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<i><font size="+1"><b>July 26, 2020</b></font></i><br>
<br>
[changes reported- clips]<br>
<b>Sultry Nights and Magnolia Trees: New York City Is Now
Subtropical</b><br>
Winter is warmer and summer is sweltering, with torrential afternoon
downpours. What's next, palm trees?<br>
By Lisa M. Collins - July 24, 2020<br>
<br>
It was the fig trees that tipped him off. Something was very unusual
at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It was May in the early 2000s and
Chris Roddick, the head arborist there, was making his rounds when
he noticed a big mistake...<br>
- - <br>
"Before, we were just trying to keep the plants alive," Mr. Roddick
said. Suddenly, "it was like, OK, we can grow figs."...<br>
- -<br>
For example, from January through March this year, the average
temperature in Central Park was 42.5 degrees Fahrenheit, the second
warmest on record, said Art DeGaetano, director of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast Regional Climate
Center. The record was set in 2012, at 43.1 degrees. Spring,
meanwhile, arrived two weeks early this year. Magnolia and cherry
trees bloomed in early March, a pleasure usually reserved for April.
The intoxicating blooms were a welcome sight as the city shut down.<br>
<br>
This summer, as New Yorkers enjoy pina coladas served on hot city
sidewalks, they are also running for cover when weather events
deluge the town, like July's Tropical Storm Fay, which was book
ended by several torrential downpours. The summer of the pandemic is
on pace to register as one of the hottest on record....<br>
- - <br>
For gardening, the city's growing conditions now more closely mirror
those of Maryland, coastal Virginia and Washington, D.C., more than
the Deep South or the Northeast, Mr. Roddick and others said...<br>
- -<br>
"In the spring of 2011, things happened in a way that nobody saw
before," Mr. Giordano said. "We had cherry trees blooming in the
middle of March. For me, that was a real wake-up moment."...<br>
- -<br>
Japanese flowering apricot and camellias, which normally thrive in
the South (camellia is the state flower of Alabama, and Japanese
flowering apricot has been popularized by the North Carolina State
University Arboretum), successfully bloomed there last spring, Mr.
Forrest said. He continued: "If you had asked me 25 years ago if
they could survive unprotected, let alone thrive, in New York, I'd
say, 'Humbug.'"<br>
<br>
Magnolia trees, a symbol of the Deep South, as well as dogwoods, are
also hearty throughout the city...<br>
- - <br>
Mr. Roddick, of Brooklyn's Botanic Garden, actually had his first
big arboreal surprise in the mid-1990s. Similar to his fig tree
epiphany a few years later, he noticed that a gardener had failed to
cut back the crepe myrtle trees, which normally froze in the winter.
"The trees were budding," Mr. Roddick said. "We were shocked."<br>
<br>
Over the last 22 years, only once has an ice storm damaged the
trees, he said.<br>
<br>
Crepe myrtles are native to Southeast Asia, India and parts of the
Central and South Pacific. They are also very common in the American
South, where in the summer, they splash the landscape with red,
pink, lavender and white blossoms. Until recently, crepe myrtles in
New York City would grow no larger than a shrub; gardeners would cut
them down to the root for winter.<br>
<br>
Now the Brooklyn Botanic Garden grows several varieties year-round,
and some have grown into 20-foot trees. They can be found throughout
the city and the northern suburbs...<br>
- - <br>
Bugs that used to die off in winter are now surviving and have the
chance to multiply. The hemlock woolly adelgid is a bug that attacks
hemlock trees, native to this area for thousands of years. Hemlocks,
the redwoods of the East, provide cool, shaded areas north of the
city, favored by black bears and migrating birds. Once the adelgids
hit the trees, death is all but certain for the hemlocks (unless
flocks of beetles are unleashed to counterattack).<br>
<br>
More worrisome, among people who grow things, is the spotted lantern
fly. It arrives at American ports in shipping crates from around the
world. Without a hard frost to kill them off, the flies spread
unchecked...<br>
- - <br>
Annually, the city gets about the same amount of rain as it has over
the last few decades, but it comes in deluges, instead of steady,
moderate downfalls, said Dr. Bassuk, the Cornell professor. And
there is more time in between rain events, making drought more
likely.<br>
<br>
When rain comes hard and fast, it often runs off without being
absorbed by the soil, said Mark Fisher, the former vice president of
horticulture at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Erosion is another
issue.<br>
<br>
To help prevent runoff, the garden built an elaborate rain catchment
system. Computer software prompts water levels in ponds to decrease
when rain is predicted, so the ponds won't overflow during
rainstorms. The rainwater is filtered and reused for irrigation...<br>
- - <br>
"Storm events both big and small, 20 years ago they happened so
infrequently that nobody had to prepare for it," Mr. Roddick said.
