tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48997611919910984672024-02-15T01:45:45.044-08:00Desdemona DespairBlogging the End of the World™Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.comBlogger11575125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-64655947607910629292019-02-15T09:16:00.001-08:002019-02-15T09:19:36.399-08:00Highly unusual upward trends in rapidly intensifying Atlantic hurricanes are caused by global warming<p align="center"><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08471-z"><img width="640" height="1031" title="Tropical cyclone rapid intensification (RI) ratio trends. a, b Observed trends in the rapid intensification ratio of ADT-HURSAT (black) and IBTrACS (blue) over the 28-year period 1982–2009 using a) global and b) Atlantic data. RI ratio is defined as the number of 24-h intensity changes above 30 knots divided by the total number of 24-h intensity changes. Trends in the time series of the annual mean RI ratio are denoted by dashed lines. The slopes of the trend lines as well as their 90% confidence intervals are provided. The slopes and confidence intervals are calculated using 1000 randomly perturbed samples of the observational data. Shading represents the 5th and 95th percentiles of the 1000 regressions with these randomly perturbed observational data. Graphic: Bhatia, et al., 2019 / Nature Communications" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Tropical cyclone rapid intensification (RI) ratio trends. a, b Observed trends in the rapid intensification ratio of ADT-HURSAT (black) and IBTrACS (blue) over the 28-year period 1982–2009 using a) global and b) Atlantic data. RI ratio is defined as the number of 24-h intensity changes above 30 knots divided by the total number of 24-h intensity changes. Trends in the time series of the annual mean RI ratio are denoted by dashed lines. The slopes of the trend lines as well as their 90% confidence intervals are provided. The slopes and confidence intervals are calculated using 1000 randomly perturbed samples of the observational data. Shading represents the 5th and 95th percentiles of the 1000 regressions with these randomly perturbed observational data. Graphic: Bhatia, et al., 2019 / Nature Communications" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip_KqRcL1nXLN4ZfstD1jrXTrUgoiGTVQ8sioxUAtQLPq71Xl_tKOyAsfAlalvzjCv6aw7Lz-VOGMCSqreGQuXKdPaluQ9IRF9Uq56JyfSqFxXmH_lqAuwbREaBvs7l7Ca01hxJdPrdvVl/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Dr. Jeff Masters<br>
13 February 2019</p>
<p>(Weather Underground) – Atlantic hurricanes showed “highly unusual” upward trends in rapid intensification during the period 1982 – 2009 that can only be explained by including human-caused climate change as a contributing cause, according to research published last week in <em>Nature Communications</em>. The study, led by NOAA/GFDL hurricane scientist Kieran Bhatia, is titled, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08471-z#ref-CR7">Recent increases in tropical cyclone intensification rates</a>.</p><p>The paper used two different data sets to study historical tropical cyclone intensification rates: a relatively coarse-resolution satellite data set (HURSAT), and a higher-resolution “best track” data set (IBTrACS) that included all available data, including satellite and hurricane hunter data. Both data sets found that for the Atlantic, there was a significant increase in the proportion of 24-hour intensification rates greater than 30 knots (35 mph) between 1982 and 2009. The greatest change was seen for the strongest 5% of storms, whose intensification rates increased by 3 – 4 knots per decade.<p>For tropical cyclones across the entire globe, the two data sets disagreed. The “best track” data set showed a significant increase in 24-hour intensification rates, while the satellite-only data set did not. The authors theorized that the satellite-only data set was faulty, likely because of well-documented problems judging tropical cyclone intensities during formation of the eye. Due to this discrepancy in the two data sets, the authors were unable to make conclusions on how tropical cyclone intensification rates might be changing globally.<p>By itself, a 28-year upward trend in one measure of hurricane intensification does not necessarily mean that human-caused climate change is to blame. Natural variability of the climate system, like the decades-long natural cycle in Atlantic hurricane activity called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), could be to blame. To see if this was the case, the authors used one of the best global climate models available for studying long-term trends in Atlantic hurricanes, the HiFLOR model. [<a href="https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Highly-Unusual-Upward-Trends-Rapidly-Intensifying-Atlantic-Hurricanes-Blamed-Global-Warming?cm_ven=cat6-widget">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Highly-Unusual-Upward-Trends-Rapidly-Intensifying-Atlantic-Hurricanes-Blamed-Global-Warming?cm_ven=cat6-widget">Recent increases in tropical cyclone intensification rates</a></p><hr size="1"><p align="center"><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08471-z"><img width="640" height="901" title="Anthropogenic forcing’s effects on tropical cyclone rapid intensification (RI) ratio in HiFLOR. a–c Simulated changes in RI ratio by the 1940CTL (a), 1990CTL (b), and 2015CTL (c) relative to the 1860CTL. Percent difference in RI ratio between HiFLOR 1860CTL and each climate change simulation is plotted in each 5° × 5° grid box. Data is only plotted in a grid box if at least one TC passes through the grid box every 50 years in the two experiments used to calculate percent difference. Red (blue) squares indicate grid boxes where a larger (smaller) percentage of 24-h intensity changes exceed 30 knots in the climate change simulations than in the 1860CTL. Grid boxes that achieve a p value of 0.05 using a binomial proportion test are considered statistically significant. White “Xs” are located in grid boxes that are not statistically significant. Graphic: Bhatia, et al., 2019 / Nature Communications" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Anthropogenic forcing’s effects on tropical cyclone rapid intensification (RI) ratio in HiFLOR. a–c Simulated changes in RI ratio by the 1940CTL (a), 1990CTL (b), and 2015CTL (c) relative to the 1860CTL. Percent difference in RI ratio between HiFLOR 1860CTL and each climate change simulation is plotted in each 5° × 5° grid box. Data is only plotted in a grid box if at least one TC passes through the grid box every 50 years in the two experiments used to calculate percent difference. Red (blue) squares indicate grid boxes where a larger (smaller) percentage of 24-h intensity changes exceed 30 knots in the climate change simulations than in the 1860CTL. Grid boxes that achieve a p value of 0.05 using a binomial proportion test are considered statistically significant. White “Xs” are located in grid boxes that are not statistically significant. Graphic: Bhatia, et al., 2019 / Nature Communications" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhm1WmZGAoH41wTH2Is9xsVJ3c1fmQtwWvih0AWMyPTMgd02dlYS6KzC-GKZXi7U0V3jj9bhJqI6X-WNLXU_Le5toJ_xuRpYuo7pAmDWHYAPVDM3YqzPR7AMVdOcFhajRfjAcmNrZpo8ED/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><p>ABSTRACT: Tropical cyclones that rapidly intensify are typically associated with the highest forecast errors and cause a disproportionate amount of human and financial losses. Therefore, it is crucial to understand if, and why, there are observed upward trends in tropical cyclone intensification rates. Here, we utilize two observational datasets to calculate 24-hour wind speed changes over the period 1982–2009. We compare the observed trends to natural variability in bias-corrected, high-resolution, global coupled model experiments that accurately simulate the climatological distribution of tropical cyclone intensification. Both observed datasets show significant increases in tropical cyclone intensification rates in the Atlantic basin that are highly unusual compared to model-based estimates of internal climate variations. Our results suggest a detectable increase of Atlantic intensification rates with a positive contribution from anthropogenic forcing and reveal a need for more reliable data before detecting a robust trend at the global scale.</p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08471-z">Recent increases in tropical cyclone intensification rates</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-58820171833318486292019-02-15T08:37:00.001-08:002019-02-15T08:37:52.883-08:00Global insect population faces “catastrophic” collapse – “If we destroy the basis of the ecosystem, which are the insects, then we destroy all the other animals that rely on them for a food source”<p align="center"><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320718313636#!"><img width="640" height="395" title="Annual rate of decline of the three major insect taxa studied (percentage of species declining per year) and of insect biomass. Graphic: Sánchez-Bayoa and Wyckhuys, 2019 / Biological Conservation" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Annual rate of decline of the three major insect taxa studied (percentage of species declining per year) and of insect biomass. Graphic: Sánchez-Bayoa and Wyckhuys, 2019 / Biological Conservation" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8HJEgRcvxJOqSeQhZjuE2y2Qjc21xJIgKpJiAwkNfYLsVfYOfd9Y2mYPvP3jHFF9d9T5_3t6uAv_Kd4NcAMP1xAZExCOGryS0VbrPPImNetkeScY5-hH9i1DncdriCPX6TZ3iy60nRR1E/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>12 February 2019 (University of Sydney) – A research review into the decline of insect populations has revealed a catastrophic threat exists to 40 percent of species over the next 100 years, with butterflies, moths, dragonflies, bees, ants, and dung beetles most at risk.</p><p>Author of the review, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Francisco_Sanchez-Bayo2">Dr Francisco Sanchez-Bayo</a>, an honorary associate with the <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/agriculture/">Sydney Institute of Agriculture</a> in the <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/science/schools/school-of-life-and-environmental-sciences.html">School of Life and Environmental Sciences</a>, said that habitat loss from intensive agriculture alongside agro-chemical pollutants, invasive species and climate change are the main drivers behind the collapse in insect populations.<p>“As insects comprise about two thirds of all terrestrial species on Earth, the trends confirm that the sixth major extinction event is profoundly impacting life forms on our planet,” write Dr Sanchez-Bayo and co-author <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kris_Wyckhuys">Dr Kris Wyckhuys</a> from the University of Queensland and the Institute of Plant Protection, China Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing.<p>Their study was published this week in <i><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320718313636#!">Biological Conservation</a></i>. It involved a comprehensive review of 73 historical reports of insect declines from across the globe, systematically assessing the underlying drivers of the population declines.<p>“Because insects constitute the world's most abundant animal group and provide critical services within ecosystems, such an event cannot be ignored and should prompt decisive action to avert a catastrophic collapse of nature's ecosystems,” the report said.</p></blockquote><p align="center"><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320718313636#!"><img width="640" height="925" title="Proportion of insect species in decline or locally extinct according to the IUCN criteria: vulnerable species (>30 percent decline), endangered species (>50 percent decline) and extinct (not recorded for >50 years). A) terrestrial taxa; B) aquatic taxa. Graphic: Sánchez-Bayoa and Wyckhuys, 2019 / Biological Conservation" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Proportion of insect species in decline or locally extinct according to the IUCN criteria: vulnerable species (>30 percent decline), endangered species (>50 percent decline) and extinct (not recorded for >50 years). A) terrestrial taxa; B) aquatic taxa. Graphic: Sánchez-Bayoa and Wyckhuys, 2019 / Biological Conservation" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSXg7HjAaRLw-sWRvuttYjuQgwrM1pyGHcCS4ChWthf-z1cBOFiAEgAmAObtRdUoCxpZQDSHnq6wBlD3wK2XCKgqFcYAS5anrTwsXmEWn6-IMeHkCSD8rS5u3LOJ6NIvII4-dqC9Wtk2wD/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><h2>“We are realists”</h2><p>Speaking to ABC television in Australia, Dr Sanchez-Bayo said: “We are not alarmists, we are realists. We are experiencing the sixth mass extinction on Earth. If we destroy the basis of the ecosystem, which are the insects, then we destroy all the other animals that rely on them for a food source.</p>
<p>“It will collapse altogether and that’s why we think it’s not dramatic, it’s a reality.”</p>
<p>To address this threat to insect species, the study said humanity needs to rethink “current agricultural practices, in particular a serious reduction in pesticide usage and its substitution with more sustainable, ecologically based practices”.</p>
<p>Dr Sanchez-Bayo said this is urgently needed to slow or reverse these current trends to “allow the recovering of declining insect populations and safeguard the vital ecosystem services they provide”.</p></blockquote><p align="center"><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320718313636#!"><img width="640" height="423" title="The four major drivers of decline for each of the studied insect taxa according to reports in the literature. Graphic: Sánchez-Bayoa and Wyckhuys, 2019 / Biological Conservation" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="The four major drivers of decline for each of the studied insect taxa according to reports in the literature. Graphic: Sánchez-Bayoa and Wyckhuys, 2019 / Biological Conservation" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisoYkqhcgLRu99JBTwZczCEITuayIi6OyqBv7CDIe3bVCs_iKOQVYsMPpxz_h-0SjyTdbhorTYg_wm07LwSWbnmdK9xrDmEh2OlczikOuGBAQl2u5kUij7cNr88mjfwVZDbWNJzxFA-VhN/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><h2>Impact could be “unimaginable”</h2><p>Dr Tanya Latty is also from the Sydney Institute for Agriculture and works in the Social Insects Lab in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences. She was not connected to the <i>Biological Conservation</i> study.<p>Dr Latty said: “Insects are absolutely vital to our ecosystems: they are pollinators, pest controllers and waste managers. They are food to countless birds, reptiles, mammals and fish. Left unchecked, the ongoing loss of insects will impact our daily lives in ways that are almost unimaginable. <p>“Insects are resilient and it's not too late to stop and even reverse declines. But we need to care enough to do something. I hope Dr Sanchez-Bayo’s study gets people to stand up and take notice of what we are losing - and what can still be saved.”<p>Reporting of the research has gone global, with reports by the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47198576">BBC</a>, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/11/health/insect-decline-study-intl/index.html">CNN</a>, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/insect-population-decline-extinction_us_5c611921e4b0f9e1b17f097d?ec_carp=3693535116404811157">The Huffington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/world-faces-catastrophic-risks-insects-road-extinction-190211142702662.html"><em>Al Jazeera</em></a>, <a href="https://elpais.com/sociedad/2019/02/11/actualidad/1549901477_788077.html"><em>El Pais</em></a>, the <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/02/11/catastrophic-insect-extinction-could-threaten-humanity-study/"><em>New York Post</em></a>, <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2193494-huge-global-extinction-risk-for-insects-could-be-worse-than-we-thought/"><em>New Scientist</em></a> and many others. <em>The Guardian</em> in London, which <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/plummeting-insect-numbers-threaten-collapse-of-nature">broke the story</a>, has also penned an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/11/the-guardian-view-on-the-mass-death-of-insects-this-threatens-us-all">editorial on the subject</a>.<p>Social media was also lit up, with people expressing dismay at the conclusions of the study.</p><h2>Contact</h2>
<p>Marcus Strom, Media Adviser, +61 2 8627 6433, +61 423 982 485, <a href="mailto:marcus.strom@sydney.edu.au">marcus.strom@sydney.edu.au</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>
<a href="https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2019/02/12/insect-population-faces--catastrophic--collapse--sydney-research.html">Insect population faces 'catastrophic' collapse: Sydney research</a></p><hr size="1"><p align="center"><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320718313636#!"><img width="640" height="444" title="Main factors associated with insect declines. Graphic: Sánchez-Bayoa and Wyckhuys, 2019 / Biological Conservation" style="display: inline;" alt="Main factors associated with insect declines. Graphic: Sánchez-Bayoa and Wyckhuys, 2019 / Biological Conservation" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivEGMyQGqBNJjtbJvglk9_CGVWy6A8kTSL_CTSHCfG4WZ-qft7t_1EwQc4Lu_TI_sLtp2XY3dG16wcmRmlQRdDeG224XGX_-oB1GMb1NMJRfSqLnqX1G4iQox5RB5C9lMRtdiVBjtxGrsO/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><p>ABSTRACT: Biodiversity of insects is threatened worldwide. Here, we present a comprehensive review of 73 historical reports of insect declines from across the globe, and systematically assess the underlying drivers. Our work reveals dramatic rates of decline that may lead to the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/extinction">extinction</a> of 40% of the world's insect species over the next few decades. In <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/terrestrial-ecosystems">terrestrial ecosystems</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/lepidoptera"><em>Lepidoptera</em></a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/hymenoptera"><em>Hymenoptera</em></a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/dung-beetles">dung beetles</a> (<em>Coleoptera</em>) appear to be the taxa most affected, whereas four major aquatic taxa (<em>Odonata</em>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/plecoptera"><em>Plecoptera</em></a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/trichoptera"><em>Trichoptera</em></a>, and <em>Ephemeroptera</em>) have already lost a considerable proportion of species. Affected insect groups not only include specialists that occupy particular <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/ecological-niche">ecological niches</a>, but also many common and generalist species. Concurrently, the abundance of a small number of species is increasing; these are all adaptable, generalist species that are occupying the vacant niches left by the ones declining. Among <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/aquatic-insects">aquatic insects</a>, habitat and dietary generalists, and pollutant-tolerant species are replacing the large <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/biodiversity-loss">biodiversity losses</a> experienced in waters within agricultural and urban settings. The main drivers of species declines appear to be in order of importance: i) <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/habitat-loss">habitat loss</a> and conversion to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/intensive-agriculture">intensive agriculture</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/urbanization">urbanisation</a>; ii) pollution, mainly that by synthetic pesticides and fertilisers; iii) biological factors, including pathogens and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/introduced-species">introduced species</a>; and iv) <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/climatic-change">climate change</a>. The latter factor is particularly important in tropical regions, but only affects a minority of species in colder climes and mountain settings of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/temperate-zones">temperate zones</a>. A rethinking of current agricultural practices, in particular a serious reduction in pesticide usage and its substitution with more sustainable, ecologically-based practices, is urgently needed to slow or reverse current trends, allow the recovery of declining insect populations and safeguard the vital ecosystem services they provide. In addition, effective <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/remediation">remediation</a> technologies should be applied to clean polluted waters in both agricultural and urban environments.