[GWSG] NE US slr; MOC & slr; cities agree; forests shrink; economists plan; Mexico pledges; St. Aug event

[Tilley, Al]

1.  This ten minute video from Sea Grant explains why the Mid-Atlantic States are due for more than the average sea level rise.  Washington, D.C., is up for particularly robust storm surges.  http://climatecrocks.com/2015/03/23/worse-than-we-thought-sea-level-rise-on-the-mid-atlantic/



2.  Michael Mann, coauthor of the recent paper on the slowing of the oceanic conveyor belt, explains the cooling in the northern hemisphere which happened when the conveyor belt shut down in the Younger Dryas and why cooling to that degree is unlikely now (though the shutdown itself is likelier than we had thought).  http://climatecrocks.com/2015/03/24/mike-mann-on-the-younger-dryas-could-it-happen-again/  Another four minute segment of the same interview addresses the likelihood and effects of a conveyor belt failure.  The flow may have become unstable, though Mann has elsewhere guessed (after examining 900 years of flow records) that a shutdown, if it comes, is likely to be decades away.  http://climatecrocks.com/2015/03/25/mike-mann-on-the-ocean-conveyor/  Mentioned in the WA Post link for this topic on the last news list: a major conveyor belt breakdown could mean about a meter of quick sea rise for the Mid-Atlantic States (Stefan Rahmstorf).



3.  26 major European cities have signed an agreement to support low carbon industries and to commit to climate-friendly policies.   The cities, which include London, Paris, Rome, and Sofia, represent 60 million people.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/26/full-text-of-climate-change-statement-signed-by-26-european-mayors



4.  If you stand at random in any forest on earth, there is a one in five chance that you are not more than 100 yards from the end of the forest, and a three out of four chance that you are not more than a few blocks away.  The two big blobs of forest left are in the Amazon and the Congo.  Diversity and ecosystem function are diminishing.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/03/26/3638910/all-forests-not-created-equal/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cptop3



5.  In "How Idealism, Expressed in Concrete Steps, Can Fight Climate Change" economist Robert Shiller proposes a two-fold approach to dealing with climate.  1.  Individual commitment to small changes for moral reasons, aided by social support and pressure, as in Copenhagen where half the workforce commutes by bicycle.  2.  A Climate Club of nations which commit to incentivizing emissions reductions and place tariffs on those nations which do not.  (The Copenhagen Solution is proposed in the book Climate Shock: The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet by Gernot Wagner of the NRDC and economist Martin Weitzman, following an idea of economist Elinor Ostrom.  The Climate Club is a suggestion of economist William Nordhaus.)  (Subs. req.)  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/upshot/how-idealism-expressed-in-concrete-steps-can-fight-climate-change.html?emc=edit_tnt_20150327&nlid=43628374&tntemail0=y&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0



6.  Mexico has submitted to the UN a plan to begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2026, leading to a 22% reduction by 2030.  Several more nations are expected to submit their plans in the coming weeks.  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/27/mexico-plan-cap-greenhouse-gas-emissions-2026



7.  Local event: St. Augustine will host the Environmental and Climate Challenge Day 10-2 Saturday, April 11, at the Willie Galimore Center, 399 Riberia St., with speakers, exhibitors, food vendors, music, art, and a dolphin-focus exhibit from Marineland.  Organized by the St. Johns Democratic Party and the NE Florida Democratic Environmental Caucus.
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