[TheClimate.Vote] May 14, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Mon May 14 11:22:48 EDT 2018

/May 14, 2018/

[The first one named will be Alberto]
*Early season Gulf storm? Hurricane center says there's a medium chance 
<https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/05/early_season_gulf_storm_hurric.html>*
By Leigh Morgan
Hurricane season doesn't officially start until June 1, but there could 
be something brewing in the Gulf already.
The National Hurricane Center on Sunday said there's a chance - a medium 
chance - a subtropical or tropical system could develop in the 
southeastern Gulf in the next few days.
Where could it go? Early indications are it could head toward the 
northern Gulf Coast by Wednesday night.
On Sunday the large area of disturbed weather stretched from western 
Cuba across the southeastern Gulf into the Florida Peninsula.
The hurricane center said the system is expected to move slowly 
northward over the next few days, and it could acquire the features of a 
tropical or subtropical storm as it does.
The chances of a depression forming over the next five days were 40 
percent, according to the hurricane center.
Development or not, the system will bring rain to Florida and the 
northeastern Gulf over the next few days...
more at: 
https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/05/early_season_gulf_storm_hurric.html
- - - - -
[Hurricane study]
*Human-caused climate change is "supercharging" hurricanes, raising the 
risk of major damage 
<http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/imageo/2018/05/12/human-caused-climate-change-is-supercharging-hurricanes/#.WvkSIogvwuV>*
By Tom Yulsman | May 12, 2018
The North Atlantic hurricane season last year was extraordinary for a 
number reasons, but none more memorable than these:
Irma, Maria and Harvey.
These three hurricanes brought enormous devastation to portions of the 
continental United States, the Caribbean islands, and other parts of the 
tropical Atlantic. Harvey alone produced more than 
100/trillion/kilograms of rain, causing cataclysmic flooding along the 
Gulf Coast.
Now, a new study 
<https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2018EF000825>links 
Harvey's devastation to climate change resulting from human activities.
As the summer of 2017 began, the amount of heat stored in the world's 
oceans wasthehighest ever recorded. That was also true within the Gulfof 
Mexico, where Harvey prowled, according to the study, appearing in the 
journal Earth's Future.
All that heat pumped Harvey up with enormous amounts of moisture - 
making it one of the wettest storm systems in United States history.The 
highest rainfall amount recorded on land during Harvey totaled 48.20 
inches at a rain gauge on Clear Creek near Houston. That ranked as the 
highest rainfall amount in a single storm for any place in the 
continental United States,according to NOAA 
<https://www.climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/reviewing-hurricane-harveys-catastrophic-rain-and-flooding>.
And byone estimate 
<https://twitter.com/JeffLindner1/status/903412604902760448>, 1,300 
square miles of Harris County's 1,800 square miles was inundated with 
1.5 feet of water from Harvey.
More at: 
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/imageo/2018/05/12/human-caused-climate-change-is-supercharging-hurricanes/#.WvkSIogvwuV

