[TheClimate.Vote] June 26, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Wed Jun 26 08:55:44 EDT 2019
/June 26, 2019/
[Getting ready for the debates]
*Election 2020: The Candidates' Climate Change Positions and
Accomplishments*
How do the Democratic presidential hopefuls compare on their climate
actions and promises to solve the crisis? With the debates coming, ICN
analyzes their records.
By John H. Cushman Jr.
- - -
To prepare for the debates, we explored the candidates' evolution on
climate change and early progress in bringing the issue to the forefront
in 2020. In the following series of profiles, we focus on the most
prominent candidates and those with the most detailed climate proposals,
with an eye toward showing the spectrum of policy choices.
- - -
[ Read and share the candidate profiles
https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/candidate-profiles-2020]
On Wednesday and Thursday this week, 20 candidates face questioning from
a panel of journalists in two rounds, with 10 candidates each evening.
With so many candidates and so much ground to cover, there may be only
slight attention to climate change. It may be hard to distinguish the
candidates' climate policy positions from one another, let alone to
discern the complex details in depth, or to decide which answers are the
more coherent, practical or politically appealing.
One goal in these profiles: to help you prepare to watch the debates,
perhaps forming in your own mind what climate question you would pose to
candidates beyond the most simplistic.
Instead of being asked "do you believe in global warming?" or "would you
stay in the Paris treaty?"--every Democratic candidate does and
would--we think they should face questions like these:
*"How much would you demand that U.S. emissions decline in your
first term, in order to put your targets within reach by the end of
your second term?"**
****
**"Many people say we have only 12 years to act. Can you explain
where that number comes from and whether you believe it?"**
****
**"Should fossil fuel producers be held liable for the damages being
inflicted now because of emissions from our previous use of their
products?"**
****
**"Do you think American youth have a constitutional right to a safe
climate that could be enforced by the courts?"**
****
**"Should any of the revenues from a carbon tax be spent on research
and development of clean technologies, or should it all be returned
to households as a tax rebate or dividend?"**
****
**"How much expansion of our natural gas production would be
consistent with reaching zero net emissions of carbon dioxide by
2050?"**
****
**"Would you rely heavily on any of these technologies: a new class
of nuclear reactors? Capturing the carbon from smokestacks or the
atmosphere for storage underground? Geo-engineering to reflect
sunlight or seed the oceans as a carbon sink?"*
Of course, you can't count on such probing questions being asked or
answered. But keeping careful, probing questions in mind may help you to
sort out which candidates are truly informing the public. We, too, will
parse the answers afterwards.
Following are profiles of a dozen
candidates...https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/candidate-profiles-2020
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24062019/election-2020-climate-change-presidential-debate-questions-candidate-profiles
- - -
[Does mass media set boundaries for Democrats?]
*Opinion: Florida Is Burning. The Midwest Is Flooding. Why Aren't
Democrats Debating Climate?*
Miami hit its highest temperature ever recorded in the same week
Democrats arrived for the first presidential debate. This isn't rocket
science.
Karthik Ganapathy BuzzFeed Contributor
Posted on June 25, 2019
As Democratic presidential candidates made their way to Miami this week
for the first primary debate of the 2020 election, the city hit its
highest temperature ever recorded and a wildfire burned through more
than 17,000 acres of the Everglades. Communities across the Midwest are
still recovering from an onslaught of floods and tornadoes in recent
months. More Americans than ever before are worried about climate
change, realizing it will soon directly harm them and their neighbors,
if it hasn't already.
Which is why you'd think it's a no-brainer for Democrats to spend one of
their presidential primary debates having a national conversation about
the climate crisis. After all, every major Democrat vying for the
presidential nomination -- including frontrunner Joe Biden -- thinks we
should have a debate focused on climate change. So do an overwhelming
majority of Democratic primary voters, according to new data, as do the
country's leading environmental and activist groups, like the Sunrise
Movement, Greenpeace USA, Credo Action, Friends of the Earth, and 350.org.
