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<font size="+1"><i>June 1, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[California fires]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://time.com/5296391/california-grant-fire-500-acres/">California
Wildfires Scorch 500 Acres Outside San Francisco Bay Area</a></b><br>
By Katie Reilly May 31, 2018<br>
A fire near Byron, California started to spread quickly on
Wednesday, growing to include seven wildfires across 500 acres,
authorities said.<br>
Firefighters from Contra Costa and Alameda counties were battling
flames about 60 miles east of San Francisco, on Wednesday, the
Alameda County Fire Department said. The first call came in
reporting two separate fires around 1 p.m. Pacific Time, CBS San
Francisco reported. But the number of wildfires quickly jumped to
seven, in part due to strong winds.<br>
Officials closed roads and shut down at least one school in the area
on Wednesday in response to what they've named the Grant Fire. And
by 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time, the California Department of Forestry and
Fire Protection said the wildfires were covering 500 acres.<br>
<font size="-1">More at: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://time.com/5296391/california-grant-fire-500-acres/">http://time.com/5296391/california-grant-fire-500-acres/</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[sharing blame]<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/power-lines-are-burning-the-west/561212/">Power
Lines Are Burning the West</a></b><br>
Human technology is responsible for more loss from fire than any
other cause. But reducing fire's impact will require changes to how
people live, not just to the infrastructure that lets them do so.<br>
A pole supporting electric wires goes up in flames in a wildfire.<br>
The Cocos Fire burns in San Marcos, California, in 2014. <br>
Mike Blake / Reuters, Kendra Atleework May 25, 2018 <br>
In October 2017, 250 square miles burned in Northern California, <a
href="https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Wine-Country-fire-damage-claims-rise-to-12410476.php"
data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'0',r'561212'">destroying</a>
6,000 homes and businesses and killing 44 people. For now, the cause
of these fires has not been determined. The private utility company
Pacific Gas and Electric, known to Californians as PG&E, is
under investigation. <a
href="https://kqed.org/news/11635263/insurance-claims-for-northern-california-wildfires-reach-9b"
data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'1',r'561212'">Total
damage</a> for the Northern California wildfires comes to $9
billion. PG&E has started <a
href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Fingers-point-at-PG-E-in-Wine-Country-fires-12762854.php"
data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'2',r'561212'">stockpiling
cash</a>.<br>
- - - -<br>
A power line <a
href="https://wildfiremitigation.tees.tamus.edu/faqs/how-power-lines-cause-wildfires"
data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'3',r'561212'">can
start a fire</a> if it breaks in the wind. It can start a fire
when a tree or a branch falls across it, or when lines slap
together, or when equipment gets old and fails without anyone
noticing. In 2015, fires started by electrical lines and equipment
burned more acres in California <a
href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-utility-wildfires-20171017-story.html"
data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'4',r'561212'">than
any other cause</a>. Power lines sparked fires that set records <a
href="https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2012/0530/Enormous-forest-fire-in-New-Mexico-sets-state-record-for-acres-burned"
data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'5',r'561212'">in New
Mexico</a> and fed a blaze in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
that <a
href="http://wildfiretoday.com/2017/06/13/nps-official-talks-about-the-wildfire-that-burned-into-gatlinburg/"
data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'6',r'561212'">entered</a>
the city of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and killed 14 people in 2016. In
recent years, they have <a
href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-utility-wildfires-20171017-story.html"
data-omni-click="r'article',r'',d,r'intext',r'7',r'561212'">consistently
been among</a> the three major causes of California wildfires.<br>
Hurricane-force winds periodically shriek off the Pacific and rattle
California. Wind strong enough to break a power line spreads fire
fast. This past October, when I sniffed the air and found that
California was once again burning, I looked around and saw many
wires thatching an orange sky. I was visiting my aunt in Northern
California, 50 miles from the fires. We sat inside and watched the
noon sun dim.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/power-lines-are-burning-the-west/561212/">https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/power-lines-are-burning-the-west/561212/</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[Wildfire Today]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://wildfiretoday.com/2018/05/29/strategic-withdrawal-on-the-horse-park-fire-in-colorado/">Strategic
