Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
It's Pretty Black and White: Saving BUB, Beautiful Unique Biodiversity, as in this Amazon treehopper and its child, is another reason to preserve carbon storing forests. Source Pinterest
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon
Credit Mario Tama at Getty Images
OO More Diversity Helps Amazon Forests adapt to climate change a new study indicates - BUT overall adaptation remains low - there is low recovery in most scenarios.
Cutting Down A Rainforest Stops The Rain - and ultimately has caused drought in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and elsewhere. Source Greenpeace
OO Watersheds Lost Up To 22% Of Their Forests In 14 Years -
Here's How It Affects Your Water Supply - Forest degradation has caused:
- Drought in Sao Paulo, Brazil:
- Flooding in the Himalayas;
- Pollution in Sumatra.
Credit jarO at flickr
Because upstream forests, wetlands and other "natural infrastructure" play critical roles in:
- supplying clean water downstream;
- stabilizing soil, reducing erosion;
- regulating water flow to mitigate floods and droughts;
- purifying water.
<>
OO Burning Paradise: Conglomerate Accused Of Destroying Indonesia's Last Forests - one of Indonesia's few remaining expanses of pristine rainforest is at imminent risk of destruction by Korean-Indonesian conglomerate Korindo, says a new report.
<>
The Beginning of a Beautiful Relationship if climate change doesn't spoil the fungal communication between these two infant trees, imbedded in the furry fungal networks surrounding their roots. Source www.nature.com
OO Clearcutting, Climate Change Can Disrupt
Critical Networks Among Forest Trees - trees use a network of soil fungi to communicate their needs and aid neighboring plants. A network vulnerable to disruption. Among trees, these fungal networks:
- transfer resources;
- provide aid when needed;
- communicate environmental dangers;
- allow searches for kin trees;
- enable dying trees to transfer resources to healthy ones.
Soil fungi are underground traders, exploring and harvesting nutrients and water that they trade with plants for sugar or other photosynthetic products.
When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.
*
*
HOT NEWS
OO Hottest Temperature Ever Measured In September For Europe - with a record high of 114.3 F in Spain, and amazingly hot Kuwait recently clocked in at 124.2 F, which would be the second hottest September temperature ever recorded worldwide.
*
*
CONNECTING THE DOTS
@@ Weather, or Climate Change? An excellent short on the intersection of climate change with the weather, from the best experts in the field today.
<>
Follow the Dotted Line ... go to the webpage for the full sequence, a looong timeline scroll. Credit xkcd.com (Randall Munroe)
Love how the comment "[After setting your car on fire], Listen, your car's temperature has changed before." follows my cursor as it explores the timeline. And then comes the very real punchline:
@@ A Timeline of Earth's Average Temperature - love it, love it, LOVE IT! Gives you a great sense of where we've been, and headed, temperature-wise, touched with humor along the way.
If you're a stickler for prehistory and nitty gritty analytical details, you might get miffed, but he's nailed the general picture. No room for the entire scroll here, so check it out!
*
*
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!
*
*
SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS
OO Smoke Signals: Teasing Out Adverse Health Effects Of Wildfire Emissions that can include a range of smoky harmful pollutants.
OO New York City: Flooding Of Coast, Caused By Global Warming, Has Already Begun - huge vertical rulers are sprouting beside low spots in the streets here, so people can judge if the tidal floods that increasingly inundate their roads are too deep to drive through.
OO Connecticut Fishermen Struggle To Hang On - As climate changes, so do fish populations, but not the rules for catching them.
OO Africa: Climate Change Threatens
To Double Malaria Risk From Dams say researchers.
*
*
SPEAKING OUT
Her Land, Her Future
OO North Dakota Oil Pipeline Protesters Stand Their Ground:
'This Is Sacred Land' - it could also endanger community drinking water.
Related Headline:
OO Dakota Pipeline Was Approved By Army Corps
Over Objections Of 3 Fed Agencies including the EPA, which echoed Sioux tribe's concerns.
OO Insurers Call On Top 20 Global Economies
To Phase Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies By 2020 - at the recent G20 meeting. The insurers have $1.2 trillion under management.
