[TheClimate.Vote] August 22, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*August 22 , 2020*/

[771,000 acres]
*California Fires Keep Growing, With No End in Sight*
Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged that the state was "putting everything we 
have" on the ravaging wildfires, acknowledging that even that was not 
enough to blunt their spread.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/us/california-wildfires.html


[Fire]
*California Fires Live Updates: State Seeks Help as 560 Blazes Burn*
Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged that California was "putting everything we 
have" on the wildfires ravaging the state, while acknowledging that even 
that was not enough to blunt their spread...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/us/california-wildfires.html


[Smogist]
*If it's August, the West must be on fire*
https://grist.org/climate/if-its-august-the-west-is-on-fire/



[Greta moves]*
* *Greta Thunberg's climate movement targets Angela Merkel*
Climate strikers are planning for a wave of demonstrations next month.
By KALINA OROSCHAKOFF - 08/20/2020

The pandemic has hobbled the weekly student protests that made Greta 
Thunberg and other campaigners a global phenomenon -- so they're now 
hitting up politicians in person.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel got a firsthand taste of that on 
Thursday, when Thunberg and three other youth activists met with her for 
90 minutes to press for more aggressive German leadership on climate 
change. Campaigners like Thunberg have met top politicians in the past 
-- but now it's their main venue for staying in the public eye.

"We went to Angela Merkel because we wrote an open letter to all heads 
of states and world leaders, we had a few demands in there. The thing we 
mostly ask for is that we want leaders in this crisis, and we don't have 
any leaders right now that treat this crisis as a crisis," Belgium's 
Anuna De Wever, 19, told reporters after meeting with Merkel.

According to a German government statement issued after the meeting, the 
group discussed the climate priorities of the German EU Council 
presidency, the EU's objective of becoming climate-neutral by 2050 and 
efforts to hike the bloc's 2030 emissions reduction targets.

"Both sides agree that global warming is a global challenge where 
industrial states have a particular responsibility in its management," 
the statement said, adding: "The basis for that is the implementation of 
the Paris Agreement."

But that's pretty much where agreement ended.

The campaigners want politicians -- and especially Merkel -- to speed up 
emissions cuts and other climate measures. They say that "Europe has a 
responsibility to act" thanks to the pollution dating back to the 
Industrial Revolution that caused the bulk of the emissions problem.

"We want leaders to step up, take responsibility and treat the climate 
crisis like a crisis," said Thunberg.

But many politicians argue they can't simply rush through tougher 
climate targets without also taking into effect the impact on people and 
businesses.

The campaigners give short shrift to such political calculations.

"It became very clear that we look at the situation from different 
perspectives," Luisa Neubauer, 24, the group's German member, told 
reporters. "As a physicist, [Merkel] does understand the science. As a 
politician, she well understands the political complexity behind that 
struggle. The question is now how to fill that gap."

For them, the rapidly warming planet is the world's overriding risk.

"The interests of future generations have to be somehow balanced with 
interests of generations today -- and that's a huge challenge and we're 
not denying that at all," said Neubauer, a member of the German Greens 
party.

While the weekly strikes that launched the youth protest movement are 
now more difficult, the movement isn't giving up on direct action.

"We used to strike in masses on the streets which was for many weeks not 
thinkable during corona and is still a very challenging task," Neubauer 
said. "We're listening to the science and we are adjusting. We're moving 
to spaces where we can strike safely -- sometimes digitally, sometimes 
in smaller numbers on the streets."

The movement is gearing up for a new wave of demonstrations next month.

"We have decided to strike again globally and safely, if possible on the 
streets … we're mobilizing right now for September 25," Neubauer said. 
"The climate crisis hasn't slowed, it's escalating. We need people to 
demand action and this is obviously what we keep doing."
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/20/greta-thunbergs-climate-movement-targets-angela-merkel-399597


[From the DeSmogBlog]
*Koch academic influence returns to Massachusetts with new Tufts 
University think tank*
A network of free-market think tanks around the country tied to Koch 
funding that tend to oppose climate action and clean energy.
By Dana Drugmand - August 21, 2020
When a new Massachusetts think tank housed at Tufts University launched 
earlier this year, Boston-based media described it as a "CBO-like 
center" (referring to the Congressional Budget Office) that would offer 
an "independent analysis" of proposed state policy and legislation.

