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<font size="+1"><i>December 1, 2017<br>
</i></font> <br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-Climate-change-is-forecast-to-heighten-US-exposure-to--PR_376056">Announcement:
Moody's: Climate change is forecast to heighten US exposure to
economic loss placing short- and long-term credit pressure on US
states and local governments</a></b><br>
Global Credit Research - 28 Nov 2017<br>
New York, November 28, 2017 -- The growing effects of climate
change, including climbing global temperatures, and rising sea
levels, are forecast to have an increasing economic impact on US
state and local issuers. This will be a growing negative credit
factor for issuers without sufficient adaptation and mitigation
strategies, Moody's Investors Service says in a new report.<br>
The report differentiates between climate trends, which are a
longer-term shift in the climate over several decades, versus
climate shock, defined as extreme weather events like natural
disasters, floods, and droughts which are exacerbated by climate
trends. Our credit analysis considers the effects of climate change
when we believe a meaningful credit impact is highly likely to occur
and not be mitigated by issuer actions, even if this is a number of
years in the future.<br>
Climate shocks or extreme weather events have sharp, immediate and
observable impacts on an issuer's infrastructure, economy and
revenue base, and environment. As such, we factor these impacts into
our analysis of an issuer's economy, fiscal position and capital
infrastructure, as well as management's ability to marshal resources
and implement strategies to drive recovery...<br>
Extreme weather patterns exacerbated by changing climate trends
include higher rates of coastal storm damage, more frequent
droughts, and severe heat waves. These events can also cause
economic challenges like smaller crop yields, infrastructure damage,
higher energy demands, and escalated recovery costs.<br>
"While we anticipate states and municipalities will adopt mitigation
strategies for these events, costs to employ them could also become
an ongoing credit challenge," Michael Wertz, a Moody's Vice
President says. "Our analysis of economic strength and diversity,
access to liquidity and levers to raise additional revenue are also
key to our assessment of climate risks as is evaluating asset
management and governance."...<br>
For issuers, the availability of state and federal resources is an
important element that broadens the response capabilities of local
governments and their ability to mitigate credit impacts. As well,
all municipalities can benefit from the deployment of broader state
and federal aid, particularly disaster aid from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help with economic recovery.<br>
Moody's analysts weigh the impact of climate risks with states and
municipalities' preparedness and planning for these changes when we
are analyzing credit ratings. Analysts for municipal issuers with
higher exposure to climate risks will also focus on current and
future mitigation steps and how these steps will impact the issuer's
overall profile when assigning ratings.<br>
The report "Environmental Risks -- Evaluating the impact of climate
change on US state and local issuers," is available to Moody's
subscribers at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBM_1071949">http://www.moodys.com/researchdocumentcontentpage.aspx?docid=PBM_1071949</a>.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-Climate-change-is-forecast-to-heighten-US-exposure-to--PR_376056">https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-Climate-change-is-forecast-to-heighten-US-exposure-to--PR_376056</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[1:00:00 - Video - Yale University] <br>
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE9Gqy8Yy9w">"Sea-Level
Rise: Inconvenient, or Unmanageable?" Richard B. Alley</a></b><br>
Published on Nov 8, 2017<br>
The warming climate is causing sea level to rise at an accelerating
rate, and this is expected to continue, depending on human decisions
about our energy system. Economic analyses generally show that
efficient response to this challenge will be more favorable than
ignoring the science and continuing with business as usual. Those
analyses often assume that we will respond efficiently, and that the
rise will be slow, small and expected. Recent events raise major
questions about our efficiency, however, and scientific advances
suggest that rapid warming could cause larger and faster rise than
previously expected, with much higher costs. If so, then there is
greater value in slowing warming and in managing coasts for
resilience, and in advancing science rapidly to reduce the large
uncertainties.<br>
Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman Memorial Lectures at Yale<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE9Gqy8Yy9w">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE9Gqy8Yy9w</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29112017/keystone-pipeline-oil-spill-south-dakota-permit-transcanada-construction-weights">Cause
of Keystone Pipeline Spill Worries South Dakota Officials as Oil
Flow Restarts</a></b><br>
TransCanada is running tests on the pipeline after a 210,000-gallon
spill. State regulators, fearing risk of wider damage, say they
could still revoke its permit.<br>
