[TheClimate.Vote] April 3, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/April 3, 2019/

[calculated cost of inaction]
*America's Missed Climate Targets Cost Global Economy $1 Trillion, 
Dublin-based Think Tank Finds*
By Sharon Kelly - Tuesday, April 2, 2019
- -
The new report predicts that between 2018 and 2025, the U.S. will 
pollute 5 billion more tons of greenhouse gases than it said it would 
under the Paris Agreement, which the U.S. remains a party to, even 
though the Trump administration has said it will initiate an exit at the 
first opportunity, which arrives at the end of 2019... - -
Beyond internal American politics, the IIEA's report hints at the 
possibility of an international response to American inaction. It 
describes three legal implications from the $1 trillion in damages they 
calculated, writing that possibilities included legal action in the 
International Court of Justice, domestic lawsuits in the U.S. against 
state or federal regulators, and lawsuits against major American polluters.

The report adds that prospects for successful litigation "remain low" at 
this time, but describes global trends that could raise odds of legal 
action in the future, including "promising legal precedents in Europe, 
and the number of lawsuits before U.S. courts."

"Three decades of climate history suggests that a window of opportunity 
for legislation -- be it delivering a green new deal, a carbon fee, or 
an alternative approach -- will eventually open again," said Curtin. "If 
this does not happen in 2021, the focus will again turn to litigation."

"Someone, somewhere, at some time," he added, "will eventually pay the 
price."
https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/04/02/america-climate-pollution-targets-cost-global-economy-1-trillion-report


[Wunderground - Earth to Venus]
*Global CO2 Emissions Hit an All-Time High in 2018; is a Hothouse Earth 
in our Future?*
Dr. Jeff Masters - April 2, 2019,
Global energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide jumped by 1.7% in 
2018, reaching the highest levels ever recorded, 33.1 metric gigatons, 
announced the International Energy Agency (IEA) last week.  The United 
States' CO2 emissions grew by 3.1% in 2018, reversing a decline a year 
earlier, while China's emissions rose by 2.5% and India's by 4%. The 
global CO2 growth rate was the highest since 2013. Global energy 
consumption rose 2.3% in 2018, nearly twice the average rate of growth 
since 2010, and was driven by a robust global economy as well as higher 
heating and cooling needs in some parts of the world.

A "Hothouse Earth" in our future?

The discouraging news on record-high CO2 emissions in 2018 should be a 
reminder to go back and look at the most talked-about climate science 
paper of the past year--"Trajectories of the Earth System in the 
Anthropocene", which was the subject of 460 news stories in 326 news 
outlets. Using existing results from climate models but no new modeling 
of their own, the researchers' analysis found that a warming threshold 
likely exists beyond which we would set in motion a series of vicious 
cycles (feedbacks) in the climate system that would catapult us into a 
"Hothouse Earth" climate extremely dangerous to the existence of modern 
civilization--defined as having a much higher global average temperature 
than any period of the past 1.2 million years. This threshold might be 
crossed even if we manage to limit global warming to the Paris Accord 
target of 2.0C above pre-industrial levels, they said...
- -
The past 1.2 million years of Earth's history have alternated between 
long intervals of glaciation and warmer interglacial periods, such as 
the one we're in now, dubbed the Holocene. The hottest period of the 
past 1.2 million years was the last interglacial, the Eemian, which 
occurred between 115,000 and 130,000 years ago. The Eemian was up to 2C 
(3.6F) warmer than the pre-industrial climate of the 1800s, and sea 
levels were 20 - 30 feet (6 - 9 meters) higher than they are now. A 
"Hothouse Earth" climate could easily end up 4 - 5C (7 - 9F) warmer in a 
few centuries, with sea levels stabilizing at up to 200 feet (60 meters) 
higher than today. According to the 2014 IPCC report (our review here), 
a 4C warming can be expected to result in "substantial species 
extinction, global and regional food insecurity, consequential 
constraints on common human activities, and limited potential for 
adaptation in some cases (high confidence)."...
- - -
One of the more dangerous likely feedbacks is the release of 
heat-trapping carbon dioxide and methane from the melting Arctic 
permafrost. One 2017 study warned that every 1C (1.8F) of additional 
warming would thaw 25% of permafrost, which contains twice as much 
carbon as the atmosphere does today. Other dangerous amplifying 
feedbacks they listed included diebacks of the Amazon rainforest and 
boreal forests, reduction of northern hemisphere snow cover, loss of 
Arctic summer sea ice, and reduction of Antarctic sea ice and polar ice 
sheets. Triggering just a few of these feedbacks would likely "activate 
other tipping elements in a domino-like cascade" leading to an 
irreversible transition to a Hothouse Earth (Figure 1)...
- - -
The authors of the Hothouse Earth paper have given us a convincing 
argument that even strong action to control greenhouse gas emissions and 
limit global warming to 2C may not be enough to prevent the destruction 
of a livable climate for humans. They applaud the significant progress 
that has been made in driving the renewable energy revolution and in 
slowing down population growth, but emphasize that "widespread, rapid, 
and fundamental transformations will likely be required to reduce the 
risk of crossing the threshold and locking in the Hothouse Earth pathway."
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Global-CO2-Emissions-Hit-All-Time-High-2018-Hothouse-Earth-our-Future?cm_ven=cat6-widget
- - -
[ the most talked-about climate science paper of the past year]
*"Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene"*
pdf file - https://www.pnas.org/content/115/33/8252


