[TheClimate.Vote] January 16, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*January 16, 2021*/

[Blah, blah, blah says Greta]
*LIVE from #OnePlanetSummit in Paris:*
Bla bla nature
Bla bla important
Bla bla ambitious
Bla bla green investments
Bla bla great opportunity
Bla bla green growth
Bla bla net zero
Bla bla step up our game
Bla bla hope
Bla bla bla...*

*locking in decades of further destruction
Quote Tweet
One Planet Summit
@oneplanetsummit
  · Jan 11
LIVE | At #OnePlanetSummit France is mobilising political and business 
leaders from across the world to act against the erosion of 
biodiversity. There’s no Planet B.
https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1BdGYYXReXyGX
https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1348630951769878530



[New political directions]
*Most Democrats and Republicans think the government should make climate 
change a priority*
A new survey finds broad support among American voters for doing more on 
climate change.

By Jariel Arvin at jarielarvin  Jan 15, 2021,
A new study has found widespread support for climate-friendly energy 
policies among registered Republicans and Democrats.

The study, conducted by Yale University and George Mason University’s 
climate change communication programs, surveyed nearly 1,000 registered 
voters from across the political spectrum — Republicans, Democrats, and 
independents — in December...
The survey found 53 percent of registered voters think global warming 
should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress 
while 66 percent feel the same about developing clean energy sources.

There was also broad support from both Democrats and Republicans for 
eight energy policies that would help address climate change...
- -
Once in office, Biden’s climate plan calls for decarbonizing the US 
power sector by 2035. He has also made plans to achieve net-zero 
emissions by 2050 a cornerstone of his campaign. According to this 
study, about two-thirds of registered voters would be on board with such 
policies, signaling good news for the Biden administration’s climate goals.

So while there is some evidence that climate change is still a divisive 
issue, there’s also growing evidence that climate-friendly policies and 
taking action on climate change have bipartisan support.
https://www.vox.com/2021/1/15/22233228/democrats-republicans-view-climate-change-global-warming 




[family ties, patronage]
*Justice Amy Coney Barrett to hear climate lawsuit against Shell – 
despite accusations of conflict of interest*
Despite her father’s long career at Shell, Justice Barrett is due to 
hear arguments in a case brought against the oil giant by the city of 
Baltimore next week, writes senior climate correspondent Louise Boyle
Trump’s Supreme Court appointee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, is set to 
hear legal arguments in a climate lawsuit against Shell next week amid 
conflict-of-interest accusations due to her father’s 30-year legal 
career at the oil giant.

A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday before the US’s highest court in the 
case brought by the city of Baltimore against Big Oil, including 
ExxonMobil, Shell and BP, demanding damages associated with sea-level 
rise and other effects of the climate crisis.

Justice Barrett’s father, Michael Coney, spent three decades as an 
attorney for Shell Oil between 1978 and 2007, where he oversaw legal 
issues for Shell’s offshore drilling arm.
While Mr Coney was at Shell, the oil giant’s own scientists published a 
90-page, confidential internal memo (which was later leaked) that 
asserted "the main cause of increasing C02 concentrations is considered 
to be fossil-fuel burning".
The 1988 report includes details on the “direct operational 
consequences” of global heating on the company’s "offshore 
installations, coastal facilities and operations platforms, harbours, 
refineries, depots".

At time of publication, the case docket did not show that Justice 
Barrett had recused herself. The Supreme Court told The Independent in 
an email that justices generally do not comment on their recusal in 
particular cases.

When she was a lower-court judge, Justice Barrett recused herself from 
cases involving Shell Oil due to her father’s former senior legal role 
at the company.
“My father worked at Shell Oil Company for many years, and while on the 
Seventh Circuit, in an abundance of caution, I have recused myself from 
cases involving those Shell entities with which he was involved,” 
Justice Barret wrote in a questionnaire during her Senate confirmation 
hearings in October.

Mr Coney also held a top position at American Petroleum Institute (API), 
the fossil fuel industry’s powerful lobbying arm. API is backing the oil 
firms in the Baltimore case by filing an amicus brief, a move to allow a 
non-party to a case to offer information, expertise, or insight.
There is the possibility that Mr Coney could be deposed in the case, 
according to legal experts.

“Her dad’s role in maximising Shell’s net revenue from drilling grew 
even as Shell’s internal documents show it knew burning carbon was 
changing our climate and he even sought tax benefits from its efforts to 
adapt its drilling platforms to survive sea level rise and bigger storms 
resulting from climate change,” Lisa Graves, executive director of True 
North Research and a former chief counsel for nominations on the Senate 
Judiciary Committee, told Huffington Post.

