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<font size="+2"><font face="Calibri"><i><b>November </b></i></font></font><font
size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b>17, 2023</b></i></font><font
face="Calibri"><br>
</font>
<p><i>[ small clip from important government report available at <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/">https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/</a>
]<b><br>
</b></i><b>The Fifth National Climate Assessment</b><br>
The Fifth National Climate Assessment is the US Government’s
preeminent report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses.
It is a congressionally mandated interagency effort that provides
the scientific foundation to support informed decision-making
across the United States.<br>
Table 1.1. Climate Actions Are Taking Place Across
All US Regions<br>
<b>Region </b> Action<br>
</p>
<p><b>Northeast </b> The 2022 stormwater code in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, requires new developments to plan for projected
increases in heavy rainfall under climate change rather than
building to historical rainfall amounts. In 2021, the city also
committed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. {Box 21.1}</p>
<p><b>Southeast </b> Following repeated flooding from multiple
hurricanes, measures to reduce flood risk in Princeville, North
Carolina, include buyouts, elevating homes, and building housing
that meets local flood standards. In Orlando, Florida, the city
and businesses are adopting commercial building energy-efficiency
requirements and electric vehicle readiness policies and have used
wastewater and food scraps from parks and resorts to generate
renewable biogas. {Boxes 22.1, 32.3}</p>
<p><b>US Caribbean </b> Many community-based organizations in
Puerto Rico have undertaken actions to advance adaptation, social
transformation, and sustainable development. These organizations
work to expand renewable energy and equitable access to energy
resources, prepare for disasters, restore ecosystems, strengthen
agriculture and food security, and protect public health. {23.5}</p>
<p><b>Midwest </b> A wetland creation project in Ashtabula, Ohio,
restored habitat displaced by shoreline development, improving
coastal protection for the port on Lake Erie. In Michigan, some
state forestlands are being managed to bolster carbon storage and
to support recreation and wildlife habitat. {24.2, 24.4; Figure
24.9}</p>
<p><b>Northern Great Plains </b> The Nebraska Natural Resources
Conservation Service supported farmers in testing soil health and
evaluating soil management practices that promote climate
adaptation. Across the region, wind electricity generation tripled
between 2011 and 2021, with a growing number of Tribes leading the
Nation’s renewable energy transition by installing wind, solar,
and hydropower. {25.3, 25.5; Box 25.3}</p>
<p><b>Southern Great Plains </b> Texas- and Kansas-based groups
are supporting soil and land management practices that increase
carbon storage while protecting important ecosystems. Wind and
solar energy generation and battery storage capacities have also
grown, with the region accounting for 42% of national
wind-generated electricity in 2022. {26.2}</p>
<p><b>Northwest </b> The Confederated Tribes of the Colville
Reservation are prioritizing carbon capture in their forest and
timber management efforts, leading to improved air and water
quality and wildlife habitat as well as preservation of cultural
areas and practices. {27.3}</p>
<p><b>Southwest </b> In response to severe drought, seven Colorado
River basin states, the US and Mexican governments, and Indigenous
Peoples are collaborating to improve water conservation and
develop adaptation solutions. Dozens of cities are committed to
emissions reductions; for instance, Phoenix is on track to meet a
2030 goal of 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2018
levels. {Ch. 28, Introduction; Box 28.1}</p>
<p><b>Alaska </b> To address climate threats to traditional foods,
the Chugach Regional Resources Commission is integrating
Indigenous Knowledge and Western scientific methods in its
adaptation efforts, including weekly water sampling for harmful
algal blooms and restoring clam populations. Kelp farming is also
being developed to reduce the effects of ocean acidification,
serve as a carbon sink, and generate income. {29.7; Box 29.7}</p>
<b>Hawai‘i and US-Affiliated Pacific Islands </b> The Kauaʻi
Island Utility Cooperative achieved a 69.5% renewable portfolio
standard in 2021, and the island is occasionally 100% renewably
powered during midday hours; it is projected to achieve a 90%
renewable portfolio by 2026. Guam, the Republic of the Marshall
Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau plan to use
blue carbon ecosystems to offset emissions while also protecting
coastal infrastructure. {30.3; Box 30.3}<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/">https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/</a>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
<i>[ Inside Climate News gives a longer summary of the new National
Climate Assessment ]</i><br>
<b>US Regions Will Suffer a Stunning Variety of Climate-Caused
Disasters, Report Finds</b><br>
Extreme temperatures; worsening wildfires, hurricanes and floods;
infrastructure problems; agricultural impacts: The way you
experience climate change will depend on where you live.<br>
By Nicholas Kusnetz, Lee Hedgepeth, Amy Green, Phil McKenna, Dylan
Baddour, Aydali Campa, Wyatt Myskow, Marianne Lavelle and Kristoffer
Tigue<br>
November 16, 2023<br>
If there is one overarching message from the nation’s latest climate
assessment, it is that nowhere will be spared. <br>
<br>
Hotter temperatures are coming to every corner of the country, as
are weather extremes. Many regions are experiencing more frequent,
heavier rains, while others are seeing worsening drought. Some are
getting both. Everywhere, these changes are translating into greater
stresses on Americans’ health through worsening heatwaves,
wildfires, hurricanes, floods and the psychological toll of mounting
disasters.<br>
<br>
“There is not a part of the U.S. that gets a pass on climate
impacts,” one Biden administration official said during a briefing
for reporters on the Fifth National Climate Assessment, or NCA. The
sprawling, peer-reviewed federal report, released Tuesday, is
mandated by Congress and provides the most comprehensive look at the
state of climate change across the country.<br>
<br>
How those impacts show themselves will vary greatly, with each
region suffering its own particular plagues. For extreme
precipitation and the floods it unleashes, the official said, the
Northeast has some of the worst. In the Southeast, where hotter
temperatures marry with stifling humidity, residents and those
working outside are struggling with some of the nation’s worst
extreme heat. Out West, wildfires and drought are poisoning the air
and parching fields and taps. Across the Midwest, floods, droughts
and extreme heat are disrupting farmers’ livelihoods and traditions.
