[TheClimate.Vote] February 23, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Fri Feb 23 09:02:31 EST 2018
/February 23, 2018/
[record]
*January was 5th warmest on record for the globe
<http://www.noaa.gov/news/january-was-5th-warmest-on-record-for-globe>*
Arctic and Antarctic sea ice coverage remain at record, near-record lows
February 20, 2018
Despite the cooling influence of La Nina this winter, the global
temperature ranked among the five warmest on record in January. Earth's
polar regions continued to experience record-low ice conditions...
The average global temperature in January 2018 was 1.28 degrees F above
the 20th-century average of 53.6 degrees, according to scientists from
NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. This average
temperature was the fifth highest for the month of January in the NOAA's
record, which dates back to 1880. This was the 42nd consecutive January
(since 1977) and the 397th consecutive month (since January 1985) with
temperatures above the 20th-century average. The last four years
(2015-2018) saw the five warmest Januarys on record...
Significant Anomalies Map
http://www.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/January-2018-Global-Significant-Events-Map.png
Other notable climate facts from around the world last month included:
*Near-record-low sea ice at the poles*
The average Arctic sea ice coverage in January was 9.4 percent below the
1981-2010 average, the smallest for the month since records began in 1979.
Antarctic sea ice extent in January was 17.4 percent below average, the
second smallest January on record.
*Warmer-than-average lands and oceans*
The globally averaged land-surface temperature was 2 degrees F above the
20th-century average, ranking as the eighth warmest for the month of
January.
The globally averaged sea-surface temperature was 1.01 degrees F above
average and tied with 1998 as the fifth warmest for January on record.
*Oceania and Europe led the continental warmth rankings*
Oceania has its warmest January on record; Europe, its second; South
America, its 14th; Africa, its 21st; North America, its 24th; and Asia,
its 26th (tied with 1997).
http://www.noaa.gov/news/january-was-5th-warmest-on-record-for-globe
[setting records]
*East Coast Shatters Temperature Records, Offering Preview to a Warming
World
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21022018/february-record-high-temperature-east-coast-arctic-climate-change-nws>*
InsideClimate News - Sabrina Shankman
It's been happening with greater frequency - and in line with what
scientists have said to expect as the world warms. "It used to be said
that 'scientists can't say anything about an individual event.' That
statement is patently false now," said Michael Wehner, a senior staff
scientist at Lawrence Berkeley ..
There are records - like Wednesday being the earliest 80-degree day in
Washington, D.C., history - and then there are the eye-popping effects
of those records, like seeing people wearing T-shirts on the streets of
Portland, Maine, in February.
However you measure it, Feb. 20-21, 2018, were days for the books - days
when the records fell as quickly as the thermometer rose, days that gave
a glimpse into the wacky weather that the new era of climate change brings.
"What we have is a large-scale pattern that wouldn't be too uncommon in
the spring," said meteorologist Patrick Burke of the National Weather
Service. "But it's a little bit unusual to see it set up this way in
February - and set up with such persistence."
Central Park hit 76-degrees F. Boston had back-to-back 70-degrees F
days. Towns in Virginia and Vermont were pushing 80-degrees F, with some
Vermont towns warning residents that rapid snowmelt from the heat could
cause a new round of flooding. In Pittsburgh, a high of 78-degrees F
beat a record set in 1891 by a whopping 10 degrees...
As temperature records were falling up and down the East Coast, the
Arctic continued on a hot streak, with the far-reaches of Alaska's North
Slope seeing temperatures 45-degrees F above normal...
The same unusual weather system that's bringing warm temperatures is
also bringing record-high amounts of precipitation into the atmosphere,
dumping rain from Texas to the Great Lakes, Burke said. This type of
storm system might normally result in 2 or 3 inches of rain. But the
high-pressure ridge along the East Coast is ensuring that the storm just
sits there, making it more likely to bringing 5 or 7 inches, and even
more in some places...
