[TheClimate.Vote] December 19, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/December 19, 2018/

[Significant]
The Chesapeake Climate Action Network was honored to help lead this 
fight with our core partner Sierra Club! And big thanks to Moms Clean 
Air Force, SEIU, Interfaith Power and Light, Citizens Climate Lobby, and 
so many more!
Mike Tidwell
Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
*DC City Legislators Give Final Approval to 100% Clean Electricity 
Mandate By 2032 <http://chesapeakeclimate.org/category/press-releases/>*
In nation's capital: Groundbreaking "omnibus" climate statute also 
creates dramatic building efficiency standards, incentivizes electric 
cars, funds a "Green Bank," and invests in solar and weatherization for 
low- and moderate-income residents
*STATEMENT FROM CCAN ACTION FUND*
WASHINGTON – In the wake of alarming federal and international climate 
reports, elected leaders of the District of Columbia -- representing 
nearly 700,000 people in the nation's capital city -- today gave final 
approval to a bill to mandate 100 percent of the city's electricity come 
from clean renewable power by the year 2032. This represents the 
strongest legislative mandate of its kind of any state in America.

The "Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act of 2018" also creates enormous 
incentives for electric cars, sets groundbreaking efficiency standards 
for existing buildings, and expands a pollution fee on electricity, 
natural gas and home-heating oil. It then invests that carbon revenue in 
a special "Green Bank" for clean energy loans and efficiency and solar 
programs for low and moderate income residents. Here's a summary of the 
bill's main features (final bill with amendments available upon request).

"After the Trump Administration's shameful performance at the Poland 
climate talks, this bill in the nation's capital is a real beacon of 
hope," said Mike Tidwell, Director of the CCAN Action Fund, a sister 
group of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.  "This bill was two 
years in the making, and involved everyone from neighborhood moms to top 
business leaders to champions on the DC Council. We're going to send 
clean energy to the White House and members of Congress whether they're 
ready for it or not."...More at 
http://chesapeakeclimate.org/category/press-releases/


[Surging political power in the workforce]
*Amazon feels heat from employees on climate change and disclosing its 
efforts 
<https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-employees-push-company-to-act-faster-on-climate-change-and-disclose-more/>*
December 17, 2018
While Amazon has set some ambitious climate-related goals, observers say 
it has been among the least transparent of its competitors in disclosing 
how and when it intends to meet them...
- -
About 16 Amazon employees, who are also company shareholders thanks to 
stock-based compensation, have filed a shareholder resolution asking the 
company's board of directors to publicly report on how the Seattle-based 
commerce giant "is planning for disruptions posed by climate change, and 
how Amazon is reducing its company-wide dependence on fossil fuels."

While Amazon has taken steps toward reducing its carbon emissions and 
even has set a goal to one day power all of its global infrastructure 
with renewable energy, some employees and observers don't think the 
company has gone far enough, fast enough. But they can't tell for sure, 
and see its recent actions -- such as procuring a fleet of 20,000 
diesel-powered delivery vans -- as unconvincing.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-employees-push-company-to-act-faster-on-climate-change-and-disclose-more/


[Surging waves break]
*Giant, 'Extremely Dangerous' Waves Crash Into California Coast 
<https://www.npr.org/2018/12/18/677767424/giant-extremely-dangerous-waves-crash-into-california-coast>*
Massive waves are breaking along the coast of California, and the 
National Weather Service is warning of "potentially life-threatening 
conditions" and urging people to stay away from the water.
- -
As of Tuesday morning, the surf in Los Angeles was at 16 to 22 feet, the 
weather service says, while San Francisco was seeing breakers of 15 to 
25 feet...
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/18/677767424/giant-extremely-dangerous-waves-crash-into-california-coast


