[✔️] October 27, 2022 - Global Warming News - daily selection
Richard Pauli
Richard at CredoandScreed.com
Thu Oct 27 09:05:44 EDT 2022
/*October 27, 2022*/
[ from The Lancet ]
*The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change:
health at the mercy of fossil fuels*
- -
Published:October 25, 2022 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01540-9
The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown is published as the world
confronts profound and concurrent systemic shocks. Countries and health
systems continue to contend with the health, social, and economic
impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, while Russia's invasion of Ukraine and
a persistent fossil fuel over dependence has pushed the world into
global energy and cost-of-living crises. As these crises unfold, climate
change escalates unabated. Its worsening impacts are increasingly
affecting the foundations of human health and wellbeing, exacerbating
the vulnerability of the world's populations to concurrent health threats.
- -
Through multiple and interconnected pathways, every dimension of food
security is being affected by climate change, aggravating the impacts of
other coexisting crises. The higher temperatures threaten crop yields
directly, with the growth seasons of maize on average 9 days shorter in
2020, and the growth seasons of winter wheat and spring wheat 6 days
shorter than for 1981–2010 globally. The threat to crop yields adds to
the rising impact of extreme weather on supply chains, socioeconomic
pressures, and the risk of infectious disease transmission, undermining
food availability, access, stability, and utilisation. New analysis
suggests that extreme heat was associated with 98 million more people
reporting moderate to severe food insecurity in 2020 than annually in
1981–2010, in 103 countries analysed
https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736(22)01540-9
- -
/[ McKibben's opinion on The Lancet article above ] /
*Big Oil is addicted, but it's killing the rest of us*
A shocking new summary of fossil fuel's assault on public health
Bill McKibben
Oct 26, 2022
I’ve rarely read a more comprehensive, or more devastating report on
the effect of global warming. And its authors are pulling no
punches. As one told the Associated Press, what we’re looking at is
a clear case of “fossil fuel addiction.” Marina Romanello, executive
director of the research effort, said “We’re seeing a persistent
addiction to fossil fuels that is not only amplifying the health
impacts of climate change, but which is also now at this point
compounding with other concurrent crises that we’re globally facing,
including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis,
energy crisis and food crisis that were triggered after the war in
Ukraine.”
She is right. My only quibble is that when one says “fossil fuel
addiction,” it might summon up an image of the wrong culprit. Humans
aren’t addicted to fossil fuels—we’re just as happy getting our
power from solar panels or wind turbines. Happier, even. And since
these are now the cheapest sources of power in the world there’s no
reason we shouldn’t have them.
Except that the fossil fuel industry has spent decades blocking the
way—a massive three-decade campaign of deceit, denial and
disinformation; an ongoing lobbying effort against renewables that
the industry boasts will get even more powerful if the GOP wins the
midterms; endless support for rightwing lawmakers to make sure that
lobbying will work.
I think the question I get asked the most may be: why do these vast
oil companies not simply convert to energy companies? Why don’t
Exxon and Chevron decide to own the renewable future, instead of
investing at most a few percent of their research budgets on clean tech?
And the answer is, if you think about it, sadly logical. You can
make some money putting solar panels on people’s roofs—there will be
solar billionaires. But you can’t make Exxon money, because once the
panel is up there, the sun delivers the energy for free every day
when it rises above the horizon. From Exxon’s point of view, this is
the stupidest business model ever: they made their fortune by
selling you more energy, every week for your entire life. They are
hooked...
https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/big-oil-is-addicted-but-its-killing
- -
/[ on the horizon, is this a universal attitude? ]/
*Climate Pledges Are Falling Short, and a Chaotic Future Looks More Like
Reality*
With an annual summit next month, the United Nations assessed progress
on countries’ past emissions commitments. Severe disruption would be
hard to avoid on the current trajectory.
Max Bearak
Oct. 26, 2022
Countries around the world are failing to live up to their commitments
to fight climate change, pointing Earth toward a future marked by more
intense flooding, wildfires, drought, heat waves and species extinction,
according to a report issued Wednesday by the United Nations...
