[TheClimate.Vote] September 22, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sat Sep 22 11:44:37 EDT 2018
/September 22, 2018/
[fire hose tornado suck not yet listed as global warming consequence]
*WATCH: 'Firenado' sucks up fire hose in Canada
<https://www.wthr.com/article/watch-firenado-sucks-fire-hose-canada>*
The video shows three firefighters struggling to control the hose as it
gets sucked toward the flames while a spinning vortex of fire come up
just feet away.
Mary Schidlowsky, who posted the video, said the firenado pulled the
hose more than 100 feet into the air before melting it.
The spinning flames grew to more than 200 feet tall. British Columbia
Wildfire Information Officer Forrest Tower said the tornado was caused
by the heat rising off the wildfire in combination with extremely high
winds.
https://www.wthr.com/article/watch-firenado-sucks-fire-hose-canada
- - - -
[opinion]
*Wildfire risk likely to increase into late September as hot, dry
weather builds across West
<https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/wildfire-risk-likely-to-ramp-up-in-western-us-especially-later-in-september/70005931>*
By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
September 2, 2018
The western United States remains a tinderbox, and wildfire conditions
may worsen as September weather patterns progress.
A persistent northward bulge in the jet stream allowed temperatures to
soar to well above average and at times record levels in parts of the
West this summer.
Multiple, big fires have set the tone so far this year
Most of the large wildfires in California that have burned 875,000 acres
as of Aug. 28 are now mostly contained. However, multiple large fires in
the Northwest continue to burn with with substantially less containment.
The Klondike Fire in Oregon is only 40 percent contained and has burned
over 100,000 acres.
The 875,000 acres burned in California thus far this year, including the
Mendocino Complex and Carr fires, are well above the five-year average
of 157,000 acres to date, according to Cal Fire.
On a national basis, 6.5 million acres have burned so far this year,
compared to a 10-year to date average of 5.2 million acres, according to
the National Interagency Fire Center.
Temperatures to be kept at bay, but fire risk to continue in early September
In recent days, lower temperatures have allowed the wildfire situation
to stabilize in parts of the western United States.
The jet stream dipped farther south during late August and is forecast
to linger over the Northwest U.S. during the first part of September...
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/wildfire-risk-likely-to-ramp-up-in-western-us-especially-later-in-september/70005931
[human caused climate disruption contributes]
*Climate change turned Florence into a monster storm -- but mainstream
media avoided that story
<https://www.salon.com/2018/09/21/climate-change-turned-florence-into-a-monster-storm-but-mainstream-media-avoided-that-story/>*
Scientists believe climate change dramatically increases rainfall, but
most Florence coverage ignored the issue
- - - -
ABC never referred to climate change in its coverage of Florence, Public
Citizen found; its over-the-air colleagues did little better, with CBS
and NBC airing one segment apiece that mentioned Florence and climate
change together (out of 63 and 73 hurricane segments, respectively).
MSNBC brought up climate in 13 percent of its Florence reports,
considerably ahead of CNN's 4 percent; Fox discussed climate in 10
percent of 51 segments on Florence, but, the study noted, "All five of
Fox News Network's mentions of climate change were segments denying the
relationship between the storm and climate change."
"When outlets fail to connect these events to global warming, audiences
are left uninformed about some of the most critical decisions we face,"
David Arkush, who directs Public Citizen's climate program, said in a
statement. "We need a serious national discussion about the urgent,
existential threat from climate change and how we are going to fix it --
and it's very difficult to have that conversation when media won't talk
about the topic."
https://www.salon.com/2018/09/21/climate-change-turned-florence-into-a-monster-storm-but-mainstream-media-avoided-that-story/
[security threat]
*Climate Threats are Shaping Regional Security Cooperation in the
Pacific
<https://climateandsecurity.org/2018/09/21/climate-threats-are-shaping-regional-security-cooperation-in-the-pacific/>*
By Shiloh Fetzek
A new Pacific regional security declaration includes measures to orient
regional cooperation around building resilience to disasters and climate
impacts.
The Boe Declaration was signed on September 5th at the Pacific Islands
Forum in Nauru by Australia, New Zealand and a range of Pacific Island
countries. It defines climate change as the single greatest threat to
the livelihoods, security and well-being of Pacific people.
