[TheClimate.Vote] September 27, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Wed Sep 27 09:56:55 EDT 2017
/September 27, 2017/
*While Trump Tweets, Puerto Rico Still Waiting
<https://climatecrocks.com/2017/09/26/while-trump-tweets-puerto-rico-still-waiting/>
*The Atlantic:
Five days after Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, its
devastating impact is becoming clearer. Most of the U.S. territory
currently has no electricity or running water, fewer than 250 of the
island's 1,600 cellphone towers are operational, and damaged ports,
roads, and airports are slowing the arrival and transport of aid.
Communication has been severely limited and some remote towns are only
now being contacted. Jenniffer Gonzalez, the Resident Commissioner of
Puerto Rico, told the Associated Press that Hurricane Maria has set the
island back decades.
https://climatecrocks.com/2017/09/26/while-trump-tweets-puerto-rico-still-waiting/*
<https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/pope-francis-says-ask-scientists-about-their-uncertainties-on-global-w>**.
What every American needs to know about Puerto Rico's hurricane disaster
<https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/9/26/16365994/hurricane-maria-2017-puerto-rico-san-juan-humanitarian-disaster-electricty-fuel-flights-facts>
*9 essential things to know about Puerto Rico's humanitarian crisis.
Early on Wednesday, September 20, Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 4
hurricane with 150 mph winds, made direct landfall on Puerto Rico,
bisecting the entire island and drenching it with feet of rain. What's
happened since has been catastrophic for Puerto Rico.
There's still no power on the island, with the exception of a few
generators powering only the highest-priority buildings like hospitals.
That means in many places there's no water to drink or bathe in or to
flush toilets. There's limited food, fuel, and cell service, and it's
taken several days for reporters and rescue workers to reach remote
towns and villages.
"Make no mistake - this is a humanitarian disaster involving 3.4 million
US citizens," Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello' said Monday.*
1) 3.4 million US citizens live in Puerto Rico, and they are entitled to
the same government response as any state. But half of Americans don't
even know that.
2) Hurricane Maria was like a 50-mile-wide tornado that made a direct
hit on the island
3) Water, food, and fuel are scarce on the island. The airports are a
mess. Power will be out for months in some places.
4) Puerto Rico's economy is in shambles, and the storm will make it worse
5) Experts believe the death toll could reach into the hundreds
6) The US government is responding to the disaster, but it's going slow
7) Trump could be doing much more to help
8) Other Caribbean islands are hurting too
9) You can help
*It's easy to feel overwhelmed and numb in the face of such destruction.
In fact, it's a frustrating psychological tendency inside all of us:
When the number of victims in a disaster rises, our compassion doesn't
always rise with it. But remember, "even partial solutions can save
whole lives," as psychologist Paul Slovic has said.
Here's how you can help, at least in part. My colleagues Dylan Scott and
Ella Nilsen have complied this list of charities accepting donations to
help Puerto Rico.
*ConPRmetidos:*The Puerto Rican organization focused on public-private
partnership is aiming to raise $150,000 for relief and recovery. You can
give*here*
<https://www.generosity.com/emergencies-fundraising/irma-puerto-rico-real-time-recovery-fund>.
*American Red Cross:*Usually the first group people think of when giving
after a disaster. It says it is providing shelters for those displaced
by Irma, and it has thousands of volunteers on the ground. You can
give*here*
<https://www.redcross.org/donate/hurricane-irma-donations?utm_source=microussoccer-pub&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=irma&scode=BAG11070EY00&subcode=ussoccer-pub>.
(3/4 stars from*Charity Navigator*
<https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3277>.)
*Global Giving:*A charity crowdfunding site that is attempting to raise
$2 million to be used exclusively for local relief and recovery efforts.
You can give*here*
<https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/hurricane-maria-caribbean-relief-fund/>.
(4/4 stars from*Charity Navigator*
<https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=11648>.)
*Salvation Army:*The Christian charity is emphasizing its intentions to
help with long-term recovery. You can give*here*
<https://give.salvationarmyusa.org/site/Donation2;jsessionid=00000000.app362b?df_id=28057&mfc_pref=T&28057.donation=form1&NONCE_TOKEN=AE8A6CE194FC773E4D917471B18D9A54>.
