Hot Air News Roundup January 31, 2019

Something to keep in mind…

 

Gating Factors and End Cases

The 1% depend on the 99% for their money, and hence their power. In essence, very rich persons and corporations gain power by leveraging everyone else’s spending. Multinational corporations rely on our spending habits for their very survival. We, the 99%, have been indoctrinated and acculturated to be consumers in order to support the capitalistic system that keeps the 1% afloat.

Consumer spending currently makes up more than 70% of the nation’s economy.

But, consuming ‘stuff’ is killing the planet. And ‘stuff’ is nothing more than a rearrangement of the Earth’s resources – extracted, transported, processed, stored, manipulated, packaged, bottled, repackaged, transported again, marketed and shipped. At each step CO2 is spewed into the atmosphere. Nothing short of a complete economic and social realignment will save our planet.

Stop buying ‘stuff’

A wide-scale consumer revolt could significantly change the way corporations operate and restructure the supply chain to support the Earth, rather than depleting it. Either we change now or pick up the pieces later.

Starve the multinationals

If the average consumer were to ‘cut the cord’ to multinational corporations by limiting consumption, this would have a severe impact on the corporations’ power and reduce their ‘leverage’ and influence over government. Either we stick to the path the multinationals have chosen for us or we take control wherever, however and in all ways it is possible to do so.

Refocus the narrative

Since the advent of Bernays’ efforts to influence public consumption based on trends, propaganda, and marketing, the corporate hold on the general public and the government has only increased. Either we assume responsibility for the future or we mourn for those who live to pick up the pieces.

Moreover, consumption of ‘stuff’ creates false needs and more importantly distracts the public from the larger issues. There is no time for distraction left. Every week another study says things are happening faster than we thought. And the next week another study says, no, it’s actually happening faster than that. And the next week another says once again, the same thing, it’s happening faster yet again.

“All the ice does not have to melt, it just needs to be lubricated enough from below and chunks that are holding the front in place need to melt. And then the whole of it will slide into the ocean,” said a friend who is a physicist.

The overarching issue is Climate Breakdown. It is time to take the future into our own hands.

 

HOT AIR NEWS ROUNDUP

Global Warming by country 1850 to 2018
Berkley Earth

[VIDEO] 

Good article…

Arctic Weather Plunges into North America
NASA 1-25-19

A large area of low pressure and extremely cold air usually swirls over the Arctic, with strong counter-clockwise winds that trap the cold around the Pole. But disturbances in the jet stream and the intrusion of warmer mid-latitude air masses can disturb this polar vortex and make it unstable, sending Arctic air south into middle latitudes.

South Australia heatwave smashes record temperatures
PHYSORG 1-24-19

“Remember to check on elderly friends, relatives and neighbors, and those who are unwell,” the state emergency services tweeted.

Health authorities were also forced to issue a public warning to avoid contact with hundreds of heat-stressed bats falling from trees in parkland areas.

Authorities in central Australia said they had to cull more than 50 feral horses, after they found 90 dead or dying wild brumbies near a dried-up water hole.

China not ‘walking the walk’ on methane emissions
EurekAlert! 1-29-19

Chinese regulations on coal mining have not curbed the nation’s growing methane emissions over the past five years as intended, says new research.

The End of Ice • Thom Hartman Book review with author Dahr Jamail

[VIDEO]  

Disobedience • 350.org

The history civil disobedience and its role in the Break Free movement.

[VIDEO]  

If All the Earth’s Ice Melted • Science Insider

If all the ice melted the seas would rise ~240 feet.

[VIDEO]  

150 Congressional Republicans Represent Fossil Fuel Companies Instead of Their Communities
Desmog 1-29-19

Mitch McConnell and Jim Inhofe top the list at $3 million and $2 million in dirty money over their careers, while the lifetime average among the 150 deniers is a scant $455,731 — which certainly sounds low. But that doesn’t include money spent on outside PACs and support.

The melting Arctic is revealing caveman-era landscapes
Grist 1-25-19

Scientists studying Baffin Island, Canada — a snowy mountain range rising from the Arctic Sea — have found land that was last ice free when our ancestors were dallying with Neanderthals

If We Don’t Stop Producing Fossil Fuels, We Won’t Make It
Greenpeace 1-10-19

What does stopping oil, coal, and gas at the source look like? It means no new drilling, no new oil and gas pipelines, and no new mining. Proposals for carbon taxes and cap-and-trade have taken up too much climate-solution oxygen in recent years, and so far they have been flimsy half measures porous with loopholes. They come nowhere close to meeting the scale of the crisis. You think Exxon is going to support the whopping $27,000 per ton carbon tax that the IPCC report actually recommends? The most recent carbon tax bill floated last fall proposed a $15 per ton price on carbon if that gives you an idea.

