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<font size="+1"><i>May 23, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[new data]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22052018/air-pollution-coal-power-plants-oil-health-risks-premature-births-california">Premature
Birth Rates Drop in California After Coal and Oil Plants Shut
Down</a></b><br>
Within a year of eight coal- and oil-fired power plant retirements,
the rate of preterm births in mothers living close by dropped, finds
new study on air pollution.<br>
By Sabrina Shankman<br>
Shutting down power plants that burn fossil fuels can almost
immediately reduce the risk of premature birth in pregnant women
living nearby, according to research published Tuesday.<br>
Researchers scrutinized records of more than 57,000 births by
mothers who lived close to eight coal- and oil-fired plants across
California in the year before the facilities were shut down, and in
the year after, when the air was cleaner.<br>
The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found
that the rate of premature births dropped from 7 to 5.1 percent
after the plants were shuttered, between 2001 and 2011. The most
significant declines came among African American and Asian women.
Preterm birth can be associated with lifelong health complications.<br>
The results add fresh evidence to a robust body of research on the
harmful effects of exposure to air pollution, especially in young
children - even before they're born.<br>
<blockquote>"The ah-ha moment was probably just seeing what a large,
estimated effect size we got," said lead author Joan Casey, who is
a post-doctoral fellow at UC Berkeley. "We were pretty shocked by
it - to the point that we did many, many additional analyses to
try to make it go away, and didn't succeed."<br>
California Power Plant Closures Coal Oil Preterm Births<br>
<br>
Coal- and oil-fired power plants emit a bevy of air pollutants
that have known negative impacts on public health - including fine
particulate matter (or PM 2.5), nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides,
benzene, lead and mercury.<br>
</blockquote>
Using birth records from the California Department of Public Health,
the researchers found mothers who lived within 5 kilometers, 5-10
kilometers and 10-20 kilometers of the eight power plants. The women
living farthest away provided a control group, since the authors
assumed their exposure would be minimal.<br>
The authors controlled for many socioeconomic, behavioral, health,
race and ethnicity factors affecting preterm birth. "That could
account for things like Obamacare or the Great Recession or the
housing crisis," Casey said.<br>
The study found that the women living within 5 kilometers of the
plants, those most exposed to the air pollution, saw a significant
drop in preterm births...<br>
<font size="-1">more at:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22052018/air-pollution-coal-power-plants-oil-health-risks-premature-births-california">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22052018/air-pollution-coal-power-plants-oil-health-risks-premature-births-california</a><br>
</font><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/government-sea-level-rise-report-released-after-charges-of-censorship/">[E&E
news and Scientific American]</a><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/government-sea-level-rise-report-released-after-charges-of-censorship/"><br>
Government Sea Level Rise Report Released after Charges of
Censorship</a></b><br>
Long-delayed study examines potential for rising seas to damage
national parks<br>
A high-profile case of alleged scientific censorship ended Friday
when the National Park Service published a long-delayed report
outlining how rising seas could damage parks across the country.<br>
The report includes references to mankind's role in climate change -
something federal officials had tried scrubbing from the study,
according to documents released under a state open records request.
The study had languished under administrative review since early
2017.<br>
Although National Park Service officials say the report was handled
properly, the study's lead author says the administrative review
process has morphed from a "rubber stamp" into a tool for the
government to suppress inconvenient science.<br>
"Censorship is a good word for that," said Maria Caffrey, the
University of Colorado, Boulder, researcher who led the study. She
plans to file a scientific integrity complaint.<br>
The alleged interference, first reported by the Center for
Investigative Reporting's Reveal, attracted attention from
Democratic lawmakers and the inspector general for the Interior
Department, which includes the National Park Service. The affair
also raised pressure on the Interior Department at a time when
Secretary Ryan Zinke was defending political staff for reviewing
research prior to publication...<font size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/government-sea-level-rise-report-released-after-charges-of-censorship/">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/government-sea-level-rise-report-released-after-charges-of-censorship/</a></font><br>
- - - - <br>
[Heard on All Things Considered]<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.npr.org/2018/05/21/611919853/foreign-investors-shrug-off-miamis-rising-sea-levels">Foreign
Investors Shrug Off Miami's Rising Sea Levels</a></b><br>
May 21, 2018<br>
Locals are increasingly finding even inland streets flooded during
high tide - the rising Atlantic Ocean sluicing through the porous
limestone that South Florida is built upon. Catfish and even an
