<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<font size="+1"><i>October 6, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[Important future]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/05/why-the-next-four-months-are-crucial-for-future-of-planet-climate-change">Why
the next three months are crucial for the future of the planet</a></b><br>
Two forthcoming major climate talks offer governments an opportunity
to respond to this year's extreme weather with decisive action<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/05/why-the-next-four-months-are-crucial-for-future-of-planet-climate-change">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/05/why-the-next-four-months-are-crucial-for-future-of-planet-climate-change</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[One important event]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://grist.org/article/with-the-world-on-the-line-scientists-outline-the-paths-to-survival/">With
the world on the line, scientists outline the paths to survival</a></b><br>
By Eric Holthaus - Oct 4, 2018<br>
This week, scientists and representatives from every country on
Earth are gathering in South Korea to put the finishing touches on a
report that, if followed, would change the course of history.<br>
The report is a roadmap for possible ways to keep climate change to
1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels. Anything beyond that
amount of warming, and the planet starts to really go haywire. So
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- a U.N.-sponsored, <a
href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2007/summary/"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">Nobel Peace
Prize-winning</a><span> </span>assemblage of scientists -- wants
to show how we can avoid that. To be clear, hitting that goal would
require a radical rethink in almost every aspect of society. But the
report finds that not meeting the goal would upend life as we know
it, too.<br>
"This will be one of the most important meetings in the IPCC's
history," said Hoesung Lee, the group's chair, in<span> </span><a
href="http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/session48/180930_Chair_opening_P48.pdf"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">his opening address</a><span> </span>on
Monday.<br>
The report will be released on October 8. From<span> </span><a
href="http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/06/27/new-leaked-draft-of-un-1-5c-climate-report-in-full-and-annotated/"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">leaked drafts</a>, we
know<span> </span><a
href="https://phys.org/news/2018-10-mission-impossible-climate-key.html"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">the basics of
scientists' findings</a>: World greenhouse gas emissions must peak
by 2020 -- just 15 months from now. The scientists also show the
difference in impacts between 1.5 and 2 degrees would not be<span> </span><a
href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45678338"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">minor</a><span> </span>--
it could be make-or-break for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, for
example, which would flood every coastal city on Earth should it
collapse.<br>
"The decisions we make now about whether we let 1.5 or 2 degrees or
more happen will change the world enormously," said Heleen de
Coninck, a Dutch climate scientist and one of the report's lead
authors, in<span> </span><a
href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45720740"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">an interview with the
BBC</a>. "The lives of people will never be the same again either
way, but we can influence which future we end up with."<br>
The report has been in the works since the 2015 Paris climate
agreement. Three years ago, during the climate talks, leaders of a
few dozen small island nations and<span> </span><a
href="https://thecvf.org/historic-1-5c-agreement-marks-new-era-of-climate-justice/"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">other highly
vulnerable nations</a>, like Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Vietnam,
demanded the bolder 1.5 degrees C temperature target be included in
the first-ever global climate pact. The group represents 1 billion
people, and for some of the involved countries, like the Marshall
Islands,<span> </span><a
href="http://www.climatenetwork.org/event/climate-vulnerable-forum-virtual-summit"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">their entire
existence is at stake</a>.<br>
At the time, the lead negotiator from that tiny Pacific island
nation<span> </span><a
href="http://www.climatechangenews.com/2015/10/05/climate-change-migration-is-genocide-says-marshall-islands-minister/"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">used the word</a>"genocide"
to describe the inevitable process of forced abandonment of his
country due to sea-level rise, should global temperature breach the
1.5 degree target.<br>
Even taking into account the policies and pledges enacted globally
since the Paris Agreement,<span> </span><a
href="https://climateactiontracker.org/global/temperatures/"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">the world is on
