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<font size="+1"><i>August 8, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[bright, distinct]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/burton/woodville-fire-dramatic-video-1871267">See
the dramatic video of a 'fire tornado' after massive blaze at
Woodville factory</a></b><br>
The fire could be seen 26 miles away<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/burton/woodville-fire-dramatic-video-1871267">https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/burton/woodville-fire-dramatic-video-1871267</a></font><br>
<br>
[report biggest Calif fire ever]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.kcra.com/article/crews-make-progress-against-wildfires-burning-in-mendocino-county/22582051">Crews
make progress against wildfires burning in Mendocino County</a></b><br>
Mendocino Complex is largest wildfire in California history<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.kcra.com/article/crews-make-progress-against-wildfires-burning-in-mendocino-county/22582051">https://www.kcra.com/article/crews-make-progress-against-wildfires-burning-in-mendocino-county/22582051</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[google crisis maps]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://google.org/crisismap/google.com/2018-carr-fire">California
Wildfires</a></b><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://google.org/crisismap/google.com/2018-carr-fire">Published
by Google Crisis Response</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://google.org/crisismap/google.com/2018-carr-fire">http://google.org/crisismap/google.com/2018-carr-fire</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[BBC radio report]<br>
<b><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bd6y5p#play">Domino-effect
as Earth moves to 'hothouse' state</a></b><br>
from about 1:50 for 7 mins or so. [even prayer at 1:48]<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bd6y5p#play">https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bd6y5p#play</a><br>
- - - - -<br>
[TheGuardian]<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/06/domino-effect-of-climate-events-could-push-earth-into-a-hothouse-state"><br>
Domino-effect of climate events could push Earth into a
'hothouse' state</a></b><br>
Leading scientists warn that passing such a point would make efforts
to reduce emissions increasingly futile<br>
Jonathan Watts - Mon 6 Aug 2018 <br>
A domino-like cascade of melting ice, warming seas, shifting
currents and dying forests could tilt the Earth into a "hothouse"
state beyond which human efforts to reduce emissions will be
increasingly futile, a group of leading climate scientists has
warned.<br>
<br>
This grim prospect is sketched out in a journal paper that considers
the combined consequences of 10 climate change processes, including
the release of methane trapped in Siberian permafrost and the impact
of melting ice in Greenland on the Antarctic.<br>
<br>
The authors of the essay, published in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, stress their analysis is not conclusive, but
warn the Paris commitment to keep warming at 2C above pre-industrial
levels may not be enough to "park" the planet's climate at a stable
temperature.<br>
<br>
They warn that the hothouse trajectory "would almost certainly flood
deltaic environments, increase the risk of damage from coastal
storms, and eliminate coral reefs (and all of the benefits that they
provide for societies) by the end of this century or earlier."<br>
<br>
Johan Rockstrom, executive director, Stockholm Resilience Centre<br>
Fifty years ago, this would be dismissed as alarmist, but now
scientists have become really worried<br>
<br>
"I do hope we are wrong, but as scientists we have a responsibility
to explore whether this is real," said Johan Rockstrom, executive
director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre. "We need to know now.
