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<font size="+1"><i>May 26 , 2017</i></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-AFQjCNHv-cMknbtvDtJFRBnoR753mrNYUQ
sig2-Q2glCMChwzMkvST3OWWyoQ did-7645020968822133740"
href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/25/530028733/noaa-predicts-above-normal-activity-in-atlantic-hurricane-season"
style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); text-decoration: underline;"><span
class="titletext" style="font-weight: bold;">NOAA Predicts
'Above-Normal' Activity In Atlantic Hurricane Season</span></a></h2>
</div>
The Atlantic hurricane season could see between two and four major
hurricanes in 2017, according to the latest forecast from NOAA's
Climate Prediction Center. There's only a 20 percent chance that
this season will be less active than normal, the agency says.<br>
The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins June 1, but one
named storm, Arlene, already hit land last month. The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it expects between 11
and 17 named storms (with sustained winds of 39 mph or higher), and
from five to nine hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher) this
season.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/25/530028733/noaa-predicts-above-normal-activity-in-atlantic-hurricane-season">http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/25/530028733/noaa-predicts-above-normal-activity-in-atlantic-hurricane-season</a><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-AFQjCNE-mcsAJAzrOXh38WmszXSm3dn5Eg
sig2-_w-NLSR1It7h6huQGeWtWw did-3810168705179408999"
href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/forecasters-expect-normal-atlantic-hurricane-season-47640363"
id="MAA4AkgBUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: underline;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">Forecasters predict above-normal
Atlantic hurricane season</span></a></h2>
</div>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/forecasters-expect-normal-atlantic-hurricane-season-47640363">http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/forecasters-expect-normal-atlantic-hurricane-season-47640363</a><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-AFQjCNELPmoKkTDqm2AiYx5z2hf5-ANwww
sig2-kx8PewXYWEy6-XQsM0KHxw did--521257212111145238"
href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/2005-g7-has-recognized-threat-climate-change"
id="MAA4DEgCUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: none;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">Since 2005 the G7 Has Recognized
Threat of<b style="font-weight: bold;">Climate Change</b></span></a></h2>
</div>
Since 2005, the Group of Seven (G7) countries have recognized the
threat of climate change and the need for a global agreement to
address the issue. The Trump Administration is reportedly trying to
weaken or eliminate any strong language on climate change in the
upcoming G7 leaders statement. It would be extremely rare for this
major set of developed countries to not send a clear signal
regarding climate change.<br>
These leader statements typically get stronger over time so it is
important to compare the 2017 statement to the least progressive
statement in 2005 - when President Bush was in office - with the
most progressive statement from last year - right after countries
had agreed to the historic Paris Agreement.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/2005-g7-has-recognized-threat-climate-change">https://www.nrdc.org/experts/2005-g7-has-recognized-threat-climate-change</a><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-AFQjCNEkdSS714t7rHjvm9ZWSQQWADP9ig
sig2-ecxKRvlrk2VmKbTKpfgCew did-8933177062793508956"
href="http://thebulletin.org/nato-joins-pentagon-deeming-climate-change-threat-multiplier10790"
id="MAA4DEgBUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: underline;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">NATO joins the Pentagon in
deeming <b style="font-weight: bold;">climate change</b><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>a threat multiplier</span></a><br>
</h2>
</div>
A new NATO special report concludes that climate change is the
ultimate "threat multiplier" - meaning that it can exacerbate
political instability in the world's most unstable regions - because
by intensifying extreme weather events like droughts, climate change
stresses food and water supplies. In poor, arid countries already
facing shortages, this increased stress can lead to disputes and
violent conflicts over scarce resources.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://thebulletin.org/nato-joins-pentagon-deeming-climate-change-threat-multiplier10790">http://thebulletin.org/nato-joins-pentagon-deeming-climate-change-threat-multiplier10790</a><br>
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<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/05/23/national-association-manufacturers-attempts-11th-hour-escape-our-children-s-trust-climate-lawsuit">National
Association of Manufacturers Attempts 11th Hour Escape from Our
Children's Trust Climate Lawsuit</a></b><br>
Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - <br>
By Dan Zegart, originally published at Climate Investigations Center
<br>
In a last-minute legal maneuver, the National Association of
Manufacturers is trying to extricate itself from a closely-watched
federal climate lawsuit 18 months after it won a legal battle
allowing it to intervene in the case.<br>
NAM's motion to withdraw from the Our Children's Trust lawsuit came
on May 22nd, just as it was about to be ordered to turn over
documents on its climate change knowledge and activities, which
would presumably have included its participation in political front
and lobbying groups that denied the reality of climate change and
spread disinformation on the subject.<br>
A powerful trade organization that claims to be "the largest
manufacturing association in the United States," NAM, along with the
American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers and the American
Petroleum Institute, intervened in the OCT case over the heated
objections of the plaintiffs two months after the case was filed in
September 2015. <br>
The three trade associations made themselves legal "intervenors" in
the case in an effort to get it dismissed, presumably because the
case was of great interest to some of their corporate members.