*Americares:*The nonprofit focused on medicine and health is seeking to
provide emergency medical supplies and other basic resources to first
responders and others. You can give*here*
<https://secure.americares.org/site/Donation2?df_id=17060&17060.donation=form1&_ga=2.182539874.577574322.1505141245-1308687355.1503858628>.
(4/4 stars from*Charity Navigator*
<https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3289>.)
*It*'*s also a good idea to do some research before giving to a charity.
Not all of them have a great track record of making sure your money
directly goes to helping others. Vox*'*s Dylan Matthews has a greatlist
of advice here
<https://www.vox.com/2014/12/22/7434741/holiday-giving-charity-donation>.
*https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/9/26/16365994/hurricane-maria-2017-puerto-rico-san-juan-humanitarian-disaster-electricty-fuel-flights-facts*
**Hot, isolated, and running out of supplies, parts of Puerto Rico near
desperation - "This is clearly a critical disaster"
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/hot-isolated-and-running-out-of-supplies-parts-of-puerto-rico-near-desperation/2017/09/24/7f3bcc78-a139-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html>
*Many have been openly wondering when help will arrive, whether from
local officials or from the federal government. The first thing some
villagers ask when they see outsiders: "Are you FEMA?"
Mountains typically brimming with trees and other vegetation are brown
and desolate, stripped of all greenery. The mayor of 17 years said he
discovered a river he never knew existed in his town, because it was
always overgrown with plants. Curved bamboo lining the winding roads
were left as bare sticks.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/hot-isolated-and-running-out-of-supplies-parts-of-puerto-rico-near-desperation/2017/09/24/7f3bcc78-a139-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html*
Civil servants complain Trump is sidelining workers with expertise on
climate change, environment
<http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-civil-servants-201709-story.html>
*Interior Department manager Joel Clement figured his new bosses in the
Trump administration might disapprove of his climate-change-focused work
protecting Alaskan villages from rising seas...
But the reassignment slip Clement received in June stunned him. He was
not only removed from his post as director of policy analysis, he was
deposited into a new job auditing fossil fuel company leases.*
*Approximately 50 such slips went out to the department's most
experienced and highly paid managers. Other recipients interviewed were
just as puzzled as Clement. It seemed to them that they were getting
moved for the sake of getting moved — often to jobs unrelated to their
skills...
"I've talked to a lot of folks who have been around the federal
government for decades and they say transitions can be tough, but what
this group is doing is remarkable," said Clement, who filed a
whistler-blower complaint over the reassignment. "They have moved me
into an area I know nothing about. It might as well be Chinese."
Clement's old job has yet to be filled. The Alaskan villages he has
advocated for, he said, are on the verge of getting washed away.
Clement said the department's effort to train him for a job for which he
has no background or aptitude is coming at considerable taxpayer
expense. The process will take weeks and involve travel out west.
Clement is frustrated, and he said the whole process has placed
unnecessary stress on the government employees tasked with retraining him.
The effort Clement was previously spearheading — to coordinate
interagency aid to help relocate residents in imperiled Alaskan villages
- has largely stalled, he said.
"They are on the brink of becoming refugees," he said. "This is work we
need to do. This is not just bad governance, it is morally dangerous."
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-civil-servants-201709-story.html*
(new video) Naomi Klein's Speech to Labour Conference
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj1nuw38DqY>
*Labour Party Published on Sep 26, 2017 25 mins.
Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker Naomi Klein's full
speech to Labour Annual Conference 2017 in Brighton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj1nuw38DqY*
**
THE MAIL'S CENSURE SHOWS WHICH MEDIA OUTLETS ARE BIASED ON CLIMATE
CHANGE...
<http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/the_mail_s_censure_shows_which_media_outlets_are_biased_on_climate_change>
*Right-wing media outlets like Breitbart, Fox News, and Rush Limbaugh
echoed the Mail's "significantly misleading" and now censured climate
story...
Back in February, the conservative UK tabloid Mail on Sunday ranan
error-riddled piece
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/feb/05/mail-on-sunday-launches-the-first-salvo-in-the-latest-war-against-climate-scientists>byDavid
Rose <https://www.desmogblog.com/david-rose>attacking Noaa climate
scientists, who had published data and a paper showing thatthere was
never a global warming pause
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/jun/08/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-noaa-global-warming-faux-pause-paper>.
