[TheClimate.Vote] March 25, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest.

[Richard Pauli]

/March 25, 2019/

[misunderstood]
*Study shows IPCC is underselling climate change*
March 19, 2019, University of Adelaide
A new study has revealed that the language used by the global climate 
change watchdog, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 
is overly conservative - and therefore the threats are much greater than 
the Panel's reports suggest...
- -
"We found that the main message from the reports--that our society is in 
climate emergency--is lost by overstatement of uncertainty and gets 
confused among the gigabytes of information," says lead author Dr. 
Salvador Herrando-Perez, from the University of Adelaide's Environment 
Institute and Australian Centre for Ancient DNA.

"The IPCC supports the overwhelming scientific consensus about human 
impact on climate change, so we would expect the reports' vocabulary to 
be dominated by greater certainty on the state of climate science--but 
this is not the case."...
- - -
The team says the IPCC reports should incorporate a clear connection 
between the certainty of thousands of scientific findings and the 
certainty that humans are vastly altering the Earth's climate. The team 
recommends a new IPCC working group of communication specialists to 
oversee the language and effective dissemination, and convey the message 
accurately.

"Our evolutionary history tells us Earth will ultimately survive more 
aridity, more hurricanes, more floods, more sea-level rise, more 
extinctions and degraded ecosystems, but our society as we know it today 
might not unless we clearly articulate the magnitude of the threat it 
poses," says Dr. Herrando-Perez.
Read more at: 
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-ipcc-underselling-climate.html#jCp


[Gallup report]
*Americans as Concerned as Ever About Global Warming*
- 66% believe global warming is caused by human activity, near all-time high
- Fewer highly worried about it, though also near high point in Gallup trend
- Partisan differences still stark, with most Democrats worried, most in 
GOP not
https://news.gallup.com/poll/248027/americans-concerned-ever-global-warming.aspx


[NPR discovers climate news beat]
*Climate Series Introduction*
We introduce a Weekend Edition series on climate change and adaptations 
that people are already
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/24/706295313/climate-series-introduction 
making along the East Coast.
- - -
[Most predictable, sea level rise. Most obvious, Florida]
*How Climate Change Is Affecting Residents' Health In Miami*
March 24, 20198:13 - Weekend Edition Sunday - LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO
We visit Miami to talk with Dr. Cheryl Holder of Florida Clinicians For 
Climate Action, and Jorge, a fruit vendor who is feeling the effects of 
increasingly hot days firsthand.
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/24/706295403/how-climate-change-is-affecting-residents-health-in-miami


[Vogue Magazine asks a question]
*Do Americans Have a Constitutional Right to a Livable Planet? Meet the 
21 Young People Who Say They Do*
https://www.vogue.com/article/youth-v-gov-fight-for-future-april-2019-issue


[After water, food is most important]
*For A Healthier Planet, Eat These 50 Foods, Campaign Urges*
- - -
According to the report, 75 percent of the food we consume comes from 
just 12 plant sources and five animal sources. And just three crops -- 
wheat, corn and rice -- make up nearly 60 percent of the plant-based 
calories in most diets.

The lack of variety in agriculture is both bad for nature and a threat 
to food security, the report says. It argues that it's essential we 
change our eating habits to protect the planet and ensure we are able to 
feed the growing global population...
- - -
According to the report, 75 percent of the food we consume comes from 
just 12 plant sources and five animal sources. And just three crops -- 
wheat, corn and rice -- make up nearly 60 percent of the plant-based 
calories in most diets.

The lack of variety in agriculture is both bad for nature and a threat 
to food security, the report says. It argues that it's essential we 
change our eating habits to protect the planet and ensure we are able to 
feed the growing global population...
- - -
"What's exciting about this is some of the biggest issues we face - 
climate change and human health - are coming together and the solutions 
are deeply aligned," he says. "What's good for us is also better for the 
planet."

Kass says consumers can just as easily drive the solutions as the 
problems. And don't worry if you're not familiar with foods like fonio 
or salsify root. You can start by cutting back on meat and eating more 
beans.

"Any bean," says Kass. "You can't go wrong. Black beans, pinto beans ... 
they couldn't be better for you and they are as sustainable as any other 
product."
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/03/24/706004242/for-a-healthier-planet-eat-these-50-foods-campaign-urges



[BBC series]
*Sustainable thinking 16 VIDEOS*
A playlist featuring new, challenging and even visionary thinking around 
climate change and sustainability.
https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/are-you-suffering-from-climate-change-anxiety/p073zgqd?playlist=sustainable-thinking


[Most doctors regard med school as the only valid source of learning]
*Medical schools must prepare students to work in a world altered by 
climate change*
By ANNA GOSHUA MARCH 19, 2019
Low water levels are seen visible on the banks of Entrepenas reservoir 
in Duron, Spain, in 2017, when it was at its lowest level since 1994.

