[TheClimate.Vote] March 14, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Wed Mar 14 10:48:43 EDT 2018
/March 14, 2018
/
[politics]
*Trump's Pick To Replace Former Exxon CEO As Secretary Of State Is A
Bigger Climate Denier
<https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-pompeo-climate-state-department_us_5aa7e180e4b03c9edfaffc0a>*
By Alexander C. Kaufman
Mike Pompeo, who was tapped to replace Rex Tillerson, could be the first
secretary of state to reject climate science outright. Climate deniers
have high hopes for him.
Tillerson urged Trump against pulling out of the Paris Agreement last
June, and suggested last September that the U.S. could remain in the
deal. Still, the State Department rewrote its web page on climate change
last March, abolished its climate change envoy position in August and
left teams working on global warming issues in limbo, seemingly
encouraging staff to leave. Coincidentally, a major environmental
nonprofit sued the State Department on Tuesday for refusing to release a
U.N. report on U.S. climate action that was due on Jan. 1.
If confirmed by the Senate, Pompeo seems poised to do more damage to
efforts to combat climate change.
"It's good news for us," said Myron Ebell, a leading proponent of
climate change denial and a director at the right wing Competitive
Enterprise Institute. "I expect very good things from him at the State
Department."
In his six years as a Republican congressman from Kansas, Pompeo voted
so routinely against environmental policies that he received a 4 percent
lifetime score on the League of Conservation Voters' ranking. In 2011,
he unsuccessfully pushed to end energy subsidies in a move Ebell said
was meant to target tax credits for wind turbines...
Environmental groups swiftly condemned Trump's decision to name Pompeo
as secretary of state.
"Donald Trump has now somehow picked someone even worse than Rex
Tillerson to run the State Department," Naomi Ages, Greenpeace USA's
climate director, said in a statement. "In addition to being a climate
denier, like his predecessor, Pompeo is Koch brothers' shill who will
denigrate the United States' reputation abroad and make us vulnerable to
threats at home."
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-pompeo-climate-state-department_us_5aa7e180e4b03c9edfaffc0a
[empathy]
*Feeling it: UW Bothell class helps students face emotional impact of a
warming planet
<https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/feeling-it-uw-bothell-class-helps-students-face-emotional-impact-of-a-warming-planet/>*
By Katherine Long <https://www.seattletimes.com/author/katherine-long/>
A popular new class on climate change at the University of Washington
Bothell tackles the emotional dimensions of a warming planet, helping
students develop personal resources to deal with a lifetime of
witnessing environmental losses...
Loss is a growing issue for people working and living on the front lines
of climate change. And that gave Jennifer Wren Atkinson, a full-time
lecturer in the UW Bothell's School of Interdisciplinary Arts &
Sciences, an idea for a class...
This quarter she taught students on the Bothell campus about the
emotional burdens of environmental study. She drew on the experiences of
Native American tribes, scientists and activists, and asked her 24
students to face the reality that there is no easy fix - that "this is
such an intractable problem that they're going to be dealing with it for
the rest of their lives."
The class was so popular that she had to turn many students away.
Atkinson plans to teach it again next year.
*"We haven't had to spend any time debating whether climate change
is actually happening," she said. "It's more, 'What's my personal
responsibility for this, and how do I develop the personal resources
to navigate it?' "*
For college students in their teens and 20s, the loss some feel due to
climate change can be deeply personal - akin to grieving for a dead
parent or grandparent...
Atkinson became interested in the subject in fall 2016, when she joined
a group of educators and activists around the region who convened to
talk about teaching climate change. The group gathered shortly after
Trump was elected, and "they talked openly of grief and fear," and the
possibility that years of their work would be undone, she said...
Many feel a sense of panic and urgency in their own lives, but they have
no one to talk to about it.
Student Cody Dillon used to be a climate-science skeptic. Then he did
his own reading and research, and changed his mind.
