[TheClimate.Vote] October 3, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/October 3, 2018/

*BREAKING: U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Vacates Nationwide 
Permit 12 for Entire Mountain Valley Pipeline 
<https://bluevirginia.us/2018/10/breaking-us-fourth-circuit-court-of-appeals-vacates-nationwide-permit-12-for-entire-mountain-valley-pipeline>*
By lowkell -  October 2, 2018
See below for the order issued a few minutes ago by the U.S. Court of 
Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on the Mountain Valley Pipeline Clean 
Water Act Nationwide Permit 12 ("NWP 12"), vacating "in its entirety, 
the [Army] Corps' verification of the [Mountain Valley Pipeline's] 
compliance with NWP 12." Wow.

    "Exercising jurisdiction pursuant to 15 U.S.C.s 717r(d)(1), we
    conclude, for reasons to be more fully explained in a forthcoming
    opinion, that the Corps lacked authority to substitute the "dry cut"
    requirement "in lieu of" West Virginia's 72-hour temporal
    restriction. Accordingly, we VACATE, in its entirety, the Corps'
    verification of the Pipeline's compliance with NWP 12. "

https://bluevirginia.us/2018/10/breaking-us-fourth-circuit-court-of-appeals-vacates-nationwide-permit-12-for-entire-mountain-valley-pipeline


[compounding CO2 complexity]
*High carbon dioxide levels cause plants to thicken their leaves, could 
worsen climate change effects 
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181001101709.htm>*
Date: October 1, 2018
Source: University of Washington
Summary: When levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rise, most 
plants do something unusual: They thicken their leaves. Now scientists 
have shown that this reaction by plants will actually worsen climate 
change by making the global 'carbon sink' contributed by plants less 
productive.
Plant scientists have observed that when levels of carbon dioxide in the 
atmosphere rise, most plants do something unusual: They thicken their 
leaves.
And since human activity is raising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, 
thick-leafed plants appear to be in our future.
But the consequences of this physiological response go far beyond 
heftier leaves on many plants. Two University of Washington scientists 
have discovered that plants with thicker leaves may exacerbate the 
effects of climate change because they would be less efficient in 
sequestering atmospheric carbon, a fact that climate change models to 
date have not taken into account.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181001101709.htm