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21022018/february-record-high-temperature-east-coast-arctic-climate-change-nws
[DeSmog <https://www.desmogblog.com>]
*Inside the Trump Admin's Fight to Keep the Keystone XL Approval Process
Secret
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/02/22/judge-trump-documents-keystone-xl-decision>*
By Steve Horn • Thursday, February 22, 2018 - 19:19
At aFebruary 21 hearing
<https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Order%20on%20Confidentiality%20Order%20Hearing.pdf>,
a U.S. District Court judge ruled that the Trump administration must
either fork over documents showing how theU.S.Department of State
reversed an earlier decision and ultimately came to approve
theKeystoneXLpipeline
<https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5857>, or else provide
a substantial legal reason for continuing to withhold them. The
federal government has anorder to deliver the goods
<https://apnews.com/2b64dbbfd05d4674972c64b8ec4cfd4d/Judge-orders-gov%27t-review-of-Keystone-pipeline-documents>,
one way or the other, by March 21.
DeSmog has reviewed the court evidence from the environmental groups
bringing the case, records which help illuminate their argument that the
government is, in fact, withholding such documents. The judge will
decide if those documents, legally, should be made public.
The case, whichbegan in March 2017
<https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/IEN%20v.%20State%20Department%20Complaint.pdf>,
pits the Indigenous Environmental Network and the North Coast
River Alliance against the State Department,U.S.Fish and Wildlife
Service, theU.S.Department of interior andTransCanada
<https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5420>, the owner of
KeystoneXL. During his first week in office,Donald Trump
<https://www.desmogblog.com/donald-trump>signed a memorandum
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-memorandum-regarding-construction-keystone-xl-pipeline/>calling
for the State Department to perform an expedited 60-day permit review of
the pipeline. Two months later, the State Department gave
KeystoneXLthepermit it needed
<https://keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/documents/organization/269323.pdf> to
cross the U.S.-Canada border.
Under the Obama administration, the KeystoneXLpipeline, which would
carry oil from Alberta'star sands
<https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/2632>, underwent a
years-long environmental review process which culminated in President
Barack Obamanixing it in November 2015
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2015/11/06/victory-obama-rejects-scandal-ridden-keystone-xl-tar-sands-pipeline>.
For the better part of the past decade, the pipeline has served as a
central mobilizing force for the environmental movement.
At the center of this case is a dispute over the administrative
records of federal agencies, which in other lawsuits are routinely made
public as part of the pre-trial process.
Generally, releasing such documents gives a snapshot of the full
deliberative process behind federal agencies' decisions. DeSmog, in
fact,published a story on such documents
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2015/04/20/emails-state-department-secretly-approved-expansion-enbridge-keystone-xl-clone>in
2015 related to a different tar sands pipeline project, which
involved Enbridge'sAlberta Clipper
<https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/12487> (also known as
Line 67), part of a broader pipeline system DeSmog calls the
"KeystoneXLClone <https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/17587>."
In the TransCanada case, the State Department has argued for keeping
these pre-trial records sealed while the plaintiffs, the environmental
groups, have argued they should be made public. These documents, which
might include emails and memos, would offer the plaintiffs and the
general public an idea of how the Trump administration decided to
approve the KeystoneXL.
The plaintiffs say that not all of those records have been turned over...
The State Department and TransCanada, for their part, have come to a
different legal conclusion, saying that the documents in question are
"deliberative" in nature and not part of any official administrative
process. They argue that the plaintiffs are attempting to turn the
administrative records into a Freedom of Information Act request,
positing that pre-decisional documents should not be included among
those disclosed in the case.
"The bare fact that predecisional, deliberative materials were generated
during the decisionmaking processes, does not transform those materials
into documents that were before the decisionmaker in any relevant sense
and therefore part of the administrative record, any more than documents
reflecting a trial court's predecisional deliberations, such as bench
memos, other communications between judges and their staff, and drafts
of decisions, are part of the trial record," wrote Department of Justice
attorneys in a January 22 court filing.
They also argued in that filing that the plaintiffs are on a "fishing
expedition" styled as a mission to "complete the record." Ultimately, it
will be for Judge Brian Morris to decide which argument has more merit
in the coming months.
