[TheClimate.Vote] September 21, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News

[Richard Pauli]

/September 21, 2017/

***Maria Back Over Water After Devastating Hit to Puerto Rico 
<https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/maria-back-over-water-after-devastating-hit-puerto-rico>*
After making landfall in southeast Puerto Rico near 6:15 am Wednesday as 
a top-end Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds, Hurricane Maria finished 
a devastating pummeling of the island near 1:30 pm, when its eye emerged 
over the ocean off the northwest coast.
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/maria-back-over-water-after-devastating-hit-puerto-rico


*Climate Change Is Already Making People Sicker 
<http://time.com/4949720/climate-change-united-nations/>*
The impact of climate change on global health is also becoming 
increasingly clear. At the end of last week, the United Nations released 
a report 
<http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/world-hunger-report/en/> 
showing that global hunger is on the rise; 38 million more people were 
affected in 2016 than in 2015. Climate change and the spread of violent 
conflicts are responsible, the report says. Other research has linked 
climate change to increased respiratory problems 
<http://time.com/3414449/6-ways-climate-change-is-making-us-sick/>, poor 
nutrition, <http://time.com/4244617/climate-change-dietary-patterns/> 
the spread of infectious disease and even anxiety.
http://time.com/4949720/climate-change-united-nations/

*
**Theresa May speaks out against Trump climate change stance at UN 
<https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/20/theresa-may-speaks-out-against-trump-climate-change-stance-at-un>*
PM ranks US plan to withdraw from Paris treaty alongside North Korean 
nuclear tests as threat to global security*
**(YouTube) Theresa May gives veiled warning to Donald Trump over Paris 
climate accord – video <https://youtu.be/D9ACRtC0fgI>*
https://youtu.be/D9ACRtC0fgI 1:53
Theresa May has given a veiled warning to Donald Trump over his decision 
to withdraw the US from the Paris climate change treaty. The prime 
minister ranks Trump's plan alongside North Korean nuclear tests as a 
threat to global security. May says countries which 'flout' the 
international rules-based order must be held to account.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/20/theresa-may-speaks-out-against-trump-climate-change-stance-at-un


*Republican Senator Endorses 'Price on Carbon' to Fight Climate Change 
<http://time.com/4947960/lindsay-graham-climate-change-carbon-tax/>*
Sen. Lindsey Graham endorsed a "price on carbon" to fight climate 
change, breaking with much of the Republican Establishment.
Speaking at a climate change conference held by former Secretary of 
State John Kerry at Yale University, the South Carolina Republican 
called for a "price on carbon," saying he would take the idea to the 
White House for consideration.
http://time.com/4947960/lindsay-graham-climate-change-carbon-tax/


*Leonardo DiCaprio Commits $20 Million To Fight Climate Change 
<http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/leonardo-dicaprio-spoke-on-climate-change-at-yale-then-committed-20-mil-to-fight-it>*
At a two-day conference that just wrapped up on Tuesday at Yale 
University, he announced The Leonardo DiCaprio foundation was committing 
$20 million dollars in grants to 100 nonprofits working to fight climate 
change. The foundation has six programs. They are: Wildlife and 
Landscape Conservation, Climate Change, Indigenous Rights, Innovative 
Solutions, Marine and Ocean Conservation, and Transforming California. 
Up until now, the foundation has had a direct financial impact of $80 
million, which DiCaprio himself raised.
http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/leonardo-dicaprio-spoke-on-climate-change-at-yale-then-committed-20-mil-to-fight-it


*Cities Turn to Other Cities for Help Fighting Climate Change 
<https://www.wired.com/story/cities-turn-to-other-cities-for-help-fighting-climate-change/>*
...in the end, executability and verifiability will be key. All the 
pledges and coalitions in the world don't matter if cities don't know 
what they need to do, or can't do it. Being "Paris-compliant" means more 
than just setting a goal. "It's not just a visionary document, but a 
well thought-through statement that we can have confidence the city will 
deliver on," Doust says. That if isn't just big-it's existential.*
*https://www.wired.com/story/cities-turn-to-other-cities-for-help-fighting-climate-change/*
**

