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<font size="+1"><i>May 31, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[Washington State Gov Jay Inslee is angry]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/gov-jay-inslee-canadian-oil-pipeline-is-giant-step-backward/">Gov.
Jay Inslee: Canadian oil pipeline is giant step backward<br>
Canada's unneighborly pipeline deal threatens orcas and climate</a></b>
<br>
Canada has aligned itself with a giant project that would promote
and perpetuate greater consumption of fossil fuels, endanger our
marine environment and generate more carbon pollution.<br>
By Jay Inslee <br>
Our neighbors in Canada have been good partners in the fight against
climate change and efforts to keep our seas healthy. However, this
week Canada took a major step backward.<br>
Our lands and waters share incredible bounty and beauty. Trekking
across forests and mountains, exploring beaches in search of
shellfish and fishing from clear waters are all part of our regional
way of life and economy.<br>
This shared heritage is supported by Washington state's efforts to
act on climate, reduce toxics, protect our orcas, improve
oil-transport safety and fight back against the Trump
administration's efforts to privatize national forests and expand
offshore oil drilling.<br>
But now it appears a new threat is coming to us from the north. As
Texas-based Kinder Morgan wavers over its intention to continue
building its controversial Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion,
the Canadian government announced it will spend billions of dollars
to purchase the project and continue construction, in order to
export oil to Asia. Notably, the oil would not be used in Canada or
the United States.<br>
The pipeline expansion would increase Canadian oil-tanker traffic
sevenfold, putting an estimated 350 more tankers a year in the
Salish Sea, critical habitat where our orcas do most of their
hunting. It would significantly increase the risk of oil spills and
take us backward in our transition to a clean-energy future.<br>
This project runs counter to everything our state is doing to fight
climate change, protect our endangered southern resident killer
whales and protect communities from the risks associated with
increased fossil-fuel transportation - by rail and by sea...<br>
<font size="-1">More at:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/gov-jay-inslee-canadian-oil-pipeline-is-giant-step-backward/">https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/gov-jay-inslee-canadian-oil-pipeline-is-giant-step-backward/</a></font><br>
- - - - -<br>
[A big deal for neighbors]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/inslee-calls-canada-pipeline-profoundly-damaging-fears-for-orcas-in-surprise-deal/">Inslee
calls Canada pipeline 'profoundly damaging,' fears for orcas in
surprise deal</a></b><br>
Originally published May 29, 2018 at 7:03 pm Updated May 30, 2018 at
6:37 am<br>
Canada stuns opponents, cheers backers of the Trans Mountain
Pipeline expansion with an unprecedented deal to buy, guarantee
expansion.<br>
By Lynda V. Mapes - Seattle Times environment reporter<br>
An unprecedented deal between the Canadian federal government and
Houston-based Kinder Morgan to expand the Trans Mountain Pipeline
poses grave risks for the critically endangered southern-resident
killer- whale population, and drew a stiff rebuke from Washington's
governor, who called the pipeline "profoundly damaging."<br>
The expansion, planned to bring bitumen oil from Alberta to the West
Coast for sale to Asian markets, would increase by seven times the
oil-tanker traffic in the transboundary waters between Washington
and Canada, prime orca habitat.<br>
That would ramp up noise levels underwater that already are
interfering with the whales' foraging time for scarce chinook
salmon. The whales have not managed a successful pregnancy in two
years, in part because they are starving.<br>
The increase in traffic through tricky navigation channels by
tankers also puts the J, K and L pods at risk of extinction in the
event of an oil spill. The pipeline twins an existing line built in
1953 for more than 600 miles and will nearly triple capacity for the
Trans Mountain to 890,000 barrels of bitumen oil per day.<br>
Bitumen is one of the most energy-intensive oils to produce, and
carbon-polluting to burn. Mixed with chemicals to make it flow, it
sinks in water and defies conventional cleanup methods.<br>
On Tuesday, Canada's federal government agreed to buy the pipeline
system and expansion project for $4.5 billion Canadian and to work
with the board of Kinder Morgan to seek a third-party buyer for the
project...<br>
- - - -<br>
Kinder Morgan in its statement Tuesday said the backing of the
Canadian government ensures the project will be built. "We are
pleased to reach agreement on a transaction that benefits the people
of Canada, Trans Mountain Expansion Project shippers and Kinder
Morgan Limited shareholders," said KML Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer Steve Kean.<br>
"The outcome we have reached represents the best opportunity to
