[TheClimate.Vote] January 6, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Sat Jan 6 11:25:06 EST 2018

/January 6, 2018/

[Grayson]
*New calls for Boston Harbor sea wall after storm surge wreaks havoc 
<http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2018/01/new_calls_for_boston_harbor_sea_wall_after_storm_surge_wreaks_havoc>*
"If anyone wants to question global warming, just see where those flood 
zones are," said Mayor Martin J. Walsh at a press conference, adding 
that developers need to take flooding into account as they build more 
projects on the waterfront. "It's something we have to talk more about 
moving forward."...
... Walsh received high marks from environmentalist Bill McKibben, a 
professor at Middlebury College in Vermont.
"Thanks to global warming, the ocean is higher than it used to be - 
there's no scientific dispute about that," McKibben told the Herald. 
"Therefore, when a big storm pushes it toward the city, it goes farther 
in. Since so much of Boston used to literally be ocean, before it was 
all filled in, this should not be hard to understand. I'd say His Honor 
gets a solid A in Earth science."
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2018/01/new_calls_for_boston_harbor_sea_wall_after_storm_surge_wreaks_havoc
-
*WHY SO COLD? CLIMATE CHANGE MAY BE PART OF THE ANSWER... 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2Ft2fHJAoU>*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2Ft2fHJAoU
-
[Cold]
*SCIENCE SAYS: WHY THERE'S A BIG CHILL IN A WARMER WORLD... 
<http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/science_says_why_there_s_a_big_chill_in_a_warmer_world>*
WASHINGTON (AP) - Anchorage, Alaska, was warmer Tuesday than 
Jacksonville, Florida. The weather in the U.S. is that upside down...
That's because the Arctic's deeply frigid weather escaped its regular 
atmospheric jail that traps the worst cold. It then meandered south to 
the central and eastern United States...
*WHY IS IT SO COLD?*
Super cold air is normally locked up in the Arctic in the polar vortex , 
which is a gigantic circular weather pattern around the North Pole. A 
strong polar vortex keeps that cold air hemmed in.
"Then when it weakens, it causes like a dam to burst," and the cold air 
heads south, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric 
Environmental Research, a commercial firm outside Boston.
"This is not record-breaking for Canada or Alaska or northern Siberia, 
it's just misplaced," said Cohen, who had forecast a colder than normal 
winter for much of the U.S.
*IS THIS UNUSUAL?*
Yes, but more for how long - about 10 days - the cold has lasted, than 
how cold it has been. On Tuesday, Boston tied its seven-day record for 
the most consecutive days at or below 20 degrees that was set exactly 
100 years ago....
*IS IT JUST THE U.S.?*
Pretty much...
SOURCE: ClimateReanalyzer.org..
*WHAT'S NEXT?*
The cold will continue and could actually worsen for much of the East 
Coast this weekend because of a monster storm that's brewing in the 
Atlantic and Caribbean, what meteorologists are calling a "snow 
hurricane" or "bomb cyclone."
But forecasters don't think the storm will hit the East Coast, keeping 
most of the snow and worst winds over open ocean, although parts of the 
Northeast are still likely to get high winds, waves and some snow.
"For the Northeast, this weekend might be the coldest of the coldest 
with the storm," said Jason Furtado, a University of Oklahoma 
meteorology professor. "We could be ending (the cold snap) with a big 
hurrah."..
*WHAT MAKES THE POLAR VORTEX MOVE?*
Climate change hasn't made the polar vortex more extreme, but it 
probably is making it move more, which makes the weather seem more 
extreme, he said....
*HOW CAN IT BE SO COLD WITH GLOBAL WARMING?*
Don't confuse weather - which is a few days or weeks in one region - 
with climate, which is over years and decades and global. Weather is 
like a person's mood, which changes frequently, while climate is like 
someone's personality, which is more long-term, Furtado said....
By SETH BORENSTEIN
http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/science_says_why_there_s_a_big_chill_in_a_warmer_world

[Attribution Science at National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and 
Medicine (NASEM) ]
*Extreme Weather: What's climate change got to do with it? 
<http://nas-sites.org/americasclimatechoices/extreme-weather-infographic/>*
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has 
developed a new infographic on the connection between extreme weather 
events and climate change that is based on the report Attribution of 
Extreme Weather Events in the Context of Climate Change. Click the image 
to go to the full-size version.
http://nas-sites.org/americasclimatechoices/extreme-weather-infographic/

