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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>May 8, 2020</b></font></i><br>
</p>
[Amplification]<br>
<b>How Climate Change Is Contributing to Skyrocketing Rates of
Infectious Disease</b><br>
A catastrophic loss in biodiversity, reckless destruction of
wildland and warming temperatures have allowed disease to explode.
Ignoring the connection between climate change and pandemics would
be "dangerous delusion," one scientist said.<br>
by Abrahm Lustgarten May 7<br>
The scientists who study how diseases emerge in a changing
environment knew this moment was coming. Climate change is making
outbreaks of disease more common and more dangerous.<br>
<br>
Over the past few decades, the number of emerging infectious
diseases that spread to people -- especially coronaviruses and other
respiratory illnesses believed to have come from bats and birds --
has skyrocketed. A new emerging disease surfaces five times a year.
One study estimates that more than 3,200 strains of coronaviruses
already exist among bats, awaiting an opportunity to jump to
people...<br>
- - -<br>
There are three ways climate influences emerging diseases. Roughly
60% of new pathogens come from animals -- including those pressured
by diversity loss -- and roughly one-third of those can be directly
attributed to changes in human land use, meaning deforestation, the
introduction of farming, development or resource extraction in
otherwise natural settings. Vector-borne diseases -- those carried
by insects like mosquitoes and ticks and transferred in the blood of
infected people -- are also on the rise as warming weather and
erratic precipitation vastly expand the geographic regions
vulnerable to contagion. Climate is even bringing old viruses back
from the dead, thawing zombie contagions like the anthrax released
from a frozen reindeer in 2016, which can come down from the arctic
and haunt us from the past...<br>
- -<br>
Twelve months before the first COVID-19 case was diagnosed, a group
of epidemiologists working with a U.S. Agency for International
Development project called PREDICT, or Pandemic Influenza and other
Emerging Threats, was deep in the remote leafy jungle of southern
China's Yunnan province hunting for what it believed to be one of
the greatest dangers to civilization: a wellspring of emerging
viruses.<br>
<br>
A decade of study there had identified a pattern of obscure
illnesses affecting remote villagers who used bat guano as
fertilizer and sometimes for medicine. Scientists traced dozens of
unnamed, emerging viruses to caves inhabited by horseshoe bats. Any
one of them might have triggered a global pandemic killing a million
people. But luck -- and mostly luck alone -- had so far kept the
viruses from leaping out of those remote communities and into the
mainstream population...<br>
- -<br>
In late 2018, the Trump administration, as part of a sweeping effort
to bring U.S. programs in China to a halt, abruptly shut down the
research -- and its efforts to intercept the spread of a new novel
coronavirus along with it. "We got a cease and desist," said Dennis
Carroll, who founded the PREDICT program and has been instrumental
in global work to address the risks from emerging viruses. By late
2019, USAID had cut the program's global funding.<br>
<br>
USAID did not respond to a detailed list of questions from
ProPublica...<br>
- -<br>
A White House spokesperson did not respond to an emailed request for
comment.<br>
<br>
What Daszak really wants -- in addition to restored funding to
continue his work -- is the public and leaders to understand that
it's human behavior driving the rise in disease, just as it drives
the climate crisis. In China's forests, he looks past the
destruction of trees and asks why they are being cut in the first
place, and who is paying the cost. Metals for iPhones and palm oil
for processed foods are among the products that come straight out of
South Asian and African emerging disease hot spots.<br>
<br>
"We turn a blind eye to the fact that our behavior is driving this,"
he said. "We get cheap goods through Walmart, and then we pay for it
forever through the rise in pandemics. It's upside down."<br>
- - <br>
Abrahm Lustgarten covers energy, water, climate change and anything
else having to do with the environment for ProPublica.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.propublica.org/article/climate-infectious-diseases">https://www.propublica.org/article/climate-infectious-diseases</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[from the Center for Climate and Security]<br>
<b>Pentagon and Northern Command: Climate Change Has Implications
for National Security in the Arctic</b><br>
By Dr. Marc Kodack<br>
In case you missed it, on March 3 the Senate Armed Services
Committee, Sub-Committee on Readiness and Management Support, held a
hearing on "U.S. Policy and Posture in Support of Artic readiness."
