[TheClimate.Vote] April 11, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Richard Pauli richard at theclimate.vote
Sat Apr 11 11:18:20 EDT 2020 

/*April 11, 2020*/

[MIT Technology Review]
*The unholy alliance of covid-19, nationalism, and climate change*
When the pandemic wanes, a poorer, more divided world will still face 
the rapidly rising threat of global warming.
by James Temple
April 10, 2020...
- - -
One other casualty of the pandemic has been our faith in a global supply 
chain. As countries shut down production and distribution, first in 
China and then around the world, essential goods are in short supply. It 
has become evident how vulnerable we are to trade relationships and 
concentrated manufacturing centers.

That too presents a challenge for climate change. China produces about a 
third of the world's wind turbines, two-thirds of its solar panels, and 
roughly 70% of its lithium-ion batteries, as Nahm highlighted in an 
article in Science late last year. Even with massive government support, 
it took decades of growth at "a breakneck pace" for Chinese businesses 
to create the technologies, supply chains, and manufacturing capacity to 
achieve that.

"It is unrealistic to expect that another nation will be able to rival 
China's capabilities ... in the time frame needed to limit climate 
change to below 2C," Nahm and coauthor John Helveston of George 
Washington University wrote. That means countries, businesses, and 
researchers around the world need to figure out how to forge closer 
relationships and collaborate more productively with China--"the United 
States in particular," they said.

*Climate fascism*
As the historian Nils Gilman argued in February in a persuasive essay, 
"The Coming Avocado Politics," there are good reasons to worry that 
rising anxieties over environmental emergencies will justify a more 
hard-line set of solutions on the right, an "ecologically justified 
neo-fascism" that includes militarizing borders, hoarding resources, and 
bolstering national protections against climate change.

It could lead us into far darker places as well, potentially justifying 
"neo-imperialist" responses "where we actively seek to repress the 
development and ambitions of the rest of the world," Gilman says. 
Specifically, the US or other nations could turn to extreme methods, 
from eliminating development financing to deploying military force, to 
prevent the carbon bombs that would go off if billions of poor people 
start consuming goods, services, and energy at the same levels as Americans.

The tragic trial run of the coronavirus outbreak certainly bolsters 
fears that sentiments could rapidly turn in this direction. In addition 
to Trump's efforts to inflame foreign resentments, there have been 
widespread reports in recent weeks of hate crimes and harassment against 
those of Asian descent around the world, including brutal beatings on 
public streets, verbal attacks on public transit, and racist memes online.

As the virus spreads and the economic downturn deepens, people will, 
rightfully, focus primarily on the immediate dangers: their health and 
that of friends and family; the likelihood of losing work; and the 
plunge in their retirement savings and home values. Enhancing global 
cooperation and combating distant climate dangers just aren't going to 
take priority for some time.

The question, of course, is what happens as the pandemic recedes. In 
theory, this presents a new opportunity to get climate progress back on 
track. Stimulus packages designed to kick-start economic growth could 
include funding and policies to accelerate clean energy and climate 
adaptation projects, for example. The world will certainly be better 
equipped to face both pandemics and climate catastrophes if nations 
choose to more readily share resources, expertise, and information.

"That interconnectedness is quite apparent when it comes to getting 
masks and medicine," says Jane Flegal, program officer with the William 
and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Environment Program. "And it's also 
apparent when you talk about the importance of making clean energy cheap 
and the role of technology transfer in the climate context."

But in the end, whether people are left feeling that we need to tighten 
international ties or erect higher walls may depend a lot on how ugly 
things get in the coming weeks and months, and the political narratives 
that take hold as we try to make sense of how it all happened.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/04/10/998969/the-unholy-alliance-of-covid-19-nationalism-and-climate-change/


[Scientific American Observations]
*Climate Change and Infectious Diseases*
It isn't making COVID-19 worse than the pandemic otherwise would have 
been--but we can't say the same for malaria, dengue and other illnesses...
- - -
For example, climate change is causing widespread drought and 
desertification in much of the world, threatening the availability of 
water for consumption, food production, personal hygiene, and medical 
care, including for infectious disease. In drought-prone areas, medical 
facilities with water shortages will be ill-equipped to deal with the 
outbreak. Similarly, COVID-19 outbreaks will cripple already weakened 
health systems in regions that have seen an increase in the frequency 
and severity of climate-induced extreme weather events, such as Haiti or 
Mozambique...
- - -
As an example, a changing climate is aggravating the negative health 
impacts of malaria by broadening the range of the Anopheles mosquito, 
the vector that spreads it. It also lengthens the season in which 
mosquitos reproduce and transmit the disease, thereby increasing the 
number of people at risk. A similar escalation takes place for diseases 
such as dengue fever, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika, which are 
spread by Aedes mosquitos.