It's so urgent. This is one of the most existential questions in
science."<br>
<br>
Rockstrom and his co-authors are among the world's leading
authorities on positive feedback loops, by which warming
temperatures release new sources of greenhouse gases or destroy the
Earth's ability to absorb carbon or reflect heat.<br>
Their new paper asks whether the planet's temperature can stabilise
at 2C or whether it will gravitate towards a more extreme state. The
authors attempt to assess whether warming can be halted or whether
it will tip towards a "hothouse" world that is 4C warmer than
pre-industrial times and far less supportive of human life.<br>
<br>
Katherine Richardson from the University of Copenhagen, one of the
authors, said the paper showed that climate action was not just a
case of turning the knob on emissions, but of understanding how
various factors interact at a global level.<br>
<br>
"We note that the Earth has never in its history had a quasi-stable
state that is around 2C warmer than the preindustrial and suggest
that there is substantial risk that the system, itself, will 'want'
to continue warming because of all of these other processes - even
if we stop emissions," she said. "This implies not only reducing
emissions but much more."<br>
<br>
New feedback loops are still being discovered. A separate paper
published in PNAS reveals that increased rainfall - a symptom of
climate change in some regions - is making it harder for forest
soils to trap greenhouse gases such as methane.<br>
<br>
Previous studies have shown that weakening carbon sinks will add
0.25C, forest dieback will add 0.11C, permafrost thaw will add 0.9C
and increased bacterial respiration will add 0.02C. The authors of
the new paper also look at the loss of methane hydrates from the
ocean floor and the reduction of snow and ice cover at the poles.<br>
<br>
Rockstrom says there are huge gaps in data and knowledge about how
one process might amplify another. Contrary to the Gaia theory,
which suggests the Earth has a self-righting tendency, he says the
feedbacks could push the planet to a more extreme state.<br>
<br>
As an example, the authors say the loss of Greenland ice could
disrupt the Gulf Stream ocean current, which would raise sea levels
and accumulate heat in the Southern Ocean, which would in turn
accelerate ice loss from the east Antarctic. Concerns about this
possibility were heightened earlier this year by reports that the
Gulf Stream was at its weakest level in 1,600 years.<br>
<br>
Currently, global average temperatures are just over 1C above
pre-industrial levels and rising at 0.17C per decade. The Paris
climate agreement set actions to keep warming limited to 1.5C-2C by
the end of the century, but the authors warn more drastic action may
be necessary.<br>
<br>
"The heatwave we now have in Europe is not something that was
expected with just 1C of warming," Rockstrom said. "Several positive
feedback loops are already in operation, but they are still weak. We
need studies to show when they might cause a runaway effect.<br>
<br>
Another climate scientist - who was not involved in the paper -
emphasised the document aimed to raise questions rather than prove a
theory. "It's rather selective, but not outlandish," said Prof
Martin Siegert, co-director of the Grantham Institute. "Threshold
and tipping points have been discussed previously, but to state that
2C is a threshold we can't pull back from is new, I think. I'm not
sure what 'evidence' there is for this - or indeed whether there can
be until we experience it."<br>
<br>
Rockstrom said the question needed asking. "We could end up
delivering the Paris agreement and keep to 2C of warming, but then
face an ugly surprise if the system starts to slip away," he said.
"We don't say this will definitely happen. We just list all the
disruptive events and come up with plausible occurrences … 50 years
ago, this would be dismissed as alarmist, but now scientists have
become really worried."<br>
"In the context of the summer of 2018, this is definitely not a case
of crying wolf, raising a false alarm: the wolves are now in sight,"
said Dr Phil Williamson, a climate researcher at the University of
East Anglia. "The authors argue that we need to be much more
proactive in that regard, not just ending greenhouse gas emissions
as rapidly as possible, but also building resilience in the context
of complex Earth system processes that we might not fully understand
until it is too late."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/06/domino-effect-of-climate-events-could-push-earth-into-a-hothouse-state">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/06/domino-effect-of-climate-events-could-push-earth-into-a-hothouse-state</a><br>
</font><br>
<br>
MAP · Aug 7, 2018<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us-2018/">Yale
Climate Opinion Maps 2018</a></b><br>
These maps show how Americans' climate change beliefs, risk
perceptions, and policy support vary at the state, congressional
district, metro area, and county levels.<br>
Estimated % of adults who think global warming is happening, 2018 =
71%<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us-2018/">http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us-2018/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Out of control]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6032581/Runaway-global-warming-just-decades-away-say-scientists.html">Runaway
warming could push the world into a 'hothouse Earth' state and
cause sea levels to rise by almost 200 FEET in just a matter of
decades, study warns</a></b><br>
'Hothouse Earth' will stabilize at a average of 4C-5C above
pre-industrial levels<br>
If it happens, swathes of planet around the equator will become
uninhabitable<br>
Sea levels would rise up to 60m (197ft) higher than they are today,
