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<font size="+1"><i>July 18, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[terminology: flash drought = rapid onset of hot and/or dry]<br>
<b>Flash drought</b> refers to relatively short periods of warm
surface temperature and anomalously low and rapid decreasing soil
moisture. Based on the physical mechanisms associated with flash
droughts, these events are classified into two categories: heat wave
and precipitation deficit flash droughts.<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://cpo.noaa.gov/News/News-Article/ArtMID/6226/ArticleID/1585/What%E2%80%99s-the-criteria-for-identifying-flash-droughts-New-study-says-rapid-onset-not-short-duration">What's
the criteria for identifying flash droughts? New study says
rapid onset, not short duration</a></b><br>
see also: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JHM-D-15-0158.1">https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JHM-D-15-0158.1</a><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://cpo.noaa.gov/News/News-Article/ArtMID/6226/ArticleID/1585/What%E2%80%99s-the-criteria-for-identifying-flash-droughts-New-study-says-rapid-onset-not-short-duration">https://cpo.noaa.gov/News/News-Article/ArtMID/6226/ArticleID/1585/What%E2%80%99s-the-criteria-for-identifying-flash-droughts-New-study-says-rapid-onset-not-short-duration</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321205358_Flash_droughts_A_review_and_assessment_of_the_challenges_imposed_by_rapid-onset_droughts_in_the_United_States">https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321205358_Flash_droughts_A_review_and_assessment_of_the_challenges_imposed_by_rapid-onset_droughts_in_the_United_States</a><br>
</font>- - - - -<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/">Scorching
Scandinavia: Record-breaking heat hits Norway, Finland and
Sweden</a></b><br>
An intense heat dome has swelled over Scandinavia, pushing
temperatures more than 20 degrees above normal and spurring some of
the region's hottest weather ever recorded. Even as far north as the
Arctic Circle, the mercury has come close to 90 degrees.<br>
- - - - -<br>
[Heat waves make flash droughts. 80 fires]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.thelocal.se/20180717/sweden-battles-most-serious-wildfire-situation-of-modern-times-heres-what-you-need-to-know">Sweden
is battling a historic wildfire outbreak...</a></b><br>
Swedish firefighters have been battling throughout the summer in
what has been described by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency as
the country's "most serious" wildfire situation of modern times. But
just what are the causes, which areas are worst affected, and what
is being done?[Other data visualizations]<br>
<blockquote><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llImmzcDCm4">Robert Fanney
video</a><br>
Published on Jul 17, 2018<br>
Discussion of weather and climate change related signals
influencing the present historic heat, drought, and wildfire
outbreak in Sweden.<br>
video read <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llImmzcDCm4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llImmzcDCm4</a><br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1">[Water bombers fly near Stockholm]<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.thelocal.se/userdata/images/1531809471_italianplanes.jpg">https://www.thelocal.se/userdata/images/1531809471_italianplanes.jpg</a><br>
Italian water bombers to help fight wildfires in Sweden<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.thelocal.se/20180717/sweden-battles-most-serious-wildfire-situation-of-modern-times-heres-what-you-need-to-know">https://www.thelocal.se/20180717/sweden-battles-most-serious-wildfire-situation-of-modern-times-heres-what-you-need-to-know</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[fast shell game, pay close attention]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/07/17/carbon-tax-climate-liability-waiver/">Hidden
Gem for Big Oil in Carbon Tax Plan: Ending Climate Liability
Suits</a></b><br>
By Karen Savage<br>
Oil and gas companies could be off the hook for climate
change-related damages if a new carbon tax proposal makes its way
through Congress.<br>
The proposal is being spearheaded by Americans for Carbon Dividends,
an industry-backed organization whose mission is to build support
for the Baker-Shultz Carbon Dividends Plan, which proposes taxing
carbon emitters and returning the proceeds to the American public.
