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<font size="+1"><i>August 16, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[USA Today]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/08/15/california-wildfires-smoke-carbon-monoxide-drifting-across-u-s/997014002/">Smoke,
carbon monoxide from California wildfires drifting all the way
to the East Coast</a></b><br>
What happens in California doesn't stay in California.<br>
Smoke from the massive wildfires scorching the Golden State is
drifting across the USA and has been reported as far east as New
England, NASA said. <br>
In addition to ash and smoke, the fires release carbon monoxide into
the atmosphere, a dangerous pollutant that can persist in the air
for about a month and be transported great distances.<br>
NASA said that in recent weeks, carbon monoxide has been reported
high in the atmosphere across the country; one branch is moving
south toward Texas and the other is forking to the Northeast.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/08/15/california-wildfires-smoke-carbon-monoxide-drifting-across-u-s/997014002/">https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/08/15/california-wildfires-smoke-carbon-monoxide-drifting-across-u-s/997014002/</a></font><br>
- - - <br>
[cough, cough]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.climatecentral.org/news/report-air-pollution-progress-still-undermined-by-western-wildfires-21911">Air
Pollution Progress Still Undermined by Western Wildfires</a></b><br>
Research Report by Climate Central - August 2018<br>
This report is part of "Breathing Fire," a series of research
reports and journalism features by Climate Central.<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://assets.climatecentral.org/pdfs/August2018_Report_BreathingFire.pdf">Download
report PDF</a><br>
<b>Summary</b><br>
<blockquote>In more than half of the states in the American West,
the largest wildfire on record for each state has occurred since
2000. Large wildfires damage landscapes, property, infrastructure,
and local economies. They can claim lives directly, and cause or
exacerbate serious health problems by releasing significant
quantities of air pollutants, including the fine particles known
as PM2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in
diameter). These harmful effects extend well beyond where the fire
itself burns. Though climate change is not the sole factor
increasing the size and frequency of western wildfires, it is an
important contributor.<br>
Climate Central previously analyzed trends in PM2.5 concentrations
for California's Central Valley between 2000 and 2016. This report
updates that analysis and extends it to three additional states -
Idaho, Oregon, and Washington - all of which are also plagued by
worsening wildfires in a warming world...<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.climatecentral.org/news/report-air-pollution-progress-still-undermined-by-western-wildfires-21911">http://www.climatecentral.org/news/report-air-pollution-progress-still-undermined-by-western-wildfires-21911</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/washington-state-carbon-tax/567523/">Will
Washington State Voters Make History on Climate Change?</a></b><br>
The state could be the first in the union to adopt a carbon price by
ballot.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/washington-state-carbon-tax/567523/">https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/washington-state-carbon-tax/567523/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Liability News]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/08/15/climate-fraud-suit-exxon-employees-ramirez/">Federal
Judge: Employees Can Pursue Climate Fraud Suit Against Exxon</a></b><br>
By Karen Savage<br>
A federal judge in Texas has ruled that a case brought against Exxon
for allegedly deceiving its employees about the risks of climate
change will continue.<br>
U.S. District Court Judge Ed Kinkeade on Tuesday denied the oil
giant's attempt to stop the suit, Ramirez v. Exxon, that was filed
last year. He said the plaintiffs, led by the Pennsylvania
Carpenters Pension Fund, had established sufficient claims of
securities fraud against the company and several executives,
including former chief executive Rex Tillerson.<br>
Alleging the value of their retirement accounts has been endangered,
employees filed the suit under the Employee Retirement Security Act
(ERISA), alleging that the company has fraudulently inflated its
stock and misrepresented what it knows about the risks of climate
change.<br>
Exxon did not immediately respond to a request for comment...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/08/15/climate-fraud-suit-exxon-employees-ramirez/">https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/08/15/climate-fraud-suit-exxon-employees-ramirez/</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[EU]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/08/14/european-union-climate-case/">Climate
Case Gets Green Light from European Union Court</a></b><br>
<font size="+1"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight:
700; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 14px; font-style:
normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps:
normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent:
0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing:
0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255,
255, 255); text-decoration-style: initial;
text-decoration-color: initial;">By Dana Drugmand</strong></font><br>
A lawsuit dubbed the<span> </span><a
href="https://peoplesclimatecase.caneurope.org/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(30, 115, 190); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;
