Lessons From the Frontlines of Global Warming (excerpt): New Republic

"What interviews with flood, wildfire, and drought survivors can teach us about how to live amid the threat of climate change

 

Extreme heat kills

Ronnie Scott lost his wife when she tried to to rescue their dog and cat from floodwaters in West Virginia in 2016. Carole Duncan almost lost her 83-year-old father during Australia’s massive 2019 bushfires, the firefighters finding him just in time. 

KerryAnn Laufer returned home days after the 2019 Kincade Fire in California to find only her fireplace still standing, while Dave Mackey saw nearly every house in his neighborhood on Grand Bahama island washed away, pummeled by raging waters and 200-mile-per-hour winds from Hurricane Dorian.

Storms, wildfires, and other such disasters are getting more common and intense as climate change accelerates. Scott, Duncan, Laufer, and Mackey, who survived these extreme weather events, are among the lucky ones. But each of them found themselves changed by the experience.


What would you do if your house burned down or your neighborhood washed away in a flood? How would you respond if a cataclysmic weather event killed someone you love or forced you to abandon, perhaps forever, the place you call home? And how would it change the way you think about the world?


These questions are at the heart of a new “Voices from the Future”

Green new deal is cheap actually

interview series a small group of journalist, researchers, and I have developed at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University. We have collected the stories and insights of nearly three dozen survivors on five continents, eight of which will be published in these pages over the next few weeks."

Original story 

Steven Beschloss is a professor of practice at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and directs the Narrative Storytelling Initiative at Arizona State University. He has written for The New Yorker and The Washington Post, among other publications.

 

#California, #firestorms, #wildfire, Australia, cyclones, floods, Green New Deal, hurricanes, 


 

Greenpeace Gives Democratic Platform C+ on Climate, Calling for 'Action at the Scale That Science and Justice Demand':

Climate Criminals

"We know the Republicans have no plan," says the advocacy group. "But that doesn't mean the Democrats can take their feet off the gas."

Greenpeace USA announced Wednesday that the platform which Democrats are set to adopt this week earns only a C+ rating based on the scorecard process the group previously used to rank the climate policies of what was once a large field of the party's 2020 presidential primary candidates.

That C+ (52.5 points out of 100) is notably lower than the B+ (75.5/100) that Greenpeace gave to former Vice President Joe Biden, whom Democrats formally nominated as the party's candidate Tuesday night, or the B+ (77/100) the group gave to his former competitor and current running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).

Although the soon-to-be-finalized 2020 Democratic platform received "decent marks for advancing renewable energy and environmental justice," Greenpeace determined that there are "critical policy gaps in addressing the power of the fossil fuel industry" and it makes "no mention of the Green New Deal."

As Fires Surge in Brazilian Amazon, Bolsonaro Strategy to Battle Deforestation Blasted as 'PR Stunt': Common Dreams

"Instead of combating criminal behavior and protecting Indigenous forest guardians already hit hard by Covid-19, this government continues to reduce environmental protection."

Greenpeace flew over Amazonas and Rondônia on August 16, 2020 states to verify the effectiveness of a fire ban imposed by the Brazilian government last month. (Photo: Christian Braga/Greenpeace)

A month after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro declared a 120-day ban on setting fires in the Amazon rainforest and three months after he deployed military troops to combat deforestation, Greenpeace on Tuesday called out the far-right leader for his ineffective strategies and attacks on environmental protections.

"Bolsonaro's administration has continued to systematically dismantle environmental protection and has undermined the work of environmental law enforcement agencies," Cristiane Mazzetti, an Amazon campaigner for Greenpeace Brazil, said in a statement. "Bolsonaro's supposed fire ban has already been undermined by Bolsonaro himself. Sending troops to the Amazon is just a PR stunt and a waste of resources."

Rare 'fire tornado' rips through California as heat wave descends on the US: CNN

Aug 17, 2020

2020 has reached into its bag of tricks again and tossed out another surprise - this time in the form of a swirling fire.

Or as meteorologists call it, a "firenado" - short for fire tornado.

The rare and fiery tornado was spotted Saturday near a fire in California.

A huge forest fire that prompted evacuations north of Los Angeles flared up around noon Saturday, August 15, sending up a cloud of smoke as it headed toward thick, dry brush in the Angeles National Forest. (AP)

The National Weather Service Office issued a tornado warning for a pyrocumulonimbus cloud that formed by the Loyalton Fire, saying it was "capable of producing a fire-induced tornado and outflow winds in excess of 97km/h," CNN meteorologist Haley Brink said.

A pyrocumulonimbus cloud forms above intense rising heat, typically from a fire or volcano.

Fire tornadoes are created when the rising heat from a fire pulls in smoke, fire and dirt, creating a rotation vortex above the blaze, Ms Brink said.

Fire tornadoes can be massive and deadly.

#wildfire, #bushfires

When the National Weather Service surveyed the damage on that firenado, it determined it was equivalent to an EF-3 tornado with winds in excess of 230km/h.

Officials in California, Oregon and Colorado are battling a series of wildfires that have collectively torched more than 40,000 hectares - and things could get worse with intense heat descending on much of the US.

The Loyalton Fire has burned over 8000 hectares and was five per cent contained by early Sunday.