Miami, the host city for the first debate, is staring down the barrel of
3 feet of sea level rise resulting from global warming. Yet our
political and media establishment has failed spectacularly to give the
climate crisis its due airtime: Only 1.5% of questions asked during the
2016 presidential primary debates were about climate change. The United
Nations has told us, in no uncertain terms, that we have 10 years left
to act to prevent worldwide ecological collapse, so a televised
conversation among those vying to lead our country on the topic seems
worthy of at least as much airtime as the birth of the royal baby.
It's a conversation worth having, because there are real differences
among Democrats on how to approach the issue. Sure, nearly every
candidate says they support the Green New Deal, but what that support
actually means differs wildly from one candidate to the next. And big
questions remain, like how quickly each wants to move the economy off
fossil fuels, what role each envisions for nuclear energy in the decades
to come, and how heavily we should lean on mythical tech magic like
'carbon capture' to pull emissions out of the air.
My favorite unanswered question comes courtesy of my brilliant friend
Kate Aronoff: *Would you, as president, consider nationalizing and
taking over the fossil fuel industry, given the unprecedented harm their
business model is inflicting on the world?*
On top of unasked questions, there are also dark spots in each
candidate's record that merit a moderator's cross-examination. Joe Biden
once spoke in favor of the myth of "clean coal," so how much should we
read into the fact that his campaign website cribbed language from the
coal industry? Why did Sen. Amy Klobuchar defend "safe domestic oil and
gas drilling," a stance at odds with the rapid energy transition
scientists say is necessary? Why did Rep. Beto O'Rourke vote to lift the
oil export ban as a member of Congress? And why hasn't South Bend Mayor
Pete Buttigieg spelled out a specific proposal to confront the crisis at
all?
A climate debate could force candidates to go beyond talking points, and
ask each how they'll overcome fossil fuel industry opposition, ramp down
emissions, and scale up renewable energy. It would also have a practical
effect, requiring all two dozen Democratic candidates to study the issue
thoroughly -- a process that could deliver new, creative solutions.
The case for this is obvious, which makes it mystifying to watch the
Democratic National Committee and its leader, Tom Perez, offer shifting,
unsatisfactory responses to shut down something most of the party wants
to do. In a blog post responding to the growing momentum, Perez
explained that the DNC's refusal to host a climate debate wasn't an
expression of bias, but a result of principled unwillingness to put its
"thumb on the scale."
"We learned a valuable lesson in 2016... the DNC must remain neutral in
both practice and perception," he wrote.
That instinct is admirable, and the DNC should guarantee open,
competitive primaries -- a courtesy that New York gubernatorial
candidate Cynthia Nixon was denied last year when Perez endorsed
incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo in the midst of a competitive primary.
But what's missing, in the case of the 2020 cycle, is that activists,
voters, and candidates want to see a climate debate not to help any one
candidate, but because our political and media establishment routinely
ignores the issue. Holding a climate-focused event is something the DNC
can do to help fix that, in the face of global catastrophe.
The leading presidential candidates, passionate activists, and a clear
majority of voters from the political party that Tom Perez nominally
leads all think there needs to be a debate focused on climate change.
His job is not the chief of a top-down bureaucracy like the federal
agency he led during the Obama administration; his power comes from
rank-and-file Democrats continuing to have some measure of confidence in
his ability to steer the party. That won't last if he does not engage
with the sense of urgency young people across the country are bringing
to the fight for their futures.
The failure of the political establishment to lead on this issue has
brought our planet to the brink of collapse. The Democratic Party and
its leaders are part of that establishment, and they must grapple
seriously with the fact that we have 10 years left to solve this crisis.
What will they do to help fix it?
