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<i><font size="+1"><b>May 13, 2020</b></font></i><br>
<br>
[politics policy-Axios]<br>
<b>AOC joins Biden climate change task force</b><br>
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) will join the climate change
policy task force for Joe Biden's campaign, reports CNN.<br>
<br>
Why it matters: The Biden campaign is forming multiple such groups
to help bridge the policy divide with progressive Bernie Sanders
supporters in the Democratic Party. AOC is among the most
high-profile and influential figures in the party's progressive
wing.<br>
<br>
Biden said last month that he's planning to add new elements to his
climate policy, and has signaled that he'll prioritize the topic if
elected.<br>
AOC co-authored the sweeping Green New Deal resolution and
subsequent climate proposals.<br>
She's popular among activists who have attacked Biden's climate
platform as too modest, even though it goes far beyond Obama-era
policies.<br>
Driving the news: AOC will be on the task force as Sanders'
representative, a spokesperson told CNN...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.axios.com/aoc-biden-climate-change-task-force-sanders-90d103f8-2c71-4743-b69f-9a3edea3ad18.html">https://www.axios.com/aoc-biden-climate-change-task-force-sanders-90d103f8-2c71-4743-b69f-9a3edea3ad18.html</a><br>
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[drought]<br>
<b>2000-2010 drought in Upper Missouri River Basin driest in 1,200
years</b><br>
A large team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions
across the U.S. and one in Canada has found that the 2000-2010
drought in the Upper Missouri River Basin was the driest in the past
1,200 years. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, the group describes their analysis of data from
the PAGES 2k project and what it showed them...<br>
- -<br>
In this new effort, the researchers looked at the Missouri River
Basin. The Missouri River is the longest river in North America. It
is fed by snow that falls on the Rocky Mountains in the winter and
melts in the spring and summer, and is one of the main feeder rivers
to the Mississippi River. To learn more about droughts in the river
basin, the researchers pulled data from the PAGES 2k project--a
network of databases and other resources that have been assembled to
describe conditions on Earth over the past 2000 years. Some of the
information in its databases includes tree ring data for many parts
of the Missouri River Basin.<br>
<br>
Using this data, the researchers were able to build a timeline for
the basin that included changes to both temperature and rainfall.
They were able to see that the drought over the years 2000 to 2010
was the driest that had occurred over the past 1,200 years--worse
even than that which occurred during the dust bowl years. They also
found that the main driver of the draught was higher than normal
temperatures that have been influencing streamflow by reducing
runoff efficiency since at least the latter part of the 20th
century. They further note that higher average temperatures have
also led to higher evapotranspiration in the river basin. They close
their paper by issuing a warning for the future--they expect
increasingly severe droughts and water deficits in the region in the
coming years.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://phys.org/news/2020-05-drought-upper-missouri-river.html">https://phys.org/news/2020-05-drought-upper-missouri-river.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Grist relays]<br>
<b>Coronavirus is a make-or-break moment for climate change,
economists say</b><br>
By Shannon Osaka on May 11, 2020<br>
- - <br>
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the Obama
administration's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funneled $90
billion towards clean energy projects, extending tax credits and
training workers for green energy jobs. Researchers believe that
stimulus played a powerful role in the explosive growth of wind and
solar over the past decade.<br>
<br>
The prospect of a climate-friendly recovery looks less likely under
the current administration. The U.S. government didn't bother to
include green policies in the $2 trillion stimulus package approved
in March. And according to recent reports, coal companies have
siphoned off over $30 million in pandemic support loans intended for
small businesses.<br>
<br>
But the March relief bill is unlikely to be the last, and
environmentalists and policymakers around the world are pushing for
a more climate-friendly recovery plan. Representatives from 17
countries in Europe have called on the E.U. to prioritize a "Green
Deal" that would push the bloc to reach net-zero emissions by 2050;
Antonio Guterres, the head of the United Nations, has also urged
countries to face the ongoing downturn with the climate crisis in
mind.<br>
<br>
Emissions are temporarily down due to global lockdowns, but the
economists behind the Oxford study warn that they could rebound with
a vengeance as nations recover. Without the right policies, they
