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<font size="+1"><i>September 16, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[still burning West]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://wildfiretoday.com/2018/09/13/fire-activity-picks-up-in-utah-and-colorado/">Fire
activity picks up in Utah and Colorado</a></b><br>
At least five large wildfires are growing in the two states<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://wildfiretoday.com/2018/09/13/fire-activity-picks-up-in-utah-and-colorado/">https://wildfiretoday.com/2018/09/13/fire-activity-picks-up-in-utah-and-colorado/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[USAToday]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/09/16/hurricane-florence-flooding-mudslides-power-out-north-carolina/1326943002/">Florence
bringing 'catastrophic' flooding, mudslides deep into North
Carolina</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/09/16/hurricane-florence-flooding-mudslides-power-out-north-carolina/1326943002/">https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/09/16/hurricane-florence-flooding-mudslides-power-out-north-carolina/1326943002/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[PRI's The World - audio and text report]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-09-13/scientists-say-25-years-left-fight-climate-change">Scientists
say 25 years left to fight climate change</a></b><br>
Livable Planet - PRI's The World<br>
By Craig Miller - September 13, 2018<br>
You can think of global warming kind of like popping a bag of
popcorn in the microwave.<br>
Anthropogenic, or human-caused, warming has been stoked by
increasing amounts of heat-trapping pollution since the start of the
industrial age more than 200 years ago. But that first hundred years
or so was kind of like the first minute for that popcorn -- no real
sign of much happening.<br>
But then you get to that second minute, and the kernels really start
doing their thing. And you can think of all those individual pops as
extreme weather events -- superstorms, extreme downpours, high-tide
flooding, droughts, melting glaciers, ferocious wildfires. They're
like the signals that the climate is changing.<br>
And in popcorn terms, "we are in that second minute," says Inez
Fung, an atmospheric scientist at UC Berkeley -- in the throes of a
problem we can now see unfolding all around us.<br>
"Thirty years ago we predicted it in the models, and now I'm
experiencing it," Fung says. "You see the fires in the western US
and British Columbia. And then at the same time, we've got fires, it
rained three feet in Hilo, Hawaii, from [a] hurricane -- that is a
new record at the same time that we have droughts and fires, over
300 people died in India from floods. We are not prepared. "...<br>
- - - -<br>
All this grim talk might lead one to ask what point there is in
trying to reverse the climate train.<br>
But recently refined climate models suggest that aggressively
cutting emissions could at least blunt the impact of continued
warming. It could, for example, reduce periods of extreme heat in
California's capital Sacramento from two weeks a year to as little
as two days. The snowpack in the state's Sierra Nevada mountains
might shrink by "just" 20 percent, rather than 75 percent.<br>
That's the optimistic scenario...<br>
- - - - -<br>
"First thing we have to do as a global community is reverse course
rather sharply," says Collins. "We think it is technically
feasible."<br>
Technically feasible, perhaps, but not easy. California, for
instance, has the most aggressive efforts to cut greenhouse gases in
the US and overall, it's working -- total emissions are down 13
percent since 2004. Still, climate emissions from cars and trucks
are on the rise.<br>
"Our cars are literally our time machines," Collins says. And
they're taking us backward.<br>
"They're taking the atmosphere to a chemical state that it has not
been in for millions of years," he says. "Currently, we have as much
carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere as we did five million
years ago."<br>
In the space of a little over 230 years since the start of
industrialization, Collins says "our steam engines, our factories,
our cars…they've taken us back five million years."<br>
And Collins says we have about 25 years -- roughly one generation --
to reverse course.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-09-13/scientists-say-25-years-left-fight-climate-change">https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-09-13/scientists-say-25-years-left-fight-climate-change</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Just mention it]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elizabeth-warren-leads-push-by-democrats-to-force-public-companies-make-climate-risk-disclosures-2018-09-14">Elizabeth
Warren leads push by Democrats to force public companies make
climate-risk disclosures</a></b><br>
Published: Sept 15, 2018 10:37 <br>
The Climate Risk Disclosure Act directs the SEC to issue rules that
require every public company to disclose more on climate change
exposure<br>
FRANCINE MCKENNA - REPORTER<br>
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is spearheading an effort by
Democratic senators to bring a bill that would require public
companies to disclose more information about their exposure to
climate-related risks.<br>
The bill, called the Climate Risk Disclosure Act, would direct the
SEC, in consultation with climate experts at other federal agencies,
to issue rules within one year that require every public company to
disclose:<br>
<blockquote>• Direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions<br>
