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.
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Saving BUB, Beautiful Unique Biodiversity, as in this arboreal Arabian Veiled Chameleon, is another reason to preserve carbon storing forests.
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon
What We Lose When We Lose Forests - many species need intact forests, not just patches, to survive. Source Imgion.com
OO Development Has Destroyed 7% Of Remaining Virgin Forests Since 2000 shows a new study, with implications for biodiversity, climate change, and human life.
OO Giant Congo Carbon Deposit Should Be Prtoected say scientists in a new study. The recently discovered area of peatland contains 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 20 years of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and must be protected to prevent major environmental damage.
When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.
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WOMEN, GREEN POWER TRUMPS TRUMP INAUGURAL
Source National Park EarthCam
OO EarthCam Doesn't Lie: Three Times As Many Attend Trump Protest vs. Inaugural - as shown in the Earthcam photographs of the National Mall on January 21, 2017 with overflowing sidestreets at the Women's March, on top, and the day before at Trump's Inaugural, bottom. Many people urging climate action were part of that crowd.
OO Photos: The Crowd At The Women's March Vs. Donald Trump's Inauguration - the women's march included many groups, uniting under many causes, including civil rights, clean environment, tackling climate change and clean energy.
250,000 invite were invited to the Trump inaugural ; the pictures above indicate that three times as many attended the Women's March. Trump, in typical fashion, spun out a wishful figure of 1.5 million attending his inaugural.
OO At The Women's March, A Call For Climate Protection, Too as amid a sea of signs and pink hats, plenty of people also marched for environment and climate science.
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HOT NEWS
OO 2016 Marks Three Consecutive Years Of Record Heat For The Globe says a new US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report. Takeaways for 2016:
- It was a record 2.5+ degrees F hotter on land above average.
- It was a record 1.3+ degrees F hotter on the sea surface above average.
- North America had its warmest year on record;
- Arctic sea ice area was the smallest on record.
- Antarctic sea ice area was the 2nd smallest on record.
How long NOAA will be able to report on this under Trump is anyone's guess; read it while you can.
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OO US Mainstream Media Ignored Calamitous Global Warming Report,
-- But SNL Didn't - you know, the report telling us about record planetary heat levels over the past 3 years, noted above? Maybe it was because of the new game that enthralls mainstream media: Trump's Latest Lies.* No matter: Saturday Night Live, the new real news outlet, reported it this past Saturday.
[* Trump has plenty of motivation to lie - it distracts the media from focusing on (vs briefly mentioning) the many questionable and harmful things he's doing to our country.]
OO No Pause In Global Warming: Excess Heat Went Into Oceans, Not Air - we were looking for global warming in the wrong place. Just goes to show that oceans matter, too, when measuring the progress of global warming.
OO Global Warming Never 'Paused' And Could Soon Accelerate warns NASA scientist, as every day, the total heat in the living envelope of air and water on this planet, increases.
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SCIENCE ACCURACY SOURCES DISAPPEAR
Trusted By Many, Now Silenced - Jeffrey Beal, a University of Colorado librarian, helped the world distinguish between real and fake science by naming fake science entities.
OO Website Identifying Fake Science Sources Disappears without warning recently; its founder did not respond to inquiries. A close associate indicated that the website suffered an abnormal crash.
Beall's List has been the world's main information source on "predatory open access" journals that publish junk science - none peer reviewed by reputable scientists - as serious, reputable science. Widely praised by many, the list was criticized by a few who felt it was too broad.
In 2016, Beall revealed that a fake knowledge company has been buying up legitimate reputable journals, turning them into "zombie" journals that publish junk science, and using the journals' former reputations to lure unsuspecting customers. Be warned!
Resist Trump's War On Science urged one of many groups that turned out for the Women's March on January 21, 2017. Credit Julia DeSantis at Flickr
OO With Trump In Charge, Climate Change References Purged From Website - Takeaways:
- This happened within moments of Trump's inauguration.
- US govt climate change data is considered among the most authoritative worldwide.
- Scientists worry that this stored data will be deleted during Trump's tenure.
- US university scientists nationwide have volunteered time and computer servers to save and store govt data at Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, NOAA, and the US Geological Services websites.