[CNBC noticed more than US media]
*Most Americans want action on climate change. Republicans are the 
exception: Poll 
<https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/americans-want-action-on-climate-change-republicans-are-the-exception-poll.html>*
- In a new NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll 66 percent of Americans 
now say they've seen enough evidence to justify action on climate 
change, up from 51 percent two decades ago.
- That figure incorporates 85 percent of Democrats, 79 percent of 
independents, 71 percent of women, 61 percent of men and strong 
majorities of all racial groups.
- Resistance comes only from the one-third of Americans who identify 
themselves as Republicans. A 56 percent majority of the GOP says either 
that concern about climate change is unwarranted or that more research 
is necessary before taking action.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/americans-want-action-on-climate-change-republicans-are-the-exception-poll.html


[Audio podcast from WIRED]
*Apocalypse Now*
[climate change starts about 11 mins in.]
MOST PEOPLE, AT this point, believe that climate change is a real thing 
that will harm future generations of humans. And yet, a cognitive 
dissonance exists around that knowledge and our sense of responsibility: 
A much smaller percentage of people believe that climate change is 
impacting them personally, according to Yale's climate survey program.

It is indeed impacting humans right now, with clear and compelling 
evidence that the global average temperature is much higher than 
anything modern society has experienced. And that has lead us to a whole 
host of issues, some of which WIRED writer Adam Rogers discusses with 
the Gadget Lab team on this week's podcast.

So what can we humans do to fix things – and how much of it can actually 
be fixed by personal actions, versus widespread policy? How much does 
our own consumption of tech add to the problem? We ask Adam these 
questions and more.
https://www.wired.com/2018/12/gadget-lab-podcast-388/
https://soundcloud.com/wired/apocalypse-now


[Cough, cough. Think, think,]
*The full story on climate change requires the long view* 
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181217151531.htm>
A new study shows what nine different world regions have contributed to 
climate change since 1900, and what will happen moving forward
Date: December 17, 2018
Source: Colorado State University
Summary: Researchers offer a new calculation that provides the long view 
of what nine different world regions have contributed to climate change 
since 1900. They also show how that breakdown will likely look by 2100 
under various emission scenarios.
The science is clear that human activities over the last century have 
contributed to greenhouse-like warming of the Earth's surface. Much of 
the global conversation around climate change fixates on what individual 
countries or regions are contributing to the problem, and what they will 
do (or not do) to reverse the tide.

But Colorado State University's A.R. Ravishankara, University 
Distinguished Professor who holds joint appointments in the departments 
of chemistry and atmospheric science, says the full picture is longer 
and more complex than meets the eye. It involves a legacy of past 
actions, as well as irreversible commitments for the future.

Ravishankara and co-author Daniel Murphy of the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration offer a new calculation that provides the 
long view of what nine different world regions have contributed to 
climate change since 1900. They also show how that breakdown will likely 
look by 2100 under various emission scenarios. Their study is in 
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dec. 17.

They call their calculation "cumulative radiative forcing" because it 
integrates the ebb and flow of climate factors throughout the past 
century, rather than just a snapshot of what it is today. "Radiative 
forcing" is a metric that measures the sun's energy that is retained by 
Earth. Global warming is the result of positive radiative forcing, or 
more energy being retained by Earth than escaping back into space.

*Their study also underscores the insidious two-sided role of 
particulate matter pollution in the atmosphere, the result of burning 
fossil fuels, wildfires, and other human activities that have spewed 
pollution and dust into the atmosphere over many decades. Such aerosols 
are short-lived in the atmosphere, but they have a net cooling effect 
due to their interaction with sunlight and clouds. While carbon dioxide 
and other greenhouse gases linger in the atmosphere and continue 
contributing to warming for many years, aerosols dissipate, along with 
their net cooling effects, more quickly. In total, the presence of 
aerosols has masked some of the effects of global warming.*

In their analysis, the researchers found that, for example, between 1910 
and 2017, China, Europe and North America each had periods of nearly no 
net contributions to warming. These periods were characterized by rapid 
industrialization and growth of GDP, when fossil fuel emissions 
increased but few air quality controls were enforced. The study further 
shows that each region's contribution to radiative forcing due to carbon 
dioxide (and other greenhouse gases) emissions from 2018 to 2100 will be 
larger than the total warming contributed during the last century.

