[✔️] June 17, 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
Richard at CredoandScreed.com
Fri Jun 17 08:47:11 EDT 2022
/*June 17, 2022*/
/[ Early leap on chaotic weather ]
/
*A string of climate disasters strike before summer even starts*
Major flooding strikes Montana and Wyoming, while the Midwest suffers a
record-setting heat wave
By Anna Phillips and Tom Howard
June 16, 2022
In eastern Montana and Wyoming, massive flooding has destroyed bridges,
swept away homes, and forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 visitors
from Yellowstone National Park. Half a million households in the Great
Lakes and Ohio Valley lost power earlier this week after violent
thunderstorms swept through. And a record-setting heat wave pushed
temperatures into the triple digits from Nebraska to South Carolina,
leaving more than 100 million Americans under heat warnings and killing
at least 2,000 cattle in Kansas...
The official first day of summer has not even arrived and already the
country is overheated, waterlogged and suffering. Extreme weather is
here early, testing the nation’s readiness and proving, once again, that
overlapping climate disasters are now becoming more frequent and
upending Americans’ lives.
“Summer has become the danger season where you see these kinds of events
happening earlier, more frequently, and co-occurring,” said Rachel
Licker, principal climate scientist at the Union of Concerned
Scientists, a research and advocacy group. “It just shows you how
vulnerable our infrastructure is and that this is just going to get
increasingly problematic.”
The Midwest is at the center of this shift. Hit with an unseasonably
early heat wave in May that smashed records, the region has since been
buffeted by more heat as well as severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.
Hundred of thousands of Midwesterners lost power earlier this week as
temperatures soared into the upper 90s.
Licker, who lives in Madison, Wis., sought refuge at the library. But
some of her elderly neighbors had to be helped out of their sweltering
homes, where they had been trapped after finding they could not open
their garage doors without electricity.
The power came back the following day, but by Wednesday, Licker was
battling severe weather once again, sheltering from tornadoes in her
basement. That afternoon, the National Weather Service issued 10
different weather advisories and notices for the region, including an
excessive heat warning.
“It’s been really wild,” she said.
This deluge had deadly consequences: A 10-year-old boy was swept away in
a Milwaukee drainage ditch following severe thunderstorms there...
- -
He Several experts say these types of simultaneously occurring disasters
reveal the extent to which Americans remain unprepared for the
escalating impacts of climate change. Downed power lines, homes swept
away amid flooding and overwhelmed storm water systems highlight how
little progress governments have made toward girding communities for
extreme weather.
Yet, they caution, there are limits to how much the nation can adapt.
The world has already warmed between 1.1 and 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2
degrees Fahrenheit) above the preindustrial average. If countries
continue emitting carbon pollution at historically high rates, the
future will be hotter — and harder to bear...
“We cannot take a punch from one these hazards alone, forget about three
or four of them simultaneously,” said Camilo Mora, a climate scientist
at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who studies cascading disasters.
“The idea that we can keep emitting greenhouse gases and buy our way out
of it later with adaptation just doesn’t make any sense.”
Mora and other scientists’ research suggests that by 2100, unless humans
act quickly to cut greenhouse gas emissions, some parts of the world
could experience as many as six climate-related disasters at the same
time. Coastal areas are likely to be hit the hardest, since they are
affected not only by extreme heat and intensifying wildfires, but also
by rising sea levels and increasingly devastating hurricanes.
Across the United States, climate change is already worsening the damage
from extreme weather. Between 2017 and 2021, more than 8 million acres,
on average, burned each year — more than double the average between 1987
and 1991, the Congressional Budget Office found in a report released
Thursday. While much of the West endures an unprecedented drought, a
study published last year found that the Northeast has seen a 53 percent
increase in extreme rainfall since 1996...
- -
On the 1-to-5 scale for such atmospheric river events that’s used by
Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, it was a 5.
Marty Ralph, who directs the center in San Diego, said it was
“remarkably unusual” to see an atmospheric river so intense in June.
Atmospheric rivers are most common in the West between late fall and
early spring.
Business owners in Gardiner, a gateway community just north of
Yellowstone National Park, are facing the possibility of a summer
without tourists. Yellowstone remained closed Thursday. Though parts of
the park may reopen next week, the northern portion of the park, which
saw most of the damage, is not expected to reopen to visitors for months.
