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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>August 3, 2020</b></font></i></p>
[BBC says this changes everything]<br>
<b>Climate change: 'Huge' implications to Irish climate case across
Europe</b><br>
On Friday the Supreme Court quashed the government's 2017 National
Mitigation Plan.<br>
<br>
Judges ruled that it did not give enough detail on the reduction of
greenhouse gases.<br>
<br>
The case was brought by the environmental group Friends of the Irish
Environment...<br>
- - <br>
Friends of the Irish Environment spokeswoman Clodagh Daly told BBC
News NI the verdict was "crystal clear" and would have implications
across Europe.<br>
<br>
She said: "It shows governments have to do more to protect their
citizens from the worst impact of the climate crisis.<br>
<br>
"We know that the transition to the low-carbon economy is
technologically feasible - there is no legal basis for a lack of
political will.<br>
<br>
"Governments around the EU have no excuse now."<br>
- -<br>
Bringing the case, Friends of the Irish Environment argued the Irish
government had a responsibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
within the next couple of years or face the serious impacts of
climate change...<br>
- -<br>
The unanimous judgment of the Supreme Court ruled that more
specificity was needed about how objectives laid out in the 2015
legislation were going to be met by 2050.<br>
<br>
This was decided on the grounds that a reasonable and interested
person could make a judgement both as to whether the plan in
question was realistic and as to whether they agree with the policy
options.<br>
<br>
It was ruled that this standard for specificity was currently not
met...<br>
- - <br>
"We must use this judgement to raise ambition, empower action and
ensure that our shared future delivers a better quality of life for
all."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53619848">https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53619848</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[DeSmogBlog]<br>
<b>As Trump Leaves Permian Oilfield, Industry Insiders Question If
2020 Bust Marks Texas Oil's Last Big Boom</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/07/30/trump-leaves-texas-some-question-if-shale-bust-marks-permian-oilfield-s-final-boom">https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/07/30/trump-leaves-texas-some-question-if-shale-bust-marks-permian-oilfield-s-final-boom</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Scientist posted in the AGU -The American Geophysical Union is a
501 nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic,
space, and planetary scientists, consisting of over 62,000 members
from 144 countries.]<br>
<b>POSITION STATEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE</b><b><br>
</b><b>SOCIETY MUST ADDRESS THE GROWING CLIMATE CRISIS NOW</b><br>
Download the PDF at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.agu.org/-/media/Files/Share-and-Advocate-for-Science/Position-Statements/Society_Must_Address_the_Growing_Climate_Crisis_Now_2019.pdf">https://www.agu.org/-/media/Files/Share-and-Advocate-for-Science/Position-Statements/Society_Must_Address_the_Growing_Climate_Crisis_Now_2019.pdf</a><br>
<br>
Immediate and coordinated actions to limit and adapt to human-caused
climate change are needed to protect human and ecological health,
economic well-being, and global security.<br>
<br>
<b>The Challenge</b><br>
Human activities are changing Earth's climate, causing increasingly
disruptive societal and ecological impacts. Such impacts are
creating hardships and suffering now, and they will continue to do
so into the future - in ways expected as well as potentially
unforeseen. To limit these impacts, the world's nations have agreed
to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C
(3.6°F) above pre-industrial levels.<br>
<br>
To achieve this goal, global society must promptly reduce its
greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC), global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions must
reach net-zero by around 2070 to have a good chance of limiting
warming to a 2° C increase and by about 2050 to achieve a more
protective limit of a 1.5°C (2.7°F) increase. Either target will
require a substantial near-term transition to carbon-neutral energy
sources, adoption of more carbon-efficient food systems and land use
practices, and enhanced removal of CO2 from the atmosphere through a
combination of ecological and technological approaches.<br>
<br>
Society must also prepare to cope with and adapt to the adverse
impacts of climate change. Done strategically, efficiently, and
equitably, the needed transformations provide a pathway toward
greater prosperity and well-being, while inaction will prove very
costly for humans and other life on the planet.<br>
<br>
<b>The Evidence</b><b><br>
</b>Over the past century, as a result of burning fossil fuels and
other human activities, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse
gases--including CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, and halocarbons--have
risen to levels unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years.
