[TheClimate.Vote] February 23, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sat Feb 23 09:58:29 EST 2019
/February 23, 2019/
[Cranky Senator is 85 years old]
*Feinstein Lectures Children Who Want Green New Deal, Portraying It as
Untenable*
The exchange between Ms. Feinstein and the children became more testy
when a young woman accompanying them told the senator that "if this
doesn't get turned around in 10 years, you're looking at the faces of
the people who are going to be living with the consequences."
Ms. Feinstein chafed at the lecture, replying that she has seven
grandchildren and is mindful of the threat of climate change. A decade
ago, she championed ambitious legislation that would have put a cap on
emissions that cause climate-warming pollution.
"You know what's interesting about this group?" she asked. "I've been
doing this for 30 years. I know what I'm doing. You come in here and you
say it has to be my way or the highway. I don't respond to that."
Ms. Feinstein then tried to explain an alternate measure she has
endorsed, which calls for a slightly later timeline in reducing carbon
emissions. That solution, the young woman replied, is not good enough.
"You know better than I do, so I think one day you should run for the
Senate and then you do it your way," Ms. Feinstein told the young woman.
*"Great," she replied. "I will."*
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/climate/feinstein-sunrise-green-new-deal.html
- -
[a difficult view contrasts an 85 year old senator verses 8 yr old children]
*This is how @SenFeinstein reacted to children asking her to support the
#GreenNewDeal resolution* -- with smugness + disrespect.
This is a fight for our generation's survival. Her reaction is why young
people desperately want new leadership in Congress.
https://twitter.com/sunrisemvmt/status/1099075460649107458
- -
In this video, @SenFeinstein was rude, dismissive, and out of touch.
Instead of talking down to her constituents who'll deal with
consequences of climate change their whole lives, she should start
supporting real climate solutions in line with what's needed to address
the crisis.
https://twitter.com/moveon/status/1099102569081782273?s=21
[video of pipeline action]
*Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says Trans Mountain pipeline expansion
will help bring Canadian oil to market*
Fri, Feb 22: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said at a news conference
Friday that the construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline will help
bring Canadian oil to market and bring billions of dollars to the
country's economy.
https://globalnews.ca/video/rd/1446946371523/
https://globalnews.ca/video/4989883/alberta-premier-rachel-notley-says-trans-mountain-pipeline-expansion-will-help-bring-canadian-oil-to-market
[Pipeline blockages]
*Bills Criminalizing Pipeline Protest Arise in Statehouses Nationwide*
he oil and gas industry has started its 2019 lobbying efforts with a bang.
Eight different statehouses across the nation are considering bills
criminalizing protests on property owned by the the oil and gas industry
which critics say could squelch pipeline protesters and others calling
attention to climate change-causing infrastructure.
The bills offer steep criminal penalties for trespass onto oil and gas
industry-owned private property defined as "critical infrastructure"
under state law. The legal definition of "critical infrastructure,"
which incorporates essentially all assets serving as the bedrock of the
current economic system, has greatly expanded in the post-September 11
era. With that expansion came increasingly harsh criminal enforcement
mechanisms available to prosecutors in the name of protecting national
security.
It is no coincidence that the bills are rolling out simultaneously with
nearly identical language, in various states. The Real News has traced
these bills back to model bills emanating from two organizations, the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Council of State
Governments (CSG), both of which receive generous financial backing from
the oil and gas industry. In turn, the organizations serve as
facilitators for doling out model legislation to state legislators...
- --
[see a video report]
*Louisiana Bill To Hypercriminalize Pipeline Protests Is "Backfiring"*
The Real News Network
Published on Apr 6, 2018
In part two, civil rights lawyer Bill Quigley says the bill is meant to
intimidate protesters, but "it's not going to stop the people who are
really dedicated."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w32JbCbfj4
- - -
"Harder to Resist"
The bills have forced the hands of activists across the country,
diverting time and energy that would be spent organizing towards
fending off the model bills. Maggie Ellinger-Locke, staff attorney for
Greenpeace USA, says she believes the impact will be felt in communities
nationwide regardless of whether these bills become law.
