[TheClimate.Vote] October 2, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Tue Oct 2 09:42:26 EDT 2018
/October 2, 2018/
*
*[Gosh, I hope we get a sober judge]*
Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration for Gutting Methane Waste Rule
<https://westernlaw.org/lawsuit-challenges-trump-administration-gutting-methane-waste-rule/>*
Twice Defeated, Zinke Makes Third Attempt to Allow More Gas Pollution, Waste
SAN FRANCISCO--A broad coalition of conservation and citizens' groups
sued the Trump administration late last Friday to challenge the Bureau
of Land Management for rescinding most provisions of its 2016 methane
waste rule.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, notes Interior Secretary Ryan
Zinke's BLM illegally rescinded the rule, which requires oil and gas
companies operating on public lands to take reasonable measures to
prevent the waste of publicly owned natural gas. Such measures
significantly reduce pollution from methane, a dangerously potent
greenhouse gas.
"Secretary Zinke's actions speak louder than his hollow claims to a
conservation ethic in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt. He gutted the methane
rule to give industry free rein to do what it wants, in contempt of the
public's unquestioned desire for strong methane waste and pollution
safeguards," said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the
Western Environmental Law Center. "Zinke should leave the rule in place
to safeguard the public interest and to ensure that Americans receive
their fair share of oil and gas production royalties."
In the legal challenge, the groups said the rescission violates federal
law by downplaying the significance of the rule's benefits to public
health, local communities and the climate. The lawsuit also says BLM's
cost-benefit analysis ignored global climate costs. The original rule
sought to improve public health by reducing atmospheric methane, which
is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide...
https://westernlaw.org/lawsuit-challenges-trump-administration-gutting-methane-waste-rule/
[Insurance finds It's a hard, It's..]
*A 'Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall' On Insurers Unless They Address Climate
Risks
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2018/10/01/a-hard-rains-a-gonna-fall-on-insurers-unless-they-address-climate-risks/#6314d0063312>*
Ken Silverstein - Contributor
- - -
"The financial sector needs to speed up its action on climate change
within the next 36 months if we are to make the shift to a low-carbon
economy - and insurers are leading the way," UN Environment Executive
Director Erik Solheim said.
- - - -
Will insurance companies use their clout to bring about change? While
they may generally prefer fewer government regulations, they may tacitly
favor those that would limit CO2 releases and encourage cleaner energies.
"The insurance industry is supposed to protect us from catastrophic
risk, yet when it comes to climate change, they're adding fuel to the
fire through their investments and underwriting," Lindsey Allen,
Executive Director of the Rainforest Action Network said. "Our
communities are the ones who are paying the price -- through
catastrophic wildfires, massive flooding, increased premiums, and denial
of coverage."
The good news is that the companies, generally, are responding to
consumer demands and are thus moving to limit their CO2 releases --
something that will continue no matter who controls the White House.
Insurers, too, are slowly getting on board. But their pace of activism
should pick up given that their financial exposure to climate-related
claims keeps worsening.
Indeed -- as Bob Dylan writes -- A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall on insurers
unless they step up.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2018/10/01/a-hard-rains-a-gonna-fall-on-insurers-unless-they-address-climate-risks/#6314d0063312
- - - -
[Possible anthem for our age of global warming]
*Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (Audio)
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5al0HmR4to>*
Music video by Bob Dylan performing A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (Audio).
(C) 2016 Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5al0HmR4to
- - - -
[Wikipedia]
*"A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall"
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hard_Rain%27s_a-Gonna_Fall>*
Song by Bob Dylan from the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Released May 27, 1963
Recorded December 6, 1962
Songwriter Bob Dylan
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan track listing
"A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" is a song written by Bob Dylan in the
summer of 1962 and recorded later that year for his second album, The
Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Its lyrical structure is thematically complex
and modeled after the question and answer form of traditional ballads
such as "Lord Randall".
The song is characterized by dark symbolist imagery and a message
communicating injustice, suffering, pollution, and warfare. Dylan has
stated that all of the lyrics were taken from the initial lines of songs
that "he thought he would never have time to write." Nat Hentoff quoted
Dylan as saying that he immediately wrote the song in response to the
Cuban Missile Crisis, although in his memoir, Chronicles: Volume One,
Dylan attributed his inspiration to the feeling he got when reading
microfiche newspapers in the New York Public Library: "After a while you
become aware of nothing but a culture of feeling, of black days, of
schism, evil for evil, the common destiny of the human being getting
thrown off course. It's all one long funeral song.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hard_Rain%27s_a-Gonna_Fall
[Frozen Ocean]
*A photographic primer on the dynamics of marine ice.