*'Smoke and Mirrors'*
At least one group believes the entire premise of the dispute amounts to
a cause for celebration. The climate advocacy organization 350.org -
which has long led the movement opposing Keystone XL - says it believes
this development is a sign the pipeline may never be built. Along those
lines, it showed excitement over the judge's decision in a press release
"The Trump administration's approval of the Keystone XL pipeline has
been nothing but smoke and mirrors," said 350.org Executive Director May
Boeve. "The truth is undeniable. Every shred of scientific evidence
shows this pipeline is a threat to our climate, and to the lands,
waters, and lives in its path."
https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/02/22/judge-trump-documents-keystone-xl-decision
[International]
*International Court Ruling: a Safe Climate Is a Human Right
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/02/13/inter-american-climate-rights-colombia/>*
By Ucilia Wang
February 13, 2018
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has issued a landmark opinion
that equates environmental protection with human rights, a conclusion
that could force countries in Latin American and beyond to tackle
climate change more aggressively.
The advisoryopinion
<http://www.aida-americas.org/sites/default/files/oc23_corte_idh.pdf>represents
the first time the Inter-American Court has recognized a fundamental
right to a healthy environment, a concept that may seem abstract but
could impact interpretations of existing laws and improve environmental
protection.
That concept isn't new, but it hasn't been widely applied by courts. The
opinion comes at a time whena number of climate lawsuits
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/12/11/ireland-constitutional-right-climate-environment-fie/>have
been filed around the world to try to establish the same or similar
legal principles and pressure fossil fuel companies and governments to
cut emissions.
"We think this decision will be used as a tool to strengthen ongoing
litigation on human rights and the impact of climate change nationally
and internationally," said Astrid Puentes, co-director of AIDA, an
advocacy group that filedan amicus curiae brief
<http://www.aida-americas.org/sites/default/files/observaciones_de_aida_a_opinion_consultiva_colombia_enero_2017.pdf>in
this case.
The court was created in 1979 to enforce theAmerican Convention on Human
Rights
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Convention_on_Human_Rights>,
which has been ratified by most of the countries in Central and South
America. The court hears cases brought by those governments or the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/02/13/inter-american-climate-rights-colombia/
[Food footprint]
*Deconstructing the environmental footprint of a sandwich
<http://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2018/02/deconstructing-the-environmental-footprint-of-a-sandwich/>*
by Emma Bryce | Feb 2, 2018
This post is also available in: Espanol
If we did a sustainability makeover on one of our most ubiquitous lunch
items-the sandwich-we could stop several million tons of greenhouse gas
emissions from entering the atmosphere each year, a new study has found.
It may seem laughable that the unassuming sandwich is a climate change
culprit. But nowadays, when everything we produce and consume is subject
to scrutiny, the researchers-writing in Sustainable Production and
Consumption-argue that we've overlooked the omnipresent sandwich for too
long. In the United Kingdom alone, a nation particularly devoted to this
lunchtime staple, and where the researchers carried out their study,
Britons consume an estimated 11.5 billion a year.
To estimate the environmental footprint of all that produce, the
researchers split British sandwiches into two groups: shop-bought, and
homemade. They considered 40 different sandwich recipes, and carried out
a lifecycle analysis to estimate the emissions impact of each one. That
took into account the resources used during agricultural production of
sandwich ingredients, in the packaging materials, the transport to
shops, storage, and disposal of leftover packaging and food.
The analysis revealed first of all that shop-bought sandwiches were
twice as impactful as sandwiches prepared at home. That's because their
production-including transport, processing, and storage-is far more
resource-intensive. Each shop sandwich also requires about 20% more
ingredients to produce, the researchers estimate, because of food losses
that occur along the supply chain.
Of the 40 sandwich types, the meatiest ones were the worst environmental
offenders. Generally, shop sandwiches that incorporated meat, cheese,
and prawns each contribute the equivalent of at least 1,200 grams of
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. One popular shop-bought variety
containing bacon, sausage, and egg accounted for 1,441 grams of CO2e
(equivalent). By comparison, a homemade ham-and-cheese sandwich produced
just 843g CO2e, despite the ham: clearly, assembling a sandwich at home
can drastically save on resources.
These values may seem insignificant at the level of a single sandwich.
But if just one person consumes five shop-bought sandwiches a week, each
at 1,200g CO2e, over a year that would generate the equivalent of 312
kilograms of CO2. That's the same quantity that a car produces on a
12-hour drive. Roughly extrapolated to the 11 billion sandwiches
consumed every year in the UK (half of which are shop-bought, and half
homemade), that amounts to 11.8 million metric tons of CO2 entering the
atmosphere annually.
