[TheClimate.Vote] July 31, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/July 31, 2019/

["I'd be in school if the world was cool"]
*England region plans world-first for climate change teaching*
North of Tyne aims to have UN-accredited climate change teacher in every 
state school
A region of northern England plans to become the first place in the 
world to have a UN-accredited climate change teacher in every state 
primary and secondary school.

Jamie Driscoll, the new mayor of the North of Tyne combined authority, 
said every school in the area would have the opportunity to train a 
member of staff to give lessons on global heating and the impact of the 
climate crisis. The region is working with the creators of EduCCate 
Global, a UN teacher training scheme...
- - -
"Pupils also need to be aware of possible climate change mitigation 
strategies and adaptation measures. Completing the course will give 
teachers the confidence, both in their own understanding and in their 
position as a UN-accredited authority, to teach children effectively."

A Department for Education spokesperson said: "It is important that 
pupils are taught about climate change, which is why it is included in 
the national curriculum for both primary and secondary schools."
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jul/30/north-of-tyne-mayor-signs-schools-up-for-climate-training?CMP=share_btn_link



[Beckwith has two 15 min videos]
*Arctic Wildfires and Peat Fires Darken Arctic and Emit more Carbon than 
MANY Countries*
Paul Beckwith
Published on Jul 30, 2019
Another HUGE feedback darkening the Arctic and releasing literally tons 
of Greenhouse Gases are the crazy number of intense, hot, long-burning 
wildfires in the Arctic that have been decimating boreal forests, and 
even worse, igniting peat fires. Peat is normally very wet (95% water 
content), acting as a block to wildfires. However unprecedented Arctic 
warming this June/July has desiccated (dried out) many peat regions; the 
resulting compressed spaghnum high in carbon is igniting from wildfires 
and lightning strikes. Peat fires are bad news; able to burn deep into 
the ground, and last for weeks, months, and even years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4AczmNQByY
- - -
*Total Loss of Arctic Sea-Ice Will Cause Warming Equal to 25 Years of 
Present Emissions*
Paul Beckwith
Published on Jul 30, 2019
A new peer-reviewed scientific paper just came out arguing that a 
complete loss of Arctic sea-ice will have an equivalent warming impact 
to 25 years of global CO2 emissions (25 years x present emissions of 40 
GTco2/year = 1 Trillion Tons of CO2). This 57 ppm increase of CO2 
concentration equivalence causes a radiative forcing averaged globally 
of 0.7 W/m2, except it's concentrated in the Arctic. As we have emitted 
2.4 Trillion Tons of CO2 since the start of the industrial revolution, 1 
Trillion Tons is HUGE, and will propel us like a ballistic missile to a 
much warmer world, miles above the 2 degree C Paris "safe level".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E6PazzbEoA



[Dramatic video - message by Harrison Ford]
*"If We Don't Protect Nature We Can't Protect Ourselves" Harrison Ford | 
Extinction Rebellion*
106,834 views
Extinction Rebellion
Published on Jul 26, 2019
We are facing an emergency resulting from our toxic economic and 
political system. The way we relate to each other and to nature is 
destroying Earth's capacity to sustain life.

Unending economic growth and profits drawn from a planet with limited 
resources is causing gross inequality, poverty, mass misery, and species 
extinction.

We are sold an illusion that consumption will bring purpose and 
happiness into our lives, yet this systemic consumption is threatening 
our very existence. It is based on unjust and unethical land use and 
ownership, unsustainable and increasing amounts of debt and enslavement 
of individuals.

Power and money is concentrated in the hands of the few, while the 
masses struggle to simply survive. It is causing climate breakdown and 
biodiversity collapse.

As Greta Thunberg has been saying since the 'Declaration of Rebellion' 
last October 31:

'We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules. Because the 
rules have to be changed.

Everything needs to change. And it has to start today.

So, everyone out there, it is now time for civil disobedience. It is 
time to rebel.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdSmnlVC_yk



[Climate refugees]
*'People are dying': how the climate crisis has sparked an exodus to the US*
As part of the Running Dry series, the Guardian looks at how drought and 
famine are forcing Guatemalan families to choose between starvation and 
migration
by Nina Lakhani in Camotán
At sunrise, the misty fields around the village of Guior are already 
dotted with men, women and children sowing maize after an overnight 
rainstorm.

