[✔️] June 4, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[👀 Richard Pauli]

/*June 4, 2021*/

[news from the information battleground]
*Facebook to end special treatment for politicians after Trump ban*
Going forward politicians will be treated more like everyone else

    The hands-off policy for political speech faced intense blowback
    when Trump used Facebook to stoke division after the murder of
    George Floyd and later praised his supporters as they attempted a
    violent insurrection at the US Capitol in January. And in India,
    Facebook’s largest country by users, the company has come under fire
    for not taking action against violent comments made by members of
    the ruling party. Under the new policy for politicians, Facebook
    could still use its newsworthiness exemption to leave up a post that
    would otherwise be taken down. But it will commit to disclosing when
    it does so...

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/3/22474738/facebook-ending-political-figure-exemption-moderation-policy



[Yale opinion research]
*Republican Support for Clean Energy is Dropping*
More significantly, however, while Democrats continue to say developing 
sources of clean energy should be a high or very high priority for the 
president and Congress, Republican prioritization of clean energy has 
dropped dramatically since November 2019.
For example, most Democrats think global warming should be a high or 
very high priority for the president and Congress, while relatively few 
Republicans agree.
more at  - 
https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/politics-global-warming-march-2021/2/ 





[recent history of lethal heatwaves]*
****Doctors, healthcare workers sound alarm over health risks of climate 
change*
“Patients come with a host of factors that impact their health, like the 
food they eat, the houses they live in and the air they breathe," Dr. 
Issa said. “I’m seeing children with 10 percent reduced lung capacity. 
If we’re truly to address their health we also have to tackle the air 
they breathe. If we don’t want to have to treat kids with worsening lung 
capacity and heatstroke, then we need to take action now.”

Dr. Issa’s findings in her clinical practice are backed up by scientific 
data.

Results from a study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate 
Change showed that more than a third of heat-related deaths around the 
world from 1991 to 2018 were the result of human-induced global warming. 
More than 43 countries in the study recorded heat levels higher than the 
optimal temperature for human health.

Researchers also found that the health impacts of climate change were 
already being felt. Despite Covid-19 lockdowns, which saw a global fall 
in pollution levels last year, global temperatures still rose to 1.2° 
Celsius above pre-industrial levels, edging close to the 1.5°C maximum 
benchmark set by the world’s nations.

The shock of the Covid-19 pandemic illustrated that there is a public 
health issue that “doesn’t respect national boundaries, or care if 
you’re rich or poor”, said Dr. Issa, adding that she believed the crisis 
helped the health aspect of climate change break into the mainstream.

While she understands that activism is not for all doctors, Dr. Issa 
believes that “medicine is inherently political”...
https://www.france24.com/en/environment/20210603-doctors-healthcare-workers-sound-the-alarm-over-health-risks-of-climate-change




[Be Prepared]*
* *What you can do to prepare for wildfire smoke this summer*
AuthorBill GabbertPosted onMay 31, 2021CategoriesUncategorizedTagsair 
filter, air quality, smoke
Certain type of air cleaners and masks can be helpful

In August and September of last year some areas in the western states 
were under smoke advisories for weeks at a time due to numerous 
wildfires. If the weather in the coming months is hot, dry, and windy, 
and with the vegetation being dried by the multi-year drought, there 
could be multitudinous large fires producing conditions at least as 
smoky as 2020, or worse.

Smoke can have serious adverse effects on those who have asthma, COPD, 
heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions or acute 
infections such as COVID-19.  Older people, pregnant women, and young 
children can also be at risk.

It is not practical for most of us to move to a different part of the 
country to find better air quality, but there are some measures that can 
be taken to reduce the concentration of the tiny smoke particles inside 
the home that can cause problems when they get into the lungs.

Closing windows will not keep smoke out of a structure. However, if you 
have a good quality air filtration device, the air inside the house 
should be better than what is outside with the windows closed. When the 
smoke is dense, it would be difficult for one portable air cleaner with 
a HEPA filter to treat the entire home, so if you only have one, put it 
where you spend the most time, such as the bedroom.

If you have a central air conditioner or heating system, slide-in 
filters can be purchased that are rated to remove very small particles 
like smoke and pollen. Filters are rated under various criteria — one is 
MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value). The higher the MERV number 
the better it is at removing the small particles. And medium-efficiency 
MERV filters in the 8 to 13 range can remove about 90 percent or more of 
these.

You can also tape a MERV 8 to 13 filter on a box fan and it will do a 
pretty good job of removing smoke in a small room. Unfortunately not all 
filter manufacturers use the MERV rating system. The New York Times 
reports that Filtrete, one of the larger filter companies, said their 
rating system, MPR, can be translated to MERV. “Filtrete said MPR 1900 
is equivalent to MERV 13, MPR 1500 to MERV 12, and MPR 1000 to MERV 11.”

Respirator masks used during the pandemic, such as well-fitting N95, 
KN95 and KF94 masks, can offer protection when outside. A simple cloth 
mask can’t filter the PM 2.5 smoke particles.

Apps for smart phones can provide up to date air quality information. 
Examples include WeatherCAN and AQHI Canada in Canada, and AirNow and 
SmokeSense in the U.S.
https://wildfiretoday.com/2021/05/31/what-you-can-do-to-prepare-for-wildfire-smoke-this-summer/



[The news archive - looking back]
*On this day in the history of global warming June 4, 2008*
in a strongly worded editorial, the New York Times calls out the George 
W. Bush administration for its scorn of climate science.

        EDITORIAL
        The Science of Denial
        June 4, 2008

        The Bush administration has worked overtime to manipulate or
        conceal scientific evidence — and muzzled at least one prominent
        scientist — to justify its failure to address climate change.

        Its motives were transparent: the less people understood about
        the causes and consequences of global warming, the less they
        were likely to demand action from their leaders. And its
        strategy has been far too successful. Seven years later,
        Congress is only beginning to confront the challenge of global
        warming.

        The last week has brought further confirmation of the
        administration’s cynicism. An internal investigation by NASA’s
        inspector general concluded that political appointees in the
        agency’s public affairs office had tried to restrict reporters’
        access to its leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen. He
        has warned about climate change for 20 years and has openly
        criticized the administration’s refusal to tackle the issue head-on.

        More broadly, the investigation said that politics played a
        heavy role in the office and that it had presented information
        about global warming “in a manner that reduced, marginalized or
        mischaracterized climate-change science made available to the
        general public.”

        Meanwhile, the administration finally agreed, under duress, to
        release a Congressionally mandated report on the effects of
        climate change on various regions of the United States. Some of
        the report’s predictions, like the inevitable loss of coastal
        areas to rising seas, were not new. Others were, including
        warnings of a potential increase in various food- and
        water-borne viruses.

        What was most noteworthy about the latter report was that it
        made it to the light of day. A 1990 law requires the president
        to give Congress every four years its best assessment of the
        likely effects of climate change. The last such assessment was
        undertaken by President Clinton and published in 2000. Mr. Bush
        not only missed the 2004 deadline but allowed the entire
        information-gathering process to wither. Only a court order
        handed down last August in response to a lawsuit by public
        interest groups forced him to deliver this month.

        This administration long ago secured a special place in history
        for bending science to its political ends. One costly result is
        that this nation has lost seven years in a struggle in which
        time is not on anyone’s side.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/opinion/04wed2.html


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