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<font size="+1"><i>September 6, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[The Daily Distress]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/trump-adds-physicist-will-happer-climate-science-opponent-white-house-staff">Trump
adds physicist Will Happer, climate science critic, to White
House staff</a></b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/trump-adds-physicist-will-happer-climate-science-opponent-white-house-staff">http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/trump-adds-physicist-will-happer-climate-science-opponent-white-house-staff</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Heroic opinion from a woman born into a comic book dynasty]<br>
<b><a
href="https://onbeing.org/blog/kate-marvel-we-need-courage-not-hope-to-face-climate-change/">We
Need Courage, Not Hope, To Face Climate Change</a></b><br>
BY KATE MARVEL (@DRKATEMARVEL), CONTRIBUTING EDITOR<br>
As a climate scientist, I am often asked to talk about hope.
Particularly in the current political climate, audiences want to be
told that everything will be all right in the end. And,
unfortunately, I have a deep-seated need to be liked and a natural
tendency to optimism that leads me to accept more speaking
invitations than is good for me. Climate change is bleak, the
organizers always say. Tell us a happy story. Give us hope. The
problem is, I don't have any...<br>
- - - -<br>
I have lived a fortunate, charmed, loved life. This means I have
infinite, gullible faith in the goodness of the individual. But I
have none whatsoever in the collective. How else can it be that the
sum total of so many tiny acts of kindness is a world incapable of
stopping something so eminently stoppable? California burns. Islands
and coastlines are smashed by hurricanes. At night the stars are
washed out by city lights and the world is illuminated by the
flickering ugliness of reality television. We burn coal and oil and
gas, heedless of the consequences.<br>
<br>
Our laws are changeable and shifting; the laws of physics are fixed.
Change is already underway; individual worries and sacrifices have
not slowed it. Hope is a creature of privilege: we know that things
will be lost, but it is comforting to believe that others will bear
the brunt of it.<br>
<br>
We are the lucky ones who suffer little tragedies unmoored from the
brutality of history. Our loved ones are taken from us one by one
through accident or illness, not wholesale by war or natural
disaster. But the scale of climate change engulfs even the most
fortunate. There is now no weather we haven't touched, no wilderness
immune from our encroaching pressure. The world we once knew is
never coming back.<br>
<br>
I have no hope that these changes can be reversed. We are inevitably
sending our children to live on an unfamiliar planet. But the
opposite of hope is not despair. It is grief. Even while resolving
to limit the damage, we can mourn. And here, the sheer scale of the
problem provides a perverse comfort: we are in this together. The
swiftness of the change, its scale and inevitability, binds us into
one, broken hearts trapped together under a warming atmosphere.<br>
<br>
We need courage, not hope. Grief, after all, is the cost of being
alive. We are all fated to live lives shot through with sadness, and
are not worth less for it. Courage is the resolve to do well without
the assurance of a happy ending. Little molecules, random in their
movement, add together to a coherent whole. Little lives do not. But
here we are, together on a planet radiating ever more into space
where there is no darkness, only light we cannot see.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://onbeing.org/blog/kate-marvel-we-need-courage-not-hope-to-face-climate-change/">https://onbeing.org/blog/kate-marvel-we-need-courage-not-hope-to-face-climate-change/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Clearly explaining sites and videos]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA0wOoMscXI">Climate
Change is an Existential Threat to Civilisation</a></b><br>
Video introduction <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA0wOoMscXI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA0wOoMscXI</a><br>
<blockquote><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WiiP2KTRXg">Climate One,
Climate Change and the Threat to Civilization</a> with Michael
Mann (2018) <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WiiP2KTRXg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WiiP2KTRXg</a><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmmFwfF8Gig">Veerabhadran
Ramanathan: Climate change morphing into an existential problem</a>
at Cambridge Climate Lecture Series<br>
(2017) <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmmFwfF8Gig">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmmFwfF8Gig</a><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/humanity-s-most-existential-risks-are-getting-worse-heres-why">World
Economic Forum: Humanity's most existential risks are getting
worse</a>. Here's a major reason why
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/humanity-s-most-existential-risks-are-getting-worse-heres-why">https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/humanity-s-most-existential-risks-are-getting-worse-heres-why</a><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/05/1009782">UN
Secretary-General, Climate change: An 'existential threat' to
humanity</a>, UN chief warns global summit <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/05/1009782">https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/05/1009782</a><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/new-climate-risk-classification-created-account-potential-existential-threats">New
Climate Risk Classification Created to Account for Potential
"Existential" Threats</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/new-climate-risk-classification-created-account-potential-existential-threats">https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/new-climate-risk-classification-created-account-potential-existential-threats</a><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nLEXXvXRY8">David Spratt
speaks 2014, at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology</a>.