complete the Trans Mountain Expansion Project and thereby realize
the great national economic benefits promised."<br>
Opponents warned that the costs will be far higher and that the
project will haunt the liberal Trudeau government, which has backed
the project in hopes of higher prices overseas for Canadian oil than
in the U.S. market, plus tax revenue on those sales.<br>
However, indigenous leaders warned Tuesday the fight is just getting
started.<br>
"The answer is still no," said Will George, Tsleil-Waututh member
and spokesman for the Coast Salish Watch House, a spiritual
gathering place and de facto headquarters for the opposition. "The
cost they did not calculate in their $4.5 billion purchase is that
indigenous front lines will stop this pipeline. The Watch House will
continue to stand in the way of pipeline development."<br>
The Tsleil-Waututh, or People of the Inlet, have opposed the project
since its inception and on Tuesday vowed that outrage at the federal
decision would spur direct action against the project.<br>
"The fight is far from over, and now that Justin Trudeau has turned
the Canadian government into a fossil-fuel company, it's crystal
clear who we are up against," said Aurore Fauret, Canadian tar-sands
campaign coordinator for 350.org, which opposes fossil-fuel
projects.<br>
In addition to Inslee, 79 elected leaders from around the region,
including King County Executive Dow Constantine and 29 Washington
state legislators, last week sent a letter to B.C. Premier John
Horgan in solidarity with his government's opposition to the
project.<br>
Even Al Gore weighed in Tuesday, tweeting, "Fossil fuels are
subsidized 38x more than renewables globally. Now the Canadian
government wants to spend billions more of taxpayer dollars to
increase its country's contribution to the climate crisis. This is
not in the public interest. We must keep fighting to #StopKM."<br>
For the orcas, the Salish Sea already has become a hostile place
they visit with increasing rarity. In a new paper published by the
San Juan Island-based Orca Behavior Institute in the journal Pacific
Conservation Biology, research documented what longtime Pacific
Northwest residents already know: The whales are spending less time
here.<br>
Peak whale-watching season in the Salish Sea for the southern
residents used to be April through September.<br>
Twenty years ago it was typical to see the southern residents
frolicking and feeding in the Salish Sea every day in May. This
year, no whales have been seen locally since April 7.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/inslee-calls-canada-pipeline-profoundly-damaging-fears-for-orcas-in-surprise-deal/">https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/inslee-calls-canada-pipeline-profoundly-damaging-fears-for-orcas-in-surprise-deal/</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[that's equivalent to 32 coal plants or 27.6 million vehicles per
year]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2017/01/climate_on_the_line_FINAL-OCI.pdf">Climate
on the Line<br>
Why New Tar Sand Pipelines are incompatible With the Paris
Goals.</a></b><br>
Our key findings are that if tar sands expansion proceeds:<br>
Canada would be on track to be amongst the highest contributors of
new oil production globally over the next twenty years - production
that would continue long after Canada is <br>
required to reduce its emissions to zero <br>
Emissions from Canadian oil would exhaust 16% of the world's total
carbon budget for staying below 1.5 degrees C, or 7% of the 2
degrees C budget. <br>
Canada's population is currently less than one half of one percent
(0.49%) of the global population.<br>
<font size="-1">Report at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2017/01/climate_on_the_line_FINAL-OCI.pdf">http://priceofoil.org/content/uploads/2017/01/climate_on_the_line_FINAL-OCI.pdf</a></font><br>
- - - - <br>
[ramifications everywhere]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://unfriendcoal.com/2018/05/30/insurers-and-tar-sands/">Leading
insurers undermine climate goals by supporting the tar sands
industry</a></b><br>
May 30, 2018<br>
Heads in the sand? The insurance industry, tar sands and pipelines<br>
Many of the world's biggest insurers, including AIG, Munich Re and
Zurich, are undermining global climate goals and Indigenous rights
by supporting the tar sands industry, reveals a briefing paper by
the Unfriend Coal campaign released today.<br>
NGOs supporting the campaign have also written to CEOs of the
world's largest insurance companies, meeting in Paris this week,
calling on the industry to divest from coal, tar sands and
associated pipeline projects and cease providing insurance cover to
these climate-destroying fossil fuel projects.<br>
Read the full <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://unfriendcoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Unfriend-Coal-Tar-Sands-briefing-PDF.pdf">Unfriend
Coal briefing: Heads in the sand? The insurance industry, tar
sands and pipelines</a> <br>
Read the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://unfriendcoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Unfriend-Coal-letter-to-insurance-CEOs-PDF.pdf">Unfriend
