[TheClimate.Vote] October 29, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest.

[Richard Pauli]

/October 29, 2019/

[check Wildfire Today]
*New fires in northern California*
https://wildfiretoday.com
- -
[updated fire map]
*California wildfires map*
https://www.latimes.com/wildfires-map/
- - -
[NYT prognosticates]
*Climate Change Could Shift California's Winds, Fueling Big Winter Fires*
By Henry Fountain
Oct. 28, 2019
For centuries, humans have experienced the fierce, hot and dry winds 
that are fanning California's recent spate of wildfires. Known as Santa 
Anas in the southern part of the state and Diablos in the north, they 
arrive regularly in the fall.
- - -
But the winds' future in a changing climate is less certain. Recent 
research by Dr. Guzman-Morales and others suggests that as the climate 
warms, the winds may become less frequent, especially at the fringes of 
their season in fall and spring...
That is not necessarily good news. Coupled with changes in patterns of 
precipitation that are also expected to occur as the climate warms, it 
may mean that California's wildfire season will shift from fall into 
winter, with longer and more intense fires later in the year...
- - -
"The window for wildfires is expanding toward winter," Dr. 
Guzman-Morales said.

Californians already have a sense of what this future might be like. In 
2017, winter winds came late, and December was still relatively dry. 
Santa Ana winds fueled the Thomas fire, a huge wildfire in Ventura and 
Santa Barbara counties that began on Dec. 4 and burned for more than a 
month.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/climate/california-fires-santa-anas.html
- - -
[Brown understands]
*Brown: California fires show 'the horror' world will face from climate 
change*
By CARLA MARINUCCI 10/28/2019
SAN FRANCISCO -- As Californians suffer widespread power outages and 
mass evacuations due to wildfire dangers, former Gov. Jerry Brown is 
warning that the dark scenario may be "only the beginning" for Americans 
across the country -- unless officials in Washington seriously tackle 
the issue of climate change.

"I said it was the new normal a few years ago,'' Brown said in an 
exclusive interview with POLITICO. "This is serious .... but this is 
only the beginning. This is only a taste of the horror and the terror 
that will occur in decades.''...
- -
Brown and his wife Anne Gust Brown live on his family's ranch in Colusa, 
about 60 miles north of Sacramento and 120 miles from San Francisco. 
While much of rural Northern California had its power shut off this past 
week, the Browns aren't sitting in the dark, and don't expect to be 
affected by the outages -- in part because they prepared for just this 
moment.

"We're off the grid. We have solar collectors and lithium-ion batteries, 
so we're set,'' he said. "We have a well. We collect rainwater and put 
it into the underground cistern."

But he says he is concerned for millions of Californians who aren't so 
lucky. Such widespread outages are "dangerous" for California, "because 
you can't notify many people'' when power is out, compounding the threat 
to residents in many communities. On the other hand, "experts say not 
turning off the power is dangerous,'' he said. "So you're damned if you 
do, and you're damned if you don't."

His advice to state residents facing down outages: "Get ready….of course 
the state government and local governments, with the Office of Emergency 
Services, are doing a lot,'' he says. "But they have to do more. People 
have to be mobilized; it's not just the government. Whether it's 
prescribed burnings or making your house more secure, knowing what your 
point of exit is, this is serious. "...
- - -
PG&E shareholders, bondholders and hedge funds are jockeying over 
control of the company as it tries to emerge from bankruptcy after 
sparking last year's Camp Fire, which virtually destroyed the town of 
Paradise and killed 85 people.

Another option: Cities such as San Francisco and San Jose are 
contemplating taking over the utility. But Brown said that may not be an 
easy solution.

"If you take over PG&E, your gas prices will turn into taxes -- and 
politicians are very sensitive to that,'' he says. "It's complex...you 
have to look at it from a non-ideological point; anybody who is rushing 
to take over the power business may not understand the full difficulty 
of what the 'new normal' actually is."
https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2019/10/28/brown-california-fires-show-the-horror-world-will-face-from-climate-change-1226036



[THE CENTER FOR CLIMATE & SECURITY]
*Former Homeland Security Secretaries Talk Climate and Security*
CAITLIN WERRELL AND FRANCESCO FEMIA - Oct 28, 2019
In case you missed it: In a September 9 hearing on "Homeland Security 
and Terrorism" before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, two former 
Secretaries of Homeland Security - Janet Napolitano, who served under 
President Barack Obama, and Michael Chertoff, who served under President 
George W. Bush, highlighted the security risks of climate change. Below 
are excerpts covering the issue:

*Secretary Napolitano*: But as we all know, and as the former speakers 
have alluded, threats against our homeland are not static. They evolve. 
We in the department must adapt with them. Today, i would like to speak 
with you about three areas i believe the country must focus on -- 
cybersecurity, mass casualty shootings, and the effects of global 
warming on climate change…

*Secretary Napolitano:* It is also time for Congress and DHS to 
recognize climate change is a generational threat to the homeland that 
must be addressed in a meaningful way. The uptick in sick -- in extreme 
weather events on land and offshore clearly impact the missions of FEMA 
and the U.S. Coast Guard from rescue and reconnaissance to disaster 
preparation, response, and recovery, our changing climate requires DHS 
to approach this missions differently. Climate evolution also implicates 
our border and immigration system, thereby directly affecting -- extreme 
weather is destroying crop fields in central and South America, 
devastating economies. With lost jobs and lost wages, the movement 
towards radicalization widens, outdoes -- as does the draw of northward 
aggravation. The downstream effects of climate change are among them. If 
we, as a nation, failed to address climate change in a holistic and 
global way, as a threat to the homeland, we will ignore one of the 
nation's, and the world's, greatest security risks.

*Secretary Chertoff:* If you consider threats to our homeland, we talked 
a little bit about terrorism. We talked about cyber, also a huge threat. 
We talked about illegal immigration, and I agree with secretary 
Napolitano, the movement of folks across the border. We address too 
often the symptoms of the problems. We need to also address root causes. 
Whether the issue of the threat is terrorism, cyber, immigration, 
climate change, we cannot do this by ourselves as a nation. It is -- it 
has got to be a team.
https://climateandsecurity.org/2019/10/28/former-homeland-security-secretaries-talk-climate-and-security/#more-18425



[Yes, a climate game for your smartphone]
["Our goal was to spread awareness about climate change and the type of 
world we are creating with our denial and inaction on this existential 
crises."]
*A New Video Game Tests Whether You Can Survive the Climate Apocalypse*
by Yessenia Funes
If we fail to stop climate change, the world will be screwed. Like 
thousands will die, hundreds of millions will be displaced screwed. The 
actions society takes over the next decade will largely dictate what our 
climate will look like by the end of the century.

In an effort to get the world to act, game developer William Volk 
developed a video game to show them how bad life can get if it doesn't. 
The Climate Trail, released earlier this month, is a video game inspired 
by classic video game Oregon Trail that challenges players to travel 
more than 1,000 miles north from Atlanta to Canada. The game takes place 
in an apocalyptic future where everything is so screwed that a Climate 
Trail is the only way to safety.

"I'm trying to fight the fight by basically putting people in a 
situation that could happen," Volk told Earther. "It's not impossible."

The journey involves walking on the Climate Trail, the route refugees 
have taken to escape the deadly heat that's taking a hold of the 
American South. Along the way, players must figure out how to deal with 
hunger, thirst, heatwaves, and massive tornado-spewing thunderstorms. 
Whenever players reach the next city on their journey--including Flint, 
Michigan--they find crumbling buildings, potentially dirty water, and 
usually empty stores. In the cities and elsewhere, every decision you 
make carries a consequence, some better than others.

The game doesn't play like Oregon Trail, but instead is more like a 
graphic novel you play through. Each "scene" is drawn and players 
alternate between drawn scenes and a map as they navigate the altered 
world of the late 21st century. It's easy to interpret the game as a 
survival game--like The Last of Us, which also inspired some parts of 
the game--but Volk said it's really an educational one, which he hopes 
to get into schools. Before starting on the trek to Canada, players are 
shown scientific information on global warming, sea level rise, 
greenhouse gas emissions, and feedback loops. The characters that you're 
responsible for keeping alive on your journey north are the ones 
supplying this crucial information.

There's Katherine, the climate scientist. Then, there's Bonnie, who lost 
her parents to the "Permafrost Plague," a result of our melting Arctic 
ice releasing ancient diseases back into society. There's also Albert, 
who fought during the "Resource Wars" over oil, food, and land.

"The wars didn't last long," Albert says during the game's intro. "Once 
the oil ran out and the plagues spread, there wasn't much point to it all."