Outside parties can intervene in a federal lawsuit if they have an
important interest in the case that might not otherwise not be
represented by the litigants.<br>
The OCT plaintiffs, a group of 21 young people aged 9 to 20 from all
over the United States each of whom allegedly suffered harm from
global warming, sued not the fossil fuel industry nor any
corporation, but the federal government for allegedly violating
their constitutional right to life via policies that harm the
climate.<br>
One powerful reason for NAM to leave the case now is that it and the
other intervenors must decide by May 25th whether they will admit to
certain facts about climate change. The federal government has
already made a series of 98 such admissions, but two weeks ago, the
intervenors begged the court for more time to respond. ..<br>
A press release by Our Children's Trust said NAM and the intervenors
"went to great lengths to become a party defendant in this case…Now,
faced with significant legal victories by these young plaintiffs,
and on the eve of having to take a position on climate science, NAM
wants out of this case." <br>
NAM may have been scared off by the extremely detailed discovery
request already filed by OCT against the American Petroleum
Institute - 21 pages of questions citing names, dates, organizations
and activities bearing on what API understood about climate science
versus its apparent participation in sophisticated efforts to
confuse the public, deny the science and obstruct progress on the
issue to protect petroleum sales. <br>
For NAM to undergo similar discovery, or to have to take positions
on climate matters that might conflict with past behavior and
statements, is something it clearly wishes to avoid. ...<br>
One line of inquiry, for instance, could lead to NAM's participation
during the 1990s - along with API - in founding the Global Climate
Coalition, a powerful front group with a membership of over 50
fossil fuel, chemical, industrial and consumer goods companies,
electric utilities, trade groups, and others. The GCC carried out a
media campaign using climate change denying scientists, it planted
news stories, and it used political influence to try to thwart the
work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Global
Climate Coalition was run out of NAM's offices for some years and
NAM was a member of the GCC for over ten years...<br>
If a trial of the OCT suit does follow in short order, as federal
Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin has indicated it will, and if any
documents detailing tortious or potentially illegal acts are
obtained through pre-trial discovery, those documents could well
become exhibits at a trial in Coffin's courtroom and become public
records, a politically toxic possibility for the fossil fuel
industry and others like NAM. Of course, the industry could try for
a protective order sealing the documents from public view.<br>
It's now up to Judge Coffin to rule on whether to let NAM out of the
case.<br>
If he does, and if a trial in the OCT case comes before the end of
the year, as Coffin has promised, then there's not much time left
for a defendant-intervenor to withdraw from Kelsey Cascadia Rose
Juliana v. United States of America, as the case is formally known.
