<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<font size="+1"><i>July 14, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[fire storms]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://grist.org/article/weve-entered-the-era-of-fire-tsunamis/">We've
entered the era of 'fire tsunamis'</a></b><br>
By Eric Holthaus - on Jul 5, 2018<br>
Life in the Rocky Mountains is frequently extreme as blizzards,
baking sun, and fires alternate with the seasons. But fire tsunamis?
Those aren't normal.<br>
On Thursday, one observer described a "tsunami" of flames overnight
at the Spring Creek fire near La Veta in the south-central part of
the state. And you can't stop tsunamis.<br>
"It was a perfect firestorm," Ben Brack, incident commander for the
Spring Creek fire, told the Denver Post. "You can imagine standing
in front of a tsunami or tornado and trying to stop it from
destroying homes. A human response is ineffective."<br>
Pyrocumulus clouds, a sure indicator of intense heat release from
wildfire, were clearly visible from 100 miles away. The fire is just
five percent contained and covers more than 100,000 acres - larger
than the city limits of Denver - making it the third-largest
wildfire in state history..<br>
- - - - - - - - -<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.denverpost.com/2018/07/05/spring-creek-wildfire-update-thursday/">Spring
Creek fire "tsunami" sweeps over subdivision, raising home toll
to 251</a></b><br>
The thermodynamics of this historic wildfire demand unusual tactics
by firefighters<br>
<blockquote>A 300-foot-high tsunami of wildfire swept over a
subdivision overnight turning an untold number of homes into
cinders and making unprecedented acreage gains in the middle of
the night when wildfires are normally docile, authorities say.<br>
"It was a perfect fire storm. This is a national disaster at this
time," said Ben Brack, fire spokesman of the racing Spring Creek
fire now burning in three southern Colorado counties. "You can
imagine standing in front of a tsunami or tornado and trying to
stop it from destroying homes. A human response is ineffective."<br>
With wind gusts of 35 mph, the fast-moving blaze defied
measurement..Officially, the fire swept over an additional 15,000
to 20,000 acres at night, when wildfires normally lay down as
temperatures drop.<br>
"We're seeing unprecedented fire behavior that pushed this fire
through the night. Because the fire has been moving so fast we
don't know exactly know how big it has become," <br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.denverpost.com/2018/07/05/spring-creek-wildfire-update-thursday/">https://www.denverpost.com/2018/07/05/spring-creek-wildfire-update-thursday/</a></font><br>
- - - - - - - - - -<br>
Pyrocumulus clouds, a sure indicator of intense heat release from
wildfire, were<a
href="https://twitter.com/caseyrbristow/status/1014738544173174784">
clearly visible from 100 miles away</a>. <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/caseyrbristow/status/1014738544173174784">https://twitter.com/caseyrbristow/status/1014738544173174784</a><br>
The official term for the hellish meteorological event that hit La
Veta is a "firestorm," a self-propelling explosion of flame
generated by strong and gusty winds from a particularly intense fire
over extremely dry terrain. When a fire gets hot enough, it can
generate its own weather conditions and wind speeds can approach
hurricane force, drying out the surrounding land. In just a few
hours on Wednesday night, the Spring Creek fire swelled by nearly
20,000 acres, with airborne sparks igniting new fires nearly one
mile downwind.<br>
Months of unusually dry and warm weather have combined to push
Colorado's fire risk to "historic levels," leading the state to
close millions of acres of public lands. Two-thirds of the state is
in drought. It's part of a pattern of intense fire danger currently
plaguing most of the western United States, which is unlikely to
fade anytime soon.,,<br>
- - - - -<br>
Over the past two decades, more than 800 million of Colorado's trees
have been consumed by bugs - a phenomenon more common worldwide as
warmer temperatures are helping plant-eating pests flourish in
previously cool places. To top it off, this past winter was one of
the warmest and driest ever recorded, "the stuff of nightmares,"
according to local experts. Rivers are running at about half their
normal levels, and the summer monsoon rains still haven't arrived.<br>
It's clear that the state's steady and transformative slide into a
drier future has already begun. This week's firestorm is terrifying
proof.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://grist.org/article/weve-entered-the-era-of-fire-tsunamis/">https://grist.org/article/weve-entered-the-era-of-fire-tsunamis/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Straw man from Grist]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://grist.org/article/is-seattles-straw-ban-a-green-gateway-drug-or-just-peak-slactivism/">Is
Seattle's straw ban a green gateway drug or just peak
slactivism?</a></b><br>
By Shannon Osaka - on Jul 5, 2018<br>
But we have to ask - under the threat of severe climate change,
