Feb 29 Hot Air News Roundup

Something to keep in mind…

 

Villasenor has been part of the youth-led strike for months and endured a sit-in as a polar vortex brought bone-chilling cold to the Big Apple.

She and others are calling for a world wide climate strike…

A sea of students are taking part in climate strikes around the world, and on March 15, young activists in the U.S. will add their voices to the escalating #FridaysForFuture movement. … Now, kids, teens and young adults in the U.S. will take their own action with support from environmental groups such 350.org, Extinction Rebellion and the Sunrise Movement.

Villaseñor and Hirsi are part of a three-person power team co-leading the first United States –wide #SchoolStrike4Climate, as the hashtag has come to define it, a movement inspired by 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg, who has been on strike outside of the Swedish parliament building every Friday since September.

 

These are the student climate strikes planned and happening all over the world. The youth are rising and they want their future back.

There’s no more time for delays. Time for a #GreenNewDeal#ActOnClimate #Climate #Energy #cdnpoli #climatestrike #studentstrike @GretaThunberg pic.twitter.com/1lCnvfm8lY

— Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema)

February 20, 2019

“I am asking youth all over the country to think about what their future looks like under climate change by writing stories and making artwork. In school, youth are taught how to live in a world that won’t exist due to climate change. We aren’t being taught the truth.

The children will not be deterred. Their confrontation with Dianne Feinstein went viral…

Most recently, California senator Dianne Feinstein, 85, scolded a group of middle-schoolers with the group Youth v Apocalypse, who had joined the Sunrise Movement to call on Feinstein to back a resolution in the Senate supporting a Green New Deal. In a now infamous exchange, Feinstein barked that “I know what I’m doing” and that she has “been doing this for 30 years”, so they better just bugger off and let the adults work.

 

HOT AIR NEWS ROUNDUP

Countdown to Calving at Brunt Ice Shelf
NASA 2-23-19

Cracks growing across Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf are poised to release an iceberg with an area about twice the size of New York City. It is not yet clear how the remaining ice shelf will respond following the break, posing an uncertain future for scientific infrastructure and a human presence on the shelf that was first established in 1955.

‘Shame on Trudeau’: Anger Stirred as Canada’s Energy Board Approves Trans Mountain Pipeline
Common Dreams 2-22-19

The board noted that the Trans Mountain pipeline is likely to have a significant negative impact on the Southern resident orca, whose population in the Salish Sea off the coast of British Columbia is rapidly dwindling; … indigenous tribes will not relent in their “deeply entrenched opposition” to the pipeline, which will threaten food sources of the 29 tribes that live in the path of the proposed route.

Alberta’s Oil Production Cut Shows the Keystone XL Protest Worked
Desmog 2-13-19

The oil would simply find another way to the market, the argument went, leading New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait, for example, to declare “The Keystone Fight is a Huge Environmentalist Mistake.” Well, perhaps not.

“Historic Price Crash Plunges Canadian Oil Patch into Crisis,” Bloomberg reported in November 2018: “Heavy Canadian crude has been on a downward spiral since mid-May, with prices plummeting by more than 60 percent as an onslaught of new production from the oil-sands overwhelms the nation’s pipelines.”

Extremely long, detailed, and well-written article…

Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth
The Guardian 2-15-19

After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on Earth. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world with up to 2.8bn tonnes, surpassed only by China and the US. … If developing countries expand their infrastructure to current average global levels, the construction sector will emit 470 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050, according to the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.

Environmental impact of concrete
Wikipedia

The cement industry is one of two largest producers of carbon dioxide (CO2), creating up to 5% of worldwide man-made emissions of this gas, of which 50% is from the chemical process and 40% from burning fuel. … One reason why the carbon emissions are so high is because cement has to be heated to very high temperatures in order for Portland Cement noudules to form.

Concrete is tipping us into climate catastrophe. It’s payback time
The Guardian 2-15-19

So great is its carbon footprint that unless it is transformed and made to adopt cleaner practices, the industry could, on its own, jeopardise the whole 2015 Paris agreement … This is wishful-thinking. The great bulk of the industry is inherently conservative, ignorant of the alternatives to cement and reluctant to adopt change.

Interview with Dahr Jamail Chris Hedges 2-23-19
[VIDEO]  

Book review…

It’s Possible to Face Climate Horrors and Still Find Hope
Truthout 2-201-19

In July 2017, David Wallace-Wells broke through the iron curtain of euphemism, optimism and gradualism, pulled no punches and told the truth with the publication of his article “The Uninhabitable Earth” in New York Magazine. Wallace-Wells explored some of the worst-case scenarios. … Which is [it is important to show] readers that there is in fact an organized effort to restore a safe climate at emergency speed would be very helpful to them.

