[TheClimate.Vote] February 22, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Feb 22 09:14:33 EST 2018
/February 22, 2018/
[it's true]
*Humans Are Responsible for Nearly All Modern Global Warming
<https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/02/humans-are-responsible-for-nearly-all-modern-global-warming/>*
KEVIN DRUMFEB. 20, 2018 5:55 PM
... in case anyone ever suggests to you that, sure, global warming is
real, but we don't know how much is caused by humans-well, yes we do:
https://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/blog_causes_radiative_forcing1.jpg
This is from the Fourth National Climate Assessment
<https://science2017.globalchange.gov/>, which states with high
confidence that "the likely contributions of natural forcing and
internal variability to global temperature change over that period
[1951-2010] are minor." If you want to see all the human causes broken
down further, here you go:
https://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/blog_time_evolution_radiative_forcing.jpg
We humans have done things that both increase and decrease the amount of
solar heat being trapped on the earth. However, they don't balance out:
the increases are far greater than the decreases. The result is global
warming.
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2018/02/humans-are-responsible-for-nearly-all-modern-global-warming/
[Attacks on Science]
*Sick Marketing: War on Science has been a Big Contributor to Today's
Fake News Cycle
<https://climatecrocks.com/2018/02/21/sick-marketing-war-on-science-has-been-a-big-contributor-to-todays-fake-news-cycle/>*
https://climatecrocks.com/2018/02/21/sick-marketing-war-on-science-has-been-a-big-contributor-to-todays-fake-news-cycle/
[PBS NewsHour video]
*Some states are trying to downplay teaching of climate change. Teachers
see 'educational malpractice'
<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/some-states-are-trying-to-downplay-teaching-of-climate-change-teachers-see-educational-malpractice>*
Teaching climate change in schools is a hot-button issue in a number of
states, including Idaho and New Mexico, where lawmakers have tried to
weaken or dismantle science standards crafted by educators and
scientists. Amid a climate-change skeptical Trump administration,
legislators cite a concern about one-sided arguments. Special
correspondent Lisa Stark of Education Week reports...
Syme refused repeated requests for an interview, but told a newspaper -
quote - "I don't care if students come up with a conclusion that the
Earth is flat, as long as it's their conclusion, ... I don't generally
think of, oh, yes, climate change and global warming, like, yes, I could
change that, I could do that.
Listen to the Audio Clip
<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/some-states-are-trying-to-downplay-teaching-of-climate-change-teachers-see-educational-malpractice#audio>
Read the Full Transcript of video clip
<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/some-states-are-trying-to-downplay-teaching-of-climate-change-teachers-see-educational-malpractice>
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/some-states-are-trying-to-downplay-teaching-of-climate-change-teachers-see-educational-malpractice
[Litigation news]
*Richmond Battles Chevron, Its Biggest Employer, in Two Important
Lawsuits
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/02/21/chevron-richmond-california-climate-lawsuit/>*
By Amy Westervelt
When the city of Richmond, Calif. filed its lawsuit against the
country's top fossil fuel companies in an attempt to hold them liable
for the impacts of climate change and the cost of addressing them, it
joined eight other communities in a recent wave of such lawsuits. But
unlike the others, Richmond has been on the front lines of fighting
fossil fuel emissions for decades.
The complaint
<https://www.cpmlegal.com/media/cases/147_RICHMOND%20CHEVRON%20COMPLAINT.pdf>
holds Chevron accountable for negligence, liability, and public
nuisance, and covers three areas of damage: economic losses,
environmental harm and interference with residents' rights to the
"comfort and enjoyment" of their community. The economic losses
encompass the amount the city spent providing emergency response to the
fire and monitoring air quality, as well as the cost of the reputational
damage done to the city over years of highly publicized pollution and
accidents at the refinery. Chevron's continual attempts to get the case
thrown out have failed and it goes to trial on February 26...
The negligence suit specifically holds Chevron-as opposed to the entire
fossil fuel industry-accountable for its direct impacts on the
community. The city is being represented by Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy,
the same firm that took Pacific Gas & Electric to court over its gas
line explosion in San Bruno in 2010. It also represents shareholders
impacted by the company's negligence who were awarded $90 million in
2017. "They've been pretty effective at holding companies accountable
for this kind of stuff, so I have a lot more optimism for that case,"
said Andres De Soto, Richmond community coordinator for the environment
nonprofit Communities for a Better California, who added the liability
suit's longer time frame means less hope for immediate relief...
