[✔️] July 7, 2023- Global Warming News Digest | NPR on mass media and global warming, 3 video examples, Record high temps, Double agent disinformation, China as culprit and target, Rick Piltz martyr

Fri Jul 7 08:12:07 EDT 2023

/*July*//*7, 2023*/

/[ What you missed this morning on NPR news  - text and audio 
//https://www.npr.org/2023/07/07/1186044585/reality-tv-climate-change ]/
*Climate change is our reality — so why wouldn't it appear on reality TV?*
July 7, 20235:00 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
Chloe Veltman
When Recipe for Disaster premieres on the CW Network next month, it'll 
dish up plenty of the sugary and salty ingredients viewers have come to 
expect from cooking contests on reality TV. The show pairs professional 
chefs with a friend or family member who is hopeless in the kitchen. The 
contestants will "compete to make spectacular dishes while battling 
ridiculous disasters."

But the show's producers also mix in the reality TV equivalent of lean 
proteins and veggies. Recipe for Disaster will feature chefs who cook 
with sustainable ingredients, compete to win meat and dairy-free cooking 
challenges, and even tell a joke about climate change being responsible 
for the sudden tropical rainstorm that soaks them as they try to cook.
Lately, the creators of everything from celebrity gabfests to car racing 
competitions — the realm of so-called "unscripted TV" — have been 
finding ways to slip information about human-caused climate change and 
sustainable living onto our screens.

Data from Statistica shows roughly a third of U.S. adults between 18 and 
64 currently watch reality TV. But Recipe for Disaster executive 
producer Cyle Zezo says even though climate change is very much part of 
everyone's everyday reality, reality TV executives themselves have long 
shied away from the topic.
"A couple of years ago, if you'd brought up talking about climate on 
screen, people would think it was crazy and they wouldn't even touch the 
subject," Zezo told NPR at the recent Hollywood Climate Summit.
But Zezo said attitudes have started to shift toward featuring climate 
change on shows.

"When you talk to buyers now, maybe they don't exactly know how to do 
it, but the door is more open to it," he said. "And I'm excited to 
follow that where it goes."

Scenes modeling sustainable behaviors or highlighting the impact of 
climate change have been cropping up lately in shows as diverse as the 
paranormal reality series Ghost Adventures, (in one episode, an 
anthropologist suggests climate change might be responsible for the 
unexpected sighting of a massive unidentified sea creature); talk shows, 
such as Jane Fonda's appearance a few months ago on The Kelly Clarkson 
Show; and the business startup contest Shark Tank (for example, Gwyneth 
Paltrow buys into a sustainable diaper company).
According to a University of Southern California study shared with NPR 
ahead of its fall publish date, nearly 30,000 mentions of climate 
change-related keywords appeared across every category of unscripted TV 
between last August and this February.

"That included home shows, food shows, docuseries, even sports," said 
Erica Rosenthal, director of research at the university's Norman Lear 
Center, the group behind the study. "So that was really a surprising and 
exciting finding."
An unlikely climate change reality star
One unlikely example of the new openness to climate change programing is 
the car racing show Extreme E.
In the series, electric SUVs try to outpace each other in remote parts 
of the world hit hard by climate change. Season one included a race in 
Greenland that passed by a retreating glacier.

The show also includes many direct mentions of the term "climate 
change," such as, "In climate change, everyone needs to win, or we all 
lose." Last year, according to the producer's audience growth report, 
the show reached 135 million viewers across the globe.
But unscripted shows like this one that center climate change as a topic 
— or even mention the term directly — are still relatively rare.

"What we're seeing is plenty of fleeting mentions of terms that are 
climate-adjacent," USC's Rosenthal said. "But not necessarily explicitly 
climate change."

Rosenthal said the most commonly used terms in the study were "vegan," 
"vegetarian," "insulation" and "solar."

"The term 'climate change' itself represented just 4% of all of the 
keyword mentions we came across," Rosenthal said, though he added that 
the term did make it into the top 10 of the keywords the study covered.
This baseline analysis of unscripted TV was created as a follow-up to 
research published last year on scripted TV and movies. As with this 
previous study, the new findings are based on the analysis of show 
scripts. This means it excludes most non-verbal references to 
sustainable behaviors or climate change depicted on screen, such as, for 
instance, Recipe for Disaster's use of compost bins on set.

"When people are talking about climate change and global warming, 
they're talking about it through other ways," said University of 
Colorado Boulder environmental studies professor, Max Boykoff.