withdrawal on the Horse Park Fire in Colorado</a></b><br>
The Bureau of Land Management has released a 24-Hour Preliminary
Report indicating that during initial attack on the Horse Park Fire
in southwest Colorado May 27, 2018 a command vehicle was abandoned
and is thought to be a total loss. The driver was turning around
when the vehicle got stuck. Due to the advancing fire, the driver
and passenger had to flee on foot. There were no reports of
injuries.<br>
In the second video below (at 0:06) you can hear a radio
conversation about losing a vehicle but the firefighters made it
out.<br>
In the three days since the Horse Park Fire started in Southwest
Colorado it has burned about 1,500 acres. It's not a huge fire yet
but at times has shown some pretty aggressive fire behavior for the
month of May in Colorado.<br>
In the two videos shot May 27 and posted by the Hotchkiss Fire
District you can see that in spite of the date on the calendar
firefighters were forced to make a strategic withdrawal when the
rapidly spreading fire started moving in their direction.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://wildfiretoday.com/2018/05/29/strategic-withdrawal-on-the-horse-park-fire-in-colorado/">http://wildfiretoday.com/2018/05/29/strategic-withdrawal-on-the-horse-park-fire-in-colorado/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Yale mentions 12 important books] <br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/05/books-and-reports-on-truthsquading/">Truthsquading:
Books and reports on the denial and obstruction of climate
science</a></b><br>
Yale Climate Connections<br>
NASA's leading climate expert, Dr. Hansen first broke the
international news on global warming at a Senate hearing in 1988.
Little did he expect the...<br>
Nearly forty years ago, when their own scientists confirmed what
government and university researchers were learning about the likely
consequences of the rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere, fossil fuel
companies like Exxon and Shell faced a choice: change their business
models or challenge the science that threatened those models. The
oil companies chose the latter option. And over the next several
decades, through a variety of means and front organizations, they
successfully blocked action on climate change by manufacturing doubt
about climate science.<br>
Below Yale Climate Connections presents a chronological listing of
twelve books that reported on different aspects of this concerted
effort to deny and obstruct climate science and policy-making. Also
highlighted are three reports that offer tips for debunking
climate-dismissive arguments.<br>
As with previous YCC bookshelves, the descriptions are drawn from
publishers' catalogue copy. When two dates of publication are
provided, the second marks the release of the paperback.<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/ross-gelbspan/boiling-point/9780465027620/"><br>
Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists,
and Activists Have Fueled the Climate Crisis - and What We Can
Do to Avert Disaster</a></b>, by Ross Gelbspan (Basic Books
2004/2005, 288 pages, $17.99)<br>
<blockquote>In Boiling Point, Ross Gelbspan argues that the fossil
fuel industry directed the Bush administration's energy and
climate policies - payback for helping Bush get elected. Then the
coal industry sabotaged an effort in the Senate to begin to
regulate carbon dioxide. Officials of Switzerland, France, and
Canada said that they intend to take the United States to court
under the World Trade Organization, reasoning that the U.S.'s
refusal to lower their carbon emissions amounts to an illegal
subsidy - a "carbon subsidy" - on its exports. With the reelection
of George W. Bush and a Republican-controlled congress, Boiling
Point is more imperative than ever. [Substitute "Trump" for
"Bush," and what was old is new again.]<b><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/300802/censoring-science-by-mark-bowen/9780452289628/"><br>
</a></b></blockquote>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/300802/censoring-science-by-mark-bowen/9780452289628/">Censoring
Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the
Truth of Global Warming</a></b>, by Mark Bowen (Dutton 2008, 336
pages, $16.00 paperback)<br>
<blockquote>NASA's leading climate expert, Dr. Hansen first broke
the international news on global warming at a Senate hearing in
1988. Little did he expect the rising storm of politically
motivated resistance, denial, and obstruction. Revealing the
extent of the Bush administration's censorship of Dr. Hansen's
findings, Censoring Science sets the record straight with solid
scientific facts: for example, the hottest years on record have
occurred in the last two decades, and ice is melting at record
rates all around the planet. Dr. Hansen shows how we can still
prevent environmental disaster if the country and the government
are willing to face the truth about global warming.<br>
A look at 12 leading books and reports spotlighting long-term and
ongoing efforts to create unwarranted uncertainty about #climate
#science.<br>
Click To Tweet<br>
</blockquote>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.routledge.com/Environmental-Skepticism-Ecology-Power-and-Public-Life/Jacques/p/book/9780754671022">Environmental
Skepticism: Ecology, Power and Public Life</a></b>, by Peter J.
