Hot Air

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Something to keep in mind…


The climate crisis is the greatest and the most complex challenge

that Homo sapiens have ever faced.

We must change almost everything in our current societies.
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[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP3epWnwtdk&feature=youtu.be]
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The bigger your carbon footprint is, the bigger your moral duty.

The bigger your platform, the bigger your responsibility.
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Greta Thunberg
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ARE WE THERE YET

Are we there yet? No. We need to go faster. Faster? How much faster? Faster than the unraveling. Unraveling? Yes, it's accelerating. Accelerating? Yes, I just said that. It's accelerating. It's accelerating exponentially. At both ends and in the middle.

Climate Breakdown is accelerating at both of the poles and as the jet stream drunkenly wobbles north to south, pretty much everywhere. There may be time yet to do something. We need to accelerate our response to meet the challenge of Climate Breakdown. But to do this everyone must contribute to the level of their power and their previous negative impacts on the environment. Time is of the essence.

Five years of testing at sites across the Arctic tracked seasonal fluctuations and sources of climate pollutants that contributed to global warming and found that fossil fuels, not wild fires were the biggest source of Arctic black carbon.

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HOT AIR NEWS ROUNDUP

Pioneering Black Scientist to Win Nobel Prize of Climate Change
Nexus Media 2-13-19

Warren Washington can trace at least one of the origins of his extraordinary scientific career—more than half a century of groundbreaking advances in computer climate modeling—to a youthful curiosity about the color of egg yolks.

There is no Nobel Prize for climate change, the world's most pressing environmental problem. But if there were—and there is an ongoing campaign to establish one—Washington almost certainly would be on the short list. He will soon receive the next best thing, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, often referred to as the environmental Nobel.

Finally, We Have Some Good News About Those Lakes in The Arctic
Science Alert 2-13-19

[A new study] shows that not all Arctic lakes are receiving carbon at the same speed as the dramatically thawing thermokarsts.

"We found that not all high-latitude lakes are big chimneys of carbon to the atmosphere, and that lakes in the region are not actively processing much permafrost or plant carbon from land,"

‘Historic’ storm hurls huge waves and 191-mph winds at Hawaii; rare snow hits Maui
The Washington Post 2-11-19

“We tend to get a gust maybe to 150 mph once a winter or so, but never 191 mph.”

Wave heights approached 40 feet just north of Kauai on Sunday. The National Weather Service had hoisted a high surf warning Thursday in anticipation of the event. It warned of “giant disorganized waves” that “could cause unprecedented coastal flooding.

Major northeastern snowstorms expected to continue with climate change
NCR UCR 1-23-19

The study finds that smaller snowstorms that drop a few inches will diminish greatly in number by late century. But the most damaging types of storms along the Eastern Seaboard, which strike every few years or so and cause widespread disruption, will remain about as frequent in a warming world.

Long informative article...

Highly Unusual Upward Trends in Rapidly Intensifying Atlantic Hurricanes Blamed on Global Warming
Category 6 2-13-19

for the Atlantic, there was a significant increase in the proportion of 24-hour intensification rates greater than 30 knots (35 mph) between 1982 and 2009. The greatest change was seen for the strongest 5% of storms, whose intensification rates increased by 3 – 4 knots per decade.

Australia Debates a Climate Strategy
USA Today 2-13-19

A verdict rendered in a Sydney courtroom last Friday underscores how climate change and the past several months of weather catastrophes across Australia are influencing opinion across this country. On Feb. 8, an Australian court for the first time invoked climate change as a reason to reject a proposed coal mine.

Another article on the same court decision...

Australian Judge Strikes Down Coal Mine in Part Because of Its Carbon Emissions
Common Dreams 2-10-19

In what is likely to be the first of many such rulings, an Australian court has ruled against a coal mine in part on grounds of the environmental damage that burning coal does by contributing to the climate emergency. Burning coal releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, a powerful greenhouse gas that keeps the sun’s heat from escaping into space once it has struck the earth.

Paul Beckwith
Non-Intuitive Consequences of Rapid Melt in Greenland and Antarctica

Glaciers on Greenland and Antarctica are rapidly melting due to Abrupt Climate Change, and melt rates are doubling with a period of roughly 7 years. 
This is exponential, after:

• 7 years melt rates are double (2x), after 14 years rates are 4x, after 21 years rates are 8x, etc.

In this video and the next I, discuss consequences that are rarely considered, like

• reduced gravitational pull near the glaciers, isostatic rebound, and reduction of vertical ocean mixing from surface freshwater lensing effects, leading to: increased basal ice sheet melting.

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Part 1
[video:https://youtu.be/L4WOBFzVck4]
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Part 2
[video:href="https://youtu.be/SA1y73Dje4U]
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Bank of America:  Oil Demand Growth to Hit Zero Within a Decade, EVs the Culprit
Climate Change News 2-8-19

According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the annual increase in global oil consumption slows dramatically in the years ahead.  By 2024 demand growth halves, falling to just 0.6 million barrels per day (mb/d), down from 1.2 mb/d this year.

