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<font size="+1"><i>June 4, 2018</i></font><br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/02/us/wildfires-colorado-new-mexico/index.html"><br>
Thousands of acres ablaze in Colorado, New Mexico</a></b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/02/us/wildfires-colorado-new-mexico/index.html">https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/02/us/wildfires-colorado-new-mexico/index.html</a><br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://mailchi.mp/climatenewsnetwork/thinning-clouds-increase-californias-wildfires">Thinning
clouds increase California's wildfires</a></b><br>
Southern California's wildfires are likely to increase as a
protective layer of cloud is driven away by the warmer climate and
urban growth.<br>
By Alex Kirby<br>
LONDON, 4 June, 2018 - Southern California's wildfires are posing a
growing risk, as the Sunshine State threatens to become too sunny
for its own good. In many southern coastal areas, rising summer
temperatures caused by spreading urbanisation and the warming
climate are driving off formerly common low-lying morning clouds and
increasing the prospect of worse wildfires, US scientists say.<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/user/williams">Park Williams, a
bioclimatologist</a> at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory, is lead author of their study. He says: "Cloud cover is
plummeting in southern coastal California. And as clouds decrease,
that increases the chance of bigger and more intense fires." This
conclusion reinforces <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/warming-climate-may-cut-cloud-cover/">earlier
research</a> which found that low-level clouds could help to cause
some cooling.<br>
What is happening is a neat example of a process known by climate
scientists as a positive feedback, a way in which climate change
contrives to feed on itself to worsen the situation still further
(negative feedbacks, by contrast, cool things down)...<br>
- - <br>
Professor Williams says the decrease is driven mainly by urban
sprawl, which increases near-surface temperatures, but that overall
warming climate is contributing too. Increasing heat drives away
clouds, admitting more sunlight to heat the ground further, leading
to dryer vegetation and higher fire risk. The team's research is
published in the journal <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2018GL077319">Geophysical
Research Letters</a>.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://mailchi.mp/climatenewsnetwork/thinning-clouds-increase-californias-wildfires">https://mailchi.mp/climatenewsnetwork/thinning-clouds-increase-californias-wildfires</a><br>
- - - -<br>
[See also: from 2013]<br>
Posted on December 31, 2013 by Tim Radford<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/warming-climate-may-cut-cloud-cover/">Warming
climate may cut cloud cover</a><br>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE One of the great unknowns of climate science
is what effect clouds have in accelerating or slowing warming. A new
study sheds a disturbing light on their possible impact.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/warming-climate-may-cut-cloud-cover/">https://climatenewsnetwork.net/warming-climate-may-cut-cloud-cover/</a><br>
- - <br>
[Washington Post weather news]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/06/15/phoenix-could-hit-120-degrees-this-weekend-is-a-dry-heat-really-better/?utm_term=.5becdc204cb2">Phoenix
could hit 120 degrees this weekend. Is a 'dry heat' really
better?</a></b><br>
"When it's hot and dry in Phoenix, there won’t be a cloud in the sky
all day, whereas in D.C. it's almost always partly cloudy during a
hot and muggy heatwave," Sheridan said. "One hundred degrees in the
sun is more stressful than 100 degrees in the shade."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/06/15/phoenix-could-hit-120-degrees-this-weekend-is-a-dry-heat-really-better/?utm_term=.5becdc204cb2">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/06/15/phoenix-could-hit-120-degrees-this-weekend-is-a-dry-heat-really-better/?utm_term=.5becdc204cb2</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[important video for NJ region]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/yD5mm8FI5hM">Why
chronic floods are coming to New Jersey</a></b><br>
Vox - Jun 2, 2018<br>
Railroads aren't great if they're underwater.<br>
Scientists have directly observed sea level rise since the late 18th
century. And as they forecast the next 20, 50, and 100 years, sea
level rise will continue to accelerate at an alarming rate. That
