[TheClimate.Vote] June 30, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Tue Jun 30 09:21:29 EDT 2020
/*June 30, 2020*/
[The crowd speaks loud]
*Press Release - Yale Program on Climate Change Communication*
Today, we are pleased to release the results of a new national survey.
We find that, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis,
voters want climate action as part of the economic recovery plan and are
more likely to vote for candidates that support renewable energy. The
survey was conducted with Climate Nexus and the George Mason University
Center for Climate Change Communication.
Seven in 10 (70%) voters say federal stimulus funding should prioritize
the clean energy industry over the fossil fuel industry. Further, about
six in 10 (62%) voters say they would be more likely to vote for a
candidate who supports federal stimulus funding for the renewable energy
industry, twice the number of voters who say they would be more likely
to vote for a candidate who supports bailing out the fossil fuel
industry (31%).
Roughly two-thirds of voters also say they would be more likely to vote
for candidates who support the following policies: assistance to
communities losing jobs in the fossil fuel industry (69%), ensuring
protection of low-income communities and communities of color that are
most vulnerable to climate impacts (67%), a carbon tax (65%), and
requiring electric utility companies to generate 100% of their
electricity from clean sources by 2040 (65%).
Additionally, voters want to see conditions placed on companies that
receive stimulus funding. Eighty-six percent of voters say companies
that receive funding must use the money to keep workers on payroll.
About eight in 10 say companies that receive federal stimulus funding
must comply with environmental and labor regulations (80%), and that
these companies should not be run by members of Congress, the executive
branch, or their family members (78%). And seven in 10 (70%) say airline
companies that receive stimulus funding must create and implement a
greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan.
About seven in 10 (71%) voters support legislation to achieve a 100%
clean economy by eliminating fossil fuel emissions from the
transportation, electricity, buildings, industry, and agricultural
sectors in the United States by 2050. By more than a two-to-one margin,
voters believe this transition will have a positive (58%) rather than a
negative (26%) impact on jobs and economic growth...
more at -
https://climatenexus.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Climate-Nexus-National-Poll-Toplines-Climate-Change-Voter-Opinions-in-2020.pdf
Anthony Leiserowitz, Ph.D.
Director, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
Yale University
(203) 432-4865
Twitter: @ecotone2
[Um, sooner would be better]
*Democrats to unveil bold new climate plan to phase out emissions by 2050*
Report to outline aim to reduce emissions to 88% of 2010 levels
Huge sums for public transport and proposals for green vehicles
House Democrats will unveil an aggressive climate crisis "action plan"
on Tuesday to nearly eliminate US emissions by 2050, according to
summary documents reviewed by the Guardian.
The net-zero emissions goal is what United Nations leaders and the
scientific community say the world must achieve to avoid the worst of
rising temperatures, and it's what the Democratic presidential nominee,
Joe Biden, says he would pursue if he were to win the White House in
November.
The Democrats' proposal, referred to in a two-page summary as a
"congressional action plan" and a "roadmap", calls for interim targets
to assess progress and make sure fossil fuel pollution is declining,
particularly in communities of color that have suffered environmental
injustices.
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, will announce the plan, compiled by the
House select committee on the climate crisis that is chaired by the
Florida congresswoman Kathy Castor, at an event in front of the US
Capitol on Tuesday morning.
The more than 538-page report will include hundreds of policy
recommendations focused on 12 key pillars, according to a separate
outline...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/29/democrats-climate-crisis-carbon-emissions
[increasing rate of change]
*Even the South Pole Is Warming, and Quickly, Scientists Say*
Surface air temperatures at the bottom of the world have risen three
times faster than the global average since the 1990s...
- -
The pole, home to a United States research base in the high, icy
emptiness of the Antarctic interior, warmed by about 0.6 degrees
Celsius, or 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit, per decade over the past 30 years,
the researchers reported in a paper published in Nature Climate Change.
The global average over that time was about 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade.
Although parts of coastal Antarctica are losing ice, which contributes
to sea level rise, the pole is in no danger of melting, as the
year-round average temperature is still about minus-50 degrees Celsius.
