[TheClimate.Vote] August 26, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/August 26, 2019/

[better listen]
*Pope calls for global commitment to put out Amazon fires*
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Sunday called for a global 
commitment to put out the fires in the Amazon, saying the area was 
essential for the health of the planet.

"We are all worried about the vast fires that have developed in the 
Amazon. Let us pray so that with the commitment of all, they can be put 
out soon. That lung of forests is vital for our planet," he told 
thousands of people in St. Peter's Square for his weekly address...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-environment-pope/pope-calls-for-global-commitment-to-put-out-amazon-fires-idUSKCN1VF0CW



[International discussion]
*A Geoengineering Trojan Horse*
Aug 19, 2019 - SILVIA RIBEIRO
For fossil-fuel companies, the promise of geoengineering is the ideal 
excuse to continue with business as usual. Rather than allow the 
industry to continue to act in its own interest, the world must 
establish a strong, democratic regulatory mechanism, which includes the 
option to ban certain technologies outright...
- - -
This past March at the United Nations environmental conference in 
Nairobi, Kenya, the United States and Saudi Arabia blocked an effort to 
scrutinize geoengineering and its implications for international 
governance. Meanwhile, Keith's Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation 
Experiment (SCoPEx) in the US - which aims to test a form of 
geoengineering known as Solar Radiation Management (SRM) - seems to be 
moving forward.

SRM depends on so-called Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, whereby a 
high-altitude balloon sprays large quantities of inorganic particles 
into the stratosphere with the goal of reflecting some sunlight back 
into space. SCoPEx would send a balloon equipped with scientific 
instruments some 12 miles (20 kilometers) above the ground to test the 
reflectivity of various substances...
- - -
Rather than allow fossil-fuel companies that have ravaged our planet for 
profit to continue to act in their own interest, the world must 
establish a strong, multilateral democratic regulatory mechanism, which 
includes the option to ban certain technologies outright. Until such an 
international system is in place, experiments like SCoPEx - which 
threaten to act as a Trojan horse for deploying dangerous technologies 
at scale - must not be allowed to move forward...
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/geoengineering-big-oil-trojan-horse-by-silvia-ribeiro-2019-08



[drying air in heating climates]
*Research: Link between increased atmospheric vapor deficit and 
worldwide loss of vegetation*
by Bob Yirka, Phys.org
A large international team of researchers has found evidence of a 
connection between an increase in the atmospheric vapor deficit and 
worldwide vegetation loss. In their paper published in the journal 
Science Advances, the group describes their analysis of climate datasets 
and the correlation of an increase in vapor pressure deficit (VPD) to 
loss of vegetation around the world over the past half-century.

Scientists have been studying the possible repercussions of global 
warming for several years, and suggest it is likely to lead not only to 
warmer temperatures, but also changes to weather patterns. One such 
weather change not often mentioned is VPD, which is the difference in 
air pressure due to water vapor during fully saturated times versus 
times when it unsaturated. When VPD is increasing, there is less water 
in the air. VPD is important because of its impact on plants. When VPD 
rises a certain amount, plants react by closing their stomata, the pores 
in their leaves, to prevent water loss. But this also shuts down the 
release of oxygen and the absorption of carbon dioxide--partially 
shutting down photosynthesis and slowing growth. In this new effort, the 
researchers wondered if there might be a connection between observed 
losses of vegetation worldwide and changes to VPD in some parts of the 
world.

To find out, the researchers obtained datasets that included observation 
information from across the globe going all the way back to the 1950s. 
When focusing on VPD, they found that prior to the 1990s, VPD increased 
only slightly. But after 1998, the VPD grew quite dramatically--by up to 
17 times over the next several years in some places, and it remained at 
those levels. They also found that over half of all vegetated land on 
the planet experienced a rise in VPD. The researchers also found that 
the upswing in VPD occurred in lockstep with the rise in global 
temperatures and the decrease in worldwide vegetative cover. They 
suggest that global warming is pushing VPD ever higher, resulting in 
more loss of vegetation--and because the planet is growing hotter, they 
predict that VPD will continue to increase, as well, resulting in 
diminishing vegetative cover.
https://phys.org/news/2019-08-link-atmospheric-vapor-deficit-worldwide.html
- - -
[why plant growth will be changing]
*Increased atmospheric vapor pressure deficit reduces global vegetation 
growth*

    Abstract
    Atmospheric vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is a critical variable in
    determining plant photosynthesis. Synthesis of four global climate
    datasets reveals a sharp increase of VPD after the late 1990s. In
    response, the vegetation greening trend indicated by a
    satellite-derived vegetation index (GIMMS3g), which was evident
    before the late 1990s, was subsequently stalled or reversed.
    Terrestrial gross primary production derived from two
    satellite-based models (revised EC-LUE and MODIS) exhibits
    persistent and widespread decreases after the late 1990s due to
    increased VPD, which offset the positive CO2 fertilization effect.
    Six Earth system models have consistently projected continuous
    increases of VPD throughout the current century. Our results
    highlight that the impacts of VPD on vegetation growth should be
    adequately considered to assess ecosystem responses to future
    climate conditions.

