Climate Change

Timeline, Smoking Guns, Additional Articles

V.

IPCC

- Complaints -

Puerto Rico, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oakland/San Francisco, Washington

VI​. Economic Damages

The Forever Glaciers of America's West Aren't Forever Anymore

September 12, 2023

New York Times

Climate change is melting the ice on Mount Rainier. The environmental effects will be widespread, a Park Service study warned. Click here

Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and more deadly

August 25, 2023

EurekAlert!

Heatwaves of the kind we are currently experiencing are particularly deadly for the elderly, the sick and the poor. The 2003 heatwave, which saw temperatures in Europe reach 47.5 degrees Celsius, was one of the worst natural disasters of recent decades, claiming an estimated 45,000 to 70,000 victims in the space of a few weeks. Click here

Commercial Real Estate is in Trouble. Climate Change Is Part of the Problem

August 17, 2023

TIME

It turns out climate change may be playing a meaningful, if admittedly secondary, role further stressing the commercial real estate market. Click here

Climate projections detail future risks for many people worldwide

August 10, 2023

Phys.ORG

A recent study conducted by scientists at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (BAERI) and NASA Ames Research Center provides a thorough examination of how these extreme events will worsen as our planet's temperature creeps upwards, and where these events are more likely to clash and combine in ways that significantly impact people's lives and livelihoods. Click here

Great, Climate Change Will Even Make Food Poisoning Worse

August 10, 2023

GIZMODO

Climate change will make stomach bugs an even bigger problem, a new report has found. The study concludes that expected changes in temperature, precipitation, and humidity will make foodborne infections and toxins all the more common­at least in Germany. Click here

Threatened by wildfire smoke, West Coast cities are piloting clean-air centers

August 2, 2023

C. Thompson, The Grist

A few weeks ago, while visiting friends in San Francisco, I stopped by the Linda Brooks-Burton Branch Library in the city’s Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. Rather than checking out books, I was there to check out a room ­ a nondescript space with a few tables and chairs, a hand-washing station, and two quiet but impressive MERV 13 air filters. Click here

Extreme heat has cost the global economy $16 trillion on average, research shows

August 4, 2023

Business Insider India

There's no question that the extreme heat blanketing the globe costs the economy, as dangerous conditions push workers to stay home or cut their days short and businesses temporarily close. Click here

How climate change drives hotter, more frequent heat waves.

August 3, 2023

Whats Up New

in late June 2021, a high-pressure atmospheric system settled over Seattle to create an inescapable heat dome. Jean-Paul Yafali, a resident of nearby Kent, Washington, thanked his good luck for the two secondhand air-conditioning units that a friend had given him back in 2019. He wasn’t used to this kind of stifling. Click here

Climate Change Is Making Us Sick, Says WHO Envoy

August 2, 2023

Busani Bafana, Inter Press Service

Climate change is making us sick. It has become urgent to build resilient health systems to secure humanity’s well-being, says the special envoy for climate change and health of the World Health Organization (WHO). Click here

Threatened by wildfire smoke, West Coast cities are piloting clean-air centers

August 2, 2023

C. Thompson, The Grist

A few weeks ago, while visiting friends in San Francisco, I stopped by the Linda Brooks-Burton Branch Library in the city’s Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. Rather than checking out books, I was there to check out a room ­ a nondescript space with a few tables and chairs, a hand-washing station, and two quiet but impressive MERV 13 air filters. Click here

Most of the world is feeling climate change. Study finds 81% of the global population in July experienced abnormally high heat.

August 2, 2023

Hayley Smith (LA Times)

Four out of every five humans alive experienced at least one day of abnormally hot temperatures in July ­ a global onslaught of extreme heat that would not have occurred without climate change, according to new research. Click here

The cost of climate change: 2°C global warming target is not economically reasonable unless we make major changes

August 1, 2023

EurekAlert!