rise won't just threaten homeowners on the coast - it will also
impact the critical infrastructure that supports many of our largest
cities. While sea level rise is often phrased as an issue of concern
in the future, we can already see some of the implications. Many
coastal communities have witnessed a sharp uptick in flooding,
during lunar king tide periods. Other places are forced to consider
what life might be like as the land they currently occupy goes
underwater.<br>
<blockquote>It's going to impact low-lying infrastructure in
particular. Imagine if you're on a train and you had to wait for
high tide to go out before the train could go through and what a
disruption to the system that would be. And then multiply that by
every other train line or roadway that goes at sea level. The
Meadowlands is six miles away from New York City's Times Square. <br>
It's one of the busiest transit corridors in the United States. If
you draw a line from Philadelphia to New York City and/or
Philadelphia to Boston, you basically have to go through the
Meadowlands. So as a result, all of the infrastructure that
connects this region together bottlenecks down, comes together in
the Meadowlands. By year 2050 researchers estimate that 115 rail
stations here would flood on a chronic basis. And by that time
nearly 60% of the region's current power generating capacity would
be in a floodplain. <br>
</blockquote>
"The response to sea level rise boils down to three options:
prevention is basically building higher sea walls.<br>
Things like berms. <br>
Adaptation is elevation. Some critical infrastructure can't relocate
for economic reasons, so<br>
it would just end up being cheaper to raise them.<br>
Retreat is basically returning the land to nature, but the state of
New Jersey doesn't seem keen on that.<br>
In the last decade, a new NFL stadium was built alongside large
swaths of new housing and there's an airport expansion plan. But all
of that new concrete could increase flooding from storm water
runoff.<br>
The Meadowlands is one of the biggest sponges in our region. If we
get rid of those wetlands or if we you know pave them over, we're
going to be pushing water into other places.<br>
It's very hard to find any community that's looking at sea-level
rise as a threat that they're planning for today."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/yD5mm8FI5hM">https://youtu.be/yD5mm8FI5hM</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[More info from Rutgers:] <br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href=".https://geology.rutgers.edu/images/stories/faculty/miller_kenneth_g/Sealevelfactsheet7112014update.pdf">Sea
- level rise in New Jersey fact sheet</a></b><br>
All shorelines (including the New Jersey shore) are dynamic
environments that are constantly being reshaped by sea level
rise, storms, and currents<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://geology.rutgers.edu/images/stories/faculty/miller_kenneth_g/Sealevelfactsheet7112014update.pdf">https://geology.rutgers.edu/images/stories/faculty/miller_kenneth_g/Sealevelfactsheet7112014update.pdf</a></font><br>
- - - - -<br>
[more regional flood info]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://library.rpa.org/pdf/RPA-Under-Water-How-Sea-Level-Rise-Threatens-the-Tri-State-Region.pdf">Regional
Plan Association 'Under Water' and 4th Plan reports for
residents of the greater New York City metro area:</a><br>
Under Water How Sea Level Rise Threatens the Tri-State Region<br>
</b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://library.rpa.org/pdf/RPA-Under-Water-How-Sea-Level-Rise-Threatens-the-Tri-State-Region.pdf">http://library.rpa.org/pdf/RPA-Under-Water-How-Sea-Level-Rise-Threatens-the-Tri-State-Region.pdf</a><br>
- - - -<br>
[know the tides]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nuisance-flooding.html">What
is high tide flooding?</a></b><br>
High tide flooding, sometimes referred to as "nuisance" flooding, is
flooding that leads to public inconveniences such as road closures.
It is increasingly common as coastal sea levels rise.<br>
As relative sea level increases, it no longer takes a strong storm
or a hurricane to cause coastal flooding. Flooding now occurs with
high tides in many locations due to climate-related sea level rise,
land subsidence, and the loss of natural barriers.<br>
High tide flooding - which causes such public inconveniences as
frequent road closures, overwhelmed storm drains and compromised
infrastructure - has increased on all three U.S. coasts, between 300
and 925 percent since the 1960s.<br>
The effects of rising sea levels along most of the continental U.S.
