<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<font size="+2"><i><b>December 26, 2021</b></i></font><br>
<br>
[ Santa needs better reindeer grazing areas ]<br>
<b>In the Arctic, Sami Reindeer Herders Face Climate Disaster</b><br>
Europe’s only remaining Indigenous people say the reindeer they
depend on are struggling to survive in a warmer climate...<br>
- -<br>
The Arctic is warming not twice as quickly as the rest of the world,
as previously believed, but four times as fast, according to a paper
published in Science this week. Sápmi, an area that stretches over
parts of four countries — Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia — and
is hemmed by three seas, recorded its hottest temperature for more
than a century in July this year, hitting 92.5 degrees Fahrenheit
during a summer heatwave.<br>
<br>
Kuhmunen and other reindeer herders, who spend their days and often
nights tending the herds scattered across vast tundras, are on the
frontline of the climate crisis. Their reindeer, a semi-domestic
species that has adapted to the harsh conditions of the polar
region, are being pushed to the limit by the changes, they say. The
animals use their shovel-like hooves to dig for lichen, their main
winter food supply, as well as other plants that grow under the
snow. But finding food is increasingly difficult...<br>
- -<br>
Aslat Simma, 42, a herder and former chief of the Lainiovuoma tribe,
said: “This is December. The temperature should be minus all the
time. A normal winter has temperatures of -20 to -25 C. Now the
temperature can be zero or positive.”...<br>
- -<br>
Increasing rainfall in the autumn also leaves the lichen full of
water, making it less nutritious for the deer, he said...<br>
- -<br>
“We must realise we can’t overconsume our planet. This is urgent. We
need to listen to all the Indigenous people in the world who know
how to live in harmony with the planet.”<br>
<i>Karen McVeigh is a senior news reporter for the Guardian.</i><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://undark.org/2021/12/21/in-the-arctic-sami-reindeer-herders-face-climate-disaster/">https://undark.org/2021/12/21/in-the-arctic-sami-reindeer-herders-face-climate-disaster/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<i>[ behold, a new type of weather system is born -- rather, newly
defined. A lake in the sky - presented at AGU ] </i><br>
<b>A42B-04 - Long-lived vapor lakes over the Indian Ocean: closest
outdoor phenomenon to the self-aggregation paradigm?</b><br>
December 17, 2021<br>
Plain-language Summary<br>
<blockquote>Long-lived "lakes" of water vapor in the atmosphere are
observed to occur over the western Indian Ocean. Their dynamics
resemble those of a well-studied theoretical and simulation
paradigm for tropical disturbances called "self-aggregation". We
seek to exploit this theory-adjacency in the study of these vapor
lakes. In addition, they are rain-makers for the semi-arid lands
of coastal east Africa. While that area's rainfall climatology is
well studied at the monthly scale (two yearly wet seasons: short
rains and long rains), these vapor-mediated "storms" may have been
missed as traditional meteorology tends to focus more on
wind-field features and 'disturbances' as the long-lived entities
of weather.<br>
</blockquote>
<b>Abstract</b><br>
Over the western equatorial Indian Ocean (WEIO), convecting
airmasses with column water vapor (CWV) exceeding the steep rain
"pickup" or "transition" value near 50 mm sometimes pinch off from
the vast humid airmass over the Indo-Pacific warm pool. These
high-CWV features last for more than a week several times a year.
