“There is a nation, which in all its strength and virtue is in the grips of a group of ruthless men, preaching a gospel of intolerance and racial pride –unrestrained by law, by parliament, or by public opinion…” — Winston Churchill, 1934
Let us pray that we do not become such a nation. That we retain the resolve to resist authoritarianism, bigotry, and oppression of the weak, the helpless, minorities, women, and those in dire need of our aid. That we hold fast the will to keep fighting for a world capable of supporting the rich array of life that gives us life in turn.
(Climate justice at stake.)
Late Yesterday, Justice Anthony Kennedy, in failing to stand up to an increasingly authoritarian and abusive Trump Administration, decided to resign early. In doing so, he opened his lynch-pin moderate Supreme Court seat to a far more conservative replacement.
This is not to say that Justice Kennedy was a great champion of social virtue, freedom and justice. He has sided in the past with harmful corporate interests — as in the case of Citizen’s United and in the recent JANUS decision. His role in Bush v Gore sent a chill through our democracy.
But many freedoms and human rights for women, the incarcerated, those of varying sexual preference now hang in an increasingly tilted political balance. Meanwhile, burgeoning environmental issues such as the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon, and the potential liability of fossil fuel companies who have misinformed the public thereby risking vast damage from climate change, are now also at risk. For Kennedy has long stood as a back-stop preventing the erosion of key human rights and in at least moderately enabling government to respond to climate change related threats.
We should, perhaps, not be surprised. The republicans after all — through their vicious media campaigns, through their warping of the web, through Gerrymandering and voter suppression, and, yes, through collusion with hostile foreign powers — have taken both Houses of Congress and the Presidency combined. They have, through Trump, through Senate leadership, and through House leadership, eroded and removed practically all norms that would check a party in power. They are, in other words, clearing a way for the unjust application of a brutal authority. A brutality that most recently manifest in the cruel separation of children from parents seeking asylum at the border.
Many had hoped that Justice Anthony Kennedy would hang on — at least as a moderate check to the increasing totality of right wing power. He has not. So here we are — faced with the possibility that a majority of Supreme Court Justices will side with burgeoning authoritarianism. That the great progress that we have gained in the last Century might be snuffed out in this one. That the hope of responses to a darkening climate future might be smothered under a choking smog of denial.
We can say *might* because not all is yet lost. You and I still have a voice and a vote. We still have the ability to resist and to fight — if we retain the will. For we may yet rattle and over-top the halls of this newly minted unjust power. We may yet defeat the enablers of harm in the coming difficult electoral battle of November of 2018. But we only hold that chance if we retain the will. If we allow that noble fire in the belly to continue to burn.
To this we must say that our generations have grown soft after an age of good fortune. We have not been tested. We have not been honed. Many of us are soft and weak. And seeing a future difficulty it is our tendency to say — ‘no-way, it is too much!’
No more. We must recognize that the future is hard. The present problems we face at home — even moreso. That the dragons and monsters we must defeat are legion.
But with our backs against the wall we are left with these two choices — fight, or give up and be devoured. And we will fight. Because that is who we are as Americans. A people who believe that a better tomorrow can be made for all, and who for centuries have been willing to do the good work of progress. A nation forged in the fight against unjust authoritarian rule.
It is time to heed the call again. To become our better, more virtuous angels. In this we are now left with no choice.
Abel Adamski
/ June 29, 2018+1000
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Abel Adamski
/ June 29, 2018Relevant
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/28/europe-mini-trump-brexit-britain-viktor-orban?
“Orbán, who has been busy building an illiberal alliance, with the assistance of Steve Bannon is intent on infecting Europe’s mainstream conservatism from within.”
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Abel Adamski
/ June 29, 2018The so called Christian Right are organising big time to sup[port Trump and the GOP and their destruction of the planet and most life forms on it. Rev 11:18
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Abel Adamski
/ June 29, 2018http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-01/gun-toting-unification-church-goers-celebrate-weapons/9496876
Hundreds of couples toting AR-15 rifles packed a Unification church in Pennsylvania on Wednesday (local time) to have their marriages blessed and their weapons celebrated as “rods of iron” that could have saved lives in a recent Florida school shooting.
There are other articles about Extremist Xtian soldiers in the military forming their own Paramilitary religious cult offshoot of the Bretherens
And now also members of the LBGT community who have been experiencing an increased murder and assault rate, afraid to step out in public. Now buying weapons and taking military style self defence courses organised and conducted by ex military members of the community.
