[✔️] September 18, 2023- Global Warming News Digest | NYC protest, Calling to end fossil fuels, just have a think video, CA sues oil companies, UAW strike and EVs, NYT report, New Republic report, Ghost forests, 2006 Ecotalk

[Richard Pauli]

/*September 18*//*, 2023*//
/

/[ AP brief sample video and sound ]
/*New York climate protest calls for ending fossil fuels*
Associated Press
  Sep 17, 2023
(18 Sep 2023) Tens of thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of 
midtown Manhattan in New York for the March to End Fossil Fuels, calling 
on President Biden to take action to phase out fossil fuels and address 
environmental injustice. (Sept. 18)(AP video/Mary Conlon)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbWHTIRd9yg/
/

/- -
/

/[  NYTimes report  ]/
/*Climate Protesters March on New York, Calling for End to Fossil Fuels*/
Ahead of U.N. meetings this week, thousands gathered in Midtown to 
demand that President Biden and other world leaders stop new oil and gas 
drilling.
By Somini Sengupta, Hilary Howard and Delger Erdenesanaa
Sept. 17, 2023
Tens of thousands of people, young and old, filled the streets of 
Midtown Manhattan under blazing sunshine on Sunday to demand that world 
leaders quickly pivot away from fossil fuels dangerously heating the Earth.

Their ire was sharply directed at President Biden, who is expected to 
arrive in New York Sunday night for several fund-raisers this week and 
to speak before the United Nations General Assembly session that begins 
Tuesday.

“Biden, you should be scared of us,” Emma Buretta, 17, a New York City 
high school student and an organizer with the Fridays for Future 
movement, shouted at a rally ahead of the march. “If you want our vote, 
if you don’t want the blood of our generations to be on your hands, end 
fossil fuels.”...
- -
According to scientific models as well as projections by the 
International Energy Agency, nations must stop approving new oil, gas 
and coal projects if the world is to stay within relatively safe levels 
of atmospheric warming.

Megan Bloomgren, a vice president at the American Petroleum Institute, 
which represents the oil and gas industry, said in an email “We share 
the urgency of confronting climate change together without delay; yet 
doing so by eliminating America’s energy options is the wrong approach 
and would leave American families and businesses beholden to unstable 
foreign regions for higher cost and far less reliable energy.”...
- -
Activists are especially angry that this year’s U.N. climate 
negotiations are set to take place in the United Arab Emirates, a 
leading oil-producing state, and will be overseen by Sultan al-Jaber, 
head of the Emirati state-owned oil giant, ADNOC.

Protest organizers used Sunday’s event to send a sharp message to 
President Biden as he begins his push for re-election: Do more if you 
want our votes.
- -
Virginia Page Fortna, a political science professor at Columbia 
University, was gentle on Mr. Biden. “He’s done a huge amount, which is 
awesome,” she said. “But of course there’s always more to do. It’d be 
great if he would declare a climate emergency.”...
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/17/climate/climate-protests-new-york.html
//

/
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/
/

/[  Important information 14 min video update  ]/
*The heat may not kill you, but the global food crisis might!*
Just Have a Think
Sep 17, 2023
A super strong El Niño and record high global sea surface temperatures 
are set to deliver  devastating extreme weather events all over the 
planet in 2024. They will be extremely costly and traumatic for many 
millions of people around the world. But the real concern is what the 
consequences of those events will show us about the fragility and 
vulnerability our global food supply network is. A worrying portent of 
our near-term future?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQkyouPOrD4

/
/

/
//[  clips asking the courts for justice ]/
*California Sues Giant Oil Companies, Citing Decades of Deception*
Launching one of the most prominent climate lawsuits in the nation, the 
state claims Exxon, Shell, BP and others misled the public and seeks 
creation of a special fund to pay for recovery.
By David Gelles
Sept. 15, 2023
The state of California sued several of the world’s biggest oil 
companies on Friday, claiming their actions have caused tens of billions 
of dollars in damage and that they deceived the public by downplaying 
the risks posed by fossil fuels.

The civil case, filed in superior court in San Francisco, is the latest 
and most significant lawsuit to target oil, gas and coal companies over 
their role in causing climate change. It seeks creation of an abatement 
fund to pay for the future damages caused by climate related disasters 
in the state.

The lawsuit targets five companies: Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, 
ConocoPhillips, and Chevron, which is headquartered in San Ramon, Calif. 
The American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group based in 
Washington, is also listed as a defendant.

Seven other states and dozens of municipalities have filed similar 
lawsuits in recent years. But the California lawsuit immediately becomes 
one of the most significant legal challenges facing the fossil fuel 
industry...
- -
  It claims that starting in the 1950s, the companies and their allies 
intentionally downplayed the risks posed by fossil fuels to the public, 
even though they understood that their products were likely to lead to 
significant global warming. It alleges that Exxon, Chevron and the other 
companies have continued to mislead the public about their commitment to 
reducing emissions in recent years, boasting about minor investments in 
alternative fuels while reaping record profits from the production of 
planet-warming fossil fuels.

