[✔️] April 29, 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
Richard at CredoandScreed.com
Fri Apr 29 11:34:04 EDT 2022
/*April 29, 2022*/
/[ PBS - very powerful, important documentary 54 min video - part 3
on May 3rd ] /
*The Power of Big Oil Part Two: Doubt (full documentary) | FRONTLINE*
FRONTLINE PBS | Official
Watch part two of “The Power of Big Oil,” a three-episode FRONTLINE
docuseries investigating the fossil fuel industry’s history of casting
doubt and delaying action on climate change.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMe-BYUIPLU
/
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/
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/[ Positive conclusion: choose wisely ]/
*Research Highlights a Choice About the Fate of Ocean Life*
A new study finds that if fossil fuel emissions continue apace, the
oceans could experience a mass extinction by 2300. There is still time
to avoid it.
- -
To forecast the effects from global warming that is now driven by human
activity, the scientists used the same model, with its intricate
interplay between sunlight, clouds, ocean and air currents, and other
forces like the chemical dances between heat and oxygen, water and air.
They also took into account how much fish habitats could shift,
estimating thresholds for survivability.
“It’s a lot of time spent on the computer,” Dr. Penn said.
While the study focused on the effects of warming and oxygen loss, ocean
acidification and other snowball effects could worsen the species loss
it predicted...
- -
The ocean has long acted as a quiet safeguard against climate change,
absorbing vast amounts of the carbon dioxide and trapped heat as people
burned fossil fuels and razed forests. But that service has come at a
cost. Last year, the ocean reached its highest temperature and lowest
oxygen content since humans started keeping track. Changes to the
ocean’s chemistry are already threatening fish. Coral reefs are in steep
decline.
“‘How screwed are we?’ I get that all the time,” Dr. Deutsch said. “If
we don’t do anything, we’re screwed.”...
- -
“This paper adds to the huge body of evidence that unless more is done
to curb our greenhouse gas emissions, our marine systems are on course
to see a massive shift in where marine species live and, as shown in
this paper, significant extinction events that could rival previous mass
extinction events,” she said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/climate/global-warming-ocean-extinctions.html
/[ careful measurements ]/
*Deforestation Remains High, Despite International Pledges*
Brazil had the largest share of tree loss last year, followed by the
Democratic Republic of Congo and Bolivia. Indonesia showed improvement.
By Henry Fountain - - April 28, 2022
Halting deforestation was one of the major commitments to come out of
the international climate talks last year in Glasgow, but there was
scant evidence of progress in 2021, according to a report released
Thursday...
- -
“No one should even think anymore about planting trees instead of
reducing emissions from fossil fuels,” she said. “It’s got to be both,
and it’s got to be now before it’s too late.”
The report found that overall in the tropics, more than 27 million acres
of forest cover was lost. But in its analysis the institute focuses on
older primary forests in humid regions, which play by far the greatest
role in keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and in maintaining
biodiversity.
The report is a collaboration between the institute and the Global Land
Analysis and Discovery laboratory at the University of Maryland, which
has developed methods to analyze satellite imagery to determine the
extent of forest cover.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/climate/deforestation-tree-loss.html
- -
/[ See the data ] /
*World Resources Institute|GLOBAL FOREST REVIEW*
As the quality and availability of spatial data improve, we will expand
and improve existing content, especially as it relates to forest gain,
drivers of loss, and net forest change. The Global Forest Review is
fluid by design, and the contents of the report will be continually
updated as relevant. Our hope is that providing timely, independent, and
globally comprehensive insights will facilitate a future of more
sustainable forest ecosystems.
https://research.wri.org/gfr/latest-analysis-deforestation-trends
/[ Spillover is a new euphemism ] /
*Climate Change Will Accelerate Viral Spillovers, Study Finds*
In a warming world, bats in Southeast Asia will be especially prone to
spreading viruses to other mammals, researchers found.
By Carl Zimmer
April 28, 2022
Over the next 50 years, climate change will drive thousands of viruses
to jump from one species of mammal to another, according to a study
published in Nature on Thursday. The shuffling of viruses among animals
may increase the risk that one will jump into humans and cause a new
pandemic, the researchers said.
Scientists have long warned that a warming planet may increase the
burden of diseases. Malaria, for example, is expected to spread as the
mosquitoes that carry it expand their range into warming regions. But
climate change might also usher in entirely new diseases, by allowing
pathogens to move into new host species.
“We know that species are moving, and when they do, they’re going to
have these chances to share viruses,” said Colin Carlson, a biologist at
Georgetown University and a co-author of the new study.
To understand what that sharing will look like, Dr. Carlson and his
colleagues built a computer model of potential spillovers in a warming
world. The researchers started by projecting how thousands of mammals
might shift their ranges as the climate changes between now and 2070...
