[TheClimate.Vote] December 14, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Richard Pauli richard at theclimate.vote
Sat Dec 14 10:17:32 EST 2019 

December 14, 2019

[VOA is Voice of America]
*UN Police Clash With Climate Activists From COP25 After Protest*
Dec 11, 2019
VOA News
Some 100 demonstrators staged a protest, Wednesday, December 11, at the 
United Nations climate talks in Madrid, calling on leaders to take 
action on climate change and for indigenous voices to be heard.
-The protesters, who numbered about 100 and chanted slogans such as 
"shame" as ministers and delegates met nearby, were met by United 
Nations police who formed a human chain to push the protesters back.
One U.N. policeman pulled accredidations from around protesters' necks 
and snatched a protest banner from one of them, television footage showed.
Additionally, the U.S. delegation is maintaining a discreet public 
presence at the conference.
But another message is sounding in the cavernous conference center, 
where representatives of nearly 200 countries are feeling the pressure 
to deepen their emissions-cutting goals amid a slew of dire climate 
warnings.
Around the corner from the U.S. delegation office, the prominently 
located pavilion of the U.S. Climate Action Center is embracing the 
tagline #WEARESTILLIN -- a message scrawled on its tents and echoed by 
U.S. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a visit here last 
week. (Reuters/VOA)
https://youtu.be/CUT5WpLRlOw

- - -

[Kids at COP25]
*Teen Activists Couldn't Ignore the 'Morbid Symbols' All Over the UN's 
Climate Conference*
Security formed a "human chain" to kick activists out, and Qatar was 
handing out dates individually wrapped in plastic.
image - https://twitter.com/FridayForFuture/status/1204819363536216064
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/k7eeym/teen-activists-couldnt-ignore-the-morbid-symbols-all-over-the-uns-climate-conference

- - -

[a mature Greta speaks w/ eloquent precision for 12 mins]
*Greta Thunberg | COP 25 High Level Event on Climate Emergency | 
Extinction Rebellion*
Dec 11, 2019
Extinction Rebellion
COP 25 Madrid - 11 December 2019 - High Level Event on Climate Emergency
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml3f0KeZnsY

- - -

[Stephen Colbert razzes back at Trump over Greta]
*Greta Claps Back After Trump's Lame Attempt To Troll Her On Twitter*
Dec 13, 2019
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Climate activist and Time Magazine's Person of the Year, Greta Thunberg, 
claimed the upper hand after the President's team made a sad attempt to 
drag her on Twitter. #Colbert
https://youtu.be/sGDQjAyrpPo



[Climate-Congress co-operation]
*U.S. Congress Continues to Address Climate Change in Defense and 
Intelligence Legislation*
Rain_on_Capitol_Hill
By John Conger
In the final version of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act 
(NDAA), Congress included multiple important climate security provisions 
that will significantly increase Department of Defense (DoD) 
installations' resilience to climate change. This continues a tradition 
of bipartisan cooperation on including climate change provisions in the 
NDAA, including during the last and current Congress (including the 
FY2018 NDAA, which identified climate change as a "direct threat" to 
national security. This year's bill includes a number of significant 
steps forward, such as funding for climate resilience projects, and the 
creation of a Climate and Security Council within the Intelligence 
Community (a long-standing priority for the Center for Climate and 
Security). Below is a summary of the climate security provisions in the 
final version of the NDAA.

*Incorporation of Military Installation Resilience into Installation 
Master Plans,* specifically to assess vulnerabilities both to 
installations and surrounding communities, identify missions that would 
be affected by those vulnerabilities, and propose projects to address 
those vulnerabilities. (Sec 2801a)

*Direction to Create of a Permanent General Authority to Execute 
Military Construction Projects*, which is unusual in that MILCON 
projects generally require individual authorizations before they can be 
pursued. (Sec 2801b)

*Creation of a Dedicated Budget Line Item for Adaptation to Extreme 
Weather.* (Sec 328)

*Requirement for Improved Building Codes, *called Unified Facilities 
Criteria in DoD, to promote resilience in new construction. (Sec 2804)

*Requirement for use of the Navy's Climate Change Installation 
Adaptation and Resilience planning handbook* by the entire DoD, ensuring 
that guidance is available for all installation officials that want to 
pursue resilience measures. (Sec 2804)

*Extension of Restrictions on Construction in Floodplains* to cover 
projected sea level rise over the projected life of a building. (Sec 2806)

*Direction to Create a Climate Vulnerability and Risk Assessment Tool* 
by DoD, to inform mitigation planning and infrastructure development. 
(Sec 326)

*Direction to DoD to Consider Sites for a Strategic Port in the Arctic*, 
with a report due in 180 days. (Sec 1752)

These provisions set the DoD up to make important progress in the years 
ahead to make its installations resilient to climate change. They 
establish the planning and guidance processes that are necessary 
prerequisites for building the large numbers of resilience projects that 
will be needed in the future.