</p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320718313636#!">Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers</a>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-10889570250762220022019-02-12T17:17:00.001-08:002019-02-14T10:14:53.990-08:00GoFundMe: Protect the National Butterfly Center from Trump border wall – $82K of $100K goal raised – UPDATE: Goal reached!<p align="center"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/natbutterflies/photos/a.201998149833918/2330140130353032/?type=3&theater"><img width="640" height="928" title="Aerial view of the area where the Trump border wall will be built on National Butterfly Center land, 1.2 miles inland from the Rio Grande River. It will bisect NBC property and leave 70 percent of it between the wall and the river (the actual international border). Photo: National Butterfly Center" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Aerial view of the area where the Trump border wall will be built on National Butterfly Center land, 1.2 miles inland from the Rio Grande River. It will bisect NBC property and leave 70 percent of it between the wall and the river (the actual international border). Photo: National Butterfly Center" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPxmmtTcytllQgPik_qLho4L0rtVMG-PNsPCUBM7YvU3RHg9PMi_DQ7Cs_Agynz4N5kXXo9VSILbfmHWjlOou6S4sfpR0-pLQL9Ee6HhGhp85t_DPOXyq1hjCfKpldGWBt0OJypco5McQ/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>10 December 2018 (National Butterfly Center) – Congress funded 33 new miles of Border Wall in the 2018 omnibus <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1625/text">Appropriations Act</a> and contracts for the first 6 miles have been awarded to <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2018/11/04/galveston-based-company-to-build-part-of-border.html">SLSCO</a> . The real kicker is, the border wall is not being built on the border, but over 2 miles inland, moving the border of Mexico NORTH of the Rio Grande River (the actual border) and placing more than 6,000 acres of private property and public lands behind it in the newly created subdivision we've named MEXIGRO.</p><p>We need your help to <a href="https://nationalbutterflycenter.org/support-nbc/donate-now">protect our property</a>!</p><p>The issue is not whether butterflies can fly over a wall, but whether private property (farms, businesses, homes) should be seized and destroyed for a project that does not serve the greater good or enhance national security; rather, it pushes the boundaries of Mexico north of the Rio Grande and makes America smaller.</p><p>At the <a href="https://www.nationalbutterflycenter.org">National Butterfly Center</a> in Mission, Texas, 70% of the land belonging to the nonprofit project of the North American Butterfly Center will be forfeited, to create a landing and staging area for illegal traffic on the shores of the United States.</p><p>In this land set aside for the protection of a remnant of native habitat, endangered species such as the ocelot, and the graves of Native American people who were present before the U.S. existed, everything will be desecrated, bulldozed, and cut off from access by citizens and landowners; where gunboats could more easily be placed on the river to actually prevent traffic from setting foot on our soil.</p><p>Moreover, the federal government has <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2018/border-wall-10-09-2018.php">waived 28 laws</a> in order to expedite this. </p><p>The fact that we now live in a country where the laws duly passed by Congress may be waived for political expediency, eliminating all protections for people, water, wildlife and more, should terrify all Americans.</p><p>Please <a href="https://www.nationalbutterflycenter.org/join-national-butterfly-center/become-a-member">join us, today</a>, to preserve and defend the National Butterfly Center, the only entity in Texas to sue the Trump Administration over this outrageous land grab!</p></blockquote><p align="center"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/natbutterflies/videos/250932149165313/?__tn__=kC-R&eid=ARDOCbe0GcAPLrBhjNyuDib2AfOfmcYwRgsIw2jfpZQgGgAjqrjT7uZT4RX5898IBMBoDTdaIdzCNvXH&hc_ref=ARRKvBb51wBm-8Wpfl8rx1V9ty9CtlIAMMpWG-cseORYsLucZDmW_P7XMsxUTKbhumI"><img width="640" height="327" title="A bobcat that lives on National Butterfly Center land that is soon to be cut off by Trump's border wall. Photo: National Butterfly Center" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="A bobcat that lives on National Butterfly Center land that is soon to be cut off by Trump's border wall. Photo: National Butterfly Center" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaFpRKAZGiQN2wlyxHGFXN97e2c_krnSpcLqIJQOWkqrhqYkcsHvfJEvhc9b-2_YLEcwtrdP9TTD4m7LVL2xkI2IKSbeH8BAynfBcLD6ewDOv6XHvIfVxa28XaXlCGB6s58jc5x3BUwDJ_/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><p><a href="https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Bulldozers-to-soon-plow-through-National-13447399.php?t=31db416bd7">Read the most recent developments</a> in our ongoing battle against the seizure of private property for the border wall, here, and <a href="https://www.nationalbutterflycenter.org/">subscribe to our e-newsletter</a> for updates.</p><p>Funds will be used for expenses associated with our on-going lawsuit against the federal government (travel expenses, depositions, filing and document fees, etc.); all efforts related to publicizing and resisting this atrocity; clean up and remediation of the damage, if we can't stop it (because the government's private contractors are NOT going to do that); and tearing down the wall, as soon as we're able! Your support is invaluable to our efforts to fulfill our mission, preserve our property, and restore it after construction, if it cannot be stopped. BUT IT'S NOT OVER, not by a long shot.</p><p>THANK YOU! </p><p>UPDATE: $100,247 of $100,000 goal reached on 14 February 2019. Happy Valentine’s Day!</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.gofundme.com/protect-the-national-butterfly-center">Protect the National Butterfly Center</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-35963930328462594682019-02-12T09:40:00.001-08:002019-02-12T09:40:22.184-08:00U.S. wealth concentration returns to levels not seen since the Roaring Twenties – The 400 richest Americans own more than bottom 150 million – “For the rich, wealth begets power”<p align="center"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/02/08/wealth-concentration-returning-levels-last-seen-during-roaring-twenties-according-new-research/?utm_term=.248705873059"><img width="640" height="522" title="Share of wealth owned by the 400 richest Americans compared with the bottom 60 percent. The 400 richest Americans — the top 0.00025 percent of the population — have tripled their share of the nation’s wealth since the early 1980s. Data: Gabriel Zucman / World Inequality Database. Graphic: Christopher Ingraham / The Washington Post" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Share of wealth owned by the 400 richest Americans compared with the bottom 60 percent. The 400 richest Americans — the top 0.00025 percent of the population — have tripled their share of the nation’s wealth since the early 1980s. Data: Gabriel Zucman / World Inequality Database. Graphic: Christopher Ingraham / The Washington Post" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbUQ4DTlH9iT597nMtOfLkmzhlyx4rYNX9SzsOdOYpHiXensZHfZP-a5C_oyujGsKm4T1pGHOGegwVBW_wu1kL-WATaxQFryravofMY5ztkUlFLHPc84w-_EqVfGAFWqJyBmK7WNl2-a_k/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Christopher Ingraham<br>
8 February 2019</p>
<p>(The Washington Post) – The 400 richest Americans — the top 0.00025 percent of the population — have tripled their share of the nation’s wealth since the early 1980s, according to <a href="http://papers.nber.org/tmp/38195-w25462.pdf">a new working paper on wealth inequality</a> by University of California at Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman.</p><p>Those 400 Americans own more of the country’s riches than the 150 million adults in the bottom 60 percent of the wealth distribution, who saw their share of the nation’s wealth fall from 5.7 percent in 1987 to 2.1 percent in 2014, according to the <a href="https://wid.world/country/usa/">World Inequality Database maintained by Zucman and others</a>.<p>Overall, Zucman finds that “U.S. wealth concentration seems to have returned to levels last seen during the Roaring Twenties.” That shift is eroding security from families in the lower and middle classes, who rely on their small stores of wealth to finance their retirement and to smooth over economic shocks like the loss of a job. And it’s consolidating power in the hands of the nation’s billionaires, who are increasingly using their riches to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/21/the-10-most-influential-billionaires-in-politics/?utm_term=.fcc10563af16">purchase political influence</a>.<p>Zucman, who <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/01/24/elizabeth-warren-propose-new-wealth-tax-very-rich-americans-economist-says/?utm_term=.ebdcc4ebd4e7">advised Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on a recent proposal</a> to tax high levels of wealth, warns that these numbers may understate the amount of wealth concentrated in the hands of the rich: It has become more difficult to account for the true wealth of the ultra-rich in recent decades, in part because many hide their assets in offshore tax shelters. […]</p><p>American wealth is highly unevenly distributed, much more so than income. According to Zucman’s latest calculations, today the top 0.1 percent of the population has captured nearly 20 percent of the nation’s wealth, giving them a greater slice of the American pie than the bottom 80 percent of the population combined. That bottom 80 percent figure includes the 1 in 5 American households that has either zero or negative wealth, meaning that its debts are greater than or equal to its assets. According to NYU’s Wolff, the share of U.S. households with zero or negative wealth has risen by roughly one-third since 1983, when it was 15.5 percent.<p>The top 10 percent of individuals, meanwhile, own more than 70 percent of the nation’s wealth, more than twice the amount owned by the bottom 90 percent. The top 10 percent have increased their share of wealth by about 10 percentage points since the early 1980s, with a concomitant decline in the share of wealth owned by everyone else. In some ways, Zucman finds, the distribution of wealth in the United States more closely resembles the situation in Russia and China than in other advanced democracies such as the United Kingdom and France. […]</p></blockquote><p align="center"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/02/08/wealth-concentration-returning-levels-last-seen-during-roaring-twenties-according-new-research/?utm_term=.248705873059"><img width="640" height="493" title="Weath share of the top 10 percent of individuals in the U.S., U.K., France, Russia, and China. Data: Gabriel Zucman / World Inequality Database. Graphic: Christopher Ingraham / The Washington Post" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Weath share of the top 10 percent of individuals in the U.S., U.K., France, Russia, and China. Data: Gabriel Zucman / World Inequality Database. Graphic: Christopher Ingraham / The Washington Post" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8rFaULprzaWQx69A9Ta3sYBI7CMDc9ZHvhPI-FnxOEMWQ8S4biINRUSKKRZqaXmxg2V313LdI0pCG6s16koqBxg59w_wXjFZjuOOws9ixhVT9TB-IJmP9zOcEmbffkD9QJt9FdxFaLmLx/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><p>Rising wealth inequality may not necessarily be a zero-sum game: The rich gobbling up a larger share of the national wealth pie may not be a problem if there’s still more pie left for everyone else, relative to several years or decades ago. There’s good reason to suspect that <a href="http://www.aei.org/publication/income-inequality-and-the-belief-that-america-is-a-zero-sum-game/">this may be the case for income</a>: While incomes at the top have <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/the-new-gilded-age-income-inequality-in-the-u-s-by-state-metropolitan-area-and-county/">risen dramatically over the past few decades</a>, incomes in the middle have <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2018/demo/p60-263.html">risen, too, albeit much more slowly</a>.<p>But the same dynamic is not occurring with household wealth. According to Wolff, the median household wealth in the United States in 2016 ($78,100) was slightly lower, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than it was three decades ago in 1983 ($80,000). Over the same time period, the average wealth of the top 1 percent of households more than doubled, from $10.6 million to $26.4 million.<p>The wealthy are becoming wealthier, in other words, and there’s good reason to think it’s happening at the expense of everyone else. As Zucman notes, this has very different implications for different groups of people. “For everybody except the rich,” he writes, wealth’s “main function is to provide security.” Middle-class families tend to use their wealth to save for rainy-day expenses or to draw down on for retirement.<p>But “for the rich, wealth begets power,” according to Zucman. Our electoral system is highly dependent on outside financing, creating numerous opportunities for the wealthy to convert their money into influence and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/01/02/elizabeth-warren-says-government-has-been-bought-paid-by-big-business-political-scientists-say-shes-got-point/?utm_term=.359a1e319e58">tip the political scales in their favor</a>. As a result, politicians have become <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/11/02/congress-thinks-public-is-way-more-conservative-than-it-actually-is-deep-pocketed-lobbyists-are-blame-according-new-research/?utm_term=.bb3d3804d2d8">accustomed to playing close attention to the interests of the wealthy</a> and passing policies that reflect them, even in cases where <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/16/gop-tax-cuts-have-gotten-less-popular-with-voters-nbc-wsj-poll.html">public opinion</a> is strongly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/11/30/every-single-state-minimum-wage-is-lower-than-what-residents-want-study-says/?utm_term=.62528665d252">trending in the opposite direction</a>.<p>“Wealth concentration may help explain the lack of redistributive responses to the rise of inequality observed since the 1980s,” Zucman writes. The interplay between money and power, in other words, may be self-reinforcing: The wealthy use their money to buy political power, and they use some of that power to protect their money. [<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/02/08/wealth-concentration-returning-levels-last-seen-during-roaring-twenties-according-new-research/?utm_term=.248705873059">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/02/08/wealth-concentration-returning-levels-last-seen-during-roaring-twenties-according-new-research/?utm_term=.248705873059">Wealth concentration returning to ‘levels last seen during the Roaring Twenties,’ according to new research</a></p><hr size="1"><p align="center"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/02/08/wealth-concentration-returning-levels-last-seen-during-roaring-twenties-according-new-research/?utm_term=.248705873059"><img width="640" height="628" title="Share of American wealth owned by the top 1 percent, the top 0.1 percent, and the bottom 80 percent of U.S. adults. Data: Gabriel Zucman / World Inequality Database. Graphic: Christopher Ingraham / The Washington Post" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Share of American wealth owned by the top 1 percent, the top 0.1 percent, and the bottom 80 percent of U.S. adults. Data: Gabriel Zucman / World Inequality Database. Graphic: Christopher Ingraham / The Washington Post" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic8Q7L3on744tGqqhfM099mAVZgCIS_W6HW2cFW0rtbcB5JFSC0ogntcIy94Ac37970P1RifB8yIWUNE6f1SHZThiWghBWvxDXsAu5O0bhVkMuAOVjs4fwJWqCK89M7CWhOmv45j1CNZw/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><p>ABSTRACT: This article reviews the recent literature on the dynamics of global wealth inequality. I first reconcile available estimates of wealth inequality in the United States. Both surveys and tax data show that wealth inequality has increased dramatically since the 1980s, with a top 1% wealth share around 40% in 2016 <em>vs</em>. 25–30% in the 1980s. Second, I discuss the fast growing literature on wealth inequality across the world. Evidence points towards a rise in global wealth concentration: for China, Europe, and the United States combined, the top 1% wealth share has increased from 28% in 1980 to 33% today, while the bottom 75% share hovered around 10%. Recent studies, however, may under-estimate the level and rise of inequality, as financial globalization makes it increasingly hard to measure wealth at the top. I discuss how new data sources (leaks from financial institutions, tax amnesties, and macroeconomic statistics of tax havens) can be leveraged to better capture the wealth of the rich.</p></blockquote><p><a href="http://papers.nber.org/tmp/38195-w25462.pdf">Global Wealth Inequality [pdf]</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-22652487211239226122019-02-12T08:29:00.001-08:002019-02-12T08:29:39.992-08:00Lawmakers tell Pentagon: Revise and resubmit your climate-change report<p align="center"><a href="https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2019/02/lawmakers-tell-pentagon-revise-and-resubmit-your-climate-change-report/154657/"><img width="640" height="293" title="An airplane hangar at Tyndall Air Force Base, which was not included in DOD's climate change report, is damaged from hurricane Michael in Panama City, Florida, Thursday, 11 October 2018. Photo: David Goldman / AP Photo" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="An airplane hangar at Tyndall Air Force Base, which was not included in DOD's climate change report, is damaged from hurricane Michael in Panama City, Florida, Thursday, 11 October 2018. Photo: David Goldman / AP Photo" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBGKV7y3hQzWKB4R3hstIh5pJvBNhDkw3a-jQnGHHMYrpb9HYMw56gD5IVG1EapFuRirOKgygPaTYMmBZxdaTqLMLWhCzyxeS2UVdauPz8WjUHu5px3wwjr-QG8u15azhjb1mF62lG6H9J/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Paulina Glass<br>
5 February 2019 </p>
<p>(Defense One) – The Pentagon’s latest climate-change report was so bad that it didn’t even meet legal requirements, say House lawmakers who on Wednesday ordered the military to redo the document by 1 April 2019.</p><p>The report “lacks key deliverables,” according to the <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/01/house-democrats-just-told-the-pentagon-to-redo-its-climate-change-report/">25 January 2019 letter</a> from House Armed Services Chairman Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif. released last week.<p>The Pentagon’s 2019 climate report opens with the line: “The effects of a changing climate are a national security issue with potential impacts to Department of Defense missions, operational plans, and installations.”<p>But the report goes downhill from there, said David Titley, the Navy meteorologist-turned-Penn State professor.<p>“The highlight of the report was the first sentence of the opening paragraph where it did clearly state that climate change was one of the risks the DOD needs to be concerned about,” Titley said. “That’s about as good as I can say.”<p>The report, “Report on Effects of a Changing Climate to the Department of Defense,” released four weeks late on 16 January 2019, was required by the <a href="https://langevin.house.gov/sites/langevin.house.gov/files/documents/LANGEVIN_CLIMATE_CHANGE_AMENDMENT.pdf">Langevin Amendment</a>, part of the 2018 Defense Authorization Act.<p>Spearheaded by Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., the bill ordered the Pentagon to list the top 10 military installations most vulnerable to climate change, mitigations needed to maintain resiliency, and the potential effects on DOD missions.<p>Titley, a former Oceanographer of the Navy who now teaches Pennsylvania State University, said he would have awarded DOD between a C- and a D+. “If you assign a 1,500-word essay, sometimes students will just put down 1,500 words. It doesn’t mean they answered the question,” he said.<p>Langevin and Smith, who serve on the House Armed Services Committee, blasted the report soon after its release.<p>“It is unacceptable that the Department has ignored the clear instructions provided by law, and it is unacceptable that our service members and readiness will suffer as a result,” Langevin said in a statement.<p>John Conger, a former DOD deputy comptroller who now directs the <a href="https://climateandsecurity.org/">Center for Climate and Security</a>, said the assignment was clear, and had been written to help DOD address the issues climate change presented.<p>“I think Congress was looking for specific analysis that would help them prioritize resources and then try and look at where to direct investments and resilience,” Conger said. “This report is less helpful in doing that than they intended it to be.”<p>In the report, which DOD said cost $329,000 to produce, Pentagon officials looked at whether 79 bases were currently experiencing or might in the future experience five natural phenomena: recurrent flooding, drought, desertification, wildfires, and thawing permafrost. It also described efforts to mitigate threats, listing studies commissioned on wildfire risk in 2014 in sensors that determine subsurface ice levels at northern bases.<p>But critics said the report left out a lot of required elements. For example, it mentions Tyndall Air Force Base, which was decimated by Hurricane Michael in 2018, but does not evaluate its climate risk. The 79 bases include no overseas bases, nor any that belong to the Marine Corps. Most striking to Conger was the absence of the list of the top 10 most vulnerable installations, a list specifically requested in the amendment.<p>“Even if they thought it would be too difficult to do, they don’t explain why they didn’t answer the question,” he said. “There are gaps.” [<a href="https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2019/02/lawmakers-tell-pentagon-revise-and-resubmit-your-climate-change-report/154657/">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2019/02/lawmakers-tell-pentagon-revise-and-resubmit-your-climate-change-report/154657/">Lawmakers Tell Pentagon: Revise and Resubmit Your Climate-Change Report</a></p><hr size="1"><blockquote><p>By Steven Silverberg<br>
