[TheClimate.Vote] December 4, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*December 4, 2020*/

[set more records]
*The U.S. is on track to shatter the record for the average size of 
wildfires this year*
The number of fires is decreasing, but fires are growing larger
While all the wildfire statistics for 2020 are not yet available, the 
data through December 2, 2020 shows that the United States is on track 
to shatter the record for the average size of wildfires. Looking at the 
last 35 years, the average size of fires this year was the highest ever, 
168 acres. This number has been growing rapidly year to year (see the 
chart above). The second highest was 145 acres in 2018, and third 
highest was 132 in 2017. From 1985 through 1990 the average size was 31 
acres...
https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Average-wildfire-size-US-except-Alaska-1985-2020.jpg
https://wildfiretoday.com/2020/12/03/the-u-s-is-on-track-to-shatter-the-record-for-the-average-size-of-wildfires-this-year/



[Exciting video overview with some science- watch in full screen size]
*FASTEST MOVING TORNADO - New World Record*
Dec 3, 2020
Pecos Hank
Introducing the fastest moving tornado ever recorded.  In this video we 
discuss 5 scary fast tornadoes, each one with a forward moving velocity 
faster than the previous including a mind blowing NEW world record for 
the fastest tornado ever recorded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMws8ueXJ7U



[showdown]
*'Historic Moment' as Climate Movement Takes on Big Oil at The Hague*
Dec. 02, 2020
Friends of the Earth vs. Shell: 'Historic Moment' as Climate Movement 
Takes on Big Oil at The Hague
"This is actually 'the People versus Shell,' a company that has got away 
with greenwashing for too long."

Representing more than 17,000 claimants who support climate action, the 
international organization Friends of the Earth on Tuesday opened its 
case against fossil fuel giant Shell at The Hague by demanding that a 
judge order the corporation to significantly reduce its carbon emissions 
in the next decade.

Milieudefensie, the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth, says Shell has 
broken the law in The Netherlands by knowingly standing in the way of 
the country's phase-out of fossil fuels. Shell says it has set a goal of 
cutting its emissions to net zero by 2050, but the group is demanding a 
more rapid reduction.

"We are relying on the Dutch courts to protect communities around the 
globe," tweeted Nils Mollema, a policy advisor at ActionAid, which is 
supporting Milieudefensie in the case.
- -
"The main argument of Shell is that everybody is responsible: the 
consumer, the state, the international community, everybody is 
responsible except Shell, except the biggest polluter of the 
Netherlands, one of the 10 biggest polluters in the world," said Donald 
Pols, director of Milieudefensie, on Monday. "And we are going to change 
that."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/01/friends-earth-vs-shell-historic-moment-climate-movement-takes-big-oil-hague
- -
[Shell's Twitter Blunder]
*What are you willing to change to help reduce emissions? #EnergyDebate*
https://twitter.com/Shell/status/1323184318735360001


[Considering Activist groups - video]
*Will YOU be the next AOC??*
Dec 3, 2020
Sunrise Movement
Do you want to run for office, or do you know someone who would be 
perfect for this? Go to https://smvmt.org/run to learn more and apply!

 From the beginning, Sunrise Movement set out to elect a new generation 
of leaders who will fight to stop climate change and create millions of 
good jobs in the process. Just this year, our army of volunteers worked 
tirelessly to elect Jamaal Bowman, Marie Newman, and Cori Bush, defend 
Senator Ed Markey, defeat Trump, and more. Now, it's our turn: it's time 
for the takeover.

Leaders in our movement have already stepped up to run for office, but 
as young, first-time candidates who are often taking on entrenched 
politicians, it can be hard to win without skills, money, and a support 
system. But if we fail to elect Green New Deal champions at every level 
of government, climate change and injustice will accelerate. That's why 
we're launching a candidate recruitment and training program to support 
more young leaders to take this leap.

Today we're accepting applications for a young, diverse, working-class 
cohort of Sunrise leaders who have a bold vision to transform our 
economy and democracy by running for local or state office in 2021 or 
2022. Apply or nominate someone today. https://smvmt.org/run

Are you or someone you know interested in running, but don't know how to 
take that first step? Has running for office crossed your mind, but 
always seemed out of reach? As a young person who was terrified before I 
launched my campaign, I know the feeling. Young people face countless 
barriers to running, which is why we're launching this program.

If selected, candidates will have full wrap-around support from 
beginning to end: from a candidate bootcamp training, support creating 
videos and creative materials to fundraise and get out the word, ongoing 
training for themselves and their campaign team, and more.

Apply or nominate someone at https://smvmt.org/run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhV4hDdwNuQ

- -

*[before you donate to any organization - check their background]*
https://www.desmogblog.com/global-warming-denier-database
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=SourceWatch


[Associated Press]
https://apnews.com/article/un-calls-end-war-nature-go-carbon-free-d144cda34053abbd0758e22d9ff8f7c6
*UN calls on humanity to end 'war on nature,' go carbon-free*
By SETH BORENSTEIN and FRANK JORDANS
December 2, 2020
As an extreme year for hurricanes, wildfires and heat waves comes to an 
end, the head of the United Nations challenged world leaders to make 
2021 the year that humanity ends its "war on nature" and commits to a 
future free of planet-warming carbon pollution.

