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<i><font size="+1"><b>August 13, 2020</b></font></i><br>
<br>
[Election]<br>
<b>VP nominee Kamala Harris has a particular climate-change agenda:
environmental justice</b><br>
Published: Aug. 12, 2020<br>
The former California AG, with proposed Climate Equity Act, has
already indicated she'll address air quality in poorer zip codes and
punish those who pollute...<br>
- - <br>
Her addition to the top of the Democrats' ticket for November comes
just days after she released new legislation, the Climate Equity
Act. In it, she and co-sponsors aim to ensure that any environmental
regulation or legislation would be rated based on its impact on
low-income communities, similar to a Congressional Budget Office
score...<br>
- - <br>
"Harris's strength in messaging climate issues and selling the Biden
climate agenda is her ability to tie climate to social justice and
public health issues," wrote Our Daily Planet editors Miro Korenha
and Monica Medina. "She approaches climate justice from a
prosecutorial lens and much of her own presidential climate plan
focused on holding polluters accountable for the damage they've
inflicted on vulnerable communities as well as strengthening laws to
prevent these actions going forward."...<br>
more at -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/vp-nominee-kamala-harris-has-a-particular-climate-change-agenda-environmental-justice-2020-08-12">https://www.marketwatch.com/story/vp-nominee-kamala-harris-has-a-particular-climate-change-agenda-environmental-justice-2020-08-12</a><br>
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[Carbon combustion]<br>
<b>Air pollution is much worse than we thought</b><br>
Ditching fossil fuels would pay for itself through clean air
alone.....<br>
By David Roberts - Aug 12, 2020<br>
- -<br>
For example, scientists now know that exposure to smog (tiny,
microscopic particulates) hurts prenatal and young brains. Even
though they don't yet fully understand the biological mechanism,
they know it reduces impulse control and degrades academic
performance. Similarly, they know it hurts the kidneys, the spleen,
even the nervous system.<br>
<br>
"The well-understood pathways, things like strokes, lower
respiratory infections, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
only seem to capture about half the total," Shindell says. "When you
look at the [new] studies, you find that air pollution seems to
affect almost every organ in the human body."...<br>
- - <br>
The air quality benefits arrive much sooner than the climate
benefits. They are, at least for the next several decades, much
larger. They can be secured without the cooperation of other
countries. And, by generating an average of $700 billion a year in
avoided health and labor costs, they will more than pay for the
energy transition on their own. Climate change or no climate change,
it's worth ditching fossil fuels.<br>
<br>
And if this is true in the US -- which, after all, has comparatively
clean air -- it is true tenfold for countries like China and India,
where air quality remains abysmal. A Lancet Commission study in 2017
found that in 2015, air pollution killed 1.81 million people in
India and 1.58 million in China...<br>
- - <br>
<b>Air pollution ought to be seen as a global civil rights crisis</b><br>
The extraordinary level of suffering humanity is currently
experiencing from air pollution is not necessary for modernity; it
could be reduced, at a cost well below the net social benefits, with
clean energy technologies on hand.<br>
<br>
If they are not necessary, then the millions of lives ended or
degraded by fossil fuels every year are a choice. And when suffering
on this scale, that is this brutally inequitable, becomes a choice,
it enters the same ethical terrain as war, slavery, and genocide.
The effects are more distributed over time and geography, as are the
decision-making and the moral culpability, but the cumulative impact
on human well-being -- on our longevity, health, learning, and
happiness -- is comparable, and every bit as much worth fighting.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/8/12/21361498/climate-change-air-pollution-us-india-china-deaths">https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/8/12/21361498/climate-change-air-pollution-us-india-china-deaths</a><br>
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[Middle East dry heat]<br>
<b>Baghdad's record heat offers glimpse of world's climate change
future</b><br>
Door handles blistering to the touch. Leaves yellowed and brittle.
