Climate Change This Week: Largest Undersea Cathedral of Life Is Dying, Pope Pushes Sustainable Growth, and More!

Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.

And the chances of Donald Trump ’s family and fortune surviving climate change are small, dwindling daily and irreversibly.

Saving BUB, Beautiful Unique Biodiversity, as in this 45 lb Titan Mushroom found in Chiapas, Mexico, also home to the Lacandon rainforest (see below), is another reason to preserve carbon storing forests.

Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon

A Jaguar Home That Is Now Protected along with hundreds of other animals, including 400 species of often colorful, tropical birds. Source Panthera Colombia

OO 13,000 Acres Of Cloud Forest Now Protected In Colombia - New reserve will conserve jaguars, pumas, spectacled bears and 400 bird species.

OO Communities In Mexico Step Up To Protect A Disappearing Forest Takeaways:

• The Lacandon rainforest is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world;
• The Mexican part has lost 10+% of its tree cover in the past 14 years.
• Now, surrounding villages are developing initiatives like eco-tourism to preserve it.

OO Burger King Animal Feed Sourced From Deforested Lands In Brazil And Bolivia that were turned into soy plantations to grow that feed. says a new report.

OO Brazil Legislators Attempt To Mine Amazon's Riches

Will Destroy Vast Areas of Protected Forest with a bill to open up 2+ million acres of protected Amazon rainforest to industrial mining.

OO Forests To Play Major Role In Meeting Paris Climate Targets

When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.

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SCIENCE WORKS!

Source Ronald Stouffer and Syukoro Manabe, 2017

OO Climate Change Computer Model Predicted Correctly 30 Years Later What Occurred -

remarkably prophetic, it pretty much outlined what happened over the next 3 decades.

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LARGEST UNDERSEA CATHEDRAL OF LIFE IS DYING:

GREATEST CORAL REEF NOW ENDANGERED

OO Large Sections of Australias Great Reef Are Now Dead Takeaways:

• Corals are very sensitive to extra heat,
• Now being added by a global heating of 1.5 degrees F .
• These canaries of climate change are now dying.

• Huge sections of the reef are now dead from recent bleaching,
• something not expected for 30 years by experts.
• Sheer luck prevented far greater damage:
• A storm during the worst heat cooled waters.

Credit Paul Horn at InsideClimate News

• This sign of the increasing ill-health of the seas
• Is yet another unfolding ravage from climate change.

• Hundreds of millions of people depend on coral reefs for food,
• And such reefs are dying wolrdwlide.

Further bleaching is now underway : Dramatically slowing and reversing global heating is the only answer to saving these vital ecosystems, scientists conclude. 

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TRUMP TRUMPED BY CLIMATE CHANGE

Credit Steve Breen at creators.com

Donald Trumps Own Children Likely Face Climate Apocalypse in their lifetimes; the likely crash of civilization that follows will crash their fortune and survival chances for their kids and all of ours. Unless, of course, Trump acts to cut emissions, hugely. Source heavy.com

OO White House Proposes Steep Cut To Leading Climate Science Agency NOAA,

Compromising the Safety of Americans - Proposed budget cuts include:

• An overall 17% cut to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), reflecting sharp specific cuts on education, grants, and research.
• NOAAs Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research will get a 26% cut to its current budget. [MEH disrupting the careers of the current and budding scientists who will lose their research funding.]
• the single largest cut will be a 22% cut to NOAAs National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service,
• which includes a key repository of climate and environmental information [information is disappearing from federal websites; teams of experts around the country have organized events to rescue as much information as possible and make it available elsewhere to scientists for research.] AND
• provides 90% of weather forecasting data.

Trump Tweets Blizzard Safety Message from Agency Hes Slashing hes proposing a 22% cut to the NOAA information service, which includes the National Weather Service. Source Twitter

Rick Spinrad, an ex NOAA chief scientist, said: NOAAs research and operations, including satellite data management, support critical safety needs. A reduced investment now would virtually guarantee jeopardizing the safety of the American public.

