[TheClimate.Vote] November 7, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Wed Nov 7 10:10:00 EST 2018
/November 7, 2018/
[The Late Show 10 min video - serious report]
*The Dems' House Win Is A 'BFD' Says Alex Wagner And John Heilemann
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djE-XptVKWI>*
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Published on Nov 7, 2018
Showtime's 'The Circus' hosts Alex Wagner And John Heilemann encourage
Democrats not to downplay the importance of their House win, calling it
a 'BFD.' (see: Google's search results for 'BFD').
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djE-XptVKWI
[more comedic responses from the Late Show]
*Midterms 2018: The Good, The Bad, And Ted Cruz
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjdDuW1jElQ>*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjdDuW1jElQ
[comment road ahead uglier]
*The Midterms Panel: John Heilemann, Alex Wagner And Hasan Minhaj
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brZhQbfCxwQ>*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brZhQbfCxwQ
- - -
[David Roberts has a good roundup of the ballot measures]
*Fossil fuel money crushed clean energy ballot initiatives across the
country
<https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/11/7/18069940/election-results-2018-energy-carbon-fracking-ballot-initiatives>*
A carbon tax, limits on fracking, a renewable energy standard -- all
defeated.
The lessons of this year's initiatives
To me, the lesson of this year's energy initiatives is pretty clear:
When big oil wants to, it can spend unlimited amounts of money and
crush efforts at direct democracy.
And it wants to. Where it chose to spend -- notably, on 1631 in
Washington and 112 in Colorado -- it won.
As I said in this piece, this rather puts the lie to the notion that
oil and gas companies plan to be productive partners in the climate
fight. They can and will fight it at the grassroots level.
More broadly, ballot initiatives, like US politics generally, are
becoming a battle of billionaires. Big money flows in virtually
unrestricted. And it is effective.
Decamping from the federal level to the states is not going to allow
clean energy proponents to escape that dynamic.
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/11/7/18069940/election-results-2018-energy-carbon-fracking-ballot-initiatives
- - -
[From Nexus Hot News - ClimateNexus <https://climatenexus.org/>]
*Climate Shifts in The House:
<https://mailchi.mp/climatenexus/climate-shifts-in-the-house-industry-money-wins-at-the-ballot-box-more>*
Ten Republican members of the House Climate Solutions Caucus, including
co-chair Carlos Curbelo of Florida, lost their seats Tuesday evening as
voters ushered in Democratic control of the House. Eight retiring GOP
members and representatives who lost their seats earlier in the year in
midterms means that the future of the caucus--which climate hawks have
criticized as ineffectual and providing political cover for
Republicans--could be in jeopardy. Tuesday's Democratic shakeup also
made way for a handful of new climate-focused progressives focused on
enacting a "Green New Deal" to form a small bloc in the new Congress.
And incumbent Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview with the New
York Times last week that she would urge the House to reestablish a
climate-focused panel to "prepare the way with evidence" for climate and
clean energy policies and disaster preparation. (Climate Solutions
Caucus:Huffington Post
<https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/curbelo-fl-26_us_5bd9dbbbe4b01abe6a1a8392?mha>,Grist
<https://grist.org/article/the-midterms-could-spell-the-end-of-this-bipartisan-climate-caucus/>,Mother
Jones
<https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/11/future-of-house-climate-caucus-in-doubt-as-carlos-curbelo-concedes/>.
Green New Deal:Huffington Post
<https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/green-new-deal-progressive-democrats_us_5be26f5be4b0769d24c6a954?jz>.
Pelosi:New York Times
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/us/politics/house-democrats-nancy-pelosi.html>$)
- - -
[Day after election - Washington Post Opinion]
*The Energy 202: Climate change isn't usually a big issue for voters.
But the U.N. report gave some Democrats a talking point.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2018/11/06/the-energy-202-climate-change-isn-t-usually-a-big-issue-for-voters-but-the-u-n-report-gave-some-democrats-a-talking-point/5be0acdb1b326b39290545f9/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5bf42897fc39>*
- -
Climate change usually doesn't play at the polls. Voters invariably
rank more immediate and personal concerns, such as paying their own
medical expenses or tax bills, as higher priorities than addressing the
steady rise in temperatures globally.
