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<font size="+1"><i>August 16, 2017<br>
</i></font><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/climate/flooding-infrastructure-climate-change-trump-obama.html"><b>Trump
to Roll Back Obama's Flood Standards for Infrastructure</b></a><br>
President Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday to roll back
standards that demanded the federal government account for climate
change and sea-level rise when building new infrastructure, the
White House confirmed.<br>
Building trade groups and Republican lawmakers had criticized the
Federal Flood Risk Management Standard, established by Mr. Obama in
an executive order in 2015, as costly and overly burdensome.<br>
But environmental activists, floodplain managers and some
conservatives had urged the Trump administration to preserve the
rule, arguing that it protected critical infrastructure and taxpayer
dollars by ensuring new projects in areas prone to flooding were
safeguarded.<br>
Representative Ralph Abraham of Louisiana, a Republican who
sponsored legislation that would have blocked Mr. Obama's flood
standard, said he was thrilled by Mr. Trump's decision. He
acknowledged that Louisiana was inundated with catastrophic flooding
last year, but called it an isolated event. The bigger threat, he
said, is from costly regulations.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/climate/flooding-infrastructure-climate-change-trump-obama.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/climate/flooding-infrastructure-climate-change-trump-obama.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://phys.org/news/2017-08-climate-significantly-algal-blooms-freshwaters.html">Climate
change projected to significantly increase harmful algal blooms
in US freshwaters</a></b><br>
Harmful algal blooms known to pose risks to human and environmental
health in large freshwater reservoirs and lakes are projected to
increase because of climate change, according to a team of
researchers led by a Tufts University scientist.<br>
The team developed a modeling framework that predicts that the
largest increase in cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs)
would occur in the Northeast region of the United States, but the
biggest economic harm would be felt by recreation areas in the
Southeast.<br>
Beyond the human health effects, CyanoHABs have a variety of
negative consequences for aquatic ecosystems, including the creation
of unsightly surface scums and a reduction in recreational use and
access to shorelines. Also, because most cyanobacteria are inedible
by zooplankton and planktivorous fish, they represent a "dead end<font
color="#666666">"</font> in the aquatic food chain - a scenario
that ultimately hurts both commercial and recreational fishing
industries.<br>
Chapra noted that the research indicates that as water temperatures
increase, more stringent and costly nutrient controls would be
necessary in order to maintain current water quality.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://phys.org/news/2017-08-climate-significantly-algal-blooms-freshwaters.html">https://phys.org/news/2017-08-climate-significantly-algal-blooms-freshwaters.html</a></font><br>
<span style="font-size:14px"><span style="font-family:helvetica
neue,helvetica,arial,verdana,sans-serif"><br>
</span></span> <br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/climate-change-political-violence-social-unrest-by-gulrez-s--azhar-2017-08">Weathering
the Violence of Climate Change</a></b><br>
Scientists agree that climate change poses a grave danger to the
planet. But for some reason, politicians and government officials
have not connected the dots between a changing climate and human
conflicts. Among the many threats associated with climate change,
deteriorating global security may be the most frightening of all. It
is bad enough to see farmers carrying skulls through the streets of
India. But if we do not get serious about climate-driven security
risks, we could see far worse.<br>
<font color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/climate-change-political-violence-social-unrest-by-gulrez-s--azhar-2017-08">https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/climate-change-political-violence-social-unrest-by-gulrez-s--azhar-2017-08</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/8/14/16142150/scott-pruitt-epa-secrecy-republican">Scott
Pruitt is dismantling EPA in secret for the same reason the GOP
health care bill was secret</a></b><br>
Today's GOP agenda is unpopular and indefensible.<br>
Updated by David Roberts<br>
...the approach of serving industry under cover of secrecy is not
idiosyncratic to Pruitt, nor is it distinctively Trumpian. Rather,
it is the standard approach of today's GOP, as reflected in such
recent initiatives as the failed health care bill. It is, in fact,
the only approach possible to advance an agenda that is unpopular
and intellectually indefensible.<br>
..The picture that emerges from all this is pretty clear: Pruitt is
avoiding oversight, avoiding environmentalists, avoiding agency
staff, and avoiding mainstream media. He is taking steps to corrupt
agency science and science communication and loosen regulatory
burdens on fossil fuels, in close consultation with industry groups
and right-wing media, with as little public scrutiny as possible.<br>
What's notable, aside from the grotesque distortion of the agency's
mission, is how well Pruitt represents the state of today's GOP.<br>
Trump, Pruitt, and today's GOP are the inevitable outcome of that
process, which has been unfolding right under our noses. It got bad
under Gingrich, worse under the reign of George W. Bush, and utterly
out of control under Obama. In health care policy, tax policy, and
environmental policy, the intellectual foundation has rotted away.