It also includes a waiver of the right to sue fossil fuel companies
for climate change impacts and suggests rolling back most
Environmental Protection Agency regulations on greenhouse gases.<br>
Launched earlier this month, Americans For Climate Dividends is
co-chaired by former Senators Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and John Breaux
(D-La.), whose lobbying firm was hired to promote the campaign. Its
public relations effort is being led by Hill+Knowlton, a firm that
once spearheaded the communications campaign for Big Tobacco.<br>
The group has succeeded in gaining support from politicians and
policymakers from both parties and even garnered qualified support
from some environmental organizations. The public relations effort
has succeeded in placing several Op-Ed articles and some newspaper
editorial boards have endorsed it.<br>
The Baker-Schultz plan - named for its lead authors, former
secretaries of state James A. Baker III and George P. Shultz -
proposes the implementation of a gradually rising carbon tax, with
100 percent of the proceeds paid to Americans in a monthly dividend
payment. For companies that import or export goods to countries
without a carbon pricing system, a border adjustment would be
specified. The plan starts the tax at $40 per metric ton, but does
not specify how or by how much it will rise.<br>
The plan also includes what it calls "regulatory simplification:" a
rollback of carbon dioxide emissions regulations because the authors
claim the program would reduce emissions more than all current and
prior climate regulations.<br>
And although U.S. taxpayers would benefit from monthly dividend
payments, it would also mean none of the proceeds would help cities
and states pay the already ballooning costs of climate mitigation
and adaptation.<br>
While the plan's promoters are suggesting it's a win for everyone,
the relatively low level of taxation and support of the fossil fuel
industry raises myriad questions...<br>
- - - - -<br>
"The fossil fuel industry is not going to support a carbon tax
unless they're immunized from damages," said Bookbinder, who warned
that what's good for fossil fuel companies may not be good for
communities....<br>
- - - - <br>
"It's striking that there's language in here about liability relief
and to my mind, among other things, that suggests that the lawsuits
are important not only for seeking legitimate goals for
municipalities to be compensated for the costs they're incurring,
but because they are clearly driving, at least in part, the
motivation of at least some companies to come to the table and to
seek a deal."<br>
Davies said he wonders if the plan's main goal is to implement a
carbon tax-dividend program or to eliminate liability suits. <br>
"If the tobacco companies had been able to get a $10 a pack
cigarette tax in exchange for no lawsuits, they probably would have
taken that deal - and this is far short of that."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/07/17/carbon-tax-climate-liability-waiver/">https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/07/17/carbon-tax-climate-liability-waiver/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Honolulu, Hawaii]<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.khon2.com/news/local-news/mayor-issues-directive-on-climate-change/1306968449">Mayor
issues directive on climate change</a></b><br>
Video:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.khon2.com/news/local-news/mayor-issues-directive-on-climate-change/1306968449">https://www.khon2.com/news/local-news/mayor-issues-directive-on-climate-change/1306968449</a><br>
The Commission says the city should plan for 3-feet of sea level
rise by the mid-century and if action isn't taken now, nearly 4,000
structures on Oahu would be flooded, and nearly 18 miles of coastal
roads would become impassable.<font size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.khon2.com/news/local-news/mayor-issues-directive-on-climate-change/1306968449">https://www.khon2.com/news/local-news/mayor-issues-directive-on-climate-change/1306968449</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Noam Chomsky speaks out]<br>
<b><a href="https://youtu.be/R4PisLH8J2g">Global Warming's Worst
Case Projections seem increasingly likely</a></b><br>
Video - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/R4PisLH8J2g">https://youtu.be/R4PisLH8J2g</a>
- Text transcript available<br>
Global warming, also referred to as climate change, is the observed
century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth's climate
system and its related effects. Multiple lines of scientific
evidence show that the climate system is warming.<br>
Climate State - Published on Jul 17, 2018<br>
One of the most cited scholars in history, Noam Chomsky speaks at St
Olaff College May 2018, discussing the Epics, Anthropocene, the 6th
Extinction and climate change actions.<br>
Watch the full lecture with Noam Chomsky at St Olaff College - 4 May
2018 - FULL PRESENTATION <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDQ2fjg0kMM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDQ2fjg0kMM</a><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/R4PisLH8J2g">https://youtu.be/R4PisLH8J2g</a><br>
</font><br>
<br>
[so funny I forgot to laugh]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/FVydSAyXK8y8fgnjwHUb/full">Not
Just Funny After All: Sarcasm as a Catalyst for Public
Engagement With Climate Change</a></b><br>
Amy B. Becker First Published July 13, 2018 Research Article <br>
Free Access<br>
Abstract<br>
<blockquote>Sarcastic content is prevalent in online social media,
although little research has explored its effects. In this study,
we examine how exposure to one-sided versus two-sided sarcastic
perspectives on climate change shapes beliefs about climate
change. We find that exposure to one-sided messages that use irony
to deride those who believe that climate change is a hoax
(presented in The Onion) raises belief certainty in and perceived
risk of climate change for those who do not already believe
climate change is an important issue (N = 141). The two-sided
message (presented by The Weather Channel) does not show any
effects.<br>
</blockquote>
- - - -<br>
<b>Can sarcastic humor serve as a catalyst for engagement on the
issue of climate change?</b> The results suggest that one-sided
sarcasm from sources such as The Onion can in fact encourage greater
issue engagement, particularly among those who find climate change
to be a less important political issue at the outset. In many
respects, our findings offer added support for the application of
the gateway hypothesis to satirical climate change communication...