A preliminary assessment from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) suggests damage that
occurred during TransCanada Corporation's construction of the
pipeline was likely the cause of the spill.<br>
TransCanada shut down the pipeline, which transports 590,000 barrels
of tar sands crude oil and other forms of crude oil per day from
Alberta, Canada, to U.S. refineries, after a leak was detected on
Nov. 16. The leak, which spilled an estimated 5,000 barrels, or
210,000 gallons, of crude oil, was the third major spill from the
pipeline in or near South Dakota since the pipeline began
transporting oil in 2010...<br>
The order states that a weight placed on top of the pipeline to
prevent "buoyancy concerns"-floating in areas of standing water
during construction-was likely to blame.<br>
"Preliminary information indicates the failure may have been caused
by mechanical damage to the pipeline and coating associated with a
weight installed on the pipeline in 2008," Mayberry wrote...<br>
Hanson's main concern is that if damage was caused by a weight in
one location, similar damage could have been caused if weights were
used elsewhere.<br>
"If there is a standard installation procedure for installing the
weights, that may have created challenges in other locations on the
pipe," he said.<br>
"Groundwater moves into this area and out of this area. Obviously
TransCanada recognizes that because they put weights on the pipe,"
he said. "It concerns me as to future leaks and the potential for
damaging groundwater."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29112017/keystone-pipeline-oil-spill-south-dakota-permit-transcanada-construction-weights">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29112017/keystone-pipeline-oil-spill-south-dakota-permit-transcanada-construction-weights</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Climate and Security]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://climateandsecurity.org/2017/11/30/briefer-sea-level-rise-and-deterritorialized-states/">BRIEFER:
Sea Level Rise and Deterritorialized States</a></b><br>
By Collin Douglas, Research Fellow, The Center for Climate and
Security<br>
Excerpt: The definition of a state in modern international law has
four requirements: a permanent population, a government, the ability
to interact with other states, and most important for this context,
a defined territory. The prospect of rising seas making low-lying
island states uninhabitable, or completely submerged, puts the
territorial requirement in jeopardy. However, there are historical
examples of flexibility in state control of territory.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climateandsecurity.org/2017/11/30/briefer-sea-level-rise-and-deterritorialized-states/">https://climateandsecurity.org/2017/11/30/briefer-sea-level-rise-and-deterritorialized-states/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/11/30/exxon-climate-fraud-case-schneiderman-healey/">Exxon's
First Amendment Claims in Climate Fraud Case Draw Judge's
Skepticism</a></b><br>
By Karen Savage<br>
Exxon's quest to convince a federal judge that two state attorneys
general are stifling their right to free speech is proving to be no
easy task.<br>
In a hearing Thursday in New York, U.S. District Court Judge Valerie
Caproni said the oil giant's rationale involved "wild leaps of
logic" in claiming New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey are infringing on the
company's First Amendment rights by pursuing climate fraud
investigations.<br>
The exchange took place during a nearly two-hour hearing on a motion
filed by the attorneys general seeking to dismiss the case, which
was first filed by the Exxon in the U.S. District Court for the
Northern District of Texas in June 2016, but has since been
transferred to New York.<br>
The suit alleges that investigations by Healey and Schneiderman into
possible climate change-related deception are an abuse of their
political positions and are in violation of the oil giant's First,
Fourth and Fourteenth amendment rights<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/11/30/exxon-climate-fraud-case-schneiderman-healey/">https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2017/11/30/exxon-climate-fraud-case-schneiderman-healey/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29112017/arctic-oil-drilling-ocean-eni-beaufort-sea-trump-federal-permit">Italian
Oil Company Passes Last Hurdle to Start Drilling in U.S. Arctic
Waters</a></b><br>
The Trump administration has issued the first permit to drill in
federal waters of the U.S. Arctic since Shell's failed attempt ended
in 2015.<br>
As soon as December, the Italian oil company Eni could begin
drilling exploratory wells on a lease that was set to expire at the
end of the year.<br>
The approval came after "a thorough and complete review of Eni's
well design, testing procedures and safety protocol," according to
Mark Fesmire, the director Alaska region of the Bureau of Safety and
Environmental Enforcement... <br>
Hilcorp also wants to drill offshore, and Congress could open the
wildlife refuge to drilling....<br>
The period for public comments on the Hilcorp project was recently
extended to Dec. 8.<br>
At the same time, the Senate is expected to vote this week on a tax
bill that includes a provision for <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15112017/anwr-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-oil-drilling-alaska-murkowski">opening