“The long-term health of Gardiner is going to depend on whether they get
public access to the loop road in Yellowstone,” said Richard Park, owner
of Parks’ Fly Shop. With large sections of road washed out between
Gardiner and Mammoth just inside Yellowstone, businesses that cater to
tourists will be strangled, he said...
- -
For Alexis Bonogofsky — a sheep ranger and program manager for the World
Wildlife Fund, an advocacy group — the flood represents only the latest
in a series of disastrous events to strike her family farm just south of
Billings.
Severe drought left her land parched last summer. Swarms of grasshoppers
devoured what little grass grew and she had to sell some of her
livestock because she didn’t have enough feed. Earlier this week, the
Yellowstone River flooded 80 acres of Bonogofsky’s pastureland, damaging
hundreds of feet of fence that kept her 30 ewes and 10 goats confined.
Bonogofsky said she fears residents are getting used to wave after wave
of crises.
“Humans adapt quickly to these kinds of events and they’re becoming
normal to us instead of seeing what’s going on,” she said. “We’re going
to see these forms of natural disasters more frequently, and I hope that
at some point people will realize what’s happening and start addressing
the root cause.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/16/summer-climate-disasters//
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/[ Yale Climate Connections - significant video explanations 48 mins ]/ //*
**2022 Atlantic hurricane season: What to expect*
Jun 16, 2022 Hurricane season is back. Scientists at Colorado State
University are predicting 20 named storms and 10 hurricanes, including
five major hurricanes. Learn more about what's in store for this season
in this webinar with Yale Climate Connections meteorologists Dr. Jeff
Masters and Bob Henson, joined by moderator Sam Harrington, associate
editor at Yale Climate Connections.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roG6zXTUPgs
/
/
/[ Electric vehicle promoter corrects the marketing misinformation
marketing - in a clever, sarcastic video ] /
*The Wall Street Journal Made A "Trip" By EV...And It Just Proved How
Clueless People Are About EVs..*
Jun 8, 2022
[EDIT: Since publishing the video, we've been made aware that Rachel
Wolfe did indeed consult A Better Route Planner - But actually chose to
not follow its advice.
Quote: "I did consult A Better Route Planner. We intentionally stopped
in Nashville and Memphis to show a typical road trip, rather than one
structured only around charging stops." she said on Twitter a few days ago.
https://twitter.com/rachelbwolfe/status/1533529505071042560
Based on this, we have to admit, it doesn't look good for the WSJ.
Many years, ago, there were plenty of stories about journalists making
hapless trips by EV - with no seeming intent of doing any kind of
homework before.
In the age of expanded rapid charging and cars that can charge in just
twenty minutes to 80 percent, we thought that day had passed.
Yet last weekend, the @Wall Street Journal published a story about a
road trip in one of the world's most Capable EVs in which everything
that could go wrong did go wrong.
Some might argue this shows how biased journalists are against EVs - but
we (as journalists ourselves) think there's another reason.
People are completely clueless about electric vehicle charging. And
unless we fix it, this will continue to be a major issue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X95zxgcRvII
/
/
/
/
/[ from a Guardian email newsletter June 15, 2022 ] /
*How secret courts are helping fuel the climate crisis*
Damian Carrington
They are the fossil fuel industry’s “secret weapon”: private courts that
enable companies to win billions of dollars from countries that choose
to tackle the climate crisis by halting oil, gas and coal projects.
Some campaigners say the closed-door tribunals are the biggest threat to
the Paris climate agreement. They are certainly a very big stick. The
latest assessment puts the future costs to governments for ending
projects being developed at up to $340bn, depending on the oil price. A
separate analysis looking ahead to 2050 reckons that governments – and
therefore taxpayers – could be on the hook for €1.3tn. That money is
desperately needed to fund the vital transition to a clean, green world.
We know that most fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground to have a
hope of limiting global heating to 1.5C and avoiding the worst climate
impacts. We also know that the "carbon bomb" projects planned by oil and
gas companies would blow up those hopes, as set out in a recent
investigation by me and my colleague Matthew Taylor. Experts say even
some existing fossil fuel sites will have to be shut down.
Making that happen when fossil fuel companies and petrostates wield
enormous power is hard. Adding colossal financial penalties makes
defusing the carbon bombs harder still.
It is not just campaigners warning about these investor-state dispute
settlements (ISDS), as the private courts are formally called. The
latest report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says
ISDS can be used by fossil-fuel companies to “block national legislation
aimed at phasing out the use of their assets”, and “may lead to
countries refraining from or delaying” action to cut emissions.