extreme weather, ocean acidification, and all the other plastic
pollution in our waters, why has America become obsessed with
something as small as plastic straws?<br>
"I think it's a way for people to feel that they have some agency
over the problem of ocean plastics," says Kara Lavender Law,
researcher and professor at the Sea Education Association. "These
are things that we have easy alternatives for.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://grist.org/article/is-seattles-straw-ban-a-green-gateway-drug-or-just-peak-slactivism/">https://grist.org/article/is-seattles-straw-ban-a-green-gateway-drug-or-just-peak-slactivism/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
["something beyond hope"]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/07/12/un-security-council-considers-cycle-conflict-climate-disaster/">UN
security council considers 'cycle of conflict and climate
disaster'</a></b><br>
Published on 12/07/2018, 2:19pm<br>
Sweden chaired the influential body's first session focusing on
climate change in seven years, calling for international
coordination to address the risks..<br>
- - - -<br>
The relationship between environmental pressures and conflict is
complex and disputed. Climate change is typically described as a
"threat multiplier," rather than a primary cause of war. Weather
extremes can hit the availability of water, food and other
essentials, stoking tensions between rival groups...<br>
- - - -<br>
The security council is expected to put out a presidential statement
in the coming days on next steps.<br>
Camilla Born, an advisor to the Swedish government, told Climate
Home News the signal for action was stronger than last time it was
discussed at this forum.<br>
"Previously, you had the recognition that you needed climate-related
information in reporting, but it was quite a soft recommendation,"
said Born. "The difference between now and 2011 is you can now see
climate change reshaping the security landscape. Every
representative of a more fragile or vulnerable country was speaking
about their personal experience."<br>
There was "a lot of alignment between countries about what was
needed," she added. That included the bureaucratic work of gathering
and analysing data as well as mobilising political leadership.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/07/12/un-security-council-considers-cycle-conflict-climate-disaster/">http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/07/12/un-security-council-considers-cycle-conflict-climate-disaster/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Japan lesson]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://theoutline.com/post/5344/climate-change-is-catching-places-off-guard-and-driving-death-counts?zd=1&zi=y5hwin2a">Soon
every weather event could become a state of emergency</a></b><br>
An unprecedented two-week rain storm devastated Japan and killed
almost 200 people. Climate change is part of the reason that the
region was so unprepared.<br>
<b>We've never experienced this kind of rain before.</b><br>
-Unnamed Japanese weather official speaking to the BBC.<br>
In Japan, what started as a downpour on June 28 refused to relent,
dug in its heels, and kept dumping rain on southern Japan for more
than two weeks, and at least 176 people lost their lives. A blanket
of water 847 million cubic feet in scale flooded the region,
destroying almost 2,000 homes. The worst-hit regions were struck
with about 70 inches of rain-almost six feet. Then, on July 9, just
as the rain stopped, a barrage of simultaneous landslides devastated
thousands of square miles in Western Japan, causing over 100 of the
176 deaths.<br>
<br>
The flooding in Japan is a tragic example of what happens when
climate change raises the threat of dangerous but (at least at the
time of onset) sub-emergency weather, like torrential rain, in
regions that aren't used to experiencing comparable events like
typhoons or hurricanes. The country had no reason to expect that the
event would be so extreme, and as a result, it didn't have the
emergency response mechanisms in place to properly deal with the
issue. As climate change makes weather more unpredictable,
particularly when weather forecasting relies on relatively calm
historical information, the potential for unexpected consequences is
much higher....<br>
- - - - <br>
Japan's Meteorological Agency has a budget of $57.8 billion, so it's
not that it's underfunded and drawing up poor predictions. But
meteorology works by considering weather in the past. When there's
little to no precedent for an event, there's not as much of a reason
to expect it in the present. Disaster preparedness works the same
way: governments figure out how to respond to an issue based off of
which responses worked and didn't work in the past. So what do they
do when they're faced with an event of quite literally unprecedented
scale?...<br>
- - - -<br>
Climate change is dangerous largely because it has the capacity to
unearth the corruption, inefficiencies, and inadequacies in
governments. When there's a climate change-driven disaster, all of
these vulnerabilities come to light. However, it's just as scary to
consider that high death tolls aren't always driven by corruption.
