[TheClimate.Vote] February 22 , 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sat Feb 22 09:59:24 EST 2020
/*February 22, 2020*/
[BBC relays warning]
*JP Morgan economists warn of 'catastrophic' climate change*
Human life "as we know it" could be threatened by climate change,
economists at JP Morgan have warned.
In a hard-hitting report to clients, the economists said that without
action being taken there could be "catastrophic outcomes".
The bank said the research came from a team that was "wholly independent
from the company as a whole".
Climate campaigners have previously criticised JP Morgan for its
investments in fossil fuels.
The firm's stark report was sent to clients and seen by BBC News.
While JP Morgan economists have warned about unpredictability in climate
change before, the language used in the new report was very forceful.
"We cannot rule out catastrophic outcomes where human life as we know it
is threatened," JP Morgan economists David Mackie and Jessica Murray said.
- - -
A JP Morgan spokesperson said the research team was "wholly independent
from the company as a whole, and not a commentary on it" and declined to
comment further.
Mark Cutifani, chief executive of mining giant Anglo American, told the
BBC how the firm wants to reduce its carbon footprint, and ''can see a
pathway to creating carbon neutral mines''.
Talking about a timeframe he added: "We are a bit concerned about
putting a date on it as yet because some of the technologies are still
evolving. We will get there, the only question is how quickly we can get
there.''
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51581098
- - -
[Similar message from the Financial Times]
*Banks risk being caught off-guard by climate change*
Report finds institutions are not doing enough to make their balance
sheets more green
Climate change is creating substantial, unrecognised risk in the
financial system as banks are failing to prepare for green regulation
and carbon taxes that will have an impact on the companies they lend to...
https://www.ft.com/content/7bfdb172-5364-11ea-90ad-25e377c0ee1f
- - -
[comment on global warming and the economy]
*Mark Blyth - Global Trumpism and the Future of the Global Economy*
Jul 16, 2019
McMaster Humanities
This lecture is part of the McMaster Department of Philosophy's Summer
School in Capitalism, democratic solidarity, and Institutional design
https://www.solidaritydesign2019.com
https://youtu.be/KGuaoARJYU0?t=4154
- -
[a related report Time magazine]
*Every Child on Earth Faces 'Existential Threats' From Climate Change,
Report Finds*
The findings, compiled by over 40 child and adolescent health
experts in a commission convened by the World Health Organization
(WHO), UNICEF and the medical journal The Lancet, show that the
health and future for every child and teen in the world is under
threat. Climate change, ecological degradation and advertising
practices that push harmful products toward youth are just some
factors that have created an uncertain future for children, the
report says.
https://time.com/5786395/climate-change-children-threatened/
[important list from Yale Climate Connections]
*New and recent books about hope in a time of climate change*
These books explore how people might sustain their optimism and hope in
the face of the often bleak news of a steadily warming world.
warm day in winter used to be a rare and uplifting relief.
Now such days are routine reminders of climate change - all the more
foreboding when they coincide with news stories about unprecedented
wildfires, record-breaking "rain bombs," or the accelerated melting of
polar ice sheets.
Where, then, can one turn for hope in these dark months of the year?
A diverse range of perspectives ... but all end on a note of hope and
how to better sustain it.
- - -
Many start by acknowledging our bitter, partisan politics. But all end
on a note of hope and how to better sustain it.
*Happier People, Healthier Planet: How Putting Well-Being First Would
Help Sustain Life on Earth*, by Teresa Belton (Silverwood Books 2014,
369 pages, $23.49 paperback)
Happier People, Healthier Planet addresses the diametrically opposed
issues of personal wellbeing and ecological destruction as inseparable
concerns. It shows how attending to what really matters for personal
thriving will also protect the environment. Most human beings are
strongly attracted to material possessions, novelty, and ever greater
comfort and convenience. Yet paradoxically, for those with a decent
basic standard of living, growing affluence has not resulted in
increased subjective wellbeing: overconsumption does not make us happy.
It is perfectly possible to live a rewarding life without consuming more
than we need, and we must all find out how to do so if we are to
preserve the hospitality of the Earth. This book investigates the
factors that are likely to encourage a positive preference for
sustainable lifestyles.
