[GWSG] China, US ratify Paris; G20 finks, comes through; Republican climate foolishness; oceans heating

[Tilley, Al]

1.  China and the US have ratified the Paris agreement on climate.  China's President Xi vowed to "unwaveringly pursue sustainable development."  President Obama observed that when the US and China lead by example "it is possible for us to create a world that is more secure, more prosperous and more free than the one that was left for us."  A surge of ratifications by other nations should follow.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/03/breakthrough-us-china-agree-ratify-paris-climate-change-deal



2.  The G20 meeting reaffirmed the necessity of climate action but failed to set deadlines.  It even promoted methods of extracting and processing natural gas.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/06/g20-reaffirms-climate-commitments-but-dodges-deadlines  The G20 did back trillions of dollar of reforms in green financing.  http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2469808/g20-vows-to-scale-up-green-financing-in-pursuit-of-cleaner-energy-future-and-sustainable-energy-security?utm_source=Inside+Climate+News&utm_campaign=3b7fd8f752-Clean_Economy_Wire12_10_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_29c928ffb5-3b7fd8f752-326454481



3.  Encouraged by the Wall Street Journal and other media sympathetic to fossil fuel interests, US Republicans have become increasingly sympathetic to climate denial in the last few years and Republican legislators have taken more and more strongly anti-environmental positions in the last twenty years.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/sep/06/conservative-media-bias-is-inflating-american-climate-denial-and-polarization



4.  The oceans have absorbed 90% of the excess heat generated by our burning of fossil fuels, with more and more marked effects.  If the earth had absorbed all that heat into the atmosphere it would be 35C (or 95F) hotter than it is.  The director of the team of 80 scientists which drafted the new report stated that "The only way to preserve the rich diversity of marine life, and to safeguard the protection and resources the ocean provides us with, is to cut greenhouse gas emissions rapidly and substantially."  The oceans pose "the greatest hidden challenge of our generation."    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/05/soaring-ocean-temperature-is-greatest-hidden-challenge-of-our-generation  ?

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