[✔️] March 22 , 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
👀 Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Tue Mar 22 11:49:23 EDT 2022
/*March 22, 2022*/
/[ DW documentary is about finding fresh water - excellent - 40 min video]/
*Our drinking water - Is the world drying up? | DW Documentary*
Mar 20, 2022
DW Documentary
Only 0.3 percent of the Earth's total water supply is suitable for human
consumption. Ominously, this precious resource is beginning to shrink.
Natural water reservoirs are drying up due to climate change.
Glaciologist Daniel Farinotti surveys melting glaciers in the Swiss
Alps. If glaciers continue to melt at the current rate, he says, there
will be no ice left by the end of the century. The disappearance of
glacial meltwater would have fatal consequences.
From the heights of the Swiss Alpine glaciers, the documentary travels
down to the seafloor, off the coast of Malta. Here, the crew of the
German expedition ship "Sonne" wants to track down mysterious freshwater
deposits in the Mediterranean. Next up is Peru where, in a bid to
counteract the threat of water shortages, work is underway on projects
that use ancient Incan methods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t6sg2C-jqw
[BBC says... ]
*Climate change: 'Madness' to turn to fossil fuels because of Ukraine war*
By Matt McGrath
The UN Secretary General says the rush to use fossil fuels because of
the war in Ukraine is "madness" and threatens global climate targets.
The invasion of Ukraine has seen rapid rises in the prices of coal, oil
and gas as countries scramble to replace Russian sources.
But Antonio Guterres warns that these short-term measures might "close
the window" on the Paris climate goals...
- -
"This is madness. Addiction to fossil fuels is mutually assured
destruction."
Countries must "accelerate the phase out of coal and all fossil fuels,"
and implement a rapid and sustainable energy transition.
It is "the only true pathway to energy security."
Mr Guterres says the solutions to the climate crisis mostly lie in the
hands of the G20 group of richest nations, which produce around 80% of
global emissions.
While many of these countries have taken great steps to slash emissions
by 2030, there are a "handful of holdouts, such as Australia."
Coal must be banished, Mr Guterres says, with a full phase-out for
richer nations by 2030, and 2040 for all others, including China.
Coal "is a stupid investment," according to the Secretary General,
"leading to billions in stranded assets."...
- -
He says the way forward is to build coalitions to help major emerging
economies to move rapidly away from fossil fuels.
He highlights the case of South Africa. During COP26 several countries
including the UK, US and others agreed to an $8.5bn financing programme
to end South Africa's reliance on coal.
Mr Guterres says the pieces are coming together for similar coalitions
in Indonesia, Vietnam and elsewhere.
Money is one of the key problems in addressing the climate issue and Mr
Guterres has called for a major ramping up in finance to help countries
adapt to rising temperatures.
He points out that right now, one person in three globally is not
covered by early warning systems for disasters - in Africa six in ten
people are not protected.
In 2022, he argues, richer countries must finally make good on their
well-worn promise to provide a $100bn a year to the developing world.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60815547
/[ most certainly. A badly needed reform ] /
*Universities must reject fossil fuel cash for climate research, say
academics*
Open letter from 500 academics likens fossil-energy funding of climate
solutions to tobacco industry disinformation
Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent - 21 Mar 2022
Universities must stop accepting funding from fossil fuel companies to
conduct climate research, even if the research is aimed at developing
green and low-carbon technology, an influential group of distinguished
academics has said.
Rowan Williams, the former archbishop of Canterbury, the Nasa data
scientist Peter Kalmus, and prominent US climate scientist Michael Mann
are among close to 500 academics from the US and the UK who have written
an open letter addressed to all university leaders in the two countries,
calling on them to reject all funding from fossil fuel companies.
Accepting money from fossil fuel companies represented “an inherent
conflict of interest” and could “taint” essential research and
“compromise” academic freedom, they wrote. For the companies, it was a
chance to “greenwash” their reputations and skew the findings of
research in a way favourable to them...
The letter draws a comparison to the tobacco industry and its
disinformation campaigns, noting that numerous public heath and research
institutions reject tobacco funding for these reasons and calling on
fossil fuel cash to be treated similarly.
“Universities and the research they produce are vital to delivering a
rapid, just transition away from fossil fuels. However, such efforts are
undermined by fossil fuel industry funding. Academics should not be
forced to choose between researching climate solutions and inadvertently
aiding corporate greenwashing,” the signatories wrote.
Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at
Pennsylvania State University, told the Guardian: “This sort of funding
has been used to compromise leading academic institutions. It’s a
two-for for polluters: they purchase the imprimatur of these
institutions and their presumed authority and objectivity, while funding
research that often translates into advocacy for false solutions and
‘kick the can down the road’ prescriptions like massive carbon capture,
which is unproven at scale, and geoengineering, which is downright
dangerous. That is entirely the wrong path forward.”
Genevieve Guenther, founder and director of the End Climate Silence
campaign, and an affiliate at the New School university in New York,
said: “Funding research enables oil and gas companies to ground their
promotional statements in enough truth to give substance to the green
shadows in which they hide their most polluting and deadly activities.
We must remove fossil-energy interests from our institutions so that our
children can have a chance at a liveable future.”
Universities have been under pressure from their students and some
academics for several years to divest their investments, such as pension
funds and endowments, away from fossil fuels, and many have done so.
However, this is the first major call from senior academics for them to
go further and cut all research ties with fossil fuel companies.
There is no clear estimate for how much money universities accept from
fossil fuel companies, as most do not publish their sources. An
investigation for the Observer last year found UK universities alone had
taken at least £89m from oil companies in the previous four years.
Some scientists disagree with the letter. James Hansen, former chief
scientist at Nasa and one of the first scientists to warn governments of
the impending climate crisis, told the Guardian: “It’s the wrong focus,
causing young people to waste their energy on unproductive activities,
while they actually have the potential to lead a solution.”
Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate
Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, said it
was reasonable for universities to accept funding from fossil fuel
companies if those businesses showed genuine commitment to transforming
themselves. “Fossil fuel companies that are genuinely committed to the
transition [to a low-carbon economy], including net zero emissions, can
and should receive help from university researchers, particularly with
the development of technologies for carbon capture and storage,
renewables and emissions reductions. However, universities should be
careful about accepting funding directly or indirectly from oil, gas and
coal companies that are not genuinely committed to the clean energy
transition and which are attempting to greenwash their reputations.”
A spokesperson for Imperial College London, which the Observer found
last year had accepted £54m from oil companies since 2017, said:
“Decarbonisation is our top priority when working with energy companies.
This goal requires a radical shift in industrial systems, technologies
and business models in the energy sector. We are using our influence and
expertise to accelerate this transition and actively engage with energy
companies to push them to meet the Paris Agreement targets. We will
monitor progress and only continue to work with companies who
demonstrate commitment and credible action to achieving these targets.”
Some academics argue that fossil fuel funding is needed to develop the
technologies necessary for a low-carbon economy, and that if western
universities reject such funding it will be accepted in other countries
around the world.
Guenther disagreed: “It’s a myth that fossil-energy companies are
spending large sums to aid the green transition. According to the IEA’s
2021 World Energy Investment report, a mere 1% of fossil-energy
companies’ capital expenditure is devoted to research, development or
deployment of technologies that either abate or do not produce
greenhouse gas emissions.” /[It is not a myth that they spend huge
amounts to fund other institutions that do the influencing... like API,
Donors Trust, ]/
At the end of this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
will publish the third part of its comprehensive review of climate
science, examining the potential ways of cutting greenhouse gas
emissions. This will include technology such as renewable energy and
nuclear power, and novel ideas such as sucking carbon dioxide out of the
air.
The report will throw the spotlight on the potential technological
solutions to the climate crisis, which will require tens or hundreds of
billions of pounds in funding to be brought to market and deployed
widely around the world.
Jason Hickel, an economic anthropologist who is signatory to the letter,
said the funding should come from governments. “The US and UK are among
the richest countries on Earth, and their governments enjoy total
monetary sovereignty. They have the capacity to finance the necessary
research many times over, at the touch of a button. Most of the major
innovations and public projects that have changed history over the past
century have relied on public funding for research,” said Hickel, who is
professor of environmental science at the Autonomous University of
Barcelona and a fellow of the LSE.
The letter did not specify whether companies with interests in fossil
fuels amid a broader portfolio should be included in the ban. Ilana
Cohen, a Harvard student who led the organisation of the letter, said it
was directed at the top 200 fossil fuel companies.
