[GWSG] Blind planning; news vacancy; 1.5C by 2020; CO2 up; ag. emissions; US-Canada climate accord; freezing slr

[Tilley, Al]

1.  Abrupt climate changes need not involve sudden catastrophes, such as massively melting clathrates.  Gradual disruptions can cross a threshold and a storm surge can top a levee, or sea water can begin coming up through storm drains, and our environment can enter a new state.  Such an abrupt change may be expected but its timing unknown.  Kathrine Hayhoe likens planning based on the environmental state of the recent past to driving guided by the road in your rear view mirror when there is a curve coming up.  http://climatecrocks.com/2016/03/07/the-unexpected-we-expect-planning-in-the-age-of-climate-change/



2.  Media Matters for America reports that coverage of climate by US commercial television network news fell last year.  Coverage ranged from thirteen minutes out of the year on ABC news to fifty minutes on NBC.   http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/mar/07/during-the-most-important-year-for-climate-news-tv-coverage-fell



3.  Based on an anticipated rise in energy use per capita, we will see 1.5C of warming by 2020 and 2C by 2030.  By the findings of the new study we are faced sooner than we had thought with high risk for dangerous warming.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/10/dangerous-global-warming-will-happen-sooner-than-thought-study



4.  Global atmospheric CO2 levels are increasing at an "unprecedented" rate.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/03/09/atmospheric-carbon-dioxide-levels-are-showing-a-startling-increase/



5.  Agriculture is a major contributor of greenhouse gasses.  We could moderate the effect through reforms, such as improving rice growing practices in Southern Asia.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/03/09/the-hidden-driver-of-climate-change-that-we-too-often-ignore/



6.  Canada and the US have signed a climate action agreement on matters ranging from use of the Arctic to controlling methane emissions.  Part of the significance of the agreement is that the two countries are pledged to decarbonize and to support the Paris agreement, no matter who wins the US presidential election.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/11/joint-low-carbon-declaration-sees-climate-baton-pass-from-obama-to-trudeau



7.  Theoretically, we could neutralize sea level rise by pumping heroic volumes of sea water into the air above the Antarctic, where it would freeze, fall to the ice below, and stay there for a good long time.  Not that we really could.  The point of the paper is to illustrate the magnitude of the problem we are creating by burning coal, oil, and natural gas.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/03/10/this-mindboggling-study-shows-just-how-massive-sea-level-rise-really-is/  ?

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