[TheClimate.Vote] December 25, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/December 25, 2018/

[The New Yorker $]
*The Optimistic Activists for a Green New Deal: Inside the Youth-Led 
Singing Sunrise Movement*
By Emily Witt - December 23, 2018
- -
"Our strategy for 2019 is going to be continuing this momentum to build 
the people power and the political power to make a Green New Deal a 
political inevitability in America," Prakash told me. "In 2020, we, 
along with our partners, are going to be attempting to build the largest 
youth political force this country has ever seen." The movement has 
received support from established environmental organizations, including 
the Sierra Club and 350.org, but a spokesperson for Sunrise, Stephen 
O'Hanlon, said the assistance has been primarily non-financial. He added 
that the organization has raised less than a million dollars since it 
was started, from a mix of grants from foundations and grassroots donors.
- -
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-optimistic-activists-for-a-green-new-deal-inside-the-youth-led-singing-sunrise-movement


["The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it 
and take care of it. Genesis 2:15"]
*What would Jesus do? Talking with evangelicals about climate change*
  What would Jesus do?
In our new column about the American south and climate change, we go 
towards Christians who have been resistant to ideas of environmental 
stewardship - perhaps it's a message they need to hear in their own terms
by Megan Mayhew Bergman
- -
While climate change scenarios have all the hallmarks of biblical 
narrative – violent storms, epic floods, plagues, resource scarcity, the 
displacement of people – it's considered liberal political terrain. 
Scott Coleman, a practicing Baptist and the amiable environmental 
manager of Little St Simons Island, a mostly undeveloped strip of 
shoreline off the coast of Georgia, tells me that "environmental 
stewardship is often associated with liberal politics, thus looked upon 
negatively".
- -
  "there is a longstanding antipathy toward environmental sentiments in 
Christian, and especially evangelical circles, because they have, for 
centuries, been imagined as pernicious and dangerous, and possibly 
bordering on paganism."
- - -
[That] "regardless of political or theological leanings, there is 
agreement upon the basic tenet that God formed all of this beauty around 
us, and scripture [Genesis 1-2] gives us a responsibility to be stewards 
of that creation. For me, thus, mismanagement and abuse of creation is 
not only immoral or unethical, but is sinful."
The majority of southern believers I spoke to reported never hearing 
climate change mentioned in a sermon, but, like Lankford, could ground 
feelings about protecting the Earth in scripture, and felt that there 
was a strong moral imperative to protect the planet and its inhabitants.
Several mentioned Dr Katharine Wilkinson's book Between God and Green: 
How Evangelicals Are Cultivating a Middle Ground on Climate Change as 
helping them articulate a scriptural basis for taking climate action in 
the future.
When Bob Inglis – someone with whom I probably disagree on several core 
issues – spoke with reverence about seeing an Australian scientist 
evangelize about the natural world at the Great Barrier Reef, I could 
recognize his passion for the natural world as my own. Sometimes, common 
ground gets lost in semantics.
Inglis gave me the rational and the emotional case for his conversion 
from skeptic to climate change believer. The emotional case is what has 
stayed with me most since our talk, and is one I hope other skeptics 
manage to hear from their children, like Inglis did.
His son once told him, lovingly: "Be relevant to my future. Show some 
courage."
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/19/talking-with-evangelicals-about-climate-change-south


[wise opinion from Sailesh Rao -- Climate Healers]
*Towards a Compassionate Civilization*
We grow when we allow changes to change us -- Neetal Parekh
I wake up every morning and meditate for an hour before beginning my 
day. That hour-long meditation grounds me and makes me more effective in 
my work throughout the day.
I consider my work as that of a fire fighter. The Earth is on fire, 
literally so in places like California. The ultra conservative UN 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated that if 
we continue with business as usual, then within the next 11 years, by 
2030, we will likely have triggered catastrophic climate change. The 
World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Reports show that if we continue 
with business as usual, then within the next 7 years, by 2026, we will 
have killed virtually all wild animals on Earth. Dr. Kim Williams, the 
former President of the American College of Cardiology, has estimated 
that if we continue with business as usual, then the American health 
care system, which operates on a disease promotion and maintenance model 
rather than a disease prevention model, will likely be bankrupt within 
the next 7 years, by 2026.