octopus have been spotted in the floodwaters, as storm drains
operate in reverse. Miami Beach is eyeing $500 million in
infrastructure upgrades, installing 80 new pumps over a decade to
redirect floodwaters back to the ocean. The city of Miami approved a
bond offering that would include about $200 million for projects to
prevent flooding and mitigate sea-level rise.<br>
Even so, Zillow estimates that by the end of the century, nearly
half a million Miami homes could be submerged. That's tops in the
country.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.npr.org/2018/05/21/611919853/foreign-investors-shrug-off-miamis-rising-sea-levels">https://www.npr.org/2018/05/21/611919853/foreign-investors-shrug-off-miamis-rising-sea-levels</a></font><br>
- - - -<b><a
href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/05/590901652/new-report-predicts-rising-tides-more-flooding"><br>
New Report Predicts Rising Tides, More Flooding</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/05/590901652/new-report-predicts-rising-tides-more-flooding">https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/05/590901652/new-report-predicts-rising-tides-more-flooding</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[GMA]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.yahoo.com/gma/suspenseful-bodycam-video-shows-dramatic-wildfire-evacuations-121204793--abc-news-topstories.html">Suspenseful
bodycam video shows dramatic wildfire evacuations</a></b><br>
Suspenseful body-camera footage of last year's deadly Santa Rosa
wildfires shows officers racing to evacuate residents in the middle
of the night as flames destroyed the surrounding neighborhood,
according to The Santa Rosa Police department, which released
snippets of footage<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://abcnews.go.com/topics/business/companies/youtube.htm">
on its YouTube page</a>.<br>
One video shows officers banging on a door and yelling for residents
to exit a home as a wall of flames rages in the backyard.<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/california-firefighters-turned-corner-historic-blazes-calm-weather/story?id=50505145">ABC
News previously reported</a> that more than 40 people died in the
wildfires, which also destroyed thousands of homes, according to the
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.<br>
Santa Rosa, a city of about 175,000 in Sonoma County, was among the
hardest-hit areas, with at least 2,834 homes, businesses and other
buildings destroyed. Critical infrastructure was also lost in the
flames, including the city's fire station, according to Santa Rosa
Mayor Chris Coursey.<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.yahoo.com/gma/suspenseful-bodycam-video-shows-dramatic-wildfire-evacuations-121204793--abc-news-topstories.html">https://www.yahoo.com/gma/suspenseful-bodycam-video-shows-dramatic-wildfire-evacuations-121204793--abc-news-topstories.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Phys.org]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://phys.org/news/2018-05-scientists-widespread-ocean-anoxia-mass.html">Scientists
find widespread ocean anoxia as cause for past mass extinction</a></b><br>
May 21, 2018, University of New Mexico<br>
The research, "Abrupt global-ocean anoxia during Late
Ordovician-early Silurian detected using uranium isotopes of marine
carbonates," was published today in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences (PNAS). It was supported, in part, through a
three-year, $680,000 National Science Foundation grant.<br>
"This extinction is the first of the 'big five' extinctions that hit
the Earth and our research indicates that it was coincident with the
abrupt development of widespread ocean anoxia that lasted for at
least 1 million years," said Elrick.<br>
Working with an international crew, Elrick and her team travelled to
Anticosti Island in the St. Lawrence seaway of Quebec, Canada where
they collected limestone rock samples. The returned samples were
analyzed for uranium isotopes using a mass spectrometer housed in
the UNM Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Results from the
study indicate that abrupt and widespread marine anoxia occurred at
the same time 85 percent of marine life went extinct...<br>
- - - -<br>
Elrick is also studying three of the other 'big five' mass
extinctions using uranium isotopes as oxygenation proxy.<br>
"So far each of them have widespread anoxia associated with them, so
we are finding that low seawater oxygen concentrations is a major
killer," Elrick said<br>
These results for the past 'big five' mass extinctions have
implications for the modern extinction our planet is presently
experiencing.<br>
"We are warming and acidifying the oceans today and warmer oceans
hold less and less oxygen. Some marine organisms can handle the heat
and the acidity, but not the lack of oxygen" Elrick said. "All these
things are happening today and the results from the Late Ordovician
study indicate the potential severity of marine anoxia as an
extinction driver for many of the past and ongoing biologic
extinction events."<br>
Explore further: Studying oxygen, scientists discover clues to
recovery from mass extinction<br>
More information: Rick Bartlett el al., "Abrupt global-ocean anoxia
during the Late Ordovician–early Silurian detected using uranium
isotopes of marine carbonates," PNAS (2018). <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1802438115">www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1802438115</a><br>
