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<font size="+1">January 31, 2018</font><br>
<br>
[Pew Research Center]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/29/state-of-the-union-2018-americans-views-on-key-issues-facing-the-nation/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=628c6c53ca-SOTU_2018_01_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-628c6c53ca-399506473">State
of the Union 2018: Americans' views on key issues facing the
nation</a></b><br>
#9 Environment: While partisans agree on some assessments of what
Trump and Congress' top priorities are,<span> </span><a
href="http://www.people-press.org/2018/01/25/economic-issues-decline-among-publics-policy-priorities/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border:
0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight:
inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height:
inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:
rgb(188, 123, 43); text-decoration: none;">climate change and the
environment</a><span> </span>are among the most divisive. Nearly
seven-in-ten Democrats (68%) say dealing with climate change should
be a top policy priority, 50 percentage points higher than the share
of Republicans who say so (18%). And while 81% of Democrats say
protecting the environment should be a top priority, just 37% of
Republicans say the same.<br>
There is also an increasingly wide partisan gap when it comes to<span> </span><a
href="http://www.people-press.org/2017/10/05/7-global-warming-and-environmental-regulation-personal-environmentalism/#wider-partisan-gap-in-views-of-stricter-environmental-regulations"
style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border:
0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight:
inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height:
inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color:
rgb(188, 123, 43); text-decoration: none;">environmental laws and
regulations</a>. In July 2017, 77% of Democrats said stricter
environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost, while 58% of
Republicans say such regulations cost too many jobs and hurt the
economy...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/29/state-of-the-union-2018-americans-views-on-key-issues-facing-the-nation/">http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/29/state-of-the-union-2018-americans-views-on-key-issues-facing-the-nation/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Climate? Vote!] <br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Are-candidates-ready-to-face-climate-change-12533654.php">Are
candidates ready to face climate change? Voters are.</a></b><br>
Houston Chronicle<br>
A recent forum suggests that climate change will be a factor in the
next election<br>
Instead, we focused on the challenges of slowing global warming and
adapting to the impacts it's causing locally in Houston and beyond.
Only by accepting the science of climate change can we get to the
more interesting discussions of what to do about it. The discussion
revealed a lot of common ...<br>
But recent surveys debunk the misperceptions of voter apathy on
climate. A survey by Harvard and Politico showed that Democrats rank
climate change neck-and-neck with healthcare and Trump-Russia
allegations as the top issues motivating their vote in 2018. Another
survey showed that even most Republicans wanted President Trump to
remain in the Paris Climate Agreement. That's why I've asserted
climate action could be an issue that motivates Democrats without
alienating Republicans...<br>
The discussion revealed a lot of common ground, but also
distinctions. All the candidates want more federal funding to
recover from Hurricane Harvey and prepare for storms to come. And
there was general agreement on the need to accelerate the transition
to wind and solar power, clean up air pollution and provide
commuters with alternatives to driving alone in gas-guzzling cars...<br>
But the true value of the event might come less from what the voters
learned about the candidates than from what the candidates learned
from the voters. Simply put: We care. That message rang through loud
and clear, from the 400 voters who showed up on a rainy Saturday
afternoon to the thousands more who have watched the Facebook Live
video online...<br>
Whoever is elected to Congress this November, they'll know there's a
motivated contingent of voters eager to see a more vigorous federal
response to climate. And if we've shown that to be true in the oil
patch of a red state, perhaps similar events elsewhere could provide
a wake-up call to other representatives as well.<br>
<font size="-1">Daniel Cohan is an associate professor in the
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice
University.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Are-candidates-ready-to-face-climate-change-12533654.php">https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Are-candidates-ready-to-face-climate-change-12533654.php</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[CNN]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/us/fema-puerto-rico-food-water-shipments-end/index.html">FEMA
ending food and water shipments to Puerto Rico, official says</a></b><br>
By Ray Sanchez, Khushbu Shah, and Leyla Santiago<br>
30 January 2018<br>
(CNN) – More than four months after Hurricane Maria battered Puerto
Rico, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is halting new
shipments of food and water to the island, an agency official with
direct knowledge of the plan told CNN on Tuesday.<br>
The island government appeared blindsided by the decision, saying it
was still in talks with FEMA on a timetable for assuming control of
food and water distribution.<br>
FEMA has called the island's emergency operation the longest
sustained distribution of food, fuel and water in agency history,
including more than $1.6 billion worth of food and more than $361
