[✔️] December 11, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[👀 Richard Pauli]

/*December 11, 2021*/

/[  Public Relations requires some opinion manipulation  ] /
*A P. R. Giant Is Caught Between Climate Pledges and Fossil Fuel Clients*
Edelman has worked for Exxon Mobil and Shell while making strong public 
statements in favor of environmental sustainability. At a recent 
companywide meeting, employees had some sharp questions.
Tiffany Hsu - Dec. 10, 2021,
Public relations companies are nothing if not image conscious, and the 
petition prompted the company to schedule a video conference for its 
employees on Nov. 15 to address the issue.

Richard Edelman, the chief executive and the son of the company’s 
founder, led the meeting, which was attended by thousands of employees. 
On the call, he described climate change as the greatest threat facing 
humanity and said that business leaders should take the lead in trying 
to solve it, according to three employees who described the meeting on 
the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations. He also 
said Edelman had started a 60-day review of the companies it represents 
to make sure they are environmentally responsible, according to the people.

One employee posed a question: Would Edelman potentially walk away from 
its fossil fuel clients? According to the three employees, Mr. Edelman’s 
answer was blunt: “No.”

He added that the energy industry was in transition and needed Edelman’s 
services. He went on to say that Edelman will reject projects that delay 
progress toward a future with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions...
- -
Debbie Davis, an assistant dean at the college of media and 
communication at Texas Tech University, said that many public relations 
companies remain eager to work with all kinds of clients, even if it 
means criticism.

“There are still agencies that work with casinos and tobacco companies — 
those are the choices made through capitalism,” she said. “Edelman has 
multiple choices. They can choose to take a stand, they might go more 
middle of the road, or they might decide not to change at all.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/10/business/media/a-p-r-giant-is-caught-between-climate-pledges-and-fossil-fuel-clients.html 


- -

/[  PR business also samples public opinions  ]/
*More than half of young people surveyed think ‘humanity is doomed’ due 
to climate change*
By Rachel Koning Beals  -- Dec. 10, 2021
Three-quarters of respondents under age 25 said they believe ‘the future 
is frightening’ in Lancet-published global survey...
- -
Nearly two-thirds of young people said their governments were not doing 
enough to avoid a climate catastrophe, and 58% felt governments were 
“betraying me and/or future generations.”...
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/more-than-half-of-young-people-surveyed-think-humanity-is-doomed-due-to-climate-change-11639160312



/[ climate change means destabilizing weather ]/
*An extreme cold is raging through the world's quickest warming region*
The port town of Dudinka reports about minus 39 °C and winds up to 25 
meter per second, and a north Siberian town records a day with minus 57 °C.
Atle Staalesen - -December 09, 2021
...
The freeze was even more severe a bit further east. Across the coast of 
northern Siberia, the temperatures dropped to below minus 40 °C. And in 
the village of Oymyakom, locals on the 7th December woke up to 
temperatures down to minus 56,7, maps from the Russian meteorological 
institute Roshydromet show..
- -
The situation was even more extraordinary in 2020, which was the warmest 
year in Russia in 130 years of measurements. Across major parts of the 
country’s Arctic, average temperatures were between 5-7 degrees higher 
than norma, and the absolute warmest area was the peninsula of Taymyr 
where the temperature deviation was more than 7 degrees.

According to a recent Russian climate report , no other place in the 
country is experiencing a quicker warming than Taymyr and the coast of 
the East Siberian Sea. In the period 1976-2020, the warming per decade 
in the area amounted to 1,2℃.

That means that the average temperature in Taymyr today is about 5℃ 
higher than in the 1970s.

