[✔️] March 6, 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[👀 Richard Pauli]

/*March 6, 2022*/

/[ learning from mistakes ]/
*'Maladaptation': how not to cope with climate change*
by Marlowe Hood
A crescendo of deadly extreme weather is outpacing preparations for a 
climate-addled world, according to a landmark UN assessment of climate 
impacts released this week.

Whether it is sustainable farming or bioengineered crops to boost food 
security; restoring mangrove forests or building sea dams to buffer 
rising oceans; urban green corridors or air conditioning to temper 
killer heatwaves—the search for ways to cope with the fallout of global 
heating has become urgent.

"At current rates of adaptation planning and implementation, the 
adaptation gap will continue to grow," the Intergovernmental Panel on 
Climate Change warns. At the same time, however, the 3,650-page IPCC 
report raises red flags about how schemes to deal with climate impacts 
can go wrong...
- -
A major goal of the political process will be to avoid the kinds of 
maladaptation highlighted by the IPCC.

"We have waited so long to tackle climate change that we are already 
paying the price today of climate impacts," said Verkooijen.

"But that doesn't mean we shouldn't invest in adaptation for tomorrow, 
because the costs are only increasing over time if we don't act."
https://phys.org/news/2022-03-maladaptation-cope-climate.html

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/[  And test for conservative thinking may arrive in June, along with 
the summer heat ]/
NEWS EXPLAINER
3 March 2022
*This US Supreme Court decision could derail Biden’s climate plan*
Controversial lawsuit has put the US government’s ability to slash 
carbon emissions on the line.
Jeff Tollefson
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in a controversial 
lawsuit that could deal yet another blow to President Joe Biden’s 
climate agenda. Depending on how the court rules, the lawsuit has the 
power not only to prevent the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 
from regulating future greenhouse-gas emissions, but also to potentially 
reshape other US agencies’ regulatory powers.

The unusual case hinges on a years-long legal tussle over two EPA 
policies crafted under former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump 
that sought to regulate power-plant emissions in opposing ways. Neither 
policy ever took effect, and it’s that fact that sets this case apart: 
normally, the Supreme Court would not agree to hear regulatory cases in 
which there is no regulation to debate. The group of Republican-led 
states and coal companies suing the EPA, however, are raising the 
spectre of future regulations that could hamper a crucial sector of the 
US economy — the electricity industry...
- -
Which way does it look like the Supreme Court will go?
Nobody knows. In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that the EPA had the 
authority to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles, and by extension 
other sources. But in recent years, Trump appointed three justices to 
the court, making it more conservative. Last month, Biden nominated 
Ketanji Brown Jackson to the court, but if she is confirmed by the 
Senate, she would replace liberal justice Stephen Breyer and so would 
not significantly alter the balance of the court’s power. She would also 
arrive too late for this particular case.
West Virginia vs. EPA will be a major test of how aggressively this new 
court is going to be reshaping legal doctrines, says Cara Horowitz, 
co-executive director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the 
Environment at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Going by the justices’ lines of questioning during nearly two hours of 
oral arguments on 28 February, Horowitz thinks it unlikely that the 
court will dismiss the case outright. Instead, she expects it will 
either declare that the EPA has no authority to regulate power-plant 
emissions, or sharply limit the agency’s authority, in line with the 
Trump administration’s Affordable Clean Energy plan.

The Supreme Court arguments came on the same day that the United 
Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its latest 
report, which documents the accelerating impacts of climate change on 
people and natural ecosystems. “It makes clear that we don’t have time 
to waste squabbling over legal authorities,” Horowitz says. “But it’s a 
good bet that the court’s decision in this case will make that work 
harder, not easier.”

A decision on the case is expected as early as June.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00618-1
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00618-1


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/[ inevitable considerations of the fate of a very hot city  ]/
*Record growth, record heat, record drought: how will Las Vegas weather 
the climate crisis?*
Gabrielle Canon in Las Vegas
5 Mar 2022
One day this place will be uninhabitable. The question I pose when 
people say that is, “Who gets to leave?”’ asks a biologist

Away from the lights and fountains of the Las Vegas Strip, bulldozers 
are working overtime as the suburbs of Sin City are bursting out of 
their seams.

