[TheClimate.Vote] September 5, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Wed Sep 5 09:41:27 EDT 2018

/September 5, 2018/

[SCOTUS]
*What Brett Kavanaugh on Supreme Court Could Mean for Climate 
Regulations 
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10072018/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-trump-nominee-climate-change-policy-environmental-law>*
Trump's Supreme Court nominee has a history of opposing regulations 
Congress didn't explicitly authorize. That could be a problem for 
greenhouse gas policies.
Marianne Lavelle
BY MARIANNE LAVELLE
In his dozen years on the federal appeals court that hears the most 
disputes over government regulatory power, Judge Brett Kavanaugh has 
compiled an extensive record of skepticism toward the government's 
powers to act on climate change.
In particular, while Kavanaugh has repeatedly voiced the belief that 
global warming is a serious problem, he has challenged the argument that 
Congress has given the Environmental Protection Agency authority to do 
something about it.
That means the 53-year-old jurist, if approved by the Senate to fill the 
vacancy left by Justice Anthony Kennedy, *could harden the high court 
for the next generation as a blockade to climate action that isn't 
explicitly mandated by Congress*. Though Kennedy was hardly a reliable 
vote for environmental protection, he was the pivotal vote in 
Massachusetts v. EPA, the 5-4 decision that in 2007 established that 
greenhouse gases were a pollutant that fit :well within: the EPA's 
authority to regulate under the Clean Air Act...
- - - - -
Goffman said one of Kavanaugh's most telling environmental opinions was 
his 2012 decision to strike down the EPA's rules for addressing 
cross-state pollution from power plants, a decision that was overturned 
by a 6-3 Supreme Court, including both Kennedy and Chief Justice John 
Roberts in the majority.

"He looked at a technical issue that involved an analysis both of 
atmospheric chemistry and economics, and substituted the judgment of 
EPA's with his own,: Goffman said. "To me, it's a 'tell' of his anti-EPA 
mind set.:...
- - - -
Gerrard believes that will extend beyond the question of EPA's 
authority. He thinks Kavanaugh may not look favorably on the cases that 
seek to hold oil companies legally liable for the costs that society and 
communities are bearing on climate change. "The fact that he thinks it 
is Congress that should be making the key decisions on climate change, 
and not the EPA, would suggest that he doesn't think the courts should 
be making the policy either."
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10072018/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-trump-nominee-climate-change-policy-environmental-law

[Sports and Global Warming - NYTime$]
*Health? Desire? Nah, but the heat was a major problem for Roger Federer 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/climate/roger-federer-loss-heat.html>*
New York Times
Roger Federer, one of the world's greatest tennis players, may have 
become an unwitting spokesman for the effects of climate change on 
Monday at ...
By Kendra Pierre-Louis
Roger Federer, one of the world's greatest tennis players, may have 
become an unwitting spokesman for the effects of climate change on 
Monday at the U.S. Open.
Federer, who is ranked No. 2, seemed to struggle all night in the heat 
and humidity at Arthur Ashe Stadium, losing in a fourth-round upset to 
John Millman, an Australian ranked 55th.
:It was hot," Federer said. It :was just one of those nights where I 
guess I felt I couldn't get air; there was no circulation at all."
This was the first time Federer, who won the U.S. Open five consecutive 
times from 2004 to 2008, lost to a player outside the top 50 at the 
tournament.
To some, the comments by Federer, 37, may sound like sour grapes. But 
they also underscore a growing problem: increasing nighttime temperatures.
Under climate change, overall temperatures are rising - 2018 is on track 
to be the fourth-warmest year on record - but the warming is not 
happening evenly. Summer nights have warmed at nearly twice the rate of 
summer days. Average overnight low temperatures in the United States 
have increased 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit per century since 1895, according 
to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
While daytime temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees 
Celsius) have been a persistent problem at this U.S. Open, forcing 
officials to offer players heat breaks and suspend junior matches, 
conditions Monday night were not much cooler. Temperatures hovered in 
the mid-80s, with the humidity for much of the match above 70 percent.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/climate/roger-federer-loss-heat.html 
<http://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/24571914/us-open-health-desire-nah-heat-was-major-problem-roger-federer>