The Declaration commits signatories to strengthening the regional
security architecture to address a range of threats, including
climate-linked issues like illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing,
alongside broader issues including transnational crime and
cybersecurity. It takes a comprehensive view of security challenges in
the region: "inclusive of human security, humanitarian assistance,
prioritizing environmental security, and regional cooperation in
building resilience to disasters and climate change, including through
regional cooperation and support".
A Leaders statement issued at the same time also asks the UN Secretary
General to appoint a Special Adviser on climate change and security, and
for the UN Security Council to appoint a special rapporteur to produce
"a regular review of global, regional and national security threats
caused by climate change".
https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2018/09/05/1FINAL_49PIFLM_Communique_for_unofficial_release_rev.pdf
https://climateandsecurity.org/2018/09/21/climate-threats-are-shaping-regional-security-cooperation-in-the-pacific/
[Climate Denial Crock of the Week with Peter Sinclair]
*PBS Newshour : Media Catching up with Science of Climate/Cyclones
<https://climatecrocks.com/2018/09/21/pbs-newshour-media-catching-up-with-science-of-climate-cyclones/>*
September 21, 2018
https://climatecrocks.com/2018/09/21/pbs-newshour-media-catching-up-with-science-of-climate-cyclones/
[Climate science on how weather moves]
*Guest post: How Arctic warming could have steered Hurricane Florence
towards the US
<https://www.carbonbrief.org/how-arctic-warming-could-have-steered-hurricane-florence-towards-the-us>*
Although a category 1 hurricane still brings sustained winds of up to 95
miles per hour, Florence's potency was not primarily due to her wind power.
Her threat comes mainly from water: torrential rain plus the bulge of a
storm surge – where a low-pressure storm weather system pulls up the
surface of the ocean – which she has built up along with her unusually
slow crawl along the US coast last week.
Raised ocean levels block the escape of rainwater through the river
system and out into the sea. Combined with the "epic" amounts of rain
that Florence unloaded in the Carolinas – measuring as much as one metre
in some areas – this provides the ingredients for devastating flooding...
- - - - -
What has caused Florence to hit land in the US in this way is an
increasingly common weather phenomenon called "blocking highs" in the
North Atlantic. And these weather patterns may be linked to a warming,
melting Arctic...
- - - -
Numerical weather prediction models often struggle to predict them and
most climate models underestimate how often they occur. Measurements of
the real world tell us that they are occurring more frequently in the
North Atlantic during summer months...
- - - -
Added to this, we have been observing much warmer than normal ocean
temperatures off the east coast of North America in recent years. This
warm water also helps form stronger ridges and, thus, makes blocking
highs more likely. A similar pattern was seen in the "Ridiculously
Resilient Ridge", a huge high-pressure weather system over the
northeastern Pacific Ocean that caused California's recent multi-year
drought....
- - - - -
Florence stumbled into one of these weak-flow areas as it neared the
coast, leading to prolonged heavy rains fuelled by overheated Atlantic
water and evaporation. This is a similar pattern to Hurricane Sandy in
2012, where the storm stalled over the Caribbean with severe rainfall
and resulting damage.
*Declining snow cover*
So, what causes this double peak in the temperature gradient? My
hypothesis is that the answer lies in the ever-earlier loss of the
spring snow cover in the high latitudes. This early melt allows the soil
underneath to dry out and warm up much earlier in a belt along the high
latitudes of the continents – yet another connection to rapid Arctic
warming. Ongoing research will clarify the influence of this factor.
In short, much of the extreme weather that we have endured in recent
years may be boosted by the warming, melting Arctic. Slowing these
changes by reducing our carbon emissions will help soften the blow of
climate change for generations to come.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/how-arctic-warming-could-have-steered-hurricane-florence-towards-the-us
[5 min video]
*Addressing Gender in Climate Change Policies for Agriculture
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsIxsSOXups&feature=youtu.be>**
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsIxsSOXups&feature=youtu.be>*Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Published on Jul 26, 2018
http://www.fao.org/in-action/naps/
http://adaptation-undp.org/naps-agriculture
Men and women often have different roles and responsibilities in society
and therefore experience climate change impacts in different ways.