- -
*Finntopia: What We Can Learn from the World's Happiest Country*, by
Danny Dorling and Annika Koljonen (Columbia University Press, July 2020,
192 pages, $25.00 paperback)
In 2018, the World Happiness Report ranked Finland the world's happiest
country. The Nordic Model has long been touted as the aspiration for
social and public policy in Europe and North America, but what is it
about Finland that makes the country so successful and seemingly such a
great place to live? Finland clearly has problems of its own - for
example, a high level of gun ownership and rising rates of suicide -
which can make Finns skeptical of their ranking, but its consistently
high performance across a range of well-being indicators does raise
fascinating questions. In the quest for the best of all possible
societies, Danny Dorling and Annika Koljonen explore what we might learn
from Finnish success and what they might usefully learn from us.
- -
*The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from
Here*, by Hope Jahren (Penguin/Random, March 2020, 224 pages, $14.99)
Hope Jahren is an award-winning scientist, a brilliant writer, a
passionate teacher, and one of the seven billion people with whom we
share this earth. In The Story of More, she illuminates the link between
human habits and our imperiled planet. She takes us through the science
behind the key inventions - from electric power to large-scale farming -
that, even as they help us, release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
like never before. She explains the current and projected consequences
of global warming - from superstorms to rising sea levels - and the
actions that we all can take to fight back. Both a primer on the
mechanisms of global change and a personal narrative given to us in
Jahren's inimitable voice, The Story of More is the essential pocket
primer on climate change that will leave an indelible impact on everyone
who reads it.
*Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses and Citizens Can Save the
Planet*, by Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope (St. Martin's Press 2017,
272 pages, $26.99)
The 2016 election left many people who are concerned about the
environment fearful that progress on climate change would come
screeching to a halt. But not Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope. In
Climate of Hope, Bloomberg, an entrepreneur and former mayor of New York
City, and Pope, a lifelong environmental leader offer an optimistic look
at the challenge of climate change, the solutions they believe hold the
greatest promise, and the practical steps that are necessary to achieve
them. Sharing their own stories from government, business, and advocacy,
Bloomberg and Pope provide a road map for tackling the most complicated
challenge the world has ever faced. Along the way, they turn the usual
way of thinking about climate change on its head: from top down to
bottom up, from costs to benefits, and from fear to hope.
- -
See also: *Atmosphere of Hope: Searching for Solutions to Climate
Change*, by Tim Flannery (Harper Collins 2015/2016, 272 pages, $16.00
paperback) and Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?, by
Bill McKibben (Henry Holt & Co. 2019, 304 pages $28.00).
- -
*Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable
Future*, by Mary Robinson (Bloomsbury 2018, 176 pages, $26.00)
Holding her first grandchild in her arms in 2003, Mary Robinson, former
president of Ireland and the UN's Special Envoy on Climate Change, was
struck by the uncertainty of the world he had been born into. The
faceless, shadowy menace of climate change had become, in an instant,
deeply personal. Mary Robinson's new mission would lead her all over the
world and to a heartening revelation: that an irrepressible driving
force in the battle for climate justice could be found at the grassroots
level, mainly among women, many of them mothers and grandmothers like
herself. Powerful and deeply humane, Climate Justice is a stirring
manifesto on one of the most pressing issues of our time, and a lucid,
affirmative, and well-argued case for hope.
- -
*The Archipelago of Hope: Wisdom and Resilience from the Edge of Climate
Change*, by Gleb Raygorodetsky (Pegasus Books 2017/2018, 336 pages,
$17.95 paperback)
Climate change is already here. Nobody knows this better than Indigenous
peoples who, having developed an intimate relationship with ecosystems
over generations, have observed these changes for decades. Gleb
Raygorodetsky shows how these communities are actually islands of
biological and cultural diversity in the ever-rising sea of development
and urbanization. They are an "archipelago of hope" as we enter the
Anthropocene, for here lies humankind's best chance to remember our
roots and how to take care of the Earth. These communities are
implementing creative solutions to meet these modern challenges.
