[TheClimate.Vote] September 6, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Sep 6 09:27:24 EDT 2018
/September 6, 2018/
[The Daily Distress]
*Trump adds physicist Will Happer, climate science critic, to White
House staff
<http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/trump-adds-physicist-will-happer-climate-science-opponent-white-house-staff>*
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/trump-adds-physicist-will-happer-climate-science-opponent-white-house-staff
[Heroic opinion from a woman born into a comic book dynasty]
*We Need Courage, Not Hope, To Face Climate Change
<https://onbeing.org/blog/kate-marvel-we-need-courage-not-hope-to-face-climate-change/>*
BY KATE MARVEL (@DRKATEMARVEL), CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
As a climate scientist, I am often asked to talk about hope.
Particularly in the current political climate, audiences want to be told
that everything will be all right in the end. And, unfortunately, I have
a deep-seated need to be liked and a natural tendency to optimism that
leads me to accept more speaking invitations than is good for me.
Climate change is bleak, the organizers always say. Tell us a happy
story. Give us hope. The problem is, I don't have any...
- - - -
I have lived a fortunate, charmed, loved life. This means I have
infinite, gullible faith in the goodness of the individual. But I have
none whatsoever in the collective. How else can it be that the sum total
of so many tiny acts of kindness is a world incapable of stopping
something so eminently stoppable? California burns. Islands and
coastlines are smashed by hurricanes. At night the stars are washed out
by city lights and the world is illuminated by the flickering ugliness
of reality television. We burn coal and oil and gas, heedless of the
consequences.
Our laws are changeable and shifting; the laws of physics are fixed.
Change is already underway; individual worries and sacrifices have not
slowed it. Hope is a creature of privilege: we know that things will be
lost, but it is comforting to believe that others will bear the brunt of it.
We are the lucky ones who suffer little tragedies unmoored from the
brutality of history. Our loved ones are taken from us one by one
through accident or illness, not wholesale by war or natural disaster.
But the scale of climate change engulfs even the most fortunate. There
is now no weather we haven't touched, no wilderness immune from our
encroaching pressure. The world we once knew is never coming back.
I have no hope that these changes can be reversed. We are inevitably
sending our children to live on an unfamiliar planet. But the opposite
of hope is not despair. It is grief. Even while resolving to limit the
damage, we can mourn. And here, the sheer scale of the problem provides
a perverse comfort: we are in this together. The swiftness of the
change, its scale and inevitability, binds us into one, broken hearts
trapped together under a warming atmosphere.
We need courage, not hope. Grief, after all, is the cost of being alive.
We are all fated to live lives shot through with sadness, and are not
worth less for it. Courage is the resolve to do well without the
assurance of a happy ending. Little molecules, random in their movement,
add together to a coherent whole. Little lives do not. But here we are,
together on a planet radiating ever more into space where there is no
darkness, only light we cannot see.
https://onbeing.org/blog/kate-marvel-we-need-courage-not-hope-to-face-climate-change/
[Clearly explaining sites and videos]
*Climate Change is an Existential Threat to Civilisation
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA0wOoMscXI>*
Video introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA0wOoMscXI
Climate One, Climate Change and the Threat to Civilization
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WiiP2KTRXg> with Michael Mann
(2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WiiP2KTRXg
Veerabhadran Ramanathan: Climate change morphing into an existential
problem <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmmFwfF8Gig> at Cambridge
Climate Lecture Series
(2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmmFwfF8Gig
World Economic Forum: Humanity's most existential risks are getting
worse
<https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/humanity-s-most-existential-risks-are-getting-worse-heres-why>.
