Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
And the chances of Donald Trump’s family and fortune surviving climate change are small, dwindling daily and irreversibly - as are ours.
Saving BUB, Beautiful Unique Biodiversity, as in this ferocious looking Amazonian spiny harvestman, is another reason to preserve carbon storing forests. Credit Arthur Anker at flickriver.com
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon
Once A Green Rampart Against Storms, Now Crumbling Skeletons is a vast stretch of mangroves that once protected the north coast of Australia. Credit James Cook University
OO Australia: 'They Died Of Thirst': Extreme Conditions Wipe Out Forest Over 1000 Kilometres – a year ago, a vast stretch of mangrove forests along its northern coast; extreme conditions included record heat.
OO Brazil: Amazon Jungle Faces Death Spiral Of Drought And Deforestation,
Warn Scientists - The water cycle of the Amazon has been described as “one of nature’s great wonders”, but the forest is being eaten by the timber industry, agriculture and the effects of climate change.
When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.
*
*
CLIMATE-CHANGING CO2 RISING FASTEST EVER
Source ISS, NASA
OO Carbon Dioxide In The Atmosphere Is Rising Faster Than Ever Recorded –
Takeaways:
- For the second year running, atmospheric CO2 levels have climbed at a record pace.
- NOAA data shows CO2 levels jumped by 3 parts per million in 2015 and 2016,
- and now rest at just over 400 parts per million.
- Throughout the last decade, the average rate of increase has been around 2.3 ppm yearly.
OO US Climate Scientist Sounds Alarm Over Record Carbon Dioxide Readings – as it keeps surging to record levels, marking the 5th straight year in a row that CO2 has surged by 2ppm or more, says the director of of NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network in Boulder, CO.
Warming Soils Speeds Release of Climate Changing Gases speeding the decomposing action of soil microbes on organic matter, resulting in such releases.
OO Soils Could Release Much More Carbon Than Expected As Climate Warms says a new study. Takeaways:
- deeper soil layers are more sensitive to warming than previously thought,
- shows a field experiment,
- and thus, giving up more carbon as they warm.
We’ve Already Bought Some Future Climate Change … But Do We Want to Buy More? And yet we do, with every new ton of climate changing emissions we add to the atmosphere from fossil fuels.
OO Have We Passed The Climate Change Tipping Point? Climate change is a “moving train.” Takeaways:
- We have already bought some future climate change,
- But reducing emissions dramatically now
- Prevents us from ensuring far worse climate change.
- Exceeding one “tipping point” does not mean you cannot avoid another.
<>
- Regardless of tipping points,
- continued warming, rainfall pattern changes,
- significant sea level rise and
- continued northward and vertical migration of plant and animal species
- in the Northern Hemisphere seem certain.
MEH: At what point, in the cascade of changes taking place, does a tipping point even become relevant?
Volcanoes Spurred Past Extinctions With The Same Gases We Emit Today but, unlike the past, we COULD control our emissions, if we chose, and save ourselves from a legacy of doom. Source youtube.com
OO The Same Climate Changing Gases That Doomed Life In The Past
Are Rising Today Takeaways:
- Past mass extinctions occurred when natural events caused
- the explosive release of the same gases that we emit today.
- But unlike the past,
- we could control them.
- If we don’t, we doom our childen and legacy.
Related:
OO Grassland Lab Raises US Species Loss Alarm - Field experiment on a U.S. grassland shows how climate change could disrupt the delicate life cycle of ecosystems.
*
*
TRUMP TRUMPED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
What Part of Physics Don’t You Understand, Scott Pruitt? Climate change, like gravity, involves basic laws of physics. Source tvtropes.com
OO Climate Change Results From Basic Laws Of Physics':
Scientists Rebuke EPA’s Scott Pruitt On Climate Change - humans add heat-trapping gases, mostly CO2, to the air, and physics does the rest. Get over it, Pruitt!
OO American Meteorological Society To EPA Head Pruitt: You’re Wrong in thinking that CO2 does not drive global warming and hence climate change.
OO Trump To Drop Climate Change From Environmental Reviews in decisions across the government, says a source.