"We sort of expect them now."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/nyregion/climate-change-nyc.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/nyregion/climate-change-nyc.html</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Seattle is in King County, this has such great local politics!]<br>
<b>King County Council Unanimously Adopts Bold Regulations to Stop
New Fossil Fuel Projects Before They Start</b><br>
<br>
Last year, thousands of King County residents came together to win a
moratorium on new fossil fuel development. Today, King County
Council voted unanimously to make that moratorium permanent, by
passing a comprehensive suite of regulations that protect local
communities from fossil fuel threats.<br>
<br>
"The first step to getting out of a hole is to stop digging. When it
comes to the climate crisis, that means we need to stop building new
fossil fuel infrastructure which would lock us into decades of
climate pollution and injustice," said Jess Wallach, 350 Seattle
Campaigns Co-Director.<br>
<br>
Fossil fuel infrastructure poses an unacceptable risk to the health
and safety of people living in King County. Fracked gas pipelines,
oil-by-rail, and coal extraction (and the toxic messes these
projects leave behind when abandoned) are linked to cancer-causing
air and water pollution, respiratory illness, heart attacks, birth
defects, stroke, and premature death.<br>
<br>
"Low-income and communities of color in King County already bear the
brunt of negative health outcomes from exposure to the burning of
fossil fuels and this will only be exacerbated with the deepening
climate crisis" said Matt Remle, co-founder of Mazaska Talks. "The
first step in addressing the climate crisis is by not making it
worse. With today's vote, King County is showing that all
communities deserve clean air, water, neighborhoods and futures."<br>
<br>
<b>The King County regulations adopted today:</b><br>
- Explicitly prohibit certain types of fossil fuel infrastructure,
such as coal mines and large-scale oil and gas storage facilities
(like the dirty and dangerous Tacoma LNG facility currently being
built at the Port of Tacoma).<br>
- Strengthen permitting criteria for new and expanded fossil fuel
infrastructure, to ensure the well-being of current and future King
County residents is prioritized in any project review.<br>
- Require comprehensive review and mitigation of the full scope of
environmental impacts of any fossil fuel project, including
lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, threats to air and water
quality, and public health risks.<br>
- Establish demonstrated, early, and meaningful consultation with
tribes.<br>
<br>
The County also took steps today to ensure local taxpayers aren't on
the hook for the costs when fossil fuel infrastructure inevitably
leaks, explodes, and pollutes:<br>
<br>
"As fossil fuel companies teeter on the edge of bankruptcy in the
age of COVID19, they are leaving potentially gargantuan cleanup
costs in their wake," said Daphne Wysham with Center for Sustainable
Economy in Portland, ORG. "We're glad to see King County, WA, join
Multnomah County, OR, in exploring fossil fuel risk bond programs as
an innovative way to force the polluter to pay -- before they
declare bankruptcy or before a major accident occurs -- while
minimizing costs to the taxpayer and risks to frontline communities
and the environment."<br>
<br>
"The longer we wait to act on pollution and climate change, the more
dire and wide-spread the impacts on people will be," adds Dr. Ken
Lans, with WA Physicians for Social Responsibility. "We should be
doing everything we can to reduce our fossil fuel use, rather than
enabling it -- so we're thrilled that the county has taken this
critically important action to protect the health and safety of all
its residents."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://mkcclegisearch.kingcounty.gov/Legislation.aspx">https://mkcclegisearch.kingcounty.gov/Legislation.aspx</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
[Climate gaming- is it Cynicism or Entertainment?]<br>
<b>Global warming wagering is the new sports betting, oddmakers say.