Raygorodetsky's prose resonates with their positive, adaptive, and
spiritual hope.
- -
*The Climate Swerve: Reflections on Mind, Hope, and Survival*, by Robert
Jay Lifton (The New Press 2017, 192 pages, $22.95)
Over his long career, National Book Award-winning psychiatrist Robert
Jay Lifton has grappled with the profound effects of nuclear war,
terrorism, and genocide. Now he shifts to climate change, which, Lifton
writes, "presents us with what may be the most demanding and unique
psychological task ever required of humankind." Yet a large swathe of
humanity has numbed themselves to this reality. In this lucid and moving
book that recalls the works of Rachel Carson and Jonathan Schell, Lifton
explains how we might call upon the human mind - "our greatest
evolutionary asset" - to translate a growing species awareness, or
"climate swerve," into action to sustain our selves, our plant and our
civilization.
- -
*The Hard Work of Hope: Climate Change in the Age of Trump,* by Robert
William Sandford and Jon O'Riordan (Rocky Mountain Books 2017, 168
pages, $16.00)
Building on events that have transpired since the Paris climate
conference in December 2015, The Hard Work of Hope, Rocky Mountain
Books' latest manifesto, emphasizes three themes: the growing urgency
for global action regarding climate change; the fact that future
development must not just avoid causing damage but strive to be
ecologically and socially restorative; and the reality that effective
solutions require changes to technology, restoration of biodiversity and
increased public awareness. Though contemporary politics and the state
of the environment seem grim in this "post-truth world," there will
always be hope. But that hope will require hard work by everyone if our
planet is to remain a desirable place to live in a warming world.
- -
*Where Is the Hope? An Anthology of Short Climate Change Plays*, edited
by Chantal Bilodeau (Climate Change Theatre Action 2018, pages, $35.00
paperback)
Where is the Hope? An Anthology of Short Climate Change Plays is a
collection of 50 short plays by writers from all over the world,
commissioned for Climate Change Theatre Action 2017. A creative response
to the question "How can we inspire people and turn the challenges of
climate change into opportunities?" the plays offer a diversity of
perspectives and artistic approaches in telling stories that may point
to a just and sustainable future.
- -
Religious Perspectives
*We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast*, by Jonathan
Safran Foer (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 2019, 288 pages, $25.00)
Some people reject the fact, overwhelmingly supported by scientists,
that our planet is warming because of human activity. But do those of us
who accept the reality of human-caused climate change truly believe it?
In We Are the Weather, Jonathan Safran Foer [explains that] the task of
saving the planet will involve a great reckoning with ourselves - a
reckoning Foer illustrates by relating his Jewish grandmother's
experience of the Holocaust, taking great personal risks to flee Poland
before it was too late to do so. Now we have turned our planet into a
farm for growing animal products, and the consequences are similarly
catastrophic. Only collective action will save our home and way of life.
And it all starts with what we eat - and don't eat - for breakfast.
- -
*Caring for Creation: Inspiring Words from Pope Francis*, edited by
Alice Stamwitz (Franciscan Media 2016, 192 pages, $22.99)
Since his inaugural Mass in March 2013, Pope Francis has frequently
reminded a global audience that care for creation is among his highest
priorities. The writings, homilies, prayers, talks, and even tweets of
Pope Francis in this book gather his most important and inspiring words
about our shared responsibility to protect, nurture, and care for "our
common home." The planet is in peril, the pope is telling us, along with
the well being of the poor who depend on the earth's natural resources.
Still, his message is always ultimately one of hope. In Caring for
Creation, Pope Francis's words reveal that he believes we can move
towards a new kind of conversion - a higher level of consciousness,
action, and advocacy that will spark "a bold cultural revolution."
See also: *Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality: On Care for Our
Common Home*, by Pope Francis, with an Introduction by Naomi Oreskes
(Melville House 2015, 192 pages, $20.00 paperback)
- -
*Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for
Change*, by Jim Antal (Rowman & Littlefield 2018, 242 pages, $25.00)
Climate Church, Climate World argues that climate change is the greatest
moral challenge humanity has ever faced. Hunger, refugees, poverty,
inequality, deadly viruses, war - climate change multiplies all forms of
global social injustice. Environmental leader Reverend Jim Antal
presents a compelling case that it's time for the church to meet this
moral challenge, just as the church addressed previous moral challenges.