Youd Want to Know If This Is Headed Your Way, Wouldnt You? Yet Trump proposes cutting back drastically on the agency that supplies that kind of information. Credit Matt Clark at flickr

Resulting real safety failures would include:

• compromising weather warnings for tornadoes and hurricanes;
• navigational capacity used to help guide commercial ships and other mariners would suffer,
• leaving them without the improved forecasts they need to safely maneuver coastal waters.
• It could become harder to warn of tsunamis and forecast weather that will cause power outages.

Where Were Headed: Cleveland Before EPA, In 1973 Credit Frank J. Aleksandrowicz, NARA

OO Where Trump Is Leading With EPA Cuts:

What Cities Looked Like Before The EPA the agency left a legacy of clear air for cities; now that legacy might disappear.

OO Trump Wants To Zero Out EPA Programs especially many climate-related programs and grants that help state and local governments enforce environmental laws, says the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.

OO Trump Cashed In On NY State Energy Efficiency Subsidies in 2012,

But Now Wants To Cut EPA Ones he got nearly $1 million in those 2012 subsidies.

Under Trump, US Extreme Weather Disasters Will Rise Faster because the US failed to cut carbon emissions fast enough.

OO White House Targets Climate Change Programs In Proposed EPA Cuts

OO Why The EPA Faces Big Cuts Under Trump Budget Proposal Environmental issues have become ever more polarized, rising the stakes for both parties surrounding climate change.

Credit Nate Beeler at the Columbus Dispatch, modified

TRUMP:

OO Wants You To Be Afraid Of EverythingExcept Climate Change

OO To Undo Vehicle Rules That Curb Global Warming say close sources.

OO Poised To Lift Federal Coal Ban, Other Green Rules.

OO China's Carbon Emissions Dropping,

While Trump Points US In Opposite Direction Forecasting a fourth straight year of stable or reduced emissions, China shows huge growth in clean energy as President Trump vows to promote fossil fuels.

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CLIMATE MYTH BUSTERS!

OO The Reality of Climate Change - below are some of the biggest climate myths currently trending, compared to the reality. A good place for more details is here where even more myths are busted!

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CLUELESS LEADERSHIP

Donald First, Ivanka Last Source www.thinkprogress.com

OO Ivanka Trump Isn't Greening Her Dad, She's Greenwashing Him - she try to lead him to green policies, but this horse isnt drinking it.

OO Congress Members Met To Discuss The Costs Of Climate Change. They Ended Up Debating Its Existence.

OO Patrick Michaels: Cato's Climate Expert Has History Of Getting It Wrong

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HOT NEWS

OO Balmy! Antarctica Hit Record-Breaking 63 Degrees F In 2015

Temperatures on the Antarctic continent reached a record-breaking high of 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit (17.5 degrees Celsius) in 2015, according to a new report of balmy records for the bottom of the world.

Looking Primeval, This Living Abyssal Creature Could Disappear as its habitat, the ocean abyss, which covers half the planet, heats up. The ocean abyss provides services ultimately vital to human survival, and big changes there will profoundly affect humanitys future. Source Ocean Networks Canada

OO Life On Half The Earth Imperiled:

Deep Ocean Danger As Temperatures Rise Takeaways:

• Ocean abyss (the deep sea) covers half our planet:
• Its services include life processes that
• fuel the production of seafood,
• stores climate changing carbon emissions,
• and its microbes detoxify a variety of chemicals.

• Abyssal life is adapted to very little change;
• even a fraction of 1C can change fish behavior.
• So a projected 1C increase by 2100
• And reductions in oxygen (which decreases as water heats up)
• Will likely create big changes in abyssal life, and fewer fish.

Too Hot For Corn? Its already getting too hot for some important species to survive in some parts of the world. Photo USDA at Flickr

OO Evidence Disproving Tropical 'Thermostat' Theory:

Global Warming Can Breach Limits For Life new research indicates that as the world warmed millions of years ago, conditions in the tropics may have made it so hot some organisms couldn't survive.

• Actually, this is already happening
• in some parts of the world, which are becoming too hot to grow essential cereal crops (think corn, wheat, etc.).

OO Chicago Sets Impressive 146-Year-Old Weather Record with a snowless January and February.

Expect More of This, Down Under Source news.com.au

OO Australia: Climate Scientists Say Likelihood Of Extreme Summers Surging Due To Global Warming in a new report.

