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.
Saving BUB, Beautiful Unique Biodiversity, as in these pygmy elephants in Borneo, is another reason to preserve carbon storing forests. Source Rainforest Rescue
These elephants are already threatened by ivory poachers, but a planned road will greatly help poachers to invade their habitat. You can sign here to urge the plan is stopped!
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon
What Consumers of Palm Oil Never See is what their consumption drives: deforestation and extinction. Source SOB - IAR Indonesia, RAN
OO UK Bank Financing Tied To Deforestation, Rights Violations For Palm Oil In Indonesia Greenpeace has published evidence of illegal deforestation and violations of local communities by companies receiving $16+ billion in loans and credit from the British bank HSBC.
OO 'Out Of Control' Wildfires Damage Protected Forests In Northern Peru - fueled by agriculture and drought, the fires burned around 5,000+ acres during late 2016.
When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.
HOT NEWS
OO 2016 Officially Declared Hottest Year On Record - the third year in a row to do so, and a marker of global warming.
OO Earth Sets A Temperature Record For The Third Straight Year - Surface temperatures are heading toward levels that many scientists believe will threaten both the natural world and human civilization.
OO Global Warming Never 'Paused' And Could Soon Accelerate warns NASA scientist. We were looking in the wrong place for the extra heat, which went into the oceans, not the air. Just goes to show that oceans matter, too, when measuring the progress of global warming.
As the extra heat starts going mostly into the air again, expect an acceleration in the effects of global warming on climate.
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MELTDOWN
Nothing Like Drama To Emphasize Reality - from the "Day After Tomorrow" 2004 movie, a fictional depiction of the 2002 breakup of the Larsen B shelf in 2002. Once again, the Larsen shelf is in the process of shedding a tremendous amount of ice.
OO Larsen Ice Crack Continues To Open Up readying to calve a giant iceberg in the Antarctic.
Nature Imitates Fiction: Similar to "Day After Tomorrow" Shot above, this is a REAL drone shot of a developing crack in the Brunt ice shelf that threatens the British Antarctic station. Screencapture of Jan 17, 2017 video at climatecrocks.com
OO UK's Antarctica Research Base To Relocate As 'Precautionary Measure' amid concerns it could fall into a growing giant ice chasm.
OO Argentine Scientists In Antarctica Tally Toll Of Climate Change as a nearby glacier thunderously sheds ice into the ocean daily on King George Island in Antarctica, changing the ecosystem around it.
Every Minute, The Sea Rises As Our Future Drowns Credit Ferdi Rizkiyanto at www.behance.net
OO Some Sea Level Rise Already Unstoppable;
Cutting Carbon Emissions Will Stop Even More - due to the enduring effects of CO2, the global heating driving sea level rise will continue even after we cut emissions, making it ever more urgent that we cut emissions as much and fast as possible.
OO Ancient Warm Period Hints At Bigger-Than-Expected Sea Level Rise up to 18 feet over many centuries even if governments cap global warming around current levels, scientists said.
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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!
STAND UP FOR THE ARCTIC - Urge your senator here to prevent drilling for oil in the Arctic, which is already heating far faster than elsewhere due to the burning of fossil fuels.
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TIME TO STAND UP FOR A DECENT CLIMATE
Shedding Icy Tears as humanity fails to muster the will needed to stop the unfolding climate catastrophe. Source slightlywarped.com
OO It's Time To Stand Up For The Climate--And For Civilization says Bill McKibben. Takeaways:
- 19th century scientists predicted how climate change could - and would - occur;
- 20th century scientists documented developing climate change.
- 20th and 21st diplomats built international bridges to tackle climate change.
- These foundations of civilization - science, diplomacy and civility - were hard won, but could fade fast.
- Trump could slow the pace of progress in tackling climate change,
- Enough to ensure far more disastrous climate change than we might prevent.
How Fast We Act on Climate Change Will Determine How Many Children Will Die From It now and in the future.
Related Headline:
OO Bill Moyers: The Climate Threat Posed By Right-Wing Populism's Rising Tide - nationalist populist movements are skeptical about cooperative bodies, like the EU and the UN, which are essential for international progress on climate change.
But...
OO America Isn't That Divided On The Environment - Studies show there is no political divide on:
- Conserving water during droughts;
- Conserving electricity;
- For farmers, mitigating climate change by better soil management.
Meh montage
OO As Trump Takes Power, Americans' Concern Over Climate Change Hits Record Levels -
with a clear majority backing action to tackle climate change.
OO Trump Doesn't Represent American Views On Climate Change polls show, an issue that many experts consider to be one of the greatest threats of our time.
OO Americans Are Aware Of, And Want Action On, Climate Change poll shows.
