[TheClimate.Vote] May 23, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Wed May 23 10:45:54 EDT 2018
/May 23, 2018/
[new data]
*Premature Birth Rates Drop in California After Coal and Oil Plants Shut
Down
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22052018/air-pollution-coal-power-plants-oil-health-risks-premature-births-california>*
Within a year of eight coal- and oil-fired power plant retirements, the
rate of preterm births in mothers living close by dropped, finds new
study on air pollution.
By Sabrina Shankman
Shutting down power plants that burn fossil fuels can almost immediately
reduce the risk of premature birth in pregnant women living nearby,
according to research published Tuesday.
Researchers scrutinized records of more than 57,000 births by mothers
who lived close to eight coal- and oil-fired plants across California in
the year before the facilities were shut down, and in the year after,
when the air was cleaner.
The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that
the rate of premature births dropped from 7 to 5.1 percent after the
plants were shuttered, between 2001 and 2011. The most significant
declines came among African American and Asian women. Preterm birth can
be associated with lifelong health complications.
The results add fresh evidence to a robust body of research on the
harmful effects of exposure to air pollution, especially in young
children - even before they're born.
"The ah-ha moment was probably just seeing what a large, estimated
effect size we got," said lead author Joan Casey, who is a
post-doctoral fellow at UC Berkeley. "We were pretty shocked by it -
to the point that we did many, many additional analyses to try to
make it go away, and didn't succeed."
California Power Plant Closures Coal Oil Preterm Births
Coal- and oil-fired power plants emit a bevy of air pollutants that
have known negative impacts on public health - including fine
particulate matter (or PM 2.5), nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides,
benzene, lead and mercury.
Using birth records from the California Department of Public Health, the
researchers found mothers who lived within 5 kilometers, 5-10 kilometers
and 10-20 kilometers of the eight power plants. The women living
farthest away provided a control group, since the authors assumed their
exposure would be minimal.
The authors controlled for many socioeconomic, behavioral, health, race
and ethnicity factors affecting preterm birth. "That could account for
things like Obamacare or the Great Recession or the housing crisis,"
Casey said.
The study found that the women living within 5 kilometers of the plants,
those most exposed to the air pollution, saw a significant drop in
preterm births...
more at:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22052018/air-pollution-coal-power-plants-oil-health-risks-premature-births-california
[E&E news and Scientific American]
<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/government-sea-level-rise-report-released-after-charges-of-censorship/>*
Government Sea Level Rise Report Released after Charges of Censorship
<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/government-sea-level-rise-report-released-after-charges-of-censorship/>*
Long-delayed study examines potential for rising seas to damage national
parks
A high-profile case of alleged scientific censorship ended Friday when
the National Park Service published a long-delayed report outlining how
rising seas could damage parks across the country.
The report includes references to mankind's role in climate change -
something federal officials had tried scrubbing from the study,
according to documents released under a state open records request. The
study had languished under administrative review since early 2017.
Although National Park Service officials say the report was handled
properly, the study's lead author says the administrative review process
has morphed from a "rubber stamp" into a tool for the government to
suppress inconvenient science.
"Censorship is a good word for that," said Maria Caffrey, the University
of Colorado, Boulder, researcher who led the study. She plans to file a
scientific integrity complaint.
The alleged interference, first reported by the Center for Investigative
Reporting's Reveal, attracted attention from Democratic lawmakers and
the inspector general for the Interior Department, which includes the
National Park Service. The affair also raised pressure on the Interior
Department at a time when Secretary Ryan Zinke was defending political
staff for reviewing research prior to publication...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/government-sea-level-rise-report-released-after-charges-of-censorship/
- - - -
[Heard on All Things Considered]
*Foreign Investors Shrug Off Miami's Rising Sea Levels
<https://www.npr.org/2018/05/21/611919853/foreign-investors-shrug-off-miamis-rising-sea-levels>*
May 21, 2018
Locals are increasingly finding even inland streets flooded during high
tide - the rising Atlantic Ocean sluicing through the porous limestone
that South Florida is built upon. Catfish and even an octopus have been
spotted in the floodwaters, as storm drains operate in reverse. Miami
Beach is eyeing $500 million in infrastructure upgrades, installing 80
new pumps over a decade to redirect floodwaters back to the ocean. The
city of Miami approved a bond offering that would include about $200
million for projects to prevent flooding and mitigate sea-level rise.
