[GWSG] 20' of slr; bumblebees; rhetoric rec; scientists react; devil corps; C of E: pray & fast; effects of g.w.

[Tilley, Al]

1.  An article in Science looks at three interglacial periods when warming was similar to the present state and finds that sea levels were about twenty feet higher.  It does not address the likely pace of the rise.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/07/09/why-the-earths-past-has-scientists-so-worried-about-sea-level-rise/  "There are some recent modeling efforts that now show you could get a section of the Antarctic ice sheet, several meters worth of sea level rise, to go in a decade.  We used to think it was centuries."  Andrea Dutton, lead author of the Science study.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/10/scientists-predict-huge-sea-level-rise-even-if-we-limit-climate-change



2.  In Europe and the US bumblebees are being driven from their southern habitats by climate change without being able, for unknown reasons, to extend their ranges commensurately north.  Bumblebees pollinate tomatoes and blueberries, among other reasons for us to be concerned about them.  http://news.mongabay.com/2015/0713-johnston-climate-change-bumblebees.html



3.  Per Espen Stokes' book What We Think About When We Think About Global Warming recommends that we present the issue as an opportunity to build a better life more at home on an earth which has the resilience to recover from the harm we are inflicting.  http://e360.yale.edu/feature/how_can_we_make_people_care_about_climate_change/2892/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29



4.  The advice in item 3 above is consistent with the reactions of climate scientists to the Esquire article about the emotional reactions of climate scientists linked in the last newsletter.  Katharine Hayhoe, for example, thinks about bugging out to Canada but meanwhile does what she can to move events in Texas.  The general reaction is to stress that it is not be too late to act; the only impediments are ephemeral. http://climatecrocks.com/2015/07/13/the-agony-of-the-climate-scientists-touches-a-nerve/



5.  A Union of Concerned Scientists report documents that fossil fuel corporations have been aware of climate disruption for a generation but have devoted themselves to promoting information they knew to be wrong in order to prevent control of their activities.    http://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/fight-misinformation/climate-deception-dossiers-fossil-fuel-industry-memos#.VZ-jZ-9RHIU  Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse observed in May that the corporations seem to have violated the RICO act against organized criminal activity.  http://climatecrocks.com/2015/07/10/are-climate-deniers-racketeers-or-just-good-fellas/    Pope Francis considers the unfettered pursuit of money "the dung of the devil."  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/10/poor-must-change-new-colonialism-of-economic-order-says-pope-francis



6.  The Church of England has asked its 70 million members to fast and pray for the success of the UN Paris climate talks beginning in November.  http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/church-of-england-leaders-call-on-worshippers-to-fast-for-climate-change-20150714-gibr0d.html



7.  A new report from the UK Foreign Office finds that the indirect effects of climate disruption could be far worse than the direct effects.  One minister compared the devastation to that of a nuclear war.  The conclusion of the report:   "The risks of climate change may be greater than is commonly realised, but so is our capacity to confront them. An honest assessment of risk is no reason for fatalism."  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/13/climate-change-threat-serious-as-nuclear-war-uk-minister
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