[Harvard Business Review]
*Climate Change Is an Overwhelming Problem. Here Are 4 Things Executives 
Can Do Today 
<https://hbr.org/2018/01/climate-change-is-an-overwhelming-problem-here-are-4-things-executives-can-do-today>*
John Elkington
*1. Plunge into the data.* "Even a vortex is a vortex in something," 
noted George Bernard Shaw. "You can't have a whirlpool without water; 
and you can't have a vortex without gas." So in what medium is the 
carbon vortex forming? Look around, and it is clear that the vortex is 
forming in multiple arenas, among them the worlds of science, 
technology, business models, and, crucially, money. Imbibe the data.
The capital markets may have been slow to engage, but the Norwegian 
example above suggests acceleration. A growing number of indices now 
show the trajectory. Consider the work of Carbon Tracker on the growing 
risks of stranded assets and the death spiral impacting coal. See, too, 
PwC's Low Carbon Economy Index 2017, tracking the rate of the low carbon 
transition in each G20 economy. The top performers in 2016 were China 
and the UK, which reduced their carbon intensities by 6.5% and 7.7%, 
respectively. They are still exceptions, but their trajectories signal 
where the carbon vortex is likely to take us.
*2. Embark on a learning journey.* Growing numbers of senior teams are 
going on "learning journeys," visiting regions and organizations that 
are at the cutting edge of change, typically guided by organizations 
like Leaders Quest. If we were putting together such a learning journey 
for 2018, we might include the OECD in Paris for its work on the links 
between carbon dioxide emissions and GDP, and the UK government in 
London for its national carbon budgeting - and its recently announced 
commitment to improve the country's emissions intensity ratio.
Elsewhere, we would want to visit Tesla and the X Prize Foundation in 
California, the latter for its Carbon X Prize - with a growing emphasis 
on the role of financial markets. ...We will also be keeping a close eye 
on HBR's Future Economy Project..
*3. Swallow hard - and raise the price of carbon. *If we are to meet 
climate pledges made under the Paris climate agreement, the cost of 
emitting carbon dioxide must rise to $50–$100 per ton by 2030, 
dramatically higher than the current EU price of less than $6. This was 
the conclusion of the Commission on Carbon Prices, a group of leading 
economists supported by the World Bank. Supporting the call for a 
worldwide carbon pricing scheme is a group of more than 200 businesses 
and governments, including oil majors Shell and BP.
Meanwhile, to help drive down the cost of sustainable energy, over 100 
companies, including Google, Unilever, and Tata Motors, have joined the 
Climate Group's RE100 platform. This shares the business case for 
switching to 100% renewable electricity, while working to address 
barriers. Consider joining.
*4. Invert the vortex. *It is easy to be spooked by downward spirals, 
and an easy reflex action is to demonize carbon and talk of radical 
decarbonization. But that risks blinding us to the semi-magical aspects 
of this element, which is the basis of life on Earth. We need to rethink 
our relationship with carbon...Carbon will not disappear; indeed, it 
will be integral to the circular economy.
Among those working to reimagine carbon are Paul Hawken with his Project 
Drawdown platform, billed as the "most comprehensive plan ever proposed 
to reverse global warming," and the carpet tile company Interface, with 
its ambitious Climate Take Back strategy.
This inversion approach is also championed by the Carbon Productivity 
Consortium, anchored by the German materials company Covestro. The aim: 
to work out how best to invest an increasingly squeezed global carbon 
budget for much-enhanced economic, social, and environmental returns. 
The Consortium has launched a free-to-usecarbon productivity tool 
<http://carbonproductivity.com/carbon-productivity-tool/> to help 
companies identify and begin to pull the levers of change. Its four 
stages spell RIPL: Recouple, Improve, Product and business model design, 
and Loop...
You'll need a multi-decade strategy for making business sense of the 
carbon vortex, but the only way to get there is to start somewhere - and 
to start today.
https://hbr.org/2018/01/climate-change-is-an-overwhelming-problem-here-are-4-things-executives-can-do-today

[Defines the Global Warming Problem]
John Holdren MIT Technology Review video
*Climate Disruption: Technical Approaches to Mitigation and Adaptation 
Video 23:10 
<https://www.technologyreview.com/video/609390/climate-disruption-technical-approaches-to-mitigation-and-adaptation/>*
John Holdren discusses the harms we're already seeing in climate change, 
the latest science on the extent of the problem we face, and our limited 
options for addressing it.  11-7-2017
https://www.technologyreview.com/video/609390/climate-disruption-technical-approaches-to-mitigation-and-adaptation/