Senate Democrats to offer unanimous climate resolution that’s not the Green New Deal
Politico 2-16-19

All 47 members of the Senate Democratic caucus plan to introduce a resolution Tuesday urging Congress to act immediately on climate change … Text of the resolution was not immediately available, but it will not include any definitive targets or timetables

This article takes a look at the December 2018 report: Creating a Sustainable Food Future, published by World Resources Institute. Worth checking out…

Feeding 10 billion people by 2050 in a warming world
Yale Climate Connections 2-13-19

Researchers look for ways to meet rising global food demand. The challenge: produce 50 percent more food while reducing GHG emissions by one-third. … The synthesis report outlines a variety of options and opportunities to meet the rapidly growing need for nutrition while at the same time working to mitigate climate change.

Great Barrier Reef authority gives green light to dump dredging sludge
The Guardian 2-10-19

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has approved the dumping of more than 1m tonnes of dredge spoil near the reef, using a loophole in federal laws that were supposed to protect the marine park

Excellent article…

CLIMATE PILE-UP: Global Warming’s Compounding Dangers
Climate Central 2-20-19

In reality, climate change’s risks have more in common with an overturned bookcase than with a tidy library. The various effects of global warming can and increasingly do materialize in particular places almost simultaneously, in messy jumbles. Last year, for instance, Florida experienced severe drought, record high temperatures, wildfires, and the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Panhandle. California, meanwhile, saw record-setting wildfires and extreme heat waves.

A World Without Clouds. Think About That a Minute’: New Study Details Possibility of Devastating Climate Feedback Loop
Common Dreams 2-5-19

Stratocumulus clouds cover about two-thirds of the Earth and help keep it cool by reflecting solar radiation back to space. Recent research has suggested that planetary warming correlates with greater cloud loss, stoking fears about a feedback loop that could spell disaster.

Food for thought…

The Pathetic New Tactic Replacing Climate Change Denial
Vice 2-23-19

The new form of climate denial is more insidious, and for the moment more acceptable in polite society. Rather than rubbishing the science that tells us climate change is happening, these new deniers rubbish solutions and mock those fighting for a better world.

Very interesting article…

Revealed: How the Tobacco and Fossil Fuel Industries Fund Disinformation Campaigns Around the World
Desmog 2-19-19

[MIT] analyzed organisations in DeSmog’s disinformation database and the Guardian’s tobacco database and found 35 thinktanks based in the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand that promote both the tobacco and fossil fuel industries’ interests.

Of these organisations, DeSmog can reveal that 32 have taken direct donations from the tobacco industry, 29 have taken donations from the fossil fuel industry, and 28 have received money from both. Two key networks, based around the Koch brothers and Atlas Network, are involved in coordinating or funding many of the thinktanks.

‘Stop Funding Climate Change!’: Jamie Dimon Interrupted for Important Planetary Message
Common Dreams 2-22-19

A report out last year from RAN accused the financial giant of being “the top U.S. funder of extreme fossil fuels,” citing its financing of tar sands projects, ultra-deepwater oil, Arctic oil, coal power, and LNG exports.

PROTESTS • EXTINCTION REBELLION • RESISTANCE

Dozens of Youth Activists Arrested After Green New Deal Protest in Mitch McConnell’s Office
Earther 2-25-19

On Monday, youth activists occupied Mitch McConnell’s office bearing banners calling on him to look them in the eyes and explain why he doesn’t support a Green New Deal. They were eventually expelled, and 42 were arrested by Capitol Police for unlawfully demonstrating, the law enforcement agency told Earther.

Belgian minister resigns over school-strike conspiracy claims
The Guardian 2-5-19

A Belgian environment minister has been forced to resign after falsely claiming the country’s intelligence services held evidence that children skipping school to demonstrate over climate change were being directed by unnamed powers.

Faces of Faith: GreenFaith: God wants eco-warriors
Times Union 2-22-19

The Capital Region Creation Care Coalition began about a year ago when Christians, Jews, Quakers, Unitarian Universalists and Buddhists met. But the coalition is in its infancy in tackling renewable energy, zero waste, education and advocacy. … To learn about GreenFaith’s upcoming events like Climate Justice Advocacy Day on Wednesday, Feb. 27, see www.capitalcreationcare.org/

Facebook Restores School Strike Events following Flood of Complaints
School Strike for Climate Australia 2-1-19

UPDATE (1:40pm): In response to a flood of community messages, Facebook has confirmed it was a mistake to have blocked all of our School Strike Facebook events for March 15 and they have now been restored. Hooray! This highlights the importance of freedom of expression, and the right to democratic peaceful protests.

