[TheClimate.Vote] May 3, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Sun May 3 11:06:44 EDT 2020

/*May 3, 2020*/

[Iditarod Dog Sled Race]
*The Last Great Race*
Climate change has altered Alaska's landscape, and the experiences of 
Arctic mushers are the canary in the coal mine.
BY KELLY KIMBALL | APRIL 27, 2020
- -
"This all started with us having mushed through a biblical-level storm 
from Elim to White Mountain," Underwood said. "The typical temperature 
around there is zero degrees." But that morning, it reached 36 degrees 
Fahrenheit--well above freezing levels--which triggered the dangerous 
alchemy of conditions they experienced that day.

This year, 22 Iditarod mushers ended their races preemptively--the 
second-highest scratch rate in the competition's 47-year history. Nearly 
all of them quit due to tumultuous environmental conditions. In 2007, 
some 24 mushers ended the race prematurely for the same reasons. Scratch 
rates will likely climb in the coming years. Studies by the U.S. 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have shown 
cataclysmic decreases in sea ice and snow cover across the Arctic since 
the 1980s, which could lead to further climate anomalies and a 
suspension of the sensitive ecosystem's fine balance. But these changes 
happening in Alaska--and in the Arctic Circle overall--aren't only a 
musher's problem.
- -
Because of where and when they travel, mushers are among the first 
witnesses to climate transformations that eventually stretch across the 
globe. A recent Arctic Report Card from NOAA found that the region is 
warming at a rate twice as fast as the global average, with the race's 
starting line in Anchorage recording the second-highest winter 
temperatures in Alaska's history. In winter 2019 alone, monthly 
temperatures were about 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal, and 
the north Bering Sea where Underwood experienced his emergency was as 
much as 28.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Data sets that describe what are known 
as "climate normals" are taken from a three-decade average across the 
United States by NOAA every 10 years, the most recent of which was 
captured in 2010. The global temperature, meanwhile, also spiked last 
year, recording temperatures 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit above 
average--making it the third-warmest year on record.

"Alaska last year was at the epicenter of warmth for the entire globe," 
said Brian Brettschneider, a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher 
who works for the International Arctic Research Center...
more at - 
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/27/iditarod-climate-change-alaska-last-great-race/

[Risk]
*How climate change could make infectious diseases even more difficult 
to combat in the future*
Natalie Colarossi - May 2, 2020

- The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the deadliest virus outbreaks in 
modern history.
- But researchers fear this pandemic could only be the beginning of a 
new battle against infectious disease outbreaks -- the World Health
- Organization warns that climate change could make the spread of 
disease even worse in the coming decades.
- Researchers worry that rising temperatures could cause animals to 
spread disease in more widespread areas, make pathogens more savvy at 
surviving in hot climates, and possibly weaken the human body's immune 
response.
- Though today's novel coronavirus pandemic has not specifically been 
linked to climate change, here's what could be in store for the future...
- - -
But this might not be the only infectious disease we'll have to battle 
in our lifetimes.

According to research from the World Health Organization, and other 
institutions, the threat of climate change could make outbreaks even 
worse in the coming decades.

Researchers fear that as temperatures continue to rise, 
infectious-disease carrying animals could adapt to more widespread 
climates, pathogens could become stronger at surviving in hotter 
temperatures, and the human immune system could face greater difficulty 
in battling illness...
- -
For example, researchers have known that higher temperatures and wetter 
climates can can lead to an increase in mosquito-transmitted diseases 
such as malaria...
- -
Researchers fear that as the planet warms, mosquitoes will be able to 
breed more rapidly and spread disease in typically cooler areas of the 
world that have otherwise remained unaffected by the pests...
- -
Similarly, diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans, such as 
rats or ticks, have been known to shift depending on climate conditions. 
Certain rodent-borne diseases are linked to flooding, which is expected 
to become worse as global temperatures rise...
- -
Deforestation could also play a role in the spread of disease. According 
to the US Agency for International Development, 75% of new or 
re-emerging diseases at the start of the 21st Century have been 
transmitted from animals, often because deforestation has brought them 
closer to human environments.
Scientists have also noted that as temperatures continue to rise, 
animals have begun migrating to typically cooler environments. This 
could open up new pathways of disease transmission between animals, 
since more species will likely begin interacting with one another...
- -
But an increase in the spread of disease isn't the only way climate 
change could impact future epidemics. Warming temperatures might also 
make our natural immune systems less effective at fighting off pathogens...
But as temperatures warm around the globe, viruses are increasingly 
getting better at adapting and surviving in hotter environments -- 
including within our bodies...
Research about climate change and the spread of infectious disease is 
complex, multi-factorial, and unfolding in real-time. According to the 
WHO, "Changes in infectious disease transmission patterns are a likely 
major consequence of climate change," but there's still a lot that we 
don't know.
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-climate-change-could-impact-the-future-of-infectious-diseases-2020-5

[bookends from a philosopher's essay]
*Beginning with the End*
by Roy Scranton
In this essay, Roy Scranton asks what we mean when we say "the world is 
ending." Examining the nature of the narratives we tell ourselves about 
the future, he explores what revelation may be before us.
- -
We do not know the future. We do not know when the next storm will make 
landfall. We do not know when the next pandemic will erupt. We do not 
know when the next drought will strike. We do not know how much the 
planet will warm in our lifetimes. We do not know whether we can 
renovate global economic, political, and energy infrastructure swiftly 
enough to prevent catastrophe. We do not know whether our civilization 
will survive the next century. We do not know how many will die...
- -
Like everything else, this too shall pass. The truly revelatory content 
of our apocalyptic fictions is that the world is always ending, has 
always been ending, just as we are always dying--we spend our lives 
caught in the doorway between death and birth. There is no solution to 
the riddle of existence, nor to the inevitable fact of extinction: no 
amount of sophistication can ultimately justify the suffering that is 
being. All we have is compassion, patience, and the recognition that 
every possible human future begins with the end of what came before.
full essay at - https://emergencemagazine.org/story/beginning-with-the-end/

[Digging back into the internet news archive - hat tip to Michael E. Mann]
*On this day in the history of global warming - May 3, 1999 *

Bob Somerby of the Daily Howler debunks an April 15, 1999 column by 
right-wing Washington Times writer Ben Wattenberg falsely suggesting 
that NASA scientist James Hansen viewed Vice President Al Gore as an 
alarmist on climate change. In addition, Somerby notes:

"Of course, if spinners like Wattenberg get their way--and the larger 
press corps never speaks up--those common sense steps [to reduce carbon 
pollution] may never be taken. And reasoned debate, in the coming 
campaign, could give way to a lot of hot air. So that's why we offer a 
global *warning*, against believing facile spin from these types. 
There's a whole lot of hoo-hah floating around concerning Gore and [his 
views on] global warming. And we hope that the press corps will get off 
its duffs, and bring some clarity to the whole sorry mess."

http://www.dailyhowler.com/h050399_1.shtml

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