[TheClimate.Vote] October 19, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*October 19, 2020*/

[Colorado Wildfire]*
**'It just exploded': Cameron Peak, CalWood fires drive thousands from 
their homes in Colorado*
John Bacon - USA TODAY
Oct 18th, 2020
A Colorado wildfire had raced through more than 8,700 parched, 
wind-blown acres in less than 24 hours on Sunday, forcing evacuation of 
almost 3,000 people in Boulder County as wildfires continued to batter 
the state and the West.

The CalWood Fire began burning Saturday in Boulder County, about 50 
miles southeast of the Cameron Peak Fire. That fire, the largest in 
state history, has burned more than 317 square miles since mid-August.

"It just exploded," Mike Wagner, division chief with the Boulder County 
Sheriff's Office, said of the CalWood fire. "We do believe multiple 
homes were probably lost. It's still too dynamic to get in and begin to 
assess."

Courtney Walsh posted three pictures of her burned-out, Boulder area 
home on social media.

"It's all gone," she tweeted. "I'm gutted."

Jessica Newmans posted an offer to house animals in her barn or 
contained pasture after her property was removed from the evacuation 
zone. An hour earlier she had been on the move.

"One of the first things we grabbed before mandatory evacuations hit? 
Our ballots," she tweeted. "Then our children & dog, guitar, and a few 
nice bottles of wine, of course."
- -
"Anyone under an Evacuation WARNING for #CalWoodFire should be ready to 
leave immediately," the Boulder Office of Emergency Management said on 
social media. "Have a bag packed & be ready to leave with very little 
notice. Winds on Sunday could create fast-moving fire activity."...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/10/18/colorado-wildfires-thousands-flee-cameron-peak-calwood-fires/3702819001/

- - -

[Region for Wildfires]
*The 20-year history of fires in the Boulder, Colorado area*
https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Colorado-fire-history.jpg
https://wildfiretoday.com/2020/10/19/the-20-year-history-of-fires-in-the-boulder-colorado-area/ 


- - -

[Podcast from Wired - risk study]
*The New Science of Wildfire Prediction *
On this week's Get WIRED podcast, writer Dan Duane dives into the 
inevitability of fires in the west and how better models would help 
combat them.
16 episode audio podcast
*The Science of Fire Tornadoes*
America's best fire researchers have been trying to learn more about 
what causes fires--especially extreme fire events like fire tornadoes. 
Reporter Daniel Duane talks to Get WIRED Host Lauren Goode about
https://www.wired.com/story/get-wired-podcast-13-fire-science/

- -

[NYTimes]
*Nearly Half of the U.S. Is in Drought. It May Get Worse.*
The most widespread drought in the continental United States since 2013 
covers more than 45 percent of the Lower 48 states, federal scientists said.
Oct. 15, 2020
Nearly half of the continental United States is gripped by drought, 
government forecasters said Thursday, and conditions are expected to 
worsen this winter across much of the Southwest and South.
- -
"The winter forecast doesn't bode well," Mr. Halpert added. Warmer and 
drier conditions are expected across the South and Southwest and drought 
is likely to develop in parts of Georgia and Florida and in Central and 
Southern California, where the dry conditions could add to the risk of 
wildfire in what has already been a catastrophic year for fires in 
California.
But northern parts of the country may see some relief, with wetter 
conditions predicted across most of the north, said David Miskus, a NOAA 
drought specialist.

"The Pacific Northwest, the Northern Rockies, maybe the Northern Plains 
and also New England, probably will show improvement," he said.

Cooler temperatures are also forecast for much of the north, he said.

Globally, 2020 has been exceptionally warm in many regions, including 
much of the Arctic. There is about a two-thirds chance that the year 
will be the warmest on record, eclipsing 2016, said Ahira Sanchez-Lugo, 
a NOAA climatologist...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/climate/noaa-climate-call-drought.html



[cryo-hubris]
*Big oil's answer to melting Arctic: cooling the ground so it can keep 
drilling*
Technology is keeping patches of Alaska permafrost frozen to preserve 
energy infrastructure even as indigenous residents' world is transformed 
by the climate crisis...
- -
One Alaska company, BeadedStream, sells equipment that measures and 
transmits tundra temperature data, so that the oil industry can know as 
soon as it is frozen solid enough to transport equipment, according to 
National Public Radio. Another firm, Arctic Foundations, is doing 
increasingly brisk business selling thermosiphons - the tubes that pull 
heat out of the ground to keep permafrost from thawing underneath oil 
infrastructure.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/19/oil-alaska-arctic-global-heating-local-cooling
- -
[see the technology for temperature hardware]
*BeadedStream World-class temperature cables, loggers & data*
BeadedStream LLC | Alaska Proven, Global Application video 
https://youtu.be/LlS_l6vzIPQ
https://www.beadedstream.com/