The attack was based on an interview with former NOAA scientist John
Bates,who subsequently admitted
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/feb/09/whistleblower-i-knew-people-would-misuse-this-they-did-to-attack-climate-science>about
his comments:
/"I knew people would misuse this. But you can't control other people."/
The UK press regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organization
(Ipso) has now upheld a complaint submitted by Bob Ward of the London
School of Economics.Ipso ruled
<https://www.ipso.co.uk/rulings-and-resolution-statements/ruling/?id=01032-17>that
the Mail piece "failed to take care over the accuracy of the article"
and "had then failed to correct these significantly misleading
statements," and theMail was required to publish the Ipso adjudication
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4891046/IPSO-adjudication-upheld-against-MoS-climatesciencearticle.html>.
The Mail's manufactured controversy
Essentially, Bates had expressed displeasure in the way the data from a
NOAA paper had been archived at the organization. Rose and the Mail blew
this minor complaint into the sensationalist claim that "world leaders
were duped into investing billions over manipulated global warming
data." It would be hard to find a better example of fake news than this
one. The piece included a grossly misleading chart that Nasa Goddard
Institute for Space Studies director Gavin Schmidt described as a
"hilarious screw up":
In fact, the NOAA data and paper in question had already
beenindependently verified by other researchers
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/jan/04/new-study-confirms-noaa-finding-of-faster-global-warming>,
and are in close agreement with global temperature data from other
scientific groups:
And of course the paper itself had undergone rigorous peer-review prior
to its publication in one of the world's most highly-regarded scientific
journals,Science
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/06/05/science.aaa5632>.
All signs pointed to the Noaa data and paper being based on sound
science that had been reproduced and verified. But that didn't fit the
preferred denialist narrative of Rose and the Mail on Sunday, so they
weaved a conspiracy theory that then reverberated through the right-wing
media echo chamber...
Rose's story seemed to have all the climate denial components that
biased conservative media outlets crave. A lone wolf scientist
whistleblowing his former colleagues with accusations of data
manipulation for political purposes? Despite the glaring errors in the
story that were immediately called out by climate scientists and
reputable science journalists, this narrative provedirresistible to the
conservative media
<https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2017/02/07/bogus-daily-mail-story-spearheads-latest-right-wing-assault-climate-change-science/215257>:
Breitbart, Fox News, Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh, The Daily Caller, The
Washington Times, and more ran with Rose's story. Meanwhile, legitimate
news outlets likeThe Guardian
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/feb/05/mail-on-sunday-launches-the-first-salvo-in-the-latest-war-against-climate-scientists>,The
Washington Post
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/02/07/as-the-planet-warms-doubters-launch-a-new-attack-on-a-famous-climate-change-study/?utm_term=.776593da7bb4>,Carbon
Brief
<https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-mail-sundays-astonishing-evidence-global-temperature-rise>,E&E
News <https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060049630>,Ars Technica
<https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/02/article-names-whistleblower-who-told-congress-that-noaa-manipulated-data/>,Science
Insider
<http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/how-culture-clash-noaa-led-flap-over-high-profile-warming-pause-study>,RealClimate
<http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2017/02/fake-news-hacked-mail-alternative-facts-thats-old-hat-for-climate-scientists/>,
and numerous other science blogs quickly debunked Rose's falsehoods....
The scientific evidence is crystal clear that human-caused global
warming is very dangerous. People whowant to maintain the status quo
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/22/climate-deniers-protect-status-quo-that-made-them-rich>that
favors fossil fuel companies, who oppose climate policies that disrupt
that status quo, need to somehow discredit that reality. They can't
argue the science, about which there's a97% expert consensus
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/apr/13/its-settled-90100-of-climate-experts-agree-on-human-caused-global-warming>,
so they instead attack the scientists themselves. They accuse these
scientists - who have devoted their careers to bettering our
understanding of the workings of Earth's climate - of fraud, conspiracy,
and manipulating data for nefarious purposes. Their goal isto
manufacture doubt <http://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/>.
Usually they get away with it. This time the Mail on Sunday's
"significantly misleading statements" were so bad that they were
censured, though not before they had misinformed millions of people.
However, the Ipso ruling tells us which media outlets are reliable
sources on the subject of climate change. Those that blindly echoed
David Rose's misinformation are not; those that debunked the Mail on
Sunday's distortions are.
http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/the_mail_s_censure_shows_which_media_outlets_are_biased_on_climate_change
*
Resilient cities
What would an entirely flood-proof city look like?
