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<font size="+1"><i>December 28, 2017<br>
</i></font> <br>
[Parade - Ask Marilyn]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://parade.com/632032/marilynvossavant/climate-change-wetter-or-drier/">Climate
Change: Wetter or Drier?</a></b><br>
We hear a lot about areas of the planet that are going to be drier
in the future because of climate change. But do scientists think any
places will get wetter?<br>
Definitely. In some places, the wet will get wetter, and the dry
will get drier. And in other places, the wet will get drier, and the
dry will get wetter. Consider the emphasis to be on the word
"change."<font size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://parade.com/632032/marilynvossavant/climate-change-wetter-or-drier/">https://parade.com/632032/marilynvossavant/climate-change-wetter-or-drier/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Cities Pledge]<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/2017/december/ChicagoCharterCities.html">Mayor
Emanuel Announces 10 Additional Cities Sign the Chicago Climate
Charter</a></b><b><br>
</b><a
href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/mayor/Press%20Room/Press%20Releases/2017/December/122617_ClimateCharterCities.pdf">Download
this Press Release</a><br>
67 Mayors now committed to achieving emissions reductions and moving
forward with climate action<br>
By signing the Chicago Climate Charter, cities pledge to:<br>
<blockquote>- Achieve a percent reduction in carbon emissions in
line with the Paris Agreement;<br>
- Quantify, track and publicly report city emissions, consistent
with standards and best practices of measurement and transparency;<br>
- Advocate alongside other mayors for greater local authority and
flexibility to develop policies and local laws that empower cities
to take aggressive action on climate;<br>
- Recognize and include groups traditionally underrepresented in
climate policy;<br>
- Incorporate the realities of climate change and its impacts into
local infrastructure and emergency planning through strategies of
adaptation and resilience;<br>
- Support strong regional, state and federal policies and
partnerships, as well as private sector initiatives, that
incentivize the transition to a new climate economy; and<br>
- Partner with experts, communities, businesses, environmental
justice groups, advocates and other allies to develop holistic
climate mitigation and resilience solutions.<br>
</blockquote>
We are pleased to sign the Chicago Climate Charter to emphasize our
commitment to leading through action by demonstrating practical
solutions," said Mayor Wade Troxell of Fort Collins. "In Fort
Collins, our pragmatic approach pairs our drive to improve community
vitality with realistic, measurable actions improving our future.
Our climate actions since 2005 have put us halfway to our 2020 goal
of reducing emissions 20 percent while growing our population and
economy."..<br>
Since the Trump administration's decision to pull out of the Paris
Agreement, cities across the United States and around of the world
have shown their commitment to creating a truly sustainable future
for their residents. Mayors are committed to working through
existing organizations, including Climate Mayors, C40 Cities Climate
Leadership Group, the Urban Sustainability Directors Network and
ICLEI to develop partnerships with other cities. These commitments
made under the Chicago Climate Charter will be clustered around
central ideas and themes to better aggregate impact and provide
guidance for Mayors who are looking to peers for new ideas...<br>
The North American Climate Summit was hosted by Mayor Emanuel, in
concert with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy.
The Summit is supported by the Joyce Foundation, the MacArthur
Foundation and the Crown Family Philanthropies.<br>
A copy of the Chicago Climate Charter can be found at <a
href="https://northamericanclimatesummit.splashthat.com/">northamericanclimatesummit.com</a>.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/2017/december/ChicagoCharterCities.html">https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/2017/december/ChicagoCharterCities.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[theGuardian]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/dec/27/fake-news-is-a-threat-to-humanity-but-scientists-may-have-a-solution">Fake
news is a threat to humanity, but scientists may have a solution</a></b><br>
"Technocognition" proposes that we use technology and psychology to
break through the mental barriers that make people deny threats like
climate change...<br>
We now have influential partisan media outlets that help people
believe what they want to believe, irrespective of factual accuracy.
Inconvenient facts are labeled "fake news" and disregarded. In a
nutshell, we no longer inhabit a shared reality, and as a result,
major problems are going unaddressed because a segment of Americans
rejects inconvenient truths...<br>
People are very good at finding ways to believe what we want to
believe. Climate change is the perfect example – acceptance of
climate science among Americans is strongly related to political
ideology. This has exposed humanity's potentially fatal flaw.
