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<font size="+1"><i>January 13, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[connecting events]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/southern-california-wildfires-paved-deadly-mudslides/story?id=52257400">Southern
California wildfires paved the way for deadly mudslides</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/southern-california-wildfires-paved-deadly-mudslides/story?id=52257400">http://abcnews.go.com/US/southern-california-wildfires-paved-deadly-mudslides/story?id=52257400</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[BBC business headline]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42626790">Will Cape Town
be the first city to run out of water?</a></b><br>
By Gabriella Mulligan<br>
Cape Town, home to Table Mountain, African penguins, sunshine and
sea, is a world-renowned tourist destination. But it could also
become famous for being the first major city in the world to run out
of water.<br>
Most recent projections suggest that its water could run out as
early as March. The crisis has been caused by three years of very
low rainfall, coupled with increasing consumption by a growing
population.<br>
The local government is racing to address the situation, with
desalination plants to make sea water drinkable, groundwater
collection projects, and water recycling programmes.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42626790">http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42626790</a></font><br>
-<br>
[Answer: 122 days]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.howmanydaysofwaterdoescapetownhaveleft.co.za/">How
many days of water does Cape Town have left?</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.howmanydaysofwaterdoescapetownhaveleft.co.za/">http://www.howmanydaysofwaterdoescapetownhaveleft.co.za/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[DeSmog]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/01/11/will-mainstream-media-be-duped-2018-climate-denial-spin-doctors">Will
Mainstream Media Be Duped in 2018 by Climate Denial Spin
Doctors?</a></b><br>
By Kevin Grandia <br>
Will 2018 be the year that mainstream media is not duped by
professional spin doctors and fake experts paid to downplay and deny
the realities of climate change?<br>
Call me cynical, but after more than a decade of research and
writing into the role big fossil fuel companies have played in
sponsoring coordinated attacks on climate science with public
relations spin, I remain unconvinced we won’t see a resurgence in
climate denial.<br>
Later this year, a major update on the state of climate change
research - the impacts, solutions, scientific underpinnings, etc. -
will be released by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC).<br>
In the past, these IPCC reports have turned into a lightning rod for
attacks by organizations like the Heartland Institute and the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, who claim to tout freedom and
liberty as their cause, but enjoy big dollar sponsorship from coal
and oil companies like Koch Industries, Murray Energy, and
ExxonMobil.<br>
IPCC climate reports are the Spin Olympics for these fossil-funded
groups, with the winner reaping the rewards of notoriety and
ultimately more funding to continue their disinformation
campaigns...<br>
The IPCC releases their updated report later this year, leaving more
than enough time for any journalists covering climate change, energy
and environmental issues to get up to speed.<br>
To leave no room for excuses, here’s plenty of the well-documented
history about how the fossil fuel industry paid to manufacture doubt
about climate change:<br>
<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/climate-cover-up"
target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 153,
204);">2009 book, Climate Cover-Up</a><br>
<a href="http://www.merchantsofdoubt.org/" target="_blank"
style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 153, 204);">2011
book, Merchants of Doubt</a><br>
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3675568/" target="_blank"
style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 153, 204); outline:
0px;">2014 documentary, Merchants of Doubt</a><br>
<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/global-warming-denier-database"
target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 153,
204);">DeSmogBlog Climate Disinformation Database</a><br>
<a
href="http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Greenpeace_Dealing-in-Doubt-1.pdf"
target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 153,
204);">2013 Greenpeace Report: Dealing in Doubt</a><br>
<a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa815f"
target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 153,
204);">2017 Harvard paper: Assessing ExxonMobil's climate change
communications (1977-2014)</a><br>
<a
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken"
target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 153,
204);">Inside Climate News Investigation into Exxon: the Road
Not Taken</a><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/01/11/will-mainstream-media-be-duped-2018-climate-denial-spin-doctors">https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/01/11/will-mainstream-media-be-duped-2018-climate-denial-spin-doctors</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[SkepticalScience]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.skepticalscience.com/Energy-Storage.html">The
Key To Slowing Global Warming</a></b><br>
Conclusion<br>
As the effects of global warming increase (fires, severe storms,
property loss, crop failures, floods), pressure will grow for all
countries to adopt and apply financial measures (a carbon tax) which
effectively curb CO2 emissions. There can be little doubt that
financial measures can achieve this - but not the way they are
currently applied. To overcome shortfalls described above, an
international authority with responsibility for reporting annually
on the effectiveness of financial measures and the performance of
each UN Member Country, would appear to be needed.<br>
These pressures, combined with market forces and national
legislation banning fossil fuelled vehicles, will also put pressure
on builders to produce and sell electric vehicles which are superior
in terms of price and performance. This is beginning to happen with
global electric vehicle sales likely to exceed 1 million in 2017.