• All fossil-fuel related assets it owns or manages<br>
• The effect on the company's market valuation if climate change
continues at its current pace or if greenhouse gas emissions were
restricted in compliance with the Paris accord goal; and<br>
• What strategies are in place to address the physical and
transition risks posed by climate change.<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1">more at: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elizabeth-warren-leads-push-by-democrats-to-force-public-companies-make-climate-risk-disclosures-2018-09-14">https://www.marketwatch.com/story/elizabeth-warren-leads-push-by-democrats-to-force-public-companies-make-climate-risk-disclosures-2018-09-14</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Video w/ Media Matters]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj4pRlk7Nkk">Media
Coverage of Hurricane Florence Leaves Out Crucial Information</a></b><br>
TheRealNews -Published on Sep 15, 2018<br>
Analyses of the media coverage of hurricane Florence show that most
outlets leave out the link to climate change and the real dangers
the hurricane presents for creating toxic spills. We speak to Lisa
Hyams of Media Matters for America<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj4pRlk7Nkk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj4pRlk7Nkk</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/09/14/scientists-warned-of-rising-sea-levels-in-north-carolina-republican-lawmakers-shelved-their-recommendations/?utm_term=.b59bdb5c50dd">Scientists
warned of rising sea levels in North Carolina. Republican
lawmakers shelved their recommendations.</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/09/14/scientists-warned-of-rising-sea-levels-in-north-carolina-republican-lawmakers-shelved-their-recommendations/?utm_term=.b59bdb5c50dd">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/09/14/scientists-warned-of-rising-sea-levels-in-north-carolina-republican-lawmakers-shelved-their-recommendations/?utm_term=.b59bdb5c50dd</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[from the California meetings]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/09/14/major-shift-nations-face-bottom-pressure-act-climate-change/">'Major
shift': Nations face bottom-up pressure to act on climate change</a></b><br>
A California summit of business, city and state leaders ends with a
call on national governments to increase their pledges to the Paris
climate deal<br>
By Karl Mathiesen in San Francisco Published on 14/09/2018<br>
Cities, states and business from around the world will call on
national governments to redouble their efforts to fight climate
change, as a summit in San Francisco ends on Friday.<br>
The 'call to action' will ask nations to update their pledges to the
Paris Agreement at a meeting hosted by UN secretary general Antonio
Guterres in one year's time in New York, according to organisers of
the Global Climate Action Summit.<br>
Currently, the collective pledges under the Paris Agreement set the
world on course for a disastrous level of warming.<br>
The emergence of 'subnational' actors in the fight against climate
change comes as UN talks between countries are mired in technical
struggles over the rules of the Paris Agreement they signed in 2015.<br>
WWF's Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, a former Peruvian minister who was on the
summit's advisory committee, said national governments would have
"the wind at their backs" and be able to strike a deal on the rules
when they meet in Poland in December.<br>
If the rules for the deal can be agreed, then attention turns to how
fast countries are using it to cut emissions. Deeper cuts to
greenhouse pollution "really rest on the generation of political
will from the ground up", Elliot Diringer, executive vice president
of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, told Climate Home
News.<br>
Mayors and city officials CHN spoke to said they felt pressure to
act on climate change because they were in direct contact with its
effect on people.<br>
Milanese mayor Giuseppe Sala said the commitments made at his level
of government could drive action higher up.<br>
"If we do something good in a city then the government can be pushed
to copy that," he said. "If I fly back to Milan and I tell the
journalists and people I want to do this and that because I agreed
with the other mayors of main cities of the world, I will be
stronger."<br>
The gathering this week, which was organised by California governor
Jerry Brown, saw a host of announcements coming from what
participants dubbed the 'real economy'.<br>
Those included:<br>
<blockquote>- The $20.7bn Indian conglomerate Mahindra Group
committed its business to carbon neutrality by 2040<br>
-Jurisdictions and companies representing more than 122 million
people announced zero-emissions vehicle targets. To back that up,
plans for millions of new charging points were unveiled<br>
-Wales and 9 states, cities and territories joined a global
alliance to end coal power<br>
-Brown signed an executive order to make California carbon neutral
by 2045 and said the state would be launching its "own damn
satellite" to monitor carbon pollution sources around the world.<br>
</blockquote>
The summit, as a concept, predates the election of Donald Trump. But
limiting the impact of his presidency was the dominant narrative in
San Francisco. Brown said Trump's roll back of pollution regulations
would lead him to be remembered as a "liar, criminal, fool".<br>
<br>
"In the US right now it's not happening at the national level," said
Dan Zarrilli, chief climate advisor in the New York mayor's office.
