[TheClimate.Vote] October 14, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/October 14, 2019/

[Activism]
*Scientists endorse mass civil disobedience to force climate action*
Matthew Green
LONDON (Reuters) - Almost 400 scientists have endorsed a civil 
disobedience campaign aimed at forcing governments to take rapid action 
to tackle climate change, warning that failure could inflict 
"incalculable human suffering."

In a joint declaration, climate scientists, physicists, biologists, 
engineers and others from at least 20 countries broke with the caution 
traditionally associated with academia to side with peaceful protesters 
courting arrest from Amsterdam to Melbourne.

Wearing white laboratory coats to symbolize their research credentials, 
a group of about 20 of the signatories gathered on Saturday to read out 
the text outside London's century-old Science Museum in the city's 
upmarket Kensington district.

"We believe that the continued governmental inaction over the climate 
and ecological crisis now justifies peaceful and non-violent protest and 
direct action, even if this goes beyond the bounds of the current law," 
said Emily Grossman, a science broadcaster with a PhD in molecular 
biology. She read the declaration on behalf of the group...
- - -
The group launched a fresh wave of international actions on Monday, 
aiming to get governments to address an ecological crisis caused by 
climate change and accelerating extinctions of plant and animal species.

A total of 1,307 volunteers had since been arrested at various protests 
in London by 2030 GMT on Saturday, Extinction Rebellion said. A further 
1,463 volunteers have been arrested in the past week in another 20 
cities, including Brussels, Amsterdam, New York, Sydney and Toronto, 
according to the group's tally. More protests in this latest wave are 
due in the coming days...
- - -
The group has electrified supporters who said they had despaired at the 
failure of conventional campaigning to spur action. But its success in 
paralyzing parts of London has also angered critics who complained the 
movement has inconvenienced thousands of people and diverted police 
resources...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-scientists/scientists-endorse-mass-civil-disobedience-to-force-climate-action-idUSKBN1WS01K



[Opinion from Scientific American]
*National Governments Can't Solve Climate Change Alone*
Cities, regions and businesses are also crucial players
On September 23, policymakers and business leaders from around the world 
descended on New York City to announce new plans to tackle climate 
change at the United Nations Climate Action Summit. Coinciding with this 
event was a series of global climate strikes, where more than 7 million 
youths and adults poured out of schools, home, and offices to send a 
message to these actors: "We'll be watching you." The window to act on 
the existential threat of climate change is narrowing. With ambitious 
action by cities, regions, companies and citizens, an 
"all-hands-on-deck" approach addressing land and forest fires is 
possible and could not only alleviate transboundary haze but help 
high-emitting countries like Indonesia get back on track to meeting 
their national climate targets, ultimately giving the world a fighting 
chance to align with a 1.5 degrees C warming limit.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/national-governments-cant-solve-climate-change-alone/



[unrepaired assaults]
*Hurricane Michael survivors hanging on one year later – Thousands of 
Panhandle residents still live in tents, trailers, and hotel rooms – 
"Collectively we've forgotten them"*
https://desdemonadespair.net/2019/10/hurricane-michael-survivors-hanging-on-one-year-later-thousands-of-panhandle-residents-still-live-in-tents-trailers-and-hotel-rooms-collectively-weve-forgotten.html 




[hard to forgive a company based on logic]
*Google Has Made Some Generous Contributions to Climate Change Deniers*
But insists this "does not mean we endorse the organizations' entire 
agenda."
STEPHANIE KIRCHGAESSNER
Google has made "substantial" contributions to some of the most 
notorious climate deniers in Washington despite its insistence that it 
supports political action on the climate crisis.

Among hundreds of groups the company has listed on its website as 
beneficiaries of its political giving are more than a dozen 
organizations that have campaigned against climate legislation, 
questioned the need for action, or actively sought to roll back 
Obama-era environmental protections.

The list includes the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a 
conservative policy group that was instrumental in convincing the Trump 
administration to abandon the Paris agreement and has criticized the 
White House for not dismantling more environmental rules.
- - -
"Sometimes I'll talk to companies and they will be going on and on about 
their renewable server farm or natural gas delivery, and I say thank 
you, but what we really need is for your lobbying shop in Washington to 
put serious muscle behind it. And they never do," McKibben said. "They 
want some tax break or some regulations switch and they never devote the 
slightest muscle behind the most important issue of our time or any time."

A spokesperson for Google said: "We've been extremely clear that 
Google's sponsorship doesn't mean that we endorse that organization's 
entire agenda – we may disagree strongly on some issues.

"Our position on climate change is similarly clear. Since 2007, we have 
operated as a carbon neutral company and for the second year in a row, 
we reached 100% renewable energy for our global operations."
- - -
One source who is familiar with Google's decision-making defended the 
company's funding of CEI.

"When it comes to regulation of technology, Google has to find friends 
wherever they can and I think it is wise that the company does not apply 
litmus tests to who they support," the source said.
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/10/google-has-made-some-generous-contributions-to-climate-change-deniers/



[Tricycle Magazine is a publication for American Buddhists]
*The Buddhists of Extinction Rebellion *
The climate activism group has drawn many teachers and practitioners 
looking to take their practice to the streets.
By Matthew Abrahams - SEP 16, 2019..
- - -
While XR activists have been inspired by a number of traditions, 
Buddhism has an especially prominent position in the discussions around 
regenerative culture. On an episode of the Extinction Rebellion podcast, 
the show's host, Jessica Townsend, who is a Buddhist, and asked Joanna 
Macy to share the story of the Shambhala warrior that she learned from 
Dugu Choegyal Rinpoche:

    There comes a time when all life on earth is in danger. At this
    time, great powers have risen, and they are engaged in programs to
    abolish each other. And although they waste their wealth and
    preparations to abolish each other, they have much in common:
    weapons of unfathomable devastation and death, and technologies that
    lay waste the world.