We've reached a Point where we have a Crisis, an Emergency <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nLEXXvXRY8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nLEXXvXRY8</a><br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://climatestate.com/2018/09/05/climate-change-is-an-existential-threat-to-civilisation/">http://climatestate.com/2018/09/05/climate-change-is-an-existential-threat-to-civilisation/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[NASA on methane]<br>
FEATURE | August 20, 2018<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2785/unexpected-future-boost-of-methane-possible-from-arctic-permafrost/">Unexpected
future boost of methane possible from Arctic permafrost</a></b><br>
By Ellen Gray,<br>
NASA's Earth Science News Team<br>
New NASA-funded research has discovered that Arctic permafrost's
expected gradual thawing and the associated release of greenhouse
gases to the atmosphere may actually be sped up by instances of a
relatively little known process called abrupt thawing. Abrupt
thawing takes place under a certain type of Arctic lake, known as a
thermokarst lake that forms as permafrost thaws.<br>
The impact on the climate may mean an influx of permafrost-derived
methane into the atmosphere in the mid-21st century, which is not
currently accounted for in climate projections.<br>
The Arctic landscape stores one of the largest natural reservoirs of
organic carbon in the world in its frozen soils. But once thawed,
soil microbes in the permafrost can turn that carbon into the
greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane, which then enter into
the atmosphere and contribute to climate warming.<br>
"The mechanism of abrupt thaw and thermokarst lake formation matters
a lot for the permafrost-carbon feedback this century," said first
author Katey Walter Anthony at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks,
who led the project that was part of NASA's Arctic-Boreal
Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), a ten-year program to understand
climate change effects on the Arctic. "We don't have to wait 200 or
300 years to get these large releases of permafrost carbon. Within
my lifetime, my children's lifetime, it should be ramping up. It's
already happening but it's not happening at a really fast rate right
now, but within a few decades, it should peak."...<br>
- -- - <br>
Because the thermokarst lakes are relatively small and scattered
throughout the Arctic landscapes, computer models of their behavior
are not currently incorporated into global climate models. However,
Walter Anthony believes including them in future models is important
for understanding the role of permafrost in the global carbon
budget. Human fossil fuel emissions are the number one source of
greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, and in comparison, methane
emissions from thawing permafrost make up only one percent of the
global methane budget, Walter Anthony said. "But by the middle to
end of the century the permafrost-carbon feedback should be about
equivalent to the second strongest anthropogenic source of
greenhouse gases, which is land use change," she said.<br>
To learn more about ABoVE, visit <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://above.nasa.gov/">https://above.nasa.gov/</a>.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2785/unexpected-future-boost-of-methane-possible-from-arctic-permafrost/">https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2785/unexpected-future-boost-of-methane-possible-from-arctic-permafrost/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[From ClimateNexus]<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://mailchi.mp/climatenexus/trump-taps-fossil-fuel-shill-for-nsc-fema-sent-bottom-of-the-barrel-workers-to-puerto-rico-more?e=95b355344d"><b>Two
New Studies Show Engagement With Climate Allows Deniers To Move
Beyond Heuristics</b></a><strong><br>
</strong><span style="font-family:helvetica
neue,helvetica,arial,verdana,sans-serif"><strong></strong></span>One
of the key <a
href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7a6a29b083&e=95b355344d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #dd2953;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration: underline;">social and political drivers</a>
of climate denial is political polarization: most conservatives see
the issue as a liberal concern, and therefore don't care. It's a
heuristic, a mental shortcut the brain uses to maximize efficiency
and speed in decision-making. Any information they hear about the
subject gets filtered through that lens, making it all but
impossible for the GOP to treat the issue seriously. This has long
been a key strategy of organized denial, and explains why the far
right still reference Al Gore at bizarre and unrelated times.<br>
<br>
Since there's little chance of changing deeply held ideological
beliefs like this, it's been a tough spot for climate change
activists. But two recently published studies provide something of a
common sense answer of how to get people to care about climate
change: find a way to make them engage with the science, impacts and
solutions.<br>
<br>
One study, <a
href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=3a4431e892&e=95b355344d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #dd2953;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration: underline;">published in PLOS One last
week</a>, had research subjects participate in a mock UN climate
negotiation with an interactive <a
href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=59d74e1388&e=95b355344d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #dd2953;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration: underline;">climate policy simulator</a>.
