[TheClimate.Vote] September 24, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Mon Sep 24 10:21:36 EDT 2018
/September 24, 2018/
[Everyone, except one]
*Tackling climate change to be key talking point at UN summit
<https://apnews.com/417baf65b42540789611a56cdcff6358>*
BERLIN (AP) -- With global temperatures rising, superstorms taking their
deadly toll and a year-end deadline to firm up the Paris climate deal,
leaders at this year's U.N. General Assembly are feeling a sense of
urgency to keep up the momentum on combating climate change.
That's why, in between discussing how to tackle wars, poverty and deadly
diseases around the world, leaders will be devoting substantial time in
New York this week to the question of global warming and how to rein it in.
There'll be talk of emissions targets and the need to adapt to the
inevitable changes already underway when small island states take the
floor at the annual gathering. Ministers from major economies,
meanwhile, will be meeting behind closed doors to discuss who will pay
to help poor countries avoid the worst effects of global warming -- and
prevent a wave of climate refugees in future.
Outside the confines of the United Nations, campaigners and
businesspeople will meet during New York Climate Week, while Wednesday
will see the second edition of French President Emmanuel Macron's One
Planet Summit.
About the only leader not expected to dwell on climate change is
President Donald Trump, who last year announced his intention to
withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris accord. He says it
represents a bad deal for the American people...
https://apnews.com/417baf65b42540789611a56cdcff6358
[we're gonna need a taller sea wall]
*At this rate, Earth risks sea level rise of 20 to 30 feet, historical
analysis shows
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/09/20/antarctica-warming-could-fuel-disastrous-sea-level-rise-study-finds/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e44121d7248e>*
New research finds that a vast area of Antarctica retreated when Earth's
temperatures weren't much warmer than they are now.
By Chris Mooney
September 20
Temperatures not much warmer than the planet is experiencing now were
sufficient to melt a major part of the East Antarctic ice sheet in
Earth's past, scientists reported Wednesday, including during one era
about 125,000 years ago when sea levels were as much as 20 to 30 feet
higher than they are now.
"It doesn't need to be a very big warming, as long as it stays 2 degrees
warmer for a sufficient time, this is the end game," said David Wilson,
a geologist at Imperial College London and one of the authors of the new
research, which was published in Nature. Scientists at institutions in
Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Spain also contributed to the work.
The research concerns a little-studied region called the Wilkes
Subglacial Basin, which is roughly the size of California and Texas
combined and contains more than 10 feet of potential sea-level rise.
Fronted by three enormous glaciers named Cook, Mertz and Ninnis, the
Wilkes is known to be vulnerable to fast retreat because the ice here is
not standing on land and instead is rising up from a deep depression in
the ocean floor.
Moreover, that depression grows deeper as you move from the current icy
coastline of the Wilkes farther inland toward the South Pole, a downhill
slope that could facilitate rapid ice loss.
- - - -
The situations of Thwaites and Wilkes are eerily similar -- both feature
enormous amounts of ice resting on the seafloor, rather than on land,
and downward slopes that create what scientists call a "marine ice sheet
instability." And both contain enough ice to unlock 10 feet or more of
sea-level rise.
Thwaites is "sitting in a very unfortunate spot…resting over some of the
deepest bedrock in West Antarctica," Ted Scambos, a senior research
scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo.,
said at a planning event at Columbia University on Wednesday.
The new study suggests that Thwaites is the beginning, not the end, of
our worries. One key difference, though, is that Thwaites is already
losing 50 billion tons of ice per year, whereas the Wilkes region
appears to be relatively unchanged for now, according to Wilson.
But it may simply be that while the world is already warm enough to
awaken West Antarctica, just a bit more warmth will cause the same to
happen to parts of the much larger East Antarctic ice sheet. That would
not only explain a lot about the link between past sea levels and past
temperatures in Earth's history -- it would further illuminate the
future we're heading toward.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/09/20/antarctica-warming-could-fuel-disastrous-sea-level-rise-study-finds/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e44121d7248e
[Risks of a consensus report]
*Climate study 'pulls punches' to keep polluters on board
<https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/sep/23/scientists-changing-global-warming-report-please-polluters>*
'True risks' of warming played down to placate fossil-fuel nations
Warnings about the dangers of global warming are being watered down in
the final version of a key climate report for a major international
meeting next month, according to reviewers who have studied earlier
versions of the report and its summary.
