[TheClimate.Vote] September 23, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Mon Sep 23 07:13:57 EDT 2019

/September 23, 2019/

[Counting the numbers]
*How big was the global climate strike? Here's the best city-by-city 
estimate*
On Sept. 20, the world likely saw its biggest single-day climate protest 
in history.
Organizers of the climate strikes estimate that some 4 million people 
turned up to 6,000 events held in more than 1,000 cities across 185 
countries. Quartz attempted its own partial count of the protestors, 
relying on local sources, and was able to tally at least 1 million 
people in attendance...
more data at - 
https://qz.com/1713587/global-climate-strike-city-by-city-crowd-estimate/

[UN Climate Summit]
*Greta Thunberg kicks off UN Youth Climate Summit*
The climate summit came just a day after millions of people took to the 
streets across the world as part of the Global Climate Strike. Thunberg 
hit out at older generations for doing little to curb carbon emissions.

Greta Thunberg, a teenage climate activist from Sweden, on Saturday 
opened the Youth Climate Summit at the United Nations headquarters in 
New York.
- - -
"You have started this movement," the UN secretary-general said.

"I encourage you to keep your initiative, keep your mobilization, and 
more and more to hold my generation accountable," Guterres said, adding 
that his "generation has largely failed until now to preserve both 
justice in the world and to preserve the planet."

President Donald Trump, who in 2017 pulled the US out of the Paris 
Agreement to limit the world's greenhouse gas emissions and slow global 
warming, is not expected to attend Monday's climate meeting.
more at - 
https://www.dw.com/en/greta-thunberg-kicks-off-un-youth-climate-summit/a-50532292
- - -
[More UN News]
*Ahead of UN summit, leading scientists warn climate change 'hitting 
harder and sooner' than forecast*

    Top climate scientists issued a report on Sunday showing that over
    the last several years, sea-level rise, planetary warming, shrinking
    ice sheets and carbon pollution have accelerated; a sobering call to
    action for political leaders headed to New York for summit-level
    climate change talks tomorrow at the United Nations.

The scientists say that "only immediate and all-inclusive action 
encompassing: deep de-carbonization complemented by ambitious policy 
measures, protection and enhancement of carbon sinks and biodiversity, 
and efforts to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, will enable us to meet 
the Paris Agreement."

"The scientific data and findings presented in the report represent the 
very latest authoritative information on these topics. It highlights the 
urgent need for the development of concrete actions that halt the worst 
effects of climate change," said the Science Advisory Group to the 
Climate Action Summit, co-chaired by WMO Secretary-General Petteri 
Taalas and Leena Srivastava, former Vice Chancellor of TERI School of 
Advanced Studies.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/09/1046972

[Northwest Hot Blob]
*Marine heat wave dubbed 'Blob' resurges in Pacific; mass deaths of sea 
life feared*
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Marine-heat-wave-dubbed-Blob-resurges-in-14457808.php

[from Phys.Org]
*Refugees from rising seas: no place to call home*
by Marlowe Hood and Amelie Bottollier-Depois
Most refugees fleeing persecution, famine or civil strife dream of one 
thing: going home some day.

But when rising seas displace hundreds of millions of people--a near 
certainty, scientists say--it will be an exodus with no hope of return.

"With sea level rise, we are talking about migrations without the option 
for a round-trip," Francois Gemenne, an expert on the intersection 
between geopolitics and the environment, and director of the Hugo 
Observatory in Liege, Belgium, told AFP.

The global ocean waterline has crept up 15 to 20 centimetres since 1900, 
a direct effect of climate change. Until recently, that added volume was 
mostly due to water expanding as it warms.

Today, however, meltwater from glaciers and especially ice sheets atop 
Greenland and Antarctica has become the main driver.

The pace of sea level rise has also picked up, increasing nearly 
three-fold in the last decade compared to the previous century, a 
landmark UN assessment of oceans and Earth's frozen spaces to be 
unveiled next week will report.

How high the oceans will be lifted by 2100 depends mainly on how much 
Earth heats up...
- - -
Sea level triage

"Consider the political instability that has been triggered by 
relatively small levels of migration today," Strauss said.

"I shudder to think of the future world when tens of millions of people 
are moving because the ocean is eating their land."

Cities with five million inhabitants or more in which at least 20 
percent of today's population would eventually be displaced in a 2C 
world include: Barisal and Chittagong in Bangladesh (38 and 42 percent 
of the cities' current populations); Hong Kong, Huaiyin, Jiangmen, 
Nantong and Taizhou in China (31, 42, 55, 72 and 67 percent); Calcutta 
and Mumbai in India (24 and 27 percent); Nagoya and Osaka in Japan (27 
and 26 percent); Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam (28 and 45 
percent); Lagos, Manila, Bangkok (23, 26 and 42 percent).

