[TheClimate.Vote] October 16, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News

Mon Oct 16 08:51:52 EDT 2017

/October 16, 2017/
*
Bodycam footage shows woman's rescue from California wildfire 
<https://youtu.be/bYcBGL63yTc>*
Bodycam footage from a Sonoma County police officer shows the rescue of 
a woman in Santa Rosa. Thirty-five fatalities have been recorded so far, 
making it the deadliest week in California wildfire history. The death 
toll could rise further as search-and-rescue teams are deployed to sift 
through the remains of 3,500 burned buildings. Hundreds of missing 
persons reports have been resolved, but stories continue to emerge of 
people who did not make it out alive 'Just ash and bones': California 
wildfire survivors mourn loved ones
https://youtu.be/bYcBGL63yTc

*Ireland and Britain brace for unusual European hurricane - Ophelia is 
the most-eastern Category 3 Atlantic hurricane on record 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/world/europe/ireland-and-britain-brace-for-unusual-european-hurricane.html>*
Rain is no stranger to Ireland, but hurricanes?
Hurricane Ophelia, the 10th hurricane of the Atlantic season, was 
spinning toward Ireland on Sunday, bringing with it the potential for 
structural damage, significant coastal flooding and dangerously high seas.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said on Sunday that, as of 11 
a.m. Atlantic Standard Time, Ophelia had slowed to a Category 1 but was 
still dangerous, with top sustained winds near 90 miles an hour, with 
stronger gusts. On Saturday, the center had described it as a Category 3 
hurricane with top winds of 115 miles an hour.
In London, the Met Office, Britain's meteorological service, said that 
Ophelia had been the most-eastern Category 3 Atlantic hurricane on record.
$ 
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/world/europe/ireland-and-britain-brace-for-unusual-european-hurricane.html
http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2017/10/ireland-and-britain-brace-for-unusual.html

*Poll: Americans blame wild weather on global warming 
<https://phys.org/news/2017-10-poll-americans-blame-wild-weather.html>*
A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs 
Research finds that 68 percent of Americans think weather disasters seem 
to be worsening, compared to 28 percent who think they are staying the 
same and only 4 percent who say they are less severe.
And 46 percent of those who think it's getting worse blame man-made 
climate change mostly or solely for the wild weather, while another 39 
percent say it's a combination of global warming and natural variability.
https://phys.org/news/2017-10-poll-americans-blame-wild-weather.html

*Disaster Relief Workers in Puerto Rico Treat Themselves to 
Taxpayer-Funded 'Spa Day' Given by ... Puerto Ricans 
<http://www.theroot.com/disaster-relief-workers-in-puerto-rico-treat-themselves-1819438945>*
Here are a couple of things your tax dollars have paid for in the past 
few weeks: Vice President Michael Pence's NFL protest/publicity stunt, 
the Scotch tape keeping Donald Trump's ties together, White House press 
secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders calling for Jemele Hill to get fired, 
and federal relief workers treating themselves to a "spa day" - from the 
very people they are supposed to be helping.
A veteran doctor has alleged that federal disaster relief workers in 
Puerto Rico brought in locals to treat them to manicures and pedicures. 
The incident was so egregious and "personally abhorrent" to the senior 
medical officer that she quit the disaster-response team in Puerto Rico.
The story was originally reported byRachel Maddow on her MSNBC show 
<http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/doctor-quits-puerto-rico-medical-relief-team-over-spa-day-1072301123804> 
and picked up by Raw Story. 
<https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/federal-employees-allegedly-brought-in-puerto-ricans-to-provide-them-a-spa-day-while-doing-disaster-relief-report/>
The doctor, who has served on humanitarian missions in 10 countries for 
over 20 years, says she has never seen a disaster relief operation being 
run the way it has been in Puerto Rico. Maddow never mentions the 
doctor's name, but in a response to a query from the show, the 
Department of Health and Human Services - whose medical staffers 
reportedly organized the spa day - refers to the doctor as "Dr. Khanna."
According to Khanna, members of the Disaster Medical Assistance Team 
"used the triage tents that are supposed to be for medical care and 
instead brought in local Puerto Rican residents to give the medical 
workers cut-rate manicures and pedicures." The spa treatments were given 
while the relief workers were on the clock.
Khanna also shared photos with MSNBC that show the medical professionals 
wearing flip-flops in an environment that was supposed to be sterile.
"I can no longer serve with honor," Khanna told her superiors at the agency.
http://www.theroot.com/disaster-relief-workers-in-puerto-rico-treat-themselves-1819438945

