[TheClimate.Vote] June 28, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/June 28, 2019/

[failed to follow through]
*Democratic debate: candidates fail to grasp universal impact of climate 
crisis*
The 10 candidates on stage in Miami accurately conveyed the urgency of 
global heating but missed chances to show how it underlies all key 
political issues
The second night of the first Democratic 2020 presidential debates on 
Thursday demonstrated just how far the US political system still is from 
contemplating the climate crisis as a challenge that will touch almost 
all areas of American life and policymaking.

Once again, debate moderators waited until nearly 80 minutes into the 
debate to pose questions on climate change.

The Democrats accurately conveyed the rapidly approaching deadlines 
scientists have said the world faces in limiting the most dangerous 
effects of the crisis.

But despite appearing on stage in Miami, where the effects of climate 
change are already apparent, they missed multiple opportunities to 
discuss how rising temperatures play into other hot button political 
issues, with heat and disasters threatening public health and the 
economy, and crop failures helping to drive immigration from Central 
America.
The California senator Kamala Harris called the crisis an "existential 
threat to us as a species". Senator Bernie Sanders said "the future of 
the planet rests on" the US fighting climate change. Pete Buttigieg, 
mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said the US "can't skip a beat" in 
limiting heat-trapping pollution. The former Colorado governor John 
Hickenlooper noted humans have about 10 years to stem irreversible 
damage to the planet.
more at 
-https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/27/democratic-debate-climate-crisis-analysis


[*Bloomberg calls it Climate Apartheid*]
"We have reached a point where the best-case outcome is widespread death 
and suffering by the end of this century, and the worst case puts 
humanity on the brink of extinction."
--Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human 
rights, warning in a new report that the planet faces a "climate apartheid."
https://www.bloomberg.com/climate-changed


[Yale polling of American public]
 From Climate Change in the American Mind: April 2019
*A majority of Americans are worried about harm from extreme events in 
their local area.*
A majority of Americans are at least "a little worried" about extreme 
events in their local areas, including extreme heat (69%), droughts 
(64%), flooding (60%), and/or water shortages (59%). Fewer are worried 
about wildfires (48%), hurricanes (40%), and/or reduced snow pack (33%).
https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-change-in-the-american-mind-april-2019/


[Yale gives a military perspective in 90 seconds]
*Why climate change is a 'threat multiplier'*
Extreme weather and water shortages increase the risk of political 
instability and terrorism.
As seas rise and weather becomes more extreme, crops are failing in some 
areas. Water is growing scarce. And people are sometimes forced to 
migrate to new places.

Security experts say these hardships can increase the risk of political 
instability and terrorism. That's why the Department of Defense calls 
climate change a "threat multiplier."

Sherri Goodman is with the Wilson Center and the Center for Climate and 
Security.

Goodman: "In Syria, the prolonged drought that preceded the uprising 
drove farmers and herders from their fields and their pastures towards 
the urban areas. And with this crowding in the urban areas came civil 
unrest."

She says that civil unrest helped contribute to Syria's long and bloody 
civil war.

And in other areas where food and water are scarce, terrorists can 
exploit people's desperation …

Goodman: "… holding them hostage, if you will, to the reduced sources of 
water and food that are still available."

So Goodman says climate change is not only an environmental threat to 
countries around the world, but a security threat, too.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media.
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/06/why-climate-change-is-a-threat-multiplier/