- -
“The latest U.N. report once again shows that those most responsible for
the climate crisis remain unwilling to face up to their
responsibilities,” said Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-British businessman
turned philanthropist who has convened African leaders to discuss the
climate crisis ahead of the summit in Egypt. “Unless urgent action is
taken to hold richer countries to account, the developing world will
continue to foot the bill, at the cost of numerous lives.”...
- -
“We all know the top 20 economies are responsible for 80 percent of
emissions,” Mr. Kerry said during a speech Tuesday at the Council on
Foreign Relations. Their pledges should be strengthened this year, he said.
“That’s what people agreed to do,” he said. “It takes all to get the job
done.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/26/climate/un-climate-pledges-warming.html
/[ student activism ]/
*Harvard and MIT students shut down Exxon recruiting event*
By Dharna Noor - Globe Staff - October 24, 2022,
- -
Activists say that by allowing major polluters to recruit students on
campus, schools are implicitly endorsing them, despite their massive
role in the climate crisis and problematic practices like Exxon’s
well-documented history of sowing doubt about climate science.
“It makes no sense that the university dedicated to truth and the
pursuit of knowledge would host in good standing an oil company that
stands against all of that,” said Isaac Slevin, an undergraduate student
at Brown who leads the school’s chapter of the Sunrise Movement, an
activist group advocating for political climate action, and organized
the disruption at Brown.
The disruptions come as young people appear increasingly reticent to
work for fossil fuel companies. In a 2020 survey by the international
professional services company PwC, a majority of millennials said they
would avoid working in industries that have a negative image and saw
fossil fuels as the most unappealing sector. Another survey, conducted
by consulting firm EY in 2017, found that among 1,200 American
millennials aged 20 to 35, 44 percent were not interested in careers in
the industry.
Such attitudes seem to be taking a toll on the sector. Eighty percent of
oil and gas industry recruiters reported that at least 10 percent of
open jobs went unfilled for more than three months, according to a
survey conducted by recruitment firm Brunel and Oilandgasjobsearch.com
last year. Drilling and geoscience roles were the most difficult to
fill, according to the survey.
- -
Thom Hersbach, an electrochemistry researcher at Stanford University,
understands why climate-concerned scientists would want to work for oil
companies and change them from the inside. Many of his friends work in
the sector, and just three years ago, he was considering taking a job at
Shell. But he says he’s seen no proof that well-intentioned people have
been able to shift Big Oil’s behavior, so he decided against it.
“They’re still lobbying for looser environmental regulations. They’re
still expanding oil,” he said. “As a scientist, I would say, look at the
evidence ... and I have yet to see any compelling evidence that these
companies are changing overall.”
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/10/24/science/student-activists-shut-down-exxon-recruiting-events/
/[Dave Roberts opinion podcast ]/
*What to think about deep-sea mining for clean-energy minerals*
A conversation with journalist Daniel Ackerman.
OCT 26, 2022
As Volts subscribers are aware, the transition to clean energy is going
have the effect of radically raising demand for a key set of minerals
used to make batteries, solar panels, and electric vehicles. Currently,
those minerals are mined in often environmentally and socially
destructive ways, using exploited or even child labor.
In recent years, more attention has turned to an alternative place to
find those minerals: the ocean floor. It turns out that huge caches of
these minerals are simply lying on the seabed of the Pacific Ocean,
waiting to be plucked up and processed.
Of course, the idea of mining the seafloor raises all kinds of sensitive
questions about feasibility, sustainability, and affordability.
Recently, journalist Daniel Ackerman dug into all those questions for a
story on the podcast How to Save a Planet. Shortly after it aired, he
found out that Spotify was shutting the podcast down and laying off its
staff.
That’s a bummer — it was a great podcast and Spotify's decision has left
several talented journalists, including Ackerman, jobless.
So I thought, in the name of highlighting both this subject and
Ackerman's work, I would get in touch with him to talk it through. We
discuss how deep-sea mining works, the size of the resource available,
the environmental concerns it has raised, and cutting-edge technologies
that promise to reduce its impact...
