[TheClimate.Vote] July 17, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest.

[Richard Pauli]

/July 17, 2019/


[DW.com German news organization]
*German renewables deliver more electricity than coal and nuclear power 
for the first time*
In Germany, sun, wind, water and biomass have so far produced more 
electricity in 2019 than coal and nuclear power combined. But it's a 
snapshot of a special market situation and might not be a long-term trend.
In Lippendorf, Saxony, the energy supplier EnBW is temporarily taking 
part of a coal-fired power plant offline. Not because someone ordered it 
— it simply wasn't paying off. Gas prices are low, CO2 prices are high, 
and with many hours of sunshine and wind, renewable methods are 
producing a great deal of electricity. And in the first half of the year 
there was plenty of sun and wind.

The result was a six-month period in which renewable energy sources 
produced more electricity than coal and nuclear power plants together. 
For the first time 47.3% of the electricity consumers used came from 
renewable sources, while 43.4% came from coal-fired and nuclear power 
plants.

In addition to solar and wind power, renewable sources also include 
hydropower and biomass. Gas supplied 9.3% while the remaining 0.4% came 
from other sources, such as oil, according to figures published by the 
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in July...
- - -
The increase in wind and solar power and the decline in nuclear power 
have also reduced CO2 emissions. In the first half of 2019, electricity 
generation emitted around 15% less CO2 than in the same period last 
year, reported BDEW. However, the association demands that the further 
expansion of renewable energies should not be hampered. The target of 
65% renewable energy can only be achieved if the further expansion of 
renewable energy sources is accelerated.
https://www.dw.com/en/german-renewables-deliver-more-electricity-than-coal-and-nuclear-power-for-the-first-time/a-49606644-0


[more data]
*California's Wildfires Are 500 Percent Larger Due to Climate Change*
"Each degree of warming causes way more fire than the previous degree of 
warming did. And that’s a really big deal."
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/climate-change-500-percent-increase-california-wildfires/594016/?utm_medium=offsite&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=newsstand-science



[NYC event registration required]
Description
*Intimate Dilemmas in the Climate Crisis: Kids and Feelings about the 
Future*
Date and Time - Wed, July 24, 2019 - 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM EDT

Mary Annaise Heglar - Director of Publications, Natural Resources 
Defence Council
Josephine Ferorelli - Co-Founder, Conceivable Future
Matthew Schneider-Mayerson - Assistant Professor, Yale-NUS College
Jade Begay - Filmmaker, strategist and Indigenous rights and climate 
justice activist
Britt Wray - Author, science media host and 2019 TED Resident

Climate change and its associated impacts can cause a wide range of 
emotions and affect communities in unique, often disproportionate ways. 
Grief, fear, despair, depression, motivation, hope and the desire for a 
better future are all sentiments that can be very personal, but are also 
what unite us.

We will investigate a set of difficult intimate issues that are gaining 
momentum in public debates around climate: What does it mean to bring 
new life (children) into this catastrophic climate crisis? How can we 
process difficult emotions spurred by climate change in ways that foster 
resilience? Come hear different voices discuss how they approach the 
question of having and raising children (or not) amidst climate 
breakdown, and what new vulnerabilities our changing environments are 
creating for people (in profoundly inequitable ways), before 
participating in a mini-workshop on these themes.

In this discussion and mini-workshop, we will explore frameworks that 
may help guide your thoughts on these issues, and will make room to 
question all kinds of perspectives. Concepts may range from 
environmental justice and intersectionality, to carbon-intensive 
lifestyles, to how a rapidly changing world affects the life of any 
child born today and more.

The decision to have a child and one's feelings about the future are 
deeply personal, and shaped by all sorts of cultural norms, religious 
beliefs, education levels, socioeconomic status and more, making this a 
dynamic topic with no "right" responses. At the same time, the growing 
debate around whether and how to raise children in the climate crisis is 
an urgent indicator of how hard-pressed people are feeling as our 
physical environments become more punishing towards us. Join us to 
explore the tensions and debates around the psychological impacts of 
living on a warming planet, and begin to channel our individual views 
and feelings into positive, collective work in the world.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/intimate-dilemmas-in-the-climate-crisis-kids-and-feelings-about-the-future-tickets-62954435411



