[TheClimate.Vote] March 20, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sat Mar 20 10:36:20 EDT 2021
/*March 20, 2021*/
[Top opinion from Washington Post]
*Opinion: The danger of climate change is imminent. The Senate must
approve a strong policy.*
Opinion by Editorial Board
March 18, 2021
THERE HAVE been many moments when it seemed as though the United States
would tackle climate change, only for hopes to be dashed. Now, it has
another chance. President Biden promised to put global warming at the
top of his agenda, and congressional Democrats, for now clinging to
narrow majorities, are beginning to offer plans.
The danger is imminent. The world cannot afford another round of
nice-sounding proposals followed by inaction. Congress must go big on
climate change.
One plan, the sprawling Clean Future Act, released earlier this month by
the leaders of several House committees, would have the country reach
net-zero greenhouse emissions by mid-century, starting with massive
decarbonization of the electricity sector over the next decade. The bill
would require utilities to derive increasing amounts of their
electricity from clean sources, which include renewables, nuclear power
and, for a limited time and at a discounted rate, natural-gas-fired
power plants. The bill would invest in electric car infrastructure,
compensate coal country for lost jobs and ask states to develop
emissions-cutting plans that would address any areas federal programs
failed to cover.
Elements of the Clean Future Act might have bipartisan appeal, but the
package as a whole is unlikely to attract GOP support. No doubt sensing
that Democrats would seek to impose emissions regulations and mandates,
as does the Clean Future Act, some Republicans and industry players have
begun talking up market-based reforms that would be less costly and
disruptive. Major oil companies now favor taxing at some level the
carbon content of fuels such as gasoline. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah)
called for such a tax in February. Even the American Petroleum
Institute, a longtime opponent of climate action, is reportedly
considering endorsing a carbon tax.
These voices should have spoken up a decade ago. Democrats have been
reluctant to embrace such a plan since 2010, when they proposed a carbon
pricing bill and slammed into a wall of coal-state and industry
opposition. Since then, the left has soured on market-based emissions
policies. Many Democrats now favor massive spending and regulations instead.
But market-based incentives should be part of any climate legislation,
for reasons of policy and politics alike. Democrats need more than their
side to get a comprehensive bill. They need 10 Republican votes to reach
60 in the Senate. The only other option is using reconciliation, a
parliamentary maneuver that allows budget-related bills to pass the
Senate by a simple majority. But climate mandates would not qualify for
reconciliation. Using reconciliation, Democrats could enact massive
federal subsidies but not climate regulations. They also could impose
carbon taxes, or a mix of carbon taxes and spending.
In a functional Congress, this situation would produce a deal: Mr.
Romney and other GOP senators would offer a carbon tax; Democrats would
insist that some of its revenue go to underserved communities and
renewable energy research; the nation would get a climate plan. Mr.
Romney should try. Democrats should listen. If it does not work,
Democrats must find another path. One way or another, this Senate must
approve a strong climate policy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-congress-must-go-big-on-climate-change/2021/03/18/80dd58fc-876e-11eb-bfdf-4d36dab83a6d_story.html
- -
[video lecture - Beckwith agrees]
*We NEED Climate Operation Warp Speed: We’re close to a Terrestrial
Biosphere Tipping Point: 1 of 2*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YvyBRkKFyw
*Climate Operation Warp Speed (COWS) Needed to Avert Terrestrial Sink to
Source Tipping Point: 2 of 2*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWXv3TRV3IQ
Paul Beckwith - Mar 18, 2021
Humanity desperately needs a Climate Operation Warp Speed (COWS).
Earthlings must pull out all stops, and work relentlessly until COWS
comes home to Earth.
We did it for the coronavirus. The average time to develop a new vaccine
is ten years. Since big governments around the planet pushed hard to
develop vaccines, it took less than a year, and we know have multiple
working vaccines (20? 30?)
Governments around the world put in multi-billion dollar preorders for
vaccines, and ongoing deployment logistics to a large fraction of
countries population is still ongoing. Science was prepared, with DNA
based development, and perhaps lucky. Global cooperation resulted in the
fasted vaccine mobilization in history, by an order of magnitude (10x).
