A guide to the 4th National Climate Assessment » Yale Climate Connections

The comprehensive report outlines how climate change could harm Americans.
As you most likely know, the 4th National Climate Assessment was released the day after Thanksgiving, and you’ve perhaps read at least a bit about it. Maybe you want to learn a little more – but aren’t sure where to start. Here are some ideas.

Texas National Guard soldiers aid residents in heavily flooded areas of Houston after Hurricane Harvey. Research indicates that climate change intensified Harvey’s floods. (Photo credit: Texas Army National Guard / 1st Lt. Zachary West)

A guide to the 4th National Climate Assessment » Yale Climate Connections

Extreme heatwave in Australia: catastrophic fire conditions as temperature records broken

120 F, 43.9 C

Marble Bar in WA reaches 49.3C as parts of SA and Victoria issued bushfire warning, and extreme weather forecast to continue into next week

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/28/australia-heatwave-brings-catastrophic-fire-conditions-as-temperature-records-broken

PFAS - an Extremely Dangerous Class of Chemicals in Michigan

From Merit Laboratories:
The number of sites with PFAS contamination in Michigan continues to grow.  The MDEQ has compiled a listing of these PFAS sites along with a map  that have been identified as having PFAS levels that are potentially impacting human health and the environment .  The sites, which are found at locations throughout Michigan, include:

Adams Plating (Lansing)
Alpena Combat Readiness Center (Alpena)
Alpena Hide and Leather (Alpena)
Ann Arbor Municipal Water Treatment Plant (Ann Arbor)
Belmont: House Street and Herrington Avenue (Rockford)
Camp Grayling Air Airfield (Grayling)
Central Sanitary Landfill (Pierson)
Coldwater Landfill (Flint)
Clinton River (Mt. Clemens)
Colbath Road (Oscoda)
Defense Fuel Supply Point (Escanaba)
Grayling Municipal Wells (Grayling)
Huron Shores Regional Water Authority (Tawas)
K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base (Gwinn)
Lake St. Clair (Mt. Clemens)
Lapeer Plating (Lapeer)
Lapeer Wastewater Treatment Plant (Lapeer)
Loud Drive (Oscoda)
McDonald Store Fire, F-41 (Oscoda)
Oscoda Area Schools, River Road (Oscoda)
Pine Lake Street Gas Tanker Spill/M-60 (Howard Township)
Plainfield Township Water Treatment Plant (Plainfield)
RACER Plants 2, 3, and 6 (Lansing)
Roosevelt Refinery (Mt. Pleasant)
State Disposal Facility (Plainfield)
Van Etten Lake (Oscoda)
Whispering Pines MHC (Oscoda)
Wolverine Tannery (Rockford)
Wurtsmith Air Force Base (Oscoda)

Michigan PFAS Sites

PFAS compounds have been used in the manufacturing of carpet, clothing, shoes, cookware, packaging, oil and water repellents, furniture, take-out food containers, and many additional products. PFAS chemicals are persistent and bioaccumulate. Persistent means they do not break down in the environment and bioaccumulate refers to the process of building up over time in the blood and organs.


Photo: MLive | Garret Ellison

https://pfasproject.com/2018/11/03/updated-all-known-pfas-sites-in-michigan/

Blocked report drops PFAS safety level into single digits
https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/06/atsdr_pfas_toxprofiles_study.html

In rare move, DEQ staff urge veto on weakened cleanup law

In rare move, DEQ staff urge veto on weakened cleanup law

LANSING, MI — Eighty-two staff members at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality have taken the highly rare step of publicly opposing lame duck legislation they say would only benefit polluters at the expense of citizens, and which has “no basis in the protection of health and the environment.”


