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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>August 3, 2021</b></font></i></p>
[Global problem]<br>
<b>Europe fries in a heat wave made ‘more intense by climate change’</b><br>
Fires, floods and roasting temperatures hit Europe from Finland to
Sicily.<br>
Europe roasted under one of its worst heat waves in decades on
Monday, as scientists and governments prepared to sign off on a
major new warning about the severity of climate change. <br>
<br>
Temperatures in Greece were forecast to approach Europe’s all-time
record of 48 degrees and wildfires raged in Turkey, Greece, Italy
and Finland. <br>
<br>
While parts of Europe burned, negotiations between governments and
scientists over the final wording of a major compilation of the last
seven years of climate science were taking place online...<br>
- -<br>
On Friday, the panel signed off on a section that draws on the
emerging field of attribution science, which allows scientists to
identify the human fingerprint in heat waves, floods and other
extreme events. It represents a profound shift in the level of
certainty and detail for single destructive events.<br>
<br>
“Every heat wave that is happening today is made more likely and
more intense by climate change,” said Friederike Otto, associate
director of the Environmental Change Institute, University of
Oxford, and the lead author on the IPCC report who has pioneered
research in the attribution field.<br>
<br>
The soaring temperatures are being felt across Southern Europe...<br>
- -<br>
Fires razed trees even in Europe’s far north last week, as Finland,
which registered record temperatures in early July, saw its worst
forest fire in half a century. <br>
<br>
Forecasters said the scorching temperatures in Southern Europe were
being driven by a “heat dome,” where heat gets trapped over a region
for days or even weeks. A similar pattern was behind recent extreme
heat in western North America. <br>
<br>
Recent scientific advances and leaked drafts of the IPCC report
indicate scientists will deliver a stark message next week about the
role of climate change in worsening heat waves, floods and other
disasters. <br>
<br>
“That side of the science has moved on a lot. And that will be
reflected I'm sure in the IPCC report,” said Hawkins. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-fries-in-a-heat-wave-made-more-intense-by-climate-change/">https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-fries-in-a-heat-wave-made-more-intense-by-climate-change/</a><br>
<br>
<p><b><br>
</b></p>
[Axios]<br>
<b>The case for climate change realism</b><br>
Andrew Freedman - August 2, 2021<br>
<br>
It’s getting harder and harder to communicate the two essential
realities of human-caused climate change: that our failure to slow
and eventually stop it is contributing to devastating human
suffering all over the world, and that it’s not too late to act.<br>
<br>
The big picture: Experts have long told climate communicators
—including scientists, journalists and politicians — that disaster
porn immobilizes people, leaving them cowering in a corner. You've
got to give them a sense of hope, the research shows.<br>
<br>
Yes, but: Climate news right now continues to be a steady, terrible
drumbeat of doom.<br>
<br>
During the past few months, we've seen an unprecedented, deadly heat
wave in the Pacific Northwest that shocked veteran climate
researchers, wildfires raging across the West well ahead of peak
fire season, and cities and towns flooded in Europe, China and
elsewhere.<br>
Each of these events has ties to climate change.<br>
<b>Why it matters:</b> Climate change is not an existential cliff
that we'll suddenly fall off of, with no turning back. It's more
like a hill we're sliding down at ever-increasing speed.<br>
<br>
We can choose to alter course at any time by hitting the brakes and
slashing emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide,
emanating from the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.<br>
But the longer we wait, the faster we'll be traveling, and the more
effort it will take to slow down and achieve the cuts that are
needed. And we've already waited a long time to start pumping the
brakes.<br>
Between the lines: Optimism has its place in climate change
discourse.<br>
<br>
Many of the technologies needed to dramatically reduce emissions,
such as renewable energy resources like wind and solar power, are
seeing increasingly wide adoption. In most cases now in the U.S.,
they even have a cost advantage over fossil fuels such as coal and
natural gas.<br>
Electric vehicles are gaining traction, and money is flowing into
next-generation technologies like carbon removal mechanisms.<br>
A social movement is pushing for climate action in the U.S. and
abroad. And corporations are seeking ways to reduce their emissions
in response to pressure from customers and regulators.<br>
But the fact is that we're still on course for at least 3°C (5.4°F)
of warming compared to the preindustrial era, based on the latest
emissions reduction pledges. And if climate models that project even
more warming for the same amount of emissions are correct, it could
be closer to 4°C (7.2°F).<br>
<br>
Almost unimaginable consequences would stem from that level of
warming, particularly in the developing world.<br>
The planet has only warmed by about 1.2°C (2.16°F) since the
preindustrial era, and even that has left us with a summer straight
out of "The Day After Tomorrow."<br>
<b>My thought bubble: </b>Being a climate reporter today is like
being a chronicler of human-caused disasters, along with a bearer of
grim policy news as leaders fail to stem the tide of ever-increasing
greenhouse gas emissions.<br>
<br>
My job is to inform, not to inspire, and that means being blunt
about the fact that climate change is ravaging the Earth right now.<br>
But I also know that too much doom risks leaving people with a sense
of fatalism, obscuring the equally true and equally relevant fact
that the damage does not have to keep getting worse at this pace.
