[TheClimate.Vote] June 24, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Wed Jun 24 08:41:08 EDT 2020
/*June 24, 2020*/
[Direct from Africa]
*Saharan dust storm expected to cause dangerous air pollution in U.S.
this week*
But the plume reduces the short-term likelihood of hurricanes forming in
the Atlantic.By Jeff Masters, Ph.D. | Monday, June 22, 2020
A massive dust storm formed over the Sahara Desert last week and invaded
the Caribbean over the June 20-21 weekend, bringing dangerous levels of
air pollution and low visibility to the islands.
The dust is accompanied by a large amount of dry air from the Saharan
Air Layer, putting a damper on any hurricanes that attempt to form. None
of the reliable computer models are predicting Atlantic tropical cyclone
formation for the remainder of June, largely because of the dry air that
is accompanying the dust. The dust is also acting to decrease the amount
of sunlight hitting the surface, cooling the ocean and further
discouraging hurricane activity.
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/06/saharan-dust-storm-expected-to-cause-dangerous-air-pollution-in-u-s-this-week/
- - -
[African Hail]
*The destructive power of extreme hail*
In central Kenya, hail the size of boulders can devastate a farm in a
matter of minutes. How do you rebuild a life after such a destructive
hailstorm?...
- -
While extreme weather events are by their nature unpredictable, what
does look certain is that farmers like Nderu, Wangugu and Muniu are
likely to see more of them as the climate crisis progresses. That
certainty makes it look like an economic safety net is set to become an
ever more crucial part of life in rural Kenya.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200622-climate-change-overcoming-extreme-hail-in-kenya
[Opinion]
Your Climate Disaster Tax Bill Is Growing
*The federal government's spending on calamities related to global
warming is a rapidly rising fiscal threat.*
By Paul Bodnar and Tamara Grbusic
- -
Even before the coronavirus pandemic struck, the federal government's
spending on climate-related disaster recovery was a rapidly rising
fiscal threat. In response to climate-related disasters in 2017, for
example, Congress appropriated $136 billion in additional funding for
recovery -- amounting to about $1,000 for every American taxpayer.
The government faces wide exposure, including repairing damage to
federal property and lands, federal insurance for property and crops,
the cost of making public infrastructure resilient to climate impacts,
and disaster aid (including relocation of entire populations in harm's
way of persistent climate repercussions like sea level rise).
Fourteen billion-dollar weather and climate calamities struck last year,
the fifth year in a row with 10 or more. And projections don't look good...
- -
"The number and cost of disasters are increasing over time due to a
combination of increased exposure, vulnerability, and the fact that
climate change is increasing the frequency of some types of extremes
that lead to billion-dollar disasters."
Overall, according to the government's national climate assessment in
2018, continued warming "is expected to cause substantial net damage to
the U.S. economy throughout this century, especially in the absence of
increased adaptation efforts."
BlackRock, the global investment management firm, calculates a 275
percent increase in major hurricane risk by 2050 under a "no climate
action" scenario that assumes the continued use of fossil fuels. In
California, devastating wildfires forced the utility PG&E to declare
bankruptcy last year when its insurance policy of $1.4 billion paled in
comparison with damages of $30 billion...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/opinion/climate-change-financial-disaster.html
[Propaganda war on facebook battleground]
*How CO2 boosters' op-ed slipped by Facebook fact-checkers*
Scott Waldman, E&E News reporter
Published: Tuesday, June 23, 2020
A team of climate scientists working as approved fact checkers for
Facebook evaluated a post last year by a White House-connected group
that claims the world needs to burn more fossil fuels.
The researchers found that the post by the CO2 Coalition was based on
cherry-picked information to mislead readers into thinking climate
science models are wrong about global warming. The post, which was
published originally in the conservative Washington Examiner, was an
opinion piece that had been marked as false, in accordance with
Facebook's standards. The coalition, which is funded by groups that
oppose regulations on fossil fuels, was prevented from advertising on
the site.
It didn't last long.
A "conservative" Facebook employee quietly intervened, overturning the
fact check, and the misinformation was no longer labeled as false,
according to the CO2 Coalition. The post was free to be shared, and a
new loophole was created for the coalition and other groups that attack
mainstream climate science.
After the quiet decision by Facebook, the coalition says it and other
groups that attack consensus climate science can share content that
climate scientists have labeled as misleading because Facebook will
consider it "opinion" and therefore immune to fact-checking.
The CO2 Coalition is increasingly focused on using Facebook to reach
more people with its message that climate change fears are overblown and
that burning more fossil fuels would help humanity, Executive Director
Caleb Rossiter told E&E News this week. He sees the battle over its
climate-related posts as part of a larger proxy war over how to reach an
audience outside of conservative media.
