[TheClimate.Vote] March 9, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Fri Mar 9 07:31:08 EST 2018
/March 9, 2018
/
[BBC Report]
*Climate change 'impacts women more than men'
<http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43294221>*
By Mary Halton BBC News, science reporter
*Women are more likely than men to be affected by climate change,
studies show.*
UN figures indicate that 80% of people displaced by climate change are
women.
Roles as primary caregivers and providers of food and fuel make them
more vulnerable when flooding and drought occur.
The 2015 Paris Agreement has made specific provision for the empowerment
of women, recognising that they are disproportionately impacted...
Twenty-five percent of those nominated to participate in the next report
are women. "IPCC has been very receptive to this and is actually
discussing how they can support women better," explains Liverman.
"Women are half the world. It's important they participate in all major
decisions,"
"Climate change is not a fight for power," points out Hindou Oumarou
Ibrahim, "it's a fight for survival."
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43294221
[USA TODAY]
*Global warming is already fueling 'high-tide' floods — and it's only
going to get worse
<https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/03/08/high-tide-floods-expected-get-even-worse-could-become-daily-weekly-events-some-coastal-cities-end-ce/407616002/>*
And now, thanks partly to global warming, it doesn't even take a storm
to inundate the coast with ruinous floodwaters. So-called "nuisance" or
"sunny day" high-tide flooding is becoming more commonplace across the
U.S., and a new federal report released this week warns that such
flooding will only worsen in the decades to come...
As the Earth's temperature warms, so do the seas. Heat-trapping
greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane cause more land ice
(glaciers and ice sheets) to melt and water to expand. Warmer water
simply takes up more room than cooler water.
Scientists say global warming will be the primary cause of future
sea-level rise. Their greatest uncertainty is how quickly the massive
West Antarctic ice sheet will melt.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/03/08/high-tide-floods-expected-get-even-worse-could-become-daily-weekly-events-some-coastal-cities-end-ce/407616002/
[James Hansen - Optimistic]
*Some Basis for Optimism
<https://columbia.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0ebaeb14fdbf5dc65289113c1&id=26707a1c8a&e=c4e20a3850>*
Some Basis for Optimism is available here in pdf format
<https://columbia.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0ebaeb14fdbf5dc65289113c1&id=26707a1c8a&e=c4e20a3850>
and on my web site
<https://columbia.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0ebaeb14fdbf5dc65289113c1&id=cf82eee262&e=c4e20a3850>.
~Jim
08 March 2018
https://columbia.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0ebaeb14fdbf5dc65289113c1&id=26707a1c8a&e=c4e20a3850
However, optimism also has plenty of basis, mostly related to young people.
Some examples:
*(1) The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco *rejected the Trump
Administration's attempt to block the lawsuit of Our Children's Trust
demanding a plan by the United States government to reduce fossil fuel
emissions. The trial will proceed in the U.S. District Court in Oregon,
likely in the fourth quarter of this year...
*(2) Young Republicans are showing that they will not accept politics as
usual*, they understand climate change is real, and a substantial number
of them advocate exactly the conservative policy that could address the
matter successfully: carbon fee with 100% dividend uniformly distributed
to the public.
*(3) Another basis for optimism is the rapid progress of Michael
Shellenberger* as an Independent candidate for California Governor....
https://columbia.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0ebaeb14fdbf5dc65289113c1&id=26707a1c8a&e=c4e20a3850
[Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]
*Resilience and the climate threat
<https://thebulletin.org/blog/whats-new-bulletin/resilience-and-climate-threat-guest-edited-alice-c-hill>*
In early February, the Trump administration unveiled a $1.5-trillion
infrastructure plan
<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=72211899&msgid=2597856&act=6B6D&c=946851&destination=https%3A%2F%2Fthebulletin.org%2Ftrumps-infrastructure-plan-may-ignore-climate-change-it-could-be-costly11503>
that has received criticism on several fronts. Chief among the
complaints is a lack of planning for civil and infrastructure
disruptions resulting from extreme weather and a changing climate. But
the Trump administration isn't unique in this regard: studies indicate
that governments around the world underinvest in infrastructure
resilience by at least 70 percent. But what do we mean when we say
"resilience?" And who benefits from efforts that do exist?
