[TheClimate.Vote] August 4, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sat Aug 4 12:15:09 EDT 2018
/August 4, 2018/
[now and near forecast]
*Scorching Summer in Europe Signals Long-Term Climate Changes
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/04/world/europe/europe-heat-wave.html>*
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/04/world/europe/europe-heat-wave.html
- - - -
*EUROPE weather forecast LIVE updates: Heatwave kills 3 as Europe faces
hottest EVER day
<https://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/998834/weather-forecast-live-europe-uk-heatwave-met-office-temperature-august-2018-latest-news>*
EUROPE faces its hottest day in history today as Britain and the
continent contend with killer heatwave conditions which have already
claimed THREE lives.
In some of Britain's favourite holiday resorts in Spain and Portugal the
mercury was expected to nudge 120 DEGREES FARENHEIT (49C) – and weather
forecasters were predicting Europe's highest ever temperatures at
locations further inland.
Eight areas in central, south and east of Portugal have already broken
local temperature records.
In Spain too, as the heatwave continues, health warnings issued in 41 of
the count
The European record of 48C,[118F] which was set in Athens in 1979, could
be topped as the blistering weather continues and British holidaymakers
brace themselves, with forecasters predicting Spain and Portugal's
hottest days ever.
Spain's heatwave death toll reached three after a middle-aged man was
found lying in a Barcelona street, bleeding from the mouth.
Civil Protection workers covering the area tweeted: "Medical response
workers inform us a man has died in Barcelona from heatstroke."
*2.49pm update: EDF halts four nuclear reactors over heatwave*
Energy company EDF has temporarily halted four nuclear reactors at three
power plants in France due to rising temperatures throughout Europe, as
Portugal and Spain near record highs...
https://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/998834/weather-forecast-live-europe-uk-heatwave-met-office-temperature-august-2018-latest-news
*2.00pm update: Central Portugal reaches 46C [115F]*
Central Portugal has reached a whopping 46C, as experts predict the
country may face the hottest day it has ever seen...
*12.56pm update: Wildfire breaks out in Portugal*
More than 740 firefighters have been called in to battle a forest fire
in southern Portugal as temperatures near record highs in the Iberian
Peninsula...
*12.14pm update: Finnish supermarkets holds heatwave sleepover*
A supermarket in Finland has invited customers to sleep over in its
air-conditioned shop in an attempt to stay cool and refreshed throughout
Saturday evening, as temperatures rise...
*11.22am update: Sweden under wildfire threat*
Sweden remains under threat from wildfires, which in recent weeks have
extended into the Arctic Circle, as temperatures roar...
https://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/998834/weather-forecast-live-europe-uk-heatwave-met-office-temperature-august-2018-latest-news
[39 percent contained]
*Thousands more evacuated from California's largest wildfire
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-wildfires/thousands-more-evacuated-from-californias-largest-wildfire-idUSKBN1KO2IH>*
(Reuters) - Thousands more mountain residents were evacuated from the
path of California's biggest wildfire on Friday as fatigued firefighters
battled gusting winds driving one of the state's worst fire seasons in a
decade...
- - -
The Carr Fire spawned a "fire whirl" of flames and winds in excess of
143 mph (230 kph) on July 26 that had the strength of a severe tornado
and uprooted trees and toppled power lines, according to a tweet by the
National Weather Service...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-wildfires/thousands-more-evacuated-from-californias-largest-wildfire-idUSKBN1KO2IH
- - - -
[benchmark a burning swirl]
One minute of video
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/local/weather/massive-terrifying-fire-tornado-sweeps-through-california/2018/08/03/d805d43a-973c-11e8-818b-e9b7348cd87d_video.html>
*California's Carr Fire may have unleashed the most intense fire tornado
ever observed in the U.S.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/08/03/californias-carr-fire-may-have-unleashed-the-most-intense-fire-tornado-ever-observed-in-the-u-s/?utm_term=.2b3894ff8a70>*
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/08/03/californias-carr-fire-may-have-unleashed-the-most-intense-fire-tornado-ever-observed-in-the-u-s/?utm_term=.2b3894ff8a70
Video:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/local/weather/massive-terrifying-fire-tornado-sweeps-through-california/2018/08/03/d805d43a-973c-11e8-818b-e9b7348cd87d_video.html
[top opinions]
*With wildfires raging globally, we have exactly the wrong president for
fighting climate change
<http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-ol-le-climate-change-trump-fires-20180804-story.html>*
the Trump administration wants nothing to do with the fight against
global warming. The president's first Environmental Protection Agency
chief, Scott Pruitt, tried to roll back policies aimed at helping the
planet fight climate change. He had to resign because of so many
scandals, leading to his replacement by Andrew Wheeler, a former coal
industry lobbyist. He may be worse than the guy he replaced.
