[TheClimate.Vote] January 24, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/January 24, 2019/


[opinion in Scientific American]
*Climate Change Is a Public Health Emergency*
Here are eight reasons why
By Ploy Achakulwisut - January 23, 2019
- - -
Yet mounting scientific evidence has led experts to conclude that 
climate change presents "the biggest global health threat of the 21st 
century". A recent study demonstrated that there are 467 different 
pathways by which human health, water, food, economy, infrastructure and 
security have already been impacted by climate hazards. Here are 8 major 
ways that climate change harms our health today and threatens it tomorrow:*
**1. The frequency, intensity, and duration of heatwaves, droughts, 
wildfires, floods and storms are increasing due to climate change...*

*2. As average temperatures continue to rise, so will heat-related 
disorders...*

*3. Climate change can exacerbate air pollution...*

*4. Elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations are associated with 
decreased human cognitive performance...*

*5. Climate change influences the transmission of vector-, food-, and 
water-borne diseases...*

*6. Climate change threatens food and nutrition security...*

*7. Climate change will cause mass migration and most likely increase 
collective violence...*

*8. Climate change poses threats to our mental health and well-being...*

Put simply, if you care about your health, you should care about climate 
change too.

Ploy Achakulwisut, PhD, is a postdoctoral scientist studying the 
urban-to-global health impacts of climate change and air pollution at 
the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public 
Health. She received her PhD in Atmospheric Science from Harvard 
University. Follow her on Twitter: @_aploy.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/climate-change-is-a-public-health-emergency/?amp


[Audio podcast 30 min The Guardian]
*What can we do, right now, about climate change?*
A series of extreme weather events in 2018 again highlighted the urgency 
of making the social and political changes needed to keep the increase 
in global warming to a maximum of 1.5C (2.7F). In September this year, 
the UN will convene a dedicated climate summit where agreement will be 
sought for ambitious and far-reaching policies.

Joining India Rakusen today is the Guardian's global environment editor, 
Jonathan Watts, to discuss the extent of the political change required 
if the world has any chance at all of keeping within the 1.5C upper 
limit on warming. He also explores some of the most effective ways 
individuals can join the battle against global warming: a vital, 
existential issue often drowned out by other news events.

Also today, the Guardian's David Conn examines new research on the 
extent of the gambling industry's hold over professional football in the 
UK – and its often dire consequences.

Calamitous weather events and warnings from scientists that the planet 
is warming faster than previously believed are causing alarm. Global 
environment editor, Jonathan Watts, describes the shifts needed to keep 
global warming to a maximum of 1.5C. Plus: David Conn on how football 
and gambling have become inseparable
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/audio/2019/jan/21/what-can-we-do-right-now-about-climate-change


[data visualization of pollution across Europe]
*Watch how air pollution moves across Europe*
By Jonathan Amos, BBC Science Correspondent
This is what pollution looks like on a European scale.
The animation shows the concentration and movement through the 
atmosphere of nitrogen dioxide.
NO₂ is a problem gas that is produced primarily by vehicle exhausts and 
industrial activity via the burning of fossil fuels.
The map covers a sample period from 5 to 10 January, and describes the 
behaviour of NO₂ at ground level on an hourly basis.
The worst air quality peaks in the white.

This fascinating insight was produced for the BBC by the Copernicus 
Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), which is based at the European 
Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in Reading.

To make this type of animation, CAMS incorporates satellite observations 
and surface measurements.

But as extensive as these data-sets have now become, they don't give a 
complete, real-time picture.

So, the scientists must also marry the sensor information with models - 
of how the atmosphere moves and what the weather is doing.

One of the first things you'll notice in the animation is the prevalence 
of NO₂ emanating from the "usual suspects".

"What you immediately see are the larger cities. You see Madrid, you see 
Paris, you see Moscow, you see London," explains Richard Engelen, the 
deputy head of CAMS.

"Then you'll see more industrial areas, like Germany but also in the UK. 
You'll see too those areas where there are very dense traffic 
infrastructures, such as the Netherlands and Belgium where you have a 
lot of traffic from the two main ports at Rotterdam and Antwerp. These 
are the emission sources that always pop up," he told BBC News.

Notice also the line of emissions streaming away from the Strait of 
Gibraltar as ships line up to navigate their passage into and out of the 
Mediterranean; and look at how the two great mountain ranges of Europe, 
the Pyrenees and the Alps, act as barriers to the movement of pollution.

