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October 1, 2018
Cleveland, Ohio announced plans to source 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2050. Image courtesy of maxpixel.net.
For the first time, a new study has quantified the magnitude of climate change on all 417 national parks in the United States. The study found that the average temperatures in national parks have increased at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the country, in addition to a decrease in average rainfall levels. At rates that high, scientists fear many native animal and plant species will not be able to migrate to accommodating habitats fast enough, since many national parks are located in extreme environments that make them more susceptible to the effects of climate change. Detailed maps from the report used data collected from various weather stations dating back to 1895, which the team used to project four climate change scenarios. These maps will aid the park service in resilience-building efforts. Former National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis cited a current lack of direction on climate resilience at the agency, adding, "The Park Service in the past has played a leadership role…and all of that is sort of lost at the moment."
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San Francisco Chronicle
Severe drought imperils Australia’s large agricultural sector, as climate change threatens to bring more challenges to the dry, southerly continent. Although its farmers are suffering and many private sector actors are taking steps to prepare for sea level rise and temperature increases, Australia still lacks a cohesive climate policy. “The government has revived the default approach the Liberal-National coalition has had on emissions since the 1990s: do as little as possible, hope that economic developments reduce emissions without policy intervention, deny that there are any policy issues, and defer as many issues as possible,” said Kobad Bhavnagri, of Bloomberg New Energy Finance in Australia. In a recent poll, 73 percent of Australians expressed concern for climate change, but this has not inspired meaningful policy changes. This uncertainty over impacts and policy has hindered numerous sectors of the country's economy, including pension fund investments. The next opportunity for voters to have their say is not expected to arrive until Australia's next federal election in May 2019.
Bloomberg
According to projections by the United Nations, two-thirds of the Asia-Pacific region's population will reside in urban areas by 2050. Experts are sounding the alarm that significantly more action is needed to make those cities resilient to natural disasters. The rapid urbanization combined with the rampant development of coastal areas has reportedly placed residents at risk from future typhoons. The U.N. estimates natural disasters have cost the Asia-Pacific region $1.3 trillion over the past four decades, with China, Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam hit especially hard by typhoons. Since the late 1970s, storms that have made landfall have become 15 percent more intense with a 50 percent increase in destructive power. Options for improving resilience include building code reforms, more strategic urban planning, and protecting natural coastal defenses, like mangrove forests. Loretta Hieber Girardet, chief of Asia-Pacific at the U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction office, said, "[Cities] need to plan urban growth - and that's not happening in Asia to the extent that it needs to happen."
Reuters
A novel study appearing in the journal Nature Climate Change measured what economists refer to as the social cost (or the economic damage) of carbon. The holistic study analyzed every country in the world, comparing each nation's carbon output with its estimated cost in damages from climate change. The United States ranked second only to India in estimated future economic costs. The results also indicated a disproportionate amount of damage in smaller countries who have contributed relatively miniscule quantities of emissions, but who now face sea level rise and drought as a result of the historical practices of industrialized nations. As opposed to most other large, developed countries, the social costs that the United States faces from climate change are substantial. The U.S. share of the projected damage is slightly less than its share of global emissions, but India is expected to suffer four times as much damage as its emission contributions.
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Inside Climate News
The world is in the midst of the worst refugee crisis since World War II, and climate change is expected to displace more people with more intense drought, storms, and flooding. According to Tim Ash Vie of the Climate Group, “Climate change is the force multiplier for chronic social and environmental problems.” States across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America are the most susceptible to political instability as climate change exerts new pressures. Shaped in the 1950s before modern climate science, international law does not classify people displaced by environmental disruptions as refugees. In the absence of war or political oppression, they are treated as economic migrants. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has recognized the severity of the threats posed by climate change, which became a major theme of the latest United Nations General Assembly that began on September 25. The Trump administration maintains that climate science is a hoax and recently reduced the U.S. cap on refugees to the lowest number since 1980.