million worth of water.<br>
New shipments of food and water will officially stop Wednesday to
the US territory in the Caribbean, though FEMA said it has more than
46 million liters of water, 2 million Meals Ready to Eat and 2
million snack packs on the ground for distribution if needed.<br>
"The commercial supply chain for food and water is re-established
and private suppliers are sufficiently available that FEMA-provided
commodities are no longer needed for emergency operations," the
agency said in a statement.<br>
Héctor M. Pesquera, the government's public safety secretary and
state coordinating officer, said the transition period for local
authorities to take over distribution should last at least two
weeks.<br>
"The Government … is waiting for critical data provided by FEMA in
order to determine when the responsibilities should be transferred
from FEMA to the Government of Puerto Rico," Pesquera said in a
statement.<br>
"This has not happened yet and we were not informed that supplies
would stop arriving, nor did the Government of Puerto Rico authorize
this action." <br>
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, a frequent critic of the federal
response to the devastating September hurricane, reacted to the
decision on Twitter, asking in Spanish, "Seriously, are they
leaving?"<br>
"This is the kind of indifference that must be stopped.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/us/fema-puerto-rico-food-water-shipments-end/index.html">https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/us/fema-puerto-rico-food-water-shipments-end/index.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.seattlepi.com/local/seattlenews/article/Bill-Nye-s-State-of-the-Union-attendance-draws-ire-12537321.php">Bill
Nye's State of the Union attendance draws ire</a></b><br>
Bill Nye the Science Guy is headed to the State of the Uniom – er,
Union. And folks are not happy...<br>
He'll be attending as a guest of Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., the
congressman nominated to take over NASA.<br>
As with most Trump nominees, Bridenstine comes with some baggage:
Historically a staunch denier of climate change, he has reversed
course and acknowledged that it has contributed to global warming
(although he has yet to admit that it's a primary cause)...<br>
"President Donald Trump is a bigoted climate denier. So is
Congressman Jim Bridenstine," the petition, which surpassed its goal
of 35,000 signatures, reads. "So why is Bill Nye "very pleased" to
be Bridenstine's guest at Trump's first State of the Union address?
...<br>
Nye, however, has stuck to his guns on attending, making it explicit
that his intention was to further the agenda of The Planetary
Society, which was founded by Carl Sagan to promote human
exploration of the cosmos, and not as an endorsement of climate
change denial, tacit or otherwise.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.seattlepi.com/local/seattlenews/article/Bill-Nye-s-State-of-the-Union-attendance-draws-ire-12537321.php">https://www.seattlepi.com/local/seattlenews/article/Bill-Nye-s-State-of-the-Union-attendance-draws-ire-12537321.php</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[NYT video CLIMATE CHANGE]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/_HbNPqBX9nw">Billion-Dollar
Storms: Is This the New Normal?</a></b><br>
By DEBORAH ACOSTA<br>
In 2017 the U.S. saw some of the strongest and most expensive storms
in history. As global temperatures continue to rise, things will get
worse and more costly.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/_HbNPqBX9nw">https://youtu.be/_HbNPqBX9nw</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Pruitt testimony]<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings?ID=8E3E883C-477F-4A6A-9F1E-1DDAADBDAF32">Oversight
Hearing to Receive Testimony from Environmental Protection
Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt</a></b><br>
January 30, 2018 10:00 AM (EST) <br>
The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a
full committee hearing entitled, "Oversight Hearing to Receive
Testimony from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott
Pruitt."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings?ID=8E3E883C-477F-4A6A-9F1E-1DDAADBDAF32">https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings?ID=8E3E883C-477F-4A6A-9F1E-1DDAADBDAF32</a></font><br>
-<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29012018/scott-pruitt-epa-climate-websites-erased-emails-reveal-close-involvement-clean-power-plan">Scott
Pruitt Closely Monitored Scrubbing of EPA Climate Websites,
Emails Show</a></b><br>
Documents show Pruitt targeted information about the Clean Power
Plan while preparing to rescind it. Environment groups are now
calling for him to recuse himself.<br>
By Neela Banerjee<br>
Shortly after arriving at the Environmental Protection Agency,
Administrator Scott Pruitt took a personal interest in and closely
monitored the removal of extensive information from his agency's
website that explained to the public the federal effort to cut
greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Power Plan, according to
newly released EPA documents.<font size="-1"><br>
</font>The scrubbing of the information from EPA's website on April
28, 2017, preceded by six months Pruitt's formal proposal to rescind
the rule, which had been issued by the Obama administration. The <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/clean-power-plan">Clean
Power Plan (CPP) </a>information from the previous administration
is in an <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://archive.epa.gov/epa/cleanpowerplan.html">archived
EPA website</a>....<br>
"People should be able to go to the EPA website and look for the
Clean Power Plan and for EPA's own information about it, and most
people wouldn't realize the extent of what has been removed,"
Levitan said. "This regulation is still on the books, and the agency
