[TheClimate.Vote] May 31, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Thu May 31 10:42:06 EDT 2018
/May 31, 2018/
[Washington State Gov Jay Inslee is angry]
*Gov. Jay Inslee: Canadian oil pipeline is giant step backward
Canada's unneighborly pipeline deal threatens orcas and climate
<https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/gov-jay-inslee-canadian-oil-pipeline-is-giant-step-backward/>*
Canada has aligned itself with a giant project that would promote and
perpetuate greater consumption of fossil fuels, endanger our marine
environment and generate more carbon pollution.
By Jay Inslee
Our neighbors in Canada have been good partners in the fight against
climate change and efforts to keep our seas healthy. However, this week
Canada took a major step backward.
Our lands and waters share incredible bounty and beauty. Trekking across
forests and mountains, exploring beaches in search of shellfish and
fishing from clear waters are all part of our regional way of life and
economy.
This shared heritage is supported by Washington state's efforts to act
on climate, reduce toxics, protect our orcas, improve oil-transport
safety and fight back against the Trump administration's efforts to
privatize national forests and expand offshore oil drilling.
But now it appears a new threat is coming to us from the north. As
Texas-based Kinder Morgan wavers over its intention to continue building
its controversial Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion, the Canadian
government announced it will spend billions of dollars to purchase the
project and continue construction, in order to export oil to Asia.
Notably, the oil would not be used in Canada or the United States.
The pipeline expansion would increase Canadian oil-tanker traffic
sevenfold, putting an estimated 350 more tankers a year in the Salish
Sea, critical habitat where our orcas do most of their hunting. It would
significantly increase the risk of oil spills and take us backward in
our transition to a clean-energy future.
This project runs counter to everything our state is doing to fight
climate change, protect our endangered southern resident killer whales
and protect communities from the risks associated with increased
fossil-fuel transportation - by rail and by sea...
More at:
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/gov-jay-inslee-canadian-oil-pipeline-is-giant-step-backward/
- - - - -
[A big deal for neighbors]
*Inslee calls Canada pipeline 'profoundly damaging,' fears for orcas in
surprise deal
<https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/inslee-calls-canada-pipeline-profoundly-damaging-fears-for-orcas-in-surprise-deal/>*
Originally published May 29, 2018 at 7:03 pm Updated May 30, 2018 at 6:37 am
Canada stuns opponents, cheers backers of the Trans Mountain Pipeline
expansion with an unprecedented deal to buy, guarantee expansion.
By Lynda V. Mapes - Seattle Times environment reporter
An unprecedented deal between the Canadian federal government and
Houston-based Kinder Morgan to expand the Trans Mountain Pipeline poses
grave risks for the critically endangered southern-resident killer-
whale population, and drew a stiff rebuke from Washington's governor,
who called the pipeline "profoundly damaging."
The expansion, planned to bring bitumen oil from Alberta to the West
Coast for sale to Asian markets, would increase by seven times the
oil-tanker traffic in the transboundary waters between Washington and
Canada, prime orca habitat.
That would ramp up noise levels underwater that already are interfering
with the whales' foraging time for scarce chinook salmon. The whales
have not managed a successful pregnancy in two years, in part because
they are starving.
The increase in traffic through tricky navigation channels by tankers
also puts the J, K and L pods at risk of extinction in the event of an
oil spill. The pipeline twins an existing line built in 1953 for more
than 600 miles and will nearly triple capacity for the Trans Mountain to
890,000 barrels of bitumen oil per day.
Bitumen is one of the most energy-intensive oils to produce, and
carbon-polluting to burn. Mixed with chemicals to make it flow, it sinks
in water and defies conventional cleanup methods.
On Tuesday, Canada's federal government agreed to buy the pipeline
system and expansion project for $4.5 billion Canadian and to work with
the board of Kinder Morgan to seek a third-party buyer for the project...
- - - -
Kinder Morgan in its statement Tuesday said the backing of the Canadian
government ensures the project will be built. "We are pleased to reach
agreement on a transaction that benefits the people of Canada, Trans
Mountain Expansion Project shippers and Kinder Morgan Limited
shareholders," said KML Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Steve Kean.
"The outcome we have reached represents the best opportunity to complete
the Trans Mountain Expansion Project and thereby realize the great
national economic benefits promised."
