[TheClimate.Vote] April 18, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Wed Apr 18 11:01:53 EDT 2018
/April 18, 2018/
[latest legal engagement]
*Colorado Communities File Climate Lawsuits Vs. Two Oil Companies
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/04/17/colorado-climate-lawsuits-exxon-suncor/>*
By Dana Drugmand
Several Colorado communities have now joined the growing wave of
municipalities taking legal action against fossil fuel companies and
seeking compensation for the impacts of climate change.
The city and county of Boulder and the county of San Miguel on
Tuesday announced a new lawsuit against ExxonMobil and Suncor, two
of the largest oil companies with active operations in Colorado.
It's the first climate liability lawsuit filed by an interior,
non-coastal community in the U.S.
The Colorado communities - like coastal communities in California
and New York City - are demanding that fossil fuel companies help
pay for the costs associated with climate change impacts. They
allege that these companies long knew about the danger of
unrestrained fossil fuel burning and deliberately downplayed the
risk to policymakers and the public. As a result, communities face
severe climate impacts and rising costs.
"Climate change impacts are already happening and they are only
going to get worse," said Boulder County Commissioner Elise Jones.
"In fact, Colorado is one of the fastest warming states in the
nation. Climate change is not just about sea level rise. It affects
all of us in the middle of the country as well."
"Our communities and our taxpayers should not shoulder the cost of
climate change adaptation alone. These oil companies need to pay
their fair share," added Boulder Mayor Suzanne Jones.
In Colorado, climate change affects fragile high-altitude ecosystems
and hits at the heart of these communities' local economies,
affecting roads and bridges, parks and forests, buildings, farming
and agriculture, the ski industry, and public open space. Over the
next few decades, Colorado communities are expected to spend more
than $100 million to deal with those impacts.
- - - - -
"For over 50 years, Suncor and Exxon have known that fossil fuels
would cause severe climate impacts," Simons said. "To enhance their
own profits, they concealed this knowledge and spread doubt about
science they knew to be correct. Now, communities all over this
country are left to foot the bill."
"This lawsuit challenges the reckless behavior of all fossil fuel
companies," said Emma Bray of Earth Guardians and one of the youth
plaintiffs in the case Martinez v. Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation
Commission. "How does the oil and gas industry justify business that
will make the Earth uninhabitable?"
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/04/17/colorado-climate-lawsuits-exxon-suncor/
- - - -
[E&E NEW$]
*E&E News: Boulder sues oil companies over damages due to warming
<https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2018/04/17/stories/1060079323>*
The city of Boulder and two Colorado counties today sued Suncor Energy
Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp., joining a growing list of cities suing oil
and gas companies for damages associated with climate change.
The lawsuit alleges that the companies are responsible for altering
Colorado's climate by releasing greenhouse gas emissions into the
atmosphere and that they "concealed and misrepresented" the dangers of
fossil fuel use from the public.
The companies' actions have caused harm to residents and the state's
high-altitude ecosystems, according to the lawsuit. Climate change, the
suit says, has affected local economies, roads and bridges, parks,
buildings, agriculture and the state's ski industry...
read more https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2018/04/17/stories/1060079323
[Yale Climate Connections}
AUDIO
*Children's health is disproportionately affected by climate change
They're more vulnerable than adults
<https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/04/how-climate-change-hurts-childrens-health/>*
Rising temperatures, drought, and weather disasters can threaten
people's health. Nobody is exempt. But …
Perera: "The health of children is disproportionately affected by
climate change."
Frederica Perera is director of the Columbia Center for Children's
Environmental Health. She says children are vulnerable because their
immune systems are not mature. And, their rapidly growing bodies are
more sensitive to damage from disease and environmental contaminants.
In particular, children are more likely than adults to die from
diarrheal disease, which is expected to become more common in some
areas as the climate warms.
And some children are at more risk than others.
Perera: "It is the children living in low income countries and
communities who are most affected."
Low-income communities often lack the resources to effectively
prevent and treat illness. What's more, climate change-related food
shortages can lead to malnourishment, which puts children at greater
risk of other health problems.
To help protect children, Perera says we need to limit global
warming by reducing fossil fuel emissions.
Perera: "We know how to do this. Means are at hand now and the
science supports action now."
Author Sarah Kennedy is a Philadelphia-based writer and editor. She is
interested in how people think and talk about the connections between
climate change and their individual lives, livelihoods, and communities.
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/04/how-climate-change-hurts-childrens-health/
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT KNOWLEDGE PLATFORM
*High Level Panel on Water - 4 min Video: Water's Promise: Making Every
Drop Count <https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/HLPWater>*
Sustainable Development
Published on Mar 14, 2018
In April 2016 the United Nations Secretary-General and President of the
World Bank Group convened a High Level Panel on Water (HLPW), consisting
of 11 sitting Heads of State and Government and one Special Adviser, to
provide the leadership required to champion a comprehensive, inclusive
and collaborative way of developing and managing water resources, and
improving water and sanitation related services.