- -
Climate-driven spillovers may start long before 2070. After all, the
planet is already 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than it was in the 19th
century. In their computer model, the researchers found that there has
already been sufficient climate change to start mixing viruses up,
although their model doesn’t let them point to particular viruses that
have made a jump.
“The amount of warming we’ve had has been enough to set it in motion,”
Dr. Carlson said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/science/climate-change-virus-spillover.html
/[ audio of two wise women philosophizing about activism ]
/*The Future of Activism | Gail Bradbrook*
Apr 28, 2022
Planet: Critical
Dr Gail Bradbrook joins me to discuss how activist groups can evolve
their messaging and their mission to identify a new goal: solutions.
Gail is one of the original members who set up Extinction Rebellion and
has now transitioned to Being The Change which empowers both activists
and the public to connect with one another around the world and do
something.
Interview Transcript available for Patrons:
https://patreon.com/planetcritical
Extinction Rebellion drew attention to the climate crisis like no other
group before them. Founded in just 2018, they’ve forced the climate
conversation into the mainstream, and their organisation is an inspiring
reminder of what citizens can achieve when mobilized.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md7aBeNOmN4
/[Political discussion ]/
*Rising authoritarianism and worsening climate change share a
fossil-fueled secret*
Published: April 27, 2022
Around the world, many countries are becoming less democratic. This
backsliding on democracy and “creeping authoritarianism,” as the U.S.
State Department puts it, is often supported by the same industries that
are escalating climate change.
In my new book, “Global Burning: Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate
Crisis,” I lay out connections between these industries and the
politicians who are both stalling action on climate change and
diminishing democracy.
It’s a dangerous shift, both for representative government and for the
future climate.
*Corporate capture of environmental politics*
In democratic systems, elected leaders are expected to protect the
public’s interests, including from exploitation by corporations. They do
this primarily through policies designed to secure public goods, such as
clean air and unpolluted water, or to protect human welfare, such as
good working conditions and minimum wages. But in recent decades, this
core democratic principle that prioritizes citizens over corporate
profits has been aggressively undermined.
Today, it’s easy to find political leaders – on both the political right
and left – working on behalf of corporations in energy, finance,
agribusiness, technology, military and pharmaceutical sectors, and not
always in the public interest. These multinational companies help fund
their political careers and election campaigns to keep them in office.
In the U.S., this relationship was cemented by the Supreme Court’s 2010
decision in Citizens United. The decision allowed almost unlimited
spending by corporations and wealthy donors to support the political
candidates who best serve their interests. Data shows that candidates
with the most outside funding usually win. This has led to increasing
corporate influence on politicians and party policies.
When it comes to the political parties, it’s easy to find examples of
campaign finance fueling political agendas.
In 1988, when NASA scientist James Hansen testified before a U.S. Senate
committee about the greenhouse effect, both the Republican and
Democratic parties took climate change seriously. But this attitude
quickly diverged. Since the 1990s, the energy sector has heavily
financed conservative candidates who have pushed its interests and
helped to reduce regulations on the fossil fuel industry. This has
enabled the expansion of fossil fuel production and escalated CO2
emissions to dangerous levels.
The industry’s power in shaping policy plays out in examples like the
coalition of 19 Republican state attorneys general and coal companies
suing to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating
greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
At the same time that the energy sector has sought to influence policies
on climate change, it has also worked to undermine the public’s
understanding of climate science. For instance, records show ExxonMobil
participated in a widespread climate-science denial campaign for years,
spending more than US$30 million on lobbyists, think tanks and
researchers to promote climate-science skepticism. These efforts
continue today. A 2019 report found the five largest oil companies had
spent over $1 billion on misleading climate-related lobbying and
branding campaigns over the previous three years.
The energy industry has in effect captured the democratic political
process and prevented enactment of effective climate policies.
Corporate interests have also fueled a surge in well-financed
antidemocratic leaders who are willing to stall and even dismantle
existing climate policies and regulations. These political leaders’
tactics have escalated public health crises, and in some cases, human
rights abuses.
*Brazil, Australia and the US*
Many deeply antidemocratic governments are tied to oil, gas and other
extractive industries that are driving climate change, including Russia,
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and China.
In “Global Burning,” I explore how three leaders of traditionally
democratic countries – Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Scott Morrison of
Australia and Donald Trump in the U.S. – came to power on
anti-environment and nationalist platforms appealing to an extreme-right
populist base and extractive corporations that are driving climate
change. While the political landscape of each country is different, the
three leaders have important commonalities.
Bolsonaro, Morrison and Trump all depend on extractive corporations to
fund electoral campaigns and keep them in office or, in the case of
Trump, get reelected.