“These folks had this information and lied to us, and we could have 
staved off some of the most significant consequences,” said California 
Gov. Gavin Newsom. “It’s shameful. It’s sickens you to your core.”...
- -
Oil, gas and coal companies are facing a wave of climate lawsuits. 
Cities and states around the country have sued, and are seeking billions 
of dollars in damages...
- -
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/15/business/california-oil-lawsuit-newsom.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/15/business/california-oil-lawsuit-newsom.html?unlocked_article_code=i0FAVdJd4AU9NPx_iqzlxwpBhMQ5wLJWXbPQrv_K29cLjKiKA3XNHBXEAzX-CjrxhiMwcMkMnM-n7EeAqWKKaJtgRraR8OkkiZ60w3egybyLkHQfgoRGMV-B0eo1IqsOjZaKyQQ-JYQOMRYJxUQyg7-i5361wGPRAE4hej8NZ5WAQmFflWOQ-vgeINLcGMyE_xD4lfYXFvz0CMUSQvCNCINk4O-L-H-BbK5AU7YRHSzax4bioOGVakjbZMRxwpssY58S2m70OIwQj9BZtPfIPYmFxri4tFYB_XPN-MD2-xnuZ8J2dioMtJOgsclh_mvXMwp_c1w2J3Wr6QwXkV3QrPb-KWdKqroW&smid=url-share

/
/

/
/

/[ Electric vehicles are a wedge-issue in negotiations... a longer 
strike may favor the union stance.]/
Reuters
*UAW strike could buy GM time to address nagging EV issues*
By Paul Lienert
September 17, 2023

DETROIT, Sept 17 (Reuters) - General Motors (GM.N) is at greater risk 
than rivals Ford Motor (F.N) and Stellantis (STLAM.MI) of disruption to 
electric vehicle production from a prolonged UAW strike - though some 
analysts say that could also buy it time to repair nagging issues.

While Ford and Stellantis are introducing several revamped 
combustion-engine models this fall, GM's immediate focus is on electric 
vehicles - with plans to launch or ramp up production of at least five 
new ones. They include all-electric companions to its full-size 
Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, according to researcher 
GlobalData.

GM has been struggling much of the year to smooth out hiccups in battery 
manufacturing as well as its EV supply chain and logistics, including 
delivery to dealers of its Cadillac Lyriq and GMC Hummer EVs.

The company delivered just 1,348 Lyriqs and 47 Hummers in the second 
quarter, far below expectations, in part because of issues with battery 
module assembly.

Chief Executive Mary Barra in July told analysts: "Our automation 
equipment supplier is struggling with delivery issues," causing a 
bottleneck that had forced the automaker to assemble battery modules by 
hand.

In July, GM executive Rory Harvey said the company was working out 
delivery issues to dealers, noting that Lyriq and Hummer "have been 
going down the line in very limited quantities (but) we are building 
momentum."

A longer strike could help GM address and potentially resolve some of 
those ongoing issues in its EV and battery operations, according to Sam 
Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast 
Solutions.

"A production stoppage could allow GM to solve bottlenecks,” Fiorani said.

The automaker has not been able to roll out its most important EVs in a 
timely fashion, but could benefit if it used the labor stoppage to 
resolve some of its technical and operational issues, he said.

"GM could ramp up output faster once the factories start running again," 
said Fiorani.

* 'POTENTIAL NIGHTMARE'*
Other analysts say the stoppage is unlikely to work out in GM's favor. 
GM's Barra herself said the strike "would not be positive" for the 
company and that it needed to reach a deal with workers quickly.

"For GM, a possible byproduct of an extended strike may be more time to 
work out any kinks they are having with their EV launches, but the 
potential loss of billions of dollars in the process would make it hard 
to justify such a 'silver lining,'" said Bill Rinna, GlobalData’s 
director of Americas vehicle forecasts.

Wedbush auto analyst Daniel Ives said the strike was "a potential 
nightmare situation" for GM given it comes exactly at a key period of 
ironing out EV issues.

"In this crucial period of EV execution, model roll-outs, distribution, 
marketing, with EV competition rising across the board, the timing could 
not be worse," Ives said in a research note.

  In addition, the UAW strike in the United States could affect the flow 
of critical auto parts to GM operations in Canada and Mexico, which 
would hamper EV production there, Rinna said.