Volts is a podcast about leaving fossil fuels behind. I've been
reporting on and explaining clean-energy topics for almost 20 years, and
I love talking to politicians, analysts, innovators, and activists about
the latest progress in the world's most important fight. (Volts is
entirely subscriber-supported. Sign up!)
https://www.volts.wtf/p/what-to-think-about-deep-sea-mining?utm_source=podcast-email%2Csubstack&publication_id=193024&post_id=79093150&utm_medium=email#details
/[ Paleo-climatology gives insight into present risks -- 32 min video]/
*Underwater Melting of Greenland Glaciers Amplified by BOTH Ocean
Variability and Surface Meltwater*
Oct 24, 2022 Please donate to http://PaulBeckwith.net
In the last few videos I discussed new research showing how rapid
intermediate depth warming after AMOC slowdown triggered Heinrich Events
with large volumes of Ice Rafted Debris (IRD), and also caused rapid
ocean floor sediment embedded methane clathrate thawing with large
methane release.
Here I chat about a new study looking at essentially all the marine
terminating glaciers in Greenland and how submarine (underwater) melting
rates are not only dependent on ocean warming amounts, but are also
highly dependent on Greenland surface melt, forming meltwater ponds that
drain via fractures and crevices and moulins in the ice sheet to the
bottom of the glacier, where the meltwater combines with friction melted
water to exit the glacier at the bottom between the ice and bedrock.
Once exiting, this cold fresh water (lower density than warmer salty
ocean water) rises in plumes, causing turbulent flow next to the edge of
the ice/water interface greatly increasing underwater ice melting rates.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfs6e0stl1A
/[ Koch - in the Daily Beast ]/
*How Charles Koch Successfully Peddled the Snake Oil of Climate Change
Denial*
‘A MOOCHER AND A LOOTER’
The billionaire casts himself as a public-spirited libertarian, but when
it comes to climate change, the fossil-fuel magnate has always had his
thumb on the scale.
Andrew Koppelman
Oct. 24, 2022
The ongoing climate catastrophe was brought about by idealism. It is
commonly blamed on the greed of the petroleum industry, but the most
effective source of climate denial has been a single determined
libertarian who thought that he was creating a better world.
To understand what has happened, you need to understand this man’s
idealism: where he got it from, the moral vision that animates it, and
how, in his hands, it has been betrayed and corrupted.
The man is the billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, the world’s
leading donor to libertarian causes. He has been a leader of the
relentless effort to shrink government, which led to the disbanding of
the federal pandemic response team. He was an early and generous funder
of fake science denying climate change. He wants to destroy most of the
government’s functions—medical care, Social Security, public education,
roads and bridges. He has been trying to privatize mail delivery since
the 1970s. He believes that government “is to serve as a night watchman,
to protect individuals and property from outside threat, including
fraud. That is the maximum.”
But it has turned out that he is so antistatist that he has even blocked
efforts to prevent people from hurting others. The mass production of
greenhouse gases is obviously a kind of harm, condemned by
libertarianism for the same reason that it condemns factories that
poison the drinking water. There is a variety of libertarianism that
would protect this kind of predation, and it happens to be the kind that
he has embraced for decades. It may also be relevant that the fossil
fuel industry is the source of his massive wealth...
- -
So we return to the issue of climate change. The denialist movement
reached its peak with the election of Donald Trump. Trump, the
protectionist who aims to promote favored industries, is obviously no
libertarian. His climate denialism probably reflects political
opportunism: the notion of a conspiracy of lying scientists, which Koch
did so much to promote for years before the 2016 election, fits nicely
into the paranoid narrative Trump relies upon. Trump is notoriously
indifferent to truth and science, but he has a good nose for what sells,
and Koch had succeeded in making denialism part of the right-wing
package. Trump’s deregulatory agenda, which rolled back climate change
efforts across nearly every federal department, was an echo of Koch’s
years of work politicizing the issue.
Koch has written that his aspiration is “to create a harmony of interest
in society. For business to survive and prosper, it must create real
long-term value in society through principled behavior.” Whatever
long-term value Koch has created is swamped by the catastrophe he has
bequeathed to us.