For instance, Bolsonaro’s power depends on support from a powerful
right-wing association of landowners and farmers called the União
Democrática Ruralista, or UDR. This association reflects the interests
of foreign investors and specifically the multibillion-dollar mining and
agribusiness sectors. Bolsonaro promised that if elected in 2019, he
would dismantle environmental protections and open, in the name of
economic progress, industrial-scale soybean production and cattle
grazing in the Amazon rainforest. Both contribute to climate change and
deforestation in a fragile region considered crucial for keeping carbon
out of the atmosphere.
Bolsonaro, Morrison and Trump are all openly skeptical of climate
science. Not surprisingly, all have ignored, weakened or dismantled
environmental protection regulations. In Brazil, that led to accelerated
deforestation and large swaths of Amazon rainforest burning.
In Australia, Morrison’s government ignored widespread public and
scientific opposition and opened the controversial Adani Carmichael
mine, one of the largest coal mines in the world. The mine will impact
public health and the climate and threatens the Great Barrier Reef as
temperatures rise and ports are expanded along the coast...
- -
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (left) faced protests over his
support for the Adani Carmichael mine, one of the largest coal mines in
the world. AP Photo/Rick Rycroft
Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement – a move
opposed by a majority of Americans – rolled back over 100 laws meant to
protect the environment and opened national parks to fossil fuel
drilling and mining.
Notably, all three leaders have worked, sometimes together, against
international efforts to stop climate change. At the United Nations
climate talks in Spain in 2019, Costa Rica’s minister for environment
and energy at the time, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, blamed Brazil,
Australia and the U.S. for blocking efforts to tackle climate injustice
linked to global warming.
Brazil, Australia and the U.S. are not unique in these responses to
climate change. Around the world, there have been similar convergences
of antidemocratic leaders who are financed by extractive corporations
and who implement anti-environment laws and policies that defend
corporate profits. New to the current moment is that these leaders
openly use state power against their own citizens to secure corporate
land grabs to build dams, lay pipelines, dig mines and log forests.
For example, Trump supported the deployment of the National Guard to
disperse Native Americans and environmental activists protesting the
Dakota Access Pipeline, a project that he had personally been invested
in. His administration also proposed harsher penalties for pipeline
protesters that echoed legislation promoted by the American Legislative
Exchange Council, whose members include lawmakers and lobbyists for the
oil industry. Several Republican-led states enacted similar anti-protest
laws.
Under Bolsonaro, Brazil has changed laws in ways that embolden land
grabbers to push small farmers and Indigenous people off their land in
the rainforest.
*What can people do about it?*
Fortunately, there is a lot that people can do to protect democracy and
the climate.
Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy and reducing the
destruction of forests can cut greenhouse gas emissions. The biggest
obstacles, a recent U.N. climate report noted, are national leaders who
are unwilling to regulate fossil fuel corporations, reduce greenhouse
gas emissions or plan for renewable energy production.
The path forward, as I see it, involves voters pushing back on the
global trend toward authoritarianism, as Slovenia did in April 2022, and
pushing forward on replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. People
can reclaim their democratic rights and vote out anti-environment
governments whose power depends on prioritizing extractive capitalism
over the best interests of their citizens and our collective humanity.
https://theconversation.com/rising-authoritarianism-and-worsening-climate-change-share-a-fossil-fueled-secret-181012
/[ An important technical breakthrough in energy - mostly for computers
] /
*Discovery of the one-way superconductor, thought to be impossible*
by Delft University of Technology - APRIL 27, 2022
In the 20th century and beyond, no one could tackle the barrier of
making superconducting electrons go in just one-direction, which is
a fundamental property needed for computing and other modern
electronics (consider for example diodes that go one way as well).
In normal conduction the electrons fly around as separate particles;
in superconductors they move in pairs of twos, without any loss of
electrical energy. In the '70s, scientists at IBM tried out the idea
of superconducting computing but had to stop their efforts: in their
papers on the subject, IBM mentions that without non-reciprocal
superconductivity, a computer running on superconductors is impossible.
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-discovery-one-way-superconductor-thought-impossible.html
/[The news archive - looking back]/
*April 29, 2014*
A Center for American Progress report reveals:
"As part of a major effort since 2008 to bolster its lobbying and
political power, the oil and gas industry has steadily expanded its
contributions and influence over several major conservative sportsmen’s
organizations, including Safari Club International, or SCI, the National
Rifle Association, or NRA, and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation.
The first two organizations have assumed an increasingly active and
vocal role in advancing energy industry priorities, even when those
positions are in apparent conflict with the interests of hunters and
anglers who are their rank-and-file members. The third group, the
Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, or CSF, is also heavily funded by
oil and gas interests and plays a key role in providing energy
companies, SCI, the NRA, gun manufacturers, and other corporate sponsors
with direct access to members of Congress."
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/report/2014/04/29/88712/oil-and-gas-industry-investments-in-the-national-rifle-association-and-safari-club-international/
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