Dillon isn't going into environmental work - he's a computer-science
major. Yet the potential for a planet-wide environmental catastrophe
seemed so real to him five years ago that he quit his job and became a
full-time volunteer for an environmental group that worked on
restoration projects...
Atkinson said she hopes the class helped her students steel themselves
to the amount of loss that will happen over their lifetimes and gave
them resources to help cope with despair and grief.
"We are already transforming the planet - so many species and
communities are going to be lost, displaced or massively impacted," she
said. "The future isn't going to be what they imagined."
Morrison said she felt empowered by learning about climate-change
actions around the globe.
"It's easy to feel defeated, but all over the world, people are stepping
up," she said.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/feeling-it-uw-bothell-class-helps-students-face-emotional-impact-of-a-warming-planet/
[Terminator returns to fight Big Oil ]
*Former Governator Schwarzenegger wants to sue oil companies for
'murder.'
<https://grist.org/briefly/former-governator-arnold-schwarzenegger-wants-to-sue-oil-companies-for-murder/>*
During an interview with Politico's "Off Message" podcast at the South
by Southwest festival, Arnold Schwarzenegger argued that fossil fuel
companies made a perfect target for tobacco-style class action lawsuits,
as pollution kills 7 million to 9 million people a year. "We're talking
to law firms to go and do exactly the same thing they did with the
tobacco industry, " he said. And though Schwarzenegger didn't clarify
the details, he assured the crowd that he planned to back up his words.
"We're going to go after them, and we're going to be in there like an
Alabama tick," Schwarzenegger promised (borrowing one of Jesse Ventura's
lines from Predator).
During his tenure as California governor, the Republican worked with a
Democratic statehouse to pass California's landmark climate legislation,
while also driving around in Hummers retrofitted to run on hydrogen and
biofuel. He said environmentalism had to be "sexy," rather than
abstemious and fingerwagging.
https://grist.org/briefly/former-governator-arnold-schwarzenegger-wants-to-sue-oil-companies-for-murder/
[full video of Interview]
YouTube video <https://youtu.be/eIk9Tx6dyc4> https://youtu.be/eIk9Tx6dyc4
*Arnold Schwarzenegger Joins POLITICO's Off Message|SXSW 2018
<https://youtu.be/eIk9Tx6dyc4>*
Arnold Schwarzenegger talks with POLITICO's Isaac Dovere about his own
principles for effective governing, why he made gerrymandering and other
issues his crusades after finishing as governor of California, and what
he sees for the future of American politics.
https://youtu.be/eIk9Tx6dyc4
[Politico Magazine audio interview]
*Schwarzenegger to Sue Big Oil for 'First Degree Murder'
<https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/12/arnold-schwarzenegger-sxsw-trump-big-oil-me-too-217345>*
At SXSW, the former California governor lets loose on climate change,
Donald Trump and gives his first in-depth remarks on #MeToo.
By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE
March 12, 2018
Off Message recorded live <https://megaphone.link/PPY9539955439>
https://megaphone.link/PPY9539955439 /(this is a culturally great,
important interview)/
AUSTIN, Texas - Arnold Schwarzenegger's next mission: taking oil
companies to court "for knowingly killing people all over the world."
The former California governor and global environmental activist
announced the move Sunday at a live recording of POLITICO's Off
Message podcast here at the SXSW festival, revealing that he's in
talks with several private law firms and preparing a public push
around the effort.
"This is no different from the smoking issue. The tobacco industry
knew for years and years and years and decades, that smoking would
kill people, would harm people and create cancer, and were hiding
that fact from the people and denied it. Then eventually they were
taken to court and had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars
because of that," Schwarzenegger said. "The oil companies knew from
1959 on, they did their own study that there would be global warming
happening because of fossil fuels, and on top of it that it would be
risky for people's lives, that it would kill."
Schwarzenegger said he's still working on a timeline for filing, but
the news comes as he prepares to help host a major environmental
conference in May in Vienna.