Earlier this week, a group of science, environmental and legal advocacy 
organisations called on Justice Barrett to recuse herself.
Another Supreme Court judge, Justice Samuel Alito, already recused 
himself from the Baltimore case, according to filings, as he reportedly 
owns stock in oil and gas firms.
“We urge Justice Barrett to heed both precedent and common sense and 
join Justice Alito in recusing herself from this case brought against 
Big Oil,” said Kathy Mulvey, from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“It’s well known that Justice Barrett’s father worked for decades as an 
attorney at Shell Oil, a named defendant in the case. He also played an 
active role in the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s main US 
lobby group, which is funded by numerous defendants in the Baltimore 
suit and has submitted an amicus curiae brief in support of their 
petition to the Supreme Court.

"These deep and long-standing conflicts of interest have led Justice 
Barrett to recuse herself from cases regarding Shell in the past. Her 
obligation to judicial impartiality should lead her to do the same here. 
Baltimore residents deserve access to impartial justice for the climate 
harms they are suffering.”

In 2018, Baltimore became one of several US cities to try to hold oil 
giants financially responsible for the climate crisis, saying that 
companies pushed misinformation for decades, despite internal documents 
revealing their own scientists knew all too well the risks.

The Maryland city says it faces massive costs to protect its residents, 
businesses and infrastructure from the escalating impacts of climate change.

“For 50 years, these companies have known their products would cause 
rising seas and the other climate change-related problems facing 
Baltimore today,” Baltimore Solicitor Andre Davis said at the time.

“They could have warned us. They could have taken steps to minimise or 
avoid the damage. In fact, they had a responsibility to do both, but 
they didn’t, and that’s why we are taking them to court.”

The city battles extended heatwaves, particularly dangerous in so-called 
"urban heat islands", which are more likely to be in predominantly Black 
and poorer neighbourhoods. In these areas, doctors point to increased 
rates of chronic illnesses that are exacerbated by heat, especially lung 
diseases like asthma, emphysema or bronchitis.

By 2045, Baltimore, located in Chesapeake Bay, is expected to see a 
ten-fold increase in tidal floods each year – to more than 225 – because 
of sea-level rise alone (compared with today’s average).

Baltimore originally filed its climate suit in Baltimore Circuit Court, 
not federal court. But oil companies have gone to war to move cases, 
like the one from Baltimore, to the Supreme Court, believing they are 
more likely to have the upper hand there, E&E News said.

  The city is now asking the Supreme Court to refer the suit, which 
seeks unspecified damages, back to state court.

During his term, President Donald Trump was able to tip the balance of 
the land’s highest court by appointing three conservative justices – 
Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. But he also managed to get 
more than 200 judges onto the federal bench, reshaping the judiciary for 
a generation.

During nomination hearings in October, Justice Barrett insisted that she 
would bring no personal agenda to the Supreme Court, instead deciding 
cases “as they come”.

However, she refused to say that climate change is scientific fact, 
calling it instead “a very contentious matter of public debate”.

“I will not express a view on a matter of public policy, especially one 
that is politically controversial,” Judge Barrett said.

“You know, I”m certainly not a scientist,” she also stated. “I mean, 
I’ve read things about climate change. I would not say that I have firm 
views on it.”

Her words alarmed environmentalists and brought condemnation from 
scientists who have long-established the facts that human-caused CO2 
emissions are heating the planet.

Activist Greta Thunberg tweeted: “To be fair, I don’t have any ‘views on 
climate change’ either. Just like I don’t have any ‘views’ on gravity, 
the fact that the earth is round, photosynthesis nor evolution.

“But understanding and knowing their existence really makes life in the 
21st century so much easier.”

Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological 
Diversity, told The Independent: "It is a typical conservative, 
right-wing view that scientific reality is something that you can have 
an opinion about."
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/amy-coney-barrett-shell-lawsuit-b1788034.html



[Lessons not learned will be repeated]
*Hounded by Wildfires, Californians Rethink Their Willingness to Rebuild*
In the aftermath, some people are deciding to just begin new lives 
elsewhere. The pandemic and longstanding housing problems haven’t made 
the choices any easier.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/realestate/california-wildfires-rebuild.html



