[GWSG] Ostrich states; Coulomb stress; C in the Amazon; drying Mongolia; new Sachs book; brakes or airbags?

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Pennsylvania and North Carolina have joined Florida as states which have tried to avoid climate change by forbidding employees to mention it.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/09/3631465/not-just-florida-censoring-climate-change-talk/    Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee have passed laws attempting to confuse the teaching of climate science. http://news.yahoo.com/florida-isnt-only-state-ban-climate-change-124843791.html   Other states (such as Virginia and South Carolina) may follow in the ostrich parade, at least along the Atlantic coast, as employees are interviewed.  And then there is past performance.  I remember the relief of Florida state employees at a conference early in the Crist administration as they were allowed to speak of sea level rise, forbidden under Jeb Bush.  I hope this information emerges, and I hope people will think of it when they consider Bush's fitness to be president.



2.  Factoring in Coulomb stress between solid sheets at the grounding line of Antarctic glaciers greatly shortens estimates of how quickly they will become unstable and add to sea level rise.  http://phys.org/news/2015-03-friction-antarctic-glaciers-sensitive-climate.html



3.  The Amazon has dried up to 25% since 2000 and is likely to dry further.  One impact will be to impair its ability to sequester carbon, increasing atmospheric CO2.  The Amazon now sequesters about a quarter of the carbon humans produce.  As drought increases the Amazon could pass from being a carbon sink to a carbon source.    http://www.climatecentral.org/news/drought-amazon-carbon-capture-18733?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climatecentral%2FdjOO+Climate+Central+-+Full+Feed  Deforestation in the Amazon had declined in recent years but is again soaring.  http://e360.yale.edu/feature/what_lies_behind_the_recent_surge_of_amazon_deforestation/2854/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29



4.  Photos show how the grasslands which sustained Mongolian nomads are becoming deserts.  http://www.fastcoexist.com/3043050/moving-photos-show-climate-change-destroying-the-nomadic-way-of-life-in-mongolia#10



5.  In his book The Age of Sustainable Development Jeffrey Sachs observes that we need to return to a firm association between economics and the natural world.  Sustainable development provides a frame which would lead us to the actions we need to take.  http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/mar/10/jeffrey-sachs-economic-policy-climate-change  Sachs' book:  http://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+age+of+sustainable+development



6.  Conservatives are more likely to consider global warming to be a present danger if they are informed that 97% of climate scientists hold that position.  The same conservatives are more likely to favor action if they are informed of geoengineering proposals.  Public education which combines info on the scientific consensus with descriptions of geoengineering might end with a metaphor useful in motivating action to control emissions: you are driving a car which is headed for danger.  Do you apply the brakes or trust the airbags?    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/mar/10/consensus-and-geoengineering-how-to-convince-people-about-global-warming
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