They all travel with you along the dangerous Climate Trail. The game 
offers three difficulty levels: moderate, significant, and highest. The 
difficulties are based on climate scenarios with different global 
temperature increase. The planet has warmed 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 
degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures at the easiest 
level. The temperatures increase by 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees 
Fahrenheit) and 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in the 
harder levels.

"The catch-22 about this game is I started it with a much more 
optimistic attitude than when I finished it," Volk said. "The more I dug 
into it, the more it seemed things were actually worse than imagined."

Scientists typically talk about limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius 
(3.6 degrees Fahrenheit)--ideally, 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees 
Fahrenheit)--but current models do offer some awful scenarios depicting 
a world where our emissions carry on or even increase. The RCP8.5 
scenario--one of the worst potential outcomes climate models show--is 
closest to what Volk has created in the game, Kate Marvel, a climate 
scientist with Columbia University's Earth Institute and the NASA 
Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told Earther. And unfortunately, 
the scenarios the characters are thrown into are largely in line with 
science.

The characters in the Climate Trail, for example, are fleeing Atlanta 
because of extreme heat. The game starts with the wet-bulb temperature 
(which includes temperature and humidity) nearing 35 degrees Celsius (95 
degrees Fahrenheit), about the maximum threshold the human body can 
withstand. Even with temperatures below that, the heat and humidity can 
still be unbearable even in our current world.

"It doesn't even have to get that bad before people whose livelihoods 
depend on them being outside, working outside, doing hard labor, becomes 
economically not viable anymore," Marvel said.

The game also starts with a description of the Burn, a prolonged period 
where wildfires grew worse out West, resulting in a massive release of 
carbon dioxide that further warmed the atmosphere. But Marvel said 
whether this feedback plays out is still something scientists are 
actively researching, largely because human forest management practices 
will play a role in how severe fires become through. As we've seen with 
the Amazon, though, many people also choose to light entire forests on 
fire, which is only exacerbating the problem. The game is sure to 
mention that, too.

Researchers still have a lot to learn about the impact climate change 
will have on storms as well. In the game, the players encounter a storm 
every few days at least. You have the option to wait it out or to travel 
during the storm. While the game shows an illustration of a tornado, 
Volk said these virtual storms could be anything from thunderstorms to 
tornadoes. In the game, they threaten your group with injuries and 
damage to your food supply, but every day you wait it out, water and 
food resources decrease. In the real world, scientists are still unsure 
how exactly tornadoes will change in a warmer world. That said, 
researchers have found clusters of tornadoes are forming more often in 
parts of the U.S., and it could be tied to climate change.

Winning the game isn't exactly easy. You have to be sure you buy enough 
sorghum to eat and enough water to drink in the beginning. During the 
trip, moments of rain will allow you to increase your water supply, but 
you have to depend on luck to find food when scavenging major cities.

After three tries, I finally won on the hardest difficulty. My entire 
group and I definitely suffered, but we made it to Canada alive and 
without any major injuries or heatstroke. Unfortunately, arriving in 
Canada doesn't exactly solve everything, but you'll have to play and win 
the game to find out.

Climate Trail is available to download for free on Mac, Windows, and 
Linux, as well as in the Apple Store and Google Play for mobile.
https://www.theclimatetrail.com/download
https://earther.gizmodo.com/a-new-video-game-tests-whether-you-can-survive-the-clim-1839336048
- - -
[game play for android 
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wvolk.climate]
*Climate Trail*
Survive and stay alive as climate change ravages the earth! Escape to 
more hospitable location with the limited resources you have and 
increasing heat scorch your homeland. Do you have the necessary survival 
skills to reach your destination before your time and resources run out? 
Join us in this thrilling, RPG adventure now!

What is climate change and how does it happen? How does climate change 
affect the world, especially in America? You can learn all about it 
while playing this RPG adventure Game. You can learn the devastation 
that is caused by climate change and how it turns area that was once 
green into inhabitable places for humans. Wildfires are getting wilder, 
the land is completely dry, and there is no water to be found. Your 
entire home and the surrounding area has become a wasteland. It feels 
like it's apocalypse now! It might even be the last day on Earth. Your 
only hope is to flee to Canada where the land is still lush and green.

=== FEATURES OF CLIMATE TRAIL: ===
Our aim is to educate people while telling a compelling storyline and 
engage you in an addictive RPG adventure game. That's why this game is 
totally FREE and without ADS! Immerse yourself in this post-apocalyptic 
world with no distraction.