In northern Italy, the Alps works to trap NO₂ emissions generated in the 
Po Valley, giving the region among the dirtiest air in Europe.
If the animation demonstrates one thing it is that pollution has no 
respect for national boundaries.

CAMS' mission is to deliver a continuous flow of data on the quality of 
the air - and not just for NO₂, but a range of other pollutants (and 
greenhouse gases).

The service's products will find their way into smartphone apps that the 
public and businesses can use. And, of course, all the information is 
made available to policy-makers so they can take steps to clean up the 
atmosphere.
Vincent-Henri Peuch, the head of CAMS, commented: "We are unique in the 
world in terms of the observations that we acquire. To deliver the CAMS 
products, we build on top of all of the observations that are acquired 
for numerical weather prediction; and the amount of satellite and 
in-situ data that we get has no equivalent.

"It's a very good example of pulling together resources at a European 
level in order to provide products that no single country on its own 
could develop."
Copernicus is an initiative of the European Union.

The British government has stated its desire to continue its involvement 
in the programme after Brexit.
Under EU law, the average hourly level of NO₂ must not exceed 200 
micrograms per cubic metre of air more than 18 times in a year; and the 
NO₂ annual mean value may must not exceed 40 micrograms per cubic metre.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46866134


[deep adaptation Jem Bendell audio Interview]
*Jem Bendell on Deep Adaptation, Climate Change and Societal Collapse -E45*
Amisha Ghadiali
Published on Dec 27, 2018
How can we adapt to the inevitability of climate-induced societal collapse?

  In this episode Amisha sits down with strategist and educator Jem 
Bendell. Jem published a paper in July 2018 introducing the concept of 
Deep Adaptation and stating his belief in the inevitability of 
climate-induced societal collapse within the next 10 years.

  Jem first became an environmentalist as a teenager in 1988 and went on 
to train as a climate scientist before moving into the field of 
sustainable business. Alarming data on melting ice and permafrost drew 
Jem back to climate science, where he soon realised that what we see 
today are many signs of runaway climate change, which has already gone 
beyond our control.

  Through his work on Deep Adaptation, Jem offers three questions for 
humanity at this time: what do we most value, what must we let go of and 
what must we restore that has been lost?  Jem speaks about sharing his 
message with school children and sustainable development professionals 
alike, the fascinating responses he has received to his work and the 
resulting existential and spiritual shifts in his own life.

   "The big challenge of our time is to make sure that when our hearts 
break we stay open and connected and curious rather than coming up with 
stories to justify ourselves being violent to others that we have 
othered more than those closest to us." - Jem Bendell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0fm7YlX8AY&t=3s
- - -
*Jem Bendell's paper "Deep Adaptation"*
download at: https://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf


[post industrial Ecologist]
*'The great dying'*
Jack Wilkin - 21st January 2019
Paleoclimatology links climate change to mass extinction.
Forget the K-Pg extinction that led to the demise of the dinosaurs 66 
million-years-ago - the most devastating mass extinction in Earth's 
history occurred 251 million-years-ago at the end of the Permian.

This event - appropriately nicknamed the Great Dying - is the closest 
life on our planet has ever come to being entirely extinguished.
The geological evidence suggests that the main cause of the extinction 
was climatic change.

*Unmatched scale*
Estimating the exact moment that the extinction took place has proven 
difficult. Unlike the clear iridium-rich clay layer that delineates the 
K-Pg event, most of the rock record for the end Permian has been eroded 
away by fluctuations in sea level.

Even the famous Meishan Section in China, although an invaluable 
resource to scientists, is too restrictive to offer a clear picture of 
what was happening at a global scale.

When compared with data collected from other sites around the world it 
is clear that the Great Dying was a series of extinction events that 
occurred during the Late Permian into the Early Triassic.

The scale of the extinction is unmatched by anything else in the 
geological record. Although there is little evidence to suggest that 
life itself was ever at risk of disappearing entirely, the statists are 
staggering.

It is estimated that up to 90 percent of all species became extinct 
within a few million years.  The event led to the wholescale collapse of 
entire ecosystems as plankton and other producers disappeared.

*Sea temperatures*
Isotopic data shows intense warming at the end of the Permo-Triassic 
boundary, around 250 million-years-ago.

A 2012 study published in the journal Science reported a rise in 
temperature from 21C to 36C (the ocean temperature at the time of 
writing this article is about 17C) in the Tethys, an ancient ocean that 
was situated at the equator, over an 800ky period.

