[TheClimate.Vote] February 2, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Fri Feb 2 09:20:52 EST 2018

/February 2, 2018/

[Climate messaging to meteorologists]
*Climate Change: Dr Jim White (January 2018) <https://youtu.be/iPFNyRzrzdo>*
video duration 1:15 [/this is an excellent briefing of current science /]
https://youtu.be/iPFNyRzrzdo

[Right to Protest]
*As Trump Unfurls Infrastructure Plan, Iowa Bill Seeks to Criminalize 
Pipeline Protests 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/01/31/iowa-bill-alec-criminalize-pipeline-protest>*
By Steve Horn
The Iowa Senate has advanced a bill which critics say could lead to the 
criminalization of pipeline protests, which are being cast as "terrorist 
activities." Dakota Access pipeline 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/energy-transfer-partners-bakken-oil-pipeline-through-iowa>ownerEnergy 
Transfer Partners 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/19688>and other 
companies have lobbied for the bill, Senate Study Bill 3062 
<https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/LGI/87/SSB3062.pdf>, which 
opens uup the possibility of prison time and a hefty fine for those who 
commit "sabotage" of critical infrastructure, such as oil and gas pipelines.
This bill, carrying a criminal punishment of up to 25 years in prison 
and $100,000 in fines, resembles the Critical Infrastructure Protection 
Act 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/12/11/alec-model-bill-pipeline-protesters>, 
a "model" bill recently passed by the American Legislative Exchange 
Council (ALEC) 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/american-legislative-exchange-council>. 
ThatALECbill, intended as a template for state and federal legislation, 
was based on Oklahoma'sHB1123 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/04/23/fracking-billionaire-philip-anschutz-dhs-memo-pipeline-opponents-terrorists>, 
which calls for citizens to receive a felony sentencing, $100,000 fine, 
and/or 10 years in prison if their actions "willfully damage, destroy, 
vandalize, deface, or tamper with equipment in a critical infrastructure 
facility."
According todisclosure records 
<https://www.legis.iowa.gov/lobbyist/reports/declarations?ga=87&ba=SSB3062>, 
corporations lobbying for the Iowa bill include not only Energy Transfer 
Partners, but also Koch Industries 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/koch-industries-inc>, theAmerican Petroleum 
Institute, <https://www.desmogblog.com/american-petroleum-institute> 
Valero Energy, Magellan Midstream, and others. The Iowa State Police 
Association has also come out in support of the bill, while the American 
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Iowa is against it. The bill has passed 
out of subcommittee and next goes in front of the state Senate Judiciary 
Committee...
Video of: Iowa officials discuss bill aimed at preventing criminal acts 
against pipelines and other critical infrastructure. 
<https://www.desmoinesregister.com/videos/news/2018/01/25/iowa-officials-discuss-bill-aimed-preventing-criminal-acts-against-pipelines-and-other-critical-infrastructure/109822424/> 
State Sen. Jack Shipley and Iowa Homeland Security legislative liaison 
John Benson discuss a legislative bill intended to prevent criminal acts 
against pipeline and other critical infrastructure.
The bill's introduction comes as PresidentDonald Trump 
<https://www.desmogblog.com/donald-trump> called for Congress topass a 
$1.5 trillion infrastructure bill 
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trumps-state-union-address/>in 
his State of the Union Address, which according to aleaked outline 
<https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4360780/White-House-Draft-Plan-to-Streamline-Federal.pdf>of 
his proposalpublished by The Washington Post 
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-plan-would-reduce-environmental-requirements-for-infrastructure-projects/2018/01/26/b15bd66a-0248-11e8-8acf-ad2991367d9d_story.html?utm_term=.924f32b23fc5>, 
includes pipelines and would expedite the federal regulatory permitting 
process for them, largely by simply removing environmental requirements.
https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/01/31/iowa-bill-alec-criminalize-pipeline-protest

[National Geographic]
*Polar Bears Really Are Starving Because of Global Warming, Study Shows 
<https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/polar-bears-starve-melting-sea-ice-global-warming-study-beaufort-sea-environment/>*
New science sheds more light on recent controversy over how much the 
large carnivores are being impacted by melting sea ice.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/polar-bears-starve-melting-sea-ice-global-warming-study-beaufort-sea-environment/

[USA Today]
*Global temperatures could pass limit set by Paris climate deal within 5 
years 
<https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2018/02/01/global-temperatures-could-pass-limit-set-paris-climate-deal-within-5-years/1087326001/>
*...the forecast from the United Kingdom's Met Office says. It's now 
likely temperatures will exceed 1 degree Celsius, or 1.8 degrees 
Fahrenheit, as soon as 2022.
"It is the first time that such high values have been highlighted within 
these forecasts," the Met Office said in a statement 
<https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2018/decadal-forecast-2018>.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2018/02/01/global-temperatures-could-pass-limit-set-paris-climate-deal-within-5-years/1087326001/

