[TheClimate.Vote] November 20, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Richard Pauli richard at theclimate.vote
Mon Nov 20 11:50:35 EST 2017 

/November 20, 2017
/
*Climate talks close with Trump administration on one track, world on 
another 
<https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/climate-talks-close-trump-administration-one-track-world-another-n821536>*
by JAMES RAINEY
The world climate conference ended Friday much the way it began two 
weeks ago - with the Trump administration bolstering legacy fuels like 
coal and gas, separating itself from much of the world.
The lone panel sponsored by the U.S. government was interrupted by 
singing and chanting protesters, who said support for coal power went 
against the thrust of talks centered on promoting renewable energy and 
21st century technology.
The result was a fundamental disconnect at the gathering in Bonn, Germany.
"California is not waiting for Trump," Gov. Jerry Brown told some of the 
20,000 attendees. "We are not waiting for all the deniers, we are 
committing ourselves to do everything possible to get on the side of 
nature instead of fighting it, to deal with the climate change challenge 
in a real way."
Jake Schmidt, director of the international program for the Natural 
Resources Defense Council, assessed the panel's reception. "One of the 
positive things here is that the Trump administration has mostly been 
ignored," he said.
Much of the world community - from Pope Francis, to French President 
Emmanuel Macron, to a giant Norwegian investment fund - made it clear 
they agreed with the American dissenters."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/climate-talks-close-trump-administration-one-track-world-another-n821536
-
*SPOILSPORT. ONCE AGAIN. The US ensured that the CoP23 results were 
neither 'further', nor 'faster',and certainly not 'together' - says CSE 
<http://cseindia.org/content/spoilsport-once-again-us-ensured-cop23-results-were-neither-%E2%80%98further%E2%80%99-nor-%E2%80%98faster>*
- The 23rd Conference of Parties (CoP) in Bonn was the first climate 
meeting since the US announced its intention of pulling out from Paris 
Agreement on June 1, 2017
- In Bonn, the US continued to dictate terms of negotiations, blocked 
progress on equity and finance
- Most nations tacitly supported the US intransigence, and made the 
negotiations 'business as usual'
- Talanoa (meaning process of inclusive and participatory discussions) 
Dialogue launched, to start in January 2018 -- pre-2020 to be an element 
of this Dialogue
Bonn, October 18, 2017: The 23rdmeeting of the Conference of Parties 
(CoP23) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change ended here in 
Bonn on Friday with noreal headway in resolving the outstanding issues 
on the agenda – says an analysis of the results by Centre for Science 
and Environment (CSE). A CSE team had been stationed in Bonn through the 
duration of the conference to follow the negotiations.
"The US's rogue and obstructionist attitude in the CoPprocess ensured 
that progress was extremely slow and hampered on several occasions and 
the old divide between developed and developing nations remained," says 
the CSE analysis...
http://cseindia.org/content/spoilsport-once-again-us-ensured-cop23-results-were-neither-%E2%80%98further%E2%80%99-nor-%E2%80%98faster
-
*Coal Back as Flashpoint in Climate-Change Fight 
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-18/coal-returns-as-flashpoint-in-global-climate-change-fight>*
Germany and Poland come out in support of dirtiest fossil fuel
Coal emerged as the surprise winner from two weeks of international 
climate talks in Germany, with leaders of the host country and 
neighboring Poland joining Donald Trump in support of the dirtiest 
fossil fuel.
While more than 20 nations, led by Britain and Canada, pledged to stop 
burning coal, German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended her country's use 
of the fuel and the need to preserve jobs in the industry. Meanwhile 
Poland's continued and extensive use of coal raised concerns that the 
next meeting, to be held in the nation's mining heartland of Katowice, 
could thwart progress.
"People don't have total confidence that Poland wants to increase 
ambition, to put it plainly," said Alden Meyer, director of strategy at 
the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group. "They're 80 
percent dependent on coal, they've been pushing back against European 
Union proposals to increase ambition."
Next round of talks to be held in Poland's mining heartland
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-18/coal-returns-as-flashpoint-in-global-climate-change-fight
-
*The US still has time to correct course on climate change* 
<http://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/360919-the-us-still-has-time-to-correct-course-on-climate-change>
Over the decades I spent on the bridge of Navy vessels and in command of 
a ship, squadron, and Strike Group, I learned first-hand just how hard 
it is to maneuver a ship at sea- there's no turning on a dime for a ship 
the size of a small city. But if you plan your route well, you will only 
need small adjustments to reach your destination.
Policy-making to guide our way through the climate crisis is no 
different: The sooner you start the smoother the ride. The longer you 
wait, the more drastic and costly the course correction. Changing things 
as complex as our energy system, as interconnected as our 
infrastructure, and as vital to national security as our military bases 
is not something that can be done quickly.
The latest report tells us that unless we end carbon pollution, oceans 
could rise an astonishing eight feet by 2100.
http://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/360919-the-us-still-has-time-to-correct-course-on-climate-change


