The Week in Climate Change
Jan. 29 — Feb. 4, 2018
Science/Effects
As human-produced greenhouse gas emissions continue to fuel global warming, Arctic sea ice levels continue to shrink by about 13.2% per decade. At the same time, a number of polar bear populations have been on the decline — in the Beaufort Sea, for example, they’ve dropped by about 40% in the course of a decade.
“We’ve documented declines in the population, declines in the abundance, declines in the survival rates, declines in the body condition in the population,” said study lead author Anthony Pagano, a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s office in Anchorage, Alaska. “And it appears to be related to changes in sea ice that are occurring.”
The key takeaway is that, thanks primarily to carbon pollution, global temperatures have soared outside of the slow-changing, relatively stable conditions that existed when humans were figuring out where the climate — and rivers and sea levels — were most suited for living and farming.
the report, which relied on a survey of military officials located at bases across the globe, outlines in detail the specific threats facing a variety of outposts as well as military installations that harmed by past extreme weather events linked to climate change. Sites along the West, East and Gulf coasts all face flooding from storm surge. Drought threatens facilities across the country with a particularly high concentration in California and parts of the prairie states. Wildfires pose threats across the Mountain West.
Research shows that over the past several decades, the jet stream has weakened. There’s also evidence that as it wobbles, it can get stuck out of kilter, which can lead to more persistent weather extremes, including heat waves, cold snaps, droughts and flooding.
Scientists say there is strong evidence that human-caused global warming has altered the strength and path of the powerful winds.
“You can rule out a silver bullet,” said Prof John Shepherd, at the University of Southampton, UK, and an author of the report. “Negative emissions technologies are very interesting but they are not an alternative to deep and rapid emissions reductions. These remain the safest and most reliable option that we have.”
Politics
Hartnett White suggested in 2014 that fossil fuels helped lead to the end of slavery because they “dissolved the economic justification” for it. The next year she wrotethat carbon dioxide is “the gas of life on this planet.”
“Hartnett White suggested that climate regulation is a conspiracy pushed by communists,” Mose Buchele of member station KUT reported in November. He said that she has “called renewable energy unreliable and parasitic.”
In a pair of lawsuits, environmental groups argued that the lease sale broke a key law by ignoring climate and other environmental impacts.
In one of the suits, the environmental law organization Earthjustice and the plaintiffs it represents argued that the Trump administration had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to consider how the greenhouse gas emissions from burning the fossil fuels from the Arctic tracts might impact climate change.
Yet, like Trump, the Democrat neglected critical milestones in the climate crisis in his speech. Last year marked the world’s second-hottest year on record. The U.S. racked up a record $306 billion in climate-related damages. And fossil fuel emissions hit an all-time high as the rate of carbon dioxide pollution began increasing for the first time in three years.
The Trump administration’s actions to reverse actions to reduce GHG emissions isolates the United States and will likely slow this country’s progress on tackling climate change and advancing clean energy. How much emissions and global temperatures will rise as a result has yet to be fully determined, and will depend in large measure how subnational action in the United States, such as the We Are Still In campaign, market forces and international efforts can sustain momentum in the coming years.
The recommitment to the Paris Agreement by world leaders other than Trump at the G20 summit, and progress at COP23, shows their intent to demonstrate the opportunities offered in working toward a low-carbon future. Many U.S. cities, states, regions and companies are already joining other countries in taking the helm on climate and clean energy action and pointing the way toward a low-carbon future.
Energy
Exxon’s conclusion: Even aggressive climate policies pose “little risk” to its investments. It stressed that it expected healthy demand for its products for decades to come, regardless of how strongly countries move to cut emissions.
Researchers found that, on average, Americans spent 7.8 more days at home in 2012, compared to 2003. They calculated that this reduced national energy demand by 1,700 trillion BTUs in 2012, or 1.8 percent of the nation’s total energy use.
The lifestyle shift was especially pronounced among 18- to 24-year-olds, who spent an extra 14 days at home and roughly four days less in travel. The findings represent a significant change in lifestyle in less than 10 years. Those fewer travel days are particularly important when it comes to saving energy.
Activism, etc.
Survey after survey shows that people worldwide respect scientists highly. But if citizens never hear from these legitimate experts, no one can blame them for indifference to fake-science tweets, decisions by politicians that ignore facts, or cuts to federal agencies that are supposed to be built on sound science.
