[TheClimate.Vote] March 3, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sat Mar 3 10:03:12 EST 2018
/March 3, 2018/
[Washington Post]
*Once-in-a-generation flooding possible in Boston - for the second time
this year
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/03/01/once-in-a-generation-flooding-possible-in-boston-friday-and-saturday/?utm_term=.a2d3085fcb2f>*
The National Weather Service is warning that the seas could top 15.3
feet at the tidal gauge in Boston Harbor...
Unfortunately, widespread destructive coastal flooding this weekend is
looking unavoidable at this point. Friday's event is a "perfect storm"
for high-end coastal flooding in Southern New England. The ocean is
already primed for big issues due to high astronomical tides. Onshore
flows between 40 to 60 mph (and up to 80 mph on Cape Cod) will persist
for upward of 24 hours, thanks to a stalling storm. These winds will
pile water up along the coast, funneling it into bays, rivers, and
inlets. Meanwhile, waves topping thirty-five feet are possible just a
few miles offshore...
The National Weather Service is calling this event "serious and
life-threatening," tweeting that some vulnerable neighborhoods could be
"cut off for long periods of time."
"For those living along the coast," they said, "this could be a matter
of life or death." Those susceptible to flooding are urged to heed the
advice of local officials.
Since 2000, the seas have risen several inches in the Northeast due to
climate change. Though it may sound small, that's oftentimes enough to
tip the scales into "record" category. The same storm 50 years ago would
be less severe than it is today, simply because the water wasn't as high
back then. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that
coastal flooding threats could triple toward the end of the century.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/03/01/once-in-a-generation-flooding-possible-in-boston-friday-and-saturday/?utm_term=.a2d3085fcb2f
[Science News from research organizations]
*No laughing matter, yet humor inspires climate change activism
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180301151514.htm>*
Date:
March 1, 2018
Source: Cornell University
Summary:
Melting icecaps, mass flooding, megadroughts and erratic weather are no
laughing matter. However, a new study shows that humor can be an
effective means to inspire young people to pursue climate change
activism. At the same time, fear proves to be an equally effective
motivator and has the added advantage of increasing people's awareness
of climate change's risks.
The study, *"Pathways of Influence in Emotional Appeals: Benefits and
Tradeoffs of Using Fear or Humor to Promote Climate Change-Related
Intentions and Risk Perceptions,"* published in the Journal of
Communication, was the result of a partnership grant between Cornell's
Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, where Niederdeppe is a faculty
fellow, and the Environmental Defense Fund.
Second City Works created a series of online videos that feature a
weatherman providing forecasts about extreme weather patterns caused
by climate change in the United States, each with a drastically
different tone. A humorous video emphasized the weatherman's
cluelessness as he struggled to understand the signs of climate
change. A more ominous version highlighted the severity of climate
change and its devastating impacts. A third video used a neutral
tone and language to present an informational view of climate
change. Each video concluded with a recommendation to "Find out what
your local officials and the presidential candidates think about
climate change. Have your voice heard on Nov. 8." A fourth video
about income inequality was used as a control.
"The humor video made people laugh more, and people who found it
funny were more likely to want to plan to partake in activism,
recycle more and believe climate change is risky," said Christofer
Skurka, a third-year doctoral student in communication, who is the
paper's lead author.
While the study focused on adults between the ages of 18 and 30, the
researchers found that college-aged adults between 18 and 24 were
most inspired to activism by the humorous video. Fear, meanwhile,
proved to be equally effective across the entire age range, both in
raising awareness about climate change's risks and motivating
viewers to intend to engage in direct action, although the ominous
video was not perceived by respondents to be as informative as the
neutral, informational video.
"I don't think this study, in and of itself, says we should use fear
over humor," Niederdeppe said. "This was a particular type of humor.
