[TheClimate.Vote] November 17, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest.

Tue Nov 17 08:26:15 EST 2020

/*November 17, 2020*/

[stronger and a near duplicate of Eta]
*Category 5 Hurricane Iota on track to bring catastrophic winds, rain, 
storm surge to Central America*
The storm is expected to intensify until landfall, peaking with winds of 
165 mph.
Hurricane Iota explosively intensified into a category 5 hurricane 
overnight, becoming the latest category 5 storm ever observed in the 
Atlantic. Iota is predicted to make landfall in northern Nicaragua on 
Monday night at or just below category 5 strength, bringing catastrophic 
winds and a storm surge of 15-20 feet to northern Nicaragua.

Catastrophic rains of 10-20 inches, with isolated amounts of up to 30 
inches, will affect a large region of Central America, with northern 
portions of Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala at highest risk of 
devastating flooding. These are the same regions still recovering from 
catastrophic Hurricane Eta, which hit northern Nicaragua as a category 4 
storm with 140 mph winds on November 3....
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/11/category-5-hurricane-iota-on-track-to-bring-catastrophic-winds-rain-storm-surge-to-central-america/

[considering the cabinet]
*A youth group helped Biden win. Now they want him to fix climate crisis*
The Sunrise Movement helped reach 3.5m voters in swing states and are 
determined to hold the president-elect to his promises
Joe Biden will have to navigate a path for the most ambitious climate 
agenda ever adopted by a US president through not only stubborn 
Republican obstruction but also an emergent youth climate movement that 
is already formulating plans to hold him to account.
- -
An animating fear for climate activists is a repeat of Barack Obama's 
failure to enact climate legislation, after the collapse of a grand 
bipartisan attempt to institute a price on carbon emissions. Biden will 
be pressured to push ahead without Republicans, with activists holding 
talks with the incoming administration to create an office of climate 
mobilization, in the vein of the war mobilization office set up by 
Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1943, to coordinate efforts...
- -
"I expect him to be very aggressive," Bledsoe added. "If he had Congress 
it would be easier, Sunrise understands that. But I don't think he 
intends to disappoint this new generation of climate activists."

Public opinion will, at least, be broadly in Biden's favor. Polling 
shows there is a record level of concern among Americans over the 
climate crisis, with a clear majority demanding a response from government.

"The electorate has clearly said it wants action on climate change," 
said Heather McTeer Toney, a former regional administrator at the 
Environmental Protection Agency and now senior director of the Moms 
Clean Air Force. "It's exciting that climate is a top line priority. I 
know it's not going to be easy but it now feels possible. We should be 
energized."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/16/joe-biden-climate-crisis-ennvironment-energy

[innovation]
*New Technology Claims to Pinpoint Even Small Methane Leaks From Space*
Amid growing alarm about methane's role in driving global warming, a 
Canadian firm has begun selling a service to detect even relatively 
small leaks. At least two rivals are on the way.
By Paul Tullis
Nov. 11, 2020

Methane, the powerful, invisible greenhouse gas, has been leaking from 
oil facilities since the first wells were drilled more than 150 years 
ago. Most of that time, it was very difficult for operators to measure 
any emissions accurately -- and they had little motivation to, since 
regulations are typically weak.

Now, technology is catching up just as there is growing alarm about 
methane's role driving global warming. A Canadian company, GHGSat, last 
month used satellites to detect what it has called the smallest methane 
leak seen from space and has begun selling data to emitters interested 
in pinpointing leaks that previously were harder to spot.

"The discovery and quantification of gas leaks from space is a 
game-changer in the interaction of atmospheric sciences and climate 
change mitigation," said Thomas Roeckmann, professor of atmospheric 
physics and chemistry at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and 
coordinator of a project, called MEMO2, to measure methane leaks at 
ground level. "We will likely be able to detect smaller and thus 
potentially many more leaks from space in the near future."