<https://www.hakaimagazine.com/videos-visuals/frozen-ocean/>*
Authored by by Jennifer Kingsley
September 24, 2018 - 1,300 words, *14 photos*
In the era of climate change, ice is a hot topic. It makes headlines for
calving, drifting, and melting in the polar regions at alarming rates.
But what is marine ice exactly?
The ocean's ice comes from either the atmosphere or the sea itself.
Glacial ice (which can cover vast areas, including Antarctica)
originates from precipitation, while sea ice (also vast, depending on
the season) forms when the ocean freezes.
Ice dominates both polar regions but in different ways. The Arctic is a
frozen ocean surrounded by land. Antarctica, by contrast, is a frozen
landmass surrounded by ocean. On a visit to either, your ship might bump
through sea ice, but you would likely take more photographs of glacial
ice because it's responsible for icebergs. Sea ice, matte white and
typically no thicker than the height of an average person, is less
glamorous--unless there's a polar bear standing on it--but just as
remarkable. It's a critical habitat for a range of species, from
single-celled organisms to whales. And its dynamism is amazing; much of
the world's sea ice disappears and then re-forms every year...
- - -
Antarctica is the highest, in average elevation, of any continent on
Earth due in part to the ice sheet that blankets it with an average
thickness of two kilometers and a maximum thickness of almost five. The
continent has been at least partially covered in glacial ice for 40
million years, and the oldest ice that scientists have been able to
extract holds gases from the Earth's atmosphere 2.7 million years ago.
Antarctic ice is often described through monolithic metrics like these,
but that vast expanse of glacial ice began as flakes of snow...
Snow compressed by its own weight becomes ice, and when enough ice
accumulates in one place, it begins to slowly flow across the landscape
and becomes a glacier. If glaciers reach the ocean, they float and may
extend hundreds of kilometers out to sea as ice shelves. Some ice
shelves have calved dramatically in recent years--an iceberg almost half
the size of Prince Edward Island broke off a shelf in Antarctica in
2017. Ice shelves can help stabilize glaciers, keeping them on land;
without them, land-based ice may flow into the sea and deteriorate more
quickly...
- - - -
Unlike freshwater ice, sea ice begins as a thin, malleable sheet called
frazil ice, which then progresses through a variety of stages including
shuga (spongy lumps a few centimeters across) and nilas (a thin, elastic
crust). The process starts when seawater reaches its freezing point,
which varies with salinity and is about -1.8 C in the polar regions.
Salt itself does not freeze; as the ice forms, salt molecules are
largely excluded from the crystals. As a result, sea ice is not nearly
as salty as the sea itself. Gravity helps pull the discarded salt
molecules down through the ice, leaving small, vertical tunnels called
brine channels.
Before sea ice solidifies, it may become pancake ice, a beautiful mosaic
of circles ranging from the size of a Frisbee to a backyard trampoline,
with raised edges formed from the constant contact between the pieces.
Because sea ice is so varied and of such concern for ship traffic,
mariners have precise navigational terms to describe its different
forms, including young ice, gray ice, gray-white ice, thin first year,
and thick first year.
Salt molecules extruded from sea ice form a dense, hyperchilled brine
that can sink rapidly through the water after trickling out of the ice.
Because the brine is colder, the subsurface seawater it comes in contact
with sometimes freezes upon contact, creating an underwater icicle--or
brinicle--that extends toward the seafloor like a slow-growing lightning
bolt. Anything the icicle touches can freeze to death, including these
unfortunate sea stars and giant Antarctic isopod.
- - - -
First-year sea ice makes up most of the sea ice in the world, both north
and south. Enough forms around Antarctica each fall to almost double the
surface area of the continent, yet the majority of it melts the
following summer.
In the Arctic, multiyear ice is more common; the Arctic Ocean always
remains partially frozen. In early autumn, the region reaches its annual
sea ice minimum. For the past 20 to 30 years, that minimum has decreased
by an average of 45,000 square kilometers worth of ice each year. Sea
ice is the defining feature of the Arctic Ocean, yet as more of it
disappears, the ocean is transforming from a solid to a liquid...