[token action, but noteworthy]
*Shell quits trade group over climate-change positions*
But the oil giant stayed in the American Petroleum Institute despite 
"some misalignment."
- - -
But not every nongovernmental organization was impressed. "It's a sad 
day when quitting one of 19 trade groups opposing climate action counts 
as climate progress," Richard Wiles, executive director of the Center 
for Climate Integrity, said. "This move by Shell is one step north of 
meaningless."

Wiles said industry trade groups "have obstructed action on climate 
change for decades."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/04/02/shell-quits-trade-group-over-climate-change-positions/?utm_term=.a2166bf6a9bb
- - -
[Reuters report]
*Citing climate differences, Shell walks away from U.S. refining lobby*
Ron Bousso
LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc on Tuesday became the first 
major oil and gas company to announce plans to leave a leading U.S. 
refining lobby due to disagreement on climate policies, citing its 
support for the goals of the Paris climate agreement. In its first 
review of its association with 19 key industry groups, Shell said it had 
found "material misalignment" over climate policy with the American Fuel 
& Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) and would quit the body in 2020.

The review is part of Shell's drive to increase transparency and show 
investors it is in line with the 2015 Paris climate agreement's goals to 
limit global warming by reducing carbon emissions to a net zero by the 
end of the century.

It is the latest sign of how investor pressure on oil companies, 
particularly in Europe, is leading to changes in their behavior around 
climate. Last year, Shell caved in to investor pressure over climate 
change, setting out plans to introduce industry-leading carbon emissions 
targets linked to executive pay.

Its chief executive, Ben van Beurden, has since repeatedly urged oil and 
gas producers to take action over climate and pollution, staking out a 
more radical position than the heads of other major oil companies.

"AFPM has not stated support for the goal of the Paris Agreement. Shell 
supports the goal of the Paris Agreement," the Anglo-Dutch company said 
in its decision.
- -
*WALK AWAY*
Shell also found "some" misalignment with nine other trade associations, 
including the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry's 
main lobby.

Shell said that while it had some climate-related differences with the 
API, it welcomed the lobby's advocacy on a range of state and federal 
issues such as trade and transport, as well as the API's efforts to 
reduce methane emissions.

Shell said it will continue to engage with the API and other groups over 
climate policies and monitor their alignment. Shell last month urged 
President Donald Trump's administration to tighten restrictions on 
emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, instead of weakening them 
as planned.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shell-afpm/shell-to-quit-us-refining-lobby-over-climate-disagreement-idUSKCN1RE0VB
- -
[Finance too]
*Central Banks Are Thinking Greener as Climate Change Hits Policy*
April 2, 2019, 3:00 AM PDT
  Monetary authorities are studying how to handle changes
  Financial risks and economic trouble could emerge, they worry
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-02/central-banks-are-thinking-greener-as-climate-change-hits-policy


[Not very smart]
*The President's Proposed Budget Would Fire Hundreds Of Meteorologists 
And Slash Tornado Research*
Mar 31, 2019
The president's proposed budget for 2020 makes more than $75,000,000 in 
cuts to the National Weather Service that, if passed, could adversely 
affect the agency's ability to keep the public safe during severe 
weather. The NWS is a force of nature that works tirelessly behind the 
scenes to warn every square inch of land in the United States when 
hazardous weather is on the way. Most Americans hardly realize how much 
they utilize the agency's products and services until they're under threat.