Climate change goals set out in the Paris Agreement are only economically reasonable if non-market factors such as human health and loss of biodiversity are prioritized, according to a new study published by Dr. Taikan Oki, former Senior Vice-Rector of United Nations University headquartered in Japan, in IOP Publishing’s academic journal Environmental Research Letters. Click here

Heat Is Costing the U.S. Economy Billions in Lost Productivity

July 31, 2023

Coral Davenport (New York Times)

From meatpackers to home health aides, workers are struggling in sweltering temperatures and productivity is taking a hit. Click here

America’s cruel summer

July 8, 2023

Andrew Freedman, AXIOS

Record-setting heat and hazardous air have already consumed much of the U.S. this summer, and the worst may be yet to come. Driving the news: Blistering heat waves have struck all over the country; another one is now ramping up in the Southwest. Click here

This summer alone, extreme heat will cause $1 billion in U.S. healthcare costs

July 5, 2023

Fast Company

Extreme heat­summertime temperatures and humidity that exceed the historical average­is being made more frequent and intense by climate change. In the first two weeks of June, a late-spring hot spell prompted schools in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Great Lakes areas to close or send students home early. Click here

Current heatwave across US south made five times more likely by climate crisis

June 27, 2023

Climate Crisis

The record heatwave roiling parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mexico was made at least five times more likely due to human-caused climate change, scientists have found, marking the latest in a series of recent extreme “heat dome” events that have scorched various parts of the world. Click here

JPMorgan, Exxon Spurn Rigid Emissions Data as SEC Mandate Looms

June 2023

Bloomberg Law

JPMorgan, Exxon, Chevron and Goldman Sachs this year have won shareholder support to keep using greenhouse gas emissions calculations that activists say are murky and misleading, as the SEC looks to make public companies boost climate data transparency. Click here

Costs of natural disasters set to increase with continued rise in CO2 and global temperature.

April 2023

J. Mitchell. PHYS.ORG

Click here

Carbon majors and the scientific case for climate liability

2023

C. Callahan, J. Mankin. Dartmouth College

In 2003, Professor Myles Allen of the Oxford Martin School considered the limits of climate science and posed the question: “Will it ever be possible to sue anyone form damaging the climate?” In this paper the authors link corporate emitters to specific economic losses from warming. They show the billions in economic losses directly attributable to the extreme heat caused by emissions from individual fossil fuel firms…and answer YES! Click here

Sixth Oregon Climate Assessment. The Economic Implications of Climate Change for Oregon

2023

S. Dundas, S. Capalbo, and J. Sterns

In this article, the authors, including Steven Dundas (an environmental economist and professor at Oregon State University) discuss climate migration, the temporary or permanent movement of person or groups primarily in response to sudden or progressive changes in the environment due to climate change. Click here

The global economics of climate action

March 2023

PHYS.ORG

Click here

World is on brink of catastrophic warming, U.N. climate change report says.

March 2023

S. Kaplan – Washington Post

Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post discusses the latest release from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Click here

OCCRI’s Sixth Climate Assessment Outlines Climate Change Effects on Oregon

January 2023

Energy Info Blog

Oregon Department of Energy Analyst Amy Schlusser summarizes the key findings of the OCCRI’s sixth climate assessment. Click here

The Scientific Case for Climate Liability and Loss and Damage Claims

November 2022

C. Callahan, J. Mankin. Dartmouth College

The authors examine the causal chain from emissions to harm. The question arises immediately of how best to measure each link. There are the emissions themselves, the accounting of which is ultimately a political question. Click here

Climate and Health in Oregon 2021-2022 Report

2022

Oregon Health Authority

Annual report on the public health impacts of climate change in Oregon to the Governor, the Oregon Global Warming Commission and the Environmental Justice Council. Click here

Apportioning responsibility for heat-driven loss and damage

2022

C. Callahan, J. Mankin. Dartmouth College

Click here

Can scientists attribute the impacts of climate change to particular emitters?

2022

C. Callahan, J. Mankin. Dartmouth College

Click here

National attribution of historical climate damages.

