[✔️] May 31, 2023- Global Warming News Digest | food first, ending insurance in Calif, Panama canal gets shallow, California heroic county,

[R.Pauli]

/*May*//*31, 2023*/

/[ PBS video - food precedes shelter ] /
*Tipping Point: Agriculture on the brink -- A PBS NewsHour Special*
PBS NewsHour
Streamed live on May 24, 2023
The United Nations estimates the world population will reach 10 billion 
by 2060. As the world's population expands, so do concerns about how to 
sustainably grow enough food.
Food production also takes a toll on the environment. A recent 
U.N.-backed study found that more than one-third of human-caused global 
greenhouse gas emissions come from the way our food is processed and 
packaged.

On Wednesday, May 24 at 7 p.m. ET, PBS NewsHour science correspondent 
Miles O’Brien will host a live discussion called “Tipping Point: 
Agriculture on the Brink” that looks at some of these challenges and 
answers your questions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soj3kXAGAmY


/[ State Farm abandons the farms in the State of California  -- risk of 
flames ]/
*Insurer cites "growing catastrophe exposure" as it stops new sales in 
California*
Rebecca Falconer

State Farm says it's no longer accepting homeowner insurance 
applications in California due to "historic increases in construction 
costs outpacing inflation" and "rapidly growing catastrophe exposure" to 
extreme weather events like wildfires.
*
**Why it matters: *Multiple studies show climate change is influencing 
the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, increasing the 
risk of wildfires and also the proportion of storms that reach major 
hurricane status of Category 3 or above.

With more severe and frequent severe weather events and extreme weather 
swings, the resilience of homeowners and communities is on the line and 
how lenders, insurance companies and others incorporate escalating risks 
is a key issue, per Axios' Andrew Freedman.

*Zoom in: *State Farm was the top home insurance firm in the state 
before it ceased operations Saturday, per the Insurance Information 
Institute. The American International Group announced last year it was 
pulling policies in the state amid wildfire risk concerns.
- -
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara moved to protect 
homeowners by introducing insurance pricing regulations, including a 
one-year moratorium preventing homeowner insurance cancellations and 
non-renewals in some fire-affected counties.

*Zoom out: *It's not just California. Some insurers pulled out of 
Louisiana and Florida last year after forecasters warned of "another 
active Atlantic hurricane season," per Bloomberg.

Florida is facing an insurance crisis ahead of the official start of the 
hurricane season on June 1, when property insurance companies in the 
state to get their reinsurance in place, Axios Miami's Deirdra Funcheon 
reports. Some companies have gone insolvent and rates have skyrocketed.
By the numbers: There were nearly 12,000 disasters attributable to 
extreme weather and climate-related events during the 1970-2021 period — 
costing $4.3 trillion and rising, according to updated United Nations 
analysis out last week.
- -
In California, Cal Fire reports 7,490 wildfires razed 362,455 acres, 
killing nine people and destroying or damaging 876 structures.
What they're saying: "We take seriously our responsibility to manage 
risk. We recognize the Governor’s administration, legislators, and the 
California Department of Insurance (CDI) for their wildfire loss 
mitigation efforts," State Farm said in a statement Friday that 
emphasized existing customers wouldn't be affected by the decision.

"We pledge to work constructively with the CDI and policymakers to help 
build market capacity in California. However, it’s necessary to take 
these actions now to improve the company’s financial strength."
*- -
**Meanwhile,* CDI spokesperson Michael Soller, the Californian deputy 
insurance commissioner, said in an emailed statement Sunday night that 
while insurance companies prioritize their short-term financial goals, 
the long-term goal of the Department of Insurance is protecting consumers.

"The factors driving State Farm’s decision are beyond our control, 
including climate change, reinsurance costs affecting the entire 
insurance industry, and global inflation," Soller said.
"We have been here before after major wildfires. What’s different is the 
actions that we are taking with the first-ever insurance discount 
program for wildfire safety and unprecedented wildfire mitigation 
investments from the Legislature and Governor."

*The bottom line: *"Home insurance is a key way that people manage risk 
of climate-related hazards," said Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist 
and professor at Stanford University to the Washington Post Sunday.
- -
"And we’re seeing that these events can be very costly both at the 
individual level," he added. "And clearly can be very costly for 
insurance companies."
https://www.axios.com/2023/05/29/state-farm-home-insurance-california-wildfires



/[ A Man, a Plan, a Canal that's drying up, Panama Canal losing water ]/
*Decrease in Rainfall in Central America Could Cut Off the Panama Canal*
By Dirk Kaufmann
Published 30 May 2023
To see the economic consequences of global warming look no further than 
the Panama Canal. There, water levels are down because of less rain in 
Central America. Experts fear ordinary consumers may end up paying the 
price.