[Opinion from my states governor]
*How to show Trump you care about climate change 
<https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/02/opinions/how-to-show-trump-you-care-about-climate-change-inslee/index.html>*
By Jay Inslee
(CNN)While Donald Trump is blowing smoke on climate change, we here in 
the West have been choking on it this summer. And if we don't start 
electing people -- from city council to governor -- who are willing to 
confront climate change, we're all going to pay dearly.
In Washington state we know this from our own gasping experience. For 
two weeks in August, the skies were shrouded in the darkest smoke in 
recent memory, as record-breaking fires tore through the Western states 
-- destroying communities and forcing widespread evacuations. A thick, 
acrid and dangerous pall from hundreds of fires filled the lungs of 
citizens trying to go about their lives.
And this month climate change has brought more tragedy and destruction 
to our country. Hurricane Florence hit North and South Carolina with a 
combination of wind strength, rainfall and storm surge that is 
unprecedented -- but increasingly expected -- for the region.
For millions of Americans, climate change is no longer just a chart or a 
graph. It's wildfires. It's floodwater invading our homes and drought 
destroying our crops. It's hurricanes and record-breaking heat waves. 
It's an emerging new normal, one that we don't need to accept as inevitable.
Americans, we must start voting on climate change. We can in just a few 
weeks, in voter initiatives and in elections for governors and state 
legislatures throughout the country. That is because states can lead the 
fight against the serious dangers posed by global warming, building a 
safer future full of new and greater economic opportunities, powered by 
fast-growing clean energy solutions like wind and solar energy, and 
electric vehicles. It's happening everywhere already.
So, why is the Trump administration doing everything it can to dismantle 
climate progress?
In August Trump's EPA announced plans to repeal the Clean Power Plan and 
allow power plants to dump unlimited carbon pollution into our 
atmosphere, even though their own analysis shows this could lead to as 
many as 1,400 more premature deaths each year.
This follows the administration's plan to repeal the Clean Car 
Standards, which would essentially force Americans to use more oil, 
increase pollution from cars and trucks, and deliver a damaging blow to 
our nation's auto industry in the global marketplace. And now Trump's 
EPA wants to unravel rules that limit methane and even mercury and toxic 
air pollution. Taken together these actions would undo the most 
important steps America has ever taken to confront climate change.
Columnist Thomas Friedman recently argued that climate change should be 
on the ballot in 2020 -- that our Democratic presidential nominee should 
make fighting climate change and creating the jobs that flow from 
investing in a clean energy economy front and center in our national 
dialogue. He's right. But we cannot wait until 2020. Make no mistake: 
Climate change is on the ballot in 2018.
This year Americans can elect governors and state legislatures who will 
push back, who will work to transform our nation's energy and 
transportation systems and reduce the carbon pollution that is harming 
our communities. They can vote for initiatives like I-1631 in my state 
that will finally hold polluters accountable.
Americans don't have to wait for Washington, D.C. Donald Trump cannot 
stop us in the states.
Wealthy special interests have predictably argued that Washington 
state's climate leadership would hurt our economy, but they've been 
proven fantastically wrong; our state economy has been No. 1 in the 
nation for the last two years, according to CNBC and Business Insider.
Clean energy is part of our growth story, as it is in other states. Jobs 
in renewable energy are among the fastest growing in America.
We in Washington state are not alone. Many constituencies are joining 
forces across America to fight for climate action. The Peoples Climate 
Movement is bringing together environmentalists, labor unions, frontline 
communities, faith groups and others to mobilize voters who will demand 
climate action rooted in racial and economic justice. Governors across 
the country have joined to commit their states to meet the goals of the 
Paris Climate Agreement. are moving forward, despite Donald Trump. Soon 
more will join us.
This November, I hope you will get out and vote for an American clean 
energy future. Our children and grandchildren are counting on us to act 
-- now.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/02/opinions/how-to-show-trump-you-care-about-climate-change-inslee/index.html


[McKibben speaks up]
*The Trump administration knows the planet is going to boil. It doesn't 
care 
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/02/trump-administration-planet-boil-refugee-camps?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other>*
Bill McKibben
Trump's team used last week to sneak in disastrous, linked policies on 
climate change and child refugee camps
- - - -
The author Todd Miller, writing in the Nation, described meeting men 
trying to jump a train in Guatemala headed north toward the border. 
"When I asked why they were heading for the United States, one responded 
simply, "No hubo lluvia." ("There was no rain.")

This will, of course, get steadily worse in the years ahead - every 
climate forecast shows deserts spreading and water evaporating across 
the region. And of course more migration will follow, in every corner of 
the world. The World Bank predicts we may see 140 million climate 
migrants before long, and given the chaos that even a million people 
fleeing the (partially drought-fueled) crisis in Syria created, we 
better come to grips. Some of that migration will be internal - perhaps 
six million people will abandon their coastal property in Florida alone, 
according to recent reports. And much of it will be international, as 
people flee because their lives depend on it.

Telling people to stay home is not an option - when there's no water, or 
when the floods come each year, or when the sea rises into your kitchen, 
people have to leave. Period.

And telling people to stay home is not a moral option, either. Because 
the climate chaos setting off waves of refugees is born above all from 
the unconstrained migration of carbon dioxide molecules from America 
over the last century. No wall can prevent the exhaust from our armada 
of oversized cars from raising the temperature in Mexico; if Guatemala 
could ship its changed climate back north it doubtless would, but it 
can't. We have to realize that global warming stems from the fact that 
we are a world without atmospheric borders, where the people who have 
done the least to cause the problem feel its horrors first and hardest. 
That's why, over the last half-decade, the environmental and 
migrant-rights movement have grown ever closer.