After twelve years of intensive study, I have come to the conclusion 
that only compassion can quench the Earth's fire. The widespread 
adoption of compassion will automatically reduce our demands on the 
Earth and channel our daily efforts to alleviate the suffering of other 
beings. To become compassionate is to come home to who we really are, 
which is nothing to be afraid of. Indeed, an incredibly joyful 
transformation lies ahead of us, when we find the courage to make that 
journey home collectively.

Truth is sustainable. Lies are not. Therefore, in order to become 
sustainable, we must face up to all the lies that we have been telling 
ourselves, our societal and personal denials. The most consequential of 
all such denials is not climate denial as the mainstream media would 
have us believe, but the denial of our own compassion. Compassion denial 
is the denial of the suffering of other beings and the suppression of 
our natural urge to alleviate that suffering. This is the denial of our 
own true selves, which is pure compassion.

Compassion for all life is at the core of all religious teachings 
because compassion for all life is infinitely sustainable! Conversely, 
deliberate institutionalized cruelty to any part of life is 
unsustainable. The fact that we are leading unsustainable lives implies 
that such deliberate, institutionalized cruelty is fueling our current 
lifestyles. To become sustainable, we need to engineer a truly 
Compassionate Civilization in which such institutionalized cruelty is 
absent. Furthermore, we have to engineer and adopt this Compassionate 
Civilization within the next 7 years or face dire consequences...
- -
On Jan 1, let us reflect on our relationship with the Earth, 
specifically, the critters in the soil, and resolve to nurture them with 
love and respect. Without their tireless work, we would not have 
nourishing food to eat. Let us reflect on our relationship with the 
farmed land animals who are exploited mercilessly and slaughtered. Let 
us reflect on our relationship with wild animals who are driven away 
from their forest homes and killed so that we can consume more meat and 
dairy. Let's resolve to go Vegan and end these cruel practices...
- - -
As any climate scientist can tell you, there are only three things we 
can do to alleviate climate change which don't have negative 
consequences in other respects:

    1) Go Vegan;
    2) Rewild the land that's freed up from animal agriculture; and
    3) Burn less fossil fuels

Let's resolve to take these three steps and reverse global warming 
without any further delay.
- -
http://www.climatehealers.org/blog/2018/12/21/towards-a-compassionate-civilization


[NBC reports on 10 steps of climate grief]
*'Climate grief': The growing emotional toll of climate change*
Extreme weather and dire climate reports are intensifying the mental 
health effects of global warming: depression and resignation about the 
future.
By Avichai Scher - Dec. 24, 2018
When the U.N. released its latest climate report in October, it warned 
that without "unprecedented" action, catastrophic conditions could 
arrive by 2040.

For Amy Jordan, 40, of Salt Lake City, a mother of three teenage 
children, the report caused a "crisis."

"The emotional reaction of my kids was severe," she told NBC News. 
"There was a lot of crying. They told me, 'We know what's coming, and 
it's going to be really rough.' "

She struggled too, because there wasn't much she could do for them. "I 
want to have hope, but the reports are showing that this isn't going to 
stop, so all we can do is cope," she said.

The increasing visibility of climate change, combined with bleak 
scientific reports and rising carbon dioxide emissions, is taking a toll 
on mental health, especially among young people, who are increasingly 
losing hope for their future. Experts call it "climate grief," 
depression, anxiety and mourning over climate change.

Last year, the American Psychological Association issued a report on 
climate change's effect on mental health. The report primarily dealt 
with trauma from extreme weather but also recognized that "gradual, 
long-term changes in climate can also surface a number of different 
emotions, including fear, anger, feelings of powerlessness, or exhaustion."