"The climate change lawsuit seems to be in court more for political
purposes, it's like the tobacco stuff where they knowingly covered up
fact that cigarettes were harmful. I think it's good to shine a light on
the duplicity and greed of the industry, but in terms of really
impacting the community at the ground level? We won't really see that
until and unless the case goes to court and the city wins big money."..
Filing not one, but two, lawsuits against one of its primary employers
is a bold move for the working-class city of Richmond. In a 2014 report
by Beacon Economics, commissioned by Chevron, economists estimated that
Chevron supports more than 2,200 full-time equivalent jobs in Richmond,
generating more than $370 million in economic activity and more than
$120 million in wages and earnings. That money helps the city support a
larger police force than it could otherwise afford and has also been
used to bolster code enforcement and crime-intervention programs that
some credit with reducing the crime rate in the city. "One of the
reasons we've had success in reducing crime is we have a funding base
that allows for good staffing levels," police chief Chris Magnus told
The Mercury News when the Beacon report came out. "It's just a fact that
Chevron is a big part of that funding base."..
The Richmond Chamber of Commerce has often expressed concern that the
suits will prompt Chevron to just leave the city. Henry Clark, who has
been pushing for Chevron to curb its emissions since the 1980s through
his nonprofit, the West County Toxics Coalition, waves that concern
away. "Over the years they've made threats to leave Richmond but that
never materialized," he said...
Chevron also made headlines in 2014 for its proposed $1 billion
modernization project, which would update the refinery's processing
equipment and limit its greenhouse gas emissions. The project was
initially proposed in 2006, but a consortium of environmental groups
sued the city and the refinery in 2008 to block it, claiming the project
would actually increase emissions. The company returned in 2014 with a
scaled-back proposal and an agreement to cap emissions to 2014 levels
and reduce the amount of so-called "bunker fuel," the high-sulfur fuel
typically used by ships that is processed at the refinery. That proposal
was approved by the city and the project broke ground in 2016...
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/02/21/chevron-richmond-california-climate-lawsuit/
[NYTime$]
*How Six Americans Changed Their Minds About Global Warming
<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/21/climate/changed-minds-americans.html>*
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/21/climate/changed-minds-americans.html
[Medical warning]
*Where There's Wildfire, There's Smoke
<http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1716846>*
John R. Balmes, M.D.
When catastrophic wildfires either come near or hit populated urban
areas, as has recently occurred in both northern and southern
California, large numbers of people are exposed to relatively high
levels of smoke (see images). Wildfire smoke contains carbon dioxide,
water vapor, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, complex hydrocarbons,
nitrogen oxides, trace minerals, and several thousand other compounds.
The actual composition of smoke depends on the fuel type (e.g.,
deciduous vs. coniferous trees), the temperature of the fire, and the
wind conditions. Wood smoke contains many of the same toxic and
carcinogenic substances as cigarette smoke, including benzene,
benzo[a]pyrene, and dibenz[a,h]anthracene.
Particulate matter (PM) - typically a mixture of solid particles and
liquid droplets - is the principal pollutant of health concern from
wildfire smoke for the relatively short-term exposures (hours to
weeks) typically experienced by the public. Most PM in wood smoke is
very small (0.4 to 0.7 μm), and particles of this size can be
inhaled into the alveoli. The 24-hour air-quality standard set by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for fine particles
(PM2.5, particles smaller than 2.5 μm in mass median aerodynamic
diameter) is 35 μg per cubic meter. For comparison, during the
Sonoma–Napa wildfires in October 2017, the air quality in terms of
PM2.5 was the worst that has ever been recorded in the San Francisco
Bay area, with 24-hour concentrations exceeding 200 μg per cubic
meter in Napa and 70 μg per cubic meter in Oakland on October 13.1
Fine particles are regulated by the EPA because there is robust
epidemiologic evidence of associations between short-term exposures to
PM2.5 and cardiopulmonary mortality, as well as increased risk of acute
respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes, including exacerbations of
asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, acute lower
respiratory tract infections, myocardial infarction, stroke, and
arrhythmias. In addition, adverse neurologic and metabolic outcomes
have also been associated with chronic exposure to PM2.5. There is some
controversy about whether wood-smoke PM2.5 is as toxic as that generated
by combustion of fossil fuels in motor vehicle engines and power plants.
