[TheClimate.Vote] May 30, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Richard Pauli richard at theclimate.vote
Thu May 30 08:30:37 EDT 2019 

/May 30, 2019/

[radio report - levees, more rains]
*Rain Keeps Falling In Oklahoma As State's Levees Are Tested*
A surge of floodwater is moving from Oklahoma and into Arkansas. The 
rain has been relentless the past month and swollen rivers and 
tributaries are overwhelming some cities.
https://www.npr.org/2019/05/29/728053406/rain-keeps-falling-in-oklahoma-as-states-levees-are-tested
- - -
[Heard on All Things Considered]
*How Oklahoma Is Coping With Devastating Floods Across The State*
NPR's Audie Cornish speaks with Col. Christopher Hussin, of Army Corps 
of Engineers in Oklahoma, about the state's levee system and the threat 
it faces from historic flooding.
https://www.npr.org/2019/05/29/728053461/how-oklahoma-is-coping-with-devastating-floods-across-the-state


[Kate Marvel video interview]
*Kate Marvel: How Climate Change Works*
The Agenda with Steve Paikin
Published on May 28, 2019
The term "feedback" in climate-change science refers to what can speed 
up or slow down that change. And the answers lie in clouds, rain, trees 
and ice. To explain how it all work, The Agenda welcomes Kate Marvel, 
associate research scientist at Columbia University and at NASA's 
Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZNAlEPMrOY



[local political website for San Antonio, Texas]
Vote Climate SA
*Which San Antonio candidates truly value your health and wellbeing?
Methods & Definitions
*How were these rankings determined?
Candidates were ranked on a sliding scale determined by their public 
statements about the draft Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, global 
warming, climate change, sustainability, and related issues.
CATEGORIES*
*

    *HAZARDOUS*
    A 'Hazardous' ranking means the candidate is opposed to climate
    action or misrepresents the state of climate science to avoid action.

    *INDIFFERENT*
    An 'Indifferent' ranking means the candidate may generally support
    consensus climate science but defines climate action in a way that
    does not include carbon targets or climate equity or takes no or
    generally negative position on the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan.

    *SUPPORTING*
    A "Supporting' ranking means the candidate is on the record
    supporting adoption of the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (2050
    net-zero deadline, equity implementation committee), even if they
    have some disagreements over particular policy recommendations.

    *LEADING*
    A 'Leading' ranking means the candidate supports and is actively
    campaigning to pass the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan.

    *CHAMPION*
    A climate 'Champion' ranking means the candidate supports rapid
    climate pollution reductions that are in line with the IPCC's recent
    "1.5 Degrees Report" by advocating for fast, early gains by, for
    example, closing the coal plant by 2025.

Which San Antonio candidates truly value your health and wellbeing?
How do we define climate action?
For the purposes of this campaign "climate action" is defined as a 
commitment to reduce San Antonio's climate pollution in line with the 
Paris Agreement's stated "far less than 2 degrees" (in keeping with 2017 
Council resolution) while preparing the city for the acceleration of 
extreme weather by using principles of climate equity.
https://voteclimatesa.com/
- -- 
[video - hear and see 5 candidates speak]
Voices of San Antonio
https://voteclimatesa.com/2019/05/17/voices-of-san-antonio/


[Trump's Guy Friday]
*What You Need to Know About the Trump Adviser Who Compared CO2 to 
Persecuted Jews*
Alex Lubben May 28, 2019
A physicist who said "the demonization of carbon dioxide is just like 
the demonization of the poor Jews under Hitler" may get the authority to 
question the conclusions of the biggest government-funded climate study.

"Carbon dioxide is actually a benefit to the world, and so were the 
Jews," Princeton physicist William Happer said to cap that thought, 
during a 2014 interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC.
But there's more: Happer also leads an organization that wants more 
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and he has taken tons of funding from 
fossil fuel interests.

Happer already serves on the National Security Council as the 
president's deputy assistant for emerging tech -- and now he's rallying 
Trump's inner circle (like National Security Adviser John Bolton) to 
support him to lead a new climate review panel that will question the 
conclusions of the National Climate Assessment, the New York Times 
reported. It's not yet clear exactly how much influence Happer would 
have over the study's conclusions, but the Trump administration also 
reportedly wants to keep the worst-case scenarios out of the climate 
study, according to the Times.

Opponents of the Trump administration's moves to dismantle U.S. climate 
policy have said they plan to use the last National Climate Assessment 
-- which estimated in 2018 that temperatures could rise by 7 degrees by 
the end of the century -- to argue against the rollbacks. When Trump was 
asked by reporters about the 2018 version of the study -- which 300 
leading scientists worked on -- the president said, "I don't believe it."