"We're going to go after them, and we're going to be in there like
an Alabama tick. Because to me it's absolutely irresponsible to know
that your product is killing people and not have a warning label on
it, like tobacco," he said. "Every gas station on it, every car
should have a warning label on it, every product that has fossil
fuels should have a warning label on it."
He argues that at the very least, this would raise awareness about
fossil fuels and encourage people to look to alternative fuels and
clean cars.
He added, "I don't think there's any difference: If you walk into a
room and you know you're going to kill someone, it's first degree
murder; I think it's the same thing with the oil companies."
Schwarzenegger was at SXSW for an extensive discussion of lessons he
learned in his seven years as governor, and how he'd apply them to
the current political situation in Washington and beyond. On the
list: Maximize the bully pulpit; use the carrot but have the stick
ready; and no one gets a perfect "10," because there's always room
for improvement. Those, he said, were part of his art of the deal,
and explained how he'd been able to institute major laws from
worker's compensation reform to environmental standards to a state
election overhaul to implement independent redistricting and a
"jungle primary" system, in which the top two advance.
Schwarzenegger also addressed, for the first time since the national
reawakening around the #MeToo moment, the charges of groping and
inappropriate behavior that surfaced from multiple women against him
at the end of his first campaign for governor in 2003. He
acknowledged that the change in the moment made a huge difference.
"It is about time. I think it's fantastic. I think that women have
been used and abused and treated horribly for too long, and now all
of the elements came together to create this movement, and now
finally puts the spotlight on this issue, and I hope people learn
from that," he said. "You've got to take those things seriously.
You've got to look at it and say, 'I made mistakes. And I have to
apologize.'"
He stressed the importance of sexual harassment training, like the
one he made his staff do once he was elected- including himself.
"We make mistakes, and we don't take it seriously. And then when you
really think about it, you say, 'Maybe I went too far,'"
Schwarzenegger said. "You've got to be very sensitive about it, and
you've got to think about the way that women feel-and if they feel
uncomfortable, then you did not do the right thing."
The past few months, he said "made me think totally differently,"
adding, "I said to myself, 'Finally.'"
(Click here to subscribe and hear the full podcast, including
Schwarzenegger's views on violent movies and video games in the gun
control debate, and his lessons for governing in the age of Trump.)
Schwarzenegger took a number of shots at Donald Trump, dismissing
the president's latest attack on him, delivered at a rally in
Pennsylvania on Saturday night, for having "failed when he did the
show," a reference to the former governor's rocky one-season stint
as the host of "The Apprentice" on NBC last year.
"I never know really why the Russians make him say certain things,"
Schwarzenegger said. "It's beyond me. Why do you think he says those
things? He's supposed to be very busy."
Later in the interview, he returned to the attack on Trump, teasing
that the script of the new "Terminator" movie, which Schwarzenegger
is set to start filming in June and is expected to be released next
year, had to be rewritten to include Trump. "The T-800 model that I
play, he's traveling back in time to 2019 to get Trump out of
prison," Schwarzenegger joked.
He wouldn't reveal any actual details about the script other than
that he is still the T-800 model. This isn't his only upcoming foray
into old film franchises: He's due to shoot "King Conan" and
"Triplets," an update on the 1988 film "Twins," with Eddie Murphy as
the third brother. ("There's something funny there with the mixing
of the sperm," he said.)
Schwarzenegger said he'd like to see Ohio Gov. John Kasich run for
president but urged him to run in the Republican primary rather than
as an independent.
"He's a great Republican," Schwarzenegger said.
But he said don't expect him to be a major campaign presence in
2020. He'll be focusing on pushing gerrymandering reform, and has
gotten involved again with California Republicans, with whom he'll
be meeting in the coming days back home.
"The Republicans that are the new thinking Republicans in California
want to get things done," Schwarzenegger said, adding that he wants
elected officials to remember, "ultimately, you are a public
servant, not a party servant."
He urged the GOP to pay attention to what happened in California,
where Democrats have become completely dominant. Republicans there,
he said, "are stuck with an ideology that doesn't really fit anymore
with what people want."
He cited the environmental work of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and
George H.W. Bush as examples.
