[✔️] January 29, 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest.

[👀 Richard Pauli]

/*January 29, 2022*/

/[ Storm today in New England  ]/
*US East Coast hunkers down as 'bombogenesis' snowstorm hits*
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60177979



/[  lost in court ]/
*Alaska court rules against youths in climate change lawsuit*
By Mark ThiessenThe Associated Press
Jan. 28, 2022
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) —
The Alaska Supreme Court acknowledged that it’s not within its 
jurisdiction to balance the compelling interests involved in managing 
the state’s resources, a statement released from the office of 
Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy said.

“Like the young Alaskans that filed this lawsuit, all of us want a 
sustainable and healthy future for Alaska. Through its policy decisions 
over the years, the state has achieved an appropriate and effective 
balance between resource development and environmental protection,” the 
statement said.
- -
The Alaska Supreme Court acknowledged that it’s not within its 
jurisdiction to balance the compelling interests involved in managing 
the state’s resources, a statement released from the office of 
Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy said.

“Like the young Alaskans that filed this lawsuit, all of us want a 
sustainable and healthy future for Alaska. Through its policy decisions 
over the years, the state has achieved an appropriate and effective 
balance between resource development and environmental protection,” the 
statement said.
“Our irreplaceable peoples, lands, cultures, and ecosystems are 
infinitely more precious than the short-term profits of the fossil fuel 
industry, which threatens our state economy and our way of life,” 
Sagoonick, 20, said in a statement. “It will only be a matter of time 
until the state’s promotion of fossil fuels irreversibly alters the 
climate we depend on for our lives and culture.“
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/us/2022/01/28/alaska-court-rules-against-youths-in-climate-change-lawsuit.html



/[ Think warming thoughts -  heat in Phoenix ]/
*America’s hottest city is nearly unlivable in summer. Can cooling 
technologies save it?*
Phoenix’s new ‘heat tsar’ is betting on less asphalt, more green canopy 
and reflective surfaces to cool the sprawling heat island
Asurge in heat-related deaths amid record-breaking summer temperatures 
offers a “glimpse into the future” and a stark warning that one of 
America’s largest cities is already unlivable for some, according to its 
new heat tsar.

Almost 200 people died from extreme heat in Phoenix in 2020 – the 
hottest, driest and deadliest summer on record with 53 days topping 110F 
(43C) compared with a previous high of 33 days. Last year there were 
fewer scorching days, but the death toll remained staggeringly high, 
with people experiencing homelessness and addictions dying 
disproportionately...
- -
Hondula will lead a four-person team with two broad goals: protecting 
residents when it’s very hot (the heat response part), and coming up 
with long-term strategies to cool the city and make it more comfortable 
(the mitigation part). Both require better data, better coordination 
across government, and money...
- -
Climate disasters such as deadly heatwaves, wildfires, drought and 
torrential rain storms are increasingly frequent, costly and deadly and 
experts agree that slashing greenhouse gas emissions is the only way to 
limit global heating.

But towns and cities are not helpless. In fact, Hondula argues, tackling 
urban heating could help turn around the city’s livability decline. “All 
cities have tiny hands on the big lever [of global heating] but the 
dominant driver of regional climate change has been urbanization, and 
that’s a lever we do have in our hands as local governments.

“Some modeling suggests with widespread deployment of cooling 
technologies like trees and reflective surfaces, we could end up with a 
city in the future that is cooler than we have today even with continued 
global scale warming, which is a very encouraging sign.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/27/phoenix-arizona-hottest-city-cooling-technologies 




/[ Current overview of energy efficiency in the home - audio podcast ]/
*Volts podcast: Panama Bartholomy on decarbonizing America's buildings*
The need, the challenges, and the opportunities.
David Roberts - Jan 28, 2022
Fossil-fuel combustion in buildings — mostly natural gas for space and 
water heating — is responsible for around 30 percent of US greenhouse 
gas emissions. Getting to net-zero will require heating, cooling, and 
powering all those buildings with carbon-free energy.

It’s an enormous challenge — or rather, a huge thicket of challenges. 
There are technical issues, political issues, public-opinion issues, and 
policy issues, all of which decompose into dozens of discrete issues of 
their own.

