[✔️] October 9, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Sat Oct 9 07:32:13 EDT 2021

/*October 9, 2021*/

/[FiveThiryEight covers polling]/
*Americans Want The Government To Act On Climate Change. What’s The 
Hold-Up?*
Progressive lawmakers have signaled that they’re open to compromise, but 
some are warning that there’s at least one area they’ll refuse to give 
ground on: climate-related provisions.
Climate change could thus prove to be one of the main sticking points 
between progressives and centrists in the party. From the progressives’ 
point of view, the reconciliation bill appears to be the federal 
government’s best shot at tackling the rapidly escalating climate crisis 
in the near future. And New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that 
climate provisions are not something Congress can “kick down the line.” 
Meanwhile, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, one of the key centrists 
needed to pass the bill who has already successfully blocked some of 
Biden’s priority items, has said that he opposes the current bill’s 
primary climate provision: paying utilities to switch to clean energy.

So where does the public stand on combating climate change? Even before 
recent devastating weather events, Americans have long said that the 
federal government wasn’t doing enough. And polls now suggest that 
public opinion is more on the side of progressives. But the big caveat 
here is how Americans prioritize action on climate change versus other 
issues.

Overall, a majority of Americans want action on climate. According to a 
newly released survey from Monmouth University, 60 percent of U.S. 
adults said that climate change was “very” or “extremely” important for 
the federal government to address. Furthermore, 56 percent of U.S. 
adults said climate change was a “very serious” problem — up from 41 
percent in the same poll in December 2015. A recent study from Pew 
Research Center found that 60 percent of U.S. adults said they were 
worried about the personal impacts of climate change. ..
- -
In fact, a majority of Republicans — and an overwhelming majority of 
Democrats — favored all five climate policies that Pew asked about...
- -
On top of that, recent research has also shown that the budget bill’s 
climate-related proposals are wildly popular with the public. According 
to a study from the University of Maryland, which analyzed several polls 
on proposals in the reconciliation budget, 85 percent of registered 
voters supported reestablishing the Civilian Conservation Corps and 83 
percent supported the creation of a jobs program hiring unemployed coal 
workers to close down coal mines and remediate the landscape.

But here’s the catch: While Americans believe tackling climate change is 
important, that doesn’t mean they see it as the most important issue. In 
the Monmouth survey mentioned earlier, issues like jobs and unemployment 
(77 percent), the COVID-19 pandemic (72 percent) and racial inequality 
(65 percent) topped Americans’ list of “extremely important” or “very 
important” concerns for the federal government to address. A 
Politico/Harvard poll conducted in mid-September found that 
climate-related spending did not land in the top five “extremely 
important” issues that U.S. adults wanted included in the budget bill. 
The highest-priority climate-related issue — increasing spending on 
conservation efforts to curb wildfires and carbon emissions — came in at 
sixth place, while a policy to encourage people to buy electric cars 
ranked dead last in the list of 20 priorities.

Politics to address climate change will need to overcome other obstacles 
as well. The oil and gas industry is lobbying against some of the bill’s 
climate-related proposals, for example. And Manchin, who will need to 
sign off on the bill’s final language, represents West Virginia, which 
is among the nation’s top producers of coal and natural gas. He is 
currently the top recipient of campaign donations from the coal, mining 
and oil and gas industries, per OpenSecrets. He also has personal 
financial stakes in the fossil fuel industry.

For now, though, considering that progressive Democrats successfully 
stopped the infrastructure bill from passing last week, it’s notable 
that they’re already drawing another line in the sand on the spending 
bill. We’ll be keeping an eye out for what gets cut and what goes into 
the final bill.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-want-the-government-to-act-on-climate-change-whats-the-hold-up/

/[cough, cough]/
*Smoke from California wildfires increases doctor visits and blocks sun 
from crops*
Bill Gabbert -- October 6, 2021
Study shows N95 masks can reduce hospital visits for smoke inhalation by 
up to 40 percent
Dr. Praveen Buddiga, a local allergy and immunology specialist, says he 
saw an increase in patient visits on Friday due to the smoke sitting in 
the Valley.

