[TheClimate.Vote] December 13, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest.
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sun Dec 13 09:17:27 EST 2020
/*December 13, 2020*/
[DW report and brief video]
*UN urges world leaders to declare 'climate emergency'*
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres described the situation as
"dramatic" and urged countries to take drastic action. A virtual
conference is taking place to mark five years since the Paris climate
accord.
World leaders should declare a "climate emergency" in their countries to
spur action to avoid catastrophic global warming, UN Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres said in opening remarks at a climate summit on Saturday.
On the fifth anniversary of the 2015 Paris Agreement, more than 70 world
leaders are due to address the one-day virtual meeting in the hope of
galvanizing countries into stricter actions on global warming emissions.
Guterres said that current commitments across the globe did not go "far
from enough" to limit temperature rises.
"Can anybody still deny that we are facing a dramatic emergency?"
Guterres said. "That is why today, I call on all leaders worldwide to
declare a State of Climate Emergency in their countries until carbon
neutrality is reached."
https://www.dw.com/en/un-urges-world-leaders-to-declare-climate-emergency/a-55918020
- -
[view recent videos on-demand]
*Climate Ambition Summit 2020*
Co-convened by the United Nations, the United Kingdom and France
*- Calls to action *- https://www.climateambitionsummit2020.org/ondemand.php
In partnership with Chile and Italy
The United Nations, United Kingdom and France are proud to be co-hosting
the Climate Ambition Summit 2020, in partnership with Chile and Italy.
This is a monumental step on the road to the UK-hosted COP26 next
November in Glasgow.
We are bringing leaders together who are ready to make new commitments
to tackle climate change and deliver on the Paris Agreement, five years
since it was adopted on December 12, 2015.
*- Working Together Innovations and Solutions* -
https://www.climateambitionsummit2020.org/ondemand.php#cat2
Leaders across government, business and civil society will gather for
this online summit as the world deals with coronavirus. But the science
is as urgent as ever and tells us that we need to limit the rise in
global temperature to 1.5C degrees. We know climate change will not
wait. Action must be taken now, together, for our planet, so we can
build back better.
At the Climate Ambition Summit 2020, countries will set out new and
ambitious commitments under the three pillars of the Paris Agreement:
mitigation, adaptation and finance commitments. There will be no space
for general statements.
*- Non-State Actor Commitments *-
https://www.climateambitionsummit2020.org/ondemand.php#cat3
These ambitious commitments will take the shape of new Nationally
Determined Contributions, Long-Term Strategies setting out a pathway to
net zero emissions; climate finance commitments to support the most
vulnerable; and ambitious adaptation plans and underlying policies.
These commitments will help to build towards a green and resilient
recovery from COVID-19.
*- Leaders Statements:*
https://www.climateambitionsummit2020.org/ondemand.php#cat4
The impacts of climate change are felt across all of society. The Summit
will provide a meaningful platform for civil society, young people and
Indigenous Peoples representatives, many of whom disproportionately
experience the impacts of climate change. Climate change must also be
tackled by entire systems and we therefore also want to provide a
platform for businesses, cities and other non-state actors who are
rallying together and collaborating to support governments and
accelerate the systemic change required to reduce emissions and build
resilience.
https://www.climateambitionsummit2020.org/index.php#ambition
[time to decide]
*The World Has Reached Decision Time on the Climate Crisis*
By Bill McKibben - August 12, 2020
This, it now seems clear, is the year when karma stops playing nice and
gets down to brass tacks. Either we acknowledge science and put on a
mask, or we are going to kill people and cripple our economy. Either
white Americans acknowledge our racist history and get to work on
repairing its effects, or the country will be further divided into
fearful and angry camps. These aren't situations where we get a second
chance.
And, as this week demonstrated, either we seize the suddenly vivid
possibilities for a rapid energy transformation, or we watch the world
disintegrate. On Ellesmere Island, in the Arctic, Canada's largest
remaining ice shelf (an area significantly larger than Manhattan)
collapsed over the course of two days. "Above normal air temperatures,
offshore winds and open water in front of the ice shelf are all part of
the recipe for ice shelf break up," the Canadian Ice Service tweeted.
Meanwhile, in Mumbai, where the coronavirus may have already infected
half of the people living in the city's vast slums, record rainfall
produced misery almost impossible to imagine. An "astonishing"
eighty-two inches of rain fell on the city between July 10th and August
7th; the monsoon often produces flooding, but not like this. One of the
city's English language newspapers ran a front page that simply said
"spirit of mumbai: tired and beaten."