21 January 2019</p></blockquote><blockquote>
<p>(Silverberg Zalantis LLP) – Last week the Department of Defense (“DOD”) released a report concerning the impacts of climate change on 79 of its installations, as well as DOD operations. The <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2019/Jan/18/2002081124/-1/-1/1/FINAL-CLIMATE-REPORT.PDF">report</a> found increasing effects from sea level rise, wild fires and other aspects of climate change.</p><blockquote><p>The Military Departments noted the presence or not of current and potential vulnerabilities to each installation over the next 20 years, selecting from the events listed below. Note that the congressional request established the 20-year timeframe.</p><p>
Climate-Related Events</p><ul><li>
Recurrent Flooding</li><li>Drought</li><li>Desertification</li><li>Wildfires</li><li>Thawing Permafrost</li></ul></blockquote><p>Some of the issues related to sea level rise and flood include:</p>
<blockquote><p>Joint Base Langley-Eustis (JBLE-Langley AFB), Virginia, has experienced 14 inches in sea level rise since 1930 due to localized land subsidence and sea level rise. Flooding at JBLE- Langley, with a mean sea level elevation of three feet, has become more frequent and severe.</p><p>
Navy Base Coronado experiences isolated and flash flooding during tropical storm events, particularly in El Niño years. Upland Special Areas are subject to flash floods. The main installation reports worsening sea level rise and storm surge impacts that include access limitations and other logistic related impairments.</p></blockquote>
<p>Somewhat surprisingly, the Report notes significant incidents of drought since the early 2000s.</p>
<blockquote><p>Specific to military readiness, droughts can have broad implications for base infrastructure, impair testing activities, and along with increased temperature, can increase the number of black flag day prohibitions for testing and training. Drought can contribute to heat- related illnesses, including heat exhaustion and heat stroke, outlined by the U.S. Army Public Health Center. Energy consumption may increase to provide additional cooling for facilities.</p><p>
Several DoD sites in the DC area (including Joint Base Anacostia Bolling, Joint Base Andrews, U.S. Naval Observatory/Naval Support Facility, and Washington Navy Yard) periodically experienced drought conditions – extreme in 2002 and severe from 2002 through 2018. In addition, Naval Air Station Key West experienced drought in 2015 and 2011, ranging from extreme to severe, respectively. These examples highlight that drought conditions may occur in places not typically perceived as drought regions.<br></p><p>Drought conditions have caused significant reduction in soil moisture at several Air Force bases resulting in deep or wide cracks in the soil, at times leading to ruptured utility lines and cracked road surfaces.</p></blockquote>
<p>The report also notes increasing incidents of wildfires that impair DOD operations.</p>
<blockquote><p>Due to routine training and testing activities that are significant ignition sources, wildfires are a constant concern on many military installations. As a result, the DoD spends considerable resources on claims, asset loss, and suppression activities due to wildfire. While fire is a key ecological process with benefits for both sound land management and military capability development, other climatic factors including increased wind and drought can lead to an increased severity of wildfire activity. This could result in infrastructure and testing/training impacts.</p>
</blockquote><p>The report goes on to discuss many other impacts of climate change on operations of the DOD, including humanitarian responses, rescue efforts in the Arctic region. [<a href="https://www.climatechangeattorney.com/defense-department-report-on-effects-of-climate-change/">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p>
<a href="https://www.climatechangeattorney.com/defense-department-report-on-effects-of-climate-change/">Defense Department Report on Effects of Climate Change</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-12623918701387695032019-02-12T08:01:00.001-08:002019-02-12T08:01:55.967-08:00New study establishes link between climate change, conflict, and migration – “In a context of poor governance and a medium level of democracy, severe climate conditions can create conflict over scarce resources”<p align="center"><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378018301596"><img width="640" height="382" title="Total marginal effect of Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) on conflict for the 2010–2012 period. Graphic: Abel, et al., 2019 / Global Environmental Change" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Total marginal effect of Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) on conflict for the 2010–2012 period. Graphic: Abel, et al., 2019 / Global Environmental Change" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtkUm9D1kcnS6GaQ8TvuBB6GPuWteOWaCtU5AeP5xCfp_MqnF-R_O6KLYI8Fo8L32gocHCMLgPMAVW3p93ZM_nSqp2vFZflUPKODPiriXW7G2KJeNSoRJWaFWj2TaPWq5Z6aY-eKwcnjPg/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>23 January 2019 (UEA) – Research involving a University of East Anglia (UEA) academic has established a link between climate change, conflict, and migration for the first time.</p>
<p>In recent decades climatic conditions have been blamed for creating political unrest, civil war, and subsequently, waves of migration, but scientific evidence for this is limited.</p>
<p>One major example is the ongoing conflict in Syria, which began in 2011. Many coastal Mediterranean countries in Europe have also seen the arrival of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict in Africa.</p>
<p>Researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, including Dr Raya Muttarak, also of UEA’s School of International Development, sought to find out whether there is a causal link between climate change and migration, and the nature of it. They found that in specific circumstances, the climate conditions do lead to increased migration, but indirectly, through causing conflict.</p>
<p>The findings, published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378018301596"><em>Global Environmental Change</em></a>, suggest that climate change played a significant role in migration and asylum seeking in the period 2011–2015, with more severe droughts linked to exacerbating conflict.</p>
<p>Dr Muttarak, a senior lecturer in geography and international development at UEA, said: “The question of how climatic conditions can contribute to political unrest and civil war has drawn attention from both the scientific community and the media. We contribute to the debate on climate-induced migration by providing new scientific evidence.</p>
<p>“The effect of climate on conflict occurrence is particularly relevant for countries in Western Asia in the period 2010–2012, when many were undergoing political transformation during the so-called Arab Spring uprisings. This suggests that the impact of climate on conflict and asylum seeking flows is limited to specific time periods and contexts.”</p>
<p>The political uprisings of the Arab Spring occurred in countries including Tunisia, Libya and Yemen, and Syria, where the conflict led to an ongoing civil war.</p>
<p>In Syria particularly, long-running droughts and water shortages caused by climate change resulted in repeated crop failures, with rural families eventually moving to urban areas. This in turn led to overcrowding, unemployment and political unrest, and then civil war. Similar patterns were also found in sub-Saharan Africa in the same time period.</p></blockquote><p align="center"><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378018301596"><img width="640" height="308" title="Asylum seeking flows by world region, 2006–2010 and 2011–2015. Graphic: Abel, et al., 2019 / Global Environmental Change" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Asylum seeking flows by world region, 2006–2010 and 2011–2015. Graphic: Abel, et al., 2019 / Global Environmental Change" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7JL_UlgZLypc7551kQiew8cjLLu7WTOfqCtwi9ZWPYQyySdB0PTz_NqS7i1S_31d17lhN3GHqCdEjXQ4LRjMIX2lRllS3P4VW0T_9NGXG2jAp9fXhupEpvbYGwiiolgp-GlQaaSpnoPKg/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote>
<p>Co-author Jesus Crespo Cuaresma, of IIASA and Vienna University of Economics and Business, said: “Climate change will not cause conflict and subsequent asylum-seeking flows everywhere. But in a context of poor governance and a medium level of democracy, severe climate conditions can create conflict over scarce resources.”</p>
<p>The researchers, who also include Guy Abel (IIASA and Shanghai University) and Michael Brottrager (Johannes Kepler University Linz), say that concerns relating to climate change-induced conflict leading to migration should be considered in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).</p>
<p>At present the link between climate change and migration is not explicit, and they are not treated as interrelated. Further research is needed to more fully understand migration flows.</p>
<p>Asylum seekers are more likely to be influenced by conflict than usual migrants, so the researchers used data from asylum applications from 157 countries from 2006-2015 to study the patterns. This data was obtained from the United Nations High Commissions for Human Rights (UNHCR).</p>
<p>As a measure of climate conditions in the asylum seekers’ original countries, the team used the Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), which measures droughts, compared to normal conditions, through identifying the onset and end of droughts, and their intensity, based on precipitation, evaporation, transpiration, and climatic conditions such as temperature. To assess conflict, the team used data on battle-related deaths from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP).</p>
<p>These datasets were fed into the researchers’ modelling framework, along with various socioeconomic and geographic datasets. These included the distance between country of origin and destination, population sizes, migrant networks, the political status of the countries, and ethnic and religious groups.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/about/-/new-study-establishes-link-between-climate-change-conflict-and-migration">New study establishes link between climate change, conflict, and migration</a></p><hr size="1"><p align="center"><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378018301596"><img width="640" height="347" title="Conceptual model of climate, conflict, and migration. Graphic: Abel, et al., 2019 / Global Environmental Change" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Conceptual model of climate, conflict, and migration. Graphic: Abel, et al., 2019 / Global Environmental Change" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTY87KXFLtmd8bs_PW4F3r_XtJaPIbV6Qu5yRvC9xlrU7Ur-ZK0jPpEMKQrbaY_cI0ZmOe4XD7ECXnb1l7z4LfquMVqyEgwelvGWYNORmSMvtNhnanmIJa7DQPGoqw5_nBN4rP1m_0vMiT/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><p>ABSTRACT: Despite the lack of robust empirical evidence, a growing number of media reports attempt to link climate change to the ongoing violent conflicts in Syria and other parts of the world, as well as to the migration crisis in Europe. Exploiting bilateral data on asylum seeking applications for 157 countries over the period 2006–2015, we assess the determinants of refugee flows using a gravity model which accounts for endogenous selection in order to examine the causal link between climate, conflict and forced migration. Our results indicate that climatic conditions, by affecting drought severity and the likelihood of armed conflict, played a significant role as an explanatory factor for asylum seeking in the period 2011–2015. The effect of climate on conflict occurrence is particularly relevant for countries in Western Asia in the period 2010–2012 during when many countries were undergoing political transformation. This finding suggests that the impact of climate on conflict and asylum seeking flows is limited to specific time period and contexts.</p><p>CONCLUSIONS: […] Our results indicate that there is no empirical evidence backing the existence of a robust link between climatic shocks, conflict and asylum seeking for the full period 2006–2015. The estimates of our model support these causal linkages only for the period 2010–2012, where global refugee flow dynamics were dominated by <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/asylum-seeker">asylum seekers</a> originating from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/syria">Syria</a> and countries affected by the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/arabs">Arab</a> spring, as well as flows related to war episodes in Sub-Saharan Africa.</p><p>Excluding these regions from the analysis provides further statistical evidence, that the link between climate shocks, conflict and subsequent migration flows might rather be interpreted as a local phenomenon and therefore very specific to these regions. Indeed, our study shows that an increase in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/drought">drought</a> episodes can drive outmigration through exacerbating conflict in a country with some level of democracy. This is confirmed by the finding that climate contributes to conflict only in a specific period of 2010–2012 and specifically to certain countries, particularly those in Western Asia and Norther Africa experiencing the Arab Spring. Climate change thus will not generate asylum seeking everywhere but likely in a country undergoing political <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/transformation">transformation</a> where conflict represents a form of population discontent towards inefficient response of the government to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/climate-effect">climate impacts</a>.</p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378018301596">Climate, conflict and forced migration<br></a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-30451504262822724772019-02-12T07:32:00.001-08:002019-02-12T07:32:27.202-08:00Could climate change make it harder to get insurance in Australia? “There's $88 billion at risk in terms of damage from coastal erosion in Australia”<p align="center"><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-06/could-climate-change-make-australia-uninsurable/10783490"><img width="640" height="427" title="Bushfire in Huon Valley, Tasmania, 5 February 2019. Bushfires burnt out more than 180,000 hectares in Tasmania in summer 2019. Photo: Claude Road Fire Brigade" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Bushfire in Huon Valley, Tasmania, 5 February 2019. Bushfires burnt out more than 180,000 hectares in Tasmania in summer 2019. Photo: Claude Road Fire Brigade" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7NcTWh_qwGnh3BtOO6y4OzUUxYGsEuSm8iFYHKsWCwbSwJkDMAhGUm8OEZlxB_d9gEDHdb9JhpDtaENM2XwFHJwarIHWcIKeQOz7Cx79ZsX1NXv8FWTaF6CgrqzNQeIFfiT14rtYFxxFM/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Ange Lavoipierre and Stephen Smiley<br>
5 February 2019</p>
<p>(The Signal) – At the moment, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-05/townsville-flood-continues-as-bluewater-locals-sent-alert/10778958">Townsville is more or less underwater</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-05/tasmanian-fire-crews-urged-to-take-care-sixth-week/10778966">large parts of Tasmania are on fire</a>.</p><p>Summer in Australia has always been extreme, but some corners of the country are experiencing climate-driven disasters that are worse than ever — and more of them every year.<p>Those stories are told in extraordinary detail as they unfold, but once the world looks away, there's the question of who'll pay the bill.<p>So with fires, floods and crazy weather becoming more frequent and severe, is Australia on its way to being uninsurable?<h2>The clean-up can take years and cost millions</h2><p>Tasmania is no stranger to bushfires, and the town of Dunalley was all but destroyed by the Tasman Peninsula bushfire in 2013.<p>The Mayor of Tasmania's Sorrell Council, Kerry Vincent, said the fires caught a lot of people who were underinsured off guard.<p>"When you have a disastrous event, like whether it's a flood or a bushfire, you don't expect it to keep continuing," Mr Vincent said.<p>"It starts off very small and it just builds, it's like a steamroller. It just seems to go forever."<p>But the media attention died away within a matter of weeks, he said.<p>"You're left with a very raw feeling of loneliness as part of the recovery," he said.<p>"After that initial major bushfire where we lost 115 structures, it seemed to be really a two-year period."<p>After a disaster like that, it's common to hear reports of spiking premiums.<p>In the aftermath of the Lismore floods in 2017, in northern New South Wales, there were anecdotal reports of premiums reaching $30,000.</p></blockquote><p align="center"><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-06/could-climate-change-make-australia-uninsurable/10783490"><img width="640" height="427" title="Aerial view of flooding in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 5 February 2019. A truck drives along a flooded road in Townsville. Photo: Nick Gatehouse" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Aerial view of flooding in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 5 February 2019. A truck drives along a flooded road in Townsville. Photo: Nick Gatehouse" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNZBNJ61t-E93W4s3GX7Ft_OOzWm0V1DZ3xWo553jH41cZG_FXY3U95dMakRiyuTISDtgTr6_rBA8ZN3yIav_tWuy0kCUaesDV8Tjdq27KuVplAuy-6ljFFFiXc9BYqk3GIjIDDrVEmYB4/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><p>So what impact does a climate-driven disaster have on local insurance premiums? And could it ever reach a point where insurance is no longer offered in certain areas?<h2>Could we become too disaster-prone to insure? </h2><p>The director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Australia Institute, Richie Merzian, says it's a very real risk.<p>"We will get to a certain point, somewhere between say 3 degrees or 4 degrees above pre-industrial levels, and a world like that will see situations where cities, entire coastlines, do become uninsurable," he said.<p>Mr Merzian said in that case "the basic safety net that's provided by the private sector just becomes too prohibitively expensive".<p>He said in that instance, the burden will fall back on the taxpayer.<p>"The Government is always the insurer of last resort and then you see these odd situations where everyone will have to pay to keep these towns operating," Mr Merzian said.<p>"And we saw that with the Queensland flood levy, where the damages were so big the insurance industry couldn't possibly cover it." […]<p>"There's $88 billion at risk in terms of damage from coastal erosion in Australia … but no local council wants to go and tell people who have million-dollar beach houses, 'you shouldn't have built here'," he said. [<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-06/could-climate-change-make-australia-uninsurable/10783490">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-06/could-climate-change-make-australia-uninsurable/10783490">Could climate change make it harder to get insurance in Australia?</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-80725772376159868572019-02-11T19:42:00.001-08:002019-02-11T19:44:37.461-08:002018 fourth warmest year in continued warming trend, according to NASA, NOAA – The past five years are, collectively, the warmest years in the modern record<p align="center"><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/2018-fourth-warmest-year-in-continued-warming-trend-according-to-nasa-noaa"><img width="640" height="356" title="Temperature anomaly reconstructions by five different sources, 1880-2018. This line plot shows yearly temperature anomalies from 1880 to 2018, with respect to the 1951-1980 mean, as recorded by NASA, NOAA, the Japan Meteorological Agency, the Berkeley Earth research group, and the Met Office Hadley Centre (UK). Though there are minor variations from year to year, all five temperature records show peaks and valleys in sync with each other. All show rapid warming in the past few decades, and all show the past decade has been the warmest. Graphic: NASA Earth Observatory" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Temperature anomaly reconstructions by five different sources, 1880-2018. This line plot shows yearly temperature anomalies from 1880 to 2018, with respect to the 1951-1980 mean, as recorded by NASA, NOAA, the Japan Meteorological Agency, the Berkeley Earth research group, and the Met Office Hadley Centre (UK). Though there are minor variations from year to year, all five temperature records show peaks and valleys in sync with each other. All show rapid warming in the past few decades, and all show the past decade has been the warmest. Graphic: NASA Earth Observatory" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjSEQa9murlwNvYE5xT3XXKvUrJ6Ibm_Fev8j0G3IQ7Td6hnP2QRWrPS8qcFVSInrhXnRw5r8rP0v9sM79FVzNOeJNYf5gqzqkZfsj5cCnNTmkY1v_sJYcPAGVTNx-R2Yo9NceAwF1V3PQ/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>6 February 2019 (NASA) – Earth's global surface temperatures in 2018 were the fourth warmest since 1880, according to independent analyses by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).</p>