To help me wrap my head around all of it, I’m eager to talk to Panama 
Bartholomy, who is, I promise, a real person and not a Dr. Seuss character.

Panama Bartholomy
Bartholomy has been wrestling with building decarbonization for decades, 
at (in reverse chronological order): the Investor Confidence Project, 
the California legislature, the California Energy Commission, the 
California State Architect, and the California Conservation Corps. He’s 
served on a variety of boards, collaborated with various expert 
organizations, worked on climate issues in over 30 countries, and all 
kinds of other stuff, but if I tried to include it all I would never get 
to the conversation.

Bartholomy is currently running the Building Decarbonization Coalition, 
a multi-sector alliance of companies, nonprofits, and government 
agencies working on buildings, so he’s up to date on where progress is 
being made (think New York and California), the biggest political 
impediments (think the natural gas industry), and whether heat pumps 
really work in cold climates (think yes, they do)...
https://www.volts.wtf/p/volts-podcast-panama-bartholomy-on?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyMzY4NzE5OSwicG9zdF9pZCI6NDc3NzM5MjMsIl8iOiJyNzJObSIsImlhdCI6MTY0MzM5NDE4NywiZXhwIjoxNjQzMzk3Nzg3LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMTkzMDI0Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.CcOuTySE3NyKrlbR170D6jpFC2GZ4k_drkHUPG8CVyQ&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#play



/[ Succinct -- here comes another movie  review - of climate activism ]/
*SUNDANCE REVIEW: TO THE END*
Rob Aldam JAN 23, 2022
While history will remember the 2020 US Presidential election for the 
‘storming of the Capitol’ and a victory for rationalism over populism, 
there were so many individual and dogmatic battles taking place. One of 
the most compelling arenas was the struggle for the hearts and minds of 
the Democratic Party. On the one hand, you had the progressive 
‘socialism’ of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. On the other, the 
steady centre ground of Joe Biden.

This is the environment in which campaigners hoped The Green New Deal, a 
bold and ambitious plan to stop climate change and address economic and 
racial justice in the process, would mark a sea-change in American 
politics. Four young women of colour and strong leaders, Alexandria 
Ocasio-Cortez, Varshini Prakash, Alexandra Rojas and Rhiana Gunn-Wright, 
fight for a better future in To The End.

Rachel Lears picks up where she left off in Knock Down The House, and in 
many ways To The End is a logical continuation. The climate crisis is 
the biggest issue facing mankind this century, but the struggle to be 
heard continues. We witness attempts to cut through the noise. Rise 
above the politics and the myriad media angles. To The End highlights 
the pressing need for change and the strong and determined voices 
committed to make it happen.
https://www.backseatmafia.com/sundance-review-to-the-end/



/[  The Science Guy in a Crossword Puzzle ]/
//*The Way We Talk About Climate Change Matters, Bill Nye Says*
In Monday’s puzzle, “Nye” was the answer to the clue “Bill known as the 
‘Science Guy.’”
By Alexis Benveniste
Jan. 28, 2022, 9:00 a.m. ET
This is Clued In, a column that will give you insight into some of the 
New York Times Crossword clues and answers.

‘Bill known as the “Science Guy,”’ three letters: Nye.
“Nye” has been used in 204 New York Times crossword puzzles, according 
to XWordInfo. It has been clued in several different ways, including 
“Bill of the Planetary Society” and “Former PBS host with a bow tie.” It 
made its first appearance in the New York Times Crossword in 1946, as a 
clue for “American humorist,” in reference to Edgar Wilson Nye. Most 
recently, it appeared in Monday’s puzzle, constructed by John Guzzetta.

Bill Nye has talked about climate change for decades, both on and off 
the screen. He starred on “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” a playful 
educational show about science basics that aired on PBS and local 
stations in the late 1990s. Nye, who is now the chief executive of the 
Planetary Society, knows his role as a science educator is far from over.

In big discussions about climate change and Earth’s future, “words are 
really important,” Nye said. He criticized the way in which recent 
climate conversations have been handled on a global scale.

