[TheClimate.Vote] May 4, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Fri May 4 09:51:33 EDT 2018

/May 4, 2018/

[Rain AND dust together! Plus 41,000 lightning strikes]
'Freak' dust storms in northern India kill more than 100 people 
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/03/freak-dust-storms-in-northern-india-kill-at-least-100-people>
Most of the deaths occurred as people slept in houses that collapsed 
overnight
Severe dust storms across northern India have killed more than 100 
people, destroyed homes and left hundreds without electricity.
Billowing clouds of thick dust and sand frequently blow across the 
region during the dry season, but the death toll from this week's storms 
has been unusually high.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/03/freak-dust-storms-in-northern-india-kill-at-least-100-people

[UN talks in Bonn]
*In Shadow of Trump's New Foreign Policy Team, U.S. Climate Negotiators 
Walk a Fine Line 
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03052018/un-climate-talks-trump-negotiators-bonn-pompeo-bolton-kudlow-foreign-policy>*
Staunch opponents of climate policy are now advising Trump on foreign 
affairs, leaving career U.S. diplomats in an awkward spot at the UN 
climate talks in Bonn.
Marianne Lavelle
As international climate negotiators meet in Bonn this week to draft 
rules for carrying out the Paris Agreement on climate change, the United 
States delegation presents a wraithlike enigma.
Even though the Trump administration has renounced the treaty, the 
United States has not yet withdrawn, and Washington would like to 
influence the discussions. But the Trump foreign policy team, now more 
than ever, is a tight cabal of hard-line foes of climate action....
- - - - -
It has been jarring that the United States, historically the largest 
contributor to the world's carbon dioxide buildup and until recently a 
driving force behind the Paris Agreement, to be at the table but not 
ante up. Now, other players worry that President Donald Trump's new team 
will overturn the card table.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03052018/un-climate-talks-trump-negotiators-bonn-pompeo-bolton-kudlow-foreign-policy

*Another blow for California gas - judge rejects proposed pipeline 
<https://www.utilitydive.com/news/another-blow-for-california-gas-judge-rejects-proposed-pipeline/522752/>*
California regulators will vote this summer on a proposal to reject a 47 
mile, $639 million pipeline that San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) and 
Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGa) want to construct.
A proposed decision issued by an administrative law judge at the 
California Public Utilities Commission concludes the utilities have not 
demonstrated a need for the pipeline, and orders the companies to 
consider more modest supply options.
If commissioners reject the project, it would be the latest in a string 
of losses for natural gas resources in the state. In March, Calpine 
withdrew an application for a new gas plant in the state, and a 
municipal utility in Glendale, Calif., recently scrapped plans for a gas 
generation project.
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/another-blow-for-california-gas-judge-rejects-proposed-pipeline/522752/ 

*
Bright future for solar cell technology 
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180427100250.htm>*
Source: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate 
University
Summary:
New all-inorganic perovskite solar cells tackle three key challenges in 
solar cell technology: efficiency, stability, and cost.
This material has several key features. First, it is completely 
inorganic - an important shift, because organic components are usually 
not thermostable and degrade under heat. Since solar cells can get very 
hot in the sun, heat stability is crucial. By replacing the organic 
parts with inorganic materials, the researchers made the perovskite 
solar cells much more stable.
"The solar cells are almost unchanged after exposure to light for 300 
hours," says Dr. Zonghao Liu, an author on the paper.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180427100250.htm

[NPR audio]
*A Temperature Roller Coaster Could Be Coming 
<https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/05/02/607800921/a-temperature-roller-coaster-could-be-coming>*
May 2, 2018 Heard on Morning Edition
  Christopher Joyce
...if the planet continues to warm, temperature variability will be 
especially pronounced in the Amazon Basin and parts of Africa and 
Southeast Asia - wet places where a warming climate is drying things out...
Summertime in the U.S. could see more temperature extremes.
Extremes, in fact, seem to be part of what a warmer world will bring. 
Another new study found that California will see more extreme wet and 
dry periods this century. They're calling that the "whiplash" effect of 
global warming.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/05/02/607800921/a-temperature-roller-coaster-could-be-coming

[coal soot in soil pollutes rice]
*Another problem with China's coal: Mercury in rice 
<https://theconversation.com/another-problem-with-chinas-coal-mercury-in-rice-92974>*
Noelle Eckley Selin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Sae Yun 
Kwon, Pohang University of Science and Technology
Study finds that coal pollution in China is leading to people getting 
significant levels of mercury poisoning from rice.
https://theconversation.com/another-problem-with-chinas-coal-mercury-in-rice-92974

