[✔️] August 10, 2023- Global Warming News Digest | Kate Marvel speaks, quakes and eruptions, Maui fires explained, Foodborn icky, How to talk about it, How electric power gets stuck, 2013 heat and violence
Richard Pauli
Richard at CredoandScreed.com
Thu Aug 10 14:13:44 EDT 2023
/*August 10*//*, 2023*/
[ Wise mom Kate Marvel is also a climate scientist -
https://onbeing.org/blog/kate-marvel-we-should-never-have-called-it-earth/ ]
*We Should Never Have Called It Earth*
Published August 01, 2017
We should never have called it Earth. Three quarters of the planet’s
surface is saltwater, and most of it does not lap at tranquil beaches
for our amusement. The ocean is deep; things are lost at sea. Sometimes
we throw them there: messages in bottles, the bodies of mutinous
sailors, plastic bags of plastic debris. Our sewage.
Sometimes the things we lose slip unnoticed down the sides of passing
ships. We expect never to see lost objects again, but every so often
they are carried by shifting currents and swirling eddies to wash ashore
on distant beaches. We are reminded that things, once submerged, have a
habit of returning.
I am not afraid of the ocean, although I should be. On hot summer
weekends I take my son to the beach. He toddles toward the water, laughs
at the lazy waves splashing his fat baby legs. I follow behind, turn him
back when the water reaches his naked belly. He is too young to know the
sea gets deeper, that eventually it rises above your head and you must
swim so as not to drown. I am prepared for nightmares as he grows and
learns about the vastness of the ocean and the monsters real and
imagined that swim there. He will soon know that evil things lurk in the
deep.
I am a climate scientist, a computer modeler studying the things we put
in the atmosphere. On first glance, my work seems confined to a realm
wholly above and separate from the underwater world. But the ocean and
the air are the great conspirators of our climate. The motions of the
atmosphere, the rise and fall of air above us, are dictated by the
temperature of the sea surface. Much of our weather is shaped by the
back-and-forth slosh of water in the tropical oceans.
Some years, around Christmas, the waters of the Eastern equatorial
Pacific become abnormally warm. This El Niño, an imaginary visitation
from the Christ child, feeds violent tropical thunderstorms above the
warm pool of water. The tropical East floods; drought comes to the West.
Indonesia and Australia burn.
The atmosphere is listening, and it carries the sea’s messages far
afield. The trade winds weaken, barometers measure drops and rises in
pressure, and air currents are re-directed. El Niño brings rain to the
American Southwest, mild winters to southern Canada, reduces hurricanes
in the north Atlantic. The average temperature of the entire planet
increases. We, all of us, are at the mercy of the ocean.
Before we existed, and after we are gone, the ocean will continue to
whisper to the atmosphere. Weather patterns will change back and forth
with the natural oscillations of air and water. But we do exist, and we
are treating the atmosphere as a limitless dumping ground. A signal of
our handiwork is emerging against this cacophony of noise. Things are
changing.
Dive into the ocean and there is no immediate impediment to progress. At
some point your ears pop. Stray too deep or too long and gases make
bubbles that pop in your joints. To dive into land requires mechanical
assistance: dirt beneath fingernails, shovels in sweaty hands, a screw
turned by internal combustion. Deep in the ocean you may find a wrecked
ship, tarnished gold, dissolved clothing threaded through buried
skeletons. Deep in the earth we find fossils, the compressed detritus of
primeval death. Burning these gives us light and energy and heat. Some
of this is deliberate and localized. Some, however, is not.
We find greenhouse gases difficult to understand. Accepting that gas
means danger is a sad condition of modernity. But we imagine rancid air
that tickles then chokes, yellow clouds on a battlefield in Flanders. We
accept that burning is warmth, but that its byproducts may linger and
mix without color, odor, or taste seems too strange. Linger they do
though. They trap the thermal effluence of the planet and, in so doing,
warm the planet.