coastline are expected to become more noticeable and much more
severe in the coming decades, likely more so than any other
climate-change related factor. Any acceleration in sea level rise
that is predicted to occur this century will further intensify high
tide flooding impacts over time, and will further reduce the time
between flood events. <br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nuisance-flooding.html">https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nuisance-flooding.html</a></font><br>
- - - - -<br>
[NOAA technical report]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/publications/techrpt86_PaP_of_HTFlooding.pdf">PATTERNS
AND PROJECTIONS OF HIGH TIDE FLOODING ALONG THE U.S. COASTLINE</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/publications/techrpt86_PaP_of_HTFlooding.pdf">https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/publications/techrpt86_PaP_of_HTFlooding.pdf</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Follow the money]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/global-economics/2018/05/31/europe-s-largest-asset-manager-sees-tipping-point-on-climate">Europe's
Largest Asset Manager Sees `Tipping Point' on Climate</a></b><br>
Anna Hirtenstein - 31 May 2018<br>
(Bloomberg) - The world's deepest-pocketed investors are starting to
take climate change seriously, according to Amundi SA.<br>
"We are really observing a tipping point among the institutional
investors on climate change," said Frederic Samama, co-head of
institutional clients at the Paris-based firm. "Until recently, that
question was not on their radar screen. It's changing, and it's
changing super fast."<br>
Risks from global warming range from damage to physical assets from
extreme weather to falling prices on fossil fuel-related assets, as
the world moves away from burning coal and oil. Bank of England
governor Mark Carney has repeatedly warned that these risks are not
priced in adequately and that investors may have exposure to a
"climate Minsky moment" if they don't take action.<br>
Amundi's remarks hold weight because it has 1.4 trillion euros ($1.6
trillion) under management, making it the largest asset manager in
Europe. It runs the world's largest green bond fund with the
International Finance Corp. and is planning to deploy $2 billion
into emerging markets. Mainstream investors are beginning to
recognize both the threats and opportunities coming from
climate-related issues, Samama said.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/global-economics/2018/05/31/europe-s-largest-asset-manager-sees-tipping-point-on-climate">https://www.bloombergquint.com/global-economics/2018/05/31/europe-s-largest-asset-manager-sees-tipping-point-on-climate</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Youth Activism planned for July]<br>
July 21. Washington, D.C.<a
href="https://actionnetwork.org/events/the-youth-climate-march?source=direct_link&">
<b>RSVP NOW for The Youth Climate March</b></a>.<br>
<b><a href="http://thisiszerohour.org/the-march/#sister-marches">Sister
Marches</a></b> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://thisiszerohour.org/the-march/#sister-marches">http://thisiszerohour.org/the-march/#sister-marches</a><br>
Washington, D.C.<br>
<a href="http://thisiszerohour.org/the-march/">The Youth Climate
Lobby Day (July 19)</a><br>
Zero Hour is not mobilizing just for the sake of mobilizing. We the
youth are demanding an end to business as usual on climate change,
so we have created science-backed demands for both our leaders, and
the general public to take action on. On July 19th youth are taking
over Capitol Hill to deliver our demands to our politicians. We are
giving them the exact asks that we are marching for - so they have
no excuse not to take action.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://thisiszerohour.org/the-march/">http://thisiszerohour.org/the-march/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Cough, cough... cough]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/05/scientists-race-reveal-how-surging-wildfire-smoke-affecting-climate-and-health">Scientists
race to reveal how surging wildfire smoke is affecting climate
and health</a></b><br>
By Warren Cornwall - May. 31, 2018<br>
Emily Fischer is likely one of the few people whose summer plans
were buoyed by a recent forecast that much of the western United
States faces another worse-than-normal wildfire season. Unusually
warm weather and drought, together with plenty of dry grass and
brush, are expected to create prime conditions for blazes this
summer, federal officials announced on 10 May.<br>
<br>
The forecast has local officials bracing for the worst. But it
represents an opportunity for Fischer, an atmospheric scientist at
Colorado State University in Fort Collins who is preparing to spend
the summer flying through plumes of wildfire smoke aboard a C-130
cargo plane jammed full of scientific equipment. The flights are the
highlight of an unprecedented effort, costing more than $30 million,
that involves aircraft, satellites, instrumented vans, and even
researchers traveling on foot. Over the next 2 years, two
coordinated campaigns - one funded by the National Science
Foundation (NSF), and the other by NASA and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - aim to better understand the
chemistry and physics of wildfire smoke, as well as how it affects
climate, air pollution, and human health.<br>
<blockquote> "This is definitely the largest fire experiment that
has ever happened," says atmospheric chemist Carsten Warneke of
NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, one
of the lead scientists. Wildfire smoke, he adds, is "one of the
largest problems facing air quality and climate issues going
forward."<br>
</blockquote>
The problem is growing as the size and intensity of wildfires rise
in the western United States, marinating communities in smoke.
