[✔️] December 9, 2022 - Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*December 9, 2022*/

[ NYT opinion ]
*Climate Change Will Destroy Arabs and Israelis Before They Destroy Each 
Other*
Dec. 6, 2022
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
JERICHO, West Bank — There are two dramas playing out today along the 
banks of the River Jordan, representing the two most powerful forces 
shaping politics in and around Israel. Tell me which one dominates, and 
I’ll tell you what relations between Jews and Arabs will look like.

One is the logic of tribalism. It was starkly manifested in Israel’s 
newly elected ultrareligious, ultranationalist government, which was 
propelled into office by a surge in clashes between West Bank 
Palestinians and Israelis in general and a surge of criminal activity by 
Israeli Arabs against other Israeli Arabs and Jews in particular. It’s 
all driven by the tribalist motto “Me and my brother against my cousin. 
Me, my brother and my cousin against the outsider.”

The Israeli leader of this coalition is Benjamin Netanyahu, who won 
election with a campaign focused on spreading fear of, and resisting 
power sharing with, Palestinian residents of the West Bank and 
Palestinian citizens of Israel. Netanyahu’s main message was to Jewish 
Israelis: Only I can protect you from the other.

But while that election was unfolding, another logic was also at work: 
the logic of nature, which says that when the climate changes, as it is 
doing now, it is not the strongest or smartest species that survive. 
It’s the most adaptive. And the most adaptive ecosystems are usually the 
most diverse, rich with species offering different ways to adapt. They 
thrive because they’re able to forge healthy interdependencies among the 
different plants and animals and, in doing so, maximize their resilience 
and growth.
Their motto is “Me, my brother, my cousin and the outsider all 
collaborating naturally so we rise together, not fall together.”

An example of this kind of thinking was the tacit environmental alliance 
forged by Israel’s previous national unity government — led by Yair 
Lapid and Naftali Bennett — in collaboration with leaders from Jordan, 
Palestine and the United Arab Emirates.

To be sure, the previous Israeli government was dedicated to resistance 
thinking where needed — deterring Iranian and Palestinian attacks on 
Israelis. But it was also engaged in some very creative resilience 
thinking, based on this logic: Climate change and drought are going to 
kill us all long before we kill each other, unless we produce more 
sustainable sources of water. That has to start with nursing back to 
life the Jordan River that has nourished this region for millenniums.
Today that requires unprecedented forms of Jewish-Arab collaboration.

I came here to the lowest spot on earth, where the ancient town of 
Jericho, the Jordan River and the Dead Sea all meet, to highlight this 
emerging nature-climate coalition. My tour guide was Gidon Bromberg, a 
co-founder of EcoPeace Middle East, a regional environmental 
organization consisting of Jordanians, Palestinians and Israelis 
striving to sustain one of the most water-stressed regions on the planet.

Bromberg began by pointing out two surprising things that are 
interrelated. This Jordan Valley region used to be dominated by farms 
growing a wide range of fruits and vegetables. Today, alas, most of the 
land is covered by palm trees growing dates.

Hearty Beans, Tender Lamb and a Menu to Remember
Second, the bend in the Jordan River where we were standing — the spot 
where tradition says John the Baptist baptized Jesus — used to be 
roughly 100 meters wide, with rushing rapids. Today it’s only five to 10 
meters wide, with no rapids, which was why we could watch Christian 
pilgrims comfortably standing in the middle of the Jordan being baptized 
by their priest.

The connection? It is now so hot down here for so much longer each year 
(almost 115 degrees last August) that essentially the only crop that can 
be reliably grown anymore is dates. But that’s possible only if the 
palms have a lot of water, and that is now in danger.

Without a healthy Jordan River, even date palms won’t be able to survive 
here. Middle East Eye recently quoted a Jordanian farmer about how 
haywire his planting season has become: “We used to start planting in 
July, but now we start in September or even October” because the summer 
months are too hot. “But then it gets cold very quickly” — too quickly 
sometimes for vegetables to survive.

How to get more water? The old method was resistance, zero-sum thinking 
— “everyone just grabbing water for what they thought were their 
legitimate security needs,” explained Bromberg. Back in the 1960s, 
Israel constricted the flow of the Jordan from the Sea of Galilee so it 
could divert more water through a national water carrier to thirsty Tel 
Aviv and down to the Negev to make the desert bloom. Syria choked its 
Jordan River tributary the Yarmouk River, and Jordan limited what was 
left of its portion of the Yarmouk and other tributaries feeding the 
river from its territory.