Witnesses providing written statements and answering questions
included the HON Dr. James Anderson, Performing the Duties of the
Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and General Terrence
O'Shaughnessy, Commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American
Aerospace Defense Command. Both witnesses identified climate change
implications for national security in the Arctic region.<br>
<br>
<b>Summary</b><br>
In both the witness written statements and in answer to Members
questions, there was considerable emphasis on the threats from the
Russians and Chinese to U.S national security interests in the
Arctic. The Russians have significantly increased their military
presence, both at sea and on land. While the U.S. has its own
existing maritime and land-based Arctic capabilities, it is only now
moving towards building additional ice breakers to supplement the
only working ice breaker currently in the Coast Guard inventory. The
need for additional ice breakers is driven by the effects of climate
change whereby sea ice is considerably less extensive that in the
past creating ice free sea lanes that will become more extensive in
the future. The Russians are planning on exploiting these sea lanes
to their economic and military advantage...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://climateandsecurity.org/2020/04/29/pentagon-and-northern-command-climate-change-has-implications-for-national-security-in-the-arctic/">https://climateandsecurity.org/2020/04/29/pentagon-and-northern-command-climate-change-has-implications-for-national-security-in-the-arctic/</a><br>
- - -<br>
[video record]<br>
<b>U.S. Policy and Posture in Support of Arctic Readiness</b><br>
SUBCOMMITTEE ON READINESS AND MANAGEMENT SUPPORT<br>
Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2020<br>
Agenda<br>
To receive testimony on U.S. policy and posture in support of Arctic
readiness.<br>
Witnesses<br>
Dr. James H. Anderson<br>
Performing The Duties Of Deputy Under Secretary Of Defense For
Policy<br>
General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy, USAF<br>
Commander, United States Northern Command And North American
Aerospace Defense Command<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings/20-03-03-us-policy-and-posture-in-support-of-arctic-readiness">https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings/20-03-03-us-policy-and-posture-in-support-of-arctic-readiness</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Take a deep breath now]<br>
<b>This is your brain on carbon emissions</b><br>
By the end of the century, indoor carbon dioxide could reach levels
known to impair cognition..<br>
By Sarah DeWeerdt - April 28, 2020<br>
Lots of climate change literature points out that atmospheric carbon
dioxide levels have never in the entire history of the human species
been as high as they are today. Over the past 800,000 years, until
the start of the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere varied from about 200 to 300 parts per million (ppm).
Since the early 1800s, the concentration has increased nearly 50%,
from 280 ppm to 411 ppm in 2019.<br>
<br>
This change, and even the whole idea of conditions unprecedented in
our evolutionary history, often seems rather abstract. But carbon
dioxide levels in the atmosphere could have direct effects on human
physiology - perhaps eroding the keen intelligence and capacity for
abstract thinking that we like to think of as a hallmark of our
species, a new study suggests.<br>
<br>
There's a fair bit of research on carbon dioxide and cognitive
function in humans. This started out because scientists wanted to
know about the effects on people in tight quarters like submarines
and aircraft. More recently, they've looked at how carbon dioxide
accumulates in densely populated, sometimes poorly ventilated indoor
spaces such as schools and office buildings.<br>
<br>
Broadly speaking, such studies suggest that people's cognitive
functioning suffers when they are in a space with increased carbon
dioxide in the air. Sometimes the relationship is linear (as in the
case of overall decision-making ability) and sometimes there is a
big drop off at higher concentrations (as with complex
strategizing).<br>
<br>
But this research has received little attention from climate
scientists until now, perhaps because climate scientists are mostly
concerned with outdoor carbon dioxide levels and carbon
dioxide-cognition research has focused on the indoor environment...<br>
- - <br>
Better building ventilation could help reduce indoor carbon dioxide
levels, ameliorating some of the effects predicted in the new
analysis. But that won't help if the outdoor air is polluted, and of
course more building ventilation requires…more energy.<br>
<br>
It's also possible--though by no means guaranteed--that people's
bodies (and minds) could get used to higher ambient carbon dioxide
levels in the future. "Society's uncertain energy future provides a
compelling set of grand experiments," the researchers observe
--"some version of which will definitely be conducted."<br>
<br>
Source: Karnauskas K. et al. "Fossil fuel combustion is driving
indoor CO2 toward levels harmful to human cognition." GeoHealth
2020. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://anthropocenemagazine.org/2020/04/your-brain-on-carbon-emissions/">https://anthropocenemagazine.org/2020/04/your-brain-on-carbon-emissions/</a><br>
- - -<br>
[Source material]<br>
<b>Fossil fuel combustion is driving indoor CO2 toward levels
harmful to human cognition</b><br>
<b>Abstract</b><br>
<blockquote>Human activities are elevating atmospheric carbon
dioxide concentrations to levels unprecedented in human history.