With Happer on the panel, Trump would likely hope to influence the next 
version of the study, due around 2021. Happer and his picks will be able 
to question the report's conclusions and bolster attempts to roll back 
policy that's aimed at curbing climate change.

Here's what you need to know about Happer:

*HE'S AN UNFLINCHING ADVOCATE FOR CARBON DIOXIDE*
At least 97 percent of scientists agree that global warming is real and 
primarily caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases, like CO2.

But Happer said at a conference in 2017 that "the 97% consensus is 
phony." He's also gone as far as to say that parts of the scientific 
field he apparently studies are a "cult." (It's worth noting that Happer 
is a physicist, not a climate scientist.)

"There's a whole area of climate so-called science that is really more 
like a cult," Happer told the Guardian in 2017. "It's like Hare Krishna 
or something like that. They're glassy-eyed, and they chant. It will 
potentially harm the image of all science."

Here's a few other comments Happer made in C02's defense:

    "The public in general doesn't realize that from the point of view
    of geological history, we are in a CO2 famine," Happer told E&E News
    in January for 2018.
    "Let me point out that if you have a well-designed coal plant, what
    comes out of the stack of the plant is almost the same thing that
    comes out of a person's breath," Happer said at a Heritage
    Foundation conference in 2016.
    "If plants could vote, they would vote for coal," he said at another
    conference in 2015.

In an op-ed Happer co-authored in the Wall Street Journal in 2013, he 
also went into a detailed explanation of photosynthesis, the process 
through which plants use carbon dioxide and sunlight to create 
nutrients, to argue that more CO2 would be good for plants.

"For most plants, and for the animals and humans that use them, more 
carbon dioxide, far from being a 'pollutant' in need of reduction, would 
be a benefit," he wrote.

Climate change is actually causing an extinction crisis: One million 
plant and animal species are threatened with extinction as the world 
gets hotter due to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases like 
CO2 in the atmosphere, a recent report from the U.N. found.

*HAPPER'S BEEN BANKROLLED BY RIGHT-WING MEGADONORS*
Happer is such a big fan of CO2 that he founded an advocacy group for 
the compound, the CO2 Coalition. And it's gotten some significant 
donations from some of conservative America's wealthiest families.

The Mercer family, which gave $15 million to Trump's 2016 presidential 
campaign, also gave $170,000 to Happer's CO2 Coalition in 2017, 
according to the Mercer's tax documents reviewed by HuffPost, and 
$150,000 in 2016, according to E&E News. The organization also took over 
$200,000 from the Koch Institute between 2013 and 2016.

The CO2 Coalition says its role is to educate "thought leaders, policy 
makers, and the public about the important contribution made by carbon 
dioxide to our lives and the economy."

There's big money in climate denial, and Happer's cashed in by taking 
positions at right-wing think tanks like the Heartland Institute. Happer 
was on the board of another research organization that funded studies 
which tried to disprove the effects of climate change that took $715,000 
from ExxonMobil between 1998 and 2015, according to the Guardian.

Greenpeace also caught Happer in a sting operation in which the 
environmental group's operatives posed as representatives from an oil 
and coal company. They approached Happer to author a paper that would 
paint the fossil fuel industry in a positive light. Happer agreed to do 
it without disclosing the source of his funding.
https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/597wbb/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-trump-adviser-who-compared-co2-to-persecuted-jews



[culture and politics]
*Is Climate Fiction a Subset of Science Fiction--or Something Else 
Entirely?*
A new novel imagines what life in Bangkok would be like if nearly half 
the city were underwater--which some experts say is a real possibility.
https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/climate-fiction-subset-science-fiction-or-something-else-entirely?mc_cid=b0e3892385&mc_eid=098d6f64d2


[One a day for a year]
*Every Day is Earth Day: 365 Books to Start Your Climate Change Library*
https://lithub.com/every-day-is-earth-day-365-books-to-start-your-climate-change-library/?single=true


[Extinction panic]
*Op-Ed: Climate Change: 'We've Created a Civilization Hell Bent on 
Destroying Itself – I'm Terrified,' Writes Earth Scientist*
By Guest - Sunday, May 26, 2019 - 05:41
- -
The IPCC reviews the vast amounts of science being generated around 
climate change and produces assessment reports every four years. Given 
the impact the IPPC's findings can have on policy and industry, great 
care is made to carefully present and communicate its scientific 
findings. So I wasn't expecting much when I straight out asked him how 
much warming he thought we were going to achieve before we manage to 
make the required cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

"Oh, I think we're heading towards 3 C at least," he said.

"Ah, yes, but heading towards," I countered: "We won't get to 3 C, will 
we?" (Because whatever you think of the 2 C threshold that separates 
"safe" from "dangerous" climate change, 3 C is well beyond what much of 
the world could bear.)

