The Guardian: Climate change is the biggest threat to our futures, not striking from school

"We are walking out for a day to send the Australian government a message: you can no longer pretend we are not here

"This month, hundreds of children are going on strike from school to demand urgent action on climate change. From rural Victoria to Townsville, we are walking out of school for a day or more to tell our politicians to listen to us and protect our futures."


Read The Guardian article

Students strike for climate change protests, defying calls to stay in school

 

Australian Students Stage School Strikes Over Climate Change Inaction

 

Protest in Melbourne - From NY Times

MP's letter to Queensland Premier re coal mine support

Cate Faehrmann MLC

Here is a letter I have sent to the Queensland Premier calling on her to stop approving coal mines if she is serious about responding to the horrific fires devastating the state right now.

- - - - -

Dear Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk MP,
I heard you on ABC radio this morning talking about the catastrophic fire conditions that Queensland is facing. “Unprecedented” was the word you used.

You told listeners across the country that temperatures had broken records by 5 or 10 degrees and that the lack of normally humid conditions in that part of Queensland was making the situation worse.

You’ve previously acknowledged that climate change is real and climate change is happening.

Just two months ago your government released a report warning of the increased risk of extreme floods and fires as a result of climate change.

So I just want to check that you’re aware of the link between burning coal and climate change?

The Guardian: Climate change already a health emergency, say experts

"Deadly heatwaves and spread of diseases affect people’s health today – report.

People’s health is being damaged today by climate change through effects ranging from deadly heatwaves in Europe to rising dengue fever in the tropics, according to a report.

Billions of hours of farmwork has been lost during high temperatures and global warming has damaged the ability to grow crops, it said."

Read The Guardian article 

Related:

Australia shamed – again – on climate, as UNEP report calls for urgent action

WEF: Which cities are at risk from ice sheets melting? This tool holds the answers

"The interactive tool, known as Gradient Fingerprint Mapping (GFM), was developed by scientists at NASA's renowned Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Their invention predicts which areas of ice may contribute to sea level changes in individual cities. 

 

This provides researchers with unprecedented insight into which ice sheets (and cities) they should be “most worried about”."

Read WEF article 

Related:

Australia shamed – again – on climate, as UNEP report calls for urgent action

Busting Climate Change Myths / Answers with Joe

Check out my interview with John Cook from SkepticalScience.com: https://answerswithjoe.com/science-cl...

Follow me at all my places! Instagram: https://instagram.com/answerswithjoe Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/answersw... Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/answerswithjoe Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/answerswithjoe LINKS LINKS LINKS: More about the Robbers Cave Experiment: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2... More about the fossil fuel industry and tobacco companies using the same tactics: https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar... Peter Doran's Climate Science Survey: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.c... Climate change consensus same as smoking and cancer: https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar... Why CO2 alone won't help plants grow: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-... Lori Fenton's paper on Mars warming: https://www.nature.com/articles/natur... On the single cause fallacy that climate change in the past is the reason why it's changing now: https://www.skepticalscience.com/clim... Sulphur Dioxide trends in relation to volcanic activity: https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/sulfur... An article about Debbie Dooley: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/bu... Military Times article about pentagon planning for climate change: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/yo... Exxon Mobil new CEO embracing the carbon tax: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl... Study on Exxon Mobil scientists and internal communications: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22...

Video: What you can do about climate change

Henrik Kniberg

Published on Apr 8, 2017

This video is a short, sweet, and pragmatic summary of climate change - what the problem is, why, and what you can actually do about it.

The Guardian: Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth

Beef Cattle

Avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet, according to the scientists behind the most comprehensive analysis to date of the damage farming does to the planet.

The new research shows that without meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75% – an area equivalent to the US, China, European Union and Australia combined – and still feed the world. Loss of wild areas to agriculture is the leading cause of the current mass extinction of wildlife.

Read The Guardian article 

See also

Giving up beef will reduce carbon footprint more than cars, says expert

Australian Liberal Government inaction on climate is dooming our natural environment

The Senate has backed  a Greens' motion declaring climate change is the biggest threat to life on our planet, calling on the Liberal Government to implement serious climate and energy policy.
"The biggest threat to humanity and life on this planet is climate change, and still the Liberal Government don't have a plan to reduce pollution," Greens environment spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

Climate Action Kids' Strike - Kids should defy PM’s school lecture says Bandt

Students planning to participate in a national school strike this Friday calling for emergency action on climate change should ignore the Prime Minister’s hectoring Question Time speech, Greens Deputy Leader and climate and energy spokesperson, Adam Bandt MP, said today.

Mr Bandt asked the Prime Minister if he would join the Greens in praising the students and if he would meet with some of the students when they come to Parliament this Wednesday. The Prime Minister’s response was an ignorant condescending lecture.