is simultaneously soliciting public comment on its repeal and
obscuring the information people would need to make informed
comments."..<br>
On Monday, the Environmental Defense Fund and 11 other environmental
and legal groups <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://blogs.edf.org/climate411/files/2018/01/Comments-on-Proposed-Repeal-of-Clean-Power-Plan-with-Appendix-2.pdf">called
for Pruitt to recuse himself </a>from the final decision on the
CPP on the grounds that his comments and actions in office indicated
that he had already decided to scrap the rule, regardless of what
the public would say...<br>
The <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/2017.12.08-partial-production.pdf">newly
released internal documents</a> consist of emails among EPA's
communications team, including staff and contractors responsible for
the website...<br>
Pruitt is<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings?ID=8E3E883C-477F-4A6A-9F1E-1DDAADBDAF32">
scheduled to testify </a>before the Senate Environment and Public
Works Committee at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, Jan. 30, his
first appearance before the committee since his confirmation in
2017. He <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07122017/scott-pruitt-epa-testimony-congress-hearing-climate-clean-power-plan-red-team-fossil-fuel-lobby">testified</a>
before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee in December and was
pressed about the growing influence within the EPA of the industries
the agency is tasked with regulating.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29012018/scott-pruitt-epa-climate-websites-erased-emails-reveal-close-involvement-clean-power-plan">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29012018/scott-pruitt-epa-climate-websites-erased-emails-reveal-close-involvement-clean-power-plan</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Climate Liability News]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/01/30/colorado-court-climate-appeal-fracking-rules/">Colorado
Fracking Case Could Force State to Protect Climate</a></b><br>
The Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal in a case
that could force the oil and gas industry to prove that new drilling
and fracking in the state won't contribute to climate change, harm
the environment or endanger public health.<br>
The appeal arises from a dispute between a group of teenagers and
the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC). The teens
proposed a rule to the commission in 2013 that would require
companies to prove that new drilling won't "impair Colorado's
atmosphere, water, wildlife, and land resources, adversely impact
human health and does not contribute to climate change."<br>
In its response to the petition, the COGCC said it did not have the
authority to approve the proposal. It said much of what was proposed
involved air quality and falls outside its jurisdiction. It also
said "such a rule is beyond the Commission's limited statutory
authority under the Oil and Gas Conservation Act."<br>
The young people say the commission has the authority, but is
lacking the will...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/01/30/colorado-court-climate-appeal-fracking-rules/">https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/01/30/colorado-court-climate-appeal-fracking-rules/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://climateoutreach.org/resources/ipcc-communications-handbook/">[Communications
Handbook for IPCC scientists]</a><br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2018/01/30/climates-not-going-to-communicate-itself-tips-for-effective-comms/">Climate's
Not Going to Communicate itself. Tips for Effective Comms</a></b><br>
New handbook on climate communication from the IPCC has been
released. <br>
It follows the basic principles that those on the front lines have
worked out over the past few decades.<br>
<blockquote>Be Confident – people will trust you more if you use an
authentic voice...<br>
Talk about the real world, not abstractions...<br>
Connect with what matters to your audience...<br>
Tell a human scale story – show the human face of science – your
own story, perhaps...<br>
Lead with the knowns, not the uncertainty...<br>
Use effective visual communication – focus on the human side of
the equation...<br>
</blockquote>
The greatest advances have not been on the science, but on how we
get the mass of people to understand it –<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climateoutreach.org/resources/ipcc-communications-handbook/">https://climateoutreach.org/resources/ipcc-communications-handbook/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2018/01/30/climates-not-going-to-communicate-itself-tips-for-effective-comms/">https://climatecrocks.com/2018/01/30/climates-not-going-to-communicate-itself-tips-for-effective-comms/</a></font><br>
-<br>
[Webinar]<br>
<b><a
href="https://records.climateoutreach.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=104">Webinar:
The IPCC and the science of climate change communication</a></b><br>
REGISTER NOW<br>
Climate Outreach was commissioned by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change Working Group I Technical Support Unit to produce a
communications Handbook. This is the first time such guidance has
been produced for the world's leading authority on climate change
science.<br>
With a wealth of research on the science of climate change
communication and a focus on practical tips and case studies, this
Handbook serves as a valuable resource for IPCC authors - as well as
the wider scientific community - to engage audiences with climate
change.<br>
The Handbook sets out 6 evidence-based, practical principles for
effective public engagement.<br>
In this webinar, Dr Adam Corner (Research Director, Climate
Outreach) will present key insight from the Handbook, following an
introduction by Dr Roz Pidcock (Head of Communication, IPCC WG1).