Extensive observations document that the global average surface
temperature in the atmosphere and ocean has increased by about 1°C
(1.8°F) from 1880 to 2018. The current decade is now the hottest in
the history of modern civilization. Based on extensive scientific
evidence, it is extremely likely that human activities, especially
emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the
observed warming since the mid-20th century. There is no alterative
explanation supported by convincing evidence.<br>
<br>
Many other changes related to heating have been documented: more
frequent heat waves on land and in the ocean; reductions in Arctic
sea ice, the Northern Hemisphere's snow cover, the Greenland and
West Antarctic ice sheets, and mountain glaciers; changes in the
global water cycle, including intensifying<br>
<br>
precipitation events; and rising sea levels. Greater CO2
concentrations in the atmosphere are also affecting the growth and
nutritional value of land plants and are directly acidifying ocean
waters.<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>The Predictions</b><br>
Realistic and continually improving computer simulations of the
global climate predict that global temperatures will continue to
rise as a result of past and future greenhouse gas emissions, with
growing risks to natural and human systems. The amount of warming
predicted in the coming decades depends primarily on the choices
society makes and how those choices affect future emissions.<br>
<br>
Global average temperatures will only stabilize after CO2 emissions
reach net-zero, which means that the amount humans emit into the
atmosphere is matched by efforts to accelerate its removal by
natural or technological means. Simulations demonstrate that
limiting the overall temperature increase to 1.5°C, including the
1.0°C warming that has already occurred, requires achieving net zero
CO2 emissions around 2050, sooner if warming reduces the ability for
nature to absorb and retain carbon. Large reductions in emissions of
other greenhouse gases, as well as increased removal of CO2 from the
atmosphere, are also required. Even if global temperature is
stabilized, sea level will continue to rise for hundreds of years,
but at a much slower rate than if warming continued.<br>
<br>
<b>The Consequences</b><br>
Human-caused climate change is occurring more rapidly than has been
typical in Earth's history, disrupting communities and ecosystems
adapted to previous, relatively stable climatic conditions. The
changing climate will increase heat-related deaths, various mental
and physical illnesses, and some infectious diseases. It will
accentuate hazards such as flooding, wildfire, and dryland water
scarcity, and toxic algae. Economic disruption and additional health
impacts will result from shifts in agricultural and fisheries
productivity, diminished worker productivity, damages to critical
infrastructure, and more severe weather disasters, including
expected increases in drought and hurricane intensities. Economic or
social disruption is likely to drive migration and compound risks of
conflict and global insecurity. Climate change will continue to
severely stress the world's ecosystems, including threatened coral
reefs, permafrost landscapes and the Arctic; decrease biodiversity;
and cause extraordinary numbers of extinctions on land and in the
oceans. The severity of these and other impacts will worsen with
more warming.<br>
<br>
Climate change is manifest in myriad ways that exacerbate many
existing challenges, stressing every region of the world and every
sector of the economy. Some populations, communities, regions, and
ecosystems are especially vulnerable. As lower-income and other
marginalized populations are likely to be more affected and
generally have less capacity to adapt to changes, climate change is
expected to worsen pre-existing inequalities.<br>
<br>
<b>The Needed Responses</b><br>
Destructive consequences of global climate change can be moderated
by taking prompt actions to use energy more efficiently, transition
to energy sources and products and services that do not release
greenhouse gases, implement existing and novel technologies and
practices to remove and store CO2 from the atmosphere, and adapt to
unavoidable changes. These actions must involve individuals,
communities, businesses, governments, acting at local, regional,
national, and global scales. Done smartly, those actions can yield
significant economic and social benefits, including better human
health and well-being, employment opportunities, more sustainably
used resources, and conserved biodiversity. Enhanced CO2 removal
from the atmosphere will be needed to achieve net-zero emissions.
Other climate intervention approaches, such as solar radiation
management, require cautious consideration of risks. Neither can
substitute for deep cuts in emissions or the need for adaptation.<br>
<br>
Effective climate policies will rely on innovative and responsive
science and engineering to inform and weigh response options.