Denying an existential threat threatens our existence...<br>
But that's exactly what many ideological conservatives do. Partisan
polarization over climate change has steadily grown over the past
two decades. This change can largely be traced to the increasingly
fractured and partisan media environment that has created an echo
chamber in which people can wrap themselves in the comfort of
"alternative facts" (a.k.a spin and lies) that affirm their
worldviews. We've become too good at fooling ourselves into
believing falsehoods, which has ushered in a dangerous "post-truth"
era, with no better example than the subject of climate change....<br>
The study found that while economic elites' and business groups'
preferences often result in policy changes, public opinion has
virtually no influence on policy outcomes. ..<br>
The underlying problem we face is that most American votes seem to
be decided based on tribalism rather than policy preferences. As
Dave Roberts put it, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/2/16588964/america-epistemic-crisis">this
is America's epistemic crisis</a>; it's the root of <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/dec/04/the-moral-and-intellectual-bankruptcy-of-the-republican-party">America's
moral and intellectual rot</a>, and it's been aided by the
aforementioned growth of the partisan media echo chamber...<br>
To remedy the situation will require that we return to a world of
shared facts, perhaps as judged by a neutral arbiter. However, the
current politicized post-truth environment has delivered the
Republican Party to power, which means they have little motivation
to change the status quo...<br>
Democrats would be wise to implement technocognition-based policies,
to try and bring an end to the dangerous post-truth era before we
foolishly do too much lasting damage to our planet and ourselves.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/dec/27/fake-news-is-a-threat-to-humanity-but-scientists-may-have-a-solution">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/dec/27/fake-news-is-a-threat-to-humanity-but-scientists-may-have-a-solution</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[EcoWatch]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.ecowatch.com/snowfall-global-warming-2520296568.html">Does
Record Snowfall Disprove Global Warming? 'Exactly the Opposite,'
Scientist Says</a></b><br>
The historic storm - a whopping 62.9 inches since Dec. 23, with more
flakes to come - prompted the city's police department to<span> </span><a
href="https://www.facebook.com/eriepolicedept/posts/1638399276216091"
target="_blank" style="color: rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration:
none;">declare</a><span> </span>a "Snow Emergency" due to
dangerous and impassable roads.<br>
While<span> </span><a
href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-denier" style="color:
rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration: none;">climate deniers</a><span> </span>might
point to the cold weather as more proof of the "<a
href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-climate-change-hoax-2018812943.html"
style="color: rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration: none;">global
warming hoax,</a>" climate scientist<span> </span><a
href="https://www.ecowatch.com/community/katharine_hayhoe/"
target="_blank" style="color: rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration:
none;">Katharine Hayhoe</a><span> </span>begs to differ.<br>
"What's with all the snow?" she tweeted Tuesday. "Does it mean
global warming is finished? Nope; it's exactly the opposite, in
fact. Warmer temperatures are increasing the risk of lake-effect
snow."<br>
<span></span>According to the National Weather Service, "Lake Effect
snow occurs when cold air, often originating from Canada, moves
across the open waters of the<span> </span><a
href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/great-lakes" style="color:
rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration: none;">Great Lakes</a>. As the
cold air passes over the unfrozen and relatively warm waters of the
Great Lakes, warmth and moisture are transferred into the lowest
portion of the atmosphere. The air rises, clouds form and grow into
narrow band that produces 2 to 3 inches of snow per hour or more."<br>
Hayhoe went on to explain over several tweets that both natural
cycles (i.e. the North Atlantic Oscillation, La Niña) and human
factors (i.e. rising temperatures from man-made<span> </span><a
href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" style="color:
rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration: none;">climate change</a>) have
exacerbated this weather phenomenon...<br>
At the end of her twitter thread, Hayhoe joked, "When two feet of
snow's just been dumped on our driveway, we all think - I'd like a
little global warming now, please!"<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.ecowatch.com/snowfall-global-warming-2520296568.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/snowfall-global-warming-2520296568.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[gulfnews.com]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://gulfnews.com/culture/science/global-warming-fuelled-five-extreme-weather-events-1.2147754">Global
warming fuelled five extreme weather events</a></b><br>
Extreme weather left its mark across the planet in 2016, the hottest
year in recorded history. Record heat baked Asia and the Arctic.