<font size="-1">Read more at:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://phys.org/news/2018-05-scientists-widespread-ocean-anoxia-mass.html#jCp">https://phys.org/news/2018-05-scientists-widespread-ocean-anoxia-mass.html#jCp</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Possibly an anthem]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/NkiRR3T_3NY">Neil
Young - Who's Gonna Stand Up (Official Music Video)</a></b><br>
<font size="-1">video 4:30</font><br>
Protect the wild, tomorrow's child<br>
Protect the land from the greed of man<br>
Take out the dams, stand up to oil<br>
Protect the plants and renew the soil<br>
<br>
Who's gonna stand up and save the Earth?<br>
Who's gonna say that she's had enough?<br>
Who's gonna take on the big machine?<br>
Who's gonna stand up and save the Earth?<br>
This all starts with you and me<br>
<br>
End fossil fuel, draw the line<br>
Before we build one more pipeline<br>
End fracking now, let's save the water<br>
And build a life for our sons and daughters<br>
<br>
Who's gonna stand up and save the Earth?<br>
Who's gonna say that she's had enough?<br>
Who's gonna take on the big machine?<br>
Who's gonna stand up and save the Earth?<br>
This all starts with you and me<br>
<br>
Damn the dams, save the rivers<br>
Starve the takers and feed the givers<br>
Let's build the green and save the world<br>
We're the people known as EARTH<br>
<br>
Who's gonna stand up and save the Earth?<br>
Who's gonna say that she's had enough?<br>
Who's gonna take on the big machine?<br>
Who's gonna stand up and save the Earth?<br>
This all starts with you and me<br>
<font size="-1">- - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/NkiRR3T_3NY">https://youtu.be/NkiRR3T_3NY</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Classic Rant from Dec 2017]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://patternsofmeaning.com/2017/12/19/what-will-it-really-take-to-avoid-collapse/?blogsub=flooded#blog_subscription-3">What
Will It Really Take to Avoid Collapse?</a></b><br>
Fifteen thousand scientists have issued a dire warning to humanity
about impending collapse but virtually no-one takes notice.
Ultimately, our global systems, which are designed for perpetual
growth, need to be fundamentally restructured to avoid the
worst-case outcome...<br>
- - - -<br>
The largest Ponzi scheme in history<br>
Which leads us to some of the underlying structural changes that
need to occur if human civilization is to avoid collapse. The
fundamental problem is brutally simple: our world system is based on
the premise of perpetual growth in consumption, which puts it on a
collision course with the natural world. Either the global system
has to be restructured, or we are headed for a catastrophe of
immense proportions that has never been experienced in human
history. However, the transnational corporations largely responsible
for driving this trajectory are structurally designed to prevent the
global changes that need to take place.<br>
Something that is only dimly understood outside financial circles is
that the vast bulk of the wealth enjoyed by the global elite is
based on a fabrication: a belief in the future growth in earnings
that corporations will deliver. For example, the current P/E ratio
of the S&P 500 is about 23, which means that investors are
valuing companies at twenty-three times their earnings for this
year. Another way of looking at it is that less than 5% of the
wealth enjoyed by investors relates to current activity; the rest is
based on the dream of future growth...<font size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://patternsofmeaning.com/2017/12/19/what-will-it-really-take-to-avoid-collapse/?blogsub=flooded#blog_subscription-3">https://patternsofmeaning.com/2017/12/19/what-will-it-really-take-to-avoid-collapse/?blogsub=flooded#blog_subscription-3</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
Capital Weather Gang<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/05/21/mosquito-explosion-in-southwest-russia-makes-it-impossible-to-leave-home/?utm_term=.6bca0dbc6bb4">Mosquito
explosion in southwest Russia makes it 'impossible' to leave
home</a></b><br>
By Jason Samenow May 21<br>
Torrential rains and abnormally warm weather have spurred a mosquito
infestation that has terrorized the Voronezh region in southwest
Russia.<br>
Photos and video show the bloodsucking insects swarming yards,
coating cars and surrounding homes.<br>
This report from the Russian media company RT is reminiscent of the
Alfred Hitchcock horror movie "The Birds":<br>
<blockquote>People are suffering from itchy bites and swelling and
say that it's "impossible" to leave their homes. Children are
refusing to go to school as they are immediately "eaten alive" by
the insects. Even at home people find scant refuge, as the tiny
menaces manage to crawl through any crack they can find. Outside
is far worse, as roads cannot even be seen through mosquito
hordes, according to local media.<br>
</blockquote>
Vestivrn, another Russian news organization, said (translated from
Russian) that their numbers were "unprecedented" and that the
insects had "eaten several pigs" that died as a result, although one
official was skeptical that mosquitoes were the cause...<br>
- - - -<br>
As climate change makes the air more warm and humid, the mosquito
season is predicted to lengthen while their habitats expand in some
parts of the world. A study published in 2015 found that if the
Arctic temperature rises 2 degrees Celsius, juvenile mosquitoes
