[TheClimate.Vote] November 12, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/November 12, 2019/


[Saga of Exhilarating Progress]
*New Carbon Dioxide Battery Solutions*
Nov 10, 2019
Carbon Dioxide battery technology represents a huge opportunity not only 
to vastly improve energy storage and output capacity, but also to 
capture CO2 straight out of our atmosphere and lock it away. Research is 
going on all around the world but in the last few weeks a research team 
from UIC in Illinois has published a paper proving that a Lithium Carbon 
Dioxide battery can now be recharged successfully and hold far more 
energy than a traditional battery, and another team working at MIT in 
Massachusetts has shown us a revolutionary system that significantly 
improves the efficiency of capturing pure CO2 from ambient air streams. 
This week we take a look at both of them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t98dQ9BhEk (start about 7 minutes in)


[2020 Presidential Election ]
*[Major] Presidential Candidate Signers*
Sixteen major 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have signed the No 
Fossil Fuel Money pledge. These signers are listed below, as well as the 
one major candidate on the Democratic side who has not yet signed the 
pledge. Seven previous presidential candidates who have signed the 
pledge but are no longer in the race are also listed below.

Take action today: Use the buttons provided below to thank candidates 
who've signed, and urge those who haven't to get on board and stand with 
people, not big polluters.
Please contact info at nofossilfuelmoney.org with any questions or corrections.
http://nofossilfuelmoney.org/presidential-signers/
- -
[All Political races pledging not to accept donations from...]
*Pledge Signers The following candidates and elected officials have 
signed the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge.*

Taking the pledge means that a politician and their campaign will adopt 
a policy to not knowingly accept any contributions over $200 from the 
PACs, lobbyists, or SEC-named executives of fossil fuel companies -- 
companies whose primary business is the extraction, processing, 
distribution, or sale of oil, gas, or coal.
[1,859 entries so far]
http://nofossilfuelmoney.org/pledge-signers/
- - -
[see the list of companies that try to influence campaigns]
*The...list of companies that are considered to be 'fossil fuel 
companies'* for the purposes of the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge. If a 
campaign receives a donation of $200 or more from a PAC, executive, or 
lobbyist of any company on this list, the campaign is in violation of 
the pledge, and must return the donation. While the list is extensive, 
it is not exhaustive, due to the complex nature of the fossil fuel industry.

The methodology and extensive list of fossil fuel companies can be 
viewed [at the link] below.
http://nofossilfuelmoney.org/company-list/



[Book review]
*New Book: The Pentagon's Perspective on Climate Change*
by Francesco Femia & Caitlin Werrell
November 12, Professor Michael T. Klare's book "All Hell Breaking Loose: 
The Pentagon's Perspective on Climate Change" will be published. In 
advance of that publication, Professor Klare was interviewed by Rolling 
Stone to discuss it. Here are a couple excerpts:
*The idea of 'All Hell Breaking Loose,' in the title of your book, what 
does that mean for the military?*

    They see their job as defending this country from foreign threats
    and that is what they are trained to do. 'All Hell Breaking Loose'
    is a condition they fear in which they will be unable to conduct
    that mission, to do their job, because they will be so caught up in
    protecting this country against climate change threats or addressing
    its impacts on other countries around the world that are collapsing
    because of the effects.

*Can you quickly walk us through the 'Ladder of Escalation' model that 
you use for this book?*

    I take this concept from the Cold War era of nuclear escalation that
    says we go from small-scale events to increasingly serious ones. The
    military sees that with climate change as well. They already see an
    increase in extreme storm events that affect their allied countries
    and require a military response providing aid -- and in the U.S.
    itself, like in Florida or Puerto Rico. But they look into the
    future and see increasingly severe events like extreme droughts
    bringing about the collapse of entire nations. They see that
    happening potentially in places like Nigeria and Pakistan, leading
    to mass chaos spreading across continents. They see that beginning
    in what we once called the Third World but spreading to more
    privileged and wealthier parts of the world like Europe, and
    bringing about upheaval there, leading eventually to conflict among
    the great powers as climate change advances. Perhaps in the Arctic
    region, for example.

https://climateandsecurity.org/2019/11/11/new-book-the-pentagons-perspective-on-climate-change/
- - -
[Read the full interview in Rolling Stone]
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/how-the-pentagon-thinks-about-the-climate-crisis-887832/ 




[dispossession, disposal]
*Climate refugees stripped of citizenship in Assam, India*
https://www.sixdegreesnews.org/archives/27608/climate-refugees-stripped-of-citizenship-in-assam-india



[after calamity]
*How Communities Can Build Psychological Resilience to Disaster*
NICOLE WETSMAN - NOVEMBER 7, 2019
As climate change makes disasters more severe, researchers say we can 
prepare by being informed, volunteering, and staying socially connected.

