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<font size="+1"><i>September 13, 2017</i></font><br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-pruitt-harvey-irma-20170911-story.html">Opinion
Harvey and Irma say this is the right time to discuss global
warming</a></b><br>
Los Angeles Times<br>
This is not an either/or discussion. They are intertwined issues,
with inhabitability of the Earth hanging in the balance.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-pruitt-harvey-irma-20170911-story.html">http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-pruitt-harvey-irma-20170911-story.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/12/democrats-hurricanes-climate-change-242618">Democrats
hold their fire on climate change</a></b><br>
It's not a good idea to try to land a "punch to the gut of climate
change deniers" while first responders are still "pulling bodies out
of the water," said Jeff Schlegelmilch, deputy director of the
National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's
Earth Institute.<br>
But green groups haven't hesitated to take aim at Trump online, with
the Natural Resources Defense Council criticizing his recent move to
rescind climate standards for federal infrastructure and the League
of Conservation Voters praising Miami's Republican mayor, Tomás
Regalado, for saying it is time to talk about climate change.<br>
Michael Wehner, a senior staff scientist in the Computational
Research Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has
studied how 15 hurricanes might have behaved under lower
temperatures, and so far has determined that a one-degree Celsius
increase - 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit - raises rainfall about 6 percent.<br>
That would mean that Harvey, which dumped more than 50 inches of
water on Houston, brought between 10 percent and 15 percent more
rain because of climate change.<br>
"The public should know, and policymakers should know, that any
planning that you might have made based on the historical record is
inadequate," Wehner said. "It's a different world. It's a warmer
world, and storms behave differently."<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/12/democrats-hurricanes-climate-change-242618">http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/12/democrats-hurricanes-climate-change-242618</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="-1">Washington Post</font><br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/09/12/you-might-think-that-living-through-a-hurricane-will-change-peoples-minds-about-global-warming-not-so-much/?utm_term=.a5ca846c8a4f">You
might think that living through a hurricane will change people's
minds about global warming. Not so much.</a></b><br>
...an awkward political question - do extreme weather events like
hurricanes change people's minds about whether global warming is
taking place? <br>
<b>In theory, people who have experienced hurricanes should be more
concerned about global warming.</b><br>
If people draw a connection between dramatic weather events and
global warming, this could lead the public to put pressure on
government to act. As we discuss <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378017309135">in
our research,</a> living through hurricanes and other extreme
weather might plausibly have big consequences for people's beliefs
about climate change and how to respond to it. <br>
<b>In practice, it's more complicated.</b><br>
In a research article that has just been published, we set out to
determine whether people who have experienced more frequent bouts of
extreme weather are more likely to support climate adaptation
policies than those who have not. <br>
if our findings are right, it suggests that severe weather will
only have a small and transient effect on peoples' support for
climate adaptation. Even though events like Hurricane Irma are
tragic, it may very well be that people tend to forget about them
quite quickly and get on with the rest of their lives.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/09/12/you-might-think-that-living-through-a-hurricane-will-change-peoples-minds-about-global-warming-not-so-much/?utm_term=.a5ca846c8a4f">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/09/12/you-might-think-that-living-through-a-hurricane-will-change-peoples-minds-about-global-warming-not-so-much/?utm_term=.a5ca846c8a4f</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/12/opinion/columnists/leonhardt-temperatures-extreme-storms.html">(opinion)
Irma, and the Rise of Extreme Rain</a></b><b><br>
</b> Warm air can carry more water than cool air. <br>
You may understand this fact intuitively even if you don't realize
it. The greater moisture of warm air explains why your skin doesn't
get as dry in the summer and why the forests of the sweltering
Amazon get a lot more precipitation than northern Canada's forests.<br>
About 40 years ago, the earth's surface temperatures began to break
out of their recent historical range and just kept climbing. Not
coincidentally, the number of storms with extreme rainfall began to
increase around the same time.<br>
Global surface temperatures have been rising annually for decades...<br>
The frequency of extreme storms once remained within a fairly tight
range ...<br>
… but it increased sharply as global temperatures rose.<br>
Extreme rainstorms are up more than a third since the early 1980s,
according to research by Kenneth Kunkel of the North Carolina
Institute for Climate Studies.<br>
Kunkel's threshold for an "extreme" rainstorm varies by region,
depending on how much rain a place typically receives. It's a count
of storms that would ordinarily occur only once every several years
- the sort of storms that stretch a community's capacity to cope.<br>
The main reason these storms seem to be more frequent is global
warming. Gabriel Vecchi, a Princeton researcher, compares warmer air
to a bigger bucket: It can carry more water from oceans and then
dump that water on land.<br>
Regular readers know that I think it's a mistake to shy away from
talking about the connection between climate change and weather... <br>
Yet human beings should be able to deal with complexity. <br>
Irma and Harvey ...would not have been so powerful if the air and
the seas fueling them hadn't been so warm.<br>
And the rise of extreme rainstorms isn't limited to hurricanes.
