[TheClimate.Vote] July 18, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Wed Jul 18 09:03:27 EDT 2018
/July 18, 2018/
[terminology: flash drought = rapid onset of hot and/or dry]
*Flash drought* refers to relatively short periods of warm surface
temperature and anomalously low and rapid decreasing soil moisture.
Based on the physical mechanisms associated with flash droughts, these
events are classified into two categories: heat wave and precipitation
deficit flash droughts.
*What's the criteria for identifying flash droughts? New study says
rapid onset, not short duration
<https://cpo.noaa.gov/News/News-Article/ArtMID/6226/ArticleID/1585/What%E2%80%99s-the-criteria-for-identifying-flash-droughts-New-study-says-rapid-onset-not-short-duration>*
see also: https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JHM-D-15-0158.1
https://cpo.noaa.gov/News/News-Article/ArtMID/6226/ArticleID/1585/What%E2%80%99s-the-criteria-for-identifying-flash-droughts-New-study-says-rapid-onset-not-short-duration
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321205358_Flash_droughts_A_review_and_assessment_of_the_challenges_imposed_by_rapid-onset_droughts_in_the_United_States
- - - - -
*Scorching Scandinavia: Record-breaking heat hits Norway, Finland and
Sweden <https://www.washingtonpost.com/>*
An intense heat dome has swelled over Scandinavia, pushing temperatures
more than 20 degrees above normal and spurring some of the region's
hottest weather ever recorded. Even as far north as the Arctic Circle,
the mercury has come close to 90 degrees.
- - - - -
[Heat waves make flash droughts. 80 fires]
*Sweden is battling a historic wildfire outbreak...
<https://www.thelocal.se/20180717/sweden-battles-most-serious-wildfire-situation-of-modern-times-heres-what-you-need-to-know>*
Swedish firefighters have been battling throughout the summer in what
has been described by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency as the
country's "most serious" wildfire situation of modern times. But just
what are the causes, which areas are worst affected, and what is being
done?[Other data visualizations]
Robert Fanney video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llImmzcDCm4>
Published on Jul 17, 2018
Discussion of weather and climate change related signals influencing
the present historic heat, drought, and wildfire outbreak in Sweden.
video read https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llImmzcDCm4
[Water bombers fly near Stockholm]
https://www.thelocal.se/userdata/images/1531809471_italianplanes.jpg
Italian water bombers to help fight wildfires in Sweden
https://www.thelocal.se/20180717/sweden-battles-most-serious-wildfire-situation-of-modern-times-heres-what-you-need-to-know
[fast shell game, pay close attention]
*Hidden Gem for Big Oil in Carbon Tax Plan: Ending Climate Liability
Suits
<https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/07/17/carbon-tax-climate-liability-waiver/>*
By Karen Savage
Oil and gas companies could be off the hook for climate change-related
damages if a new carbon tax proposal makes its way through Congress.
The proposal is being spearheaded by Americans for Carbon Dividends, an
industry-backed organization whose mission is to build support for the
Baker-Shultz Carbon Dividends Plan, which proposes taxing carbon
emitters and returning the proceeds to the American public. It also
includes a waiver of the right to sue fossil fuel companies for climate
change impacts and suggests rolling back most Environmental Protection
Agency regulations on greenhouse gases.
Launched earlier this month, Americans For Climate Dividends is
co-chaired by former Senators Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and John Breaux
(D-La.), whose lobbying firm was hired to promote the campaign. Its
public relations effort is being led by Hill+Knowlton, a firm that once
spearheaded the communications campaign for Big Tobacco.
The group has succeeded in gaining support from politicians and
policymakers from both parties and even garnered qualified support from
some environmental organizations. The public relations effort has
succeeded in placing several Op-Ed articles and some newspaper editorial
boards have endorsed it.
The Baker-Schultz plan - named for its lead authors, former secretaries
of state James A. Baker III and George P. Shultz - proposes the
implementation of a gradually rising carbon tax, with 100 percent of the
proceeds paid to Americans in a monthly dividend payment. For companies
that import or export goods to countries without a carbon pricing
system, a border adjustment would be specified. The plan starts the tax
at $40 per metric ton, but does not specify how or by how much it will rise.