“The words are always watered down,” he said, pointing to discussions at 
COP26, a United Nations climate conference. Shifting the language of 
climate change can be harmful, he said. For example, using the phrase 
“phasing down coal” instead of “phasing out coal” dilutes the meaning 
and intensity of the conversation about coal’s effect on the environment.

“Our future depends on getting the tone right,” Daniel Blumstein, a 
professor at UCLA’s Institute of Environment and Sustainability, said. 
He added that the goal should be to eliminate as many carbon-producing 
energy sources as possible and replace them with carbon-free ones. 
“While there may be a transition that requires some carbon-intensive 
energy sources,” Blumstein said, “the word ‘out’ connotes a future where 
coal has no substantial role, where the word ‘down’ implies we just want 
to reduce it a bit.”

When people say humans are likely to be responsible for climate change, 
“that’s different from saying it’s our fault,” Nye said. The phrases 
“climate change” and “global warming” are just two sides of the same 
coin, he said. And while the conversation about the warming planet can 
feel daunting, Nye believes that “everybody should be anxious about 
climate change.”

The phrase “clean coal,” for instance, can be confusing and polarizing. 
The term, which was popularized by coal industry groups in 2008, is 
often understood to refer to coal plants that capture carbon dioxide 
emitted from smokestacks and bury it underground in an effort to limit 
global warming. It’s important to note that regardless of plant 
technology, coal mining is a highly polluting practice that often 
damages streams and other waterways.

“Global warming” has gradually been replaced, in many instances, by 
“climate change,” Deborah Tannen, a linguistics professor at Georgetown 
University, said. One disadvantage of the phrase “global warming” is 
that it can be taken to mean only increasing temperatures, so other 
catastrophic effects may not seem connected, Tannen said. “Global 
warming” acknowledges the overall trend toward warmer temperatures, but 
it largely neglects local effects, which are experienced as shifts in 
extremes, the climate scientist and Harvard professor Marianna Linz 
said. Those extremes could include heat, but they could also be 
droughts, floods or tornadoes.

Nye said that while taping the show in the ’90s, he was “concerned” 
about the future of the United States. “I still am,” he added.

“People are frightened by climate change, and they should be,” Nye said. 
“It’s a scary proposition.”

Note from the constructor
“I chose Bill Nye because his name happened to fit. I hope Nye, with his 
good math-and-science mind, will understand that crossword construction 
is sometimes as much a matter of statistics and common letter 
combinations as aesthetic choices. And his nice short name contains 
three very helpful letters!” — John Guzzetta
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/crosswords/bill-nye-climate-change-crossword.html


/[  says the BBC  ] /
*Climate change divides along racial lines. Could tackling it help 
address longstanding injustices?*
By Jeremy Williams
26th January 2022
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, it was the city's black 
neighbourhoods that bore the brunt of the storm. Twelve years later, it 
was the black districts of Houston that took the full force of Hurricane 
Harvey. In both cases, natural disasters compounded issues in 
neighbourhoods that were already stretched.

Climate change and racism are two of the biggest challenges of the 21st 
Century. They are also strongly intertwined. There is a stark divide 
between who has caused climate change and who is suffering its effects. 
People of colour across the Global South are those who will be most 
affected by the climate crisis, even though their carbon footprints are 
generally very low. Similar racial divides exist within nations too, due 
to profound structural inequalities laid down by a long legacy of 
unequal power relationships...
- -
In order to build that shared purpose and deliver transformation, "it's 
time to centre the voices of those most impacted by the climate crisis" 
adds Mulenga. "By combining the resources with the experience and 
knowledge of those most impacted by the crisis; we can build a diverse 
and powerful coalition for climate justice."

The response to demands from vulnerable countries for richer countries 
to take responsibility will determine whether climate change becomes a 
problem that unites or divides humanity. It may be a moment of shared 
purpose. Or history may come to know it as the next chapter in a long 
story of racial oppression, alongside slavery, colonialism and empire.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220125-why-climate-change-is-inherently-racist



/[  Keep going now... ] /
*Court Revokes Oil and Gas Leases, Citing Climate Change*
A judge ruled that the Interior Department must consider the climate 
effects of oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico before awarding leases.
By Lisa Friedman
Updated Jan. 28, 2022
WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday canceled oil and gas leases of 
more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico, ruling that the Biden 
administration did not sufficiently take climate change into account 
when it auctioned the leases late last year.

