[TheClimate.Vote] December 3, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Dec 3 12:50:38 EST 2020
/*December 3, 2020*/
[fossil fuel strong]
*World is 'doubling down' on fossil fuels despite climate crisis - UN
report*
Production must fall by 6% a year to avoid 'severe climate disruption'
but Covid-19 funding is supporting increases
The world's governments are "doubling down" on fossil fuels despite the
urgent need for cuts in carbon emissions to tackle the climate crisis, a
report by the UN and partners has found.
The researchers say production of coal, oil and gas must fall by 6% a
year until 2030 to keep global heating under the 1.5C target agreed in
the Paris accord and avoid "severe climate disruption". But nations are
planning production increases of 2% a year and G20 countries are giving
50% more coronavirus recovery funding to fossil fuels than to clean
energy...
- -
"The research is abundantly clear that we face severe climate disruption
if countries continue to produce fossil fuels at current levels, let
alone at their planned increases," said Michael Lazarus, at the
Stockholm Environment Institute and another author of the report...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/02/world-is-doubling-down-on-fossil-fuels-despite-climate-crisis-un-report
[New Yorker]
*The Climate Crisis*
Interview: Lynne Quarmby is a professor of molecular biology at Simon
Fraser University, in British Columbia. She is also a veteran of many
environmental campaigns, and the author, most recently, of "Watermelon
Snow: Science, Art, and a Lone Polar Bear." The title refers to the way
that algal blooms can tint a snowpack pink..
- -
(clips)
*You've been watching the Arctic, where the temperature is rising faster
than anywhere else. What lessons should the world to the south be taking
in?*
Warm temperatures in the Arctic are disrupting the atmospheric and
oceanic currents, which for ten thousand years reliably drove stable
climate patterns. Driven by temperature differentials, atmospheric
currents with altered speed and patterns impact climate—for example, the
duration and intensity of droughts in North America. At the same time,
the influx of cold freshwater from melting glaciers and ice caps is
changing ocean currents in complex ways. In some cases, altered ocean
currents are predicted to cause counterintuitive outcomes—for example,
the cooling of northern Europe.
Changing ocean currents not only affect our climate but also impact the
previously predictable circulation of nutrients. Organisms across the
food web are facing increasing temperatures and changing patterns of
nutrient availability throughout the world's oceans. Finally, beyond the
loss of habitat for ice algae and walruses, the shrinking of Arctic sea
ice reduces the reflection of solar radiation and amplifies global warming.
*And how do you keep from unproductive despair?*
I have direct experience with unproductive despair. After several years
of climate activism driven by fear, panic, and anger—two arrests, being
sued by a pipeline giant, and a run for a seat in the Canadian
Parliament—I was exhausted. After getting my job back on track, I found
myself rested but still irritable, angry, and unable to engage with
environmental issues. Finally, I recognized that I was suffering from a
failure to grieve—a failure to acknowledge that, for many things I love,
it is too late. By slowly opening myself to grief, I began to find some
peace. The question became: How to live in this world with this
knowledge? For me, living a fulfilling, satisfying life means engaging
with others on issues that matter. I work on letting go of the old
life—the decadence of a fossil-fuel-driven world—and embracing my
personal vision of a better future. I sit with the grief, vigorously
defend the truth, and engage in politics. It's a good life.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/the-climate-debt-the-us-owes-the-world
- -
[clips from commentary]
*The Climate Debt the U.S. Owes the World*
By Bill McKibben
Dec 3, 2020
And it goes without saying that Honduras will now have an even harder
time paying for a changed energy system to help it convert to clean
energy, as its commitments set in the Paris climate accord envision—its
cobbled-together reconstruction plan is unsurprisingly focussed on
rebuilding the bridges and roads that the storms destroyed.
Such intuitions about blame and responsibility have usually been offered
in airy moral terms, but a new report released on Wednesday puts them
into numbers. The analysis, from the activist group U.S. Climate Action
Network, draws on the work of Tom Athanasiou, at a California-based
nonprofit called EcoEquity, and his colleagues at the Climate Equity
Reference Project. It tries to calculate how much of the burden each
country should be bearing, based on its historical contribution to the
cloud of greenhouse gases and its "capacity to pay"—a reflection of how
rich the nation became during the fossil-fuel era. The report finds
"that the US fair share of the global mitigation effort in 2030 is
equivalent to a reduction of 195% below its 2005 emissions levels,
reflecting a fair share range of 173-229%." That is, we can't meet our
moral and practical burdens simply by reducing our own emissions; we've
already put so much carbon into the air (and hence reduced the space
that should rightly go to others) that we need to make amends. Of this
hundred-and-ninety-five-per-cent reduction, Athanasiou says, seventy per
cent would be made domestically, by building solar panels, rolling out
electric cars, and insulating buildings. "This is about the maximum
achievable by 2030, though cuts of this magnitude would require a full
Green New Deal war footing," he notes. "The rest—the other 125%—would
come by way of financial and tech support for adaptation and rapid
decarbonization in poor and developing countries."