<p>Global temperatures in 2018 were 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.83 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. Globally, 2018's temperatures rank behind those of 2016, 2017, and 2015. The past five years are, collectively, the warmest years in the modern record.</p>
<p>“2018 is yet again an extremely warm year on top of a long-term global warming trend,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt.</p>
<p>Since the 1880s, the average global surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius). This warming has been driven in large part by increased emissions into the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases caused by human activities, according to Schmidt.</p>
<p>Weather dynamics often affect regional temperatures, so not every region on Earth experienced similar amounts of warming. NOAA found the 2018 annual mean temperature for the contiguous 48 United States was the 14th warmest on record.</p>
<p>Warming trends are strongest in the Arctic region, where 2018 saw the continued loss of sea ice. In addition, mass loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets continued to contribute to sea level rise. Increasing temperatures can also contribute to longer fire seasons and some extreme weather events, according to Schmidt.</p>
<p>“The impacts of long-term global warming are already being felt — in coastal flooding, heat waves, intense precipitation, and ecosystem change,” said Schmidt.</p>
<p>NASA’s temperature analyses incorporate surface temperature measurements from 6,300 weather stations, ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures, and temperature measurements from Antarctic research stations.</p></blockquote><p align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2S6JTLRmQdU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"></iframe></p><blockquote>
<p>These raw measurements are analyzed using an algorithm that considers the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and urban heat island effects that could skew the conclusions. These calculations produce the global average temperature deviations from the baseline period of 1951 to 1980.</p>
<p>Because weather station locations and measurement practices change over time, the interpretation of specific year-to-year global mean temperature differences has some uncertainties. Taking this into account, NASA estimates that 2018’s global mean change is accurate to within 0.1 degree Fahrenheit, with a 95 percent certainty level.</p>
<p>NOAA scientists used much of the same raw temperature data, but with a different baseline period and different interpolation into the Earth’s polar and other data poor regions. NOAA’s analysis found 2018 global temperatures were 1.42 degrees Fahrenheit (0.79 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average.</p>
<p>NASA’s full 2018 surface temperature data set — and the complete methodology used to make the temperature calculation — are available at: <a href="https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp">https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp</a></p>
<p>GISS is a laboratory within the Earth Sciences Division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.</p>
<p>NASA uses the unique vantage point of space to better understand Earth as an interconnected system. The agency also uses airborne and ground-based monitoring, and develops new ways to observe and study Earth with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. NASA shares this knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.</p>
<p>For more information about NASA’s Earth science missions, visit: <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/earth">https://www.nasa.gov/earth</a></p>
<p>The slides for the 6 February 2019 news conference are available at: <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/noaa-nasa_global_analysis-2018-final_feb6.pdf">https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/noaa-nasa_global_analysis-2018-final_feb6.pdf</a><br>
</p><p>NOAA’s Global Report is available at: <a title="http://bit.ly/Global201812" href="http://bit.ly/Global201812">http://bit.ly/Global201812</a></p>
<h2>Contact</h2>
<ul><li>Steve Cole, NASA
Headquarters, Washington,
202-358-0918,
<a href="mailto:stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov">stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov</a></li></ul></blockquote>
<p>
<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/2018-fourth-warmest-year-in-continued-warming-trend-according-to-nasa-noaa">2018 Fourth Warmest Year in Continued Warming Trend, According to NASA, NOAA</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-91075280118151048202019-02-11T19:26:00.001-08:002019-02-11T19:26:08.234-08:00Colombia’s disaster-ridden hydropower project runs second largest river dry – “The greatest environmental crime that has ever happened in Colombia”<p align="center"><a href="https://twitter.com/AlirioUribeMuoz/status/1093315128987144193"><img width="640" height="360" title="Fish kill on Colombia's Cauca river, caused by Medellin energy company EPM taking emergency measures to close the second of two floodgates on 5 February 2019 to fill the Hidroituango dam reservoir. The fish kill occurred in the municipality of the Guaranda subregion of the Morana Sucreña, 689 kilometers from the dam. Photo: Alirio Uribe Muñoz / Twitter" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Fish kill on Colombia's Cauca river, caused by Medellin energy company EPM taking emergency measures to close the second of two floodgates on 5 February 2019 to fill the Hidroituango dam reservoir. The fish kill occurred in the municipality of the Guaranda subregion of the Morana Sucreña, 689 kilometers from the dam. Photo: Alirio Uribe Muñoz / Twitter" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaUCeYjE5ftQJ6uW0zWTQcybgFm4z6QBUuO6WvJx_nZIsFGWsT5TFosa_9o-PUoM7sCY3S0Reo0eJAMV9yx3XMnX1tMD5irCIP5H-28tVFyh-mV6B5mYECt0PBD7pQkSOfugqsQph8XHI/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Taran Volckhausen<br>
7 February 2019</p>
<p>(Mongabay) – Colombia’s environmentalists have declared an ecological disaster after the country’s second most important river, the Cauca, was reduced to less than 10 percent of normal flow after the country’s largest hydroelectric dam project Hidroituango took emergency measures earlier this week.</p><p>Medellin energy company EPM took emergency measures to close the second of two floodgates on Tuesday to fill the Hidroituango dam reservoir. The dam was supposed to start producing power in 2018, but it has been plagued by disasters after a machine room collapsed in April of last year, forcing tens of thousands of people to <u><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/16/colombia-tens-of-thousands-of-ordered-to-evacuate-after-floods-at-dam">evacuate their homes</a></u>.</p><p>Isabel Zuleta, an activist for environmental organization Rios Vivos that works with communities alongside the Cauca, <u><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=ySQpA67sbg4">released a video</a></u> filmed beside the once powerful river that now more closely resembles a slow-moving creek, denouncing EPM for what she described as “the greatest environmental crime that has ever happened in Colombia.”<p>Environmental activists, politicians and journalists have taken to social media to share photos and videos sent from the frontline defenders and local communities around the river. Fishing communities who depend on the river for their main source of income as well as food security have denounced the mega-project for threatening their livelihoods.<p>“They took away the little that we had, they took away our peace and brought us worries. The majority of the fisherman are without work, we don’t have anything we can do,” fisherman Jairo Taborda said in an interview with <u><a href="https://noticias.caracoltv.com/hidroituango-en-emergencia/nos-quitaron-el-minimo-vital-afectado-por-hidroituango-en-puerto-valdivia-ie137">local media Caracol television</a></u>.<p>Environmental licensing authority ANLA announced that it had not been informed about the emergency operation until hours before engineers closed the engine room tunnel that had provisionally discharged water after the original discharge tunnels were blocked last year. ANLA has already opened sanctions against EPM for failing to protect the ecological basin located below the dam.</p></blockquote><p align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ySQpA67sbg4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"></iframe></p><blockquote><p>Jorge Londoño, EPM CEO, said the decision was made to protect communities living downstream from the dam. “If we do not close it, it would mean the loss of water control and this could generate, in the medium term, a greater deterioration of the entire internal infrastructure, with a potential impact on the safety and lives of the communities downstream.”<p>Zuleta rejected the arguments made by EPM that the closure of the floodgates was made in the interest of the communities downstream who she argued were unlikely to be flooded because of dry season and El Niño conditions had lowered water levels. “The worst part about this is that they’re saying they’re shutting down the water in the name of the communities when in reality they’re only doing it to protect their own interests.”<p>Two members of the activist group Rios Vivos were killed near the Hidroituango dam project within a one-week period in May of last year, bringing the total to five activists who were killed while opposing the dam. [<a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/colombias-disaster-ridden-hydropower-project-runs-second-largest-river-dry/">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/colombias-disaster-ridden-hydropower-project-runs-second-largest-river-dry/">Colombia’s disaster-ridden hydropower project runs second largest river dry</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-58276748046824258752019-02-11T18:40:00.001-08:002019-02-11T18:40:23.305-08:00Huge ice chunks break off New Zealand glacier – “We’ve got skyscraper-size icebergs floating around on the lake”<p align="center"><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47171009"><img width="640" height="360" title="Aerial view of ice calving from the Tasman Glacier, New Zealand's largest. Photo: Richard Bottomley" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Aerial view of ice calving from the Tasman Glacier, New Zealand's largest. Photo: Richard Bottomley" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb2gPXL4PDTxxyoRkHp_95ZDS_N9lb1U-sdlgK_ViPaSE8heJk-JqAqyiDuYXNuq4pxNaXvLDc9spW0xyJUntWNo1FbxAMsSWSIVk2qWcJM0OsBcrmHnmMXSs2Z3zh80_UIWyXR1DECaA/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>8 February 2019 (BBC) – Huge chunks of ice have broken off the Tasman Glacier, New Zealand's largest.</p>
<p>They have filled up at least a quarter of the meltwater lake at the foot of the glacier in the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, reports say.</p>
<p>The lake started to form in the 1970s as the glacier rapidly retreated - a phenomenon thought to have been largely caused by global warming.</p>
<p>One guide says the chunks resemble huge skyscrapers lying on their side in the water.</p><p>"We've got skyscraper-size icebergs floating around on the lake," Glacier Kayaking owner <a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/382064/skyscraper-sized-pieces-of-ice-break-off-tasman-glacier">Charlie Hobbs told Radio New Zealand</a>.</p><p>Another two local guides were alerted to the event early on Wednesday morning.</p></blockquote><p align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-PHouXPOm4g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"></iframe></p><blockquote><p><a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/110448731/large-chunks-of-ice-break-from-tasman-glacier-on-west-coast-of-south-island">The falling ice chunks led to some "chaos" on the water</a>, Anthony Harris, a guide at Southern Alps Guiding, told the stuff New Zealand website.<p>A tidal surge up to two metres (6.5ft) high damaged a lake jetty and lifted a boat trailer upside down onto another trailer, Mr Harris said.<p>"All in all, this is the most significant event I've seen in the last five years on the Tasman." [<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47171009">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p>
<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47171009">Tasman Glacier: Huge ice chunks break off New Zealand glacier</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-11574849464085353402019-02-11T18:16:00.001-08:002019-02-11T18:25:55.967-08:001.4 million Puerto Ricans face deep cuts in food aid without federal action – Trump administration calls funding “excessive and unnecessary”<p align="center"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/1-4-million-puerto-ricans-face-deep-cuts-food-aid-n967351"><img width="640" height="427" title="Juana Sostre Vazquez holds a photo of her taken after Hurricane Maria destroyed her home on 26 May 2018. Vazquez lives on food stamps and social security payments. Photo: Ramon Espinosa / AP" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Juana Sostre Vazquez holds a photo of her taken after Hurricane Maria destroyed her home on 26 May 2018. Vazquez lives on food stamps and social security payments. Photo: Ramon Espinosa / AP" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_fT6mXoVI4VvyTKmZI-U2WMcuOfaciAUQPXPgudDN2kpzRannSAz9VetXx6v2iVRdyxLCh4SJkJPX6KZDV3544Ph0zwVYLuVlyxzsj01KBjzNiwhMxkft2fmmXI_C7dEAHW4Ji15jIj7c/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Nicole Acevedo<br>
5 February 2019</p>
<p>(NBC News) – Nearly a million and half people in Puerto Rico face deep cuts in food assistance, or losing it completely, if the federal government doesn't provide funding for the Nutrition Assistance Program, which is expected to run out of money on the island next month.</p><p>According to <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/blog/without-immediate-federal-action-14-million-puerto-rico-residents-face-food-aid-cuts">an analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities</a>, a nonpartisan research and policy institute, 1.3 million people would experience average benefit cuts of more than a third if Congress does not approve a block grant for the Nutrition Assistance Program, or NAP, which is the U.S. territory's version of SNAP or food stamps. About 100,00 people would lose their benefits altogether.<p>Unlike SNAP benefits in the 50 states, Puerto Rico’s NAP is a block grant that cannot be adjusted once it is approved, even during times of disaster or increased need.<p>Even though Congress provided $1.27 billion to the program in response to Hurricane Maria, that money is expected to run out in March.<p>In November, Puerto Rico's governor, Ricardo Rosselló, <a href="http://prfaa.pr.gov/puerto-rico-governor-highlights-key-disaster-relief-measures-pending-in-congress/">asked</a> Congress for $600 million in disaster NAP funding to keep the program running for another six months.<p>The <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/268">House approved</a> the governor’s request in January.<p>Shortly after, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/saphr268h_20190116.pdf">publicly opposed</a> the House’s attempt to fund the island’s nutrition assistance program, calling it “excessive and unnecessary.”<p>If the NAP assistance is cut by a third, a poor family of four currently receiving the maximum benefit of $649 a month would instead get $410. Puerto Rico's poverty rate is <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/how-is-food-assistance-different-in-puerto-rico-than-in-the-rest-of-the">three times higher than the national average.</a><p>“Policymakers can avert this ‘March cliff’ by providing the needed funding in the disaster legislation they may consider this month in response to Hurricane Michael,” wrote Javier Balmaceda, the report's author and a senior policy adviser at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. [<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/1-4-million-puerto-ricans-face-deep-cuts-food-aid-n967351">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p>
<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/1-4-million-puerto-ricans-face-deep-cuts-food-aid-n967351">1.4 million Puerto Ricans face deep cuts in food aid without federal action</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-33298205749314023222019-02-11T18:06:00.001-08:002019-02-11T18:06:39.785-08:00Calls for emergency action plan as myrtle rust pushes Australia plants to extinction – “That extinction is the end point of millions of years of evolution so, to me, that’s pretty profound”<p align="center"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/24/calls-for-emergency-action-plan-as-myrtle-rust-pushes-plants-to-extinction?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other"><img width="640" height="384" title="Myrtle rust attacks members of the myrtacea family, trees that provide fruit and habitat for native species, and stabilise riverbanks in the wet tropics. Photo: Dr. Louise Morin / CSIRO" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Myrtle rust attacks members of the myrtacea family, trees that provide fruit and habitat for native species, and stabilise riverbanks in the wet tropics. Photo: Dr. Louise Morin / CSIRO" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu_bIRVRHtSBi9M4ZZmWEOb7_Xd9YtDD62zEYIukjEVYRy3Hgl_onzJkuojvv2fFMCjdO9ve972aEIvRFTnpQ5ilaYM9lH50L1LGXiReBVOPQK2Z9TIi1k5meYiB0Va4sLBQoOvxjc9kMv/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Graham Readfearn<br>
23 January 2019</p>
<p>(The Guardian) – Australia must roll out an emergency national response to an invasive plant disease that is rapidly pushing at least four plant species to imminent extinction, experts have told Guardian Australia.</p>