Coal letter to insurance CEOs</a><br>
Peter Bosshard, coordinator of the Unfriend Coal campaign, said:
"New tar sands and pipeline projects lock in high carbon emissions
for decades to come and are incompatible with the need to phase out
fossil fuels in line with the Paris Agreement. Insurance companies
should not underwrite or invest in some of the most polluting and
climate-destroying projects on the planet."...<br>
- - - -<br>
The Unfriend Coal letter was signed by 350.org, the Center for
International Environmental Law (USA), Divest Invest (USA), the
Foundation Development Yes Open-Pit Mines No (Poland), Friends of
the Earth France, numerous Greenpeace country offices, the Japan
Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society, Market Forces
(Australia), the Rainforest Action Network (USA), the Sunrise
Project (Australia), Re:Common (Italy), and Urgewald (Germany).<br>
<font size="-1">More at: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://unfriendcoal.com/2018/05/30/insurers-and-tar-sands/">https://unfriendcoal.com/2018/05/30/insurers-and-tar-sands/</a><br>
- - - -<br>
</font>[See the chart]<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://unfriendcoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Screenshot-2018-05-30-14.41.49.png">Overview:
coal and tar sands policies of large insurers and reinsurers (May
2018)</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://unfriendcoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Screenshot-2018-05-30-14.41.49.png">https://unfriendcoal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Screenshot-2018-05-30-14.41.49.png</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Water, with a slight aftertaste of soot and mercury]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c733794100bcc7e083a163f0&id=e0bb1f1a70&e=131c5dc491">Industries
Try to Silence Commission that Sets Water Quality Standards for
Ohio River</a></b><br>
Electric utilities and other industries are pressuring an
eight-state commission to end its role in restricting the dumping of
wastewater into the Ohio River. The river, lined with dozens of
coal-fired power plants, is the drinking water source for millions
of people. <br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://insideclimatenews.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c733794100bcc7e083a163f0&id=e0bb1f1a70&e=131c5dc491">https://insideclimatenews.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c733794100bcc7e083a163f0&id=e0bb1f1a70&e=131c5dc491</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Succinct, quintessential video]<br>
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCFOMssk4Vg">Human
Rights, Climate Change and the Politics of Legal Disembodiment
by Anna Grear</a></b><br>
Spring Creek Project<br>
Published on May 30, 2018<br>
In her lecture "Human Rights, Climate Change and the Politics of
Legal Disembodiment," Anna Grear provides an overview of the complex
framework of international law and its somewhat problematic
application with regard to the fossil fuel economy and climate
change. She argues that it would be a gross oversimplification to
merely say that we should hold these fossil fuel corporations to
higher human rights standards, because the very foundations of our
international legal system, including those of human rights law, are
rooted in a framework inherently sympathetic to corporate power and
the fossil fuel economy. Demonstrating the powerful impacts of legal
disembodiment and corporate power on human rights in a time of
climate change, she draws connections between the concepts of legal
personhood, corporate privilege, historical privileges of the elite,
and the fossil fuel industry's process of colonization. This talk is
a part of the Bedrock Lectures on Human Rights and Climate Change
presented by the Spring Creek Project.<br>
Anna Grear is the founder and director of the Global Network for the
Study of Human Rights and the Environment (GNHRE). She is also the
founder and co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Human Rights and
the Environment, the founder of the Vulnerability Network, and
co-founder, with Martha Fineman, of the Vulnerability and Human
Condition Collaboration. Grear is a legal theorist whose work
focuses largely on questions related to law's construction of the
human being and the human relationship with the world, broadly
conceived. Her work calls on insights from a range of disciplines
despite being firmly located within a combination of critical legal
theory and jurisprudence. <br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCFOMssk4Vg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCFOMssk4Vg</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Lessons not learned will be repeated]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2018/05/does-global-warming-make-tropical-cyclones-stronger/">Killer
Storms get Stronger</a></b><br>
[Tamino of Open Mind] Posted on May 30, 2018 <br>
A <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2018/05/does-global-warming-make-tropical-cyclones-stronger/">post
