[TheClimate.Vote] October 5, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest.

Sat Oct 5 10:32:50 EDT 2019

/October 5, 2019/

[MIT says]
*Experts urge "full speed ahead" on climate action*
Panelists at MIT climate change symposium describe the state of 
knowledge in climate science and stress the urgent need for action.
David L. Chandler | MIT News Office
October 3, 2019
In the first of six symposia planned at MIT this academic year on the 
subject of climate change, panels of specialists on the science of 
global climate described the state of knowledge on the subject today. 
They also discussed the areas where more research is needed to pin down 
exactly how severely and quickly climate change's effects may occur, and 
what kinds of actions are urgently needed to address the enormous 
disruptions climate change will bring...
- - -
John Reilly, co-director of the Joint Program on the Science and Policy 
of Global Change, also stressed that regardless of any remaining 
uncertainties in the details of climate change's effects, "it doesn't 
mean we should wait until the science is resolved. Actually, we need the 
opposite effect." If there is a whole range of possible outcomes, it's 
important to take very seriously "the really extreme and catastrophic 
effects." Among the range of possible outcomes indicated by climate 
models, without concerted action, climate change "could make huge parts 
of the planet uninhabitable. Even if that probability is very small, 
that can dominate the entire cost-benefit calculation," he said.
http://news.mit.edu/2019/first-climate-symposium-gobal-warming-1003

[*Catastrophe or Transformation? *- two psychotherapists discuss the 
Youth Climate Strike]
*PODCAST: What's under the surface of the attacks on school strikers?*
Published: 05 October 2019
Many of us were inspired to see children marching in the Youth Climate 
Strike on 20th September, including in war-torn areas where they were 
putting their lives at risk in order to speak out.
It's hard to avoid the thought that the children are the adults, whilst 
the grown-ups are like children.

On the other side, taking attention away from the children, are the 
nay-sayers. Could it be that those adults who criticise cannot process 
their own feelings and have to get rid of the protesting children, 
sending them "back to school"? Verity Sharp and Caroline Hickman discuss 
this disturbing phenomenon
https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/podcasts/400-what-s-under-the-surface-of-the-attacks-on-school-strikers

[Interesting question]
*What Would It Be Like to Live in an Era of Geoengineering?*
- - -
"There is sometimes a hope among environmentalists and social justice 
advocates that confronting climate change will itself bring about social 
transformation--that it will flip us into a new narrative that could 
take on the climate pollution challenge," Buck writes in her new book, 
After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair, and Restoration. 
"However, I think there are plenty of scenarios where we deal with 
climate change in a middling way that preserves the existing unequal 
arrangements, leaving us not with a new dawn, but with a long and 
torturous afternoon."
After Geoengineering offers up a best case scenario for geoengineering, 
an argument for why the left should engage with carbon removal 
technology, and a few ways we might avoid that "torturous afternoon," by 
reclaiming the direction of tech from industry executives and coupling 
it with large scale social change. Earther spoke to Buck over the phone 
about her book and vision for the future. The interview below has been 
edited and condensed for clarity....
  -- - -
  You point out that the worst case scenario for geoengineering is if 
it's implemented much later, when governments may be starting to fray.

Buck: So, I should say that I think some types of carbon removal will be 
required, I'm not convinced that solar geoengineering will be required. 
My hope is that we can get social movements and momentum for a Green New 
Deal and implement a lot of policies that could limit warming to, I 
don't know… 2.5 degrees maybe? With a lot of effort? And that, combined 
with adaptation, that would be enough to make the case for solar 
geoengineering less relevant. The worst case scenario in terms of solar 
geoengineering in particular is if it was implemented in ways where 
there was no exit strategy or plan for what happens after 
geoengineering. If it's just kind of this emergency measure, for 
example, I could imagine it being used in a case where there's a lot of 
discourse about migration and a lot of fear about that [on the part of] 
some politicians--[if] people buy into that and then you have this 
hysteric, emergency response--that would be my worse case scenario...
- - -
Buck: I think best case, mitigation is pursued with a lot more vigor 
than it has been. I think that we need a really frank conversation about 
the future of the fossil fuel industry, one that's more nuanced than 
just putting these companies out of business because most of the fossil 
fuels produced in the world are by national oil companies and so they're 
entwined with governments and societies in really complex ways.