Jacques (Routledge 2009, 234 pages, $160.00)<br>
<blockquote>'Environmental skepticism' describes the viewpoint that
major environmental problems are either unreal or unimportant. In
this book, political scientist Peter Jacques describes, both
empirically and historically, how environmental skepticism has
been organized by mostly U.S.-based conservative think tanks as an
anti-environmental counter-movement. This is the first book to
analyze the importance of the U.S. conservative counter-movement
in world politics and its meaning for democratic and accountable
deliberation, as well as its importance as a mal-adaptive project
that hinders the world's people to rise to the challenges of
sustainability.<br>
</blockquote>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300171280/lomborg-deception">The
Lomborg Deception: Setting the Record Straight about Global
Warming</a></b>, by Howard Friel (Yale University Press
2010/2011, 258 pages, $20.00 paperback)<br>
<blockquote>In this major assessment of leading climate-change
skeptic Bjorn Lomborg [ The Skeptical Environmentalist (2001);
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming
(2007) ], Howard Friel meticulously deconstructs the Danish
statistician's claim that global warming is "no catastrophe" by
exposing the systematic misrepresentations that are at the core of
climate skepticism. His detailed analysis serves not only as a
guide to reading the global warming skeptics, but also as a model
for assessing the state of climate science, from Arctic sea ice to
the Antarctic ice sheet. Friel's able defense of Al Gore's An
Inconvenient Truth against Lomborg's repeated attacks is by itself
worth an attentive reading.<br>
</blockquote>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/merchants-of-doubt-9781608193943/">Merchants
of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on
Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming</a></b>, by Naomi
Oreskes and Erik M Conway (Bloomsbury Press 2010/2011, 355 pages,
$18.00 paperback)<br>
<blockquote>Now a powerful documentary from the acclaimed director
of Food Inc., Merchants of Doubt was one of the most talked-about
climate change books of recent years, for reasons easy to
understand: It tells the controversial story of how a loose-knit
group of high-level scientists and scientific advisers, with deep
connections in politics and industry, ran effective campaigns to
mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge
over four decades. The same individuals who claim the science of
global warming is "not settled" have also denied the truth about
studies linking smoking to lung cancer, coal smoke to acid rain,
and CFCs to the ozone hole. "Doubt is our product," wrote one
tobacco executive. These "experts" supplied it.<br>
</blockquote>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://islandpress.org/book/straight-up">Straight Up:
America's Fiercest Climate Blogger Takes on the Status Quo
Media, Politicians, and Clean Energy Solutions</a></b>, by
Joseph Romm (Island Press 2010, 233 pages, paperback)<br>
<blockquote>In 2009, Rolling Stone named Joe Romm to its list of
"100 People Who Are Changing America." Romm is a physicist, energy
consultant, and former official in the Department of Energy. But
it's his influential blog that caught national attention. Straight
Up draws on Romm's most important posts to explain the dangers of
and solutions to climate change that you won't find in the
main-stream media. Despite the dearth of reporting, polls show
that two in five Americans think the press is actually
exaggerating the threat of climate change. That gives Big Oil, and
others with a vested interest in the status quo, a huge
opportunity to mislead the public. Romm cuts through the
misinformation and presents the truth about humanity's most dire
threat. [See also Romm's Hell and High Water (2007), Language
Intelligence (2012), and Climate Change (2016).]<br>
</blockquote>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-inquisition-of-climate-science/9780231157193">The
Inquisition of Climate Science</a></b>, by James Lawrence Powell
(Columbia University Press 2011/2012, 272 pages, $25.00 paperback)<br>
<blockquote>The Inquisition of Climate Science is the first book to
comprehensively take on the climate science denial movement and
the deniers themselves, exposing their lack of credentials, their
extensive industry funding, and their failure to provide any
alternative theory to explain the observed evidence of warming.
