[TheClimate.Vote] February 28, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Feb 28 09:59:40 EST 2019
/February 28, 2019/
[political chasm]
*A Growing Divide on Climate Science: Trump vs. the Rest of the World*
...And Mr. Trump announced last week on Twitter that he would nominate
Kelly Knight Craft to be his ambassador to the United Nations. Ms. Craft
said in a 2017 television interview that, on the issue of climate
change, she believes there are "scientists on both sides that are accurate."
- -
"There is no precedent for something like this," said Douglas Brinkley,
a historian who has written books on five former United States
presidents. "Other presidents have attacked policy initiatives, but not
science."
- -
In particular, experts said, presidents have never sought to undermine
the findings of the National Academies of Science, created by President
Abraham Lincoln to provide unbiased scientific findings to the country's
leaders. The group played a key role in reviewing the conclusions of the
National Climate Assessment.
- -
Critics of the president also singled out his announcement that he would
nominate Ms. Craft as ambassador to the United Nations, given that her
comments on climate change are far outside the mainstream of established
science.
"She's taken this bizarre position," said R. Nicholas Burns, who served
as under secretary of state for political affairs during the George W.
Bush administration. "She will find that in New York, at the Security
Council, climate change is one of the top issues. If the representative
of the world's largest economy and one of the largest emitters doesn't
understand the science of this issue, it makes the U.S. look feckless
and irresponsible."
- -
"Republicans who believe pollsters, pollsters are telling them, 'people
care about climate,' " said Steven J. Milloy, a member of Mr. Trump's
E.P.A. transition team who now runs a website aimed at casting doubt on
the established science of human-caused climate change.
Mr. Milloy and other Republican strategists also said that within the
White House, millennial Republican staffers were pushing back at the
effort to create the new panel.
"If you're 30 years old and work at the White House, it's not clear that
this effort is a good idea," said Mr. Milloy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/climate/trump-climate-science.html
[redefining "mired"]
*Senate Democrats to offer unanimous climate resolution that's not the
Green New Deal*
All 47 members of the Senate Democratic caucus plan to introduce a
resolution Tuesday urging Congress to act immediately on climate change,
a Democratic leadership aide tells POLITICO.
The resolution will not include firm targets for emissions reductions,
but it offers a rallying point for Democrats who have been divided over
the ambitious Green New Deal resolution introduced earlier this month by
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.).
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the Senate will vote by this
summer on the original resolution, but there is no guarantee the unified
Democratic alternative would come to the floor...
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/26/democrats-climate-change-1189128
[Less oxygen in our breathing air]
*Rise of The METHANE; Latest Science on Temporal and Spatial Variations:
1 of 2*
Paul Beckwith
Published on Feb 26, 2019
Since 2007 atmospheric methane concentrations have risen strongly;
average rate 7 ppb per year. Methane's Global-Warming Potential
multiplies warming vs. CO2 by 34x, 86x, and 150-200x on time scales of
100 years, 20 years, and a few years, respectively. Total radiative
forcing of methane is rapidly catching that of CO2, making Paris targets
nearly impossible to reach without emergency actions. Here, and next
video, I chat on latest methane science; including spatial and temporal
variation, isotopic changes, emission locations, etc...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Cu1yiiMWM
- - -
[Protons for Breakfast Blog]
*Global Oxygen Depletion*
While browsing over at the two degrees institute, I came across this
figure for atmospheric oxygen concentrations measured at a station at
the South Pole.
The graph shows the change in:
https://protonsforbreakfast.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/graph-1-1.png?w=450
the ratio of oxygen to nitrogen molecules in samples of air taken at a
particular date
to
the ratio of oxygen to nitrogen molecules in samples of air taken in the
1980's.
The sentence above is complicated, but it can be interpreted without too
many caveats as simply the change in oxygen concentration in air
measured at the South Pole.
We see an annual variation – the Earth 'breathing'- but more worryingly
we see that:
The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere is declining.
It's a small effect, and will only reach a 0.1% decline – 1000 parts per
million – in 2035 or so. So it won't affect our ability to breathe.
Phewww. But it is nonetheless interesting.
Averaging the data from the South pole over the years since 2010, the
oxygen concentration appears to be declining at roughly 25 parts per
million per year...
https://protonsforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2019/02/04/global-oxygen-depletion/
[The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)]
*Rights of Lake Erie Recognized in Historic Vote*
Feb 27, 2019
Toledo, Ohio, voters make history, adopting a charter amendment that
recognizes the rights of Lake Erie! This is the first rights-based law
in the United States that specifically acknowledges the rights of a
distinct ecosystem, securing the Lake's rights to exist, flourish, and
naturally evolve.
