[✔️] July 15, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[👀 Richard Pauli]

/*July 15, 2021*/

[predicted - but not this soon]
*Climate change: Amazon regions emit more carbon than they absorb*
By Matt McGrath -  Environment correspondent
Significant parts of the world's largest tropical forest have started to 
emit more CO2 than they absorb.

The south-east is worst-affected, say scientists, with higher rates of 
tree loss and an increasing number of fires...
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57839364

- -

[Published in Journal Nature]
*Carbon loss from forest degradation exceeds that from deforestation in 
the Brazilian Amazon*
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01026-5



[Podcast audio of audio clips]
*The Heat Wave That Hit the Pacific Northwest*
The Daily
The heat wave that hit the usually cool and rainy American Pacific 
Northwest was a shock to many — Oregon and Washington were covered by a 
blanket of heat in the triple digits.
After the temperatures soared, a group of scientists quickly came 
together to answer a crucial question: How much is climate change to blame?
Guest: Henry Fountain, a climate change reporter for The New York Times; 
and Sergio Olmos, a freelancer for The Times.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736?i=1000528839516
- -also- -
Places that are usually cool and often rainy, such as Oregon and 
Washington, were covered by a blanket of heat in the triple digits — an 
extreme heat that damaged infrastructure and claimed 193 lives.

After the temperatures soared, a group of scientists quickly came 
together to answer a question that was on the minds of many: How much is 
climate change to blame?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/podcasts/the-daily/heat-wave-climate-change-pacific-northwest.html#commentsContainer
       [the role of climate change = the role of CO2 = the role of 
fossil fuel combustion = means it is human caused]



[Mal-adaptation]
*U.S. Companies Say Climate Change Is a Problem—But Still Lobby Against 
Solutions*
A new report from sustainability nonprofit Ceres finds that most large 
companies aren’t putting lobbying muscle behind climate goals.
While more than 80% of the largest U.S. companies have set emissions 
reduction goals, less than half engaged with lawmakers to advocate for 
science-based climate policies — and more than 20% have lobbied against 
them, according to report released Tuesday by sustainability nonprofit 
Ceres.

“Claiming credit for making operational climate change commitments while 
undermining the necessary policy measures to achieve those very 
commitments poses significant reputational and financial risks to 
companies,” the report’s authors wrote.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-13/u-s-companies-say-climate-change-is-a-problem-but-still-lobby-against-solutions

- -

["I am shocked, SHOCKED!" to read or hear this article]
*New report suggests corporate climate change pledges aren’t that valuable*
Companies that say they want to stop climate change aren’t doing enough
By Justine Calma at justcalma  Jul 13, 2021
- -
Corporations and lawmakers alike will need to do much more to meet the 
scale and urgency of the climate crisis. Scientists have found that 
global greenhouse gas emissions need to drop to essentially zero within 
a few decades to avoid a future on Earth to which life will struggle to 
adapt. But proposals by the Biden administration to overhaul US 
infrastructure and make the economy cleaner and greener are stalling in 
Congress.
- -
Some companies have flip-flopped on climate change over the past several 
years, especially as political winds changed. Twelve of the companies 
Ceres assessed have both lobbied for and against policies aimed at 
stopping climate change. Take Ford: it previously supported Trump’s 
efforts to weaken fuel efficiency standards. But it switched sides to 
back California’s stricter standards in 2019 and then announced plans to 
reach carbon neutrality — cutting down and offsetting all of its 
emissions — by 2050.

Other companies are guilty of climate inaction by association, according 
to the report. About three-quarters of S&P 100 companies are members of 
the US Chamber of Commerce, which Ceres says “has long resisted the 
policies the nation needs to make its economy more sustainable.” Apple 
is the only company Ceres assessed that abandoned the chamber over its 
position on climate change.