The Trump years are a fantasy land where we pretend we can go on living 
precisely as in the past, unwilling even to substitute electric SUVs for 
our gas guzzlers, and able to somehow insist that the rest of the world 
stay locked in place as well. It's impractical, it's unfair, and when it 
ends up with camps for kids in the desert it's downright evil.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/02/trump-administration-planet-boil-refugee-camps?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other


[charts and graphs]
*The Great Decoupling <http://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/decoupling/>*
The story of energy use, economic growth, and carbon emissions in four 
charts.
By Rob Jackson, Josep Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Corinne Le Quéré, and 
Glen Peters
July 2017

    1.Overall global energy use has risen fivefold within one human
    lifetime.
    The history of energy use is like our closets. We don't typically
    give up our belongings; we add to them. Coal didn't replace wood. It
    supplemented wood as energy demands grew, overtaking it a century
    ago. The same is true for oil and natural gas. Oil and gas didn't
    end the coal era. They added to it

    2. Like energy use, carbon emissions historically have marched
    resolutely upward--in lockstep with a robust global economy.
    Economic crises have slowed the rise in emissions at times but
    haven't stopped it.

    3. Now those trendlines are starting to diverge.
    For the past 15 years, global economic growth rose twice as fast as
    global energy demand and CO2 emissions. The changes have been the
    most dramatic since 2010. And within the past three years
    (2014-2016), emissions stabilized--at least temporarily--while the
    global economy continued growing. That is a first.

    4. Decoupling, however, is not a foregone conclusion.
    Our trajectory is good. Energy efficiency is responsible for most of
    the decoupling to date. But the transformation to zero carbon fuels
    must dramatically accelerate to keep up with growing energy demands
    and increasing world population.

Only then will decoupling be complete.
http://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/decoupling/


[Wilson Center opinion]
*America Must Act on the North and South Poles 
<https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2018/09/america-act-north-south-poles/>*
September 28, 2018 By David Balton
The two poles of our planet--the Arctic and Antarctica--demand greater 
attention right now. For decades, the United States has played a 
leadership role in both regions, a responsibility that it must continue 
to fulfill as a warming climate and other drivers of change are creating 
new challenges and opportunities. Regrettably, the Trump Administration 
has not devoted the resources or high-level attention necessary to 
maintaining American leadership position on these critical matters.

During the height of the Cold War, visionary U.S. diplomacy under 
President Eisenhower led to the creation of the Antarctic Treaty in 
1959, a treaty that has successfully reserved that continent for 
scientific research and other peaceful endeavors by banning all military 
facilities and activities there. More recently, the United States 
completed a successful term as chair of the Arctic Council, a 
consensus-based body whose participants include the eight Arctic states, 
representatives of Arctic indigenous peoples and almost forty observer 
states and organizations.

The Arctic Council has done valuable work in promoting environmental 
research and developing pathways to sustainable, responsible economic 
growth in the Arctic. Under U.S. leadership, the Council has also served 
as the forum for negotiating three binding agreements dealing with 
search and rescue, oil pollution and scientific cooperation. America has 
also led in producing a visionary agreement to prevent unregulated 
fishing in the Arctic Ocean, pushed the International Maritime 
Organization to strengthen rules for safe polar shipping, and 
spearheaded the creation of the world's largest marine protected area in 
the Ross Sea off of Antarctica.

This brand of proactive, far-sighted U.S. leadership seems to be 
faltering at a moment when developments in both areas require it 
urgently. The alarming impacts of a warming climate at both poles--and 
the consequences of such warming on the rest of the world--are not "fake 
news." Rapidly rising temperatures in the North are melting sea ice at 
record rates. Even more worrisome are two positive feedback loops. 
First, less ice covering the sea and land leads to less reflectivity of 
the sun's rays, which in turn leads to more warming and increased 
melting. Second, the thawing permafrost releases more greenhouse gases, 
also leading to greater warming.

