[✔️] April 16, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Fri Apr 16 10:43:20 EDT 2021
/*April 16, 2021*/
[Yeah, but does it self clean?]
*Whitest-ever paint could help cool heating Earth, study shows*
New paint reflects 98% of sunlight as well as radiating infrared heat
into space, reducing need for air conditioning
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/15/whitest-ever-paint-could-help-cool-heating-earth-study-shows
[Opinion in NYTimes]
*Why Spy Agencies Say the Future Is Bleak*
Climate change, technology, disease and financial crises will pose big
challenges for the world, an intelligence report concludes.
By The Editorial Board
April 15, 2021
Every four years, at the start of a new administration, American
intelligence agencies put out “Global Trends,” a weighty assessment of
where the world seems headed over the next two decades...
- -
Global Trends offers no solutions. It can’t, by law: The 18
organizations that make up the intelligence community, including the
National Security Agency and C.I.A., are sternly proscribed from giving
policy recommendations...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/opinion/global-trends-intelligence-report.html
- -
[See the source document]
Publication of the National Intelligence Council.
*Global Trends 2040*
-- the 7th edition of the National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends
report, p 48
*BROADER IMPLICATIONS AND DISRUPTIONS*
In addition to direct physical effects of climate change, states and
societies are likely to be
strained by hard choices and tradeoffs given the difficulty and costs of
drastic emissions
cuts and adaptive measures. The burden of these steps will not be evenly
distributed
within or between states, and the long-term payoff of mitigation
policies runs counter to
political incentives, making it difficult to sustain controversial
commitments.
The secondand third-order implications of climate change will affect
human and national security in
several ways. Drive Societal Cleavages and Political Movements. Concerns
about climate change
have grown across the globe with hundreds of thousands of
protesters—mostly young
people—marching in the streets advocating for faster change. Policy
responses to mitigate
or adapt to climate change also contribute to political
volatility—particularly when they
are linked to broader socio-political interests—such as the French
protests against fuel
price hikes in 2018. In Europe, nationalist and populist parties have
capitalized on public
concerns about the economic hardships associated with climate mitigation
policies,
and they have framed their opposition in terms of equality and social
justice for working
class populations.
Increased Pressure for Global Action. As warming continues to rise,
there will be
more debate and tension among countries over transparency, cuts, and
responsibility...
https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/GlobalTrends_2040.pdf
[video 'splain 2 min]
*Exploring Timelapse in Google Earth*
Apr 15, 2021
See humanity’s impact on the Earth through a global time-lapse video of
the planet since 1984.
Explore the whole planet: https://goo.gle/timelapse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W-zPqrGQWA
- -
[CNET article]
*Google's new Timelapse feature shows impact of climate change over decades*
"We can objectively see global warming with our own eyes," says the
director of Google Earth.
https://www.cnet.com/news/googles-new-timelapse-feature-shows-impact-of-climate-change-over-decades/
[Nice, but whole-global would be better]
*McCarthy hails 'whole-of-government approach' to climate*
White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy expressed optimism
Thursday about the utility of a “whole-of-government approach” to
tackling climate change.
“The whole of government approach is not to pigeonhole the challenge of
climate, but to recognize that it… needs to be integrated into
everything that we do,” McCarthy said Thursday at The Hill’s
Sustainability Imperative event.
McCarthy said that despite the daunting challenges posed by climate
issues, a much broader consensus about the fact of climate change would
change the calculus...
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/548546-mccarthy-hails-whole-of-government-approach-to-climate
- -
[watch experts lecture Congress on the risk of inaction]
*Hearing of the Committee on the Budget *
Thursday, April 15, 2021
*To consider: The Cost of Inaction on Climate Change*
video
https://www.budget.senate.gov/hearings/the-cost-of-inaction-on-climate-change
- -
Witnesses [Starts 35 mins in]
Mr. David Wallace-Wells
Editor At Large, New York Magazine
Author, The Uninhabitable Earth
transcripts
https://www.budget.senate.gov/download/david-wallace-wells-testimony-4-15
- -
Dr. Robert B. Litterman
Chair, Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
transcript
https://www.budget.senate.gov/download/robert-litterman-testimony-4-15
- -
Dr. Joseph Stiglitz
Professor Of Economics
Columbia University
https://www.budget.senate.gov/download/joseph-stiglitz-testimony-4-15
- -
Mr. George R. Oliver
Chairman And CEO, Johnson Controls
Chair, Business Roundtable Energy and Environment Committee
https://www.budget.senate.gov/download/george-oliver-testimony-4-15
- -
Mr. Richard J. Powell
Executive Director
ClearPath Inc.
https://www.budget.senate.gov/download/richard-powell-testimony-4-15
full video of hearing
https://www.budget.senate.gov/hearings/the-cost-of-inaction-on-climate-change
[Russia]
*Russia may have passed peak oil output - Government*
By The Moscow Times - April 12, 2021
Russian oil production might never recover to pre-coronavirus levels,
the country’s Energy Ministry has forecast, according to the Kommersant
business paper.
