[TheClimate.Vote] May 18, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Sat May 18 10:57:20 EDT 2019

/May 18, 2019/

[language helps understanding]
*Why the Guardian is changing the language it uses about the environment*
 From now, house style guide recommends terms such as 'climate crisis' 
and 'global heating'
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/17/why-the-guardian-is-changing-the-language-it-uses-about-the-environment?CMP=share_btn_link
https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-f

[Candidate Elizabeth Warren]
*Our military can help lead the fight in combating climate change*
https://medium.com/@teamwarren/our-military-can-help-lead-the-fight-in-combating-climate-change-2955003555a3
- also see:
Senator Warren's Climate & Military plan release: a swing w/some hits 
and many misses
http://getenergysmartnow.com/2019/05/17/senator-warrens-climate-military-plan-release-a-swing-w-some-hits-and-many-misses/

[Candidate Jay Inslee ]
*His $9 Trillion Plan to Fight Climate Change by Rebuilding the Entire 
Country*
https://jayinslee.com/issues/evergreen-economy

[Candidate Beto O'Rourke Policy Proposal Is a $5 Trillion Plan ]
*Taking On Our Greatest Threat **Climate Change*
A four-part framework to mobilize a historic $5 trillion over ten years, 
require net-zero emissions by 2050, and address the greatest threat we face
https://betoorourke.com/climate-change/

[4.6 mm is about one-fifth of an inch]
*24% of West Antarctic ice is now unstable*
UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
By combining 25 years of European Space Agency satellite altimeter 
measurements and a model of the regional climate, the UK Centre for 
Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) have tracked changes in snow and 
ice cover across the continent.

A team of researchers, led by Professor Andy Shepherd from the 
University of Leeds, found that Antarctica's ice sheet has thinned by up 
to 122 metres in places, with the most rapid changes occurring in West 
Antarctica where ocean melting has triggered glacier imbalance.

This means that the affected glaciers are unstable as they are losing 
more mass through melting and iceberg calving than they are gaining 
through snowfall.

The team found that the pattern of glacier thinning has not been static. 
Since 1992, the thinning has spread across 24% of West Antarctica and 
over the majority of its largest ice streams - the Pine Island and 
Thwaites Glaciers - which are now losing ice five times faster than they 
were at the start of the survey.
- - -
"Altogether, ice losses from East and West Antarctica have contributed 
4.6 mm to global sea level rise since 1992."
- - -
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-05/uol-2ow051619.php

[Oh, we forgot, that nation just to the South of US]
*Wildfires burning around Mexico City are so intense smoke can be seen 
from outer space*
The imminent impact on the health of Mexicans continues to increase as a 
result of the wildfires roaring out of control in and around the 
country's capital over the past four days...
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/environmental-emergency-breaks-out-in-mexico-city-due-to-wildfires-and-toxic-smoke/70008288
- - -
*Toxic smoke hangs over Mexico City as wildfires burn*
"A new Resource Watch blog from WRI's experts shows more than 100 fires 
in central and southern Mexico over the past week and the dangerous air 
quality levels and smoke plumes they are causing for nearby residents."

How bad is the pollution? Very bad. "For example, at 8 am yesterday, air 
quality sensors on Resource Watch detected PM 2.5 concentrations nearly 
double what the US EPA considers an 'unhealthy' limit at 103.9 
microgram/m3 in Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, just east of Mexico City."
- -
[From World Resource Watch]
*Fires Are Creating Dangerous Levels of Air Pollution*
About 100 fires have broken out in central and southern Mexico since 
last week, causing dangerous conditions for nearby residents. Most of 
the fires broke out along the west coast, although smoke from the fires 
have caused hazardous air conditions in many parts of the country. 
Mexico City, home to about 21 million people, declared an environmental 
emergency on Tuesday and warned residents to stay indoors to avoid the 
smoke-filled air.

Smoke from fires contains fine particulates (PM 2.5), an easily 
inhalable pollutant linked to heart and lung problems, as well as 
asthma. Any level of exposure to fine particulate matter increases 
health risks, but exposures over 55 micrograms per cubic meter 
(microgram/m3) over a 24-hour period are unhealthy, according to the 
U.S. EPA (a microgram is one-millionth of a gram.)

At 7:00 am CT yesterday, OpenAQ's air quality data on Resource Watch 
showed PM 2.5 of 103.9 microgram/m3 in Nezahualcoyotl, just east of 
Mexico City . You can also explore more detailed air quality data in 
Mexico City on the city's website.