Karthik Ganapathy is a progressive communications consultant who
formerly served as a spokesperson for Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Keith
Ellison, and the climate change campaign organization 350.org. He
currently advises several clients, including the Sunrise Movement and
CREDO Action.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/karthikganapathy/america-is-burning-why-arent-democrats-debating-climate
- - -
[More Questions from RollingStone]
* 8 Questions About the Climate Crisis for the Democratic Debates*
The planetary emergency may get 10 minutes at this week's debates -- so
let's make it count
By Jeff Goodell
- - -
Question 1: Describe a moment in your own life that woke you to the
risks of climate change.
Question 2: You are standing on what amounts to ground zero for the
climate crisis in America. No matter how fast we cut carbon pollution,
rising seas will present a profound threat to the future of Miami, as
well as to many other low-lying cities in the US and the world. Is it
time to begin thinking about a managed retreat from the coastlines? If
so, what role should the federal government play?
Question 3: There is abundant evidence that big oil companies like
ExxonMobil have long been aware of the impacts that burning fossil fuel
would have on the earth's climate. And yet these companies not only hid
this research from public view, but spent decades deliberately and
knowingly undermining climate science and working to delay action to
limit the consumption of fossil fuels. Do you think oil, gas, and coal
companies should be held liable for damages caused by burning fossil fuels?
Question 4: How would you compare the risks that the climate crisis
poses to American's security with the risks posed by, say, Iran?
Question 5: There's a strong case to be made that greed and materialism
are basically destroying the planet. Do you think dealing with climate
crisis will ultimately going to require rethinking the basic tenets of
capitalism?
Question 6: To avert the worst of the climate crisis, scientists tell us
that the world needs to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030, then go to
zero net carbon emissions by 2050. To achieve this, it's not enough to
rely on market forces and the continuing decline in prices for renewable
energy. We have to essentially ban fossil fuels in the coming decades.
And that means taking on some of the richest, most powerful, most
politically-connected corporations in the world. What can you tell us
tonight that will convince viewers that you have the courage and
political skills to accomplish this?
Question 7: We can talk about the urgency of the climate crisis all we
want, but when it comes down to it, there is always some more urgent
crisis that comes along, whether it is immigration or health care or a
school shooting, that delays action on climate change. As president, how
would you keep the focus on the climate crisis long enough to accomplish
the profound changes that must be implemented?
Question 8: The basic fundamentals of the climate crisis have been known
for more than 30 years now. And yet the level of carbon dioxide in the
earth's atmosphere -- the only real metric that matters -- continues to
go up and up and up. In effect, we have done nothing to avert this
crisis, despite having all the time, money, and knowledge we need. What
can you say that will convince viewers tonight that it will be any
different when you are president?
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/climate-crisis-questions-democratic-debates-miami-852285/
[Bloomberg reports]
*Here's How Climate Change Is Viewed Around the World*
The crisis might be global, but glaring disparities make a united
response more complicated.
By Alan Crawford
June 25, 2019
Wildfires in California and Siberia. Floods wiping out grain harvests in
Argentina. Droughts forcing water restrictions in Capetown and affecting
shipping on Germany's Rhine River.
Climate change is global in nature, and is creeping higher in surveys of
voter concerns. In some countries it's at or near the top, but it's not
regarded with the same urgency the world over. A Bloomberg collation of
polls reveals some glaring disparities in the way the emerging crisis is
viewed against other worries like jobs and security.
- - -
As Group of 20 leaders prepare to meet in Japan this week, the risk is
that existing ideological differences over climate change are compounded
by differing voter expectations of action, putting any chance of
consensus further out of reach.
- - -
Europe
An extended dry spell across northern Europe last summer brought record
temperatures from the U.K. to Finland and this year already threatens a
repeat. The European Drought Observatory reported as of September 2018
that crops were damaged and the livestock sector was under pressure,
while logistics suffered "significant disruptions" and rising
transportation costs due to the impact on waterways.
