Climate Change: Mapped 3/31/19

Climate Change is a subject that will affect the world, yet most people don’t know where or how it is affecting us today.

Thanks to the website CarbonBrief, who created a world map based on more than 230 peer-reviewed studies, we can now see what the current effects of climate change are and where they are causing the most damage.

Beyond that, CarbonBrief made sure to outline which results were and were not influenced by humans, giving a fair and unbiased outline of these issues.

Carbon Brief’s analysis suggests 68% of all extreme weather events studied to date were made more likely or more severe by human-caused climate change. Heatwaves account for 43% such events, droughts make up 17% and heavy rainfall or floods account for 16%.

Source: https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-how-climate-change-affects-extreme-weather-around-the-world

Gov. Jay Inslee joins race for President 3/1/2019

Governor Jay Inslee has joined the massive group of candidates for the Democratic bid for President.

Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, who entered the presidential race on Friday on a bold bet: that a singular focus on combating climate change can distinguish him in one of the largest Democratic fields ever.
…

• He has been outspoken in favor of gun control, and after the shooting in Parkland, Fla., last year, he confronted President Trump on live television, denouncing Mr. Trump’s suggestion to arm schoolteachers. Among other measures, he wants to expand background checks and restrict some semiautomatic weapons. His advocacy on the issue goes back many years; he lost his seat in Congress after voting for the 1994 assault weapons ban.

• He supports universal health care in some form and recently proposed a government-funded “public option” on Washington’s insurance exchange, which he cast as the first step toward a universal program.

• While he has not released a federal tax proposal, he recently introduced a plan in Washington State that would increase several taxes and institute a 9 percent tax on some capital gains. (The state doesn’t tax capital gains now.) His budget would increase spending by about 20 percent to fund anti-climate-change programs, education and mental health services, and to protect endangered orcas.

• He backed legislation to increase Washington’s minimum wage from $9.47 an hour to $12. Voters approved that increase in 2016, and it has been phased in gradually.

• He supports legalizing marijuana and announced a program in January that will pardon some Washington residents previously convicted of marijuana possession.• He opposes the death penalty as currently administered and suspended executions in Washington in 2014, saying the risk of wrongful convictions was unacceptable. “There are too many flaws in the system,” he said at the time, “and when the ultimate decision is death, there is too much at stake to accept an imperfect system.”

Source

Climate Change Imminent 2/13/2019

We have a choice now.

Ensure that our land in the US will stay viable for use and hospitable for normal human life by beginning a green revolution or ensure the end of the United State’s climate through global change.

Within the lifetime of children living today, the climate of many regions is projected to change from the familiar to conditions unlike those experienced in the same place by their parents, grandparents, or perhaps any generation in millennia,” said Fitzpatrick. “Many cities could experience climates with no modern equivalent in North America.”
The climate of cities in the northeast will tend to feel more like the humid subtropical climates typical of parts of the Midwest or southeastern U.S. today—warmer and wetter in all seasons. For instance, unless we take action to mitigate emissions, Washington, D.C. will feel more like northern Mississippi. The climates of western cities are expected to become more like those of the desert Southwest or southern California—warmer in all seasons, with changes in the amount and seasonal distribution of precipitation. San Francisco’s climate will resemble that of Los Angeles. New York will feel more like northern Arkansas.
Scientists analyzed 540 urban areas that encompassed approximately 250 million inhabitants in the United States and Canada. For each urban area, they mapped the similarity between that city’s future climate expected by the 2080s and contemporary climate in the western hemisphere north of the equator using 12 measures of climate, including minimum and maximum temperature and precipitation during the four seasons.
The study also mapped climate differences under two emission trajectories: unmitigated emissions (RCP8.5), the scenario most in line with what might be expected given current policies and the speed of global action, and mitigated emissions (RCP4.5), which assumes policies are put in place to limit emissions, such as the Paris Agreement.

Source

https://phys.org/news/2019-02-climate-north-american-cities-shift.html

Senate Passes Massive Public Lands Package 2/12/2019

The Senate on Tuesday passed the most sweeping conservation legislation in a decade, protecting millions of acres of land and hundreds of miles of wild rivers across the country and establishing four new national monuments honoring heroes including Civil War soldiers and a civil rights icon.
The 662-page measure, which passed 92 to 8, represented an old-fashioned approach to dealmaking that has largely disappeared on Capitol Hill. Senators from across the ideological spectrum celebrated home-state gains and congratulated each other for bridging the partisan divide.
…
Perhaps the most significant change the legislation would make is permanently authorizing a federal program that funnels offshore drilling revenue to conserve a spread of sites that includes major national parks and wildlife preserves, as well as local baseball diamonds and basketball courts. Authorization for the popular program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), lapsed months ago due to the partial government shutdown and other disputes. Liberals like the fact that the money allows agencies to set aside land for wildlife habitat. Conservatives like the fact that taxpayers don’t have to foot the bill for it.
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The bill reauthorizes and funds the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act through 2022, which provides habitat protection for more than 380 bird species, and codifies a signature program of President Barack Obama’s. That program, the Every Kid Outdoors Act, allows U.S. fourth-graders and their families to visit national parks free.
The measure also expands the boundaries of more than a half-dozen national parks and adds three units, including two Civil War sites in Kentucky, the Mill Springs Battlefield and Camp Nelson.
The package adds acreage to Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks while protecting 350,000 acres of public lands between Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley, increasing the connectivity of the three sites. “This is one of the missing pieces in the landscape connection puzzle in the California desert,” said David Lamfrom, director of California Desert and Wildlife Programs at the National Parks Conservation Association.
The bill would also be a boon for another constituency — hunters and anglers.
Bow hunters would be allowed to bring their weapons through national parks when trying to reach areas where it is legal to hunt. More important, it makes all federal lands open to hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting unless otherwise specified.
Jesse Deubel, executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, said in an interview that expanding wilderness in his state will be a powerful lure for hunters seeking bighorn sheep, mule deer, quail and other animals. “People will travel to these places to pursue game in this wild, untamed habitat.”
The public lands package would also protect nearly 620 miles of rivers across seven states from damming and other development, often delegating management of the waterways to local authorities. It includes safeguards for a variety of rivers — everywhere from the tributaries for the wild Rogue River in Oregon, known for its vibrant salmon populations, to the once heavily polluted Nashua River that flows from Massachusetts to New Hampshire and is popular with kayakers.
In many cases, locals have been asking Washington for years for these protections to bolster tourism.
Montana’s entire congressional delegation — two Republicans and one Democrat — pressed for the permanent withdrawal of mineral rights of roughly 30,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service lands near Yellowstone National Park. Another provision in the bill would keep lands in Washington’s Upper Methow Valley from mineral entry and exploration, to protect North Cascades National Park.

