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<font size="+1"><i>September 21, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[cough, couch, what??]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2018/09/14/small-particulates-air-linked-dementia-asu-research-finds-alzheimers-disease/1279638002/">Researchers
at ASU link air pollution to Alzheimer's disease</a></b><br>
Stephanie Innes, Arizona Republic<br>
Researchers from Arizona State University have found another good
reason to stay indoors on days when the local air pollution is high
-- it could help prevent dementia.<br>
A recently released working paper by three ASU economists makes the
case that prolonged exposure to air pollution does not just cause
respiratory problems, but also puts individuals at higher risk for
dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.<br>
The researchers suggest that improving air quality has huge value
due to longer and better lives that result from lower rates of
dementia.<br>
"One of the bottom lines is that our work shows the cost of air
pollution and the benefits of regulation are higher than we knew
previously," said ASU health-care economist Jonathan D. Ketcham, a
co-author of the paper, which is titled, "Hazed and Confused: The
Effect of Air Pollution on Dementia."<br>
The ASU researchers estimate, for example, that implementation of an
Environmental Protection Agency standard on fine-particulate air
pollution in 1997 through the Clean Air Act in previously
unregulated counties averted approximately 140,000 people living
with dementia in 2013. <br>
"Because no medical preventions or cures exist, policy discussions
have focused on investment in research and health infrastructure,
and modifying behaviors related to smoking, diet and exercise," the
researchers write. "Our findings reveal another level available to
policy makers: regulating air pollution."<br>
The size of particulates smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter allows
those particulates to remain airborne for long periods, to penetrate
buildings, to be inhaled easily and to reach and accumulate within
brain tissue, the researchers write. They cite other studies that
show the accumulation of particulates in the brain can cause
neuroinflammation, which is associated with symptoms of dementia.<br>
- - - -<br>
Another unknown is whether a particular type of fine-particulate air
pollution is linked to dementia.<br>
"It's really the fine-particulate matter, the air-pollution
particulates smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter that we see
causing increases in dementia. Across the United States, exactly
what's in that PM2.5 differs," Kuminoff said. "In some areas, it's
primarily automobile emissions. In other areas, it's primarily
emissions from burning coal to generate electricity. In other areas,
it can be different combinations of combustion and dust and so on."<br>
- - - -<br>
"One of the implications for policymakers today is that we find the
benefits for reducing pollution exist, even below the current EPA
threshold," Ketcham said. "Lowering them further would have
additional benefits in terms of reducing dementia in the U.S."...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2018/09/14/small-particulates-air-linked-dementia-asu-research-finds-alzheimers-disease/1279638002/">https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2018/09/14/small-particulates-air-linked-dementia-asu-research-finds-alzheimers-disease/1279638002/</a></font><br>
- - - - -<br>
[Wow, we've known about this for a while now]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/01/brain-pollution-evidence-builds-dirty-air-causes-alzheimer-s-dementia">THE
POLLUTED BRAIN</a></b><br>
Evidence builds that dirty air causes Alzheimer's, dementia<br>
By Emily Underwood - Jan. 26, 2017<br>
Some of the health risks of inhaling fine and ultrafine particles
are well-established, such as asthma, lung cancer, and, most
recently, heart disease. But a growing body of evidence suggests
that exposure can also harm the brain, accelerating cognitive aging,
and may even increase risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of
dementia. <br>
<br>
The link between air pollution and dementia remains
controversial--even its proponents warn that more research is needed
to confirm a causal connection and work out just how the particles
might enter the brain and make mischief there. But a growing number
of epidemiological studies from around the world, new findings from
animal models and human brain imaging studies, and increasingly
sophisticated techniques for modeling PM2.5 exposures have raised
alarms. Indeed, in an 11-year epidemiological study to be published
