[✔️] December 4, 2023- Global Warming News Digest | COP video, Al Gore accuses, Energy Mix COP report, Michigan Gov action, Lancet health harms, Cli-Migration, Star Trek or Mad Max, 2008 meats

[Richard Pauli]

/*December *//*4, 2023*/
/
[ 2 min video from COP ]/
*COP28 head says 'no science' to suggest phasing out fossil fuels is 
only way to achieve 1.5C*
Sky News
COP28 head says 'no science' to suggest phasing out fossil fuels is only 
way to achieve 1.5C
Sky News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3NsXL30aFY

- -

/[ Words from the Patron Saint of climate activism ]/
*Al Gore slams COP28 climate summit host UAE, says its emissions soared*
By Valerie Volcovici
December 3, 2023
DUBAI, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Climate advocate and former U.S. Vice President 
Al Gore on Sunday slammed the UAE - host of the COP28 climate summit - 
saying its position as overseer of international negotiations on global 
warming this year was an abuse of public trust.

The comments, made to Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the 
conference in Dubai, reflected skepticism among some delegates that 
COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, head of the UAE's national oil company 
ADNOC, can be an honest broker of a climate deal.
"They are abusing the public's trust by naming the CEO of one of the 
largest and least responsible oil companies in the world as head of the 
COP," Gore said.

At a presentation at the COP's main plenary hall before the interview, 
Gore unveiled data showing that the UAE's greenhouse gas emissions rose 
by 7.5% in 2022 from the previous year, compared to a 1.5% percent rise 
in the entire world. That data came from a coalition he co-founded 
called Climate TRACE, which uses artificial intelligence and satellite 
data to track carbon emissions of specific companies, Gore said...
- -
Asked about the first-ever appearance of Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods at 
a COP conference, Gore said the oil giant's engagement does not brush 
away its history of resistance to climate policies.
"He should not be taken seriously. He's protecting his profits and 
placing them in a higher priority than the survival of the human 
civilization," Gore said.

Exxon Mobil declined to comment.
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/al-gore-slams-cop28-climate-summit-host-uae-says-its-emissions-soared-2023-12-03/

- -

/[ COP report from The Energy Mix ]/
*Renewables Pledge, Voluntary Methane Controls Lead Major Announcements 
at COP28*
December 2, 2023 Reading time: 14 minutes
Primary Author: Mitchell Beer
More than 100 countries signed a global clean energy pledge, COP28 
organizers touted an ambitious but voluntary methane reduction promise 
by oil and gas companies, and fossil fuel phaseout language faced steady 
opposition on the third day of United Nations climate talks in Dubai.
Hours ago, 118 countries including Canada, Australia, Barbados, Brazil, 
Chile, Japan, and Nigeria signed a pledge led by the European Union, the 
United Arab Emirates, and the United States to triple global renewable 
energy capacity to 11,000 gigawatts and double the annual rate of energy 
efficiency improvements by 2030. “The pledge was among a slew of COP28 
announcements on Saturday aimed at decarbonizing the energy 
sector—source of around three-quarters of global greenhouse gas 
emissions—that included expanding nuclear power, cutting methane 
emissions, and choking off private finance for coal power,” Reuters 
reports...
- -
The Powering Past Coal Alliance welcomed the United States, the Czech 
Republic, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, Iceland, Kosovo, and Norway as 
new members.
https://www.theenergymix.com/renewables-pledge-voluntary-methane-controls-lead-major-announcements-at-cop28/

- -

/[ Michigan shows how a politician can act  - Governor speaks in 5 min 
video - share widely ]/
*Gretchen Whitmer: Remarks on New Energy Bills*
greenmanbucket
Dec 3, 2023
Hard to overstate how significant these bills are in the industrial 
Midwest, how daunting the ignorance and obstinance of the opposition, 
and also what a heavy lift for all stakeholders this will be.
But that does not mean they are unrealistic - it is because the 
challenge is so huge, and the consequences so dire, that the only 
realistic response is to go big.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE3djVP37C0



