[✔️] May 27, 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*May 27, 2022*/

/[ SCOTUS recognizes global warming - this is significant ]
/*Justices won’t block Biden policy on ‘social cost of carbon’*
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Biden 
administration to use a higher estimate, challenged by Republican-led 
states, for calculating damages to people and the environment from 
greenhouse gas emissions./../
https://apnews.com/article/climate-us-supreme-court-government-and-politics-environment-efa3b0047998c18b21f7a61e32ab0e47/
/



/[  It was too big anyway ] /
*Colorado judge nixes drilling plan*
Joseph Winters - Newsletter Reporter
Published May 26, 2022
https://grist.org/beacon/colorado-judge-nixes-drilling-plan/



/[ cough, cough ]/
*Sandstorm wave sweeps Middle East, sending thousands to hospitals*
Climate change and land use practices are increasing the frequency of 
such storms across the region
By Claire Parker and Kasha Patel  - May 26, 2022
- -
At least one dust storm began on Monday in Iraq and traveled to Saudi 
Arabia, satellite imagery showed. NASA data showed dust reaching more 
than three miles into the sky, said Hiren Jethva, a Morgan State 
University and NASA scientist. The dust layer thinned over Saudi Arabia 
on Thursday and migrated toward the Red Sea.
More than 1,000 people were hospitalized across Iraq with respiratory 
problems as of Monday, Health Ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr told 
Agence France-Presse. The Iraqi government declared a national holiday 
Monday to keep people in their homes...
- -
The conditions driving dust storms have been exacerbated by human-caused 
climate change. The Middle East is heating up about twice as quickly as 
the rest of the world, which has warmed by about 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit 
since the preindustrial era.

The hotter temperatures, paired with increasing water-supply issues, 
prime the desert region for more dust storms...
- -
The eerie orange skies and streets coated with sand come at a serious 
cost, as workers are forced to stay home, governments must invest in 
response and mitigation measures, factories close and flights are 
grounded. Dust storms also damage crops and deplete fertile soil. The 
United Nations estimates the Middle East and North Africa lose about $13 
billion in gross domestic product every year due to these storms.

They also come at a cost to health. Sandstorm exposure can cause cough, 
runny nose, asthma attacks, eye irritation and other problems. In 
addition to natural particles, the storms carry harmful pollutants. 
Elderly people, children and individuals with respiratory illnesses, 
heart problems and other preexisting conditions are particularly 
vulnerable, the Iraqi government has warned...
- -
Governments in the region have invested in early-warning and monitoring 
systems for sandstorms, Keynoush said.

But regional governments should take stronger collective action to 
address the problem, she said. “We need to be a step ahead of sandstorms 
rather than sandstorms being a step ahead of us.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/26/sand-storms-middle-east-climate-change/



/[  Hurricane predictions for this  year  -  video 6 mins] /
*THINC Interview: Dr. Jeff Masters on Hurricane Season 2022*
18 views  May 26, 2022  I've known Jeff Masters for more than a decade, 
and as a former Hurricane Hunter,  he's always been one of my go-to 
experts on cyclones and extreme weather of all kinds.
This clip is from our This Is Not Cool interview of Thursday, May 26, 2022.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gUzd4s8sik



/[ At least now I have an explanation for mine... ]/
*Sleep quality may decline as global temperatures rise*
-- Researchers investigated the effects of temperature on sleep quality 
via wearable sleep-tracking devices.
-- They found that higher nighttime temperatures are linked to poorer 
sleep quality globally.
-- The study concluded that climate change is projected to erode sleep 
and widen global inequalities.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/sleep-quality-may-decline-as-global-temperatures-continue-to-rise 




/[ now feels more like the year 2080 ]/
*New data reveals climate change might be more rapid than predicted*
by Weizmann Institute of Science - MAY 26, 2022
About 30 massive, intricate computer networks serve the scientists who 
stand at the forefront of climate change research. Each network runs a 
software program comprised of millions of lines of code. These programs 
are computational models that combine the myriads of physical, chemical 
and biological phenomena that together form the climate of our planet. 
The models calculate the state of Earth's atmosphere, oceans, land and 
ice, capturing past and present climate variability and using the data 
to predict future climate change. These results are analyzed by leading 
research institutes across the globe, including the Weizmann Institute 
of Science, and then incorporated into the UN's Intergovernmental Panel 
on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report. Policymakers rely on the 
IPCC report when they form adaptation and mitigation strategies for 
climate change, one of our generation's greatest crises.