"It's a huge reach. You can reach so many people both with your posts
and your advertisements," Rossiter said. "We're kind of like Donald
Trump. We're not happy with the treatment we're getting from the
mainstream media, we resort to social media. That's where our action is
in larger part."
Rossiter said the coalition was also temporarily blocked from running
ads after the fact-check. After the "false" label was removed from its
climate models piece, the coalition is now again allowed to buy ads. It
has run a number of ads with messages that distort climate change and
make inflammatory statements such as "we are saving the people of the
planet from the people who claim they are saving the planet." Those ads
have received more than 50,000 impressions, Facebook data shows.
The coalition wouldn't identify the Facebook staffer who removed the
false label from its op-ed.
Because media outlets rarely seek comment on climate science from groups
that reject consensus research, Rossiter said, Facebook is how the
coalition can get its message to a larger audience.
Last month, climate scientists again labeled a coalition video as false,
and anyone sharing it will receive a warning that it contains "false
information." In that video, Pat Michaels, a climate scientist who has
spent decades in Washington fighting against carbon regulations, says in
an appearance on Fox News that "climate models are making systematic
dramatic errors."
Michaels told E&E News that he wants to use Facebook as a platform to
reach beyond conservative audiences, to win over more people to his
message that climate change is not a significant problem.
"Facebook allows reach to a really broad and diverse audience," he said.
"I view it as a platform that just doesn't have me preaching to the
converted."
Washington clout
The CO2 Coalition already has significant reach in Washington and has
spent the last year conducting outreach to members of Congress,
providing them talking points to challenge climate science.
One of its founders, William Happer, served on the National Security
Council at the White House and unsuccessfully tried to conduct an
adversarial review of climate science. Another of its members, Mandy
Gunasekara, is chief of staff at EPA.
The group is largely funded by conservative foundations that oppose
regulations. It has also received funding from the Mercer family, who
were top Trump donors in 2016.
Scientists have long known that rising carbon dioxide levels are causing
the Earth's temperature to rise at an unprecedented rate, which has
already begun to alter life on the planet. Peer-reviewed research has
shown that climate models have largely been accurate. Groups that attack
climate science have long pushed the false notion that there is a debate
among climate scientists on the extent of humanity's contribution to
global warming.
Facebook didn't respond to a request for comment, but company officials
have told The Wall Street Journal that it would not fact-check opinion
or satire pieces. Facebook has come under significant scrutiny for its
refusal to check the accuracy of political ads.
Scientists affiliated with the Climate Feedback group, a nonpartisan
organization, evaluated Facebook posts by the CO2 Coalition and found
that they are misleading and that the group "cherry-picks evidence" to
create a false narrative that climate models are inaccurate. Climate
Feedback is one of Facebook's approved fact-checking partners.
The group rated the CO2 Coalition's piece attacking climate models,
which are the foundation used to craft many carbon regulations, and
found it was "highly misleading, including a number of false factual
assertions, cherry-picking datasets that support their point, failing to
account for uncertainties in those datasets, and failing to assess the
performance of climate models in an objective and rigorous manner."
Facebook has made it easier to mislead the public because it boosts
inaccurate climate claims to an audience only interested in partisan
narratives and unwilling to examine the actual science, said Andrew
Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University and a member of the
team that fact-checked the original CO2 Coalition post. He said
Facebook, as well as other social media companies, allows people to
"live in these bubbles where they only hear the info that they want to."
"It's a powerful way to misinform people, since these groups can't win
in the actual scientific arena, so they only can win in these media
environments where they can pay to promote stuff," Dessler said. "It
allows people to live in a bubble where you don't ever have to confront
ideas that you don't want to deal with."
Twitter: @scottpwaldmanEmail: swaldman at eenews.net
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063436369
[Cryosphere = land of ice - be sure to see the pictures.]
*Global Cryosphere Watch*
The World Meteorological Organization's Global Cryosphere Watch (GCW)1
is an international mechanism for supporting all key cryospheric in-situ
and remote sensing observations. To meet the needs of WMO Members and
partners in delivering services to users, the media, public, decision
and policy makers, GCW provides authoritative, clear, and useable data,
information, and analyses on the past, current and future state of the
cryosphere. GCW includes observation, monitoring, assessment, product
development, prediction, and research
http://globalcryospherewatch.org/
- - -
[Missing ice]
JUNE 22, 2020
*Research sheds new light on the role of sea ice in controlling
atmospheric carbon levels*
by University of Exeter
A new study has highlighted the crucial role that sea ice across the
Southern Ocean played in controlling atmospheric carbon dioxide levels
during times of past climate change, and could provide a critical
resource for developing future climate change models.