The decision by the United States District Court for the District of 
Columbia is a major victory for environmental groups that criticized the 
Biden administration for holding the sale after promising to move the 
country away from fossil fuels. It had been the largest lease sale in 
United States history.

Now the Interior Department must conduct a new environmental analysis 
that accounts for the greenhouse gas emissions that would result from 
the eventual development and production of the leases. After that, the 
agency will have to decide whether it will hold a new auction.

“This is huge,” said Brettny Hardy, a senior attorney for Earthjustice, 
one of several environmental groups that brought the lawsuit...
- -
“This requires the bureau to go back to the drawing board and actually 
consider the climate costs before it offers these leases for sale, and 
that’s really significant,” Ms. Hardy said, adding, “Once these leases 
are issued, there’s development that’s potentially locked in for decades 
to come that is going to hurt our global climate.”...
- -
Oil industry executives said Thursday they are counting on the Biden 
administration to appeal the court ruling. “At a time of geopolitical 
uncertainty and rapidly rising energy prices, U.S. oil and gas 
production is more important than ever to curb inflation and to fortify 
our national security,” Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean 
Industries Association, which represents offshore energy companies, said 
in a statement.

Environmental groups said they want the administration to live up to its 
campaign promises. “We will continue to hold the Biden administration 
accountable for making unlawful decisions that contradict its pledge to 
take swift, urgent action on code red climate and environmental justice 
priorities,” said Hallie Templeton, legal director at Friends of the 
Earth, an environmental group that was part of the lawsuit.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/climate/federal-court-drilling-gulf.html



/[The news archive - looking back to a key moment in climate history ]/
*On this day in the history of global warming January 29, 2006*
January 29, 2006: The New York Times reports on the extensive effort by 
the George W. Bush administration to muzzle NASA scientist James Hansen. 
(The controversy would also be covered by Air America's "EcoTalk with 
Betsy Rosenberg" and the CBS program "60 Minutes." 
http://youtu.be/x0i4Sx1edJE )

In 2001, Dr. Hansen was invited twice to brief Vice President Dick
Cheney and other cabinet members on climate change. White House
officials were interested in his findings showing that cleaning up
soot, which also warms the atmosphere, was an effective and far
easier first step than curbing carbon dioxide.

He fell out of favor with the White House in 2004 after giving a
speech at the University of Iowa before the presidential election,
in which he complained that government climate scientists were being
muzzled and said he planned to vote for Senator John Kerry.

But Dr. Hansen said that nothing in 30 years equaled the push made
since early December to keep him from publicly discussing what he
says are clear-cut dangers from further delay in curbing carbon dioxide.

In several interviews with The New York Times in recent days, Dr.
Hansen said it would be irresponsible not to speak out, particularly
because NASA's mission statement includes the phrase "to understand
and protect our home planet."

He said he was particularly incensed that the directives had come
through telephone conversations and not through formal channels,
leaving no significant trails of documents.

Dr. Hansen's supervisor, Franco Einaudi, said there had been no
official "order or pressure to say shut Jim up." But Dr. Einaudi
added, "That doesn't mean I like this kind of pressure being
applied."...

- -The fresh efforts to quiet him, Dr. Hansen said, began in a
series of calls after a lecture he gave on Dec. 6 at the annual
meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. In the
talk, he said that significant emission cuts could be achieved with
existing technologies, particularly in the case of motor vehicles,
and that without leadership by the United States, climate change
would eventually leave the earth "a different planet."

The administration's policy is to use voluntary measures to slow,
but not reverse, the growth of emissions.

After that speech and the release of data by Dr. Hansen on Dec. 15
showing that 2005 was probably the warmest year in at least a
century, officials at the headquarters of the space agency
repeatedly phoned public affairs officers, who relayed the warning
to Dr. Hansen that there would be "dire consequences" if such
statements continued, those officers and Dr. Hansen said in interviews.