This is old news now but important to remember…

‘You didn’t vote for me’: Senator Dianne Feinstein responds to young green activists
The Guardian 2-22-19

Later in the clip, Feinstein tells a young activist, “Well, you know better than I do. So I think one day you should run for the United States Senate and then you do it your way.”

“Great, I will,” the teenager responded.

#Fridays For Future • #Climate Strike • #School Strike 4 Climate

Greta Thunberg

‘Kicking Ass for Her Generation’: Applause for 16-Year-Old Greta Thunberg as EU Chief Pledges $1 Trillion to Curb Climate Threat
Common Dreams 2-21-19

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker Thursday in Brussels as he indicated—after weeks of climate strikes around the world inspired by the Swedish teenager—that the European Union has heard the demands of young people and pledged more than $1 trillion over the next seven years to address the crisis of a rapidly heating planet.

In the financial period beginning in 2021, Juncker said, the EU will devote a quarter of its budget to solving the crisis.

Greta Thunberg tells EU: your climate targets need doubling
The Guardian 2-21-19

“This target is not sufficient to protect the future for children growing up today. If the EU is to make its fair contribution to stay within the carbon budget for the 2C limit then it needs a minimum of 80% reduction by 2030, and that includes aviation and shipping.” … She also responded to criticism from political leaders, who included Theresa May, over skipping lessons. “If you still say that we are wasting valuable lesson time, then let me remind you that our political leaders have wasted decades through denial and inaction.”

Extinction Rebellion

JOIN EX USA: on their website

Extinction Rebellion movement evolves as international week of action approaches
Rabble 2-25-19

UK-based XR campaigner Tiana Jacout has commented, “We have tried marching, and lobbying, and signing petitions. Nothing has brought about the change that is needed.” And her colleague Gail Bradbrook has stated, “Only large-scale economic disruption can rapidly bring the government to the table to discuss our demands.” …An XR international week of action is now being planned for April 15 to 22.

Another great article by Hedges…

Extinction Rebellion by Chris Hedges
Truthdig 2-24-19

There is one desperate chance left to thwart the impending ecocide and extinction of the human species. We must, in wave after wave, carry out nonviolent acts of civil disobedience to shut down the capitals of the major industrial countries, crippling commerce and transportation, until the ruling elites are forced to publicly state the truth about climate catastrophe,

 

ADAPTION AND RESILIENCE

A Chinese boost in the Electric Vehicle market
Green Optimist 2-24-19

So-called New Energy Vehicles (NEV), however, saw a 138% increase in sales last January. NEVs include pure-battery, plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell models and their sales are being subsidized by the Chinese government.

APS to install 850 MW of storage, 100 MW of solar in major clean energy buy
Utility Dive 2-21-19

Arizona Public Service (APS) will install 850 MW of energy storage by the mid-2020s, the utility announced Thursday, including 450 MW / 1500 MWh that will come online by 2021 and an additional 400 MW slated for 2025.

Tribes Use Western and Indigenous Science to Prepare for Climate Change
Hakai 2-21-19

Northwestern tribes and the University of Washington climate group have joined forces to help protect salmon, roots, trees, and other important resources.

Global Shipping Inches Forward on Heavy Fuel Oil Ban in Arctic
Inside Climate News 2-22-19

The heavy fuel oil ban is supported by Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and the United States, and environmental advocates hope it will be adopted by the IMO in 2021 and phased in by 2023. … Russia and Canada, two Arctic nations whose ships burn the most heavy fuel oil, have yet to get behind the ban

Ikea curtains break down pollutants, highlight interest in fabric purifiers
Tech Xplore 2-23-19

Can you use textiles to clean the air? Take sunlight. Add a film coating to fabric. And you get curtains that destroy pollutants and purify the air inside your home. The recipe is being touted by Ikea.

 

WILDLIFE & THE ENVIRONMENT

Researchers discover a flipping crab feeding on methane seeps
Science Daily 2-10-19

Researchers have documented a group of tanner crabs vigorously feeding at a methane seep on the seafloor off British Columbia — one of the first times a commercially harvested species has been seen using this energy source.

Iceland announces plan to kill over 2,000 whales within next five years
Independent 2-21-19

Despite a declining global market for whale meat and falling public support, the government opted to remain in defiance of the international ban on whaling.

