[TheClimate.Vote] June 25, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Tue Jun 25 12:13:34 EDT 2019
/June 25, 2019/
[More opinion]
*America's Bipartisan Climate-Policy Failure*
Jun 21, 2019 Mark Paul , Connor Rupp
In American politics, the Republican Party's commitment to the
fossil-fuel industry means that it will continue to deny climate science
and favor policies that exacerbate global warming. But the Democratic
Party, too, has long been in thrall to a form of climate-change denialism...
- - -
The longer both parties cling to a policy of "business as usual," the
more likely we are to face a climate catastrophe in which millions of
people perish or have their lives upended. In reality, though, the
responsibility for adopting a new paradigm ultimately rests with the
Democrats. While Trump has been disastrous for the planet, his
administration's policies are in keeping with a Republican Party that
won't change anytime soon.
In a recent review of more than 1,000 climate-related bills introduced
in the US Congress since 2000, we found that, in the past decade alone,
Republicans presented 187 that would increase greenhouse-gas (GHG)
emissions. Most of these bills have sought to advance the interests of
the fossil-fuel industry over those of everyone else. The Republicans'
purported rationale is to achieve "energy independence," which, in
practice, has meant offering special treatment to the oil, gas, and coal
companies that spend exorbitant amounts on campaign contributions.
- - -
But the real insult is the behavior of Democratic leaders, who continue
to abide by what James K. Boyce of the University of Massachusetts calls
"climate-change denial lite." Consider the case of the Democratic
National Committee. Last year, the DNC decided that it would no longer
accept contributions from political action committees affiliated with
the fossil-fuel industry, only to reverse course and embrace an
"all-of-the-above" energy policy just months later.
Though congressional Democrats have introduced modest proposals to
curtail GHG emissions, they haven't made any major push for climate
legislation since the failed American Clean Energy and Security Act of
2009 (the Waxman-Markey bill). And even that bill would not have reduced
emissions fast enough, relative to what the climate crisis demands.Among
the more meaningful climate bills introduced by Democrats in recent
years is the 100 by '50 Act, which includes provisions to "achieve 100%
clean and renewable energy by 2050." But, again, this falls far short of
what is needed to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial
levels - the threshold beyond which the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change forecasts devastating consequences. Fortunately, a
growing chorus of Democrats has begun to demand genuine action that
would start to make up for decades of climate-change denialism lite.
They understand that without significant, comprehensive action by the
US, the climate cannot possibly be stabilized at a level that is still
conducive to human flourishing...
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/democrats-failure-on-climate-change-policy-by-mark-paul-and-connor-rupp-2019-06
- - -
[Press Release]
*Inslee's fossil fuels plan sets benchmark for 2020 candidates*
WASHINGTON - Presidential Candidate Governor Jay Inslee released his
Freedom from Fossil Fuels plan today.
Erich Pica, President of Friends of the Earth Action, issued the
following statement in response:
Governor Inslee's new plan is the first proposal that is honest
about the scope of the climate crisis and sets a benchmark for all
2020 candidates. If we are going to avert climate disaster, we must
end the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. Any candidate who
tries to claim otherwise is not being truthful.
Friends of the Earth Action applauds Governor Inslee for outlining
concrete steps to transition our economy in just manner while
creating good jobs and healthier communities. We call on other
candidates to show us exactly how they would build a more equitable
world as they phase out fossil fuels.
https://foeaction.org/news/inslees-fossil-fuels-plan-sets-benchmark-2020-candidates/
*
*
[Investors info]
*Former Shale Gas CEO Says Fracking Revolution Has Been 'A Disaster' For
Drillers, Investors*
Read time: 10 mins
By Sharon Kelly Sunday, June 23, 2019
- - -
Frackers Projected Returns 'Should Not Exist' -- and Don't
- -
These days, CNG passenger vehicles seem more like a passing fad,
overshadowed by the rise of electric vehicles. Schliebs noted that just
two or three weeks before the petrochemical conference, EQT's CNG
fueling station in Pittsburgh's strip district closed permanently and
quietly, adding that he'd been told its owners had no plans to open a
replacement.