The average global warming per decade is 0,18°С, while Russia as such in 
the same period has experienced a warming per decade of 0,51°С, the 
report reads.
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/climate-crisis/2021/12/extreme-cold-raging-through-worlds-quickest-warming-region



/[ Movie review - see it, or see the trailer right now -- 
https://youtu.be/RbIxYm3mKzI  ]/
*Don't Look Up: the first good movie about climate change*
Because it isn't about climate change.
David Roberts - Dec 10. 2021
- -
One reason it’s so good is that it isn’t really about climate change at 
all. It’s about a pair of scientists, played by Leo DiCaprio and 
Jennifer Lawrence, who discover that a large comet is heading directly 
toward Earth and will strike, and wipe out all life on the planet, in 
just over six months. They try to tell people. It does not go well...
- -
The movie is about having knowledge but being unable to make the 
knowledge matter, being unable to make anyone hear or act on it. By 
compressing the timeline to six months and making the threat a singular 
force, visible in the sky, it brings the absurdity of the situation to 
the surface. It’s hilarious, and if you’ve spent years banging your head 
against a wall trying to get people to pay attention to climate change, 
you will find a great deal of catharsis in the laughter...
- -
Still, we know that, in some sense, the comet has already begun 
striking. We’ve already lost some stability, some biodiversity, some 
lands and lives, and we will lose more, no matter what we do. It’s baked 
in at this point. We are living in the most stable climate we will ever 
experience. Every decade from now on will get warmer — more of the comet 
will strike. We can only control the scale of the damage.

After I watched Don’t Look Up (thank you Netflix), as I was eating 
dinner with my family, I couldn’t stop thinking about DiCaprio’s final 
words in the movie, as he is surrounded at the dinner table by family 
and friends: “We really did have everything, didn’t we?”
https://www.volts.wtf/p/dont-look-up-the-first-good-movie?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyMzY4NzE5OSwicG9zdF9pZCI6NDUxNTUyOTUsIl8iOiJpb2Z2MyIsImlhdCI6MTYzOTE3MzgxNiwiZXhwIjoxNjM5MTc3NDE2LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMTkzMDI0Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.RDFoKP_VrgQ_--VUuQptOjpPnL8FtA_mzrylGO1Xyv8

- -

/[  revealing plot and scenes, but still pretty smart comments  ]/
*DON'T LOOK UP Movie Review **SPOILER ALERT***  trailer -- 
https://youtu.be/CkB1uvGt-Xw
Fish Jelly Film Reviews
Gay homosexuals Nick and Joseph spoil Don't Look Up - a 2021 American 
satirical science fiction black comedy film written, produced, and 
directed by Adam McKay.

Premise: Two low-level astronomers must go on a giant media tour to warn 
mankind of an approaching comet that will destroy planet Earth.

Find their podcast at the following:
     Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fish-jelly
     Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/388hcJA...
     Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

Nick is also the Lead Film Critic at Ioncinema 
(https://www.ioncinema.com/author/nich...) and a Tomatometer-approved 
critic on Rotten Tomatoes (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/critic...).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkB1uvGt-Xw



/[   “to such a degree that it was considered reckless” -- could just as 
well apply to pumping up and selling too much carbon fuel. ] /
*Father and son arrested on suspicion of starting California wildfire*
Pair accused of reckless arson in warrant over Caldor fire, which 
destroyed over 1,000 homes and buildings
- -
...the attorney for both men, said they were arrested Wednesday 
afternoon and that reckless arson means starting a blaze by accident but 
“to such a degree that it was considered reckless”...
- -
Reichel, the men’s lawyer, said: “They are absolutely 100% innocent.”

Reichel said he did not know details of the accusation, such as how 
authorities allege the fire was set.

He said Travis Smith is an electrician and was with his father near 
where the fire started. The son called 911 to report seeing flames, 
Reichel said.

The son made several 911 calls because the calls kept dropping in the 
rugged area, and both men also warned campers about the fire, Reichel said.

“Neither one has ever been in trouble with the law in their life. 
They’re very law-abiding people,” he said.

The pair have a scheduled court appearance on Friday, Reichel said.

