[TheClimate.Vote] April 18, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Richard Pauli richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Apr 18 08:08:29 EDT 2019


/April 18, 2019/


['disrupting people's lives']
*Hundreds of arrests in London as climate protest enters third day*
The Extinction Rebellion wants the British government to declare a 
climate emergency.
https://www.politico.eu/article/hundreds-of-arrests-in-london-as-climate-protest-enters-third-day/
- -
[Report directly from XR]
*International Rebellion Update #3 - The Empire Strikes Back*
Dramatic events in London today ended in a resounding success for our 
brave, resilient and kind-hearted rebels. It's easy to write about 
events, numbers and happenings - and today's no exception, as we 
tenaciously held onto all four of our now cherished sites. But what 
might escape observation, despite being so much more important, is the 
way we do such things.

Non-violence and consideration are not just abstract ethical commitments 
- they're a constant practice which must be renewed and maintained, and 
they're essential to the success of our movement...
- - -
Our tactics are working. Our values are holding. Have no doubt: even if 
we all go home tomorrow, the world as we know it has changed...
more report at - 
https://rebellion.earth/2019/04/18/international-rebellion-update-3-the-empire-strikes-back/
- - -
[Non-violent civil disobedience news]
*Extinction Rebellion: Meet the Famed Climate Attorney Who Superglued 
Herself Outside Shell's UK HQ*
Democracy Now! check http://youtube.com/democracynow
Published on Apr 17, 2019
Extinction Rebellion. That's the name of the movement shutting down 
Central London this week in a series of direct actions, as activists 
close bridges, occupy public landmarks and even superglue themselves to 
buildings to demand urgent action to combat climate change. Police have 
arrested more than 300 people so far, and the protests are continuing. 
Today, activists have halted trains at Canary Wharf--a financial hub of 
the city--with two protesters climbing a train car and another 
supergluing his hand to a train window. We speak to Clare Farrell, one 
of the co-founders of the environmental action group Extinction 
Rebellion, and Farhana Yamin, international environmental lawyer who 
helped draft the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement. On Tuesday, she was 
arrested after gluing both of her hands to the ground outside the Shell 
building in Central London. http://youtube.com/democracynow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVxb_4sSk84
- -
[audio report on the issue, from London]
*BBC Radio 2 - Extinction Rebellion*
ExtinctionRebellion
Published on Apr 17, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXYUUTLj8jU



[soon SHTF - report from E&E News ]
*EPA employees brace for 'organized chaos'*
EPA next week will begin implementing a massive reordering of its 10 
regional branches to bring them more in line with agency headquarters in 
Washington, D.C.

The reorganization, known as the regional realignment, has been seven 
months in the making and has been beset with delays. Internal records 
obtained by E&E News show that EPA had originally proposed to have the 
initiative finished by the end of last year, which was later pushed to 
February and March of this year. Now, the realignment finally seems set 
to go forward this month.

Next week, the realignment will take effect in EPA Regions 3, 6 and 10, 
according to an internal email EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler sent to 
employees this morning.

The agency's remaining seven regions will implement the realignment two 
weeks later, during the last week of April...
- - -
"It is causing a gigantic upheaval," Cantello said. "This is the largest 
disruption that I can remember having in my 25-year career here."
Twitter: @KevinBogardus Email: kbogardus at eenews.net
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060155923


[Bugs bug-out, blaming changes to the environment]
*The insect apocalypse | DW Documentary*
DW Documentary
Published on Apr 17, 2019
The world's insect population has declined by three quarters in the last 
30 years and many species have become extinct. And it's all man's fault. 
This documentary looks at the dramatic consequences of this hitherto 
unrecognized catastrophe.
The results of long-term monitoring published in 2017 have confirmed 
that as much as 75 percent of the world's insect population has 
disappeared in the last 30 years. The extent of species extinction is so 
vast that many researchers fear that it will knock the entire natural 
cycle of life out of balance. Not only the decline of the bee population 
but mass insect mortality as a whole will have devastating consequences 
for all the Earth's inhabitants. Top scientists from around the globe 
are warning that the developments are much more widespread and serious 
than anyone had realized. Many animals feed on insects. Insects also 
help to convert dead tissue into nutrient-rich soil. In addition, they 
even regulate each other. Species that humans see as pests are often the 
preferred prey of useful predators. But massive human intervention has 
thrown the functioning balance in the insect world out of whack. 
Chemical poisons, the progressive sealing of soils and the widespread 
use of fertilizers are affecting the world's most species-rich animal 
class. This documentary looks at current studies and explains what is 
going wrong and where urgent action is needed. There's still some hope: 
although many species have been irrevocably lost, mass extinction in the 
insect kingdom could still be stopped - but only if humans finally begin 
to act against it. And we're running out of time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfTNeXOMyvY



[addressing the Arctic]
*Arctic Council: Officials struggle to find climate language that U.S. 
can support*
Senior diplomats from the eight Arctic Council countries meeting in 
Finland late last week struggled to come up with language on climate 
change that the Trump administration would support at the upcoming 
ministerial meeting in May, according to people familiar with these 
discussions.
By Radio Canada International
April 15, 2019
The Senior Arctic Officials and Indigenous leaders from - Canada, 
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States 
- met from April 11 to April 13 in Espoo, a suburb of Helsinki, to 
finalize the preparation ahead of the biennial Arctic Council 
ministerial in Rovaniemi, Finland, on May 6 and 7.