"Heavy precipitation events in most parts of the United States have
increased," ...<br>
Welcome to the era of extreme rain. We can continue to pretend it's
all a coincidence and watch the consequences mount. Or we can start
to do something about it - by using less of the dirty energy that's
changing the climate and by preparing for a future that's guaranteed
to be hotter and rainier.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/12/opinion/columnists/leonhardt-temperatures-extreme-storms.html">https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/12/opinion/columnists/leonhardt-temperatures-extreme-storms.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/world/americas/irma-caribbean-st-martin.html">Desperation
Mounts in Caribbean Islands: 'All the Food Is Gone'</a></b><br>
MARIGOT, St. Martin - At dawn, people began to gather, quietly
planning for survival after Hurricane Irma.<br>
They started with the grocery stores, scavenging what they needed
for sustenance: water, crackers, fruit.<br>
But by nightfall on Thursday, what had been a search for food took a
more menacing turn, as groups of people, some of them armed, swooped
in and took whatever of value was left: electronics, appliances and
vehicles.<br>
"All the food is gone now," Jacques Charbonnier, a 63-year-old
resident of St. Martin, said in an interview on Sunday. "People are
fighting in the streets for what is left."<br>
In the few, long days since Irma pummeled the northeast Caribbean,
killing more than two dozen people and leveling 90 percent of the
buildings on some islands, the social fabric has begun to fray in
some of the hardest-hit communities.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/world/americas/irma-caribbean-st-martin.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/world/americas/irma-caribbean-st-martin.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-09-10/storms-going-get-worse/">(opinion)
The storms are only going to get worse</a></b><br>
By Kurt Cobb, originally <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://resourceinsights.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-storms-are-only-going-to-get-worse.html">published
by Resource Insight</a><br>
We are now used to hearing about once-in-a-1,000-year floods. The
fact that we are used to hearing about them tells us that they will
no longer be rare. In fact, since climate change is at the heart of
these events and continues unabated, we can expect that storms
practically everywhere will get worse.<br>
Adaptation is going to be much harder than simply using more
air-conditioning during the increasingly hot weather. (And, of
course, in most locations using more air-conditioning will simply
lead to more fossil-fuel use at electric generating plants; that
will only exacerbate the problem.)<br>
What Harvey and Irma are making clear is that the infrastructure we
have built was built for a different climate and is surprisingly
fragile in the face of climate change. When some scientists say that
our civilization is at risk, this is what they mean. The things we
expect to work and work reliably won't. This will include
agriculture as climate change turns increasingly negative for food
production worldwide.<br>
Without a coherent plan to address climate change, the world will
simply lurch from one climate-induced crisis to another. A focus on
the immediate disaster will only make things worse as we do little
or nothing to adapt to or to mitigate the warming of the globe.<br>
That's the trajectory that the do-nothing crowd has now put us on.