What was true in the past simply isn't true for the present, and it
won't be true for the future. Even for competent scientists and
leaders, that's an incredibly difficult challenge to face.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://theoutline.com/post/5344/climate-change-is-catching-places-off-guard-and-driving-death-counts?zd=1&zi=y5hwin2a">https://theoutline.com/post/5344/climate-change-is-catching-places-off-guard-and-driving-death-counts?zd=1&zi=y5hwin2a</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[passive propaganda or clueless]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/07/12/Major-broadcast-TV-networks-mentioned-climate-change-just-once-during-two-weeks-of-heat-wa/220651">Major
broadcast TV networks mentioned climate change just once during
two weeks of heat-wave coverage</a></b><br>
ABC, CBS, and NBC aired 127 segments on the recent heat wave and
only one noted that climate change is a driver of extreme heat<br>
Throughout the recent record-breaking heat wave that affected
millions across the United States, major broadcast TV networks
overwhelmingly failed to report on the links between climate change
and extreme heat. Over a two-week period from late June to early
July, ABC, CBS, and NBC aired a combined 127 segments or
weathercasts that discussed the heat wave, but only one segment, on
CBS This Morning, mentioned climate change.<br>
<b>The recent heat wave was record-breaking and deadly</b><br>
From the last week of June into the second week of July, an intense
heat wave moved across the U.S., going from the eastern and central
parts of the country to the West Coast. A large area of high
atmospheric pressure helped to create a massive and powerful heat
dome, which migrated from New England to southern California. The
heat wave brought record-breaking temperatures -- during its first
week, 227 U.S. records were broken for highest temperature for
particular days, and during the second week, at least six locations
in southern California alone saw record-breaking highs. The heat
wave killed at least five people in the U.S. and up to 70 people in
Quebec, Canada.<br>
<b>Climate change is exacerbating both the frequency and intensity
of heat waves</b><br>
There is overwhelming scientific evidence that human-induced climate
change is exacerbating both the frequency and intensity of heat
waves. Heat domes like the one that caused this recent heat wave are
becoming more intense and more common, scientists have found. UCLA
climate scientist Daniel Swain, who has studied extreme weather
patterns in California, said recent heat in California was unusual.
"The overall trend over decades to more intense and more frequent
heat waves is definitely a signal of global warming," he told The
New York Times. And according to Jeff Masters, director of
meteorology for Weather Underground, this recent heat wave was "the
kind of thing you expect to see on a warming planet," making it
"easier to set a heat record."...<br>
- - - - <br>
CBS aired one segment that discussed the connection between climate
change and high heat. Out of 36 CBS segments that mentioned the heat
wave, just one mentioned climate change. The July 3 episode of CBS
This Morning featured a discussion with Lonnie Quinn, chief
weathercaster for WCBS-TV in New York City, who stated that there is
a "really good, strong understanding that there's a correlation
between climate change and extreme hot and extreme cold" and noted
the significant increase since 1970 in the number of days above 100
degrees in Miami, FL, and Austin, TX. ...<br>
- - - -<br>
But there are positive trends in broadcast coverage. PBS continues
to set the standard for quality news coverage of climate change, as
it has in the past. And local meteorologists are increasingly
incorporating discussions of climate change into their segments and
forecasts. For example, on July 4 in Kansas City -- where there were
two suspected heat-related deaths -- NBC affiliate KSHB discussed
that climate change is expected to increase the number of extremely
hot days in the future, using a dynamic map from climate science
nonprofit Climate Central to make the point.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/07/12/Major-broadcast-TV-networks-mentioned-climate-change-just-once-during-two-weeks-of-heat-wa/220651">https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/07/12/Major-broadcast-TV-networks-mentioned-climate-change-just-once-during-two-weeks-of-heat-wa/220651</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[We all knew, they have no clue]<br>
<b><a
href="https://earther.com/americans-increasingly-aware-of-climate-change-media-c-1827555165">Americans
Increasingly Aware of Climate Change, Media Clueless</a></b><br>
Paola Rosa-Aquino<br>