Lyme disease, which is spread by ticks, is also increasing its range and 
seasonality in many parts of North America and Europe, while waterborne 
cholera and cryptosporidiosis are increasing with more frequent droughts 
and flooding.

What can the global response to COVID-19 teach us about our response to 
climate change?

Both climate change and COVID-19 are public health threats, although 
they are playing out across vastly different timescales. Both require 
early action to save lives, as well as adequate health systems that 
provide equitable access to the most vulnerable in society.

Just as with COVID-19, how well communities can cope with infectious 
diseases and other health impacts that are intensified by climate change 
ultimately depends on the underlying strength and resilience of the 
health system, whether it ensures protection for the most vulnerable in 
society, and the extent to which it protects the public from both short 
and long-term health threats.

Arthur Wyns is a climate change advisor to the World Health Organization 
(WHO). He writes in a personal capacity; his views do not necessarily 
represent those of WHO or any of its member states.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/climate-change-and-infectious-diseases/



[NYT NONFICTION]
*Facing the Climate Change Crisis, Three Books Offer Some Ambitious 
Proposals*
- - *
**THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE*
Surviving the Crisis
By Christina Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac
- -
*THE STORY OF MORE*
How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go From Here
By Hope Jahren
- -
*THE 100% SOLUTION*
A Plan for Solving Climate Change
By Solomon Goldstein-Rose
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/books/review/story-of-more-hope-jahren-future-we-choose.html



[Trumpism]
*Leveraging a Pandemic to Lock in Fossil Fuel Dominance*
The weekly Drilled roundup of climate accountability news
- -
Climate Accountability News Roundup
- Harvard Study shows a connection between even minimal exposure to a 
particular type of air pollution--pm2.5, the particulate matter found in 
car exhaust or coal and natural gas power plant emissions--and risk of 
COVID-19 death.

- Related: In Cancer Alley--predominantly Black neighborhoods along the 
Mississippi from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, surrounded by refineries, 
power plants and petrochemical plants--the COVID-19 death rate is sky 
high. (Vice News)

- Reuters reports that banks holding a large amount of the shale gas 
industry's debt will take over and operate some companies' assets.

- In an unprecedented move the G20 and OPEC meet to agree on production 
cuts to shore up the global oil market. (Financial Times) [ update: 
final agreement is out]

- Part of the OPEC agreement was a quid pro quo on shale. Politico 
reports that The Trump administration rejected a Saudi request that U.S. 
oil companies be barred from receiving business loans under the third 
coronavirus relief package, H.R. 748 (116). But, the administration 
instead agreed it would not waive royalty payments to U.S. companies 
from oil and gas they produced on U.S. federal lands -- something both 
congressional Republicans and industry groups have pushed in recent 
days. "The president said no to royalty relief on offshore and onshore 
federal land," one industry official briefed on the matter said. "The 
president had a quid pro quo promise to the Saudis. Saudi implicitly 
wants the shale guys to die on the vine of natural causes." Wow, saying 
the quiet stuff out loud, all week long. (Politico)

- Gulf of Mexico offshore drillers are still holding out hope that the 
nix on royalty relief won't apply to them.
https://drillednews.substack.com/p/leveraging-a-pandemic-to-lock-in



[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming  - April 11, 1987 *
Reporting on Tennessee Sen. Al Gore's decision to run for the Democratic 
presidential nomination, the Los Angeles Times notes:

"Along with evoking the Kennedyesque image of vigor, Gore also sought to 
revive the spirit of youthful idealism associated with the New Frontier. 
He laid out a broad list of national objectives, from combatting AIDS 
and Alzheimer's disease to curbing the 'greenhouse effect'--the threat 
to the Earth's atmosphere from the burning of oil, gas and coal."

http://articles.latimes.com/1987-04-11/news/mn-639_1_albert-gore

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