[✔️] June 12, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Sat Jun 12 10:30:49 EDT 2021

/*June 12, 2021*/

[grip and grin]
*G-7 Leaders Pose for Traditional 'Family' Photo as Summit Begins in U.K.*
Jun 11, 2021
Bloomberg Quicktake:
Group of Seven leaders braved drizzly beachside weather on the Cornish 
coast in southern England for a traditional “family” photo at the start 
of their annual summit, before the meeting formally got underway with a 
discussion on boosting the global economy after the pandemic.

This is the final G-7 for Angela Merkel after 16 years as German 
Chancellor (she is stepping down after an election in September), 
risking the prospect of next year’s gathering in Germany being a 
male-only affair. She was first to walk out for the photo, standing on 
the front right of the podium.

Host U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson stood smiling in the middle, 
flanked by French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_hgsOJkpDQ

[Associated Press reports ]
*Ice shelf protecting Antarctic glacier is breaking up faster*
A critical Antarctic glacier is looking more vulnerable as satellite 
images show the ice shelf that blocks it from collapsing into the sea is 
breaking up much faster than before and spawning huge icebergs, a new 
study says.

The Pine Island Glacier’s ice shelf loss accelerated in 2017, causing 
scientists to worry that with climate change the glacier’s collapse 
could happen quicker than the many centuries predicted. The floating ice 
shelf acts like a cork in a bottle for the fast-melting glacier and 
prevents its much larger ice mass from flowing into the ocean.
- -
Between 2017 and 2020, there were three large breakup events, creating 
icebergs more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) long and 22 miles (36 
kilometers) wide, which then split into lots of littler pieces, Joughin 
said. There also were many smaller breakups.

“It’s not at all inconceivable that the whole shelf could give way and 
go within a few years,” Joughin said. “I’d say that’s a long shot, but 
not a very long shot.”

Joughin tracked two points on the main glacier and found they were 
moving 12% faster toward the sea starting in 2017.

“So that means 12% more ice from Pine Island going into the ocean that 
wasn’t there before,” he said.

The Pine Island Glacier, which is not on an island doesn’t have pine 
trees, is one of two side-by-side glaciers in western Antarctica that 
ice scientists worry most about losing on that continent. The other is 
the Thwaites Glacier.

Pine Island contains 180 trillion tons of ice — the equivalent of 1.6 
feet (half a meter) of sea level rise — and is responsible for about a 
quarter of the continent’s ice loss.

“Pine Island and Thwaites are our biggest worry now because they are 
falling apart and then the rest of West Antarctica will follow according 
to nearly all models,” said University of California Irvine ice 
scientist Isabella Velicogna, who wasn’t part of the study.

While ice loss is part of climate change, there was no unusual extra 
warming in the region that triggered this acceleration, Joughin said.

“These science results continue to highlight the vulnerability of 
Antarctica, a major reservoir for potential sea level rise,” said Twila 
Moon, a National Snow and Ice Data scientist who wasn’t part of the 
research. “Again and again, other research has confirmed how Antarctica 
evolves in the future will depend on human greenhouse gas emissions.”
https://apnews.com/article/wa-state-wire-oceans-climate-glaciers-climate-change-3644a4238d2fcbe48f4f47ddbeea16fa 

- -
[Wasington Post video]
*This melting glacier was already the biggest source of sea level rise. 
Then things got worse.*
West Antarctica’s Pine Island glacier is speeding up as its ice shelf 
disintegrates, new research shows.
- -
What’s happening now is much faster and less predictable, Joughin said. 
It appears that the rapid slide of the glacier is creating fractures in 
the ice shelf, which leads to more pieces breaking off, or “calving.” 
Computer simulations and mathematical models support the idea that this 
process is responsible for the glacier’s speed up.
- -
On the other hand, if the acceleration of the glacier continues to 
create fractures, it could lead to a feedback loop that sends the ice 
shelf into a spiral of decline.

“It’s not at all inconceivable to say the rest of the ice shelf could be 
gone in a decade,” Joughin said. “It’s a long shot. But it’s not that 
big a long shot."

But if ice shelves can shift quickly and decisively, so too can 
humanity. Healing the ozone hole and taking swift action against climate 
change will alter the conditions in Antarctica’s atmosphere and oceans 
and help stabilize the continent’s glaciers.