And a yawning divide between AC haves and have-nots.<br>
By Louisa Loveluck, Chris Mooney <br>
AUGUST 12, 2020<br>
- -<br>
Baghdad hit 125.2 degrees on July 28, blowing past the previous
record of 123.8 degrees -- which was set here five years ago -- and
topping 120 degrees for four days in a row. Sitting in one of the
fastest warming parts of the globe, the city offers a troubling
snapshot of the future that climate change might one day bring other
parts of the world.<br>
Experts say temperature records like the one seen in Baghdad will
continue to fall as climate change advances.<br>
<br>
"It's getting hotter every year," said Jos Lelieveld, an expert on
the climate of the Middle East and Mediterranean at the Max Planck
Institute in Germany. "And when you are starting to get above 50
degrees Celsius [122 degrees Fahrenheit] it becomes life
threatening."...<br>
more at -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/08/12/baghdad-iraq-heat-climate-change/?arc404=true">https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/08/12/baghdad-iraq-heat-climate-change/?arc404=true</a>
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<p>[audio and text]<br>
<b>Environmentalist Bill McKibben on national security
implications of climate change</b><br>
</p>
<p>In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell
interviews author and environmentalist Bill McKibben about the
national security implications of climate change, including how
current trends, if unchecked, could lead to future catastrophes.
McKibben explains why taking certain actions immediately and for
the next ten years is crucial in order to forestall mass
migrations, crop shortages and deadly droughts. He shares his
views on the troubling parallels between climate change and
certain accelerating technologies like genetic modification. <br>
</p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/environmentalist-bill-mckibben-on-national-security-implications-of-climate-change/">https://www.cbsnews.com/news/environmentalist-bill-mckibben-on-national-security-implications-of-climate-change/</a><br>
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<p>- - <br>
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[Web site devoted to climate and security]<br>
<b>THE CENTER FOR CLIMATE & SECURITY</b><b><br>
</b><b>EXPLORING THE SECURITY RISKS OF CLIMATE CHANGE</b><br>
Washington, DC, August 12, 2020 - As ASEAN convenes the 13th Meeting
of its Joint Task Force on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster
Relief, the Expert Group of the International Military Council on
Climate and Security (IMCCS) released a new report urging leaders to
make climate change a "security priority" in the Indo-Asia Pacific.
The IMCCS is a group of senior military leaders, security experts,
and security institutions across the globe - currently hailing from
38 countries in every hemisphere - dedicated to anticipating,
analyzing, and addressing the security risks of a changing climate.<br>
<br>
The emergence and ongoing consequences of COVID-19 have exposed
serious societal vulnerabilities, even in wealthy nations, and
demonstrated that foreseeable crises can have severe social,
economic, political and security consequences. Furthermore, the
COVID-19 crisis is a wake-up call for using science as a basis for
risk management. Likewise, climate science should be incorporated
into security policy and planning to avoid worst outcomes. This is
according to the new report by the Expert Group of the International
Military Council on Climate and Security (IMCCS), titled "Climate
and Security in the Indo-Asia Pacific."...<br>
- - <br>
The report, which is part of the World Climate and Security Report
2020 Briefer Series, articulates six main points.<br>
<blockquote><b>- Addressing the root causes of climate change should
be a security priority for the region</b>. Addressing the root
causes of climate-related security threats, including by
considering the full scope of implications of fossil fuel energy
investments on national interests and national security, can
support regional stability in a changing world. Significantly
reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the region should therefore