The majority of anticipated impacts of anthropogenic CO2 emissions
are mediated by climate warming. Recent experimental studies in
the fields of indoor air quality and cognitive psychology and
neuroscience, however, have revealed significant direct effects of
indoor CO2 levels on cognitive function. Here we shed light on
this connection, and estimate the impact of continued fossil fuel
emissions on human cognition. We conclude that indoor CO2 levels
may indeed reach levels harmful to cognition by the end of this
century, and the best way to prevent this hidden consequence of
climate change is to reduce fossil fuel emissions. Finally, we
offer recommendations for a broad, interdisciplinary approach to
improving such understanding and prediction.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2019GH000237">https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2019GH000237</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2019GH000237">https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2019GH000237</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
[new science]<br>
<b>Cold air rises--what that means for Earth's climate</b><br>
by UC Davis<br>
This graphic illustrates the vapor buoyancy effect, in which cold,
humid air rises because it is lighter than dry air. Credit: Da
Yang/UC Davis<br>
Conventional knowledge has it that warm air rises while cold air
sinks. But a study from the University of California, Davis, found
that in the tropical atmosphere, cold air rises due to an overlooked
effect--the lightness of water vapor. This effect helps to stabilize
tropical climates and buffer some of the impacts of a warming
climate.<br>
<br>
The study, published today in the journal Science Advances, is among
the first to show the profound implications water vapor buoyancy has
on Earth's climate and energy balance.<br>
<br>
"It's well-known that water vapor is an important greenhouse gas
that warms the planet," said senior author Da Yang, an assistant
professor of atmospheric sciences at UC Davis and a joint faculty
scientist with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "But on the
other hand, water vapor has a buoyancy effect which helps release
the heat of the atmosphere to space and reduce the degree of
warming. Without this lightness of water vapor, the climate warming
would be even worse."<br>
<br>
Humid air is lighter than dry air under the same temperature and
pressure conditions. This is called the vapor buoyancy effect. This
study discovered this effect allows cold, humid air to rise, forming
clouds and thunderstorms in Earth's tropics. Meanwhile, warm, dry
air sinks in clear skies. Earth's atmosphere then emits more energy
to space than it otherwise would without vapor buoyancy.<br>
<br>
The study found that the lightness of water vapor increases Earth's
thermal emission by about 1-3 watts per square meter over the
tropics. That value compares with the amount of energy captured by
doubling carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The authors' calculations
further suggest that the radiative effects of vapor buoyancy
increase exponentially with climate warming.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://phys.org/news/2020-05-cold-air-riseswhat-earth-climate.html">https://phys.org/news/2020-05-cold-air-riseswhat-earth-climate.html</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>[Wildfire Today]<br>
<b>BLM issues preemptive Moses letter to all employees</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wildfiretoday.com/2020/05/05/blm-issues-preemptive-moses-letter-to-all-employees/">https://wildfiretoday.com/2020/05/05/blm-issues-preemptive-moses-letter-to-all-employees/</a></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[and also]<br>
<b>Future of the human climate niche</b><br>
PNAS first published May 4, 2020
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910114117">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910114117</a><br>
Contributed by Marten Scheffer, October 27, 2019 <br>
Significance<br>
We show that for thousands of years, humans have concentrated in a
surprisingly narrow subset of Earth's available climates,
characterized by mean annual temperatures around ∼13 C. This
distribution likely reflects a human temperature niche related to
fundamental constraints. We demonstrate that depending on scenarios
of population growth and warming, over the coming 50 y, 1 to 3
billion people are projected to be left outside the climate
conditions that have served humanity well over the past 6,000 y.
Absent climate mitigation or migration, a substantial part of
humanity will be exposed to mean annual temperatures warmer than
nearly anywhere today.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/04/28/1910114117">https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/04/28/1910114117</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[book]<br>
<b>CATHEDRAL ON FIRE | A CHURCH HANDBOOK FOR THE CLIMATE CRISIS</b><br>
The urgency of the climate crisis requires that we act as if our
cathedrals and churches are on fire. Indeed, God's creation can be
seen as one grand cathedral on fire with burning forests and rising
temperatures. Amid this dire situation, Brooks Berndt focuses our
attention on the unique and vitally needed gifts that churches can
offer. He writes with poetic passion but also with an eye toward the
practical as every chapter ends with suggested, field-tested
actions.<br>
<br>
Chapters in the book explore the following areas in which churches
possess immense potential:<br>
<br>
a commitment to care for God's creation as our first calling<br>
a scriptural basis in pursuing justice for a planet and its people<br>
a moral foundation for understanding the climate crisis as an
inequality crisis<br>
a powerful, sacred language for articulating what fundamentally
motivates people to act<br>
a hope-giving history found in the faith leaders who launched the
environmental justice movement<br>
a rich tradition of theology in times of crisis<br>
a countercultural ethic of generational justice found in the Bible<br>
a recognition of youth as the climate prophets of today<br>
sample text
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.uccfiles.com/pdf/Cathedral-on-Fire_SAMPLE_PAGES.pdf">https://www.uccfiles.com/pdf/Cathedral-on-Fire_SAMPLE_PAGES.pdf</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.uccresources.com/products/cathedral-on-fire-a-church-handbook-for-the-climate-crisis?variant=31676326117439">https://www.uccresources.com/products/cathedral-on-fire-a-church-handbook-for-the-climate-crisis?variant=31676326117439</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
May 8, 1989 </b></font><br>
The New York Times reports that the Office of Management and Budget
in the George H. W. Bush administration altered NASA climate
scientist James Hansen's upcoming Senate testimony to emphasize
alleged uncertainties in climate science.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/08/us/scientist-says-budget-office-altered-his-testimony.html">http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/08/us/scientist-says-budget-office-altered-his-testimony.html</a><br>
<br>
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