Las Vegas is growing at a staggering rate. Clark county, where the city 
is located, is home to roughly 2.3 million people, but forecasts predict 
the population could go beyond 4 million by 2055.

Attracted by the lure of cheaper costs of living, lower taxes, and newly 
built homes, more than half a million people are expected to flock to 
southern Nevada in just the next 15 years. To accommodate them, the 
region’s arid landscape is being converted into strip malls and shopping 
centers as winding cul de sacs creep closer to the rocky hillsides...
- -
Last year temperatures hit 116F (46.6C) in June, setting a new record 
for such dangerously hot weather so early in the year. Concrete cooked 
during the day, spitting out heat long after the sun set. Thousands of 
unhoused residents, outdoor workers and communities that couldn’t afford 
the rising costs of air conditioning bore the brunt. By July, 12 people 
lost their lives to the heat. In 2020, the Clark county coroner counted 
124 heat-related deaths.

It’s only going to get worse. The city is warming faster than anywhere 
else in the US. And the future will get hotter, drier and more 
turbulent, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a consortium 
of climate scientists from around the world, warned in its most recent 
report.

The county is also grappling with a quickly waning water supply and 
intense air pollution that’s affecting the most vulnerable. The issues 
are exacerbated by heat, which will be driven higher by both the climate 
crisis and the building boom. Temperatures are going to keep climbing - 
and people are going to keep coming.

Instead of curbing growth, the city known for excess is betting that it 
can conserve its way out of a climate catastrophe. Las Vegas leaders are 
making promises and setting ambitious sustainability goals...
  - -
“We are one of the best-kept secrets in the world when it comes to 
sustainability,” said Jace Radke, a senior public information officer 
with the city of Las Vegas, listing off achievements. Already, the city 
has added 450 miles of bike lanes, switched 52,000 streetlights to LED 
lighting, and public buildings, parks, and traffic lights are powered by 
renewable energy, Radke said.

Clark county, which adopted a new sustainability and climate action plan 
in 2021, aims to reduce emissions 100% by 2050. And, though water levels 
have drastically declined - and are expected to keep dropping - the 
region predominantly relies on recycling. Most indoor drains in southern 
Nevada filter directly back into the reservoir...
- -
Las Vegas ranks 12th in a list of the most polluted cities in the US for 
ozone, according to the American Lung Association. Residents - 
especially those in the hottest corners of the county - are already 
feeling the effects...
- -
“We can’t say, ‘We are full, you can’t come here any more,’” said 
Henson. “We were challenged to find the balance between making more land 
accessible and providing a relief valve for that urban growth without 
undermining the quality of life and the resources here.”

The biggest challenge, she said, may be water. The Colorado River Basin, 
which supplies 90% of the region’s water, is mired in the worst drought 
in recorded history. Nearby, Lake Mead now features an infamous and 
ominous bathtub ring showcasing the 150-foot drop in water levels over 
the last two decades.

Facing declining supplies and an increasing consumer base, the region is 
working to tighten its belt. The Southern Nevada Water Authority’s track 
record is strong - per-capita water use in the region decreased roughly 
47% between 2002 and 2020 - but progress has plateaued in recent years.

Officials at the water agency say they have already taken care of the 
low-hanging fruit when it comes to conservation and are now stretching 
to get the harder-to-reach achievements. Because indoor use is almost 
entirely recycled, water waste is primarily attributed to older systems 
that cool large buildings like casinos and shopping malls, and to 
landscaping. Throughout the city, it’s easy to spot decorative grass 
lining parking lots or accenting the entrances to homes and businesses.

The agency is working with the county and the business sector to 
prohibit thirsty cooling systems from being installed in new 
developments. They are also limiting what goes to golf courses which 
together with resorts claim 10% of the supply. Lawns that don’t have 
recreational use are being outlawed, with plans for full eradication by 
2026.

But rising heat will add new pressures on the system, driving demand up 
by an estimated 10 gallons per capita per day (GPCD). Usage is now at 
110 GPCD but adding new homes and water-users will increase the burden. 
Though they are being crunched in both directions, the agency has set an 
ambitious goal to bring down consumption from a projected 123 GPCD, 
based on models that account for higher demand due to the rising heat, 
outdated systems and expected growth, to 86 GPCD by 2035...
- -
“The biggest issue with the Clark county lands bill is not the loss of 
tortoise habitat, it’s not even the water, it’s the climate crisis,” 
Donnelly said, adding that it is “like hammering in the nails to our own 
coffin”.

