[TheClimate.Vote] February 9, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*February 9, 2020*/

[looking back to Iowa]
*In Iowa, Sanders and Buttigieg Approached Climate from Different 
Angles--and Scored*
The progressive stalwart and the moderate newcomer spoke passionately 
about climate change in a state ravaged by flooding and riven by the 
Dakota Access pipeline.
The Devastating 2019 Floods Framed Climate Change for Iowans
Activists Demanded to Know Where the Candidates Stood on Dakota Access
"Our First Question Is Always, 'Are You Worried About Climate?'"
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03022020/iowa-caucus-climate-change-flooding-buttigieg-sanders-dakota-access-pipeline


[BBC radio - extinction rebellion as extremist]
*Extinction Rebellion 'faces a concerted effort to discredit it...' BBC 
Radio 4 | 6 February 2020*
Feb 8, 2020
Extinction Rebellion
Join the Rebellion: https://Rebellion.Earth/
International: https://Rebellion.Global/

    1. #TellTheTruth
    2. #ActNow
    3. #BeyondPolitics

World Map of Extinction Rebellion Groups: https://Rebellion.Global/branches/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExtinctionR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpPLPmPAsD4



[making change]
*Cutting Fossil Fuel Subsidies Could Be Even More Beneficial Than We 
Realized*
- - -
"It's no simple task quantifying the sociopolitical impacts -- the 
stigmatizing effects -- of something like ending fossil fuel subsidies, 
but we know the answer is substantially greater than zero, which is what 
most models assume right now," Geoffery Supran, a research associate at 
Harvard University and study coauthor, told Earther in an email.

A recent study supports that idea. It shows that at certain points, 
society can shift rapidly following relatively small changes such as 
removing fossil fuel subsidies and teaching people about the "moral 
implications of using fossil fuels. Crossing those societal tipping 
points can trigger "self-reinforcing positive-feedback mechanisms, that 
inevitably and often irreversibly lead to a qualitatively different 
state of the social system."

Removing subsidies, Supran said, could send a public message similar to 
the ones sent by the fossil fuel divestment movement and youth climate 
strikes, which have made meaningful impacts. Dozens of politicians have 
committed to stop taking contributions from polluting companies, for 
instance, and many companies are at least nominally taking climate action.

"We're already seeing these campaigns mobilize millions of people and 
billions of dollars of capital around the world," Supran said. "Chip 
away enough, and you may create a social tipping point where the pillars 
suddenly crumble like a house of cards."

Freeing up trillions of dollars worldwide could have other tangible 
effects, too. Imagine what all that money could fund. Countries could 
start subsidizing renewable energy and public transit and other social 
programs that would lower carbon emissions and improve life. Even if 
cutting subsidies doesn't solve the climate crisis alone, that doesn't 
mean it's not a good idea...
https://earther.gizmodo.com/cutting-fossil-fuel-subsidies-could-be-even-more-benefi-1841500311



[Dave Roberts reports]
*New conservative climate plans are neither conservative nor climate plans*
They are mainly designed to protect fossil fuels.

    As Amy Harder reports in Axios, the newly revealed Republican
    climate push will feature three big (?) things:

    -- capturing carbon dioxide emissions, with a focus on trees
    -- clean-energy innovation and funding
    -- conservation, with a focus on plastic
    This is all ... fine. It will be important to develop and scale up
    carbon capture technology. Trees are great; reforestation is a
    worthy climate strategy. (Republicans clearly think trees are a
    winner, as they featured prominently in Trump's State of the Union
    speech.)

    As for innovation, Oklahoma Rep. Frank Lucas, the top Republican on
    the House Science and Technology Committee, recently released a
    proposal that would double federal funding for basic science. Senate
    Republicans have backed a bill that would increase funding for
    research in energy storage. That's all good.

    Beyond that, though, when Republicans talk about "clean energy
    innovation," they generally mean funding efforts by fossil fuel
    companies to clean up after themselves (specifically carbon capture,
    use, and storage).

    Regarding No. 3, "conservation," well, it has nothing to do with
    climate change.

