[✔️] September 1, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[👀 Richard Pauli]

/*September 1, 2021*/

[Shaming the misinformer]
*Hey Exxon, Maybe Stop Tweeting*
The oil giant literally tweeted "thoughts and prayers" in the wake of 
Hurricane Ida.
Molly Taft
Yesterday
You quite literally can’t write this joke: Exxon, one of the companies 
most responsible for the climate crisis, tweeted Monday that it was 
keeping people in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast affected by Hurricane Ida 
in its “thoughts and prayers.” Wow, where have we heard that phrase before?

Exxon has, in the grand scheme of oil companies, a somewhat disorganized 
presence on social media. (Yes, I like to keep tabs on this stuff. What 
of it?) The tweet—which has been ratioed straight to hell—isn’t from 
Exxon’s official brand site, but rather from ExxonMobil Beaumont, an 
outpost of the company based outside of Port Arthur, Texas. That account 
isn’t the only Exxon-linked account that had a response to Ida.

The account for ExxonMobil’s Baytown operations in Texas tweeted a 
nearly identical “thoughts and prayers” statement, opting for a white 
background as opposed to red and adding some additional words of 
encouragement to “look out for each other as you are able.” Powerful! 
The ExxonMobil Baton Rouge account, meanwhile, really went all out, 
tweeting regular updates on its hurricane-related flaring activity and a 
link for people to build a disaster kit for hurricane season.

Exxon’s been going through a bit of a PR crisis this summer, following a 
shareholder uprising and an embarrassing investigative exposé; it’s 
natural that the company would want to put on a sympathetic face to 
local communities hit by one of the most powerful storms to ever make 
landfall in the U.S. But there’s that one teeny, nagging fact: Exxon is 
one of the largest carbon emitters in history and has spent decades 
lying about the climate crisis while churning out profits...
- -
Exxon’s crucial role in suppressing climate science for literal decades 
lends this tweet a deliciously, horribly ironic twist; it’s reminiscent 
of the grand tradition of Republican politicians funded by the NRA 
tweeting their “thoughts and prayers” following mass shootings.

And if we’re really rolling out these receipts, these particular 
locations have a lot to answer for in terms of the impact they’ve had on 
the communities they’re in. The Beaumont location is in the 
majority-Black town of Port Arthur, which is surrounded by some of the 
country’s biggest refineries and a hotspot of environmental injustice. 
Cancer rates for Black residents in that county are nearly 40% higher 
than they are for the rest of Texas, while 80% of Black residents in one 
area of the city have heart and lung problems. (The Beaumont location 
also happens to be run by union-busters: Exxon locked out 650 workers in 
May in an attempt to force a vote from their United Steelworkers local.)

Meanwhile, a judge ordered the Baytown refinery in 2017 to pay nearly 
$20 million for repeated violations of the Clean Air Act over a period 
of eight years, which, according to legal documents, saved the refinery 
more than $14 million by spewing toxic chemicals into the air without a 
permit. (The fine has since been knocked down to $14 million.) And 
though the company is mulling a net zero emissions goal, earlier this 
summer, Exxon announced it would pour $240 million into upgrading its 
Baton Rouge refinery, the fifth-largest oil refinery in the U.S. The oil 
industry is also responsible for driving subsidence that sunk 
Louisiana’s marshland, leaving the region more vulnerable to storm surge 
like Ida’s.

It may be presumptuous, but I’d like to extend a little piece of advice 
to one of the world’s biggest oil companies: If you’re going to keep 
stalling on climate action, polluting communities, and selling fossil 
fuels, maybe just don’t tweet through it.
https://gizmodo.com/hey-exxon-maybe-stop-tweeting-1847592820

- -

For those who would like to do more than offer thoughts and prayers for 
Hurricane Ida survivors, including multibillion-dollar oil companies, 
here is a list of places to donate

https://gizmodo.com/how-to-help-hurricane-ida-victims-right-now-1847581474



[keep watch]
*When Climate Change Comes to Your Doorstep*
Aug. 31, 2021
By Alexandra Tempus

Ms. Tempus is working on a book on climate migration.
- -
We are now at the dawn of America’s Great Climate Migration Era. For 
now, it is piecemeal, and moves are often temporary. Brutalized by 
hurricanes, flooding and a winter storm, Lake Charles, La., residents 
have been living with relatives for months. In early August, the Dixie 
fire — the largest single fire in recorded California history — claimed 
at least one entire town, and locals took to living in tents. Apartment 
dwellers in Lynn Haven, Fla., were forced from their homes to slosh 
through streets flooded by Tropical Storm Fred. The evacuee tally has 
continued to rise, from New Englanders in the path of Hurricane Henri to 
flood survivors in North Carolina and Tennessee to people escaping fire 
in Montana and Minnesota...
But permanent relocations, by individuals and eventually whole 
communities, are increasingly becoming unavoidable.
- -
Moving safely and efficiently from vulnerable areas more than 
temporarily remains a steep challenge for most Americans. As the U.S. 
Government Accountability Office concluded in a 2020 report, “Unclear 
federal leadership is the key challenge to climate migration as a 
resilience strategy.”

Increasingly, Indigenous peoples, community organizations, local 
governments, universities and others have stepped in to fill this void 
in leadership. They’ve developed innovative relocation plans and tools 
for towns and cities scrambling for solutions. In the wake of Ida, tied 
as the fifth-most-powerful hurricane to lash the United States, the 
federal government must make climate migration a viable option for all.

