[TheClimate.Vote] March 8, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Sun Mar 8 09:30:51 EDT 2020

/*March 8, 2020*/

[Scientists update their emotions]
*'I'm profoundly sad, I feel guilty': scientists reveal personal fears 
about the climate crisis*
Feelings of powerlessness and despair for the future are evident in 
letters written for a six-year 'passion project'
- - -
So Duggan has returned to his "passion project" - Is This How You Feel - 
by asking the scientists to write again. Have their feelings changed in 
the intervening years?
- -
"But also because we have not been very good at communicating climate 
science to the public and I believe that it is my duty as a citizen to 
alert people to the urgency of the situation."

But does Meissner think there's a risk in scientists lifting their veil 
of cool objectivity to show their personal feelings? Could it cause some 
to question their objectivity?

"I actually think that the opposite is the case," she says. "When I saw 
the whole collection of letters a few years ago, I was surprised by the 
number of colleagues who had participated.

"We are talking here about world-leading scientists, people who built 
their career on facts and data, who are spending their lives questioning 
every result they find, over and over again. People who are continuously 
challenging the status quo. People who are trained to be objective.

"When these people start to speak up about their feelings, about being 
frustrated, desperate, worried, angry or scared, then we really should 
listen very carefully."

Duggan wants anyone who has read the letters to write their own, and 
share them. Here are some excerpts from the latest scientist letters 
from Duggan's project.
*Prof Katrin Meissner*

    How do I feel about it? I am still very worried. I am also
    profoundly sad. I am probably sadder than I was five years ago.

    I feel powerless and, to a certain extent, guilty. I feel like I
    have failed my duty as a citizen and as a mother because I was not
    able to communicate the urgency of the situation well enough to
    trigger meaningful action in time.

    What we are doing right now is an uncontrolled, risky experiment
    with the planet we live on.

*Prof Will Steffen, Australian National University*

    I'm angry because the lack of effective action on climate change,
    despite the wealth not only of scientific information but also of
    solutions to reduce emissions, has now created a climate emergency.

    The students are right. Their future is now being threatening by the
    greed of the wealthy fossil fuel elite, the lies of the Murdoch
    press, and the weakness of our political leaders. These people have
    no right to destroy my daughter's future and that of her generation.

*Prof Lesley Hughes, pro vice-chancellor, Macquarie University*

    My emotions haven't really changed since I last wrote one of these
    letters, but things around me have. The beacon of light that is
    Greta Thunberg, speaking truth to power. Our own wonderful,
    passionate school kids taking to the streets, making me cry with pride.
    The only way to cope with all of this is to focus on what I can do,
    what I'm best at, and hope like hell that enough people, doing what
    they do best, can overcome.

    I have some very dark moments, but more than ever before, I feel
    wrapped in a blanket of collective determination. Hope is a
    necessary emotion, but more than that, it must be our fundamental
    strategy to keep us going. Lose it, and we are lost.

*Dr Kevin Trenberth, National Centre for Atmospheric Research (US)*

    For the most part my comments of 19 September 2014 still apply
    except that the glimmer of hope has diminished if not vanished
    entirely. With Obama as US president and the Paris agreement in late
    2015, a glimmer of hope seemed to emerge, but with Trump and his
    ignorant accomplices, the hope has vanished.

    I am close to retirement and as I was cleaning up in 2019 I found
    some old VHS tapes recording me on shows, such as the Lehrer News
    Hour on PBS in 1988, and the message then was much the same as now
    except we are now more confident and the progress has been nil. It
    was depressing. My solution has been to move back to New Zealand
    along with my daughter and family (grandchildren).

*Dr Roger Bodman, University of Melbourne*

    Realistically, we are already too late to meet a 1.5 degree target
    and will struggle to achieve 2 degrees.

    So, the future, basically, looks bad. Hard to stay hopeful. Change
    is too slow, too late.

    Yet we have to stay optimistic.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/08/im-profoundly-sad-i-feel-guilty-scientists-reveal-personal-fears-about-the-climate-crisis
- - -
[Full collection and Updated messages]
*IS THIS HOW YOU FEEL?*
 From 2014 to 2015 I approached the world's leading climate scientists 
and asked them to respond to one simple question:

How does climate change make you feel?

Their responses were truly moving.