The warming is not immediate. Delays are built into the system: there
are different forms of inertia here. The air warms first, then the land,
then surface winds mix the shallow surface layer of the sea and finally
the abyssal reaches of the ocean. The heat slowly trickles down to the
deep, churned by slow overturning ocean currents. The ocean is slow to
warm, but it will receive the message in time.Someday I must tell my son
what I have done. My comfortable, safe life is in large part a product
of the internal combustion engine. Fossil fuels power the trains that
take us to the beach, the factories that make his plastic bucket and
spade, the lights I switch off when I kiss him good night. We can make
small adjustments: recycling, buying reusable bottles for our water and
ice coffee, foregoing the occasional plastic bag. But these small
things, even multiplied by a large population, are still small in the end.
I cannot deny my son or myself the ease of modern life, and I have no
wish to isolate him from friends and family by insisting on radical
changes. A carbon-free life seems a solitary one: no travel to see
grandparents, awkward refusals of invitations, precious time with
friends replaced by gardening, canning, mending, building, working. I
search for political solutions, an advocacy muted by the cowardice of my
personal choices. In the end, I am responsible for the gases that are
changing the climate and, in raising my son in comfort and convenience,
am passing on that responsibility and guilt to him.
Greenhouse gases are indisputably warming the whole planet. We are
moving toward a future where the natural variations of El Niño are
swamped by rising ocean temperatures. There will be no weather that we
have not somehow touched. And our legacy travels deeper than we think:
We have left to our children a time bomb of warming. Even if we somehow
managed to halt the increase in greenhouse gases, freezing them at
today’s levels, the planet’s temperature would continue to rise as the
heat trickles into the deep, slowly creating a new equilibrium. The
ocean will eventually know what we have done to the atmosphere. The
process is slow, but inexorable. We have committed ourselves to this
warming, a legacy to future generations.
To be a climate scientist is to be an active participant in a
slow-motion horror story. These are scary tales to tell children around
the campfire. We are the perfect, willfully naïve victims: We were
warned, and we did it anyway. Dark fairytales, of course, are as old as
human history, and we tell them for a reason. But here, the culprit is
the teller, both victim and villain.
The moral of this fable is murkier than the simplicity a children’s tale
demands. At the end of the story, the fear persists. We continue to burn
fossil fuels and the gases they make continue to trap heat, warming the
air, the land, the shallow seas. The heat is mixed deep into the ocean,
a long slow slog to equilibrium. There is no way to stop it.
What do I tell my son? A monster awaits in the deep, and someday it will
come for you. We know this. We put it there.
https://onbeing.org/blog/kate-marvel-we-should-never-have-called-it-earth/
/[ Oh great -- we ARE trapped INSIDE a disaster movie ]/
*How climate change might trigger more earthquakes and volcanic eruptions*
Published: August 8, 2023
https://images.theconversation.com/files/541704/original/file-20230808-21-1g5opa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip
https://theconversation.com/how-climate-change-might-trigger-more-earthquakes-and-volcanic-eruptions-210841
/[ video and text ]/
*What’s driving Maui’s devastating fires, and how climate change is
fueling those conditions*
CLAIRE RUSH
August 9, 2023
A dangerous mix of conditions appear to have combined to make the
wildfires blazing a path of destruction in Hawaii particularly damaging,
including high winds, low humidity and dry vegetation.
Experts also say climate change is increasing the likelihood of more
extreme weather events like what’s playing out on the island of Maui,
where at least six people have been killed and a historic tourist town
was devastated.
“It’s leading to these unpredictable or unforeseen combinations that
we’re seeing right now and that are fueling this extreme fire weather,”
said Kelsey Copes-Gerbitz, a postdoctoral researcher at the University
of British Columbia’s faculty of forestry. “What these ... catastrophic
wildfire disasters are revealing is that nowhere is immune to the issue.”
*HOW CLIMATE CHANGE PLAYS A ROLE*
“Climate change in many parts of the world is increasing vegetation
dryness, in large part because temperatures are hotter,” Fleishman said.
“Even if you have the same amount of precipitation, if you have higher
temperatures, things dry out faster.”
Clay Trauernicht, a fire scientist at the University of Hawaii, said the
wet season can spur plants like Guinea grass, a nonnative, invasive
species found across parts of Maui, to grow as quickly as 6 inches (15
centimeters) a day and reach up to 10 feet (3 meters) tall. When it
dries out, it creates a tinderbox that’s ripe for wildfire.