The once mighty Jordan turned into a freshwater trickle, which episodic 
droughts only exacerbated, leading to a large swath of the Dead Sea 
drying up. Worse, they used the Jordan as a dumping ground for human waste.

The good news is that Israel and Jordan recognized that this was 
self-defeating and as part of their 1994 peace accord agreed that Israel 
would turn the tap back on from the Sea of Galilee and give Jordan a 
bigger allotment of water from the river. But the Jordan River could not 
keep up. With the climate getting hotter and drier in the valley — and 
700,000 Jordanians, 30,000 Israelis and 60,000 Palestinians trying to 
make a living from agriculture there — a more sustainable solution was 
needed.

In October 2021, I wrote about the outlines of what I hoped could become 
a new kind of peace treaty between Arabs and Israelis — a treaty 
fostering resilience among the parties rather than just ending 
resistance between the parties.

It was initialed by Jordan, Israel and the U.A.E. at a conference in 
Dubai, with the help of the U.S. climate envoy, John Kerry. Last month, 
at the Sharm el-Sheikh climate conference, those countries took a step 
further and signed a new memorandum to complete the feasibility study 
for this unique collaboration.

The draft deal calls for the U.A.E. to bring investment capital that 
would enable Jordan to build a 600-megawatt capacity solar plant in its 
vast desert to produce clean energy that Israel would tap to expand its 
coastal desalination plants (which will soon provide 90 percent of 
Israel’s fresh water) and pump some of that desalinated water into the 
Sea of Galilee and then down the expanded and properly filtered Jordan 
River, so it can once again be the regional water carrier that nature 
designed it to be.

If President Biden can help shepherd this concept to fruition, it could 
be the biggest U.S. contribution to Middle East peace since Camp David. 
An EcoPeace study argues that the rehabilitation of the Jordan River and 
Jordan Valley could, over time, give a multibillion-dollar boost to the 
combined G.D.P. of the Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian residents 
there — from its current paltry $4 billion annual level.

To put it bluntly, with the old peace process now as dead as the Dead 
Sea, we need to hope that naked self-interest in response to natural 
challenges will propel massive collaboration around clean energy and water.

I like the analogy offered by Bromberg: The European Union, he noted, 
was forged after World War II “to harness the two most important natural 
resources in Europe at that time, coal and steel, to create peace and 
prosperity.” Indeed, when the union was founded, it was called the 
European Coal and Steel Community.

“What is the coal and steel of our day?” asked Bromberg. “It’s the sea, 
the sun and the sand.”

We need to help the parties here collaborate to forge those three into a 
healthy interdependency whose byproduct is not just clean water that can 
nourish agriculture but also trust that can be plowed back into their 
politics.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/opinion/how-biden-can-help-save-the-middle-east.html



/[  global warming deniers take note - from the Boston Globe  ] /
*New England winters are getting much warmer, data show*
Burlington, Vt. has seen more winter warming in the last 50 years than 
any other place in America, according to the analysis, by independent 
research organization Climate Central.
By Dharna Noor Globe Staff, December 7, 2022
It’s December in New England, but if it still feels too warm out to 
drink hot cocoa, it’s not just you. Federal forecasters say December, 
January, and February temperatures will be milder than normal across the 
region, and this year isn’t an anomaly.

Thanks to climate change, winters are getting warmer across the country, 
but a new analysis of federal temperature data shows the trend is 
particularly strong in parts of the Northeast. In fact Burlington, Vt., 
has seen more winter warming in the last 50 years than any other place 
in America, according to the analysis, by independent research 
organization Climate Central.
The researchers analyzed temperature data from 238 sites across the 
United States to see how much winters have warmed since 1970. All but 
six of those locations saw an increase in average winter temperatures, 
they found.

The average winter warming they observed nationally was 3.3 degrees 
Fahrenheit. Burlington winters have warmed by a stunning 7.1 degrees. 
Concord, N.H., meanwhile, has warmed by 6 degrees, and Portland, Maine, 
has warmed by 5 degrees. Boston came in slightly below the national 
average, with 3 degrees of warming.
- -
Climate Central also examined the long-term change in the number of 
warmer-than-normal winter days across the United States. They found that 
80 percent of locations had at least seven more days when temperatures 
were higher than “normal” than they did in 1970. The authors based their 
standards for “normal” weather on temperature averages from 1991 to 2020 
for consistency, because weather “normals” — or 30-year averages — are 
slightly warmer now than they were back then.
The cities with the greatest increase in warmer-than-average days were 
San Francisco and Las Vegas. They experienced 28 and 32 more days of 
above-normal winter temperatures, respectively. But Concord, N.H., with 
an increase of 22 more above-normal days, wasn’t far behind. Burlington 
saw 21 more above-normal days, Portland, Maine, saw 19 more, and Boston 
saw an increase of 13.
Experts say New England is warming faster than the rest of the planet — 
a change they attribute to changes in atmospheric conditions and rising 
temperatures in coastal waters, such as the rapidly heating Gulf of 
Maine. Winter temperatures are rising especially quickly — twice as fast 
as summer temperatures, one 2021 National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration analysis found.

