[TheClimate.Vote] September 13, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*September 13, 2020*/

[data correction - should be more than 40,000]
*Oregon initially said 500,000 people had been evacuated because of 
wildfires. The numbers didn't add up -- and the state backtracked.*
By Brad Schmidt | The Oregonian/OregonLive and Mark Friesen | The 
Oregonian/OregonLive
The number of Oregonians told to evacuate because of unprecedented 
wildfires is more than 40,000 - not the 500,000 residents initially and 
erroneously announced by Oregon's Office of Emergency Management, Gov. 
Kate Brown acknowledged Friday following publication of an analysis by 
The Oregonian/OregonLive showing the true number of evacuations to be 
far lower.

The state in a news release Thursday night said an "estimated 500,000 
Oregonians have been evacuated and that number continues to grow."
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2020/09/oregon-said-500000-people-have-been-evacuated-because-of-wildfires-the-numbers-dont-add-up.html


[interactive map California fires]
Cal Fire Incidents report
https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/



[now they say they know]
*A Secret Recording Reveals Oil Executives' Private Views on Climate Change*
At a meeting last year, industry leaders contradicted public claims that 
emissions of climate-warming methane are under control
By Hiroko Tabuchi - Sept. 12, 2020

Last summer, oil and gas-industry groups were lobbying to overturn 
federal rules on leaks of natural gas, a major contributor to climate 
change. Their message: The companies had emissions under control.

In private, the lobbyists were saying something very different.

At a discussion convened last year by the Independent Petroleum 
Association of America, a group that represents energy companies, 
participants worried that producers were intentionally flaring, or 
burning off, far too much natural gas, threatening the industry's image, 
according to a recording of the meeting reviewed by The New York Times.

"We're just flaring a tremendous amount of gas," said Ron Ness, 
president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, at the June 2019 
gathering, held in Colorado Springs. "This pesky natural gas," he said. 
"The value of it is very minimal," particularly to companies drilling 
mainly for oil.

A well can produce both oil and natural gas, but oil commands far higher 
prices. Flaring it is an inexpensive way of getting rid of the gas.
- -
The recording runs 1 hour 22 minutes, opening with a moderator's remarks 
and concluding with a panel discussion that covered a wide range of 
issues including job creation, the threats posed by solar and wind 
energy, and the federal leasing of oil and gas rights. The audio was 
provided by an organization dedicated to tracking climate policy that 
said the recording had been made by an industry official who attended 
the meeting...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/climate/methane-natural-gas-flaring.html



[DW video report]
*Deadly wildfires sweep across US west coast | DW News*
Sep 11, 2020
DW News
Unprecedented wildfires have forced half a million people to flee their 
homes in Oregon as unusually hot and dry weather fans flames across a 
number of western US states. Washington and California have also been 
hard hit - all three states have reported casualties. In San Francisco 
the fires have been making their presence felt, even from a distance. As 
firefighters continue their battle across the west coast, meteorologists 
are warning that it is not yet even peak wildfire season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUrHmLNm9hU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWtZWvLtonE



[Altitude]
*California's wildfire smoke plumes are unlike anything previously seen*
Smoke plumes have reached 55,000 feet in height with embedded 
thunderstorms, lightning and possible tornadoes.
- -
In addition to the extreme fire heights, tornadic vortexes have been 
spotted by radar within three of this year's colossal fires. The first, 
the Loyalton Fire in Lassen County, Calif., even prompted the National 
Weather Service to issue its first-ever fire tornado warning on Aug. 15.

Before 2020, only a few fires had ever produced documented fire 
tornadoes in the United States; now we're seeing them every week or two. 
Lareau says the tremendous heights of the wildfires' clouds, combined 
with more concerted and astute observation, are factors in the numerous 
fire tornadoes that have been reported this year. He thinks there may be 
some also truth to the apparent increase...
- -
"These are still real outlier events," said Lareau. "The way I've been 
trying to think about it, if it's a 1 in 100 event, now we have, what, 
7,000 fires on the landscape? The opportunity to experience these 
extremes of fire weather are off the charts right now."...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/12/california-wildfires-smoke-plumes/


[attitude]
*Longtime Climate Science Denier Hired At NOAA*
September 12, 2020
By: Rebecca Hersher and Joe Palca
David Legates, a University of Delaware professor of climatology who has 
spent much of his career questioning basic tenets of climate science, 
has been hired for a top position at the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration.

Legates confirmed to NPR that he was recently hired as NOAA's deputy 
assistant secretary of commerce for observation and prediction. The 
position suggests that he reports directly to Neil Jacobs, the acting 
head of the agency that is in charge of the federal government's 
sprawling weather and climate prediction work.

Neither Legates nor NOAA representatives responded to questions about 
Legates' specific responsibilities or why he was hired. The White House 
also declined to comment.

Legates has a long history of using his position as an academic 
scientist to publicly cast doubt on climate science. His appointment to 
NOAA comes as Americans face profound threats stoked by climate change, 
from the vast, deadly wildfires in the West to an unusually active 
hurricane season in the South and East.

Global temperatures have already risen nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit as a 
result of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. Warming is 
happening the fastest at the Earth's poles, where sea ice is melting, 
permafrost is thawing and ocean temperatures are heating up, with 
devastating effects on animals and humans alike...
- -
Michael Mann, professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State 
University, says in an email to NPR that Legates has, throughout his 
career, "misrepresented the science of climate change, serving as an 
advocate for polluting interests as he dismisses and downplays the 
impacts of climate change."

