[TheClimate.Vote] October 4, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Wed Oct 4 09:30:27 EDT 2017
/October 4, 2017
/ *A big-money Catholic group just said it's yanking all of its cash out
of fossil fuels
<https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/03/global-warming-catholic-groups-stop-investing-in-fossil-fuels.html>*
A coalition of 40 Catholic institutions on Tuesday announced a decision
to pull their money from - or block future investment in - fossil fuels.
The Global Catholic Climate Movement called it the biggest collective
announcement of divestment by Catholic organizations ever.
The group comes from all over the world - they include financial
institutions such as Germany's Bank für Kirche und Caritas eG, and the
Episcopal Conference of Belgium, which is the policy arm of the Catholic
church in that country. Groups from the U.K., the United States,
Australia and Italy were also among those divesting.
The Movement said that the Bank für Kirche und Caritas eG - which
translates as Bank for the Church and Caritas - was one of the first
Catholic banks to turn its back on fossil fuels. That entity, which has
a balance sheet of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), was severing links
with coal, tar sands crude, and oil shale.
"As a Catholic Church bank, we feel strongly responsible to participate
in tackling the issue of climate change," Tommy Piemonte, the bank's
sustainability research officer, said in a statement.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/03/global-warming-catholic-groups-stop-investing-in-fossil-fuels.html
*(reminder) Global warming doesn't stop when the emissions stop
<https://phys.org/news/2017-10-global-doesnt-emissions.html>*
Our climate is out of balance: Increasing accumulation of CO2 in the
atmosphere has caused the Earth's temperature to increase by 0.8 degrees
C since the beginning of the industrial revolution. According to a study
by Thorsten Mauritsen from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in
Hamburg and Robert Pincus of the University of Colorado, even if we
stopped all emissions from fossil fuels tomorrow, the Earth would still
warm by a further 0.3 degrees C. In this interview, Mauritsen explains
why it will take millennia for the Earth to get back into balance.
*How did you determine the 'committed warming'?*
To do that, we needed to know two things. Firstly, we needed to find out
how sensitive the Earth's climate is, i.e. how sensitively it reacts to
an increase in atmospheric CO2 over a timescale of a century (the
transient climate sensitivity). This can be estimated from data on
previous temperature rises and ocean warming. We also need to know how
strong the effect of the disappearance of aerosols, methane and nitrogen
oxides will be. From there, we can estimate warming through to the end
of the century.
*What do the results teach us? In the real world, stopping emissions
immediately is, unfortunately, impossible.*
We can see how far we are from the climate targets set out in the Paris
Agreement, which state that the Earth should not warm by more than 1.5-2
degrees C. According to our study, there is a 13 percent probability
that we have already exceeded the 1.5 degrees C target. We have also
shown that, based on current emissions, we still have 30 years until the
probability of staying under the 1.5 degrees C target falls to 50 percent.
https://phys.org/news/2017-10-global-doesnt-emissions.html
- see also
The three-minute story of 800,000 years of climate change with a sting
in the tai
<https://phys.org/news/2017-06-three-minute-story-years-climate-tail.html#nRlv>l
https://phys.org/news/2017-06-three-minute-story-years-climate-tail.html#nRlv
*Dirty Energy Dominance: Dependent on Denial - How the U.S. Fossil Fuel
Industry Depends on Subsidies and Climate Denial
<http://priceofoil.org/2017/10/03/dirty-energy-dominance-us-subsidies>*
A new report by Oil Change International reveals that U.S. taxpayers
continue to foot the bill for more than $20 billion in fossil fuel
subsidies each year. The analysis outlines tax incentives, credits, low
royalty rates, and other government measures benefiting the oil, gas,
and coal sectors.
While the majority of Americans want stronger U.S. action on climate
change, policies at the state and federal level continue to underwrite
the ongoing exploration and production of fossil fuels. Every dollar
spent subsidizing this industry takes us further away from achieving
internationally agreed emissions goals, and maintaining a stable climate.
*Key findings include:*
Fossil fuel subsidies have been defended by a Congress influenced by
$350 million in campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures by the
fossil fuel industry - which equates to a 8,200% return on investment.
The cost of annual federal fossil fuel production subsidies is
equivalent to the projected 2018 budget cuts from Trump's proposals to
slash 10 public programs and services that benefit some of the nation's
most vulnerable children and families.
Government giveaways in the form of permanent tax breaks to the fossil
fuel industry - one of which is over a century old - are seven times
larger than those to the renewable energy sector.
*Download the full report.
<http://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2017/10/OCI_US-Fossil-Fuel-Subs-2015-16_Final_Oct2017.pdf>*
*The report recommends that climate champions in Congress, statehouses,
and governors' residences concerned about using taxpayer dollars wisely
can push back on Trump's fossil fuel agenda by taking the following
actions:*
Immediately repeal existing tax breaks for fossil fuel exploration and
production, and halt efforts to extend and expand tax credits for
unconventional fossil fuel production technologies, like carbon capture
and storage and enhanced oil recovery.
