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

[Richard Pauli]

/*March 4, 2020*/

[Perhaps the courts can rule on this]
*Youth activists appeal ruling that they can't sue government over 
climate change*
BY REBECCA BEITSCH - 03/03/20
Attorneys for 21 youth climate activists are filing an appeal after a 
judge ruled they cannot sue the federal government for failure to act on 
climate change.

The activists sought a court order to force the government to phase out 
the use of fossil fuels, but a panel of three judges in January ruled 
such a decision was beyond the reach of the judicial branch.

Lawyers are now petitioning for a ruling from all 11 judges in the 9th 
Circuit, arguing that reversing an earlier district court decision fails 
to ensure the youth activists' right to a trial.

"In overturning the district court, the majority fundamentally changed 
the way our branches of our government operate, placing the president 
and Congress beyond the reach of judicial oversight. If this opinion 
stands, there will be no more constitutional checks and balances on 
government conduct," Philip Gregory, a co-counsel for the youth 
plaintiffs, argued.

In August, two of the three judges said they did not have the power to 
push the government to address climate change.

"Reluctantly, we conclude that such relief is beyond our constitutional 
power," 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Andrew Hurwitz wrote for the 
majority. "Rather, the plaintiffs' impressive case for redress must be 
presented to the political branches of government."

But the decision from the court's majority sparked a powerful dissent 
from Judge Josephine Staton, who said the climate change issues raised 
in the suit were within the court's authority to redress, and warned 
that "waiting is not an option."

"If plaintiffs' fears, backed by the government's own studies, prove 
true, history will not judge us kindly," Staton wrote. "When the seas 
envelop our coastal cities, fires and droughts haunt our interiors, and 
storms ravage everything between, those remaining will ask: Why did so 
many do so little?"

The case, Juliana v. United States, has been circulating through the 
court system since 2015.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/485663-youth-activists-appeal-decision-halting-climate-change-lawsuit



[a bit late, but welcomed]
*Major science journal retracts study blaming climate change on the sun*
A prominent scientific journal has retracted a study claiming that 
climate change was due to solar cycles rather than human activity.

Last year, Scientific Reports came under fire for publishing a paper 
that researchers said made elementary mistakes about how Earth moves 
around the sun.

Today the journal, published by Nature Research, which also has Nature 
in its stable of titles, formally retracted the paper by a team at UK 
universities and an institution in Azerbaijan.

The withdrawn study had argued that the average global 1C temperature 
rise since the pre-industrial period was due not to humanity's 
greenhouse gas emissions but to the distance between Earth and the sun 
changing over time as the sun orbits the barycentre, the solar system's 
centre of mass. In a statement today, Scientific Reports said that was 
inaccurate...
Read more: 
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2236103-major-science-journal-retracts-study-blaming-climate-change-on-the-sun/#ixzz6FjeX0bP9



[common sense too]
*Birth control and books can slow down climate change*
They're near the top of the list in a ranking of climate solutions

Improving girls' access to education and reproductive health care is one 
of the most promising ways to stop human-caused global warming, 
according to a report published today that ranks solutions to addressing 
the threat. Addressing health and education ranks second among 76 
solutions, sandwiched between reducing food waste and eating more 
plant-rich diets, that, together, can limit global warming to 2 degrees 
Celsius. The report, "The Drawdown Review," is a follow-up to the 2017 
New York Times bestselling book Drawdown. Promoting girls' education 
contributed about as much to a sustainable future as the gains from 
rooftop solar and solar farms combined, that book found. So did family 
planning.

IT'S LIKE TAKING NEARLY 22,000 COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS OFFLINE
Securing a quality education and reproductive health care access, 
particularly for women and girls, can prevent more than 85 gigatons of 
heat-trapping carbon dioxide from heating up the planet between 2020 and 
2050, the new report says. That's like taking nearly 22,000 coal-fired 
power plants offline. The report was produced by scientists and 
advocates at the nonprofit Project Drawdown, which was created by 
Drawdown editor and environmentalist Paul Hawken.

There's a chain reaction when education levels rise: women gain 
political and economic power. They also have more resources available to 
help them choose when and how to start a family. When that happens, 
fertility rates usually drop, the report points out. People tend to 
marry and have children a little later and have fewer children when they 
do. Researchers who put the report together estimated the fall in per 
capita emissions when fewer people in the world are using up energy for 
housing, food, waste, and transportation (taking into account 
differences between wealthier and less affluent nations).

To be clear, "in no way are we talking about population control," 
Crystal Chissell, a vice president at Project Drawdown, says. Trying to 
control who gets to have children and who doesn't is part of a violent 
racist and xenophobic history, including the forced sterilization of 
Latinas in the US. Chissell makes clear that her new report is talking 
about access to reproductive health care for women who want it.

"IN NO WAY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT POPULATION CONTROL."
There are 214 million women globally who want to avoid pregnancy but 
don't have modern contraception, Chissell points out. (She cites data 
from the reproductive health advocacy and research group Guttmacher 
Institute.) Women who've been historically marginalized often also face 
bigger barriers to getting an education and birth control when they want 
it -- whether that's because of cost, stigma, or policies.


That last barrier has posed more hurdles for advocates over the past 
several years. President Donald Trump is responsible for dozens upon 
dozens of environmental policy rollbacks -- including moves that limit 
women's access to reproductive health care. He has pulled US funding 
from the United Nations' sexual and reproductive health agency, the 
biggest provider of contraception worldwide, for three years in a row. 
Domestically, the Trump administration has also attempted to give 
employers greater ability to deny insurance coverage for birth control.

We're not saying that the burden is solely on women to advance the 
solution [to climate change]," Chissell cautions. But the report makes 
clear that the status of women and girls globally will be crucial to how 
we shape the world that's to come.

THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND GIRLS GLOBALLY WILL BE CRUCIAL TO HOW WE SHAPE 
THE WORLD THAT'S TO COME
Gender also plays a role when it comes to who faces the first and worst 
ravages of climate change. Women make up a majority of the world's poor, 
which can make them disproportionately vulnerable. In the wake of 
disasters made worse by climate change, like hurricanes, women also face 
an increased risk of sexual violence. Anything that might help women 
gain some ground -- like, say, having the power and resources to make 
healthy and informed decisions about their bodies, lives, and families 
-- will be crucial to surviving on a planet that's in crisis.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/3/21163135/education-reproductive-healthcare-climate-change-solution-drawdown



[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming  - March 4, 2011 *

At an event in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) is 
caught on video thanking billionaire climate-change denier David H. Koch 
for a previous campaign contribution, and asking Koch for a follow-up 
contribution.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/03/07/149006/scott-brown-david-koch-money/


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