next week in Translational Psychiatry, USC researchers will report
that living in places with PM2.5 exposures higher than the
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) standard of 12 ug/m3
nearly doubled dementia risk in older women. If the finding holds up
in the general population, air pollution could account for roughly
21% of dementia cases worldwide, says the study's senior author,
epidemiologist Jiu-Chiuan Chen of the Keck School of Medicine at
USC...<br>
- - - - -<br>
Some people may be more susceptible than others. In the
Translational Psychiatry study, Chen's team found that women
carrying the Alzheimer's risk gene APOE4 faced a disproportionately
higher risk from pollution. And recently, Finch has started to
examine the overlap--and potential synergy--between PM2.5 and
cigarette smoke. The smoke is itself rich in ultrafine particles and
can trigger the production of amyloid plaques and neuroinflammation
in mouse models. Although smoking was once considered protective
against Alzheimer's, prospective studies have since established
tobacco smoke as a major risk factor, he says. In 2014, for example,
a report published by the World Health Organization attributed as
much as 14% of Alzheimer's disease worldwide to smoking. <br>
<br>
Pollution may take a greater cognitive toll on the poor, in part
because they are more likely to live in places with higher PM2.5
exposures, such as near major roadways or ports. Jennifer Ailshire,
a USC sociologist, says stresses linked to poverty also could
amplify the effects of the toxic particles. In one of her most
recent studies, elderly people who rated their neighborhoods as
stressful--citing signs of decay and disorder, such as litter and
crime--did worse on cognitive tests than people who were exposed to
similar pollution levels, but lived in less stressful neighborhoods,
she says. "Living in L.A. [Los Angeles], we are all exposed to a lot
of pollution, but some of us are fine," she says. When seeking to
reduce the negative health impacts from air pollution, cities "might
want to try to focus specifically on reducing pollution in
communities particularly vulnerable to these exposures," she says. <br>
<br>
But no one studying the suspected effects of pollutant particles on
the brain is eager to do triage. If PM2.5 is guilty as charged, they
say, the goal for policymakers worldwide should be to push down
levels as far as possible. When all the research is in, Finch says,
"I think [air pollution] will turn out to be just the same as
tobacco--there's no safe threshold."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/01/brain-pollution-evidence-builds-dirty-air-causes-alzheimer-s-dementia">http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/01/brain-pollution-evidence-builds-dirty-air-causes-alzheimer-s-dementia</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[we have felt this already]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://thinkprogress.org/hurricanes-wildfires-heatwaves-climate-anxiety-what-psychologists-have-to-say-77a4c4ecaf3b/">Psychologists
explain our climate change anxiety</a></b><br>
"You cannot have a healthy society that is scared."<br>
KYLA MANDEL - SEP 19, 2018<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://thinkprogress.org/hurricanes-wildfires-heatwaves-climate-anxiety-what-psychologists-have-to-say-77a4c4ecaf3b/">https://thinkprogress.org/hurricanes-wildfires-heatwaves-climate-anxiety-what-psychologists-have-to-say-77a4c4ecaf3b/</a></font><br>
- - - - <br>
[survey says]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/09/shelter-with-friends-family-hurricane-trauma/570703/">'Even
the Best-Run Hurricane Shelters Can Be Highly Stressful'</a></b><br>
Thousands of North Carolina residents are still displaced after
Hurricane Florence, but research suggests evacuees who stay with
family or friends are less likely to develop PTSD symptoms.<br>
ASHLEY FETTERS SEP 19, 2018<br>
A study published earlier this year in the Journal of Emergency
Management found that among New York City-area residents displaced
by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, "participants who were able to stay with
friends or family had 48 percent decreased odds of experiencing PTSD
symptoms as compared to those who were displaced and stayed in a
shelter." The study goes on to note that any displacement from a
natural disaster has a negative impact on mental health--but
displacement to the home of a loved one or a familiar person can
lessen the traumatic effects associated with having to leave or
abandon one's own home. (As the lead researcher, Rebecca Schwartz,
an associate professor at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra
University, clarified in an email, "displaced" in this study meant
