[✔️] June 1, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[👀 Richard Pauli]

/*June 1, 2021*/

[Slideshow news report]
*California's Drought Is So Bad, Farmers Are Ripping Up Almond Trees*
Molly Taft - May 31, 2021
https://gizmodo.com/californias-drought-is-so-bad-farmers-are-ripping-up-a-1846993225



[That's _CHO_ to you]
*Miami’s chief heat officer calls for action on ‘silent killer’ in 
climate crisis*
Jane Gilbert urges greater federal and state response to lethal threat 
posed by rising temperatures
Oliver Milman-  27 May 2021

Miami’s new chief heat officer has called for greater federal and state 
action on the lethal threat posed by rising temperatures after becoming 
the first official in the US appointed to focus solely on heatwaves.

Jane Gilbert, who has been tasked by Miami-Dade county with coordinating 
and accelerating efforts to protect lives from extreme heat, said that 
more focus was needed on what has been called the “silent killer” of the 
climate crisis.

“In Miami it doesn’t take much of a temperature increase for things to 
get dangerous,” she said. “I hope that heat is integrated into all sorts 
of thinking on dealing with climate change and infrastructure. We are 
seeing a growing awareness of this threat across the US from cities, 
it’s really bubbling up.”

Heat is the deadliest of all the maladies spurred by the climate crisis, 
with more than 700 people on average now dying each year from its 
effects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An 
independent study last year estimated this death toll is actually much 
higher, at about 5,600 fatalities a year.

Cities in traditionally cooler climes are at particular risk from the 
growing threat of heatwaves as residents there often lack air 
conditioning and other adaptations to deal with the onset of hot 
temperatures. In many US cities, low-income neighborhoods of color are 
regularly far hotter than nearby, leafier areas where white residents 
are in the majority.

Gilbert said that even places traditionally used to heat, such as Miami, 
will need to do more to provide cool-down centers for vulnerable people, 
generate more shade via increased tree cover and educate people of the 
dangers posed by sweltering temperatures.

Miami-Dade currently experiences about 40 days a year that feel like 
100F (37C) but it’s estimated this total will rocket to 134 such days a 
year by mid-century if planet-heating emissions are not slashed.

Democrats in Congress have pushed for a law that would force the US 
Department of Labor to draw up new national standards to protect people 
who work outside in the heat. A bill demanding this has been named after 
Asunción Valdivia, a farm worker in California who died in 2004 after 
picking grapes for 10 hours without a break in 105F (40C) temperatures. 
He was eventually driven home but started foaming at the mouth and died.

According to labor department figures, more than 800 US workers have 
been killed and 70,000 have been seriously injured by heat stress since 
the 1990s but there is no national heat mandate and only a handful of 
states, such as California, where workers must be supplied with filtered 
drinking water and shaded areas once temperatures hit 80F (26C), have 
standards in place to protect those working outside.

In May, Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed a new bill to help 
Florida deal with sea level rise but proposals to ensure workers get 
adequate shade, regular breaks and plenty of drinking water have 
languished. “At the state level we are moving from very little action to 
some action related to sea level rise, which we are thrilled about, but 
we need the state to start looking at increasing heat,” said Gilbert.

“There could be investment in green infrastructure, rehabbing 
substandard housing and action for outdoor workers. There’s a lot more 
to do.”

Gilbert will jointly lead a new heat taskforce that will look at 
crafting a series of measures, such as an outdoor worker heat standard 
and a new alert system for when temperatures soar. Cheryl Holder, a 
Florida doctor who will co-lead the taskforce, said action was required 
to deal with the growing number of heat-related conditions she is now 
dealing with.

“The number of dangerous days are increasing and we are seeing more 
complaints over the heat, more skin problems, more instances of diabetes 
not being as controlled, more injuries when workers get hot and dizzy on 
the job,” she said. “It will be hard to get change but this is urgent. 
We really need to address this now.”

Holder said she had raised the prospect of a barely livable Florida with 
lawmakers, suggesting to aides of Marco Rubio, the Republican senator, 
that even Disney World will become unattractive to visitors if 
temperatures regularly breach 100F.

“Florida sells itself on tourism, the outdoor life,” she said. “If it 
becomes unbearably hot, who will want to be outside? It’s crucial 
Florida gets serious about heat and how to manage it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/27/miami-chief-heat-officer-jane-gilbert-climate-crisis
- -
[Florida]
*Sharp rise in Florida manatee deaths as algal blooms hasten food depletion*
Death toll at 749, on course to pass high mark set in 2018
Pollution including nutrient runoff kills seagrass

Environmental groups in Florida are warning that unusually high numbers 
of manatee deaths in the first five months of the year, blamed in part 
on resurgent algal blooms contaminating and destroying food sources, 
could threaten the long-term future of the species...
- -
Two members of Congress, Democrat Stephanie Murphy and Republican Brian 
Mast, have proposed legislation to increase federal funding for manatee 
protection.