Boykoff, who studies the intersection of mass media and climate change, 
said he's not surprised that unscripted TV producers tend to sneak 
climate change-adjacent material into their shows, rather than address 
the topic head on.
"Unscripted television is a way to get into the homes of people who 
otherwise may not take interest in climate change," Boykoff said. "Those 
who otherwise may see it as yet another set of challenges that they just 
don't want to have to deal with."

But Boykoff said producers need to be bolder, since the medium has the 
power to reach so many people. Using that influence only to focus on 
small behavioral changes isn't enough.

"Climate change is a collective action problem at a global scale," 
Boykoff said. "We ought not get caught up in just using a mug instead of 
a paper cup and thinking that we've done our job."
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/07/1186044585/reality-tv-climate-change

- -

/[ 3 examples - referenced links - new video shows engage with global 
warming]/
*The Climate Reality: Rescripting Unscripted*
YEA! Impact
Streamed live on Jun 22, 2023
This workshop focuses on climate justice and sustainability in 
unscripted TV. Highlighting leaders in front of and behind the screen, 
the conversation is followed by a facilitated audience 
discussion--providing attendees with the opportunity to brainstorm ways 
to integrate climate into unscripted content. Moderated by Emmy 
award-winning TV host Nina Parker,  panelists include Emmy and Grammy 
winning producer/showrunner Rikki Hughes, Yasmin Shackleton (EP, Next in 
Fashion, Masterchef), James Longman (Co-EP, Late Late Show), Andraéa 
LaVant (CEO, LaVant Consulting, Impact Producer for Crip Camp), and Cyle 
Zezo (Producer, Penn & Teller: Fool Us, Whose Line Is It Anyway).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUSBdZN71aE

- -

*Shark Tank US | Guest Shark Gwyneth Paltrow Teams Up For Kudos Deal*
Sony Pictures Television
Jun 17, 2023  #SharkTankUS #SharkTank #SharkTankAmerica
Amrita Saigal is seeking $250k for a 5% stake in her company Kudos.
 From Season 14 Episode 10
Watch Now: https://www.ctv.ca/shows/shark-tank
Subscribe to SPTV for more from your favorite shows: 
https://bit.ly/SPTVsubscribe
About Shark Tank: The Sharks – tough, self-made, multi-millionaire and 
billionaire tycoons – continue their search to invest in the best 
businesses and products that America has to offer. The Sharks will once 
again give people from all walks of life the chance to chase the 
American dream and potentially secure business deals that could make 
them millionaires.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3xdEGiypvc

- -

*Extreme E: Race For The Planet Season 1 | Official Trailer*
Extreme E
Jul 1, 2022

    Subscribe for more Extreme E: https://bit.ly/3uj6v3z
    Where to Watch Live: https://bit.ly/3ctoVbI
    Website: https://extreme-e.com
    Instagram: https://instagram.com/extremeelive
    TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@extremeelive
    Facebook: https://facebook.com/extremeelive
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/extremeelive

Extreme E is a radical new racing series which will see eSUVs compete in 
the most remote corners of the planet that have been impacted by climate 
change.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Od4i1OGStE

/[ yesterday's news seems to persist - AP - and likely return ]/
*Earth hit an unofficial record high temperature this week – and stayed 
there*
BY SETH BORENSTEIN AND MELINA WALLING
July 5, 2023
Earth’s average temperature on Wednesday remained at an unofficial 
record high set the day before, the latest grim milestone in a week that 
has seen a series of climate-change-driven extremes.

The average global temperature was 17.18 Celsius (62.9 degrees 
Fahrenheit), according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, 
a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the 
world’s condition. That matched a record set Tuesday, and came after a 
previous record of 17.01 Celsius (62.6 degrees Fahrenheit) was set Monday.

While the figures are not an official government record, “this is 
showing us an indication of where we are right now,” said National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Sarah Kapnick. 
And NOAA indicated it will take the figures into consideration for its 
official record calculations.

Scientists generally use much longer measurements — months, years, 
decades — to track the Earth’s warming, but the daily highs are an 
indication that climate change is reaching uncharted territory.

While some countries had colder weather than usual, high-temperature 
records were surpassed this week in Quebec and Peru.

In North Grenville, Ontario, the city turned ice hockey rinks into 
cooling centers as temperatures Wednesday hit 32 degrees Celsius (90 
degrees Fahrenheit), with humidity making it making it feel like 38 
degrees (100 degrees Fahrenheit).