"To date, China has contributed very little," Ravishankara said. "China 
has essentially paid for their carbon dioxide emissions through bad air 
quality."

But as China implements clean air standards moving forward, and the 
nation's emissions increase at a slower rate, its share of contributions 
to climate change will increase, according to the study. North America 
is the largest contributor now and will remain so even in 2100.

The two-sided coin of aerosols -- short-lived cooling, but harmful to 
human health -- is starkly illustrated in a separate study authored by 
CSU postdoctoral researcher Liji David, Ravishankara and other 
colleagues, to be published online in GeoHealth. The researchers 
estimate that more than 1 million premature deaths per year in India are 
due to exposure to "ambient particulate matter" -- air pollution in the 
form of breathable particles like sulfate aerosols, dust and soot. In 
India, residential energy use -- biomass burning in homes for heating 
and cooking -- is the dominant contributor to this premature mortality rate.

Of the estimated 1.1 million premature deaths in 2012 from small 
particulate matter in India, about 60 percent were due to anthropogenic 
pollutants emitted within the region, according to the study.

Yet to date, India's contribution to climate change has been minimal as 
shown by Murphy and Ravishankara in PNAS, as it will be even by 2100, 
compared with other nations. As India implements clean air policies and 
works to reduce premature deaths from air pollution, its role in climate 
change may increase due to the aerosols playing less of a role in 
offsetting climate change, but human health will improve.

Ravishankara stresses that people should look at effects of emissions 
holistically. Future climate scenarios must take into account all 
warming contributions to date, and the effects of those contributions 
moving forward. Emissions reductions would not only help climate, but 
also human health, he says. Aggressively reduced carbon dioxide and 
other emissions, for the sake of the planet and for the sake of human 
health, are the only viable options.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181217151531.htm


[more Greta please]
*You Are Stealing Our Future: Greta Thunberg, 15, Condemns the World's 
Inaction on Climate Change*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzeekxtyFOY



[Green New Deal]
*This Radical Plan to Fund the 'Green New Deal' Just Might Work*
Posted on December 17, 2018 by Ellen Brown
With what Naomi Klein calls "galloping momentum," the "Green New Deal" 
promoted by newly-elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) appears 
to be forging a political pathway for solving all of the ills of society 
and the planet in one fell swoop. It would give a House Select Committee 
"a mandate that connects the dots between energy, transportation, 
housing, as well as healthcare, living wages, a jobs guarantee" and 
more. But to critics even on the left it is just political theater, 
since "everyone knows" a program of that scope cannot be funded without 
a massive redistribution of wealth and slashing of other programs 
(notably the military), which is not politically feasible.

Perhaps, but Ocasio-Cortez and the 22 representatives joining her in 
calling for a Select Committee are also proposing a novel way to fund 
the program, one which could actually work. The resolution says funding 
will primarily come from the federal government, "using a combination of 
the Federal Reserve, a new public bank or system of regional and 
specialized public banks, public venture funds and such other vehicles 
or structures that the select committee deems appropriate, in order to 
ensure that interest and other investment returns generated from public 
investments made in connection with the Plan will be returned to the 
treasury, reduce taxpayer burden and allow for more investment."
https://ellenbrown.com/2018/12/17/this-radical-plan-to-fund-the-green-new-deal-just-might-work/


[because ice floats on top of water]
*Arctic Lakes Are Vanishing by the Hundreds 
<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/arctic-lakes-are-vanishing-by-the-hundreds/>*
Warming temperatures may be causing tundra ponds to evaporate or drain 
into thawing permafrost
By Chelsea Harvey, E&E News on December 18, 2018
- -
Research suggests that small lakes and ponds across the Arctic tundra 
are also steadily disappearing. Hundreds, in fact, have vanished from 
the landscape in the last few decades alone. Some of them may have been 
there for hundreds of years, scientists say.
It may seem counterintuitive on a landscape where frozen ice and snow 
are rapidly turning into liquid water. Scientists had once speculated 
that climate change may actually increase the number of lakes across the 
tundra, as thawing permafrost--a layer of frozen soil common in the 
Arctic--causes water to pool on the landscape.

