[TheClimate.Vote] November 8, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Richard Pauli richard at theclimate.vote
Wed Nov 8 10:16:10 EST 2017 

/November 8, 2017
/
*Paris climate accord: Syria to sign up, isolating US 
<http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-41904650>*
The US is set to become isolated in its stance on the Paris climate 
agreement, after Syria said it was preparing to join the deal.
The Paris deal unites the world's nations in tackling climate change.
Meanwhile, French officials said US President Donald Trump had not been 
invited to December's climate summit in Paris.
More than 100 countries have been invited to the summit, which is aimed 
at "building coalitions" with finance and business
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-41904650
-
*With or Without Trump - Paris Agreement Drives World Climate Response 
<https://climatecrocks.com/2017/11/07/with-or-without-trump-paris-agreement-drives-world-climate-response/>*
https://climatecrocks.com/2017/11/07/with-or-without-trump-paris-agreement-drives-world-climate-response/


*This hypnotizing animation shows the incredible trend of global warming 
<https://www.vox.com/2017/11/7/16612498/climate-change-carbon-dioxide-co2-temperature-animation>*
A cool - and frightening - illustration of rising temperatures and CO2 
levels.
Kevin Pluck has a cool hobby: turning climate trend data into stunning 
graphics.
The Manchester, England-based software engineer's latest is an animated 
"barrel graph" comparing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and 
temperature variations relative to the average between 1951 and 1980, 
drawing on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
and NASA:
(video) CO2 concentration and global mean temperature 1958 - present 
<https://youtu.be/WEGwCPmELh8> https://youtu.be/WEGwCPmELh8
There are other variations on rising temperature spirals, like the 
funnel-shaped graph Hawkins's group produced.
See: 
https://www.vox.com/2017/11/7/16612498/climate-change-carbon-dioxide-co2-temperature-animation

*
Climate Lawsuit in Ireland Aims to Enforce the Country's Emissions 
Targets 
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/11/07/climate-lawsuit-ireland-emissions-paris-agreement/>*
By Karen Savage
In the wake of HurricaneOphelia 
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/16/storm-ophelia-irish-leader-urges-citizens-to-stay-indoors-during-national-emergency>-the 
strongest storm to hit Ireland in 50 years, which killed three people, 
caused widespread flooding and power outages-a network of citizens has 
filed suit against the Irish government for not adequately combatting 
climate change.
The suit was filed by Friends of the Irish Environment (FiE), an 
all-volunteernetwork that works on issues related to sustainable 
planning and environmental justice, in October.Inspired by climate cases 
in the United States and the Netherlands, FiE alleges Ireland'sNational 
Mitigation Plan 
<https://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/climate-action/topics/mitigation-reducing-ireland%27s-greenhouse-gas-emissions/national-mitigation-plan/Pages/default.aspx>doesn't 
live up to the promises the country made to reduce greenhouse gas 
emissions in its commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement. FiE also 
alleges the Plan violates the country'sClimate Act 
<http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2015/act/46/enacted/en/html>, the 
Irish Constitution and human rights obligations.
"The suit is long overdue, " said John Sweeney, a climatology professor 
at Maynooth University who hascontributed 
<https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/john-sweeney>to the work of 
the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change....
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/11/07/climate-lawsuit-ireland-emissions-paris-agreement/

