[GWSG] Whitehouse speaks; water stress; sustainable Amazon; glacial plaque; oceanic changes; lowball experts; cooling LA; handling despair

[Tilley, Al]

1. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has been a determined advocate for climate action at least since he came to the senate for RI in 2007. In an interview with Bill Maher he gives his explanation for our government’s failure to succeed in establishing an adequate climate program. https://climatecrocks.com/2019/08/17/bill-maher-interviews-sheldon-whitehouse-on-the-climate-jailbreak/
[https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVF.xU%2bXerhEi%2b3H86p1ecjN8w&pid=Api]<https://climatecrocks.com/2019/08/17/bill-maher-interviews-sheldon-whitehouse-on-the-climate-jailbreak/>
Bill Maher Interviews Sheldon Whitehouse on the Climate JailBreak<https://climatecrocks.com/2019/08/17/bill-maher-interviews-sheldon-whitehouse-on-the-climate-jailbreak/>
climatecrocks.com
Visit the post for more.


2. The World Resources Institute has analyzed water stress globally. The US has a medium stress level; India, high. Within the US higher stress areas include CA and the Southwest. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/08/06/mapping-strain-our-water/
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/resizer/W6ulK_XmqyXALMELTfD2VmXM9eg=/1484x0/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/FJAAAF3HXJE27PIQZSZKLPQYBI.jpg]<https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/08/06/mapping-strain-our-water/>
Mapping the strain on our water supply - The Washington Post<https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/08/06/mapping-strain-our-water/>
www.washingtonpost.com
The most dire numbers are in Qatar (4.97 on a water-stress scale of 1 to 5), which pulls out nearly all its available water in any given year, followed by Israel and Lebanon.


3. Before European contact millions of people lived in the Amazon. Over a period of thousands of years they learned how to live in forests sustainably. https://ensia.com/features/ancient-amazonian-societies-managed-the-forest-intensively-but-sustainably-heres-what-we-can-learn-from-them/
[https://ensia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Feature_AncientAgroforesty_main2.jpg]<https://ensia.com/features/ancient-amazonian-societies-managed-the-forest-intensively-but-sustainably-heres-what-we-can-learn-from-them/>
Sustainable farming lessons from the Amazon’s ancient inhabitants - ensia.com<https://ensia.com/features/ancient-amazonian-societies-managed-the-forest-intensively-but-sustainably-heres-what-we-can-learn-from-them/>
ensia.com
August 15, 2019 — When loggers and cattle ranchers began toppling the rainforest in Brazil’s far western state of Acre, they revealed a mystery: vast ancient earthworks, hidden for centuries under the trees. These “geoglyphs” took the form of geometric shapes — squares, rectangles and circles — hundreds of meters across, marked out with ditches and raised mounds.


4. Iceland’s former Okjokull Glacier is memorialized with a plaque reading “Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years, all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and know what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.” (Jokull is Icelandic for ‘glacier.’) https://thinkprogress.org/scientists-hold-funeral-for-first-icelandic-glacier-killed-by-global-warming-5df0d504809b/
[https://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Okj%C3%B6kull-glacier-remnant.jpg?w=1002&h=140&crop=1]<https://thinkprogress.org/scientists-hold-funeral-for-first-icelandic-glacier-killed-by-global-warming-5df0d504809b/>
‘Only you know if we did it’: Scientists write dire letter to the future about climate change – ThinkProgress<https://thinkprogress.org/scientists-hold-funeral-for-first-icelandic-glacier-killed-by-global-warming-5df0d504809b/>
thinkprogress.org
‘Only you know if we did it’: Scientists write dire letter to the future about climate change "We know what is happening and know what needs to be done.


5. An international team based at Princeton has produced a road map of man-made changes to the ocean, and has supplied a time framework. https://phys.org/news/2019-08-roadmap-ocean-due-climate.html
[https://scx2.b-cdn.net/gfx/news/2019/1-newstudyoffe.jpg]<https://phys.org/news/2019-08-roadmap-ocean-due-climate.html>
New study offers roadmap for detecting changes in the ocean due to climate change - phys.org<https://phys.org/news/2019-08-roadmap-ocean-due-climate.html>
phys.org
Sea temperature and ocean acidification have climbed during the last three decades to levels beyond what is expected due to natural variation alone, a new study led by Princeton researchers finds.


6. Naomi Oreskes and her co-authors’ book Discerning Experts analyzes what is behind the experts’ underestimation of such key expectations as the rate of sea level rise, among many effects of the climate crisis. Thanks to Ed Brock for the story. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/scientists-have-been-underestimating-the-pace-of-climate-change/
[https://static.scientificamerican.com/blogs/cache/file/8684C44A-61D4-4B6F-B3C0E51A9EA4E286.jpg]<https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/scientists-have-been-underestimating-the-pace-of-climate-change/>
Scientists Have Been Underestimating the Pace of Climate Change - Scientific American Blog Network<https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/scientists-have-been-underestimating-the-pace-of-climate-change/>
blogs.scientificamerican.com
Scientists Have Been Underestimating the Pace of Climate Change. A book entitled Discerning Experts explains why—and what can be done about it


7. Areas of Los Angeles reach 100F and heat deaths occur even in the winter. The poorest areas are the hottest. The mayor has pledged to reduce the city’s temperature 3F by 2050, and LA is experimenting with ways to cool at risk areas. Tools include reflective Cool Seal for roasting sidewalks and an increased tree canopy.  https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/aug/21/cooling-goo-sidewalks-and-other-strange-new-weapons-in-the-war-on-urban-heat
Cooling goo sidewalks and other strange new weapons in the war on urban heat | Cities | The Guardian<https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/aug/21/cooling-goo-sidewalks-and-other-strange-new-weapons-in-the-war-on-urban-heat>
www.theguardian.com
Los Angeles faces a doubling of its extreme heat days but has fresh ideas to keep residents cool - and tackle the inequality of who suffers

The story is part of a Sweltering Cities series in the Guardian.

8. Despair is a natural reaction to facing the climate crisis. It’s not a good time to be paralyzed. Radical hope can keep us going. In tough times we need each other.  http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry/despairing-about-climate-crisis/
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