This should be a lesson. When facing a world-threatening crisis, there
are no substitutes for government leadership. It makes me feel better
about our chances in diverting a comet or asteroid if we find one will
hit us in a decade or two. Why can’t government do this for our climate
crises.
We need COWS. We need COWS. We will not rest until COWS come home!
There is no time to waste. We are extremely close to a temperature
tipping point for the terrestrial biosphere. Our land sink presently
captures about 30% (2.6 PgC per year) of our yearly anthropogenic carbon
emissions. With Business-as-Usual (BAU) keeping us on the highest
emission scenario (RCP8.5) the land temperatures will cause our land
carbon sink to become a net carbon source by about 2040, and then
atmospheric and ocean carbon will skyrocket.
I discuss the latest science on C3 (most plants) having a photosynthesis
maximum at 18C, and C4 plants (grasses, corn) having the maximum at 28C.
The mean temperature of the warmest quarter of the year (3 months)
passed the thermal maximum for photosynthesis within the last decade.
With BAU the land sink capture will halve to only 15% of anthropogenic
emissions and the overall land surface will tip to a source.
In Part 1 of my two part video series, I chat about the key highlights
of the terrestrial tipping point science.
In Part 2 I delve into the graphs and nitty gritty of the science and
why we can expect the land to tip over from a net carbon sink to a
carbon source within two decades or so.
1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YvyBRkKFyw
2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWXv3TRV3IQ
[Simple talk video 5 min]
*Why we don't act: Climate Change Psychology*
Aug 6, 2020
ClimateAdam
Little kids are bad at delayed gratification. But unfortunately so are
adults. I take a look at why weighing future benefits against present
costs makes climate change such a challenging conundrum.
https://youtu.be/DWTjbgeHZTg
[NPR notices the fishes]
*One Of Biden's Biggest Climate Change Challenges? The Oceans*
March 18, 2021
LAUREN SOMMER
- text and audio -
A few years ago, marine biologist Kyle Van Houtan spotted an online
video that he couldn't quite believe. It showed a young great white
shark, about five-feet long, swimming just off a pier in Central California.
"Our initial reaction was that it can't be true," Van Houtan says. "We
know that they're in Southern California and Mexico, not in Monterey."
When they're young, white sharks typically live in the warm waters of
Southern California, hundreds of miles from the cold, rough surf up
north off Monterey.
Still, the shark in the video wouldn't be the only one to appear. Since
2014, young white sharks have been arriving off Monterey in greater numbers.
The sharks were simply following the water temperatures they're adapted
to. The ocean was warmer, shifting the sharks' habitat from where it's
normally found. Similar shifts are being seen around the world, just one
of the ways that climate change is hitting the oceans hard.
Ocean scientists say the Biden Administration is taking office at a
critical time. Sea levels are rising, fish are migrating away from where
they're normally caught, and the water itself is becoming more acidic as
it absorbs carbon dioxide that humans emit.
While the administration has appointed climate change advisors
throughout the federal government, a key role remains unfilled: the head
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency that
oversees everything from fisheries policy to marine sanctuaries.
Environmental advocates are hoping the oceans play a central role in
Biden's climate agenda, including post-pandemic recovery plans.
Restoring coastal marshes and mangroves creates jobs, as well as brings
back crucial habitat for marine life and buffers coastal communities
against rising seas and storm surges.
"The ocean is not just a victim," says Miriam Goldstein, director of
ocean policy at the Center fo American Progress. "The ocean can also be
a hero. The ocean can protect us from the climate change that's already
underway."
The arrival of the young white sharks in Central California coincided
with another unusual event, known as the "blob." A marine heat wave was
spreading across the waters of the north Pacific Ocean.
"That was some of the warmest water we've ever had in recorded history
off the West Coast of the U.S.," Van Houtan says, who is the chief
scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. In Monterey, water temperatures
were as much as 10 degrees above average.
Thus far, the oceans have literally been taking the heat from climate
change. Over the last 50 years, they've absorbed more than 90% of the
excess heat in the atmosphere from human-caused warming.
