[TheClimate.Vote] May 6, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sun May 6 11:19:30 EDT 2018
/May 6, 2018/
[Mindful comparisons in the New Yorker]
*Hiroshima, Kyoto, and the Bombs of Climate Change
<https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/hiroshima-kyoto-and-the-bombs-of-climate-change>*
By Bill McKibben - April 27, 2018
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is filled with the texts of treaties
that have brought the number of warheads slowly, steadily down; we could
see that mushroom cloud and understand its danger in our gut. With
climate change, it's different. The explosion of a billion pistons
inside a billion cylinders every minute of every day just doesn't induce
the same tremble. True, Trump is alone among world leaders in dismissing
global warming, but most of his peers might as well agree: they've done
very little of what's required even to begin addressing this issue. As a
result, the explosions go off constantly. Scientists estimate that, each
day, our added emissions trap the heat equivalent of four hundred
thousand Hiroshima-sized bombs, which is why the Arctic has half as much
ice as it did in the nineteen-eighties, why the great ocean currents
have begun to slow, why we see floods and storms and fires in such sad
proportion. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the only atomic bombs we ever
dropped; climate bombs rain down daily, and the death toll mounts
unstoppably.
- - - - -
Between the power of an amoral industry willing to lie and the
particular tricks of human psychology that make us willing to overlook
our greatest threat, it's possible that as a species we'll slide
straight into a new, hotter, more desperate world without quite
recognizing it - without a Hiroshima moment at which, at the very least,
we finally acknowledge reality.
Bill McKibben,
More at:
https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/hiroshima-kyoto-and-the-bombs-of-climate-change
- - - -
[On the other hand]
*EXTREME WEATHER CAN'T SHAKE CLIMATE-CHANGE BELIEFS
<https://psmag.com/environment/extreme-weather-cant-shake-climate-change-beliefs>*
New research finds attitudes toward climate-change mitigation are only
minimally and fleetingly affected by severe weather.
https://psmag.com/environment/extreme-weather-cant-shake-climate-change-beliefs
- - - -
[Research says]
*Extreme weather exposure and support for climate change adaptation
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378017309135>*
Highlights:
Individuals experiencing extreme weather activity more likely to support
climate adaptation policy.
Effect of extreme weather activity on opinion is modest and not
consistent across specific adaptation policies.
Effect of extreme weather activity on opinion diminishes over time.
"The data thus suggest that experiencing more severe weather may not
appreciably increase support for climate adaptation policies."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378017309135
[lessons in polite discourse]
*For Katherine Hayhoe, Trolls are just Part of the Job
<https://climatecrocks.com/2018/05/05/for-katherine-hayhoe-trolls-are-just-part-of-the-job/>*
May 5, 2018
When I first profiled Katharine Hayhoe in 2012, having met her at a
conference at the University of Michigan. Readers here got her story in
an interview she told me later was still her favorite.
At the time, it was 2 years before she became one of Time Magazine's
most influential 100. (subtle hint that you learn stuff and meet people
here first - because you support Dark Snow Project)
In recent years, the messages from climate cranks haven't changed much
in substance or tone..
Time:
There's something fascinating about a smart person who defies
stereotype. That's what makes my friend Katharine Hayhoe - a Texas
Tech climatologist and an evangelical Christian - so interesting.
It's hard to be a good steward of the planet if you don't accept the
hard science behind what's harming it, and it can be just as hard to
take action to protect our world if you don't love it as the rare
gift it is. For many people, that implies a creator. Katharine and
her husband, evangelical pastor Andrew Farley, have authored the
defining book for the planet-loving believer, A Climate for Change:
Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions. I got to know
Katharine as we worked on Showtime's climate documentary Years of
Living Dangerously. But we are all getting to know and benefit from
her work.
Below, watch Dr. Hayhoe deflect an attack by a posturing local pol in
Austin - even-tempered, cheerful, respectful, and surgical.
A model for us all.
YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swJTAAs0ZsU
Katharine Hayhoe Assailed by Angry Climate Denier in Austin
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swJTAAs0ZsU>
https://climatecrocks.com/2018/05/05/for-katherine-hayhoe-trolls-are-just-part-of-the-job/
- - - - -
[Now for our classic Sunday Sermon:]
*Climate Change: Faith and Fact
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMJKkweZN6w>*
Moyers & Company - Published 2014
https://billmoyers.com/episode/climate-change-next-generation/
Christian and climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe talks to Bill about
ending the gridlock between politics, science and faith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMJKkweZN6w
[remember pristine lakes?]
*New climate 'feedback loop' discovered in freshwater lakes
<http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43990403>*
By Matt McGrath - Environment correspondent
Methane emissions from lakes in the northern hemisphere could almost
double over the next 50 years because of a novel "feedback loop" say
scientists.
Climate change is boosting the proportion of cattail plants growing in
and around freshwater lakes they say.
But when debris from these reed beds falls in the water it triggers a
major increase in the amount of methane produced.
The gas is at least 25 times more warming than CO₂ in the atmosphere.
Freshwater lakes play an important but relatively unrecognised role in
the global carbon cycle, contributing around 16% of the Earth's natural
emissions of methane - compared to just 1% from all the world's oceans.
The gas is produced by microbes in the sediment at the bottom of lakes
who consume organic matter that falls into the water from plants and
trees that live close to the shore.