spending at least one night away from one's home.)<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/09/shelter-with-friends-family-hurricane-trauma/570703/">https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/09/shelter-with-friends-family-hurricane-trauma/570703/</a><br>
<br>
</font> <br>
[Watch ice melt]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.euronews.com/2018/09/19/climate-change-and-tourism-the-alps-may-become-an-even-more-attractive-summer-destination">Climate
change and tourism: The Alps may become an even more attractive
summer destination</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.euronews.com/2018/09/19/climate-change-and-tourism-the-alps-may-become-an-even-more-attractive-summer-destination">https://www.euronews.com/2018/09/19/climate-change-and-tourism-the-alps-may-become-an-even-more-attractive-summer-destination</a><br>
</font> <br>
<br>
[Insurance not assured]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.npr.org/2018/09/20/648700837/price-tag-of-natural-disasters-grows">Footing
The Bill For Climate Change: 'By The End Of The Day, Someone Has
To Pay'</a></b><br>
September 20, 20185:07 AM ET<br>
Heard on Morning Edition<br>
Colin Dwyer <br>
Munich Re has laid out the challenges of a changing climate. As one
of the world's largest reinsurers, the company insures other
insurers in cases of catastrophe, so it has good reason to keep
track of catastrophes such as Florence. It has been doing so for
nearly four decades.<br>
"When I look back to the 1980s, we recorded 200 to 300 events --
catastrophe events -- annually, and today we are close to about
1,000 events," says Munich Re's chief climatologist, Ernst Rauch,
who has been doing this research for the reinsurer for 30 years.<br>
That means a lot of losses that insurers must be prepared to cover.
Last year alone, it meant roughly $135 billion in insured losses --
including a record amount in California, where wildfires drove
nearly $12 billion in insurance claims in just a three-month span.<br>
That huge sum is just one reason why wildfires keep California
Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones up at night.<br>
"The climate scientists tell us that we're going to continue to see
temperatures rise, and that will contribute to more catastrophic
weather-related events," Jones says. "In California, what this has
meant is loss of life, loss of property, business interruption,
community devastation associated with wildfires."...<br>
- - - - -<br>
"Rich people can afford richer policies," Hunter says. "You have to
pay a lot for that, but if your house gets destroyed, you're going
to get totally rebuilt. But poorer people who can't afford that are
going to buy slimmed down policies -- some of them won't even know
they're slimmed down until the event happens."<br>
"And then, the very poor will be priced out. Those are the people
who will probably -- not probably, will -- get hurt the most," he
says.<br>
That's a point voiced not just by advocates, but also by regulators
and some researchers in the insurance industry.<br>
"If you think beyond the next 10, 20, 30 years, then climate change
could play a major role when it comes to the issue of affordability
or availability [of insurance] in certain areas," says Rauch, Munich
Re's climatologist, who predicts these bills "will become, sooner or
later, a social issue."<br>
"Because by the end of the day," he adds, "someone has to pay for
the increasing risk caused by climate change."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.npr.org/2018/09/20/648700837/price-tag-of-natural-disasters-grows">https://www.npr.org/2018/09/20/648700837/price-tag-of-natural-disasters-grows</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[The big boy has joined the club of big boys]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/sep/20/exxonmobil-joins-oil-gas-climate-change-alliance-global-warming">ExxonMobil
agrees to join oil and gas climate change alliance</a></b><b><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/sep/20/exxonmobil-joins-oil-gas-climate-change-alliance-global-warming"><br>
</a></b>U-turn means company will join BP, Shell and Total in
contributing $100m to project<br>
Adam Vaughan Energy correspondent<br>
ExxonMobil has joined the oil and gas industry's flagship climate
change project, reversing its decision not to join the alliance four
years ago.<br>
The company was a notable holdout when the Oil and Gas Climate
Initiative (OCGI) was launched, but will now join European peers BP,
Shell and Total in contributing $100m (pound75m) to curb the impact
of global warming.<br>
The move is the clearest sign yet the US company is taking a more
progressive stance on global warming.<br>