The Relentless divisiveness, assault and attack is unfortunately out of fear and percieved need for self defence resulting in a equyal and opposite reaction to the assaults from the rabid right and Trumpista’s and Trumps hate filled inflamatory speeches
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robertscribbler
/ June 29, 2018I’m very conflicted and I say this with a heavy heart.
I honestly have sympathy for liberals who arm themselves for self defense. We should not be subject to fear of violence against us without means to protect those we love and all that we hold dear. If just rule of law is removed, then all that is left is the rule of the jungle. And if we are continuously demonized, if violence is continuously promoted against us, then violence in such a state will come.
We should always promote our values of peace and non violence. And we should always fight with the tools of law and democracy. Never escalating or inciting or using violence unless violence comes to us. But we should not be like the Jews of Germany and led like lambs to slaughter. In such a state organizing for self defense is our only survival option.
To be clear, we are not living in such a state now. But that possibility is no longer so remote. An administration that will kidnap children for political gain will not be constrained by the morality of non-violence and civility that we hold so dear. And the time to prepare is not when the wolf is already at the door.
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Spike
/ June 29, 2018Good fortune to you all. We in the UK face a similar bleak current outlook, caused by much the same forces, as do parts of eastern Europe. But for the time pressures of climate change I would be more sanguine, but as Bill McKibben recently said the costliest aspect of Trumpism at present is delay.
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robertscribbler
/ June 29, 2018Thanks for the kind words, Spike.
It’s not just delay now. It’s inflicted Chaos.
For a long time, I’ve tried to make people aware of the social difficulty that arises from a crisis like climate change. That people who think only of themselves can react in a terrible fashion. That we need to step outside the individual perspective to deal with it effectively. To think on long time scales and in a way in which we cooperate and leverage social, industrial, and political strengths for ongoing projected aimed at solutions.
Those who lack the capacity or will to engage on such a level are faced with denial and despair. In such a psychological state, a kind of every ‘man’ for themselves panic can set in. We can see this in Trump and republicans now. It’s a sad sign of weakness. But it’s a weakness we’ve been afflicted with for ages and ages.
But the power of the just leadership element still stands. And those of us with eyes to see can plainly tell that the deniers and the right and Trump are wrong. That their way leads to dissolution and destruction. They have been unmasked before us. And it remains for us to face them down and defeat them.
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bill h
/ July 1, 2018In the UK Brexit has driven everything else off the agenda, including climate change. The UK govt claims it is merely implementing “the will of the people”. However, it continues to enforce an effective ban on new onshore wind turbines, in spite of opinion polls showing a huge majority in favour of them – the cheapest form of electricity generation in the UK now.
“Will of the people” be damned.
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Jeremy in Wales
/ July 2, 2018Absolutely Bill, idiotic short termism and decisions that make no sense on any level:
1) Cancelling of the electrification of the Cardiff to Swansea mainline resulting in the order of bi-mode trains electric and diesel. Increasing running costs, weight in the form of a diesel engine and fuel, room that could be available for passengers, pollution and maintenance costs.
2) Cancelling of the Swansea Bay tidal barrage despite the electricity costing no more than the new Hinckley Point nuclear power station and lasting at least four times as long with absolute predictability of supply.
3) The day after cancelling the barrage an announcement that further subsidy was to be given to the nuclear industry
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-44634580
talk of mini-nukes.
Combine that in Wales and Scotland with a determined push of a “British” identity in place of Welsh or Scottish identity, military hype, wwI rememberence mentioned continuously, renaming of the second Severn bridge, despite a huge (for Wales) petition, in a secret ceremony today.
http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2018-07-02/more-than-half-of-people-do-not-want-severn-bridge-to-be-named-after-prince-charles-poll-reveals/
Can feel a few tins of green paint being opened as I type.
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kassy
/ June 29, 2018It’s a long hard road out but younger (and in the US more diverse) generations have a lot to fight for.
Young will pick up climate change bill, advisers warn
…
Why does this matter?
The advisers are “acutely concerned” at the UK’s lack of progress in cutting the carbon emissions overheating the planet.
The committee says the UK made a good start with the power industry but emissions cuts have effectively stalled in the past five years.
Members say it will be much cheaper, for instance, to begin a steady changeover to electric cars now than to have to rush the technology in years to come.