course</a><span> </span>to warm between 2.6 to 3.2 degrees C by
the end of the century, according to independent analysis by Climate
Action Tracker.<br>
According to<span> </span><a
href="https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=5188"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">a U.N. preview of the
report</a>, meeting the 1.5 goal would "require very fast changes
in electricity production, transport, construction, agriculture and
industry" worldwide, in a globally coordinated effort to bring about
a zero-carbon economy as quickly as possible. It would also very
likely require eventually<span> </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/hausfath/status/1047610652586467328"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">removing huge amounts
of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere</a><span> </span>using
technology that is not currently available at the scale that would
be necessary. And there's no time to waste: "The longer CO2 is
emitted at today's rate, the faster this decarbonization will need
to be."<br>
The world<span> </span><a
href="https://twitter.com/ed_hawkins/status/1047067560745811970"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; outline-width: 0px; cursor: pointer; border-bottom:
0.0625rem solid rgb(4, 59, 78); transition: border-color 0.15s
ease-out 0s;">has already warmed by about 1.1 degrees C</a>, and
the implications of that are increasingly obvious. In just the three
years since the Paris Agreement was signed, we've seen<span> </span><a
href="http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/hdsc/aep_storm_analysis/"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">thousand-year
rainstorms by the dozens</a>, the most destructive hurricane
season in U.S. history, disastrous fires<span> </span><a
href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fire-fire-everywhere-the-2018-global-wildfire-season-is-already-disastrous_us_5b5a1271e4b0de86f494ed28"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">on almost every
continent</a>, and an unprecedented coral bleaching episode that
affected<span> </span><a
href="https://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/analyses_guidance/global_coral_bleaching_2014-17_status.php"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">70 percent of the
world's reefs</a>.<br>
In this age of rapid warming, the IPCC report is inherently
political -- there are obvious winners and losers if the world fails
to meet the 1.5-degree goal. If the world's governments are to take
the implications of IPCC's findings seriously, it would be nothing
less than revolutionary -- a radical restructuring of human society
on our planet.<br>
Right now, scientists are trying to find the precise words to
describe an impending catastrophe and the utterly heroic efforts it
would take to avert it.<br>
"We're talking about the kind of crisis that forces us to rethink
everything we've known so far on how to build a secure future,"
Greenpeace's<span> </span><a
href="https://phys.org/news/2018-10-mission-impossible-climate-key.html"
style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;
color: rgb(5, 74, 97); line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none
!important; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126);
transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s;">Kaisa Kosonen told
AFP</a><span> </span>in response to a draft of the report. "We
have to try to make the impossible possible."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://grist.org/article/with-the-world-on-the-line-scientists-outline-the-paths-to-survival/">https://grist.org/article/with-the-world-on-the-line-scientists-outline-the-paths-to-survival/</a><br>
</font><br>
<br>
[who will they face on the Supreme Court?]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5bb7eb26f9619aaea3023030/1538779943136/2018.10.05+Press+Release+-+DOJ+motion+to+stay+%281%29.pdf">Trump
Administration's Desperation Grows as Juliana v. United States
Trial Approaches</a></b><br>
Eugene, Oregon - Today, in an unprecedented move, the Trump
administration filed another motion with<br>
the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon to stay discovery
and trial in the landmark constitutional<br>
climate lawsuit Juliana v. United States, pending review from the
U.S. Supreme Court.<br>
<br>
This lawsuit was filed by 21 young people in August 2015 with
support from Our Children's Trust. The<br>
United States government has fought the youth plaintiffs for more
than three years to get this case<br>
dismissed, all while knowingly perpetuating the nation's fossil fuel
energy system and the climate crisis.<br>
Judges at the U.S. District Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals, and most recently, the United States<br>
Supreme Court have repeatedly ruled in favor of the youth plaintiffs
and their right to go to trial. Their<br>
trial is set to begin on Monday, October 29.<br>
<br>
During a telephonic status conference yesterday between the parties
and U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas<br>
Coffin to discuss the government's intention to file the motion for
stay, Judge Coffin said:<br>