The milder winter weather might feel pleasant, but it’s expected to take 
a major toll on the region, rendering coastal waters inhospitable to 
iconic species such as cod and lobster, leaving the ski industry to 
suffer amid a decrease in snow, and making it harder to produce winter 
agricultural products such as maple syrup. In warm winters, rats and 
other rodents are also able to reproduce at higher rates, and invasive 
insects are able to expand their ranges. Plus, it just feels wrong to 
sing carols and bake holiday cookies in the balmy weather.

The good news is, by swiftly curbing planet-warming greenhouse gas 
emissions, future winter warming can be limited.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/12/07/science/new-england-winters-are-getting-much-warmer-data-shows/



/[  Powerful force of disinformation - NYTimes audio and text ]/
* The Texas Group Waging a National Crusade Against Climate Action*
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is shaping laws, running influence 
campaigns and taking legal action in a bid to promote fossil fuels.
By David Gelles
Gelles is writing a series of articles about groups working to promote 
fossil fuels and block climate action.
Published Dec. 4, 2022
When a lawsuit was filed to block the nation’s first major offshore wind 
farm off the Massachusetts coast, it appeared to be a straightforward 
clash between those who earn their living from the sea and others who 
would install turbines and underwater cables that could interfere with 
the harvesting of squid, fluke and other fish.

The fishing companies challenging federal permits for the Vineyard Wind 
project were from the Bay State as well as Rhode Island and New York, 
and a video made by the opponents featured a bearded fisherman with a 
distinct New England accent.

But the financial muscle behind the fight originated thousands of miles 
from the Atlantic Ocean, in dusty oil country. The group bankrolling the 
lawsuit filed last year was the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an 
Austin-based nonprofit organization backed by oil and gas companies and 
Republican donors.
With influence campaigns, legal action and model legislation, the group 
is promoting fossil fuels and trying to stall the American economy’s 
transition toward renewable energy. It is upfront about its opposition 
to Vineyard Wind and other renewable energy projects, making no 
apologies for its advocacy work.

Even after Democrats in Congress passed the biggest climate law in 
United States history this summer, the organization is undaunted, and 
its continued efforts highlight the myriad forces working to keep oil, 
gas and coal companies in business.

In Arizona, the Texas Public Policy Foundation campaigned to keep open 
one of the biggest coal-fired power plants in the West. In Colorado, it 
called for looser restrictions on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. And 
in Texas, the group crafted the first so-called “energy boycott” law to 
punish financial institutions that want to scale back their investments 
in fossil fuel projects, legislation adopted by four other states.

At the same time, the Texas Public Policy Foundation has spread 
misinformation about climate science. With YouTube videos, regular 
appearances on Fox and Friends, and social media campaigns, the group’s 
executives have sought to convince lawmakers and the public that a 
transition away from oil, gas and coal would harm Americans.
They have frequently seized on current events to promote dubious 
narratives, pinning high gasoline prices on President Biden’s climate 
policies (economists say that’s not the driver) or claiming the 2021 
winter blackout in Texas was the result of unreliable wind energy (it 
wasn’t).
They travel the nation encouraging state lawmakers to punish companies 
that try to reduce carbon emissions. And through an initiative called 
Life:Powered, the group makes what it calls “the moral case for fossil 
fuels,” which holds that American prosperity is rooted in an economy 
based on oil, gas and coal and that poor communities and developing 
nations deserve the same opportunities to grow...
- - -
“Just as the tobacco industry had front groups and the opioid industry 
had front groups, this is part of the fossil fuel disinformation 
playbook,” said David Michaels, an epidemiologist at the George 
Washington School of Public Health who has studied corporate influence 
campaigns. “The role of these so called policy organizations is not to 
provide useful information to the public, but to promote the interests 
of their sponsors, which are often antithetical to public health.”