Now, more than 5 years since the project launched - as Australia burns 
and floods simultaneously and meaningful global action on climate change 
appears to be painfully slow if not, totally non-existent, we are 
revisiting the original contributors and asking them the same question 
once more.

'ITHYF 5' is a collection of these letters.
https://www.isthishowyoufeel.com/ithyf5.html
https://www.isthishowyoufeel.com/

[From The Hill]
*Warren releases plan to regulate Wall Street's effect on climate change*
BY RACHEL FRAZIN - 03/02/20
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a plan over the weekend that 
would aim to fight climate change by increasing regulations on fossil 
fuel financing.
Her plan comes as some banks in recent months have said they will not 
directly finance oil and gas drilling in the arctic, as Democratic 
lawmakers step up the pressure on these institutions and as her campaign 
has lagged in the crowded Democratic nomination contest.

As president, Warren says she would require banks to report how much 
fossil fuel equity and debt they create, direct credit agencies to 
impose a climate standard and appoint financial regulators who will hold 
financial institutions accountable for climate risks.

The senator would also require major insurance companies to disclose the 
size of premiums they're getting from coal, oil and gas projects.

"I will act decisively and swiftly to manage the risk that climate 
change poses to our economy by reining in Wall Street and ensuring our 
banks, asset managers, and insurers pay the true cost of climate change 
instead of passing it on to millions of Americans," she said in an 
online post outlining the plan. "It's time to stop Wall Street from 
financing the climate crisis."

Over the past few months, some financial institutions have backed away 
from certain fossil fuel projects.

Investment firm BlackRock has said that it would pull back from 
investments in coal while JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have said 
they will stop approving loans to companies pursuing new fossil fuel 
drilling in the Arctic. Wells Fargo has also said that it does not 
directly finance oil and gas projects in the Arctic.

Democratic lawmakers have also written letters to several banks asking 
them to not finance drilling in this region.

Warren has struggled to gain traction in the early-voting states. She 
has just eight delegates while rivals Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and 
former Vice President Joe Biden have dozens.

Her environmental plans have been consistently praised by green groups.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/485443-warren-plans-to-regulate-wall-streets-effect-on-climate-change

[Beckwith video talk]
*Chat on Hard-Hitting New Report: "A Security Threat Assessment of 
Global Climate Change": 1 of 2*
Mar 7, 2020
Paul Beckwith
A new report called "A Security Threat Assessment of Global Climate 
Change" came out last month, produced by a National Security, Military 
and Intelligence Panel on Climate Change, within The Center for Climate 
and Security. I discuss the key points for each of the two warming 
scenarios; in the near term with 1-2 C of warming, and in the 
medium-long term with 2-4+ C of warming. Impact threats to society are 
already very high, and soon to be catastrophic, according to this 
hard-hitting report.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNak26YFAiQ
--
[continued discussion on security]
*A Security Threat Assessment of Global Climate Change; also Coronavirus 
Growth Rates: Part 2 of 2*
Mar 7, 2020
Paul Beckwith
I continue my chat on the dire report: A Security Threat Assessment of 
Global Climate Change. I then  discuss how China went from 278 cases of 
COVID-19 to 80,000 cases in 45 days. If USA growth rates are similar, 
401 cases today would grow to about 80,000 cases by April 21st. Growth 
rates in different countries can be similarly estimated, allowing you to 
project and prepare for what will likely happen; much variation between 
different countries depends on resources and actions. Some 
epidemiologists think 20-60% of the global population will be infected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4IPJ1SyZLk

[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming  - March 8, 2012 *
In a syndicated column, former Delaware Republican Party official 
Michael Stafford notes:

    "The far-right's capture of the GOP has gone largely unchallenged by
    more responsible voices within the Party. Jon Huntsman, for example,
    was the sole presidential candidate willing to directly confront the
    prevailing [right-wing] orthodoxy on climate and evolution. Perhaps
    this isn't surprising, given the viciousness of the attacks directed
    at dissenters. The passion for purging and purity, and the primaries
    that resemble nothing so much as heresy trials, highlight a critical
    fact about the far-right. In Conservative Wonderland,
    dissent--thoughtcrime--is the political version of a capital offense."

http://themoderatevoice.com/140941/gop-stuck-in-a-conservative-wonderland/
http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/greenfront/2012/03/michael-stafford-gop-stuck-in-a-conservative-wonderland-.html/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/

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