“I feel like we live in a tropical country right now,” city spokeswoman 
Jill Sturdy said. “It just kind of hits you. The air is so thick.”

Beijing reported nine straight days last week when the temperature 
exceeded 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), and ordered a stop 
to all outdoor work Wednesday, as the temperature reached 41 degrees 
Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit).

On Wednesday, 38 million Americans were under some kind of heat alert, 
Kapnick said.

Scientists have warned for months that 2023 could see record heat as 
human-caused climate change, driven largely by the burning of fossil 
fuels like coal, natural gas and oil, warmed the atmosphere. They also 
noted that La Nina, the natural cooling of the ocean that had acted as a 
counter, was giving way to El Nino, the reverse phenomenon marked by 
warming oceans.

“A record like this is another piece of evidence for the now massively 
supported proposition that global warming is pushing us into a hotter 
future,” said Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field, who was 
not part of the calculations.

One of the largest contributors to this week’s records is an 
exceptionally mild winter in the Antarctic, according to data from the 
Climate Reanalyzer. Parts of the continent and nearby ocean were 10-20 
degrees Celsius (18-36 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than averages from 
1979-2000.

“Temperatures have been unusual over the ocean and especially around the 
Antarctic this week, because wind fronts over the Southern Ocean are 
strong pushing warm air deeper south,” said Raghu Murtugudde, professor 
of atmospheric, oceanic and earth system science at the University of 
Maryland and visiting faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology, 
Bombay...
- -
Chari Vijayaraghavan, a polar explorer and educator who has visited the 
Arctic and Antarctic regularly for the past ten years says global 
warming is obvious at both poles, and threatens the region’s wildlife as 
well as driving ice melt that raises sea levels.

“Warming climates might lead to increasing risks of diseases such as the 
avian flu spreading in the Antarctic that will have devastating 
consequences for penguins and other fauna in the region,” Vijayaraghavan 
said.

University of Maine climate scientist Sean Birkel, creator of the 
Climate Reanalyzer, said the daily figures are unofficial but a useful 
snapshot of what’s happening in a warming world.

Even though the dataset used for the unofficial record goes back only to 
1979, Kapnick said that given other data, the world is likely seeing the 
hottest days in “several hundred years that we’ve experienced.”

More frequent, and more intense heat waves disrupted life around the 
world and caused life-threatening temperatures.

Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, regional director for Europe at the World 
Health Organization, said climate change was attacking the continent “in 
a big way” which had the potential to wind back 50 years of progress in 
public health.

Large parts of India and Pakistan faced a days-long heat wave in June 
that killed over 100 people across the two countries. Temperatures 
subsided in the last week as the monsoon rains began.
https://apnews.com/article/global-heat-record-hottest-climate-change-july-483fc8e2a286062773692db1a37efe23

/[  Mis and Dis-information battles ]/
*‘Double agents’: fossil-fuel lobbyists work for US groups trying to 
fight climate crisis*
Oliver Milman @olliemilman
Wed 5 Jul 2023
‘Double agents’: fossil-fuel lobbyists work for US groups trying to 
fight climate crisis
Exclusive: new database shows 1,500 US lobbyists working for fossil-fuel 
firms while representing universities and green groups
Oliver Milman

More than 1,500 lobbyists in the US are working on behalf of fossil-fuel 
companies while at the same time representing hundreds of liberal-run 
cities, universities, technology companies and environmental groups that 
say they are tackling the climate crisis, the Guardian can reveal.

Lobbyists for oil, gas and coal interests are also employed by a vast 
sweep of institutions, ranging from the city governments of Los Angeles, 
Chicago and Philadelphia; tech giants such as Apple and Google; more 
than 150 universities; some of the country’s leading environmental 
groups – and even ski resorts seeing their snow melted by global heating.

The breadth of fossil-fuel lobbyists’ work for other clients is captured 
in a new database of their lobbying interests which was published online 
on Wednesday.

It shows the reach of state-level fossil-fuel lobbyists into almost 
every aspect of American life, spanning local governments, large 
corporations, cultural institutions such as museums and film festivals, 
and advocacy groups, grouping together clients with starkly 
contradictory aims.

For instance, State Farm, the insurance company that announced in May it 
would halt new homeowner policies in California due to the 
“catastrophic” risk of wildfires worsened by the climate crisis, employs 
lobbyists that also advocate for fossil fuel interests to lawmakers in 
18 states.

