Arguments
2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #40
Posted on 6 October 2018 by John Hartz
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week.
Editor's Pick
The Nihilism of Trump’s Climate Policy
The administration cites the likelihood of catastrophic global temperature rise to justify gutting fuel-efficiency standards. Yes, you read that correctly.
A firefighter works to control the Delta Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, California, in September 2018. Noah Berger/AP
The Washington Post dove deep into a draft statement issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last week and found buried within it a startling admission.
Planet Earth, the agency’s analysts observed, is currently on track to warm by approximately 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. But that’s not the startling thing I’m referring to. This is: The statement’s authors were passing along this bit of news in order to lend support to the administration’s decision to weaken fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks built after 2020.
That’s right: The United States government is basically making the argument that reducing carbon pollution from cars can’t save us—so why bother?
This is, to put it mildly, a twist on the usual rules of engagement between those who advocate for climate action and those who don’t. We’re used to fighting skepticism. But outright nihilism? That’s a new one.
The Nihilism of Trump’s Climate Policy by Jeff Turrentine, On Earth, NRDC, Oct 5, 2018
Links posted on Facebook
Sun Sep 30, 2018
- Hawai'i land impacted by sea level rise may be double previous estimates, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Phys.org, Sep 27, 2018
- The Amazon on the Brink, Opinion by Philip Fearnside and Richard Schiffman, New York Times, Sep 26, 2018
- Record 2017 hurricane season driven by warm Atlantic Ocean, study says by Daisy Dunne, Carbon Brief, Sep 27, 2018
- The US Is Ready For 100% Clean Energy — 10 Cities Model How To Get There by Carolyn Fortuna, Clean Technica, Sep 28, 2018
- Faith leaders want a moral voice to tackle climate change by Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News, Sep 27, 2018
- Editorial: Politicians will make flooding a priority when voters do. Opinion by Steve Bailey, Post & Courier (Charleston, SC), Sep 30, 2018
- Scorecard: Debate moderators should be asking climate change questions. Are they? by Elvondo Cooper, Media Matters for America, Sep 25, 2018
- Hurricane Florence Released Tons of Coal Ash in North Carolina. Now the Coal Industry Wants Less Regulation. by Sharon Lerner, The Intercept, Sep 28, 2018
Mon Oct 1, 2018
- Cheaper Battery Is Unveiled as a Step to a Carbon-Free Grid by Ivan Penn, New York Times, Sep 26, 2018
- Arctic sea ice summer minimum in 2018 is sixth lowest on record by Robert McSweeney, Carbon Brief, Sep 27, 2018
- Scientists Weigh Call for Much Deeper Cuts to Coal Pollution by Jeremy Hodges, Climate Changed, Bloomberg News, Sep 30, 2018
- Election 2018: Clean Energy’s Future Could Rise or Fall with These Governor’s Races by Marianne Lavelle & Dan Gearino, Inside Climate News, Oct 1, 2018
- Vanishing Joshua trees: climate change will ravage US national parks, study says by Emily Holden, Environment, Guardian, Sep 25, 2018
- As global warming continues, Trump wants to burn fossil fuels with an arsonist's glee, Opinion by Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times, Sep 29, 2018
- New study finds incredibly high carbon pollution costs – especially for the US and India by Dana Nuccitelli, The Climate Consensus - 97%, Environment, Guardian, Oct 1, 2018
- Climate science comeback strategies: Al Gore said what? by Karin Kirk, Yale Climate Connections, Oct 1, 2018
Tue Oct 2, 2018
- Poland pushing forest agenda as climate host, leak shows by Natalie Sauer, Politics, Climate Home News, Sep 28, 2018
- Why Indonesia’s tsunami was so deadly by Umair Irfan, Energy & Environment, Vox, Oct 1, 2018
- Trump Administration Prepares a Major Weakening of Mercury Emissions Rules by Coral Davenport, Climate, New York Times, Sep 30, 2018
- Rosa Hitting SW U.S., Baja With Heavy Rains; Updates on Leslie, Kong-Rey, Trami, and Walaka by Bob Henson, Category 6, Weather Underground, Oct 1, 2018
- NAFTA replacement avoids 'climate change,' talks ozone, air and sea pollution by Carl Meyer, National Observer, Oct 1, 2018
- The speed of #MeToo gives me hope – we can still stop climate change, Opinion by Andrew Simms, Comment is Free, Guardian, Oct 1, 2018
