[TheClimate.Vote] November 2, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Sat Nov 2 10:48:55 EDT 2019

/November 2, 2019/

[global fire reports]
*Brazil wildfires: Blaze advances across Pantanal wetlands*
1 November 2019
A 50 kilometre-long (31 mile) wildfire is advancing across Brazil's 
Pantanal wetlands...
- -
The fire began on 25 October and is said to be advancing rapidly due to 
the combination of high temperatures and high winds...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50257684
- - -
[SoCal fires]
*Southern California Utility Says Wildfire Started Near A Re-Energized 
Power Line*
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/01/775377062/new-california-wildfires-grows-to-over-8-000-acres-overnight
- - -
[video]
*Santa Ana wind event in California sparks fast-moving Maria fire*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5S5JKzPx8Q
- -
[dramatic video]
*Sacramento man saves panicked freeway drivers as wildfire takes over 
freeway | RAW*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I41fHjRocE

[Rex Tillerson]
*Exxon Former CEO Says Climate Change 'With Us Forever More'*
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-31/exxon-s-former-ceo-says-climate-change-with-us-forever-more

[opinion]
*The F-Word Finally Enters Climate Politics*
For the first time, presidential candidates are no longer scared to say 
"fossil fuels" (okay, that's two F-words)
In CNN's recent climate crisis town hall, fossil fuels--and the industry 
that produces them--were mentioned 153 times. Julian Castro committed to 
banning oil and gas drilling on public lands. Andew Yang supported a ban 
on offshore oil drilling. Kamala Harris promised to hold the fossil fuel 
industry accountable for its decades of climate deception. Bernie 
Sanders pledged to end fossil fuel subsidies and provide a just 
transition for displaced workers. Elizabeth Warren reiterated the 
importance of eliminating the corruptive political influence of fossil 
fuel companies.
This emerging focus on the supply of fossil fuels--compared to the usual 
fixation on consumer demand and greenhouse gas emissions--goes beyond 
debate rhetoric. Most candidates have now put forward climate plans that 
include a multitude of supply-focused policies...
- -
Moreover, as a growing number of scholars, policymakers and activists 
have observed, the fossil fuel industry's stranglehold on politics is a 
fundamental bottleneck to serious climate action. Fossil fuel interests 
have spent--and continue to spend--hundreds of millions of dollars 
deliberately misleading the public and stifling policy through 
disinformation and lobbying.

These are all reasons why fossil fuels must take center stage in any 
serious climate plan. It's also worth remembering--and probably helpful 
for politicians to remind voters--that besides a collapsing climate, the 
extraction of coal, oil, and gas is associated with air and water 
pollution, worker safety hazards, social and environmental injustices 
and habitat destruction.

It is no accident that fossil fuels are becoming a political pariah...
- - -
 From climate scientists showing that existing fossil fuel reserves 
already exceed the global carbon budget, to political scientists 
suggesting that smart climate action requires addressing both demand and 
supply, to the academics and NGOs carrying these messages to 
decision-makers, a small but dedicated group of researchers are helping 
to rewrite how we approach the climate crisis.

Finally, investigative journalists and scholars have begun to uncover 
skeletons in the fossil fuel industry's closet, informing dozens of 
lawsuits seeking to hold companies accountable for not just climate 
damages, but their denial and delay too. Most damning have been 
discoveries of internal memos showing that the fossil fuel industry has 
known about the potential global warming dangers of its products for 60 
years. CNN's Kevin Anderson cited research by one of us when he asked 
Joe Biden: "Will you hold fossil fuel corporations and executives who 
have lied to the public accountable?"

The U.S. is currently the world's top oil and gas producer, and one of 
the leading laggards on climate action under the Trump administration's 
pro–fossil fuel agenda. Yet by bringing fossil fuels into the picture, 
Democrats may be onto a winning climate narrative--for the election and 
Green New Deal legislation: Building a healthier, safer, thriving clean 
energy economy (which Americans love) by making fossil fuel polluters 
(which Americans love less) pay for their damages, denial and delay.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-f-word-finally-enters-climate-politics/

[To The Point - NPR podcast]
October 31, 2019
*Preparing for climate change fires in Los Angeles*
For the first time, Topanga Canyon Boulevard was closed from Mulholland 
to Pacific Coast Highway not because of a fire, but an extreme red flag 
wind advisory (residents were allowed in and out). If a blaze were to 
break out, officials wanted to ensure that firefighters could easily get 
in and residents could get out. As climate change increases, so has the 
risk of damage and "faster and more erratic" firestorms. And in Los 
Angeles, Topanga Canyon has become a "model for emergency fire 
preparedness." Emergency preparedness is the main mission of T-CEP, the 
Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness. Board Chair Scott Ferguson 
says T-CEP "consists of both public agencies and private homeowners," 
and is run 100% by volunteers who are trained and ready to get to their 
stations. Even in what's called the "Wildland Urban Intermix," "wooy" 
for short, those who want to live away from it all are learning to get 
to know their neighbors in the interests of mutual protection. There 
could be an elderly or disabled person trapped in the house next door, 
or a pet left behind when its owner had to go to work. T-CEP has built a 
strong community awareness program, Neighborhood Network, and encourages 
annual meetings between neighbors. Last year's Woolsey Fire did not 
reach Topanga Canyon, but there was an eight-day evacuation anyway, 
which Scott Ferguson says "really woke up a lot of people" and shifted 
the paradigm. "LA County Fire will be getting very aggressive about 
evacuations in order to prevent the kinds of tragedies that we saw up 
north in Paradise, in the Camp Fire, for instance," he says. So far 
Topanga hasn't lost power, but T-CEP is integral in interfacing with 
utilities and government agencies. Feguson says cell phone communication 
is taken for granted in urban areas where cell towers are ubiquitous, 
which is not the case in the Canyon. "In Topanga, every part of our 
communications infrastructure depends on electricity and that includes 
cell phones," Ferguson goes on to emphasize that residents are not 
driven away by the fear of fires. Most of the time, it is a beautiful 
place to live. But he says he sees T-CEP as "the insurance of being 
prepared so that if something happens, you can save your life, or at 
least hopefully your home."
strean - https://www.npr.org/podcasts/381444877/k-c-r-w-s-to-the-point
or download MP3   - 
https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/podcast-download.kcrw.com/kcrw/audio/podcast/news/tp/KCRW-to_the_point-preparing_for_climate_change_fires_in_los_angeles-191031.mp3?siteplayer=true&dl=1

[adrenaline profession]
*Wildfire Chasers Are the New Tornado Chasers*
A strike team of specially trained researchers drive a highly 
sophisticated truck into the literal line of fire. Their mission: 
unravel the extreme complexities of wildfire.
https://www.wired.com/story/wildfire-chasers/

*This Day in Climate History - November 2, 2010 - from D.R. Tucker*
Republicans win control of the US House of Representatives in the 
midterm elections, putting some of the nation's most vehement 
climate-change deniers in control of that body. Also, California voters 
reject a ballot initiative intended to kill landmark climate-change 
legislation in that state.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/11/03/128002/gop-frosh-class/

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2010/11/19/174837/climate-zombie-caucus/

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2010/11/voters-reject-prop-23-keeping-californias-global-warming-law-intact.html

http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/greenfront/2010/11/becky-bond-of-credo-action-group-how-prop-23-was-defeated.html

http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/greenfront/2010/11/adi-nochur-1sky-about-the-elections.html
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