[TheClimate.Vote] November 29, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Nov 29 10:18:09 EST 2018
/November 29, 2018/
[new discovery of diverse life form]
*Newly discovered deep-sea microbes gobble greenhouse gases and perhaps
oil spills, too
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181127092525.htm>*
Date: November 27, 2018
Source: University of Texas at Austin
Summary:
Scientists have discovered nearly two dozen new types of microbes, many
of which use hydrocarbons such as methane and butane as energy sources
-- meaning they might be helping to limit the concentrations of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and might one day be useful for
cleaning up oil spills.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181127092525.htm
[A polite listing of calamities]
*Study Warns of Cascading Health Risks From the Changing Climate
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/climate/climate-change-health.html>*
By Somini Sengupta and Kendra Pierre-Louis - Nov. 28, 2018
*Crop yields are declining*. Tropical diseases like dengue fever are
showing up in unfamiliar places, including in the United States. Tens of
millions of people are exposed to extreme heat.
These are the stark findings of a wide-ranging scientific report that
lays out the growing risks of climate change for human health and
predicts that cascading hazards could soon face millions more people in
rich and poor countries around the world.
The report, published Wednesday in the public health journal The Lancet,
incorporates the work of 24 academic institutions and United Nations
agencies and follows a major climate assessment issued last week by the
United States government. The two studies represent the most serious
warnings to date that climate change is posing a series of
interconnected health risks for the global population.
"We don't see these health impacts individually," said Kristie L. Ebi, a
professor of global health at the University of Washington and one of
the authors of the Lancet study. "We see them jointly. We see them
coming at communities all at the same time."
Among the biggest threats humans face in a warming climate is heat
stress, which not only kills people directly but can also lead to kidney
and cardiovascular disease, the report noted. Higher temperatures can
also diminish people's ability to work, particularly in agriculture,
leading to tens of billions of hours of lost labor capacity each year.
Most worrying, according to the authors, is the compounding effect of
extreme weather events that are exacerbated by climate change. Heat
waves, floods and storms can batter the very public health systems that
are meant to help people, the report says. A failure to rein in
emissions, it warns, could lead to disasters that "disrupt core public
health infrastructure and overwhelm health services."
The American report, called the National Climate Assessment, says that
extreme rainfall could overwhelm the nation's ailing water and sewer
systems, contributing to shortages of drinkable water and increasing
exposure to gastrointestinal disease. In some parts of the country, like
Florida and Texas, higher temperatures will be a boon to a type of
mosquito that transmits the viruses that cause dengue, Zika, chikungunya
and yellow fever.
Echoing these warnings on Wednesday, the United Nations Secretary
General, Antonio Guterres, urged world leaders to swiftly curb
greenhouse gas emissions as they had promised under the Paris climate
accord three years ago. Nine out of 10 people breathe unsafe air,
according to the World Health Organization, Mr. Guterres said. "Meeting
the Paris Agreement commitments could save more than a million lives a
year," he said.
Cutting emissions from sources like coal-fired power plants and
diesel-burning trucks would also result in enormous savings to public
health systems, the Lancet authors said. "Doing that now would be good
for us, it would be good for our livelihoods and would be good for the
planet," Dr. Ebi said.
But as the world continues to warm, the study warned of a number of
potential domino effects.
*Extreme heat*
In 2017, 157 million more people were exposed to heat-related health
risks than in 2000, the report said. And that was before the scorching
summer of 2018.
In England and Wales, for instance, over a 15-day period of
exceptionally high temperatures this summer, there were 700 "excess
deaths" compared to a comparable period in previous years, said Nick
Watts, the report's lead author.
Some of the most vulnerable people are in relatively prosperous
countries in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean region, particularly
because these places have large populations of older people living in
cities. In both regions, more than 40 percent of people over the age of
65 were found to be at risk.