….
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44634122
And it is broader then dlimate change.
https://original.antiwar.com/stephanie_savell/2018/06/28/how-americas-wars-fund-inequality-at-home/
Tons of dollars wasted on wars that don’t go anywhere…apparently it is more patriotic to kill some asean poor then helping your own.
“During prior wars, the U.S. adjusted its budget accordingly by, among other options, raising taxes to pay for its conflicts. Not so since 2001, when President George W. Bush launched the “Global War on Terror.” Instead, the country has accumulated a staggering amount of debt. Even if Washington stopped spending on its wars tomorrow, it will still, thanks to those conflicts, owe more than $8 trillion in interest alone by the 2050s.”
This is sad because by that time you might really want to use that money for adaptation…
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kassy
/ June 29, 2018Plant response to rising CO2 levels may alter rainfall patterns across tropics
Stomata – the tiny pores through which plants take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen and water – are closing up everywhere on earth as atmospheric CO2 levels rise. This change in plant structure results in more water being stored within plants, and less being released to the atmosphere.
In a recent study scientists posit that the reduction in water released by stomata through transpiration will result in changing rainfall patterns across the tropics. Researchers used climate models to test the hypothesis, noting that while reduced transpiration will occur everywhere, tropical climates in different regions respond differently.
In South America, rainfall patterns are strongly influenced by changes in the amount of water that local plants release to the atmosphere. So if plants there retain more water, deeper droughts could result, consistent with most models. But Africa and Southeast Asia are protected from this atmospheric drying effect.
Forests in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea are encircled by humid air over warm oceans. Reduced transpiration means more warm air rising from the islands, which draws in moist ocean air, increasing rainfall even as plants release less moisture. Some scientists dispute the study conclusions, noting that climate models poorly simulate water cycling.
and much more on:
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/06/plant-response-to-rising-co2-levels-may-alter-rainfall-patterns-across-tropics/
In another recent article about the shocking rate of loss of tropical forests they mentioned that in 2017 losses in Indonesia where not as bad as expected because it was too wet. That looks like the predicted pattern might be already at work….let’s hope it stays too wet.
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markodochartaigh
/ June 29, 2018Plant response to human-induced climate change is a vital and rapidly emerging field of study. The most important grain crops produce less nutritious grain with higher levels of CO2: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/swelling-co2-cuts-nutrition-in-food/
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Frasersgrove
/ July 3, 2018Here’s an article from Politico talking about the same thing.
https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/09/13/food-nutrients-carbon-dioxide-000511
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mlp in nc
/ July 3, 2018Thanks for the articles. For those of us watching in dismay as our local honey slowly disappears – “They found that the protein content of goldenrod pollen has declined by a third since the industrial revolution—and the change closely tracks with the rise in CO2.”
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Paul (also in Wales)
/ June 29, 2018Wonderful, wonderful words Robert. One of your best posts in my humble opinion. I can only hope that we, as a global community, are a match for them.
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Jean Swan
/ June 29, 2018Here is a year old article,but the people I know barely stand a chance of knowing what is harming them..We do not have a Free Press..https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/10/11/trump-and-hannity-unite-prime-time-attack-free-press/218203 Thanks, Robert for your strong statement
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wili
/ June 29, 2018On Tuesday, the LOW temperature in Quriyat, Oman was 42.6 °C (108.7 °F)
— a new global record.
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Minimum-Temperature-426-C-1087-F-Oman-June-26-2018-New-World-Record
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wharf rat
/ June 29, 2018Dramatic shift to Atlantic climate in Arctic warming hotspot
The Arctic is about to shrink, shows a new study, as an important part of the Arctic Ocean shifts over to an Atlantic climate regime. The rapid climate shift occurs in the northern Barents Sea—the Arctic warming hotspot where the surface warming and loss of winter sea ice is largest in the entire Arctic.
“Less sea ice inflow from the interior Arctic has caused a 40 percent freshwater loss in the northern Barents Sea, leading to weaker stratification and increased vertical mixing with the deep Atlantic layer,” says lead author Dr. Sigrid Lind
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-06-shift-atlantic-climate-arctic-hotspot.html#jCp
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Em Butrus Butrus Galli
/ June 29, 2018Fact is the Republican’s fight dirty. Until the Dems learn to do the same tricks, our rights will dwindle and be lost.