The National Weather Service occasionally faces political pressure due 
to the mistaken belief that private weather companies could pick up the 
slack of a reduced NWS and provide the same services the federal agency 
does. Contrary to those assertions, private companies would find 
themselves lost without the critical services and infrastructure 
provided by the NWS. Most of the observational data, weather radar 
imagery, and much of the weather modelling used by private weather 
companies is maintained by the federal government. It'd be prohibitively 
expensive for each company to foot the bill for these services on their own.

Upper-air observations would lose $2,271,000 of funding under the 
proposed budget. These observations, taken by instruments attached to 
weather balloons, collect information on temperature, moisture, wind, 
and air pressure as they ascend to the top of the atmosphere. Weather 
balloons only ever come up in everyday conversation as the butt of a UFO 
joke, but these upper-air soundings are critically important to the 
accuracy of weather models. The use of upper-air observations taken by 
airplanes flying over oceans would also be slashed under the proposed 
budget. Data collected by airplanes flying over remote areas help 
forecasters fill in the gaps where we don't have weather balloons.

The data collected by weather balloons is ingested into weather models 
to "initialize" them, or tell them what the atmosphere is doing right 
now. A weather model needs to know what the atmosphere looks like right 
now so that it can paint a more accurate picture of what it thinks could 
happen in the future. The NWS releases weather balloons more frequently 
ahead of a high-impact severe weather event like a tornado outbreak or a 
landfalling hurricane so that weather models have even more data to work 
with. Reducing the geographic extent and frequency of weather balloon 
launches would feed less data into weather models, potentially making it 
harder for models to produce accurate guidance for forecasters.

A $12,500,000 reduction in surface-based observation stations would also 
reduce the ability for forecasters to see what's happening on the ground 
as it happens. Most of the cuts would come from the National Mesonet 
Program, which supports dozens of mesonets across the country. A mesonet 
is a small-scale, densely-populated network of weather stations that 
gives us a good view of current conditions across a relatively small 
area. The most well-known mesonet is the Oklahoma Mesonet, which 
consists of at least one weather station in each county in Oklahoma. The 
type of ground truth provided by mesonets is important--when a station 
records a severe wind gust as a thunderstorm passes overhead, it lets 
forecasters issue advanced warning to communities in the path of the 
storm. Rainfall data collected by mesonets also helps meteorologists 
monitor and study flooding rain events.

More than 300 National Weather Service employees would stand to lose 
their jobs if the proposed cuts are adopted. Nearly 250 meteorologists 
and more than 70 IT professionals would be laid off as part of a 
workforce adjustment based on an analysis conducted several years ago. 
Understaffing at NWS offices across the country has been a pressing 
issue for years, made even more serious by hiring freezes and funding cuts.

The budget also proposes the end of VORTEX-SE, a tornado research 
program aimed at helping meteorologists better understand how and why 
thunderstorms in the southeastern United States produce tornadoes. The 
conditions that lead to tornadic storms in the southeast are different 
from the tornadic environments you'd see in a state like Kansas or 
Oklahoma. VORTEX-SE ventures into tornado outbreaks in the southeast and 
studies the environment with sensors, mobile radars, and upper-air 
soundings--a vital research effort that will help forecasters issue 
better tornado forecasts in the future.