at RealClimate</a> [below] is a must-read. It addresses the
impact of man-made climate change on tropical storms; it's still
hotly debated whether or not they'll become more numerous, but the
evidence they will become stronger - that they already have, in fact
- has tipped the scales. Since not just wind, but flood is on the
increase, adding to the already-huge problems caused by sea level
rise, the time to face this problem is now.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://tamino.wordpress.com/2018/05/30/killer-storms-get-stronger/">https://tamino.wordpress.com/2018/05/30/killer-storms-get-stronger/</a></font><br>
- - - - -<br>
[RealClimate report]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2018/05/does-global-warming-make-tropical-cyclones-stronger/">Does
global warming make tropical cyclones stronger?</a></b><br>
30 May 2018<br>
By Stefan Rahmstorf, Kerry Emanuel, Mike Mann and Jim Kossin<br>
Friday marks the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season,
which will be watched with interest after last year's season broke a
number of records and e.g. devastated Puerto Rico's power grid,
causing serious problems that persist today. One of us (Mike) is
part of a team that has issued a seasonal forecast (see Kozar et al
2012) calling for a roughly average season in terms of overall
activity (10 +/- 3 named storms), with tropical Atlantic warmth
constituting a favorable factor, but predicted El Nino conditions an
unfavorable factor. Meanwhile, the first named storm, Alberto, has
gone ahead without waiting for the official start of the season.<br>
In the long term, whether we will see fewer or more tropical
cyclones in the Atlantic or in other basins as a consequence of
anthropogenic climate change is still much-debated. There is a
mounting consensus, however, that we will see more intense
hurricanes. So let us revisit the question of whether global warming
is leading to more intense tropical storms. Let's take a step back
and look at this issue globally, not just for the Atlantic.<br>
Tropical storms are powered by evaporation of seawater. More than
30 years ago, one of us (Emanuel) developed a quantity called
potential intensity that sets an upper bound on hurricane wind
speeds. In general, as the climate warms, this speed limit goes up,
permitting stronger storms than were possible in the past.<br>
Of course there could be other changes in the climate system that
counteract this - e.g. an increase in wind shear that tears the
hurricanes apart, changes in the humidity of the atmosphere, or
increases in natural or anthropogenic aerosols. This question has
been investigated for many years with the help of model simulations.
The results of numerous such studies can be summarized briefly as
follows: due to global warming we do not necessarily expect more
tropical storms overall, but an increasing number of particularly
strong storms in categories 4 and 5, especially storms of previously
unobserved strength. This assessment has been widely agreed on at
least since the 4th IPCC Report of 2007 and reaffirmed several times
since then. A review article in the leading journal Science (Sobel
et al. 2016) concluded:<br>
We thus expect tropical cyclone intensities to increase with
warming, both on average and at the high end of the scale, so that
the strongest future storms will exceed the strength of any in the
past.<br>
Models also suggest that atmospheric aerosol pollution may have
weakened tropical storms and masked the effect of global warming for
decades, making it more difficult to detect trends in measurement
data...<br>
- - - - - <br>
Other recent records are worth mentioning. Sandy (2012) was the
largest hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic. Harvey (2017)
dumped more rain than any hurricane in the United States. Ophelia
(2017) formed further northeast than any other Category 3 Atlantic
hurricane - fortunately it turned north before striking Portugal,
against initial predictions, and then weakened over cool waters
before it hit Ireland. September 2017 broke the record for
cumulative hurricane energy in the Atlantic. Irma (2017) sustained
wind speeds of 300 km/h longer than any storm on record (for 37
hours - the previous record was 24 hours by Haiyan in 2013). Cyclone
Pam in March 2015 was already beaten again by Winston in February
2016 according to the Southwest Pacific Enhanced Archive for
Tropical Cyclones (though not in Velden's data analysis). Donna in
2017 was the strongest May cyclone ever observed in the Southern
Hemisphere. All coincidence?<br>
- - - - <br>
A significant global increase (95% significance level) can be found
in all storms with maximum wind speeds from 175 km/h. Storms of 200
km/h and more have doubled in number, and those of 250 km/h and more
have tripled. Although some of the trend may be owing to improved
observation techniques, this provides some evidence that a global
increase in the most intense tropical storms due to global warming
is not just predicted by models but already happening.<br>
- - -- <br>
Most damage caused by tropical storms is not directly caused by the
wind, but by water: rain from above, storm surge from the sea.
