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<font size="+1"><i>June 16, 2017<br>
</i></font><br>
<font color="#000099"><b><a
href="http://www.columbia.edu/%7Emhs119/Temperature/">May
Global Temperature Update - James Hansen</a></b></font><br>
May 2017, at +0.88C relative to the 1951-1980 mean, was the second
warmest May in the period of instrumental data, only 0.05C cooler
than May 2016 record high (0.93C).<br>
ENSO (El Nino-Southern Oscillation) in the tropical Pacific are now
near neutral, while the first half of 2016 was affected by the
strong 2015-2016 El Nino. Given present and projected ENSO
conditions (neutral or slightly positive) it can be projected that
2017 as a whole is likely to be the second warmest year in the
instrumental record, not much cooler than 2016.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.columbia.edu/%7Emhs119/Temperature/">http://www.columbia.edu/~mhs119/Temperature/</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-AFQjCNGtWXMKCiwP-DQScMI6qq91G34vpw
sig2-xIj2_lLg3bH57hSNWAtREQ did--4234946363294147647"
href="http://news.stanford.edu/2017/06/15/sociologist-probes-lack-grassroots-climate-change-activism/"
id="MAA4DEgGUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: underline;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">Stanford sociologist attempts to
explain puzzling lack of grassroots<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b
style="font-weight: bold;">climate change</b><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>activism in US</span></a></h2>
</div>
Sociologist Doug McAdam examined 40 years of research and theory on
social movements in an attempt to determine why a sustained
grassroots movement on climate change has not developed in the
United States.<br>
There are a host of factors that help to account for the relative
lack of grassroots activism on climate change, notably,<br>
<b>1) the relentless denial of the reality of climate change by
anti-climate change forces; <br>
2) increasing gridlock in Congress, making bipartisan action on
any issue difficult;<br>
3) the lack of "ownership" of the issue by any significant segment
of the American public, in contrast to issues such as police
violence against African Americans or sexual assaults against
women, or the threat of deportation against Hispanics; and <br>
4) the mistaken extended "time horizon" associated with the issue,
which reassures many that the impact of climate change is still
off in the nebulous future.</b><br>
... grassroots action on a given issue is much more likely if a
specific population segment identifies with and is committed to
action on the issue. No clear segment of the U.S. population
currently "owns" the climate change issue.<br>
There are more than 400 formal climate change organizations in the
U.S. Have they made a measurable impact and how are they different
from grassroots organizations?<br>
These organizations are different in that they generally eschew
forms of non-institutionalized, or otherwise disruptive, action in
favor of the more conventional tactics of lobbying and public
education. <b> But relative to the far more numerous – and much
better-funded – climate change denier organizations, the top-down
climate change organizations have had virtually no impact on
environmental policy at the federal level.</b><br>
As unthinkable as President Trump's decision to withdraw from the
Paris agreement is, it presents a clear opportunity for climate
change and other environmental groups to mobilize around the threat
to the planet posed by his actions. This would also allow those
groups to appropriate all the generalized opposition and anger at
Trump on behalf of the climate change issue.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://news.stanford.edu/2017/06/15/sociologist-probes-lack-grassroots-climate-change-activism/">http://news.stanford.edu/2017/06/15/sociologist-probes-lack-grassroots-climate-change-activism/</a></font><br>
================================================<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-polisci-052615-025801">Social
Movement Theory and the Prospects for Climate Change Activism in
the United States</a><br>
Annual Review of Political Science<br>
Vol. 20:189-208 (Volume publication date May 2017) <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-052615-025801">https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-052615-025801</a><br>
Abstract<br>
The issue of climate change poses something of a puzzle. For all the
attention accorded the issue, climate change/global warming has
spawned surprisingly little grassroots activism in the contemporary
United States. Drawing on social movement theory, the author seeks
to explain this puzzle. The prevailing consensus among movement
scholars is that the prospect for movement emergence is facilitated
by the confluence of three factors: the expansion of political
opportunities, the availability of mobilizing structures, and
cognitive and affective mobilization through framing processes. The
author then applies each of these factors to the case of climate
change, arguing that (a) awareness of the issue developed during an
especially inopportune period in American politics, (b) the
organizations that arose to address the issue were ill suited to the
kind of grassroots mobilization characteristic of successful
movements, and (c) the amorphous nature of the issue played havoc
with efforts at strategic framing.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-polisci-052615-025801?journalCode=polisci">http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-polisci-052615-025801?journalCode=polisci</a></font><br>
<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-AFQjCNEnNm4mvf3SMmXOG55kPePTmdBz1Q
sig2-hoy-qyPmbJ_kPvSS8XSr_g did--3947625594056781615"
href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/06/the_doj_admits_climate_change_exists_it_just_refutes_whether_the_federal.html"
id="MAA4DEgEUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: underline;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">The Trump Response to the Kids'<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b
style="font-weight: bold;">Climate</b> Lawsuit Isn't
Denial. It's Evasion.</span></a></h2>
</div>
...At a hearing on Wednesday, government lawyers in the case
unveiled a second strategy that echoed the congressional testimony
of Attorney General Jeff Sessions just one day earlier: evasion.
