[TheClimate.Vote] June 17, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Wed Jun 17 10:37:21 EDT 2020

/*June 17, 2020*/

[will pay $10,000 per life]
*PG&E Pleads Guilty To 84 Counts Of Manslaughter In 2018 Camp Fire That 
Devastated*
KPIX CBS SF Bay Area
Len Kiese reports on PG&E being formally convicted on 84 counts of 
involuntary manslaughter in 2018 Camp Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXutCOBPuzA

[serious fire drill]
*Covid-19 pandemic is 'fire drill' for effects of climate crisis, says 
UN official*
Lise Kingo says social equality issues must be part of sustainable 
development agenda

The coronavirus pandemic is "just a fire drill" for what is likely to 
follow from the climate crisis, and the protests over racial injustice 
around the world show the need to tie together social equality, 
environmental sustainability and health, the UN's sustainable business 
chief has said.

"The overall problem is that we are not sustainable in the ways we are 
living and producing on the planet today," said Lise Kingo, the 
executive director of the UN Global Compact, under which businesses sign 
up to principles of environmental protection and social justice. "The 
only way forward is to create a world that leaves no one behind."

She said there were "very, very clear connections" between the Covid-19 
and climate crises, and the Black Lives Matter protests around the 
world, which she said had helped to reveal deep-seated inequalities and 
"endemic and structural racism".

"We have seen illustrated to everyone that social inequality issues are 
part of the sustainable development agenda," Kingo said...
- -
The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said building a fairer 
society would be essential to the world's health, as well as to saving 
the planet from climate breakdown and ecological destruction.

"Today, the fabric of society and the wellbeing of people hinge on our 
ability to build a fair globalisation," he told the two-day UN Global 
Compact virtual conference of business leaders, which started on Monday.

"Where once 'do no harm' was a common approach for the business 
community, today we are arriving at a new landscape of elevated 
expectations and responsibilities. But despite progress, serious threats 
would undermine our future, including climate change, poverty, loss of 
biodiversity and widening social inequalities. The pandemic has 
underscored the world's fragilities, which extend far beyond the realm 
of global health."

Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England, told the 
conference that the Covid-19 crisis had shown how urgent it was to 
tackle global heating. "This is a crisis that will involve the whole 
world and from which no one can self-isolate," he said.

He called for all companies to provide clear information to customers, 
the public and investors about how they plan to move to net zero 
greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

More than 10,000 companies are signed up to the UN Global Compact, and 
they are being urged to strengthen their commitments to cutting 
greenhouse gas emissions. Many have pledged to cut carbon in line with 
the Paris agreement goal of holding global temperature rises to no more 
than 2C.

But scientific studies show that this may not be enough to stave off 
disaster, and that the consequences of even 1.5C of global heating will 
be severe. Kingo wants companies to revise their business plans in order 
to reduce carbon in line with a 1.5C goal. "We need to see leadership to 
drive this," she said.

A report by the UN for the 20th anniversary of the Global Compact found 
that only four in 10 companies had targets that would enable them to 
meet the UN's sustainable development goals by the 2030 deadline, and 
fewer than a third thought their industry was moving fast enough.

While 84% of companies participating in the UN Global Compact were 
taking action on the goals, fewer than half were "embedding" those 
targets into their core business activities, and only 37% were designing 
their business models to meet the goals.

"The human community is completely interconnected and interdependent," 
Kingo said. "Without solidarity, especially with those most vulnerable 
among us, we all lose. We are paying the price for turning a blind eye 
to obvious injustices in the world."
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/15/covid-19-pandemic-is-fire-drill-for-effects-of-climate-crisis-says-un-official

[Oxford Climate Society - video discussion ]
*The Existential Risk of Climate Change*
Streamed live on 6-16-2020
Moderated by Kate Guy - organizer and researcher in Security and Climate 
Change
*- David Wallace Wells - journalist -author The Uninhabitable Earth**
**- Zeke Hausfather - Dir of Climate and Energy Breakthrough Institute**
**- Luke Kemp - Researcher at Centre for the Study of Existential Risk 
(CSER) at Univ of Cambridge*
Oxford Climate Society
Starts about 8 min in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah1pLU10o_U

[Paul Beckwith video exposition]
*Jet Stream Change Driving and Responding to Abrupt Climate Change: Part 
1 of many*
Jun 16, 2020
Paul Beckwith
Throughout Earth history, physical changes in the jet stream (location, 
speed, waviness, width, etc.) have been vitally important for our 
weather and climate systems. When a large quasi-stationary ridge forms 
west to east air flow and weather systems are blocked, causing extreme 
weather (heat waves; droughts under ridge; torrential rains; floods in 
adjacent troughs). Climate models don't agree on jet stream changes in 
the future as climate change rapidly accelerates. In these videos, I 
discuss the overall picture of jet streams and then delve into the 
latest peer reviewed science on jet stream behaviour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGYO1O4eIzU

[Risk Management]
*Global execs say firms not fully prepared for climate change*
Matthew Lerner
Seventy-seven percent of CEOs and CFOs at the world's largest companies 
say their firms are not fully prepared for the adverse financial impact 
of a changing climate, FM Global reported Tuesday.

An even higher number, 82%, said their companies have somewhat to no 
control over such an impact on their business.

Just over three-quarters of respondents, 76%, said their organizations 
are somewhat to significantly exposed to climate risk, with floods, 
droughts and wildland fires the three exposures that "concern their 
companies the most" and that "could most negatively affect their 
financials," FM Global said.

However, companies and organizations can manage and mitigate such risks, 
the insurer said.

"Most losses stemming from climate-related events are preventable, and 
loss prevention can help preserve a company's value and resilience, 
especially during the pandemic," Katherine Klosowski, vice president, 
manager of natural hazards and structures, FM Global, said in the statement.
https://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20200616/NEWS06/912335140/Global-execs-say-firms-not-fully-prepared-for-climate-change-FM-Global-report#

[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - June 17, 2010 and 2011 *

*June 17, 2010: Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) apologizes to BP.*

Rep. Joe Barton Apologizes To BP For $20 Billion Claims Fund
House Representative Joe Barton of Texas shockingly apologizes to BP
CEO Tony Hayward that they were asked to create a liability fund for
those people affected by the Gulf oil leak.

http://youtu.be/Gv0siXm2cpc

=========================

*June 17, 2011: Syndicated columnist Steve Chapman notes that at some 
point, Republicans will have to knock it off with climate-change denial 
and propose solutions to the problem:*

"Conservatives fear liberals will use climate change to justify 
heavy-handed intrusive regulation and wasteful subsidies, and they are 
right to worry. But that's no excuse for pretending global warming is a 
myth or refusing to do anything about it. It's an argument for devising 
cost-effective, market-based remedies that minimize bureaucratic control.

"If today's Republican attitude had prevailed four decades ago, 
Americans would not have such vital measures as the Clean Air Act and 
the Clean Water Act. Then, many people worried that environmentalism 
would strangle economic growth and personal freedom. But both have 
survived and even flourished.

"Conservatives once understood that corporations are not entitled to 
foul the environment, any more than individuals have the right to dump 
garbage in the street. Barry Goldwater, the 1964 GOP presidential 
nominee, wrote, 'When pollution is found, it should be halted at the 
source, even if this requires stringent government action.'"

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20110617-steve-chapman-republicans-must-return-to-pro-environmental-roots-.ece 

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