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<i><font size="+1"><b>April 4, 2020</b></font></i><br>
<br>
[rising risk]<br>
<b>Climate Change Has Doubled Riskiest Fire Days in California</b><br>
The extreme conditions that are ripe for wildfires will only
increase if warming continues unabated<br>
By Anne C. Mulkern, E&E News on April 3, 2020<br>
- -- <br>
The number of extreme-risk days will continue to grow "given that
the climate will continue to warm somewhat more, no matter what we
do," Swain said. The study noted, however, that actions to mitigate
climate change "would substantially curb that increase" later in the
century.<br>
<br>
"This risk is definitely going to get worse before it gets better,"
Swain said. "On the other hand we have a lot of control over how
much worse it gets."<br>
<br>
California in recent years has experienced the deadliest and most
destructive fires on record. That's triggered extreme adaptation
efforts, including shutting off electricity to millions of people by
Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the state's largest utility. The
blackouts were aimed at preventing downed lines from sparking
blazes...<br>
- - -<br>
"Much of interior northern California and coastal southern
California experienced the hottest summer on record in 2018, and
autumn rainfall did not arrive across much of the state until
mid-to-late November—thus predisposing the region to extreme fire
danger conditions," the study said.<br>
<br>
The northern Sierras and the Malibu area, both of which suffered
damaging fires in 2018, have warmed roughly 0.6 F per decade since
the early 1980s, the study said.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-has-doubled-riskiest-fire-days-in-california/">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-has-doubled-riskiest-fire-days-in-california/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[pushing for change]<br>
<b>Virus Or Not, US States Foment 100% Renewable Energy Rebellion</b><br>
April 3rd, 2020 by Tina Casey <br>
If fossil fuel stakeholders hoped for the COVID-19 crisis to give
them a little breathing room, they may have to do some re-hoping.
The US Energy Department dropped yet another one of its renewable
energy truth bombs earlier this week, and now a coalition of
economically powerful US states has followed up with a new
initiative aimed at accelerating 100% clean energy goals across the
country. That's not just a state-level thing, either. The new
initiative aims at municipalities, corporations, utilities, and
other stakeholders, too.<br>
- - -<br>
Fossil Fuels Crashing, Renewable Energy Rising<br>
Meanwhile, yet another in a series of interesting coincidences (or
not-coincidences as the case may be) occurred this week, when news
surfaced that at least seven top oil and gas execs were heading to
the White House for a personal meeting — a rare thing these days —
in search of an assist for their industry.<br>
<br>
As if to troll the group, the Energy Department promptly cut loose
with two key renewable energy funding announcements promoting
offshore wind, among other renewable marine energy resources.<br>
<br>
No word yet on whether or not coal stakeholders get a top-level
meeting of their own. If they get the brush-off, that wouldn't be a
surprise. Despite repeated promises to coal miners from the current
occupant of the Oval Office, the US coal industry is in freefall. As
they say, failure is an orphan.<br>
<br>
As if to underscore the point, earlier this week energy regulators
in New Mexico enabled the utility PNM to cut ties with the notorious
847-megawatt San Juan Generating Station, which is not good news for
the power plant's feeder coal mine.<br>
<br>
A firm called Enchant Energy still thinks it can keep San Juan going
with a proposed carbon capture operation, but those energy
regulators in New Mexico seem to be not thinking the same think.<br>
<br>
According to a new study from our friends over at IEEFA, coal could
sink to about 10% of US electricity generation within the next five
years or so.<br>
<br>
That's quite a turnaround for a fuel that claimed a 50% share as
dawn broke over the 21st century. Just goes to show how quickly
things can change. Something to think about as energy stakeholders
of all sorts jockey for position in the post-COVID world of the
future.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://cleantechnica.com/2020/04/03/virus-or-not-us-states-foment-100-renewable-energy-rebellion/">https://cleantechnica.com/2020/04/03/virus-or-not-us-states-foment-100-renewable-energy-rebellion/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Arctic risk]<br>
<b>Arctic climate change - it's recent carbon emissions we should
fear, not ancient methane 'time bombs'</b><br>
Joshua Dean - April 2, 2020<br>
The Arctic is predicted to warm faster than anywhere else in the
world this century, perhaps by as much as 7C. These rising
temperatures threaten one of the largest long-term stores of carbon
on land: permafrost.<br>
<br>
Permafrost is permanently frozen soil. The generally cold
temperatures in the Arctic keep soils there frozen year-on-year.
Plants grow in the uppermost soil layers during the short summers
and then decay into soil, which freezes when the winter snow
arrives.<br>
<br>
Over thousands of years, carbon has built up in these frozen soils,
and they're now estimated to contain twice the carbon currently in
the atmosphere. Some of this carbon is more than 50,000 years old,
which means the plants that decomposed to produce that soil grew
over 50,000 years ago. These soil deposits are known as "Yedoma",
which are mainly found in the East Siberian Arctic, but also in
parts of Alaska and Canada.<br>
<br>
As the region warms, the permafrost is thawing, and this frozen
carbon is being released to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and
methane. Methane release is particularly worrying, as it's a highly
potent greenhouse gas.<br>
<br>
- - -<br>
What this shows is that the age of the carbon released from the
warming Arctic is less important than the amount and form it takes.