Among the restrictions, according to Dr. Hansen and an internal
draft memorandum he provided to The Times, was that his supervisors
could stand in for him in any news media interviews.

Mr. Acosta said the calls and meetings with Goddard press officers
were not to introduce restrictions, but to review existing rules. He
said Dr. Hansen had continued to speak frequently with the news media.

But Dr. Hansen and some of his colleagues said interviews were
canceled as a result.

In one call, George Deutsch, a recently appointed public affairs
officer at NASA headquarters, rejected a request from a producer at
National Public Radio to interview Dr. Hansen, said Leslie McCarthy,
a public affairs officer responsible for the Goddard Institute.

Citing handwritten notes taken during the conversation, Ms. McCarthy
said Mr. Deutsch called N.P.R. "the most liberal" media outlet in
the country. She said that in that call and others, Mr. Deutsch said
his job was "to make the president look good" and that as a White
House appointee that might be Mr. Deutsch's priority.

But she added: "I'm a career civil servant and Jim Hansen is a
scientist. That's not our job. That's not our mission. The inference
was that Hansen was disloyal."

Normally, Ms. McCarthy would not be free to describe such
conversations to the news media, but she agreed to an interview
after Mr. Acosta, at NASA headquarters, told The Times that she
would not face any retribution for doing so.

Mr. Acosta, Mr. Deutsch's supervisor, said that when Mr. Deutsch was
asked about the conversations, he flatly denied saying anything of
the sort. Mr. Deutsch referred all interview requests to Mr. Acosta.

Ms. McCarthy, when told of the response, said: "Why am I going to go
out of my way to make this up and back up Jim Hansen? I don't have a
dog in this race. And what does Hansen have to gain?"

Mr. Acosta said that for the moment he had no way of judging who was
telling the truth. Several colleagues of both Ms. McCarthy and Dr.
Hansen said Ms. McCarthy's statements were consistent with what she
told them when the conversations occurred.

"He's not trying to create a war over this," said Larry D. Travis,
an astronomer who is Dr. Hansen's deputy at Goddard, "but really
feels very strongly that this is an obligation we have as federal
scientists, to inform the public."

Dr. Travis said he walked into Ms. McCarthy's office in mid-December
at the end of one of the calls from Mr. Deutsch demanding that Dr.
Hansen be better controlled.

In an interview on Friday, Ralph J. Cicerone, an atmospheric chemist
and the president of the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's
leading independent scientific body, praised Dr. Hansen's scientific
contributions and said he had always seemed to describe his public
statements clearly as his personal views.

"He really is one of the most productive and creative scientists in
the world," Dr. Cicerone said. "I've heard Hansen speak many times
and I've read many of his papers, starting in the late 70's. Every
single time, in writing or when I've heard him speak, he's always
clear that he's speaking for himself, not for NASA or the
administration, whichever administration it's been."

The fight between Dr. Hansen and administration officials echoes
other recent disputes. At climate laboratories of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for example, many scientists
who routinely took calls from reporters five years ago can now do so
only if the interview is approved by administration officials in
Washington, and then only if a public affairs officer is present or
on the phone.

Where scientists' points of view on climate policy align with those
of the administration, however, there are few signs of restrictions
on extracurricular lectures or writing.

One example is Indur M. Goklany, assistant director of science and
technology policy in the policy office of the Interior Department.
For years, Dr. Goklany, an electrical engineer by training, has
written in papers and books that it may be better not to force cuts
in greenhouse gases because the added prosperity from unfettered
economic activity would allow countries to exploit benefits of
warming and adapt to problems.

In an e-mail exchange on Friday, Dr. Goklany said that in the
Clinton administration he was shifted to nonclimate-related work,
but added that he had never had to stop his outside writing, as long
as he identified the views as his own.

"One reason why I still continue to do the extracurricular stuff,"
he wrote, "is because one doesn't have to get clearance for what I
plan on saying or writing."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/science/earth/29climate.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1& 


http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/ecotalkblog/2006/02/ecotalk_82.html

60 Minutes Global Warming and George Bush
http://youtu.be/x0i4Sx1edJE

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/nasa-scientist-muzzled/


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