Champion broader legislation that ends investment in fossil fuel
expansion, and funds a just transition for industry-dependent workers
and communities, while supporting a clean, renewable energy economy.
Break the cycle of dirty energy money, particularly by elected officials
at all levels of government pledging to refuse campaign donations and
other forms of support from the oil, gas, and coal industries.
Website -
http://priceofoil.org/2017/10/03/dirty-energy-dominance-us-subsidies
Full Report -
http://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2017/10/OCI_US-Fossil-Fuel-Subs-2015-16_Final_Oct2017.pdf
Blog - http://priceofoil.org/2017/10/03/trumps-20-billion-a-year-ha
*Humans experimenting with climate's 'playing nice'
<https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2017/10/humans-experimenting-with-climates-playing-nice/>
How long will the remarkably, but inexplicably, 11,000 years of global
climatic stability last? Uncertainty abounds, but in meantime the risky
experiment continues.*
Take 5 minutes for this. https://youtu.be/sKR3e0fhiKQ
Jorgen Peder Steffensen, of Denmark's Niels Bohr Institute, is one of
the most experienced experts in ice core analysis, in both Greenland and
Antarctica. Dr. Steffensen explained to videographer Peter Sinclair his
concerns about possible abrupt climate changes.
Email to someoneShare on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on
LinkedInPin on PinterestShare on RedditBy Peter SinclairTuesday, October
3, 2017
Like "rats inside the experiment," Neils Bohr Institute glaciology
professor Jorgen Peder Steffensen says of us humans when he considers
the risks of a sudden reconfiguration of global circulation which could,
among other things, cause long-term drying across America's breadbasket
states.
"That's going to impact the entire world," Steffensen cautions in
recognizing that the 11,000 years of the interglacial period since the
last ice age "has been unreasonably stable. And we don't know why" or
how long that stability may persist.
Steffensen, in exceptionally eloquent and straightforward language,
acknowledges that models consistently point to a gradual global increase
in temperatures as a result of the continue widespread combustion of
fossil fuels and increased emissions of carbon dioxide. "But that's
assuming the climate plays nice," he says.
'The climate does not play nice all the time,' a glaciology professor
reminds us.
"And we actually know from the ice cores that the climate does not play
nice all the time."
Deeply involved in drilling of ice ores on the Greenland and Antarctic
ice sheets since 1980, Steffensen says in this month's "This is not
cool" video that changes in global heat flows have "come about suddenly"
in the past and "are reflected, as a mirror image," in Antarctic ice cores.
"You see that inside an ice age, the climate is extremely unstable. And
you have this sequence of abrupt climate changes that happen, basically,
from one year to the next." He says each cycle lasts "about a couple
thousand years…. We had that 26 times in the last ice age."
Such "whipsaw" climate change have been missing during the past 11,000
years while human civilization has been arising. "So we are assuming
that this is standard. Our collective memory refers to this as normal."
But he is concerned that human activities could be "tipping the climate
into an intermediate period of climate changes…. We can face a climate
change that happens just as fast as the financial crisis," Steffensen
says. In that case, agricultural activity worldwide could be adversely
affected … "the weather will change, and it will not change back" quickly.
"We don't know where the threshold is," Steffensen says of the ongoing
human "experiment" with climate change. "But we are rats inside the
experiment."
https://climatecrocks.com/2017/10/03/new-video-inside-the-experiment-the-climate-does-not-always-play-nice/
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2017/10/humans-experimenting-with-climates-playing-nice/
*Will Climate Change Make Rockslides Worse?
<https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/and-the-mountains-should-crumble-to-the-sea/541659/>*
The Atlantic How a warming world could affect rockfalls like Yosemite's
Last Wednesday and Thursday, there were two major rockfall events at
Yosemite's El Capitan, a rock formation extremely popular with climbers.
Wednesday's rockslide killed one person, the first rockfall-related
fatality in the park since 1999. Thursday's released a volume of rock
larger than 10,000 cubic meters, about four Olympic swimming pools'
worth of rock.
Rockfalls are par for the course at Yosemite, where the National Park
Service estimates 80 events happen every year. But despite their
frequency, there is a possibility that warming temperatures and an
unstable climate could cause even more rockfalls at Yosemite and worldwide.
Like sticky wood doors in the summer, rock expands ever so slightly when
it's heated. The more the temperature rises and falls between day and
night, or summer and winter, the more rock will expand and then
contract, causing cracks to propagate through it. As temperatures rise
worldwide, those hot, sunny days will become more frequent, which could
mean more rockslides.
Rising global temperatures are also melting the glaciers and permafrost
that support rock formations.
"I would say the impact of climate change on rockslides in Yosemite
is currently rather small, but could increase slightly with time if
freeze-thaw and wetting-drying cycles become more common and diurnal
temperature changes become greater," he said. "But this embodies several
assumptions."
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/and-the-mountains-should-crumble-to-the-sea/541659/
*Ex-FEMA Director: Rebuilding Puerto Rico Requires Acknowledging Climate
Change
<http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/ex-fema-director-rebuilding-puerto-rico-requires-acknowledging-climate-change/>*
Obama instructed FEMA to consider climate change in responding to
Superstorm Sandy. The Trump administration's response has been different.