"Not so," he replied.

That wasn't his hedge, but his best assessment of where, after all the 
political, economic, and social wrangling we will end up.

"But what about the many millions of people directly threatened," I went 
on. "Those living in low-lying nations, the farmers affected by abrupt 
changes in weather, kids exposed to new diseases?"

He gave a sigh, paused for a few seconds, and a sad, resigned smile 
crept over his face. He then simply said: "They will die."...
- - -
To understand you are in a prison, you must first be able to see the 
bars. That this prison was created by humans over many generations 
doesn't change the conclusion that we are currently tightly bound up 
within a system that could, if we do not act, lead to the 
impoverishment, and even death of billions of people.

Eight years ago, I woke up to the real possibility that humanity is 
facing disaster. I can still smell that bad coffee, I can still recall 
the memory of scrabbling to make sense of the words I was hearing. 
Embracing the reality of the technosphere doesn't mean giving up, of 
meekly returning to our cells. It means grabbing a vital new piece of 
the map and planning our escape.
https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/05/26/op-ed-climate-change-civilization-hell-bent-destroying-itself-james-dyke


[changes to denialist group]
POLITICS
*Cato closes its climate shop; Pat Michaels is out*
Scott Waldman, E&E News reporter
The Cato Institute quietly shut down a program that for years sought to 
raise uncertainty about climate science, leaving the libertarian think 
tank co-founded by Charles Koch without an office dedicated to global 
warming.

The move came after Pat Michaels, a climate scientist who rejects 
mainstream researchers' concerns about rising temperatures, left Cato 
earlier this year amid disagreements with officials in the organization.

"They informed me that they didn't think their vision of a think tank 
was in the science business, and so I said, 'OK, bye,'" Michaels said in 
an interview yesterday. "There had been some controversy going around 
the building for some time, so things got to a situation where they 
didn't work out."

A spokeswoman said Cato's shuttering of the Center for the Study of 
Science does not represent a shift in the institute's position on 
human-caused climate change. But the think tank moved decisively to 
close down the science wing that was overseen by Michaels. Ryan Maue, a 
meteorologist and former adjunct scholar, also left the center.

"While it is true that, with the departure of Pat Michaels, we have 
deactivated our Center for the Study of Science, we continue to work on 
science policy issues," Khristine Brookes, the spokeswoman, wrote in an 
email. She didn't mention climate change...
- -Michaels has spent years attacking climate modeling, which he claims 
ran hot, despite evidence from NASA that contradicted his claims and 
demonstrated that models were largely accurate. He has also portrayed 
academic researchers in climate-related fields as beholden to funding 
that incentivizes them to produce alarming research. The Cato Institute 
has received millions of dollars from the Koch network, the Mercer 
Family Foundation, Exxon Mobil Corp. and other foundations that oppose 
regulations.

Maue said the Niskanen Center, which was founded by Cato alumnus Jerry 
Taylor, has attracted conservative followers with its middle-of-the-road 
climate policy. That's appealing to businesses that help fund think 
tanks and to those that might support policy positions on climate in the 
post-Trump era, he said.

"That's attractive to business and politicians who don't really want to 
see the climate flame wars continuing on," Maue said in an interview. "I 
think many businesses have taken an approach to what's going to happen 
and, assuming Trump isn't around in 2021, what's coming down the pike."

Still, Maue said that one of Michaels' lasting contributions in the 
climate policy debate was to create a position where one can accept that 
humans are affecting the climate but not as much as the vast majority of 
scientists claim. It's now a de facto position for many Republican 
lawmakers who acknowledge that humans are contributing to climate change 
but don't want to restrict fossil fuel use.

"Where Pat's influence is is in the term 'lukewarming,'" Maue said. 
"Lukewarming is not climate denial; it's just that he's taking, and most 
of us on this side of the issue believe in lower climate sensitivity. We 
don't believe there's going to be 5 degrees of warming; we figure it's 
at the lower end of 1.5 degrees."

The vast majority of climate scientists believe that the world could 
warm 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels within the next two 
decades and accelerate through the end of the century, with some 
estimates placing warming above 5 C.
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060419123



[Alternate cultural commentary video ]
*How Having Anxiety May Help You in the Zombie Apocalypse!*
Rebecca Watson
Published on May 29, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB-GQ1RtXRc


*This Day in Climate History - May 30, 2013 - from D.R. Tucker*
In a controversial Huffington Post article, climate scientist James 
Hansen suggests that neither Republicans nor Democrats can be relied 
upon to combat carbon pollution in a market-based manner.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-american-party_b_3358546
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