The October 2017 170 California fires and November 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, CA, widely reported as the "deadliest" in California history, may help explain the Dec. 6, 2019 Los Angels Times report by David Lauter, "Hit by fires and droughts, California [Democratic primary] voters call climate change their top priority." The report notes "Overall, 47% chose climate change, followed by 32% picking healthcare reform, 14% immigration and 3% criminal justice."
For anyone still on the fence about climate change being human caused, consider James Powell's Nov. 20, 2019 article "Scientists Reach 100% Consensus on Anthropogenic Global Warming" in Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society. Powell's abstract notes "The consensus among research scientists on anthropogenic global warming has grown to 100%, based on a review of 11,602 peer-reviewed articles on 'climate change' and 'global warming' published in the first 7 months of 2019." His biography notes he "has a PhD from MIT in Geochemistry and is the former college president, museum director, and 12-year member of the US National Science Board appointed first by President Reagan and then by the President G. H. W. Bush."
Subject: Dec. 6 KPBS Round Table Climate Change Discussion
Editors:
Today in the KPBS Round Table discussion on climate change, I was disappointed how the danger of the climate crisis, as noted by top scientists, was underreported.
Your speakers probably know one of the most credible scientists on Earth regarding this topic is James Hansen. Hansen, former Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, warned the U. S. Congress about the climate crisis threat in 1988.
This is what he said in his December 4, 2019, COP25 press conference, which I also linked and reported in the fifth paragraph of my recent blog post "Look, Look, Look," "450 [ppm of CO2] is a disaster if you leave it in the air for long because we would eventually lose all coastal cities. The safe level is something less than 350 ppm but we are already at 410 ppm." I added "That should be on the front page of each newspaper on Earth."
Another credible scientific source is the IPCC. On my November 24, 2019 post "Climate Equity Graph from Meinshausen et al. 2009, and Aerosol Killing / Cooling Double Bind" I wrote the recent IPCC report noted "Coral reefs, for example, are projected to decline by a further 70–90% at 1.5°C (high confidence) with larger losses (>99%) at 2°C (very high confidence)." Here is why the IPCC is a credible source. There is no doubt among the mainstream scientific community that we will blast through 2°C because of the CO2 already in the system. In that same post I wrote "Brian Kahn on December 3rd, 2014, at climatecentral.org noted 'CO2 Takes Just 10 Years to Reach Planet’s Peak Heat' so we have some worse effects locked in."
The main [problem] with underreporting the danger of the climate crisis is that people will not plan for it. As I asked at the end of my September 1, 2019, post "Welcome to the Future -- Thoughts and Prayers for Those in Dorian's Path," "My two questions are: 1) What would city planning, agriculture, wilderness preservation, transportation, and colleges look like if our leaders told us this truth? and 2) What potential does humanity have if we stop playing this game of musical chairs with our and nonhuman survival?"
Please let me know if you have questions. Be advised I may post your response on my blog that has readers in 99 countries.
Best regards,
Scott T. Starbuck
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