But by 2030, demand growth zeros out as consumption hits a permanent peak, before falling

The End of Ice: Dahr Jamail on Climate Disruption from the Melting Himalayas to Insect Extinction
Democracy Now 2-12-19

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOLTclfqwjM]
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Norway's Arctic islands at risk of 'devastating' warming: report
Reuters 2-4-19

Icy Arctic islands north of Norway are warming faster than almost anywhere on Earth and more avalanches, rain and mud may cause “devastating” changes by 2100, a Norwegian report said on Monday.

This Is the Green New Deal’s Biggest Problem
Mother Jones 2-11-19

The Green New Deal is ostensibly a jobs program, an environmental program, and a redistributive program. If it’s a jobs program, it must wrangle with spatial mismatch. If it’s an environmental program, it must tackle the fact that an all-electric fleet of cars is functionally, at this time, a pipe dream. And if it’s a redistributive program, it must grapple with how roads paved into suburban and exurban greenfield developments deepen, expand, and exacerbate segregation.

This is an extremely nerdy video but it is worth watching if you can persevere…

Shocking! Ice to the south of Novaya Zemlya is breaking up - IN WINTER!!
Seemorerocks 2-8-19

[video:https://youtu.be/KcvYM_chaac]
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Maybe not! They say a decrease in emission is not inconsistent with increased fossil fuel production…

Chevron Aligns Strategy With Paris Deal But Won't Cap Output
Bloomberg 2-7-19

Even under the most aggressive climate scenarios, oil and natural gas will still underpin almost half of the world’s energy needs through 2040 and will require substantial new investment, Chevron said. The company’s oil production of 2.93 million barrels a day last year was a record and it expects as much as 7 percent growth this year.

“A decrease in overall fossil fuel emissions is not inconsistent with continued or increased fossil fuel production by the most efficient producers,” the company said. “Our strategy is to be among the most efficient producers.”

TVA Wants to Close a Costly, Unreliable Coal Plant.  Trump and Kentucky Politicians Are Fighting It.
Climate Change News 2-13-19

The U.S. president has joined Kentucky's governor and the coal state's U.S. senators in trying to pressure the Tennessee Valley Authority to keep a 49-year-old coal-fired power plant operating, even though the nation's largest public electric utility has concluded that the plant is unreliable, no longer needed, and too expensive to repair and operate.

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PROTESTS • EXTINCTION REBELLION • RESISTANCE

Fridays For Future

Tomorrow, Friday the 15th will be a big day of Climate Breakdown protests. Many will be led by young women. There are numerous articles about this on the news. Read and be inspired…

A Huge Climate Change Movement Led By Teenage Girls Is Sweeping Europe. And It’s Coming To The US Next.
Buzz Feed 2-7-19

“We, as women leaders, have been pushed aside by men. We were told we can only be leaders [on women’s issues],” she said. Van der Heyden said that when she sees boys in the crowd shouting her daughter’s name at the rallies, “Every time I’m moved to tears.”
“The whole mansplaining mechanism has really disappeared in that generation,” she said.

Teen Girls Are Leading a Wave of Climate Activism in Europe and, Now, the US
Yahoo News 2-1-19

Jamie Margolin, the 17-year-old founder and executive director of Zero Hour — a youth-led climate action organization — told BuzzFeed News that she’s been working on a mass protest set to take place March 15, 2019, across the US. Margolin also said that climate activism is giving women a new voice.

Fury as headteachers BACK pupil strike that will see thousands of schoolchildren walk out of lessons next week in a protest over climate change
Daily Mail 2-10-19

A nationwide school strike over climate change has been 'applauded' by the head teachers' union, leaving many furious. The mass walkout called UK Youth Strike 4 Climate currently has students in 38 cities and towns across the country planning to join them on Friday's protest. It is expected thousands of pupils from places including Cardiff, Brighton, Exeter and Glasgow will down their books for three hours, reports the Sunday Express.

Why are Thousands of Students Striking From School?
Vice 2-12-19

All around the world students are ditching school to demand action on climate change. They know that we are facing a climate emergency, time is running out. i-D spoke to 8 youth activists from all over the globe, about why they're taking drastic action.

School climate strike children’s brave stand has our support
The Guardian 2-14-19

We are inspired that our children, spurred on by the noble actions of Greta Thunberg and other striking students, are making their voices heard, say 224 academics

We, the undersigned academics, stand in solidarity with the children going on school climate strike on 15 February, and with all those taking a stand for the future of the planet.

Thousands of British Students Will Join Friday's Global School Walkout Against Climate Change
Global Citizen 2-15-19

Now, the UK will now join the fray, with plans in place for Friday’s preliminary demonstration to build towards the global strike, too. The Independent reports that children as young as 5 years old will be leaving lessons to join the marches.

‘Why we’re walking out of school to save our world’
Socialist Worker 2-12-19

Walkouts were set to hit schools across Britain this Friday as students strike for climate justice. Action was planned in at least 38 towns and cities from Fort William to Swansea. It’s part of the worldwide #FridaysForFuture protests that have seen students organise walkouts to demand urgent action on climate change.

