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Wet Weekend!

9/13/2018

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​by Joylette Portlock; crossposted from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History blog
I had the chance to visit Powdermill Nature Reserve over the weekend. Yes, this past weekend, the one where it rained for three days almost continuously across a multi-state area. I took my kids with me, and we had a blast; after all, “rain is a grown-up problem.”* I have to say, the woods always feel so alive to me during/right after a hard rain. The world feels full of promise and power. As we watched Powdermill Run, swollen and wild, churning, cutting a new path through the woods after floods this summer, I thought of the power of water, to nourish, to sweep clean, and to cause damage.
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And, because being a grownup requires other grownup thoughts, I thought of the water in my basement, and considered, again, the costly prospect of installing a French drain around the house.
If you’re feeling like there seems to be more water than ever before, you’re not wrong. Climate change, one of the most significant challenges of the Anthropocene, is shifting the way water moves around the planet. It is resulting in more precipitation in places and at times where we don’t need it; a global phenomenon that is felt locally.
KDKA reported that this past Sunday in Pittsburgh was the second wettest day ever recorded in the area and we’ve already passed the yearly average rainfall. In other words, every drop from this point out in 2018 puts us closer to an annual “wettest ever” status, too.
Our downpour this weekend is part of a trend. Since the 1950s, the amount of water falling during heavy downpours in this part of the U.S. has increased by 71%, per the 2014 National Climate Assessment, and that’s an increase that is definitely more than the natural variation:
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The map shows percent increases in the amount of precipitation falling in very heavy events (defined as the heaviest 1% of all daily events) from 1958 to 2012 for each region of the continental United States; Adapted from: Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States.
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​This may come as a surprise – we usually talk about global warming in terms of heat waves and hurricanes – but climate scientists have known about these precipitation effects, which have a big impact even in non-coastal areas, for some time. It’s a big deal for flooding risk (and in areas like Pittsburgh, with a combined sewer-stormwater system, for water quality).

In other words, it’s not just my basement at risk.
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However, the forecast doesn’t have to be gloomy. Also from the National Climate Assessment: our actions right now make a difference, globally and locally. These maps show the projected difference in annual springtime precipitation, by 2090, if we take steps to dramatically reduce our impact on our climate now vs. if we don’t:
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Springtime in 2090, Business as usual - Kenneth E. Kunkel, Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites – NC
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Springtime in 2090, with changes - Kenneth E. Kunkel, Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites – NC
Grown-up problems, indeed. Playing in the rain can be very fun. And the world is full of promise and power. But perhaps Powdermill Run isn’t the only thing that requires a new path forward.
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*Said to me by a summer camp counselor at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium in 2017 when I dropped my son off for camp on a rainy day.

Joylette Portlock, Ph.D., is executive director of Communitopia, associate director of science and research at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and holds many other roles in the community. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

From the National Climate Assessment website:
The National Climate Assessment summarizes the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future. A team of more than 300 experts guided by a 60-member Federal Advisory Committee produced the report, which was extensively reviewed by the public and experts, including federal agencies and a panel of the National Academy of Sciences.
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None Like It Hot

7/30/2018

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by Joylette Portlock; crossposted from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History blog
July. Long known across the U.S. for fireworks, barbecues, and a desire to stay cool any way we can. Whether it’s air conditioning, swimming pools, beaches or popsicles, the dog days of summer are often reminders that as humans, our comfort depends on an experienced ambient temperature roughly somewhere between 59 and 77 degrees (Fahrenheit).

But what if, instead of 77, it’s a full 40 degrees more: 117 degrees, like it was in California on July 6? Or 105, like it was in Japan last week? Then, it’s more than an issue of comfort; our lives depend on finding a way to stay cool, and in fact more than a hundred people have perished in heat-related deaths globally already this year.

Life in this new age, the Anthropocene, is marked by many things, including a human-caused increase in global heat, commonly referred to as global warming, or climate change. Risk from heat (or wildfires, or floods) is no longer something we have to rely on the overwhelmingly strong scientific consensus about global warming to tell us; every year, climate change impacts are becoming more and more obvious to everyone, whether you have a degree in climate science or not.