Sales are likely to rapidly increase and within the next 5 years
cause a significant decline in the demand and use of oil-based
products.<br>
The transition from fossil fuel generation of electricity to
renewable energy sources has already started and is irreversible.
After 2020 it is unlikely that any fossil fuelled power station will
be built anywhere in the world and, thereafter the use of existing
stations is likely to decline with increasing speed. This trend will
be enhanced by cheaper, denser and more compact storage of energy,
enabling better management of local, national and international
grids.<br>
The present state of technology for improved battery storage, on
which this transition largely depends, is not fully known since, for
commercial reasons, advances in this area are kept secret. What is
known is that battery costs continue to fall and their capacity
continues to rise, giving more and more certainty it will result in
use of fossil fuels ceasing before 2050, possibly sooner.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.skepticalscience.com/Energy-Storage.html">https://www.skepticalscience.com/Energy-Storage.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Idea: an underwater wall]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/01/a-new-geo-engineering-proposal-to-stop-sea-level-rise/550214/">A
Radical New Scheme to Prevent Catastrophic Sea-Level Rise</a></b><br>
A Princeton glaciologist says a set of mega-engineering projects may
be able to stabilize the world’s most dangerous glaciers.<br>
..plan requires the construction of what he calls "sills": large,
flat piles of material that sit on the seafloor. "It’s nothing
particularly technologically advanced," he said. "I’m imagining
something like a big pile of sand or other loose aggregate, and
maybe an outer layer of boulders to protect against tides."<br>
Simply constructing these large walls in front of the world’s most
unstable glaciers, says Wolovick, might stop them from collapsing...<br>
They would just be changes to the underwater topography of the ocean
floor...<br>
The ocean-facing front of Thwaites glacier is more than 60 miles
across. Pine Island Bay glacier, another unstable ice flow linked to
the WAIS, is about 25 miles across. And concerned countries might
have to use submarines to build in either place, because some of the
best construction sites available are beneath ice shelves that float
on the surface of the sea...<br>
Over the past several years, some scientists have identified a
number of new mechanisms that may cause WAIS to fall apart even
faster. One of them is called marine ice-cliff instability: As some
glaciers in WAIS retreat further and further back, their icy fronts
will tower 2,000 feet above above the sea floor. The ice simply
won’t be strong enough to hold that much weight. Instead, the ice
will crumble, and skyscraper-sized hunks of white will plunge into
the water.<br>
Another is hydrofracturing: As air temperatures get hotter in
Antarctica, pools of water could form on the floating ice shelves.
These pools of water could quickly disintegrate the ice beneath
them, as happened in the Larsen Sea in 2002, when a Rhode
Island-sized piece of ice fell apart in weeks. When ice shelves
vanish, the landed glaciers behind them quicken their march to the
sea.<br>
Not every glaciologist agrees that the computer models get these
mechanisms right yet. Last year, for instance, Robin Bell and her
colleagues found an enormous waterfall on an ice shelf in
Antarctica, as well as a number of other features that suggested
pools of meltwater don’t always force ice shelves to disintegrate.<br>
But when they are factored into computer models, the results are
worrying. ...In a paper published last month, scientists accounted
for those two new mechanisms and <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://geology.rutgers.edu/images/Kopp_et_al-2017-Earths_Future-2.pdf">said
that 2100 sea levels could actually hit 4 feet, 9 inches (146
centimeters)</a>. Some 153 million people, many of them Americans,
would see their homes inundated...<br>
Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution for
Science, said that he would want to hear from engineers before
investing further in a seafloor plan. "Without some numbers and some
consultation with engineers, it is just a modeling thought
experiment," he said in an email. "I do not have the expertise to
evaluate this proposal, but I am quite skeptical."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/01/a-new-geo-engineering-proposal-to-stop-sea-level-rise/550214/">https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/01/a-new-geo-engineering-proposal-to-stop-sea-level-rise/550214/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Speaking Notes #5]<br>
OXFORD CHANGE AGENCY EVENT - REPORT<br>
<b><a
href="http://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/explorations/papers/257-oxford-change-agency-event-report">Agency
in individual and collective change</a></b><br>
Climate Psychology Alliance with Living Witness<br>
Written by Laurie Michaelis<br>
A day for psychological and social practitioners to share our
experiences of enabling positive<br>
responses to climate change. We’ll explore how our different
approaches connect and complement<br>
each other, hoping to form a stronger community of practitioners...