[Norway]
*Environmentalists lose climate lawsuit over Arctic oil 
<https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/ecology/2018/01/environmentalists-lose-climate-lawsuit-over-arctic-oil-drilling>*
Oslo District Court on Thursday ruled that Norway's drilling for oil in 
the Barents Sea does not violate a constitutional right to a healthy 
environment...
The government acts in accordance with the law when awarding new 
petroleum exploration licenses for the Barents Sea, the ruling by Oslo 
District Court reads. Greenpeace, one of the three organizations which 
filed the lawsuit, has published the court's 49-pages comprehensive 
ruling 
<https://secured-static.greenpeace.org/norway/Global/norway/Arktis/bilder/2017/Dom%20Klimars%C3%B8ksma%CC%8Alet.pdf>.
The lawsuit was challenging Norway's 23rd oil licensing round 
<https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/ecology/2017/11/historic-climate-lawsuit-starts-oslo> 
arguing that opening up the Arctic continental shelf would violate the 
country's Paris agreement commitments to limit temperature rise to 1.5 
degrees Celsius...
After a disappointing drilling campaign in the Barents Sea in 2017, 
Norway's oil major Statoil told the Barents Observer that five more 
prospects are to be drilled in 2018.
Norway's future income from oil exploration will come from Arctic 
waters, the government argues.
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/ecology/2018/01/environmentalists-lose-climate-lawsuit-over-arctic-oil-drilling

Josh Willis of NASA's OMG mission (short for Oceans Melting Greenland) 
explains:
FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/EARTH3R/videos/1877035362609162/
TWITTER
https://twitter.com/EARTH3R/status/949400128565100544
YOUTUBE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McsN8iQfcP8
ARTICLE
https://earther.com/nasa-is-flying-over-greenland-to-predict-the-future-of-1821811204

[forgotten news from 2014]
*"Sun Kinks" in Railways Join the List of Climate Change's Toll* 
<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sun-kinks-in-railways-join-the-list-of-climate-change-s-toll/>
Railroads could see more sun kinks if climate change-related heat waves 
become more severe and more frequent
Virginia Burkett, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist who co-authored a 
2008 study on climate change's impact to transportation systems on the 
Gulf Coast, said last week that *an average temperature change of 2 or 
3degreesF in the Gulf Coast region could have a significant effect on 
train tracks buckling, causing more derailments...*
As average U.S. temperatures warm between 3degreesF and more than 
9degreesF by the end of the century, depending on how greenhouse gas 
emissions are curtailed or not in the coming years, the waves of extreme 
heat the country is likely to experience could bend and buckle rails 
into what experts call "sun kinks." Intense heat expands the metal, 
curving and misaligning rails that become a danger to the trains gliding 
over them.
"Yes, you would anticipate more widespread or frequent incidents of 
track buckling as the temperature rises," she said, adding that more 
train derailments will occur only if railroads do not find ways to adapt.
The four largest U.S. freight railroads - CSX, Norfolk Southern, Union 
Pacific and BNSF - either declined to comment for this story or did not 
return requests for comment.
Track buckling in extreme heat is difficult to detect ahead of time 
because it can happen suddenly and without warning, Kish said.
"Look, if a train derails carrying coal, no big deal," he said, because 
coal trains are unlikely to cause significant harm to others nearby when 
they go off tracks. "But if you dump a train with hazmat (hazardous 
materials) or liquid nitrogen or crude oil, it starts burning. It's a 
more catastrophic event."
That was the case with several recent derailments involving trains 
carrying North Dakota Bakken shale crude oil exploding violently. No 
recent crude oil train derailments have been attributed to sun kinks.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sun-kinks-in-railways-join-the-list-of-climate-change-s-toll/
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/climate-change-warp-railroad-tracks-sun-kinks-17470
-
*Sun Kink Three second video* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pszHRicuUlw
-
Sun Kinks discussed https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,161542
-
[Interactive Map]
*Do you live in an Oil Train blast zone? 
<https://www.stand.earth/page/do-you-live-oil-train-blast-zone>*
The oil industry is sending explosive, toxic crude via rail right by 
homes of 25 million Americans.
Find out if you are one of them.
https://www.stand.earth/page/do-you-live-oil-train-blast-zone

*This Day in Climate History January 6, 2014 
<January%206,%202014:,,%E2%80%A2+The+Washington+Post+reports+on+the+vast+political+network,established%20by%20billionaire%20climate-change%20deniers%20Charles%20and%20David,Koch.,,http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/koch-backed-political-network-built-to-shield-donors-raised-400-million-in-2012-elections/2014/01/05/9e7cfd9a-719b-11e3-9389-09ef9944065e_story.html?hpid=z1,,%E2%80%A2+On+MSNBC%27s+%22All+In+with+Chris+Hayes,%22%20Tim%20Carney%20of%20the%20Washington,Examiner%20discusses%20the%20right%27s%20fondness%20for%20claiming%20that%20blizzards,disprove%20global%20warming.,,http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/53998063> 
-  from D.R. Tucker*
January 6, 2014
Matea Gold: The Washington Post reports 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/koch-backed-political-network-built-to-shield-donors-raised-400-million-in-2012-elections/2014/01/05/9e7cfd9a-719b-11e3-9389-09ef9944065e_story.html?hpid=z1> 
on the vast political network established by billionaire climate-change 
deniers Charles and David Koch.