A new study, published today in Nature Climate Change, will certainly 
make the IPCC—and other environmental bodies—take notice. A team of 
scientists led by Dr. Rei Chemke of Weizmann's Earth and Planetary 
Sciences Department revealed a considerable intensification of winter 
storms in the Southern Hemisphere. The study, conducted in collaboration 
with Dr. Yi Ming of Princeton University and Dr. Janni Yuval of MIT, is 
sure to make waves in the climate conversation. Until now, climate 
models have projected a human-caused intensification of winter storms 
only toward the end of this century. In the new study, Chemke and his 
team compared climate model simulations with current storm observations. 
Their discovery was bleak: It became clear that storm intensification 
over recent decades has already reached levels projected to occur in the 
year 2080.

"A winter storm is a weather phenomenon that lasts only a few days. 
Individually, each storm doesn't carry much climatic weight. However, 
the long-term effect of winter storms becomes evident when assessing 
cumulative data collected over long periods of time," Chemke explains. 
Cumulatively, these storms have a significant impact, affecting the 
transfer of heat, moisture and momentum within the atmosphere, which 
consequently affects the various climate zones on Earth. "One example of 
this is the role the storms play in regulating the temperature at the 
Earth's poles. Winter storms are responsible for the majority of the 
heat transport away from tropical regions toward the poles. Without 
their contribution, the average pole temperatures would be about 30°C 
lower." Similarly, the collective intensification of these storms yields 
a real and significant threat to societies in the Southern Hemisphere in 
the next decades.

"We chose to focus on the Southern Hemisphere because the 
intensification registered there has been stronger than in the Northern 
Hemisphere," Chemke says. "We didn't examine the Northern Hemisphere, 
but it seems that the intensification of storms in this hemisphere is 
slower compared to that in the Southern Hemisphere. If the trend 
persists," Chemke adds, "we will be observing more significant winter 
storm intensification here in the upcoming years and decades."

In his lab at the Weizmann Institute, Chemke researches the physical 
mechanisms underlying large-scale climate change. In this study, he and 
his research partners sought to understand whether these changes in 
climate patterns were caused by external factors (such as human 
activity), or whether they have resulted from the internal fluctuations 
of the global climate system. They analyzed climate models that 
simulated storm intensification patterns under the isolated influence of 
internal climatic causes, without external impact. They showed that over 
the past 20 years, storms have been intensifying faster than can be 
explained by internal climatic behavior alone.

In addition, the researchers discovered the physical process behind the 
storm intensification. An analysis of the growth rate of the storms 
showed that changes in atmospheric jet streams over the past few decades 
have caused these escalations, and current climate models are unable to 
reflect these changes accurately.

Chemke, Ming and Yuval's study has two immediate, considerable 
implications. First, it shows that not only climate projections for the 
coming decades are graver than previous assessments, but it also 
suggests that human activity might have a greater impact on the Southern 
Hemisphere than previously estimated. This means that rapid and decisive 
intervention is required in order to halt the climate damage in this 
region. Second, a correction of the bias in climate models is in order, 
so that these can provide a more accurate climate projection in the future.

Could the climate models be inaccurately predicting other important 
phenomena? "The models are doing a very good job at forecasting nearly 
all the parameters," Chemke says. "We've discovered one parameter for 
which the sensitivity of the models needs to be adjusted. Changes in 
temperature, precipitation, sea ice, and summer storm patterns, for 
example, are all being simulated accurately."

The study's findings are expected to help climate researchers around the 
world correct the bias in the models and create a more accurate 
prediction of future climate patterns. In addition, the updated 
understanding of the intensification of winter storms over the past 
several decades will help us gain a better understanding of the state of 
the Earth's climate. Climate scientists will now be able to estimate 
more accurately the extent of the damage that climate change is expected 
to wreak—damage that will only be mitigated if humanity intervenes and 
takes responsibility for the future of the planet.
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-reveals-climate-rapid.html



/[ Earth Negotiations Bulletin ]/
*Coverage of 7th Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk 
Reduction (GP2022)*
Taking place at a critical time in a COVID-19-affected world, the 
seventh session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction 
(GP2022) offers a timely opportunity to renew commitments, increase 
ambition, and accelerate progress on disaster risk reduction (DRR).
https://enb.iisd.org/global-platform-disaster-risk-reduction-gp2022-25may22




/[   exploring activism  ] /


*Climate change: radical activists benefit social movements – history 
shows why*
Heather Alberro
Lecturer in Global Sustainable Development, Nottingham Trent University
Published: May 24, 2022
Wynn Bruce set himself on fire on April 22 2022 – Earth Day. His 
self-immolation in front of the US supreme court was a protest against 
inadequate action on the climate crisis. He later died of his injuries.