The former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief has some advice for
the Trump administration after back-to-back hurricanes in the past
month: You have to look at climate change science if you want smarter
disaster relief.
Drawing on eight years of experience leading FEMA under President Barack
Obama, Craig Fugate warned on Tuesday that flood-prone areas can't
simply "rebuild to the past" using historical data on 100-year flood
risk. Instead, he said at an event at the liberal Center for American
Progress, the country needs to "build to future risk."
The situation is especially critical now that Congress will be
appropriating billions in aid to Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the
Virgin Islands. Climate change is helping make these disasters bigger
and nastier, but Fugate said they are only natural hazards that "become
natural disasters when we're pricing risk too low. We're putting
vulnerable populations and your tax dollars at risk."
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/ex-fema-director-rebuilding-puerto-rico-requires-acknowledging-climate-change/
*The Arctic is Changing the Jet Stream - Why This Is Important
<http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-arctic-is-changing-the-jet-stream-why-this-is-important.html>*
By Sam Carana, with contributions by Jennifer Francis
Global warming is increasing the strength of hurricanes. A warmer
atmosphere holds more water vapor and sea surface temperatures are
rising. Both of these changes strengthen hurricanes. Steering winds may
also be changing, causing unusual hurricane tracks such as Sandy's left
turn into the mid-Atlantic seaboard and Harvey's stagnation over
Houston. Is rapid Arctic warming playing a role?
Jennifer Francis has long been warning that global warming is increasing
the likelihood of wavier jet stream patterns and more frequent blocking
events, both of which have been observed. The Arctic is warming more
rapidly than the rest of the world. The narrowing temperature difference
between the Arctic and lower latitudes is weakening the speed at which
the jet stream circumnavigates Earth and may be making the jet stream
more wavy. In a 2012 study, Jennifer Francis and Stephen Vavrus warned
that this makes atmospheric blocking events in the Northern Hemisphere
more likely, aggravating extreme weather events related to stagnant
weather conditions, such as drought, flooding, cold spells, and heat waves.
The danger was highlighted later that year, when a strong block
associated with a deep jet stream trough helped steer Hurricane Sandy
toward New York. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey hovered over Houston and
dumped record-breaking rains (over 50 inches in some locations!), again
highlighting this danger.
The jet stream separates cold air in the Arctic from warmer air farther
south. A wavier jet stream transports more heat and moisture into the
Arctic. This speeds up warming of the Arctic in a number of ways. In
addition to warming caused by the extra heat, the added water vapor is a
potent greenhouse gas, trapping more heat in the atmosphere over the
Arctic, while it also causes more clouds to form that also are effective
heat trappers.
As the Arctic keeps warming, the jet stream is expected to become more
distorted, bringing ever more heat and moisture into the Arctic. This
constitutes a self-reinforcing feedback loop that keeps making the
situation worse. In conclusion, it's high time for more comprehensive
and effective action to reduce the underlying culprit: global warming.
/Jennifer Francis is Research Professor at the Institute of Marine and
Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University, where she studies Arctic climate
change and the link between the Arctic and global climates.//
//Jennifer has received funding from the National Science Foundation and
NASA. She is a member of the American Meteorological Society, American
Geophysical Union, Association for Women in Science and the Union of
Concerned Scientists./
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-arctic-is-changing-the-jet-stream-why-this-is-important.html
*This Day in Climate History October 4, 2014
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/opinion/gail-collins-the-walrus-and-the-politicians.html>
- from D.R. Tucker*
October 4, 2014: New York Times columnist Gail Collins observes:
"There was a time when Republicans were leaders in the fight to slow
climate change — particularly for the concept called 'cap and trade,'
which had a marketplace-friendly tilt. Among the co-sponsors of a
cap-and-trade bill in 2007 was Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican of
Alaska. Murkoswki had to run for re-election as an independent in
2010, having lost her party’s nomination to a Tea Party favorite who
complains about 'climate-change alarmists.'
"These days, it takes courage for a Republican to acknowledge that
human beings have anything to do with climate change at all."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/opinion/gail-collins-the-walrus-and-the-politicians.html
/------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
////Send email to subscribe
<a%20href=%22mailto:contact at theClimate.Vote%22> to this mailing. /
. *** Privacy and Security: * This is a text-only mailing that
carries no images which may originate from remote servers.
Text-only messages provide greater privacy to the receiver and
sender.
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain must be used for
democratic and election purposes and cannot be used for
commercial purposes.
To subscribe, email: contact at theclimate.vote with subject:
subscribe, To Unsubscribe, subject: unsubscribe
Also youmay subscribe/unsubscribe at
https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Paulifor
http://TheClimate.Vote delivering succinct information for
citizens and responsible governments of all levels. List
membership is confidential and records are scrupulously
restricted to this mailing list.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/attachments/20171004/34f75054/attachment.html>
More information about the TheClimate.Vote
mailing list