It's unlikely that these cuts will become law given the split-party 
control of government in Washington. Leading Democrats on the House 
subcommittee that oversees NOAA were critical of proposed cuts to the 
agency in a hearing with the acting NOAA Administrator last week.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dennismersereau/2019/03/31/the-presidents-proposed-budget-would-fire-hundreds-of-meteorologists-and-slash-tornado-research/#73a25c563f1b



[CBC says:]
*Canada warming at twice the global rate, leaked report finds*
Government report scheduled for release on Tuesday
Canada is, on average, experiencing warming at twice the rate of the 
rest of the world, with Northern Canada heating up at almost three times 
the global average, according to a new government report.

The study -- Canada's Changing Climate Report (CCCR) -- was commissioned 
by Environment and Climate Change Canada. It says that since 1948, 
Canada's annual average temperature over land has warmed 1.7 C, with 
higher rates seen in the North, the Prairies and northern British Columbia.

In Northern Canada, the annual average temperature has increased by 2.3 
C. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
(NOAA), since 1948, global average temperatures have increased by about 
0.8 C.

Along with these temperature increases, the CCCR says Canada is 
experiencing increases in precipitation (particularly in winter), 
"extreme fire weather" and water supply shortages in summer, and a 
heightened risk of coastal flooding. The report was authored by 
government scientists from the ministries of Environment and Climate 
Change, Fisheries and Oceans and Natural Resources, with contributions 
from university experts.

The document says that while warming in Canada has been the result of 
both human activity and natural variations in the climate, "the human 
factor is dominant," especially emissions of greenhouse gases. Flooding, 
drought risks
Increasing warmth has had a number of effects in Canada, including 
greater precipitation, the report says.

The authors' observations show that annual precipitation has increased 
across Canada since 1948, with larger increases in Northern Canada and 
parts of Manitoba, Ontario, northern Quebec and Atlantic Canada. Warming 
also has led to a reduction in how much snowfall accounts for total 
precipitation in Southern Canada.

Although flooding is often the result of many factors, more intense 
rainfall will increase urban flood risks.

Warming also will intensify the severity of heat waves and contribute to 
higher risks of drought and wildfires.

The report says that extreme heat events -- which currently occur every 
20 years on average -- will happen once every five years by the middle 
of the century under a low-emissions scenario, and every other year in a 
high-emissions scenario.

Low- and high-emission scenarios
The report's early release saw it come out as the the federal 
government's carbon-pricing plan was going into effect in Manitoba, New 
Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan.

Ottawa has imposed a fuel levy in these provinces as a backstop because 
they don't have carbon-pricing schemes of their own in place. The report 
stresses that efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the coming 
decades will have "an increasing impact on the amount of additional 
warming beyond this time frame."

The report says the national annual average temperature increase 
projected for the late century, compared to the reference period of 
1986-2005, ranges from a "low-emission scenario" of 1.8 C to a 
"high-emission scenario" of 6.3 C. According to the now released report, 
the only way to keep global temperature rises in line with the targets 
set by nations at the Paris climate summit in 2015 is for "global 
emissions to peak almost immediately, with rapid and deep reductions 
thereafter."

The report also predicts that under a medium-emission scenario, glaciers 
in Canada's west will lose between 74 per cent and 96 per cent of their 
volume by the end of the century.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/canada-warming-at-twice-the-global-rate-leaked-report-finds-1.5079765

[pack out the poo]
*Climate change could melt decades worth of human poop at Denali 
National Park in Alaska*
Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
There's good news and bad news at Denali, North America's tallest 
mountain. The bad news is that the 66 tons of frozen feces left by 
climbers on the Alaska summit is expected to start melting out of the 
glacier sometime in the coming decades and potentially as soon as this 
summer, a process that's speeding up in part due to global warming.

The good news is that this year, for the first time, the guide companies 
that lead many of the 1,200 climbers who attempt the summit each year 
have voluntarily decided to start packing out their human waste. This 
comes just a year after the National Park Service instituted a policy 
that all such waste below 14,000 feet must be carried off the mountain.

"Climbers and particularly guide services are really embracing the new 
policy and are even exceeding it. It has become kind of an informal 
badge of merit to carry off all your waste," said Michael Loso, a 
National Park Service glaciologist who's been studying the problem of 
climber excrement on the mountain for close to a decade.