Two days earlier in the UK, climate activist Angus Rose ended his 37-day 
hunger strike when a parliamentary group finally agreed to host a 
briefing by the chief scientific adviser for MPs and ministers.

Such radical forms of protest have historically been deployed by social 
movements to cast a spotlight on desperate situations, when conventional 
legal and political responses have been deemed woefully inadequate. 
After decades of international negotiations, the latest report by the 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change yet again warned that current 
emissions put countries far off limiting warming to below 2°C by 2100. 
Severe droughts, intolerable heat, wildfires, violent storms, crop 
failures, sea-level rise and social turmoil are expected to spiral once 
global temperatures exceed that threshold.

As such, some climate activists are likely to deploy increasingly 
radical tactics in the years ahead. History shows that may be a good 
thing for the wider movement.

Read news coverage based on evidence, not tweets
Bodies on the line
In my research, I’ve explored what motivates radical environmental 
activists to engage in what’s called direct action. Coined by US 
anarcho-feminist Voltairine de Cleyre, direct action was popularised 
during Mahatma Gandhi’s opposition to British colonial rule in India. 
Its use proliferated in civil rights and anti-war demonstrations during 
the 1960s and 70s, namely in the form of sit-ins, marches and other 
forms of civil disobedience that challenged state laws.

Direct action is a mode of protest that takes place outside of 
parliamentary politics. It encompasses a range of tactics. Within the 
environmental movement, Hambach Forest activists in Germany have used 
direct action to occupy old-growth forests set for clear-cutting. 
Extinction Rebellion has blocked roads and oil depots across the UK. 
More controversial tactics include acts of sabotage, such as dismantling 
machinery. In 1986, for instance, two Sea Shepherd Conservation Society 
engineers destroyed half of Iceland’s whaling fleet and a processing 
station in Reykjavik harbour, effectively shutting down the country’s 
commercial whaling industry for 16 years.

Police approach a wooden barricade in a forest.
By putting themselves in harm’s way, activists demonstrate the 
seriousness of their cause. EPA-EFE/Sascha Steinbach
These tactics are designed to disrupt the status quo and halt an 
antagonistic system or process at its source. They also seek to draw 
media and public attention to the issue. But they tend to be adopted as 
a means of last resort, when a situation is urgent and more conventional 
modes of political participation, like voting and lobbying, are deemed 
insufficient.

*The radical flank effect*
Wynn Bruce’s self-immolation recalls a similar protest in the mid-20th 
century. Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức set himself on fire in 1963 to 
highlight the persecution of religious minorities by the US-backed 
regime in South Vietnam.

Such radical acts of self-sacrifice have often take place where the 
mobilisation of a social movement is already underway. This dynamic is 
known as the radical flank effect. When the efforts of the movement are 
frustrated, radical segments emerge and deploy more disruptive tactics. 
These serve to render the demands of their mainstream counterparts more 
palatable in the eyes of governments and the public, effectively 
advancing the entire movement’s agenda.

In the late 1950s, alongside the prospects of armed self-defence by 
Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King Jr’s calls for 
dismantling segregation laws appeared less radical. Militant 
suffragettes destroying property made granting women the vote seem a 
reasonable concession. And suffragette Emily Davison’s death after 
colliding with a horse at the 1913 Epsom Derby, whether intentional or 
not, attracted global attention to the struggle for universal suffrage.


Radical forms of resistance – from property destruction to hunger 
strikes and self-immolation – serve a similar function in the 
environmental movement. They highlight the urgency of the climate crisis 
as well as the reasonableness of demands by mainstream organisations, 
such as the need to swiftly phase out fossil fuel projects.

Of course, there is always a risk that more extreme tactics might 
alienate certain segments of the public. But research suggests that 
people tend to be more sympathetic towards radical tactics when they see 
that conventional political solutions are failing.

Sociologists Paweł Żuk and Piotr Żuk argue that tactics such as 
self-immolation are acts of rebellion against a deficient reality: 
gestures of self-sacrifice which alert observers to an entire 
community’s suffering. These forms of protest are especially common 
during times of crisis – like the unfolding climate emergency – when the 
lives of millions – human and nonhuman – may be threatened.