Are we so politically hamstrung and propagandized that we will
simply allow this? The aftermath of two of the worst hurricanes ever
will provide some clues.<font size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-09-10/storms-going-get-worse/">http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-09-10/storms-going-get-worse/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/KcJtTEE1FVw">(YouTube)
Elizabeth Kolbert: An Honest Conversation About Climate Change
Is Needed in Wake of Irma & Harvey</a><br>
</b><font size="-1">As the United States continues to deal with
unprecedented floods and hurricanes, a new study has revealed
climate change is also driving the mass extinction of parasites
that are critical to natural ecosystems, and could add to the
planet's sixth great mass extinction event that's currently
underway. The report in the journal Science Advances warns that
about a third of all parasite species could go extinct by 2070 due
to human activity. The loss of species of lice, fleas and worms
could have profound ripple effects on the environment and might
pave the way for new parasites to colonize humans and other
animals with disastrous health outcomes. We speak to Colin
Carlson, lead author of the report "Parasite Biodiversity Faces
Extinction and Redistribution in a Changing Climate." He's a PhD
candidate in environmental science, policy, and management at
University of California-Berkeley. In 2011, Business Insider
included him in a round-up titled "16 of the Smartest Children in
History" alongside Mozart and Picasso. At the time he was 15 years
old. He is now 21.</font><b><br>
</b> <font size="-1" color="#666666"><a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcJtTEE1FVw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcJtTEE1FVw</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/09/12/lawsuit-shell-oil-climate-change-risks-providence-ri/">Lawsuit:
Shell Knew Climate Risks in Providence and Ignored Them</a></b><br>
The oil giant Shell has known for decades about the dangers of not
protecting its facilities-and in turn its neighbors and the
environment-from the growing risks associated with climate change,
alleges a <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.clf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/2017-08-28-Dkt-1-Complaint.pdf">lawsuit
</a>filed by the Conservation Law Foundation, a Boston-based
environmental law and advocacy group that operates across New
England.<br>
Shell did not respond to a request for comment, but on its <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/the-energy-future/future-cities/city-innovation/protecting-coastal-cities.html">website</a>,
the company acknowledged the urgency and expense of not properly
preparing for climate change:<br>
"Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are a wake-up call for facilities like
the Shell facility in Providence that are low-lying, highly
vulnerable and would result in a catastrophic spill given their
current lack of preparations," said Campbell, adding that it's a lot
cheaper for companies to prepare and prevent catastrophic spills
than to clean up after the fact..<font size="-1" color="#666666"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/09/12/lawsuit-shell-oil-climate-change-risks-providence-ri/">https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/09/12/lawsuit-shell-oil-climate-change-risks-providence-ri/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2017/09/12/the-way-of-the-fool-pope-francis-on-climate-denial-post-irma/">The
Way of the Fool: Pope Francis on Climate Denial Post Irma</a></b><br>
"The way of fools seems right to them,<br>
but the wise listen to advice." – Proverbs 12<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/GqF2vujwfQk">Brother
Sun, Sister Moon: Pope Francis and the Meaning of Climate Action</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/GqF2vujwfQk">https://youtu.be/GqF2vujwfQk</a>
<br>
In anticipating Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change,
Catholics, protestants, scientists, and lay people discuss the
ethics and spiritual meaning of climate action.<br>
Apparently there is, indeed, nothing new under the sun, as the
writer of Proverbs seems to have been familiar with the
Dunning-Kruger effect.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2017/09/12/the-way-of-the-fool-pope-francis-on-climate-denial-post-irma/">https://climatecrocks.com/2017/09/12/the-way-of-the-fool-pope-francis-on-climate-denial-post-irma/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/modified-nissan-leaf-become-first-electric-vehicle-complete-mongol-rally-75337/">Modified
Nissan LEAF become first all-electric vehicle to complete Mongol
Rally (10,000 miles)</a></b><br>
By Nissan Motors on 12 September 2017<br>
LONDON, UK (12 September, 2017) – Scottish husband and wife team
Chris and Julie Ramsey, aka Plug In Adventures, crossed the Mongol
Rally finish line in Ulan-Ude on Saturday to become the first
entrants to complete the epic trans-continental challenge in an
all-electric vehicle – a modified 2016 Nissan LEAF dubbed the AT-EV
(All-Terrain Electric Vehicle).<br>
Chris and Julie left the rally start line at Goodwood Motor Circuit
in the UK on July 16 and travelled 8,000 miles through 13 countries,
charging their car 111 times for less than £100 in electricity costs
to reach the Siberian finish line, just north of the border with
Mongolia.<br>
Their Nissan LEAF will now join other Mongol Rally entrants'
vehicles on a cargo train back across the continent to Estonia,
where Chris and Julie will continue the drive back to their hometown
of Aberdeen. In total the pair will clock up more than 10,500 miles
during the trip.<br>
"There were a number of detractors who told me an electric car isn't
capable of long distance journeys," said Chris Ramsey.<br>
"After thousands of miles and almost zero problems, I can tell you
that is not the case.<br>
"This has been the absolute trip of a lifetime, and I can't believe
we're now at the finishing line.<br>
"We've travelled through countless countries using just battery
power and zero emissions. I'm elated, ecstatic, a bit exhausted, but
also completely electrified!"<br>