Along the coasts, high-tide flooding is worsening almost universally
as rising seas inundate neighborhoods.<br>
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The assessment highlights that these impacts are falling
disproportionately on less wealthy communities and Black and
Indigenous Americans and people of color. In the Southeast, for
example, the report says that “the institutions of slavery and
intergenerational ownership of individuals as property” have meant
that Black people and other people of color “are disproportionately
exposed to environmental risks and with fewer resources to address
them when compared to majority White communities.” Other regions,
the report says, have their own inequities.<br>
<br>
States in all regions have begun efforts to cut their climate
pollution and adapt to the impacts of climate change, according to
the assessment, with the greatest number of actions coming in the
Northeast and Southwest, a region that includes California.<br>
<br>
On Tuesday, the Biden administration accompanied the report with an
announcement of $6 billion in funding to help those efforts. The
nation’s electric grid will get $3.9 billion to help protect it from
climate impacts, while $2 billion will go toward community-driven
projects on clean energy and climate resilience. <br>
<br>
Already, billion-dollar disasters are striking most every region of
the country, on average, one every three weeks, with particular
concentrations along the coasts and in many Midwestern states. If
warming continues unabated, the report makes clear, those disasters
will worsen everywhere.<br>
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<b>People Moving “Into Harm’s Way” in the Southeast</b><br>
Every state in the Southeast except Mississippi experienced
population growth during the past decade, even as the region
historically has suffered more billion-dollar disasters than the
rest of the country. Since 2018, the region has also weathered
multiple hurricanes, researchers wrote.<br>
<br>
The population growth in the Southeast exposes more communities to
climate impacts like hotter temperatures, rising seas and more
damaging hurricanes. Meanwhile, decision-makers have tended to
develop adaptation plans based on outdated or limited information
that fails to account for future risks.<br>
<br>
”We’re moving more people into harm’s way, and we’re not doing it
in a very coordinated way,” said Kathie Dello, state climatologist
in North Carolina and director of the North Carolina State Climate
Office. One of the co-authors of the study, she spoke Wednesday on a
call with journalists. “Our cities just aren’t moving fast enough to
keep up with climate change.” <br>
<br>
Most vulnerable are low-income communities and communities of color.