Denali is a majestic mountain about five hours north of Anchorage, 
Alaska. At 20,300 feet, it's visible from the city on clear days. It's 
one of the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each of the seven 
continents. Conquering them all is considered a major mountaineering 
challenge in the climbing world...

The poop problem is very real. Climbers scaling  Denali, previously 
known as Mount McKinley, generate close to 2 metric tons of human waste 
each year, according to the National Park Service. (The average human 
"deposit" weighs half a pound and the average length of a climber's stay 
on the mountain is 18 days, which is how researchers got the figure of 
66 tons over the course of the past century.)

Initially, human waste was left in snow pits on the Kahiltna glacier, 
the most common route up, or thrown into deep crevasses at higher 
elevations. It was believed that the waste would be ground up in the ice 
over time.

It turns out that what goes around comes around, even in a glacier, Loso 
said. He performed several experiments that show the buried feces 
eventually resurface farther downstream on the surface of the glacier, 
where they begin to melt.

This is true of all glaciers, which are really extremely slow-moving 
rivers of ice, though the process seems to be speeding up.

Research by the National Park Service found that in the past 50 years, 
the area covered by ice within the Alaskan parks has diminished by 8 
percent.

"We have lost more glacier cover in the Alaskan national parks than 
there is area in the whole state of Rhode Island," said Loso.

"One of the consequences of warming temperatures is that the surface of 
the glacier is melting more quickly," he said.

This means that waste deposited at the lowest climbing camp on the 
mountain could start reappearing soon, maybe even this climbing season, 
which begins in April. Waste deposited higher up the mountain will take 
longer to appear. - - -
"This is something we will all be getting used to," Horiskey said. "But 
it's the best thing for the mountain. It's just what we're going to have 
to do."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/31/climate-change-could-soon-melt-years-worth-human-poop-alaska-park/3299522002/


[Some new and important ice science]
MARCH 22, 2019
*Ice-cliff failure via retrogressive slumping *
Byron R. Parizek  Knut Christianson  Richard B. Alley  Denis Voytenko  
Irena Vaňková Timothy H. Dixon  Ryan T. Walker  David M. Holland
Geology (2019)
https://doi.org/10.1130/G45880.1
Retrogressive slumping could accelerate sea-level rise if ice-sheet 
retreat generates ice cliffs much taller than observed today. The 
tallest ice cliffs, which extend roughly 100 m above sea level, calve 
only after ice-flow processes thin the ice to near flotation. Above some 
ice-cliff height limit, the stress state in ice will satisfy the 
material-failure criterion, resulting in faster brittle failure. New 
terrestrial radar data from Helheim Glacier, Greenland, suggest that 
taller subaerial cliffs are prone to failure by slumping, unloading 
submarine ice to allow buoyancy-driven full-thickness calving. 
Full-Stokes diagnostic modeling shows that the threshold cliff height 
for slumping is likely slightly above 100 m in many cases, and roughly 
twice that (145-285 m) in mechanically competent ice under well-drained 
or low-melt conditions. This content is PDF only. 
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-pdf/doi/10.1130/G45880.1/4665825/g45880.pdf
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/569567/ice-cliff-failure-via-retrogressive-slumping


[echo, this is my echo]
*Facing Extinction*
by Catherine Ingram
DARK KNOWLEDGE
For much of my life, I thought our species would soon go extinct. I 
assumed we might last another hundred years if we were lucky. Now I 
suspect we are facing extinction in the near future. Can I speculate as 
to exactly when that might happen?  Of course not. My sense of this is 
based only on probability. It might be similar to hearing about a 
diagnosis of late stage pancreatic cancer. Is it definite that the 
person is going to die soon?  No, not definite. Is it highly probable?  
Yes, one would be wise to face the likelihood and put one's affairs in 
order.

First, let's look at climate data. Over the past decade I have been 
studying climate chaos by reading scientific papers and listening to 
climate lectures accessible to a layperson. There is no good news to be 
found there. We have burned so much carbon into the atmosphere that the 
CO2 levels are higher than they have been for the past three million 
years. In the last decade our carbon emission levels are the highest in 
history, and we have not yet experienced their full impact. If we were 
to stop emitting carbon dioxide tomorrow, we are still on track for much 
higher heat for at least ten years.  And we are certainly not stopping 
our emissions by tomorrow.