"Today, those are all things that are absolutely a no-no in the
Republican Party. I didn't change; it's the Republican Party that's
changed," he said. "Now we have to work very hard to get the party
back to where it was."
Back at the end of his presidency, Bill Clinton wrote Schwarzenegger
a long letter that ended with Clinton urging Schwarzenegger to
become a Democrat. Schwarzenegger said he wasn't interested then,
and isn't interested now, for all his problems with Trump and the
current GOP.
"That's a fun letter, and I like supporting him on some issues,"
Schwarzenegger said. "But the bottom line is that I'm a Republican,
and I'm a true Republican, and I will always be a Republican. It's a
fantastic party, but they've veered off into the right into some
strange lanes."
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/12/arnold-schwarzenegger-sxsw-trump-big-oil-me-too-217345
[legal action]
*U.S. Judge Upholds Cities' Right to Sue Fossils for Climate Adaptation
Costs
<http://theenergymix.com/2018/03/11/u-s-judge-upholds-cities-right-to-sue-fossils-for-climate-adaptation-costs/>*
Last week, a San Francisco judge upheld the right of cities to attempt
to sue greenhouse gas emitters in U.S. federal court. Judge William
Alsup has instructed parties on both sides of the case to return to
court with a two-part presentation. Part one "will trace the history of
scientific study of climate change," while "the second part will set
forth the best science now available on global warming, glacier melt,
sea rise, and coastal flooding.
Read more:
http://theenergymix.com/2018/03/11/u-s-judge-upholds-cities-right-to-sue-fossils-for-climate-adaptation-costs/
[video by Katie Teague]
*Living Into Being (3 minutes) - interview with Culture
Designer/Evolutionary Joe Brewer
<http://www.acesconnection.com/g/international-transformational-resilience-coalition-itrc/clip/living-into-being-3-minutes-interview-with-culture-designer-evolutionary-joe-brewer-katie-teague>*
"So the false choice between the story of hope and the story of doom...
misses the point. We create the story by living it. .. Have something
in the future that you cannot let go.... Not knowing is an essential
piece of living."
"What Future are you Living into Being?"
A conversation about the context of the time we are living in, combined
with aerial cinematography from various locations in the USA and Iceland.
http://www.acesconnection.com/g/international-transformational-resilience-coalition-itrc/clip/living-into-being-3-minutes-interview-with-culture-designer-evolutionary-joe-brewer-katie-teague
[full essay]
COMMENTARY
*Hold your breath
<https://www.mdedge.com/clinicalpsychiatrynews/article/133804/schizophrenia-other-psychotic-disorders/hold-your-breath>*
Publish date: March 20, 2017
By Lise Van Susteren, MD
"Exercising my 'reasoned judgment,' I have no doubt that the right
to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental
to a free and ordered society."
- U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in Kelsey Cascadia Rose Juliana vs.
United States of America, et al.
In many areas of the world, the simple act of breathing has become
hazardous to people's health.
According to the World Health Organization, more people die every day
from air pollution than from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and road injuries
combined. In China, more than 1 million deaths annually are linked to
polluted air (76/100,000); in India the number of deaths is more than
600,000 annually (49/100,000); and in the United States, that figure
comes to more than 38,000 (12/100,000).
Unhealthy air is primarily the result of burning "fossil fuels" - coal,
oil, and gas - for energy, a deadly practice. It fills the air with
harmful particulate matter that we breathe in, and it alters the
chemistry of our atmosphere by releasing CO2, the heat-trapping
greenhouse gas responsible for global climate instability.
And yet, nonpolluting, alternative options - such as sun and wind power
- are readily available.
Dirty air is visible on a hot summer day - when, mixed with other
substances, it forms smog. Higher temperatures can then speed up the
chemical reactions that form smog. We breathe in that polluted air,
especially on days when the air is stagnant or there is temperature
inversion.