"This is everyone else coming together to fill that void."<br>
To that end, 3,000 US states cities and business have promised to
cut down on carbon. A report released in San Francisco found current
commitments would bring US emissions 17% below 2005 levels by 2025 -
the US Paris pledge was 26-28%.<br>
One of the architects of the Paris Agreement, European Climate
Foundation CEO Laurence Tubiana said the evidence that many cities
and states from around the world felt bound to the climate deal
their governments had signed "in my view is a major shift in global
governance".<br>
The various pledges will be uploaded to a UN website, but Tubiana
said there was is "no proper system" of accountability or measuring
them against "counter forces".<br>
"I think that the worst problem concerning this myriad of
commitments is that you don't know how significant they are for the
real economy," said Tubiana.<br>
"Yes, you want to guard against bullshit greenwashing," said
Diringer. But he added: "We can't really create systems to track and
measure it all, you just need to do it… It's too late to create the
perfect system."<br>
<br>
The summit was dominated by commitments from the developed world.
The mayor of Durban Zandile Gumede told a press conference 60% of
her denizens were without reliable electricity.<br>
She said: "We have not reached the peak emissions and we do not
intend to", but added that she was trying to find a cleaner future
for her city.<br>
Outside on Thursday, protesters blocked entrances to the downtown
conference centre. More actions were planned for Friday, organisers
told CHN, to highlight the fact that the conference was only
addressing emissions and not the production of fossil fuels. Much of
the anger was directed towards Brown's licencing of new oil and gas
fields as governor.<br>
On Friday, protestors also infiltrated the summit, interrupting a
speech by billionaire Michael Bloomberg.<br>
"They are trying to solve [climate change], as long as they are
making money," said Roberto Lopez, a protester who was handing out
badges to delegates as they arrived.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/09/14/major-shift-nations-face-bottom-pressure-act-climate-change/">http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/09/14/major-shift-nations-face-bottom-pressure-act-climate-change/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Opinion ]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.tribtalk.org/2018/09/14/polluters-should-bear-a-fair-share-of-the-costs-of-responding-to-climate-change/">Polluters
should bear a fair share of the costs of responding to climate
change</a></b><br>
By Robert D. Bullard, Sept. 14, 2018<br>
On the one year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey, voters in Harris
County approved a $2.5 billion flood bond measure to protect the
area from future storms. While taxpayers deserve credit for adopting
the measure, the question remains whether they should foot the bill
alone.<br>
<br>
The oil and gas companies most responsible for climate change and
the increasingly costly and deadly impacts it brings are located in
Harris County's own backyard. Why should they not pay their fair
share for the<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15092015/Exxons-own-research-confirmed-fossil-fuels-role-in-global-warming">
damages they knowingly caused</a>?<br>
A growing number of localities have started to raise this question
through the form of climate liability lawsuits, intended to recoup
costs and establish abatement funds to finance adaptation and
mitigation investments.<br>
<br>
In response to those suits, ExxonMobil filed a countersuit in a
Texas state court located near its headquarters in Irving, and
mobilized its <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22102015/Exxon-Sowed-Doubt-about-Climate-Science-for-Decades-by-Stressing-Uncertainty">infamous
network of front groups</a> to undermine any effort to hold the
industry accountable.<br>
But Exxon didn't stop there. As a result of the lawsuits, ExxonMobil
and other climate polluters are now pushing a carbon tax in Congress
that contains a hidden provision which would give the industry
blanket immunity for the damages caused by its products.<br>
<br>
Exxon's "support" for a carbon tax should be seen as nothing more
than a shrewd maneuver to permanently push the costs of decades of
negligence onto taxpayers.<br>
That hasn't stopped the company and its allies from simultaneously
demanding taxpayers across the country, including those they are
currently suing, pay for the construction of a coastal barrier to
safeguard its refineries from the very climate impacts it caused.<br>
<br>
Why? They argue that refineries -- like Exxon's Baytown facility,
which was hit with a $20 million fine for the toxic pollution it
pumped into our communities -- are of national consequence.<br>
These days all one needs to do is turn on the television or step
outside to be reminded of the consequences that come from the oil