The plan also includes what it calls "regulatory simplification:" a
rollback of carbon dioxide emissions regulations because the authors
claim the program would reduce emissions more than all current and prior
climate regulations.
And although U.S. taxpayers would benefit from monthly dividend
payments, it would also mean none of the proceeds would help cities and
states pay the already ballooning costs of climate mitigation and
adaptation.
While the plan's promoters are suggesting it's a win for everyone, the
relatively low level of taxation and support of the fossil fuel industry
raises myriad questions...
- - - - -
"The fossil fuel industry is not going to support a carbon tax unless
they're immunized from damages," said Bookbinder, who warned that what's
good for fossil fuel companies may not be good for communities....
- - - -
"It's striking that there's language in here about liability relief and
to my mind, among other things, that suggests that the lawsuits are
important not only for seeking legitimate goals for municipalities to be
compensated for the costs they're incurring, but because they are
clearly driving, at least in part, the motivation of at least some
companies to come to the table and to seek a deal."
Davies said he wonders if the plan's main goal is to implement a carbon
tax-dividend program or to eliminate liability suits.
"If the tobacco companies had been able to get a $10 a pack cigarette
tax in exchange for no lawsuits, they probably would have taken that
deal - and this is far short of that."
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/07/17/carbon-tax-climate-liability-waiver/
[Honolulu, Hawaii]
*Mayor issues directive on climate change
<https://www.khon2.com/news/local-news/mayor-issues-directive-on-climate-change/1306968449>*
Video:
https://www.khon2.com/news/local-news/mayor-issues-directive-on-climate-change/1306968449
The Commission says the city should plan for 3-feet of sea level rise by
the mid-century and if action isn't taken now, nearly 4,000 structures
on Oahu would be flooded, and nearly 18 miles of coastal roads would
become impassable.
https://www.khon2.com/news/local-news/mayor-issues-directive-on-climate-change/1306968449
[Noam Chomsky speaks out]
*Global Warming's Worst Case Projections seem increasingly likely
<https://youtu.be/R4PisLH8J2g>*
Video - https://youtu.be/R4PisLH8J2g - Text transcript available
Global warming, also referred to as climate change, is the observed
century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth's climate
system and its related effects. Multiple lines of scientific evidence
show that the climate system is warming.
Climate State - Published on Jul 17, 2018
One of the most cited scholars in history, Noam Chomsky speaks at St
Olaff College May 2018, discussing the Epics, Anthropocene, the 6th
Extinction and climate change actions.
Watch the full lecture with Noam Chomsky at St Olaff College - 4 May
2018 - FULL PRESENTATION https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDQ2fjg0kMM
https://youtu.be/R4PisLH8J2g
[so funny I forgot to laugh]
*Not Just Funny After All: Sarcasm as a Catalyst for Public Engagement
With Climate Change
<http://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/FVydSAyXK8y8fgnjwHUb/full>*
Amy B. Becker First Published July 13, 2018 Research Article
Free Access
Abstract
Sarcastic content is prevalent in online social media, although
little research has explored its effects. In this study, we examine
how exposure to one-sided versus two-sided sarcastic perspectives on
climate change shapes beliefs about climate change. We find that
exposure to one-sided messages that use irony to deride those who
believe that climate change is a hoax (presented in The Onion)
raises belief certainty in and perceived risk of climate change for
those who do not already believe climate change is an important
issue (N = 141). The two-sided message (presented by The Weather
Channel) does not show any effects.
- - - -
*Can sarcastic humor serve as a catalyst for engagement on the issue of
climate change?* The results suggest that one-sided sarcasm from sources
such as The Onion can in fact encourage greater issue engagement,
particularly among those who find climate change to be a less important
political issue at the outset. In many respects, our findings offer
added support for the application of the gateway hypothesis to satirical
climate change communication...