After several years of drought, the downpour brought some hope of relief 
to the subsistence farmers in this part of eastern Guatemala.

But as Esteban Gutierrez, 30, takes a break from his work, he explains 
why he is still willing to incur crippling debts – and risk his life – 
to migrate to the United States.

"My children have gone to bed hungry for the past three years. Our crops 
failed and the coffee farms have cut wages to $4 a day," he says, 
playing nervously with the white maize kernels in a plastic trough 
strapped to his waist.

"We hope the harvest will be good, but until then we have only one 
quintal [46kg] of maize left – which is barely enough for a month. I 
have to find a way to travel north, or else my children will suffer even 
more."...
- - -
"Over the past six years, the lack of rainfall has been our biggest 
problem, causing crops to fail and widespread famine," said the climate 
scientist Edwin Castellanos, the dean of the research institute at 
Guatemala's Universidad del Valle.

The current run of hot, dry years follows a decade or so of unusually 
prolonged rains and flooding due to the other phase of the cycle known 
as La Niña, caused by colder Pacific waters.

"Normal, predictable weather years are getting rarer," added Castellanos.

On the ground, the impact has been devastating. In 2018, drought-related 
crop failures directly affected one in 10 Guatemalans, and caused 
extreme food shortages for almost 840,000 people, according to the UN's 
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

As a result, entire families have been migrating in record numbers: 
since October 2018, more than 167,000 Guatemalans travelling in family 
groups have been apprehended at the US border, compared with 23,000 in 
2016...
- - -
...If Esteban makes it to the US, he'll pay the $5,000 fee; if he 
doesn't, the coyote will keep the land. "Banks don't help people like 
us," he says, through tears.

He has been told that families have a better chance at the border, so he 
is considering taking his scrawny nine-year-old son, Wilson, with him. 
He knows that taking a chronically malnourished child on a 2,000-mile 
journey will be tough – but he cannot afford to wait: the food is 
running out.

In these parts, the period between harvests, June to August, has always 
been hard. But the current crisis is different, said Gutierrez's mother 
Isigra Martínez, 58, as she heated leftover tortillas for lunch.

"We grew up hungry, but the past four years have been very hard," she 
said. "I don't want my son to go to America, and it will be terribly 
hard on Wilson."

"I've heard people have died on the journey. But maybe there's no other 
way."
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jul/29/guatemala-climate-crisis-migration-drought-famine



[Moving forward]
*Kamala Harris and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Release Climate 'Equity' Plan *
By Lisa Friedman
July 29, 2019
WASHINGTON -- Senator Kamala Harris of California and Representative 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York on Monday unveiled legislation 
aimed at ensuring that climate change plans benefit low-income 
communities. They described the measure as a key element of the 
Democrats' Green New Deal.
The effort comes as Ms. Harris, who is running for president, and other 
Democratic candidates prepare for a set of debates in Detroit this week. 
Racial and economic disparities on issues ranging from housing to 
education are expected to take center stage.

Ms. Harris, who has yet to release a comprehensive climate change plan 
of her own, has focused much of her economic agenda on providing tax 
credits and other assistance to low- and middle-income Americans. This 
month, she and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez introduced a bill designed to help 
people with criminal records obtain housing.

The new proposal, titled the Climate Equity Act, provides a view of Ms. 
Harris's environmental priorities. Under the plan, any environmental 
regulation or legislation would be rated based on its impact on 
low-income communities, which are disproportionately affected by climate 
change because they are often in flood zones, near highways or power 
plants, or adjacent to polluted lands known as brownfields.

A spotlight on the people reshaping our politics. A conversation with 
voters across the country. And a guiding hand through the endless news 
cycle, telling you what you really need to know.

The rating system would be modeled after the Congressional Budget Office 
score, which measures the costs of every major piece of legislation.

"We can't do anything without a C.B.O. score, but we never actually 
consider if it's disastrous to communities as long as it's 
revenue-neutral," Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview.