But one of the main funders of this think tank, called the Center for 
State Policy Analysis, is a program tied financially to the 
petrochemical billionaire Koch family. This apparent Koch-linked funding 
raises questions about just how independent the center's policy analyses 
may be.

The Center for State Policy Analysis (CSPA), established in February 
2020 and located at Tuft's Tisch College of Civic Life, says it offers 
"rigorous, timely, nonpartisan analysis of live legislative issues and 
statewide ballot initiatives." In addition to examining the state's 
ballot questions for the upcoming November election, CSPA plans to 
review options for addressing rising prescription drug costs and to 
undertake an analysis of a proposed regional plan to tackle carbon 
emissions from vehicles called the Transportation and Climate Initiative.

Initial funding for this think tank, as CommonWealth reported, has come 
from one of the state's largest private health insurance companies and 
from a program called Emergent Ventures, which is based at the 
Koch-funded Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
See the graphics - 
https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/styles/full_width_blog_image/public/Koch%20brothers%20-%20CSPA.png
Emergent Ventures is a grant program of the right-wing Mercatus Center, 
and Mercatus is directly tied to Koch Industries and Charles Koch. 
Charles is on the board of directors at the Mercatus Center, which was 
founded by Richard Fink, a former executive Vice President and board 
member of Koch Industries.

Mercatus also is connected with the State Policy Network, a network of 
free-market think tanks around the country tied to Koch funding that 
tend to oppose climate action and clean energy. One of these 
SPN-affiliated groups, the Beacon Hill Institute, published an analysis 
in March this year--and recently touted by the climate denying Heartland 
Institute--claiming the costs of the Transportation and Climate 
Initiative would outweigh the benefits. This is an argument that Koch 
and oil industry allies have repeatedly raised in attacking the 
"cap-and-trade for cars" program.

The Beacon Hill Institute was hosted for years at Suffolk University in 
Boston, until 2016 when the school's leadership changed policies to 
restrict from whom BHI could take money. Today, Koch-funded policy 
analysis once again has a veneer of academic credibility in the Bay 
State, with the CSPA at its new home in Tufts' Tisch College.

It is unclear at this point whether the CSPA will produce an analysis 
similar to the one from Beacon Hill Institute on TCI, but given CSPA's 
and BHI's shared funding ties to Koch foundations, it is not far-fetched 
to wonder.

Koch Industries is, after all, in the oil refining business, one of the 
main industries that stands to lose profits from initiatives like TCI 
aimed at cleaning up the transportation sector, now the largest source 
of carbon pollution in America.
https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/08/20/new-massachusetts-think-tank-tufts-university-has-funding-ties-koch-network



[A classic video from the Climate Denial Crock of the Week]
*This Year's Model*
Jun 26, 2009
greenman3610
Climate science is not completely dependent on climate models. There are 
many threads of supporting evidence. Still,  it is clear that climate 
models are telling us something important that we cannot afford to ignore.
http://youtu.be/D6Un69RMNSw


[art overview]
*Daniel Dancer: Post-doom with Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd*
Aug 21, 2020
thegreatstory
This post-doom conversation (co-hosted by Michael Dowd and Connie 
Barlow) was one of the first ones recorded (July 2019) and for those new 
to this series, the one we now suggest watching first! We truly believe 
that virtually EVERYONE, regardless of age, background, religious or 
philosophical orientation, etc, will find this 45-minute video 
over-the-top inspiring. For this one, especially, we suggest WATCHING 
(not just listening) as it is cram packed with inspiring images (ten 
times more than any of the other 70 conversations). Truly!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9wtQCEF_eM



[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - August 22, 1981 *

The New York Times reports on a groundbreaking study by Dr. James Hansen 
on the risks of escalating carbon emissions.
*STUDY FINDS WARMING TREND THAT COULD RAISE SEA LEVELS*
A team of Federal scientists says it has detected an overall warming 
trend in the earth's atmosphere extending back to the year 1880. They 
regard this as evidence of the validity of the ''greenhouse'' effect, in 
which increasing amounts of carbon dioxide cause steady temperature 
increases.

The seven atmospheric scientists predict a global warming of ''almost 
unprecedented magnitude'' in the next century. It might even be 
sufficient to melt and dislodge the ice cover of West Antarctica, they 
say, eventually leading to a worldwide rise of 15 to 20 feet in the sea 
level. In that case, they say, it would ''flood 25 percent of Louisiana 
and Florida, 10 percent of New Jersey and many other lowlands throughout 
the world'' within a century or less.