How do they remain humid while raining so much, and remain so
coherent spatially? Do they move solely by horizontal advection (at
what steering level/layer?), or are there subtler propagation
aspects (e.g. vertical motion-mediated meanderings of front vs. back
perimeters, for instance upshear vs. downshear edges)?<br>
These vapor bodies sometimes drift west over the east African coast,
bringing rain to that semi-arid area. By contrast to rain-bearing
"atmospheric rivers" of vapor, which are contiguous from source to
coastline at an instant, we call these disconnected and drifting
water bodies "atmospheric lakes". Tracking a closed high-CWV contour
as time-evolving shapefiles allows us to tally climatologies, select
case studies, and build composites of gridded fields contained
within the high-CWV area, as a function of distance from its outer
perimeter contour and/or internal holes (if present). These
composites include key budget terms estimated from the MERRA2
reanalysis, and also include characterizations of the high-cloud
aggregation in finer-mesh IR imagery (aggregation indices). Since
these seem like Nature's closest phenomenon to the remanent islands
of high-CWV in long, closed (doubly-periodic) simulations of
"self-aggregation" in radiative-convective equilibrium (RCE),
diagnostics from that world can be usefully borrowed and applied to
these satellite and reanalysis data composites, to address the
questions above about maintenance and propagation.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm21/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/910339">https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm21/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/910339</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ ABC news ] </i><br>
<b>Melting Arctic ice will have catastrophic effects on the world,
experts say. Here's how.</b><br>
The Arctic is the "frontline" for climate change, scientists said.<br>
ByJulia Jacobo<br>
December 24, 2021<i>...</i><br>
If there is any doubt about climate change, look no further than the
coldest regions of the planet for proof that the planet is warming
at unprecedented rates, experts say.<br>
<br>
The Arctic, is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the world,
according to this year's Arctic Report Card, released last week by
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The phenomenon,
known as Arctic amplification, occurs when the sea ice, which is
white, thins or disappears, allowing dark ocean or land surfaces to
absorb more heat from the sun and release that energy back into the
atmosphere.<br>
- -<br>
In addition to an increased chance of oil spills from increased
commercial activity is the possibility of new oil and gas fields
opening up in Russian territory could further amplify global warming
as those natural gases are extracted, Moerman said.<br>
<br>
"The question is, is can we get those policies and strategies set up
now before there's this massive sort of gold rush on the Arctic
Ocean?" Schofield said.<br>
<br>
Melting permafrost in the Arctic also poses natural environmental
risks, Moon said. The majority of the ground in the Arctic is
frozen, and as it thaws, microbes and other living organisms within
the organic carbon in the permafrost begin to wake up, releasing
carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.<br>
<br>
Temperatures need to be below 0 degrees Celsius to grow and maintain
ice, Schofield said. But we will likely never regain that ice, as it
took thousands of years of snow layers accumulating on top of each
other to create the massive ice sheet, which is several miles thick.<br>
<br>
"At some point, we're likely to cross the line where, you know,
there'll be almost no winter to speak up," Schofield said. "And we
see these kinds of effects in these polar regions, like the Arctic
and the Antarctic."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/melting-arctic-ice-catastrophic-effects-world-experts/story?id=81588333">https://abcnews.go.com/International/melting-arctic-ice-catastrophic-effects-world-experts/story?id=81588333</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ The China propaganda machine has something to say. Audio ] </i><br>
<b>Global warming threatens China’s food security and could result
in crop pests and diseases doubling, study warns</b><br>
By HOLLY CHIK<br>
CHINA <br>
Sunday, 26 Dec 2021<br>
China, which has a population of 1.4 billion people, is the world’s
largest producer of the main cereal crops (rice, wheat and maize),
all of which are the main hosts of pests and diseases such as
fungus, according to the researchers.<br>
<br>
An analysis by the team of scientists from Britain, China, France,
Germany, Sweden and the United States showed that CPD occurrence
nationwide has increased fourfold on average between 1970 and 2016,
affecting every province in China.<br>
<br>
The researchers said the problem is especially severe in two of the
main crop-producing areas, the North China Plains and the
middle-lower Yangtze Plains in the east....<br>
- -<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2021/12/26/global-warming-threatens-chinas-food-security-and-could-result-in-crop-pests-and-diseases-doubling-study-warns">https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2021/12/26/global-warming-threatens-chinas-food-security-and-could-result-in-crop-pests-and-diseases-doubling-study-warns</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
[ Audio recoreding from South China Morning Post ]<br>
<b>China after COP26: how does the world's largest emitter of carbon
move on from coal?</b><br>
Nov 17, 2021<br>
South China Morning Post<br>
#COP26 #China #coal #renewables<br>
SCMP China desk reporter Holly Chik presents the second part of our
series looking at the technological and economic changes under way
in order for China to meet its 2030 and 2050 carbon emissions
targets. Hear from energy, resources and transition expert Prakash
Sharma and research analyst and battery storage specialist Xu Le on
how China is moving to a post-coal society in which everything is
electric, and giant batteries change the way homes and factories get
their power.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/LhGe4Y7y2CQ">https://youtu.be/LhGe4Y7y2CQ</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><i><br>
</i></p>
<i>[ Interview something that is full agreement ] </i><br>
<b>“Climate change obstacles are all political, not technological”</b><br>
“It's no longer about denying the science because they can't deny
it. People can see it, people understand it's happening. So this is
one of the troubling new forms of denialism - denial that we have
agency,” says Professor Michael Mann, one of the world’s leading
climatologists...<br>
- -<br>
<b>That raises the question - aren’t the summit commitments just not
sustainable as countries are able to withdraw from their
agreements depending on the people they elect?</b><br>
“Well, this could be said about any matter of geopolitics (e.g.
