[✔️] April 29, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*April 29, 2021*/


[NYTimes says]
*Biden Seeks Shift in How the Nation Serves Its People*
The president’s costly proposals amount to a risky gamble that a country 
polarized along ideological and cultural lines is ready for a more 
activist government.
- -
The president, who has struggled to respond to a surge of migrants at 
the southwestern border since taking office, highlighted his proposed 
overhaul of the immigration system, discussed his goals to stem climate 
change and urged legislation to expand voting rights...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/28/us/politics/biden-speech-to-congress.html


[The Phoenix is a mythical bird reborn by fire]
*It's OK to have climate anxiety*
I do. Here's how I'm coping: by helping to create a world of climate 
justice.
Eric Holthaus
Today is a big day for me. For the very first time in my life, I set up 
an appointment with my doctor to start on anti-anxiety medication.

This step comes four years after I first started seeing a therapist for 
climate-related anxiety. Since then, I’ve written about my journey a 
lot, but never thought it would get to this point. After years of trying 
to manage on my own, I realized during the pandemic that I need more help.

I’m currently towards the end of my fourth anxiety episode of the past 
12 months. Each of them have lasted for weeks, where I’ve been unable to 
write, unable to interact with friends, unable to function normally. For 
the past two months, I’ve only opened emails that looked urgent, I 
didn’t have the energy to read anything that felt like it was going to 
increase the chaos in my head, either good or bad. (If you haven’t heard 
from me and needed to, I apologize so much).
- -
Climate anxiety without climate justice is a gateway to ecofascism. If 
you’re a white person who is scared about climate change – which is a 
completely normal thing given how much our leaders have failed us – just 
imagine how scared you’d be if people wanted you dead because of your 
skin color...
- -
While its definitely true that climate change will affect every single 
one of us, it will affect us all differently. Those who have already 
been marginalized by centuries of oppression will be hurt the worst.
Our job, as the climate anxious, is to repair that oppression, repair 
that marginalization, to make sure you’re not offloading your anxiety 
onto someone else in ways that are causing more harm...
https://thephoenix.substack.com/p/its-ok-to-have-climate-anxiety



[Nothing is stopping us]
*The Sky’s the Limit: Solar and wind energy potential is 100 times as 
much as global energy demand*
Energy transition - 23 April 2021
Solar and wind potential is far higher than that of fossil fuels and can 
meet global energy demand many times over, unlocking huge benefits for 
society.
Poor countries are the greatest beneficiaries. They have the largest 
ratio of solar and wind potential to energy demand and stand to unlock 
huge domestic benefits.
https://carbontracker.org/reports/the-skys-the-limit-solar-wind/

- -

[New Yorker]
*Renewable Energy Is Suddenly Startlingly Cheap*
Now the biggest barrier to change is the will of our politicians to take 
serious climate action.
By Bill McKibben
April 28, 202
- -
We haven’t yet fully grasped this potential because it’s happened so 
fast. In 2015, zero per cent of solar’s technical potential was 
economically viable—the small number of solar panels that existed at 
that time had to be heavily subsidized. But prices for solar energy have 
collapsed so fast over the past three years that sixty per cent of that 
potential is already economically viable. And, because costs continue to 
slide with every quarter, solar energy will be cheaper than fossil fuels 
almost everywhere on the planet by the decade’s end...
- -
Change is hard. The job of politicians is to make it easier for those 
affected, so that what must happen can happen—and within the time we’ve 
been allotted by physics. But that hard job is infinitely easier now 
that renewable energy is suddenly so cheap. The falling price puts the 
wind at our backs, as it were. It’s the greatest gift we could have been 
given as a civilization, and we dare not waste it.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/renewable-energy-is-suddenly-startlingly-cheap



[What to do about the future - video]*
**Fight or Adapt to Climate Change?*
Apr 15, 2021
ClimateAdam
Do we need adaptation or mitigation when it comes to combatting climate 
change? The truth is that we need both. But also that the 'we' that need 
adaptation aren't always the same 'we' that need mitigation...
Support ClimateAdam on patreon: http://patreon.com/climateadam​
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3cB-4LaZsM


[AGU video discussion applies to California wildfires]
*Webinar: Creating effective defensible space*
Apr 15, 2021
AGU
The second installment in the Community Wildfire Webinar Series, which 
aims to provide science-backed and community-focused information on the 
local fire landscape, best practices for wildfire preparedness, and 
resources available to residents of Carmel Valley and the surrounding 
communities.