Climate change-it's happening. Americans' awareness of this fact is
at an all time high, according to a new survey. Maybe someone should
tell mainstream news channels.<br>
Despite a recent spate of record-smashing heat waves across the
United States, very few major broadcast TV networks used the
opportunity to discuss linkages between extreme heat and climate
change. That's according to a recent analysis by Media Matters,
which found that while 127 TV news segments from ABC, CBS, and NBC
talked about the heat wave from June 27 through July 10, only
one-the July 3rd episode of CBS This Morning-mentioned climate
change. In it, CBS weathercaster Lonnie Quinn said there is a
"really good, strong understanding that there's a correlation
between climate change and extreme hot and extreme cold."<br>
Indeed, there's strong scientific evidence that climate change is
already influencing the frequency and intensity of the heat waves
and will continue to do so in the future. And the American public
seems increasingly aware of this.<br>
A new survey conducted in May by the University of Michigan and
Muhlenberg College found that 73 percent of Americans think there is
solid evidence for global warming. The survey also found that 60
percent people are aware that global warming is happening and that
humans are at least partially to blame. These two results are the
highest percentage of people that have recognized human-caused
climate change since the poll began in 2008. The previous iteration
of the survey, in the fall of 2017, found that 70 percent of
respondents agreed there is solid evidence for climate change, while
58 percent accepted the harsh reality of a man-made global warming.
<br>
This increased acknowledgement might be connected to the record high
temperatures occurring more and more often. This past May, when the
poll was conducted, was the hottest May in 124 years of record
keeping, The Guardian reports. This is consistent with a growing
body of research that suggests that weather experiences can shape
our views on global warming.<br>
"There's lots of evidence that contemporary weather is a
contributing factor to belief in climate change," Chris Borick,
director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, told
the Guardian.<br>
So c'mon, newscasters. Give the people what they want:
scientifically sound and contextualized news.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://earther.com/americans-increasingly-aware-of-climate-change-media-c-1827555165">https://earther.com/americans-increasingly-aware-of-climate-change-media-c-1827555165</a><br>
</font> <br>
<br>
[Green Biz]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.greenbiz.com/article/math-climate-finance-isnt-adding">The
math in climate finance isn't adding up</a></b><br>
Cynthia Cummis, Remco Fischer and Jakob Thoma<br>
Thursday, July 12, 2018 - 12:45am<br>
Banks are connected to every part of the economy through their
investing and lending activities. That means they play a crucial
role in financing the transition to a low-carbon economy.<br>
- - - - -<br>
The financial sector is increasingly aware of the need to shift
capital flows away from companies and activities that contribute to
the climate problem and into climate solutions. However, they are
just getting started in thinking through and strategizing on how
best to respond - and tracking the climate progress of financial
institutions has proven notoriously challenging.<br>
- - - - <br>
Are banks moving their financing in the right direction? It's a very
tough question to answer.<br>
Our analysis of 35 large development and commercial banks found that
by and large, banks are unable to convey their overall climate
progress. Many that report on climate-friendly "green" investments,
for instance, do not fill in the other half of the picture by also
reporting on the financing of activities and technologies that
contribute significantly to GHG emissions, known as "brown"
investments.<br>
Until we know a financial institution's contribution to the climate
problem as well as its contribution to the climate solution, claims
of climate progress can only be assessed as incomplete.<br>
Several trends push banks to low-carbon economy<br>
Banks - like any other financial institutions and businesses - are
interested in taking advantage of the new business opportunities
afforded by the low-carbon transition, through financing of sectors
such as sustainable transportation and renewable energy. The world
needs an additional $1 trillion per year, on average, investment in
clean energy through 2050 to limit global temperature rise to no
more than 2 degrees Celsius...<br>
- - - -<br>
Measuring risk, however, is not enough. Understanding their
contribution to international climate policy goals matters, too.
