[TheClimate.Vote] December 19, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Thu Dec 19 08:48:28 EST 2019

/*December 19, 2019*/

[records, heat and fire]
*Australia just recorded its hottest day in history, capping a year of 
extreme temperatures around the world*
https://www.businessinsider.com/extreme-weather-australia-records-hottest-day-in-history-2019-12
- - -
[State of Emergency declared over bushfire crisis]
*Australia heatwave: All-time temperature record broken again*
A state of emergency has been declared in New South Wales, Australia, 
amid fears a record-breaking heatwave will exacerbate the state's 
bushfire crisis.

The nation endured its hottest-ever day on Tuesday, but that record was 
smashed again on Wednesday - which saw an average maximum of 41.9C (107.4F).

Tuesday's 40.9C had eclipsed the previous record of 40.3C, set in 2013.

Authorities in New South Wales (NSW) are currently fighting about 100 
fires, in a crisis that has lasted months.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced a seven-day state of emergency due 
to forecasts of worsening conditions.

"The biggest concern over the next few days is the unpredictability, 
with extreme wind conditions [and] extremely hot temperatures," she told 
reporters on Thursday.
- - -
Temperatures are expected to exceed 45C (113F) in NSW, Victoria and 
South Australia this week.

Heatwaves are Australia's deadliest natural disaster and have killed 
thousands more people than bushfires or floods.

What is the heat doing to the fires?
Officials have warned that the combination of high temperatures and 
strong winds could heighten the crisis.

Two major fires are currently burning near the outskirts of Sydney, 
including a "mega blaze" which has burnt over 400,000 hectares.

On Thursday, three firefighters suffered serious burns after being 
"enveloped by fire" near the town of Bargo, officials said. They added 
it was too early to say how many houses had been razed.

Smoke from the fires blanketed Sydney again, pushing air quality beyond 
"hazardous" levels in parts of the city.

A state-wide "total fire ban" has been put in place across NSW until 
midnight on Saturday.

Emergency services in the state of Queensland evacuated residents from 
dozens of homes on Wednesday as they battled to contain an 
out-of-control fire.

"You need to be ready to follow your bushfire survival plan. If you do 
not have a plan, or intend to leave, you should be ready to lea
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50837025

[electric car stress]
*Trump's Christmas Gift to Big Oil: Killing Hopes of Electric Car Tax 
Credit Extension*
December 18, 2019 - DANA DRUGMAND
The oil industry, a staunch opponent of electric vehicles (EVs), 
received an early Christmas present from the White House as President 
Trump reportedly intervened to quash an EV tax credit expansion from 
inclusion in a government spending package.

The tax credit is meant to help offset the upfront cost of electric 
vehicles and boost the EV market. Consumers who purchase an EV can 
currently claim a credit up to $7,500, and the credit phases out once 
auto manufacturers sell 200,000 qualifying vehicles. Tesla and General 
Motors have both hit the 200,000-vehicle cap and had lobbied for an 
extension. A bipartisan proposal called for allowing a $7,000 credit for 
an additional 400,000 vehicles sold.

That proposal, introduced earlier this year as the Driving America 
Forward Act, was rolled into a broader package of incentives for 
renewable energy that proponents hoped to pass as part of an end-of-year 
spending deal. But groups tied to the Koch network and backed by oil 
industry funding worked hard to kill the clean energy incentives. These 
groups sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week 
urging the Senate to oppose any bill that includes an EV tax credit 
extension...
- - -
"President Trump stuck to his guns against a Congress hell-bent on 
saddling the cost of the Green New Deal on middle class American 
taxpayers. Companies like General Motors (GM) and Tesla have been 
clamoring for more taxpayer dollars to prop up their subsidy-based 
business model by doing everything in their power to influence our 
legislative process in their favor. But common sense has prevailed. 
President Trump deserves all the credit for holding the line on the 
electric vehicle tax credit expansion," AEA President Thomas Pyle, a 
former lobbyist for Koch Industries, said in a statement.

While AEA is calling the defeat of the EV tax credit extension a 
"holiday reprieve for taxpayers," the move is perhaps more accurately 
described as a holiday gift to the oil industry, which continues to bask 
in billions of dollars in federal subsidies each year.
https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/12/18/trump-oil-driving-america-forward-electric-car-tax-credit-extension

[See ice as a fluid in motion]
*A Never-Before-Seen Event Is Collapsing an Ice Sheet in the Russian Arctic*
By Rafi Letzter
This isn't how ice is supposed to behave.

For the first time, scientists think they're watching a fast-moving 
river of ice being born. These so-called ice streams are rapid, 
long-lasting flows of ice that form in the middle of more static ice 
formations known as ice sheets. There are only a handful of them on 
Earth. They form in remote parts of the arctic and antarctic and, once 
established, can last decades or even centuries. Until now, no one had 
ever seen one emerge.

But now, in a new paper published Nov. 21 in the journal Geophysical 
Research Letters, a team of glaciologists argues that another, 
shorter-term event that began in 2013 in the Russian Arctic may have 
sparked the emergence of a long-lasting ice stream. The event, called a 
glacier surge, is like a frozen flood. A great deal of ice comes loose 
and bursts out toward the ocean in a rush.

"After the initial surge in 2013, the glacier still retains fast flow at 
around [1.1 miles per year (1.8 kilometers per year)]," the authors 
wrote in the new study. That's "an unusually high and long-lasting speed 
for a glacier surge."
- - -
Researchers are still working to understand ice surges, how they relate 
to ice streams, and how climate change drives them. But the Vavilov 
surge is an important new data point to help piece that story together.
https://www.livescience.com/first-evidence-glacier-surges-become-ice-streams.html

[Wide discussion includes author of "This Civilisation is Finished: 
Conversations on the end of Empire - and what lies beyond"]
*Rupert Read discussing Extinction Rebellion and the End of the World on 
BBC Radio 'Free Thinking'*
Dec 18, 2019
Rupert Read discussing Extinction Rebellion and the End of the World on  
BBC Radio "Free Thinking" episode on 17th December 2019
audio 43 mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z6Dw2znL6g

[she gets it -- eloquent and very well-informed - and 82 years]
*Jane Fonda speaks at The National Press Club*
Archive - streamed live Dec 17, 2019
National Press Club Live
Actor and activist Jane Fonda spoke at a National Press Club Headliners 
luncheon Dec. 17, 2019 on her movement to push for political action on 
climate change.
https://youtu.be/cjcD9C3yO7U full video
https://youtu.be/cjcD9C3yO7U?t=316 starts with Jane Fonda

[Gentle lesson in climate science fundamental]
*The Science of Climate Change - Helen Johnson*
Jan 20, 2018
Oxford Climate Society
Helen Johnson (University Lecturer at the Department of Earth Sciences, 
University of Oxford) gives an introduction on the science of climate 
change as part of the Oxford Climate Society's School of Climate Change. 
With comments from Professor Myles Allen (Professor of Geosystem 
Science, University of Oxford).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoyS3om7Gr0

*This Day in Climate History - December 19, 2007 - from D.R. Tucker*

EPA administrator Stephen Johnson, under orders from the Bush White 
House, denies a request by seventeen states, including California, for a 
Clean Air Act waiver that would allow the states to cut carbon pollution 
from vehicles.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/19/AR2007121902012.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/washington/20epa.html
http://youtu.be/hf_HYL92rgQ
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2008/05/19/174039/waxman-white-house-epa/

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