In sum, our findings paint a complex picture for how humorous and
attack-based tones such as sarcasm in social media contexts shape
public opinion toward controversial scientific issues such as
climate change. On one hand, our findings suggest a positive outlook
for climate advocates who want to use the avenue of social media for
engaging people with the issue. Humor and sarcasm in online video
content can reach those low-interest individuals, and this is likely
bolstered by the tendency for individuals to engage with like-minded
perspectives in social media content. On the other hand, our study
also points to the difficulty in reaching individuals with neutral,
or cross-cutting, content. Our results suggest that attempts to
address both sides (like TWC's) are not successful. While our study
does not suggest that two-sided arguments are harmful to engagement
with the issue, it does wash out any engaging effects of humor or
sarcasm. As such, our study does not suggest an overall positive
picture for the effects of sarcastic tones on social media on
engagement with the climate change issue.
http://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/FVydSAyXK8y8fgnjwHUb/full
[out of balance]
*Birds eat 400 to 500 million tonnes of insects annually
<https://www.springer.com/gp/about-springer/media/research-news/all-english-research-news/birds-eat-400-to-500-million-tonnes-of-insects-annually-/15910278>*
Along with spiders, insectivorous birds play a vital role in consuming
insects that would otherwise destroy forests or crops
Heidelberg | New York, 9 July 2018
New Content Item (1) © Maurice BakerBirds around the world eat 400 to
500 million metric tonnes of beetles, flies, ants, moths, aphids,
grasshoppers, crickets and other anthropods per year. These numbers have
been calculated in a study led by Martin Nyffeler of the University of
Basel in Switzerland. The research, published in Springer's journal The
Science of Nature, highlights the important role birds play in keeping
plant-eating insect populations under control.
Nyffeler and his colleagues based their figures on 103 studies that
highlighted the volume of prey that insect-eating birds consume in seven
of the world's major ecological communities known as biomes. According
to their estimations, this amounts to between 400 and 500 million tonnes
of insects per year but is most likely to be on the lower end of the
range. Their calculations are supported by a large number of
experimental studies conducted by many different research teams in a
variety of habitats in different parts of the world.
"The global population of insectivorous birds annually consumes as much
energy as a megacity the size of New York. They get this energy by
capturing billions of potentially harmful herbivorous insects and other
arthropods," says Nyffeler.
Forest-dwelling birds consume around 75 per cent of the insects eaten in
total by birds which make up about 300 million tonnes of insects per
year. About 100 million tonnes are eaten by birds in savanna areas,
grasslands and croplands, and those living in the deserts and Arctic
tundra. Birds actively hunt insects especially during the breeding
season, when they need protein-rich prey to feed to their nestlings.
Further, the researchers estimated that insectivorous birds together
only have a biomass of about three million tonnes. Nyffeler says the
comparatively low value for the global biomass of wild birds can be
partially explained through their very low production efficiency. This
means that respiration takes a lot of energy and only leaves about one
to two percent to be converted into biomass.
"The estimates presented in this paper emphasize the ecological and
economic importance of insectivorous birds in suppressing potentially
harmful insect pests on a global scale - especially in forested areas,"
explains Nyffeler, who says that this is especially so for tropical,
temperate and boreal forest ecosystems.
"Only a few other predator groups such as spiders and entomophagous
insects (including in particular predaceous ants) can keep up with the
insectivorous birds in their capacity to suppress plant-eating insect
populations on a global scale," he adds.
A study from 2017 which Nyffeler also led showed that spiders consume
between 400 and 800 million tonnes of insects each year. Other predator
groups like bats, primates, shrews, hedgehogs, frogs, salamanders, and
lizards seem to be valuable yet less effective natural enemies of
plant-eating insects. He says their influence seems to be more
biome-specific rather than on a worldwide scale. For instance, lizards
help to suppress insects on tropical islands, but less so on a broader
scale.
"Birds are an endangered class of animals because they are heavily
threatened by factors such as afforestation, intensification of
agriculture, spread of systemic pesticides, predation by domestic cats,
collisions with man-made structures, light pollution and climate change.
If these global threats cannot soon be resolved, we must fear that the
vital ecosystem services that birds provide – such as the suppression of
insect pests – will be lost," says Nyffeler.