study says<br>
Earth may be decades away from a climatic tipping point that
triggers runaway global warming and threatens the future of
humanity, scientists have warned.<br>
The threshold will be reached when average global temperatures are
only around 2C higher than they were in pre-industrial times, new
research suggests. They are already 1C higher, and rising.<br>
Feedback mechanisms acting 'like a row of dominoes' will then spin
the world into a 'Hothouse Earth' state of uncontrollable climate
change.<br>
Long term, the Hothouse Earth climate will stabilize at a global
average of 4C-5C above pre-industrial levels, the study shows...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6032581/Runaway-global-warming-just-decades-away-say-scientists.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6032581/Runaway-global-warming-just-decades-away-say-scientists.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[photos from NASA]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.space.com/41403-california-wildfires-2018-photos-from-space.html">In
Photos: The 2018 California Wildfires as Seen from Space</a></b><font
size="-1"><br>
</font>Here are some dramatic views of these blazes from high above
as seen by astronauts and cosmonauts in space.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.space.com/41403-california-wildfires-2018-photos-from-space.html">https://www.space.com/41403-california-wildfires-2018-photos-from-space.html</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[photo checked by Snopes = false]<br>
Fact Check Fauxtography<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://us-east-1.tchyn.io/snopes-production/uploads/2018/08/clouds-.jpg">Does
This Photograph Show Clouds Over the California Wildfires?</a></b><br>
A spectacular image of red-tinted clouds at sunset was repurposed to
falsely connect it with 2018 wildfires in California.<br>
CLAIM<br>
A photograph shows red-tinted clouds over a large wildfire in
California.<br>
Wildfires do create unique-looking clouds, but they wouldn't
resemble the ones shown in the viral photograph. CNN meteorologist
Brandon Miller explained that pyrocumulus clouds often form over
wildfires, as the extreme heat of those blazes forces air to rise
rapidly:<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/7a6KvlpR7d4">YouTube
video similar</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/7a6KvlpR7d4">https://youtu.be/7a6KvlpR7d4</a><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/clouds-over-california-wildfires/">https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/clouds-over-california-wildfires/</a><br>
</font><br>
<br>
[ice melts]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/02/underwater-melting-of-antarctic-ice-far-greater-than-thought-study-finds">Underwater
melting of Antarctic ice far greater than thought, study finds</a></b><br>
Another climate scientist - who was not involved in the paper -
emphasised the document aimed to raise questions rather than prove a
theory. "It's rather selective, but not outlandish," said Prof
Martin Siegert, co-director of the Grantham Institute. "Threshold
and tipping points have been discussed previously, but to state that
2C is a threshold we can't pull back from is new, I think. I'm not
sure what 'evidence' there is for this - or indeed whether there can
be until we experience it."<br>
Rockstrom said the question needed asking. "We could end up
delivering the Paris agreement and keep to 2C of warming, but then
face an ugly surprise if the system starts to slip away," he said.
"We don't say this will definitely happen. We just list all the
disruptive events and come up with plausible occurrences … 50 years
ago, this would be dismissed as alarmist, but now scientists have
become really worried."<br>
"In the context of the summer of 2018, this is definitely not a case
of crying wolf, raising a false alarm: the wolves are now in sight,"
said Dr Phil Williamson, a climate researcher at the University of
East Anglia. "The authors argue that we need to be much more
proactive in that regard, not just ending greenhouse gas emissions
as rapidly as possible, but also building resilience in the context
of complex Earth system processes that we might not fully understand
until it is too late."...<br>
- - - - -<br>
The study's lead author, Hannes Konrad, said there was now clear
evidence that the underwater glacial retreat is happening across the
ice sheet.<br>
"This retreat has had a huge impact on inland glaciers," he said,
"because releasing them from the sea bed removes friction, causing
them to speed up and contribute to global sea level rise."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/02/underwater-melting-of-antarctic-ice-far-greater-than-thought-study-finds">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/02/underwater-melting-of-antarctic-ice-far-greater-than-thought-study-finds</a><br>
<br>
</font> <br>
[The Economist says]<br>
In the line of fire<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/08/02/the-world-is-losing-the-war-against-climate-change">The
world is losing the war against climate change</a></b><br>
Rising energy demand means use of fossil fuels is heading in the
wrong direction<br>
EARTH is smouldering. From Seattle to Siberia this summer, flames
have consumed swathes of the northern hemisphere. One of 18
wildfires sweeping through California, among the worst in the
state's history, is generating such heat that it created its own
weather. Fires that raged through a coastal area near Athens last
week killed 91 (see article). Elsewhere people are suffocating in
the heat. Roughly 125 have died in Japan as the result of a heatwave
that pushed temperatures in Tokyo above 40C for the first time.<br>
<br>
Such calamities, once considered freakish, are now commonplace.