So we need to be thinking about a phase out or managed decline or a 
transition for the fossil fuel industry and including workers as a big 
part of that conversation and thinking about what opportunities there 
are in carbon removal for workers, for rural communities, for farmers, 
for the people who are really in the landscapes where this carbon 
removal is imagined to take place. The best case scenario is we develop 
a robust debate and start to work out some of those questions.
Rebecca McCarthy is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia.
https://earther.gizmodo.com/what-would-it-be-like-to-live-in-an-era-of-geoengineeri-1838638953

[DW video]
*Melting ice - the future of the Arctic | DW Documentary*
Oct 4, 2019
DW Documentary
Climate change in the Arctic is fueling not only fear, but also hope. 
Sea levels will rise and flood many regions. But the melting ice will 
also expose new land with reserves of oil, gas and minerals. New sea 
routes are also emerging.

The melting of the ice in the far north has given reason for great 
optimism, as newly-found mineral resources promise the Inuit a better 
life. But international corporations and self-proclaimed 'partners' such 
as China also have their eye on the treasures of the Arctic. Some even 
dream of a polar Silk Road. As large corporations position themselves to 
exploit the treasures of the far north, the indigenous people, the 
Inuit, are fighting for their independence.

Our film team spent four weeks with a geological expedition to the north 
coast of Canada - a place where no human has ever set foot before - and 
were present at the geologists world's northernmost spring. A 
microbiologist with them also collected DNA samples that could help in 
the development of new vaccines against resistant germs. However, the 
most important resource in the far north is still fish: Greenland 
supplies half the world with it, yet it still doesn't bring in enough to 
finance necessary investments in its underdeveloped infrastructure. And 
in Canada, the Inuit are also struggling with their government for the 
right to share in the wealth of their own land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0aNeYZL8jY

[Climate psychology help for children]
*Supporting children in the face of climate change*
Nov 29, 2018
Jo McAndrews
A talk by Jo McAndrews
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bm18_G4n2Y&app=desktop
- - -
[audio]
*Episode 4 - Youth: leadership and education in a changing world*
by The 7th Generation
PLAYING TRACKS BY
Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Rizzle Kicks and Merry Hell.

TAGGED
#politics#youth strike for climate#global strike#climate grief#forest 
schools
This episode of the 7th Generation is about young people and how they 
are taking on the climate crisis. We'll hear about the Global Strike 
they are organising for the 20th September, from Cambridge Youth Strike 
4 Climate organiser Helena Hughes-Davies. She is in conversation with 
psychotherapist Ro Randall about the emotional toll of activism, and how 
to talk to children about the climate crisis. We will also hear from 
local union organiser Pete Monaghan about how unions are taking part in 
the strike, outdoor educators working to improve children's connection 
with nature, and we visit a toy swap and repair cafe in Storey's Field 
Centre in Eddington.

Organisations covered in this episode include;
Cambridge YouthStrike4Climate Event: facebook.com/events/357445238275843/
rorandall.org
wildthymeandembers.co.uk
cambridgeppf.org
cambridgeforestschools.co.uk
http://circularcambridge.org/
atoyslifeandbeyond.org
https://www.mixcloud.com/childrens_firenow/the-7th-generation-episode-4-youth-leadership-and-education-in-a-changing-world/

[Democracy Now video interviews]
*Trump vs. California: In Blow to Climate, U.S. Revokes State's Stricter 
Auto Emissions Standards*
Oct 3, 2019
Democracy Now!
California is in a legal battle with the Trump administration over 
tailpipe emissions, air quality and climate change. California recently 
joined nearly two dozen other states to file a lawsuit against the Trump 
administration after it revoked the state's air pollution standards for 
cars and light trucks, in its latest regulatory rollback of laws aimed 
at slowing the climate crisis. Auto emissions are California's single 
largest source of greenhouse gases. From Los Angeles, we're joined by 
Mary Nichols, the longtime chair of the California Air Resources Board. 
She has led the board in crafting California's internationally 
recognized climate action plan. Michael Brune, executive director of the 
Sierra Club, speaks with us from San Francisco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CRp10XdZNk

