[TheClimate.Vote] June 28, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Jun 28 10:17:11 EDT 2018
/June 28, 2018/
[wildfires]
*Nearly 3,000 firefighters deployed as wildfire rages in Northern
California
<https://abcnews.go.com/US/3000-firefighters-deployed-wildfire-rages-northern-california/story?id=56194172>*
A raging wildfire in Northern California has grown by about 3,000 acres
on as firefighters fought to contain the blaze, which has already
destroyed at least 22 homes and buildings, authorities said.
The Pawnee fire has burned at least 13,000 acres in Lake County,
California, north of San Francisco, as high temperatures and windy
conditions fanned the flames, fire officials said.
About 2,700 fire fighters have been deployed to the area, but the brutal
weather conditions have made the fight difficult...
https://abcnews.go.com/US/3000-firefighters-deployed-wildfire-rages-northern-california/story?id=56194172
[bad year for Copper River Salmon]
*The 'blob' likely to blame for poor salmon returns in Gulf of Alaska
<https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2018/06/27/the-blob-likely-to-blame-for-poor-salmon-returns-in-gulf-of-alaska/>*
By Jason Smith June 27, 2018
The mass of unusually warm water that persisted in the gulf of the US
state beginning in 2014 not fully dissipating until last year, is the
likely cause behind the reduced returns, biologists told Undercurrent News.
"What we're seeing now, the sockeye and the Chinook that are returning
now, those juveniles entered the water in 2015, 2016. I think we're
seeing the effects of very poor survival when they hit the ocean during
those warm periods," Andrew Gray, a fisheries biologist with the
National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Alaska Fisheries
Science Center, said.
- - - -
Although fishing has only been underway for a couple of weeks in the
gulf, ADF&G has been concerned enough to take emergency management
action. For example, the Chignik River district remains closed to
commercial fishing and the agency temporarily closed fisheries nearby
when DNA tests showed that Chignik-bound fish were present. Returns were
devastatingly low for Copper River and things aren't looking good for
several other salmon fisheries either.
Bowers said the blob makes sense as an explanation, partly because other
factors don't.
"We don't think that a decline as widespread as this would have been
caused by freshwater habitat issues because those concerns wouldn't
affect each stock in the same way," he said.
First seen in 2014, the blob effect raised ocean temperatures by as much
as three degrees C (about 5.4 degrees F) higher than average for months,
NOAA has said...
https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2018/06/27/the-blob-likely-to-blame-for-poor-salmon-returns-in-gulf-of-alaska/
[says TIme magazine]
*Justice Kennedy's Replacement Could Make It Harder to Fight Climate
Change
<http://time.com/5324154/anthony-kennedy-supreme-court-climate-change/>*
By JUSTIN WORLAND - June 27, 2018
The retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy could allow the
nation's highest court to change its mind on whether the Environmental
Protection Agency has to fight climate change.
As a crucial swing vote, the Reagan appointee joined liberals in a
landmark 5-4 decision in 2007 that the EPA is required to address
climate change if its own scientists found that it posed a risk to
public health. Two years later the agency made exactly that
determination, issuing a scientific document known as the endangerment
finding.
"We're not going to get another Kennedy who's going to play that
moderating role," says Deborah Sivas, a professor of environmental law
at Stanford University. "Since it's a matter of statutory interpretation
instead of bedrock constitutional principles I could see folks try to
set up a new challenge."...
http://time.com/5324154/anthony-kennedy-supreme-court-climate-change/
[pretty obvious]
*Climate change a 'man-made problem with a feminist solution' says
Robinson
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-climatechange-women/climate-change-a-man-made-problem-with-a-feminist-solution-says-robinson-idUSKBN1JE2IN>*
Zoe Tabary
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Women must be at the heart of
climate action if the world is to limit the deadly impact of disasters
such as floods, former Irish president and U.N. rights commissioner Mary
Robinson said on Monday.
Robinson, also a former U.N. climate envoy, said women were most
adversely affected by disasters and yet are rarely "put front and
center" of efforts to protect the most vulnerable.
