[TheClimate.Vote] May 12, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Sun May 12 11:31:11 EDT 2019

/May 12, 2019/

[Google Trends may indicate]
*Google searches for climate refugee up 52% in past week *
Worldwide-Friday, May 3, 2019 - Thursday, May 9, 2019
To explore search interest in 'climate refugee'
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%207-d&q=climate%20refugee

[Radio EcoShock]
*Paul Beckwith interview: dangerous new climate science, abrupt 
warming--Radio Ecoshock 2019-04-17*
Stop Fossil Fuels - Published on May 9, 2019
Canadian climate scientist Paul Beckwith joins me to thrash through 
scary new science: the limits before extinction, ocean drivers of our 
lives, and why weather has gone rogue.

In March 2019, the Arctic was 20 degrees hotter than it should be. Under 
that massive heat, sea ice is at a record low. Unprecedented Arctic 
warming is distorting weather in the Northern Hemisphere where the 
majority of humans live. Extreme weather has brought unhappiness, vast 
damage, and death. In this new climate age, the idea of progress has 
been replaced by constant efforts to recover.

In the past 3 months, I brought you the science of climate change direct 
from specialists publishing top papers. To draw it together, we need a 
generalist with climate expertise. We need Paul Beckwith. Paul has two 
Masters degrees. He teaches climate science at the University of Ottawa, 
and is by far the biggest teacher to the world via YouTube...
- - -
Stop Fossil Fuels researches and disseminates effective strategies and 
tactics to halt fossil fuel combustion as fast as possible. Learn more 
at https://stopfossilfuels.org

*KEY INDICATORS OF ARCTIC CLIMATE CHANGE*
Climate scientist Jason Box said "The Arctic system is trending away 
from its 20th century state and into an unprecedented state, with 
implications not only within but beyond the Arctic."

Some scientists seemed surprised that temperature was the "smoking gun" 
for all the changes in the Arctic. On the other hand, the fastest moving 
ice body on Greenland, the Jakobshavn glacier, has not only slowed down 
but is gaining ice mass. Paul says that's a temporary phenomenon, and 
who knows--maybe the glacier as it moved got snagged on some land way 
down below.

*THE LINGERING COLD BLOB IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA*
Could that slowdown be connected to long-lasting cold and snow in the 
Northeast? Paul had "a glacier" of ice remaining in his front yard. We 
talk about the cold blob of air hovering over eastern North America, 
punctuated by storms.

It's pretty hard to convince people that a depressing cold winter could 
be influenced by climate change. Nobody wants to go protest in the cold, 
but when it's hot, they want to go outside and enjoy themselves. So far, 
there doesn't seem to be a good time to protest.

Some people think Paul is a radical climate scientist. But really the 
whole upper echelon of climate research institutes are now radical about 
climate change. They're practically screaming out warnings of disaster, 
and we talk about some of those in this interview. But despite our 
efforts, the public isn't engaged. People fly and dream about their next 
pickup truck with a big gas engine. Do you expect a rapid awakening, or 
more years of deadly greenhouse gas emissions?

We had a freak April storm where the temperature was expected to drop 60 
degrees in Denver, going from 70 or 80F to blizzards. Another very heavy 
snow storm--"bomb cyclone"--hit Montana and Nebraska in April. The US 
mid-west flooded in key food production areas, a major event with 
long-lasting consequences.

*2018 CLIMATE REPORT FROM THE WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION (WMO)*
According to the WMO, in 2018 the heat content of the upper levels of 
the ocean were the highest ever recorded.

People get confused about the difference between ocean HEAT absorption 
vs greenhouse gas absorption. 93% of our excess heat goes into the 
ocean, so only 7% is causing the disruption we feel now! If the ocean 
takes less carbon dioxide, then there will be more greenhouse gases, 
remaining longer and becoming a larger share of actual emissions in the 
atmosphere. We have to cut off fossil fuels and other greenhouse sources 
pretty well immediately.

*SEA ICE AT BOTH POLES DECLINING*
Beckwith says sea ice may be in that critical slowing down of 
phase-state before a collapse of sea ice. There's been a huge fall in 
Antarctic sea ice.