There will also be time for a discussion with participants.<br>
When 5 February 2018 15:00 to 16:00 (gmt?)<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://records.climateoutreach.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=104">https://records.climateoutreach.org.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=104</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Monbiot, in the Guardian]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.monbiot.com/2018/01/29/system-failure/">System
Failure </a></b><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.monbiot.com/2018/01/29/system-failure/">Is
complex society on the brink of collapse?</a><br>
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 24th January 2018 <br>
It's a good question, but it seems too narrow. "Is Western
civilisation on the brink of collapse?",<span> </span><a
href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23731610-300-end-of-days-is-western-civilisation-on-the-brink-of-collapse/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">the lead article in
this week's New Scientist</a><span> </span>asks. The answer is
probably. But why just Western?<br>
Yes, certain Western governments are engaged in a frenzy of
self-destruction. In an age of phenomenal complexity and
interlocking crises, the Trump administration has embarked on a mass
deskilling and simplification of the state. Donald Trump might have
sacked his strategist Steve Bannon, but Bannon's professed
intention,<span> </span><a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-wh-strategist-vows-a-daily-fight-for-deconstruction-of-the-administrative-state/2017/02/23/03f6b8da-f9ea-11e6-bf01-d47f8cf9b643_story.html?utm_term=.60d8f057b737"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">"the deconstruction
of the administrative state"</a>, remains the central – perhaps
the only – policy.<br>
Defunding departments, disbanding the teams and dismissing the
experts they rely on, shutting down research programmes, maligning
the civil servants who remain in post, the self-hating state is<span> </span><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/07/donald-trump-dismantling-american-administrative-state"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">ripping down the
very apparatus of government</a>. At the same time, it is
destroying the public protections that defend us from disaster.<br>
A series of studies published in the past few months have started to
explore the wider impact of pollutants. One,<span> </span><a
href="http://www.bmj.com/content/359/bmj.j5299" style="box-sizing:
inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none;
color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">published in the British Medical Journal</a>,
suggests that the exposure of unborn children to air pollution in
cities is causing "<a
href="http://www.bmj.com/content/359/bmj.j5511" style="box-sizing:
inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none;
color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">something approaching a public health
catastrophe</a>". Pollution in the womb is now linked to low birth
weight, disruption of the baby's lung and brain development, and a
series of debilitating and fatal diseases in later life.<br>
Another report,<span> </span><a
href="http://www.thelancet.com/commissions/pollution-and-health"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">published in the
Lancet</a>, suggests that three times as many deaths are caused by
pollution as by AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Pollution,
the authors note, now<span> </span><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/19/global-pollution-kills-millions-threatens-survival-human-societies"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">"threatens the
continuing survival of human societies."</a><span> </span>A<span> </span><a
href="http://collections.plos.org/challenges-in-environmental-health"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">collection of
articles in the journal PLOS Biology</a><span> </span>reveals that
there is no reliable safety data on most of the 85,000 synthetic
chemicals to which we may be exposed. While hundreds of these
chemicals "<a
href="http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2004814"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">contaminate the
blood and urine of nearly every person tested</a>", and the volume
of materials containing them rises every year, we have no idea what
the likely impacts may be, either singly or in combination.<br>
As if in response to such findings, the Trump government has
systematically<span> </span><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/10/us/politics/pollution-epa-regulations.html"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">destroyed the
integrity of the Environmental Protection Agency</a>,<span> </span><a
href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-administration-is-repealing-obamas-clean-power-plan/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">ripped up the Clean
Power Plan</a>,<span> </span><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/01/vehicles-climate-change-emissions-trump-administration"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">vitiated
environmental standards for motor vehicles</a>,<span> </span><a
href="http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003671"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">reversed the ban on
chlorpyrifos</a><span> </span>(a pesticide now linked to the
impairment of cognitive and behavioural function in children), and
rescinded<span> </span><a
href="https://www.brookings.edu/interactives/tracking-deregulation-in-the-trump-era/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">a remarkable list
of similar public protections</a>.<br>
<u style="box-sizing: inherit;">I</u>n the UK, successive
governments have also curtailed their ability to respond to crises.