Young's Environmental workers clean up a Wolverine World Wide dumpsite on MDOT property off House Street in Belmont on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017. Barrels containing tannery waste and animal hides were removed from the property. (Neil Blake | MLive)

https://www.mlive.com/news/2018/12/in-rare-move-deq-staff-urge-veto-on-weakened-cleanup-law.html

Drawdown

The most important book of our times:

Project Drawdown is the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming. We did not make or devise the plan—the plan exists and is being implemented worldwide. It has been difficult to envision this possibility because the focus is overwhelmingly on the impacts of climate change. We gathered a qualified and diverse group of researchers from around the world to identify, research, and model the 100 most substantive, existing solutions to address climate change. What was uncovered is a path forward that can roll back global greenhouse gas emissions within thirty years. The research revealed that humanity has the means and techniques at hand. Nothing new needs to be invented, yet many more solutions are coming due to purposeful human ingenuity. The solutions we modeled are in place and in action. Humanity’s task is to accelerate the knowledge and growth of what is possible as soon as possible.

Drawdown is a message grounded in science; it also is a testament to the growing stream of humanity who understands the enormity of the challenge we face, and is willing to devote their lives to a future of kindness, security, and regeneration. The young girl here is from the Borana Oromo people, who reside in the Nakuprat-Gotu Community Conservancy in northern Kenya. Her picture has been our talisman, calling us daily to the work that we do.

The solutions are available for download in Excel tables and PDF: https://www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank


The homepage is Drawdown

The entire book is available for the bargain price of  under US$ 15.00:

https://www.amazon.com/Drawdown-Comprehensive-Proposed-Reverse-Warming-dp-0143130447/dp/0143130447/

New NASA research: East Antarctica’s coast looses ice cover

New NASA research: A group of glaciers spanning one-eighth of East Antarctica’s coast have begun to lose ice over the past decade, hinting at widespread changes in the ocean.




A glacier in East Antarctica, as seen during an Operation IceBridge flight in November 2013. Credit: NASA/Michael Studinger



More glaciers in East Antarctica are waking up – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

Act on climate change to cut 'outrageous' pollution deaths - WHO | Zilient

KATOWICE, Poland, Dec 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Fighting climate change is one of the best ways to improve health around the world, and the benefits of fewer deaths and hospitalisations would far outweigh the costs of not acting, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

A woman covers her face during a period of fog and air pollution in Skopje, Macedonia December 04, 2018

REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski

Act on climate change to cut 'outrageous' pollution deaths - WHO | Zilient

Luxembourg to Be First Country to Offer Free Mass Transit

Free mass transportation helps to reduce car use, which in turn reduces air pollution. The United Nations’ Global Goals calls on countries to improve air quality both to lift health outcomes and mitigate climate change.




Luxembourg to Be First Country to Offer Free Mass Transit

Tell your State Representative: vote NO on SB 1211

Earlier today, the state Senate voted to pass Senate Bill 1211, the Wetlands Destruction Act, by a margin of 23-14. Now, the bill is headed to the state House, and we expect them to vote any day. SB 1211, also known as the Wetlands Destruction Act, would remove protections of 70,000 Michigan wetlands, or nearly half of the wetlands in each Michigan county.



Tell your State Representative: vote NO on SB 1211

Earlier, I wrote this to our Senator Dale W. Zorn, who was one of only 3 republican senators to vote against the bill.

Dear Senator Zorn

I am one of your constituents and I am deeply worried about Senator Tom Casperson's ((R-Escanaba), Tom Casperson) fast-track effort to cripple Michigan's wetland protection law, first enacted in 1974, by eliminating about
half of the state's wetlands from their legal protection, and making other detrimental changes to land/water regulations, and to pursue this during the Legislature's lame duck session.
Wetlands are not only the most threatened habitats according to the recent WWF report with wildlife populations declining by 80% since 1970 (https://wwf.panda.org/…/all_publ…/living_planet_report_2018/) - but they also sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gases (https://phys.org/…/2017-02-wetlands-vital-role-carbon-stora…) - and provide important ecosystem services like freshwater storage and cleaning, and flood remediation (http://wwf.panda.org/our_work/water/intro/value/). Wetlands are vital to our survival and need the protections that Senator Casperson intends to strip away – obviously without understanding the consequences. I hope you will vote against this assault and try to inform your colleagues about the facts. I will follow and publicly share your engagement in this matter with my colleagues and friends.