<blockquote>"...it doesn't seem to me, looking at the landscape
here, that very much has changed since the last<br>
motion to stay was filed...and the only 'change' is that the Court
hasn't ruled on the dispositive<br>
motions that have been filed…I would just urge everybody to keep
on track for trial."<br>
</blockquote>
The youth plaintiffs and the Court noted that the only other change
in circumstance is that the parties have<br>
expended significant time and resources in conducting discovery in
preparation for trial, and are nearing<br>
the end of conducting 50 depositions of experts and plaintiffs in
about 60 days...<br>
- - - -<br>
<b>Juliana v. United States is not about the government's failure to
act on climate. Instead, these 21 young</b><b><br>
</b><b>plaintiffs between the ages of 11 and 22, assert that the
U.S. government, through its affirmative actions</b><b><br>
</b><b>in creating a national energy system that causes climate
change, is depriving them of their constitutional</b><b><br>
</b><b>rights to life, liberty, and property, and has failed to
protect essential public trust resources. The case is</b><b><br>
</b><b>one of many related legal actions brought by youth in several
states and countries, all supported by Our</b><b><br>
</b><b>Children's Trust, and all seeking science-based action by
governments to stabilize the climate system.</b>..<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5bb7eb26f9619aaea3023030/1538779943136/2018.10.05+Press+Release+-+DOJ+motion+to+stay+%281%29.pdf">https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5bb7eb26f9619aaea3023030/1538779943136/2018.10.05+Press+Release+-+DOJ+motion+to+stay+%281%29.pdf</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Looking to the courts]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/this-landmark-trial-of-climate-activists-puts-the-political-system-itself-on-trial/">This
Landmark Trial of Climate Activists Puts the Political System
Itself on Trial</a></b><br>
In a Minnesota courtroom, the Valve Turners are using the "necessity
defense" in their shutdown of the tar-sands pipeline.<br>
By Wen Stephenson<br>
Most dramatic of all, 21 youth plaintiffs are suing the federal
government for its failure, under public-trust doctrine and the US
Constitution, to protect a livable climate. That case, Juliana v.
United States, has survived multiple appeals to dismiss, and this
summer the Supreme Court allowed it to proceed. The trial date is
set for October 29 in federal court in Oregon.<br>
Much like the youth plaintiffs' case, the arguments underpinning the
climate-necessity defense resonate powerfully in this political
moment--and not only as a response to our climate emergency, but
equally and inseparably, as a response to our political emergency,
the crisis of our democracy, which long predates Donald Trump and
is, in fact, among the root causes of the climate crisis itself. Far
from being the inevitable result of "human nature" (as an entire
issue of The New York Times Magazine was recently devoted to
arguing, conveniently letting the fossil-fuel industry and its
political accomplices, including liberal elites, off the hook), our
current predicament is in large part the result of deception,
obstruction, and the antidemocratic rigging of our political and
economic system by corporations and private wealth. The
climate-necessity defense addresses these root causes head-on,
offering an indictment of a political system in which ordinary
citizens have no viable option but to take direct action--and
inspire others to do the same. As we're about to see in Minnesota,
the best defense may actually be a strong offense...<br>
- - - -<br>
"The necessity defense offers a powerful framing of why people do
civil disobedience," Skaggs told me in a recent interview. "It's a
powerful way of explaining to other people why they would take a
risk like this--as reasonable human beings. I believe that's what we
need to change political consciousness."<br>
In other words, one might say, putting the question of climate
necessity before a jury is an exercise in democracy--at a time when
democracy itself is failing...<br>
- - - - <br>
And this is not an exhaustive list. "There's progress being made,
some exciting developments," Skaggs told me. "And frankly, as the
climate situation becomes more and more dire, the argument gets
stronger and stronger."<br>
<br>
That argument goes more or less as follows. While the legal criteria
for presenting a necessity defense vary slightly from state to
state, in Minnesota the defendants must show, first, that there is
an imminent physical harm. Definitions of what counts as imminent
may differ, but in pretrial briefs the defense showed that courts
have taken it to mean not only immediate but inevitable or certain
to occur. Expert witnesses on climate science, including Hansen and
scientists from the University of Minnesota, are prepared to testify
not only to the catastrophic global threat of climate change but
also local environmental and public-health impacts in northern
Minnesota that are already occurring and will only grow worse.<br>
<br>
Next, the defendants need to show that the harm caused by breaking
the law was significantly less than the harm caused by obeying it.