“The future is still open to change," Davies said — if people do what is 
needed to change it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/06/11/pine-island-ice-shelf-collapse/
- -
[video from GBH Forum network ]
*Prof. Paul A. Berkman: Struggles Over The Melting Arctic*
May 1, 2021
GBH Forum Network
Professor Paul Arthur Berkman is a science diplomat, applying, training 
and refining informed decision making.

U.S. President Donald Trump left many scratching their heads when it was 
rumored that he was looking to purchase the large island nation of 
Greenland from Denmark. While any potential deal seems highly unlikely, 
the event shows the changing opinion within the U.S. government toward 
engagement with the Arctic region. Because of climate change, large 
sheets of arctic ice are melting, exposing vast stores of natural gas 
and oil. With Russia and China already miles ahead with their Arctic 
strategies, can the U.S. catch up?

In 2010, Berkman co-directed the first formal dialogue between NATO and 
Russia regarding environmental security in the Arctic Ocean. Most 
recently, he was awarded the Fulbright Arctic Chair 2021-2022 by the US 
Department of State with funding from the US Congress and support from 
the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Professor Berkman built 
international networks at Tufts University from 2015-2020 at the 
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He founded the first Science 
Diplomacy Center in the world in an academic institution, now directed 
through EvREsearch LTD, where he is the Chief Executive Officer. In 
addition to coordinating the Arctic Options/Pan-Arctic Options projects 
from 2013-2021, Professor Berkman is a Faculty Associate with the 
Program on Negotiation (PON) at the Harvard Law School and an Associate 
Director of Science Diplomacy in the Harvard-MIT Public Disputes 
Program. He also works as an Associated Fellow with the United Nations 
Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), developing global 
initiatives with science diplomacy and its engine of informed decision 
making.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM_irWt0K9s

[Down-under dumb one]
*Ignore, defend and pretend: Scott Morrison’s G7 climate strategy is 
embarrassing*
Bill Hare
Australia’s PM will be the odd man out on cutting emissions. His peers 
will know this, despite the bluster he will put up
- -
Morrison says he’ll argue that nobody has the right to tell Australia to 
set targets and timetables to cut emissions, despite the fact Australia 
agreed to do just that when it signed up to the Paris agreement. And in 
Paris Australia agreed with everybody else to upgrade its 2030 target 
with high ambition in 2020, a process now deferred until Glasgow later 
this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This will be seen for what it is 
– in polite terms “free-riding”; back at home in Australia we call it 
“bludging”.

He’ll have to continue to ignore the Paris agreement-compatible 1.5C 
energy scenarios, the latest being from the International Energy Agency, 
that say the world has to phase out the use of coal at the latest by 
2040, and phase out gas by around 2050. The IEA has also no new fossil 
fuel investments from this year if we are to meet the 1.5C limit. Yet 
Morrison’s government is pushing a gas-led recovery, both domestically 
and internationally. The IEA net zero report shows Australian LNG 
exports peaking in the mid-2020s and on the decline by 2030 to low 
levels in the following decade or so. If Paris is properly implemented, 
the gas and coal export industry is going to just dry up.
- -
In going to the G7 and railing against increased ambition on climate 
change, Morrison is going against the tide of history and science and 
will – wittingly or not – be seen as undermining an essential global 
movement towards real lasting and ambitious action on climate change. 
The US climate envoy, John Kerry, has said, and I very much agree with 
him, that this is our last best moment to take sufficient action to 
limit warming to 1.5C and the targets we adopt by 2030 will be determining.

To have Australia emerge at this moment in history as a nation so 
obsessed with its internal climate wars that its leader will ride into 
action at the G7 on behalf of coal and gas industries whose time has 
come is more than embarrassing. He needs to read the room.

Bill Hare, a physicist and climate scientist, is the managing director 
of Climate Analytics

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/11/ignore-defend-and-pretend-scott-morrisons-g7-climate-strategy-is-embarrassing

[important heroic actions of harvest and delivery]
*Talking Shop: Solutions Journalism*
May 24, 2021
Covering Climate Now

CCNow partnered with Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) to break down 
the process and impact of storytelling that investigates solutions with 
just as much rigor as issues. Joining us as panelists were:
- Fara Warner, Initiative Manager, Solutions Journalism Network
- Vania Andre, Board Chair and Publisher, The Haitian Times
- Doug Fraser, Environmental Reporter, Cape Cod Times and Member of 
Gannett/USA Today National Climate Change Team.
Mark Hertsgaard, CCNow’s executive director and the environment 
correspondent for The Nation, served as moderator.