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge</a> to oil drilling.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29112017/arctic-oil-drilling-ocean-eni-beaufort-sea-trump-federal-permit">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29112017/arctic-oil-drilling-ocean-eni-beaufort-sea-trump-federal-permit</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30112017/alaska-global-warming-archaeology-permafrost-history-artifacts-sea-ice-hunting-whaling-traditions">In
Alaska's Thawing Permafrost, Humanity's 'Library Is on Fire'</a></b><br>
Rising Arctic temperatures are destroying ancient artifacts once
preserved in the frozen ground and taking a toll on native
traditions that depend on the sea ice.<br>
The homes, weapons, and even bodies that Jensen digs up are
extraordinarily well preserved-unlike archaeological sites elsewhere
in the world, these pieces of history have been locked in ice. But
as the permafrost thaws, so do these sites, and as erosion eats away
at the coast, it's washing away the history locked inside it. Once
gone, the story that these sites can tell, about food webs,
migratory patterns, and traditional ways of life, will disappear
too. Just as Ahsoak is working to preserve his community's
traditions, Jensen is racing to capture this historical record
before it's lost-and, perhaps, to find in the region's past some
answers for its future.<br>
video <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://vimeo.com/242612275">https://vimeo.com/242612275</a>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://vimeo.com/242612275">Vanishing</a><br>
Archaeologists who work in the Arctic, Jensen says, have a metaphor
for what is happening. The Library of Alexandria was the most famous
site for cultural knowledge and history in ancient Egypt, until it
burned down, taking with it an irreplaceable record. The
decomposition and disappearance of some of the world's
best-preserved sites is much the same, she says: "It's like the
library is on fire."...<br>
The permafrost that holds artifacts trapped also acts as an
extraordinary preservative-the key to the region's archaeological
value. A bone that is thousands of years old, Jensen says, can look
"like the animal died a few years ago." Because the sites are so
well preserved, organic matter, such as animal remains, pelts and
ancient plants, retains extractable DNA that can hold insights about
the historical food web. Jensen believes this knowledge can be
relevant today, as migratory routes and habitats shift in <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-005-5352-2">response
to climate change</a> and industrial development....<br>
Another challenge is even more pressing. Coastal erosion, a
perpetual feature of life in the Arctic, is accelerating. Climate
change produces stronger storms, less sea ice leads to bigger waves,
and thawing permafrost means the ground breaks away more readily.
Sometimes, erosion leads to new finds: The main site Jensen is
working on now, called Walakpa, was partially excavated in the late
1960s, but in 2013, when part of a bluff fell into the ocean, an
ancient house was exposed, opening up new research opportunities.
But she has to work quickly. In the years she's been at Walakpa,
Jensen says, 39 feet of the site have disappeared. Other sites
across the region are simply gone-one storm will expose a site, the
next can wash it away....<br>
"You can stand there and give people all sorts of data about sea
level going up and whatnot, but it's really hard for people to
envision what that means," Jensen says. "The more you can bring
people into the story-actual once-living people-the more people get
it and relate to it. And then once they relate to it, they start
thinking about, 'Oh that could be me, that could be us'."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30112017/alaska-global-warming-archaeology-permafrost-history-artifacts-sea-ice-hunting-whaling-traditions">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30112017/alaska-global-warming-archaeology-permafrost-history-artifacts-sea-ice-hunting-whaling-traditions</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://bluevirginia.us/2017/11/dominion-energy-clearly-panicking-lashes-out-with-conspiracy-theory-dark-money-charge-at-virginia-organizing-anti-pipeline-groups">Dominion
Energy Clearly Panicking, Lashes Out with Conspiracy Theory,
"Dark Money" Charge at Virginia Organizing, Anti-Pipeline Groups</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://bluevirginia.us/2017/11/dominion-energy-clearly-panicking-lashes-out-with-conspiracy-theory-dark-money-charge-at-virginia-organizing-anti-pipeline-groups">http://bluevirginia.us/2017/11/dominion-energy-clearly-panicking-lashes-out-with-conspiracy-theory-dark-money-charge-at-virginia-organizing-anti-pipeline-groups</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Harvard Crimson]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/11/30/climate-change-panel-debates/">Climate
Change Panel Talks 'Hope and Despair'</a></b><br>
Climate change researchers, professors, and journalists debated how
best to present the severity of climate change to the public
Wednesday evening at an event hosted by the Harvard University
Center for the Environment.<br>
The discussion, titled "Hope and Despair: Communicating an Uncertain
Future," was held in the Geological Lecture Hall. Elizabeth M.
