[✔️] August 5, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

👀 Richard Pauli richard at theclimate.vote
Thu Aug 5 09:08:48 EDT 2021 

/*August 5, 2021*/

[fire]
*Fire engulfs Northern California town of Greenville, leveling businesses*
By Associated Press - August 5, 2021 |
https://nypost.com/2021/08/05/northern-california-wildfire-engulfs-town-of-greenville-levels-businesses/amp/

- -

[video BBC]
*Greece wildfires force people to flee island by boat*
Scores of people on the Greek island of Evia were forced to flee by boat 
as wildfire spread rapidly, destroying homes in its wake.
The blaze on the island, north of Athens, forced villages to be evacuated.
Fires also threatened the outskirts of Greece's capital.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-58093275

- -

[Moscow Times]
*Russia Sees Record Wildfire Spread as Siberian Blazes Rage On*
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/08/04/russia-sees-record-wildfire-spread-as-siberian-blazes-rage-on-a74695

- -

[widespread fires]
*Turkish power plant overtaken by wildfires | DW News*
Aug 5, 2021
DW News
A thermal power plant on Turkey's Aegean coast was evacuated Wednesday 
as it was overtaken by wildfires. Workers at the site had previously 
emptied cooling tanks filled with hydrogen as a precaution. The AFP news 
agency reported firefighters, police and workers fleeing the scene as 
flames roared into the site. "Flames have entered the Kermekoy thermal 
power plant," said Mayor Muhammet Tokat of the town of Milas, in 
southwestern Turkey. The plant uses coal and fuel oil to produce 
electricity. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in the middle of 
a televised interview when the evacuation began, saying, "the power 
plant is at risk of burning," and adding, "There has been a tremendous 
wind. Otherwise, it would have been easier to contain."

Fires in Turkey have been raging for more than a week, destroying large 
areas of forest along the country's Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, 
displacing thousands and killing eight. On Wednesday, Agriculture and 
Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said temperatures in Marmaris on the 
Aegean coast had shattered records, hitting 45.5 degrees Celsius (114 
degrees Fahrenheit). "We are fighting a very serious war," he told 
reporters, "I urge everyone to be patient."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTIMKbdGT4k



[Top opinion today]
*Our leaders look climate change in the eyes, and shrug*
Hamilton Nolan - - 4 Aug 2021
It is not good to be too pessimistic on the climate crisis. That said, 
it sure does seem like we’re screwed...
- -
It is easy to imagine that a real live existential threat to our way of 
life would prompt any society to assume war footing and marshal 
everything it has to fight for survival. Unfortunately, this response 
only takes hold in actual war situations, where the threat is “other 
people that we can shoot and kill in glorious fashion”. When the threat 
comes not from enemy people, but from our own nature, we find it much 
harder to rise to the occasion. Where is the glory in recognizing the 
folly of our own greed and profligacy? Leaders are not elected on such 
things. We want leaders who will give us more, leading us ever onwards, 
upwards and into the grave...
- -
The G20 is a perfect model of our collective failure to build 
institutions capable of coping with deep, long-term, existential 
problems that cannot be solved by building more weapons. On the one 
hand, the head of the United Nations says that there is no way for the 
world to meet its 1.5C warming goal without the leadership of the G20; 
on the other hand, a recent analysis found that G20 members have, in the 
past five years, paid $3.3tn in subsidies for fossil fuel production and 
consumption. The same group that claims to be bailing out humanity’s 
sinking ship with one hand is busily setting it aflame with the other 
hand. It is not good to be too pessimistic on climate change, because we 
must maintain the belief that we can win this battle if we are to have 
any hope at all. That said, it sure does seem like we’re screwed.

