[TheClimate.Vote] December 5, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest.

[Richard Pauli]

/*December 5, 2019*/

[science proves out]
*Early climate modelers got global warming right, new report finds*
Climate models that predicted future warming have, for the most part, 
been right...
- - -
Of 17 climate models published between the early 1970s and the late 
2000s, 14 were quite accurate in predicting the average global 
temperature in the years after publication, said Zeke Hausfather, a 
doctoral student in UC Berkeley's Energy and Resources Group and lead 
author of a new paper analyzing the models.

"The real message is that the warming we have experienced is pretty much 
exactly what climate models predicted it would be as much as 30 years 
ago," he said. "This really gives us more confidence that today's models 
are getting things largely right as well."
https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/12/04/early-climate-modelers-got-global-warming-right-new-report-finds/



[youth speaks]
*Greta Thunberg: People underestimate 'angry kids'*
Climate activist Greta Thunberg said that adults should stop making 
young people "angry" over global warming.

Ms Thunberg was speaking after her arrival in Lisbon, Portugal, after a 
two-weeks-plus journey across the Atlantic from her starting point in 
Virginia, US.

"People are underestimating the force of angry kids," she told reporters.

The 16-year-old is on her way to the COP25 climate summit in Madrid.

She is taking a stand on more polluting forms of transport by sailing, 
rather than flying or travelling in cars.

Responding to a question from a journalist who said some adults viewed 
her as "angry", Ms Thunberg said: "We are angry, we are frustrated and 
it's because of good reasons.
- -
"If they want us to stop being angry, maybe they should stop making us 
angry."
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50644395


[Pope speaks out]
*Pope demands action for failing fight against climate change*
By Paige Hanley Catholic News Service
12.4.2019
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Despite growing recognition of climate change as a 
legitimate and looming threat, current commitments to mitigate its 
effects and alter human behavior fall short of those needed to resolve 
the crisis in time, Pope Francis said.

"We must admit that this awareness is still rather weak, unable to 
respond adequately to that strong sense of urgency for rapid action 
called for by the scientific data at our disposal," the pope said in a 
message to the U.N. Climate Change Conference, COP25...
https://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2019/pope-demands-action-for-failing-fight-against-climate-change.cfm



[island crisis]
*Climate change: COP25 island nation in 'fight to death'*
The president of an island nation on the frontline of climate change 
says it is in a "fight to the death" after freak waves inundated the 
capital.

Powerful swells averaging 5m (16ft) washed across the capital of the 
Marshall Islands, Majuro, last week.

But President Hilda Heine said the Pacific nation had been fighting 
rising tides even before last week's disaster.
- - -
"With our very existence at stake, COP 25 must demonstrate unprecedented 
ambition to avert ecocide."...
- -
"America remains the number one historic contributor to the climate 
emergency, and even Democratic politicians have never committed to 
taking responsibility for our fair share."

Underlining the real world impacts of climate change, a report from the 
charity Save the Children, says that what it calls "climate shocks" are 
threatening tens of millions of people in East and Southern Africa...
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50614518


[common sense message]
*Florida Keys Deliver a Hard Message: As Seas Rise, Some Places Can't Be 
Saved*
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/climate/florida-keys-climate-change.html



[Dr James Hansen is the Grandfather of Climate Science]
*Carbon Reality!*
04 December 2019
James Hansen
Our children must live in the real world. We cannot pretend we have 
fossil fuel replacements and "all that is needed is political will." 
Eventually we will have energy cheaper than coal, but not today. Fossil 
fuels are a convenient energy source and can raise standards of living. 
If we are to phase down fossil fuel emissions rapidly, we must make 
fossil fuels pay their costs to society.

A viable strategy to rapidly phase down fossil emissions is an 
across-the-board (oil, gas, coal) rising carbon fee. These funds, 
collected from the fossil fuel companies, must be distributed, 100 per 
cent, to the public. Otherwise, the public will rebel, as 'yellow vests' 
demonstrated in France.

Merits of the carbon fee & dividend: it is progressive, as most 
low-income people get more in the dividend than they pay in increased 
prices. And, economists agree, it is, by far, the fastest way to phase 
down emissions. It stimulates the economy, creates jobs, and modernizes 
infrastructure.

The United States, China and the European Union are the big players on 
the global stage today. If, preferably, at least two of these three 
adopt a rising carbon fee, it can be made near-global via border duties 
on products from countries without such fee, and rebates to 
manufacturers on products shipped to countries without a fee. This would 
encourage most countries to have their own carbon fee, so they could 
collect the money themselves.