The life cycle analysis highlighted several emissions hotspots where
sandwich production could go greener. For instance, reducing meat
contents by 10%, cheese by 20%, cutting 10% of food waste along the
supply chain, making packaging more eco-friendly, and composting waste
could slash sandwich-related emissions by 50%. That's several million
tons of CO2-just in the UK.
A lot of this would inevitably be decided by consumer preferences:
buyers may not necessarily want a less meaty sandwich, for instance.
Therein lies the rub-but also the opportunity, because consumers can be
powerful vectors of change, the researchers argue.
More realistic sell-by dates on sandwich boxes could limit food waste by
properly informing consumers, for example. Combining nutritional data
with details about a sandwich's environmental ranking could also
encourage consumers to make greener choices.
And, now we know that the humble homemade sandwich is itself a
solution-easier on the wallet, and the environment.
http://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2018/02/deconstructing-the-environmental-footprint-of-a-sandwich/
-
Research article
*Understanding the impact on climate change of convenience food: Carbon
footprint of sandwiches
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550917300635>*
Author links open overlay panelNamyEspinoza-OriasAdisaAzapagic
Show more
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2017.12.002Get rights and content
Highlights
•Carbon footprint of 40 commercial and home-made sandwiches estimated.
•The impact ranges from 739-1441g CO2 eq. per ready-made sandwich.
•The carbon footprint of home-made sandwich varies from 399-843 g CO2 eq.
•The impact from the home-made is two times lower than for the
ready-made option.
•Reductions of up to 50% are possible for ready-made sandwiches.
Abstract
Sandwiches are ubiquitous food items and yet little is known about their
environmental impacts. This paper focused on their impact on climate
change and estimated the carbon footprint of commercial and home-made
sandwiches. The study also explored how the information on the carbon
footprint could be combined with nutritional data to assist consumers in
making more informed food choices. In total, 40 different recipes were
considered, focusing on most popular consumer choices in the UK. The
estimated impact from ready-made sandwiches ranges from 739 g CO2 eq.
for egg & cress to 1441 g CO2 eq. for the bacon, sausage & egg option.
The carbon footprint of the most popular home-made sandwich (ham &
cheese) varies from 399-843 g CO2 eq. per sandwich, depending on the
recipe. The average impact from the home-made option is around two times
lower than the impact from the ready-made equivalent with the same
ingredients. The greatest contributor to the carbon footprint of both
types of sandwich is the agricultural production of ingredients; for
ready-made sandwiches, the preparation and retail stages are also
significant. Various improvement options were considered through 22
scenarios, including changes in the cultivation of ingredients, recipe
changes, reduction of food waste, alternative packaging and different
waste management options. The findings suggest that reductions in the
carbon footprint of up to 50% are possible for ready-made sandwiches.
The greatest improvement opportunities lie in reducing post-consumer
waste; however, these are most difficult to realise as they involve
changing consumer behaviour.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550917300635
[Curricula: Visualizing Data]
CrashCourse
*Data Visualization: Part 1: Crash Course Statistics #5
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEWY6kkBdpo>*
Published on Feb 21, 2018
Today we're going to start our two-part unit on data visualization. Up
to this point we've discussed raw data - which are just numbers - but
usually it's much more useful to represent this information with charts
and graphs. There are two types of data we encounter, categorical and
quantitative data, and they likewise require different types of
visualizations. Today we'll focus on bar charts, pie charts,
pictographs, and histograms and show you what they can and cannot tell
us about their underlying data as well as some of the ways they can be
misused to misinform.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEWY6kkBdpo
[videos]
*This Day in Climate History February 23, 2014
<http://mediamatters.org/mobile/video/2014/02/23/cnns-reliable-sources-questions-why-media-prese/198185>
- from D.R. Tucker*
• CNN's "Reliable Sources" analyzes climate confusion in the mainstream
media.
http://mediamatters.org/mobile/video/2014/02/23/cnns-reliable-sources-questions-why-media-prese/198185
http://youtu.be/cbjPQisjyfM
/
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