- Such sites store key climate data such as air temperature trends, greenhouse gas emissions levels, and sea level rise records.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Email the White House here DAILY (put a daily reminder in your email box) about the economic, health, and job benefits of promoting clean energy over fossil fuels. Share this with your social networks and families - it only takes 3 minutes.
Clean energy generates far more jobs than fossil fuels and improves health by reducing air pollution; both improve the economy (despite the fantasies the website now espouses - see below). Trump should be a clean energy winner - not a loser.
OO Trump White House Website Fabricates Benefits
Of No Basic Environmental Regulations On First Day Takeaways:
- The White House website said eliminating power plant climate rules, a clean water rule and other environmental rules would "greatly help American workers, increasing wages by more than30 billion over the next 7 years." (Less than $20 per person yearly, even if it were true.)
- Its source was a flawed 2015 economic study, not peer reviewed, discredited by experts and described by a Yale economist as "problematic from start to finish." The fossil fuel industry supported study does not include the costs of pollution, especially on health, nor the world market trend away from fossil fuels.
- The website distorted the findings of even this flawed study.
Welcome to Trump's Dark Fantasy World!
SCIENCE CENSORSHIP VIA INTIMIDATION
OO Center for Disease Control Abruptly Cancels Long-Planned Conference On Climate Change And Health - likely intimidated, but this is not certain.
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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!
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HOT WATERS
Too Toxic To Eat? In an ever hotter world, it's ever more likely. Source www.centercutcook.com
OO Global Warming Could See Rise In Toxic Shellfish That Can
Lead To Human Memory Loss And Potentially Kill Giant blooms of micro-algae that can produce a potent neurotoxin which gets into shellfish are increasing as the water warms, study finds.
OO Warmer Oceans Encouraging Two New Phytoplankton Groups - rare and different from any other known groups, they thrive in the world's most barren - low nutrient - seawaters; they are likely to increase as the oceans deteriorate under further heating.
Rising Sea Levels Begin Flooding Florida at high tide in Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
Credit Dave at Flickr Creative Commons
OO Even Short-Lived Climate Changing Gases
Produce Faster, Long Term Effects On Sea Rise - Takeaways:
- Short-lived gases like methane trap heat that is partly absorbed by oceans.
- The oceans hold onto heat for several centuries, as it penetrates deep.
- Heated oceanic water expands,
- Resulting in sea level rise of about a foot per 1 degree C average heating of oceans,*
- Compared to the many feet of sea level rise
- Resulting from large scale ice melting.
Oceans Expand As They Heat - although the expansion of seawater is different, and not as fast under climate change as in a water heater. Yet, because there's so much water, heating the oceans even a little makes some difference in sea level -- and we're already starting to feel the difference. Sourcecainsableplumbing.com, modified
- Currently, most sea level rise is from thermal expansion,
- Which is felt faster than meltwater entering oceans.
- Meltwater will overwhelm thermal expansion in raising sea levels, ultimately.
* not specifically noted in the article, but roughly implied.
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SPEAKING OUT
Source www.lowcarbonusa.org
OO Climate Action, Clean Energy Key To US Prosperity,
Business Leaders Urge Trump in an open letter to him, signed by hundreds of business leaders and investors; they stress the need to support clean energy and stay in the Paris climate agreement.
"We want the US economy to be energy efficient and powered by low-carbon energy."
OO Green Groups Sue Georgia Regulator over permits for five coal-fired power plants.
Reframing Climate Change As Moral Issue
OO Priests, Pastors And Ministers Nationwide Are Spreading
The Gospel Of Climate Change -- as are imams and rabbis.
OO No More Pipelines, Louisiana Environmental Group Says citing 144 accidents that include catastrophic problems.
Source www.autoliv.com
OO Another Climate Change Push Comes From Exxon Shareholders who have introduced seven more resolutions, asking the company to address climate change and its risks, moving beyond Rex Tillerson's resistant stance.
OO John Kerry Makes Final Plea To Continue Progress On Climate Change urging both government and the private sector to embrace clean energy.
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TRUMP TRUMPED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
We'll All Pay for This Loser
OO Trump Greenlights Dakota Access, Keystone XL Oil Pipelines - oil now takes precedence over communities.
