[TheClimate.Vote] August 8, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/August 8, 2019/

[Wall Street Journal]
*Medical Schools Are Pushed to Train Doctors for Climate Change*
Movement backed by American Medical Association starts to grow, though 
content can be hard to fit into an already-packed curriculum
By Brianna Abbott
Aug. 7, 2019 5:30 am ET
More doctors, health organizations and students are pushing for medical 
education to include climate change, saying that physicians and other 
health-care workers need to prepare for the risks associated with rising 
global temperatures.

The movement, recently backed by the American Medical Association, is 
showing emerging signs of impact. At the University of Minnesota, 
medical, nursing and pharmacy schools, among others, have added content 
or tweaked existing classes to incorporate climate-related topics. The 
University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign added a 
diagnosis exercise about worsening asthma due to increased wildfires 
from climate change. The Mayo Clinic is starting discussions this month 
on how to integrate the topic into its medical school's curriculum.

Schools picking up the content are still in the minority. It can be hard 
to fit into an already-packed curriculum, and faculty at many schools 
still lack expertise in the topic, say some educators. But advocates of 
climate-change education say health-care providers must be trained to 
prevent, detect and treat conditions that may rise or emerge in new 
places as the climate changes.
"This is really the greatest health danger of our century," said Mona 
Sarfaty, the director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and 
Health, a coalition of medical associations that represents roughly 
600,000 doctors. "We must respond and make sure our health professionals 
are sufficiently educated."...
- - -
The Yale School of Medicine offers a continuing medical education 
certificate in climate change and health, and the University of Colorado 
Department of Emergency Medicine now offers a fellowship for physicians 
on climate change and health policy.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/medical-schools-are-pushed-to-train-doctors-for-climate-change-11565170205


[shocking, not surprising]
*Homelessness is already a crisis--but climate change makes it much worse*
It's time to stop treating the housing crisis and the climate crisis as 
two separate issues--and start designing solutions for both at once.
When the Camp Fire devastated the California town of Paradise last fall, 
around 50,000 people were forced from their community. Very few--just 
around 10%--have been able to return to the town, where 15,000 homes 
were destroyed. Many of the rest are still struggling to find housing, a 
steep task in California where the costs of renting or owning a home are 
among the highest in the country.
- - -
The Center for American Progress, a progressive research and advocacy 
organization, calls extreme weather an "affordable housing crisis 
multiplier."
- - -
Beyond stabilizing housing and infrastructure, the CAP researchers say 
that government agencies like FEMA and HUD need to work better to align 
their evacuation and post-disaster assistance programming with more 
vulnerable people. According to CAP research, FEMA disproportionately 
directs disaster response funding to wealthier, white homeowners. 
Several states--most prominently Louisiana following Hurricane 
Katrina--have been sued over this disparity in aid distribution, which 
the CAP researchers say needs to be addressed.

The point of the report, Ortiz says, is to "bridge the two worlds of the 
climate crisis and housing crisis" so officials working on each can 
begin to see how their work overlaps, and why they must collaborate on 
solutions. Policymakers, Schultheis adds, need to understand where 
issues like homelessness and housing unaffordability are concentrated, 
and ensure that those people and communities are supported both before a 
disaster like a hurricane or wildfire could strike, and in the 
aftermath. Many of the strategies that CAP calls for lean on the fiscal 
and ideological cooperation of Congress and federal agencies, which have 
been slow to advance progressive solutions on inequity and climate 
change, but the model of linking extreme weather impacts with the 
housing and homelessness crisis is one that state and local governments 
can begin to adopt immediately.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90386051/homelessness-is-already-a-crisis-but-climate-change-makes-it-much-worse



[more bumpy flying]
*Turbulence is getting worse because of climate change, study proves as 
it finds serious injuries have doubled since the 1980s*
Air turbulence is getting worse on flights because of climate change, 
with the jetstream becoming choppier since the end of 1970s, scientists 
have found.

The University of Reading has discovered that the jetstream has become 
15 per cent more affected by wind shear in the upper atmosphere over the 
North Atlantic since satellites began observing it in 1979.

