[TheClimate.Vote] February 18, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/February 18, 2018/

[time lapse video]
*Watch: Pine Island glacier readies for another crack 
<http://www.euronews.com/2018/02/16/watch-pine-island-glacier-readies-for-another-crack>*
By Rafael Cereceda, Feb 16, 2018
Dutch professor alerts of a new crack that could create a massive 
iceberg at the Antarctic glacier, whose front has been retracting since 
2000...
Researchers have alerted of a new rift at the Pine Island glacier that 
is strikingly similar to the ones that led to massive splits last year 
and in 2015...
Professor Stef Lhermitte published a photo on Twitter based on NASA's 
Landsat satellite imagery. It shows new cracks "very similar" to those 
massive "calve events".
The animation, obtained with ESA's Sentinel 1 satellite photos, shows 
the evolution of the glacier's front from October 2014 until the 
beginning of February 2018.
The most disturbing is probably how quickly the icebergs melt after the 
massive 2015 and 2017 cracks.
Lhermitte told Euronews the glacier calving is part of the normal life 
cycle of a floating glacier tongue. "Since 2000 there have been five 
large calving events and the glacier front has gradually retreated. The 
pattern of calving however has changed a bit though: 2015 and 2017 are 
different from previous events as the calving results from internal 
rifts with calving fronts further inland."
http://www.euronews.com/2018/02/16/watch-pine-island-glacier-readies-for-another-crack

*
*[time running out]*
Newest Youth Climate Lawsuit Targets Washington State 
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/02/17/washington-state-climate-lawsuit-inslee/>*
By Karen Savage
Thirteen young people are suing the state of Washington for violating 
their constitutional rights by failing to reduce greenhouse gas 
emissions and protect them from the impacts of climate change.
The plaintiffs say the state is preventing them from enjoying the same 
rights, benefits and privileges of past generations and is violating the 
state's public trust doctrine.
In the lawsuit, filed Friday in King County Superior Court, the 
plaintiffs allege that the state of Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee and 
several state agencies have known for a long time that younger 
generations are living in "dangerous climate conditions" but *have acted 
with "shocking deliberate indifference and abdication of duty*" by 
exacerbating the climate crisis and delaying meaningful action to reduce 
greenhouse gases.
Several of the plaintiffs in the suit were also plaintiffs in Foster v. 
Ecology, which asked the court in 2014 to force the Washington 
Department of Ecology to consider a petition to reduce carbon dioxide 
emissions. The court acknowledged the youth had the constitutional right 
to live in a healthful environment with the benefit of public trust 
resources and ruled that the state was not adequately reducing its 
greenhouse gas emissions.
The case resulted in the adoption of Washington's Clean Air Rule in 
2016, however plaintiffs say the rule took too long and did not go far 
enough. It  exempts the state's only coal-fired generating station and 
other big polluters and the plaintiffs say it is not aggressive enough 
to protect future generations from the dire consequences of climate change.
The rule's compliance requirements were also suspended in December as 
the result of a ruling by the Thurston County Superior Court.
"Defendants have a systemic policy, custom and practice of authorizing 
projects, activities, and policies that cause emissions of dangerous and 
substantial levels of GHG pollution into the atmosphere," wrote Andrea 
Rogers, an attorney with Our Children's Trust, who is representing the 
young plaintiffs in the new case.
A spokesperson for Inslee's office said officials are still reviewing 
the complaint.
"It is worth noting that Gov. Inslee has spent a considerable part of 
his life and career dedicated to fighting climate change, fighting for 
renewable energy, clean air and clean water," she said, adding that 
several bills currently before the state legislature would strengthen 
these efforts.
Representatives from the other defendant agencies did not immediately 
respond to a request for comment.
"This lawsuit that we're filing should open the Washington government's 
eyes to the fact that they have to do more than tell the public that we 
need to use cleaner energy. They need to stop causing climate change and 
use clean energy," said 16-year-old plaintiff India B., who recently had 
to evacuate her home due to wildfires made worse by climate change.
The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction that would force Washington to 
develop an enforceable and science-based state climate recovery plan to 
reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect the climate. Plaintiffs are 
also asking the court to monitor the state's progress toward meeting the 
plan's goals similar to court monitoring in the landmark Brown v. Board 
of Education civil rights decision and the Brown v. Plata prison 
overcrowding case.
"This lawsuit gives the Washington state government a chance to take the 
lead and commit to the citizens it serves and the lives it must 
protect," said 17-year-old Aji Piper, who is also one of 21 young 
plaintiffs who are suing the federal government in Juliana v. United States.
After filing the suit, Rogers sent a letter to Inslee on behalf of the 
plaintiffs, expressing their willingness to work with him, but stressing 
that time is of the essence.
*"These youth have no more time to barter and plead with those whose 
metric is political feasibility instead of constitutional duty and 
scientific necessity," said Rogers in the letter.*
Climate change is already taking its toll on Washington State. Last 
summer wildfires raged across the state, burning more than 300,000 
acres, filling the air with a smoky haze and making breathing difficult, 
particularly for those with asthma or other respiratory conditions. Sea 
levels and temperatures are rising, leading to acidification of Pugent 
Sound, threatening the state's shellfish industry.
"Climate change is impacting my ability to continue participating in my 
family's traditions - things like salmon fishing, digging camas roots 
and picking berries for food," said 13-year-old plaintiff Kailani S., a 
member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.
"Our land is being destroyed by climate change. I'm simply calling on 
the state of Washington to do its job to protect my future, my culture's 
future, and generations to come," she said.
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/02/17/washington-state-climate-lawsuit-inslee/