As a medical student fumbling with the fundamentals of interviewing 
patients and taking medical histories, the realities of being a doctor 
seem like a far-off dream. My colleagues and I work hard to prepare 
ourselves to be equipped to address the increasingly complex health care 
issues that will affect the lives of our future patients, from 
inequities in access to quality care to multidrug resistance.

The most pressing of these issues is climate change, a growing 
environmental emergency that will have devastating health impacts. Food 
shortages induced by climate change are alone expected to account for 
more than 500,000 additional deaths globally by 2050. Regardless of 
their personal interest in climate change or their belief that advocacy 
about it is within the scope of medical practice, physicians will be on 
the front lines of confronting its effects.

Action on climate change has been paralyzed by denial, misunderstanding 
of its urgency, and a sense of powerlessness in the face of an 
existential threat. This is why it is especially important for medical 
schools to integrate climate change into their curricula so future 
physicians understand the challenges and are prepared to use their 
positions as care providers, educators, and advocates to tackle this threat.

Yet a recent search of the Association of American Medical Colleges 
Curriculum Inventory showed that no medical schools report including 
content related to climate change.

Related: We're providing medical care to a new type of migrant -- the 
climate migrant
Some schools have begun to address this gap. The University of 
California, San Francisco, for example, has introduced elective courses 
covering topics such as food security and sustainability. It also 
integrated case studies on global climate change into a mandatory 
first-year course.

"Global warming is the biggest public health threat of the 21st century 
and is going to change life on earth as we know it. It is an essential 
part of any 21st century medical school curriculum," said Dr. Thomas 
Newman, co-founder of a Climate Health and Inquiry course launched in 
2017, in a UCSF article about the course.

Medical schools already have what some see as overloaded curricula. It 
is difficult to argue that they should add more material. Yet the 
medical curriculum lends itself to promoting eco-medical literacy and 
sustainability over all four years of education. During the preclinical 
years, this could take the form of connecting pathophysiology to 
climate, such as how climate change contributes to cardiovascular 
disease. A health policy course could be an opportunity to discuss 
relevant climate change policy action and opportunities for student 
engagement. During clerkships, the focus could be on how to identify and 
communicate with patients who are especially vulnerable to the effects 
of climate change, as well as diagnose and manage climate-related 
physical and mental health issues.

There are at least three major ways that climate change will affect the 
practice of medicine and for which medical education must prepare future 
physicians.

First, climate change will directly and indirectly affect individual and 
population health. Extreme weather events like drought affect physical 
and mental health, but also affect social determinants of health such as 
water and food security, air quality, and housing. Given that 
marginalized communities are most susceptible to the effects of climate 
change, it will widen existing health disparities. Physicians will need 
to work with patients to manage climate-induced health burdens, educate 
them about their risk factors, and help them develop contingency plans 
in case of environmental emergencies.

Second, climate change will require an unprecedented degree of 
adaptation to unexpected and changing threats. Diseases previously 
thought to be unrelated to climate, like chickenpox, are turning out to 
be climate sensitive. The geographic distribution and seasonality of 
various infectious diseases will change. Extreme weather events of 
increasing severity will strain our capacity to deliver care. Future 
physicians must be prepared to handle these challenges in both the 
clinical setting and, more broadly, work collaboratively within their 
communities to plan and implement pre-emptive strategies.

Third, physicians and the rest of the health care sector must be aware 
of and accountable for their collective contributions to climate change. 
The U.S. health system is the seventh-largest producer of carbon dioxide 
globally. It released 614 million metric tons of carbon dioxide 
equivalents in 2013, which would generate between 123,000 and 381,000 
disability-adjusted life years of adverse health effects in the future.

My generation of physicians must envision a new sustainable health 
system to reduce its substantial carbon footprint. Possibilities include 
expanding telemedicine, integrating environmental impacts into 
cost-benefit analyses of health services, and committing to carbon 
neutrality. Future physicians must also advocate for changes to health 
infrastructure that make health care facilities more resilient to 
climate damage. Without physicians lobbying for the greening of the 
health system, the good we accomplish could be outpaced by the damage we 
inflict.