<br>
Northeastern University law professor Richard Daynard, who worked
closely with plaintiff's lawyers in the 1990s to help launch
lawsuits against the tobacco industry, called the intervention by
the trade organizations "an impressive piece of stupidity."<br>
"They'll be very lucky if they get out of that one unscathed," he
said.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climateinvestigations.nationbuilder.com/manufacturers_group_tries_11th_hour_escape_from_kids_climate_lawsuit">https://climateinvestigations.nationbuilder.com/manufacturers_group_tries_11th_hour_escape_from_kids_climate_lawsuit</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/05/23/national-association-manufacturers-attempts-11th-hour-escape-our-children-s-trust-climate-lawsuit">https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/05/23/national-association-manufacturers-attempts-11th-hour-escape-our-children-s-trust-climate-lawsuit</a><br>
<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-AFQjCNFLSruxccvew5clOl2O8cebOqi3MQ
sig2-TtPSsBY67TTP_lOcJlhSzg did--2382691543303626536"
href="https://phys.org/news/2017-05-climate-litigation-rapidly-global.html"
id="MAA4DEgDUABgAWoCdXM" 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>litigation
growing rapidly, says global study</span></a></h2>
</div>
A new global study has found that the number of lawsuits involving
climate change has tripled since 2014, with the United States
leading the way. Researchers identified 654 U.S. lawsuits - three
times more than the rest of the world combined. Many of the suits,
which are usually filed by individuals or nongovernmental
organizations, seek to hold governments accountable for existing
climate-related legal commitments. The study was done by the United
Nations Environment Program and Columbia University's Sabin Center
for Climate Change Law.<br>
Around 177 countries recognize the right of citizens to a clean and
healthy environment, and courts are increasingly being asked to
define the implications of this right in relation to climate change.<br>
"Judicial decisions around the world show that many courts have the
authority, and the willingness, to hold governments to account for
climate change,"...<br>
Technology will not suffice to address coming problems, say the
authors; laws and policies must be part of any strategy. They say
that because of the Paris Agreement, plaintiffs can now argue in
some jurisdictions that their governments' political statements must
be backed up by concrete measures to mitigate climate change.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://phys.org/news/2017-05-climate-litigation-rapidly-global.html">https://phys.org/news/2017-05-climate-litigation-rapidly-global.html</a><br>
<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-AFQjCNGLDKQTdL2SGt5BmSK_7VV88G1Iug
sig2-cWPiL613ecGPAq-cwO_nxA did-6035184360597463966"
href="http://www.utilitydive.com/news/investors-lean-on-southern-co-to-tackle-business-risks-of-climate-change/443545/"
id="MAA4DEgCUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: none;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">Investors lean on Southern Co. to
tackle business risks of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b
style="font-weight: bold;">climate change</b></span></a></h2>
</div>
Southern Co. shareholders yesterday narrowly defeated a proposal for
the company to report on its business plan for a carbon-constrained
future, with 46% in favor of the measure. Essentially the proposal
would request Southern Co. to align its business operations with a 2
degree Celsius global warming scenario, the limit outlined in the
Paris Climate Accord. <br>
The shareholder proposal was filed by the Interfaith Center on
Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a coalition of Catholic
institutional investors.<br>
Shareholders are ramping up pressure on utility companies to address
the business risks of greenhouse gas emissions. Last week, 57% of
shareholders in Pennsylvania utility PPL Corp. voted in favor of a
similar non-binding resolution.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.utilitydive.com/news/investors-lean-on-southern-co-to-tackle-business-risks-of-climate-change/443545/">http://www.utilitydive.com/news/investors-lean-on-southern-co-to-tackle-business-risks-of-climate-change/443545/</a><br>
<br>
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<h2 class="esc-lead-article-title" style="font-size: 18px;
line-height: 21px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; font-weight:
bold;"><a target="_blank" class="article
usg-AFQjCNHw6CYdWNBEZil8IDM8RKS5Muz7lQ
sig2-KSLeJjft_djENDpAmliKsg did--7507589840862696280"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-to-spot-a-misrepresentation-about-climate-change/2017/05/24/fee19c1e-0b0c-11e7-93dc-00f9bdd74ed1_story.html"
id="MAA4DEgFUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: underline;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">How to spot a misrepresentation
about<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b
style="font-weight: bold;">climate change</b></span></a></h2>
</div>
James Inhofe gave a master class on this when he brought a snowball
onto the Senate floor in 2015 to prove that climate change is a
myth); and the "demonizer" (when, for instance, a public official
blames a disease outbreak on illegal immigrants).<br>
In each case, Levitan traces the lies back to the source. He points
out that when Rep. Gary Palmer (Ala.) went on the radio in 2015 to
say that the government was manipulating climate-change data, the
argument in fact came from climate denier (and retired accountant)
Paul Homewood. On his blog, Homewood offered no evidence to back up
his incendiary claim of massive temperature tampering. Even so, that
piece was picked up by Christopher Booker of the British newspaper
the Telegraph and then shared hundreds of thousands of times.