Protesting inaction might be just what the US Chamber of Commerce and 
companies need to make changes. It’s not just Apple. Companies are 
facing more pressure from employees, consumers, and activist 
shareholders who are concerned about the environment. Shareholders have 
even recently pushed fossil fuel companies like Chevron and Exxon to 
hasten efforts to work more sustainably. There are plenty of ways to 
push for change, and every strategy will likely have to play a role in 
saving the planet.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/13/22575651/corporate-climate-change-pledges-lobbying-report-s-p-100-index 




[good question]
*Is There No Way Out of the Climate Crisis?*
There isn’t without global action against fossil fuel companies.
By Rebecca Gordon - - JULY 13, 2021
- -
It’s impossible to overstate the urgency of the moment. And yet, as a 
species, we’re acting like the children of indulgent parents who provide 
multiple “last chances” to behave. Now, nature has run out of patience 
and we’re running out of chances. So much must be done globally, 
especially to control the giant fossil-fuel companies. We can only hope 
that real action will emerge from November’s international climate 
conference. And here in the U.S., unless congressional Democrats succeed 
in ramming through major action to stop climate change before the 2022 
midterms, we’ll have lost one more last, best chance for survival.
https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/climate-crisis-fires/

- -

[UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021]
*Glasgow was chosen by the UK to host COP26 due to its experience, 
commitment to sustainability and world-class facilities.*
https://ukcop26.org/



[Analysis from Foreign Policy]
*The American West’s Climate Hellscape Is Just a Preview*
Droughts, heat waves, and floods are the new normal—unless policymakers 
get serious.
By Christina Lu - - JULY 12, 2021
For the past few weeks, the American West has been confronting a hellish 
climate nightmare of scorching heat waves, a severe drought, and raging 
wildfires.

And it’s not just the West—or even the United States. In typically 
chilly Siberia, ground temperatures reached a blistering 118 degrees 
Fahrenheit. The Middle East has been gripped by a searing heat wave and 
a drought that has especially hammered Syria. In late June, a small 
Canadian village was almost completely consumed by wildfire. China is 
also bracing for another year of extreme weather, including torrential 
rains and flash floods, as well as heat waves.

While extreme, these current conditions aren’t entirely surprising. 
Scientists have long warned of the dangers of climate change, though the 
West’s current drought—which is more intense and expansive than in 
previous years—is a worrisome sign of what’s to come. Without 
substantial policy responses, these climate extremes could continue to 
plunge communities into crisis—and fundamentally change society.

“It’s really a wake-up call to us that climate change is here and it’s 
getting worse, and we’re not prepared,” said Peter Gleick, co-founder of 
the Pacific Institute.

Although high temperatures and droughts aren’t unusual in the American 
West, climate change—which is fueled by human activity—has made them 
more intense and frequent. In a recent study, a team of climate 
researchers found that the scale and severity of June’s record heat wave 
would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change.

“There is a detectable human fingerprint on essentially all 
unprecedented extreme heat waves,” said Daniel Swain, a climate 
scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

And its impact has been deadly. Extreme heat kills, especially among the 
elderly and in places ill-equipped to handle it—and with the intensity 
of this year’s heat wave, it already has. When record heat struck 
Washington and Oregon in late June, it took the lives of an estimated 90 
people; in British Columbia, it claimed the lives of hundreds more.

Throughout the West, the drought has also threatened communities through 
more indirect channels, such as the water supply. In June, officials 
warned that Lake Oroville, California’s second-largest reservoir, was 
being depleted so quickly that it might have to close for the first time 
ever—a closure that could affect the electricity for 800,000 homes. Lake 
Mead, the country’s largest reservoir, which helps power the gigantic 
Hoover Dam, also reached historic lows, further stoking concerns about 
the supply of water and electricity for many states in the West.

On top of a stressed water supply, the heat has also strained power 
grids and prompted blackouts. “We’re seeing shutdowns just at the moment 
when people need power the most,” said Alice Hill, a senior fellow for 
energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations. The 
impacts aren’t limited to energy, either. “Once the power grid goes, the 
health sector is affected, the transportation sector, communications, 
financial sector—all of them bear costs when we lose our access to 
power,” she said.

As the drought deepens, its environmental impact could be particularly 
dire. Ecosystems often can’t adapt to changing climates as rapidly as 
humans can, and states like California are already home to a number of 
endangered fish species. On the coast of Canada, an estimated 1 billion 
sea creatures were killed in June’s heat wave.

“During severe droughts, those ecosystems really suffer the most,” 
Gleick said. “We’re worried about endangered species going extinct; 
we’re worried about ecosystems drying up.”

When temperatures soared in late June, U.S. President Joe Biden pledged 
$37 million to support wildfire mitigation projects in one hard-hit 
California county and promised to raise the wage of federal firefighters 
to $15 an hour. Earlier, in May, the government also announced that the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency would double the funding available 
for states to brace for extreme weather disasters.