The region is home to more Black residents than any other in the
country, and these residents face disproportionate risks for
health-related impacts. Residents of color tend to have less access
to health care, nutritious food and safe places to exercise and also
are vulnerable to other disparities involving education and
employment.<br>
In Prichard, Alabama, for example, the city’s majority Black
residents continue to suffer from decades-long mismanagement of its
public water utility, which leaks around 60 percent of its purchased
freshwater supply due to deteriorating distribution infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the city’s stormwater infrastructure has often been
overwhelmed by excess water, leaving residents with flooding that
will only worsen as extreme weather events become more frequent due
to climate change. <br>
<br>
In some places, like Birmingham, Alabama, some local officials,
nonprofits and residents have worked together toward climate
adaptation, but the scope and scale of these actions have so far not
amounted to an adequate response. Efforts to plant trees to lessen
flooding and reduce the impact of urban heat islands are growing
more popular, for example, but large-scale projects to address the
causes of climate change-related problems are rare and often “less
comprehensive” than plans in other areas of the country, according
to the report. <br>
<br>
A lax regulatory environment, fueled by regional politics, has also
compounded climate-change risks in the Southeast, a subject not
fully addressed by the National Climate Assessment. In Alabama, for
example, state officials have fought to allow energy utilities to
continue storing toxic coal ash in unlined pits near critical
waterways in the state. Breaches at these sites could worsen the
impacts of climate change-related natural disasters.<br>
<br>
Across the Southeast, too, tide gauges indicate that sea levels
relative to land elevations rose by some 6 inches between 1970 and
2020, and future projections call for another 16 inches to 23 inches
by 2050 and 2 feet to 7 feet by 2100. Already, saltwater intrusion
has degraded coastal forests and estuaries and reduced their ability
to store carbon.<br>
<br>
The Southeast has and will continue to be on the frontlines of
climate risk in the United States, the report concludes. <br>
<br>
<b>Dated Infrastructure in the Northeast Meets Extreme Conditions</b><br>
After days of heavy rains caused the Winooski River to swell in
July, Vermont’s Wrightsville Dam nearly failed. The narrowly
averted disaster could have unleashed a catastrophic wall of water
on the state’s already inundated capital, Montpelier.<br>
<br>
Boston’s newest neighborhood, once branded the “Innovation
District,” is now called the “Inundation District” as sea level
rise threatens recently completed streets where city planners failed
to account for climate change.<br>
<br>
Heat islands in historically redlined areas of the Bronx in New York
City, neighborhoods that were once deprived of federal loans and
insurance, are now hotter than nearby areas. Communities with lower
socioeconomic status and higher percentages of racial and ethnic
minorities pay the price in the form of increased heat exposure.<br>
<br>
These three examples underscore the three “key messages” of the
National Climate Assessment’s Northeast chapter: Extreme weather
events are occurring more frequently and having greater impacts,
ocean and coastal regions are experiencing unprecedented changes and
climate-related hazards, including extreme heat, and are
disproportionately impacting low-income communities and communities
of color.<br>
<br>
<b>Part of the risk is due to aging infrastructure</b>.<br>
<br>
“In the Northeast, we have some of the oldest infrastructure in the
country and a lot of it obviously faces pretty extreme conditions
given the kind of strong seasonality we experience here,” Dave
Reidmiller, director of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s
Climate Center and a co-author of the assessment’s Northeast
chapter, said. “So whether that is dams or our electrical grid, or
roadways, culverts, wastewater treatment plants, you name it, they
all face risks from climate change and the fact that they are aging
means that there’s likely to be increased risk to them.”<br>
<b><br>
Other risks come from failing to plan for climate change.</b><br>
<br>
“The development continues, nonstop,” Jack Clarke, the former
assistant director of the Massachusetts office of Coastal Zone
Management, said of Boston’s Innovation District. “At some point
there is going to be a price to pay.”<br>
<br>
Many in the Northeast are already paying for the impacts of climate
change, but Jessica Whitehead, executive director of Old Dominion
University’s Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience and the
lead author of the Northeast chapter, said the cost isn’t
distributed equally.<br>
<br>
“Local level efforts to address climate change, both in reducing
greenhouse gas pollution and in adapting and building resilience,
are working to improve equity,” Whitehead said. “But the attention
to equity in particular throughout the Northeast is still very
uneven.”<br>
<br>
Texas Leads the Nation in Methane Emissions, but Also Excels in Wind
and Solar<br>
Opposing forces intermingle in the Southern Great Plains, seat of
the nation’s fossil fuel sector as well as its rapidly emerging
leader in renewable power generation. <br>
<br>
Texas, the U.S. energy capital and the largest Southern Plains
state, let off more carbon dioxide than any other state (again) in
2020 (667 million metric tons)—twice as much as the next-highest
emitter. Texas also led the nation in emissions of methane (94
million metric tons of CO2 equivalent), much of it leaked from the
state’s booming shale oil and gas fields. <br>
<br>
The largest of those, the Permian Basin of West Texas and New
Mexico, is the nation’s top-producing oilfield. Last year Climate
TRACE’s global emissions inventory named it the largest source of
greenhouse gas pollution in the world. It leaks enough gas each year
to supply seven million Texas households, the National Climate
Assessment said. <br>
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Meanwhile, robust sectors of wind and solar power generation have
exploded in Texas and other Southern Plains states. Since the last
National Climate Assessment in 2018, Texas nearly doubled its wind
power generation capacity to produce more than any other state. Its
solar power generation capacity grew more than five-fold and Texas
could soon overtake California as the top solar power producer, too.