These modes of environmental protest are also powerful articulations of 
grief over the narrowing prospects of a viable future for many of 
Earth’s inhabitants. In his recent book How to Blow Up a Pipeline 
scholar-activist Andreas Malm observes that it is “better to die blowing 
up a pipeline than to burn impassively – but we shall hope, of course, 
that it never comes to this. If we resist fatalism, it might not.”
https://theconversation.com/climate-change-radical-activists-benefit-social-movements-history-shows-why-181977


/[ faux solutions for global warming  ]/
*WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann’s new crypto project sounds like a scam 
within a scam*
Turning carbon credits into crypto won’t fix climate change.

By Neel Dhanesha - - May 26, 2022
Adam Neumann is back. The co-founder and former CEO of WeWork and 
subsequent subject of the podcast-turned-TV-series WeCrashed now says he 
wants to fix climate change — with crypto.

Specifically, Neumann wants to put carbon credits on the blockchain. But 
making carbon credits easier to buy and sell does nothing to solve the 
real problem with carbon credits and offsets, which is that they’re 
broken. More easily trading a broken product doesn’t make it any less 
broken...
- -
Once carbon credits become more readily available — and verifiably 
trustworthy — it’s possible companies like Flowcarbon could be key to 
making carbon credits and offsets more easily accessible to regular 
folks who are interested in offsetting their carbon emissions. But let’s 
not forget what happened last time Adam Neumann promised big things when 
founding a company with a questionable business model. WeWork speculated 
on how flexible our relationship with our built environment could be, 
and while it remains to be seen if Flowcarbon is any different, we can’t 
afford to leave our relationship with the natural world open to similar 
speculation.

Commodifying nature is part of what led us to our climate mess in the 
first place. Perhaps it’s time to learn from our mistakes.
https://www.vox.com/recode/23142106/adam-neumann-crypto-carbon-credit-offset-flowcarbon



/[News archive of a great idea -- so why the delay?]/
/*May 27, 2008*/
The New York Times reports:

"The Rockefeller family built one of the great American fortunes by 
supplying the nation with oil. Now history has come full circle: some 
family members say it is time to start moving beyond the oil age."

    The family members have thrown their support behind a shareholder
    rebellion that is ruffling feathers at Exxon Mobil, the giant oil
    company descended from John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust.

    Three of the resolutions, to be voted on at the company’s
    shareholder meeting on Wednesday, are considered unlikely to pass,
    even with Rockefeller family support.

    The resolutions ask Exxon to take the threat of global warming more
    seriously and look for alternatives to spewing greenhouse gases into
    the air...
    - -
    David Rockefeller, retired chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank and
    patriarch of the family, issued a statement saying, “I support my
    family’s efforts to sharpen Exxon Mobil’s focus on the environmental
    crisis facing all of us.”

    The Rockefeller family has always been identified with oil and the
    legacy of Standard Oil, but for several generations, it has also
    been active in environmental causes and acquiring land for
    preservation. John D. Rockefeller’s grandsons devoted themselves to
    conservation issues, and Rockefeller charitable organizations have
    long promoted efforts to fight pollution.

    Ms. Goodwin, one of the most vocal Rockefellers on the environment
    today, is co-director of the Global Development and Environment
    Institute at Tufts.

    In recent years, family members have quietly encouraged Exxon
    executives to take global warming seriously, but their private
    efforts did not go far. Until now, they have avoided publicity in
    their efforts, and the youngest Rockefeller generations have
    generally shunned attention...
    - -
    California’s treasurer, Bill Lockyer, who serves on the boards of
    the two California funds, said the company’s “go-slow approach” on
    global warming “places long-term shareholder value at risk.”

    Under Exxon’s rules, a shareholder proposal that passes is not
    binding without the support of the board. But Andrew Logan, director
    of the oil program at Ceres, a coalition of institutional investors
    and environmentalists, said, “boards tend to strongly consider
    proposals that get significant support.”

    Paul Sankey, an oil analyst at Deutsche Bank, said that he thought a
    separation of the chief executive and chairman jobs might be a good
    management move and that “we might see a mild benefit to Exxon’s
    public image.” But he added, “On balance, we wouldn’t expect any
    change in strategy.”

    The Fraternal Order of Police, which represents public safety
    officers, whose pensions are invested in Exxon, has publicly opposed
    the shareholder effort to change company policy.

    “The Rockefeller resolution threatens to degrade the value of Exxon
    Mobil,” the organization wrote in a letter to Mr. Tillerson that
    criticized the splitting of the top executive jobs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/27/business/27exxon.html


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