This is just the guy you want looking out for the protection of the planet.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-ol-le-climate-change-trump-fires-20180804-story.html
- - - -
*When fire season lasts all year long
<http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-carr-fire-wildfires-climate-change-20180730-story.html>*
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-carr-fire-wildfires-climate-change-20180730-story.html
[Just information. Sit and breath]
*What Do We Do When the Science Gets Scary: Climate Change and the End
of Civilization? <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pg3RnPBXRY>*
Thom Hartmann Program interviews Dr. Michael Mann
Published on Aug 2, 2018
What do we as progressives do when it is no longer hyperbole but the
science predicting catastrophic civilization ending climate change
scenarios?
"So this is an example of a an unwelcome surprise another example of how
things in some sense might be worse than we had thought not better"
Join us on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/thomhartmann where you can
also watch a re-run of the three hour program at any time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pg3RnPBXRY
[Stay cool, even 85 F can be dangerous]
*Uninhabitable Regions with Extreme Heat and Humidity
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQwLz7oVBfw>*
Paul Beckwith
Published on Aug 2, 2018
*At 35 degrees Celsius (95 F) and 100% humidity (at 100% humidity this
temperature is called the wet-bulb temperature) the human body is unable
to cool itself by sweating,* since the sweat will not evaporate from the
skin. As a result, the body core temperature rises, heat exhaustion and
then heatstroke sets in. A physically healthy person sitting in the
shade, in a well ventilated area, is dead in 6 hours. Higher
temperatures, and correspondingly lower humidity do the same thing. The
very young, old, people on medication, etc. succumb to less extreme
temperatures and humidity.
This video expands upon my last video, which explains how many regions
around the planet are reaching these uninhabitable conditions. Please
support my videos with a donation at http://paulbeckwith.net
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQwLz7oVBfw
- --
[One more Paul Beckwith]
*Human Body Limit to Heat Stress from Abrupt Climate Change
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKAAn0Iy2wY>*
Paul Beckwith - Published on Aug 3, 2018
The average persons core body temperature is 98.6 F (37 C). Human skin
is a few degrees colder, being about 35 C (95 F). Heat travels from hot
regions to cold regions, according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Thus when the wet-bulb temperature, which is the temperature at 100%
humidity, reaches 35 C (95 C) the human body can no longer shed heat
(sweat no longer evaporates), thus core body temperature rises, and the
healthiest person, sitting in the shade, dies in about 6 hours. The rest
of us (young, old, medicated, out-of shape, obese, etc...) are SOL at
even lower wet-bulb temperatures. Adaptation would require living inside
with AC, living in caves, or wearing cooled suits; who wants to do that??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKAAn0Iy2wY
[Media is not well practiced in addressing this subject]
*The Real Missing Villain In The New York Times Magazine's 31,000-Word
Climate Opus
<https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ny-times-climate-change_us_5b62058ce4b0de86f49d7b38>*
The story laments a lost opportunity when climate change was a
bipartisan issue from 1979 to 1989. But another bipartisan change was
happening too.
headshot
By Alexander C. Kaufman
It's obvious why controversy engulfed The New York Times Magazine's
31,000-word opus on climate change before it was even published online
Wednesday morning.
The story, titled "Losing Earth," takes an ambitiously nuanced stab at
anthropogenic global warming. Writer Nathaniel Rich chronicles the years
from 1979 to 1989, a window when the science made clear that greenhouse
gases were warming the planet and the fossil fuel industry's
big-tobacco-style misinformation campaign hadn't yet warped the debate
or weaponized the Republican Party into full-scale denial. The story is
a rumination on regret, a deliberate attempt to step beyond the
orthodoxies of climate messaging of clear-cut villains and urgent calls
for change and instead dwell on what could have been, had policymakers
acted rationally. It's an exercise in hindsight.