Because Society 'Leaps Forward' When People Take Action, UK Headteachers Union Backs Student #ClimateStrike
Common Dreams 2-12-19

As students across the United Kingdom prepare to join the global "climate strike" movement later this week by walking out of class, the nation's union of headteachers—representing principals, headmasters, and other school leaders—has endorsed the coordinated actions as a demonstration to be "applauded."

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Greta Thunberg

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Extinction Rebellion
JOIN EX USA: on their website

Recap: Protesters SUPERGLUE themselves to benches in Gloucestershire County Council budget meeting
Gloucestershire Live 2-13-19

Councillors left the chamber, police were called and the lights were turned off.
The meeting was suspended for about an hour, with police eventually using cola to unstick the protesters from the public gallery.

Local Democracy Reporter Ligh Boobyer is covering the meeting, and said: "Climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion have halted the meeting against the council’s planning on air pollution.

Excellent article…

Extinction Rebellion actions in London
Independent Catholic News 2-11-19

There is a vitally important debate which is suppressed worldwide by a combination of business, mainstream media and politicians of almost all parties. I am speaking about the relationship between the global market economy and the destruction of the Earth, a destruction which includes climate breakdown. According to research by the World Wide Fund for Nature (1), we humans are now using the Earth as though we have access to 1.7 Earths.

Extinction Rebellion to "swarm" London Fashion Week
Morning Star 2-12-19

The industry “has the potential to transform itself to be a cultural and creative force that stops the trend of excessive consumption,” the letter said.
XR co-founder and fashion designer Clare Farrell said thought leaders and creators of culture need to be held accountable.

Good commentary…

Extinction Rebellion Is Calling You To Join The Nonviolent Civil Disobedience
Clean Technica 2-12-19

I’ve been watching news of Extinction Rebellion’s actions, disrupting 15 cities across the UK. The pictures of people taking up public space with die-ins, mock funerals, road-blocks, spray painting the facades of institutions that slow down climate action, even the symbolic planting of trees in otherwise neat British greens,

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ADAPTION AND RESILIENCE

Ørsted Partners with Eversource on Northeast Offshore Wind
Climate Change News 2-13-19

Danish wind energy developer Ørsted announced late last week that it was entering into a partnership with New England’s largest energy company, Eversource, to develop key offshore wind assets in the Northeast of the United States, including two named offshore wind farms and two undeveloped New England lease areas.

Beyond Drought: 7 States Rebalance Their Colorado River Use as Global Warming Dries the Region
Inside Climate News 2-1-19

On Thursday night, Arizona joined other states that share the river basin in agreeing to voluntary water conservation plans. Its legislature approved a plan that helps balance the state's competing water rights with of those of California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, along with Native American tribes and Mexico. The states faced a Jan. 31 deadline for completing interstate contingency plans on water rights; without them, federal officials could order mandatory cuts later this year. Only a California water district had yet to agree.

Michigan's New Governor Puts Climate Change at Heart of Government
Inside Climate News 2-5-19

Whitmer is creating a new office of climate and energy that will coordinate efforts across state government to address climate change and will ensure that climate change is a consideration in the vetting of new policies.
She also signed an order to join the U.S. Climate Alliance, a group of governors who commit to upholding the principles of the Paris climate agreement. Michigan is the 20th governor to join.

In Afghanistan, Bhutan and Nepal, Off-Grid Renewables Bring Power to Remote Villages
World Resources Institute 2-6-19

Around 1 billion people worldwide do not have access to electricity, with a majority living in rural areas. Given that electricity is essential for economic development, education, health and poverty alleviation, efforts to expand access around the world are critical.

From mountain villages in Afghanistan and Bhutan to settlements perched on steep slopes in Nepal, small-scale solar and hydropower are bringing electricity to more and more communities.

Swedish shipping industry prepares to go fossil-free by 2045
Climate Home News 2-12-19

The Swedish Shipowners’ Association is developing a roadmap to net zero greenhouse gas emissions in partnership with Fossil-free Sweden, a government initiative.

China-made electric pickup could be yours for $5K
The Detroit News 1-28-19 h/t lookout

The company is trying to win over cost-conscious buyers with stuff to haul and no need for a larger pickup such as Ford Motor Co.’s F-150, America’s best-selling model. The Pickman, with a top speed of 28 miles per hour, is suitable for farm owners, factory employees moving loads at their work sites, and commuters, Wang said.

Next-generation, wind-powered ocean drone to be launched from Newport Shipyard
The U of Rhode Island 1-30-19 h/t QMS

“NOAA designed an ingenious, self-calibrating sensor that has been incredibly successful at measuring the seawater concentration of carbon dioxide from the hull of the Saildrone,” said Palter. “Another sensor on top of the drone measures carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Knowing the difference between the atmospheric and oceanic concentrations, along with the wind speed, also measured aboard the Saildrone, allows us to calculate the exchange of this gas between the ocean and atmosphere.”

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WILDLIFE & THE ENVIRONMENT

Climate change may destroy tiger's home
Science Daily 2-11-19

A scientist says the last coastal stronghold of an iconic predator, the endangered Bengal tiger, could be destroyed by climate change and rising sea levels over the next 50 years.

