[TheClimate.Vote] March 2, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Fri Mar 2 09:50:04 EST 2018
/March 2, 2018/
[Democracy Now - Video]
*"Freakishly Warm" Arctic Weather Has Scientists Reconsidering
Worst-Case Scenarios on Climate Change <https://youtu.be/01Woj4OyIY0>*
Democracy Now! https://democracynow.org
Interviews Jason Box - Published on Mar 1, 2018
Scientists are expressing dismay over unprecedented warm
temperatures in the Arctic. In recent days, temperatures at the
North Pole have surged above freezing - even though the sun set last
October and won't rise again until later this month. On the northern
tip of Greenland, a meteorological site has logged an unprecedented
61 hours of temperatures above freezing so far in 2018. The
record-breaking temperatures are connected to an unusual retreat of
sea ice in the sunless Arctic winter. Scientists suggest warming
temperatures are eroding the polar vortex, the powerful winds that
once cushioned the frozen north. The alarming heat wave is causing
scientists to reconsider even their bleakest forecasts of climate
change. According to a leaked draft of a scientific report by a
United Nations panel of scientists, "The risk of an ice-free Arctic
in summer is about 50 per cent or higher," with warming of between
1.5 and 2.0 degrees Celsius. We speak with Jason Box, professor in
glaciology at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland in
Copenhagen.
https://youtu.be/01Woj4OyIY0
[data map]
*As monster nor'easter brews, water temps off East Coast are
top-of-the-charts hot
<https://twitter.com/MilesGrant/status/968855217465946112>*
#Anthropocene
https://twitter.com/MilesGrant/status/968855217465946112
[The Guardian]
*Q&A: What does all this snow mean for climate change?
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/28/what-does-snow-mean-climate-change-beast-from-the-east-polar-vortex-freezing-temperature>*
*Q: Snow in winter. That feels reassuringly normal. Does this mean the
climate has fixed itself?*
A: Unfortunately not. In fact, many scientists are concerned this is a
prelude to more extreme and less predictable weather.
*Q: What are they worried about?*
A: In the past couple of weeks, there has been a heatwave in the sunless
Arctic even though the northern polar region has not had any sunlight
since October. At times it has been warmer than London, Paris or New York.
*Q: What is so unusual about that? We have known for some time that the
Arctic is warming.*
A: Yes, but even veteran climatologists have been shocked by the recent
temperature spike. Instead of the gradual year-by-year rise that they
were expecting, there has been jolt upwards that experts have described
as "crazy", "weird", "shocking" and "worrying".
*Q: What are the numbers?*
A: From 17 to 25 February, there were 10 consecutive days where
temperatures were above freezing for at least part of the day at the
world's most northerly land weather station - Cape Morris Jesup at the
northern tip of Greenland. In total, the monitoring station has recorded
61 hours above 0C. According to Robert Rohde, lead scientist of the
Berkeley Earth monitoring organisation, that is more time above freezing
than the combined total of January through April for all previously
observed years since the station opened in 1981. Plotted on a graph,
this is so far outside of the historical range that Michael Mann,
director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State
University, said the numbers represent "an anomaly of anomalies."
*Q: So why worry? I feel sorry for the polar bears, but nobody lives in
the north pole.*
A: There is another theory about what is happening that could have much
wider implications. The biggest concern is that this might indicate a
weakening or collapse of the polar vortex.
*Q: What is the polar vortex?*
A: It is the circle of strong winds, including the jet stream, around
the Arctic that act as a buffer or insulation, keeping the cold air mass
in and the warm out.
*Q: Why would it weaken?*
A: The polar vortex gets its strength from the difference in temperature
between the normally freezing Arctic and warmer more southerly
mid-latitudes. But climate change is reducing the gap because the north
pole is warming much faster than the global average.
*Q: Is this a problem?*
A: The polar vortex is one of the world's climate regulators. Any
weakening would accelerate ice melt and add to instability and
uncertainty. It could also trigger the release of methane - a very
strong greenhouse gas - trapped in the tundra.