In doing so, Rich pats on the back Republicans like President George
H.W. Bush and then-Sens. John Chafee (R.I.), Robert Stafford (Vt.) and
David Durenberger (Minn.), who at the time "called for urgent, immediate
and far-reaching climate policy," Rich writes. He acknowledges the
fossil fuel industry as a "common boogeyman" but credits companies like
Exxon and Shell with making "good-faith efforts to understand the scope
of the crisis and grapple with possible solutions," at least in the
early stages.
The villain, he concludes with the sort of heady literary flourish that
distinguishes magazine writing from other journalism, is humanity's
incapacity for proactive planning. Faced with an existential threat,
policymakers in the world's richest and most powerful nation neglected
even the most basic tools at their disposal.
"We have a solution in hand: carbon taxes, increased investment in
renewable and nuclear energy and decarbonization technology," Rich
concludes in the epilogue. "We can trust the technology and the
economics. It's harder to trust human nature."
The New York Times on Aug. 1 published "Losing Earth," an ambitious
dissection of a lost opportunity for the U.S. to take action against
climate change.
But do we trust the economics? At a private dinner at a Manhattan hotel
Tuesday night, Rich pre-emptively repelled criticism by reminding an
audience of roughly two dozen climate reporters, academics and New York
Times editors that his job as a writer did not include propagandizing
policies that should be. But the story omits critical context about the
economic philosophy that came to dominate policymaking in the developed
world.
The rise of neoliberalism - a form of laissez-faire capitalism that
preaches prosperity through privatization and quasi-religious reverence
for the wisdom of unfettered markets - tracks the period covered in
Rich's story. Democratic President Jimmy Carter first embraced
neoliberalism in the late 1970s, when he began deregulating the
trucking, banking and airline industries.
After defeating Carter in 1980, President Ronald Reagan repackaged the
philosophy as Reaganomics and pumped it with steroids - slashing taxes
and regulations on the financial industry and promoting runaway growth
and free trade. In February 1986, The New York Times breathlessly
summarized Reagan's proposal during a State of the Union address to
dramatically reduce federal spending on pollution controls, public
housing and energy research as a "welfare plan to free poor from
government dependency."
George H.W. Bush's administration, despite nodding to the need to
address the greenhouse effect, continued pushing for welfare reform and
laid the groundwork for the North American Free Trade Agreement. After
Bill Clinton won the White House, he ushered in an era of Democratic
politics that included gutting welfare programs and sanctioning mass
privatization in the name of political centrism. In the 1992 election,
only independent candidate Ross Perot opposed NAFTA.
That economic thinking has dominated for so long, it has become, for
many, the conventional wisdom, not unlike believing vanilla is
plain-flavored ice cream. Even the philosophy's most vocal proponents
take it as such a norm that they refuse to name it. Jonathan Chait, who
devotes many of his New York magazine columns to defending centrist
orthodoxy, dismissed the term "neoliberalism" as nothing more than "the
left's favorite insult of liberals." It's as though the effects of
neoliberalism aren't plainly obvious - dramatically worsening income
inequality; dilapidated and debt-laden public transit, housing and
parks; and crumbling unions.
President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale at the White
House in December 1979. Carter first embraced neoliberalism in the late
1970s, when he began deregulating the trucking, banking and airline
industries.
But above all, it has left us with a rapidly changing climate and a
policy discourse devoid of solutions on the scale of the actual problem.
The United States has not passed any significant environmental
legislation at the national level since the 1980s, instead relying on
market incentives and consumer labeling to address issues ranging from
greenhouse gas pollution, conservation and toxic chemicals, according to
a 2016 paper in the Utah Law Review. The paper concluded that neoliberal
policy "asks for the challenging valuation of natural resources and asks
consumers to make choices in the aggregate that will achieve
environmental goals when they may not be in the best position to do so."
In 2014, British environmentalist George Monbiot warned that the rise of
the "natural capital agenda," a movement to assign financial value to
nature, was "gobbledygook," considering that pollution itself is
evidence of market failure. A 2012 study published in the journal
Environmental Politics blamed "market fetishism" for undermining
large-scale federal legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while
failing to foster effective policies that don't involve government
intervention, sequestering climate action to the subnational level.
Rich nods to this but never really explores the forces that have
prevented us from taking significant steps: "Keeping the planet to two
degrees of warming, let alone 1.5 degrees, would require transformative
action. It will take more than good works and voluntary commitments; it
will take a revolution. But in order to become a revolutionary, you need
first to suffer."
