[GWSG] RICO obstructers?; there are lots; & they monitor C; colder subArctic; 100% by 2050; seabirds in decline

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has conducted a long, and often lonely, campaign to initiate an investigation of climate action obstructers under the RICO act, just as the tobacco companies were investigated regarding the health effects of tobacco.  A group of twenty scientists has addressed a letter supporting a RICO investigation to the administration.  The introductory Frontline video documents that Exxon had detailed knowledge of the place of fossil fuels in climate disruption as early as the 1970s.  http://climatecrocks.com/2015/09/19/scientists-letter-asks-obama-to-prosecute-climate-deniers/



2.  45% of the world's 100 largest companies are working to obstruct action on climate.  If the actions of trade groups to which the companies belong are included, the percentage of obstructers rises to 95%.  http://ecowatch.com/2015/09/17/obstruct-climate-policy/  At least the RICO tobacco investigations could be restricted to one industry.  We appear to be acting on climate against the opposition of most of our largest businesses.



3.  435 companies, three times last year's total, are putting an internal price on their carbon production.  The process might act as an incentive to reduce emissions, and at least prepares the company for moving toward a fossil-free future.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/carbon-pricing-report_55fc8026e4b08820d918b6f9

Putting this story alongside the previous one suggests that companies are preparing for an energy transition and attempting to delay it at the same time.  Duh.  Good to see it documented, though.  Even talk of prosecuting the obstructers of a morally necessary transition might add some momentum for change, and perhaps weaken the obstruction.



4.  James Hansen has provided a work-up of the implications and predictions of the recent "Ice Melt" paper on which he collaborated.  http://csas.ei.columbia.edu/2015/09/21/predictions-implicit-in-ice-melt-paper-and-global-implications/  Hansen's comments help make sense of the record cold in the subpolar Arctic in a year of otherwise record high temperatures.  Peter Sinclair's video is a good intro in brief to the implications.  http://climatecrocks.com/2015/09/21/record-warmth-everywhere-except/  I might add that without the AMOC sea levels would be a couple of feet higher along the East Coast down to SC.  http://www.climatecentral.org/news/east-coast-faces-rising-seas-from-slowing-gulf-stream-15587



5.   Greenpeace has provided the most accurate forecasts on renewable energy (!).  Its latest report says that the way is now open for a cost-neutral transition to renewable energy by 2050, a transition which will require no new technology.  We could be 85% renewable in fifteen years.  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/09/21/3703772/greenpeace-energy-revolution-2015/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cptop3



6.   Seabird populations have dropped 70% in the last sixty years.  The decline is spread fairly evenly among species, though open-ocean birds such as petrels are doing worse than shore birds.  Climate disruption is expected to play a growing role in the decline.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2015/sep/22/after-60-million-years-of-extreme-living-seabirds-are-crashing  ?

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