[GWSG] More CH4; airline gas; FEMA ins.; SC for dem.; Naidoo too; Copenhagen adapts; flash heat; forests dwindle

[Tilley, Al]

1.  A new study indicates that the climate impact of methane over a century is 60% larger than the EPA estimates.  The finding bears on arguments for the use of natural gas, which is over 90% methane.  Since we are approaching an exceedingly dangerous threshold, we should really be estimating the impact of methane in the short run, where it is markedly more dangerous than CO2.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/02/2708911/fracking-ipcc-methane/

2.  China, India, the US, and 181 other nations have approved a UN agreement establishing the first international emissions market for air travel, effective in 2020.  The European Union is considering whether the new plan is sufficiently strict to allow the EU permanently to postpone enforcement of their emissions curbs on flights from countries outside the EU.  The EU had suspended such enforcement for this year in anticipation of the UN agreement.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-04/first-global-emissions-market-for-airlines-wins-support.html   More detail:  http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/10/04/us-aviation-climate-idINBRE99302A20131004?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews   The agreement was approved on October 4.  http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/civil-aviation-group-works-cut-emissions-20476093

3.  An overview of changes in the federal flood insurance rates indicates why the new rates are likely to continue to rise.  http://science.time.com/2013/10/01/the-hard-math-of-flood-insurance-in-a-warming-world/

4.  The Koch brothers alone spent much more on influencing politics in 2012 than the McCain presidential effort did in 2008.  The Sierra Club’s Michael Brune sketches the result and a new campaign to preserve our democracy from the carbon lobby.  http://sierraclub.typepad.com/michaelbrune/2013/10/national-parks-government-shutdown-steal-this-democracy.html

5.  Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace and a party to the initiative in the previous item, spoke with Bill Moyers on the climate situation and the role of Greenpeace.  I have never before heard anyone on national TV speak so openly about what we face.  http://billmoyers.com/segment/kumi-naidoo-on-the-urgency-of-climate-action/

6.  Copenhagen has a climate adaptation plan to be completed by 2033 which should serve the city for the rest of the century.  It involves retrofitting for natural drainage through common low impact development features and such additions as green roofs.  The city anticipates that the plan will also serve to develop their economy.  About 20% of the world’s cities have climate adaptation plans.  http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/tackling-climate-change-copenhagen-sustainable-city-design

7.  A clay sediment core from New Jersey shows that when atmospheric carbon doubled 55 million years ago, the ocean surface turned acidic and the temperature rose by 5° C in about 13 years, according to a new study in PNAS.  Such changes had formerly been believed to occur over millennia.  http://phys.org/news/2013-10-climate-geological-instant.html

8.  Every forested continent has suffered significant tree loss from heat and drought in the past 30 years.  The effects constitute a positive feedback of ecological damage.  http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20130913120545447
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