Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
And the chances of Donald Trump’s family and fortune surviving climate change are small, dwindling daily and irreversibly – as are ours.
Saving BUB, Beautiful Unique Biodiversity, as in this all these beautiful creatures – including humanity - is another reason to preserve carbon storing forests. Our future depends on it.
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon
Amazonian Deforestation Is Rising, Once Again as a corrupt, shortsighted government seeks to profit by helping agribusinesses steal land that belongs to indigenous tribes – and convert forests to crops and cattle. Credit Ricardo Beliel at BrazilPhotos
OO Brazil: Amazon Indigenous Tribes Stand Against President Temer’s Govt Indigenous groups control large reserves in the Amazon, and have the constitutional right to more, BUT:
- · agribusiness and land thieves are working with
- · the Brazilian Congress and the Temer administration
- · to prevent recognition of new indigenous territories,
- · and to defund FUNAI, the federal agency representing Indian concerns.
In response, Brazil’s Indians are launching numerous protests:
- · Recently 4,000+ indigenous leaders from 200 tribes demonstrated in front of the Congress building.
- · They were attacked by police with teargas.
- · Elsewhere in northern Brazil, ranchers and hired gunmen attacked a peaceful land occupation with rifles and machetes; 13 Indians were seriously injured.
Blockading a Highway To Save Home and Forest Credit Mauricio Torres
- · In the Amazon, another tribe has blocked the Transamazonian highway,
- · creating a 40 kilometer backup of trucks loaded with the soy harvest.
- · The truckers expressed solidarity with the Indians, blaming the government for failing to meet the Indians’ needs.
“We don’t believe in words anymore.”
When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.
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WHEN SEAS RISE, SO DO WE: HISTORIC MARCHES AND TURNOUTS
THE MARCH FOR SCIENCE, APRIL 22, 2017
OO Earth Day Protesters In Hundreds Of Cities March For Science – and was covered by major news TV outlets, such as ABC News, PBS news and CBS news.
@@ Science In America - Neil deGrasse Tyson is picking up viral momentum in this 4 minute video by making a powerful case that science is an "Exercise in finding what is true” that has driven America’s successes – it’s not just nerds in white coats.
OO After the March for Science, It's Time to Get Political
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THE CLIMATE MARCH, APRIL 29, 2017
OO People’s Climate March Draws 200,000 Protesters As Trump Flees To Coal Country
“What environmental protest?” you can almost hear Trump mumbling. Yet march we did, with posters speaking out. Some had great wordplays:
[Planet to people]: “You should be fried!”
“It’s getting hot here, take off your coals…”
Leonardo DiCaprio Also Marched at the front with indigenous people. Credit AFP at Getty images
Personal notes from the field: I arrived at Reagan airport the day before, just in time to see a distracted Bernie Sanders pass by me. Momentarily shocked, I recovered enough to shout at his retreating back: “Go, Bernie!” One of many heroes… The march itself:
“Crowds swell past us,a sea of signs, music, dancing.
Finally, signs up, our family leaps into the protest waters.
I watch my daughter, a journalist,
Cover the action from the sidelines,
nimbly leaping from one flat pedestal to another to
Get the best shots. I am so proud...”
Hot in DC, But Wet in Chicago: Jobs Depend on a Healthy Planet and we all marched. Source www.dailymail.co.uk
“The heat is extreme – humid and in the 90s –
Ironically appropriate.
My wet neck bandana, full of ice cubes,
Isn’t a match. I drop to the side,
Moving with the crowd to the White House
And the glorious shade of park trees:
Water, water.”
Perhaps one of the most memorable signs was:
“I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M PROTESTING FOR REALITY!”
It’s something I feel I’m doing every week in this column. March on! Time to turn all that kinetic energy into political energy, folks.
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THE INCREASING DANGER OF CIVILIZATION COLLAPSING
Syria Collapse Factors: Too Many People, Depleted Water, and Inept Leadership that drove people to revolt, and resulted in mass migrations. Credit AP,Vadim Ghirda
OO How Western Civilisation Could Collapse
-- And How We Could Avoid It - Some possible precipitating factors to collapse already exist. How the West reacts to them will determine the world's future.
- · History records civilizations collapsing, each from many factors.
- · Our civilization is already showing signs of possible collapse,
- · Many linked to unsustainable growth.
- · From research models two main factors emerge:
- · ecological strain, and economic stratification (ie, inequality).
Globally Our Forests Shrink As Humans Proliferate fueling the demand for more cropland, even though they are vital to our existence, providing clean air, water, biodiversity, and storing climate changing carbon. Credit Matthias Klum
- · Ecological strain is seen in a developing global depletion of vital resources,
- · Such as groundwater, soil, fisheries and forests,
- · All of which will deplete further with climate change.