In the last few months, a string of reports have delivered dire 
warnings. The U.N. report said the worst effects -- such as the flooding 
of coastal areas caused by rising sea levels, drought, food shortages 
and more frequent and severe natural disasters -- could arrive as soon 
as 2040. In November, the Trump administration released a report with 
similarly alarming findings. Both reports said cutting greenhouse gas 
emissions could still avert many of these effects, but a study earlier 
this month found that after holding steady from 2014 to 2016, emissions 
rose in 2017 and are on course to hit an all-time high in 2018.

The reports came amid a string of powerful natural disasters, including 
some that wiped out entire communities, such as Paradise, California, 
incinerated by the Camp Fire, and Mexico Beach, Florida, washed away by 
Hurricane Michael.

According to a Yale survey taken this year, anxiety is rising in the 
U.S. over the climate. Sixty-two percent of people surveyed said they 
were at least "somewhat" worried about the climate, up from 49 percent 
in 2010. The rate of those who described themselves as "very" worried 
was 21 percent, about double the rate of a similar study in 2015. Only 6 
percent said humans can and will reduce global warming.

Dr. Lise van Susteren, a psychiatrist in Washington and co-founder of 
the Climate Psychiatry Alliance, said it's becoming harder for patients 
to ignore the threats of climate change.

"For a long time we were able to hold ourselves in a distance, listening 
to data and not being affected emotionally," she said. "But it's not 
just a science abstraction anymore. I'm increasingly seeing people who 
are in despair, and even panic. "

*A 10-STEP PROGRAM FOR CLIMATE GRIEF*
After the U.N. report was released, Jordan looked for a way to help her 
children cope. She saw a sign at her church for a support group that 
deals with the issue, the Good Grief Network.
*[Audio report 
**https://soundcloud.com/user-896028906/climate-grief-in-the-new-mexico-desert]*
Founded by Aimee Reau, 30, and LaUra Schmidt, 32, Good Grief offers a 
10-step program to help people deal with collective grief -- issues that 
affect a whole society, like racism, mass shootings and climate grief.

The program runs as a 10-week cycle, each weekly meeting tackling a 
different step. It's currently in its third cycle in Salt Lake City and 
is also running online. The steps encourage participants to confront 
their climate fears and sadness and acknowledge that they are part of 
the problem as polluters in a carbon-fueled system, but also find the 
motivation and strength to be part of the solution.

"What helps people is building community, talking openly about the 
problem and how it affects them," Schmidt told NBC News. "There's a lot 
of pain about the climate people are bottling up."

For Jordan, who works as an interpreter of American Sign Language, the 
program has been helpful.

"Grieving with other people is so healing, being able to talk openly and 
cry it out," she said. "We look each other in the eye and say, 'this is 
really happening.' "

Jordan plans to bring the program back to her family and hopes that it 
will help her kids cope. "They express sadness over the loss of animal 
species and anxiety over the unknown, like if there will be enough food 
in the future and where people displaced by rising seas will live," she 
said.

In September, Reau and Schmidt presented their program at Uplift 
Climate, an annual conference on climate change for people under 30, 
held entirely outdoors. This year's event was held in New Mexico's 
Cibola National Forest.

Aimee Reau, left, and LaUra Schmidt, creators of the Good Grief Network, 
hold a sign listing their 10 steps to deal with climate grief at the 
Uplift Climate conference in September.Aimee Reau, left, and LaUra 
Schmidt, creators of the Good Grief Network, hold a sign listing their 
10 steps to deal with climate grief at the Uplift Climate conference in 
September.Avichai Scher / For NBC News
"Is this the climate change depression session?" asked Kelton 
Manzanares, 27, from Utah.

"You're in the right place," replied Schmidt. Manzanares took his place 
in the circle of about 20 people in a patch of grass.

Schmidt asked participants what they wanted to get out of the session.

"Hope," said one woman.

"Empowerment," said another.