<p>A draft emergency action plan for the fungal disease myrtle rust proposes that a rapid collection of seeds and plant material needs to be mobilised before several species disappear altogether.</p><p>Botanist Bob Makinson, vice-president of the Australian Network for Plant Conservation, has coordinated the action plan with input from about 90 experts around the country. He says the pathogen could result in at least four species becoming extinct within five years – <em><a href="https://bie.ala.org.au/species/http://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2905660">Lenwebbia</a></em><a href="https://bie.ala.org.au/species/http://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2905660"> sp. ‘Blackall Range’</a> , <em><a href="https://bie.ala.org.au/species/http://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2917068#overview">Lenwebbia</a></em><a href="https://bie.ala.org.au/species/http://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2917068#overview"> sp. ‘Main Range’</a> and <em><a href="https://bie.ala.org.au/species/http://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2893429#overview">Rhodamnia rubescens</a></em> (scrub stringybark, brush turpentine, or brown mallet wood), <em><a href="https://bie.ala.org.au/species/http://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2901415">Rhodomyrtus psidioides</a></em> (native guava) – with others to follow.</p><p>“This is extremely urgent. We are almost eight years down the track and we now have species faced with imminent extinction and a problem that’s only going to get worse.”<p>Myrtle rust, first found at a New South Wales nursery in 2010, attacks trees in the myrtaceae family. In Australia, that includes 2,253 species, including iconic trees such as paperbarks and bottle brush. Many exist only in Australia. About 358 Australian species are already known hosts of myrtle rust, and that number is likely to rise.<p>Makinson says myrtle rust is now “fully naturalised” from Moruya, 300km south of Sydney, to Cape York, and west to the Great Dividing Range. The disease has also appeared in the north of the Northern Territory and has been found in gardens and nurseries in Victoria and Tasmania.<p>Andrew Cox, chief executive of the <a href="https://invasives.org.au/">Invasive Species Council</a>, says: “We absolutely need this plan. We could lose an entire series of myrtle plants and we don’t know what could happen then.<p>“These are complex ecological systems and this could wreak havoc across the Australian plant world. This call cannot be ignored any longer. We could and we should have acted years ago.”<p>“If you can’t grow, then you die – and with myrtle rust it’s a pretty slow death. Some of these species will just drop off their perch and nobody will notice.<p>“It’s looking pretty grim so far,” he says, adding about a dozen are heading for extinction.<p>“That extinction is the end point of millions of years of evolution so, to me, that’s pretty profound.” [<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/24/calls-for-emergency-action-plan-as-myrtle-rust-pushes-plants-to-extinction?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/24/calls-for-emergency-action-plan-as-myrtle-rust-pushes-plants-to-extinction?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">Calls for emergency action plan as myrtle rust pushes plants to extinction</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-23001021729358377752019-02-11T17:58:00.001-08:002019-02-11T17:59:26.336-08:00The anti-vaxx movement is a worldwide pandemic – “Parents need to understand that vaccines save lives”<p align="center"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/02/11/692825201/in-a-measles-outbreak-demand-for-vaccine-spikes"><img width="640" height="426" title="A vial of MMR vaccine. Health officials say the number of confirmed cases of measles in western Washington has grown to at least 30, with nine more cases suspected. Clark County Public Health said on 25 January 2019 that 29 of the cases were in southwest Washington with one confirmed case in King County, which is home to Seattle. Photo: Eric Risberg / AP" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="A vial of MMR vaccine. Health officials say the number of confirmed cases of measles in western Washington has grown to at least 30, with nine more cases suspected. Clark County Public Health said on 25 January 2019 that 29 of the cases were in southwest Washington with one confirmed case in King County, which is home to Seattle. Photo: Eric Risberg / AP" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimU__tyQDGBjlb03qmvpltYjjIFUhka6aVx_5Us6ArkJ-stn6iTLc38ZmuuAGR2nJ40lGrO32R4vY2omZ1DzVnWu-Lil2s-_7eS_piFxinpRBUIzsGDG7bULBBnCmJOz6BcbCL13BiReVL/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By The Times Editorial Board<br>
6 February 2019 </p>
<p>(Los Angeles Times) – It’s not quite six weeks into 2019, and it’s already looking like it will be another banner year for measles in <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html">the United States</a>. An outbreak in the Pacific Northwest that began in late January continues to spread, with more than 50 cases now being reported. Meanwhile, Texas health officials on Tuesday confirmed five cases of measles in the Houston area — four of them in children under 2. And health officials in New York are still dealing with an outbreak of measles from late 2018 among orthodox Jews who apparently brought the virus back from Israel.</p><p>The global measles picture is even gloomier. A large and ongoing measles outbreak in the Philippines has killed at least 50 people, and<a href="https://thewest.com.au/news/public-health/health-department-issues-measles-warning-after-perth-traveller-returning-from-philippines-is-diagnosed-with-the-illness-ng-b881095805z"> may have spread to Australia</a>. Nearly 12,000 measles cases <a href="https://www.ibpforum.org/news/ukraine-measles-update-nearly-12000-cases-first-month-2019-moh-calls-media%E2%80%99s-help">have been reported in the Ukraine </a>in the first month of 2019. And more than 28,000 cases <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/279866/OEW04-1925012019.pdf">have been reported in Madagascar</a> since 2018. New cases are popping up all the time. For example,<a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/measles-outbreak-manchester-salford-warning-15742852"> last week authorities in Manchester, England</a>, urged residents to get vaccinated after a local case of measles was confirmed.<p>All in all, in just the last few years <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/29-11-2018-measles-cases-spike-globally-due-to-gaps-in-vaccination-coverage">there has been a 30% increase in measles worldwide</a>, according to the World Health Organization.<p>How has this disease that was once considered all but eliminated in the U.S. and other developed nations, surged back to life? According to international health officials, the same anti-vaccination fear-mongering that has been at work in the U.S is contributing to a decline in vaccination rates, and measles outbreaks around the world.<p>About 85% of children worldwide have received at least one of the two recommended courses of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccination, which is high but still below the ideal 95% rate that scientists say is necessary to stop outbreaks from spreading. And that percentage has stalled over recent years, and in some places has actually declined. Not surprisingly, some of the declines have been in in poor countries with limited access to health care. Economic hardship and political unrest have certainly contributed to the incidence of infectious disease in some places. The breakdown of Venezuela’s health care system, for example, drove a major 2018 outbreak in that country, which has spread to other parts of South America.<p>But developed countries with strong health care systems have become measles hot spots as well. Last year, France and Italy, had huge measles outbreaks that the World Health Organization says was driven not by lack of access to immunizations, but by a lack in trust in their efficacy. This distrust, called “vaccine hesitancy,” is such a threat to public health that it is on the World Health Organization’s list of <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019">top 10 global health concerns for 2019.</a><p>This distrust of vaccinations — which is all too common in the United States as well — is easily spread over social media, where a debate rages about whether the medicines themselves are dangerous. One persistent but entirely groundless fear is that vaccines cause autism. There’s no data to back up that assertion, and there is scientific evidence — quite a lot of it — showing that vaccinations save lives. But the narrative is durable particularly because the threat of measles — which has been virtually absent for a generation — is to many people more distant than autism.<p>Domestically, measles is breaking out in states — Washington, Oregon, and Texas — that allow parents to opt out of vaccinations for their kids on the basis of their “personal beliefs.” California used to be one of those states until a serious outbreak at Disneyland in 2014 woke lawmakers to the fact that the “personal belief” exemption had been allowing childhood immunization rates to decline to dangerous levels. With measles so easily transmittable, populations with low vaccinations rates can be at risk from an outbreak half a world away.<p>In some places, it is understandable why people are skeptical of what they’re told. The lack of confidence in measles vaccinations plummeted in the Philippines in recent years after the maker of a government-sanctioned vaccination for dengue fever admitted it would not protect some children and perhaps even make them sicker.<p>Around the world, too many people seem to believe that vaccinations don’t really matter any more. Loose vaccination rules contribute to that sense. But those attitudes must change. Parents need to understand that vaccines save lives.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-global-vaccine-hesitancy-20190206-story.html">The anti-vaxx movement is a worldwide pandemic</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-39500407234687573012019-02-11T17:38:00.001-08:002019-02-11T17:38:19.242-08:00Trump chooses David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist, to head the Interior Department – “David Bernhardt is the most dangerous man in America for endangered species and public lands”<p align="center"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/climate/david-bernhardt-interior-zinke.html"><img width="640" height="468" title="David Bernhardt, right, the deputy interior secretary, has worked for some of the country’s largest oil and gas companies. On Monday, 4 February 2019, Trump announced he would nominate Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist and current deputy chief of the Interior Department, to succeed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who resigned amid allegations of ethical missteps. Photo: David Zalubowski / Associated Press" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="David Bernhardt, right, the deputy interior secretary, has worked for some of the country’s largest oil and gas companies. On Monday, 4 February 2019, Trump announced he would nominate Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist and current deputy chief of the Interior Department, to succeed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who resigned amid allegations of ethical missteps. Photo: David Zalubowski / Associated Press" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghyphenhyphenT32LygazRpDYBBRVcKRXSfD_DRH8DUKfWLuTCphyX8OCt0fCHV_vi73Ms1K5l95x-lKnF91opk5Sf7n8J9t1E8quwmqArvTDwL4atXQ6JLU7fBG49p7REAqKpNsDH-ZQoq09IroeCtH/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Coral Davenport<br>
4 February 2019</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – President Trump on Monday announced he would nominate David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist and current deputy chief of the Interior Department, to succeed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who resigned amid allegations of ethical missteps.</p><p>In a message on Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1092516540262551553">Mr. Trump wrote</a>, “David has done a fantastic job from the day he arrived, and we look forward to having his nomination officially confirmed!”<p>While Mr. Zinke had been the public face of some of the largest rollbacks of public-land protections in the nation’s history, Mr. Bernhardt was the one quietly pulling the levers to carry them out, opening millions of acres of land and water to oil, gas and coal companies. He is described by allies and opponents alike as having played a crucial role in advancing what Mr. Trump has described as an “energy dominance” agenda for the country.<p>“Bernhardt has really been running the show, directing the policy shop in a very strong way,” said Mark Squillace, an expert on environmental law at the University of Colorado Law School.<p>Echoing a frequent critique of Mr. Bernhardt, Mr. Squillace emphasized that the former energy lobbyist and lawyer, if confirmed by the Senate, would have broad authority to shape rules that affect his former clients. “That’s my concern with Bernhardt, his ties to industry,” Mr. Squillace said.</p>
<p>Republicans and the oil industry cheered the appointment. “It’s a brilliant move,” said Representative Rob Bishop of Utah, the ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, whom Mr. Trump had also considered for the job. “No one is more experienced, and I look forward to working with him.” […]</p><p>As Mr. Bernhardt prepares to take the helm, he is well aware that he will face accusations of conflicts of interest. The issue came up repeatedly in his 2017 Senate confirmation hearing for the deputy job.</p>
<p>He told senators that he would assiduously avoid potential conflicts of interest. “If I get a whiff of something coming my way that involves a client or a former client for my firm, I’m going to make that item run straight to the ethics office,” he said. “And when it gets there, they’ll make whatever decision they’re going to make. And that will be it for me.” […]</p><p>Environmentalists see him as a threat. “David Bernhardt is the most dangerous man in America for endangered species and public lands,” said Noah Greenwald, the endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, an advocacy group, adding that he “has been dismantling basic protections for lands that belong to all of us and the vulnerable species, like the sage grouse, that depend on them.”<p>This year, Mr. Bernhardt oversaw the revision of a program to protect tens of millions of acres of habitat of the imperiled sage grouse, a puffy-chested, chickenlike bird that roams over 10 oil-rich Western states. His proposal to change that plan, made public in December, would strip protections from about nine million acres of the sage grouse habitat, a move that would open more land to oil and gas drilling than any other single policy action by the Trump administration.<p>Mr. Bernhardt has also helped shepherd policies such as loosening the standards of the Endangered Species Act, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/03/us/oil-drilling-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge.html?module=inline">speeding the path to opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to new oil and gas drilling,</a> and reducing the boundaries of national monuments to open the land to mining and drilling. [<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/climate/david-bernhardt-interior-zinke.html">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/climate/david-bernhardt-interior-zinke.html">Trump Chooses David Bernhardt, a Former Oil Lobbyist, to Head the Interior Dept.</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-15345205292509860002019-02-07T07:57:00.001-08:002019-02-07T07:57:21.876-08:00National Butterfly Center to file restraining order to stop Trump border wall construction<p align="center"><a href="https://www.caller.com/story/news/texasregion/2019/02/06/national-butterfly-center-file-restraining-order-border-wall/2790298002/"><img width="640" height="427" title="People ride a bike along the levee near the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas on Wednesday 6 February 2019. The center will have about 70 percent of its property cut off by the proposed Trump border wall along the levee in the area. Photo: Courtney Sacco / Caller-Times" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="People ride a bike along the levee near the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas on Wednesday 6 February 2019. The center will have about 70 percent of its property cut off by the proposed Trump border wall along the levee in the area. Photo: Courtney Sacco / Caller-Times" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFN9QVukhGlxEzEg3JxXo5Yq3bbAal54TR0BtTCG5PsOzRdp2llumbJPiZPp1G6t0N0sPkOXrkpMJxExQWH_nV4sO-JZnWsYd2wDAMN9seA2r0JfZh6LWdRo0OpW-tR69EB3ozy2jSp-c/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Beatriz Alvarado<br>
6 February 2019</p>
<p>MISSION, Texas (Corpus Christi Caller Times) – Amid a legal battle to stop the federal government from erecting a 36-foot "wall system" topped with steel bollards through its property, the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/natbutterflies/">National Butterfly Center</a> is conducting business as usual. </p>
<p>On a Wednesday morning, the parking lot at the 100-acre wildlife center was full, with some families and winter Texans visiting its trails, observation areas, exhibits, and botanical garden.</p>
<p>There's even a field trip planned for tomorrow, said Marianna Treviño-Wright, the center’s director.</p><p>Meanwhile, a draft emergency restraining order against the federal government awaits a final read before it's filed, possibly as soon as Thursday, she said. […]</p><p>In October 2018, environmental and historic preservation laws were waived to expedite the construction of the barriers, which are being funded by the 2018 omnibus <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1625/text">Appropriations Act</a>. [<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/protect-the-national-butterfly-center">GoFundMe: Protect the National Butterfly Center</a>] [<a href="https://www.caller.com/story/news/texasregion/2019/02/06/national-butterfly-center-file-restraining-order-border-wall/2790298002/">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.caller.com/story/news/texasregion/2019/02/06/national-butterfly-center-file-restraining-order-border-wall/2790298002/">National Butterfly Center to file restraining order to stop border wall construction</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-7085703426390273292019-02-06T18:33:00.001-08:002019-02-07T07:24:23.655-08:00Trump State of the Union 2019: “The leaders of men conceived of their most desperate strategy yet”<p align="center"><a href="https://youtu.be/jNiO2sTe2wo?t=64"><img width="640" height="272" title="A scene from 'Animatrix', when humans decide that the only way to stop the machine army of Zero One is to deprive its solar cells of sunlight, for good. 'So the leaders of men conceived of their most desperate strategy yet. A final solution: The destruction of the sky.' Graphic: Animatrix" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="A scene from 'Animatrix', when humans decide that the only way to stop the machine army of Zero One is to deprive its solar cells of sunlight, for good. 'So the leaders of men conceived of their most desperate strategy yet. A final solution: The destruction of the sky.' Graphic: Animatrix" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFjr2fSW67Rp3yUV2AHoqs-ZGnis0IN8jB5LjZv-taDFcvfVgxJieU4hEl3FwI9K7QXRw2muBwngC18RgVVNK824ZHo9E0Om2Hfq7AEBdVMFEPbQ2dgioRhG9KHg1WGUb0Wg2GFph9-jQ/?imgmax=800"></a></p><p>6 February 2019 (Desdemona Despair) – There are many reasons to despair when Donald Trump speaks – the baseless nativist paranoia, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?utm_term=.ac0bd6314f88">continuous stream of half-truths and lies</a>, the thinly veiled appeals to bigotry – but last night, during his second State of the Union address to Congress, Trump <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/05/politics/donald-trump-state-of-the-union-2019-transcript/index.html">extolled</a> the “energy dominance” policy he pursues at the behest of the fossil fuel industry:</p><blockquote><p>We have unleashed a revolution in American energy – the United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world. And now, for the first time in 65 years, we are a net exporter of energy.</p></blockquote><p>He was met with a roar of approval from the Republican side of the House.</p><p>There was no mention of carbon pollution, global warming, or the record-breaking California wildfires.</p><p align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jNiO2sTe2wo?start=64" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"></iframe></p><p>When I hear people cheering the liberation of more fossil carbon, I’m reminded of a scene in <a href="https://youtu.be/jNiO2sTe2wo?t=64"><em>Animatrix</em></a>, when humans decide that the only way to stop the machine army of Zero One is to deprive its solar cells of sunlight, for good:</p><blockquote><p>