Over the same period the number of passengers and crew getting seriously 
injured from turbulence globally has doubled from one in a million to 
two in a million - meaning around 8,000 people a year are now 
impacted...[more]
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2019/08/07/turbulence-flights-getting-worse-global-warming-makes-jet-stream/
- - -
[Increased injuries]
*Increased shear in the North Atlantic upper-level jet stream over the 
past four decades*
Abstract

    Earth's equator-to-pole temperature gradient drives westerly
    mid-latitude jet streams through thermal wind balance1. In the upper
    atmosphere, anthropogenic climate change is strengthening this
    meridional temperature gradient by cooling the polar lower
    stratosphere2,3 and warming the tropical upper troposphere4,5,6,
    acting to strengthen the upper-level jet stream7. In contrast, in
    the lower atmosphere, Arctic amplification of global warming is
    weakening the meridional temperature gradient8,9,10, acting to
    weaken the upper-level jet stream. Therefore, trends in the speed of
    the upper-level jet stream11,12,13 represent a closely balanced
    tug-of-war between two competing effects at different altitudes14.
    It is possible to isolate one of the competing effects by analysing
    the vertical shear--the change in wind speed with height--instead of
    the wind speed, but this approach has not previously been taken.
    Here we show that, although the zonal wind speed in the North
    Atlantic polar jet stream at 250 hectopascals has not changed since
    the start of the observational satellite era in 1979, the vertical
    shear has increased by 15 per cent (with a range of 11-17 per cent)
    according to three different reanalysis datasets15,16,17. We further
    show that this trend is attributable to the thermal wind response to
    the enhanced upper-level meridional temperature gradient. Our
    results indicate that climate change may be having a larger impact
    on the North Atlantic jet stream than previously thought. The
    increased vertical shear is consistent with the intensification of
    shear-driven clear-air turbulence expected from climate
    change18,19,20, which will affect aviation in the busy transatlantic
    flight corridor by creating a more turbulent flying environment for
    aircraft. We conclude that the effects of climate change and
    variability on the upper-level jet stream are being partly obscured
    by the traditional focus on wind speed rather than wind shear.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1465-z



[Paul Beckwith video talk]
*Greenland Vulnerability to BOE and Accelerating Global Sea-Level Rise*
Paul Beckwith
Published on Aug 7, 2019
Five years ago I posted the video: "Can global sea level rise 7 meters 
by 2070?"; based on the ongoing 7 to 10 year doubling rates of ice melt 
from Greenland and Antarctica this magnitude of sea level rise is indeed 
very possible. Now, 5 years later, Greenland lost a record 12.5 billion 
tons of ice in one day (last Thursday), and a record 217 billion tons in 
July alone. With a dreaded Arctic Blue-Ocean Event (BOE) likely by 2022 
or sooner, there will be complete September sea-ice loss and very large 
warming spikes, further exposing Greenland to accelerated, crippling ice 
loss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CexQmFFtoTw
- -

[Rising seas explained in this interview]
*High Tide on Main St: Rising Sea Level--John Englander & climate 
change--Radio Ecoshock 2019-06-26*
Stop Fossil Fuels
Published on Aug 7, 2019
Several scientists on Radio Ecoshock warned us that heat and extreme 
weather are serious but rising seas will be the force threatening 
society. Maps will change. Populations will be forced away from the 
current sea shore, including in major cities around the world.

I understood that more deeply watching a recent video presentation by 
John Englander. His audience was the legendary Royal Institution in 
London, the temple of science founded in 1799. Englander is an 
oceanographer who led big name ocean conservation groups like the 
Cousteau Society, and International Seakeepers. He schooled us all with 
his book "High Tide On Main Street: Rising Sea Level and the Coming 
Coastal Crisis".

Show by Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock, reposted under CC License. Episode 
details at https://www.ecoshock.org/2019/06/clim...
- - -
SHOW DETAILS
John has been touring, telling thousands of people about coastlines 
going underwater.

During the last century thermal expansion provided about half sea level 
rise. But in the coming 100 years, thermal expansion will be relatively 
minor compared to polar ice melt. John tells us there is 10' or 3 meters 
of sea level rise in just 6 glaciers in Antarctica.

Technically, there will eventually be 20 meters higher seas per degree C 
of warming (perhaps a thousand years later). That is about 35' per 
degree Fahrenheit of warming. In recent interviews, scientists and 
authors say we may warm another 2C average mean temperature by the year 
2100. Following science that expects 20 meters higher seas for each 
increase of 1 degree, that would be 40 meters or 131' higher seas from 
that much warming--not this century, but eventually. The seas will 
continue to rise even after humans stop producing greenhouse gases (if 
we do).