Since 2016, CELDF has partnered with Toledoans for Safe Water to
recognize the rights of the Lake. This includes defending their
democratic right to vote as numerous industry representatives and their
allies have tried to block the Lake Erie Bill of Rights initiative from
the ballot.
Toledo residents overcame those challenges, culminating in this
extraordinary win for Lake Erie and surrounding communities and
ecosystems....
- - -
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is building a
movement for Community Rights and the Rights of Nature to advance
democratic, economic, social, and environmental rights – building upward
from the grassroots to the state, federal, and international level.
https://celdf.org/2019/02/rights-of-lake-erie-recognized-in-historic-vote/
[Russia determined to know weather]
*With more dark clouds in horizon, Russian Arctic meteorologists get
almost a billion for studies of the weather*
It is allocated from the government's reserve fund and is to strengthen
Arctic weather forecasting.
By Atle Staalesen
134
February 27, 2019
The Russian government this week announced that it is allocating 868.75
million rubles (11.6 million) to the Transarktika-2019 program, an
initiative managed by the country's state meteorological institute
Roshydromet.
The goal is to improve the system of Russian meteorological security
connected with maritime activities in the Arctic, the government says.
As part of the initiative, a series of complex scientific studies and
monitoring operations will be conducted to review the level of pollution
in the region. Four of Roshydromet's Arctic research vessels will be
applied in the studies, including the "Akademik Tryoshnikov" that will
be frozen into the Arctic ice and drift with the current.
The "Mikhail Somov" will conduct research along the edges of the Arctic
seas, while the "Professor Multaovsky" will sail from Vladivostok to the
Kola Peninsula in a research expedition. In addition, the "Professor
Molchanov" will serve as venue for training and education activities.
The Transarktika-2019 starts as the Russian Arctic is undergoing
unprecedented climate change with average temperatures far beyond
normal. In parts of the region, the average temperatures have increased
with up to five degrees Celsius in less than 30 years.
At the same time, regional Russian industrial activities are rapidly on
the increase and shipping on the Northern Sea Route is bigger than ever.
And far more is to come. The target set by President Putin is 80 million
tons of goods on the route by year 2024, an 8-fold increase from year 2017.
"In order to provide safe shipping in this region, with these major
volumes, it is absolutely necessary with a developed system of
hydrometeorological service," Roshydromet Director Maksim Yakovenko
underlined in a recent interview with news site korabel.ru.
It is the observation network that constitutes the by far most expensive
part of the research, Yakovenko says and makes clear that the stations
are scattered over the Arctic in inaccessible and remote areas.
Over the last 30 years an number of the country's Arctic research
stations have closed and abandoned. But now revival is on its way,
Yakovenko underlines. The goal of the institute is renovate and reopen a
big number of the former stations.
"We plant to modernise forty station, all of which are located in
inaccessible areas, and 30 abandoned stations will be revived."
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2019/02/more-dark-clouds-horizon-russian-arctic-meteorologists-get-almost-billion-studies
[we really don't know clouds at all]
*We Don't Actually Know What's Going to Happen to Clouds*
This is the big problem with climate change, in a nutshell.
By SUSAN MATTHEWS - FEB 26, 2019
And what we don't know about the future of clouds is kind of a lot. As
Wolchover explains, we know that at various points in history, the
Earth's climate has fluctuated wildly; in prior periods, it's gotten hot
so fast that scientists can't quite discern what caused the swings.
Clouds' disappearance may have been one factor. As Wolchover writes,
"For decades, rough calculations have suggested that cloud loss could
significantly impact climate, but this concern remained speculative
until the last few years, when observations and simulations of clouds
improved to the point where researchers could amass convincing
evidence." One way they've collected the data they need to make these
calculations is by flying through stratocumulus clouds with "dangling
instruments from airplane wings to measure atmospheric conditions and
bounce lasers off of cloud droplets." Compelling science!
Even with this kind of data, though, calculating cloud cover is
immensely complicated. As Wolchover points out, "today's supercomputers
cannot resolve grid cells that are smaller than about 100 kilometers by
100 kilometers in area. But clouds are often no more than a few
kilometers across." It's hard to precisely simulate how clouds differ
from place to place and how weather will affect cloud cover. Indeed,
many cloud scientists are pushing back on the Nature paper, Paul Vosen
reported in Science on Tuesday, because they think the authors
inappropriately projected data from a spot that is particularly prone to
cloud loss, rather than accounting for how cloud loss might differ from
place to place.
Another major unknown? Whether we'll hit the climate conditions that
would make clouds disappear in the first place. The researchers say this
will happen when CO2 in the atmosphere hits 1,200 parts per
million—roughly three times where we are today. As the Atlantic's
Robinson Meyer put it, "Good news: I think it's unlikely that
atmospheric carbon hits 1200 ppm by the end of the century. Bad news:
It's DEFINITELY not impossible."