*Scientists: CO2 Levels Will Rise This Year 
<https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/carbon-dioxide-will-rise-this-year/4116343.html>*
Voice of America
International scientists think the amount of carbon dioxide emissions 
released into Earth's atmosphere will rise by two percent in 2017.
The number represents the first increase in worldwide carbon emissions 
in three years. The amount produced was unchanged from 2014 to 2016.
Carbon dioxide, known by the chemical expression CO2, is a colorless gas 
found in nature. Many scientists believe that it and other gases 
released by factories, vehicles and other human activities are 
responsible for a general warming on our planet. They believe these 
gases trap the sun's heat in the atmosphere. This effect is known as 
global warming.
Last week, scientists with the Global Carbon Project reported that 
China, the world's largest producer of CO2, is the main reason for the 
increase in emissions. China's emissions are predicted to rise by over 
three percent this year.
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/carbon-dioxide-will-rise-this-year/4116343.html


*Uncharted Waters: The New Economics of Water Scarcity and Variability 
<http://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2017/10/17/uncharted-waters#1>*
What are the effects of droughts and floods on firms, farms and 
families? They are more significant and numerous than previously known. 
New data reveals how increasingly erratic rainfall, poorly managed water 
supplies, and deepening water deficits can devastate lives, damage farms 
and forests, and impact businesses as well as cities.
A new World Bank report ‘Uncharted Waters – The New Economics of Water 
Scarcity and Variability’ presents new numbers on how rainfall shocks – 
be they dry shocks or wet shocks – coupled with water scarcity are 
affecting generations.
  On October 25, the report’s author Richard Damania shared key findings 
at the report launch event, followed by a panel discussion among civil 
society representatives, private sector and economists on the solutions 
that can help avoid the ‘parched path’.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2017/10/17/uncharted-waters#1


*Keystone pipeline spill injects new uncertainty into Nebraska decision 
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/keystone-pipeline-spill-injects-new-uncertainty-into-nebraska-decision/2017/11/19/e1d1a0e2-cb0f-11e7-b0cf-7689a9f2d84e_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_pipeline-623p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.28fa11437e07>*
The state's Public Service Commission is due to deliver its decision 
Monday on the controversial pipeline first proposed in 2008 to move oil 
from Canada to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.
The TransCanada oil pipeline rupture in a remote corner of South Dakota 
injects an unexpected element of suspense into the decision over the 
controversial Keystone XL pipeline due Monday at Nebraska's Public 
Service Commission.
rump reopened the case in his first week in office and on March 24 
granted approvals.
Nebraska state politics have delayed the project again. Opponents of the 
pipeline are a mixture of climate activists, environmentalists concerned 
about the impact on the state's ecologically delicate Sandhills region, 
and Nebraska farmers and ranchers who have fought TransCanada over the 
company's planned exercise of eminent domain to plot the route of the 
pipeline.
But the pipeline rupture on Thursday puts TransCanada on the defensive 
again. The company posted a photograph taken Friday on Twitter showing 
the approximate location of the leak, a dark circular spot in a vast 
flat landscape of farmland.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/keystone-pipeline-spill-injects-new-uncertainty-into-nebraska-decision/2017/11/19/e1d1a0e2-cb0f-11e7-b0cf-7689a9f2d84e_story.html