https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/06/23/former-shale-gas-ceo-says-shale-revolution-has-been-disaster-drillers-investors
[video PBS report on Oregon State Senate - 5th day of action]
*Why 11 Oregon state senators aren't showing up for work*
PBS NewsHour
Published on Jun 24, 2019
In Oregon, 11 important people are missing: Republican state lawmakers,
who are nowhere to be found amid a partisan standoff now in its fifth
day. The legislators walked out to stop the state Senate from acting on
a contentious climate bill, which would put in place a so-called
cap-and-trade system to try to limit carbon emissions. As William
Brangham reports, there's no end to the conflict in sight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38ZLboPCAGg
[Farmers need information]
Jun 24, 2019
*Soggy springs, scorching summers: Higher temperatures taking toll on US
staple crops*
- - -
Studies have shown that although farmers may be facing rainier springs,
they are also likely to experience hotter, drier summers. Rainy times of
the year and geographic areas are likely to become rainier, while drier
areas are likely to become drier. There are also interactions between
heat and temperature, which complicates trying to look at those two
factors individually. "When you get out of the shower, the water
evaporates and cools off your skin. The same thing happens on the
surface of the Earth. If there's no water to evaporate, basically things
heat up more," Ortiz-Bobea told EHN.
The team tried to look at water and temperature separately. Instead of
looking at how much it rained in a given area, they looked at soil
moisture, which more directly affects plants. "By using soil moisture
instead of precipitation, the authors were able to disentangle the
effects of temperature and water stress," Elizabeth Vogel, a scientist
at the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne, Australia, told EHN. Vogel
was not involved with the study.
Why heat has such a big effect is still unknown. "The jury's still out.
It's not clear why temperature is driving these effects," said
Ortiz-Bobea. "Temperature plays a huge role, and we attribute it to heat
stress, the effects of which are overwhelming."
What is known: heat can affect plants in many ways depending on its
severity. Crops can go through their growth stages more quickly when
it's hot, leading to stunted growth and a smaller end product. Under
even more extreme heat, a plant's metabolism slows down, and it can't
draw up enough water from its roots to overcome the heat...
https://www.dailyclimate.org/agriculture-department-buries-studies-showing-dangers-of-climate-change-politico-2638963913.html
[George Monbiot Commentary]
*Carmageddon: it's killing urban life. We must reclaim our cities before
it's too late*
George Monbiot
Posted: 23 Jun 2019
*Land Rover's proposals that we use its SUVs for urban safaris shows how
cars have been licensed to damage our lives.*
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 21st June 2019
What is the best way of wrecking a city? Pour cars into it. Heavy
traffic, 50 years of research shows, breaks up community, disrupts
social life and crushes local cultures. Noise drowns out conversation
and drives people indoors. Pollution makes streets inhospitable. Cars
take up the space that might have been used for children to play, adults
to meet and local projects to grow.
Streetlife is treated as an impediment to traffic. In cities all over
the world, it has been cleared for cars. Stalls, hawkers, football and
cricket games, old people playing dominoes, chess or petanque: all must
make way for the car. So much land is required for driving and parking
that there is little left for human life. In cities like Barcelona, that
curb traffic, cars use about 25% of the urban area. In cities like
Houston, which don't, they use 60%. The car eats the public space that
could otherwise become parks, cycle lanes, markets and playgrounds.
Land Rover's new advertisements for its Range Rover Evoque create the
opposite impression: that this ridiculous gas guzzler contributes to
urban culture. The Evoque is marketed as "the Range Rover for the city",
which sounds like a contradiction: SUVs like this were originally
designed for dirt roads in the countryside. But now, according to the
agency behind this revolting campaign, we are invited to use it to
"explore your city" and create your own "urban adventures"...