Major northeastern U.S. snowstorms expected to continue with climate change
Science Daily 1-24-19

Even though climate change is expected to reduce the total amount of US snowfall this century, it’s unlikely to significantly rein in the most powerful nor’easters that pummel the East Coast, new research indicates.

The Fracking Industry’s Flaring Problem May Be Worse Than We Thought
Desmog 1-29-19

the amount of gas flared in North Dakota in October was enough to heat 4.25 million homes in America. And while the fracking industry in North Dakota is flaring the most gas in the nation, it’s not the only place this is a growing issue. Flaring reportedly also doubled in 2018 in the booming Permian Shale in Texas and New Mexico, with an estimated $1 million a day of gas burned off.

Electric cars will not stop rising oil demand, says energy agency chief
Climate Home News 1-22-19

Besides, he said, it was not cars that were driving oil demand – “full stop”.

“Drivers are trucks, the petrochemical industry, planes. Asia is just starting to fly,” he said, referring to the agency’s 2018 energy outlook report that also cites shipping as a major source of oil demand.

Birol also highlighted the problem of powering electric cars when two thirds of global generation comes from fossil fuels.

 

PROTESTS • EXTINCTION REBELLION • RESISTANCE

Fridays For Future

Wow! They’re back and this time they’re 32,000 strong! These students want #climateaction and they are not going to stop marching until they get it!

Be Like Them!!!#ActOnClimate #Klimaatmars #Youth4Climate #ClimateMarch #klimatstrejk #FridaysForFuture via @Green_Europe pic.twitter.com/Jra5Zq4TLg

— Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema)

January 24, 2019

Ten Thousand Students March in Berlin as Global #ClimateStrike Movement Rises
Common Dreams 1-27-19

An estimated ten thousand students took to the freezing cold streets of Berlin, Germany on Friday as they added their voices to the growing youth-led global uprising that is demanding urgent and far-reaching action to address the world’s climate crisis.

Greta Thunberg

Heroes. @GretaThunberg @JaneGoodallInst #WEF19 #ClimateStrike #EveryBreathMatters pic.twitter.com/QBrmS0FBdj

— Callum Grieve (@callumgrieve)

January 24, 2019

Children’s climate rallies gain momentum in Europe
BBC 1-25-19

In the Swiss ski resort Ms Thunberg told business leaders: “Some people, some companies, some decision-makers in particular have known exactly what priceless values they’ve been sacrificing to continue making unimaginable amounts of money… and I think many of you today belong to that group of people.”

…”My message was that most emissions are caused by a few people, the very rich people, who are here in Davos.

As youth anger over climate change mounts, protests spread around the globe
The Washington Post 1-25-19

More than 26,000 students so far have pledged in an online manifesto that they will never work for companies they deem to be heavy polluters, which they hope will shame companies into becoming more forceful players against global warming.

Extinction Rebellion

JOIN EX USA: on their website

9 arrested for ‘die-in’ protest at Rockefeller Center ice skating rink in New York City
ABC 1-27-19

The activists, who laid down in the middle of the ice rink at Rockefeller Center around 2:45 p.m., were part of a group called the Extinction Rebellion. The protesters formed an hourglass logo with a circle around it — the group’s logo.

….The protest was part of what the group called a “nationwide day of nonviolent civil disobedience and protest,” according to its website.

Great Pictures…

“Extinction Rebellion” Climate Activists Block DC Streets
News2Share 1-26-19 [VIDEO]https://www.facebook.com/N2Sreports/videos/2123641937946984/

In D.C., about 30 people marched on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History — still closed in the government shutdown’s final days — where they held a funeral to mourn the loss of Mother Nature and the “end of natural history on Earth.”

Good read…

The ‘Extinction Rebellion’ Wants You to Wake Up
Rolling Stone 1-28-19

At around 1 p.m. ET in Midtown Manhattan on Saturday, protest puppeteer Elliot Crown twirled a paper mache planet over a bed of flames, playing a silent violin. Around him, a neon-dotted crowd gathered next to the Plaza Hotel to protest the collapse of life on Earth. Numbers soon swelled to around 300, a solid local turnout for the Extinction Rebellion’s first national day of action in the United States. A marching band began to play, and activist performance group Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir hopped around the perimeter of the crowd, harmonizing about the end of the world. “Only so many beautiful days… are le-e-eft!”

 

ADAPTION AND RESILIENCE

Novel bio-inspired materials to substitute plastics
The Green Optimist 1-11-19

The resulting fungal-like adhesive material(s) (FLAM) are strong, lightweight and completely sustainable, as no organic solvent or plastic is used in their production. They can be molded or processed using common woodworking techniques, they are lightweight and fully biodegradable.

Climate change: Planet-warming power of cattle urine can be avoided by restoring farmland, study finds
Independent 1-29-19

They found that while the urine inevitably produced greenhouse gases, up to three times as much came from grassland that suffered from overgrazing and low soil quality.