Meanwhile, Baltimore, which is suing big oil firms for their role in 
causing climate-related damages, has shared a lobbyist with ExxonMobil, 
one of the named defendants in the case. Syracuse University, a pioneer 
in the fossil fuel divestment movement, has a lobbyist with 14 separate 
oil and gas clients.

“It’s incredible that this has gone under the radar for so long, as 
these lobbyists help the fossil fuel industry wield extraordinary 
power,” said James Browning, a former Common Cause lobbyist who put 
together the database for a new venture called F Minus. “Many of these 
cities and counties face severe costs from climate change and yet 
elected officials are selling their residents out. It’s extraordinary...
The worst thing about hiring these lobbyists is that it legitimizes the 
fossil fuel industry,” Browning added. “They can cloak their radical 
agenda in respectability when their lobbyists also have clients in the 
arts, or city government, or with conservation groups. It normalizes 
something that is very dangerous.”
The searchable database, created by compiling the public disclosure 
records of lobbyists up to 2022 reveals:

    -- Some of the most progressive-minded cities in the US employ
    fossil-fuel lobbyists. Chicago shares a lobbyist with BP.
    Philadelphia’s lobbyist also works for the Koch Industries network.
    Los Angeles has a lobbyist contracted to the gas plant firm Tenaska.
    Even cities that are suing fossil fuel companies for climate
    damages, such as Baltimore, have fossil fuel-aligned lobbyists...
    -- Environmental groups that push for action on climate change also,
    incongruously, use lobbyists employed by the fossil-fuel industry.
    The Environmental Defense Fund shares lobbyists with ExxonMobil,
    Calpine and Duke Energy, all major gas producers. A lobbyist for the
    Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund also works on behalf
    of the mining company BHP.

    --- Large tech companies have repeatedly touted their climate
    credentials but many also use fossil fuel-aligned lobbyists. Amazon
    employs fossil-fuel lobbyists in 27 states. Apple shares a lobbyist
    with the Koch network. Microsoft’s lobbyist also lobbies on behalf
    of Exxon. Google has a lobbyist who has seven different fossil fuel
    companies as clients.

    -- More than 150 universities have ties to lobbyists who also push
    the interests of fossil-fuel companies. These include colleges that
    have vowed to divest from fossil fuels under pressure from students
    concerned about the climate crisis, such as California State
    University, the University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University
    and Syracuse University. Scores of school districts, from Washington
    state to Florida, have lobbyists who also work for fossil-fuel
    interests.

    -- A constellation of cultural and recreational bodies also use
    fossil-fuel lobbyists, despite in many cases calling for action on
    the climate crisis. The New Museum in New York City, the Los Angeles
    County Museum of Art and the Sundance Film Institute in Utah all
    share lobbyists with fossil-fuel interests, as does the Cincinnati
    Symphony Orchestra and the Florida Aquarium. Even top ski resorts
    such as Jackson Hole and Vail, which face the prospect of dwindling
    snow on slopes due to rising temperatures, use fossil-fuel lobbyists.

Cities, companies, universities and green groups that use fossil 
fuel-linked lobbyists said this work did not conflict with their own 
climate goals and in some cases was even beneficial. “It is common for 
lobbyists to work for a variety of clients,” said a spokesperson for the 
University of Washington.

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art said it had 
retained a lobbyist on the F Minus database “for a period during the 
pandemic … We are not currently working with the company.”

A spokesperson for the Environmental Defense Fund said that working for 
big oil is “not, in itself, an automatic disqualification. In some cases 
it can actually help us find productive alignment in unexpected places.” 
Microsoft said despite its lobbying arrangements there is “no ambiguity 
or doubt about Microsoft’s commitment to the aggressive steps needed to 
address the world’s carbon crisis”.

But the vast scale of the use of fossil-fuel lobbyists by organizations 
that advocate for climate action underlines the deeply embedded 
influence of oil, gas and coal interests, according to Timmons Roberts, 
an environmental sociologist at Brown University.

“The fossil-fuel industry is very good at getting what it wants because 
they get the lobbyists best at playing the game,” Roberts said. “They 
have the best staff, huge legal departments, and the ability to funnel 
dark money to lobbying and influence channels.

“This database really makes it apparent that when you hire these insider 
lobbyists, you are basically working with double agents. They are guns 
for hire. The information you share with them is probably going to the 
opposition.”...
-- -
Roberts said that climate-concerned organizations may get a “short-term” 
benefit by gaining access to politicians close to the fossil fuel 
lobbyists they use but that the enduring impact is to simply reinforce 
the status of polluting industries. “It would make a big difference if 
all of these institutions cut all ties with fossil fuel lobbyists, even 
if they lose some access to insider decisions,” he said. “It would be 
taking one more step to removing the social license from an industry 
that’s making the planet uninhabitable.”