Opponents warned that the costs will be far higher and that the project
will haunt the liberal Trudeau government, which has backed the project
in hopes of higher prices overseas for Canadian oil than in the U.S.
market, plus tax revenue on those sales.
However, indigenous leaders warned Tuesday the fight is just getting
started.
"The answer is still no," said Will George, Tsleil-Waututh member and
spokesman for the Coast Salish Watch House, a spiritual gathering place
and de facto headquarters for the opposition. "The cost they did not
calculate in their $4.5 billion purchase is that indigenous front lines
will stop this pipeline. The Watch House will continue to stand in the
way of pipeline development."
The Tsleil-Waututh, or People of the Inlet, have opposed the project
since its inception and on Tuesday vowed that outrage at the federal
decision would spur direct action against the project.
"The fight is far from over, and now that Justin Trudeau has turned the
Canadian government into a fossil-fuel company, it's crystal clear who
we are up against," said Aurore Fauret, Canadian tar-sands campaign
coordinator for 350.org, which opposes fossil-fuel projects.
In addition to Inslee, 79 elected leaders from around the region,
including King County Executive Dow Constantine and 29 Washington state
legislators, last week sent a letter to B.C. Premier John Horgan in
solidarity with his government's opposition to the project.
Even Al Gore weighed in Tuesday, tweeting, "Fossil fuels are subsidized
38x more than renewables globally. Now the Canadian government wants to
spend billions more of taxpayer dollars to increase its country's
contribution to the climate crisis. This is not in the public interest.
We must keep fighting to #StopKM."
For the orcas, the Salish Sea already has become a hostile place they
visit with increasing rarity. In a new paper published by the San Juan
Island-based Orca Behavior Institute in the journal Pacific Conservation
Biology, research documented what longtime Pacific Northwest residents
already know: The whales are spending less time here.
Peak whale-watching season in the Salish Sea for the southern residents
used to be April through September.
Twenty years ago it was typical to see the southern residents frolicking
and feeding in the Salish Sea every day in May. This year, no whales
have been seen locally since April 7.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/inslee-calls-canada-pipeline-profoundly-damaging-fears-for-orcas-in-surprise-deal/
- - - -
[that's equivalent to 32 coal plants or 27.6 million vehicles per year]
*Climate on the Line
Why New Tar Sand Pipelines are incompatible With the Paris Goals.
<http://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2017/01/climate_on_the_line_FINAL-OCI.pdf>*
Our key findings are that if tar sands expansion proceeds:
Canada would be on track to be amongst the highest contributors of new
oil production globally over the next twenty years - production that
would continue long after Canada is
required to reduce its emissions to zero
Emissions from Canadian oil would exhaust 16% of the world's total
carbon budget for staying below 1.5 degrees C, or 7% of the 2 degrees C
budget.
Canada's population is currently less than one half of one percent
(0.49%) of the global population.
Report at
http://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2017/01/climate_on_the_line_FINAL-OCI.pdf
- - - -
[ramifications everywhere]
*Leading insurers undermine climate goals by supporting the tar sands
industry <https://unfriendcoal.com/2018/05/30/insurers-and-tar-sands/>*
May 30, 2018
Heads in the sand? The insurance industry, tar sands and pipelines
Many of the world's biggest insurers, including AIG, Munich Re and
Zurich, are undermining global climate goals and Indigenous rights by
supporting the tar sands industry, reveals a briefing paper by the
Unfriend Coal campaign released today.
NGOs supporting the campaign have also written to CEOs of the world's
largest insurance companies, meeting in Paris this week, calling on the
industry to divest from coal, tar sands and associated pipeline projects
and cease providing insurance cover to these climate-destroying fossil
fuel projects.
Read the full Unfriend Coal briefing: Heads in the sand? The insurance
industry, tar sands and pipelines
<https://unfriendcoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Unfriend-Coal-Tar-Sands-briefing-PDF.pdf>
Read the Unfriend Coal letter to insurance CEOs
<https://unfriendcoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Unfriend-Coal-letter-to-insurance-CEOs-PDF.pdf>
Peter Bosshard, coordinator of the Unfriend Coal campaign, said: "New
tar sands and pipeline projects lock in high carbon emissions for
decades to come and are incompatible with the need to phase out fossil
fuels in line with the Paris Agreement. Insurance companies should not
underwrite or invest in some of the most polluting and
climate-destroying projects on the planet."...
