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<font size="+1"><i>May 12, 2017</i></font><br>
<br>
<font size="-1">$ <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard/2017/05/heitkamp-manchin-tell-interior-to-suspend-methane-rule-enforcement-087553">https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard/2017/05/heitkamp-manchin-tell-interior-to-suspend-methane-rule-enforcement-087553</a></font><br>
<b><a
href="https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard/2017/05/heitkamp-manchin-tell-interior-to-suspend-methane-rule-enforcement-087553">Heitkamp,
Manchin tell Interior to suspend methane rule enforcement</a></b><br>
By Ben Lefebvre 05/10/2017 03:40 PM EDT<br>
<blockquote> Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va,)
are recommending that the Department of Interior halt enforcement
of an Obama-era methane emissions rule that the Senate failed to
repeal this morning.<br>
Heitkamp and Manchin surprised some by voting to block the
Congressional Review Act that would have repealed the methane
emissions rule. Republicans had hoped the two senators would join
them in killing the measure, which uses royalty rates to push oil
and gas producers to cut methane emissions from oil wells and
pipelines.<br>
But in a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke dated today, the
two senators say they still think the methane rule goes too far.
They write that they agree with President Donald Trump's March
executive order calling for a review of the rule and suggest that
BLM stop enforcing it in the meantime.<br>
"Begin revising the rule by issuing both a rule suspending
enforcement and a replacement rule to correct the inherent flaws
in the current rule," the senators suggest to Zinke as one
possible action.<br>
Interior said earlier today that it planned to revise, suspend or
rescind the regulation. Such a process could take years, however,
and environmental groups have said any drastic action from the
department could face legal action.<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www">https://www</a>.<b>theguardian.com</b>/world/2017/may/11/finland-voices-concern-over-us-and-russian-climate-change-doubters<br>
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<h2 class="esc-lead-article-title" style="font-size: 16px;
line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; font-weight:
bold;"><a target="_blank" class="article
usg-AFQjCNHDmtYCiiOT-Y3AQBhnKHE_1rL3ZQ
sig2-BmRcU2rTIWOVWiTiDPOo2w did--6338530616140210503"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/11/finland-voices-concern-over-us-and-russian-climate-change-doubters"
url="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/11/finland-voices-concern-over-us-and-russian-climate-change-doubters"
id="MAA4DEgBUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: underline;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">Finland voices concern over US
and Russian<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b
style="font-weight: bold;">climate change</b><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>doubters</span></a></h2>
</div>
<blockquote>The Nordic country takes up the two-year chairmanship of
the body, increasingly a forum where arguments about climate
change play out, at a ministerial meeting on Thursday in
Fairbanks, Alaska, where the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson,
will ...<br>
"What is even more worrying is that ice and snow are melting
faster than we estimated, and that will change the composition of
the waters and even the sea level might be rising. If we have two
countries, Russia and the US, not sharing the view that climate
change is happening or is manmade or how much it is manmade, it is
very difficult to proceed."<br>
Mäki-Reinikka said "a month ago Putin said climate change is not
man made" but recent reports of bubbles of methane gas forming in
Siberia, potentially putting more greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere, could mean "a vicious circle of climate change and
global warming will be faster, and the Paris climate change
agreements will need to be stronger".<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www">https://www</a>.<b>kcet.org</b>/shows/earth-focus/climate-change-is-already-killing-farm-workers-around-the-world<br>
<!--StartFragment-->
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<h2 class="esc-lead-article-title" style="font-size: 16px;
line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; font-weight:
bold;"><a target="_blank" class="article
usg-AFQjCNGJiv5MzlZCNsIE7INC4E8MO-T6wQ
sig2-k-ESBRbxaU8v8qIP_15TCg did-8945556401073497805"
href="https://www.kcet.org/shows/earth-focus/climate-change-is-already-killing-farm-workers-around-the-world"
url="https://www.kcet.org/shows/earth-focus/climate-change-is-already-killing-farm-workers-around-the-world"
id="MAA4DEgEUABgAWoCdXM"
ping="//news.google.com/news/url?sr=1&ct2=us%2F10_0_s_4_1_a&sa=t&usg=AFQjCNGJiv5MzlZCNsIE7INC4E8MO-T6wQ&cid=52779491052165&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kcet.org%2Fshows%2Fearth-focus%2Fclimate-change-is-already-killing-farm-workers-around-the-world&ei=CE4VWbBty9eFAeSFmtgJ&sig2=k-ESBRbxaU8v8qIP_15TCg&rt=HOMEPAGE&vm=STANDARD&bvm=grid&did=8945556401073497805&sid=-5694810084437344861&ssid=cstm&st=2&at=dt0"
