[TheClimate.Vote] January 19, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Richard Pauli richard at theclimate.vote
Tue Jan 19 10:20:37 EST 2021 

/*January 19, 2021*/

[not surprising]
*Hounded by Wildfires, Californians Rethink Their Willingness to Rebuild*
In the aftermath, some people are deciding to just begin new lives 
elsewhere. The pandemic and longstanding housing problems haven’t made 
the choices any easier.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/realestate/california-wildfires-rebuild.html


[today's danger]
*Wildfire danger in January? In ultra-dry California, PG&E says safety 
blackout is coming*
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said Saturday it could impose a “public 
safety power shutoff” Monday night in portions of nine counties — 
Calaveras, Fresno, Kern, Madera, Mariposa, San Luis Obispo, Santa 
Barbara, Tulare and Tuolumne counties. By Sunday, PG&E scaled back the 
planned blackout down by 15,000 customers to approximately 6,100 in 
Fresno, Kern, Madera, Mariposa and Tulare counties...
https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article248570985.html

- -

[power outage from weather]
*PG&E could potentially shut off power to 6000 customers due to strong 
winds*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydcFwn8oF_o



[NYC]
*NYC mayoral candidate Ray McGuire’s ties to conservative Koch brothers 
deeper than first thought*
By MICHAEL GARTLAND
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS - JAN 17, 2021
Mayoral candidate Ray McGuire’s ties to the Koch brothers aren’t limited 
to serving as banker of the conservative donors’ company years ago.
Charles Phillips, a top-ranking member of McGuire’s campaign, also 
presided over a software firm that worked with Koch Industries more 
recently.
Before joining McGuire’s campaign, Phillips, a former Marine, served as 
CEO of Infor, a company that was acquired by Koch Industries last year 
and did business with them since 2017.

Phillips’ connection to the company, which is owned by industrialist 
Charles Koch, raises more questions about the Democratic candidate’s 
ties to the big-fish right wing donors after the Daily News revealed 
last week that McGuire served as the company’s banker while working as 
an executive at Citi...
- -
In Democratic circles, the brothers are known for their enormous 
donations to conservative causes.Over the years, they’ve thrown around 
their financial heft to bankroll the highly influential Americans for 
Prosperity political action committee, which helped roll back measures 
to address global warming, promoted tax cuts for the rich and 
successfully pushed for the passage of anti-union laws in states 
including Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Mike Kink, executive director of the pro-labor Strong Economy for All 
coalition, described McGuire’s connections to the Koch brothers as 
problematic for people on the left.

“The campaign’s deep connections to Koch Industries is definitely 
disturbing to both progressives and labor and those of us who are 
fighting for an economy that works for regular people, not just the 
super rich,” he said.
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections-government/ny-ray-mcguire-charles-phillips-koch-brothers-mayor-campaign-20210118-2ufa62tkwfg53ecxkvyi3vg4qa-story.html



[Common Sense]
*We should spread awareness about global warming*
Jim Hsu, staff writer - January 17, 2021
Global warming is a long-occurring problem that has been proven to be 
harmful to our environment and our ways of living. People know of this 
problem, yet few try to find a fix. People should learn more and spread 
awareness about global warming and its direct impact on us.

There are individuals who refuse to believe that global warming is real, 
even though the proof that global warming is real is evident. According 
to NASA, the Earth’s surface has risen temperature of around 2.05 
degrees Fahrenheit in the last 40 years, with most of the temperature 
having come from the past six years.

Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have also started decreasing, NASA’s 
Gravity Recovery and Climate experiment showed that Greenland lost 279 
billion tons of ice sheets from 1993 to 2019. “Global warming is 
something that is so strongly backed by facts and science, I think those 
who don’t believe in it are choosing to ignore what’s clearly true,” 
junior Hannah Rah said...
graphic - 
https://woottoncommonsense.com/8767/opinion/we-should-spread-awareness-about-global-warming/#modal-photo
- -
Even though people know about this issue, it would do well to spread 
more awareness. “I think enough people are aware of global warming but I 
don’t think quite as many people actively work to play their part in 
reducing their carbon footprint,” Rah said.