Even so, Zillow estimates that by the end of the century, nearly half a
million Miami homes could be submerged. That's tops in the country.
https://www.npr.org/2018/05/21/611919853/foreign-investors-shrug-off-miamis-rising-sea-levels
- - - -*
New Report Predicts Rising Tides, More Flooding
<https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/05/590901652/new-report-predicts-rising-tides-more-flooding>*
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/05/590901652/new-report-predicts-rising-tides-more-flooding
[GMA]
*Suspenseful bodycam video shows dramatic wildfire evacuations
<https://www.yahoo.com/gma/suspenseful-bodycam-video-shows-dramatic-wildfire-evacuations-121204793--abc-news-topstories.html>*
Suspenseful body-camera footage of last year's deadly Santa Rosa
wildfires shows officers racing to evacuate residents in the middle of
the night as flames destroyed the surrounding neighborhood, according to
The Santa Rosa Police department, which released snippets of footageon
its YouTube page
<https://abcnews.go.com/topics/business/companies/youtube.htm>.
One video shows officers banging on a door and yelling for residents to
exit a home as a wall of flames rages in the backyard.
ABC News previously reported
<https://abcnews.go.com/US/california-firefighters-turned-corner-historic-blazes-calm-weather/story?id=50505145>
that more than 40 people died in the wildfires, which also destroyed
thousands of homes, according to the California Department of Forestry
and Fire Protection.
Santa Rosa, a city of about 175,000 in Sonoma County, was among the
hardest-hit areas, with at least 2,834 homes, businesses and other
buildings destroyed. Critical infrastructure was also lost in the
flames, including the city's fire station, according to Santa Rosa Mayor
Chris Coursey.
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/suspenseful-bodycam-video-shows-dramatic-wildfire-evacuations-121204793--abc-news-topstories.html
[Phys.org]
*Scientists find widespread ocean anoxia as cause for past mass
extinction
<https://phys.org/news/2018-05-scientists-widespread-ocean-anoxia-mass.html>*
May 21, 2018, University of New Mexico
The research, "Abrupt global-ocean anoxia during Late Ordovician-early
Silurian detected using uranium isotopes of marine carbonates," was
published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
(PNAS). It was supported, in part, through a three-year, $680,000
National Science Foundation grant.
"This extinction is the first of the 'big five' extinctions that hit the
Earth and our research indicates that it was coincident with the abrupt
development of widespread ocean anoxia that lasted for at least 1
million years," said Elrick.
Working with an international crew, Elrick and her team travelled to
Anticosti Island in the St. Lawrence seaway of Quebec, Canada where they
collected limestone rock samples. The returned samples were analyzed for
uranium isotopes using a mass spectrometer housed in the UNM Department
of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Results from the study indicate that
abrupt and widespread marine anoxia occurred at the same time 85 percent
of marine life went extinct...
- - - -
Elrick is also studying three of the other 'big five' mass extinctions
using uranium isotopes as oxygenation proxy.
"So far each of them have widespread anoxia associated with them, so we
are finding that low seawater oxygen concentrations is a major killer,"
Elrick said
These results for the past 'big five' mass extinctions have implications
for the modern extinction our planet is presently experiencing.
"We are warming and acidifying the oceans today and warmer oceans hold
less and less oxygen. Some marine organisms can handle the heat and the
acidity, but not the lack of oxygen" Elrick said. "All these things are
happening today and the results from the Late Ordovician study indicate
the potential severity of marine anoxia as an extinction driver for many
of the past and ongoing biologic extinction events."
