[✔️] July 17, 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*July 17, 2022*/

/[ it's Sunday, so go to church and consider money...]/
*Presbyterians to divest from 5 oil companies, including Exxon Mobil, 
after years of debate*
Presbyterians have long had ties to the oil industry, as have many other 
faith groups in the United States. Leaders see this year’s vote as a 
sign that addressing climate change is gaining momentum./
/July 7, 2022
By Bob Smietana
(RNS) — A prominent mainline Christian denomination plans to divest from 
five oil companies it believes are not doing enough to address climate 
change.

The vote to divest from Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Marathon Petroleum, 
Phillips 66 and Valero Energy comes after years of debate in the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

On Wednesday (July 6), commissioners at the PCUSA’s general assembly 
voted 340-41 to add those companies to the denomination’s divestment 
list. They join 85 other companies on the list — most with ties to the 
military or the weapons industry...
The move “gives teeth to selective divestment,” said Aaron Ochart, vice 
moderator of the Environmental Justice Committee, who introduced the 
divestment recommendation to the general assembly, which voted online.

Since the 1980s, Presbyterians have called for a move away from fossil 
fuels, including oil. More recently, they have debated whether to divest 
or to use their investments to pressure companies to change their ways. 
In 2016 and 2018, votes to divest failed in favor of more engagement...
- -
“The purpose of the climate movement is not just to get certain small 
sectors of the economy to be fossil fuel-free,” he said. “We need a 
fossil-fuel-free economy, period.”

Fohr told Religion News Service in an interview that the MRTI committee 
will continue to engage with companies and work with church leaders to 
turn their values into action. The work remains complicated, he said, 
adding that “the divine is in the details.”

Still, he sees the divestment vote as a step toward progress.

“Fossil fuel divestment has been one of the more divisive and 
controversial issues at the past few General Assemblies,” he said in an 
email. “This year, it passed by almost 90% of the vote. I think this is 
something the PCUSA has to offer to the broader culture — through robust 
and transparent processes, differing sides can come together to effect 
meaningful change.”
https://religionnews.com/2022/07/07/presbyterians-to-divest-from-5-oil-companies-including-exxon-mobil-after-years-of-debate//
/

/- -/

/[ video discussions ]
/*Leading Theologically: Responsible Investing*
Streamed live on May 11, 2022  "If God is sovereign over all our life, 
how might people of faith invest responsibly? "

Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) was created in 
recognition of the church’s unique opportunity to advance its mission 
faithfully and creatively through the financial resources entrusted it. 
MRTI implements the General Assembly’s policies on socially responsible 
investing (also called faith-based investing) by engaging corporations 
in which the church owns stock.

Join us for this conversation on responsible investing with one of the 
wisest, most practical, and effective ruling elders the Rev. Dr. Lee 
Hinson-Hasty knows, Rob Fohr, the Director of Faith-Based Investing and 
Corporate Engagement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSDaQIf0_wM

/
/

/
/

/[  Low humidity and high heat means greater risk ] /
*Wildfires spread through western Europe in hot and dry conditions*
Jul 16, 2022  Western Europe has been unable to escape the clutches of 
unrelenting heat over the past few weeks, with temperatures again 
reaching into the mid-40Cs across parts of Portugal and Spain. It is 
Spain’s second heatwave in less than a month.
Temperatures reached 46.3C in Lousã, Portugal, and 45.6C in Almonte, 
Spain, on Wednesday. Accompanying the heat, dry and windy conditions 
have helped wildfires to spread.
The fires are stretching out from Portugal through central parts of 
Spain and now south-west France
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7bKR614RkQ

- -

/[ British Columbia fire]/
*Nohomin Creek Fire near Lytton, BC prompts evacuations*
Bill Gabbert
July 16, 2022
At least six home have been destroyed
The Nohomin Creek Fire on the west side of the Fraser River northwest of 
Lytton, British Columbia has burned approximately 1,500 hectares (3,700 
acres) since it was reported Thursday July 14. Judging from these photos 
shot that day it spread very rapidly.

Fire officials said Friday that at least six homes have been destroyed, 
and that number could rise.