"It's OK to feel sadness, grief and despair," Schmidt told the group. 
"We'll aim to normalize those hard feelings."

Manzanares explained that drought has hit his community hard. Springs 
that were once flowing are now dry. Hungry and thirsty cattle are 
ruining once pristine land by scrounging for nourishment wherever they 
can find it. "I feel like I'm in a state of mourning or grieving when I 
think about it," he said.

Bill McKibben, a climate activist for over 30 years who runs the climate 
advocacy organization 350.org, said groups like Good Grief can be an 
effective way to deal with climate grief.

"We can't just be individuals, we need to join together and be a 
movement," he said in an interview. "It makes you less grief-stricken. 
The best antidote to feeling powerless is activism. It doesn't make you 
less sad, but adds hope, solidarity and love."

Even though the latest U.N. report was a "kick in the stomach" for him, 
he cautioned that those experiencing existential grief over climate 
change are not its main victims. "It's poor communities with flimsy 
homes that are washing away," he said.

*DISTRAUGHT OVER HAVING KIDS*
Almost all of the young people interviewed for this article said they 
were struggling with the ethical implications of having children.

"I'm definitely not having kids," said Marcela Mulholland, 21, a student 
at the University of Florida in Orlando and a participant in the Uplift 
session. "I don't have hope that we will avoid climate catastrophe. The 
changes that need to happen aren't happening."

Jordan said she used to talk with her kids about becoming parents 
someday. "I'd say, 'You'll be such a good dad.' Now, it feels wrong. 
They don't talk about it anymore either," she said.

Antonia Cereijido, 26, a radio producer in New York City, is conflicted. 
"If I did have kids, they would have the worst life ever," she said. But 
an environmental scientist told her that raising a climate-conscious 
child could be better than not having a child. "That did wonders for my 
anxiety, hearing that from a scientist. So now I'm not sure."

At Uplift, Manzanares, who was about to become a father, said having a 
baby gives him hope. "It's the most positive affirmation I can make 
about the future," he said. "We aren't giving up. This is a 
multigenerational problem."

*GRIEVING IN SILENCE*
Even with all the evidence, it's still difficult to seriously discuss 
mourning the climate.

"It's culturally acceptable to talk about all kinds of anxieties, but 
not the climate," said Van Susteren, the climate psychiatrist. "People 
need to talk about their grief. When you do nothing, it just gets worse."

The Yale survey found that 65 percent of those surveyed discuss global 
warming "never" or "rarely."

Jennifer Atkinson, a professor of environmental humanities at the 
University of Washington in Bothell, will teach her second course on 
climate grief next semester. She offers the course to students in the 
environmental studies program to help prevent the burnout that can 
develop by confronting the problem daily. "Some students say they're 
going to change majors, design video games, 'this is too depressing,' " 
she told NBC News.

When the course was first offered last spring, Atkinson and the school 
received support, but also a fair amount of ridicule.

"Do the students roll out nap mats and curl up in the fetal position 
with their blankies and pacifiers while listening to her lectures?" read 
a message sent to the school, she wrote in an opinion essay.

The inability to talk about the issues could be fueling increased rates 
of depression seen in young people, Van Susteren said.

"Think about it, do you always understand what is really bothering you 
deep down?" she said. "The constant barrage of news that the world is 
ending takes a toll."

For some young people, the sadness is caused by inaction.

Cindy Chung, 17, of Bayonne, New Jersey, is an activist with iMatter, a 
network of high school students who advocate for environmental measures 
on a local level. She struggles to understand how people, especially 
adults, can continue with business as usual.

"It wasn't our choice to be born into a doomed world," she said. "All 
this terrible stuff can happen by 2030, and I won't even be 30 years 
old. It's so frightening."
https://soundcloud.com/user-896028906/climate-grief-in-the-new-mexico-desert
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental-health/climate-grief-growing-emotional-toll-climate-change-n946751
[Personally recommending their video group meeting]

[background info for climate migration]
*Climate change is already deepening the refugee crisis*
Andrew Freedman - Dec 15
The U.S. military views climate change as a threat multiplier, one that 
is likely to worsen already existing weaknesses of government and poverty.
Why it matters: Internal and external climate displacement is already 
occurring. Depending how quickly and significantly temperatures rise, 
the specter of climate migration and refugee flows looms large by 
midcentury.