- - - -
The Unfriend Coal letter was signed by 350.org, the Center for
International Environmental Law (USA), Divest Invest (USA), the
Foundation Development Yes Open-Pit Mines No (Poland), Friends of the
Earth France, numerous Greenpeace country offices, the Japan Center for
a Sustainable Environment and Society, Market Forces (Australia), the
Rainforest Action Network (USA), the Sunrise Project (Australia),
Re:Common (Italy), and Urgewald (Germany).
More at: https://unfriendcoal.com/2018/05/30/insurers-and-tar-sands/
- - - -
[See the chart]
Overview: coal and tar sands policies of large insurers and reinsurers
(May 2018)
<https://unfriendcoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Screenshot-2018-05-30-14.41.49.png>
https://unfriendcoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Screenshot-2018-05-30-14.41.49.png
[Water, with a slight aftertaste of soot and mercury]
*Industries Try to Silence Commission that Sets Water Quality Standards
for Ohio River
<https://insideclimatenews.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c733794100bcc7e083a163f0&id=e0bb1f1a70&e=131c5dc491>*
Electric utilities and other industries are pressuring an eight-state
commission to end its role in restricting the dumping of wastewater into
the Ohio River. The river, lined with dozens of coal-fired power plants,
is the drinking water source for millions of people.
https://insideclimatenews.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c733794100bcc7e083a163f0&id=e0bb1f1a70&e=131c5dc491
[Succinct, quintessential video]
*Human Rights, Climate Change and the Politics of Legal Disembodiment by
Anna Grear <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCFOMssk4Vg>*
Spring Creek Project
Published on May 30, 2018
In her lecture "Human Rights, Climate Change and the Politics of Legal
Disembodiment," Anna Grear provides an overview of the complex framework
of international law and its somewhat problematic application with
regard to the fossil fuel economy and climate change. She argues that it
would be a gross oversimplification to merely say that we should hold
these fossil fuel corporations to higher human rights standards, because
the very foundations of our international legal system, including those
of human rights law, are rooted in a framework inherently sympathetic to
corporate power and the fossil fuel economy. Demonstrating the powerful
impacts of legal disembodiment and corporate power on human rights in a
time of climate change, she draws connections between the concepts of
legal personhood, corporate privilege, historical privileges of the
elite, and the fossil fuel industry's process of colonization. This talk
is a part of the Bedrock Lectures on Human Rights and Climate Change
presented by the Spring Creek Project.
Anna Grear is the founder and director of the Global Network for the
Study of Human Rights and the Environment (GNHRE). She is also the
founder and co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Human Rights and the
Environment, the founder of the Vulnerability Network, and co-founder,
with Martha Fineman, of the Vulnerability and Human Condition
Collaboration. Grear is a legal theorist whose work focuses largely on
questions related to law's construction of the human being and the human
relationship with the world, broadly conceived. Her work calls on
insights from a range of disciplines despite being firmly located within
a combination of critical legal theory and jurisprudence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCFOMssk4Vg
[Lessons not learned will be repeated]
*Killer Storms get Stronger
<http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2018/05/does-global-warming-make-tropical-cyclones-stronger/>*
[Tamino of Open Mind] Posted on May 30, 2018
A post at RealClimate
<http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2018/05/does-global-warming-make-tropical-cyclones-stronger/>
[below] is a must-read. It addresses the impact of man-made climate
change on tropical storms; it's still hotly debated whether or not
they'll become more numerous, but the evidence they will become stronger
- that they already have, in fact - has tipped the scales. Since not
just wind, but flood is on the increase, adding to the already-huge
problems caused by sea level rise, the time to face this problem is now.
https://tamino.wordpress.com/2018/05/30/killer-storms-get-stronger/
- - - - -
[RealClimate report]
*Does global warming make tropical cyclones stronger?
<http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2018/05/does-global-warming-make-tropical-cyclones-stronger/>*
30 May 2018
By Stefan Rahmstorf, Kerry Emanuel, Mike Mann and Jim Kossin
Friday marks the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season, which
will be watched with interest after last year's season broke a number of
records and e.g. devastated Puerto Rico's power grid, causing serious
problems that persist today. One of us (Mike) is part of a team that has
issued a seasonal forecast (see Kozar et al 2012) calling for a roughly
average season in terms of overall activity (10 +/- 3 named storms),
with tropical Atlantic warmth constituting a favorable factor, but
predicted El Nino conditions an unfavorable factor. Meanwhile, the
first named storm, Alberto, has gone ahead without waiting for the
official start of the season.