Thus did Zero One's troops advance outward in every direction. And one after another, mankind surrendered its territories.</p>
<p>So the leaders of men conceived of their most desperate strategy yet. A final solution: The destruction of the sky.<br>
</p></blockquote><p>The human leaders enthusiastically applaud this obviously self-destructive plan – undoubtedly, any dissenters would have been shouted down. This was the mood among Republicans last night, when Trump bragged about increasing U.S. carbon emissions.</p><p align="center"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Animatrix"><img width="640" height="280" title="A scene from 'Animatrix', when humans decide that the only way to stop the machine army of Zero One is to deprive its solar cells of sunlight, for good. 'So the leaders of men conceived of their most desperate strategy yet. A final solution: The destruction of the sky.' Graphic: Animatrix" style="margin: 0px 5px;" alt="A scene from 'Animatrix', when humans decide that the only way to stop the machine army of Zero One is to deprive its solar cells of sunlight, for good. 'So the leaders of men conceived of their most desperate strategy yet. A final solution: The destruction of the sky.' Graphic: Animatrix" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjys-87xzDdMKvaaO6nAXA9prjeHFARQospfCtM3i4p3lZCGogpJvzOUfcUycTSOzy1jbni1FCimFuhIGSmypliRUNnVrUr-ZjTsaoblNktgB1VSZZ-mR6GWTreSjcYw9eB0WKDMPwQAUE/?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></p><p>As Trump supporters in Congress roared their approval, Desdemona could almost hear their phalanges clacking together.</p><p><a href="http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2009/10/so-leaders-of-men-conceived-of-their.html">So the leaders of men conceived of their most desperate strategy yet</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-68927356519332532942019-02-06T16:00:00.001-08:002019-02-06T16:00:22.901-08:00The glaring hole in Trump’s address: Climate change – “Trump and, more to the point, the fossil fuel interests whose bidding he is doing, have weaponized the public’s poor understanding of science”<p align="center"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/02/06/glaring-hole-trumps-address-climate-change/?utm_term=.2db917137be5"><img width="640" height="347" title="Trump amid the flames: 'This is fine'. President Trump’s State of the Union address on 5 February 2019 zigzagged between paeans to unity and sops to his hardcore base. He eulogized World War II soldiers and then wheeled on immigrants and leftist rivals at home. But absent amid the nativist demagoguery and partisan jockeying was any reference to the threat looming above all others: climate change. Graphic: Al Drago / The Washington Post" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Trump amid the flames: 'This is fine'. President Trump’s State of the Union address on 5 February 2019 zigzagged between paeans to unity and sops to his hardcore base. He eulogized World War II soldiers and then wheeled on immigrants and leftist rivals at home. But absent amid the nativist demagoguery and partisan jockeying was any reference to the threat looming above all others: climate change. Graphic: Al Drago / The Washington Post" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0p1QGOzbmwlzyjE-8LRldLyU8fFo_lHjT7_bNOxM5cSr1K8VaKp6QJ5__vKnZn5PML8zQg4R1Gm4p_MYofrxT7a3QHQBx6lotP9506uZe3A-Gm8AN85o8ljjPh6UtJUdXyinOTzETfjp7/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Ishaan Tharoor<br>
6 February 2019</p>
<p>(The Washington Post) – President Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night zigzagged between paeans to unity and sops to his hardcore base. He eulogized World War II soldiers and then wheeled on immigrants and leftist rivals at home. But absent amid the nativist demagoguery and partisan jockeying was any reference to the threat looming above all others: climate change.</p><p>That’s no surprise. Trump is an avowed climate skeptic who casts environmentalist efforts <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/06/01/if-trump-quits-paris-climate-accord-he-will-lead-u-s-into-the-wilderness/">as challenges to American sovereignty</a>, not ways to stave off a planet-wide disaster. As much of the United States endured a deep freeze last month, Trump took to Twitter to plead for more “global warming.”</p><p>Experts quickly noted that the president was confusing weather with climate — and that the warming of the Arctic could <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/local/weather/is-extreme-weather-related-to-climate-change/2019/01/31/6e54ff6c-ee7d-4345-9d3d-9654bfd09020_video.html?utm_term=.7dbffb43cb2a">lead to sharper, snowier cold spells</a> in the North American winter.<p>“Only with an ill-informed citizenry could you plausibly dismiss the consensus of the world’s scientists based upon a single cold spell,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/02/using-the-big-freeze-to-deny-climate-change-stupidity-or-cynicism">wrote climate scientist Michael E. Mann</a>. “Trump and, more to the point, the fossil fuel interests whose bidding he is doing have weaponized the public’s poor understanding of science.”<p>Trump is certainly at odds with the global scientific community — including leading scientists in the United States and even in his own government. In November, the Trump administration tried to bury the terrifying findings of its own National Climate Assessment by releasing it the day after Thanksgiving. In that report, researchers affiliated with a number of federal agencies <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/11/23/major-trump-administration-climate-report-says-damages-are-intensifying-across-country/?utm_term=.cadc70d812b5">offered alarming conclusions</a> about the increased risk of natural catastrophes because of the changing climate.<p>The U.S. assessment landed just a few weeks after the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its own stark warning. The global scientific body wrote that humanity has barely more than a decade to slash carbon emissions on an unprecedented scale to avoid calamity. “Absent aggressive action, many effects once expected only several decades in the future will arrive by 2040,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/climate/ipcc-climate-report-2040.html">the <em>New York Times</em> wrote</a> in October.<p>Now, with Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, Trump’s climate denial is being thrown in his face. Democrats will hold the first House hearing on climate change in six years on Wednesday. And at the State of the Union itself, they brought in a host of academics and activists focused on the climate as their guests. [<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/02/06/glaring-hole-trumps-address-climate-change/?utm_term=.2db917137be5">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p>
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/02/06/glaring-hole-trumps-address-climate-change/?utm_term=.2db917137be5">The glaring hole in Trump’s address: Climate change</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-68301690803193319022019-02-04T19:13:00.001-08:002019-02-04T19:13:18.221-08:00The retreat of global democracy stopped in 2018 – Or has it just paused?<p align="center"><a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/01/08/the-retreat-of-global-democracy-stopped-in-2018"><img width="640" height="1142" title="The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index for 2018. The overall global score remained stable in 2018 for the first time in three years. Just 42 countries experienced a decline, compared with 89 in 2017. Encouragingly, 48 improved. Graphic: The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index for 2018. The overall global score remained stable in 2018 for the first time in three years. Just 42 countries experienced a decline, compared with 89 in 2017. Encouragingly, 48 improved. Graphic: The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJUax4-AhwUmQMP14tDT_oWu9_euHY_d9tc6fV5aBmOAlNuYGqgy4WI0sQRshCjS2zOg76-Qk5WUMacwY4cyIL4VYO8ovhJune42TFCJL0W80qSYjkoRHVVt3yDwTsbfQGOMuxwULGaN8/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><p>
8 January 2019 (The Economist) – Democracy stopped declining in 2018, according to the latest edition of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s <a href="http://eiu.com/democracy-index">Democracy Index</a>. The index rates 167 countries by 60 indicators across five broad categories: electoral process and pluralism, the functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties. It is stricter than most similar indices: it concludes that just 4.5% of the world’s people live in a “full democracy”. However, the overall global score remained stable in 2018 for the first time in three years. Just 42 countries experienced a decline, compared with 89 in 2017. Encouragingly, 48 improved.</p><p>In recent years, threats to democracy around the world have become increasingly obvious. The Arab spring fizzled. China’s leader is poised to rule for life. Populists with autocratic tendencies have won elections in the Philippines, Brazil, and Mexico and subverted democratic institutions in Hungary, Turkey, and Poland. Perhaps because the trend is so glaring—strongmen in different countries often copy each other’s tactics, soundbites and scapegoats—voters are not taking it lying down. Political participation improved more than any other measure on the EIU’s index. This is true even in advanced democracies such as the United States, where voters are highly disgruntled. Polarisation in America has led to anger, gridlock and the <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/01/07/the-us-government-is-now-in-its-second-longest-shutdown">current government shutdown</a>. According to Gallup polls from January to mid-November 2018, the share of Americans who approve of the way that Congress is handling its job had fallen to an average of 18%, down from 40% in 2000. Perhaps because they are so cross, they are more likely to vote. Turnout at the 2018 mid-term elections was the highest for over 100 years.</p></blockquote><p align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s0EhG1Bk7ZQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"></iframe></p><blockquote><p>Parts of Europe are suffering from a democratic malaise. Italy fell from 21st to 33rd in the rankings after voters elected a populist coalition that seeks to bypass democratic institutions and curtail the civil liberties of immigrants and Roma. Turkey’s score declined for the sixth year in a row as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan swept aside most constraints on his power. Russia deteriorated for the tenth year in a row, after the main opposition candidate was barred from running in a presidential election and Vladimir Putin continued to crush civil liberties. Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia saw slight improvements in 2018, mostly reflecting higher scores for political participation.<p>The report warns that all this may be a pause, rather than the end of democracy’s retreat. The global rise in engagement, combined with a continued crackdown on civil liberties such as freedom of expression, is a potentially volatile mix. It could be a recipe for instability in 2019.</p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/01/08/the-retreat-of-global-democracy-stopped-in-2018">The retreat of global democracy stopped in 2018</a>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-1452498118404955962019-02-04T17:56:00.001-08:002019-02-04T17:56:46.218-08:00Extreme rainfall events are connected across the world<p align="center"><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0872-x"><img width="640" height="589" title="Teleconnection pattern for south-central Asia for events above the 95th percentile. For extreme rainfall events in Northern India (red diamond), the red lines show local weather patterns, and the blue lines show global patterns linking extreme rainfall events represented by the blue shapes. In particular, the blue shapes over Europe indicate that extreme rainfall in Northern India can be predicted from preceding events in Europe. Graphic: Boers, et al., 2019 / Nature" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Teleconnection pattern for south-central Asia for events above the 95th percentile. For extreme rainfall events in Northern India (red diamond), the red lines show local weather patterns, and the blue lines show global patterns linking extreme rainfall events represented by the blue shapes. In particular, the blue shapes over Europe indicate that extreme rainfall in Northern India can be predicted from preceding events in Europe. Graphic: Boers, et al., 2019 / Nature" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3sUydcbvSZ5oGVgJwAsuPLV2o70aT5X_xiAP5_f6NWT4KEMHg8HK2-aqHCGbls6JrVJ5pHckbrJOJNmFQVrOyw1-diObbidLVkqkfulxj4S2gy3NPZ_mhhJRJpCVK8OHp0zrr9aQ_eTn/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Hayley Dunning<br>
30 January 2019</p>
<p>(Imperial College London) – Extreme rainfall – defined as the top five percent of rainy days – often forms a pattern at the local level, for example tracking across Europe. But new research, published today in <em><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0872-x">Nature</a></em>, reveals that there are also larger-scale global patterns to extreme rainfall events.</p><p>These patterns connect through the atmosphere rather than over land – for example, extreme rainfall in Europe can precede extreme rainfall in India by around five days, without extreme rain in the countries in between.<p>The research, led by a team at Imperial College London and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, could help better predict when and where extreme rainfall events will occur around the world. The insights can be used to test and improve global climate models, leading to better predictions.<p>The study additionally provides a ‘baseline’ for climate change studies. By knowing how the atmosphere behaves to create patterns of extreme rainfall events, scientists will be able to gain new insights into changes that may be caused by global warming.<h2>Predicting extreme rainfall</h2><p>Lead author Dr Niklas Boers, from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and Environment at Imperial, said: “Uncovering this global pattern of connections in the data can improve weather and climate models. This is especially true for the emerging picture of couplings between the tropics and the European and North American regions and their consequences for extreme rainfall.<p>“This finding could also help us understand the connections between different monsoon systems and extreme events within them. I hope that our results will, in the long term, help to predict extreme rainfall and associated flash floods and landslides in northeast Pakistan, north India, and Nepal. There have been several such hazards in recent years, with devastating consequences in these regions, such as the 2010 Pakistan flood.”<p>To find patterns in extreme rainfall events, the team developed a new method rooted in complex system theory to study high-resolution satellite data of rainfall. The data comes from the <a href="https://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/">Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission</a> and covers the region between 50? North and South since 1998.</p></blockquote><p align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QfLeOKf6fcA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"></iframe></p><blockquote><p>By breaking the globe into a grid, the team could see where events occurred and determine how ‘synchronous’ they were – a statistical measure that assesses connections even if the events did not occur at exactly the same time.<p>The results from this ‘complex network’ model, analysed using our understanding of the motion of the atmosphere, revealed a possible mechanism for how the events were connected. The patterns appear to be created by Rossby waves – wiggles in fast-flowing currents of air high in the atmosphere, known as the jet streams.<p>Rossby waves have been connected to regular rainfall, but this study is the first to connect them to extreme rainfall event patterns.<h2>A strong test for weather and climate models</h2><p>Co-author <a href="http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/b.hoskins">Professor Brian Hoskins</a>, Chair of the Grantham Institute at Imperial, said: “The new technique applied to satellite data shows very surprising relationships between extreme rainfall events in different regions around the world.<p>“For example, extreme events in the South Asian Summer Monsoon are, on average, linked to events in the East Asian, African, European, and North American regions. Although rains in Europe do not cause the rain in Pakistan and India, they belong to the same atmospheric wave pattern, with the European rains being triggered first.<p>“This should provide a strong test for weather and climate models and gives promise of better predictions.”<p>Co-author Jürgen Kurths, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said: “This truly interdisciplinary study, which combines complex network science with atmospheric science, is an outstanding example for the great potential of the rather young field of complexity studies. As well providing insight into the spread of epidemics or information flow across networks, it can also be used to improve our understanding of extreme events in the climate system.”</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/190029/extreme-rainfall-events-connected-across-world/">Extreme rainfall events are connected across the world</a></p><hr size="1"><p align="center"><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0872-x"><img width="640" height="402" title="Atmospheric conditions for the teleconnection pattern of extreme rainfall events between Europe and south-central Asia. Graphic: Boers, et al., 2019 / Nature" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Atmospheric conditions for the teleconnection pattern of extreme rainfall events between Europe and south-central Asia. Graphic: Boers, et al., 2019 / Nature" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg-QDGFfFS-Gu3fJfTd40muToV5MmfkNYszGeWKFB2BmcfyMEK655SvgJYA8ZHExdmU_ec_l0dyHx3xKS9AvWq3Ow9aV6RnpCarCEe0qOQUh-Mehq0rZDbNwk7qkxX7SPkQ9H22LyUxktp/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><p>ABSTRACT: Climatic observables are often correlated across long spatial distances, and extreme events, such as heatwaves or floods, are typically assumed to be related to such teleconnections<sup><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0872-x#ref-CR1">1</a>,<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0872-x#ref-CR2">2</a></sup>. Revealing atmospheric teleconnection patterns and understanding their underlying mechanisms is of great importance for weather forecasting in general and extreme-event prediction in particular<sup><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0872-x#ref-CR3">3</a>,<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0872-x#ref-CR4">4</a></sup>, especially considering that the characteristics of extreme events have been suggested to change under ongoing anthropogenic climate change<sup><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0872-x#ref-CR5">5</a>,<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0872-x#ref-CR6">6</a>,<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0872-x#ref-CR7">7</a>,<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0872-x#ref-CR8">8</a></sup>. Here we reveal the global coupling pattern of extreme-rainfall events by applying complex-network methodology to high-resolution satellite data and introducing a technique that corrects for multiple-comparison bias in functional networks. We find that the distance distribution of significant connections (<i>P</i> < 0.005) around the globe decays according to a power law up to distances of about 2,500 kilometres. For longer distances, the probability of significant connections is much higher than expected from the scaling of the power law. We attribute the shorter, power-law-distributed connections to regional weather systems. The longer, super-power-law-distributed connections form a global rainfall teleconnection pattern that is probably controlled by upper-level Rossby waves. We show that extreme-rainfall events in the monsoon systems of south-central Asia, east Asia and Africa are significantly synchronized. Moreover, we uncover concise links between south-central Asia and the European and North American extratropics, as well as the Southern Hemisphere extratropics. Analysis of the atmospheric conditions that lead to these teleconnections confirms Rossby waves as the physical mechanism underlying these global teleconnection patterns and emphasizes their crucial role in dynamical tropical–extratropical couplings. Our results provide insights into the function of Rossby waves in creating stable, global-scale dependencies of extreme-rainfall events, and into the potential predictability of associated natural hazards.</p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0872-x">Complex networks reveal global pattern of extreme-rainfall teleconnections</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-66455652834530226112019-02-04T17:20:00.001-08:002019-02-04T17:21:37.688-08:00Crocodile warning issued as Australia city faces “unprecedented areas of flooding” – Authorities deliberately flood 2,000 Queensland homes after record downpours<p align="center"><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/beta-story-container/International/crocodile-warning-issued-australian-city-faces-unprecedented-levels/story?id=60827909"><img width="640" height="853" title="A crocodile crawls from the flooded driveway of a home in Townsville, Australia, on 3 February 2019. Photo: Erin Hahn / AFP / Getty Images" style="margin: 0px 5px; border: 0px currentcolor; border-image: none; display: inline; background-image: none;" alt="A crocodile crawls from the flooded driveway of a home in Townsville, Australia, on 3 February 2019. Photo: Erin Hahn / AFP / Getty Images" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjevAUgqYRT2XN9UBCOBOvo8DHbnJ7CheKdHK2-c0hXnliGoJToue-ZsnUXU2uzWwQ4I10zMaK0AnDz_hDqqAMomeVLl5x90yvSWdGy-2aK_5zQCbYA4tJqVRC5FKv-e8vSCmctbWjrsigj/?imgmax=800" border="0"></a></p><blockquote><p>By Guy Davies<br>
