[✔️] August 25, 2022 - Global Warming News Digest

Richard Pauli Richard at CredoandScreed.com
Thu Aug 25 07:21:51 EDT 2022 

/*August 25, 2022*/

/[ censorship of real data - is that ethical ? ]/
*Google "airbrushes" out emissions from flying, BBC reveals*
By Justin Rowlatt
Climate editor
August 25. 2022
The way Google calculates the climate impact of your flights has 
changed, the BBC has discovered.
Flights now appear to have much less impact on the environment than before.

That's because the world's biggest search engine has taken a key driver 
of global warming out of its online carbon flight calculator.

"Google has airbrushed a huge chunk of the aviation industry's climate 
impacts from its pages" says Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist of Greenpeace...
- -
Yet in July, Google decided to exclude all the global warming impacts of 
flying except CO2.

Some experts say Google's calculations now represent just over half of 
the real impact on the climate of flights.

"It now significantly understates the global impact of aviation on the 
climate", says Professor David Lee of Manchester Metropolitan 
University, the author of the most comprehensive scientific assessment 
of the contribution of air travel to global warming.
Flying affects the climate in lots of ways in addition to the CO2 
produced by burning aviation fuel.

These include the creation of long thin clouds high up in the atmosphere 
- known as contrails - which trap heat radiated by the Earth, leading to 
a net warming effect on our planet...
- -
Google begins saying it has made the change following "recent 
discussions with academic and industry partners".

It acknowledges these factors are "critical to include in the model" and 
cites the emphasis given to them in the latest report by the UN's 
climate science body, the IPCC.

Google reiterated this point when approached by the BBC, saying it 
"strongly believes" that non-CO2 effects of aviation should be included 
in its calculations.
- -
"Current scientific knowledge is sufficient to state that non-CO2 
effects represent two thirds of the total climate impact of aviation", 
it says.

"The industry has hidden this problem for decades... Google should show 
customers the non-CO2 effects for each flight, as the European 
Parliament has proposed to do."

Google's changes are likely to have far-reaching effects.

The company's carbon calculation methodology is widely recognised as the 
industry standard in aviation...
- -
Google's chief sustainability officer, Kate Brandt, has said the company 
aims to "build tools that enable travellers and business around the 
world to prioritise sustainability".

Industry experts say the decision to change its methodology will have 
the opposite effect.

"I worry the impact of the equivalent of hundreds of millions of tonnes 
of CO2 will be ignored because it has become invisible to customers," 
says Kit Brennan, a founder of Thrust Carbon, a UK company specialising 
in helping businesses reduce the effect their travel has on the climate.

He fears consumers could come to believe that non-CO2 impacts on the 
climate are not relevant in the longer-term, despite the science that 
contradicts this view.

That would mean up to 1.5% of the warming caused by human activity would 
be being ignored and the pressure on airlines to reduce their emissions 
would be cut accordingly.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62664981

- -

/[ answer to one question ]/
*Why do aircraft leave contrails in the sky?*
- -
In a nutshell, contrails – a contraction of "condensation trails" – are 
the line-shaped ice particle clouds formed in the wake of aircraft. They 
can be anything from a 100m (330ft) to several kilometres long.

Three things are needed for them to form: water vapour, cool air and 
particles on which the water vapour can condense. Water vapour is 
produced by planes as the hydrogen in its fuel reacts with oxygen in the 
air. In cold conditions (typically below around -40C (-40F)) it can 
condense, typically on the soot particles also emitted from aircraft 
engines, to a fog of droplets, which then freeze to form ice particles. 
The process broadly resembles frozen breath on a cold winter's day, says 
Schumann.

Not all aircraft produce contrails – they are estimated to occur in 
about 18% of flights. The air needs to be cool enough for the water to 
freeze, which is why they usually only appear above certain altitudes – 
typically 20,000ft (6km).

Even fewer flights produce the most persistent contrails. In clear, 
cloudless air, contrails disappear quickly, as the dry ambient air makes 
the ice particles sublimate (pass from a solid to a gas). But if the 
atmosphere is humid, the ice particles cannot sublimate and contrails 
can linger for far longer...
- -
However, scientists soon realised that contrails can also have a warming 
effect on the Earth, via a "greenhouse" effect catching infrared light. 
"They capture the heat which is emitted from the Earth's surface and 
emit part of it back to the surface," says Schumann. It's similar to the 
way cloudy skies produce warmer nights – the clouds above are capturing 
some of the outgoing heat, although contrails are not large enough to 
cause weather changes on the ground.

Depending on the exact conditions, one or other of these opposing 
effects can win out. For example, contrails which form over a 
snow-covered landscape don’t lead to additional cooling from solar light 
being reflected, because the surface is already white and reflective. 
Contrails also warm more at night because no solar light is arriving to 
be reflected by them, so only the warming effect is at play.