    The political network spearheaded by conservative billionaires
    Charles and David Koch has expanded into a far-reaching operation of
    unrivaled complexity, built around a maze of groups that cloaks its
    donors, according to an analysis of new tax returns and other documents.

    The filings show that the network of politically active nonprofit
    groups backed by the Kochs and fellow donors in the 2012 elections
    financially outpaced other independent groups on the right and, on
    its own, matched the long-established national coalition of labor
    unions that serves as one of the biggest sources of support for
    Democrats.

    The resources and the breadth of the organization make it singular
    in American politics: an operation conducted outside the campaign
    finance system, employing an array of groups aimed at stopping what
    its financiers view as government overreach. Members of the
    coalition target different constituencies but together have mounted
    attacks on the new health-care law, federal spending and
    environmental regulations.

    Key players in the Koch-backed network have already begun engaging
    in the 2014 midterm elections, hiring new staff members to expand
    operations and strafing House and Senate Democrats with hard-hitting
    ads over their support for the Affordable Care Act.

    Its funders remain largely unknown; the coalition was carefully
    constructed with extensive legal barriers to shield its donors.
    But they have substantial firepower. Together, the 17 conservative
    groups that made up the network raised at least $407 million during
    the 2012 campaign, according to the analysis of tax returns by The
    Washington Post and the Center for Responsive Politics, a
    nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics.

    A labyrinth of tax-exempt groups and limited-liability companies
    helps mask the sources of the money, much of which went to voter
    mobilization and television ads attacking President Obama and
    congressional Democrats, according to tax filings and campaign
    finance reports.

    The coalition's revenue surpassed that of the Crossroads
    organizations, a super PAC and nonprofit group co-founded by GOP
    strategist Karl Rove that together brought in $325 million in the
    last cycle.

    The left has its own financial muscle, of course; unions plowed
    roughly $400 million into national, state and local elections in
    2012. A network of wealthy liberal donors organized by the group
    Democracy Alliance mustered about $100 million for progressive
    groups and super PACs in the last election cycle, according to a
    source familiar with the totals.

    The donor network organized by the Kochs - along with funding an
    array of longtime pro-
    Republican groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National
    Rifle Association and Americans for Tax Reform — distributed money
    to a coalition of groups that share the brothers' libertarian,
    free-market perspective. Each group was charged with a specialized
    task such as youth outreach, Latino engagement or data crunching.

    The system involved roughly a dozen limited-liability companies with
    cryptic, alphabet-soup names such as SLAH LLC and ORRA LLC, and
    entities that dissolved and reappeared under different monikers.

    Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a University of Notre Dame Law School professor
    who studies the tax issues of politically active nonprofits, said he
    has never seen a network with a similar design in the tax-exempt world.

    "It is a very sophisticated and complicated structure," said Mayer,
    who examined some of the groups' tax filings. "It's designed to make
    it opaque as to where the money is coming from and where the money
    is going. No layperson thought this up. It would only be worth it if
    you were spending the kind of dollars the Koch brothers are, because
    this was not cheap."

    Tracing the flow of the money is particularly challenging because
    many of the advocacy groups swapped funds back and forth. The tactic
    not only provides multiple layers of protection for the original
    donors but also allows the groups to claim they are spending the
    money on "social welfare" activities to qualify for 501(c)(4)
    tax-exempt status.

    Such maneuvers could be sharply restricted under new regulations
    proposed by the Internal Revenue Service in November. The new rules
    seek to rein in nonprofit groups that have increasingly engaged in
    elections while avoiding the donor disclosure required of political
    committees... (more)
    <http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/koch-backed-political-network-built-to-shield-donors-raised-400-million-in-2012-elections/2014/01/05/9e7cfd9a-719b-11e3-9389-09ef9944065e_story.html?hpid=z1>...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/koch-backed-political-network-built-to-shield-donors-raised-400-million-in-2012-elections/2014/01/05/9e7cfd9a-719b-11e3-9389-09ef9944065e_story.html?hpid=z1
-
On MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes, 
<http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/53998063>" Tim Carney of the 
Washington Examiner discusses the right's fondness for claiming that 
blizzards disprove global warming.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/all-in-/53998063

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