For the study an international team of researchers, led by Keele
University and including experts from the University of Exeter,
demonstrated that seasonal growth and destruction of sea ice in a
warming world enhances the amount of marine life present in the sea
around Antarctica, which draws down carbon from the atmosphere and
stores it in the deep ocean.
Having captured half of all human-related carbon that has entered the
ocean to date, the Southern Ocean around Antarctica is crucial for
regulating carbon dioxide levels resulting from human activity, so
understanding the processes that determine its effectiveness as a carbon
sink through time are crucial to reducing uncertainty in future climate
change models.
To understand this process further, the researchers studied data
relating to one period where atmospheric CO2 levels changed rapidly.
This occurred after the Last Ice Age, around 18,000 years ago, when the
world transitioned naturally into the warm interglacial world we live in
today.
During this period, CO2 rose rapidly from around 190 parts per million
(ppm) to 280 ppm over around 7,000 years, but one period in particular
stands out; a 1,900 year period where CO2 levels plateaued at a nearly
constant level of 240 ppm.
The cause of this plateau, which occurred around 14,600 years ago, is
unknown, but understanding what happened during this period could be
crucial for improving climate change projections.
Professor John Love, from Exeter's Biosciences department and co-author
of the study said: "My research group and I are very excited about being
part of this important investigation. We developed new techniques in
cell biology to find, collect and analyze the rare and very tiny
particles and cells that had been frozen in the ice for millennia.
"Like flies in amber, these minute fragments give us a unique window
into past events, enabling our colleagues in the Earth, Atmosphere and
Ocean sciences to develop a better understanding of climate change then,
and now."
Lead author Professor Chris Fogwill, Director of Keele University's
Institute for Sustainable Futures said: "The cause of this long plateau
in global atmospheric CO2 levels may be fundamental to understanding the
potential of the Southern Ocean to moderate atmospheric CO2."
To resolve this question, researchers traveled to the Patriot Hills Blue
Ice Area of Antarctica to develop new records of evidence of marine life
that are captured in ice cores, with support from Antarctic Logistics
and Expeditions (ALE).
Blue ice areas are the perfect laboratory for Antarctic scientists due
to their unique topography. Created by fierce, high-density katabatic
winds, the top layer of snow is effectively eroded, exposing the ice
below. As a result, ice flows up to the surface, providing access to
ancient ice below.
Professor Chris Turney, a visiting Fellow at Keele's Institute for
Liberal Arts and Sciences from UNSW Sydney said: "Instead of drilling
kilometers into the ice, we can simply walk across a blue ice area and
travel back through time.
"This provides the opportunity to sample large amounts of ice for
studying past environmental changes in detail. Organic biomarkers and
DNA from the Southern Ocean are blown onto Antarctica and preserved in
the ice, providing a unique record in a region where we have few
scientific observations."
Using this approach the team discovered that there was a marked increase
in the number and diversity of marine organisms present across the 1,900
year period when the CO2 plateaued, an observation which had never been
recorded before.
This provides the first recorded evidence of increased biological
productivity and suggests that processes in the high latitude Southern
Ocean may have caused the CO2 plateau. However, the driver of this
marked change remained unknown, and the researchers used climate
modeling to better understand the changes in the Southern Ocean to
understand the potential cause.
This modeling revealed that the plateau period coincided with the
greatest seasonal changes in sea ice during a pronounced cold phase
across the Southern Ocean known as the Antarctic Cold Reversal. During
this period, sea ice grew extensively across the Southern Ocean, but as
the world was warming rapidly, each year the sea ice would be rapidly
destroyed during the summer.
The researchers will now use these findings to underpin the development
of future climate change models. The inclusion of sea ice processes that
control climate-carbon feedbacks in a new generation of models will be
crucial for reducing uncertainties surrounding climate projections and
will help society adapt to future warming.
The study is published in Nature Geoscience.
https://phys.org/news/2020-06-role-sea-ice-atmospheric-carbon.html
[JAMA = Journal of the American Medical Association]
June 18, 2020
*Association of Air Pollution and Heat Exposure With Preterm Birth, Low
Birth Weight, and Stillbirth in the US*
A Systematic Review
*Key Points*
Question Are increases in air pollutant or heat exposure related to
climate change associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as
preterm birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth, in the US?
Findings In this systematic review of 57 of 68 studies including a
total of 32 798 152 births, there was a statistically significant
association between heat, ozone, or fine particulate matter and adverse
pregnancy outcomes. Heterogeneous studies from across the US revealed
positive findings in each analysis of exposure and outcome.
Meaning The findings suggest that exacerbation of air pollution and
heat exposure related to climate change may be significantly associated
with risk to pregnancy outcomes in the US.