The researchers found that the simulator led to a greater
understanding of the issue, more feelings of hope and urgency, and a
desire to find out and do more about climate change.<br>
<br>
Notably, the authors write in the abstract that improvements in
perspective "were just as strong among American participants who
oppose government regulation of free markets–a political ideology
that has been linked to climate change denial in the US–suggesting
the simulation's potential to reach across political divides."<br>
<br>
Through the process of role-playing as negotiators, participants
were allowed to tinker with emissions trajectories to see what sort
of pathways lead to what levels of warming. This forced them to
think about the issue deeply and at length, leading to greater
levels of understanding and concern, even among anti-regulatory
conservatives. The process meant conservatives could not merely use
their ideology as a heuristic, but instead had to go through the
process of truly considering the impacts of GHG emissions and
reckoning with emission reductions.<br>
<br>
<a
href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=6b113fc3ce&e=95b355344d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #dd2953;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration: underline;">The second study</a>,
published yesterday in the <a
href="https://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=c8262fc287&e=95b355344d"
style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust:
100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #dd2953;font-weight:
normal;text-decoration: underline;">Proceedings of the National
Academies of Science</a>, takes a different tact but also shows
pathways for reducing political polarization on climate.<br>
<br>
In this study, researchers started with a graph of sea ice from
NASA, which shows a decline over the long term with a slight jump up
in the last year of data (2013). Because of the graph line's bounce
off the bottom, 25% of Democrats and 40% of Republicans (wrongly)
predicted that the trend shows sea ice cover going up.<br>
<br>
After an initial assessment, the subjects were assigned to one of
three different artificial social networks to discuss the graph with
other participants, then reassess their prediction about the trend.
In one group, each user's political affiliation was shown through
their social contacts. In a second, users were anonymous but an
elephant and a donkey were used to symbolize political affiliation.
In a third, there was no political information and people were
anonymous.<br>
<br>
In the anonymous group, people actually discussed the chart
rationally, resulting in 85% of both Republicans and Democrats
correctly believing the sea-ice trend was going down. The other two
groups, where political identity was a factor, did not show this
score change. In other words, people wouldn't listen to members of
the other parties.<br>
<br>
Unfortunately, in the real world it is often nearly impossible to
separate a social network's user from their political affiliations.
American flags, "X"'s, red roses, a raised fist: there are all sorts
of markers we use to identify ourselves to our tribe, and generally
for good reason. In the world where our brains spent thousands of
years developing, recognizing one's own tribe could mean the
difference between victory and death.<br>
<br>
The world has changed, but our brains have not.<br>
<br>
Now, sadly, recognizing one's tribe may still mean the difference
between victory and defeat. Except ignoring tribal partisanship that
may be our only hope at victory, and the inability to do so is
leading to defeat. <br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://mailchi.mp/climatenexus/trump-taps-fossil-fuel-shill-for-nsc-fema-sent-bottom-of-the-barrel-workers-to-puerto-rico-more?e=95b355344d">https://mailchi.mp/climatenexus/trump-taps-fossil-fuel-shill-for-nsc-fema-sent-bottom-of-the-barrel-workers-to-puerto-rico-more?e=95b355344d</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[NYC Activism Thurs Sept 6]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://www.pcmny.org/events">RISE
FOR CLIMATE, JOBS, AND JUSTICE: NOW IS THE TIME FOR ACTION!!</a></b><br>
5:30PM THURSDAY<br>
SEPT 6<br>
BATTERY PARK, NEW YORK, NY<br>
Our country is in crisis. The global climate crisis deepens at
unprecedented speed. Rising sea levels, devastating storms and
flooding, extreme wildfires, and food and water shortages are
already causing mass migration, the destruction of island nations
and the loss of life. We can no longer accept "business as usual" as
the world hits the tipping points of climate change with no return.