[Demonstration in England "Doing our thing, and what happens, happens"]
*Climate Die-in at Bicester Shopping Village | Extinction Rebellion*
Extinction Rebellion
Published on Jul 16, 2019
July 2019 at Bicester Shopping Village (Oxfordshire, England): A small 
group of Extinction Rebellion activists are protesting the consumption 
culture from a Christian angle. They have no idea what reaction they'll 
get from the shoppers to their act of solidarity with the victims of 
climate catastrophe.
More info at - https://www.facebook.com/christianclimateaction/
Video by Peter Armstrong, courtesy of Empahty Media 
https://vimeo.com/user693593
Empathy Media is online presence of a charity, The Hedgerley Wood Trust. 
It's dedicated to the memory of Boo Armstrong, continuing her work on 
global justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEetku9E66Y



[really? How long?]
*Thirty years to climate meltdown - or not?*
June 10th, 2019, by Alex Kirby
For years most of us largely ignored the idea of climate meltdown. Now 
we're talking about it. So what should we be doing?

LONDON, 10 June, 2019 - How much of a threat is climate meltdown? Should 
we treat it as the biggest danger to life in the 21st century, or as one 
of many problems - serious, but manageable?
A new study says human civilisation itself could pass the point of no 
return by 2050. The Australian climate think-tank Breakthrough: National 
Centre for Climate Restoration says that unless humanity takes drastic 
and immediate action to save the climate, a combination of unstable food 
production, water shortages and extreme weather could lead to the 
breakdown of global society.

One renowned US climate scientist, Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State 
University, says that Breakthrough is exaggerating and its report could 
be counter-productive. In the UK, though, Mark Maslin of University 
College London says the report underlines the deep concerns expressed by 
some security experts.
*
**Act together*
Chris Barrie, a retired Royal Australian Navy admiral and former Chief 
of the Australian Defence Force, is now an honorary professor at the 
Australian National University, Canberra.

In a foreword to the Breakthrough study he writes: "We must act 
collectively. We need strong, determined leadership in government, in 
business and in our communities to ensure a sustainable future for 
humankind."

David Spratt, Breakthrough's research director and a co-author of the 
study, says that "much knowledge produced for policymakers is too 
conservative," but that the new paper, by showing the extreme end of 
what could happen in just the next three decades, aims to make the 
stakes clear. "The report speaks, in our opinion, a harsh but necessary 
truth," he says.

"To reduce this risk and protect human civilisation, a massive global 
mobilisation of resources is needed in the coming decade to build a 
zero-emissions industrial system and set in train the restoration of a 
safe climate," the report reads. "This would be akin in scale to the 
World War II emergency mobilisation."

"Maybe, just maybe, it is time for our politicians to be worried and 
start to act to avoid the scenarios painted so vividly"

Breakthrough acknowledges that the worst possibility it foresees - the 
total collapse of civilisation by mid-century - is an example of a 
worst-case scenario, but it insists that "the world is currently 
completely unprepared to envisage, and even less deal with, the 
consequences of catastrophic climate change."

The picture of the possible near future it presents is stark. By 2050, 
it says, the world could have reached:
- a 3C temperature rise, with a further 1C in store
- sea levels 0.5 metres above today's, with a possible eventual rise of 25m
- 55% of the world's people subject to more than 20 days a year of heat 
"beyond the threshold of human survivability"
- one billion people forced to leave the tropics
- a 20% decline in crop yields, leaving too little food to feed the world
- armed conflict likely and nuclear war possible.
The report's authors conclude: "The scale of destruction is beyond our 
capacity to model, with a high likelihood of human civilisation coming 
to an end."

*Warnings examined*
Warnings of the possible end of human civilisation are not new. They 
range from those which offer highly-qualified hope for humanity's future 
to others which find very little to celebrate, even tentatively.

The Breakthrough study fits unequivocally into the second group. To 
weigh the credibility of some of its statements, the journal New 
Scientist looks at the sources they cite and the wider context of the 
claims they make.

Its scrutiny ends with the views of two eminent climate scientists. 
Michael Mann, professor of atmospheric science at Penn State, says: "I 
respect the authors and appreciate that their intentions are good, but … 
overblown rhetoric, exaggeration, and unsupportable doomist framing can 
be counteractive to climate action."

For his part, Mark Maslin, professor of geography at UCL, tells New 
Scientist that the Breakthrough report adds to the deep concerns 
expressed by security experts such as the Pentagon over climate change.