The Panama Canal connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific. Its 
creation was a huge boon for global shipping. Before the canal was 
completed, a ship had to travel around the southern tip of South 
America, a much longer and more dangerous route...
- -
But now, climate change appears to be threatening this route. Every time 
the canal’s locks are opened, millions of liters of fresh water flow 
into the sea. As a consequence, the water level in the canal drops. It 
is eventually replaced by more water flowing in. However now residents, 
conservationists and meteorologists are all observing a decrease in 
rainfall in Central America as a result of climate change. Which means 
less water for the canal. And if the fresh water that flows out of the 
canal’s locks can no longer be replaced, then large ships will find it 
increasingly difficult to pass through.

*Where Does All the Water Come From?*
The Panama Canal uses so much fresh water because ships have to go 
through a dozen locks that take them up or down 26 meters (85 feet). 
According to the consulting firm Everstream, which monitors and 
evaluates supply chains on behalf of international firms, around 200 
million liters of water are needed for every ship passage through the canal.

The Panama Canal Authority, which is responsible for the operation of 
the canal, has issued strict draft restrictions in recent months. The 
draft of a ship is the distance between the waterline and the bottom of 
the ship. This measurement determines how much water a ship needs to 
safely navigate. If a ship is loaded with heavy goods, it sinks deeper 
creating a greater draft.
- -
To make matters worse, the Everstream analysts do not expect the 
situation to improve for the rest of spring. In fact, things could get 
worse for the shipping business.

Hapag-Lloyd, a Hamburg, Germany-based shipping company, and other 
international shippers have responded by loading fewer containers in 
order to reduce the draft of their ships.

To compensate for the loss of income, Hapag-Lloyd will introduce a 
surcharge of $500 (€465) per container going through the Panama Canal 
starting June. Trade experts fear a disruption to supply chains and 
longer transport times that will affect prices.
- -
Until long-term solutions are found for the Panama Canal, the economist 
sees other ways of dealing with the water shortage in Central America. 
“Reducing the load is certainly the easiest way for shipping companies. 
And the use of smaller ships is possible too.”

Stamer also sees other alternatives. “The transport route from Asia 
through the Panama Canal to the US’ east coast can be partially rerouted 
through the Suez Canal,” he said. “Alternatives are less well 
established on the route between Europe and the US’ west coast. But a 
combination of the above measures with a greater use of air or land 
transport across the US is conceivable,” he concluded.

Dirk Kaufmann is a DW journalist. This article is published courtesy of 
Deutsche Welle (DW).
https://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20230530-decrease-in-rainfall-in-central-america-could-cut-off-the-panama-canal?page=0,1


/
/

///[ Kern County California tops in Zero Carbon Energy ]/
*Kern plays biggest role as California taps renewable energy to avoid 
blackouts*
BY JOHN COX jcox at bakersfield.com  May 28, 2023

Except for last week's reminder, so much happens in Kern's energy 
transformation lately it's easy to forget the county's sizable lead in 
California solar and wind energy production.

State officials released predictions Thursday that California probably 
won't suffer any power outages this year, for two reasons: Snowmelt will 
produce record hydroelectric power, while additional solar and electric 
generation and battery storage continue to come online. Caveats 
mentioned were wildfires cutting off transmission, and excessive heat.

No doubt Kern deserves much of the credit if California avoids a repeat 
of August 2020's rolling blackouts. The county provides almost a quarter 
of the state's official renewable energy portfolio, according to the 
latest data from the California Energy Commission. Second-place Imperial 
County accounted for just 57% of Kern's 16,028 gigawatt hours of 
renewable power in 2021.

As rising temperatures this summer and fall increase demand, Kern can be 
counted on for hydroelectric power from Isabella Dam, which falls into a 
separate category called zero-carbon energy. But the bulk of the 
county's contribution will come from the county's roughly 50-50 lineup 
of photovoltaic solar arrays and wind turbines...
- -
More than 8,000 megawatts of new capacity will be in place by September, 
plus 3,000 more megawatts of storage, Millar said, adding that 
hydroelectric conditions this year are pegged at 2½ times the state's 
average.

The state warned a year ago of a power shortfall of about 1,700 
megawatts by Sept. 1, he added. This year it projects a 2,300-megawatt 
surplus...
- -

"Kern County, and other local governments," she wrote, "continue to be 
on the ground actively permitting and finding solutions for barriers to 
implementation while the state agencies put out reports," she wrote.
https://www.bakersfield.com/news/kern-plays-biggest-role-as-california-taps-renewable-energy-to-avoid-blackouts/article_8670110a-fc25-11ed-acea-87cb2ba9a4d3.html



/[The news archive - looking back at a disinformation foray ]/
/*May 31, 2006*/
Wall Street Journal columnist Holman W. Jenkins Jr. launches a 
completely incoherent attack on "An Inconvenient Truth."

    *Warmed Over*
    Al Gore's new movie is the feel-good hit of the summer--but not much
    more.

    BY HOLMAN W. JENKINS JR.
    Wednesday, May 31, 2006

    It's only been out a week, but audiences seem not to have poured
    forth from Al Gore's movie and, in an unprecedented reversal of
    political polarity, demanded higher gasoline prices.