In the long term, whether we will see fewer or more tropical cyclones in
the Atlantic or in other basins as a consequence of anthropogenic
climate change is still much-debated. There is a mounting consensus,
however, that we will see more intense hurricanes. So let us revisit the
question of whether global warming is leading to more intense tropical
storms. Let's take a step back and look at this issue globally, not just
for the Atlantic.
Tropical storms are powered by evaporation of seawater. More than 30
years ago, one of us (Emanuel) developed a quantity called potential
intensity that sets an upper bound on hurricane wind speeds. In general,
as the climate warms, this speed limit goes up, permitting stronger
storms than were possible in the past.
Of course there could be other changes in the climate system that
counteract this - e.g. an increase in wind shear that tears the
hurricanes apart, changes in the humidity of the atmosphere, or
increases in natural or anthropogenic aerosols. This question has been
investigated for many years with the help of model simulations. The
results of numerous such studies can be summarized briefly as follows:
due to global warming we do not necessarily expect more tropical storms
overall, but an increasing number of particularly strong storms in
categories 4 and 5, especially storms of previously unobserved strength.
This assessment has been widely agreed on at least since the 4th IPCC
Report of 2007 and reaffirmed several times since then. A review article
in the leading journal Science (Sobel et al. 2016) concluded:
We thus expect tropical cyclone intensities to increase with warming,
both on average and at the high end of the scale, so that the strongest
future storms will exceed the strength of any in the past.
Models also suggest that atmospheric aerosol pollution may have weakened
tropical storms and masked the effect of global warming for decades,
making it more difficult to detect trends in measurement data...
- - - - -
Other recent records are worth mentioning. Sandy (2012) was the largest
hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic. Harvey (2017) dumped more rain
than any hurricane in the United States. Ophelia (2017) formed further
northeast than any other Category 3 Atlantic hurricane - fortunately it
turned north before striking Portugal, against initial predictions, and
then weakened over cool waters before it hit Ireland. September 2017
broke the record for cumulative hurricane energy in the Atlantic. Irma
(2017) sustained wind speeds of 300 km/h longer than any storm on record
(for 37 hours - the previous record was 24 hours by Haiyan in 2013).
Cyclone Pam in March 2015 was already beaten again by Winston in
February 2016 according to the Southwest Pacific Enhanced Archive for
Tropical Cyclones (though not in Velden's data analysis). Donna in 2017
was the strongest May cyclone ever observed in the Southern Hemisphere.
All coincidence?
- - - -
A significant global increase (95% significance level) can be found in
all storms with maximum wind speeds from 175 km/h. Storms of 200 km/h
and more have doubled in number, and those of 250 km/h and more have
tripled. Although some of the trend may be owing to improved observation
techniques, this provides some evidence that a global increase in the
most intense tropical storms due to global warming is not just predicted
by models but already happening.
- - --
Most damage caused by tropical storms is not directly caused by the
wind, but by water: rain from above, storm surge from the sea. Harvey
brought the largest amounts of rain in US history - the probability of
such a rain event has increased several times over recent decades due to
global warming (Emanuel 2017; Risser and Wehner, 2017; van Oldenborgh et
al., 2017). Not least due to global warming, sea levels are rising at an
accelerating rate and storm surges are becoming more dangerous. A recent
study (Garner et al. 2017), for example, shows that the return period of
a certain storm surge height in New York City will be reduced from 25
years today to 5 years within the next three decades. Therefore, storm
surge barriers are the subject of intensive discussion in New York
(Rahmstorf 2017).
While there may not yet be a "smoking gun" - a single piece of evidence
that removes all doubt - the weight of the evidence suggests that the
thirty-year-old prediction of more intense and wetter tropical cyclones
is coming to pass. This is a risk that we can no longer afford to ignore.