This blanket of carbon in the atmosphere has triggered, and will 
trigger, further runaway warming systems that are not under our control, 
the most deadly of which is the release of methane gases that have been 
trapped for eons under arctic ice and what is now euphemistically known 
as permafrost (much of it is no longer permanent frost).

Methane is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon, and much 
faster acting. In the first twenty years after its release into the 
atmosphere, it is 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Whereas the 
full effect of heat from a carbon dioxide molecule takes ten years, peak 
warming from a methane molecule occurs in a matter of months.

The Arctic and Antarctic icecaps are melting at rates far faster than 
even the most alarming predictions, and methane is pouring out of these 
regions, bubbling out of Arctic lakes, and hissing out of seas and soils 
worldwide. Some scientists fear a methane "burp" of billions of tons 
when a full melt of the summer arctic ice occurs, something that has not 
happened for the past four million years. Should such a sudden large 
release of methane occur, the earth's warming would rapidly accelerate 
within months. This alone could be the extinction event.

The Arctic summer ice is currently two thirds less than it was as 
recently as the 1970s, and the arctic is warming so fast that a full 
summer melt is likely within the next five years. The continent of 
Antarctica is also rapidly melting at an acceleration of 280% in the 
last forty years. The massive ice melts that are happening there, such 
as the breaking off the Larsen B ice shelf defied scientific 
predictions; the ice shelf known as Larsen C, which broke off in July of 
2017, was 2,200 square miles in size.

The Arctic ice has been the coolant for the northern part of the planet 
and it impacts worldwide climate as well. Its white surface also 
reflects back into space much of the heat from the sun, as does the 
Antarctic ice. As the ice melts, the dark ocean absorbs the heat and the 
warming ocean more quickly melts the remaining ice. Over the past three 
decades, the oldest and thickest of the Arctic sea ice has declined by a 
whopping 95%, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration's 2018 annual Arctic report.... - - -
Evolution also didn't select for us to be overly conscious of personal 
death itself. It would otherwise be emotionally paralyzing. Ernest 
Becker's seminal book The Denial of Death, for which he won the Pulitzer 
Prize in 1974, examined the awareness of death on human behavior and the 
strategies that developed in humans to mitigate their fear of it. "This 
is the terror:" Becker wrote, "to have emerged from nothing, to have a 
name, consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner 
yearning for life and self expression--and with all this yet to die."... 
- - -
Becker's work relied on examining defense strategies for denial of 
personal death. We are now faced with the death of all. Therefore denial 
and defense of denial are accordingly amplified and dangerous. There is 
now a desperate rise of religious fundamentalism, superstition, and new 
age magical thinking, as predicted in 1996 by astronomer Carl Sagan in 
his final book, The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the 
Dark. To an increasingly anxious species, cultural and religious belief 
systems offer the promise of eternal life. And people will literally 
fight to the death for them.

Or they will offer up their children. From the Mayan priests who threw 
children from cliffs to the families of suicide bombers in present time 
who joyously celebrate the martyrdom of their son or daughter in the 
streets with their friends, people would rather see their children die 
than forego the preservation and defense of their culture or religion. 
In places where climate chaos is already underway, we are seeing a 
solidification of tribalism and battle lines drawn between communities 
who have formerly lived together in relative harmony. These pressures 
are bound to increase... - - -
We also find it difficult to think exponentially. We might grasp the 
concept of an exponential factor but it is not our natural way to 
perceive. Therefore, as exponential warming triggers other imbalances 
that also become exponential, we perceive them only as linear problems 
and assume we will have time to address them. We carry on with 
business-as-usual and return to "the matrix," the illusion that things 
are fairly normal, where our ordinary problems, comforts and 
entertainments await our attention, just like in the movie. But we have 
now come to the point of "amusing ourselves to death," as Neil Postman 
put it in his 1985 book by that title.

As you begin to awaken to the specter of extinction, you will likely 
feel the powerful lure of your usual distractions. You may want to go 
back to sleep. But denial will become harder and harder to maintain 
because once your attention has turned to this subject, you will see the 
evidence of it everywhere, both locally and globally.