Soon the company may have competition. Bluefield Technologies, based in 
New York City, plans a group of satellites for launch in 2023 that 
promises an even finer resolution. And the Environmental Defense Fund 
hopes to launch MethaneSAT in the next couple of years, which is 
designed to pick up small perturbations in methane across large areas.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/climate/methane-leaks-satellite-space.html 

[from VOA]
*World Food Production Also Having Big Effect on Climate Change*
November 15, 2020
audio 
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/world-food-production-also-having-big-effect-on-climate-change/5658727.html
Most of the efforts aimed at reducing climate change center on reducing 
the use of fossil fuels. But a new study warns that pollution caused by 
the world's food production system is also a major driver of rising 
temperatures on the planet.

The study found that if the world food system stays on its current 
growth path, it will produce nearly 1.4 trillion metric tons of 
greenhouse gases over the next 80 years.

That pollution is expected to come from fertilizers used in agriculture, 
mismanaged soil, food waste and methane gas released from cows and other 
animals. Other causes include land-clearing operations and deforestation.
Researchers from the University of Minnesota and the University of 
Oxford in Britain led the study, which recently appeared in the 
publication Science.

The researchers predict that even if fossil fuel emissions were halted 
now, emissions from the world food system would make it impossible to 
reach current international climate change targets. They say that 
emissions from food production alone could push world temperatures past 
1.5 degrees Celsius by the middle of this century and above 2 degrees 
Celsius by the end of the century...
- -
If farming could reduce carbon levels - by using less fertilizer, 
managing soil better and doing better crop rotation - it would cut 
greenhouse gases by nearly 540 billion metric tons.

And if people wasted less food - at home, in restaurants or by getting 
it to people in poorer countries - emissions could be cut by about 360 
billion metric tons...

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports 
from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, the University of 
Minnesota and the United Nations. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/world-food-production-also-having-big-effect-on-climate-change/5658495.html

- -

[AAAS Science magazine]
*Global food system emissions could preclude achieving the 1.5 and 2C 
climate change targets*

    *Abstract*
    The Paris Agreement's goal of limiting the increase in global
    temperature to 1.5 or 2C above preindustrial levels requires rapid
    reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Although reducing emissions
    from fossil fuels is essential for meeting this goal, other sources
    of emissions may also preclude its attainment. We show that even if
    fossil fuel emissions were immediately halted, current trends in
    global food systems would prevent the achievement of the 1.5C target
    and, by the end of the century, threaten the achievement of the 2C
    target. Meeting the 1.5C target requires rapid and ambitious changes
    to food systems as well as to all nonfood sectors. The 2C target
    could be achieved with less-ambitious changes to food systems, but
    only if fossil fuel and other nonfood emissions are eliminated soon.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6517/705

[Spending big money]
*Bezos makes first donations from $10 billion Earth Fund for fighting 
climate change*
Amazon chief executive and owner of The Washington Post says climate 
change is most urgent issue facing the planet
By Steven Mufson - November 16, 2020
Jeff Bezos said Monday he is giving $791 million to 16 groups fighting 
climate change, the first grants from his Earth Fund, saying the money 
is "just the beginning of my $10 billion commitment to fund scientists, 
activists, NGOs, and others."
More than half of the donations went to established environmental 
groups, with $100 million donations each going to the Environmental 
Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Nature 
Conservancy, the World Resources Institute and the World Wildlife Fund...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/11/16/bezos-climate-grants/#comments-wrapper

[looking at doomerist discussions]
*We're looking at Billions of People not being able to Survive' | Peter 
Carter, Expert IPCC *Reviewer
Nov 11, 2020
Extinction Rebellion
Peter Carter, M.D. and Roger Hallam discuss the science and ethics with 
regards to climate emergency for all of us struggling to understand 
what's actually going on, what needs to happen and what we need to do. 
(abridged version, full discussion here: https://youtu.be/R3DHJa-IH3I)

Every month now records and disasters are happening and we don't have 
the time to sit around and pretend it's all going to go away - because 
it's not and Peter's mission now is to spread the full terrible truth 
about the extreme risks and magnitude of the global climate and ocean 
disruption emergency.