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/2/5/21121935/climate-change-republicans-conservatives



[Beckwith video lecture]
*New Paper: Banned Halocarbons Still Responsible for HALF of Arctic 
Warming and Sea-Ice Loss: 1 of 2*
Feb 8, 2020
Paul Beckwith
A new paper concludes that between 1955 and 2005 about half of the 
surface warming in the Arctic, and about half of the Arctic sea-ice 
extent loss was actually due to Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS's). ODS 
substances are trace gases, most notably CFC-11 and CFC-12 that were 
banned globally by the Montreal Protocol agreement in 1987. The ban was 
due to the destruction of the protective ozone layer, enacted shortly 
after the Antarctic ozone hole was first discovered. The paper also 
determined that the Arctic effects are due to the GHG properties of the 
ODS materials, and NOT the ozone destroying effects.
Please support my work and videos on climate disruption by donating at 
http://paulbeckwith.net
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnNX37AMAl4



[Such headline questions are usually answered with 'no']
*Could the Flight Shaming Movement Take Off in the U.S.? JetBlue Thinks So.*
The airline is the first American carrier planning to purchase "offsets" 
for carbon emissions from all domestic flights, a move some activists 
denounce as a stunt.
- - -
Commercial aviation is responsible for 2.4 percent of the world's 
greenhouse gas emissions and could account for up to a quarter of the 
world's carbon budget by 2050, according to a 2019 study by the 
International Council on Clean Transportation.

JetBlue's move follows those of a handful of European airlines--EasyJet, 
British Airways and Air France--that have made similar pledges to offset 
either domestic or regional flights through carbon offset schemes...
- - -
"Just five years ago, you weren't seeing the massive wildfires in 
California and Australia you're seeing now. Or the massive flooding in 
the Midwest," he said. "That's not going away--it's only going to get 
worse. So, this movement isn't going away either."...
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05022020/flight-shaming-JetBlue-carbon-offsets-climate-change


[Current science]
FEBRUARY 8, 2020
*Arctic ice melt is changing ocean currents*
- -
A major ocean current in the Arctic is faster and more turbulent as a 
result of rapid sea ice melt, a new study from NASA shows. The current 
is part of a delicate Arctic environment that is now flooded with fresh 
water, an effect of human-caused climate change.
Using 12 years of satellite data, scientists have measured how this 
circular current, called the Beaufort Gyre, has precariously balanced an 
influx of unprecedented amounts of cold, fresh water--a change that 
could alter the currents in the Atlantic Ocean and cool the climate of 
Western Europe.

The Beaufort Gyre keeps the polar environment in equilibrium by storing 
fresh water near the surface of the ocean. Wind blows the gyre in a 
clockwise direction around the western Arctic Ocean, north of Canada and 
Alaska, where it naturally collects fresh water from glacial melt, river 
runoff and precipitation. This fresh water is important in the Arctic in 
part because it floats above the warmer, salty water and helps to 
protect the sea ice from melting, which in turn helps regulate Earth's 
climate. The gyre then slowly releases this fresh water into the 
Atlantic Ocean over a period of decades, allowing the Atlantic Ocean 
currents to carry it away in small amounts.

But the since the 1990s, the gyre has accumulated a large amount of 
fresh water--1,920 cubic miles (8,000 cubic kilometers) - or almost 
twice the volume of Lake Michigan. The new study, published in Nature 
Communications, found that the cause of this gain in freshwater 
concentration is the loss of sea ice in summer and autumn. This 
decades-long decline of the Arctic's summertime sea ice coverhas left 
the Beaufort Gyre more exposed to the wind, which spins the gyre faster 
and traps the fresh water in its current...This important current is 
called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and helps 
regulate the planet's climate by carrying heat from the 
tropically-warmed water to northern latitudes like Europe and North 
America. If slowed enough, it could negatively impact marine life and 
the communities that depend it...
- - -
"We don't expect a shutting down of the Gulf Stream, but we do expect 
impacts. That's why we're monitoring the Beaufort Gyre so closely," said 
Alek Petty, a co-author on the paper and polar scientist at NASA's 
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The study also found that, although the Beaufort Gyre is out of balance 
because of the added energy from the wind, the current expels that 
excess energy by forming small, circular eddies of water. While the 
increased turbulence has helped keep the system balanced, it has the 
potential to lead to further ice melt because it mixes layers of cold, 
fresh water with relatively warm, salt water below. The melting ice 
could, in turn, lead to changes in how nutrients and organic material in 
the ocean are mixed, significantly affecting the food chain and wildlife 
in the Arctic. The results reveal a delicate balance between wind and 
ocean as the sea ice pack recedes under climate change.

"What this study is showing is that the loss of sea ice has really 
important impacts on our climate system that we're only just 
discovering," said Petty.
https://phys.org/news/2020-02-arctic-ice-ocean-currents.html



[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming  - February 9, 1989 *
In a joint address to Congress 25 years before another controversy 
involving highly questionable energy sources from our neighbor to the 
North, President George H. W. Bush declares:

    "We must make use of clean coal. My budget contains full funding, on
    schedule, for the clean coal technology agreement that we've made
    with Canada. We've made that agreement with Canada, and we intend to
    honor that agreement."

http://www.c-span.org/video/?6131-1/EconomicAdd
http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3420

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