Robert Henneke, the foundation’s executive director, disputed the 
assertion that it was a front for fossil fuel interests. “That 
characterization is inaccurate,” he said. He also said that most of the 
policies the foundation promotes have nothing to do with energy..
- -
*Taking on New Fights*
Since President Biden came to office pledging to make climate action a 
top priority, the organization has only increased its efforts to combat 
what it sees as the overblown response to global warming — disputing 
broadly accepted models that project an uptick in temperatures, 
questioning the viability of wind and solar energy and dismissing the 
2015 Paris climate agreement as a political stunt that will “will push 
more people into poverty.”

When a storm led to blackouts across Texas in February 2021, the 
foundation blamed the blackouts on frozen wind turbines, even though 
utility officials said the primary cause was the state’s natural gas 
providers. The message was echoed by Republican politicians across the 
country and commentators including Tucker Carlson...
The Texas Public Policy Foundation continues to campaign against wind 
power despite the fact that Texas now generates almost a third of its 
energy from wind power...
- -
It is also helping shape the law. When a Texas oil executive complained 
that he couldn’t get a bank loan to expand drilling operations, Mr. 
Isaac, a former state lawmaker who previously co-founded a nonprofit 
that promotes natural gas, drafted a bill directing the state to stop 
doing business with banks and companies that were divesting from the 
fossil fuel industry. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas signed the law last year.

With encouragement from Mr. Isaac and a network of Republican state 
treasurers, four other states — West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and 
Oklahoma — have passed similar laws. That has led some states to stop 
doing business with major financial institutions including Goldman 
Sachs, JPMorgan and BlackRock.

Meanwhile, the foundation is suing the Environmental Protection Agency, 
challenging its designation of greenhouse gases as a danger to human 
health and welfare, and this summer lodged its objection to a proposal 
at the Securities and Exchange Commission that would require public 
companies to disclose the financial risks they face from climate change.

As Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in January, 
the Texas group is poised to regain influence in Washington.

“It gives us a leg up,” Mr. Isaac said. “We’ve been educating staff on 
the Hill on our research, our positions and our messaging. We’re going 
to have more of an impact in Washington not only over the next two 
years, but over the next six years. It’s great.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/04/climate/texas-public-policy-foundation-climate-change.html




/[ E&E News - ClimateWire -- the misinformed leading a disinformation 
squad ]/
*Climate foes push Great Reset conspiracy theory*
By Scott Waldman | 12/06/2022
People being forced to eat bugs. Confiscated cars. Cities going dark as 
electric lights are turned off. Climate lockdowns.

*Welcome to the conspiratorial world of the “Great Reset” theory.**
*
Its followers claim that government officials want to impose draconian 
lockdowns similar to the worst days of Covid-19 in order to cut 
greenhouse gas emissions. The conspiracy theory holds that a global 
elite is planning to shut down society and restrict personal freedoms, 
such as eating meat and driving gas-powered cars in their zeal to 
address climate change.

The Great Reset has been boosted by climate deniers, right-wing media 
and conservative think tanks that oppose regulations on fossil fuels.

It all began in June 2020 during the depths of Covid-19 lockdowns. Car 
traffic and industrial activity worldwide fell sharply, leading to lower 
levels of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Then-Prince 
Charles described that moment in time as a new beginning for the planet. 
The world had seen what was possible for the environment, and now 
renewable energy, clean cars and altered methods of commuting could help 
make those changes permanent.

*It was called the Great Reset.*

Before long it was turned into a rallying cry against Covid-19 lockdowns 
and, then, as a warning against climate action. Conservative activists 
used it to claim that environmental laws and regulations were an attack 
on their personal freedoms, said John Cook, a postdoctoral research 
fellow at the Climate Change Communication Research Hub at Monash 
University in Australia and an expert on climate disinformation.

“Combining the claim ‘climate policy limits freedom’ with ‘climate 
change is a conspiracy’ is a potent combination as it combines 
conservative ideology with the conspiratorial mindset of a science 
denier,” he said. “So the climate lockdown conspiracy theory has the 
potential to resonate with climate deniers and spread further.”

Now, increasingly, the Great Reset is being introduced to Americans who 
watch Fox News, or who follow Republicans like Reps. Paul Gosar of 
Arizona or Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who have promoted the 
conspiracy theory’s shifting claims.

The Great Reset could come to the halls of Congress next year, when 
Republicans take control of the House. Party leaders have threatened to 
launch a series of investigations, including into President Joe Biden’s 
energy policies.

