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<font size="+1"><i>September 20, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[aftermath video]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://weather.com/storms/severe/video/dramatic-drone-video-shows-nc-town-completely-under-water">Dramatic
Drone Video Shows NC Town Completely Under Water</a></b><br>
Drone video shows the town of Chinquapin, North Carolina completely
under water in the aftermath of Florence.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://weather.com/storms/severe/video/dramatic-drone-video-shows-nc-town-completely-under-water">https://weather.com/storms/severe/video/dramatic-drone-video-shows-nc-town-completely-under-water</a><br>
- - - - <br>
</font>[17 mins interviews]<font size="-1"><br>
</font><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1zqX3NNfVg">Rev. Barber:
North Carolina Has Two Storms--Florence & the Policies That
Keep People in Poverty</a></b><br>
Democracy Now! - Published on Sep 19, 2018<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://democracynow.org">https://democracynow.org</a>
- As President Trump visits North Carolina, where thousands are
evacuating after Hurricane Florence caused record flooding, we go to
Raleigh to speak with Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor
People's Campaign. Areas devastated by the storm include some of the
poorest areas on the Eastern Seaboard. Barber's recent CNN piece is
headlined "In hurricane wind and waves, the poor suffer most."<font
size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1zqX3NNfVg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1zqX3NNfVg</a><br>
<br>
</font><br>
[international carbon capitalists]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/news/business-lobby-prepares-pushback-against-eu-climate-goals-update">Business
lobby prepares pushback against EU climate goals update</a></b><br>
By Frederic Simon | EURACTIV.com<br>
A leaked internal memo, obtained by EURACTIV, gives a rare glimpse
into the communication strategy of Europe's main business lobby
group ahead of the COP24 conference later this year, showing how it
plans to "oppose" any increase in the EU's climate ambition for
2030.<br>
The memo from BusinessEurope, dated 13 September, shows how Europe's
biggest employer association intends to "challenge" EU plans to aim
higher in the fight against climate change.<br>
The document, which will be discussed at an internal meeting on
Wednesday, says the main line to take about the EU's climate policy
should be "rather positive, as long as it remains a political
statement with no implications" on the EU's existing commitments
under the Paris Agreement.<br>
Miguel Arias Canete, the EU climate action commissioner, has
suggested updating the EU's greenhouse gas reduction target for
2030, arguing that the EU's level of ambition had "de facto" been
raised after an agreement was struck on renewables and energy
efficiency targets earlier in June.<br>
Currently, the EU envisages cutting its emissions by "at least 40%"
by 2030 based on 1990 levels. That target would effectively be
raised to 45% following the deal on renewables and energy
efficiency, Canete said.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/news/business-lobby-prepares-pushback-against-eu-climate-goals-update">https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/news/business-lobby-prepares-pushback-against-eu-climate-goals-update</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[heating changes geology]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2018/09/tropics-expanding-climate-change">Tropics
Expanding with Climate Change</a></b><br>
9/18/2018<br>
by Seth Augenstein - Senior Science Writer <br>
The tropics are expanding outward from the Equator due to the
various factors causing climate change, according to a new study.<br>
The thermal patterns since the late 1970s have gradually pushed the
arid and semi-arid regions of the tropics by about 17 miles per
decade, according to the paper in the journal Nature Climate Change.<br>
"Our synthesis shows strong evidence that the tropics have widened
by about 0.5 degrees per decade since the beginning of the satellite
era (1979)," write the authors. "Since no one has a crystal ball to
tell when the (Pacific decadal oscillation) will switch phases (as
decadal prediction remains a major challenge to the climate
community), it is impossible to predict whether or not the Earth's
tropical belt is going to continue bulging in the coming decade."<br>
The estimations have nothing to do with the Tropic of Cancer and
Tropic of Capricorn, at 23 degree 27 minutes north and south,
respectively. Instead, the estimations were based on observations of
the climate patterns established by the Hadley cells, cycles that
circulate heat and thermal energy and weather patterns from the
Equator outward to the subtropics, and back again, like a natural
pump.<br>
The dynamics have been reaching ever outward toward the temperate
zones since the advent of satellite observations, the researchers
conclude.<br>