/[ academic language but important ]/
*The 2023 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: 
the imperative for a health-centred response in a world facing 
irreversible harms*
Marina Romanello, PhD
Claudia di Napoli, PhD
Carole Green, MPH
Harry Kennard, PhD
Pete Lampard, PhD
Daniel Scamman, PhD
et al.
Published:November 14, 2023DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01859-7
PlumX Metrics

*Executive Summary*
The Lancet Countdown is an international research collaboration that 
independently monitors the evolving impacts of climate change on health, 
and the emerging health opportunities of climate action. In its eighth 
iteration, this 2023 report draws on the expertise of 114 scientists and 
health practitioners from 52 research institutions and UN agencies 
worldwide to provide its most comprehensive assessment yet.
In 2022, the Lancet Countdown warned that people's health is at the 
mercy of fossil fuels and stressed the transformative opportunity of 
jointly tackling the concurrent climate change, energy, cost-of-living, 
and health crises for human health and wellbeing. This year's report 
finds few signs of such progress. At the current 10-year mean heating of 
1·14°C above pre-industrial levels, climate change is increasingly 
impacting the health and survival of people worldwide, and projections 
show these risks could worsen steeply with further inaction. However, 
with health matters gaining prominence in climate change negotiations, 
this report highlights new opportunities to deliver health-promoting 
climate change action and a safe and thriving future for all.

*The rising health toll of a changing climate*
In 2023, the world saw the highest global temperatures in over 100 000 
years, and heat records were broken in all continents through 2022. 
Adults older than 65 years and infants younger than 1 year, for whom 
extreme heat can be particularly life-threatening, are now exposed to 
twice as many heatwave days as they would have experienced in 1986–2005 
(indicator 1.1.2). Harnessing the rapidly advancing science of detection 
and attribution, new analysis shows that over 60% of the days that 
reached health-threatening high temperatures in 2020 were made more than 
twice as likely to occur due to anthropogenic climate change (indicator 
1.1.5); and heat-related deaths of people older than 65 years increased 
by 85% compared with 1990–2000, substantially higher than the 38% 
increase that would have been expected had temperatures not changed 
(indicator 1.1.5).

Simultaneously, climate change is damaging the natural and human systems 
on which people rely for good health. The global land area affected by 
extreme drought increased from 18% in 1951–60 to 47% in 2013–22 
(indicator 1.2.2), jeopardising water security, sanitation, and food 
production. A higher frequency of heatwaves and droughts in 2021 was 
associated with 127 million more people experiencing moderate or severe 
food insecurity compared with 1981–2010 (indicator 1.4), putting 
millions of people at risk of malnutrition and potentially irreversible 
health effects. The changing climatic conditions are also putting more 
populations at risk of life-threatening infectious diseases, such as 
dengue, malaria, vibriosis, and West Nile virus (indicator 1.3).

Compounding these direct health impacts, the economic losses associated 
with global heating increasingly harm livelihoods, limit resilience, and 
restrict the funds available to tackle climate change. Economic losses 
from extreme weather events increased by 23% between 2010–14 and 
2018–22, amounting to US$264 billion in 2022 alone (indicator 4.1.1), 
whereas heat exposure led to global potential income losses worth $863 
billion (indicators 1.1.4 and 4.1.3). Labour capacity loss resulting 
from heat exposure affected low and medium Human Development Index (HDI) 
countries the most, exacerbating global inequities, with potential 
income losses equivalent to 6·1% and 3·8% of their gross domestic 
product (GDP), respectively (indicator 4.1.3).