Geochemist James Lawrence Powell shows that the deniers use a wide
variety of deceptive rhetorical techniques, many stretching back
to ancient Greece. Carefully researched, fully referenced, and
compellingly written, his book clearly reveals that the evidence
of global warming is real and that an industry of denial has
deceived the American public, putting them and their grandchildren
at risk.<br>
</blockquote>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.routledge.com/Climate-Change-Denial-Heads-in-the-Sand/Washington-Cook/p/book/9781849713368">Climate
Change Denial: Heads in the Sand</a></b>, by Haydn Washington
and John Cook (Earthscan 2011, 192 pages, $31.95 paperback)<br>
<blockquote>Humans have always used denial. When we are afraid,
guilty, confused, or when something interferes with our
self-image, we tend to deny it. But when it impacts the health of
oneself, or society, or the world, denial becomes a pathology.
Climate Change Denial explains the social science behind denial.
It contains a detailed examination of the principal climate change
denial arguments, from attacks on the integrity of scientists, to
impossible expectations of proof and certainty, to the cherry
picking of data. Climate change can be solved - but only when we
cease to deny that it exists. This book shows how we can break
through denial, accept reality, and thus solve the climate crisis.
It will assist anyone seeking to roll back denial and act.<br>
</blockquote>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-hockey-stick-and-the-climate-wars/9780231152549">The
Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front
Lines</a></b>, by Michael E. Mann (Columbia University Press
2012/2013, 395 pages, $19.95)<br>
<blockquote>The Hockey Stick - a graph correlating global
temperatures with the use of fossil fuels - achieved prominence in
a 2001 UN report and quickly became a central icon in the "climate
wars." The real issue has never been the graph's data but rather
its implied threat to those who oppose governmental regulation and
other restraints to protect the environment and planet. Mann, lead
author of the original Hockey Stick paper, shares the story of the
science and politics behind this controversy. He reveals key
figures in the oil and energy industries - and in the media
frontgroups who do their bidding, sometimes bare-knuckled ways.
Mann concludes with the real story of the 2009 "Climategate"
scandal, in which climate scientists' e-mails were hacked.<br>
</blockquote>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A4372C">Climatology
versus Pseudoscience: Exposing the Failed Predictions of Global
Warming Skeptics</a></b>, by Dana Nuccitelli (Praeger Books
2015, 212 pages, $48.00)<br>
<blockquote>This book is the first to illustrate the accuracy - and
inaccuracy - of global warming predictions made by mainstream
climate scientists and by climate contrarians. Writing in simple,
non-technical language that provides accessible explanations of
key concepts, Dana Nuccitelli, an environmental scientist and risk
assessor, discusses some key climate discoveries dating back to
the 19th century and debunks myths such as the idea that climate
scientists and climate models have grossly over-predicted global
warming. He addresses recent findings of a 97-percent consensus in
the peer-reviewed scientific literature that humans are causing
global warming - a nearly unanimous agreement that formed in the
early 1990s and has grown through the present.<br>
</blockquote>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-madhouse-effect/9780231177863">The
Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our
Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy</a></b>,
by Michael E. Mann and Tom Toles (Columbia University Press
2016/2018, 208 pages, $18.95 paperback)<br>
<blockquote>Award-winning climate scientist Michael E. Mann and
Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Tom Toles have been on
the front lines of the fight against climate denialism for most of
their careers. The Madhouse Effect portrays the ways denialists
twist logic to explain away the clear evidence that human activity
has changed Earth's climate. Toles's cartoons collapse
counter-scientific strategies, helping readers see how to best
strike at these fallacies. Mann's skillful science communication
restores sanity to a debate that continues to rage against
scientific consensus. The synergy of these two climate science
crusaders enlivens the gloom and doom of so many climate-themed
books - and may even convert die-hard doubters to the side of
sound science.<br>
</blockquote>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.claritypress.com/Carter.html">Unprecedented
Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival</a></b>,
by Dr. Peter Carter and Elizabeth Woodworth (Clarity Press 2018, 269
pages, $27.95 paperback)<br>
<blockquote>Unprecedented Crime lays out the culpability of
governmental, political and religious bodies, corporations, and
the media for their failure to report or act on the climate
emergency. Extreme weather reporting never even hints at the need
to address climate change. Carter and Woodworth then report how,
independently of governments, scores of proven zero-carbon game
changers have been coming online all over the world. These
exciting technologies can now power both households and
energy-dense, heavy industries. We already have the technical
solutions to the CO2 problem, and with these solutions we can act
in time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to near-zero within 20
