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<font size="+1"><i>December 29, 2017<br>
</i></font> <br>
[USA Today]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2017/12/28/its-cold-outside-but-doesnt-mean-climate-change-isnt-real/987948001/">It's
cold outside, but that doesn't mean climate change isn't real</a></b><br>
Even as the world gets hotter on average, winter isn't going away,
and there will still be extremely cold spells, climate scientists
say. And even now, most of the world outside North America is warmer
than usual for this time of year. In the Arctic and Alaska, recent
temperatures have averaged 10-25 degrees above normal, said Zack
Labe, a doctoral candidate studying Earth systems science at the
University of California, Irvine.<br>
"Climate change will not occur evenly from place-to-place. While
your backyard may be having an intense cold snap, others may be
having unseasonably warm temperatures. Climate is all about
long-term trends," Labe said in an email.<br>
President Trump suggested late Thursday that this week's cold
weather undermines the science of climate change. Trump tweeted: "In
the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year's Eve on record. Perhaps
we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming."<br>
Since modern record-keeping began in 1880, the 10 hottest years ever
measured have all been since 1998, according to the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration. The three hottest years on record
are 2016, 2015 and 2014, in that order. Scientists at NOAA and NASA
have said 2017 is likely to snag the second or third spot on the
list.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2017/12/28/its-cold-outside-but-doesnt-mean-climate-change-isnt-real/987948001/">https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2017/12/28/its-cold-outside-but-doesnt-mean-climate-change-isnt-real/987948001/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[BBC audio]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-42494961/prince-charles-technology-won-t-solve-climate-change">Prince
Charles: 'Technology won't solve climate change'</a></b><br>
The Prince of Wales has said technology is not the answer to
tackling climate change.<br>
Prince Charles said it would help but that we need to deal with the
symptoms. He says the problem is we have "abandoned our connection
with nature".<br>
He was speaking with Prince Harry on the occasion of his son's guest
editorship of the Today Programme<br>
You can <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrtvg/episodes/downloads">download
a podcast of the full interview </a><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-42494961/prince-charles-technology-won-t-solve-climate-change">http://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-42494961/prince-charles-technology-won-t-solve-climate-change</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Futurism]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://futurism.com/climate-change-going-drive-thousands-refugees-cooler-countries/">Climate
Change Is Going to Drive Thousands of Refugees to Cooler
Countries</a></b><br>
By the end of the century, climate change may drive 660,000
additional asylum seekers per year toward Europe. Growing mass
migration is only one of the social and environmental consequences
of increasing temperatures.<br>
Climate change doesn't just warm the air and melt glaciers. It acts
as a "threat multiplier," playing on the vulnerabilities of
ecosystems and communities in ways that <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://futurism.com/videos/delicate-ecosystems-are-disrupted-by-climate-change/">we
are yet to fully understand</a>.<br>
Migration is a case in point: the way it's changing, and is
projected to change in the future, highlights how the impacts of
climate change on one place spill over to other parts of the world.
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/358/6370/1610">A new
study in Science</a> finds that as crops fail in agricultural
regions of the world, more people <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://futurism.com/new-zealand-wants-to-create-visas-for-people-displaced-by-climate-change/">will
seek asylum </a>in Europe in the coming decades. If the current
warming trends were to continue, the research predicts that by 2100
Europe will receive around 660,000 extra applicants each year.<br>
As mass migration is <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://futurism.com/innovative-refugee-project-wins-major-award-for-its-blockchain-solution/">already
causing tensions</a> all over the world, leaders will have to find
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://futurism.com/former-nasa-climate-chief-warns-that-earth-could-become-practically-ungovernable/">new
strategies to manage</a> the growing nomad communities of the
future.<font size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://futurism.com/climate-change-going-drive-thousands-refugees-cooler-countries/">https://futurism.com/climate-change-going-drive-thousands-refugees-cooler-countries/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[climate migration]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.king5.com/article/news/nation-now/how-climate-change-could-drive-immigration-to-the-united-states-from-mexico/465-d42f03e2-beb6-4ffa-b524-b8307a53d76f">How
climate change could drive immigration to the United States from
Mexico</a></b><br>
A 2010 study co-authored by Oppenheimer found that up to 6.7 million
people could come to the United States from Mexico as a result of
global warming by 2080. A study last year from researchers at the
University of California Davis projected just 41,000 additional
immigrants over the next 50 years as a result of climate change.<br>
What those studies and others have in common is a finding that high
temperatures and reduced rainfall — conditions that are becoming
more common with climate change — have contributed to past waves of
migration from Mexico to the United States.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.king5.com/article/news/nation-now/how-climate-change-could-drive-immigration-to-the-united-states-from-mexico/465-d42f03e2-beb6-4ffa-b524-b8307a53d76f">http://www.king5.com/article/news/nation-now/how-climate-change-could-drive-immigration-to-the-united-states-from-mexico/465-d42f03e2-beb6-4ffa-b524-b8307a53d76f</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Ethics and Climate]<br>