<br>
<blockquote>In sum, our findings paint a complex picture for how
humorous and attack-based tones such as sarcasm in social media
contexts shape public opinion toward controversial scientific
issues such as climate change. On one hand, our findings suggest a
positive outlook for climate advocates who want to use the avenue
of social media for engaging people with the issue. Humor and
sarcasm in online video content can reach those low-interest
individuals, and this is likely bolstered by the tendency for
individuals to engage with like-minded perspectives in social
media content. On the other hand, our study also points to the
difficulty in reaching individuals with neutral, or cross-cutting,
content. Our results suggest that attempts to address both sides
(like TWC's) are not successful. While our study does not suggest
that two-sided arguments are harmful to engagement with the issue,
it does wash out any engaging effects of humor or sarcasm. As
such, our study does not suggest an overall positive picture for
the effects of sarcastic tones on social media on engagement with
the climate change issue.<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/FVydSAyXK8y8fgnjwHUb/full">http://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/FVydSAyXK8y8fgnjwHUb/full</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[out of balance]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.springer.com/gp/about-springer/media/research-news/all-english-research-news/birds-eat-400-to-500-million-tonnes-of-insects-annually-/15910278">Birds
eat 400 to 500 million tonnes of insects annually</a></b><br>
Along with spiders, insectivorous birds play a vital role in
consuming insects that would otherwise destroy forests or crops<br>
Heidelberg | New York, 9 July 2018<br>
New Content Item (1) © Maurice BakerBirds around the world eat 400
to 500 million metric tonnes of beetles, flies, ants, moths, aphids,
grasshoppers, crickets and other anthropods per year. These numbers
have been calculated in a study led by Martin Nyffeler of the
University of Basel in Switzerland. The research, published in
Springer's journal The Science of Nature, highlights the important
role birds play in keeping plant-eating insect populations under
control. <br>
<br>
Nyffeler and his colleagues based their figures on 103 studies that
highlighted the volume of prey that insect-eating birds consume in
seven of the world's major ecological communities known as biomes.
According to their estimations, this amounts to between 400 and 500
million tonnes of insects per year but is most likely to be on the
lower end of the range. Their calculations are supported by a large
number of experimental studies conducted by many different research
teams in a variety of habitats in different parts of the world.<br>
<br>
"The global population of insectivorous birds annually consumes as
much energy as a megacity the size of New York. They get this energy
by capturing billions of potentially harmful herbivorous insects and
other arthropods," says Nyffeler. <br>
<br>
Forest-dwelling birds consume around 75 per cent of the insects
eaten in total by birds which make up about 300 million tonnes of
insects per year. About 100 million tonnes are eaten by birds in
savanna areas, grasslands and croplands, and those living in the
deserts and Arctic tundra. Birds actively hunt insects especially
during the breeding season, when they need protein-rich prey to feed
to their nestlings. <br>
<br>
Further, the researchers estimated that insectivorous birds together
only have a biomass of about three million tonnes. Nyffeler says the
comparatively low value for the global biomass of wild birds can be
partially explained through their very low production efficiency.
This means that respiration takes a lot of energy and only leaves
about one to two percent to be converted into biomass. <br>
<br>
"The estimates presented in this paper emphasize the ecological and
economic importance of insectivorous birds in suppressing
potentially harmful insect pests on a global scale - especially in
forested areas," explains Nyffeler, who says that this is especially
so for tropical, temperate and boreal forest ecosystems. <br>
<br>
"Only a few other predator groups such as spiders and entomophagous
insects (including in particular predaceous ants) can keep up with
the insectivorous birds in their capacity to suppress plant-eating
insect populations on a global scale," he adds. <br>
<br>
A study from 2017 which Nyffeler also led showed that spiders
consume between 400 and 800 million tonnes of insects each year.
Other predator groups like bats, primates, shrews, hedgehogs, frogs,
salamanders, and lizards seem to be valuable yet less effective
natural enemies of plant-eating insects. He says their influence
seems to be more biome-specific rather than on a worldwide scale.