[psychological impact]
*'Solastalgia': Arctic inhabitants overwhelmed by new form of climate grief*
Solastalgia means a feeling of homesickness without ever leaving home - 
and for Inuit in Canada's north it describes the psychological impact of 
the climate crisis...
- -
When the goose hunters return to Iqaluit, they will go door-to-door 
sharing their plump catch with friends and family to make sure everyone 
has food for the upcoming shoulder season. No one knows how intense or 
sudden the changes will be this year, but if Inuit are anything they are 
adaptable.

Kigutaq says that it is this adaptability in the face of the unknown 
that has made Inuit leaders in the fight against climate change, 
learning to recognize what is happening and to not feel paralyzed by 
solastalgia. Above all, he says, it is particularly necessary to realize 
you are not alone, and to find community with whom to face a changing 
future.

"[The term solastalgia] helps us to vocalize some of the feelings we are 
having," Kigutaq says. "It can help create awareness and conversations - 
and the ability to connect with others who are experiencing the same thing."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/15/arctic-solastalgia-climate-crisis-inuit-indigenous 




[Scientific American opinion]
*Supreme Court Nominee Barrett Resisted Climate Science, but Other 
Judges Have Embraced It*
Several law experts say it is important for judges to understand issues 
of science relevant to cases they are hearing
By Jennifer Hijazi, E&E News on October 16, 2020
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett raised a remarkable question 
among legal experts when she declined to affirm the presence of rising 
temperatures and their human-driven causes.

Would acknowledging climate change jeopardize her ability to appear 
impartial when overseeing cases involving global warming?...
The facts of climate change are well-established, and some experts note 
that judges have a responsibility to acknowledge them unequivocally in 
order to rule on questions related to the powers of federal agencies.

"Casting doubt on the validity and importance of [climate change] 
itself, as Barrett does, raises serious concerns," Jason Rylander, a 
lawyer with the Defenders of Wildlife, said in an email. "If you cannot 
admit climate change is real and that humans are the cause, how can you 
fairly assess the validity of laws and regulations enacted to address it?"

Other judges haven't had a problem affirming the science of climate 
change, including Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was appointed to the high 
court by President Trump in 2018.

"The Earth is warming, and humans are contributing, and I understand the 
international collective action problem here; I understand that very 
well," Kavanaugh said in 2016 when serving on federal appellate court.

His comments came during arguments over the Obama-era Clean Power Plan.

He continued later: "There's a huge policy imperative here; there's a 
moral imperative." He even mentioned that Pope Francis was pressing for 
climate action.

That contrasts sharply with Barrett's refusals during her Senate 
confirmation hearing this week to give a clear answer on whether climate 
change is happening.

"I don't think I am competent to opine on what causes global warming or 
not," Barrett said on Tuesday. She added later, "I don't think that my 
views on global warming or climate change are relevant to the job I 
would do as a judge" (Climatewire, Oct. 15).

Some experts, like Jeff Holmstead, a partner with Bracewell LLP, suggest 
that Barrett's personal views on climate science won't affect how she 
actually applies the law, especially since climate cases mostly focus on 
how to address the problem -- not whether it's a problem at all.
"I think what [advocates] would say is, 'We need justices who understand 
just how serious this is, because if they understand that this is a 
crisis, they will be more likely to let EPA take aggressive action,'" 
Holmstead said.

"But I just don't think that's the way even democratically appointed 
justices ... view their role."
Advertisement

But there shouldn't be any dispute within the judiciary on the question 
of human-caused warming after the Supreme Court's ruling in the landmark 
climate case Massachusetts v. EPA, said Vicki Arroyo, executive director 
of the Georgetown Climate Center. The ruling led to EPA's endangerment 
finding for greenhouse gases and granted the agency its authority to 
regulate them.

She and others raised concerns about how the global warming questions 
were asked by lawmakers, as though one can "believe" in climate change 
as opposed to accepting it as undisputed.

"It's a scientific fact, the same way that gravity or the coronavirus 
virus being contagious, or smoking causing cancer is," Arroyo said, "and 
so the fact that you even have to ask that and get a non-answer for 
three days is alarming to me."
Accepting the science

Judges often attempt to understand science as part of their decisionmaking.