The team identifies various factors including greenhouse gas
emission, ozone depletion at the South Pole, volcanic aerosols,
pollution and natural variation, which may play a part in the
changes. The balance between naturally-driven and human-caused
changes have yet to be better understood...<font size="-1"><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2018/09/tropics-expanding-climate-change">https://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2018/09/tropics-expanding-climate-change</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[source material]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0246-2">Re-examining
tropical expansion</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0246-2">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0246-2</a></font><br>
- - - - - <br>
[Reuters: alternating drought and flood]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/brazil-environment-floods/catastrophic-floods-rising-on-amazon-river-say-scientists-idUKL8N1W45BD">'Catastrophic'
floods rising on Amazon River, say scientists</a></b><br>
Sophie Hares, Thomson Reuters Foundation<br>
TEPIC, Mexico, Sept 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Severe
flooding on the Amazon has increased amid changing weather patterns,
and is harming the health and incomes of people living along the
world's biggest river, scientists said.<br>
Analysing more than 100 years of records measuring Amazon River
levels in the port of Manaus in Brazil, they found extreme floods
that occurred roughly once every 20 years in the first part of last
century are now happening about every four years...<br>
- - - -<br>
In a paper published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances,
researchers from institutions including Britain's University of
Leeds said severe flooding had affected the Amazon basin nearly
every year from 2009 to 2015.<br>
They linked the increase in flooding to a combination of warmer
temperatures over the Atlantic Ocean and cooler temperatures over
the Pacific.<br>
Known as the Walker circulation, this effect influences tropical
weather patterns, and can partly be attributed to shifts in wind
belts caused by global warming, the study said.<br>
With temperatures in the Atlantic expected to rise more than in the
Pacific, flood risks on the Amazon River will persist, the
scientists predicted.<br>
"We think that it's going to continue for at least a decade," said
Barichivich, formerly a University of Leeds research fellow.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/brazil-environment-floods/catastrophic-floods-rising-on-amazon-river-say-scientists-idUKL8N1W45BD">https://uk.reuters.com/article/brazil-environment-floods/catastrophic-floods-rising-on-amazon-river-say-scientists-idUKL8N1W45BD</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[affects weather]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180918110838.htm">Natural
climate oscillations in north Atlantic linked to Greenland ice
sheet melt</a></b><br>
Date: September 18, 2018<br>
Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution<br>
Summary:<br>
<blockquote>Scientists have known for years that warming global
climate is melting the Greenland Ice Sheet, the second largest ice
sheet in the world. A new study, however, shows that the rate of
melting might be temporarily increased or decreased by two
existing climate patterns: the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO),
and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO)...<br>
</blockquote>
If global climate change continues at its current rate, the
Greenland ice sheet may eventually melt entirely -- but whether it
meets this fate sooner rather than later could be determined by
these two oscillations, says Caroline Ummenhofer, a climate
scientist at WHOI and co-author on the study. Depending on how the
AMO and NAO interact, excess melting could happen two decades
earlier than expected, or two decades later this century.<br>
<br>
"We know the Greenland ice sheet is melting in part because of
warming climate, but that's not a linear process," Ummenhofer said.
"There are periods where it will accelerate, and periods where it
won't."<br>
<br>
Scientists like Ummenhofer see a pressing need to understand out how
natural variability can play a role in speeding up or slowing down
the melting process. "The consequences go beyond just the Greenland
Ice Sheet -- predicting climate on the scale of the next few decades
will also be useful for resource management, city planners and other
people who will need to adapt to those changes," she added...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180918110838.htm">https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180918110838.htm</a></font><br>
- - - - -<br>
<br>
[great graphics]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://graphics.reuters.com/CLIMATECHANGE-GREENLAND/010080DH0S2/">THE
HUNT FOR BETTER CLIMATE SCIENCE</a></b><br>
NASA scientists are mapping the loss of ice in Greenland, part of a
cutting-edge effort to understand how warming oceans melt ice sheets