“Today I’ve been seeing a lot of patients with cough, congestion, 
difficulty breathing and this is directly related to the air,” said Dr. 
Buddiga.

Dr. Buddiga said many of his patients have difficulty breathing, which 
is not surprising considering the smoke is even visible in satellite 
images taken from space.

Some masks can protect against wildfire smoke (Sept. 30, 2021)

Researchers found that N95 masks often used for protection from 
COVID-19, are effective in reducing the inhalation of wildfire smoke 
particles, and could reduce hospital visits for wildfire smoke 
inhalation by up to 40 percent. They found that surgical masks, 
primarily designed to keep sneeze and cough droplets from emerging in 
the air, do not not protect the wearer against a dangerous environment. 
Cloth masks used alone are also ineffective. While surgical masks by 
themselves were ineffective, combining them with a cloth mask to 
compensate for the surgical mask’s loose fit was about as effective as 
an N95 as long as the seal around mouth and nose was good.
https://wildfiretoday.com/2021/10/06/smoke-from-california-wildfires-increases-doctor-visits-and-blocks-sun-from-crops/

/[Gee... now we can watch falsehood content without commercial 
interruption ] /
*Google's Going to Stop Letting YouTubers Make Money Off Climate Change 
Denial*
The company's advertisers didn't like appearing next to videos claiming 
climate change is a hoax.
Florence Ion - - Oct7, 2021
Google is cleaning house: Following last week’s move to demonetize 
anti-vaccine content on YouTube, the company has also added climate 
change denial to the list of videos that creators can no longer make 
money off of.

Google announced the latest policy change through a support page where 
the Ads team lays out why it made this decision. The answer is much less 
altruistic than it seems.

“We’ve heard directly from a growing number of our advertising and 
publisher partners who have expressed concerns about ads that run 
alongside or promote inaccurate claims about climate change,” Google 
said. “Advertisers simply don’t want their ads to appear next to this 
content.”

Who would have thought that Google’s advertisers wouldn’t like their 
well-curated, fancy ads appearing alongside conspiracy theories? 
Google’s new policy should help combat some of that, though it doesn’t 
sound like it’s a complete ban on the topic...
- -
According to the new policy, YouTube creators cannot earn money for any 
content that contradicts “well-established scientific consensus around 
the existence and causes of climate change.” This includes content that 
says climate change is a scam or denies the increasingly evident warming 
trend overtaking the planet. It also includes any content that denies 
that humans and greenhouse gas emissions play a significant part in the 
onset of climate change...
The company plans to enforce its new policy beginning next month using a 
combination of algorithms and human moderation. The policy will apply to 
any Google-served ads and publisher content and YouTube videos that are 
a part of the YouTube Partner Program. However, there’s no explicit 
mention about the rest of the YouTube platform, and whether you’ll still 
run into the mass of conspiracy theorist content that plagues YouTube. 
Sounds like unless it’s explicitly related to climate change or covid 
vaccines, conspiracy theories get free rein.
https://gizmodo.com/googles-going-to-stop-letting-youtubers-make-money-off-1847822658

[NPR ]
*We need to talk about your gas stove, your health and climate change*
October 7, 2021
Americans love their gas stoves. It's a romance fueled by a decades-old 
"cooking with gas" campaign from utilities that includes vintage 
advertisements, a cringeworthy 1980s rap video and, more recently, 
social media personalities. The details have changed over time, but the 
message is the same: Using a gas stove makes you a better cook.

But the beloved gas stove has become a focal point in a fight over 
whether gas should even exist in the 35% of U.S. homes that cook with it.

Environmental groups are focused on potential health effects. Burning 
gas emits pollutants that can cause or worsen respiratory illnesses. 
Residential appliances like gas-powered furnaces and water heaters vent 
pollution outside, but the stove "is the one gas appliance in your home 
that is most likely unvented," says Brady Seals with RMI, formerly Rocky 
Mountain Institute.