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2018/05/does-global-warming-make-tropical-cyclones-stronger/
[New book blurb]
*Light of the Stars (Hardcover)
Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth
<https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780393609011>*
By Adam Frank
W. W. Norton & Company, 9780393609011, 272pp.
Publication Date: June 12, 2018
List Price: $26.95
Light of the Stars tells the story of humanity's coming of age as we
awaken to the possibilities of life on other worlds and their sudden
relevance to our fate on Earth. Astrophysicist Adam Frank traces the
question of alien life and intelligence from the ancient Greeks to the
leading thinkers of our own time, and shows how we as a civilization can
only hope to survive climate change if we recognize what science has
recently discovered: that we are just one of ten billion trillion
planets in the Universe, and it's highly likely that many of those
planets hosted technologically advanced alien civilizations. What's
more, each of those civilizations must have faced the same challenge of
civilization-driven climate change.
Written with great clarity and conviction, Light of the Stars builds on
the inspiring work of pioneering scientists such as Frank Drake and Carl
Sagan, whose work at the dawn of the space age began building the new
science of astrobiology; Jack James, the Texas-born engineer who drove
NASA's first planetary missions to success; Vladimir Vernadsky, the
Russian geochemist who first envisioned the Earth's biosphere; and James
Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, who invented Gaia theory. Frank recounts the
perilous journey NASA undertook across millions of miles of deep space
to get its probes to Venus and Mars, yielding our first view of the
cosmic laws of planets and climate that changed our understanding of our
place in the universe.
*Thrilling science at the grandest of scales, Light of the Stars
explores what may be the largest question of all: What can the likely
presence of life on other worlds tell us about our own fate*
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780393609011
- - - -
[the author comments in The Atlantic]
*How Do Aliens Solve Climate Change?
<https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/how-do-aliens-solve-climate-change/561479/>*
Scientists recently modeled a range of interactions between
energy-intensive civilizations and their planets. The results were sobering.
Adam Frank
- - - -
In many ways we were seeing a kind of cosmic Easter Island play out.
There may have been as many as 10,000 people living on Easter Island
at the peak of its stone-head-making heyday. But by cutting down all
the trees to roll the stone heads around, that civilization seems to
have mucked up its ecosystem and sealed its own fate. When the Dutch
arrived in 1722 only a few thousand folks, living greatly reduced
lives, were left.
The second kind of trajectory held the good news. We called it the
"soft landing." The population grew and the planet changed but
together they made a smooth transition to new, balanced equilibrium.
The civilization had changed the planet but without triggering a
massive die-off.
The final class of trajectory was the most worrisome: full-blown
collapse. As in the die-off histories, the population blew up. But
these planets just couldn't handle the avalanche of the
civilization's impact. The host worlds were too sensitive to change,
like a houseplant that withers when it's moved. Conditions on these
planets deteriorated so fast the civilization's population
nose-dived all the way to extinction.
You might think switching from the high-impact energy source to the
low-impact source would make things better. But for some
trajectories, it didn't matter. If the civilization used only the
high-impact resource, the population reached a peak and then quickly
dropped to zero. But if we allowed the civilization to switch to the
low-impact energy resource, the collapse still happened in certain
cases, even if it was delayed. The population would start to fall,
then happily stabilize. But then, finally and suddenly, it rushed
downward to extinction.
The collapses that occurred even when the civilization did the smart
thing demonstrated an essential point about the modeling process.
Because the equations capture some of the real world's complexity,
they can surprise you. In some of the "delayed collapse" histories,
the planet's own internal machinery was the culprit. Push a planet
too hard, and it won't return to where it began. We know this can
happen, even without a civilization present, because we see it on
Venus. That world should be a kind of sister to our own. But long
ago Venus's greenhouse effect slipped into a runaway mode, driving
its surface temperatures to a hellish 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Our
models were showing, in generic terms, how a civilization could push
a planet down the hill into a different kind of runaway through its
own activity.
The model we created was, however, just a first stab at a science of
exo-civilizations. We made the equations a simple as possible while
still capturing the essence of planet-civilization "coevolution."
That means it's too early to answer the question, "Does anyone make
it?" Still, our work provides the basic contours of what might happen.
We need to put in more detailed and realistic climate physics. We
also need to include the full range of energy sources a young
civilization might find on its home world-the list is limited by
physics: combustion, solar, wind, geothermal, tides, nuclear, and a
few others. Even though our initial models were simple, they still
revealed a radical truth about the challenge we face as we push the
Earth into its human-dominated era. Unless the universe is deeply
biased against it, there have been other civilizations across space
and time that faced these challenges. Anthropocenes may be common.
