[✔️] June 15, 2023- Global Warming News Digest | Montana court, Greenland melt - Jason Box, GOP pushing carbon, Greta speaks, Texas heat, Wildfire risks, Obama in 2010,

[Richard Pauli]

/*June*//*15, 2023*/

[  Montana live court proceedings - via Zoom connection starting 9AM MT- 
this is tremendously innovative
for court cases in Montana -- It is being recorded, and likely will be 
posted for viewing ]
*The Live connection *
https://fishercourtreporting.zoom.us/j/89337437466#success/
/https://www.youthvgov.org/held-v-montana
the fairly readable filed complaint -
http://climatecasechart.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/case-documents/2020/20200313_docket-CDV-2020-307_complaint.pdf 


/
/

/[ Greenland ice is melting -- Prof Jason Box ] /
*Ep. 2 | Why is Greenland melting so fast? Ft. @JasonBoxClimate*
Dr Gilbz
Jun 14, 2023
Welcome back to the biggest loser. In this episode, Jason tells me which 
drivers of melting are most important in Greenland. And of course - 
what's the biggest loser for Greenland melt.
Contents

    00:00 - Intro
    00:58 - Greenland's glaciers
    01:30 - Mass Balance
    03:50 - Drivers of melt
    04:43 - Ocean v atmosphere
    06:32 - Ice loss commitments
    07:40 - The future
    08:09 - Biggest loser

Greenland ice sheet climate disequilibrium and committed sea-level rise 
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01441-2
New climate models suggest faster melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet - 
https://www.carbonbrief.org/new-climate-models-suggest-faster-melting-of-the-greenland-ice-sheet/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRtqOTtsCr8/
/

/
/


/[ informed opinion ]/
*House GOP Majority Has Been Shoving Big Oil Favors Into Nearly Every 
Major Bill*
 From the debt ceiling to their latest tax plan, the GOP has been taking 
pot shots at the climate movement at every turn.
By Sharon Zhang , TRUTHOUT
Published June 14, 2023
On Tuesday, Republicans voted to pass legislation that would prohibit 
the Consumer Product Safety Commission from banning gas stoves — a 
proposal that was never quite on the table for the Biden administration, 
but that became a major moment in Republicans’ culture war nonetheless.

The legislation, which passed with all Republicans and 29 Democrats 
voting “yes,” is largely symbolic. The Senate is not likely to take up 
the legislation, and the Biden administration has signaled opposition to 
the proposal. But it is nonetheless a show of the GOP’s priorities on 
climate — or, rather, Republicans’ priorities on bolstering the fossil 
fuel industry — which have been heavily on display during the party’s 
control over the House in the past six months.

In fact, boosting fossil fuels seems to be the House GOP’s top priority, 
as party leaders have been shoving pro-fossil fuel provisions into 
nearly every major move — from the debt ceiling to their latest tax 
proposal — taken by the Republican-controlled House so far...
The gas stove legislation was the product of months of manufactured 
outrage by Republicans over the past months. Republican leaders were so 
adamant about passing the legislation to grandstand over the issue that 
they brought it to a vote again this week after similar legislation 
failed to pass last week after a revolt from far right hardliners upset 
over the debt ceiling deal, humiliating House Speaker Kevin McCarthy 
(R-California).

That there is a mountain of research showing that gas stoves generate 
vast amounts of harmful indoor air pollution and are estimated to be 
responsible for a large portion of childhood asthma cases, or the 
collective climate impacts of millions of stoves across the country 
burning fossil fuel, never seemed germane to Republicans throughout 
their efforts to push the legislation...
Big Oil favors were front and center in Republicans’ maneuvering on the 
debt ceiling, arguably the most significant legislation passed in this 
session of Congress so far. Republicans had tried to stuff the debt 
ceiling deal, struck between McCarthy and President Joe Biden, chock 
full of favors for the fossil fuel industry; nearly 90 percent of their 
original debt ceiling proposal was dedicated to fossil fuel “giveaways,” 
as Democrats pointed out.