*'An affront to justice'*
The latest analysis of fossil fuel ISDS cases identified 231 to date,
although that is a modest estimate due to the secrecy of the corporate
courts. Fossil fuel companies usually win big, with 72% of cases where
the final award was disclosed going in their favour and the average
payout being $600m. Cases include Canada’s TC Energy demanding US$15bn
(£12bn) after US president Joe Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline,
while in 2021 the European energy companies RWE and Uniper launched
suits against the Netherlands for billions of euros over its policy to
phase out coal.
“During the most important decade for climate action, the international
community cannot afford to divert critical funds from essential
[climate] efforts to compensation for fossil fuel companies,” said
Rachel Thrasher, who is part of the research team and works for the
Global Development Policy Center at Boston University.
The five countries with the greatest potential losses from ISDS are the
UK, Russia, Venezuela, Guyana and Mozambique, the researchers found.
“The most problematic treaty is the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT),” said
Thrasher. Signed in 1994, it was intended to protect foreign investors
in Russia and the post-Soviet republics. But since 2014 more than
two-thirds of ECT cases have involved EU companies suing EU governments.
Jean Blaylock, at Global Justice Now, joined recent protests on the
issue in the UK. “The fossil fuel industry is already doing everything
in its power to delay and deter climate action,” she said. “The last
thing we need is for governments to give these companies a secret weapon
in their battle to squeeze maximum profits out of climate breakdown. But
that’s what we’ll be doing if we fail to withdraw from the Energy
Charter Treaty.”
“It is an affront to democracy and an affront to justice,” Blaylock
said. Global Justice Now estimates that the cost of Germany’s coal
phase-out was hugely inflated due to the risk of being sued.
*Hearing problems*
My colleague Jennifer Rankin has written an excellent explainer on the
ECT and in November revealed that the number of cases had more than
tripled in the past decade. Strikingly, the true number of cases is
unknown as hearings take place in secret and investors have no
obligation to disclose the existence of a case, even to the ECT secretariat.
However, change may be coming. European nations are increasingly unhappy
with efforts to reform the ECT. Leaked diplomatic cables seen by
Euractiv show frustration from Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and
Spain, with the latter making “it clear it would consider an exit
scenario, as it did not see how the ECT could be adapted to the Paris
agreement”.
Pascal Canfin, chair of the European parliament’s environment committee,
and others recently called for the 27 EU nations to pull out of the ECT
en masse: “We cannot remain part of an agreement that allows [companies]
to protect climate-damaging investments indefinitely.”
Thrasher proposes three possible solutions. “First, countries should
terminate their treaties – even unilaterally – to avoid ISDS cases.
South Africa and others [including India, Indonesia and Ecuador] have
done so without substantial impact on foreign investment flows.” And
countries could also negotiate the end of ISDS between themselves, she
said, or withdraw consent for any ISDS cases involving fossil fuels.
The EU commission is trying to forge a compromise with Japan, which is
holding out against ECT reform. We’ll know if that succeeds, and whether
the fossil fuel industry’s secret weapon has been blunted, after a
meeting in Brussels on 24 June.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk?utm_term=62ab0d34ba5ba750e7e792605859f0d8&utm_campaign=GreenLight&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=greenlight_email/[
this article was part of an email campaign from the Guardian - "Down to
Earth -- In Focus ]/
/[ //From websites ]/
*Study: Climate change affects mental health of young Oregonians*
By Monica Samayoa (OPB)
June 14, 2022
Oregon Health Authority released a report on Tuesday after hosting focus
groups with young people across the state.
Anger. Guilt. Shame.
Young people in Oregon say they’re experiencing these emotions as they
face the impacts of climate change, according to a study released on
Tuesday by the Oregon Health Authority.
The agency’s report, Climate Change and Youth Mental Health in Oregon,
highlights how extreme weather events like wildfires, heatwaves,
snowstorms and drought are creating fear, frustration, and hopelessness
among young people. OHA partnered with the University of Oregon’s
suicide prevention unit to host virtual focus groups with people between
ages 15 and 25 and interviewed professionals working in mental health,
education and public health.
“We want to see more youth mental health support in schools and in our
communities,” Mecca Donovan, a 23-year-old from Eugene, said. “We want
to see youth invited to the table and decision making.”
Donovan, who helped host the focus groups, said she wants to see more
accountability and acknowledgment of the challenges young people are facing.
Thousands of area youth climate activists and supporters marched through
downtown Portland on May 20, 2022. The Oregon Health Authority issued a
report on Tuesday detailing the impacts of climate change on the mental
health of young Oregonians.