That Rich Guy Depends On Others More Than He Thinks – not just for opening doors. Think food, maintaining his house, and his life. Source google images
- · BUT research shows that the increased hoarding of wealth by elite
- · Promises to collapse civilization, even without ecological strain,
- · By economically starving the lower classes upon which the elite ultimately depend for labor.
We’re already on our way:
- · Examples of vast inequality already exist within and between countries;
- · the top 10% of global income earners account for almost as much total climate changing emissions as the remaining 90%.
- · about half the world’s population lives on less than $3 per day.
Not Sustainable Over The Long Haul – too many people ultimately hastens our civilization’s collapse, research shows. Source Library Foundation of Los Angeles, AlanWeisman
- · Sustainability depends on human population levels:
- · the more people, the fewer resources, and the faster collapse ensues.
- · Every new person adds to the complexity, and cost of sustaining, civilization.
We can avoid collapse and stabilize onto a sustainable trajectory by:
- · making rational choices to reduce factors
- · such as inequality, explosive population growth, how fast we deplete and pollute natural resources
- · – all perfectly doable things –
- · but we need to do them SOON, before these factors avalanche into inevitable collapse.
If we don’t, post-collapse survival in the wake of mass die-offs is a pretty grim and harrowing future – if there is one at all. A world depleted of the natural resources that kept humanity alive under far more primitive conditions previously will make our survival much more difficult.
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TRUMP TRUMPED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
Tracking Trump’s Treachery: Environmental Deregulations – the Columbia Law School (NY) keeps an ongoing track of Trump’s efforts, abetted by the GOP, to cut environmental protections:
OO Climate Deregulation Tracker – All Updates want to know the latest? Check it out!
OO Climate Change Is Now And Urgent, But Trump Is Deaf - Yet in the face of this urgent challenge - one that affects all of humanity, rich and poor, liberal and conservative, America and the rest of the world - Trump has chosen to accelerate climate change. He and his aides are encouraging pollution.
As Permafrost Melts, Trees Lose Footing, and Ponds Form
OO As Ice Melts And Heat Rises, Alaska Fights To Slow Climate Change - As Trump Cuts Funds that might threaten vital tools, like climate-monitoring satellites. What’s to monitor?
- · With temperatures soaring last winter to 50 degrees above normal,
- · the area around the North Pole is melting
- · and the Arctic Sea ice is shrinking at a rate never seen before.
Google images
- · Ice is thinning and disappearing.
- · Permafrost is melting.
- · Villages are literally disappearing.
What happens in Alaska doesn’t stay in Alaska:
The US is on track to set a record in 2017 for weather events that have each cost $1+ billion.
RESISTING TRUMP
@@ Fearless Kids Press Climate Court Case
"Exercising my 'reasoned judgment,' I have no doubt that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society." - U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken.
Related:
OO "Bring It On": Students Sue Trump Administration Over Climate Change
OO Bloomberg To World Leaders: Ignore Trump's Ideas Onclimate Change and recently declared his intention to help save an international agreement to reduce carbon emissions.
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CLIMATE MYTH BUSTERS!
OO The Reality of Climate Change - below are some of the biggest climate myths currently trending, compared to the reality. A good place for more details is here … where even more myths are busted!
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HOT NEWS
OO March Set A Remarkable New Record For Global Warming, NOAA Reports
- It was the first month to average a full 1 degree C above a 1951-1980 baseline average without help from an El Nino event,
- Signalling the global warming is stronger than ever.
OO March Breaks New Global Warming Record Despite No El Nino Effect
OO This Graphic Puts Global Warming In Full Perspective - Using a pre-industrial 1881-1910 baseline temperature average as normal, March 2017
- · Was 1.3 degrees C above normal,
- · And marked a whopping 627 months in a row that were hotter than normal
“To say the world is having a streak like no other is an understatement. Global warming has made cold scarce on a planetary scale… If you were born after December 1964, you’ve never experienced a month cooler than average on this planet.”
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MELTDOWN
OO Danger: Greenland Ice Sheet Melting 600% Faster Than Predicted By Current Models – Takeaways:
- · The climate is very capable of changing to another stable state unfavorable to the human species, and
- · this is a real danger of our global experiment with unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions, says Arctic ice specialist David Barber.
Sun, Sea, Ice and Humanity Are Teleconnected Via Global Warming screen capture
- · Global warming affects humanity through teleconnections:
- · Things that happen in one place affect many other, far flung places.
- · As global warming melts ice, the resulting freshwater slows oceanic circulation
- · The major conveyor belt of heat around the planet
- · Affecting climate everywhere.