Recent reviews of the literature on community health effects from
wildfire smoke found strong support for an association with respiratory
morbidity, with less clear evidence of a link to cardiovascular
outcomes. Mental health can also be affected.4 The groups most
susceptible to the adverse health effects of PM2.5 are the very young
and people with preexisting cardiovascular or respiratory disease, but
older children and adults are also at risk.
Another pollutant of concern during smoke events is carbon monoxide.
Carbon monoxide levels are highest during the smoldering stages of a
fire. With wildfires, the greatest danger from exposure to carbon
monoxide is to wildland firefighters, because it is impractical for
them to wear the self-contained breathing apparatus gear that
structural firefighters wear. Community exposures to carbon monoxide
can occur with rapidly spreading wildfires, such as when the recent
Tubbs fire burned the Coffey Park neighborhood in Santa Rosa,
California; a woman died in her husband's arms in a swimming pool
where the couple had sheltered from the fire, presumably from carbon
monoxide intoxication.
Other toxic pollutants, such as acrolein, benzene, and formaldehyde, are
present in wildfire smoke, and though they occur in much lower
concentrations than PM2.5 and carbon monoxide, their presence is still a
concern. When many homes, other buildings, and motor vehicles burn, as
they did during the fall 2017 fires in northern and southern California,
fire emissions include more metal oxides and combustion products of
synthetic materials. By the time the plume of a large wildfire has
traveled many miles, however, most of the smoke particles are from wood
because that is the primary fuel source.
How should physicians advise their patients and the public when
they're facing poor air quality due to wildfire smoke? Patients who
are at greatest risk for symptoms due to smoke inhalation - those
with preexisting respiratory or cardiovascular disease - should be
advised to stay indoors and, if they have to go outdoors, to avoid
prolonged activity. Healthy young children and older adults should
follow the same advice. Because even healthy adults can have
symptoms such as eye, nose, and throat irritation, the public should
take some basic precautions to reduce exposure to wildfire smoke,
including minimizing or stopping outdoor activities, especially
those involving vigorous exercise; staying indoors with windows and
doors closed as much as possible; not running ventilation devices
that bring smoky outdoor air inside (e.g., evaporative coolers,
whole-house fans, fresh-air ventilation systems, and some
air-conditioning systems); changing ventilation-system filters to a
high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) grade; using the
"recirculate" or "recycle" setting on the ventilation-system
control; and avoiding smoking, frying food, or other activities that
will create indoor air pollution.
Patients with respiratory or cardiovascular disease in whom wheezing,
chest tightness, excessive coughing, shortness of breath, chest pain,
palpitations, or other acute symptoms develop should consider evacuating
to an area with better air quality. If evacuation is not possible,
wearing an N95 or N100 particulate respirator provides some protection.
These designations mean that the masks have been certified by the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to filter out at
least 95% or 100%, respectively, of very small (0.3 μm) test particles.
The N95 mask should be familiar to U.S. hospital–based health care
providers because the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
requires that they be worn in rooms where patients have been isolated to
prevent transmission of tuberculosis. N95 and N100 masks provide
protection from inhalation of fine particles but not hazardous gases
(such as carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and acrolein). These types of
masks can be found at many hardware stores, home-repair stores, and
pharmacies. Care should be taken to ensure that the adjustable mask fits
over the nose and mouth properly, so as to minimize leakage.
The practice of public health involves analysis of threats to a
population's health followed by recommendations for efforts that
communities can make to address the threats. Catastrophic wildfires are
indeed an increasingly important threat to public health. In addition to
global warming and drought, a risk factor for large wildfires in the
western United States is a legacy of fire suppression that has allowed
overgrowth of underbrush and small trees in forests where periodic
lightning-sparked wildfires are part of the natural ecosystem.
Worldwide, as populations grow, housing development has created greater
urban–wildland interface, straining fire-suppression resources...
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1716846
[BBC UK report]
*Government loses clean air court case
<http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43141467>*
Campaigners have won a third High Court victory over the UK government's
plans to tackle air pollution.
The judge in the case said the government plan was "unlawful" and that
more action was needed in 45 English local authority areas.
He said ministers had to ensure that in each of the areas, steps were
taken to comply with the law as soon as possible.
The case was brought by ClientEarth, a group of activist lawyers.
Mr Justice Garnham said: "Because the obligation is zone-specific, the
fact that each of the 45 local authority areas will achieve compliance
in any event by 2021 is of no immediate significance.
"The Environment Secretary must ensure that, in each of the 45 areas,
steps are taken to achieve compliance as soon as possible, by the
quickest route possible and by a means that makes that outcome likely."