-- a key factor in improving uncertain forecasts for sea-level rise.<br>
Photography and videography by Lucas Jackson<br>
Story by Alister Doyle, Elizabeth Culliford and Lucas Jackson<br>
Graphics and design by Christine Chan and Travis Hartman<br>
PUBLISHED SEPT. 19, 2018<font size="-1"><br>
</font>Flying over eastern Greenland, the NASA scientists stared
down from a Gulfstream jet as it followed the precise course they
had flown in previous years -- using radar to map the loss of ice.<br>
<br>
"In the tube," flight engineer David Elliott said as the team locked
into their route over the ice sheet covering 80 percent of the
world's largest island. Out the window, massive chunks of broken ice
looked like salt flakes on the water.<br>
<br>
The March mission was part of NASA's Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG)
project, a five-year, $30 million effort aimed at improving sea
level rise projections by understanding how warming oceans are
melting ice sheets from below - the most ambitious research on the
subject to date...<br>
- - - -<br>
"It's not just an ice cube and a hair dryer," he said, offering an
oft-used metaphor for how warmer air melts glaciers.<br>
<br>
"We're really just beginning to grapple with how these ice sheets
are going to behave in a warming world."<br>
<br>
The OMG project aims to clarify how Greenland itself contributes to
rising seas, but also to apply that knowledge to the study of the
much larger region of Antarctica, which has far more ice and could
ultimately play a much bigger role in sea-level rise. And while most
of Greenland's ice is on land above sea level, large parts of the
Western Antarctic ice sheet are below sea level, making them more
vulnerable to warming oceans.<br>
more at: <font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://graphics.reuters.com/CLIMATECHANGE-GREENLAND/010080DH0S2/">https://graphics.reuters.com/CLIMATECHANGE-GREENLAND/010080DH0S2/</a></font><br>
- - - - -<br>
[talk over satellite images]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlAPmtUr8sc&feature=share">The
Arctic at the end of the melt season</a></b><br>
Robin Westenra · YouTube <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/QlAPmtUr8sc">https://youtu.be/QlAPmtUr8sc</a><br>
Brief observations at the end of the official melt season. I talk
about what is happening north of Alaska (it appears to be closing up
there) nut also the strange conditions (complete blue sea) above
Alaska and above the McKenzie River delta (sorry Canadians - my
geography is a bit fuzzy)<br>
I think that conditions OTHER than the change of the season and the
refreeze are at play here and the melt FROM BELOW and the
consequences of rapid melt of the permafrost are at play now.<br>
All we can do is observe and reflect on what we see. I suspect there
will be changes we will be unable to see because of the long, dark
winter.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlAPmtUr8sc&feature=share">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlAPmtUr8sc&feature=share</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[gas up, and keep the swimming pool filled]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.sfgate.com/weather/article/Fire-weather-watch-North-Bay-Napa-County-13241079.php">Fire
weather watch issued for North Bay: 'Any fires that develop will
spread rapidly'</a></b><br>
By Amy Graff, SFGATE - September 19, 2018<br>
Dry, hot, windy weather is in the forecast for inland Northern
California Wednesday and Thursday, prompting the National Weather
Service to issue a familiar warning: "Any fires that develop will
spread rapidly."<br>
A fire weather watch is in effect for the North Bay Wednesday
evening through Thursday afternoon and the NWS advises against all
outdoor burning.<br>
As a high pressure system moves into Northern California,
temperatures will increase into the high 80s and low 90s in inland
areas...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.sfgate.com/weather/article/Fire-weather-watch-North-Bay-Napa-County-13241079.php">https://www.sfgate.com/weather/article/Fire-weather-watch-North-Bay-Napa-County-13241079.php</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Yale Climate Connections]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/MYFlRxJ5Sh0">VIDEO</a></b>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/MYFlRxJ5Sh0">https://youtu.be/MYFlRxJ5Sh0</a><br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/09/scientists-on-emotional-responses-to-climate-risks/">Scientists
weigh public's emotional responses to climate risks </a></b><br>
Funneling public's climate change emotions and anxieties into
'solutions' can help 'build emotional resiliency' to risks in a
warming world.<br>
Anger. Fear. Frustration. Grief. Hopelessness and helplessness. And
shame.<br>
They're just some of the wide range of emotions people often feel
quite normally and naturally, often subconsciously, when
encountering scientists' explanations of risks posed by a warming
climate.<br>
<br>
But keep in mind: Climate scientists are people too, and they too
can experience strong emotional feelings in dealing day-in and