Cohen said the organisers had confined the call to US and UK
universities for now as these are where many fossil fuel companies are
concentrating their funding, but that it could be widened in future to a
global effort.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/mar/21/universities-must-reject-fossil-fuel-cash-for-climate-research-say-academics
/[ Arizona newspaper report ] /
*How low can the Colorado River go? Drought forces states to face tough
choices about water*
Brandon Loomis
Arizona Republic 3-21-2022
SALT LAKE CITY — Water managers from across the Colorado River Basin are
preparing to negotiate new rules for allocating the river's dwindling
flow and sharing the pain of a deepening shortage.
They’re adapting the 100-year-old Colorado River Compact to a river that
little resembles the bountiful gusher that negotiators from seven states
and the federal government in 1922 thought — or hoped — would bless the
Southwest forever. The stakes rise with every foot that Lake Mead and
Lake Powell fall, as the states and the water users within them
recognize they’re due for a tighter squeeze.
Arizona gets more than a third of its water from the river, growing
abundant crops around Yuma and homes around Phoenix and Tucson. The Las
Vegas area gets most of its water from the river and has built a deeper
pipe in Lake Mead to assure its continued access. Late-developing states
like Wyoming use water for ranching and energy development, and are
hoping to continue growing on it.
“We’re all going to lose,” Southern Nevada Water Authority General
Manager John Entsminger told his counterparts from across the watershed
on Friday at a river law symposium at the University of Utah’s Wallace
Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment.
His warning was less a lament than a call to action on behalf of a river
that some 40 million people from the headwaters in Wyoming and Colorado
to the delta in Mexico are using up.
“We’re up to the challenge because we don’t have a choice,” said
Entsminger, whose agency in Las Vegas has embraced water austerity by
banning most new grass lawns and golf courses and restricting new pool
sizes.
Before the states, Indigenous communities and water districts can agree
on a new plan to more conservatively divvy the water, they’ll need to
agree on how low the river might go.
The 1922 negotiators asserted that the river could supply more than the
15 million acre-feet distributed among the seven states that share it,
with some left over to flow into Mexico. The 2022 negotiators are
debating whether they should plan for just 11 million acre-feet, as
Entsminger’s Nevada agency already has penciled into its water security
plans.
Today in Arizona, a 326,000-gallon acre-foot is about enough to supply
three households for a year.
Since 2000, the river has delivered on average 12.3 million acre-feet a
year, which is generally a couple of million less than the region has
used. Consequently, the giant reservoirs that were full back then have
tanked, Lake Mead to about a third of capacity, Lake Powell to a quarter.
Although the compact assigned specific shares to the upper and lower
basins of the 1,450-mile river, the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of
Reclamation in 2007 agreed with the states on an adaptive plan that
reduces some users’ deliveries when reservoirs dive past certain
thresholds. States including Arizona have built on those rules,
sometimes paying tribes and other users to keep water in Lake Mead. But
the guidelines expire at the end of 2025, and the states, tribes and
water districts will spend the next few years debating a new, likely
harsher, blueprint.
A federally declared shortage based on the 2007 rules already has fallen
hard on some users who aren’t high on the river’s list of first-in-time,
first-in-right appropriations, such as central Arizona farmers.
Planning for a regular supply of just 11 million acre-feet would
obliterate long-held assumptions about how much water some or all of the
users thought they were entitled for future growth. Contingencies for
that level could severely limit growth potential in the Upper Basin,
where Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah are far from fully
developing their collective 7.5 million acre-foot share outlined by the
compact.
Those states are required to send on average another 7.5 million
acre-feet downstream to the Lower Basin states of Arizona, Nevada and
California, with another 1.5 million acre-feet promised to Mexico. If
the states and water users agree, the Lower Basin could cut deeply into
its already developed share, which many observers believe would spread
the suffering more fairly. Failure to agree would leave the decision
solely to the U.S. Interior secretary, or to the courts if states sue
each other.
*
**'We have to plan for less'*
While the water experts who gathered in the S. J. Quinney College of
Law’s moot courtroom know they must plan on less water, some aren’t
ready to publicly commit to a number that will alarm water users back
home. Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke, for
instance, needs legislative approval for any deal he might make.
“I won’t say 11,” Buschatzke quipped from the symposium stage, “because
I might get arrested when I get off the plane in Phoenix tonight.”
Climate scientists who study and project the Colorado’s flows as the
region warms believe even 11 million acre-feet could be wishful
thinking. Some studies suggest heat’s toll on the water supply will drop
the river to just 9 million acre-feet in coming decades, said Brad
Udall, a Colorado State University researcher who has focused on the
river for 20 years.