It was very silly. The clueless weatherman was the butt of the
jokes. But if you look at the kind of satirical commentary like John
Oliver does, there is a bite and a target: industry or the hypocrisy
of politicians, for instance. Our next project is looking at whether
we can combine humor with this biting, anger-inducing satire, and if
that can promote even greater motivation to take action."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180301151514.htm
[Opinion]
*Columnist Marty Nathan: Signs point to runaway global warming
<http://www.gazettenet.com/Columnist-Marty-Nathan-describes-disturbing-signs-pointing-to-runaway-global-warming-15882526>*
http://www.gazettenet.com/Columnist-Marty-Nathan-describes-disturbing-signs-pointing-to-runaway-global-warming-15882526
[from On Being <https://onbeing.org/>]
*We Need Courage, Not Hope, to Face Climate Change
<https://onbeing.org/blog/kate-marvel-we-need-courage-not-hope-to-face-climate-change>*
BY KATE MARVEL (@DRKATEMARVEL), CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
As a climate scientist, I am often asked to talk about hope.
Particularly in the current political climate, audiences want to be told
that everything will be all right in the end. And, unfortunately, I have
a deep-seated need to be liked and a natural tendency to optimism that
leads me to accept more speaking invitations than is good for me.
Climate change is bleak, the organizers always say. Tell us a happy
story. Give us hope. The problem is, I don't have any.
I used to believe there was hope in science. The fact that we know
anything at all is a miracle. For some reason, the whole world is hung
on a skeleton made of physics. I found comfort in this structure, in the
knowledge that buried under layers of greenery and dirt lies something
universal. It is something to know how to cut away the flesh of
existence and see the clean white bones underneath. All of us obey the
same laws, whether we know them or not.
Look closely, however, and the structure of physics dissolves into
uncertainty. We live in a statistical world, in a limit where we
experience only one of many possible outcomes. Our clumsy senses
perceive only gross aggregates, blind to the roiling chaos underneath.
We are limited in our ability to see the underlying stimuli that, en
masse, create an event. Temperature, for example, is a state created by
the random motions of millions of tiny molecules. We feel heat or cold,
not the motion of any individual molecule. When something is heated up,
its tiny constituent parts move faster, increasing its internal energy.
They do not move at the same speed; some are quick, others slow. But
there are billions of them, and in the aggregate their speed dictates
their temperature.
The internal energy of molecule motion is turned outward in the form of
electromagnetic radiation. Light comes in different flavors. The stuff
we see occupies only a tiny portion of a vast electromagnetic spectrum.
What we see occupies a tiny portion of a vast electromagnetic spectrum.
Light is a wave, of sorts, and the distance between its peaks and
troughs determines the energy it carries. Cold, low-energy objects emit
stretched waves with long, lazy intervals between peaks. Hot objects
radiate at shorter wavelengths.
To have a temperature is to shed light into your surroundings. You have
one. The light you give off is invisible to the naked eye. You are
shining all the same, incandescent with the power of a hundred-watt
bulb. The planet on which you live is illuminated by the visible light
of the sun and radiates infrared light to the blackness of space. There
is nothing that does not have a temperature. Cold space itself is
illuminated by the afterglow of the Big Bang. Even black holes radiate,
lit by the strangeness of quantum mechanics. There is nowhere from which
light cannot escape.
The same laws that flood the world with light dictate the behavior of a
carbon dioxide molecule in the atmosphere. CO2 is transparent to the
Sun's rays. But the planet's infrared outflow hits a molecule in just
such as way as to set it in motion. Carbon dioxide dances when hit by a
quantum of such light, arresting the light on its path to space. When
the dance stops, the quantum is released back to the atmosphere from
which it came. No one feels the consequences of this individual
catch-and-release, but the net result of many little dances is an
increase in the temperature of the planet. More CO2 molecules mean a
warmer atmosphere and a warmer planet. Warm seas fuel hurricanes, warm
air bloats with water vapor, the rising sea encroaches on the land. The
consequences of tiny random acts echo throughout the world.
