Friday 29th of March 2024

making the planet great again...

saving the planet

Can two great tastes that taste great together combine their powers to save the world?

Following the controversial decision by the administration of US President Donald Trump to pull out of the Paris climate accords, newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron and The Terminator himself Arnold Schwarzenegger have teamed up to mitigate the US president's wildly unpopular move by "making the planet great again."

— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) June 23, 2017

In a branding gesture intentionally stolen from Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan, Macron and Schwarzenegger — using light-hearted humor and and an easy jest — announced plans to deliver a "green future" and address urgent "environmental issues" facing the planet.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/politics/201706261054966144-Schwarzenegger-and-M...

 

the price of saving nemo...

 

A new report has valued the Great Barrier Reef at $56bn and warns of vast economic consequences for Australia unless more is done to protect it.

The Deloitte Access Economics report says the world heritage-listed reef underpins 64,000 direct and indirect jobs, and contributes $6.4bn to the national economy each year.

But without ramped-up protection efforts, it warns much of that could be at risk as the reef suffers from repeated mass coral bleaching events, poor water quality and climate change.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/26/great-barrier-reef-v...

see also:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/business/environment/florid...

and other places where the Great Barrier Reef is mentioned on this site... including:

modern pestilence and kicking the rightful owners in the nuts...

 

 

the southern belle will become decrepit...

 

As the United States confronts global warming in the decades ahead, not all states will suffer equally. Maine may benefit from milder winters. Florida, by contrast, could face major losses, as deadly heat waves flare up in the summer and rising sea levels eat away at valuable coastal properties.

In a new study in the journal Science, researchers analyzed the economic harm that climate change could inflict on the United States in the coming century. They found that the impacts could prove highly unequal: states in the Northeast and West would fare relatively well, while parts of the Midwest and Southeast would be especially hard hit.

In all, the researchers estimate that the nation could face damages worth 0.7 percent of gross domestic product per year by the 2080s for every 1 degree Fahrenheit rise in global temperature. But that overall number obscures wide variations: The worst-hit counties — mainly in states that already have warm climates, like Arizona or Texas — could see losses worth 10 to 20 percent of G.D.P. or more if emissions continue to rise unchecked.

“The reason for that is fairly well understood: A rise in temperatures is a lot more damaging if you’re living in a place that’s already hot,” said Solomon Hsiang, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a lead author of the study.

“You see a similar pattern internationally, where countries in the tropics are more heavily impacted by climate change,” he said. “But this is the first study to show that same pattern of inequality in the United States.”

The greatest economic impact would come from a projected increase in heat wave deaths as temperatures soared, which is why states like Alabama and Georgia would face higher risks while the cooler Northeast would not. If communities do not take preventative measures, the projected increase in heat-related deaths by the end of this century would be roughly equivalent to the number of Americans killed annually in auto accidents.

Read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/29/climate/southern-states-worse-climate-effects.html

 

global warming has begun, expert told senate...

 

It's been 29 years since NASA's chief scientist, Dr. James Hansen, offered landmark testimony to the US Senate, explaining that scientists had determined with 99% certainty that record atmospheric warming since the 1950s "was not a natural variation but was caused by a buildup of carbon dioxide and other artificial gases in the atmosphere."

 

Of note in the Times coverage at the time — headlined "Global Warming Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate" — there was nobody quoted from the fossil fuel industry offering denial to the basic scientific facts about which Hansen and others testified that day, based on temperature records going back (at the time) 130 years, and finding that the first five months of that year had been the hottest on record. (The record temperatures that year don't even rate among the top 20 anymore.)

"It is time to stop waffling so much and say that the evidence is pretty strong that the greenhouse effect is here," Hansen told the paper after his 1988 testimony. "Global warming has reached a level such that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause and effect relationship between the greenhouse effect and observed warming,'' he testified to the Senators. ''It is already happening now.''

The panel of scientists warned that "If the current pace of the buildup of these gases continues, the effect is likely to be a warming of 3 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit from the year 2025 to 2050." They were pretty much exactly on target, so far, with those projections. Then Senator Timothy E. Wirth (D-CO), chair of the Committee, responded: "'As I read it, the scientific evidence is compelling: the global climate is changing as the earth's atmosphere gets warmer. Now, the Congress must begin to consider how we are going to slow or halt that warming trend and how we are going to cope with the changes that may already be inevitable."

In the 29 years since — particularly in the seven years since the Supreme Court's Citizen United opinion unleashed unlimited fossil fuel industry funds into our electoral process — Republicans (and some Democrats) have instead figured out how to "cope with the changes" by denying they exist at all, or pretending there is uncertainty about who is responsible for it.

But the science is very clear, even more now than than. (And it was even clear some 30 years prior to Hansen's 1988 testimony, as a clip from a 1958 television program, dug up by Desi Doyen and played in part on today's show, makes evident.) And yet, the President of the United States and his top lieutenants — among them EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Energy Secretary Rick Perry — have been taking to the airwaves of late to confuse the public with blatant misinformation to distract from the point that man is responsible for all of Earth's warming recorded since the 1950s.

