[✔️] December 18, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[👀 Richard Pauli]

/*December 18, 2021*/

/[  Bill McKibben in the New Yorker ]/
*The Year in Climate *A summer that really scared scientists.
By Bill McKibben
December 16, 2021/
/https://www.newyorker.com/news/2021-in-review/the-year-in-climate/
/

/
/

/
/

/[  Battlegrounds of misinformation ]
/*Google Pledged to Remove Ads From Climate Denial Sites, but Many Still 
Run*
Researchers found ads placed by Google on sites that falsely call global 
warming a hoax. The revenue those sites earn from the ads can fund 
further misinformation.
By Hiroko Tabuchi
Dec. 16, 2021
Ahead of last month’s United Nations global climate summit, Google, the 
world’s biggest provider of ads online, made a big announcement: It 
would stop placing ads on sites that deny the scientific consensus on 
climate change.

Banned from profiting from its advertising program, Google said, were 
sites and videos falsely referring to global warming as a hoax or a 
scam. Also no longer welcome to run Google ads: Content falsely claiming 
that greenhouse gas emissions, or human activity, do not contribute to 
climate change.

But new research shows that Google’s policy has had limited effect so far...
- -
“There’s no ambiguity that these pages are out of sync with mainstream 
climate science,” said John Cook, a postdoctoral research fellow at the 
Climate Change Communication Research Hub at Monash University, whose 
research encompasses using machine learning to identify climate 
misinformation. “They shouldn’t be difficult to blacklist..”

And even though much of the rest of the world has moved on from more 
blatant forms of climate denialism, the United States has remained 
particularly vulnerable, Dr. Cook said. “There are parts of the country 
where science denial is still flourishing, and those tend to be the 
markets for these types of web pages,” he said. “Climate misinformation 
confuses and polarizes the public, delays climate action and reduces 
trust in scientists.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/climate/google-climate-denial-ads.html

/- -/

/[ Label criminals ]/
*The Toxic Ten**
**How 10 fringe publishers fuel 69% of digital climate change denial*/
/The science is undeniable - human activity is warming our planet at an 
ever-accelerating rate and leading to catastrophic climate change.

Yet, ten publishers - The Toxic Ten -  are spreading baseless, 
unscientific climate denial on their own websites and across social 
media. They are responsible for 69% of all interactions with climate 
denial content on Facebook.

It's a climate denial propaganda machine funded in part by Google via ad 
revenue, and spread across the world via social media, in particular 
Facebook, who allow them to pay to promote their denial.

We are calling on Facebook and Google to stop promoting and funding 
climate denial, start labelling it as misinformation, and stop giving 
the advantages of their enormous platforms to lies and misinformation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/climate/google-climate-denial-ads.html/
/

/
/

/
/

/[  clips from renowned commentator Dave Roberts - - 
https://www.volts.wtf/p/the-year-in-federal-climate-politics ] /
*The year in federal climate politics and what lies ahead*
My stomach hurts.
David Roberts - Dec.17 - 2021
[text and audio] https://www.volts.wtf/account/add-podcast
The year is coming to a close, which means us bloggers are obliged to do 
a year-end post, looking back on the year’s events and looking ahead to 
what’s next. I’ll be honest, I had second thoughts about whether to 
publish this post at all — my outlook is pretty gloomy and I don’t want 
to be a spreader of gloom — but I figure you pay me for the straight 
scoop. So here it is.

The broad story is that, as bad as it sometimes felt going through it, 
we are coming to the end of the most productive year of federal climate 
politics that any of us are likely to experience for a long, long time. 
I’m not sure it ever really sank in with most people, including 
Democrats in Congress, but this was the last big shot. After the Build 
Back Better Act passes (if it passes), that will be it for federal 
climate legislation.

After that, those of us hoping for climate progress will have to forget 
about first-best solutions and begin thinking in terms of guerrilla 
actions, in states, cities, and the private sector. That’s a very 
different mindset than the push for a centralized solution.

Let’s begin with a quick review of the events of the last year...
*Democrats’ inevitably disappointing legislation limps toward the finish 
line...*

    Biden and the Democrats started strong out of the gate. Congress
    delivered the Covid relief bill. Biden issued a flurry of executive
    orders. Vaccination rates began rising. As long as Democrats were
    doing stuff, taking action, controlling the news cycle, Biden’s
    approval rating held up.

    Around July-August, two things happened. First, Biden withdrew US
    troops from Afghanistan, after which the Taliban quickly took
    control, sparking an extended wave of hysterically negative
    mainstream press coverage. (Coverage of Biden in right-wing media
    was, of course, hysterically negative on day one and has been ever
    since.)

    Second, legislative action ground to a halt and segued into months
    of frustrating negotiations, which continue to this day.