But surveys increasingly suggest the opposite is happening.

New research, presented last week at the fall meeting of the American 
Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C., found that hundreds of tundra 
ponds have vanished from a single corner of western Greenland over the 
last 50 years. Satellite imagery shows that more than 400 ponds near the 
town of Kangerlussuaq, out of a survey of more than 2,000, have 
disappeared since 1969. Others have persisted but are smaller than they 
once were.
A variety of factors may be at play, according to lead researcher 
Rebecca Finger of Dartmouth College. In part, a warming climate may be 
causing more water to evaporate in some regions. And, perhaps 
unexpectedly, thawing permafrost likely also plays a large role--just 
not in the way scientists once thought it might.
As the soil warms and softens, some small lakes may simply drain right 
into the groundwater. Thawing permafrost may also release certain 
nutrients into the soil as it warms up, increasing the growth of 
vegetation. As plants spring up on the landscape, they can invade small 
ponds and eventually overtake them entirely, said Christian Andresen, a 
postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin...
- -
On an Arcticwide scale, it's still unclear whether vanishing lakes are 
likely to have a significant effect on carbon emissions. That kind of 
research may be "the next part of the story on what's happening in terms 
of carbon fluxes from the shrinking ponds," Andresen said.
In a broader sense, the vanishing lakes may also be a warning sign of 
other changes yet to come as the climate continues to warm. Thawing 
permafrost, in and of itself, is also known to release large quantities 
of methane and carbon dioxide, which scientists worry may become a 
growing contributor to climate change.
And if the Arctic continues to dry out, the landscape may also change in 
other ways--for instance, by becoming more prone to wildfires.
Just last year, the final year of Finger's study period, "there was 
actually a fire that broke out on the tundra of West Greenland which was 
highly unusual," she said in an email.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/arctic-lakes-are-vanishing-by-the-hundreds/


[COP24 is done]
*'Maddening' Climate Talks End in a Weak Agreement That Won't Avert 
Catastrophe*
https://earther.gizmodo.com/maddening-climate-talks-end-in-a-weak-agreement-that-wo-1831125501


[Al Gore tweet]
Al Gore
Former Vice President Al Gore said the Central American migrant caravan 
seeking asylum in the U.S. is a "recent, startling example" of global 
warming forcing people from their homes.
"People from all over the world are being forced to migrate because the 
climate crisis is affecting their livelihood. The migrant caravan from 
Central America is a recent, startling example," Gore tweeted Monday.
https://twitter.com/algore/status/1074720945124900864


[Activist video - classic movie hit]
Coming soon in 2019 to a theater near you:
*One man... his last chance... to protect New Yorkers from climate 
change. What will he do?! *#CuomosClimateCrisis
Please watch and SHARE this fun video calling on Governor Cuomo to pass 
the Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA) in 2019.
Share on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/NYRenews/videos/599477323837931
Share on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/NYRenews/status/1075031872965672960
Thanks! Appreciate the support in building momentum for the CCPA, a bill 
for a transition to 100% renewable energy with climate justice values at 
the core.


*This Day in Climate History - December 19, 2007 
<http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2008/05/19/174039/waxman-white-house-epa/>- 
from D.R. Tucker*
EPA administrator Stephen Johnson, under orders from the Bush White 
House, denies a request by seventeen states, including California, for a 
Clean Air Act waiver that would allow the states to cut carbon pollution 
from vehicles.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/19/AR2007121902012.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/washington/20epa.html
http://youtu.be/hf_HYL92rgQ Schwarzenegger slams Bush, EPA 1:04
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2008/05/19/174039/waxman-white-house-epa/
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