"This extraordinary meteorological event took the environmental 
authorities and environmental emergency programs by surprise, since 
there is no specific environmental contingency protocol for fine 
particles (PM 2.5), which is currently one of the main gaps in 
governance. Urban authorities need to work together with rural 
authorities, since water and air issues do not obey borders; this 
highlights the importance of interstate coordination and the need of 
objective and independent institutions, since many urban issues depend 
on forest and rural issues, and viceversa", says Jorge Macías, director 
of urban development and accessibility at WRI Mexico...
https://blog.resourcewatch.org/2019/05/15/real-time-data-shows-mexicos-fires-are-creating-dangerous-levels-of-air-pollution/
- -- 
*Breathing in Mexico City is now like smoking six and a half cigarettes 
a day..*
PM2.5 concentrations can be translated to cigarette equivalencies. 
According to analysis co-authored by Richard Muller, a physics professor 
at the University of California, Berkeley, if you were, on average, 
exposed to 22 micrograms per cubic meter of PM2.5, it'd be the 
equivalent to smoking one cigarette a day. So if you divide the 
concentration of PM2.5 by 22, you get the rough cigarette equivalence of 
simply breathing your region's air.

That means breathing the air on May 14 in Mexico City was the equivalent 
to smoking about seven cigarettes that day....
https://qz.com/1620445/mexicos-wildfires-make-mexico-city-air-pollution-more-hazardous/

[Mea Culpa]
*Their Islands Are Being Eroded. So Are Their Human Rights, They Say.*
Indigenous Australians from low-lying islands in the Torres Strait argue 
that the government, by failing to act on climate change, has violated 
their fundamental right to maintain their culture.
Livia Albeck-Ripka - May 12, 2019
MASIG ISLAND, Australia -- Every weekend, Yessie Mosby visits the sandy, 
washed-out graves of his ancestors to gather their scattered bones. 
Their shallow burial place, just yards from the shore of Masig Island, 
north of mainland Australia, has been eroded by rising seas.

"Other parents around the world go to the beach with their kids and pick 
up shells," Mr. Mosby, 37, a craftsman and father of five, said as he 
moved fragments of his sixth great-grandmother's bones to a spot beneath 
a coconut tree. "We pick up remains."

The lives of the people here are tied to the island, one of 18 spits of 
earth in the Torres Strait inhabited by Indigenous Australians. It holds 
the histories of those who came before; it protects and nourishes. But 
as climate change pushes the tides ever higher, these islands, and their 
ancient culture, are at risk of vanishing...
- -
It is also the first time that the Australian government -- which has 
failed to meet emissions reduction targets and continues to approve 
embattled coal mine projects -- has faced climate change litigation that 
asserts a human rights violation. The claimants call on the country to 
help fund sea walls and other infrastructure that might save the Torres 
Strait Islands, which have a population of about 4,500, and to meet the 
emissions targets set under the Paris climate agreement.

If successful, the case "would really break new ground internationally," 
said John Knox, a professor of international law at Wake Forest 
University and a former special rapporteur on human rights and the 
environment to the United Nations...
- - -
On Masig Island, which lies on average less than 10 feet above sea 
level, people are already struggling to combat the impacts of climate 
change. As the shoreline has crept closer, fresh water wells have turned 
brackish, and coconut trees have been uprooted and fallen into the 
ocean. Other trees, withering from the heat, have stopped bearing edible 
fruit...
- -
Ninety miles to the northeast, on the island of Boigu, the prospect of 
relocation is palpable. Here, the unpaved roads are flooded, and a 
partially built sea wall has failed to protect the island -- which lies 
on average just three feet above sea level -- from having its cemetery 
inundated, or losing its white sand beach...
- - -
In the Torres Strait Islands, stores import groceries, so the food 
supply is not similarly threatened. But some of the items that 
supplement it -- fish, crab, turtle and dugong, which are related to 
manatees -- live in habitats that are threatened by coral bleaching and 
ocean acidification. And saltier soil and flooding have made it more 
difficult to maintain gardens of banana, yam, cassava and taro.

"Normal people would say, Let's pack up and get out of here," said Dimas 
Toby, a councilor for Boigu Island, who is not involved in the claim. 
But while some islanders have migrated to the mainland, he said he would 
remain to protect his culture. Otherwise, he said, "we'll go extinct, 
because we'll have nowhere to practice it."...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/12/world/australia/climate-change-torres-strait-islands.html...

