[✔️] December 23, 2022 - Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
Richard at CredoandScreed.com
Fri Dec 23 14:11:15 EST 2022
/*December 23, 2022*/
/[ OK, here's some YouTube comedy jokes about global warming - rare
subject ] /
*7 Minutes of Climate Change Jokes | Netflix Is A Joke*
Oct 14, 2022
Can climate change be funny? Turns out, it can be hilarious. Watch these
comedians tackle a tough subject while inspiring us to act. Marc Maron,
Jack Whitehall, Joel Kim Booster, Jen Kirkman, Judah Friedlander and
Wanda Sykes's specials are now streaming on Netflix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAXfqOHcnMc
/[ VOX gives some positive spin ]/
*7 reasons our planet might not be doomed after all*
Surprise! This environmental story is actually not depressing.
By Benji Jones at BenjiSJones Updated Dec 20, 2022...
Scientists estimate that around 1 million species are at risk of
extinction, some within decades, and populations of major animal groups,
including birds and fish, have declined on average by nearly 70 percent
in the last half-century. A new study, appearing in the journal Science
Advances, found through modeling that the planet could lose as much as
10 percent of its plant and animal species by 2050.
But while it’s hard to ignore the warning signs, there are plenty of
reasons to still have hope for our planet’s future — starting with what
happened at COP15. In Montreal, I asked roughly a dozen experts, from
Western scientists to Indigenous leaders, about what’s inspiring them...
- -
*1) People are finally talking about biodiversity*
The term “biodiversity” isn’t perfect. And like much of the jargon in
the environmental movement, it tries to encapsulate too much — in this
case, the world’s species, the ecosystems they’re a part of, and the
diversity of genetic material they contain.
But more and more, people are talking about this word, and that’s a good
thing in itself, said Masha Kalinina, a senior officer for international
conservation at the Pew Charitable Trusts. “The fact that we’re having a
conversation about the environment as a whole, and not just climate, is
a huge success story,” she said...
- -
*2) There’s more recognition that what’s good for wildlife is good for us*
It can be hard to convince everyone to care about animals like birds,
said Amanda Rodewald, senior director of the Center for Avian Population
Studies at Cornell’s Laboratory of Ornithology. If that was her
objective, she “would not feel particularly optimistic,” she told me.
“However, when we look at what needs to be done for birds, it’s the same
things we need to be doing for human health and well-being,” she said.
Restoring wetlands in coastal New York, for example, benefits the
threatened saltmarsh sparrow, but it can also minimize the damage to
homes and buildings during storms, Rodewald said. Regrowing coral reefs
around Miami and the Florida Keys can also protect beach-side towns from
severe hurricane impacts. Meanwhile, many scientists point out that
protecting forests reduces the risk that zoonotic diseases will spill
over into human populations...
- -
“Our well-being has always been aligned with conservation,” Rodewald said...
- -
*3) There are more tools than ever to track plants and animals*
The primary goal of COP15 was to get countries that are party to the
Convention on Biological Diversity, a UN treaty, to agree to more than
20 environmental targets. But even if they do, they then have to measure
success or failure...
- -
*4) Many species and ecosystems are actually recovering*
Most major wildlife stories of the last decade were about animals in
decline — 23 species declared extinct in the US, one-fifth of reptiles
under threat, big boats killing whale sharks — but there are a number of
species that are starting to recover, according to Caleb McClennen,
president of the nonprofit group Rare.
“There are some species that have been declining our whole lifetime and
we’re finally hearing that these populations are beginning to come
back,” he told me...
- -
*5) Financial institutes are paying attention — and understanding that
declining ecosystems hurt their investments*
Roughly half of the world’s total economic output is dependent on
ecosystems and wildlife in some way, according to the World Economic
Forum. Insects pollinate commercial crops, wetlands purify water, and
natural services like these help drive economic growth. So what happens
as nature declines?...
- -
*6) Indigenous people and local communities are finally getting the
spotlight*
A statistic that comes up over and over again at COP15 is that
Indigenous people protect 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity.
It’s a stunning data point that underpins a major shift in the
environmental movement. Historically, some Indigenous groups were kicked
off of their land by environmentalists who saw nature as a pristine
wilderness, absent of human life. Now, however, most environmental
advocates acknowledge that Indigenous groups are often the best
conservationists — and that nature and people can coexist...
- -
*7) More than 190 countries agreed on a landmark deal to help save nature*
But perhaps the largest reason for hope is that, in the final days of
the COP15 conference, more than 190 countries adopted a global deal to
halt the decline of species and ecosystems. It commits them to 23
targets including 30 by 30, a goal to conserve at least 30 percent of
the world’s land and oceans within the decade.
