[TheClimate.Vote] January 19, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Fri Jan 19 10:35:54 EST 2018
/January 19, 2018/
[World Economic Forum]
The Global Risks Report 2018 <http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2018/>
Download PDF <http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GRR18_Report.pdf>
Each year the Global Risks Report works with experts and decision-makers
across the world to identify and analyze the most pressing risks that we
face. As the pace of change accelerates, and as risk interconnections
deepen, this year's report highlights the growing strain we are placing
on many of the global systems we rely on.
For the second year running, business and political leaders think the
world's biggest threat is extreme weather, according to the latest
Global Risks Report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) published today...
*Executive Summary*
<http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2018/executive-summary/> (clip)
...Humanity has become remarkably adept at understanding how to
mitigate conventional risks that can be relatively easily isolated
and managed with standard risk-management approaches. But we are
much less competent when it comes to dealing with complex risks in
the interconnected systems that underpin our world, such as
organizations, economies, societies and the environment. There are
signs of strain in many of these systems: our accelerating pace of
change is testing the absorptive capacities of institutions,
communities and individuals. When risk cascades through a complex
system, the danger is not of incremental damage but of "runaway
collapse" or an abrupt transition to a new, suboptimal status quo...
http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2018/executive-summary/
http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2018/
-
[Interactive trend map]
*The Risks-Trends Interconnections Map 2018
<http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2018/global-risks-landscape-2018/#trends>*
How are global trends connected to global risks?
http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2018/global-risks-landscape-2018/#trends
[record year]
*Last Year Was One of Three Hottest Ever Recorded, WMO Says
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-18/last-year-was-one-of-three-hottest-ever-recorded-wmo-says>*
Bloomberg
Last year turned out to be one of the three warmest ever.
The average global temperature was 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees
Fahrenheit) above the baseline level before the Industrial Revolution,
the World Meteorological Organization said Thursday in a statement. The
record-high was in 2016, with 2017 and 2015 equal second.
The world's nations are united in pledging to curb fossil-fuel pollution
to slow global warming even after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the ...
"Seventeen of the 18 warmest years on record have all been during this
century, and the degree of warming during the past three years has been
exceptional,
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-18/last-year-was-one-of-three-hottest-ever-recorded-wmo-says
[resignations]
*The Energy 202: Trump administration is sidelining science boards, new
report says
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2018/01/18/the-energy-202-trump-administration-is-sidelining-science-boards-new-report-says/5a5fc71d30fb0469e88401d0/?utm_term=.666ed6c8a775>*
Washington Post
"That's disturbing because that means they're making decisions without
having any independent reference for the scientific underpinnings for
those decisions," said Andrew Rosenberg, director of the group's Center
for Science and Democracy. "Or they're completely ignoring the science
as they make decisions."
Advisory panels - composed of independent experts from colleges,
companies, nonprofit groups and local governments - are widespread
across the federal government. More than 200 such committees are
scientific or technical in nature and advise the White House, Congress
or federal agencies on everything from disease control to nuclear safety...
But the agency still permits industry experts to be on the panels. As a
result, the percentage of industry-linked advisers on the EPA Science
Advisory Board, which offers scientific and technical advice as the
agency crafts environmental regulations, jumped from 6 to 23 percent
from last year to this year. The EPA recruited academics and
environmental regulators from conservative states to join the panel, as
well...
"We understand the complexity of transition," departing board chairman
Tony Knowles wrote to Interior, "but our requests to engage have been
ignored and the matters on which we wanted to brief the new Department
team are clearly not part of its agenda."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2018/01/18/the-energy-202-trump-administration-is-sidelining-science-boards-new-report-says/5a5fc71d30fb0469e88401d0/?utm_term=.666ed6c8a775
[Data]
*Using data mining to make sense of climate change
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180118162443.htm>*
Experts have developed a new way of mining data from climate data sets
that is more self-contained than traditional tools. The methodology
brings out commonalities of data sets without as much expertise from the
user, allowing scientists to trust the data and get more robust -- and
transparent -- results...
"Climate science is a 'data-heavy' discipline with many intellectually
interesting questions that can benefit from computational modeling and
prediction," said Dovrolis, a professor in the School of Computer
Science, "Cross-disciplinary collaborations are challenging at first --
every discipline has its own language, preferred approach and research
culture -- but they can be quite rewarding at the end."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180118162443.htm
[DeSmog]
*New NASA Study Solves Climate Mystery, Confirms Methane Spike Tied to
Oil and Gas
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/01/16/nasa-study-resolves-climate-mystery-confirms-methane-spike-ties-oil-gas>*
Over the past few years, natural gas has become the primary fuel that
America uses to generate electricity, displacing the long-time king of
fossil fuels, coal. In 2019, more than a third of America's electrical
supply will come from natural gas, with coal falling to a second-ranked
28 percent, the Energy Information Administration predicted this month,
marking the growing ascendency of gas in the American power market.
https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/01/16/nasa-study-resolves-climate-mystery-confirms-methane-spike-ties-oil-gas
[clip from a classic post]
*The Earth as Witness: International Dharma Teachers' Statement on
Climate Change
<https://oneearthsangha.org/articles/dharma-teachers-statement-on-climate-change/>*
As a starting point, the Dharma states that to formulate meaningful
solutions to any problem we must first acknowledge the truth of our
suffering. As shocking and painful as it may be, we must recognize that
without swift and dramatic reductions in fossil fuel use and major
efforts to increase carbon sequestration, global temperatures will rise
close to or beyond 2 degrees C. This increase will lead to injury and
death for millions of people worldwide and the extinction of many of the
Earth's species. Millions more will experience severe trauma and stress
that threaten their physical, emotional, and psychological well-being.