Wildfires account for more than two-thirds of the particulate matter
in the West on days that exceed federal clean air standards,
according to a 2016 study in the journal Climatic Change. And global
warming is likely to stoke even more fire in coming years, by making
wildlands more combustible. By midcentury, more than 80 million
people living across much of the West can expect a 57% increase in
the number of "smoke waves" - events that shroud a community for 2
days or more - according to the 2016 study. The consequences for
public health could be sobering; smoke includes an array of noxious
compounds and tiny particles that can complicate breathing and
promote disease. Other parts of the Americas as well as Europe,
Africa, Asia, and Australia are likely to experience the same
climate-driven surge in wildfires, according to U.S. Forest Service
researchers.<br>
<blockquote> Despite the potential threat, wildfire smoke has
received little sustained scientific attention. The two new
campaigns aim to change that. This year, the NSF-funded team that
includes Fischer aims to fly its instrumented C-130 through 15 to
20 wildfire plumes. And next year, researchers with NASA and NOAA
will have access to a bigger aircraft - a DC-8 jet - that will
scour smoky skies across the United States.<br>
</blockquote>
One goal is to inventory the chemicals released by wildfires,
including nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide, and a vast array of
volatile organic compounds. Current models for predicting the
chemical makeup of smoke, which rely largely on satellite
observations, have a huge margin for error, Warneke says. In part,
that's because of uncertainty about how much vegetation wildfires
consume. New studies that combine data from satellites, aircraft,
and ground-based researchers scrutinizing burn sites should help
fine-tune those estimates.<br>
- - - - -<br>
At night, falling temperatures can cause smoke plumes to sink into
valleys, worsening air quality there. NOAA and NASA researchers will
track the plumes with aircraft, vans, and a drone. That initiative
will also involve DC-8 flights beyond the West, into the Midwest and
Southeast, tracking smoke from fires intentionally set to clear farm
fields and prescribed burns in forests. The goal of collecting such
a wide array of data, Warneke says, is "to do the whole picture at
one time and understand how the whole thing plays together."<br>
<b>A smokier future</b><br>
Beyond these projects, public health researchers are taking a
growing interest in what happens when smoke blankets communities,
sometimes for weeks at a time. Past studies have found that
short-term smoke exposure can increase problems for people with
asthma and other lung ailments, but "there's really not much
information at all" about the effects of long-term, chronic
exposure, says Curtis Noonan, an environmental epidemiologist at the
University of Montana in Missoula.<br>
- - - -<br>
One big question, she says, is: "If you're born into really smoky
conditions with your extremely sensitive, newborn lungs, what does
that mean for you?"<br>
As scientists prepare to tackle such questions, health officials in
Missoula are preparing for a possible repeat of last year's smoke
waves. The health department is stockpiling indoor air filters for
day care centers, schools, and other gathering spots.<br>
<br>
Fischer, for one, hopes they aren't needed. Although she requires
fire for her studies, she says, "I'm just wishing for an average
wildfire year with wildfires in wilderness areas that don't cause
any property damage."<br>
<font size="-1">Warren Cornwall is freelance journalist in
Washington State.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/05/scientists-race-reveal-how-surging-wildfire-smoke-affecting-climate-and-health">http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/05/scientists-race-reveal-how-surging-wildfire-smoke-affecting-climate-and-health</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[A classic essay]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/paul-hoggett-rosemary-randall/sustainable-activism-managing-hope-and-despair-in-socia">Sustainable
activism: managing hope and despair in social movements</a></b><br>
Paul Hoggett and Rosemary Randall<br>
In her <font color="#0000ff"><u><a
href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo6943529.html">study
of ACT UP</a></u></font> the direct action AIDS movement in
the USA in the 1980s and early 1990s, Deborah Gould noted the
powerful role that's played by emotions in animating social
activism. She observed that any movement that seeks to make things
better in the world has to manage despair. We believe that this
emotion arises because activists are haunted by the belief that they
might lack the collective resources to address the damage and
suffering they see around them, and which motivates their action. So
in addition to its external opponents, a movement always has an
internal, emotional enemy - a gnawing, repetitive, low-level fear
and hopelessness that accompany the struggle for deep-rooted social
change.<br>
<br>
