Climate Change This Week: Trump Policies Kill US Babies, Business Bucks Trump, 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 as are ours.

Saving BUB, Beautiful Unique Biodiversity, as in this slug moth caterpillar in Thailand, is another reason to preserve carbon storing forests.

Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon

OO As Thailand Ramps Up Its Palm Oil Sector, Peat Forests Feel The Pressure

• In Thailand, the world's third-largest producer of palm oil, about 70 % of oil palm land is held by small-scale farmers.
• The government is trying to reclaim land from palm oil encroachers in the Pru Kaching peat swamp forest protected area, but its difficult.
• In order to grow crops like oil palm in peatlands, the swampy peat must be drained which releases carbon into the atmosphere and makes the forests that overlay them more susceptible to fire.

When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.

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TRUMP POLICIES KILL US BABIES

By executive orders and legislation, Trump and the GOP are promoting policies that will increase the number of US babies dying from their effects most notably, from asthma. How?

• By promoting fossil fuel burning, and removing and preventing pollution regulations,
• These policies will result in increased US air pollution,
• Of the type shown to damage lungs, increase asthma, and worsen existing asthma;

• CDC data show that 51 babies, including pre-schoolers, died of asthma in 2010,
• And in 2007, CDC stated that US asthma was increasing.
• Increased US air pollution increases asthma morbidity among children.

Increasing US air pollution will increase, not prevent, the deaths of US babies.

Thus, Trump policies will continue and increase the killing of US babies.

OO Trump's Coal Revival Will Make It Harder To Breathe and certainly harm public health.

OO Trump's Executive Order: More Fossil Fuels, Regardless Of Climate Change

The primary aim is to:

• unleash fossil fuel, especially coal development, by
• undoing policies that curb pollution from power plants.

Trump boasted, "We're going to have clean coal, really clean coal," totally without evidence, for there is no demonstration that clean coal is economically feasible:

OO Climate-Friendly Coal Technology Works But Is Proving Difficult To Scale Up

Credit Tom Toles at the Washington Post

OO Republicans Try To Eviscerate EPA: Sneaky Plan Smothers Future Environmental Regulations

• The recently passed GOP House bill
• Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment (HONEST) Act [MEH: Im not making this up]
• is a pernicious attempt to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from creating rules
• to protect the environment and public health:

• How? By insisting EPA only use scientific studies for which ALL data is publicly available and results are easily reproducible.
• The problem? Many public health studies use private medical data, while others contain trade secrets and industry data.
• And public health studies are often impossible to reproduce as when based on past events, for ex.
• "Almost everything that has been done in the last 10, 11, 12 years would not pass the standards."
• independent EPA studies would be hobbled, too.

This will effectively stall regulations for decades.

Welcome to the GOP-Trump World of Suicidal Stupidity.

THE BIG PICTURE

@@ Species On The Move: impacts on ecosystems and human well-being.

OO The Big Picture: How Climate Change Will Change Life On Earth, And Us - As the global climate changes, human well-being, ecosystem function, and even climate itself are increasingly affected by the shifting geography of life. Takeaways:

• the rate at which moveable species are moving is speeding up with climate change.
• MEH: but even this does not guarantee long term survival
• species respond differently and at different rates, causing disruptions in the web of life.
• Disruptions can change entire ecosystems, and impact human communities.

• Changes in the distributions of species affect:
• production of natural resources required for food security,
• patterns of disease transmission,
• climate-changing carbon storage processes.

MEH: Some places will get too hot to grow important cereal crops, for ex.

More takeaways:

• some range shifts even create feedbacks on climate, speeding up climate change.
• human policies need to recognize and incorporate this information.

Related:

OO Climate Change: Global Reshuffle Of Wildlife Will Have Huge Impacts On Humanity

says a major new analysis.

Extinct from Climate Change and possibly other factors, the famed golden toad of Central America is one of many amphibians that have disappeared worldwide. Wikipedia

OO Could Global Warming Cause Extinction Of Plants And Animals? Yes - Takeaways:

• All plants and animals have temperature ranges beyond which they cannot survive;
• Some species can move, but that has limits island edges, mountaintops, etc.
• Many species depend on others: when coral reefs die, so do many other dependent species.
• Climate change is evolving too fast for many (MEH if not most) species to adapt.

Aliens Threaten A US Native dandelions came from Eurasia but are now all over the US, even in wilderness, threatening American native plants, like this native larkspur. Thousands of different alien plants threaten our native ones, and cost us billions to eradicate. Ask the plant pesticide industry.

