[TheClimate.Vote] May 24, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/May 24, 2019/

[Political platform]
*2020 candidate John Delaney pitches vastly unusual climate change plan*
Maryland congressman wants to capture carbon dioxide pollution heating 
the planet and transport it in pipelines criss-crossing US...
- - -
Carbon capture technologies are currently available, but not at the 
large scale and low cost that would be needed for Delaney's plan. Demand 
for captured carbon is low, making it impossible for companies to 
justify the expense. Delaney would spur demand by having the government 
pay for captured carbon at auction with money currently used to 
subsidize the fossil fuels industry.

Delaney's carbon tax would start at $15 a ton of carbon and increase $10 
a year. He cosponsored a bill laying out the details with some of the 
few congressional Republicans seeking climate action.

The congressman said he would ask Congress to pass a carbon tax in his 
first year as president...
- - -
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/23/2020-candidate-john-delaney-pitches-vastly-unusual-climate-change-plan


[aftermath]
*Photos of Missouri Tornado: Jefferson City Damage 'Extensive'*
The aftermath of a tornado that tore through Missouri's state capital 
Wednesday night.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/us/tornado-pictures-jefferson-city-missouri.html 



[Opinion from The Hill]
*Deadly extreme weather is the new normal*
The extreme weather events this week in the Midwest are both alarming 
and tragic. It is estimated that at least 30 tornados touched down in 
Kansas, Missouri and elsewhere on Tuesday alone. Unfortunately, there 
have also been at least four fatalities with more injuries reported.

Flooding has also been an outsized consequence of these storms. With the 
ground already saturated and rivers at high levels, the rain simply has 
no place to go. Tornados are common in the spring, and the country 
normally sees an average of 268 in the month of May alone, so this 
outbreak of extreme weather is not totally out of place, but the 
strength and severity over such a short period of time is notable. This 
is also another, in what seems to be an unending series of outbreaks of 
extreme weather events.

These kinds of weather events are also expected to be exacerbated due to 
global warming. The kinds of effects of climate change on extreme 
weather include increasing rainfall in some areas, prolonged droughts in 
others, as well as providing extra heat to tornadoes as they are 
forming. Whether or not climate change will lead to more storms (not 
just more intense storms), is a question in need of additional evidence 
to say with certainty. But a recent study finds some evidence that 
global warming will indeed lead to an increase in severe thunderstorms 
that include tornados...
- - -
Even disaster aid does not seem to be immune to partisan politics. While 
there will likely need to be some supplemental disaster aid beyond the 
normal assistance programs for the areas affected by this week's extreme 
weather, they may have to wait a while. Disaster aid for the survivors 
of the earlier flooding events, as well as other storm-ravaged parts of 
the south and mid-west and the areas affected by the wildfires in 
California are all being still being kicked around Capitol Hill amidst 
partisan bickering in Congress and with the administration.

FEMA continues to work to build a more comprehensive culture of 
preparedness. They are working to integrate preparedness into the whole 
community through increased preparedness, insurance coverage and other 
steps to help people prepare to enhance their resilience before a 
disaster strikes. Perhaps creating a culture of preparedness should also 
extend to our national politics as well, where electoral strategy is 
suspended when our citizens need their government the most, and where 
voters hold elected officials accountable for undermining preparedness 
efforts. But studies of the politics of disasters finds that voters only 
hold elected officials accountable for their support after a disaster 
strikes, and are ambivalent to preparedness investments that save money 
and lives before they occur...
- -
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/445230-deadly-extreme-weather-is-the-new-normal


*Runaway barges hit eastern Oklahoma dam amid chaotic Midwest storms*
https://www.foxnews.com/us/runaway-barges-hit-dam-in-in-eastern-oklahoma-amid-chaotic-midwest-storms


[heatwave in Southeast]
*Forget the 'Polar Vortex.' Here comes the 'Death Ridge' and record heat 
for the Southeast*
Doyle Rice, USA TODAY Published 3:49 p.m. ET May 23, 2019 | Updated 6:41 
p.m. ET May 23, 2019

Daniel Carcillo hopes he's a cautionary tale about what repeated blows 
to the head can do to hockey players. Given that a study estimates there 
are roughly 59 concussions per National Hockey League season, Carcillo 
is not alone. (May 23)AP

A few of the records that could be broken date back to the 1800s.
The National Weather Service called it "prolonged and dangerous heat wave."
"Drink plenty of liquids and wear light, loose-fitting clothing."
A blistering, dangerous heat wave, which one expert calls a "death 
ridge," is poised to scorch the southeastern U.S. over the Memorial Day 
weekend.