Thousands of area youth climate activists and supporters marched through
downtown Portland on May 20, 2022. The Oregon Health Authority issued a
report on Tuesday detailing the impacts of climate change on the mental
health of young Oregonians.
One of the key findings from the report said young people often feel
dismissed by older generations and not taken seriously by elected leaders.
“Burnout is just really, really bad,” Eliza Garcia, a recent UO
political science graduate, said. “I think that’s the biggest thing that
I’ve felt within the movement and the biggest thing that I’ve had other
people my age or younger than me talk to me about, it’s just the burnout
that comes from having to feel like we’re doing this all alone.”
Garcia said she felt pressured to switch her focus to climate justice
because more action is needed.
“I felt very much I had to work on it and very much like, ‘if I’m not
working on this issue right now, then what am I doing?’” she said.
Garcia said she’s turned down events and opportunities so she can fight
against climate change and that pressure has affected her mental health.
She said she’s particularly concerned about younger activists.
“Now there’s kids, you know, middle school, like, beginning of high
school that are getting into it and when you’re starting that young, I
can see that these kids are getting burnt out already and they’re not
even 20 yet,” she said.
Andres De La Rosa-Hernandez, 25, is a peer-to-peer support specialist in
Monmouth. He provides support for people between the ages of 14 to 25
and helps them with life changes or issues they are going through. He
said a major concern is all the climate change information young people
receive on social media.
“They see an article about the polar ice caps melting or about rising
water, anything like that it’s hard for them to focus on whatever
they’re working on when they think about how the world is ending around
them,” De La Rosa-Hernandez said.
He said he’s also feeling the same burnout from having to deal with so
much at once. Most of the people in his circle also feel the same way.
A conversation he has repeatedly had with his wife is whether they want
to have children and what their future would look like. De La
Rosa-Hernandez said they ask themselves if they really want to bring a
child into such an uncertain world.
Another emotion De La Rosa-Hernandez deals with is survivors’ guilt.
During the 2020 Labor Day fires, he said he received messages from
friends that their homes were on fire or had to evacuate. This prompted
him to pack his bags and be ready to go but his area did not have to
evacuate.
“While I was very thankful to the universe that I didn’t have to
evacuate, I didn’t lose all my stuff, I stopped and thought about
everyone who did lose things and ended up with a survivor’s guilt of
‘why was it me?” he said. “Like is it just the area I’m living in? Why
did the universe, I guess in a way punish them and not me?’”
Julie Early Sifuentes, an OHA program manager and the study’s lead
author, said the report was designed to elevate youth voices and to
better understand what steps are needed to help youth feel hopeful. She
said she hopes the report will generate conversations among families and
local organizations and inform policy decisions within state and city
agencies.
OHA completed the report under Gov. Kate Brown’s executive order 20-04
which directs state agencies to act and regulate greenhouse gas
emissions and study the harmful effects of climate change. The report
concluded with the importance of sharing power in decision-making about
climate and mental health policy and solutions. It also suggested
increasing funds for mental health services to provide for schools and
communities in need.
https://www.opb.org/article/2022/06/14/climate-change-studies-mental-health-awareness-oregon-health-authority/
https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/HEALTHYENVIRONMENTS/CLIMATECHANGE/Pages/index.aspx
https://sharedsystems.dhsoha.state.or.us/DHSForms/Served/le4212.pdf
- -
/[Clip from the report "Climate Change and Youth Mental Health"]/
*How climate change affects mental health*
As climate impacts grow, so have our awareness and understanding of how
climate change affects our mental health and emotional well-being.
Research is
showing three main pathways climate change adversely affects our mental
health:
1. Increased extreme weather events and climate-related disasters
2. Chronic climate stressors, such as water and food insecurity, and
3. Increased awareness of climate change, leading to climate anxiety.
Communities affected by climate-related disasters such as wildfires may
experience severe psychological and emotional distress after the
disaster. Disasters
can damage and even destroy homes, communities and safe spaces, and disrupt
services critical for meeting basic needs such as housing. The process
of recovering
these basic needs can take a long time. In terms of mental health
outcomes and
risk factors, extreme weather events and disasters are known to cause:
• Trauma and shock; post-traumatic stress disorder
• Anxiety and depression
• Stress-related physical health symptoms
• Strains in social relationships, and
• Community displacement and migration (1,2)
As climate-related disasters increase in severity and frequency, we can
expect
more communities to experience significant negative effects on their mental
health and well-being.