Video: Climate Science: What You Need To Know / PBS

We want to believe the convenient untruth that climate change is not happening. Unfortunately it is.

It's Okay To Be Smart

Published on Dec 8, 2014

Video: What is climate change? - Met Office climate change guide

Met Office - Weather  Published on Mar 11, 2011

 

The Earth's climate has changed many times in response to natural factors. But over the course of the last century we have seen an unusual rise in the average global temperature that can not be explained by natural causes alone. Here we explain what aspects of our climate are changing and what may be causing these changes.  

 

More information can be found online at http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate-c...

Rolling Stone: Big Oil Kills Carbon Initiative in Washington State

Out-of-state fossil-fuel money drowns out local support for key climate policy

Last night in Washington state, Big Oil bought another election and pushed the world a little deeper into climate chaos. What else is new?

Rolling Stone: Federal Climate Change Report Warns of Bleak Economic, Societal Impact

Climate-related events “expected to continue to damage infrastructure, ecosystems, and social systems,” study states

 The U.S. government quietly issued a troubling new report on climate change and mankind’s impact on the environment Friday. The 1,600-page document, scheduled for release next month but instead dumped on Black Friday, paints a bleak overview of the threat global warming poses in the United States, both climatically and economically.

“Earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, primarily as a result of human activities,” National Climate Assessment researchers wrote in Volume II in their report on climate change.

Keep reading Rolling Stone article

London Climate Protests / Video

Guardian News

Published on Nov 21, 2018

Activists from the Extinction Rebellion campaign group blocked traffic on Lambeth Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge in an attempt to bring London to a standstill during the morning rush hour. The protest is part of a campaign of civil disobedience to try to force governments to treat the threats of climate change and extinction as a crisis. 

RT America Video: Climate change causing California wildfires

'Evidence of human-caused climate change is strengthening, a new report from 13 federal agencies says. It could cost hundreds of billions of dollars from rising sea levels and infrastructure damage, among other impacts.'

NBC News Published on Nov 24, 2018

NBC News Video: Climate Change Is Worsening And Will Have Economic Impact, Federal Report Warns

NBC News

Published on Nov 24, 2018

"Evidence of human-caused climate change is strengthening, a new report from 13 federal agencies says. It could cost hundreds of billions of dollars from rising sea levels and infrastructure damage, among other impacts."

Published on Nov 24, 2018

Evidence of human-caused climate change is strengthening, a new report from 13 federal agencies says. It could cost hundreds of billions of dollars from rising sea levels and infrastructure damage, among other impacts.

Video of maps showing sea rise, wildfires and more

BBC News

Published on Jun 24, 2018

A new website that lets people delve into data on the world's cities has been launched. Dr Robert Muggah from the think-tank Instituto Igarapé showed the BBC some of his favourite maps from EarthTime.

Please subscribe HERE http://bit.ly/1rbfUog

PBS Eons Video: the Last Time The Globe Warmed

... when the world warmed more than any human has ever seen. (So far).

We are warming faster and faster now.

PBS Eons

Published on Dec 4, 2017

Try CuriosityStream today: http://curiositystream.com/eons Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/DonateEONS

"Imagine an enormous, lush rainforest teeming with life...in the Arctic. Well there was a time -- and not too long ago -- when the world warmed more than any human has ever seen. (So far)"

Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios

Special thanks to Nobumichi Tamura for allowing us to use his work: http://spinops.blogspot.com/

References: https://www.colorado.edu/today/2010/0... http://advances.sciencemag.org/conten... http://geology.geoscienceworld.org/co... http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/... http://science.sciencemag.org/content... https://www.researchgate.net/publicat... http://www.pnas.org/content/105/10/38... http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10... https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth... https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Fea... http://www.palaeontologyonline.com/ar... http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v9... http://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/trends/... http://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/ftp/ndp... https://www.sciencealert.com/carbon-e... https://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v... https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressreleas... https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Fea... http://www.ei.lehigh.edu/eli/cc/resou... http://people.earth.yale.edu/paleocen... http://pages.geo.wvu.edu/~kammer/g231... http://www.scotese.com/newpage9.htm http://all-geo.org/highlyallochthonou... http://academic.evergreen.edu/z/zita/... http://naturalhistory.si.edu/ete/ETE_... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/201... http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/... https://www.livescience.com/15597-pri... https://news.nationalgeographic.com/n... http://electronic-earth.net/3/19/2008... https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/Geoscienti... https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo1... http://www.whoi.edu/fileserver.do?id=...