OO Pope Francis Says Destroying The Environment Is A Sin - He:
- calls for urgent action to stop climate change;
- proposes that caring for the environment be added to traditional Christian works of mercy.*
*such as feeding the hungry and visiting the sick.
Related Headline:
OO Pope Urges Christians To Save Planet From 'Debris, Desolation And Filth' with concerted action against environmental degradation and climate change. Consumerism and financial greed, he said, were threatening the planet. How about too many people?
*
*
GOOD IDEAS
Source www.mthome.com
OO How Three-Day Weekends Could Help To Save The World By:
- Reducing levels of energy consumption,
- Due to commuting and workplace maintenance.
- This has been demonstrated in Utah.
- It also improves mental and physical health,
- And is demonstrated to improve productivity.
OO Baltimore, MD: Green Jobs Helping Ex-Cons Turn Over A New Leaf - the city is quietly hiring formerly incarcerated men to work on environmental restoration projects.
<>
OO Experts Call For A Unified National Conservation Network say agency scientists and conservation leaders.
OO Nature Conservancy Touts Conserving Ecosystems As Best Climate Change Solution says the director of carbon finance with the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
BUT...
OO Protected Areas - Effective Conservation Tools, But Useless Against Rising Temperatures - while great for curbing deforestation and preserving Earth's biodiversity, how much will heating limit their effectiveness?
<>
Green Grow The Drones - a new aid to reforestation. Credit DroneSeed
OO Tree-Planting Robots Could Save Northwest Forests - an Oregon startup is developing drones for planting, caretaking and monitoring trees on a large scale.
OO After The Flood: Feds Should Support Mitigation, Not Rebuilding - the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program, insuring 5+ million homes, is $23 billion in debt after a string of natural disasters this century. Analysts say it is time to shift from rebuilding to mitigating risk.
OO Maryland Fines Coal Power Plants $1 Million For Polluting Rivers - one of the largest penalties state environmental regulators have levied in years.
OO Australia: Big Sydney Project Aims To Recycle More Water Than It Uses - As rainfall drops, the Australian government is releasing billions of dollars to help fund building the water infrastructure required.
*
*
NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS
OO Montana: Fish Deaths In Yellowstone River Tied To Warming Waters - as parasite that is killing tens of thousands of fish is blamed on low stream flow and warming waters, both impacts of climate change in the West.
OO Melting Antarctic Sea Ice
Might Speed Sea Level Rise, Disrupt Fisheries as the melt water decreases saltiness, which can create currents that speed up melt and suppress the deep sea mixing vital to supplying nutrients to important ecosystems and fisheries.
Feeling Feverish Yet? Ticks can carry some pretty serious diseases.
OO Alaska: Exotic Ticks Appear To Be Establishing Themselves
*
*
GOOD CLEAN NEWS
Solar Is Powering a Job Revolution - creating 1 out of every 80 US jobs since the Great Recession. Photo Source www.solsystems.com
OO US Clean Energy Jobs Are Exploding:
Why Don't Mainstream Reporters Know? Some are still pushing a false narrative on this. For the record:
- solar industry creates 1 out of every 80 new US jobs since 2008;
- most of these new, blue collar, solar jobs pay an average21/hr;
The solar industry has:
- hired more veterans than anyone else;
- retrained coal workers;
- provided a soft landing for unemployed oil and gas workers;
- almost all are trained within 6 months, because their skills are transferrable.
- Wind technician is the fastest growing US job;
- Solar & wind manufacturing arms employ 10,000s of US jobs - and are expanding rapidly.
Credit Dennis Schroeder, NREL
OO Iowa: New $3.6 Billion Project Could Be One Of Many 'Mega' Wind Orders - MidAmerican Energy will leverage federal incentives to build 2 gigawatts of wind power by 2019. Others may follow suit.
OO Which State Is A Big Renewable Energy Pioneer? Texas - it has added more wind-based capacity than any other, as part of an aggressive energy diversification that seeks to skirt ideology.