And you will find yourself among the throngs of humanity who are easily 
distracted and amused, playing with their toys as the house burns, 
"tranquilized by the trivial," as Kierkegaard said, and speaking of the 
future as though it was going to go on as it has. After all, we made it 
this far. We have proven our superiority at figuring things out and 
removing obstacles to our desires. We killed off most of the large wild 
mammals and most of the indigenous peoples in order to take their lands. 
We bent nature to our will, paved over her forests and grasslands, 
rerouted and dammed her rivers, dug up what journalist Thom Hartman 
calls her "ancient sunlight," and burned that dead creature goo into the 
atmosphere so that our vehicles could motor us around on land, sea, and 
air and our weapons could keep our enemies in check. And now we have 
given her atmosphere a high fever. But, as the old adage has it, (a 
phrase I first heard in the 1980s, which has informed me ever since), 
"nature bats last."... - - -
"There are things we don't tell the children."  It is helpful to realize 
that most people are not ready for this conversation. They may never be 
ready, just as some people die after a long illness, still in denial 
that death was at their doorstep. It is a mystery as to who can handle 
the truth of our situation and who runs from it as though their sanity 
depended on not seeing it. There is even a strange phenomenon that some 
of my extinction-aware friends and I have noticed: you might sometimes 
find relaxation in the company of those who don't know and don't want to 
know. For a while you pretend that all is well or at least the same as 
it has been. You discuss politics, the latest drama series, new cafes. 
You visit the matrix for a little R & R. But this usually doesn't last 
long as the messages coming from the catastrophe are unrelenting.

The Parent Trap. There is one category of people that I have found 
especially resistant to seeing this darkest of truths: parents. A 
particular and by now familiar glazed look comes over their faces when 
the conversation gets anywhere near the topic of human extinction. And 
how could it be otherwise? It is built into the DNA that parents (not 
all, of course) love their children above themselves. They would 
sacrifice anything for them. So to think that there will be no 
protection for their children in the future, that no amount of money or 
homesteading or living on a boat or in a gated community or on a 
mountaintop or growing a secret garden will save them is too unbearable 
a thought to hold for even a second. I have also noticed a flash of 
anger arise in the midst of the distracted look on their faces, an 
almost subliminal message that says, "Don't say another word on this 
subject."

It is a subject I have learned to avoid in the company of parents 
although, to my surprise, I am recently finding more of them coming to 
terms with it. It is an added layer of grief, to be sure, and I can only 
admire and grieve with them in the knowledge that it is unlikely their 
children will live to old age, leaving aside what they may suffer 
beforehand... [Listen to the full interview https://tinyurl.com/yxgogukn ]
http://www.catherineingram.com/facingextinction/


[Ernest Becker]
*A Terror Management Theory of Social Behavior: The Psychological 
Functions of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews*
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60328-7Get rights and content
Publisher Summary
This chapter deals with terror management theory that attempts to 
contribute to the understanding of social behavior by focusing on the 
essential being and circumstance of the human animal. The theory posits 
that all human motives are ultimately derived from a biologically based 
instinct for self-preservation. Relative equanimity in the face of these 
existential realities is possible through the creation and maintenance 
of culture, which serves to minimize the terror by providing a shared 
symbolic context that imbues the universe with order, meaning, 
stability, and permanence. The theory provides a theoretical link 
between superficially unrelated substantive areas, and focuses on one 
particular motive that makes it distinctly human and, unfortunately, 
distinctly destructive. Theories serve a variety of equally important 
functions, all of which are oriented towards improving the ability to 
think about and understand the subject matter of discipline. The chapter 
discusses the dual-component cultural anxiety buffer: worldview and 
self-esteem, the development and functioning of the cultural anxiety 
buffer for the individual, and a terror management analysis of social 
behavior in great detail.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065260108603287


*This Day in Climate History - April 3, 1980 - from D.R. Tucker*
April 3, 1980: "The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" reports on 
the role coal plays in fueling global warming.
http://climatecrocks.com/2013/01/23/1980-cronkite-on-climate/
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