Scientists have long cautioned that, as the planet warms - it is
roughly 1C hotter today than before the industrial age's first
furnaces were lit - weather patterns will go berserk. An early
analysis has found that this sweltering European summer would have
been less than half as likely were it not for human-induced global
warming.<br>
<br>
Yet as the impact of climate change becomes more evident, so too
does the scale of the challenge ahead. Three years after countries
vowed in Paris to keep warming "well below" 2C relative to
pre-industrial levels, greenhouse-gas emissions are up again. So are
investments in oil and gas. In 2017, for the first time in four
years, demand for coal rose. Subsidies for renewables, such as wind
and solar power, are dwindling in many places and investment has
stalled; climate-friendly nuclear power is expensive and unpopular.
It is tempting to think these are temporary setbacks and that
mankind, with its instinct for self-preservation, will muddle
through to a victory over global warming. In fact, it is losing the
war.<br>
<b>Living in a fuel's paradise</b><br>
Insufficient progress is not to say no progress at all. As solar
panels, wind turbines and other low-carbon technologies become
cheaper and more efficient, their use has surged. Last year the
number of electric cars sold around the world passed 1m. In some
sunny and blustery places renewable power now costs less than coal.<br>
<br>
Public concern is picking up. A poll last year of 38 countries found
that 61% of people see climate change as a big threat; only the
terrorists of Islamic State inspired more fear. In the West
campaigning investors talk of divesting from companies that make
their living from coal and oil. Despite President Donald Trump's
decision to yank America out of the Paris deal, many American cities
and states have reaffirmed their commitment to it. Even some of the
sceptic-in-chief's fellow Republicans appear less averse to tackling
the problem <a
href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/08/02/republicans-inch-towards-action-on-global-warming">(see
article)</a>. In smog-shrouded China and India, citizens choking
on fumes are prompting governments to rethink plans to rely heavily
on coal to electrify their countries.<br>
<br>
Optimists say that decarbonisation is within reach. Yet, even
allowing for the familiar complexities of agreeing on and enforcing
global targets, it is proving extraordinarily difficult.<br>
<br>
One reason is soaring energy demand, especially in developing Asia.
In 2006-16, as Asia's emerging economies forged ahead, their energy
consumption rose by 40%. The use of coal, easily the dirtiest fossil
fuel, grew at an annual rate of 3.1%. Use of cleaner natural gas
grew by 5.2% and of oil by 2.9%. Fossil fuels are easier to hook up
to today's grids than renewables that depend on the sun shining and
the wind blowing. Even as green fund managers threaten to pull back
from oil companies, state-owned behemoths in the Middle East and
Russia see Asian demand as a compelling reason to invest.<br>
<br>
The second reason is economic and political inertia. The more fossil
fuels a country consumes, the harder it is to wean itself off them.
Powerful lobbies, and the voters who back them, entrench coal in the
energy mix. Reshaping existing ways of doing things can take years.