Credit Tom Tole at the Washington Post
OO We've Only Just Begun: More Climate Fights Are Coming - the Paris climate agreement is likely to start this year, but is clearly inadequate. What else is cooking? Takeaways:
Fossil fuel subsidies:
- Cost global economy160 Million to5+ Trillion, depending on definition;
- The "inefficient" ones will be eliminated by the top 7 global economies by 2025;
- Maybe not the top 20 economies, but several African countries and India have stopped federal subsidies.
Source www.huffingtonpost.com
The US election:
- Tougher CO2 targets need a Clinton win;
- This could spur other countries to further action.
There's also some movement to:
- Regulate aviation emissions;
- Cut back on super climate changing HFC coolant emissions;
- Increase the flow of wealth from rich to poorer nations.
- A funded International Solar Alliance to spread solar power now exists.
- A High Level Panel on Water is working to assure universal access to clean water.
<>
OO 3,500+ UK Churches Now Put Their Faith In Green Energy - rejecting fossil fuels and embracing the power of green energy.
OO The Eastern US Could Get A Third Of Its Power From Renewables Within 10 Years Theoretically. The political, social, and institutional changes are more difficult than the technological challenge.
OO The Eastern US Grid Can Handle A 30% Penetration Of Wind, Solar Power
OO France: Energy Giant Leads $20 Million Investment
In Off-Grid Solar Startup for expansion in Africa. Energy giants are diversifying into distributed energy in developing markets.
OO Sweden Diverts 99 % Of Its Waste From Landfills - already leading environmentally with its electric roads and 100% fossil fuel-free by 2050 plan, it also:
- recycles much of its waste;
- generates electricity from about 50% of the country's garbage.
*
*
FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES
Source www.oilandgasjobsadvice.com
Coming Up Dry?
OO Oil Discoveries At 70-Year Low Signal Supply Shortfall Ahead - with 2015 explorers discovering only 10% as much oil as they have annually on average since 1960. This year, they'll probably find even less.
Daily Climate Editor Pete Myers: "Cheap fossil fuels have driven GDP growth for two centuries. The trend reported here does not bode well for continued growth."
OO Biofuels Could Be Bad For Bees research says, as more and more fields of corn and soybean are planted, which beekeepers prefer to avoid.
OO As Coal Companies Go Bankrupt, Who Will Pay To Clean Up Their Old Mines?
Good question - likely taxpayers, in many cases.
*
*
CLIMATE LEADERSHIP
The Clean Energy President Credit AP photo, Julie Jacobson
OO Obama Legacy:
Quiet But Big Changes In Energy, Pollution - with a quiet US transformation in how and where it gets its energy during Barack Obama's presidency, slicing the nation's output of polluting gases that are warming Earth.
OO Climate Change Looms Large In Obama's Final Trip To Asia
*
*
ELECTION YEAR:
If You Don't Vote For Climate Action, You Can Forget The Rest - in a climate-changing world of famine, drought, rising seas, giant storms and heat waves, there will be no security in jobs, health, wealth, or national safety. There will be chaos ensuing from increasing crises and disasters. Vote.
OO Global Warming Policies We Set Today Will Determine The Next 10,000 Years - of global warming, a new study shows -- and whether our civilization survives or not: history shows that harmful climate change has destroyed civilizations before.
This time, it could be worldwide. Let's keep "The Hunger Games" in the realm of fiction.
*
*
If we do not grow sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.
@@ How Parents Can Help Prevent Teen Pregnancy
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.
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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.
*
*
*
SOLAR KEEPS SURFING
OO US Vets Find A Home In The Solar Industry which employs them at above average rates, and are expected to grow in the overall solar workforce.
Check it out here, right now!
*
*
*
WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS
Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Sept 14, 2016
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.
Looking above at recent temperature anomalies, much of the US and the waters surrounding it are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: the eastern Pacific warm spot continues and so does the drought in California. Meanwhile, Spetember heat records were broken in Europe, and the Mideast got very hot.
Much of the 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. For more detailed summaries of the above and other climate change items, audio podcasts and texts are freely available.