"Climate change is a man-made problem and must have a feminist
solution," she said at a meeting of climate experts at London's Marshall
Institute for Philanthropy and Entrepreneurship.
"Feminism doesn't mean excluding men, it's about being more inclusive of
women and -in this case - acknowledging the role they can play in
tackling climate change."
Research has shown that women's vulnerabilities are exposed during the
chaos of cyclones, earthquakes and floods, according to the British
think-tank Overseas Development Institute.
In many developing countries, for example, women are involved in food
production, but are not allowed to manage the cash earned by selling
their crops, said Robinson.
The lack of access to financial resources can hamper their ability to
cope with extreme weather, she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on
the sidelines of the event.
"Women all over the world are ... on the frontlines of the fall-out from
climate change and therefore on the forefront of climate action," said
Natalie Samarasinghe, executive director of Britain's United Nations
Association.
"What we - the international community - need to do is talk to them,
learn from them and support them in scaling up what they know works best
in their communities," she said at the meeting.
Robinson served as Irish president from 1990-1997 before taking over as
the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, and now leads a foundation
devoted to climate justice.
Reporting by Zoe Tabary @zoetabary, Editing by Claire Cozens. Please
credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson
Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking,
property rights, climate change and resilience.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-climatechange-women/climate-change-a-man-made-problem-with-a-feminist-solution-says-robinson-idUSKBN1JE2IN
[it is all connected - of course]
*Did climate change spark the border crisis?
<https://thebulletin.org/did-climate-change-spark-border-crisis11935>*
By Dawn Stover
27 JUNE 2018
The majority of immigrants crossing the southwestern US border in recent
months have come from the Northern Triangle of Central America: El
Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. In the popular narrative, they are
fleeinggang violence
<https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/central-americas-violent-northern-triangle>,
drug wars, and a lack of economic opportunities. An alternative
narrative, however,suggests
<https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2018/04/violence-drought-migration-central-americas-northern-triangle/> that
another factor sparked the border crisis: protracted drought.
Applications for asylum in the United States havesurged
<http://www.unhcr.org/en-us/statistics/unhcrstats/5b27be547/unhcr-global-trends-2017.html>in
the past four years, with more than a third of all applicants coming
from the Northern Triangle. The increased migration coincides with an
agricultural crisis there that began in 2014 and depleted food stocks.
In a June 2016situation report
<http://www.fao.org/emergencies/resources/documents/resources-detail/en/c/422097/>,
the UN Food and Agricultural Organization warned that the Northern
Triangle was experiencing repeated crop losses caused by severe drought
- the result of a strong El Niño weather pattern. After a strong El
Niño, the weather pendulum can swing in the opposite direction the
following year, with heavier-than-normal rainfall that can also cause
crop losses.
Some climate modelspredict
<https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2100>that global warming, which
increases sea surface temperatures, will make extreme El Niño events
more frequent. But despite considerable progress in understanding the
connection between global warming and El Niño, it isnot yet possible to
say with certainty
<https://e360.yale.edu/features/el_nino_and_climate_change_wild_weather_may_get_wilder>that
global warming made the Northern Triangle drought worse.
There is little doubt that the Northern Triangle countries are among
themost dangerous
<http://www.thisisinsider.com/dangerous-countries-2017-5#2-yemen-19>in
the world, but violence doesn't tell the whole story of the border
crisis. About 80 percent of the people fleeing Guatemala arecoming from
areas
<https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2018/04/violence-drought-migration-central-americas-northern-triangle/>where
the homicide rate is comparable to the United States but food is scarce.