Harvey brought the largest amounts of rain in US history - the
probability of such a rain event has increased several times over
recent decades due to global warming (Emanuel 2017; Risser and
Wehner, 2017; van Oldenborgh et al., 2017). Not least due to global
warming, sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate and storm
surges are becoming more dangerous. A recent study (Garner et al.
2017), for example, shows that the return period of a certain storm
surge height in New York City will be reduced from 25 years today to
5 years within the next three decades. Therefore, storm surge
barriers are the subject of intensive discussion in New York
(Rahmstorf 2017).<br>
While there may not yet be a "smoking gun" - a single piece of
evidence that removes all doubt - the weight of the evidence
suggests that the thirty-year-old prediction of more intense and
wetter tropical cyclones is coming to pass. This is a risk that we
can no longer afford to ignore.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2018/05/does-global-warming-make-tropical-cyclones-stronger/">http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2018/05/does-global-warming-make-tropical-cyclones-stronger/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[New book blurb]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780393609011">Light of
the Stars (Hardcover)<br>
Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth</a></b><br>
By Adam Frank<br>
W. W. Norton & Company, 9780393609011, 272pp.<br>
Publication Date: June 12, 2018<br>
List Price: $26.95<br>
Light of the Stars tells the story of humanity's coming of age as we
awaken to the possibilities of life on other worlds and their sudden
relevance to our fate on Earth. Astrophysicist Adam Frank traces the
question of alien life and intelligence from the ancient Greeks to
the leading thinkers of our own time, and shows how we as a
civilization can only hope to survive climate change if we recognize
what science has recently discovered: that we are just one of ten
billion trillion planets in the Universe, and it's highly likely
that many of those planets hosted technologically advanced alien
civilizations. What's more, each of those civilizations must have
faced the same challenge of civilization-driven climate change.<br>
Written with great clarity and conviction, Light of the Stars builds
on the inspiring work of pioneering scientists such as Frank Drake
and Carl Sagan, whose work at the dawn of the space age began
building the new science of astrobiology; Jack James, the Texas-born
engineer who drove NASA's first planetary missions to success;
Vladimir Vernadsky, the Russian geochemist who first envisioned the
Earth's biosphere; and James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, who
invented Gaia theory. Frank recounts the perilous journey NASA
undertook across millions of miles of deep space to get its probes
to Venus and Mars, yielding our first view of the cosmic laws of
planets and climate that changed our understanding of our place in
the universe.<br>
<b>Thrilling science at the grandest of scales, Light of the Stars
explores what may be the largest question of all: What can the
likely presence of life on other worlds tell us about our own fate</b><font
size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780393609011">https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780393609011</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[the author comments in The Atlantic]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/how-do-aliens-solve-climate-change/561479/">How
Do Aliens Solve Climate Change?</a></b><br>
Scientists recently modeled a range of interactions between
energy-intensive civilizations and their planets. The results were
sobering.<br>
Adam Frank <br>
- - - -<br>
<blockquote>In many ways we were seeing a kind of cosmic Easter
Island play out. There may have been as many as 10,000 people
living on Easter Island at the peak of its stone-head-making
heyday. But by cutting down all the trees to roll the stone heads
around, that civilization seems to have mucked up its ecosystem
and sealed its own fate. When the Dutch arrived in 1722 only a few
thousand folks, living greatly reduced lives, were left.<br>
<br>
The second kind of trajectory held the good news. We called it the
"soft landing." The population grew and the planet changed but
together they made a smooth transition to new, balanced
equilibrium. The civilization had changed the planet but without
triggering a massive die-off.<br>
<br>
The final class of trajectory was the most worrisome: full-blown
collapse. As in the die-off histories, the population blew up. But
these planets just couldn't handle the avalanche of the
civilization's impact. The host worlds were too sensitive to
change, like a houseplant that withers when it's moved. Conditions
on these planets deteriorated so fast the civilization's
population nose-dived all the way to extinction.<br>
<br>