Steve Milloy, who was part of the Trump administration’s EPA transition 
team, was one of the first to push the Great Reset as a climate-related 
conspiracy theory. Milloy said he expects the idea to be part of the 
discussion if Congress conducts climate-related investigations, 
including one on net zero that he has privately urged Republican aides 
to take up.

Milloy said upcoming regulations from EPA, such as tighter vehicle 
emissions rules and methane reductions, could be framed as evidence of 
the Great Reset.

“I cannot wait to see what the Biden EPA rolls out over the next two 
years,” he said. “It’s going to be totally consistent with the Great 
Reset, it’s going to be about control over what we do, control of 
industry, control, control, control.”

The conspiracy theory became a familiar phrase in right-wing media after 
Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the most aggressive 
climate bill in U.S. history, in August. Former Trump White House 
adviser Steve Bannon has talked about it on his influential podcast, the 
“War Room.” The conservative Heritage Foundation has framed it as 
“global elites who are trying to restructure our civilization.” Newsmax, 
OANN and Breitbart News are increasingly talking and writing about the 
Great Reset. Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham have 
pushed it during their nightly shows.

Many of those who have worked to push the theory are affiliated with 
groups that fight energy regulations or that have received funding from 
fossil fuel companies. That includes the Heartland Institute; E&E Legal; 
and the Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow, whose employee, Marc 
Morano, has promoted the conspiracy theory for two years. He wrote a 
book called “The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown.”

C-SPAN recently aired a talk with Morano in which he told viewers that 
elites want to use climate policy to “collapse” American society so they 
can expand their control over it.

“The idea here is that in order to reset, build back better, you have to 
essentially collapse the current system,” he said.

Lawmakers and far-right influencers are talking about it, too.

Earlier this year, Greene, the Georgia lawmaker, told conspiracy 
theorist Alex Jones that liberal politicians from around the world were 
adherents to the Great Reset. She warned that it would bring socialism 
to the U.S.

“They are very serious about the Great Reset, they are very serious 
about globalism, and this is something that America was never meant to 
be a part of,” she said.

In September, Turning Point USA hosted a two-day event in Phoenix, 
Ariz., called “Defeating the Great Reset.” Speakers included Bannon; 
Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec; and the group’s founder, 
Charlie Kirk.

“Are we here to learn about, or understand, or compromise or accommodate 
the Great Reset?” Bannon told the screaming sold-out crowd. “We are here 
to defeat it.”

“Defeat the Great Reset!” the crowd chanted.

*The beginning*
Police officers walk in front of a demonstration against measures to 
battle the coronavirus pandemic in Vienna, Austria, Saturday, Nov. 20, 
2021. Thousands of protesters are expected to gather in Vienna after the 
Austrian government announced a nationwide lockdown to contain the 
quickly rising coronavirus infections in the country. Banner reads: 
Great exchange, Great Reset, Stop the globalist filth'. (AP 
Photo/Florian Schroetter)
Police officers walk in front of a demonstration against measures to 
battle the coronavirus pandemic in Vienna, Austria, on Nov. 20, 2021. 
The banner reads: “Great exchange, Great Reset, stop the globalist 
filth.” | AP Photo/Florian Schroetter
The conspiracy theory’s origins can be traced to a video launched by 
Charles and the World Economic Forum to promote a Covid-19 economic 
recovery plan. The video said a paradigm shift was needed to inspire 
“action at revolutionary levels and pace.” It showed images of ice 
shelves collapsing, solar panels, wind turbines, wildfires and hurricanes.

“We need to evolve our economic model, putting people and planets at the 
heart of global value creation,” Charles said in the video. “If there is 
one critical lesson we have to learn from this crisis, we need to put 
nature at the heart of how we operate.”

Not long afterward, Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a far-right 
former Vatican official, wrote letters to then-President Donald Trump 
that included false Covid-19 claims and anti-Black Lives Matter 
rhetoric. In October 2020, Viganò wrote an open letter to Trump that 
claimed a “global elite” was plotting to take over the world through the 
Great Reset and pleaded with him to stop “the final assault of the 
children of darkness.”

“A global plan called the Great Reset is underway,” he wrote. “Its 
architect is a global élite that wants to subdue all of humanity, 
imposing coercive measures with which to drastically limit individual 
freedoms and those of entire populations.”