San Francisco, Oakland Sue 5 Oil Giants for Climate Change Impacts 
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/09/20/san-francisco-oakland-lawsuit-climate-change-bp-exxon-shell/>*
The cities of San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., filed suit on Wednesday 
<https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2017/09/19/san-francisco-oakland-sue-top-five-oil-gas-companies-costs-climate-change/> 
against five oil companies-ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and 
Shell - in California state court to hold them accountable for their 
role in global warming-driven sea level rise, which is causing billions 
of dollars of current and future damage.
The lawsuits are part of mounting climate-related legal action against 
Exxon and other fossil fuel producers, including investor and employee 
suits and state investigations seeking to hold fossil fuel companies 
responsible for actions that are exacerbating global warming.
The cities' litigation 
<http://www.oaklandcityattorney.org/PDFS/SF%20Climate%20Change%20Complaint.pdf> 
aims to force the companies to fund a sea level rise abatement program 
that will be used to build sea walls and other structures to protect 
about $49 billion in public and private property sitting within six feet 
of the current sea level. The cities cited research that says sea level 
may rise up to 10 feet by 2100, causing "catastrophic" damage, according 
to a report California officials released in April. 
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/09/20/san-francisco-oakland-lawsuit-climate-change-bp-exxon-shell/
*San Francisco and Oakland sue top five oil and gas companies over costs 
of climate change 
<https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2017/09/19/san-francisco-oakland-sue-top-five-oil-gas-companies-costs-climate-change/>*
September 19, 2017*
*Companies knew for decades that their products caused climate change 
and posed 'catastrophic' risk, but misled the public and continued to 
make enormous profits.
"These fossil fuel companies profited handsomely for decades while 
knowing they were putting the fate of our cities at risk," San Francisco 
City Attorney Dennis Herrera said. "Instead of owning up to it, they 
copied a page from the Big Tobacco playbook. They launched a 
multi-million dollar disinformation campaign to deny and discredit what 
was clear even to their own scientists: global warming is real, and 
their product is a huge part of the problem. Now, the bill has come due. 
It's time for these companies to take responsibility for the harms they 
have caused and are continuing to cause."
The cases are: People of the State of California v. BP P.L.C. et al., 
San Francisco Superior Court Case No. CGC 17-561370, filed Sept. 19, 
2017.  People of the State of California v. BP P.L.C. et al., Alameda 
County Superior Court Case No. RG17875889, filed Sept. 19, 2017.
https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2017/09/19/san-francisco-oakland-sue-top-five-oil-gas-companies-costs-climate-change/
*(Video press conference) San Francisco and Oakland sue top five oil and 
gas companies over costs of climate change <https://youtu.be/gC4QEkXhSig>*
https://youtu.be/gC4QEkXhSig


*Wind, warm water revved up melting Antarctic glaciers 
<https://phys.org/news/2017-09-revved-antarctic-glaciers.html>*
A NASA study has located the Antarctic glaciers that accelerated the 
fastest between 2008 and 2014 and finds that the most likely cause of 
their speedup is an observed influx of warm water into the bay where 
they're located.
The water was only 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 to 1 degree Celsius) 
warmer than usual water temperatures in the area, but it increased the 
glaciers' flow speeds by up to 25 percent and multiplied the rate of 
glacial ice loss by three to five times-from 7 to 10 feet of thinning 
per year (2 to 3 meters) up to 33 feet per year (10 meters).
https://phys.org/news/2017-09-revved-antarctic-glaciers.html#jCp


*U.S. National Guard Chief: Climate "part of our job jar" 
<http://wp.me/p1t6fZ-3OV>*
Over the last month, the US National Guard has activated thousands of 
members from across the country to help put out wildfires and respond to 
three severe hurricanes. It is no wonder then that when asked by a 
reporter on Tuesday how the climate was affecting National Guard 
activities, General Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau, 
went into detail on why he takes it seriously (see below). General 
Lengyel also emphasized that the impacts of climate change are felt 
around the country. As the wildfires and hurricanes demonstrate, natural 
disasters in one part of the country are responded to by National Guard 
members from all across the country – sometimes from states thousands of 
miles away.  Secretary of Defense James Mattis has stated that preparing 
for climate requires a "whole of government" response. Gen Lengyel's 
comments suggest it will also require a "whole of country" response
http://wp.me/p1t6fZ-3OV
*
National Guard chief: Climate change possibly causing 'bigger, larger, 
more violent' storms 
<http://thehill.com/policy/defense/351404-national-guard-chief-climate-is-changing-possibly-causing-bigger-larger-more#bottom-story-socials>*
"So whether that's in Oklahoma, where you have a lot of tornadoes, or 
whether that's in the northwest, where you have a lot of fires, or 
whether that's in the Gulf or along the East Coast, we need force 
structure that is in all 50 states, the territories and the District of 
Columbia, so that we can respond."
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/351404-national-guard-chief-climate-is-changing-possibly-causing-bigger-larger-more


*Global Ocean Circulation Appears To Be Collapsing Due To A Warming 
Planet 
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2017/08/03/global-ocean-circulation-appears-to-be-collapsing-due-to-a-warming-planet/#39d34c49f6f4>*
Melting of the Arctic sea ice has rapidly increased in the recent 
decades. Satellite image records indicate that September Arctic sea ice 
is 30% less today than it was in 1979. This trend of increased sea ice 
melting during summer months does not appear to be slowing. Hence, 
indications are that we will see a continued weakening of the global 
ocean circulation system.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2017/08/03/global-ocean-circulation-appears-to-be-collapsing-due-to-a-warming-planet/#39d34c49f6f4