day-out with what they see lying ahead for a warming planet...<br>
- - - - <br>
Fearful "of the future, the consequences, and the chance that we
just can't get this thing right," Myhre points to common reactions
she sees in addressing climate change with diverse audiences. She
asks rhetorically how she personally can deal with the "shame" she
feels in considering the warmer world her son may be living in over
the next several decades. And the shame she feels over her own air
travel or her inability to wean herself more fully off fossil fuels.<br>
"No, no, this can't be true," Myhre characterizes some as feeling
when exposed to scientific evidence on the risks of warming. "I
don't want to engage this problem," others lament, feeling
overwhelmed by the magnitude of the concerns. Myhre says she often
feels "anger that we're all kind of backed into this problem," and
some end up as a result showing almost a "disregard" for sustaining
the planet.<br>
"Some of the most difficult emotions we have as humans," Myhre finds
among audiences he has addressed over the years. There's a sense of
personal blame too, Kiehl adds: "It's my fault."<br>
"There's nothing wrong with how you're feeling" on absorbing the
"traumatic information" about a warming climate, Kiehl says. "A lot
of it is unconscious, it's normal."<br>
<blockquote> [important video on emotional resilience ]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/MYFlRxJ5Sh0">Textbook
Trauma: The Emotions of Climate Change</a></b><br>
YaleClimateConnections<br>
Published on Sep 17, 2018<br>
Scientists Sara Myhre and Jeffrey Kiehl discuss the emotional
impacts of climate change.<br>
<b><a href="https://youtu.be/MYFlRxJ5Sh0">VIDEO</a></b> <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/MYFlRxJ5Sh0">https://youtu.be/MYFlRxJ5Sh0</a><br>
</blockquote>
"I bring it back to 'solutions,'" in the face of such emotional
outpourings, Kiehl says. He emphasizes that along with the "big
choices" to be made to avoid the most dire impacts, it's important
that people recognize a range of promising "solutions" that can help
them "build emotional resiliency" and also help avoid or delay the
most serious adverse impacts...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/09/scientists-on-emotional-responses-to-climate-risks/">https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/09/scientists-on-emotional-responses-to-climate-risks/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Somebody tell it to Delaware] <br>
<b><a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-benefit_corporation">Public-benefit
corporation</a></b><br>
Public-benefit corporations... allow for public benefit to be a
charter purpose in addition to the traditional corporate goal of
maximizing profit for shareholders. Depending on the country they
may also be known as crown corporations, statutory corporations, or
government owned corporations having monopoly over a specific
service or market.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-benefit_corporation">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-benefit_corporation</a></font><br>
- - - - -<br>
[Lemonade is an insurance company]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.lemonade.com/blog/divest_coal/">Why Lemonade
Won't Invest In Coal</a></b><br>
Insurance companies shouldn't fund the very harms they're meant to
protect against<br>
You wouldn't think your insurance company would invest your premiums
in businesses that increase the catastrophes you're paying them to
protect you against.<br>
<br>
Think again.<br>
<br>
A recent study published in the scientific journal Climatic Change
showed that emissions from products and processes of 90 fossil fuel
companies - the very companies insurers invest in - caused about 50%
of the rise in global temperatures. That warming powered wildfires,
hurricanes, and other climate-related catastrophes - the very things
insurers (like us) insure against.<br>
<br>
Last year saw a new record for devastation by hurricanes and
wildfires - and there's no reason to think 2017 will hold the record
for long: 17 of the 18 hottest years ever were since 2001 <br>
<br>
And it's not just property that's being destroyed. Those greenhouse
gasses poison our air too, bringing premature death to millions, and
visiting pain and suffering on millions more (The Lancet). In as
much as such tragedies can be paid for with money, it is often
health and life insurance companies that do the paying.<br>
<br>
You'd have thought that self interest, if not the greater good,
would dissuade insurers from backing the worst offenders. That's
been true of some of our European counterparts, yet in the US
insurance companies are "the country's second largest institutional
investor in oil, gas and coal with $459 billion in fossil fuel
investments." (The Guardian).<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.lemonade.com/blog/divest_coal/">https://www.lemonade.com/blog/divest_coal/</a></font><br>
<br>
The online insurance company Lemonade made a public pledge to not
invest in fossil fuels and called on its competitors to do the same.
