[GWSG] FL's Koch problems; our new climate; cities divesting; conveyor belt slowing ahead of schedule

[Tilley, Al]

1.  FEMA has notified states that they will not be eligible for hazard mitigation assistance if they have not developed plans for coping with climate change.  Through its emergency management division Florida has declared its intention to comply.  Presumably the FL Department of Environmental Protection will cease taking their administrators' interest in climate change as evidence of mental instability.   http://www.climatecentral.org/news/fema-states-need-climate-change-in-disaster-planning-18786  The director of Florida's emergency management division avoided using the words "climate change" in his announcement of compliance with the new FEMA rule.  (He may have been joking.)  (Or not.  Democratic FL legislators have made a sport of trying to trap state officials into using the forbidden words.)  http://fcir.org/2015/03/19/federal-state-officials-respond-to-climate-change-controversy/
More levity on the Koched-up state of the FL Republican Party:  http://climatecrocks.com/2015/03/20/fema-to-florida-can-you-say-climate-change/
Still, state employees continue to work on the problem before us.  The water management districts are studying the likely progress of sea level rise, the DEP is measuring the rising salinity of ground water, the highway department is considering the threat the new climate poses to the highway system.  They are nervous that the new attention to climate practices in Florida will lead the Scott administration to interfere with what they are doing.  http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121341/florida-gov-rick-scotts-ban-climate-change-hasnt-halted-action



2.  Since it has been thirty years since the global average temperature was below the 20th Century average, our climate has officially changed.  The new normal is of course a climate in transition.  http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/03/19/thirty_years_of_above_average_temperatures_mean_we_re_entering_a_new_era.html



3.  Many cities are discussing divesting their fossil fuel holdings.  Oslo, Norway, has become the first capital to do it.  Seattle's decision to divest has been an inspiration in Norway.    http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/mar/23/oslo-divest-coal-campaigners-london-new-york



4.  The global thermohaline circulation, the great oceanic conveyor belt, is slowing down and is likely to continue slowing.  The effects are not clear, and though the disasters of the film The Day After Tomorrow are unlikely, sea level rise (particularly along the upper North American East Coast), decreasing fish catches, and further weather disruptions are probably ahead.  Models appear to have overestimated the stability of the conveyor belt flow.  The IPCC has estimated the probability that the flow would break down this century at 10%; that is probably too low.  http://climatecrocks.com/2015/03/23/a-nasty-surprise-in-the-greenhouse-new-paper-new-video/
The Washington Post story adds clear explanation, further links, and a more detailed discussion of the consequences of a slowdown.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/23/global-warming-is-now-slowing-down-the-circulation-of-the-oceans-with-potentially-dire-consequences/
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