In 2017 Britain enjoyed its first coal-free day since igniting the
Industrial Revolution in the 1800s. Coal generates not merely 80% of
India's electricity, but also underpins the economies of some of its
poorest states (see Briefing). Panjandrums in Delhi are not keen to
countenance the end of coal, lest that cripple the banking system,
which lent it too much money, and the railways, which depend on it.<br>
<br>
Last is the technical challenge of stripping carbon out of
industries beyond power generation. Steel, cement, farming,
transport and other forms of economic activity account for over half
of global carbon emissions. They are technically harder to clean up
than power generation and are protected by vested industrial
interests. Successes can turn out to be illusory. Because China's
1m-plus electric cars draw their oomph from an electricity grid that
draws two-thirds of its power from coal, they produce more carbon
dioxide than some fuel-efficient petrol-driven models. Meanwhile,
scrubbing CO2 from the atmosphere, which climate models imply is
needed on a vast scale to meet the Paris target, attracts even less
attention.<br>
<br>
The world is not short of ideas to realise the Paris goal. Around 70
countries or regions, responsible for one-fifth of all emissions,
now price carbon. Technologists beaver away on sturdier grids,
zero-carbon steel, even carbon-negative cement, whose production
absorbs more CO2 than it releases. All these efforts and more -
including research into "solar geoengineering" to reflect sunlight
back into space - should be redoubled.<br>
<b>Blood, sweat and geoengineers</b><br>
Yet none of these fixes will come to much unless climate
listlessness is tackled head on. Western countries grew wealthy on a
carbon-heavy diet of industrial development. They must honour their
commitment in the Paris agreement to help poorer places both adapt
to a warmer Earth and also abate future emissions without
sacrificing the growth needed to leave poverty behind.<br>
Averting climate change will come at a short-term financial cost -
although the shift from carbon may eventually enrich the economy, as
the move to carbon-burning cars, lorries and electricity did in the
20th century. Politicians have an essential role to play in making
the case for reform and in ensuring that the most vulnerable do not
bear the brunt of the change. Perhaps global warming will help them
fire up the collective will. Sadly, the world looks poised to get a
lot hotter first.<br>
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition
under the headline "In the line of fire"<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/08/02/the-world-is-losing-the-war-against-climate-change">https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/08/02/the-world-is-losing-the-war-against-climate-change</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Propublica Levees video on models]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/levees">How
"levee wars" are making floods worse</a></b><br>
Vox video <b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/LTv6RkFnelM">https://youtu.be/LTv6RkFnelM</a></b><br>
Published on Aug 6, 2018<br>
Explained with a giant, scientific model. <br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/LTv6RkFnelM">To See
How Levees Increase Flooding, We Built Our Own</a><br>
In our latest Vox+ProPublica collaboration, we dive into how a
structure that's designed to protect us from floods, may actually be
making them worse. High levees come at a high cost, often pushing
water into communities that can't afford the same protection. To
demonstrate, we built a giant, scientific model of a river with
levees - complete with adorable tiny houses. <br>
Levees - massive earthen or concrete structures that keep rivers
confined to their channels - tame the flow of rivers and make life
possible for the millions of people who live behind them. But they
come with often-unexamined risks, as they can make floods worse for
the communities across the river or upstream from them.<br>
Related story: Flood Thy Neighbor: Who stays dry and who decides?<br>
This is well-known to scientists and supported by basic physics, but
we wanted to see it for ourselves. So, instead of waiting for a huge
flood, we built our own.<br>
ProPublica and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting
hired engineers at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory at the
University of Minnesota in Minneapolis to build a physical model of
four levee scenarios to see how levee height and placement choices
can put surrounding communities on the floodplain - the low-lying
land near river channels - at greater risk of flooding.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/levees">https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/levees</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/LTv6RkFnelM">https://youtu.be/LTv6RkFnelM</a><br>
- - - -<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.propublica.org/article/levee-valley-park-flood-thy-neighbor-who-stays-dry-and-who-decides">Flood
Thy Neighbor: Who Stays Dry and Who Decides?</a></b><br>