*Groundwater recharge in the American west under climate change 
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171116114216.htm>*
Groundwater recharge in the Western US will change as the climate warms 
-- the dry southern regions will have less and the northern regions will 
have more, according to new research. The new study covers the entire US 
West, from the High Plains states to the Pacific coast, and provides the 
first detailed look at how groundwater recharge may change as the 
climate changes. Groundwater is an important source of freshwater, 
particularly in the West.
Although generally the dry areas are going to get drier and the wet 
areas will get wetter under climate change, the new research indicates 
that future changes in groundwater recharge are more complex.
"Changes in recharge don't necessarily map onto changes in precipitation 
even at a very local scale," Meixner said. "The geology and the ecology 
of the landscape have an effect."
For the near future, the majority of models projected that recharge will 
increase in the northern Rockies and Plains region. The models agreed 
that groundwater recharge would decrease for the west and southwest 
regions. For the south and northwest regions, the projections were more 
uncertain and decreased and increased, respectively.
The difference among the recharge projections from the 11 global change 
models reflects the difference in future regional precipitation that the 
models project, the authors write.
"Groundwater represents a bank. We can store water from decade to 
decade, and arguably millennium to millennium -- but when we take a 
withdrawal from that bank, we have to hope there are deposits making up 
for our withdrawal," Meixner said. "If there aren't deposits making up 
for the withdrawals, we have less water in the future to face water 
resource challenges with."
Managing groundwater now and in the future is the role of management and 
policy, Meixner said.
"The future is saying there's going to be less recharge. That doesn't 
mean you drain the aquifers dry," Meixner said. "Whether we drain the 
aquifers dry is a management decision."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171116114216.htm


*"Climate change is much greater threat to Britain than Brexit and it'll 
dominate politics for decades to come" 
<http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/climate-change-much-greater-threat-11546658>*
New research shows it could cost our country as much as £75billion a 
year by 2050, says John Prescott...
Thanks to the changes we made in Government, between 1990 and 2016, the 
UK GDP has grown by 67 per cent while carbon emissions have fallen by 42 
per cent...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/climate-change-much-greater-threat-11546658


*My granddaughter will be 35 in 2050. I grieve that she will know silent 
and empty places 
<https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/nov/19/my-granddaughter-will-be-35-in-2050-i-grieve-that-she-will-know-silent-and-empty-places>*
Much has been written about how global warming will affect the colder 
parts of the planet – the polar and boreal regions, glaciers, and alpine 
mountains. In fact, some of the warmest places on Earth, especially 
tropical rainforests, could also be intensely vulnerable to climate 
change … many people are unaware that tropical species – particularly 
those specialised for cool, cloudy mountaintops – are often sensitive to 
hot weather … as temperatures rise mountaintop specialists have nowhere 
to go. Their populations will wither and shrink and potentially 
disappear altogether.
Steve Williams and his team, also of James Cook University, specialise 
in the study of the impacts of global warming on tropical wildlife. They 
concluded in 2009 that species extinctions will increase dramatically if 
temperatures rise more than two or three degrees and that most of the 
wildlife found only in North Queensland will be wiped out entirely if 
temperatures rise the four to six degrees that is projected in the 
absence of a global concerted effort to restrict the rise to less than 
two degrees.
I have a granddaughter who will be 35 in 2050. According to modelling of 
business as usual provided by Sophie Lewis at the Australian National 
University, the global land temperature will have increased by just over 
three degrees from my birth to when my granddaughter turns 35. I grieve 
that she will know silent and empty places where polar bears, white 
lemuroid possums, orang­utans, elephants, giraffes and a myriad other 
species on land and in the oceans once lived.
We are living in the Anthropocene, a period in the Earth's history in 
which we humans have altered all the systems that support life on Earth. 
We are destroying the habitat that we and our fellow creatures need to 
survive. We live on a finite planet, yet we behave as if an increasing 
global population can continue to consume the Earth's resources from 
forests and fisheries to fossil fuels at an accelerating rate and 
nothing will change. When I was born in 1953, the global population was 
2.5 billion; it is now over 7 billion, and by 2050 it is projected to be 
more than 9 billion.
If everyone consumes at the current rate of those of us in the developed 
world, why would we think that anything other than a reduced number of 
humans will have a place to live? When you add to that the impact of 
invasive species and overlay it with global warming, changing the 
climate and threatening food and water security for everything from 
plankton, plants and insects to reptiles, birds, animals and humans, you 
cannot escape the fact that we are living in the sixth wave of 
extinction and destroying our own home.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/nov/19/my-granddaughter-will-be-35-in-2050-i-grieve-that-she-will-know-silent-and-empty-places