Choices made today will determine what the planet will be like in
just a few decades.<br>
What's next: The doom, for now, is going to keep coming.<br>
<br>
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is set to release
a new compendium on Aug. 9 — a policy-neutral, authoritative report
that's expected to highlight how difficult it will be to adhere to
the Paris climate agreement's temperature targets, while also
depicting in more granular details the consequences of failing to do
so.<br>
The report is expected to detail the differences between a world
that warms by only 1.5°C -- an increasingly unrealistic target —
versus a world that warms by 2°C or more.<br>
Expect alarming headlines to accompany that report, and a renewed
push for action.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.axios.com/case-for-climate-change-realism-extreme-events-c384a74d-b3d3-42ec-8e2a-d9862175c738.html">https://www.axios.com/case-for-climate-change-realism-extreme-events-c384a74d-b3d3-42ec-8e2a-d9862175c738.html</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[We knew this would happen]<br>
<b>Biden’s Climate Plans Are Stunted After Dejected Experts Fled
Trump</b><br>
Hundreds of scientists and policy experts left the government during
the Trump administration. The jobs remain unfilled six months into
President Biden’s term.<br>
- -<br>
Scientists and climate policy experts who quit have not returned.
Recruitment is suffering, according to federal employees, as
government science jobs are no longer viewed as insulated from
politics. And money from Congress to replenish the ranks could be
years away...<br>
The result is that President Biden’s ambitious plans to confront
climate change are hampered by a brain drain.<br>
<br>
“The attacks on science have a much longer lifetime than just the
lifetime of the Trump administration,” said John Holdren, professor
of environmental science and policy at Harvard and a top science
adviser to President Barack Obama during his two terms.<br>
The Interior Department has lost scientists who study the impacts of
drought, heat waves and rising seas caused by a warming planet. The
Agriculture Department has lost economists who study the impacts of
climate change on the food supply. The Energy Department has a
shortage of experts who design efficiency standards for appliances
like dishwashers and refrigerators to reduce the pollution they
emit.<br>
- -<br>
Max Stier, president and chief executive of the Partnership for
Public Service, which studies the federal work force, said the Biden
administration must focus on modernizing recruitment and improving
human resource departments.<br>
<br>
“I don’t think it’s a simple story of ‘The last administration was
anti-science and the current administration is pro-science so
everything’s going to be fine,’” Mr. Steir said. “And there’s no law
you can pass that will fix all of this.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/01/climate/biden-scientists-shortage-climate.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/01/climate/biden-scientists-shortage-climate.html</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[respected scientist who often speaks out]<br>
<b>Dr Jason Box Says We're On "Catastrophic Path." (w/ Dr. Jason
Box)</b><br>
Jul 29, 2021<br>
Thom Hartmann Program<br>
Dr Jason Box talks about the alarming rate the arctic is malting and
likens us to the frogs as they slowly warm up. <br>
<blockquote>What's really standing out is winter warming,and that is
activating the permafrost carbon.<br>
The arctic used to be a region of permafrost ... carbon sink for
tens of thousands of years.<br>
The arctic soils are accumulating biomass and in a frozen state.
And this warming --<br>
which is pronounced in winters -- as activating microbial activity
it's following ground ice<br>
and ...it takes energy to heat ice and it does nothing until it
reaches zero Celcius<br>
and then it crosses that threshold and you you get melt, you get
water ponding at the surface which<br>
becomes a methane source...<br>
- -<br>
There is now growing evidence that warming is<br>
shifting the Arctic from a sink into source<br>
- - <br>
And there are abrupt processes - the collapse of permafrost and
these ... collapse mechanisms<br>
are not in the climate models and they're being programmed in
there now<br>
but we are looking at a future of 15 Celsius warming in the Arctic
by end of<br>
century and 25 Celsius in in winter...<br>
- -<br>
I don't think anyone knows just how soon the the house of cards...<br>
... civilization, how soon it falls apart...<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0iVaoxKwMQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0iVaoxKwMQ</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<br>
[The news archive - looking back]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming
August 3, 2015</b></font><br>
<br>
August 3, 2015:<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>
<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>
<b><br>
</b><b>NYTimes.com reports:</b><br>
"President Obama on Monday unveiled an aggressive plan to sharply
limit greenhouse gases emitted by the nation’s power plants,
declaring that time was running out to thwart the most dangerous
impacts of global climate change.<br>
<br>
"'No challenge poses a greater threat to our future and future
generations than a changing climate,' Mr. Obama said in a speech
from the East Room of the White House as he announced his most
ambitious action to date to tackle the planet’s rising temperatures.
'There is such a thing as being too late when it comes to climate
change.'<br>
<br>
"The president, who wants to make his initiatives to address the
warming of the planet a central element of his legacy, called the
new rules a public health imperative and 'the single most important
step America has ever taken in the fight against global climate
change.' He also sought to wrap the policy in the legitimacy of
transcendental values, noting that Pope Francis had issued an
encyclical in June, calling action on the issue a 'moral
obligation.'<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/us/obama-unveils-plan-to-sharply-limit-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html?mwrsm=Email">http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/us/obama-unveils-plan-to-sharply-limit-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html?mwrsm=Email</a><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>
<p>/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/</p>
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