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<font size="+1"><i>April 24, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[major attitude change]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/04/23/appeals-court-ruling-pipeline-protest-necessity-defense">Minn.
court sides with climate change activists in pipeline case</a></b><br>
Environment Elizabeth Dunbar - St. Paul - Apr 23, 2018<br>
The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled on the side of climate change
activists Monday in a case over an oil pipeline protest.<br>
The four activists - one from New York and three from Washington -
admit they broke into Enbridge Energy property in northwestern
Minnesota in an effort to stop oil from flowing through a pipeline.<br>
The activists' case is headed to trial in Clearwater County later
this year. They've asked the court if they can use what's known as a
"necessity defense" to argue they needed to shut off the flow of oil
in order to address climate change.<br>
The judge on their case granted the request. But state prosecutors
challenged the decision and the Minnesota Court of Appeals heard
oral arguments in February. The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, which
represents business interests in the state, filed a
friend-of-the-court brief supporting the prosecutors' argument.<br>
But the state appeals court dismissed the challenge in their ruling
Monday, making way for the activists to call experts on global
warming to testify during their trial...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/04/23/appeals-court-ruling-pipeline-protest-necessity-defense">https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/04/23/appeals-court-ruling-pipeline-protest-necessity-defense</a></font><br>
- - -- <br>
NEWS RELEASE<br>
For immediate release<br>
Contact: Stephen Kent, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:skent@kentcom.com">skent@kentcom.com</a> ,
914-589-5988<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Minnesota-appeals-court-upholds-climate-necessity-defense.html?soid=1128500696266&aid=rBnJgAfk3Uo">Minnesota
Court of Appeals Upholds "Necessity Defense" in Upcoming Climate
Activist Trial </a></b><br>
<blockquote>"I'm very happy about this decision," said Johnston. "If
we get to present a necessity defense trial, and the jury has to
grapple with full knowledge of our shared reality, the jig is up
for the fossil fuel industry, and the end of their devastating
business model comes into much clearer view. I think they'll do
everything they can to prevent that. But we're doing our best to
stand up for a lot of vulnerable people, and we need our day in
court."<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Minnesota-appeals-court-upholds-climate-necessity-defense.html?soid=1128500696266&aid=rBnJgAfk3Uo">http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Minnesota-appeals-court-upholds-climate-necessity-defense.html?soid=1128500696266&aid=rBnJgAfk3Uo</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Worry cured by exploration and action]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/04/23/one-of-the-most-worrisome-predictions-about-climate-change-may-be-coming-true/?utm_term=.c4d946f9c25e">One
of the most worrisome predictions about climate change may be
coming true</a></b><br>
By Chris Mooney April 23<br>
The<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/4/eaap9467"> new
research,</a> based on ocean measurements off the coast of East
Antarctica, shows that melting Antarctic glaciers are indeed
freshening the ocean around them. And this, in turn, is blocking a
process in which cold and salty ocean water sinks below the sea
surface in winter, forming "the densest water on the Earth," in the
words of study lead author Alessandro Silvano, a researcher with the
University of Tasmania in Hobart.<br>
This Antarctic bottom water has stopped forming in two key regions
of Antarctica, the research shows - the West Antarctic coast and the
coast around the enormous Totten glacier in East Antarctica.<br>
- - - - -<br>
The fact that we see consistent warming and freshening indicates
that the processes we expect to play out over the next century are
already underway," Long said. "Indeed, this study is part of a
growing body of evidence suggesting that the world's oceans are
changing - and that the pace of change is beginning to accelerate."<br>
<br>
If the process of Antarctic bottom water formation is being
impaired, at least in some regions, then it would be a Southern
Hemisphere analogue of a process that has already caused great worry
and drawn considerably more attention - a potential slowdown of the
overturning circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean, thanks to
freshening of the ocean from the melting of Greenland....<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/04/23/one-of-the-most-worrisome-predictions-about-climate-change-may-be-coming-true/?utm_term=.c4d946f9c25e">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/04/23/one-of-the-most-worrisome-predictions-about-climate-change-may-be-coming-true/?utm_term=.c4d946f9c25e</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Private money steps up]<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/22/michael-bloomberg-paris-climate-pact"><b>Michael
Bloomberg pledges $4.5m to cover US Paris climate commitment</b></a><br>
The former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, has said he will
pay $4.5m (£3.2m) to cover this year's lapsed US commitment to the
Paris climate agreement. The US president Donald Trump announced
that he was withdrawing the US from the deal last year, saying it
was a "terrible deal" which would "undermine" the economy and put
the US at a "permanent disadvantage", the Independent reports.