outline: 0px; outline-offset: -2px;">People's Climate Case</a>,
which challenges the European Union's 2030 emissions reduction
target and other climate policies, was given the green light by a
court on Monday and is moving forward.<br>
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">The European
General Court<span> </span></span><a
href="https://peoplesclimatecase.caneurope.org/2018/08/peoples-climate-case-heads-to-proceed/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">accepted the case</span></a><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;"><span> </span>brought
by 10 families from Portugal, Germany, France, Italy, Romania,
Kenya and Fiji and a youth association in Sweden.<span> </span></span><a
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/06/07/eu-climate-change-lawsuit/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">The case was
first filed in May</span></a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;
font-weight: 400;">, but the court's acceptance means that the
defendants, the European Parliament and the Council of the
European Union, have two months to file their response.</span><br>
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">The families
contend that the EU's current target to reduce emissions - 40
percent below 1990 levels by 2030 - is insufficient and fails to
protect their fundamental rights. They also demand that three
regulatory acts designed to implement that target be nullified as
a more stringent target is set.</span><br>
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">"The EU's
existing 2030 climate target is too low to protect people and
their fundamental rights,"<span> </span></span><a
href="https://peoplesclimatecase.caneurope.org/2018/08/peoples-climate-case-heads-to-proceed/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;"><span> </span>Wendel
Trio, director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, which is
supporting the plaintiffs. "We firmly believe that this court case
will prove that the climate target needs to be significantly
raised to ensure a safe future for all of us."</span><br>
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">The case is
modeled after the first successful lawsuit challenging a
government's climate target, the<span> </span></span><a
href="http://www.urgenda.nl/en/themas/climate-case/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 500;"><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;">Urgenda case</span></a><span
style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 400;"><span> </span>in
the Netherlands.</span><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/08/14/european-union-climate-case/">https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/08/14/european-union-climate-case/</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[List of major legal challenges in US]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04042018/climate-change-fossil-fuel-company-lawsuits-timeline-exxon-children-california-cities-attorney-general">Fossil
Fuels on Trial: Where the Major Climate Change Lawsuits Stand
Today</a></b><br>
Some of the biggest oil and gas companies are embroiled in legal
disputes with cities, states and children over the industry's role
in global warming.<br>
David Hasemyer<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04042018/climate-change-fossil-fuel-company-lawsuits-timeline-exxon-children-california-cities-attorney-general">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04042018/climate-change-fossil-fuel-company-lawsuits-timeline-exxon-children-california-cities-attorney-general</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[New Zealand door closed. Where to next?]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/15/tenants-on-our-own-land-new-zealand-bans-sale-of-homes-to-foreign-buyers">'Tenants
on our own land': New Zealand bans sale of homes to foreign
buyers</a></b><br>
Law aims to boost housing affordability after prices in some areas
rise by over 75%<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/15/tenants-on-our-own-land-new-zealand-bans-sale-of-homes-to-foreign-buyers">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/15/tenants-on-our-own-land-new-zealand-bans-sale-of-homes-to-foreign-buyers</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[world politics]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/08/14/brazils-bolsonaro-threatens-quit-paris-climate-deal/">Brazil:
Bolsonaro threatens to quit Paris climate deal</a></b><br>
14/08/2018<br>
De facto presidential frontrunner says he would follow Donald Trump
out of the international pact, drawing criticism from the UN's
environment chief<br>
In an unpredictable race, the right-wing Bolsonaro is polling second
behind Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the socialist former president.
But "Lula" is in jail for corruption and likely to be disqualified
by the courts, leaving a scattered field...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/08/14/brazils-bolsonaro-threatens-quit-paris-climate-deal/">http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/08/14/brazils-bolsonaro-threatens-quit-paris-climate-deal/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Thom Hartmann Program - video: Joe Romm interview ]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQBBC3JB5WA">Just How
Catastrophic Will Unchecked Climate Change Be? (w/Guest Dr. Joe
Romm)</a></b><br>
Thom Hartmann Program - Published on Aug 15, 2018 - video 11:45<br>
We've all heard that Climate Change will produce catastrophic
events, but just how much damage are we talking? Dr. Joe Romm.