[Activism - XR Oct 7th action]
*De-escalation Training Workshop | Extinction Rebellion*
Oct 4, 2019
Extinction Rebellion
In this video Rosalin Button and Rown Tilly, representing the newly 
mandated UK work circle called "Embedding Non-Violence",  lead a 
workshop on the basics of how to maintain or restore an atmosphere of 
non violence in large crowd occupation scenarios. Situations that might 
be open and fluid with people coming and going. Emphasis is placed on 
knowing where you are at on the spectrum...  self-care on the one end 
and taking initiative on the other. In short, do you feel comfortable in 
being an "an upstander or a bystander"? A series of one on one and group 
exercises illustrate the importance of practical tools like singing 
instead of chanting, the historical legacy of non violent actions,  
striking that delicate balance between bluster and submission when 
overcoming your own ego and identifying who might be particularly at 
risk... older women being less at risk as "upstanders" as opposed to 
young males who might be more at risk.
For more information please email XRnonViolence at gmail.com

The Rebellion will take place across the globe from 7th October. Sign up 
for London here https://Rebellion.earth/international... Worldwide 
actions are planned in other major cities. See if your city is listed 
https://Rebellion.earth/international... or, if your city is not listed, 
then please visit our global site https://Rebellion.Global/ to get in 
touch with your local group.
If not now, when? ...... If not you, who? Everybody now!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K_m40F02pU

- - -

[DW channel climate refugees 42 min video]
*Fleeing climate change - the real environmental disaster | DW Documentary*
May 1, 2019
DW Documentary
How many millions of people will be forced to leave their homes by 2050? 
This documentary looks at the so-called hotspots of climate change in 
the Sahel zone, Indonesia and the Russian Tundra.
Lake Chad in the Sahel zone has already shrunk by 90 percent since the 
1960s due to the increasing heat. About 40 million people will be forced 
to migrate to places where there is enough rainfall. Migration has 
always existed as a strategy to adapt to a changing environment. But the 
number of those forced to migrate solely because of climate change has 
increased dramatically since the 1990s. It is a double injustice: after 
becoming rich at the expense of the rest of the world, the 
industrialized countries are now polluting the atmosphere with their 
emissions and bringing a second misfortune to the inhabitants of the 
poorer regions. One of them is Mohammed Ibrahim: as Lake Chad got hotter 
and drier, he decided to go where the temperatures were less extreme and 
there was still a little water, trekking with his wife, children and 70 
camels from Niger to Chad and then further south. The journey lasted 
several years and many members of his herd died of thirst. Now he and 
his family are living in a refugee camp: they only have seven camels 
left. Mohammed is one of many who have left their homelands in the Sahel 
- not because of conflict and crises, but because of the high 
temperatures. He's a real climate refugee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl4Uv9_7KJE

[well done, 37 min easy-to-watch video on fundamentals]
*NBC News NOW: Climate In Crisis With Al Roker | NBC News Now*
Sep 19, 2019
NBC News
 From Greenland to the Amazon, Alaska to Rhode Island, a startling look 
at climate change arriving on our doorstep.
Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC
Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmNMLa0Uw-c

[protecting activism alert]
*Revealed: anti-terror center helped police track environmental activists*
- - -
The Titan Fusion Center has encountered criticism before regarding its 
monitoring of left-leaning activists on social media. In 2016, a fusion 
center investigator allegedly violated Oregon law by using a software 
package, DigitalStakeOut, to monitor the head of the civil rights unit 
in the Oregon department of justice.
In that instance, the investigator used DigitalStakeout to 
geographically isolate the source of tweets which used the 
#blacklivesmatter hashtag to the Oregon DoJ headquarters. The tweets had 
been sent by Erious Johnson, the head of the civil rights unit. Some of 
the tweets which put Johnson under surveillance were about the hip-hop 
group Public Enemy. Johnson sued the state over the surveillance, 
settling in 2017.
- -
In the wake of the 2016-17 Dakota Access pipeline movement, the 
Department of Homeland Security and seven state fusion centers produced 
a nationally circulated bulletin that had similarly claimed the NoDAPL 
movement has been associated with a rise in "environmental rights 
extremism".