One of David Cameron's first acts on taking office was to shut down
the government's early warning systems: the Royal Commission on
Environmental Pollution and the Sustainable Development Commission.
He did not want to hear what they were telling him. Sack the
impartial advisers and replace them with toadies: this has preceded
the fall of empires many times before. Now, as we detach ourselves
from the European Union, we degrade our capacity to solve the
problems that transcend our borders.<br>
But these pathologies are not confined to "the West". The rise of
demagoguery (the pursuit of simplistic solutions to complex
problems, accompanied by the dismantling of the protective state) is
everywhere apparent. Environmental breakdown is accelerating
worldwide. The<span> </span><a
href="http://m.pnas.org/content/114/30/E6089.full"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">annihilation of
vertebrate populations</a>,<span> </span><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/20/insectageddon-farming-catastrophe-climate-breakdown-insect-populations"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Insectageddon</a>,<span> </span><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2017/jan/23/destroying-rainforests-quickly-gone-100-years-deforestation"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">the erasure of
rainforests</a>, mangroves,<span> </span><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/25/treating-soil-like-dirt-fatal-mistake-human-life"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">soil</a>, aquifers,
the degradation of entire Earth systems, such as the atmosphere and
the oceans, proceed at astonishing rates. These interlocking crises
will affect everyone, but the poorer nations are hit first and
worst.<br>
The forces that threaten to destroy our well-being are also
everywhere the same: primarily the lobbying power of big business
and big money, that perceive the administrative state as an
impediment to their immediate interests. Amplified by the persuasive
power of campaign finance,<span> </span><a
href="http://www.transparify.org/publications-main/"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">covertly-funded
thinktanks</a>, embedded journalists and tame academics, these
forces threaten to overwhelm democracy. If you want to know how they
work, read<span> </span><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/17/dark-money-review-nazi-oil-the-koch-brothers-and-a-rightwing-revolution"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Jane Mayer's book
Dark Money</a>.<br>
Up to a certain point, connectivity increases resilience. For
example, if local food supplies fail, regional or global markets
allow us to draw on production elsewhere. But beyond a certain
level, connectivity and complexity<span> </span><a
href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Collapse_of_Complex_Societies.html?id=M4H-02d9oE0C&redir_esc=y"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">threaten to become
unmanageable</a>. The emergent properties of the system, combined
with the inability of the human brain to encompass it, could spread
crises rather than contain them. We are in danger of pulling each
other down. New Scientist should have asked "is complex society on
the brink of collapse?".<br>
Complex societies have collapsed many times before. We live in a
sort of civilisational interglacial, a brief respite from social
entropy. It has always been a question of when, not if. But "when"
is beginning to look like "soon".<br>
The collapse of states and social complexity has not always been a
bad thing. As James C Scott points out in<span> </span><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/25/against-the-grain-by-james-c-scott-review"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">his fascinating
book Against the Grain</a>, the dissolution of the earliest
states, that were founded on slavery and coercion, is likely to have
been experienced by many people as an emancipation. When centralised
power began to collapse, through epidemics, crop failure, floods,
soil erosion or the self-destructive perversities of government, its
corralled subjects would take the chance to flee. In many cases they
joined the "barbarians".<br>
This so-called "secondary primitivism", Scott notes, "may well have
been experienced as a marked improvement in safety, nutrition and
social order. Becoming a barbarian was often a bid to improve one's
lot." The dark ages that inexorably followed the glory and grandeur
of the state may, in that era, have been the best times to be alive.<br>
But today there is nowhere to turn. The wild lands and rich
ecosystems that once supported hunter gatherers, nomads and the
refugees from imploding early states who joined them<span> </span><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/21/losing-the-wilderness-a-tenth-has-gone-since-1992-and-gone-for-good"
style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;
text-decoration: none; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">now scarcely exist</a>.
