[TheClimate.Vote] September 28, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Sep 28 09:03:47 EDT 2017
/September 28, 2017/
*Bloomberg Climate Shocks May Cost U.S. $1 Billion a Day
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-27/climate-shocks-may-cost-u-s-1-billion-a-day-as-planet-heats-up>*
Stronger hurricanes, hotter heat waves, more frequent wildfires and more
severe public-health issues are all adding to the costs of climate
change, which will reach almost $1 billion a day in the U.S. within a
decade, according to a report released Wednesday.
Total costs to address the impact of rising temperatures will swell 50
percent by 2027, to $360 billion annually, according to the study from
the Universal Ecological Fund. That equates to about 55 percent of
expected economic growth in the U.S.
The report comes as the U.S. continues to reel from one of the costliest
hurricane seasons in history. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria have
inflicted an estimated $173 billion in damage in Texas, Florida, Puerto
Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. On the West Coast, record dry
conditions and heat have triggered wildfires in nine states. Unless the
U.S. cuts fossil fuel use, the economic toll from such events will
continue to rise, the study concludes.
"The increasing damage from climate-change related storms, wild fires,
human health, agriculture loss and the like are taxing the potential of
economic growth," said James McCarthy, a Harvard University professor
whose co-authors included Robert Watson, former chairman of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The researchers weren't paid
for their work.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-27/climate-shocks-may-cost-u-s-1-billion-a-day-as-planet-heats-up
*National Geographic - Hidden Costs of Climate Change Running Hundreds
of Billions a Year
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/09/climate-change-costs-us-economy-billions-report/>*
And yet this does not include this past months' three major hurricanes
or 76 wildfires in nine Western states. Those economic losses alone are
estimated to top $300 billion, the report notes. Putting it in
perspective, $300 billion is enough money to provide free tuition for
the 13.5 million U.S. students enrolled in public colleges and
universities for four years.
In the coming decade, economic losses from extreme weather combined with
the health costs of air pollution spiral upward to at least $360 billion
annually, potentially crippling U.S. economic growth, according to this
new report, The Economic Case for Climate Action in the United States,
published online Thursday by the Universal Ecological Fund.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/09/climate-change-costs-us-economy-billions-report/
REPORT - Sep 27, 2017
*Climate Change in the Latino Mind: May 2017
<http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-change-latino-mind-may-2017/>
Para leer el reporte en espanol, haga clic aqui.
<http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/perspectivas-de-latinos-en-ee-uu-sobre-el-cambio-climatico/>
*Our latest national study finds that self-identified Latinos in the
United States are more convinced global warming is happening and
human-caused, more worried about it, more supportive of climate change
policies, and more willing to demand political action than non-Latinos.
Further, Spanish-language Latinos are more engaged with the issue of
climate change than English-language Latinos.
More than eight in ten Latinos (84%) think global warming is
happening, including nearly nine in ten Spanish-language Latinos (88%).
Seven in ten Latinos (70%) understand global warming is mostly human
caused, including three-quarters of Spanish-language Latinos (76%).
Three in four Latinos (78%) are worried about global warming; one in
three (35%) are "very worried", including 43% of Spanish-language
Latinos, who are "very worried".
Three in four Latinos want corporations and industry (77%), citizens
themselves (74%), President Trump (74%), and the U.S. Congress (73%)
to do more to address global warming.
Many Latinos are willing to take political action on global warming,
including a majority who would vote for a candidate for public
office because of their position on global warming (60%). A majority
are also willing to join a campaign to convince elected officials to
take action to reduce global warming (51%), including 61% of
Spanish-language Latinos.
Seven in ten Latinos (71%) have never been contacted by an
organization working to reduce global warming. more at Key Findings
<http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-change-latino-mind-may-2017/2/>
Overall, we find a very consistent pattern: Latinos are much more
engaged with the issue of global warming than are non-Latinos. Latinos
are more convinced global warming is happening and human-caused, more
worried about it, perceive greater risks, are more supportive of climate
change policies, and are more willing to get involved politically.