be a security priority for the region.<br>
<b>- Climate change should be higher on the regional security
agenda</b>. Though the Indo-Asia Pacific is one of the regions
most vulnerable to climate impacts, the security dimensions of
climate change are not high on the agenda in policy circles. It is
the most disaster-prone part of the world; food and water security
are vulnerable to climate impacts; its population and economic
infrastructure are concentrated on the coasts and vulnerable to
storms and sea level rise.<br>
<b>- Climate change is worsening underlying security tensions in
the region.</b> In a region where geostrategic competition,
inter- and intra-state tensions and violent unrest have increased,
the report finds that climate change-related stressors including
changing river flows, migrating fish stocks, extreme weather and
sea level rise could erode coping capacities, increase grievances,
worsen underlying tensions and fragilities, overwhelm state
capacities and degrade the security environment, if not managed
effectively.<br>
<b>- Many security dynamics in the region are highly sensitive to
climate change.</b> Some of the region's security dynamics are
particularly sensitive to climate impacts, e.g. sea level rise and
military buildup on contested features in the South China Sea;
interstate tensions expressed through (and exacerbated by)
transboundary water management disputes; confrontations over
fishing driven by declining yields (due to overfishing and
pollution as well as climate-driven ocean warming and
acidification); and eroding livelihoods potentially driving more
piracy and serious organized crime.<br>
<b>- Foreseeable security challenges related to climate change
underly a regional Responsibility to Prepare and Prevent.</b>
Security communities in the Indo-Asia Pacific have a
responsibility to prepare for and prevent these foreseeable
security challenges, alongside development and diplomatic actors,
the authors find. This includes supporting climate resilience by
strengthening military capacities for Humanitarian Assistance and
Disaster Relief operations, and improving responses to climate
threats by supporting long-range planning within government.<br>
<b>- Better coordination between security communities is critical
for combating climate-related security threats.</b> Better
coordination and networking among the international security
community working to address climate-related threats, such as
through the International Military Council on Climate and
Security, can facilitate information exchange and sharing lessons
learned. This includes sharing the world-leading expertise of
Indo-Asia Pacific militaries in responding to climate-driven
disasters.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://climateandsecurity.org/2020/08/12/release-as-asean-meets-to-talk-disaster-relief-new-report-from-military-analysts-urges-indo-asia-pacific-leaders-to-make-climate-change-a-security-priority/#more-19809">https://climateandsecurity.org/2020/08/12/release-as-asean-meets-to-talk-disaster-relief-new-report-from-military-analysts-urges-indo-asia-pacific-leaders-to-make-climate-change-a-security-priority/#more-19809</a><br>
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[one excellent presentation]<br>
Prof John P. Holdren environmental policy from John F. Kennedy
School of Government - Harvard University - video from the master of
understatement<br>
<b>Science Session: Thawing Arctic Permafrost--Regional and Global
Impacts</b><br>
May 11, 2020<br>
<b>National Academy of Sciences</b><br>
Temperatures across the Arctic are increasing two to four times
faster than the global average. The dramatic consequences that are
already apparent include reduction of sea-ice cover, accelerating
loss of land ice from glaciers and the Greenland Ice Sheet,
proliferating wildfires, and--the topic of this panel--ongoing
heating and thawing of the permafrost that underlies most of the
land area of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions across the globe.
Permafrost thaw is a direct threat to buildings, roads, and
pipelines, and it can greatly accelerate erosion along rivers and
coastlines with severe consequences for communities located there.