More bad news about insects…

Why are insects in decline, and can we do anything about it?
The Guardian 2-10-19

By some measures, the biodiversity crisis is even deeper than that of climate change. Since the dawn of civilisation, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals. In the last 50 years alone, the populations of all mammals, birds, reptiles and fish have fallen by an average of 60%.

How about insects?

The new global review says it’s even worse for bugs, with the proportion of insect species declining being double that for vertebrates.

Plummeting insect numbers 'threaten collapse of nature'
The Guardian 2-10-19

More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5% a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.

A long interesting editorial worth reading…
The Guardian view on the mass death of insects: this threatens us all
The Guardian 2-11-19

The chief driver of this catastrophe is unchecked human greed. For all our individual and even collective cleverness, we behave as a species with as little foresight as a colony of nematode worms that will consume everything it can reach until all is gone and it dies off naturally. The challenge of behaving more intelligently than creatures that have no brain at all will not be easy.

What polar bears in a Russian apartment block reveal about the climate crisis
The Guardian 2-11-19

In this small town in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, authorities have declared a state of emergency (a reasonable precaution after spotting an unprecedented 52 polar bears). Fences have been erected around school playgrounds and locals have tried to drive them away with warning shots and explosions. All to no avail. Many residents are afraid to leave their homes. Workers are reportedly being bused to their offices in military vehicles.

Their chips are down: New Zealand seagulls under threat after 'unbelievable declines'
The Guardian 2-13-19

The threats against seagulls are three-fold. Plunging fish stocks due to changing marine conditions and intensive fishing have meant less food for chicks. Coastal grounds converted to livestock and agriculture has threatened their natural breeding grounds, and introduced pests such as stoats and rats eating their young has further decimated an already vulnerable population.

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CLIMATE STUDIES

New Discovery Boosts Performance of Perovskite-based Solar Cells
Green Optimistic 2-12-19

Perovskite-based solar cells are very attractive. They are quite cheap to produce. Their flexibility allows for a wide range of cool devices or installation methods. And last but not least, their efficiency is getting closer and closer to silicon-based cells

[The team] discovered that adding alkali metals, such as cesium and rubidium, to a mixed bromine and iodine lead perovskite, improves the performance and stability of the solar cells. The reason why this special chemical cocktail works, is because when adding cesium and rubidium, bromine and iodine mix together better. This improves the conversion efficiency, and makes the solar cells operate at their best.

Atlantic Hurricanes Are Becoming Stronger Faster, Largely Due to Climate Change
Climate Change News 2-9-19

It took Hurricane Michael just 24 hours to intensify from a Category 1 storm to a Category 4 before slamming into Florida’s Gulf Coast last October.  Similarly, Hurricane Harvey in 2017 went from a Category 2 to a Category 4 in less than a day.  This trend of rapid intensification is becoming more common among tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean, largely due to climate change.

Another new study on disappearing glaciers…
Ice volume calculated anew
Science Daily 2-122-19

Researchers have provided a new estimate for the glacier ice volume all around the world, excluding the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Their conclusion: previous calculations overestimated the volume of the glaciers in High Mountain Asia.

Motherboard 2-12-19

Both the IPPR report and the GND resolution frame progressive social and economic goals as an essential part of environmental policy. They also reverse a long tradition of shaping environmental policy to reflect what is feasible for the economy by instead suggesting that economic policy should be shaped based on what is feasible for the environment.

Recent increases in tropical cyclone intensification rates
Nature Communications 2-7-19

Our results suggest a detectable increase of Atlantic intensification rates with a positive contribution from anthropogenic forcing and reveal a need for more reliable data before detecting a robust trend at the global scale.

Drought, deluge turned stable landslide into disaster
NASA 2-7-19

"Stable landslide" sounds like a contradiction in terms, but there are indeed places on Earth where land has been creeping downhill slowly, stably and harmlessly for as long as a century. But stability doesn't necessarily last forever. For the first time, researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and collaborating institutions have documented the transition of a stable, slow-moving landslide into catastrophic collapse, showing how drought and extreme rains likely destabilized the slide.

Interesting article…

America colonisation ‘cooled Earth's climate’
BBC News 1-31-19 h/t smiley

"The Great Dying of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas led to the abandonment of enough cleared land that the resulting terrestrial carbon uptake had a detectable impact on both atmospheric CO₂ and global surface air temperatures,"

Study: Climate change reshaping how heat moves around globe
EurekAlert! 1-28-19

This is the first study to examine current changes in heat transfer and to conclude that warming temperatures are driving increased heat transfer in the atmosphere, which is compensated by a reduced heat transfer in the ocean. Additionally, the researchers concluded that the excess oceanic heat is trapped in the Southern Ocean around the Antarctic.

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Equivalencies:
• 1 gigatonne = 1 billion tons
• 1 gigatonne Carbon = 3.67 gigatonnes CO2
• 1 part per million (ppm) of atmospheric CO2 = 7.81 gigatonnes CO2
• 1 part per million of atmospheric carbon = 2.13 gigatonnes of carbon

Global Warnings

QMS: Time to disconnect greed from the welfare of earth, if survival means anything. I like trees.

Paul Beckwith: "I declare a global climate change emergency to claw back up the rock face to attempt to regain system stability, or face an untenable calamity of biblical proportions."