The multiple and simultaneously rising risks of climate change are 
amplifying global health inequities and threatening the very foundations 
of human health. Health systems are increasingly strained, and 27% of 
surveyed cities declared concerns over their health systems being 
overwhelmed by the impacts of climate change (indicator 2.1.3). Often 
due to scarce financial resources and low technical and human capacity, 
the countries most vulnerable to climate impacts also face the most 
challenges in achieving adaptation progress, reflecting the human risks 
of an unjust transition. Only 44% of low HDI countries and 54% of medium 
HDI countries reported high implementation of health emergency 
management capacities in 2022, compared with 85% of very high HDI 
countries (indicator 2.2.5). Additionally, low and medium HDI countries 
had the highest proportion of cities not intending to undertake a 
climate change risk assessment in 2021 (12%; indicator 2.1.3). These 
inequalities are aggravated by the persistent failure of the wealthiest 
countries to deliver the promised modest annual sum of $100 billion to 
support climate action in those countries defined as developing within 
the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Consequently, those 
countries that have historically contributed the least to climate change 
are bearing the brunt of its health impacts—both a reflection and a 
direct consequence of the structural inequities that lie within the root 
causes of climate change.

*The human costs of persistent inaction*
The growing threats experienced to date are early signs and symptoms of 
what a rapidly changing climate could mean for the health of the world's 
populations. With 1337 tonnes of CO2 emitted each second, each moment of 
delay worsens the risks to people's health and survival.

In this year's report, new projections reveal the dangers of further 
delays in action, with every tracked health dimension worsening as the 
climate changes. If global mean temperature continues to rise to just 
under 2°C, annual heat-related deaths are projected to increase by 370% 
by midcentury, assuming no substantial progress on adaptation (indicator 
1.1.5). Under such a scenario, heat-related labour loss is projected to 
increase by 50% (indicator 1.1.4), and heatwaves alone could lead to 
524·9 million additional people experiencing moderate-to-severe food 
insecurity by 2041–60, aggravating the global risk of malnutrition. 
Life-threatening infectious diseases are also projected to spread 
further, with the length of coastline suitable for Vibrio pathogens 
expanding by 17–25%, and the transmission potential for dengue 
increasing by 36–37% by midcentury. As risks rise, so will the costs and 
challenges of adaptation. These estimates provide some indication of 
what the future could hold. However, poor accounting for non-linear 
responses, tipping points, and cascading and synergistic interactions 
could render these projections conservative, disproportionately 
increasing the threat to the health of populations worldwide.

*A world accelerating in the wrong direction*
The health risks of a 2°C hotter world underscore the health imperative 
of accelerating climate change action. With limits to adaptation drawing 
closer, ambitious mitigation is paramount to keep the magnitude of 
health hazards within the limits of the capacity of health systems to 
adapt. Yet years of scientific warnings of the threat to people's lives 
have been met with grossly insufficient action, and policies to date 
have put the world on track to almost 3°C of heating.
The 2022 Lancet Countdown report highlighted the opportunity to 
accelerate the transition away from health-harming fossil fuels in 
response to the global energy crisis. However, data this year show a 
world that is often moving in the wrong direction. Energy-related CO2 
emissions increased by 0·9% to a record 36·8 Gt in 2022 (indicator 
3.1.1), and still only 9·5% of global electricity comes from modern 
renewables (mainly solar and wind energy), despite their costs falling 
below that of fossil fuels. Concerningly, driven partly by record 
profits, oil and gas companies are further reducing their compliance 
with the Paris Agreement: the strategies of the world's 20 largest oil 
and gas companies as of early 2023 will result in emissions surpassing 
levels consistent with the Paris Agreement goals by 173% in 2040—an 
increase of 61% from 2022 (indicator 4.2.6). Rather than pursuing 
accelerated development of renewable energy, fossil fuel companies 
allocated only 4% of their capital investment to renewables in 2022.

Meanwhile, global fossil fuel investment increased by 10% in 2022, 
reaching over $1 trillion (indicator 4.2.1). The expansion of oil and 
gas extractive activities has been supported through both private and 
public financial flows. Across 2017–21, the 40 banks that lend most to 
the fossil fuel sector collectively invested $489 billion annually in 
fossil fuels (annual average), with 52% increasing their lending from 
2010–16. Simultaneously, in 2020, 78% of the countries assessed, 
responsible for 93% of all global CO2 emissions, still provided net 
direct fossil fuels subsidies totalling $305 billion, further hindering 
fossil fuel phase-out (indicator 4.2.4). Without a rapid response to 
course correct, the persistent use and expansion of fossil fuels will 
ensure an increasingly inequitable future that threatens the lives of 
billions of people alive today.