[Methanogenic]
*More and bigger sinkholes on Yamal tundra 
<https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2018/08/more-and-bigger-sinkholes-yamal-tundra>*
The biggest hole is now more than 60 meters wide and 200 meter deep.
By Atle Staalesen - August 31, 2018
The formations believed to be created by eruption of natural gas from 
the ground are of growing concern both to researchers and the oil and 
gas industry in the far Arctic peninsulas of Yamal and Gydan.
One of the biggest formations is located only about four kilometers from 
a gas pipeline leading from the huge Bovanenkovo field, a project 
operated by Gazprom. This formation is now growing and has reached a 
diameter of more than 60 meter and a depth of about 200 meters.
The first sinkholes were discovered in 2014 and since then at least ten 
big-size holes have been mapped. In addition, there are indications that 
several more major holes are in the making. Researchers told RIA Novosti 
that they on the two Arctic peninsulas have discovered several small 
hills which they believe could be «gas bubbles» ready to burst.
According to researchers at the Institute of Earth Cryosphere in Tyumen, 
there is methane gas seeping out from the formations...
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2018/08/more-and-bigger-sinkholes-yamal-tundra

[Bloomberg: Trump data dump]
*Dire Climate Change Warnings Cut From Trump Power-Plant Proposal 
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-04/dire-climate-change-warnings-cut-from-trump-power-plant-proposal>*
By Jennifer A Dlouhy
September 4, 2018, 11:33 AM PDT
Warnings about potentially severe consequences of climate change were 
deleted from a Trump administration plan to weaken curbs on power plant 
emissions during a White House review.
Drafts had devoted more than 500 words to highlighting the impacts -- 
more heat waves, intense hurricanes, heavy rainfalls, floods and water 
pollution -- as part of the proposal to replace Obama-era restrictions 
on greenhouse gas emissions. That language was left out of the Trump 
administration's final analysis of the Environmental Protection Agency 
proposal, when it was unveiled Aug. 21.
- - - - -
Endangerment Finding
The administration also backed off from a plan to seek public comment on 
the appropriateness of the EPA's landmark conclusion that greenhouse gas 
emissions endanger the public health and welfare. That endangerment 
finding, as it is known, serves as the legal underpinning for a suite of 
regulations designed to combat climate change.
EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler has said he would not reopen the 
endangerment finding, but conservatives are petitioning the agency to 
revisit the issue.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-04/dire-climate-change-warnings-cut-from-trump-power-plant-proposal

[Yale pink noise is a data term]
*Parsing natural climate variability from human-caused climate change 
<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180904150358.htm>*
Date: September 4, 2018
Source: Yale University
Summary: A new study says pink noise may be the key to separating out 
natural climate variability from climate change that is influenced by 
human activity.
:We find that the observed pink noise behavior is intrinsic to Earth's 
climate dynamics, which suggests a range of possible implications, 
perhaps the most important of which are 'resonances' in which processes 
couple and amplify warming,: Wettlaufer said.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180904150358.htm

[heavy science -  simple discussion of math words only]
*Climate Modelling Joanna D Haigh 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zTUGuUk97M>*
Serious Science
Published on May 21, 2018
Serious Science - http://serious-science.org
Category Science & Technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zTUGuUk97M

*This Day in Climate History - September 5, 2017 
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/epa-now-requires-political-aides-sign-off-for-agency-awards-grant-applications/2017/09/04/2fd707a0-88fd-11e7-a94f-3139abce39f5_story.html?utm_term=.8beb69e98350> 
- from D.R. Tucker*
*September 5, 2017: *The Washington Post reports:

    "The Environmental Protection Agency has taken the unusual step of
    putting a political operative in charge of vetting the hundreds of
    millions of dollars in grants the EPA distributes annually,
    assigning final funding decisions to a former Trump campaign aide
    with little environmental policy experience. "In this role, John
    Konkus reviews every award the agency gives out, along with every
    grant solicitation before it is issued. According to both career and
    political employees, Konkus has told staff that he is on the lookout
    for ‘the double C-word’ - climate change - and repeatedly has
    instructed grant officers to eliminate references to the subject in
    solicitations."

**https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/epa-now-requires-political-aides-sign-off-for-agency-awards-grant-applications/2017/09/04/2fd707a0-88fd-11e7-a94f-3139abce39f5_story.html?utm_term=.8beb69e98350

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