Exxon, which promoted climate denial for years despite knowing about
the risks since 1981, had shifted its tone on climate change under
the leadership of Rex Tillerson. But while acknowledging global
warming was real and linked to fossil fuel use, Tillerson said fears
over climate change were overblown...<br>
- - - - -<br>
Two other US oil companies, Chevron and Occidental Petroleum, have
also joined the initiative, taking its total climate fund to $1.3bn.<br>
The project, which has been derided as "greenwash" by campaigners,
previously had 10 members, which represented 20% of global oil and
gas production. The new additions have taken that figure to 30%.<br>
Exxon's annual contribution, which works out at $10m a year over a
decade, represents just 0.04% of its planned capital expenditure of
$25bn in 2018.<br>
Greg Muttitt, a campaigner at Oil Change International, said: "It is
hardly surprising that ExxonMobil, when faced with lawsuits for
lying for decades about what it knew about climate change, should
want to join an initiative that claims oil companies care about
climate."...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/sep/20/exxonmobil-joins-oil-gas-climate-change-alliance-global-warming">https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/sep/20/exxonmobil-joins-oil-gas-climate-change-alliance-global-warming</a></font><br>
- - - - -<br>
[Here is the alliance]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oilandgasclimateinitiative.com/">Oil and Gas
Climate Initiative</a></b><br>
CATALYST FOR CHANGE<br>
Collaborating to realize the energy transition<br>
OGCI is a voluntary, CEO-led initiative which aims to lead the
industry response to climate change. Launched in 2014, OGCI is
currently made up of ten oil and gas companies that pool expert
knowledge and collaborate on action to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.<br>
ABOUT OGCI<br>
We, the leaders of the ten major oil and gas companies, are
committed to the direction set out by the Paris Agreement on climate
change. We support its agenda for global action and the need for
urgency. Through our collaboration in Oil and Gas Climate Initiative
(OGCI), we can be a catalyst for change in our industry and more
widely.<br>
OGCI aims to increase the ambition, speed and scale of the
initiatives we undertake as individual companies to reduce the
greenhouse gas footprint of our core oil and gas business - and to
explore new businesses and technologies.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://oilandgasclimateinitiative.com/">http://oilandgasclimateinitiative.com/</a></font><br>
- - - -<br>
[very slick video message few bother to view]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/XA7210IZ8TU">Oil
and Gas Climate Initiative - highlights - October 2017</a></b><br>
BP Published on Nov 6, 2017<br>
"There is one common theme - we all believe that we need to work
together on the future of climate change." - Pratima Rangarajan, CEO
OGCI<br>
Watch highlights from the OGCI event in London as companies and
climate experts came together to work towards an energy rich future,
whilst limiting emissions<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/XA7210IZ8TU">https://youtu.be/XA7210IZ8TU</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Whole Earth Rant from Stewart Brand]<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.wired.com/story/wired25-stewart-brand-whole-earth/">https://www.wired.com/story/wired25-stewart-brand-whole-earth/</a><br>
STEWART BRAND at age 79, the WHOLE EARTH CATALOG GUY: ----- ''And
here's my hopeful version: Climate change is forcing humanity to act
as one to solve a problem that we created. It's not like the Cold
War. Climate change is like a civilizational fever. And we've got to
find various ways to understand the fever and cure it in aggregate.<br>
<br>
''All this suggests that this century will be one where a kind of
planetary civilization wakes up and discovers itself, that we are as
gods and we have to get good at it.<br>
<blockquote> ["We are as gods, and may as well get good at it. This
might include losing the pride that went before the fall we are in
the process of taking. Rolling with such a fall is our present
lesson--learning whatever resilience, ingenuity, basic skills, and
enthused detachment that survival requires. And learning perhaps
to reverence some Gods who are not as us." --Whole Earth Epilog]<br>
</blockquote>
''One of the advantages of climate change is it forces you to think
long term, because there's nothing you can do this week to solve
climate change by next week. Not going to happen. If we were able to
somehow shut off excess greenhouse gases right now, the ocean is
such a flywheel it's going to keep on rising for a long time. So OK.