style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); text-decoration: underline;"><span
class="titletext" style="font-weight: bold;"><b
style="font-weight: bold;">Climate Change</b><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Is Already Killing
Farm Workers Around The World</span></a></h2>
</div>
<blockquote>Recent studies have shown that there's a direct
correlation between climate change and CKDu. The disease affects
farm workers across the globe, including here in California.<br>
Global warming has led to an overall increase of 1.4° Fahrenheit
since 1880 and is estimated to be responsible for 75 percent of
extreme heat events.<br>
According to a report conducted by UC Davis researchers,
agricultural workers in the USA are 20 times more likely to have a
heat-related illness than workers in other industries. That report
looked at over 200 agricultural workers in the Central Valley of
California, where summer temperatures regularly reach 100°F.<br>
What they found: Heat strain and piece-rate work are associated
with kidney failure in California farm workers. Unlike hourly rate
work, piece-rate rewards higher productivity, and gives workers a
strong financial incentive to skip breaks.<br>
The study authors recommended adjusting payment structures and
decreasing heat exposure. But according to Jason Glaser, founder
of La Isla Foundation, the issue needs to be addressed from a more
holistic perspective. <br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www">http://www</a>.<b>latimes.com</b>/politics/la-pol-sac-california-climate-policies-20170511-story.html<br>
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1px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif;
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<h2 class="esc-lead-article-title" style="font-size: 16px;
line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; font-weight:
bold;"><a target="_blank" class="article
usg-AFQjCNG_JI_1EpbtvbLKAhJrMuEbfpcRQg
sig2-CWGlm4Xi5MCKGSkG5ZsGRw did-9188197446284353557"
href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-california-climate-policies-20170511-story.html"
url="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-california-climate-policies-20170511-story.html"
id="MAA4C0gAUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: none;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">California set an ambitious goal
for fighting<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b
style="font-weight: bold;">global warming</b>. Now comes
the hard part</span></a></h2>
</div>
When Stanford University energy economist Danny Cullenward looks at
California's policies on climate change, he sees a potential time
bomb.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www">https://www</a>.<b>nytimes.com</b>/2017/05/11/science/climate-change-simulation-miniature-world.html<br>
<div class="esc-lead-article-title-wrapper" style="margin: 0px 32px
1px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif;
font-size: 13.44px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures:
normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
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initial; text-decoration-color: initial;">
<h2 class="esc-lead-article-title" style="font-size: 16px;
line-height: 18px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; font-weight:
bold;"><a target="_blank" class="article
usg-AFQjCNHLUwwoYVB4YKlFUkuhSq-XB-N-UA
sig2-wiKNCZR_H2ev_bbzOyV2ZA did-7166540131727757275"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/science/climate-change-simulation-miniature-world.html"
url="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/science/climate-change-simulation-miniature-world.html"
id="MAA4DEgAUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: underline;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">To Simulate<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b
style="font-weight: bold;">Climate Change</b>, Scientists
Build Miniature Worlds</span></a></h2>
</div>
<blockquote>Climate change will alter the ecosystems that humanity
depends upon in the coming century. But given the complexity of
the living world, how can you learn what may happen?<br>
Dr. Nagelkerken and his colleagues have tried to create a happy
medium. They filled 12 pools with 475 gallons of seawater apiece
and built simple ocean ecosystems in each one.<br>
They put sand and rocks on the bottom of the pools, along with
artificial sea grass on which algae could grow. They stocked their
small-scale ecosystems, called mesocosms, with local species of
crustaceans and other invertebrates, which grazed on the algae.<br>
For predators, they added a small fish known as the Southern
longfin goby, which feeds on invertebrates.<br>
To test the effects of climate change, Dr. Nagelkerken and his
colleagues manipulated the water in the pools. In three of them,
the researchers raised the temperature 5 degrees — a conservative
projection of how warm water off the coast of South Australia will
get.<br>
The scientists also studied the effect of the carbon dioxide that