Hana Vizcarra, a staff attorney with Harvard Law School, noted that 
judicial questions regarding climate change are no different.
Advertisement

"At a time when many judges are recognizing the need to educate 
themselves on the basic facts and science around the current state of 
climate change, it is interesting that [Barrett] feels the topic is not 
relevant to the job," she said in an email.

In 2018, Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern 
District of California ordered lawyers involved in a climate liability 
case to present lengthy presentations on climate science. Alsup called 
it a tutorial.

He ended up scrapping the case, but said in his ruling that the "order 
accepts the science behind global warming" (Climatewire, June 26, 2018).

Even specialized training for judges is known to happen.

In a rare leaked email exchange between judges last year, District Judge 
Emmet Sullivan suggested that his colleagues attend a judicial climate 
information session held by the Environmental Law Institute 
(Climatewire, Aug. 19, 2019).
Advertisement

Not everyone was receptive to the idea. Senior Judge Raymond Randolph of 
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit lambasted 
Sullivan for flagging the session, telling him that "the jurisdiction 
assigned to you does not include saving the planet."

Still, environmental law experts insist that grappling with basic 
science is essential to deciding cases, especially as climate change 
lawsuits proliferate.

"Climate change is impacting our lives, businesses and communities and, 
as it does, the law," said Vizcarra of Harvard. "It will increasingly 
become part of the fact patterns [Barrett] will be charged with 
evaluating should she be confirmed."
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/supreme-court-nominee-barrett-resisted-climate-science-but-other-judges-have-embraced-it/



[Northern Africa - the Sahel is the east-west band just below the Sahara]
*Sahel region is 'canary in the coalmine' on climate, says UN official*
Mark Lowcock criticises 'totally inadequate' effort to help Sahel 
countries adapt to global heating

Africa's Sahel region is at the centre of accelerating climate change 
and "a canary in the coalmine of our warming planet", the United 
Nation's top humanitarian official has said.

Mark Lowcock, the UN's undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, 
said the Sahel was facing tragedy after an "alarming deterioration" in 
recent years that had led to tens of millions of people being displaced, 
rising extremist violence, massive violations of human rights and 
growing political instability.

Some of the record 13.4 million people who need humanitarian assistance 
across the border areas of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have been forced 
to leave their homes by unprecedented flooding across west and central 
Africa, underlining the threat that erratic weather caused by climate 
change poses to lives and livelihoods in the region...
- -
Extremist violence in the Sahel surged after a coalition of Islamists 
and local separatist tribesmen took control of much of northern Mali in 
2012. An eight-year campaign led by French troops, the deployment of 
hundreds of US special forces, massive aid for local militaries and 
$1bn-a-year UN peacekeeping operation have been unable to decisively 
weaken the multiple overlapping insurgencies in the region and security 
has continued to deteriorate.

Many of the bloodiest recent attacks have been attributed to an Isis 
affiliate, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS).

Lowcock said groups were expanding their territory but a future without 
Islamist militancy in the region was possible to imagine. "This is a 
relatively new phenomenon," he said.

The region has recently been rocked by renewed political upheaval, with 
the second coup in a decade unseating the elected government of Mali.

Flagship environmental projects have failed to make a significant 
impact. The Great Green Wall was conceived in 2007 by the African Union 
as a 4,350-mile (7,000km) cross-continental barrier stretching from 
Senegal to Djibouti that would hold back the deserts of the Sahara and 
Sahel. Its supporters said it would improve livelihoods in one of the 
world's poorest regions, capture carbon dioxide and reduce conflict, 
terrorism and migration. So far only the project has covered only 4% of 
its target area, according to a recent status report.

In a report this year, the International Crisis Group said that if 
ongoing conflicts in the Sahel were attributed solely to climate change, 
there was a risk of underestimating the role of politics in the violence.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/19/sahel-region-is-canary-in-the-coalmine-on-climate-says-un-official



[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - October 19, 1992 *

In the third presidential debate, President George H. W. Bush accuses 
Democratic challenger Bill Clinton and his running mate, Senator Al 
Gore, of pandering to "the spotted owl crowd or the extremes in the 
environmental movement" by supporting an increase in fuel efficiency 
standards. Clinton defends the idea of raising fuel efficiency 
standards; in addition, he states, "We also ought to convert more 
vehicles to compressed natural gas. That's another way to improve the 
environment."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCGtHqIwKek - (26:30-29:00)


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