"Governments are going to have to decide which zones they are going to 
protect with dikes and levees, and which zones they are willing to 
sacrifice," said Gemenne.

There is an ethical dimension to the problem as well, said Michael Mann, 
director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State 
University.

"People with means can move elsewhere," he told AFP. "People without 
those means get stuck in dangerous areas that will be flooded and 
subject to toxic tides."
https://phys.org/news/2019-09-refugees-seas-home.html

[anecdotal report temps of 20C = 68F and temp of 30C= 86F]
*Top Five 2019 Summer Arctic Calamities*
Published on Sep 22, 2019
Just Have a Think
The Arctic Circle has experienced a pretty dramatic and catastrophic 
Summer season in 2019. And as the Climate Scientists always tell us... 
'what goes on in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic'. The 
ramifications of Arctic amplification will impact each one of us over 
time. This week we think about what made Summer 2019 so devastating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj4e-HhztDk

[Skeptical Science summarizes the last week of news]
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical 
Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Sep 15 through 
Sat, Sep 21, 2019
Editor's Pick
*'Four million' join students in climate marches, building pressure on 
leaders*
Organisers said record numbers marched in countries around the world, 
sending a clear message to politicians meeting in New York
https://skepticalscience.com/2019-SkS-Weekly-News-Roundup_38.html

[processing grief]
*Hundreds of people hold 'funeral' for Swiss glacier lost to global warming*
'It is like the dying of a good friend,' says scientist
Hundreds of people have held a high-altitude "funeral" for a Swiss 
glacier that has been lost to global warming.

Climate activists dressed in black clothes climbed to 2,600 metres above 
sea level to pay their respects to the last remnants of the Pizol 
glacier in the Glarus Alps, east Switzerland.

More than 80 per cent of the ice has disappeared since 2006, with just 
26,000 sq metres now remaining. The glacier, which measured at 320,000 
sq m by scientists in 1987, is expected to have vanished completely by 
the end of next decade.

But it has already "lost so much substance that from a scientific 
perspective it is no longer a glacier," said Alessandra Degiacomi of the 
Swiss Association for Climate Protection.

Pizol was declared "dead" in a ceremony on Sunday. The glacier, which 
has been monitored since 1893, will be the first to be removed from the 
Swiss glacier surveillance network.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/glacier-funeral-switzerland-pivol-climate-change-global-warming-a9116046.html

[basic lecture will aid understanding]
*Why is the Atmosphere Warming?*
Published on Nov 23, 2018
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Evidence for Climate Change, a classroom resource from Perimeter 
Institute, features thermal imaging to demonstrate, in a controlled 
experiment, how greenhouse gases absorb infrared light and then extends 
that same result to satellite measurements of our atmosphere. Download 
the full free resource from the Perimeter Outreach store - 
https://resources.perimeterinstitute....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaY36yxFb1o
- -
[rediscovered classic find from a few years ago, advanced, but 
comprehensible]
https://youtu.be/w-IHJbzRVVU
*Tim Palmer Public Lecture: Climate Change, Chaos, and Inexact Computing*
Published on May 5, 2016
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
How well can we predict climate change? The forecast for our future may 
lie at the intersection of chaos theory and a new breed of 
supercomputing, Tim Palmer explains in his public lecture from Perimeter 
Institute on May 4, 2016.
See more Perimeter Institute Public Lectures: http://ow.ly/4nso78
https://youtu.be/w-IHJbzRVVU

[Summary delivered by The Carbon Brief]
*Leaders have yet to grasp the enormity of the climate task*
Editorial, Financial Times