Kevin Hester: "There is no past analogue for the rapidity of what we are baring witness to. There has been a flood of articles ... 2C is no longer attainable and that we are heading for dangerous climate change"

Guy McPherson: "The recent and near-future rises in temperature are occurring and will occur at least an order of magnitude faster than the worst of all prior Mass Extinctions. Habitat for human animals is disappearing throughout the world, and abrupt climate change has barely begun."

Magi Amma: We need to turn on a dime at mach nine!

Enjoy!
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magiamma's picture

love and solidarity
resilience and unity
we are the world
wide web

all beings together
one.
packaged.
breathing.
being.
Gaia
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[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx17RvPMaQ8&index=19&list=RDde4bBIBrabw]

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

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I'm not up to reading about how everything is going wrong just now. I do though appreciate all your work here and putting together this information for us. The impending insect collapse is horrific, but I have been putting off reading about it, I just can't do it.
The activism of the students and teen girls is magnificent. That is so wonderful. It's the very best. It needs to be front page news, all the time, every day. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Best to you magiamma and TY again. Smile

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magiamma's picture

@randtntx
good morning and thank you. yes it's really happening and we all have to take care as we can. but not heads in the sand either. eyes wide open. so, good news about the young ones. traction. thanks so much for your good thoughts and the music.

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way less time than most scientists are willing to say, to avoid mass panic? I guess.
But we Should.be panicking.

Thanks(?) for the news, magiamma, even if very little of it is good. I mention the loss of insects and invariably the response is ‘Good!’.
People don’t realize just how devastating this will be.
Until they go hungry soon. Sad.

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

magiamma's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly
the time left seems to be getting shorter, or maybe we are really getting what is happening as we ride up on the exponential curve. I certainly am panicking. dayam.

do not know what will happen when the reality hits 'the masses'. good question.

the good news is the kids. and the adults are following. tomorrow should be interesting. one can hope.

cannot believe that people do not make connection between loss of insects and the rest of the ecosystem. Well, p t barnum...

your very welcome(?) heh

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Huh, that explains the bumpy runways. One of my gf's tasks when she was down there was to snowmobile patrol the runways... to check for penguins and stuff. lol If she saw them she'd have to call a special team and the C-130 circled until they were shooed away by the professional shoo-awayers. I love scientists, thanks for Paul Beckwith. Thanks a lot.
Seal Sounds from Encounters at the End of the World

goin' down to the cathedral right on
Encounters At The End of the World- Holy Diver

I didn't go back in the vid to check Paul's carbon map linky, but tripped over this one instead:
http://www.carbonmap.org/

Q. Should I share this site with everyone I know?
A. Doh! Yes, of course you should.

well arlrighty then

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magiamma's picture

@eyo
under the ice the divers find themselves in another reality... dynamite...whoa! too cool...love the videos and the sounds from under the ice... my cat charlie was fascinated...
lol

thanks ::)

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much-appreciated. They are indeed inspiring every week, but I do love news of Fridays for the Future.

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magiamma's picture

@HenryAWallace
thank you so much. prodigious is not a word I would have connected with this - it made me smile. thanks for stopping by

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Lookout's picture

...when you connect all the dots and look at what’s happening across the planet, against the backdrop of this really pathetic government response on any—in any way that’s coming close to what has to happen to actually mitigate this crisis. I mean, we all know it’s—the cat’s out of the bag on the fact we’re not going to stop it. The only question is: Are we going to be able to mitigate it?

And, you know, the best science now shows that even if we stopped all fossil fuel emissions today, and everything—you know, all governments started to react accordingly, most likely we have a minimum of 3 degrees C warming that’s already baked into the system. And so, hold that up against how governments are reacting. I mean, we should be having global, coordinated response on a dramatically emergency level. And instead, it’s business as usual in at least the leading countries—you know, the U.S., China, India and Russia, the leading greenhouse gas-emitting countries on the planet. And instead of going into an emergency response and mandated CO2 emission cuts and getting off fossil fuels as rapidly as possible, they’re just stomping on the gas and pretending like we can keep kicking this can down the road.

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/2/12/the_end_of_ice_dahr_jamail

Thanks for keeping this on the front burner (so to speak).

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

magiamma's picture

@Lookout @Lookout
thanks as always for all the news your bring. front-burners-r-us. dahr jamail's quote says it so well. can we mitigate. that's where we are at now. Above and beyond cutting emissions. the kids get it. that's our hope. edit

take good care and have a great one

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Great stuff magi. Striking students worldwide making the elders pay attention. Bringing awareness to the future. Not forming another procrastination committee to consider more policy study . Doing something. Now. Freaking brilliant. Watching a growing movement, scaring extractors and influencing opinions. That's the ticket.

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magiamma's picture

@QMS the kids get it. people will do things for their kids, their families. that's the where the sea change is coming and none to soon. tomorrow is supposed to be a big day even in the us. keep thinking those good thoughts. have a best one...

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seems to have some interesting information regarding food; https://www.cornucopia.org/

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magiamma's picture

@randtntx
promoting economic justice for family scale farming. great site. beautiful music. thank you.

