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<font size="+1"><i>July 26, 2017</i></font><br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/uk-donald-trump-climate-change-us-city-mayors-talk-direct-paris-agreement-houston-sylvester-turner-a7859291.html"><br>
UK bypasses Donald Trump to discuss climate change with US city
mayors directly</a></b><br>
Claire Perry, the Climate Change Minister, says British Government
is now speaking to 'other players' in US about how to fight global
warming..The UK has started bypassing Donald Trump over climate
change<br>
talking directly to city mayors and other officials committed to
trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the new Climate Change
Minister has revealed.<br>
Claire Perry, who was appointed to the post after the general
election last month, said that British ministers had not "missed an
opportunity" to tell the US President that they were disappointed he
had decided to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change,
the news service Bloomberg reported.<br>
She said she had been speaking to "other players" in the US,
including the mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, who visited the UK
last week...<i><br>
</i><i><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/uk-donald-trump-climate-change-us-city-mayors-talk-direct-paris-agreement-houston-sylvester-turner-a7859291.html">http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/uk-donald-trump-climate-change-us-city-mayors-talk-direct-paris-agreement-houston-sylvester-turner-a7859291.html</a></i><br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-24/u-k-seeking-to-fill-climate-leadership-void-left-by-trump">U.K.
Seeking to Fill Climate Leadership Void Left by Trump</a></b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-24/u-k-seeking-to-fill-climate-leadership-void-left-by-trump">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-24/u-k-seeking-to-fill-climate-leadership-void-left-by-trump</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<font color="#666666"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://wp.me/p1t6fZ-3Iv">Vice Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs on Climate Instability and Political Instability</a></b></font><br>
During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on July 18, 2017,
the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Paul J.
Selva, gave a detailed description of the impact he understands
climate cinstability has (and will have) on the global operating
environment in which the armed services operate, and the need for
the Department of Defense to be prepared for the threat. Of
particular note, he stated: "It will also cause us to have to focus
on places where climate instability might cause actual political
instability in regions of the world we hadn't previously had to pay
attention to." That inspires us to shamelessly plug our recent
report, "Epicenters of Climate and Security: The New Geostrategic
Landscape of the Anthropocene," which explores a number of possible
hot spots of the kind the General is referring to.<br>
Below is both a full transcript of his comments, and a video of the
exchange: <br>
Transcript Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Paul
J. Selva, USAF: <br>
<blockquote>The dynamics that are happening in our climate will
drive uncertainty and will drive conflict. And I'll just provide
one example of how that can happen and this is a man-made problem.
The dams along the Nile River control the flow of water into what
was the Fertile Crescent of Egypt, and any change to that water
flow causes the Egyptians to become more hostile to their
neighbors who are putting dams upstream of the Egyptian stretch of
the Nile River. I could build that argument in a variety of
countries around the world, and those are man-made problems not
directly related to climate change but related to how we as humans
change our environment. If you extend that argument to the kinds
of things that might happen if we see tidal rises, if we see
increasing weather patterns of drought and flood and forest fires
and other natural events that happen inside of our environment,
then we're gonna have to be prepared for what that means in terms
of the potential for instability in regions of the country where
those impacts happen. Particularly today where there's massive
food instability. The Sahel in Africa is a classic example, where
a small drought over a limited period of time can decimate the
crops and cause instability and make that an area fertile for
recruitment of extremists because they see no other way. Similarly
you could look at the decimation of the fisheries off Somalia that
contributed to piracy because the fishermen couldn't make their
livelihood by doing what they do best, which is fishing on the
fishing grounds off of Somalia. So I think we need to be prepared
for those. It will cause us to have to address questions like
humanitarian disaster relief. It will also cause us to have to
focus on places where climate instability might cause actual
political instability in regions of the world we hadn't previously
had to pay attention to.<br>
</blockquote>
Video 5:51 <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NlanagAyfc">Senator Warren
Asks About Climate Change as a National Security Threat</a> --Vice
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Paul J. Selva. Senate Armed
Services Committee Hearing, July 18, 2017.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NlanagAyfc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NlanagAyfc</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://wp.me/p1t6fZ-3Iv">http://wp.me/p1t6fZ-3Iv</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.energyandpolicy.org/utilities-knew-about-climate-change/">Utilities
Knew: Documenting Electric Utilities' Early Knowledge and
Ongoing Deception on Climate Change From 1968-2017</a></b><br>
Scientists had begun to warn electric utilities about climate change
by 1968, and by 1988 the industry's official research and
development organization had acknowledged that, "There is growing
consensus in the scientific community that the greenhouse effect is
real."<br>
Despite this early knowledge about climate change, electric
utilities have continued to invest heavily in fossil fuel power
generation over the past half a century, and since 1988 some have
engaged in ongoing efforts to sow doubt about climate science and
block legal limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.<br>
The Energy and Policy Institute's new report provides a first look
into the electric utility industry's nearly 50-year long
relationship with climate science, based largely on original
research that reviewed scores of industry documents:<br>
<b>- The electric utility industry was warned about climate change
in 1968<br>
</b><b>- Utilities sponsored climate change research during the
1970s and 1980s</b><br>
<b>- Utilities knew long ago that climate change concerns could
warrant a shift away from fossil fuels<br>
- Some utility interests responded to the "growing consensus" on
climate change with disinformation<br>
</b><b>- Some utilities continue to mislead on climate change in
2017<br>
</b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8l-rYonMke-NG5ONVZkZVVJMG8">Download
report<br>
Utilities Knew: Documenting Electric Utilities' Early Knowledge