<b><a
href="https://ethicsandclimate.org/2017/12/28/why-overcoming-instrumental-rationality-in-climate-change-policy-controversies-is-a-first-order-problem-preventing-ethical-principles-from-getting-traction-to-guide-climate-change-policy-formation/">Why
Overcoming Instrumental Rationality In Climate Change Policy
Controversies Is a First Order Problem Preventing Ethical
Principles From Getting Traction to Guide Climate Change Policy
Formation</a></b><br>
As we have explained frequently on Ethicsandclimate.org, climate
change is a problem with features that particularly require that it
be seen and responded to as an ethical problem even more than other
environmental problems... <br>
[C]limate change is a problem about which many of its greatest
victims can do little to protect themselves by petitioning their
governments for protection. The victims' best hope is that the those
high-emitting nations and people causing the problem will see that
they have duties to climate change victims to avoid harming them.<br>
The ethical dimensions of climate change are important to understand
because unless those nations and individuals that are emitting high
levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) reduce their emissions in
accordance with their ethical obligations, climate change will
eventually cause great harm to all but particularly to those who are
most vulnerable to climate change impacts and who usually have done
little to cause the great harm. <br>
Governments around the world have agreed...<br>
- to adopt national climate change policies on the basis of several
ethical principles<br>
- to apply the precautionary principle that prohibits nations from
using scientific uncertainty as an excuse for not taking action<br>
- and to enact policies that limit warming to between 1.5 to 2.0
degrees C<br>
In addition there are numerous other non-controversial ethical
norms...<br>
- including the "no harm principle" which obligates nations to
prevent people or entities within their jurisdiction from harming
people and nations outside their borders<br>
- and the "polluter pays principle" which requires those nations
causing harm from pollution to pay for the damages they cause <br>
Yet most nations are completely ignoring these ethical
obligations...<br>
An understanding the ethical problems with instrumental rationality
leads to an understanding of why nations often ignore even
well-established ethical principles in policy formation such as the
ethical principle that no nation should harm others outside their
jurisdiction on the basis of national economic interest.<br>
For this reason, a first-order problem on the road to a world which
formulates policies guided by ethical principles is to open policy
formation controversies to express consideration of ethical issues.
This goal requires that those engaged in policy formation spot and
identify the ethical issues frequently hidden in economic and
scientific arguments against proposed policies that currently
dominate policy formation controversies on environmental issues
around the world...<br>
Unfortunately most professionals engaged in environmental policy
formation have no training that would help them identify the hidden
ethical issues embedded in arguments made against environmental and
sustainable development policies. Nor do those NGOs who participate
in controversies about these issues have the training to spot
ethical problems made by opponents of proposed policies that are
derived from various forms of instrumental rationality.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://ethicsandclimate.org/2017/12/28/why-overcoming-instrumental-rationality-in-climate-change-policy-controversies-is-a-first-order-problem-preventing-ethical-principles-from-getting-traction-to-guide-climate-change-policy-formation/">https://ethicsandclimate.org/2017/12/28/why-overcoming-instrumental-rationality-in-climate-change-policy-controversies-is-a-first-order-problem-preventing-ethical-principles-from-getting-traction-to-guide-climate-change-policy-formation/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[EXISTENTIAL CRISIS]<br>
<b><a
href="https://qz.com/948909/ecoanxiety-the-american-psychological-association-says-climate-change-is-causing-ptsd-anxiety-and-depression-on-a-mass-scale/">We
need to talk about "ecoanxiety": Climate change is causing PTSD,
anxiety, and depression on a mass scale</a></b><br>
Zoe Schlanger <br>
Depression, anxiety, grief, despair, stress—even suicide: The damage
of unfolding climate change isn't only counted in water shortages
and wildfires, it's likely eroding mental health on a mass scale,
too, reports the American Psychological Association, the preeminent
organization of American mental health professionals.<br>
Direct, acute experience with a changing climate—the trauma of
losing a home or a loved one to a flood or hurricane, for
example—can bring mental health consequences that are sudden and
severe. After Hurricane Katrina, for example, suicide and suicidal
ideation among residents of areas affected by the disaster more than
doubled according to <a
href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2556982/">a
paper led by Harvard Medical School</a>, while one in six met the
criteria for PTSD, according to <a
href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3904670/">a
Columbia University-led paper</a>. Elevated PTSD levels have also
been found among people who <a
href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24852323">live through
wildfires</a> and <a
href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25068940">extreme storms</a>,
sometimes lasting several years.<br>
But slower disasters like the "unrelenting day-by-day despair" of a
prolonged drought, or more insidious changes like food shortages,
rising sea levels, and the gradual loss of natural environments,
will "cause some of the most resounding chronic psychological
consequences," the APA writes in its <a
href="http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/mental-health-climate.pdf">69-page
review of existing scientific literature</a>, co-authored by
Climate for Health and EcoAmerica, both environmental organizations.