*Rising seas:* In 2017 alone, nearly 19 million new internal 
displacements were recorded in more than 130 countries worldwide, 
largely triggered by extreme weather events such as floods and tropical 
cyclones, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center. 
That's more than were displaced due to armed conflict in the same year, 
and climate change is aggravating many of these extreme weather events.
Residents of small island nations like the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu and 
Kiribati are fleeing rising tides and powerful storms to seek better 
economic opportunities in the U.S. mainland and elsewhere. Other small 
island countries are wrestling with contingency plans should waters rise 
too high.

    - A recent U.N. climate report found that many low-lying island
    states will face an existential threat should global warming exceed
    1.5C, or 2.7F, above preindustrial levels by 2100.
    - On our present course, we're headed for more than 3C, or 5.4F,
    above preindustrial levels by the end of the century. Such scenarios
    could even spur millions of Americans to migrate away from the
    coast, too.
    - Elsewhere, sea level rise and the monsoon season have pushed
    populations inland in heavily populated Bangladesh, as Rohingya
    refugees are forced to settle in marginal areas vulnerable to flooding.

*Drought:* In addition to sea level rise, water stress is the biggest 
concern of humanitarian groups and military planners.

    - By making droughts hotter and drier, the threat of drought induced
    migration and conflict is growing in areas that are vulnerable to
    social and military strife.
    - Climate studies have tied the Syrian Civil War's beginnings in
    part to a record drought that struck the Fertile Crescent in
    2007-2010, which set in motion political events that set the country
    on a ruinous course.
    - That drought, climate models show, was made more likely and severe
    due to global warming.

Precise NASA satellite measurements of groundwater storage -- which acts 
as a water savings bank for farmers -- show water stress building in 
heavily populated and conflict-prone parts of the world: Places like the 
border region between Pakistan and India, the Fertile Crescent, and the 
Northwest Sahara Aquifer System, which provides water for Algeria, 
Tunisia and war-torn Libya.

*The big picture: *The locations most at risk from climate 
change-related stresses in the near-term includes heavily populated 
areas like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and extends around the world 
to parts of South America and Africa, encompassing well over a billion 
people.

*The bottom line:* No refugee crisis or migration flow is purely due to 
climate change. But already, global warming-related factors are playing 
a role in setting people into motion, both within countries and between 
them.
https://www.axios.com/climate-change-refugees-are-already-on-the-move-d17b190c-122b-4e1f-9021-8ca666bf3880.html


[or $5 Billion could buy a wall]
*Hurricane Michael Cost This Military Base About $5 Billion, Just One of 
2018's Weather Disasters*
Major hurricanes, devastating wildfires, a drought and a series of 
extreme storms ran up the count of billion-dollar U.S. climate and 
weather disasters.
BY PHIL MCKENNA
As Hurricane Michael quickly gained strength over unusually warm water 
in the Gulf of Mexico, Tyndall Air Force Base began sending its stealth 
fighters to safer bases--all but the more than a dozen planes undergoing 
maintenance. Two days later, the base was being ripped apart by 155 
mile-per-hour winds that left it littered with the twisted metal of 
torn-away rooftops and hangars.
The hurricane--one of at least a dozen climate and weather disasters in 
the United States this year to top $1 billion in damage--left a wide 
trail of destruction through homes, businesses and farms from Florida to 
the Carolinas.
*2018 Year in Review*
The military alone suffered several billion dollars in damage. During a 
U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Dec. 12, Sen. Tim Kaine 
said the price tag for damage at Tyndall Air Force Base was about $5 
billion, as he understood it. That added to earlier damage from 
Hurricane Florence: U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller 
estimated that rebuilding properly after Florence's damage to Camp 
Lejeune would cost about $3.6 billion....
- -- 
*Climate Change Is 'Weighting the Dice'*
Global warming is exacerbating several types of extreme weather events, 
including extreme rainfall, droughts, heat waves and longer wildfire 
seasons with more intense fires, Smith said. At the same time, more 
people are moving into harm's way in forested areas, raising the risks 
for wildfire damage, and into coastal and low-lying areas at risk of 
flooding.