OO Global Warming Made Australia's Record-Breaking, Sizzling Summer

50 Times More Likely says new analysis.

OO Sydney's Swelter Has A Climate Change Link, Scientists Say

"It was nothing short of awful," said Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, of the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney.

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MELTDOWN

Melting Siberian Permafrost Feeds Into Its Bays NASA satellite photo shows.

OO Canada: Massive Permafrost Thaw Documented,

Portends Huge Carbon Release Takeaways:

• Permafrost is land permanently frozen since the last ice age 10,000 yrs ago;
• But the top layer thaws seasonally, and organic matter builds up in it over the millennia.
• Once thawed year round, permafrost microbes start decomposing the organic matter,
• Releasing vast amounts of climate changing CO2 and methane.

52,000 sq miles the size of Alabama of permafrost are thawing.

• Huge slabs of Arctic permafrost in NW Canada are slumping and disintegrating,
• sending large amounts of carbon-rich mud and silt into streams and rivers,
• choking life downstream.
• Similar large-scale landscape changes are occurring in Alaska, Siberia and Scandinavia.

Blue Poka Dots: The Face of Canadian Permafrost Melting Source Wikipedia

• The immense scale of thawing indicates a commensurately immense release of climate changing gases.
• Such a release could boost global warming and climate change further.
• Scientists estimate that the world's permafrost holds twice as much carbon as the atmosphere.

OO Antarctic Ice Has Set An Unexpected Record Low On Sea Ice and scientists are struggling to figure out why.

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GOOD CLEAN NEWS

OO Japan Accelerates Wind Power Development As Govt Support Pays Off says a new study. Japan's installation of new wind power capacity in 2016-17 is set to almost double that of the previous 12 months, helped by higher government tariffs, and a rising number of offshore wind farms.

OO Private Investor Divests Nearly $35 Million From Firms

Tied To Dakota Access Pipeline

OO China's Coal Consumption Falls For 3rd Year In A Row

OO Amazon Turns Warehouse Roofs Into Solar Power Stations 15 this year alone, and hopes to expand it to 50 sites by 2020.

Amazon also has already invested in a lot of renewable energy generated by wind turbines.

OO Utilities Have Invested Nearly $3 Billion In Distributed Energy Companies which will ease

the transition to a decentralized energy system as part of transitioning to clean renewable energy.

OO Ethiopia Looks To Carbon Trading As It Gears Up To Be Net Carbon Neutral By 2025 - Under Ethiopias Oromia Forested Landscape Program, the countrys region with highest concentration of biodiversity is on track to benefit from vital environmental protections.

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SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS

OO Earlier Snowmelt Means Slower Snowmelt

And Likely Less Water For Humans a new study finds:

• because the shorter days and cooler nights slow the melting
• meaning possiblyless water for humans,
• since slower flowing water can be taken up by plants more and evaporates more,
• before reaching water reservoirs.

OO Climate Change Blamed For Deadly Landslides In Chile for the third time in four years as temperatures rise, causing the water to fall as rain and not snow in the mountains.

OO 8 Health Risks That Could Get Worse With Climate Change a slideshow. Takeaways:

• Malaria as heat loving mosquitoes spread this and more: dengue fever, Zika, et al
• Kidney Stones warmer temperatures ups dehydration, which can lead to this malady.
• Waterborne parasites spread with increased flooding and heavy rainfall, attacking our intestines.
• Lyme Disease as warmer weather increases tick reproduction, which spreads the disease.

• Allergies as rising temperatures increase the allergy season and production of pollen
• Asthma and lung disease linked to local ozone levels, upped by more warmer days
• Salmonella + other food-borne illnesses since bacteria grow faster when its warmer
• Heat strokes upped by more frequent, longer and hotter heat waves as the planet heats.

OO "A Sense Of Despair": The Mental Health Cost Of Unchecked Climate Change - Climate change is threatening the emotional health of humans worldwide, scientists and mental health professionals warn.

As If Kids Didnt Have Enough to Worry About the world we are on track to leave them will send many into deep depression. Photo Source The Huffington Post

OO 4 Ways Climate Change Is Messing With Our Brains For The Worse - The brutal disasters of ongoing climate change affect our brains:

• disasters (eg, floods, tornadoes, drought) trigger PTSD, anxiety, depression, & drug abuse;
• even slight increases in heat raise the risk of riots, civil wars, & violent crimes.
• babies in utero, exposed to fossil fueled urban air pollution , are more likely to develop anxiety or depression in life.
• Many experience "climate anxiety", feeling depressed and overwhelmed, generating support groups.