GM’s Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico has begun building the Chevrolet 
Blazer EV and is adding production of the Chevrolet Equinox EV, while 
its Ingersoll plant in Canada is planning to produce the BrightDrop Zevo 
400 electric delivery van, according to GlobalData.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/lengthy-uaw-strike-could-buy-gm-time-address-nagging-ev-issues-2023-09-17/

     - -

[ NYTimes ]
*Battle Over Electric Vehicles Is Central to Auto Strike*
Carmakers are anxious to keep costs down as they ramp up electric 
vehicle manufacturing, while striking workers want to preserve jobs as 
the industry shifts to batteries.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/16/business/electric-vehicles-uaw-gm-ford-stellantis.html

     - -

/[ New Republic ]/
*Electric Vehicles Have Become a Weapon in the War on Autoworkers*
How the greenest vehicles on the roads became the biggest flash point in 
a labor battle that could lead to a precedent-shattering UAW strike.
https://newrepublic.com/article/175507/uaw-electric-vehicles-strike-workers



/[  These are already on the West coastal regions ]/
*Ghost forests haunt the East Coast, harbingers of sea-level rise*
Stands of dead and dying trees are spreading. Researchers are trying to 
track their movements and their implications.
Amy McDermott
September 13, 2023
120 (38) e2314607120
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2314607120
About 100 miles from the nation’s capital, near Taylor’s Island and 
Fishing Creek on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, hundreds of acres of dead 
trees stand upright, like toothpicks piercing the sky. They are among 
the mid-Atlantic’s largest “ghost forests,” woodlands rapidly converted 
to marsh because of sea-level rise.
All along the margins of the mid-Atlantic today, in Maryland, Delaware, 
and Virginia, as well as many other low-lying parts of the East Coast, 
rapid sea-level rise is driving a deadly sogginess inland. Frequent 
floods and higher high tides are pushing marsh into forests and drowning 
the cedar and pine trees that fringed the shore even a decade ago. Some 
habitats are changing so fast that the dead trees haven’t had time to 
fall over. They haunt the landscape, effigies of climate-driven change.
“Ghost forests are the most striking indicator of climate change on the 
East Coast,” says Matthew Kirwan, a leading authority on the subject. 
Kirwan works as a coastal geomorphologist at the Virginia Institute of 
Marine Science (VIMS) in Gloucester Point. From his seaside office, 
littered with maps and topographic drawings, Kirwan coauthored a 2022 
remote sensing study tracking the spread of the mid-Atlantic’s ghost 
forests since 1984 (1). “The numbers are staggering,” he says. Some 
40,000 acres of forest and farmland have converted into ghost forest in 
roughly the last 30 years.
- -
Healthy tree roots ramble through the upper layers of the soil. 
Sea-level rise is slowly pushing up the water table, carrying the 
groundwater up and up, closer to the surface. Paired with very high 
tides and storm surge flooding, ghost forest soils are soggier and 
saltier than those in healthy forests, Michael says. Many of the dead 
trees turn out to have their roots wet. But whether it’s the prolonged 
waterlogging of the soil, the salt, or some feedback between them that 
ultimately kills the tree remains an area of active research.
- -
*Tracking the Carbon*
Underlying all these investigations is a larger question with big 
implications: How much carbon will these many decomposing trees release 
into the atmosphere, perhaps accelerating climate change as part of a 
positive feedback loop? The dead trunks of drowned trees not only 
release carbon dioxide as they rot, but can act like hollow straws, 
moving methane and other greenhouse gases from the soil and belching 
them into the atmosphere, via their dead, dry wood (6)...
- -
Keen to find avenues to adaptation, Smart canvassed coastal 
neighborhoods in North Carolina to learn about property owners’ 
perspectives and reported her findings in a July 2023 article (9). She 
surveyed about 200 landowners, handing out paper questionnaires to 
anyone living on more than 5 acres. Smart wanted to know how interested 
these folks might be in different adaptation and mitigation strategies, 
including federal buyouts to incorporate their land into conservation 
easements (see “Managed retreat increasingly seen as necessary in 
response to climate change’s fury”). The marsh would essentially be 
allowed to reclaim their homes. Smart said she met less resistance than 
she expected from some groups—for instance, older people on forested 
land, whose children live in cities out of state. Farmers have been a 
harder sell and are more interested in salt-tolerant crops, she says.
Certainly not every homeowner will have to move. But even people without 
flooded foundations or overflowing septic systems may still consider 
leaving, as the slow march of landscape change makes coastal communities 
less livable.
“They talked about handing over their land to the next generation,” 
Smart says of the people she met. As seas rise and hotspots of forest 
loss spread, researchers and residents will have to grapple with what 
exactly they’re handing over...
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2314607120



/[The news archive - looking back]/
/*September 18, 2006*/
September 18, 2006: Air America's "EcoTalk with Betsy Rosenberg" becomes 
the first radio show focused on green/climate change issues to go to a 
daily format in 40 markets.

http://blogsofbainbridge.typepad.com/ecotalkblog/2006/09/ecotalk_daily_s.html



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