years. This book will show readers how to overcome climate denial.<br>
</blockquote>
<b>Three Reports from Skeptical Science</b><br>
<blockquote>A pivotal figure in the effort to counter global warming
skepticism is John Cook, who started the Skeptical Science website
in 2007, while still a student at the University of Queensland in
Australia. Since then Cook has (co)authored reports to alert
readers to the manufactured arguments they're likely to encounter
when discussing climate change in public. Two - <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.skepticalscience.com/The-Scientific-Guide-to-Global-Warming-Skepticism.html">The
Scientific Guide to Global Warming Skepticsm</a> (2010) and <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.skepticalscience.com/Debunking-Handbook-now-freely-available-download.html">The
Debunking Handbook</a> (2011) - can be downloaded from the
Skeptical Science website. The third, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.climatechangecommunication.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Consensus_Handbook-1.pdf">The
Consensus Handbook</a> (2018), is available from the Center for
Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, where
John Cook now works as a research assistant professor.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/05/books-and-reports-on-truthsquading/">https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/05/books-and-reports-on-truthsquading/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Fiction]<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/margaret-atwood-women-will-bear-brunt-of-dystopian-climate-future">Margaret
Atwood: women will bear brunt of dystopian climate future</a></b><br>
Booker prize-winning author predicts climate reality will not be far
from scenarios imagined in her post-apocalyptic fiction<br>
Climate change will bring a dystopian future reminiscent of one of
her "speculative fictions", with women bearing the brunt of brutal
repression, hunger and war, the Booker prize-winning author Margaret
Atwood is to warn.<br>
"This isn't climate change - it's everything change," she will tell
an audience at the British Library this week. "Women will be
directly and adversely affected by climate change."<br>
The author, whose landmark novel The Handmaid's Tale has been turned
into an acclaimed TV series depicting a dystopian future in which
women are deprived of all rights and turned into breeding machines
for men, predicts conflict, hardship and an increasing struggle for
survival for women as climate change takes hold.<br>
"More extreme weather events such as droughts and floods, rising sea
levels that will destroy arable land, and disruption of marine life
will all result in less food," she explained before the event. "Less
food will mean that women and children get less, as the remaining
food supplies will be unevenly distributed, even more than they
are."...<br>
<font size="-1">More at:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/margaret-atwood-women-will-bear-brunt-of-dystopian-climate-future">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/margaret-atwood-women-will-bear-brunt-of-dystopian-climate-future</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[hot spots hotter]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/06/02/climate-change-is-making-the-arab-world-more-miserable">Climate
change is making the Arab world more miserable</a></b><br>
Expect longer droughts, hotter heatwaves and more frequent dust
storms<br>
Apathy towards climate change is common across the Middle East and
north Africa, even as the problems associated with it get worse.
Longer droughts, hotter heatwaves and more frequent dust storms will
occur from Rabat to Tehran, according to Germany's Max Planck
Institute for Chemistry. Already-long dry seasons are growing longer
and drier, withering crops. Heat spikes are a growing problem too,
with countries regularly notching lethal summer temperatures.
Stretch such trends out a few years and they seem frightening - a
few decades and they seem apocalyptic.<br>
The institute forecasts that summer temperatures in the Middle East
and north Africa will rise over twice as fast as the global average.
Extreme temperatures of 46 degrees C (115 degrees F) or more will be
about five times more likely by 2050 than they were at the beginning
of the century, when similar peaks were reached, on average, 16 days
per year. By 2100 "wet-bulb temperatures" - a measure of humidity
and heat - could rise so high in the Gulf as to make it all but
uninhabitable, according to a study in Nature (though its most
catastrophic predictions are based on the assumption that emissions
are not abated).<br>
<b>Dry and discontented</b><br>
Water presents another problem. The Middle East and north Africa
have little of it to begin with, and rainfall is expected to decline
because of climate change. In some areas, such as the Moroccan
highlands, it could drop by up to 40%. (Climate change might bring
extra rain to coastal countries, such as Yemen, but that will
probably be offset by higher evaporation.) Farmers struggling to
nourish thirsty crops are digging more wells, draining centuries-old
aquifers. A study using NASA satellites found that the Tigris and
Euphrates basins lost 144 cubic kilometres (about the volume of the
Dead Sea) of fresh water from 2003 to 2010. Most of this reduction
was caused by the pumping of groundwater to make up for reduced
rainfall.<br>
Climate change is making the region even more volatile politically.