The focus on possible health risks from stoves is part of the broader 
campaign by environmentalists to kick gas out of buildings to fight 
climate change. Commercial and residential buildings account for about 
13% of heat-trapping emissions, mainly from the use of gas appliances...
- -
The gas utility industry is fighting to preserve its business by 
downplaying existing science on gas stoves and indoor air quality. It 
points out that federal regulators have declined to regulate gas stoves 
more stringently. And it is investing in a range of campaigns to remind 
customers that cooking with gas is cheaper.

This battle is aimed at influencing your decision the next time you buy 
a new cookstove...
- -
The most common pollutants from gas stoves are nitrogen dioxide (NO2), 
carbon monoxide and formaldehyde. Advocates now are mostly focused on 
NO2, which the Environmental Protection Agency says is a toxic gas that 
even in low concentrations can trigger breathing problems for people 
with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease...
https://www.npr.org/2021/10/07/1015460605/gas-stove-emissions-climate-change-health-effects

/[EPA gives a lesson - GWP means Global Warming Potential /
*Understanding Global Warming Potentials*

    --CO2, by definition, has a GWP of 1 regardless of the time period
    used, because it is the gas being used as the reference. CO2 remains
    in the climate system for a very long time: CO2 emissions cause
    increases in atmospheric concentrations of CO2 that will last
    thousands of years.
    --Methane (CH4) is estimated to have a GWP of 28–36 over 100 years
    (Learn why EPA's U.S. Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and
    Sinks uses a different value.). CH4 emitted today lasts about a
    decade on average, which is much less time than CO2. But CH4 also
    absorbs much more energy than CO2. The net effect of the shorter
    lifetime and higher energy absorption is reflected in the GWP. The
    CH4 GWP also accounts for some indirect effects, such as the fact
    that CH4 is a precursor to ozone, and ozone is itself a GHG.
    --Nitrous Oxide (N2O) has a GWP 265–298 times that of CO2 for a
    100-year timescale. N2O emitted today remains in the atmosphere for
    more than 100 years, on average.
    --Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs),
    hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and
    sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) are sometimes called high-GWP gases
    because, for a given amount of mass, they trap substantially more
    heat than CO2. (The GWPs for these gases can be in the thousands or
    tens of thousands.)

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/understanding-global-warming-potentials

/[ NYT paying attention]/
*Trams, Cable Cars, Electric Ferries: How Cities Are Rethinking Transit*
Urban transportation is central to the effort to slow climate change. It 
can’t be done by just switching to electric cars. Several cities are 
starting to electrify mass transit.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/03/climate/cities-public-transit-electric-tram-ferry-bus-cable-car.html

[Yale Zoom about what to expect at upcoming meeting]
*The Urgency For Action at COP-26*
Oct 8, 2021
Yale University
"The urgency for action at COP-26: What will a fair deal look like?"
Event description: The 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, 
also known as COP-26, takes place in the city of Glasgow, Scotland from 
October 31 to November 12, 2021, after a year's postponement due to the 
Covid-19 pandemic. The question of how to equitably distribute the cost 
of reducing emissions has been a barrier to global climate action in 
past meetings. Low-income countries have done relatively little to cause 
the problem, but are the most vulnerable to the devastating consequences 
of climate change. Could policies that address the short-term goal of 
decreasing air pollution be the key to long-term climate action?
The ninth Yale Development Dialogue focused on what leaders should 
consider in trying to reach a “fair deal” for the planet and its people.

Panelists: John Haldon, Sunita Narain, Rohini Pande, Nicholas Ryan.
Moderator: Catherine Cheney.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXnaQYLjIZU

[The news archive - looking back]
*On this day in the history of global warming October  9, 1996*

October 9, 1996: Vice President Al Gore and former Representative Jack
Kemp discuss the environment in the Vice Presidential debate, with
Kemp bizarrely accusing Gore of promoting "fear of the climate" and
embracing an "anti-capitalistic mentality," while Gore defends the
Clinton administration's first-term environmental accomplishments.

(60:13--70:50)

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/74250-1

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