The suffering is now upon us. A wildfire in Greece last month killed 91
people. The Carr Fire, the largest of 17 ongoing fires in California and
the seventh biggest in the state's history, has killed six people and
displaced tens of thousands of others. A global heat wave last month
killed up to 70 people in Quebec in Canada alone. Last year shattered
records, with $306 billion in damage from unprecedented hurricanes,
floods and wildfires.
Revolutionary ideas are now - finally - entering the mainstream.
Democratic socialist congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's
surprise primary victory over party stalwart Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.)
in June gave momentum to a growing crop of candidates running on a Green
New Deal platform to spend billions of dollars on building up renewable
energy and rapidly ending fossil fuel use.
The last time the Democratic Party attempted a major climate policy was
in 2009, with the introduction of a cap-and-trade bill, which, applying
neoliberalism in its purest form, would have put a price on carbon
emissions and created a market in which companies could sell permits to
pollute. Yet even that failed in 2010, when Barack Obama's White House
abandoned the legislation as a wave of austerity politics crashed over
the Western world.
In attempting to capture the regret of a decade of missed opportunity,
Rich missed the fact that the biggest mistake is one we haven't stopped
making.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ny-times-climate-change_us_5b62058ce4b0de86f49d7b38
[Don't forget to remember]
*CLIMATE CHANGE'S LOOMING MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS
<https://www.wired.com/story/climate-changes-looming-mental-health-crisis/>*
FOR THE INUIT of Labrador in Canada, climate disaster has already
arrived. These indigenous people form an intense bond with their land,
hunting for food and fur. "People like to go out on the land to feel
good," says Noah Nochasak in the documentary Lament for the Land. "If
they can't go out on the land, travel a long ways to feel good, they
don't feel like people."
The Inuit's lands, though, are warming twice as fast as the global
average, imperiling the ice they rely on to travel. In the fall, hunters
tend to get stuck in the community, because ice hasn't fully formed up -
and again, in the spring, when things are melting. Climate change is
making these ice transition periods even longer.
"During those times historically, there has been some increases in
suicide or suicide attempts or ideation in the communities," says Ashlee
Cunsolo, a health geographer who has studied the region. "There is a lot
of concern among the mental health practitioners. What does that mean if
this time is lengthened from two weeks to eight weeks?"
It's known as ecological grief - the mourning of ecosystems and species
and ways of life that are disappearing as the planet warms. But it isn't
just hitting the Inuit. As our planet plays host to rising seas, more
intense storms, and higher temperatures, those conditions will support a
growing international mental health crisis.
"Things like depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder,
substance abuse, domestic abuse, all these things tend to go up in the
aftermath of a natural disasters," says psychologist Susan Clayton of
the College of Wooster, co-author of an extensive repor
<http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/mental-health-climate.pdf>t
on climate change and mental health. "As we have more natural disasters,
one would expect to also have increases in those kinds of mental health
consequences."...
- - -
The root of our shared problem may be the same, but the manifestations
of climate change can be wildly different. "Each region, each place,
each culture, is going to experience something very, very different,"
says Cunsolo. For the Inuit, it's about ice. For the Southern US, it's
supercharged hurricanes. As with all health care, prevention is the best
medicine. But in the case of climate change, we may be too late.
https://www.wired.com/story/climate-changes-looming-mental-health-crisis/
- -
[An Extensive Report] See p. 43
*MENTAL HEALTH AND OUR CHANGING CLIMATE: IMPACTS, IMPLICATIONS, AND
GUIDANCE
<http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/mental-health-climate.pdf>*
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/mental-health-climate.pdf
- - - -
[36 min video classic]
*Lament for the Land <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi7QTyHERjY>*
Published on Sep 21, 2014
Told through the voices of 24 people from Nunatsiavut, Labrador, Lament
for the Land weaves together the voices and wisdom of Labrador Inuit
with stunning visual scenery to tell a powerful story of change, loss,
and hope in the context of rapid climate change in the North. A
collaboration between researcher Dr. Ashlee Cunsolo Willox and the five
communities of Nunatsiavut, this film brings attention to some of the
most pressing climatic and environmental issues of our time, and the
resulting mental, emotional, and cultural impacts on one of Canada's
oldest and most enduring cultures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi7QTyHERjY
[Navigating A New Climate - Public webinars 14 August 2018]
*WEBINAR: ASSESSING CLIMATE-RELATED PHYSICAL RISKS IN THE BANKING
INDUSTRY – OUTPUTS OF A WORKING GROUP OF 16 BANKS
<http://www.acclimatise.uk.com/2018/07/26/webinar-assessing-climate-related-physical-risks-in-the-banking-industry-outputs-of-a-working-group-of-16-banks-piloting-the-tcfd/>*
BY ACCLIMATISE NEWS - EVENTS
This webinar will discuss the results of a collaboration between sixteen
of the world's leading banks with UN Environment Finance Initiative
(UNEP FI), and climate risk and adaptation advisory firm Acclimatise,
which resulted in the new report "Navigating A New Climate". The banks
set out to develop and test a widely applicable scenario-based approach
for estimating the impact of climate change on their corporate lending
portfolios as recommended by the Recommendations of the Financial
Stability Board's Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures
(TCFD).