and gas industry, and that our present is the very future Big Oil
once warned of in internal memos, but did nothing to prevent.<br>
<br>
People in Houston know this better than most. Many of them are still
picking up the pieces from a superstorm that killed 89 people,
displaced 30,000 more and caused $126.3 billion in damages. Were it
not for climate change, scientists believe the record rainfall that
Houston experienced during Harvey would have been up to 38 percent
lower.<br>
Despite this, the ExxonMobils of the world continue business as
usual, expecting others to clean up their messes. Taxpayers can no
longer afford this double standard. Nor should they have to.<br>
<br>
Climate polluters not only knew their product was causing global
warming decades ago, but understood we only had a short window to
act. As a 1988 internal Shell memo marked "CONFIDENTIAL" cautioned,
"by the time the global warming becomes detectable it could be too
late to take effective countermeasures to reduce the effects or even
to stabilize the situation."<br>
<br>
The "catastrophic" impacts that Exxon scientists like Roger Cohen
and Shell warned of have arrived. As have the lawsuits that Shell
predicted would come as the American public grew weary of extreme
weather events and came to understand what the industry knew about
climate change, and when.<br>
Those lawsuits and other efforts to recover costs are long overdue.
Climate polluters bear the largest share of the blame for damages
caused by climate change. It should go without saying that they
should bear the largest share of the bill as well.<br>
<font size="-1">Disclosure: Texas Southern University and ExxonMobil
Corp. have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a
nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by
donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors.
Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.texastribune.org/support-us/corporate-sponsors/?_ga=2.206440083.1620226996.1537029127-2091290102.1537029127">Find
a complete list of them here</a>.</font><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.tribtalk.org/2018/09/14/polluters-should-bear-a-fair-share-of-the-costs-of-responding-to-climate-change/">https://www.tribtalk.org/2018/09/14/polluters-should-bear-a-fair-share-of-the-costs-of-responding-to-climate-change/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[cough, cough, hack, cough]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.opb.org/news/article/wildfire-fire-smoke-related-deaths-climate-change-warming/">Study:
Fire-Filled Future Could Lead To More Smoke-Related Deaths</a></b><br>
BY NPR Staff - SEP 14, 2018 <br>
BY ERIN ROSS, OPB<br>
Deaths related to air pollution from wildfires could double by the
end of the century, according to newly published research into the
links between climate change, wildfires and human health.<br>
The study, published Monday in the journal GeoHealth, looked at a
type of pollutants called PM2.5, which can be produced by cars,
industrial sources and fires. In the U.S., about 140,000 premature
deaths per year (roughly 6 percent of all deaths) are linked to PM
2.5. Of those deaths, about 17,000 are linked to wildfires. By the
end of the century, that number could increase to as many as 44,000
deaths related to wildfire smoke.<br>
"Overall, we're expecting that wildfire pollution is going to be a
larger portion of the health burden," says Bonne Ford, an
atmospheric scientist at Colorado State University and an author on
the study.<br>
PM 2.5 are just particulates in the air that are 2.5 microns in
size, which is extremely small. The particles' small size allows
them to get deeper into our lungs than other larger pollutants,
where they can cause short-term and long-term health problems. In
this study, the researchers looked at the amounts of PM 2.5 under
two different climate change scenarios: a middle of the road one and
a worst-case one. Then, they modeled how the interactions of
climate, land-use and population changes would change PM 2.5
concentrations. It is one of the first studies to take all three
factors into account.<br>
Even in the middle-of-the-road emissions scenarios, by 2100,
fire-related pollution would account for more than half of the PM
2.5 over the U.S. each year.<br>
Many of the areas with the largest increase in PM 2.5 don't come as
a surprise: the Northwest and California, for example, are already
experiencing larger, more frequent fires. But this model also showed
increases in pollution over the Great Lakes and other areas. That's
because smoke from fires on the West Coast, in Canada and in Alaska
can drift in the jet stream, spreading pollution far beyond where it
started.<br>
The study looked at deaths related to long-term exposure to PM 2.5,
but not smoke's effects on illnesses. Inhaler refills and
hospitalizations for respiratory illnesses go up when the air is
smoky. Babies born during smoky years have a lower birth weight.