Poles Apart: North And South React Differently, and Influence the Planet Differently
- · The North Pole Is Melting Faster Than the South,
- · But Melted South Ice Raises Sea Levels:
OO Newly Seen Vast Antarctic Drainage Systems Could Speed Ice Loss Under Future Warming
The surface of Antarctica is more dynamic than thought with a vast complex of streams and pools moving meltwater that:
- · Could speed future ice loss in 2 ways:
- · Via rivers moving meltwater onto coastal shelves that could destroy these giant glacial plugs,
- · Allowing the glacial flow of ice behind them to speed into the sea;
- · And via vast surface melt ponds that could destabilize the ice beneath them.
Related:
OO Antarctic Surface Melt More Widespread Than Thought a new continent-wide survey and two studies show.
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GOOD CLEAN NEWS
The UK, Where Wind Is Increasingly Powerful
OO U.K. Has First Day Without Relying On Coal For Power Since 1880s
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SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS
OO Get Used To Wildfires In A Warming World says a new study. As forests dry out:
- · Fires might have to be allowed to burn,
- · A change in attitude that means
- · Shifting resources from suppressing fires to managing them,
- · Whether prescribed or moderate natural fires,
- · To prevent further catastrophic fires.
So building homes near drying forests should be discouraged.
OO Wildfires Burn Across Florida; Thousands Evacuated with 25,000+ acres burned already, 2000+ homes had been evacuated, with thousands more on standby.
OO Humans On The Verge Of Causing Earth's Fastest Climate Change In 50 MILLION Years
Climate & Extreme Weather News #20 (April 15th-April 20th 2017) – in this episode, flooding in Iran, extreme heat in India, and unfortunately, much more – all very graphically shot. From the new youtube channel:
OO Understanding Climate Change: A Weekly Video Compiliation Of Climate News
OO The Biggest Threat To The Jewish Community Is Climate Change – it is the biggest threat since the last ice age:
- · It poses more of a long-term threat to world peace than Donald Trump,
- · more of a danger to Israel than Palestinians,
- · more of a threat to civil society and the protection of minorities than the alt-Right
- · Scientists note that the dynamics of climate change are playing out much faster than we expected.
Source Doctors Without Borders Canada
OO Climate Change And Health Are Inextricably Linked - WHO assessment concluded that climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year between 2030 and 2050.
OO Climate Change Is Turning Dehydration Into A Deadly Disease – of the kidneys which is striking down laborers around the world.
OO Global Warming Worsening Outdoor Allergies Now
- · as record hot seasons are starting the pollen season ever earlier,
- · affecting 35 million Americans who suffer from hay fever allergies.
- · This constrains people’s activities – having to stay in air-conditioned indoors
- · Rather than enjoying a beautiful sunny day outdoors.
And it will get worse as climate change continues.
A Mosquito Bite, and Months Later, A Tiny Baby – caused by the mosquito borne Zika virus.
OO Why The Menace Of Mosquitoes Will Only Get Worse Climate change is:
- · Expand the range of disease carrying mosquitoes,
- · Carrying lethal diseases such as West Nile fever and Zika,
- · Into the United States.
- · And encouraging the proliferation of food-borne organisms lik Salmonella.
Expect even more diseases, as climate continues to change. As noted climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe says, "Climate change is a threat multiplier."
OO How A Warming Planet Drives Human Migration - Climate displacement is becoming one of the world's most powerful — and destabilizing — geopolitical forces.
OO When Rising Seas Transform Risk Into Certainty - Along parts of the US East Coast, the entire system of insuring coastal property is beginning to break down.
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
@@ Climate Change 101: Why Care? What You Need to Know - Bill Nye tells it all in five minutes amid graphic, dynamic, engaging, compelling imagery. Check it Out!
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GOOD IDEAS
Love Your Child? Give Them The Gift of a Decent Future and start acting to do so today. You can help encourage others to vote for climate action leaders, and help women avoid unintended pregnancies. Doing the latter not only saves money for communities, it lowers overpopulation and consumption, drivers of climate change.
OO The Religious Case For Caring About Climate Change – it’s about values, not just data.
What actually motivates people are the 3 great loves:
- · Love of neighbor: You're aware of the real and present suffering climate or pollution are causing
- · love of creation: concern for how our natural world is being decimated, extinction of animals, the oceans.
- · love of children: what are you leaving for the children in your mind’s eyes right now?
“I'm a big fan of the Exodus story. At times we find ourselves with our back against the wall or the sea, but at some point the waters do part and we're able to walk through. Being able to have those stories and connect to what we're going through right now is powerful.”
Winning At Climate Change – yeah, it’s gloomy, but we can win this game, and feel good about doing so. Here’s how. This is the first part of a series on climate change and our behavior; you can see other episodes here.
OO How Psychology Can Trick Us Into Keeping The Planet Habitable – increasing awareness and finding the right motivation to change our behavior.