I understand the physical world because, at some level, I understand the
behavior of every small thing. I know how to assemble a coarse aggregate
from the sum of multiple tiny motions. Individual molecules, water
droplets, parcels of air, quanta of light: their random movements merge
to yield a predictable and understandable whole. But physics is unable
to explain the whole of the world in which I live. The planet teems with
other people: seven billion fellow damaged creatures. We come together
and break apart, seldom adding up to an coherent, predictable whole.
I have lived a fortunate, charmed, loved life. This means I have
infinite, gullible faith in the goodness of the individual. But I have
none whatsoever in the collective. How else can it be that the sum total
of so many tiny acts of kindness is a world incapable of stopping
something so eminently stoppable? California burns. Islands and
coastlines are smashed by hurricanes. At night the stars are washed out
by city lights and the world is illuminated by the flickering ugliness
of reality television. We burn coal and oil and gas, heedless of the
consequences.
Our laws are changeable and shifting; the laws of physics are fixed.
Change is already underway; individual worries and sacrifices have not
slowed it. Hope is a creature of privilege: we know that things will be
lost, but it is comforting to believe that others will bear the brunt of it.
We are the lucky ones who suffer little tragedies unmoored from the
brutality of history. Our loved ones are taken from us one by one
through accident or illness, not wholesale by war or natural disaster.
But the scale of climate change engulfs even the most fortunate. There
is now no weather we haven't touched, no wilderness immune from our
encroaching pressure. The world we once knew is never coming back.
I have no hope that these changes can be reversed. We are inevitably
sending our children to live on an unfamiliar planet. But the opposite
of hope is not despair. It is grief. Even while resolving to limit the
damage, we can mourn. And here, the sheer scale of the problem provides
a perverse comfort: we are in this together. The swiftness of the
change, its scale and inevitability, binds us into one, broken hearts
trapped together under a warming atmosphere.
We need courage, not hope. Grief, after all, is the cost of being alive.
We are all fated to live lives shot through with sadness, and are not
worth less for it. Courage is the resolve to do well without the
assurance of a happy ending. Little molecules, random in their movement,
add together to a coherent whole. Little lives do not. But here we are,
together on a planet radiating ever more into space where there is no
darkness, only light we cannot see.
https://onbeing.org/blog/kate-marvel-we-need-courage-not-hope-to-face-climate-change
[Opinion]
*The assault on environmental protest
<http://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/376458-the-assault-on-environmental-protest>*
BY MAGGIE ELLINGER-LOCKE AND VERA EIDELMAN, OPINION CONTRIBUTORS - 03/02/18
More than 50 state bills <http://www.icnl.org/usprotestlawtracker/> that
would criminalize protest, deter political participation, and curtail
freedom of association have been introduced across the country in the
past two years. These bills are a direct reaction from politicians and
corporations to the tactics of some of the most effective protesters in
recent history, including Black Lives Matter and the water protectors
challenging construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock.
If they succeed, these legislative moves will suppress dissent and
undercut marginalized groups voicing concerns that disrupt current power
dynamics.
Efforts vary from state to state, but they have one thing in common:
they would punish public participation and mischaracterize advocacy
protected by the First Amendment.
For example, bills introduced in Washington
<http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/306580-washington-republican-floats-charging-protesters-with-economic-terrorism>
and North Carolina
<https://www.acluofnorthcarolina.org/en/legislation/economic-terrorism-hb249>
would have defined peaceful demonstrations as "economic terrorism." In
Iowa, legislators are currently considering bills
<https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ba=HSB%20603&ga=87>
that would create the crime of "critical infrastructure sabotage."
Labels like "terrorists" and "saboteurs" have long been misused to
sideline already oppressed groups and to vilify their attempts to speak out.