California law requires a minimum of 100 feet of defensible space around 
all structures in areas subject to wildfires; however, state guidelines 
acknowledge that depending upon such factors as topography and 
vegetation a greater distance may be needed to protect structures and 
lives from wildfire, and encourage "community-wide" defensible space. 
This webinar is designed to give you information on how to create 
effective defensible space to help protect your life and home, while 
complying with regulatory requirements.
Previously recorded on Wednesday, 14 April 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPPOhbTme7c



[knowledge vs wisdom - and very critical of universities]
*Universities (Knowledge Factories) have Betrayed Reason and Humanity by 
Lacking All Wisdom: 1 of 2*
*How Universities Lack All Wisdom to Tackle Real-World Emergencies Like 
Abrupt Climate Change: 2 of 2*
Apr 28, 2021
Paul Beckwith
I have often wondered how humanity, in our present day and age, can be 
facing total and utter catastrophe from abrupt climate system change, 
and still have the vast multitudes of citizens, governments, and nations 
not even want to recognize the grave dangers that we face. These are not 
long term risks, in fact we face the imminent complete loss of Arctic 
Sea Ice, enormous outbursts of methane gas, mass extinctions of our 
plants and animals, and global food shortages leading to deadly 
widespread famine within a decade. How is this possible? How can society 
be so stupid? Why am I cursed to recognize the imminent and complete 
collapse of our society?

Having been within the university system and academia for many years, I 
have been constantly puzzled as to why there is no sense of societal 
danger and risk of near term collapse. The Ivory Towers of Academia have 
been completely oblivious to the existential crisis, and has done 
absolutely nothing to educate the public to these risks. The university 
is essentially a knowledge-factory to push forward the boundaries of 
knowledge in a vast array of independently siloed fields, while it has 
completely lacked the wisdom to recognize let alone address the real 
world problems that are right in front of our face. As a result, with 
zero wisdom from our esteemed institutes of learning, our society is 
teetering on the brink of complete and utter collapse from abrupt 
climate system change.

The best paper that I have read on this failure of our university system 
to address real world and imminent global problems was published two 
weeks ago and is called “How Universities Have Betrayed Reason and 
Humanity - And What’s to Be Done About It” by Nicolas Maxwell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-orLuh7lj0  part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YieLPg7L38E part 2

- -

[Hypothesis and Theory]
12 April 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2021.631631
*How Universities Have Betrayed Reason and Humanity—And What's to Be 
Done About It*
Nicholas Maxwell
Science and Technology Studies, University College London, London, 
United Kingdom
In 1984 the author published From Knowledge to Wisdom, a book that 
argues that a revolution in academia is urgently needed, so that 
problems of living, including global problems, are put at the heart of 
the enterprise, and the basic aim becomes to seek and promote wisdom, 
and not just acquire knowledge. Every discipline and aspect of academia 
needs to change, and the whole way in which academia is related to the 
rest of the social world. Universities devoted to the pursuit of 
knowledge and technological know-how betray reason and, as a result, 
betray humanity. As a result of becoming more intellectually rigorous, 
academic inquiry becomes of far greater benefit to humanity. If the 
revolution argued for all those years ago had been taken up and put into 
academic practice, we might now live in a much more hopeful world than 
the one that confronts us. Humanity might have begun to learn how to 
solve global problems; the Amazon rain forests might not face 
destruction; we might not be faced with mass extinction of species; 
Brexit might not have been voted for in the UK in 2016, and Trump might 
not have been elected President in the USA. An account is given of work 
published by the author during the years 1972–2021 that expounds and 
develops the argument. The conclusion is that we urgently need to create 
a high-profile campaign devoted to transforming universities in the way 
required so that humanity may learn how to make social progress toward a 
better, wiser, more civilized, enlightened world.