Because 2020</b><br>
The silence of the sports world has been bombastic in the ears of
fans across the globe, most clinging to any semblance of a game
since the world shifted under the extraordinary weight of the
coronavirus. And fans aren't the only ones. The sports betting
industry was impacted at the hands of COVID-19 as well - but not in
a way one might think.<br>
<br>
Gamblers all over the world can now bet on...global warming.<br>
<br>
You read that right.<br>
<br>
MyBookie, one of the leading online sportsbooks, unveiled on
Wednesday that gamblers can now bet on numerous odds including what
the land/ocean temperature index will be for 2020 or what the carbon
dioxide measurement will be for the month of August...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article244433252.html">https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article244433252.html</a><br>
- -<br>
[I have not tried - have not verified this source]<br>
<b>MYBOOKIE Featured Betting Odds</b><br>
NEED HELP? CALL: 844-866-BETS<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://mybookie.ag/sportsbook/earth-events/">https://mybookie.ag/sportsbook/earth-events/</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
July 26, 1977 </b></font><br>
The New York Times runs a front-page story entitled: <b><br>
</b><br>
<b>"Scientists Fear Heavy Use of Coal May Bring Adverse Shift in
Climate."</b>
<blockquote>"Highly adverse consequences" may follow if the world,
as now seems likely, depends increasingly on coal for energy over
the next two centuries, according to a blue‐ribbon panel of
scientists.<br>
<br>
In a report to the National Academy of Sciences on their
two‐and‐a‐half‐year study, the scientists foresee serious climate
changes beginning in the next century. By the latter part of the
22d century a global warming of 10 degrees Fahrenheit is
indicated, with triple that rise in high latitudes.<br>
<br>
This, it is feared, could radically disrupt food production, lead
to a 20‐foot rise in sea level and seriously lower productivity of
the oceans.<br>
<br>
The focus of concern is the addition of carbon dioxide to the
atmosphere by fuel burning. While that gas represents less than
one‐tenth of 1 percent of the atmosphere, it acts like glass in a
greenhouse. That is, it permits passage of sunlight to heat the
earth but absorbs infrared radiation that would otherwise return
some of that heat to space.<br>
In recent months several scientists have warned of the
consequences of increasing, long‐term dependence on fossil fuels,
notably coal, as the chief energy source because of what could be
disastrous effects on climate. The argument has been seized on by
advocates of nuclear energy.<br>
<br>
The new study does not deal with alternative energy sources. Nor
does it call for early curtailment of coal burning. Heavy use of
such fuel is being promoted by the Carter Administration as a
means of avoiding excessive dependence on nuclear energy.<br>
<br>
The central recommendation of the re port, prepared with help from
a number of Government agencies, laboratories and computer
facilities, is initiation of farreaching studies on a national and
international basis to narrow the many uncertainties that affect
assessment of the threat.<br>
<br>
To this end, it proposes creation by the Federal Government of a
climatic council to coordinate American efforts and to participate
in the development of international studies. Representatives of
the White House and Government agencies that would be involved in
such an effort were at the academy on Friday to hear presentations
on the 281‐page report.<br>
<br>
These were offered by Roger R. Revelle, chairman of the 15‐member
panel, and by Philip H. Abelson and Thomas F. Malone, co‐chairmen
of the academy's geophysics study committee, which initiated the
project.<br>
Dr. Revelle heads the Center for Population Studies at Harvard
University and was formerly director of the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. Dr. Abelson heads the Carnegie
Institution of Washington. Dr. Malone, who directs the Holcomb
Research Institute at Butler University in Indianapolis, has for
many years been a leader in weather research.<br>
<br>
Dr. Malone said that the report was not a red light on coal use,
nor a green light, but rather a "flashing yellow light" saying,
"Watch out." Dr. Revelle, in a summary of the findings, said that
early action was needed because it would take decades to narrow
the uncertainties and then a full generation to shift to new
energy sources if that, as expected, proves necessary.<br>
<br>
<b>Problem of Change Stressed</b><br>
<br>
"An interdisciplinary effort of an almost unique kind" is needed,