Marking the 29th anniversary of Hansen's testimony, naturalist and author Tony Russell penned a very simple, very clear explanation — "Global Warming in a Nutshell" — of the very simple science and math behind global warming, how we know that man is responsible for the 48% increase of heat-trapping CO2 over the past 60 years (CO2 emitted by the burning of fossil fuels lacks a specific carbon isotope, so we can actually measure it!), and what we must do about it…and quickly. He joins us today to discuss that article, and the reasons he wrote it. "I have 9 grandchildren," he tells me, "so they are very much on my mind."

"In some ways, I'm starting to see our situation as desperate," he warns, explaining how it is that we know that disinformation from folks like Pruitt and Perry is simply, and demonstrably, wrong. "When you have warming in the pipeline, with CO2 hanging in the atmosphere that's going to continue to re-radiate heat for tens of thousands of years, and we keep adding new carbon dioxide to the mix, there's no way to stop it. We're loosing a runaway train."

Noting that natural sources, such as oceans and forests, have been able (at least up until recently) to absorb some 50% of the carbon we release, Russell explains: "If you want to stop adding to the CO2 in the atmosphere, then humans have to cut their emissions by 50% from current levels. The figures you see are usually on the order of cutting emissions by 20% by, say, the year 2025. Every year that you hold it at 20%, then 30% will go into the atmosphere. CO2 levels will keep on climbing, more long term warming will be locked in. It really is that simple."

We've covered climate quite a bit over the years on The BradCast and, of course, on our Green News Report. But sometimes it's important to go back to the basics on how stark the science and the reality of our dire situation now is.

On the same topic, speaking of US Senate testimony that's been too-much overlooked, as Dr. Joe Romm at Climate Progress notes this week, Sen. Al Franken (D) recently "set climate deniers' last strawman on fire" during an exchange last week with Sec. Perry, when the Minnesota Senator pointed out that even the Koch Brothers own climate scientist Richard Muller recently conceded that all of the recent warming in the atmosphere was due to our burning of fossil fuels. We play the remarkable exchange today in full.

Also today: Wildfires break out across the West (for some reason); Senate Republicans are having a difficult time getting to 50 votes on their legislation to repeal ObamaCare (at least without Democrats helping); And our small, bitter President unleashes an ugly, bitter, embarrassing and mostly just sad assault against journalist Mika Brzezinski, from atop his bully pulpit (pun intended)…

You can find Brad's previous editions here. And tune in to radio Sputnik five days a week.

We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/radio_the_bradcast/201706301055117207-the-scienc...

See also:

What is global warming?

 

 

germany breaks records...

The proportion of power produced by renewable energy in Germany has risen to 35 percent in the first half of 2017 from 33 percent last year, according to a BEE renewable energy association report.

Generation of green energy in the country has been rising steadily over the last two decades. That is partly due to the Renewable Energy Act which aims to cut renewable energy costs for consumers.

 

 

The 
BEE report shows the share of wind, hydro and solar power consumed in the electricity, heating and transport sectors climbed from 14.8 percent in the first half of last year to 15.2 percent in the same period in 2017.

Up to 85 percent of electricity comes from renewable sources on particularly sunny and windy days.

Germany's transition to renewables started in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2010. The government pledged to phase out nuclear power plants by 2022 and reduce CO2 emissions by 40 percent.

However, BEE claims the transition is slow and is still remote, and the reduction in carbon emissions will be 30 percent at most.

"It is only with a much greater commitment to the spread of renewable energy sources - for electricity as well as for heating and transport - that we will be able to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and reach the renewable energy targets demanded by the EU," BEE acting managing director Harald Uphoff was cited as saying by Deutsche Welle.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/business/395121-germany-record-renewable-energy/

 

Meanwhile our efforts in Australia are lamentable. And Turdy-shitty Tony, of the Catholic Mafia, would like to see those tumble down to even be more lamentable results, such as 15 percent by 2020... Come on, Aussies! We can do as good as — or better than — the Germans, can't we? Yes South Australia is doing fantastic at 45 per cent, but the federal government is doing all it can to be a killjoy on this score. Clean coal is a furphy.

 

See also:

What is global warming?

don't touch anything...

Coronavirus: Stars join the fight against Covid-19

Kim Kardashian, Naomi Campbell, Arnold Schwarzenegger and other celebrities have been out in force on social media sharing their tips for helping to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

From protective clothing to elbow greetings and the best songs to sing while washing your hands, they've been offering their suggestions on social media.

However, we strongly suggest you stick to government and World Health Organization guidelines (except maybe on song choice).

 

Read more/see more:

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-51913872/coronavirus-stars-join-the-fi...

 

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