The amount of methane generated according to this study, varies
considerably depending on what enters the lake.
The research team carried out tests in the laboratory that compared the
impact of coniferous and deciduous trees with debris from cattails
(often known in the UK as bulrushes).
- - - -
"Methane production is currently underestimated in global climate
models," said Dr Sapna Sharma, an expert in climate change impacts on
lakes from York University, Toronto.
"This study was able to elucidate a mechanism by which lakes may produce
even more methane that previously thought. Uncovering another potential
source of methane production from boreal lakes is useful to further
understanding global carbon cycles and ultimately improve climate
projections."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43990403
[The Guardian]
*California burning: life among the wildfires
<https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/may/04/california-burning-life-among-the-wildfires-climate-change>*
People used to roll their eyes at my gloomy talk of climate change. Then
the big blaze came.
(more at https://nplusonemag.com/issue-31/essays/an-account-of-my-hut/)
By Christina Nichol
"We have to cut carbon emissions now," I said. "Here's an article
about what we can do to stay below a one-degree rise. There are
solutions. If you were to really internalise that we are the first
generation to see the effects of climate change and the last
generation to be able to do anything about it, would you change your
life?"
Even while I spoke, I could hear myself sounding like a maniac. I
kept reminding myself that people don't respond well to threats, to
cajoling, to end-of-the-world scenarios. But I couldn't help it. I
was in a bad mood because it was so hot outside.
"Yes, it's the right thing to do," my boyfriend finally said,
calmly. "But if it were really that bad, as bad as you say, don't
you think Google would be doing something about it?"
On the fourth night of the fires, the humidity plummeted again, and
anxiety peaked. A dry wind was expected to blow almost as strongly
as on the night the fires started.
I packed a suitcase full of clothes and looked around my room.
Should I pack the vase I bought in Turkey? How about the old Soviet
tourist books about Tbilisi? How was it possible to choose between
items of sentimental value? Better to leave it all.
"At least we have the public pool across the street," my mom said.
We'd heard about the couple who took refuge in their neighbour's
pool
<http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-sonoma-fire-20171012-htmlstory.html>
while their own house burned. They stayed in the water for six
hours, covering their faces with wet shirts whenever they had to
come up to breathe. "How long does it take for a house to burn?" the
woman had wondered underwater.
A longer version of this story appeared under the title An Account of My
Hut in the Spring issue of n+1 magazine
<https://nplusonemag.com/issue-31/essays/an-account-of-my-hut/>
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/may/04/california-burning-life-among-the-wildfires-climate-change
- - - - -
[see the video of their account]
*They survived six hours in a pool as a wildfire burned their
neighborhood to the ground
<http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-sonoma-fire-20171012-htmlstory.html>*
October 12, 2017
http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-sonoma-fire-20171012-htmlstory.html
[bats are mammals]
*Extreme weather 'potentially catastrophic' for bats
<http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43812484>*
By Helen Briggs
BBC News
Extreme weather appears to be disrupting the life cycle of Europe's bats.
Scientists were alarmed to find that some bats in Portugal skipped
winter hibernation altogether this year while others gave birth early.
The findings add to growing fears that rising temperatures are having
unpredictable effects on bats, birds and other wildlife.
Bats born early in the year may suffer due to lack of insect food.
"It's a phenological mismatch," said Dr Hugo Rebelo of the University of
Porto, who is studying the impact of climate change on several
Mediterranean bat species.
"What this means is that the bat birth is more or less synchronised with
the time of emergence of insects so that when bats give birth there are
plenty of resources to feed on and then to feed their own pups.
"With these chaotic weather patterns we are having now in winter and
spring we don't know if everything is being mixed up. "
Underground roosts
Rare bat species have been routinely monitored in Portugal at their
underground roosts since the 1980s.
In order to survive the winter months, bats must hibernate as there are
not enough insects flying around in the winter to meet their energy demands.
- - - -
If the bats emerge from hibernation too early, they struggle to find
insect food for themselves and their young, particularly if there is a
period of spring rain.
This can lead to malnutrition and "huge mortality events".
"We are completely in the dark," said Dr Rebelo. "We don't know if the
loss of hibernation will be beneficial and bats will be overweight and
more fit to reproduce or on the other hand they are having early births
and they are not adapted to the spring rains."
He said bat roosts have increased in temperature by as much as six to
eight degrees in past decades.
- - - -
Temperature changes may affect the hibernation of bats in several ways,
including the length and timing of hibernation, breeding success of
female bats, and the types of insects available for bats to feed on.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43812484
*This Day in Climate History - May 6, 2013
<http://grist.org/politics/is-obama-the-environmental-president/> -
from D.R. Tucker*
May 6, 2013: In Grist, David Roberts reacts to Jon Chait's May 5 New
York magazine piece declaring President Obama "the environmental president":
"Is Obama a success on climate compared to what needs to be done? Ha
ha. No. Of course not. But then all world leaders fail that test.
Chait says 17 percent carbon reductions by 2020 is greens’ 'holy
grail,' but it’s more like a moldy grail. We now know that much more
is needed. For the U.S. to truly do its part, to achieve carbon zero
by 2040 or so, would require massive systems change, an
all-hands-on-deck wartime mobilization. Obama is not delivering
that, or anything close, nor could he."
http://grist.org/politics/is-obama-the-environmental-president/
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