Just over a year ago, at a meeting chaired by former Secretary of State 
Tillerson, foreign ministers from the Arctic States signed a declaration 
acknowledging that the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of 
the global average and that "the pace and scale of continuing Arctic 
warming will depend on future emissions of greenhouse gases." Three 
weeks later, the United States announced its intention to withdraw from 
the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Already, rising seas and coastal erosion threaten coastal towns in 
Alaska and in other parts of the Arctic and will force costly 
relocations. The scientific community has produced compelling evidence 
of the effects of polar warming on the rest of the planet, including 
increasing storm surges, sea level rises and wildfires. If more flashing 
red lights were needed, this summer's severe climatic events and loss of 
life and property, exacerbated by the warming poles, should be the 
wakeup call.

We are witnessing unprecedented levels of human activity in the Arctic Ocean
Climate change has also made both polar areas, particularly the Arctic, 
more accessible. We are witnessing unprecedented levels of human 
activity in the Arctic Ocean, including commercial shipping and tourism. 
Significant percentages of the world's untapped oil and gas resources 
lie north of the Arctic Circle. Russia has taken concrete actions to 
capitalize on these circumstances, particularly by building 
infrastructure along the "Northern Sea Route" and promoting hydrocarbon 
development. Earlier this year, China issued its first Arctic strategy 
paper, making clear its intentions to play a major part in the future of 
the Arctic region.

The United States has not taken commensurate steps to improve 
infrastructure in its portion of the Arctic. Only after much prodding is 
Congress considering whether to allocate funds to build at least one 
additional, badly needed heavy icebreaker, which--when it would launch 
sometime in the mid-2020s--would bring the total number of heavy U.S. 
icebreakers to two. Meanwhile, Russia has forty-four operational 
icebreakers, with fifteen more planned or under construction. The United 
States cannot be a polar power without critical assets to support 
mobility and research in these regions.

Additionally, many of the key political-level positions in the 
Administration responsible for polar policy remain unfilled, including 
the relevant State Department Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary 
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator. 
Although President Trump recently announced that he will nominate Kelvin 
Droegemeier to serve as his Advisor on Science and Technology Policy, 
the White House Arctic Executive Steering Committee has been dormant 
since the end of the Obama Administration.

Despite an uptick in reporting on these topics, most Americans remain 
largely unaware of the importance of the Arctic and Antarctica to their 
lives. How can the United States proceed?

There are no easy fixes with America politically polarized, climate 
science challenged and the political will lacking to take prudent 
measures. But there are steps which can and should be taken.
David Balton is Senior Fellow with the Wilson Center working with the 
Polar Initiative. He served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans 
and Fisheries in the Department of State, attaining the rank of 
Ambassador in 2006.
https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2018/09/america-act-north-south-poles/
- - - -
[for instance, Norway, Russia and Alaska]
*Big upgrade for world's northernmost airstrip 
<https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2018/09/big-upgrade-worlds-northernmost-airstrip>*
The 2,500 meter long runway on the Nagurskoye base in Russia's Franz 
Josef Land is getting a new and solid top layer which will open up for 
year-round flights with heavy aircrafts.
By Atle Staalesen - September 26, 2018
A cargo ship with 13,000 tons of construction materials is on its way to 
the Arctic archipelago. The "Yuri Arshenevsky" has been loading for 
several days at the Murmansk Port and the cargo first of all includes 
reinforced concrete plates and big bags with granulated materials, the 
seaport informs.
The ship will depart from Murmansk in the course of the 26th September, 
the Russian Armed Forces inform.
It is the second ship in few days that heads from Murmansk to the Franz 
Josef Land...
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2018/09/big-upgrade-worlds-northernmost-airstrip


[view Sea Level Rise differently]
*Sea level rise is so much more than melting ice 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA5zh3yG_-0>*
Verge Science
Published on Oct 2, 2018
While researching climate change, we heard something confusing: the sea 
level in New York City is rising about one and a half times faster than 
the global average. We couldn't figure out what that meant. Isn't the 
sea level...flat? So we called up an expert and went down the rabbit 
hole. And, we did our best to visualize her truly bizarre answers with 
animations, dioramas, and a lot of melting ice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA5zh3yG_-0


[What's for dinner?]
*INNOVATORS LOOK TO "ACCIDENTAL CROPS" AS A NUTRITIOUS, ENVIRONMENTALLY 
FRIENDLY AND FREE SOURCE OF FOOD <https://ensia.com/articles/wild-greens/>*
Edible wild greens could help improve food security, boost public health 
and make communities more resilient to disaster.
- - - -
  "Once your brain starts to notice the environment that way -- once 
plants are not just an undifferentiated sea of green -- you see the 
plants everywhere."