- - -
If all the glacial ice in Antarctica were to melt, it would raise the
global sea level by 60 meters--high enough to submerge a 20-story
building. In the Arctic, the Greenland ice sheet holds enough water for
six meters of sea level rise.
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/videos-visuals/frozen-ocean/
- - - -
[For November 2018 publication]
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
*Massive destabilization of an Arctic ice cap
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X18305156?via%3Dihub>*
Highlights
Ice advanced 8 km, accelerated to 25 m/day and thinned at a rate of
about 0.3 m/day.
Bedrock below ice cap is mostly above sea level.
Ice is likely mostly frozen to the bedrock.
This type of ice cap has not been seen to behave this way before.
Ramifications for other polar ice caps and glaciers.
Abstract
Ice caps that are mostly frozen at the bedrock-ice interface are
thought to be stable and respond slowly to changes in climate. We
use remote sensing to measure velocity and thickness changes that
occur when the margin of the largely cold-based Vavilov Ice Cap in
the Russian High Arctic advances over weak marine sediments. We show
that cold-based to polythermal glacier systems with no previous
history of surging may evolve with unexpected and unprecedented
speed when their basal boundary conditions change, resulting in very
large dynamic ice mass losses (an increase in annual mass loss by a
factor of ∼100) over a few years. We question the future long-term
stability of cold and polythermal polar ice caps, many of which
terminate in marine waters as the climate becomes warmer and wetter
in the polar regions.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X18305156?via%3Dihub
[Climate Psychology]
*Building a Locus of Control: Protecting Yourself From "Climate Trauma"
<https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2017/01/building-locus-control-protecting-climate-trauma/>*
January 23, 2017 By Lynae Bresser
With countries declaring drought emergencies and islands facing
inundation, it can be difficult to turn away from the big picture when
it comes to climate change. If we are to build a climate-resilient
society, though, we must look to resilience at its origins, says one
group of experts: the individual.
The impact that climate change can have on psychological health is
emerging as a concern for some mental health professionals, disaster
response officials, educators, and faith leaders. In November 2016, more
than 100 people gathered in Washington, DC, for the first-ever
conference on strengthening personal resilience to climate change,
sponsored by the International Transformational Resilience Coalition.
The changing environment is leading to the breakdown of communities in
some places and deteriorating mental health in others, said experts.
"Climate trauma" can occur when either acute or long-term climate
impacts cause loss of life or property. The phenomenon is anticipated by
the National Wildlife Foundation to impact tens of millions globally in
the coming years.
To combat these effects, some are calling for more attention to
"psychosocial resilience," or the ability of an individual to withstand
both the psychological and social aspects of stress.
*
**Losing a Sense of Place - and Future*
Climate change can lead to disasters and disasters lead to stress. But a
unique component of climate change is the feeling that it is inexorable,
that there is no escape.
A study published in the International Journal of Circumpolar Health of
the Sami indigenous people of northern Sweden found that young Sami
reindeer-herders were three times more likely to attempt suicide than
other Swedes. Reporting by STAT tells the story of 29-year-old Gustu
Marainen who took his own life after watching his herd suffer under the
pressures of extreme weather and unpredictable temperatures and telling
his family he did not see a bright future.
In another study, when asked what is required to live a healthy and good
life, 93 percent of Inuit women responded that the ice, water, and land
they live on is critical. Record low levels of Arctic sea ice and
temperatures soaring 20 degrees above average are upending these
ecosystems and the very future of the Inuit way of life in every respect.
These effects are not unique to Arctic peoples, who face a more rapidly
changing climate than the rest of the world. A broad survey of evidence
published in Epidemiologic Reviews details how floods prompt rises in
disorders like anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress as they
threaten livelihoods around the world.
A study published by researchers from Murdoch University found a similar
"sense of place" was a crucial determinant of mental wellbeing for
farmers in western Australia. They observed a strong connection between
homesteads suffering from chronic drought in the region, where winter
rainfall has decreased 20 percent since the 1970s, and heightened risk
of anxiety and depression in farmers caused by despair for the future.
