[✔️] January 5, 2022 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[👀 Richard Pauli]

/*January 5, 2022*/

/[ Yale message from scholars warning of emotional reactions - clips]/
*The 1.5 degrees goal: Beware of unintended consequences*
The 1.5 degrees goal can be a ‘useful spur to action,’ but it’s not a 
make or break point. Importantly, each 0.1-degree increase avoided is 
’cause for celebration and hope.’

by RICHARD RICHELS, HENRY JACOBY, BENJAMIN SANTER and GARY YOHE
JANUARY 5, 2022
"Keep 1.5 alive” emerged as the haunting refrain of the recent United 
Nations climate conference in Glasgow. Although a well-intentioned 
rallying cry, it raises important questions about how the chant is to be 
interpreted. Unfortunately, 1.5° centigrade is often presented as an 
immutable crisis point, rooted in established scientific consensus. It’s 
implied that beyond this point, climate-induced damages increase 
dramatically.

Given the prospect that the 1.5°C target may not be met, proponents 
might come to rue their choice of mantra. Not only will it likely cause 
unnecessary despair, but oversimplification of the underlying science 
provides those resolutely opposed to acting on climate change with 
opportunities for further mischief...
- -
One must be aware of the possibility of unintended and unwanted 
consequences: Paralysis and despair may arise if millions believe that 
exceeding the 1.5°C target inevitably signals climate Armageddon, beyond 
which all is lost. Such despair would imperil the continued energy and 
attention needed to sustain the global effort to cut greenhouse emissions..

While useful as a spur to action, “Keeping 1.5 Alive” must not be 
allowed to obscure the fact that it’s worth fighting to prevent every 
0.1°C of additional warming – up to and (importantly!) beyond 1.5°C. And 
that every 0.1°C of warming avoided is cause for celebration and hope.
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/01/the-1-5-degrees-goal-beware-of-unintended-consequences/
//

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/[  language changes noticed in UK - is it time to change usage? ] /
*Death sentences: ‘Global warming’ dying out as words ‘crisis’ and 
‘emergency’ take over UK climate media*
The language used by UK media is evolving as the dangers of climate 
crisis become more evident
Samuel Webb - Jan 4, 2022
The UK media is abandoning terms like ‘global warming’ and ‘climate 
change’ and is instead using ‘catastrophe’ and ‘emergency’ in a bid to 
wake the world up to the threats facing the planet.

Language learning platform Babbel and the Media and Climate Change 
Observatory analysed language trends and terminology around climate 
issues used by UK newspapers from January 2006 to October 2021.

Researchers found the term ‘climate catastrophe’ has been used three 
times more in 2021 than it was in 2020, ‘climate emergency’ is now 
mentioned on average 126 times per month– 63 times more than before 2018 
– and use of the phrase ‘climate change’ has fallen 27 per cent between 
March 2017 and September 2021.

Meanwhile, ‘global warming’ is dying out - the term was used only 441 
times in October 2021, a fall of 40 per cent against its peak in 
September 2009

Jennifer Dorman, Expert Linguist at Babbel, said: “Climate change has 
fast become one of the most prominent leading global issues of our age.

“The media plays a huge role in affecting public sentiment towards 
important issues via the language it chooses...
- -
Newspapers analysed include The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, The 
Guardian and The Observer, The Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, The 
Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror, The Times and The Sunday Times, and 
The Sun and News of the World/The Sun On Sunday.
https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/global-warming-climate-crisis-change-emergency-b1986574.html

- -

/[  Analysis of Disinformation ]/
*Disinformation Campaign Against Solar Energy - KCRG, Cedar Rapids IA*
Jan 4, 2022
greenmanbucket
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - People are using and pushing misinformation 
while debating solar farms in Linn County with elected officials, 
according to emails our KCRG-TV9 i9 Investigative Team received through 
an open records request.

The emails to Linn County Supervisors show some people pushing outright 
false claims like a solar farm decreasing enrollment at local school 
districts. Most emails push extremely misleading claims like solar 
panels reflect sunlight back up into the atmosphere affecting the ozone 
layer or solar farms will increase the local air temperatures.

Both claims are extremely misleading, according to California Institute 
of Technology professor Nathan Lewis. Lewis said in an email solar 
panels affect the ozone layer and local air temperatures similar to 
roads, roofs or parking lots.

“The claims are all making mountains out of molehills,” he wrote. “The 
effects being described are small to minimal at most.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s3AevXWpH8/
/

//



/[  kids move forward - clips ]/
*Climate change: Children push parents to be more conscious about global 
warming, research finds*
Parents chose to invest more cash in a forestry scheme rather than keep 
it for themselves, when they were being observed by their offspring
Sally Guyoncourt - - January 4, 2022
Children are the driving force for a more climate-conscious future, 
researchers have discovered – with parents proving to be more 
environmentally aware in the presence of the younger generation.

A study carried out in Innsbruck, Austria, in partnership with the 
University of Exeter, looked at what motivated “voluntary climate 
action” across the generations, focusing on parents and children.