“There has been no evidence submitted into a court subject to my 
cross-examination ... that proves any of the prosecution’s evidence yet. 
So I urge everyone to wait and hear what really happened before they 
form any opinions,” Reichel added.

The district attorney’s office said the case was developed with the US 
Forest Service, California’s firefighting agency and the California 
department of justice, with help from the Sacramento county district 
attorney’s crime lab.

The arrests of the alleged arsonists has attracted widespread attention 
this year as California endured another destructive fire season, however 
arson isn’t all that common.

Arson was found to be the cause of about 9% of the 3,086 fires the 
state’s firefighting agency responded to in 2019. Arrests for arson have 
doubled from 70 in 2019 to 140 this year, which officials attribute to 
law enforcement investigations rather than a significant increase in the 
number of incidents.

“We’ve had some more success with the number of arrests we’ve made, but 
we haven’t seen a significant jump in the number of arson fires,” Gianni 
Muschetto, the staff chief of Cal Fire’s law enforcement division, said 
in October.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/09/california-caldor-fire-father-son-arrested



/[ /Thesis -- an /important opinion published in 'Nature Physics' ] /
Published: 07 December 2021
*The danger of climate change complacency*
Mark Buchanan
Nature Physics volume 17, page 1280
Last month, world leaders met in Glasgow on 1–12 November for the UN 
Climate Change Conference (COP26), aiming to agree on further concrete 
steps to address global warming. There were (as of 5 November) no 
dramatic breakthroughs, but perhaps minor progress on matters such as 
reducing the global destruction of rainforests and taking steps to phase 
out coal power stations, although significant coal burning looks likely 
still for another decade or so. Emissions will keep growing for the 
foreseeable future.

As perhaps most observers expected — based on past meetings — talk still 
runs far ahead of action on global warming. That’s partly the fault of 
politicians, of course, who find it easier to make bold verbal 
commitments to long-term goals than to follow through with the 
investments required to realize those goals. But there’s also a worrying 
disconnect between reality and some of the more optimistic visions 
expressed about how easy it might be to solve global warming if we just 
put our minds to it.

Optimism is certainly better than defeatism when facing a problem with 
existential consequences; it spurs action rather than inaction, which we 
can ill-afford. Yet over-optimism can also lead to complacency.

I’ve sensed this recently in reports about how far we’ve come in 
building capacity for generating renewable energy, especially through 
solar or wind power. Numerous press articles have marvelled about the 
speed with which renewable energy had come into wider use. The industry, 
one article put it, now sees renewable energy beginning to “elbow out” 
fossil fuels, and asserts that “exceptionally high growth” of renewables 
is now “the new normal”. Trends, this article suggested, fall directly 
“in line with many countries’ goals on climate change” 
(https://go.nature.com/3koFTvD).

This sounds great — as if solving the warming problem ought to be easy. 
Just keep doing what we’re already doing, get the fossil fuel companies 
and climate-change deniers out of the way, and technological advance 
will transport us to a new world. In part, this rosy view may be 
motivated by a desire to compensate for countervailing negative 
articles, which argue that we can never make a shift to renewables — and 
probably shouldn’t try — because it would, for example, be too costly in 
lost economic growth.

A more realistic view ought to be based on what has actually happened — 
and here things look to be both encouraging and discouraging at the same 
time. In a recent study, researchers looked at the progress on renewable 
energy growth in some 60 countries accounting for more than 95% of 
global electricity production (A. Cherp et al. Nat. Energy 6, 742–754; 
2021). They compared what has happened with the projected requirements 
as envisioned in scenarios in which we manage to limit warming to less 
than 1.5 °C over pre-industrial temperatures. What the study found is 
that, in all of these nations, the maximum growth rates achieved were 
0.8% (of the total electricity supply) for onshore wind and 0.6% for 
solar. This may appear to be good progress, and exciting, but by 
comparison, half of the scenarios compatible with 1.5 °C require global 
growth of wind power above 1.3% and of solar power above 1.4%, while 
one-quarter of such scenarios require growth of solar more than 3.3% per 
year. We’re doing well — but still not well enough.