With new reports highlighting 2020's record-breaking weather and growing 
fossil fuels extraction that triggers global warming, U.N. 
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered yet another urgent appeal 
to curb climate change. It was tinged with optimism but delivered dire 
warnings, as the UN gears up for a Dec. 12 virtual climate summit in 
France on the 5th anniversary of the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement.
"The state of the planet is broken," Guterres said in a speech at 
Columbia University. "Humanity is waging war on nature. This is suicidal."

"Apocalyptic fires and floods, cyclones and hurricanes are increasingly 
the new normal," he said.

In a report, the World Meteorological Organization said this year is set 
to end about 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than 
the last half of the 1800s, which scientists use as a baseline for 
warming caused by heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and 
natural gas. Most trapped heat goes into the world's seas, and ocean 
temperatures now are at record levels. It also means 2020 will go down 
as one of the three hottest years on record.

"There is at least a one-in-five chance of it temporarily exceeding 1.5 
degrees Celsius by 2024," WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said. The 
Paris climate accord set a goal of not exceeding 1.5-degree (2.7 degrees 
Fahrenheit) warming since pre-industrial times...
- -
Among the dozens of extremes the report highlighted:

-- A record 30 Atlantic named tropical storms and hurricanes.

--Death Valley, California, hit 129.9 degrees (54.4 degrees Celsius), 
the hottest the world has seen in 80 years.

--Record wildfires struck California and Colorado in the western United 
States, following a major fire season and record heat in Australia.

--The Arctic had record wildfires and a prolonged heat wave culminating 
in a 100-degree mark (38 degrees Celsius) in Siberia in June.

--Record low Arctic sea ice was reported for April and August and the 
yearly minimum, in September, was the second lowest on record.

--More than 2,000 people died in record summer rains and flooding in 
Pakistan and surrounding nations.

While these events can't solely be blamed on climate change, "these are 
the types of events scientists fear will increase due to climate 
change," said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald, who 
wasn't part of the report.

"Human activities are at the root of our descent towards chaos," 
Guterres said. "But that means human action can solve it."
https://apnews.com/article/un-calls-end-war-nature-go-carbon-free-d144cda34053abbd0758e22d9ff8f7c6 




[harsh commentary]
*The "war on nature"*
Apocalyptic weather is the new normal because humans are "waging war on 
nature," the UN declared on Wednesday.

What they're saying: "The state of the planet is broken," said UN 
Secretary-General António Guterres, reports AP. "This is suicidal."

The big picture: 2020 will go down as one of the three warmest years on 
record.

The World Meteorological Organization said this year is set to end about 
2.2°F warmer than the last half of the 1800s.
That's a half degree away from the limit set by the Paris climate 
accord, which could be exceeded by 2024, the WMO said today.
Among the dozens of extremes of 2020, from the WMO report:

Record 30 Atlantic named tropical storms and hurricanes.
Death Valley had the hottest temperature on Earth in the last 80 years.
Record wildfires in the western U.S. and record heat in Australia.
Record wildfires and a prolonged heat wave in the Arctic.
Record low Arctic sea ice was reported for April and August, and the 
yearly minimum, in September, was the second lowest on record.
Between the lines: It's projected to get worse before it gets better, 
judging by current fossil fuel production projections, reports Axios' 
Ben Geman.
The bottom line: Guterres urged American students and citizens to do 
"everything you can" to get their governments to curb emissions more 
quickly, because no climate plan works without the U.S. playing a major 
role.
https://www.axios.com/war-nature-weather-warming-climate-change-c10f442a-abe3-48e7-8a08-9b306254dbb5.html



[most radical of actions]
*The case for climate reparations*
By Mimi Sheller | November 6, 2020
- -
Reframing climate debt. By understanding climate displacement as 
something driven by our fossil-fueled way of life in the Global North, 
we begin on a better footing to discuss the reception of people 
displaced by climate change. For mobility is not just about movement, 
but is also loaded with meanings, values, and forms of justification. 
The term "climate refugees" has been appropriated by reactionary 
politicians into discourses about national security that drive a fear of 
refugees "flooding our shores." Fear spirals downward into 
wall-building, internment camps, separation of children from their 
parents at the border, and the deaths of thousands of people in the 
Sonoran desert or on the Mediterranean Sea...
- -
Instead of thinking of people displaced by heat, drought, or natural 
disaster as 'climate refugees' coming to inundate 'us,' we should think 
of a relationship in which some people's everyday mundane mobilities 
drives other people's more extreme need to move. Both can be considered 
part of "Anthropocene mobilities," indicating the permanent human 
transformation of the Earth system. It is "fossil-fueled infrastructures 
of air travel, automobility, suburbanization and consumerism…" that 
drive climate disruption and lead to migration, as Andrew Baldwin, 
Christiane Frölich and Delf Rothe wrote in From Climate Migration to 
Anthropocene Mobilities: Shifting the Debate. Picking up and moving 
under duress is not just a natural calamity, but the social and 
political outcome of other people's high-energy mobile lifestyles.

