[TheClimate.Vote] November 1, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sun Nov 1 11:32:46 EST 2020
/*November 1, 2020*/
[Climate Feedback - checking sources]
*Guardian article on Arctic methane emissions claiming "a new climate
feedback loop may have been triggered" lacks important context*
Analysis of "'Sleeping giant' Arctic methane deposits starting to
release, scientists find"
Published in The Guardian, by Jonathan Watts on 27 Oct. 2020
Four scientists analyzed the article and estimate its overall scientific
credibility to be 'low'.
A majority of reviewers tagged the article as: Clickbait headline, Lack
of context.
*Science Feedback is a not-for-profit organization verifying the
credibility of influential claims and media coverage that claims to be
scientific, starting with the topics of climate and health.*
https://sciencefeedback.co/about/
https://climatefeedback.org/evaluation/guardian-article-on-arctic-methane-emissions-lacks-important-context-jonathan-watts/
[fundamental question in the New Yorker]
*How Should the Media Talk About Climate Change?*
Genevieve Guenther, a former Renaissance scholar, studies how we discuss
global warming--and how we don't.
By Lizzie Widdicombe
- -
Guenther runs a volunteer group called End Climate Silence, which is
focussed on combatting something more subtle than the aggressive climate
denial espoused by Trump and his allies in government, or on Fox News:
when news anchors or weather forecasters breathlessly cover an
extreme-weather event--a hurricane, drought, forest fire, or heat
wave--without ever mentioning the C-phrase. Instead, they'll talk around
it, using terms like "historic," "unprecedented," and
"record-shattering." According to Guenther, this silence is just as
pernicious as denial. "There is a name for the unprecedented intensity
and scale and relentlessness of extreme-weather disasters," she said.
"Climate change." She added, "If you fail to mention that, it gives
people the impression that it's not happening--that these disasters are
acts of God."...
- -
Guenther began to think that she might have something to contribute to
the dialogue. "In Renaissance literature, there's a rhetorical principle
called energia--energy or vividness," she said. "It means that, if
you're trying to persuade your reader, you need to give them vivid
images that will capture their imaginations." She found most "climate
communications" to be energia-deficient. "It was too data-driven and
abstract. It would talk about ice and the sea and polar bears--none of
the things that made it urgent and personal to me." Instead of the
Shakespeare book, she began writing a book about what she calls "the
language of climate change." It analyzes common words and phrases in the
field, arguing that many of them are counterproductive, "misrepresenting
the problem and biasing us against the solutions."
Researchers such as Naomi Oreskes have documented the ways that, over
the years, fossil-fuel interests have weaponized the notion of
"scientific uncertainty" to manipulate public opinion. In one chapter,
Guenther focusses on the word "uncertainty" itself. "For normal people,
you hear 'uncertainty' and it suggests that you don't know something,"
she explained. "But in climate science 'uncertainty' basically means a
range of possible outcomes. As in, 'The uncertainty interval is from 1.5
degrees Celsius to three degrees Celsius.' The synonym for that is
confidence."
She also dislikes the word "consensus"--as in "the scientific consensus
on climate change"--because it gives rise to the vaguely conspiratorial
image of a group of scientists getting together and coming to an
agreement. "In science, consensus doesn't refer to a discussion," she
said. "It means knowledge that arises from independent research projects
which all achieve the same results." She prefers the term "discovery."
And she takes issue with the ubiquitous "we," as in, "We could have
stopped climate change in the nineteen-eighties." "You think this little
pronoun is so innocent, but it actually obscures the political reality
of the whole problem," she said, bringing up the vast differences in the
carbon emissions of rich and poor countries, and the role of the
fossil-fuel industry in blocking solutions. She has written that,
instead of thinking of climate change as something that "we are doing,"
most people should think of it as "something we are being prevented from
undoing."...
- -
"It's important, because you see from polling that one of the greatest
predictors of people's belief in global warming is how much they hear
about it. There's not a magic set of words," Jamie Henn, a 350.org
co-founder who now runs a group called Fossil Free Media, said. "We
often see that, especially for TV, you get more coverage on climate when
people complain about it."...