After describing how we have created the dangers our planet now faces,
Antal urges the church to embrace a new vocation, one focused on
collective salvation and an expanded understanding of the Golden Rule
(Golden Rule 2.0). He suggests ways people of faith can reorient what
they prize through new approaches to worship, preaching, witnessing and
other spiritual practices that honor creation and cultivate hope.
In a similar vein, see also the following religious titles:
*Down to Earth: Christian Hope and Climate Change*, by Richard A. Floyd
(Wipf and Stock 2015, 144 pages, $17.00 paperback)
*Eco-Reformation: Grace and Hope for a Planet in Peril*, edited by Lisa
E. Dahill and Jim B. Martin-Schramm (Cascade Books 2016, 306 pages,
$36.00 paperback)
*Hope in the Age of Climate Change: Creation Care this Side of the
Resurrection*, by Chris Doran (Cascade Books 2017, 258 pages, $31.00)
*Love in a Time of Climate Change: Honoring Creation*, Establishing
Justice, by Sharon Delgado (Fortress Press 2017, 226 pages, $29.00
paperback)
*The Spirit of Hope: Theology for a World in Peril*, by Jurgen Moltman
(Westminster/John Knox Press 2019, 232 pages, $30.00 paperback)
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/02/new-and-recent-books-about-hope-in-a-time-of-climate-change/
[API is the ogre]
*The Oil Industry Is Quietly Winning Local Climate Fights*
In the past few years, the American Petroleum Institute and its allies
have fought against climate-friendly policies in at least 16 different
states.
ROBINSON MEYER - FEBRUARY 20, 2020
Some of the most important fights over climate change aren't being waged
in Washington. They're happening state by state, in a melee of
utilities, fossil-fuel companies, state legislators, and persuaded voters.
To see one in action, visit Beaver, Pennsylvania, where two Westinghouse
nuclear reactors produce roughly a fifth of the Keystone State's
zero-carbon electricity. Three years ago, FirstEnergy Corporation, a
private utility worth $28 billion, announced that it would soon have to
sell the nuclear plants or shut them down. Even though the reactors were
supposed to operate for another few decades, the plunging cost of
natural gas had made them noncompetitive. Only direct subsidies could
keep the plants alive, the utility warned.
- - -
"In cooperation with API's state petroleum councils, allied
organizations, and partner trade associations, energy advocates sign up
through social media [or through its website] to receive customized
content to make their voice known by contacting or engaging elected
officials. API facilitates the grassroots website and supports events to
connect those who might be interested in energy issues in their state,"
she said.
Yet the extent and intensity of API's work at the local level is a
significant break with the past, experts say. "This is a new
development," Leah Stokes, a political scientist at UC Santa Barbara,
told me. She studies how state governments have adopted climate
policy—or not adopted it—over the past few decades.
Historically, it's been rare for API to fight against nuclear plants or
block electricity infrastructure, she said. But it has gotten more
involved in electricity policy since 2016, when it absorbed the American
Natural Gas Alliance, the gas industry's main trade group. While oil
makes up a small share of the American power mix, natural gas plays a
dominant role.
But even if that merger had not gone through, oil and gas have unified
interests right now, Stokes said. Both oil and natural gas are now
extracted by the same companies, using the same fracking techniques,
drilling in the same places. "Gas is coming up because of fracking, but
oil is too. It's possible [API] views electricity infrastructure as an
important avenue for oil and gas in the future," she said.
That future is nearly a reality in Pennsylvania. State lawmakers and
public-utility commissioners both rejected new subsidies for the two
nuclear reactors in Beaver. The plants are due to close in 2021. They
will join in the dustheap the state's infamous Three Mile Island plant,
which also closed last year. The electricity once generated by both
nuclear plants will now likely come from natural gas. And thus the
heat-trapping climate pollution emitted by Pennsylvanians will increase.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/oil-industry-fighting-climate-policy-states/606640/
[The Center for Media and Democracy warns]
*YouTube Is Promoting Koch's Climate Change Denial Network*
Alex Kotch on February 20, 2020
YouTube's two billion monthly users are being subjected to climate
change denial, even after its parent company, Google, committed to
fighting harmful misinformation about science.