    And it is in this moment when the future of all beings hangs by the
    frailest of threads that the kingdom of Shambhala emerges. Now you
    can't go there. Because it is not a place. It exists in the hearts
    and minds of the Shambhala warriors...

    Great courage is required of the Shambhala warriors, moral courage
    and physical courage, because they are...going to go where the
    instruments of death are fabricated and deployed, and they're going
    to go into the corridors of power to dismantle these weapons. They
    know these weapons are mind-made. They are made by the human mind,
    so they can be unmade by the human mind. Because the devastation is
    being wrought not by some evil deity, or some extraterrestrial
    power, but they arise from our lives, our minds, our habits, our
    relationships, our confusion.

*THE PATH FORWARD*
On October 7, Extinction Rebellion will be kicking off a new wave of 
international activism. To prepare, organizers have been asking new 
members to participate in a nonviolent direct action training, which 
Carling notes teaches the importance of staying aware of one's own 
emotions and being grounded in the body...
- - -
While there are many reasons for the overlap of Buddhists and climate 
activists, which vary from person to person, it's clear that Extinction 
Rebellion has stirred something in the engaged Buddhist community.

For Murphy, the simplest explanation is the best one: "It's dharma to 
protect the Earth."
https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/extinction-rebellion-buddhists/



[nuclear and coal fight]
*Dark Money Is Pouring in to Protect the "Worst Energy Policy in the 
Country"*
In Ohio, the fight over a nuclear and coal bailout is getting weirder by 
the day.
- -
A bit of history: The fight dates back to at least 2014, when 
FirstEnergy pitched a bailout to Ohio's utility regulator. FirstEnergy 
went bankrupt in 2018, around the same time it was urging the Trump 
administration to use emergency powers to save nuclear and coal. (The 
Department of Energy considered that proposal, but ultimately it went 
nowhere.) By early 2019, though, FirstEnergy saw a window of opportunity 
in the Ohio legislature and spent $1 million lobbying on the bailout 
law. According to an analysis by the Columbus Dispatch, it contributed 
almost $1 million to state candidates in the 2018 cycle, including 
$25,000 to help elect Larry Householder as the new speaker of Ohio's House.

As soon as the law was passed in July, opponents formed a coalition 
called Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts. The group, which aims to 
gather the 265,774 signatures required to get the referendum on the 
ballot in the 2020 election, hasn't yet disclosed its funding, but 
observers suspect that it mostly comes from the renewable energy 
industry and natural gas companies.

In response, the law's supporters have waged an unprecedented "all-out 
deceptive effort to prevent the issue from getting on the ballot," says 
Dave Anderson who has tracked developments for the watchdog think tank 
Energy and Policy Institute.
- - -
If the referendum fails, the outlook for Ohio's clean-energy advocates 
could be bleak. The state is the third-biggest consumer of coal in the 
country. Nuclear power, which provides 15 percent of the state's 
electricity, is the state's biggest source of carbon-free energy. In 
2018, the state got a measly 2.5 percent of its power from solar, wind, 
and biomass—making it one of the lowest users of renewable energy in the 
country.

Beyond the coal plants the new law helps directly, FirstEnergy has 
hinted that the extra money from the bailout may help it reverse its 
plan to close down one of its coal plants. The true cost of the bailout 
could be higher as coal becomes more unprofitable. All told, "there's 
more money in the Ohio law to bail out dirty old coal plants than to 
support carbon-free nuclear power," Stokes says.

Sierra Club's Mary Anne Hitt echoed those concerns. She called the 
effort to uphold the bailout "one of the most extreme and also 
aggressive efforts like this that I have ever seen." She added, 
"Unfortunately it's regular Ohioans who end up paying the price.
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/10/dark-money-is-pouring-in-to-protect-the-worst-energy-policy-in-the-country/
- -
[1 min video Excessive Xenophobic propaganda]
*Ohioans for Energy Security - Ohio Power*
Aug 24, 2019
Ohioans for Energy Security
Companies with strong financial ties to the Chinese government are 
leading the charge to repeal a law that saves thousands of Ohio energy 
jobs, and protects the stability and security of the state's energy 
grid. Don't let them do it.
https://youtu.be/Pi9SmcK98Y8



*This Day in Climate History - October 14, 2013 - from D.R. Tucker*
In an editorial, the Baltimore Sun declares:

    "The latest analysis produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on
    Climate Change (IPCC), compiled by hundreds of scientists and dozens
    of authors from around the globe, shows that climate change is real,
    it's largely caused by man, and it's the greatest environmental
    threat we face.

    "That's not alarmism, it's reality. Of course, know-nothing deniers
    will be as dismissive of the IPCC findings as they've been of
    similar reports in the past. That the IPCC is under the auspices of
    the United Nations will be used to stir up nationalistic suspicions.
    That climate change policy is highly inconvenient for the fossil
    fuel industries will cause the big coal and oil companies to
    continue their disinformation campaigns.

    "None of which changes the reality that climate change poses a
    serious threat, and as the evidence mounts, it's actually become
    easier to distinguish these basic changes in the ecosystem from the
    normal ups and downs of weather. No one super storm or drought or
    tornado is traceable to global warming, of course, but the data are
    simply too overwhelming to ignore. Each of the last three decades
    has proven successively warmer than the previous. Any recent slowing
    of that trend or plateau, as the report notes, has more to do with
    variables such as volcanic activity and the solar cycle over the
    last five years than it does the build-up of greenhouse gases in the
    atmosphere."

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-10-14/news/bs-ed-climate-20131014_1_ipcc-report-climate-change-intergovernmental-panel
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