[remember the Dodo?]
*Koalas are now 'functionally extinct,' experts say*
Koala bears have been declared "functionally extinct," the Australian 
Koala Foundation reports. The fluffy marsupial is down to just 80,000 
wild species members, meaning there aren't enough breeding adults left 
to support another generation of the pouched mammals.
https://nypost.com/2019/05/16/koalas-are-now-functionally-extinct-experts-say/ 

[No water in parts of India[
*Your Morning Fix: No water for three days in Mangaluru, Chennai faces 
cuts;...*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3vXdZ4Jd1Q

[New book of positive change ]
*The Great Pivot: Creating Meaningful Work to Build a Sustainable Future*
American society currently faces a crisis in the world of work between 
outsourcing, automation, the gig economy, and low levels of employee 
engagement. At the same time, our transportation systems and means for 
producing energy, materials, and food are degrading life support systems 
on Earth. The solution, however, is simple: we must abandon "business as 
usual" and draw up a blueprint for creating meaningful jobs that will 
also dramatically reduce waste and restore the natural world.

The Great Pivot is that blueprint. It details 30 projects for developing 
advanced energy communities, low-carbon mobility systems, a circular 
economy, a rejuvenated food production system, and restoring nature. It 
starts, of course, with people. Americans want work that gives their 
lives purpose and meaning. First, however, we must ensure that everyone 
has shelter, food, and access to affordable healthcare and childcare, 
especially those lower on the socioeconomic ladder. By doing so, those 
securing meaningful work for the first time will be able to pull 
themselves up financially, while those currently working disappointingly 
unfulfilling jobs will jump to more meaningful employment, whether 
starting their own business or joining an existing team.

The financial sector also wants more sustainability projects to invest 
in. By harnessing Silicon Valley's startup culture of disrupting 
lumbering, inefficient industries, the Great Pivot will create both more 
effective and efficient jobs and manifold investment opportunities. Make 
no mistake: the investment needed to kickstart a sustainable future is 
considerable, but this money will go directly into the pockets of the 
millions of people doing this meaningful work, thereby providing the 
necessities of a stable, middle class life.

With this bold vision we will not only save the environment, but in the 
process of creating millions of meaningful jobs, we will save ourselves. 
A sustainable future needs us to envision it, and it needs us to make it 
happen. It's time to make the Great Pivot.
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Pivot-Creating-Meaningful-Sustainable-ebook/dp/B07NKVWY8G/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

[Wildfires in Mexico making bad air]
*Mexico's Fires Are Creating Dangerous Levels Of Air Pollution, 
Real-Time Data Show*
"A new Resource Watch blog from WRI's experts shows more than 100 fires 
in central and southern Mexico over the past week and the dangerous air 
quality levels and smoke plumes they are causing for nearby residents."

How bad is the pollution? Very bad. "For example, at 8 am yesterday, air 
quality sensors on Resource Watch detected PM 2.5 concentrations nearly 
double what the US EPA considers an 'unhealthy' limit at 103.9 
microgram/m3 in Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, just east of Mexico City."
- -
Smoke from fires contains fine particulates (PM 2.5), an easily 
inhalable pollutant linked to heart and lung problems, as well as 
asthma. Any level of exposure to fine particulate matter increases 
health risks, but exposures over 55 micrograms per cubic meter 
(microgram/m3) over a 24-hour period are unhealthy, according to the 
U.S. EPA (a microgram is one-millionth of a gram.)

At 7:00 am CT yesterday, OpenAQ's air quality data on Resource Watch 
showed PM 2.5 of 103.9 microgram/m3 in Nezahualcoyotl, just east of 
Mexico City. You can also explore more detailed air quality data in 
Mexico City on the city's website.

"This extraordinary meteorological event took the environmental 
authorities and environmental emergency programs by surprise, since 
there is no specific environmental contingency protocol for fine 
particles (PM 2.5), which is currently one of the main gaps in 
governance. Urban authorities need to work together with rural 
authorities, since water and air issues do not obey borders; this 
highlights the importance of interstate coordination and the need of 
objective and independent institutions, since many urban issues depend 
on forest and rural issues, and vice versa", says Jorge Macías, director 
of urban development and accessibility at WRI Mexico.