The cities with innovation and economic engines are on the coasts,
where the water will come. That means we're all going to become
smart Dutch engineers, solving problems at a large infrastructure
scale, because we'll be forced to.<br>
<br>
''Sea level rise and the other climate change issues, I think, get
humanity into a joint problem-solving mode that will be massively
beneficial in the long run, at the century scale.<br>
<blockquote> ["Whenever the ball approached a goal, players from the
winning side would defect to lend a hand to the losers ... That
first Earthball game went on for an hour without score. The
players had been competing, but not to win. Their unspoken
agreement had been to play, as long and as hard as possible."--The
New Games Book, 1976]<br>
</blockquote>
''Of course, it's hard to see how the swim the Republicans are in
now plays out. It is one of the most fascinating times in American
history, because you have three branches of government all in the
hands of one brain-dead party. What happens? [Laughs.] But I think
that you can have a lot of dysfunction at the federal government
level, and also have a whole lot of civic health and innovation
going on in the city and town level.<br>
''... climate: We can see the problem but we can't see the solution.
So the problem fills our minds. But here's the thing: Solutions
don't have to fill everybody's mind--they just have to fill enough
minds so that we can work them out. I see this as a fantastic
century to be alive, where the problems are very well understood.
And we always surprise ourselves with our abilities to solve
problems.<br>
''I think this is really going to be a global century. And I can't
help thinking that's good news. --As told to Maria Streshinsky in
WIRED website today<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.wired.com/story/wired25-stewart-brand-whole-earth/">https://www.wired.com/story/wired25-stewart-brand-whole-earth/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[keep aware]<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/17/un-report-shows-climate-change-effect-on-farming.html">UN
report identifies where global harvests will rise and fall by
2050</a></b><br>
<blockquote>A UN study has identified which farmers will win or lose
as the planet warms.<br>
West Africa and India are highlighted as likely to see
agricultural production fall.<br>
Canada, Russia and the United States are likely to grow their
exports and output by 2050.<br>
</blockquote>
Using the year 2050 as an end point, the report stated that declines
are forecast to be most obvious in West Africa and India where
farming yield could fall by as much as 2.9 and 2.6 percent
respectively.<br>
<br>
Changes in agricultural production by the year 2050.<br>
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations<br>
Changes in agricultural production by the year 2050.<br>
Conversely, the UN researchers forecast that higher temperatures in
higher latitude regions will increase harvest. Winners in this model
include Canada (2.5 percent) and Russia (0.9 percent) and suggested
that even parts of Finland could soon be warm enough to produce
cereal.<br>
<br>
"Whereas most tropical regions are likely to experience production
losses due to rising temperatures, production in temperate regions
is expected to benefit from warmer climate and longer growing
seasons," the report said.<br>
<br>
South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are identified as at highest risk
economically as much of the present employment and national income
in those areas are derived from small-scale agriculture.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/17/un-report-shows-climate-change-effect-on-farming.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/17/un-report-shows-climate-change-effect-on-farming.html</a><br>
<br>
</font><br>
[fungus among us]<br>
<b><a
href="http://www.wbur.org/news/2018/09/18/mushrooms-fungi-climate">Lowly
In Stature, Fungi Play A Big Role In Regulating The Climate</a></b><br>
07:22 - September 18, 2018<br>
Bruce Gellerman<br>
People can eat only a few types of mushrooms, but some species of
fungi can eat just about anything -- from nerve gas to plastics.