*Q: Could it be connected to the blizzards that many people are
experiencing?*
A: In December, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
warned Arctic sea ice was declining at the fastest rate in at least
1,500 years with an impact that would be felt far outside the region and
affect the lives of every single American. One of the research team,
Jeremy Mathis, compared the Arctic to the planet's refrigerator.
"But the door to that refrigerator has been left open," he said. "And
the cold is spilling out, cascading throughout the northern hemisphere."...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/28/what-does-snow-mean-climate-change-beast-from-the-east-polar-vortex-freezing-temperature
[John Abraham, climate scientist]
*Scientists have detected an acceleration in sea level rise*
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/feb/27/scientists-have-detected-an-acceleration-in-sea-level-rise>
Faster melting of ice sheets is speeding up sea level rise
As humans emit heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide, the planet
warms, and over time consequences become more apparent. Some of the
consequences we are familiar with - for instance, rising temperatures,
melting ice, and rising sea levels. Scientists certainly want to know
how much the Earth has changed, but we also want to know how fast the
changes will be in the future to know what the next generations will
experience.
One of the classic projections into the future is for sea level rise. It
is expected that by the year 2100, the ocean levels will rise a few feet
by the end of the century. This matters a lot because globally, 150
million people live within three feet of current ocean levels. We have
built our modern infrastructure based on current ocean levels. What
happens to peoples' homes and infrastructure when the waters rise?
But projecting ocean levels into the future is not simple; we need good
data that extends back decades to understand how fast the climate is
changing...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/feb/27/scientists-have-detected-an-acceleration-in-sea-level-rise
[sea level rise history 2009]
*Video: Climate Change and Sea Level Rise
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kffsux-ifKk>*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kffsux-ifKk
[Dr James Hansen on Sea Level Rise Nov 2017]
*Hansen: Earth is Back to Eemian Era w 6-9 METER Sea Level Rise #COP23
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTJ28r9MFaU>*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTJ28r9MFaU
[Pacific Standard]
*As Climate Change Intensifies, Here Are the Most - and Least -
Resilient Counties in America
<https://psmag.com/environment/the-most-climate-resilient-counties-in-america>*
A recent EPA survey takes into account extreme weather, but also social
factors such as poverty, health, and governance.
The results shed light on the vast inequalities in how different parts
of the U.S. will deal with such hazards. While places like Kodiak Island
are expected to fare well, residents of areas like Appalachia, the
southeast, and western Texas are on course to suffer far worse than the
average American.
https://psmag.com/environment/the-most-climate-resilient-counties-in-america
[EPA findings report]
Development of a Climate Resilience Screening Index (CRSI): An
Assessment of Resilience to Acute Meteorological Events
and Selected Natural Hazards
<https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=P100SSN6.txt>
https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=P100SSN6.txt
[dashed]
*Soil cannot halt climate change
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180228134114.htm>*
Long-term field experiments, dating back as far as 1843, demonstrate
that modern carbon emissions cannot be locked in the ground to halt
global warming
Unique soils data from long-term experiments, stretching back to the
middle of the nineteenth century, confirm the practical implausibility
of burying carbon in the ground to halt climate change. The idea of
using crops to collect more atmospheric carbon and locking it into
soil's organic matter to offset fossil fuel emissions was launched at
COP21, the 21st annual Conference of Parties to review the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris in 2015....
But there have been serious criticisms of the initiative. Many
scientists argue that this rate of soil carbon sequestration is
unrealistic over large areas of the planet, notes Powlson: "Also,
increases in soil carbon do not continue indefinitely: they move towards
a new equilibrium value and then cease."...
They suggest that a more logical rationale for promoting practices that
increase soil organic carbon is the urgent need to preserve and improve
the functioning of soils, both for sustainable food security and wider
ecosystem services.