Methane is 34 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse
gas over a 100-year timeframe. The East Siberian Arctic is a
generally flat and wet landscape, and these are conditions which
produce lots of methane, as there's less oxygen in soils which might
otherwise create carbon dioxide during thaws instead. As a result,
potent methane could well dominate the greenhouse gas emissions from
the region.<br>
<br>
Since most of the emissions from the Arctic this century will likely
be from "young" carbon, we may not need to worry about ancient
permafrost adding substantially to modern climate change. But the
Arctic will still be a huge source of carbon emissions, as carbon
that was soil or plant matter only a few hundred years ago leaches
to the atmosphere. That will increase as warmer temperatures
lengthen growing seasons in the Arctic summer.<br>
<br>
The fading spectre of an ancient methane time bomb is cold comfort.
The new research should urge the world to act boldly on climate
change, to limit how much natural processes in the Arctic can
contribute to the problem.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://theconversation.com/arctic-climate-change-its-recent-carbon-emissions-we-should-fear-not-ancient-methane-time-bombs-135270">https://theconversation.com/arctic-climate-change-its-recent-carbon-emissions-we-should-fear-not-ancient-methane-time-bombs-135270</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Beckwith video talks ]<br>
<b>Arctic Sea Ice Status: Where it is NOW; Where is it GOING; and
how QUICKLY is it GOING.</b><br>
Apr 2, 2020<br>
Paul Beckwith<br>
This is the first of a bunch of videos on the Arctic Sea Ice. I
first give a recap on how vanishing sea ice is distorting the jet
streams and specifically messing with the center of rotation (center
of cold). I then go into details on the present state of sea ice
extent, thickness, and volume trends. Following that I discuss some
recent papers using computer models and statistical models to assess
when we can expect the first Blue Ocean Event (my phrase). Of
course, I interject a few times into this important topic with a few
updates on the exponential growth of our global coronavirus
pandemic. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJXkyeJBr_Q">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJXkyeJBr_Q</a><br>
- - -<br>
[Next video]<br>
<b>Arctic Sea-Ice: Going. Going. GONE; but WHEN?</b><b><br>
</b>Apr 2, 2020<br>
Paul Beckwith<br>
The essential go-to website for near real-time plots on the Arctic
sea-ice can be easily found by Googling "Arctic sea ice graphs".
Personally, I really appreciate the effort and expertise of Zach
Labe who generates numerous graphs and animations that clearly show
the rapidly decreasing trends in Arctic sea ice extent, thickness,
and volume. In this video and the next, I examine this data which
gives us a clear picture of the present state of the Arctic and from
the trends allows each of us to draw our own conclusions about the
near term trends. It is just a matter of time before the ice
vanishes, but how much time are we talking?<br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[new titles published by Routledge on the subject of Climate Change
and Sustainability]<br>
<b>Contemporary Climate Change Debates</b><br>
A Student Primer<br>
Edited by Mike Hulme<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.routledge.com/Contemporary-Climate-Change-Debates-A-Student-Primer/Hulme/p/book/9781138333024">https://www.routledge.com/Contemporary-Climate-Change-Debates-A-Student-Primer/Hulme/p/book/9781138333024</a><br>
- -<br>
<b>Insuring Against Climate Change</b><br>
The Emergence of Regional Catastrophe Risk Pools<br>
By Nikolas Scherer<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.routledge.com/Insuring-Against-Climate-Change-The-Emergence-of-Regional-Catastrophe/Scherer/p/book/9780367342470">https://www.routledge.com/Insuring-Against-Climate-Change-The-Emergence-of-Regional-Catastrophe/Scherer/p/book/9780367342470</a><br>
- -<br>
<b>Climate and Energy Politics in Poland</b><br>
Debating Carbon Dioxide and Shale Gas<br>
By Aleksandra Lis<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.routledge.com/Climate-and-Energy-Politics-in-Poland-Debating-Carbon-Dioxide-and-Shale/Lis/p/book/9780367195496">https://www.routledge.com/Climate-and-Energy-Politics-in-Poland-Debating-Carbon-Dioxide-and-Shale/Lis/p/book/9780367195496</a><br>
- - <br>
Routledge Advances in Climate Change Research:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Advances-in-Climate-Change-Research/book-series/RACCR">https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Advances-in-Climate-Change-Research/book-series/RACCR</a><br>
Routledge Research in Global Environmental Governance: <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.routledge.com/sustainability/series/RRGEG">https://www.routledge.com/sustainability/series/RRGEG</a>
<br>
<br>
<p> </p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
April 4, 2002 </b></font><br>
April 4, 2002: The New York Times reports:<br>
<br>
"President Bush signed an executive order last year that closely
resembles a written recommendation given to the administration two
months earlier by the American Gas Association, according to
documents released by the Bush administration.<br>
<br>
"The executive order called for the creation of an interagency
energy task force to accelerate the time it takes for government
agencies to review corporations' applications for permits for
energy-related projects, like power plants and the exploration of
oil and natural gas on public lands. Mr. Bush signed the order last
May.<br>
<br>
"The language in Mr. Bush's executive order is similar to a passage
in a proposed energy bill sent in March 2001 to the Energy
Department by officials at the American Gas Association, the trade
group that represents large natural gas companies and has given more
than $500,000 to the Republican Party since 1999."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/04/politics/04ENER.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/04/politics/04ENER.html</a><br>
<br>
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