Mann adds: "At a time when those impacts are playing out before our very 
eyes in the form of unprecedented wildfires out West and super-storms 
back East, I cannot imagine a more misguided decision than to appoint 
someone like Legates to a position of leadership at an agency that is 
tasked with assessing the risks we face from extreme weather events."
https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/09/12/longtime-climate-science-denier-hired-at-noaa
- -
*Professor who has questioned climate science hired at NOAA*
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/516160-delaware-professor-who-has-questioned-climate-science-hired-at-noaa
- -
[background research from DeSmogBlog]
*David Legates*
Ph.D. in Climatology, University of Delaware.
*Background*
David R. Legates is a Joint Associate Professor of Geography at the 
University of Delaware. In 2005, Legates was designated as Delaware's 
State Climatologist.
Legates was later asked to step down as State Climatologist by the Dean 
of the University. Although no one at the university was willing to 
explain the reason for replacing Legates as the State Climatologist, 
Greenpeace speculates that the reason may have been Legates's close ties 
with Willie Soon.

In 2007,  then-governor Ruth Ann Minner asked Legates to stop using his 
formal title in public statements on climate change policy. Minner wrote:

    "Your views on climate change, as I understand them, are not aligned
    with those of my administration. In light of my position and due to
    the confusion surrounding your role with the state, I am directing
    you to offer any future statements on this or other public policy
    matters only on behalf of yourself or the University of Delaware,
    and not as state climatologist."

Legates and Soon have authored numerous papers together, including a 
controversial 2007 "polar bear study" that was partially funded by Koch 
Industries. Legates was the co-author on four of the 11 papers that Soon 
received fossil fuel funding for - and failed to disclose in the paper...

Legates maintains affiliations with numerous conservative think tanks 
that oppose climate change regulation or are skeptical of man-made 
global warming, including the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) 
where he has been an "Adjunct Scholar" and "Environmental Expert." ...
*Stance on Climate Change*
Legates is a signatory of the Oregon Petition, which states that "There 
is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon 
dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the 
foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere 
and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial 
scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce 
many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments 
of the Earth."

*February 7, 2019*
In testimony before a subcommittee hearing on "Healthy Oceans and 
Healthy Economies: The State of Our Oceans In the 21st Century," Legates 
cliamed:
"Climate has always changed and weather is always variable, due to 
complex, powerful natural forces. No efforts to stabilize the climate 
can possibly be successful. […] The current emphasis on climate change 
abatement will do far more harm than good."...
https://www.desmogblog.com/david-legates



[follow the money]
*Climate change is huge risk for the American financial system, a major 
new bipartisan report says*
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/cftcs-groundbreaking-climate-change-report-sounds-a-bipartisan-alarm-on-costly-risks-for-u-s-financial-system-11599676452

- -

[CFTC Commodity Future Trading Commission]
*Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System, Report of the 
Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee (September 9, 2020)*
w.cftc.gov/About/AdvisoryCommittees/MarketRiskAdvisory/MRAC_Reports.html



[sure do]
*Wildfires are striking closer and closer to cities. We know how this 
will end*
The climate crisis is a factor, but so are efforts to fight fires - 
which have had the opposite effect
- -
To understand how we got here, it is important to know that we have come 
to expect control over such conflagrations relatively recently. Prior to 
European settlement in the West, fire flowed freely, sparked by 
lightning or intentionally by Native Americans to encourage the growth 
of favored plants or clear areas for easier hunting. As much as 4.5m 
acres of California's 105m acres might burn every year. These 
low-intensity fires did not kill large trees, and some plants even came 
to depend on fire to regenerate themselves. A shrub called chamise 
appears to encourage fire by releasing combustible gases in the presence 
of flames...

The shift to a different approach occurred after several instances in 
which wildfires became appalling urban fires. In October 1871, railway 
workers sparked a brush fire in northern Wisconsin, which swept into the 
city of Peshtigo and killed 1,500 people there and elsewhere across a 
gargantuan footprint of 1.2 million acres. And in the great fires of 
1910, fires burning across several Western states killed hundreds and 
razed a number of towns. People escaped by train as the fires virtually 
licked at their heels...
- -
As Americans in California, Washington and Oregon are discovering, 
wildfires do not only impact the wilderness. Towns and suburbs are not 
inviolate. With so many of our Western paradises now under threat, 
experts are begging us to bring controlled fire back into the ecosystem 
in the form of prescribed burns. To ensure buildings meet stringent fire 
codes. And to prepare city evacuation plans so we do not repeat the 
gridlock in which many of those escaping Paradise were trapped. We must, 
it almost goes without saying, get a handle on the climate crisis.

Witnessing the urban fire in Paradise, some of those we interviewed for 
our book no longer thought it fanciful that a fire that could maraud 
into the very heart of a major city, such as Los Angeles, San Diego or 
the communities of the San Francisco Bay.

University of California scientist Faith Kearns recounted to us that she 
lives in the Berkeley flatlands, in a part of the Bay that is as 
thoroughly urbanized as can be. Suddenly she was considering the 
prospect that a fire might one day reach her home.

"My neighborhood is full of Victorians. My neighbor's window is about 
six feet away from my own…" she said, pausing in thought. "I think we'll 
see it. I think we'll see it."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/12/wildfires-are-striking-closer-and-closer-to-cities-we-know-how-this-will-end


[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - September13, 2015 *

The Los Angeles Times reports on the fossil fuel industry's role in 
sabotaging a bill to reduce petroleum consumption in California.

http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-sac-brown-legislature-20150913-story.html


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