Weather and climate are different. Weather is what happens on a day-to-day basis; climate is the range of weather that we expect and consider normal (i.e., summer is hot) – but normal is changing. 
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Photo: Graph showing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and human population from We Are Nature exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, on display until September 2018.
​We’re now up to over 400 consecutive warmer-than-average months and counting. Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s collections, which span more than 140 years, can help show these shifts in many ways. One of the most important things we can do is to make connections and show the relevance between the basic scientific principles underlying natural phenomena and the evidence all around us; between what’s happening globally and what’s happening locally.
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Photo: The growth of plants collected today versus 100 years ago in the same locations on the same date, shown in We Are Nature, shows increasingly earlier springtime. Look at the leaf size difference, and how the flowers have already turned to fruit.
The globe’s increasing heat is a result of fossil fuel use, food production, and our land use practices. We need energy and food, of course; but it’s critical that we recognize that the systems we impact also impact us. It’s not just our actions, but our interactions with the world around us that are the story. To understand what’s happening and improve our interactions with nature, we have to look at the big picture, and work to meet our needs in ways that minimize disruption to the overall system.
As summer heat waves get longer, more numerous, and more intense (and it seems the whole world is on fire, with deadly fires everywhere from California to Greece to inside the Arctic Circle) one connection is obvious: our need to be cool.
–Joylette Portlock, Ph.D., is executive director of Communitopia. She is also associate director of science and research at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and holds many other roles in the community.
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Video: Climate Change, Diesel Fuel, Disasters, Health, and…Humor?

9/6/2017

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Stronger storms

With Hurricane Irma (now the strongest-ever hurricane in the Atlantic basin) bearing down on U.S. soil less than two weeks after Harvey made landfall, where it caused yet-to-recede record flooding in Houston and elsewhere, there’s never been a more important time to talk about climate change. It’s true that no one storm can be blamed exclusively on our warmer world, but every storm is now taking place in a system that is more likely to produce bigger, wetter storms, with rising sea level and bigger storm surges.
It’s vitally important to connect the dots, even as network television newsfails to mention climate change during its breathless reporting about how the last “1-in-500-year storm was just 18 months ago,” or that “downpours in Houston have doubled in the last 30 years.” Our reliance on fossil fuels for energy is ratcheting up the amount of heat trapped by our atmosphere, and that is warming the oceans as well as the air, causing increasing evaporation and heavier, more sustained downpours.
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fossil fuels

It’s ironic that one of the biggest casualties from Harvey has been the oil industry, with 16% of U.S. oil refining capacity temporarily shuttered due to the storm, according to Goldman Sachs, and a (likely temporary) spike in gas prices. By burning oil, coal, and natural gas, we’re pushing our climate to extremes, whether that is unprecedented heat waves, wildfires, or torrential rain. 97% of climate scientists publishing in the field agree on this, whether the EPA under Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt keeps climate information under wraps on its website and refuses to fund climate-related projects, or not. According to NASA, July 2017 was the hottest month ever, even in the absence of an El Niño event, and was the 281st straight warmer-than-average month. The last time the world saw a below-average month was in 1985. This trend is not good for people.
What does that have to do with diesel fuel, the subject of our latest (and as usual, seriously silly) Don’t Just Sit There — Do Something! episode? It may seem far removed, but, everything on spaceship Earth is connected to everything else. Diesel fuel is, of course, oil-based, and oil is a fossil fuel. As it turns out, diesel vehicles are responsible for 7% of the heat-trapping pollution we produce in the U.S. — and many thousands of respiratory, cardiovascular, and cancer health problems. Diesel sounds great if you’re talking about a football player, a wrestler, a gladiator, or a movie star, but as a fuel, it has the same complications as any other fossil fuel: climate and health problems. Which (hey, there’s an upside!) means that reducing diesel use is a double win.
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hope for the future