The webinar will focus on the physical-related risk and opportunities,
which is the risk resulting from climate variability, extreme events and
longer-term shifts in climate patterns, and constitutes the second in a
two-part series publishing both the physical risk and transition risk
assessment methodologies developed through the Working Group's
collaboration.
Please register for Aug 14, 2018 9:00 AM CEST at:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1720729492566710275
Please register for Aug 14, 2018 4:00 PM CEST at:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8033504035186836995
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing
information about joining the webinar.
http://www.acclimatise.uk.com/2018/07/26/webinar-assessing-climate-related-physical-risks-in-the-banking-industry-outputs-of-a-working-group-of-16-banks-piloting-the-tcfd/
[Acclimatise]
*Released: Lenders' Guide for considering Climate Risk in Infrastructure
Investments <http://www.acclimatise.uk.com/news/>*
Acclimatise,
Climate Finance Advisors (CFA), and Four Twenty Seven have released a
new guidance
document to increase the climate resilience of large infrastructure
investments. The "Lenders' Guide for
Considering Climate Risk in Infrastructure Investments" clearly breaks
down the ways in which physical
climate risks might affect key financial aspects of prospective
infrastructure investments.
The Guide provides a framework for examining how revenues, costs, and
assets can be linked to potential
project vulnerability, along with opportunities, arising from climate
change.
Ten sub-sectors, encompassing airports, marine ports, gas and oil
transport and storage, power
transmission and distribution, wind-based power generation, data
centres, telecommunications,
commercial real estate, healthcare, and sports and entertainment are
analysed as illustrative examples.
Link:
http://www.acclimatise.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Lenders_Guide_for_Considering_Climate_Risk_in_Infrastructure_Investments.pdf
More information:
http://www.acclimatise.uk.com/2018/08/02/new-investor-toolkit-launched-for-managing-climate-risk-and-investing-in-resilience/
http://www.acclimatise.uk.com/news/
*This Day in Climate History - August 4, 2002
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/04/opinion/broken-promises-and-political-deception.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm>
- from D.R. Tucker*
August 4, 2002: In a New York Times op-ed, Al Gore notes:
"I believe Bill Clinton and I were right to maintain, during our 1992
campaign, that we should fight for 'the forgotten middle class' against
the 'forces of greed.' Standing up for 'the people, not the powerful'
was the right choice in 2000. And, in fact, it is the Democratic Party's
meaning and mission. The suggestion from some in our party that we
should no longer speak that truth, especially at a time like this,
strikes me as bad politics and, worse, wrong in principle.
"This struggle between the people and the powerful was at the heart of
every major domestic issue of the 2000 campaign and is still the central
dynamic of politics in 2002. The choice, not just in rhetoric but in
reality, was and still is between a genuine prescription drug benefit
for all seniors under Medicare -- or a token plan designed to trick the
voters and satisfy pharmaceutical companies. The White House and its
allies in Congress have just defeated legislation that would have
fulfilled the promises both parties made in 2000.
"The choice was and still is between a real patients' bill of rights --
or doing the bidding of the insurance companies and health maintenance
organizations. Here again: promise made, promise broken. The choice was
and still is an environmental policy based on conservation, new
technologies, alternative fuels and the protection of natural wonders
like the Alaskan wilderness -- or walking away from the grave challenge
of global warming, doing away with Superfund cleanups and giving in on
issue after issue to those who profit from pollution."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/04/opinion/broken-promises-and-political-deception.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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