Some all-time record high temperatures for May could be shattered as 
highs rocket into the upper 90s to low 100s all the way from Alabama to 
Virginia.

"In what has been a warmer-than-normal May to date across the Southeast, 
temperatures will take a notable turn upwards through the end of the 
week and into Memorial Day weekend," AccuWeather meteorologist Max Vido 
said.

A few of the records that could be broken date back to the 1800s.

"Most high temperature records across the region stand in the 90s, so 
these cities are expected to consistently challenge records during the 
heat wave," Vido said.

In Charleston, South Carolina, the National Weather Service called it 
"prolonged and dangerous heat wave,"

Weather.us meteorologist Ryan Maue referred to the heat as a "death 
ridge" that will bring calm winds and bone-dry conditions, in addition 
to the extreme heat. (A "ridge" is an area of high atmospheric pressure, 
one that prevents clouds and rain from forming.)...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/23/heat-wave-dangerous-record-breaking-death-ridge-scorch-southeast/1208562001/


[Dave Roberts talks with FERC]
*This federal agency is quietly, profoundly shaping climate policy*
A chat with Commissioner Richard Glick of the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission.
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/5/22/18631994/climate-change-renewable-energy-ferc



[from British news outlet]
*Internal emails reveal how the chemical lobby fights regulation*
- - -
'Sowing doubt'
Chemicals experts outside the industry say the lobbying efforts on TCE 
demonstrate the strategies that companies with toxic products have used 
for decades: sowing doubt about toxicology science, stalling regulation 
and wielding influence with political officials through campaign donations.

"The playbook repeats itself over and over," said Sonya Lunder, a senior 
toxics adviser at the Sierra Club.

The US has long allowed companies to use thousands of chemicals with 
little or no data on whether they are safe. A 2016 update to US chemical 
laws is meant to require more testing, but critics say Trump's EPA is 
using the new process to undermine ongoing reviews. The EPA says the 
changes to how it assesses chemicals will let the agency "expeditiously" 
regulate dangerous ones.

Lunder said the public only learns about the harmful chemicals that have 
unusual effects or that are discovered randomly by scientists. "A lot of 
the science is moving forward in a very opportunistic and chaotic way," 
she said.

That has been to industry's benefit.
   - - -
A long history of warnings about formaldehyde
The ACC has been lobbying the federal government to consider its own 
industry-funded science in reviewing two other chemicals - formaldehyde 
and hexavalent chromium - which have been known to be dangerous yet have 
been under debate for years. The EPA classified formaldehyde - used in 
wood products such as cabinets and furniture - as a probable human 
carcinogen in 1987. The EPA was aware that workers who inhaled 
hexavalent chromium had higher rates of respiratory cancers as early as 
1984.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/22/internal-emails-reveal-how-the-chemical-lobby-fights-regulation




[Poetry from a Podcast https://vickirobin.com/praise-the-lord/]
*Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition*
Vicki Robin - LIFE DESIGN / SERVICE / SOCIAL COMMENTARY - MAY 23, 2019
I wake each day to stories of loss, of deceit and of a rabble that's far 
too late to the party, clamoring for their piece of the pie.

The masters are long gone. The people fight for crumbs, plotting only to 
line up sooner, not abandon their master's house.

I wake to heartbreaking stories of loss. Of people in floods and fires, 
huddled, hungry, stunned, waiting for rescue.

We are all stranded on rooftops, stunned, not knowing where to turn. If 
we have a boat, which way do we row?

You wake to these too.

We all help where we can as the deluge gathers force in the clouds and seas.

We weep for the effects of hatred without knowing who to hate for their 
hate or where their hearts have gone into hiding.

Each day I put on my boots for the long climb up to the poisoned spring 
which eventually cascades into the suffering we can see and try to feel.

Who or what is poisoning us?

Who or what is multiplying beyond our control?

Who or what has made a bargain with the devil?

Power now, purgatory later.

Who or what has placed their hearts on the altar of the wrong gods?

Power now, purgatory later.

For half a lifetime I've walked this narrow trail up the long mountain 
of consequences seeking the poisoned spring. For half a lifetime I've 
come down to tell my people what I've seen.

I say: Wake up. Don't give them the right to run your life. Take back 
your power in the one place you have it every moment. Shut your wallets 
to their trinkets. Shut your mouths to their food. Talk to one another 
about your bright ideas and terrible sorrows until courage and clarity 
grow. See. See. See. Take back your power. Refuse. Make your own merry, 
your own money, your own food.