Nearly all states require lobbyists to register and submit periodic 
disclosure reports, and lobbyists tend not to advocate for both sides of 
the same piece of legislation. Beyond that, the laws around lobbying are 
scant. There is no bar to lobbyists working for clients with seemingly 
diametrically opposing aims, and there are few guardrails to ensure 
sensitive information is not shared with the other side.

This has led to lobbyists with client lists that are jarring in their 
juxtapositions. Hinman Straub, a New York-based advisory firm, lobbies 
on behalf of Koch Industries, known for its history of climate denial 
and muscular efforts to block action to cut emissions, as well as Bard 
College, one of the most liberal institutions in the US...

Seth McKeel, a former Republican state legislator in Florida, is 
lobbyist to both Apple, which has vowed to completely decarbonize its 
supply chain by 2030, and Kinder Morgan, which has more than 140 oil and 
gas terminals...

Syracuse University’s lobbyist, the Brown & Weinraub outfit, also has 14 
fossil-fuel clients, including Koch Industries companies, Shell and the 
American Petroleum Institute, a situation that Alex Scrivner, a Syracuse 
PhD student and campus climate advocate, described as “disheartening”. 
The Koch Industries network itself shares lobbyists with a broad range 
of institutions, from the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre to Google.

The practice of political lobbying has grown significantly since the 
1970s, with the fossil-fuel industry among the most prolific users of 
paid operatives to help shape favourable government policies. A study 
released in May found that not only is the industry more likely to lobby 
than others, its lobbying expenditures have jumped when faced with 
potential climate-linked threats to its business model.

This morass of fossil-fuel lobbying now touches all flavours of 
political persuasion. Lobbying contracts can involve a range of 
different tasks that do not necessarily directly clash with the stated 
aims of another client, and some environmental groups feel that having 
fossil fuel-aligned lobbyists can open up pathways to Republican 
lawmakers who might otherwise not be amenable to them.

Denis Dison, director of communications for the National Resources 
Defense Council Action Fund, said the environmental group “as a rule” 
doesn’t use people who also work with the fossil-fuel industry. But he 
added that “at times we retain vendors that specialize in engagement 
that can help build support for climate and equity progress across both 
sides of the aisle”.

Browning said his advice would be to avoid “cynical calculations”. He 
said: “We got into this mess on climate by groups seeking short-term 
wins but empowering the fossil fuel industry and giving them 
credibility.” State capitols can act as a sort of “alternate reality” 
where existential issues like the climate crisis are overshadowed by the 
desire to cultivate alliances and bolster influence, he added.

“People just assume there is no alternative to the status quo, but it’s 
time to take a side. It’s all about who is in the room when decisions 
are made, and the only way to force change is to get these fossil-fuel 
companies and their lobbyists out of the room.”

Lobbyists, like lawyers, are not required to hold the same worldview as 
their clients, according to Sarah Bryner, director of research at 
OpenSecrets, a non-profit that tracks lobbying. “But you could see it 
would be problematic to represent clients with radically opposed views 
to other clients,” she said.

“The money thing matters, too. These environmental groups, and even 
cities, can’t pay lobbyists as much as huge multinational fossil fuel 
companies can, so there is an imbalance there. Loyalties would be split.”

Meghan Sahli-Wells saw the pressure exerted by fossil-fuel lobbying 
first-hand while she was mayor of Culver City, California, where she 
spearheaded a move to ban oil drilling near homes and schools. Culver 
City, part of Los Angeles county, overlaps with the Inglewood oilfield, 
and the close proximity of oilwells to residences has been blamed for 
worsening health problems, such as asthma, as well as fueling the 
climate crisis.

“It takes so much community effort and political lift to pass policies 
and then these lobbying firms come in and try to undo them overnight,” 
said Sahli-Wells, who ended her second mayoral term in 2020. Oil and gas 
interests, which spent $34m across California lobbying lawmakers and 
state agencies last year, mobilised against the ban, arguing it would be 
economically harmful and cause gasoline prices to spike.

“There was just a huge push from the fossil fuel industry,” Sahli-Wells 
said. “It’s not a good look to be funding lobbyists for fossil fuels, 
especially with public money.