would have a 53 percent improved chance of reaching adulthood.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/05/21/mosquito-explosion-in-southwest-russia-makes-it-impossible-to-leave-home/?utm_term=.6bca0dbc6bb4">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/05/21/mosquito-explosion-in-southwest-russia-makes-it-impossible-to-leave-home/?utm_term=.6bca0dbc6bb4</a><br>
</font><br>
<br>
[Scientific American]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antarctic-quest-seeks-to-predict-the-fate-of-a-linchpin-glacier/">Antarctic
Quest Seeks to Predict the Fate of a Linchpin Glacier</a></b><br>
Adventurer scientists swarm the melting Thwaites Glacier for clues
to how fast sea level will rise<br>
If Thwaites Glacier goes, so might the entire West Antarctic Ice
Sheet. Thwaites has long been recognized as a linchpin for the
massive expanse, which covers an area the size of Mexico and could
unleash more than three meters of sea level rise were it all to
melt. Thwaites alone is losing 50 billion tons of ice a year, and
recent research suggests the glacier has already entered an
unstoppable cycle of melt and retreat that has scientists seriously
worried....<br>
<font size="-1">more at:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antarctic-quest-seeks-to-predict-the-fate-of-a-linchpin-glacier/">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antarctic-quest-seeks-to-predict-the-fate-of-a-linchpin-glacier/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Snopes says nopes]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/do-rocks-contribute-sea-rise/">Do
Rocks Falling Into the Ocean Contribute to Global Sea Level
Rise?</a></b><br>
On human timescales, sediment and rocks flowing into the ocean do
not appreciably contribute to observed sea level rise; on larger
timescales, the question is irrelevant.<br>
On 16 May 2018, the House Committee on Science, Space, and
Technology held a hearing ostensibly to discuss the ways in which
"technology could be deployed for climate change adaptation." As
this committee's hearings are wont to do, however, some committee
members used their time to interrogate the expert witness about the
veracity of basics of climate science.<br>
In this case, that witness was Philip Duffy, the president of the
Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts. The most infamous
exchange occurred between Duffy and Representative Mo Brooks, a
Republican from Alabama. Philip Bump at the Washington Post
described it in a gripping play-by-play:<br>
<blockquote>Brooks asked Duffy what else might be contributing [to
observed sea-level rise besides expanding oceans and melting ice].
Duffy pointed to ground subsidence, which is the sinking of the
ground in places that can exacerbate the problem of rising sea
levels. […] "Those are all that I know of," Duffy replied.<br>
"What about erosion!" Brooks exclaimed. "Every single year that
we're on Earth, you have huge tons of silt deposited by the
Mississippi River, by the Amazon River, by the Nile, by every
major river system - and for that matter, creek, all the way
down to the smallest systems. And every time you have that soil or
rock whatever it is that is deposited into the seas, that forces
the sea levels to rise.<br>
Because now you've got less space in those oceans because the
bottom is moving up. […] What about the white cliffs of Dover?"
Brooks continued. "California, where you have the waves crashing
against the shorelines and time and time again you have the cliffs
crash into the sea. All of that displaces the water which forces
it to rise, does it not?"<br>
</blockquote>
Brooks is accurate when he says that tons of material - silt,
sand, dissolved solids, maybe some rocks from the cliffs of Dover,
etc. - are constantly flowing into the world's ocean basins.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:<br>
<blockquote>It is estimated that the rivers and streams flowing from
the United States alone discharge 225 million tons of dissolved
solids and 513 million tons of suspended sediment annually to the
ocean. Throughout the world, rivers carry an estimated four
billion tons of dissolved salts to the ocean annually.<br>
</blockquote>
Though his question makes sense from an elementary physics
standpoint, Brooks is inaccurate in suggesting that this contributes
in any meaningful way to the sea level rise attributed to
anthropogenic global warming. Certainly, when you put something into
water, that water is displaced and the water rises relative to the
volume of that object - we can thank Archimedes for that one. On
human timescales, however, the amount of water displaced by this
sediment flow is essentially undetectable...<font size="-1"><br>
More at: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/do-rocks-contribute-sea-rise/">https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/do-rocks-contribute-sea-rise/</a></font><br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060602003144/http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pdupont/?id=110008416">This
Day in Climate History - May 23, 2006</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
May 23, 2006: In perhaps the most hilariously demented attack on "An
Inconvenient Truth," former Delaware Congressman and Governor Pete
Du Pont declares in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that we don't need
to reduce C02 emissions because C02 is "vital for plant growth."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060602003144/http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pdupont/?id=110008416">http://web.archive.org/web/20060602003144/http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pdupont/?id=110008416</a></font><br>
<br>
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