[✔️] June 22, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Tue Jun 22 10:27:02 EDT 2021

/*June 22, 2021*/

[now come the fires]
*Big Sur fire: hundreds of firefighters battle blaze raging in California*
Willow fire is one of dozens burning across US west, including Arizona, 
Utah and New Mexico, amid dry conditions

Firefighters are battling to contain a wildfire that erupted near Big 
Sur last week, as the flames continue to engulf the dry California 
landscape and threaten historical sites, cabins, and ranches.

The fire is one of dozens of wildfires burning in hot, dry conditions 
across the US west, including in Arizona and New Mexico.

In Monterey county, the so-called Willow fire has burned more than 2,400 
acres since it broke out on Thursday evening. Roughly 450 firefighters 
face the difficult task of trying to contain the large forest fire in 
the rugged coastal mountains south of Big Sur. The blaze remained at 0% 
containment as of Monday morning and forced the evacuation of a Buddhist 
monastery and nearby campground...
- -
In Arizona, a blaze named the Backbone fire that has burned more than 
32,750 acres after igniting last Wednesday from a lightning strike is 
also at 0% containment. Temperatures there have exceeded 100F and 
thousands of residents have been evacuated north-east of Phoenix, in the 
communities of Strawberry and Pine.

“There are major fires around Arizona and Utah – all over the western 
United States,” Munsey says. “That becomes problematic when trying to 
get resources to whatever fire you are on because they are already 
stretched so thin.”

Meanwhile, the mountainous city of Flagstaff was shrouded in smoke by 
another fire, dubbed the Rafael fire, on Monday. If the fire continues 
its north-eastern push, hundreds of people in the college city, which 
lies about two hours north of Phoenix, could be affected, officials say.

It’s already been a tough fire season for Arizona, which has seen 
multiple blazes spark this summer. On Monday, two national forests in 
northern Arizona made rare announcements that they would close 
completely to visitors starting later this week, because of concerns 
they won’t have enough resources to respond to any future wildfires.

And in New Mexico, lightning-sparked blazes have been scorching the 
southern part of the state, where a large portion of the Gila wilderness 
remains closed, and fire officials are closely watching the Gila Cliff 
Dwellings national monument.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/21/big-sur-wildfire-willow-fire

[Oceans rising mean overtopping]
*An acceleration of coastal overtopping around the world*
The combination of sea level rise, tides, storm surge and waves has 
increased the overtopping of natural and artificial coastal protection 
by nearly 50% in the last two decades. This revelation comes from an 
international study coordinated by IRD, involving international 
partners. The study was published in the prestigious scientific journal 
Nature Communications on June 18th 2021. By combining satellite data and 
digital models, the researchers have shown that coastal overtopping, and 
consequently the risk of flooding, is set to further accelerate over the 
21st century, by up to 50-fold under a high emission global warming 
scenario, especially in the tropics. This increase is principally caused 
by a combination of sea level rise and ocean waves.
https://www.preventionweb.net/news/view/78533

- -

[source matter]
*A global analysis of extreme coastal water levels with implications for 
potential coastal overtopping*

    Abstract
    Climate change and anthropogenic pressures are widely expected to
    exacerbate coastal hazards such as episodic coastal flooding. This
    study presents global-scale potential coastal overtopping estimates,
    which account for not only the effects of sea level rise and storm
    surge, but also for wave runup at exposed open coasts. Here we find
    that the globally aggregated annual overtopping hours have increased
    by almost 50% over the last two decades. A first-pass future
    assessment indicates that globally aggregated annual overtopping
    hours will accelerate faster than the global mean sea-level rise
    itself, with a clearly discernible increase occurring around
    mid-century regardless of climate scenario. Under RCP 8.5, the
    globally aggregated annual overtopping hours by the end of the
    21st-century is projected to be up to 50 times larger compared to
    present-day. As sea level continues to rise, more regions around the
    world are projected to become exposed to coastal overtopping...

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24008-9

[Gizmodo]
*9 Quotes From Republican Politicians Next to Their State's Damning Heat 
Graphs*
Some charts of how fast we're warming with totally unrelated quotes.
Molly Taft - June 21, 2021
First developed by climate scientist Ed Hawkins, these graphics—dubbed 
warming stripes—put the temperature changes wrought by the climate 
crisis in a stark light. In the original image, each stripe represented 
a year in the life of the global average temperature. Since then, 
warming stripes graphics have proliferated to show how much countries, 
states, and even local cities have heated up.

In honor of this auspicious day, we thought we’d share a few alarming 
stripe graphics from U.S. states with some totally unrelated quotes from 
deniers politicians in Congress to give them the opportunity to show 
their stripes, in a manner of speaking...
https://gizmodo.com/9-quotes-from-republican-politicians-next-to-their-stat-1847140415

[NPR]
*The White House Wants To Fight Climate Change And Help People. 
Cleveland Led The Way*
June 21, 2021
The fight against climate change may be taking a striking new turn under 
the Biden administration. The White House is calling climate action a 
form of environmental justice, part of a campaign to address economic 
and racial inequity.