The Great Reset is unique among conspiracy theories in that it sprung 
from a public campaign to explore carbon reductions from Covid-19 
lockdowns. It was then twisted into a dark narrative, according to a 
comprehensive report from the London-based Institute for Strategic 
Dialogue. The group concluded that “climate lockdowns” is a case study 
of how “a message can be seized upon by reactionary media actors and 
adapted to serve existing agendas.”

“‘Climate Lockdown’ is not a story of outsider threats to popular 
discourse, but a lesson in how any message can be weaponised by those 
intent on harm — whether to profit from disinformation and manufactured 
outrage, to fuel mistrust in institutions, or to confirm existing biases 
about certain groups and causes,” the group concluded.

The video’s clear environmental themes also turned it into something 
that climate denialists could exploit. The Heartland Institute, which 
has received funding from the fossil fuel industry and foundations that 
oppose environmental regulations, has repeatedly returned to the theme 
to warn its audience that their freedoms are under threat by Biden’s 
climate policies.

The Great Reset’s imagined climate lockdowns are an example of 
misinformation that is increasingly being found in mainstream political 
discourse, said Cook, the climate communication researcher. He said 
studies show that politicians can shape public opinion on climate 
change, so it’s concerning that more lawmakers are promoting the Great 
Reset.

“I anticipate culture war narratives such as ‘climate lockdown’ will be 
part of the misinformation landscape for a while,” he said.
https://www.eenews.net/articles/climate-foes-push-great-reset-conspiracy-theory/



/[ Australian activist sentenced to 15 months ]/
*Violet Coco: Climate activist's jailing ignites row in Australia*
By Tiffanie Turnbull
BBC News, Sydney
For 28 minutes in April, Deanna "Violet" Coco blocked a single lane of 
rush hour traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, calling for greater 
action on climate change.

Those 28 minutes would cost her a 15-month jail sentence.

Last week - in a move that has drawn international criticism - an 
Australian judge sent Coco to prison after she pleaded guilty to 
breaching traffic laws, lighting a flare and disobeying police orders to 
move on.

The climate activist had made an "entire city suffer" with her "selfish 
emotional actions", Magistrate Allison Hawkins said. "You do damage to 
your cause when you do childish stunts like this."

Coco will be eligible for parole in eight months, but her lawyer plans 
to challenge the sentence, which he says is "extraordinarily harsh" and 
"baseless".

"There are five lanes on that bridge. She blocked one, and not for very 
long," Mark Davis told the BBC. Her co-accused avoided jail, he pointed out.

"This is almost without precedent."

Which 'way of life'?
The outcome of the case quickly sparked uproar. Small protests were held 
across Australia, and the sentence was condemned by human rights groups 
and some politicians.

Human Rights Watch researcher Sophie McNeill said the case sends a 
terrible message to the globe.

"We're always calling on these authoritarian governments to treat 
peaceful protesters respectfully and to not jail them… [but] a country 
like Australia - who should be leading on human rights in the region, as 
a democracy - is also jailing peaceful activists," she said...
- -
The protest on the Sydney Harbour Bridge was shut down by police
The UN's special rapporteur on peaceful assembly Clément Voule said he 
was "alarmed" by Coco's sentence.

"Peaceful protesters should never be criminalised or imprisoned," he said.

Others disagree. There's been much debate in Australia about whether 
activists - peaceful or otherwise - should have the right to disrupt 
businesses or the lives of ordinary people.

The New South Wales (NSW) state government has said it is "on the side 
of climate change action" but could not allow "a handful of anarchist 
protesters" to "bring this city to a halt".

Premier Dominic Perrottet lauded the decision to jail Coco, saying this 
week: "If protesters want to put our way of life at risk, then they 
should have the book thrown at them."

A political opponent, David Shoebridge, countered: "Wait till the 
premier hears about how badly climate change will put our way of life at 
risk."

But Coco's own uncle Alister Henskens - a minister in the state 
government - also welcomed the decision, saying "nobody is above the 
law". And social media was filled with similar comments on both sides.

In a video posted online, Coco said she didn't want to be protesting 
like this, but the climate emergency required "getting in people's way".

"Obviously, it's not comfortable and it's not fun, but I recognise that 
it is necessary because lives are at stake," she said.

Trend of tightening laws
But some argue the real issue with Coco's case is that it underscores a 
broader crackdown on protests nationwide.

She is among the first to be sentenced under new state laws which 
introduced harsher penalties for protests on critical infrastructure - 
like roads, rail lines, tunnels and bridges.

Earlier this year, Victoria and Tasmania also introduced laws increasing 
jail sentences and fines for some kinds of obstructive protests.