When eastern Syria was ravaged by drought from 2007 to 2010, 1.5m
people fled to cities, where many struggled. In Iran, a cycle of
extreme droughts since the 1990s caused thousands of frustrated
farmers to abandon the countryside. Exactly how much these events
fuelled the war that broke out in Syria in 2011 and recent unrest in
Iran is a topic of considerable debate. They have certainly added to
the grievances that many in both countries feel.<br>
The mere prospect of shortages can lead to conflicts, as states race
to secure water supplies at the expense of downstream neighbours.
When Ethiopia started building an enormous dam on the Nile,
potentially limiting the flow, Egypt, which relies on the river for
nearly all of its water, threatened war. Turkish and Iranian dams
along the Tigris, Euphrates and other rivers have raised similar ire
in Iraq, which is beset by droughts.<br>
- - - - <br>
Politics often gets in the way of problem-solving. Countries are
rarely able to agree on how to share rivers and aquifers. In Gaza,
where the seepage of saltwater and sewage into an overused aquifer
raises the risk of disease, a blockade by Israel and Egypt has made
it harder to build and run desalination plants. In Lebanon there is
little hope that the government, divided along sectarian lines, will
do anything to forestall the decline in the water supply predicted
by the environment ministry. Countries such as Iraq and Syria, where
war has devastated infrastructure, will struggle to prepare for a
hotter, drier future.<br>
- - - - <br>
"But now I think the most important argument is the economic one."<br>
States in the Middle East and north Africa can do little on their
own to mitigate climate change. Inevitably, though, they will need
to adapt. So far depressingly little has been done. "Sometimes I
feel like I'm on a treadmill," says Mr Musa.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/06/02/climate-change-is-making-the-arab-world-more-miserable">https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/06/02/climate-change-is-making-the-arab-world-more-miserable</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Paleo-Climatology Outlier Studies]<br>
Catastrophism<br>
An Overview from Dr. Martin Sweatman<br>
April 22, 2018<br>
<b>Exploring abrupt climate change induced by comets and asteroids
during human history</b><br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://cosmictusk.com/hancock-comet-research-group/">The
Younger Dryas Impact research since 2007 </a></b><br>
The epoch which geologists call the Younger Dryas (after a species
of Alpine flower that flourishes in cold conditions) has long been
recognized as mysterious and tumultuous. When it began 12,800 years
ago the earth had been emerging from the Ice Age for roughly 10,000
years, global temperatures were rising steadily and the ice caps
were melting. Then there was a sudden dramatic return to colder
conditions - nearly as cold as at the peak of the Ice Age 21,000
years ago. This short, sharp deep freeze lasted for 1,200 years
until 11,600 years ago when the warming trend resumed with
incredible rapidity, global temperatures shot up again and the
remaining ice caps quite quickly melted away, dumping all the water
they contained into the oceans and raising sea level significantly
all around the world.<br>
- - - - <br>
Looking at the data, the implications of this new research were
immediately obvious to me. What it offered, if it checked out, was
an elegant and potentially revolutionary explanation both for the
sudden onset of the Younger Dryas itself and for the accompanying
extinctions, and perhaps for much else besides - including the
cataclysmic flooding that left its scars on the channeled scablands
of Washington State.<br>
<br>
This seemed all the more plausible when I learned that Firestone,
Kennett and West's proposal for their comet was that it was a
conglomeration of impactors including one that might have been as
much as 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) in diameter. Furthermore, that
four-kilometer object would itself have been just one amongst
multiple fragments resulting from the earlier disintegration - while
still in orbit - of a giant comet up to 100 kilometers or more in
diameter. Many of the fragments of the parent comet remained in
orbit. Those that hit the earth at the onset of the Younger Dryas
underwent further explosive fragmentation (accompanied by powerful
airbursts that would themselves have had cataclysmic effects), as
they entered the atmosphere over Canada.<br>
<br>
Nonetheless, the authors thought it likely that a number of large
impactors, up to two kilometers in diameter, would have remained
intact to collide with the ice-cap. There, as West had earlier told