OO Trump Supporters Don't Like His Climate Policies - Recent polls indicate that most Republicans support:
- participation in international climate agreements, like the Paris accord;
- taxing and regulating carbon emissions.
- getting more of US energy from clean renewable energy, and less from fossil fuels.
Why did they vote for Trump? Many were convinced Hillary was worse, climate wasn't a high priority, and they didn't take many of his policy proposals seriously. (Current events must be jolting many of those Trumpers now.)
WHAT WE CAN DO
OO The Anti-Trump Opposition Began At The Women's March:
Here's How To Grow It - unite many factions around themes of broad agreement, one of which is climate change.
OO Support Science-Informed Leadership And Candidates Running For Office
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TRUMP TRUMPED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
Donald Trump's Children Likely Face Climate Apocalypse in their lifetimes; the likely crash of civilization that follows will crash their fortune and survival chances for their kids - and all of ours. Unless, of course, Trump acts to cut emissions, hugely. Source heavy.com
OO Trump Aides' List Of First Days' Changes On Energy include:
- Not weighing climate change when approving pipelines, allowing new drilling for oil, gas, or other major actions;
- Ignoring the social cost of carbon emissions;
- Removing the State Department's ability to grant permission for cross border pipelines.
The above changes run counter to Trump saying "Protecting clean air and clean water, conserving our natural habitats, and preserving our natural reserves and resources will remain a high priority." Surprised?
OO Trump's Regulatory Freeze Halts
Obama Rules To Promote Greater Energy Efficiency
Madagascar Drought Means Starving Children Credit Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times
OO How Climate Denying Trump Is Killing Children - By refusing to tackle it he allows the US to fuel the world with climate changing pollution that spells death for many children from increasingly extreme weather, such as the grisly drought in Madagascar, leaving a trail of dead children and desperate survivors.
OO Trump The Destroyer Arrives - His cabinet picks collectively will lead an effort to undermine the legacy of Mr. Obama on the environment, health care, immigration, civil rights and education - with no ideas on how to replace them.
Daily Climate Editor Laura Pyle notes: "We have by far the highest I.Q.," Trump said, "of any cabinet ever assembled." MEH: Perhaps he meant IQ as in Inauspicious Quacks.
OO Trump Tweeted The Wrong Ivanka. She Gave Him Climate Advice.
Credit David Horsey at the Los Angeles Times, modified
OO The Real Climate Hoax:
Trump Cabinet Nominees Cast Doubt On Climate Change even if they don't flat out deny it or its cause, while the overwhelming scientific consensus shows their doubt to be unreasonable and misleading.
OO New Studies Show Rex Tillerson Is Wrong About Climate Risks - While he accepted climate change exists, the Secretary of State nominee nevertheless proceeded to downplay its risks.
OO Trump Nominees Pruitt And Perry Continue To Play Down Climate Change
Credit David Horsey at the Los Angeles Times
EPA Nominee Scott Pruitt:
- Doesn't know that abolishing each statute it administers would spark a debate in Congress;
- Could be an EPA wrecking ball, given that his career has grew from suing the EPA
- Pruitt's EPA may loosen California's car pollution rules and in other states, too, ultimately worsening US air pollution.
- Was grilled on his conflicting fossil fuel industry ties.
- Didn't tackle Oklahoma's fracking earthquake epidemic, critics charge.
Department Of Interior Nominee Ryan Zinke:
- promotes coal, ignores clean renewable energy,and the need to act on climate change.
- pledges to undo federal regulations over federal lands while protecting them. Do you smell hypocrisy?
OO Rick Perry Pledges Support For DOE Research, Renewables
As Trump Plans Drastic Agency Cuts
OO Trump's Education Nominee Betsy Devos Favors Policies That Dilute Science Education favoring diverting taxpayer dollars towards allowing enabling parents to use private schools where there is no accountability for the quality and accuracy of the science taught there.
@@ A Message to Trump from Climate Scientists - lets hope Mike Pence is watching this, since this is probably beyond Trump's attention span... more importantly, Americans in general should see this.
OO Trump Ignores Climate At Our Peril
OO Climate Change A Growing Challenge For A New President
-Even As He Denies It
Prove You're Not A Loser, Trump!
OO Donald Trump Sees The Future In Coal.
China Sees The Future In Renewables.
Who's Making The Safer Bet?
OO America Is Losing The Energy Innovation Race. Trump Can Help Win It - and create 1000s of new jobs, if he's smart enough to recognize the opportunity.
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TRUMP DENIES PUBLIC ACCESS TO EPA, OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES
OO Democratic Senators Launch Salvo At Trump's Blocking Of Information in a letter to him and made public here.