They refused to answer basic questions of fact and asserted
executive privilege over the science the government is using to
determine climate change policy....<br>
Julia Olson, the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, filed 10 requests
for admission months ago, in February, to try to get the government
to take a firm position on what it thought safe levels of CO2 would
be to limit the catastrophic consequences of global warming. The
government's initial answer, the one submitted under Obama, admitted
the climate problems we are facing but didn't explain what it
considered to be safe levels of carbon dioxide emissions...<br>
Olson wanted to know how the government's own climate scientists had
assessed these questions in briefings to the president. She filed
her requests with both the White House and with the Environmental
Protection Agency. The Department of Justice has refused to answer
any of them, claiming executive privilege allows them to keep secret
the facts it uses to determine policy...<br>
"We're starting to see them exert executive privilege over climate
change facts," Olson said over the phone. "They said they don't have
to disclose whether the statements were true or false because it was
protected information. That the president gets to know his position
and he doesn't have to answer questions about it. It's more of this
idea that the president is above the law."..<br>
"The main questions are these," Coffin said. "Is there human-induced
climate change happening, and if so, what's going to be the
reasonable probability of habitability of the planet in a number of
years and what changes need to be made to keep that from happening?<br>
"I've asked several times," he added. "Does the government admit
this is happening? Or does the government deny it? And if so, what
evidence does the government plan on presenting at trial? We need
some indication from the government as to what it plans to argue."<br>
Olson asked Judge Coffin to issue an order requiring the government
to produce the documents. He has not yet indicated whether he would
issue such a ruling.<br>
Perhaps it is heartening that the Trump administration has not
shifted tactics in this case to deny climate change altogether. Of
course, if it did that, it would have to prove it, and there are
already a number of legal precedents that uphold the idea that
carbon emissions are harmful to the planet and pose a risk to human
health. It's far easier, it seems, to just evade the question
altogether.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/06/the_doj_admits_climate_change_exists_it_just_refutes_whether_the_federal.html">http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/06/the_doj_admits_climate_change_exists_it_just_refutes_whether_the_federal.html</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-AFQjCNH8Vi-iZmGrxYbfKaLsJxLMQu_hgg
sig2-IxvsH-1tEgLgM2iqHvO9wA did--1738839606865368789"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/15/world/europe/climate-change-rotterdam.html"
id="MAA4DEgDUABgAWoCdXM" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);
text-decoration: underline;"><span class="titletext"
style="font-weight: bold;">The Dutch Have Solutions to
Rising Seas. The World Is Watching.</span></a></h2>
</div>
In the waterlogged Netherlands, climate change is considered neither
a hypothetical nor a drag on the economy. Instead, it's an
opportunity.<br>
By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN<br>
JUNE 15, 2017<br>
ROTTERDAM, the Netherlands - The wind over the canal stirred up
whitecaps and rattled cafe umbrellas. Rowers strained toward a
finish line and spectators hugged the shore. Henk Ovink, hawkish,
wiry, head shaved, watched from a V.I.P. deck, one eye on the boats,
the other, as usual, on his phone.<br>
Mr. Ovink is the country's globe-trotting salesman in chief for
Dutch expertise on rising water and climate change. Like cheese in
France or cars in Germany, climate change is a business in the
Netherlands. Month in, month out, delegations from as far away as
Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, New York and New Orleans make the rounds
in the port city of Rotterdam. They often end up hiring Dutch firms,
which dominate the global market in high-tech engineering and water
management.<br>
That's because from the first moment settlers in this small nation
started pumping water to clear land for farms and houses, water has
been the central, existential fact of life in the Netherlands, a
daily matter of survival and national identity. No place in Europe
is under greater threat than this waterlogged country on the edge of
the Continent. The nation sits largely below sea level and is
gradually sinking. Now climate change brings the prospect of rising
tides and fiercer storms...<br>
"That's what we're trying to do," he said. "You can say we are
marketing our expertise, but thousands of people die every year
because of rising water, and the world is failing collectively to
deal with the crisis, losing money and lives." He ticks off the
latest findings: 2016 was the warmest year on record; global sea
levels rose to new highs...<br>
"If there is a shooting in a bar, I am asked a million questions,"
Mr. Aboutaleb said of his city. "But if I say everyone should own a
boat because we predict a tremendous increase in the intensity of
rain, nobody questions the politics. Rotterdam lies in the most
vulnerable part of the Netherlands, both economically and
geographically. If the water comes in, from the rivers or the sea,
we can evacuate maybe 15 out of 100 people. So evacuation isn't an
option. We can escape only into high buildings. We have no choice.