The good news, as always, is that humans are adaptable, and resilient. As we work to rebuild the Gulf Coast, again, and brace for impact in the Caribbean and Southeast, let’s remember that to actually solve the worsening problem, we need to not just rebuild our cities and our nation’s energy infrastructure, but to rebuild smarter, and transition to a clean energy economy. It’s imperative that we support each other, help the communities hardest hit, and work for a better future: one where we use our technology and ingenuity, produce less air pollution of all kinds, and keep climate change in check.
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take action

In this video, we recommend making “no idling” a personal habit, and for those in Allegheny County, help stop school buses from idling, too! To find more actions and video, check us out at djst.tv.
Thanks for watching and sharing!
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This Future President Has Some Things to Say About Climate Action

6/5/2017

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(Cross-posted to HuffPost and Medium)
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WATCH VIDEO HERE
As the U.S. begins its plans to exit the Paris Agreement to combat global climate change and and back away from participating in the new, clean-energy-powered world, the ramifications of this choice could not be clearer. The choices made today may very well decide the destiny of the United States, if not the whole planet, when it comes to the future of our economy, security, health, and environment. It sounds dramatic to put it that way, but the threat of climate change really is that urgent, that far-reaching, and that consequential, as the scientific community has been saying for literally decades. 
And, leaving the Paris Agreement is also a dramatic departure from what the majority of Americans clearly want.

So, since drama is a thing that we do here at Communitopia, here’s a new installment in our Don’t Just Sit There - Do Something! video series - just in time for this latest news. And really, this one is all about time, and how our choices now affect the future. With tongues firmly in our cheeks, the State of the Climate video is set decades from now, with a future president addressing her country on the consequences of climate action. As always, our take on the topic is seriously silly, complete with action - and a few surprises.

Climate inaction is impossibly expensive, and cedes millions of jobs and the possibility of industrial leadership to other nations. It has irreversible impacts on ecosystems around the globe, imperils low-lying coastal cities and nations across the planet, throws resource management into chaos, creating security crises and instability. And while renewables hold all kinds of economic promise, fossil fuels will become more and more difficult to extract - eventually, we will have to find a better way to get power anyway. (Though the exact point at which we “run out” of recoverable fossil fuels is the subject of some debate in the brave new world of widespread unconventional gas extraction and tar sands oil). So let’s keep working toward finding a better way, now. As we say in the video, “The Future Doesn’t Have To Suck.”

Enjoy. And please, if you haven’t already, join the chorus of those calling for a better path. (Link goes to a League of Conservation Voters petition.)

Thanks for watching and sharing.

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Funny Four-Minute Haunted House Spoof Covers Climate and Energy

11/2/2016

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​by Joylette Portlock, Ph.D.
​Concerned about climate change? How about your energy bill? The latest video in the Don’t Just Sit There — Do Something! series, the “Energy Bill Movie”, takes a seriously silly look at residential energy use and climate change in a haunted house movie spoof, just in time for Halloween:
The action for this video (besides keeping Energy Bill out of your house) is to support the Clean Energy Incentive Plan — comments are due by November 1 — which will provide incentives for investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy in low-income communities and encourage states to take immediate action on climate change. (If you are new to the series, we always provide ways to engage.) It’s true that the scientific aspects and details of the impacts of climate change are very interesting; however, we find it’s generally more motivating to talk about such genuinely scary subjects through the lens of humor.

On one hand, the effects of climate change are still frightening, and worsening. 2016 continues barreling its way to hottest year ever status, Hurricane Matthew just caused the sixth one-in-a-thousand year rainfall on the Carolina coast in the past year, and the presidential debate stage was all but silent about climate. On the other hand, not all the news is bad: the international agreement made in Paris will shortly go into effect, and solar energy continues to rapidly expand here in the U.S. And, as becomes obvious in the video (spoiler alert), there are many ways we can make a difference. It’s important to note the progress being made and how much the hard work of the movement is paying off.