The March/April issue of our digital journal explores resilience and the
climate threat and is guest-edited by Alice C. Hill, research fellow at
the Stanford University Hoover Institution and former senior director
for resilience policy for the National Security Council. Hill's work
focuses on building resilience to destabilizing catastrophic events,
including the impacts of climate change, and she brings her considerable
expertise to this special issue.
*Special issue: Resilience and the climate threat*
An overview of "resilience" and climate change
<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=72211899&msgid=2597856&act=6B6D&c=946851&destination=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tandfonline.com%2Fdoi%2Ffull%2F10.1080%2F00963402.2018.1436803>
Alice C. Hill and William Kakenmaster
*/Free-access article/*
Investing in resilience today to prepare for tomorrow's climate
change
<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=72211899&msgid=2597856&act=6B6D&c=946851&destination=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tandfonline.com%2Fdoi%2Ffull%2F10.1080%2F00963402.2018.1436805>
Leonardo Martinez-Diaz
Smart adaptation in an era of rising climate risks
<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=72211899&msgid=2597856&act=6B6D&c=946851&destination=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tandfonline.com%2Fdoi%2Ffull%2F10.1080%2F00963402.2018.1436806>
Christopher B. Field
Sea level rise—from my front porch
<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=72211899&msgid=2597856&act=6B6D&c=946851&destination=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tandfonline.com%2Fdoi%2Ffull%2F10.1080%2F00963402.2018.1436807>
William A. Stiles, Jr.
A resilient community is one that includes and protects
everyone<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=72211899&msgid=2597856&act=6B6D&c=946851&destination=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tandfonline.com%2Fdoi%2Ffull%2F10.1080%2F00963402.2018.1436808>
Marcie Roth
Resilience for power systems amid a changing climate
<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=72211899&msgid=2597856&act=6B6D&c=946851&destination=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tandfonline.com%2Fdoi%2Ffull%2F10.1080%2F00963402.2018.1436810>
Sarah M. Jordaan
https://thebulletin.org/blog/whats-new-bulletin/resilience-and-climate-threat-guest-edited-alice-c-hill
[Article]
*Resilience for power systems amid a changing climate
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00963402.2018.1436810>*
ABSTRACT
The US electric power system faces an urgent need for policies that
address climate vulnerabilities. Extreme weather events, sea level rise,
water availability issues, and changing temperatures can result in acute
disruptions to and persistent economic impacts upon electric power
generation. In the United States, extreme weather events affecting power
systems already cost the country's economy tens of billions of dollars
each year. Policies to improve power systems' resilience to climate
change impacts will produce important co-benefits that apply to other
disruptions, such as cyber attacks, earthquakes, and tsunamis.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00963402.2018.1436810
[Solar]
*Tesla Loses Top Spot in Residential Solar to Sunrun
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-06/tesla-losing-top-spot-in-solar-to-sunrun-as-musk-shifts-gears>*
Elon Musk is no longer leading the charge in residential solar.
Tesla Inc. <https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/TSLA:US>installed87
megawatts
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-07/tesla-may-be-about-to-lose-its-throne-as-king-of-rooftop-solar>of
commercial and residential solar in the fourth quarter, including about
50 megawatts at homes, according to a GTM Research estimate. RivalSunrun
Inc. <https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/RUN:US>added 85 megawatts of
residential systems in the same period, according to astatement
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/terminal/P56T3F3RXUKG>Tuesday. Counting
only that part of Tesla's operation, Sunrun took the lead in the third
quarter.
The changing of the guard comes more than a year after Tesla bought
Musk's debt-burdened SolarCity for$2 billion
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-17/tesla-seals-2-billion-solarcity-deal-set-to-test-musk-s-vision>.