A report published by the nonprofit activist network Avaaz details the
wide reach of this climate disinformation and points to dozens of
companies and even multiple environmental organizations that advertise
on videos that deny the existence of manmade climate change. Money from
these ads goes to the videos' creators, incentivizing the production of
climate disinformation.
YouTube's algorithms promote videos that feature climate change denial,
most prominently by way of its "Up Next" feature. Seventy percent of the
time users spend on YouTube is driven by the company's recommendations.
Climate misinformation content pops up in YouTube searches for the terms
"global warming," "climate change," and "climate manipulation."
Of the four egregious anti-climate science videos analyzed in depth by
Avaaz, three feature men who are, or have been, part of the climate
change denial network spearheaded by billionaire oil magnate Charles
Koch. This Koch network, which includes think tanks such as the Heritage
Foundation, the Property and Environment Research Center, and the CO2
Coalition, has been the subject of much reporting, but its reach into
YouTube, the preferred platform for U.S. teenagers, has been less
thoroughly examined.
Multiple videos highlighted by Avaaz were created by PragerU, a
right-wing content producer that publishes disinformation on an array of
topics including climate science, racism, and free-market capitalism and
is funded by the 501(c)(3) Prager University Foundation. The group
itself has not received direct donations from Koch's family foundations
in the past several years, but it has gotten money from DonorsTrust, a
donor-advised fund sponsor used by Koch to disperse donations (over
$55,000 since 2017), and larger amounts from foundations run by Koch
network donors the Wilks brothers (close to $3.3 million from two family
foundations since 2015), and from Koch network donors the Bradley
Foundation and Bradley Impact Fund (nearly $1.1 million since 2015).
"No significant warming in the 21st century"
PragerU's video, "What They Haven't Told You about Climate Change,"
features a climate change denier who is affiliated with Koch-funded
think tanks. Patrick Moore, who has been an energy and climate adviser
at the Heartland Institute and chairman of the board of the CO2
Coalition, falsely claims in the video that there has been "no
significant warming in the 21st century."
The Heartland Institute, which once received funding from ExxonMobil and
the American Petroleum Institute, hasn't gotten direct donations from
Koch's family foundations in recent years, but DonorsTrust and sister
nonprofit Donors Capital Fund combined to give the institute over $10.6
million from 2014-18. The family foundation of billionaire GOP
mega-donor Robert Mercer gave close to $2.6 million during that time
period, and other Koch network donors such as the Ed Uihlein Family
Foundation ($354,000), the Bradley Impact Fund ($211,000), and the
Searle Freedom Trust($150,000) also contributed.
The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, a lobbying group for
oil makers including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Koch Industries, donated
$75,000 to the Heartland Institute in 2017. Two executives of Flint
Hills Resources, a subsidiary of Koch Industries that produces oil and
petrochemicals, are members of the group's board.
The Heartland Institute's climate disinformation campaign does not stop
at the U.S. border. A new investigation by the European investigative
nonprofit Correctiv reveals that the Heartland Institute is supporting
climate change deniers in Germany and is working with a YouTube
personality affiliated with the far-right political party Alternative
für Deutschland.
The CO2 Coalition received over $50,000 from the Charles Koch Foundation
and the Charles Koch Institute from 2016-18. Three other Koch network
foundations have contributed larger sums since 2016: the Sarah Scaife
Foundation($417,000), the Mercer Family Foundation ($320,000), and the
Thomas W. Smith Foundation ($175,000).
U.N. climate models "flawed by design"
Patrick Michaels, previously the longtime director of the libertarian
Cato Institute's Center for the Study of Science, is currently a senior
fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), where he focuses
on climate at its Center for Energy and Environment. Cato shuttered its
Center for the Study of Science in May 2019 after Michaels left.
According to Michaels, "They informed me that they didn't think their
vision of a think tank was in the science business."