The overwhelming conclusion was that children pushed parents to think of 
the future and their environmental responsibilities...
Oliver Hauser, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of 
Exeter Business School, and co-author of the study, said: “When their 
own children are present during this decision, parents are reminded of 
their responsibility to their children and the benefits of investing 
into their future.”

During the study, published in the journal Environmental and Resource 
Economics, researchers paid 368 parents €69 each and asked how much they 
wanted to keep and how much they wanted to invest in a local foresting 
scheme.

All participants were given information on the scheme and the role of 
trees in reducing CO2 emissions.
They could purchase up to 46 trees, costing €1.50 each, and any money 
not invested would be paid to them at the end of the experiment.

To make the spending decision, adults were divided into four groups. The 
first contained parents and their children, the second was parents and 
children they did not know, the third was parents observed by other 
adults, and the fourth was parents unobserved.

More than two thirds of the participants decided to invest the entire 
sum in the foresting programme, planting a total of nearly 14,000 trees.

However, parents observed by their own children chose to plant an 
average of 39.6 trees compared with 37.1 in those who were unobserved – 
a seven per cent difference.
And parents observed by children to whom they were unrelated chose to 
plant 38.2 trees on average.

Education was a significant factor, with participants who had completed 
secondary education choosing to plant 39.37 trees on average compared to 
an average of 27.61 trees for those who had not.

“It may be that parents who have completed secondary education are more 
aware of the environmental impact of their decision or because better 
education is usually correlated with more disposable income, which means 
that sacrificing the money they could earn in the experiment would 
affect their finances less”, said Professor Hauser.

Participants were also asked to complete a survey to establish their 
climate change scepticism.

Those with some degree of scepticism were found less likely to invest in 
climate action when their own child was observing them than when an 
unrelated child or another adult was watching.
https://inews.co.uk/news/climate-change-children-push-parents-global-warming-conscious-research-1382018



/[  They live under water.  ]/
*Dam it: beavers head north to the Arctic as tundra continues to heat up*
Dammed rivers could accelerate climate crisis as creatures move into 
previously inhospitable areas
Oliver Milman - -  4 Jan 2022
The transformation of the rapidly warming Arctic is being accelerated by 
a wave of thousands of newcomers that are waddling and paddling 
northwards: beavers.

Scientists who sought to map the spread of beavers in Alaska were 
astounded to find that the creatures have pushed far north into 
previously inhospitable territory and are now set to sweep into the 
furthest northern extremities as the Arctic tundra continues to heat up 
due to the climate crisis.
“We didn’t know what we would find and ended up being very surprised,” 
said Ken Tape, an ecologist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, who 
co-authored the new research.

“There are areas of Alaska that had no evidence of beavers 50 years ago 
that are now apparently saturated with them,” he said, adding: “It’s 
just a matter of time before they head even further north. When you 
consider this is likely happening across the rest of the Arctic in 
Canada and Russia, that gives you an idea of the scope of this change.”...
- -
Using aerial photographs and satellite imagery reaching back to 1949, 
and observations recorded from before then, an international team of 
researchers involved in the Arctic Beaver Observation Network identified 
more than 12,000 ponds created by beavers damming rivers and streams 
across western Alaska. This number has doubled in the past 20 years.
- -
The pools that accumulate when beavers dam rivers create localized 
unfrozen “hotpots” that result in the thawing of permafrost, the 
always-frozen ground of the Arctic that holds vast amounts of carbon. 
Scientists warn that a widespread thawing of permafrost could cause 
global heating to spiral dangerously out of control.

“Those ponds absorb heat better, they change the hydrology of the area 
and the permafrost responds to that,” said Tape. “Beavers are coming in 
from the outside, imposing themselves on the ecosystem and disrupting it.

“It’s accelerating the effects of climate change. When you realize 
what’s happened in western Alaska is likely to happen to northern 
Alaska, it does give you pause.”

Tape said that the Brooks Range, a mountain range that runs across 
northern Alaska, will be an obstacle to the beavers but will not stop 
them as they follow rivers up to the north coast.

Further research is under way.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/04/beavers-arctic-north-climate-crisis



/[  A great discussion with Elizabeth Kolbert from a year ago ] /
*Elizabeth Kolbert: RS Interview Special Edition*
Feb 4, 2021
Rolling Stone
Jeff Goodell spoke with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Kolbert 
about her new book "Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Futu
https://youtu.be/a7J53Mzc55s?t=16



/[The news archive - looking back]/
*On this day in the history of global warming January 5, 2000*

    January 5, 2000: During a Democratic Presidential debate with former
    New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, Vice President Al Gore notes that
    as a Congressman, "...I decided to take on the issue of global
    warming and make it a national issue, when everybody was saying 'You
    know, you're going to run a lot of risk there. People are going to
    think that that's kind of off the edge there.' Well, now more and
    more people say, 'Yes, it is real,' and the next president has to be
    willing to take it on."

http://c-spanvideo.org/program/DemocraticCandidatesDebate10 (29:28-29-50)
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