The climate emergency is a problem of unprecedented proportion—but there 
are solutions all around us. Too much climate journalism focuses only on 
the problem, rather than on how to fix it. This interactive webinar will 
help improve your coverage of the solutions side of the climate story.

Follow CCNow on Twitter HERE: http://twitter.com/CoveringClimate
Like CCNow on Facebook HERE: http://facebook.com/CoveringClimateNow

Get Covering Climate Now's weekly newsletter delivered to your inbox. 
Subscribe HERE: bit.ly/39viEZd

Covering Climate Now is a global journalism initiative committed to more 
and better coverage of the defining story of our time. Organized by 
journalists, for journalists, CCNow was co-founded in April 2019 by the 
Columbia Journalism Review, and The Nation, in association with The 
Guardian. Our partners include more than 400 news outlets with a 
combined audience approaching 2 billion people, and our innovative 
collaborations are driving stronger climate coverage across the media. 
For more visit CoveringClimateNow.org

Solutions Journalism Network’s mission is to spread the practice of 
solutions journalism: rigorous reporting on responses to social 
problems. They seek to rebalance the news, so that every day people are 
exposed to stories that help them understand problems and challenges, 
and stories that show potential ways to respond. They help reporters, 
producers, and editors bring the same attention and rigor to stories 
about responses to problems as they do to the problems themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBIVuziGfsM

[video interview about radical actions at the G7 Summit]
*Sky News | Tim Crosland | G7 Summit, Cornwall | 11 June 2021 | 
Extinction Rebellion UK*
Jun 11, 2021
Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion spokesperson Tim Crosland is interviewed by Adam 
Boulton on Sky News 11 June 2021 (1430)

Help XR mobilise and donate: https://extinctionrebellion.uk/donate/

Extinction Rebellion UK: https://extinctionrebellion.uk/
International: https://rebellion.global/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExtinctionR
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/XRebellionUK/

1. Tell The Truth
2. Act Now
3. Beyond Politics

World Map of Extinction Rebellion Groups: https://rebellion.global/branches/

#extinctionrebellion
#climatechange
#globalwarming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk5at1n3NtA

[Everyone in Kansas City knows it's true]
*It’s not your imagination. Kansas City temperatures are hotter than 
they used to be*
Kansas City Wheeler Downtown Airport: The annual average temperature 
increased .2 of a degree from 56.7 to 56.9 degrees. The annual maximum 
temperature increased .3 of a degree from 66 to 66.3 degrees. The annual 
minimum temperature remained unchanged at 47.5 degrees.

The annual average precipitation decreased .93 of an inch from 39.06 to 
38.13 inches.
https://www.kansascity.com/news/your-kcq/article251969973.html

[video - there's already a fee being paid, not in money, in consequences]
*Carbon Fees, Putting a Price on Pollution*
Jun 10, 2021
Facing Future
#CarbonFees put a price on pollution. Sign the petition to President 
Biden asking him to initiate these fees at 
https://www.facingfuture.earth/  Why do we allow the air, the rivers, 
the land and the oceans to be used as sewers?  Because it's free. No one 
is charged for the greenhouse gases that are emited by our industrial 
society.   Instead, we all pay the price as our health, and the entire 
ecosystem of the Earth deteriorates.   The cost in terms of these 
"externalities" is staggering.
  When California put a price on  the return of beverage containers, it 
resulted in an 85% return rate. 360 billion bottles and cans have been 
recycled.  Now #BillShireman,  the architect of that first #BottleBIll 
wants to put a price on pollution.  #EarthX, which he co-founded with 
Trammel Crow, has brought over 2 million people from the left and the 
right  to vote for politicians who will put real solutions to the 
climate crisis on the table, recognizing that we are all "In This Together".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDdnL5Hl_XI

[The news archive - looking back]
*On this day in the history of global warming June 12, 1992
*
At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio 
de Janeiro, Brazil, 154 countries, including the United States, sign the 
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change aimed at preventing further 
global warming. The next day, in a somewhat contentious press 
conference, US President George H. W. Bush discusses the conference and 
defends his administration's environmental record.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/26576-1

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