The BC Wildfire Service reports that the fire behavior is rank four and 
rank five, meaning it is crowning, has a moderate to fast rate of 
spread, and is exhibiting short-range spotting.
https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Nohomin-Creek-Fire-7-a.m.-MDT-July-16-2022.jpg
https://wildfiretoday.com/2022/07/16/nohomin-creek-fire-near-lytton-bc-prompts-evacuations/

- -

/[ Wildfire damage  - clips from a long article Outside magazine ]/
*To Save Sequoias from Wildfire, We Must Save Them from Ourselves*
Jul 13, 2022
Once thought to be basically immortal, sequoias are now dying in droves 
as fires burn bigger, hotter, and longer than any other point in human 
history. Protecting them is possible, but managing western woods is a 
Pandora’s box of tough choices.
- -
No plant or animal has had so profound and immediate an impact on modern 
conservation. The trees led to the creation of the Park Service. In 
1864, just 12 years after marauding gringos first stumbled into a 
sequoia grove during the violent apex of manifest destiny, President 
Abraham Lincoln and California protected the Mariposa Grove, home to 
five hundred sequoias, and Yosemite Valley. Tourists traveled west to 
see this most exotic form of life. “They will be more prized and 
treasured a thousand years hence than now, should they, by extreme care 
and caution, be preserved so long,” wrote Horace Greeley, publisher of 
the New-York Tribune, after seeing them for the first time...
- -
Scientists recently observed that, intentional or not, sequoias regulate 
fire intensity by raising the humidity in the grove. They dump some of 
the 500 gallons of water they slurp up daily through their roots back 
into the atmosphere through their stomata, the cells in the foliage that 
trees use to trade water for carbon dioxide. It used to be that a fire 
would burn hot beneath some trees and cooler beneath others.  It used to 
be that the odds were good that on that special day when a fire finally 
came, at least one monarch in a grove was going to get lucky.

The seeds are falling from the giant now. Some may very well sprout in 
the spring (and then die because of the drought), but they may be 
sprouting beneath dead monarchs that produced them. If the humidity is 
higher in the grove tonight, it may not matter. Suddenly there’s a roar, 
like the sound of a jet taking off. The world pulses orange, and a young 
sequoia disappears behind a curtain of 150-foot flames. The hotshot 
nearest me cranes his neck, tracking the confetti of sparks as they 
drift upward. Embers mingle briefly with the stars before wafting into 
the canyon below...
- -
In the wet spring, months before the Washburn sparked, the Park Service 
put on an optional training seminar in Yosemite’s East Auditorium, a 
vaulted, windowless concrete room in the Valley. The session was on 
climate change grief. Skeptical, Garrett attended.

The emcee placed four items in a circle at the center of the room and 
asked the ten participants to pick the one that symbolized their 
feelings on climate change and share a bit about why. The stick 
represented anger. The rock represented fear. The bowl represented 
emptiness. And the oak leaf represented sorrow. When it was Garrett’s 
turn, he picked the leaf and, holding it, tried to tell the room that he 
was in charge of protecting Yosemite’s sequoias. That bureaucracy and 
logistics were the weapons he wielded to defend the big trees from 
climate change.

But his voice failed him. He’d recently found out that his work could be 
halted because an environmental group, the Earth Island Institute, was 
suing the park for what it insisted was illegal logging. As if the Park 
Service was now in the business of selling its assets, Chad Hansen, the 
executive director, contacted major publications—the Los Angeles Times, 
the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee, Outside—and used 
inflammatory language to describe projects the reporters had never seen. 
He called firebreaks clear-cuts and the thinning of small trees outright 
logging. Garrett’s projects now faced delays, and Yosemite’s sequoia 
groves an uncertain future. He rolled the dead leaf against his palm.

“I don’t want to have to do this,” he managed to get out, by which he 
meant he didn’t want to mull over the emotional toll of his work. He 
wanted to be optimistic, to say he believed that, because of his and his 
colleagues’ contributions, his son Theo and my two kids would be able to 
show the big trees to generations to come. But he couldn’t shake the 
conviction that the past decade has been climate change’s opening salvo.

“Nobody should have to do this,” he muttered. But everybody will have to 
do this—to grieve for the world we’re losing. And Garrett wept, holding 
a leaf, in a room full of strangers.
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/environment/sequoias-wildfire-california/



/[ Climate Psychology Conversations  - 22 min audio  ]/
*Episode One, Beyond Climate Anxiety*
Climate anxiety. It's getting lots of clinical and popular attention, 
but is it actually the right focus for climate-aware mental health care?
Podcast produced by Rei Takver
Featuring:

    - Wendy Greenspun, NYC psychoanalyst and faculty at Adelphi University
    - Panu Pikhala, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Theology at
    University of Helsinki
    - Selin Nurgun, Somatic Coach and resilience practicioner
    - Sarah Jaquette Ray, Program Leader of Environmental Studies at
    Humboldt State

https://www.climatepsychology.us/climate-psychology-conversations/beyond-climate-anxiety?mc_cid=a1391a5823&mc_eid=c88504a0df




/[ Thanks DM - kind of like the water pressure demand during a Superbowl 
commercial break   ] /
*Smart thermostats inadvertently strain electric power grids*
By Blaine Friedlander, Cornell Chronicle
July 12, 2022
Smart thermostats – those inconspicuous wall devices that help 
homeowners govern electricity usage and save energy – may be falling 
into a dumb trap.