He added: "In effect, these local authorities are being urged and
encouraged to come up with proposals to improve air quality over the
next three years, but are not being required to do so. In my judgment,
that sort of exhortation is not sufficient."
As a result of previous rulings, the government drew up new plans for
reducing nitrogen dioxide pollution, much of which comes from vehicles,
to within legal limits...
A raft of recent studies and reports have linked air pollution to heart
disease and lung problems, including asthma.
The Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Paediatrics and Child Health say
that outdoor air pollution is contributing to some 40,000 early deaths a
year in the UK
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43141467
- *Five ways to avoid pollution
<http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43141467>*
*Keep away from the busiest roads *- pollution concentrates around the
heaviest traffic
*Use side roads* - these are cleaner because there is so much less traffic
*Watch out for hotspots of dirty air* - engines are often left running
in stationary traffic. This can create "urban canyons" of pollution,
particularly around traffic lights, so stand back after pushing the
button before crossing the road
*When walking up a hill always stick to the side where traffic is
flowing down the hill, away from the brunt of the fumes.* This will
always be the cleaner alternative
*Basic face-masks are not worth the hassle* - these trap dust but little
else, while heavy-duty versions are cumbersome. Scientists recommend
avoiding busy roads instead
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43141467
[dealing with denial]
*Climate Denial Crock of the Week with Peter Sinclair*
*Jerry Taylor: How I Talk to Fellow Conservatives about Climate
<https://climatecrocks.com/2018/02/21/jerry-taylor-how-i-talk-to-fellow-conservatives-about-climate/>*
If you missed the new video interview with Jerry Taylor, go there now
<https://climatecrocks.com/2018/02/20/how-is-that-conservative-former-climate-denier-now-backs-action/>.
https://youtu.be/1cbey_bxI2U
Yale Climate Connections:
Climate change policy analyst* Jerry Taylor spent more than 25 years
earning his well-deserved reputation as the skunk at the picnic of
American climate scientists.
Taylor – the focus of this month's "This is Not Cool" video – cut
his teeth as an energy and environment savant with the very
conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where he
worked from 1988 to 1991. Then, from 1991 to 2014, he was with the
free-market Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., where he eventually
became a vice president. Through many of those years, Taylor was a
frequent spokesperson for those scientists who regularly challenged
whether climate change is real, human-caused, or, in either event,
worth worrying about or doing anything to address.
You're back? Ok, here's more from former Cato Institute "climate
skeptic" spokesman Jerry Taylor, on how he now engages fellow
conservatives on climate.
Below, how to bust Republicans out of Climate Denial prison.
https://youtu.be/fCR0RLfuLT4
Jerry Taylor: Busting Republicans out of Climate Denial Prison
<https://youtu.be/fCR0RLfuLT4>
They are sort of like people who are locked down in a political
penitentiary,
the guards are the political gendarmes of Club for Growth and the
coal sector
the various groups and operations just marshaled by the Koch op, the
Koch political operations
And so these are the guards of the political penitentiary they find
themselves in.
They want a jailbreak but for a jailbreak to work first of all you need
to move in numbers so there needs to be some sort of degree of
organization.
The guards have to be distracted somehow so you can make a run for
the fence...
https://climatecrocks.com/2018/02/21/jerry-taylor-how-i-talk-to-fellow-conservatives-about-climate/
[thermometer news]
*Boston breaks record, reaches 70 degrees
<https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/02/20/boston-ties-warmth-record-degrees/sCdHTNwtCe0VS3Elxc7xNP/story.html>*
By Laney Ruckstuhl FEBRUARY 20, 2018
Boston reached a record-breaking high of 69 degrees before rising
further to 70 degrees Tuesday - mere days after seeing several inches of
snow, according to the National Weather Service...
Boston will probably see a mostly sunny day Wednesday with a high of 71
degrees and a low of 51. Although the skies will be partly cloudy, the
sun will still be shining...
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/02/20/boston-ties-warmth-record-degrees/sCdHTNwtCe0VS3Elxc7xNP/story.html
-
[why is that so?]
*As 112-Year-Old Heat Record Melts, Boston Media Won't Say Global
Warming
<http://bluemassgroup.com/2018/02/as-112-year-old-heat-record-melts-boston-media-wont-say-global-warming/>*
February 21, 2018 By thegreenmiles
Boston has been keeping temperature records for the last 146 years. It
never once hit 70 in February in its first 113 years of record keeping.