*The opportunity to deliver a healthy future for all*
Despite the challenges, data also expose the transformative health 
benefits that could come from the transition to a zero-carbon future, 
with health professionals playing a crucial role in ensuring these gains 
are maximised. Globally, 775 million people still live without 
electricity, and close to 1 billion people are still served by 
health-care facilities without reliable energy. With structural global 
inequities in the development of, access to, and use of clean energy, 
only 2·3% of electricity in low HDI countries comes from modern 
renewables (against 11% in very high HDI countries), and 92% of 
households in low HDI countries still rely on biomass fuels to meet 
their energy needs (against 7·5% in very high HDI countries; indicators 
3.1.1 and 3.1.2). In this context, the transition to renewables can 
enable access to decentralised clean energy and, coupled with 
interventions to increase energy efficiency, can reduce energy poverty 
and power high quality health-supportive services. By reducing the 
burning of dirty fuels (including fossil fuels and biomass), such 
interventions could help avoid a large proportion of the 1·9 million 
deaths that occur annually from dirty-fuel-derived, outdoor, airborne, 
fine particulate matter pollution (PM2·5; indicator 3.2.1), and a large 
proportion of the 78 deaths per 100 000 people associated with exposure 
to indoor air pollution (indicator 3.2.2). Additionally, the just 
development of renewable energy markets can generate net employment 
opportunities with safer, more locally available jobs. Ensuring 
countries, particularly those facing high levels of energy poverty, are 
supported in the safe development, deployment, and adoption of renewable 
energy is key to maximising health gains and preventing unjust 
extractive industrial practices that can harm the health and livelihoods 
of local populations and widen health inequities.
With fossil fuels accounting for 95% of road transport energy (indicator 
3.1.3), interventions to enable and promote safe active travel and 
zero-emission public transport can further deliver emissions reduction, 
promote health through physical activity, and avert many of the 460 000 
deaths caused annually by transport-derived PM2·5 pollution (indicator 
3.2.1), and some of the 3·2 million annual deaths related to physical 
inactivity. People-centred, climate-resilient urban redesign to improve 
building energy efficiency, increase green and blue spaces, and promote 
sustainable cooling, can additionally prevent heat-related health harms, 
avoid air-conditioning-derived emissions (indicator 2.2.2), and provide 
direct physical and mental health benefits.

Additionally, food systems are responsible for 30% of global greenhouse 
gas (GHG) emissions, with 57% of agricultural emissions in 2020 being 
derived from the production of red meat and milk (indicator 3.3.1). 
Promoting and enabling equitable access to affordable, healthy, 
low-carbon diets that meet local nutritional and cultural requirements 
can contribute to mitigation, while preventing many of the 12·2 million 
deaths attributable to suboptimal diets (indicator 3.3.2).

The health community could play a central role in securing these 
benefits, by delivering public health interventions to reduce air 
pollution, enabling and supporting active travel and healthier diets, 
and promoting improvements in the environmental conditions and 
commercial activities that define health outcomes. Importantly, the 
health sector can lead by example and transition to sustainable, 
resource-efficient, net-zero emission health systems, thereby preventing 
its 4·6% contribution to global GHG emissions, with cascading impacts 
ultimately affecting the broader economy (indicator 3.4).

Some encouraging signs of progress offer a glimpse of the enormous human 
benefits that health-centred action could render. Deaths attributable to 
fossil-fuel-derived air pollution have decreased by 15·7% since 2005, 
with 80% of this reduction being the result of reduced coal-derived 
pollution. Meanwhile the renewable energy sector expanded to a 
historical high of 12·7 million employees in 2021 (indicator 4.2.2); and 
renewable energy accounted for 90% of the growth in electricity capacity 
in 2022 (indicator 3.1.1). Supporting this, global clean energy 
investment increased by 15% in 2022, to $1·6 trillion, exceeding fossil 
fuel investment by 61% (indicator 4.2.1); and lending to the green 
energy sector rose to $498 billion in 2021, approaching fossil fuel 
lending (indicator 4.2.7).