<br>
<b>Future Sense, Malcolm Parlett</b><br>
(Speaking notes)<br>
Gestalt therapy, in its Paul Goodman version, moved away long ago
from intra-psychic models of<br>
human functioning in favour of attending equally to the immediate
contexts of people’s lives, socioeconomic,<br>
local community, and workplace as well as family. In emergencies and
upheavals, we see<br>
confirmation of people’s versatility, courage, and resilience -
evidence of immense human<br>
resourcefulness and collective energy that lie untapped most of the
time. It’s difficult to imagine<br>
meeting current global challenges without harnessing these latent
strengths. The paramount need is<br>
for greater agency, leadership, and collective action at every
level: locally, nationally, worldwide. My<br>
conviction is that this will only happen if people and organisations
manifest higher levels of ‘Whole<br>
Intelligence’, returning to the original meaning of the word:
‘sensible, knowing, far-seeing’.<br>
Collectively, we need actively to support higher levels of this
recognisable competence and human<br>
capability in how we manage our affairs, make decisions, and
collaborate effectively.<br>
My work is therefore educational and holistic, outer and inner at
the same time. I want to help create<br>
conditions in which whole intelligence can emerge, grow and be
nourished: through workshops,<br>
seminars, solidarity movements, and opportunities for emotional
support and social healing. I think of<br>
each person as a live node in the linked network of same species
planet-dwellers. Each has their share<br>
of whole intelligence, whether in fragments or integrated, on which
to build. Each person and group<br>
has potential influence. Each node has effects on others and is
affected by them. There’s inevitable<br>
interdependence, mutual influence, and social contagion. The need to
input more whole intelligence is<br>
the key task.<br>
Critically important to rebut are ideas-in-currency normalised by
mass media and even universities,<br>
that downgrade key dimensions of whole intelligence. A principal
challenge is to question the absolute<br>
supremacy of rational intellect, disabling the importance of
embodying. Though necessary, rational<br>
explanations and statistics are insufficient - as we saw in the
referendum. Drawing on the body as an<br>
equally necessary knowledge source changes the discourse. In
witnessing forest devastation,<br>
experiences of revulsion, grief, heart ache, are not quantifiable
yet are powerful enough to change<br>
attitudes and life directions. My colleague Giles Hutchins takes
people into silence and solitude in the<br>
woodland world, opening to encounters with trees, bird calls,
seasons. People thrive on freedom to<br>
move, listen, and be still - required for human health at the same
time as cultivating a Gaian<br>
sensibility.<br>
So embodying practice is central to growing whole intelligence.
Another dimension, another antidote<br>
to Daily Mail levels of understanding, is about interrelating.
Collaborations improve through skill<br>
training in listening and not interrupting, but most of all from
staying with differences to the point of<br>
being curious and finding valuing in them, rather than trying to
eliminate them. Supportive<br>
interrelating practice makes for juicier contact, fewer words,
greater impact, more trust.<br>
A third dimension, self-recognising, opens to another range of
skills. Mindfulness, reviews, sanitypreserving<br>
routes through a mountain of trivia, assessing a group’s changing
values, noticing stress<br>
levels. As we know, stress-free nodes in the human network are
invaluable, can change the energy<br>
field. Experimenting, the fourth dimension mentioned here (there’s
no fixed order) is about breaking<br>
new ground, releasing creativity, practising when to risk and when
to pull back; and handling the<br>
shame phenomena that accompany doing something new or different. The
fifth dimension is<br>
responding to the situation, exploring how each person, project
group, community, or whole<br>
population habitually chooses to act, handles power, and finds
courage for the right and necessary<br>
Investigate, practise, incorporate. All five dimensions need to be
in play. Good interrelating or<br>
response-planning or being very embodied are insufficient on their
own. Each needs the others - they<br>
are interdependent, mutually reinforcing, a set of enabling
principles and practices that are necessary<br>
to grow and export as new norms. Together they put hope and
confidence back on the map. Whole<br>
intelligence is not simply adding EQ to IQ. There needs a new
overall conception - increased whole<br>
intelligence as an all-round fitness for practice in aid of both
survival and flourishing today.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:malcolm.parlett@virgin.net">malcolm.parlett@virgin.net</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.fiveexplorations.com">www.fiveexplorations.com</a><br>
(These ideas are explored in depth in Future Sense: Five
Explorations of Whole<br>
Intelligence for a World That’s Waking Up, Malcolm Parlett PhD,
2015, Troubador.)<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/explorations/papers/257-oxford-change-agency-event-report">http://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/explorations/papers/257-oxford-change-agency-event-report</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Webinar Jan 16]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://cceobservatory.wordpress.com/">Cities, climate
change and corruption - issues, dynamics, strategies</a></b><br>
Webinar with Dieter Zinnbauer, Transparency International<br>
Date: January 16, 2018, 2 - 3 pm CET<br>
Ample evidence suggests that corruption has the toxic potential to
disrupt both our ambitions for urban development as well as our
response to climate change. This webinar will unpack the
relationship between these three issues and provide an outlook on
possible policy responses. More specifically we will broach the
following three questions:<br>
How do urbanisation, corruption and climate change interact? What
are the main dynamics and interrelationships?<br>
What are the major corruption obstacles and risks on the path
towards resilient, green, climate-adapted cities?<br>
Based on the experience of tackling corruption in related areas what
are viable policy responses and practical action options to respond
to the urban-climate-corruption challenge?<br>
You are welcome to participate in the interactive webinar on January
16, 2 - 3 pm CET. The slides of the presentation will be made
available here ahead of the webinar.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://cceobservatory.wordpress.com/">https://cceobservatory.wordpress.com/</a><br>
</font><br>
<br>
[ClimateAction]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.climateactionprogramme.org/news/stephen-hawking-next-time-you-meet-a-climate-denier-tell-them-to-take-trip">Stephen
Hawking: "Next time you meet a climate denier tell them to take
a trip to Venus"</a></b><br>
In the second episode of his new series Stephen Hawking's Favourite
Places the renowned theoretical physicist used the example of Venus
to illustrate the impact increased greenhouse gases can have on a
habitable planet.<br>
"Venus is like Earth in so many ways, a sort of kissing cousin.
