[TheClimate.Vote] June 2, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*June 2, 2020*/

[Top Story news from Climate Nexus]
*TV Coverage Ignored Impacts Of Extreme Weather On Marginalized 
Communities: *The big three broadcast channels failed to cover the 
disproportionate impacts of extreme weather on low-income communities or 
communities of color during their primetime coverage of seven hurricanes 
and one tropical storm over three years, a Media Matters for America 
analysis revealed. Evening news programs for ABC, CBS, and NBC from 2017 
through 2019 aired 669 segments on eight storms, but never once 
discussed the disproportionate harm inflicted upon marginalized 
communities, often compounded by discriminatory practices in the 
distribution of federal aid...[more]
more at - 
https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/june-2?ecid=ACsprvt2DZA0qYV-wE109Ssujfie9zv8cU_x-Y_u9Fm7rWbnVWMMYFRNIkoHBSGvcSL2DM1LB-D7
Their newsletter sign up at https://climatenexus.org/
--
[from Govt Archive - 2016]
*The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A 
Scientific Assessment
*Climate change is a significant threat to the health of the American 
people. This scientific assessment examines how climate change is 
already affecting human health and the changes that may occur in the future.
https://health2016.globalchange.gov/ and http://dx.doi.org/10.7930/J0R49NQX


[Wildfire Today]
*Wildfire potential expected to be above normal in many western 
locations this summer*
July could be a very busy month for wildland firefighters in the U.S.
map https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/month2_outlook.png
The National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook issued today by 
the Predictive Services section at the National Interagency Fire Center 
for June through September indicates that many areas in the western 
United States will have above normal potential for wildfires. In July 
the increased fire danger is expected to affect significant portions of 
California, Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, 
New Mexico, Hawaii, and Arizona...
- - -
"June through early July is the peak of the fire season across the 
Southwest. Expect for the normal fire activity across the region to 
increase through the period with some areas experiencing Above Normal 
significant large fire potential, especially across Arizona. As the 
monsoon begins in mid-July, activity across the Southwest will diminish. 
Activity across Alaska will also diminish as the rainy season begins. 
California, central and northern portions of the Great Basin, the 
Pacific Northwest, and the Northern Rockies will begin to enter their peaks.

"Above Normal significant large fire potential is expected in the areas 
shown on the maps due primarily to increasing drought conditions, early 
loss of mountain snowpack, anticipated lightning activity, and overall 
hot and dry conditions that should persist through August. As is 
typically the case, the peak season fire activity across the 
northwestern portion of the country should diminish by mid-September as 
the seasonal transition begins and allows for wet fronts to bring 
precipitation to impacted areas."
https://wildfiretoday.com/2020/06/01/wildfire-potential-expected-to-be-above-normal-in-many-western-locations-this-summer/


[The Bar opening up - legal opinion]
*May 2020: A Critical Period for Climate Change Litigation*
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/may-2020-a-critical-period-for-climate-65829/


[look out below]
*Rapid Antarctic Ice Melt in the Past Bodes Ill for the Future*
Geological evidence shows glaciers retreated by as much as 6 miles in a 
year at the end of the last ice age
By Chelsea Harvey, E&E News on May 29, 2020
Antarctic glaciers may be capable of shrinking at much faster rates than 
scientists previously imagined -- raising new concerns about the future 
of the ice sheet.

New evidence suggests that parts of the ice sheet retreated by as much 
as 6 miles a year at the end of the last ice age, around 11,000 years 
ago. That's about 10 times as fast as the fastest-melting glaciers are 
retreating today.

It's an ominous reminder that previous warm periods have driven 
monumental environmental changes -- and it's possible it could happen again.

"This is the first study that's showed definitively that rates [of 
retreat] can be this rapid," said lead author Julian Dowdeswell, 
director of the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of 
Cambridge.

The study, published yesterday in Science, used a robotic underwater 
vehicle to investigate the seabed around the eastern Antarctic 
Peninsula. The vehicle revealed a pattern of ridges on the ocean floor, 
perfectly preserved for thousands of years.

These kinds of ridges can form as a glacier loses ice and retreats 
backward into the ice sheet.

Researchers believe ocean tides are a key part of the process. When the 
tide comes in, it rocks the glacier and ever-so-slightly lifts the ice 
from the bottom of the ocean. When the tide goes back out, the ice 
settles back into place.

A stable glacier will lift up and set down again in the exact same spot. 
But a glacier that's steadily losing ice will retreat backward, just a 
bit, each time the tide comes in and out. The result is a pattern of 
lines in the seafloor, marking how the ice has moved backward over time.

This explanation -- relying on ocean tides as a pace-setter -- is 
commonly accepted in the research community, according to Martin 
Jakobsson of Stockholm University, who published a comment on the new 
research in Science this week.

Assuming this is what was happening, the pattern suggests the ice in 
this region was retreating by 40 to 50 meters each day. Over an entire 
year, that would come to more than 10 kilometers, or at least 6 miles.

The researchers believe the high rates of retreat probably would have 
lasted no more than a few years before restabilizing.

Still, compared with present-day estimates of glacier retreat, it's an 
eyebrow-raising figure.

By contrast, Pine Island Glacier -- one of the fastest-melting glaciers 
in Antarctica today -- has retreated at a rate of just over a kilometer 
per year for the past few decades.

