in storage, but was decommissioned finally in November 2016 after a
decision in Congress to no longer fund it in the FY16 budget. This was
after the election, but before the inauguration of the Trump
administration...
Unfortunately, the next scheduled passive microwave sensor to be
launched is not until 2022 on the European Space Agency's 2nd Generation
MetOp satellite, and will need a year's overlap with an existing
satellite to be optimally calibrated. Thus the likelihood of a gap in
the record developing before then is very high...
To be clear, people have been warning about this looming lack of
capability for a while – in April <https://icesat-2.gsfc.nasa.gov/> and
May 2016
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2016/05/01/arctic-sea-ice-monitoring-satellites-are-dying-why-you-should-care/>,
as well as more recently. Unfortunately, new satellites and new
instruments take a long while to develop, build and launch, and possibly
we've been taking them for granted.
That probably needs to stop.
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2017/11/o-say-can-you-see-ice/
/(What we don't know what we don't know)/
*The Zombie Diseases of Climate Change
<https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/11/the-zombie-diseases-of-climate-change/544274/>*
What lurks in the Arctic's thawing permafrost?
...The newly active permafrost is packed with old stuff: dead plants,
dead animals, mosses buried and reburied by dust and snow. This matter,
long protected from decomposition by the cold, is finally rotting, and
releasing gases into the atmosphere that could quicken the rate of
global warming.
This matter is also full of pathogens: bacteria and viruses long
immobilized by the frost. Many of these pathogens may be able to survive
a gentle thaw-and if they do, researchers warn, they could reinfect
humanity...
...as two of the world's most famous microbe hunters...discovered the
largest virus ever: Mimivirus, a virion so large that it could be seen
under a microscope.
They have identified four more monster viruses since, all several times
larger than any virion known to science before 2000. Their menagerie
oozes about in a far-flung set of landscapes: one monster virus was
found in a shallow lake in Australia, another lurked in a bucket of
seawater hauled off the Chilean coast. A third was discovered in a
woman's contact lens...
And then, as they watched, a virus appeared in their viewfinder:
Pithovirus sibericum, a massive ovular virion that had survived 30,000
years frozen in the ice core. It was also the largest virion ever
discovered.
"We tried to isolate amoeba viruses without knowing they were going to
be giant viruses-and a totally different type of virus than we already
know appeared," Claverie said. "It turns out the viruses we are getting
[in the permafrost] are extremely abnormal, extremely fancy."
In a paper this year in the European Journal of Internal Medicine,
Claverie worried about the pathogenic consequences of opening the Arctic
Ocean, specifically around Siberia and the Russian Arctic, to commercial
traffic.
Some of the microbes lurking in the permafrost may be familiar:
adversaries that humanity already knows and believes it has defeated.
The World Health Organization brags that it has eradicated smallpox, for
instance-other than the stores in the United States and Russia-but
Claverie warns that it could well have survived in the tundra.
Even more worrisome are the microbes we don't know.
Such emergencies-those that overwhelm our understanding of "known
knowns"-are among the most unsettling portents of climate change.
Whether the emergencies of the coming century arrive in the form of
fires, or floods, or plagues that rise invisibly from the ground,
they're likely to become more and more extreme and less and less
familiar-a fantastical parade of crises we will be shocked to find
ourselves battling. Even in its quietest places, the world will become
newly hostile.
This article is part of our Life Up Close project, which is supported by
the HHMI Department of Science Education.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/11/the-zombie-diseases-of-climate-change/544274/
*
How India's battle with climate change could determine all of our fates
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/06/how-indias-battle-with-climate-change-could-determine-all-of-our-fates>*
India's population and emissions are rising fast, and its ability to
tackle poverty without massive fossil fuel use will decide the fate of
the planet
Lord Nicholas Stern, the climate economist who has worked in India for
40 years, says a polluting, high-carbon development would leave India
alone accounting for a huge chunk of the world's future emissions,
making it "very difficult" to keep the global temperature rise below the
internationally agreed danger limit of 2C.
What will happen remains in the balance. "Anyone who claims to be able
to predict India's emissions in 2030 doesn't have a lot of humility,"
says Navroz Dubash, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in
Delhi.
India's government has now forecast that no new coal-fired power
stations will need to be built for at least 10 years. By that time,
Mathur argues, it will be cheaper to supply new demand using renewable
power. "As [existing] coal plants retire they will be replaced by
renewables, because that's what makes economic sense."
That awareness is growing fast – India's supreme court even banned
Diwali festival fireworks in Delhi this year – and is putting heavy
pressure on the government to act. In April, ministers announced that
the sale of new petrol or diesel cars would be banned from 2030, a
decade before the UK
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/06/how-indias-battle-with-climate-change-could-determine-all-of-our-fates
*California governor talks climate change at Vatican
<http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/california-governor-talks-climate-change-vatican-50933759>*
California Gov. Jerry Brown says dealing with climate change will take
not just scientific but religious commitment.
Brown spoke Saturday at a Vatican symposium on the environment, where he
said faith must join technical, scientific and political approaches to
limiting environmental devastation.
The Sacramento Bee says Brown, a former Jesuit seminarian, told the
audience that human greed, indulgence and inertia are contributing
factors to climate change and people must transform the way they live.
Brown has promoted California as a leader in environmental causes in the
wake of President Donald Trump's rejection of U.S. participation in
international climate accords.
The governor is in Europe for 11 days of climate change talks. He's
attending a U.N. climate change conference in Germany as a special
adviser for states and regions.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/california-governor-talks-climate-change-vatican-50933759
YouTube TEDxBend
*(video) Living (Dangerously) in an Era of Megafires Paul Hessburg
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edDZNkm8Mas>*
Published on Jul 6, 2017
We have all seen the news - hotter summers, and bigger, badder
wildfires. What's going on? How did we get here? Paul tells a
fast-paced story of western US forests - unintentionally yet massively
changed by a century of management. He relates how these changes,
coupled with a seriously hotter climate, have set the stage for this
modern era of megafires. He offers clear tools for changing course, a
sense of urgency, and a thought-provoking call to community action.
As an expert on forest landscapes, Paul Hessburg aims to understand why
wildfires are getting bigger and hotter, and how they got that way.
Hessburg has spent more than 3 decades researching changes that have
taken place in the fire-prone western landscapes, what caused them, and
how they differ from place to place. Along with a revved up climate,
these changes have created conditions ripe for the rise of what he and
others call megafires. How do our forest management techniques affect
the legacy we leave our children? Hessburg's recent book, Making
Transparent Environmental Management Decisions, offers compelling new
insights into using modern-day decision support systems to plan for
forest restoration.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but
independently organized by a local community. Learn more at
https://www.ted.com/tedx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edDZNkm8Mas
*This Day in Climate History November 7, 2012
<http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/11/08/bill-mckibben-kicks-do-math-tour-seattle>
- from D.R. Tucker*
November 7, 2012: The 350.org "Do the Math" tour commences in Seattle.
http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/11/08/bill-mckibben-kicks-do-math-tour-seattle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbdJRb7yaWY
/
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