*Hope nurtured*
"Maybe, just maybe, it is time for our politicians to be worried and 
start to act to avoid the scenarios painted so vividly," he says.

The 2020 round of UN climate negotiations is due to take place in 
November next year, with hopes building that many countries will agree 
then to make much more radical cuts in greenhouse gas emissions than 
they have pledged so far.

Altogether 195 countries promised in 2015, in the Paris Agreement, to 
make the cuts needed to prevent global average temperatures rising more 
than 2C, and if possible to stay below a maximum rise of 1.5C, the 
levels climate scientists say are the highest that can assure the 
planet's safety. But the cuts that many countries have promised so far 
will not achieve either goal.

Scientists say it is still possible for the world to achieve the 1.5C 
limit. But doing so requires immediate emissions cuts, on a scale and at 
a pace that are not yet in sight - "a very big 'if'", as one of them put 
it. - Climate News Network
https://climatenewsnetwork.net/thirty-years-to-climate-meltdown-or-not/


[Resource material]
*Topic Collection: Mental/Behavioral Health (Non-Responders)*
Disasters can have tremendous mental and behavioral health consequences 
that will directly impact healthcare systems in the short and long term. 
The resources below can help healthcare systems enhance their ability to 
prepare for and respond effectively to the mental and behavioral health 
complications that may arise during an emergency. This Topic Collection 
addresses the impact of post-disaster mental and behavioral 
health-related challenges on the healthcare system, and includes tools 
and information providers may use to support the needs of their 
patients. For additional information regarding disaster mental and 
behavioral health as it relates to the general public please contact 
ASPR's Division for At-Risk Individuals, Behavioral Health & Community 
Resilience or the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 
Administration's Disaster Technical Assistance Center. ASPR TRACIE's 
Select Disaster Behavioral Health Resource Page and Responder Safety and 
Health Topic Collection also include helpful, related information.

Though this topic collection includes information about diagnoses and 
interventions that planners should be aware of, it is not designed to be 
a comprehensive resource for treatment information for conditions such 
as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Mental health professionals should 
refer to other sources or contact the agencies noted above for specific 
questions.
Each resource in this Topic Collection is placed into one or more of the 
following categories..

Must Reads
Education and Training
Guidance
Lessons Learned
Plans, Tools, and Templates
Plans, Tools, and Templates: Apps and Internet-Based Interventions
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Resilience Resources
Resources for Responders and Providers
Resources for Survivors
Agencies and Organizations

more at - 
https://asprtracie.hhs.gov/technical-resources/68/mental-behavioral-health-non-responders/60


[Satiric gem from The Onion]
*New Evidence Finds Titanic Passengers Continued Eating From Buffet As 
Ship Sank*
WOODS HOLE, MA—Illuminating the panicked and desperate final hours of 
the passengers aboard the doomed ocean liner, forensic divers from the 
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found new evidence Tuesday 
indicating that the Titanic's passengers continued eating from the main 
deck's buffet as the ship sank into the ocean. "According to our 
findings, steerage and main deck passengers alike made an average of 
three trips up the increasingly pitched deck for different seafood and 
pasta options. Several of them even sat down and dined together, placing 
more and more matchbooks under the table legs to level the eating 
surface as the ship began to take on water," said lead researcher Dr. 
Lyor Walker, noting that the knowledge that they were almost certainly 
doomed did nothing to dissuade passengers from the pursuit of 
all-you-can-eat-scallops. "While a majority of passengers raced to the 
nearest exit, we now know that a significant number of people displayed 
incredible stoicism and composure while fetching an entire rack of ribs 
and side of macaroni. These brave diners soldiered on even as the ship 
broke in half and lost electricity, rendering most dishes lukewarm at 
best. In fact, we must commend those men who courageously placed women 
and children in the lifeboats before rushing back to the buffet to grab 
a to-go plate." At press time, researchers released a moving photo of 
the preserved skeletal remains of one tuxedo-clad passenger still 
hunched thoughtfully over a long-sunken dessert cart.
https://www.theonion.com/new-evidence-finds-titanic-passengers-continued-eating-1836407827


*This Day in Climate History - July 17, 2012 - from D.R. Tucker*
July 17, 2012: On MSNBC's "NewsNation with Tamron Hall," Heidi Cullen of 
Climate Central discusses the extreme drought tormenting the United States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0eCaBV-osI
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