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smiley7's picture

parks. Bill sets aside more than 1m acres of new wilderness and conservation areas including rivers in California and Utah. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/13/senate-bill-public-l...

I think this is good news, i didn't know this was in the pipeline nor have i had time to research the article and bill; but on it's face, yeah. How did this pass?

More from the article: "Joshua Tree and Death Valley national parks are to be enlarged, and stunning river landscapes in California and Utah will be protected, under new legislation that passed the US Senate on Tuesday.

[...]

"The Natural Resources Management Act passed 92-8 in the Republican-controlled Senate, a notable bipartisan effort in an administration marked by conservation rollbacks. Since Donald Trump took office, his administration has shrunk national monuments and put large swaths of land up for oil, gas and mining leases, including on the doorsteps of national monuments, parks and wilderness areas. The bill will go to the Democrat-controlled House next, where it’s likely to pass, and then to the president’s desk."

Hey, thanks again for the wonderful series of artists and as usual for this jam-packed Hot Air.

Hoping you've a good day.

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@smiley7 good morning and thanks for that info. I think maybe the CZMA could be a wrench in the monkey works, so to speak. States rules come first.
State Federal Consistency Lists

State federal consistency lists identify the federal agency, federal license or permit, and federal financial assistance activities that are subject to federal consistency review if the activities occur within a state’s coastal zone pursuant to the applicable subparts of NOAA’s regulations at 15 C.F.R. part 930. While the state federal consistency lists will be updated as they change, each applicable state should be contacted for the most recent version approved by NOAA.

Here is the PDF to California - CCC
which made chuckle, because it covers every single thing that touches the coast, including rivers. LOL so good luck getting permits. Getting rid of lobbyists would make life so much easier, and better I think.

Happy VD
I am going to make a heart cake today in my little Black & Decker Toast R Oven. haha! good times

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smiley7's picture

@eyo
some roses to go with the cake

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magiamma's picture

@smiley7
That is good news. Wonder what will happen when it reaches the 'desk'. we just have to move on and forward regardless. Thanks for all the news your bring. Take good care and have a great one...

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enhydra lutris's picture

Chevron will continue to increase output, they are extractive. They get a lot of free or essentially free oil but it is in the ground. They have to get it out and get it burnt now or it will go to waste, all that beautiful revenue, there for the taking, passed over. That can't be allowed to happen now, what would the shareholders say?

OK, show of hands, who remembers scary, scary

PEAK OIL !!

?

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

magiamma's picture

@enhydra lutris I see no hands. nothing to see here. nada. sigh.

have to take back what I said about the weather. some flooding and mud slides on 17. at least the ones they put in are holding with this massive amount of rain. and more coming. I love windy app.

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enhydra lutris's picture

Image from page 170 of "Smith & Winchester illustrated catalogue : of steel, iron and wood wind engines, wood, iron, brass and copper pumps, artesian well tools and supplies, steam boilers and engines, steam pumps, wrought iron pipe and fittings, brass go

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

magiamma's picture

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Lily O Lady's picture

even watch a nature program. My hair has been on fire regarding climate change and other environmental issues for so long that I’m hypersensitive about them.

The first Earth Day was declared my senior year in high school and I expected great things. I guess the EPA was a start. They cleaned up the Potomac River, which was so polluted when we first moved to the DC area that there were signs warning people not to come in contact with the water.

But the EPA notwithstanding, things have gone downhill since the late 70s as corporate America gradually acquired the levers of power. I was hoping President Gore would see to it that climate change was faced, but we know how that turned out.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

magiamma's picture

@Lily O Lady
Smile lol - laughing out loud. very cool.

yes, it is hard. very hard to know how dire it is. I dove in in the early '90s and thought by the late 90s, when so many people were talking about it, that something would happen. sigh. Kevin Hester says we should not have our "heads in the sand". it's a rock and a hard space. bc what can one person do. my thought is that the more people that are aware of the breakdown the better chance of change. though, having said that, it is gonna be a hard row to hoe, imho. people will do a lot for their families though. so, maybe the kids can make change happen. that is the only way I see to having a sea change. I also like lookout's idea of a money boycott. it could work if everyone participated. as I type we are in the middle of a tropical storm from Hawaii with constant winds of 25 mph. gusts to 35-40. this is the new normal apparently. or maybe the climate is just breaking down even faster. thanks for checking in. have a great one...

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@magiamma

are migrating. Apparently some Red Wing Blackbirds found some insects to eat in our lawn as we don’t poison it, but I worry that there won’t be enough food for their offspring due to the collapse of insect populations.

Sorry your weather is so lousy. Ours is much nicer, which is more than my right wing neighbors deserve.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

dystopian's picture

I like to make the point for folks, there is no such thing as a seagull, except with poetic license. The Larids (family Laridae) which make up the gulls, are gulls. None are called seagull. There are several dozens of species of gulls found around the world, about 3 doz. in the New World, a couple dozen in North America. Some live inland in freshwater of course. Only a couple are truly pelagic and live at sea for much of their lives. The threats are against gulls, not seagulls. While it is good to see the Guardian bringing attention to various birds' fate, if they used their correct proper name it would help instead of promoting a misnomer.