Tesla has since prioritized profitability in solar over
growth-at-all-costs as the company seeks to transform itself into a
solar and battery giant to complement its electric vehicles. Tesla has
ceded solar market-share in most quarters since that deal, and without
SolarCity trumpeting solar, the U.S. residential market contracted in
2017 after at least 16 consecutiveyears of growth
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-01/u-s-residential-solar-declining-as-industry-faces-retooling>.
"SolarCity was the marketing and lobbying machine for the entire
industry, and everyone is struggling in its absence," said Hugh Bromley,
a New York-based analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance....
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-06/tesla-losing-top-spot-in-solar-to-sunrun-as-musk-shifts-gears
[Doctors: medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org]
*Doctors Speak at EPA Hearing
<https://medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org/members-in-action/opposition-repeal-clean-power-plan/>*
In Kansas City, we see significant amounts lung disease, COPD chronic
obstructive lung disease most commonly in adults, and asthma in
children. Both of these disease processes are largely affected by air
quality and environmental pollution.
The literature reveals that air pollution stunts the lung capacity
of growing children, making them more vulnerable to respiratory
problems later in their lives, and that there is a negative effect
on pregnancy as well leading to higher rates of prematurity and low
birthweight. For older adults, poor air quality exacerbates heart
and lung problems. When air pollution intensifies, people with
these conditions are more likely to end up in emergency rooms or a
hospital. This is costly, time-consuming, and sometimes
life-threatening for the affected individual and their family; but
it is also a strain on the larger community. Due to all these heart
and lung health problems, there are missed days from school and
work, lower productivity, and a high price paid by the patient and
society of emergency room visits and hospitalizations. These
health problems add significantly to the nation's health costs.
These problems do not necessarily stop at hospitalization. Deaths
do occur; this is the ultimate tragedy for many families and for the
health system. In 2015, almost 150,00 people died from chronic resp
illnesses. It is the 3rd leading cause of death. The annual
economic cost of asthma is more than $56 billion including medical
costs and school and work loss days.
In addition to the immediate air pollution effects, climate change is
directly harming our health through severe heat waves, extreme storms
and rainfall, the spread of disease carried by mosquitoes and ticks,
flooding due to rising sea levels, and reduced air quality.
National Medical Association stands with the Medical Society Consortium
on Climate and Health, which represents over 550,000 physicians (more
than half the nation's doctors), who have come together to inform the
public that combating climate change will improve the health of
Americans now and in the future. The Clean Power Plan is a vital tool
in reducing these health threats by cutting the heat-trapping pollution
that drives climate change.
"...*repealing the Clean Power Plan is taking a step in the wrong
direction*."
https://medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org/members-in-action/opposition-repeal-clean-power-plan/
[Politics revealed]
*REVEALED: NAMES OF ALEC LOBBYIST AND LEGISLATOR MEMBERS
<http://documentedinvestigations.org/2018/03/08/revealed-names-alec-lobbyist-legislator-members/>*
MARCH 8, 2018
You can download the full pdf list here.
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4392657-2017-ALEC-AM-Members.html>
(68 pages)...reveals hundreds of ALEC members, including a long list of
fossil fuel companies and their trade associations. The list includes
Marathon Petroleum (this is new information), Koch Industries,
ExxonMobil, Peabody Energy, Chevron, Duke Energy, the Edison Electric
Institute, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, American Gas
Association, the Nuclear Energy Institute, National Rural Electric
Cooperative Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The names of hundreds of members of the American Legislative Exchange
Council ("ALEC"), details of which are closely guarded by the group, are
revealed in a document obtained by Documented through a public records
request.