NASA: 2017 Takes Second Place for Hottest Year - Video

NASA Goddard

Published on Jan 18, 2018

Earth's surface temperatures in 2017 were the second warmest since since 1880, when global estimates first become feasible, NASA scientists found. Global temperatures 2017 were second only to 2016, which still holds the record for the hottest year; however, 2017 was the warmest year on record that did not start with an El Nino weather pattern, as the previous two years did. In a separate, independent analysis, NOAA scientists found that 2017 was the third-warmest year in their record. The minor difference is due to different methods to analyze global temperatures used by the two agencies, although over the long-term the records remain in strong agreement. 

Music: Sojourner Rover by Craig Warnock [PRS], Lee Ahmad Baker [PRS], Sean Hennessey [PRS] This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12822

TNDL: Adani won't affect emissions: Shorten

"Adani's proposed coal mine in Queensland would not worsen Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, according to (Australia's) federal Labor leader Bill Shorten.

When asked when there would be enough damage from climate change - such as harm to the Great Barrier Reef - to prompt Labor to block the mine, Mr Shorten said he didn't accept the proposition."

Read The Northern Daily Leader story

SMH: Logging deals are death warrants for native animals

 "Informed by no new research or effective assessment of the RFAs (Regional Forest Agreements) over the past 20 years – and despite no assessment of the impacts of climate change or climate-induced wildfires throughout the RFA forests – the Morrison government is locking in another 20 years of business as usual. It is unbelievable.

It will not even wait until the Senate inquiry into animal extinctions, which will hold a public hearing in Melbourne on Thursday, reports back with its recommendations.

RFAs have become death warrants for endangered native animals and governments seemingly want the slaughter to continue for another 20 years."

Read the SMH article

BBC: Climate change: Warming gas concentrations at new record high

Concentrations of key gases in the atmosphere that are driving up global temperatures reached a new high in 2017.

In their annual greenhouse gas bulletin, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says there is no sign of reversal in this rising trend.

Carbon dioxide levels reached 405 parts per million (ppm) in 2017, a level not seen in 3-5 million years.

Researchers also note the resurgence of a banned gas called CFC-11.

• China 'home foam' gas key to ozone mystery
• Five things we have learned from the IPCC report
• Why industry can combat climate change

Read BBC article

Labor's timid energy plan continues to protect coal from carbon price: Bandt

Greens climate change and energy spokesperson Adam Bandt MP said Labor’s energy policy announced today fails to tackle coal and is another capitulation to Tony Abbott by dumping a carbon price in favour of a policy scavenged from the Liberals’ rubbish bin.

Bloomberg Opinion: Big Oil Doesn’t Like EV Subsidies, Just Its Own Giant Subsidy

The lack of a penalty for carbon emissions is the single biggest obstacle to a level playing field.

By

Liam Denning

November 20, 2018

"A far-more efficient method is to put a price on the stuff you want less of and then let capitalism do its thing, pushing consumption away from the undesirables and investment toward innovative alternatives. Indeed, all these letters demand government officials stand back and let the market do its thing — except their version of the market leaves out one essential element. 

Greenhouse gases and the threat they pose are everyone’s problem, but the individual generating them at any given moment doesn’t pay toward dealing with that. Dump your garbage on your neighbor’s lawn and you’ll wind up paying to have it removed and probably a fine, too. Release 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning a gallon of gasoline, and it’s a freebie.

This is an enormous effective subsidy for fossil fuels and makes a mockery of market piety. Using Yale economist and recent Nobel-prize winner William Nordhaus’s $31-per-tonne estimate of the social cost of carbon, it amounted last year to $107 billion for energy-related emissions from oil and natural gas in the U.S. Within that, emissions from transportation — the biggest source in the U.S. and the only one still growing — enjoyed a free ride worth $59 billion."

Read complete Bloomberg Opinion article

New York Times: Can Dirt Save the Earth?

Agriculture could pull carbon out of the air and into the soil — but it would mean a whole new way of thinking about how to tend the land.

By MOISES VELASQUEZ-MANOFFAPRIL 18, 2018

"Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, agricultural practices and animal husbandry have released an estimated 135 gigatons — 135 billion metric tons — of carbon into the atmosphere, according to Rattan Lal, a soil scientist at Ohio State University. Even at current rates, that’s more than a decade’s worth of carbon dioxide emissions from all human sources. The world is warming not only because fossil fuels are being burned, but also because soils, forests and wetlands are being ravaged."

Read New York Times article 

BBC: Climate change: Worries over CO2 emissions from intensifying wildfires

Rising numbers of extreme wildfires could result in a significant increase in CO₂ emissions, scientists warn.

That could mean attaining the Paris climate agreement's goal of keeping global temperature rise well below 2C could become harder, they say. 

Present emission-cut pledges by countries are projected to increase the average global temperature rise by more than 3C by the end of the century.

That would lead to dangerous climate change impacts, experts say. These include sea level rise, drought, wildfires, among other extreme events.