Edible wild greens are consumed globally, particularly during food 
shortages, and many are used medicinally in teas, poultices and 
supplements, Stark learned. But he found little about their nutritional 
qualities. Living in the San Francisco area, he started wondering if 
plants growing wild in cities -- not just on the trails he ran and other 
less urban environments -- were safe to eat. If some of them were, and 
if they were nutritious and free from pollutants, he wondered if 
foraging could potentially help combat food insecurity in cities, boost 
public health, and -- because he lived in earthquake country -- boost 
communities' disaster resilience.,,
https://ensia.com/articles/wild-greens/
- - - -
[yum, wild greens]
*Open-Source Food: Nutrition, Toxicology, and Availability of Wild 
Edible Greens in the East Bay 
<https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/08/06/385864>*
Abstract

    Significance. Foraged leafy greens are consumed around the globe,
    including in urban areas, and may play a larger role when food is
    scarce or expensive. It is thus important to assess the safety and
    nutritional value of wild greens foraged in urban environments.
    Methods. Field observations, soil tests, and nutritional and
    toxicology tests on plant tissue were conducted for three sites,
    each roughly 9 square blocks, in disadvantaged neighborhoods in the
    East San Francisco Bay Area in 2014--2015. The sites included
    mixed-use areas and areas with high vehicle traffic. Results. Edible
    wild greens were abundant, even during record droughts. Soil at some
    survey sites had elevated concentrations of lead and cadmium, but
    tissue tests suggest that rinsed greens are safe to eat. Daily
    consumption of standard servings comprise less than the EPA
    reference doses of lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals.
    Pesticides, glyphosate, and PCBs were below detection limits. The
    nutrient density of 6 abundant species compared favorably to that of
    the most nutritious domesticated leafy greens. Conclusions. Wild
    edible greens harvested in industrial, mixed-use, and high-traffic
    urban areas in the San Francisco East Bay area are abundant and
    highly nutritious. Even grown in soils with elevated levels of heavy
    metals, tested species were safe to eat after rinsing in cold water.
    Wild greens could contribute to nutrition, food security, and
    sustainability in urban ecosystems.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/08/06/385864


*This Day in Climate History - October 3, 2010 
<http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/11/101011fa_fact_lizza?printable=true#ixzz11K5nMoZ9> 
- from D.R. Tucker*
October 3, 2010: NewYorker.com posts Ryan Lizza's analysis of the demise 
of climate legislation in the Senate earlier in the year. The piece, 
which also appears in the October 11 edition of the New Yorker, notes 
that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was concerned about being rhetorically 
assaulted by right-wing media entities for supporting the climate bill:

    "At a climate-change conference in South Carolina on January 5,
    2010, Graham started to sound a little like Al Gore. 'I have come to
    conclude that greenhouse gases and carbon pollution' are 'not a good
    thing,' Graham said. He insisted that nobody could convince him that
    'all the cars and trucks and plants that have been in existence
    since the Industrial Revolution, spewing out carbon day in and day
    out,' could be 'a good thing for your children and the future of the
    planet.' Environmentalists swooned. 'Graham was the most
    inspirational part of that triumvirate throughout the fall and
    winter,' Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club,
    said. 'He was advocating for strong action on climate change from an
    ethical and a moral perspective.'

    "But, back in Washington, Graham warned Lieberman and Kerry that
    they needed to get as far as they could in negotiating the bill
    'before Fox News got wind of the fact that this was a serious
    process,' one of the people involved in the negotiations said.'"

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/11/101011fa_fact_lizza?printable=true#ixzz11K5nMoZ9


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