In the United States, the National Climate Assessment found that some of
the largest increases in heat-related mortality in future years would
occur in the Northeast. By midcentury, there could be 50 to 100 excess
deaths per one million people due to heat in that region, the report said.
What on Earth Is Going On?
*Lost labor*
Heat makes it hard for people to work, especially on farms.
According to the Lancet report, in 2017, 153 billion hours of labor were
lost worldwide because of heat, with the largest share in vulnerable
rural communities in countries like India. That's 64 billion more lost
labor hours than in 2000.
By midcentury, "Prevalence of heatstroke and extreme weather will have
redefined global labor and production beyond recognition," The Lancet
warned in an accompanying editorial. "Multiple cities will be
uninhabitable and migration patterns will be far beyond those levels
already creating pressure worldwide."
Infectious diseases
The risk of debilitating, often deadly infectious diseases is moving to
new places. That's because even small changes in temperature and
rainfall can have a significant effect on where diseases that are spread
by bugs and water can take hold.
Habitats for dengue-spreading mosquitoes have expanded significantly,
the Lancet study concluded. The National Climate Assessment noted that
warmer conditions may have helped transmit Zika in the United States.
Since 1950, the Lancet study said, the cholera bacteria has expanded its
reach to the Baltic coastline, and the risk of malaria has spread to
higher altitudes in sub-Saharan Africa.
"I don't want people to be surprised when they see cases of what used to
be tropical diseases now being found in the United States as a result of
changing climate," said Gina McCarthy, a professor of public health at
Harvard and a former administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency during the Obama administration.
Droughts and floods
Extreme droughts and floods are affecting already vulnerable
communities, particularly in Southeast Asia and South America. Drought
affects agricultural yields, in turn heightening the risk of early
death, hunger and childhood malnutrition, according to the Lancet report.
With drought often comes more dust, which can aggravate allergies and
asthma and can also accelerate the reproduction of disease-causing fungi
in soil, according to the National Climate Assessment. Floods can wash
away farmland and homes and spread waterborne diseases.
Food production
Though the world still produces more than enough food to feed itself,
rising temperatures and extreme weather events are affecting food
production. Crop yields are diminishing in 30 countries, reversing a
trend of rising agricultural productivity and threatening food security
around the world and in the United States.
The quality of some food itself is also expected to decline, according
to the National Climate Assessment. Rising levels of carbon dioxide will
reduce the presence of key nutrients -- including iron, zinc, and
protein -- in crops and seafood.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/climate/climate-change-health.html
[WAPO interviews the EPA]
*The Energy 202 Live
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/post-live-november-2018-energy-202-live/>*
On November 28, Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator
Andrew Wheeler sat down for a live, one-on-one interview with Washington
Post Senior National Affairs Correspondent Juliet Eilperin to talk about
his first five months at the helm of the EPA and what's next for the
agency. Other speakers, including California Attorney General Xavier
Becerra as well as leading industry experts, offered insights into
America's energy needs and the balance between economic opportunity and
environmental protection. This was the latest installment of the Energy
202 Live series.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/post-live-november-2018-energy-202-live/
*Washington Post Live*
Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler responds to 2018 national
climate report
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/postlive/wplive/acting-epa-administrator-responds-to-2018-national-climate-report/2018/11/28/e12279a0-e31a-4c17-8bbb-b52009aaf12d_video.html>
Acting Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler
responds to the Trump Administration's criticism of a newly-released
national climate report at a Washington Post Live event.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/postlive/wplive/acting-epa-administrator-responds-to-2018-national-climate-report/2018/11/28/e12279a0-e31a-4c17-8bbb-b52009aaf12d_video.html
[food and agriculture briefing]
*Solving Extinction, Health & Climate: Central Roles Food & Agriculture
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j34ZdoO4huk>*
Climate State - Published on Nov 27, 2018
Professor David Tilman (University of Minnesota), a leading expert in
the fields of ecology, evolution and resource competition, gives the
keynote lecture for the 2018 ONE Network event for staff and graduate
students across the University of Oxford.
http://www.one.ox.ac.uk/events/one-event-181113.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j34ZdoO4huk
[National Academies of Science Engineering Medicine]
REPORT NOW AVAILABLE
*Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration: A Research
Agenda <http://nas-sites.org/dels/studies/cdr/>*
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) techniques that aim to remove and
sequester excess carbon from the atmosphere have been identified as
an important part of the portfolio of responses to climate change.