As overwhelming and omnipresent as the climate crisis is, it is not the 
core issue. The core issue is capitalism. Capitalism’s unfettered 
pursuit of economic growth is what caused climate change, and 
capitalism’s inability to reckon with externalities – the economic term 
for a cost that falls onto third parties – is what is preventing us from 
solving climate change. Indeed, climate change itself is the ultimate 
negative externality: fossil-fuel companies and assorted polluting 
corporations and their investors get all the benefits, and the rest of 
the world pays the price. Now the entire globe finds itself trapped in 
the gruesome logic of capitalism, where it is perfectly rational for the 
rich to continue doing something that is destroying the earth, as long 
as the profits they reap will allow them to insulate themselves from the 
consequences.

Congratulations, free market evangelists: this is the system you have 
built. It doesn’t work. I don’t want to lean too heavily on the 
touchy-feely, Gaia-esque interpretation of global warming as the 
inevitable wounds of an omniscient Mother Earth, but you must admit that 
viewing humanity and its pollution as a malicious virus set to be 
eradicated by nature is now a fairly compelling metaphor. Homo sapiens 
rose above the lesser animals thanks to our ability to wield logic and 
reason, yet we have somehow gotten ourselves to a place where the 
knowledge of what is driving all these wildfires and floods is not 
enough to enable us to do anything meaningful to stop it. The keystone 
experience of global capitalism is to gape at a drought-fueled fire as 
it consumes your home, and then go buy a bigger SUV to console yourself...
- -
Of course we need a price on carbon. Of course we need extremely strict 
emissions regulations, massive green energy investments, and a maniacal 
focus on sustainability fierce enough to radically change a society that 
is built to promote unlimited consumption. But, to be honest, there is 
little indication that we will get those things any time soon. The path 
we are on, still, is not one that leads to a happy ending. Rather, it is 
one that leads to the last billionaire standing on dry land blasting off 
in his private rocket as the rest of us drown in rising seas.

Capitalism is a machine made to squeeze every last cent out of this 
planet until there is nothing left. We can either fool ourselves about 
that until it kills us, or we can change it.
Hamilton Nolan is a writer based in New York
https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/04/climate-change-crisis-environment-politics



[New Yorker audio and text interview]
*John Kerry on the Unfathomable Stakes of the Next U.N. Climate-Change 
Conference*
Ahead of a major summit, the first special Presidential envoy for 
climate discusses the diplomatic tightrope he faces post-Trump, and the 
best outcome he can hope to achieve.
David Remnick -- August 03, 2021
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/john-kerry-on-the-unfathomable-stakes-of-the-next-un-climate-change-conference/amp


[information battleground - we are not surprised]
*Shell sponsored a museum exhibit on climate solutions. There were 
strings attached*
The exhibit centers on technologies that oil and gas companies say will 
allow them to keep selling fossil fuels
By EMILY PONTECORVO - - AUG 3, 2021

The day the Science Museum in London opened its latest exhibition on 
climate change in May, a group of scientists from the climate activist 
group Extinction Rebellion locked themselves inside in protest. Their 
gripe? The exhibit, called "Our Future Planet," which highlights the 
promise of technologies to suck up carbon dioxide from the air or from 
industrial smokestacks, was sponsored by the oil and gas giant Shell.

The sponsorship first sparked outcry when it was announced in April. "We 
condemn the Science Museum's decision to accept this sponsorship and 
provide Shell with an opportunity for brazen green-washing," the U.K. 
Student Climate Network wrote in an open letter at the time. The Science 
Museum Group's director defended the exhibit and the sponsorship, saying 
"we retain editorial control."

But on Thursday, new evidence emerged showing that the money Shell 
offered for the exhibit was not unconditional. Culture Unstained, an 
activist group whose aim is "to end fossil fuel sponsorship of culture," 
obtained Shell's sponsorship contractwith the Science Museum under 
freedom of information act laws. The contract stipulates that the museum 
could not take any action that would be seen "as discrediting or 
damaging the goodwill or reputation of the Sponsor."...
- -
Shell has made a commitment to reduce its emissions to net-zero by 2050, 
but its plan is to keep selling oil and gas while relying heavily on 
carbon capture and storage, as well as so-called nature-based solutions, 
like planting trees, to offset its emissions. In May, a Dutch court 
ruled that Shell's plans were not in line with the Paris Agreement and 
ordered the company to cut emissions more quickly. Shell is appealing 
the verdict.