He says we are in "the early stage of exponential growth" of sea level 
rise. It is now rising 5 millimeters a year. We went from 1.5 mm annual 
sea level rise to 3 mm and now 5 mm--that is doubling! He notes Albert 
Allen Bartlett on our inability to understand exponential growth.

These days there is an institute for practically everything. But 
apparently none is dedicated to the single largest threat we face from 
climate change: rising seas. So John just founded the International Sea 
Level Institute. We talk about what it needs to do.

Also: John tells us that sea level rise may be the least politically 
charged impact of climate change. People who don't seem to care about 
heat or replacing fossil fuels pay attention to rising seas. Global 
average sea level has increased 8 inches since 1880. But remember some 
land is still uplifting, while other places are sinking--for example in 
Alaska and northern Scandinavia it looks like sea level is falling.

We are heading back to the Eemian levels, 120,000 years ago, with sea 
levels 65 meters higher. "We should be redesigning our coastal 
development" says Englander. After a huge storm on February 1st, 1953, 
the Thames and Rotterdam sea barriers were designed. In the 1970's when 
those gates were built, they pictured only 30 mm of sea level. Currently 
both cities are planning new flood gates. In cities like Hamburg 
Germany, some new buildings have their electrical systems and furnaces 
on the second floor, rather than below ground, to survive storm 
flooding. In Asia, Singapore is one of the more advanced in planning for 
sea level rise, being a low island nation.

San Francisco is not sinking or rising. It shows what is really 
happening. Old piers are going under along with waterfront. Streets in 
Florida has "No Wake" signs for when King Tides flood the street. Those 
signs come down when they want to sell the property.

John says rising sea level could be the biggest economic driver of this 
century. That presumes we will rebuild or adapt rather than just lose 
ground, run away, and crash as an economy. If we don't fail, the threat 
and experience of sea level rise could lead to a new building boom as 
cities retreat from the sea and build sea wall defenses. Ports will need 
to be rebuilt. Many of the world's leading airports may need to be 
replaced. Business leaders sit up and listen to that approach to sea 
level rise--but what would be the new carbon costs of those giant 
building projects?

John is working on a sequel, "Moving to Higher Ground" coming in 2020.

John's "Sea Level Rise Can No Longer Be Stopped, What Next?" 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvqY2N...

For popular audiences to "get it" John recommends the movie "Ice Age 
Part 2", which he's seen 40 or 50 times. Englander says it is pretty 
scientific. Sea level rose about 400' in that film. "The truth of the 
matter now is that sea level rise is unstoppable." It has happened 
before. If we knew that 5,000 years ago, we would have build our cities 
differently, he says.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqIa3ocsTDs
- - -
[see the Hollywood movie mentioned above ]
*Cartoon: Ice Age 2: The Meltdown*
"With global warming threatening their once-icy domain with widespread 
flooding, Manny (Ray Romano), Sid (John Leguizamo) and Diego (Denis 
Leary) set out to find a safe haven. Along the way, another mammoth 
(Queen Latifah), who thinks she is an opossum, joins the travelers on 
their perilous quest.
Release date: March 31, 2006 (USA)"
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxJqyRiGhBQ


[bad methane leaks in most homes]
*An Estimate of Natural Gas Methane Emissions from California Homes*
Marc L. Fischer,
Abstract
We estimate postmeter methane (CH4) emissions from California's 
residential natural gas (NG) system using measurements and analysis from 
a sample of homes and appliances. Quiescent whole-house emissions (i.e., 
pipe leaks and pilot lights) were measured using a mass balance method 
in 75 California homes, while CH4 to CO2 emission ratios were measured 
for steady operation of individual combustion appliances and, 
separately, for transient operation of three tankless water heaters. 
Measured quiescent whole-house emissions are typically <1 g CH4/day, 
though they exhibit long-tailed gamma distributions containing values 
 >10 g CH4/day. Most operating appliances yield undetectable CH4 to CO2 
enhancements in steady operation (<0.01% of gas consumed), though 
storage water heaters and stovetops exhibit long-tailed gamma 
distributions containing high values (∼1-3% of gas consumed), and 
transients are observed for the tankless heaters. Extrapolating results 
to the state-level using Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling 
combined with California housing statistics and gas use information 
suggests quiescent house leakage of 23.4 (13.7-45.6, at 95% confidence) 
Gg CH4, with pilot lights contributing ∼30%. Emissions from steady 
operation of appliances and their pilots are 13.3 (6.6-37.1) Gg CH4/yr, 
an order of magnitude larger than current inventory estimates, with 
transients likely increasing appliance emissions further. Together, 
emissions from residential NG are 35.7 (21.7-64.0) Gg CH4/yr, equivalent 
to ∼15% of California's NG CH4 emissions, suggesting leak repair, 
improvement of combustion appliances, and adoption of nonfossil energy 
heating sources can help California meet its 2050 climate goals.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.8b03217