*EU27*: A Eurobarometer survey of the European Union's 27
countries--minus the U.K.--this spring found that "combating climate
change and protecting the environment" was cited as a concern by 43% of
respondents, up from 35% a year ago, and into the No. 4 slot on a list
behind the economy and growth (50%), youth unemployment (49%) and
immigration (44%). Climate change was the main topic in seven countries
(Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg and
Germany), up from five EU states six months previously...more
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-06-26/here-s-how-climate-change-is-viewed-around-the-world..
*U.K*.: In Brexit-dominated Britain, the environment was tied with the
economy for fourth most important issue in a YouGov poll of voters at
the end of April. That's up from ninth a year ago. The top three issues
were Brexit, health and crime...
*Russia*: Dozens were killed in Siberian wildfires in April and May that
melted permafrost across huge areas of northern Russia, but none of it
resonated much with voters in the main population centers. "Ecology and
the environment" placed 15th on a list of voter concerns in a May 19
poll conducted by the Russia...
*Norway:* One of the world's largest oil and gas producers, Norway basks
in a relatively pristine environment and leads the world in electric
vehicles per inhabitant. But in political terms, caring for the
environment comes relatively low on the scale of voter concerns, with
just 17% citing it as a top issue, below education (28%), health (26%),
care of the elderly (22%) and social differences (18%)...
North America
*U.S.*: Donald Trump has made help for the coal industry and cutting
back on environmental protections a cornerstone of his presidency, and
pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accords. Yet surveys
consistently show many Americas are worried about climate change: a
Quinnipiac University poll in December 2018 found 69% of respondents
were somewhat or very concerned by climate change...
*Canada: *Climate change is set to be a central issue in the fall
election, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's carbon tax helping
determine whether he wins a second term. Consequently, climate change
ranks "relatively high" on a poll of voter concerns, according to Abacus
Data, which found 74% said it was a very big or moderately big problem
in November...
Latin America
*Argentina:* Voter priorities focus on consumer price increases, high
taxation, corruption and unemployment, according to a May poll by Sao
Paulo-based Atlas Politico...
*Mexico:* A Parametria poll from July 2018 showed corruption followed by
crime and then the economy as the key issues that prompted voters to
elect President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. In office, he has pledged
little on climate but did halt fracking for shale...
*Brazil:* With massive deforestation of the Amazon, and epic floods and
droughts hitting its vast agriculture and energy supply--water supplies
in Brasilia were restricted for two days a week last summer--Brazil may
be one of the countries where climate issues are most visible...
Asia
*Japan:* Last month, Hokkaido had the hottest temperature ever recorded
for May in Japan. Pollsters do not as a rule ask about climate change in
monthly surveys, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rarely addresses it in
speeches...
*India:* Measures to combat the world's worst air pollution made it onto
political party manifestos for this year's elections for the first time
in India's history...
*Australia:* "The environment" is creeping up the scale of issues for
voters in the world's driest inhabited continent, but is still just
outside the top five concerns...
*South Korea:* Perhaps unsurprisingly, relations with North Korea are
the top concern in Seoul. A weekly Gallup Poll for May 31 found the
other main reasons for approval or disapproval of President Moon Jae-in
to be his diplomacy, anti-corruption drive, welfare, economy and
employment matters. Climate change didn't feature, despite what was
probably the biggest wildfire in South Korea's history raging that same
month...
*Indonesia:* The world's largest island nation vies with Australia as
the world's largest coal exporter. It's also the biggest producer of
palm oil, a practice only achievable through unbridled deforestation and
expansion of plantations. While the April elections were largely fought
on bread and butter issues like unemployment, inflation and wealth
distribution, along with divisive religious identity politics, the
government is not immune to climate matters...
*China:* Granted, the world's most population nation doesn't hold
elections, but that doesn't mean it's immune to the impact of man-made
climate change. The Communist Party sought to curb coal-burning power
stations to improve air quality, and President Xi Jinping signed up to
the Paris climate accords...
