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<font size="+1"><i>May 21, 2017</i></font><br>
<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.ktvb.com/news/local/climate-change-and-farming-growing-seasons-getting-longer/441376031">http://www.ktvb.com/news/local/climate-change-and-farming-growing-seasons-getting-longer/441376031</a></font><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-AFQjCNGKPD-8Wxz5bO8eIDhuj_pDuam9rg
sig2-JSics_YKemQYKbKrROuyYw did--9060865931868732784"
href="http://www.ktvb.com/news/local/climate-change-and-farming-growing-seasons-getting-longer/441376031"
id="MAA4DEgBUABgAWoCdXM" 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>and
farming: Growing seasons getting longer</span></a></h2>
</div>
<blockquote> BOISE - This week the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration released numbers that showed the average global
temperature for January through April of this year were the second
warmest for this period in 138 years of keeping records, just ...<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/where-have-all-insects-gone">http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/where-have-all-insects-gone</a><br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/where-have-all-insects-gone">Where
have all the insects gone?</a></b></font><br>
By Gretchen Vogel May. 10, 2017<br>
<blockquote>Entomologists call it the windshield phenomenon. "If you
talk to people, they have a gut feeling. They remember how insects
used to smash on your windscreen," says Wolfgang Wägele, director
of the Leibniz Institute for Animal Biodiversity in Bonn, Germany.
Today, drivers spend less time scraping and scrubbing. "I'm a very
data-driven person," says Scott Black, executive director of the
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in Portland, Oregon.
"But it is a visceral reaction when you realize you don't see that
mess anymore."<br>
Some people argue that cars today are more aerodynamic and
therefore less deadly to insects. But Black says his pride and joy
as a teenager in Nebraska was his 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1-with
some pretty sleek lines. "I used to have to wash my car all the
time. It was always covered with insects." Lately, Martin Sorg, an
entomologist here, has seen the opposite: "I drive a Land Rover,
with the aerodynamics of a refrigerator, and these days it stays
clean."<br>
Of the scant records that do exist, many come from amateur
naturalists, whether butterfly collectors or bird watchers. Now, a
new set of long-term data is coming to light, this time from a
dedicated group of mostly amateur entomologists who have tracked
insect abundance at more than 100 nature reserves in western
Europe since the 1980s. DOI: 10.1126/science.aal1160<br>
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies<br>
<a
href="http://e360.yale.edu/features/insect_numbers_declining_why_it_matters"
target="_blank"
data-href="http://e360.yale.edu/features/insect_numbers_declining_why_it_matters"
style="color: rgb(102, 0, 153); cursor: pointer;
text-decoration: underline;" moz-do-not-send="true"><b>What's
Causing the Sharp Decline in Insects, and Why It Matters</b></a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://e360.yale.edu/features/insect_numbers_declining_why_it_matters">http://e360.yale.edu/features/insect_numbers_declining_why_it_matters</a><br>
Insect populations are declining dramatically in many parts of the
world, recent studies show. Researchers say various factors, from
monoculture farming to habitat loss, are to blame for the plight
of insects, which are essential to agriculture and ecosystems.<br>
Recently, researchers presented the results of their work to
parliamentarians from the German Bundestag, and the findings were
alarming: The average biomass of insects caught between May and
October has steadily decreased from 1.6 kilograms (3.5 pounds) per
trap in 1989 to just 300 grams (10.6 ounces) in 2014. <br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12656/abstract?userIsAuthenticated=false&deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=">Another
recent study has added to this concern</a>. Scientists from the
Technical University of Munich and the Senckenberg Natural History
Museum in Frankfurt have determined that in a nature reserve near
the Bavarian city of Regensburg, the number of recorded butterfly
and Burnet moth species has declined from 117 in 1840 to 71 in
2013...<br>
A <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/345/6195/401">2014
study in Science</a> documented a steep drop in insect and
invertebrate populations worldwide....out of 3,623 terrestrial
invertebrate species on the International Union for Conservation
of Nature [IUCN] Red List, 42 percent are classified as threatened
with extinction. <br>
more at: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12656/abstract">http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12656/abstract</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/345/6195/401">http://science.sciencemag.org/content/345/6195/401</a><br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://learningenglish">http://learningenglish</a>.<b>voanews.com</b>/a/asian-lawmakers-agree-to-fight-climate-change/3854375.html</font><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:
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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-AFQjCNG4KttT705txToKCn3v-m3oOExdMA
sig2-isLTomW3GeCIhhHAZ85fXg did--3488593280702289603"
href="http://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/asian-lawmakers-agree-to-fight-climate-change/3854375.html"
id="MAA4DEgAUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: underline;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">Asian Lawmakers Agree to Fight<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b
style="font-weight: bold;">Climate Change</b></span></a></h2>
</div>
<blockquote> Lawmakers from Asia-Pacific countries said their area
is important to combating climate change during a recent
international meeting in Vietnam.<br>
Asia-Pacific members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, or IPU, met
for three days in Ho Chi Minh City to debate issues related to
climate change. Their meeting ended Saturday.<br>
The lawmakers shared their concerns about increasing worldwide
temperatures and discussed ideas to combat it [climate change].<br>
"Climate change has no passport," IPU Secretary-General Martin
Chungong said. "It's cross-national."<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/education/article151652362.html">http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/education/article151652362.html</a></font><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-AFQjCNH7np9oVEChrs4hrnMyhFy8-6HcFQ
sig2-Mmkvw8PZye4hn5eg1FiI_A did--7266263885712651641"
href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/education/article151652362.html"
id="MAA4DEgFUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: none;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">Idaho educators push to put
climate change back in ed science standards<br>
</span></a></h2>
</div>
Teaching climate change: Idaho educators take a second shot at state
science standards..BY BILL ROBERTS<br>
<blockquote>A state education committee is proposing to reinsert
climate change into science standards for public schools, but with
one difference: more emphasis on students discovering issues
causing climate change and less on teachers telling them how
humans are causing it...<br>
Lawmakers approved preliminary science standards this year, the
first major update to the state's science standards since 2001.