Right now, Ford says, researchers also don't know which is worse:
long-term exposure to a little bit of pollution, or short-term
exposure to a lot of pollution. The future might hold a shift from
one to the other.<br>
There are some steps that can be taken to decrease the risk of
deaths from wildfire smoke, Ford says. The most obvious is to
mitigate the effects of climate change. Their research showed large
differences between the amount of smoke produced in
middle-of-the-road warming vs worst-case scenarios. It's also
important to stay inside when it's smoky and to make sure air
conditioners have functioning filters.<br>
There is some good news. PM 2.5 doesn't just come from fire smoke:
it's produced by a lot of sources, like cars and industry. And those
have been getting cleaner over the last century. Overall, total
deaths related to PM 2.5 are expected to decline in the U.S.,
particularly in areas that are already heavily polluted like the
Ohio River Valley.<br>
But in places like the Northwest, where wildfires are becoming
larger and more frequent, overall deaths will rise. It's becoming
normal to wake up with a scratchy throat and a post-apocalyptic
smoky orange sky.<br>
"We're trained from an early age to smell fire and know that it's a
danger. It's becoming a normal smell," Ford says, "It shouldn't be
something that you get used to."<font size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.opb.org/news/article/wildfire-fire-smoke-related-deaths-climate-change-warming/">https://www.opb.org/news/article/wildfire-fire-smoke-related-deaths-climate-change-warming/</a></font><br>
- - - - -<br>
[here's the academic study]<br>
Research Article Open Access<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018GH000144">Future
Fire Impacts on Smoke Concentrations, Visibility, and Health in
the Contiguous United States</a></b><br>
Abstract<br>
<blockquote>Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from U.S. anthropogenic
sources is decreasing. However, previous studies have predicted
that PM2.5 emissions from wildfires will increase in the
midcentury to next century, potentially offsetting improvements
gained by continued reductions in anthropogenic emissions.
Therefore, some regions could experience worse air quality,
degraded visibility, and increases in population‐level exposure.