<br>
<br>
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid
operator, expects substantial growth in solar power generation, wind
power generation and in battery storage through 2025. Electricity
generated from gas and coal, however, is not planned to increase
substantially, the National Climate Assessment said.<br>
<br>
Agriculture in the Southern Plains will come under increasing
pressure from hotter, drier conditions and more frequent or intense
drought expected by midcentury in western and southern parts of the
region. By 2070, the assessment projects, the Southern Plains will
lose cropland as lands transition to pasture or grassland.<br>
<br>
In the Northern Great Plains, Unprecedented Extremes and Mental
Health Impacts<br>
While the Northern Great Plains do not leap to mind among the states
hardest hit by climate change, the National Climate Assessment
paints a bleak, even dire, portrait of the region, saying in its
summary paragraph that the region is “experiencing unprecedented
climate-driven extremes” that threaten key economic sectors and test
“the health, well-being, and livelihood” of its residents.<br>
<br>
The authors of the data-driven compendium, who note many of their
forecasted outcomes with “very high confidence,” do little to
sugarcoat their findings in the style of many government documents.<br>
<br>
In their discussion of the impact of climate change on mental
health, they describe the prominence of “eco-anxiety” among farmers
and ranchers and point out that three of the region’s five states
(Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming) are
among the top 10 in highest suicide rates per capita in the nation.
They don’t say which three, but online data from the Centers for
Disease Control show that for 2021 it was actually four—Wyoming,
Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota, with Wyoming first in the
nation and Montana second.<br>
<br>
“Suicide rates are particularly high in rural and Indigenous
populations, in part because of remoteness from care and the limited
number of mental health professionals. Based on geographically
broad-based studies, climate change is projected to amplify these
risks,” they write.<br>
<br>
They also describe an emotional malady called solastalgia—”the
distress specifically caused by environmental change while still in
a home environment”—and write that it is “most often associated with
Indigenous communities, who share collective ancestral ties to the
lands and natural resources where they live or previously lived and
which are inextricably linked to their identities, cultures, and
livelihoods, as well as their physical and spiritual well-being.”
The authors add that “solastalgia can also affect others who are
connected to the land, such as ranchers and farmers.”<br>
<br>
The science presented on the accelerating nature of climate change
is equally stark. The number of wildfires across the region’s
grasslands increased by 213 percent, from 128 between 1985 and 1995
to 273 between 2005 and 2014. And the number of wildfires and the
length of the fire season from the 1970s to the 2000s increased by
889 percent and 85 days, respectively, in the forests of western
Montana and Wyoming. Montana has the highest per capita rate of
premature deaths attributable to wildfire smoke in the country.<br>
<br>
Meanwhile, the largest increases in hail risk anywhere in the nation
are taking place in the Northern Great Plains, where southeastern
Wyoming and the southwestern part of the Nebraska Panhandle are
located in what is called “hail alley.” In the region, hail size,
the frequency of large hail events and the length of the hail
season, are all projected to increase for the rest of the century,
with one research scenario predicting a 302 percent increase in
“very large hail days” (defined as having hail two inches or more in
diameter) between 2071 and 2100.<br>
<br>
Despite the severity of these projected increases and the
“unprecedented climate-driven extremes, including severe drought,
floods, and wildfires,” the authors also note that several states in
the region are failing to link human activities to climate change in
their K-12 science curricula.<br>
<br>
“Acceptance of the human link to climate change is lower than the
national average among adults in the Northern Great Plains region,”
they write, “with particularly low acceptance among agricultural
producers and agricultural interest groups. This lack of acceptance
highlights barriers to collective understanding and climate change
response in the region and is matched by a stronger evidence base
for actions that emphasize adaptation and resilience rather than
mitigation.”<br>
<b><br>
Infrastructure, Agriculture at Risk in the Midwest</b><br>
The effects of climate change on the Midwest’s agriculture and
infrastructure can have significant trickle-down effects on peoples
and systems, and its resilience to climate change is critical for
livelihood and economic sustainability in the region and beyond. <br>
<br>
The Midwest drives a large agricultural economy, with three states
in the region—Illinois, Indiana and Iowa—growing a third of the
world’s corn and soybeans. “Climate-smart” practices like cover
crops could mitigate some of the challenges in crop and animal
agriculture posed by rapid swings in extreme wet and dry conditions,
snowmelt timing and earlier spring rainfall.<br>
<br>
Increasing amounts of rain are causing more intense floods,
stressing the region’s infrastructure. The region’s complex system
of transportation, movement of goods, energy generation and water
infrastructure needs repair and is at greater risk of climate change
than some other parts of the country. This is partly due to the