Physicist and Climate Expert, joins the program to discuss the
rising ocean levels, the unnaturally long draughts, and whether or
not there is still time to turn things around. <br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQBBC3JB5WA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQBBC3JB5WA</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Hothouse discussions]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2018/08/11/groundhog-day-in-the-hothouse/">Groundhog
day in the hothouse</a></b><br>
On 6 August Will Steffen and others published a paper entitled
"Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene". The paper
explores "the risk that self-reinforcing feedbacks could push the
Earth System toward a planetary threshold that, if crossed, could
prevent stabilization of the climate at intermediate temperature
rises and cause continued warming on a 'Hothouse Earth' pathway even
as human emissions are reduced". This caused some stir, summarised
to some extent by Ken Rice <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://andthentheresphysics.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/hothouse-earth/">here</a>...<br>
- - - - -<br>
Maintaining a Goldilocks house<br>
I won't analyse the mass of articles that have been published in
2018 following the recent use of the hothouse earth metaphor. I just
want to say: The earth is our 'house'. It can be an 'icehouse'; it
can be a 'greenhouse'; it can be a 'hothouse'. At the moment we live
in a still relatively nice greenhouse of which Goldilocks would be
proud, but a greenhouse that's gradually overheating if we don't do
something about our own foolish actions that led to the greenhouse
overheating in the first place.<br>
That's basically what the Will Steffen et al. paper tried to say, I
think. It should be stressed though that the authors wanted to point
out a "risk that needs studying, not something that is certain to
happen" (New Scientist). But we better make certain that we do both,
study what's going on and deal with the enhanced greenhouse effect
that has been our own doing, i.e. reduce emissions.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2018/08/11/groundhog-day-in-the-hothouse/">http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2018/08/11/groundhog-day-in-the-hothouse/</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[Physics discussions]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://andthentheresphysics.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/hothouse-earth/">"Hothouse"
Earth?</a></b><br>
Posted on August 8, 2018...and Then There's Physics<br>
This is actually the 1000th post on this blog. I haven't written
them all, but have written many more than I had ever expected to
write. I thought I might use this as an opportunity to write
something about the recent paper on [t]rajectories of the Earth
System in the Anthropocene that has been getting a lot of media
coverage.<br>
The basic point of the paper is that, as we warm, there are various
possible processes that could be triggered and that some of these
might start at around 2 degrees C... <br>
- - - -<br>
There may be some processes that, once triggered, will carry on
regardless of our emissions. However, I still think that our
emissions are likely to dominate the perturbation to the system and
will, therefore, mostly determine how much we warm. If we emit more,
we'll warm more. If we emit less, we'll warm less. So, yes, I think
it is quite likely that some of these processes could indeed amplify
our warming, but we can still influence how much we warm overall, by
limiting how much we emit. I realise that the paper isn't really
suggesting otherwise, but the framing does seem to imply that there
might be thresholds beyond which there would be little that we could
do. I think we can essentially always do something...<br>
- - - -<br>
Science always has uncertainties. We can estimate the relationship
between our emissions and how much we will warm, but we can't be
absolutely certain of this relationship. We might warm a little less
than we expect, and the consequences would be slightly less severe.
We might warm a little more than we expect, and the consequences
would be slightly more severe. However, as this "hothouse" paper
highlights, there are various processes, about which we're quite
uncertain, that could amplify our warming and make it much worse
than we expect.<b> As far as I'm aware, we don't know of any that
could largely cancel our warming and make things much better than
we expect. The uncertainty is mostly on the bad side</b>...<font
size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://andthentheresphysics.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/hothouse-earth/">https://andthentheresphysics.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/hothouse-earth/</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[Cascade or stabilize 15:00 video talk]<br>
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsm6hB2tyz8">Earth
Climate System: Tipping Points to Hothouse?</a></b><br>
Paul Beckwith<br>
Published on Aug 15, 2018<br>
I follow up on my previous video and discuss climate system tipping
points that are examined in the recent European paper that is on
possible Earth Trajectories to a Hothouse. These tipping points, if
(or when) crossed, will certainly mean that the Paris agreement
threshold of 2 degrees Celsius will not likely be enough to
stabilize climate. We have to do so much more, starting off by
immediately declaring a global climate change emergency.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsm6hB2tyz8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsm6hB2tyz8</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Now for some Comic Relief - from the Onion]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theonion.com/climate-researchers-warn-only-hope-for-humanity-now-lie-1828171232">Climate
Researchers Warn Only Hope For Humanity Now Lies In Possibility
They Making All Of This Up</a></b><br>
8/07/18<br>
GENEVA-Saying the time to act has come and gone, a group of
researchers from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
warned Tuesday that any hope for the future of humanity now hinges
on the possibility that scientists like themselves are simply making
all of this up. "After reviewing our climate models and projections
of worldwide CO2 emissions, we have come to the conclusion that the
only scenario in which the human race survives is if our thousands
upon thousands of meticulous empirical studies on climate change
turn out to be something we've been lying about all along," said
climate scientist Philip Vanderwall, who stated that unless the
entire scientific community has spent the past 50 years falsifying
reams of data as part of a coordinated disinformation campaign to
sabotage the global economy, the world's low-lying coastal regions
are as good as done for. "The evidence indicates our planet still
might stand a chance of averting a complete climate catastrophe as
long as my colleagues and I belong to a cabal of charlatans who are
secretly paid huge sums of money to trick everyone into believing
excess greenhouse gases will precipitate record-breaking natural
disasters and worldwide famine. Otherwise, we're all doomed." On a
personal note, Vanderwall added that he hopes that one day, his
grandchildren will discover that he was involved in a massive,
nefarious conspiracy spanning every country on the face of the
earth, because it is the only thing that can possibly save them.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theonion.com/climate-researchers-warn-only-hope-for-humanity-now-lie-1828171232">https://www.theonion.com/climate-researchers-warn-only-hope-for-humanity-now-lie-1828171232</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10284">This Day in Climate
History - August 16, 2013</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
August 16, 2013: The climate documentary "The Politics of Power"
airs for the first, last and only time on MSNBC.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10284">http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10284</a><br>
<br>
<br>
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