[✔️] May 16, 2023- Global Warming News Digest | Interactive report on Heat, Greenwashing deception, El Niño, Black algae on glaciers, GOP crazy

[R.Pauli]

/*May*//*16, 2023*/

/[ NYTimes presents an interactive report on heat.  ]/
*Extreme Heat Will Change Us*
Half the world could soon face dangerous heat. We measured the daily 
toll it is already taking.
[ Open sun  131°F       Shade  114°F ]
*When it’s this hot, laborers start work in the middle of the night.*
The heat of the day can give you a fever.
Even play is impossible when a merry-go-round can sear the skin.
We visited two cities already transformed by climate change — Kuwait 
City and Basra, Iraq — to document what billions may experience as human 
emissions warm the planet.
- -
ON A TREELESS STREET under a blazing sun, Abbas Abdul Karim, a welder 
with 25 years experience, labors over a metal bench.

Everyone who lives in Basra, Iraq, reckons with intense heat, but for 
Abbas it is unrelenting. He must do his work during daylight hours to 
see the iron he deftly bends into swirls for stair railings or welds 
into door frames.

The heat is so grueling that he never gets used to it. “I feel it 
burning into my eyes,” he says.

Working outside in southern Iraq’s scalding summer temperatures isn’t 
just arduous. It can cause long-term damage to the body.

We know the risk for Abbas, because we measured it.
Feels like125°F
Saw blade  190°F
Bench top 164°F

By late morning, the air around Abbas reached a heat index of 125°F SHOW 
CELSIUS, a measure of heat and humidity. That created a high risk for 
heat stroke — especially with his heavy clothing and the direct sun.
- -
*II. ADAPTATION****How Heat Distorts Daily Life*
Across Basra and the wider Gulf region, people’s lives have been 
reshaped by the extreme heat.

Even if they can adapt their schedule, as Kadhim has, and start their 
job in the middle of the night, it is still so hot that exhaustion 
truncates the workday, reducing productivity and chipping away at earnings.

At a society-wide level, it means every project takes longer to get done.

And it makes doing anything else — from working a second job to going to 
school — doubly difficult...
*III. INEQUALITY **Money Can’t Save You*
  - -
Estimates long into the future are inexact, but scientists agree that 
the situation will worsen — and could be catastrophic if emissions 
aren’t reined in. In that scenario, Miami, for instance, could 
experience dangerous heat for nearly half the year...
- -
While Kuwaitis with the means can insulate themselves from the heat, 
their lifestyle depends on a caste system of sorts.

The bulk of the work needed to keep society running is done by low-paid 
foreign laborers from India, Bangladesh, Egypt and elsewhere. These 
include gardeners, herders, plumbers, construction workers, airport 
baggage handlers, air-conditioner repairmen, paramedics, ice cream 
vendors and trash collectors...
- -
*IV. THE FUTURE **Can This Place Still Be a Home?*
- -
“It was a joy to see the street full of tamarisk trees and flowers,” 
Kadhim said. “Whenever you see green, you feel at peace.”

Now, most of those are gone too.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/18/world/middleeast/extreme-heat.html?unlocked_article_code=A95aWc2HAPyTL6RZT4XBUQqo3S1j3DtNdQiI77k0uvYRU2tFoIpflKmFnpdoPHiIN1IU1Pz-XzWHaDUrjwYtF2Bvzda0yIP_EplXU5IOffnSQr3qRFhQOPq0yodJ7RANVrQiYFYwU7QeCGnnUGBDv6nl1_Nj0Rkfoo0dCGjxAiTaTKH5YfQYODzIb-fn66K2qrmrhxjSQLrZ7zWbnHYmAyelBZogd4yHWqQDTfso2w9wGmQhf52J7WNvGGNw0Is3RVsk1duyKp4iAx6ybb4d0ecdXbkqcyNt8YBjeVETVcQitaLWgGT1sTUYEJrx580UVlzmJ40kOzrSSTLPAi5FBT3UMDQur69yf9ulGGhubQ&smid=url-share



/[ Greenwashing is a type of deception ]/
*How corporations use greenwashing to convince you they are battling 
climate change*
May 15, 2023

*What is greenwashing?*
Thomas Lyon: Greenwashing is any communication that leads the listener 
to adopt an overly favorable impression of a company’s greenness.