is raising the planet's temperature.<br>
The gas is dissolving into the oceans, making them more acidic and
potentially causing harm to marine animals and plants. Yet the
extra carbon dioxide can be used by algae to carry out more
photosynthesis.<br>
To measure the overall impact, Dr. Nagelkerken and his colleagues
pumped the gas into three of the pools, keeping them at today's
ocean temperature<br>
They found that the sharks hunted more for sea urchins, one of the
species they eat because of higher temperatures.<br>
But they were less successful at detecting prey, most likely
because the altered chemistry of the seawater interfered with
their nervous systems.<br>
Dr. Nagelkerken said these experiments had ominous implications
for ocean ecosystems — as well as for the 3.1 billion people
worldwide who depend on fish for 20 percent or more of their
protein.<br>
"As you go further higher up the food web, you get more of a
mismatch between the need for food and the availability of food,"
Dr. Nagelkerken said. And it's the species high in the ocean's
food webs that we fish for.<br>
Just how vulnerable fish will be depends on their individual
ecosystems. Dr. Nagelkerken said he hoped the studies he and his
colleagues are carrying out will prompt other researchers to
replicate them with species and conditions from other parts of the
world.<br>
"These kinds of experiments are essential tools for understanding
change in nature," Dr. O'Connor, the University of British
Columbia ecologist, said.<br>
Dr. Nagelkerken's research, she said, "is not a prediction of the
future, but it is nice proof that we can expect food web
reorganization with continued ocean warming and acidification."<br>
</blockquote>
<font color="#666666"><br>
<font color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/05/10/lng-liquefied-natural-gas-alaska-railroad-nepa-violation">https://www.<b>desmogblog.com</b>/2017/05/10/lng-liquefied-natural-gas-alaska-railroad-nepa-violation</a></font></font><br>
<font color="#000099"><b><a
href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/05/10/lng-liquefied-natural-gas-alaska-railroad-nepa-violation">Secretly
Approved in Alaska, Will LNG Trains Soon Appear in Rest of US?</a></b></font><br>
<blockquote> In 2015, a federal rail agency authorized the Alaska
Railroad Corporation to ship its first batch of liquefied natural
gas (LNG) by rail in Alaska, but granted this permission behind
closed doors, according to documents obtained by the Center for
Biological Diversity (CBD) and provided to DeSmog.<br>
The documents, a series of letters and legal memoranda obtained
through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), show that the
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) may have violated the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by permitting the
shipping of LNG, a highly combustible and flammable material, via
rail without any public notification or comment period. The agency
granted the Alaska Railroad Corporation a legal exemption under 49
C.F.R. § 174.63(a).<br>
That federal statute mandates that a "carrier may not transport a
bulk packaging … containing a hazardous material in
container-on-flatcar (COFC) or trailer-on-flatcar (TOFC) service …
unless approved for transportation by" the FRA. <br>
The Association of American Railroads (AAR), a rail industry
lobbying group, has since petitioned the FRA for the ability to
ship LNG tankers by rail (as opposed to containers or trailers on
flatcars), filing the request on January 17, according to
documents on file at Regulations.gov.<br>
"AAR petitions for rulemaking to authorize the transportation of
methane, refrigerated liquid ("LNG"), by rail in … tank cars,"
reads the AAR petition. "LNG should be authorized for rail
transportation because it is a safe method of transporting this
commodity, LNG shippers have indicated a desire to use rail to
transport it, and because railroads potentially will need to
transport LNG for their own use as a locomotive fuel." <br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www">https://www</a>.<b>nytimes.com</b>/2017/05/08/climate/a-parable-from-down-under-for-us-climate-scientists.html<a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/climate/a-parable-from-down-under-for-us-climate-scientists.html"><br>
<b>A Parable From Down Under for U.S. Climate Scientists</b></a><br>
<blockquote>Politics intruded on climate science in Australia. The
scientists fought back, led by John Church, a leading world expert
on sea level rise.<br>
May 8, 2017 By JUSTIN GILLIS<br>
As Dr. Church and I were finishing our coffees, I noted that
President Trump had offered a budget outline for the United States
that, if enacted, would almost certainly require huge cuts in the
basic scientific enterprise of monitoring and analyzing the
climate.<br>
Congress will have the last word after Mr. Trump presents a more
detailed outline, so there is no way to know how that fight will
end. But over two weekends in April, tens of thousands of
Americans marched in the streets to defend science and to demand
action on climate change.<br>
That means the citizenry in the United States, just as in