Scientists and engineers must continue to engage with policy makers,
communities, businesses, and the public to undertake
solution-oriented research and analysis. Scientific institutions,
including academia and governmental agencies, should expand and
prioritize their support for research, application, and knowledge
dissemination to address the climate crisis.<br>
<br>
A position statement on climate change was previously adopted by the
American Geophysical Union in December 1998; A new version was
adopted December 2003; Revised and Reaffirmed December 2007,
February 2012, August 2013, November 2019.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.agu.org/Share-and-Advocate/Share/Policymakers/Position-Statements/Position_Climate">https://www.agu.org/Share-and-Advocate/Share/Policymakers/Position-Statements/Position_Climate</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[OMG! spiders too!]<br>
<b>Extreme weather is making these spiders extra feisty</b><br>
They get rather aggressive after a tropical cyclone passes through.<br>
By Sara Chodosh - August 22, 2019...<br>
- - <br>
We're slowly getting better at storm predictions, though, and it's
coinciding with another reason for the push to study cyclone
ecology: these storms are getting worse as our seas warm. That's
prompting researchers to start trying to investigate cyclone effects
in more detail, including a group of ecologists from California and
Ontario. Their chosen specimen: Anelosimus studiosus, a type of
tangle web spider known for living in multi-female colonies along
the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and for their unusually different
personalities. Some A. studiosis are docile and meek, while others
are aggressive and dominant. The ecologists published their findings
in Nature Ecology & Evolution this week.<br>
<br>
Depending on their environment, these tangle web colonies can be
mostly aggressive or mostly docile, and like the individual traits,
the colony's aggressiveness level is passed down genetically. See,
aggressiveness isn't entirely a good or bad thing. Spiders that
attack prey frequently and quickly, which makes them better at
finding food when it's scarce. But all that aggression can build up
and cause infighting if the spiders run short on meals or get
overheated, proving that arachnids are more relatable than any of us
thought.<br>
<br>
All of this raises a question that you can probably see coming by
now: do cyclones make for more aggressive tangle web spiders?<br>
<br>
It turns out that yes, yes they do. Much like the lizards that
became better huggers to survive hurricane-force winds, tangle web
spiders seem to amp up their attitudes in response to tropical
cyclones.<br>
<br>
The researchers figured this out by studying 240 separate colonies
of A. studiosus before three tropical cyclones--subtropical storm
Alberto, hurricane Florence, and hurricane Michael--and then
returned to see how those colonies fared 48 hours later. They
deliberately picked some sites that were likely to be in the storm
paths along with other, uninterrupted sites to serve as controls.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.popsci.com/spiders-more-aggressive-after-cyclones/">https://www.popsci.com/spiders-more-aggressive-after-cyclones/</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 -
August 3, 2015 </b></font><br>
<b>The New York Times reports:</b><br>
"The issue of climate change played almost no role in the 2012
presidential campaign. <br>
<br>
President Obama barely mentioned the topic, nor did the Republican
nominee, Mitt Romney. It was not raised in a single presidential
debate.<br>
<br>
"But as Mr. Obama prepares to leave office, his own aggressive
actions on climate change have thrust the issue into the 2016
campaign. Strategists now say that this battle for the White House
could feature more substantive debate over global warming policy
than any previous presidential race."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/03/us/politics/obama-policy-could-force-robust-climate-discussion-from-2016-candidates.html?_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/03/us/politics/obama-policy-could-force-robust-climate-discussion-from-2016-candidates.html?_r=0</a><br>
<br>
<b>The AP reports:</b><br>
"Aiming to jolt the rest of the world to action, President Obama
moved ahead Sunday with even tougher greenhouse gas cuts on American
power plants, setting up a certain confrontation in the courts with
energy producers and Republican-led states.<br>
<br>
"In finalizing the unprecedented pollution controls, Obama was
installing the core of his ambitious and controversial plan to
drastically reduce overall US emissions, as he works to secure a
legacy on fighting global warming. Yet it will be up to Obama's
successor to implement his plan, which has faced steep Republican
opposition from Capitol Hill to the 2016 campaign trail.<br>
<br>
"Opponents planned to sue immediately and to ask the courts to block
the rule temporarily. Many states have threatened not to comply.<br>
<br>
"The Obama administration estimated the emissions limits will cost
$8.4 billion annually by 2030. The actual price won't be clear until