We use global climate model simulations to estimate the impacts of
changing fire emissions on air quality, visibility, and premature
deaths in the middle and late 21st century. We find that PM2.5
concentrations will decrease overall in the contiguous United
States (CONUS) due to decreasing anthropogenic emissions (total
PM2.5 decreases by 3% in Representative Concentration Pathway
[RCP] 8.5 and 34% in RCP4.5 by 2100), but increasing fire‐related
PM2.5 (fire‐related PM2.5 increases by 55% in RCP4.5 and 190% in
RCP8.5 by 2100) offsets these benefits and causes increases in
total PM2.5 in some regions. We predict that the average
visibility will improve across the CONUS, but fire‐related PM2.5
will reduce visibility on the worst days in western and
southeastern U.S. regions. We estimate that the number of deaths
attributable to total PM2.5 will decrease in both the RCP4.5 and
RCP8.5 scenarios (from 6% to 4-5%), but the absolute number of
premature deaths attributable to fire‐related PM2.5 will double
compared to early 21st century. We provide the first estimates of
future smoke health and visibility impacts using a prognostic
land‐fire model. Our results suggest the importance of using
realistic fire emissions in future air quality projections.<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018GH000144">https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018GH000144</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[letter]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/13/my-fear-for-a-future-of-climate-change">My
fear for a future of climate change</a></b><br>
I have had a long and happy life, writes 90-year-old Anthea Hardy,
but what am I leaving my great-grandchildren?<br>
At last, protest marches against global warming, the most relevant
issue of our time (Report, 8 September). I am over 90 years old and
cannot join one but wish I could. All other questions fade into
second place: Brexit, the gap between rich and poor, even the wars
of the Middle East. We are not even reaching the 2% per annum target
and even 0.2% would be too high. We are faced with escalating
catastophies: rising sea levels, floods, forest fires. I have had a
long and happy life but what am I leaving my great-grandchildren? I
feel impotent. No one seems to question the effects of jet aircraft,
of rockets to outer space or the ever-escalating increase in
traffic. As I carefully recycle my rubbish and take pride in my
excellent compost heap, I realise how paltry my efforts are.<br>
Anthea Hardy<br>
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/13/my-fear-for-a-future-of-climate-change">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/13/my-fear-for-a-future-of-climate-change</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Forbes gives advice to storytellers]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/solitairetownsend/2018/09/14/why-climate-storytelling-must-change/amp/">The
Big Problem With Climate Storytelling - And How To Fix It</a></b><br>
Solitaire Townsend - Contributor - Sept 14, 2018<br>
"Let's kick this monsters' ass!" roared Harrison Ford at the Global
Climate Action Summit yesterday.<br>
Now, as a girl, Indiana Jones and Han Solo got me hooked on
storytelling, character and yes, fighting monsters. So, the idea of
climate change as monster story hooked my imagination.<br>
<br>
But there's a problem.<br>
Because if you review most climate messages in the media, then this
story actually has two acts: man makes monster, then monster
destroys man.<br>
<br>
It's a grand morality tale which neatly fits a primordial structure
in our subconscious. This plot sings to something deep within us, a
tale we've told since we sat around fires weaving myths in the
dark. From the Minotaur and the crazed Golems of ancient legend to
the morality plays of medieval England and the modern incarnations
of rampaging Godzilla born from a nuclear test, or the AI dystopias
of the Terminator or the Matrix. We learnt this narrative arc in
childhood, even if we only discovered the science of carbon dioxide
as an adult.<br>
<br>
Climate change isn't presented to the public as plucky rebels
against the empire. Instead climate is told as a Frankenstein story:
that with our avarice and vanity, we have created the horror that
will ultimately defeat us.<br>
<br>
The narrative necessity of this climate story is hard to escape.
Throughout this summer of 'hothouse earth', and the decades leading
up to it, this human hubris story has been the basic blueprint of
climate change messaging.<br>
<br>
For decades I've advised campaigners, policy makers and businesses
to oppose this narrative, and tell the story of climate solutions
instead. Last year, I asked the global research firm Ipsos to check
which message; destruction or solution, was winning. They surveyed
adults aged between 16-64 across 26 countries asking if they
believed 'we can deal with climate change'?<br>
<br>
The results were encouraging, with the majority of us (56%)
reasonably optimistic about solutions, agreeing that we might be
able to solve climate change. And I expected the result showing 20%
of people are now pessimists, who think we have the ability and
technology to deal with the climate threat, but not the willpower to
do so. Also, it's worth mentioning that climate deniers make up only
4% of the global population (although they are remarkably
over-represented in online comments sections).<br>
<br>
But one finding was profoundly shocking. The survey revealed that
14% of people across the world are now what I call 'climate
fatalists'; who believe that humans are doomed. And as we dug into
the data, we found that a staggering number of them are young.