It's bringing new attention and, potentially, a flood of cash to 
low-tech approaches to climate action that directly benefit low-income 
neighborhoods. They include aid for home renovations and upgrades to 
city transportation infrastructure, including buses.

"The environmental justice community, and many of our Black and brown 
communities, have identified the connection between climate change and 
their own community infrastructure. They can't be disconnected," says 
Cecilia Martinez, senior director for environmental justice at the White 
House Council on Environmental Quality.
- -
The disinvestment and decay happened in many parts of Cleveland. The 
city's population has fallen by more than half over the past 70 years, 
from 900,000 to just under 400,000.

Mumford attended the city's climate workshop looking for ways to 
revitalize her neighborhood, and she got excited about the potential of 
"community solar." Such projects allow people to buy a share in a larger 
solar project....
- -
"We plan to retrofit 2 million homes and commercial buildings. This is 
about meeting the moment, folks!" Gina McCarthy, Biden's top climate 
adviser, said at a recent meeting on energy-efficient buildings.

There's no guarantee as yet that money will flow to their city. 
Republicans in Congress included little of this funding in their version 
of an infrastructure package. McCarthy has worried publicly that the 
administration might be forced to drop some climate-related spending in 
order to get an infrastructure bill through Congress. Officials in 
Cleveland, however, still sound thrilled.

"To have support, to implement some of the things we all know we need to 
do, is fantastic," says Jason Wood, Cleveland's current chief of 
sustainability. "We have spent a big chunk of the last decade-plus 
preparing ourselves to take advantage of the moment."
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/21/1003227623/cleveland-wants-climate-justice-can-the-biden-administration-help

[from The Tyee]
*Ten Jobs for Getting to Work on a Zero Emissions Future*
A climate-fixing economy will mean new livelihoods like these in BC and 
across Cascadia.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/06/16/Ten-Jobs-Work-Zero-Emissions-Future

[top environmental economist]
*Julia Steinberger: What’s Causing the Environmental Crisis?*
Sep 15, 2020
postcarboninstitute
Human destabilization of natural systems is related to a range of 
factors, including technology, population, and, importantly, levels and 
types of consumption. In turn, these factors are affected by a host of 
economic, political, legal and cultural considerations, which differ 
markedly throughout the world. In this episode of the "Great 
Unraveling?" series, Julia Steinberger joins Laurie Laybourn-Langton to 
explore the socio-economic structures and dynamics driving the 
environmental crisis.

Julia Steinberger is Professor of Social Ecology and Ecological 
Economics at the University of Leeds and a contributor to the 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 6th Assessment Report. Her 
research project, “Living Well Within Limits,” investigates how 
universal human well-being might be achieved within planetary boundaries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M1UU-zZJb8

- -

[timely and important video discussion]
*Zero-Carbon - what it looks like and how we get there.*
Apr 22, 2020
Extinction Rebellion
Featuring Sarah Lunnon (Political Circle), Paul Allen (Zero Carbon 
Britain), Andrew Simms (The New Weather Institute & Rapid Transition 
Alliance) and Julia Steinberger (Ecological Economics).

We look back less than 4 months to another world. From here we now know 
we can achieve the impossible if united. The radical decisive action to 
address the pandemic lays bare the lack of action on the crisis of a 
natural world as a choice. Let’s work out how we now make the realistic 
choice to do the next impossible. #MoneyTalks #NoGoingBack #ResetTV 
#CarbonZero ‎‎

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

[good question]
*The Human Epoch: When Did the Anthropocene Begin?*
Humans and their activities hijacked Earth. Scientists investigate when 
the takeover began.
Jun 19, 2021
https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/the-human-epoch-when-did-the-anthropocene-begin

[panic from UNDARK]
*Climate Change Could Fuel the Spread of a Flesh-Eating Parasite*
Scientists caution that as the planet warms, more Americans could be 
exposed to varieties of the Leishmania parasite.
- -
EVERY YEAR, between 1.5 to 2 million people worldwide contract 
leishmaniasis, and around 70,000 die from it, mostly in poor rural 
areas. The most dangerous Leishmania strains, such as infantum and 
donovani, don’t just eat a person’s skin, they also infect the liver, 
spleen, and bone marrow, leading to death if not treated. Drugs like 
miltefosine and amphotericin B, used to cure these strains of 
Leishmaniasis, are expensive or toxic, and not much funding goes into 
researching and developing better treatments. In 2007, the World Health 
Organization added leishmaniasis to the list of neglected tropical 
diseases, which mainly affect the word’s poor and do not receive much 
attention.

While Leishmania parasites are present in about 90 countries, the 
symptoms of an infection vary by strain. The mexicana strain, typically 
found in Mexico and Central America, causes skin sores that can 
sometimes take years to heal and leave ugly scars. Others, like 
panamensis, mostly found in Panama and Colombia, attack the mucous 
membranes that line the inside of the nose and mouth, disfiguring people 
permanently.

