[✔️] March 31, 2023- Global Warming News Digest | World Court asked to rule. US abstained, rapid social change, Hollywood and global warming script advisors, Grid collapse considered

[Richard Pauli]

/*March 31, 2023*/

/[ stepping up to higher courts ]/
*U.N. seeks rare legal opinion on climate. The U.S. abstained.*
By Sara Schonhardt
3/30/2023/
/The United States declined to support a historic resolution in the U.N. 
General Assembly on Wednesday that asks the world’s highest court to 
weigh in on the legal obligation of countries to address climate change.

The resolution was passed with the help of more than 120 nations, 
marking a rare agreement in the General Assembly that could reverberate 
worldwide if the International Court of Justice, in the Hague, issues an 
opinion that pushes countries to take greater action to curb their 
planet-warming emissions. The court is expected to make a ruling within 
two years.

The move stems from a resolution offered by Vanuatu, a Pacific Island 
nation that was recently slammed by two back-to-back cyclones. It asks 
the U.N. International Court of Justice to determine whether countries 
are violating international laws by polluting the climate and to 
identify the legal consequences they could face...
- -
Proponents of the resolution argue that it doesn’t seek reparations from 
individual countries or apportion blame. Rather, many see it as one tool 
among many in the fight against global warming. Some activists and 
climate negotiators see it working in parallel with efforts to establish 
a loss and damage fund.

“At the heart of the question, is a desire to further strengthen our 
collective efforts to deal with climate change, give climate justice the 
importance it deserves and bring the entirety of international law to 
bear on this unprecedented challenge,” Vanuatu Prime Minister Ishmael 
Kalsakau said in his address to the general assembly Wednesday.
https://www.eenews.net/articles/u-n-seeks-rare-legal-opinion-on-climate-the-u-s-abstained/

*- -*

/[ top court and top most question  ]/*
**World court asked to rule on climate pollution*
By ARIANNA SKIBELL
03/30/2023
The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution this week that asks the 
world’s top court to weigh in on a high-stakes question:

Can countries be sued under international law for failing to address the 
climate crisis?

If the International Court of Justice answers “yes,” then 
super-polluting countries — like the United States and China — could be 
subjected to a spate of new, potentially viable legal claims, writes 
POLITICO’s E&E News reporter Sara Schonhardt.

Both the U.S. and China declined to support the petition. And U.S. 
courts have historically given little deference to international decisions.

The resolution, which passed without opposition Wednesday, was brought 
by the small disaster-prone Pacific island of Vanuatu, which was 
recently slammed by two back-to-back cyclones.

*What the resolution does:* The resolution asks the International Court 
of Justice, based in The Hague, to determine whether governments are 
legally obligated to protect people from climate change-fueled hazards 
and, if so, what legal consequences nations should face for failing to 
do so.

While an advisory opinion from the court would not be binding, the court 
has the power to clarify what any international law — not just climate 
or environmental ones — says with regard to climate change. That means, 
depending on what the court says, countries could be legally required to 
reduce planet-warming pollution under a suite of international doctrines 
(such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

Already, many countries are seeing a growing number of climate lawsuits 
that draw on human rights or international law. The court’s guidance 
could lead to even more.

Although the United Nations adopted the resolution, there is no 
guarantee that the International Court of Justice, its main judicial 
body, will issue a sweeping opinion. It could say countries have no 
obligation to address climate change. But some legal analysts told Sara 
there’s a good chance the court takes a stronger position.

*Sitting this one out: *The Biden administration has said that 
addressing climate change is a top priority for the United States. But 
it believes diplomacy, not an international judicial process, is the 
best way to tackle the crisis.

Earlier this month, climate envoy John Kerry said on a press call that 
the United States had concerns about the resolution’s process and that 
Vanuatu was “jumping ahead” by going to the International Court of 
Justice. Still, more than 120 countries sided with Vanuatu and supported 
the resolution.

The high court is expected to make a decision in the next one to two years.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2023/03/30/world-court-asked-to-rule-on-climate-pollution-00082767

/
/

/[  National Academies discusses the lesser known and little described 
possible rapid social change  ] /
*Climate Conversations: Tipping Points*
National Academies - Earth and Life Studies
March 30, 2023
You can sign up for our newsletter here: 
https://www.nationalacademies.org/top...

About this Event
... a conversation about how to prepare for the consequences of abrupt 
changes in human and natural systems, and how to encourage positive 
social tipping points.