Worldwide, 22% of those aged 16-35 believe that it is now too late
to stop climate change. In some countries, the number of young
fatalists is even higher: with 39% of under-35s in India, 30% in
Brazil, 27% in Spain and Sweden, and nearly 30% of young people in
the USA believing there is no escape from this monster.<br>
<br>
Why does that matter? Considering the severity of the science,
wouldn't these young fatalists be better dubbed as 'climate
realists', preparing for a dystopian future they can't avoid?<br>
<br>
None of us can predict the future, but we can see the mess of the
present. <i>[No, we all can. For</i><i><i> instance for</i> the
first time ever, we know of sea level rise.] </i>Psychologists
call fatalism a 'defeatist performance belief' and claim it's
disastrous for mental health. Fatalistic attitudes dissuade people
from trying to improve their lives, allow anti-social behaviour and
even undermine physical health. It seems this climate fatalism may
indeed be fatal to wellbeing, ambition and action in the young. And
it could also be fatal for climate solutions, because assuming
nothing is worth it, means you need do nothing. Fatalism is the
enemy of action. And the climate-Frankenstein story is creeping into
people's psyche, sucking the will to act from them.<br>
<br>
Today's tragedy of climate change, with the moral that man is the
real monster, is so narratively satisfying it's become dangerously
believable. For many environmentalists, giving up this story would
be a wrench. Even those who understand the dangerous psychology of
fatalism struggle with their own addiction to the 'it's all our own
fault, and we deserve what's coming' narrative.<br>
<br>
I sometimes feel that we are collectively doing everything we can to
make the ending as poignantly noir as possible. It's as if we
actually want the horrifying denouement: the narrative necessity
driving us to fulfil the tragic role.<br>
And we can't replace this climate disaster story with a policy, a
clear argument or a set of facts. We have science, politics, profit
and cultural norms all in tension between the causes and solutions
to climate change. A merging and rippling of factual factors like
the rough surface of an unquiet sea. But below all of that, there is
the deep tide of story. The story must have an ending, it must pass
through its scenes, and our collective unconscious won't allow for
anything else.<br>
<br>
Only a story can beat a story.<br>
So, what has the narrative power to replace the current plot?
Climate change can't be a comedy, a love story or a rags-to-riches
tale. And the monster of our making is all too real.<br>
<br>
But every 8-year-old knows how to kill a monster. Harry Potter knows
it, Dorothy in Oz knows it, Beowulf knows it, James Bond and Sam of
the Shire know it. It's the story that killed Dracula and blew up
the Death Star. At its most simple - it's the hero's journey.<br>
<br>
In every group of script-writers or novelists, Joseph Campbell's
1949 tome The Hero With A Thousand Faces is treated as a totemic
icon. After a life dedicated to researching mythology, Campbell set
out the 'meta-myth' of mankind. Simply put, this is a journey where
courage, friendship and guile are pitched against overwhelming odds.
This 'overcoming the monster' story often works best when a new
generation, the youth, rally against the threat created (or allowed)
by the old. You have told, read and watched this story all your
life. The small against the big. The downtrodden against the
overlord. Plucky humanity against the growing darkness.<br>
<br>
If climate change were an asteroid, alien invasion or Hans Gruber
type baddie we'd know exactly what to throw at it (Bruce Willis in
all cases). The narrative wheels would start turning as we slotted
ourselves neatly into a heroic plot track.<br>
<br>
This is the new climate story we desperately need. Of overcoming the
odds rather than being overwhelmed by them.<br>
<br>
The story starts when we find the courage to believe in something
worth fighting for: holding onto hope even in the face of
unimaginable odds. To say 'I have a dream' or 'it always feels
impossible until it's done'. Then we harness the power of friendship
and alliances. We love a plot twist where enemies become allies. And
for climate change, we're going to need unexpected allies indeed.<br>
<br>
And the magic elixir of the heroic story has always been guile.