As I explore in my new book, Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and
the Fate of the Earth
<https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780393609011>, our dawning
realization that we are profoundly shaping Earth's future provides
us with the impetus to stop acting like cosmic teenagers with power
but little wisdom. From that perspective the true narrative of
climate change isn't some small, local drama of Democrats vs.
Republications or business interests vs. environmentalists. Instead,
it's a cosmic test, one that gives us a chance to join those who
successfully crossed this burning frontier-or the chance to be
consigned to the scrap heap of civilizations too shortsighted to
take care of their own planet.
More at:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/how-do-aliens-solve-climate-change/561479/
[a very long conversation with an honored elder in the field]
Forecast: podcast climate conversations with Michael White
*Carl Wunsch and the rise of modern oceanography (audio 1:50:30)
<https://www.blubrry.com/forecast/34388749/carl-wunsch-and-the-rise-of-modern-oceanography?sbe=1>*
Carl Wunsch is at the heart of many of the major advances in modern
physical oceanography. The World Ocean Circulation Experiment, satellite
altimetry, acoustic tomography, and Estimating the Circulation and
Climate of the Ocean: all are hard to imagine...
https://www.blubrry.com/forecast/34388749/carl-wunsch-and-the-rise-of-modern-oceanography?sbe=1
- - - -
[free, classic pdf: The Charney Report ]
*Carbon Dioxide and Climate:
A Scientific Assessment (1979)
<https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12181/carbon-dioxide-and-climate-a-scientific-assessment>*
Consensus Study Report
https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12181/carbon-dioxide-and-climate-a-scientific-assessment
[Study confirms common sense]
*Hotter years 'mean lower exam results'
<http://www.bbc.com/news/business-44288982>*
BBC News
By Sean Coughlan BBC News education and family correspondent ... also
raise bigger questions about whether climate change and global warming ...
In years with hotter weather pupils are likely to perform less well in
exams, says a major study from researchers at Harvard and other US
universities.
There is a "significant" link between higher temperatures and lower
school achievement, say economic researchers.
An analysis of test scores of 10 million US secondary school students
over 13 years shows hot weather has a negative impact on results.
The study says a practical response could be to use more air conditioning.
*Heatwave*
Students taking exams in a summer heatwave might have always complained
that they were hampered by the sweltering weather.
But this study, from academics at Harvard, the University of California
Los Angeles (UCLA) and Georgia State University, claims to have produced
the first clear evidence showing that when temperatures go up, school
performance goes down.
Researchers have tracked how secondary school students performed in
tests in different years, between 2001 and 2014, across the different
climates and weather patterns within the US.
The study, published by the US National Bureau of Economic Research,
found that students were more likely to have lower scores in years with
higher temperatures and better results in cooler years.
This applied across the many different types of climate - whether in
cooler northern US states or in the southern states where temperatures
are typically much higher.
The study, Heat and Learning, suggested that hotter weather made it
harder to study in lessons in school and to concentrate on homework out
of school.
Researchers calculated that for every 0.55C increase in average
temperature over the year, there was a 1% fall in learning.
Colder days did not seem to damage achievement - but the negative impact
began to be measurable as temperatures rose above 21C.
The reduction in learning accelerated once temperatures rose above 32C
and even more so above 38C.
*Turning up the air conditioning*
The study also found the impact of the heat was much greater on low
income families and students from ethnic minorities.
There were suggestions that wealthier families and schools in
disadvantaged areas were more likely to intervene if pupils were
slipping behind and to find ways to compensate, such as extra tuition.
But it says a "simpler explanation" might be greater access to air
conditioning in more affluent families and the schools their children
attend...
- - - -
If students happen to take important exams in a heatwave year, does that
mean they are more likely to miss out on exam results and university places?
Mr Goodman says that policymakers and parents have under-estimated the
significance of temperatures in schools and overheated classrooms.
"Teachers and students already know it's a problem - because they've had
to live it," he said.
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-44288982
[42C = 107.6F ]
*Karachi wears deserted look amid fear of heatwave in Karachi
<https://nation.com.pk/30-May-2018/city-wears-deserted-look>*
KARACHI - Karachi wore quite a deserted look on Tuesday afternoon,
amidst heat warning issued by the Meteorological department coupled with
an advisory urging people to avoid unnecessary exposure to sun.