[duty to warn]
*The Terrible Truth of Climate Change*
The latest science is alarming, even for climate scientists
by Joelle Gergis
In June, I delivered a keynote presentation on Australia's vulnerability 
to climate change and our policy challenges at the annual meeting of the 
Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, the main conference 
for those working in the climate science community. I saw it as an 
opportunity to summarise the post-election political and scientific 
reality we now face.

As one of the dozen or so Australian lead authors on the United Nations 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) sixth assessment 
report, currently underway, I have a deep appreciation of the speed and 
severity of climate change unfolding across the planet. Last year I was 
also appointed as one of the scientific advisers to the Climate Council, 
Australia's leading independent body providing expert advice to the 
public on climate science and policy. In short, I am in the confronting 
position of being one of the few Australians who sees the terrifying 
reality of the climate crisis.

Preparing for this talk I experienced something gut-wrenching. It was 
the realisation that there is now nowhere to hide from the terrible truth.

The last time this happened to me, I was visiting my father in hospital 
following emergency surgery for a massive brain haemorrhage. As he lay 
unconscious in intensive care, I examined his CT scan with one of the 
attending surgeons who gently explained that the dark patch covering 
nearly a quarter of the image of his brain was a pool of blood. Although 
they had done their best to drain the area and stem the bleeding, the 
catastrophic nature of the damage was undeniable. The brutality of the 
evidence was clear - the full weight of it sent my stomach into freefall.

The results coming out of the climate science community at the moment 
are, even for experts, similarly alarming.

One common metric used to investigate the effects of global warming is 
known as "equilibrium climate sensitivity", defined as the full amount 
of global surface warming that will eventually occur in response to a 
doubling of atmospheric CO2 concentrations compared to pre-industrial 
times. It's sometimes referred to as the holy grail of climate science 
because it helps quantify the specific risks posed to human society as 
the planet continues to warm.

We know that CO2 concentrations have risen from pre-industrial levels of 
280 parts per million (ppm) to approximately 410 ppm today, the highest 
recorded in at least three million years. Without major mitigation 
efforts, we are likely to reach 560 ppm by around 2060.

When the IPCC's fifth assessment report was published in 2013, it 
estimated that such a doubling of CO2 was likely to produce warming 
within the range of 1.5 to 4.5C as the Earth reaches a new equilibrium. 
However, preliminary estimates calculated from the latest global climate 
models (being used in the current IPCC assessment, due out in 2021) are 
far higher than with the previous generation of models. Early reports 
are predicting that a doubling of CO2 may in fact produce between 2.8 
and 5.8C of warming. Incredibly, at least eight of the latest models 
produced by leading research centres in the United States, the United 
Kingdom, Canada and France are showing climate sensitivity of 5C or warmer.

When these results were first released at a climate modelling workshop 
in March this year, a flurry of panicked emails from my IPCC colleagues 
flooded my inbox. What if the models are right? Has the Earth already 
crossed some kind of tipping point? Are we experiencing abrupt climate 
change right now?

The model runs aren't all available yet, but when many of the most 
advanced models in the world are independently reproducing the same 
disturbing results, it's hard not to worry.

When the UN's Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015, it defined a 
specific goal: to keep global warming to well below 2C and as close as 
possible to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels (defined as the climate 
conditions experienced during the 1850-1900 period). While admirable in 
intent, the agreement did not impose legally binding limits on signatory 
nations and contained no enforcement mechanisms. Instead, each country 
committed to publicly disclosed Nationally Determined Contributions 
(NDCs) to reduce emissions. In essence, it is up to each nation to act 
in the public interest.

Even achieving the most ambitious goal of 1.5C will see the further 
destruction of between 70 and 90 per cent of reef-building corals 
compared to today, according to the IPCC's "Special Report on Global 
Warming of 1.5C", released last October. With 2C of warming, a 
staggering 99 per cent of tropical coral reefs disappear. An entire 
component of the Earth's biosphere - our planetary life support system - 
would be eliminated. The knock-on effects on the 25 per cent of all 
marine life that depends on coral reefs would be profound and immeasurable.