Wolkovich, an assistant professor in the Department of Organismic
and Evolutionary Biology, moderated a discussion about how to best
motivate the public to take action on climate change.<br>
David Wallace-Wells, who is the deputy editor of the New York
Magazine and wrote the article "The Uninhabitable Earth" this year,
advocated the use of fear about the planet's future as a way to
inspire more people to become "climate agents."<br>
"I think that there is real value in scaring people," Wallace-Wells
said. "When I talk to colleagues it just seems so obvious to me that
when you think about the relatively well-off Western world, that
complacency about climate is just a much bigger problem than
fatalism about climate."..<br>
Nancy Knowlton, chair for Marine Science at the Smithsonian
Institution, said she thinks it is more effective to be optimistic
about humanity's ability to stave off disaster....<br>
"I've had many, many students come up to me after talks about
optimism or the Earth Optimism Summit that we ran in Washington
saying 'you know, this was incredibly empowering, I now really want
to go out and work on solving this problem. I almost left the field
of conservation because I thought there was nothing I could do,'"
Knowlton said. "I do feel that it is absolutely essential to talk
about what's working, why it's working, in addition to providing
this very scary context."...<br>
While the question of mitigating climate change is a regular topic
of concern for individuals in scientific circles, Wolkovich said
that climate change is rarely the highest priority in politics.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/11/30/climate-change-panel-debates/">http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/11/30/climate-change-panel-debates/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/larger-normal-iceberg-formed-by-rare-rupture-gray-glacier-chile-1649377">'Larger
than normal' iceberg formed by rare rupture of Gray glacier in
Chile</a></b><br>
The A large iceberg has broken off the Gray glacier in Chile,
authorities announced on 28 November. The newly independent ice
block was visible floating in waters of a glacial lagoon near the
southern tip of South America.newly formed iceberg could become an
obstacle to navigation if it disintegrates into smaller pieces.<br>
Antarctic and Greenland glaciers have seen some serious fissures and
ruptures this past year. Most recently, a giant iceberg four times
the size of Manhattan broke off from the the Antarctic Pine Island
Glacier. The ice shelf has also witnessed deep cracks of late.<br>
The Petermann Glacier, Greenland's largest body of ice, has also
become a cause of concern to researchers who identified a large
crack along its surface.<br>
This year's biggest iceberg development came in the form of the
trillion tonne super iceberg that broke off the Larson C glacier in
Antarctica. The mass is a quarter of the size of Wales.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/larger-normal-iceberg-formed-by-rare-rupture-gray-glacier-chile-1649377">http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/larger-normal-iceberg-formed-by-rare-rupture-gray-glacier-chile-1649377</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.voanews.com/a/study-claims-rising-seas-will-swallow-thousands-of-historic-us-sites/4142412.html">Rising
seas will swallow 14,000 U.S. historic sites: study</a></b><br>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div><a
href="https://www.reuters.com/journalists/sebastien-malo">Sebastien
Malo</a><br>
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Almost 14,000
archeological sites and national monuments in the
United States could be lost by the year 2100 as seas
rise due to climate change, scientists said on
Wednesday. </div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>The findings offer a glimpse into the vast amount of global
cultural heritage that could be destroyed, the study said. One in
10 archeological sites that it analyzed on nine southeastern
coastal states risk inundation. <br>
"The data are sobering: projected sea level rise ... will result
in the loss of a substantial portion of the record of both
pre-Columbian and historic period human habitation," the authors
said in the journal PLoS ONE.<br>
"(There are) serious concerns over the threat of global climate
change to the archaeological and historic record." <br>
Scientists predict sea levels are on track to surge by an average
of one meter globally by 2100. <br>
In the first study on such a scale, researchers combined data on
the elevation of archeological and historic sites along in the
Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts with sea-level rise
predictions. <br>
"This is only a tiny fraction of what's out there," co-author
David Anderson, an archeology professor at the University of
Tennessee, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. <br>
"The record of human occupation of coastal regions goes back
thousands of years and we stand to lose a lot of that." <br>
Florida's 17th century Castillo de San Marcos fortress and Fort
Matanzas, which date back to European colonial struggles for the
New World, are among the historic national monuments that could
disappear. <br>
Other sites are in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. <br>
The authors called for a debate about which fragments of human
history should be salvaged through relocation and documented for
posterity.<span class="trustbadgeurl"></span><br>
<span class="trustbadgeurl"></span>
<div><span class="trustbadgeurl"><font size="-1"><a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.voanews.com/a/study-claims-rising-seas-will-swallow-thousands-of-historic-us-sites/4142412.html">https://www.voanews.com/a/study-claims-rising-seas-will-swallow-thousands-of-historic-us-sites/4142412.html</a></font><br>
</span></div>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?20-1/Presidential%20%20http://www.c-span.org/video/?20-1/Presidential">This
Day in Climate History December 1, 1987 </a> - from D.R.
Tucker</b></font><br>
December 1, 1987: During a Democratic presidential debate on NBC,
Rep. Richard Gephardt states that the US must work with the Soviet
Union on addressing international environmental issues such as the
ozone layer and greenhouse gas emissions, noting, “The problem we’ve
had with these issues is not that we don’t know what to talk about;
the problem we’ve had is that America hasn’t been a leader.”<br>
(25:10—26:03)<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?20-1/Presidential">http://www.c-span.org/video/?20-1/Presidential</a>
<br>
<font size="+1"><i><br>
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