New Scientist, any craters would have been transient, leaving few
permanent traces on the ground after the ice had melted. "Lasting
evidence," the PNAS paper added, "may have been limited to enigmatic
depressions or disturbances in the Canadian Shield, e.g. under the
Great Lakes, or Hudson Bay."...<br>
- - - - -<br>
Younger Dryas (YD) mystery. At 12,800 years ago there was a sudden
plunge in global temperatures as measured in the Greenland ice
cores. Then 11,600 years ago there was an equally steep rise in
global temperatures bringing an abrupt end both to the Younger Dryas
interlude and to the Ice Age<br>
<br>
There are several distinct and compelling curiosities about the
terminal Younger Dryas event and the global warming and flooding
that accompanied it.<br>
<br>
First, just as was the case 12,800 years ago, and as noted above,
the date of 11,600 years ago coincides with an immense episode of
global flooding - nominated by geologists as Meltwater Pulse 1B - as
the remnant ice caps in North America and northern Europe collapsed
simultaneously amidst worldwide global warming. The late Cesare
Emiliani, Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the
University of Miami, carried out isotopic analysis of deep-sea
sediments that produced hard evidence of cataclysmic global flooding
"between 12,000 and 11,000 years ago".<br>
<br>
Secondly, and rather strikingly, The Greek lawmaker Solon visited
Egypt around the year 600 BC and there he was told a very remarkable
story by the priests at the Temple of Sais in the Nile Delta - a
story that was eventually handed down to his more famous descendant
Plato, who in due course shared it with the world in his Dialogues
of Timaeus and Critias.<br>
<br>
It is, of course, the story of the great lost civilization of
Atlantis swallowed up by flood and earthquake in a single terrible
day and night nine thousand years before Solon's visit to Egypt - in
other words in 9,600 BC, or 11,600 years before the present. Since
that date (give or take a margin of error of a few decades)
coincides with Meltwater Pulse 1B and is accepted by geologists as
the "official" end of the last Ice Age - the end of the
"Pleistocene" epoch and the beginning of our current epoch, the
"Holocene" - it is intriguing, to say the least, that it coincides
so precisely with the date that Plato gives us for the destruction,
and submergence beneath the sea, of the lost civilization of
Atlantis...<br>
- - - - <br>
Professor Robert Schoch of Boston University prefers the date of
9700 BC - 11,700 years ago - for the sudden warming and flooding at
the end of the Younger Dryas but agrees that this event was
extremely abrupt. Indeed: "given our inability to resolve the finest
details of something that happened so long ago, it may literally
have happened overnight…"<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://cosmictusk.com/hancock-comet-research-group/">https://cosmictusk.com/hancock-comet-research-group/</a><br>
- - - -<br>
[And...]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="We%20have%20included%20publications%20in%20support%20of%20our%20central%20hypothesis,%20as%20well%20as%20publications%20in%20disagreement.">Publications
about the Younger Dryas Impact Event</a></b><br>
The selected references below present evidence (both pro and con)
about the Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) impact event 12,800 years
ago, about impact-related population changes, and/or about climate
change at the beginning of the Younger Dryas episode.<br>
We have included publications in support of our central hypothesis,
as well as publications in disagreement.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://cometresearchgroup.org/publications/">https://cometresearchgroup.org/publications/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/31/AR2007053101173.html?sub=AR">This
Day in Climate History - June 1, 2007</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
June 1, 2007: <br>
<blockquote>NASA scientist James Hansen calls out NASA Administrator
Michael Griffin for his assertion in a May 31, 2007 NPR interview
that climate change isn't that big of a deal: "It was a shocking
statement because of the level of ignorance it indicated with
regard to the current situation. He seemed unaware that 170
nations agreed that climate change is a serious problem with
enormous repercussions, and that many people will suffer if it is
not addressed." Jerry Mahlman of the National Center for
Atmospheric Research also calls out Griffin.<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/31/AR2007053101173.html?sub=AR">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/31/AR2007053101173.html?sub=AR</a></font>
<br>
<br>
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