OO Information Lockdown Hits Trump's Federal Agencies,
Closed To Public -- AND Congress in many cases.
OO Office That Protects Whistleblowers Fires Warning Shot Across Trump's Bow:
Whistleblowers Rights Ride Above Trump's Silencing
"Under the anti-gag provision, agencies cannot impose nondisclosure agreements and policies that fail to include required language that informs employees that their statutory right to blow the whistle supersedes the terms and conditions of the nondisclosure agreement or policy," the OSC press release said.
@@ Erosion - Donald Trump Climate Denial Vs Reality Music Video, by Rapper Baba Brinkman. In the absence of federal information, this might become a more significant way to inform the public. Hit it, Baba!
OO Trump's War On EPA Regulations Will Kill Jobs And A Lot Of People - Clean air and water standards create jobs, spur innovation, and save lives.
OO EPA Scientific Studies Must Be Vetted By Administration Before Release
OO EPA Scientists' Work May Face 'Case By Case' Review By Trump Team official says.
OO Trump WH Website Fabricates Benefits Of No Health Regulations On First Day Takeaways:
- The White House website said eliminating power plant climate rules, and other environmental rules would "greatly help American workers, increasing wages by more than30 billion over the next 7 years." (Less than20 per person yearly, even if true.)
- Its source was a flawed discredited 2015 economic study supported by the fossil fuel industry; it did 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!
OO All References To Climate Change Deleted From The White House Website
RESISTING TRUMP'S BLOCK OF VITAL SCIENCE
Scientists Are Starting To Stand Up for Science Source Facebook
OO Scientists Are Planning The Next Big Washington March
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CLIMATE LEADERSHIP
OO President Obama Transfers $500 Million To Green Climate Fund in attempt to protect Paris deal. This leaves the US owing $2 billion; Donald Trump is expected to stop further payments.
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CLUELESS LEADERSHIP
Wisconsin Chooses to Mislead Public on climate change ignoring on its state websites the overwhelming consensus that it is caused by burning fossil fuels.
OO Wisconsin: State Agencies Wipe Human-Caused Climate Change From Websites; Scientists Object saying
"Rapid changes in climate are threatening public health, safety, and natural resources. Failing to accurately inform the public about these threats and the opportunities to reduce them, violates the trust we place in our public institutions."
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GOOD CLEAN NEWS
OO China's War On Coal Continues -- It Just Canceled 104 New Coal Plants - these halted projects are equal in size to one-third of the US coal fleet.
It's potentially a very, very big deal for efforts to fight climate change.
OO Toyota, Shell Among Giants Betting Nearly $11 Billion On Hydrogen As A Clean Fuel with plans to invest a combined 10 billion euros in hydrogen-related products within five years.
OO Saudi Arabia To Launch $30-50 Billion Renewable Energy Program Soon says its energy minister.
The Sun Grinds the Grain at this solar powered mill in Zambia. Source news.trust.org
OO Africa: Zambia Tries New Way To Beat Drought - Solar Grain Mills hoping to hold down the cost of milling grain, and hold the line on food prices.
OO Norway: Oslo Temporarily Bans Diesel Cars To Combat Pollution despite angering some motorists after they were urged to buy diesel cars a few years ago.
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SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS
Credit H. Raab at Flickr
OO Climate Change Will Hurt Crops More Than It Helps Them study suggests, reaffirming an earlier study's idea that high temperatures could seriously harm the production of some of the world's most important food crops, including corn, soybeans and wheat.
Together, these 3 crops account for about a third of total cropland used on Earth.
The implications of these studies are catastrophic for the world's food supply.
OO Big Unfinished Business For Trump:
Averting Serious Southwest Water Shortages - Outgoing Interior Secretary Sally Jewell laid out a game plan this; whether Trumps uses it is unknown.
OO Indigenous Canadians Face A Crisis As Climate Change Eats Away Island Home - ask not for whom the bell tolls...
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GOOD IDEAS
@@ Limit Trump's TV Viewing, Aides Try - to keep him from tweeting explosive and insane ideas he gets from watching TV, notes Seth Meyers truthfully in this recent "Late Night" segment.
OO Even Conservatives Question Trump's Fitness: Maybe Trump Isn't 'Lying'
OO Psychological 'Vaccine' Could Help
Immunize Public Against 'Fake News' On Climate Change - by showing the errors and illogic imbedded in the climate myths that climate deniers create, when communicating with the public on climate change.
Related Headline:
OO A Fake News Vaccine? Climate Change Misinformation Can Be Fought With 'Inoculation' scientists say.
OO Social Will Needed, If Technology Is To Stave Off Climate Change - without the societal will to decarbonize, even the best technologies won't be enough.