The list, made available below, includes hundreds of elected officials,
corporations, front groups, and industry trade associations./(children's
names redacted)/
You can check out the post on our website at Documented:
http://documentedinvestigations.org/2018/03/08/revealed-names-alec-lobbyist-legislator-members/
And please help share via Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ItsDocumented/status/971744829423144962
Full PDF List
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4392657-2017-ALEC-AM-Members.html
[George Monbiot zings Steven Pinker]
*You can deny environmental calamity – until you check the facts
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/07/environmental-calamity-facts-steven-pinker>*/(clipped)
/*
Rosy worldviews that rely on avoiding inconvenient truths should always
set alarm bells ringing*
@GeorgeMonbiot
One of the curiosities of our age is the way in which celebrity culture
comes to dominate every aspect of public life. Even the review pages of
the newspapers sometimes look like a highfalutin version of gossip
magazines. Were we to judge them by the maxim "Great minds discuss
ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people", they
would not emerge well. Biography dominates. Ideas often seem to come
last. Brilliant writers such as Sylvia Plath are better known for their
lives than their work. Turning her into the Princess Diana of literature
does neither her nor her readers any favours...
Even when ideas are given prominence, they no longer have standing in
their own right. Their salience depends on their authorship. Take, for
example, the psychology professor Steven Pinker, who attractsbreathless
adulation
<https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/11/steven-pinker-enlightenment-now-interview-inequality-consumption-environment>.
I am broadly sympathetic to his worldview. I agree with him that
scientific knowledge is a moral imperative, and that we must use it to
enhance human welfare. Like him, I'm enthusiastic about technologies
that horrify other people, such asfourth-generation nuclear reactors
<http://www.monbiot.com/2011/12/05/a-waste-of-waste/>andartificial meat
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/11/mass-starvation-humanity-flogging-land-death-earth-food>.
So I began reading his new book,Enlightenment Now
<https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/14/enlightenment-now-steven-pinker-review>,
with excitement...
Rather than using primary sources, Pinker draws on anecdote,
cherry-picking and discredited talking points developed by
anti-environmental thinktanks...
Pinker seems unaware ofthe controversies surrounding the Kuznets Curve
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800997001778>,
and the large body of datathat appears to undermine it
<http://www.isa.org.usyd.edu.au/about/16-00271_LW_GlobalMaterialFlowsUNE_SUMMARY_FINAL_160701.pdf>.
The same applies to the other grand claims with which he sweeps through
this subject. He relies on highly tendentious interlocutors to interpret
this alien field for him. If you are going to use people likeUS
ecomodernist <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecomodernism>Stewart Brand
<http://www.monbiot.com/2010/11/06/correspondence-with-stewart-brand/>andthe
former head of Northern Rock Matt Ridley
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/may/31/state-market-nothern-rock-ridley>as
your sources, you need todoublecheck their assertions
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/jun/18/matt-ridley-rational-optimist-errors>.Pinker
insults the Enlightenment principles he claims to defend.
Could he have succumbed to themotivated reasoning
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivated_reasoning>these principles are
supposed to suppress? If the environmental crisis cannot be so easily
dismissed, it threatens his argument that life is steadily improving.
What looks like a relentless enhancement in human welfare could emerge
instead as an interlude between one form of deprivation and the next.
I doubt such poor scholarship will dim the adulation with which his
claims are received. While Pinker is lauded, far more interesting and
original books, such asJeremy Lent's The Patterning Instinct
<http://www.monbiot.com/2018/01/31/stepping-back-from-the-brink/>andKate
Raworth's Doughnut Economics
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/12/doughnut-growth-economics-book-economic-model>,
are scarcely reviewed. If there is one aspect of modernity that owes
nothing to the Enlightenment, it is surely the worship of celebrities.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/07/environmental-calamity-facts-steven-pinker
[US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, video speech]
*TIME TO WAKE UP: RETROSPECTIVE
<https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/videos/watch/time-to-wake-up-retrospective>*
In this week's "Time to Wake Up" speech, Sen. Whitehouse reflects back
on the last six years of urging his Senate colleagues to wake up to the
threats of climate change.
Also at YouTube https://youtu.be/5MX5q7EX6lM
https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/videos/watch/time-to-wake-up-retrospective
*BetsyRosenberg.com presents: This Day in Climate History - March 9, 2013
*March 9, 2013: MSNBC's Chris Hayes discusses the escalation of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere in 2012.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/up/51113853
/
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