[TheClimate.Vote] February 24 , 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Mon Feb 24 09:01:01 EST 2020

/*February 24, 2020*/

[TIpping decline]
*The Fires Are Out, but Australia's Climate Disasters Aren't Over*
Devastating floods came soon after the bush fires. Scientists call it 
"compound extremes," as one catastrophe intensifies the next.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/23/world/australia/climate-change-extremes.html

[International]
*Finance Ministers Grapple Over Economic Threat of Climate Change*
The United States, under pressure from Europe, agreed to include a 
climate reference in an official G20 statement.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/23/us/politics/g20-climate-change.html

[it was inevitable - the Washington Post story]
*The anti-Greta: A conservative think tank takes on the global phenomenon*
The German teen is the newest face of the Heartland Institute's effort 
to promote what it calls 'global warming realism.'
Desmond Butler and Juliet Eilperin
Feb. 23, 2020
For climate skeptics, it's hard to compete with the youthful appeal of 
global phenomenon Greta Thunberg. But one U.S. think tank hopes it's 
found an answer: the anti-Greta.

Naomi Seibt is a 19-year-old German who, like Greta, is blond, eloquent 
and European. But Naomi denounces "climate alarmism," calls climate 
consciousness "a despicably anti-human ideology," and has even deployed 
Greta's now famous "How dare you?" line to take on the mainstream German 
media.

"She's a fantastic voice for free markets and for climate realism," said 
James Taylor, director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and 
Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute, an influential 
libertarian think tank in suburban Chicago that has the ear of the Trump 
administration.

In December, Heartland headlined Naomi at its forum at the UN climate 
conference in Madrid, where Taylor described her as "the star" of the 
show. Last month, Heartland hired Naomi as the young face of its 
campaign to question the scientific consensus that human activity is 
causing dangerous global warming.

"Naomi Seibt vs. Greta Thunberg: whom should we trust?" asked Heartland 
in a digital video. Later this week, Naomi is set to make her American 
debut at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, a 
high-profile annual gathering just outside Washington of right-leaning 
activists.
- - -
Why would an American think tank want to get involved in German 
politics? Because it worries that Berlin's strong stance on reducing 
greenhouse-gas emissions could be contagious, according to a recent 
investigation aired on German television.

For two decades, Germany has been a leader in pressing other nations to 
curb carbon output and shift to renewable energy. Though it is falling 
short of its ambitious goals, Germany has pledged to cut its greenhouse 
gas emissions this year by 40 percent compared to 1990 -- and by up to 
95 percent by mid-century.

In December, during the Madrid climate conference, two undercover 
staffers from the nonprofit investigative newsroom CORRECTIV approached 
Taylor and claimed to work for a wealthy donor from the auto industry 
who wanted to give Heartland a half-million euros. Taylor took the bait, 
and followed up with a three-page proposal outlining a campaign to push 
back against German efforts to regulate emissions.

"These restrictive environmental programs are largely unnecessary," says 
the document, a copy of which was obtained by The Post. "Worse, other 
nations -- including the United States and European Union nations -- are 
increasingly being influenced by unwise German policy."

The proposal described Naomi as "the star" of a "Climate Reality Forum" 
organized by Heartland during the Madrid talks. With "over 100,000 
people viewing her talk on climate realism," the proposal said, Naomi 
was well-positioned to fight German climate policies.

"Funding for our Germany Environmental Issues project will enable 
Heartland to provide Naomi with the equipment and the sources she needs 
to present a series of effective videos calling attention to the 
negative impacts of overreaching environmental regulations," the 
proposal says.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/02/23/meet-anti-greta-young-youtuber-campaigning-against-climate-alarmism/
- - -
[really - "12 years from now?"]
*YouTube Personality Naomi Seibt joins The Heartland Institute*
Feb 11, 2020
The Heartland Institute
Naomi Seibt, a 19-year-old German YouTube personality and influencer, 
has joined The Heartland Institute's Arthur B. Robinson Center on 
Climate and Environmental Policy. Naomi will be working on communicating 
the climate realism message to her generation - which has marinated in 
apocalyptic nonsense their whole lives - for audiences in both in Europe 
and the United States.
https://youtu.be/HxX-1cWSvVc
- - -
[See the video that is selling the cultural confrontation]
*Naomi Seibt vs. Greta Thunberg: Whom Should We Trust?*
Dec 20, 2019
The Heartland Institute
Greta Thunberg took the world by storm with her doomsday climate 
predictions. Naomi Seibt, a rising star, advocates for proper scientific 
discourse over climate change. Who seems like the more reasonable 
advocate to you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq4fJdjt_vM

[Heatwave on the Antarctic polar regions]
*"Antarctic temperature rises above 20 C for first time on record"*
It's correct, and though the record is yet to be confirmed, it's 
consistent with readings from Esperanza research base at the tip of the 
Antarctic peninsula of two days earlier.