OO Trump Is Poised To Issue A Sweeping Order Dismantling Obama’s Climate Plan
OO White House Calls Climate Change Funding 'A Waste Of Your Money' despite the fact that the Secretary of Defense calls it a threat to national security.
Credit Steve Breen at creators.com
OO Trump Wants To Cut EPA,
End International Climate Work,
And Squelch Climate Research under his new budget. Climate change is indifferent to him, and us.
OO Trump Budget Would Cripple U.S. International Climate Change Work as funding for it, as in participating in the Paris climate accord, for example, is cut.
A Climate Realist Among Deniers Defense Secretary James Mattis sees the real time effects of climate change in the field where our troops are.
OO Trump's Defense Secretary Cites Climate Change As National Security Challenge while Trump doesn’t. James Mattis believes it’s a real time issue, noting that, "Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today."
OO The White House Doubts Climate Change.
Here's Why The Pentagon Does Not - Defense Secretary Jim Mattis sees climate change as a significant national security threat:
- The Middle East recently experienced one of the worse droughts ever recorded,
- Helping create conditions for mass displacement.
<>
- Researchers predict it will only get worse,
- with large swaths of the Middle East and North Africa,
- already politically unstable,
- becoming increasingly uninhabitable.
OO Trump’s Climate Skepticism A Threat To US National Security
This Will Get Worse If Trump Has His Way in loosening auto exhaust rules to fatten profits for automakers. The losers are Americans of all ages.
OO Trump And Automakers Target EPA Mileage Rules to scuttle car mileage standards.
OO How Federal Fuel-Efficiency Rules Help Fight Climate Change - Research suggests passenger-car standards work well to lower countries’ emissions.
OO Polluters Could ‘More Easily’ Commit Crimes Under Cuts - Funding for investigators that enforce federal environmental laws would be cut, uppting the chances that people, wildlife and the climate will be harmed by corporate pollution.
OO China, Leading On Clean Energy, Could Win A Resulting US Trade War -
- as Trump undercuts clean energy funding,
- and China sells its innovations to other countries
- who look to cut costs as they switch to clean energy.
OO Climate Change Denier Sen. James Inhofe Is Upending US Energy And Environmental Policies
At least 6 former aides to Sen. James M. Inhofe — and counting — have been hired into top positions at the EPA and the White House.
OO How Trump's Supreme Court Pick Quietly Wipes Out Environmental Cases
Green groups may never get their day in court. Climate Desk.
*
*
CLIMATE MYTH BUSTERS!
OO The Reality of Climate Change - below are some of the biggest climate myths currently trending, compared to the reality. A good place for more details is here … where even more myths are busted!
*
*
CLIMATE LEADERSHIP
California Cleanin’ as solar and wind power proliferate under enlightened policies. Source www.gogreensolar.com
OO California Senate Leader Wants State To Go 100% Clean Renewable Electricity By 2045 and several experts saying it can be done, depending on definitions, advancing technology, and acceptable price tags.
OO House Republicans' Group Launches Effort To Tackle Climate Change Framing the issue with economic imperatives, 17 Republicans urge the House to move beyond denial toward solutions.
Related:
OO 17 House Republicans Buck Trump, Call for Climate Change Solutions – with a House resolution that noting "human activities" have had an impact on global climate and resolving to create and support "economically viable" mitigation efforts...
Even as the Trump gang mostly rejects the science or importance of climate change.
When Not In Drought, Pakistan Is Often Flooding as climate change intensifies the dry seasons and the monsoons. Their government is taking action.
OO Pakistan: Senate Passes Bill Aimed At Tackling Global Warming Challenge and they did so unanimously – what a model for the US Senate! The country is facing crippling droughts following by flooding downpours as the seasonal weather gets more extreme.
*
*
HOT NEWS
OO Scientists Link US Record-Breaking Warm February Weather To Man-Made Global Warming Takeaways:
- The average February temperature was 40+ F degrees – 7+ degrees warmer than normal, NOAA reported.