- Floods. Wildfires. Yet Few Candidates Are Running on Climate Change. by Trip Gabriel, New York Times, US Politics, New York Times, Oct 2, 2018
- Not Your Expected Climate Impact: Arizona Flooded by a Tropical Storm by Ucilia Wang, Climate Liability News, Oct 2, 2018
Wed Oct 3, 2018
- Which cities will sink into the sea first? Maybe not the ones you expect, Opinion by Mark Miodownik, Comment is Free, Guardian, Oct 1, 2018
- Fighting climate change is too expensive because destroying the planet is cost-free, Opinion by Tom Toles, Washington Post, Oct 1, 2018
- The Trump administration knows the planet is going to boil. It doesn't care, Opinion by Bill McKibben, Comment is Free, Guardian, Oct 2, 2018
- A Pair of Monster Cyclones Have Exploded to Life in the Pacific by Brian Kahn, Earther, Oct 2, 2018
- IPCC: Climate scientists consider 'life changing' report by Matt Mcgrath, Science & Environment, BBC News, Oct 1, 2018
- ‘Guardians of the forest:’ Indigenous peoples come together to assert role in climate stability by Justin Catanoso, Mongabay, Oct 2, 2018
- Reasons to be hopeful' on 1.5C global temperature target by Matt Mcgrath, Science & Environment, BBC News, Oct 1, 2018
- How to show Trump you care about climate change, Opinion by Jay Inslee, CNN, Oct 2, 2018
- How Wildfires Are Polluting Rivers and Threatening Water Supplies by Ed Struzik, Yale Environment 360, Oct 2, 2018
Thu Oct 4, 2018
- Can Buddhism Help Fight Climate Change? by Lucia Graves, Pacific Standard, Oct
2, 2018 - Should I tell my Republican friend that her Florida mansion is doomed by sea-level rise? by Sara Peach, Climate Advice, Yale Climate Connections, Sep 24, 2018
- In Comments on New Climate Report, U.S. Plays Up Uncertainties, Fossil Fuels by Jean Chemnick, E&E News/Scientific American, Oct 3, 2018
- Climate scientists are struggling to find the right words for very bad news by Chris Mooney & Brady Dennis, Energy & Environment, Washington Post, Oct 3, 2018
- An Atmospheric Rarity: Twin Cat 5s Prowl the Pacific by Jeff Master, Category 6, Weather Underground, Oct 2, 2018
- A Green New Deal is on the ballot in Washington state this year by David Roberts, Energy & Environment, Vox, Sep 28, 2018
- The impacts of climate change at 1.5C, 2C and beyond: Interactive, Carbon Brief, Oct 4, 2018
- Utilities have a problem: the public wants 100% renewable energy, and quick by David Roberts, Energy & Environment, Vox, Oct 2, 2018
Fri Oct 5, 2018
- Huh? Carbon Dioxide Emissions Raise Risk of Satellite Collisions by John Fialka, E&E News/Scientific American, Oct 4, 2018
- Red tide spreads to Florida's east coast, shuttering some Miami-Dade beaches by Paul P. Murphy, CNN, Oct 4, 2018
- From London to Shanghai, world's sinking cities face devastating floods by Fiona Harvey, Environment, Guardian, Oct 4, 2018
- Trump’s Wrong. We Can Still Stop Apocalyptic Global Warming by Victoria Albert, Daily Beast, Oct 5, 2018
- Industry Study Warns Airports: Climate Impacts Will Be Costly by Karen Savage, Climate Liability News, Oct 4, 2018
- Understanding the IPCC special report on 1.5°C global warming, Press Release, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Oct 1, 2018
- Trump’s men wage war on climate reality by Joydeep Gupta, thethirdpole.net, Oct 3, 2018
Sat Oct 6, 2018
- Storms drench Australia's parched interior, but won't break drought by Tom Westbrook, Reuters, Oct 4, 2018
- Do Chinese people care about climate change? by Li Jing, thethirdpole.net, Oct 4, 2018
- The Nihilism of Trump’s Climate Policy by Jeff Turrentine, On Earth, NRDC, Oct 5, 2018
- Rising use of plastics to drive oil demand to 2050 - IEA by Ahmad Ghaddar & Ron Bousso, Reuters, Oct 4, 2018
- A major climate report will slam the door on wishful thinking by Umair Irfan, Energy & Environment, Vox, Oct 5, 2018
- Three decades after nuclear disaster, Chernobyl goes solar by Pavel Polityuk, Reuters, Oct 5, 2018
- Why the next three months are crucial for the future of the planet by Fiona Harvey, Environment, Guardian, Oct 5, 2018
- Climate change apathy, not denial, is the biggest threat to our planet, Opinion by Leo Barasi, Comment is Free, Guardian, Oct 5, 2018
- New research, September 24-30, 2018 by Ari Jokimäki, Skeptical Science, Oct 5, 2018
Perhaps the reason for complacency in the Trump Administration over climate change is the corporate sector have convinced them that geo engineering or direct carbon capture would fix the problem, (probably with the costs dumped on the population, and the profits going to the corporate sector). The costs and risks of such schemes are huge, and its a disastrous solution especially as we will run out of fossil fuels anyway.