Los Angeles Times
As the effects of human-induced climate change continue to batter vulnerable regions of the United States, millions of Americans may be faced with a decision to relocate. Rather than rebuilding after a damaging storm or living with the constant threat of wildfires, families are opting to uproot and head for less susceptible areas of their cities, or settle out-of-state. Researchers compare this movement to the Dustbowl upheaval of the 1930’s and the Great Migration of the 20th century, although they warn this migration will be slower to spread and much more extensive. Massive sea-level rise alone could displace 13 million people by the end of this century with a projected six foot sea level increase. Climate migration is estimated to massively shift the country’s makeup, but as Professor Orrin Pilkey of Duke University states, “I don’t see the slightest evidence that anyone is seriously thinking about what to do with the future climate refugee stream.” Some communities have already begun mass relocation efforts, but this remains an infeasible solution for most at-risk communities.
Guardian
On September 20, Cleveland, Ohio announced a new city-wide goal of sourcing 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2050. This is an update to the city's 2015 climate action plan, which now places Cleveland on a growing list of more than 80 cities which have made similar commitments. The revised plan identifies building efficiency, improved public transportation, the deployment of electric vehicles, and offshore wind power as opportunities for achieving its proposed goal of reducing emissions by 80 percent below 2010 levels by 2050. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson wrote, "This plan is about much more than climate change. Implementing the actions in this plan will create a more sustainable Cleveland [and strengthen] our economy." Despite issuing its first climate plan in 2013, the city reduced its emissions by just two percent from 2010 levels thus far. Advocates claim Cleveland's plan is not ambitious enough and does not reflect the rapid transition taking place in global electricity markets.
InsideClimate News
Following Hurricane Florence, solar power providers in North Carolina reported virtually no damage to solar farms or interruptions in service for consumers. Solar installations provide only a small percentage of the state’s energy, while the vast majority comes from coal and nuclear sources. Intense flooding can also lead to outages, since utilities will not want to risk running power lines that are submerged or potentially damaged. Flooding has continued to threaten coal-fired power plants, while the conditions brought by Hurricane Florence have resulted in multiple failures at coal ash storage sites across the state. Coal ash is a toxic product of burning coal and can spill into waterways when storage sites are flooded or damaged. Tyson Grinstead, director of policy for the company Sunrun, observed, "Storm readiness and disaster preparedness, particularly in the Southeast, are major factors for people in going solar." Chris Burgess of the Rocky Mountain Institute, said, "Major manufacturers are basically designing typhoon-rated wind turbines, for really, really heavy winds. Anything installed in the last couple of years, they are very, very resistant to wind and extremely resistant to flooding,"
CBS News
Methane, a greenhouse gas roughly 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide, has been found seeping from a number of Arctic lakes. One such lake in Alaska has been found spewing methane gases containing a chemical signature of “geologic” origin from deep within the earth. Measurements found that the lake emits two tons of methane gas per day, equal to the methane emissions from 6,000 dairy cows. Scientists fear the lake findings could indicate a potentially widespread and previously unaccounted for source of greenhouse gases, in addition to the methane already resulting from melting permafrost. A separate phenomenon involves thermokarst lakes, which occur when ice formations in permafrost melt and fill in with water, contributing to the permafrost melt cycle. The continued growth of thermokarst lakes could more than double the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by Arctic tundra by 2100. If the study's estimates are correct, this would be equivalent to adding the emissions of two industrialized economies the size of Germany's to global emission totals.
Washington Post
Marine heatwaves, coral bleaching, ocean acidification, and other factors have taken a severe toll on the world's coral reefs, which provide vital ecological services as storm buffers, food sources, and marine nurseries. Florida is home to the world's third-largest barrier reef, featuring 1,400 plant and animal species and 500 fish species. However, around half of Florida's reef has been lost over the past 250 years, due to a combination of water pollution, human activities, and climate change. In 2014 and 2015, Florida's reef experienced bleaching events, which causes the reef's symbiotic algae to be expelled and potentially die due to extreme heat stress. Kim Cobb of the Georgia Institute of Technology said, "The outlook for the Florida reef is pretty grim. Just as the reef is climbing out of decades of systemic problems it is under increasing threat from climate change." Scientists hope to use farmed coral to help give reefs damaged by climate change a better chance of bouncing back, but the process brings its own set of logistical challenges.
EPA Abolishes Its Office of the Science Advisor
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Pollution Unleashed by Hurricane Florence Makes Ocean Unsafe for Swimming
Hurricane Florence Is Nation's Second Rainiest Storm in Past 70 Years
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