*LEAVING A BUFFER FOR NATURAL EMISSIONS*
A recent paper shows that somewhere around 1200ppm, stratocumulus clouds 
cannot form to shade the Earth, adding ANOTHER 8-14C warming. Humans 
will think at 800ppm, they still have another 400ppm margin before 
hitting that final brick wall. But that fails to realize that as the 
world warms, the contribution from natural processes increases as well, 
and most of that's irreversible. How much buffer do we need to leave for 
things like permafrost thawing or dying rainforests?

*THE PARIS CLIMATE ACCORD WILL NOT SAVE US*
The "Hothouse Earth" study expects average global temperature to settle 
between 4 and 5C hotter, even if the Paris Climate Accords were carried 
out. Sea levels would go up 10-60m. Even our best climate plan takes us 
to disaster.

Paul writes "I fear that we have already gone over that cliff, and I 
declare a global climate change emergency to claw back up the rock face 
to attempt to regain system stability, or face an untenable calamity of 
biblical proportions."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca4PQcob39U

[From the History of Hubris:]
*Politicians want to resume fireworks displays over the forest at Mount 
Rushmore*
Bill Gabbert - May 9, 2019
President Trump sent out a tweet yesterday:
I am pleased to inform you that THE BIG FIREWORKS, after many years of 
not having any, are coming back to beautiful Mount Rushmore in South 
Dakota. Great work @GovKristiNoem and @SecBernhardt! #MAGA ...
- -
In one of the first displays over a dozen fires started. They were all 
put out when they were small, but it was proven then to be an insane 
concept to shoot off literally tons of fireworks over a ponderosa pine 
forest in July.

In 2016 the USGS discovered that the ground and surface water at Mount 
Rushmore is contaminated with percholrate, a component of rocket fuels 
and explosives. They determined that the chemical came from the 
fireworks over that 12-year period...
https://wildfiretoday.com/2019/05/09/politicians-want-to-resume-fireworks-displays-over-the-forest-at-mount-rushmore/

[Philosophy]
*On Stoicism and Sustainability*
Lloyd Alter - May 8, 2019
How can stoicism be used to solve tackle the problems of climate change?

In a post last year, It is time to get serious about the hidden carbon 
cost in everyday products, I quoted Kai Whiting, who I described as 
having the wonderful description as "Sustainability and Stoicism 
Researcher, Universidade de Lisboa." I was intrigued by his discussion 
of Stoicism and sustainability, and instead of me trying to interpret 
it, here's Kai Whiting in his own words.

***Stoic Philosophy: Has it Got Anything to Say About 'Going Green'?*
Stoicism is a Greco-Roman philosophy focused on the "good life" or the 
"life worth living". Most moderns use Stoic ideas to help them in 
personal endeavours such as dealing with their anger or the loss of a 
loved one. However, given that the ancient _Stoics directly connected 
the good life with living in accordance with the four virtues of 
courage, justice, self-control and wisdom,_ Stoicism can certainly do 
more than support a quest for self-development. In my opinion, it can 
guide us into a green transition .At the annual public Stoicism 
conference, I suggested that the good life in the 21st century 
necessarily entails sustainable development. After all, how easy is it 
to enjoy a life worth living if our water is contaminated, our air is 
polluted and our last remaining green spaces lie over landfill? I also 
showed that _an unsustainable world is one in which humans do not live 
according to the four Stoic virtues, but instead allow the proliferation 
of their polar opposites: cowardice, injustice, greed and ignorance._ 
This unsustainable existence is miserable for everyone, even those 
convinced that it is shareholder value and not human happiness and 
planetary abundance that matters.
- - -
In short, Stoicism offers us many ways in which we can act more 
virtuously, which is why it is a philosophical framework and not a rule 
book. However, once we recognise that a commitment to courage, justice, 
self-control and wisdom is the only guarantee to our personal happiness 
and sustainable development the only guarantee for humanity's wellbeing 
we are moved to change. We are moved to become more like the Stoics.
Kai Whiting is a Stoicism and sustainability lecturer and researcher 
based at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. He blogs over at 
StoicKai.com and Tweets @kaiwhiting.
https://www.treehugger.com/culture/stoicism-and-sustainability.html

[Internet runs on electricity]
*A small YouTube design change could drastically cut its CO2 emissions*
By Donna Lu
Huge amounts of energy are needed to power the servers and networks that 
let YouTube viewers watch more than one billion hours of video every day.