Australia, is alert and watching. You can bet a lot of American
scientists are thinking these days about how they will respond if
the government starts gutting climate research.<br>
"I guess somebody in the United States," Dr. Church said, "has to
step out into the public and do what I did."<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www">https://www</a>.<b>youtube.com</b>/watch?v=A84da7lc_Eg<br>
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A84da7lc_Eg">(video)
Atlantic City at High Tide During a Storm</a></b><br>
New Jersey's working class are forgotten as federal government funds
fixes for wealthier neighbors. More: <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://reports.climatecentral.org/atl">http://reports.climatecentral.org/atl</a>...<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://climatenewsnetwork.net/ocean-oxygen-decline-greater-predicted/">http://climatenewsnetwork.net/ocean-oxygen-decline-greater-predicted/</a><br>
<b><a
href="http://climatenewsnetwork.net/ocean-oxygen-decline-greater-predicted/">Ocean
oxygen decline greater than predicted</a></b><br>
<blockquote>Circulation changes caused by warming waters and melting
polar ice are the most probable explanations for the rapidly
falling levels of oxygen in the ocean.<br>
LONDON, 10 May, 2017 – US scientists who have been warning that
warmer oceans are more likely to be poorer in dissolved oxygen
have now sounded the alarm: ocean oxygen levels are indeed
falling, and seemingly falling faster than the corresponding rise
in water temperature.<br>
That colder water can hold more dissolved gas than warmer water is
a commonplace of physics: it is one reason why polar seas are
teeming with marine life and tropical oceans are blue, clear and
often relatively impoverished.<br>
In 2013, an international consortium of marine scientists warned
that oxygen levels in the oceans could fall by between 1% and 7%
by the century's end. And this could, other scientists predicted,
lead to what they politely called "respiratory stress" for some
marine life...<br>
Now the team have returned to the issue. They report in
Geophysical Research Letters that they looked at data for the last
50 years and found the oxygen levels started dropping in the
1980s, as ocean temperatures began to climb – and falling
unexpectedly rapidly.<br>
"The trend of oxygen falling is about two to three times faster
than what we predicted from the decrease of solubility associated
with ocean warming," says Takamitsu Ito, of the School of Earth
and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology,
who led the study.<br>
"This is most likely due to the changes in ocean circulation and
mixing associated with the heating of the near-surface waters and
the melting of polar ice."<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www">http://www</a>.<b>sciencemag.org</b>/news/2017/05/us-spy-agencies-duck-science-climate-change-still-say-it-s-security-threat<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a
href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/us-spy-agencies-duck-science-climate-change-still-say-it-s-security-threat">U.S.
spy agencies wimp out on science of climate change, but still
say it’s a security threat</a></b></font><br>
<blockquote> U.S. national security is being threatened by
improvements in artificial intelligence and genome editing, as
well as the impacts of climate change, overfishing, and
biodiversity loss, concludes the latest edition of an annual
report released today by the U.S. intelligence community. But the
report tries to avoid the increasingly politicized fight over
climate science – without denying the existence of global warming.<br>
The <a
href="https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Newsroom/Testimonies/SSCI%20Unclassified%20SFR%20-%20Final.pdf">2017
Worldwide Threat Assessment,</a> delivered to Congress today by
Daniel Coats, the U.S. director of national intelligence, is a
32-page rundown of global and regional threats that the nation's
spy agencies believe demand attention from policy makers. <br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://">http://</a><b>thinkprogress.org</b>/climate/2008/05/12/172199/mccain-climate-speech/<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a
href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2008/05/12/172199/mccain-climate-speech/">This
Day in Climate History May 12, 2008</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
<blockquote> <font size="+1">GOP presidential candidate John McCain
lays out his plans to address climate change in Portland,
Oregon. The speech receives a tepid reaction, as McCain is
widely faulted for adopting an energy plan that would not reduce
carbon emissions enough to avoid the worst impacts of climate
change.</font><br>
<font size="+1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/JZsmQzOT1oo">http://youtu.be/JZsmQzOT1oo</a></font><br>
<font size="+1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2008/05/12/172199/mccain-climate-speech/">http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2008/05/12/172199/mccain-climate-speech/</a></font><br>
</blockquote>
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