But the finding shows that no place is unaffected by change on a warming
planet...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/climate/south-pole-warming-climate-change.html
[NPR reports]
*Minnesota Attorney General Sues Exxon Over Climate Change*
June 29, 20204:00 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is suing Exxon Mobil, Koch
Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute over what he calls "a
campaign of deception" about climate change that the companies
"orchestrated and executed with disturbing success."
Ellison and his office say internal documents show the oil and gas
companies knew the damage that fossil fuels would cause as far back as
the 1970s and '80s, yet hid that science and instead launched public
relations campaigns denying climate change...
- - -
Ellison talked with NPR's All Things Considered about the case.
*Interview Highlights*
On his supporting evidence
We have documents, such as one stamped "proprietary information" from
Exxon Engineering, which says, "the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere
has increased" and "the rate of CO2 release from anthropogenic sources
appears to be doubling every 15 years. The most widely held theory is
that the increase is due to fossil fuel combustion."
That document was from Oct. 16, 1979. So they knew in '79 and then they
lied about it. They actually, they produced propaganda, which
essentially said things like: "Who told you the Earth was warming?
Chicken Little?" And then other ones: "The most serious problem with
catastrophic global warming is that it may not be true." They directly
contradicted what their research found. We can prove that and we will.
On why the lawsuit begins by saying global warming will
"disproportionately impact people living in poverty and people of color"
Well, because it's true, which is always important, to make sure that we
tell the story about what's really going on here. So many civil rights
groups that work on issues of racial and economic justice don't always
factor in the environmental realities that people of color and
low-income people face. I mean, the fact is, is that environmental
justice and environmental harms that disproportionately affect
communities of color and low-income people is a civil rights issue and
it should be treated as that. We've got to make sure that as people are
working on criminal justice and things like that, that they factor in
environmental justice, as urgent as it is.
On examples of how climate change is already impacting Minnesotans
If you're a farmer, you probably have seen much wetter fields than
you've ever seen. Those wetter fields delay your growing season. You've
seen infestation and pests that are impacting. There are a range of
things that Minnesotans are seeing every day. We saw many of them join
with us just last week.
One person who was with us was an environmentalist who is from the White
Earth Nation of Ojibwe. And she was talking about how wild rice
production has been dramatically impacted, which is a, she called it a
sacred food of the Ojibwe people, and how that just climate change has
so dramatically affected how they can harvest their crop.
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/29/884958624/minnesota-attorney-general-comments-on-the-states-climate-change-lawsuit
[Paul Beckwith in dramatic form - a stormy video lecture on climate
calamity]
*Teaser: Global Food Supply at RISK from Simultaneous Crop Losses Due to
Specific Jet Stream Patterns*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIxlWxI3Vkc
[Methane concerns]
*Global warming will cause ecosystems to produce more methane than first
predicted*
Date: June 29, 2020
Source: Queen Mary University of London
Summary: New research suggests that as the Earth warms natural
ecosystems such as freshwaters will release more methane than expected
from predictions based on temperature increases alone.
New research suggests that as the Earth warms natural ecosystems such as
freshwaters will release more methane than expected from predictions
based on temperature increases alone.
The study, published today in Nature Climate Change, attributes this
difference to changes in the balance of microbial communities within
ecosystems that regulate methane emissions.
The production and removal of methane from ecosystems is regulated by
two types of microorganisms, methanogens -- which naturally produce
methane -- and methanotrophs that remove methane by converting it into
carbon dioxide. Previous research has suggested that these two natural
processes show different sensitivities to temperature and could
therefore be affected differently by global warming...
- -
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with some 28 times the global
warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 100 year period. Over 40 per
cent of methane is released from freshwaters such as wetlands, lakes and
rivers making them a major contributor to global methane emissions.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200629120210.htm
- - -
[Source material]
*Disproportionate increase in freshwater methane emissions induced by
experimental warming*
Abstract
Net emissions of the potent GHG methane from ecosystems represent
the balance between microbial methane production (methanogenesis)
and oxidation (methanotrophy), each with different sensitivities to
temperature. How this balance will be altered by long-term global
warming, especially in freshwaters that are major methane sources,
remains unknown. Here we show that the experimental warming of
artificial ponds over 11 years drives a disproportionate increase in
methanogenesis over methanotrophy that increases the warming
potential of the gases they emit. The increased methane emissions
far exceed temperature-based predictions, driven by shifts in the
methanogen community under warming, while the methanotroph community
was conserved. Our experimentally induced increase in methane
emissions from artificial ponds is, in part, reflected globally as a
disproportionate increase in the capacity of naturally warmer
ecosystems to emit more methane. *Our findings indicate that as
Earth warms, natural ecosystems will emit disproportionately more
methane in a positive feedback warming loop.*
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0824-y
[ask scientists video]*
**Ask A Scientist Live Ep4 | Tipping Points: What should we be afraid of?*
Extinction Rebellion
Ask A Scientist is your chance to get your questions on the climate
crisis answered by experts in the scientific community.