The rise of global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels 
and other human activities that increase greenhouse gas concentrations 
in the atmosphere is "weighting the dice against us," as Katharine 
Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist and co-director of the Climate Science 
Center at Texas Tech University, puts it.

"It's taking the natural 'weather dice,' where there is always a chance 
of naturally rolling a double six, which is an extreme heat wave, 
wildfire, or hurricane event, and loading them against us," she said. 
"We are starting to roll more and more double sixes than we should."...
- -
"The federal government isn't going to be able to put out the kind of 
resources it did in 2017 every single year or even every other year," 
said Rob Moore, a policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense 
Council. "At some point we have to start thinking seriously about a new 
paradigm, about how we prepare for the impacts of climate change, cope 
with what the future has in store, as well as recover from these 
disasters as they occur."

The Forest Service is also spending more to fight wildfires. From 1995 
to 2015, the percent of its annual budget devoted to fighting forest 
fires increased from 16 percent to 52 percent, forcing the agency to cut 
financing for other programs...
- - -
*The insurance industry has also taken note.*
"As the losses increase, we unfortunately also see an increase in the 
protection gap, the difference between the economic loss of an event and 
the insured loss of the event," Marla Schwartz, an atmospheric-perils 
specialist at reinsurance company Swiss Re, said. During Hurricane 
Harvey, the economic loss was around $85 billion, while the insured loss 
was about $30 billion. "There was a huge protection gap either because 
people don't have insurance, [or] they are underinsured."

For some regions of the country, better insurance may not be enough. 
Increasing vulnerability resulting from a combination of new 
developments in low-lying areas and a changing climate may prove too much.

"In the Deep South, Louisiana in particular, [they] continually get hit 
by these impacts and they are never really able to recover," Smith said. 
"It impacts their ability to grow economically, and as a society, 
because they are continually impacted and never made whole. They can't 
move forward."
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18122018/tyndall-military-hurricane-cost-2018-year-review-billion-dollar-disasters-wildfire-extreme-weather-drought-michael-florence