The uncertainty and apprehension dominating the political conversation
around climate change has also proven to be an extraordinary mental
stressor for those working in the field. Psychiatrist Lise Van Susteren
told Esquire that many climate scientists and activists are suffering
from "pre-traumatic stress disorder," caused by the mental preparation
for the worst. "So many of us are exhibiting all the signs and symptoms
of post-traumatic disorder," she said, "the anger, the panic, the
obsessive intrusive thoughts." Meanwhile Judith Curry, a prominent
critic of climate science, recently retired from Georgia Tech citing the
"craziness" of the scientific and political debate.
*Prioritizing the Individual*
Building resilience to the psychosocial effects of climate change is not
impossible though, said experts at the Conference on Building Human
Resilience for Climate Change.
University of California Berkeley Psychologist Rick Hanson said that the
way individuals deal with both positive and negative experiences has
lasting impacts on neural structure and function. Because our brains
have a built-in "negativity bias," which prompts us to over-focus on and
over-react to stressful, harmful experiences, learning to train our
brains proactively is especially valuable. By consciously sensitizing
the brain to the positive - to see the glass half full more often - we
allow for the growth of inner resources, such as intelligence and
courage, and the building of personal resilience, Hanson explained.
Doing so can even change the brain permanently, re-wiring neural
pathways to think differently.
Making sure individuals have the knowledge to be able to prepare for and
respond to a disaster is another important factor in building
resilience, said Anita Chandra of the RAND Organization. Knowing what is
within our power to change and what is not can aid the development of an
"internal locus of control," which strengthens personal resilience.
While physical climate impacts are, for the most part, out of the
individual's control, taking control of how those impacts affect us can
turn adversity into an opportunity rather than a setback.
These ideas have been codified into a sort of doctrine called the
Resilient Growth Model, said Bob Doppelt, director of The Resource
Innovation Group. By teaching individuals to use simple methods such as
identifying the values they want to live by in the midst of adversity,
their workshops encourage "values-based decision-making" and
"adversity-based growth" in the face of climate change.
Joining support groups is one way people are dealing with the stresses
of climate change. Although no clinical diagnoses of "climate grief" or
"climate trauma" exist, Good Grief, a small NGO based in Salt Lake City,
is working to boost community involvement and give people confidence
that they can prepare for and mitigate climate change through peer
support. "You've vented and gotten some worries off your chest, and now
you have a better understanding of what you can do as an individual,"
Laura Schmidt, founder of Good Grief, told Yale Climate Connections.
"When things got really depressing for them, they could take a break and
let their community care for them for a bit - and then go back out and
fight or talk about climate change."
*A Two-Way Street*
Mental health issues generally are among the most widely neglected in
the world. In Ethiopia, there are only 50 psychiatrists for 86 million
people, leaving about 90 percent of the population without adequate
treatment.
In the United States, more than half of Americans who claim climate
change is personally important to them rarely or never discuss the topic
with family or friends, according to a survey by the Yale Program on
Climate Change Communication. The researchers dubbed the phenomenon a
"spiral of silence."
The good news with so little attention being paid to mental health is
that improvements should theoretically be easy. For many Americans,
simply discussing climate change would likely be a positive change.
Adopting a trauma sensitive community framework can change the way we
think, explained Trudy Townsend, former coordinator of Creating
Sanctuary in the Dalles, at the conference. In turn, these changes can
shift communities from "trauma-organized" to "trauma-informed," in which
individuals have the knowledge to prepare for and respond to disasters
and neighbors feel they can rely on one another.
As individuals within a society build inner resilience, it becomes
harder for them to be manipulated by fear, anger, and "us" versus "them"
mentalities generally, said Hanson. As individuals contribute to
societal resilience, it's likely you will see fewer symptoms of
community-level trauma, including damaged social networks, the elevation
of destructive social norms, and a low sense of political and social
efficacy.
The optimal result, said Doppelt, is that we are not only better
prepared, mentally and physically, to deal with climate change, but that
climate-related adversities can be transformational catalysts for
communities. After 95 percent of homes were destroyed by a tornado in
the small town of Greensburg, Kansas, in 2007, for example, people
banded together and rebuilt the town to run completely on renewable
energy. Such a response is not only a sign of a healthy, resilient
community, but of healthy, resilient individuals.
https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2017/01/building-locus-control-protecting-climate-trauma/
*This Day in Climate History - October 2, 2008
<http://youtu.be/5qhox5P_jCg> - from D.R. Tucker*
October 2, 2008: Vice-presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin
spar over climate and energy issues in their lone debate, moderated by
Gwen Ifill.
http://youtu.be/5qhox5P_jCg
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