- - - -
They say scientists working on the final draft of the summary are
censoring their own warnings and "pulling their punches" to make policy
recommendations seem more palatable to countries - such as the US, Saudi
Arabia and Australia - that are reluctant to cut fossil-fuel emissions,
a key cause of global warming. "Downplaying the worst impacts of climate
change has led the scientific authors to omit crucial information from
the summary for policymakers," said one reviewer, Bob Ward, policy
director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the
Environment.
"However, if governments do not recognise the full scale and urgency of
the risks, they may underestimate how critical it is to meet the goal of
the Paris agreement on climate change. And that could have very serious
knock-on effects in the battle to limit the impact of global warming."
The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C and its summary for
policymakers were commissioned by governments following the UN meeting
in Paris in 2015, when it was agreed to act to limit increases in global
average temperature to less than 2C above pre-industrial levels and to
try keep that increase nearer to 1.5C.
The report - to be presented at a meeting in Korea in early October -
will make clear that allowing temperatures to rise by 2C will have
devastating consequences, including rising sea levels, spreading
deserts, loss of natural habitats and species, dwindling ice-caps and
increases in the number of devastating storms.
However, it is the report's summary for policymakers that is causing
concern. This is the document politicians will use as a key climate
guide when making changes to legislation. Reviewers of earlier drafts
say it is being altered to make the dangers of climate change seem less
alarming. As a result, they say, policymakers could seriously
underestimate the risks of global warming. *Cuts made to the final draft
of the summary include:**
*
*- Any mention that temperature rises of above 1.5C could lead to
increased migrations and conflict;**
**- All discussion of the danger of the Gulf Stream being disrupted
by cold water flowing from the Arctic where more and more sea-ice is
melting;**
**- Warnings about the dangers that 1.5-2C temperature rises could
trigger irreversible loss of the Greenland ice sheet and raise sea
levels by 1-2 metres over the next two centuries.**
*
*Other cuts from the summary include the sentence: "Poverty and
disadvantage have increased with recent warming (about 1C) and are
expected to increase in many populations as average global temperatures
increase from 1C to 1.5C and beyond."*
The original summary also stated "at 2C warming, there is a potential
for significant population displacement concentrated in the tropics".
Again this is not mentioned in the report for policymakers. "The
scientists who produce reports like these try to summarise the latest
knowledge, but they have a reputation for being conservative about the
worst risks of climate change," Ward said. "This time they have outdone
themselves in pulling their punches, however."
An IPCC spokesman said member governments would work to ensure the
summary for policymakers was consistent with the findings in the main
report. "They may change the wording of text there to clarify, remove
material from the summary for policymakers, or bring material from the
main report that was not there at the start of the session. Any text in
the summary for policymakers…is based on the assessment in the main
report. Even if it is removed from the summary for policymakers, the
finding it is based on remains in the main report."
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/sep/23/scientists-changing-global-warming-report-please-polluters
[Andrea Mitchell asks]
*Al Gore on Florence, Democracy and Denial
<https://climatecrocks.com/2018/09/23/al-gore-on-florence-democracy-and-denial/>*
September 23, 2018
Conservative's pathological hatred of Al Gore is based on the deep
seated recognition that George Bush, who was handed the Presidency with
a minority vote, (due to a Supreme Court judges his Father had
appointed) was, until recently, the worst President ever.
Former VP Al Gore: 'This Experiment With Trumpism Is Not Going Well'
| Andrea Mitchell | MSNBC <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqbCuedDlNI>
MSNBC
Published on Sep 18, 2018
NBC News' Andrea Mitchell sat down with former Vice President Al
Gore to discuss storms and rising sea levels, President Trump's
Puerto Rico comments, trade penalties and more. Gore also weighs in
on President Trump's war with the justice department. "We have gone
through worse times. We have bounced back before," he said. "These
elections this November may turn out to be the beginning of a course
correction."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqbCuedDlNI
The only psychological resolution for them is that Al Gore has to be a
demon.
It's irrational, but its all they have.
https://climatecrocks.com/2018/09/23/al-gore-on-florence-democracy-and-denial/
[First time ever]
*National Weather Service: 10 tornadoes touched down in Virginia Monday
<http://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/national-weather-service-10-tornadoes-touched-down-in-virginia-monday>*
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- The National Weather Service has confirmed that a
total of 10 tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Florence touched down in
Virginia on Monday.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the weather service's office in
Wakefield, Virginia, increased the total from eight to 10 after
assessment teams determined that two additional tornadoes struck Richmond.
http://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/national-weather-service-10-tornadoes-touched-down-in-virginia-monday
[California wildfires]
*217 scientists sign letter opposing logging as a response to wildfires
<https://wildfiretoday.com/2018/09/22/217-scientists-sign-letter-opposing-logging-as-a-response-to-wildfires/>*
The House version of the 2018 Farm Bill would expand logging on public lands
One of the favorite responses of some politicians to devastating
wildfires is to call for increased logging on public lands. Their
reasoning is that having fewer trees will prevent large fires. The fact
is that logging does not eliminate forest fires -- there is still fuel
remaining, some of which can spread a fire faster than a forested area
and can act as spot fire traps with dry, easily ignitable vegetation
that is even more susceptible to propagating a fire from airborne
burning embers up to a mile away from the main fire.
