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Australian Open heat was a climate-change preview, but at least nobody died

by KetaHeadraf Posted on January 29, 2014

Australian Open heat was a climate-change preview, but at least nobody died

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Alpha

41 degrees Celsius is 106 Fahrenheit

The Australian Open ended in Melbourne on Sunday, when a Swiss man wearing a sweat-drenched shirt with yellow and red stripes won in four sets. It was bloody hot, and his nose burned red as he smooched a silver trophy.

In fact, the sweltering heat captivated the world’s media and arguably stole the show. One player burned her bum when she sat down on a chair; another’s plastic water bottle melted on the court’s artificial surface. Athletes collapsed left and right, and one of them hallucinated. Emergency rules designed to help players survive the scorching heat slowed down play.

January is Melbourne’s hottest month, where temperatures routinely break triple digits. And summertime temperatures in this capital of the southeastern state of Victoria will only keep rising as the globe keeps warming. “In Melbourne we are seeing an increase in the amount of extreme heat,” one scientist told The Guardian. Victoria’s profile as a fire-whipped example of the global climate crisis can only go up from here. The following chart, produced by the country’s nonprofit Climate Council, shows that the number of extreme heat days per year (defined as exceeding 35 C, or 95 F) is rising:

Climate Council

Extreme heat days per year. Click to embiggen.

Professional tennis players are in their athletic prime and have access to top-notch medical care when the heat gets crazy. Millions of regular Victorians might not cope as well. Unprecedented bushfires linked to climate change killed 173 Victorians in 2009. “With populations at the rural–urban interface growing and the impact of climate change, the risks associated with bushfire are likely to increase,” a team of experts working for the state government concluded in a report. Meanwhile, hundreds more in the state died during that same summer because of heat exposure. Hot and fiery conditions in southeastern Australia this summer have mirrored those of 2009 — and such conditions are forecast to become more common.

Yet even in Victoria, where global warming’s toll is so visible, doctors say the conservative state government is failing to adapt. The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Doctors and public health experts are calling for the Victorian government to urgently review its management of heatwaves as the death toll from this month’s record-breaking period appears to climb.

The Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, which works with the State Coroner to investigate reportable deaths, said that as of Friday it had recorded 139 deaths in excess of the average expected between Monday, January 13, and Thursday, January 23.

Dr Liz Hanna, a fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at ANU, said it was ‘”unfathomable” that Victoria had not learnt enough from the catastrophic 2009 heatwave, when 374 lives were lost, and the Victorian Greens are demanding a formal inquiry into what they call the state’s ‘”clear lack of preparation” for periods of extreme heat.

While Institute of Forensic Medicine director Stephen Cordner said he could not be sure the deaths were due to the heat, most of the deceased were elderly people and those with chronic and mental illnesses, who are known to be vulnerable in extreme heat.

As somebody who spent countless parched days at Australian Open games during a childhood in Melbourne, I always felt that the city had no business hosting the Grand Slam event in January. Now I’m sure of it: It seems inevitable that the competition dates will eventually change, or that another city will need to take over.

In the scope of climate disasters with growing body counts, a too-hot tennis tournament seems a trifling matter. But it has helped broadcast Melbourne’s weather woes to the world — and if that’s what it takes to get people to rally, then it does us good service.


Source
Heatwave ‘one of the most significant’ on record, says Bureau of Meteorology, Sydney Morning Herald
Anger over spike in deaths during record Victorian heatwave, Sydney Morning Herald
Is the Australian Open tennis feeling the heat of climate change?, The Guardian

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Australian Open heat was a climate-change preview, but at least nobody died

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How to Raise Black Children (on Camera)

by JackJanesgql Posted on January 14, 2014

Mother Jones

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Like many parents, Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson decided to capture their first-born’s major milestones on video—first day of school, basketball games, middle-school graduation, preparations for the prom. They filmed the mundane moments, too: Walking the family dog, meltdowns over homework, a trip to the doctor that resulted in an ADHD diagnosis. All told, the family compiled more than 800 hours of footage starting the day that their son, Idris, and his best friend, Seun, entered kindergarten at Manhattan’s Dalton School—two middle-class black boys on scholarships at one of the nation’s most exclusive, and predominantly white, educational institutions.

In the resulting documentary, American Promise, which won a Sundance Jury Award and airs nationally on PBS on February 3, parents will see much that they recognize from their everyday struggles to raise confident, well-rounded kids—from the last-minute cramming on the drive to school to arguments around the kitchen table over a mediocre report card. But at a time when study after study shows black boys on the wrong side of a staggering achievement gap, the film offers an intimate look at the additional burdens of cultural bias and the social typecasting of young black men. Here’s a trailer:

This week, the Brewster and Stephenson release a new parenting book, Promises Kept: Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and Life. Based on their 13-year-experiment, the book includes expert advice on dealing with bias and stereotyping. I reached the couple at home in Brooklyn as they prepared for a final screening at the New York Film Festival to discuss overbooked kids, Trayvon Martin, and what it’s like raising a child under the camera’s watchful eye.