“I could live with 11” as a planning guideline, even if it’s optimistic,
Udall said. That projection is stark enough to require bold action that
water managers could later build upon. It would follow the trajectory
that scientists like Udall say represents the region’s heat-induced
aridification, as opposed to temporary drought.
Others think it would be wise to plan contingencies to protect a river
that might deliver only 9 million acre-feet. Without adjustments to the
Lower Basin’s guaranteed deliveries, a river that’s routinely that small
would leave the Upper Basin less than half what it currently takes out.
“We have to plan for less,” said Colorado River District General Manager
Andy Mueller, who represents water users in western Colorado. “You don’t
plan a system on hope or politics.”
Colorado River:Dry boat ramps, exposed rocks at Lake Powell reveal the
cost of a long drought
*The expanded role of tribes*
Tribal representatives and attorneys said federal and state negotiators
must include Indigenous perspectives in these talks, far more than in
past rounds. The original compact, in particular, did not consider the
needs of tribes who now hold or, in some cases, expect to hold
sufficient water rights to make critical contributions to climate
adaptation and conservation of reservoir storage.
Everyone who shares the river must use it responsibly and in a way that
protects a semblance of nature and harmony, said Nora McDowell, a member
of the river’s Water and Tribes Initiative and former chairwoman of the
Fort Mojave Tribe on the Lower Colorado.
“We have a responsibility to change what we’ve learned in the past
hundred years of this compact being in place,” McDowell said. Tribes
need a voice to ensure that the river itself is no longer an
afterthought, she said. “It is time.”
Whatever volume the parties pick and plan for, those in the Upper Basin
will want to alter the hard requirement that they deliver a set amount
of water to the states below Glen Canyon Dam near the Arizona-Utah state
line. And some in the Lower Basin concede they’ll likely have to bend on
that provision to reach a deal.
Entsminger told The Arizona Republic that water users in both the upper
and lower regions will have to bend, or they won’t reach an agreement.
Asked if that meant the Lower Basin might have to cut back enough to
allow for an even split of future flows with the Upper Basin, he said he
was not ready to discuss how to allocate the water.
*“A 50-50 split would go a long way to solving problems,” said Amy Haas,
who directs the Colorado River Authority of Utah.*
That’s certainly true for her state, but an even split would likely
deepen the pain in Arizona, where the state has already maxed out its
use of the river and would have to cut further to allow upstream
development. Arizona’s Buschatzke, like Nevada’s Entsminger, has not put
numbers on a preferred rationing plan, but said all of the river’s users
must share the benefits and the pain.
“We need a discussion about equitable shares of the river,” said Udall,
the Colorado State researcher. The Upper Basin states are still using
less than two-thirds of what they were promised in 1922, and could not
have foreseen back then how climate change would penalize them for their
slower development.
Still, he told The Republic, the states will likely need to agree on a
deal that doesn’t force an even split on the Lower Basin, where
California and Arizona have the watershed’s largest populations.
The Bureau of Reclamation in coming weeks will invite suggestions for
what the new guidelines should consider, and it will launch a formal
environmental review next year. The agency must balance the needs of
seven states and 30 tribes while honoring treaty obligations with Mexico
during, the agency’s program manager Carly Jerla said, and will need
those partners to pull together.
“Our job here has never been harder,” Jerla said.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2022/03/21/climate-change-dries-colorado-river-force-new-rules-users/9453476002/
/[ honesty in journalism? ]/
*How can journalism get better at covering climate change? Being a
bummer might help*
A new study of social media about a climate change conference found
journalists’ negative tweets gained far more traction with users than
positive ones. That’s one of the findings in this new collection of
research into climate journalism.
By JOSHUA BENTON @jbenton March 21, 2022...
There has certainly been progress in recent years. The simple existence
of anthropogenic climate change is treated as a he-said-she-said
question than it used to be, and there are dozens of initiatives aimed
at doing more and better reporting on how we’re changing the earth. But
the continuing challenge is what drew me to the new special issue of
Journalism Practice, which is all about the intersection of climate
change and journalism and which launched on Friday. There are 17
articles in all, and they’re all un-paywalled and available for anyone
to read. Here were a few of the highlights of “Journalism, Climate
Change, and Reporting Synergistic Effects of the Anthropocene” for me.
https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/03/how-can-journalism-get-better-at-covering-climate-change-being-a-bummer-might-help/
- -
/[See also source matter ]/
*Journalism Practice, Volume 16, Issue 2-3 (2022)*
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjop20/16/2-3
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjop20/16/2-3
- -
/[hear speakers from Brazil, Sweden, England & USA talk climate change &
data journalism/science? Join us FRIDAY 11 a.m. Eastern US Time/ 3 p.m.