My first reaction is, why are we suddenly taking climate information from the NHTSA as gospel? 4 degrees C by 2100 is a little high for most current "official" estimates I believe. And because one agency makes a statement like that, how is this suddenly the official position of the entire administration? But, as I will point out again, we already know that enough feedbacks have kicked in that it is likely pointless to mitigate what we are doing, it doesn't matter anymore. Not that we are trying anyway! I'm afraid 4 degrees C by 2100 is still too optimistic. Here in Concord NH it has averaged 4-5 degrees F above average since at least July, and it going to stay way above average for at least a few more weeks. At what point do we recognize that Abrupt Climate Change is here? (just wondering)
Nigelj: With all due respect, I believe that you are grasping at straws. The corporate sector has not convinced the Pretend President and his minions that geo-engineering is the solution to man-made climate change. The Trumpies reject climate science on political and/or religious ideological grounds. Whoever ginned-up the draft EIS for the NHSTA is probably in deep dodo. If they are not, they certainly should be.
Sunspot: At this juncture, we do not know who was responsible for ginning up the draft EIS for the NHSTA. I suspect it was not a qualified climate scientist.
They are actually correct about one thing: CAFE is a poor way of reducing fossil fuel use. Two of its major effects were
a1) Making very efficient small and medium cars cheap and common, which lead to a2) building subdivisions further out from employment centers. You have to drive -everywhere- in those exurbs, not just to work, and it's all single family houses.
b) making passenger cars more complex and shrink-wrapped around the mechanicals, so people in the US fled from them. Leading to b2) a plauge of crossovers (that's most vehicles now marketed as SUVs), which are basically the old station wagon but taller and less efficient than they simply squaring/stretching a car into wagon form.
Another effect is that there are no more small pickups. Today you can have huge or almost huge pickups but there's no CAFE category that fits small or medium trucklets.
It would be better to trash CAFE and have a carbon tax, but that's not going to happen.
DrivingBy:
CAFE standards did not cause and accelerate urban sprawl in the US. There is no factual basis for this assertion.
For factual information about CAFE standards in the US, see:
A Brief History of U.S. Fuel Efficiency Standards, Union of Concerned Scientists, Last revised date: December 6, 2017
For factual information about urban sprawl in the US, see:
The Characteristics, Causes, and Consequences of Sprawling Development Patterns in the United States by Samuel Brody (Director, Institute for Sustainable Coastal Communities, Texas A&M University) © 2013 Nature Education
Citation: Brody, S. (2013) The Characteristics, Causes, and Consequences of Sprawling Development Patterns in the United States. Nature Education Knowledge 4(5):2
DrivingBy:
Your assertion that CAFE standards caused the shift in the US auto/light truck market to shift from small fuel efficient vehicles to SUVs and larger pickup trucks is patently absurd. If that were the case, the motor vehicle manufacturers would be pounding on the door demanding even stricter CAFE standards. In reality, they are doing just the opposite.
DrivingBy: You wrote:
It would be better to trash CAFE and have a carbon tax, but that's not going to happen.
CAFE standards and a carbon tax are not mutual exclusive mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions. There is absolutely no need to pit one against the other. Neither one is a silver bullet. Both are silver buckshot.
Driving By
"making passenger cars more complex and shrink-wrapped around the mechanicals, so people in the US fled from them. Leading to b2) a plauge of crossovers (that's most vehicles now marketed as SUVs), which are basically the old station wagon but taller and less efficient than they simply squaring/stretching a car into wagon form."
I would think the popularity of SUV's is more likely to be caused by a sense that these larger cars are safer, good visibility, interior space, and off road appeal and they have bcome status symbols.
I have a small car shrink wrapped about complex mechanicals that are somewhat baffling to look at, but its japanese and never breaks down. I doubt that the complexity issue worries most buyers. SUV's are now packed with electronic complexity anyway.