With continued climate change, elements of the Earth system may reach 
tipping points of abrupt, dramatic change with irreversible 
consequences, like the rapid collapse of ice sheets or dieback of the 
Amazon rainforest. Tipping points also exist in human systems; 
devastation from extreme weather and major stresses on food, energy, and 
water could accumulate and tilt society into radically new dynamics such 
as mass migration or major economic shifts. However, tipping points in 
human systems can also be positive, and stem from rapidly spreading 
norms, behaviors, and technologies, such as how battery storage could 
tip the power sector irreversibly towards renewable energy. Laurie 
Goering (Thomson Reuters Foundation) will moderate a conversation 
between Ilona M. Otto (University of Graz) and Rachael Shwom (Rutgers 
University) about the tipping points we are approaching, how to prepare 
for those we may reach, and how to encourage positive social tipping 
points for action on climate change.

The conversation will be webcast on this page on Thursday, March 30, 
2023 from 3-4:15pm ET. Closed captioning will be provided. The 
conversation will include questions from the audience and will be 
recorded and available to view on the page after the event.

Climate Conversations: Pathways to Action is a monthly webinar series 
from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that 
aims to convene high-level, cross-cutting, nonpartisan conversations 
about issues relevant to policy action on climate change.

Participant Bios
Laurie Goering is a journalist and the climate change editor for 
Context, the award-winning Thomson Reuters Foundation’s daily news 
website. She has written on climate change for more than two decades, 
and previously worked as a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune 
based in New Delhi, Kuwait, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Havana, Mexico 
City and London.

Rachael Shwom is Professor in the Department of Human Ecology at Rutgers 
University and Acting Director of the Rutgers Energy Institute. She 
conducts research that links sociology, psychology, engineering, 
economics, and public policy to investigate how social and political 
factors influence society’s responses to energy and climate problems.

Ilona M. Otto holds the Professorship in Societal Impacts of Climate 
Change at the Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change, University 
of Graz, Austria. She leads a research group that analyzes the social 
dynamic processes and interventions that are likely to spark the rapid 
social changes necessary to radically transform the interactions of 
human societies with nature and ecosystem services in the next 30 years.
https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/03-30-2023/climate-conversations-tipping-points



/["If climate isn't in your story, it's science fiction" Dorothy 
Fortenberry//
//Writer & Producer, THE HANDMAID'S TALE, EXTRAPOLATIONS ]/

*STORYTELLING FOR TODAY’S CLIMATE*

Story support for the age of climate change
CONSULTING
Work With Us To Integrate Climate Into Your Stories
We’re committed to great stories above all, in part because we’re huge 
fans of film and TV, and in part because we know that audiences will 
simply change the channel if a story seems inauthentic. When they 
snooze, we all lose. We steer clear of blatant moralizing, shoehorning 
ideas, and pushing stories in directions that risk becoming dull, 
preachy, or forced. Instead, we help writers apply a Climate Lens™ to 
their existing stories—no matter the topic, tone, or genre—to uncover 
how climate shows up organically for their characters and heightens the 
drama.

*Read About The Absence Of The Climate Crisis On-Screen, And How To 
Change That*
Check out our groundbreaking report on climate representation in TV and 
film, created in collaboration with the USC Norman Lear Center’s Media 
Impact Project.

https://learcenter.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/GlaringAbsence_NormanLearCenter.pdf

https://www.goodenergystories.com/

- -

/[  Getting the word out  ]/
*‘The visuals of today help create the reality of tomorrow:’ Why 
Hollywood is finally tackling climate change onscreen*
For decades, fictional on-screen stories about climate have been 
apocalyptic, if they’ve existed at all. That’s finally changing.
02-28-23
BY WHITNEY BAUCK
Dorothy Fortenberry has been trying to sneak climate change into the 
background of the TV shows she’s worked on for as long as she’s been in 
the business. As a writer on The Handmaid’s Tale, she succeeded in 
getting subtle details included—her characters drove electric cars or 
ate organic food as allusions to the story world’s ecological reality.

But for the first decade of her life as a screenwriter, her 
preoccupation with the environment and her work life only overlapped in 
those small ways. “For a long time, if you said to someone, ‘I’m doing a 
show about climate change,’ they would envision some sort of natural 
disaster—that was the storytelling shorthand.”
Fortenberry’s experience is indicative of a wider truth about fictional 
on-screen stories on climate over the past three decades: They’ve been 
rare, and when they’ve existed at all, they’ve been apocalyptic. Some of 
that has started to shift in recent years, due to a changing zeitgeist 
and organized efforts from inside and outside the industry, but the 
transition has been slow to materialize. ..
In other words, industry professionals are more interested in 
integrating climate into their work than the current state of climate 
narratives in film and TV might lead you to believe. The barriers 
holding them back are as complicated as the set of reasons that keep 
anyone, working in any field, from engaging in meaningful climate action.