Right now it’s not — nor is it the choice everyone would make. Newly 
released Census Bureau data shows that Americans are largely moving into 
risky areas: the drought-riddled West, the hurricane-prone coastal 
South. In this crucible of poorly informed decision making and an 
inflamed climate, experts have begun to insist on a coordinated, 
justice-minded effort to facilitate voluntary climate migration and 
relocation.

In its report, the Government Accountability Office recommended a 
“community led” federal climate migration pilot program. On this front, 
the Biden administration could take cues from creative local approaches 
already underway and add its support...
- -
Some community advocates around the country have suggested that the 
Civilian Climate Corps that the Biden administration promised as part of 
its jobs plan — modeled after the New Deal’s Civilian Conservation 
Corps, which installed thousands of infrastructure and parks projects — 
could build housing for climate-displaced people.

On Monday, grass-roots leaders called for the president to establish a 
climate migration agency. The leaders — from low-income, Black, Latinx 
and Indigenous communities from South Carolina to California — have been 
meeting throughout 2021 to discuss how climate change is shaping the 
uncertain places they call home. They hope that federal relocation money 
and information will be easily accessible to all, so that leaving home 
and finding a new one is no more a disaster than it has to be.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/opinion/when-climate-change-comes-to-your-doorstep.html



[deep thinking about taking action -- interview 
https://youtu.be/VVslwDOO5kM ]
*Paul Slovic | Confronting the Deadly Arithmetic of Compassion | Talks 
at Google*
Aug 28, 2021
Talks at Google
Paul Slovic discusses human perception towards mass tragedies and losses 
at scale.

We as a global society value individual lives greatly and respond 
strongly to protect a single person in need, but often ignore mass 
tragedies and fail to take appropriate measures to reduce their losses.  
As the numbers grow larger, we become insensitive; the data fail to 
trigger the emotion or feeling necessary to motivate action. In some 
cases, large numbers convey a false sense of inefficacy, discouraging us 
from taking valuable actions. Understanding how our minds deceive us in 
the face of large losses of life is essential to motivating actions 
needed to reduce the harm from catastrophic consequences such as those 
associated with poverty, disease, climate disasters, and violence.

Paul Slovic received his B.A. degree from Stanford University, and his 
M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in psychology from the University of Michigan. In 
1976, Dr. Slovic founded the research institute Decision Research with 
Sarah Lichtenstein and Baruch Fischhoff, where he currently serves as 
President. He has also been a professor of psychology at the University 
of Oregon since 1986. He and his colleagues worldwide have developed 
methods to describe risk perceptions and measure their impacts on 
individuals, industry, and society. His most recent work examines 
“psychic numbing” and the failure to respond to global threats from 
genocide and nuclear war. He publishes extensively and serves as a 
consultant to industry and government.

Dr. Slovic is a past President of the Society for Risk Analysis and in 
1991 received its Distinguished Contribution Award. In 1993 he received 
the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American 
Psychological Association. In 1995 he received the Outstanding 
Contribution to Science Award from the Oregon Academy of Science. He has 
received honorary doctorates from the Stockholm School of Economics 
(1996) and the University of East Anglia (2005). Dr. Slovic was elected 
to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015 and the National 
Academy of Sciences in 2016.
Moderated by Ozgen Dundar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVslwDOO5kM
- -
[How our feelings can cripple action]
*Decision Research is dedicated to helping individuals and organizations 
understand and cope with the complex and often risky decisions of modern 
life. *
Decision Research (DR) investigates human judgment, decision-making, and 
risk. Our research scientists and associated research staff have a wide 
range of expertise and work on basic research and in a variety of 
applied areas including aviation, business, environmental issues, 
finance, healthcare, intelligence analysis, and terrorism. We work with 
private companies, non-profit organizations, and federal and 
international agencies.
https://www.decisionresearch.org/

- -

[Decision Education]
*OVERCOMING OBSTACLES TO ACTION IN THE FACE OF THE WORLD’S MOST URGENT 
PROBLEMS*
The mission of the Arithmetic of Compassion Website is to raise 
awareness of psychological obstacles to compassion, including psychic 
numbing, pseudoinefficacy, and the prominence effect. These cognitive 
biases lead to inaction in the face of some of the world’s largest 
humanitarian challenges, including genocide, famine, and climate change.
We also discuss how writers and artists can use their talents to 
overcome these obstacles to compassion in our Environmental Humanities page.
https://www.arithmeticofcompassion.org/



[The news archive - looking back]

*On this day in the history of global warming September  1, 2013*

Discussing the logic to a federal carbon tax to combat carbon pollution, 
Republican economist Greg Mankiw observes:

"If the government charged a fee for each emission of carbon, that fee 
would be built into the prices of products and lifestyles. When making 
everyday decisions, people would naturally look at the prices they face 
and, in effect, take into account the global impact of their choices. In 
economics jargon, a price on carbon would induce people to 'internalize 
the externality.'

"A bill introduced this year by Representatives Henry A. Waxman and Earl 
Blumenauer and Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Brian Schatz does exactly 
that. Their proposed carbon fee — or carbon tax, if you prefer — is more 
effective and less invasive than the regulatory approach that the 
federal government has traditionally pursued.

"The four sponsors are all Democrats, which raises the question of 
whether such legislation could ever make its way through the 
Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The crucial point is 
what is done with the revenue raised by the carbon fee. If it’s used to 
finance larger government, Republicans would have every reason to balk. 
But if the Democratic sponsors conceded to using the new revenue to 
reduce personal and corporate income tax rates, a bipartisan compromise 
is possible to imagine."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/business/a-carbon-tax-that-america-could-live-with.html

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