[long duration video, deep and insightful]
*Paul Gilding discusses "The Big Picture" with Margaret Klein Salamon 
<YouTube%20video%20%20https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2z7AiLVwE4&t=>*
The Climate Mobilization
Published on Apr 27, 2018
Paul Gilding's book, The Great Disruption (2011) 
https://paulgilding.com/the-great-disruption/and Ted Talk The Earth is 
Full (2012)https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_gilding_the_earth_is_full 
<https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_gilding_the_earth_is_full> laid the 
foundation for the climate emergency movement, and for The Climate 
Mobilization organization. Margaret Klein Salamon, the founder and 
director of The Climate Mobilization checks in with Paul on whether he 
is still feeling confident about his predictions, and they discuss when 
and how the emergency mobilization will commence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2z7AiLVwE4&t=

[classic documentary]
*Why the Movie Downsizing Should be Seen by Everyone Who Cares About the 
Environment? 
<http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/why_the_movie_downsizing_should_be_seen_by_everyone_who_cares_for_the_environment>*
POSTED BY LAWRENCE WOLLERSHEIM
Every environmentalist and sustainability advocate should see this film! 
What may be the single greatest truth of this film is that it has 
cleverly brought one of the11 key tipping points of global warming 
<http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/climate_tipping_points>to the 
forefront of the world's consciousness. That tipping point is methane 
release from the melting permafrost and tundra.
While this is not the most dangerousof the 11 key global warming tipping 
points <http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/climate_tipping_points>, it is 
among the/most likely/that will throw humanity into an extinction cycle 
within the next 30 to 50 years. (See the new bookClimageddon at Amazon 
<https://www.amazon.com/Climageddon-Global-Warming-Emergency-Survive/dp/0997135328/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525195606&sr=8-1&keywords=climageddon>for 
more details about the real dangers ofglobal warming tipping points 
<http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/climate_tipping_points>.)
In this movie, there are many clever plays on the downsizing of human 
beings to downsize their consumption andresource overshoot 
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overshoot_%28population%29>. While it was 
not an initial box office hit, we at Job One for Humanity believe that 
over the years this movie will do/very well/in the streaming services 
and at other video rental outlets. Downsizing was chosen by the National 
Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2017, while Hong Chau a 
co-star earned a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 75th 
Golden Globe Awards....
http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/why_the_movie_downsizing_should_be_seen_by_everyone_who_cares_for_the_environment

[now pay the fine]
*Enbridge Fined for Failing to Fully Inspect Pipelines After Kalamazoo 
Oil Spill 
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03052018/enbridge-fined-tar-sands-oil-pipeline-inspections-kalamazoo-michigan-dilbit-spill>*
The Kalamazoo disaster was one of the biggest inland oil spills on 
record, and it raised questions about the safety of Enbridge's tar sands 
oil pipeline system.
BY DAVID HASEMYER
More than 1 million gallons oftar sands oil 
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20120626/dilbit-primer-diluted-bitumen-conventional-oil-tar-sands-Alberta-Kalamazoo-Keystone-XL-Enbridge>spilled 
into the Kalamazoo River near the town of Marshall whena 6-foot rupture 
opened in Enbridge pipeline 6B 
<http://insideclimatenews.org/content/dilbit-disaster-inside-biggest-oil-spill-youve-never-heard>. 
Despite warnings of trouble, oil flowed for 17 hours before Enbridge 
shut down the pipeline. Ultimately, the oil pushed nearly 40 miles 
downriver, fouling 4,435 acres of land near the river's banks. It 
triggered a massive cleanup effort that cost the company $1.2 billion 
and kept the river closed for nearly two years.
As part of asweeping, $177 million settlement, 
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20072016/enbridge-saga-end-department-justice-fine-epa-kalamazoo-river-michigan-dilbit-spill>Enbridge 
promised to look for cracks and corrosion on itsLakehead pipeline system 
<https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-06/documents/public_copy_lakehead_system_map.pdf>, 
a nearly 2,000-mile grid of pipelines that brings oil from Canada into 
the United States.
In adocument 
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4451281-Enbridge-May-2018.html>filed 
in a Michigan federal court on Tuesday, the government alleges that 
Enbridge failed to properly conduct six inspections.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03052018/enbridge-fined-tar-sands-oil-pipeline-inspections-kalamazoo-michigan-dilbit-spill

*This Day in Climate History - May 4, 2012 
<http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/Felsenthal-Files/June-2012/Chicagos-Heartland-Institute-and-its-Unabomber-Billboards/> 
   -  from D.R. Tucker*
The Chicago-based clImate-change-denial outfit known as the Heartland 
Institute puts up, and quickly pulls down, a digital billboard with an 
image of killer Ted  Kaczynski next to the words: "I still believe in 
global warming. Do you?" The controversy surrounding the ad campaign 
prompts several major corporations to wash their hands of Heartland, and 
also prompts several Heartland employees to resign.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V5Sx3A1Mxk
http://grist.org/list/heartland-institute-going-broke-due-to-dickish-billboard-campaign/
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/Felsenthal-Files/June-2012/Chicagos-Heartland-Institute-and-its-Unabomber-Billboards/

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