Explore further: Studying oxygen, scientists discover clues to recovery
from mass extinction
More information: Rick Bartlett el al., "Abrupt global-ocean anoxia
during the Late Ordovician–early Silurian detected using uranium
isotopes of marine carbonates," PNAS (2018).
www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1802438115
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-05-scientists-widespread-ocean-anoxia-mass.html#jCp
[Possibly an anthem]
*Neil Young - Who's Gonna Stand Up (Official Music Video)
<https://youtu.be/NkiRR3T_3NY>*
video 4:30
Protect the wild, tomorrow's child
Protect the land from the greed of man
Take out the dams, stand up to oil
Protect the plants and renew the soil
Who's gonna stand up and save the Earth?
Who's gonna say that she's had enough?
Who's gonna take on the big machine?
Who's gonna stand up and save the Earth?
This all starts with you and me
End fossil fuel, draw the line
Before we build one more pipeline
End fracking now, let's save the water
And build a life for our sons and daughters
Who's gonna stand up and save the Earth?
Who's gonna say that she's had enough?
Who's gonna take on the big machine?
Who's gonna stand up and save the Earth?
This all starts with you and me
Damn the dams, save the rivers
Starve the takers and feed the givers
Let's build the green and save the world
We're the people known as EARTH
Who's gonna stand up and save the Earth?
Who's gonna say that she's had enough?
Who's gonna take on the big machine?
Who's gonna stand up and save the Earth?
This all starts with you and me
- - https://youtu.be/NkiRR3T_3NY
[Classic Rant from Dec 2017]
*What Will It Really Take to Avoid Collapse?
<https://patternsofmeaning.com/2017/12/19/what-will-it-really-take-to-avoid-collapse/?blogsub=flooded#blog_subscription-3>*
Fifteen thousand scientists have issued a dire warning to humanity about
impending collapse but virtually no-one takes notice. Ultimately, our
global systems, which are designed for perpetual growth, need to be
fundamentally restructured to avoid the worst-case outcome...
- - - -
The largest Ponzi scheme in history
Which leads us to some of the underlying structural changes that need to
occur if human civilization is to avoid collapse. The fundamental
problem is brutally simple: our world system is based on the premise of
perpetual growth in consumption, which puts it on a collision course
with the natural world. Either the global system has to be restructured,
or we are headed for a catastrophe of immense proportions that has never
been experienced in human history. However, the transnational
corporations largely responsible for driving this trajectory are
structurally designed to prevent the global changes that need to take place.
Something that is only dimly understood outside financial circles is
that the vast bulk of the wealth enjoyed by the global elite is based on
a fabrication: a belief in the future growth in earnings that
corporations will deliver. For example, the current P/E ratio of the S&P
500 is about 23, which means that investors are valuing companies at
twenty-three times their earnings for this year. Another way of looking
at it is that less than 5% of the wealth enjoyed by investors relates to
current activity; the rest is based on the dream of future growth...
https://patternsofmeaning.com/2017/12/19/what-will-it-really-take-to-avoid-collapse/?blogsub=flooded#blog_subscription-3
Capital Weather Gang
*Mosquito explosion in southwest Russia makes it 'impossible' to leave
home
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/05/21/mosquito-explosion-in-southwest-russia-makes-it-impossible-to-leave-home/?utm_term=.6bca0dbc6bb4>*
By Jason Samenow May 21
Torrential rains and abnormally warm weather have spurred a mosquito
infestation that has terrorized the Voronezh region in southwest Russia.
Photos and video show the bloodsucking insects swarming yards, coating
cars and surrounding homes.
This report from the Russian media company RT is reminiscent of the
Alfred Hitchcock horror movie "The Birds":
People are suffering from itchy bites and swelling and say that it's
"impossible" to leave their homes. Children are refusing to go to
school as they are immediately "eaten alive" by the insects. Even at
home people find scant refuge, as the tiny menaces manage to crawl
through any crack they can find. Outside is far worse, as roads
cannot even be seen through mosquito hordes, according to local media.
Vestivrn, another Russian news organization, said (translated from
Russian) that their numbers were "unprecedented" and that the insects
had "eaten several pigs" that died as a result, although one official
was skeptical that mosquitoes were the cause...