And, while its a relatively small player, Lemonade also called out
the rest of the insurance industry for their continued underwriting
of fossil fuel projects with this gem: "for those in our industry
who underwrite polluting projects -- like coal power plants or tar
sands mining -- we have a simple ask: please don't.". Over the
coming weeks and months you'll be hearing a lot more about the newly
launched Insure Our Future campaign, but in the meantime, if you
feel so moved, please retweet the blog announcing this move by
Lemonade's CEO Dan Schreiber:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/daschreiber/status/1039568632555216901">https://twitter.com/daschreiber/status/1039568632555216901</a><br>
- - - - -<br>
[seems worthy of our attention] (not a paid advertisement)<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://www.lemonade.com/">Forget
Everything You Know About Insurance</a></b><br>
Instant everything. Killer prices. Big heart.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.lemonade.com/">https://www.lemonade.com/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Anatomy of a political confrontation]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://bluevirginia.us/2018/09/va-climate-forum-science-denier-stewart-showed-up-and-lied-unchallenged-and-uncorrected">#VA
Climate Forum: Science-Denier Stewart Showed Up and
Lied…Unchallenged and Uncorrected</a></b><br>
By A Siegel - September 19, 2018 <br>
Last evening's Virginia Climate Crisis Forum (full event video),
with several hundred attendees, featured Senate candidates Senator
Tim Kaine (D) and his climate-science-denying opponent, Corey
Stewart (R). The several hundred (perhaps 400) attendees heard
Kaine give a reasoned set of comments about climate science and
policy issues. They also, unfortunately, suffered through deceitful
commentary from fossil-foolish Stewart, who basked in the glory of
his willingness to show up to speak to a hostile audience.<br>
<br>
Stewart's time on stage was filled with deception and deceit. One
specific item demonstrates clearly how Corey uses very standard
science denial tactics - take a fact and twist it to create an
#AlternativeFacts distortion of reality - to arrive at a false
conclusion and to deceive.<br>
<br>
Upfront, since it is important to package deceit in a "truth
sandwich," the question of flooding and Sea-Level Rise (SLR) in the
Hampton Roads region is both straightforward and complex.<br>
<blockquote>"A new NASA-led study shows Hampton Roads has one of the
highest rates of relative sea level rise--the combined effects of
sinking land and rising seas--along the U.S. East Coast, about an
inch (23 millimeters) every five years"<br>
</blockquote>
Within "sinking land and rising seas" (and not discussing items like
greater moisture in atmosphere and a greater share of rain in severe
precipitation events), the situation is roughly 90-95% human-driven,
with a relatively small "natural" element.<br>
<blockquote>Human driven climate change related (roughly 70-80% of
total)<br>
Warming of oceans ==> global sea level rise<br>
Melting of land glaciers ==> global sea level rise<br>
Changes to ocean circulation (Gulf Stream) ==> local sea level
rise<br>
Other human action related (perhaps 15-20% of total)<br>
Extensive drawing of groundwater leading to land subsidence<br>
NOTE: This is a quite addressable issue that will cost about $1B
to ameliorate/solve while improving the area's long-term water
supply and reducing pollution loads in the Chesapeake Bay.<br>
Natural (perhaps 5-10% of total)<br>
Over thousands of years, there are land shifts going on due to
melting of glaciers from the last ice age. (This is "GIA".)<br>
</blockquote>
In short, there is a double whammy of rising seas and subsiding land
that is at play in the Hampton Roads area. And, as with so many
complex issues, a complex interplay of "man" and "nature", an
interplay of human-driven climate change and other causes/elements.
Not simple, not single issue, but understandable, explainable, and
even addressable.<br>
<br>
With that quick summary of the reality in the situation in mind, how
did Stewart deceive? Here's what he spewed out last night:<br>
<blockquote>"…with regard to sea-level rise, the reality is is that
between 1950 and 1970, Virginia began a rapid increase, due to
improvements in pump technologies, a rapid reduction, a rapid
withdrawal in the amount of groundwater that was being taken out
of the Virginia coastal aquifer. And as a result of that as the
water went down and the ground began to compress, yes it is
sinking compared to the level of the sea but it's not so much the
level of the sea increase as much as it is a matter of the actual
ground subsiding. and so this this this is a scientific fact."<br>
</blockquote>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/pD_jdRwaiD0">- -
- [denier warning] View the video</a></b> <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/pD_jdRwaiD0">https://youtu.be/pD_jdRwaiD0</a><br>
No, Corey, it is NOT "a scientific fact" that the challenges with
sea-level rise are solely or even mainly due to ground water
withdrawals.<br>
Stewart -- as science deniers are wont to do -- twisted facts (that
groundwater withdrawals contribute to land subsidence) into a
seemingly plausible alternative explanation that is simply not
truthful (this is not the primary driver nor is it "a scientific
fact").<br>
<br>
Without question, Stewart was not truthful and stated outright
falsehoods in this discussion of sea-level rise. This is just a
taste of the deceitful and dishonest commentary he gave last night.<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://getenergysmartnow.com/2010/07/30/the-darker-side-of-lexus-darker-side-of-green/">Debating
and discussing with those who deceive and are willing to distort
reality, in front of audiences, is almost always a losing battle.
