[GWSG] 5 charts; big efficiency; GOP anti-trust; Gore, '83 and 2000; AGU meeting; winter methane

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Joe Romm supplies five especially useful charts.  They plot the current pause (at least) in global CO2 emissions; the dropping price of sustainable energy, batteries, and LEDs; the impact of increasing CO2 on cognition and behavior; the general increase in temperature since 1970; and soil moisture content in 2090 unless we undertake strong action on climate.   http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/12/17/3733049/best-climate-clean-energy-charts-2015/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cptop3



2.  The Obama administration has released the "largest energy-saving standard in history" on commercial heating and air conditioning.  It will prevent almost a gigaton of CO2 emissions and save businesses $167 billion.  The standard was worked out in a consensual process with representatives from industry, labor, and environmental groups.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/12/17/meet-the-biggest-energy-efficiency-rule-the-u-s-has-ever-released/



3.  Republican leaders still hope to subvert the Paris agreement through blocking or sabotaging the US programs which will Implement our share of it.  http://grist.org/climate-energy/republicans-still-hope-to-throw-a-wrench-in-the-paris-climate-deal/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily-horizon  The Obama administration will probably be able to fund our part of the agreement this year, but the Republicans are hoping to sink the program in 2017.  http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/263780-gop-gropes-for-way-to-kill-paris-climate-deal  Legislators of the Republican Party are working against the best interests of the nation-in fact, they are striving to destroy the public trust of a healthy environment which it is their fundamental duty to protect.  Mary Christina Wood's Nature's Trust: Environmental Law for a New Ecological Age (Cambridge UP, 2014) is the book to read on that.


4.  In 1983 then-Rep. Al Gore gave an interview on NOVA about the challenge of dealing with climate change now that it had passed into the realm of public policy.  (If you would like to revisit election night 2000, click on the screen after the two-minute interview ends.  You can watch the Bush brothers in the process of "winning" Florida.)  http://climatecrocks.com/2015/12/20/1983-al-gore-on-climate-change/



5.  This year's meeting of the American Geophysical Union drew around 25,000 scientists, many of whom are working on climate change.  The Guardian's Dana Nuccitelli sketches some of their research and their concerns.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/dec/21/the-best-of-climate-science-and-humanity-come-together-at-agu



6.  Arctic soil emits significant amounts of methane in the winter.  We will need to update estimates of the Arctic's contribution to warming.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/12/21/bad-news-scientists-say-we-could-be-underestimating-arctic-methane-emissions/  ?

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