- - -
Another of the ads urges drivers to "Set off on an adventure. Discover
Edinburgh, one of the UK's most forward-thinking cities". A
forward-looking city should ban such cars from its streets. Land Rover's
ad agency promises to roll out this campaign across the world, naming
cities in South Africa, China and Columbia. Wherever interesting urban
cultures persist, a Range Rover will plough through them. Land Rover,
get your filthy wares out of our cities.
These ads are horribly reminiscent of the commercial Jeep tours through
Rio's favelas. Residents say the tours make them feel humiliated and
objectified. The tourists sit behind the car windows, safely removed
from the natives, filming exotic poverty as they are driven past
people's homes.
- - -
These ads help to normalise antisocial - even pathological - behaviour.
Just as we need radically to reduce the use of cars, for the sake of
both human health and planetary survival (the mayor of London, Sadiq
Khan, has just announced a car free day in September to highlight this
need), the manufacturers seek to drag us back into the 20th century...
- -
Another planned advertisement for the Evoque, this time in Chicago,
crudely defines the conflict. In Land Rover's words, "the Evoque will
literally climb on top of the covered entrance to a busy transit
station." The safari theme continues: the new Range Rover poses on top
of the public transport system like a hunter with his foot on a
slaughtered lion.
In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens writes of "the fierce patrician
custom of hard driving". As aristocrats raced heedlessly through the
streets of Paris in their carriages, everyone else had to jump out of
the way or perish. Dickens hints that this barbaric practice was among
the many atrocities that helped catalyse the French Revolution. Today,
as cars clear a path through our lives, we need a new revolt against
hard driving. It is time to reclaim the streets for the people.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/20/cars-cities-land-rover-pollution-urban-spaces
- - -
[see the video]
*Land Rover partners with Adwoa Aboah and London creatives to produce
lifestyle campaign*
https://shots.net/news/view/land-rover-partners-with-adwoa-aboah-and-london-creatives-to-produce-lifestyle-campaign-1
- - - -
[OK, here is my electric dream car - for a lower guilt affluence]
*Rivian - Electric Adventure Vehicle | Fully Charged*
fullychargedshow
Published on Jan 10, 2019
Automotive startups always need to be viewed with a little caution, but
as Jonny Smith discovers, Rivian have presented a very convincing
launch. A large SUV and pick up truck at the LA motor show. Most impressive.
More info: https://products.rivian.com/suv/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMfxJEfb4lw
more - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA6P0snL3hE
[back to panic, Beckwith on Tipping Points]
*Arctic Feedbacks from Sea-Ice and Land Snow Cover: Part 1 of 2*
Paul Beckwith
Published on Jun 23, 2019
People like myself are continuously monitoring loss of Arctic sea-ice in
anticipation of a "blue-ocean" event disruption, expected to happen in
the very near future. Most people, however, forget that loss of snow
cover on Arctic land regions is also a huge factor in Arctic temperature
amplification. September sea-ice decline is 12.7% per decade, while loss
of June land snow cover is a whopping 22% per decade. Here I discuss
changes to Arctic land snow cover month by month, and chat about recent
work looking at feedback effects from both sea-ice and land snow cover.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj6zAn6j7ls
- -
[soon - Watch for no sea ice in September]
*Estimating Contributions of Arctic sea-ice and Land Snow Cover to
Climate Feedbacks: Part 2 of 2*
Paul Beckwith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sriDSZ0_1aY
[video of permafrost status from Yale Climate Connections]
*Permafrost is thawing rapidly. How much should we worry?*
YaleClimateConnections
Published on Jun 12, 2019
Scientists warn of consequences to infrastructure, the economy, and the
climate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZktE0ItFjE
[Opinion from World Bank former manager]
*The World Is Running Out of Time*
Jun 17, 2019 Bertrand Badre
For decades, most of the major economies have relied on a form of
capitalism that delivered considerable benefits. But systems do not work
in isolation. Eventually, reality asserts itself: global trade tensions
reemerge, populist nationalists win power, and natural disasters grow in
frequency and intensity.