IMMERSIVE STORY AND GAMEPLAY
Experience what it feels like to be one of the few survivors in a very 
inhospitable environment. Learn how to survive in the most dire 
situations. Know how to use very limited resources to stay alive and 
make the journey to your destination. You will feel desperation and 
urgency as your resources grow less and less. and joy when you 
successfully face the challenges on the way. You will also feel and 
learn about how the climate change will affect every last human being on 
the planet.

GREAT CHALLENGES
Maybe you've played a lot of survival and shelter building games. Even 
if you are a seasoned player, you will still need to think and 
strategize to be able to make it alive in this game. If you are a 
beginner in survival games, don't worry. It will be a great way to learn 
tactics, strategies, and exploring all possibilities. Climate Trail is a 
great game to train your problem solving skill.

EDUCATIONAL GAME
Our mission is to educate everyone about the cause and the effects of 
climate change. You will learn the scientific facts about what's 
currently happening to our earth. Then, we hope you use the knowledge to 
change your habits and lifestyle to prevent the condition becomes worse 
much faster.

GREAT GRAPHIC AND GAME DESIGN
Climate Trail is created by an industry veteran with decades of game 
design experience. We worked hard to make sure this game has a great 
graphic and enjoyable to play.
So, what are you waiting for? Are you ready to play as a climate refugee 
and survive all the obstacles?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wvolk.climate



[Comic skewering of PG&E]
*Lewis Black |10/25/19 Sacramento CA: PG&E*
Oct 27, 2019
Lewis Black
The People of California have some issues with PG&E. Lewis shares their 
thoughts about the fire-prone public utility.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xppZmkukP-w


*This Day in Climate History - October 29, 2003 - from D.R. Tucker*
  The New York Times reports:
*The Warming Is Global but the Legislating, in the U.S., Is All Local*
By Jennifer 8. Lee - Oct. 29, 2003
"Motivated by environmental and economic concerns, states have become 
the driving force in efforts to combat global warming even as mandatory 
programs on the federal level have largely stalled."...
- - -
The rising level of state activity is causing concern among those who 
oppose carbon dioxide regulation.
''I believe the states are being used to force a federal mandate,'' said 
Sandy Liddy Bourne, who does research on global warming for the American 
Legislative Exchange Council, a group contending that carbon dioxide 
should not be regulated because it is not a pollutant. ''Rarely do you 
see so many bills in one subject area introduced across the country.''

The council started tracking state legislation, which they call 
son-of-Kyoto bills, weekly after they noticed a significant rise in 
greenhouse-gas-related legislation two years ago. This year, the council 
says, 24 states have introduced 90 bills that would build frameworks for 
regulating carbon dioxide. Sixty-six such bills were introduced in all 
of 2001 and 2002.

Some of the activity has graduated to a regional level. Last summer, 
Gov. George E. Pataki of New York invited 10 Northeastern states to set 
up a regional trading network where power plants could buy and sell 
carbon dioxide credits in an effort to lower overall emissions. In 2001, 
six New England states entered into an agreement with Canadian provinces 
to cap overall emissions by 2010. Last month, California, Washington and 
Oregon announced that they would start looking at shared strategies to 
address global warming.

To be sure, some states have decided not to embrace policies to combat 
global warming. Six -- Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, Oklahoma, West 
Virginia and Wyoming -- have explicitly passed laws against any 
mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

''My concern,'' said Ms. Bourne, ''is that members of industry and 
environment groups will go to the federal government to say: 'There is a 
patchwork quilt of greenhouse-gas regulations across the country. We 
cannot deal with the 50 monkeys. We must have one 800-pound gorilla. 
Please give us a federal mandate.' '' Indeed, some environmentalists say 
this is precisely their strategy.

States developed their own air toxics pollution programs in the 1980's, 
which resulted in different regulations and standards across the 
country. Industry groups, including the American Chemistry Council, 
eventually lobbied Congress for federal standards, which were 
incorporated into the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments.

A number of states are trying to compel the federal government to move 
sooner rather than later. On Thursday, 12 states, including New York, 
with its Republican governor, and three cities sued the Environmental 
Protection Agency for its recent decision not to regulate greenhouse-gas 
pollutants under the Clean Air Act, a reversal of the agency's previous 
stance under the Clinton administration.

''Global warming cannot be solely addressed at the state level,'' said 
Tom Reilly, the Massachusetts attorney general. ''It's a problem that 
requires a federal approach.''
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/29/national/29CLIM.html
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/

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