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Exposing the Big Game
/ June 29, 2018Reblogged this on The Extinction Chronicles.
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Bob
/ June 29, 2018In Canada we say if you can’t be a friend to Canada you could never be a friend to anyone. Trump is about to push our entire economy into recession based on ignorance and lies.
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Abel Adamski
/ June 30, 2018The NYT has an excellent article on the influence of the Supreme Court over the centuries, I suspect the information may well be an eye opener for many. (If paywalled, I use Firefox right click and open in private window)
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Abel Adamski
/ June 30, 2018https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/29/climate-change-has-turned-perus-glacial-lake-into-a-deadly-flood-timebomb
Climate change has turned Peru’s glacial lake into a deadly flood timebomb
Lake Palcacocha is swollen with water from melting ice caps in the Cordillera Blanca mountains. Below, 50,000 people live directly in the flood path
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Damiano de Sano Ioco (@DrDignity)
/ June 30, 2018Thanks for your balanced words about the current recalcitrant US administration & the climate. I am not hopeful that the nation will soon rid itself of this pox & that the world of intelligent nations will help us in any way. For climate protections, the US must watch the rest of the world sort it out without immediate participation. The rise of inverted totalitarianism/fascism here sends chills through me as families get separated, children incarcerated in cages & new minorities become targeted. This first pogrom of illegals is testing US citizens’ reaction & tolerance to the idea of pogroms. So far, thank God, the tolerance is non-existent. I am fearful that the next pogroms will include US born detested minorities. Racism, fear & ignorance grow daily here with non-stop vilification by Fox, tweets & general uproar by the least intelligent of the citizenry. A growing income inequality makes it easier to divide, scapegoat & manipulate. All a despot needs is to pour that fear & hatred of the other into a convenient, suspect minority. The spirit of the Third Reich still lives, even ICE draws parallels to the Praetorian Guard & personal army of a dictator. Thanks for providing a forum for like-minded people here. DrDignity
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kassy
/ June 30, 2018Long and interesting story:
A landmark climate change ruling could go up in smoke after Justice Kennedy retires
…
With Kennedy’s departure comes much uneasiness. One cause for concern is over the paramount climate decision Massachusetts v. EPA, in which Kennedy proved to be the deciding swing vote, as he often was. The worry is that with him gone, the ruling will be left imperiled.
The case occurred after the EPA decided, in 2003, that it could not regulate heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Twelve states, including Massachusetts, sued the agency. They argued that these gases were pollutants and a danger to the public. Eventually, the case found its way to the Supreme Court.
Settled by a five to four vote in 2007, Massachusetts v. EPA ruled for the first time that heat-trapping greenhouse gases are pollutants, and that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can regulate them, just as the agency reins in pollution emitted by cars and trucks.
…
https://mashable.com/2018/06/30/kennedy-supreme-court-climate-massachusetts-epa
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Paul in WI
/ July 1, 2018Indeed. This is something that I’ve been concerned about ever since Trump was elected. I read this article on Saturday and was planning on posting a link to it but you beat me to it.
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kassy
/ June 30, 2018Some people argued that saving panda’s was a waste of money but:
Research shows benefit of giant panda conservation far exceeds cost
…
To save this endangered species, the Chinese government has invested a large amount of money in panda conservation and established 67 nature reserves, which play a very important role in the effective conservation of giant pandas.
…
To determine the value of panda conservation, a research team led by Prof. WEI Fuwen from the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with colleagues from other research organizations, cooperated to assess the value of ecosystem services from giant panda reserves for the first time.
They found that the value provided by the giant pandas and forested habitat within nature reserves is worth ~ US$2.6-6.9 billion every year, which is about 10-27 times the conservation cost of giant pandas.
… and much more on:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-06/caos-rsb062818.php
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kassy
/ June 30, 2018There story below has been reported before but not in this comment section yet and since it is important another article on this:
Dramatic shift to Atlantic climate in Arctic warming hotspot
“Less sea ice inflow from the interior Arctic has caused a 40 percent freshwater loss in the northern Barents Sea, leading to weaker stratification and increased vertical mixing with the deep Atlantic layer,” says lead author Dr. Sigrid Lind, researcher at the Institute of Marine Research and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research. She continues:
“Heat is brought up from the deep Atlantic layer, resulting in a dramatically warm Arctic layer. This can explain why the northern Barents Sea has become the hotspot of Arctic warming after the mid-2000s.”