Workings of Greenhouse

The forecast, which also envisions widespread disruption of agriculture, 
is the fruit of analyses and computer simulations conducted by the 
Institute for Space Studies of the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration. The institute, which is in New York City, is part of the 
space agency's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The forecast 
is in an article in the Aug. 28 issue of the journal Science.

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is primarily a result of 
mankind's burning of fuels, is thought to act like the glass of a 
greenhouse. It absorbs heat radiation from the earth and its atmosphere, 
heat that otherwise would dissipate into space. Other factors being 
equal, the more carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere, the warmer 
the earth should become, according to the theory.
A century ago the amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 280 to 300 
parts per million. It is now 335 to 340 parts per million and it is 
expected to be at least 600 parts per million in the next century.

The possibility that the greenhouse effect could alter the earth's 
temperature has long been debated. Scientists have agreed that carbon 
dioxide is increasing, but disagree on whether temperatures are also 
increasing.

The major difficulty in accepting the greenhouse theory ''has been the 
absence of observed warming coincident with the historic carbon dioxide 
increase,'' the scientists wrote.

Researchers were further confounded by an apparent cooling trend since 
1940. As a result, many atmospheric scientists concluded that the 
climatic effects of increased carbon dioxide might not become detectable 
for many decades. But the Government scientists say they see clear 
evidence that carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere since the 
Industrial Revolution has already warmed the climate.

If fuel burning increases at a slow rate with emphasis on other energy 
sources, the study predicts a global temperature rise in the next 
century of about 5 degrees Fahrenheit. If fuel use rises rapidly, which 
some believe may occur as the developing countries industrialize, the 
predicted rise is from 6 to 9 degrees.
Even the more moderate rise of 5 degrees, the authors say, would result 
in higher average temperatures than were reached in the period between 
the last two ice ages. At that time sea levels were 30 feet higher than 
they are today, probably because West Antarctica was ice free. The 
climate ''would approach the warmth of the Mesozoic, the age of 
dinosaurs,'' the report says.

The study's conclusions are likely to be challenged on two counts: their 
detection of a trend of temperature increase and linking it with a 
carbon dioxide increase, and their projections of the consequences of 
the increase.

A leading participant in past carbon dioxide studies has been Dr. 
Stephen H. Schneider of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in 
Boulder, Colo. Reached by telephone there, he said the conclusions about 
the extent of warming and how quickly it will occur would be reasonable 
if the assumptions on which they are based prove valid, but that many 
can be challenged.

One of these is the space agency group's contention that a cooling trend 
in recent decades was caused by dust from volcanic eruptions high in the 
atmosphere. If that was not the case, their model might be seriously flawed.

Other assumptions open to challenge include such uncertain factors as 
population growth rates, energy-consuming trends in the developing 
world, new developments in solar energy and other alternative energy 
sources, trends in energy conservation and lack of knowledge regarding 
the extent to which oceans might remove carbon dioxide from the air.

These uncertainties are, to a large extent, recognized in the new 
report, signed by Dr. James Hansen and six colleagues at the space 
studies institute.

In their analysis, the scientists seek to respond to an outspoken 
skeptic regarding the carbon dioxide threat, Dr. Sherwood B. Idso, a 
climate specialist with the Federal Department of Agriculture in 
Phoenix. Last March he circulated an analysis saying that a doubling or 
tripling of atmospheric carbon dioxide would have little effect except 
to increase global agricultural productivity by 20 to 50 percent.
Plants grow by converting carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates 
and other compounds, aided by solar energy. One proposed strategy to 
limit the growth of atmospheric carbon dioxide would be to plant 
extensive forests.

Dr. Hansen and his colleagues cite the observed surface temperatures of 
Mars and, particularly, Venus as support for their predicted greenhouse 
effect. The surface of Venus, with an atmosphere formed largely of 
carbon dioxide, is at about 900 degrees Fahrenheit.

Their conclusion that the climate has warmed by almost one degree in the 
last century is based on a re-analysis of global observations, paying 
special attention to the Southern Hemisphere. ''The common misconception 
that the world is cooling,'' they say, ''is based on Northern Hemisphere 
experience to 1970.''

As ''an appropriate strategy,'' the report proposes emphasis on energy 
conservation and development of alternative energy sources while using 
fossil fuels ''as necessary'' in the coming decades.
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/22/us/study-finds-warming-trend-that-could-raise-sea-levels.html
http://youtu.be/D6Un69RMNSw


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