For climate change mitigation through changes in agricultural practices,
they point out that measures to decrease emission of nitrous oxide, a
greenhouse gas almost 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, may
be more effective.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180228134114.htm
[Koch Network]
*Why the Koch Network Took Credit for Dakota Access, Keystone XL, and
REINS Act
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/02/28/koch-seminar-network-dakota-access-keystone-xl-reins-act>*
By Steve Horn • Wednesday, February 28, 2018 - 00:34
Aleaked memorandum published
<https://theintercept.com/2018/02/25/koch-brothers-trump-administration/>byThe
Intercept <https://theintercept.com/> andDocumented Investigations
<http://documentedinvestigations.org/>shows that a Koch Industries
<https://www.desmogblog.com/koch-industries-inc>' donors network, known
as the Seminar Network <https://seminarnetwork.org/>, has taken credit
for Donald Trump <https://www.desmogblog.com/donald-trump>approving the
permits for both theDakota Access
<https://www.desmogblog.com/energy-transfer-partners-bakken-oil-pipeline-through-iowa> and
Keystone
XL<https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5857>pipelines during
the first months of his presidency. The memo also applauded efforts
by the Koch network's Americans for Prosperity
<https://www.desmogblog.com/americans-for-prosperity> (AFP) chapter in
Wisconsin to pass a deregulatory measure there known as the REINSAct
<https://www.desmogblog.com/topics/reins-act>. The Seminar Network,
which meets secretly twice a year, is made up of donors who give at
least $100,000 toward Koch-led political and philanthropic efforts
<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/koch-brothers-network-planning-massive-spending-increase-for-2018-midterms>.
Koch Industries has a business interest in both pipelines, though their
approval has not been something its funded network has widely discussed.
Quietly, though, Koch has advocated for the pair of pipelines in
regulatory hearings in both Iowa for Dakota Access - aspreviously
reported by DeSmog
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/04/08/koch-dakota-access-pipeline> - as
well as in Canada, asreported in 2012
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120510/koch-industries-brothers-tar-sands-bitumen-heavy-oil-flint-pipelines-refinery-alberta-canada>by
InsideClimate News.
TheREINS(Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act,
whichGOPofficials have been pushing in Congress since Obama's first
term,passed as state law
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/07/10/koch-reins-act-wisconsin-governor-scott-walker> in
Wisconsin in 2017. The law, long considered crown jewel legislation by
the Koch front groupAFP, gives legislative bodies full veto authority
over regulations proposed by executive agencies. Conservative groups in
Wisconsinalready are using the law
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/01/07/bradley-foundation-koch-wisconsin-reins-act-lawsuit> to
sue the top state public education officer.
"State legislatures, particularly in states with a strong Network
presence, have also made significant progress toward removing harmful
and unnecessary regulations. For example, Wisconsin this year went so
far as to enact the nation's firstREINSAct, which will require
legislative approval of any issued regulation that has an impact above a
certain cost threshold," reads the Koch Seminar Network document
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4364737-Koch-Seminar-Network.html>.
TheAmerican Legislative Exchange Council
<https://www.desmogblog.com/american-legislative-exchange-council>, a
corporate-funded group of mostly Republican Party state legislators, has
aREINSAct model resolution
<https://www.alec.org/model-policy/draft-resolution-calling-on-congress-to-pass-to-pass-the-regulations-from-the-executive-in-need-of-scrutiny-reins-act/>on
the books, which supports the federal version of this legislation. In
2017, six states introduced pro-REINSAct resolutions:Kansas
<http://kslegislature.org/li/b2017_18/measures/hcr5003/>,Montana
<http://laws.leg.mt.gov/legprd/LAW0210W$BSIV.ActionQuery?P_BILL_NO1=6&P_BLTP_BILL_TYP_CD=SJ&Z_ACTION=Find&P_SESS=20171>,Missouri
<https://house.mo.gov/Bill.aspx?bill=HCR85&year=2018&code=R>,Georgia
<http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/en-US/display/20172018/HR/1293>,Ohio
<https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-summary?id=GA132-HCR-24>,
andSouth Carolina
<http://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php?billnumbers=3401&session=122&summary=B>.ALEC-
which brings corporate lobbyists and state legislators together at
annual meetings for networking, seminars, and voting on what it dubs
"model policies <https://www.alec.org/model-policy>" - maintainsclose
connections
<https://www.thenation.com/article/alec-exposed-koch-connection>with the
Koch network...