Here's a major reason why
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/humanity-s-most-existential-risks-are-getting-worse-heres-why
UN Secretary-General, Climate change: An 'existential threat' to
humanity <https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/05/1009782>, UN chief
warns global summit https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/05/1009782
New Climate Risk Classification Created to Account for Potential
"Existential" Threats
<https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/new-climate-risk-classification-created-account-potential-existential-threats>
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/new-climate-risk-classification-created-account-potential-existential-threats
David Spratt speaks 2014, at the Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nLEXXvXRY8>. We've
reached a Point where we have a Crisis, an Emergency
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nLEXXvXRY8
http://climatestate.com/2018/09/05/climate-change-is-an-existential-threat-to-civilisation/
[NASA on methane]
FEATURE | August 20, 2018
*Unexpected future boost of methane possible from Arctic permafrost
<https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2785/unexpected-future-boost-of-methane-possible-from-arctic-permafrost/>*
By Ellen Gray,
NASA's Earth Science News Team
New NASA-funded research has discovered that Arctic permafrost's
expected gradual thawing and the associated release of greenhouse gases
to the atmosphere may actually be sped up by instances of a relatively
little known process called abrupt thawing. Abrupt thawing takes place
under a certain type of Arctic lake, known as a thermokarst lake that
forms as permafrost thaws.
The impact on the climate may mean an influx of permafrost-derived
methane into the atmosphere in the mid-21st century, which is not
currently accounted for in climate projections.
The Arctic landscape stores one of the largest natural reservoirs of
organic carbon in the world in its frozen soils. But once thawed, soil
microbes in the permafrost can turn that carbon into the greenhouse
gases carbon dioxide and methane, which then enter into the atmosphere
and contribute to climate warming.
"The mechanism of abrupt thaw and thermokarst lake formation matters a
lot for the permafrost-carbon feedback this century," said first author
Katey Walter Anthony at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, who led the
project that was part of NASA's Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment
(ABoVE), a ten-year program to understand climate change effects on the
Arctic. "We don't have to wait 200 or 300 years to get these large
releases of permafrost carbon. Within my lifetime, my children's
lifetime, it should be ramping up. It's already happening but it's not
happening at a really fast rate right now, but within a few decades, it
should peak."...
- -- -
Because the thermokarst lakes are relatively small and scattered
throughout the Arctic landscapes, computer models of their behavior are
not currently incorporated into global climate models. However, Walter
Anthony believes including them in future models is important for
understanding the role of permafrost in the global carbon budget. Human
fossil fuel emissions are the number one source of greenhouse gases to
the atmosphere, and in comparison, methane emissions from thawing
permafrost make up only one percent of the global methane budget, Walter
Anthony said. "But by the middle to end of the century the
permafrost-carbon feedback should be about equivalent to the second
strongest anthropogenic source of greenhouse gases, which is land use
change," she said.
To learn more about ABoVE, visit https://above.nasa.gov/.
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2785/unexpected-future-boost-of-methane-possible-from-arctic-permafrost/
[From ClimateNexus]
*Two New Studies Show Engagement With Climate Allows Deniers To Move
Beyond Heuristics*
<https://mailchi.mp/climatenexus/trump-taps-fossil-fuel-shill-for-nsc-fema-sent-bottom-of-the-barrel-workers-to-puerto-rico-more?e=95b355344d>*
***One of the key social and political drivers
<https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7a6a29b083&e=95b355344d>
of climate denial is political polarization: most conservatives see the
issue as a liberal concern, and therefore don't care. It's a heuristic,
a mental shortcut the brain uses to maximize efficiency and speed in
decision-making. Any information they hear about the subject gets
filtered through that lens, making it all but impossible for the GOP to
treat the issue seriously. This has long been a key strategy of
organized denial, and explains why the far right still reference Al Gore
at bizarre and unrelated times.
Since there's little chance of changing deeply held ideological beliefs
like this, it's been a tough spot for climate change activists. But two
recently published studies provide something of a common sense answer of
how to get people to care about climate change: find a way to make them
engage with the science, impacts and solutions.
One study, published in PLOS One last week
<https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=3a4431e892&e=95b355344d>,
had research subjects participate in a mock UN climate negotiation with
an interactive climate policy simulator
<https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=59d74e1388&e=95b355344d>.