states decide how they will reach their targets. But energy industry
advocates said the revision makes Obama's mandate even more
burdensome, costly, and difficult to achieve.<br>
<br>
'"'They are wrong,' the Environmental Protection Agency's
administrator, Gina McCarthy, said flatly, accusing opponents of
promulgating a 'doomsday' scenario.<br>
<br>
"Last year, the Obama administration proposed the first greenhouse
gas limits on existing power plants in US history, triggering a
yearlong review and received more than 4 million public comments. <br>
<br>
"On Monday, Obama was to unveil the final rule publicly at an event
at the White House.<br>
<br>
"'Climate change is not a problem for another generation,' Obama
said in a video posted to Facebook. 'Not anymore.'<br>
<br>
"The final version imposes stricter carbon dioxide limits on states
than were previously expected: a 32 percent cut by 2030, compared
with 2005 levels, the White House said. Last year, Obama's proposed
version called for a 30 percent cut.<br>
<br>
"Immediately, Obama's plan began reverberating in the 2016
presidential race, with Hillary Rodham Clinton voicing her strong
support and using it to criticize her GOP opponents for failing to
offer a credible alternative.<br>
<br>
"'It's a good plan, and as president, I'd defend it,' Clinton said.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/08/02/obama-rule-for-power-plants-compel-steeper-emissions-cuts/vhwQU4MUS6MPcaAskKqqKI/story.html">http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/08/02/obama-rule-for-power-plants-compel-steeper-emissions-cuts/vhwQU4MUS6MPcaAskKqqKI/story.html</a><br>
<br>
<b>The Washington Post reports:</b><br>
"Four weeks before the official rollout, the news for President
Obama's signature regulation on climate change suddenly went from
bad to abysmal.<br>
<br>
"Already, the Senate's top Republican was urging a nationwide
boycott of the carbon-cutting proposal known as the Clean Power
Plan. Fourteen states had joined in a lawsuit seeking to block the
rule even before it became final. Then came a blow from the Supreme
Court: a surprise June 29 decision blocking the White House's
previous attempt at curbing pollution from coal-burning power
plants.<br>
<br>
"By July 7, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency was
testily deflecting questions over whether the Clean Power Plan -- a
pillar of the White House's climate-change strategy -- could survive
the gantlet of legal and political challenges it faced.<br>
<br>
"'We certainly know how to defend against lawsuits, for crying out
loud,' EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told reporters at a
Washington news conference.<br>
<br>
"White House officials pressed ahead with the proposal, ultimately
deciding on an altered version that will be formally adopted at a
ceremony Monday. But while the revised rule expresses lofty aims,
the details reflect real, practical concerns about the battles still
to come: an expected onslaught of litigation and legislation
designed to derail the rule.<br>
<br>
"The final shape of the Clean Power Plan was hashed out over months
of often contentious meetings as administration officials debated
how to balance two competing objectives. On one side were advocates
who pushed for the deepest possible cuts in U.S. greenhouse-gas
pollution to help build momentum for international climate talks
this December in Paris. On the other were experienced regulators and
lawyers who saw trouble ahead as the proposed rule picked up growing
numbers of opponents in Congress and in the utilities industry..."<br>
<br>
"But other observers said the administration appeared to have gotten
exactly what it wanted. Supporters said the revisions to the
regulation undercut the most salient legal and political objections
raised by critics, including the claim that the plan will unfairly
burden poor people or will lead to disruptions in the power supply.
At the same time, the plan appears capable of achieving its goals of
encouraging greater adoption of renewable energy as well as dramatic
reductions in heat-trapping carbon pollution over the next 15 years,
said S. William Becker, executive director of the National
Association of Clean Air Agencies, an independent group that
represents state regulators."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/internal-debate-over-clean-energy-plan-pitted-ambition-against-legal-worries/2015/08/02/9e0c1c94-3966-11e5-9c2d-ed991d848c48_story.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/internal-debate-over-clean-energy-plan-pitted-ambition-against-legal-worries/2015/08/02/9e0c1c94-3966-11e5-9c2d-ed991d848c48_story.html</a><br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.msnbc.com/thomas-roberts/watch/president-obama-unveils-clean-power-plan-497601603688">http://www.msnbc.com/thomas-roberts/watch/president-obama-unveils-clean-power-plan-497601603688</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.msnbc.com/andrea-mitchell-reports/watch/sustained-change--obama-unveils-climate-plan-497534531635">http://www.msnbc.com/andrea-mitchell-reports/watch/sustained-change--obama-unveils-climate-plan-497534531635</a><br>
<br>
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