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/how-should-the-media-talk-about-climate-change
- -
[video lecture]
*Genevieve Guenther: Keywords for a New Climate - 9/29/19*
Oct 1, 2019
New York Society for Ethical Culture
Why is there not a bigger movement of people demanding our governments
take action on climate change? Part of the problem is that we talk about
climate change in ways that uphold the ideals of the fossil-fuel system
we're trying to transform. Using the words "uncertainty," "cost,"
"resilience," and "we" as examples, Dr. Guenther will discuss how to
think and talk about the climate crisis in ways that mobilize political
action.
Genevieve Guenther, Ph.D. is Affiliate Faculty at the Tishman
Environment and Design Center at The New School and the founder and
director of End Climate Silence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncl-FkXFBI4
[Check the data]
*Despite what the logging industry says, cutting down trees isn't
stopping catastrophic wildfires*
By Tony Schick (OPB)
Gates, Ore. Oct. 31, 2020 6 a.m.
For decades, Oregon's timber industry has promoted the idea that
private, logged lands are less prone to wildfires. The problem? Science
doesn't support that.
https://www.opb.org/article/2020/10/31/logging-wildfire-forest-management/
[Interactive map - gender most affected by climate change]
Carbon Brief
29 October 2020
*Mapped: How climate change disproportionately affects women's health.*
From supercharging extreme weather events to boosting the spread of
infectious diseases, climate change is already having a huge impact on
human health across the world.
But this impact is not being felt equally. A growing body of research
suggests that the world's most disadvantaged people are also the most
vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change and the least likely
to be able to adapt...
- -
Out of the 130 climate and health studies analysed, around 68% (89)
found that women were more affected than men.
Across the world, women are more likely than men to be affected by
climate-related food insecurity and are also more likely to suffer from
mental illness or partner violence following extreme weather events.
"It has more to do with societal roles rather than physiological
differences. I tend to say climate change is exacerbating existing
inequalities, be that gender or other inequalities."
https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-how-climate-change-disproportionately-affects-womens-health
- -
[2016 PDF file]
*Gender and Climate Change:*
A Closer Look at Existing Evidence
About this Report
Perceiving a gap in the resources available to individuals and
organizations concerned about the gendered experiences
of climate change, GGCA commissioned this literature
review in early 2016 in order to provide the most up-todate assessment
of the current evidence base illustrating
how vulnerability to climate change and climate adaptation
decisions vary by gender. This is designed to serve as a
resource highlighting literature addressing a broad array
of gender and climate issues affecting vulnerability and
adaptation capacity. While this document contains hundreds of
references, due to space limitations, it is not able to provide
a comprehensive assessment of every topic covered. Readers
are directed to the literature reviews cited below for additional
sources, as well as subject-specific references that are
contained in many sections of the review, which often contain
information on additional research.
http://wedo.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GGCA-RP-FINAL.pdf
[necessary changes both personal and radical]
*The Psychology of Climate Change with Robert Frank*
Feb 11, 2020
University of California Television (UCTV)
After more than three decades, the public is finally beginning to grasp
what a serious threat global warming poses. What's missing from the
climate conversation now is a plausible narrative about how we might
parry this threat. Drawing on ideas from his recently published book,
Under the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work, Robert Frank
explains why our ability to tap the prodigious power of behavioral
contagion may make the path forward less daunting than many think.
Recorded on 1/27/2020. [3/2020] [Show ID: 35561]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQbas9rN43o&feature=youtu.be
[Hidden Brain radio - considering political deep involvement]
*Not at the Dinner Table*
October 29
We typically divide the country into two distinct groups: Democrats and
Republicans. But what if the real political divide in our country isn't
between "left" and "right"? What if it's between those who care
intensely about politics, and those who don't?
This week we talk to Yanna Krupnikov, a political scientist at Stony
Brook University, about an alternative way to understand Americans'
political views.
https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/not-at-the-dinner-table/
[after Halloween]
E&E News EXTREME WEATHER
*5 climate ghost towns*
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063717401
[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - November 1, 1987 *
At a Democratic presidential candidates' forum on the environment in
Manchester, New Hampshire, Boston Globe environmental reporter Dianne
Dumanoski asks Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis and Sen. Al Gore about
their plans to address acid rain and climate change. Dukakis and Gore
note that the US must show global leadership on both issues.
http://c-spanvideo.org/program/Envir - (starts at 19:55-26:44)
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