(Levitan calls this type of fib "blame the blogger." )<br>
The book offers a common-sense approach for catching
misrepresentations. "When a politician makes what sounds like a very
specific point - no warming for seventeen years, not sixteen or
eighteen - be wary." And: "Every measurement . . . [has] some
margin for error. Pointing that out when it suits a political agenda
isn't an argument; it's just a smokescreen."<br>
Levitan's analysis is accurate and often interesting. But the book
feels terribly light on the "why" - why are politicians so willing
to mangle science? How do corporations and other special interests
back them up? How did we become a country of scientific
know-nothings?<br>
While the author spends a lot of time debunking myths around climate
change, I wish he'd talked about how companies like ExxonMobil spent
millions on phony science and research to create the confusion about
global warming that so many people now feel, even in the face of
overwhelming scientific consensus.<br>
Instead, though, Levitan sticks to the facts. By doing so, he might
miss the bigger picture.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-to-spot-a-misrepresentation-about-climate-change/2017/05/24/fee19c1e-0b0c-11e7-93dc-00f9bdd74ed1_story.html">https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-to-spot-a-misrepresentation-about-climate-change/2017/05/24/fee19c1e-0b0c-11e7-93dc-00f9bdd74ed1_story.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a
href="http://www.sightline.org/2017/05/24/this-is-your-brain-on-facts/">This
is Your Brain - on Facts Quirks in the way we think - and the
way we think we think.</a></b></font><br>
This article is part of the series Flashcards <a
href="http://www.sightline.org/author/anna-fahey/">Author: Anna
Fahey</a><br>
If you were watching TV in the US in the late 1980s, you'll probably
remember the anti-drug ads with the egg - "this is your brain" - and
then the egg cracked into a sizzling hot frying pan - "this is your
brain on drugs." But if neuroscience and psychology and behavioral
economics tell us anything, it's that the human brain scrambles
itself - no drugs required! <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases">Dozens
of cognitive biases</a> - all well studied - mean good old homo
sapiens is not as wise - or rational or objective - as we've cast
ourselves to be. Unconscious mental shortcuts, ingrained social
survival impulses, and evolutionary glitches complicate how we
evaluate new information, form opinions, gauge risk, or change our
minds.<br>
And I mean <a
href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/media/2017/02/fake-news-problem-left-too">all
of us</a>. Don't forget that rascally <a
href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-big-questions/201212/we-struggle-objectivity-the-bias-blind-spot">blind
spot bias</a> - where we tend to notice others' flaws in reasoning
far more readily than seeing them in ourselves.<br>
As we humans seem to careen toward an epistemological precipice sped
along by intense partisanship, it's worth reviewing some of the most
powerful tricks our own brains play on us.<br>
<b>Confirmation bias: We cherry pick "evidence" that backs up what
we already "know"</b><br>
Consider the news sources you trust compared to places your
politically opposite uncle reads. You each think the other is
spouting fake news. But both of you - consciously and unconsciously
- seek out information that<a
href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/why-facts-dont-change-our-minds">
supports your existing beliefs</a> and <a
href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/science-choice/201504/what-is-confirmation-bias">ignore
or reject information that contradicts it</a>. And it's not just
looking for proof that we are right; information we deem credible,
how we interpret it, and what we remember also serve existing
convictions over new ones and protect us from having to admit - even
to ourselves - <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/smarter-living/why-its-so-hard-to-admit-youre-wrong.html">that
we were wrong.</a><br>
<b>The backfire effect: Faced with conflicting evidence, the brain
defends existing beliefs like a fortress</b><br>
