[TheClimate.Vote] September 26, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News

Tue Sep 26 10:07:33 EDT 2017

/September 26, 2017/

*How a Major Hurricane Could Paralyze the Government and Jeopardize 
National Security 
<https://climateandsecurity.org/2017/09/25/how-a-hurricane-could-paralyze-the-u-s-government-and-jeopardize-national-security/>**
or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Preparedness*
Last week, Rolling Stone Magazine's Justin Nobel wrote a lengthy article 
that asks a question not many people are asking: What Happens When a 
Superstorm Hits D.C.?. 
<http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/what-happens-when-a-superstorm-hits-dc-w504341> 
Center for Climate and Security Advisory Board Member, Brigadier General 
Gerry Galloway, U.S. Army (retired), one of the nation's premier experts 
on flood risks to critical military and civilian infrastructure, was 
interviewed for the story. From the article:
When the big storm hits D.C., the resulting disaster may not kill as 
many as Katrina, or flood as much physical real estate as Harvey, but 
the toll it takes on American institutions will be unfathomable. The 
storm will paralyze many of the agencies that operate and defend the 
nation, raising the specter of national-security threats. Imagine, says 
Gerald Galloway, a disaster and national-security expert at the 
University of Maryland who served 38 years in the military, "the world 
waking up some morning to see an aerial photograph of Washington, D.C., 
with everything from the Lincoln Memorial to the grounds of the Capitol 
under-water - that certainly does not speak well for the United States' 
preparedness."
As the U.S. emerges from the destruction of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and 
Maria, prescient news articles from before the storms, like the 
vulnerability of Houston, Texas to flooding, add another element of 
concern. Storms happen and there is always an element of surprise and 
uncertainty, but there are also basic preparations that can be put in 
place well in advance. Making sure these plans reach decision-makers and 
those who are key to implementing them is also critical. Take the 
Washington, D.C. levee system for example,
Washington's defense begins with a little-known levee system. "There 
probably aren't 10 people in Washington," says Galloway, "who even know 
this levee exists." The Potomac Park Levee System is operated by the 
National Park Service and consists of an earthen berm that begins near 
the Lincoln Memorial and runs along the National Mall, passing just 
below the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Constitution Gardens to the 
Washington Monument. At 17th Street, a busy thoroughfare that cuts right 
through the berm, a 140-foot-wide gap marks the levee system's greatest 
point of vulnerability. For the city to be protected, this must be 
manually patched.
https://climateandsecurity.org/2017/09/25/how-a-hurricane-could-paralyze-the-u-s-government-and-jeopardize-national-security/
Clickhere 
<https://climateandsecurity.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/center-for-climate-and-security_military-expert-panel-report2.pdf>for 
the full report.

Clickhere 
<https://climateandsecurity.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/center-for-climate-and-security_military-expert-panel-report_brochure.pdf>for 
a summary of the report.

*What Happens When a Superstorm Hits D.C.? 
<http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/what-happens-when-a-superstorm-hits-dc-w504341>*
A major hurricane could paralyze the government and jeopardize national 
security. Why is the capital so unprepared?
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/what-happens-when-a-superstorm-hits-dc-w504341

*potholer54 video*
*Response to Patrick Moore's "What They Haven't Told You about Climate 
Change" <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XIpTqbLR5Y>*
"I have shown the titles and authors of papers very clearly in the video 
to save me a lot of time copying and writing them down here. If you have 
trouble reading the titles and the authors off the screen, get a friend 
to help you. It's really not that hard. "
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XIpTqbLR5Y*

*(PRI Radio) Koch Money: To Take or Not to Take?* 
<http://www.wnyc.org/story/koch-money-to-take-or-not-to-take>
Arts critic Philip Kennicott: "Anxiety about the climate is not an issue 
that is miles and miles and miles away from what happens inside museums 
and opera houses." Jun 28, 2017
The Public Theater stirred up quite a controversy with their recent 
production of "Julius Caesar" that featured a very Trump-like Caesar, 
and in response, some of their corporate funders withdrew their 
sponsorship. 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/11/arts/delta-airline-trump-public-theater-julius-caesar.html>Some 
critics shouted "censorship!" but if we're concerned about the strings 
attached to corporations donations, then maybe some of that money 
shouldn't be accepted to begin with. That's the argument made by Philip 
Kennicott, <https://twitter.com/PhilipKennicott> The Washington Post art 
and architecture critic, in his recent article, "With the planet in 
peril, arts groups can no longer afford the Koch brothers' money." 
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/with-the-planet-in-peril-arts-groups-can-no-longer-afford-the-koch-brothers-money/2017/06/05/3e0307b4-4a07-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html?utm_term=.a82a8d0f615b> 
Kurt talks with Kennicott about art, climate, stewardship, and ethics.
http://www.wnyc.org/story/koch-money-to-take-or-not-to-take