Demand from investors and customers, concerns about reputation and a
desire to become enablers of the low-carbon economy are motivating
banks to better understand, and be more transparent about, the
climate progress of their lending and investment activities more
broadly...<br>
- - - - -<br>
Many banks have made commitments to finance climate solutions, known
as "green" finance. For example, the Australia and New Zealand
Banking Group stated in 2015 that it will fund and facilitate at
least $10 billion by 2020 to support increased energy efficiency in
industry, low-emissions transport, green buildings, reforestation,
renewable energy and battery storage, emerging technologies (such as
CCS) and climate change adaptation measures.<br>
Conversely, a few banks are tracking and shedding their financing of
climate problems, known as "brown" finance. For example, the World
Bank announced it will stop financing oil and gas exploration and
extraction from 2019.<br>
- -- - -<br>
To truly bring the climate fight to finance, however, requires
developing science-based metrics and tools that allow financial
institutions to set performance benchmarks in line with global
climate goals. The Science-Based Targets initiative is working to
develop methods and guidance for financial institutions to set
science-based climate targets for their investing and lending
portfolios.<br>
Despite evolving practices, banks should not wait to begin measuring
and disclosing metrics on climate progress and tracking performance.
Meaningful and practical metrics are available for numerous asset
classes, and banks can improve their approach over time as more
useful metrics become available. The time for action is now.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.greenbiz.com/article/math-climate-finance-isnt-adding">https://www.greenbiz.com/article/math-climate-finance-isnt-adding</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Seattle is 7th from the top]<br>
<b><a href="https://youtu.be/4bqqbYCfYYs">How a hot city can keep
its cool</a></b><br>
Grist video - 3:36<br>
Published on Jul 11, 2018<br>
Dreaming of an island escape this summer? There's one kind of island
you'll want to run far, far away from if you're trying to beat the
heat. Thanks to something called the "urban heat island effect,"
cities like Los Angeles and New York are literally the hottest
places to live -- and climate change is only heating things up more.<br>
An epic heat wave wreaked havoc across L.A. over the past week,
leaving more than 26,000 residents without power after temperatures
spiked at 109 degrees in downtown. The good news is that cities are
taking serious action to stem the serious public health threats that
come along with extreme heat. Cool, right?<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/4bqqbYCfYYs">https://youtu.be/4bqqbYCfYYs</a><br>
<font size="-1">Read more about New York's efforts to stay cool: <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://grist.org/article/heat-check/">https://grist.org/article/heat-check/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Philanthropy]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://hewlett.org/library/climate-initiative-strategy-2018-2023/">Climate
Initiative strategy 2018-2023</a></b><br>
<b>The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation</b> has been investing
for a number of years in various strategies to avoid the worst
effects of climate change and spare human suffering by reducing
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Those grants have aimed at cleaning
up power production, using less oil, using energy more efficiently,
preserving forests, addressing non-CO2 greenhouse gases, and
financing climate-friendly investments. Grants have focused on
developed countries with high energy demand and developing countries
with fast-growing energy demand or high deforestation rates.<br>
The Environment Program undertook a process in 2017 to assess the
effectiveness of its past and current climate-related philanthropic
strategies in the U.S. and other countries and to determine what
changes, if any, would be appropriate for the foundation's future
climate investments.<br>
<blockquote>Download the document: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://s27477.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Hewlett-Foundation-Climate-Initiative-Strategy-2018-2023.pdf">https://s27477.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Hewlett-Foundation-Climate-Initiative-Strategy-2018-2023.pdf</a><br>
</blockquote>
As part of its normal "outcome-focused philanthropy," the foundation
takes a deeper and more comprehensive look at how a strategy is
working through a "strategy refresh" process, which involves program
evaluation, extensive issue-area research, and input from grantees,
experts and stakeholders.<br>
The 2017 process resulted in the foundation board's approval in
November 2017 of a renewed $600 million, five-year initiative
committed to addressing climate change. This is the foundation's
single largest commitment to date in any area of its philanthropic
work. The resulting strategy, which will guide the program's grants
from 2018 to 2023, is described in the strategy paper below.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://hewlett.org/library/climate-initiative-strategy-2018-2023/">https://hewlett.org/library/climate-initiative-strategy-2018-2023/</a><br>
<br>
</font> <br>
[New book in August]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/environmental-law/climate-change-public-health-and-law?format=HB&isbn=9781108417624">Climate
Change, Public Health, and the Law</a></b><br>
PUBLICATION PLANNED FOR: August 2018<br>
FORMAT: Hardback ISBN: 9781108417624<br>
<blockquote> Climate Change, Public Health, and the Law provides the
first comprehensive explication of the dynamic interactions