he said, bringing together specialists from such fields as
mathematics, chemistry, meteorology and the social sciences. A
major challenge would be to find ways to bring about the needed
institutional changes, persuading governments and people to act
before it was too late.<br>
<br>
By the end of this century, Dr. Revelle said, it is expected that
the carbon dioxide content of the air will have risen 25 percent
above its level before the Industrial Revolution. By the end of
the next century, it will have doubled, based on predicted
increases in population and fuel consumption.<br>
<br>
By the middle of the 22d Century, he added, it should have
increased from four to eight times and, even if fuel burning
diminishes then, it will remain that high "at least 1,000 years
thereafter."<br>
<br>
It is estimated that in the last 110 years 127 billion tons of
carbon derived from fuel and from limestone used to make cement
have been introduced into the atmosphere. Cement manufacture
accounted for 2 percent of that amount and burning for the rest.<br>
<br>
A considerable part of the carbon dioxide increase is attributed
to clearing land for agriculture. This added 70 billion tons,
according to an estimate that Dr. Revelle, however, described as
"very uncertain." He noted that one acre of a tropical forest
removes 100 tons of carbon from the atmosphere. When the land is
cleared that carbon, through burning or decay, returns to the air.
More than half of land clearing for agriculture has occurred since
the mid‐19th Century, he said.<br>
Dr. Revelle termed the predicted worldwide rise of 11 degrees in
the 22d century "a very shaky conclusion" based on inadequate
knowledge. But, he added, it is "a possibility that must be taken
seriously." Part of the uncertainty concerns the amount of added
atmospheric carbon dioxide that would be absorbed by the oceans
and plant growth. He predicted that a research program to achieve
more reliable estimates would cost $20 million to $100 million.<br>
<br>
<b>Shift in Corn Belt Seen</b><br>
<br>
Much of the report deals with expected effects of a global
warming. Agricultural zones would be transferred to higher
latitudes. The corn belt, for example, would shift from fertile
Iowa to a Canadian region where the soil is far less fertile, Dr.
Revelle said.<br>
<br>
Particularly vulnerable, he added, would be the fringes of arid
regions, where a large part of the world population derives its
sustenance, though the effect is difficult to predict. Marine life
would suffer from lack of nutrients because a "lid" of warm water
would impede circulation that normally brings nutrients to the
surface.<br>
<br>
On the other hand, plant productivity, Dr. Revelle noted, could
rise 50 percent because plants would be "fertilized" by the higher
carbon dioxide content of the air. The warmer climate could melt
the floating pack ice of the Arctic Ocean, leading to radical
changes in the Northern climate.<br>
<br>
The report suggests that increased snowfall on Antarctica could
overload the West Antarctic ice sheet, sending large sections of
it into the sea. This would raise global sea levels 16 feet. The
oceans would swell from being warmed to make the total rise 20
feet.<br>
<br>
The study assumed a world population of 10 billion by late in the
next century and a fivefold increase over present energy
consumption. The direct effect of heat from such energy use would
be insignificant except locally, the report says.<br>
<br>
It also assumed that for public health reasons the release of
particles into the atmosphere would be sufficiently curtailed for
their role to be a minor one so far as climate is concerned.<br>
A number of research strategies are proposed to reduce
uncertainties. The most ambiguous estimates concern the role of
plants. It is estimated that land plants annually remove 55
billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere, and that oceanic
plants take up another 25 billion tons.<br>
<br>
One of the firmer estimates concerns the current rise in carbon
dioxide content of the air because of measurements conducted
largely by Dr. Charles D. Keeling of the University of California
at San Diego. These have been made atop Mauna Loa, the Hawaiian
volcano, and at the South Pole, both sites being far removed from
local sources of pollution. They show a 5 percent rise in the last
15 years. The total rise to date has been 11.5 to 13.5 percent.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0F11F8395E137B93C7AB178CD85F438785F9">http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0F11F8395E137B93C7AB178CD85F438785F9</a><br>
<br>
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