“I hope that many people just don’t know they share lobbyists with 
fossil-fuel companies and that this database will bring transparency and 
allow leaders to better vet these companies,” she added. “You shouldn’t 
be funding the person who is poisoning you.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/05/double-agent-fossil-fuel-lobbyists

/[ Opinion from Aljazeera ]/
*China’s new problem: climate misinformation driven by nationalism*
Climate conspiracies once suited Beijing’s narrative. Not any more. Now, 
China is both a culprit and a target.
Purple Romero
3 Jul 2023
Much has been written about climate misinformation in the West but there 
has been far less scrutiny of the problem in China – a country that is 
both a significant carbon emitter and a leader in developing green 
technology.

Annie Lab, our fact-checking project at the University of Hong Kong, 
looked into the diverse narratives of such climate misinformation, 
examples of which we have encountered and verified in the past.

One thing we can say is that these narratives are deeply connected to 
China’s assertion of its identity and pursuit of its aspirations. China 
has bounced back after years of poverty, establishing itself as an 
economic behemoth. It takes pride in this shift and development, so any 
challenge to this progress – and to the image of China – is perceived as 
hostile.

Not too long ago, that included climate change, which, from about 
2009-2011, was often depicted in Chinese books and popular TV shows as a 
Western hoax designed to torpedo China’s economic rise.

After 2011, however, the messaging changed. These books and public 
statements disappeared amid growing public consciousness about climate 
change. This forced, in some ways, the government to take the problem 
seriously.

However, online, climate denial lives on and remains strong...
We also found similar dodgy Chinese posts on YouTube and Twitter as well 
as articles from The Epoch Times, a news organisation reportedly linked 
to Falun Gong, a religious group banned in mainland China.

Our research unveiled various narratives, one of which explained the 
recurring manipulated images depicting Swedish activist Greta Thunberg 
as having gained weight. As it turned out, the doctoring of her photos 
to make her look that way is not an isolated case, nor is it a juvenile 
attempt at malicious pillory or an example of harmless mockery.

A deeper look takes us back to comments by Thunberg that stirred 
patriotic assertions, including that she was a tool or puppet of the 
West. In a May 2021 tweet, Thunberg said that while China remains a 
developing country, it must be more conscious about its carbon emissions...
She was accused of being a “selective environmentalist” because she did 
not comment on Japan’s plans to release nuclear wastewater into the 
Pacific Ocean, although she did share an article about it. Chinese 
online posts also said Thunberg told the Chinese people to stop using 
chopsticks to reduce deforestation – though there is no evidence the 
climate activist ever made such a statement.

Tensions between China and the West have shaped another narrative, too.

If before, Chinese book authors said climate change was something the 
West invented so China would rely on it for green technology, now there 
are social media posts saying the opposite. As the Asian giant has 
emerged as a leading manufacturer of clean tech, it is now the target of 
West-based far-right conspiracy theories, too. Misleading posts were 
found on Twitter as well as video-sharing platforms Rumble and Bitchute 
suggesting that climate change is supposedly just a scam concocted by 
China so the West could depend on it for green technology.

An offshoot of this is another strand of misinformation: The use of 
unverified videos on Twitter in Chinese allegedly showing 
Chinese-manufactured e-vehicles and wind turbines of shoddy quality.

Meanwhile, other social media claims and articles have downplayed the 
role of man-made emissions. On YouTube, one said volcanic eruptions put 
more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than human activities do. This has 
been debunked.

On WeChat, a user said global warming was caused by changes in the 
Earth’s orbit around the sun. The United States space agency NASA has 
clarified that while the sun does indeed have an effect on the Earth’s 
climate, “it isn’t responsible for the warming trend we’ve seen over 
recent decades”.

Chinese experts themselves stepped in to correct some of these claims. 
Authorities from the National Space Weather Forecasting Station of the 
China Meteorological Administration debunked a claim about solar 
activity being the main driver behind changes in the Earth’s climate.

The China Environment News, the official outlet of China’s Ministry of 
Ecology and Environment, meanwhile, came out with an article that 
explained why, contrary to viral claims, rising temperatures will not 
usher in a period of prosperity for mainland China. This particular 
claim is very specific to China as it harks back to the Han and Tang 
dynasties, which were said to have experienced stability and prosperity 
during warmer climates.

Wu Yixiu, a former climate journalist with China Dialogue, a non-profit 
organisation that analyses climate issues in China and has offices in 
London and Beijing, told us the claim resonated with the public because 
it mirrored China’s aspiration of “rejuvenation”.