between climate change, public health law, and environmental law,
both in the United States and internationally. Responding to
climate change and achieving public health protections each
require the coordination of the decisions and behavior of large
numbers of people. However, they also involve interventions that
risk compromising individual rights. The challenges involved in
coordinating large-scale responses to public health threats and
protecting against the invasion of rights, makes the law
indispensable to both of these agendas. Written for the benefit of
public health and environmental law professionals and policymakers
in the United States and in the international public health
sector, this volume focuses on the legal components of pursuing
public health goals in the midst of a changing climate. It will
help facilitate efforts to develop, improve, and carry out policy
responses at the international, federal, state, and local levels.<br>
</blockquote>
Reviews & endorsements<br>
Advance praise: 'Climate Change, Public Health, and the Law makes a
unique and timely contribution. Policy, law and regulation
concerning climate change must be informed by scientific insights
into public health impacts. This collection from leading scholars
offers broad, thorough coverage of key topics to help translate this
scientific information into much needed action.' Michael B. Gerrard,
Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia Law School<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/environmental-law/climate-change-public-health-and-law?format=HB&isbn=9781108417624">http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/environmental-law/climate-change-public-health-and-law?format=HB&isbn=9781108417624</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[segments from an angry rant]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/12/the-sinister-underbelly-of-climate-change-denial/">The
Sinister Underbelly of Climate Change Denial</a></b><br>
by DAVID MATTSON<br>
Scientists of all sorts, but especially those studying climate, are
confounded and distressed by the fact that there are so many
doubters among American adults, and that so many more, even among
believers, dismiss the consequences of unfolding climate change and
are unwilling to make the radical changes needed to avert a
catastrophe, not just for humans, but for all life on Earth.<br>
How can this be?<br>
This simple question has led to a veritable cottage industry of
inquiry into the psychological, social, and political drivers of
climate warming denial. After roughly 20-years of experiments and
surveys, some more-or-less definitive conclusions have been reached,
several of which initially surprised me. Yet the proffered
explanations make a disturbing sort of psycho-pathologic sense....<br>
- - - - -<br>
We need to act now. And our first order of business will necessarily
be overthrowing the elites and their conservative regime that
currently strangles all aspects of our national life.<br>
<font size="-1">David Mattson worked for the grizzly study team for
2 decades. He retired from the US Geological Survey two years ago.
</font><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/12/the-sinister-underbelly-of-climate-change-denial/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/12/the-sinister-underbelly-of-climate-change-denial/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Paleo-prognostications]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/07/11/scientists-may-have-solved-huge-riddle-earths-climate-past-it-doesnt-bode-well-future/?utm_term=.ae9b4aa23e84&wpisrc=nl_green&wpmm=1">Scientists
may have solved a huge riddle in Earth's climate past. It
doesn't bode well for the future.</a></b><br>
An ancient flood seems to have stalled the circulation of the
oceans, plunging the Northern Hemisphere into a millennium of
near-glacial conditions.<br>
For some time, scientists have been debating how this major climatic
event - called the "Younger Dryas" - happened. The question has
grown more urgent: Its answer may involve the kind of fast-moving
climate event that could occur again.<br>
<br>
This week, a scientific team made a new claim to having found that
answer. On the basis of measurements taken off the northern coasts
of Alaska and Canada in the Beaufort Sea, the scientists say they
detected the signature of a huge glacial flood event that occurred
around the same time...<br>
- - - - -<br>
There has long been scientific debate about where all the meltwater
actually entered the ocean, though - with some contending that it
would have occurred through the Saint Lawrence River, which flows
past today's Montreal and Quebec City and thus out into the
Atlantic.<br>
The new research holds that, instead, the floodwater exited through
the Mackenzie River, which stretches across today's Northwest
Territories, emptying straight into the Arctic Ocean.<br>
It would certainly have been an enormous flow of fresh water. "I
would say somewhere between the Mississippi and the Amazon," Keigwin
said.<br>
That could have interfered with the Atlantic circulation, which is
crucial because it carries warm water northward, and so heats higher
latitudes. Eventually, the waters of the circulation become very
cold as they travel northward, but because they are also quite
salty, they sink because of their high density and travel back south
again...<br>
- - -- - <br>
The question thus becomes whether it is possible to even more
dramatically interfere with the circulation again - and what could
cause that.<br>
"I don't think there's any lakes on land that are big enough to do
this," Keigwin said. "It has to come from ice, because that's the
biggest reservoir of freshwater. And Greenland is the ice mass that
you would be most suspicious of, because it's right there poised to
do enough damage."<br>
And yet, Greenland is no Lake Agassiz. "Greenland doesn't have large