The bill would also establish an independent Office of Climate and 
Environmental Justice Accountability to represent vulnerable 
communities, and create a position of senior adviser on climate justice 
at "all relevant agencies."

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was the primary House sponsor of the Green New Deal, a 
nonbinding resolution that set out a broad vision for significantly 
reducing planet-warming pollution by 2030 while also guaranteeing 
millions of new jobs. She said low-income workers were often ignored in 
the climate discussion.

"One of the tenets of the Green New Deal is prioritizing vulnerable 
communities," she said. "We have to talk about Flint. We have to talk 
about West Virginia. We have to talk about the Bronx and we have to talk 
about the ways climate change manifests in our lives."

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said low-income 
workers were often ignored in the climate discussion.CreditErin 
Schaff/The New York Times
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said that she had not endorsed anyone in the 
presidential race and noted that she had worked with various candidates 
on different aspects of the climate challenge.

Climate change analysts said they were encouraged by the bill, and by 
the fact that several presidential candidates had recently made issues 
of equity more central to their discussions of the environment. Many of 
the candidates' early plans for tackling global warming focused almost 
entirely on methods of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including by 
establishing a price on carbon dioxide, eliminating coal-fired power 
plants and investing billions of dollars in clean energy technologies.

But in another example of the growing focus on economic and racial 
disparities, Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington released the final plank of a 
five-part global warming plan on Monday, aimed at new federal policies 
to prioritize low-income areas and communities of color. Mr. Inslee, who 
has made climate change the top issue of his presidential campaign, also 
called for a way to score, or screen, federal environmental decisions 
and proposed a new office dedicated to environmental justice.

Tom Steyer, the billionaire former hedge fund investor who also is 
running for president, last week released his own "justice-centered" 
five-pillar plan for tackling climate change focused on protecting 
low-income communities.

The new plans "send an important signal," said Mustafa Ali, who ran the 
Environmental Protection Agency's environmental justice office under the 
Obama administration.

"They are timely and they are needed," he said, "and they help us to 
begin to think critically about the steps that are going to be necessary 
to protect people's lives in the moment, and in these challenges that 
are rushing at us at a very quick pace."

The candidates are making equity a top issue in other arenas. This month 
Ms. Harris has introduced a $100 billion housing plan to help black 
families and individuals buy homes in historically redlined communities, 
and a $75 billion initiative to invest in minority-owned businesses and 
historically black colleges. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts 
has called for an executive order requiring recipients of federal 
contracts to diversify their workforces. Senator Cory Booker of New 
Jersey has proposed creating savings accounts for every child born in 
the United States.

Ms. Harris also released her health care plan on Monday, proposing a 
system that would provide Medicare for all Americans but allow people to 
choose private plans modeled on Medicare Advantage.

Ms. Harris's campaign said her full climate plan was forthcoming. But in 
a statement, Ms. Harris said she believed it was important to address 
equity even before nailing down the specifics of how to curb carbon 
emissions.

"We cannot accept a status quo where children of color are drinking 
toxic water in Flint or breathing toxic air in Louisiana's Cancer 
Alley," she said. "This systemic environmental injustice will only get 
worse and become more ingrained if climate and environmental policies 
like the Green New Deal do not specifically focus on lifting up these 
communities."
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/29/us/politics/kamala-harris-aoc-climate-change.html


[Russia]
*Fire and flood apocalypse with wildfires raging and dire threat to 
Baikal, world's deepest lake*
By The Siberian Times - 29 July 2019
Almost 3 million hectares on fire, including Arctic, with fumes having 
hit area larger than European Union.
more at - 
https://siberiantimes.com/ecology/others/news/fire-and-flood-apocalypse-with-wildfires-raging-and-dire-threat-to-baikal-worlds-deepest-lake/



*This Day in Climate History - July 31, 2013 - from D.R. Tucker*
July 31, 2013: On MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes," climate scientist 
Michael Mann discusses what it was like to be targeted and harassed by 
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II.
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/right-wing-gubernatorial-candidate-waged-war-on-science-39494723774
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