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June 25, 2018
A new study found that $63 billion worth of residential and commercial real estate in the United States may be threatened by chronic flooding over the next 15 years. Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org.
The Gulf of Maine has warmed faster than 99 percent of the world's oceans over the past 100 years, and while that benefitted the lobster industry by raising lobster stocks, it may lead to its downfall. Climate change warmed the Gulf of Maine to prime lobster temperatures, and the lobster industry for the state of Maine boomed. Conservation measures taken by local fishermen, like marking egg-bearing females, have also played a critical role in keeping lobster populations as high as they are. However, the industry is beginning to fear a future devoid of lobsters, as research suggests that lobster populations in the Gulf could shrink by more than 60 percent in the next 30 years. The emerging trends bode poorly for Maine's workers, since the prime lobster real estate is moving northward towards Canadian seas as ocean temperatures rise. Former president of the Maine Lobstermen's Association, Dave Cousens, said, "We’re past the point of climate change helping us. We’re on the downward spiral."
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New York Times
Recent water disputes, rising temperatures, and the resulting national security threats are among the reasons a Pakistani politician is asking for cooperation between Pakistan and India. Senator Sherry Rehman, opposition leader in the country's Senate, said, “Climate change is a threat that respects no boundaries and South Asia is now one of the most vulnerable regions. It is alarming that Pakistan and India are both way behind in formulating a comprehensive plan.” Climate change is already taking a toll, as 600 million people in India have faced substantial water stress and, according to a new report, drought conditions in Pakistan are affecting the current mango and cotton harvests. It is predicted that at least four percent of South Asian residents will not have access to an air conditioner, while being subject to unlivable heat within this century. The current water crisis is already straining relations and evoking intense disputes between India and Pakistan. Cooperation between the two nations will be vital to avoiding future conflicts over water and other environmental impacts caused by climate change.
Climate Change News
The world currently has an unprecedented number of displaced people, totaling 65.6 million to date. Despite renewed attention on refugee issues, the sub-set of "climate refugees" still lack any formal recognition or protection under international law. Climate refugees are people displaced by the impacts of climate change, such as extreme storms or droughts. Since 2008, an average of 24 million people have been displaced by extreme weather events each year. According to a recent World Bank report, slower moving disasters, such as desertification and sea level rise, are expected to push 143 million people from their homes by 2050. The three regions facing the greatest risk of climate-related displacement are sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. The United States is not immune to these events, as 2,300 Puerto Rican families still lack permanent housing following Hurricane Maria. Meanwhile, government officials are struggling to relocate more than a dozen coastal communities in Alaska and Louisiana at risk of washing away.
NPR
According to the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, the number of stories on global warming appearing on local television weather broadcasts has increased 15-fold over the past five years. Current trends predict thousands of these stories to appear in 2018, while just 55 were aired in 2012. The trend is significant, since local TV news remains a top source of information for the majority of Americans. Although 70 percent of Americans accept that climate change is happening, just 39 percent believe it's causing them harm today. George Mason and the non-profit Climate Central have collaborated to better equip broadcast meteorologists to contextualize climate change in their segments. The effort is funded through a National Science Foundation grant, with supporting research from NASA and NOAA. A 2017 survey found that 95 percent of TV weathercasters believed climate change was happening, but a quarter had concerns over raising the topic on the air. A review of a 2010 pilot program in South Carolina found that viewers' knowledge of climate change increased and overall newscast ratings increased during this period. Today, Climate Central offers localized climate research, analysis, and graphics to broadcast meteorologists in 244 American cities.
NBC News
There is a growing trend among shareholders, especially those in the energy industry, to call upon their company to produce climate change reports, specifically explaining how climate change will affect the company’s future business plans. For example, 40 percent of the shareholders at Marathon Petroleum Company supported a proposal to have the company produce a report on its business plan, and many other fossil-fuel related companies are receiving the same pressure from their shareholders. According to a recent report from the National Association of Manufacturers, these proposals have no short-term effect on the stock prices of a company. Natasha Lamb, a managing partner at Arjuna Capital, explains why shareholders are calling for these climate outlooks: “We’re asking for common sense business planning on how they can diversify their businesses and hedge climate change risk.” While there are some fossil-fuel companies already producing climate change reports, some experts argue these reports are overly optimistic in predicting how climate change may affect the fossil-fuel industry's business plans and future profits.
