The Great Pacific Garbage Patch counts 1.8 trillion pieces of trash, mostly plastic

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is getting greater. Twice the size of Texas, the floating mass of about 79,000 metric tons of plastic is up to 16 times larger than previously thought, according to scientists who performed an aerial survey.

The results, published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, reveal that this plastic blight in the Pacific Ocean is still growing at what the researchers called an "exponential" pace.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or GPGP for short, is an accumulation of junk that has collected in the waters between California and Hawaii. The concentration of floating plastic in the patch ranges from tens to hundreds of kilograms per square kilometer. But much of it is hidden from the naked eye, partly because some of the plastic has been broken down into smaller and smaller bits over time. (It is not, as its name may suggest, an island.)

Read Amina Khan’s story from The Los Angeles Times - “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch counts 1.8 trillion pieces of trash, mostly plastic.”

(The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is analogous with climate change - we can’t see it and therefore we do nought about it, nor do we care - Robert McLean)

Bat swarms tracked by weather Radar Reveal Earlier Migration as Planet Warms

When millions of migrating bats fly toward their breeding cave near San Antonio, Texas, each spring, the shadowy, swirling swarm is so dense, it shows up on weather radar. Scientists reviewed years of that radar data and found that the flying mammals are arriving about two weeks earlier than they did just two decades ago.

Millions of Brazilian free-tailed bats spend summers in the
Bracken Cave near San Antonio, Texas. A study finds
they're arriving earlier and staying longer as the planet warms.

The scientists suspect the changes in the bats' timing and seasonal cycles are linked with the way global warming is altering the food chain and weather patterns.

Spring is warming faster than other seasons in many parts of the world, including Texas. An earlier bat migration fits with many pieces of the climate change puzzle, including earlier migrations of some bird species and earlier blossoming of many plants, said Phillip Stepanian, a meteorologist with Rothamsted Research who co-authored a new study in the scientific journal Global Change Biology on bat migration using the radar data.

Read the Inside Climate News story by Bob Berwyn - “Bat swarms tracked by weather Radar Reveal Earlier Migration as Planet Warms.

US weather: Record-shattering cold reaches as far south as Florida; parts of Niagara Falls freeze over

A record-shattering arctic cold in the United States has reached as far south as Florida, with freeze warnings in place from Texas to the Atlantic Coast and the north-east of the country facing another cold wave at the end of the week, forecasters said.

The brink of the Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls turns to
icicles as the area is hit with a cold blast.

Temperatures were from 11 to 17 degrees Celsius below normal across the US east of the Rocky Mountains, with only southern Florida untouched by the arctic blast.

"That degree of cold will be with us until tomorrow," National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Hurley said.

"Tuesday morning, we're looking at temperatures with very high probability of record lows."

Along Alabama's Gulf Coast, the temperature in the city of Mobile could hit a low of -9C overnight.

Read the ABC News story - “US weather: Record-shattering cold reaches as far south as Florida; parts of Niagara Falls freeze over.”

On climate change, there aren’t ‘two sides.’ So why do some feel otherwise?

“Do you believe in climate change?”

Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland (R)
 reaches out to shake hands with new U.S.
Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft during a meeting
at the Lester B. Pearson Building in Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada October 23, 2017.

Kelly Knight Craft, the newly minted U.S. ambassador to Canada, did not take long after arriving in Ottawa to make waves. The same day she presented her credentials to Canada’s Governor General Julie Payette, she sat down for an interview with a CBC journalist where she was asked this question.

“I think that both sides have their own results, from their studies, and I appreciate and I respect both sides of the science,” she replied. Her alarming answer paid lip service to the toxic myth that there is a legitimate debate over the reality of climate change, and that both sides deserve equal consideration—as if there were “two sides” to gravity, and whether we fall or float when we step off the cliff somehow depends on our perspective, our opinion, and our politics rather than on the facts.

I’m a Canadian climate scientist living in Texas, the heart of oil country. I spend a lot of time talking to people who share Craft’s perspective, and am often asked if I believe in climate change, too. My answer to them is no. I crunch the data myself, I run the models, and the evidence is clear. I don’t believe in climate change—I know it’s real.