You might think switching from the high-impact energy source to
the low-impact source would make things better. But for some
trajectories, it didn't matter. If the civilization used only the
high-impact resource, the population reached a peak and then
quickly dropped to zero. But if we allowed the civilization to
switch to the low-impact energy resource, the collapse still
happened in certain cases, even if it was delayed. The population
would start to fall, then happily stabilize. But then, finally and
suddenly, it rushed downward to extinction.<br>
<br>
The collapses that occurred even when the civilization did the
smart thing demonstrated an essential point about the modeling
process. Because the equations capture some of the real world's
complexity, they can surprise you. In some of the "delayed
collapse" histories, the planet's own internal machinery was the
culprit. Push a planet too hard, and it won't return to where it
began. We know this can happen, even without a civilization
present, because we see it on Venus. That world should be a kind
of sister to our own. But long ago Venus's greenhouse effect
slipped into a runaway mode, driving its surface temperatures to a
hellish 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Our models were showing, in
generic terms, how a civilization could push a planet down the
hill into a different kind of runaway through its own activity.<br>
<br>
The model we created was, however, just a first stab at a science
of exo-civilizations. We made the equations a simple as possible
while still capturing the essence of planet-civilization
"coevolution." That means it's too early to answer the question,
"Does anyone make it?" Still, our work provides the basic contours
of what might happen.<br>
We need to put in more detailed and realistic climate physics. We
also need to include the full range of energy sources a young
civilization might find on its home world-the list is limited by
physics: combustion, solar, wind, geothermal, tides, nuclear, and
a few others. Even though our initial models were simple, they
still revealed a radical truth about the challenge we face as we
push the Earth into its human-dominated era. Unless the universe
is deeply biased against it, there have been other civilizations
across space and time that faced these challenges. Anthropocenes
may be common.<br>
<br>
As I explore in my new book, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780393609011">Light of
the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth</a>, our
dawning realization that we are profoundly shaping Earth's future
provides us with the impetus to stop acting like cosmic teenagers
with power but little wisdom. From that perspective the true
narrative of climate change isn't some small, local drama of
Democrats vs. Republications or business interests vs.
environmentalists. Instead, it's a cosmic test, one that gives us
a chance to join those who successfully crossed this burning
frontier-or the chance to be consigned to the scrap heap of
civilizations too shortsighted to take care of their own planet.<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1">More at:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/how-do-aliens-solve-climate-change/561479/">https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/how-do-aliens-solve-climate-change/561479/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[a very long conversation with an honored elder in the field]<br>
Forecast: podcast climate conversations with Michael White<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.blubrry.com/forecast/34388749/carl-wunsch-and-the-rise-of-modern-oceanography?sbe=1">Carl
Wunsch and the rise of modern oceanography (audio 1:50:30)</a></b><br>
Carl Wunsch is at the heart of many of the major advances in modern
physical oceanography. The World Ocean Circulation Experiment,
satellite altimetry, acoustic tomography, and Estimating the
Circulation and Climate of the Ocean: all are hard to imagine...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.blubrry.com/forecast/34388749/carl-wunsch-and-the-rise-of-modern-oceanography?sbe=1">https://www.blubrry.com/forecast/34388749/carl-wunsch-and-the-rise-of-modern-oceanography?sbe=1</a></font><br>
- - - - <br>
[free, classic pdf: The Charney Report ]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12181/carbon-dioxide-and-climate-a-scientific-assessment">Carbon
Dioxide and Climate:<br>
A Scientific Assessment (1979)</a></b><br>
Consensus Study Report<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12181/carbon-dioxide-and-climate-a-scientific-assessment">https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12181/carbon-dioxide-and-climate-a-scientific-assessment</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Study confirms common sense] <br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-44288982">Hotter years
'mean lower exam results'</a></b><br>
BBC News<br>
By Sean Coughlan BBC News education and family correspondent ...