Truth-tellers are at a significant disadvantage</a>. One of the
tools for dealing with that deceit is to challenge it, to call it
out, immediately. This can be tough, as who can be expert in every
facet of an issue and be able to speak with authority as to specific
(potentially quite obscure) facts at a moment's notice?<br>
<br>
Stewart's deceptive comments on SLR are a great example. I am
familiar with SLR and the region, having sat through more than a few
briefings and knowing some top experts. I am not an expert but far
from ignorant on the issue. Thus, I knew (KNEW) that what Stewart
said was false but it required web searching to get to the details
provided above. Chasing lies with truth is hard …<br>
<br>
Many in the audience started to voice their disgust for Stewart's
deceit (lies) at "this is a scientific fact." Stewart chimed in
with "I accepted your invitation and showed up; the least you can do
is show me some respect for showing up." The moderator stepped in
with a call for civility call and then allowed Stewart's deceitful
and (often flagrantly) false comments to go unchallenged and
uncorrected. Even though this was a science-aligned audience,<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://bluevirginia.us/2018/09/climate-science-deniers-like-corey-stewart-should-not-be-given-a-forum-to-spew-their-noxious-view-if-so-then-go-after-them-hard">
allowing deceit to go unchallenged is dangerous and wrong</a>.<br>
<blockquote>"…evidence, cognitive science, etc. indicates that
allowing someone to repeatedly spew out lies and misinformation
simply helps perpetuate those lies and misinformation. That's just
the way the human brain works, which is why you just shouldn't do
it."<br>
</blockquote>
And, as to "civility" owed to those who engage in deceit and lies
about climate change, the question I wanted to (but wasn't called on
to) ask last night was:<br>
<blockquote>"How far should civility go is a reasonable question in
public debate. Should we be civil to the person who has a
documented record of criminal activities and lying? The person who
says Sandy Hook parents are liars? The person who looks us in the
eye and lies and deceives about issues of life and death?<br>
When it comes to the Norfolk area, the science is clear: sea level
is rising due to warming oceans and melting glaciers. And, the
Gulf Stream is changing due to human-driven climate change. And,
less significantly, there is land subsidence. There is land
subsidence going on for 1000s of years since the last ice age.
And, land subsidence due to groundwater withdrawals. The drawing
of water from aquifers is not the sole nor close to the leading
driver of increased flooding in Norfolk's streets. These are
scientific facts.<br>
I ask you, what civility is owed to someone who looks us in the
eye and lies about issues of life and death?"<br>
</blockquote>
In any event,<br>
<blockquote>- Climate change should be part of every political
campaign, in fact should be top-tier in our political discussion.
Kudos to FACS for setting this up and thanks to the 400 people who
took time out of their busy schedules to attend.<br>
- While science deniers and purveyors of falsehoods should not be
given a seat at the table, if they ARE given that seat, they
should be held to a standard of behavior. Organizers and
moderators owe honest engagement a serious effort to expose deceit
and lies. They should hold speakers accountable for deceitful
engagement. Simply assuming your audience is bright enough not to
be swayed or influenced by deceit is not sufficient.<br>
- As I sat there, with my teenage daughter getting far angrier
than I and getting ready to scream outrage, a simple question came
to mind: where were the real activists? For example, why weren't
there 50 people standing, silently, with their backs turned to
climate-denier Stewart as he spouted falsehoods to make clear
(with 'civility') their disgust for his climate science denial?<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://bluevirginia.us/2018/09/va-climate-forum-science-denier-stewart-showed-up-and-lied-unchallenged-and-uncorrected">http://bluevirginia.us/2018/09/va-climate-forum-science-denier-stewart-showed-up-and-lied-unchallenged-and-uncorrected</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/13/epa-to-announce-carbonlimitsonnewpowerplants.html">This
Day in Climate History - September 20, 2013</a> - from D.R.
Tucker</b></font><br>
September 20, 2013: The Obama administration proposes new EPA
regulations intended to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new
power plants in the US.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/13/epa-to-announce-carbonlimitsonnewpowerplants.html">http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/9/13/epa-to-announce-carbonlimitsonnewpowerplants.html</a></font><br>
<br>
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