Middle East
*Turkey:* Freak storms ravaged Istanbul two years ago, but voters have
other concerns. They regard unemployment, the cost of living and
depreciation of the Turkish lira as the most significant problems facing
the country, according to the Social and Political Trends in Turkey
survey conducted by Kadir Has University. Terrorism, an ever-present
threat, has receded in recent months...
Africa
*Nigeria: *Climate concerns are almost absent from Nigeria voters,
despite desertification in the country's north east and the shrinking of
the Lake Chad basin thought to be behind the southern migration of
herdsmen leading to violent clashes with farmers...
*South Africa:* In a country with a jobless rate approaching 28% in
March, voters consistently placed jobs and unemployment at the top of
their concerns in three polls by the South African Institute of Race
Relations from September 2018 through April 2019. Corruption came next,
followed by basic services like electricity and water, crime and
insecurity, education and housing...
*Kenya:* A Nairobi-based Trends and Insights for Africa (TIFA Research)
poll in 2018 showed the Kenyan electorate to be most concerned by the
high cost of living (58%), unemployment (14%), lack of access to credit
(6%), poverty (5%), political tension (5%) and...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-06-26/here-s-how-climate-change-is-viewed-around-the-world
[Ashes to Ashes is a radical podcast]
*Episode 77 - Coping With Collapse*
Awareness of the systemic threats to our world comes at a cost. Often,
that cost includes feelings of isolation, existential dread, depression,
shock, and other uncomfortable realities. But these emotions do not
define the final stage of our journeys. This week we read from listener
emails, each describing a different point along the path of coming to
terms with uncomfortable truths, and from these we learn that there is a
way to move forward. Through confronting the denial that our society
wants us to consume, pushing past hopelessness, and expressing our
grief, we can begin to reconnect with other humans, build communities,
"prep" for the future, and build a better world together.
https://ashesashes.org/blog/episode-77-coping-with-collapse
Ashes Ashes is a show about systemic issues, cracks in civilization,
collapse of the environment, and if we're unlucky the end of the world.
The name is borrowed from the nursery rhyme "Ring a Ring o' Roses," a
song that children sing while spinning in a circle before collapsing on
the floor in heaps of laughter. Some claim that the lyrics were written
in response to England's Great Plague and Black Death, and the line
Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down is interpreted as death and the cremation
of bodies. Although apocryphal, this interpretation is fitting for our
times. While human civilization owes its existence to the unimaginable
wealth that nature freely provides, our current growth trajectory is
increasingly being fueled by the direct erosion of biodiversity,
ecosystem services, cultural heritage, and more, effectively
cannibalizing our future for the sake of short-term "progress." Our show
is dedicated to understanding this process, and illustrating its many
forms, which includes everything from environmental destruction and
unsustainable economic extraction to social atomization and isolation.
Although these themes may appear dark, awareness is what can help open
the door to collective action through which the strength of our
communities can prevent the great falling down of life as we know it.
https://ashesashes.org/ - more at: https://ashesashes.org/about/press
[Radio Ecoshock]
***Climate Shake-Out w/ Dahr Jamail--The End of Ice & climate
disruption--Radio Ecoshock 2019-05-29*
Stop Fossil Fuels
Published on Jun 23, 2019
Weather extremes and uncommon danger erupting are around this warming
world. We need a tough investigative climate journalist.
Indie-journalist and author of "The End of Ice" Dahr Jamail covers the
climate threats and how to cope. From the Arctic to the Amazon to middle
America we globe-trot through the latest science and what it means for
our common future.
- - -
WHAT I EXPECT
Some people worry the economy will crash as weather violence, rising
seas, and other stresses just break civilization down. I worry that this
fossil economy will not break down until we wreck everything beyond any
hope of repair. As more serious disasters develop over the coming
decades, I think two awful developments are inevitable: millions of
climate refugees will flood over borders and at some point, hundreds of
millions of people will die, likely of famine or disease.