Nevertheless, some Democratic candidates chose to talk about climate
change on the 2018 campaign trail anyway, seeking to counter President
Trump's dismissal of the climate science saying human activity is
dangerously warming the planet.
That handful of House hopefuls got some ammunition this October: A
report from the leading climate scientists that the world is close to
failure in holding man-made global warming to moderate levels.
On Oct. 7, only 30 days before Election Day, the United Nations'
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported the world's
nations need to undertake "unprecedented" action to cut their carbon
emissions over the next decade enough to keep the planet from warming
1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, past preindustrial levels.
The timing could not have been better for the smattering of Democratic
nominees who want to contrast their environmental agenda with the GOP's.
They pointed to the U.N.'s findings as reason the United States needs to
rein in greenhouse gas emission -- and, even more immediately, why the
nation needs to elect them to office.
"What it said in a nutshell -- I'll save you some time -- we've got
about 15 years to take action," Mike Levin, a Democratic House
candidate, told voters in suburban Southern California, according to the
Washington Examiner.
Other Democrats referred to that tight time frame as well. Elaine Luria,
the Democratic challenger in Virginia's 2nd District on the
commonwealth's coast, said the report representing the work of nearly
100 scientists is "a wake-up call for all of us to take climate change
seriously." Sean Casten, running for Congress in suburban Chicago,
called it a "wake-up call," too.
"We have 10 years to get climate under control," he told the Daily
Herald in Illinois...
more at -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2018/11/06/the-energy-202-climate-change-isn-t-usually-a-big-issue-for-voters-but-the-u-n-report-gave-some-democrats-a-talking-point/5be0acdb1b326b39290545f9/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5bf42897fc39
[Surprise]
*UK renewable energy capacity surpasses fossil fuels for first time
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/06/uk-renewable-energy-capacity-surpasses-fossil-fuels-for-first-time>*
Renewable capacity has tripled in past five years, even faster growth
than the 'dash for gas' of the 1990s
The capacity of renewable energy has overtaken that of fossil fuels in
the UK for the first time, in a milestone that experts said would have
been unthinkable a few years ago.
In the past five years, the amount of renewable capacity has tripled
while fossil fuels' has fallen by one-third, as power stations reached
the end of their life or became uneconomic.
The result is that between July and September, the capacity of wind,
solar, biomass and hydropower reached 41.9 gigawatts, exceeding the
41.2GW capacity of coal, gas and oil-fired power plants...
more at -
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/06/uk-renewable-energy-capacity-surpasses-fossil-fuels-for-first-time
[overshoot]
*World lacks enough plants for healthy diet
<https://mailchi.mp/climatenewsnetwork/world-lacks-enough-plants-for-healthy-diet?e=30dc80e2f6>*
Guidelines for a healthy diet emphasise fresh fruit and vegetables.
Right now, there may not be enough in the gardens to nourish a cooler,
healthier world.
By Tim Radford
LONDON, 5 November, 2018 − Canadian scientists have confirmed once again
that a healthy diet is the best way to help contain global warming and
feed 9.8 billion people by 2050. And that involves, among other things,
a global shift away from meat-eating and towards consuming plants instead.
But they have also done the sums and identified a problem: the world
just does not produce enough of the fruits and vegetables that are at
the heart of nutritional health guidelines almost everywhere.
"We simply can't all adopt a healthy diet under the current global
agricultural system," said Evan Fraser, a researcher in global food
security at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.
"Results show that the global system currently overproduces grains, fats
and sugars, while production of fruit and vegetables and, to a smaller
degree, protein is not sufficient to meet the nutritional needs of the
current population."
"The only way to eat a nutritionally balanced diet, save land and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions is to consume and produce more fruits and
vegetables"
It has become an axiom of climate science that the clearing of
wilderness to create more pasture and fodder crops for livestock can
only accelerate global warming, and a global shift to the US and north
European diet would require an extra billion hectares of grazing land...
