[TheClimate.Vote] January 20, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Mon Jan 20 09:02:26 EST 2020

/*January 20, 2020*/

[Hail falling Down Under video]
*Australia storms: Huge hail causes chaos in two cities*
Jan 20
Melbourne and Canberra have been pelted by golf-ball sized hail in 
separate storms within 24 hours.
The wild weather prompted over 1,500 calls for emergency help in the 
state of Victoria 
alone.https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-australia-51171285/australia-storms-huge-hail-causes-chaos-in-two-cities

[local TV news story - text and video - Jan 18th]
*'It's global warming. Simple as that': Expert predicts extreme weather 
impacts on Lake Mendota ice activities*
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) -- Experts warn of climate change impacts to the 
local ecosystem, as they highlight fewer months to spend on Lake 
Mendota's ice cover.
Lake Mendota froze over three weeks later than what's typical, according 
to a limnology expert.

According to John Magnuson, professor of limnology at the UW-Madison, 
Lake Mendota froze over on January 12. He said this was three weeks 
later than what's typical, adding this is one of the latest or more 
extreme dates of initial ice cover.

This mark comes as ice cover duration has gotten shorter over time. 
Magnuson said in the 1850s, Lake Mendota averaged five months of ice 
cover. In recent decades, the duration has been about four months.

Pete Hupf, an ice fishing guide at Best Dam Bait in Beaver Dam, says 
this news means fewer opportunities for him to be on ice. He said it is 
tough to see.

[Ice fishing] it's one of my favorite things to do, Hupf said. I just 
wait for first ice, and I can't get enough of it when it's here.

He said he remembers ice fishing when he was younger-- the lake froze 
earlier, and the season was longer.

But things could change even more for Hupf in his lifetime.

Magnuson forecasts that in the next 30 years Lake Mendota will 
experience a year without complete ice cover. If predicted correctly, 
this event would be the first in the lake's 170-year history.

It's global warming. Simple as that, Magnuson said. Eventually we think 
that if we don't turn off this global warming, there will come years 
where it never freeze year after year after year.

While Hupf says he'll be taking advantage of the days on ice, Magnuson 
says countries must work together to control fossil fuels.
https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/Its-global-warming-Simple-as-that-Expert-predicts-extreme-weather-impacts-on-Lake-Mendota-ice-activities-567097181.html

[Opinion from Washington Post (owned by Jeff Bezos)]
*Can Wall Street save us from climate change? (Fat chance.)*
Jan. 19, 2020
Climate change has come to Wall Street in the guise of Larry Fink. For 
those who don't know, Fink runs BlackRock, a $7 trillion collection of 
investment funds consisting of stocks, bonds and other securities. Fink 
is a global opinionmaker, and he believes that worldwide climate change 
is driving a fundamental reshaping of finance. This is, or could be, a 
big deal.

It's tempting to cast this as a collision between capitalists and 
environmentalists -- and the environmentalists win. They take charge of 
the nation's investment flows, which are redirected toward various green 
technologies. These, in turn, rescue us from the baleful effects of 
climate change.

Sounds exciting and consequential.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be what Fink has in mind, which is 
more tedious and less momentous.

Climate risk is investment risk, he writes in his annual letter to other 
CEOs, the heads of firms in which BlackRock invests. Companies need to 
take advantage of the opportunities and protect themselves against the 
threats. Those that do will flourish; those that don't will falter. 
Profitability and performance will suffer.

What kinds of changes does Fink expect? He writes:

Will cities... be able to afford their infrastructure needs as climate 
risk reshapes the market for municipal bonds? What will happen to the 
30-year mortgage -- a key building block of finance -- if lenders can't 
estimate the impact of climate risk over such a long timeline?

As huge investors, poor performance hurts BlackRock and the big and 
little private investors who commit their savings to its funds. The 
solution, Fink argues, is for companies to publicize more information 
(that is, disclosure) by which outsiders, including firms such as 
BlackRock, can better judge their performance.

The underlying goal is improved profitability. This is not exactly 
revolutionary. Without robust disclosures, investors, including 
BlackRock, will increasingly conclude that companies are not adequately 
managing risk, he says.

Poor performance must have consequences, Fink contends. Last year, 
BlackRock did not support management-backed directors at 2,700 companies 
as a way of registering its disapproval with firms. The punishments 
could get harsher. If companies don't improve, we will be increasingly 
disposed to vote against management and board directors, he writes.

Viewed through the prism of profits, Fink's ideas are well within Wall 
Street's traditions. Details may differ, but the central purpose of 
boosting profits hasn't.

To be sure, none of this precludes the possibility that companies may 
make significant advances involving climate change -- whether to reduce 
greenhouse gas emissions or to improve energy efficiency. But there are 
two overriding realities to keep in mind when discussing the prospects 
for Fink's framework.