*Enough tiptoeing around. Let's make this clear: coal kills people 
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/18/enough-tiptoeing-around-lets-make-this-clear-coal-kills-people>*
Tim Hollo
*Burning more coal, knowing what we know, is a deliberate act of arson. 
We must urgently come to grips with this fact and reconnect with nature 
and our communities*
Coal kills people. This isn't even slightly scientifically controversial.
 From the mines to the trains to the climate disruption; from black lung 
to asthma, heat stress to hunger, fires to floods: coal is killing 
people in Australia and around the world right now.
Yet we are once again having what passes for political debate about 
extending the life of coal-fired power stations and, extraordinarily, 
building new ones. The conversation is completely disconnected from the 
fact that two thirds of Bangladesh was reported to be under water, 
record-breaking hurricanes were battering the US, and wildfires were 
roaring in both the northern and southern hemispheres at the same time.
Burning more coal, knowing what we know, is a deliberate act of arson, 
lighting a match in dry bushland, with homes just around the bend and a 
hot wind blowing in their direction.
It's hard to say that. It's hard to read it. But we must come to grips 
with this connection urgently.
How is it that our politicians can be so drastically disconnected from 
the consequences of their actions?
The answer, I would suggest, is because connection is fundamentally at 
odds with how we have trained ourselves to see the world. Our economic, 
social and political system is based around disconnection. And our most 
vital and urgent task is to find ways to get over that, to draw each 
other and our ideas together, to see the world as the glorious 
interconnected ecosystem it is.
In capitalism, we have created the first social organising principle 
based on selfishness, the first system to make greed, competition, 
non-cooperation its credo. In Thatcherism, we have the declaration that 
there is no such thing as society. In neoliberalism, we have a system 
which alienates us from each other, from our labour, from democracy; a 
system which declares we have great choice while turning everything into 
a supermarket aisle full of different but identical toothpastes; a 
system which insists we have great freedoms while systematically 
removing more and more of our capacity to have any real control or 
influence over, or stake in anything real in our lives.
That's why we can have politicians actively discussing doing something 
which not only makes no economic sense but will actually kill people, 
while most of the population turns away to binge-watch the next series 
on Netflix.
Bringing it right back to coal, tens of thousands of people are 
bypassing the politicians and corporations altogether, frustrated by 
their inability to think beyond coal, and setting up renewable energy 
cooperatives. From Canberra to Copenhagen, people are pooling their 
resources to jointly set up solar farms or windfarms, sharing the 
benefits not only among themselves but with all of us.
If all this seems terribly small, remember – going from 280 to 400 parts 
per million of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is already causing 
havoc. With a few more parts per million, we could reach tipping points 
in the climate beyond which unimaginable disaster looms.
But there are tipping points in society, too. And, if we work together 
to rebuild connection, we can reach that tipping point first. We can 
turn this around, and maybe not only survive, but thrive.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/18/enough-tiptoeing-around-lets-make-this-clear-coal-kills-people


*Mathematics predicts a sixth mass extinction by 2100 
<https://phys.org/news/2017-09-mathematics-sixth-mass-extinction.html>*
In the past 540 million years, the Earth has endured five mass 
extinction events, each involving processes that upended the normal 
cycling of carbon through the atmosphere and oceans. These globally 
fatal perturbations in carbon each unfolded over thousands to millions 
of years, and are coincident with the widespread extermination of marine 
species around the world.
The question for many scientists is whether the carbon cycle is now 
experiencing a significant jolt that could tip the planet toward a sixth 
mass extinction. In the modern era, carbon dioxide emissions have risen 
steadily since the 19th century, but deciphering whether this recent 
spike in carbon could lead to mass extinction has been challenging. 
That's mainly because it's difficult to relate ancient carbon anomalies, 
occurring over thousands to millions of years, to today's disruptions, 
which have taken place over just a little more than a century.
Now Daniel Rothman, professor of geophysics in the MIT Department of 
Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and co-director of MIT's 
Lorenz Center, has analyzed significant changes in the carbon cycle over 
the last 540 million years, including the five mass extinction events. 
He has identified "thresholds of catastrophe" in the carbon cycle that, 
if exceeded, would lead to an unstable environment, and ultimately, mass 
extinction.
https://phys.org/news/2017-09-mathematics-sixth-mass-extinction.html


*(video news) Koch Brothers Fuel the GOP's War on Climate Science 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuBobjyouv8>*
Published on Sep 18, 2017
Investigative journalist Bruce Livesy explains that the Koch brothers 
have used their enormous wealth to force Republicans to tow the line on 
climate change denial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuBobjyouv8


*This Day in Climate History September 21, 1983 
<http://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/10/us/watt-quits-post-president-accepts-with-reluctance.html>  
-  from D.R. Tucker*
September 21, 1983: Interior Secretary James G. Watt, a symbol of the 
Republican Party's declining interest in environmental concerns, tells 
the US Chamber of Commerce that members of his advisory staff on 
coal-leasing policy include "a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple." 
He resigns several weeks later.
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/10/us/watt-quits-post-president-accepts-with-reluctance.html

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