4 February 2019</p></blockquote><blockquote>
<p>LONDON (ABC News) – The Australian government is warning citizens to be on the look out for crocodiles and snakes in the streets amid severe rainfall and flooding in north Queensland over the past few days. </p><p>“Crocodiles prefer calmer waters and they may move around in search of a quiet place to wait for floodwaters to recede,” Leeanne Enoch, Queensland's minister for <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/alerts/environment">environment</a>, said in a <a href="http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/2019/2/4/watch-out-for-crocodiles-and-snakes-in-floodwaters">statement</a> Monday.<p>She continued, “Crocodiles may be seen crossing roads, and when flooding recedes, crocodiles can turn up in unusual places such as farm dams or waterholes where they have not been seen before. Similarly, snakes are very good swimmers and they too may turn up unexpectedly.” <p>The coastal city of Townsville has been the most affected by the flooding. Local media outlet 7news posted a <a href="https://twitter.com/7NewsTownsville/status/1090440966509539328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1090440966509539328&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2F2019%2F02%2F04%2Fcrocodiles-roam-flooded-streets-floodgates-major-dam-opened%2F">video</a> on Twitter of an 11-foot crocodile crawling up a highway to the north of the city. One image of a crocodile roaming the streets has been shared over 20,000 times on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1893651137412361&set=a.131094657001360&type=3&theater">Facebook</a>.</p></blockquote><p align="center"><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/australia-townsville-floods-queensland-ross-river-dam-crocodiles-snakes-weather-a8761826.html"><img width="640" height="427" title="Aerial view of a major intersection in the flooded Townsville suburb of Idalia, Australia on 4 February 2019. Photo: Getty" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Aerial view of a major intersection in the flooded Townsville suburb of Idalia, Australia on 4 February 2019. Photo: Getty" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizK6h8YCLJyl-QBpLGOXTKRDg6V90HVF-gDdSFSCBuHODE0yYhTgW8mUJhC6sGLojfCTDZBc-ue13U7XvpRINczrCpA7EWcwVqbCdITTy7Y3rmTtTAs9heLk4U_gp5V8ILaXQiH7votdY6/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><p>Townsville has been brought to a standstill by severe flooding after an all-time record rainfall, the premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said Saturday. The town has experienced the equivalent of 3.2 feet of rainfall over the past week. […]<p>"It's basically not just a one in 20-year event, it's a one in 100-year event," she said Saturday, according to the <a href="https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/once-century-floods-hit-northeast-australia-doc-1cz2yo3">AFP</a>. <p>Heavy rain continues to drench Townsville, with 6 to 10 inches of rainfall lashing the city since Sunday morning, according to the <a href="https://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/news/townsville/urgent-major-townsville-flash-flood-warning/news-story/33324296afac50a2be2494d7477e10c2?nk=ba6822763e6191584321ccb6a54599fe-1549285658"><em>Townsville Bulletin</em></a>. Around 17,000 properties in Townsville are believed to be without power. <p>The Queensland Bureau of Meteorology issued a major flood warning for Townsville on Sunday night, saying that “conditions will change rapidly & continuously” due to “unprecedented areas of flooding.” [<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/crocodile-warning-issued-australian-city-faces-unprecedented-levels/story?id=60827909">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/crocodile-warning-issued-australian-city-faces-unprecedented-levels/story?id=60827909">Crocodile warning issued as Australian city faces 'unprecedented' levels of flooding</a><br>
</p><hr size="1"><p align="center"><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/beta-story-container/International/crocodile-warning-issued-australian-city-faces-unprecedented-levels/story?id=60827909"><img width="640" height="360" title="Aerial view of the Ross River Dam, near the north Queensland city of Townsville, after authorities opened the floodgates on 3 February 2019, deliberately flooding about 2,000 homes. Photo: ABC News" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Aerial view of the Ross River Dam, near the north Queensland city of Townsville, after authorities opened the floodgates on 3 February 2019, deliberately flooding about 2,000 homes. Photo: ABC News" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhe9N3S5H3BxDb0q81UZqqflks0V_2dpY-hb-bDeAr97ecCWeZazRdhbCXIu3l8hkTKTzP6JaPMx792EFiSr0P3qSHdDqn8uKA3pbE1sPfIqE54nZDQKgQqM0y6_x2CnJgJjvtwkdieus/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Ben Smee<br>
4 February 2019</p>
<p>TOWNSVILLE (The Guardian) – After eight days of heavy monsoonal rain, authorities in the north Queensland city of Townsville had no choice but to open the floodgates of the Ross River Dam, deliberately flooding about 2,000 homes.</p>
<p>The decision was made as the Queensland government also published a warning to people to beware of crocodiles, snakes and other wildlife, which were reported to have left the swollen river and headed into some suburban areas.</p>
<p>Some parts of Queensland have had more than 1.5m of rain since last weekend. At Ingham, north of Townsville, 419mm fell in a single day on Sunday.</p>
<p>At Townsville almost 1m was recorded at Townsville airport across eight days of torrential rain. The average annual rainfall for the same weather gauge is 1127.9mm.</p>
<p>In parts of north Queensland, monsoonal rains have bucketed more water in eight days than in a typical year. The Ross River dam above Townsville was measured at a remarkable 247% capacity on Sunday night before the decision was made to release more water, in an attempt to avert a catastrophic collapse.</p>
<p>With the floodgates fully open, about 1,900 cubic metres of water a second was released. That stabilised the dam, which on Monday afternoon was holding 523,475 megalitres, or 225% its typical capacity.</p>
<p>But the fast-flowing water release caused the Ross River to break its banks and inundate several low-lying areas on Townsville’s south side. […]</p></blockquote><p align="center"><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/crocodile-warning-issued-australian-city-faces-unprecedented-levels/story?id=60827909"><img width="640" height="480" title="An aerial view shows houses inundated with flood waters in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 4 February 2019. Photo: Dave Acree / EPA / Shutterstock" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="An aerial view shows houses inundated with flood waters in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, 4 February 2019. Photo: Dave Acree / EPA / Shutterstock" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSR4Z0zZap454H1NM4tmp6Ew7f5LMBxaWn3TdoUU_jFMg8bSsVUhrM1Ol79UBRDk41_OiraysBd5uH6sb3wIXrtpyYCVw9Cy3417mNlNu5dYtBs31aq6vXukTZsMFk7FjVOEUW2GbZBAA/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><p>Andrew Roberts said he was more worried about being eaten by a crocodile in his Townsville home than chest-high water surging through the ground floor.</p>
<p>“It’s a little bit scary because, when it floods in Townsville, the crocs get into the water.”</p>
<p>Roberts, who lives in low-lying Hermit Park, was also angry about the decision to release water from the Ross River dam.</p>
<p>“We were lambs to the slaughter,” he said. “Our homes have been sacrificed to save the rest of Townsville. It should never have been this bad. Why didn’t they have releases earlier and give the water a chance to get away?</p>
<p>“Heads should roll over this.” […]</p>
<p>Prof Jamie Pittock from the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University said the need to spill water from the dam highlighted the limits to using dams for flood control.</p>
<p>“Dams cannot control the biggest floods,” Pittock said. “Large flood return frequency is projected to worsen with climate change.” [<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/04/australian-authorities-deliberately-flood-2000-queensland-homes-after-record-downpours">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/04/australian-authorities-deliberately-flood-2000-queensland-homes-after-record-downpours">Australian authorities deliberately flood 2,000 Queensland homes after record downpours</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-62254756484997478042019-02-04T15:27:00.001-08:002019-02-04T15:27:08.695-08:00U.S. prepares to build part of Trump border wall through National Butterfly Center and Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge<p align="center"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/natbutterflies/photos/a.960407043993021/2319958744704504/?type=3&theater"><img width="640" height="853" title="Eight law enforcement units parked around the National Butterfly Center on 3 February 2019, as the first excavator rolled in and parked on land immediately east of us. Mission PD Officer Cabral was parked on our private property. He said effective tomorrow we will have NO ACCESS to our own land south of the levee. He said, 'Effective Monday morning, it is all government land,' and they have orders to prohibit anyone from stepping foot on the levee, which sits on our private property. We know this is illegal and will be taking legal action tomorrow. Photo: National Butterfly Center" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Eight law enforcement units parked around the National Butterfly Center on 3 February 2019, as the first excavator rolled in and parked on land immediately east of us. Mission PD Officer Cabral was parked on our private property. He said effective tomorrow we will have NO ACCESS to our own land south of the levee. He said, 'Effective Monday morning, it is all government land,' and they have orders to prohibit anyone from stepping foot on the levee, which sits on our private property. We know this is illegal and will be taking legal action tomorrow. Photo: National Butterfly Center" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHIvx0CHoJ46qvuEoAakxCuuQXHJsvQwY19vemt9qWGTJbuvfRBjjCzW9AyBNVUwpnE94lWajhs8O9QMMcPC1dXrq9CysmdBiQaP4YO3ArY1KMqTNkDVc3kruPQ87xgqymwii4FU9fjWQ/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Nomaan Merchant<br>
4 February 2019</p>
<p>HOUSTON (AP) – The U.S. government is preparing to begin construction of more border walls and fencing in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, likely on federally owned land set aside as wildlife refuge property.</p><p>Heavy construction equipment was expected to arrive starting Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. A <a href="https://www.facebook.com/natbutterflies/photos/a.960407043993021/2319958744704504/?type=3&theater">photo posted by the nonprofit National Butterfly Center</a> shows an excavator parked next to its property.</p><p>Congress last March <a href="https://www.apnews.com/639cbf88cdd042f493f4e6c3d7f1f093">approved more than $600 million for 33 miles (53 kilometers) of new barriers</a> in the Rio Grande Valley. <a href="https://www.apnews.com/ddd3c7ee7cdf45f9bd28103eb816c7c4">While President Donald Trump and top Democrats remain in a standoff</a> over Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion in border wall funding, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has pushed ahead with building what’s already funded.<p>That construction was often described as fencing, and the government funding bill that included construction was supported by some Democrats in the House and Senate. CBP refers to what it plans to build as a “border wall system.”<p><a href="https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2018-Sep/FY18%20RGV%20Border%20Construction%20Projects%20Request%20for%20Input%20ENGLISH.pdf">According to designs it released in September</a>, CBP intends to build 25 miles (40 kilometers) of concrete walls to the height of the existing flood-control levee in Hidalgo County next to the Rio Grande, the river that forms the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. On top of the concrete walls, CBP will install 18-foot (5.5-meter) steel posts and clear a 150-foot (45-meter) enforcement zone in front.<p>Maps released by CBP show construction would cut through the butterfly center, a nearby state park, and a century-old Catholic chapel next to the river.<p><a href="https://www.apnews.com/0b3d63c524214bbdbfb58ce8f61589f0">Many landowners oppose a border wall and have vowed to fight the U.S. government</a> if it tries to seize their property through eminent domain. Court fights over condemning land could take weeks if not months.<p>CBP said in its statement that it intends to start construction on federally owned land. Environmental advocates expect the government to use land that’s part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.<p>The refuge consists of dozens of parcels of land purchased over the last 40 years to create a corridor for endangered species and other wildlife. [<a href="https://apnews.com/e653d5a305114835bb399e480ac44ab8">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://apnews.com/e653d5a305114835bb399e480ac44ab8">US prepares to start building portion of Texas border wall</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-65812020944145526492019-02-04T08:03:00.001-08:002019-02-04T08:03:43.019-08:00Greta Thunberg: “When I say that I want you to panic, I mean that we need to treat the crisis as a crisis”<p align="center"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/gretathunbergsweden/photos/a.733630957004727/767646850269804/?type=3&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARApgNHNQyZnIBg4mFxC7bRpBKM_uBsfEni0iDwxx_aH8tdhIqRLj0XfBoilaqqI13mTz31QUqpe2xXzgCltM_TUmPRq8RYfxxPOP5lohQJWs3ddL10w7Q7SlZVLSFXKTDPIdRcGl8Nv2ROicTjR0NPGysSS9hgd4vT6UnG-JC-sxlDyc9Osuvm-bgKQ94bzqYMHZxVhIxtJEDznzNTc3Yrr9qVJvTSKpQjFiHy-KcdtDcqTI2I7dOMbumGTNj3kdBt40j4LjlzSRUrCAan6SRkRsRd4mDPQjNg-suzdbCilQxBYYtu8_-XYRvDVXBIJwfZL06Ou6I_CUqYm-KM6AKM&__tn__=-R"><img width="640" height="649" title="Climate activist Greta Thunberg. Photo: Greta Thunberg" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Climate activist Greta Thunberg. Photo: Greta Thunberg" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbVaAopaRh-n7vmgaAP_14PS4-0MRdAQg93QUH7o0ruirWI4TsQLMy_NWM9bBgE5B99nIp0bPswfrBEtqd2JP78H2fpJgr0etQkq1PNuEEf0hMJsQKkG8sCnsplYnOX2vbGKdQZ3wkOos/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><p>By Greta Thunberg<br>
2 February 2019<br>
</p><p>(Facebook) – Recently I’ve seen many rumors circulating about me and enormous amounts of hate. This is no surprise to me. I know that since most people are not aware of the full meaning of the climate crisis (which is understandable since it has never been treated as a crisis) a school strike for the climate would seem very strange to people in general.</p><p>So let me make some things clear about my school strike.</p><p>In May 2018 I was one of the winners in a writing competition about the environment held by <em>Svenska Dagbladet</em>, a Swedish newspaper. I got my article published and some people contacted me, among others was Bo Thorén from Fossil Free Dalsland. He had some kind of group with people, especially youth, who wanted to do something about the climate crisis.</p><p>I had a few phone meetings with other activists. The purpose was to come up with ideas of new projects that would bring attention to the climate crisis. Bo had a few ideas of things we could do. Everything from marches to a loose idea of some kind of a school strike (that school children would do something on the schoolyards or in the classrooms). That idea was inspired by the Parkland Students, who had refused to go to school after the school shootings.</p><p>I liked the idea of a school strike. So I developed that idea and tried to get the other young people to join me, but no one was really interested. They thought that a Swedish version of the Zero Hour march was going to have a bigger impact. So I went on planning the school strike all by myself and after that I didn’t participate in any more meetings. […]</p></blockquote><p align="center"><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belgium-climatechange-protests-studen/belgian-student-climate-protests-snowball-idUSKCN1PP28X"><img width="640" height="425" title="Belgian students protest for urgent measures to combat climate change during a demonstration in central Brussels, Belgium, on 31 January 2019. Photo: Yves Herman / REUTERS" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Belgian students protest for urgent measures to combat climate change during a demonstration in central Brussels, Belgium, on 31 January 2019. Photo: Yves Herman / REUTERS" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNxr8ayInd4PoR5YDq9PZ-nzi-_m_9rw9hVzjeoGKjb8dXpWwvchQRYIspl-pi5hitK9t8bywesvKbrOY6sFi7Qg3K1HA35aWJzh33lT_YpQal-fXXi1ZGm3hgkhJNo0Mlzxsfw0bxNJ25/?imgmax=800"></a></p><blockquote><p>And yes, I write my own speeches. But since I know that what I say is going to reach many, many people I often ask for input. I also have a few scientists that I frequently ask for help on how to express certain complicated matters. I want everything to be absolutely correct so that I don’t spread incorrect facts, or things that can be misunderstood. […]<p>Either we limit the warming to 1.5 degrees C over pre industrial levels, or we don’t. Either we reach a tipping point where we start a chain reaction with events way beyond human control, or we don’t. Either we go on as a civilization, or we don’t. There are no gray areas when it comes to survival.<p>And when I say that I want you to panic I mean that we need to treat the crisis as a crisis. When your house is on fire you don’t sit down and talk about how nice you can rebuild it once you put out the fire. If your house is on fire you run outside and make sure that everyone is out while you call the fire department. That requires some level of panic. [<a href="https://www.facebook.com/gretathunbergsweden/posts/767646880269801?__tn__=K-R">more</a>]</p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/gretathunbergsweden/posts/767646880269801?__tn__=K-R">Greta Thunberg</a>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-39645950361475299392019-02-03T17:27:00.001-08:002019-02-03T17:27:13.835-08:00Huge cavity in Antarctic glacier signals rapid decay<p align="center"><a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7322"><img width="640" height="360" title="Changes in surface height at Thwaites Glacier's grounding line, 2011 to 2017, with sinking areas in red and rising areas in blue. The growing cavity (red mass, center) caused the greatest sinking. The mottled area (bottom left) is the site of extensive calving. Contours show bedrock topography. Graphic: NASA / JPL-Caltech" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Changes in surface height at Thwaites Glacier's grounding line, 2011 to 2017, with sinking areas in red and rising areas in blue. The growing cavity (red mass, center) caused the greatest sinking. The mottled area (bottom left) is the site of extensive calving. Contours show bedrock topography. Graphic: NASA / JPL-Caltech" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4_CATnrqDJiwkQm7xH7h51P0eJ6vtnInlUN71SX198i5iHwG5a4e53ItsjyP3InCvNJZCtNH0NtX-khr0Y4qsThImFq-3QzSo_2D7OcJ7C1XuZIvi3WU7ED0-NeKJt0MbC2f5cQo2yOpf/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Carol Rasmussen<br>