A 2017report
<https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000022124/download/?_ga=2.186416544.849116656.1503506467-813076901.1503506467>by
a coalition of international aid organizations confirmed that hunger is
linked to multiple factors driving migration - including poverty,
violence, and climate variability. Even if the current border crisis
can't be pinned primarily on climate conditions, future warming is
likely to have a growing impact on human migration.
https://thebulletin.org/did-climate-change-spark-border-crisis11935
[Arctic changes]
OCEANS 25 June 2018 16:00
*'Atlantification' of Arctic sea tipping it towards new climate regime
<https://www.carbonbrief.org/atlantification-arctic-sea-tipping-towards-new-climate-regime>*
Rising temperatures and declining sea ice are driving a "rapid climate
shift" in the Arctic's Barents Sea, a new study says.
The research, published in Nature Climate Change, finds that warming
conditions and decreasing sea ice volume "may soon" see the Barents Sea
complete a transition from cold, fresh Arctic waters to a warm, salty
Atlantic regime.
If current trends continue, the transition could occur "around 2040",
the lead author tells Carbon Brief. This would have "unknown
consequences" for the wider ecosystem and commercial fishing, the study
warns.
*'Atlantification'*
The Barents Sea is "at the doorstep to the Arctic Ocean", the new paper
says, roughly hemmed in by Russia and Scandinavia to the south, the
island of Svalbard to the northwest and Russia's Novaya Zemlya
archipelago to the east.
It is broadly divided into two regions. The waters of the northern
Barents are cold, fresh and often covered in sea ice, while the south is
supplied with warm and salty water from the Atlantic Ocean, which
prevents ice from forming on the surface.
The graphic below illustrates this in more detail. On the left-hand
side, the Atlantic domain - the southern Barents Sea and beyond - is
relatively warm and well-mixed. On the right-hand side is the interior
Arctic, where a large body of cold, ice-covered Arctic water sits on a
deeper Atlantic layer. The Arctic domain is highly "stratified", which
means the different layers of water stay largely separate.
The central section shows the "frontier" region of the northern Barents
Sea. This has a shallower Arctic water layer that is usually only
covered in sea ice through the winter.
Illustration of the frontier region between Atlantic (left) and Arctic
(right) ocean climate domains. The Atlantic domain has warm and saline
Atlantic Water (red) occupying the entire water column, and has large
heat losses to the atmosphere (in winter). The Arctic domain is cold,
stratified and sea-ice covered, having an intermediate Arctic layer of
cold and fresh Arctic Water (blue) over a deep Atlantic layer. In the
Arctic domain, upward fluxes of heat and salt from the deep Atlantic
layer are largest in the frontier region, where the stratification is
weaker. Source: Lind et al. (2018)
But, in recent years, scientists have documented the "Atlantification"
of the Barents sea as an increased inflow of Atlantic water has enlarged
the area where sea ice cannot form. This has resulted in decline in ice
extent on the Barents Sea, particularly in eastern areas.
Using decades of data collected from ships and satellites, the new study
investigates the causes behind these changes, finding that they are,
ultimately, caused by rising temperatures in the Arctic and the
associated decrease in sea ice.
*Sea change*
Sea ice plays a key role in keeping the northern Barents Sea in its
Arctic climate regime. In addition to the sea ice that forms on its
surface, the region receives an "import" of sea ice each year, blown in
from the central Arctic by the wind.
When the imported sea ice melts in spring and summer, it provides an
influx of freshwater to the Barents Sea. This cold, fresh water top-ups
the Arctic layer of the northern region, helping to maintain the
stratification that works as a barrier to the warm Atlantic waters below.
But the amount of ice the Barents Sea receives each year is declining.
The average annual area of ice import during 2000-15 was around 40%
smaller, on average, than during 1979-2009, the study finds. The
decrease in volume of sea ice imported "was even larger", the study
says, at approximately 60%.
This is in line with the observed decline in Arctic sea ice cover more
widely in response to rising temperatures, the paper says, which reduces
"the probability of large sea ice inflows to the Barents Sea, in both
volume and area".
Less sea ice means less freshwater being imported into the northern
Barents Sea. The chart below shows how sea ice import (blue line) has
changed since 1970, as well as the freshwater content (black) of the
northern Barents Sea and the salinity of its surface waters (red). All
three metrics have shown a steep decline in recent years.