These approaches have been garnering new attention as the
international community has identified lower thresholds for global
temperature increases, which can only be accomplished with net
negative carbon emissions to the atmosphere. However, many of these
CDR technologies are not yet viable in terms of cost and
scalability, and any potential risks that deployment of these
techniques would entail are not fully understood. This study aims to
develop a detailed research and development agenda needed to assess
the benefits, risks, and sustainable scale potential for carbon
dioxide removal and sequestration approaches; and increase their
commercial viability.
*Get the Report
*https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25259/negative-emissions-technologies-and-reliable-sequestration-a-research-agenda
*Download a Report Summary
*https://www.nap.edu/resource/25259/Negative%20Emissions%20Technologies.pdf
*View an Interactive
Infographic*https://www.nap.edu/resource/25259/interactive/
*Watch the Release Briefing*
<https://livestream.com/accounts/7036396/events/8418456>https://livestream.com/accounts/7036396/events/8418456
*Download the Briefing Slides
*http://dels.nas.edu/resources/static-assets/basc/miscellaneous/basc-cdr-20-min-briefing-slides.pdf
http://nas-sites.org/dels/studies/cdr/
[Press Release]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, November 27
CONTACT: Denise Robbins, Communications Director, CCAN Action Fund,
denise at chesapeakeclimate.org, 608-620-8819
Mike Tidwell, Director, CCAN Action Fund,
mtidwell at chesapeakeclimate.org, 240-460-5838
*DC City Legislators Unanimously Vote to Mandate 100% Clean Electricity
By 2032
<http://www.carbonpricedc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CleanEnergyDC.OnePage.pdf>*
In nation's capital: Groundbreaking "omnibus" climate statute also
incentivizes electric cars, creates dramatic building efficiency
standards, funds a "Green Bank," and invests in solar and weatherization
for low- and moderate-income residents
STATEMENT FROM CCAN ACTION FUND
WASHINGTON - In the wake of alarming federal and international climate
reports, elected leaders of the District of Columbia -- representing
nearly 700,000 people in the nation's capital city -- today voted
unanimously to mandate that 100 percent of the city's electricity come
from clean renewable power by the year 2032. This represents the
strongest legislative mandate of its kind of any city or state in
America and one of the strongest in the world. Today's Council action
toward 100% clean electricity is a preliminary vote and will be followed
by a final scheduled vote in December. But the core features of the
legislation are expected to become final law by Christmas...
more at -
http://www.carbonpricedc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CleanEnergyDC.OnePage.pdf
[Unintentional self satire - video]
*Scientists Respond To Trump's Latest Unhinged Climate Remarks: 'It's
Almost Satire'
<https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-climate-remarks-scientists_us_5bfebf67e4b075d287608715>*
By Alexander C. Kaufman
- - -
When reporters asked him Monday to respond to the findings of one of
those reports -- the National Climate Assessment, assembled by
scientists at 13 federal agencies -- he said: "I don't believe it."
But the president's interview with The Washington Post, published
Tuesday evening, dialed the denialism up to a new level.
"One of the problems that a lot of people like myself -- we have very
high levels of intelligence, but we're not necessarily such believers.
You look at our air and our water, and it's right now at a record
clean," Trump said, appearing to conflate particulate matter with
climate-warming pollution.
He went on to declare "the oceans are very small" and blame the
continent of Asia for litter on American beaches, and even circled back
to the raking comment.