In a clip from a Fox News interview, titled on YouTube as "The truth
about global warming," Michaels claims that all but one of the United
Nations' 32 climate models are "flawed by design to vastly over-predict
warming," a statement Avaaz says is misinformation.
The Cato Institute, which was co-founded by Charles Koch and had the
late David Koch on its board of directors, is funded by numerous Koch
network donors, including the two Koch foundations, which gave $9.3
million from 2014-18. Since 2014, Cato's donors include:
Adolph Coors Foundation: $300,000
Atlas Economic Research Foundation: $111,545
Bradley Impact Fund: $521,000
Charles Koch Foundation: $9,084,937
Charles Koch Institute : $240,450
Donors Capital Fund: $655,000
DonorsTrust: $4,579,150
Dunn Foundation: $2,250,000
F.M. Kirby Foundation: $82,500
John William Pope Foundation: $270,175
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation: $1,125,000
Mercer Family Foundation: $1,200,000
Pierre F. and Enid Goodrich Foundation: $220,000
Sarah Scaife Foundation: $515,000
Searle Freedom Trust: $1,410,000
Thomas D. Klingenstein Fund: $20,422
Thomas W. Smith Foundation: $20,000
William H. Donner Foundation: $85,000
The two Koch foundations gave CEI $288,000 from 2014-17. DonorsTrust and
Donors Capital Fund combined to give nearly $3.9 million to CEI since
2014, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Sarah Scaife
Foundation, and the Searle Freedom Trust have all contributed over $1
million since then.
The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers gave $95,000 to CEI
from 2015-17, and another industry trade group, the American Petroleum
Institute, has donated $70,000 to CEI since 2015.
"No evidence that CO2 emissions are the dominant factor" in climate change
Another PragerU video, "Climate Change: What Do Scientists Say?"
features Richard Lindzen, a former senior fellow at the Cato Institute's
Center for the Study of Science. Lindzen claims, "There is no evidence
that CO2 emissions are the dominant factor [in climate change]," which
is decidedly false.
In 2017, Lindzen wrote a letter to Trump urging him to back out of the
Paris Climate Agreement, claiming that carbon dioxide is not a
pollutant. Twenty-two current and former faculty members at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Lindzen had been a
professor, then wrote to the president to make it clear they did not
share Lindzen's views.
The Advertisers
Avaaz found over 100 advertisers on climate disinformation videos. Many
are major brands such as Samsung, L'Oréal, Decathlon, Danone, Warner
Bros. One in five ads came from green or ethical brands including
Greenpeace International, WWF and Save the Children. A number of the
advertisers told Avaaz that they were unaware their ads were running on
these videos and financially supporting their creators.
To stem the spread of falsehoods and misinformation around climate
change, Avaaz recommends that YouTube:
"Detox the YouTube algorithm" by ending its "free promotion of
misinformation and disinformation videos."
"Demonetize disinformation" by including disinformation and
misinformation in YouTube's monetization policies so that
advertisers cannot advertise on such videos and content creators
can't make money from them.
"Correct the record" by using fact-checkers to let users know when
they've watched false or misleading videos and issue corrections
along with them.
"Avaaz believes that YouTube has the opportunity to be a trailblazer in
the fight against misinformation..." reads the report. "Now is the time
for YouTube to act more systematically and more urgently to implement
solutions, like the recommendations described above, to ensure this new
decade is not plagued by the disinformation problems started in the last
one."
"Similarly, advertisers must both ensure that they follow through on
their own corporate social responsibility commitments and track what
kind of content their advertising revenue is inadvertently funding."
YouTube says that to combat misinformation, it removes content that
violates the company's Community Guidelines. However, false information
doesn't violate the guidelines unless it includes hate speech or
harassment, incites violence, or is a scam.