Chart showing estimated sea ice volume import to the Barents Sea during
October-May (blue line), surface layer salinity (red) and freshwater
content (black). Actual values are shown on the left axis, standardized
anomalies relative to the 1979-2015 average on the right axis. Source:
Lind et al. (2018)
This decline in freshwater content weakens the stratification that
separates the overlying cold, fresh Arctic water from the underlying
warm and more dense Atlantic water. As the two layers mix, it brings the
warm, salty water up from the deep, making it more difficult for sea ice
to form the following winter.
This process also helps explain the warming "hotspot" in the northern
Barents Sea, says lead author Dr Sigrid Lind, a researcher in physical
oceanography and climate science at the Institute of Marine Science and
the University of Bergen in Norway. She tells Carbon Brief:
"A likely cause for the Arctic warming hotspot is, therefore, that less
sea ice inflows have caused major freshwater loss and weakened
stratification, bringing heat and salt up from the deep Atlantic layer,
making the Arctic layer warmer, reducing the winter sea ice cover and
increasing winter surface air temperature."
All three layers of the Barents Sea are now significantly warmer than
they were in the 1970-99 baseline period, the study finds.
The top 60 metres of the Barents Sea is 1.5C warmer in the 21st century
than during 1970-99, the paper says, while below 60 metres has warmed by
0.5-0.8C. The salinity in all three layers has also increased during the
2000s.
*'First to lose the battle'*
The results suggest that supplies of sea ice from the Arctic are
necessary to keep the northern Barents Sea "cold, stratified and sea-ice
covered", the paper says.
The findings also point towards a "fundamental shift in the physical
environment", the paper says, where the northern Barents Sea could be
"the first [frontier region] to lose the battle against Atlantic water".
Model simulations suggest that the transition from Arctic-type to
Atlantic-type waters in the northern Barents Sea could happen by the end
of the century. But it is "likely to happen much faster", Lind says:
"If the decline in freshwater content in the upper 100 metres during
2000-16 continues, the freshwater content will be zero - meaning no
stratification - around 2040."
The exact timing will depend strongly on the speed of Arctic sea ice
decline and the highly-variable inflow of sea ice to the Barents Sea,
says Lind. This could either speed up or slow down the transition.
Such a rapid change would be a "historically rare" moment, the paper
says, which has previously only been documented in palaeoclimate studies
of the Earth's long history.
*Into the unknown*
A transition to an Atlantic regime in the northern Barents Sea would
have "unknown consequences" for the wider ecosystem, the paper warns.
On the one hand, commercial fish stocks may expand north into new areas
- and research shows that Atlantic fish species are already entering the
northern Barents Sea during summer.
However, it is not known how the loss of an Arctic ecosystem will affect
Atlantic species. For example, "the capelin - a key prey for several
commercial fish species - feed on species that are linked to the sea ice
edge," notes Lind.
In addition, the situation for the creatures that currently enjoy the
Arctic conditions of the Barents Sea could "become critical", says Lind:
"The Arctic ecosystem in the northern Barents Sea have species that are
adapted to the cold, stratified and sea-ice covered Arctic climate,
including ice-associated marine mammals."
Prof Igor Polyakov of the International Arctic Research Center, who was
not involved in the research, agrees that the impacts could be
considerable. He tells Carbon Brief:
"The discussion presented in the manuscript rightly states that this
region may soon be transferred from an Arctic to an Atlantic type of
climate. Consequences of these changes may be widespread and dramatic."
And, despite the uncertainties around the timing of the outcome, the
study has a "solid base", thanks to the set of "excellent" temperature
and salinity observations and satellite data for the Barents Sea, adds
Polyakov.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/atlantification-arctic-sea-tipping-towards-new-climate-regime
[except that water consumption is a part of water withdrawal]
*Wow, Americans Are Actually Getting Better at Conserving Something
<https://earther.com/wow-americans-are-actually-getting-better-at-conservin-1827142640>*
Maddie Stone
It's not every day we hear Americans are doing an okay job on the
conservation front, but that appears to be the case when it comes to
water usage. A new U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report finds U.S. water
consumption is at its lowest level in more than 45 years.