[Video explanation]
*Ice Apocalypse - MULTIPLE METERS SEA LEVEL RISE 
<https://youtu.be/Pp5kK0Td-Vc>*
Rapid collapse of Antarctic glaciers could flood coastal cities by the 
end of this century. Based on an article written by Eric Holthaus. Read 
the full story Ice Apocalypse Rapid collapse of Antarctic glaciers could 
flood coastal cities by the end of this century. 
<Ice%20Apocalypse,Rapid%20collapse%20of%20Antarctic%20glaciers%20could%20flood%20coastal%20cities%20by%20the%20end%20of%20this%20century.>
https://youtu.be/Pp5kK0Td-Vc


[NASA Ice studies]
*New Study Finds Sea Level Rise Accelerating 
<https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/new-study-finds-sea-level-rise-accelerating>*
Global sea level rise has been accelerating in recent decades, rather 
than increasing steadily, according to a new study based on 25 years of 
NASA and European satellite data.
This acceleration, driven mainly by increased melting in Greenland and 
Antarctica, has the potential to double the total sea level rise 
projected by 2100 when compared to projections that assume a constant 
rate of sea level rise, according to lead author Steve Nerem. Nerem is a 
professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of 
Colorado Boulder, a fellow at Colorado's Cooperative Institute for 
Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), and a member of NASA's Sea 
Level Change team.
If the rate of ocean rise continues to change at this pace, sea level 
will rise 26 inches (65 centimeters) by 2100 -- enough to cause 
significant problems for coastal cities, according to the new assessment 
by Nerem and colleagues from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in 
Greenbelt, Maryland; CU Boulder; the University of South Florida in 
Tampa; and Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. The team, 
driven to understand and better predict Earth's response to a warming 
world, published their work Feb. 12 in the journal Proceedings of the 
National Academy of Sciences.
"This is almost certainly a conservative estimate," Nerem said. "Our 
extrapolation assumes that sea level continues to change in the future 
as it has over the last 25 years. Given the large changes we are seeing 
in the ice sheets today, that's not likely."
Rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere increase 
the temperature of air and water, which causes sea level to rise in two 
ways. First, warmer water expands, and this "thermal expansion" of the 
ocean has contributed about half of the 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) of 
global mean sea level rise we've seen over the last 25 years, Nerem 
said. Second, melting land ice flows into the ocean, also increasing sea 
level across the globe.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/new-study-finds-sea-level-rise-accelerating


[Oil irony]
*Big Oil's Global Warming Case Could Hinge on Jurisdiction 
<https://www.courthousenews.com/irony-big-oils-global-warming-case-could-hinge-on-jurisdiction/>*
February 16, 2018 NICHOLAS IOVINO
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - The fate of five lawsuits seeking to hold the 
world's biggest oil companies liable for global climate change hinges on 
a murky jurisdictional question that could get some cases booted out of 
federal court.
For the past eight days, attorneys for more than a dozen oil companies 
urged two federal judges not to send lawsuits against them back to state 
court, where five California cities and counties sued Big Oil last year...
"The extraordinary nature of these claims encompasses conduct across the 
globe," the oil companies' attorney Theodore Boutrous said in court 
Thursday. "We think the federal courts need to hear this, because it's 
uniquely federal."
"The big part of your presentation is an assumption that the state court 
system is not capable of fairly adjudicating a question of federal 
preemption," Chhabria said...
If the litigation does advance beyond issues of jurisdiction and federal 
preemption, Kaswan said, the plaintiffs will face another daunting 
challenge: proving that the oil companies' conduct caused or 
substantially contributed to climate change and rising sea levels...
"I do think there will be a lot of interesting questions about causation 
and proximate causation - if there's some link, and if it's enough of a 
link in that context," Kaswan said. "Those will be very difficult 
questions."
https://www.courthousenews.com/irony-big-oils-global-warming-case-could-hinge-on-jurisdiction/