Over the last few years we have been <font color="#0000ff"><u><a
href="http://climatepsychologyalliance.org/explorations/blogs/173-outriders-of-the-coming-adversity-how-climate-activists-and-climate-scientists-keep-going">interviewing
people</a></u></font> in the UK who have been involved in
direct actions such as the occupation of power stations and airport
runways. We wanted to explore how they managed the powerful feelings
that are aroused by any exposure to the disturbing truth of climate
change. As one young female activist put it to us:<br>
<blockquote> "I know if I let open the floodgates it's there…I know
what that depressive, overwhelming 'I feel lost' feeling is. I've
had it. It's not something I enjoy."<br>
</blockquote>
In our own experience of movements for change from the 1970s onwards
we have been struck by the way in which a failure to contain despair
can lead to unrealistic hopes, built on a denial of and a flight
from some difficult truths. The group 'puffs itself up' to make
itself feel big. It overestimates its own strength and
underestimates the power of opposing forces. It resorts to faith
('history is on our side') and magic ('come on everybody, one last
push'). It prefers to engage in wishful thinking rather than face
reality as it is. <br>
<br>
This state of mind is one we often encounter in our work as
psychotherapists. It's often referred to as <font color="#0000ff"><u><a
href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/psychology/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/paranoid-schizoid-position">schizoid</a></u></font>
- a state where everything is split into polarities: black or white,
all or nothing. For someone in the grip of schizoid thinking the
world is binary - there is no 'in between'. Everything is either one
thing or the other, and the coin is constantly flipped between one
perspective and it's opposite: either my marriage was the wonderful
relationship I always imagined it to be or I was living a total
illusion; either I have this special and exclusive relationship with
my children or I mean nothing to them at all.<br>
<br>
One of the most painful and destructive things about schizoid
thinking is that it reproduces the very anxiety it tries to manage.
By creating an ideal state of affairs that can never be achieved in
reality it opens the door to further disappointment, more desperate
self-criticism, a greater sense of failure and more crippling
anxiety which can only be dealt with by further splits. In politics
one obvious and much parodied example is the factionalism that often
bedevils political groups and social movements. <br>
<br>
However the problem goes much deeper than this: it can also affect
the culture of otherwise healthy groups. In movements around climate
change we can see it at work in a series of unhelpful binaries such
as 'The only realistic thing to do is change the system'<i> versus</i>
'We are powerless to change the system, so must focus on achievable
changes in our communities and in our own lives.' Another common
binary is 'all or nothing'. We throw ourselves into an all-consuming
commitment which, because it is all consuming, demands an immediate
return. Then, when reality proves recalcitrant, despair sets in. As
one of our interviewees put it:<br>
<blockquote> "...there's definitely a danger of tying your whole
sense of worth and purpose to this challenge that is so much
bigger than you and is never ending".<br>
</blockquote>
This binary is often linked to another which is 'now or never'. In
climate change work this is manifested in the belief that <b>'</b>we
must all act now or it will be too late,' a belief that can all too
quickly slip into the perception that it is already 'too late', and
that processes have already been unleashed which are irreversibly
leading us to catastrophe. <br>
<br>
However, one hopeful sign that also emerges from our interviews with
the current generation of climate activists is that they are
developing a much more emotionally-intelligent culture. Direct
action places activists in vulnerable situations, and rather than
resorting to a macho denial this generation seems much more prepared
to acknowledge their vulnerability. Many activists also seem to be
able to take up a more proportionate response. Times of intense
engagement are often followed by a period of taking a step back and
giving due attention to self-care and self-reflection. Many of them
described a kind of proportionality to their engagement, where they
could let go of their painful knowledge for a time, relegating it to
the background while continuing to work on a practical project. "I
think I don't think about it," explained one. "I've accepted it,
found my own kind of path of how I live my life with those kinds of
things going through it." Rather like someone who has learned to
live with a life-limiting condition like diabetes, these activists
were no longer obsessed with climate change but concerned to act as
effectively and dynamically as they could to counter its worst
effects. <br>
<br>
There were a number of elements at play when this balance worked.