infrastructure aging but also because of increasing flood exposure
and fluctuating water levels in the region’s rivers and Great
Lakes...<br>
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“This is the first time the assessment has unpacked the true breadth
of what we mean by infrastructure and the true criticality of that
infrastructure,” Heidi Roop, director of the University of
Minnesota’s Climate Adaptation Partnership and a contributing author
of the assessment, told Inside Climate News. <br>
<br>
Extreme heat and flooding are also causing costly disruptions in
other systems, including ecosystems, emergency management and
healthcare. They also pose risks to individual and community health
with increased incidence of vector- and waterborne illnesses as well
as worsening air quality.<br>
<br>
Like in the rest of the country, communities of color are especially
vulnerable to the wide-ranging effects of climate change due to
systemic and historical biases. However, more research is needed to
identify which specific rural and urban communities are
disproportionately burdened by the health impacts of climate change
and what system solutions could address those disparities, Roop said
at a briefing on Wednesday.<br>
<br>
Authors at the briefing also recognized that the region has made
strides in investing in farming, infrastructure and emergency
management to adapt and mitigate climate change impacts, but they
said more is needed.<br>
<br>
<b>Southwest Grapples With Drier, Hotter Climate, Collaborates on
Water Issues</b><br>
The slow-moving ecosystems of the Southwest face rapid climate
change–induced transformation, forcing communities to reckon with a
cascade of risks as temperatures rise and the region undergoes
aridification, with the impacts of climate change becoming
“increasingly apparent and widespread” over the last five years, the
report’s authors wrote. <br>
<br>
The NCA makes one thing clear: Nearly every problem the Southwest
faces, from the region’s rising temperatures to drought to wildfires
to rising sea levels along the coast, is interconnected. ..<br>
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Hotter temperatures caused by climate change are leading to
record-low precipitation and making the atmosphere thirstier; water
from soil and plants is being sucked up into the atmosphere via
evapotranspiration. That’s led to reduced runoff in the Colorado
River Basin and elsewhere even in wet years, affecting agricultural
production. Those dryer soils, combined with long-standing policies
of “fire suppression, widespread logging and livestock grazing, and
elimination of Indigenous fire use,” have made wildfires bigger and
deadlier than ever before. <br>
<br>
“Our scientific understanding of climate impacts on these sectors
has improved to the point where we’re now able to understand how the
risks can cascade and how risks from one sector can translate into
risks in other sectors,” said Dave White, the director of the Global
Institute of Sustainability and Innovation at Arizona State
University and a lead author of the chapter.<br>
<br>
The region, like much of the country, is now transitioning away from
planning for climate change to implementing solutions to address it,
the chapter’s authors said, highlighting collaboration along the
Colorado River Basin to address shortages in the system.<br>
<br>
“We’re moving from incremental adaptation to transformative
adaptation, from something that kind of just tides us over to
something that really seeps through all these interconnections in
our systems to deal with climate change,” said Elizabeth Koebele, an
associate professor of political science at the University of
Nevada, Reno and co-author of the chapter. <br>
<br>
The nation’s two non-contiguous states have unique climate
vulnerabilities, and in separate chapters on Alaska and Hawaii, the
NCA explored how their risks are amplified due to isolation from the
mainland, the struggles of their Indigenous peoples, and their deep
reliance on a profoundly changing Pacific Ocean.<br>
<br>
Together, the two states—one on the Arctic Circle and the other in
the tropics—illustrate how warming is disrupting life across the
full spectrum of climate conditions. <br>
<br>
<b>Hellish Consequences in Hawaii, Dizzying Pace of Warming in
Alaska</b><br>
Colder regions like Alaska will see some benefits, the report
authors say, but the longer growing season and potential for more
locally-grown food will be accompanied by increased pests, flooding
and ground collapse from thawing permafrost. On the warm Hawaiian
islands, the surrounding seas offer scant protection against
droughts that are increasing in frequency, severity, and
duration—with potential hellish consequences for the vacation
paradise.<br>
<br>
The wind-driven brush fires that exploded across drought-stricken
Maui in early August—with 97 fatalities, the deadliest U.S. wildfire
in more than 100 years—happened too recently to be included in the
NCA. But even in the draft version of the report one year ago, the
authors warned of increasing fire risk in Hawaii and the other
U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands like Guam and Saipan, which they
considered as a group. A greater percentage of land area is burned
each year on these islands than in the western continental United
States, and a proliferation of fire-prone and water-guzzling
invasive species is increasing the risks.<br>
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Meanwhile, the oceans that have been the backbone of Hawaii’s
economy are now a threat. As soon as 2100, if emissions follow a
medium trajectory, 3.2 feet of sea level rise above 2000 levels is
expected, putting at risk 550 cultural sites, 38 miles of coastal