We must act now.<br>
Days before the Global Climate Action Summit convenes in San
Francisco, people across the country and around the world will take
to the streets demanding that our elected officials commit to the
most far-reaching and effective policies possible. <br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.pcmny.org/events">https://www.pcmny.org/events</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Paleo-climatology.. German documentary in 2 parts YouTube]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IL-TeV-cqY">How Climate
Made History Pt. 1 | Full documentary</a></b><br>
hazards and catastrophes<br>
Published on Jul 8, 2017<br>
A unique combination of natural science and history takes us through
the ages and along the entire spectrum of natural forces. The
gripping narrative exposes surprising connections between volatile
climate shifts and major historical events.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IL-TeV-cqY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IL-TeV-cqY</a></font><br>
- - - - -<br>
[second part - excellent documentary YouTube]<b><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaKpsOz8Nsw"><br>
How Climate Made History Pt. 2 | Full Documentary</a></b><br>
hazards and catastrophes<br>
Published on Jul 8, 2017<br>
A unique combination of natural science and history takes us through
the ages and along the entire spectrum of natural forces. The
gripping narrative exposes surprising connections between volatile
climate shifts and major historical events.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaKpsOz8Nsw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaKpsOz8Nsw</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
[Vita brevis est]<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/sep/04/climate-signals-climate-change-installation-new-york?CMP=share_btn_link">'Art
can play a valuable role': climate change installations appear
in New York</a></b><br>
Solar-powered highway signs have been placed in the city's five
boroughs as part of the Climate Signals installation<br>
The existential threat of climate change is being spelled out to New
Yorkers via a selection of flashing highway signs that have been
placed around the city.<br>
The 10 large solar-powered signs have been placed in locations in
each of New York's five boroughs, including areas deemed
particularly vulnerable to the sea level rise and powerful storms
associated with climate change, including the Rockaways in Queens
and the west side of Manhattan.<br>
Messages such as "Climate change at work" and "Climate denial kills"
will be displayed in English, as well as in languages commonly
spoken in the areas they will be deployed, such as Spanish, Russian
and French.<br>
The signs are part of a project by the Climate Museum and a host of
partners, including the New York City's mayor's office. The
installation, called Climate Signals, has been done by Justin Brice
Guariglia, an artist who regularly focuses on environmental themes
in his work.<br>
"These signs sound a warning about the climate crisis and they call
us to think and act on the issue," said Miranda Massie, director of
the Climate Museum. "When you see a flashing traffic signal your
initial response is that there are uncertain conditions ahead, and
that is exactly what climate change is. This is the perfect medium
for bringing up this alert."<br>
Some of the sites will include elements such as voter registration
and appearances by climate scientists. Massie said the work is not
overtly activist in nature, despite the unfolding agenda of Donald
Trump, a native of Queens, to dismiss the science of climate change
and dismantle policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.<br>
"Anyone who is aware of the climate crisis is appalled and alarmed
by the disgraceful assault by the administration on climate
progress," she said. "But this project isn't political in a narrow
sense, it's about social and cultural action. We need a social shift
to deal with climate change. It shouldn't be a political lightning
rod."<br>
Daniel Zarrilli, New York City's chief resilience officer, said:
"Climate change is one of New York City's greatest challenges and
requires creative approaches to educate and engage all of us about
its risks and solutions. Art can play a valuable role in this
effort."<br>
Climate Signals will be visible across New York City until 6
November<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/sep/04/climate-signals-climate-change-installation-new-york?CMP=share_btn_link">https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/sep/04/climate-signals-climate-change-installation-new-york?CMP=share_btn_link</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/exclusive-audio-koch-brothers-seminar-tapes/">This
Day in Climate History - September 6, 2011 </a>- from D.R.
Tucker</b></font><br>
September 6, 2011:<br>
<blockquote>On MotherJones.com, investigative journalist Brad
Friedman posts audio from a secretive June 2011 conference in
Colorado hosted by climate-change-denying libertarian billionaires
Charles and David Koch. In one clip, Charles Koch compares
President Obama to Saddam Hussein. That evening, Friedman
discusses the conference on MSNBC's "The Ed Show."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/exclusive-audio-koch-brothers-seminar-tapes/">http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/exclusive-audio-koch-brothers-seminar-tapes/</a>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/7qLiEB4Ed_E">http://youtu.be/7qLiEB4Ed_E</a><br>
<br>
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