Koch Industries also owns assets in a tar sands
<https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/2632>reservoir located
in Alberta, Canada, both in the form of lease holdings for land and as a
company with a drilling interest. For the latter, Koch owns Koch Oil
Sands Operating, which has a drilling interest in both theGemini
and Muskwa
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120919/koch-brothers-industries-canadian-tar-sands-properties-keystone-xl-pipeline-alberta-dilbit-climate-skeptics>tar
sands fields in Alberta.
It also owns 1-2 million acres' worth of land (theexact number
<http://ifg.org/koch-tar-sands-acreage/>iscontested
<https://www.eenews.net/stories/1059996591>) in the tar sands for
prospective future leasing, according to a2013 report
<http://kochcash.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Embargo_Report.pdf>published
by the International Forum on Globalization. KeystoneXL, the pipeline
owned byTransCanada
<https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5420>and approved
by Trump and hisU.S.Department of State in March 2017, would bring
around 500,000 currently-booked barrels per day of tar sands oil
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18012018/keystone-xl-pipeline-status-tar-sands-oil-export-nebraska-map-transcanada>from
Alberta to Cushing, Oklahoma, where the pipeline connects
with TransCanada'sGulf Coast Pipeline
<https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/14265>.
Gulf Coast, which was approved by President Barack Obama in a 2012
election season Executive Order, sends the tar sands bitumen down to
Port Arthur, Texas, where the substance is refined into products and
then sent to market...
"Whether it's heating or cooling your home or putting gas in your car,
the cheaper the energy, the more economically stable your checkbook will
be," wrote Martin. "The 60 Plus Association's 5.5 million members know
this all too well. This is why as an organization that champions free
enterprise and who have championed energy issues for seniors before, we
strongly support the Dakota Access pipeline."
*'Whole New Level'*
In the 2018 election cycle, the Koch network plans to spend up to $400
million to keep the Republican majority in Congress and GOP control over
statehouses nationwide. In his opening remarks made in Indian Wells,
Charles Koch, one of the billionaire Koch brothers, compared the Seminar
Network's plans for the future to that of former slave and forefather of
the modern civil rights movement, Frederick Douglass.
https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/02/28/koch-seminar-network-dakota-access-keystone-xl-reins-act
[muzzled]
*Here's What the EPA's Website Looks Like After a Year of Climate Change
Censorship <http://time.com/5075265/epa-website-climate-change-censorship/>*
The EPA's site is now riddled with missing links, redirecting pages and
buried information. Over the past year, terms like "fossil fuels",
"greenhouse gases" and "global warming" have been excised. Even the term
"science
<http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/03/epa-science-technology-office-removed-science/>"
is no longer safe....
Christine Todd Whitman, the EPA Administrator under George W. Bush, says
the overhaul is "to such an extreme degree that [it] undermines the
credibility of the site".
"The message they're sending, particularly to young people, is that
science doesn't matter," she tells TIME. "Don't get me wrong -
questioning is fine and good, but when you have overwhelming consensus
on something, you concede to that. Undermining science means there is no
basis on which to act based on fact, which is dangerous."
Scientists say the year-long overhaul has unraveled decades' worth of
research, while undermining the agency's mission, which promises to
source the "best available scientific information"....
This shift in outlook is immediately apparent on the EPA's new homepage.
The previous homepage welcomed viewers with a pledge that "cleaning up
our communities and taking action on climate change are among our
priorities". That's been replaced with an appeal to "learn how EPA is
increasing transparency and public participation in litigation against
the agency".