Scientists describe 20.75C (69.4F) logged at Seymour Island as 
'incredible and abnormal'
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/146322/antarctica-melts-under-its-hottest-days-on-record
- - -
*Antarctica Breaks 69 F for the First Time on Record*
- - -
"We are seeing the warming trend in many of the sites we are monitoring, 
but we have never seen anything like this," he said.

The peninsula and its surrounding islands have been the areas of 
Antarctica most impacted by the climate crisis so far, which means they 
might indicate how the rest of the region will react.

"It is important to have sentinel areas like the South Shetlands and the 
Antarctic peninsula because they can anticipate the developments that 
will happen in the future, the near future," Schaefer told The Guardian.

If all of the ice in Antarctica were to melt, it would cause 50 to 60 
meters (approximately 164 to 197 feet) of sea level rise. This would 
take centuries, however. In the nearer term, scientists predict 30 to 
110 centimeters (approximately 12 to 43 inches) of sea level rise by 
2100, depending on how successfully greenhouse gas emissions are reduced 
and how the ice reacts.
https://www.ecowatch.com/antarctic-record-temp-2645149717.html
- - -
*NASA Reveals Shocking Ice Cap Melt in Antarctica After Record Heat*
New images from Antarctica's record heat wave show the rapid greening of 
an island's ice cap.Two weeks ago, the temperature in Antarctica topped 
18.3C (64.9F), making it the hottest weather on record for the icy 
southern continent. NASA has now released dramatic new images of the 
extensive ice melt caused by the recent heatwave, which ran from 
February 5 to 13.

Captured by NASA's Landsat 8 satellite, the before-and-after snapshots 
expose the rapid greening of Eagle Island, a landmass at the tip of the 
Antarctic Peninsula, over the course of nine days. The island is about 
40 kilometers (25 miles) from Esperanza Base, where the record-breaking 
temperature was recorded.

As the warm temperatures persisted, the island's ice cap swiftly 
retreated and meltwater collected in pools that covered roughly a square 
mile. The heatwave shaved off about four inches of snow, a quarter of 
which melted on February 6, the day that broke the temperature record. 
In total, NASA estimates that this one heatwave caused 20 percent of the 
region's entire seasonal snow accumulation to melt on Eagle Island.

"I haven't seen melt ponds develop this quickly in Antarctica," said 
Mauri Pelto, a glaciologist at Nichols College who has been studying the 
heatwave, in a NASA post. "You see these kinds of melt events in Alaska 
and Greenland, but not usually in Antarctica."

The heatwave was particularly intense this year because of atypical 
weather patterns off the coast of South America. At the peak 
temperature, Antarctica was hotter than Orlando, Florida. As anomalous 
as that might sound, scientists expect it to become a more frequent 
occurrence due to the impacts of human-driven climate change.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4agqw3/nasa-reveals-shocking-ice-cap-melt-in-antarctica-after-record-heat 

[great commentary needed more than ever]
*Greenwashing. Is it still a thing?*
Feb 23, 2020
Just Have a Think
GREENWASHING has become such a commonly used phrase that it's starting 
to lose its meaning in the increasingly noisy stream of information we 
all receive every second of every day via Social Media. Is it even still 
a thing or have big corporations finally started to tell us the truth?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSrU4ukcgTE

- - -

[automated propaganda]
*Study finds quarter of climate change tweets from bots*
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51595285

[Slower crafting an information scarf]
*Knitters Chronicle Climate Change One Stitch at a Time*
Volunteers use different colors of yarn to make "temperature scarves" 
that serve as fashionable records of a warming world.
https://twitter.com/philamuseum/status/1192577672863473664/photo/1
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/22/climate/knitting-climate-change.html?referringSource=articleShare
- - -
[finished work posted to web site]
National Parks Tempestry Project
*A CRAFTING COMMUNITY INITIATIVE*
https://spark.adobe.com/page/SynDUSs9izWdc/

[slight expanded topics in video]
*Paul Krugman with Samantha Bee: Arguing with Zombies*
Feb 21, 2020
92nd Street Y
Join Samantha Bee and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman for a 
conversation about Krugman's new book, Arguing with Zombies--along with 
a crash course in contemporary economics and public policy ahead of the 
2020 election. Recorded January 28, 2020, at 92nd Street Y.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLpwMAHX8Xw

[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming  - February 24, 2002 *
In the Denver Post, Bruce Smart of Republicans for Environmental 
Protection rips President George W. Bush's February 14, 2002 speech on 
climate change:

    "...President Bush reaffirmed the nation's commitment to the U.N.
    Framework Convention's 1992 goal 'to stabilize greenhouse gas
    concentrations at a level that will prevent dangerous human
    interference with the climate,' and he outlined an environmental
    path for the nation to follow. A number of the specifics he
    proposed, if forcefully pursued, can be helpful.

    "But the medicine prescribed for the world's greatest environmental
    threat--the malignant growth of atmospheric concentrations of
    greenhouse gases--is only a well-packaged placebo. It is no cure for
    global warming and the hazardous changes in climate that a great
    majority of scientists believe it is likely to cause."

http://web.archive.org/web/20030122161530/http://www.rep.org/opinions/op-eds/19.htm

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