[TheClimate.Vote] May 1, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Fri May 1 10:42:32 EDT 2020
/*May 1, 2020*/
[view from above]
*A Satellite Lets Scientists See Antarctica's Melting Like Never Before*
By Kendra Pierre-Louis, Henry Fountain and Denise Lu - April 30, 2020
New data from space is providing the most precise picture yet of
Antarctica's ice, where it is accumulating most quickly and disappearing
at the fastest rate, and how the changes could contribute to rising sea
levels.
The information, in a paper published on Thursday in the journal
Science, will help researchers better understand the largest driver of
ice loss in Antarctica, the thinning of floating ice shelves that allows
more ice to flow from the interior to the ocean, and how that will
contribute to rising sea levels. Researchers have known for a long time
that, while the continent is losing mass over all as the climate
changes, the change is uneven. It is gaining more ice in some areas,
like parts of East Antarctica, and losing it quickly in others, in West
Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula...
- - -
Floating ice shelves accounted for 30 percent of the ice loss in West
Antarctica, the researchers found.
Floating ice is lost in two ways: by calving of icebergs and through
melting from underneath by a deep current of warmer water that
circulates around the continent.
Floating ice is, by definition, already in the water, so when it calves
or melts it does not add to sea level rise. But ice shelves act as
buttresses against the grounded ice behind them; when they thin they
allow that ice to flow faster. And when the previously grounded ice
reaches the water, it adds to rising seas.
Scientists are increasingly concerned that the loss of floating ice in
West Antarctica is causing more rapid flow of grounded ice in the West
Antarctic ice sheet, and that a portion of the sheet could collapse over
centuries, greatly increasing sea levels.
The study looked at changes in the Greenland ice sheet as well. Unlike
Antarctica, where little ice is lost through surface melting and runoff,
as much as two-thirds of Greenland's ice is lost this way.
Using their elevation data, the researchers found that Greenland is
losing about 200 billion tons of mass each year on average. That's
enough to raise sea levels by about eight millimeters, or a third of an
inch, over the study period.
The mass loss figure is roughly similar to other recent estimates.
The study is the first to be published using data from ICESat-2, which
was designed to have an operating life of at least three years. Many
more studies are expected that should add to the understanding of
Earth's frozen expanses.
"Where we're at in ice sheet science is, there are still a lot of
unknowns," Dr. Gardner said. One advantage of ICESat-2, he said, is its
ability to measure changes in some of the smallest ice sheet features.
That will help scientists better understand how the changes are
occurring and improve forecasts of future impacts as the climate
continues to shift.
ICESat-2, he said, "reveals the process of change, and without
understanding those processes you have no ability to make predictions."
"It really just gives us this incredibly crisp, unified picture."
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/30/climate/antarctica-ice-climate-change.html
[the New Yorker]
*How to Combat Climate Depression*
By Bill McKibben
April 30, 2020
- - -
The only way to combat this kind of depression may also be the only way
to combat the Depression now threatening our economy: an
all-encompassing, society-wide effort to build out renewable energy,
retrofit houses and offices for energy efficiency, and safeguard and
nurture our remaining working ecosystems. If we don't do it fast, then
the gloom of young people will be justified—and it's hard to think of a
more powerful indictment of older generations than that. Their
childlessness must not be our legacy.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/how-to-combat-climate-depression
[information cartoon]
*Debunking Cranky Uncle on the CO2 lag*
Apr 30, 2020
John Cook
Debunking of the "global warming has stopped over the last few decades"
myth, using cartoons from the Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change book:
http://crankyuncle.com/book
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTJ3MRsULVc
[a few reactions from Yale Climate Connections]
*Michael Moore's 'Planet of the Humans' documentary peddles dangerous
climate denial*
The YouTube film offers outdated and wildly misleading information on
renewable energy, sacrificing progress in pursuit of unachievable
perfection.
By Dana Nuccitelli - Friday, May 1, 2020
Environmentalists and renewable energy advocates have long been allies
in the fight to keep unchecked industrial growth from irreversibly
ruining Earth's climate and threatening the future of human
civilization. In their new YouTube documentary "Planet of the Humans,"
director Jeff Gibbs and producer Michael Moore argue for splitting the
two sides. Their misleading, outdated, and scientifically sophomoric
dismissal of renewable energy is perhaps the most dangerous form of
climate denial, eroding support for renewable energy as a critical
climate solution.