land lakes to store the water," Driscoll said. Rather, it releases
steady streams of water in the form of glacial runoff, which often
goes straight into the ocean - and it releases huge icebergs that
slowly melt.<br>
So nobody is necessarily expecting a sudden outburst flood as
Greenland melts. Still, Driscoll and Keigwin both think that
Greenland's steady losses over time, especially if they increase in
pace, can build up.<br>
Climate scientists will be quick to point out that even if the
Atlantic circulation slows or shuts down, ceasing to transport as
much heat and leading to some Northern Hemisphere cooling, the
overall global warming trend will still be ongoing and may overpower
it. We won't directly repeat the Younger Dryas, but we can learn
from it.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/07/11/scientists-may-have-solved-huge-riddle-earths-climate-past-it-doesnt-bode-well-future/?utm_term=.ae9b4aa23e84&wpisrc=nl_green&wpmm=1">https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/07/11/scientists-may-have-solved-huge-riddle-earths-climate-past-it-doesnt-bode-well-future/?utm_term=.ae9b4aa23e84&wpisrc=nl_green&wpmm=1</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Lesson time for 2 Laws - Thermodynamics]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSEFfWf2au0">The First
& Zeroth Laws of Thermodynamics: Crash Course Engineering #9</a></b><br>
CrashCourse<br>
Published on Jul 12, 2018<br>
In today's episode we'll explore thermodynamics and some of the ways
it shows up in our daily lives. We'll learn the zeroth law of
thermodynamics, what it means to reach a thermal equilibrium, and
define the first law of thermodynamics. We'll also explore how
stationary, adiabatic, and isochoric processes can make our lives as
engineers a little easier.<br>
Note: Different branches of engineering sometimes define the first
law of thermodynamics differently, depending on how work is
defined. Essentially, work released from a system might be defined
as a positive value or a negative value, and thus the first law can
be defined as either Q-W or Q+W. Both are acceptable forms,
depending on how the system is defined! We chose to focus on only
one definition here to limit the confusion.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSEFfWf2au0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSEFfWf2au0</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[The Greatest Climate-Fiction Classic]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://theoutline.com/post/5333/dune-revival-2018-david-lynch">THE
ONLY GOOD ONLINE FANDOM LEFT IS DUNE</a></b><br>
As corporations take control of nerd culture, science fiction's most
esoteric epic remains gloriously untamed.<br>
On a basic narrative level, Paul is the good guy. If you want to
treat Dune as a tale of might makes right, the soil is fertile
enough, and the conditions of fandom easily enable anyone's personal
interpretation to surpass the creator's intent.<br>
<br>
Yet Herbert saw that great-man historical thinking led not just to
Hitler and the Holocaust, but to Kennedy and Vietnam - a more
sophisticated critique of imperialism than mainstream American
liberalism has ever freely entertained. (Though in 1972 he worked as
an ecologist with the South Vietnamese government on a land-reform
project designed to win the hearts and minds of farmers to keep them
from supporting the Communists. He also directed TV shows for a
while. The man had a weird career.) Herbert's books are predicated
on long-range environmental preservation, on the right of indigenous
populations to fight imperialist aggression, on respect for
non-"Judeo-Christian" religious and spiritual traditions, on
skepticism toward fundamentalism and the will to power, on
borderline terror of technological overreach and nuclear war. In
Dune, misguided attempts to raise the standard of living regardless
of cost lead to depletion of natural resources and total ecological
catastrophe. If you operate on the left side of the political
spectrum, you've got plenty of ammo if you need it..<br>
- - - -<br>
Instead, in the appropriately science-fictional year 1984, David
Lynch's famously strange version (scored by yacht-rock masters Toto,
with a lone Brian Eno contribution) hit theaters, in a bowdlerized
edit overseen by super-producer Dino De Laurentiis rather than the
director himself. The result was so disheartening to Lynch that he
insisted on having final cut on all his films moving forward; if you
enjoyed just how far-out Twin Peaks: The Return got, you've got the
Dune debacle and the contractual hardball Lynch was willing to play
with Showtime as a result to thank...<br>
- - - - -<br>
Once I finally got around to reading the books, criticism of the
adaptation felt even more off-base. The elements that seemed
strangest, like the near-constant voiceover narration of the
characters' thoughts, were no more or less than an attempt to
translate the relentless interiority of Herbert's writing. In a time
when social media induces us to share nearly every idea we have for
public consumption, including the idea of whether or not our ideas
are worth sharing, Herbert's singular "Character X thinks something,
Character X decides how to talk about it, Character X says what they
decided to say, Character X thinks about how what they said was
received by Character Y, Character Y thinks something in response,
and so on" daisy-chain structure of representing human thought, and
Lynch's cinematic simulacrum of it, are actually relatable...<br>
- - - - -<br>
More than anything else, this is what makes immersion in Dune such
an attractive prospect. Paul Atreides found anonymity, friendship,
and freedom in the secret ways of the unconquerable Fremen desert
tribes (Fremen, "free men," get it?); his life after that point was
a prolonged struggle to export that sense of freedom to others.