also raise bigger questions about whether climate change and global
warming ...<br>
In years with hotter weather pupils are likely to perform less well
in exams, says a major study from researchers at Harvard and other
US universities.<br>
There is a "significant" link between higher temperatures and lower
school achievement, say economic researchers.<br>
An analysis of test scores of 10 million US secondary school
students over 13 years shows hot weather has a negative impact on
results.<br>
The study says a practical response could be to use more air
conditioning.<br>
<b>Heatwave</b><br>
Students taking exams in a summer heatwave might have always
complained that they were hampered by the sweltering weather.<br>
But this study, from academics at Harvard, the University of
California Los Angeles (UCLA) and Georgia State University, claims
to have produced the first clear evidence showing that when
temperatures go up, school performance goes down.<br>
Researchers have tracked how secondary school students performed in
tests in different years, between 2001 and 2014, across the
different climates and weather patterns within the US.<br>
The study, published by the US National Bureau of Economic Research,
found that students were more likely to have lower scores in years
with higher temperatures and better results in cooler years.<br>
This applied across the many different types of climate - whether in
cooler northern US states or in the southern states where
temperatures are typically much higher.<br>
The study, Heat and Learning, suggested that hotter weather made it
harder to study in lessons in school and to concentrate on homework
out of school.<br>
Researchers calculated that for every 0.55C increase in average
temperature over the year, there was a 1% fall in learning.<br>
Colder days did not seem to damage achievement - but the negative
impact began to be measurable as temperatures rose above 21C.<br>
The reduction in learning accelerated once temperatures rose above
32C and even more so above 38C.<br>
<b>Turning up the air conditioning</b><br>
The study also found the impact of the heat was much greater on low
income families and students from ethnic minorities.<br>
There were suggestions that wealthier families and schools in
disadvantaged areas were more likely to intervene if pupils were
slipping behind and to find ways to compensate, such as extra
tuition.<br>
But it says a "simpler explanation" might be greater access to air
conditioning in more affluent families and the schools their
children attend...<br>
- - - -<br>
If students happen to take important exams in a heatwave year, does
that mean they are more likely to miss out on exam results and
university places?<br>
Mr Goodman says that policymakers and parents have under-estimated
the significance of temperatures in schools and overheated
classrooms.<br>
"Teachers and students already know it's a problem - because they've
had to live it," he said.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-44288982">http://www.bbc.com/news/business-44288982</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[42C = 107.6F ] <br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://nation.com.pk/30-May-2018/city-wears-deserted-look">Karachi
wears deserted look amid fear of heatwave in Karachi</a></b><br>
KARACHI - Karachi wore quite a deserted look on Tuesday afternoon,
amidst heat warning issued by the Meteorological department coupled
with an advisory urging people to avoid unnecessary exposure to sun.<br>
With day time temperature reaching 42 degree celsius (107.6F),
humidity registered at 33% and wind blowing 27 Km per hour the
weather was comparatively bearable for those who had to leave cool
environs of home owing to their unavoidable obligations. "It is hot
but not as sizzling as experienced last week," said Ammara Jalil, a
banker.<br>
Thanking her luck that the day did not turn out to be extremely warm
as feared, Ammara said the weather forecast must, however, not be
taken lightly as there are little chances of much respite during
next few days.<br>
Mohammad Sikander, running his general provision shop at one of the
most frequented Empress Market talking to APP pointed out that
although most of the shops in the market as well as centres located
in the vicinity were open but there were not many buyers.<br>
"You cannot even see the window shoppers," he mentioned commenting
that people are taking the warnings quite seriously.<br>
"People are scared and are also getting increasingly conscious of
global warming," said senior environmentalist, Dr Tahir Qureishi.<br>
He said this was an opportunity for the state as well as all
stakeholders to take needed measures and meet the challenges related
to climate change.<br>
Emphasizing that interventions must be adopted without any delay, he
said short terms as well long term interventions are needed, he