One Missouri town's levee saga captures what's wrong with America's
approach to controlling rivers.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.propublica.org/article/levee-valley-park-flood-thy-neighbor-who-stays-dry-and-who-decides">https://www.propublica.org/article/levee-valley-park-flood-thy-neighbor-who-stays-dry-and-who-decides</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Electro-Opining]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/8/3/17638246/national-energy-grid-renewables-transmission">We've
been talking about a national grid for years. It might be time
to do it.</a></b><br>
A massive new study confirms a national energy grid would pay for
itself.<br>
By David Roberts<br>
<font size="-1"><span class="moz-txt-link-freetext"><a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/8/3/17638246/national-energy-grid-renewables-transmission">https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/8/3/17638246/national-energy-grid-renewables-transmission</a></span><span
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"></span></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Mothers of Invention - a feminist podcast]<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.mothersofinvention.online/thewhitemanstoletheweather">EPISODE
2: DIVESTMENT</a></b><br>
<a
href="https://soundcloud.com/user-716066709/episode-2-the-white-man-stole-the-weather">The
White Man Stole the Weather</a><br>
Mary and Maeve are talking about money, money. Fighting climate
change might be a moral necessity but women are learning to hit
vested interests where it hurts the most, in the pocket. They hear
from South Africa where the anti-apartheid movement demonstrated the
power of the boycott in the 80s before flipping the same tactics to
the climate fight. In the US, a wave of organised student
campaigning on campuses is helping popularise the divestment
movement but it was Standing Rock when indigenous women's leadership
took divestment into the big time, with billions of dollars now
moving out of fossil fuels.<br>
<font size="-1"><a
href="https://soundcloud.com/user-716066709/episode-2-the-white-man-stole-the-weather">Podcast
audio</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://soundcloud.com/user-716066709/episode-2-the-white-man-stole-the-weather">https://soundcloud.com/user-716066709/episode-2-the-white-man-stole-the-weather</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.mothersofinvention.online/thewhitemanstoletheweather">https://www.mothersofinvention.online/thewhitemanstoletheweather</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Classic culture]<b><br>
<a
href="https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2018/08/06/out-of-sight-not-out-of-mind-hearing-the-voices-of-the-future/">Out
of Sight, Not Out of Mind - Hearing the Voices o</a><a
href="https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2018/08/06/out-of-sight-not-out-of-mind-hearing-the-voices-of-the-future/">f
the Future</a></b><br>
Marte Royeng <br>
When I was little and heard the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin,
I imagined hearing ghosts - muted wailing from hidden voices. I
wondered about the children lured away by the Pied Piper into the
depths of a mountain: Wouldn't they still be alive, only out of
sight? Who would care for them?<br>
It's an unsettling story. It ends with an entire town's children
disappearing. Their parents refuse to pay the Piper for ridding the
town of rats, and for this they receive the worst possible
punishment - sons and daughters are taken away in the night, never
to return.<br>
<br>
Hardly a nice ending for a family musical.<br>
But it is a great story for a family musical addressing
sustainability. By taking away the children, the Pied Piper
essentially robs the town of its entire future.<br>
<br>
In the spring of 2012, the Oslo-based group Scenelusa Productions
premiered a brand new musical, Rottefangeren (The Rat Catcher). It
explores how a community responds to difficult changes, eventually
overcomes greed, and realizes what's truly valuable.<br>
<font size="-1">- - - -<br>
</font>There's a need for those who can dig deeply to find the root
of the problem.<br>
Limper and the Pied Piper show the town that the solution is not
simply to get rid of rats, but to become more generous. For their
future to be sustainable, people will need to look further than
their doorstep. They have to consider the voices of the invisible,
counting those who are far away and out of sight.<br>
Limper's morality makes him set out to rescue the other children,
regardless of how badly they treated him. They are part of his
world, and so what hurts them hurts him too.<br>
The musical does get a nice, happy ending. The Pied Piper returns
the children when the town finally realizes what matters most.<br>
But for the young people on stage, what was important about all of
this? What holds value to them, in their reality?<br>
My guess: To have someone pay attention. And listen.<br>
<font size="-1">This article was originally published on HowlRound,
a knowledge commons by and for the theatre community, on April 25,