But the changes go beyond rhetoric. After the EPA announced its website
"update" last April, months after the alterations began, the "Climate
Change" section was taken down.
This vast section had existed in various forms for over two decades.
Initially launched as a section on "Global Warming", it served as a hub
for basic scientific background on what climate changes is and how human
are contributing. "What can we do about this change?" it asked, and
provided tools like a carbon footprint calculator and resources for
teachers.
"Humans are largely responsible for recent climate change," one page
read, adding, "The choices we make today will affect the amount of
greenhouse gases we put in the atmosphere in the near future and for
years to come."
Previously, the climate change section was accessible via the EPA
homepage. Now, its URL - www.epa.gov/climatechange - prompts the
message, "This page is being updated."
http://time.com/5075265/epa-website-climate-change-censorship/
[Dark sarcasm from TheOnion]
NEWS IN BRIEF
*Great Barrier Reef Offers Scuba Divers Chance To See Beautiful
Diversity Of Ocean Death
<https://www.theonion.com/great-barrier-reef-offers-scuba-divers-chance-to-see-be-1823390993>*
CAIRNS, AUSTRALIA - Adapting to the climatic changes that have
irrevocably altered the world's largest once-living thing, tour
guides on Australia's Great Barrier Reef are now offering divers a
chance to see the breathtaking diversity of ocean death. "Whether
you want to see thousands of colorful crabs that died as a result of
increasing ocean acidification or check out the abandoned,
algae-covered remnants of what used to be a thriving parrotfish
colony, the Great Barrier Reef presents visitors with a unique
opportunity to take in a whole spectrum of dead and dying marine
life," said Charlie Mande of Great Barrier Reef Dive Expeditions, a
company offering divers a close-up look at dead organisms from
clouds of lifeless starfish no bigger than dimes all the way up to
full-on whale shark carcasses. "The Great Barrier Reef is actually
the world's largest coral reef system, and since it's all completely
dead now, we have the unique opportunity to see mile after mile of
bleached, stark-white coral hosting the remains of an entire
ecosystem - dead mollusks, decaying worms, husks of sponges, all
drifting across the barren ocean floor thanks to rising sea
temperatures and high concentrations of nitrates. You might also
catch a glimpse of a turtle slowly suffocating to death after
accidentally ingesting a plastic bag." Mande added that within the
next five to 10 years, the massive die-off of oceanic food sources
would allow Great Barrier Reef Dive Expeditions to offer the sight
of huge rafts of dead humans.
https://www.theonion.com/great-barrier-reef-offers-scuba-divers-chance-to-see-be-1823390993
*This Day in Climate History - March 2, - from D.R. Tucker*
March 2, 2016:
New York Times columnist Eduardo Porter observes:
"Ted Cruz says climate change is not happening. Donald Trump says he
doesn’t believe in it. Marco Rubio, whose hometown, Miami, is
projected to be largely underwater within the not too distant future
as ice caps shrink and the sea level rises, argues that government
efforts to combat it will 'destroy our economy.'
"But those views are not widely shared by conservatives elsewhere
around the world. Indeed, not that long ago in a not too distant
country, a right-leaning party that shares many of the antitax,
pro-business beliefs of Republicans in the United States did exactly
what its unbelieving candidates so fear.
"In 2008, the British Columbia Liberal Party, which confoundingly
leans right, introduced a tax on the carbon emissions of businesses
and families, cars and trucks, factories and homes across the
province. The party stuck to the tax even as the left-leaning New
Democratic Party challenged it in provincial elections the next year
under the slogan Axe the Tax. The conservatives won soundly at the
polls.
"Their experience shows that cutting carbon emissions enough to make
a difference in preventing global warming remains a difficult
challenge. But the most important takeaway for American skeptics is
that the policy basically worked as advertised.
"British Columbia’s economy did not collapse. In fact, the
provincial economy grew faster than its neighbors’ even as its
greenhouse gas emissions declined."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/business/does-a-carbon-tax-work-ask-british-columbia.html?_r=0
/
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