She's almost the same size as Earth, a touch closer to the sun. She
has an atmosphere", he explained.<br>
NASA says that Venus looked very much like Earth 4 billion years ago
and was habitable for approximately 2 billion years. The reason why
the planet turned uninhabitable is due to increased greenhouse gases
in its atmosphere.<br>
As the planet warmed, and more heat was trapped in the atmosphere,
water resources kept suffering excessive vaporing. The feedback loop
continued until the oceans evaporated, affecting the planet’s
capacity to accommodate life.<br>
"This is what happens when greenhouse gases are out of control", he
said. <br>
"Next time you meet a climate-change denier, tell them to take a
trip to Venus; I will pay the fare", he added.<br>
Last June, Stephen Hawking said that the next 100 years will be very
decisive for the future of the planet, with the main threats being a
nuclear war, genetically engineered viruses and global warming.<br>
In addition, he has openly criticised US President Donald Trump on
his views on climate change and lack of action. Last July, when
President Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement he told
BBC: "We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes
irreversible".<br>
"Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink to become like
Venus. By denying the evidence of climate change and pulling out of
the Paris Agreement, Donald Trump will cause avoidable environmental
damage to our beautiful planet endangering us and our children"<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.climateactionprogramme.org/news/stephen-hawking-next-time-you-meet-a-climate-denier-tell-them-to-take-trip">http://www.climateactionprogramme.org/news/stephen-hawking-next-time-you-meet-a-climate-denier-tell-them-to-take-trip</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Video from TED Radio Hour]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.npr.org/2018/01/12/577435746/tim-kruger-how-do-we-slow-climate-change-before-its-too-late">Tim
Kruger: How Do We Slow Climate Change Before It's Too Late?</a></b><br>
Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode The Big Five.<br>
[<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=577435746">transcript</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=577435746">https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=577435746</a>
]<br>
About Tim Kruger's TED Talk<br>
To tackle climate change, geoengineer Tim Kruger is developing
technology that could remove large quantities of CO2 from the
atmosphere. But he says it takes unprecedented cooperation to make
it work.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.npr.org/2018/01/12/577435746/tim-kruger-how-do-we-slow-climate-change-before-its-too-late">https://www.npr.org/2018/01/12/577435746/tim-kruger-how-do-we-slow-climate-change-before-its-too-late</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Climate History - Interactive data display]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/201413">National
Climate Report - Annual reports and map</a></b><br>
NOAA's former three data centers have merged into the National
Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).<br>
The demand for high-value environmental data and information has
dramatically increased in recent years. To improve our ability to
meet that demand, NOAA's former three data centers - the National
Climatic Data Center, the National Geophysical Data Center, and the
National Oceanographic Data Center, which includes the National
Coastal Data Development Center - have merged into the National
Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).<br>
<br>
NOAA Monthly Climate Briefings:<br>
<ul id="toc" class="quicklinks">
<li><a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/" id="anch_27">State
of the Climate Reports</a></li>
<li><a
href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/summary-info/national/201701"
id="anch_28">Summary Information</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/briefings"
id="anch_29">Monthly Climate Briefings</a></li>
<li><a type="application/rss+xml"
href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/rss.xml" id="anch_30">RSS
Feed <br>
</a></li>
</ul>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/201413">https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/201413</a><br>
-<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/">National
Centers for Environmental Information</a></b><br>
NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) is
responsible for preserving, monitoring, assessing, and providing
public access to the Nation's treasure of climate and historical
weather data and information.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/">https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/</a><br>
<br>
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