THE NEW ATLANTIS?
It is so ironic that the current climate-denier in Chief operates from
his beach resort Mar-a-Lago in Florida. That is literally "ground-zero"
for what Dahr Jamail's book calls "The Coming Atlantis". Many of us
wonder: can the U.S. economy survive the collapse of pricey coastal real
estate markets?
For the book, Dahr also spoke with Dr. Ben Kirtman. He is described as
"one of the leading sea level experts in the world. The program director
for the Climate and Environmental Hazards program at the University of
Miami's Center for Computational Science, Kirtman is also a coordinating
lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC)
Fifth Assessment Report"
HOW DO WE COPE?
Toward the end of this interview we move toward how to survive knowing
that we humans are ruining the world, not just for our own survival, but
for millions of other species sharing this planet. I think Dahr's coping
mechanisms could help our listeners as well.
On March 16, 2018, Dahr's talk "Update on the State of the Planet: How
Then Shall We Live?" was recorded by California State University. He
talked about Stephen Jenkinson who helps people with palliative dying.
Talking about climate change, Jenkinson said: "If you awaken in our
time, you awaken with a sob." We can learn about dying.
"PTSD - we all have it now, as the biosphere of the planet is
perpetually being assaulted by the industrial growth machine."
- Dahr Jamail, "The End of Ice"
As soldiers returned from the endless Middle East wars, damaged and hurt
inside, we all learned about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. A half
dozen years ago, I suggested we are all developing Pre-Climatic Stress
Disorder, for those who know about the bad times yet to come. Now I
think climate trauma is here - suffered directly for millions of people
all over the world. Do you think recent turns toward far-right climate
denialism, most recently in the surprising Australian elections, is a
symptom of this larger social disease?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QIjiuMMFX0
https://www.ecoshock.org/2019/05/climate-shake-out-with-dahr-jamail.html
- - -
[Book listing on Amazon]
*The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of
Climate Disruption Hardcover* - January 15, 2019
https://www.amazon.com/End-Ice-Bearing-Witness-Disruption/dp/1620972344/ref=pd_rhf_ee_s_msx_wsixn_v1_1_1/134-4916968-9354011
[Video commentary ]
*I was wrong about climate change: here's why*
leena norms
Premiered Jun 15, 2019
Four myths I told myself about the climate crisis and global warming
that just aren't true. JOIN THE GUMPTION CLUB:
https://www.patreon.com/justkissmyfrog and if you would like to share
this video with your non-youtube-watching friends on FACEBOOK, here it
is there https://www.facebook.com/justkissmyfr...
The first in my series: A Guide to Positive Panic.
#AGuidetoPositivePanic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT7TTlNCGMI
[HBO Documentary]
*Ice on Fire (2019): Official Trailer | HBO*
HBO Published on May 22, 2019
Produced by Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio, George DiCaprio and Mathew
Schmid and directed by Leila Conners, Ice on Fire is an eye-opening
documentary that focuses on many never-before-seen solutions designed to
slow down our escalating environmental crisis.
Ice on Fire premieres June 11 at 8 PM.
#HBO #HBODocs #IceOnFireHBO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elf0RFBhr8I&feature=youtu.be
[Movie]
*Which 'Big Little Lies' Mom Is Right About Kids and Climate Change?*
By Rachel Handler
- - -
After Amabella's teacher leads her and her classmates in a The
Wall-esque exercise of repeating statistics about climate change ("How
many gallons of water does it take to make a single sausage?" "A
thousand." "That's right, and how many showers does that add up to?"
"Fifty."), Amabella passes out in a closet, shoes akimbo. A few scenes
later, a child psychiatrist dressed as Little Bo Peep informs Renata and
her husband that Amabella is "worried about the end of the planet. Her
class is evidently talking about climate change and she's gotten the
message that we're doomed." Renata, furious, storms into the principal's
office and demands to know why these "idiots" would "teach 8-year-olds
that the planet is doomed." The principal calmly explains to Renata that
because "the children are constantly bombarded with climate change, it's
our job to deconstruct it, so they can process it."