In other words, they'll argue that the harm of trespassing and minor
property damage pales in comparison to the harm of climate change
caused by transporting and burning millions of barrels of tar-sands
crude, the most carbon-intensive form of oil, each day.<br>
<br>
The defense must also show that there was no viable legal
alternative to breaking the law; that is, no alternative that one
could reasonably expect to be effective. And then they must show a
direct causal connection between breaking the law and preventing the
harm; in other words, that the defendants had reason to believe that
their direct action would be effective--not necessarily all by
itself, but that it would effectively contribute to preventing the
harm.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/this-landmark-trial-of-climate-activists-puts-the-political-system-itself-on-trial/">https://www.thenation.com/article/this-landmark-trial-of-climate-activists-puts-the-political-system-itself-on-trial/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[See also video of 3D rendering]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/uod-fsu100418.php">Food
security under changing climate</a></b><br>
UD part of $3.5 million NSF-funded study to improve key crop
resilience<br>
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE<br>
An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of
Delaware, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and Stanford
University have been awarded a four-year, $3.5 million National
Science Foundation grant to address concerns about reduced harvests
of corn and other cereal grasses.<br>
<br>
The project will focus on understanding the small ribonucleic acid
(RNA) pathways involved in anther development and crop development
when plants are challenged by adverse environmental conditions.
Small RNAs are tiny messengers that carry genetic information inside
living cells, in this case anthers--the site of pollen development
in plants.<br>
<br>
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, grains such as
wheat, corn and rice grown in the United States account for roughly
25 percent of all grains worldwide. Changes to climate, including
the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, are expected to
impact crop yields at a time when the planet's population -- and the
demand for food -- is rising...<br>
- - - - <br>
Caplan and his collaborators will investigate the life cycle and
functions of a class of RNAs that support anther development in
grass flowers, which are flowers that are pollinated by wind,
eliminating the need for eye-catching petals to attract insects.
Anthers are critical in the reproduction of flowering plants because
they are the site of pollen development and contain the sperm cells
necessary for reproduction. In corn, also known as maize, anthers
are located on the whispy tassels found at the top of the cornstalk.
Prior research has demonstrated that anther development will often
stall or fail under high temperatures, leaving the plants sterile or
with reduced fertility, thus decreasing the harvest.<br>
- - - - -<br>
The research project will also include training of students in plant
and computational biology via continued integration with
long-running and successful undergraduate and high school internship
programs.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/uod-fsu100418.php">https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/uod-fsu100418.php</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[How is post-collapse possible?]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.culture-crisis.net/blog-denial.html">Apocalypse?
Now? How to face up to climate reality</a></b><br>
School of Philosophy and Art History, University of Essex<br>
28th November 2018<br>
Midwives of Imagination: on the other side of collapse<br>
The real terror of the social and cultural collapse of our
civilisation brings with it anxiety that is very hard to bear, hence
the silence of denial around climate change. Even some climate
scientists have colluded in a 'socially constructed silence'.
Psychological defences such as denial and disavowal play a huge part
in this socially constructed silence. Precedence for such social
denial includes the holocaust and sexual abuse.<br>
<br>
Much of the psychology of climate has focused on what can be seen as
a hospice approach that attends to the horror and grief of what is
being lost in the sixth great extinction on our planet and in terms
of human culture such as traditions, rituals, languages and skills
that are being lost, possibly forever. That the commodifying beast
of neoliberal capitalism bears a huge responsibility for this
extinction brings it back home to us who are complicit in it.