said.<br>
As per weather alert issued by the Pakistan Meteorological
Department the maximum temperature was expected to remain between 40
and 44 degrees Celsius due to a change in the direction of the
cooler and humid sea breeze.<br>
The metropolis has been warned to experience hot to very hot weather
from Tuesday to Thursday after a brief relief during past two days.<br>
Provincial and city governments cognizant of the possible
implications of heat wave forecasted for the current week have
ensured availability of all required assistance for the people
reporting with heat stroke or heat injury at the emergency and
out-patient departments of the hospitals and medical centres falling
under their respective jurisdictions.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://nation.com.pk/30-May-2018/city-wears-deserted-look">https://nation.com.pk/30-May-2018/city-wears-deserted-look</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[12.5 million per year]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://sdg.iisd.org/news/wmo-who-unep-launch-coalition-on-health-environment-and-climate-change">WMO,
WHO, UNEP Launch Coalition on Health, Environment and Climate
Change </a></b><br>
25 May 2018: The World Health Organization (WHO), UN Environment
Programme (UNEP, or UN Environment) and World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) have launched a global coalition on health,
environment and climate change, which aims to improve coordination
and reduce the annual 12.6 million deaths caused by environmental
risks, especially air pollution.<br>
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, UN Environment
Executive Director Erik Solheim and WMO Secretary-General Petteri
Taalas launched the coalition during the 71st World Health Assembly
(WHA), which met from 21-26 May 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland.<br>
According to the WHO, approximately seven million people die
prematurely every year from air pollution-related diseases, such as
stroke, heart disease, respiratory illness and cancer. Air pollution
exceeds WHO air quality standards in the majority of cities. Air
pollutants, which also harm the environment and contribute to
climate change, include black carbon from diesel engines, cooking
stoves and waste incineration, and ground-level ozone. Emission
reductions of these short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) from
traffic, cookstoves, agriculture and industry could help reduce
global warming by about 0.5 degrees C by 2050...<br>
- - - -<br>
The coalition will help organize the<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://sdg.iisd.org/events/global-conference-on-air-pollution-and-health/">
Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health</a>, to take place
in Geneva from 30 October to 1 November 2018.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://sdg.iisd.org/news/wmo-who-unep-launch-coalition-on-health-environment-and-climate-change">http://sdg.iisd.org/news/wmo-who-unep-launch-coalition-on-health-environment-and-climate-change</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[humor cartoon]<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/DoomerParty2016/permalink/1839887662701369/">https://www.facebook.com/groups/DoomerParty2016/permalink/1839887662701369/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.mrlovenstein.com/">http://www.mrlovenstein.com/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.facebook.com/bernlennials/photos/a.741349402630646.1073741829.738694752896111/1621717114593866/?type=3&theater&ifg=1">https://www.facebook.com/bernlennials/photos/a.741349402630646.1073741829.738694752896111/1621717114593866/?type=3&theater&ifg=1</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2006/05/31/msnbcs-countdown-documented-the-swift-boating-o/135841">This
Day in Climate History - May 31, 2006</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
May 31, 2006: <br>
On MSNBC's "Countdown," fill-in host Brian Unger discusses the
all-out effort by the fossil-fuel industry and the American
conservative movement to attack Al Gore in the wake of the release
of "An Inconvenient Truth."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2006/05/31/msnbcs-countdown-documented-the-swift-boating-o/135841">http://mediamatters.org/video/2006/05/31/msnbcs-countdown-documented-the-swift-boating-o/135841</a><br>
Wall Street Journal columnist Holman W. Jenkins Jr. launches a
completely incoherent attack on "An Inconvenient Truth."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060602165558/http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/hjenkins/?id=110008450">http://web.archive.org/web/20060602165558/http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/hjenkins/?id=110008450</a><br>
<br>
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