2015.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2018/08/06/out-of-sight-not-out-of-mind-hearing-the-voices-of-the-future/">https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2018/08/06/out-of-sight-not-out-of-mind-hearing-the-voices-of-the-future/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[famous cartoonist]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/08/07/stop-pretending-yes-we-know-about-climate-change-and-it-turns-out-weve-always-known/?utm_term=.362da09b4d04">Stop
pretending. Yes, we know about climate change, and it turns out
we've ALWAYS known.</a></b><br>
By Tom Toles - August 7 <br>
The infuriating part of the climate-change debate has been … well,
everything. The first thing is that it has been a debate at all. The
science is clear. It's actually, at its core, amazingly simple:
Carbon dioxide traps heat. Who knew? Everybody.<br>
<br>
Consequences? We could start with the largest wildfire in
California's history. But we don't need to stop there. And the
climate isn't going to. Record fires, record drought, record storms,
record flooding. We have already baked ourselves into this cake. And
what have we been doing about the recipe? Being monumentally stupid,
is what. There's no other word for it. Actually, there are lots more
words. Arrogant. Suicidal. Greedy. Dishonest. Selfish. Lazy.<br>
<br>
For those who have spent their energies over the past 30 years
deliberately spreading dishonest uncertainty about this subject, may
you live long enough to see the damage you have wrought (meaning:
still be alive right now). May you sit back contentedly and watch
people's homes and lives be destroyed as a result of your efforts.
Congratulations! A life well-lived. Because what you have tried so
hard to sell has been a lie from the beginning. Because the science
was clear enough a half century ago. And we could have begun to
solve the problem then, and according to a lengthy article in the
New York Times, we almost did.<br>
The only problem with this heartbreaking account is that it sounds a
lot like "too late." Oh, if only those people had acted back then!
But this would suit the interests of fossil-fuel profiteers just
fine. They have been smoothing our feathers all this time by cooing,
"It's too SOON to act on climate; let's wait till the science is
settled." How convenient for them to be able to now ruefully shake
their heads and tell us, "Oh, sorry, actually now it's too LATE."<br>
<br>
It may indeed be too late to avoid some of the calamity we have
blundered and burned our way into, but it's not too late to stop
amplifying the disaster to unimaginable levels. People, meaning you,
could reasonably plead ignorance at one time, but that time is over.
The story of missed opportunity is a story we are still writing
today. Now that we know beyond a doubt, now that we can see it, now
that we can feel it, what is our excuse today? What is your excuse?
Time to speak up. Time to demand. Time to act. Right now.<br>
<font size="-1">Tom Toles is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial
cartoonist for The Post and writes the Tom Toles blog. His latest
book is "The Madhouse Effect," a book about climate and
climate-change denial co-authored with climate scientist Michael
Mann. Follow </font><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/08/07/stop-pretending-yes-we-know-about-climate-change-and-it-turns-out-weve-always-known/?utm_term=.362da09b4d04">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/08/07/stop-pretending-yes-we-know-about-climate-change-and-it-turns-out-weve-always-known/?utm_term=.362da09b4d04</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/07/us/california-fires-mendocino.html">This
Day in Climate History - August 8, 2018</a> [today] - from
D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
August 8, 2018: The New York Times reports:<br>
<blockquote>"Inside the state's emergency command center here, the
numbers on a large screen show the scope and reach of California's
record-setting wildfire season glowing in red, blue and yellow:
nearly 600,000 acres burned. More than 13,000 firefighters
battling blazes. More than 2,300 members of the National Guard
pulled into the fight.<br>
<br>
"The numbers, though, do not begin to tell the story of the
challenge and complexity of the firefighting effort, with
temperatures still soaring. Fires are moving faster than anyone
has ever seen, and barriers that in years past contained fires -
bulldozer lines, highways, rivers - are now no match. By midday
Tuesday the numbers had already climbed, as more acres burned and
more personnel had been rushed to the fires.<br>
<br>
"All of this comes as California is fighting approximately 17
large fires simultaneously, including the largest in the state's
recorded history. The fire season that has already scorched nearly
three times the number of acres over the same period last year has
tested the state's firefighting resources like never before."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/07/us/california-fires-mendocino.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/07/us/california-fires-mendocino.html</a> <br>
<br>
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