Within the Latino community, we find another consistent pattern: while
Latinos, generally, are more engaged with the issue of global warming
than are non-Latinos, Spanish-language Latinos are even more engaged
than English-language Latinos.
http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-change-latino-mind-may-2017/
Para leer el reporte en español, haga clic aquí:
<http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/perspectivas-de-latinos-en-ee-uu-sobre-el-cambio-climatico/>
http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/perspectivas-de-latinos-en-ee-uu-sobre-el-cambio-climatico/
*Another Youth Climate Lawsuit Turns to Crowdfunding in Portugal
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/09/27/youth-climate-lawsuit-portugal-wildfires/>*
After more than 60 people died in wildfires that scorched central
Portugal this summer, a London nonprofit group plans to file suit
against 47 European countries on behalf of six children affected by the
fires. The lawsuit aims to force the countries to cut their climate
pollution and help prevent future global warming-related disasters...
TheGlobal Legal Action Network
<http://www.glanlaw.org/single-post/2017/09/24/Crowdfunding-campaign-for-climate-change-legal-action-launched>(GLAN)
launched a crowdfunding campaign on Monday to raise the initial $27,000
of an estimated $471,000 necessary to begin assembling the case, which
the group hopes to file in theEuropean Court of Human Rights
<http://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=home>sometime in 2018 or later...
The proposed lawsuit was inspired in part by a similar U.S. suit filed
by a group of children in Oregon,Juliana v. United States
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/07/13/the-kids-climate-case-against-the-u-s-government-a-timeline/>,
which is arguing for a human right to a stable climate and force the
U.S. government to cut its greenhouse gas emissions...
Scientists say climate changewas a factor
<http://www.climatecentral.org/news/warming-tipped-june-heat-wave-21585>in
exacerbating the Iberian Peninsula's extreme summer heat wave, which
pushed temperatures to 109 degrees F in central Portugal in mid-June.
The heat fueledmassive wildfires
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Portugal_wildfires>that burned more
than 111,000 acres in Portugal'sPedrógão Grande
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedr%C3%B3g%C3%A3o_Grande>region—among
the worst blazes in the country's history...
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/09/27/youth-climate-lawsuit-portugal-wildfires/
*BBC: Climate change: Ministers should be 'sued' over targets
<http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41401656>*
"The government knows very well what needs to be done - but it isn't
doing it.
"If it takes legal action to force ministers to behave properly, then so
be it - I'll support it."
Prof King is backing a preliminary legal action by a tiny group, Plan B,
run by former government lawyer Tim Crosland.
It argues that Business Secretary Greg Clark is obliged under the act to
tighten targets if the science shows it is needed. This is the basis of
the case.
"If scientists are telling us our current course of emissions
potentially takes us to catastrophe, then to stick to the current course
is irrational.
"The best available science tells us the risks of crossing tipping
points rise very sharply between 1.5 and 2C. And that means the UK
cutting emissions to zero."
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41401656
*Pascal's Wager And Global Climate Change: Hedging Your Bet When the
Cost of Error is Too High
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pascals-wager-and-global-climate-change-hedging_us_59c944c3e4b0f2df5e83b066>*
Eric K. Clemons Professor of Operations Information and Decisions, The
Wharton School
Blaise Pascal was a brilliant 17th century French philosopher. Rather
than try to prove the existence of God, he chose instead to prove to
skeptics why they should believe in the existence of God and live their
lives as if God existed, even without proof. He constructed the
now-famous Pascal's Wager, probably the first use of modern decision
analysis. We can start with his argument, and apply it to the current
debate about Global Warming and Global Climate Change. Like Pascal, I
cannot prove the existence of Climate Change. But just like Pascal, I
believe that I can prove that you should act as if it is real. Indeed, I
show that the only reason for acting as if human-driven Climate Change
is not real is if you believe we are doomed anyway; in that case, ignore
Climate Change and enjoy civilization while it lasts.
*Pascal's argument is really simple:*
If God exists and you bet that He does not, your penalty relative to
betting correctly is enormous. If God does not exist and you bet that He
does, your penalty relative to betting correctly is inconsequential. So,
without additional information, you should always bet that God exists.