*
**Clouds' warming potential is frightening researchers 
<https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060065799>*
But after three decades of research, how and where clouds move the way 
they do and how that will change as the climate warms and as the 
atmosphere becomes either more or less polluted remain among the biggest 
unanswered questions. These are major concerns for scientists who have 
spent their careers studying clouds.
V. "Ram" Ramanathan, a professor of atmospheric and climate sciences at 
the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, is the co-author 
of a recent study predicting that without more action, there could be 
"catastrophic" and even "existential" results for mankind and other 
living species by the end of the century.
"We are now predicting in the study that there could be warming from 5 
to 7 degrees," Ramanathan said in an interview. "You can't rule it out. 
It is a 5 to 10 percent [chance] that it could happen. In such an 
incident, we need to do something."...
"I'm an inveterate optimist about our power to control the future, but I 
am more frightened than I have ever been about this latest analysis," 
said Zaelke. Ramanathan "is one of our true geniuses in this. It doesn't 
always make him more popular, but he's always a step or two ahead."
Among the mechanisms named by the report that could trigger runaway 
warming are the loss of solar-reflecting sea ice from the poles, faster 
glacial melt caused by black carbon, and the release of methane and CO2 
from thawing permafrost.
But experiments probing the behavior of clouds pushed Ramanathan to be 
even more concerned. One showed that low-level cloud systems including 
wispy stratocumulus clouds that shade much of the oceans in the 
midsection of the planet appear to be moving from the warmest part of 
the Earth toward the poles. "That is a big worry. It's amplifying the 
heat, moving in the wrong direction," he said.
A second experiment, where he used overhead satellite coverage and 
Earth-based drones to fly through, over and under soot-laden clouds in 
the Indian Ocean, suggested that one of the threats of what is sometimes 
called the "Asian brown cloud" of pollutants is that clouds laden with 
it absorb more heat that changes air movement or turbulence. This cuts 
their size and Earth-shading capabilities. The fact that aerosols, such 
as black carbon, can do that "is not in any model," Ramanathan noted.....
When it comes to showing cloud behavior, Yamaguchi compares current 
computer models to cheap cameras with blurry resolution. If he can put 
in more data about the different levels, "we can see things better," he 
said. Yamaguchi's plan to do that has been approved for more funding by 
program managers at NCAR, but the agency's future budget remains an 
unknown as Congress ponders deep cuts proposed by the Trump 
administration for climate-related projects. "We're in limbo until there 
is a budget," said one of Yamaguchi's colleagues.
Meanwhile, there is much more to learn to understand the life-protecting 
power of clouds. Graham Feingold, another NOAA researcher, explains 
there are two basic stories about how they change the climate. The 
low-lying stratocumulus clouds reflect incoming short waves, and their 
net effect is to cool the Earth.
The Earth also reflects the heat it has in long waves, and cirrus 
clouds, poised at a higher level, tend to reflect some of that heat back 
to Earth, part of the so-called greenhouse gas effect that adds to 
warming. Whether there is warming or cooling going on in a given region 
at a given time can depend on the types, structures, size, distribution 
and movement of its clouds....
Feingold thinks that researchers still don't understand the physical 
laws that govern cloud behavior well enough to propose geoengineering 
approaches to government policymakers.
"Scientists can't lobby. My role is to provide the best science," he 
said. "If we can improve our representation of clouds in regional and 
even in fine-scale models, then we can provide information to the 
decisionmakers so they can decide on a go or no-go decision."
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060065799


*Will Global Warming Make Air Conditioning a Legal Right? 
<http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-prisoners-heat-stroke-air-conditioning-climate-change-texas.html>*
Across the country, prisoners or their families are suing states for 
heat conditions they argue amount to cruel and unusual punishment...
One of the more far-reaching cases was in Arizona: A 2014 settlement in 
Parsons v. Ryan required prisons to keep temperature logs, along with 
other measures. (Some logs recorded temperatures up to 119 degrees, and 
one prison allegedly falsified information on its logs.)..
"There's been quite a bit of variation in the remedies granted [by 
courts] but very little disagreement on the underlying legal principle, 
which is that heat can constitute cruel and unusual punishment," says 
Gerrard.
http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/gov-prisoners-heat-stroke-air-conditioning-climate-change-texas.html


*(video lecture 25 min) Jennifer Francis: Vanishing Arctic Ice and 
Amplification <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHaLXUz87kc>*
While heat waves and more intense storms have been directly linked to a 
warming Earth, new research is exploring possible impacts of an Arctic 
that is warming at twice the pace of the rise in global temperatures. 
Jennifer Francis, Rutgers University, discusses new research and efforts 
to understand this controversial aspect of climate change in Metcalf's 
Climate Change and the News webinar that aired May 17, 2017.
More from Jennifer Francis can be found at http://jenniferafrancis.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHaLXUz87kc


*(video of event) Can Fossil Fuel Companies Be Held Liable for Climate 
Change? 
<http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/news-events/events/2017-2/can-fossil-fuel-companies-be-held-liable-for-climate-change/>*
After 15 years of climate change litigation, the question of whether 
anybody can be held legally liable for the adverse impacts of climate 
change remains unanswered.  However, the Trump administration's effort 
to roll back climate regulation in the United States; the devastation 
caused by Hurricanes Maria, Irma and Harvey; developments in the science 
of climate change attribution; and a handful of recent lawsuits filed by 
cities and counties in California have put the question front and 
center. This panel discussion will look at one particular set of 
defendants – companies involved in the extraction, production and 
marketing of fossil fuels. Panelists will summarize the current state of 
attribution science, and present core legal arguments for and against 
liability.
https://youtu.be/2QzWRVtP31A video
http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/news-events/events/2017-2/can-fossil-fuel-companies-be-held-liable-for-climate-change/