"Gradual, long-term changes in climate can also surface a number of
different emotions, including fear, anger, feelings of
powerlessness, or exhaustion."...<br>
For people not yet living directly in the path of climate change,
mental health problems can also be triggered indirectly, from
"watching the slow and seemingly irrevocable impacts of climate
change unfold, and worrying about the future for oneself, children,
and later generations." Such existential anxiety, in other words,
can touch anyone grappling with the larger-than-life impacts of a
warming planet. Psychologists and researchers are beginning to call
this condition "ecoanxiety," a term that's been popping up in
research papers in recent years...<br>
Treating patients for psychological distress about a changing
environment is not exactly new—but it is niche. In 2011, a New York
Times article highlighted an organization called the International
Community for Ecopsychology, which currently has a modest directory
of 31 therapists specializing in environment-related distress. At
the time, a spokesperson for the American Psychological Association
told the paper the APA was neutral towards the new field, but was
"certainly watching it."<br>
Now the APA is throwing its full weight behind it, urging broad
recognition of the connection between mental health and climate
change: That the changing environment is a legitimate source of
distress already affecting many people, and it has the potential to
be psychologically destabilizing.<br>
"To compound the issue, the psychological responses to climate
change, such as conflict avoidance, fatalism, fear, helplessness,
and resignation are growing," the APA notes. "These responses are
keeping us, and our nation, from properly addressing the core causes
of and solutions for our changing climate, and from building and
supporting psychological resiliency."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://qz.com/948909/ecoanxiety-the-american-psychological-association-says-climate-change-is-causing-ptsd-anxiety-and-depression-on-a-mass-scale/">https://qz.com/948909/ecoanxiety-the-american-psychological-association-says-climate-change-is-causing-ptsd-anxiety-and-depression-on-a-mass-scale/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[register for Jan 31]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4703054722158057219">Sound
Science and Sound Journalism in an Era of Fake News</a></b><br>
Wed, Jan 31, 2018 1:15 PM - 2:15 PM EST<br>
REGISTER AT <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://bit.ly/2Dv9Q5X">http://bit.ly/2Dv9Q5X</a><br>
Join Island Press and the Security and Sustainability Forum in a
sixty minute discussion about how journalists conduct their research
and investigations, confirm facts, ferret out false information and
maintain a sound basis for their reporting.<br>
Island Press in partnership with the Security and Sustainability
Forum has set a date for our upcoming webinar featuring Carey
Gillam, veteran journalist and author of Whitewash: The Story of a
Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science. On January 31 at
1:15 PM EST Carey will be joined by Dr. Dana Barr, Environmental
Health Professor at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health for a a
conversation on sound science and sound journalism in an era of fake
news. The discussion will be moderated by journalist Paul Thacker
and will be followed by a question and answer session.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4703054722158057219">https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4703054722158057219</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/global-warming-is-a-slow-moving-civilization-ending_us_5a42a196e4b0d86c803c7396">Global
Warming Is a Slow-moving Civilization-ending Catastrophe</a></b><br>
Robert Jay Lifton calls a swerve for alternatives to fossil fuels.<br>
Lifton, a 90-year-old psychiatrist and a 60-year veteran critic of
nukes, imagines the swerve like a life-changing decision, a change
of heart that pictures "our evolving awareness of our
predicament."..<br>
Lifton wisely put his considerable experience and wisdom in his
latest timely and important book: "The Climate Swerve: Reflections
on Mind, Hope, and Survival" (The New Press, 2017).<br>
Coming out of this nuclear reality of the twentieth century, Lifton
grasped at global warming as another encompassing reality
interacting with nuclear weapons "in the darkness of that
apocalyptic category." He connects the 2015 UN Paris Climate
Conference with a "dark vision of massive death and violence."..<br>
In fact, all countries know, or suspect, the future will be
unforgiving. The apocalyptic twins are surrounding the Earth.