Fault lines are no barrier to safe storage of carbon dioxide below ground
Science Daily 1-25-19

Carbon capture and storage is a reliable way to store carbon dioxide emissions underground, with minimal chance of gas escaping through geological fault lines.

Hemp’s History and its 10K Uses

 [VIDEO]

A photo essay by Urban Community Resilience Assessment…

Poor Communities in Surat, India, Take Climate Resilience into Their Own Hands
World Resources Institute 1-22-19

One location we analyzed is Surat, India, a coastal city of 4.5 million people. There, residents deal with frequent flooding, heavy monsoon rains and extreme heat. But they’re also learning to adapt to these extremes by co-building basic infrastructure and planning for emergencies.

 

WILDLIFE & THE ENVIRONMENT

Why Energy Researchers Are Interested in a Tiny Wood-Eating Pest You’ve Never Heard Of
Climate Desk 12-6-18

Using gribbles as a model to extract biofuels from wood could prove a game-changer in the quest to turn to alternative energy sources, and not only because the process is cleaner and cheaper than existing industrial techniques.

Bird counts are both up and down depending on the species…

Bye bye blackbird?: RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch marks 40 years
The Guardian 1-25-19

While many of the population trends are caused by forces beyond gardeners’ control, including climate change and an intensification of farming, people can make their backyards and green spaces more bird-friendly. The RSPB recommends keeping gardens chemical-free, allowing bushes and thick hedges to grow, and providing bird food, water and north or east-facing nest boxes.

Shutdown will cast a long shadow over research
Nature 1-18-19

As the longest-ever government shutdown finishes its fourth week, I keep waking up in the night with thoughts of a fence.

In Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, we’ve planted thousands of saplings with the help of hundreds of volunteers. Those tiny trees are supposed to be part of a decades-long experiment on the critical zone, the life-sustaining region from groundwater to treetops. The only thing that protects the saplings from hungry deer is a thin fence. And the Park Service rangers who protect the fence are furloughed — not working because they’re government employees.

Flounders in the Gulf of Finland
Science Daily 1-25-19

Over the past 40 years, there has been a dramatic decline in fishery landings of an iconic Baltic Sea fish: the flounder. In the 1980s, the landings of the flounder fishery in the Gulf of Finland dropped by 90 per cent. …

Eutrophication and climate change have contributed to the worsening of environmental conditions.

 

CLIMATE STUDIES

Study: Climate change reshaping how heat moves around globe
EurekAlert! 1-28-19

… conclude that warming temperatures are driving increased heat transfer in the atmosphere, which is compensated by a reduced heat transfer in the ocean. Additionally, the researchers concluded that the excess oceanic heat is trapped in the Southern Ocean around the Antarctic.

Climate Tipping Point Could Occur Sooner Than We Think
ENS 1-23-19

“If soil moisture continues to reduce NBP [net biome productivity] at the current rate, and the rate of carbon uptake by the land starts to decrease by the middle of this century – as we found in the models – we could potentially see a large increase in the concentration of atmospheric CO2 and a corresponding rise in the effects of global warming and climate change.”

Excellent article…

Antarctic ice sheet could suffer a one-two climate punch
PHYSORG 1-14-19

Marine ice sheets are especially sensitive to heat delivered by ocean currents. Fast flowing inland ice streams of the West Antarctic are buttressed by floating ice shelves, which—if diminished or lost—raise the possibility of a runaway flow of West Antarctica’s marine ice.

The new research suggests that a reduction in sea ice due to climate change would erode the barrier keeping the ice sheet—including the parts of it below sea level—in place.

Study says seas may be rising faster than thought
PHYSORG 1-30-19

Rates of relative sea-level rise obtained from this approach are substantially higher than rates as inferred from tide-gauge data. “We therefore conclude that low-elevation coastal zones may be at higher risk of flooding, and within a shorter time horizon, than previously assumed,” Keogh said.

We need to rethink everything we know about global warming – New calculations show scientists have grossly underestimated the effects of air pollution
Science Daily 1-22-19

“If the aerosols indeed cause a greater cooling effect than previously estimated, then the warming effect of the greenhouse gases has also been larger than we thought, enabling greenhouse gas emissions to overcome the cooling effect of aerosols.

Permafrost is warming at a global scale
Nature Communications 1-16-19

Globally, permafrost temperature increased by 0.29 ± 0.12 °C. The observed trend follows the Arctic amplification of air temperature increase in the Northern Hemisphere.

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 = 1 billion tons
• 1 gigatonne Carbon = 3.67 gigatonnes CO2
• 1 part per million (ppm) of atmospheric CO2 = 7.81 gigatonnes CO2
• 1 part per million of atmospheric carbon = 2.13 gigatonnes of carbon