The new study doesn't prove exactly what processes were physically 
driving the retreat 11,000 years ago. It demonstrates that extremely 
rapid retreat is possible but doesn't explain what conditions are 
necessary for this to happen.

Dowdeswell said he believes the circumstances today might be similar to 
what was going on at the end of the last ice age.

Today, scientists believe that currents of warm ocean water are helping 
to melt Antarctica's fastest-melting glaciers from the bottom up. The 
warm water seeps beneath the ice shelves at the edges of the glaciers, 
causing them to thin and destabilize.

"The circumstances of ice shelf systems thinning were likely to be 
similar 11,000 or 12,000 years ago," Dowdeswell said.

But without a proven explanation for what was happening, the new study 
"presents a challenge for the ice-modeling community," Jakobsson wrote.

Scientists rely on models to help them predict how glaciers may behave 
in the future, such as when and where ice melt may begin to speed up and 
how much sea levels will rise in response.

But ice models are notoriously difficult to build, in large part because 
scientists still are scratching the surface of how ice sheets physically 
respond to climate change.

In recent years, multiple studies have begun to suggest that previous 
projections about sea-level rise may have been too low -- that the 
world's ice sheets may melt at faster rates than previously predicted.

The new study would seem to add to these anxieties, Dowdeswell noted. It 
suggests that former estimates "don't encompass the full variability and 
full rapidity of the rates of retreat that can take place," he said.
www.eenews.net and 
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rapid-antarctic-ice-melt-in-the-past-bodes-ill-for-the-future/
A billion-dollar program to protect cities from climate change is at 
risk of failing because of the pandemic.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/climate/states-coronavirus-climate-projects.html



[brief video comment on hurricanes]
*Jennifer Francis PhD on Hurricanes that Stall*
Jun 1, 2020
greenmanbucket
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhwoGTTANSU



[argument]
*Florida judge rejects children's climate change lawsuit, citing 
'political' issue*
Eight children wanted to argue the governor and other top leaders have 
promoted pollution that imperils the future of the state.
By Zachary T. Sampson
A Tallahassee judge on Monday ordered the dismissal of a climate change 
lawsuit brought by eight children who wanted to argue the governor and 
other top state leaders have promoted pollution that imperils their 
chances of living in Florida in the future.

"I still believe in my heart of hearts that the people through their 
elected representatives will eventually get this climate thing right," 
said Leon County Circuit Judge Kevin Carroll. But he rejected the case 
before it could go to trial because he said it delved into matters 
better left for the Legislature. "We can't rely on judges to be 
dictators of public policy because, at the end of the day, a dictator in 
a black robe isn't any better than a dictator in a suit or in a military 
uniform."

The case, Reynolds v. State of Florida, was filed in 2018 when Sen. Rick 
Scott was governor. Lawyers more recently added the current 
administration, including Gov. Ron DeSantis and Agriculture Commissioner 
Nikki Fried, to their complaint. State agencies filed multiple motions 
to dismiss, which were heard Monday.

The eight children, now between the ages of 12 and 22, contend that 
officials are endangering their constitutional right to life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness by supporting industries built on fossil 
fuel emissions, which scientists say worsen global warming.

Mitchell Chester, one of their lawyers, listed the state cabinet's 
approval last year of a plan to convert part of the Big Bend Power 
Station on Tampa Bay from coal to natural gas as an example of how 
leaders continue to encourage pollution.

"It helps create another source of greenhouse gases," he said, 
describing how seas could rise and flood land, while spiking 
temperatures could make it harder for people to live and grow food.

He further argued that the state has a duty to protect the atmosphere 
under the public trust doctrine, citing an ancient Roman code that 
informed common law and declared the air is "common to all mankind."

"These children ... cannot protect themselves against the system," 
Chester said. "Where do they go, if not to you?"

Lawyer Mitchell Chester, representing eight children suing the State of 
Florida over climate change, speaks during a hearing conducted by Zoom 
video conference on Monday. [Screenshot from Zoom]
Lawyers for the state argued that the public trust doctrine in Florida 
only applies to certain waterways and parts of the shoreline, not the 
air, and that the assurances the children seek are issues for voters and 
lawmakers.

Karen Ann Brodeen, a lawyer in the Florida attorney general's office, 
said even if the case went to trial and the children's lawyers revealed 
the harm of man-made climate change through expert testimony, 
"legislation is the role of the legislative branch, not the judiciary."

The hearing was conducted in a Zoom video conference because of the 
coronavirus pandemic.

Carroll, the judge, appeared in front of a seal and two flags, clad in a 
robe, shirt and tie, stroking his chin as the debate stretched for 
nearly three hours.

His decision delivered a blow to one of several cases led by the group 
Our Children's Trust. A federal effort, Juliana v. United States, was 
rejected in an appeals court earlier this year.

Carroll acknowledged that the case is likely to go to an appeal. He told 
lawyers for the children they had made it "tempting" for him to allow 
the case to continue.

"I do wish you luck down the road," he said. "I hope you'll tell your 
clients that this is one step in our civic process here."
https://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/2020/06/01/florida-judge-rejects-childrens-climate-change-lawsuit-citing-political-issue/


[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - June 2, 2007 *
In the Democratic response to President George W. Bush's weekly radio 
address, Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) criticizes Bush's reckless approach 
to climate change.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?198459-1/DemocraticRadioAddress228

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