Please also consider the chapter on the Midwest from the recently published Fourth National Climate Assessment:

"Restoration of natural systems, increases in the use of green infrastructure, and targeted conservation efforts, especially of wetland systems, can help protect people and nature from climate change impacts.”

https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/…/NCA4_Ch21_Midwest_ExecSu…

Sincerely, Tom
------------------------------
Thomas Wassmer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biology
Siena Heights University

Get your entire electricity use from clean renewables without buying solar panels or wind turbines?

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What are Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)? – Arcadia Power Support Center

World Bank Group Announces $200 billion over Five Years for Climate Action

Funding for 2021-2025 includes a significant boost for adaptation and resilience



Washington DC - 3 December, 2018 --The World Bank Group today announced a major new set of climate targets for 2021-2025, doubling its current 5-year investments to around $200 billion in support for countries to take ambitious climate action. The new plan significantly boosts support for adaptation and resilience, recognizing mounting climate change impacts on lives and livelihoods, especially in the world’s poorest countries. The plan also represents significantly ramped up ambition from the World Bank Group, sending an important signal to the wider global community to do the same.

World Bank Group Announces $200 billion over Five Years for Climate Action

Emotional announcement by Kristalina Georgieva the CEO of the World Bank during the opening of the UM Climate Conference: https://youtu.be/ifpA25kzBD0?t=2791

'Continuation of civilisation is in your hands,' Attenborough tells world leaders - YouTube

The broadcaster David Attenborough told delegates at a UN climate summit: 'If we don't take action the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.' The naturalist was chosen to represent the world’s people at the summit in Poland.







A 2-minute cut of Sir David Attenborough's speech at the UN Climate Conference in Poland (COP24): 'Continuation of civilisation is in your hands,' Attenborough tells world leaders - YouTube

Full 8-minute of Sir David Attenborough's speech at the UN Climate Conference in Poland (COP24) with video summary of the "People's Seat" campaign:

https://www.facebook.com/unitednations/videos/296173354345932/

UN Take Climate Action and The People's Seat: 

http://www.un.org/en/climatechange/take-action.shtml

The Climate Action ActNow.bot

What Long Duration Energy Storage Is & Why It Kills Coal | CleanTechnica

Wow, talk about the Deep State in action. President* Trump promised to bring back all the coal jobs, but meanwhile the Department of Energy has been busily laying plans for next generation, long duration energy storage systems. That translates into more opportunities for bringing wind and solar power into the nation’s electricity grid, and that pretty much slams the door on the idea of reviving the nation’s coal power sector.



What Long Duration Energy Storage Is & Why It Kills Coal | CleanTechnica

Photovoltaic growth: reality versus projections of the International Energy Agency – with 2018 update (by Auke Hoekstra) | Steinbuch

Photovoltaic growth: reality versus projections of the International Energy Agency – with 2018 update (by Auke Hoekstra): the IEA once again predicts that global solar production capacity will decrease.

Why am I not surprised anymore?







Photovoltaic growth: reality versus projections of the International Energy Agency – with 2018 update (by Auke Hoekstra) | Steinbuch

Electrifying Industry (2018) - Beyond Zero Emissions

Manufacturers can replace fossil fuels with renewable electricity.  This eliminates up to 8% of Australian emissions. (My comment: This is most probably not unique for Australia...)


Electrifying Industry (2018) - Beyond Zero Emissions

The Game-Changing Promise of a Green New Deal

LIKE SO MANY others, I’ve been energized by the bold moral leadership coming from newly elected members of Congress like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley in the face of the spiraling climate crisis and the outrageous attacks on unarmed migrants at the border. It has me thinking about the crucial difference between leadership that acts and leadership that talks about acting.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks to activists with the Sunrise Movement protesting in the offices of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in Washington D.C., on Nov. 13, 2018. 

Photo: Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times via Redux

The Game-Changing Promise of a Green New Deal by Naomi Klein