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

Fri Oct 20 10:12:24 EDT 2017

/October 20 , 2017/

*Climate change at work? Weather Service calls for third straight mild 
winter. 
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/10/19/climate-change-at-work-weather-service-calls-for-third-straight-mild-winter/>*
For the third time in as many years, the nation  -  on balance  - should 
expect warmer-than-normal temperatures, according to the National 
Weather Service, which released its winter outlook on Thursday.
The Weather Service favors warmer-than-normal conditions for the 
southern two-thirds of the Lower 48, including the Mid-Atlantic. Only a 
sliver of the Northern Plains and Pacific Northwest is expected to 
experience colder-than-normal temperatures...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/10/19/climate-change-at-work-weather-service-calls-for-third-straight-mild-winter/

*Insects Are In Serious Trouble 
<https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/oh-no/543390/>*
Between 1989 and 2016, the average weight of insects that were caught 
between May and October fell by an astonishing 77 percent. Over the same 
period, the weight of insects caught in the height of summer, when these 
creatures should be at their buzziest, fell by 82 percent...
This is, to put it mildly, a huge problem.
Insects are the lynchpins of many ecosystems. Around 60 percent of birds 
rely on them for food. Around 80 percent of wild plants depend on them 
for pollination. If they disappear, ecosystems everywhere will collapse. 
But also, insects are the most diverse and numerous group of animals on 
the planet. If they're in trouble, we're all in trouble.
There's a debate about whether the Earth is in the middle of a sixth 
extinction - an exceptionally severe period of biological annihilation 
of the kind that has only happened five times before.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/oh-no/543390/
*More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect 
biomass in protected areas - PLOS 
<http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809>*
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809

*Climate Liability Plaintiffs Brace for Industry’s Retaliation Tactics 
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/10/19/climate-liability-oil-industry-intimidation/>*
"It would be almost unthinkable that a fossil fuel company, represented 
by lawyers from the nation’s largest and most prestigious law firms, 
would file a lawsuit accusing a municipal government of civil conspiracy 
for seeking damages for climate impacts," Burger said. "Then again, how 
many times have we had to say ‘That’s unprecedented!’ in recent years?"
  the fossil fuel industry is increasingly turning to state legislatures 
to go to bat for them.
"Exxon and other companies will go to friendly state legislatures and 
state governments and try to head off completely legit litigation by 
that political root," Muffett said.
He cited a bill introduced in the Texas House of Representatives early 
this year that proposed to bar a defendant’s "theories, beliefs or 
statements on climate change or global warming" from being used as 
evidence in a fraud case.
If the bill had passed, it could have barred Exxon from having to 
disclose evidence in climate liability cases, according to the Austin 
American Statesman. The bill stalled in committee...
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/10/19/climate-liability-oil-industry-intimidation/

BBC Science and Environment
*A brief history of the Earth's CO2 
<http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41671770>*
Climate change has been described as one of the biggest problems faced 
by humankind. Carbon dioxide is is the primary driver of global warming. 
Prof Joanna Haigh from Imperial College London explains why this gas has 
played a crucial role in shaping the Earth's climate.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41671770