- A March frost could kill early blooming trees and flowers
- the lack of a proper winter could lead to more mosquitoes and ticks in 2017
- man-made global warming tripled the likelihood of February’s unusually warm month.
OO The First Climate Model Turns 50,
And Predicted Global Warming Almost Perfectly
*
*
MELTDOWN
@@ Alive And Well: Microbes Add To Melting Of Greenland Ice Sheet – Takeaways:
- as wildfires create a rain of soot onto Greenland ice sheet,
- absorbing sunlight, radiating heat and speeding its melt,
- another factor is also at work: meltwater fosters algal blooms
- that further darken the ice sheet and further speed melt.
Meanwhile…
Record Bipolar Meltdown as both the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice hit record lows this past winter. Source National Snow and Ice Data Center University of Colorado.
OO Arctic Ice Loss Driven By Natural Swings, Not Just Mankind in recent decades says a new study, although 50-70% of the driver is estimated to be man-made.
OO Arctic Sea Ice Melt, Driven By Global Warming, Accelerated By Nature – with 50-70% shown to be caused by mankind.
*
*
GOOD CLEAN NEWS
OO Brooklyn: Solar Power Experiment Lets Neighbors Trade Energy Among Themselves --dozens of homes and businesses have been wired into a microgrid, allowing members to exchange excess-electricity credits.
OO Why Solar Panels Bloom In Southwest's Land Of Hydropower Electric utilities are seeking a new power mix, as shifts in precipitation diminish the role that dams have long played for western states.
OO Despite Trump, Washington D.C. And Other US Cities Push Climate Action
OO Wall Street Titan Now Recognizes Financial Risks Of Climate Change –
With Possible Shock Waves Through US Business Sector - The deep-pocketed investment firm BlackRock Inc. announced a series of steps to address the financial risks of climate change.
Thinking BIG: An Offshore Green Mega Power Plant centered around an artificial island hub is being planned. Source www.thetimes.co.uk
OO Artificial Island To Power Europe under amibitious plans for a vast offshore renewable energy plant to be built in the North Sea. Takeaways:
- the island would distribute energy from 7,000 wind turbines, and solar panels
- to Britain, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Germany and Belgium.
- The European Union-backed plans were created by
- a consortium of Dutch, Danish and Deutsch energy companies.
OO Nevada: NV Energy Pulling Plug On Coal-Fired Power Plant
Credit Pedro Alverez for the Observer
OO South Australia: Four Renewable Energy Projects Ready To Go
OO Energy Carbon Emissions In 2016 Flat For Third Year,
But Much More Needs To Be Done says the International Energy Agency, to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures. A greener energy mix helped keep energy-related carbon dioxide emissions flat in 2016.
*
*
SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS
OO Medical Alert! Climate Change Is Harming Our Health says a new report, as the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, comprised of 11 American medical societies, is publicly launched. Takeaways:
- Climate change is already causing medical problems in all American communties,
- But most Americans are not aware of this.
- Few Americans can name a way that climate change harms our health,
- Or that children and the aged are more vulnerable.
Doctors see a growing need to share this growing concern with the public.
OO Doctors Warn That Climate Change Makes People Sick - A changing climate is hazardous to the planet's health—shrinking polar ice caps, eroding beaches, bleaching corals and more.
OO Climate Change Needs To Be Tackled For Better Health US medical groups urge, as they form
a new consortium on climate and health.
Extreme Weather Harms People Mentally and Physically
OO Here's What Global Warming Actually Does To Your Body the new Consortium on Climate & Health , consisting of over half of all US medical doctors, have created a list of resulting health complications. A sampling:
- rising temperatures can lead to heat stroke, dehydration, and the worsening of chronic diseases;
- extreme weather can cause injuries and death;
- pollution can exacerbate asthma, lung disease, and allergies;
Climate Change Helps Mosquito Borne Zika Virus Spread and other serious diseases as well.
- increases in weather can help insect-borne diseases spread;
- contaminated food and water can make us sick;
- and natural disasters can trigger mental health issues.
OO Should Your Doctor Talk With You About Climate Change? Some doctors plan to start talking with their patients and communities about climate change.