write, "We will leap from the COVID frying pan into the climate
fire."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://grist.org/climate/coronavirus-is-a-make-or-break-moment-for-climate-change-economists-say/">https://grist.org/climate/coronavirus-is-a-make-or-break-moment-for-climate-change-economists-say/</a><br>
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</p>
<p><br>
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[brief video about opinion manipulation (and wacky beliefs)]<b><br>
</b> <b>Plandemic and the seven traits of conspiratorial thinking</b><br>
John Cook<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rban0JGEimE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rban0JGEimE</a><br>
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</p>
[Climate Signals]<b><br>
</b><b>CLIMATE CHANGE & DROUGHT</b><br>
Climate change is making droughts more likely to occur - and more
severe when they do - in parts of the United States. While the US is
no stranger to drought, climate change has exacerbated drought
conditions so that when droughts occur, it is in a hotter climate
and, in some cases, with lower precipitation.<br>
<br>
How has climate change already worsened US droughts?<br>
Snow cover has declined in the Northern Hemisphere significantly
over the past 90 years, largely driven by climate change.<br>
Warmer temperatures associated with climate change have intensified
the severity of droughts, particularly in areas already suffering
from water scarcity.<br>
Climate change can even be detected on some of the droughts in the
early twentieth-century (1900-1950).<br>
<b>How does climate change make drought worse?</b><br>
Climate change has exacerbated drought in parts of the US primarily
by decreasing the snowpack and already small amount of water
available in streams and soils. Most droughts are driven by natural
variability in precipitation. Climate change-driven hotter
temperatures, however, melt snowpack earlier, evaporate water in
streams and lakes, and evaporate water from soils, turning what
would have been a moderate drought into a much more severe drought.
In some limited cases, there is also evidence that climate change is
changing rainfall patterns, blocking rain from reaching areas in
need of water. These combined effects have made what may have been
moderate droughts severe or exceptional instead.<br>
more at -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-signals/drought-risk-increase">https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-signals/drought-risk-increase</a><br>
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</p>
<p><br>
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<p>[Cli-migrants]<br>
<b>What data do cities like Orlando need to prepare for climate
migrants?</b><br>
The challenges of predicting where people will go to escape
flooding, wildfires and drought<br>
- - <br>
Social media, including Facebook and Twitter, may also be useful
for tracking large-scale migrations due to climate events that
occur on short timescales. Yago Martín, who studies urban
resilience at UCF, and colleagues devised a way to use geotagged
tweets to identify and track movements of over a thousand Puerto
Rican residents in Maria's aftermath. The methodology holds
promise for tracking future migrations, the team reported in
February in Population and Environment.<br>
<br>
The good news is that large research institutions are beginning to
recognize the need to fund climate migration research, says UCF
sociologist Fernando Rivera, who heads the university's Puerto
Rico Research Hub. He is gearing up to embark on a National
Academy of Sciences-funded analysis of past and present climate
migrations, focusing on changes in housing markets, financial
services, health care, employment and economic development in the
communities where migrants end up.<br>
<br>
The study zooms in on three migration events: from Puerto Rico to
Orlando in 2017; New Orleans to Houston in 2005 following
Hurricane Katrina; and the pending resettlement of the few dozen
residents of Isle de Jean Charles, one of Louisiana's coastal
islands about to be drowned by rising seas. The goal, Rivera says,
is to try to determine lessons for future destination communities,
such as Orlando...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/climate-change-migrants-destination-cities-data-orlando">https://www.sciencenews.org/article/climate-change-migrants-destination-cities-data-orlando</a><br>
- - <br>
[source material]<br>
<b>Using geotagged tweets to track population movements to and
from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria</b><br>
Abstract<br>
After a disaster, there is an urgent need for information on
population mobility. Our analysis examines the suitability of
Twitter data for measuring post-disaster population mobility using
the case of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Among Twitter users
living in Puerto Rico, we show how many were displaced, the timing
and destination of their displacement, and whether they returned.