Scientific understanding of the links between health and climate change 
is rapidly growing, and although coverage lags in some of the most 
affected regions, over 3000 scientific articles covered this topic in 
2022 (indicators 5.3.1 and 5.3.2). Meanwhile, the health dimensions of 
climate change are increasingly acknowledged in the public discourse, 
with 24% of all climate change newspaper articles in 2022 referring to 
health, just short of the 26% in 2020 (indicator 5.1). Importantly, 
international organisations are increasingly engaging with the health 
co-benefits of climate change mitigation (indicator 5.4.2), and 
governments increasingly acknowledge this link, with 95% of updated 
Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement now 
referring to health—up from 73% in 2020 (indicator 5.4.1).

*These trends signal what could be the start of a life-saving transition.*
A people-centred transformation: putting health at the heart of climate 
action
With the world currently heading towards 3°C of heating, any further 
delays in climate change action will increasingly threaten the health 
and survival of billions of people alive today. If meaningful, the 
prioritisation of health in upcoming international climate change 
negotiations could offer an unprecedented opportunity to deliver 
health-promoting climate action and pave the way to a thriving future. 
However, delivering such an ambition will require confronting the 
economic interests of the fossil fuel and other health-harming 
industries, and delivering science-grounded, steadfast, meaningful, and 
sustained progress to shift away from fossil fuels, accelerate 
mitigation, and deliver adaptation for health. Unless such progress 
materialises, the growing emphasis on health within climate change 
negotiations risks being mere healthwashing; increasing the 
acceptability of initiatives that minimally advance action, and which 
ultimately undermine—rather than protect—the future of people alive 
today and generations to come.

Safeguarding people's health in climate policies will require the 
leadership, integrity, and commitment of the health community. With its 
science-driven approach, this community is uniquely positioned to ensure 
that decision makers are held accountable, and foster human-centred 
climate action that safeguards human health above all else. The 
ambitions of the Paris Agreement are still achievable, and a prosperous 
and healthy future still lies within reach. But the concerted efforts 
and commitments of health professionals, policy makers, corporations, 
and financial institutions will be needed to ensure the promise of 
health-centred climate action becomes a reality that delivers a thriving 
future for all.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)01859-7/fulltext 




/[ Cli-migration of desperation - Bangladesh, Senegal  ]/
*More Migration due to Climate Change? | Documentary*
Dec 3, 2023  #documentary #climatechange #migration
Climate change is increasingly impacting migration patterns, with 
experts predicting a significant rise in the movement of people towards 
America and Europe in the coming years due to environmental changes.

The escalation of extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and 
deteriorating living conditions in many parts of the world, especially 
in climate-sensitive regions, are compelling people to seek new habitats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHS8DARvfXA



/[ More discussion -- From 7 years ago, a new Opinion Ted-x Radical non 
discrimination ]/
*Will the future be more like Star Trek or Mad Max? | Alec Ross | 
TEDxMidAtlantic*
Jun 23, 2017
Technology is changing the world at a more rapid pace than ever. But we 
remain stuck following a social contract that was written for the 
industrial era, leading us to make work, life and policy decisions that 
don't match today's reality. Diplomat, author, and innovation researcher 
Alec Ross argues that it's time to develop a new social contract written 
for the information age – which will determine the future we live in.

Alec Ross is one of America’s leading experts on innovation. He is 
currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University 
and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Industries of the 
Future. Alec Ross recently served for four year as Senior Advisor for 
Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a role created for him 
by Secretary Clinton to maximize the potential of technology and 
innovation in service of America’s diplomatic agenda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFx2oLmC8Cg



/[The news archive -  meats denote CO2 pollution ]/
/*December 4, 2008 */
December 4, 2008:
• Washington Post writer Ezra Klein calls upon climate activists to 
highlight the role meat consumption plays in fueling the climate crisis.
http://prospect.org/article/are-cows-worse-cars-0


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