*Geoengineering is not a quick fix for climate change, experts warn 
Trump 
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/14/geoengineering-is-not-a-quick-fix-for-climate-change-experts-warn-trump>*
Leading researchers and campaigners express concern that geoengineering 
research could be used as an excuse not to reduce CO2 emissions...
Leading climate scientists have warned that geoengineering research 
could be hijacked by climate change deniers as an excuse not to reduce 
CO2 emissions, citing the US administration under Donald Trump as a 
major threat to their work.
David Keith, a solar geoengineering (GE) expert at Harvard University 
has said there is a real danger that his work could be exploited by 
those who oppose action on emissions, at the same time as he defended 
himself and colleagues from the claims GE strengthens the argument for 
abandoning the targets set by the Paris climate agreement.
"One of the main concerns I and everyone involved in this have, is that 
Trump might tweet 'geoengineering solves everything - we don't have to 
bother about emissions.' That would break the slow-moving agreement 
among many environmental groups that sound research in this field makes 
sense," Keith said on the sidelines of the Climate Engineering 
Conference (CEC) in Berlin.
Indeed, utterances from people in or close to the Trump administration - 
most notably GE proponent secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who has 
referred to climate change as "just an engineering problem" - make it 
clear they either tacitly or directly support the idea of climate 
engineering...
"All the techniques being proposed have potentially severe environmental 
impacts," said Silvia Ribeiro of the ETC Group, leading campaign 
monitors of new technologies and their possible impact on the world's 
poorest.
"They also ignore the question as to why there's not enough political 
will to have done more to tackle climate change until now and they in 
turn serve to justify the inaction," she added.
"At the best climate engineering is a supplement, and it could be that 
we shouldn't do it," he insisted. "Our work is to inform better choices 
and it would actually be very useful to know for sure it didn't work. 
Right now there are heads of state and others in leadership who are 
explicitly assuming it could work, that it's there if we need it. But 
let's say we found something deep in the climate models which suggested 
we were overoptimistic about solar geoengineering, then I would say 
'abandon it'. That would be great. I'd love to publish that."
http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/geoengineering_is_not_a_quick_fix_for_climate_change_experts_warn_trump
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/14/geoengineering-is-not-a-quick-fix-for-climate-change-experts-warn-trump

*
The science of resilience 
<http://thestandard.com.ph/opinion/columns/sounds-of-science/249365/the-science-of-resilience.html>*
posted October 15, 2017 at 12:01 am by  Pecier Decierdo
As I am writing this, wildfires rage in the wine country of California. 
A month ago and several states away, two storms battered the 
southeastern part of the United States in quick succession. Not long 
after, a third ravaged islands in the Caribbean. Here in the 
Philippines, we are getting used to comparable weather extremes. Here's 
the punch line - scientists say we should get used to it. This, they 
say, is "the new normal."
The fight to reduce our carbon emissions is still a battle worth 
fighting. There are, after all, countless reasons to mitigate the worst 
effects of climate change. For one, our species' survival depends on it. 
But while we are trying to prevent the worst from happening, we should 
simultaneously begin adapting to the new normal. This is where 
resilience comes in.
Resilience is the capacity of a system to resist and recover from damage...
http://thestandard.com.ph/opinion/columns/sounds-of-science/249365/the-science-of-resilience.html