At the same moment, we had some of the clearest signs of the climate
battle turning. On August 4th, BP became the first oil supermajor to
begin abandoning its business model: it announced that it would cut oil
and gas production by forty per cent over the next decade, and
dramatically increase its investments in low-carbon technology. There
are plenty of caveats in the pledge, but, essentially, BP capitulated to
years of activist protest; to the challenge of cheap, clean renewable
energy; and to the destruction of demand that came with coronavirus. The
American giants--Exxon and Chevron--still have political cover from the
Trump Administration, but even they are grappling with reality. On
August 5th, Exxon conceded that it might have to wipe a fifth of its
reserves off its books by year's end--investments in places like
Canada's tar sands that are too expensive to be profitable at today's
prices. There's clearly no growth coming: Exxon's share price now
depends on it paying a reliable dividend. To keep doing so, the company
is taking extreme measures, like ending the match it pays its employees
for their 401(k)s. The fire sale is under way.
We know the path forward. Dave Roberts, the ever-reliable energy analyst
for Vox, laid it out beautifully in an interview with Saul Griffith of
Rewiring America. The rapid adoption of the technologies that are
discussed again and again in this column--like air-source heat pumps and
electric motors--show that it's possible to cut America's emissions by
seventy to eighty per cent by 2035. In other words, there's nothing
quixotic about the Green New Deal. It's on the shelf, waiting to be
taken down. Waiting, in fact, to be financed: the key role of the
federal government here is not to pay for rebuilding people's houses and
buildings but to prime the pump so that private capital can do the job,
allowing most of us to reap real savings from radically reduced energy
bills.
That still requires government leaders to take the initiative.
Obviously, we have to elect Joe Biden. (Our decompensating President
said last week that Biden is "against energy," which, in context, is a
strong endorsement.) But electing Biden is insufficient. If he wins,
Biden must be pressured to use the climate crisis to heal our economic
woes. Environmentalists are increasingly maneuvering to make sure that
the advisers in a potential Biden Administration understand both the
peril and the promise of the moment: we either go big or we go under.
Moses reminded the Israelites of the paths God had set before them:
"life and prosperity, and death and disaster." In 2020, biology,
history, and now physics are making the same call...
Passing the Mic..
- -
Rebecca Willis, an expert lead for the Climate Assembly UK, has studied
how U.K. politicians think and talk about climate change. She
concludes--and this is probably true of most democracies--that
politicians are almost embarrassed to campaign on climate change, scared
to be seen as zealots, and find it difficult to relate action on
climate, and probably wildlife and ecological loss, as improving the
well-being of those who vote for them. Voters seeing life carry on as
normal, seeing climate and wildlife as unimportant in the national
conversation, conclude that it's not actually an emergency and don't
press politicians for change...
- -
Mike Roddy offers a compelling case that American home builders rely far
too much on subsidized timber, instead of using steel, like many other
nations. Not only does this keep logging at a high pitch in our forests
but it also produces houses that burn down in forest fires. Roddy is
currently leading an effort to rebuild Paradise, California, with less
vulnerable homes...
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/the-world-has-reached-decision-time-on-the-climate-crisis
- -
[Mike Roddy on timber in new homes]
*Timber hunger in the American Housing Sector*
AMERICANS CONSUME 23% OF THE WORLD'S WOOD PRODUCTS, WITH 4% OF GLOBAL
POPULATION. THIS IS FUELED BY SUBSIDIZED TIMBER, ENTRENCHED IN A NEXUS
OF THE LUMBER, CONSTRUCTION, AND INSURANCE INDUSTRIES
Americans' habit of building houses with lumber is a 19th century relic,
a method rarely used in the rest of the world. Australia and Hawaii have
shifted away from wood framing, due to fire and termite issues. Our
houses last an average of 60 years. Houses in Asia, Europe, and South
America are designed to last for centuries, since they feature concrete,
steel, and masonry. American houses are cheap, but are they really?...
https://www.sixdegreesnews.org/archives/28698/timber-hunger-of-the-american-housing-sector
[Activist Greta speaks in brief video]
*Greta - We the People*
Dec 12, 2020
Facing Future
Greta Thunberg has again put it so eminently clear and powerfully that
there is very little we can add.
Watch, share, subscribe and 'click on the bell' for notifications.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlk3fkqc5RI
[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - December 13, 2007*
December 13, 2007: At a Democratic presidential debate in Iowa, Illinois
Senator Barack Obama declares that the need to address human-caused
climate change "is a moral imperative. I've got a 9-year-old daughter
and a 6-year-old daughter. And I want to make sure that the planet is as
beautiful for them as it was for me.
"Now, what that means is, there are going to be some increases
initially, in electricity prices, for example, if we have a
cap-and-trade system.
"Over time, technology will adapt because investors and people who are
looking to make money will see that they can make money through green
technologies...but, in order for this to happen, we've got to be
courageous enough to not just talk about it in front of the Sierra Club,
or organizations that are already sympathetic to us...part of what the
next president has to do is not just tell the American people what they
want to hear; has to tell them what they need to hear."
http://youtu.be/bMVlhPIH_04
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