Funding for Climate Resilience Projects: The bill also provides some 
funding to address climate change concerns.  Specifically, it includes a 
$49 million project at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to increase the 
height of floodwalls around its drydocks, driven by sea-level rise 
concerns, and authorizes $150 million for the Energy Resilience and 
Conservation Investment Program, which addresses projects at multiple 
locations. Much greater investments in climate resilience will be needed 
in the future, but this is an encouraging start.

Creation of a Climate and Security Council in the Intelligence 
Community: Finally, the bill incorporated the Intelligence Authorization 
Act, which included a provision that Creates a Climate and Security 
Council within the Intelligence Community to ensure that intelligence 
analysis is informed by the best possible science and projections (Sec 
5321). This is highly consistent with the Center for Climate and 
Security's recommendation, in its CSAG Climate Security Plan for 
America, for a Climate Security Crisis Watch Center, led by the Office 
of the Director of National Intelligence, to facilitate an annual 
interagency assessment, drawing from analysis across the intelligence 
community and beyond, of the risks that climate change poses to U.S. 
national security.

In conclusion, the FY2020 NDAA includes some of the most robust 
provisions on climate security that we have seen to date. This bodes 
well for the future of enhanced climate resilience in the United States.
https://climateandsecurity.org/2019/12/12/congress-continues-to-address-climate-change-in-defense-and-intelligence-legislation/



[RAND report]
*One-Third of Americans Use News Sources They Consider Less Reliable*
FOR RELEASE
December 10, 2019
One-third of Americans rely on news platforms they acknowledge are less 
reliable, mainly social media and peers. The other two-thirds of the 
public consider their primary news sources trustworthy, mainly print 
news and broadcast television, according to a new RAND Corporation report...
The survey was conducted via the RAND American Life Panel, a nationally 
representative, probability-based panel of more than 6,000 participants 
who are regularly interviewed over the internet.
- - -
*Key Findings*
*Different demographic groups get their news in different ways*

    - People whose primary news sources are social media and in-person
    contacts are generally younger and female, and they tend to have
    less education than a college degree and lower household incomes.
    - People whose primary news sources are print publications and
    broadcast television tend to be be significantly older, and they are
    less likely to be married.
    - People whose primary news source is radio are significantly more
    likely to be male, less likely to be retired, and more likely to
    have a college degree.
    - People whose primary news sources are online platforms are
    significantly younger, more likely to be male and have a college
    degree and higher income, and less likely to be black.

*Attitudes toward the reliability of news are mixed*

    - Overall, 44 percent reported that they believed "the news is as
    reliable now as in the past."
    - Nearly the same amount -- 41 percent -- reported a belief that the
    news has become less reliable.
    - A minority (15 percent) said that they believed that the news is
    more reliable now.
    - There was an association between news consumption profiles and
    perceptions of reliability -- people who relied more heavily on
    online, radio, and social media/in-person platforms to obtain news
    were less likely to say that news is more reliable now than in the past.

*Although many consumers seek alternative viewpoints occasionally, most 
do not make a habit of doing so*

    - One in five respondents (20 percent) reported that they "always or
    almost always" seek out different views; most people (54 percent)
    said that they "sometimes" do; 17 percent said that they
    "infrequently" seek out differing sources; and 9 percent said they
    "never or almost never" do.
    - Political partisanship was broadly linked to news consumption
    behaviors; that is, consumption profiles, perceptions of news
    reliability, and willingness to seek out news from differing viewpoints.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR4212.html



[Brexit politics and Global Warming/Climate Change - opinion]
*What does the UK election result mean for climate change? *
By Jamie Clarke on December 13, 2019
Articulating the climate story through multiple political lenses is 
critical for an issue that is 'beyond politics', in the sense that no 
political philosophy can escape from the reality of it. However it is 
deeply political in the sense of the trade-offs and value judgments 
required to curb emissions and build resilience fast...
- - -
Very practically, the UK is hosting the next annual UN climate change 
conference (COP26) in Glasgow in December 2020. How should campaigners 
approach this? Holding the government to account for their performance 
is critical. But COPs are famously also a key opportunity to build and 
leverage political capital internationally, and it is crucial that the 
UK does this in Glasgow.