Americans withdrew 322 billion gallons of water a day in 2015, down from
354 billion gallons per day in 2010. It's the continuation of a "sharp
but steady" downward trend that's been evident since 2005 according to
USGS, which tracks American water usage every five years. That's welcome
news considering the water woes many Americans out West have faced due
to persistent drought - a problem climate change will only exacerbate.
The dip in water use from 2010 to 2015 was driven by a nearly 20 percent
drop in consumption by power plants, which account for about 40 percent
of all American water usage. That can be attributed to the use of newer,
more efficient water-based cooling systems, an increase in the use of
dry cooling towers, and the shuttering of aging coal plants with
inefficient water usage, per the report.
But individual consumers also played a role. Public supply water
withdrawals - for residences, public pools, parks, commercial spaces and
more - account for 12 percent of American water usage. This consumption
was down in 2015, too, with the average per-capita water use dropping
from 88 to 82 gallons per day.
Hearteningly, the public supply trend was driven largely by declines in
water use in California and Texas, two states with high water
consumption that have been hit by serious drought in recent years. In
California, Governor Jerry Brown imposed mandatory water restrictions in
2015, while in Texas, the voluntary efforts of utility companies to
conserve water seem to be paying off. The report notes that San
Antonio's water system reduced its per capita usage 42 percent "simply
by focusing on education, outreach, and regulations."
More broadly, a smorgasbord of policies have helped Americans save water
across the country, including the National Energy Policy Act of 1992,
which established efficiency standards for toilets, faucets, shower
heads and more, and EPA WaterSense, a program that certifies consumer
products as water efficient.
There's no such thing as a simple success story, though. As Kathie
Dello, Associate Director of the Oregon Climate Change Research
Institute pointed out to Earther, the decline in water usage has
actually been a challenge for some utilities, which have had to raise
their rates in order to keep revenues up.
Then there's climate change. As the EPA's now-defunct (RIP) page on
water and climate states, "climate change is likely to increase water
demand while shrinking water supplies." We'll see this in South Florida,
where rising sea levels are causing surface aquifers to become tainted
with salt, a problem that's only going to get worse. Meanwhile in the
South and West, already drought-prone areas are likely to become hotter
and drier while reservoir-replenishing snowpack diminishes.
"The delicate conversation between conservation and consumption isn't
going away, especially with declining western snowpack and limited
storage," Dello said.
It's a good thing that industries and individuals are taking steps to
reduce their water usage. But it's going to take a lot more than
ditching paper butt wipes for bidets for humans to adapt to a thirstier
future...
https://earther.com/wow-americans-are-actually-getting-better-at-conservin-1827142640
https://earther.com/
EXPERT BLOG › CLARE MORGANELLI
*Antibiotic Resistance & Climate Change: A Dangerous Duo
<https://www.nrdc.org/experts/clare-morganelli/antibiotic-resistance-climate-change-dangerous-duo>*
June 26, 2018 Clare Morganelli
It's no secret that climate change already poses a plethora of threats
to the health and wellbeing of Americans, from increasing heat-related
illness and death, to worsening extreme weather events like hurricanes
and flooding, to expanding the previous range of mosquitoes and ticks
that carry Lyme Disease, West Nile or Zika virus, and other diseases. A
new study published in Nature Climate Change adds to the list: warming
global temperatures caused by carbon pollution could be playing a role
in the increasing rate of antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotic resistance is a growing public health crisis in the United
States, but this problem has largely been attributed to the
over-prescription and use of antibiotic drugs. Routine doses of
antibiotics in feed are standard practice in the livestock industry, and
up to half of all antibiotics prescribed to people are not needed or are
not optimally effective as prescribed. It's not surprising that
outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant infections typically emerge from
factory farms, where healthy animals are routinely fed antibiotics to
compensate for dangerous conditions, or from healthcare facilities,
where antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a major risk. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention estimate that in the United States, over
two million people fall sick each year due to antibiotic-resistant
infections, resulting in at least 23,000 deaths.