MEH: climate change is just one of several extinction stresses on species worldwide, as in:

• Loss of habitat
• Harmful alien species
• Pollution
• Human hunting

Often extinction is a 1-2 punch:

it starts with a major die-off from one effect, such as climate change;

the last, weakened and stressed population is killed off by another effect, like an epidemic.

How We Destroyed Paradise is how our descendants will view ruefully what our short-sighted greed did to a planet that was formerly a very friendly environment for humanity.

OO A New Era Dawns And It Won't Be Human-Friendly - Human mistreatment of the planet is ushering in another era and it is not going to be pleasant, says a new book . Takeaways:

• Our rampant, irrational use of the planet and its resources,
• including our exploitation of climate-changing fossil fuels,
• means we are disrupting the Earth system that sustains us.

Our refusal to regulate ourselves contradicts

every modern belief about the kind of creature a human being is.

OO Seven Things To Know About Climate Change in the April 2017 issue of National Geographic, shows, with lots of graphic imagery, that:

1. The world is getting warmer.
2. Its because of us.
3. Were sure. And over 97% of all scientists are.
4. Ice is melting FAST.
5. Weather is wreaking havoc.
6. Species are being disrupted.

7. We Can Do Something About It switch to renewable clean energy, which is as cheap or cheaper than fossil fuels already in many parts of the world. The faster we do so the more money and resources we save.

MEH: Their featured solution is switching to clean energy, but no mention of addressing the Tyrannosaurus rex in the room: our unsustainably growing populations.

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@@ 5 Things You Need to Know About Climate Change with Bill Nye, the science guy the best one minute summary I know, done with humor and punch.

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THE ILLUSORY PROMISE OF GEO-ENGINEERING

Okay, Buddy, Put That Test Tube Down Realllll Slow geoengineering trades one set of somewhat understood problems, stemming from some unintended human geoengineering, for another set of which we can know little in advance. NOT a good idea.

OO Techno-Fixes For Climate Change? Not So Fast some envision geoengineering big changes to the air or oceans to fix the climate changes humans have created. But, wait

• humans already unintentionally geoengineered big changes and practically no leaders or scientists predicted the climate change outcome.
• This illustrates geoengineering flaws : it creates monumental consequences that are almost impossible to predict.
• Such grand experiments are trading one set of problems that we kind of know about, for another of which we know little.

You can download a guide to geoengineering here.

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CLIMATE CHANGE COMMUNICATION MORE OR LESS

OO PBS Is The Only Network Reporting On Climate Change: Trump Wants To Cut It

MEH: Maybe if we show him graphic images of dead babies killed from climate change fueled disasters

OO I Am An Arctic Researcher. Donald Trump Is Deleting My Citations even as the Arctic warms twice as fast as the global average.

OO Major US TV Networks Devoted 50 Minutes TOTAL In 2016 To Climate Change MEH: abyssmal ignorance, or subversive censorship? You judge.

Meanwhile, back in 1980, TV got it right:

@@ 1980: Respected TV Anchorman Informs the Public on Global Warming

OO Climate Change Skeptic Group Seeks To Mislead 200,000 US Teachers Takeaways:

• Heartland Institute, a libertarian climate-change-denying thinktank, mass mailed US teachers
• A book and DVD rejecting overwhelming scientific consensus on human driven climate change.
• The utter nonsense is dressed up to look like science and thus confuse and mislead teachers.

Spread the Word: Dont be fooled by these evil fools!

Related:

OO (Warning) Teachers: Be On The Alert For This Anti-Science Mailing!

OO How To Raise Climate Literacy: Address Misinformation -- Case Studies - Its an academic paper, but here are the takeaways:

Case 1. For conservative leaning students:

• Give an example of how Democrats were motivated to believe in nonexistent evidence:
• This shows that everyone is capable of indulging in motivate reasoning.
• Follow up with a reading and discussion of a piece of climate change misinformation, and its debunking.
• The reading should encourage students to question seemingly reliable information sources,
• And consider the full array of arguments being made regarding human driven climate change.

Education, Then Exercising It is a good way for students to critically assess claims about climate change. Source www.theodysseyonline.com

Case 2. For undereducated students, teach critical assessment and communication techniques:

• Give them the basic scientific education for understanding climate change;
• Assign students research assignments to examine and debunk climate myths. Takeaways:

• Warn readers up front of why misleading myths are created: to delay costly action;
• When debunking a climate myth, replace it with a simple explanation of the reality.
• Remind readers that ultimately climate change harms all of us.