Reference: Nyffeler, M. et al (2018). Insectivorous birds consume an
estimated 400-500 million tons of prey annually, The Science of Nature
DOI: 10.1007/s00114-018-1571-z
https://www.springer.com/gp/about-springer/media/research-news/all-english-research-news/birds-eat-400-to-500-million-tonnes-of-insects-annually-/15910278
[Book Review]
*Doomsayer or realist? Author takes on climate change and war in
creative nonfiction essay collection
<https://www.thegazette.com/subject/life/books/doomsayer-or-realist-author-takes-on-climate-change-and-war-in-creative-nonfiction-essay-collection-20180707>*
*We're Doomed. Now What?: Essays on War and Climate Change*
Roy Scranton
Soho Press, Jul 17, 2018 - Political Science - 360 pages
An American Orwell for the age of Trump, Roy Scranton faces the
unpleasant facts of our day with fierce insight and honesty. We're
Doomed. Now What? penetrates to the very heart of our time.
Our moment is one of alarming and bewildering change - the breakup of
the post-1945 global order, a multispecies mass extinction, and the
beginning of the end of civilization as we know it. Not one of us is
innocent, not one of us is safe. Now what?
- - - -
As the title so clearly indicates, "We're Doomed. Now What?" is not
light fare. Rather, it takes the idea that climate change is no longer
reversible as a given and a starting place for inquiry.
"It is a dark book and we live in a dark time," Scranton said. "The
lights are going out all over the world. And that's the time we live in.
And it's going to get worse before it gets worse. We don't get to not
think about that; we don't get to not deal with that. For me, just
saying, 'Well, it has to get better' or 'There has to be some way out,'
that's not good enough because I don't believe that's true. It doesn't
have to get better. So how do we go through this? How do we live through
this with any kind of ethical integrity or sense of human dignity?
That's the effort I'm trying to make. "
Buddhist thought and practice underpins Scranton's project. He finds the
practice of meditation to be analogous to the practice of writing.
"With mediation, you're sitting your body down, you're making your body
be still and letting the emotional and the intellectual and the
linguistic ... all the stuff of consciousness that emerges out of bodily
activity, you're letting it go. ... For me, writing is a way of figuring
out what I think about things and that first draft is opening up the
space for the thoughts to happen on their own and to take on their own
logic and objectifying that as a thing in the world, so that it's not me
anymore. It's this thing outside of me"
Some of the essays in this collection were written as long as eight
years ago, which in the current media environment can feel like a
different era entirely. But Scranton is a writer with a deep interest in
history and the ways in which events in the past connect with the present.
"It's quite difficult in the contemporary conversation to hang on to
that sense that the moment we live in is a concatenation of many
different histories. There's a deep presentism to our moment and there's
also a kind of divisive appeal to one of a handful mythic narrative
about how we got where we are - everything is liberal progress or
everything is genocide and slavery. ... And neither of those is wholly
true. Both of them are partly true. Our history on this planet is
overwhelming, mindbogglingly complex and we can't understand what's
happening now without that sense of history."
He sees clear connections between the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001 and the
place in which we find ourselves now.
"This re-emergence of radical nationalism, the Trump phenomenon, the
Supreme Court decision to uphold Trump's ban on Muslims - all of this
connects back to the Iraq War and 9/11. It all has something, if not
quite a lot, to do with this moment of violence and the American
military response, and the eight years of occupation, and the sense of
failure that emerged out of that war. It's all part of the story, and I
feel it's part of my job as a writer with an interest in history to keep
bringing that up even if it doesn't feel like it's necessarily part of
the conversation right now. Because it should be."
https://www.thegazette.com/subject/life/books/doomsayer-or-realist-author-takes-on-climate-change-and-war-in-creative-nonfiction-essay-collection-20180707
*This Day in Climate History - July 18, 2002
<http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/science/climate/2002-07-18-states-climate.htm>-
from D.R. Tucker*
July 18, 2002: USA Today reports:
"Democratic attorneys general from 11 states accused the Bush
administration Wednesday of ignoring global warming and favoring
energy policies that will boost greenhouse gas emissions.
"White House spokesman Scott McClellan responded by saying the
president was working on a 'bipartisan, commonsense approach to
address climate change.'
"In their letter to Bush, the attorneys general denounced the
administration's climate change policy, arguing that states have
been left to address a global problem with a patchwork of
inconsistent regulations. They said Bush has failed to create a
national plan to curb carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles and
power plants."
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/science/climate/2002-07-18-states-climate.htm
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