The Red River runs north, up along the border between North Dakota and 
Minnesota, before spilling into Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. Its 
water flows slowly through a 10,000-year-old glacial lakebed, in one of 
the flattest stretches of land in the United States, and because it 
points north, it's sometimes blocked by ice jams--all of which makes the 
river prone to flooding.

In March 2009, one such flood threatened the city of Fargo. Residents 
watched for a week as the National Weather Service continually updated 
its predictions, and as forecasts for the river's crest climbed higher 
and higher. At the time, the medical director of the state's Department 
of Health and Human Services was psychiatrist Andy McLean, who also 
lived in the city. "I was trying to protect my home, and trying to 
protect the community," he says.
Leadership in Fargo readied sandbags, led the construction of 
barricades, and planned for evacuations. But McLean had a key role, too. 
"Every day, I was the psychiatrist at the table, talking about the 
mental health of the community and of individuals," he says.

That's one reason why, despite record flooding, the city was able to 
escape major consequences: not only because of its infrastructural and 
physical preparations, but also because of its social and psychological 
readiness.

As climate change makes natural disasters more common and more extreme, 
cities and communities are working to improve their resilience--their 
ability to withstand disaster, and bounce back quickly when it occurs. 
But disasters don't just cause physical damage; they can leave 
communities struggling mentally and emotionally, as well. Working to 
shore up physical structures only tackles part of the problem, says 
Gerald Galloway, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in 
the Center for Disaster Resilience at the University of Maryland. "If a 
community can't stand on its own two feet psychologically, all the work 
on having stronger buildings isn't going to get you anywhere."

*Post-disaster trauma*
Research on communities affected by natural disasters shows that they 
often lead to spikes in mental-health challenges, particularly for 
people who face the most adverse impacts from the disaster or are 
already vulnerable in other ways. "It's a mistake to just focus on the 
disaster itself," says Susan Clayton, a professor of psychology studying 
climate change and psychological wellbeing at the College of Wooster in 
Ohio.
Studies done in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina found that rates of 
mental-health conditions like anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic 
stress disorder (PTSD) increased in the aftermath of the storm. Those 
findings have been echoed in research on how people responded in the 
weeks, months, and years after other major disasters over the past 
decade. One survey of just under 700 people in the New York City area 
affected by Hurricane Sandy found that 33 percent likely had depression, 
46 percent likely had anxiety, and 21 percent likely had PTSD. 
Preliminary data on people affected by Hurricane Harvey in Houston also 
found high rates of mental-health symptoms.

People with pre-existing mental-health conditions, other health 
conditions, and those closest to the center of the damage are more at 
risk for developing mental-health problems, as are older adults, who are 
twice as likely to have symptoms of PTSD than younger adults. But 
children are particularly affected by disasters: in one set of kids who 
evacuated during Hurricane Katrina, for example, over half exhibited 
mental-health symptoms, and more than 30 percent had clinically 
significant PTSD or depression. Children affected by bushfires in 
Australia had worse academic progress over the next few years than those 
who weren't affected, one study of nearly 25,000 children found.

Many people, Clayton notes, will be just fine after a disaster, "even if 
they experience a traumatic event." And for some people, living through 
a disaster can even spur what's called post-traumatic growth: 
Individuals and communities come through stronger, mentally and 
emotionally, than they were before.

The goal in advance of a disaster is to take steps to mitigate some of 
the potential harms, and help more people experience long-term boosts, 
says Sonny Patel, NIH Fogarty Global Health Scholar at Harvard 
University. "How do we build communities to prevent some of these 
consequences? We know that there's a psychological toll from these 
disasters--we want to find ways to create resilience to prevent some of 
that."

*Building resilient communities*
Before the 2009 flood hit, the North Dakota team organized its work 
around a few principles of community resilience. It structured its 
messaging with the goal of communicating "hopeful realism": recognizing 
that there was danger ahead, but stressing confidence in preparations. 
That helped build public trust in the civic groups making decisions. 
"Feeling like they are looking out for the best interests of the 
community is key [for confidence from the public]," McLean says.