Rapid climate shift
We need to go back several thousand years to the last glacial to find similar rapid climate shifts. During the cold periods, the Nordic Seas were cold, stratified and sea ice covered—much like the Arctic today—but shifted rapidly to a warm, well-mixed and sea ice free Atlantic climate in warm periods. This recurred several times.
…
https://phys.org/news/2018-06-shift-atlantic-climate-arctic-hotspot.html
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Andy_in_SD
/ June 30, 2018Hopefully this link does get smashed pasting it in here. NASA did a visualization of 3 yrs worth of erosion on an island in the Kingdom of Tonga.
https://dms.licdn.com/playback/C5605AQG8i9e4_Uz-Aw/dd764d582b1d42a59d9265c5001e04ab/feedshare-mp4_500-captions-thumbnails/1507940118923-hysdc8?e=1530464400&v=beta&t=HiHKlszvKd33Ki-ItcSc5yrk7BhhDOVBS7evYocyTT4
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postkey
/ July 1, 2018You may find this useful?
https://goo.gl/
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Robert McLachlan
/ July 1, 2018Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
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Abel Adamski
/ July 1, 2018From Climate Crocks, Bill Maher Tick, Tick
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Abel Adamski
/ July 1, 2018Part 1 of a 3 part investigation
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Abel Adamski
/ July 1, 2018Sorry it loaded the wrong video.
ABC Aust 4 Corners part 1
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Abel Adamski
/ July 1, 2018Click on Playlist top left corner
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wili
/ July 1, 2018Satellite images suggest that fires are now spreading across Siberia, but I can’t find any articles to confirm and I’m not confident in my ability to interpret the images.
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mlp in nc
/ July 1, 2018Here is today’s CO image from Earth Nullschool. The fires are really kicking up. China, of course, looks like it’s on fire all the time.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2018/07/01/1800Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/orthographic=110.23,59.35,681/loc=44.577,61.298
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mlp in nc
/ July 1, 2018Meanwhile, have a look at West Africa.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2018/07/01/1800Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/orthographic=18.97,-5.18,586/loc=-4.127,22.087
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kassy
/ July 1, 2018Wow… i have read about China contributing to the recent CO2 budget just because they were relatively late on the industrialization curve and thus build lots of coal plants to produce the energy lately (so we could outsource a bit of our pollution while saving a bit on salaries as an added benefit).
But seeing that on the map…wow.
It would be cool if we had comparable maps for Europe and the US for last century.
*
There also seems to be a high near the US east coast:
40.49° N, 72.65° W✕
250° @ 15 km/h
1513 ppbv
Is that a normal feature?
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mlp in nc
/ July 2, 2018That would be the pollution (prevailing SW winds over much of the eastern US) off NYC and the New York metropolitan area, which has a combined population somewhere north of 20 million. It has been pretty much there the last year of so whenever I have checked it.
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mlp in nc
/ July 2, 2018With regard to the pollution in China, the view on Google Earth is gut wrenching. There is a brown, irregular, globby band of what must be toxic sludge all around the coast of China, extending to a lesser extent into Southeast Asia. See, for example, around Shanghai, where it is terrible. The west side of the Korean peninsula, Russia and Japan are largely clear.
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Em Butrus Butrus Galli
/ July 2, 2018https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/29/tesla-q2-production-and-delivery-numbers.html
Tesla produces 7,000 cars last week!
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Political Animal
/ July 2, 2018http://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2018/05/29/Saudi-Arabia-s-Empty-Quarter-now-full-with-lakes-after-Cyclone-Mekunu.html
Cyclone Mekunu fills Empty Quarter with lakes. Saw this tweeted by Adapt2030, one of the ice age scammers. Of course, I quoted Robert’s blog on the two storms forming in the West Arabian Gulf back to him 🙂
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Abel Adamski
/ July 2, 2018Apart from the clickbait headline (norty norty)
https://reneweconomy.com.au/evs-go-underground-as-bhp-beats-tesla-to-the-electric-ute-34832/
EVs go underground, as BHP beats Tesla to the electric ute
Australian mining giant BHP has announced that it is trialling electric vehicles – and not among its fleet of executive rides, but at the “coalface”, so to speak, of its massive Olympic Dam copper mine in South Australia.