*Slimy green blob invades the Columbia River in Tri-Cities 
<http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article175073351.html>*
He pointed to an enormous greenish-brown basketball-sized blob of slimy 
jelly. They got it into a fishing net and hefted the 40- to 45-pound 
mass onto the shore. It had a translucent body with many star-like 
blooms along the outside. It could be easily broken into smaller clusters
What he found is called /Pectinitella magnifica/ - a huge colony of 
micro-organisms called magnificent bryozoans.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the local sighting 
comes on the heels of an increasing number of reports in the region of 
this amazing creature.
Each gelatinous blob can reach several feet in diameter and will turn a 
dark purple with shiny white spots. Each mass is actually formed out of 
hundreds to thousands of individual feeding organisms, which extend tiny 
non-stinging tentacles from the edge of the blob into the water to feed.
While they are as slimy as they come, they don't sting, are non-toxic, 
and are not dangerous, although they are capable of causing water 
outtake pipes to clog.
Scientists think that the increased occurrence in our area may be 
directly related to climate change and global warming. The warmer waters 
increase the availability of suitable habitat for the magnificent bryozoan.
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article175073351.html

*(Video list)  Science in Action: Working in Extremes 
<https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfn9Llg0DWPL4xCLFIKRKzaJ8tU04xZkd>*
This playlist features short movies that show how scientists are 
studying the rapid changes occurring in the Earth's frozen regions, from 
looking at crabs in Alaska to using drones to study the melting of the 
Greenland Ice Sheet.
1.  Guilt Trip - Salomon TV [Full Movie]
SalomonFreeskiTV
2. Science in an extreme environment - Horizon: Ice Station Antarctica - 
BBC Two
3. SWERUS-C3 – an expedition to the Arctic Ocean
Stockholm University
4.  Drone in Greenland - Fast Forward Science 2017
Guillaume Jouvet
5. Alive and Well: Microbes Add to Melting of Greenland Ice Sheet
YaleClimateConnections
6.   SWARP 12 minutes movie
Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center
7.  Kodiak Fisheries Research Center  sian proctor
8.   Arctic Report Card 2016  NOAAPMEL
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfn9Llg0DWPL4xCLFIKRKzaJ8tU04xZkd
Polar Film Fest Selects "This is Not Cool" Vid 
<https://youtu.be/DKfP63NH4DM>
Thanks to the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists, sponsors of 
the online Polar Film Festival, for selecting the above feature for the 
Science in Action category.
Youtube playlist of all selections here. 
<https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfn9Llg0DWPL4xCLFIKRKzaJ8tU04xZkd>

*(Commentary) How To Fight Climate Change: Our Imaginations 
<http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2017/09/25/climate-change-imagination-miles-howard>*
It might seem strange to devote an entire essay to such an obvious 
conclusion. But America is experiencing a strange chapter of history in 
which common sense is dangerously vulnerable to partisan dogma. I refer 
not only to the modern Republican Party - a cabal of immovable climate 
change denialists which Noam Chomsky rightly called the "most dangerous 
organization on earth" - but also the once-bold Democratic Party, which 
has embraced the sucker's conclusion that "pragmatism" means not rocking 
the boat too much. Even as the Democrats trepidatiously move to the left 
of Hillary Clinton's centrist campaign failure with economic proposals 
like the "Better Deal" and Bernie Sanders' single-payer health care 
bill, the issue of climate change has yet to catch fire in a 
game-changing, galvanizing way. The solutions that we are offered - buy 
LED light bulbs, buy solar panels, buy a composting bin, buy an electric 
car - are mostly individualistic. It's a sort of green self-betterment 
program in which the burden of fighting climate change is placed on 
regular people, as opposed to the industries, entities and structures of 
commerce that have contributed to our environmental crisis.
http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2017/09/25/climate-change-imagination-miles-howard

*Why Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Won't Lead to Action on Climate Change 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/09/21/why-hurricanes-harvey-and-irma-wont-lead-action-climate-change>*
Thursday, September 21, 2017
This fits the historical pattern: Clustered disasters might sharpen our 
senses to the risks in our midst and even disturb our complacency, but 
they will not necessarily lead directly to new legislation or personal 
ideological shifts. Strong commitments to land use, profits and real 
estate development have historically militated against calls for 
caution, restraint and mitigation, even though these types of laws make 
Americans safer from disasters. This dynamic will not be altered by two 
hurricanes, no matter how terrifying their effects.
Better indicators of change, drawing from history, have proven to be 
events that cluster over much larger stretches of time. A "slow 
disaster" frame allows civil society and scientific researchers to build 
a case for change that is strengthened by disaster events. For example, 
the red alert about the toxicity of DDT raised by Rachel Carson in 1962 
had immediate effects, but that was only one early step in a series of 
events that followed. It should be seen as part of a much more impactful 
and slower process of reform that led to the creation of the 
Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and a wave of environmental 
regulations that took effect in that decade.
https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/09/21/why-hurricanes-harvey-and-irma-wont-lead-action-climate-change

*This Day in Climate History September 26, 2004 
<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bill-oreilly-no-spin/> -  from D.R. Tucker*
September 26, 2004: In an apparent attack on his own bosses at the Fox
News Channel, Bill O'Reilly tells CBS News's Mike Wallace:
"[The] government's gotta be proactive on [the] environment. Global
warming is here. All these idiots that run around and say it isn't
here? That's ridiculous!"
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bill-oreilly-no-spin/
http://youtu.be/ZD39QY8ew3c

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