Lauren Regan, the executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense 
Center, said labeling of activists as "extremists" is part of a strategy 
for marginalizing them from potential supporters.

"The use of the term 'extremism' is a government calling card when it 
intends to use repressive criminalization against a social movement," 
Regan added.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/02/oregon-pipelines-protests-monitoring-police-anti-terror-unit

[poignant radio story]
*Climate Migrant' Left Montana To Avoid Snow, Only To Endure Hurricane 
Devastation In Florida Keys*
Play 9:45
October 03, 2019
Jeremy Hobson, Serena McMahon
Hurricane Irma devastated the Florida Keys in 2017 -- and some residents 
are still trying to recover.

The Category 4 storm caused tens of billions of dollars in damage in the 
U.S. and left more than 100 dead, mostly in Florida.

Lori Rittel made it through the storm alive, hunkering down in Miami, 
away from an off-white house she'd just moved into in Marathon in the 
Florida Keys.

She says she'll never forget what she saw when she returned home. Debris 
surrounded her house, the refrigerator was tipped over and her brand new 
washer and dryer machine was completely wrecked.

In her living room, the water rose so high, it nearly submerged her 
entire couch. She says a majority of her belongings were covered in mold.

"It was a surreal experience to come back to see what you've got left 
after a hurricane has been through," she says. "I don't wish it on anybody."

Marks on the wall show the water level in the house from Hurricane Irma. 
She says her couch was almost completely submerged in water.

For more than two years, the 60 year old has been living in what she 
calls unsafe and unsanitary conditions. But she says it's all she has.

"I'm pretty much trapped right now," she says.

She's been trying to get the state to buy her badly damaged home and 
knock it down so she can stop living in it. But the buyout process can 
take years and she's struggling.

The city of Marathon won't grant her a permit to start repairs on her 
house, she says. The city claims her house is substantially damaged, 
which means repairing the house would cost more than 50% of its value.

"They want it rebuilt on stilts, and I don't have the money to rebuild," 
she says.

She's applied for a buyout through the Rebuild Florida Voluntary Home 
Buyout Program, which was created to "encourage risk reduction through 
the purchase of residential property" in high-risk areas.

They're offering the pre-Irma tax appraisal price of the house and land, 
then adding 10% per year, she says. After calculations, Rittel says the 
offer would come out to between $5,000 and $6,000 less than what she 
currently owes on the mortgage.

Rittel only moved into her "little shangri-la" from snowy Montana a year 
before Hurricane Irma hit. She says it was the first house she'd ever 
bought -- a place she truly loved.

But now, after two year of living in destruction, she has second 
thoughts on her move. She cautions others who consider a permanent stay 
in the Keys.

"I honestly don't think they should keep allowing people to build here," 
she says. "But if I were to consider moving to the Keys at this point 
and building a house, I wouldn't. I wouldn't do it."

It's well known that Florida experiences hurricanes. But Irma's 
destruction was "really frightening" and made her rethink long-term 
living in Florida.

Climate change is changing the real estate and home property values, 
which makes Rittel "terrified" of investing in her home. She says she 
doesn't see the point when property values in her area are likely to 
plunge due to threat of flooding from sea level rise, which the EPA 
predicts will increase one to four feet in the next century.

Out of all 50 states, Florida residents and homes will be most affected 
from dangerous storm surges and sea level rise due to climate change, 
Climate Central's CEO and chief scientist Ben Strauss says.

Rittel, stuck with her mortgage and inside her mildewed home, gets 
"horrendous" stomach aches when looking at the pictures of her home 
before and after Irma. She says the aches are a "physical reaction to 
what I'm trying to stifle emotionally."

The self-described climate migrant is looking forward to her next move, 
preferably somewhere inland and warm, she says -- although trying to 
escape the effects of climate change is no small task.

"If you aren't paying attention" to the climate crisis, she says, then 
"you're asleep because it's so obvious to me."
see Lori Rittel's House Before Hurricane Irma
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/10/03/climate-change-hurricane-home-buyout

*This Day in Climate History - October 5, - from D.R. Tucker*

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