<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p><i><font size="+1"><b>August 25, 2021</b></font></i></p>
[Wildfires hauling ass]<br>
<b>Why are fires in the West growing larger this year?</b><br>
Bill Gabbert -- August 25, 2021<br>
Drought — fuel moisture — energy release component<br>
There are a number of ways to analyze the behavior of wildland fires
using data that is easily available. The amount of moisture in the
live and dead vegetation is a critical factor in determining how
readily it will burn, because it has to be cooked off before the
grass, brush, or woody vegetation will vigorously combust.<br>
<br>
The amount of precipitation over days, weeks, months, and years
affects how wildfires burn. The map above depicts precipitation
during the 30-day period ending August 23, 2021.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Observed-precip-CONUS-lat-30-days-August-23-2021.jpg">https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Observed-precip-CONUS-lat-30-days-August-23-2021.jpg</a><br>
The Drought Monitor is one way of using an index to express how the
precipitation compares to normal for an area. As you can see below
most of California is in either Exceptional Drought (the highest
level of drought) or Extreme Drought. The only areas in California
that are not, are a tiny sliver in the extreme northwest corner, and
the five southernmost counties. Both drought categories can also be
found in areas of Oregon and Idaho which I will get to later...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Drought-Monitor-August-17-2021.jpg">https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Drought-Monitor-August-17-2021.jpg</a><br>
Here is an excerpt from the recent Fuel Model Summary for the Caldor
Fire:<br>
<blockquote>There is a heavy dead and down component with
drought-stressed fuels. Live fuels are cured to levels normally
seen in late September, and fuels are extremely receptive to
spotting. Fuel moistures are historically low. Northern California
remains under a Fuels and Fire Behavior Advisory. ERC’s are above
the 97th percentile. 100 hr and 1000hr fuels are below the 3rd
percentile.<br>
</blockquote>
These fires are primarily fuel-driven. They are burning very well
with gentle breezes. When the wind increases above 10 mph, they are
hauling ass...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wildfiretoday.com/2021/08/25/why-are-fires-in-the-west-growing-larger-this-year/">https://wildfiretoday.com/2021/08/25/why-are-fires-in-the-west-growing-larger-this-year/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[it raineth on the just and on the unjust: <br>
<b>Tennessee floods show a pressing climate danger across America:
‘Walls of water’</b><br>
‘Climate change has come barging through the front doors of
America.’...<br>
- -<br>
“There is no place in the United States where you shouldn’t be
resetting your expectations about Mother Nature disrupting your
life,” said Roy Wright, president of the Insurance Institute for
Business and Home Safety and former head of FEMA’s National Flood
Insurance Program. “Climate change has come barging through the
front doors of America.”<br>
<br>
For years, scientists have warned that humanity’s greenhouse gas
emissions, primarily from burning fossil fuels, would raise the risk
of flooding around the country. Along coastlines, sea level rise has
boosted high tides and increased the occurrence of sunny-day
flooding. The hotter oceans give more energy to hurricanes,
accounting for the growing number of storms that rapidly intensify
to Category 4 and 5 events...<br>
- -<br>
A physical phenomenon known as the Clausius-Clapeyron equation shows
that for every 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming,
the atmosphere can hold 7 percent more moisture. Because the
relationship between temperature and moisture isn’t linear, even
small amounts of warming can create exponentially wetter storms.<br>
<br>
The complex array of factors that contribute to a flood can
complicate efforts to quantify climate change’s role. But research
shows that warming makes events significantly more extreme.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/23/tennessee-floods-show-pressing-climate-danger-across-america-wall-water/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/23/tennessee-floods-show-pressing-climate-danger-across-america-wall-water/</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Afghanistan]<br>
<b>Seeking World Recognition, Taliban Vows to Help Fight Terror and
Climate Change</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.newsweek.com/seeking-world-recognition-taliban-vows-help-fight-terror-climate-change-1622239">https://www.newsweek.com/seeking-world-recognition-taliban-vows-help-fight-terror-climate-change-1622239</a><br>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
[from Foreign Policy]<br>
<b>Becoming Literally Uninhabitable</b><br>
AUGUST 24, 2021<br>
One of the regions hardest hit by climate change is also one least
equipped to deal with it.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/08/24/the-middle-east-is-becoming-literally-uninhabitable/">https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/08/24/the-middle-east-is-becoming-literally-uninhabitable/</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[California too]<br>
<b>Climate change demands reorganizing California policies and
institutions</b><br>
BY GUEST COMMENTARY - AUGUST 23, 2021<br>
IN SUMMARY<br>
Our state’s system of policies, laws and institutions is designed to
keep bad things from happening and is much less adept at expediting
programs and projects that must happen quickly and at a scale to
address a warming climate. This must change...<br>
- -<br>
IN CONCLUSION<br>
Today, it takes us far too long to develop and implement projects
and programs to adapt to the rapidly changing reality. We are
falling behind. And we aren’t falling behind because people don’t
know what to do, but because they are trying to manage a
climate-impacted natural resource system with policies and
institutions designed to manage a system that no longer exists.<br>
<br>
Let’s stop pretending our natural world will return to normal. That
option is long gone. <br>
<br>
We need to stop waiting for the drought to be over and the fire
season to end. We need to start demanding the administrative and
legal changes necessary to get out in front of the ever-increasing
effects of climate change. And we need to do that now.