road, 6,500 structures and potentially displacing 20,000 residents,
the report says.<br>
<br>
Alaska’s largest revenue-producing industry, oil and gas, is being
transformed by climate change in multiple ways. Companies now must
make intensive efforts to keep the ground cold and solid to support
roads, pipelines and buildings. And as operations become more
costly, the industry’s future becomes more uncertain. The NCA said
diversification of Alaska’s economy is key to a resilient future.<br>
<br>
Because of its high latitude, Alaska is warming up to 2.6 times
faster than the Lower 48 states, triggering a dizzying array of
impacts. Just since the last NCA was published in 2018, the state
has seen record low sea ice, the world’s highest rates of ocean
acidification, and an atmospheric river in 2020 that broke all-time
extreme 24-hour precipitation records.<br>
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Daily temperatures in southern and interior Alaska spiked to more
than 20 degrees F above normal in a 2019 summer heatwave, blowing
away predictions made in the last NCA. The climate assessment
released during the Trump administration said that by the end of the
century, even if emissions follow a high trajectory, the highest
anticipated temperature would be 4 to 8 degrees F above normal. The
new NCA projects the state’s average surface temperature rise in a
high-emissions scenario would be 14.2 degrees F (7.9 degrees C.) <br>
<br>
Climate-related food supply chain disruptions are an especially dire
threat in states, like Alaska, where residents already pay high
prices because of reliance on imports from the mainland and
elsewhere. <br>
<br>
Especially vulnerable are members of the 21 distinct Indigenous
peoples who make up one-fifth of the population of Alaska. King
salmon contributes 64 percent of all protein to rural Yukon River
communities, but since 2020, the river’s subsistence fishery has
been closed for the first time ever, with no foreseeable plan to
reopen. High water temperatures are believed to have contributed to
the fishery’s collapse. The situation is “disastrous to Indigenous
peoples’ physical, mental, cultural, and spiritual well-being,” the
NCA authors wrote.<br>
<br>
The NCA sees efforts to apply Indigenous knowledge—for example,
reviving traditional farming, fishing and land-management
practices—as a hopeful trend that could help build more resilient
water and food systems. “Restoring Indigenous agroecology practices
can support conservation, food security, and broader socio-cultural
objectives in the face of shifting precipitation and [sea level
rise]” in Hawaii and the Pacific Islands, the authors say. <br>
<b><br>
Caribbean Faces “Permanent Inundation”</b><br>
Out of all the U.S. states and territories, perhaps none exemplify
the ugly consequences of climate change more than Puerto Rico.<br>
<br>
The United States’ largest territory received special attention in
the Fifth National Climate Assessment. The latest iteration of the
report, which was published Tuesday, dedicated a full chapter to the
Caribbean region, which climate scientists have warned is especially
vulnerable to the effects of global warming.<br>
<br>
“In coastal areas, sea level rise threatens permanent inundation of
infrastructure, including roadways, railways, ports, tunnels and
bridges; water treatment facilities and power plants; and hospitals,
schools and military bases,” the congressionally mandated report
said. “More intense storms also disrupt critical services like
access to medical care, as seen after Hurricanes Irma and Maria in
the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.”<br>
<br>
In 2017, Maria swept through Puerto Rico with Category 4 winds that
heavily damaged the island’s electrical grid and plunged nearly
every resident’s home into darkness for days, with some areas going
almost a year without power. Researchers would later estimate that
nearly 3,000 people died either directly or indirectly because of
Maria.<br>
<br>
Last year, nearly half of the homes in Puerto Rico lost power again
after Hurricane Fiona dumped a record amount of rain on the island,
undoing years of progress as flash floods toppled transmission lines
and other recently installed infrastructure, including a temporary
steel bridge that was meant to last for decades. Islands like Puerto
Rico will only see worse flooding, climate scientists say, as sea
levels rise and powerful Atlantic storms become more common.<br>
<br>
The blackouts have now become so widespread and frequent in Puerto
Rico that federal agencies have dedicated more than $20 billion in
aid to help repair the tattered grid and other basic infrastructure
on the island. <br>
<br>
When it’s not harsh winds and floodwaters, it’s the heat. Puerto
Rico has also seen a big uptick in severe summer heat waves in
recent years, said Ruth Santiago, a co-author of Tuesday’s report
and a resident of the island’s southern coastal city of Salinas. “We
saw that just this year,” she said. “Starting in about April and
May, we had a record-breaking heat wave for about six months.”<br>
In June, areas of Puerto Rico got so hot—reaching a deadly 125
degrees Fahrenheit on the heat index—that it astonished some
meteorologists who were watching the situation unfold.<br>
<br>
Santiago, an environmental attorney who also sits on the White House
Environmental Justice Advisory Council, said she was happy to see
that the final version of the National Climate Assessment, which
undergoes rigorous vetting by hundreds of experts from both the
federal government and the private sector, retained all the key
points that she and her co-author working group wanted to make about
the reality of climate change in the Caribbean.<br>
<br>