Only a tiny fraction of the current population could survive a
return to the barbarian life. (Consider that, according to one
estimate, the maximum population of Britain during the Mesolithic,
when people survived by hunting and gathering, was 5000). In the
nominally democratic era, the complex state is now, for all its
flaws, all that stands between us and disaster.<br>
So what we do? Next week, barring upsets, I will propose a new way
forward. The path we now follow is not the path we have to take.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.monbiot.com/2018/01/29/system-failure/">http://www.monbiot.com/2018/01/29/system-failure/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29012018/kathleen-hartnett-white-climate-denial-nomination-trump-ceq-trouble">Trump's
Top Environment Pick, a Fossil Fuels Evangelist, May Be in
Trouble</a></b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29012018/kathleen-hartnett-white-climate-denial-nomination-trump-ceq-trouble"><br>
</a>Kathleen Hartnett White's past actions in Texas involving
radiation in drinking water and opposition to ethanol could turn
Republicans against her.<br>
(T)he former Texas regulator who has extolled the social benefits of
carbon dioxide and asserted that coal helped end slavery, faces a
difficult road to Senate confirmation as top White House
environmental adviser, according to lobbyists and Capitol Hill
sources.<br>
They say that White, still awaiting a committee vote that has yet to
be scheduled, is the most endangered of President Donald Trump's
environmental nominees. Her embattled bid to chair the Council on
Environmental Quality underscores larger problems for the White
House in filling key roles throughout the federal government...<br>
But the most memorable exchange of the hearing was her halting parry
of a series of ocean science questions lobbed by Sen. Sheldon
Whitehouse (D-R.I.). She said she didn't know about ocean absorption
of heat or carbon or even whether the law of thermodynamics applied
to seawater<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://youtu.be/-nieQU8J_S8"> (starting at 4:50 in the
video below and at 9:40).</a> "I do not have any kind of expertise
or even much layman study of the ocean dynamics and climate change
issues," she said.<br>
YouTube <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://youtu.be/-nieQU8J_S8">Whitehouse Remarks in EPW
Hearing on Harnett White and Wheeler EPA Nominations</a><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/-nieQU8J_S8">https://youtu.be/-nieQU8J_S8</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29012018/kathleen-hartnett-white-climate-denial-nomination-trump-ceq-trouble">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29012018/kathleen-hartnett-white-climate-denial-nomination-trump-ceq-trouble</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[video humor]<br>
<b> <a href="https://youtu.be/RQRL2kHygIs?t=2m12s">Stephen Colbert
Lie-Checks Trump's Climate Change Claim</a></b><br>
Fun fact, nothing he said there is a fact.<br>
All of it, all lies, right, all lies.<br>
Climates first of all, climate change is a term made up by lobbyists
to make global warming sound less bad.<br>
And second it's not getting too cold all over the place.<br>
Last year was again one of the hottest on record.<br>
The ice caps are not only setting records for "most least ice cap",<br>
but now because he's president the ice caps are suddenly growing
again?.<br>
"Yes under me, everything white is doing great."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/RQRL2kHygIs?t=2m12s">https://youtu.be/RQRL2kHygIs?t=2m12s</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/government/whitman-bio.html">This
Day in Climate History January 31, 2001 </a> - from D.R.
Tucker</b></font><br>
January 31, 2001: Christine Todd Whitman is sworn in as President<br>
George W. Bush's first EPA Administrator, beginning a short and<br>
controversial tenure that would end in June 2003. In her 2005 book<br>
"It's My Party, Too," Whitman chronicles her conflicts with other
Bush<br>
administration officials (most notably Vice President Dick Cheney),<br>
and notes that the administration paid little if any attention to
the<br>
problem of climate change.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/government/whitman-bio.html">http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/government/whitman-bio.html</a><br>
<font size="+1"><i><br>
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