    This is bad news for Republicans, who will bear the burden of high
    gas prices to the polls in November. Not that Mr. Gore's movie
    advocates higher gasoline prices. It reportedly doesn't advocate any
    policy that would actually relieve the fears of climate worriers.
    When he last sought the White House in 2000, recall, it was Mr. Gore
    who persuaded President Clinton to open up the strategic reserve to
    provide consumers with cheaper gas, harm to the climate be darned.

    Here's a test. What if science showed conclusively that global
    warming is produced by natural forces, with all the same theorized
    ill effects for humanity, but that human action could forestall
    natural change? Or what if man-made warming were real, but
    offsetting the arrival of a natural ice age? Would Mr. Gore tell us
    meekly to submit to whatever nature metes out because it's "natural"?

    Mr. Gore's next movie should be about the urge to propitiate the
    gods with sacrifices, a ritual whose appeal did not go out with the
    Aztecs. Yes, Al, let us give billions to alternative energy
    bureaucrats and emissions regulators. This we do as a tribute to
    your shamanism, although it will make little appreciable difference
    to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

    That said, a valid service is performed in satisfying the eternal
    human appetite for gloom and doom (and no virgins were sacrificed),
    distracting people from the reality of life, which is that we all
    are doomed, while the universe, the Earth and all that
    environmentalists hold dear will go remorselessly on and on without us.

    In a million years, the time it takes the earth to sneeze, the
    planet will likely be shorn of any conspicuous sign we were ever
    here, let alone careless with our CO2, dioxins, etc. Talk about an
    inconvenient truth.

    How much more securing, in a way, to believe we are ruining the
    planet than the planet just does not care about us, and will run
    rampant with life long after we are dust. And how pleasant to be
    able to transmute our fury over our fate into incoherent feelings of
    self-heroism against our present "enemies." Thus Washington Post
    columnist, and future dust, Sebastian Mallaby: "By their contempt
    for expert opinion on everything from Iraqi reconstruction to the
    cost of their tax cuts, Republicans have turned [Al Gore] into a
    hero. By their serial dishonesty, Republicans have created a market
    for 'An Inconvenient Truth.' "

    That felt good, didn't it? That satisfied a need.

    But we digress. A remarkable and improbable thing is that, despite
    presumably devoting decades of study to the subject of global
    warming, nothing Al Gore has learned leads him to say anything that
    would strike the least informed, most dogmatic "green" as
    politically incorrect. He doesn't discover virtues in nuclear power.
    He doesn't note the cost-benefit advantages of strategies that would
    remove CO2 from the atmosphere, rather than those that would stop
    its creation.
    Anybody who deeply searches into any subject of popular debate
    inevitably comes back with views and judgments to shock the casual
    thinker. Mr. Gore utterly fails to vouchsafe this reliable telltale
    of seriousness.

    That man-made carbon dioxide has a net planetary warming effect is
    an important hypothesis, one that science can make stronger or
    weaker, but can't prove. It may be true, but a layperson only has to
    look into the antecedents of today's "consensus" to realize it
    wouldn't be too surprising if tomorrow's consensus were that CO2 is
    cooling, or neutral, or warming here and cooling there.

    And evidence of warming is not evidence of carbon-driven warming.
    These are different things, at least until scientists can be
    reasonably certain they've eliminated other factors and
    interrelationships that contribute to climate variability. But
    scientists are not close to understanding or even knowing all the
    factors that play into "climate change," a process that might as
    well be called "climate," since climate is always changing.

    Finally, warming and what might cause warming are subjects entirely
    separable from the urge to gather up all the most dire and extreme
    speculation about what a warming earth would be like for humans and
    present it as scientific "truth."

    Mr. Gore's narrative isn't science, but science fiction. It also
    contains a large element of political fiction, relying on the hack
    theme of good guys versus bad guys. Hint to filmmakers: An honest
    policy argument usually takes the form of one of two questions:
    "Whose rights trump?" and "What's welfare maximizing?"
    Mr. Gore did not discover global warming and hasn't been a voice in
    the wilderness. Our political system has looked at the question
    closely, in a way Mr. Gore's film doesn't, and repeatedly concluded
    that the cost of action is greater than the known or surmised risks.
    That's all it can do. Thus the Senate and Presidents Clinton and
    Bush all made clear that they wouldn't sign up for a Kyoto gesture
    that imposes real costs with no real benefits.

    This argument will come back again and again, as it must. As for the
    auteur, where many politicians seem like overhungry adolescents, Mr.
    Gore seems like a stifled 9-year-old--by turns spoiled and bullied,
    unwilling fully to meet expectations but unwilling also to take his
    own path. So what about gas prices? He needs to decide: Does he want
    to be a presidential contender or does he want to be the deliverer
    of "inconvenient truths" about climate change?

    Mr. Jenkins is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial
    board. His column appears in the Journal on Wednesdays.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060602165558/http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/hjenkins/?id=110008450


=======================================
*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/

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/ 

/ to explore the archive 
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/20230531/98c9c351/attachment.htm>