The deal, known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework,
also commits rich countries to pay developing nations $30 billion a year
by 2030 for conservation — a tripling of existing aid. The funding
pledge is part of a broader financing commitment of $200 billion a year
by 2030...
- -
(You can learn more about the landmark deal
https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2022/12/19/23515099/cop15-montreal-biodiversity-climate.)
- -
The agreement is not legally binding like the Paris climate accord
(which seeks to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius). It also
leaves out a handful of numeric targets that environmental advocates say
are essential for stemming the unprecedented rates of extinction. Yet
the deal is still historic, according to Brian O’Donnell, director of
the research and advocacy group Campaign for Nature.
“I am still kind of taking this all in,” O’Donnell, a key force behind
the 30 by 30 pledge, told me in Montreal right after the agreement was
adopted. “It seemed impossible just a couple of years ago — and now we
have a global agreement
https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/23511348/cop15-montreal-biodiversity-experts-hope-environment
/
//[ The US may have the most effective opinion manipulation and
persuasion industries ]/
*Sowing Doubt: How Big Ag is Delaying Sustainable Farming in Europe*
New analysis sheds light on key industry lobbying tactics at a decisive
moment for the future of agriculture.
ANALYSIS
By Clare Carlileon Dec 21, 2022
In the spring of 2020, the European Union announced an ambitious plan to
overhaul farming practices in fields and valleys across the continent.
Named Farm to Fork, it calls for less fertiliser and pesticide use, and
more organic production.
Veteran sustainable food and farming experts welcomed the strategy as
one that just might have a genuine shot at transforming the agriculture
sector and result in better public health, contribute to ending the
vertiginous decline of biodiversity, and lower greenhouse gas pollution...
*- -**
**A Liveable Future at Stake*
The battle over agrochemical regulation is not new. Pesticides and
fertilisers have transformed agriculture over the past 70 years, and
environmentalists have protested the ecological damages they cause in step.
But now Europe is poised to enact laws that would not only recognise the
harms of chemical-intensive agriculture, but also to ensure that
synthetic pesticide and fertiliser use is significantly reduced. The
targets are steep: to cut pesticides by 50 percent and fertilisers by 20
percent by 2030.
As the Farm to Fork strategy begins to crystallise into law, campaigners
believe that the agrochemical and other farm-related industries are
increasingly desperate to control the conversation before European
farming is irreversibly redefined. ..
- -
*A Liveable Future at Stake*
The battle over agrochemical regulation is not new. Pesticides and
fertilisers have transformed agriculture over the past 70 years, and
environmentalists have protested the ecological damages they cause in step.
But now Europe is poised to enact laws that would not only recognise the
harms of chemical-intensive agriculture, but also to ensure that
synthetic pesticide and fertiliser use is significantly reduced. The
targets are steep: to cut pesticides by 50 percent and fertilisers by 20
percent by 2030.
As the Farm to Fork strategy begins to crystallise into law, campaigners
believe that the agrochemical and other farm-related industries are
increasingly desperate to control the conversation before European
farming is irreversibly redefined. ...
- -
A full data set of the evidence behind this table is available on
request from DeSmog. It can also be viewed in DeSmog’s Agribusiness
database, which includes profiles of all the above listed companies.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/DuWFWDxkkyqFylRyz7hLD3YNeUJBQjVB292oWPGpTGARwcnpFG7og7E0-ALz9Jnxagrb0TJXb5KjxNY7ImhLz36xS0W2uniHFOt0Tu4OlHT1XJ5ksTsr3zd4xlbBkVVJJ_8-e5VSa-J0FRHDdRfQvhtcaWxHMfenQWlrcQWEUTw9k3TlYrQjvKrCiiihmQ
- -
The four largest pesticide firms employed over 40 lobbyists last year.
Companies also use their vast resources to employ multiple “lobby
outfits”, Nina Holland from Corporate Europe Observatory told DeSmog.
One of these is public relations firm Hume Brophy, which previously
lobbied for Peabody Energy – a coal company linked to climate science
denial – and the World Coal Association. Hume Brophy has lobbied on
various elements of the green farming strategy for clients that include
Bayer and Euroseeds.
Members of the industry also club together through trade bodies and
associations. Groups like CropLife Europe, Fertilizers Europe,
Euroseeds, and Cefic enjoy significant clout in EU spaces, and are
regularly invited to speak at major conferences and provide their
expertise as part of advisory groups that guide the commission on
everything from fertiliser products to its soil strategy for 2030.