That's just the beginning of what we're in for. So time to calm down, screw our heads on straight, and get to work fixing the climate problem.

Climate Change Is a Disaster We Cant Afford

OO The Social Cost Of Carbon Underscores An Obvious Fact: Climate Change Is Costly says a leading economist and climate policy manager.

OO Europe: Estimated Climate Change Losses

To Soar To $40+ Billion Annually By 2100 in just major coastal cities, indicates a new study, if, as currently, global carbon emissions continue to track the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's worst emission scenario.

Within 13 years, annual losses for these cities are estimated to reach $1.2 Billion.

OO Extreme Heatwave Days Already Hitting Poorer Nations More Than Rich

OO Inequalities Fuel Human Impacts On Climate

One effect of this inequality is that the top 10% produce almost as much total carbon emissions as the bottom 90% combined.

OO ‘Just Racist’: EPA Cuts Will Hit Black And Hispanic Communities The Hardest falling heaviest upon US communities of color that already suffer disproportionately from toxic pollution.

Climate Change Threatens All Major Food Groups as it disrupts the climate cycle under which crops grow. Wikipedia

OO What Climate Change Has To Do With The Price Of Your Lettuce - Unusual southwest weather could cause a nationwide salad shortage later this month. But that's just the tip of the iceberg (lettuce):

• As climate change ups more extreme weather,
• More food crops will be threatened,
• Such as apples , cherries, and plums in the US northeast and midwest,
• Or winter wheat in Kansas and Oklahoma.

• Under climate change, crop failures will keep rising -
• And lettuce will be the least of our concerns.

OO The 2015 Blob' Of Very Warm Pacific Water Boosted Western U.S. Ozone Levels

• creating west coast high pressure conditions that boosted ozone levels
• as well as damaging fisheries and the marine food chain bigtime.

OO High Number Of US Billion-Dollar Natural Disasters Impacted Solar Production In 2016 Takeaways:

most insurance claims on damage to solar installations are due to extreme weather events;

these are predicted to increase under continuing climate change.

Asthma Could Become Much Harder To Cure as bacteria in pollution become resistant to drugs.

OO Air Pollution Leads To More Drug Resistant Bacteria study finds, as black carbon found in air pollution can increase the resistance of bacteria that cause respiratory disease.

OO Somalia Says 110 Dead In Last 48 Hours Due To Drought a weather condition expected to intensity under continued climate change.

OO Global Warming Is Increasing Forest Fire Risk In The Alps Takeaways:

• some studies suggest Alps fire seasons will be 30-50 days longer by 2050
• the Alps are heating up twice as fast as the global average.
• another 4 to 6 degrees Celsius warming expected by 2100.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

@@ Climate Change 101: Why Care? What You Need to Know - Bill Nye tells it all in five minutes amid graphic, dynamic, engaging, compelling imagery. Check it Out!

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GOOD IDEAS

San Francisco Housing: A Challenge to Climate Change Goals? Source thenextweb.com

OO California Needs Far More Housing Density In Its Cities

to Meet Its Climate Change Goals warn state regulators, involving dramatic changes to how Californians live and travel. Los Angeles Times.

OO Sweden: From Recycling Royalty To Smart Buildings,

Stockholm Mayor Takes On Climate Change

• leading by personal example: eg, wearing secondhand clothes, riding an electric bike to work,
• and bigger changes eg, shutting its oldest coal plant;
• replacing it with a plant that will generate resellable waste heat;
• Upping the standards of energy efficiency in apartment buildings.

And bringing the citizens on board with the changes: "All our citizens are really aware we need to push the boundaries to fulfill our goals," she said..

OO A Citys Solar Potential Depends On The Length Of Its Road Network says a new study, showing that those with the longest roads allow optimizing buildings orientation and location, to optimize solar intake.

Thus, rainy Portland, Oregon, has an extensive road network and therefore a surprisingly large solar potential.