The first was a sense of excitement and pleasure in the actions
themselves. "It's just really fun...if you don't have fun day to
day, you are going to burn out way quicker," explained one. The
second factor was giving conscious attention to building a cohesive
group with a high level of trust, debriefing properly after actions
and offering support to anyone distressed or traumatised by their
experiences. Some of our respondents emphasised the cohesion:
"There's an incredible sense of solidarity that comes out of doing a
direct action," said one, while others focused on the capacity of
the group to accept and understand each other's vulnerabilities: "We
have Activist Trauma Support, we have medical support, we have
debriefings, we have a really good way of helping people. We know
what burnout is now. We know what post-traumatic stress disorder
is," said another.<br>
<br>
Another important element was an awareness of the kinds of practices
– time spent outdoors, in meditation, or with family – that could
counter the intense involvement with such a difficult subject. For
one activist it was her father's presence with a banner at all her
court appearances that mattered. Others spoke of a profound
relationship with nature, the inner practice of yoga, or time spent
walking with the dog after an intense day's work.<br>
<br>
Finally, the sense of building a movement that might prefigure the
kind of society they hoped might materialise in the future was
hugely sustaining to almost all our respondents. The sense that they
could create a world in miniature that was more caring, more
responsive and more inclusive – a community, in other words – was a
source of pride and strength.<br>
<br>
As a result, many have begun to talk in terms of 'sustainable
activism,' one that can survive for the much longer term. As one of
our interviewees put it: <br>
<blockquote>"<span lang="en-US">The struggle will always be there
for justice and for those kinds of things ...there's no utopic
end point is what I mean. It will always be evolving and
changing and I see my... there will always be another struggle
somewhere…</span>"<br>
</blockquote>
Sustainable activism has what Gramsci called a '<font
color="#0000ff"><u><a
href="https://archive.org/stream/AntonioGramsciSelectionsFromThePrisonNotebooks/Antonio-Gramsci-Selections-from-the-Prison-Notebooks_djvu.txt">pessimism
of the intellect<font color="#0000ff">'</font></a></u></font>
which can avoid wishful thinking and face reality as squarely as
possible. However it also retains an 'optimism of the will', an
inner conviction that things can be different. By holding optimism
and pessimism in tension, sustainable activism is better able to
handle despair, and it has less need to resort to binary thinking as
a way of engaging with reality. It can hold contradictions so that
they don't become either/or polarities. It can work both in and
against the system. Whilst it believes there can be no personal
change without political change it is equally insistent that there
can be no political change without personal change. It insists
optimistically that those who are not against us must be with us,
and therefore carries a notion of 'us' which is inclusive and
generous, one which offers the benefit of the doubt to the other. <br>
<br>
Finally, sustainable activism holds that it is never too late. In
the context of climate change it is able to face the truth that some
irreversible processes of change are already occurring; that the <font
color="#0000ff"><u><a
href="http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php">two
degrees limit</a></u></font> in the increase in global
temperatures agreed at the 2015 Paris climate conference may not be
achieved; that bad outcomes are inevitable, and that some are
already happening. Nevertheless it also insists that this makes our
struggles all the more vital to reduce the scale and significance of
these future outcomes, to fight for the 'least-worst' results we can
achieve, and to ensure that the world of our grandchildren and their
children is as habitable as possible. <br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/paul-hoggett-rosemary-randall/sustainable-activism-managing-hope-and-despair-in-socia">https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/paul-hoggett-rosemary-randall/sustainable-activism-managing-hope-and-despair-in-socia</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Opinion - Scientific American]<br>
<b><a
href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/should-climate-scientists-fly/">Should
Climate Scientists Fly?</a></b><br>
Wrong question; instead of scapegoating individual researchers, we
should blame the centers of power, including corporations and
political leaders <br>
By Sarah E Myhre on May 31, 2018<br>