- - - - -
*Could climate change be promoting the evolution of these hard-to-treat
bacteria?*
It's long-established that warmer temperatures promote bacterial growth.
A number of bacteria, like Staphylococcus aureus, thrive in temperatures
between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit - a range often referred to as the
"danger zone". As temperatures around the world continue to rise,
bacteria are expected to reproduce at a faster rate, increasing the
opportunity for mutation and transmission. This new research estimates
that a 10-degree Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in average
minimum temperatures across the U.S. could result in a 2.2 percent
increase in Staphylococcus aureus antibiotic resistance. In 2017, the
U.S. experienced an average annual temperature 2.6 degrees Fahrenheit
above the 20th century average. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus
aureus, or MRSA, already causes 80,000 infections and 11,000 deaths
annually in the U.S. alone, so the underlying risk of these bacteria to
Americans is already substantial.
The World Health Organization describes antibiotic resistance as "one of
the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development
today." A growing number of infections are becoming increasingly
difficult to treat with remaining antibiotics; some are already
resistant to all of them. While a number of precautions can help reduce
this alarming trend, such as limiting misuse of antibiotics in
livestock, this study illuminates just one more reason why action on
climate change is needed to safeguard our health.
https://www.nrdc.org/experts/clare-morganelli/antibiotic-resistance-climate-change-dangerous-duo
[video lecture. Cornell]
*Climate Jihad in Africa: Sea Level Rise, Forced Migration, and Related
Turmoil Across the Continent <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVfpHXXnjXs>*
Published on Feb 22, 2018
Cornell University - 2018 Climate Change Seminar by Prof. Charles Geisler
http://www.atkinson.cornell.edu/events/ClimateChangeSem.php
Recorded at Cornell University - February 12, 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVfpHXXnjXs
[Learning about ice]
*Ice Apocalypse - MULTIPLE METERS SEA LEVEL RISE
<https://youtu.be/lRK5roxWRc4>*
Climate State
Published on Nov 23, 2017
Rapid collapse of Antarctic glaciers could flood coastal cities by the
end of this century. Based on an article written by Eric Holthaus. Read
the full story https://grist.org/article/antarctica-...
https://youtu.be/lRK5roxWRc4
*This Day in Climate History - June 28, 2006
<http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/ecotalkblog/2006/07/who_killed_the_.html>-
from D.R. Tucker*
June 28, 2006: The documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is
released in the United States. (Executive producer Dean Devlin and
electric-car advocate Chelsea Sexton would appear on the July 7, 2006
edition of "EcoTalk with Betsy Rosenberg" on Air America to discuss the
film.)
It was among the fastest, most efficient production car ever built.
It ran on electricity, produced no emissions and catapulted American
technology to the forefront of the automotive industry. The lucky
few who drove it never wanted to give it up. So why did General
Motors crush its fleet of EV-1 electric vehicles in the Arizona desert?
http://youtu.be/k96tIRjxzw0
http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/ecotalkblog/2006/07/who_killed_the_.html
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//Archive of Daily Global Warming News
<https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html>
//
/https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote//
///
///To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe
<mailto:subscribe at theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request>
/to news digest. /
*** Privacy and Security: * This is a text-only mailing that
carries no images which may originate from remote servers.
Text-only messages provide greater privacy to the receiver and
sender.
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain must be used for
democratic and election purposes and cannot be used for
commercial purposes.
To subscribe, email: contact at theclimate.vote with subject:
subscribe, To Unsubscribe, subject: unsubscribe
Also youmay subscribe/unsubscribe at
https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Paulifor
http://TheClimate.Vote delivering succinct information for
citizens and responsible governments of all levels. List
membership is confidential and records are scrupulously
restricted to this mailing list.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/attachments/20180628/b8fb841c/attachment.html>
More information about the TheClimate.Vote
mailing list