Mother Jones: How has American Promise been received on the festival circuit?

Joe Brewster: We were told we were the first in history to get a two-time standing ovation at the New York Film Festival. That’s kind of amazing, although another film got one the same night so I think they’re in the standing ovation mode over there. But the kids were there and they got one for themselves. And a number of parents came up to us, talking about how it spoke to them.

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How to Raise Black Children (on Camera)

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Park Service to Congress: Only YOU Can Prevent Government Shutdowns

by heloltiki554 Posted on November 29, 2013

Mother Jones

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Perhaps nothing is more emblematic of the frustration Americans felt during the October government shutdown, which cost the economy an estimated $24 billion, than the furor over the shuttering of more than 400 federal national parks. Republicans accused Democrats of keeping veterans from seeing the World War II monument in Washington, DC. Democrats blamed the Republicans (who effectively held the nation’s budget hostage for 16 days until they couldn’t politically afford to anymore) of seizing the park issue to distract from the economy. But now, the US National Park Service—which lost $450,000 a day in park entry and activity fees during the shutdown—has a new message for Congress: No, we’re not going prepare for another government shutdown, because you need to do your job.

The smack-down took place at a hearing last week before the House Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation, which weighed in on a new bill introduced by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) in October. The Provide Access and Retain Continuity (PARC) Act, which has 17 Republican co-sponsors, would allow states to keep national parks operating in the event of another shutdown and would make them eligible for reimbursement by the federal government. (During the shutdown, six states entered into a similar agreement.) Right now, the government is only funded until January 15, meaning that Republicans could potentially pull the same shenanigans all over again in 2014. Stewart tells Mother Jones, “This bill is designed to provide some safeguards to local communities that rely heavily on access to public lands in the event that a shutdown does occur.”

According to a National Park Service spokesman, more than 11 million people were unable to visit parks during the shutdown, and the park service lost about $7 million in park entry fees. The Park Service also estimates that communities within 60 miles of a national park suffered a collective negative economic impact of $76 million for each day of the shutdown. But Bruce Sheaffer, Comptroller of the National Park Service,testified that the agency “strongly opposes the bill.” He said:

We have a great deal of sympathy for the businesses and communities that experienced a disruption of activity and loss of revenue during last month’s government shutdown and that stand to lose more if there is another funding lapse in the future. However, rather than only protecting certain narrow sectors of the economy…from the effects of a government shutdown in the future, Congress should protect all sectors of the economy by enacting appropriations on time, so as to avoid any future shutdowns.

Sheaffer took issue with other parts of the bill, noting that forcing the Park Service to rely on state revenue would be “a poor use of already strained departmental resources” and would “seriously undermine the longstanding framework established by Congress for the management of federal lands.” While Sheaffer didn’t object to another GOP-backed bill on the table—the Protecting States, Opening National Parks Act, which would reimburse states for National Park expenses incurred during the October shutdown—he concluded that planning for another shutdown “is not a responsible alternative to simply making the political commitment to provide appropriations for all the vital functions the federal government performs.”

Scheaffer’s position had support from Rep. Raul Grijalva, (D-Ariz.), who told Cronkite News Service at the hearing, “We shouldn’t be coming up with doomsday preparations.” But Stewart says, “The Park Service opposition is odd and misses the point. Of course the preferred course of action is to avoid future lapses in funding.” He adds, “While I cannot predict the future, I do not anticipate another shutdown during the 113th Congress.”

When Mother Jones asked the National Park service whether it considered the GOP’s fixation on funding national parks a way to deflect blame away from the shutdown, a spokesman said, “Your question asks us to speculate on an issue. We don’t do that.”

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Park Service to Congress: Only YOU Can Prevent Government Shutdowns

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Federal shutdown freezes Antarctic science, other research

by Gabrielle Hartzog Posted on October 8, 2013

Federal shutdown freezes Antarctic science, other research

By

Stacy Kim, National Science Foundation

Nothing to see here, folks. Y’all can just stay home this year.

It’s springtime at the South Pole, meaning there soon will be enough daylight and warmth for hardy climate researchers to make their annual haul south — way, way south. (Since Antarctica’s ice sheet would raise seas more than 150 feet upon melting, it seems like an important thing to stay on top of.)

But preparations by America’s team are being threatened by the American government shutdown. NPR explains:

Advance teams have already started working to get things set up and ready for the researchers, who usually begin heading south right about now.