<blockquote>
<blockquote>"For this to happen, the Legislature needs to
modernize statutes to allow for coordinated and expedited
permitting of climate-adaptation projects. "<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://calmatters.org/commentary/2021/08/climate-change-demands-reorganizing-california-policies-and-institutions/">https://calmatters.org/commentary/2021/08/climate-change-demands-reorganizing-california-policies-and-institutions/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[opinion]<br>
<b>The Banality of Apocalypse</b><br>
The climate crisis and social media are putting apocalypse at our
fingertips. Everything depends on what happens next.<br>
Brian Kahn -- Aug 24, 2021<br>
We are living through a time unprecedented in human history. The
world is at once more connected than ever and also falling apart in
ways almost beyond comprehension.<br>
<br>
Living at the nexus of these two existential challenges is often
disorienting. Scroll through your Twitter feed and you can see
images that feel like a Michael Bay movie: the ocean on fire, a boat
full of evacuees swerving away from a wall of flames, foundations of
houses where a community once stood. The difference is they are
video and photos of real-life, transmitted from the frontlines of
the climate crisis by the very people suffering the impacts, into
the palm of your hand while you wait for your latte or kill time
between classes....<br>
- -<br>
This summer has, unfortunately, yielded no shortage of viral images
as floods, heat, and fires hit seemingly every corner of the planet.
In doing so, it has also revealed a paradox of the climate-connected
era we live in: The horrors of the climate crisis are becoming
routine, background noise to the daily grind of life. Something that
is happening somewhere else—until it is happening to you.<br>
<br>
The climate crisis has its own version of Moore’s Law, where
disasters continue to grow in scale, scope, and intensity. Because
the climate system operates on a lag, it also means that the impacts
we’re seeing today are, in part, from fossil fuels sold and burned
decades ago. As the global average temperature of the entire planet
rises, the risk of acute heat increases. In places such as the
American West, Australia, the Mediterranean, and elsewhere, this ups
the odds of explosive fires. Elsewhere, it increases the intensity
of droughts and the likelihood of heavy downpours. As the most
recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report noted,
“Climate change is already affecting every inhabited region across
the globe.” Where supercharged weather intersects with society,
disaster follows.<br>
- -<br>
Meanwhile, almost every phone is now a camera, and in some cases, a
camera good enough to shoot near-professional quality photos and
videos. Pew Research data shows that 85% of American adults own a
smartphone, and there are billions more in use around the world.
Meanwhile, there are 1.9 billion daily Facebook users, nearly 200
million daily Twitter users, and TikTok just overtook Facebook as
the most downloaded app on Earth. That does not even get to
Instagram, WhatsApp, and other apps that help users disseminate
photos or turn their phones into broadcast studios with a few taps.
When disaster hits, it is inevitably documented and posted...<br>
- -<br>
There is an upside to this (at least as much as there can be an
upside to outrunning a wildfire) in that the reality of the climate
crisis is inescapable. Smooth-brained climate denialists can try to
foment doubt and point to dusty old newspapers clippings, but their
arguments have become increasingly farcical in the face of
overwhelming, ubiquitous catastrophe.<br>
<br>
The democratization of documentation also means that communities no
longer have to wait for Jim Cantore to show up to get attention.
Floods in Ethiopia or Bangladesh would normally be news in the
respective countries or regions and nowhere else; now, they are
broadcast to the world. Social media is imperfect as a means of
getting tangible relief for those affected, but it is a step beyond
neglect.<br>
<br>
The increasing drumbeat of disaster on main also poses a risk to how
we understand and act on the climate crisis. A 2019 study, which
looked at social media posts about extreme weather, found that
people posted about the weather more on freakishly hot days or
abnormally cold days. But the findings show that after five years of
abnormally hot weather, people stopped tweeting about the heat. It
just became a part of daily life.<br>
<br>
Consuming fiery video after fiery video could have a similar impact.