*My argument is almost identical to his and just as simple.*
If Climate Change exists and you bet that it does not, your penalty and
the penalty of all of human civilization, relative to betting correctly,
is enormous. If Climate Change does not exist and you bet that it does,
your penalty relative to betting correctly is inconsequential. So,
without additional information, you should always bet that Climate
Change exists...
I am not the first person to compare Pascal's Wager to the analysis of
Climate Change. See How to bet on climate change
<https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jul/03/climate-change-pascal-wager>
for an early example.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pascals-wager-and-global-climate-change-hedging_us_59c944c3e4b0f2df5e83b066
*How to bet on climate change
<https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jul/03/climate-change-pascal-wager>
*Pascal's Wager is more useful for deciding which way to go on climate
change than on, say, religion
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jul/03/climate-change-pascal-wager*
* *
**Is Climate-Themed Fiction All Too Real? We Asked the Experts
<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/26/climate/climate-books-fiction-scifi-novels.html>*
New York Times... Caribbean this month, Paolo Bacigalupi's readers
started sending him news clips. ... Anthropogenic warming has increased
the state's drought risk, but ... but pretty far into the distant future
when global warming really has an effect ...
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/26/climate/climate-books-fiction-scifi-novels.html
*The Importance of Ice Thickness in Assessing the Impact of Climate
Change in the Arctic
<https://psmag.com/environment/important-of-ice-thickness-in-assessing-climate-damage>*
This year's thinner, slushier ice is more vulnerable than the past's
thick, multi-year ice, and it melts out rapidly during a spike in
temperature or intense cyclonic activity...
Some scientists are now saying colloquially that the Arctic Ocean has in
recent decades entered the "Thin Ice Age." Since 1980, the average ice
thickness come July has decreased by an estimated 120 centimeters (47
inches)...
"We're not seeing any sort of recovery in the sea ice. Even if we have
an average summer like this one — there was nothing remarkable in the
air temperatures — but we still were among the lowest. I think that's
where thickness comes into play," said Stroeve. "We're not recovering to
the conditions we saw in the 1980s or 1990s and that is because the
thickness of the ice has gotten to the point where you're not getting
any recovery anymore."
https://psmag.com/environment/important-of-ice-thickness-in-assessing-climate-damage
http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2017/08/guest-blog-arctic-prediction-models.html
Betting on Chaos: Financial Firms Seek to Cash In on Climate Change
<https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/betting-chaos-financial-firms-seek-cash-climate-change>
There's a perverse new way to profit off of future climate misery.
Earlier this month the Financial Times reported that a new climate
change prediction market [subscription required] is being created in the
United Kingdom. The market, similar to a sports betting book, is the
"brainchild" of the financial firm Winton Capital. Initially, the market
will allow bets on levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and on
temperature rises, but Winton Capital hopes to expand it in the future
so that sea level rise, extreme weather, and other pollution levels
become the topic of bets.
What's equally strange is that Winton Capital is paying for this market
out of its philanthropic budget. There's nothing philanthropic about
betting on climate change.
This announcement is just the latest outgrowth of the perverse attempt
to reduce the value of nature to financial values. And, in this
instance, it is coupled with a claim that monetary bets - in which real
people can make real money for placing bets on climate change - will
reveal a "scientific consensus" about what damage we are doing to our
climate
this desire to reduce the science of climate change to financial bets
ought not to have surprised us. It is the advance of the ideology that
seeks to replace real regulation of pollution with pollution markets and
to reduce the value of nature to a form of capital. And, it is as
misguided as those attempts. Like them it is not about truly trying to
prevent climate change or save our environment - it is an attempt to
allow business as usual and to find new streams of profit for financiers.
We do not need to find a "market consensus" on carbon dioxide levels.
We already know there is a scientific consensus that humans have put too
much carbon and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and we know
that if you understand that science, then you know we must act now to
get off fossil fuels and move to 100% clean energy as quickly as
possible. Instead of gambling on side bets about how bad climate change
has become, we should be doing everything we can to prevent it from
becoming worse.
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/betting-chaos-financial-firms-seek-cash-climate-change
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