more at -
https://mailchi.mp/climatenewsnetwork/world-lacks-enough-plants-for-healthy-diet?e=30dc80e2f6
- - -
PUBLIC RELEASE: 25-OCT-2018
*Not enough fruits, vegetables grown to feed the planet, U of G study
reveals <https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/uog-nef102518.php>*
University of Guelph researchers compared global agricultural production
with nutritionists' consumption recommendations and found we aren't
producing enough fruits and vegetables to feed everyone on the planet a
healthy diet
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/uog-nef102518.php
THE CENTER FOR CLIMATE & SECURITY
EXPLORING THE SECURITY RISKS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
*Chairman of the Joint Chiefs: Climate change a source of conflict
around the world
<https://climateandsecurity.org/2018/11/06/chairman-of-the-joint-chiefs-climate-change-a-source-of-conflict-around-the-world/>*
General_Joseph_F._DunfordAt an event hosted by Duke University's Program
in American Grand Strategy, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
General Joe Dunford, responded to a question on climate change from a
student in the audience. Here's what he said (beginning at 1:23:56 here):
When we look at, when I look at, climate change, it's in the
category of sources of conflict around the world and things we have
to respond to. So it can be great devastation requiring humanitarian
assistance/ disaster relief, which the U.S. military certainly
conducts routinely. In fact, I can't think of a year since I've been
on active duty that we haven't conducted at least one operation in
the Pacific along those lines due to extreme weather in the Pacific.
And then, when you look at source of conflict – shortages of water,
and those kind of things – those are all sources of conflict. So, it
is very much something that we take into account in our planning as
we anticipate when, where and how we may be engaged in the future
and what capabilities we should have.
General Dunford joins a growing list of 18 other senior military leaders
appointed by the current President who have identified climate change as
a security risk that is affecting the U.S. military, and that the U.S.
military is dealing with.
Click here to watch the entire event with General Dunford
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKvpHtLs7sY&feature=youtu.be>.
https://climateandsecurity.org/2018/11/06/chairman-of-the-joint-chiefs-climate-change-a-source-of-conflict-around-the-world/
[UK Activism YouTube video channel]
Rising Up <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYThdLKE6TDwBJh-qDC6ICA>
The Rising Up! network promotes a fundamental change of our political
and economic system to one which maximises well-being and minimises
harm. We believe change needs to be nurtured in a culture of reverence,
gratitude and inclusion; whilst the tools of civil disobedience and
direct action are used to express our collective power.
We are open to experimentation and reflection, trying to learn from
successful methods of organising. Any individual or group can take
actions in the spirit and name of RisingUp without permission, if it
fits RisingUp "DNA"; this covers our vision for change, our
understanding of why change is needed, our decentralised structure,
principles and values and our strategy and tactics.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYThdLKE6TDwBJh-qDC6ICA
- -
[Aiming for Nov 17th Parliament Square, London]
*Intro to Extinction Rebellion
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To5tZpjkakU>*
RisingUp!
Premiered Oct 25, 2018
We are in an ecological crisis, mass extinction is already happening and
human extinction is now a real risk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To5tZpjkakU
*
*[magical thinking]*
Trump says he thinks the Earth will cool back down, denying his own
administration's climate change report
<https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-climate-change-back-on-own-denies-government-report-2018-11>*
"Will it go back like this?" Trump asked, making an up and down
waving motion with his hand. "I mean will it change back? Probably,
that's what I think."
"I believe it goes this way," he said, again waving his hand up and
down.
"We do have an impact, but I don't believe the impact is nearly what
some scientists say, and other scientists dispute those findings
very strongly," Trump said.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-climate-change-back-on-own-denies-government-report-2018-11
[The hubris of cybernetic investments]
*Y Combinator's Search For a Climate Change Unicorn
<http://carbon.ycombinator.com/>*
By Edd Gent - Nov 5, 2018
Silicon Valley's premier tech incubator, Y Combinator, has decided to
take on climate change. They've put out a call for proposals for
technology that can suck CO2 from the air in the hope of reversing our
seemingly inexorable march towards a catastrophic 2C increase in global
temperatures.
An incubator that became famous for spawning internet-based unicorns
like AirBnB, DropBox, and Stripe is not the most obvious vehicle for
supporting next-generation geoengineering approaches. But with sluggish
action on climate change, they've decided to bring Silicon Valley's
disruptive potential to bear on carbon sequestration technology.