[Great discussion on scientific process - worth hearing]
*Dr. Ira Leifer - 'The Arctic (and Antarctic) Data Problem*
UPFSI
Published on Jun 20, 2019
Here is Part 2 of Stuart Scott's conversation with Dr. Ira Leifer, 
atmospheric scientist and Arctic researcher (Part 1 at 
https://youtu.be/P5iHrv6nxKw). The lack of data, real time measurements, 
of weather in the Arctic and Antarctic is a huge problem. One result of 
this vacuum is that models dominate in predicting the future of these 
ice sheets. Another result over the years has been the immense and 
widening discrepancy between predictions (by models) and reality. The 
melting of Arctic and Antarctic ice is a prime example. Scientists who 
have invested their professional lives in their models will defend them 
fiercely. Hence humanity's entire paradigm of 'reality' is too often 
warped by the entrenched interests of those invested their own models 
and beliefs. This is not just true of science. Our entire belief system 
about Money and Economics is mistaken. More money and more economic 
growth are no longer good for humanity. Our overpopulated planet adding 
a billion people each decade or so sinks further into ecological chaos, 
while wealth pursues more wealth by converting what remains of the 
natural world into 'valuable' products. Bankers, economists, academics 
and politicians have staked their entire lives, livelihoods, and 
reputations on perpetuating a false paradigm. The news media perpetuates 
the illusion to lure advertisers. Everyone wants to hear and believe 
that we can all have more and more and more. We all fall victim to the 
same optimistic lie, fiercely clinging to our Cult of Economic Growth. 
The http://ScientistsWarning.TV videos are offered as a modest antidote 
to this toxic cult. Please share them widely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Ndx6JBG-E



[Media shows its stripes to visualize climate data]
*TV meteorologists kicked off the summer by talking about climate change*
#MetsUnite and #ShowYourStripes campaign highlighted the importance of 
climate communication
TED MACDONALD, Melissa Joskow / Media Matters
The 2019 summer solstice marked the second year in a row that TV 
meteorologists around the globe donned colorful stripes to talk to their 
viewers about climate change. The #MetsUnite campaign, started last year 
by meteorologist and CBS contributor Jeff Berardelli, aims to unite 
meteorologists to educate their audiences about the climate crisis and 
how it's affecting weather patterns. The stripes, created by U.K. 
climate scientist Ed Hawkins, show that the earth has warmed 
significantly since 1850 by using blue stripes for cooler-than-average 
years and red ones for years that were hotter than average.

This year, the nonprofit group Climate Central worked with Hawkins to 
develop an extensive set of climate-stripes graphics tailored to 
different cities, states, and countries, available on a #ShowYourStripes 
website. Meteorologists in the U.S. and other countries incorporated the 
stripes into their broadcasts.

On NBC's Today show, weather anchor Al Roker used the stripes to explain 
how average temperatures have risen around the world and in specific 
U.S. states, then zeroed in on warming in the Arctic, which is happening 
"twice as fast as anywhere else around the world."

In Florida, sometimes referred to as "ground zero" for global warming, 
at least three broadcast meteorologists devoted time to discussing 
warming temperatures. On NBC 6 South Florida (WTVJ), Steve MacLaughlin 
showed the stripes chart for his city and said, "there's just no doubt: 
Our planet, and Miami, is warming exponentially." On ABC7 Southwest 
Florida (WZVN), John Patrick showed the Florida stripes graphic and 
talked about how average summer temperatures in the region have 
increased nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1970. And Tallahassee's WCTV 
did a strong segment highlighting rising temperatures in the state 
capital, which included an interview with Climate Central meteorologist 
Sean Sublette about the worsening effects of climate change on 
agriculture and diseases:

Other meteorologists around the U.S. used the stripes to show warming in 
their regions. In Washington, D.C., Chuck Bell of NBC4 (WRC) encouraged 
viewers to read the federal government's National Climate Assessment "to 
learn more about our changing climate change and how we can make moves 
to improve our situation in the future." Josh Marthers of WCBD News 2 
talked about rising temperatures around Charleston, SC, where average 
summer temperatures have increased almost 2.2 F since 1970. Across the 
country in Fresno, CA, A.J. Fox of KSEE 24 discussed climate change's 
effects on the number of large Western wildfires since 1980:

Many other meteorologists around the U.S. took to social media to show 
their stripes, as did people in countries from Mexico to Austria to New 
Zealand. Hawkins tweeted that nearly a million stripes graphics were 
downloaded by visitors from more than 180 countries.