The news was announced on the BHP website on Wednesday, as well as in a Facebook post that is attracting some predictably negative and skeptical public feedback – but that’s mostly because the company has done the unspeakable and converted a V8 4WD true blue Aussie ute to electric drive.
Yes, an electric ute. And in doing so, with the help of Adelaide-based Voltra, which adapted the vehicle, BHP has managed to beat Tesla to the punch, with Elon Musk only these past few weeks releasing a few clues about the next big project for the EV maker.
According to Voltra, the eCruiser is based on the Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series, “the most popular light vehicle in mining today,” and has been put through its paces (at a NZ wind farm, see image below) and “proven to survive the longest in rough, corrosive 4WD environments.”
So many advantages miles underground, no diesel fumes, torque and power, low maintenance. They will never return to the surface, there is a constant radiactivity deep underground and that will make them low level radioactive, some geologist 10,000 years in the future will dig up these vehicles and wonder
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Jacque in Utah
/ July 2, 2018Note: A ute is a vehicle that is designed to travel over rough ground. Ute is an abbreviation for utility vehicle. [Australian, informal]
noun, plural Utes, (especially collectively) Ute. a member of an American Indian people of Utah and W Colorado. a dialect or group of dialects of the Uto-Aztecan
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Abel Adamski
/ July 3, 2018In Australia, the ute is an abbreviation of utility vehicle, it originated as a variant of a tray body with a “tub” on the back with a rear fold down door. It was a variant of the popular passenger cars such as Holden and Ford Falcon. The popular choice for farmers and tradesmen who could chuck some equipment in the back along with the sheep dog.
The other variant was the Panel Van, which extended the back on the tray to completely enclose it, much beloved of Surfers etc with the sleeping gear in the back and roof racks for the surf board and a 6 cylinder motor unlike the VW Combi’s 4 cylinder and it could still be used by a tradesman during the week to carry tools and whatever and also Police divisional vans. The other thing for the young guys with the ute’s was due to their lioghter body than the sedan they were “performance vehicles and the young guys really put money into tyhem with covers for the “tub” and roll bars etc etc, the young farmers hoon car
Then the Japanese came in with their 4WD Landcruisers and Patrols and Pajero’s with the tray and utility bodies for the man on the land and Industry, with the “Panel Van” becoming eventually the SUV.
Just a bit of a background, the Ute in Aust is a working vehicle and even the tray body still often gets called a ute
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Abel Adamski
/ July 2, 2018For your edification, an excellent article
https://qz.com/967554/the-five-universal-laws-of-human-stupidity/
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Tom Jerome
/ July 2, 2018I have sent this to numerous people over many years. Explains a lot.
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Abel Adamski
/ July 2, 2018Tesla update
https://reneweconomy.com.au/tesla-finally-hits-model-3-production-target-5000-per-week-hours-latest-deadline-89878/.
Tesla finally hits Model 3 production target of 5,000 per week – hours after latest deadline
Vehicle No 5000 rolled off the production line at 5am 01/07/2018
But can the pace be maintained? Musk believes so, and has already said that the company expects to produce 6,000 Model 3 sedans a week “next month,” according to Reuters.
(elsewhere the short sellers lost another $2Billion in June)
And the progress has not been limited to the Model 3. In the email, Musk noted that the company had also achieved its production goals of 7,000 Model S and X vehicles in that same week.
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Paul_PNW
/ July 3, 2018I think that was 7000 combined 3, s & x, iirc their target for yearly combined s & x is 100,000.
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Abel Adamski
/ July 2, 2018What a project, what a guy
https://reneweconomy.com.au/dutch-adventurer-dispels-ev-range-myths-in-800-day-drive-to-darwin-70591/
Dutch adventurer dispels EV range myths in 800-day drive to Darwin
It’s taken over 800 days to do it, but one man has driven his electric car all the way from the Netherlands to Australia.
Wiebe Wakker, who has been documenting his ambitious journey for nearly three years on Twitter and on his website, began the project with one idea: to showcase the potential of electric vehicles and everyday sustainability by driving an electric car to Australia – with no money.
By reaching out to ask like-minded people to sponsor him along his way with at least one of three things – food, bed or somewhere to plug his car in – Wakker has now reached Australia.
He landed at Darwin airport after around 26 months winding up and down the European and Asian continents, until finally putting his retrofitted EV station wagon (named the ‘Blue Bandit’) on a boat from Indonesia to the Northern Territory.