This video shows what Colombia, Uganda and Viet Nam are doing to develop
gender-responsive national adaptation plans for the agriculture sectors.
This country-driven work is carried out under a global programme known
as Integrating Agriculture in National Adaptation Plans (NAP-Ag),
jointly coordinated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Disclaimer: The designations employed and the presentation of the
material in the maps do not imply the expression of any opinion
whatsoever on the part of FAO and UNDP concerning the legal or
constitutional status of any country, territory or sea area, or
concerning the delimitation of frontiers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsIxsSOXups&feature=youtu.be
[New tool for wind data]
*Global Wind Atlas <https://globalwindatlas.info/>*
Global Solar Atlas <http://globalsolaratlas.info/>
http://globalsolaratlas.info/
EnergyData.info <https://energydata.info/> https://energydata.info/
All apps https://energydata.info/apps
https://globalwindatlas.info/
[Journal Nature warns us]
*Don't deploy negative emissions technologies without ethical analysis
<https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06695-5>*
Climate policy advice is being undermined by value-laden choices over
risky mitigation strategies, warn Dominic Lenzi and colleagues.
PDF version
In October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will
release a special report on keeping global temperature rise within 1.5C
of pre-industrial levels. Governments requested the report at the 2015
Paris climate conference. Policymakers want to know what further steps
would be needed to stay well within the 2C threshold, above which the
risks of climate change become more dangerous.
The IPCC report will confirm an open secret: in the light of growing
emissions, targets for mitigating climate change increasingly depend on
'negative emissions technologies' that suck carbon dioxide out of the
atmosphere. Staying within 2 C could mean extracting billions of tonnes
of CO2 this century.
Atmospheric carbon -- captured after burning biofuels, for instance --
could be locked in the ground or sea for thousands of years. Forests and
soils could be managed to store more carbon. Or more-speculative means
that are still in the realm of basic research could be used1. Examples
include fertilizing the oceans with iron to enhance phytoplankton
growth, increasing the weathering of minerals or developing devices that
remove CO2 directly from the air.
The vast scale at which such technologies would need to be implemented
raises ethical concerns. For example, growing more biomass to burn as
fuel would take land away from food production and use water for
irrigation2. Famines, civil unrest and damage to biodiversity could
follow3. Seeding the oceans with iron could undermine marine ecosystems.
Covering an area twice the size of the United States with crushed
silicate stones to enhance weathering would affect communities,
agriculture and ecosystems.
Yet there has been no systematic evaluation of the ethics of carbon
removal methods by the climate assessment community or professional
philosophers. The IPCC's latest review (its fifth assessment report)
included a chapter on ethics4, setting out concepts of responsibility,
justice and welfare. But it did not dwell much on negative emissions
technologies, nor did other chapters consider ethics. Carbon removal
methods must be ethically evaluated in the context of climate policy
pathways...
- - -- -
Philosophical discussions of climate change revolve around abstract
principles: the 'common but differentiated responsibilities of states'
to fund mitigation and adaptation, whether the polluter pays and who has
the ability to pay. The debates do not consider particular policy
pathways, telling us little about what a just future would look like or
how to achieve it. Without interrogating mitigation pathways, ethics
will be of little use for policy assessment.
Ethicists need a better understanding of climate-mitigation research.
The vast scales over which negative emissions technologies would be
unleashed are difficult to grasp. Even the climate stabilization target
isn't settled. It seems obvious that lower temperatures are ethically
preferable. But getting negative emissions wrong also raises risks.
Keeping within 1.5 C of warming could cause side effects that are as bad
as those in a world that is 2 C warmer -- such as through environmental
damage caused by ramping up mineral mining, or cutting down the rest of
the Amazon rainforest for biofuels....
- - - -
To broaden the range of considerations included, we would like to see
ethicists, modellers and social scientists, governments and
civil-society groups collaborate on climate-mitigation assessments.
Drawing on divergent viewpoints and criteria, they should map the
various implications of alternative policy pathways10. Organizations
such as the Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium should openly
discuss ethical assumptions built into models. This might help to avoid
misleading or opaque choices being made at the design stage. For
example, lifestyle changes such as meat-free diets or avoidance of
aeroplane travel have been absent until recently from scenarios, leading
to an imbalanced representation of options...