This episode, we're talking about Tipping Points.
10 years ago, scientists identified 16 potential tipping points in the
earth system that could spell disaster. Today, there is evidence that 9
of these are already active.
Join us to learn all about tipping points: What should we (and should
not) worry about? Hoes does their existence affect the environmental
movement? And do they really mean it's too late to act?
Shifts in ideas and values can, under the right conditions, suddenly
bring about massive changes in human behaviour. This has happened in the
past; can it happen again and bring us back from the brink?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i_KkQX2bQ0
[Potholer delivers video lesson in science journalism news]
*The cause of Australia's bushfires – what the SCIENCE says*
Jan 18, 2020
potholer54
Arson? Lack of hazard reduction? Nothing new? This video looks at what
fire chiefs and scientists say is the REAL cause of the 2019-2020 fires
in Australia, in response to amateur theories proposed by media
commentators and bloggers. -- Potholer54
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0x46-enxsA
- - - *
*
[A serious profession]
*How climate change misinformation spreads online*
https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-climate-change-misinformation-spreads-online
[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - June 30, 2002 *
Republican-turned-Independent Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont calls out
President George W. Bush in a New York Times piece for his
administration's reckless disregard of climate science:
*Unhealthy Air*
By Jim Jeffords - June 30, 2002
It is already too late for the United States to lead the world in
the fight against global warming. President Bush saw to that last
year, when he abandoned his promise to make power plants reduce the
amount of carbon dioxide they send into the air.
But if the president won't lead the world, then the business
community, the American people and their elected representatives in
Congress must lead the president.
This month President Bush gave up all pretense of moving forward in
the effort to clean up the oldest and dirtiest power plants. First
he denigrated the climate action report released by his own
administration. That report follows the National Academy of Sciences
and the vast majority of scientists by stating that global warming
is real and poses a significant threat. Then his administration
announced possibly the biggest rollback of the Clean Air Act in
history, proposing wholesale weakening of the ''new source review''
provision that requires old power plants to install modern pollution
controls when they are renovated.
Pollution from power plants causes a variety of problems. Three in
particular are health-threatening: mercury contamination linked to
birth defects, ozone smog that triggers asthma attacks and fine
particulate soot that can actually lead to death. In addition, these
plants emit the chemicals that cause acid rain and haze in our
parks, as well as large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
On Thursday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, of
which I am chairman, voted to set strong limits on the three major
health-threatening types of power-plant pollution and to put a cap,
for the first time in American history, on the release of carbon
dioxide from power plants.
The administration's climate action report projects that American
emissions of carbon dioxide will rise by 43 percent by 2020. Yet its
climate policy does little or nothing to control or reduce this
increase.
This is a problem with a solution. The technology to clean up these
plants already exists; some of it has been around for decades. What
has been missing is the political will either to tell the owners to
install this technology or to create a market to encourage that
investment.
America is on the verge of a boom in power-plant construction, and
that gives us a rare opportunity. Including carbon dioxide
reductions in a comprehensive cleanup plan now is the most efficient
and least costly way to address the threat of global warming. The
power industry realizes that the question on carbon dioxide is not
whether it will be regulated, but when.
Dealing with global warming is too important to leave solely to
Washington. Several states, including New York, New Hampshire and
Massachusetts, are acting on their own to limit power-plant
emissions. But Washington has a crucial role. The scientific
consensus has never been stronger. A broad and growing coalition of
public health and environmental organizations and several utility
companies agree that we must act now. I hope that at some point
President Bush will follow this lead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/30/opinion/unhealthy-air.html
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