The researchers found that the simulator led to a greater understanding
of the issue, more feelings of hope and urgency, and a desire to find
out and do more about climate change.
Notably, the authors write in the abstract that improvements in
perspective "were just as strong among American participants who oppose
government regulation of free markets–a political ideology that has been
linked to climate change denial in the US–suggesting the simulation's
potential to reach across political divides."
Through the process of role-playing as negotiators, participants were
allowed to tinker with emissions trajectories to see what sort of
pathways lead to what levels of warming. This forced them to think about
the issue deeply and at length, leading to greater levels of
understanding and concern, even among anti-regulatory conservatives. The
process meant conservatives could not merely use their ideology as a
heuristic, but instead had to go through the process of truly
considering the impacts of GHG emissions and reckoning with emission
reductions.
The second study
<https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=6b113fc3ce&e=95b355344d>,
published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academies of
Science
<https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=c8262fc287&e=95b355344d>,
takes a different tact but also shows pathways for reducing political
polarization on climate.
In this study, researchers started with a graph of sea ice from NASA,
which shows a decline over the long term with a slight jump up in the
last year of data (2013). Because of the graph line's bounce off the
bottom, 25% of Democrats and 40% of Republicans (wrongly) predicted that
the trend shows sea ice cover going up.
After an initial assessment, the subjects were assigned to one of three
different artificial social networks to discuss the graph with other
participants, then reassess their prediction about the trend. In one
group, each user's political affiliation was shown through their social
contacts. In a second, users were anonymous but an elephant and a donkey
were used to symbolize political affiliation. In a third, there was no
political information and people were anonymous.
In the anonymous group, people actually discussed the chart rationally,
resulting in 85% of both Republicans and Democrats correctly believing
the sea-ice trend was going down. The other two groups, where political
identity was a factor, did not show this score change. In other words,
people wouldn't listen to members of the other parties.
Unfortunately, in the real world it is often nearly impossible to
separate a social network's user from their political affiliations.
American flags, "X"'s, red roses, a raised fist: there are all sorts of
markers we use to identify ourselves to our tribe, and generally for
good reason. In the world where our brains spent thousands of years
developing, recognizing one's own tribe could mean the difference
between victory and death.
The world has changed, but our brains have not.
Now, sadly, recognizing one's tribe may still mean the difference
between victory and defeat. Except ignoring tribal partisanship that may
be our only hope at victory, and the inability to do so is leading to
defeat.
https://mailchi.mp/climatenexus/trump-taps-fossil-fuel-shill-for-nsc-fema-sent-bottom-of-the-barrel-workers-to-puerto-rico-more?e=95b355344d
[NYC Activism Thurs Sept 6]
*RISE FOR CLIMATE, JOBS, AND JUSTICE: NOW IS THE TIME FOR ACTION!!
<https://www.pcmny.org/events>*
5:30PM THURSDAY
SEPT 6
BATTERY PARK, NEW YORK, NY
Our country is in crisis. The global climate crisis deepens at
unprecedented speed. Rising sea levels, devastating storms and flooding,
extreme wildfires, and food and water shortages are already causing mass
migration, the destruction of island nations and the loss of life. We
can no longer accept "business as usual" as the world hits the tipping
points of climate change with no return. We must act now.
Days before the Global Climate Action Summit convenes in San Francisco,
people across the country and around the world will take to the streets
demanding that our elected officials commit to the most far-reaching and
effective policies possible.