A museum exhibit that teaches people about carbon capture and carbon 
removal could be seen as a good thing, since research has shown the 
public is still largely confused about what these terms mean. But I 
would hope that it also invites visitors to think about the risks and 
challenges of these solutions in addition to their promise. I haven't 
been to the exhibit myself, but a critic writing in the magazine New 
Scientist concluded, "The exhibition mostly gets the balance right 
between pessimism and optimism, although it could have gone further in 
showing how expensive and small scale this stuff is."

A Shell spokesperson told Channel 4 News, "We fully respect the museum's 
independence. That's why its exhibition on carbon capture matters and 
why we supported it. Debate and discussion — among anyone who sees it — 
are essential."

For what it's worth, in a blog post on the museum's website, exhibition 
advisor Bob Ward said the world faces an "urgent task" to reduce 
emissions and that "this will mean a fundamental shift away from fossil 
fuels as our primary source of energy." Ward acknowledges that there are 
large uncertainties around the solutions presented in the exhibit, and 
the concern that counting on them could reduce ambition to cut emissions 
more rapidly. But he adds that "we are more likely to make a rapid and 
orderly transition to a zero-carbon economy if oil companies play a 
genuinely committed and active role."
https://www.salon.com/2021/08/03/shell-sponsored-a-museum-exhibit-on-climate-solutions-there-were-strings-attached_partner/


[So can I get a first class ticket??]
*Will These Places Survive a Collapse? Don’t Bet on It, Skeptics Say.*
A pair of English researchers found that New Zealand is best poised to 
stay up and running as climate change continues to wreak global havoc. 
Other scientists found flaws in their model.
By Heather Murphy
Aug. 3, 2021
Will civilization as we know it end in the next 100 years? Will there be 
any functioning places left? These questions might sound like the stuff 
of dystopian fiction. But if recent headlines about extreme weather, 
climate change, the ongoing pandemic and faltering global supply chains 
have you asking them, you’re not alone.

Now two British academics, Aled Jones, director of the Global 
Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, 
England, and his co-author, Nick King, think they have some answers. 
Their analysis, published in July in the journal Sustainability, aims to 
identify places that are best positioned to carry on when or if others 
fall apart. They call these lucky places “nodes of persisting complexity.”

The winner, tech billionaires who already own bunkers there will be 
pleased to know, is New Zealand. The runners-up are Tasmania, Ireland, 
Iceland, Britain, the United States and Canada.

The findings were greeted with skepticism by other academics who study 
topics like climate change and the collapse of civilization. Some 
flat-out disagreed with the list, saying it placed too much emphasis on 
the advantages of islands and failed to properly account for variables 
like military power.

And some said the entire exercise was misguided: If climate change is 
allowed to disrupt civilization to this degree, no countries will have 
cause to celebrate.

Professor Jones, who has a Ph.D. in cosmology — the branch of astronomy 
focused on the origins of the universe — is broadly interested in how to 
make global food systems and global finance systems more resilient. He 
says he is also intrigued by the ways in which collapse in one part of 
the world, whether caused by an extreme weather event or something else, 
can lead to collapse in another part.

He does not feel certain that climate change will cause the end of 
civilization, he said, but it’s on track to create a “global shock.”

“We’ll be lucky if we can withstand it,” he added.
- -
New Zealand comes out on top in Professor Jones’s analysis because it 
appears to be ready for changes in the weather created by climate 
change. It has plenty of renewable energy capacity, it can produce its 
own food and it’s an island, meaning it scores well on the isolation 
factor, he said.