The pandemic era has seen many flashpoints of controversy. Hundreds of 
people were arrested - some for violent offences - while protesting 
against Australia's strict lockdown rules.

In another instance, two women who organised a peaceful Black Lives 
Matter march in Melbourne were also taken to court for breaching public 
health rules.

Such crackdowns will challenge some Australians' faith in the country's 
liberal democratic protections, says politics and law researcher Ron Levy.

Protestors holding signs criticising the jailing of protestor Violet Coco
IMAGE SOURCE,ZEBEDEE PARKES
But Australia is a "utilitarian" society that tends to elevate the 
"public good" above individual rights, he says. That means laws like 
these often have popular support.

"It may be that the more there are physical consequences to your speech, 
the less robustly we're going to protect it," Dr Levy tells the BBC.

But Ms McNeill says the issue isn't that law breakers can't be punished, 
it's how disproportionate the punishments are.

"People who are charged with drunk driving, assault or drug offences… 
receive no custodial sentences - fines or just suspended sentences - but 
then you see a peaceful climate activist like Violet Coco given 15 
months," she says.

'Chilling effect'
Ms McNeill is among those who believe the laws are "politically 
motivated" and specifically aimed at intimidating climate activists.

Regardless of their target, there is general agreement they may have a 
chilling effect on protests more broadly.

Dr Levy says that could see the courts intervene to strike down 
legislation. Two NSW women have already launched a bid for the High 
Court of Australia to do just that.

It has happened before. Australia's top court abolished an earlier 
version of Tasmania's rules in 2017, finding them unconstitutional.

But higher courts have also upheld what experts say are similar laws. In 
2019, two anti-abortion activists lost a challenge to laws banning them 
from protesting within 150m of abortion clinics.

"The decision tends to be based on how well tailored the law is - is it 
too vague, does it go too far?" Dr Levy says.

The use of significant jail terms will be a key issue, he says.

"As a former criminal prosecutor myself, I can tell you that prison time 
is relatively rare and it should be used in limited circumstances. This 
does seem rather extreme."

Mr Davis said the "real slap" is that his client was denied bail before 
her appeal - something that is unusual for a non-violent offender.

"You've normally got to be a pretty monstrous person to be denied."

He will challenge the bail decision next week, but in the meantime he 
says Coco is "stuck in a cell".
"It's a bitter outcome."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-63883430



/[  Important opinion from  Nexus newsletter ]/
*Don't Militarize Climate Discourse: Common Defense Explains Why 
National Security Is A Bad Frame For Climate Communications*
There are a lot of great ways to talk about climate change. Framing it 
as a national security threat and telling Americans that they should 
take climate action to prevent a flood of climate migrants is not one of 
them. That's the very short version of a new brief from Common Defense, 
one of the US's largest veteran-based advocacy organizations, which 
worked with human rights experts, defense policy wonks, and some of the 
absolute smartest and most impressive climate communicators (us here at 
Climate Nexus) to explain the pitfalls of the national security frame.

Given that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has turbocharged the 
relevance of right-wing arguments that fossil fuels are a national 
security priority, it may be tempting to respond with the opposite claim 
that it is actually climate action that's good for national security. 
This may be true, but military security shouldn't be our focus for 
talking about the climate crisis.

In "Security For All: Demilitarizing Our Climate Narratives" and an 
accompanying video, Common Defense lays out the "significant dangers" of 
the security arguments that "directly endanger the Black, Brown and 
Indigenous peoples most impacted by climate change– especially 
immigrants and refugees."

The report warns that "the 'climate migration as security threat' 
narrative emboldens white supremacists" like the multiple mass shooters 
who have murdered in the name of ecofascism.

The document explains, "As racist conspiracy theories like the Great 
Replacement Theory are mainstreamed by prominent figures such as Tucker 
Carlson, persuadable young men will either see it as the racist lie that 
it is, or as a credible viewpoint reinforced by moderate voices 
legitimizing the concern that the US will be overrun by immigrants (as a 
result of climate change)."

Another reason to do literally any other kind of climate communications 
is that security rhetoric is "being exploited by defense corporations to 
militarize our borders." In exactly the same way that climate change is 
a present crisis and not a future threat, this issue "is not a future 
dystopia; thousands of people die every year at increasingly militarized 
borders." Let's not give the arms manufacturers profiteering off of 
"weapons, walls and surveillance" the veneer of credibility that they 
seek when claiming that increasingly hardened border control is a 
necessary response to the climate crisis.