Set by default to turn on before dawn, the smart thermostats 
unintentionally work in concert with other thermostats throughout 
neighborhoods and regions to prompting inadvertent, widespread 
energy-demand spikes on the grid.
- -
In 2021, about 40% of U.S. homes had smart thermostats, as utilities 
encourage adoption, according to the paper. Lee and Zhang examined 
wintertime smart thermostat data for over 2,200 homes in New York state, 
noted for its cold winter climate and a mix of urban, suburban and rural 
communities.
- -
Without a tenable way to store energy from renewable sources like solar 
power, the electric utilities will be unable to supply this peak demand, 
which prompts fossil-fuel generators to satisfy the power load. “This 
can offset the greenhouse gas emissions benefit of electrification,” Lee 
said.

Zhang noted ways to address the growing pressure on the grid, such as 
educating consumers on how to use smart thermostats and staggering the 
morning ramp-up times. “The problem is not straightforward, due to the 
security and privacy issues involved with homeowners,” Zhang said. “In 
the end, however, we have to make smart thermostats even smarter.”
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2022/07/smart-thermostats-inadvertently-strain-electric-power-grids 


- -/
/

/[Read in the Journal of Applied Energy - //Volume 322, 15 September 
2022, 119384 ]/
*Unintended consequences of smart thermostats in the transition to 
electrified heating*
Author links open overlay panelZachary E.LeeK.Max Zhang
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.119384Get rights and content
*Highlights*

    • A public smart thermostat dataset enables realistic heating demand
    estimation.
    • Data shows that uncoordinated smart thermostat controls create
    load synchronization.
    • Peak heating demand in early morning hours is 40% higher than
    previously estimated.
    • High heating demand correlates with low solar but high wind energy
    availability.
    • Code will be released as a toolkit to analyze other regions from
    the dataset.

*Abstract*
As building space heating undergoes an increasingly rapid transition 
toward electrification, it is vital to understand the impacts of these 
new electrical loads on the grid for future energy resource planning. 
While current methods for estimating heating demand rely on building 
modeling and occupant behavioral assumptions, we provide a scalable, 
data-driven approach for estimating regional electrical demand using 
real-world data from thousands of homes in a new, publicly available 
smart thermostat dataset. We find that despite lowering overall energy 
consumption, smart thermostat control algorithms can severely increase 
the winter peak heating demand through load synchronization during the 
early morning hours, when solar energy is unavailable. These peaks 
present unintended system-level consequences of focusing purely on local 
energy efficient control and can hinder the integration of renewable 
energy and electric heating. As a resource for future energy system 
planning, we provide our methodology as an open-source toolkit that can 
be used to analyze other regions around the world.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306261922007243



/[ Academics learn of reduced resilience ]/
*Emerging signals of declining forest resilience under climate change*
Giovanni Forzieri, Vasilis Dakos, Nate G. McDowell, Alkama Ramdane & 
Alessandro Cescatti
Nature - - 13 July 2022
*Abstract*
Forest ecosystems depend on their capacity to withstand and recover from 
natural and anthropogenic perturbations (that is, their resilience)1. 
Experimental evidence of sudden increases in tree mortality is raising 
concerns about variation in forest resilience2, yet little is known 
about how it is evolving in response to climate change. Here we 
integrate satellite-based vegetation indices with machine learning to 
show how forest resilience, quantified in terms of critical slowing down 
indicators3,4,5, has changed during the period 2000–2020. We show that 
tropical, arid and temperate forests are experiencing a significant 
decline in resilience, probably related to increased water limitations 
and climate variability. By contrast, boreal forests show divergent 
local patterns with an average increasing trend in resilience, probably 
benefiting from warming and CO2 fertilization, which may outweigh the 
adverse effects of climate change. These patterns emerge consistently in 
both managed and intact forests, corroborating the existence of common 
large-scale climate drivers. Reductions in resilience are statistically 
linked to abrupt declines in forest primary productivity, occurring in 
response to slow drifting towards a critical resilience threshold. 
Approximately 23% of intact undisturbed forests, corresponding to 
3.32 Pg C of gross primary productivity, have already reached a critical 
threshold and are experiencing a further degradation in resilience. 
Together, these signals reveal a widespread decline in the capacity of 
forests to withstand perturbation that should be accounted for in the 
design of land-based mitigation and adaptation plans.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04959-9



/[The news archive - looking back ten years ago ]/ /*
*//*July 17, 2012*/
July 17, 2012: On MSNBC's "NewsNation with Tamron Hall," Heidi Cullen of 
Climate Central discusses the extreme drought tormenting the United States.
*Heidi Cullen Talks Drought, Extremes on MSNBC*
...appeared on MSNBC ... to discuss the ongoing drought and heat waves 
currently affecting the U.S. She put these events into a climate 
context, noting that these events offer a preview of what's to come as 
the climate continues to warm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0eCaBV-osI

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