    They split their big bill in two, allowing a bipartisan group of
    senators to hash out a roads-and-bridges infrastructure bill (the
    bipartisan infrastructure framework, or BIF) while leaving
    everything else to a second bill. The idea was to give Sens. Joe
    Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) their bipartisan
    achievement, but to require that they pass it alongside a Dems-only
    reconciliation bill, the Build Back Better Act (BBB).

    At the time, Democrats from Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck
    Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on down pledged
    that the BIF would not pass without the BBB. The bills were a single
    package, they all emphasized. “It's going to be either both or
    nothing,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said.

    What happened instead is that the bipartisan group put together a
    relatively bare-bones bill and got it passed through the Senate.
    That put immense pressure on the House to follow suit, despite
    everyone’s pledges. The progressive caucus, led by Rep. Pramila
    Jayapal (D-WA), held together and refused to pass the BIF for as
    long as it could, but in November, it relented and the House passed
    the bill.

    Progressives voted for the BIF based on a promise from Biden that he
    could secure Manchin’s vote for the BBB in something close to its
    present form. By all appearances thus far, that promise was worth
    very little. Manchin showed no sign at the time, and has showed no
    sign since, that he’s willing to vote for BBB as it stands.

    In fact, before and after the BIF passed, he has done nothing but
    talk down the BBB, set arbitrary limits on its total size, and
    demand that elements be eliminated (like the Clean Electricity
    Payment Program) or radically pared back (like paid leave).

    Sinema has been frustrating throughout the process, but at least for
    now, it looks like she got what she wanted — protecting Pharma from
    price competition and corporations from higher taxes — and is now
    ready to vote the bill through.

    Manchin, on the other hand, has been nothing but a jerk, from the
    very beginning and at every stage. He’s been more of a jerk than is
    explicable even given the red lean of his state, even given his
    outlandishly corrupt conflicts of interest. He’s been a vain,
    inconstant, ill-informed font of conservative economic gibberish,
    theatrically sticking his thumb in the eyes of the other 49 members
    of his caucus...

- -
*Build Back Better is still good climate policy...*

    When the Covid relief bill was passed and attention turned to the
    BBB agenda, Sanders led with a $6 trillion proposal that was, among
    other things, a climate policy buffet. That was in June. Ever since
    then, Democratic climate plans have diminished.

    Sen. Bernie Sanders points toward future spending. (Photo: Getty Images)
    Sen. Bernie Sanders points toward future spending. (Photo: Getty Images)
    The $6 trillion proposal became a $3.5 trillion proposal. Before the
    election, Manchin was saying he would support $4 trillion just on
    infrastructure, but in his new role as Jerk-in-Chief, he decided he
    would only support $1.5 trillion.

    Of course, even after Dems cut down the bill to please him, he kept
    whacking. He took out the Clean Electricity Payment Program, the one
    energy policy in the bill that had some financial penalties
    alongside its rewards. He’s currently trying to kill the EV tax
    credit bonus for union-made vehicles (the Toyota plant in West
    Virginia isn’t unionized). He’s jacked up the size of the
    carbon-capture tax credits.*...*

- -
*What’s gonna happen?...*
In short, US democracy is lurching toward one-party authoritarianism and 
I don’t see forces on the horizon capable of stopping it.

That’s a grim place to conclude our year in review, I realize. I don’t 
want to bum everyone out. Obviously, everyone should do everything in 
their power to prevent this outcome. Nothing is written in advance; 
there is always a chance the tide can be beat back. But at the same 
time, it’s worth thinking through how Biden and Democrats can maximize 
the coming year to minimize the damage.

And it’s worth beginning to think about how, if the federal government 
is taken off the board, climate progress can be made through subnational 
governments and the private sector.

I’ll have more to say soon on the positive story unfolding outside the 
federal government. And more to say about what four more years of Trump 
and Republicans could mean for the climate effort. But for now, I’ll 
just conclude by saying: the BBB must pass, no matter what. Everything 
depends on it.
https://www.volts.wtf/p/the-year-in-federal-climate-politics

*
*


/[   Super hopeful development, now for politics to open the deployment 
doors - where is it now? ] /
*New solar materials developed by Stanford scientists could usher in 
ultrathin, lightweight solar panel*
DECEMBER 15, 2021
KEY POINTS
The race in solar engineering to create almost impossibly-thin, flexible 
solar panels; is on.
Engineers imagine them used in mobile applications, from self-powered 
wearable devices and sensors to lightweight aircraft and electric vehicles.
Against that backdrop, researchers at Stanford University have achieved 
record efficiencies in a promising group of photovoltaic materials.
https://pvbuzz.com/new-solar-matusher-in-ultrathin-lightweight-solar-panel/

/
/

/[   Oh damn, this is so logical, inevitable  ] /
*Climate change: Impact of rising temperatures on neurological disorders*
As a step toward understanding the effects of global warming on brain 
health, a recent systematic review analyzed the impact of increasing 
ambient temperatures on individuals with neurological disorders.
Elevated ambient temperatures were associated with exacerbated symptoms 
and increased hospitalization and mortality rates in individuals with 
neurological disorders.
The study also compared the occurrence of neurological disorders in 
migrants with nonmigrants to assess the potential impact of 
climate-related migration on brain health.
The effects of migration on neurological disorders were variable, while 
socioeconomic, cultural, and genetic factors influenced the incidence of 
brain disorders.
According to a joint editorial published by over 200 medical journals 
earlier this year, climate change is the greatest threat to global 
public health.