Most leishmaniasis cases treated in the U.S. are linked to international 
travel. But there is evidence that an increasing number of people are 
infected in the U.S., likely by Leishmania mexicana. Between 1903 and 
1996, only 27 cases of locally-acquired leishmaniasis were reported in 
the U.S. Then, in just 10 years between 2007 and 2017, 41 new local 
cases were reported...
- -
https://undark.org/2021/06/21/climate-change-could-fuel-spread-flesh-eating-parasite/

[The news archive - looking back]
*On this day in the history of global warming June 22, 2006 *
The New York Times reports on the National Academy of Sciences' 
affirmation of Michael Mann's 1999 "hockey stick" paper.
*Science Panel Backs Study on Warming Climate*
By Andrew C. Revkin - June 22, 2006
WASHINGTON, June 22 — A controversial paper asserting that recent 
warming in the Northern Hemisphere was probably unrivaled for 1,000 
years was endorsed today, with a few reservations, by a panel convened 
by the nation's pre-eminent scientific body.

The panel said that a statistical method used in the 1999 study was not 
the best and that some uncertainties in the work "have been 
underestimated," and it particularly challenged the authors' conclusion 
that the decade of the 1990's was probably the warmest in a millennium.

But in a 155-page report, the 12-member panel convened by the National 
Academies said "an array of evidence" supported the main thrust of the 
paper. Disputes over details, it said, reflected the normal intellectual 
clash that takes place as science tests new approaches to old questions.

The study, led by Michael E. Mann, a climatologist now at Pennsylvania 
State University, was the first to estimate widespread climate trends by 
stitching together a grab bag of evidence, including variations in 
ancient tree rings and temperatures measured in deep holes in the earth.
It has been repeatedly attacked by Republican lawmakers and some 
business-financed groups as built on cherry-picked data meant to create 
an alarming view of recent warming and play down past natural warm periods.

At a news conference at the headquarters of the National Academies, 
several members of the panel reviewing the study said they saw no sign 
that its authors had intentionally chosen data sets or methods to get a 
desired result.

"I saw nothing that spoke to me of any manipulation," said one member, 
Peter Bloomfield, a statistics professor at North Carolina State 
University. He added that his impression was the study was "an honest 
attempt to construct a data analysis procedure."

More broadly, the panel examined other recent research comparing the 
pronounced warming trend over the last several decades with temperature 
shifts over the last 2,000 years. It expressed high confidence that 
warming over the last 25 years exceeded any peaks since 1600. And in a 
news conference here today, three panelists said the current warming was 
probably, but not certainly, beyond any peaks since the year 900.

The experts said there was no reliable way to make estimates for 
surface-temperature trends in the first millennium A.D.
It has been repeatedly attacked by Republican lawmakers and some 
business-financed groups as built on cherry-picked data meant to create 
an alarming view of recent warming and play down past natural warm periods.

At a news conference at the headquarters of the National Academies, 
several members of the panel reviewing the study said they saw no sign 
that its authors had intentionally chosen data sets or methods to get a 
desired result.

"I saw nothing that spoke to me of any manipulation," said one member, 
Peter Bloomfield, a statistics professor at North Carolina State 
University. He added that his impression was the study was "an honest 
attempt to construct a data analysis procedure."

More broadly, the panel examined other recent research comparing the 
pronounced warming trend over the last several decades with temperature 
shifts over the last 2,000 years. It expressed high confidence that 
warming over the last 25 years exceeded any peaks since 1600. And in a 
news conference here today, three panelists said the current warming was 
probably, but not certainly, beyond any peaks since the year 900.

The experts said there was no reliable way to make estimates for 
surface-temperature trends in the first millennium A.D.
They contended that Dr. Mann and his colleagues selected particular 
statistical methods and sets of data, like a record of rings in 
bristlecone pine trees, that were most apt to produce a picture of 
unusual recent warming. They also complained that Dr. Mann refused to 
share his data and techniques.

In an interview, Dr. Mann expressed muted satisfaction with the panel's 
findings. He said it clearly showed that the 1999 analysis has held up 
over time.

But he complained that the committee seemed to forget about the many 
caveats that were in the original paper. "Even the title of the paper on 
which all this has been based is as much about the caveats and 
uncertainties as it is about the findings," he said.

Raymond S. Bradley, a University of Massachusetts geoscientist and one 
of Dr. Mann's co-authors, said that the caveats were dropped mainly as 
the graph was widely reproduced by others. (The other author of the 1999 
paper was Malcolm K Hughes of the University of Arizona.)

The report was done at the request of Representative Sherwood Boehlert, 
the New York Republican who is chairman of the House Science Committee, 
who called last November for a review of the 1999 study and related 
research to clear the air.

In a statement, Mr. Boehlert, who is retiring at the end of the year, 
expressed satisfaction with the results, saying, "There is nothing in 
this report that should raise any doubts about the broad scientific 
consensus on global climate change — which doesn't rest primarily on 
these temperature issues, in any event — or any doubts about whether any 
paper on the temperature records was legitimate scientific work."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/science/22cnd-climate.html?_r=0

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