Chronic climate stressors also have significant effects on mental health
and well-being. Chronic stressors are the slower-moving changes to our
environment resulting from droughts, rising temperatures, and water and food
insecurity. Research has found that specific chronic stressors are
associated
with poor mental health outcomes, such as drought, declining air
quality, and
increased temperatures.
For example, studies show an increased number of suicides following
heatwaves
and extremely high temperatures, a relationship which may be due to reduced
economic outputs, increased conflict and societal violence and/or
disturbed sleep (1)...
---
*Executive Summary*
As the effects of climate change grow, researchers and experts have
become more
concerned about how it will affect our mental health. Mental health
impacts on
youth are of particular concern as there is a growing youth mental
health crisis in
the United States. This report, in response to Governor Brown’s
Executive Order
20-04, shares study findings of how climate change is affecting the
mental health
of youth in Oregon. The study included: a literature review, focus
groups with
youth, key informant interviews and learnings from youth story
circles. Youth
were engaged throughout the study to provide input.
Research is showing three main pathways climate change
adversely affects our mental health:
• Increased extreme weather events and climate-related disasters
• Chronic climate stressors, such as water and food insecurity, and
• Increased awareness of climate change, leading to climate anxiety.
Study participants reported significant distress consistent with
what youth across the globe are reporting. Youth in this study
reported experiencing a range of feelings:
• They are experiencing feelings of hopelessness, despair, anxiety and
frustration about climate change
• They feel dismissed by adults and the older generation.
• They feel angry that not enough is being done to protect their future.
• They understand climate change as closely linked with systemic
racism and
oppression. They believe both need to be addressed at the same time.
Youth and key participants identified these strategies for
nurturing hope and resilience:
• Create space for youth to come together and share their feelings
about climate.
• Engage together in making social change.
• Nurture a stronger relationship with nature and our physical
environment.
Decision-makers, educators, mental health professionals and
environmental professionals support youth mental health and
resilience in the face of climate change when they:
• Share power with youth in decision-making about climate and mental
health
policy and solutions to increase youth’s sense of hope, belonging
and agency
• Educate themselves about the connection between climate change and
youth
mental health and healing centered approaches to engage with youth
• Increase investments in school and community mental health
services. These
investments are needed to meet increasing demands to support youth,
family,
and community well-being...
more at https://sharedsystems.dhsoha.state.or.us/DHSForms/Served/le4212.pdf
/[ Helping the reporters with PTSD - this is a global predicament ] /
*A pilot program training therapists to help journalists.*
The mission of the Journalist Trauma Support Network (JTSN) program is
to establish an international community of qualified therapists trained
to care for trauma-impacted journalists. To best serve journalists, we
provide therapists with cultural competence and data security training,
peer support, and referral pathways...
- -
We often hear that “therapists don’t get journalism…”
The most common complaint from journalists who try therapy and quit is
that the therapist was “shocked” by what they shared, and/or “didn’t get
me.” This often translates as the therapist doesn’t “get” journalism.
What is “traumatic” for a person who goes toward danger for a living? Do
“freelance” reporters get safety training before they cover disasters?
Are war reporters “adrenaline junkies”? What does “news judgment” mean?
https://www.jtsn.org/
/[The news archive - looking back eleven years ago ]/
/*June 17, 2011*/
June 17, 2011: Syndicated columnist Steve Chapman notes that at some
point, Republicans will have to knock it off with climate-change denial
and propose solutions to the problem:
"Conservatives fear liberals will use climate change to justify
heavy-handed intrusive regulation and wasteful subsidies, and they
are right to worry. But that’s no excuse for pretending global
warming is a myth or refusing to do anything about it. It’s an
argument for devising cost-effective, market-based remedies that
minimize bureaucratic control.
"If today’s Republican attitude had prevailed four decades ago,
Americans would not have such vital measures as the Clean Air Act
and the Clean Water Act. Then, many people worried that
environmentalism would strangle economic growth and personal
freedom. But both have survived and even flourished.
"Conservatives once understood that corporations are not entitled to
foul the environment, any more than individuals have the right to
dump garbage in the street. Barry Goldwater, the 1964 GOP
presidential nominee, wrote, 'When pollution is found, it should be
halted at the source, even if this requires stringent government
action.'"
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20110617-steve-chapman-republicans-must-return-to-pro-environmental-roots-.ece
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