Throughout Europe, Chris and Julie had the use of an extensive rapid
charger network that can provide an 80 per cent battery charge in
just 30 minutes.<br>
However, once they got into Bulgaria and beyond, they faced a
dwindling number of rapid charge options and instead turned to a
variety of alternatives for electric power.<br>
These included bars, cafes, hotels, hostels, a barbershop, a post
office, garages, car dealerships, a tractor showroom, a police
station, and three fire stations in Russia.<br>
They even had a trained electrician plug their LEAF directly into an
electricity pylon in the middle of the woods in Siberia.<br>
Chris and Julie enjoyed the goodwill of people in every country they
travelled through, only paying for electricity at a handful of
charges. Rarely did anyone turn down the team's request to plug in
their car, and on top of that they were frequently offered drinks,
food and even accommodation for the night.<br>
About the Mongol Rally<br>
The Mongol Rally is a 10,000mile charity drive across the mountains,
desert and steppe of Europe and Asia which takes place each summer
and first started in 2004. The event is organised by The
Adventurists which run a number of events that have raised £5million
for charity to date. Each team in the Mongol Rally is expected to
raise a minimum of £1000 for charity.<br>
The rules state that participants must drive a small, sub-1.0-litre
engine car as it will make the event more of a challenge with a
greater chance of a breakdown meaning drivers can interact with
locals along the way. The drive is unsupported with no 'on the road
backup.' Participants are expected to get themselves out of trouble.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/modified-nissan-leaf-become-first-electric-vehicle-complete-mongol-rally-75337/">http://reneweconomy.com.au/modified-nissan-leaf-become-first-electric-vehicle-complete-mongol-rally-75337/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2017/09/12/not-so-hilarious-hilarity-ensues-post-irma-climate-denial-nutbags-part-2/">Not-so
Hilarious Hilarity Ensues: Post-Irma Climate Denial Nutbags Part
2</a></b><br>
by greenman3610<br>
Post-Irma: Conservative commentator flails wildly to maintain the
tribal identity from which her income derives. This has been going
on for 40 years. Deniers, increasingly aware they are boxed in, are
unable to walk back decades of willful ignorance. Not-so hilarious
hilarity ensues. YouTube Bill Maher <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://youtu.be/09pI4KXRjG4">Heated Debate On Climate
Change </a>(Sep. 8, 2017)<br>
YouTube <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://youtu.be/6XaqbFSRv6Q">Global Warming 20 Years Later
(June 23, 2008)</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/7/16258848/us-climate-politics-farce">Vox:</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/7/16258848/us-climate-politics-farce">https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/7/16258848/us-climate-politics-farce</a><br>
<b>First,</b> the science of climate change has grown more
confident. Models and techniques have grown more sophisticated even
as the field's core findings have undergone unprecedented,
multi-layered, international review and re-review (and
re-re-review). Public communication of the basic scientific findings
has never been better; there has never been more informed media
coverage. The truth about climate change has never been more
well-supported or more accessible.<br>
<b>Second,</b> the US conservative movement has become increasingly
tribal, insular, and disconnected from the institutions and norms
that bind American democracy together. As part of that process, it
has rejected climate change and the need to address it.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2017/09/12/not-so-hilarious-hilarity-ensues-post-irma-climate-denial-nutbags-part-2/">https://climatecrocks.com/2017/09/12/not-so-hilarious-hilarity-ensues-post-irma-climate-denial-nutbags-part-2/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPmNV7F4PxY">Seth Meyers
on Pruitt's direction that this is not the time to talk about
climate change</a></b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPmNV7F4PxY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPmNV7F4PxY</a><br>
from time stamp 5:15 to 5:23 <br>
Tweet w/screen grab of Pruitt quote:<br>
"That's like crashing your car into a telephone pole & telling
the cops this is not the time to talk about my drinking problem."
@sethmeyers <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://t.co/zX2p9O9YIR">https://t.co/zX2p9O9YIR</a><br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><i><br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2010/09/13/174788/gop-senate-deniers/">This
Day in Climate History September 13, 2010</a> - from
D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
</i></font><b>September 13, 2010:</b> Brad Johnson of Think
Progress reports on the legion of climate-change deniers running for
US Senate seats.<br>
A comprehensive Wonk Room survey of the Republican candidates for
the U.S. Senate finds that nearly all dispute the scientific
consensus that the United States must act to fight global warming
pollution. In May, 2010, the National Academies of Science reported
to Congress that "the U.S. should act now to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions and develop a national strategy to adapt to the inevitable
impacts of climate change" because global warming is "caused largely
by human activities, and poses significant risks for — and in many
cases is already affecting — a broad range of human and natural
systems."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2010/09/13/174788/gop-senate-deniers/">http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2010/09/13/174788/gop-senate-deniers/</a></font><br>
<b>September 13, 2015:</b><br>
The Los Angeles Times reports on the fossil fuel industry's role in
sabotaging a bill to reduce petroleum consumption in California.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-sac-brown-legislature-20150913-story.html">http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-sac-brown-legislature-20150913-story.html</a></font><br>
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