[TheClimate.Vote] May 11, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*May 11, 2020*/

[Says USA TODAY]
*Fact check: The coronavirus pandemic isn't slowing climate change**
*

Despite the drop, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
has said 2020 is already the second-warmest year on record, and has a 
75% chance of being the hottest ever.

"Our findings show that the annual average CO2 concentrations will still 
increase through this year, even though emissions are reducing," a team 
from the United Kingdom's National Weather Service said in a recent 
study, adding "This means that, although global emissions are smaller, 
they are still continuing -- just at a slower rate. Additional CO2 is 
still accumulating in the atmosphere."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/05/11/fact-check-coronavirus-pandemic-isnt-slowing-climate-change/3090790001/

- - -

[Grist]
*Coronavirus is a make-or-break moment for climate change, economists say*
- -
The top climate-friendly policies were no-brainers: Experts recommended 
investing in low-carbon transportation (think trains, subways, and 
electric vehicle charging), clean energy research (such as improving 
battery storage and researching methods to store carbon deep 
underground), and decarbonizing the electricity grid. All of these 
measures would cut carbon emissions as well as provide great long-term 
returns for each dollar of government spending.

But for every climate-friendly policy, there was another that would keep 
carbon dioxide spewing into the atmosphere. The economists surveyed 
believed that no-strings-attached airline bailouts -- such as the $25 
billion bailout recently approved by the Trump administration -- would 
be terrible for the climate and also unlikely to deliver much of an 
economic boost. Income tax cuts and traditional transportation 
investments (like building more roads or airports) also ranked poorly...
- -
Emissions are temporarily down due to global lockdowns, but the 
economists behind the Oxford study warn that they could rebound with a 
vengeance as nations recover. Without the right policies, they write, 
"We will leap from the COVID frying pan into the climate fire."
https://grist.org/climate/coronavirus-is-a-make-or-break-moment-for-climate-change-economists-say/

- - -

[What trumps Trump?]
*Will the Coronavirus Crisis Trump the Climate Crisis?*
The battle over how to spend recovery funds -- to quickly restore the 
old economy or invest in a greener one -- will define the post-pandemic 
world.
- -
Jean Pisani-Ferry, an economist and former aide to President Emmanuel 
Macron of France, described this as the struggle that "will define the 
post-pandemic world."

For green militants, the virus "only strengthens the urgent need for 
climate action,'' he wrote recently. "But die-hard industrialists are 
equally convinced: There should be no higher priority than to repair a 
ravaged economy, postponing stricter environmental regulations if 
necessary. The battle has started.''

As European governments squabble bitterly over a virus-recovery fund and 
the next seven-year budget, the issue is front and center.

The European Union began the year promoting a plan for a rapid 
transformation of the economy toward a carbon-neutral future -- "the 
Green Deal" -- as its flagship theme and engine for renewed growth.
European leaders insist that some form of it will remain paramount, but 
the new coronavirus has complicated matters...
- -
Mujtaba Rahman, chief European analyst for the Eurasia Group, is also 
more optimistic.

"The Green Deal is essentially about money and it's a great lubricant, 
even in Central and Eastern Europe,'' he said. "If a substantial chunk 
of the budget is for climate spending, that will incentivize them to 
engage,'' despite their doubts about energy transition and questions 
around burden sharing.

Diederik Samsom, Mr. Timmermans' head of cabinet, is working to revise 
the Green Deal to cope with the new crisis.

"Yes, there is a demand for a green recovery, but also a demand for jobs 
and growth,'' he said. "If we can combine that, we can do what we want. 
If we cannot, forget about it.''
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/09/world/europe/will-the-coronavirus-crisis-trump-the-climate-crisis.html



[AOC conversation]
*Shelter in Place with Shane Smith & Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Extended 
Episode)*
May 1, 2020
VICE News
5.37M subscribers
Shane talks with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about who is 
hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, and political dysfunction in 
Washington.

    "The thing about scientific crises -- whether it's coronavirus or
      climate change -- is that they happen no matter what and so there's
    a certain force of nature aspect that...they have to contend with...in a
    large degree."

https://youtu.be/8JEY70REdhY



[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - May 11, 2009*

May 11, 2009: Boston Phoenix writer David Bernstein notes that the GOP's 
rejection of climate science will eventually cost the party votes:

"Republicans have a lot to say about the immorality of saddling the next 
generation with our national debt. But when it comes to leaving them a 
wrecked, depleted, and rapidly warming planet, they are taking the exact 
opposite line. That's especially odd when you consider how important 
that next generation is to the faltering GOP -- and how broadly united 
those voters, known as Millennials, are in their concern over global 
warming and other energy and environment issues.

"GOP leaders claim to be courting these young adults, but that 
apparently extends only to their use of Twitter and promises of a 
"hip-hop" party makeover. Meanwhile, they seem intent on not just 
opposing but wildly denouncing and denigrating this generation's most 
unifying issue.

"Even the most senior Republican leaders, and the top GOP lawmakers on 
energy and environment committees, keep shooting themselves in the foot 
by spewing antiquated, anti-science nonsense.

"If they continue this type of Neanderthal posturing, the GOP is going 
to lose something a lot more valuable than its old moderates, like 
Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter, who last week switched parties to 
become a Democrat.

"Those who study Millennial politics say that the Republican Party is on 
the verge of completely alienating the coming generation -- just as 
previous controversial platforms it has endorsed ensured that the party 
kissed off such huge demographic swaths as African-Americans, single 
women, and Hispanics, who at present vote overwhelmingly Democratic."

http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/82563-generation-green/#ixzz2kqi0L9hP

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


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