[conclusion]
*Climate change threatens half of US bases worldwide, Pentagon report 
finds 
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/31/climate-change-threatens-us-military-bases-pentagon>*
Defense department says wild weather could endanger 1,700 sites
Findings run counter to White House views on climate
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/31/climate-change-threatens-us-military-bases-pentagon
-
[Pentagon Report Jan 2018]
*Department of Defense Climate-Related Risk to DoD Infrastructure
Initial Vulnerability Assessment Survey
<https://climateandsecurity.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/tab-b-slvas-report-1-24-2018.pdf>*(SLVAS) 
Report January 2018
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, 
and Logistics
*Survey Process* To identify DoD installations with vulnerabilities, the 
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations 
and Environment, *initiated a preliminary Screening Level Vulnerability 
Assessment Survey (SLVAS) of DoD sites worldwide*
  The survey asked respondents to identify any negative effects they may 
have
experienced from extreme weather effects, both on the assets on the DoD 
site itself as well as any
observed effects on similar assets in the surrounding community that 
provided supporting services
  (e.g., utilities, transportation, emergency response) for the DoD site.
These included:
Flooding due to storm surge
Flooding due to non-storm surge events (e.g., rain, snow, sleet, ice, 
river overflow)
Extreme temperatures (both hot and cold)
Wind
Drought
Wildfire...
*Analysis, Trends and Conclusions*
The SLVAS responses yielded a wide range of qualitative information.  
The highest number of reported effects
resulted from drought (782) followed closely by wind (763) and non-storm 
surge related flooding (706)
About 10% of sites indicated being affected by extreme temperatures 
(351), while flooding due to storm surge (225) and wildfire (210) affected
about 6% of the sites reporting.  Nearly 50% of sites (1,684) reported 
they had no effects to any assets from the effects.
The geographic dispersion of sites reporting negative effects from one 
or more effects was very broad and was very similar
to those reporting no effects at all.
This may have more to do with the nature of a qualitative survey 
completed by hundreds of different users than it did the actual sites 
themselves.
The asset categories most reported as having one or more effects in the 
past were: airfield operations, followed by transportation 
infrastructure, energy infrastructure, training/range facilities, and 
water/wastewater systems to round out the top five. Logistics/supply 
operations ranked last in reported effects.
The survey responses provide a preliminary qualitative picture of assets 
currently affected by severe weather events (e.g., storm surge, 
wildfires, high winds) as well as an indication of assets that may be 
affected by sea level rise in the future.
https://climateandsecurity.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/tab-b-slvas-report-1-24-2018.pdf

[CO2 Sequestration unlikely]
*'Silver bullet' to suck CO2 from air and halt climate change ruled out 
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/01/silver-bullet-to-suck-co2-from-air-and-halt-climate-change-ruled-out>*
Scientists say climate targets cannot be met using the technologies, 
which either risk huge damage to the environment or are very costly
 From simply planting trees to filtering CO2 out of the air, the 
technologies that some hope could be a "silver bullet" in halting global 
warming either risk huge damage to the environment themselves or are 
likely to be very costly.
Virtually all the pathways laid out by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel 
on Climate Change (IPCC) to reach the targets in the Paris agreement 
require huge deployment of so-called negative emissions technologies 
(NETs) in the second half of the century.
This is because cuts in CO2 are expected to be too slow to hit zero 
emissions quickly enough, so the overshoot has to be recaptured later by 
NETs. The IPCC calculates that about 12bn tonnes a year will need to be 
captured and stored after 2050 - the equivalent of about a third of all 
global emissions today...
The new report is from the European Academies Science Advisory Council 
(EASAC), which advises the European Union and is comprised of the 
national science academies of the 28 member states. It warns that 
relying on NETs instead of emissions cuts could fail and result in 
severe global warming and "serious implications for future generations".
The report assesses the range of possible technologies, including 
"bioenergy with carbon capture and storage" (BECCS), on which the IPCC 
scenarios rely heavily. BECCS involves growing trees, which take CO2 
from the atmosphere, and then burning them to produce electricity while 
capturing the emissions and burying them.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/01/silver-bullet-to-suck-co2-from-air-and-halt-climate-change-ruled-out
-
[CO2 sequestration]
*Negative emission technologies  What role in meeting Paris Agreement 
targets? <https://easac.eu/publications/details/easac-net/>*
...They find that NETs (negative emission technologies) have "limited 
realistic potential" to halt increases in the concentration of 
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at the scale envisioned in the 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios. This new 
report finds that none of the NETs has the potential to deliver carbon 
removals at the gigaton (Gt) scale and at the rate of deployment 
envisaged by the IPCC,..
*Download EASAC Report on Negative Emissions Technologies 
<https://easac.eu/fileadmin/PDF_s/reports_statements/Negative_Carbon/EASAC_Report_on_Negative_Emission_Technologies.pdf>*
https://easac.eu/fileadmin/PDF_s/reports_statements/Negative_Carbon/EASAC_Report_on_Negative_Emission_Technologies.pdf
"Relying on NETs to compensate for failures to adequately mitigate 
emissions may have serious implications for future generations,"
https://easac.eu/publications/details/easac-net/