Read Katharine Hayhoe’s story on Maclean’s - “On climate change, there aren’t ‘two sides.’ So why do some feel otherwise?”

Extreme weather makes homelessness even worse. Here’s how we can help

The images of Hurricane Harvey in Texas have shown how extreme weather can rob people of their homes. But what about those who have no home to begin with, or whose living situation is already precarious?

Extreme weather makes homelessness problematic.

Almost one-third of people who have been homeless have suffered extra trauma because of extreme weather, according to our research involving 163 homeless services in Australia and New Zealand.

What’s more, 19% of people in our study cited extreme weather as a factor in their clients becoming homeless in the first place.

Read the piece on The Conversation by a Senior Research Fellow in social vulnerability and disasters from Australia’s CQUniversity, Danielle Every -  ”Extreme weather makes homelessness even worse. Here’s how we can help.”

Rick Perry says climate change debate is "secondary" amid Harvey destruction

Energy Secretary Rick Perry, a former Texas governor, is still taken aback by Hurricane Harvey's devastation, but said conversations about climate change can wait.

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry -
he has argued that the climate change
debate is very secondary at this
particular time.

"No one has ever seen flooding like this," he told CBSN in an interview Friday, noting that parts of Texas had seen 50 inches of rain. 

In spite of the record-breaking rainfall and scientists charging that warming seas have caused hurricanes of greater intensity, Perry declined to weigh in right now on whether the White House would make any changes to its stance on climate change.

"We can line up scientists on both sides of this," he told CBSN's Stephanie Sy, but "this is not the time to be having this conversation." At this moment, he said, it's time to focus on helping victims recover from the damage wrought by Harvey.

"Everyone wants to run to the climate change debate, but that is very secondary at this particular time," he said.

Read the CBS story - “Rick Perry says climate change debate is "secondary" amid Harvey destruction.”

(Most people have a perverse avoidance of discussing the cause of an event while it is actually happening or whichever community affected is knee deep in the recovery process - that is wrong, for the evidence is frequently its richest, and clearest, when at its peak, or when the difficulty as at its worst. Rick Perry’s suggestion that climate change debate - that’s the first mistake for there is no ‘debate’ - is "secondary" amid Harvey destruction is political delaying tactic during which people can avoid the hard questions and, equally, the hard answers - as Al Gore has said the “inconvenient truth” - Robert McLean) 

Hurricane Harvey’s warning to all

Nobody wants to pick on Texas, or especially Houston, after a 1,000-year weather event that for several days turned the city into a lake and dispossessed thousands of their homes, belongings and, in some cases, loved ones.

Kathleen Parker.

The ultimate effects of the storm blandly named Harvey are yet to be fully understood. What is known is that most of the homes destroyed were uninsured for flooding and that U.S. taxpayers will be doing much of the bailing.

Meanwhile, comparisons to Hurricane Katrina 12 years ago are intriguing, if one is fortunate enough to be hugging dry land. Chief among the obvious differences is the death toll. Katrina took close to 2,000 lives. As of Friday, Harvey’s toll was 46, and the figure wasn’t expected to rise significantly.

Read the opinion piece on The Washington Post by Kathleen Parker - “Hurricane Harvey’s warning to all.”

Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas, could be 'on par with Katrina’

The menacing Hurricane Harvey has made landfall in Texas as a category four storm with winds of up to 210 kilometres per hour, making it the most powerful storm in over a decade to hit the mainland United States.

Traffic lights in Corpus Christi were knocked
down as Hurricane Harvey approached.

The hurricane made second landfall about 1:00am local time (4:00pm AEST) near the shore of Copano Bay, north-east of Corpus Christi and was downgraded to a category three, the National Weather Service said.

Tens of thousands of people fled inland before Harvey hit, packing winds of 215 kilometres per hour and sparking fears it could be the most destructive since Katrina left 1,800 people dead in 2005.

Harvey made landfall between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor about 10:00pm local time (1:00pm AEST) and is expected to dump over 90 centimetres of rain along the Texas coast and parts of Louisiana as it lingers for days.