Droughts gripped Brazil and southern Africa. The Great Barrier Reef
suffered its worst bleaching event in memory, killing large swathes
of coral.<br>
Now climate scientists are starting to tease out which of last
year's calamities can, and can't, be linked to global warming.<br>
In a new collection of papers published last Wednesday in the
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, researchers around
the world analysed 27 extreme weather events from 2016 and found
that human-caused climate change was a "significant driver" for 21
of them. The effort is part of the growing field of climate change
attribution, which explores connections between warming and weather
events that have already happened.<br>
<b>- Record temperatures around the world</b><b><br>
</b><b>- Coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef</b><b><br>
</b><b>- Drought in Africa</b><b><br>
</b><b>- Wildfires in North America</b><b><br>
</b><b>- The warm "blob" in the Pacific Ocean</b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://gulfnews.com/culture/science/global-warming-fuelled-five-extreme-weather-events-1.2147754">http://gulfnews.com/culture/science/global-warming-fuelled-five-extreme-weather-events-1.2147754</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171222092734.htm">Alaskan
microgrids offer energy resilience and independence</a></b><br>
The electrical grid in the contiguous United States is a behemoth of
interconnected systems. If one section fails or is sabotaged,
millions of citizens could be without power. Remote villages in
Alaska provide an example of how safeguards could build resilience
into a larger electrical grid. These communities rely on microgrids
- small, local power stations that operate autonomously. Nine
articles in the recent issue of the Journal of Renewable and
Sustainable Energy, from AIP Publishing, provide the first reviews
of energy technologies and costs for microgrids in Alaska...<br>
"Some communities are so remote that they can only get fuel
delivered once or twice a year when the ice melts and a barge can
move up the river," Whitney said. "This situation translates into
some of the highest energy costs in the nation."<br>
Whitney explains that oil and local, renewable resources can work in
tandem to supply electricity to microgrids. A diesel generator
typically provides base power generation, while renewable energy
sources reduce the load on the generators and save fuel, lowering
energy costs.<br>
Even above the Arctic Circle, where the region is cloaked in
darkness for a portion of the year, communities harness seasonal
renewable resources by switching between solar power during summer
months and wind power during the winter months.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171222092734.htm">https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171222092734.htm</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Scientific American (blog)]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/rappers-lyrics-about-climate-change-are-smart/">Rapper's
Lyrics about Climate Change Are Smart</a></b><br>
Baba Brinkman makes climate rap hot<br>
He's become a bit of a phenomenon in the science and policy
community, first with The Rap Guide to Evolution and his more recent
collection of 24 songs called The Rap Guide to Climate Chaos. He
performed what may be his biggest hit, "Make It Hot," at the COP21
climate meeting in Paris. And I heard him perform that piece last
week at the AGU Annual Meeting in New Orleans, a conference of
23,000 earth, climate and space scientists. The audience was
spellbound.<br>
The organizers invited Brinkman, who now lives in New York City, to
perform the song at the beginning of a major keynote address for the
week. Not knowing what to expect, the audience was a little
skeptical when Brinkman appeared - a tall, clean cut, well-dressed,
middle-aged man who began by talking about climate, not rapping. But
the large crowd became thoroughly enthralled after he got about a
minute into the song. That's because the lyrics are smart. Really
smart.<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/t8gsh0AD3Go">Video
- Baba Brinkman – "Make It Hot" – Carbon Pricing Rap</a> <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/t8gsh0AD3Go">https://youtu.be/t8gsh0AD3Go</a><br>
<blockquote> Lyrics<br>
<br>
Scientists are telling us that we're standing on a precipice<br>
And we have to convert the global economy and make it emissionless<br>
And those emissions are caused by every single one of our jobs<br>
Every one of us contributing carbon emissions to the smog<br>
For instance, if I write a rhyme tryin' to describe climate change<br>
And it's hot, so it catches on, someone's gonna fly me someplace<br>
To perform it, and the appeal of that is enormous<br>
It's not an option for me to turn down work for global warming<br>
<br>
'Cause I make it hot, people say my rhymes are dope<br>
I twist words until they're unrecognizable<br>
I make it hot, make it heezy fa sheezy<br>
So hot even climate change skeptics will believe me<br>
I make it hot, like the temperature it needs to be<br>
Before the tea party will believe the IPCC<br>
I make it hot, I liquify the Greenland ice sheets<br>
Seven meters of sea level rise, that'll do nicely<br>
<br>
And yeah, humans are adaptable, and we can toughen up<br>
But that response ignores people who feel like it's already tough
enough<br>
Make a list of countries that nobody visits as a tourist<br>
They have low carbon emissions, the richest inflicted this on the
poorest<br>
We did it by heating our houses, and feeding our spouses<br>
And flying and driving places and having no patience for power
outages<br>
The Pope calls it anthropocentric, he calls it obnoxious<br>
But I got work to do, and work takes energy to accomplish<br>
<br>
And I make it hot, I turn up the heat on the crowd<br>