But they removed five sections on climate change, complaining that
the proposed standards did not give a balanced view on the human
impact on changing climate..<br>
But during hearings on the standards in the legislative session
and hearings with the State Department of Education across the
state this spring, Idahoans overwhelmingly said climate change
must be a part of what students are expected to know.<br>
The new proposed standards encourage "students to go and look at
the evidence" and draw their conclusions, said Micah Lauer, a life
science teacher at Heritage Middle School in West Ada School
District who was a member of the committee writing the standards.<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://blog.ucsusa.org/jamesine-rogers-gibson/infrastructure-spending-is-coming-climate-change-tells-us-to-spend-wisely">http://blog.ucsusa.org/jamesine-rogers-gibson/infrastructure-spending-is-coming-climate-change-tells-us-to-spend-wisely</a></font><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;
letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent:
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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-AFQjCNE4w1Su08xXNzCT-9ZAd-VR410b2w
sig2-flT6rbIwgbQT9h-8Rf1uKA did-8523289697911359013"
href="http://blog.ucsusa.org/jamesine-rogers-gibson/infrastructure-spending-is-coming-climate-change-tells-us-to-spend-wisely"
id="MAA4DEgGUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: underline;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">Infrastructure Spending Is
Coming. Climate Change says Spend Wisely</span></a></h2>
</div>
<blockquote>The news of new federal infrastructure proposals landed
in a timely fashion with this year's Infrastructure Week,
including a bill introduced by the House Democrats (LIFT America
Act, HR 2479) and another expected shortly from Trump's
administration. For years now, the American Society of Civil
Engineers has graded the U.S.'s infrastructure at near failing
(D+). With the hashtag #TimetoBuild, Infrastructure Week
participants are urging policymakers to "invest in projects,
technologies, and policies necessary to make America competitive,
prosperous, and safe."<br>
Conversations in Washington, D.C. and across the country over the
coming weeks and months are sure to focus on what projects to
build. But we first need to ask for what future are we building?
Will it be a version based on similar assumptions and needs as
those we experience today, or a future radically shaped by climate
change? (Changing demographics and technologies will undoubtedly
shape this future as well.)<br>
Engineers and planners know that, ideally, long-lived
infrastructure must be built to serve needs over decades and
withstand the ravages of time - including the effects of harsh
weather and extended use-and with a margin of safety to account
for unanticipated risks.<br>
They are aspirational and not exhaustive, and will continue to
evolve. To be climate-resilient, new and upgraded infrastructure
should be built with these criteria in mind:<br>
Scientifically sound<br>
Socially just<br>
Fiscally sensible<br>
Ambitiously commonsense<br>
Aligned with climate goals<br>
Americans want action for a safer, more climate resilient future<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/climatechange/global-warming-impact-on-the-number-of-extreme-rainfall-events/70001700">http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/climatechange/global-warming-impact-on-the-number-of-extreme-rainfall-events/70001700</a></font><br>
<div class="esc-lead-snippet-wrapper" style="line-height: 1.2em;
padding-left: 1px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial,
sans-serif; font-size: 13.44px; font-style: normal;
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255); text-decoration-style: 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-AFQjCNFBYO5CObnMAJ2eu52giildmUuEHg
sig2-s4WvkiJKDrHMoXqRsLPudw did-7648911520077057218"
href="http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/climatechange/global-warming-impact-on-the-number-of-extreme-rainfall-events/70001700"
id="MAA4C0gGUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: underline;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;"><b style="font-weight: bold;">Global
warming</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>impact
on the number of extreme rainfall events</span></a></h2>
</div>
<blockquote> Since the 1990s, scientists have predicted based on
climate models that the intensity of extreme rain events around
the world should increase with rising global temperatures. Current
observations have so far verified this trend on a broad, global
scale.<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www">http://www</a>.<b>newyorker.com</b>/news/news-desk/the-lights-are-going-out-in-the-middle-east<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-lights-are-going-out-in-the-middle-east">THE
LIGHTS ARE GOING OUT IN THE MIDDLE EAST</a></b><br>
<blockquote>"The world's most volatile region faces a challenge that
doesn't involve guns, militias, warlords, or bloodshed, yet is
also destroying societies. The Middle East, though energy-rich, no
longer has enough electricity. From Beirut to Baghdad, tens of
millions of people now suffer daily outages, with a crippling
impact on businesses, schools, health care, and other basic
services, including running water and sewerage. Little works
without electricity."<br>
"The reasons for these outages vary. With the exception of the
Gulf states, infrastructure is old or inadequate in many of the
twenty-three Arab countries. The region's disparate wars, past and