"The vast majority of these bills have, so far, been defeated in one way
or another. Either they are vetoed, don't make it out of committee,
expire, etc. But at core the problem here is that even where we can
point to successes, the mere introduction of these bills has the power
to chill speech, acting as a deterrent and discouraging resistance,"
Ellinger-Locke told The Real News Network. "So we are hearing from
people in the communities where these bills have been introduced that
they are less likely to attend the next protest; these bills are sending
a message that hurts a culture of activism. And the impact of that
message falls disproportionately onto groups of people without access to
institutional power."
https://therealnews.com/columns/bills-criminalizing-pipeline-protest-arise-in-statehouses-nationwide
- - -
[Polluter Watch]
*State Bills to Criminalize Peaceful Protest of Oil & Gas "Critical
Infrastructure"*
Lawmakers in several states are introducing bills that would increase
criminal penalties for people who trespass "critical infrastructure"
facilities, such as oil and gas pipelines, power plants, and
petrochemical refineries.
According to many of these legislators, these bills are a reaction to
widespread protests of oil and gas infrastructure. Some of the protests
have captured the nation's attention, such as the indigenous-led
protests at Standing Rock in North Dakota and in Iowa against the Dakota
Access Pipeline, opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline from Nebraska to
Texas, protests of the Bayou Bridge pipeline in Louisiana, and
opposition to several pipeline projects in Pennsylvania. Five states
have enacted some form of these bills into law: North Dakota, South
Dakota, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Louisiana.
This effort to add felony-level penalties to peaceful protestors does
not appear to be in reaction from the constituents of the politicians
sponsoring such legislation. In contrast, there is much evidence of
coordinated pressure from the oil and gas industry, electric utilities,
and chemical companies.
Many of these bills are virtually identical. Several companies and
lobbying organizations used groups like the American Legislative
Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Council of State Governments (CSG) to
put these policies into the hands of legislators. These model "critical
infrastructure" anti-protest bills adopted by ALEC and by CSG would
allow prosecutors to impose large fines and felonies, not only on
individuals who are arrested, but organizations that are deemed to be
supporting those individuals...
- - - -
*OIL & GAS INFRASTRUCTURE ANTI-PROTEST BILLS, PRESENT TO PAST:*
*2019:*
Feb 12, 2019: Ohio SB 33 introduced. (see Ohio Oil & Gas Infrastrucure
anti-protest bills)
Feb 12, 2019: Idaho SB 1090 introduced. (see Idaho Oil & Gas
Infrastructure anti-protest bills)
Feb. 7, 2019: Illinois SB 1304 introduced. (see Illinois Oil & Gas
Infrastructure anti-protest bills)
Feb. 4, 2019: Wyoming HB 10 died in committee. (see Wyoming Oil & Gas
Infrastructure anti-protest bills)
Jan. 31, 2019: Illinois HB 1633 introduced. (see Illinois Oil & Gas
Infrastructure anti-protest bills)
Jan. 23, 2019: Missouri SB 293 introduced. (see Missouri Oil & Gas
Infrastructure anti-protest bills)
Jan. 19, 2019: Mississippi SB 2754 introduced. (see Mississippi Oil &
Gas Infrastructure anti-protest bills)
Jan 17, 2019: Pennsylvania Senators announced they will reintroduce SB
652. (see Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Infrastructure anti-protest bills)
Jan. 14, 2019: Indiana SB 471 introduced. (see Indiana Oil & Gas
Infrastructure anti-protest bills)
Jan. 3, 2019: North Dakota SB 2044 introduced. (see North Dakota Oil &
Gas Infrastructure anti-protest bills)...
http://polluterwatch.org/State-Bills-Criminalize-Peaceful-Protest-Oil-Gas-Critical-Infrastructure-pipelines
[source material ]
Published: 28 January 2019
*Widespread loss of lake ice around the Northern Hemisphere in a warming
world*
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0393-5
- - -
[Beckwith video explains it well]
*LECTURE: Your City's Climate is Shifting Beneath Your Feet*
Paul Beckwith
Published on Feb 22, 2019
Thousands of northern lakes no longer freeze up. Amplified warming at
high latitudes changed annual ice cover to intermittent or no ice when
mean annual surface air temperature exceeds 8.4 C, subject to other
factors (lake depth; size, lake elevation; coastline complexity). A
peer-reviewed science paper on "climate analogues" shows how climate in
North American cities is shifting south-south-west by an average of 500
miles within a generation. See how fast and far your own cities climate
is going.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PuMc7caXho
- - -
[average temperature is less than 47 degrees F]
*Lakes 'skating on thin ice' as warming limits freeze*
Their new study suggests that, within a generation, over 35,000 lakes
will lose their winter cover.