Peter Carter, M.D. is a retired family physician who practised medicine 
first in England and then on both coasts of Canada (in Newfoundland and 
British Columbia) for almost 40 years.

When his sons were born, Peter became actively involved in peace, 
environmental and sustainable development issues, especially as they 
relate to children's health. (Fatherhood created that urge to leave the 
world a better place as a legacy for his children.)

As a founding director of CAPE (Canadian Association of Physicians for 
the Environment) and, more recently, as founder of the Climate Emergency 
Institute, Peter has presented on sustainable development, environmental 
health policy, biodiversity, and climate change and ocean issues at 
international science and climate change conferences in Canada, the 
United States, Europe, Asia and South America.

Peter has been following the global warming and climate change research 
since 1988. His approach to assessing climate change is based on 
environmental health and human rights protection. He provides climate 
science information to several websites and organizations, and 
synthesizes climate change research for laypeople.

Peter was an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 
Change (IPCC) Fifth Climate Change Assessment (AR5, 2014) and the IPCC's 
2018 Special Report on 1.5C. Also in 2018, Peter published Unprecedented 
Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival, which he 
co-authored with Elizabeth Woodworth.

We would like to clarify, around 18mins in Roger and Peter talk about 
existential risk, which can be used to refer to human extinction but can 
also be used to describe the following:  "An existential risk is one 
that threatens the entire future of humanity... Some scenarios in which 
humanity survives would also be existential catastrophes if they involve 
a permanent and drastic destruction of humanity's future potential" 
https://www.existential-risk.org/faq....

Extinction Rebellion has always aimed to communicate and explore climate 
and ecological risks, including fat tails of probability analyses. We 
appreciate all experts including those who explore possibilities, 
compounding effects beyond physical sciences and look at these ideas 
through the lens of the precautionary principle. Often these 
perspectives are discussed by those taking an inter-disciplinary approach.

Peter Carter: https://www.climateemergencyinstitute...
IPCC: https://www.ipcc.ch/
UNFCC: https://unfccc.int/
NOAA Artic Report card: https://arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VSE5ubpKhg

[Opinion from the world of finance]
*Democracies that failed the Covid test will struggle on climate change*
Efforts to address both issues are hampered by externalities and 
behavioural biases
GAVYN DAVIES
- -
The effects of climate change also increase exponentially, albeit over a 
much longer period than a pandemic. Time lags between cause and effect 
are very lengthy, making interpretation obscure to the public. 
Externalities are unavoidable, and apply across international borders, 
making them even harder to address. Human biases leave us systematically 
underprepared to address serious but remote risks.

The climate problem is therefore even less suited to free market 
solutions than Covid-19.

America's promised return to the Paris accord is the first and necessary 
step on a very long road. No one has thought of a magic bullet for 
global warming, equivalent to a vaccine against Covid-19. This problem 
will have to be solved the hard way.
https://www.ft.com/content/794eda4e-8195-4263-9ccd-8b87fcb74440

[ProPublica - human migration video discussion]*
****Where Will We Go? Let's Talk About How Climate Change Is Driving 
Human Migration*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-WCynS6Mkw

[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - November 17, 2006*
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann calls out Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe for 
simultaneously trafficking in climate denial and blasphemy:

    "But our winner, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, who until January
    will remain the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Environment
    and Public Works.  This morning he declared that any global warming
    is owed to 'natural causes' and is 'due to the sun.'

    'God's still up there,' he added.

    "So, Senator, you're blaming global warming on God?

    "Senator James 'Is it just me or is it hot in here' Inhofe, Friday's
    'Worst Person in the World.'"

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15814614/ns/msnbc-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/t/worst-person-world-sen-james-inhofe/

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