Tweeting The Truth of Climate Consensus Obama played a role in reaching out and educating people on the real overwhelming scientific consensus on human driven climate change.

Case 3. Closing the Consensus Gap via Social and Mainstream Media Outreach

• Many are misled into believing there is confusion among scientists over climate change;
• Public confusion delays pressure on leaders for action;
• Outreach on the real overwhelming consensus of climate change needs to be constant and across media channels.

OO Congress Science: Committee Show Hearing On Climate Change was indeed a show. Takeaways:

• Overall, it was a horrendously depressing display of scientific illiteracy,
• With most witnesses articulating flawed thinking in their testimony on climate change.

But there was some surprising agreement among most witnesses:

• Climate change is occurring and at least in part due to human activities;
• Trumps proposed cuts to Earth-observing systems at NASA, NOAA, and elsewhere are stupid.
• Scientific uncertainty is not going to be eliminated on this topic before we have to act. that is, we cant wait until we are certain of all the details to act on an increasingly threatening process.

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LETS MARCH TWICE!!

We Resist. We Build. We Rise. Lets March for our children and our future by marching for science on April 22nd, and for the climate on April 29th one week later.

OO April 22: Energy Grows For Worldwide March For Science, As Trump Wages War On It - Nearly 400 marches in 37 countries will take place on April 22, demonstrating global resistance to Trump agenda.

AND

@@ 7 INSANE Effects of Climate Change in Your Lifetime compelling, but dont watch while eating.

OO April 29: March For A Safe Climate. says 350.org. March with hundreds of thousands of others to:

• push forward with a united vision of a clean energy economy that works for all.
• reject Trumps attack on our communities and climate,
• Push back against fossil-fuel-soaked nationalism, xenophobia, and hatred.
• Push back against corporate censorship of climate change.

Create a huge impact on our leaders, as past marches have.

You can sign up here .

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TRUMP TRUMPED BY CLIMATE CHANGE

OO Big Companies Defy Trump On Climate Change - Two years ago, 365 companies and investors including Nestl, General Mills, Mars, Staples, Unilever, and others signed a petition to state governors urging them to implement the Clean Power Plan. Theyre still on board, despite Trump.

OO 'Climate Change Is Real': Companies Challenge Trump's Reversal Of Policy

Were disappointed the administration has decided to roll back climate regulations such as the clean power plan and others, said Edward Hoover, a MARS senior manager. Corporations cant do it alone. Governments play a critical role

General Electric CEO Gets Real on Climate Change we need more people like Jeffrey Immelt.

OO In Rebuke To Trump, GE Chief Says 'Climate Change Is Real and said climate change "should be addressed on a global basis through multi-national agreements" such as the 2015 Paris Agreement.

OO Why One Powerful Republican Doubts Trump's Climate Policy

If they dont get it together, were going to have a different administration in four years Said the chief utility regulator of Arkansas, and a main decision maker for energy policy, now that the feds are pulling out of it.

OO President Trump Risks The Planet by slashing policies that would slow the onset of further catastrophic climate change.

OO Trump Moves Decisively To Wipe Out Obamas Climate-Change Record

OO Planned Rollback Of Climate Rules Unlikely To Achieve All Trump's Goals

We dont import coal. So ... this has nothing to do with so-called energy independence whatsoever.

OO New EPA Documents Reveal Even Deeper Proposed Cuts To Staff And Programs the new, more detailed plan calls for:

• laying off 25 % of its employees;
• scrapping 56 programs including pesticide safety, water runoff control,
• and environmental cooperation with Mexico and Canada.

OO Trump's 'Insane' Climate Change Policy Will Destroy More Jobs Than It Creates says global warming expert, by speeding up global warming, thus ensuring more catastrophic disasters for more businesses.

@@ Why Climate Change Researchers Are Freaking Out Some transparency advocates fear public access to data might disappear, under Trump.

OO As Trump Halts Federal Action On Climate Change, Cities And States Push On - A joint statement opposing Trumps position, signed by US leaders representing voters that account for nearly $3 Trillion, says, in part:

to act on climate is to act in our best economic interests. Through expanded climate policies, we have grown jobs and expanded our economies while cleaning our air.