So how is the Paris Agreement actually panning out?

In 2017, we reached 1C of warming above global pre-industrial 
conditions. According to the UN Environment Programme's "Emissions Gap 
Report", released in November 2018, current unconditional NDCs will see 
global average temperature rise by 2.9 to 3.4C above pre-industrial 
levels by the end of this century.

To restrict warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels, the world needs 
to triple its current emission reduction pledges. If that's not bad 
enough, to restrict global warming to 1.5C, global ambition needs to 
increase fivefold.

Meanwhile, the Australian federal government has a target of reducing 
emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, which experts 
believe is more aligned with global warming of 3 to 4C. Despite Prime 
Minister Scott Morrison's claim that we will meet our Paris Agreement 
commitments "in a canter", the UNEP report clearly identifies Australia 
as one of the G20 nations that will fall short of achieving its already 
inadequate NDCs by 2030.

Even with the 1C of warming we've already experienced, 50 per cent of 
the Great Barrier Reef is dead. We are witnessing catastrophic ecosystem 
collapse of the largest living organism on the planet. As I share this 
horrifying information with audiences around the country, I often pause 
to allow people to try and really take that information in.

Increasingly after my speaking events, I catch myself unexpectedly 
weeping in my hotel room or on flights home. Every now and then, the 
reality of what the science is saying manages to thaw the emotionally 
frozen part of myself I need to maintain to do my job. In those moments, 
what surfaces is pure grief. It's the only feeling that comes close to 
the pain I felt processing the severity of my dad's brain injury. Being 
willing to acknowledge the arrival of the point of no return is an act 
of bravery.

But these days my grief is rapidly being superseded by rage. 
Volcanically explosive rage. Because in the very same IPCC report that 
outlines the details of the impending apocalypse, the climate science 
community clearly stated that limiting warming to 1.5C is geophysically 
possible.

Past emissions alone are unlikely to raise global average temperatures 
to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The IPCC report states that any 
further warming beyond the 1C already recorded would likely be less than 
0.5C over the next 20 to 30 years, if all anthropogenic greenhouse gas 
emissions were reduced to zero immediately. That is, if we act urgently, 
it is technically feasible to turn things around. The only thing missing 
is strong global policy.

Although the very foundation of human civilisation is at stake, the 
world is on track to seriously overshoot our UN targets. Worse still, 
global carbon emissions are still rising. In response, scientists are 
prioritising research on how the planet has responded during other warm 
periods in the Earth's history.

The most comprehensive summary of conditions experienced during past 
warm periods in the Earth's recent history was published in June 2018 in 
one of our leading journals, Nature Geoscience, by 59 leading experts 
from 17 countries. The report concluded that warming of between 1.5 and 
2C in the past was enough to see significant shifts in climate zones, 
and land and aquatic ecosystems "spatially reorganize".

These changes triggered substantial long-term melting of ice in 
Greenland and Antarctica, unleashing 6 to 13 metres of global sea-level 
rise lasting thousands of years.

Examining the Earth's climatic past tells us that even between 1.5 and 
2C of warming sees the world reconfigure in ways that people don't yet 
appreciate. All bets are off between 3 and 4C, where we are currently 
headed. Parts of Australia will become uninhabitable, as other areas of 
our country become increasingly ravaged by extreme weather events.

This year the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society's 
annual conference was held in Darwin, where the infamous Cyclone Tracy 
struck on Christmas Day in 1974, virtually demolishing the entire city. 
More than 70 per cent of the city's buildings, including 80 per cent of 
its houses, were destroyed. Seventy-one people were killed and most of 
the 48,000 residents made homeless. Conditions were so dire that around 
36,000 people were evacuated, many by military aircraft. It was a 
disaster of monumental proportions.

As I collated this information for my presentation, it became clear to 
me that Cyclone Tracy is a warning. Without major action, we will see 
tropical cyclones drifting into areas on the southern edge of current 
cyclone zones, into places such as south-east Queensland and northern 
New South Wales, where infrastructure is not ready to cope with cyclonic 
conditions.

These areas currently house more than 3.6 million people; we simply 
aren't prepared for what is upon us.

There is a very rational reason why Australian schoolkids are now taking 
to the streets - the immensity of what is at stake is truly staggering. 
Staying silent about this planetary emergency no longer feels like an 
option for me either. Given how disconnected policy is from scientific 
reality in this country, an urgent and pragmatic national conversation 
is now essential. Other-
wise, living on a destabilised planet is the terrible truth that we will 
all face.