*Our Moral Opportunity on Climate Change 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/opinion/faith-climate-change-justin-welby.html>*
November 3, 2017
By Justin Welby    New York Times
As a global family of churches, the Anglican Communion has stood 
alongside other faiths in prayerful solidarity and compassion with 
victims and survivors of the recent extreme weather in many places 
around the world.
In Bangladesh and India, over 1,000 people died in an outsize monsoon 
flood. In the Caribbean and the United States, a succession of 
devastating hurricanes killed hundreds of people and cost thousands more 
their homes and businesses. In Hong Kong and southern China, over a 
dozen people were killed by a powerful typhoon...
..Even in this best-case scenario, which depends on the global 
community's sticking to the Paris climate change agreement, many of the 
shops I visited and homes I passed during my years in the country will 
be flooded. The rising waters are already changing ways of life and 
pressuring people to leave their homes. In the coming years, experts 
predict that millions of people in Lagos will be forced to move...
Providing a welcoming home for these migrants will challenge all of us...
As people of faith, we don't just state our beliefs - we live them out. 
One belief is that we find purpose and joy in loving our neighbors. 
Another is that we are charged by our creator with taking good care of 
his creation.
The moral crisis of climate change is an opportunity to find purpose and 
joy, and to respond to our creator's charge. Reducing the causes of 
climate change is essential to the life of faith. It is a way to love 
our neighbor and to steward the gift of creation.
Indeed, even amid the hurricane-caused devastation and despair of recent 
weeks, I have seen seeds of hope. Different expressions of the Christian 
faith are freshly united around the need to care for our common home. 
The Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox Churches just came together with the 
World Council of Churches to celebrate a monthlong Season of Creation. 
During this season, people all around the globe prayed and acted to 
address climate change and to protect the earth.
The Anglican Communion is responding in many ways. Young Anglicans from 
across Africa have united with ecumenical neighbors to study local 
effects of climate change and work on developing local solutions. In 
Cape Town, a diocesan environmental working group held a Eucharist for 
creation on Table Mountain. In Canada, the national indigenous Anglican 
bishop participated in an online prayer service and led an interfaith 
walk to protect the Great Lakes.
However we choose to respond, a response is necessary.
People of faith have a unique call to address the causes of climate 
change. As we stand together in our support for the survivors of extreme 
weather, let us act together in ways that will safeguard our shared gift 
of creation - and the lives of those who will inherit it from us.
    Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury and primate of the Church 
of England, is the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/opinion/faith-climate-change-justin-welby.html


*This Day in Climate History November 8, 1989 
<http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107817>  -  from D.R. Tucker*
November 8, 1989: Margaret Thatcher delivers an address to the UN 
General Assembly on global warming, noting that societies should have 
economic growth "which does not plunder the planet today and leave our 
children to deal with the consequences tomorrow."...

    More than anything, our environment is threatened by the sheer
    numbers of people and the plants and animals which go with them.
    When I was born the world's population was some 2 billion people. My
    Michael Thatchergrandson will grow up in a world of more than 6
    billion people.
    Put in its bluntest form: the main threat to our environment is more
    and more people, and their activities: • The land they cultivate
    ever more intensively; • The forests they cut down and burn; • The
    mountain sides they lay bare; • The fossil fuels they burn; • The
    rivers and the seas they pollute.
    The result is that change in future is likely to be more fundamental
    and more widespread than anything we have known hitherto. Change to
    the sea around us, change to the atmosphere above, leading in turn
    to change in the world's climate, which could alter the way we live
    in the most fundamental way of all.
    That prospect is a new factor in human affairs. It is comparable in
    its implications to the discovery of how to split the atom. Indeed,
    its results could be even more far-reaching. ...
    Mr President, the environmental challenge which confronts the whole
    world demands an equivalent response from the whole world. Every
    country will be affected and no one can opt out.
    We should work through this great organisation and its agencies to
    secure world-wide agreements on ways to cope with the effects of
    climate change, the thinning of the Ozone Layer, and the loss of
    precious species.
    We need a realistic programme of action and an equally realistic
    timetable.
    Each country has to contribute, and those countries who are
    industrialised must contribute more to help those who are not.
    The work ahead will be long and exacting. We should embark on it
    hopeful of success, not fearful of failure.

http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107817
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnAzoDtwCBg&sns=em

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