(cut to 2:30 minutes in)

@@ Want To Fix Climate Change? Just Ban The Phrase! - The ingenious way Trump et al have devised to fix climate change: ban the words out of existence! At least at the EPA. In Late Night With James Corden he suggests subs for: Climate Change -- Endless Summer , Tornadoes -- Fun Time Twisty Wind, and Earthquakes -- Dirt Twerks.

Seriously, this could really turn into a fun office game. As the Trump circuse attains new heights in entertainment!

OO Forbidden Phrases At US Dept. Of Energy: Don't Use 'Climate Change.' despite rising ocean levels, a shrinking Arctic ice pack, and rising atmospheric CO2 levels. It doesnt matter to Trump. Just dont mention it.

OO Scientists Are Mad And Fighting Back Against Attacks From GOP, Trump - with a historic march, as scientists insist that policy decisions are based on careful evaluation of empirical evidence.

19th Century Climate Scientists Who Could Teach EPA Head Pruitt if only they were alive: JB Joseph Fourier, Svante Arrhenius, and John Tyndall.

OO Scientists Understood The Climate 150 Years Ago Better Than Trumps EPA Head Today Takeaways:

• 1827: Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier showed how heat entered, was trapped by, and left planets, including Earth.
• 1860s: John Tyndall showed how gases absorb heat differently and that CO2 was a big absorber.
• 1896: Svante Arrhenius accurately predicted global warming resulting from burning fossil fuels.

All of these scientists understood the climate better than EPA head Scott Pruitt too bad they cant rise from the dead to inform him!

OO Trumps War On Science Is Via His Budget Plan a narrow-minded document that sacrifices American innovation to small-bore politics.

OO Trump Leaves Science Jobs Vacant, Troubling Critics

• Departures have practically wiped out the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy,
• the staff of the White House chief technology officer has dwindled to one.
• No scientist attends daily briefings.
• Trump is apparently not interested in what science has to offer policy.

OO Trumps Pipeline Permit Is Bad For Both The US Economy And The Environment

OO China Poised To Take Lead On Climate After Trump's Move To Undo Policies

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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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CLIMATE LEADERSHIP

Ex GOP Senator Bob Inglis Urges GOP to Tackle Climate Change Source www.pri.org

OO Climate Converts: The Conservatives Who Are Switching Sides On Warming - a small yet growing number of Republicans , conservatives, and libertarians are starting to push for action on climate.

OO Florida Congress House Bloc: Keep Drilling Out Of Eastern Gulf of Mexico say the 17 members.

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HOT NEWS

OO Expect More Deadly Heat From Climate Change says a new study, which finds that we still have an unacceptable number of premature deaths related to heat waves," in megacities under continuing climate change.

Under current trends, 350+ million additional people will be exposed to heat stress by 2050.

OO Rare Deadly Heatwaves Could Strike Yearly Even If Global Warming Targets Are Met warn scientists. And if they arent, expect even worse, killing thousands more yearly.

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MELTDOWN

Check out the first 2 minutes...

@@ Glacier Change & Sea Level Rise via a NASA scientist. The first 2 minutes summarize how global warming will be creating major rises in sea levels. How do the ocean and ice sheets interact to drive sea level change?

OO The Arctic Is Warm Again Because Of Course It Is! in a story that is basically writing itself, incredibly mild air is surging into the Arctic again, cranking up the heat as melt season gets underway:

Global warming > warms Arctic > weakens jet stream, making it loop into hotter southern zones > and ship hot air into the Arctic > warming the Arctic further

Doorway to the Underworld Siberian Crater Is Growing aka Batagaika, it continues to slump and spread, along its headwall anywhere from 30 to 100 feet yearly.

OO Siberia's Crater Is Growing Fast, Uncovering Ancient Forests from 200,000 years ago. Deforestation allowed the ground there to warm faster and melt, ultimately causing the first crater to form as the ground collapsed. Later, flooding further enlarged the crater.

Siberia is melting and changing fast as:

• Permafrost melts, creating lakes, and
• releasing methane sometimes explosively,
• creating huge craters.
• Elsewhere, tundra starts bubbling beneath peoples feet.

@@ Is A Methane Bomb About To Explode? Explosively releasing vast amounts of Arctic methane, which could dramatically speed climate warming further? The anxiety is palpable in Arctic climate scientist Natalia Shakhovas voice (at about 5:30 minutes) in 2013 as she explains how this could happen within decades.