The summit will officially conclude Finland's two-year chairmanship of 
the Arctic Council and will pass the gavel of the chair to Iceland, 
which assumes the rotating chairmanship for the next two years.

The Arctic Council has traditionally adopted declarations at the 
conclusion of ministerial meetings that set out common priorities and 
commit the member states to a certain course of action for the next two 
years.

There was some last minute drama at the Fairbanks ministerial in Alaska 
in May of 2017 when the Trump administration sought to weaken wording of 
the declaration on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions and 
renewable energy.

Ultimately, however, discussion of climate change and an embrace of the 
Paris agreement remained in the final Fairbanks Declaration. The 
document was unanimously endorsed by then Secretary of State Rex 
Tillerson and his Arctic Council counterparts -- a requirement of the 
consensus-only policy of the council.

"It's not a secret that Fairbanks became a little difficult and this one 
is proving challenging to find language, particularly related to the 
climate, that the Americans can support," a source familiar with these 
discussions told Radio Canada International.

However, officials from all eight countries are working hard to iron out 
their differences and come up with a document that everyone can support, 
the source said.

"We already have made good progress and we are confident that we will 
finalize the Declaration well in time of the Ministerial," Finland's 
ambassador Aleksi Harkonen, Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials, told 
Radio Canada International when asked to comment on the matter.

Officials with the U.S. State Department said they do not comment on 
ongoing negotiations.

"The United States supports a balanced approach that promotes economic 
growth and improves energy security while protecting the environment," a 
State Department spokesperson told Radio Canada International.

"The United States is a world leader in reducing emissions. U.S. 
energy-related CO2 emissions fell by 14 per cent between 2005 and 2017, 
even as our economy grew by 19.4 per cent - largely due to the 
development and deployment of innovative energy technologies."

*Busy ministerial agenda *
SAO Chair Aleksi Harkonen at the Arctic Council meeting in Oulu, Finland 
last week. Photo: Linnea Nordstrom/Arctic Council Secretariat
Other topics that will be discussed at the upcoming ministerial in 
Rovaniemi, Finland include:

*An Arctic Ocean acidification assessment*
A state of the Arctic freshwater biodiversity report
A set of outreach videos aimed at raising awareness on how an oil spill 
emergency affects small communities and how they can prepare to respond 
appropriately.
A desktop study on marine litter, including microplastics in the Arctic
Teacher education materials for the various Indigenous and northern 
communities
Apart from the eight Arctic states the Arctic Council also includes 
representatives from the Permanent Participants - the Aleut 
International Association, the Arctic Athabaskan Council, Gwich'in 
Council International, the Inuit Circumpolar Council, Russian 
Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North and the Saami Council.
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2019/04/arctic-council-officials-struggle-find-climate-language-us-can-support


[McKibben on NPR promoting new book 'Falter']
*How Climate Change Threatens Humanity*
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/16/713912899/how-climate-change-threatens-humanity


[Big question: Should we study it, or just go the the beach?]
*Burnout: The Toll of Studying Climate Change*
The Agenda with Steve Paikin
Published on Jan 15, 2019
- - -
Studying climate change can take its emotional toll. Some scientists and 
activists have experienced grief, depression, and anxiety. Some have 
received death threats. The Agenda looks beyond the science to the 
psychological strain climate change can have on those that know it best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVHLx3L3Mic


[frogs learn of warming waters]
*Boulder researcher helps track climate change perceptions via Twitter*
People quickly adjusting their sense of what represents 'normal' temps
By Charlie Brennan
- - -
In their study recently published by the Proceedings of the National 
Academy of Sciences, scientists showed -- through an analysis of more 
than 2 billion geolocated tweets from 2014 to 2016 -- that on average, 
people base their perceptions of what passes for normal weather on what 
has happened in just the past two to eight years...
- - -
Scientists found through analyzing data from 2.18 billion tweets from 
locations across the continental United States, that people often tweet 
about when temperatures are unusual for a specific place at a particular 
time of year, but that if the same weather repeats year after year, it 
sparked fewer comments on Twitter. This showed, they said, that people 
began to view the weather as normal in a relatively short time span.

Sentiments expressed in the tweets also were examined, and Lehner said 
that even as the number of tweets became less frequent, "even as they 
get used to, and tweet less about it, they still express frustration or 
negative sentiment about it."

He added, "The analogy is that humans are getting used to these hotter 
temperatures, but we're still grumpy about it. We're adapting, but not 
really jumping out of the pot and really doing anything about climate 
change on a large scale."...
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_32573198/boulder-researcher-helps-track-climate-change-perceptions-via 



*This Day in Climate History - April 18, 1977 - from D.R. Tucker*
April 18, 1977: President Carter declares that the effort needed to 
avert an energy crisis is the "moral equivalent of war."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=7369
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