The call comes hot on the heels of the IPCC's recent warning that we
need to limit warming to 1.5C rather than 2C to avoid serious adverse
effects. And with growing pessimism around efforts to curb emissions,
most scenarios in the report suggest we will need to combine dramatic
expansion in renewable energy with removal of huge amounts of CO2 from
the atmosphere.
more at -
https://singularityhub.com/2018/11/05/y-combinators-search-for-a-climate-change-unicorn/#sm.00001x3m0yvi5bcsirbonnmn03j4u
- - -
[Request for Startups]
*Carbon Removal Technologies <http://carbon.ycombinator.com/>*
Climate Change
Climate change presents an existential threat to humanity. We are
already seeing the effects and they are showing up faster and stronger
than anticipated. A report by United Nations' scientific panel on
climate change released this month expects the atmosphere-on our current
trajectory-to warm up by 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2040. Even the effects
of a 0.5 degrees increase will have far-reaching consequences. This
research indicates that we are already past the tipping point; even if
we significantly reduced emissions, climate change would continue
(Source IPCC summary C3 section). We believe there's still time to make
a change if we look both to renewal energy and CO2 removal.
more at - http://carbon.ycombinator.com/
[Too hot to work]
*Florida heat is already hard on outdoor workers. Climate change will
raise health risks
<https://www.bradenton.com/news/state/florida/article220833555.html>*BY
ALEX HARRIS
Updated November 1, 2018
Harvesting crops or building a house in the Florida sun is grueling
work, and a new report shows that it'll only get more miserable and
unsafe for workers as climate change sends temperatures soaring.
By at least one safety standard, it was too hot for Floridians to do
very heavy labor (like digging with a shovel) for at least an hour a day
almost every single day this summer.
Unworkable, a report from Public Citizen and the Farmworker Association
of Florida released Tuesday, spells out the risks to the state's large
population of outdoor workers, particularly construction and
agricultural workers.
- - -
Emory University's Girasoles Study involved 250 agricultural workers in
central and South Florida, including Homestead. Researchers gave workers
temperatures pills that measured their core body temperature from the
inside, strapped heart rate monitors to them, took blood and urine
samples and surveyed them about the kind of work they do and how they
stay cool.
Half the workers started the day dehydrated, and three quarters finished
it that way.
Four in five workers had a core body temperature over 100 degrees
Fahrenheit at least one study day -- the tipping point for risk of
serious heat injury. One in three workers had acute kidney injury at
stage one or higher on at least one study day.
One man showed up to participate in the study and was immediately
hospitalized, Economos said. His kidneys were in such bad shape he's
been on dialysis ever since.
Crank the heat up another few degrees on average and the concerns
multiply. An analysis by Climate Central shows Miami experienced an
average of zero "danger days" -- days where the combination of heat and
humidity make it feel like 105 degrees Fahrenheit outside -- in 2010 to
2014. That jumps to an average of 132 danger days a year in 2025 to 2034
if nothing is done to check global warming.
In Saudia Arabia, outdoor work is banned from noon to 3 p.m. for three
months of the year to protect workers from dangerous conditions. Public
Citizen's Managing Director David Arkush said rising global temperatures
could spread that policy around the globe -- maybe even to Florida.
"We would be losing most of the outdoor labor in the south during the
summer by the end of the century," he said. "In the hottest places,
including probably South Florida, even nighttime work could become too hot."
more at - https://www.bradenton.com/news/state/florida/article220833555.html
[Rattus rattius]
*Commentary: Climate change is scary. 'Rat explosion' is way scarier.
<https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-rat-explosion-climate-change-1007-20181105-story.html>*
Faye Flam
What's so scary about climate change?
The term is not scary -- at least not in a visceral, skin-crawling
sense. Scientists have shown that the likely 2 degrees of global warming
to come this century will be extremely dangerous, but, you know, "2
degrees" is hardly a phrase from nightmares and horror films.
How about "rat explosion"?
As the climate warms, rats in New York, Philadelphia and Boston are
breeding faster -- and experts warn of a population explosion.
Like rats, humans are hardy animals, and we've adapted to all kinds of
climates. So it can be tempting to brush off the prospect of 2 degrees
of warming. Especially for Americans, who mostly use Fahrenheit. That 2
degree warming is Celsius. Think of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Still not
scared? Fine.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-rat-explosion-climate-change-1007-20181105-story.html
*This Day in Climate History - November 7, 2014
<http://youtu.be/A5PRSuCW1eY>- from D.R. Tucker*
November 7, 2014:
HBO's Bill Maher denounces the climate-change deniers who seized control
of the Senate earlier in the week.
http://youtu.be/A5PRSuCW1eY
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