"We can't neglect the emissions from wildfires," says Ramon Vallejo, a scientist specialising on fire ecology with the University of Barcelona. 

"Particularly now that we are seeing intense wildfires all around the world."

Read complete BBC NEWS article

TRT World: Cow farts and climate change - Video

Did you know that cow farts are a major cause of global warming? The methane released by these animals has more of an effect on the atmosphere than the entire transportation industry. But there may be a natural solution to this gas of a problem.



Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7fW...

Siemens: What is climate change? Video

Now 2 degrees has been shown to be too high a limit. 1.5 degrees is what we must try for. 

"Climate Change is the bad news story that isn’t going away 

From heatwaves to hurricanes, from droughts to floods 

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, putting lives at risk Human activity is causing our climate to change 

The CO2 emissions from our cars, our industries and our power plants are heating up the planet 

To prevent further dangerous levels of climate change Countries around the world signed up to the Paris Agreement The Paris 

Agreement aims to keep global warming below 2 degrees To stop the planet getting warmer, we need to reduce the use of fossil fuels 

And increase the share of renewable energy, like from wind, solar and low carbon sources 

Climate action is everyone‘s responsibility: governments, businesses, communities, individuals 

The actions we can take to reduce our carbon footprint, like investing in green technologies can also reduce costs and create jobs The risks and costs of inaction are too high to ignore. 

So what are we waiting for? The time to act is now." Siemens Nov 3,  2017

Siemens

BBC: California wildfires: Why are so many listed as missing?

"Over the last few days the number of people unaccounted for in the deadly Camp Fire in northern California has skyrocketed to more than 1,200. 

The sudden jump has led to some confusion among locals and officials alike.

The confirmed death toll of 76 is already a state record, so could this huge number of missing people really still be added to that?"

Read BBC story:  

Read also Al Jazeera Story

The Guardian: Thousands block five London bridges to protest over climate crisis – video

0:52

People have descended on central London for ‘a day of rebellion’ in protest over the looming climate crisis. They began massing on five bridges over the River Thames from 10am on Saturday. By 11.30am organisers said all five target bridges had been occupied.

• Thousands gather to block London bridges in climate rebellion

Montreal Gazette: 50,000-strong climate march in Montreal targets Legault government

The march, the biggest in Quebec since the Earth Day protest of 2012, saw a kilometre-long wall of people fill Place des Festivals in downtown Montreal.

Catherine Solyom, Montreal Gazette

Updated: November 11, 2018 

 

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of downtown Montreal on Saturday with hope, desperation and urgency, calling on elected leaders to act now to stop climate change — or they will be held responsible.

Desperation because despite all the previous marches and calls on government to act, the planet is still heading toward catastrophe.

Urgency because the latest United Nations report on climate change released in October says it’s not vague “future generations,” but today’s preteens that will feel the heat and effect as adults.

Hope because, well, without hope, what is there?

Continue Reading

The Guardian: We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe, warns UN

Urgent changes needed to cut risk of extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty, says IPCC

• Overwhelmed by climate change? Here’s what you can do

The world’s leading climate scientists have warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.
 
The authors of the landmark report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released on Monday say urgent and unprecedented changes are needed to reach the target, which they say is affordable and feasible although it lies at the most ambitious end of the Paris agreement pledge to keep temperatures between 1.5C and 2C.

Read the full The Guardian article

Nature Communications: Warming assessment of the bottom-up Paris Agreement emissions pledges

"Tightening the warming goal of each country’s effort-sharing approach to aspirational levels of 1.1 °C and 1.3 °C could achieve the 1.5 °C and well-below 2 °C-thresholds, respectively. 

This new hybrid allocation reconciles the bottom-up nature of the Paris Agreement with its top-down warming thresholds and provides a temperature metric to assess NDCs. When taken as benchmark by other countries, the NDCs of India, the EU, the USA and China lead to 2.6 °C, 3.2 °C, 4 °C and over 5.1 °C warmings, respectively."

Read the full Nature Communications article

The Guardian: Policies of China, Russia and Canada threaten 5C climate change, study finds

"Ranking of countries’ goals shows even EU on course for more than double safe level of warming."

"China, Russia and Canada’s current climate policies would drive the world above a catastrophic 5C of warming by the end of the century, according to a study that ranks the climate goals of different countries.
The US and Australia are only slightly behind with both pushing the global temperature rise dangerously over 4C above pre-industrial levels says the paper, while even the EU, which is usually seen as a climate leader, is on course to more than double the 1.5C that scientists say is a moderately safe level of heating.

The study, published on Friday in the journal Nature Communications, assesses the relationship between each nation’s ambition to cut emissions and the temperature rise that would result if the world followed their example."

Read the full the Guardian article