One was that most Puerto Ricans want to transition from a
centralized fossil fuel-based power grid to a decentralized one
powered predominantly by rooftop solar systems. The devastation of
Maria compelled broad consensus among the island’s residents that
clean energy paired with microgrids—a combination many energy
experts say can better withstand extreme weather conditions—is the
future for Puerto Rico. And in 2019, the territory passed a law
requiring 100 percent clean energy by 2050.<br>
<br>
But Puerto Rico is struggling to add enough renewable energy
capacity to keep it in line with its climate law’s mandatory
targets, frustrating local residents like Santiago who have worked
tirelessly in recent years to get elected officials to act more
urgently.<br>
<br>
Tuesday’s report reflected that frustration, Santiago said. “This
really large group of experts basically coincided with what our
working group put forward in terms of decentralization—not just the
decarbonization—of the electric system,” she said, and they noted
community efforts to move “toward distributed renewable energy like
rooftop solar.”<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16112023/fifth-national-climate-assessment-regional-impacts/">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16112023/fifth-national-climate-assessment-regional-impacts/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><i>[ Adam gives a difficult analysis of the upcoming COP meeting
of civil political representatives ]</i><br>
<b>Climate Negotiation Crisis: Will COP28 be a giant mess?<br>
</b>ClimateAdam<br>
Nov 16, 2023 #ClimateChange #cop28 #climatecrisis<br>
It's no secret that COP climate negotiations often disappoint. But
the COP28 talks in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are off
to a bad start... before they've even started. From fears about
the location, to frustration of the appointment of oil man Sultan
al Jaber as president, COP28 is off to a bad start before it's
even started.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcrN17urybw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcrN17urybw</a></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<i>[ Superb discussion with former oil CEO ]</i><br>
<b>Oil and Conflict | John Browne</b><br>
Planet: Critical<br>
Nov 15, 2023 #politicalcrisis #ecocrisis #greenwashing<br>
Former BP boss on what Big Oil knew — from climate to Iraq.<br>
<br>
John Browne, Chairman of BeyondNetZero, was CEO of BP from 1995 –
2007. In 1997, he broke ranks with the industry and delivered a
landmark speech on the impact of burning fossil fuels on the
climate. But this was two decades after Exxon had hired their own
climate scientists and buried the results.<br>
<br>
John explains what he and his executive team knew in the
mid-nineties, insisting they began working solutions as soon as they
understood the planet was heating up. However, as I point out, there
are clues on BP’s website which suggest the company knew beforehand.
We also discuss the impact of resources and particularly fossil
fuels on conflict with John revealing he was invited to the Pentagon
around the time of the Iraq war to estimate how much oil was in the
Middle East nation. <br>
<blockquote>00:00 Introduction<br>
01:35 Guest Introduction: John Brown<br>
03:00 Supporting Planet Critical<br>
03:43 Conflicts Over Values, Trade, and Resources<br>
16:39 Oil and Gas Industry's Knowledge of Climate Change<br>
27:23 The Role of Consumers and Governments in Energy Transition<br>
43:21 The Impact of Government Policies on Climate Change<br>
45:06 Who would you like to platform?<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8M_1WkNUVE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8M_1WkNUVE</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<p><i>[ My area - concern since this is drinking water - ]</i><br>
<b>Oregon Cascades, Western states losing glaciers, new analysis
finds</b><br>
By Alex Baumhardt (Oregon Capital Chronicle)<br>
Oct. 29, 2023<br>
An updated inventory shows the area has more than 50 ice patches
that no longer qualify as glaciers while several have disappeared
entirely<br>
Glacial melt from climate change is no longer just a problem at
the poles.<br>
<br>
Across the contiguous Western U.S., glaciers are slowly
disappearing, according to a new analysis by researchers at
Portland State University and the U.S. Geological Survey. The
study was published in the journal Earth System Science Data on
Sept. 15.<br>
<br>
Without glaciers, people, plants and animals are more vulnerable
to late summer drought. Glaciers play an important role in
regulating waterways, acting as a frozen reservoir that provides
cool water for streams in the driest, hottest parts of summer when
seasonal snowpacks have already melted. They also indicate the
health of snowpacks needed to supply municipal water systems.<br>
<br>
“You have apple orchards and pear orchards that get their water
from the Middle Fork of the Eliot River in the Hood River Basin,
and that’s glacial, that’s like two-thirds glacial fed in late
August and September,” said Andrew Fountain, a Portland State
University geology professor who led the study.<br>
<br>
“Now is that important to the orchards? Frankly, I don’t know. But
that water is probably going to go away,” he added.<br>
<br>
Scientists have long tracked glacial melt in the North and South
poles but as the impact of climate change spread, they’re now
watching that effect in the West.<br>
<br>
Of the 612 federally listed glaciers in California, Colorado,
Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming, 50 are no longer
considered glaciers given their size and condition, researchers
found. Geologists consider glaciers to cover at least 25 acres.