The following statement from a YouTube spokesperson to CMD explains
other ways it attempts to reduce the spread of misinformation:
We can't speak to Avaaz's methodology or results, and our
recommendations systems are not designed to filter or demote videos or
channels based on specific perspectives. We've significantly invested in
reducing recommendations of borderline content and harmful
misinformation, and raising up authoritative voices on YouTube. In 2019
alone, the consumption on authoritative news publishers' channels grew
by 60%. As our systems appear to have done in the majority of cases in
this report, we prioritize authoritative voices for millions of news and
information queries, and surface information panels on topics prone to
misinformation--including climate change--to provide users with context
alongside their content. We continue to expand these efforts to more
topics and countries.
https://www.prwatch.org/news/2020/02/13542/youtube-promoting-koch%E2%80%99s-climate-change-denial-network
[rarely do science papers discuss evil]
*Power, evil and resistance in social structure: A sociology for energy
research in a climate emergency*
The climate emergency demands a radical rethink of sociology for energy
research.
Giddens' structuration theory can be rejuvenated for this project.
Powerful, self-serving actors construct and maintain climate-damaging
social structure.
Moral argument will not persuade such actors to surrender their power.
The notion of "evil" is useful for theorizing how their power can be
dislodged.
Abstract
Sociology has provided useful insights, especially in this journal,
into energy consumption trends and practices and how their
climate-damaging effects can be mitigated. But in a climate
emergency a bolder and more focused sociology is required, firstly,
to help us understand why humanity continues to plunge toward
climate catastrophe despite heightened scientific knowledge and
moral awareness, and secondly, how this can be arrested. In this
essay I suggest a useful approach is to revisit and revitalise
Giddens' structuration theory. Climate damaging policies and
practices can be seen as facilitated through specific social
structures. For Giddens, certain actors have immense power to shape
social structures for their own ends due to the resources they
control, such as money, political power and public discourse.
Niebuhr argued that we are mistaken if we think these actors will
obligingly surrender their power when good moral and scientific
arguments are put before them. Alexander, Bauman and others suggest
the notion of "evil" helps clarify why such actors fiercely resist
such challenges. Sociology needs to theorise the role of "evil" in
social structure to inform us how destructive power can be wrested
from those whose moral indifference brings them short-term rewards
for destroying our life-friendly climate.
Giddens' structuration theory
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221462961930876X
[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - February 22, 2015 *
The New York Times reports:
"For years, politicians wanting to block legislation on climate
change have bolstered their arguments by pointing to the work of a
handful of scientists who claim that greenhouse gases pose little
risk to humanity.
"One of the names they invoke most often is Wei-Hock Soon, known as
Willie, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics who claims that variations in the sun's energy can
largely explain recent global warming. He has often appeared on
conservative news programs, testified before Congress and in state
capitals, and starred at conferences of people who deny the risks of
global warming.
"But newly released documents show the extent to which Dr. Soon's
work has been tied to funding he received from corporate interests.
"He has accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the
fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose
that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers. At least
11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and
in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated
ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work."
"The documents show that Dr. Soon, in correspondence with his
corporate funders, described many of his scientific papers as
'deliverables' that he completed in exchange for their money. He
used the same term to describe testimony he prepared for Congress...
"The documents were obtained by Greenpeace, the environmental group,
under the Freedom of Information Act. Greenpeace and an allied
group, the Climate Investigations Center, shared them with several
news organizations last week.
"The documents shed light on the role of scientists like Dr. Soon in
fostering public debate over whether human activity is causing
global warming. The vast majority of experts have concluded that it
is and that greenhouse emissions pose long-term risks to civilization.
"Historians and sociologists of science say that since the tobacco
wars of the 1960s, corporations trying to block legislation that
hurts their interests have employed a strategy of creating the
appearance of scientific doubt, usually with the help of ostensibly
independent researchers who accept industry funding.
"Fossil-fuel interests have followed this approach for years, but
the mechanics of their activities remained largely hidden.
"'The whole doubt-mongering strategy relies on creating the
impression of scientific debate,' said Naomi Oreskes, a historian of
science at Harvard University and the co-author of "Merchants of
Doubt," a book about such campaigns. 'Willie Soon is playing a role
in a certain kind of political theater.'
"Environmentalists have long questioned Dr. Soon's work, and his
acceptance of funding from the fossil-fuel industry was previously
known. But the full extent of the links was not; the documents show
that corporate contributions were tied to specific papers and were
not disclosed, as required by modern standards of publishing."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html?_r=0
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