Tasmania, an Australian island state located around 150 miles south of 
the mainland, emerged as second, Professor Jones said, because it has 
the infrastructure to adapt to climate change and is agriculturally 
productive.
- -
Iceland ranks well, Professor Jones said, because of its agricultural 
and renewable energy capacities as well as its isolation. Additionally, 
even as the climate changes, it’s not expected to force a major shift in 
how the country’s society functions.

Justin Mankin, a professor of geography at Dartmouth, disagreed.

“The spatial pattern of global warming-caused extreme weather and other 
hazards will undoubtedly deeply affect places like the U.K., New 
Zealand, Iceland and Tasmania,” he said.

This one surprised even Professor Jones.

“We always put the U.K. down for not doing enough on climate change,” he 
said. But being an island gave it a huge boost in its capacity to 
survive an apocalypse, he said.

The United States and Canada tied for sixth place. One factor holding 
them back, Professor Jones said, is their shared land border. His model 
assumes that it would be more difficult for a country to maintain 
stability if masses of desperate people can rush across a border.
- -
Professor Jones says people may be misinterpreting his intentions. He’s 
not suggesting that people with the means to do so should start buying 
bunkers in New Zealand or Iceland, he said. Rather, he wants other 
countries to study ways to improve their resilience.

Heather Murphy is a general assignment reporter who often writes about 
advances in DNA technology. @heathertal
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/us/collapse-of-civilization-study-new-zealand.html



[video webinar 6 months ago]
*OMEGA - Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future*
Jan 31, 2021
Stanley Wu
We are joined by Paul Ehrlich, Joan Diamond, Gerardo Ceballos, Nate 
Hagens, Bill Rees and others. The conversation will be hosted by Michael 
Lerner to discuss the recently published scientific article entitled 
Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future.

An international group of 17 leading physical and social scientists, 
including OMEGA Advisory Board member Joan Diamond, have produced a 
comprehensive yet concise assessment of the state of civilization, 
warning that the outlook is more dire and dangerous than is generally 
understood.

The paper has generated over a thousand media articles and interviews 
which suggests that public interest is extremely high despite competing 
news-- insurrection, inauguration, and pandemic.

This Ghastly study has been covered in media organizations including: 
CNN World, Reuters, The Guardian, International Business Times, Taipei 
Times, The Irish Times, and the University of California among many others.

The formal session will last an hour with an additional half hour for 
those who can stay. We hope you will join us for this thought-provoking 
discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq-pYBe2mKk

- -

[Be sure to see Nate Hagens 5 min talk]
*"ghastliness, metabolism and emergence"*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq-pYBe2mKk&t=1590s



[science from 150 years ago]
*This woman was the first scientist to chart the physics of climate 
change—in 1856*
Eunice Foote discovered that carbon dioxide absorbs heat, and theorized 
that if the Earth’s air filled with more CO2, the planet’s temperature 
would rise.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90658442/this-woman-was-the-first-scientist-to-chart-the-physics-of-climate-change-in-1856
- -
[from the image of the original document]
*"On the Heat in the Sun's Rays"*
**

         "An atmosphere of that gas would give to our earth a high
    temperature; and if as some suppose at one period of its history
    they air had mixed with it a larger proportion than at present an
    increased temperature from its own action as well as from increased
    weight must have necessarily resulted.

         On comparing the sun's heat in different gases I found it to be
    in hydrogen gas, 104°; in common air, 106°; in oxygen gas, 108° and
    in carbonic acid gas, 125°."

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a2614102278e77e59a04f26/t/5aa1c3cf419202b500c3b388/1520550865302/foote_circumstances-affecting-heat-suns-rays_1856.pdf 




[The news archive - looking back]
*On this day in the history of global warming August 5, 1996*

August 5, 1996: The New York Times profiles climate scientist Ben 
Santer, who had just become the target of a lavishly-financed defamation 
campaign by the fossil fuel industry.

http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/120197believe.html


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