But in Washington, Democrats have long faced political hurdles to 
combating climate change, particularly from Republicans. Former U.S. 
President Donald Trump famously called climate change a hoax and 
withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord; more recently, 
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson dismissed the climate crisis as “bullshit.” 
These divides are also reflected more broadly in each parties’ base: 
Almost half of Democrats say addressing climate change is a top personal 
concern, compared to just 10 percent of Republicans, according to the 
Pew Research Center.

In June, a group of Republicans formed the Conservative Climate Caucus 
to address climate change—but the group has refused to endorse specific 
policies, and its leader, Rep. John Curtis, has said that climate change 
should not be called a “crisis.” And while a separate bipartisan 
infrastructure bill for $579 billion—which activists hoped would focus 
on combating climate change—earmarked $47 billion for climate 
resilience, it excluded Biden’s key measures, including a clean 
electricity standard, just when the havoc currently being caused by 
climate change was made most clear.

“The truth is, we’re playing catch-up,” Biden said in June. “This is an 
area that’s been under-resourced.”

The current government response is “nowhere near the levels that are 
required to adequately prepare the United States for the climate risks 
it currently faces, much less those in the future,” said Hill, who noted 
that Washington has so far incorrectly focused its efforts on 
post-disaster recovery efforts, not preemptive risk reduction. Biden 
also has yet to adopt a national adaptation strategy, the Council on 
Foreign Relations senior fellow said, even though most developed 
countries have one and creating such a plan is critical to addressing 
key risks.

“We’ve built our entire civilization on the assumption that climate is 
relatively stable,” said Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas 
Tech University. “So it’s as if we’ve been driving into the future 
looking in the rearview mirror.”

Others reach for similar metaphors to describe the shrinking window of 
opportunity to enact policies to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases 
that cause climate change. Even as the once-future impacts of climate 
change hit home, Republicans in several states are redoubling efforts to 
force the use of fossil fuels and further jack up harmful emissions. And 
in China, government warnings of extreme weather still don’t even 
mention the role of climate change.

“Climate change is not self-perpetuating; we’re perpetuating it through 
the choices that we continue to make,” said Swain, the climate 
scientist, who compared the current climate crisis to a runaway truck. 
It’s not that the truck’s brakes are bad—the world just isn’t using 
them, he said.

“We still are in control,” said Swain. “We’re just making some pretty 
bad decisions about what we do with that control that we have over the 
climate system.”

But unless policymakers at all levels start pumping the brakes, the 
extreme climate conditions that the world is enduring now will only 
intensify, as will its consequences. Critical infrastructure will likely 
continue to buckle under the scalding heat. Ecosystems will suffer, and 
some species may go extinct. Many more people will likely die.

What we’re seeing now is “a harbinger of what’s coming,” Gleick said. 
“We need to wake up. We need to realize that the consequences of a 
warming planet are going to be bad for everyone—and they’re going to get 
worse.”
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/07/12/american-west-heatwave-drought-climate-change/ 




[radical discussion video ]
*Society IS COLLAPSING: Prepare For OFF-GRID Living!*
Jul 13, 2021
Russell Brand

I spoke to Bradley Garrett author of Bunker: Building for the End Times 
on my #UnderTheSkin podcast this week. Here he talks about his time with 
Doomsday Preppers and reveals how they think, what kind of person they 
are and why they're preparing to live off-grid!

You can listen to the rest of this audio podcast on Luminary on Apple 
Podcasts here: http://apple.co/russell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-ifB5jHCI8


[fun things to know and tell - from Laurie the Librarian]

*How Much Hotter Is Your Hometown Than When You Were Born?*
As the world warms because of human-induced climate change, most of us 
can expect to see more days when temperatures hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit 
(32 degrees Celsius) or higher. See how your hometown has changed so far 
and how much hotter it may get.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/30/climate/how-much-hotter-is-your-hometown.html?referringSource=articleShare



[The news archive - looking back]
*On this day in the history of global warming July 15, 1976*

July 15, 1976: At the Democratic National Convention, presidential 
nominee Jimmy Carter states, "We can have an America that has reconciled 
its economic needs with its desire for an environment that we can pass 
on with pride to the next generation."
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Car (34:46--34:58)


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