This subtle change in framing the problem generates new conversations 
and potentially new policies around the responsible reception of climate 
migrants, and what it might mean to have open borders in a world beset 
by climate disasters. We already have an ethical and legal obligation to 
adhere to United Nations' conventions around the right to movement, the 
reception of refugees, and the protection of people from having to 
return to deadly situations. Now climate instability has made life in 
many parts of the Earth deadly. Don't we in the Global North also have a 
moral obligation of reparations for loss and damage because of our 
climate debt?

Rather than the exclusionary lockdown of borders that is happening 
around the world, we should focus on the question of responsibility and 
reparations, in a moral, legal, and financial framework under 
international law. The growth of a system of deadly corridors, detention 
camps, and spaces of confinement at our borders is an illegal, 
ineffective, and immoral response that needs to be subjected to critical 
analysis and alternative frameworks before it becomes the de facto 
response to all future migrations...
- -
The case for climate reparations. There are two pathways that can be 
taken, when it comes to climate reparations.

The first is known as "corrective justice," and refers to a negotiation 
between governments within an international jurisdiction. Under this 
scenario, the collective moral responsibility of high greenhouse 
gas-emitters to make financial recompense to climate creditors forms the 
legal basis for holding the United States or the European Union morally 
accountable for a calculable and bearable share of the harms of climate 
change. This approach offers a financial mechanism by which the 
reception of migrants could be handled through an international Green 
Climate Fund.

Climate reparations between nations would enable "creditor 
countries"--such as small island states--to strengthen their resilience 
by funding disaster risk reduction, insurance, and adaptation to help 
people remain in place. One practical mechanism for this would be an 
international compensation commission, which would receive claims from 
countries that have incurred adaptation expenses, using as a template 
the United Nations Claims Commission--which was established after the 
first Iraq War to handle claims against Iraq for war-related damages.

The second and quite different pathway to climate compensation is 
through tort litigation for loss and damage against the major fossil 
fuel companies--in other words, suing the oil companies. (A tort is an 
act or omission that gives rise to injury or harm to another.) Through 
class action law suits filed under multiple jurisdictions, reparations 
could be sought for those harmed by greenhouse gas emissions, and 
corporations could be held responsible for specific injury, especially 
if they knew about it and covered it up--a strategy that worked against 
tobacco companies. "The call for compensation for loss and damage is 
also supported by well-established rules and principles of international 
law, including the right to reparations for injury resulting from 
violations of international law" wrote Margaretha and Salili. According 
to key legal arguments they issued on behalf of the low-lying and 
vulnerable country of Vanuatu, the Warsaw International Mechanism for 
Loss and Damage offers the best opportunity for loss and damage finance, 
under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate 
Change...
- -
Under this "loss and damage" legal approach, states could also put 
pressure on companies by adopting legislation making it mandatory for 
fossil fuel companies to provide compensation through payment of a 
so-called climate damages tax, under the rationale that such a tax would 
be based upon how much carbon dioxide is embedded within each ton of 
coal, barrel of oil, or cubic liter of gas that each fossil fuel company 
extracts. Vanuatu's submission provides an indication of the range of 
activities that could be covered by such a fund, including:

costs of relocation due to sea-level rise for coastal communities; costs 
for climate resilient reconstruction after extreme weather events; 
social and gender protection measures; livelihood safety net programmes 
for the most vulnerable; livelihood transformation programmes; pro-poor 
micro insurance, crop insurance and/or insurance premium subsidies at 
various levels; national and local level emergency finance reserves or 
contingency funds; contingency planning and comprehensive risk 
management particularly at the local level; capacity and institution 
building at all levels; and technology cooperation and transfer, such as 
loss and damage assessment tools.

All of these actions could help people remain in their homes and build 
climate resilience.

Lastly, there is also a deeper moral case for climate reparations based 
on the long-term effects of systems of colonial, racial capitalism and 
the exclusion of Black, Brown and Indigenous people from full 
citizenship. It turns out these groups are the most vulnerable to 
climate displacement within the United States. The call for 
"abolitionist climate justice" entails dealing with historical 
environmental racism and intersectional drivers of precarious lives, 
social trauma, and displacement beyond those narrowly associated with 
"climate." It embeds climate debt in longer historical timeframes of 
infrastructural reparations.

Whether we take a state-centric climate reparations approach, a 
market-centered climate damages approach, or a decolonial abolitionist 
approach, we must reject the depiction of climate refugees as a growing 
danger who will "flood" our borders. It is "our" way of life that has 
put people in harm's way, both within the United States and beyond our 
borders. One day we all may be climate migrants, so we also owe it to 
ourselves to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and prepare fair 
international mechanisms for temporary shelter and permanent resettlement.

Editors note: This publication is based on a piece drafted for Perry 
World House at the University of Pennsylvania and made possible in part 
by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The views expressed 
are solely the author's.
https://thebulletin.org/2020/11/the-case-for-climate-reparations/



[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - December 4, 2008 *

Washington Post writer Ezra Klein calls upon climate activists to 
highlight the role meat consumption plays in fueling the climate crisis.

http://prospect.org/article/are-cows-worse-cars-0


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