“These grasslands accumulate fuels very rapidly,” Trauernicht said. “In
hotter conditions and drier conditions, with variable rainfall, it’s
only going to exacerbate the problem.”
*STRONGER HURRICANES*
Climate change not only increases the fire risk by driving up
temperatures, but also makes stronger hurricanes more likely. In turn,
those storms could fuel stronger wind events like the one behind the
Maui fires.
That’s on top of other threats made worse by climate changes.
“There’s an increasing trend in the intensity of hurricanes worldwide,
in part because warm air holds more water,” Fleishman said. “In addition
to that, sea levels are rising worldwide, so you tend to get more severe
flooding from the storm surge when a hurricane makes landfall.”
While climate change can’t be said to directly cause singular events,
experts say, the impact extreme weather is having on communities is
undeniable.
“These kinds of climate change-related disasters are really beyond the
scope of things that we’re used to dealing with,” UBC’s Copes-Gerbitz
said. “It’s these kind of multiple, interactive challenges that really
lead to a disaster.”
https://apnews.com/article/hawaii-wildfires-climate-change-92c0930be7c28ec9ac71392a83c87582
[ Oh icky ]
*Rise in foodborne diseases expected due to climate change*
By Joe Whitworth on August 9, 2023
Climate change is expected to lead to an increase in foodborne
infections and presents a growing public health risk in Germany,
according to scientists.
One of a series of articles, published in the Robert Koch Institute’s
Journal of Health Monitoring, focuses on the influence of climate change
on foodborne intoxications.
The review looks at hazards to human health posed by relevant foodborne
bacteria, parasites and marine biotoxins in Germany including
Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Vibrio as well as parasites
Cryptosporidium and Giardia.
Climate change can result in higher air and water temperatures,
increased precipitation, or water scarcity. For example, in the future,
agriculture may have to rely more on treated wastewater due to water
shortages. This poses a risk to food safety, because of possible
contamination of irrigated produce by pathogens, said researchers.
*
**Campylobacter, Salmonella and Vibrio*
Campylobacter infections are typically seasonal, with most cases in the
summer months from July to September. With progressive warming as a
result of climate change and the associated prolonged warm periods, an
increase in cases is expected.
It is also possible that during summer months, increased temperatures
lead to higher prevalence in poultry flocks and greater exposure of
consumers via consumption of poultry meat, according to the study.
Altered behaviors during summer months could have an indirect effect on
the rise in infections, such as more frequent barbecuing of poultry and
other meats, or swimming in surface waters. An increase in infections
and outbreaks has also been observed after heavy rains and flooding.
In Europe, most salmonellosis cases are reported during the summer months.
The favored growth of Salmonella at higher temperatures leads to higher
concentrations in contaminated foods during warmer periods. Among other
things, this is linked to poor food preparation and refrigeration during
barbecues or picnics, which are also more common in summer. Elevated
temperatures increase the risk of cold chain disruption, which can have
a significant impact on the microbiological status of food.
Foodborne Vibrio infections have been rare in Europe so far. Occurrence
of Vibrio spp. is favored by global warming and the increase of
heatwaves and may lead to its spread and possibly also the establishment
of new types in Europe, so human infection incidence may go up in the
future, according to researchers.
The increase in water temperature will lead to an amplification of
Vibrio contamination in European seafood catching, harvesting, and
farming areas, and will also expand beyond summer and autumn months.
Accurate information on foodborne Vibrio infections is not yet
available. In Germany, only isolated cases have been recorded since
introduction of mandatory reporting in 2020, which may indicate either
low exposure to Vibrio-containing products or that a large proportion of
illnesses are not detected or reported. Raw and insufficiently heated
products such as mussels and oysters pose a risk, especially for people
with weakened immune systems or pre-existing conditions.
*Parasites and prevention steps*
Research from the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR),
which has not yet been published, indicates that a changing climate also
has a direct impact on the prevalence and virulence of parasites, which
are already very stable in the environment. Cryptosporidium and Giardia
can remain infectious for a long period and cause disease, especially
after consumption of raw contaminated food.