Whalers will be authorised to harpoon 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales in Icelandic waters every year until 2023.

Despite harm to Puget Sound orcas, Canada should expand Trans Mountain pipeline, energy board says
Faster Than Expected 2-22-19

The project will likely harm endangered southern resident killer whales, increase greenhouse-gas emissions that worsen the impacts of climate warming, and could cause oil spills that would be damaging to the environment, the board found. However, the more-than-700-mile-long pipeline should be approved by the government anyway, the board found, because it is in Canada’s national interest.

Interesting with great pictures…

Entergy Poised to Get Green Light for Gas Plant Despite Role in Paying Actors in Astroturf Campaign
Desmog 2-21-19

On February 21, after over two hours of testimony mostly against Entergy’s proposed gas plant, the New Orleans City Council voted unanimously to let the company keep its permit despite the paid actors scandal, clearing the way for the project to proceed.
… The investigation concluded that the company was responsible for hiring paid actors, who were wearing t-shirts supporting the plant, to fill council chambers and speak in support of the project. … the committee coming up with the new resolution that she believes offers the best outcome for the city.

Amazon forest can be trained by higher rainfall variability – but may be no match for climate change
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research 2-15-19

[Research] reveals a key player in shaping the resilience of the Amazon, and finds that regions with generally higher rainfall variability are more resilient to current and future climate disturbances. However, despite this ‘training effect’, the Amazon rainforest might not be able to keep up with the pace of ongoing climate change, the study shows.

Good article…

Global forests soaking up carbon at quickening rate
NCAR UCAR 2-25-19

The findings, published in the journal Biogeosciences, suggest that forests are growing more vigorously, and therefore, locking away more carbon. Even so, the concentration of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is still on the rise.

Hypoxic zones will increase as the climate breaks down…

‘Dead zone’ volume more important than area to fish, fisheries
PHYS ORG 2-26-19

The dead zone, a hypoxic zone, is a region of low oxygen that results from runoff of high nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, often found in fertilizer, flowing from the Mississippi River into the coastal ocean. … This nutrient pollution, coupled with other factors, is believed to have a negative impact on fisheries because it depletes the oxygen required to support most marine life in bottom and near-bottom waters.

 

CLIMATE STUDIES

Arctic sea ice loss in the past linked to abrupt climate events
PHYS ORG 2-11-19

From this they determined that sea ice changes were massively significant in past climate change events in the North Atlantic. These periods, called Dansgaard-Oeschger events2, are some of the fastest and largest abrupt climate changes ever recorded. During some of these events, Greenland temperatures are likely to have increased by 16 degrees Celsius in less than a decade.

Continued sea-level rise on East and Gulf coasts detailed
Science Daily 2-15-19

Interactive plots provide annual sea-level projections to 2050 for 32 localities along the US coastline from Maine to Alaska.

Possible climate transitions from breakup of stratocumulus decks under greenhouse warming
Nature Geoscience 2-25-19

In the simulations, stratocumulus decks become unstable and break up into scattered clouds when CO2 levels rise above 1,200 ppm. In addition to the warming from rising CO2 levels, this instability triggers a surface warming of about 8 K globally and 10 K in the subtropics.

Indicators and trends of polar cold airmass
Environmentatl Research Letters 2-11-19

The loss of cold air has accelerated, as the most rapid loss of NHC has occurred in recent decades (1989–2018). The spatial patterns of the trends of PCAM and NHC provide another manifestation of Arctic amplification.

Global Warnings

Paul Beckwith: “I declare a global climate change emergency to claw back up the rock face to attempt to regain system stability, or face an untenable calamity of biblical proportions.”

Kevin Hester: “There is no past analogue for the rapidity of what we are baring witness to. There has been a flood of articles … 2C is no longer attainable and that we are heading for dangerous climate change”

Guy McPherson: “The recent and near-future rises in temperature are occurring and will occur at least an order of magnitude faster than the worst of all prior Mass Extinctions. Habitat for human animals is disappearing throughout the world, and abrupt climate change has barely begun.”

Magi Amma: We need to turn on a dime at mach nine!

…

Equivalencies:

• 1 gigatonne equals one billion tons

• 1 gigatonne of carbon equals 3.67 gigatonnes of CO2

• 1 part per million of atmospheric CO2 is equivalent to 7.81 gigatonnes of CO2

• 1 part per million of atmospheric carbon is equivalent to 2.13 gigatonnes of carbon