But if forecasters are right about today, we'll have done it twice this
week and three times in the last two years alone. We're forecast to
break today's 112-year-old record high by an incredible seven degrees.
And not a single journalist in Boston is connecting the dots to global
warming, according to my Google News search.
Many journalists still falsely cling to a now-disproven line that no one
extreme weather event can be connected to climate change. First,
scientists are now directly connecting weather disasters to global
warming
<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-can-now-blame-individual-natural-disasters-on-climate-change/>.
Second, there's plenty we can say right now about today's weather:
Global warming is dramatically increasing our odds of
record-breaking heat. Over the last year in America, 2.22 high
temperature records were broken for every 1 cold record, according
to ClimateSignals.org. As recently as the 1950s, it was still close
to even at 1.09/1.
Global warming is loading the dice for extreme weather, worsening
heat waves, strengthening storms, deepening droughts, and adding
fuel to wildfires.
So what should these stories say? Here's a line that's true &
relevant for any extreme weather story, any time of year:
"Scientists say this kind of record-breaking extreme weather is
exactly what we can expect more of as manmade carbon pollution warms
our climate." That's it! Easy!
One of the problems is that journalists only go to local government
scientists as their sources, as the Boston Globe's climate-silent story
shows
<https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/02/20/boston-ties-warmth-record-degrees/sCdHTNwtCe0VS3Elxc7xNP/story.html>.
Local government scientists have strong incentives to not say anything
interesting
<http://thegreenmiles.blogspot.com/2014/08/how-tv-news-balance-slants-towards.html>,
never mind controversial. So you get this:Temperatures in February
normally average around 29 degrees, [National Weather Service
meteorologist Lenore] Correia said, "but it's really just the wind
patterns."
Oh! Just the wind patterns! Around the entire planet, endlessly getting
warmer! Nothing to see here! Please don't fire me, Trump administration!
hen there's the head in sand approach. Here's a list of ways Boston
Magazine finds to talk about the record heat while never mentioning
climate change or global warming:
"unseasonable warmth"
"lovely"
"mild weather"
"incredibly rare"
If you're a reporter with national ambitions, why would you talk about
global warming? As Media Matters has documented, national TV networks
ignore climate science almost completely
<https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2018/02/12/how-broadcast-tv-networks-covered-climate-change-2017/219277>.
Even when the "cold" returns tomorrow, we'll still be 10 degrees above
our 20th-century normal. As humans, we can enjoy the brief warmth and
when the frost returns Thursday night, we'll barely even notice. But the
flowers sprouting too soon won't be so lucky – as Mike Campbell writes
at WBUR, magnolias getting fooled into opening early
<http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2018/02/21/magnolia-blossoms-mike-campbell>
and then getting immediately killed by frost is becoming an annual
tradition. There are also countless tiny critters
<https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfb9burBwvn/?taken-by=thegreenmilesgrant>
that have emerged from their winter hiding spots – but if their food
hasn't emerged too, the wasted energy may leave them struggling to make
it to spring...
We need to act faster on clean energy, both to curb global warming and
to take advantage of the growing clean energy economy as states like New
York and New Jersey get more ambitious.
<http://blog.nwf.org/2018/02/a-reason-for-hope-in-2018-the-us-offshore-wind-power-race-is-on/>
Ask your legislator <https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator>
to pass an ambitious clean energy bill
<http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/02/senate_committee_advances_ambi.html>,
S.2302, from the MA Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change.
http://bluemassgroup.com/2018/02/as-112-year-old-heat-record-melts-boston-media-wont-say-global-warming/
-
[Boston COMMENTARY]
*In The Age Of Climate Change, It's The Magnolia Blossoms I'll Miss
<http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2018/02/21/magnolia-blossoms-mike-campbell>*
It's strange to live through a slowly unfolding catastrophe like climate
change.
Maybe the prospect of these little losses can persuade people unmoved by
the overwhelming scale of the greater impending disaster.
http://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2018/02/21/magnolia-blossoms-mike-campbell
*This Day in Climate History February 22, 2012
<http://youtu.be/sH9gDPwwA3Q> - from D.R. Tucker*
February 22, 2012: On Current TV, "Young Turks" host Cenk Uygur
discusses GOP presidential contender Rick Santorum's climate-change
denial, and the right's bizarre attack on the film "The Lorax."
http://youtu.be/sH9gDPwwA3Q
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