Extreme weather such as heavy rainfall and flooding, which are expected
to increase as a result of climate change, grow the risk of infectious
oocysts/cysts entering bodies of water, as well as the risk of
contamination of plant-based foods, said researchers.
Climate change is altering the geographic distribution of some algal
species that may be involved in forming harmful algal blooms. Marine
biotoxins are not detectable by odor, taste or appearance and are not
usually destroyed by cooking, freezing, or other preparation processes.
“Our main recommendations for minimizing the health risk from foodborne
infections and intoxications lie in the area of kitchen hygiene, which
should always be applied when preparing food. This includes thorough
handwashing and the use of fresh kitchen utensils after handling raw
meat and fish, as well as avoidance of cross-contamination,” said
researchers.
“In addition, most microbiological pathogens can be safely killed by a
sufficient heating process; for example, a core temperature of 70
degrees C (158 degrees F) for at least two minutes must be maintained
when preparing seafood.
“We also recommend the use of new technologies to track supply chains.
Given a globalized food distribution network and the use of different
processing and preservation techniques, it can be difficult to track a
product’s supply chain to identify potential risks. Technological
advances have produced digital solutions for this; knowledge of fish
stocks, seafood traceability and supply chain transparency can benefit
from innovative approaches.”
Tags: Campylobacter, climate change, Germany, marine biotoxin,
parasites, Robert Koch Institute, Salmonella, Vibrio
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2023/08/rise-in-foodborne-diseases-expected-due-to-climate-change/
/[ Another source is Possible - more to know ]/
*How to talk about climate change*
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
When's the last time you had a conversation about climate change?
Not just a passing mention: a real conversation – a rich, lively
exchange of stories and ideas, hopes and fears, convictions, predictions
and interpretations?
If the answer is never, you’re not alone. But if you've ever tried
talking about climate change with anyone who isn't already immersed in
it, chances are it didn't go that well.
You might find that people tend to shut down, lash out, or take the
opportunity to grill you on some technical detail that's been bothering
them.
These responses are all totally understandable, but they don't make for
good conversations. Let's take a closer look at them:
*The invisible force field*
It's easy to see how this comes about. We tend to avoid thinking about
things that make us feel anxious or guilty (hello climate change!),
which means lots of people have never given climate change enough
brain-space to come up with anything interesting to say about it - and
they don’t want to start now. So the conversation just ... dies.
*The blame game*
Sometimes it's good to make climate change personal. But when people
feel individually blamed or attacked for something they feel is outside
their control, they tend to lash out. From here, it's only a few small
steps to a full-blown row.
*The rabbit hole*
If you're seen as the designated Climate Person in your social group,
you might find yourself acting as a lightning rod for people's
grievances about a particular climate-related project or technology.
These conversations can easily turn into an adversarial back-and-forth
about some technical detail. You might even start to feel like the whole
idea of doing something about climate change hangs on your ability to
defend, say, energy efficiency labelling from every possible critique.
Which is no fun.
Want to be more persuasive? Stop trying to persuade people
The good news is you’re unlikely to have to convince anyone that climate
change actually exists, as a record 85% of Britons recently told
researchers they are ‘concerned’ about climate change, with 52% ‘very
concerned’.
What it can be more difficult to do is inspire people to take
meaningful, positive action to address climate change. However, the way
to do this is not by working hard to win an argument. The trick is to
change how you think about your role in the conversation. Rather than
playing the advocate working to 'get people on board', be the moderator:
the one who gives people a chance to explore the issue in their own way,
without feeling judged or pressured. It'll take a bit of getting used
to, but keep these rules in mind and you can't go far wrong.
*
**1. Pick your moment, and avoid putting people on the spot*
Before you jump into a climate conversation, ask yourself whether this
is a good moment, both for you, and for the other person.
Generally we have our best conversations when we're feeling happy and
confident, and have the time and energy to do the topic justice. So if
you're feeling tired, angry, rushed or anxious, save it for another day.
The same applies for the other person, of course, but it's also worth
considering whether they're in a position to be thoughtful and
open-minded. Question someone in certain situations or in front of
certain groups of people and they'll feel they have to quickly argue you
down or change the subject so they don't lose face.