https://www.pcmny.org/events
[Paleo-climatology.. German documentary in 2 parts YouTube]
*How Climate Made History Pt. 1 | Full documentary
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IL-TeV-cqY>*
hazards and catastrophes
Published on Jul 8, 2017
A unique combination of natural science and history takes us through the
ages and along the entire spectrum of natural forces. The gripping
narrative exposes surprising connections between volatile climate shifts
and major historical events.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IL-TeV-cqY
- - - - -
[second part - excellent documentary YouTube]*
How Climate Made History Pt. 2 | Full Documentary
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaKpsOz8Nsw>*
hazards and catastrophes
Published on Jul 8, 2017
A unique combination of natural science and history takes us through the
ages and along the entire spectrum of natural forces. The gripping
narrative exposes surprising connections between volatile climate shifts
and major historical events.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaKpsOz8Nsw
[Vita brevis est]
*'Art can play a valuable role': climate change installations appear in
New York
<https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/sep/04/climate-signals-climate-change-installation-new-york?CMP=share_btn_link>*
Solar-powered highway signs have been placed in the city's five boroughs
as part of the Climate Signals installation
The existential threat of climate change is being spelled out to New
Yorkers via a selection of flashing highway signs that have been placed
around the city.
The 10 large solar-powered signs have been placed in locations in each
of New York's five boroughs, including areas deemed particularly
vulnerable to the sea level rise and powerful storms associated with
climate change, including the Rockaways in Queens and the west side of
Manhattan.
Messages such as "Climate change at work" and "Climate denial kills"
will be displayed in English, as well as in languages commonly spoken in
the areas they will be deployed, such as Spanish, Russian and French.
The signs are part of a project by the Climate Museum and a host of
partners, including the New York City's mayor's office. The
installation, called Climate Signals, has been done by Justin Brice
Guariglia, an artist who regularly focuses on environmental themes in
his work.
"These signs sound a warning about the climate crisis and they call us
to think and act on the issue," said Miranda Massie, director of the
Climate Museum. "When you see a flashing traffic signal your initial
response is that there are uncertain conditions ahead, and that is
exactly what climate change is. This is the perfect medium for bringing
up this alert."
Some of the sites will include elements such as voter registration and
appearances by climate scientists. Massie said the work is not overtly
activist in nature, despite the unfolding agenda of Donald Trump, a
native of Queens, to dismiss the science of climate change and dismantle
policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"Anyone who is aware of the climate crisis is appalled and alarmed by
the disgraceful assault by the administration on climate progress," she
said. "But this project isn't political in a narrow sense, it's about
social and cultural action. We need a social shift to deal with climate
change. It shouldn't be a political lightning rod."
Daniel Zarrilli, New York City's chief resilience officer, said:
"Climate change is one of New York City's greatest challenges and
requires creative approaches to educate and engage all of us about its
risks and solutions. Art can play a valuable role in this effort."
Climate Signals will be visible across New York City until 6 November
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/sep/04/climate-signals-climate-change-installation-new-york?CMP=share_btn_link
*This Day in Climate History - September 6, 2011
<http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/exclusive-audio-koch-brothers-seminar-tapes/>-
from D.R. Tucker*
September 6, 2011:
On MotherJones.com, investigative journalist Brad Friedman posts
audio from a secretive June 2011 conference in Colorado hosted by
climate-change-denying libertarian billionaires Charles and David
Koch. In one clip, Charles Koch compares President Obama to Saddam
Hussein. That evening, Friedman discusses the conference on MSNBC's
"The Ed Show."
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/exclusive-audio-koch-brothers-seminar-tapes/
http://youtu.be/7qLiEB4Ed_E
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//Archive of Daily Global Warming News
<https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html>
//
/https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote//
///
///To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe
<mailto:subscribe at theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request>
/to news digest. /
*** Privacy and Security: * This is a text-only mailing that
carries no images which may originate from remote servers.
Text-only messages provide greater privacy to the receiver and
sender.
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain must be used for
democratic and election purposes and cannot be used for
commercial purposes.
To subscribe, email: contact at theclimate.vote with subject:
subscribe, To Unsubscribe, subject: unsubscribe
Also youmay subscribe/unsubscribe at
https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Paulifor
http://TheClimate.Vote delivering succinct information for
citizens and responsible governments of all levels. List
membership is confidential and records are scrupulously
restricted to this mailing list.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/attachments/20180906/cf108ca7/attachment.html>
More information about the TheClimate.Vote
mailing list