You make it hot too though, so don't try to be weaselling out<br>
I make it hot like the African sun<br>
Like the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum<br>
I make it hot, feel that bass when it vibrates<br>
Hot like the permafrost releasing methyl hydrates<br>
I make it hot, like a planet with low albedo<br>
Like me rockin' a trench coat on a beach instead of a speedo<br>
<br>
Hot with no apologies, but still I'm feelin' a lot grief<br>
For the impact my lifestyle has on the planet's ecology<br>
My carbon footprint is bigger than crypto-zoology's<br>
I'm talkin' loch ness monstrous, so I'm not at peace<br>
Because the aggregate effect of every decision I'm makin' is
tragic<br>
But I can't just quit, they say that we're "carbon emission
addicts"<br>
But that's just glib, you want me to live in poverty abject<br>
And if I did, what happens to greenhouse gasses on average?<br>
If I quit and you don't, it's still hell in a hand-basket<br>
A traffic jam with no plan of action, fantastic<br>
This is a classic arms race that we're trapped in, it's ominous<br>
Self-interested parties stuck in a tragedy of the commons<br>
The problem is caused by our collective emissions of carbon<br>
But the person who emits is not the person emissions are harmin'<br>
So it's a failure of the market, everyone is incentivized<br>
To pollute as much as they can get away with, and catch a free
ride<br>
So it's no surprise to see emissions on the rise<br>
When the cost of burning fossil fuel is externalized<br>
It's effectively subsidized, it's paid for by the victims<br>
Of the eventual climate impacts caused by our emissions<br>
And Bill McKibben and the Guardian have been targeting investments<br>
Like: "Dirty energy is the new tobacco, so keep your distance<br>
From anybody makin' a profit off of fossil fuels"<br>
Cool, I'm down with the boycott, I'm just boycotting myself too<br>
<br>
'Cause I make it hot, I cause a heat wave<br>
How about nine degrees hotter than the hottest ones these days?<br>
I make it hot, like climate refugees<br>
Picture a hot hundred million displaced Bangladeshis<br>
I make it hot, split flames, rap metaphors<br>
A five-alarm blaze killing the last redwood forest<br>
I make it hot, what if I make it six degrees?<br>
Causing the extinction of forty percent of species<br>
<br>
Hot! So what are we left with?<br>
A speeding train with no brakes? Some kind of a death wish?<br>
A scientific consensus that we're standing on a precipice<br>
And a population with no idea of how to reduce their emissions<br>
Some people do offset their footprint voluntarily<br>
With the milk of human altruism, hope, faith and charity<br>
But that's not gonna cut it – it's not counterproductive<br>
But we have a global carbon budget that's globally busted<br>
And there are hundreds of gigatons that you would have to offset<br>
You might as well donate your piggy bank to the national debt<br>
I ain't got no spare change to donate to carbon offsetting<br>
I don't even want to calculate my footprint, I find it upsetting<br>
It's like the medieval Catholic church, back when it was
indulgence-selling<br>
If you get a big mac and a diet coke, your belly is still swelling<br>
But here's what I'm willing: I'm willing to pay a tax<br>
A fee that's calculated against my carbon impacts<br>
And globally harmonized to switch incentives around<br>
And make sure most of that carbon stays safely underground<br>
But I'm not gonna pay it, not unless you all pay it too<br>
That way I can be sure that you'll do what you say you'll do<br>
How about everyone has to pay it, no free riders allowed<br>
No international pact with the US or China left out<br>
You can invest it in green R&D, or you can dividend it back to
me<br>
But either way I won't be happy until the day they're carbon
taxing me<br>
<br>
'Cause then I can make it hot, without ever feelin' a chill<br>
I'm sick of the guilt trip killin' my high when I'm feelin' a
thrill<br>
So I make it hot, I get your emotions aroused<br>
If we can't make those hot, we're not gonna keep the oceans down<br>
So let's make it hot, people, let's turn up the heat<br>
On polluters tryin' to catch a ride on all the rest of us for free<br>
I make it hot on the mic, and in my social life<br>
When I agitate for my friends to agitate for a carbon price
<br>
<br>
And that's how you make it hot<br>
credits<br>
from The Rap Guide to Climate Chaos, released September 30, 2016<br>
Written by D. Brinkman and D. Moross<br>
Produced by Soulful Spider<br>
Additional Production and Mix by Tom Caruana<br>
Keys by Simon Kendall<br>
Additional vocals by Linda Kidder <br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/rappers-lyrics-about-climate-change-are-smart/">https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/rappers-lyrics-about-climate-change-are-smart/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.frumforum.com/climate-change-deniers-pull-off-a-snow-job/">This
Day in Climate History December 28, 2010</a> - from D.R.
Tucker</b></font><br>
David Jenkins, a former aide to Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), ridicules<br>
the ultra-conservatives who insist that snowstorms disprove climate<br>
change:<br>
<blockquote>"These skeptics, who are quiet as a mouse when summer
temps soar into<br>
triple digits, brandish every winter weather event as irrefutable<br>
proof that climate change is a hoax. Fox News and right-wing talk<br>
radio will do their part to amplify the message, and invariably a
few<br>
other media outlets will report on this spin and make it seem like<br>
there is a legitimate controversy."<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.frumforum.com/climate-change-deniers-pull-off-a-snow-job/">http://www.frumforum.com/climate-change-deniers-pull-off-a-snow-job/</a></font><br>
<br>
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