The debt ceiling proposal specifically took aim at repealing a large 
portion of the climate provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), 
Biden’s marquee compromise climate bill, as well as weakening the 
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the nation’s oldest 
environmental law and a crucial tool in climate advocates’ fight for 
mitigating the climate crisis and promoting environmental justice. 
Though the IRA remained untouched in the final deal, the package 
ultimately included cuts to NEPA and a provision to fast-track the 
fracked-gas Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Just a week after that win, Republicans moved to take another bite out 
of what little climate action the federal government has taken — this 
time moving to repeal $216 billion of clean energy tax credits in order 
to pay for their current tax package initiative that would deliver huge 
tax cuts for the wealthy.

Perhaps most telling of Republicans’ priorities is the fact that they 
made a huge pro-oil package their H.R. 1 — a label typically reserved 
for the majority party’s top priority legislation of the session. 
Republicans’ H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, passed the House in 
March and, like the debt ceiling proposal, takes aim at rolling back key 
provisions of the IRA and NEPA that are thorns in the side of the fossil 
fuel industry.

The bill’s many pro-fossil fuel provisions, like making it easier for 
pipelines to be approved and requiring the government to hold lease 
sales for drilling on federal lands, led some figures like Rep. 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) to say that the bill may as well 
have been written by the industry itself.

Meanwhile, even some of the most mundane environmental initiatives are 
under attack from Republicans. Over the past months, the party has been 
waging war against the environmental, social and governance (ESG) 
corporate investing framework, a milquetoast framework that supposedly 
places a preference on investing in environmentally friendly and 
pro-labor initiatives, but that in reality just exists to placate 
shareholders and the public.

Still, even this has upset Republicans, who passed a fossil fuel 
industry-backed bill earlier this year to ban ESG principles in 
government investment decisions, and have held a hearing attempting to 
cast ESG as a conspiracy theory to “rewire the fabric of America.”

In the backdrop to Republicans’ quest to shore up ever more power and 
money for the fossil fuel industry have been endless reminders that the 
climate crisis is only worsening day by day. So far in 2023, there have 
been nine climate-related disasters that have caused upwards of $1 
billion in damage in the U.S., putting the nation on track to see the 
average number of billion-dollar climate disasters per year to double 
that of the past four decades.
/This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and 
you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license./
https://truthout.org/articles/house-gop-majority-has-been-shoving-big-oil-favors-into-nearly-every-major-bill/
Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering politics, climate and 
labor. Before coming to Truthout, Sharon had written stories for Pacific 
Standard, The New Republic, and more. She has a master’s degree in 
environmental studies. She can be found on Twitter: @zhang_sharon.
https://truthout.org/articles/house-gop-majority-has-been-shoving-big-oil-favors-into-nearly-every-major-bill/ 




/[  Greta speaks out ]/
*'These Processes Are Failing': Greta Thunberg Calls Out World Leaders 
as Bonn Talks Founder*
The climate activist said that not phasing out fossil fuels "will be a 
death sentence to countless of people."
OLIVIA ROSANE
Jun 14, 2023
Climate activist Greta Thunberg issued an urgent warning at the U.N. 
climate conference in Bonn, Germany, Tuesday about what would happen if 
world leaders do not ensure a "rapid and equitable" phaseout of fossil 
fuels in line with limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial 
levels.

Failing to do so, she said on a panel, "will be a death sentence to 
countless of people."

"It is already a death sentence to countless of people living on the 
front lines of the climate crisis today," she continued.
The Bonn climate talks are seen as a precursor to the COP28 U.N. climate 
conference scheduled to begin in the UAE in late November. The 
conference has already courted controversy stemming from the appointment 
of Sultan al-Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, to serve 
as its president, leading to concerns that negotiations will not advance 
a global phaseout of fossil fuels—by far the leading cause of climate 
warming emissions.

While al-Jaber has said that "the phasedown of fossil fuels is 
inevitable," he has not promised to put such a phase down on the 
official conference agenda, The Guardian pointed out.

Thunberg warned that failing to abandon fossil fuels would have 
devastating consequences.

"We're still rushing towards the cliff and we are at the verge of 
potential tipping points that once we pass them, there might be no going 
back," Thunberg said, as Reuters reported.