The core focus of the Panel was the commitment to ensure availability
and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, Sustainable
Development Goal (SDG) 6, as well as to contribute to the achievement of
the other SDGs that rely on the development and management of water
resources.
On 14 March 2018 the HLPW mandate ended with the release of their
outcome package consisting of an open letter to fellow leaders, an
outcome document, short summaries of key initiatives undertaken by the
Panel and a "galvanizing" video.
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/HLPWater
- - - - -
[The World Bank]*
Water Making Every Drop Count <http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/water>*
Water is at the center of economic and social development: it is vital
to maintain health, grow food, generate energy, manage the environment,
and create jobs. Water availability and management impacts whether poor
girls are educated, whether cities are healthy places to live, and
whether growing industries or poor villages can withstand the impacts of
floods or droughts...
- - - - -
However, 4.5 billion people lack safely managed sanitation services and
2.1 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water
services. And water-related hazards, including floods, storms, and
droughts, are responsible for 9 out of 10 natural disasters. Climate
change is expected to increase this risk, in addition to placing greater
stress on water supplies....
- - - - -
Of the 2.1 billion people who do not have access to safely managed
water, 844 million do not have even a basic drinking water service. Of
the 4.5 billion people who do not have safely managed sanitation, 2.3
billion still do not have basic sanitation services. As a result, every
year, 361,000 children under 5 years of age die due to diarrhea related
to poor sanitation and contaminated water, which are also linked to
transmission of diseases such as cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, and
typhoid.
Water supply and sanitation is just one aspect of the broader water
agenda. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) build on the success of
the last 15 years, while challenging donors and governments to address
issues of water quality and scarcity to balance the needs of households,
agriculture, industry, energy, and the environment over the next 15 years.
Water security is among the top global risks in terms of development
impact. It is also an integral part to the achievement of the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The world will not be able to meet
the sustainable development challenges of the 21st century - human
development, livable cities, climate change, food security, and energy
security - without improving management of water resources and
ensuring access to reliable water and sanitation services.
- - - - - -
Estimates show that with current population growth and water management
practices, the world will face a 40% shortfall between forecast demand
and available supply of water by 2030.
Today, 70% of global water withdrawals are for agriculture. Feeding 9
billion people by 2050 will require a 60% increase in agricultural
production and a 15% increase in water withdrawals.
The world will need more water for energy generation but already today,
over 1.3 billion people still lack access to electricity.
More than half of the world's population now lives in urban areas. And
the number is growing fast.
Groundwater is being depleted at a rate faster than it is being
replenished. By 2025, about 1.8 billion people will be living in regions
or countries with absolute water scarcity. A World Bank report published
in May 2016 suggests that water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change,
could cost some regions up to 6% of their GDP, spur migration, and spark
conflict.
The combined effects of growing populations, rising incomes, and
expanding cities will see demand for water rising exponentially, while
supply becomes more erratic and uncertain.
Last Updated: Apr 11, 2018
http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/water
- - - - - -
[Acequia is a community water course for irrigation ]
*Effects of climate change on communally managed water systems softened
by shared effort
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180416142503.htm>*
Science Daily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180416142503.htm
definition: Acequia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acequia>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acequia
- - - - - -
Studying the resilience of acequias
The researchers used a model based on the northern New Mexico town of
Valdez, which is the farthest upriver of 11 acequia systems along the
Rio Hondo. An acequia is a ditch that diverts water for farming and
agricultural use from upland streams by using gravity and head gates.
Acequia also refers to the community that uses and governs the ditch.
There are about 800 acequias in northern New Mexico and southern
Colorado. Some were originally built by Spanish colonists more than
three centuries ago.
"These acequias have gone through multiple changes in government, from
colonial times to modern day, and survived throughout all those social
changes," Gunda said. "Now they are facing natural changes from climate
change and increasing demands from downstream users."
- - - -
The research team used the two models to simulate three different
conditions. The three scenarios compare 30-year historical stream
outputs from 1969 to 1998 to 30-year periods in the near future (2019 to
2048) and the far future (2069 to 2098).
In the first scenario, the acequia experiences decreased water levels
and an earlier peak flow - the month when the acequia receives the
greatest amount of water. The community diverts water the same amount of
time as before, and closes its gate to let water continue downstream
about 25 percent of the time. An acequia will close its gate to ensure
downstream communities have sufficient access to the water based on
standing agreements.
In the second and third scenarios, the acequia still experiences
decreased water levels and earlier peak flows, but also faces increased
gate closures throughout the year, amounting to 50 percent of the year
in the second scenario, and 75 percent of the year in the third
scenario. This is based on the likely increased pressure from downstream
users asking their upstream neighbors to divert less water.