First -- and foremost -- combating global warming is mainly a 
governmental problem and can't conceivably be accomplished without 
acknowledging that. Private firms, whether electric utilities or vehicle 
manufacturers, may be the instruments to attack climate change, but they 
will respond to the policies and incentives created by the political 
process.

The trouble, of course, is that the policies that would mobilize the 
private sector against climate change are highly unpopular for obvious 
reasons. One approach involves very high taxes on fossil fuels, the 
source of most greenhouse gases. This would presumably push consumers 
toward electric cars, and solar and wind power.

People want to be known as ethical investors. So BlackRock is devising 
new investment portfolios that advertise values. Coal companies are 
being eliminated, for example. This is more about marketing than energy 
policy.

The political reality is that, although many Americans say they oppose 
global warming, the buying public prefers SUVs and lower electricity 
bills to smaller cars and higher bills. As a result, federal 
anti-climate-change laws are virtually nonexistent. In theory, 
capitalists and environmentalists should get along. In practice, both 
are frustrated by popular opinion.

Second, the forecasting that Fink advocates as a way for companies to 
anticipate the future is highly desirable -- but almost impossible to 
achieve in the real world. We know too little about too many things. 
Knowledge is too specialized for most of us to acquire much of it.

The difficulties are not just limited to climate change. Dozens of major 
issues qualify. Some examples: China's rise as an economic and military 
superpower; the Internet's expansion into dubious and antisocial 
activities (examples: loss of privacy, the hacking of cybersystems); the 
aging of populations in virtually all advanced societies. Excepting 
aging, none of these upheavals was genuinely foreseen.

Still, Fink has done us a favor. On climate change, he's reminded us 
that little can be done until -- and unless -- there is a political 
settlement that encourages a shift away from fossil fuels. The necessary 
groundwork involves public persuasion. If that fails or simply isn't 
tried, because it's too controversial, then all the rest is sound and 
fury, signifying nothing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/can-wall-street-save-us-from-climate-change-fat-chance/2020/01/19/af75bfc0-3958-11ea-bb7b-265f4554af6d_story.html

[playlist of 9 interview videos]
*01 Peter Wadhams Arctic Climate Change
*Jan 19, 2020
Nick Breeze
Visit: https://envisionation.co.uk
Professor Peter Wadhams is a polar researcher and author of the 
acclaimed and award winning, 'A Farewell To Ice', formerly the director 
of the Scott Polar Institute. Peter is based between the University of 
Cambridge, UK and the University of Turin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XBShJqQL88&list=PL_KA9gR6zLeH6pJLgJ7Vwm9ydvTd8fc1-

[audio quality is inverse to message importance]
*Climate Crisis Is A Climate Health Crisis*
Dec 16, 2019
Nick Breeze
Juliette Mattijsen from International Federation of Medical Students' 
Associations attending #COP25 working with the WHO and Global Climate 
and Health Alliance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgtCtJyUOKc
- - -
[just posted to YouTube]
** *Coping with climate distress - interview with psychotherapist Ro 
Randall*
Nick Breeze
for more information visit https://envisionation.co.uk
or https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org
[or https://climatepsychology.us/]
Ro Randall is psychotherapist specialising in climate-related 
distresswith many years researching the impact of the climate crisis on 
individuals and climate groups.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kifHu04ZzzA

[humor cartoon]
*Klaus Marre and DonkeyHotey*
[click for image - 
https://whowhatwhy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/John_Roberts_Paddling_to_Armageddon_1088x725.jpg
https://whowhatwhy.org/author/klaus-marre-and-donkeyhotey/

[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming  - January 20, 1993 *
In his first inaugural address, President Clinton declares: To renew 
America, we must meet challenges abroad as well as at home. There is no 
longer a clear division between what is foreign and what is domestic. 
The world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS crisis, the 
world arms race: they affect us all.
http://youtu.be/2SWjIPwm954

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/

/Archive of Daily Global Warming News 
<https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html> 
/
https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote

/To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe 
<mailto:subscribe at theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request> 
to news digest./

*** Privacy and Security:*This is a text-only mailing that carries no 
images which may originate from remote servers. Text-only messages 
provide greater privacy to the receiver and sender.
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain must be used for democratic 
and election purposes and cannot be used for commercial purposes.
To subscribe, email: contact at theclimate.vote 
<mailto:contact at theclimate.vote> with subject subscribe, To Unsubscribe, 
subject: unsubscribe
Also you may subscribe/unsubscribe at 
https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Pauli for 
http://TheClimate.Vote <http://TheClimate.Vote/> delivering succinct 
information for citizens and responsible governments of all levels. List 
membership is confidential and records are scrupulously restricted to 
this mailing list.