Source

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/02/12/senate-just-passed-decades-biggest-public-lands-package-heres-whats-it/?utm_term=.91262bdee7be

This Weeks News 2/11/2019

Ted Cruz came to the Defense of Trump’s DC Court of Appeals judge Neomi Rao’s past statement that intoxicated women were partially responsible for being raped. He did so by relating a story of a student who drank to excess and electrocuted himself to women who were raped.when drunk [1].

The Trump Administration are STILL seperating children at the border and is actually causing longer periods of separation due to sharing sponsors of these children with ICE. This, even after last month finding out that there were 2,737 more separations than the administration had previously admitted and after they had admitted they were not keeping track of the children [2].

Democrats have united in the focus to protect pre-existing conditions. This is key, as the Trump administration and 20 Republican-based states have already been hard at work to revoke this requirement (no matter what lies he stated in the State of the Union) [3].

Trump made a blatant joke with Elizabeth Warren referencing the Trail of Tears on Twitter [4]. This is, not surprisingly, not his first racist statement against Native Americans, having referenced Pocahontas frequently when attacking Warren, revering Andrew Jackson (the president who enacted the Trail of Tears), even to the point of having a photo added in the background when honoring Native American Veterans.

Virginia Governor Justin Fairfax has called on the FBI to investigate the claims that he had committed sexual assaults, one in 2000 and one in 2004 [5]. This can be seen as an immediate contrast to the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, who was immediately against an investigation and whose subsequent investigation was done on a shortened timeline, narrow scope, and with limited witnesses allowed to be questioned.

With 18,565 victims who have come forward and more keeping quiet [6], the Catholic Church has had more sexual assault allegations come forward, this time including nuns being used as sex slaves in at least two reported countries as of now [7].

A study shows that the 400 Richest people in America own more money than the bottom 150 Million Americans. These 400 people “ have seen their share of America’s national wealth triple since the 1980s, while the wealth of much of the U.S. population has stagnated or declined. ” [8] Wealth inequality in the US is at an all time high, and the tax bill has actually grown it by giving breaks to the richest Americans and either increasing or keeping the rates of middle and lower class Americans [9].

After the US, under Trump’s discretion, broke down a Cold War era pact that was created to keep nuclear proliferation in both countries down, Putin has now announced a revamping of Russia’s nuclear arms to compete with the US by 2021 [10].

The US is unquestionably nearing another recession, one that will possibly hit similar to the great recession due to the likelihood of not having bailouts given by the government [11].

Democracy across the world has now begun to see a decline, with many countries inviting Nationalist leadership and human rights being removed in many areas [12].

Insect populations across the globe are dying at an unprecedented rate due to pathogens, use of pesticides, habitat loss due to human involvement, and climate change. These insects are necessary for the earth to remain have hospitable, yet “ The total biomass of insects is also declining at the rate of 2.5 per cent globally, the review of 73 historical reports found. ” [13]

Sources

Source 1: https://theweek.com/speedreads/821962/ted-cruz-just-compared-rape-victims-man-who-climbed-train-electrocuted-himself

Source 2: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/07/bethany-christian-services-family-separation-hearing/2798007002/

Source 3: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/us/politics/democrats-pre-existing-condition-coverage.html

Source 4: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-genocide-warren-792627/

Source 5: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/429298-fairfax-calls-on-fbi-to-investigate-sexual-assault-allegations-against

Source 6: https://www.axios.com/catholic-church-faces-ominous-decline-5cc11529-860d-470d-a2e2-5fe12b89ad81.html

Source 7: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-priests-nuns-sexual-slavery-abuse-saint-jean-order-france/

Source 8: http://papers.nber.org/tmp/38195-w25462.pdf

Source 9: https://www.yahoo.com/news/average-tax-refunds-down-8-054836423.html

Source 10: https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-to-build-new-missile-systems-after-breakdown-of-u-s-nuclear-pact-11549383167

Source 11: https://www.barrons.com/articles/the-u-s-is-in-the-late-stages-of-expansion-data-show-51549642305