Along with the difficulty in understanding the exact atmospheric 
conditions where contrails form, and the trickiness of differentiating 
them from natural cirrus clouds once they spread out across the sky, all 
this makes setting clear numbers on the climate impact of contrails 
complicated...
- -
Despite the complications, the warming and cooling impacts of contrails 
are well-established science. However these wispy lines hovering above 
us in the sky have also inspired a theory that very much isn't backed up 
by science: that they are trails of toxic chemicals nefariously sprayed 
into the atmosphere by tens of thousands of commercial aircraft...
- -
The chemtrails conspiracy is an astonishingly widespread belief. A 2016 
poll found that 10% of Americans consider the chemtrails conspiracy to 
be "completely true", with a further 20-30% considering it "somewhat" 
true. The belief was not divided by party lines, and unlike some other 
conspiracy theories, chemtrails appear to be believed in by both men and 
women equally, says Bruckman.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220823-what-makes-up-a-planes-contrails

- -

/[ in case we need more evaluation ]/
*Empty skies after 9/11 set the stage for an unlikely climate change 
experiment*
Within a few hours, the skies across the continent were empty except for 
military aircraft. Here’s what it looked like: https://youtu.be/bo1ZtpKqlYw
https://globalnews.ca/news/2934513/empty-skies-after-911-set-the-stage-for-an-unlikely-climate-change-experiment/



/[ Bill McKibben comments ]/
*Starting to Think Manchin's Side Deal is in Real Trouble*
Congressman Khanna, in a wide-ranging interview, predicts a 'progressive 
mutiny' if leaders try to jam through the oil favors
Bill McKibben
Aug 24
It’s starting to become clear that the “side deal” to permit pipelines 
and other fossil fuel projects that was put forth by Joe Manchin and 
Chuck Schumer as an accessory to the Inflation Reduction Act (aka the 
‘climate bill’) faces tougher-than-expected sledding in the Congress. 
Some of us started lobbying against the giveaways it proposed to the oil 
industry even before the IRA was signed, but now it appears that the 
agitation is growing—growing enough that what activists are calling a 
“dirty deal” may in fact be in danger.

I talked at length this afternoon with Ro Khanna, who chairs the House 
Oversight Subcommittee on the Environment, and he was quite blunt. He 
called the side deal a gutting of the National Environmental Policy Act 
(NEPA) and said “that’s not going to happen. You’re not going to get 
progressive support for that.” In fact, he promised a September 15 
hearing of his subcommittee to explore whether or not the fossil fuel 
industry actually wrote the language of the deal: an early draft 
circulating on Capitol Hill literally bore a watermark from the American 
Petroleum Institute...
https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/starting-to-think-manchins-side-deal?utm_source=email
//

/
/


/[ 'Water, water everywhere, but nary a drop is free. ]/
*Who owns water? | DW Documentary*
Aug 24, 2022  Climate change is causing temperatures to rise. And 
everyone is consuming more water - whether it’s to make soda, microchips 
or cattle feed. But our reservoirs are running dry. Investors are buying 
water rights, prices are going up and farmers are running out of water.

The climate crisis is worsening worldwide. In many countries, increasing 
drought is threatening not only human survival, but entire ecosystems. 
Livestock farmers are running out of water. In India, farmers can no 
longer irrigate their fields. People are fleeing their homes in large 
numbers.
Who owns water? Will there be more and more conflicts, even wars, over 
water? What will happen if our water disappears?

This is a three-part documentary series. Episodes will be released 
weekly on the following dates:
Part 1: The fight for water - August 10
Part 2: What happens when our water dries up? - August 17
Part 3: Who owns water? - August 24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9edWX7TTsLw/
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/[ climate scientist interviewed by spiritual activist - important 
hour-long video ] /
*John Englander: Post Doom with Michael Dowd*
Aug 22, 2022  TITLE: "Unstoppably Rising Seas". My long-time friend and 
colleague, John Englander (former CEO of the Jacques Cousteau Society), 
is widely recognized as one the world's foremost experts on the rapidity 
and unstoppability of the rising oceans due to abrupt climate change. An 
oceanographer, consultant, and gifted teacher, John's broad marine 
science background coupled with explorations to Greenland and Antarctica 
allows him to see the big picture of sea level rise and its societal 
impacts. His two acclaimed books are "High Tide on Main Street: Rising 
Sea Level and the Coming Coastal Crisis" (2011) and "Moving to Higher 
Ground: Rising Sea Level and the Path Forward" (2021).
Youtube: https://youtu.be/kOEQS1jrL8k
John Englander's website: https://johnenglander.net/
Also see: 85 other post-doom conversations: 
https://postdoom.com/conversations/
Post doom audio, video, and text resources (including documentaries, 
blogs, etc): https://postdoom.com/resources/
Post doom discussions: https://postdoom.com/discussions/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOEQS1jrL8k