Will one of these three major players lead the way by initiating fee & 
dividend?
- - -
Citizens Climate Lobby in the United States now has more than 500 
Chapters with more than 170,000 members. I believe that they can 
eventually get Congress to adopt a rising Carbon Fee & Dividend. Please 
consider joining CCL and adding your support to their efforts.

China: The merits of a carbon fee in China will include a huge reduction 
of air pollution, as well as reduction of carbon emissions. If the 
dividend is distributed uniformly, as in other countries, it will 
increase social justice. Wealthy people will lose some money, but they 
can afford it. The population as a whole will be glad to see the 
government taking action to deal with pollution and rewarding 
financially those citizens who make an effort to limit their carbon 
footprint.

The West must understand that China does not owe us any special effort. 
China now has the largest annual emissions, but climate change is 
proportional to cumulative emissions. China's cumulative per capita 
emissions are far less than those of the U.S., U.K. and Germany (Fig. 2).

China's greatest emissions are from coal burning, as they have massive 
energy needs for power plants and industrial heat. Their best hope to 
phase down those emissions is modern, safe nuclear power plants that 
shut down in an accident, such as an earthquake or tsunami, and require 
no external power to cool the nuclear fuel. Data show that nuclear power 
has been our safest power source, with smallest carbon footprint, but 
major improvements are possible. For mutual benefit, the United States 
and China should cooperate to develop modular reactors that would drive 
the price of nuclear power below that of coal (see Cao et al., Science 
353, 547, 2016).
http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2019/20191204_CarbonReality.pdf
- - -
[Information to Congress]
*United States: Dan Miller and I submitted a response to a 'Request for 
Information' from the United States House of Representatives Select 
Committee on the Climate Crisis.*
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LCyH32Yn3c9mEuYJyh4XfIzcxS82033R/view



Eric Holthaus
@EricHolthaus
*Just in: Global carbon emissions hit a new all-time high in 2019, up 
0.6% from last year.*
This news is shockingly important and heartbreakingly serious. Not only 
are we entirely failing to reduce emissions, we are making the climate 
emergency worse at an increasingly fast rate.
https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/1202022209956515843
https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/1202022209956515843/photo/1

- - -

[BBC report]
*Climate change: Emissions edge up despite drop in coal*
Researchers say that carbon dioxide emissions this year have risen 
slightly, despite a drop in the use of coal.
The Global Carbon Project's annual analysis of emission trends suggests 
that CO2 will go up by 0.6% in 2019.
The rise is due to continuing strong growth in the utilisation of oil 
and gas.
Since the Paris agreement was set out in 2015, CO2 emissions have risen 
by 4%.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50648495


[VOX studied the field and selected six]
*Want to fight climate change effectively? Here's where to donate your 
money.*
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/12/2/20976180/climate-change-best-charities-effective-philanthropy



[Superb Sarcasm from the Onion]
*U.N. Chief Says Planet Faces Point Of No Return As Climate Summit Begins*
OPINION
While stressing that his message before the global COP25 climate 
conference was one of hope rather than despair, U.N. Secretary-General 
Antonio Guterres told reporters that the world's government must make 
immediate changes or face a point of no return. What do you think?

"I have faith that innovation will buy us a few years to properly
say goodbye."
GARRETT DILLON - VEGETABLE WILTER

"On a positive note, once we do pass that point, we won't have to
hear about it anymore."
JESUS SANDOVAL - TANNERY MANAGER

"Whatever happened to the carefree, happy-go-lucky U.N. we used to
know?"
AAISHA FRANCO - COURTROOM SKETCH ARTIST

https://www.theonion.com/u-n-chief-says-planet-faces-point-of-no-return-as-clim-1840178559


*This Day in Climate History - December 5, 2007 - from D.R. Tucker*
In a monologue that clearly explains why he had spent the previous 
nineteen years claiming that climate change was a hoax, Rush Limbaugh 
declares:

"Can I give you a real simple reality? It may be controversial, but
it's inarguable. This is a world that runs on fossil fuels, folks,
and it's going to run on fossil fuels long after you and I and your
grandkids are dead. Wind, solar, all pipe dream stuff, as we sit
here and speak now. Would somebody explain to me what is so immoral
about the leaders of this country attempting to maintain a supply
and access to the fossil fuel that runs the world and runs our
economy?...What I'm suggesting here is that even if a part of all of
the strategy here [with the Iraq War] is to maintain the free flow
of oil at market prices, what in the name of Sam Hill is wrong with
that? What's the crime? Where's the immorality in it?"

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2007/12/05/what_s_wrong_with_war_for_oil2

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