*How can the consumer avoid falling for it?*

Thomas Lyon: I still love the old concept of the seven sins of 
greenwashing. The first and most common is what’s called the sin of the 
hidden trade-off, where an organization tells you something good they do 
but neglects to tell you the bad things that go along with it.

For example, when you see an electric hand dryer in a public restroom, 
it may say on it: This dryer protects the environment. It saves trees 
from being used for paper.

But it neglects to tell you that, of course, it’s powered with 
electricity, and that electricity may have been generated from 
coal-fired power, which might actually be more damaging than using a 
tree, which is a renewable resource. That’s the most common of the seven 
deadly sins.

Other ones include the sin of irrelevance. For example, telling people 
that “this ship has an onboard wastewater recycling plant,” when all 
ships that go to Alaska are required by law to have exactly that kind of 
equipment. It’s no reflection of the company’s quality.

The sin of fibbing is actually the least common. Companies don’t usually 
actually lie about things. After all, it’s against the law.

One of the increasingly common forms of greenwashing … is a hidden 
trade-off between the company’s market activities and its political 
activities.

You may get a company that says: Look at this, we invested US$5 million 
in renewable energy last year. They may not tell you that they spent 
$100 billion drilling for oil in a sensitive location. And they may not 
tell you that they spent $50 million lobbying against climate 
legislation that would have made a real difference.

*What are carbon credits (or offsets)?*

Thomas Lyon: I think the easiest way to understand these may be to step 
back a little bit and think about cap-and-trade systems … under which 
the government will set a cap on the aggregate amount of, say, carbon 
emissions. And within that, each company gets a right to emit a certain 
amount of carbon.

But that company can then trade permits with other companies. Suppose 
the company finds it’s going to be really expensive for it to reduce its 
carbon emissions. But there’s some other company next door that could do 
it really cheaply.

The company with the expensive reductions could pay the other company to 
do the reductions for it, and it then buys one of the permits – or more 
than one permit – from the company that can do it cheaply.

That kind of trading system has been recommended by economists for 
decades, because it lowers the overall cost of achieving a given level 
of emissions reduction. And that’s a clean, well-enforced, reliable system.

Now the place where things get confusing for people is that a lot of 
times the offsets are not coming from within a cap-and-trade system. 
Instead they’re coming from a voluntary offset that’s offered by some 
free-standing producer that’s not included in a cap.

Now it’s necessary to ask a whole series of additional questions. 
Perhaps the foremost among them is: Is this offset actually producing a 
reduction that was not going to happen anyway?

It may be that the company claims, “Oh, we’re saving this forest from 
being cut down.” But maybe the forest was in a protected region in a 
country where there was no chance it was going to be cut down anyway. So 
that offset is not what is called in the offset world “additional.”

*What should consumers make of companies that offer programs such as 
planting a tree for every widget they sell?*

Thomas Lyon: Overall, it’s better that they’re trying to do something 
than just ignoring the issue. But this is where you, the consumer, have 
to start doing your homework … and look for a provider that has a strong 
reputation and that is making claims validated by external sources.

*Which rating schemes can people trust?*

Thomas Lyon: There’s a cool little app that I like a lot. You can 
download it. It’s called EWG Healthy Living. EWG stands for 
Environmental Working Group. It’s a group of scientists who get together 
and draw on science to assess which products are environmentally 
friendly, and which ones aren’t. And they have something like 150,000 
products in their database.

You can scan the UPC code when you go to the store, and you just 
immediately get this information up on your phone that rates the quality 
of the company’s environmental claims and performance. That’s a really 
nice little way to verify things on the fly.