On the other hand, NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt indicates that data do not support a likely explosion of methane release over then next few decades.

Overall, the chances of a methane bomb:

• are high enough to merit alarm
• but not enough to convince a number of reputable climate scientists.
• But it fosters a middle group of scientists who believe in a troubling, medium release of the methane*

*not a dribble, not a bomb, but somewhere in between, of an amount of carbon (both CO2 and methane) equalling up to a third of human emissions by the end of 2100.

Thats One BIG Bubble among thousands in Siberia that are getting ready to explode climate changing carbon emissions into the air from meltiner permafrost. Source Siberian Times

OO 7,000 Underground Gas Bubbles Poised To 'Explode' In Arctic scientists have found in Siberia. Recently formed large craters there have already been formed by explosive releases of methane.

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GOOD CLEAN NEWS

OO Ohio: Coal Employment Falls, As Solar Jobs Double In Cleveland but that could stumble from uncertainty over Ohios renewable portfolio standards.

OO UK Breaks Solar Energy Record On Sunny March Weekend

OO Norway's Fossil-Free Energy Start-Ups Are Growing

OO Australia: Ignoring Federal Govt, Canberra Takes Lead In Renewable Energy Race

OO South Australia To Get $1 Billion Solar Farm And World's Biggest Battery

OO Maryland Senate Gives Final Approval To Fracking Ban

OO Why The West Will Continue To Green Without The Clean Power Plan

• California will continue to lead in clean energy;
• Western state energy mandates will keep fueling a clean energy transition;
• Coal plants will continue to close for economic reasons.
• But progress will be slower and spottier without federal help.

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SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS

OO The Mental Health Toll Of Climate Change Could Be Dire says a new report by the American Psychological Association:

• besides the trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder that can occur from extreme weather disasters like flooding,
• an individual's core sense of identity could be undermined due to climate change disasters,
• and the binds that hold societies together might be pushed to their breaking point.

OO Climate Change Can Take A Toll On Mental Health besides our physical health, new report says:

• most dramatically through physical loss and social displacement from climate-change fueled disasters.
• Prolonged exposure to hot weather makes people more aggressive and decreases their cognitive skills.

Related:

OO The Unspoken Climate Change Problem: Anxiety And Depression which is becoming significant, even as other, more obvious climate change problems grow.

OO Climate Change's Mental Health Impacts Need Care, Too - Often overlooked, the mental part of dealing with extreme weather and other climate impacts is crucial, new report says.

Haiti Contributes Little To Climate Change, But Reaps Its Damage from ever more extreme hurricanes. Source AP Images

OO Why Is Climate Change A Moral Issue? Because although the rich contribute far more per capita to climate change, the poor suffer far more from it, having far fewer resources to adapt.

OO Climate Change Is New Challenge In Fighting Disease Outbreaks says a UN health adviser, adding that poor countries need more resources and training to combat infectious diseases that are spreading in new ways and to new places, partly due to a changing climate.

Weather, or Climate Change? Actually, both: climate change affects all weather. Think about it: if the entire planet is absorbing heat, then EVERYTHING on the planet is experiencing it, indirectly, or directly. If you heat a pot of water, ALL of the water gets heated.

OO Communities Retreat As Oceans Swell, Coasts Erode - An exhaustive new analysis highlights an emerging migration crisis thats worsening as global warming overwhelms shorelines.

OO Coastal Community Retreat Underway in US And Worldwide

Louisiana: As Seas Rise, This Community Must Retreat Credit William Widmer

OO As Climate Change Threatens, US Communities Retreat From Rising Seas - As Trump dismantles climate change protections, some US coastal communities are now planning a "managed retreat" from sea rise.

OO Rising Sea Levels Could Decimate Southern California Beaches By 2100

Credit Eric Anderson, Associated Press

OO Tornadoes Striking At Record Pace In US So Far This Year Takeaways:

• The number of US 2017 tornadoes is climbing at a record pace.
• Powerful storm systems hit the West Coast,
• then head towards central and eastern U.S.,
• Creating tornadoes and other extreme weather events.

OO Even a Conservative View of Climate Change Shows It Is Here And Now and changing our environment FAST. MEH:

Much accepted interpretation of scientific climate research is conservative, to increase consensus.

This results in major climate change reports under-predicting the disastrous effects of continued climate change.

