[TheClimate.Vote] November 21, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Thu Nov 21 15:17:51 EST 2019

/November 21, 2019/

[Read the NYTimes Climate Newsletter]
Welcome to the Climate Fwd: newsletter. The New York Times climate team 
emails readers once a week with stories and insights about climate change.
*One Thing You Can Do: Know Your Climate Facts*
Also this week, guarding Arctic researchers from polar bears
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/climate/nyt-climate-newsletter-thanksgiving.html?te=1&nl=climate-fwd:&emc=edit_clim_20191120
- - -
[free subscribe to the NYTimes Climate Newsletter]
https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/climate-change?te=1&nl=climate-fwd:&emc=edit_clim_20191120

[official Army document]
*U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Warns of Climate Change Impact 
on Operations*
By Marc Kodack
The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) has published a new 
pamphlet, titled "The Operational Environment and the Changing Character 
of Warfare," which warns of significant climate change-driven changes to 
the U.S. military’s operational environment. The pamphlet adds to 
growing Army concerns about climate change, which we recently saw in 
very stark words from an Army War College report which stated that "the 
Department of Defense is precariously underprepared for the national 
security implications of climate change-induced global security challenges."

Nature of the document
The TRADOC pamphlet examines what the future of warfare is anticipated 
to be through 2050. Over these next 30 years, two critical drivers will 
affect the operational environment (OE)--"one dealing with rapid 
societal change spurred by breakneck advances in science and technology 
and the other with the art of warfare under these conditions…These 
drivers work along a continuum beginning in the present in a nascent 
form, and rapidly gaining momentum through a culmination point around 2050."

Throughout these next 30 years, the pamphlet argues, instability will be 
commonly driven by multiple variables, including nationalism, changing 
demographics, resource competition--particularly over water, and rapid 
technological change.

*Nature of climate change concern*
The pamphlet then goes on to note the significant effects of climate 
change on the future operational environment. It states:

"New territorial conflicts will arise in places like the South China 
Sea, compelling us to seek new partnerships and alliances, while climate 
change and geopolitical competition will open up whole new theaters of 
operation, such as in the Arctic."

According to the report, U.S. adversaries will seek advantages over the 
Army across all domains--land, sea, air, space, and cyber--either 
directly or through proxies. Two periods of future warfare are 
described, including the "Era of Accelerated Human Progress," which 
ranges form the present-2035, followed by the "Era of Contested 
Equality," which ranges from 2035-2050.

Within the projected Era of Accelerated Human Progress (present-2035), 
adversaries will extend existing technologies, doctrine, and strategic 
concepts, across all domains, to challenge the U.S. Hybrid capabilities, 
such as the use of unconventional and traditional military forces, 
sometimes at a level below warfare to mitigate U.S. advantages in 
joint-force maneuver and precision. By the time of the Era of Contested 
Equality, 2035-2050, changes in warfare will be revolutionary, allowing 
an adversary to adopt tools, technologies, and methods against the U.S. 
and its global national security interests. Climate change, the pamphlet 
highlights, is likely to become a direct security threat. From the report:

"Risks to U.S. security include extreme weather impacting installations, 
increased scarcity and food insecurity, climate migration increasing the 
number of refugees and internally displaced peoples, and the Arctic as a 
new sphere of competition."
https://climateandsecurity.org/2019/11/20/u-s-army-training-and-doctrine-command-warns-of-climate-change-impact-on-operations/
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Read the full pamphlet - 18 pages.
https://adminpubs.tradoc.army.mil/pamphlets/TP525-92.pdf

[Great man warning]
*Sir David Attenborough issues dire warning about climate change*
ir David Attenborough has warned that climate change is the greatest 
threat to humanity and could lead to the collapse of civilisations.

The stark message was issued to world leaders at United Nations climate 
talks in Katowice, Poland, who were urged to take action to drive down 
greenhouse gas emissions.

Sir David said the world was facing its "greatest threat in thousands of 
years" and that time was running out.

He warned: "If we don't take action, the collapse of our civilisations 
and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon....
- - -
"Climate change is running faster than we are and we must catch up 
sooner rather than later, before it's too late," he said.

"For many people, regions and even countries, this is already a matter 
of life and death."...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/03/sir-david-attenborough-issues-dire-warning-climate-change/

[Beckwith 15min video]
*Stunted Growth in Arctic Sea Ice Refreeze*
Nov 19, 2019
Paul Beckwith
Arctic sea ice behaviour continues to surprise us. In Aug. as it 
approached the Sept. minimum, ice loss stalled out, and as it refroze in 
Oct./Nov. ice growth stalled again. The high Arctic above 82.5 degrees 
latitude was 7 degrees C warmer than normal for Oct. The jet streams 
crossed Greenland pushing warm air northward into the Arctic Ocean 
forming a strong cyclone bringing lots more heat and high winds over the 
struggling sea ice, as I show on Earth Nullschool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe6VP6TP7tk

[future]
*Climate change hits the young hardest. What will we tell our children?*
- - -
Consciously or not, children have started to realise that the standards 
we, as adults, demand from them are not ones we are holding ourselves to.

Through the school climate strikes, they are discovering a form of 
political power. This may be the lever for change that saves us from 
ourselves.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/climate-change-hits-young-hardest-will-tell-children/

*This Day in Climate History - November 21, 2015 - from D.R. Tucker*
In a New York Times op-ed, Jeff Biggers observes:

    "Negotiators en route to the United Nations conference on climate
    change in Paris, scheduled to begin later this month, should take a
    detour on rural roads here in Johnson County. A new climate
    narrative is emerging among farmers in the American heartland that
    transcends a lot of the old story lines of denial and cynicism, and
    offers an updated tale of climate hope.

    "Recent polls show that 60 percent of Iowans, now facing flooding
    and erosion, believe global warming is happening. From Winneshiek
    County to Washington County, you can count more solar panels on
    barns than on urban roofs or in suburban parking lots. The state’s
    first major solar farm is not in an urban area like Des Moines or
    Iowa City, but in rural Frytown, initiated by the Farmers Electric
    Cooperative.

    "In the meantime, any lingering traces of cynicism will vanish in
    the town of Crawfordsville, where children in the Waco school
    district will eventually turn on computers and study under lights
    powered 90 percent by solar energy. Inspired by local farmers, who
    now use solar energy to help power some of their operations, the
    district’s move to solar energy will not only cut carbon emissions
    but also result in enough savings to keep open the town’s once
    financially threatened school doors."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/21/opinion/iowas-climate-change-wisdom.html?ref=opinion
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