Fungi and bacteria are nature's recyclers. They feast on dead and
decaying plants and animals, transforming the fungal food into
essential nutrients and elements plants require.<br>
"I think we're just beginning to understand how critical they are,"
Price says, "because of the ecological balance they maintain. If you
have a healthy soil with plenty of fungi and microbes you have the
pieces that are necessary to support life."...<br>
- - - - -<br>
Thanks to fungi there's twice as much carbon locked in the ground as
in the atmosphere. One square meter of healthy soil can contain
12,000 miles of tangled fungi filament.<br>
<br>
"So essentially the more fungi grow in soil, the more carbon dioxide
[that] can be drawn out of the atmosphere,"...<br>
- - - - - -<br>
"When it's warmer," Templer says, "we see faster rates of
decomposition of all those branches, roots, leaves, frogs, birds,
whatever -- anything that was alive that's on the forest floor --
and an increase in how much carbon dioxide is leaving the soils, no
longer being stored there, boom, going back into the atmosphere."<br>
<br>
It's a forest-destroying, climate-disrupting feedback loop -- warmer
temperature, less snowfall. Exposed ground in winter freezes faster,
deeper, longer -- stunting tree growth and the storage of carbon.<br>
"Overall we're seeing a greater increase in soil losses of carbon
dioxide," Templer says. "The net effect is what we're trying to
quantify right now."<br>
Preliminary results from Templer's experimental plot in a New
Hampshire forest suggest that if scaled up for the entire New
England region, the amount of carbon stored by fungi in forest soil
would be reduced by 20 percent, further accelerating the climate
change feedback loop and increasing the possibility of runaway
global warming.<br>
Again, mushroom expert Price: "We live on a very delicately balanced
planet. We're really fragile, we're much more fragile than we think
we are."<br>
If Earth has a future, the lowly fungi -- unseen, underfoot and
still not well understood -- will play a crucial role in maintaining
that delicate balance.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.wbur.org/news/2018/09/18/mushrooms-fungi-climate">http://www.wbur.org/news/2018/09/18/mushrooms-fungi-climate</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Whats' in your wallet?]<br>
<b><a
href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-oecd-carbon/global-carbon-prices-too-low-to-combat-climate-change-oecd-idUKKCN1LY19A">Global
carbon prices too low to combat climate change: OECD</a></b><br>
LONDON (Reuters) - Carbon prices in major advanced economies are too
low to cut greenhouse gas emissions and stave off the worst effects
of climate change, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) said on Tuesday.<br>
Carbon pricing, via taxes or emissions trading schemes, is used by
many governments to make energy consumers pay for the costs of
pollution, and to spur investment in low-carbon technology.<br>
The OECD examined carbon pricing between 2012, 2015 and 2018 in 42
OECD and G20 economies, which represent around 80 percent of global
carbon emissions.<br>
It found the average pricing level across the countries in 2018 was
76.5 percent lower than the benchmark 30 euros ($35) a tonne it said
is needed.<br>
The pricing gap had narrowed, from 79.5 percent in 2015, but "carbon
prices need to increase considerably more quickly than they have
done in recent years in order to ensure a cost-effective low-carbon
transition", the report said.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-oecd-carbon/global-carbon-prices-too-low-to-combat-climate-change-oecd-idUKKCN1LY19A">https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-oecd-carbon/global-carbon-prices-too-low-to-combat-climate-change-oecd-idUKKCN1LY19A</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Opinion by Jesse Jackson]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/20/by-enforcing-climate-change-denial-trump-puts-us-all-in-peril/">By
Enforcing Climate Change Denial, Trump Puts Us All in Peril</a></b><br>
by JESSE JACKSON<br>
North Carolina has been hit with a storm of biblical ferocity.<br>
Florence has left at least 17 dead there, 500,000 without power,
with flash flooding across the state from the coast to the western
mountains. Landslides and infectious diseases are predicted to
follow. North Carolina is not alone, of course.<br>
<br>
We've witnessed the devastation wrought by Katrina in New Orleans,
Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey, Hurricane Harvey in Houston and
Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Maria is now estimated to have taken
2,975 lives, nearly as many as died on Sept. 11, 2001.<br>
<br>
As economics historian J. Bradford DeLong summarizes, the four
storms -- all in the past 15 years -- are among the most damaging in