- -

/[ YouTube video TedTalk ]/
*Sea level rise - fact & fiction: John Englander at TEDxBocaRaton*
Jun 11, 2014  Sea level is rising for the first time in thousands of 
years. Oceanographer John Englander, author of "High Tide On Main 
Street" explains why it is unstoppable, regardless of efforts to be 
'green' and sustainable. Using powerful images, he encourages us to 
embrace the new reality that the shoreline is moving, that we begin to 
adapt, while we also try to slow the warming. It is a positive message, 
"a glass half full, rather than half empty" --  though the glass will 
get higher each decade.
https://youtu.be/TH8Q8Ki9fCA



/[ Americans now moving closer to global populations ]/
*Americans experience a false social reality by underestimating popular 
climate policy support by nearly half*
Gregg Sparkman, Nathan Geiger & Elke U. Weber
Nature Communications volume 13, Article number: 4779 (2022)
Published: 23 August 2022
*Abstract*

    Pluralistic ignorance—a shared misperception of how others think or
    behave—poses a challenge to collective action on problems like
    climate change. Using a representative sample of Americans
    (N = 6119), we examine whether Americans accurately perceive
    national concern about climate change and support for mitigating
    policies. We find a form of pluralistic ignorance that we describe
    as a false social reality: a near universal perception of public
    opinion that is the opposite of true public sentiment. Specifically,
    80–90% of Americans underestimate the prevalence of support for
    major climate change mitigation policies and climate concern. While
    66–80% Americans support these policies, Americans estimate the
    prevalence to only be between 37–43% on average. Thus, supporters of
    climate policies outnumber opponents two to one, while Americans
    falsely perceive nearly the opposite to be true. Further, Americans
    in every state and every assessed demographic underestimate support
    across all polices tested. Preliminary evidence suggests three
    sources of these misperceptions: (i) consistent with a false
    consensus effect, respondents who support these policies less
    (conservatives) underestimate support by a greater degree;
    controlling for one’s own personal politics, (ii) exposure to more
    conservative local norms and (iii) consuming conservative news
    correspond to greater misperceptions.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32412-y



/[ From the Lancet Planetary Health in 2021]/
*Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about 
government responses to climate change: a global survey*
Caroline Hickman, MSc
Elizabeth Marks, ClinPsyD
Panu Pihkala, PhD
Prof Susan Clayton, PhD
R Eric Lewandowski, PhD
Elouise E Mayall, BSc, et al.
Open Access Published:December, 2021 
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3

    *Background*
    Climate change has important implications for the health and futures
    of children and young people, yet they have little power to limit
    its harm, making them vulnerable to climate anxiety. This is the
    first large-scale investigation of climate anxiety in children and
    young people globally and its relationship with perceived government
    response.

    *Methods*
    We surveyed 10 000 children and young people (aged 16–25 years) in
    ten countries (Australia, Brazil, Finland, France, India, Nigeria,
    Philippines, Portugal, the UK, and the USA; 1000 participants per
    country). Invitations to complete the survey were sent via the
    platform Kantar between May 18 and June 7, 2021. Data were collected
    on participants’ thoughts and feelings about climate change, and
    government responses to climate change. Descriptive statistics were
    calculated for each aspect of climate anxiety, and Pearson's
    correlation analysis was done to evaluate whether climate-related
    distress, functioning, and negative beliefs about climate change
    were linked to thoughts and feelings about government response.

    *Findings*
    Respondents across all countries were worried about climate change
    (59% were very or extremely worried and 84% were at least moderately
    worried). More than 50% reported each of the following emotions:
    sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty. More than 45%
    of respondents said their feelings about climate change negatively
    affected their daily life and functioning, and many reported a high
    number of negative thoughts about climate change (eg, 75% said that
    they think the future is frightening and 83% said that they think
    people have failed to take care of the planet). Respondents rated
    governmental responses to climate change negatively and reported
    greater feelings of betrayal than of reassurance. Climate anxiety
    and distress were correlated with perceived inadequate government
    response and associated feelings of betrayal.

    *Interpretation*
    Climate anxiety and dissatisfaction with government responses are
    widespread in children and young people in countries across the
    world and impact their daily functioning. A perceived failure by
    governments to respond to the climate crisis is associated with
    increased distress. There is an urgent need for further research
    into the emotional impact of climate change on children and young
    people and for governments to validate their distress by taking
    urgent action on climate change.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00278-3/fulltext
https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2542-5196%2821%2900278-3



/[The news archive - looking back]/
/*August 25, 2008*/
August 25, 2008: Former Rep. Jim Leach (R-VA) addresses the Democratic 
National Convention, criticizing his party for embracing 
hyper-partisanship and climate-change denial.
http://youtu.be/6981BGSPnNU


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