Creating a positive national conversation comparable to the UK Olympics 
in 2012 will be critical to success in Glasgow. Key stepping stones 
exist. The lessons we have learnt about considered public engagement, 
the emergence of citizens' assemblies, and the burgeoning interest in 
'just transition' approaches all provide reasons for optimism.

We'll be focusing on exactly these issues in the first half of 2020, 
because no matter who is in government, a clear and careful 
understanding of the public values that underpin engagement on climate 
change is critical.
https://climateoutreach.org/what-does-uk-election-result-mean-for-climate-change/



[clips from the deceleration web site]
*WHY DESPAIR MAY BE THE GREATEST THREAT TO THE PLANET*
November 28, 2019 · by Greg Harman ·
For decades now, researchers, academics, policymakers, and journalists 
have been talking about the climate crisis and its global impacts. They 
talk of coal and gas, transportation, and agriculture. They talk of 
rising seas, stronger storms, vanishing ice, and wildfire. They don't 
talk about their grief.

We regularly read reports about forced migration, disease, and disaster. 
But the day-to-day life of everyday folks trying to make sense of the 
shifting sands of climate change hasn't received the same attention. We 
talk of hardening infrastructure in our cities, but not policies that 
strengthen families and honor communities as critical elements of 
weathering catastrophe...
- - -
"Grief, when unaddressed, can cloud judgment, inhibit creativity and 
engender a sense that there is no way forward."...
- - -
The concept of grief as a door leading back to a healthy climate 
activism we credit to Kathleen Dean Moore, professor of philosophy at 
Oregon State University, who counseled us that despair can be staved off 
by surrendering to grief.

"We are well advised to embrace the grief and absolutely refuse the 
despair," she said. "You find ways to express that grief collectively. 
And in action."...
- - -
Writing on the subject for Climate Nexus, journalist Marlene Cimons 
highlights this challenge in a conversation with trauma specialist 
Tracey Shors of Rutgers University.

"If more scientists could get their findings out to the world, they 
would feel like they have more control," Shors said. "If nothing else, 
they would know they are waking up others to the problem. Most of the 
[scientists] I know got into the field because they love nature. Then 
they are trained to distance themselves for the sake of objectivity. It 
must be breaking their hearts. It breaks my heart, and I am not a field 
scientist."

Gordon told Cimons of his own decision to steer clear of advocacy...
- - -
It is clear that for our own wellbeing, for our ability to do our jobs 
with creativity, to not be frozen by despair, we must grieve. And that 
means being real about the potentialities of a breakdown of industrial 
society. Or the possibility that the human species may be swept from 
existence along with a myriad of other unique and beautiful lifeforms 
slipping from the stage each day. Or an openness, at minimum, to the 
certainty that the future will be a very different place...
- - -
"If we're serious about finding any sort of future for our natural 
ecosystems," he writes, "we need to avoid getting trapped in cycles of 
grief.

"We need to allow ourselves to cry--and then see beyond our tears."

He knows that while we can become trapped by "cycles" of grief, there is 
a world beyond our suffering. And to that world, grieving is also the door.
https://deceleration.news/2019/11/28/despair-may-be-the-greatest-threat-to-the-planet/


*This Day in Climate History - December 14, 2006 - from D.R. Tucker*

    MSNBC's Keith Olbermann condemns the latest sleazy action by
    overrated novelist and climate-change denier Michael Crichton:
    "In his last novel, he dismissed global warming.  So a political
    columnist for the 'New Republic' who went to Yale named Michael
    Crowley ripped him for it.  Now Crichton's got a new book out, in
    which he’s created a minor character who is a child rapist, and
    described as a political columnist who went to Yale, and who’s named
    Mick Crowley.  Crichton’s publisher, Harper Collins, is owned by
    Rupert Murdoch.

    "The real Michael Crowley is understandably upset that Crichton gave
    his name to a child rapist, but look, Mr. Crowley, it could have
    been worse; Crichton could have used your name for a character based
    on himself.  Author Michael 'Vengeance is Mine' Crichton, today's
    Worst Person in the World."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIdoaaYklJ8

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