With day time temperature reaching 42 degree celsius (107.6F), humidity
registered at 33% and wind blowing 27 Km per hour the weather was
comparatively bearable for those who had to leave cool environs of home
owing to their unavoidable obligations. "It is hot but not as sizzling
as experienced last week," said Ammara Jalil, a banker.
Thanking her luck that the day did not turn out to be extremely warm as
feared, Ammara said the weather forecast must, however, not be taken
lightly as there are little chances of much respite during next few days.
Mohammad Sikander, running his general provision shop at one of the most
frequented Empress Market talking to APP pointed out that although most
of the shops in the market as well as centres located in the vicinity
were open but there were not many buyers.
"You cannot even see the window shoppers," he mentioned commenting that
people are taking the warnings quite seriously.
"People are scared and are also getting increasingly conscious of global
warming," said senior environmentalist, Dr Tahir Qureishi.
He said this was an opportunity for the state as well as all
stakeholders to take needed measures and meet the challenges related to
climate change.
Emphasizing that interventions must be adopted without any delay, he
said short terms as well long term interventions are needed, he said.
As per weather alert issued by the Pakistan Meteorological Department
the maximum temperature was expected to remain between 40 and 44 degrees
Celsius due to a change in the direction of the cooler and humid sea breeze.
The metropolis has been warned to experience hot to very hot weather
from Tuesday to Thursday after a brief relief during past two days.
Provincial and city governments cognizant of the possible implications
of heat wave forecasted for the current week have ensured availability
of all required assistance for the people reporting with heat stroke or
heat injury at the emergency and out-patient departments of the
hospitals and medical centres falling under their respective jurisdictions.
https://nation.com.pk/30-May-2018/city-wears-deserted-look
[12.5 million per year]
*WMO, WHO, UNEP Launch Coalition on Health, Environment and Climate
Change
<http://sdg.iisd.org/news/wmo-who-unep-launch-coalition-on-health-environment-and-climate-change>*
25 May 2018: The World Health Organization (WHO), UN Environment
Programme (UNEP, or UN Environment) and World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) have launched a global coalition on health,
environment and climate change, which aims to improve coordination and
reduce the annual 12.6 million deaths caused by environmental risks,
especially air pollution.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, UN Environment
Executive Director Erik Solheim and WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas
launched the coalition during the 71st World Health Assembly (WHA),
which met from 21-26 May 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland.
According to the WHO, approximately seven million people die prematurely
every year from air pollution-related diseases, such as stroke, heart
disease, respiratory illness and cancer. Air pollution exceeds WHO air
quality standards in the majority of cities. Air pollutants, which also
harm the environment and contribute to climate change, include black
carbon from diesel engines, cooking stoves and waste incineration, and
ground-level ozone. Emission reductions of these short-lived climate
pollutants (SLCPs) from traffic, cookstoves, agriculture and industry
could help reduce global warming by about 0.5 degrees C by 2050...
- - - -
The coalition will help organize theGlobal Conference on Air Pollution
and Health
<http://sdg.iisd.org/events/global-conference-on-air-pollution-and-health/>,
to take place in Geneva from 30 October to 1 November 2018.
http://sdg.iisd.org/news/wmo-who-unep-launch-coalition-on-health-environment-and-climate-change
[humor cartoon]
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DoomerParty2016/permalink/1839887662701369/
http://www.mrlovenstein.com/
https://www.facebook.com/bernlennials/photos/a.741349402630646.1073741829.738694752896111/1621717114593866/?type=3&theater&ifg=1
*This Day in Climate History - May 31, 2006
<http://mediamatters.org/video/2006/05/31/msnbcs-countdown-documented-the-swift-boating-o/135841>
- from D.R. Tucker*
May 31, 2006:
On MSNBC's "Countdown," fill-in host Brian Unger discusses the all-out
effort by the fossil-fuel industry and the American conservative
movement to attack Al Gore in the wake of the release of "An
Inconvenient Truth."
http://mediamatters.org/video/2006/05/31/msnbcs-countdown-documented-the-swift-boating-o/135841
Wall Street Journal columnist Holman W. Jenkins Jr. launches a
completely incoherent attack on "An Inconvenient Truth."
http://web.archive.org/web/20060602165558/http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/hjenkins/?id=110008450
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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