Climate change is the context in which today's medical students will 
practice medicine. This threat will intersect with every facet of our 
patients' lives and impose barriers to health delivery we will have to 
navigate. Medical students can't afford the luxury of choosing to be 
interested in climate change the way we will select our medical 
specialties. It is an urgent reality we must confront with the knowledge 
and skills we acquire in order to innovate, advocate, and care for 
patients and communities affected by climate change.
Anna Goshua is a first-year medical student at Stanford University 
School of Medicine.
https://www.statnews.com/2019/03/19/climate-change-medical-school/


[helping fix situations and reset opinions]
*Katrina, the BP spill, now Houston: This consulting firm keeps coming 
under fire*
By Naveena Sadasivam on Mar 22, 2019
A crude oil spill during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A coal ash spill in 
Tennessee in 2008. The BP oil spill in 2010. In all three cases, the 
companies responsible for these environmental calamities turned to the 
same Arkansas-based consulting firm, the Center for Toxicology and 
Environmental Health, to monitor air and water quality and chemical 
exposure in workers.

In each case, CTEH was found to have either incorrectly handled data 
collection or downplayed the risks of exposure to toxic chemicals. But 
the companies used CTEH's data to reassure people that the spilled 
chemicals posed little risk to public health.

This week, a fire at International Terminals Company's chemical storage 
facility outside Houston, blanketed the country's fourth-largest city in 
a cloud of smoke. Multiple school districts in the area cancelled 
classes. Once again, CTEH got the call to provide air quality monitoring.

The fire at ITC's facility reignited late Friday afternoon after a dike 
wall used to contain chemicals partially collapsed, renewing concerns 
about air quality. According to initial reports, the company released 9 
million pounds of pollutants in just the first day of the fire. On 
Thursday, the city of Deer Park, home to the facility, issued a 
shelter-in-place advisory after benzene levels spiked overnight. 
Long-term benzene exposure can cause anemia, lead to cancer, and damage 
women's reproductive health.

Earlier in the week, ITC had said that its air quality testing data 
showed conditions "below levels" that would raise health concerns, even 
as residents near the fire complained of nosebleeds, headaches, and 
irritated throats. The statement prompted Deer Park to lift an earlier 
shelter-in-place advisory.

Elena Craft, senior director for climate and health at Environmental 
Defense Fund, said CTEH was a "concerning choice" as a consultant "given 
their history." ITC has posted nine air quality monitoring reports 
produced by CTEH on its website since the Deer Park fire began and 
Craft, a toxicologist by training, said that at least one contained 
"clear, obvious errors."

In that report, issued on March 18, CTEH said it used two types of 
instruments with different detection limits to measure benzene levels. 
The company collected just six samples with the instrument that had a 
lower detection limit -- meaning it could pick up lower levels of 
airborne benzene. But on a map elsewhere in the report, CTEH appeared to 
indicate that it had tested for lower benzene levels at dozens of sites. 
It marked more than 60 locations on a map where it claimed it had tested 
for low levels of benzene and had not detected it.

In a written statement to Grist, Phil Goad, CTEH's founder, said that in 
its more than 20 years in business "CTEH has never been cited for 
inaccurate or misleading data." The company's "top priority is, and will 
continue to be, to safeguard public health," he said, adding its air 
quality-monitoring plans in Houston have been approved by the 
Environmental Protection Agency and Texas Commission on Environmental 
Quality.

Goad admitted to two errors in the March 18 report, including 
incorrectly reporting detection limits, and said it would "update the 
report to correct this typographical error."

Even if the error was a typo, Craft said CTEH's report did not inspire 
confidence. "It was a sloppy job," she said.

In the last two decades, CTEH has come under fire for its work in 
high-profile environmental contamination cases across the country. In 
2005, a storage tank at a Murphy Oil refinery in Louisiana released more 
than 25,000 barrels of crude oil into floodwaters. The spill affected 
roughly 1,700 homes in the New Orleans suburb of Chalmette, and Murphy 
Oil hired CTEH to conduct soil testing. But instead of following the 
EPA's instructions on collecting samples, so the agency could verify 
CTEH's readings, the firm mixed samples taken at different times from 
the same site. It also contaminated samples by bagging soil from 
different locations together. Murphy Oil then used CTEH's test results 
to persuade residents not to sue the company.

In 2008, the Tennessee Valley Authority hired the consulting firm after 
coal ash from its Kingston Fossil plant in Roane County, Tennessee, 
spilled into the Emory River. An EPA audit later found that CTEH used 
inaccurate monitoring methods to survey air quality.