*Are there any examples of business practices that really do benefit the 
environment?*

Thomas Lyon: Building is one big area. LEED building standards or Energy 
Star building standards reduce environmental impact. They improve the 
quality of the indoor environment for employees. They actually produce 
higher rents because people are more willing to work in these kinds of 
buildings.

You can look at the whole movement toward renewable energy and companies 
that produce solar or wind energy. They’re doing something that really 
is good for the environment.

The move toward electric vehicles – that really will be good for the 
environment. It does raise trade-offs. There are going to be issues 
around certain critical mineral inputs into producing batteries, and 
we’ve got to figure out good ways to reuse batteries and then dispose of 
them at the end of their life.

Watch the full interview to hear more - 
https://www.sciline.org/tech/corporate-sustainability/
https://theconversation.com/how-corporations-use-greenwashing-to-convince-you-they-are-battling-climate-change-204660

- -

[ EWG Healthy Living ]
*Have you ever paused to think about the chemicals and contaminants you 
are exposed to inside your home?*
*Articles*
EWG keeps you up to date with latest on household chemicals and 
contaminants.
https://www.ewg.org/healthyhomeguide/



/[  Hot waters pushed our way ] /
*International Sea Level Satellite Spots Early Signs of El Niño*
May 12, 2023
The most recent sea level data from the U.S.-European satellite 
Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich indicates early signs of a developing El 
Niño across the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The data shows Kelvin waves – 
which are roughly 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) high at the ocean 
surface and hundreds of miles wide – moving from west to east along the 
equator toward the west coast of South America.

When they form at the equator, Kelvin waves bring warm water, which is 
associated with higher sea levels, from the western Pacific to the 
eastern Pacific. A series of Kelvin waves starting in spring is a 
well-known precursor to an El Niño, a periodic climate phenomenon that 
can affect weather patterns around the world. It is characterized by 
higher sea levels and warmer-than-average ocean temperatures along the 
western coasts of the Americas.

Water expands as it warms, so sea levels tend to be higher in places 
with warmer water. El Niño is also associated with a weakening of the 
trade winds. The condition can bring cooler, wetter conditions to the 
U.S. Southwest and drought to countries in the western Pacific, such as 
Indonesia and Australia.
- -
Both the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and 
the World Meteorological Organization have recently reported increased 
chances that El Niño will develop by the end of the summer. Continued 
monitoring of ocean conditions in the Pacific by instruments and 
satellites such as Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich should help to clarify in 
the coming months how strong it could become.

“When we measure sea level from space using satellite altimeters, we 
know not only the shape and height of water, but also its movement, like 
Kelvin and other waves,” said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, NASA program 
scientist and manager for Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich in Washington. 
“Ocean waves slosh heat around the planet, bringing heat and moisture to 
our coasts and changing our weather.”

https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3268/international-sea-level-satellite-spots-early-signs-of-el-nino/


/[ A totally new factor - may be significant ]/
*Gigantic ice deserts full of black algae are making the ice melt faster*
The ice is melting 20% faster, according to the estimates of the 
researchers.

​​Glaciers contain a large reservoir of microbial life. And these 
microbial communities in glacial environments can survive on top of the 
ice, beneath its surface, or in between. Glaciers are an ecosystem on 
their own. When they melt, their inhabitants also change.

A group of researchers from the Department of Environmental Science at 
Aarhus University in Denmark have discovered that these glaciers are 
teeming with life. The team assessed the activity and diversity of 
microbes living on glacial surfaces in Iceland and Greenland.

There are several thousand different species of microorganisms living 
under environmental extremes. The study reports that one strategy that 
enables microbial life to exist and persist in environmental extremes is 
dormancy, which despite being prevalent among microbial communities in 
natural settings, has not been directly measured and quantified in 
glacier surface ecosystems.

“A small puddle of melt-water on a glacier can easily have 4,000 
different species living in it. They live on bacteria, algae, viruses 
and microscopic fungi. It’s a whole ecosystem that we never knew existed 
until recently," said Professor Alexandre Anesio, lead author of the study.