- the letter reads
https://forestlegacies.org/images/scientist-letters/scientist-letter-wildfire-signers-2018-08-27_1.pdf
The House version of the 2018 Farm Bill being considered now would
expand logging on public lands in response to recent increases in
wildfires. A group of 217 scientists, educators, and land managers have
signed an open letter
<https://forestlegacies.org/images/scientist-letters/scientist-letter-wildfire-signers-2018-08-27_1.pdf>
calling on decision makers to facilitate a civil dialogue and careful
consideration of the science to ensure that any policy changes will
result in communities being protected while safeguarding essential
ecosystem processes.
Below is an excerpt from the scientists' letter:
*Thinning Is Ineffective in Extreme Fire Weather... **
**Post-disturbance Salvage Logging Reduces Forest Resilience and Can
Raise Fire Hazards...**
**Wilderness and Other Protected Areas Are Not Especially Fire Prone...*
For these reasons, we urge you to reject misplaced logging proposals
that will damage our environment, hinder climate mitigation goals, and
will fail to protect communities from wildfire.
https://wildfiretoday.com/2018/09/22/217-scientists-sign-letter-opposing-logging-as-a-response-to-wildfires/
- - - -
[An excellent video]
Wildfire Today
*How fighting wildfires works
<https://wildfiretoday.com/2018/09/22/how-fighting-wildfires-works/>*
Author: Bill Gabbert
This video, intended for those unacquainted with the subject, does a
good job of explaining how firefighters control wildfires.
Video https://youtu.be/EodxubsO8EI
top comment:
One thought on "How fighting wildfires works"
Walt Penni says:
There should be a bench mark as to how far away the land in and
around poorest communities should focus on a constantly maintenance
the fuel break and prescribed burning. That also includes dead
limbing.all types of trees within the designated zone per size of
the Forest community. we can live responsibly in the urban Wildland
interface if we take the necessary steps to ensure that communities
are safe from the ravages of extreme wildfire. The forest floor is
very deep with decades upon decades of build up of dead and dying
vegetation. Coupled with the ladder fuels that help fire spread to
the larger vegetation finally reached the forest canopy at that time
making the fire at the most difficult point to try and control. Put
the responsibility of removing dead bug kill and disease stands to
the respective land owners, Federal, State agencies. Lumber
conglomerates like Sierra Pacific Industries, Warehouser and all the
other big-name lumber companies that own forest land should be put
in charge of removing those trees it's in their own best interest to
do so. Fire Fighters should be tasked to dealing with having to go
against these monsters for lack in many respects of much better
Forest practices that can and do work. I believe that the 217
scientists need to get out of the lab and take a walk in the forest.
Take a walk through a groove of bug kill trees. Logging is
inevitable in many of these scenarios. Logging operations need to
step up and be better about clearing the slash off the forest floor
from a logging operation have that stuff gathered up and reduced to
its smallest component and reused elsewhere not just leave it laying
around hoping it will rot away it does but it takes time time that
the forest really doesn't have to wait for someone to come along and
clean it up. The condition of the forest is all of our
responsibility to make better not stand firm on being against one
form of dealing with the issue. There are many methods to help with
the problem and many areas where one type of operation may not be
the answer where it might be in another. September 22, 2018
https://wildfiretoday.com/2018/09/22/how-fighting-wildfires-works/
video: https://youtu.be/EodxubsO8EI
*This Day in Climate History - September 24, 2007
<http://www.climate-debate.com/arnold-schwarzenegger-address-to-the-united-nations-on-global-climate-change-r6.php>
- from D.R. Tucker*
September 24, 2007: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger addresses
the United Nations on his state's efforts to reduce carbon pollution.
http://www.climate-debate.com/arnold-schwarzenegger-address-to-the-united-nations-on-global-climate-change-r6.php
http://youtu.be/LnPNvIHqaRo
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