Meredith Milton, creative director of the NRDC’s Rewrite the Future and 
a former studio executive who has worked on films like The Eyes of Tammy 
Faye, says there can be a misconception that climate stories are too 
“depressing, preachy, boring, or political.” Fortenberry notes that 
“everybody in Hollywood wants to do the last successful thing, which 
makes it hard until there’s a successful thing.” According to the 
Climate Culture Entertainment Lab at the environmental nonprofit Rare, 
it may also be the case that writers and showrunners want to incorporate 
more climate content, but don’t have time for the research that would 
allow them to do so confidently. Others, Hinerfeld says, just don’t seem 
to have a sense of their own agency; they may be concerned about 
increasingly intense fires and floods, but they don’t see how their work 
can help.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90856208/the-visuals-of-today-help-create-the-reality-of-tomorrow-why-hollywood-is-finally-tackling-climate-change-onscreen



/[ what happens when a crashes? ]/
*How Long Would Society Last During a Total Grid Collapse?**
*Practical Engineering
1,894,937 views  Nov 22, 2022
A summary of how other systems of infrastructure (like roadways, water, 
sewer, and telecommunications) depend on electricity and how long each 
system could last under total blackout conditions.

This video was guest produced by my editor, Wesley, who is also the 
actor in the blackout scenes ;)

Practical Engineering is a YouTube channel about infrastructure and the 
human-made world around us. It is hosted, written, and produced by Grady 
Hillhouse. We have new videos posted regularly, so please subscribe for 
updates. If you enjoyed the video, hit that ‘like’ button, give us a 
comment, or watch another of our videos!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OpC4fH3mEk



/[The news archive - looking back]/
/*March 31, */
March 31, 2009:

• MSNBC's Keith Olbermann rips denialist Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL):

"But our winner, Congressman John Shimkus, Republican of Illinois, with 
two fascinating and utterly contradictory statements.  A, Congressman 
Shimkus on why there isn‘t global warming.  'Today we have about 388 
parts per million of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere.  I think in the 
age of the dinosaurs, when we had most flora and fauna, we were probably 
at 4,000 parts per million. There‘s a theological debate that this is a 
carbon-starved planet, not too much carbon.'

"Number one, Carbon and Carbon Dioxide are not the same thing. Number 
two, the only theological debate over how much carbon the plan needs 
would be taking place in the church of the Labrea Tar Pits.  Number 
three, didn‘t the freaking dinosaurs go extinct?  Or do they just have a 
bad public relations person?

"But I‘m digressing.  B, Congressman Shimkus on why it doesn‘t matter 
anyway.  'The Earth will end only when God declares it‘s time to be 
over.  A man will not destroy this Earth.  This Earth will not be 
destroyed by a flood.  I appreciate having panelists here who are men of 
faith, and we can get into the theological discourse of that position.  
But I do believe that God‘s word is infallible, unchanging, perfect.'

"So a man pressing a button to start a nuclear war, that would be God‘s 
infallible word?  Why do we bother trying to govern?  Can‘t he do 
something about the budget deficit?  By the way, as you hit me over the 
head with your Bible, Congressman, there ain‘t a word in it about those 
dinosaurs you mentioned earlier.

"Congressman John Shimkus of Illinois, today‘s worst person in the world!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBf75v2k3EE

• MSNBC's Rachel Maddow also mocks Shimkus during her "GOP in Exile" 
segment:

"While the Republican Party continues its search for mean in the 
minority, one Republican congressman, John Shimkus of Illinois, maybe 
should stop searching.  Just sit down, Congressman and take a breather, 
honestly.  Check this out:

"REP. JOHN SHIMKUS (R-IL):  Today, we have about 388 parts per million 
in the atmosphere.  I think in the age of dinosaurs, where we had more 
flora and fauna, we were probably at 4,000 parts per million.  There is 
a theological debate that this is a carbon starved planet, not too much 
carbon.

"MADDOW:  In other words, we shouldn‘t bother trying to reduce the 
amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere because the dinosaurs did 
just fine with the tons of carbon that God gave them for their 
atmosphere.  Also, the dodo bird ate plenty of cholesterol.  And the 
saber tooth tiger never, ever flossed.  Stop worrying, people."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF9z-QkeO-E


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