In a strategy document outlining prospects for Russia’s critical oil and
gas industry, the government said its “base case” — or most likely —
scenario is that Russia’s oil production will never again hit the record
levels recorded in 2019.
In the last full year before the pandemic, Russia produced 560 million
tons of oil — equivalent to 11.3 million barrels a day. But output
dropped for the first time in more than a decade in 2020 as Russia
agreed on significant production cuts with Saudi Arabia and other
members of the OPEC cartel in a bid to support oil prices at the start
of the pandemic — pushing production down 9% to 10.3 million barrels per
day.
In the scenario labeled most probable, the Energy Ministry predicts
Russia’s oil output will grow over the rest of the decade — but fail to
hit the record output of 2019, with production hitting a
post-coronavirus peak of 11.1 million barrels a day in 2029 before
decreasing to 9.4 million barrels a day by 2035.
Russia vies with Saudi Arabia to be the world’s second-largest oil
producer, behind the world-leading U.S. The Russian economy remains
heavily dependent on energy exports, with revenues in pre-pandemic years
accounting for more than a third of the government’s total budget and
all extractive industries — covering oil, gas and other commodities —
accounting for almost 40% of Russian GDP, according to the country’s
statistics agency Rosstat.
In its most optimistic scenario, the Energy Ministry expects production
to pass pre-coronavirus levels, peaking in 2030 at 12.8 million barrels
a day before starting to decline. In every scenario presented, the
Energy Ministry said Russian oil production had either already peaked,
or would hit its maximum level within the next decade, Kommersant reported.
Russia remains poorly positioned to take advantage of the global energy
transition to cleaner and renewable sources of energy, experts say.
While countries in Europe and the U.S. have put clean energy at the
center of their post-coronavirus economic stimulus and investment
packages, Russia is reportedly planning to cut state spending on green
energy. Analysts estimate that if every project currently in development
is completed in time, Russia’s electricity generation from renewable
sources, excluding hydropower, will be just 1% by 2024.
“While international oil [majors] are falling over themselves in their
business transformation potential to become ‘clean,’ Russians are
unlikely to compete with them in this renewables drive,” VTB Capital’s
deputy head of oil and gas research Dmitry Loukashov said in a research
note last week.
He does believe, however, that the Russian oil and gas industry could
capitalize on so-called transition fuels, like hydrogen or ammonia, as
well as take a leading role in investment and research into carbon
capture technology.
The Energy Ministry strategy outlines that government tax cuts to
high-potential oil fields, such as those in the Arctic region, will be
crucial in helping the country maximize the potential of the vast energy
resources it still sits on.
If oil prices lag, it estimates that only a third of Russia’s proven
reserves will be profitable to extract, while even in the most
optimistic scenario, with higher global oil prices, only two-thirds of
Russia’s recoverable reserves will be taken out of the ground.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/04/12/russia-may-have-passed-peak-oil-output-government-a73558
[The Lancet Countdown]
VOLUME 397, ISSUE 10269, P129-170, JANUARY 09, 2021
*The 2020 report of The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change:
responding to converging crises*
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32290-X/fulltext
[Humor, satire, sarcasm -- Facebook warning]
*On this day in the history of global warming - April 16, 1912 *
https://www.facebook.com/20950654496/posts/10150732650689497
https://www.facebook.com/TheOnion/photos/p.10150732650629497/10150732650629497/
Abstract
Purpose – To explore the nature of metaphorical thinking in marketing
and consumer research, with particular emphasis on consumers’
metaphor-manufacturing proclivities. Methods/approach – The chapter
concentrates on one of the most compelling and powerful metaphors of the
20th century, the sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912. It uses
introspective methods to interrogate consumers’ figurative
interpretations of the iconic catastrophe. Findings – Four categories of
consumer metaphor-making are identified: negative, positive, reflexive
and visual. Research implications – The profusion of Titanic tropes
suggests that researchers should resist unearthing ‘deep’ metaphors and
focus instead on ‘wide’ metaphors, those that spread across the surface
of society and culture. Practical implications – ZMET, the widely used
metaphorical elicitation procedure, warrants a complement called TMET.
This Titanic Metaphor Elaboration Tendency is better attuned to
contemporary branding thinking than its more familiar predecessor.
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