- - - - -
The results of the study were surprising, in the sense that agricultural
profitability actually increased during the first scenario," Gunda said.
"With the shift in peak stream flows to earlier in the season due to
climate change, the acequia members were able to use that earlier water
more productively, and it created this feedback cycle where because they
had more access to that water, they were able to grow more crops,
including more profitable crops, and that incentivized them to invest in
agriculture, and that time spent in agriculture strengthened the community."
In the second and third scenarios, Gunda says agricultural profitability
tanked, but the size of the community grew, because landowners were more
likely to sell pieces of their parcels so new members could enter the
community.
"We can look at the history of acequias and see that they are not very
sensitive to shock, otherwise they wouldn't have the capacity to stay
together for as long as they have," Gunda said. "When newcomers enter
the community and engage in agricultural work and help maintain the
acequia, that reinforces the bonds of the community. It gives them the
buffer to be able to stay together long enough to adapt to the new
conditions."
The findings show the mechanisms that strengthen community cohesion in
acequias -- time spent doing agricultural work and maintaining the ditch
together -- helped reinforce individual connections with the community,
which softened the impacts of climate change and helped the acequia stay
together.
"By taking this sociological look at the system, it helped us see some
behaviors and how these social systems might mitigate factors that would
otherwise pose challenges that could cause these systems to disappear,"
said Vince Tidwell, Sandia engineer and co-author of the paper.
While the study focused on acequias because of their historical
resilience, Gunda said the findings have broader implications for
communally-managed water systems worldwide.
"In Sri Lanka, community cohesion is focused on kinship and passing
down parcels of the land to your children, which perpetuates the
connection of families to the land," Gunda said. "In Bali, the
cohesion is focused around water temples and religious figures. All
these different modes of community cohesion exist, and our modeling
work shows that we really need to understand how these mechanisms
for community cohesion can lend themselves to increased resilience
in times of pressure. We need to understand the social structure as
well as the physical environment."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180416142503.htm
[from Dana Nuccitelli in TheGuardian]
*The courts are deciding who's to blame for climate change
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/apr/16/the-courts-are-deciding-whos-to-blame-for-climate-change>*
Oil companies? The government? The public? All of the above share the blame.
The oil companies do make a valid point that consumers share the
blame for causing climate change. The public has been aware of the
climate threat for over a decade – the subject was popularized in An
Inconvenient Truth in 2006. Yet 12 years later, Americans are still
buying gas guzzling trucks and SUVs, while hybrid and electric
vehicles account for just 3% of new car sales.
While the electrical grid has become cleaner due to the falling
costs of wind, solar, and natural gas displacing coal power plants,
Americans haven't done much to demand or spark that sort of change
in other energy sectors. That would take climate policy, which most
Americans (including Trump voters) support, but their support is
shallow. It's not an issue that decides votes, so policymakers
aren't pressured to take action.
The fossil fuel industry certainly bears some responsibility for
having funneled tens of millions of dollars to climate-denying think
tanks that have worked hard to misinform the American public.
Republican Party politicians and conservative media outlets have
followed their lead in helping to convey that climate
misinformation. A recent study found evidence that "Americans may
have formed their attitudes [on climate change] by using party elite
cues" delivered via the media. The history books will not reflect
well on today's American conservatives.
However, when hybrid cars have been mass produced for over 20 years
and yet 97% of new cars sold in America are still powered
exclusively by inefficient, polluting, 19th Century internal
combustion engine technology, Americans as a whole are also failing
to do their part to curb climate change.
There's plenty of blame to go around for the mounting climate costs,
but so far, taxpayers are footing the whole bill. There may
eventually be a court case in which the fossil fuel industry, like
the tobacco industry before it, is held responsible for its role in
deceiving the American public about the dangers of carbon pollution.
And American voters will eventually punish the Republican Party for
its decades of climate denial and policy obstruction. Accountability
is coming.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/apr/16/the-courts-are-deciding-whos-to-blame-for-climate-change
[video - nice explanation, very current]
*How a warmer Arctic could intensify extreme weather
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQliow4ghtU>*
Vox - Published on Apr 17, 2018
Is there a link between the vanishing Arctic sea ice and extreme weather?
Some prominent climate researchers think so. That's because warming
temperatures in the Arctic are altering the behavior of the polar jet
stream, a high-altitude river of air that drives weather patterns across
the globe. As the winds that propel the jet stream weaken, storms,
droughts, and extreme heat and cold move over continents at slower
rates, meaning bad weather can stick around for longer.
Eli Kintisch reports aboard the Norwegian research vessel Helmer Hanssen
about how changing conditions at the top of the world could be impacting
weather far away.