Daily televised briefings kept citizens updated on preparations, and 
behavioral health professionals like McLean gave advice in those 
briefings on how people could prepare emotionally. Citizens got involved 
in mitigation efforts by filling sandbags, which allowed them to "act 
with purpose": A study conducted after the flood showed that people who 
spent time volunteering had fewer risk factors for suicide, as it made 
residents feel like they belonged and were less of a burden to the 
community.

Fargo organizations, including nonprofit agencies, schools, and 
religious groups, also worked to strengthen connections between 
citizens, leaderships, and disaster-response groups. Inter-community 
connectedness is a critical element of resilience, McLean says. "One of 
the most protective factors is social connectedness, both for 
individuals and for communities. When people feel isolated, it's a 
significant concern for having more psychological problems down the 
road." In research on characteristics of resilient individuals, social 
support tops the list--people who fall into this category tend to have 
many people in their lives with whom they interact regularly, and who 
provide comfort and guidance, all of which protects against overwhelming 
stress. "Having a strong, supportive social network is one of the best 
things you can do," Clayton says.

Resilient individuals and families, in turn, likely help shore up 
resilient communities, which provide the social networks that in turn 
encourage individual resilience, McLean says.
Taking practical steps to prepare for disasters has psychological 
benefits for individuals, Clayton says. "Informing yourself makes you 
feel a bit less overwhelmed. Having a concrete sense of what impacts you 
could see in your area does, as well."

The U.S. outpost of the organization Save the Children runs a program 
called Prep Rally that helps build resilience in kids by teaching them 
about what it might be like to live through any type of disaster. "It 
pulls from a lot of research on adverse childhood experiences," says 
Sarah Thompson, director of U.S. emergencies at the organization. "We're 
giving kids a basic understanding of what could happen, and what safe 
places and people are. Even without knowing the nitty-gritty, it helps 
them feel like they're more in control. It helps them feel like they can 
be safe."

The program teaches them to recognize the risks they might face in their 
community, as well as practical skills, like how to talk with their 
families about evacuation plans and what should be in a disaster kit. By 
working with kids, the program also reaches the whole family, Thompson 
says. "Kids are great message-bearers."

One key challenge in building a resilient community is ensuring that 
efforts are distributed equitably. "Individuals in poverty or who are 
more isolated are at more risk of psychological harm," McLean says. 
People of lower socioeconomic status are already less likely to make 
preparations ahead of a disaster, are less likely or unable to respond 
to emergency communications, and are more likely to face major 
consequences from a disaster. Working closely with and directing support 
services for vulnerable groups, then, is an important element of 
resilience work.

Many organizations incorporate mental health into their conversations 
around disaster response: the American Psychological Association runs a 
disaster response network in partnership with the American Red Cross, 
which mobilizes psychologists to help victims and first responders after 
disasters. In addition, communities under a presidentially declared 
disaster can get funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
(FEMA) to offer mental-health services.

In a few places, mental health is discussed as a component of disaster 
preparedness: In North Carolina, for example, the Department of Health 
and Human Services plans to measure social and emotional health in 
children as part of its strategic plan, which will be incorporated into 
preparations for future disasters. However, preventative discussions are 
less common, Patel says, and if it's low on the list of priorities, 
funding can be limited. "It's not the first thing people think about," 
he says. "But it's improved, and it's getting attention."
As the climate continues to change, research into the factors that 
contribute to resilience--and the things that prevent it--will become 
even more critical. It's still not clear how anxiety around 
climate-related events might affect emotional recovery after a disaster, 
or how people's attachments to a particular place might skew their 
response, Clayton says. Those efforts are ongoing, spearheaded by 
researchers who have infrastructure in place to start collecting data 
immediately after a storm--like teams at Baylor College of Medicine in 
Houston, who started on projects after Hurricane Harvey.

After the 2009 flood, McLean helped develop a group focused on building 
resilience in North Dakota. It was fairly active for a few years, he 
said, and then work tapered off. But this past spring, there were 
concerns that another flood could occur, and the conversations were able 
to quickly ramp back up--with mental health included. "We're prepared," 
McLean says. "We've had enough practice that we're able to be."
https://www.citylab.com/environment/2019/11/mental-health-support-natural-disaster-trauma-ptsd-anxiety/601522/ 




[first view the Google trends word compare poll]
*Worldwide compare Storm area 51 and global climate strike*
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&q=%22storm%20area%2051%22,%22global%20climate%20strike%22
- - -
[comparing two cultural events]
*The Aliens Aren't Coming for Us, But Climate Change Is*
Forget storming Area 51 and join the Global Climate Strike instead
Aaron Gell
- - -
The two young trailblazers make for an odd pairing -- Thunberg with her 
unwavering seriousness of purpose and Heidi-esque pigtails, and Roberts 
with his goofy Wayne's World affability and Fred Durstian chin beard. 
But maybe they're more similar than they first appear. Born into a world 
steeped in absurdity and teetering on the brink of apocalypse, they each 
identified a conundrum that has bedeviled previous generations and 
fearlessly set out to solve it. In both cases, their pluck and 
initiative have left their elders dumbstruck.