OO Depression, Anxiety, PTSD: The Mental Impact Of Climate Change as many populations face threat of forced migrations, and exposure to catastrophic weather. Takeaways:
1. A new study found 35+% of flood victims diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.
2. In terms of mental health, climate change has 3 main effects:
- Rising violence with rising temperatures;
- Floods and storms can force migration, linked to Isolation and depression;
- Resulting loss of social networks and social capital incurs even more stress.
<>
POLITICAL CLIMATE TIME BOMBS
Imagine The Mideast Violence and Refugees When The Water Dries Up… Credit AP,Vadim Ghirda
OO New Evidence Confirms Risk That Mideast May Become Uninhabitable
In A Few Decades – deepening already existing fears, as accessible fresh water has fallen by two-thirds over the past 40 years.
OO Climate Change Could Make North Africa And Middle East 'Uninhabitable’
OO Climate Change Key Suspect In India’s Vanishing Groundwater as a new study links India’s water crisis to climate change, which has weakened recent monsoons. Imagine THAT country going dry.
<>
Climate Change Threatens Not Just Polar Bears, But the US Soda Industry Screen capture from Youtube
OO Over 900 Examples Of How Climate Change Affects US Business were illustrated by Harvard MBA students. Samples include:
- How water scarcity will affect Coca-Cola;
- How extreme storms affect insurance companies;
- The environmental impacts of the apparel industry.
OO Maine: Farmers, Foresters And Fishermen Know All About Climate Change Although mostly conservatives, these people are happy to detail exactly how abnormally warm weather is affecting their livelihoods. A sampling:
- Fishermen note that the lobsters and other fish are migrating to cooler areas;
- Maple syrup farmers are coming up dry on the maple sap needed;
- Timber workers complain of how costly it is to remove trees on thawing, rather than frozen, ground.
- Lawmakers need to listen to the people who make a living off the land.
In California, That Water Likely Came From Snowpack that is becoming increasingly unreliable under continuing climate change.
OO Sierra Snowpack: As World Warms, California’s Most Important Water Source
Becomes Less Reliable Takeaways:
- Between 2012-2015, snowpack was just 10% of what it is now;
- As the planet warms further,
- Snowpack could plummet even further to just 1+% of what it is now,
- Indicate new studies.
California is an important source of vegetables and fruits for the entire US.
OO Global Warming Effects On Colorado River Is Serious responsible for up to half of the decline in the flow of the river, says a new study.
OO Climate Change To Up Wildfires In Mediterranean Europe says a new study.
From Ancient Colorful Reef to Rotting Corpses: Not What Tourists Want To See … Nor Smell – divers came up from dead areas of the reef reeking of the stench of rotting coral and other reef life. Such destruction undermines much of the biodiversity of and food from the sea, and our dependence on it. Source the Ocean Agency
OO Much Of The 500,000-Year-Old Great Barrier Reef Is Now Dead scientists find, with even the largest and oldest corals affected.
OO Great Barrier Reef Tourism Headed For Tough Times As Coral Bleaching Worsens
OO Coral Reefs' Only Hope Is Halting Global Warming study says, as heat-driven coral bleaching continues worldwide to stress and kill these ecosystems vital to our well being.
Corals are the “canaries” of climate change. We ignore their demise at our own peril.
This Could Get Even Worse … as it is, Beijing often experiences hazardous air pollution that sickens many of its residents, old and young alike.
OO Global Climate Change May Worsen China's Severe Air Pollution Problems says new US research. Takeaways:
- Arctic sea ice loss and increased Eurasian snowfall,
- both caused by global climate change,
- have shifted China's winter monsoon,
<>
- Which, in turn, helps create stagnant atmospheric conditions,
- trapping pollution over the country's major population and industrial centers.
"The very rapid change in polar warming is really having a large impact on China.”
OO 'Airpocalypse' Smog Events In China Linked To Melting Ice Cap which is caused by global warming, says new research. Takeaways:
extreme haze events in winter will likely occur more often in China as the Arctic heats further.
this increases the urgency to cut both air pollution and climate-changing carbon emissions.
human emitted greenhouse gases are responsible for 50-66% of the fall in summer Arctic sea ice since the late 1970s.