*Global warming sage pens novel of Vermont, 'resistance' 
<http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Global-warming-sage-pens-novel-of-Vermont-12369587.php>*
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - For decades, Vermont environmentalist Bill 
McKibben has been telling the world about the dangers of global warming 
and as a diversion from his Cassandra-like quest, he jotted notes about 
the quirkiness of his home state that has become known for its craft 
beer, environmental protection and, more recently, its opposition to 
President Donald Trump.
Now, McKibben, whose 1989 book "The End of Nature" is considered the 
first book for general audiences about climate change, has turned those 
musings into his first novel, "Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of the 
Resistance."
It focuses on a character who is the sole host of "Radio Free Vermont," 
which broadcasts from "an undisclosed and double secret location" hidden 
among the hills and dales of the state advocating that Vermont secede 
from the United States and form an independent republic.
McKibben, who lives in the Addison County mountain town of Ripton but 
travels the world as part of his climate work, said Trump's election 
prompted him to finish the book, which was published earlier this month...
"The other (reason) is to publish a book that is kind of a love letter 
to the resistance that I have spent the last 10 years helping build and 
that has really blossomed and burgeoned in the last year," he said. "I 
think that's the best thing that's happened this year. Lots of people 
have suddenly shown up to understand that they have to take part in our 
civic life or it's going to get even more screwed up."
University of Vermont Associate Professor of English Mary Lou Kete, who 
teaches about American dissent, said McKibben's book ...is part of a 
long tradition of American literature on the subject.
"Democracy depends on consent and consent means nothing unless you can 
say 'no,'" Kete said. "These books, probably like McKibben's, are really 
important to America because they remind us and they model to us that if 
we want our yesses, our assents, to mean anything, we have to be able to 
say 'no.' It's by saying 'no' that we are able to change the course of 
society."
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Global-warming-sage-pens-novel-of-Vermont-12369587.php


*(off topic?) Why incompetent people often think they're actually the 
best 
<https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/11/18/16670576/dunning-kruger-effect-video>*
A new TED-Ed video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOLmD_WVY-E>, based 
ona lesson 
<https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-incompetent-people-think-they-re-amazing-david-dunning>by 
psychologist David Dunning, dives into why this happens and why people 
are so bad at judging their skills in general, looking into the 
phenomenon known asthe Dunning-Kruger effect 
<https://psmag.com/social-justice/confident-idiots-92793>.
"Knowing how competent we are and how our skills stack up to other 
people's is more than a self-esteem boost," narrator Addison Anderson 
explained. "It helps us figure out when we can forge ahead on our own 
decisions and instincts and when we need, instead, to seek out advice."
"But," Anderson added, "psychological research suggests that we're not 
very good at evaluating ourselves accurately. In fact, we frequently 
overestimate our own abilities."
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/11/18/16670576/dunning-kruger-effect-video
video https://youtu.be/pOLmD_WVY-E <https://youtu.be/pOLmD_WVY-E>


*This Day in Climate History November 20, 2008 
<http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2008/11/nbc_fires_twc_environmental_un.html>  
-  from D.R. Tucker*
November 20, 2008: The Weather Channel cancels the climate-change series 
"Forecast Earth."

    NBC Universal made the first of potentially several rounds of
    staffing cuts at The Weather Channel (TWC) on Wednesday, axing the
    entire staff of the "Forecast Earth" environmental program during
    the middle of NBC's "Green Week," as well as several on-camera
    meteorologists. The layoffs totaled about 10 percent of the
    workforce, and are among the first major changes made since NBC
    completed its purchase of the venerable weather network in September...
    The layoffs affected about 80 people, but left the long-term
    leadership of the network unclear, according to a source who
    requested anonymity due to the continuing uncertainty at the station...
    The timing of the Forecast Earth cancellation was ironic, since it
    came in the middle of NBC's "Green Week," during which the network
    has been touting its environmental coverage across all of its
    platforms. Forecast Earth normally aired on weekends, but its
    presumed last episode was shown on a weekday due to the
    environmentally-oriented week.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2008/11/nbc_fires_twc_environmental_un.html
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2008/11/22/203375/nbc-nixes-tvs-only-climate-show-during-green-week/

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