Energy News Network
A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) used data from the real estate website Zillow to reveal the extent climate change may threaten property in the United States. The study found that more than 150,000 homes and commercial buildings, valued at $63 billion, could be in danger of chronic flooding over the next 15 years. This heightened flood risk will come as a result of sea level rise and put coastal communities in danger, but today's real estate values have yet to adjust. Forty percent of the 175 communities at risk of chronic flooding will be low-income communities, not the affluent homeowners people typically associate with beachfront property. Whereas wealthier coastal communities often have the fiscal resources to bounce back from flooding, many of the poorer communities in low flood plains and at risk of inundation are made up of people without the resources to recover from a major disaster. Economist Rachel Cleetus of UCS said, "This is about entire communities that might find much of the property in their community gets inundated, and that might affect their community tax base."
InsideClimate News
Thirty years ago on June 23, NASA scientist James Hansen told Congress that climate change was here. Now, many of the changes scientists anticipated have arrived, as global temperatures have risen markedly, making extreme and often dangerous weather events much more common. Unprecedented heat has seen 2.3 million daily heat records broken at locales across the United States, while leading to shortened ski seasons, fearsome wildfires, and more powerful storms. Hurricane season now starts a month earlier, and storms are becoming stronger and more costly. Since 1988, America has faced the 14 most expensive hurricane recoveries in its history. Many of the effects of climate change are happening faster than expected, as Arctic sea ice is 50 years ahead of where scientists expected it would be in terms of its melting. Climate scientist Kathie Dello of Oregon State University observed, "The biggest change over the last 30 years is that we’re no longer thinking just about the future. Climate change is here, it’s now and it’s hitting us hard from all sides.”
Associated Press
According to a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, both climate change and shifts in land-use will become the two leading threats to biodiversity, and could reduce global biodiversity by one-third in approximately 50 years. By mid-century, climate change will become the leading reason for massive biodiversity loss, overtaking other threats such as deforestation and encroaching agriculture. These losses will be highest in areas likely to be converted to farmland, such as the grasslands of the southern parts of Africa and southern America. Biodiversity losses are not evenly spread across the globe, and they are not evenly spread across species – amphibians and reptiles will be most at risk. In their study, the researchers modeled four different climate scenarios and forecasted the biodiversity loss associated with each. The scenario that resulted in the largest global biodiversity loss was one that modeled global warming increasing at current rates. Limiting climate change to under two degrees Celsius would lessen the risk of biodiversity loss.
Carbon Brief
A recent study published in the journal Nature Geoscience reports that the most ambitious climate goal – maintaining climate change under 1.5 degrees Celsius – will be surpassed in 20 years. The study used new methods for projecting the amount of time until average global temperatures exceed an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius, and it moderately expands the world's carbon budget. The study is unique because it does not use a climate model to predict its results. Instead, the researchers took the ratio between the amount of warming the planet has already undergone and the current rate of temperature increase. Using this ratio, the researchers claim that they can more accurately predict the world’s remaining carbon budget, which results in the 20-year time frame until temperatures increase by 1.5 degrees. This prediction is actually an expanded carbon budget, as earlier research showed the world surpassing the 1.5 degree threshold much sooner. The study calculated that global greenhouse gas emissions would have to decrease an annual rate of four percent (beginning in 2017) to remain under this threshold.
Scientific American
Bipartisan House Climate Caucus Adds Six New Members, Total at 84
Regular Nuisance Flooding Plagues Texas Coastal Communities
GM and Honda Join Utilities on Accord to Boost Electric Vehicle Adoption
Study: U.S. Oil and Gas Operations Release 60 Percent More Methane Than Current EPA Estimates
Scientists Find U.S. Allergy Seasons Worsening with Warmer Weather
Writers: Maria Pfister and Tim Manning Editor: Brian La Shier
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