- - -
We need to impose real costs on market participants who do not change
their behavior. That won't happen through speeches, commentaries, and
annual reports. The market economy is a powerful force that needs
direction, and regulators and market participants themselves are the
ones holding the compass. It is time to get serious about establishing
the direct financial incentives and penalties needed to drive systemic
change. Only after those are in place can we begin to debate whether the
glass is half-empty or half-full.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/climate-change-reform-of-capitalism-by-bertrand-badre-2019-06
[This is really important, new thinking interview from 2017]
*Climate Denial Is Human*
Posted on January 11, 2017, by Radio Ecoshock
Genius medical researcher Ajit Varki on his book "Denial:
Self-Deception, False Beliefs, and the Origins of the Human Mind." Erika
Spanger-Siegfried from the Union of Concerned Scientists on American
military bases endangered by rising seas.
INTRODUCTION
Humans society in times of climate change is like a sinking boat taking
on water. The crowds will rush from one side to the other. As we know,
sometimes that causes the ship to tip, throwing everyone into the sea.
Right now in America and Australia, and perhaps soon in the UK or
Europe, the captains try to say there is no problem.
Donald Trump denies that climate change is happening. It's a "hoax" he
says, as he appoints fossil fuel people to regulate the environment,
science and energy. Of course, the physics of the melting ice world,
heating oceans and rising seas don't care what he thinks. According to a
Florida risk analysis agency, by the year 2045, Trump's so-called
"winter White House" called Mar-a-Lago will be underwater 210 days a year.
Maybe humans will make it a special dive site, where you can visit and
remember the American President who made the dumbest mistake in the
world. That drowned resort will be a gold-plated monument to climate
change denial. He'll be dead, and so will millions of others, but that
temple of excess under the sea will be a signal of the legacy of Donald
Trump.
At dozens of bases, the American military faces the same problems of
rising seas, and more intense storm surges. Later in this program we'll
hear from Erika Spanger-Siegfried at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
She led a comprehensive report into the coming challenges to military
bases as climate change unfolds.
But first, we'll talk with a medical genius who can explain how and why
denial is so easy to trigger in human beings. I'm Alex Smith. Here's
this week's serving of need-to-know information from Radio Ecoshock.
AJIT VARKI: DENIAL IS HUMAN
After decades of great science showing how climate change operates - we
get an incoming American Administration composed of climate science
deniers. How is that possible? A listener suggested I contact Ajit
Varki, about his book "Denial: Self-Deception, False Beliefs, and the
Origins of the Human Mind."
So now we are in for a treat. We'll spend a little time with an
awe-inspiring Professor of Medicine and pioneer researcher, from the
University of California in San Diego. Following his beginning in India,
Ajit Varki has led American explorations into cellular and molecular
medicine. His multi-faceted mind also ventures into the origins of
humans, and as it turns out, a critical mechanism of human
consciousness. Understand the role of denial, says Varki, and you
understand a lot about your own life, and the civilization around us...
Our knowledge of denial been heavily influenced by the 1969 book "On
Death and Dying" by the Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. She,
like you, worked with terminally ill patients. But Kübler-Ross suggested
denial was a stage we can work through. But Dr. Varki is talking about
something very different - an innate trait developed during evolutionary
biology. In that sense, it is nothing we can get past.
Maybe a better comparison from popular culture is the 1997 movie
starring comedian Jim Carrey. In that film "Liar, Liar" Carrey finds he
cannot get through a single day in society, without the ability to lie.
For him, the truth and nothing but the truth makes social life
impossible. That's part of what Varki talks about, but it goes deeper.
I think the necessity of daily denial happens in us all. If I want to go
visit my children in the next city, I have to hide my awareness that the
fossil fuels I burn in my car will actually help make their future
worse. We can't cope without it, but can we become more able to control
denial, so it doesn't hide important dangers? Dr. Varki thinks we can
learn to manage denial, so it doesn't harm us so badly, as with climate
change.
He suggests a couple of things regarding climate change, in a species
born with denial. First, early childhood education is important. If the
child learns in school, and in the home, that climate change is real and
we are causing it, denial is less likely later.