*Billionaire bunkers: How the 1% are preparing for the apocalypse 
<http://edition.cnn.com/style/article/doomsday-luxury-bunkers/index.html>*
Say "doomsday bunker" and most people would imagine a concrete room 
filled with cots and canned goods.
The threat of global annihilation may feel as present as it did during 
the Cold War, but today's high-security shelters could not be more 
different from their 20th-century counterparts.
The fortified structures are designed to withstand a nuclear strike and 
come equipped with power systems, water purification systems, blast 
valves, and Nuclear-Biological-Chemical (NBC) air filtration.
Most include food supplies for a year or more, and many have hydroponic 
gardens to supplement the rations. The developers also work to create 
well-rounded communities with a range of skills necessary for long-term 
survival, from doctors to teachers.
Vicino says Vivos received a flurry of interest in its shelters around 
the 2016 election from both liberals and conservatives, and completely 
sold out of spaces in its community shelters in the past few weeks.
Vicino compares the individual spaces to underground yachts, and even 
recommends that owners commission the same builders and designers that 
worked on their actual vessels.
"Most of these people have high-end yachts, so they already have the 
relationship and they know the taste, fit, and finish that they want," 
he explains.
The vast complex includes a tram system to transport residents 
throughout the shelter, where they can visit its restaurants, theater, 
coffee shops, pool and game areas.
"We have all the comforts of home, but also the comforts that you expect 
when you leave your home," Vicino adds.
http://edition.cnn.com/style/article/doomsday-luxury-bunkers/index.html

*Formation of coal almost turned our planet into a snowball 
<https://phys.org/news/2017-10-formation-coal-planet-snowball.html>*
Phys.Org
"It is quite an irony that forming the coal that today is a major factor 
for dangerous global warming once almost lead to global glaciation," ...
While burning coal today causes Earth to overheat, about 300 million 
years ago, the formation of coal brought the planet close to global 
glaciation. For the first time, scientists show the massive effect in a 
study to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of 
Sciences.
When trees in vast forests died during the Carboniferous and Permian 
periods, the carbon dioxide (CO2) they absorbed from the atmosphere 
while growing was buried; the plants' debris over time formed most of 
the coal that today is used as fossil fuel. Consequently, the CO2 
concentration in the atmosphere dropped drastically and Earth cooled 
down to such a degree that it narrowly escaped what scientists call a 
"snowball state."
https://phys.org/news/2017-10-formation-coal-planet-snowball.html

*Texans hit hard by Hurricane Harvey rethink climate change 
<http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/Texans-hit-hard-by-Hurricane-Harvey-rethink-12280474.php>*
"Those people probably don't want to hear about climate change, but I 
guarantee in the back of their mind they think about it," he said. 
"Because I thought about it. I said, 'I wonder what we're doing to this 
planet to make it spiral out of control?'"
http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/Texans-hit-hard-by-Hurricane-Harvey-rethink-12280474.php

*This Day in Climate History October 16, 1988 
<http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-10-16/news/8802080029_1_greenhouse-effect-global-warming-environmentalism>  
-  from D.R. Tucker*
   October 16, 1988: Discussing the role of global warming in the 1988 
presidential election, Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman observes:
"Last summer, one of the hottest and driest on record, the nation was 
roused by alarms about the 'greenhouse effect'--the gradual warming of 
the globe that threatens to turn coastal cities into underwater ruins 
and corn fields into salt flats.
"The problem is that for the last century or so industrial societies 
have been releasing substances into the air that capture heat and erode 
the Earth`s shield against the sun. The villains? Carbon dioxide from 
the burning of fossil fuels, methane from natural and man-made sources 
and aerosol propellants.
"But as soon as the heat dissipated, so did interest in the issue. In 
the campaign, the greenhouse effect has gone almost unmentioned...
"Both candidates pretend the solutions will be painless and free. Both 
pass over the obvious remedies in favor of the politically appealing ones.
"The nations of the world have taken one step by agreeing on a treaty to 
reduce the use of aerosol propellants. But any serious attempt to slow 
the warming of the Earth requires at least three additional measures: 
discouraging the use of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas; big 
improvements in energy efficiency; and greater reliance on nuclear power."
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-10-16/news/8802080029_1_greenhouse-effect-global-warming-environmentalism

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