A hard-hitting editorial in the Orlando Sentinel earlier this month 
blamed the increase in manatee deaths on “contempt for the environment” 
among Florida politicians and assailed former governor Rick Scott, now a 
US senator, for slashing environmental budgets when in office.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/31/sharp-rise-florida-manatee-deaths-algal-blooms-food-depletion



[Britain plans ahead]
*Heatwave deaths set to soar as UK summers become hotter*
Met Office warning over impact of global heating prompts calls for 
action to protect elderly and vulnerable
Robin McKie  - 30 May 2021
Britain is failing to protect its vulnerable citizens from the threat of 
intensifying heatwaves, health experts warned last week. Thousands of 
preventable deaths could be triggered every year because simple measures 
to keep houses and care homes cool have not been implemented.

As global heating worsens and heatwaves become more frequent, the 
problem is likely to worsen significantly – unless urgent action is 
taken, they say. Those most likely to suffer include the very young, the 
elderly and people suffering from chronic conditions such as asthma.

Last week, the Met Office revealed there was now a more than 40% chance 
the annual average global temperature will reach 1.5C above 
pre-industrial levels at some time in the next five years as greenhouse 
gas emissions from factories, power plants and cars continue unabated...
- -
An NHS Heatwave Plan for England was set up in 2004 but was dismissed as 
“demonstrably inadequate” by Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham 
Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

“Summer heatwaves are natural disasters for the UK that have killed 
thousands of people over the past few years, and many lives could have 
been saved by a better strategy for managing heat risks,” Ward said in a 
letter to the prime minister last week.

King added that it was predicted that by 2050, the country could see 
three times as many heat-related deaths as there are today. “This is 
something that the Committee on Climate Change has been banging on about 
ever since it produced its first reports on the subject 10 years ago but 
we have seen very little progress.”

An expected problem outlined by health experts concerns the longstanding 
drive to insulate homes so that they use energy more efficiently and 
don’t waste heat.

“Energy efficiency measures can actually exacerbate overheating risk,” 
said Professor Paul Wilkinson, of the London School of Hygiene and 
Tropical Medicine.

“You have a lot of insulation installed and the dwelling gets sealed up, 
so heat becomes difficult to dissipate during a heatwave. The problem 
can become quite severe. We need to keep homes warm in winter but that 
must be done in a way that ensures they are kept cool in summer.”

Measures to permit such cooling should include provision of shutters, 
blinds and adequate ventilation as well as protection for trees – 
particularly in cities – which provide shade. However, these steps are 
not being prioritised in new houses and schemes that are being built in 
Britain, it is argued.

The problem is expected to get worse for another reason, added King. 
“After the Covid pandemic is over, it is likely that a lot more people 
will work from home, and most houses – especially in cities, which can 
become extremely hot at night – are not easy to keep cool. So the 
problem is likely to become exacerbated in the next few years.”

Care homes in towns and cities were another problem area, Wilkinson 
added. “These are buildings that are not easy to keep cool and have fire 
door and ventilation regulations that make it difficult to keep air flowing.

“Very often, temperatures can become a substantial threat to health. 
These issues can be tackled but it takes effort and planning.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/30/heatwave-deaths-set-to-soar-as-uk-summers-become-hotter



[Yes there will be]
*Will there be resource wars in our renewable energy future?*
The post-petroleum resource race and what to make of it
By MICHAEL KLARE - MAY 31, 2021
- -
Unfortunately, think again: while the sun and wind are indeed infinitely 
renewable, the materials needed to convert those resources into 
electricity — minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, and the 
rare-earth elements, or REEs — are anything but. Some of them, in fact, 
are far scarcer than petroleum, suggesting that global strife over vital 
resources may not, in fact, disappear in the Age of Renewables.
- -
It's possible, of course, to imagine a future in which nations begin 
fighting over the world's supplies of critical minerals, just as they 
once fought over oil. At the same time, it's perfectly possible to 
conceive of a world in which countries like ours simply abandoned their 
plans for a green-energy future for lack of adequate raw materials and 
reverted to the oil wars of the past. On an already overheating planet, 
however, that would lead to a civilizational fate worse than death.