Attempting to face into it can lead to depression, despair and
suicide.<br>
<br>
A necessary complement to this harrowing work is to become a midwife
of the unknown. What is on the other side of collapse? Rather like
in midlife when the ego takes its immanent demise literally and
fears extinction, we need to de-literalise our fantasies of
collapse. This is not a matter of escapist hope or positive thinking
that act as another means of disavowal. It is a matter of freeing
ourselves from the tame domestication of our thinking and catching
the sparks of imagination.<br>
<br>
This short talk will focus on one aspect of this midwifery -
developing a playful, carnival attitude. David Fleming in Surviving
the Future (2016) has pointed out that carnival has traditionally
provided communities with a radical break from what we could call
malignant normality - a collective catharsis of satire and feral
challenge that fires up the imagination. <br>
<br>
<font size="-1">Chris Robertson has been a psychotherapist and
trainer since 1978. He studied meditation in India, humanistic
group work, child psychotherapy, psychosynthesis and family
therapy. He co-founded Re-Vision in 1988 from which he is now
retired. Since 2108, he is the chair of the Climate Psychology
Alliance. He is co-editor of the anthology Transformation in
Troubled Times (Transpersonal Press 2018); the Psychotherapist
(2016: 63) on Climate Change, Despair and Radical Hope; and
contributed the chapter 'Dangerous Margins' to the anthology Vital
Signs (Karnac, 2012). Further details at: <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.culture-crisis.net">www.culture-crisis.net</a>.</font><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.culture-crisis.net/blog-denial.html">https://www.culture-crisis.net/blog-denial.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[religion opinion from the National Catholic Reporter]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/environment/eco-catholic/season-creations-end-know-climate-change-here-now">At
Season of Creation's end, know this: Climate change is here</a></b><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/environment/eco-catholic/season-creations-end-know-climate-change-here-now"><br>
</a>Oct 4, 2018<br>
by James Hug<br>
- - - - -<br>
As the liturgical Season of Creation for 2018 draws to a close, the
serious need for prayer, study and widespread action in response to
the destructive threats of climate change has never before seemed so
urgent.<br>
- - - - <br>
This year, for the first time I can recall, scientists are warning
explicitly that climate change is not a future danger we need to try
to prevent. Climate change is here now and will continue to worsen.
It is the new normal.<br>
- - - - <br>
Climate change is here, now, and is still worsening. Its threats to
life as we know it are coming into clearer and more frightening
view.<br>
<br>
Is Earth trying to teach us in its own way what Jesus tried to teach
his apostles when he told them: "I will be handed over to people who
will kill me"?<br>
<br>
This prediction of his Passion was central in the Gospels of both
the third and fourth Sundays of the Season of Creation this year.
Jesus promised to rise three days after his death. Still, the
Twelve, led by Peter, assumed that as God's special anointed one,
Jesus would be protected and would emerge from conflicts with the
Jewish leaders and the Roman occupiers as victor and savior. They
couldn't understand what he was trying to tell them, but they were
afraid to ask.<br>
<br>
Is the message from Earth to us this year a warning about its
suffering and dying? Is it a message we don't understand and are
afraid to really believe possible? Scientists are warning that we
are already into the sixth great mass extinction of life on Earth,
the biggest since the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, and the first
one caused principally by humans. From the evidence of the previous
five extinctions etched in our planetary archaeology, Earth's
resurrection could surely take place, but it would most likely take
hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years.<br>
<br>
In his encyclical "Laudato Si, on Care for Our Common Home," Pope
Francis identified the global economy -- structured on competition
that drives consumption and requires constant economic growth on a
planet with limited resources -- as obviously destructive for the
planet's ecology, including the human community. The human community
must stop assuming that we live on a planet with limitless
resources.<br>
<br>
On Aug. 1, less than two months ago, I wrote about Earth Overshoot
Day, highlighting the fact that the human community had consumed in
just seven months the renewable resources that it will take the
planet a full year to replenish. And Earth Overshoot Day is coming
earlier every year. It is impossible for this dynamic to continue.<br>
<br>
Those economic patterns are also the drivers of growing inequality
around the planet that promises increasing social crises and
conflict. When the average worker for a major U.S. corporation makes
about $28,000 a year while its CEO makes $28,000 every nine seconds,
social crisis seems inevitable. While that is an extreme example,