For the past year, nations (and companies) have been announcing plans to
reduce their emission levels to zero by mid-century. As Athanasiou says,
that's a welcome development, but, he adds, "Not one of these countries
has made anything like an adequate move to support ambitious
decarbonization and adaptation plans in the developing world. Or even,
despite lots of talk, to significantly cut fossil subsidies. In fact, as
I'm sure you know, a lot of the covid recovery money has gone to the
fossils."...
more at -
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/the-climate-debt-the-us-owes-the-world
- -
*ABOUT THE US CLIMATE FAIR SHARE*
The US Climate Fair Share Infographic is also available as a pdf file.
https://usfairshare.org/files/US_Climate_Fair_Share_Infographic.pdf
We all accept the idea that different countries have different
responsibilities for causing climate change, and therefore also
different responsibilities for solving climate change. Generally, in the
US we are aware that our status as a wealthy, industrialized, powerful
country should mean that our country has a particularly large
responsibility for fixing the climate crisis.
The US Climate Fair Share project aims to turn this feeling into
something more concrete. By quantifying the US "fair share" of climate
action, compared to the fair shares of other countries, we can create
much more specific, concrete demands around which to campaign and organize.
https://usfairshare.org/
- -
[Equity]
*The Climate Equity Reference Project*
The Climate Equity Reference Project (CERP) is a long-term initiative
designed to provide scholarship, tools, and analysis to advance global
climate equity - as a value in itself and as a realist path towards an
ambitious global climate regime. The CERP is strongly rooted in current
climate science, in particular the IPCC's estimates of the remaining
global carbon budget. It is also consistent with the UN Framework
Convention's core equity principles, which can be concisely stated as "a
precautionary approach to adequacy," "common but differentiated
responsibilities and respective capabilities," and "equitable access to
sustainable development."
https://climateequityreference.org/
- -
[Calculator equity]
*The Climate Equity Reference Calculator*
https://calculator.climateequityreference.org/
[YouTube video conjecture]*
* *Lands That Will FLOOD in Our Lifetime*
Nov 20, 2020
Atlas Pro
Some places are more threatened by rising sea levels than others, but in
the end we'll all be paying a price. Alternate titles include: "Where
You Shouldn't Invest in Real Estate," "Places You Should Vacation to
Before They're Gone," and "Oh Man We're In A Lot Of Trouble On This One
Aren't We?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CurmnLKikyI
[Another down under]
*New Zealand declares a climate change emergency*
Jacinda Ardern calls climate change 'one of the greatest challenges of
our time' and pledges carbon-neutral government by 2025
Phil Taylor in Auckland - 1 Dec 2020 21.42 EST
New Zealand has declared a climate change emergency and committed to a
carbon-neutral government by 2025, in what the prime minister Jacinda
Ardern called "one of the greatest challenges of our time".
A motion tabled in parliament on Wednesday recognised "the devastating
impact that volatile and extreme weather will have on New Zealand and
the wellbeing of New Zealanders, on our primary industries, water
availability, and public health through flooding, sea level rise, and
wildfire".
Thirty-two other nations have formally acknowledged the global crisis by
declaring a climate emergency.
The motion acknowledged the "alarming trend in species decline and
global biodiversity" including the decline in New Zealand's indigenous
biodiversity.
The declaration of a climate emergency was supported by the Green Party
and Māori Party and opposed by the National and Act parties.
Speaking in parliament after its introduction, Ardern said the country
must "act with urgency".
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/02/new-zealand-declares-a-climate-change-emergency
- -
[video declaration]
*Jacinda Ardern declares 'climate emergency' in New Zealand*
Dec 2, 2020
Guardian News
New Zealand has declared a climate change emergency and committed to a
carbon-neutral government by 2025, in what the prime minister, Jacinda
Ardern, called "one of the greatest challenges of our time".
https://youtu.be/RNJNcavSM_8
[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - December 3, 2009 *
MSNBC host Keith Olbermann calls out the hosts of the Fox News Channel
program "Fox and Friends" for selectively editing a segment of Comedy
Central's "The Daily Show" to imply that host Jon Stewart rejected the
evidence of human-caused climate change.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/olbermann-names-fox-frien_n_380473
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