Roberts' eventual misgivings notwithstanding, he's certainly proven one 
thing, as a look at Google Trends makes painfully clear: The vast 
majority of Americans would much rather talk about a wacky event based 
on a threadbare conspiracy theory than take on the grave responsibility 
of addressing a looming disaster that imperils all life on earth.

And really, why wouldn't we? Storming Area 51 is a "short-term, easy 
activity with fun and excitement included," notes Christian Russ, a 
lecturer at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and author of the 
paper "Online Crowds -- Extraordinary Mass Behavior on the Internet." 
The climate emergency, by contrast, is a huge and overwhelming bummer, 
requiring sustained action guaranteed to inconvenience us now in return 
for a shot at future salvation. "This psychological and mental conflict 
paralyzes us," Russ explains.
https://gen.medium.com/area-51-greta-thunberg-and-a-tale-of-two-hashtags-ead1a91aadff



[from 2014 study]
*The Ideology of Climate Change Denial in the United States*
Jean-Daniel Collomb
European Journal of American Studies. 2014;9(1) DOI 10.4000/ejas.10305

    *Abstract*
    The concerted effort to discredit the scientific consensus over
    man-made global warming has been continuing for two decades in the
    United States, and shows no sign of weakening. It is very often
    described as an attempt on the part of corporate America, most
    notably the fossil fuel industries, to hinder governmental
    regulations on their activities. While emphasising this dimension of
    the US climate denial movement, this article also aims to show the
    complexity of the movement, rather than the mere defence of the
    narrowly-defined and short-term economic interests of the oil and
    gas industries, by shedding light on two additional factors which
    have been instrumental in blocking strong climate action. First,
    climate denial stems from the strong ideological commitment of
    small-government conservatives and libertarians to laisser-faire and
    their strong opposition to regulation. Second, in order to disarm
    their opponents, US climate deniers often rest their case on the
    defence of the American way of life, defined by high consumption and
    ever-expanding material prosperity. It is the contention of this
    article, therefore, that the US climate denial movement is best
    understood as a combination of these three trends.

https://doaj.org/article/bb8fb33cb90045b2842420507871112e



[some video previews of FXX comedy]
*"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" Season 14 "The Gang Solves Global 
Warming" And Burns Everyone in the Best Ways Possible [SPOILER REVIEW]*
Posted on November 9, 2019
https://youtu.be/mD1LFuTm2y4
"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" season 14, episode 7 "The Gang 
Solves Global Warming": As a record-breaking heat wave overtakes Philly, 
the Gang plans to profit from global warming by pumping up the A/C so 
people will congregate at Paddy's and save energy at home. Directed by 
Pete Chatmon, and written by Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day.
Preview It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia | Season 14 Ep. 7: Dennis Has 
An Announcement! Highlight | FXX
https://youtu.be/8uKpaWG3jpk

    After two "experimental" episodes in a row, McElhenney and Day
    brought the show back to its wonderfully cynical-yet-constructive
    roots this week. Taking the deceptively effective route of appearing
    to address a major issues (i.e. global warming), McElhenney and Day
    are able to convey the show's position (global warming/climate
    change exists so get over it) while still making sure everyone feels
    the heat.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/11/09/its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-season-14-the-gang-solves-global-warming-and-burns-everyone-in-the-best-ways-possible-spoiler-review/



*This Day in Climate History - November 12, 2012 - from D.R. Tucker*
Powerful conservative activist Grover Norquist is quoted in the National 
Journal as saying that a federal revenue-neutral carbon tax would not 
violate the Republican Party's "no new taxes" position. After being 
viciously criticized by representatives from Koch Industries, Norquist 
abruptly flip-flops.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/13/1182511/grover-norquist-abruptly-reverses-position-on-carbon-tax-after-facing-criticism-from-koch-backed-group/
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