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Portions of the new IPCC report have been leaked and they do not provide good news. As reported by National Geographic, the report comes with some dire predictions for the future unless action is taken.

“The leaked draft from Working Group II further warns: ‘Impacts from recent extreme climatic events, such as heat waves, droughts, floods, and wildfires, demonstrate significant vulnerability and exposure of some ecosystems and many human systems to climate variability (very high confidence). These experiences are consistent with a significant adaptation deficit in developing and developed countries for some sectors and regions.'”

-Steven Silverberg

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The U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society have published a primer of Climate Change facts. Entitled “Climate Change Causes and Facts” the booklet tries to provide a fact based summary of what scientists now know and don’t know about Clinate change.

The stated purpose of the report is:

“The Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences, with their similar missions to promote the use of science to benefit society and to inform critical policy debates, offer this new publication as a key reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and other individuals seeking authoritative answers about the current state of climate-change science. The publication makes clear what is well established, where consensus is growing, and where there is still uncertainty.”

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In a Christmas Eve decision, the D.C. Circuit Court rejected a challenge to the granting of a lease by the Bureau of Land Management to mine coal on public lands in Wyoming. In WildEarth Guardians, et. al. v. Jewell, two groups challenged the determination to lease certain public lands for coal mining, claiming that the environmental review under NEPA failed to adequately address issues related to increased local pollution and impacts on climate change from the activities to be conducted on the leased lands.

The Court found that the entities, as a result of the purposes of the entities and the underlying interests of their members had standing to bring the action:

“The procedural injury the Appellants claim-the allegedly deficient FEIS-is tied to their respective members’ concrete aesthetic and recreational interests. “[E]nvironmental plaintiffs adequately allege injury in fact when they aver that they use the affected area and are persons ‘for whom the aesthetic and recreational values of the area will be lessened’ by the challenged activity.” Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Envtl. Servs. (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 183 (2000) (quoting Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 735)… plaintiff “must still demonstrate a causal connection between the agency action and the alleged injury.” City of Dania Beach, Fla., 485 F.3d at 1186; accord Ctr. for Law & Educ., 396 F.3d at 1160; see also Fla. Audubon Soc’y, 94 F.3d at 664–65 (“[A] procedural-rights plaintiff must show not only that the defendant’s acts omitted some procedural requirement, but also that it is substantially probable that the procedural breach will cause the essential injury to the plaintiff’s own interest.”). We think the Appellants have done so here because the local pollution that causes their members’ aesthetic and recreational injuries follows inexorably from the decision to authorize leasing on the West Antelope II tracts. ,,, The Appellants may challenge each of the alleged inadequacies in the FEIS because each constitutes a procedural injury connected to their members’ recreational and aesthetic injuries: Their members’ injuries are caused by the allegedly unlawful ROD and would be redressed by vacatur of the ROD on the basis of any of the procedural defects identified in the FEIS.”

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A recent study by the University of Toronto looks at the potential of Perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA), a greenhouse gas, to have long term impacts upon climate change. An article in the Geophysical Research Letters reports the results of the study.

While only noted in trace amounts in the atmosphere, the significance of PFTBA on climate change going forward relates to its “potency”. Angela Hong the lead researcher is quoted as saying:

“Calculated over a 100-year time frame, a single molecule of PFTBA has the equivalent climate impact as 7,100 molecules of CO2,”

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A recently released study demonstrates a relationship between the man made effects on global warming and changes in patterns of precipitation. A news release summarizes the findings of a new study issued by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory noting that the study:

“…observed changes in global (ocean and land) precipitation are directly affected by human activities and cannot be explained by natural variability alone. … Emissions of heat-trapping and ozone-depleting gases affect the distribution of precipitation through two mechanisms. Increasing temperatures are expected to make wet regions wetter and dry regions drier (thermodynamic changes); and changes in atmospheric circulation patterns will push storm tracks and subtropical dry zones toward the poles.”

-Steven Silverberg

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This week the EPA released for public comment its Draft Climate Change Adaptation Implementation Plans, one for each of its ten Regions and seven National Programs. The notice of availability for public comment explained that in order for the EPA to carry out its functions it must address adaptation to climate change.

” Until now, EPA has been able to assume that climate is relatively stable and future climate would mirror past climate. However, with climate changing at an increasingly rapid rate and outside the range to which society has adapted in the past, climate change is posing new challenges to EPA’s ability to fulfill its mission. The Agency’s draft Implementation Plans provide a road map for the Agency to address future changes in climate and to incorporate considerations of climate change into its mission-driven activities.”

For those interested in commenting the following information should be noted:

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On November 1, the President issued an Executive Order putting in place several policies to address preparedness for the impacts of Climate Change. The Executive Order states:

“The impacts of climate change — including an increase in prolonged periods of excessively high temperatures, more heavy downpours, an increase in wildfires, more severe droughts, permafrost thawing, ocean acidification, and sea-level rise — are already affecting communities, natural resources, ecosystems, economies, and public health across the Nation…. Managing these risks requires deliberate preparation, close cooperation, and coordinated planning by the Federal Government, as well as by stakeholders, to facilitate Federal, State, local, tribal, private-sector, and nonprofit-sector efforts to improve climate preparedness and resilience; help safeguard our economy, infrastructure, environment, and natural resources; and provide for the continuity of executive department and agency (agency) operations, services, and programs.”

The heart of the Order is the policy that: “[t]he Federal Government must build on recent progress and pursue new strategies to improve the Nation’s preparedness and resilience. In doing so, agencies should promote: (1) engaged and strong partnerships and information sharing at all levels of government; (2) risk-informed decisionmaking and the tools to facilitate it; (3) adaptive learning, in which experiences serve as opportunities to inform and adjust future actions; and (4) preparedness planning.”

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The city of Copenhagen has developed a comprehensive plan to address short and medium range impacts of Climate Change. From green roofs to streets that divert storm water the City has developed a comprehensive plan to address the impacts of global warming.

The plan lists some the key considerations in adaptation:

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS IN CLIMATE ADAPTATION MEASURES To achieve successful adaptation of the city to the climate of the future, it is important that we con- sider a number of key factors:

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The U. S. Department of Agriculture is establishing seven regional Hubs to assist farmers and forest owners with climate change adaptation and mitigation. According to the USDA site:

“These hubs are needed to maintain and strengthen agricultural production, natural resource management, and rural economic development under increasing climate variability.”

The USDA is in the process of selecting Hubs from among existing facilities. A fact sheet issued by the USDA states that the Hubs will provide “support to USDA agriculture and land management program delivery by providing tools and strategies for climate change response to help producers cope with challenges associated with drought, heat stress, excessive moisture, longer growing seasons, and changes in pest pressure. The Hubs will support applied research and develop partnerships.”

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An insurance industry group has come out with a report on the significant and unpredictable risks caused by climate change. The Geneva Association Report warns that models previously used by the insurance industry to predict climate related events are no longer reliable. The report focuses on the uncertainty resulting from sea level rise and ocean warming.

“Another implication of ocean warming is the potential for longer tropical cyclone seasons….A longer hurricane season, starting earlier and ending later, can change some of the storm characteristics and increase the damage potential of cyclone season. There are indications that this is the case for example in the Hurricane Sandy on the U.S. East Coast at the end of October 2012….The impact of ocean warming on other loss-relevant hurricane characteristics, such as size, genesis potential and location of landfall, is deeply uncertain and, because of the sparse data, it will take some time until a potential signal may appear in observational time series.”

In addition to calling for internal actions by the industry in risk assessment, the report calls for “external” actions.

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