Nuclear states maintain thousands of nukes on the ready to commit
global mayhem. Climate change, says Lifton, is "rampant,
irreversible, and more powerful than any antidote we may bring to
it."<br>
Lifton also sees the absurdity of global warming. No need to fight a
war. Just keep the fossil fuels in business: "We needn't do anything
- other than what we are already doing - to endanger the future of
our species," he writes.<br>
Lifton praises Pope Francis for his 2015 encyclical urging the
"ecological conversion" of all people. That's wonderful. But if the
Pope were serious, he would excommunicate the CEOs of fossil fuel
companies. Excommunication is a weapon of tremendous power,
especially in these times when Trump and his oil company cronies
think nothing of lighting more fire under the hot Earth.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/global-warming-is-a-slow-moving-civilization-ending_us_5a42a196e4b0d86c803c7396">https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/global-warming-is-a-slow-moving-civilization-ending_us_5a42a196e4b0d86c803c7396</a></font><br>
- <br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.amazon.com/Climate-Swerve-Reflections-Mind-Survival/dp/1620973472/ref=sr_1_1">The
Climate Swerve: Reflections on Mind, Hope, and Survival - Robert
Jay Lifton</a></b><br>
From "one of the world's foremost thinkers" (Bill Moyers), a
profound, hopeful, and timely call for an emerging new collective
consciousness to combat climate change<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.amazon.com/Climate-Swerve-Reflections-Mind-Survival/dp/1620973472/ref=sr_1_1">https://www.amazon.com/Climate-Swerve-Reflections-Mind-Survival/dp/1620973472/ref=sr_1_1</a>?</font><br>
<br>
<br>
[The Guardian]<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/dec/26/us-government-climate-report-looks-at-how-the-oceans-are-buffering-climate-change">US
government climate report looks at how the oceans are buffering
climate change</a></b><br>
A key chapter of the <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/nov/27/american-leaders-should-read-their-official-climate-science-report">US
Global Change Research Program Report</a> deals with how the
oceans are being impacted by human carbon pollution..<br>
In the recently released US Global Change Research Program Report,
one of the chapters I was most interested in was about the changes
we've observed in the world's oceans. The oceans are really the key
to the climate change issue, whether that be in quantifying how fast
it's happening or how much will happen in the future. As humans emit
greenhouse gases (particularly carbon dioxide), we see some major
changes that cannot be explained naturally.<br>
The oceans are important because they act as a buffer; that is, they
absorb much of the effects of greenhouse gases. In fact, the oceans
absorb a lot of human carbon pollution. This is a big help for us
because without the oceans, the climate would change much faster. <br>
But in a certain way, the oceans are hurting us too. Since the
oceans absorb so much of our carbon pollution and the resulting heat
(93% of the extra heat), they turn a short-term problem into a
long-term problem...<font size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/dec/26/us-government-climate-report-looks-at-how-the-oceans-are-buffering-climate-change">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2017/dec/26/us-government-climate-report-looks-at-how-the-oceans-are-buffering-climate-change</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Classic essay]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/15/rebecca-solnit-hope-in-the-dark-new-essay-embrace-unknown">'Hope
is an embrace of the unknown': Rebecca Solnit on living in
dark times</a></b><br>
We may be living through times of unprecedented change, but in
uncertainty lies the power to influence the future. Now is not the
time to despair, but to act<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/15/rebecca-solnit-hope-in-the-dark-new-essay-embrace-unknown">https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/15/rebecca-solnit-hope-in-the-dark-new-essay-embrace-unknown</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b>This Day in Climate History December 29, -
from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
December 29, 2009: Washington Post writer Ezra Klein excoriates
members of the <br>
US Senate who have developed cold feet about addressing global
warming:<br>
<blockquote>"Amidst all this, conservative Senate Democrats are
waving off the<br>
idea of serious action in 2010. But not because they're opposed.
Oh,<br>
heavens no! It's because of abstract concerns over the political<br>
difficulties the problem presents. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), for<br>
instance, avers that 'climate change in an election year has very
poor<br>
prospects.' That's undoubtedly true, though it is odd to say that
the<br>
American system of governance can only solve problems every other<br>
year. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) says that 'we need to deal with the<br>
phenomena of global warming,' but wants to wait until the economy
is<br>
fixed.<br>
<br>
"Rather than commenting abstractly on the difficulty of doing
this,<br>
Conrad and Bayh and others could make it easier by saying things
like<br>
'we simply have to do this, it's our moral obligation as
legislators,'<br>
and trying to persuade reporters to write stories about how even<br>
moderates such as Conrad and Byah are determined to do this. They<br>
could schedule meetings with other senators begging them to take
this<br>
seriously, leveraging the credibility and goodwill built over
decades<br>
in the Senate. They could spend money on TV ads in their state,<br>
talking directly into the camera, explaining to their constituents<br>
that they don't like having to face this problem, but see no
choice.<br>
That effort might fail - probably will, in fact - but it's got a<br>
better chance of success than not trying. And this is, well,
pretty<br>
important."<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/climate_change_is_bad_but_the.html">http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/12/climate_change_is_bad_but_the.html</a></font><br>
<br>
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