Capetown Botanical Treasures Are Also Threatened – many endemic flowers grow in and around Capetown, such as this flower that grows atop the town’s Table Mountain.
OO South Africa: With 100 Days Of Water Left, Cape Town Risks Running Dry The city is the crown jewel of South Africa’s tourism industry.
OO Nearly All Caribbean Countries Have Experienced Prolonged Droughts that challenge their food production, in one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change. Now, they’re trying climate smart agriculture.
OO Peru Floods Kill 67, Illustrating
How Unprepared Peru Is To Face Climate Change Takeaways:
- intense downpours caused by high coastal ocean temperatures
- caused flooding, death, and evacuations;
- months earlier wildfires, enabled by drought,
- created an official state of emergency.
The challenges of climate change will continue to increase, however, under global warming.
*
*
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
@@ Climate Change 101: Why Care? What You Need to Know - Bill Nye tells it all in five minutes amid graphic, dynamic, engaging, compelling imagery. Check it Out!
*
*
GOOD IDEAS
Wind Power Is a Cheap Energy Source For Remote Northern Communities
OO Canada: An Indigenous Renewable Energy Alliance Aims To Cut Power Costs And Disadvantage by
helping support remote communities looking to make transition - and tackle climate change.
OO How To Store Clean Renewable Energy In A Defunct Coal Mine In Germany, one will be turned into a giant battery that stores excess solar and wind energy.
It Doesn’t Look Like A Sail but when spun by a motor under the right wind conditions, it creates a massive thrust that moves ships forward.
OO 'Spinning Sail' Rebooted To Cut Fuel And Make Ocean Tankers Greener - invented almost a century ago, it could lead to more environmentally friendly tankers worldwide.
OO Forecasting Failure: Investors Should Treat Oil Company Energy Forecasts With Caution
says a new report which finds that oil company forecasts:
- have the poor track record of oil company forecasting;;
- have unlikely assumptions built into them,
- with serious consequences of these forecasts for investments and for climate change.
The report:
- finds that the companies are highly vulnerable to disruption by clean energy technologies;
- includes recommendations for more robust ways to think about the future of energy.
*
*
NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS
Iced Cherry Blossoms Illustrate Out-Of-Sync Seasons Source @ProdigyNews
OO Climate Change Is Disrupting Seasons, And Seasonal Life Takeaways:
- the warmer seasons are lengthening, as winter contracts;
- as spring lengthens, disconnects develop among animals and plants –
- migrant birds arrive out of sync with their food plants,
- destroying their reproductive cycle for that season.
“Where’s Our Food?” you can almost hear these baby birds crying; when migrant birds breed out of sync with food plants that sprouted early and are now gone, such babies die. Source www.duskyswondersite.com
“A recent global survey found that climate change had affected 80+% of the biological processes that underpin all life...”
- Yet we do not act to seriously tackle climate change.
- Lived experience moves us; data do not.
- Get out and experience nature personally,
- Note the changes,
Then act – and tell your children what you know.
OO With Climate Change, Subarctic Shrubs And Trees Expand Northwards
OO As The Planet Gets Hotter, Some Mammals May Get Smaller says a new study, with the shrink in size directly related to how hot the planet gets.
Ants May Be Evolutionary Winners of Climate Change in Cities heartwarming, isn’t it?
OO Rapid Evolution May Help Some City Creatures Stand The Heat – Like Ants! Acorn ants, says a new study.
*
*
SPEAKING OUT
Source www.flickr.com
OO Gallop Poll -- Global Warming Concern At Three-Decade High In US Takeaways:
- Americans worrying a great deal up 8 points to 45%
- New high of 62% says effects of global warming are happening now
- Belief that global warming poses a serious threat stretches to 42%
Record percentages of Americans are:
- concerned about global warming,
- believe it is occurring,
- consider it a serious threat and say it is caused by human activity.