Do all these factors ultimately mean that you don't have to actually
worry about cloud loss? I'd suggest that's the wrong takeaway. One of
the biggest problems inhibiting our understanding of climate change is
our inability to grasp exactly how Earth's intimately connected
interplanetary forces will combine with one another to amplify
problems—a concept David Wallace-Wells usefully categorizes as
"cascades" in his new book, The Uninhabitable Earth. This explanation of
uncertainty is also elegantly woven through Wolchover's piece, and is
what makes it so compelling: It's not saying clouds will disappear; it's
exploring the world in which they might. That possibility is jarring
enough, hopefully, to convince us to minimize the chances of a cloudless
future.
https://slate.com/technology/2019/02/could-climate-change-make-clouds-disappear-clouds-maybe.html
[Could have happened 20 years ago]
*Weatherwatch: should TV forecasters talk about climate change?*
Studies show even climate change deniers may be receptive to such news
in bulletins
TV weather forecasters usually steer clear of mentioning climate change,
perhaps fearing a backlash for straying on to controversial territory.
But a recent experiment in the US suggests a dose of climate change news
with the weather forecast is no bad thing.
Seventy per cent of Americans think climate change is a distant risk,
and 40% believe it will not have any impact on them. Yet its effects are
increasingly being felt close to home, with wildfires in California, a
"snow drought" in the Pacific Northwest and the recent spell of extreme
winter weather across much of the country. Can TV weather forecasters
help undo some of the misconceptions?
To answer this, scientists at George Mason University in Virginia
analysed viewers' reactions to weather forecasters explaining local
climate change. More than two-thirds of viewers were interested, and
even climate change deniers failed to be irritated or angered by the
coverage. Previous research has shown that people are more receptive to
pro-climate policies when they realise climate change is happening to
them. Weather forecasters are trusted communicators and could play a
powerful role in shifting public opinion.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/weatherwatch-tv-forecasters-climate-change
[US Youth Climate Strike]
*PRESS ADVISORY FOR MARCH 15TH 2019*
climatestrikeusa at gmail.com
Instagram: @usclimatestrike
Twitter: @climatestrikeUS
Website: youthclimatestrikeus.org
Press Advisory
US Youth Climate Strike
Taking Direct Action for a Sustainable Future
Who: We are US Youth Climate Strike, a collective movement of youth in
the United States who are
fighting for the conservation of our planet. We are joining the movement
"Fridays for Future", sparked by
16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and her weekly Friday
"school strikes for climate" in front
of the Swedish Parliament, and thereby bringing the movement to the
United States.
What: We are participating in a global day of climate action. On this
day, U.S. youth will not be
attending school in order to strike, march and rally to protest
government inaction on climate change and
raise public awareness of the severity of the climate crisis.
When: Friday, March 15th, 2019
Where: All across State Capitols as well as the US Capitol
Summary: In the United States, greenhouse gas emissions are on the rise
again after a time of reduction.
We, the youth of the world, are putting pressure on our government
officials to take the necessary steps to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero, thus ensuring a habitable
planet sustainable future for
generations to come.
When 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg decided to
strike school and sit in front of the
swedish parliament to raise awareness for the climate crisis, she
started the first ever school strike for
climate. With this she sparked the movement Fridays for the Future.
Every Friday students from all
around the world strike school and take to the streets to protest. On
March 15th we will have a global day
of climate action. With this the U.S. will have its first ever
nationwide school strike for climate!
The demands of US Youth Climate Strike are:
1. We demand a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in line with the
October 2018 IPCC Special
Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
2. We demand our world leaders take action that ensures global warming
remains under 1.5 degrees
Celsius.
3. We demand that our US legislators implement the Green New Deal and
other legislative actions
that decrease the climate crisis.
https://www.youthclimatestrikeus.org/strikes
*This Day in Climate History - February 28, 2-14 - from D.R. Tucker*
February 28, 2014: - The New York Times reports:
"The Interior Department opened the door on Thursday to the first
searches in decades for oil and gas off the Atlantic coast,
recommending that undersea seismic surveys proceed, though with a
host of safeguards to shield marine life from much of their impact.
"The recommendation is likely to be adopted after a period of public
comment and over objections by environmental activists who say it
will be ruinous for the climate and sea life alike.
"The American Petroleum Institute called the recommendation a
critical step toward bolstering the nation's energy security,
predicting that oil and gas production in the region could create
280,000 new jobs and generate $195 billion in private investment.
"Activists were livid. Allowing exploration 'could be a death
sentence for many marine mammals, and is needlessly turning the
Atlantic Ocean into a blast zone,' Jacqueline Savitz, a vice
president at the conservation group Oceana, said in a statement on
Thursday."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/us/us-moves-toward-atlantic-oil-exploration-stirring-debate-over-sea-life.html?hp&_r=0
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