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NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS

OO How Disappearing Sea Ice Has Put Arctic Ecosystem Under Threat The Arctic will hit a record low extent of sea ice very soon, topping a loss of 2+ million square kilometers within 40 years. When sea ice disappears:

• Polar bears literally lose their hunting grounds, and starve;
• The base of the Arctic food chain, certain algae, lose their home;
• Narwhals, the unicorns of whales, lose their hiding place from killer whales,
• Seals lose their birthing grounds.

Almost all wildlife are being disrupted by the fast pace of global heating in the Arctic.

OO Northern Hemisphere Sees An Early Spring Due To Global Warming arriving an average 26 days earlier than just 10 years ago, the early spring is causing problems for the natural cycle of plants and wildlife.

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SPEAKING OUT

@@ Debunking Leaders Climate Denial Is A Real Teachable Moment says federal scientist Ben Santer on Late Night With Seth Meyers, which helps elevate the discussion and educate the public about the reality of climate change.

OO Scientists Are Poised To Start A New Movement arguing for politics grounded in evidence.

OO Former Bush Administration EPA Chief Urges Caution In Cutting Regulations

What Percentage of Americans Support Renewable Energy? 70+% according to a new study (red being 80-85% support). Source Yale Program on Climate change Information

OO Yale University Climate Opinion Maps Show

What Americans Think About Global Warming - The Climate Opinion Maps give an interactive glimpse into US view of threats from global warming, allowing users to see the Americans' opinions on climate change by state.

OO As Budget Cuts Loom, Former EPA Officials Plea

To Trump To Continue Agency's Work In a published appeal for a continued reliance on science to protect the nation's air and water.

OO Former EPA Scientists To Trump:

'Evidence Does Not Change When The Administration Changes.

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FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES

Shell Oil Warned of the Climate Change It Helped Make - they made a film, but took no lessons from it. Watch it here in all its grainy, primitive graphic effects!

OO Shell Made A Film About Climate Change In 1991

(But Did Not Heed Its Own Warning)

OO Oklahoma Faces Continued Risk Of Quakes Linked To Drilling: USGS

OO 'Disastrous': Australia's Carbon Emissions Jump As Coal-Fired Power Ramps Up after the scrapping of the carbon price, making it harder to meet its emissions targets.

OO Big Australian Banks Invest $7 Billion More In Fossil Fuels Than Renewables says report, even as it suffers worsening heat waves due to continued climate change, caused by burning coal and other fossil fuels.

OO Vietnam Develops Coal Power Despite Environmental Concerns

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FIXING CLIMATE CHANGE

@@ A Simple And Smart Way To Fix Climate Change given by Dan Miller in 2014 at a Ted talk suggests a way to profit as we tackle climate change, by finally charging those who sell and use fossil fuels and distributing the revenues back to all of us.

The strategy is sure to speed transition to clean renewable energy. Whats not to like? Check it out!

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POPE FRANCIS WEIGHS IN

OO Pope Francis Has Urged Us To Have Fewer Children, claims Vatican academy member, to make the world more sustainable, during a Vatican-run workshop on how to save the natural world .

The panel concurred that the survival of the planet is tightly linked to the number of people on the planet.

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If we do not live sustainably,

Our children will die inhumanely.

@@ How Parents Can Help Prevent Teen Pregnancy

Teen childbearing cost US taxpayers $9+ Billion in 2010

And the costs of raising a child usually ensures decades, if not a life, of poverty for its mother.

- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Help prevent unintended pregnancies in your community:

publicize where women can access affordable contraception.

They can go here to find locations:

And there are many more actions you can do, right here .

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Check it out here , right now!

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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS

Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Mar 16, 2017

Source cci-reanalyzer.org

How unusual has the weather been? No one event is caused by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.

Half of the US is experiencing unusually warmer weather while the other half is getting another Arctic blast, as the Arctic jet stream, loosened and loopy from being slowed by global warming, now often plunges down into the US, way off its usual course just decades ago. Western US coastal waters continue to be warmer than normal, not good for fisheries.

Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice, which is hitting record lows in extent. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.

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There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list Ive compiled, Climate Change News Resources, at Wordpress.com here . For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here .

To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!

Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by this wild flower I photographed one spring. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you'd like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here . It's our way of letting Congress know there's a strong clean energy voting bloc out there.