U.S. history. No one storm can be attributed to any one cause. But
repeated storms of greater force are the "predictable result" of
catastrophic climate change, and they are a mild augury of what is
likely to follow.<br>
<br>
President Donald Trump has enforced climate denial in Washington. He
has systematically sought to repeal even the inadequate steps the
U.S. had taken to begin to address the problem. Last year he
announced the U.S. was withdrawing from the Paris climate accord.<br>
<br>
He's geared up to repeal President Barack Obama's executive orders
on energy, climate and gas mileage. He's opening up more public
lands to mining and drilling and weakening environmental
restrictions on coal, oil and natural gas, including most
alarmingly, restrictions on the release of methane gas from natural
gas pipes.<br>
<br>
Web pages with climate change information have been removed or
buried at the EPA and the Interior and Energy departments. The rest
of the world vows to continue to deal with climate change, but with
the wealthiest nation in the world scorning the effort, it is
certain to be more inadequate than it already is.<br>
<br>
Catastrophic climate change is a clear and present threat to our
national security. The Pentagon realizes this. It is developing
contingency plans for bases around the globe that will be threatened
by rising waters and raging storms. Its intelligence agencies warn
that climate change will be more destabilizing than terrorism across
the developing world.<br>
<br>
DeLong offers one snapshot of the threat. Two billion poor farmers
toil in the six great river valleys of Asia. Their existence is
dependent on the snow melt from the region's high plateaus arriving
at the right moment and in the right volume to support the crops on
which the billions rely. Another billion depend on the monsoon
arriving at the right time each year.<br>
<br>
Now as the planet heats up, the sea levels rise, the polar ice caps
melt, so too the snow melt will change dramatically, as will the
monsoons and cyclones. The disruption will wreak havoc on billions,
forcing dramatic migrations to who knows where. The same is
predicted as Africa gets hotter and drier, and desertification
continues to uproot long settled peoples.<br>
<br>
The effects are already here, visible in the scorching heat
experienced across the country, the fires in the West, the drought
in the South and the storms in the East. We are seeing climate
change with our own eyes. Yes, no one storm or heat wave can be
directly attributed to global warming. But global warming guarantees
that catastrophic weather events will get more frequent and more
ferocious.<br>
<br>
Some suggest it is too late. The carbon already in the atmosphere
will take us beyond the warming levels that the international
community suggested were manageable. We are headed into the
unmanageable.<br>
<br>
But denial is no answer. Continuing to do more of the same is simple
madness. It is not too late to make the wholesale cuts need in
greenhouse gas emissions. Professor Michael Mann of Penn State
University notes: "It is not going off a cliff; it is like walking
out into a minefield. So the argument that it is too late to do
something would be like saying: 'I'm just going to keep walking.'
That would be absurd."<br>
<br>
Trump's chaos presidency is corrosive and divisive. His impulsive
and uninformed decision-making is terrifying. Now on what surely is
becoming the greatest threat to our security -- indeed human
existence, if not addressed -- he and the Republican Congress that
aids and abets him, are adding fuel to the fire.<br>
<br>
Without vision, the Bible says, the people perish. Trump's blind
denial of the reality around us seems intent on demonstrating how
true that is.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/20/by-enforcing-climate-change-denial-trump-puts-us-all-in-peril/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/20/by-enforcing-climate-change-denial-trump-puts-us-all-in-peril/</a></font><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1IIyh3yTsM"><br>
</a><font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1IIyh3yTsM">This Day in
Climate History - September 21, 1980</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
September 21, 1980: In a presidential debate between Republican
Ronald Reagan and Independent John Anderson (President Carter did
not participate), the latter endorses a "emergency excise tax on
gasoline," which the former vehemently opposes. Reagan and Anderson
also debate the merits of energy conservation, with Anderson backing
strong energy-conservation measures. <br>
(10:00--20:25)<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1IIyh3yTsM">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1IIyh3yTsM</a><br>
<br>
<br>
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