"I was watching the firemen, and they're raking brush -- you know the
tumbleweed and brush, and all this stuff that's growing underneath," he
said. "It's on fire, and they're raking it, working so hard, and they're
raking all this stuff. If that was raked in the beginning, there'd be
nothing to catch on fire. It's very interesting to see."
He brought up "articles" from the 1970s -- likely referring to pieces
from Time magazine and Newsweek -- that made the now obviously incorrect
case that the planet was headed into another ice age.
"If you go back and if you look at articles, they talked about global
freezing, they talked about at some point the planets could have freeze
to death, then it's going to die of heat exhaustion," he said.
We asked climate scientists to respond.
*Michael Mann: 'It's Almost Satire'*
Mann is a climate scientist and co-author of the book The Madhouse
Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying
Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy.
It's almost satire. Everything our president says is foolish nonsense
and it constitutes malicious ignorance.
I tweeted this yesterday in response:
"We have very high levels of intelligence but we're not necessarily such
believers. You look at the Earth, say, from a prairie in Kansas. The
land is flat. It's not a sphere!" - Donald Trump (any day now)
Because what he said about climate change is as idiotic as if he had
said the above statement. He might as well be a flat-earther.
It might even be amusing were it not for the fact that his use of the
bully pulpit to promote denialist propaganda endangers human civilization.
We can only hope at this point that his days in office are numbered now.
*Marshall Shepherd: 'Science Doesn't Care What We Believe'*
Shepherd is the director of the University of Georgia's atmospheric
program and a former president of the American Meteorological Society.
Science doesn't care what we believe. If you are in the top of building
and fall, gravity is still a thing whether you believe in it or not.
*David Titley: 'Not Only Frustrating But Very Sad'*
Titley is a climate scientist at Penn State and a retired Navy rear admiral.
I find this to be not only frustrating but very sad. It's like talking
to a friend about a car and you think you're going to talk about the
engine and its mileage. But when you ask him about that he talks about
the color, or the options or how comfortable the seat is.
I'm very happy the president professes to be concerned about air
pollution he can see and the plastics in the ocean. I hope he can
understand that the pollution we can't see -- in the form of greenhouse
gasses -- poses an even bigger threat to our people, our economy and our
personal and national security. The basic science is actually very
simple and has been well known for over a century.
I would love to ask the president, "Sir, what is it about climate change
that scares you so much you cannot admit that it's happening or address
it? Let's find out the real reason -- and attack that issue. Because
it's not about science. It's about us and the world we want to live in
today, tomorrow and in the days ahead."
*Joseph Majkut: 'Hoo Boy'*
Majkut is a climate scientist and the director of climate policy at the
libertarian think tank Niskanen Center.
Hoo boy. These comments have kicked off an inappropriately long debate
at NC about whether or not oceans are small.
No person, no matter how intelligent, is going to see or experience the
pervasive changes to the climate that are being brought on by industrial
emissions. That is why we have scientific assessments like the [National
Climate Assessment] and an army of scientists out there taking data and
trying to understand the scope of this issue. What they find is
discomforting at best and alarming at worst. You don't have to believe
the worst-case scenario is a sure bet to take it seriously, but we
shouldn't stake ourselves on the idea that it will all work out.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-climate-remarks-scientists_us_5bfebf67e4b075d287608715
*This Day in Climate History - November 29, 2011
<http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/newt-gingrich-tries-to-rewrite-himself-on-climate-change-44142147788>
- from D.R. Tucker*
November 29, 2011: MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell ridicules GOP presidential
candidate Newt Gingrich's flip-flops on climate change.
Newt Gingrich went on Bill O'Reilly to beg forgiveness for his liberal
record on climate change. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell has more in the
Rewrite.
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/newt-gingrich-tries-to-rewrite-himself-on-climate-change-44142147788
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/newt-rewrites-himself-climate-change
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45492139/ns/msnbc/t/last-word-lawrence-odonnell-tuesday-november/
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