Young white sharks congregate in Southern California for its warmer
water. Only later, when they bulk up considerably, do they move into
cooler waters, eventually growing to 15 feet. As the marine heat wave
spread, the sharks followed their patch of warm water as it moved north
up the coast, according to a new study. Overall their available habitat
shrank, since the temperatures to the south and west were no longer
tolerable.
Scientists John O'Sullivan of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Chris Lowe
of California State University release a tagged juvenile white shark off
Southern California, part of an effort to track their movement.
Monterey Bay Aquarium
While the water has cooled a bit recently, the white sharks have stuck
around. Scientists still aren't sure how it could affect the overall
ecosystem as new species come into contact with the established native
species.
"Predators and prey are now crowded into smaller spaces," Van Houtan
says. "If I'm a prey species, there's just fewer places to hide. And
that is a big concern when you're thinking of the overall picture and
you're thinking of commercial fisheries and sardines and salmon."
But Van Houtan cautions that the sharks themselves are not the problem.
Marine heat waves are expected to become hotter and last longer due to
climate change.
"This is not a story about sharks," he says. "This is a story about
climate. The sharks are following their temperatures and their habitat.
They're following their home as it moves up the coast. Our emissions are
the problem."
Oceans in crisis
Similar shifts are happening across the oceans. On the East Coast,
lobsters are moving north, one of the reasons that fishermen in southern
New England are increasingly finding their traps empty. The fishing
fleet in North Carolina is having to travel farther and farther north to
find their catch.
Most fishery regulations weren't written with these dynamic changes in
mind. Some rules are controlled by states, even though fish move across
state lines. Others limit fishing to fixed areas, governed by lines on a
map that may mean little as species move elsewhere.
"Our management system has not caught up," Goldstein says. "So we need
to look at what it will take to help these fishing communities,
fishermen, processors adapt to what unfortunately is the new reality."
In addition to warming, the ocean is also becoming more acidic because
it's absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, posing a significant
threat to oysters and other shellfish.
As a result, scientists say that cutting overall heat-trapping emissions
will be crucial for ocean health, a policy the Trump Administration
rolled back. Trump also sought to expand offshore oil and gas leasing in
the oceans and removed protections for the Northeast Canyons and
Seamounts Marine National Monument, a unique underwater canyon ecosystem
off the coast of New England.
"I think it's fair to say that the last four years were pretty rough for
the environment and they were certainly rough for the ocean," says
George Leonard, chief scientist at Ocean Conservancy.
Without a new leader appointed at NOAA so far, the Biden
Administration's ocean agenda hasn't been spelled out yet, aside from
the agency's recent request for feedback about how to make ocean policy
resilient to climate change. The goal with the biggest potential impact
is Biden's 30x30 commitment, which aims to conserve 30% of the land and
oceans by 2030.
"The ocean needs a lot more protection," Leonard says. "We have a
biodiversity crisis in the ocean and that's being driven by climate
change and overexploitation. Process really matters with 30x30. This
isn't just about fish. It's about people too. There are a lot of people
and communities who can get hurt if establishing protected areas isn't
done in a just and equitable way."
Traditionally, fishing groups have largely fought ocean conservation,
since it can limit access to valuable fishing grounds. But some say the
effects of climate change mean the conversations need to start now.
"Everybody I talk to, everybody I work with is seeing things change,"
says Eric Brazer, deputy director of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish
Shareholders' Alliance, an association of Gulf Coast fishermen. "They
are the ones who often see and experience these changes before anybody
else does."
Brazer says if the Biden Administration wants to be successful, it will
need to work with local groups from the outset. Recently, NOAA tripled
the size of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary off the coast
of Texas and New Orleans. Even though it limited fishing, Brazer says
his colleagues were ultimately supportive since they had been involved
in the conversations from the beginning.
"Fishermen's businesses are going to be impacted by this," Brazer says.