Source registerguard.com
OO 'Biggest [Legal] Case On The Planet'
Pits Kids Vs. Climate Change he climate change lawsuit essentially asks a federal judge:
- to order the government to produce a recovery plan
- to reduce carbon emissions to 350 parts per million by 2100
- (down from 400 ppm now) and stabilize the climate system.
<>
- The courts are needed to step in because the government has not—
- despite knowing for more than 50 years
- that burning fossil fuels causes global warming....
Source Gabriel Galaz at Wordpress
OO Climate Change Is Certainly Causing More Powerful Storms says ex NASA chief scientist James Hansen, and other reputable climatologists. Takeaways:
- As the atmosphere warms, so does the water vapor it holds,
- Resulting in heavier rain and snow storms;
- Extra heat is also creating more extreme weather events: droughts, heatwaves, etc.
Political storms are also brewing via the general tactics of the Trump White House, focused also on climate change:
- promoting “get rich quick” schemes for the few rich at the expense of public safety;
- Promote ignorance and disinformation when facts get in the way of these' schemes.
- Distract and confuse with anecdotal stories that promote intolerance and discriminatory practices."
Barcelona’s Green Mayor Wants to Keep It Beautiful by cutting down on air pollution and traffic. Source www.hbc333.com
OO Barcelona Mayor Declares War On "Injustice" Of Of Private Car Use Air pollution is "a social issue because it affects the most vulnerable people - children, those who are ill - so it is a problem of the city, not just an issue that abstractly affects the sustainability of the planet."
OO Australia: Sports Stars Call For Abandoning A Proposed Coal Mine Cricketing greats Ian and Greg Chappell have signed an open letter calling on Indian billionaire Gautam Adani to abandon his company’s proposed Queensland coalmine.
*
*
FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES
US Automakers Seek Profits Before America’s Health – as both our climate and health suffers from relaxing fuel emissions.
OO US Automakers Sue To Overturn Obama EPA's Emission Rules opening the door to lower standards, more hazardous pollution and further catastrophic climate change.
OO West Virginia: Lack of Solar-Friendly Regulations Impedes Solar Jobs – meanwhile, coal’s demise drags the state down with it.
Indonesia Already Emits Plenty of Pollution Without Coal – as the government fails to regulate deforestation. It needs to invest in clean renewable energy instead. Source Riau Forest's Facebook page
OO Indonesia’s Clean Coal Dreams Threaten Real Efforts To Meet Climate Goals – funding uncertain and inaccessible clean coal technology would mean less funds to switch to clean energy.
OO EU Lawmakers Reject Call For Ban On Arctic Oil Exploration
*
*
FIXING CLIMATE CHANGE
@@ A Simple And Smart Way To Fix Climate Change given by Dan Miller in 2014 at a Ted talk suggests a way to profit as we tackle climate change, by finally charging those who sell and use fossil fuels – and distributing the revenues back to all of us.
The strategy is sure to speed transition to clean renewable energy. What’s not to like? Check it out!
*
*
If we do not live sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.
@@ The Cost of Unintended Pregnancy: Too Young
Teen childbearing cost US taxpayers $9+ Billion in 2010
And the costs of raising a child usually ensures decades, if not a life, of poverty for its mother.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Help prevent unintended pregnancies in your community:
publicize where women can access affordable contraception.
They can go here to find locations:
And there are many more actions you can do, right here.
*
*
*
Check it out here, right now!
*
*
WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS
Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, OMar30, 2017
Source cci-reanalyzer.org
How unusual has the weather been? No one event is “caused” by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.
Unusually heavy rains have released California from a SURFACE water drought, but significantly depleted California aquifers keep 60+% of the state in a GROUNDWATER drought, which will likely take decades to disappear. It also means this major US agricultural region has a small safety net, when the next dry year strikes.
Much of the US -- and areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures – not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.
*
*
*
There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I’ve compiled, “Climate Change News Resources,” at Wordpress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here.
To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!
Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by this wild flower I photographed one spring. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you'd like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here. It's our way of letting Congress know there's a strong clean energy voting bloc out there.