Several papers have published editorials responding to last Friday's 
global climate strikes as well as looking ahead to today's UN climate 
summit in New York. Monday's Financial Times says: "The protesters make 
a serious point: despite more than 30 years of international efforts to 
stem the greenhouse gases driving global warming, emissions have 
accelerated. Signs of a political response have begun to emerge in the 
form of climate emergency declarations and targets to cut the net 
emission of greenhouse gases to zero. Yet leaders are only beginning to 
understand the sweeping, economy-wide policies required to meet these 
bolder goals. They need to grasp the enormity of the climate change 
challenge – and put it at the centre of all policymaking." In Saturday's 
edition of the Times, the editorial says: "The sensible thing for 
politicians around the world to do is heed these protests and set about 
taking measures and buying insurance policies. That means accelerating 
the reduction in fossil fuels and finding new and cleaner methods of 
generating energy…The risk in Britain is that environmentalism could be 
co-opted by the left. Theresa May was right in her last days as prime 
minister to commit Britain to a goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 
2050. Now the government needs to come up with the policies to deliver 
this pledge. It should not be afraid to do so. Conservatism and 
conservation are natural allies." The Independent's editorial on 
Saturday says: "We owe an enormous debt to Greta Thunberg. Reviled 
though she may be in some quarters, her message carries an extraordinary 
power and resonance, much of it down to its sheer earnestness." An 
editorial in the Scottish Sun says: "Skipping double maths on a Friday 
afternoon won't save the planet and it might not do their education any 
good but they are right and what's the point of working hard for the 
future if there isn't any future to work for?" However, the Daily 
Telegraph adopts a very different tone in its editorial on Saturday: 
"[The protestors'] Luddite war on capitalism would raise prices, see 
workers sacked, lead to power shortages in the West, and destroy the 
incentive to innovate. It would also condemn people in poorer countries 
to subsistence farming. Eco-socialism amounts to rich people insisting 
that the Third World remains stuck in the past – because it looks 
prettier to the Western eye…The government has to push back. Hitherto, 
the Tories have happily followed the green agenda but not really brought 
their own direction to it, which has left them validating Left-wing 
arguments rather than developing a proper, conservative narrative of 
their own." An editorial in the Sunday Times says that "the [naive] 
protesters are getting a sympathetic hearing. But sympathy should not 
mean support". The Guardian's editorial uses the climate protests to 
focus on transport emissions: "Climate action must never be reduced to 
individual choices, and the onus is on politicians of all parties, 
starting with government ministers, to be brave. Momentum following this 
week's demonstrations must not give way to drift. Big steps to reduce 
transport emissions would be one good way to keep moving." (The Times 
also has a related editorial about the need for better public transport 
links.)

Meanwhile, various columnists also have their say. Bryony Gordon in the 
Daily Telegraph says "be as cynical as you like, but we ignore the 
concerns of children at our peril". Ross Clark in the Sun argues that 
the protests are "really the anti-capitalist movement -- the lot who 
used to demand an end to globalisation -- in green disguise".
https://www.carbonbrief.org/

[A Carbon Brief summary]
*The climate crisis is the battle of our time, and we can win*
Al Gore, The New York Times
The New York Times carries a long opinion article by Al Gore, Bill 
Clinton's vice president and Nobel peace prize winner, who argues that 
"next year's [US] election is the crucial test of the nation's 
commitment to addressing this crisis". He adds: "It is worth remembering 
that on the day after the 2020 election, the terms of the Paris climate 
accord will permit the United States to withdraw from it. We cannot 
allow that to happen. Political will is a renewable resource and must be 
summoned in this fight. The American people are sovereign, and I am 
hopeful that they are preparing to issue a command on the climate to 
those who purport to represent them: 'Lead, follow, or get out of the 
way.'" Meanwhile, the Washington Post has published an opinion piece by 
John Kerry, Barack Obama's secretary of state, on why India and China 
"must step up on climate change". he says: "The US will be back at the 
table after 2020, but in this aberrational period of shortsightedness, 
now is the time for China, India and other countries to prove just what 
we are missing."
https://www.carbonbrief.org/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/opinion/al-gore-climate-change.html?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

[Greta's pop rap music video]
*SPECIAL FEATURE VIDEO : This Is What It's All About*
Greta Thunberg is an unassuming teenager from Sweden but she has 
inspired a world wide youth movement called School Strike 4 Climate. On 
Friday 20th September 2019 hundreds of thousands of school kids took 
part in mass demonstrations in 150 countries around the world. Musician 
and long time climate activist, Michael Baumgardt has put the words of 
Greta's keynote speeches to music so that the message gets heard by as 
many people around the world as possible
#gretathunberg  #thisiswhatitsallabout   #actnow  #climatecrisis 
#climateemergency
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axYBqTJQLAM&feature=youtu.be&t=96

*This Day in Climate History - September 23, 2004 - from D.R. Tucker*
September 23, 2004: In a Concord (NH) Monitor op-ed, former EPA 
Administrator and lifelong Republican Russell Train rips President 
George W. Bush's climate and environmental record:

    "The scientific community is alarmed by the Bush administration's
    widespread rejection of sound science. The Union of Concerned
    Scientists, a nationwide organization of eminent scientists
    declared: 'When scientific knowledge has been found to be in
    conflict with its political goals, the administration has often
    manipulated the process through which science enters into its
    decisions.' More recently, 48 Nobel Prize-winning scientists wrote
    in an open letter to the American people that the administration
    'has ignored unbiased scientific advice in the policy-making that is
    so important to our collective welfare.'

    "There was no mandate in the 2000 election to weaken and undo our
    environmental and public health protections. In this year's
    election, environmental policy needs a full public debate."

http://web.archive.org/web/20041009151214/http://www.rep.org/opinions/op-eds/61.html
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/

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