*The Betrayal*
Decades ago, in the George Orwell year of 1984, I published a book 
called From Knowledge to Wisdom1. In the book I argued that, in order to 
solve the grave global problems that threaten our future, we need to 
bring about a revolution in universities, affecting to a greater or 
lesser extent every discipline and every aspect of the University. 
Instead of giving priority to solving problems of knowledge, 
universities need to give priority to problems of living—to the problems 
we encounter in our lives, from the personal to the global. 1 The basic 
task of the University needs to be to put forward and critically assess 
possible solutions to our problems of living, possible actions, 
policies, political programmes, ways of living, philosophies of life. A 
basic task needs to be intelligently conducted public education about 
what our problems are and what we need to do about them. The University 
needs to devote itself to helping people achieve what is genuinely of 
value in life. The pursuit of knowledge and technological know-how is, 
of course, vital, but it needs to be conducted as a secondary matter, 
not the primary pursuit of the University.

 From Knowledge to Wisdom was widely and favorably reviewed at the time. 
It received a glowing review in Nature by Christopher Longuet-Higgins,2 
and another by Mary Midgley in the University Quarterly (Midgley, 1986). 
The book went into paperback twice. And then went out of print and was 
forgotten.

If what I argued for, in 1984, had been taken up and put into academic 
practice in ensuing years, we might now live in a very different world 
from the one we find ourselves in. We might have come to grips with 
global warming long ago, and might not now face the appalling climate 
crisis that menaces our future. Much more might have been done to rid 
the world of nuclear weapons. The Amazon rain forests might not face 
destruction. We might not be faced with mass extinction of species. The 
oceans might not be full of plastic. The internet might not have been 
allowed to corrupt democracy and public life. Brexit might not have been 
voted for in the UK in 2016, and Trump might not have been elected 
President in the USA. Many more nations might have dealt with the 
coronavirus pandemic swiftly and competently, thus preventing hundreds 
of thousands of deaths. It is my personal view that we would now live in 
a much saner and more hopeful world.

What gives me such confidence that my 1984 book would have had such an 
astonishing impact if taken up and put into practice? It is this. If 
what I argued for had been put into practice, all those years ago, 
universities would have been actively and energetically engaged in 
helping people resolve conflicts and problems of living in increasingly 
cooperatively rational ways. All those who now seek knowledge in the 
social sciences and humanities would have acted very differently; they 
would have gone out into the community to do what they could to spread 
social awareness about what our problems are, and what we need to do 
about them. Peoples' Councils would have been formed, up and down the 
land, all around the world, devoted to working out what needs to be done 
to resolve local and global problems—what governments need to do to 
enable populations to resolve such problems, and what needs to be done 
to get governments so to act. Rapid population growth, destruction of 
natural habitats, loss of wild life and mass extinction of species, war 
and the threat of war, the menace of nuclear weapons, vast inequalities 
of wealth and power around the world, pollution of earth, air and sea, 
threats to democracy from social media, and perhaps most serious of all, 
global warming: what to do to resolve these global problems would have 
received sustained public discussion and attention3.

If, during the past 30 years or so, our institutions of learning, our 
schools and universities, had been actively and energetically engaged in 
promoting public learning about such problems as these, and what to do 
about them—actively and energetically engaged in promoting public action 
to help resolve these problems—we have every reason to suppose that this 
would have had an impact—although how big an impact may be open to 
question. Many people, many communities, would have learnt about what 
our problems are, what needs to be done to solve them, and would have 
acted to help bring solutions about.

But universities have done none of this. They have, as I have said, 
devoted themselves to the pursuit of specialized knowledge and 
technological know-how. ..
- -
Here, very briefly, is what needs to be done to correct the three 
blunders of the Enlightenment.