UK Time]/
https://twitter.com/JournPractice/status/1504599335195004936/photo/1
https://twitter.com/JournPractice/status/1504599335195004936
/[ Down under ethics ] /
*Australia to make Big Tech hand over misinformation data*
By Byron Kaye - March 21, 2022
SYDNEY, March 21 (Reuters) - Australia's media regulator will be able to
force internet companies to share data about how they have handled
misinformation and disinformation under new laws that will bolster
government efforts to rein in Big Tech.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will also be
able to enforce an internet industry code on uncooperative platforms,
the government said on Monday, joining others around the world seeking
to reduce the spread of harmful falsehoods online...
The planned laws are a response to an ACMA investigation that found
four-fifths of Australian adults had experienced misinformation about
COVID-19 and 76% thought online platforms should do more to cut the
amount of false and misleading content online.
The laws broadly align with efforts by Europe to curb damaging online
content, which are due to take effect by the end of 2022, although the
European Union has said it wants even tougher measures to stop
disinformation given some of the output from Russian state-owned media
during the invasion of Ukraine...
"Digital platforms must take responsibility for what is on their sites
and take action when harmful or misleading content appears,"
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said in a statement.
Australians were most likely to see misinformation on larger services
like Meta Platforms's Facebook (FB.O) and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), the ACMA
said.
False narratives typically started with "highly emotive and engaging
posts within small online conspiracy groups" and were "amplified by
international influencers, local public figures, and by coverage in the
media", it added...
The authority also noted that disinformation, which involves
intentionally spreading false information to influence politics or sow
discord, was continuing to target Australians. Facebook had removed four
disinformation campaigns in Australia from 2019 to 2020, it said.
It said conspiracy groups often urged people to join smaller platforms
with looser moderation policies, like Telegram. If those platforms
rejected industry-set content guidelines "they may present a higher risk
to the Australian community", the ACMA said.
The crackdown adds another element to the ruling conservative
government's assertion that it has taken a big stick approach to tech
giants, as it faces an election that is due by May that most polls
suggest it will lose.
Fletcher said the new powers for the regulator would be introduced to
parliament in late 2022, meaning it would likely be up to the current
opposition Labor party to shepherd them through if the government loses
the election.
A spokesperson for Labor's shadow communications minister, Michelle
Rowland, told Reuters the opposition supported the expanded powers but
the government had taken too long to introduce them since they were
recommended in 2019.
DIGI, an Australian industry body representing Facebook, Alphabet's
(GOOGL.O) Google, Twitter and video site TikTok, said it supported the
recommendations and noted it had already set up a system to process
complaints about misinformation.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/australia-make-big-tech-hand-over-misinformation-data-2022-03-21/
/[ Classic lecture from 2014 is still an excellent introduction -- the
only update is that CO2 levels now are nearly 420 ppm ] /
*Getting Serious About Climate Change - Charles David Keeling Annual
Lecture*
Jun 30, 2014
University of California Television (UCTV)
The 2014 Keeling Lecture features UCSD School of International Relations
and Pacific Studies Professor David Victor, an internationally
recognized leader in research on energy and climate change policy. He is
the Director of the school’s new Laboratory on International Law and
Regulation, and author of numerous books including his most recent,
“Global Warming Gridlock: Creating More Effective Strategies for
Protecting the Planet.” [7/2014] [Show ID: 27846]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERqGMQsihm4
/[The news archive - looking back]/
*March 22, 2016*
The New York Times reports:
"The nations of the world agreed years ago to try to limit global
warming to a level they hoped would prove somewhat tolerable. But a
group of leading climate scientists warned on Tuesday that permitting a
warming of that magnitude would actually be highly dangerous.
"The likely consequences would include killer storms stronger than any
in modern times, the disintegration of large parts of the polar ice
sheets, and a rise of the sea sufficient to begin drowning the world’s
coastal cities before the end of this century, the scientists declared.
"'We’re in danger of handing young people a situation that’s out of
their control,' said James E. Hansen, the retired NASA climate scientist
who led the new research. The findings were released Tuesday morning by
a European science journal, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/science/global-warming-sea-level-carbon-dioxide-emissions.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP-cRqCQRc8&feature=youtu.be
- -
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