[GWSG] On target, though misaimed; forest C; letter from scientists; delayed impact; SLR faster & bigger; Rising

[Tilley, Al]

1. A study from Carnegie Mellon has the US on track to meet its 2020, 2025, and 2030 emissions targets in spite of the current Republican leadership. Regulations are being sabotaged and plans undermined. "However, as renewable energy costs have fallen and are projected to continue decreasing even further, we are now well on the path to achieving even the 2030 goals in the Clean Power Plan." https://phys.org/news/2019-11-road-paris-shifting-landscape-co2.html



2. Forest management has moderated the carbon released by deforestation since 1900. Previous estimates have been high by a factor of about five. Industrial emissions have counted for more of the carbon buildup than we had thought.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191104155701.htm



3.   More than 11,000 scientists from 153 nations have signed a declaration of a planetary climate emergency with “untold suffering” and suggest basic actions to be taken. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/05/climate-crisis-11000-scientists-warn-of-untold-suffering



4. What we do today to control emissions will have a large impact in the 2300s, but until then the seas will continue to rise. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/06/sea-level-rise-centuries-climate-crisis



5. Sea level rise was much faster during the last interglacial period than current models allow, even though our greenhouse gas levels are higher. The Antarctic ice sheet appears to be less stable then we had thought. This article in Nature Communications is likely to have an impact on our sea level rise projections. https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/past-antarctic-ice-melt-reveals-potential-for-extreme-sea-level-rise-20191106-p537y4.html

PhysOrg adds some material in its report. https://phys.org/news/2019-11-antarctica-rapid-sea-level-climate.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter



6. Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush gives us the testimony of people in the US already faced with relocation. Rush investigates the scientific estimates of coming sea level rise and mourns the loss of communities and wetlands. Millions of people will face relocating from their coastal communities, perhaps within a few years. Elizabeth Rush helps us think about the enormous challenges involved.

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