[Only in America - rather, only in the US]
*In The Vast Majority of The World, Climate Denial Is Not Linked to 
Conservatism 
<https://www.sciencealert.com/climate-change-denial-conservative-conspiracy-ideology-us>*
Sorry, America.
9 MAY 2018
In the US, studies have repeatedly shown a link between political 
conservatism and climate denial, but a new study has revealed that this 
relationship may not exist in most other countries.
Many of the prior studies that have found a link between conspiratorial 
or conservative ideologies and the rejection of anthropogenic climate 
change have been based in the US.
The lack of international research on the topic was what ultimately 
piqued the interest of some Australian scientists.
Researchers from the University of Queensland set out to fill in the 
gaps in our knowledge - in large part because of the 2016 US elections.
"I was intrigued why, of the 17 candidates who campaigned to be the 
Republican nominee for the 2016 United States presidential campaign, 
many were openly skeptical of climate science," said co-author Professor 
Matthew Hornsey from UQ's School of Psychology and School of 
Communication and Arts.
"This mainstream rejection of climate science among a major political 
party was not evident in other countries, which raised the question: is 
the tendency for conservatives to be more climate sceptical a global 
phenomenon, or something that's distinctively American?"
Examining the link between political conservatism and climate denial on 
an international scale, the UQ researchers surveyed over 5,000 people 
across 25 countries.
The study found that in around three quarters of the countries surveyed, 
conservatives didn't show any more denial of climate change than their 
political counterparts...
  - - - -
*If Hornsey's theory is correct, it would be more accurate to say that 
the link between conservatism and climate denial appears unique to 
countries with powerful fossil fuel industries.*
More at: 
https://www.sciencealert.com/climate-change-denial-conservative-conspiracy-ideology-us
- - - - -
[Survey Says!]
*Survey: Recent jump in Republicans who say climate change is real 
<https://www.earth.com/news/jump-republicans-climate-change-real/>*
By: Kay Vandette on 05.12.2018
A new survey reveals a recent jump in the number of Republicans who 
agree that climate change is caused by an increase in carbon emissions 
from human activities.
Researchers from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications 
<http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/> conducted the research, which 
included survey responses from 1,067 registered voters.
The goal of the project was to better understand how registered voters 
from all parties view global warming and climate policies.
The results were reported by U.S. News & World Report and showed a 
sudden 9-point uptick in registered GOP voters who said they believed 
climate change was fueled by emissions.
There was a 14-point leap in the liberal and moderate Republican voters 
who agreed with climate change studies, and there was even a 5-point 
rise among conservative Republican voters who  feel more must be done to 
mitigate climate change.
This now means that over 59 percent of registered voters in the United 
States believe climate change is driven by humans.
For the Yale researchers, the switch in Republican voters was surprising 
and the reason, according to U.S. News, is tribal politics....
more at: https://www.earth.com/news/jump-republicans-climate-change-real/

Money Matters [international politics]
*Water and climate change 
<https://www.thenews.com.pk/magazine/money-matters/316269-water-and-climate-change>*
  May 14, 2018 By Zeeshan Haider
Agriculture has been and will remain the mainstay of Pakistan's economy. 
The agriculture sector showed negative growth in fiscal year 2015-16 but 
fortunately has shown steady growth since then. This year, agriculture 
posted a growth of 5.8 percent.
- - - - -
Building of big water reservoirs has become a highly explosive and 
politicised issue in Pakistan. Because of the extremely polarised 
political situation in the country, no government has taken any serious 
initiatives to evolve a national consensus to get rid of differences on 
controversial projects. A lot of hullaballoo is created for political 
point-scoring, but no serious attempt is made to address this issue.
To top it all, we need to keep in mind that we are heavily dependent for 
water on resources originating from India or from the Indian occupied 
Kashmir under the Indus Water Treaty. With Narendra Modi's threatening 
posture over water flows, it is time for the government to stand up to 
this belligerence and use all bilateral and multilateral as well as 
international forums to resolve this issue.
The governments habitually have confined themselves to announcing 
massive monetary packages to different sectors of the economy in the 
hope of boosting their performance, and have mostly shied away from 
addressing the long-running and major causes hampering their progress...
More at: 
https://www.thenews.com.pk/magazine/money-matters/316269-water-and-climate-change

[After Mother's Day]
*Recognizing the Mother of Global Warming 
<https://climatecrocks.com/2018/05/13/recognizing-the-mother-of-global-warming/>*
May 13, 2018
Righting a Scientific Wrong
*A symposium credits physicist Eunice Foote for her role in discovering 
the principal cause of global warming 
<http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2018/018985/righting-scientific-wrong>*
By Jeff Mitchell - May 10, 2018
By all rights, Eunice Newton Foote should be a household name.
More than a century and a half ago, Foote was part of one of the most 
important scientific discoveries of our time: revealing the role of 
carbon dioxide in the earth's greenhouse effect.
And yet relatively few people have heard of her.
Foote was the first person to demonstrate that carbon dioxide is a 
greenhouse gas, and also the first person to suggest that an atmosphere 
containing high levels of carbon dioxide would lead to a warmer earth.
Her research findings, contained in the paper "Circumstances affecting 
the heat of the sun's rays," were presented at the August 23, 1856, 
annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science. Being female, however, Foote was not allowed to read her own 
paper. Instead, Professor Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian Institution 
spoke on her behalf....
more at: http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2018/018985/righting-scientific-wrong
- - - -
EUNICE FOOTE
"CIRCUMSTANCES AFFECTING THE HEAT OF THE SUN'S RAYS" (1856) 
<https://www.davidmorrow.net/eunice-foote/>
You candownload the full paper as a PDF 
<https://www.davidmorrow.net/s/foote_circumstances-affecting-heat-suns-rays_1856.pdf>orsee 
it in the original journal from the Internet Archive 
<https://archive.org/stream/mobot31753002152491#page/381/mode/2up>. You 
can cite the paper as:
Eunice Foote, "Circumstances Affecting the Heat of the Sun's Rays," /The 
American Journal of Science and Arts/ 22, no. 46 (November 
1856): 383-384. 
<https://www.davidmorrow.net/s/foote_circumstances-affecting-heat-suns-rays_1856.pdf>
You can read more about the significance of Foote's research inRaymond 
Sorenson's 2011 article on Foote's research 
<http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/2011/70092sorenson/ndx_sorenson.pdf> andhis 
2018 addendum to it 
<http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/documents/2018/70317sorenson/ndx_sorenson.pdf>, 
as well as inLeila McNeill's 2016 article on Foote's discovery 
in/Smithsonian Magazine/ 
<https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/lady-scientist-helped-revolutionize-climate-science-didnt-get-credit-180961291/>.
https://www.davidmorrow.net/eunice-foote/