OO Evaluating The Social Cost Of Carbon Is Crucial
To Tackling Carbon Pollution new ways to do so are evolving to keep up with the best available science.
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NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS
OO Tibetan Tree Rings Trace Climate Change To 1870s when the Industrial Revolution revved up carbon emissions worldwide. The new study shows that before the 1870s, the temperature difference between summer and winter was widening.
After the 1870s, this difference started to decrease, a trend that holds to the present day: as temperatures rise overall, winters become warmer faster than summers, closing the temperature gap between the two seasons.
Trying to Rid Itself of Killing Ticks, A Moose Rubs Itself Smooth Source New Hampshire Fish and Game Department
OO Ticks, Thriving In Warm Weather, Take A Ghastly Toll On New England Moose - Researchers say droves of winter ticks, which flourish when fall is warm and the winter comes late, are killing moose calves. They have "wasted away."
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SPEAKING OUT
A Bonnie Green Prince Charles Credit Richard Stonehouse at Getty Images
OO UK's Green Prince Charles To Challenge Trump On Climate Change during the climate change denier's scheduled UK visit - unless, of course, Charles can avoid Trump altogether and let his princely sons meet Trump instead.
OO Bernie Sanders To Scott Pruitt: 'Why Is The Climate Changing?' - Pruitt noted that humans may contribute to climate change "in some manner," and Sanders insisted that the science says a great deal more than that.
OO Al Gore's Inconvenient Sequel To Open Sundance Festival in an acutely political year.
Viewing Climate Change From Decades of Winters in the Colorado Rockies, Billy Barr amassed a unique, massive and valuable record of climate data.
OO Billy Barr: The Hermit Who Inadvertently Shaped Climate-Change Science - Moving to the Rocky Mountains Biological Lab four decades ago, he started recording winter climate data that forms a unique, long term record of climate change in the Rocky Mountains. [FD: I know him personally, and he truly is an amazing person.]
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FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES
OO The Great Lakes: Fossil Fuel Time Bomb Ticking In Largest US Freshwater Supply - Two 63-year-old pipes lie exposed at the bottom of the current-whipped Straits of Mackinac, "the worst possible place" for a spill in all the Lakes.
OO Taxpayer Subsidized Coal Mining On Federal Land Under Review - one of the only places where, because of taxpayer subsidies in the form of cheap leases, coal can compete with natural gas.
OO Land Rush For Oil In US Permian Basin: Exxon Mobil Is The Latest Player acquiring a major parcel in West Texas and New Mexico -- more climate-changing fuel we should not use.
Disappearing Views - and People as air pollution takes its toll on both. Source AFP at www.scmp.com
OO China, Japan, Vietnam: Air Pollution Map Reveals Countries At Risk Of 'Airpocalypse. - A study from Greenpeace International and Harvard University has discovered coal-fired power plants built in these countries are slowly killing people and creating an "airpocalypse."
OO Southeast Asia's Coal Boom Could Cause 70,000 Deaths Yearly By 2030 report says. Conversely, about 50,000 lives could be saved yearly by 2030 if no new coal-fired power plants are built in Southeast Asia, South Korea, Japan or Taiwan, a new study finds.
OO China: Illegal Oil Refineries Produce High-Risk Fuel, Dump Acid Sludge To Make Toxic Lakes - A recent drug crackdown exposed evidence that many illegal oil refineries still operate in China These refineries sell home-processed diesel and oil to trucks and create safety hazards.
Chairman Mao Would Have A Fit - all these bicycles for hire, discarded in a pile by people who were finished with them, but chose not to return them. Source Imaginechina/Rex/Shutterstock
OO Chinese Choose Polluting Cars Over Clean Bicycles - Where is Chinese enforcement when it really counts?
OO How Airlines Can Fly Around New Carbon Rules and a flying boom means a boom in airline pollution.
OO Canada's Trudeau Is Under Fire For His Not So Green Record having approved two oil pipelines and a major gas facility.
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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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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.
- 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 DANCING
OO Republican Political Donors Install Nearly As Much Solar As Democratic Donors - political party affiliation doesn't matter.
OO Despite Headwinds, Big Capital Continues To Flow Into Solar Projects, Processes And Startups - A billion-dollar roundup of some of the bigger and more interesting solar deals so far this year.
OO Mapping Tool Identifies Michigan's Upper Peninsula Brownfield Sites For Solar Development identifying nearly 80 brownfield sites in the Upper Peninsula that could host the development of more than 750 megawatts of solar.
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 30, 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, Canada, and the waters surrounding them are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: the eastern Pacific warm spot continues and, despite recent precipitation, so does the drought in most of California.
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.