nuclear arms treaties, etc). We have to accomplish what we can
within the flawed global negotiations framework that exists, while
also levying pressure, as individual nations, against state actors
that go back on their commitments (e.g. through political and
economic pressure that can include border adjustments and tariffs,
etc). But in the end, we get the politicians we vote for, and the
single most important thing we can do is vote for climate-friendly
policymakers and vote out fossil fuel apologists.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3925682,00.html">https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3925682,00.html</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ Hear what Medeliein Brand has to say in a 10 min audio ]</i><br>
<b>If Build Back Better dies, what happens to climate legislation?</b><br>
Dec. 21, 2021<br>
President Biden’s $2 trillion “Build Back Better” plan appears to be
dying. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin announced on Sunday that he
wouldn’t vote for it, despite months of back-and-forth negotiations
with the White House. <br>
<br>
Part of that plan includes major reforms to address climate change,
like shutting down coal plants and moving towards electric cars.
Environmental advocates say the policies in this bill were crucial
for staving off the worst predictions of global warming. <br>
<br>
But there are other routes the Biden administration — and even its
biggest thorn, Joe Manchin — can take to advance progressive climate
policies. What can be done now?...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/covid-afghanistan-film-beverages/build-back-better-climate-ca">https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/covid-afghanistan-film-beverages/build-back-better-climate-ca</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
December 26, 2015</b></font><br>
December 26, 2015: The New York Times reports:<br>
"Oil money no longer pays the bills [in Alaska].<br>
<blockquote> "The governor, facing a profound fiscal crisis, has
proposed the imposition of a personal income tax for the first
time in 35 years. State lawmakers, who recently moved into a
palatial new office building here, where they work when not
toiling in the far-off Capitol in Juneau, are now seeking less
costly digs.<br>
<br>
"And a state budget that was a point of Alaskan pride — and envy
from around the nation — lies in tatters as revenue that flowed
from selling crude oil from Prudhoe Bay over the past four decades
has been swept away.<br>
<br>
"With oil prices down along with oil production, the state is
facing an Alaska-size shortfall: Two-thirds of the revenue needed
to cover this year’s $5.2 billion state budget cannot be
collected.<br>
<br>
"Many Alaskans are not old enough to recall times this bad. This
is the nation’s least-taxed state, where oil royalties and energy
taxes once paid for 90 percent of state functions. Oil money was
so plentiful that residents received annual dividend checks from a
state savings fund that could total more than $8,000 for a family
of four — arriving each autumn, as predictable as the first
snowfall.<br>
<br>
"Kevin Meyer, president of the Alaska Senate, spoke to members of
the Resource Development Council about the budget. Mr. Meyer, a
Republican who is also an employee of the oil giant
ConocoPhillips, said he thought deeper cuts were still necessary.
<br>
<br>
"Gov. Bill Walker, an independent, is proposing to scale back
those dividends as he seeks to get Alaska back on a stable
financial footing with less dependence on oil. 'It will move us
back to where we were before,' he said in an interview. 'We can do
it.'<br>
<br>
"Every resource-dependent corner of the globe is in stress these
days as commodity prices from copper to soybeans have collapsed to
multiyear lows. States like Texas and Louisiana are also grappling
with the oil downturn, but Alaska’s situation is unique."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/26/us/as-oil-money-melts-alaska-mulls-first-income-tax-in-35-years.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/26/us/as-oil-money-melts-alaska-mulls-first-income-tax-in-35-years.html</a><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
moz-txt-link-freetext" 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>