*2. Listen, and show you've heard*
If someone's being critical, resist the temptation to correct them or
argue back. Take your time to absorb what they're saying and look for
the wider idea or feeling underlying this person's point. Then rather
than smothering it with a rebuttal, give it space to breathe. Sometimes
it's even worth paraphrasing the person's idea back to them.
For example, if someone is complaining about a proposed bike lane
causing traffic jams, it might reflect the fact that they already find
getting around town slow and frustrating. So say that! By showing that
you understand where they're coming from, you'll bring a bit of goodwill
into the conversation, and make the other person much more receptive to
whatever you want to say (or ask!) next.
*3. It is urgent though!*
That said, you don’t have to pretend that cutting carbon isn’t urgent.
One of the reasons people might be hesitant to take action on climate
change is that it can feel remote from their daily lives. Try dropping
into conversation articles that you’ve read that show climate change is
happening now. If you are talking about the future, make it personal and
local. For example, we’ll be seeing many more heatwaves like the one
that hit the UK this summer, and events such as the Whaley Bridge dam
collapse are likely to be increasingly common. Make sure you’re not
using these points to shut down their perspectives. You could try
framing it in relation to yourself - for example ‘I’m worried because I
live quite close to some moorland and there were a record number of
fires this year because of the heat’. This gives them a chance to
empathise with you, rather than feeling like they’re under attack.
*4. Bring questions, not answers*
The other problem with playing the Climate Person role is that you
reinforce the idea that climate change is your responsibility –
something for you to suggest and for everyone else to resist. So now's
the time to start asking questions and give people space to step out of
naysayer mode and think about what they do want.
Asking things like 'how could we change that?' or 'what would you like
to happen instead?' breaks the pattern of attack and defence, and turns
responsibility for the solutions into something that's shared. And you
never know, you might learn something.
One final thing: remember you don't have to pack everything into one
conversation. It's better to have an interesting, respectful exchange
that leaves the door open for next time, than to rush towards some kind
of conclusion. So take your time!
Over to you
We'd love to hear your stories of climate conversations (good and bad),
and what you've learned along the way. Tweet your tips and stories to
@_wearepossible, or join the conversation on Facebook.
For more tips on how to start conversations about climate change at
home, in your community, and on a wider scale, check out our challenge
page and pledge to get talking.
This guide borrows heavily from the fantastic Carbon Conversations
Handbook, by Ro Randall. Ro also gave us some great advice when drafting
an earlier version of this article – thanks Ro!
https://www.wearepossible.org/actions-blog/how-to-talk-about-climate-change
//
/[ podcast report on how electric power gets stuck, waiting to get onto
the grid ]/
*What's the deal with interconnection queues?*
AUG 9 2023
A conversation with Chaz Teplin of RMI.
David Roberts
Volts is a podcast about leaving fossil fuels behind. I've been
reporting on and explaining clean-energy topics for almost 20 years, and
I love talking to politicians, analysts, innovators, and activists about
the latest progress in the world's most important fight. (Volts is
entirely subscriber-supported. Sign up!)
By now, you’ve probably heard that tons of new renewable energy projects
are “stuck in the interconnection queues,” unable to connect to the grid
and produce electricity until grid operators get around to approving
them, which can take up to five years in some areas.
And you might have heard that FERC recently implemented some reforms of
the interconnection queue process in hopes of speeding it up.
It all seems like a pretty big deal. But as I think about it, it occurs
to me that I don’t really know what an interconnection queue is or why
they work the way they do. So I’m going to talk to an expert — Chaz
Teplin, who works on carbon-free grids with RMI — to get the lowdown.
We’re going to talk through the basics of interconnection queues, why
they’re so slow, what RTOs and FERC are doing to reform them, and what
remains to be done (namely some friggin’ regional transmission planning).
https://www.volts.wtf/p/whats-the-deal-with-interconnection?utm_source=podcast-email%2Csubstack&publication_id=193024&post_id=135650154&utm_medium=email#details
/[The news archive - looking back at common sense. ]/
/*August 10, 2013 */
August 10, 2013:
CBS News reports on a new study linking rising temperatures to more
violence.