These stresses will, in turn, trigger social and political unrest. In a
grave injustice, low-income communities, poor nations, and people
systematically subjected to oppression and discrimination, who
contributed little to climate change, will initially be harmed the most.
Even worse, as frightening as it is, if we fail to make fundamental
changes in our energy, manufacturing, transportation, forestry,
agricultural, and other systems along with our consumption patterns with
utmost urgency, in mere decades irreversible climate shifts will occur
that undermine the very pillars of human civilization. Only by
recognizing these truths can we adopt a meaningful path toward solutions...
. The first principle is wisdom. From this point forward in history we
must all acknowledge not only the external causes of climate change, but
the internal mental drivers as well, and their horrific consequences. To
be wise we must also, individually and as a society, adopt the firm
intention to do whatever is necessary, no matter what the cost, to
reduce the climate crisis to manageable levels and over time
re-stabilize our planet's climate...
The second Dharma principle is ethical conduct, which is rooted in a
compassionate concern for all living beings in the vast web of life. We
need to make a firm moral commitment to adopt ways of living that
protect the climate and help restore the Earth's ecosystems and living
organisms. In our personal lives, we should recognize the value of
contentment and sufficiency and realize that, after a certain modest
level, additional consumption, material wealth, and power will not bring
happiness. To fulfill our wider moral responsibility, we must join with
others, stand up to the vested interests that oppose change, and demand
that our economic, social, and political institutions be fundamentally
altered so they protect the climate and offer nurturance and support for
all of humanity in a just and equitable manner. We must insist that
governments and corporations contribute to a stable climate and a
healthy environment for all people and cultures worldwide, now and in
the future. We must further insist that specific scientifically credible
global emission reduction targets be set and means adopted to
effectively monitor and enforce them...
The third Dharma training, and the one that makes all of the others
possible, is mindfulness. This offers a way to heighten our awareness
of, and then to regulate, our desires and emotions and the thoughts and
behaviors they generate. By continually enhancing our awareness, we can
increasingly notice when we are causing harm to others, the climate, or
ourselves, and strengthen our capacity to rapidly shift gears and think
and act constructively. Mindfulness increases awareness of our inherent
interdependency with other people and the natural environment and of
values that enhance human dignity rather than subordinate people,
animals, and nature to the craving for more material wealth and power.
https://oneearthsangha.org/articles/dharma-teachers-statement-on-climate-change/
[Tucker Carlson attacks a Valve Turner]
Activist: It's OK to break laws for climate change
<http://video.foxnews.com/v/5713970902001/?#sp=show-clips>
Jan. 17, 2018 - 5:20 - Tucker takes on veteran environmentalist over NYC
Mayor De Blasio suing oil companies over 'climate change costs' and
activists breaking laws for the environment. #Tucker
http://video.foxnews.com/v/5713970902001/?#sp=show-clips
[pass the maple syrup]
*Sugar maples disappear due to global warming
<https://earth-chronicles.com/science/sugar-maples-disappear-due-to-global-warming.html>*
Earth Chronicles
Sugar maples disappear due to global warming. by space · January 18,
2018. Sugar maples, from the juice of which maple syrup is made, is
threatened by danger: trees are difficult to adapt to an increasingly
dry and warm climate. If the climate changes in the worst scenario, in
the next 80 years the world can remain without sugar maples...
Both models showed that an increase in the mean annual temperature and a
decrease in humidity slowed the growth of maples, and in the course of
events under the second scenario, the growth of trees will come to
naught even with a constant increase in the concentration of nitrogenous
compounds in the soil. If the amount of greenhouse gas emissions does
not decrease, maples can disappear from the face of the Earth, and in
the place with them – sweet maple syrup, at least of natural origin,
warn the authors of the work published in the journal Ecology.
https://earth-chronicles.com/science/sugar-maples-disappear-due-to-global-warming.html
[AV Club]
*Nicolas Cage's new movie will be released in VR, as they all should
<https://www.avclub.com/nicolas-cages-new-movie-will-be-released-in-vr-as-they-1822159308>*
AV Club
The film takes place in a near future where global warming is ravaging
the American Midwest. The title refers to a "government agency that
exiles members of society deemed unproductive and banishes them to a
colony known as New Eden." We're going to assume that name is ironic,
the way you sometimes nickname a big guy "Tiny." Cage plays a caseworker
who tries to protect a woman and her child while exposing the secrets of
the Bureau.
https://www.avclub.com/nicolas-cages-new-movie-will-be-released-in-vr-as-they-1822159308
*This Day in Climate History January 19, 2014
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/if-you-see-something-say-something.html>
- from D.R. Tucker*
January 19, 2014: In the New York Times, climate scientist Michael
Mann observes:
"It is not an uncommon view among scientists that we potentially
compromise our objectivity if we choose to wade into policy matters or
the societal implications of our work. And it would be problematic if
our views on policy somehow influenced the way we went about doing our
science. But there is nothing inappropriate at all about drawing on
our scientific knowledge to speak out about the very real implications
of our research.
"My colleague Stephen Schneider of Stanford University, who died in
2010, used to say that being a scientist-advocate is not an oxymoron.
Just because we are scientists does not mean that we should check our
citizenship at the door of a public meeting, he would explain. The New
Republic once called him a 'scientific pugilist' for advocating a
forceful approach to global warming. But fighting for scientific truth
and an informed debate is nothing to apologize for.
"If scientists choose not to engage in the public debate, we leave a
vacuum that will be filled by those whose agenda is one of short-term
self-interest. There is a great cost to society if scientists fail to
participate in the larger conversation - if we do not do all we can to
ensure that the policy debate is informed by an honest assessment of
the risks. In fact, it would be an abrogation of our responsibility to
society if we remained quiet in the face of such a grave threat."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/if-you-see-something-say-something.html
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