Think of your belief system as a house - but not just any house,
this is the very structure that your identity, your worldview, your
common sense, your self calls home! When new evidence threatens to
destroy even one building block of our house, we build up defenses
in order to keep the whole thing from falling down. When someone
challenges our preconceptions we may very well dig in our heels. And
this is only partly metaphor. Ask a neuroscientist and they'll tell
you that beliefs are physical, established in the very structure of
our brains. <a
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/inside-the-political-brain/256483/">"To
attack them is like attacking part of a person's anatomy."</a> (Do
not miss <a href="http://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe">The
Oatmeal's</a> explanation of the backfire effect!)<br>
<b>Group-think: "When opinions are symbols of belonging, our brains
work overtime to keep us believing" </b><br>
That's how <a
href="http://www.nature.com/news/how-to-trump-group-think-in-a-post-truth-world-1.21056">Dan
Kahan</a>, Yale law and psychology researcher, describes
group-think. Our affinity groups go a long way to define who we are
and what we think. People around us give us confidence we're right
because <a
href="https://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/3/2/14750464/truth-facts-psychology-donald-trump-knowledge-science">we
all agree</a>. Again, our identity depends on upholding and
protecting the group's worldview. It's the backfire effect all over
again. We'd rather justify our strongly held beliefs than change our
minds or fly in the face of our group's norms. Science writer<a
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/inside-the-political-brain/256483/">
Chris Mooney </a>explains:<br>
<a
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/inside-the-political-brain/256483/">Our
political, ideological, partisan, and religious convictions</a> -
because they are deeply held enough to comprise core parts of our
personal identities, and because they link us to the groups that
bulwark those identities and give us meaning - can be key drivers of
motivated reasoning. They can make us virtually impervious to facts,
logic, and reason.<br>
Pro tip: If you're trying to change people's minds, consider
messengers from within their trusted social group. (See also: <a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/adam-kingsmith/cognitive-bias-politics_b_3077740.html">In-group
bias</a> and <a
href="https://www.verywell.com/what-is-the-false-consensus-effect-2795030">false
consensus bias</a>.)<br>
<b>Availability heuristic: False conclusions based on one vivid
example overpower less memorable narratives </b><br>
What comes to mind most readily can shape our thinking. For example,
a few high-profile murder cases stick in our mind and may drown out
less flashy statistics about declining violent crime rates in our
city. We tend to jump to conclusions based on the incomplete
information that stands out in our minds. "The problem is that too
often our beliefs support ideas or policies that are totally
unjustified,"<a
href="https://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/3/2/14750464/truth-facts-psychology-donald-trump-knowledge-science">
says author and researcher Steven Sloman.</a><br>
<b>Affect heuristic: Feelings trump facts </b><br>
Tugging at heartstrings? Going for the gut? <a
href="http://www.canadianbusiness.com/blogs-and-comment/post-factual-marketing/">Commercial
marketers, political campaigners, and psychologists</a> know this
one well: the tendency to make decisions based on emotion, not
facts. The brain is emotional first (system one, the fast, automatic
response), analytical later (system two, the slower more thoughtful
process). But the systems aren't disconnected. A network of
memories, associations, and feelings "motivates" our system two
reasoning, making objective judgement elusive. According to <a
href="http://www.thepoliticalbrain.com/videos.php">Drew Westen,
psychologist, political consultant, and author of The Political
Brain</a>, the brain on politics is essentially the brain on
drugs. In fact the same chemicals are in play.<a
href="http://www.sightline.org/2008/03/13/drewwestenresearch/">