Other bills are written so broadly that they could impose criminal
penalties and devastating fines simply for offering food or housing to
protestors. For instance, a bill currently being considered in Wyoming
<http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2018/Introduced/SF0074.pdf> would impose a
$1 million penalty on any person or organization that "encourages"
certain forms of environmental protest. Legislation introduced in
Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, and North Dakota would have allowed
drivers to hit protesters with cars
<https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/18/us/legislation-protects-drivers-injure-protesters/index.html>
without criminal repercussions.
Corporations like Energy Transfer Partners - the company behind the
Dakota Access pipeline - and industry groups like the American
Legislative Exchange Council are encouraging these bills.
<https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/01/31/iowa-bill-alec-criminalize-pipeline-protest>
Not surprisingly, the efforts have gotten the most traction in states
key to oil and gas interests.
Proponents of these bills are using "protection" of critical
infrastructure as a guise for these First Amendment attacks. That
framing completely ignores the many laws already on the books addressing
those concerns, from trespass to property damage. Indeed, protesters are
already being arrested under those laws across the country.
Legislation is not the only tool the oil and gas industry is deploying
in its effort to silence opposition. Six months ago, Energy Transfer
Partners filed a $900 million dollar lawsuit
<http://www.newsweek.com/robert-reich-we-must-resist-pernicious-legal-assault-resistance-743554>
against several environmental groups, including Greenpeace, alleging
that a "criminal enterprise" was put in place to stop the pipeline project.
Similarly, 84 members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter to the
Department of Justice earlier this fall, asking officials to prosecute
pipeline activists as "terrorists"
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipelines-activism/u-s-lawmakers-ask-doj-if-terrorism-law-covers-pipeline-activists-idUSKBN1CS2XY>
- a troubling policy that resembles the one being lobbied for at a
federal level by the American Petroleum Institute.
Corporations are already abusing existing laws to silence dissent and
shut the public out of decision-making. Now, lawmakers are trying to
give corporate interests even more tools to punish people for speaking
up for their families and communities. That is an attack on democracy -
one our organizations will continue to resist.
Maggie Ellinger-Locke is counsel at Greenpeace USA.
Vera Eidelman is the William J. Brennan Fellow at ACLU.
http://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/376458-the-assault-on-environmental-protest
-
[International Center for Not-for-Profit-Law]
*US Protest Law Tracker <http://www.icnl.org/usprotestlawtracker/>*
The US Protest Law Tracker, part of ICNL's US Program, follows
initiatives at the state and federal level since November 2016 that
restrict the right to protest.
http://www.icnl.org/usprotestlawtracker/
[theGuardian]
*Blacktip sharks in sharp decline off Florida coast - and Trump's not
helping
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/02/blacktip-sharks-in-sharp-decline-off-florida-coast-and-trumps-not-helping>*
If the trend continues, researchers warn, the migration of blacktip
sharks could grind to a halt because of the rapidly warming ocean
While the eight-year survey period is too short to draw definitive
conclusions over the influence of climate change, previous research has
shown
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967064514001246>that
some sharks are likely to be pushed polewards as the ocean warms. The
world's seas are around 1.8F degrees (1C) warmer than a century ago,
mainly due to a sharp increase
<https://www.globalchange.gov/browse/indicators/indicator-sea-surface-temperatures>
in temperature over the past three decades.
Sharks <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/sharks> are ectothermic
and cannot generate their own body heat, meaning they have to travel to
find suitable temperatures. They are also reliant on prey fish that move
for similar reasons. The loss of the sharks from Florida could lead to a
series of knock-on consequences for a marine ecosystem that has
developed with them as major predator.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/02/blacktip-sharks-in-sharp-decline-off-florida-coast-and-trumps-not-helping
[temp change danger]
*Heart attacks often follow dramatic changes in outdoor temperature
<https://phys.org/news/2018-03-heart-outdoor-temperature.html>*
Phys.Org
Large day-to-day swings in temperature were associated with
significantly more heart attacks in a study being presented at the
American College of Cardiology's 67th Annual Scientific Session. Given
that some climate models link extreme weather events with global
warming, the new findings suggest ...