Indeed, the complicity of flying is held up as a Rorschach test as
to whether publicly-facing climate scientists understand the moral
math of climate change. The culture wants to know: Are we crisis
actors pantomiming alarmism, whilst we profiteer and jet around the
globe to our fancy meetings? Or are we noble ascetics who have
purified and aligned our carbon footprint with our rhetoric? This
dynamic - of finger-pointing, grandstanding, condemning and shaming
- is an ongoing toxic hamster wheel, which further erodes and
discredits the public trust in the good-faith actions of climate and
earth scientists.<br>
- - - -<br>
Why would we ever consider climate scientists an appropriate target
for our outrage and action, when multinational corporations and
gutless political leaders are making out like racketeers from
heating the planet? Oil companies, such as Chevron, ExxonMobil and
Royal Dutch Shell have generated multi-billion-dollar profits in the
first quarter of 2018 alone. Moreover, actual elected leaders are
trafficking in science denialism and propaganda in public
institutions, wherein the existence of snowballs discredits climate
warming and rocks falling into the ocean cause sea level rise. These
are the exact targets for where our public outrage and grief should
land.<br>
- - - - -<br>
There are very, very bad actors in this space of climate
accountability. The problem is, these actors are some of the
wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet, a cabal of
mediocre and violent men who gatekeep our collective action on
climate. To indict them publicly and directly is to court both the
reality of the political and partisan moment of our time and the
implied threat of an army of corporate lawyers. It is easier, quite
frankly, to point at climate scientists as dubious and
self-conflicted agents of alarmism, rather than prosecute the
political and economic centers of power.<br>
This is why climate action is about moral courage. Yes, we must have
the courage to align our personal actions with our understanding of
the science, through decreasing and stopping our flying. But, more
importantly, we must have to courage to speak truth to power,
despite how this might change our public or professional standing.
Climate action is one of the most fundamental social justice
movements of our time. No more and no less, our choices now to act
as brave stewards of planetary life, despite political realities and
institutional denialism, will change the trajectory of the planet
forever. It is worth it.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/should-climate-scientists-fly/">https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/should-climate-scientists-fly/</a><br>
- - - - <br>
</font>[On the other hand, No Fly Climate Science]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://noflyclimatesci.org/">No
Fly Climate Sci </a></b><br>
We are Earth scientists, academics, and members of the public who
either don't fly or who fly less.<br>
We feel that global warming poses a clear, present, and dire danger
for humanity. In an era of obvious climate change, we believe that
it’s important to align our daily life choices with that reality.
Actions speak louder than words.<br>
We try to fly as little as possible while pushing for systemic
change, especially through our home institutions. These are our
stories - why we fly less, and what that means in a society that
still rewards frequent flying.<br>
- - - -<br>
We're experimenting with having successful and satisfying lives and
careers without all the flying. We hope that our openness about
flying less helps to change flying culture, gradually reducing the
professional handicap for those of us who choose to align our
personal actions with our knowledge of global warming. We urge
academic institutions to realize their responsibility to be role
models in an age of obvious global warming, and therefore to adopt
policies and strategies for flying less. <b>We believe that shaming
individuals is counterproductive.</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://noflyclimatesci.org/">http://noflyclimatesci.org/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/05/us/president-distances-himself-from-global-warming-report.html">This
Day in Climate History - June 4, 2002</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
June 4, 2002: President George W. Bush dismisses an EPA report on
the threat of human-caused climate change, deriding what he called
"the report put out by the bureaucracy."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/05/us/president-distances-himself-from-global-warming-report.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/05/us/president-distances-himself-from-global-warming-report.html</a>
<br>
<br>
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