But now Wakker faces what might prove to be the ultimate challenge: traversing Australia’s wide open spaces in the Blue Bandit, which very modestly boasts a a 37kWh lithium-ion battery with a 200km range.
Richard believes Wakker will not find the mission to cross Australia in an EV too difficult despite the distances – in fact, dispelling this myth was one of his reasons for purchasing his Tesla Model X.
“Here to Alice Springs is sort of 1600km and that’s sort of a road trip that people do,” he told Wakker. “One of the things we wanted to probably test but more importantly prove was EVs are fine for longer distances, you can own them up here in the Northern Territory.”
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kassy
/ July 2, 2018Nice story (and what a trip). Thanks!
Also thanks to mlp in nc for the answers above.
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kassy
/ July 2, 2018And now a realli ymportant story about clouds:
How clouds complicate global warming
…
When it comes to warming, clouds acts in three ways. They act like silvery shields reflecting away incoming sunlight; they act like insulators trapping heat on the planet (recall how much cooler it gets on a cloudless night); and they act like radiators sending heat out into space. Whether a cloud acts more like a shield, a blanket or a radiator depends on where it lies and what it’s made of.
And here things get diabolically complex.
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At issue is climate sensitivity, which measures how much the temperature changes if the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere doubles. In 2014 the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated this number somewhere between 1.5 and 4.5°C. This huge range comes down almost entirely to the effect of clouds.
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The latest data suggest clouds will amplify warming, though not as severely as some models had implied.
That means more than 3°C of warming by 2100 if the world’s countries make the emissions cuts promised in the Paris Agreement, which is well beyond the agreement’s target of less than 2°C.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/climate/how-clouds-complicate-global-warming
Lots of good desriptions of the processes at work in clouds in the article.
The key is :
The latest data suggest clouds will amplify warming, though not as severely as some models had implied.
That means more than 3°C of warming by 2100 if the world’s countries make the emissions cuts promised in the Paris Agreement, which is well beyond the agreement’s target of less than 2°C.
This basically means we have to update the Paris agreement already (or speed up the talking and negotiating suits but good luck with that).
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bostonblorp
/ July 3, 2018To reiterate:
>> That means more than 3°C of warming by 2100 if the world’s countries make the emissions cuts promised in the Paris Agreement, which is well beyond the agreement’s target of less than 2°C.
The odds of the Paris Agreement being upheld seem slim at the moment. Scary stuff.
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wharf rat
/ July 2, 2018Untold disaster: World Bank says India will lose 2.8% of its GDP because of climate change impact by 2050
According to the World Bank’s analysis, the most at-risk areas within the country are the inland—the agriculture-heavy areas of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh—which could see living standards drop by as much as 9%.
https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/weathering-warming/1227579/
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wharf rat
/ July 2, 2018Record flooding in Des Moines area over weekend.. nine inches of rain in three hours… several deaths and widespread damage
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2018/07/01/des-moines-flooding-clive-flooding-larry-cotlar-national-weather-service-ankeny/749370002/
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mlp in nc
/ July 2, 2018Smartphones used to track migrations caused by climate change. Jun 28, 2018.
FECYT – Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180628120053.htm
Researchers have developed a system that tracks human displacement caused by climate change using the tracks of mobile phones. With this model, which was tested during a severe drought in Colombia in 2014, it was determined that the portion of the population that migrated due to this event was 10 percent during the six months of the study.
. . . The results also highlight that the climate of the destination areas plays a minor role in that decision. “The flows mainly went from rural areas to urban environments within the department itself, since urban areas offer better economic prospects and easier access to water and food,” he stresses.
“We have verified that, with cell phone traces, these migrations can be characterized with a success rate of over 60%, both in terms of the total number of people who migrate and the place where they move to.”
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Genomik
/ July 2, 2018The fires continue and are getting pretty big now, 44,500 acres! On Sunday morning residents of the San Francisco Bay Area woke to ash all over our cars etc. The fires literally spread ash a very long distance. It’s crazy it’s only June/July.
It’s supposed to be humid and wet but it’s super hot, dry and windy. Ouch.
http://www.kcra.com/article/yolo-county-wildfire-explodes-in-size-to-44500-acres/22012063
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Jeremy in Wales
/ July 2, 2018Obviously do not understand or know in any detail how US politics and business work but is there are any real connection in the rumours that Justice Kennedy’s son was responsible for the Deutsche Bank loans to Trump? Just seems too much of a coincidence:
https://www.salon.com/2018/06/29/did-anthony-kennedys-son-loan-donald-trump-1-billion/
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Suzanne
/ July 3, 2018Thank you for this post Robert. We must keep on fighting, despite the constant onslaught of bad news. It is all we can do is fight…fight…fight to save our democracy, our planet and human decency from evil.