Based on estimates of the electric energy used to provide YouTube videos 
globally in 2016, a team at the University of Bristol calculated that 
the firm's carbon footprint is around 10 million tonnes of CO2 
equivalent per year, roughly the same as Luxembourg or Zimbabwe.

A single design change - letting users listen to audio on YouTube with 
an inactive screen - could reduce its carbon footprint by between 100 to 
500 thousand tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year. This reduction is 
roughly equivalent to the annual carbon footprint of 30,000 UK homes.
Currently, the feature is only available to YouTube Premium subscribers. 
For non-paying users, listening to music on YouTube requires the app to 
be kept open and the screen active.

A radio mode is an example of a sustainability feature tech companies 
could implement to reduce digital waste, says researcher Daniel Schien.

Other features could include the option to disable videos from 
autoplaying, or not letting podcasts download new episodes if there is 
an unplayed backlog, says Chris Priest.
"It's down to the companies to design these services so that they can be 
delivered efficiently to the whole planet," he says.

The team's estimates were based on public data from YouTube, as well as 
Netflix data centres energy figures, which the team believes are similar 
in efficiency to YouTube's networks.

They estimated the proportion of viewers watching on different devices, 
such as smartphones and computers, based on user figures provided by the 
BBC.

The research will be presented on Thursday at the conference on Human 
Factors in Computing Systems in Glasgow. New Scientist has asked YouTube 
for comment, but has yet to get a response.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2201769-a-small-youtube-design-change-could-drastically-cut-its-co2-emissions/

[serious but silly, personal videos]
*Who is responsible for fixing climate change?*
zentouro
Published on Feb 20, 2019
Do I? or do we? What's the best response to climate change?

After making the video on Adam's channel, we sat down and chatted about 
some of the nuances behind the individual vs structural changes debate 
that is frequently talked about by climate communicators, scientists, 
and activists. But, I'd love to hear what you think - please let me know 
how you think about mitigating climate change in the comments below.
WATCH THE VIDEO ON ADAM'S CHANNEL: https://youtu.be/OLeieEcLVyQ
SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/1E75KJ8
I had to cut so much out of this discussion - we talked for a VERY long 
time. Some of it was really fascinating, but just too long winded for 
this video (which I know this video is already very long winded). But if 
you're interested in hearing Adam and I discuss how we think about 
vegetarian and veganism in the context of individual vs structural 
change, that video is available to all my patrons at any level.
patreon: https://www.patreon.com/zentouro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaBRs13dClY
- - -
[Whimsical & informational videos from Adam]
*Fighting Climate Change: Structural vs individual action*
ClimateAdam - Published on Feb 20, 2019
We need to stop emitting greenhouse gases to stop global warming, but 
how do we get there? Should we be cutting our own emissions or pushing 
for systemic change? ClimateAdam battles it out with a very special 
guest - who looks just a little bit different...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLeieEcLVyQ

[Plastic is a fossil fuel]
*The Alliance to End Plastic Waste just wants to make more of it*
Lloyd Alter - March 13, 2019
Is burning plastic waste a good idea? No.

TreeHugger has long been a fan of Elizabeth Royte, author of Bottlemania 
and Garbage Land: On the secret trail of trash. She knows her stuff when 
it comes to single-use plastic. As part of a National Geographic series 
on Planet or Plastic, she looks at the question: Is burning plastic 
waste a good idea? She notes that the Europeans think so, and consider 
it a renewable resource:

It considers energy generated from burning any kind of carbon-based 
municipal waste renewable and thus eligible for subsidies. But plastics 
aren't renewable in the sense that wood, paper, or cotton are. Plastics 
don't grow from sunlight: We make them from fossil fuels extracted from 
the ground, and each step in that process has the potential to pollute.