Positive emotions are related to dopamine</a> (a neurotransmitter
found in rewards circuits in the brain) and inhibition and avoidance
are associated with norepinephrine (a close cousin of the hormone
adrenaline, which can produce fear and anxiety). In his research,
the brain function of partisans sought good chemicals and avoided
bad ones.<br>
All this is to say that facts aren't a magic serum for changing
minds. In fact, pouring on more facts can have the opposite effect,
entrenching people's existing beliefs. You knew that. But it's good
to review. Perhaps if we stop more often to think about how we
think, we'll be better equipped to venture out of our own echo
chambers, find empathy and understanding rather than fanning the
flames of polarization, and map a bit more common ground.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.sightline.org/2017/05/24/this-is-your-brain-on-facts/">http://www.sightline.org/2017/05/24/this-is-your-brain-on-facts/</a><br>
<br>
<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:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 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-AFQjCNEW1YfT22K4LkEJLAS4ziSl5SIF8A
sig2-hwilXXYpKHrUZ1mn-vjjCg did--8409735385610437493"
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/05/iceland-glacier-guides-tourism-climate-change-170515085246284.html"
id="MAA4DEgGUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: underline;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">Iceland's glacier guides: Tourism
under<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b
style="font-weight: bold;">climate change</b></span></a></h2>
</div>
"This glacier is now in full retreat and we're losing about 14cm of
ice a day. Right now it's changing every few days. It's quite
amazing how much goes in a short period of time."<br>
Scientists have measured the rate of ice change on Falljokull since
1932.<br>
The British Geological Survey and the Icelandic Meteorological
Office found that since 2005, it has been losing more than 35 metres
a year as a result of a decade of unusually warm summers.<br>
The glacier's melting ice only contributes to its own erosion,
making it harder to explore its hidden features.<br>
"The water that you see running down off the top acts like a hot
knife through butter," Thomas adds.<br>
"It cuts its way into the ice, creating more cracks where water can
flow and continue melting away on the inside.<br>
Dangers for tourists: Falling boulders<br>
The guides used to lead tourists along the side, but big rocks have
been falling there recently, making the route too dangerous to use,
Van Holder says. <br>
"If you look up the slope, there are massive boulders embedded in
ice that's still clinging to the walls. As it melts away, the
boulders just drop out and fall to the floor," he says, gesturing
with his arms to show how huge they are.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/05/iceland-glacier-guides-tourism-climate-change-170515085246284.html">http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/05/iceland-glacier-guides-tourism-climate-change-170515085246284.html</a><br>
<br>
<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:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 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-AFQjCNFsiSFxlQJFM55M42MsHor890dekw
sig2-1dEtbxcLKlySV6kyPmck2w did-7849111651076007273"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/05/23/climate-change-arctic_n_16792324.html"
id="MAA4DEgGUABgAWoCdXM" 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>Could
Uncover An Abandoned Arctic Nuclear Base</span></a></h2>
</div>
Climate change is causing record levels of ice to disappear from the
Arctic, and the melt is unearthing something that was supposed to
stay buried for centuries - an abandoned U.S. nuclear base.<br>
Camp Century was built in Greenland in 1959 during the peak of the
Cold War. The subterranean base held between 85 and 200 soldiers
year-round. The base was built under the pretense that it would be a
centre for scientific experiments on the icecap and a space to test
construction techniques in Arctic conditions.<br>
The base was really part of "Project Iceworm," a top secret U.S.