July 2022

C. Callahan, J. Mankin

Click here

Understanding the 2021 Heat Dome Event in Multnomah County, OR: Causes, Consequences, and Future Risks

2022

A tutorial on how the 2021 heat dome affected Multnomah County, Oregon and the broader Pacific Norwest region, including how and why the event occurred and the role of climate change and fossil fuel emissions. Click here

Regional Climate and Health Monitoring Report Multnomah Clackamas Washington. 2021

2021

Multnomah County Health Department

This is the first update to the Regional Climate and Health Monitoring Report that was released in 2019. Discussed is the connection between mental health and climate change. Click here

Climate change in Oregon by the numbers, from 0.1 to 200. 2023

2021

B. Parks

After reviewing the Fifth Biennial Climate Assessment, Bradly Parks of the Oregon Public Broadcasting breaks down the possible frequency of wildfires in Oregon, how hot the temperature is getting, more precipitation with less snow, and the rising sea levels. Click here

Bill McKibben Explains Global Warming By The Numbers

April 2020

B. McKibben

It’s simple math. Stop burning fossil fuels or stop living on Earth. It’s our choice. Click here

Two new studies warn that a hotter world will be a more violent one

July 16, 2019

Washington Post

As the planet warms, experts have increasingly sounded the alarm over the potential for increased climate-driven geopolitical conflict Two new studies underscore how rising temperatures are likely to increase aggression and violent behavior at the individual level as well. They arrive at a similar conclusion using two very different data sets: crime in Los Angeles and terrorist attacks around the world. Click here

The Oil and Gas Industry in Energy Transitions

January 2020

IEA

The oil and gas industry is facing increasing demands to clarify the implications of energy transitions for their operations and business models, and to explain the contributions that they can make to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. Click here

Paying for Oregon’s Future: Costs Climate Change Will Impose on Oregon’s Households. 2018

August 2018

E. Niemi. Natural Resources Economics

This report describes the potential economic costs that Oregon’s households, businesses, communities, and governments will incur in the near future. Mr. Niemi prepared this report for Natural Resource Economics and extensively from his earlier efforts to describe the costs climate change will impose on households and communities. Click here

Assessment of Columbia and Willamette River Flood Stage on the Columbia Corridor Levee System at Portland, Oregon, in a Future Climate

2018

S. Wherry, T. Wood, H. Mortiz and K. Duffy

This study provided important information for the Levee Ready Columbia project and the Columbia Corridor Levee System in the Portland, Oregon, area regarding the potential effect of a future climate on extreme but plausible floods. Click here

What Climate Change Means for Oregon.

August 2016

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

In this report, the EPA warns of the dangers of the marine and coastal ecosystems, wildfire and landscape changes, snowpacks and water availability and failing health to vulnerable people – all due to climate change. Click here

Turning up the Heat

October 1996

The Oregonian

This article reports that although there is a consensus among qualified scientists that fossil fuel emissions are warming the planet, there is a concerted effort by industry and confederates to undermine it, and they are spending millions of dollars to do so. Moreover, 100 scientists met in Seattle to discuss how global warming would likely affect Oregon. They predicted a 2F rise in temp by 2020 and a 4.5F increase by 2050. The discerned that should those temperature increases occur, Oregon would experience weather changes resulting in:

Hotter and drier summers
Increased need for cooling AC
Drought
Decreased snowpack
More wildfires burning with increased intensity
Less tree density

Click here

Temperature and Violent Crime in Dallas, Texas: Relationships and Implications of Climate Change

August 13, 2012

Western Journal of Emergency Medicine

April 1979

The complex origins of violent crime have been widely documented. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), weather is one of many factors affecting its incidence. Click here

The Long Term Impact Of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide On Climate

G. MacDonald, H. Abarbanel, et al

Technical Report Prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy

April 1979

If the current growth rate In the use of fossil fuels continues at 4.3% per year, then the CO concentration in the atmosphere can be expected to double by about 2035 provided the current partition of CO2 between the atmosphere, biosphere and oceans is maintained as Is the current mix of fuels. Slower rates of anticipated growth of energy use lead to a doubling of the carbon content of the atmosphere sometime in the period 2040 to 2060. Click here