They’re made up of ice, snow, rock, sediment and exist in areas
where the average temperatures are close to freezing, winter
precipitation produces significant accumulations of snow or warmer
temperatures the rest of the year don’t melt the previous winter’s
snowpack, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.<br>
<br>
Two glaciers, in Washington and Wyoming, have disappeared
entirely. In the Cascade Range, 25 glaciers have been lost,
including seven in Oregon.<br>
Fountain said it’s possible that glaciers in the Oregon stretch of
the range and any peaks south of Mount Hood could begin
disappearing altogether in about 50 years.<br>
<br>
“What this means is that our gorgeous summertime views of the
mountains are going to become more like California, where they’re
just kind of barren peaks,” he said.<br>
<br>
<b>Mapping glaciers</b><br>
Fountain and his team outlined and identified glaciers using maps
compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey over 40 years, from the
1940s to the 1980s. They overlaid satellite imagery of the same
areas taken between 2013 and 2020, coming up with a comprehensive
inventory of 1,331 glaciers in the seven Western states, including
the 612 federally listed glaciers. Most of the West’s glaciers are
in Washington state: The glacial cover on Mount Rainier alone is
larger than that of all the other states combined.<br>
<br>
Of the eight glaciers that have disappeared in Oregon, six are now
considered perennial snowfields, no longer moving and growing like
a glacier. And two have gotten so small smaller than two football
fields — that they can no longer be considered glaciers. Most are
in the Three Sisters area, Fountain said. One, the Benson Glacier
in the Wallowas, is considered a snowfield.<br>
<br>
The only glacier in the West that appears to be growing is Crater
Glacier on Mount St. Helens. It’s on the north-facing side of the
crater left by the 1980 eruption of the volcano and rapidly
accumulated snow, rocks and ice pack and is continuing to move
downslope.<br>
<br>
Related: Northwest glaciers are melting. What that means to
Indigenous ‘salmon people’<br>
<br>
Fountain will soon release another study showing the volume and
area changes of the federally listed glaciers during the last
century. He and his team see themselves as the reporters of the
high alpine.<br>
<br>
“We’ll keep tracking the glaciers as they go along and just kind
of see what happens in that sense,” Fountain said, adding that the
only thing that will slow glacial loss would be slowing of
emissions of greenhouse gases.<br>
<br>
“Frankly, we’re all kind of on our own on this,” Fountain said.
“There is no state agency that is particularly concerned with the
glaciers. It kind of falls between geology and hydrology. You
can’t manage glaciers per se. So in that way, the state doesn’t
have any interest.”<br>
<br>
This story was originally published by the Oregon Capital
Chronicle. Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a
network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of
donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle
maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for
questions: <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="mailto:info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com">info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com</a>.
Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and X.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.opb.org/article/2023/10/29/western-states-glacier-melting-research/">https://www.opb.org/article/2023/10/29/western-states-glacier-melting-research/</a><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<font face="Calibri"> <i>[ The news archive - Inhofe often attained
that position ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> <font size="+2"><i><b>November 17, 2006 </b></i></font>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font> November 17, 2006: MSNBC's Keith
Olbermann calls out Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe for simultaneously
trafficking in climate denial and blasphemy:<br>
<blockquote> "But our winner, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, who
until January will remain the chairman of the Senate Committee on
the Environment and Public Works. This morning he declared that
any global warming is owed to 'natural causes' and is 'due to the
sun.'<br>
<br>
'God’s still up there,' he added.<br>
<br>
"So, Senator, you’re blaming global warming on God?<br>
<br>
"Senator James 'Is it just me or is it hot in here' Inhofe,
Friday’s 'Worst Person in the World.'"<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15814614/ns/msnbc-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/t/worst-person-world-sen-james-inhofe/">http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15814614/ns/msnbc-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/t/worst-person-world-sen-james-inhofe/</a><br>
<br>
<p><font face="Calibri"> <br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><br>
=== Other climate news sources
===========================================<br>
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Newsletters<br>
We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every
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top headlines deliver the full story, for free.<br>
</font> <font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/">https://insideclimatenews.org/</a><br>
--------------------------------------- <br>
*<b>Climate Nexus</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/*">https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/*</a>
<br>
Delivered straight to your inbox every morning, Hot News
summarizes the most important climate and energy news of the
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Every weekday morning, in time for your morning coffee, Carbon
Brief sends out a free email known as the “Daily Briefing” to
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the peer-reviewed journals. <br>
more at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
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*T<b>he Daily Climate </b>Subscribe <a
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