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/8/eaax1396

- - -

[China is picking this up]
*Vegetation growth reduces with increased atmospheric vapor pressure 
deficit: study*
Xinhua, August 20, 2019
BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Researchers have disclosed that increased 
atmospheric vapor pressure deficit (VPD) causes vegetation growth 
recession, according to a recently published study paper in the journal 
Science Advances.

The VPD is a critical variable in determining plant photosynthesis. The 
changing VPD and soil drying would likely constrain plant carbon uptake 
and water use in terrestrial ecosystems.

Researchers analyzed four global climate datasets and revealed that 53 
to 64 percent of vegetated areas experienced increased VPD trends since 
the late 1990s.

In response, the vegetation greening trend indicated by a 
satellite-derived vegetation index was subsequently stalled or reversed, 
said the paper.

The VPD describes the difference between the water vapor pressure at 
saturation and the actual water vapor pressure for a given temperature.

The researchers predicted that the VPD would continue increasing in the 
coming decades.
http://www.china.org.cn/china/Off_the_Wire/2019-08/20/content_75118840.htm




[Opinion]
Future Hope column, August 25, 2019
*Bernie's Political and Green New Deal Revolution*
By Ted Glick

    "The scope of the challenges ahead of us shares similarities with
    the crisis  faced by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the
    1940s. Battling a world war on two fronts - both in the East and the
    West - the United States came together, and within three short years
    restructured the entire economy in order to win the war and defeat
    fascism. As President, Bernie will generate the political will
    necessary for a wholesale transformation of our society, with
    support for frontline and vulnerable communities and massive
    investments in sustainable energy, energy efficiency, and a
    transformation of our transportation system." - from the Sanders
    campaign's "The Green New Deal."

The release a few days ago of Bernie's Green New Deal proposal, all 67 
pages of it, was a big deal that is only going to get bigger as more and 
more people read it and come to appreciate how important it is.

This is a visionary proposal. There is a lot of detail, and that is 
important, but most important is that this is a proposal which 
articulates the urgency of our situation regarding the climate crisis 
and then puts forward a comprehensive and understandable set of actions 
which could actually get us out of it. This set of proposals is at the 
scale of the problem.

Not surprisingly for someone who is about a grassroots-based political 
revolution, some of the proposals are clearly outside the mainstream of 
Democrat and Republican politics and policy. At first reading it's hard 
not to think, wow, does he really think we can make this happen?

But on second thought it's kind-of like Medicare for All, or 
tuition-free public colleges, or a $15/hour minimum wage. When those 
ideas were first brought forward, who would have thought that a few 
years later they would have become the focal point of political debate 
not just on the political left but in the country as a whole, and in the 
case of the $15/hour minimum wage actually starting to happen? And let's 
not forget that with catastrophic climate change staring down the gun 
barrel at human society, there will undoubtedly be a willingness to 
consider proposals that in another time there would not be.

What are some of Bernie's major ideas?

-Publicly-owned "Federal Power Marketing Administrations," PMAs, which 
were first created by FDR to bring inexpensive electricity to the 
country. Between four existing PMA's, the Tennessee Valley Authority and 
a new PMA to be created, they will "build more than enough wind, solar, 
energy storage and geothermal power plants," through investment of $2.34 
trillion. "Together with an EPA federal renewable energy standard, this 
will fully drive out non-sustainable generation."

-Build a "truly inclusive movement that prioritizes young people, 
workers, indigenous peoples, communities of color and other historically 
marginalized groups to take on the fossil fuel industry and other 
polluters to push this over the finish line and lead the globe in 
solving the climate crisis."

-"Take on the fossil fuel billionaires whose greed lies at the very 
heart of the climate crisis. Bernie promises to go further than any 
other presidential candidate in history to end the fossil fuel 
industry's greed, including by making the industry pay for its pollution 
and prosecuting it for the damage it has caused."

-"End unemployment by creating 20 million jobs needed to solve the 
climate crisis, in steel and auto manufacturing, construction, energy 
efficiency retrofitting, coding and server farms, renewable power 
plants, sustainable agriculture, a reimagined and expanded Civilian 
Conservation Corps and preserving our public lands."