Read the ABC News story - “Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas, could be 'on par with Katrina’.”

Is Hurricane Harvey Related to Climate Change? Scientists Have a Better Answer

As Hurricane Harvey approaches Texas, an old argument has again resurfaced about whether climate change is to blame.

Hurricane Harvey brought some heavy
weather the coast of Texas.

In the past, scientists have had a rather unsatisfying answer for both environmentalists and skeptics, essentially saying that while climate change increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather, no individual event could be attributed to it.

But that may be changing.

Climate scientists now say that they can use models and historical data to evaluate with increased precision how global warming has affected the odds of a given individual weather event.

Known collectively as the World Weather Attribution group, a group of scientists formed in 2014 to conduct studies on the subject, developing a series of steps they have worked to perfect for case studies. The team begins every project with an announcement that it will undertake the project and a promise to publish the results, even if the impact of climate change on a particular event is shown to be negligible.

Read the Time magazine story by Justin Worland - “Is Hurricane Harvey Related to Climate Change? Scientists Have a Better Answer.”

Hurricane Harvey: evacuations under way as storm heads for Texas

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, oil refineries are expected to shut down and 700 members of the National Guard are being called up as Hurricane Harvey, the most powerful weather system to hit the US in almost 12 years, barrels towards Texas.

Hurricane Harvey approaches the coast of Texas
from the Gulf of Mexico as it strengthens to a
category 3 storm. 

Several counties along the Gulf coast, including Nueces county, Calhoun county and Brazoria county, have ordered mandatory evacuations in low-lying areas.

The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has activated about 700 members of the state National Guard and put military helicopters on standby in Austin and San Antonio in preparation for search and rescues and emergency evacuations.

Harvey, which is due to make landfall late on Friday, would be the first hurricane to hit the Texas coast since Hurricane Ike in 2008.

The head of the National Weather Service said the storm posed “a grave risk to the folks in Texas”. 

Read The Guardian story - “Hurricane Harvey: evacuations under way as storm heads for Texas.”

As climate heats up, construction workers fight for breaks.

On a sweltering day two summers ago, Roendy Granillo was at work, installing floors in a house near Dallas, Texas, when he started to feel ill. He asked for a break but he was unable to take one. That afternoon, he collapsed.

Construction workers fight for breaks
from the oppressive heat.

Ramirez: “When he got to the hospital it was just too late. His body temperature was 109 degrees.”

That’s Diana Ramirez of the nonprofit Workers Defense Project. She says after this tragedy, the Dallas City Council passed an ordinance that her group had spent a year-and-a-half fighting for. It mandates a ten-minute break for every four hours of construction work.

That may not sound like much, but it’s more than many workers got before. Five years ago, the Workers Defense Project surveyed over a thousand Texas construction workers. More than a third said they were not given breaks at all, and over half said their employers did not provide water.

Read the Yale Climate Connections story by Eileen Mignoni - “As climate heats up, construction workers fight for breaks.”

If it's bigger in Texas, then it's surely bigger here

You know the saying. “Everything’s bigger in Texas.”

Unfortunately, it applies to climate change in Texas as well. With a super-sized state, the impacts of climate change are bigger and badder than in the other 49. In fact, Texas experienced 75 weather and climate disasters between 1980 and 2015, each of which produced at least a billion dollars in losses (across the states in which they impacted), more than any other state.

Here’s what global warming means for the Lone Star State. In other words, “Houston, we have a problem.”

Read The Climate Reality Project story - “What does climate change mean for Texas?”

(My sister lives in Texas and she often comments about how similar much of the landscape is in the U.S. State is to what we have here in Australia. So, I guess that if it is “bigger in Texas” then we here are in for something similar – Robert McLean.)

Renewable energy will soon power Georgetown, Texas

T

here’s a fast-growing city in Texas that also has one of the most progressive energy programs in the country — and it’s not Austin.

Georgetown, Texas, soon all its power
 will come from the sun and the wind.