A second rise in temperature in the Early Triassic lead to temperatures 
exceeding 40C, a critical temperature for marine organisms.

Such extreme estimates have been criticized for methological flaws in 
the data. Despite this, the rise in ocean temperatures at the end 
Permian is well documented - it's the extent of the warming that is 
subject of ongoing study.

Marine organisms with high oxygen demands - such as cephalopods - cannot 
survive long in waters exceeding 35C. The extreme temperatures at the 
equator forced organisms to higher latitudes where conditions remained 
somewhat tolerable.

*Global anoxia*
The same phenomena is observed in terrestrial organisms. During the 
Permian and Triassic the continents were joined together to form a 
single landmass called Pangea.

The rise in ocean temperatures was likely the dominate factor driving 
the extinction, but it is not enough to account for the sheer magnitude 
of the event. Many researchers instead think that the extinction was 
driven by a complex range of factors.

Unoxidised carbon-rich minerals, notably pyrite, are characteristic of 
the end Permian occurring in marine deposits worldwide. Ocean waters at 
the time were structured with anaerobic bottom waters capped by 
oxygenated surface waters.

The warming of the oceans reduced the solubility of oxygen in the 
seawater, causing the concentration of the oxygen to decrease. This 
coupled with increased weathering of the continents - caused in part by 
higher sea levels - led to an influx of phosphates in to the oceans.

The increase in phosphates was good for life, in the short-term, because 
the extra nutrients supported more primary producers, notably plankton, 
in the oceans. But the increase in productivity was a double edged 
sword: as the increase in the amount of plankton meant that they sank to 
the bottom of the ocean where they further decreased the oxygen 
concentration.

*Methane hydrates*
The accumulation of organic matter on the seabed led to release of CO2 
as the organics decayed. Such ocean anoxic events allowed the formation 
of organic rich shales, the source rocks for petroleum and natural gas.

This makes studying palaeoclimatology important not just from an 
environmental but also an economic perspective.

During cool periods methane gas becomes trapped at the bottom of the sea 
forming methane hydrate deposits. An increase in temperatures causes the 
trapped methane in be released, furthering global warming.

When released, methane rapidly degrades to CO2. This increases ocean 
acidity, anoxia, and contributes to global warming by releasing 
greenhouse gases in to the atmosphere. All three of these factors 
amplified the extinction rates.

The release of methane hydrates would also explain the negative carbon 
excursion seen at the end of the Permian.  There is real concern that 
contemporary climate change may cause methane hydrates to melt, with a 
severe impact on the earth's climate.

*Triggering factor*
What triggered the global warming at the end of the Permian has been 
debated by researchers.

One theory suggests that the warming was triggered by a meteorite impact 
citing shocked quartz discovered in Antarctica. However, the shocked 
quartz appeared to have been plastic deformation structures more 
consistent with tectonic activity rather than a bolide impact. The 
meteor hypothesis is largely rejected by most scientists.

The most widely accepted explanation is volcanic activity. The Siberian 
Traps in Russia are a large expanse of basaltic lava with a volume 
roughly 4 million km3which formed during 300,000 years of continuous 
eruptions over a mantle plume.

The phenomenal amounts of greenhouse gases released would have caused 
major climatic changes. The amount of CO2 released by these volcanic 
eruptions would also account for the isotopic data.

*Heeding a warning*
The end Permian extinction should serve as a warning as to the dangers 
about extreme climatic change.

The release of greenhouse gases by volcanic activity led to warming of 
the oceans and the results release of trapped methane caused the climate 
to spiral out of control. Just replace volcanic with human in the 
previous sentence and you have our current situation.

As global temperatures continue to rise we may see a repeat of the end 
Permian, though nowhere near as extreme.
*
**This Author*
Jack Wilkin is a graduate research student at the Camborne School of 
Mines in the United Kingdom. His research focuses on the isotopic 
geochemistry of fossils from the Jurassic of Germany for paleoclimate 
studies.
https://theecologist.org/2019/jan/21/great-dying-climate-change-and-extinction


[Diva of communications]
*The Word From a Climate Change Believer*
Whatever the main issues of 2019 end up being, climate change will make 
them worse.
BY KATHARINE HAYHOE
A thermometer isn't Democratic or Republican. It doesn't give us a 
different number depending on how we vote. And climate change isn't a 
liberal or conservative issue. It is a human issue. We care about a 
changing climate because it affects every single one of us who share 
this planet--the only home we have.