Bloomberg, whose net worth is approximately $50bn, made the pledge
on Earth Day, to the network CBS. In his announcement to the
channel, quoted by the BBC, he said: "America made a commitment and,
as an American, if the government's not going to do it then we all
have a responsibility...I'm able to do it. So, yes, I'm going to
send them a cheque for the monies that America had promised to the
organisation as though they got it from the federal government." He
did not commit to provide funds beyond 2018 and said he hoped that
by next year Trump would have changed his mind. The president, he
said, should be able to: "listen to others and change his mind. A
person that doesn't change their mind isn't very smart … And he's
been known to change his mind". The Hill, the New York Post and
Reuters also cover the story. Martin Pengelly, The Guardian<font
size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/22/michael-bloomberg-paris-climate-pact">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/22/michael-bloomberg-paris-climate-pact</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Wait, please stop]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/apr/23/pruitt-promised-polluters-epa-will-value-their-profits-over-american-lives">Pruitt
promised polluters EPA will value their profits over American
lives</a></b><br>
Pruitt is one of TIME's 100 most influential people for his efforts
to maximize polluters' profits<br>
TIME magazine announced last week that Trump's EPA administrator
Scott Pruitt is among their 100 most influential people of 2018.
George W. Bush's former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman
delivered the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://time.com/collection/most-influential-people-2018/5217586/scott-pruitt/?utm_campaign=time&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&xid=time_socialflow_twitter">scathing
explanation</a>:<br>
If his actions continue in the same direction, during Pruitt's term
at the EPA the environment will be threatened instead of protected,
and human health endangered instead of preserved, all with no
long-term benefit to the economy.<br>
As a perfect example of those actions, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://dailycaller.com/2018/04/12/sources-pruitt-epa-obama-tactics/">the
Daily Caller recently reported</a> that at a gathering at the <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.desmogblog.com/heritage-foundation">fossil
fuel-funded Heritage Institute</a>, Pruitt announced that the EPA
and federal government will soon end two important science-based
practices in evaluating the costs and benefits of regulations...<br>
- - - <br>
It's worth remembering that "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/our-mission-and-what-we-do">The
mission of EPA</a> is to protect human health and the
environment." The mission of the Pruitt EPA seems to be maximizing
polluting industry profits at the expense of human health and the
environment.<br>
It's also important not to let <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/climate/scott-pruitt-epa-investigations-guide.html">Pruitt's
rank corruption and scandals</a> distract from the damage he's
doing to EPA's mission. As Christine Todd Whitman noted, the whole
world is worse for Trump having nominated and the Senate GOP having
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/17/us/politics/live-congress-votes-scott-pruitt-epa.html">confirmed</a>
Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA into a new era of maximizing industry
profits and pollution at the expense of public and environmental
health.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/apr/23/pruitt-promised-polluters-epa-will-value-their-profits-over-american-lives">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/apr/23/pruitt-promised-polluters-epa-will-value-their-profits-over-american-lives</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[A different kind of migration]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-23/the-latest-climate-threat-for-coastal-cities-more-rich-people">The
Latest Climate Threat for Coastal Cities: More Rich People</a></b><br>
By Christopher Flavelle<br>
Building codes, insurance premiums push middle class inland<br>
'Climate gentrification' starving tourism economies of workers<br>
"I'm just like a ship with no rudder," said Terry Baron.<br>
Residents, researchers and housing advocates say global warming is
beginning to shift not just the physical characteristics of coastal
cities, but their economic and demographic makeup as well. And local
officials are starting to worry about it...<br>
- - - -<br>
"The demographics have changed somewhat dramatically," said Stafford
Township Mayor John Spodofora. "I'm seeing $750,000 homes going up
where there was a $200,000 or $300,000 home in the past."<br>
That's good news for the tax base. Spodofora estimated that Stafford
Township has rebuilt just 70 percent of the homes it lost, yet
because of their higher value the town's property tax revenue has
almost returned to was before Sandy. But it's also pushed less
wealthy people away from the shore.<br>
"They're moving further inland," Spodofora said. The effect of
Sandy, he said, "kind of weeds out people who can't afford to live
on those waterfront properties."<br>
- - - -<br>
"We see climate as a really important issue that intersects with
poverty and financial security," Beesing said. "For some families,
this may feel like an opportunity to get cash for their house. But
the problem is then, where do they go?"<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-23/the-latest-climate-threat-for-coastal-cities-more-rich-people">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-23/the-latest-climate-threat-for-coastal-cities-more-rich-people</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[drought - fire - flood - repeat]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-drought-flood-20180423-story.html">Climate
change will make California's drought-flood cycle more volatile,
study finds</a></b><br>
Californians should expect more dramatic swings between dry and wet
years as the climate warms, according to a new study that found it
likely that the state will be hit by devastating, widespread
flooding in coming decades.<br>
UC researchers in essence found that California's highly volatile
climate will become even more volatile as human-caused climate
change tinkers with atmospheric patterns over the eastern Pacific
Ocean...<br>
- - - -<br>
"Increasingly wide swings between dry and wet conditions will
threaten to upset the already precarious balance between competing
flood-control and water-storage imperatives in California," the
researchers wrote...<br>
- - - <br>
"Climate change is creating a water-storage problem for