Deforesting Laos For Needed Chinese Timber - a truck hauls the resource back to China. Credit Hoang Dinh Nam, Getty Images

OO A Population Bomb Explodes: As Populous China Exploits Global Resources,

It Is Harming Ecosystems, Biodiversity And Climate boosting carbon emissions globally as it deforests, mines, dams, and farms globally, even as it pursues clean energy development at home.

OO Poor Farmers Unlike Rich - Face Uphill Battle With Pakistan's Climate Extremes - adopting drip irrigation and laser leveling to conserve water are out of reach for poor farmers.

Beneath A Dead Blue Sea, An Ancient Tale of Future Drought lies in its sediments. Credit Yair Aronshtam via Flickr

OO Dead Sea Warns Of Unprecedented Mideast Drought

• in its 100,000 yr old sediments,
• which shows the area getting just 20% of moden rain levels
• at temperature levels, 4 C higher than 20th century levels,
• towards which we are rapidly headed via burning fossil fuels.

• Unlike ancient times, however, 400 million people
• Across the Mideast and North Africa are
• Already on daily water rations.
• Imagine the resulting refugee crisis if

A Graphic History of Mayan Climate Change And War Wikimedia Commons

OO Climate Change Incited Wars Among The Classic Maya As summer temperatures rose, so did Mayan conflicts, finds a new study .

• rising temperatures have been shown to increase human aggressive instincts;
• rising Mayan temperatures started producing shortfalls of the main crop, corn.
• And large scale deforestation by an expanding population sped the heating.

• Facing food shortages, rulers might have increased conflicts
• To distract their people from home problems, and as a tool to maintain popular support
• Much like modern leaders today do.

Like the Mayans, conflicts will multiply as climate change and rising temperatures continue.

Surviving Children Rescued From Lethal Mudslide Source thesun.co.uk

OO Colombia: Climate Change Fueled Rains, Mudslides Leave Dozens Of Children Dead unusually warm coastal waters intensified rains that flooded a city, and resulted in mudslides from surrounding deforested slopes.

OO Colombia Mudslide, Flooding Kill 254 In Midnight Deluge in the city of Macoa, brought on by extreme downpours, and deforested mountain slopes.

Source www.sbs.com.au

OO Peru: Latest Example Of Climate Fueled Extremes

• extreme rainfall has created major flooding episodes in coastal areas over March,
• 110,000+ peopl have been displaced by flooding since December;
• 80+ deaths have occurred.

OO Strange Things Are Happening Off The Coast Of Peru, And Thousands Are Affected - An unexpected warmup in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean is causing heavy rains to repeatedly batter Peru, causing some of the worst flooding in decades.

Heaviest Human Impacts Are Darkest and reflect a combination of detrimental factors, including climate change. Shipping lanes also leave trails of accumulated pollution. Source www.nationalgeoraphic.com

OO An Oceanic X-Ray Reveals Human Impacts with a new interactive graphic by National Geographic.

• Researchers were shocked to find two-thirds of the ocean show increased strain from human-related factors, such as fishing and climate change.
• Human driven stresses including open-sea and deep-water fishing, commercial shipping, and climate changedamage ocean habitats.

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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

OO Working With The Soil Helps Mitigate Climate Change and improves crop yields. Techniques include:

• Eliminate plowing
• Use nutrient enriching cover crops to revive soil between regular crops
• Enrishing soil with organic matter.

OO Nuclear Power Is Dying. Can Radical Innovation Save It? many startups are working on innovative new reactor designs that are smaller, safer, and (hopefully) cheaper than ever.

Testing For Rare Treasures in Ash Source pratt.duke.edu

OO Appalachian Coal Mine Waste Could Provide Key Ingredients For Clean Energy using the waste as a rich ore for rare earth elements needed for clean energy and other applications.

OO New Technologies Are Shrinking Wastewaters Hefty Carbon Footprint

Source www.renewableenergyworld.com

OO Large-Scale Energy Storage Is The (Virtual) Power Plant Of The Future as a startup builds up the battery network needed to power homes through the night.

OO Low-Carbon Energy Boosts Human And Ecological Health by cutting in half the environmental impacts of power generation by 2050 says, new research.

OO Solar Energy And Salt Water Power Vegetable Farms In The Desert - a Norwegian company is setting up a solar-powered facility in Jordan, one of the world's most arid countries, to grow vegetables without wasting a drop of fresh water.

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NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS

Imagine Leaving A Faucet On Now Think BIG bathrooms flood when faucets are left on, and whole areas flood when a rain system stalls over them for days.