OO Scientists, Stop Thinking Explaining Science Will Fix Things. It Won't. - effective messaging must also include strategic communication:
- · appealing to people’s emotions,
- · via local and community interactions,
- · and emphasize the health and economic threats
OO Bloomberg News Today Announces Site Devoted To Climate Change Climate Changed, which offers easy to understand, visual explanations of climate change issues, such as the video above, and others that talk about solutions, like this.
Climate Changed gives Bloomberg a leg up on The Wall Street Journal, which rarely covers climate change, and is arguably its chief competitor in the market for prestige journalism.
MEH: Now if only the TV news shows and weather forecasters follow suit….
OO US Business Schools Need To Include Climate Change Mitigation - as part of the necessary core curriculum, because climate change is already affecting major businesses. For starters, Starbucks is bracing for a coffee shortage, as a changing climate threatens to dramatically lower coffee production.
OO 'Drawdown' And Global Warming's Hopeful New Math - "Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming" (Penguin Books), outlines 80 solutions grouped into 7 categories:
energy; food; women and girls; building and cities;
land use; transport; and materials.
To qualify for inclusion, a solution must have proven to:
- · reduce energy use,
- · replace it with clean renewable energy,
- · OR store carbon in soils or plants through regenerative farming, grazing, ocean and forest practices.
Each solution is ranked by cost-effectiveness, speed to implementation and societal benefit,
And includes:
- · its projected savings in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,
- · and total financial cost.
"Drawdown's" aggregate bottom line is shockingly affordable: the net operating savings add up to $74 trillion over 30 years.
“The future is not fate-it is our choice.”
OO Want To Divest Fossil Fuels And Invest In A Clean Future? Here’s How
OO A Three-Track Strategy For Climate Mitigation promotes major campaigns to strengthen climate miigtaion, win the ideological debate, and accelerate systemic change.
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NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS
OO Iceland's Flora And Fauna Changing Tangibly Due To Global Warming - which will heat Iceland about 8 degrees F in coming decades, on the current course.
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SPEAKING OUT
OO CA Governor Jerry Brown: Global Warming Is Like 'A Heroin Addiction’
OO Climate Change As Genocide: Inaction Equals Annihilation – argues the author. The logic grimly echoes 1930s Jews who ignored the signs of their coming demise.
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FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES
A Big Gas Problem – It Leaks as this graphic of methane leaks in Boston shows. Source NOAA, US Navy et al data at www.skepticalscience.com
OO Natural Gas Moves To The Naughty List – it burns cleaner than coal, but
- · still emits climate changing pollution
- · Its main component, methane is a far more potent climate changing gas than CO2
- · Methane leaks from mining and distributing it help send methane levels soaring
- · The US gas industry in 2016 emitted more emissions than coal for the first time.
- · Green groups are gearing to stop gas fired plants
- · Recognizing that this “bridge fuel” to clean renewable energy
- · Must be left behind as soon as possible.
- · The focus will be stopping gas fired plants and pipelines.
Time to surge the spread of clean renewable energy.
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FIXING CLIMATE CHANGE
@@ A Simple And Smart Way To Fix Climate Change given by Dan Miller in 2014 at a Ted talk suggests a way to profit as we tackle climate change, by finally charging those who sell and use fossil fuels – and distributing the revenues back to all of us.
The strategy is sure to speed transition to clean renewable energy. What’s not to like? Check it out!
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If we do not live sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.
@@ Myth vs Truth: The Huge Value of Contraception is an incisive, heartfelt recognition of the value of contraception by Sarah Brown, CEO, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
Unintended Pregnancy Costs US Taxpayers:
Unintended Pregnancies Cost US Taxypayers Nearly $11 Billion Yearly
-- the Guttmacher Institute
Teen Childbearing Alone Cost US Taxpayers $9+ Billion In 2010
And the costs of raising a child usually ensures decades, if not a life, of poverty for its mother.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Help prevent unintended pregnancies in your community:
publicize where women can access affordable contraception.
They can go here to find locations:
And there are many more actions you can do, right here.
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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS
Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, May 04, 2017
Source cci-reanalyzer.org
How unusual has the weather been? No one event is “caused” by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.
Unusually heavy rains have released California from a SURFACE water drought, but significantly depleted California aquifers keep 60+% of the state in a GROUNDWATER drought, which will likely take decades to disappear. It also means this major US agricultural region has a small safety net, when the next dry year strikes. As it is, much of California is now experiencing unusual warmth, as are much of the waters surrounding the US.
Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures – not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.
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There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I’ve compiled, “Climate Change News Resources,” at Wordpress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here.
To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!
Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by this wild strawberry I photographed one spring. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you'd like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here. It's our way of letting Congress know there's a strong clean energy voting bloc out there.