He doesn’t think the region can conserve enough to make up for a new 
sprawling suburb, more cars on the roads, and more concrete in one of 
the hottest areas in the country. “It is perpetuating the same pattern 
of unsustainable development that brought us to the brink of climate 
collapse to begin with.”

Donnelly has been pushing lawmakers to plan for growing upward instead 
of outward. “There’s no doubt – Clark county does not have control over 
demographic shifts,” he said. “But they are talking about Las Vegas 
metastasizing like a tumorous growth outside the valley. The idea that 
all those people need single-family residences to move into? That is wrong.”

Ultimately though, people will continue to come and their future in the 
desert may be a precarious one. Those seeking more affordable options 
run the risk of getting stuck when the landscape becomes even less livable.

“There’s a gallows humor when you live here, like, ‘Ha ha, one day this 
place is going to be uninhabitable,’” Donnelly said. “It is a dark joke 
but actually it is true. One day this place will be uninhabitable. And 
the question I pose when people say that is, ‘Who gets to leave?’”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/04/las-vegas-population-growth-climate-crisis


/[    What if? ... from respected meteorologist for Yale Climate 
Connections   ]/***
**What if the Mid-Atlantic’s worst nor’easter on record struck today?
*Sea levels from Virginia to New Jersey are up to a foot higher now than 
they were when the Ash Wednesday storm struck in 1962.
by BOB HENSON - MARCH 4, 2022*
*https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/03/what-if-the-mid-atlantics-worst-noreaster-on-record-struck-today/
- -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdn5iO8tZbE&t=6s


/[  More video interview with Psychotherapist Steffi Bednarek   - 21 mins] /
*Necessary Derangement: Steffi Bednarek in conversation with Sophie 
Holdstock*
Oct 21, 2020
Editor BGJ
With Covid-19 we are experiencing how quickly we can enter uncharted 
territory and how vulnerable we are despite our technological advances. 
Climate science predicts that pandemics, extreme weather events and 
global challenges are going to increase in our lifetime. The collective 
pull towards ‘business as usual’ is very strong. But maybe the normality 
we are holding on to has been a toxic one all along.

What does it take to stay with the necessary derangement of the habitual 
ground that our time seems to be calling for? And what is the role of 
psychotherapists in a time of death of the collective familiar, a time 
when we can’t rely on old habits to get us out of trouble?

In order to fully be able to support others on this journey, we may need 
to attend to our own responses and our perhaps unexamined visions of the 
future. How do we participate in the collective amnesia and anaesthesia 
of our time?

Together with British Gestalt Journal, Steffi Bednarek sets a container 
for a small journey of exploration on how to do justice to a world that 
may need us to step into the biggest and largest version of ourselves, 
at the annual BGJ Seminar Day 2020. We ask what skills and resources we 
already have and what needs to be fostered in order for us to rise to 
the enormity that lies ahead. How can we be of service in a time when 
life around us is dying? Can we attend to something that transcends our 
own self interest?

Steffi’s work is informed by Gestalt Therapy, climate psychology, 
soul-centric perspectives, nature connection, deep ritual and grief work.

This interview took place over Zoom, ahead of the British Gestalt 
Journal Seminar Day, Necessary Derangement: Living and Working in a 
Changing Field, Saturday 7 November, 10am - 3pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBO2Z-jNiAY



/[  DOY build a very effective air filter for $90  ]/
*How a nondescript box has been saving lives during the pandemic – and 
revealing the power of grassroots innovation*
March 3, 2022
One afternoon, a dozen Arizona State University students gathered to 
spend the morning cutting cardboard, taping fans and assembling filters 
in an effort to build 125 portable air purifiers for local schools. That 
same morning, staff members at a homeless shelter in Los Angeles were 
setting up 20 homemade purifiers of their own, while in Brookline, 
Massachusetts, another DIY air purifier was whirring quietly in the back 
of a day care classroom as children played.