The health effects of climate change
Black carbon found in air pollution leads to drug-resistant bacteria and
alters antibiotic tolerance.1 The pollution also is associated with
multiple cancers: lung, liver, ovarian, and, possibly, breast.2,3,4,5 It
causes inflammation linked to the development of coronary artery disease
(seen even in children!) and plaque formation leading to heart attacks
and cardiac arrhythmias - including atrial fibrillation. Air pollution
causes, triggers, or worsens respiratory illnesses - chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease, emphysema, asthma, infections - and is responsible
for lifelong diminished lung volume in children (a reason families are
leaving Beijing.) Exponentially increased rates of autism are linked to
bad air quality, as are autoimmune diseases, which also are on the
rise.6,7 Polluted air causes brain inflammation - living near sources of
air pollution increases the risk of dementia - and other
neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, and
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.8 The blood brain barrier protects the
brain from most foreign matter, but particulate matter, especially
ultrafine particulate matter of less than 1 mcm such as magnetite, can
cross directly into the brain via the olfactory nerve. (Magnetite has
been identified in the brain tissue of residents living in areas where
the substance is produced as a result of industrial waste.) While
particulate matter of 2.5 mcmis measured in the United States, ultrafine
particulate matter is not.
Psychiatric symptoms and chronic psychiatric disorders also are
associated with polluted air: On days with poor air quality, a
statistically significant increase is seen in suicide threats and visits
to emergency departments for panic attacks.9,10
A rise in aggression occurs when there are abnormally high temperatures
and significant changes in rainfall. More assaults, murders, suicides,
domestic violence, and child abuse can be expected, and a rise in unrest
around the world should come as no surprise.
As a consequence of increased CO2 in the atmosphere, temperatures have
already risen by 2 degrees F: Sixteen of the hottest years on record
have occurred in the last 17 years, with 2016 as the hottest year ever
recorded. In Iraq and Kuwait, the temperature last summer reached 129.2
degrees F.
We are experiencing more frequent and extreme weather events, chronic
climate conditions, and the cascading disruption of ecosystems. Drought
and sea level rise are leading to physical and psychological impacts -
both direct and indirect. Some regions of the world have become
destabilized, triggering migrations and the refugee crisis.
Along with these psychological impacts, CO2 affects cognition: A recent
study by the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, shows that the
indoor levels of CO2 to which American workers typically are exposed
impair cognitive functioning, particularly in the areas of strategic
thinking, information processing, and crisis management.
What do we do about it?
As mental health professionals, we know that aggression can be overt or
passive (from inaction). Overwhelming evidence shows harm to public
health from burning fossil fuels, and yet, though we are making
progress, resistance still exists in the transition to clean, renewable
energy critical for the health of our families and communities. When
political will is what stands between us and getting back on a path to
breathing clean air, how can inaction be understood as anything but an
act of aggression?
This issue has reached U.S. courts: In a landmark case, 21 youths aged
9-20 years represented by "Our Children's Trust" are suing the U.S.
government in the Oregon U.S. District Court for failure to act on
climate. The case, heard by Judge Ann Aiken, is now headed to trial.
All of us have a duty to collectively, repeatedly, and forcefully call
on policy makers to take action.
That leads me to what we can do as doctors. In this effort to quickly
transition to safe, clean renewable energy, we all have a role to play.
The notion that we can't do anything as individuals is no more credible
than saying "my vote doesn't matter." Just as our actions as voters in a
democracy demonstrate the collective civic responsibility we owe one
another, so too do our actions on climate. As global citizens, all
actions that we take to help us live within the planet's means are
opportunities to restore balance.
What we do collectively drives markets and determines the social norms
that powerfully influence the decisions of others - sometimes even
unconsciously.
As doctors, we have a unique role to play in the places we work - urging
hospitals, clinics, academic centers, and other organizations and
facilities to lead by example, become role models for energy efficiency,
and choose clean renewable energy sources over the ones harming our
health. We can start by choosing wind and solar to power our homes and
influencing others to do the same.
We are the voices because this is a health message.