In conclusion, it’s never been more important to keep talking about climate change with friends and family. There isn’t an aspect of our lives that isn’t impacted by climate change. But since we’re all part of the problem, that means we can solve it, if we act together. We hope that this short video, and all our videos, will help spark opportunities for those conversations. So if you like it, please share with your networks. Happy Halloween!

(The Energy Bill Movie was produced with support from CCI Center.)
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— Communitopia’s mission? Through use of new media and project-based campaigns, to slow climate change and create healthier communities by identifying, researching, and advocating for individual, community, and federal solutions to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and improve community resilience. Our three-word mission is “Making Green Mainstream.”
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Staying Warm This Winter

3/4/2016

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by Joylette Portlock, Ph.D.

It’s no secret that the past few months have been warmer than normal. Most of us are taking advantage of it; planning outings and running outside, coatless, when we’re used to being trapped inside by an angry Old Man Winter. And there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of a good thing. My kids keep getting their frisbees stuck up in trees, but I digress. Believe me, I get it - it’s been a welcome change from the usual cabin fever that sets in round about February, and here in Pittsburgh, can last until almost April in a big way. The problem is that the human fingerprints on these warmer temperatures are undeniable. 97% of climate scientists and every science academy in the world is in agreement that burning fossil fuels is the reason for the warmer and warmer temperatures the world is experiencing.

The latest video in the Don’t Just Sit There - Do Something! series, “Staying Warm This Winter,” is a commentary on our continuing warming trend and its impacts, with a recap of fall 2015 news, including the worldwide climate agreement reached in Paris in December. As always, the information comes with easy actions for the viewer to take, and our trademark sense of humor!

The Clean Power Plan is the United States’ most important (and, so far, biggest) effort to tackle a huge chunk of our climate pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency rule, which would cut climate pollution from electricity 30% by 2030, was an important signal of our commitment during the Paris negotiations, and it went through an unprecedented public review cycle. It is also the direct result of Congressional failure to pass a climate pollution bill after the 2007 Supreme Court ruling that greenhouse gases endanger the public health and welfare. The ruling made clear that these pollutants do fall under the EPA’s authority to regulate, because of the Clean Air Act.

The Clean Power Plan is a flexible rule, that allows states to come up with their own plan for meeting target reductions, and gives them a lot of time to make that plan. While 27 states have filed suit against the plan, 18 states have filed in support. The case will be heard in June by the D.C. Circuit Court. It remains to be seen what the ultimate fate of the Clean Power Plan will be, with the vacancy on the court left by the death of Supreme Court Justice Scalia. If the D.C. Circuit Court ruling is challenged and the Supreme Court hears the case, there is currently a chance the Supreme Court would be tied, 4-4, on a judgement, in which case the decision of the lower court stands. A tied judgement could be revisited when a new Justice is confirmed. There are a lot of ifs and maybes in the guessing at this point, but one thing is clear - we need to start down the path to transition to cleaner sources of energy, we need to do it now, and it’s the EPA’s job, as determined in 2007, to make sure it happens.

I like the beautiful weather as much as anyone. But softer winters aren’t the only consequences of our fossil fuel habit. Record floods hit the U.S. at the end of 2015. Syria is still in record drought, which has helped to fuel the terrible conflict there. As we’ve covered in many past videos, heat waves, floods, droughts, wildfires, sea level rise, and changes in spread of disease are all a matter of life or death to people right now. These consequences, not to mention ocean acidification and species extinction, will only matter more and more to all the humans that come after us. I think it would be great if we can make a world where the biggest environmental worry is more on the scale of how best to get your frisbee out of that tree.