This narrative, along with the others, reveals that climate 
misinformation in China is largely shaped by nationalism, a sentiment 
that has become more fervent under President Xi Jinping, even if the 
Chinese government itself has to step in at times to challenge false claims.

It is not always about the science but about the story. And if the story 
is uncomfortable, a dose of climate misinformation is never far away.

Purple Romero is a Filipina multimedia journalist who has written about 
climate change, gender issues, foreign affairs and labour rights for 
local and international news organisations.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/7/3/chinas-new-problem-climate-lies-fuelled-by-nationalism

/[ Well, this is a cynical opinion from a climate activist ]/
*How Stupid Are the Ruling Elite? Too Stupid To Stay Alive.*
Ray Katz
Jun 27,
We’ll need to rescue those fools, as well as our children, Nature and 
ourselves.

No matter how educated they are, the ultra-rich are ultra-stupid. The 
Koch brothers? Super well-educated. Degrees in engineering. (Okay, only 
one of the two is still alive. But he’s educated.) Well educated indeed. 
Charles Koch, the one who’s still breathing, has a degree in engineering 
from MIT and two advanced degrees — in nuclear and chemical engineering.

And yet he’s an idiot. I don’t mean I disagree with him on politics and 
other things. I do, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean he’s 
really, really stupid.

Think about it. Engineering. CHEMICAL engineering. He fully understands 
that his activities and the overall use of fossil fuels is destroying 
the habitability of the planet. He knows that due in large part to his 
“success,” his own grandchildren — and possibly even his (now adult) 
children, will suffer terribly on an ever more hostile planet, one with 
increasingly frequent and severe heatwaves, floods, wildfires, 
shortages. He knows that we are seeing NOW — TODAY — the start of a 
full-fledged climate collapse, one that without a serious and determined 
U-Turn will result in unprecedented massive suffering.

A suffering that even today’s ultra-wealthy fools like Koch himself will 
be unable to escape. Because THE ENTIRE PLANET is becoming a living Hell.

Charles Koch, the well-educated “smart” guy continues doing what he’s 
doing — destroying the habitability of the planet he and his loved ones 
live on.

How is he not the stupidest person on the planet? Well, maybe he isn’t, 
because he’s got some serious competition....

*The Role of Stupidity in the Titan Implosion*
It may not be nice to speak ill of the dead, but maybe it’s necessary to 
try to keep others alive. This is why I feel compelled to talk about 
OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush, who died when the submersible vehicle he 
was on — with four others — imploded while visiting the Titanic.

Rush had a degree in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University. He 
held an MBA from UCLA/Berkley. When he failed to become an astronaut, he 
decided to explore the oceans, and ultimately he and a partner founded a 
company that sold tourist trips to the ocean’s depths.

But for all his education, Rush was incredibly stupid. He decided that 
the dangers of oceanic tourism was exaggerated and that regulations were 
overblown. Rush came to this conclusion even though he had been an 
aerospace engineer. He knew better — or should have.

But his stupidity exceeded his education. To save money — that MBA 
trumped that engineering degree, you see — he purchased inferior carbon 
fiber from Boeing, material that was past its shelf life, to build his 
submersible vehicles.

The Titan, which imploded killing him and the other four passengers, was 
purposely built using inferior materials. Who’s stupider, Koch or Stockton?

*Not Brilliant and Evil. Stupid and Pathetic.*
The people who are destroying the habitability of our Earth, the alleged 
wealthy brilliant supervillains like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are 
nothing of the sort. They are well-educated and, in some nominal way, 
kind of smart.

But they are functionally morons. They are literally too stupid, 
crippled by a tunnel vision of greed and hubris, to stay alive. It’s a 
miracle that any of them are still breathing.

We are scared of these people. We think they are brilliant, powerful, 
greedy and power mad. They are only the latter two. And those latter two 
qualities negate any possibility of brilliance. This also blunts their 
ability to effectively wield power.

The power these ultra-wealthy fools have is illusory. They are on top 
because of the systems we live in — a system that rewards people like 
them. And so, not only do we need to remove people like them from power 
— and THEY have the power because they fund politicians and PACs and 
therefore make policy — but we need to end the systems that grant them 
their destructive power. Because it is those systems, not any actual 
ability, that enables Bezos and Musk and Stockton and Jamie Dimon and 
other wealthy fools to endanger us all.

*Our Unrealized Power*
This illusion of power, more than any actual power, is what enables a 
few thousand self-destructive fools to bring the entire Earth to the 
brink of climate collapse. We must puncture and deflate this illusion, 
and seize the power which is rightfully ours.