*Black algae*
The vast sheet of ice the team was investigating was covered by black 
algae formation, which fascinated the team. “When the ice darkens, it 
becomes more difficult to reflect sunlight. Instead, heat from the sun's 
rays is absorbed by the ice, which starts to melt. The more the ice 
melts, the warmer the temperature on Earth. The algae therefore play an 
important role in global warming," added Anesio in the press release...
Published in GeoBiology 
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gbi.12535

*Study abstract:*

    Glacier and ice sheet surfaces host diverse communities of
    microorganisms whose activity (or inactivity) influences
    biogeochemical cycles and ice melting. Supraglacial microbes endure
    various environmental extremes including resource scarcity, frequent
    temperature fluctuations above and below the freezing point of
    water, and high UV irradiance during summer followed by months of
    total darkness during winter. One strategy that enables microbial
    life to persist through environmental extremes is dormancy, which
    despite being prevalent among microbial communities in natural
    settings, has not been directly measured and quantified in glacier
    surface ecosystems. Here, we use a combination of metabarcoding and
    metatranscriptomic analyses, as well as cell-specific activity
    (BONCAT) incubations to assess the diversity and activity of
    microbial communities from glacial surfaces in Iceland and
    Greenland. We also present a new ecological model for glacier
    microorganisms and simulate physiological state-changes in the
    glacial microbial community under idealized (i) freezing, (ii)
    thawing, and (iii) freeze–thaw conditions. We show that a high
    proportion (>50%) of bacterial cells are translationally active
    in-situ on snow and ice surfaces, with Actinomycetota,
    Pseudomonadota, and Planctomycetota dominating the total and active
    community compositions, and that glacier microorganisms, even when
    frozen, could resume translational activity within 24 h after
    thawing. Our data suggest that glacial microorganisms respond
    rapidly to dynamic and changing conditions typical of their natural
    environment. We deduce that the biology and biogeochemistry of
    glacier surfaces are shaped by processes occurring over short (i.e.,
    daily) timescales, and thus are susceptible to change following the
    expected alterations to the melt-regime of glaciers driven by
    climate change. A better understanding of the activity of
    microorganisms on glacier surfaces is critical in addressing the
    growing concern of climate change in Polar regions, as well as for
    their use as analogues to life in potentially habitable icy worlds.

https://interestingengineering.com/science/gigantic-ice-full-of-black-algae-melting-faster 




/[The news archive - looking back at Republican craziness ]/
/*May 16, 2014*/
May 16, 2014:
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman observes:

    "There are, obviously, some fundamental factors underlying G.O.P.
    climate skepticism: The influence of powerful vested interests
    (including, though by no means limited to, the Koch brothers), plus
    the party’s hostility to any argument for government intervention.
    But there is clearly also some kind of cumulative process at work.
    As the evidence for a changing climate keeps accumulating, the
    Republican Party’s commitment to denial just gets stronger.

    "Think of it this way: Once upon a time it was possible to take
    climate change seriously while remaining a Republican in good
    standing. Today, listening to climate scientists gets you
    excommunicated — hence Mr. Rubio’s statement, which was effectively
    a partisan pledge of allegiance.

    "And truly crazy positions are becoming the norm. A decade ago, only
    the G.O.P.’s extremist fringe asserted that global warming was a
    hoax concocted by a vast global conspiracy of scientists (although
    even then that fringe included some powerful politicians). Today,
    such conspiracy theorizing is mainstream within the party, and
    rapidly becoming mandatory; witch hunts against scientists reporting
    evidence of warming have become standard operating procedure, and
    skepticism about climate science is turning into hostility toward
    science in general.

    "It’s hard to see what could reverse this growing hostility to
    inconvenient science. As I said, the process of intellectual
    devolution seems to have reached a point of no return. And that
    scares me more than the news about that ice sheet."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/16/opinion/krugman-points-of-no-return.html


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