To spread more awareness about global warming we can use platforms like 
social media and include reliable and credible evidence while doing so. 
Reminding others that global warming exists can make a positive change. 
“I think that the information and statistics we have collected should be 
shared, and our primary job should be to educate. I think this alone is 
the best way of spreading awareness,” Wool said.

When the idea of “global warming” is put into a person’s head, they are 
likely to think of the problems global warming could bring or the cause 
of this issue. “My first thought of global warming is the greenhouse 
gases and the influence human activity has on the environment, such as 
our use of non-renewable resources like coal,” Rah said.

The devastation that global warming could cause our planet is no doubt 
fearful to think of. “I think that global warming is heading in a 
negative direction, and the possibilities of the damage it can cause are 
virtually endless, but people can make a better effort to halt its 
destruction,” Wool said.

Global warming is among one of the most important issues of the planet. 
If global warming were to ruin the planet, it could mean the destruction 
of humanity. “I think global warming is one of the most important issues 
today because it concerns the well-being of our planet, which is 
something we all share, so it is of the utmost importance,” Rah said.
https://woottoncommonsense.com/8767/opinion/we-should-spread-awareness-about-global-warming/


[USA Today]
*‘The science is real’: Coastal experts hope Biden will partner to 
combat sea level rise*
Dinah Voyles Pulver and Doug Fraser, USA TODAY
- -
High-tide flooding occurs on average twice as often in coastal 
communities as it did 20 years ago, federal data shows. And a report 
last year by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed 
19 locations along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts broke or tied records 
for flood days in 2019, including Miami, Savannah, Georgia, Charleston, 
South Carolina, and Annapolis, Maryland. With sea levels nationally up 
1.1 feet relative to 1920 levels and rising, flood days are forecast to 
increase exponentially...
- -
While environmental issues often get wrapped up in the polarized 
politics of Washington, much of what Biden might want to do over the 
next four years is based more on economic arguments than a liberal 
agenda, a consensus of scientists agree.

A good first step? Phillips sees an urgent need for Biden and his 
administration to help manage risk by funding federal agencies to 
“collect and analyze the most current data to make projections and 
funding decisions,” especially when it comes to things like road 
improvements and utility systems.

More frequent flooding in recent years takes away money set aside for 
maintaining roads and water and sewer systems and makes it more 
difficult to prepare for the future, Phillips said. In her state of 
Virginia, for example, nine major flood events in 2018 and 2019 caused 
$1.6 billion in damage...
- -
Thinking of coastal resilience projects as an investment against future 
disaster relief costs may be essential to meeting needs, scientists 
said. Already the demand far outstrips funding.

In 2017, the National Coastal Resilience fund awarded $13.8 million to 
19 projects, not quite 10% of the money requested among 167 proposals, 
Kryc said. Funding doubled in 2018 and 2019 to almost $30 million, but 
the demand remained 10 times the amount of available money.

“These were projects that were shovel-ready and demonstrably effective,” 
Kryc said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers alone has a $98 billion backlog in 
resiliency projects and spends about $2 billion a year, Phillips added: 
“At that rate we’re never going to get there from here.”...
- -
If the federal government, through the National Flood Insurance Program, 
limited federal payouts and started telling people they’re on their own 
if they build in a hazardous location, said Stetson’s Evans, “that would 
probably drive the conversation on retreat and on not advancing as much 
into vulnerable areas.”

Evans works with local governments along the coasts of Georgia and 
Florida in safeguarding stormwater systems against intruding ocean water 
and placing new public buildings in safe locations. He said federal 
officials need to move quickly toward taking sea level rise into account 
when planning federal projects in coastal regions.

If federal funding for high-dollar construction projects were contingent 
on planning for sea level rise, “that would make a big difference,” 
Evans said.

“It’s really overdue,” he added. “We should have been doing it 25 years 
ago.”
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2021/01/18/coastal-experts-hope-biden-partner-combat-sea-level-rise/6559610002/ 




[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - January 19, 1999 *

In his State of the Union address, President Clinton declares, "But our 
most fateful new challenge is the threat of global warming; 1998 was the 
warmest year ever recorded. Last year’s heat waves, floods, and storms 
are but a hint of what future generations may endure if we do not act now."

http://youtu.be/v3bZwSXjtCM

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