Second, Varki says perhaps climate activists and communicators should
frame things as local impacts. Nobody really reacts to the general idea
of a global rise of two degrees. But if we can say "this crop will fail
in your region" or "your electric bill will go through the roof trying
to stay cool", or "your area will likely flood over and over due to
extreme rainfall events" - then a person can relate directly to what is
coming.
There are so many applications to the facility of denial. I'm thinking
of smokers who keep smoking, or that one in three Americans is now
obese, despite obvious and well-known medical complications. If denial
is at the core of our ability to keep going, it also seems to be
something that tobacco and food corporations can take advantage of, for
profit. We are being used, precisely because denial can be triggered so
easily.
We even deny that denial is taking place. Maybe other people are
denying things, but not me! My tipster Rob Mielcarski (see below)
predicts people will avoid this program and this interview, because they
will deny it's important or true. We've heard of denial, but we don't
believe in it!
Frankly, I'm impressed with Dr. Varki's whole career. I' wish we had
time to chat about his early discovery of the first genetic difference
between chimps and humans. Or his investigations into glycobiology. In
fact I couldn't resist that one. I asked Dr. Varki to take a couple of
minutes to introduce our listeners into a whole field we haven't heard
of, the "glycans" without our bodies?
It turns out every cell in nature is coated in sugars. We've heard lots
about DNA and other cell structures, but Varki says the sugar complexes
were just too difficult to study. He calls it the "dark matter" of cell
biology. And get these "glycans" may be essential to understanding
disease and many other things. He's a leader in that field.
Related to the topic of this book on Denial (with Brower) we venture
into "anthropogeny". Ajit says that's an old term he resurrected to
mean the study of the origins of humans. Now there is a whole institute
or group dedicated to it, called CARTA - the Center for Academic
Research and Training in Anthropogeny.
In our interview, Varki raises another problem beyond denial. We are
likely to take unusual risks, or think everything will work out with big
challenges like climate change, because of our "optimism bias". You can
find more about that in this book "The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the
Irrationally Positive Brain"
- -
You'll also hear Ajit talk about the way the brain works using fear
responses. He mentions the Amygdala deep within the brain. Find more
about that here in Wikipedia.
We humans stumble along, ravaging this home planet with very limited
awareness. Given Varki's investigations, it seems fair to say that we
don't really know who we are as a species. Indeed, may even have in-bred
barriers that prevent us from truly finding out.
MY TAKE ON AJIT VARKI
Thanks to you as a listener, I have the privilege to talk with many very
smart women and men around the world. But I'll seldom say we've met
with true genius, as we did this time with Ajit Varki. When I began to
review his published scientific papers I was astounded. There are
hundreds, too many to count, going all the way back to 1977, and over a
dozen this year. Many are published in the top scientific journals of
the world.
As you heard in this interview, I also find the kind of humility that
can accompany true genius. Ajit Varki knows what he doesn't know, and
has a sense of looking into difficult dark places where humans have not
been before.
Dr. Varki is not a climate scientist, but he's in touch with the field,
and knows this is one we must get right, and can never go back if we
don't. I hope you will help spread this interview through your own
social media and friends. It explains so much about how denial
flourishes all around us, in so many ways.
This interview was suggested to me by Rob Mielcarski who blogs at
undenial.wordpress.com. Rob has prepared a short summary of Varki and
Brower's work. It's an excellent doorway. Rob has also posted a longer
summary of this theory of human denial, as written by Ajit Varki and
Danny Brower. Surf Rob's undenial blog, or get the link from my ecoshock
blog. It's worth your effort to get this, to see how we manage to deny
so many realities. It's a wonder we survive at all...
https://www.ecoshock.org/2017/01/climate-denial-is-human.html
*This Day in Climate History - June 25, 2014- from D.R. Tucker*
MSNBC's Ed Schultz discusses the political right's lust for the Keystone
XL pipeline.
http://www.msnbc.com/the-ed-show/watch/keystone-one-leaks-raises-serious-concerns-289147459685#
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