[clips from essay]
*The Darkness and the Needle 
<https://medium.com/@enjohnston/the-darkness-and-the-needle-4abec6ff8792>*
Emily Johnston
What I want to talk about today is darkness and uncertainty - because we 
are at the start of a long period of darkness and uncertainty, and if we 
cannot learn to inhabit them, to be strong and steady in that dark fog, 
we will not survive...
Most or all of you probably understand something about the dangers of 
climate change. What you probably don't know, if you don't inhabit the 
world that I do, is that we likely have only about two and a half years 
to keep catastrophic climate change from being irreversible. This is not 
the assessment of an outlier scientist with a tin-foil hat; that was the 
word used, and the time frame used, by Christina Figueres, the former UN 
climate chief, last June (at that point, she said "three years"), based 
on the assessment of many, many scientists. Others use slightly 
different timing (I've also heard "two years", and that was last year), 
depending on what benchmark they're using - 1.5  degrees versus 2  
degrees Celsius of warming, etc. But all are agreed, we are in dire 
shape, and our time-window for keeping this from being permanent is 
very, very short...
The next two years, give or take, are the most important years in the 
history of humanity. We have the profound honor of being perhaps the 
only people in history to know exactly what threatens the world most, 
while still being in a position to avert much of it...
When those two and a half years are over, we cannot say, "we did what we 
could" and walk away. In our lifetimes, there will be no walking away, 
because we know that the range of possibility is enormous: at one end, 
we might lose five or ten percent of species, and tens of millions of 
human lives, at the other end the Earth might lose 95% of its species, 
as it did the last time greenhouse gases overwhelmed it. In that case, 
humans will surely be among them. We know for a fact that this is a real 
risk.
Those of us to whom questioning and mystery and empathy come more 
naturally can bring those qualities to the groups that we're part of, 
and maybe help balance them thereby. Internal direction tends to be how 
we find our way. "The Sailor cannot see the North, but knows the Needle 
can," said Dickinson.
We're seldom the engine of those groups, but we can be the steady hand 
on the tiller, and the ones whose instincts help set the course. 
Darkness doesn't make us lose our bearings. Sometimes, our job is to be 
the needle...
Emily Johnston
Poet, scribe, climate activist, runner, builder
https://medium.com/@enjohnston/the-darkness-and-the-needle-4abec6ff8792


*Alaska's Bering Sea Lost a Third of Its Sea Ice in Just 8 Days 
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17022018/arctic-sea-ice-record-low-extent-alaska-bering-hunting-whales>*
BY: SABRINA SHANKMAN
Globally, sea ice is at record lows as the polar regions warm faster 
than the rest of the planet. Along the Alaska coast, that's affecting 
people's lives.
In just eight days in mid-February, nearly a third of the sea ice 
covering the Bering Sea off Alaska's west coast disappeared. That kind 
of ice loss and the changing climate as the planet warms is affecting 
the lives of the people who live along the coast.
At a time when the sea ice should be growing toward its maximum extent 
for the year, it's shrinking instead—the area of the Bering Sea covered 
by ice is now 60 percent below its average from 1981-2010.
"[Bering sea ice] is in a league by itself at this point," said Richard 
Thoman, the climate science and services manager for the National 
Weather Service Alaska region. "And looking at the weather over the next 
week, this value isn't going to go up significantly. It's going to go 
down."..
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17022018/arctic-sea-ice-record-low-extent-alaska-bering-hunting-whales


*This Day in Climate History February 18, 2004 
<http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/abuses_of_science/scientists-sign-on-statement.html>  
-  from D.R. Tucker*
February 18, 2004: Sixty scientists, including several Nobel
laureates, issue a joint statement denouncing the George W. Bush
administration for distorting, downplaying and disregarding scientific
findings on such issues as human-caused climate change.
http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/abuses_of_science/scientists-sign-on-statement.html

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