For instance, lizards help to suppress insects on tropical islands,
but less so on a broader scale.<br>
<br>
"Birds are an endangered class of animals because they are heavily
threatened by factors such as afforestation, intensification of
agriculture, spread of systemic pesticides, predation by domestic
cats, collisions with man-made structures, light pollution and
climate change. If these global threats cannot soon be resolved, we
must fear that the vital ecosystem services that birds provide –
such as the suppression of insect pests – will be lost," says
Nyffeler.<br>
<br>
Reference: Nyffeler, M. et al (2018). Insectivorous birds consume an
estimated 400-500 million tons of prey annually, The Science of
Nature DOI: 10.1007/s00114-018-1571-z<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.springer.com/gp/about-springer/media/research-news/all-english-research-news/birds-eat-400-to-500-million-tonnes-of-insects-annually-/15910278">https://www.springer.com/gp/about-springer/media/research-news/all-english-research-news/birds-eat-400-to-500-million-tonnes-of-insects-annually-/15910278</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Book Review]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.thegazette.com/subject/life/books/doomsayer-or-realist-author-takes-on-climate-change-and-war-in-creative-nonfiction-essay-collection-20180707">Doomsayer
or realist? Author takes on climate change and war in creative
nonfiction essay collection</a></b><br>
<b>We're Doomed. Now What?: Essays on War and Climate Change</b><br>
Roy Scranton<br>
Soho Press, Jul 17, 2018 - Political Science - 360 pages<br>
An American Orwell for the age of Trump, Roy Scranton faces the
unpleasant facts of our day with fierce insight and honesty. We're
Doomed. Now What? penetrates to the very heart of our time.<br>
Our moment is one of alarming and bewildering change - the breakup
of the post-1945 global order, a multispecies mass extinction, and
the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it. Not one of
us is innocent, not one of us is safe. Now what?<br>
- - - -<br>
As the title so clearly indicates, "We're Doomed. Now What?" is not
light fare. Rather, it takes the idea that climate change is no
longer reversible as a given and a starting place for inquiry.<br>
"It is a dark book and we live in a dark time," Scranton said. "The
lights are going out all over the world. And that's the time we live
in. And it's going to get worse before it gets worse. We don't get
to not think about that; we don't get to not deal with that. For me,
just saying, 'Well, it has to get better' or 'There has to be some
way out,' that's not good enough because I don't believe that's
true. It doesn't have to get better. So how do we go through this?
How do we live through this with any kind of ethical integrity or
sense of human dignity? That's the effort I'm trying to make. "<br>
Buddhist thought and practice underpins Scranton's project. He finds
the practice of meditation to be analogous to the practice of
writing.<br>
"With mediation, you're sitting your body down, you're making your
body be still and letting the emotional and the intellectual and the
linguistic ... all the stuff of consciousness that emerges out of
bodily activity, you're letting it go. ... For me, writing is a way
of figuring out what I think about things and that first draft is
opening up the space for the thoughts to happen on their own and to
take on their own logic and objectifying that as a thing in the
world, so that it's not me anymore. It's this thing outside of me"<br>
Some of the essays in this collection were written as long as eight
years ago, which in the current media environment can feel like a
different era entirely. But Scranton is a writer with a deep
interest in history and the ways in which events in the past connect
with the present.<br>
"It's quite difficult in the contemporary conversation to hang on to
that sense that the moment we live in is a concatenation of many
different histories. There's a deep presentism to our moment and
there's also a kind of divisive appeal to one of a handful mythic
narrative about how we got where we are - everything is liberal
progress or everything is genocide and slavery. ... And neither of
those is wholly true. Both of them are partly true. Our history on
this planet is overwhelming, mindbogglingly complex and we can't
understand what's happening now without that sense of history."<br>
He sees clear connections between the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001 and
the place in which we find ourselves now.<br>
"This re-emergence of radical nationalism, the Trump phenomenon, the
Supreme Court decision to uphold Trump's ban on Muslims - all of
this connects back to the Iraq War and 9/11. It all has something,
if not quite a lot, to do with this moment of violence and the
American military response, and the eight years of occupation, and
the sense of failure that emerged out of that war. It's all part of
the story, and I feel it's part of my job as a writer with an
interest in history to keep bringing that up even if it doesn't feel
like it's necessarily part of the conversation right now. Because it
should be."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.thegazette.com/subject/life/books/doomsayer-or-realist-author-takes-on-climate-change-and-war-in-creative-nonfiction-essay-collection-20180707">https://www.thegazette.com/subject/life/books/doomsayer-or-realist-author-takes-on-climate-change-and-war-in-creative-nonfiction-essay-collection-20180707</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/science/climate/2002-07-18-states-climate.htm">This
Day in Climate History - July 18, 2002 </a>- from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
July 18, 2002: USA Today reports:<br>
<blockquote>"Democratic attorneys general from 11 states accused the
Bush administration Wednesday of ignoring global warming and
favoring energy policies that will boost greenhouse gas emissions.<br>
<br>
"White House spokesman Scott McClellan responded by saying the
president was working on a 'bipartisan, commonsense approach to
address climate change.'<br>
<br>
"In their letter to Bush, the attorneys general denounced the
administration's climate change policy, arguing that states have
been left to address a global problem with a patchwork of
inconsistent regulations. They said Bush has failed to create a
national plan to curb carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles
and power plants."<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/science/climate/2002-07-18-states-climate.htm">http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/science/climate/2002-07-18-states-climate.htm</a>
</font><br>
<br>
<br>
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