California," said UCLA atmospheric sciences professor Alex Hall, a
co-author of the paper.<br>
"We need to think more carefully about how we capture water and how
we store it," he added, advocating greater efforts to recharge
groundwater basins with storm flows...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-drought-flood-20180423-story.html">http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-drought-flood-20180423-story.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Lessons, not learned, will be repeated]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.propublica.org/article/canary-in-the-coal-pond">Canary
in the coal pond</a></b><br>
propublica.org | Apr. 20<br>
New reports provide an unprecedented look at contaminants leaking
from coal ash ponds and landfills. But the chasm between information
and ...<br>
-- - - - - <br>
"What's important for the public to know is that we take this
seriously and are committed to the environment," Brooks said. "These
initial results do not mean that there are confirmed interactions
with groundwater and coal ash or TVA operations. It also doesn't
mean there are any levels of concern beyond TVA property. Decades of
monitoring at all our sites confirm that there are no impacts to
drinking water sources."<br>
Hillman is watching the EPA's proposal to amend the coal-ash rule
intently, from a different home in nearby Oak Ridge, Tenn.<br>
"It's very frustrating because I know that my personal opinion is
that this all comes down to making it easy for business and industry
to make more money by loosening rules that protect the general
public," she said. "I guess the government doesn't care what we
breathe or absorb into our bodies."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.propublica.org/article/canary-in-the-coal-pond">https://www.propublica.org/article/canary-in-the-coal-pond</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[video explains the changes]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/-3h4Xt9No9o">Why
Atlantic fish are invading the Arctic</a></b><br>
Vox<br>
Published on Apr 23, 2018<br>
Southern species are flooding into the far north.<br>
Scientists are witnessing the upending of large parts of the Arctic
ocean. As the sea ice recedes and temperatures rise, the warmer
waters of the Atlantic are moving north and bringing with them new
competitors that vie for the same rich resources. Journalist Eli
Kintisch explores an ecosystem undergoing profound change.<br>
This video is part 3 of a three-part series on the changing Arctic.
<br>
Part 1 - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msD4agiRTxM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msD4agiRTxM</a><br>
Part 2 - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQliow4ghtU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQliow4ghtU</a><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/-3h4Xt9No9o">https://youtu.be/-3h4Xt9No9o</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[New creatures appearing around there]<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/22/utqiagvik-alaska-weird-wildlife-environment?CMP=share_btn_link"><b>Arctic
Dispatches, part 2: As the Arctic heats up, residents of
Utqiagvik are experiencing first contact with unusual species
that are making their way polewards</b></a><br>
Last July, Nagruk Harcharek was savouring a bucolic visit to a cabin
that sits on the lip of the Chipp river, deep in the Alaskan Arctic,
when something caught his eye. Shimmering on a rack where he hangs
his caught whitefish to dry was, astonishingly, a dragonfly.<br>
"I'd been going to camp there for 30 years and I'd never seen one, I
couldn't freaking believe it," said Harcharek. "I was amazed. I just
thought, 'Wow'."<br>
- - - -<br>
Last summer, a child was stung by a wasp, the first time anyone
could remember this happening in Utqiaġvik, a coastal town formerly
known as Barrow that is the most northerly settlement in the US.<br>
A sphinx moth, a species with a wingspan as much as 5in across, was
reported by a baffled resident as being some sort of bird. An actual
bird, a kestrel, which has gone from rare to almost commonplace in
just a few years, was tended to by George after it sought refuge in
his workplace, the North Slope Borough. Arctic squirrels, previously
little seen, have also taken up residence around town.<br>
- - - - - <br>
Earlier this year, scientists at the University of California
calculated that for every 10 degrees north from the 32nd parallel
you move, spring now arrives four days earlier than it did a decade
ago. For the Arctic, this daunting equation means that spring has
hastened by more than two weeks in just the time it took for Barack
Obama to run for the presidency and be replaced by Donald Trump.<br>
This warping of timescales is causing the complex web of
interactions between predator and prey, pollinator and plant, mate
and mate to unravel. Another looming issue is the creeping advance
of new and exotic diseases into the Arctic, with unknown
ramifications.<br>
A recent study of connected species around the world - such as sand
eels that are devoured by guillemots, caribou and their favoured
diet of vegetation - found that, on average, these interactions have
shifted four days earlier per decade since 1981.<br>
- - - - - - <br>
Not all change is bad, either.<br>
"We caught red salmon up here in the past summer, which never used
to happen before," said Harcharek. "We normally got chum salmon,
which is basically dog food. So everyone is pumped."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/22/utqiagvik-alaska-weird-wildlife-environment?CMP=share_btn_link">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/22/utqiagvik-alaska-weird-wildlife-environment?CMP=share_btn_link</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/2007/04/26/hot-politicspbs-frontline-program-and-extended-interviews-online/">This
Day in Climate History - April 24, 2007</a> - from D.R.
Tucker</b></font><br>
April 24, 2007: PBS airs "Hot Politics," a "Frontline" special about
the extensive efforts of the fossil fuel lobby to frustrate efforts
to combat carbon pollution.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hotpolitics/">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hotpolitics/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/2007/04/26/hot-politicspbs-frontline-program-and-extended-interviews-online/">http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/2007/04/26/hot-politicspbs-frontline-program-and-extended-interviews-online/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hotpolitics/interviews/">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hotpolitics/interviews/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
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