"That's why it's especially critical for us to be at the table, be at
the podium, have access to the managers and start to answer these
questions that are unanswered at this point."
https://www.npr.org/2021/03/18/975782053/one-of-bidens-biggest-climate-change-challenges-the-oceans
[EPA Press Release]
News Releases from Headquarters›Air and Radiation (OAR)
*EPA Reboots Climate Change Website*
03/18/2021
Contact Information: EPA Press (press at epa.gov)
WASHINGTON (March 18, 2021) -- As part of the Biden-Harris
Administration's commitment to action on climate change and restoring
science, EPA is taking the first step in a relaunch of its climate
change website. For the first time in four years, EPA now has a webpage
to guide the public to a range of information, including greenhouse gas
emissions data, climate change impacts, scientific reports, and existing
climate programs within EPA and across the federal government.
"Climate facts are back on EPA's website where they should be," said EPA
Administrator Michael S. Regan. "Considering the urgency of this crisis,
it's critical that Americans have access to information and resources so
that we can all play a role in protecting our environment, our health,
and vulnerable communities. Trustworthy, science-based information is at
the foundation of strong, achievable solutions."
The Biden-Harris Administration has made it clear that addressing
climate change is a national priority. In the weeks and months to come,
EPA will be adding new, updated information on climate change science,
impacts, what EPA is doing and what you can do, providing a trustworthy,
accurate public resource on climate change issues and solutions.
Climate change leads to rising seas, retreating snow and ice, and to
changes in the frequency and intensity of heat waves, precipitation, and
extreme weather events. These changes, occurring as a result of the
buildup of greenhouse gases due to human activities, are changing the
climate at a pace and in a way that threatens human health, society, and
the natural environment. Children, the elderly, and the poor are among
the most vulnerable to climate-related health effects.
video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J15Rwfq4Ic
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Go to the Climate Change website.
Go to the Climate Change website in Spanish.
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-reboots-climate-change-website
[Impressive]
*The UK just halved its Carbon Footprint*
Mar 18, 2021
ClimateAdam
The United Kingdom has cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in just
30 years. This huge climate change victory is a great start, but the
second half poses huge challenges that the country has barely begun to
tackle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCZGANC8wxs
[Dr Jennifer Atkinson podcast]
*Episode 6: Embracing Uncertainty*
Eco-anxiety and climate grief are sometimes framed as “disorders,” but
in fact these feelings typically arise from an accurate perception of
our ecological crisis. It may be more appropriate to identify
eco-anxiety as a “moral emotion” -- a sign of compassion, attachment to
life, and desire for justice. And so paradoxically, we can take some
encouragement from the global increase in eco-anxiety and climate grief,
since our very existential discomfort affirms a desire to live in a more
just and sustainable world.
Because the fight for climate solutions is filled with such
contradictions, this episode explores some ways we are strengthened by
challenging easy assumptions about climate distress. Our future remains
unwritten, and by embracing the unknown we are better able to reframe
our thinking in empowering ways. So-called “negative” feelings that
arise in response to ecological disruption (grief, anxiety, anger) can
be seen as signs of emotional health, while “undesirable” states like
uncertainty are potential doorways to transformation. Climate anxiety
might even be seen as a kind of superpower -- a signal that alerts us
when something's wrong and needs to be addressed, especially while
others are sleepwalking through the crisis. As Martin Luther King Jr.
once said, "the salvation of the world lies in the hands of the
maladjusted." The time has come for the maladjusted to rise.
*This episode includes extended excerpts from Rebecca Solnit and
Clarissa Pinkola Estés.
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick
society.”
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
https://www.drjenniferatkinson.com/facing-it
[a classic idea from January of this year]
*Climate Change Needs an Operation Warp Speed*
If the Covid vaccine push has proved anything, it’s that big government
works.
IN THE DISMAL early days of the pandemic, a vaccine seemed depressingly
far off. Historically, the average time to develop a new vaccine was 10
years—far too long for our current emergency. But then something
happened to shift things into overdrive: serious government action....
https://www.wired.com/story/warp-speed-for-climate-change/
[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - March 20, 2014 *
The Washington Post reports on Koch Industries' connection to the
Keystone XL pipeline.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/03/20/the-biggest-land-owner-in-canadas-oil-sands-isnt-exxon-mobil-or-conoco-phillips-its-the-koch-brothers/
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