Located about 30 miles north of the Texas capital in a deeply conservative county, the city of Georgetown will be powered 100 percent by renewable energy within the next couple years. Georgetown’s residents and elected officials made the decision to invest in two large renewable energy projects, one solar and one wind, not because they reduced greenhouse gas emissions or sent a message about the viability of renewable energy — but because it just made sense, according to Mayor Dale Ross.

“This was a business decision and it was a no-brainer,” Ross told ThinkProgress from his office along one of the city’s main thoroughfares. “This is a long-term source of power that creates cost certainty, brings economic development, uses less water, and helps the environment.”

Read the ClimateProgress story - “This Big Texas City Will Soon Be Powered Entirely By Wind And Sun”.

'Open for business' - an ideologically conditional stance

T

exas, like Australia, is open business.

That is, of course, only if the incoming business has ideological approval.

Tesla, the maker of the world’s most advanced electric cars, brings to Texas a transport idea that contradicts the fossil fuel energy-based traditional car industry that has infiltrated every segment of Texas society.

Treehugger reports, in its story - “Texas to Tesla: Get off my lawn...”  - that “Tesla might have won a battle in the relatively small state of Maryland, but it was just served a defeat on the larger battleground of Texas.”

Rising sea levels not a direct concern, but climate change is

Rising sea levels are not of immediate concern to people of the Goulburn Valley.

Some 10% of the world’s population live in places that will be threatened by rising sea levels and the impact of those difficulties will almost certainly be felt ultimately and indirectly by northern Victorians.

And although sea level rise may not directly trouble Goulburn Valley people, other issues intimately connected to our damaged climate most certainly will.

Droughts, flooding rains bringing a multiplicity of troubles from topsoil depletion and the displacement of residents, and a noticeable increase in extremes weather events are matters that governments from federal and state to local need to psychologically and physically prepare for decidedly different times.

The inaction by all levels of governments in Australia and their associated failure to mentally prepare is mirrored by what is “not” happening in Texas in the U.S.

A story headed: “Texas neighborhoods where climate change could hurt” on the State Impact website, argues that Texas needs to do more to prepare its most vulnerable communities for the impacts from climate change, according to health researchers.

Pananoria taught, rather than the reality that is climate change



The Salon Logo.

The reality that global warming is human-induced is beyond debate.
However, America’s conservative forces as they do in Australia continue to argue otherwise.
Just recently, the Salon magazine listed and published "11 heinous lides conservatives are teaching Americca's school children"

It argued in the article that the righ had a new plan to capture the country's youth vote by taking over the public school cirriculums.
The article said: “If recent elections have taught us anything, it’s that young Americans have taken a decided turn to the left. Young voters delivered Obama the election: the under-44 set voted Obama and the over-45 set broke for Romney. The youngest voters, age 18-29, gave Obama a whopping 60 percent of their vote.
“Now Republicans have a plan to try to recapture the youngest voters out there: Take over the curriculum in public schools, replace education with a bunch of conservative propaganda, and reap the benefits of having a new generation that can’t tell reality from right-wing fantasy,” it said.

The third lie of the eleven published says:

Climate change is a massive hoax scientists have perpetuated on the public.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has been hard at work pushing for laws requiring that climate change denialism be taught in schools as a legitimate scientific theory. Unfortunately, as Neela Banerjee of the L.A. Times reports, they’ve already had some serious success: “Texas and Louisiana have introduced education standards that require educators to teach climate change denial as a valid scientific position. South Dakota and Utah passed resolutions denying climate change.” Other states are taking the “teach the controversy” strategy that helped get creationism into biology classrooms, asking teachers to treat climate change like it’s a matter of political debate instead of a scientifically established fact.

The reality is that climate change is a fact that has overwhelming scientific consensus. In 2004, Science reviewed the 928 relavant studies on climate change published between 1993 and 2003 and found that exactly zero of them denied that climate change was a reality, and most found it had man-made causes. To claim that climate change is a “controversy” requires one to believe that there’s a massive conspiracy involving nearly all the scientists in the world. So, your kids are not only not learning the realities of climate change, they are also learning, if indirectly, to give credence to conspiracy theory paranoia.