present, have damaged or destroyed electrical grids. Some
governments, even in Iraq, can't afford the cost of fuelling
plants around the clock. Epic corruption has compounded physical
challenges. Politicians have delayed or prevented solutions if
their cronies don't get contracts to fuel, maintain, or build
power plants"<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/19/arctic-stronghold-of-worlds-seeds-flooded-after-permafrost-melts">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/19/arctic-stronghold-of-worlds-seeds-flooded-after-permafrost-melts</a></font><br>
<font color="#000066"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/19/arctic-stronghold-of-worlds-seeds-flooded-after-permafrost-melts">Arctic
stronghold of world<font color="#000066">'</font>s seeds
flooded after permafrost melts</a></b></font><br>
<blockquote>No seeds were lost but the ability of the rock vault to
provide failsafe protection against all disasters is now
threatened by climate change<br>
But soaring temperatures in the Arctic at the end of the world's
hottest ever recorded year led to melting and heavy rain, when
light snow should have been falling. "It was not in our plans to
think that the permafrost would not be there and that it would
experience extreme weather like that," said Hege Njaa Aschim, from
the Norwegian government, which owns the vault.<br>
But soaring temperatures in the Arctic at the end of the world's
hottest ever recorded year led to melting and heavy rain, when
light snow should have been falling. "It was not in our plans to
think that the permafrost would not be there and that it would
experience extreme weather like that," said Hege Njaa Aschim, from
the Norwegian government, which owns the vault.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/the-crisis-comes-ashore">http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/the-crisis-comes-ashore</a>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a
href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/the-crisis-comes-ashore"
moz-do-not-send="true">This Day in Climate History May 21,
2010 </a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
<font size="+1"><i>(hat tip to Joseph Romm and Peter Sinclair)<br>
</i>In the New Republic, Al Gore notes:<br>
<br>
</font>
<blockquote>"During the last 22 years, the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change has produced four massive studies warning the
world of the looming catastrophe that is being caused by the
massive dumping of global-warming pollution into the atmosphere.
Unfortunately, this process has been vulnerable to disruption and
paralysis by a cynical and lavishly funded disinformation
campaign. A number of large carbon polluters, whose business plans
rely on their continued ability to freely dump their gaseous waste
products into the global atmospheric commons - as if it is an open
sewer - have chosen to pursue a determined and highly organized
campaign aimed at undermining public confidence in the accuracy
and integrity of the global scientific community. They have
attacked the scientific community by financing pseudo-studies
aimed at creating public doubt about peer-reviewed science. They
have also manipulated the political and regulatory process with
outsized campaign contributions and legions of lobbyists (there
are now four anti-climate lobbyists for every single member of the
House and Senate).<br>
<br>
"This epic public contest between the broad public interest and a
small but powerful special interest has taken place during a time
when American democracy has grown sclerotic. The role of money in
our politics has exploded to a dangerous level. Our democratic
conversation is now dominated by expensive 30-second television
commercials, which consume two-thirds of the campaign budgets of
candidates in both political parties. The only reliable source of
such large sums of campaign cash is business lobbies. Most members
of the House and Senate facing competitive election contests are
forced to spend several hours each day asking special interests
for money to finance their campaigns. Instead of participating in
committee hearings, floor debates, and Burkean reflection on the
impact of the questions being considered, they spend their time as
supplicants. Though many struggle to resist the influence their
donors intend to have on their decision-making process, all too
frequently human nature takes its course.<br>
<br>
"Their constituents now spend an average of five hours per day
watching television - which is, of course, why campaigns in both
political parties spend most of their money on TV advertising.
Viewers also absorb political messages from the same special
interests that are wining and dining and contributing to their
elected officials. The largest carbon polluters have, for the last
17 years, sought to manipulate public opinion with a massive and
continuing propaganda campaign, using TV advertisements and all
other forms of mass persuasion. It is a game plan spelled out in
one of their internal documents, which was leaked to an
enterprising reporter, that stated: 'reposition global warming as
theory rather than fact.' In other words, they have mimicked the
strategy pioneered by the tobacco industry, which undermined the
scientific consensus linking the smoking of cigarettes with
diseases of the lung and heart—successfully delaying appropriate
health measures for almost 40 years after the landmark surgeon
general’s report of 1964."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/the-crisis-comes-ashore">http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/the-crisis-comes-ashore</a>
<br>
</blockquote>
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