Two years later, BP hired the company to serve as the primary monitor 
for its offshore workers, collecting health and chemical exposure data 
in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill. The company would only 
provide aggregated data and the complete dataset was not made available 
to federal regulators, which prompted lawmakers to urge BP to stop 
working with CTEH. The company has a history, the legislators wrote, "of 
releasing findings defending the corporate interests that employ them."
CTEH is not the only entity collecting air quality data around the Deer 
Park fire. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the 
Environmental Protection Agency, and Houston's own Harris County have 
all deployed air monitors to survey pollution levels. The U.S. Chemical 
Safety Board, an investigatory body that doesn't have the authority to 
fine or regulate companies, is also looking into the cause of the fire.
https://grist.org/article/katrina-the-bp-spill-now-houston-this-consulting-firm-keeps-coming-under-fire/
- - -
[see CTEH website]
*Response: No Matter Where Crisis Occurs, We Can Be There*
CTEH has experience in a wide range of responses, including, major 
offshore oil spills, transportation incidents with hazardous materials, 
well control events, human health and environmental events (e.g., Ebola, 
avian flu), and natural disasters for both the public and private 
sectors. We also have an extensive network of emergency responders to 
support the delivery of our preparedness, response, and recovery of 
all-threat/all-hazard services. We offer a valuable surge capability for 
your crisis management needs and in support of Incident Management Teams
https://www.cteh.com/


[Wind energy history in Texas -- the boom started in 1981 - documentary]
Peter Sinclair says: "I'm heading to an American Wind Energy Association 
conference this week, so appropriately, I came upon this archival 
footage of my friend Michael Osborne's early efforts in the Texas wind 
industry."
*Lease the Wind YouTube video *
Earthfamilyalpha - Published on Mar 15, 2019
This 1981 documentary of the birth of the Texas Wind Industry was 
produced  by Michael Osborne, renewable energy thought leader and 
author.  It was directed and edited by John Andrews.
https://youtu.be/RGHt-xqm5dA
- - -
Earth Family Alpha:
Since these early days, I  have been involved in the ever growing Wind 
Industry, securing leases for both wind developers and utilities, 
sometimes erecting wind monitoring systems to prove the winds, often 
working the legislature for tax abatements while arguing at the PUC for 
favorable interconnect rules and transmission line improvements.

During my time at Austin Energy, I helped oversee well over a Gigawatt 
of Wind Power in 14 years.  (AE now has 1850 MWs).

When I left AE and was appointed to the Electric Utility Commission, I 
approved over 600 MWs of Wind and another 600 MWs of solar.

Since the early 90s, like the late 70s, we  have had  Presidents and  
Administrations that understood the wisdom and the importance of 
reaching as high a penetration of carbon-free energy as possible.  Life 
was not always good, but it wasn't bad.  It was rational.

But then, a not so funny thing happened on the way to dealing with the 
climate issue.

The Republican Party became the party of Intellectual poverty.  They 
nominated a pro-coal candidate who skillfully ran off with the 
presidential election with 70,000 votes to spare while losing the 
popular vote by 3 million.  And that victory has emboldened the very 
worst of the climate denying wing of what used to be a rational and 
responsible national party.

Nowhere is that more obvious than right here in Austin.  Our own heart 
of darkness lurks in its Congress Street headquarters spewing outright 
lies and misinformation fronting for their Kock-sucker benefactors.

They are trying to beat back the tide with a cane.
They are a pitiful, bitter old man who will pass with few friends,
and an army of enemies.
And they will be remembered for their crimes against their own.
They will Reap the Wind.
https://climatecrocks.com/2019/03/24/birth-of-the-texas-wind-industry-1981/


[Today and tomorrow waste disposables]
*Will renewables end up as more landfill?*
Just Have a Think
Published on Mar 24, 2019
Solar and Wind energy are growing at a truly astonishing pace on every 
continent. But in the race for global supremacy in the power generation 
sector have we neglected to consider how we will deal with millions of 
panels and turbines when they come to the end of their useful lives? Are 
we storing up yet another environmental problem?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLTJZKYA40Y


*This Day in Climate History - March 25, 2002 - from D.R. Tucker*
March 25, 2002: The Associated Press reports:

"Environmentalists say their requests for a meeting with Energy
Secretary Spencer Abraham in the months prior to the release of the
Bush administration's energy report were rebuffed by an aide who
cited Abraham's' busy schedule.

"John Adams, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council,
said Wednesday the refusal to meet with the environmentalists stands
in sharp contrast to the eight meetings Abraham had with energy and
business groups in early 2001 to discuss the energy plan."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/green-groups-we-had-no-say/
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