Who does all the work? Who makes everything happen? Who produces all the 
goods and services? Who makes the world work — at least on the occasions 
when it does?

Ordinary working people. The “little” people. The people who live off 
the scraps of the ultra-wealthy. The alleged beneficiaries of the “job 
creators.”

This whole notion is ass-backwards. Just as no Pharaoh designed or built 
a pyramid, these billionaires take credit for things they simply did not 
do. They are 100% dependent on US, on ordinary people who DO EVERYTHING, 
for their positions, for their wealth, and for their power.

Everything they have is due to us. And those who empower them can and 
MUST and WILL dis-empower them. We will do this to save our children, to 
rescue Nature, to save ourselves, and even to save our very, very stupid 
foes.

We will do this because we share a common humanity, and because we are 
all part of Nature, and we cannot continue to live if we destroy Nature.

We will awaken ourselves and alert the others. We will let people know — 
people who have given up, who believed themselves powerless, who were 
defeated by despair — that WE have the power, that WE will exercise that 
power and that together WE will save whatever can be salvaged from our 
dire circumstances.

Thank you for reading. Now please join our efforts. We will be starting 
an initiative called “Strike While the Planet Is Hot.” You can 
participate by simply printing and posting a flyer! It’s a small but 
meaningful action. You can encourage others to do the same. Find and 
print the signs from A Climate Declaration.

Someone took the first axe to the Berlin Wall. We can be the first to 
set the climate revolution into motion.

/Please follow me on Medium. And check out these websites: EarthRebirth 
Team (group); 5 Minutes to Save the Earth (podcast); A Climate 
Declaration (framework for change). You can also attend the live video 
chat — a “Virtual Climate Party — on July 1, 2023 at 2pm EST./
https://ray-katz.medium.com/how-stupid-are-the-ruling-elite-too-stupid-to-stay-alive-6557a1a25ca9 

- -

/[ links from above ]/
*A Climate Declaration *
https://aclimatedeclaration.com/

- -

PODCAST -
*5 MINUTES TO SAVE THE EARTH*
Action, Not Reaction
Strategically, to save the Earth, we will need to take the initiative. 
We need to stop reacting to the failed leaders, the excuse makers, the 
delayers and deniers. We must take the initiative, grab hold of the 
microphone and LEAD. Here’s how.
https://5minutestosavetheearth.com/

/[The news archive - looking back at a global warming martyr ]/
/*July  7, 2005*/
July 7, 2005: Rick Piltz, who resigned from the US Climate Change 
Science Program earlier in the year over the Bush Administration's 
aggravated assault on climate science, appears on Air America's "The Al 
Franken Show" to discuss the administration's hostility to science.

Piltz died in 2014 - one of the original climate change martyrs - he has 
made some solid history, important to notice.

    Frederick Steven "Rick" Piltz (July 29, 1943 – October 18, 2014) was
    a former senior associate in the U.S. Climate Change Science
    Program. In March 2005, he resigned over political interference in
    the program's climate change reports. In June 2005, the New York
    Times exposed the role of Philip Cooney in editing government
    documents on climate change to create an appearance of scientific
    uncertainty. A former lobbyist with the American Petroleum
    Institute, Cooney resigned and days later took a job at Exxon Mobil.

    Piltz went on to found Climate Science Watch, a project to hold
    public officials accountable for using climate science with
    integrity in policy making. Climate Science Watch is a program of
    the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection
    agency in Washington, D.C.

    Politicization of science
    Piltz spent 14 years in various positions in Washington closely
    following how global warming science is misused by the government
    and special interest groups. From 1995, he served in senior
    positions in the Climate Change Science Program, before resigning in
    March 2005. In his resignation letter, he wrote, "I believe the
    overarching problem is that the [Bush] Administration...does not
    want and has acted to impede forthright communication of the state
    of climate science and its implication for society."

    Within months, the New York Times exposed White House operative
    Philip Cooney for editing government climate documents to increase
    uncertainty about the science. Cooney resigned and joined Exxon Mobil.

    Piltz also states that forces within the Bush administration have
    sought to hide the results from the National Assessment on Climate
    Change.

    Government watchdog
    Piltz founded Climate Science Watch in the summer of 2005. The group
    tracks and investigates climate science policy developments in the
    news and occasionally publishes leaked documents from government
    insiders.

    Piltz testified twice before Congress since creating Climate Science
    Watch.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_S._Piltz

http://youtu.be/AhJAF6nODCU

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