OO Climate Change-Fueled Jet Stream Linked To Brutal Floods And Heatwaves says study.

A slowdown in planetary winds triggered recent episodes of extreme weather by stalling weather systems.

OO Extreme Weather Linked To Climate Change Impact On The Jet Stream a polar band of wind. Takeaways:

• The jet stream is driven by the temperature difference between the Arctic and warmer zones below;
• This difference decreases as the Arctic heats much faster than those zones.
• This slows the jet stream, causing it to meander, looping deep into warmer zones.
• The meandering brings frigid cold into the southern US, and sends heat into Alaska.

• But slower winds also create more stationary patterns,
• Increasing weather pattern stalls over areas:
• If its rain, this leads to flooding;
• If its hot, sunny weather, this can become heatwaves and droughts.

Normal in 1980, Extreme Weather Now as the jet stream creates these wind paths send cold south and heat north and stalling enough to worsen weather from normal to catastrophic. Credit Michael Mann, Penn State

Now, research shows that 6 to 8 loops in the jet stream tends to create such weather stalls, which are linked to very extreme weather events, such as:

• The 2003 European heatwave,
• The 2011 Texas and Oklahoma heatwave and drought;
• The 2015 California wildfires.

Related:

OO Climate Change Not Only Intensifies Weather, It Alters Its Flow

OO New Arctic Algae Is More Proof Of Global Warming - Since 2011, algae has appeared there, brought to life by the thinning ice which allows more sunlight than ever before.

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SPEAKING OUT

OO CA Gov. Jerry Brown Calls Trump's Exec Order On Climate Change A 'Colossal Mistake,' and says there will be a 'counter-movement', predicting Trump's actions will mobilize environmentalists in a way President Obama never could.

OO Russian President Putin: Climate Change Inevitable

OO Saving The Planet From Climate Change Requires Action Now say popular ecologist and writer David Suzuki and Ian Hannington.

• With rapidly accelerating climate change threatening the very future of humanity, it will take nothing short of a revolution to turn things around.
• The degree of hardship and sacrifice that will entail depends on the determination, speed, and comprehensiveness of our actions.

Resisitng Dirty Coal in Indonesia Credit Jurnasyanto Sukarno at Greenpeace

OO Indonesia: Thousands Of Anti-Coal Activists March, Deliver Complaints To Anti-Graft Agency - and focused on what activists call coalruption in Indonesias mining and power sectors, which pollutes communities and destroys important community natural resources.

OO Mexico: Oil Drillers Face An Angry Mob In Guerrilla Country

"With machetes, with pistols, with whatever necessary, we will defend our land."

OO Groups File Suit To Halt Keystone XL Pipeline - Native American groups and environmental advocates challeng the State Department's approval, based on its about-face on the environmental impact.

OO Montana Tribe, Conservationists Sue US Government For Ending Coal Moratorium - on public land without consulting tribal leaders and conducting a full environmental review.

OO Vatican Says Trump Risks Losing Climate Change Leadership To China and urges Trump to listen to "dissenting voices" and reconsider his position on climate change.

OO Climate Change: China Calls US 'Selfish' After Trump Seeks To Bring Back Coal with a state-run tabloid saying that:

No matter how hard Beijing tries, it wont be able to take on all the responsibilities that Washington refuses to take. So true.

OO The Republican Assault On Climate Science Is Evil, And Evil Must Be Fought

• The GOP climate change position has long been an infuriating and dishonest attempt to muddy the water and delay.
• This week it has gone from simple dishonesty to active destruction.
• This is the hill worth dying on.

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FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES

Tar Sands Block Canadas Climate Goals Credit Todd Korol

OO Canada's Climate Change Policies Keep Its Paris Commitments Out Of Reach With no rollback in Alberta tar sands production.

OO Canada: Albertas Oilsands Tailings Ponds Fail Cleanup Standards

OO Cook Inlet: Oil Platforms Powered By Leaking Alaska Pipeline Forced To Shut Down

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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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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, Oct 12, 2014

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.

Unusually heavy rains have released California from a SURFACE water drought, but significantly depleted California aquifers keep 60+% of the state in a GROUNDWATER drought , which will likely take decades to disappear. It also means this major US agricultural region has a small safety net, when the next dry year strikes.

Practically ALL of the US is experiencing unusually warm temperatures, as well as its surrounding waters.

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. 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.