Exactly. We have called plastics a solid fossil fuel, which puts out 
more CO2 per kWh generated than burning coal. We have also noted that we 
have to aim for a circular economy, where stuff is reused, not burned or 
landfilled...
- - -
"When you take fossil fuels out of the ground, make plastics with them, 
then burn those plastics for energy, it's clear that this is not a 
circle--it's a line," says Rob Opsomer of the Ellen MacArthur 
Foundation, which promotes circular economy efforts.

And surprise! Royte notes that the industry is promoting this.

This past January, a consortium of petrochemical and consumer-goods 
companies called the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, including Exxon, 
Dow, Total, Shell, Chevron Phillips, and Procter & Gamble, committed to 
spending $1.5 billion over five years on the problem. Their aim is to 
support alternative materials and delivery systems, beef up recycling 
programs, and--more controversially--promote technologies that convert 
plastics to fuel or energy...
- - -
It becomes so much easier to sell the stuff and avoid regulations if 
they can say "Look! It's renewable fuel! It's energy independence! 
That's not a bag of garbage, it's a bag of energy!" They will do 
anything to convince us that plastics are fine and that it is business 
as usual...
https://www.treehugger.com/plastic/alliance-end-plastic-waste-just-wants-make-more-it.html
- - -
[single use plastic]
*Six Times More Plastic Waste is Burned in U.S. than is Recycled*
An engineer explains why recycling is busted in America.
https://www.treehugger.com/plastic/six-times-more-waste-burned.html

[audio podcast]
*Paul Beckwith: Stand Up, Before The Pain Is Too Great*
Last Born in the Wilderness Podcast
Published on May 8, 2019

This is a segment of episode #191 of Last Born In The Wilderness 
"Climate Casino: Humanity, Stand Up Before The Pain Is Too Great w/ Paul 
Beckwith."*Listen to the full episode: **http://bit.ly/LBWbeckwith*
Subscribe to Paul Beckwith's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/YTbeckwith

In this segment of my interview with physicist, engineer, and popular 
science communicator Paul Beckwith, we discuss his work examining the 
latest scientific data of global climate change, which includes a 
thorough description of the alarming levels of warming we are witnessing 
in the Arctic region, and how this is producing a dramatic loss of sea 
ice cover and the albedo effect (reflection of the sun's heat) in the 
region, potentially leading to what has been described as the "Blue 
Ocean Event" (an ice-free Arctic during the warm season). I ask Paul to 
explain what these rapid changes mean for global weather patterns, in 
particular how these rapid shifts in the global climate system is 
leading to more abrupt and severe floods, droughts, wildfires, and 
storms across the planet. As Paul explains, the implications are vast 
and dire, in particular when it comes to global food production and 
distribution. After exploring the science of these broad global trends, 
I ask Paul to describe his views on what can be done in light of these 
abrupt changes, including various geoengineering schemes to cool the 
Arctic region, and other techniques that may give humankind the time 
needed to avoid the worst impacts of abrupt climate disruption, 
including but not limited to the extinction of the human species. I 
contend a bit with Paul's views on this subject, and pose some 
objections I have with these proposals, including the unintended 
consequences that would likely result from these attempts, and what 
these geoengineering schemes may end up serving within our current 
infinite-growth economic paradigm.

Paul Beckwith is a physicist, engineer, and part-time professor at the 
University of Ottawa. He has earned a Masters in Science in Laser 
Optics/Physics, and a Bachelors of Engineering in Engineering Physics. 
He is a known and respected creator of entertaining and comprehensible 
videos of sometimes daunting subjects, especially in climate system 
science, meteorology, oceanography and earth sciences on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntzPEW3AyeA

*This Day in Climate History - May 12, 2014 - from D.R. Tucker*
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman condemns the fossil-fueled 
dementia of the political right on climate, while Washington Post 
columnist Robert Samuelson sounds a note of extreme pessimism regarding 
our ability to address the climate crisis.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/12/opinion/krugman-crazy-climate-economics.html?smid=tw-share&smv2
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/robert-samuelson-on-climate-change-we-have-no-solution/2014/05/11/24d767c6-d77d-11e3-95d3-3bcd77cd4e11_story.html
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