The researchers calculated the temperature fluctuation preceding each
heart attack based on weather records for the hospital's ZIP code. Daily
temperature fluctuation was defined as the difference between the
highest and lowest temperature recorded on the day of the heart attack...
Overall, the results showed the risk of a heart attack increased by
about 5 percent for every five-degree jump in temperature differential,
in degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit). Swings of more than 25
degrees Celsius (45 degrees Fahrenheit) were associated with a greater
increase in heart attack rates compared to a smaller increase with
temperature swings of 10 to 25 degrees Celsius (18-45 degrees
Fahrenheit). The effect was more pronounced on days with a higher
average temperature; in other words, a sudden temperature swing seemed
to have a greater impact on warmer days.
At the far end of the spectrum, on a hot summer day, nearly twice as
many heart attacks were predicted on days with a temperature fluctuation
of 35-40 degrees Celsius (63-72 degrees Fahrenheit) than on days with no
fluctuation....
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-03-heart-outdoor-temperature.html#jCp
Big Outdoor Temperature Swings Tied to Heart Attack Risk - U.S. News &
World Report
Heart attacks often follow dramatic changes in outdoor temperature -
EurekAlert (press release)
The Beast from the East could trigger deadly heart attacks: Scientists
reveal sudden drops in ... - Daily Mail
https://phys.org/news/2018-03-heart-outdoor-temperature.html
*
*[Cryo]*
IPCC Experts Advance Preparations for Special Report on Ocean and
Cryosphere
<http://sdg.iisd.org/news/ipcc-experts-advance-preparations-for-special-report-on-ocean-and-cryosphere/>*
16 February 2018: Approximately 100 experts from more than 30 countries
convened for the Second Lead Author Meeting of the Special Report on the
Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC), which is being
prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The
report is one of three special reports being prepared as part of the
IPCC's sixth assessment cycle.
The report is being prepared by IPCC Working Group I, which assesses the
physical science basis of climate change, and Working Group II, which
addresses impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. The report's chapters
will address: high mountain areas; polar regions; sea level rise and
implications for low-lying islands, coasts and communities; changing
ocean, marine ecosystems and dependent communities; and extremes, abrupt
changes and managing risks.
Working Group II Co-Chair Hans-Otto Poertner said that, in writing the
report, scientists are seeking to understand how the planet's frozen and
liquid water bodies interact, and how sea level will change and affect
coastlines and cities. He added that glaciers are already retreating in
the Andes, with impacts on water supplies for cities such as Quito.
The meeting, which convened in Quito, Ecuador, from 12-16 February 2018,
was the second of four lead author meetings for the SROCC. The Third
Lead Author Meeting will convene in July 2018, and the Fourth Lead
Author Meeting will meet in March 2019. The First Order Draft of the
report will be circulated for expert review in May 2018, the Second
Order Draft will be circulated in November 2018, and the the Final Draft
is expected in June 2019. The report will be finalized in September
2019, when the Panel is expected to approve it.
The IPCC is also producing the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5
°C (SR15) and the Special Report on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL).
[IPCC Press Release]
http://sdg.iisd.org/news/ipcc-experts-advance-preparations-for-special-report-on-ocean-and-cryosphere/
*This Day in Climate History - March 3, 2003
<http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2003/mar/04/usnews.climatechange>
- from D.R. Tucker*
March 3, 2003: The Guardian reports on GOP operative Frank Luntz's
infamous memo urging Republicans to place renewed emphasis on alleged
"uncertainties" in climate science, to dull public support for efforts
to stem carbon pollution.
The phrase "global warming" appeared frequently in President Bush's
speeches in 2001, but decreased to almost nothing during 2002, when the
memo was produced.
Environmentalists have accused the party and oil companies of helping to
promulgate the view that serious doubt remains about the effects of
global warming.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2003/mar/04/usnews.climatechange
http://youtu.be/hPdCkUiHCg4
http://youtu.be/_WiTVL9iT1w
/
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