(CBS News) A new study found that climate change may cause people to be
more violent.
The study draws a link between increased rates of domestic violence,
assault and other violent crimes and a warming climate and says that
aggression can be associated with higher temperatures.
Researchers re-analyzed 60 studies from recent decades that look at
human behavior going back as far as 10,000 years ago. They considered
violence on a large scale, such as war, and on a smaller scale such as
aggression in baseball stadiums during the summer.
"Scientists found that as soon as you move off of the average of either
temperature or rainfall by a certain amount you get an uptick in
small-scale violence, one-on-one or little bar brawls of 4 percent, and
you get large-scale violence increasing 14 percent," said Time magazine
senior science editor Jeffrey Kluger on "CBS This Morning: Saturday."
"And that's where you talk about governments collapsing and large-scale
riots."
The study said that a global temperature increase of just 2 degrees
Celsius could increase inter-group conflicts, such as civil wars, by
more than 50 percent.
By the time we get to 2050, if we don't start to bring back CO2 now,
that's where we'll be, and we're facing that kind of unrest down the
line," said Kluger. "One of the things to keep in mind, also, is this is
worse in areas, say, with worse economies and parts of the developing
world because they're on a razor's edge to begin with, so any disruption
is going to be enough to tip them."
However, Kluger said that there could be other variables and it might
not just be about increased heat.
"Summer, for example, has always been a time of increased crime,
increased domestic violence, increased riots in cities, but how do you
control for the fact that there's more hours of daylight, which means
more time to be outside making mischief; kids are on the street, and you
have more kids who are out of school," said Kluger. "And yet we also
know personally that in a hot subway station we're more short-tempered,
in a traffic jam we're more short-tempered. Studies show that police
officers on shooting ranges tend to shoot their guns more precipitously
when it's too hot in the shooting range."
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-may-increase-violence-new-study-finds/
=======================================
*Mass media is lacking, many daily summariesdeliver global warming news
- a few are email delivered*
=========================================================
**Inside Climate News*
Newsletters
We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day or
once a week, our original stories and digest of the web’s top headlines
deliver the full story, for free.
https://insideclimatenews.org/
---------------------------------------
**Climate Nexus* https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/*
Delivered straight to your inbox every morning, Hot News summarizes the
most important climate and energy news of the day, delivering an
unmatched aggregation of timely, relevant reporting. It also provides
original reporting and commentary on climate denial and pro-polluter
activity that would otherwise remain largely unexposed. 5 weekday
=================================
*Carbon Brief Daily https://www.carbonbrief.org/newsletter-sign-up*
Every weekday morning, in time for your morning coffee, Carbon Brief
sends out a free email known as the “Daily Briefing” to thousands of
subscribers around the world. The email is a digest of the past 24 hours
of media coverage related to climate change and energy, as well as our
pick of the key studies published in the peer-reviewed journals.
more at https://www.getrevue.co/publisher/carbon-brief
==================================
*T*he Daily Climate *Subscribe https://ehsciences.activehosted.com/f/61*
Get The Daily Climate in your inbox - FREE! Top news on climate impacts,
solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered week days. Better than coffee.
Other newsletters at https://www.dailyclimate.org/originals/
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
/Archive of Daily Global Warming News
https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/
/To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe
<mailto:subscribe at theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request>
to news digest./
Privacy and Security:*This mailing is text-only. It does not carry
images or attachments which may originate from remote servers. A
text-only message can provide greater privacy to the receiver and
sender. This is a personal hobby production curated by Richard Pauli
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain cannot be used for commercial
purposes. Messages have no tracking software.
To subscribe, email: contact at theclimate.vote
<mailto:contact at theclimate.vote> with subject subscribe, To Unsubscribe,
subject: unsubscribe
Also you may subscribe/unsubscribe at
https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Pauli for
http://TheClimate.Vote <http://TheClimate.Vote/> delivering succinct
information for citizens and responsible governments of all levels. List
membership is confidential and records are scrupulously restricted to
this mailing list.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/attachments/20230810/a6c8b18f/attachment.htm>
More information about the theClimate.Vote
mailing list