The news service also noted that a new report released at Bonn from 
Climate Analytics outlined how to avoid Thunberg's cliff and keep the 
1.5 goal alive: increase new wind and solar capacity by a factor of five 
and reduce the production of fossil fuels by 6% each year until 2030.

The group said that renewables should generate 70% of global electricity 
by the end of the decade, while fossil fuel use should fall by 40% 
within the same time span.
- -
In her speech, Thunberg said there was a lack of political will for true 
climate solutions.

"The people in power are spending their time looking for false solutions 
and finding and creating loopholes which maintains business as usual and 
keeps them in the position of power," she said.

She said the role of activists at international conferences was to call 
out world leaders and to tell the truth.

"The truth now is that these processes are failing," she said. "They are 
failing us here in this room, they are failing our children, they are 
failing all of humanity and the future generations to come."

Thunberg's remarks came as concerns grew that negotiators would conclude 
the talks without adopting an agenda, as Climate Home News reported. The 
conference is set to wrap up on June 15, and ending it without an agenda 
could make progress more difficult at COP28.

The current disagreement concerns climate finance. Some developing 
countries want to add an agenda item "urgently scaling up financial 
support from developed country parties." Developed countries promised $1 
billion a year in climate finance to developing countries in 2009 by 
2020, but the target still has not been met.

However, developed and some developing nations argue that finance is 
already included in the agenda and that the separate agenda item was 
proposed too late in the process. The second bloc wants to add an agenda 
item on talks to cut emissions in line with the 1.5 goal, but the first 
group won't agree to the second item unless their finance item is also 
added.

The co-chair of the Bonn talks, Nabeel Munir of Pakistan, criticized 
negotiators for acting like "a class of primary school" children, 
Climate Home News reported.

"A third of the country [is] under water and I go back and tell my 
people that we were fighting for agenda for two weeks," he said, 
referring to devastating, climate change-fueled floods in Pakistan in 
summer 2022 that impacted 33 million people. "Come on, is it worth it?" 
he asked.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/thunberg-calls-out-world-leaders-at-bonn



/[ Clips to aid an understanding of our predicament    Text and audio   ]/
*Ice Melt in the Pipeline*
THOMAS NEUBURGER
6/10/23
For those who follow climate news, James Hansen is working on a paper, 
called “Global warming in the pipeline,” that examines long-term effects 
of human-caused climate change, slow feedbacks that, when they are 
triggered, cause sudden change.

Ice-free earth is one of them, since when that occurs, all the white 
that reflects solar energy back to space will be gone, all of it being 
converted into heat, not just some of it. Another “slow feedback” is 
change in ocean currents, like the Gulf Stream. These changes may be 
slow to occur (or not), but the results, once present, will be fast — in 
this case, a sudden drop in European temperatures, making Paris in 
winter like Montreal.

The paper is in draft at the moment and available for comment. The 
latest version is 
here....http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/Documents/PipelinePaper.2023.05.19.pdf
- -
But frankly and ultimately, I don’t blame the many — the billions who 
struggle to walk the earth each day — for the state of our world. I 
blame the few — the thousands who live to control — for blocking the 
rest of us from fixing it.

We live to serve the few in so many ways. We’ll serve them in this as 
well, till we decide to stop.

Published with the permission of Thomas Neuburger. A version of this 
piece originally appeared in his newsletter God’s Spies.
https://whowhatwhy.org/science/ice-melt-in-the-pipeline/



/[ see the graph  ]/
*Texas heatwave an ‘exceptional event driven by climate change,’ 
scientist says*
by: David Yeomans
Posted: Jun 13, 2023 / 05:56 PM CDT
https://www.kxan.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2023/06/2022Attribution_Explainer_en_title_lg.gif
/Climate Central’s Climate Shift Index tool indicates how much climate 
change has altered the frequency of daily temperatures at a particular 
location (image: Climate 
Central)/https://www.kxan.com/weather/weather-blog/texas-heatwave-an-exceptional-event-driven-by-climate-change-scientist-says/