*Kids Sue Colombian Government to Save the Amazon, Protect Climate 
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/02/01/colombia-government-protect-climate-amazon/>*
A group of 25 young people in Colombia are petitioning a court to 
protect their constitutional rights to life and a healthy environment. 
The group is asking the court to require the government to honor its 
climate commitment and stop deforestation in the Amazon...
This week's case, uses a legal mechanism created in 1991 that guarantees 
citizens a prompt court consideration on claims of constitutional rights 
violations.
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/02/01/colombia-government-protect-climate-amazon/

[South Africa drought]
*A Massive Drought Could Leave 4 Million People Without Water. Here's 
What You Need To Know. 
<https://www.buzzfeed.com/tamerragriffin/a-massive-drought-could-leave-four-million-people-without?>*
People in Cape Town, South Africa, have two and a half months to 
conserve as much water as they can before it all runs out on "Day Zero."
*Cape Town, one of the largest cities in Africa, is running out of water.*
Unless residents can limit their consumption, or the city gets a massive 
amount of rainfall within the next two months, the city of just over 4 
million will become the first in the world to be completely drained of 
water.
On Feb. 1, the South African city's government ordered residents not to 
use more than 13 gallons of water a day, a 9-gallon drop from its 
previous mandate. (For scale, people in the US use between 80 and 100 
gallons of water a day.) The restrictions are part of its larger, 
desperate attempt to avoid "Day Zero," the ominous name given to the 
date that Cape Town is expected to be effectively waterless...
*- The situation in Cape Town is the result of a three-year-long drought 
that has dried up the city's dams, an event scientists say is linked to 
climate change...
- Day Zero is when Cape Town is supposed to run out of water, but the 
date keeps changing..
**- In order to avoid Day Zero altogether, the Cape Town government has 
issued water restriction rules and set up collection points all over the 
city...
**- People form long lines every day at the collection points to fill 
their jugs with water...
**- It's too soon to say whether what's happening in Cape Town is a 
warning sign for other big cities dealing with drought...*
He also mentioned Los Angeles, another big city recently stricken with 
drought, but said it was impossible to draw connections between them.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/tamerragriffin/a-massive-drought-could-leave-four-million-people-without
-
[Cape Town's Water Crisis]
*From the Inside: The Countdown to Day Zero 
<https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2018-01-22-from-the-inside-the-countdown-to-day-zero/#.WnPwoK7txpg>*
HELEN ZILLE  22 JAN 2018 (SOUTH AFRICA)
Those of us whose job it is to monitor developments in Cape Town's water 
crisis saw the indicators move sharply this week, in the wrong direction.
There was bad news - catastrophic actually - on three fronts:
- Cape Town's water usage went up again, to over 600-million litres per 
day, despite major efforts, over six months, to bring it down below 
500-million litres.
- The SA Weather Service informed us that as far as forecasting goes, we 
are flying blind. Last year the forecast of a wet winter proved to be 
widely off the mark. On Friday, the SA Weather service told us bluntly: 
We cannot predict whether or when rain will come. Previous forecasting 
models have proved useless in the era of climate change.
- Day Zero - when the taps in suburbia are switched off - has moved from 
the realm of possibility to probability. There is no way in which water 
augmentation schemes will compensate for our ongoing failure to curb 
demand sufficiently in the short term...
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2018-01-22-from-the-inside-the-countdown-to-day-zero/#.WnPwoK7txpg

[Opinion]
*It's not okay how clueless Donald Trump is about climate change 
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/feb/01/its-not-okay-how-clueless-donald-trump-is-about-climate-change>*
We've come to accept Trump's ignorance, but it's often dangerous...
...While this is all behavior that we've come to expect from Donald 
Trump, that doesn't make it okay. He may beAmerica's worst-ever 
president 
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/jun/01/donald-trump-just-cemented-his-legacy-as-americas-worst-ever-president>, 
but he's still the leader of one of the world's most powerful countries, 
with some of the world's best scientific resources at his disposal. 
Thathis science advisor is effectively Fox News 
<https://mashable.com/2018/01/29/trump-climate-denial-piers-morgan-hurting-agenda/?utm_cid=hp-n-1#VXdlFACNaaqm>, 
as Andrew Freedman put it, is unacceptable and dangerous.
Americans clearly made a terrible mistake in electing him president 
(though61% of voters did realize Trump is unqualified for the job 
<http://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results/exit-polls>), but it's a 
mistake they won't be able to remedy until 2020. Congress could act as a 
co-equal branch and pass climate legislation, but Americans put 
Republicans in charge of that institution as well, and with the 
exception of the party's 34Climate Solutions Caucus 
<https://citizensclimatelobby.org/climate-solutions-caucus/>members, 
they're also content to ignore the existential threat of climate change. 
However, Americans will have the opportunity to remedy that mistake this 
November.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/feb/01/its-not-okay-how-clueless-donald-trump-is-about-climate-change

*This Day in Climate History February 2, 1977 
<http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/153913-1>  -  from D.R. Tucker*
February 2, 1977: In a (literal) fireside chat, President Carter 
discusses his plans to establish a national energy policy that 
emphasizes conservation.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=7455
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/153913-1
/
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