Dr. Van Susteren is a practicing general and forensic psychiatrist in
Washington. She serves on the advisory board of the Center for Health
and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health,
Boston. Dr. Van Susteren is a former member of the board of directors of
the National Wildlife Federation and coauthor of group's report, "The
Psychological Effects of Global Warming on the United States - Why the
U.S. Mental Health System is Not Prepared." In 2006, Dr. Van Susteren
sought the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland. She
also founded Lucky Planet Foods, a company that provides plant-based,
low carbon foods.
References
1. Environ Microbiol. 2017 Feb 14.doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.13686
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=2017%5Bpdat%5D+AND+Hussey%5Bauthor%5D+AND+Air+pollution&TransSchema=title&cmd=detailssearch>.
2.Environ Health Perspect. 2017 Mar;125[3]:378-84
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27519054>.
3.J Hepatol. 2015;63[6]:1397-1404
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%22Journal+of+hepatology%22%5BJour%5D+AND+1397%5Bpage%5D+AND+2015%5Bpdat%5D&cmd=detailssearch>.
4.J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2012;75[3]:174-82
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22251265>.
5.Environ Health Perspect. 2012 Nov; 118[11]:1578-83
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20923746>.
6.J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2016; 57[3]:271-92
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcpp.12501/abstract;jsessionid=7F70E4291CB52E223BECBF7049A9E675.f03t04?systemMessage=Pay+per+view+article+purchase%28PPV%29+on+Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+unavailable+on+Saturday+11th+March+from+05%3A00-14%3A00+GMT+%2F+12%3A00-09%3A00+EST+%2F+13%3A00-22%3A00+SGT+for+essential+maintenance.++Apologies+for+the+inconvenience.>.
7.Curr Opin Pediatr. 2010;22[2]219-25
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20087185>.
8.Inhal Toxicol. 2008;20[5]:499-506
<http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08958370701864797?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=iiht20&>.
9.J Psychiatr Res. 2015 Mar;62:130-5
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25669697>.
10.Schizophr Res. 2016 Oct 5. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2016.10.003
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Schizophrenia+research%5BJour%5D+AND+2016%5Bpdat%5D+AND+Attademo%2C+Luigi%5Bauthor%5D&cmd=detailssearch>.
11.Environ Health Perspect. 2016 Jun;124[6]:805-12
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26502459>.
[future]
*Climate change is a disaster foretold, just like the first world war
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/12/climate-change-is-a-disaster-foretold-just-like-the-first-world-war>*
Jeff Sparrow
The warnings about an unfolding climate catastrophe are getting more
desperate, yet the march to destruction continues
*'The extraordinary - almost absurd - contrast between what we should be
doing and what's actually taking place fosters low-level climate
denialism' *
"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit
again in our life-time."
The mournful remark supposedly made by foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey
at dusk on 3 August 1914 referred to Britain's imminent entry into the
first world war. But the sentiment captures something of our own moment,
in the midst of an intensifying campaign against nature.
- - - - - -
We inherited a planet of beauty and wonders - and we're saying goodbye
to all that.
The cultural historian Paul Fussell once identified the catastrophe of
the first world war with the distinctive sensibility of modernity,
noting how 20th century history had "domesticate[d] the fantastic and
normalize[d] the unspeakable."..
Consider, then, the work of climate change.
In February, for instance, scientists recorded temperatures 35 degrees
above the historical average in Siberia, a phenomenon that apparently
corresponded with the unprecedented cold snap across Europe.
As concentrated CO2 intensifies extreme events, a new and diabolical
weather will, we're told, become the norm for a generation already
accustomising itself to such everyday atrocities as about eight million
tons of plastics are washed into the ocean each year.
"It may seem impossible to imagine, that a technologically advanced
society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is
what we're now in the process of doing."
This passage from the New Yorker's Elizabeth Kolbert concluded a piece
on global warming, which was published way back in 2005. Over the 13
years since, the warnings from scientists have grown both more specific
and desperate - and yet the march to destruction has only redoubled its
pace.