In truth, there's little choice but for Washington and Beijing to 
collaborate with each other and so many other countries in accelerating 
the green energy transition by establishing new mines and processing 
facilities for critical minerals, developing substitutes for materials 
in short supply, improving mining techniques to reduce environmental 
hazards, and dramatically increasing the recycling of vital minerals 
from discarded batteries and other products. Any alternative is 
guaranteed to prove a disaster of the first order — or beyond...
https://www.salon.com/2021/05/31/will-there-be-resource-wars-in-our-renewable-energy-future_partner/



[The news archive - looking back - (I thought everyone knew this from 
the beginning)]
*On this day in the history of global warming June 1, 2004*

  June 1, 2004: The Boston Phoenix's Dan Kennedy calls out the Boston 
Globe for running an op-ed by Jim Taylor of the Heartland Institute 
attacking the film "The Day After Tomorrow" without disclosing that the 
Heartland Institute is a front group for the fossil-fuel industry.

        TUESDAY, JUNE 01, 2004
        AND NOW, THE REST OF THE STORY.
        The Boston Globe recently announced that it will begin accepting
        ads on the op-ed page. A column today that attempts to debunk
        concerns about global warming, by one James M. Taylor, would
        appear to fall into that category. Unfortunately, the Globe
        presents it not as a paid ad but, rather, as an earnest opinion
        piece by someone who is identified only by the
        respectable-sounding title of "managing editor of Environment &
        Climate News."

        More about that in a moment. First, though, a few words about
        Taylor's wacky column, written ostensibly to make fun of the
        movie The Day After Tomorrow, a global-warming nightmare
        thriller. At first I figured Taylor would simply point out that
        the various global-warming scenarios are more complicated and
        less spectacular than Hollywood would have it. Within a few
        paragraphs, though, Taylor was espousing the most extreme views
        held by industry and its right-wing supporters. To wit: that if
        there is any global warming taking place at all, it is slight,
        and in any case will take place at night, while you're sleeping;
        and that the concomitant rise in carbon-dioxide levels is good
        for you. Taylor writes:

        Most recent and unbiased scientific research indicates that
        temperature change caused by rising concentrations of greenhouse
        gases will be moderate, perhaps 1 degree Celsius in the next
        century; most of the warming will occur at night and during the
        winter; and higher concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide
        (which plant life needs to thrive and survive) will lead to a
        greening of the planet that will enhance global food production.
        Now, in fact, the case for human-caused global warming is a bit
        more complicated than environmentalists would have you believe,
        which I discovered when I dipped my toe into this turbulent
        water nearly three years ago. But the overwhelming consensus of
        scientific opinion is definitely not on Taylor's side. The
        simple-minded virulence of Taylor's screed should have set off
        alarm bells when it arrived at the Globe. It certainly set off
        Media Log's alarms. And it took me no more than a few minutes on
        Google to learn that Taylor's piece never should have seen the
        light of day - except in one of those new op-ads.

        Environment & Climate News, as it turns out, is a publication of
        the Chicago-based Heartland Institute, a right-wing organization
        founded in 1984 that is "devoted to turning ideas into social
        movements that empower people." How nice. Scroll down its home
        page, and you will see that it promotes relatively benign,
        conservative-oriented causes such as school choice - and some
        truly out-there ideas, such as the notion that genetically
        modified crops are necessary to preserve water resources, that
        new air-pollution standards "will do significant economic harm
        but little environmental good," that the government should do
        nothing about the obesity epidemic, and that second-hand
        cigarette smoke is harmless.

        It gets better. According to Disinfopedia.com, the Heartland
        Institute's directors include current and retired officials of
        ExxonMobil, Amaco, General Motors, and Philip Morris. Its
        funding comes from ExxonMobil and a number of right-wing
        foundations, including the notorious John M. Olin Foundation and
        the Scaife Foundations. (As in Richard Melon Scaife, who
        reportedly once told a journalist attempting to ask him a
        question, "You fucking communist cunt, get out of here.") In
        addition, Heartland co-founder David Padden is a right-wing
        activist long involved in such organizations as the Cato
        Institute and the Center for Libertarian Studies.

        According to Bill Berkowitz, writing for WorkingForChange.com,
        "The Heartland Institute ... is one of the foremost right-wing
        purveyors of the carbon dioxide is good for you theory."

        Op-ed pages are where newspapers publish opinion pieces, and by
        their very nature the authors of those pieces are not expected
        to be as disinterested as, say, reporters who cover political
        campaigns, homicides, or the stock market. On the other hand,
        neither are op-ed editors supposed to publish discredited
        propaganda that's been bought and paid for by corporate and
        right-wing interests, especially when those interests are not
        disclosed.

        The Globe has been apologizing a lot lately, even when it
        shouldn't have. Well, Taylor's ridiculous piece is something
        that's definitely worth an apology.

        Meanwhile, the Globe's advertising salespeople must be wondering
        how they'll ever manage to sell an op-ad when the editorial side
        is giving them away.

http://medialogarchives.blogspot.com/2004/06/and-now-rest-of-story.asp


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