*Abstract*
Importance Knowledge of whether serious adverse pregnancy outcomes are
associated with increasingly widespread effects of climate change in the
US would be crucial for the obstetrical medical community and for women
and families across the country.
Objective To investigate prenatal exposure to fine particulate matter
(PM2.5), ozone, and heat, and the association of these factors with
preterm birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth.
Evidence Review This systematic review involved a comprehensive search
for primary literature in Cochrane Library, Cochrane Collaboration
Registry of Controlled Trials, PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov website, and
MEDLINE. Qualifying primary research studies included human participants
in US populations that were published in English between January 1,
2007, and April 30, 2019. Included articles analyzed the associations
between air pollutants or heat and obstetrical outcomes. Comparative
observational cohort studies and cross-sectional studies with
comparators were included, without minimum sample size. Additional
articles found through reference review were also considered. Articles
analyzing other obstetrical outcomes, non-US populations, and reviews
were excluded. Two reviewers independently determined study eligibility.
The Arskey and O'Malley scoping review framework was used. Data
extraction was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for
Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) reporting guideline.
Findings Of the 1851 articles identified, 68 met the inclusion
criteria. Overall, 32 798 152 births were analyzed, with a mean (SD) of
565 485 (783 278) births per study. A total of 57 studies (48 of 58
[84%] on air pollutants; 9 of 10 [90%] on heat) showed a significant
association of air pollutant and heat exposure with birth outcomes.
Positive associations were found across all US geographic regions.
Exposure to PM2.5 or ozone was associated with increased risk of preterm
birth in 19 of 24 studies (79%) and low birth weight in 25 of 29 studies
(86%). The subpopulations at highest risk were persons with asthma and
minority groups, especially black mothers. Accurate comparisons of risk
were limited by differences in study design, exposure measurement,
population demographics, and seasonality.
Conclusions and Relevance This review suggests that increasingly common
environmental exposures exacerbated by climate change are significantly
associated with serious adverse pregnancy outcomes across the US...
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2767260
[Fundraiser Clean Energy for Biden]
*Washington State Clean Energy for Biden Fundraiser*
You are invited to join us in helping elect Joe Biden for President
Featuring a "fireside chat" with Maggie Thomas, a former climate advisor
to the
presidential campaigns of Governor Jay Inslee and Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Gregg Small, Executive Director of Climate Solutions is the moderator.
Thursday, June 25th 5:00-6:00 PM PST
Virtual platform with opportunity for participant questions
To register for the event, go to https://www.givegreen.com/BBIDENEVT2006V
[UK initiative Net Zero]
*Net Zero Home School Day 1: Understanding Net Zero*
Streamed live on Jun 22, 2020
Oxford Climate Society
This is the first event of the University of Oxford's Net-Zero Home
School in partnership with The Guardian, Oxford Climate Society, the
Oxford Climate Research Network, Net Zero.org and Climateworks Foundation.
This series consists of five webinars on climate science and policy for
Generation Net Zero, to mark the first anniversary of the passage of the
UK’s Net Zero Emissions law. All events are hosted by Fiona Harvey,
Environment correspondent, The Guardian. Running Monday 22nd to Friday
26th June daily from 5:00 - 6:30pm.
On June 27th, 2019, the UK became the first major economy to pass laws
to end its contribution to global warming by 2050. Achieving Net Zero
will be one of the defining challenges of our time. This webinar series,
delivered by world leading climate experts, aims to empower Generation
Net Zero with a deeper understanding of what Net Zero means, and what it
will take to achieve it, both for the UK and the world.
Day 1: Understanding Net Zero features two climate experts Farhana
Yamin and David Frame.
David Frame, Victoria University Wellington & Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change: "The Science of Net Zero: what it will take to end our
contributions to global warming?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m26Lrw88Atc
[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - June 24, *
June 24, 2004: NYTimes.com reports:
"The Supreme Court handed a major political victory to the Bush
administration today, ruling 7 to 2 that Vice President Dick Cheney
is not obligated, at least for now, to release secret details of his
energy task force.
"The majority of the justices agreed with the administration's
arguments that private deliberations among a president, vice
president and their close advisers are indeed entitled to special
treatment -- arising from the constitutional principle known as
executive privilege -- although they said the administration must
still prove the specifics of its case in the lower courts.
"'A president's communications and activities encompass a vastly
wider range of sensitive material than would be true of any ordinary
individual,' the court said in a summary of the majority opinion
written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.
"By sending the case back to the lower federal courts, the majority
removed a significant political headache for President Bush and Vice
President Cheney. As a practical matter, the outcome today means
that the final resolution will not come until well after the
November elections."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/politics/24CND-CHEN.html
https://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/cheney062404.pdf
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