As a climate scientist at this fraught point in our history, the most 
helpful thing I can offer is the same professionalism that the doctor 
displayed late that night in Dad's intensive-care ward. A clear-eyed and 
compassionate look at the facts.

We still have time to try and avert the scale of the disaster, but we 
must respond as we would in an emergency. The question is, can we muster 
the best of our humanity in time?
Joelle Gergis is an award-winning climate scientist and writer based at 
the Australian National University. She is the author of Sunburnt 
Country: The History and Future of Climate Change in Australia.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/08/05/terrible-truth-climate-change



[Irish Times newspaper]
*Global warming and Somaliland's 'climate refugees'*
Pastoralist lifestyle of nomads is under threat from repeated drought 
and cyclones
Tue, Aug 6, 2019, 03:30
Spending time with its stoical people in remote villages in the northern 
part of this region of Somalia, they recount how their pastoralist 
existence - as nomads rearing livestock - is under immediate threat.
- -- -
When asked about climate change, villagers have heard of the term but 
indicate they do not know too much about the science. They prefer to 
cite evidence: decline in livestock, destruction of crops. Then they 
invariably highlight hope that the rains will come after all - and 
declare, in any event, God will look after them.
- - -
"Climate change is not an issue to be dealt with in the future, an issue 
for our children or grandchildren. It's here and it's killing people 
now. The communities in Somaliland are among the 45 million people in 
countries across the Horn of Africa, east Africa and southern Africa who 
will not be able to grow sufficient food for themselves this year as a 
result of drought," he adds.
- - -
As we observe the rural landscape, Concern area co-ordinator Lena Voigt 
says: "Somaliland is as green as it gets." But, on closer inspection, 
many crops are barely a few inches above ground. Nomadic communities 
attempting to become more permanent "agro-pastoralists" will be lucky if 
they are usable as feed, let alone nourishing their families.

It soon emerges the normal pattern of drought every five to seven years 
- with time to recover, to restock and to avail of better harvests - is 
disappearing. In a briefing, a government official outlines how 
Somaliland's national disaster preparedness and food reserve authority's 
strategic plan is being implemented, including the building of seven 
large warehouses to store food and plastic water tanks.
- -
Two adults help teach children under that tree. There are no books; no 
music, no art. Basic living, it seems, leaves no opportunity for such 
indulgences, though, when the rains arrive, they gather to celebrate, 
Alale says.

Howa Yusuf points to a mountain one hour's walk away where she lives 
with her family including 12 children. She had 80 sheep and goats 
reduced to 10 post-cyclone. Cash support of $60 a month is used for food 
and to restock. She plans to plant maize and make charcoal, but her big 
worry is climate change. Last year at this time it was shaping up for a 
normal harvest; this year a fraction of that is emerging.
Chaotic feel

The village has a chaotic feel as herds of goats and sheep wander 
through intermittently, sometimes with young children doing the herding. 
But drone footage suggests an overall order in the positioning of mud 
houses; animal pens made from spiky brambles to keep hyenas out; a 
communal gathering point; and areas for the planting of crops. Looking 
at the images from above, it is sobering to think we could be witnessing 
the demise of this ancient civilization.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network said in June 2.2 million people 
in Somalia could face starvation by the end of the summer, unless there 
are urgent efforts to respond. A further 3.2 million people - a fifth of 
its population - will be uncertain of their next meal, and that could 
soon be 5.4 million. That includes 1 million children, of whom 180,000 
are "acutely malnourished".
- - -
"If you ask people, 'What can we do for you?' The answer is always the 
same: water, water, water."

Rich countries declaring a climate emergency is all very well, but here 
one can see the dynamics of a global climate injustice. More frequent 
climate shocks for Somaliland are forecast as populations which have 
contributed least to unprecedented levels of human-induced greenhouse 
gases emissions suffer most.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/africa/global-warming-and-somaliland-s-climate-refugees-1.3977695


*This Day in Climate History - August 8, 2005 - from D.R. Tucker*
August 8, 2005: President George W. Bush signs the pro-fracking Energy 
Policy Act into law. Six days later, Mark Hertsgaard discusses the 
legislation on Air America's "EcoTalk with Betsy Rosenberg."
http://c-spanvideo.org/program/USEnergyPolicy7
http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/ecotalkblog/2005/08/americas_energy.html
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/

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