<https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/sep/25/what-flood-proof-city-china-dhaka-houston?CMP=share_btn_link>
*The wetter the better. From sponge cities in China to 'berms with
benefits' in New Jersey and floating container classrooms in the slums
of Dhaka, we look at a range of projects that treat storm water as a
resource rather than a hazard
The first major project is in Korail, a slum on the waterside in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, where five units will be arriving in October: a classroom, a
sanitation unit, a kitchen and a battery pack connected to a floating
solar field.
Olthuis says he works with nature, rather than treating it as a threat -
which means letting water flow where it wants, and using floods as a
catalyst for more flexible urban development. He talks of relieving
crowding in cities by building amphibious architecture on flood plains,
or augmenting a city with pop-up floating structures on waterways –
concert halls, stadiums, even rescue and relief units during disasters.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/sep/25/what-flood-proof-city-china-dhaka-houston?CMP=share_btn_link*
**potholer54 video *
*Did scientists REALLY just admit to exaggerating global warming?
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17mKIKGEF5E>*
I had to make this video in a matter of days because of all the nonsense
flying round the internet. Very fast for me! So I don't have time to
itemize all the sources in time sequence today, I'll do that as soon as
I can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17mKIKGEF5E
*
Key permit denied for Longview coal terminal project
<http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2017/071.html>
*LONGVIEW, WASH. - The Washington Department of Ecology has denied a
water quality permit sought by Millennium Bulk Terminals to construct
and operate the largest coal export terminal in North America.
Ecology denied the permit because the coal export terminal near Longview
would have caused significant and unavoidable harm to nine environmental
areas: air quality, vehicle traffic, vessel traffic, rail capacity, rail
safety, noise pollution, social and community resources, cultural
resources, and tribal resources.
"After extensive study and deliberation, I am denying Millennium's
proposed coal export project," said Ecology Director Maia Bellon. "There
are simply too many unavoidable and negative environmental impacts for
the project to move forward."
Some of the environmental impacts from building the coal terminal would
have included:
- filling 24 acres of wetlands,
- dredging 41.5 acres of the Columbia riverbed,
- installing 537 pilings in the river for a new trestle and docks.
This complex project, if built, would have moved 44 million metric tons
of coal annually. Coal would have been piled eight stories high and 50
football fields wide at the site.
To carry coal overseas, 1,680 new vessel transits would have been added
to the Columbia River, accounting for a quarter of all traffic on the river.
To carry coal to the terminal, 16 slow-moving, 1.3-mile-long trains
would have passed through Cowlitz County daily. This would have
compounded already significant traffic congestion during peak commute
times and affected emergency responders.
Eight of those 16 trains would have been fully loaded with coal
traveling west along the Columbia River and would have delayed tribes'
access to fishing sites above Bonneville Dam.
The coal terminal also would have increased diesel pollution, a toxic
air pollutant, and caused an unavoidable increase in cancer risk rates
in a neighborhood along the rail line in Longview.
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2017/071.html
*
How TV weather presenters can improve public understanding of climate
change <https://phys.org/news/2017-09-tv-weather-climate.html>*
The strongest trends in the survey, which had a 46% response rate, included:
97% of respondents thought climate change is happening;
97% of respondents believed viewers had either "strong trust" or
"moderate trust" in them as a reliable source of weather information;
91% of respondents were comfortable with presenting local historical
climate statistics, and just under 70% were comfortable with future
local climate projections; and
97% of respondents thought their audiences would be interested in
learning about the impacts of climate change.
According to several analyses of where Australians get their news, in
the age of ubiquitous social media TV is still the single largest news
source.
And when one considers that social media and now apps are increasingly
used as the interface for sharing professional content from news
organisations - which includes TV news - the reach of TV content is not
about to be challenged anytime soon.
https://phys.org/news/2017-09-tv-weather-climate.html
*This Day in Climate History September 27, 1988
<http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107346> - from D.R. Tucker*
September 27, 1988: In a speech to the Royal Society in London,
Margaret Thatcher addresses the environmental threats of global
warming, the ozone layer and acid rain, noting the risk of rising sea
levels to the Maldives.
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107346
/
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