But they’re hearing that the government’s contractor for logistics in Antarctica, Lockheed Martin, will run out of funding for its Antarctic support program in about a week. A decision about whether they will need to start pulling back personnel is expected very soon.

The fear is that this year’s entire research season will effectively be cancelled — that scientists and logistical support workers will be called back home, and only skeleton crews will be left to keep the three U.S. research stations going.

What’s it like to stare down the looming threat of an entire lost year of research? Peter Doran, a professor of earth sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago, articulated his feelings to NPR’s All Things Considered:

“We can do things that other countries can’t do because of the great logistic support that we’ve had for years,” he says.

The thought of all the science that wouldn’t get done if there is a pullback is depressing to Doran. “And the waste of money is just heartbreaking,” he adds. “All the equipment that’s been shipped down already for this field season, all the people having to reverse all that — for nothing? It really kind of makes me ill.”

The federal government shutdown jeopardizes more than  just the scientific study of Antarctica’s expansive ice mass. House Republicans’ continued effort to hold the U.S. hostage in a bid to quash Obamacare affects science research across the board. From Greenwire:

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ mission statement vows “to advance our knowledge and understanding of the universe.” But when the federal government shut down last Tuesday, its scientists were forced to trim their sails.

The center sent home more than 100 of its 900 employees, affecting as many as 60 projects — including the mapping of solar flares, a threat to satellites that feed data to American smartphones. Disrupted federal funding is “so counterproductive” at a time of global competition for technological dominance, center spokesman David Aguilar lamented in an interview.

“For people to say that this is not important, that it doesn’t have an impact,” Aguilar added, reflects a lack of awareness “of what technology does for our lives.”

While the economic fallout from closed national parks and unpaid federal workers began to hit almost immediately after the shutdown began, its effect on scientific research promises to kick in on a slower time scale and with less easily communicated consequences for many Americans.

And as the federal shutdown stretches into its second week, polls are showing that most Americans blame the GOP. The L.A. Times reports that the president’s approval rating has risen even as his agencies have been furloughed by Congress’s inability to pass a budget:

The standoff over the government shutdown continues to damage the public’s opinion of congressional Republicans, two new surveys indicate, a finding likely to deepen concern among GOP leaders about the impact the stalemate is having on their party.

A third newly released survey shows that overall approval of Congress has fallen to nearly a record low.

Disapproval of the way congressional Republicans are “handling negotiations over the federal budget” has jumped to 70%, a Washington Post-ABC News poll shows. The poll, taken Wednesday through Sunday, found 24% approving of the congressional GOP.

Of course, this is a fantasy come true for fossil-fuel-allied Republicans: No government means crippled regulators and hobbled science. Maybe that’s why greens are vocally seething over the shutdown while the energy industry, in the words of a recent Politico article, “are mostly staying mum” about it.


Source
Government shutdown: GOP losing ground with public, polls indicate, L.A. Times
Government shutdown: Scientific research takes a quiet but devastating hit, Greenwire
Even Antarctica Feels Effects Of The Government Shutdown, NPR

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Federal shutdown freezes Antarctic science, other research

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30 Ways the Shutdown Is Already Screwing People

by Florencepb7 Posted on October 2, 2013

Mother Jones

The federal government entered shutdown mode at midnight on Monday, after Congress failed to pass a continuing resolution that would keep departments and agencies up and running. Though some Republicans have dismissed the immediate impact of the shutdown, quite a lot of people have already been affected.

Here’s a quick guide:

Kids with cancer: 30 children who were supposed to be admitted for cancer treatment at the National Institute of Health’s clinical center were put on hold, along with 170 adults.

Head Start kids: When a new grant didn’t come in, Bridgeport, Connecticut, closed 13 Head Start facilities serving 1,000 kids. Calhoun County, Alabama, shut down its Head Start program, which serves 800 kids. Some were relocated to a local church.

Pregnant women: Several states had promised to pick up the tab if the US Department of Agriculture stopped funding the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC)—but not Arkansas, where 85,000 meals will no longer be provided to low income women and their children.

Babies: 2,000 newborn babies won’t receive baby formula in Arkansas, due to those WIC cuts.

People who help pregnant women and babies: The 16 people who administer the WIC program in Utah will be furloughed—in order to free up money to continue funding the program.

Whales: The Marine Mammal Commission, which monitors whale populations, is on hiatus.

63-year-old Jo Elliott-Blakeslee: The shutdown of Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho has complicated the search for a woman who went missing in the park.

Military suicide prevention: Palm Beach, Florida, television station WPTV profiled Rosemarie Spencer, a contractor with the US Army Suicide Prevention Program who was furloughed on Tuesday.