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06695-5
[whence words?]
*The Power of Language in the Anthropocene
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/20/the-power-of-language-in-the-anthropocene/>*
by KENN ORPHAN
"So we are left with a stark choice: allow climate disruption to
change everything about our world, or change pretty much everything
about our economy to avoid that fate. But we need to be very clear:
because of our decades of collective denial, no gradual, incremental
options are now available to us."
– Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly
limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively
debate within that spectrum."
– Noam Chomsky
"We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the
divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed
by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very
often in our art, the art of words."
– Ursula K. Le Guin
"Let us wake up, humankind! We're out of time. We must shake our
conscience free of the rapacious capitalism, racism and patriarchy
that will only assure our own self-destruction."
– Berta Caceres, Indigenous and environmental activist, murdered by
a rightwing Honduran death squad.
At a certain point reality crashes headlong into toxic naivety. It is
inevitable. One can only go on so long in denial before it intrudes.
This is also true of societies. As I write, several
"unprecedented"deadly hurricanes, typhoons and tropical storms are
literally swirling around the world's oceans. One of them has churned
through the Carolinas. But this is a place where analysis of the threat
of sea level rise was forbidden by a state determined to erase any
public discourse on climate change in deference to its moneyed
industries. Another one, the strongest on the planet, has devastated
swaths of the Philippines and Hong Kong. On the opposite end of the
spectrum wildfires have scorched huge swaths of North America, Greece
and Spain and floods have inundated villages from Italy to India. Year
after year the broken records and damages pile up, and it is becoming
increasingly difficult for even the most irrational or dimwitted to
ignore the unfolding climate chaos. Yet still the language of the
Anthropocene remains a convoluted mess of obscurantism and outright
denial...
- - - - -
In the US most live in state of perpetual stress and distraction.
Distracted by the demands of work, shrinking social safety nets and a
political landscape that has merged with mass entertainment, the
corporate surveillance state keeps the masses in line by neutralizing
public opinion, policing thought and censoring dialogue. Many live in
states that are destined to experience more and more catastrophic
flooding or prolonged and entrenched drought thanks to climate change.
Hyperbolic? Perhaps to some. But in the global south, which often
includes areas inside Western nations, dystopia is now. They inhabit
capitalism's sacrifice zones, places where ruthless exploitation,
destruction and abandonment are considered acceptable. For them water is
already scarce, food is already insecure, addiction is already and
epidemic, cancer and other diseases are already the norm, and their
homes are already sinking beneath the tide. They understand that
denialism, false hope and language that cloaks reality only perpetuate
the misery and maintains the status quo death march to extinction. They
have taught us all how we must dissent to the madness of the
Anthropocene. Thanks to centuries of massacre, exploitation and having
their histories rewritten, from Chiapas to Sapmi,they have responded by
nourishing solidarity and resistance. They have demonstrated to us that
agency rests in a relentless drive to push back, build economies
independent of the "free market," foster independent media and
journalism, create representative forms of governance despite cynicism,
stand united against the violence of the state against the odds, paint
murals that reflect the people's history and speak in a language that
boldly defies the ruling class narrative...
- - - -
But we should understand that the language of this era is no accident.
It has been carefully crafted by the forces of capital to control the
dominant narrative, condition our thinking, and dictate how we will act.
It is designed to keep us distracted while they keep up their pillage.
The beginning of dissent and resistance, then, lies in learning a
different tongue.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/20/the-power-of-language-in-the-anthropocene/
[Archive dive - crucial documents]
*Shell and Exxon's secret 1980s climate change warnings
<https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/sep/19/shell-and-exxons-secret-1980s-climate-change-warnings>*
Newly found documents from the 1980s show that fossil fuel companies
privately predicted the global damage that would be caused by their
products...
- - - - -
Recently, secret documents have been unearthed detailing what the energy
industry knew about the links between their products and global warming.
But, unlike the government's nuclear plans, what the industry detailed
was put into action.
In the 1980s, oil companies like Exxon and Shell carried out internal
assessments of the carbon dioxide released by fossil fuels, and forecast
the planetary consequences of these emissions. In 1982, for example,
Exxon predicted that by about 2060, CO2 levels would reach around 560
parts per million – double the preindustrial level – and that this would
push the planet's average temperatures up by about 2C over then-current
levels (and even more compared to pre-industrial levels).