"Their chips are down: New Zealand seagulls under threat after 'unbelievable declines'
The Guardian 2-13-19 The threats against seagulls are three-fold

P.S. GREAT work magi! Thanks!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

@dystopian
scientists own the language, that there certainly are such things as "seagulls", because that is what people who speak English call those birds. the technical vocabulary of the taxonomists does not overrule the usage of the proper masters of the language. for a scientist to say that "shellfish are not actually fish" is simply nonsense. if shellfish weren't "fish" they wouldn't be called "shellfish". but they are. the decisions of a relative handful of specialists to seize for their own purposes certain words, particularizing those words according the specialists' needs and/or whimsies, are of no significance or consequence outside of those specialists' proper domains.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

dystopian's picture

@UntimelyRippd You can call them seagulls if you want. People call Nighthawks, bullbats. It does not make it right or correct. It does mean there is such a thing as a bullbat.

I would say that the editors at a major media outlet such as the Guardian with all the wildlife/nature coverage they have, writing an 'sciency' article (albeit pop) ought to know better than using a poetic term for a bird. They ought to use and promote the usage of the proper name for the animal. Seagull is a poetic term, or a colloquial name, and one of literary license. It is not proper name, the common name as it is known, of any animal.
Calling it that does not make it that.

The article uses it as not just poetic literary license allows as in "Squawking, chip-stealing seagulls" ... reflecting incredible ignorance of gulls, but as if it is the COMMON NAME of the bird: "the native red-billed seagull", which is journalistic malpractice. There is no animal called Red-billed Seagull. Check the IUCN or any list of animals in the world. There are four major ornithological taxonomies out there. There are no seagulls. There is a Red-billed Gull. This is where the misuse leads. To more and worse misuse. There are hundreds of sources for the correct name of the animal, this is an unresearched butcherjob appealing to the lowest common dumbinator.

You can call them hummingbirds or eagles, whatever suits you. I don't care. If you want to know what they really are, maybe I can help. I can age them with one eye closed at a hundred yards. If you don't care that's ok too. Calling an animal by its correct proper name is not seizing it for ones own purposes or whimsy, but to communicate with others more correctly, and succinctly about any particular animal. You can call it a tree rat if you want, more people will understand squirrel though.

You can use buzzards for vultures, redbirds for cardinals, robin redbreast for Robins, or seagulls, for various birds you see, I don't care. I am glad you notice them. Some people though like to know the actual real true names of things. It is not technical taxonomy, it is called the 'Common Name'. Common because it is common, not just the realm of a few specialized taxonimists as you mischaracterize it, as if it were binomials we are talking about.

I knew there was no animal named seagull at age 5, long before I was anything mistakable for scientist or specialist. Considering that bird watching for instance is considered one of the most popular hobbies in the UK or in America, where the U.S. Fish & Wildlife studies
measures the number of birders in the U.S. by the tens of millions, to characterize the knowledge of gull vs.seagull as that of specialists is far from accurate. Depends what circles one runs in. Tens of millions of copies of bird field guides have sold in the U.S. All those people are not a few specialist taxonomists using technical vocabulary. They are mostly regular people that are interested in birds enough to want to know what they are actually called. Hopefully none will ever need to be listed as endangered because listing them as 'seagull' is not an option and won't save them. You can bet any legal document in New Zealand regarding protection of the species in the article calls it a Red-billed Gull, not a Red-billed Seagull as the article does. Any legal document would be thrown out as the Guardian published its name.

Some people like to help inform others so they know more and better what to call something. Most generally appreciate knowing what the real true correct named of animals are. Others resent it. Lots of people use buzzard for Vultures in the Americas, that is fine. It does not make it correct. There are no buzzards in the New World, but if you want to call them that, great. When you are around people that know what they are, you might not want to pretend you know all about the buzzards. I am glad you notice them, and hope you think about them, what you call an animal is not that important. Unless you want or have to say save one. Then you have to actually know what it really is, instead of just slinging slang at it.

If you went on a field trip with your local Audubon Society and pointed and said 'seagull', I can assure you a gaggle of grandmas for gulls would set you straight. Wink

There are often dozens of names for the same animal. Using the right and correct (the Common Name) name helps us communicate more effectively. Note the fairly succesful (in lots of general public circles) change from calling starfish, to sea stars, and jellyfish to jellies in the last decade to two. Much better since they are not fish. Killer Whales to Orca in the last 30 years. Also great, since they are dolphins, not whales. I think it is helpful to educate people about what things really are correctly called and why. Because it does help if we are on the same page, and that our names are not misleading.

We only protect and save what we love.
We only love what we know.
The first step to know something is to put a name on it.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

@dystopian
The taxonomists and the zoologists do not get to decide what anything is called, outside of their own technical domain for their own technical purposes. Those birds that English-speaking people call, "seagulls"? Those are animals. And they are called seagulls. They are animals called seagulls. They just don't happen to be called seagulls by ornithologists. The fact that ornithologists do not choose to set aside any particular species of bird, or group of species of birds, and assign to them a technical name of "seagull" doesn't mean that there are no animals called seagulls; rather, it only means that there are no animals that ornithologists call seagulls. Ornithologists don't get to tell the rest of us the "correct" or "true" name of anything. They only get to tell us that this or that is the ornithologists' name for this thing or that thing. Their language is theirs, not ours, and their names are theirs, not ours. The rest of us are free to name things as we have always done, as we did since long before there existed an institutional ornithology capable of dictating within itself what to call what.