Tricking the monster, inventing a solution, spotting a fatal flaw
and exploiting it. From Indiana Jones feigning zombiedom in the
Temple of Doom, John McClane taping a gun to his back, or Eowyn
revealing her gender on the battlefields of Gondor. Heroes invent
and misdirect their way around unsurmountable odds. This is the most
crucial part of our new climate story - and we've already found that
magical way to trick ourselves out of the jaws of doom. Electric
cars, solar panels and wind turbines are just the start of the
innovation explosion coming from carbon constraint. Renewable energy
is the ultimate cheat of the climate monsters' plans (not least
because our inventiveness is a more believable ploy than our
self-sacrifice.)<br>
<br>
We must teach our children this new 'heroes' journey' story of
climate change. And it's not a small story, nor a short one. This is
an epic. We face a gargantuan, enormous and near impossible task. We
need our Henry 5th before the battle of Agincourt declaiming, "We
few, we happy few", Frodo holding the ring and nervously offering,
"I will take it, though I do not know the way" and Ripley rising in
her rig and shouting, "Get away from her, you bitch!".<br>
We need swashbuckling daring, bravery and courage, guile and
desperate invention, unlikely friendships and alliances forged in
fire.<br>
I invite you to become the hero of this climate journey, rather than
a doomed bit-part player. Instead of grief, we need your grit and
bravado.<br>
So that solving climate change becomes the greatest story of the
21st Century.<br>
[N]ew book The Happy Hero - How To Change Your Life By Changing The
World available now.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/solitairetownsend/2018/09/14/why-climate-storytelling-must-change/amp/">https://www.forbes.com/sites/solitairetownsend/2018/09/14/why-climate-storytelling-must-change/amp/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IaAsBjoaj8">This Day in
Climate History - September 16, 2009</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
September 16, 2009: On MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show," former
fundamentalist Christian Frank Schaeffer explains right-wing science
denial:<br>
<br>
"…[T]he mainstream--not just media, but culture--doesn't
sufficiently take stock of the fact that within our culture we have
a subculture which is literally a fifth column of insanity that is
bred from birth, through home school, Christian school, evangelical
college, whatever, to reject facts as a matter of faith… [W]hat
we're really talking about is a group of people that are resentful
because they've been left behind by modernity, by science, by
education, by art, by literature. The rest of us are getting on
with our lives. These people are standing on the hilltop waiting
for the end."<br>
Further, Schaeffer noted:<br>
"You don't work to move them off this position. You move past
them. Look, a village cannot reorganize village life to suit the
village idiot. It's as simple as that. And we have to understand,
we have a village idiot in this country, it's called 'Fundamentalist
Christianity.'<br>
<br>
"And until we move past these people--and let me add, as a former
lifelong Republican, until the Republican leadership has the guts to
stand up and say it would be better not to have a Republican Party
than have a party that caters to the village idiot--there's going to
be no end in sight…<br>
<br>
"There is no end to this stuff. Why? Because this subculture has
as its fundamentalist faith that they distrust facts per se. They
believe in a young Earth, 6,000 years old, with dinosaurs cavorting
with human beings. They think that whether it's economic news or
news from the Middle East, it all has to do with the end of time and
Christ's return. This is la-la land.<br>
<br>
"And the Republican Party is totally enthralled to this subculture
to the extent that there is no Republican Party. There is a
fundamentalist subculture which has become a cult. It's fed red
meat by buffoons like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and other people
who are just not terribly bright themselves and they are talking to
even stupider people. That's where we're at. That's where all of
this is coming from.<br>
<br>
"And it's becoming circular. It's becoming a joke. Unfortunately,
a dangerous joke because once in a while, one of these 'looney
tunes,' as we see, brings guns to public meetings. Who knows what
they do next. It's a serious thing we all have to face, but the
Democrats and sane Americans just have to move past these people,
say, 'Go wait on the hilltop until the end, the rest of us are going
to get on with rebuilding our country.'"<br>
<br>
He concluded:<br>
"Look, in the year 2000 I worked for John McCain, to try to get him
elected in the primaries instead of George Bush. But John McCain
sold out by nominating Sarah Palin who comes directly from the heart
of this movement and carries with her all that baggage. So, he sold
out. I don't see anybody on the Republican side of things these
days who has the moral standing to provide real leadership, or who
will risk their position to do so."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IaAsBjoaj8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IaAsBjoaj8</a><br>
<br>
<br>
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