The technology in all three cases – an unassuming duct 
tape-and-cardboard construction known as a Corsi-Rosenthal box – is 
playing an important part in the fight against COVID-19. The story of 
how it came to be also reveals a lot about communities as sources of 
innovation and resilience in the face of disasters.

*A simple technology with a big effect*
As it became clear that COVID-19 was spread through airborne 
transmission, people started wearing masks and building managers rushed 
to upgrade their ventilation systems. This typically meant installing 
high-efficiency HEPA filters. These filters work by capturing 
virus-laden particles: Air is forced into a porous mat, contaminants are 
filtered out, and clean air passes through.

The efficacy of a building’s ventilation system is governed by two 
factors, though, not just the quality of the filters. The amount of air 
moved through the ventilation systems matters as well. Experts typically 
recommend five to six air changes per hour in shared spaces, meaning the 
entire volume of air in a room is replaced every 45 minutes. Systems in 
many older buildings can’t manage this volume, however.

Portable air filters are an option for augmenting ventilation systems, 
but they typically cost hundreds of dollars, which puts them out of 
range for schools and other public spaces that face budget constraints.

This is where the Corsi-Rosenthal box comes in. It’s a cube consisting 
of four to five off-the-shelf furnace filters topped by a standard box 
fan blowing outward. Once sealed together with tape, it can sit on a 
floor, shelf or table. The fan draws air through the sides of the cube 
and out the top. The units are simple, durable and easy to make, and are 
more effective than simply placing a single filter in front of a box 
fan. It usually takes 40 minutes, minimal technical expertise and US$60 
to $90 in materials that are available from any home supply store.

Despite this simplicity, though, these homemade units are extremely 
effective. When used in a shared space like a classroom or hospital 
ward, they can supplement existing ventilation and remove airborne 
contaminants, including smoke and virus-laden particles. A raft of 
recent peer-reviewed research has found portable air purifiers can 
dramatically reduce aerosol transmission. Other preprint and 
under-review studies have found Corsi-Rosenthal boxes perform as well as 
professional units at a fraction of the cost.

*Origins of the Corsi-Rosenthal box*
The formal story of the Corsi-Rosenthal box began in August 2020, when 
Richard Corsi, an air quality expert and now dean at the University of 
California, Davis, pitched the idea of building cheap box-fan air 
filters on Twitter. Jim Rosenthal, the CEO of a Texas-based filter 
company, had been playing around with a similar idea and quickly built 
the first prototype.

Within days, tinkerers and air quality engineers alike were constructing 
their own Corsi-Rosenthal boxes and sharing the results on social media. 
A vibrant conversation emerged on Twitter, blending sophisticated 
technical analysis from engineers with the insight and efforts of 
nonspecialists.

By December, hundreds of people were making Corsi-Rosenthal boxes, and 
thousands more had read press coverage in outlets like Wired. In 
different corners of the world, people tweaked designs based on the 
availability of supplies and different needs. Their collective 
improvements and adaptations were documented by dedicated websites and 
blogs, as well as news reports.

In some cases, design tweaks proved to be influential. In November 2020, 
for example, a homeowner in North Carolina discovered an issue with air 
being drawn back in through the corners of the most commonly used square 
fans. Subsequent testing by air quality experts showed that adding a 
shroud to the fan increased efficiency by as much as 50%.

Analyzing social media and news coverage gives a sense of the scale of 
the Corsi-Rosenthal box phenomenon. As of January 2022, more than 1,000 
units were in use in schools, with thousands more in homes and offices. 
More than 3,500 people had used the hashtag #corsirosenthalbox on 
Twitter, and tens of thousands more contributed to the online 
conversation. News articles and explainer videos on YouTube had 
collectively accumulated more than 1.9 million views.

*Communities as sources of innovation*
The story of the Corsi-Rosenthal box is part of a broader story of the 
grassroots response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The early days of the 
pandemic did more than just take a terrible toll on people. They also 
galvanized a massive entrepreneurial effort, with tens of thousands of 
everyday citizens lending their hands to design and produce the critical 
medical supplies and personal protective equipment that was suddenly needed.
My research team has been tracking these efforts. Through dozens of 
interviews and months of archival research, we’ve built a database of 
more than 200 startups – formal and informal, nonprofit and for-profit – 
whose activities ranged from designing oxygen concentrators to 3D 
printing face shields to building UV disinfection rooms. The picture of 
innovation that emerges is a far cry from the traditional lab coats and 
middle managers image that is commonly associated with new technologies.