*(opinion) Is climate change Hollywood's new supervillain? | Film | The 
Guardian 
<https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2017/oct/19/climate-change-hollywood-new-supervillain-geostorm-blade-runner-2049-downsizing>*
Eco-thriller Geostorm, with Gerard Butler as a weather-busting 
scientist, is the latest movie to battle the environment. From Blade 
Runner 2049 to Alexander Payne's Downsizing, film are turning up the 
heat on the big screen.
Previously, we looked to the multiplex to vicariously experience the 
catastrophic aftermath of freak super-storms and monster tsunamis; now 
we see these images appear with increasing and distressing regularity in 
the news.
Perhaps that is why climate change is a common theme across a broad 
range of movies this year, either as an obvious baddie or a subtextual 
spectre. The forthcoming eco-thriller Geostorm optimistically suggests 
that we could circumvent the cataclysmic heavy weather caused by climate 
change if only we tasked someone like scientist-astronaut Gerard Butler 
to invent a network of weather-controlling satellites. But when that 
system malfunctions, the planet reaps the whirlwind (not to mention 
mega-storms and tidal waves). Director Dean Devlin, who produced 
Independence Day with Emmerich, seems keen to outdo his old partner in 
terms of on-screen mass obliteration, with cities such as Dubai, Tokyo 
and Moscow in his apocalyptic sights. Whether global audiences will be 
excited by such destruction after recent natural disasters in Mexico, 
Sierra Leone, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, remains to be seen.
Postapocalyptic sci-fi will always be a popular film playground, but 
increasingly it seems as if we are being invited to look at worlds worn 
out rather that instantly shattered. Before it blasted into space, 
Christopher Nolan's Interstellar 
<https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/05/interstellar-review-christopher-nolan-matthew-mcconaughey> 
painted a plausible portrait of the US as a parched, crop-free dustbowl 
beyond resuscitation. Earlier this year, Logan presented a harsh, 
scrappy near future that looked as exhausted as its ailing hero, a 
planet teetering towards a more relatable kind of collapse than the 
apocalyptic threats of superhero cinema.
A shared anxiety about how we have abused our planet and how it might 
ultimately retaliate has seeped into recent cinema in other intriguing 
ways. Darren Aronofsky's densely allegorical Mother! 
<https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/sep/05/mother-review-jennifer-lawrence-horror-darren-aronofsky-javier-bardem> 
encourages any number of environmental interpretations, with Jennifer 
Lawrence as a barefoot earth mother whose Edenic dream home is invaded 
by selfish, rapacious squatters - an intensifying nightmare that leaves 
her traumatised but mostly bewildered. Despite its surreal, 
disorientating escalations, the central message is consistent: what is 
wrong with these people? How can they do this?
https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2017/oct/19/climate-change-hollywood-new-supervillain-geostorm-blade-runner-2049-downsizing..
In the forthcoming Downsizing 
<https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/30/downsizing-review-alexander-payne-matt-damon-venice-film-festival-2017>, 
Oscar-winning writer-director Alexander Payne imagines a near future 
where eco-conscious Norwegians have developed a sci-fi shrink-ray that 
can zap people, such as stressed everyman Matt Damon, down to just five 
inches in height. Everything about this growing community of 
nu-Lilliputians is smaller - particularly their carbon footprint. In the 
film, the procedure is marketed as a quasi-altruistic lifestyle choice 
that doubles as a lottery win, suggesting participants will improve the 
planet's sustainability as well as artificially extending their savings.
Payne's movie is a sociocomic parable that has the reassuring presence 
of Damon at its centre, an actor audiences have seen surviving in tough 
environments 
<https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/01/the-martian-review-matt-damon-ridley-scott>. 
But with the shrinking process irreversible, Downsizing seems to make a 
subtle but important point, one arguably as frightening as any 
large-scale disaster movie where a catastrophe annihilates humanity. Any 
real-world solution to our inescapable climate change problem is likely 
to be similarly and uncomfortably extreme - an even more inconvenient 
truth. Until we overcome our indifference to this monumental problem, 
the outlook is only going to get worse.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2017/oct/19/climate-change-hollywood-new-supervillain-geostorm-blade-runner-2049-downsizing
*Geostorm movie review: a climate change disaster-palooza so bad it's 
good 
<https://dailyreview.com.au/geostorm-movie-review-climate-change-disaster-palooza-bad-good/67059/>*
"To appreciate this film, which I suppose can be rationalised in the 
context of a guilty pleasure, one needs to be on the same page as it - 
which is to say, somewhere semi-illiterate."
(video)GEOSTORM - OFFICIAL TRAILER 2 <https://youtu.be/EuOlYPSEzSc> 
https://youtu.be/EuOlYPSEzSc
https://dailyreview.com.au/geostorm-movie-review-climate-change-disaster-palooza-bad-good/67059/

/[ $hameless ask for personal computers to help gather clean air data ]/
PurpleAir.org   Weather Underground needs your help to gather air 
pollution data.
When you install an air pollution monitor, you protect yourself and 
others in your community from dirty air.
Buy the Best Air Pollution Monitor 
<https://www.purpleair.com/?utm_source=wunderground&utm_medium=web>
Why We Recommend PurpleAir
Air pollution experts affiliated with Weather Underground have evaluated 
several air pollution monitoring devices and have determined that the 
PurpleAir PA-II is the best device for most people to track the 
deadliest type of air pollution.
Buy a PurpleAir Sensor 
<https://www.purpleair.com/?utm_source=wunderground&utm_medium=web> 
https://www.purpleair.com/?utm_source=wunderground&utm_medium=web
A proven air quality monitoring solution for home enthusiasts and air 
quality professionals alike.
Using a new generation of laser particle counters to provide real time 
measurement of (amongst other data), PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10. PurpleAir 
sensors are easy to install, requiring a power outlet and WiFi. They use 
WiFi to report in real time to the PurpleAir Map. $133  to  $289

*This Day in Climate History October 20, 2012 
<http://youtu.be/BUBbLbMbvfc>   -  from D.R. Tucker*
October 20, 2012: On MSNBC's "Up," Chris Hayes condemns President Obama, 
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and CNN's Candy Crowley for 
remaining silent on climate in the most recent presidential debate.
http://youtu.be/BUBbLbMbvfc

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//Archive of Daily Global Warming News 
<https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html> 
//
/https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote//
///

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/20171020/e623533d/attachment.html>