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Climate Truth, Justice, and the American Way

9/6/2015

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by Joylette Portlock, Ph.D.
crossposted from the Huffington Post
The overwhelming scientific consensus is that humans are warming our planet by burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees. 97% of climate scientists agree about this. But the agreement doesn't stop there; the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also went to a lot of effort to create equally strong reports about who will be hurt worst, and it turns out, climate impacts are not distributed equally across all of humanity. Climate change is being caused by the richest humans and the impacts will be borne largely by the poorest. This, of course, is not news to anyone thinking about it for a minute, especially those of us who recently marked the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall with grim remembrance of some of the disparities in who is most vulnerable during and after disasters. Unlike Pope Francis, who eloquently casts climate change as a moral battle, a matter of justice for the poor, in his recent encyclical, Laudato Si, the scientific community never actually comes right out and says this is a matter of right and wrong. Instead, the IPCC says things like:
People who are socially, economically, culturally, politically, institutionally, or otherwise marginalized are especially vulnerable to climate change and also to some adaptation and mitigation responses.
--- which is, arguably, scientist-speak for "this is totally just not fair at all, you guys." So what are we to do? And must we remain solemnly grim and horrified while doing it? It's possible I may be biased, because my personal fight for climate justice has led to lots of silliness, laughs, and even wearing a cape from time to time. This is not typical. But our latest video in the Don't Just Sit There - Do Something! series points out that when it comes to climate change, while there really is a right and a wrong course of action, heroes and villians -- we can choose inspiration over despair. It's up to us to become the heroes that we're looking for.



I know that, especially as a U.S. resident who is thankfully not hurting for basic necessities, some climate-friendly changes are easier and faster to make than others. Recently, my family took a big step that was a long time coming, buying a used Chevy Volt. For years, we've known our next car would be electric, and the day finally came. Unsolicited, unsponsored review? It's GREAT, and honestly, the personal benefits far outweigh the peace of mind that I get from knowing my carbon footprint is that much lower. I mean, it's no invisible jet, but driving the Volt is smooth and quiet and really, genuinely fun. Even the 2012 model makes you feel like you live in the future. Or at least, like you live in a future you'd approve of. One that protects not only the weakest among us, but also all future generations. Personal changes and policy changes (like the recently finalized, historic Clean Power Plan to reduce climate pollution from the U.S. power sector) are what will get us to that better future, for everyone. So let's keep fighting for truth, justice, and a new, clean-energy-based American way.
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Taylor Swift Parody Video; Breaking up With Fossil Fuels

5/8/2015

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by Joylette Portlock, Ph.D.
Cross-posted from the Huffington Post

In what has become an annual tradition for us at Communitopia, we've put together a music video parody; "Break It Off" is a lighthearted Taylor Swift spoof, to the tune of "Shake It Off." It is about breaking up - but instead of starring a handsome, desirable suitor, this video calls for an end to our souring long term relationship with the fossil fuel industry and a transition to clean energy. It is also about some pretty terrible dancing. (Look for the macarena, Gangnam style, ballet, the 'cabbage patch,' and the electric slide - with cameos from the Green Ninja and a Pittsburgh local, the Green Beanie.) Oh, and kung fu! For reasons.

"Break It Off" challenges both the 'haters' who reject the science about climate change and the naysayers who like to loudly declare that we're doomed no matter what. In the U.S., we harbor a high rate of fatalism around climate change and what we expect the future to look like, given current environmental challenges. The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication reports that about a quarter of Americans think that even though we could solve global warming, we won't. Close to half of us fall into the 'wait and see' category, unsure if we'll make the changes we need or not. This optimism gap is something we need to address, because the only way we're going to get anywhere with our problems is if we believe that we can.

The truth is, we have already started to build a better tomorrow, with clean air, clean water, and a stable climate, transition away from fossil fuels, and create economic opportunities at the same time. It's true that we've got quite a long way to go, but the recent news that climate-change-causing pollution worldwide flatlined in 2014 while the global economy grew is an encouraging sign. That kind of evidence puts the lie to the idea that multiple benefits can't be achieved simultaneously. We need to work to make sure it happens more often. (It sure sounds a lot better than where we're headed if we stick with the toxic, climate-destabilizing energy industry we've got now.)