Related: We need action to prevent further catastophic fires and we need to be prepared for wildfires

#wildfire, #bushfires, #California, #heatwaves, #drought, #climatechange, #climateaction, #cambio-climatico, #jailclimatecriminals,  

See original 9 story

Sea level rise is so much more than melting ice: Verge Science video

While researching climate change, we heard something confusing: the sea level in New York City is rising about one and a half times faster than the global average. We couldn’t figure out what that meant. Isn’t the sea level...flat? So we called up an expert, Dr. Andrea Dutton, and went down the rabbit hole. And, we did our best to visualize her truly bizarre answers with animations, dioramas, and a lot of melting ice.

Subscribe: http://bit.ly/2FqJZMl

Related:Greenland's melting ice sheet has passed the point of no return, scientists say (excerpt): USA Today


sea level rise, #searise, #climatechange, #cambio-climatico, #icemelting, #jailclimatecriminals,  

This is what sea level rise will do to coastal cities: Video

Searise is already redrawing coastlines around the world. What happens when the coast retreats through a major city? 

We look at how the world map will change in the year 2100, and what coastal cities can do to defend themselves. Correction: An early version of this video suggested that researchers expect to see four feet of sea level rise by the end of the century. While researchers do expect to see at least that level of sea level rise in the future, the exact timing is difficult to project. We regret the error. 

Read more here: http://bit.ly/2ZwP5Se 

Related: Sea Level Rise Effect on Mumbai of 1.5m rise

#searise, #cambio-climatico, #climateaction, #climatechange, #climateemergency, #jailclimatecriminals, 

We need action to prevent further catastophic fires and we need to be prepared for wildfires

There is no climate sceptic on the end of a fire hose. #jailclimatecriminals

Governments must prepare for catastrophic fires.
 
* Establishing services to support those ‘burned out’ and those who cannot insure

* rezoning areas unsuitable for building

* changing building regulations

* employing indigenous people to carry out controlled burning to reduce fuel loads as they have done for thousands of years

* increasing the numbers of professional firefighters, giving more support to volunteer firefighters and purchasing more aviation support are just small steps.

* increasing funding for bushfire research

* the most important action for governments is to cut carbon targets and to pressure other countries to do the same. Tariffs on carbon reckless countries, like the USA, Saudi Arabia, China and Australia are inevitable.

and

Koalas suffered greatly. #jailclimatecriminals

* funding air support.


" The main reason more prescribed burning has not been done is the risk the deliberately lit fires will get out of control and burn down property, or otherwise choke population areas with unhealthy amounts of smoke.

This risk has gone up with the drought, which has meant there are fewer days every year with low-risk fire conditions. It's also gone up with population levels, which has meant more people are affected by prescribed burning.

#climatecrisis, heatwaves  

"With many prescribed burns now conducted close to the expanding urban fringe and close to essential infrastructure and agriculture, the community tolerance levels are very low to heavy smoke and potential damage to delicate ecosystems," Dr Thornton says."

"....  Mr Bradstock described it as a "tired and old conspiracy theory" while Greg Mullins said ex-fire chiefs were annoyed that the fires were being used for political attack."

#bushfire,  #wildfire,  #jailclimatecriminals

"Greg Mullins (former NSW fire and rescue commissioner Greg Mullins) said climate change means it's often too dangerous to burn: "Extreme drought like this, underpinned by 20 years of reduced rainfall, has meant the window for hazard reduction is very narrow now."

He also said a long-term reduction in forestry and national parks personnel has meant hazard reduction has fallen to volunteers."

California fires 2020

How effective is hazard reduction?

Many bushfire experts want to see more hazard reduction, but they also say there's a danger in presenting prescribed burning and fuel management measures as a 'silver bullet solution' to the continent's increasing fire risk.

Some areas are suitable for prescribed burning, while others are not.

"The complexities around hazard reduction burning are large and growing," said Dr Richard Thornton, CEO of the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre."

https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/is-more-prescribed-burning-the-answer-to-bushfire-threat/11844766

#wildfire,  #bushfire,  #firefighters,  #climatecrisis

  "Australia faces a "nightmare scenario" of escalating and catastrophic natural disasters without urgent action on climate change, the bushfires royal commission has been told.

A group of 33 former fire and emergency services chiefs wants the royal commission to record as fact that climate change was the main driver of the extreme weather conditions behind Australia's unprecedented bushfire season.

"We think that this is a great opportunity for an authoritative body to spell out loud and clear that if it wasn't for climate change we would not have faced the bushfires that we did," former Fire and Rescue NSW commissioner Greg Mullins told AAP.

"That the science is very clear that we would not have had weather conditions like we did if it wasn't for a warming climate and the fires were driven by extreme weather."" The Canberra Times, May 24,2020

Catastrophic bushfires and catastrophic fire seasons will become a new normal due to the shortening of fuel reduction periods, increasing severe droughts and extreme temperatures. 

See also: Preparing for heatwaves
 

Related: California begins rolling blackouts as state faces worst heat in 70 years (excerpt): SMH

#jailclimatecriminals, #jail the climate criminals, #wildfire, #bushfires, #climateaction, #heatwaves, #drought, #firestorms, #Australia, #California, #cambio-climatico,