and Ongoing Deception on Climate Change From 1968-2017</a><b><br>
</b>Nearly 50 years after scientists began to warn the electric
utility industry about climate change, some utilities continue to
stand in the way of real progress in addressing the problem. It is a
story with striking parallels to the investigations into
ExxonMobil's early knowledge and ongoing deception on climate
change. Research has shown that electric utilities could face
serious financial repercussions if ever held liable for the climate
change damages incurred by their power plant emissions.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.energyandpolicy.org/utilities-knew-about-climate-change/">http://www.energyandpolicy.org/utilities-knew-about-climate-change/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a href="https://youtu.be/b08YDAX5D_I">Global Food Assistance
Outlook Brief (July 2017)</a></b><br>
FEWS NET<br>
Published on Jul 24, 2017<br>
This month's overview summarizes FEWS NET's most forward-looking
analysis of projected emergency food assistance needs in FEWS NET
coverage countries, including East Africa, West Africa, Southern
Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Large needs will
persist in parts of Yemen, Nigeria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and
Somalia where conflict, and the impacts of drought on pastoralists
will continue to drive acute food insecurity.<br>
A confirmed presence of fall armyworm in parts of West, East, and
Southern Africa is likely to affect crop production. FEWS NET will
continue to monitor the situation in the coming months.<br>
An El Nino is no longer anticipated to occur in the coming months
and seasonal forecasts indicate average to above-average rainfall in
parts of the Horn of Africa during both the June-September and
October-December rainy seasons. This should have positive
implications for livestock production, agricultural production, and
livestock-to-cereals terms of trade. However, in pastoral areas
where significant livestock sales and deaths occurred due to
drought, several consecutive good rainy seasons are needed before
herd sizes return to normal and food access improves.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/b08YDAX5D_I">https://youtu.be/b08YDAX5D_I</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/07/lamar-smith-says-climate-change-is-good/">House
Science Chair Came Back From the Arctic Thinking Global Warming
Is A Good Thing</a></b><br>
"The benefits of a changing climate are often ignored and
under-researched."<br>
CHRIS D'ANGELO<br>
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) - who has spent his career cozying up to
fossil fuel interests, dismissing the threat of climate change and
harassing federal climate scientists - is now arguing that pumping
the atmosphere full of carbon dioxide is "beneficial" to global
trade, crop production and the lushness of the planet. <br>
Rather than buying into "hysteria," Americans should be celebrating
the plus sides of a changing climate, Smith argues in an op-ed
published Tuesday in The Daily Signal, a news website published by
the conservative Heritage Foundation.<br>
Smith - who has used his power as chairman of the House Committee on
Science, Space and Technology to push his anti-science views - kicks
off his op-ed by claiming Americans' perception of the phenomenon is
"too often determined by their hearing just one side of the story."<br>
"The benefits of a changing climate are often ignored and
under-researched," Smith said. "Our climate is too complex and the
consequences of misguided policies too harsh to discount the
positive effects of carbon enrichment."<br>
Increased carbon dioxide, Smith writes, promotes photosynthesis,
resulting in a "greater volume of food production and better quality
food" and "lush vegetation" that "assists in controlling water
runoff, provides more habitats for many animal species, and even
aids in climate stabilization, as more vegetation absorbs more
carbon dioxide." Warmer temperatures, he notes, results in longer
growing seasons <br>
Smith goes as far as to make a case for why a rapidly melting
Arctic, which scientists warn could cost tens of trillions of
dollars by the end of this century, is a positive thing.<br>
"Also, as the Earth warms, we are seeing beneficial changes to the
earth's geography," he writes. "For instance, Arctic sea ice is
decreasing. This development will create new commercial shipping
lanes that provide faster, more convenient, and less costly routes
between ports in Asia, Europe, and eastern North America. This will
increase international trade and strengthen the world economy."<br>
The op-ed comes roughly two months after Smith led a group of
lawmakers on what BuzzFeed described as a "secret tour of the
melting Arctic." The unpublicized, weeklong, multi-stop outing
included meeting with climate scientists and learning about how they
track the levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases,
according to BuzzFeed.<br>
While Smith reportedly canceled an interview with BuzzFeed to
discuss the trip, Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) told the
publication that he and Smith had productive discussions about the
climate.<br>
Monday's op-ed would suggest that, while Smith may have accepted the
reality of the threat, he's opted for the
when-life-gives-you-lemons-make-lemonade approach. <br>
Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University
who sparred with Smith during a March hearing on climate science,
told HuffPost via email that "it is clear" Smith is "slowly
advancing through the stages of denial … having apparently now moved
from 'it's not happening,' to 'ok-it's happening, but IT WILL BE
GOOD FOR US!"<br>
"One step at a time I suppose," Mann wrote, "but at least there is
some apparent progress toward the truth (that climate change is
real, human-caused, and already a problem)."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/07/lamar-smith-says-climate-change-is-good/">http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/07/lamar-smith-says-climate-change-is-good/</a><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2004/algore2004dnc.htm"><br>
</a><font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2004/algore2004dnc.htm">This
Day in Climate History July 26, 2004</a><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2004/algore2004dnc.htm"> </a>
- from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
July 26, 2004: • At the Democratic National Convention in Boston,
Massachusetts, former Vice President Al Gore states:<br>
"And I also ask tonight for the consideration and the help of those
who supported a third party candidate in 2000. I urge you to ask
yourselves this question: Do you still believe that there was no
difference between the candidates? Are you troubled by the erosion
of America’s most basic civil liberties? Are you worried that our
environmental laws are being weakened and dismantled to allow vast
increases in pollution that are contributing to a global climate
crisis? No matter how you voted in the last election, these are
profound problems that all voters must take into account this
November 2."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2004/algore2004dnc.htm">http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2004/algore2004dnc.htm</a>
<br>
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