Major public health organizations, such as the World Health Organization 
(WHO)Trusted Source, have also voiced similar concerns.

Climate change includes surging temperatures, rising sea levels, and an 
increase in the strength and frequency of extreme weather events such as 
flooding, droughts, hurricanes, and wildfires.

Climate change can affect Trusted Source human health in a multitude of 
ways. Rising temperatures, food scarcity, air pollution, and an increase 
in infectious diseases are a few ways it can impact human health.

The health effects of climate change are complex and only partially 
understood, and a more comprehensive understanding is important to help 
medical professionals provide the necessary care.

A recent systematic review aimed to delineate the impact of global 
warming on neurological disorders. The study analyzed previous research 
examining the effects of ambient temperature rises on the occurrence, 
clinical manifestations, and mortality due to major neurological disorders.

Climate change may render certain parts of the world uninhabitable due 
to drought, rising temperatures, and other extreme weather events. This 
will result in the mass displacement of populations, leading to 
environmental refugees.

The study also analyzed research assessing the occurrence of 
neurological disorders in migrant populations to understand the 
potential impact on the brain health of climate-related refugees.

The study found that a rise in ambient temperature due to global warming 
may lead to worsened symptoms of neurological disorders and result in 
higher hospitalization and mortality rates.

The effects of migration on the occurrence of neurological disorders 
were more variable and were also influenced by social, cultural, and 
economic factors.

However, the authors cautioned that these results were preliminary, and 
the analyzed studies did not specifically aim to evaluate the impact of 
climate change on neurological disorders and clinical practice.

The study’s lead author, Daniel Kondziella, a professor at the 
University of Copenhagen in Denmark, told Medical News Today:

“[This study shows that] there are very good reasons to expect a 
tremendous negative impact on global brain health within the near future 
owing to climate change. […] At the same time, there appears to be a 
fundamental lack of awareness of this problem within the neurological 
community, as evidenced by the complete absence of appropriately 
designed research to investigate this problem.”

The study appears in the journal PeerJ.

High ambient temperature
To understand the effects of global warming on brain disorders, the team 
behind the present study reviewed previous research examining the impact 
of ambient temperature increases on the manifestation of symptoms of 
major neurological disorders.

The researchers also analyzed studies assessing the association between 
ambient temperature and hospitalization and mortality rates due to these 
neurological disorders.

The neurological disorders that the team examined included Alzheimer’s 
disease, other forms of dementia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s 
disease, migraine, epilepsy, and stroke. The researchers also looked at 
tick-borne encephalitis as an example of an infectious disease involving 
the nervous system.

The researchers reviewed 84 studies and found that higher ambient 
temperatures were associated with worse outcomes for individuals with 
neurological disorders.

For instance, multiple studies found that elevated ambient temperatures 
were associated with more adverse symptoms, such as irritability, 
anxiety, depression, and agitation, in individuals with Alzheimer’s 
disease and non-Alzheimer’s dementia.

Similarly, an increase in ambient temperatures was associated with a 
decline in cognitive performance and motor function in individuals with 
multiple sclerosis.

Elevated temperatures also increased the risk of hospitalization and 
mortality in individuals with dementia and stroke.

The researchers also found a higher incidence of tick-borne encephalitis 
with an increase in annual temperatures. They identified a few studies 
suggesting a negative impact of higher temperatures on individuals with 
Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and migraine, but the evidence was limited.

Effects of migration
The team then analyzed studies investigating the occurrence of 
neurological disorders in migrants.

After analyzing nine studies, the researchers found that the direction 
of the effect of migration on the occurrence of neurological disorders 
was variable.

Whether migration increased or decreased, the incidence of neurological 
disorders among migrants was influenced by cultural, economic, and 
social factors in their origin and destination countries.

Additionally, the access to healthcare services in both the countries of 
origin and arrival influenced results.

For instance, the prevalence of stroke was higher in individuals native 
to and residing in China than those who had immigrated to Western 
countries. These results were probably due to greater access to 
healthcare in Western countries and cultural factors, such as higher 
salt intake, in China.