"Planet of the Humans" by the end of April had more than 4.7 million
views and fairly high scores at the movie critic review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes. The documentary has received glowing reviews from
numerous climate "deniers" whose names are familiar to those in the
climate community, including Steve Milloy, Marc Morano, and James
Delingpole. Some environmentalists who have seen the movie are beginning
to oppose wind and solar projects that are absolutely necessary to slow
climate change.
The film by these two "progressive" filmmakers may succeed where Fox
News and right-wing talk radio have failed: to undermine humanity's last
best hope for positive change. As energy journalist Ketan Joshi wrote,
the film is "selling far-right, climate-denier myths from nearly a
decade ago to left-wing environmentalists in the 2020s."
The film follows Gibbs as he visits various green technology sites in
the United States and ostensibly learns that each one is just as bad as
the fossil fuel infrastructure that it would replace. Unfortunately, the
movie is littered with misleading, skewed, and outdated scenes.
"Planet of the Humans"' approach is fundamentally flawed - Gibbs focuses
almost exclusively on the imperfections of technologies like solar
panels, wind turbines, biomass, and electric cars without considering
their ability to reduce carbon and other pollutants. The film suggests
that because no source of energy is perfect, all are bad, thus implying
that the very existence of human civilization is the problem while
offering little in the way of alternative solutions.
- - -
In one scene, author and film co-producer Ozzie Zehner falsely asserts,
"You use more fossil fuels [manufacturing renewables infrastructure]
than you're getting benefit from. You would have been better off burning
the fossil fuels in the first place instead of playing pretend."
That's monumentally wrong. A 2017 study in Nature Energy found that when
accounting for manufacturing and construction, the lifetime carbon
footprints of solar, wind, and nuclear power are about 20 times smaller
than those of coal and natural gas, even when the latter include
expensive carbon capture and storage technology. The energy produced
during the operation of a solar panel and wind turbine is 26 and 44
times greater than the energy needed to build and install them,
respectively. There are many life-cycle assessment studies arriving at
similar conclusions.
The film's case is akin to arguing that because fruit contains sugar,
eating strawberries is no healthier than eating a cheesecake.
- -
It's true that natural gas is a fossil fuel. To reach zero emissions, it
must be replaced by renewables with storage and smart grids. But thus
far the path to grid decarbonization in the U.S. has been a success
story that the film somehow portrays as a failure. Moreover, that
decarbonization could be accelerated through policies like pricing
carbon pollution, but the film does not once put a single second of
thought into policy solutions.
In perhaps its most absurd scene, Gibbs and Zehner visit a former solar
facility in Daggett, California, built in the mid-1980s and replaced 30
years later. Gazing upon the sand-covered landscape of the former
facility, Gibbs declares in an ominous tone, "It suddenly dawned on me
what we were looking at: a solar dead zone."
Daggett is located in the Mojave Desert. Sand is the natural landscape.
Solar farms don't create dead zones; in fact, some plants thrive under
the shade provided by solar panels.
It suddenly dawned on me how hard the film was trying to portray clean
energy in a negative light.
- - -
*The bottom line*
Gibbs asks, "Is it possible for machines made by industrial civilization
to save us from industrial civilization?"
Why not? Industrial civilization has a non-zero climate and
environmental footprint, but the impact of green technologies like EVs,
wind turbines, and solar panels is much smaller than the alternatives.
They represent humanity's best chance to avoid a climate catastrophe.
The filmmakers call for an end to limitless economic growth and
consumption. It's difficult to envision that goal being achieved anytime
soon, but even if it is, human civilization will continue to exist and
require energy. To avert a climate crisis, that energy must be supplied
by the clean renewable technologies pilloried in the film. To expand on
the earlier analogy, the filmmakers seem to believe we should improve
nutrition not by eating healthier foods like strawberries, but rather by
eating a bit less cheesecake.
Like Fox News and other propaganda vehicles, the film presents one
biased perspective via carefully chosen voices, virtually all of whom
are comfortable white men. It applies an environmental purity test that
can seem convincing for viewers lacking expertise in the topic. Any
imperfect technology - which is every technology - is deemed bad. It's a
clear example of the perfect being the enemy of the good. In reality,
this movie is the enemy of humanity's last best chance to save itself
and countless other species from unchecked climate change through a
transition to cleaner technologies.