Compartmentalizing crisis is part of how we cope as humans. In a
piece for the Outline that has stuck with me for years, author Hayes
Brown put it this way:<br>
<blockquote>“Still, it’s amazing how much the human mind can
compartmentalize when faced with something as vast as extinction.
The headlines and news alerts and marches and panels get filed in
the mental Pocket folder marked ‘for later’ that you have
absolutely [no] intention of ever going back to but gives you the
satisfaction of having been interested in the article in the first
place. We do our best to go about our days, filling them with a
constant stream of distractions.”</blockquote>
In that light, our connected world risks disconnecting from the
risks climate change poses. It risks baking in a sense of doom where
the actions we need to take seem futile. Or where we forget we even
need to take them because climate change just “is what it is,”
another distraction sandwiched between shitposts and ads for 300
thread count cotton sheets.<br>
The increasing familiarity of disaster is no excuse for complacency
or rubbernecking, though. Instead, it’s a reminder that no place is
safe as long as the economy keeps running on fossil fuels.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://gizmodo.com/the-banality-of-apocalypse-1847528867">https://gizmodo.com/the-banality-of-apocalypse-1847528867</a><br>
[comments]<br>
Vintage-rBrian Kahn<br>
8/24/21 <br>
According to some theories, humans need to stop consuming by 95%,
compared to how much they consume now. We’re not talking here just
to recycle your soda can, or to buy an electric car. Instead, we’re
talking about bringing consumption almost to a halt (except food).
The paucity in consumption will naturally bring down factories and
other means of mass pollution. That is the only thing that can keep
us below the dreaded 2 C of change (according to the theory). But
now think: WHICH human that you personally know would be willing to
live as people used to live in the 1920s? Obviously, the answer is
none, to maybe one. Which is far below the 7.8 billion people
required to do that en mass. We’re doomed. There’s no way back,
because humans want their cake, and eat it too. And I wish people
stop pointing stupid fingers to “the government” and “the
corporations”. These entities are here to serve or create products
FOR you. If you stop buying, they will naturally fall, you won’t
even need to protest or lobby. But nooooo.... it’s “the government”.
As if the government has a magic wand to make climate change go
away. Or “the evil corporations” — who make products FOR YOU. BTW, I
do belong to the Left. But unlike most leftists (probably because
I’m of the European Left type), I see where the culprit is: the
hedonism of our society. And now that people have tasted this
hedonism, they don’t ever want to go back. Instead, they will ask
and protest to the government for superficial fixes AS LONG as they
don’t interfere with their consumption. This is the end of the road,
folks.<br>
- -<br>
If only a team of knowledgeable people would investigate this
climate change thing and show humanity whats happing and what to do
about it. Maybe they could even make a living out of it. Perhaps
giving them a specific name like finders of knowledge or something.<br>
<br>
O, well I’m on my way to make a video of people drowning in an
riverflood. Good day to you all!<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://gizmodo.com/the-banality-of-apocalypse-1847528867">https://gizmodo.com/the-banality-of-apocalypse-1847528867</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[News media]<br>
<b>When Dire Climate News Came, Canada’s Front Pages Crumpled</b><br>
The day the ‘code red’ IPCC report dropped, top US papers made a
measurably bigger deal of it.<br>
Even in this digital age, the front page of a newspaper is still one
of the clearest windows we have into the priorities of those who
produce it. Last week, that window showed Canadians many of their
biggest newspapers seem to care less about global warming than their
counterparts in the United States, on the eve of an election that
will determine the country’s future action on climate change.<br>
<br>
At issue is how those newspapers handled the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change’s most recent report, which United Nations
Secretary-General António Guterres described as a “code red for
humanity.”<br>
<br>
The report was released on Aug. 9 at 10 a.m. in Geneva, Switzerland,
when most of North America was asleep. But some reporters were
learning about its findings the day prior. As a result, their
newspapers had two days during which they could put that news on
their front pages, demonstrating its importance to readers.<br>
<br>
At the 10 largest circulation newspapers in the United States, as
determined by the Alliance for Audited Media, eight took this
opportunity on one or both of those days. They devoted between four
and 30 per cent of their front pages to the IPCC report.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2021/08/19/Dire-Climate-News-Canada-Front-Pages-Crumbled/">https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2021/08/19/Dire-Climate-News-Canada-Front-Pages-Crumbled/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[here's news for Canada and the World]<br>
Jul 7, 2021<br>
<b>Study Projects a Surge in Coastal Flooding, Starting in 2030s</b><br>
In the mid-2030s, every U.S. coast will experience rapidly
increasing high-tide floods, when a lunar cycle will amplify rising
sea levels caused by climate change.<br>
<br>
High-tide floods – also called nuisance floods or sunny day floods –
are already a familiar problem in many cities on the U.S. Atlantic
and Gulf coasts. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) reported a total of more than 600 such floods in 2019.