This video is part of a three-part series on the changing Arctic.
Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msD4agiRTxM
Thanks to the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting for supporting Thaw.
You can find this video and all of Vox's videos on YouTube. Subscribe
and stay tuned for more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQliow4ghtU
- - - - -
[Six minute video, well produced and current]
*What melting sea ice means for life in the Arctic
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msD4agiRTxM>*
Vox - Published on Apr 9, 2018
Light is flooding into the Arctic. There will be winners and losers.
That's what brought an international group of scientists to the Barents
Sea to investigate how plant and animal life will adapt to the new normal.
Two key factors that govern the arctic ecosystem are rapidly changing:
ice and light. The Arctic is the fastest warming place on earth, and ice
that used to form on the surface of the ocean is vanishing. That's
threatening species large and small that rely on it, but it's also
created an opportunity. Less ice means more light reaches the underwater
ecosystem, benefiting the algae that anchors it as well as apex
predators like whales and seals.
This video is part of a three-part series on the changing Arctic.
Thanks to the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting for supporting Thaw.
Subscribe and stay tuned for more.
Footage and story made possible by Interdependent Pictures' documentary
film, "Into the Dark," coming 2019. (Learn more:
https://www.interdependentpictures.or...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msD4agiRTxM
*In China – Solar Roads
<https://climatecrocks.com/2018/04/17/in-china-solar-roads/>*
April 17, 2018
People get really indignant about the possibility of solar roads, but I
think, frankly, if China decides there will be solar roads, there will
be solar roads. - Peter Sinclair
Bloomberg:
The road to China's autonomous-driving future is paved with solar
panels, mapping sensors and electric-battery rechargers as the
nation tests an "intelligent highway" that could speed the
transformation of the global transportation industry.
The technologies will be embedded underneath transparent concrete
used to build a 1,080-meter-long (3,540-foot-long) stretch of road
in the eastern city of Jinan. About 45,000 vehicles barrel over the
section every day, and the solar panels inside generate enough
electricity to power highway lights and 800 homes, according to
builder Qilu Transportation Development Group Co.
Yet Qilu Transportation wants to do more than supply juice to the
grid: it wants the road to be just as smart as the vehicles of the
future. The government says 10 percent of all cars should be fully
self-driving by 2030, and Qilu considers that an opportunity to
deliver better traffic updates, more accurate mapping and on-the-go
recharging of electric-vehicle batteries - all from the ground up.
"The highways we have been using can only carry vehicles passing by,
and they are like the 1.0-generation product," said Zhou Yong, the
company's general manager. "We're working on the 2.0 and 3.0
generations by transplanting brains and a nervous system."
The construction comes as President Xi Jinping's government pushes
ahead with a "Made in China 2025" plan to help the nation become an
advanced manufacturing power and not just a supplier of sneakers,
clothes and toys for export. The 10 sectors highlighted include
new-energy vehicles, information technology and robotics.
https://climatecrocks.com/2018/04/17/in-china-solar-roads/
[Opinion - audio podcast]
*Earth Is on the Verge of Collapse - Is Eco-Socialism the Only Answer?
<https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/04/09/earth-is-on-the-verge-of-collapse-is-eco-socialism-the-only-answer/>*
A Radical View of the Existential Crisis Facing Our Environment
We are facing planet-wide extinction, a climate emergency - and our
current course is suicidal.
That is the underlying belief of author and scientist Richard Smith, who
is Jeff Schechtman's guest on this week's WhoWhatWhy podcast.
Smith believes that our current model of capitalism, with virtually
unlimited growth and consumption, cannot sustain a planetary population
of nine billion people. He tells Schechtman that we do not need most of
what we consume, and that our current behavior must stop. But Smith's
Jeremiad goes even further.
He talks about the need to stop building planes and cars, to ration air
travel and fishing, to nationalize and take public control of the fossil
fuel industry, to close down oil companies and many manufacturers of
disposable consumer goods, and to make less stuff. He understands that
this may mean putting whole industries out of business and people out of
work, but he thinks it's the only way to keep the planet habitable for
humans.
As just one solution, Smith talks about the need for global agreements
on everything. That nation-states should no longer make many of the
decisions they do now. That we need global plebiscites, a contraction or
elimination of capitalism, and more global equality. Anything short of
this, he argues, will bring the collapse of civilization.
It's a radical set of views, but powerful food for thought.
Smith is the author of Green Capitalism: The God That Failed (College
Publications, 2016).
https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/04/09/earth-is-on-the-verge-of-collapse-is-eco-socialism-the-only-answer/
*This Day in Climate History - April 18, 1977
<http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=7369> - from D.R.
Tucker*
April 18, 1977: President Carter declares that the effort needed to
avert an energy crisis is the "moral equivalent of war."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=7369
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