Economists Sutirtha Bagchi and Jan Švejnar compared the relationship
between wealth and corruption in different countries. Using the Forbes
list, they sorted the world’s richest people into those who had or had
not made their wealth from political connections. Two Cato Institute
scholars have suggested that we “call those bad and good billionaires,
respectively.” They summarized the data: “Outside the United States, 17
percent of billionaires were bad and 83 percent were good. In the United
States, just 1 percent were bad and 99 percent were good. Thus, American
billionaires overwhelmingly earned their wealth in productive and
noncorrupt ways, according to this metric.” This is Hayek’s point
restated: in a free economy, there will be opportunities to become
spectacularly rich by creating immense value for consumers. That is what
Koch keeps saying in his Freakonomics interview. The wealth kept by the
entrepreneur is a tiny fraction of the wealth he has created.
But this argument does Koch himself no good. He points us to the
promised land, but he cannot enter. For he is one of the bad 1 percent.
This is the irony of Charles Koch’s life—an irony that can only be seen
if we understand the ideals to which he has been dedicated. He began by
fighting those who become rich and powerful through political
connections. Now he has become what he was fighting. His story is not
simply one of evil and greed. It is a tale of betrayal and corruption.
His wealth comes from a government monopoly, whose value is enhanced by
his capacity to deploy his wealth in order to harm people. He has used
his influence skillfully to prevent the law from protecting his victims.
Those victims now include everyone on the planet. To borrow some
terminology from Ayn Rand, he is a moocher and a looter.
From BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE: How Libertarian Philosophy Was Corrupted
by Delusion and Greed by Andrew Koppelman. Copyright © 2022 by the
author and reprinted with permission of St. Martin's Publishing Group.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-charles-koch-successfully-peddled-the-snake-oil-of-climate-change-denial
/[ video on the denialism ]/
*The New Denialism | Chapter from The Climate Book*
Oct 25, 2022 Greta Thunberg reads from her essay in The Climate Book,
followed by a reading of Kevin Anderson's chapter on 'The New
Denialism', explaining how 'net zero' and techno-optimism have paved the
way for mitigation denial.
This exerpt was originally part of an episode of Book of the Week,
broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on 27 October 2022, available (with an
account) through the BBC Sounds app at
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001df4d
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5UzdDc5EAc
- -
/[ BBC recording of the Climate Book ]/
*The Climate Book created by Greta Thunberg*
Book of the Week: Ep 4 - Action Taken
Released On: 27 Oct 2022Available for 29 days
Greta Thunberg reads from her essay, and then we turn to Kevin Anderson,
the Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the Universities of
Manchester, Uppsala and Bergen, and Amitav Ghosh, the award winning
author of sixteen books of fiction and non-fiction, look at the actions
taken so far to limit change. Read by David Hounslow and Vincent Ebrahim.
Greta Thunberg’s school strikes and speeches shook the world and
inspired leaders and people around the world address the urgency of
climate change.
Now, with The Climate Book she has created a deep understanding of how
the problems we face are all interconnected and what’s at stake, by
partnering with more than a hundred scientists, engineers, philosophers,
journalists, activists and writers. Alongside them Greta shares her own
views on what she’s learned and what’s next.
The Climate Book is a portrait of a planet on the brink of a climate
catastrophe. It shows us what needs to be done so that our world can
remain habitable for all of humanity for generations to come.
You can watch Amol Rajan interview Greta Thunberg on Tuesday, 18th
October on BBC2.
Abridged by Katrin Williams
Produced by Elizabeth Allard Read less
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001df4d
/[The news archive - looking back at the historical events and fantasies ]/
/*October 27, 2006 and 2007*/
October 27, 2006: *Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Olympia Snowe
(R-ME) urge ExxonMobil to stop funding climate-change-denying think tan*ks.
http://web.archive.org/web/20130303200905/http://www.rockefeller.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=87f3ae3b-0f0d-44ee-af03-9080592901a4
October 27, 2008: *Greenpeace launches an ad campaign in which President
Kennedy is depicted as calling for action on human-caused climate change.*
http://youtu.be/J8dLHZ6jKFc
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