OO Trump, Congress Could Halt State Action On Climate and preemptively prevent them from acting to slow global warming.
OO Trump's 'Extreme' Cabinet Could Fuel Warming Crisis By Slowing Climate Action
Here Are the Players, But This Is No Game - Trump is sinking his own boat as well as ours, as he impedes action on climate change, while voters get to experience ever more devastating extreme weather under continued climate change.
OO Trump's EPA Freezes Grants, Tells Employees Not To Talk About It sources say. The Environmental Protection Agency has protected Americans from the worse ravages of fossil fuel pollution, the pollution of our air and waters, and climate change; muzzling the EPA means Americans just lost one of its most important champions.
OO Exxon's Tillerson Murky On Future Of Paris Climate Pact and downplayed global warming's dangers during a hearing into his nomination for secretary of state.
OO Rex Tillerson Doesn't Sound Like A Climate Denier, But He Acts Like One As Exxon CEO, he pursued new fossil fuel frontiers despite claiming climate concern.
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CLIMATE LEADERSHIP
Your Stewardship Will Be Missed, Mr. President
OO Obama's Energy Dept. Leaves Behind A New 'Scientific Integrity' Policy
To Protect Scientists - especially climate scientists, from political intimidation, in the wake of Trump's transition team giving out questionnaires on individual activities related to climate change.
Although the policy is reversible, Trump would invite public outrage if he were to reverse it.
OO Cuba, US Sign Oil Spill Deal Before Trump Inauguration jointly prevent, contain and clean up oil and other toxic spills in the Gulf of Mexico, as they rush to conclude deals before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
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GOOD CLEAN NEWS
OO The Irreversible Momentum Of Clean Energy - President Obama says that green energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels (um, he appears to include natural gas as green energy), cleaner for the environment, helps businesses save money, and ultimately benefits everyone. Oil and coal's decline are irreversible.
OO Benefits Of State Renewable Energy Policies Far Outweigh Costs says a new report from the US national laboratories that examined states' renewable energy goals.
It found that while renewables add costs up front, they more than make up for it in avoiding pollution and saving water.
OO New York Seeks To Develop US's Biggest Offshore Wind Projects with Governor Andrew proposing to develop up to 2,400 megawatts of offshore wind power by 2030 capable of powering 1.25 million home,s as the state seeks to lead the nation in renewable energy production.
Mud Mounds Murmur the geothermal energy beneath them and are located near the proposed site of a new geothermal plant in Imperial Valley, California. Credit Mark Boster at the LA Times
OO Australian Firm Plans Largest US Geothermal Plant In Imperial Valley
OO Dutch Trains Become 100% Powered By Wind Energy that generates the electricity that powers them, the national railway company said recently.
OO Sweet And Sour: China Decides To Use Cleaner Fuel -
But Will Likely Sell Dirtier Fuel To Nearby Countries
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SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS
OO US Northeast Will Experience Faster Warming From Climate Change new study finds, over the next decade and beyond, than the rest of the planet.
OO Climate Change Is The World's Biggest Risk, In 3 Charts- In its annual risk review, the World Economic Forum ranked climate change among its most likely and impactful risks in 2017.
OO Water And Climate Dominate World Economic Forum Risk Report
and worry business and political elite.
Davos Is a Reminder of What Climate Change Can Melt - a snowy swiss wonderland. Source www.barrons.com
OO Davos Elite Focus On Climate Change, Ignoring Trump's Skepticism
"The good thing is that the Paris agreement raised the bar for everyone," said one fossil fuel industry leader. "Everyone feels the obligation to act."
OO India: Used To Nearby Warfare, Kashmir Border Farmers Now Hit By Drought
Getting Hot Down Under for the Aussies
OO Climate Change: 90% Of Rural Australians Say Their Lives Are Already Affected
and 46% say coal-fired power should be phased out.
OO Switzerland Just Had The Worst Month For Skiing In 100 Years - the ski season is a month shorter than it was four decades ago.
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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!
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GOOD IDEAS
Smartmeters Help Increase Energy Efficiency but bringing populations to sustainable levels will do far more to help nations reach their climate targets. Wikimedia commons
OO Energy Efficiency Rate Has To Double To Meet Climate Targets - via price incentives on energy efficient technology; at present, the rate at which energy efficiency is increasing is slowing down.