Among Twitter users arriving in Puerto Rico after the disaster, we
show the timing and destination of their trips. We find that 8.3%
of resident sample relocated during the months after Hurricane
Maria and nearly 4% of were still displaced 9 months later.
Visitors to Puerto Rico fell significantly in the year after
Hurricane Maria, especially in tourist areas. While our Twitter
data is not representative of the Puerto Rican population, it
provides broad evidence of the effect of this disaster on
population mobility and suggests further potential use...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11111-020-00338-6">https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11111-020-00338-6</a></p>
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[Beckwith video lecture]<br>
<b>Mechanisms, Evidence, and Impacts of Climate Tipping Elements:
Earth System Dynamics</b><br>
May 12, 2020<br>
Paul Beckwith<br>
A new review paper called "ESD Reviews: mechanisms, evidence, and
impacts of climate tipping elements" was published online a few
weeks ago and assessed the latest science on risks and impacts of
various tipping elements. In the last video, here, and in the next
video I chat about the risks of these tipping elements. The
discussion includes the usual suspects: ice melt, AMOC shutdown,
methane release from hydrated and permafrost, Amazon forest
collapse, etc., but significantly included a new one called
stratospheric cloud deck evaporation. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Ni0O4bUdQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Ni0O4bUdQ</a><br>
- - -<br>
[Temp rise in models]<br>
<b>Stratocumulus Cloud Deck Collapse and other Tipping Elements in
the Climate System that Can Smush Us</b><br>
May 12, 2020<br>
Paul Beckwith<br>
Stratocumulous cloud decks cover lots of ocean and block sunlight
providing some cooling offset to GHG warming. Typically these clouds
are 1 km above ocean surfaces and are about 370 meters thick, and
are sustained by long wave radiation cooling at their tops. As CO2
concentration increases, convective circulation resupplying moisture
to the clouds from ocean evaporation can be disrupted, leading to
less long wave cooling cutting off the source of surface moisture,
leading to disintegration of the clouds and abrupt, acute surface
warming of up to 8 C. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dawRAMgBgwM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dawRAMgBgwM</a><br>
<p>- - <br>
</p>
[Source]<br>
<b>ESD Reviews: mechanisms, evidence, and impacts of climate tipping
elements</b><br>
<b>Abstract</b>. Increasing attention is focusing upon climate
tipping elements - large-scale earth systems anticipated to respond
through positive feedbacks to anthropogenic climate change by
shifting towards new long-term states. In some but not all cases,
such changes could produce additional greenhouse gas emissions or
radiative forcing that could compound global warming. Developing
greater understanding of tipping elements is important for
predicting future climate risks. Here we review mechanisms,
predictions, impacts, and knowledge gaps associated with ten notable
climate tipping elements. We also evaluate which tipping elements
are more imminent and whether shifts will likely manifest rapidly or
over longer timescales. Some tipping elements are significant to
future global climate and will likely affect major ecosystems,
climate patterns, and/or carbon cycling within the current century.
However, assessments under different emissions scenarios indicate a
strong potential to reduce or avoid impacts associated with many
tipping elements through climate change mitigation. Most tipping
elements do not possess the potential for abrupt future change
within years, and some tipping elements are perhaps more accurately
termed climate feedbacks. Nevertheless, significant uncertainties
remain associated with many tipping elements, highlighting an acute
need for further research and modeling to better constrain risks.<br>
<br>
How to cite: Wang, S. and Hausfather, Z.: ESD Reviews<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.earth-syst-dynam-discuss.net/esd-2020-16/">https://www.earth-syst-dynam-discuss.net/esd-2020-16/</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
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[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
May 13, 2009 </b></font><br>
The bipartisan Raise Wages, Cut Carbon Act is introduced in the
House.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/05/13/68130/republican-lawmakers-back-carbon.html">http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/05/13/68130/republican-lawmakers-back-carbon.html</a><br>
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