Really: By what authority, precisely, do you believe that specialists come by the right, not merely to adopt for their own use and convenience their particular definitions, but to imperiously impose those definitions on the actual owners of the language, possibly overriding definitions that may predate the specialists -- and even their specialty -- by centuries? Let them do what they will with their own language in their own milieu, but they enjoy no authority over me or anyone else who knows better than to be intellectually bullied by people who have mistaken their specialization for revelation.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

dystopian's picture

@UntimelyRippd A couple points...

What people call something and what its name is, is often two different things. You can call that animal a pussycat. That does not make it the name of that animal. You can call
those things over there river horses, I use hippopotamus. You can call those seagulls, but that is not their name. There is no animal with the name seagull or pussycat, despite lots of people calling those animals that. You can call anything anything you like. That does not make it the name of the animal.

Niether you or I get to name them, they have names already. That is the work of taxonomists. Regular people like us use their work to know the names of things. Cat, dog, elephant, gull, etc. You can call them seagulls. But if you say the name of those birds is seagull, you are wrong. And then you are the one seizing authority you don't have. You can call them flying dumspter rats or anything you like. You should not say seagull is the name of that animal. Since it is false and incorrect. And now you know better. Ask any birder there are millions of them in America. U.S. F. & W. says tens of millions.

Second this is not the realm of scientists, and taxonomists. Again, there are millions of birders in America. There are 10 million bird field guides being toted around in America
by every kind of person from grannies to high schoolers. They are not taxonimists or scientistis. They are regular people like you and me. There are doctors, lawyers, teachers, cops, nurses, fireman, artists, musicians, engineers, accountants, sales
clerks, clergy, people from every walk of life are out identifying gulls this weekend. And diggin' it man.

Thousands of people that are neither scientist or taxonomist will submit checklists this weekend to ebird with tens of thousands of gulls on them, mostly identified and counted, some as gull sp. (species) when unidentified. Grannies to high schoolers, not scientists. This is far far more mainstream than you think. It is not a techinical domain but open to the public and in fact not a hundredth or thousandth of 1% are taxonomists doing
technical work. It is just regular people that pursue knowing what the real true actual names of things they see, are. Some of us like to joke that is just a special kind of OCD we have.

Finally while taxonomists are the ones that decide if it will be named Hippopotamus, Tyranasaurus, Pointsettia, or Philadendron, I can hardly call their usage as that of specialists. Everybody uses them. The same goes for gulls. Regular people use it
correctly by the thousands daily all over America, just like the names above. Absent any technical domain. Yes it is likely more people call them seagulls daily. That does not make it the name of the animal. There are mudbugs, crawdads, bassbait, and a bunch of other words, but the name of the animal is Crayfish, unfortunate as it is. Call it anything you like. Many animals are called many things, but each only has one correct name.
I did not create the system that decides if it will be called a cat, dog, or gull. It was a Swedish dude named Linneaus in the 1600's. Which was so genius it remains the gold standard naming all life forms 400 years later. I think it was a very good idea for everything to have one officially recognized published referenceable name. American Woodcock is said to have over 100 local colloquial names.

There will be thousands of people gull watching today. Some will identify and age almost every gull they see. Some are so good they will detect hybrid gulls. Thousands of gull photographs will be taken this weekend. Tens of thousands (probably hundreds
of thousands) of gulls will be counted this weekend. By gull watchers. Some gull nuts use telecsopes and read band numbers on the gull's leg, and report them, finding out later where the bird was from. It is fascinating to find out a gull you saw in L.A. CA was banded as a nestling in Alberta, Canada (I won't ask how much sea there is in Alberta). Many this weekend will be carrying a book like one on my shelf, Gulls of the Americas,
one of the Petersen Field Guide series. Of course any modern U.S. bird field guide will show all the nearly couple dozen species of gulls here in most of the usual various plumages and ages.

Gulls are beautiful, intelligent, fascinating animals. Some gulls migrate long distances, other gulls are nearly sedentary. Gulls are famous for showing up in other parts of the world where they are not found. Some think these vagrant gulls are following shipping lanes across oceans. Most gulls have juvenile and immature plumages the smaller gulls taking 3 years to acquire adult plumage, large gulls can take 4-5 years. Many start out brown or with black areas, and get lighter until they are the pretty white and gray things most know. The California Gull that saved the early mormon settlement in Utah by eating all their grasshoppers was one of the first and most prominent bird statues in America. Methinks it is their state bird? A large colony nests at Great Salt Lake. I have seen
gulls in a dive to escape a Peregrine Falcon exceed 100 MPH. They are incredibly skillful flyers. And some very very few gull species that do winter far out at sea in the open ocean in a few specialized habitat areas. Ironically these are mostly never seen by anyone using the word seagull.

Good gull watching to you!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

@dystopian

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

magiamma's picture

@dystopian
thank you very much. and thank you, as always, for the info all the on birds. have a great evening...

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