/
/

//
/[  Check the predictions for later in the summer ]/
*National Significant Wildland Fire Potential Outlook -- Cough, cough... 
cough....*
https://www.predictiveservices.nifc.gov/outlooks/outlooks.htm

July
https://www.predictiveservices.nifc.gov/outlooks/month2_outlook.png


/[The news archive - looking back - Our President Obama didn't 
understand that we had to do everything, all at once.  Now, we have 
waited so long, we have to do more than everything, and do it 
instantly.  So now we need more than a leader, we need religious 
philosophers ]/
/*June 15, 2010*/
June 15, 2010: In an address from the Oval Office, President Obama declares:

    "For decades, we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible
    oil were numbered.  For decades, we’ve talked and talked about the
    need to end America’s century-long addiction to fossil fuels.  And
    for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that
    this challenge requires.  Time and again, the path forward has been
    blocked -- not only by oil industry lobbyists, but also by a lack of
    political courage and candor.

    "The consequences of our inaction are now in plain sight.  Countries
    like China are investing in clean energy jobs and industries that
    should be right here in America.  Each day, we send nearly $1
    billion of our wealth to foreign countries for their oil.  And
    today, as we look to the Gulf, we see an entire way of life being
    threatened by a menacing cloud of black crude.

    "We cannot consign our children to this future.  The tragedy
    unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet
    that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now.  Now is the
    moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to
    unleash America’s innovation and seize control of our own destiny.

    "This is not some distant vision for America.  The transition away
    from fossil fuels is going to take some time, but over the last year
    and a half, we’ve already taken unprecedented action to jumpstart
    the clean energy industry.  As we speak, old factories are reopening
    to produce wind turbines, people are going back to work installing
    energy-efficient windows, and small businesses are making solar panels.

    "Consumers are buying more efficient cars and trucks, and families
    are making their homes more energy-efficient.  Scientists and
    researchers are discovering clean energy technologies that someday
    will lead to entire new industries.

    "Each of us has a part to play in a new future that will benefit all
    of us.  As we recover from this recession, the transition to clean
    energy has the potential to grow our economy and create millions of
    jobs -– but only if we accelerate that transition.  Only if we seize
    the moment.  And only if we rally together and act as one nation –-
    workers and entrepreneurs; scientists and citizens; the public and
    private sectors.

    "When I was a candidate for this office, I laid out a set of
    principles that would move our country towards energy independence. 
    Last year, the House of Representatives acted on these principles by
    passing a strong and comprehensive energy and climate bill –- a bill
    that finally makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy for
    America’s businesses.

    "Now, there are costs associated with this transition.  And there
    are some who believe that we can’t afford those costs right now.  I
    say we can’t afford not to change how we produce and use energy -–
    because the long-term costs to our economy, our national security,
    and our environment are far greater.

    "So I’m happy to look at other ideas and approaches from either
    party -– as long they seriously tackle our addiction to fossil
    fuels.  Some have suggested raising efficiency standards in our
    buildings like we did in our cars and trucks.  Some believe we
    should set standards to ensure that more of our electricity comes
    from wind and solar power.  Others wonder why the energy industry
    only spends a fraction of what the high-tech industry does on
    research and development -– and want to rapidly boost our
    investments in such research and development.

    "All of these approaches have merit, and deserve a fair hearing in
    the months ahead.  But the one approach I will not accept is
    inaction.  The one answer I will not settle for is the idea that
    this challenge is somehow too big and too difficult to meet.  You
    know, the same thing was said about our ability to produce enough
    planes and tanks in World War II.  The same thing was said about our
    ability to harness the science and technology to land a man safely
    on the surface of the moon.  And yet, time and again, we have
    refused to settle for the paltry limits of conventional wisdom.
    Instead, what has defined us as a nation since our founding is the
    capacity to shape our destiny -– our determination to fight for the
    America we want for our children.  Even if we’re unsure exactly what
    that looks like.  Even if we don’t yet know precisely how we’re
    going to get there.  We know we’ll get there."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQJW4_FvVKo
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/us/politics/16obama.html?pagewanted=all



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