The extraordinary - almost absurd - contrast between what we should
be doing and what's actually taking place fosters low-level climate
denialism. Coral experts might publicise, again and again and again,
the dire state of the Great Barrier Reef but the ongoing political
inaction inevitably blunts their message.
It can't be so bad, we think: if a natural wonder were truly under
threat, our politicians wouldn't simply stand aside and watch...
The first world war killed 20 million people and maimed 21 million
others. It shattered the economy of Europe, displaced entire
populations, and set in train events that culminated, scarcely two
decades later, with another, even more apocalyptic slaughter
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/12/climate-change-is-a-disaster-foretold-just-like-the-first-world-war
[Draft Govt report - big]
*Government close to finishing climate change report that runs counter
to Trump skepticism
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/science/ct-government-climate-report-20180312-story.html>*
Chris Mooney
The country's top independent scientific advisory body has largely
approved a major climate report being prepared by scientists within the
Trump administration - suggesting that another key government document
could soon emerge that contradicts President Donald Trump's skepticism
about climate change and humans' role in driving it.
The U.S. National Academies on Monday released a public peer review of a
draft document called the U.S. National Climate Assessment, a legally
required report that is being produced by the federal Global Change
Research Program. The document, which is in its fourth installment,
closely surveys how a changing climate is affecting individual U.S.
states, regions, and economic and industrial sectors. The final version
is expected later this year; the last version came out in 2014 during
the Obama administration...
The report, 1,506 pages long in draft form, says U.S. temperatures will
rise markedly in coming decades, accompanied by many other attendant
effects. It predicts that Northeastern fisheries will be stressed by
warmer ocean waters, that the Southeast will suffer from worsening water
shortages, that worse extreme-weather events will tax water and other
types of infrastructure, and far more...
Many scientists initially feared that the Trump administration would in
some way suppress or otherwise interfere with the release of the Climate
Science Special Report, given that it so thoroughly appeared to
undermine the president's personally expressed skepticism of climate
change and his decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris
climate change agreement. But the report was released as expected, and
there were no significant cries of censorship or political meddling.
Now, the question is whether the same will occur with the longer
National Climate Assessment, which goes beyond the Climate Science
Special Report to locate the climate problem within specific U.S.
communities and industries, describing both how they will suffer and how
they are coping. The National Climate Assessment arguably has more
potential for political ramifications, in that it exhaustively describes
effects in specific places in the country.
"There are many stories about the change, and that's the beauty of this,
you can go to the document and find stories in your community no matter
where you live in the U.S.," Bell said.
Granted, the current review is not a 100 percent endorsement - for
instance, it states that when it comes to discussing different types of
scientific uncertainty, "improved differentiation and more standardized
treatment is needed across the draft report." The document also contains
more than 40 pages of line edits to the longer report.
But this is not a fundamental undermining of the document - it just
means more work has to be done for it to be improved before publication.
"They are meant to provide clarification and ease of use by the readers
but not direction-changing sorts of recommendations," said Daniel Cayan,
a professor at the University of California at San Diego and one of the
peer reviewers.
The report will be revised in light of these critiques by its federal
authors - and move toward anticipated final-form publication later this
year.
"There's a tremendous interest and demand for updated information and
also examples of how various communities are approaching climate
issues," Cayan said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/science/ct-government-climate-report-20180312-story.html
[Australian video humor]
*Honest Election Ad | Batman by-election
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xL905Uzw9E>*
thejuicemedia
Published on Mar 13, 2018
Mining giant Adani has made an ad about the Batman by-election on March
17, and it's surprisingly honest and informative.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xL905Uzw9E
*This Day in Climate History - March 14, 2012
<http://youtu.be/DSy2UCNwchM> - from D.R. Tucker*
"NBC Nightly News" reports on the risk of rising sea levels.
A new study from nonprofit Climate Central found that Southern
California could be at risk within a couple of decades. NBC's Anne
Thompson reports.
http://youtu.be/DSy2UCNwchM
/
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