(1) The scientific community today takes standard empiricism for 
granted, the view that the basic aim of science is truth, the basic 
method being the impartial assessment of laws and theories with respect 
to evidence. But this view, inherited from Newton and the Enlightenment, 
is untenable. Physics only ever accepts unified theories even though 
infinitely many empirically more successful disunified rivals always 
exist. The aim of physics (and so of natural science) is not truth per 
se, but rather truth presupposed to be unified. There are problematic 
metaphysical assumptions inherent in the aims of science, and 
problematic value and political assumptions as well. If science is to 
proceed in such a way as to maximize its chances of success, it needs to 
adopt and implement a new conception of the progress-achieving methods 
of science—aim-oriented empiricism—which represent the problematic 
assumptions implicit in the aims of science in the form of a hierarchy 
of assumptions, these assumptions becoming increasingly insubstantial as 
one goes up the hierarchy, and so increasingly likely to be true, and 
increasingly such that their truth is required for science to be 
possible at all. In this way, a relatively stable framework of 
assumptions and associated methods is created, high up in the hierarchy, 
within which much more substantial assumptions, and associated methods, 
low down in the hierarchy, and very likely to be false, can be 
critically assessed, and improved, in the light of which lead to the 
most empirically successful research programmes. As science advances and 
improves knowledge, it improves its aims and methods, its knowledge 
about how to improve knowledge.

(2) It is not just in science that basic aims are problematic; this is 
the case in life too. Indeed, most of our global problems have arisen 
because we have pursued aims that seemed, initially, good and 
unproblematic, but subsequently turned out to have highly undesirable, 
unforeseen consequences (such as global warming). Aim-oriented 
empiricism is not just vital for science; when generalized, it becomes 
vital for personal and social life too. We need to generalize 
aim-oriented empiricism to form a conception of rationality—aim-oriented 
rationality—designed to facilitate the improvement of problematic aims 
whatever we may be doing. According to aim-oriented rationality, 
whenever aims are problematic, as they often are, we need to represent 
them in the form of a hierarchy, aims becoming increasingly unspecific 
and unproblematic as we go up the hierarchy, so that we create a 
framework of unproblematic aims and methods within which much more 
specific and problematic aims and methods, low down in the hierarchy, 
can be improved as we act, as we live.

(3) The proper task of social inquiry and the humanities is to help 
humanity resolve conflicts and problems of living, including global 
problems, in increasingly cooperatively rational ways. It is also the 
task of social inquiry to help humanity build aim-oriented rationality 
into the fabric of social life, into all our other institutions and 
social endeavors besides science, so that we can make use of 
progress-achieving methods, that enable us to improve problematic aims 
as we act, that are derived from the progress-achieving methods of 
science. The hope is that, as a result, we can begin to make social 
progress toward a civilized, enlightened world with something of the 
success that science achieves in making progress toward greater knowledge.

As a result of correcting the three blunders built into academia today 
that we have inherited from the Enlightenment, knowledge-inquiry is 
transformed into wisdom-inquiry. Almost every discipline and aspect of 
academia is transformed. The social sciences become social 
methodologies, actively engaged in helping people resolve conflicts and 
problems of living in increasingly cooperatively rational ways, and 
providing the methodological means to do that. Natural science is 
transformed into natural philosophy, a synthesis of science and 
metaphysics, science and philosophy. Social inquiry becomes 
intellectually more fundamental than natural science. The relationship 
between academia and society is transformed; social inquiry and the 
humanities do not just study society; they interact with society, 
promote learning and appropriate action in the social world. Academia 
becomes a kind of people's civil service, doing openly for the public 
what actual civil services are supposed to do in secret for governments.

Humanity is in deep trouble, in part because our institutions of 
learning, our universities, have long been seriously defective 
intellectually, and thus dysfunctional. Most academics today appreciate 
just how serious is the plight that we are in, and there is the 
beginning of an awareness that universities are not doing all that they 
might do to help put a stop to climate change and the degradation of the 
natural world. This special issue of Frontiers is an indication of the 
growing awareness among academics that universities need to change. I 
hope my academic colleagues will burst free of the irrational 
constraints of knowledge-inquiry, and do all they can to inspire the 
public to put pressure on governments to act now to put a stop to 
impending disaster.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsus.2021.631631/full


[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - April 29, 1999 *

The ExxonMobil-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute names former Rep. 
Jack Kemp (R-NY) its first "Distinguished Fellow." Two years later, in a 
Washington Times op-ed, Kemp asserts that the scientific evidence 
pointing to human-caused climate change is inconclusive.

http://cei.org/news-releases/jack-kemp-named-distinguished-fellow-competitive-enterprise-institute

http://cei.org/op-eds-and-articles/warming-diplomacyat-what-cost


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