US academic Jacquet told DeSmog that arms-length trade bodies help
companies create multiple and contradictory narratives – allowing them
to support green reforms, while simultaneously opposing action. “The
companies say ‘we are pro-science, we are pro-policy, we are pro-public
health’, but then they fund the trade groups to do the dirty work,” she
said.
With just a handful of the same companies dominating the seed,
fertiliser and pesticide sectors, the membership of these trade bodies
overlap. That means that the preferred messages of a few companies are
heard many times over in a decision making process. For example, members
of advisory bodies that assist the European Commission to draft and
implement legislation – called “Expert Groups” – sometimes represent a
much smaller range of voices than it appears.
Earlier this month, DeSmog revealed that 80 percent of the members and
observers of the “Expert Group on the European Food Security Crisis
Preparedness and Response Mechanism” – a multi-stakeholder group
convened by the European Commission – were from industry. Four of the
trade associations in this group represent BASF, three represent Bayer,
and two represent Syngenta and Corteva. Members of the Expert Group have
repeatedly advocated for “slower” implementation of the EU’s green
farming plans during advisory meetings.
Trade associations like CropLife Europe and Euroseeds have affiliates in
countries across the world. When the interests of their members are
threatened, they have ready-made local alliances ready to speak up on
their behalf. So while 89 business associations from across Europe
responded to the EU’s September consultation on the new pesticide laws,
one in every eight groups represented Bayer.
When not speaking to decision-makers directly, these industry groups
have access to an array of different platforms to get their message out
in the press, on social media and at high-profile events.
CropLife Europe pays for sponsored op-eds in the Brussels press; Bayer,
Corteva, Syngenta and Yara secured speaking slots alongside European
officials as sponsors of major events such as Politico’s 2022 Future of
Farming Summit last September. And social media channels are a useful
platform to spread ideas for lobby groups such as Euroseeds, which
shared a Facebook post in January 2022 that stated Farm to Fork would
lead to an extra 3.6 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions before 2040.
*‘Deadlock’ for Green Farming Reforms *
With green reforms moving at a snail’s pace, industry arguments seem to
be finding their mark.
The EU has already twice delayed key elements of its green farming plans
following industry demands.
The European Commission has just complied with calls by 20 member states
for new pesticide laws to be reassessed – a demand repeatedly made by
industry since the new targets were first announced in 2020.
This has effectively stalled negotiations over pesticide-reduction
targets for individual member states until further notice.
“The number one call industry makes is always for more research,” said
US academic Jacquet, who recognizes this as a tactic of Big Oil. “It
buys more time to prevent regulations”.
EU countries are also making arguments against targets that are
startlingly similar to the industry’s five delay narratives, citing
concerns over the war in Ukraine, potential decreases in yields, and
referencing “widely shared concerns” about the bloc exporting its
pollution abroad.
According to Tjerk Dalhuisen from campaign group Pesticide Action
Network Europe, not only the agrochemical regulations are at stake. If
they are jettisoned, he said, “it could derail” other legislation in the
EU’s sustainable farming plans.
Delays in implementing green laws can be as valuable to industry as
all-out opposition. Many green campaigners and politicians fear that if
the sustainable farming measures are stalled beyond the election of the
new European Commission in 2024, they may be forgotten entirely.
With pollinator numbers plummeting and soil health in collapse, experts
say that major reforms are needed to ensure that the land can produce
enough food in the decades to come.
Jacquet expressed confidence that Europe could still make these reforms.
“Industrial farming was once a whole new way of doing things: we can
reinvent ourselves again,” Jacquet told DeSmog. “I worry only about the
time.”
*Additional research by Michaela Herrmann.*
DeSmog has published new profiles in its Agribusiness Database, which
inform this investigation. The entries, which collate company and lobby
groups’ positions on climate and biodiversity, include: the Agri-Food
Chain Coalition, the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU, EuroChem,
the European Carbon+ Farming Coalition, Euroseeds, FNSEA, Hume Brophy,
International fertiliser Association and Wageningen University and Research.
We have also updated our profiles on BASF, Bayer, COPA-COGECA,
Glyphosate Renewal Group, Syngenta and Yara.
https://www.desmog.com/2022/12/21/sowing-doubt-how-big-ag-is-delaying-sustainable-farming-in-europe/
/[The news archive - looking back]/
/*December 23, 2015*/
December 23, 2015:
On MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports," Bill Nye discusses 2015's record heat.
http://www.msnbc.com/andrea-mitchell-reports/watch/bill-nye-reveals-the-science-behind-warm-winter-weather-590808131544
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