army program that intended to build a network of missile launch
sites under the ice sheet.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/05/23/climate-change-arctic_n_16792324.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/05/23/climate-change-arctic_n_16792324.html</a><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27184">Positive
Feedbacks in Climate Change</a><br>
The Edge 2017 : WHAT SCIENTIFIC TERM OR CONCEPT OUGHT TO BE MORE
WIDELY KNOWN?<br>
Bruce Parker Visiting Professor, Center for Maritime System;
Author, The Power of the Sea: Tsunamis, Storm Surges, and Our Quest
to Predict Disasters<br>
Positive Feedbacks in Climate Change<br>
There is very little appreciation among the general public (and even
among many scientists) of the great complexity of the mechanisms
involved in climate change. Climate change significantly involves
physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomical forcing. The
present political debate centers on the effect of the increase in
the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atm'osphere since
humankind began clearing the forests of the world and especially
began burning huge quantities of fossil fuels, but this debate often
ignores (or is unaware of) the complex climate system that this
increase in carbon dioxide is expected to change (or not change,
depending on one's political viewpoint...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27184">https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27184</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GOZznP2O98"
moz-do-not-send="true">This Day in Climate History May 26,
1990, 1993, 2005, 2011, 2013</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
<font size="+1">May 26, 1990: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/26/world/scientists-urge-rapid-action-on-global-warming.html">The
New York Times covers the release of the First Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report:</a><br>
"A panel of scientists warned today that unless emissions of
carbon dioxide and other harmful gases were immediately cut by
more than 60 percent, global temperatures would rise sharply over
the next century, with unforeseeable consequences for humanity.<br>
"While much of the substance of the report has already been
disclosed, the report had immediate political consequences. Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain, breaking with the Bush
Administration's skepticism over the need for immediate action,
said today that if other countries did their part, Britain would
reduce the projected growth of its carbon dioxide emissions enough
to stabilize them at 1990 levels by the year 2005."<br>
</font><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/26/world/scientists-urge-rapid-action-on-global-warming.html">http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/26/world/scientists-urge-rapid-action-on-global-warming.html</a><font
size="+1"><br>
<br>
May 26, 1993: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/BT">House Minority
Leader Bob Michel (R-IL), House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich
(R-GA), Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX) and representatives of the Koch
Brothers-funded Citizens for a Sound Economy demonize President
Clinton's BTU tax proposal in a news conference.</a><br>
</font><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/BT">http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/BT</a><font size="+1"><br>
<br>
May 26, 2005: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=86c03575-8645-45df-9ac9-b7b798536bc1">The
bipartisan McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship and Innovation
Act is introduced in the Senate; it would be defeated in a 60-38
vote in June 2005.</a><br>
</font><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=86c03575-8645-45df-9ac9-b7b798536bc1">http://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=86c03575-8645-45df-9ac9-b7b798536bc1</a><br>
<font size="+1"><br>
May 26, 2011:<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://youtu.be/R-qMoqAfViM"> In a bizarre 14-minute
speech, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie </a>simultaneously
acknowledges that human-caused climate change is real while also
announcing that he will pull his state out of the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a Northeastern-based carbon-reduction
program, on the specious grounds that the program is ineffective.
It is later revealed that Christie made this decision after
meeting with billionaire climate-change deniers--and RGGI
opponents--Charles and David Koch.<br>
</font><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/R-qMoqAfViM">http://youtu.be/R-qMoqAfViM</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10335">http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10335</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10622">http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10622</a><font size="+1"><br>
<br>
May 26, 2013: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GOZznP2O98">The CBS
program "Face the Nation" devotes nearly fifteen minutes to a
discussion of the risks of climate change.</a><br>
</font><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://thinkprogress.org/media/2013/05/26/2063231/cbs-climate-change/">http://thinkprogress.org/media/2013/05/26/2063231/cbs-climate-change/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GOZznP2O98">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GOZznP2O98</a> <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/extreme-weather-patterns-and-the-possible-role-of-climate-change/">http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/extreme-weather-patterns-and-the-possible-role-of-climate-change/</a><font
size="+1"><i><br>
<br>
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