In contrast, one of the analyzed studies showed that individuals who had 
emigrated from the Caribbean to London, United Kingdom, had a higher 
incidence of stroke. Individuals of African descent from the Caribbean 
have a genetic predisposition for cardiovascular diseases.

It is likely that the interaction of genetic risk for cardiovascular 
diseases with socioeconomic factors upon immigration may increase the 
likelihood of stroke in these individuals.

Limitations
The researchers noted that the studies examining the impact of elevated 
temperatures on these neurological disorders showed considerable 
variation in their methodology and study design.

Moreover, none of the reviewed studies aimed to specifically address the 
impact of global warming and climate-related migration on neurological 
disorders.

They also noted that most of the analyzed studies that scientists 
conducted were in wealthier nations. The effects of climate change are 
likely to be disproportionately experienced by lower income nations and 
disadvantaged communities, and, therefore, the results may not be 
representative.

The researchers also acknowledged that their study only considered the 
potential impact of global warming and migration on neurological disorders.

Climate change encompasses rising sea levels, drought, air pollution, 
and loss of biodiversity that may also influence the occurrence and 
symptoms of neurological disorders.

MNT also spoke with Dr. George Perry, a professor at the University of 
Texas at San Antonio. Dr. Perry, who was not involved with the study, 
suggested that other factors, including stress, besides a change in 
ambient temperature, may be more important in mediating the adverse 
effects of climate change.

Dr. Perry said:
“The known issue is that global warming is increasing stress and 
uncertainty, [which] potentiate conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. In 
the context of increasing environmental degradation — particulate air 
pollution, resource competition, and conflict — climate change is but 
one of many stressors where we must reduce or modify the impact to 
preserve global health for us and the planet.”
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/climate-change-impact-of-rising-temperatures-on-neurological-disorders



/[  another positive engineering building the perfect structure ]/
*Amazing Lego-Style HEMP BLOCKS Make Building a House Quick, Easy & 
Sustainable*
Nov 22, 2021
Exploring Alternatives
These hempcrete blocks are a green building material made with a 
hemp-lime insulation mixture packed around a biocomposite structural 
frame.  They can be stacked like bricks to build walls up to 30 feet 
high and they become the insulation and the structure of the building.  
All you need to do after the walls are built is plaster the inside and 
outside, and then add windows, doors, and a roof!

The hemp plant sequesters carbon during its growth, and lime, as it 
dries, reabsorbs the carbon that was released when it was manufactured, 
which means the hemp-lime mixture is carbon negative (it sequesters more 
carbon than it creates in its life cycle). Terry Radford from Just 
BioFiber says that these hempcrete blocks will sequester about 10 tons 
of carbon per house.

Just BioFiber is located in Alberta, Canada and you can find out more 
about their hempcrete blocks here:
https://justbiofiber.com/
https://www.facebook.com/justbiofiber

Not only is this an environmentally friendly building material, it also 
creates a comfortable living space.  The hempcrete helps to regulate 
temperature and humidity, it reduces noise transmission through the 
walls, it's fire-resistant, and it's non-toxic.

This is an incredible green building technology and we can't wait to see 
Just BioFiber ramp up their block production so that we can start to see 
hempcrete buildings popping up all over the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqLXXjvQXgI



[The news archive - looking back]

*On this day in the history of global warming December 18 ,*

December 17, 2014:
The New York Times reports:

"The Cuomo administration announced Wednesday that it would ban 
hydraulic fracturing in New York State, ending years of uncertainty by 
concluding that the controversial method of extracting gas from deep 
underground could contaminate the state’s air and water and pose 
inestimable public-health risks."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/nyregion/cuomo-to-ban-fracking-in-new-york-state-citing-health-risks.html?mwrsm=Email 


http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/17/3604762/breaking-new-york-will-pursue-fracking-ban/ 


http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/andrew-cuomo--im-not-a-scientist-374321731971 






/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/


/Archive of Daily Global Warming News 
<https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html> 
/
https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote

/To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe 
<mailto:subscribe at theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request> 
to news digest./

   Privacy and Security:*This mailing is text-only.  It does not carry 
images or attachments which may originate from remote servers.  A 
text-only message can provide greater privacy to the receiver and 
sender. This is a hobby production curated by Richard Pauli
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain cannot be used for commercial 
purposes. Messages have no tracking software.
To subscribe, email: contact at theclimate.vote 
<mailto:contact at theclimate.vote> with subject subscribe, To Unsubscribe, 
subject: unsubscribe
Also you may subscribe/unsubscribe at 
https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Pauli for 
http://TheClimate.Vote <http://TheClimate.Vote/> delivering succinct 
information for citizens and responsible governments of all levels. List 
membership is confidential and records are scrupulously restricted to 
this mailing list.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/attachments/20211218/d74482db/attachment.htm>