That's why we have to present every option. We need to hear libertarian 
solutions, free market solutions, bipartisan solutions. But by hiding 
from the problem and pretending as if their opinion were somehow able to 
alter reality, Republicans today are counting themselves out of the 
game. The longer they ignore climate change, the more difficult and 
expensive it's going to be to fix--and the more suffering there will be.

It can be difficult to explain how a 1- or 2-degree change in the 
average temperature of the planet has a direct impact on our lives. But 
climate change becomes more relevant when you look at it as a threat 
multiplier. It amplifies nearly every issue we already care about: 
energy and food security, immigration, refugee crises, international 
conflict, as well as the very real and costly risks of droughts, floods, 
hurricanes, heat waves, and wildfires. Whatever the main issues of 2019 
end up being, I can tell you one thing for sure: Climate change will 
make them worse.
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2019 issue of Foreign 
Policy magazine.

Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist. She has conducted climate 
impact assessments for organizations, cities, and regions, from Boston 
Logan Airport to the state of California. @KHayhoe
https://foreignpolicy.com/gt-essay/the-word-from-a-climate-change-believer-katharine-hayhoe/


[important]
*Rupert Read discusses Climate Change on Mustard TV - 7th January 2016*
Rupert Read
Published on Jan 10, 2016
Rupert Read of the Green Party discusses dangerous human-triggered 
climate change with Clive Lewis MP, Labour's Climate Change spokesman', 
in depth, on Norfolk community TV
www.greenparty.org.uk
www.norwichgreenparty.org
www.rupertread.net
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95eJOPnXR1w
- - - - -
[See also]
*Rupert Read: Wittgenstein and the Illusion of 'Progress'*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEPcQ6sIOTY


[real Fake News - (believable) satire]
*BREAKING: Former President and Chief Operating Officer Geisha Williams 
donates $2.5 million severance to wildfire response*
In an effort to help with the Camp Fire recovery, our former Chief 
Executive Officer and President Geisha Williams has most generously 
donated her $2.5 million severance toward the claims of affected residents.

"The Camp Fire has deeply affected Californians. As PG&E moves to engage 
in the Chapter 11 process, my donation will help ensure that the people 
most affected by this tragedy will not have to wait to be compensated 
for their homes, land, and lost relatives. It's my responsibility to be 
accountable in the aftermath of this major fire -- and I will do 
everything in my power to take that responsibility." said Mrs. Williams.
Press Release https://www.pgecalifornia.com/news.html
https://www.pgecalifornia.com/

The Climate Justice Crew released a fake PG&E website and press release 
claiming that the former President and Chief Operating Officer, Geisha 
Williams, donated her complete severance of $2.5 million dollars as her 
last act in PG&E leadership. The stunt that has since gone viral 
intended to draw attention to PG&E and Mrs. William's culpability of the 
Camp Fire that killed at least 86 people, destroyed more than 18,000 
structures, and led to more than $30 billion in potential wildfire 
liabilities -- California's deadliest and most destructive wildfire on 
record.

Of course, she didn't do it.... because she's a CEO and that's a lot of 
money when you need to hide the shame of what's you've done behind the 
walls a gated community or off on a private island in the Mediterranean.

BUT, anyway, the SF Chronicle bought the story and published the fake 
news of Mrs. Williams generous donation. They've since issued a 
correction article and SF Chron reporters and other local media have 
been all over Twitter about the story.

We're now hoping to create a social media wave to raise awareness about 
this online action and what PGE and its former CEO continues to get away 
with.

     1.) The SF Chron article about the story: 
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Fake-PG-E-website-claims-former-CEO-donated-13555877.php?fbclid=IwAR2k8-e_h6oTNiCC0-06JOx-9O_s8oaMvtfSmbFy5BptxmEzhJvJPSvCGrw

     2.) The Climate Justice Crew's press release [generously posted by 
RTNA on their website]: 
https://risingtidenorthamerica.org/2019/01/online-stunt-draws-attention-to-pge-bankruptcy-and-2-5-million-severance-pay-for-former-president-geisha-williams/

*This Day in Climate History - January 24, 2007 - from D.R. Tucker*
January 24, 2007: "CBS Evening News" provides a sneak preview of the 4th 
IPCC report.
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/climate-change-cause-effect/

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