"Good for you," Renata spits back. "You deconstructed my little girl
right into a coma." Before she leaves, she adds, quite poetically, "I
will be rich again. I will rise up. I will buy a fucking polar bear for
every kid in this school. Then I'll squish you like the bug that you are
-- pretends like he's not a smoker, hasn't been laid in 15 fucking
years!!!" (Her recollection of the event, to Madeline, is a gorgeous
Laura Dern classic: "Yeah, he's a shit. They practically kill my
daughter, then he's just dismissing me like that? What a pussfuck.")
Later in the episode, the school holds an assembly for the enraged
parents, where the grievously downtrodden principal explains that
"anxiety is an epidemic in our schools" and half-heartedly asks for
feedback on the climate-change issue. Madeline, disoriented by her own
medium-size lies to her husband, ends up on the assembly stage, ranting
half-coherently about how to talk to kids about difficult subjects. "Our
kids are afraid. They're afraid to go to school; they're afraid they're
gonna get shot. We don't prepare them," she weeps. "We fill their heads
full of happy endings and happy stories and lies. We have to tell the
children that life is an illusion and things don't work out sometimes.
You can't tell them part of the truth. You have to tell the whole truth."
As a person with zero children, I needed to know: Who's right? Is it
Madeline and the Establishment, or Laura Dern and her extremely,
perfectly long neck? Should we lie to kids and say everything will be
fine, or is that irresponsible? Is there an acceptable way to let them
know the world is slowly melting? And if the child is named Amabella,
does that change anything? So I reached out to a child psychologist,
Lisa Dubinsky of New York City, as well as a former grade-school teacher
from Marin County, California, a wealthy school district not unlike Big
Little Lies' Monterey. (The grade-school teacher, who taught young kids
for two decades, politely asked not to be identified further because "I
know I'll hear about this.")
- - -
Dubinsky added that it was particularly bad form not to inform the
parents about the potentially anxiety-inducing curriculum. "If you're
going to talk about anything controversial, it's always good to let
parents know ahead of time. If you can't meet with them, you could do an
email saying, 'Hey, we're about to launch into this topic, and here's
what we're thinking. We appreciate any feedback. Maybe you could let us
know what you think your child already knows, or what you're talking
about at home.'"
"There's no harm in underdoing it," she added. "You can always add
information, but you can't take information away once you've talked
about it."
The Marin County schoolteacher echoed Dubinsky's sentiments, referring
specifically to her own experience with what she referred to as "very
wealthy, mostly white, mostly entitled children and their parents." "I
wouldn't go into the whole catastrophe of climate change," she said. "I
would probably go into it as how the students could help with global
warming. You don't need to talk about the polar ice caps melting. I
would never recite statistics. No. 1, it freaks them out, and No. 2,
they're probably not listening."
https://www.vulture.com/2019/06/big-little-lies-season-2-climate-change.html
*This Day in Climate History - June 26, 2018 - from D.R. Tucker*
June 26, 2018 - The New York Times reports:
"A federal judge on Monday threw out a closely watched lawsuit
brought by two California cities against fossil fuel companies over
the costs of dealing with climate change. The decision is a stinging
defeat for the plaintiffs, San Francisco and Oakland, and raises
warning flags for other local governments around the United States
that have filed similar suits, including New York City.
"The judge, William Alsup of Federal District Court in San
Francisco, acknowledged the science of global warming and the great
risks to the planet, as did the oil and gas companies being sued.
But in his ruling, Judge Alsup said the courts were not the proper
place to deal with such global issues, and he rejected the legal
theory put forth by the cities."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/25/climate/climate-change-lawsuit-san-francisco-oakland.html
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