First, few of the innovations we’ve tracked were actually invented by a 
single person, or even a single team. Rather, they were the joint 
project of broad networks of individual contributors from different 
backgrounds and organizations. This breadth is important because it 
brings more knowledge and more diverse perspectives. It can also be 
helpful for tapping existing knowledge. For example, as Corsi-Rosenthal 
boxes gained traction, the community was able to draw on earlier 
iterations that had been developed to help with wildfire smoke.

Second, the innovation process lacked hierarchical control. There was no 
single person directing where or how the technology was used. This lack 
of control made it easier to experiment and adapt to local conditions. 
One example is the development of oxygen concentrators for use in 
hospitals in India. Realizing that existing Western technologies failed 
frequently in the more humid operating environment typical of India, 
teams of innovators rallied to develop and share improved open-source 
designs.

Third, these communities shared knowledge online. This allowed 
individual contributors to communicate directly and share ideas, which 
helped knowledge spread rapidly through the network. It also meant that 
knowledge was more readily accessible. The detailed designs and test 
results from air quality engineers working on Corsi-Rosenthal boxes were 
readily available to anyone in the community.

Also, most of the organizations we tracked used Facebook, Twitter and 
Slack as tools to manage collaboration within and between organizations. 
As I and others have argued, this gives grassroots innovation tremendous 
promise – especially in a world where large-scale disruptions like a 
pandemic are increasingly common.
*
**Pitfalls of grassroots innovation*
Despite this promise, there are areas in which grassroots innovation 
communities falter. One challenge is a lack of technological 
sophistication and resources. While some of the communities in our study 
produced remarkably complex devices, the greatest contribution was in 
far simpler products like face shields and surgical gowns.

Then there are rules and regulations. Even when grassroots communities 
can produce safe and effective innovations, existing rules may not be 
ready to receive them. Some hospitals were unable to accept personal 
protective equipment provided by the community during the pandemic 
because of inflexible procurement policies, and today some schools 
continue to prohibit Corsi-Rosenthal boxes.

A final issue is sustaining effort. While grassroots communities were 
vital to allowing hospitals and medical facilities to remain functioning 
during the early days of the pandemic, many of the efforts that depended 
on volunteer labor eventually ran out of steam.

*What this means for the future*
As the second anniversary of the U.S. declaration of emergency 
approaches, a key lesson the world has learned is the importance of 
investing in indoor air quality, for example through monitoring and 
improved ventilation and filtration. And the value of ventilation as a 
noninvasive public health tool is even greater as mask mandates wane.

Another, broader lesson is the power of grassroots innovation and 
citizen engineering to develop these technologies. The story of the 
Corsi-Rosenthal box, like the thousands of other grassroots innovations 
developed during the pandemic, is fundamentally about people taking the 
welfare of their communities into their own hands. The most popular 
tweet shared about Corsi-Rosenthal boxes was from a 14-year-old aspiring 
engineer in Ontario offering to build and donate boxes to anyone in need.
https://theconversation.com/how-a-nondescript-box-has-been-saving-lives-during-the-pandemic-and-revealing-the-power-of-grassroots-innovation-176779
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https://cleanaircrew.org/box-fan-filters/
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https://cleanaircrew.org/box-fan-filters/#Round_Fan_alternate_design



/[  Beckwith offers general observations  YouTube video ] /
*Climate Recap around the Globe*
Feb 27, 2022
Paul Beckwith
I chat about recent and significant climate mayhem and extreme weather 
events around the globe.
There are a few puppy and cat disruptions, but not too many; please bear 
with me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip2cDKczzhI



/[The news archive - looking back - evaluating our past - marking a 
moment ]/
*March 6, 2001*

March 6, 2001: EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman sends a memo to 
President George W. Bush urging him to demonstrate leadership on climate 
change. The memo is summarily ignored.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/transcripts/whitmanmemo032601.htm


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