Starting in the mid-2030s, however, the alignment of rising sea
levels with a lunar cycle will cause coastal cities all around the
U.S. to begin a decade of dramatic increases in flood numbers,
according to the first study that takes into account all known
oceanic and astronomical causes for floods.<br>
<br>
Led by the members of the NASA Sea Level Change Science Team from
the University of Hawaii, the new study shows that high tides will
exceed known flooding thresholds around the country more often.
What’s more, the floods will sometimes occur in clusters lasting a
month or longer, depending on the positions of the Moon, Earth, and
the Sun. When the Moon and Earth line up in specific ways with each
other and the Sun, the resulting gravitational pull and the ocean’s
corresponding response may leave city dwellers coping with floods
every day or two.<br>
<br>
“Low-lying areas near sea level are increasingly at risk and
suffering due to the increased flooding, and it will only get
worse,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The combination of the
Moon’s gravitational pull, rising sea levels, and climate change
will continue to exacerbate coastal flooding on our coastlines and
across the world. NASA’s Sea Level Change Team is providing crucial
information so that we can plan, protect, and prevent damage to the
environment and people’s livelihoods affected by flooding.”..<br>
- -<br>
“From a planning perspective, it’s important to know when we’ll see
an increase,” Hamlington said. “Understanding that all your events
are clustered in a particular month, or you might have more severe
flooding in the second half of a year than the first – that’s useful
information.” A high-tide flood tool developed by Thompson already
exists on the NASA team’s sea level portal, a resource for
decision-makers and the general public. The flood tool will be
updated in the near future with the findings from this study.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/study-projects-a-surge-in-coastal-flooding-starting-in-2030s">https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/study-projects-a-surge-in-coastal-flooding-starting-in-2030s</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[video prognostications from a climate scientist]<br>
<b>Johan Rockström on a +2 and +3 degrees world</b><br>
Jul 18, 2021<br>
wim vermeulen<br>
Dear politicians,<br>
We need to talk about our social contract. You know, the democratic
agreement we make where ...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuQIMnJejHc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuQIMnJejHc</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
The news archive - looking back]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming
August 25 , 2011</b></font><br>
<br>
August 25, 2011: In an article for the Daily Beast, Bill McKibben
writes: <br>
<br>
"[Hurricane] Irene's got a middle name, and it's global warming."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/25/hurricane-irene-can-be-tied-to-global-warming-says-bill-mckibben.html">http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/25/hurricane-irene-can-be-tied-to-global-warming-says-bill-mckibben.html</a>
<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/8ZgL-wBXk1Y">http://youtu.be/8ZgL-wBXk1Y</a> <br>
<br>
<br>
<p>/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/</p>
<br>
/Archive of Daily Global Warming News <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html"
moz-do-not-send="true"><https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html></a>
/<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote</a><br>
<br>
/To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:subscribe@theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request"
moz-do-not-send="true"><mailto:subscribe@theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request></a>
to news digest./<br>
<br>
- Privacy and Security:*This mailing is text-only. It does not
carry images or attachments which may originate from remote
servers. A text-only message can provide greater privacy to the
receiver and sender. This is a hobby production curated by Richard
Pauli<br>
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain cannot be used for
commercial purposes. Messages have no tracking software.<br>
To subscribe, email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:contact@theclimate.vote" moz-do-not-send="true">contact@theclimate.vote</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:contact@theclimate.vote" moz-do-not-send="true"><mailto:contact@theclimate.vote></a>
with subject subscribe, To Unsubscribe, subject: unsubscribe<br>
Also you may subscribe/unsubscribe at <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote</a><br>
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Pauli for <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://TheClimate.Vote"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://TheClimate.Vote</a> <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://TheClimate.Vote/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><http://TheClimate.Vote/></a>
delivering succinct information for citizens and responsible
governments of all levels. List membership is confidential and
records are scrupulously restricted to this mailing list.<br>
<br>
<br>
</body>
</html>