I found myself at a gas station on one of the frigidly cold days in the Northeast this winter. Just in case you were thinking that those low temperatures disprove global warming, observe how I live in pretty much the only colder-than-average place left on Earth:

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2014 global surface temperatures. Credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio
While I was filling my tank, I saw a guy taking a cigarette break across the street. I felt bad for him, thinking how terrible it must be to have an addiction so strong it forces you outside even when it's two below zero with windchill... and then I remembered that I was standing outside in the same arctic cold pumping gas.

President George W. Bush called us a nation addicted to oil, and he was right. Human society and fossil fuels have had a good run, and have accomplished a lot together, but it's time to face facts; we're incompatible in the long-term. Our latest video simply -and with gusto- makes the point that we don't have to stay in this unhappy relationship forever --- better options are out there, and the time is now to break it off.

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If Greenhouse Gases Were A-Team Characters

10/17/2014

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PictureDoug Kline, flickr.com
by Joylette Portlock
(cross-posted from the Huffington Post)

I have a confession that will surprise no one: when I was a kid, the best part about staying home sick from school was daytime television. And one of the most entertaining things on TV during the day back then was the A-Team.

Putting together the latest video in the Don't Just Sit There - Do Something! series (scroll to watch below) got me thinking about the different greenhouse gases, each with their own stories and capabilities, and it occurred to me that maybe the best way to remember them -- and help other people remember them -- would be to liken their characteristics to actual characters. So, let me present the who's who of climate pollution, as if the offenders were characters on a certain beloved TV show from the 80s (and blockbuster movie from a few years ago):

Carbon Dioxide (82 percent of our heat-trapping pollution problem) as Hannibal - Clearly the leader and main driver of man-made climate change, we mostly produce carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide is the yardstick by which we evaluate the effectiveness of the whole team. This kind of pollution, like Hannibal and his cigars, also tends to come hand-in-hand with other environmental hazards.

Methane (9 percent) as Face - Two-faced (it's both a fossil fuel and a strong heat-trapping gas in its own right), consistently sneaky (we don't even have a good estimate of how much methane pollution is released by the oil and gas sector) and cropping up everywhere you least expect it (farms, the Arctic, oil fields) methane is an essential part of overall climate warming. Don't let its low profile or friendly image fool you: it's extremely good at what it does. Methane gives the team an early advantage, trapping 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide in the first 20 years, before it undergoes a literal transformation, into carbon dioxide and water.

Nitrous Oxide (6 percent) as B.A. Baracus - This gas packs a big punch, trapping heat 300 times better than carbon dioxide pollution. Nitrous oxide gets involved in restructuring things, using whatever is at hand, so as to increase danger. Where B.A. might build a tank from the contents of a random, normal garden shed, nitrous oxide is now also the primary driver of stratospheric ozone depletion because of its reactions in the atmosphere. Most nitrous oxide pollution comes from agriculture, but as it turns out, it is also associated with industrial machinery and vehicles. For some uses, we call it "laughing gas," but like B.A., nitrous oxide pollution is actually deadly serious.

That just leaves fluorinated gases (3 percent) as Murdock - and they're crazy good at trapping heat. These man-made chemicals trap heat thousands if not tens of thousands of times better than carbon dioxide. If we let them off their leash, there's no telling the damage they could do. It's probably a good thing, for the stability of the climate, that they're pretty scarce.

The Don't Just Sit There - Do Something! video I mentioned earlier is the first part of a two-part special report we're doing on just one of these characters: methane. The video covers methane leaks and agricultural sources, with humor:

Unfortunately, unlike the Hollywood version, this is one A-Team we can't root for (coal rollers aside) -- the world is better off with fewer of their over-the-top antics, like poor air and water quality, superstorms, Dust-Bowl-like droughts and species extinctions. We do have a problem, but it's up to us to help. We live in the modern world, with food, transportation and electricity and to avoid climate catastrophe, we need to find ways to do that without the damage caused by this group. So, let's plan a transition to a clean energy future, and then make sure that plan comes together -- we can start by asking the network to cancel this show.
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Carbon Pollution and Your Seafood Dinner

10/2/2014

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by Joylette Portlock
Cross-posted from the Huffington Post

It's not much of an exaggeration to say that water is life; our lives are necessarily linked to water's ebb and flow, the water cycle. As I type this, rain is pounding down outside; it's one of those violently beautiful summer thunderstorms in the Northeast. This part of the country is getting more water than ever -- too much, really, thanks to shifts in climate. Rainfall here keeps increasing, raising our flood risk. It's a complaint that probably sounds hollow to those in thirsty California, now experiencing one of the most severe droughts since records have been kept.