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/05/michael-moores-planet-of-the-humans-documentary-peddles-dangerous-climate-denial/
[More on Moore - a new turncoat in the propaganda wars]
The Nation has posted Josh Fox's impassioned critique of "Planet of the
Humans" under the headline, "Meet the New Flack for Oil and Gas:
Michael Moore":
*Meet the New Flack for Oil and Gas: Michael Moore*
Planet of the Humans is wildly unscientific, outdated, full of
falsehoods, and benefits fossil fuel industry promoters and climate deniers.
By Josh FoxTwitter
The Green New Deal lays out not only the route to a rapid transformation
away from fossil fuels but a host of important transformations. It
outlines the retraining of fossil fuel workers, the creation of 20
million new jobs, delivering environmental justice and healing to
frontline communities, and holding the fossil fuel industry accountable
for the damage it has caused. It is an intersectional call to justice.
Moore's film ignores all of this and backs itself into a nihilistic,
apocalyptic corner. Then comes its most immoral and damning gambit: the
claim that reducing the population is among the only effective remedies.
We see old white male after old white male declaring there is no
solution to climate change except reducing the population. (With this
many white guys, we can only guess which groups of people are supposed
to stop reproducing.) We are told to face up to our own apocalypse—that
humans should "know when it's their time to go."
The claim that it is all those overpopulated countries that are causing
the problem (especially coming from a boomer white guy in Michigan)
would be deeply problematic even in "normal" times. But in the middle of
a global pandemic that is killing a disproportionate number of black and
brown people, it is more than just racist. It can be seen as an
incitement to eco-fascist population controls.
We shouldn't be surprised to see the pushers of population control and
the oil industry on the same side. But even this hides a much darker
truth: The fossil fuel industry is already engaged in a form of
population control—the murderous kind. Air pollution from the fossil
fuel industry kills a staggering 5-7 million people a year. Every year.
Jacobson and a team at The Solutions Project have conducted a worldwide
study to measure the health effects of pollution. They concluded that if
the world moved to renewable energy the planet would collectively save
$30 trillion in health care costs—and more than 5 million lives.
The fossil fuel industry is a global pandemic. Pollution caused by the
fossil fuels are also an inherent part of that other pandemic, the
coronavirus. From cancer alley in Louisiana to Queens, New York—the most
polluted areas in the country have far higher death rates from Covid-19.
Lung disease and heart disease are at the top of the list of co-factors
in coronavirus deaths—and these conditions are often related to
pollution from fossil fuels.
Releasing this on the eve of Earth Day's 50th anniversary is like Bernie
Sanders endorsing Donald Trump while chugging hydroxychloroquine. Planet
of the Humans delivers all of the fossil fuel industry's misinformation
points tied up in a bow, sold to us by one of the progressive left's
loudest voices...
- -
Mike has had a lot of time to respond to these criticisms. Instead, he's
chosen to stick cotton in his ears and continue to promote his campaign
of falsehood and smears.
Advocating population control when poor people are dying in droves from
the fossil fuel industry and the coronavirus is so insensitive it's
almost impossible to fathom. It's actually worse than the snake oil
Donald Trump peddles about Covid-19. Because we actually have a cure for
the fossil fuel pandemic—the Green New Deal and renewable energy. But
instead of advocating this cure, Michael Moore wants you to join the
doomsday death cult and drink the fracked Kool-Aid of the fossil fuel
industry...
https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/planet-humans-film-moore/.
[United Nations News]
*FROM THE FIELD: Women act as 'agents of change' in climate emergency*
Although a changing climate affects everyone, it is the world's most
vulnerable people, and especially women and girls, who bear the brunt.
They are more likely than men to suffer from the social, environmental
and economic impacts of a warming planet and can face major barriers in
accessing shelter, healthcare, energy and education for their children.
But now UN Women is partnering with other United Nations agencies to
demonstrate how women can bring around change.
- -
[Interactive data display site - UN Women]
*Climate change is a women's issue*
http://interactive.unwomen.org/multimedia/photo/climatechange/en/index.html
[designed to entice]
Become an FT subscriber to read:
*FT Interview: Emmanuel Macron says it is time to think the unthinkable*
France's president believes the coronavirus pandemic will transform
capitalism — but leaders need to act with humility
https://www.ft.com/content/3ea8d790-7fd1-11ea-8fdb-7ec06edeef84?segmentId=62dcad5f-4bd9-3cc2-a1e0-b169738e74ee
[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - May 1, 1998 *
The AP reports on a bogus petition allegedly claiming that 15,000
scientists reject the evidence of human-caused climate
change.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?slug=2748308&date=19980501
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py2XVILHUjQ
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