[GWSG] Hot prospects; climate war; comming floods; Koch propaganda; record July; blimp fleet?; understanding theory

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The earth's atmosphere has warmed 1C since the beginning of the industrial revolution.  If we were to freeze the carbon in the atmosphere at today's level, the earth would continue to warm another .5C in coming decades from the heat already stored in the oceans, and a further 1.5C eventually from the change in the earth's reflectivity as surface ice melts.  The longer we continue burning fossil fuels the worse the problem becomes.  This is our critical decade for climate action.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/aug/15/climate-urgency-weve-locked-in-more-global-warming-than-people-realize  I believe we are also in for .5C after the few days it takes for the particulates to settle out.  That may be local to the Northern Hemisphere.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming



2.  Bill McKibben's New Republic article "A World at War" takes the idea that we need to go on a war footing to cope with global warming seriously and compares our necessary course of action to what the US did to prepare for and conduct their part in WW II.  The parallels are sometimes suggestive.  Thanks to Jim Crooks for the lead.  https://newrepublic.com/article/135684/declare-war-climate-change-mobilize-wwii?utm=350org



3.  As a heating atmosphere holds more and more water vapor, we may expect floods such as the current one in Louisiana to happen more frequently.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/16/louisiana-flooding-natural-disaster-weather-climate-change



4.  The Koch brothers' latest ad to keep us using fossil fuels amounts to an epitaph for a dying industry.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2016/aug/17/how-the-fossil-fuel-industrys-new-pitch-is-more-like-an-epitaph-than-a-life-lesson  The brothers are not supporting Trump, but they are finding other vicious uses for the $750 million they announced they were putting into this year's campaigns-such as attempting to kill the electric car (again).  https://climatecrocks.com/2016/08/17/koch-funded-group-seeks-to-kill-evs/



5.  July was the hottest month-by a large margin-since record keeping began.  It is the fifteenth straight month to break global heat records.   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/july-2016-hottest-month_us_57b219b4e4b007c36e4fb557



6.  The Airlander 10, a lighter than air craft as big as a football field, is the pilot project for a fleet-perhaps 100 within five years to be manufactured by England's Hybrid Air Vehicles.  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/17/airlander-10-is-this-the-dawning-of-a-new-age-of-the-airship  Helium balloons are safe, cheap, energy efficient, and appropriate for solar power.  They can carry large cargo and passenger loads, and stay aloft for long periods of time.



7.  Former astronaut Piers Sellers explains how a misunderstanding of the nature of theory can weaken our grasp of climate change.  http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/space-climate-change-and-the-real-meaning-of-theory  ?

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