-Ban fracking and mountaintop removal coal mining. No longer export any 
fossil fuels. End all new federal fossil fuel infrastructure permits. 
Keep fossil fuels in the ground. Phase out coal and natural gas plants, 
both base generation and backup (peaker) plants. Spend $100 billion to 
decrease the cost of a new electric vehicle to $18,000.

-Reorganize federal agencies to prepare for destructive climate impacts 
and the clean energy economy, and eliminate offices and resources 
historically used to facilitate the fossil fuel industry: Specific 
agencies to be reorganized: DOE, DOI, BLM, BSEF, BOEM, EIA, FERC and FEMA.

-Reject "false solutions like nuclear, geoengineering, carbon capture 
and sequestration or trash incineration."

-A just transition for workers: "guarantee five years of salary, housing 
assistance, job training, health care, pension support and priority job 
placement for any displaced worker. . . Jobs created through this plan 
will, to the extent feasible, be good-wage, union jobs. In order to do 
that we must protect the rights of all workers to form a union and 
collectively bargain."

-"Instead of accepting that the world's countries will spend $1.5 
trillion annually on weapons of destruction, Bernie will convene global 
leaders to redirect our priorities to confront our shared enemy: climate 
change. The Pentagon is the largest institutional emitter of greenhouse 
gases in the world and the United States spends $81 billion annually to 
protect oil supplies and transport routes. We are uniquely positioned to 
lead the planet in a wholesale shift away from militarism."

There is much more in this hope-for-the-future proposal. It addresses 
the transformation of farming "to develop ecologically regenerative 
farming systems that sharply reduce emissions." It proposes funding to 
connect consumers with local farms and healthy foods, for cooperatively 
owned grocery stores and to incentivize schools procuring locally 
produced foods. "Establish a nationwide materials recycling program and 
reinstate the [FDR-created] Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), one of 
the most successful New Deal programs and the most rapid peacetime 
mobilization in American history." It says that "the first two years of 
this plan will be spent very aggressively laying down a social safety 
net to ensure that no one is left behind."

This big and bold proposal has already begun to be criticized by 
centrist and corporate-connected Democrats, and it certainly is going to 
be attacked by the Republicans. Just like Medicare for All, efforts will 
be made to paint this as wildly radical and impossible.

There will also be constructive criticism and ideas for how to improve 
upon it. Based upon how Bernie and his campaigns have operated going 
back to 2015, I am sure good-faith input will be welcomed and seriously 
considered.

To Bernie Sanders and everyone else who worked on and put this Green New 
Deal proposal together: thank you, thank you, thank you. This really is 
a very big deal.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 
1968. His main focus of work since 2003 has been on the climate crisis. 
Past writings and other information can be found at https://tedglick.com 
and he can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jtglick.
https://tedglick.com/future-hope-columns/bernies-political-and-green-new-deal-revolution/



*This Day in Climate History - August 26, 2004 - from D.R. Tucker*
August 26, 2004: The New York Times reports:

    "In a striking shift in the way the Bush administration has
    portrayed the science of climate change, a new report to Congress
    focuses on federal research indicating that emissions of carbon
    dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are the only likely
    explanation for global warming over the last three decades.

    "In delivering the report to Congress yesterday, an administration
    official, Dr. James R. Mahoney, said it reflected 'the best possible
    scientific information' on climate change. Previously, President
    Bush and other officials had emphasized uncertainties in
    understanding the causes and consequences of warming as a reason for
    rejecting binding restrictions on heat-trapping gases.

    "The report is among those submitted regularly to Congress as a
    summary of recent and planned federal research on shifting global
    conditions of all sorts. It also says the accumulating emissions
    pose newly identified risks to farmers, citing studies showing that
    carbon dioxide promotes the growth of invasive weeds far more than
    it stimulates crops and that it reduces the nutritional value of
    some rangeland grasses.

    "American and international panels of experts concluded as early as
    2001 that smokestack and tailpipe discharges of heat-trapping gases
    were the most likely cause of recent global warming. But the White
    House had disputed those conclusions.

    "The last time the administration issued a document suggesting that
    global warming had a human cause and posed big risks was in June
    2002, in a submission to the United Nations under a climate treaty.
    President Bush distanced himself from it, saying it was something
    'put out by the bureaucracy.'

    "That may be harder to do this time. The new report, online at
    www.climatescience.gov, is accompanied by a letter signed by Mr.
    Bush's secretaries of energy and commerce and his science adviser.
    The White House declined yesterday to explain the change in
    emphasis, referring reporters to Dr. Mahoney, assistant secretary of
    commerce for oceans and atmosphere and the director of government
    climate research."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/26/science/26climate.html
http://data.globalchange.gov/assets/5e/5f/8eec9362a51cd2d7c0737de94919/ocp2004-2005.pdf 

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