Consciously or not, Herbert himself summed up the promise of Paul's
life in his introduction to New World or No World, repackaging it as
a plan for the survival of the species and the planet we live on.<br>
"The thing we must do intensely is be human together," he wrote.
"People are more important than things. We must get together. The
best thing humans can have going for them is each other. We have
each other. We must reject everything which humiliates us. Humans
are not objects of consumption. We must develop an absolute priority
of humans a head of profit - any humans ahead of any profit. Then we
will survive. Together." Dune is one small, goofy, vital way of
sharing something wonderful with each other, and with nothing and no
one else.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://theoutline.com/post/5333/dune-revival-2018-david-lynch">https://theoutline.com/post/5333/dune-revival-2018-david-lynch</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[cartoon insight]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://thenib.com/can-you-trust-your-own-memory">Your
Memory is Worse Than You Think</a></b><br>
New research has shown that your memory is like a Wikipedia entry -
you can get in there and edit it whenever you want, but so can other
people.<br>
by Line Hoj Hostrup<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://thenib.com/can-you-trust-your-own-memory">https://thenib.com/can-you-trust-your-own-memory</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[informed political interviews]<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://on.msnbc.com/1I0Zxqa">This Day in Climate History
- July 14, 2015</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
July 14, 2015: MSNBC's Chris Hayes continues his series on the
California drought.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://on.msnbc.com/1I0Zxqa">http://on.msnbc.com/1I0Zxqa</a> (Part 1)<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://on.msnbc.com/1I0Yvdy">http://on.msnbc.com/1I0Yvdy</a> (Part 2)<br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><i>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
</i></font><font size="+1"><i><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html">Archive
of Daily Global Warming News</a> </i></font><i><br>
</i><span class="moz-txt-link-freetext"><a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote">https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote</a></span><font
size="+1"><i><font size="+1"><i><br>
</i></font></i></font><font size="+1"><i> <br>
</i></font><font size="+1"><i><font size="+1"><i>To receive daily
mailings - <a
href="mailto:subscribe@theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request">click
to Subscribe</a> </i></font>to news digest. </i></font>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><small> </small><small><b>** Privacy and Security: </b>
This is a text-only mailing that carries no images which may
originate from remote servers. </small><small> Text-only
messages provide greater privacy to the receiver and sender.
</small><small> </small><br>
<small> By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain must be used
for democratic and election purposes and cannot be used for
commercial purposes. </small><br>
<small>To subscribe, email: <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:contact@theclimate.vote">contact@theclimate.vote</a>
with subject: subscribe, To Unsubscribe, subject:
unsubscribe</small><br>
<small> Also you</small><font size="-1"> may
subscribe/unsubscribe at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote">https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote</a></font><small>
</small><br>
<small> </small><small>Links and headlines assembled and
curated by Richard Pauli</small><small> for <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://TheClimate.Vote">http://TheClimate.Vote</a>
delivering succinct information for citizens and responsible
governments of all levels.</small><small> L</small><small>ist
membership is confidential and records are scrupulously
restricted to this mailing list. <br>
</small></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>