Climate Central's Climate Matters campaign has been influential in 
getting meteorologists to talk more openly about climate change. More 
than 600 meteorologists now participate in the program, and on-air 
climate change reporting by weathercasters increased more than 
fifteenfold from 2012 to 2018. Weaving climate change into local weather 
forecasts is critical; broadcast meteorologists, like other local 
newscasters, are seen as trusted messengers in their communities. A 2018 
survey by Poynter found that Americans have more trust in local TV news 
than in other news sources, and a recent Weather.com article explained 
that this outlook is central to the #MetsUnite campaign:

"Increasingly, the public is convinced that the climate is changing. 
However, they don't always know exactly what that means for them, their 
family, and their community," said Bernadette Woods Placky, who directs 
the broadcast meteorology program at Climate Central.

"TV meteorologists are in a unique position to help answer those 
questions--to connect the dots between climate change and the increase 
in heavy rain, more coastal flooding, challenges to our food and water 
systems, longer and stronger pollen seasons, and intensifying heat that 
takes a toll on the health of outdoor workers and results in rearranging 
of our kids' camp and sports schedules."

Mass media coverage of climate change has traditionally been pretty 
awful -- particularly on TV. That's why campaigns like #MetsUnite are so 
important: They provide climate change information in a trusted format 
to an underserved public. As the summer rages on in what's projected to 
be the third-warmest year on record, let's hope to see more weather 
broadcasts linking rising temperatures to human-caused climate change.
https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2019/06/25/TV-meteorologists-kicked-off-the-summer-by-talking-about-climate-change/224036


*This Day in Climate History - June 28, 2015 - from D.R. Tucker*
June 28, 2015:
In the Washington Post, Columbia University Law Professor Michael B.
Gerrard observes:

"Toward the end of this century, if current trends are not reversed,
large parts of Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt
and Vietnam, among other countries, will be under water. Some small
island nations, such as Kiribati and the Marshall Islands, will be
close to disappearing entirely. Swaths of Africa from Sierra Leone to
Ethiopia will be turning into desert. Glaciers in the Himalayas and
the Andes, on which entire regions depend for drinking water, will be
melting away. Many habitable parts of the world will no longer be able
to support agriculture or produce clean water.

"The people who live there will not sit passively by while they and
their children starve to death. Tens or hundreds of millions of people
will try very hard to go somewhere they can survive. They will be
hungry, thirsty, hot -- and desperate. If the search for safety
involves piling into perilous boats and enduring miserable and
dangerous journeys, they will do it. They will cross borders,
regardless of whether they are welcome. And in their desperation, they
could become violent: Forced migration can exacerbate ethnic and
political tensions. Studies show that more heat tends to increase
violence.

"The United Nations says the maximum tolerable increase in global
average temperatures is 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial
conditions. (Small island nations argued for a much lower figure; at
3.6 degrees, they'll be gone.) But the promises that nations are
making ahead of the U.N. climate summit in Paris in December would
still, according to the International Energy Agency, lead the average
temperature to rise by about 4.7 degrees before the end of the
century. Those promises are voluntary and nonbinding, and if they
aren't kept, the thermometer could go much higher. Which means our
children and grandchildren will be confronting a humanitarian crisis
unlike anything the world has ever faced.

"Absent the political will to prevent it, the least we can do is to
start planning for it.

"Rather than leaving vast numbers of victims of a warmer world
stranded, without any place allowing them in, industrialized countries
ought to pledge to take on a share of the displaced population equal
to how much each nation has historically contributed to emissions of
the greenhouse gases that are causing this crisis."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/america-is-the-worst-polluter-in-the-history-of-the-world-we-should-let-climate-change-refugees-resettle-here/2015/06/25/28a55238-1a9c-11e5-ab92-c75ae6ab94b5_story.html
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