"To address this current environmental crisis, what we could do is 
create a specific regional attention mechanism for forest monitoring, 
including fire alerts, and analyse the causes of these fires, which are 
linked, mainly, to human activity, from agricultural practices, to land 
use changes and even accidental fires from visitors to natural areas. 
This information helps us see the strong linkages between the rural 
areas (forest and agricultural) and cities, and hopefully will help to 
promote territorial policies and activities beyond manmade boundaries," 
adds Javier Warman, director of the WRI Mexico Forests program.
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/05/15/mexicos-fires-are-creating-dangerous-levels-of-air-pollution-real-time-data-show/

[cough, cough, why we feel worse than the numbers say we should - 415ppm 
is the AVERAGE]
*Another Hot Milestone -- CO2 Hits 415 Parts Per Million*
Robert Fanney
Published on May 14, 2019
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have exceeded 415 parts per million at 
the Mauna Loa Observatory. This propells us further into the Middle 
Miocene climate context.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4oizxLvyek

[any way they can, it's just business]
*HOW UTILITIES STALL PROGRESS ON ALTERNATIVE ENERGY*
A new report from the Environmental Working Group claims that Duke 
Energy, the nation's largest utility, is holding back the transition 
away from fossil fuels.
KATE WHEELING
- - -
Despite the company's stated goal, EWG found that Duke used its 
political clout to derail investments in energy efficiency and 
incentives for customer-owned solar installations. To that end, Duke has 
carried out what Smith calls a "frontal assault" on net metering--the 
process that allows customers with rooftop solar panels to get credits 
from utilities for the solar-generated power they send back to the grid. 
Duke successfully lobbied against legislation in South Carolina, for 
example, that would have removed limits on the number of customers who 
can participate in net metering in the state. In 2015, the utility 
worked to kill legislation that "would have made it easier for customers 
to borrow and pay back the cost of solar panels, and to stop the 
extension of a renewable energy tax credit," according to the report.

Wheeless says the narrative that utilities are trying to stop solar is 
outdated, and points out that, in North Carolina, the utility is in the 
middle of a five-year, $62-million solar rebate program in the state, 
which gives money back to customers who install solar on the roof tops.

According to Smith, another way that Duke and other utilities cut into 
customer savings is by increasing the flat monthly rate that utilities 
charge their customers. Last year, the company's subsidiaries in the 
Carolinas began seeking regulators' approval to triple the flat monthly 
rate to nearly $30. Duke says the rate increases are primarily to pay 
for upgrades to the distribution system, and ensure that all customers 
are paying their fair share. Wheeless likened the relationship between 
customer-owned solar installations and the grid to electric vehicles and 
the roads: "In a lot of states, electric vehicles are a bit of an issue 
because the state's upkeep of the roads and bridges depends on the 
gasoline tax," Wheeless says. "And if you have people with electric 
vehicles who aren't buying gasoline, they are not contributing to that 
upkeep."...
- - -
Lawmakers in several states are increasing oversight of utilities. South 
Carolina, for example, passed a Utility Ratepayer Protection package 
meant to increase oversight and protect customers from unfair rate 
hikes, and regulators in the state blocked Duke from recovering more 
than $600 million from its customers to clean up the Dan River coal ash 
spill from 2014.

"We're seeing a backlash against the influence peddling, the undermining 
of customer savings, the undermining of actually the entire economy," 
Smith says. "Renewables and efficiency create lots of jobs and local and 
state revenue compared to conventional sources of power."

Other utilities are more fully embracing renewables: Xcel Energy, a 
Minneapolis-based utility that serves some 3.6 million customers in 
eight states, for example, became the first major U.S. utility to commit 
to going carbon-free by 2050 last year. Many smaller utilities quickly 
followed suit with more ambitious plans to decarbonize even sooner.
https://psmag.com/environment/how-utilities-stall-progress-on-alternative-energy

[More culture about a fearful future]
*THE DEAD DON'T DIE - "How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse" - In Theaters 
June 14*
THE DEAD DON'T DIE - the greatest zombie cast ever disassembled starring 
Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, 
Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Rosie Perez, Iggy Pop, Sara Driver, 
RZA, Selena Gomez, Carol Kane, Austin Butler, Luka Sabbat and Tom Waits. 
Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. In Theaters June 14th.
http://www.thedeaddontdiemovie.com
https://www.instagram.com/thedeaddontdie
https://twitter.com/thedeaddontdie
https://www.facebook.com/thedeaddontdie
Preview trailers
This is the best one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs5ZOcU6Bnw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9ypKLlKkLY
https://youtu.be/2f28CzL6WUw

*This Day in Climate History - May 18, 2014 - from D.R. Tucker*
The New York Times looks back at David Koch's 1980 vice-presidential bid.
http://nyti.ms/1lMHOEF
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