Virginia: 2,000 workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard were sent home on Tuesday, and commissaries in northeast and southeast Virginia, which provide inexpensive groceries to members of the military, closed on Wednesday.

Firefighters: The Bureau of Land Management’s Little Snake Field Office in Colorado says its ability to respond to a fire is “severely limited.”

Firefighter widows: Heidi Adams, whose husband, Token, was killed investigating a fire in New Mexico last month, won’t receive survivor benefits because there’s no one at the National Forest Service to finalize the paperwork.

Fishermen: National Park Service blocked all access to Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina.

Domestic-violence centers: Facilities in Vermont and Montana stopped receiving reimbursement payments.

People who eat food: Eight thousand employees at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention were furloughed, including those tasked with monitoring the outbreak of foodborne illnesses.

People who cook food: The USDA’s food safety hotline has stopped fielding calls from people with questions about food storage and safe preparation.

Animal-semen exporters: The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports, “No one in Louisiana will be able export livestock, embryos, fertilized animal eggs or animal semen.” Animal semen? Yup, the USDA monitors that too.

College students: Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and federal work study programs are officially on ice, as of Tuesday.

Bookworms: Arizona’s Marine Corps Air Station Yuma closed on-base facilities including a library, day care center, youth activity center, and pool.

Park rangers: 686 of Alaska’s 750 National Park Service employees are staying home.

First responders: The Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Alabama, which trains first responders for states and municipalities, is closed.

Golfers: The Moffet Field Golf Course near Mountain View, California, is closed due to furloughs at the NASA facility where the 18-hole course is located.

Poor Louisianans: The state Commodities Supplemental Food Program, which serves 64,000 people each month, doesn’t have the funds to operate.

People with mysterious illnesses: The Undiagnosed Diseases Program at the National Institutes of Health has stopped accepting new patients, with the exception of children with life-threatening illnesses.

Meningitis researchers: A University of Hawaii research facility shut down.

Newt Gingrich: The former speaker of the House decried the closure of a “tour bus turnaround” at Mt. Vernon:

Antique-car lovers: The Armed Forces Retirement Home in Gulfport, Mississippi, canceled its “Cruisin the Coast” car festival.

Native Americans: The Department of Health and Human Services cut off funding to the Urban Indian Health Programs, which offer dental treatment, primary care access, and substance abuse programs.

Football players: All athletic activities at service academies have been postponed, including Saturday’s Navy-Air Force football game.

Goats: 50 Nubian goats, tasked with eating poison ivy at a New Jersey historical site, were furloughed.

Klansmen: A planned march in Gettysburg by the Confederate Knights of the KKK was canceled because the national battlefield park is closed.

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30 Ways the Shutdown Is Already Screwing People

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MAP: Global Flood Damage Could Exceed $1 Trillion Annually by 2050

by Cindy Holman Posted on August 18, 2013

Mother Jones

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Tim McDonnell/Climate Desk

As climate change intensifies, one of the most surefire threats we’re bound to face is increased flooding of coastal cities brought on by sea level rise. Taxpayers worldwide will be faced with more whopping bills—like the estimated $60 billion cost of Superstorm Sandy—to clean up damage in the wake of these events. But just how much money are we talking about here? According to a study out today in Nature, it’s a freakishly large number: A dangerous combination of rising seas, sinking land, and growing coastal development could push global flood damages to well over $1 trillion every year by 2050.

Stephane Hallegatte, an economist at the World Bank, and his coauthors tallied up estimated flood damage losses for the world’s 136 largest coastal cities, on the basis of local population and real estate and infrastructure values crunched with data on each location’s elevation, exposure to extreme weather like hurricanes, and existing coastal protection infrastructure. Then he extrapolated these costs into the future using UN population and urbanization models, economic models from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and climate models of future sea level rise. The results were staggering: The $1 trillion figure, Hallegatte says, is just the bare minimum.

Without action to better protect these vulnerable metropolises, he says, “even in cities that are very well-protected today, losses will reach levels that are completely impossible to imagine.” The map above shows the 20 cities with the highest estimated losses in the absence of any proactive measures.

Sounds grim, but there’s a silver lining: Installing robust protective infrastructure that accounts not just for sea level rise but also population growth and future shoreline development could reduce annual losses to $52 billion. As is so often the case with climate change preparation, investment up front can save big bucks down the road. After all, Hallegatte says, even the cost of massive sea walls, natural barriers, and other coastal protection will seem like chump change compared to a scenario where “we have cities destroyed and we have to rebuild them again and again.”

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MAP: Global Flood Damage Could Exceed $1 Trillion Annually by 2050

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Prepara Roasting Laurel

by Myrna Posted on August 7, 2013

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Prepara Roasting Laurel

by Myrna Posted on July 26, 2013

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