Just happened across this blog post..
“Extreme Heat Event in Northern Siberia and the Coastal Arctic Ocean this Week” by meteorologist Nick Humphrey:
https://wxclimonews.com/2018/07/02/extreme-heat-event-in-northern-siberia-and-the-coastal-arctic-ocean-this-week/
This isn’t typically what I would write about in this blog, as I typically cover threatening ocean storms. However, this has implications for the Arctic Ocean and possibly mid-latitude weather.
An extreme heat event for this particular region…with high temperatures of greater than 40 degrees F above recent normals…will impact the coast of the Arctic Ocean (specifically the Laptev Sea and Eastern Siberian Sea) Wednesday-Friday.
This will generate maximum daily temperatures as high as 90-95 degrees near the open ocean coast!
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kassy
/ July 3, 2018That’s some crazy weather…we will see what that will do with Sea Ice Area and Extent. 2018 is well behind recent years averages in these measures. That should be good but the Arctic is ever changing for the worse so it is too early to call this a good year.
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kassy
/ July 3, 2018Battery-backed solar power to undercut coal in China by 2028: report
Wind turbines or solar panels with batteries will be able to provide on-demand power cheaper than old coal plants in China by 2028, analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) predict.
In the US, the combo can outcompete gas generation by 2027, according to the same New Energy Outlook report, presented in London on Friday.
for more details see:
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/07/03/bnef-battery-backed-solar-power-undercut-coal-china-2028
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Andy_in_SD
/ July 3, 2018Wowzers….
Check out the massive fire + complex of fires in Siberia. Yikes.
http://www.arctic.io/explorer/8/2018-07-02/6-N63.75346-E115.73102
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wili
/ July 4, 2018“Extreme Heat Event in Northern Siberia and the coastal Arctic Ocean This Week
This isn’t typically what I would write about in this blog, as I typically cover threatening ocean storms. However, this has implications for the Arctic Ocean and possibly mid-latitude weather. An extreme heat event for this particular region…with high temperatures of greater than 40 degrees F above recent normals…will impact the coast of the Arctic Ocean (specifically the Laptev Sea and Eastern Siberian Sea) Wednesday-Friday. This will generate maximum daily temperatures as high as 90-95 degrees near the open ocean coast!
Yes, you read that correctly.
Needless to say, a true roasting for this area.
I’ve looked over the European model and there appears to be general agreement over the intensity and timing of this extreme event. It is absolutely incredible and really one of the most intense heat events I’ve ever seen for so far north. Climate change has sent temps skyrocketing in the far north of the planet over just the past 20 years. While that’s been quite reflected in the rapid rise in wintertime temperatures, it’s increasingly being reflected in summertime temperatures as more and more sea ice disappears earlier in the season, leaving more dark blue ocean to absorb more daytime sunlight. This heating of the ocean surface by low albedo (very low reflectivity…little sunlight being reflected back off into space) causes some heat to be released back to heat the atmosphere above, speeding up warming of the Arctic region. This is known as Arctic Amplification. And one larger-scale hemispheric consequence being actively researched by Dr. Jennifer Francis (YouTube Video Presentation) and on others is that Arctic Amplification is causing an abrupt weakening of the polar jet stream (on timescales of just the past decade or two), the main feature which steers and intensifies weather patterns in the mid-latitudes. The weakening is causing the polar jet to become much wavier, with greater wave “breaks” and blocking patterns where waves sit in the same place for weeks promote extreme weather patterns (extreme cold relative to normal as well as extreme heat, very wet, and drought conditions).
2018 has unfortunately been a prime example of global warming’s effect on the jet stream. And northern Siberia has been getting blowtorched by heat that refuses to quit because of an ongoing blocked pattern favorable for intense heat…”
https://wxclimonews.com/2018/07/02/extreme-heat-event-in-northern-siberia-and-the-coastal-arctic-ocean-this-week/
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Tom
/ July 6, 2018White nationalists and white supremacists are gaining a foothold to destroy our peace.
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