On top of the threat of ecofascists and arms dealers exploiting the 
national security-and-climate frame, this rhetoric will also hinder 
climate protests. The Common Defense report notes that "police and 
private security forces are increasingly using military weapons and 
tools against domestic climate campaigners, particularly Indigenous 
peoples protecting ancestral lands from fossil fuel infrastructure, with 
associated policing, surveillance and legal barriers being established 
to prevent effective climate action."

And that's just the first section of the report! After establishing the 
dangers of the national security frame, Common Defense points out that 
(whoops!) this rhetoric doesn't really work that well, anyway. Studies 
show it has a "limited persuasive impact" and that the "framing can 
backfire by undermining existing bases of support while entrenching the 
belief held by those who oppose climate action that government resources 
would be better spent on conventional security threats."

  Also, the climate community should be wary, to put it mildly, of 
embracing military leaders. "Given the horrific and racist consequences 
of the War on Drugs and the Global War on Terror," the report says, "it 
should be clear why US climate advocates should strive to prevent our 
leaders from declaring a 'War on Climate Change'."

So what should we do instead? After all, climate change does pose a 
"clear and present danger" to every country. Instead of using military 
leaders as climate messengers, we can turn to "veterans, healthcare 
workers, and emergency personnel like firefighters and paramedics," who 
are "equally trusted messengers who have served to protect their 
communities, are directly impacted by climate change, and can 
persuasively convey the dangers of inaction."

As for the issue of immigration, "The climate movement should argue for 
the redirection of substantial funds—especially those funds being used 
to expand militarized borders in the name of climate adaptation—towards 
protecting people, establishing safe pathways for migrants, and enabling 
a just transition to post-fossil fuel economies across the globe, while 
leveraging all the tools of capital finance, aid, remediation, loss and 
damage payments and investments, among others."

We need to present a vision of a better world and the best pathway to 
get there. As the report aptly states, "We should offer clear solutions 
and alternatives – both immediate and visionary– and assert that we have 
the tools, ambition, and expertise to build real safeguards. If we fail 
to offer these solutions, reactionary voices will continue to win the 
day and the world will continue to grow hotter and less safe."
https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/hoosiers-paying-high-cost-of-utilities-fossil-fuel-dependence

- -


/[ important organization producing brief opinion videos ]/
*Veteran Climate Stories: Exposing Border Profiteers*
Common Defense
7 views  Dec 4, 2022
Climate change will affect our globe and will have impacts across 
borders. Our work to combat climate change must be human centered and we 
must not let ourselves be distracted by narratives that pit us against 
each other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1DiGKBGEVY




/[The news archive - looking back at a video -- with /auto generated 
transcript /]/
/*December 9, 2009*/
December 9, 2009: On MSNBC's "Countdown," Chris Hayes strongly 
criticizes the Washington Post for running an article by Sarah Palin 
peddling climate-denial conspiracy theories. http://youtu.be/R8rZ7YXHHfk



=======================================
*Mass media is lacking, many daily summariesdeliver global warming news 
- a few are email delivered*

=========================================================
**Inside Climate News*
Newsletters
We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day or 
once a week, our original stories and digest of the web’s top headlines 
deliver the full story, for free.
https://insideclimatenews.org/
---------------------------------------
**Climate Nexus* https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/*
Delivered straight to your inbox every morning, Hot News summarizes the 
most important climate and energy news of the day, delivering an 
unmatched aggregation of timely, relevant reporting. It also provides 
original reporting and commentary on climate denial and pro-polluter 
activity that would otherwise remain largely unexposed.    5 weekday
=================================
*Carbon Brief Daily https://www.carbonbrief.org/newsletter-sign-up*
Every weekday morning, in time for your morning coffee, Carbon Brief 
sends out a free email known as the “Daily Briefing” to thousands of 
subscribers around the world. The email is a digest of the past 24 hours 
of media coverage related to climate change and energy, as well as our 
pick of the key studies published in the peer-reviewed journals.
more at https://www.getrevue.co/publisher/carbon-brief
==================================
*T*he Daily Climate *Subscribe https://ehsciences.activehosted.com/f/61*
Get The Daily Climate in your inbox - FREE! Top news on climate impacts, 
solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered week days. Better than coffee.
Other newsletters  at https://www.dailyclimate.org/originals/

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

/Archive of Daily Global Warming News 
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 personal 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/20221209/8a1c3eb7/attachment.htm>