I spend a lot of my time finding ways to make climate change information accessible, empowering, less overwhelming, and even funny. It's much easier to laugh than cry, and it's usually easier to engage on a subject when there's less guilt and more encouragement. We need to move the conversation about climate change past how bad things are going to get, and into how we are going to solve the problem and complete a transition to a clean energy future.

Much of the climate disruption we're seeing has to do with changes in water. Floods, droughts, severe weather, sea level rise and changes in the spread of some infectious diseases are all caused by changes in water distribution. But the water impacts of carbon pollution don't stop there. The same pollution that's disrupting our climate is also causing fundamental changes to the chemistry of the world's oceans. About 50 percent of the carbon pollution we've put in the air has been absorbed by the oceans, making ocean water more acidic, as explained with an abundance of humor in "The Silence of the Clams," our most recent video:
It's worth a reminder that the level of consensus among scientists about all this is staggeringly high. Climate disruption -- or global warming if you prefer -- is real, and humans are causing it. That's the conclusion of 97 percent of climate scientistspublishing in the field, the entire international community of scientists, every professional scientific society (except the American Association of Petroleum Geologists) and the 13 federal agencies that, in April, released the U.S. National Climate Assessment, which talks at length about those floods and droughts I mentioned above and their real-world costs. "Anthropogenic forcing," as the scientific papers put it, is a fancy way of saying humans have become a force of nature. We live in a warming world, thanks mostly to carbon pollution from our burning all the oil, coal and natural gas we can find for transportation and power, and deforestation.

Carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater transforms into carbonic acid, and thus uses up the carbonate many species, such as corals, need to make shells and skeletons. This means that carbon pollution is causing more than just climate hijinks for us land-dwellers. The oceans are 30 percent more acidic than they were at the start of the Industrial Revolution and are on track to reach a 150 percent increase in acidity by 2100. That level of acidity threatens marine ecosystems, livelihoods in the fishing and tourism industries and food security around the world, not to mention the availability of many kinds of seafood. (Oysters, anyone?)

Ocean acidification only occasionally makes news, despite its projected all-the-oceans-of-the-world impact. As you'd expect for a topic that centers on a part of the world we can't usually see, only a quarter of people in the U.S. have even heard of it. Conveniently, however, the way to solve the ocean acidity problem is the same thing that we ought to be doing anyway to solve our climate problem: vastly reduce our carbon pollution.

For once, there's some good news on the climate (and ocean acidification) action front. The Environmental Protection Agency is finally acting on the Supreme Court's 2007 mandate for it to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. EPA's proposed Clean Power Plan, for which it is still accepting public comments (nudge, nudge) is an essential first step in building the climate cost into the bottom line for fossil fuel companies. Not the final solution, mind you, but an essential first step.

EPA's action is a good reason for optimism. (And is also helpful for that very reason; optimism in the climate change discussion is necessary to achieve action on the scale we need.) More and more, people are tuning in to the realities of man-made climate instability and what it means for human civilization. Most people in the U.S. now support climate action -- even if it costs them some money to do so. But, most also say they need at least a little more information on the subject.

To get appropriate policies in place to deal with our pollution problem, with climate instability and its impacts, we need the sustained support of an informed public. In the U.S. -- which has historically produced most of the world's heat-trapping and ocean-acidifying carbon pollution -- the public is still learning about the effects to land, water and human civilization. No doubt, the policy discussion will continue for some time. One thing, however, is clear: to protect ourselves, and all future people, we absolutely can and must do something.
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