Still the floods rise. Still the people are poisoned.

I'm tired but walking this trail every day is what I know to do.

Finally, I lay down in dry pastures beside these poisoned waters, 
helpless to stop their flow.

If I could, with mouth open wide, drink every drop of the poison so my 
people would live, I would do it, but I can't.

My heart opens wide to this sorrow, to being so small and the poison so big.

Does everyone feel so helpless? Do the corporate bosses accountable to 
shareholders feel helpless? Do the shareholders for whom income is food 
is family is safety feel helpless? Do the workers, do the families, do 
the officials, do the bureaucrats, do the people at food banks, do the 
mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers feel helpless? Do the 
photographers and journalists and non-profits feel helpless? Do the 
preachers and prophets feel helpless inside as they exhort their people 
to rise up? Do the activists and revolutionaries and warriors fear the 
battle is lost even as they offer themselves to the fight?

What is the evil afoot in our land?

The thought comes. Can we heal the spring, not just warn the people or 
bandage their wounds?

We call to the forests we've cut down. We call to the grasslands we've 
plowed. We call to the aquifers we've tapped. We call to the minerals 
we've mined. We call to the fungi for whom poison is food. We call to 
all the forces that metabolize poison and restore it to health. Tell us 
what to do?

Dig a swale. Plant families of plants that feed one another - plant them 
where they will thrive, plant them everywhere. Encourage the fungi. Slow 
down the water, let it sink and sink. Let the trees and grasses and 
bushes and healing plants send down and down and down their roots into 
the waters of life. Let the roots host the soil makers. Let the people 
plant and dig and tend and plant and live simply as the landscapes heal. 
Let the land heal the people. Let the people plant the trees and 
grasses. Let the animals graze and fertilize. Let the forests grow. Let 
the people steward the forests so they flourish. Let the people tend the 
land that heals the people.

Let the people gather to fight the forces of evil. Let the people resist 
and protest and run for office and win and make new laws. Let the people 
work only enough in the beast to buy what they need from the system that 
poisons us and turn that money into time, into healing, into protests, 
into plants. Let us be free as a people as creatures of our mother. Let 
us love the frightened people who cling to the poisoned waters. Let us 
love the leaders and overthrow them. Let us ask the plants and trees and 
waters how to do our part to tend and keep the garden. Let us plant and 
protest and resist and run for office and write and speak and agitate 
and heal and go into the streets to dance and to protest and to fight 
and to win.

Let us love our helplessness. Let us love the deep waters the grasses 
and will bring up through their roots to make the rain for our plants 
and our trees and our food and our rivers.

I walk this trail every day because of who and what I love. My hamlet on 
an island. The waters that grow our trees and crops. My friends and 
their children. The gift of life, of consciousness, of being part of the 
weave of history and future. Let my grief water love. Let my 
helplessness water humility. Let humility purify my motives. Let me be 
moved again and again to walk the trail and plant the grasses and trees 
and plants. Let us pray for our species, that we might fall into love 
for the long haul and heal what is broken and make every act and prayer 
and let us praise the Lord…

And pass the ammunition - because we are going to win this fight for our 
lives.
https://vickirobin.com/praise-the-lord/


*This Day in Climate History - May 24, - from D.R. Tucker*
May 24, 2006: "An Inconvenient Truth" is released in the United States. 
BoxOfficeGuru.com's Gitesh Pandya notes:

    "Setting the limited release box office on fire was the global
    warming documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth' which opened in only
    four theaters but grossed a hefty $367,311. That gave the Al Gore
    pic a stunning average of $91,827 per location over four days.
    Distributed by Paramount Vantage, the new incarnation of Paramount
    Classics, Truth collected $281,330 over the Friday-to-Sunday portion
    averaging a scorching $70,332. Total since Wednesday stands at
    $490,860. Opening this weekend on multiple screens at a pair of
    theaters in both New York and Los Angeles, Truth will add about 60
    more playdates on Friday and expand throughout June hoping to become
    the dominant doc of the summer."

(Al Gore and director Davis Guggenheim would appear on the June 2, 2006 
edition of "EcoTalk" on Air America to discuss the film.)
http://youtu.be/8ZUoYGAI5i0
http://www.boxofficeguru.com/052906.htm
http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/ecotalkblog/2006/06/al_gore_about_a.html
http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/ecotalkblog/2006/06/davis_guggenhei.html
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