30 January 2019</p><p>(Jet Propulsion Laboratory) – A gigantic cavity - two-thirds the area of Manhattan and almost 1,000 feet (300 meters) tall - growing at the bottom of Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is one of several disturbing discoveries reported in a new NASA-led <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/1/eaau3433">study</a> of the disintegrating glacier. The findings highlight the need for detailed observations of Antarctic glaciers' undersides in calculating how fast global sea levels will rise in response to climate change.</p>
<p>Researchers expected to find some gaps between ice and bedrock at Thwaites' bottom where ocean water could flow in and melt the glacier from below. The size and explosive growth rate of the newfound hole, however, surprised them. It's big enough to have contained 14 billion tons of ice, and most of that ice melted over the last three years.</p>
<p>"We have suspected for years that Thwaites was not tightly attached to the bedrock beneath it," said Eric Rignot of the University of California, Irvine, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Rignot is a co-author of the new study, which was published today in <em>Science Advances</em>. "Thanks to a new generation of satellites, we can finally see the detail," he said.</p><p>The cavity was revealed by ice-penetrating radar in NASA's <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/index.html">Operation IceBridge</a>, an airborne campaign beginning in 2010 that studies connections between the polar regions and the global climate. The researchers also used data from a constellation of <a href="https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/missions/3rd-party-missions/current-missions/cosmo-skymed">Italian</a> and <a href="https://earth.esa.int/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/t/tandem-x">German</a> spaceborne synthetic aperture radars. These very high-resolution data can be processed by a technique called radar interferometry to reveal how the ground surface below has moved between images.<p>"[The size of] a cavity under a glacier plays an important role in melting," said the study's lead author, Pietro Milillo of JPL. "As more heat and water get under the glacier, it melts faster." <p>Numerical models of ice sheets use a fixed shape to represent a cavity under the ice, rather than allowing the cavity to change and grow. The new discovery implies that this limitation most likely causes those models to underestimate how fast Thwaites is losing ice.<p>About the size of Florida, Thwaites Glacier is currently responsible for approximately 4 percent of global sea level rise. It holds enough ice to raise the world ocean a little over 2 feet (65 centimeters) and backstops neighboring glaciers that would raise sea levels an additional 8 feet (2.4 meters) if all the ice were lost.<p>Thwaites is one of the hardest places to reach on Earth, but it is about to become better known than ever before. The U.S. National Science Foundation and British National Environmental Research Council are mounting a five-year field project to answer the most critical questions about its processes and features. The <a href="https://thwaitesglacier.org/">International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration</a> will begin its field experiments in the Southern Hemisphere summer of 2019-20.<h2><b>How Scientists Measure Ice Loss</b></h2><p>There's no way to monitor Antarctic glaciers from ground level over the long term. Instead, scientists use satellite or airborne instrument data to observe features that change as a glacier melts, such as its flow speed and surface height. <p>Another changing feature is a glacier's grounding line - the place near the edge of the continent where it lifts off its bed and starts to float on seawater. Many Antarctic glaciers extend for miles beyond their grounding lines, floating out over the open ocean. <p>Just as a grounded boat can float again when the weight of its cargo is removed, a glacier that loses ice weight can float over land where it used to stick. When this happens, the grounding line retreats inland. That exposes more of a glacier's underside to sea water, increasing the likelihood its melt rate will accelerate.<h2><b>An Irregular Retreat</b></h2><p>For Thwaites, "We are discovering different mechanisms of retreat," Millilo said. Different processes at various parts of the 100-mile-long (160-kilometer-long) front of the glacier are putting the rates of grounding-line retreat and of ice loss out of sync.<p>The huge cavity is under the main trunk of the glacier on its western side - the side farther from the West Antarctic Peninsula. In this region, as the tide rises and falls, the grounding line retreats and advances across a zone of about 2 to 3 miles (3 to 5 kilometers). The glacier has been coming unstuck from a ridge in the bedrock at a steady rate of about 0.4 to 0.5 miles (0.6 to 0.8 kilometers) a year since 1992. Despite this stable rate of grounding-line retreat, the melt rate on this side of the glacier is extremely high.<p>"On the eastern side of the glacier, the grounding-line retreat proceeds through small channels, maybe a kilometer wide, like fingers reaching beneath the glacier to melt it from below," Milillo said. In that region, the rate of grounding-line retreat doubled from about 0.4 miles (0.6 kilometers) a year from 1992 to 2011 to 0.8 miles (1.2 kilometers) a year from 2011 to 2017. Even with this accelerating retreat, however, melt rates on this side of the glacier are lower than on the western side. <p>These results highlight that ice-ocean interactions are more complex than previously understood.<p>Milillo hopes the new results will be useful for the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration researchers as they prepare for their fieldwork. "Such data is essential for field parties to focus on areas where the action is, because the grounding line is retreating rapidly with complex spatial patterns," he said. <p>"Understanding the details of how the ocean melts away this glacier is essential to project its impact on sea level rise in the coming decades," Rignot said. <p>The paper by Milillo and his co-authors in the journal <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/1/eaau3433"><em>Science Advances</em></a> is titled "Heterogeneous retreat and ice melt of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica." Co-authors were from the University of California, Irvine; the German Aerospace Center in Munich, Germany; and the University Grenoble Alpes in Grenoble, France.<h2>Contact</h2><ul><li>Esprit Smith, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, 818-354-4269, <a href="mailto:Esprit.smith@jpl.nasa.gov">Esprit.smith@jpl.nasa.gov</a></li><li>Brian Bell, University of California, Irvine, 949-824-8249, <a href="mailto:bpbell@uci.edu">bpbell@uci.edu</a><br></li></ul></blockquote>
<p>Huge Cavity in Antarctic Glacier Signals Rapid Decay</p><hr size="1"><blockquote><p>ABSTRACT: The glaciers flowing into the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica, have undergone acceleration and grounding line retreat over the past few decades that may yield an irreversible mass loss. Using a constellation of satellites, we detect the evolution of ice velocity, ice thinning, and grounding line retreat of Thwaites Glacier from 1992 to 2017. The results reveal a complex pattern of retreat and ice melt, with sectors retreating at 0.8 km/year and floating ice melting at 200 m/year, while others retreat at 0.3 km/year with ice melting 10 times slower. We interpret the results in terms of buoyancy/slope-driven seawater intrusion along preferential channels at tidal frequencies leading to more efficient melt in newly formed cavities. Such complexities in ice-ocean interaction are not currently represented in coupled ice sheet/ocean models.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/1/eaau3433">Heterogeneous retreat and ice melt of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-43334197500792935672019-02-03T15:13:00.001-08:002019-02-03T15:13:50.611-08:00Youth climate protests spread through Belgium in fourth week – “It’s you who decided … it’s us who will suffer”<p align="center"><a href="https://www.euronews.com/2019/02/01/youth-climate-change-protests-spread-through-belgium-in-fourth-week"><img width="640" height="360" title="Thousands of Belgian students skipped classes for the fourth week in a row on Thursday, 31 January 2019, to protest against global warming. Photo: Yves Herman / REUTERS" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Thousands of Belgian students skipped classes for the fourth week in a row on Thursday, 31 January 2019, to protest against global warming. Photo: Yves Herman / REUTERS" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF93eJxbKlni2a2zledzm9QXRaO76oFAcZ8EXK84uNxoYdvmEFn7oTbCYe1LJ6FRU7SUFHeqwIVXmlDq_5G_wqqhWSq7JCXVYNhUP67bCYd_gBlpK50rchi-eekuW5udO5d4IkBz9iV5M/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>1 February 2019 (Euronews) – The streets of Brussels were buzzing on Thursday as thousands of Belgian teens marched for the fourth week in a row, demanding more extreme measures be taken to combat climate change.</p>
<p>This week the young protesters were joined by youths demonstrating in Liège and Leuven with a combined total of more than 30,000 participating in the movement.</p>
<p>In addition to turning out each week in mass quantities, these young Belgians are taking individual measures to battle climate change. Many eat locally sourced foods, commute via bicycle, or maintain vegetarian diets to reduce harmful emissions.</p><p>On Thursday, 3,400 Belgian scientists signed a <a href="http://uahost.uantwerpen.be/s4climate/index.php/2019/01/30/strengthen-your-climate-ambitions/">letter</a> urging authorities to make “far-reaching, structural measures to quickly and drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” By immediately taking action and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 25%, these scientists say global warming can be contained to a rise of 2°C.<p>The young people who march in the streets of these Belgian cities will be more directly affected by the detrimental effects of climate change than older generations. By taking action now, they are attempting to salvage their own futures.<p>The sea of protesters carried colourful posters that have been a signature of the recent demonstrations. A large banner carried by two demonstrators read "save our planet, save our future."</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.euronews.com/2019/02/01/youth-climate-change-protests-spread-through-belgium-in-fourth-week">Youth climate change protests spread through Belgium in fourth week</a></p><hr size="1"><p align="center"><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belgium-climatechange-protests-studen/belgian-student-climate-protests-snowball-idUSKCN1PP28X"><img width="640" height="423" title="Anuna De Wever poses as Belgian students protest for urgent measures to combat climate change during a demonstration in central Brussels, Belgium, on 31 January 2019. Photo: Yves Herman / REUTERS" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Anuna De Wever poses as Belgian students protest for urgent measures to combat climate change during a demonstration in central Brussels, Belgium, on 31 January 2019. Photo: Yves Herman / REUTERS" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf6SjGAOzTB50vuNOebGMsdbBHlr8xvInH1xHGX3Ix4ucWGD6_gT0L54z3fH28DbpOwy88ukBOy8eVkX9s8g_PoURgh2KdSO5qlZaMtQ56f_pUaxVoodRtHPCAxdi8jKVMTizFn1fwmuyl/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Clare Roth<br>
31 January 2019 </p>
<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Thousands of Belgian students skipped classes for the fourth week in a row on Thursday to protest against global warming, part of a growing youth protest around the world.</p>
<p>Beating drums, chanting and carrying signs, some 30,000 teenagers braved the cold in Brussels and other cities to call on local politicians for stronger action to prevent climate change.</p>
<p>“It’s our planet and the generation before us hasn’t done anything,” said Julian Rume, 17. “In 20, 30 years, we will all be migrants, we’ll all be moved out of our planet.”</p>
<p>The demonstrations are part of a broader grassroots movement started by Swedish student Greta Thunberg, 16, last year.</p>
<p>Students in Germany, Switzerland, France and Australia have followed her lead and also skipped classes to protest.</p>
<p>Thunberg took her protest to this month’s World Economic Forum in Davos to galvanize leaders meeting there to action.</p>
<p>While Thursday’s march in Brussels drew fewer people than last week, demonstrations spread to other cities, with some 15,000 students in the streets of Liege, according to police.</p>
<p>“The climate is a disaster,” said demonstrator Allison Debonte, 15, adding that she fears her children will not be able to live in Brussels due to climate change.</p>
<p>One student held a sign saying: “It’s you who decided … it’s us who will suffer.” </p>
<p>The student demonstrations have been supported by many political figures and personalities including Belgium’s King Phillipe. They are part of rolling protests urging greater action in recent weeks, as extreme temperatures fuel concerns that climate change is gathering pace.</p>
<p>On Sunday, two months since the first demonstration, some 70,000 people rallied in Brussels. Organizers are urging European leaders to adopt ambitious climate policies in line with goals set by the Paris agreement in 2015. [<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belgium-climatechange-protests-studen/belgian-student-climate-protests-snowball-idUSKCN1PP28X">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belgium-climatechange-protests-studen/belgian-student-climate-protests-snowball-idUSKCN1PP28X">Belgian student climate protests snowball</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899761191991098467.post-88933088469983186792019-02-03T09:20:00.001-08:002019-02-03T09:20:55.024-08:00January was officially Australia’s hottest month on record – “The exceptional story here was temperature: maximum temperatures, minimum temperatures, and mean temperatures, and those records go back to 1910”<p align="center"><a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/january-2019-was-australias-hottest-month-ever-recorded/news-story/fb87ee6a9840fc2d403776712a58905e"><img width="640" height="360" title="Map showing Australia maximum temperatures for January 2019. The average temperature in January 2019 nationwide was 30C — a record. Graphic: Australia Bureau of Meteorology" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Map showing Australia maximum temperatures for January 2019. The average temperature in January 2019 nationwide was 30C — a record. Graphic: Australia Bureau of Meteorology" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiztRTaddXqewfA5XSPkUoxPpN_LAn_DjSOz7LEahl14LkMNCwrnNSQ7mJ4NE9mpUyi8ntGMhHsrH9dkqHQzArzSOoL3z6R87BM4sGO_mCfr_N19ZD6Eziso-fQJMZkRe3uoApHa9Y0zP7H/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Rod McGuirk<br>
31 January 2019</p>
<p>CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Australia sweltered through its hottest month on record in January and the summer of extremes continued with wildfires razing the drought-parched south and flooding in expanses of the tropical north.</p>
<p>Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology confirmed the January record on Friday as parts of the northern hemisphere had record cold.</p>
<p>Australia’s scorching start to 2019 — in which the mean temperature across the country for the first time exceeded 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) — followed Australia’s third-hottest year on record. Only 2005 and 2013 were warmer than 2018, which ended with the hottest December on record.</p><p>Heat-stressed bats dropped dead from trees by the thousands in Victoria state and bitumen roads melted in New South Wales during heatwaves last month.<p>New South Wales officials say drought-breaking rains are needed to improve the water quality in a stretch of a major river system where hundreds of thousands of fish died in two mass deaths during January 2019 linked to excessive heat. A South Australia state government report [<a href="https://www.mdbrc.sa.gov.au/">Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission</a>] on Thursday found that too much water had been drained from the river system for farming under a management plan that did not take into account the impact of climate change on the river’s health.</p></blockquote><p align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vfblCvOM0CA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"></iframe></p><blockquote><p>The South Australian capital Adelaide on Jan. 24 recorded the hottest day ever for a major Australian city — a searing 46.6 C (115.9 F).<p>On the same day, the South Australian town of Port Augusta, population 15,000, recorded 49.5 C (121.1 F) — the highest maximum anywhere in Australia last month.<p>Bureau senior climatologist Andrew Watkins described January’s heat as unprecedented.<p>“We saw heatwave conditions affect large parts of the country through most of the month, with records broken for both duration and also individual daily extremes,” Watkins said in a statement. [more]</p></blockquote>
<p>
January was officially Australia’s hottest month on record</p><p><hr size="1"><p align="center"><a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/january-2019-was-australias-hottest-month-ever-recorded/news-story/fb87ee6a9840fc2d403776712a58905e"><img width="640" height="360" title="Map showing Australia rainfall for January 2019. Graphic: Australia Bureau of Meteorology" style="margin: 0px 5px; display: inline;" alt="Map showing Australia rainfall for January 2019. Graphic: Australia Bureau of Meteorology" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV98VXwEUersx-oa5Jr7yWsjss4VVpD64wSVMCZE3QwQGenlno8aYUWRWyQuMPTYmpClWNT85TYP3tgDQO_GI38mysFk16xgB9U0CMiapdO9JN68GY3deVNX5zOERmeYsVSLjAxYsXtQk/?imgmax=800"></a></p>
<blockquote><p>By Benedict Brook<br>
1 February 2019</p>
<p>(news.com.au) – In January, the days were sweltering, the nights were sticky and the humidity meant we were all a hot mess — just another summer in Australia, right?</p>
<p>Well no. January 2019 was not just the hottest January ever recorded, it was the hottest month ever recorded in Australia, weather boffins at the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said today.</p>
<p>The scorching January followed on from the hottest December ever which means Australia is possibly having its hottest summer ever. Last year was Australia’s third hottest year on record.</p><p>The mean temperature last month, averaged across the country, exceeded 30C for the first time ever for any month. For five days in the middle of the month the overall average temperature nationwide was above 40C.<p>BOM senior climatologist Andrew Watkins said January’s heat was unprecedented. “For Australia the exceptional story here was temperature: maximum temperatures, minimum temperatures, and mean temperatures and those records go back to 1910,” he said. [<a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/january-2019-was-australias-hottest-month-ever-recorded/news-story/fb87ee6a9840fc2d403776712a58905e">more</a>]</p></blockquote>
<p>
<a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/january-2019-was-australias-hottest-month-ever-recorded/news-story/fb87ee6a9840fc2d403776712a58905e">January 2019 was Australia’s hottest month ever recorded</a></p>Jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07080844313226790538noreply@blogger.com0