Later that decade, in 1988, an internal report by Shell projected
similar effects but also found that CO2 could double even earlier, by
2030. Privately, these companies did not dispute the links between their
products, global warming, and ecological calamity. On the contrary,
their research confirmed the connections.
Shell's assessment foresaw a one-meter sea-level rise, and noted that
warming could also fuel disintegration of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet,
resulting in a worldwide rise in sea level of "five to six meters." That
would be enough to inundate entire low-lying countries...
- - - -
For its part, Exxon warned of "potentially catastrophic events that must
be considered." Like Shell's experts, Exxon's scientists predicted
devastating sea-level rise, and warned that the American Midwest and
other parts of the world could become desert-like. Looking on the bright
side, the company expressed its confidence that "this problem is not as
significant to mankind as a nuclear holocaust or world famine."
The documents make for frightening reading. And the effect is all the
more chilling in view of the oil giants' refusal to warn the public
about the damage that their own researchers predicted. Shell's report,
marked "confidential," was first disclosed by a Dutch news organization
earlier this year. Exxon's study was not intended for external
distribution, either; it was leaked in 2015...
- - - -
Despite scientific uncertainties, the bottom line was this: oil firms
recognized that their products added CO2 to the atmosphere, understood
that this would lead to warming, and calculated the likely consequences.
And then they chose to accept those risks on our behalf, at our expense,
and without our knowledge...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/sep/19/shell-and-exxons-secret-1980s-climate-change-warnings
- - - -
[Here's the source material]
*Shell Knew Fossil Fuels Created Climate Change Risks Back in 1980s,
Internal Documents Show
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05042018/shell-knew-scientists-climate-change-risks-fossil-fuels-global-warming-company-documents-netherlands-lawsuits>*
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05042018/shell-knew-scientists-climate-change-risks-fossil-fuels-global-warming-company-documents-netherlands-lawsuits
- - - -
*Exxon's Own Research Confirmed Fossil Fuels' Role in Global Warming
Decades Ago
<https://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken>*
https://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken
- - - - -
[1985 Shell research paper]
*Shell Confidential THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT
<https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blog/Shell_Climate_1988.pdf>*
https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blog/Shell_Climate_1988.pdf
- - - - -
[Exxon Research and Engineering Company report 1982]
*briefing material on the CO2 "Greenhouse" Effect
<http://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/documents/1982%20Exxon%20Primer%20on%20CO2%20Greenhouse%20Effect.pdf>*
http://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/documents/1982%20Exxon%20Primer%20on%20CO2%20Greenhouse%20Effect.pdf
- - - - -[gosh, I wish everybody could have read this paper back in 1982]
*This Day in Climate History <http://youtu.be/QvDg4BMTGE8> - September
22, 2014
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/science/earth/scientists-report-global-rise-in-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html>
- from D.R. Tucker*
September 22, 2009: President Obama addresses the UN on climate change.
http://youtu.be/QvDg4BMTGE8
- - - -
September 22, 2014:
The New York Times reports:
"Global emissions of greenhouse gases jumped 2.3 percent in 2013 to
record levels, scientists reported Sunday, in the latest indication
that the world remains far off track in its efforts to control
global warming.
“The emissions growth last year was a bit slower than the average
growth rate of 2.5 percent over the past decade, and much of the dip
was caused by an economic slowdown in China, which is the world’s
single largest source of emissions. It may take an additional year
or two to know if China has turned a corner toward slower emissions
growth, or if the runaway pace of recent years will resume.
"In the United States, emissions rose 2.9 percent, after declining
in recent years.
"The new numbers, reported by a tracking initiative called the
Global Carbon Project and published in the journal Nature
Geoscience, came on the eve of a United Nations summit meeting meant
to harness fresh political ambition in tackling climate change.
Scientists said the figures showed that vastly greater efforts would
be needed to get long-term global warming within tolerable limits."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/science/earth/scientists-report-global-rise-in-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//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. I do not use pixel trackers.
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/20180922/d0e669a8/attachment.html>
More information about the TheClimate.Vote
mailing list