We must learn to live with water."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/15/world/europe/climate-change-rotterdam.html">https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/15/world/europe/climate-change-rotterdam.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/06/15/scientists-just-documented-a-massive-melt-event-on-the-surface-of-antarctica/"><br>
<b>Scientists stunned by Antarctic rainfall and a melt area bigger
than Texas</b></a><br>
By Chris Mooney June 15 <br>
Scientists have documented a recent, massive melt event on the
surface of highly vulnerable West Antarctica that, they fear, could
be a harbinger of future events as the planet continues to warm...<br>
In the Antarctic summer of 2016, the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf,
the largest floating ice platform on Earth, developed a sheet of
meltwater that lasted for as long as 15 days in some places. The
total area affected by melt was 300,000 square miles, or larger than
the state of Texas, the scientists report....<br>
That's bad news because surface melting could work hand in hand with
an already documented trend of ocean-driven melting to compromise
West Antarctica, which contains over 10 feet of potential sea level
rise.<br>
The resulting observations, from the satellites, suggest not that
the Ross Ice Shelf was covered with lakes or pools, but rather, that
liquid water mixed into the snow atop it...<br>
"In some parts it could be slush for example, a mixture of ice and
liquid water," said Bromwich....<br>
If Antarctic ice shelves fracture - something that has already been
observed to occur on the Greenland ice sheet and in some parts of
Antarctica where warmer temperatures already occur - then that would
allow the ice lodged behind them to flow into the ocean much more
rapidly...<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/06/15/scientists-just-documented-a-massive-melt-event-on-the-surface-of-antarctica/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/06/15/scientists-just-documented-a-massive-melt-event-on-the-surface-of-antarctica/</a></font><b><br>
<br>
</b><br>
<font size="+1" color="#000099"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2017/06/data-cables-are-new-trading-routes"><font
color="#000099">"</font>Data cables are the new trading
routes<font color="#000099">"</font></a></b></font><br>
Finland wants digital highway to Asia via Arctic waters.<br>
By<font color="#000099"><b> </b></font>Maija Myllyla<br>
June 15, 2017<br>
"I never thought I could get so excited about cables", said former
Minister of Transport and Communications Suvi Linden at the Arctic
Broadband Summit in Oulu on Wednesday. The conference discusses
broadband development and its implications for the Arctic societies
and businesses.<br>
A submarine broadband connection linking Europe and Asia via the
Northeast Passage is a hot topic in Finland these days. <br>
"In digital economy data cables are the new trading routes", says
Jukka-Pekka Joensuu. His company, Cinia, launched a fiber-optic link
under the Baltic Sea connecting Finland and Germany. Joensuu's new
passion is the Arctic Connect project, a plan for to build a secure
subsea cable connection from Kirkenes and Teriberka all the way to
Hokkaido, Vladivostok and Beijing. ..Unfortunately, digital highways
are expensive to build in Arctic conditions. Khaled Sedrak of NxtVn
said that the traditional logic of telecommunications business does
not apply to connections built in the Arctic regions and seas. ...<br>
Academy professor Matti Latva-aho insisted that the decision to
build the cable connection is political. International cooperation
is essential...<br>
"There is a gap that needs to be patched. We need leadership in
building the digital infrastructure; we need people who understand
the need of fast and reliable connections in the Arctic regions the
same way as they understand the need for water supply networks or
sewer systems."<br>
The Arctic Economic Council organizes the Top of the World Arctic
Broadband Summit. In addition to broadband development, the panels
discuss themes titled Interconnected Arctic, Competent Arctic and
Safe Arctic. <br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2017/06/data-cables-are-new-trading-routes">https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2017/06/data-cables-are-new-trading-routes</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2017/06/15/how-oil-will-die/">How
Oil Will Die</a></b><br>
... when I bought my Prius, it was common for friends to ask how
long the battery would last - a battery replacement at 100,000 miles
would easily negate the value of improved fuel efficiency. But today
there are anecdotal stories of Prius's logging over 600,000 miles on
a single battery.<br>
The story for Teslas is unfolding similarly. Tesloop, a
Tesla-centric ride-hailing company has already driven its first
Model S...<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2017/06/15/how-oil-will-die/">https://climatecrocks.com/2017/06/15/how-oil-will-die/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2017/06/15/ilulissat-is-glacier-ground-zero/">Ilulissat
is Glacier Ground Zero - by greenman3610</a></b><br>
"I'll be heading to Greenland next month, first stop, Ilulissat.
Ilulissat is at the mouth of the fiord where Jacobshaven glacier,
the world's fastest moving ice stream, is pouring icebergs in to the
sea. Most of the cool visuals you see from Greenland are shot in
and around the town, because it is a) accessible, … <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2017/06/15/ilulissat-is-glacier-ground-zero/">https://climatecrocks.com/2017/06/15/ilulissat-is-glacier-ground-zero/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/science/naomi-oreskes-a-lightning-rod-in-a-changing-climate.html?mwrsm=Email">This
Day in Climate History June 16, 2015</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
The New York Times profiles "Merchants of Doubt" author Naomi
Oreskes.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/science/naomi-oreskes-a-lightning-rod-in-a-changing-climate.html?mwrsm=Email">http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/science/naomi-oreskes-a-lightning-rod-in-a-changing-climate.html?mwrsm=Email</a>
<font size="+1"><br>
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