[Conjecture where 43C = 109.4 F ]
*Climate change: what would 4°C of global warming feel like?*
January 15, 2021
Feeling the heat
One way of bridging the gap between climate models and the real world is 
to draw on personal memories of past extreme heat. Stop to think about 
the highest temperatures you’ve ever experienced outdoors in the shade. 
For me, it was 43°C in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. This felt hot 
but was much less than the highest temperature ever reliably recorded 
above ground – 54.4°C in Death Valley National Park, California, on 
August 16 2020. [129.9 F]

How about the hottest you’ve ever felt indoors? If I ignore saunas, mine 
was inside a home in Accra, Ghana. The room had wooden walls, a metal 
roof, and no air conditioning. Here, the temperature reached 38°C. Even 
though this was lower than in Melbourne, with the poor ventilation and 
humid air, the heat felt stifling...
- -
Without action, the number of unbearably hot homes is set to grow. By 
2050, 68% of humanity may live in urban areas and populations in the 
tropics will be most exposed to extreme humid heat. We know surprisingly 
little about these front lines of climate change, especially within the 
streets and homes of low-income communities.
https://theconversation.com/climate-change-what-would-4-c-of-global-warming-feel-like-152625



[for instance]
*The Southwest’s race against the climate clock*
New Mexico is facing a drier than normal winter—its reservoirs are 
nearly tapped out. Things are going to get worse
By LAURA PASKUS - JANUARY 15, 2021
- -
This year, the U.S. Southwest is facing La Niña conditions, which will 
bring a drier than normal winter. Already, stream flows are below normal 
across the state and many reservoirs are nearly tapped out. In southern 
New Mexico, managers with the Elephant Butte Irrigation District have 
already warned farmers they should brace for a "zero allotment" of water 
in 2021.

An expert on water issues, state Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-Albuquerque) 
is leading the charge on climate change in the legislature. And during 
the 2021 session, she is introducing the Climate Resiliency and Security 
Act.

"We're already seeing the signs of climate change in our water 
supplies," says Stansbury, who worked on Capitol Hill and for the 
federal Office of Management and Budget before returning home to New 
Mexico a few years ago and running for office. (Stansbury is also 
planning a run for U.S. Congress, to replace Rep. Deb Haaland, whom the 
Biden administration has nominated as Secretary of the U.S. Department 
of the Interior.)
And things are going to get worse.

Recently briefed on a draft federal report, Stansbury says New Mexico is 
staring down a 70% to 100% reduction in snowpack that feeds the state's 
two largest rivers — the Rio Grande and Pecos — between 2070 and the end 
of the century. "Every tiny rural community, every farm in our state is 
vulnerable to climate change," she says. "And if we don't 
institutionalize helping our communities, we're going to be in a lot of 
trouble."

If passed, the bill would codify in state statute climate-related 
targets set by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to reduce greenhouse gas 
emissions to at least 45% below 2005 levels by 2030. The bill would also 
expand that goal to net-zero emissions by 2050...
- -
Cracking apart the ties between state government and the fossil fuel 
industry is daunting. Romero y Carver says it has been "terrifying" to 
witness the power that industry executives and lobbyists wield in the state.

"Initially when I looked at it, I felt desperate and defeated," he says. 
"But I don't think there is anything more powerful than people united in 
community. As powerful as the oil and gas industry is, if we're 
organized, and loud, and [if we] say what we want and make our public 
servants act as servants to the public, we can stand a chance."

But there's not much time.

Even if politicians act on the timeline to cut greenhouse gas emissions 
that the United Nations warned was imperative, it won't stop climate 
change — only help the world avoid the worst impacts.

"We're not ending climate change, just mitigating disaster," says the 
17-year-old. "But we have to act like our lives depend on it. Because 
they do."
Copyright 2021 Capital & Main
https://www.salon.com/2021/01/14/the-southwests-race-against-the-climate-clock_partner/ 




[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - January 16, 2006 *

January 16, 2006: At a speech in Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C., 
former Vice President Al Gore declares:

"[T]he American people, who have a right to believe that its elected 
representatives will learn the truth and act on the basis of knowledge 
and utilize the rule of reason, have been let down.

To take another example, scientific warnings about the catastrophic 
consequences of unchecked global warming were censored by a political 
appointee in the White House with no scientific training whatsoever.

"Today one of the most distinguished scientific experts in the world on 
global warming, who works in NASA, has been ordered not to talk to 
members of the press; ordered to keep a careful log of everyone he meets 
with so that the executive branch can monitor and control what he shares 
of his knowledge about global warming.

"This is a planetary crisis. We owe ourselves a truthful and reasoned 
discussion."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/16/AR2006011600779.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD_2e1dIl2s


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