[classic essay from The Anthroposphere journal]
*Climate Action Without War*
Updated: Apr 30, 2018
What securitisation theory can tell us about starting a war on climate 
change.
by Alexa Waud
Let's mobilise! Let's decarbonise! Let's take climate change seriously! 
Let's fight a war! Which of the previous four calls to action does not 
belong? If you agree with the argument put forth by Bill McKibben in his 
August 2016 New Republic article, "A World At War", the correct answer 
is none of the above – all of these claims belong together. The opening 
of McKibben's article is much like other mainstream articles that 
advocate for climate action. It describes the disappearance of Arctic 
ice, the bleaching of coral reefs and the spread of wildfire in order to 
grab attention, evoke emotion and frame a call for government action. 
However, unlike most articles, McKibben advocates framing climate 
actions as wartime measures. He envisions executive action by a 
president to halt fossil fuel extraction on public land, set a price on 
carbon and, most importantly, initiate a massive industrial shift toward 
the manufacturing of renewable energy technology akin to arms production 
in World War II America. According to McKibben, "enemy forces" are 
gaining territory, releasing biological weapons, and inflicting 
casualties; therefore, as the article's title demands, we need to 
declare a war on climate change. "It's not that global warming is like a 
world war," McKibben explains, "It is a world war, and we are losing."...
- -
It can be argued that the level of civilisation we have achieved is 
responsible for causing the climate crisis. Therefore when climate 
change is conceptualised as a war, we are trying to protect the very 
lifestyle that is supplying the enemy forces. This closed-system of 
cause and threat make the logic of war incompatible with climate action. 
By committing to protect a referent object, in this case the systems and 
structures which make up our civilisation, we are committing to a 
certain fixity. Adopting this logic makes changing our civilisation 
extremely difficult – it cannot be maintained and changed 
simultaneously. Climate action should focus on systems change, not 
systems protection, the latter a pillar of McKibben's wartime logic.
- -
*Conclusion*
McKibben's call for a war on climate change, advocating a solution 
centred on emissions reductions, is ineffective and unjust because of 
the 'us vs. them' mentality, which makes enemies out of victims of 
climate change, and because his desire to protect a referent object 
fundamentally requires the preservation of inequalities. A wartime 
mentality rooted in violence and emergency will not break down 
structures of oppression, nor will it address the underlying causes of 
the climate crisis. Climate activists do indeed need attention-grabbing 
language and analogies to push the environmental agenda forward, but the 
rhetoric of war is counter-productive, and limits effective and just 
climate action. As securitisation theory helps to show, it is time to 
abandon the logic of war and turn to more effective solutions.
Alexa Waud reads an MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance 
at St Antony's. She is an urban theory fanatic from Toronto.
https://www.anthroposphere.co.uk/blog/climate-action-without-war

[Ugo Bardi's observation ]
*The Seneca Glass: Half Full or Half Empty? *
Optimist: the glass is half full.
Pessimist: the glass is half empty.
Catastrophist. It will not be half full for long.
Cornucopian: We are running into water rather than out of it.
Oil executive: The more we drink, the more the water level grows.
Conspiracy Theorist: Water? What water? THEY want us to believe that 
there is water in the glass.
Chemtrail believer: Don't look at the water! Look up at the sky! Don't 
you see THEY are poisoning us?
Climate Science Denier: Scientists cannot predict the weather one week 
in advance, how can they say if the glass is full or empty?
Bad Pun Lover: A fish was swimming in the glass. It swam into the wall 
and said, "Damn!"
Thomas Malthus: You can only fill the glass at a linear rate, but people 
will drink from it at exponentially rising rates.
Harold Hotelling: When there will be no more water in it, we'll use beer 
as a backstop resource.
Robert Solow: the amount of water in the glass will keep growing 
exponentially.
Neoclassical Economist: when the water level will be low enough, market 
forces will create more.
Julian Simon: there is enough water in the glass to last for six billion 
years.
Colin Campbell: After you drink the water in the glass, there will be 
none left.
Charles Hall: the water return on energy invested (WROEI) declines as 
you drink it.
Gail Tverberg: Water is not really a renewable resource: you will always 
need fossil fuels to pump it into the glass.
Guy McPherson: All the water will have disappeared from planet Earth by 
2030.
Donald Trump: We need to build a wall to keep the Mexicans from drinking 
our water.
Matsuo Basho: The old glass. A frog jumps into it. The noise of water.
William Shakespeare: The empty part of the glass is filled with the 
stuff dreams are made of.
Erwin Schroedinger: The glass is neither half full nor half empty - 
until you drink from it.
Jesus Christ: Have faith and walk on the stones, just like I do.
Lao Zi: A glass of a thousand gallons is filled starting with just one drop.
Buddha: The water is an illusion, just like the glass. And the drinker, too.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca: It takes a long time to fill the glass, but 
emptying it is rapid.
https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-seneca-glass-half-full-or-half-empty.html


*This Day in Climate History - December 25, 2008 - from D.R. Tucker*
December 25, 2008: The Washington Post reports: "The United States faces 
the possibility of much more rapid climate change by the end of the 
century than previous studies have suggested, according to a new report 
led by the U.S. Geological Survey."
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2008-12-25/news/36892488_1_climate-change-ice-sheets-sea-level-rise
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