But an impact with much wider consequences is the release of carbon
dioxide and methane by the decomposition of previously frozen
organic matter, affecting the rate of growth of global warming and
all of its impacts everywhere. (There is estimated to be something
like 2.5 times as much carbon in the as in the entire global
atmosphere; the key question is how fast it will come out.) The
panelists, leading Arctic experts all, explain the complex science
of thawing permafrost and elucidate the implications both regionally
and globally. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nGECF2qSO4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nGECF2qSO4</a><br>
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AUGUST 12, 2020<br>
<b>Freakish Arctic Fires Alarmingly Intensify</b><br>
by ROBERT HUNZIKER<br>
NASA satellite images of fires in eastern Siberia depict an inferno
of monstrous proportions, nothing in modern history compares. And,
as of July, it's intensifying. Should people be concerned? Answer:
Yes, and double yes.<br>
<br>
According to Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at the Copernicus
Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) of the European Centre for
Medium-Range Weather Forecasts: "What has been surprising is the
rapid increase in the scale and intensity of the fires through July,
largely driven by a large cluster of active fires in the northern
Sakha Republic." (Source: Kasha Patel, NASA/NOAA Satellites Observe
Surprisingly Rapid Increase in Scale and Intensity of Fires in
Siberia, SciTechDaily, August 9, 2020)<br>
<br>
The problem: "Abnormally warm temperatures have spawned an intense
fire season in the eastern Siberian this summer," Ibid.<br>
<br>
Is this global warming on steroids?...<br>
- - <br>
Here's more about this mind-blowing threat to the well-being of the
world:<br>
(1) Arctic fires in Russia in June and July alone released "more CO2
than any complete fire season" since records have been kept and more
CO2 than all of Scandinavia, happening in only two months time.
That's beyond shocking, and it represents country-wide-scale CO2
emissions emitted by nature itself now competing head-on with every
aspect of Paris '15.<br>
<br>
(2) The fires are double trouble as one half of the fires are on
peatlands, which, once started, can burn almost forever if the heat
is intense enough (which it is) emitting both CO2 and CH4 in
unheralded competition with the dictates of Paris '15.<br>
<br>
"Peat fires can burn longer than forest fires and release vast
amounts of carbon into the atmosphere." (Source: Kasha Patel,
NASA/NOAA Satellites Observe Surprisingly Rapid Increase in Scale
and Intensity of Fires in Siberia, SciTechDaily, August 9, 2020)<br>
<br>
"The destruction of peat by fire is troubling for so many reasons,'
said Dorothy Peteet of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
'As the fires burn off the top layers of peat, the permafrost depth
may deepen, further oxidizing the underlying peat," Ibid.<br>
<br>
Oh by the way, only recently it was reported that the amount of
carbon stored in northern peatlands is double previous estimates.
(Source: Jonathan Nichols, et al, Holocene Ecohydrological
Variability on the East Coast of Kamchtka, Frontiers in Earth
Science, May 15, 2019)<br>
<br>
It goes without saying that raging firestorms in a heat-induced
global warming environment that releases more greenhouse gases into
the atmosphere than several countries combined darkens the epithet
"Black Swan" almost beyond recognition.<br>
<br>
But, is it really a Black Swan? Well, no, it is not a Black Swan
because human-generated (anthropogenic) carbon emissions, like
exhaust from fossil-fueled SUV engines, have been on a tear,
especially since the turn of the new century (doubling on a per
annum basis) blanketing the atmosphere (holding in heat), thus
causing extraordinary readings of heat in the upper latitudes. So,
yes, more fires were expected, no Black Swan.<br>
<br>
But, the intensity of the fires hands down, no doubt about it,
easily meets that criterion. Therefore, yes, it is a Black Swan, as
the intensity is so overwhelmingly powerful that nobody could have
possibly expected it to happen this way, and therein lies the risk
to the "great hope" of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to minimize
global temperatures to 2C above baseline, or all hell breaks loose.<br>
<br>
Get serious! It's already breaking loose!<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/12/freakish-arctic-fires-alarmingly-intensify/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/12/freakish-arctic-fires-alarmingly-intensify/</a><br>
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[Digging back into the internet news archive - 6 years ago]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
August 13, 2014 </b></font><br>
<p>On MSNBC's "The Ed Show," Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska discusses
the recent onslaught of poisoned weather in the US.</p>
<p>Summer across the United States has been marked by dangerous
weather, causing floods, heat waves and other unusual severe
storms. Michael Eric Dyson, Jane Klebb, and Don Anderson discuss.</p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.msnbc.com/the-ed-show/watch/damaging-impact-of-severe-weather-317880899851#">http://www.msnbc.com/the-ed-show/watch/damaging-impact-of-severe-weather-317880899851#</a>
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