The researchers involved say the disappearance will have significant
implications for millions of people living near these bodies of water.
It could also pose a threat to supplies of drinking water and to fish
species.
Right now some 15,000 lakes in Canada, the US and northern parts of
Europe experience intermittent ice cover during the winter months. This
means that they freeze in the colder winters but remain ice free when
winters are warmer.
This is already posing problems for communities living in these regions
who rely on ice roads that cross lakes for food supplies and social
connection.
Lake ice is also seen by scientists as an important long-term indicator
of climate change and one of the world's resources most threatened by
rising temperatures.
Now, in what researchers believe is the most comprehensive analysis of
lake ice loss, researchers say that many more lakes are set to go ice
free in winter.
If the world manages to keep the rise in global temperatures to 2C, the
study suggests that the number of lakes experiencing intermittent ice
will increase to over 35,000. This may have implications for 394 million
people who live within an hour of their shores.
"We're not taking about lakes getting a little warmer. We are talking
about lake ice being gone in the winter," said Dr Catherine O'Reilly, a
co-author on the study from Illinois State University.
"Our children and grandchildren would not see something we have taken
for granted."
In a worst case scenario, where the world warmed by 8C by the end of
this century, the number of lakes impacted would be 230,400.
The authors stress that rather than being some long term prediction of
the future implications of warming, this melting is happening now.
"It won't require that much warming for these impacts to be felt," said
lead author Dr Sapna Sharma, from York University in Toronto, Canada.
"It's happening right now - Lake Superior for example is no longer
freezing every winter. The Great Lakes are experiencing it. We have
examples from all around the world of lakes that are experiencing this
big change and we predict its going to occur in a lot more lakes in the
future."
As well as promising an end to cultural and recreational activities such
as outdoor skating and ice fishing, the loss of lake ice is also
threatening environmental impacts. Lakes that don't freeze over are more
susceptible to losing more water through evaporation.
- -
The key element at work in limiting the ice is air temperature. However,
there were other factors at play including the shape of the lake, with
more circular shorelines receiving greater wind shear across their
surfaces, which can prevent the formation of ice.
Water depth is also very important.
"The deeper the lake is, the more heat storage it has and it takes more
cold weather to get the lake down to a temp where it could freeze," said
Prof John Magnuson, a co-author from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The study has been published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47029482
- - -
Altmetric mention https://www.altmetric.com/details/54612624
*This Day in Climate History - February 23, 2014 - from D.R. Tucker*
The New York Times reports:
"President Obama's annual budget request to Congress will propose a
significant change in how the government pays to fight wildfires,
administration officials said, a move that they say reflects the
ways in which climate change is increasing the risk for and cost of
those fires.
"The wildfire funding shift is one in a series of recent White House
actions related to climate change as Mr. Obama tries to highlight
the issue and build political support for his administration's more
muscular policies, like curbing carbon emissions from coal-fired
power plants. On Monday, Mr. Obama plans to describe his proposal at
a meeting in Washington with governors of Western states that have
been ravaged recently by severe drought and wildfires."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/us/obama-to-propose-shift-in-wildfire-funding.html
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
/Archive of Daily Global Warming News
<https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html>
/
https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote
/To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe
<mailto:subscribe at theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request>
to news digest./
*** Privacy and Security:*This is a text-only mailing that carries no
images which may originate from remote servers. Text-only messages
provide greater privacy to the receiver and sender.
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain must be used for democratic
and election purposes and cannot be used for commercial purposes.
To subscribe, email: contact at theclimate.vote
<mailto:contact at theclimate.vote> with subject subscribe, To Unsubscribe,
subject: unsubscribe
Also you may subscribe/unsubscribe at
https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Pauli for
http://TheClimate.Vote <http://TheClimate.Vote/> delivering succinct
information for citizens and responsible governments of all levels. List
membership is confidential and records are scrupulously restricted to
this mailing list.
More information about the TheClimate.Vote
mailing list