MEH: A far more effective way to meet the targets (not mentioned in the piece) is to start humanely shrinking our populations and decreasing our consumption levels.
OO Tidal Lagoons Could 'Ensure U.K. Power Supplies' says a former energy minister, who has led a review into the technology.
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NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS
Not All Beluga Whales Respond to Climate Change The Same Way and the same is true for other species, too. Source no.walls321.com
OO Warming Affects Species Differently
Making Survival Hard to Predict shows a new study on several different species.
OO Bird Species Vanish From UK Due To Climate Change And Habitat Loss - Rising temperatures and crop farming mean birds are disappearing from parts of England, says study.
A Glimpse of What Was, Amidst a White Graveyard in the Sekiseishoko coral reef in Okinawa. When corals die, many of the animals dependent on them die, too.
OO Coral Bleaching Kills 70 % Of Japan's Biggest Coral Reef - Warmer seawater temperatures last summer are believed to have caused coral bleaching to spread to 90% of this Okinawan reef.
OO Polar Bears Unlikely To Survive Without Climate Action- says the US Fish and Wildlife Service and "decisive" action is needed to slow climate change and stop sea ice melting that threatens to wipe out polar bears in the Arctic.
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FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES
Fracking Benefits the Community - Seriously? Fracking is known to scar landscapes and contaminate groundwater and air, resulting in adverse health effects. Meanwhile, fossil fuel fat cats rake in the profits.
OO Study Finds Net Benefit For Fracking Communities,
But Critics Disagree - saying the authors seriously overestimate those benefits, and note that most benefits go to out-of-state companies, while communities are harmed the most. Surprised?
OO New Texas $1 Billion Project Captures Carbon -
To Capture More Oil: What's Wrong With This Picture? - Once you capture CO2, why use it to pump out far more carbon, in the form of oil, that will ultimately release far more CO2? And there is no guarantee that the CO2 pumped far below will not make its way up again ultimately.
This is yet another way in which carbon capture falls flat as an efficient way to cut carbon emissions.
OO Australia: Gas Companies Have Manufactured Shortage Myth, Economist Says
Tar Oil Sands Alberta, Before And After Credit Peter Essick at National Geographic
OO Canada's Vast Source Of Climate Pollution May Go Bust As a result of the burgeoning US oil and gas market, and the trend towards ever cheaper renewable sources of energy.
OO British Columbia Approves Kinder Morgan Pipeline Expansion Despite the uncertainty of it ever being used, given the current economic outlook for oil sands.
OO Indonesia: Coal Recovery Too Good To Resist For World's Biggest Shipper
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A SWEET SPOT IN CREATING SUSTAINABLE POPULATIONS
Triple Win: Using Profits to Provide Needed US Family Planning - Medicines360.org is key to creating a sustainable US population and bright futures for women - AND saving taxpayers many billions yearly in community costs by preventing unintended pregnancies. Source medicines360.org
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If we do not live sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.
@@ Myth vs Truth: The Huge Value of Contraception is an incisive, heartfelt recognition of the value of contraception by Sarah Brown, CEO, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
Unintended Pregnancy Costs US Taxpayers:
Unintended Pregnancies Cost US Taxypayers Nearly $11 Billion Yearly
-the Guttmacher Institute
Teen Childbearing Alone 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.
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SOLAR KEEPS SURFING
OO Solar Power To Rise From Chernobyl Nuclear Ashes as Chinese companies plan over the next two years to build a giant solar farm on land contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
OO Despite Problems, China Forges Ahead With Clean Energy - The world's largest emitter of climate changing gases is investing heavily in solar, wind, and other clean energy sources, but is stymied by an economic slowdown, a dearth of transmission lines and persistent local favoritism towards coal.
OO Oil-Rich Gulf Countries Take Advantage Of Cheap Solar
To Diversify Energy Supplies
Check it out here, right now!
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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS
Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Jan 24, 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.
Looking above at recent temperature anomalies, much of the US and the waters surrounding it are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: rains in California are helping, but much of the south remains in drought.
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.
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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.
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