What remains is will to power, the raw impulse to degrade and
destroy anything liberals support, and the belief that hesitation or
circumspection amounts to treachery.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/8/14/16142150/scott-pruitt-epa-secrecy-republican">https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/8/14/16142150/scott-pruitt-epa-secrecy-republican</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2017/08/15/if-trump-admin-were-concerned-about-racism-they-would-drop-this-usda-nomination/">If
Trump Admin were Concerned about Racism, they would Drop this
USDA Nomination</a></b><br>
... in 2013, Clovis rejected the idea that climate change is
"settled science" and asserted that it is instead a "nonsensical
theory" invented by liberals to give the impression that they can
create "perfect weather." At a Farm Foundation Forum last October,
he told E&E News that "we need more science" before Trump could
craft policy. As chief scientist, Clovis would oversee the USDA's
climate change research.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2017/08/15/if-trump-admin-were-concerned-about-racism-they-would-drop-this-usda-nomination/">https://climatecrocks.com/2017/08/15/if-trump-admin-were-concerned-about-racism-they-would-drop-this-usda-nomination/</a></font><br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/08/15/another-climate-change-nightmare-dozens-of-volcanoes-beneath-antarcticas-thinning-ice/?utm_term=.689516a00bb5"><br>
<br>
Another climate-change nightmare: 91 new volcanoes beneath
Antarctica's ice</a></b><br>
University of Edinburgh researchers on Monday <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2017/student-s-idea-leads-to-antarctic-volcano-discover">announced</a>
the discovery of 91 previously unknown volcanoes under west
Antarctica. They do not sound nearly as alarmed as, say, Quartz, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://qz.com/1052938/antarctica-has-the-greatest-concentration-of-volcanoes-in-the-world-according-to-a-new-study/">which
called the possibilities terrifying.<br>
</a>"By themselves the volcanoes wouldn't be likely to cause the
entire ice sheet to melt," said lead researcher Max Van Wyk de
Vries, whose team published <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/rbingha2/48_2017_Vries.pdf">the
study</a> in the Geological Society in late May. But if the
glacier is already melting because of global warming, he said, "if
we start reducing significant quantities of ice … you can more or
less say that it triggers an eruption."...<br>
But looking through decades' worth of data from ice-penetrating
radar, seismic studies and other modern methods of exploration, the
Edinburgh team gleaned the shapes of nearly 200 cones.<br>
Some of these they ruled out from their study, because satellite
photos showed no corresponding deformation on the ice above the
cones. Another 50 or so cones poked above the surface of the ice and
exactly matched the locations of previously discovered volcanoes.
The other 91 cones, the team concluded, were true volcanoes that had
never seen the light of day.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/08/15/another-climate-change-nightmare-dozens-of-volcanoes-beneath-antarcticas-thinning-ice/?utm_term=.689516a00bb5">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/08/15/another-climate-change-nightmare-dozens-of-volcanoes-beneath-antarcticas-thinning-ice/?utm_term=.689516a00bb5</a></font><br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/bedmap-2/">Bedmap2 - Ice
thickness and subglacial topographic model of Antarctica</a></b><br>
Improved ice bed, surface and thickness datasets for Antarctica<br>
Bedmap2 is a new suite of gridded products describing surface
elevation, ice-thickness and the sea floor and subglacial bed
elevation of the Antarctic south of 60◦ S. We derived these products
using data from a variety of sources, including many substantial
surveys completed since the original Bedmap compilation (Bedmap1) in
2001. In particular, the Bedmap2 ice thickness grid is made from 25
million measurements, over two orders of magnitude more than were
used in Bedmap1. In most parts of Antarctica the subglacial
landscape is visible in much greater detail than was previously
available and the improved data coverage has in many areas revealed
the full scale of mountain ranges, valleys, basins and troughs, only
fragments of which were previously indicated in local surveys. The
derived statistics for Bedmap2 show that the volume of ice contained
in the Antarctic ice sheet (27 million km3) and its potential
contribution to sea-level rise (58 m) are similar to those of
Bedmap1, but the mean thickness of the ice sheet is 4.6 % greater,
the mean depth of the bed beneath the grounded ice sheet is 72 m
lower and the area of ice sheet grounded on bed below sea level is
increased by 10 %. The Bedmap2 compilation highlights several areas
beneath the ice sheet where the bed elevation is substantially lower
than the deepest bed indicated by Bedmap1. These products, along
with grids of data coverage and uncertainty, provide new
opportunities for detailed modelling of the past and future
evolution of the Antarctic ice sheets.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/bedmap-2/">https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/bedmap-2/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10284">This Day in Climate
History August 16, 2013</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
August 16, 2013: The climate documentary "The Politics of Power"
airs for the first, last and only time on MSNBC.<br>
MSNBC's August 16th Chris Hayes hosted documentary on climate change
and the global warming denial industry, was nowhere to be found
online. Unlike previous docs from the cable net, this one had not
made available online after its initial airing.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.msnbc.com/all/watch-politics-power-demand">http://www.msnbc.com/all/watch-politics-power-demand</a> - sneak
preview<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10284">http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10284</a><br>
<i>(cursory search the full version of this legendary documentary is
not yet found)</i><br>
<br>
<br>
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