This implies that the path forward isn’t easy. It might be possible, but 
we’ve only begun making the required changes, and it’s going to take a 
lot more. That’s a hopeful view — but it’s also grounded and sets out 
clear expectations for a lot more work in the future.

A similar disconnect occurs over the role of financial markets in 
directing the shift to a new era of clean energy. Five years ago, Bank 
of England governor Mark Carney warned of the risks associated with 
financial institutions’ exposure to climate risks, and kicked off a 
global push to make financial firms disclose these risks. This idea 
followed the belief that transparency on potential financial impacts 
would enable markets to steer investments wisely to meet the climate 
challenge. Yet a review of developments in finance over the past few 
years suggest the markets have other interests — profits may still be 
more important than saving the planet — and that it’s going to take a 
lot more than effective risk disclosure to make financial markets play a 
useful role.

As Nadia Ameli and colleagues note in a recent short review (Nat. Clim. 
Change 11, 917–924; 2021), a number of limitations undermine this 
somewhat naïve view. A first issue is that these risk disclosures are 
mostly voluntary, and reporting standards lack clarity. Some insider 
reports suggest financial firms have very little idea of the risks they 
face, or how to assess them. A second issue is the inherent 
short-termism of finance, as investors tend to think over a horizon of 
no more than five years, with finance managers even assessed on 
performance over months. Climate-related risks come into view well 
beyond these periods. One survey the authors mention had climate risks 
ranked far below other investment risks on priority.

These are some technical issues linked to risk assessment, but other 
more general factors may be far more important in undermining the 
‘disclosure’ approach to guiding markets. The risks linked to climate 
inevitably have a political element, as a changing political scene could 
completely alter the prospects for strong action. Hence, financial firms 
may plan more based on the reading of political trends. Or, some of them 
may well hold out hope for future technologies — such as 
negative-emission technologies — which could let them enjoy the fruits 
of fossil fuel assets.

Overall conclusion — it’s too early to become complacent. Our early 
progress is encouraging, and ought to be celebrated, yet it isn’t even 
close to being enough. Optimism is good. It has to be backed up and 
reinforced with determined realism.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-021-01455-1



/[  Techno - fides -- or faith in technology -- a video litany of 
positive changes -- speaking for the future in Canada - video from one 
year ago ] /
*What Will Happen If Earth Keeps Getting Warmer? | Avoiding Apocalypse | 
Spark*
Spark
The Earth is heating up and this climate change will have cataclysmic 
consequences for humanity - namely the desertification of agricultural 
lands and submersion of some of the planet's most populated zones. This 
episode explores the best scientific solutions to rescue the climate and 
humanity, including carbon capture, artificial trees, production of 
Earth-cooling clouds, and many more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3Q5OEfD9u8



[The news archive - looking back]
*On this day in the history of global warming December 11, 1985 *

December 11, 1985: The New York Times reports:
"A group of senators and scientists today called for national and 
international action to avert a predicted warming of the earth's climate 
resulting from a buildup of carbon dioxide and other man-made gases in 
the atmosphere.

"They warned at a Senate hearing that such an effect, like that of a 
greenhouse, would produce radical climate changes and a subsequent rise 
in ocean levels that could have catastrophic results in the next century 
unless steps were taken now to deal with the problem.

"Senator Albert Gore Jr., Democrat of Tennessee, said he would introduce 
legislation to expand and focus scientific efforts on this greenhouse 
effect.

"At a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Toxic Substances and 
Environmental Oversight, Mr. Gore said his bill would call for 'an 
international year of scientific study of the greenhouse effect and 
would request that the President take steps to begin this worldwide 
cooperative investigation.'"
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/11/us/action-is-urged-to-avert-global-climate-shift.html 



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