[CLIMATE ETHICS & POLICY]
*FAIRNESS IN ALLOCATING THE GLOBAL EMISSIONS BUDGET* 
<https://www.davidmorrow.net/climate-ethics-policy>
Environmental Values (2017)
DOI 10.3197/096327117X15046905490335
[Download a one-page summary here] 
<https://www.davidmorrow.net/s/morrow_2017_fair-allocation_extended-abstract.pdf>
<https://www.davidmorrow.net/s/morrow_2017_fair-allocation_extended-abstract.pdf>One 
central question of climate justice is how to fairly allocate the global 
emissions budget. Some commentators hold that the concept of fairness is 
hopelessly equivocal on this point. Others claim that we need a complete 
theory of distributive justice to answer the question. This paper argues 
to the contrary that, given only weak assumptions about fairness, we can 
show that fairness requires an allocation that is at least as 
prioritarian as the equal per capita view. Since even the equal per 
capita view is more prioritarian than is politically feasible, fairness 
is univocal enough for all practical purposes.
https://www.davidmorrow.net/climate-ethics-policy

[Candidates]
*314 Action is proud to endorse these scientists and other STEM leaders 
who will fight to protect science and stand up to climate deniers. 
<http://www.314action.org/endorsed-candidates-1/>*
http://www.314action.org/endorsed-candidates-1/

*This Day in Climate History - May 14, 1989 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101200827_pf.html> 
- from D.R. Tucker*
May 14, 1989: In a Washington Post op-ed, Sen. Al Gore (D-TN) notes:

    "As a nation and a government, we must see that America's future is
    inextricably tied to the fate of the globe. In effect, the
    environment is becoming a matter of national security -- an issue
    that directly and imminently menaces the interests of the state or
    the welfare of the people.

    "To date, the national-security agenda has been dominated by issues
    of military security, embedded in the context of global struggle
    between the United States and the Soviet Union - a struggle often
    waged through distant surrogates, but which has always harbored the
    risk of direct confrontation and nuclear war. Given the recent
    changes in Soviet behavior, there is growing optimism that this
    long, dark period may be passing. This may in turn open the
    international agenda for other urgent matters and for the release of
    enormous resources, now committed to war, toward other objectives.
    Many of us hope that the global environment will be the new dominant
    concern...

    "When nations perceive that they are threatened at the strategic
    level, they may be induced to think of drastic responses, involving
    sharp discontinuities from everyday approaches to policy. In
    military terms, this is the point when the United States begins to
    think of invoking nuclear weapons. The global environment crisis may
    demand responses that are comparatively radical.

    "At present, despite some progress made toward limiting some sources
    of the problem, such as CFCs, we have barely scratched the surface.
    Even if all other elements of the problem are solved, a major threat
    is still posed by emissions of carbon dioxide, the exhaling breath
    of the industrial culture upon which our civilization rests. The
    implications of the latest and best studies on this matter are
    staggering. Essentially, they tell us that with our current pattern
    of technology and production, we face a choice between economic
    growth in the near term and massive environmental disorder as the
    subsequent penalty."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101200827_pf.html

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