- - - -
As climate change makes the air more warm and humid, the mosquito season
is predicted to lengthen while their habitats expand in some parts of
the world. A study published in 2015 found that if the Arctic
temperature rises 2 degrees Celsius, juvenile mosquitoes would have a 53
percent improved chance of reaching adulthood.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/05/21/mosquito-explosion-in-southwest-russia-makes-it-impossible-to-leave-home/?utm_term=.6bca0dbc6bb4
[Scientific American]
*Antarctic Quest Seeks to Predict the Fate of a Linchpin Glacier
<https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antarctic-quest-seeks-to-predict-the-fate-of-a-linchpin-glacier/>*
Adventurer scientists swarm the melting Thwaites Glacier for clues to
how fast sea level will rise
If Thwaites Glacier goes, so might the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Thwaites has long been recognized as a linchpin for the massive expanse,
which covers an area the size of Mexico and could unleash more than
three meters of sea level rise were it all to melt. Thwaites alone is
losing 50 billion tons of ice a year, and recent research suggests the
glacier has already entered an unstoppable cycle of melt and retreat
that has scientists seriously worried....
more at:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antarctic-quest-seeks-to-predict-the-fate-of-a-linchpin-glacier/
[Snopes says nopes]
*Do Rocks Falling Into the Ocean Contribute to Global Sea Level Rise?
<https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/do-rocks-contribute-sea-rise/>*
On human timescales, sediment and rocks flowing into the ocean do not
appreciably contribute to observed sea level rise; on larger timescales,
the question is irrelevant.
On 16 May 2018, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
held a hearing ostensibly to discuss the ways in which "technology could
be deployed for climate change adaptation." As this committee's hearings
are wont to do, however, some committee members used their time to
interrogate the expert witness about the veracity of basics of climate
science.
In this case, that witness was Philip Duffy, the president of the Woods
Hole Research Center in Massachusetts. The most infamous exchange
occurred between Duffy and Representative Mo Brooks, a Republican from
Alabama. Philip Bump at the Washington Post described it in a gripping
play-by-play:
Brooks asked Duffy what else might be contributing [to observed
sea-level rise besides expanding oceans and melting ice]. Duffy
pointed to ground subsidence, which is the sinking of the ground in
places that can exacerbate the problem of rising sea levels. […]
"Those are all that I know of," Duffy replied.
"What about erosion!" Brooks exclaimed. "Every single year that
we're on Earth, you have huge tons of silt deposited by the
Mississippi River, by the Amazon River, by the Nile, by every major
river system - and for that matter, creek, all the way down to the
smallest systems. And every time you have that soil or rock whatever
it is that is deposited into the seas, that forces the sea levels to
rise.
Because now you've got less space in those oceans because the bottom
is moving up. […] What about the white cliffs of Dover?" Brooks
continued. "California, where you have the waves crashing against
the shorelines and time and time again you have the cliffs crash
into the sea. All of that displaces the water which forces it to
rise, does it not?"
Brooks is accurate when he says that tons of material - silt, sand,
dissolved solids, maybe some rocks from the cliffs of Dover, etc. -
are constantly flowing into the world's ocean basins. According to the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:
It is estimated that the rivers and streams flowing from the United
States alone discharge 225 million tons of dissolved solids and 513
million tons of suspended sediment annually to the ocean. Throughout
the world, rivers carry an estimated four billion tons of dissolved
salts to the ocean annually.
Though his question makes sense from an elementary physics standpoint,
Brooks is inaccurate in suggesting that this contributes in any
meaningful way to the sea level rise attributed to anthropogenic global
warming. Certainly, when you put something into water, that water is
displaced and the water rises relative to the volume of that object -
we can thank Archimedes for that one. On human timescales, however, the
amount of water displaced by this sediment flow is essentially
undetectable...
More at: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/do-rocks-contribute-sea-rise/
*This Day in Climate History - May 23, 2006
<http://web.archive.org/web/20060602003144/http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pdupont/?id=110008416>
- from D.R. Tucker*
May 23, 2006: In perhaps the most hilariously demented attack on "An
Inconvenient Truth," former Delaware Congressman and Governor Pete Du
Pont declares in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that we don't need to
reduce C02 emissions because C02 is "vital for plant growth."
http://web.archive.org/web/20060602003144/http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pdupont/?id=110008416
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