the competitive structures of the global economy are driving global
inequality, leaving more and more people in desperate need of
resources on this limited planet and aggravating what Pope Francis
has described as one complex and interrelated global economic,
ecological and social crisis.<br>
<br>
It is abundantly clear: Climate change is here.<br>
<br>
Its devastating threats are more and more apparent. It is being
driven by some of the most basic social and economic systems by
which we are living on Earth today. And it is perhaps progressing
much more quickly than our analytic models have predicted.<br>
<br>
Though the 2018 liturgical Season of Creation comes to a close Oct,
4, it is urgent that communities of faith around the planet carry
forward the revelation, inspiration, growth in spiritual energies
and global collaboration that the season has nurtured in a renewed
commitment. It is essential that the human family reverse the
dynamics driving climate change, ecological depletion, injustice and
violent conflict as people struggle to survive. We must move into
our immediate future deepened and transformed.<br>
<br>
What might that look like? Reflecting on the Sunday liturgical texts
from this year's Season of Creation, I might sum it up in this way:<br>
<br>
Ongoing contemplation of the beauty and wonder of creation must
continue to feed our appreciation, gratitude, love of and passion to
take care of the planet on which we are blessed to live. We take
care of what we come to appreciate, are grateful for and love.<br>
<br>
Remembering that God did not spare Jesus from the terrible
rejection, suffering and death that the religious leaders of his
people condemned him to, we need to take with utmost seriousness the
threats from the ecological and social crisis we are caught up in.
In the words of Jesus, it is "thinking not as God does but as humans
do" (Mark 8:33, the Gospel reading for the third Sunday of the
Season of Creation 2018) to expect that God would somehow come in to
save creation from the natural effects of our destructive
activities.<br>
<br>
We need to pray for ever-deepening trust that the awesome God behind
and throughout the cosmos is accompanying us with love through all
that may lie ahead -- as God was faithful to Jesus through his
suffering and death -- holding before us the promise of
resurrection.<br>
<br>
Then we need to take up with renewed energy the call to be prophets
to our time, calling everyone we can touch through word and living
example into new ways of living together as one human family within
the Earth community, working to evolve together the next emerging
stage of the New Creation.<br>
<br>
<font size="-1">[Jesuit Fr. James E. Hug serves as sacramental
minister for the Adrian Dominican Sisters and writes on
spirituality for social transformation. His blog, "Truth that does
Justice," can be found on the website for the <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.dominicancenter.org/">Dominican
Center: Spirituality for Mission</a>.]</font><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/environment/eco-catholic/season-creations-end-know-climate-change-here-now">https://www.ncronline.org/news/environment/eco-catholic/season-creations-end-know-climate-change-here-now</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[what if]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/10/leadership-beyond-denial-of-our-climate.html">Leadership
Beyond Denial of Our Climate Tragedy</a></b><br>
Transcript of a talk given at the Poetics of Leadership conference,
University of Cumbria, Ambleside Campus, 7th September 2018, by
Professor Jem Bendell, co-chair of the conference. Based on the
conference paper "From Denial to Deep Adaptation: Seeking Leadership
Amidst Climate Tragedy."<br>
<br>
"The topic that we will explore in this session is in the ether of
our conference. Which may reflect how the topic is increasingly in
the minds of some people in recent years, particularly in the
environmental movement. It doesn't feel right to me given the
serious nature of the topic to just present a summary of my paper.
We can't avoid the emotional impact of this topic. And shouldn't try
to. Although my attempt to develop a "deep adaptation" concept was
partly to take some of the sting out of things by inviting
reflection within a framework, perhaps a life-raft for despair, I
don't see there is any way to just jump into this as a technical or
philosophical discussion. <br>
Because it is such an important topic, connected to the most
important questions of existence, and an emotional journey for me, I
want to be more precise than I am usually. Therefore, I will abandon
a habit of a few years, and actually read my talk.<br>
<br>
What I want to do in this session is to invite you to consider
simply: "What If?" <br>
<br>
"What if it is too late to avert a catastrophe in our own societies
within our lifetimes, due to the impacts of climate change,
particularly on agriculture. What might that mean for my life and
work?" ...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/10/leadership-beyond-denial-of-our-climate.html">http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/10/leadership-beyond-denial-of-our-climate.html</a></font><br>
---<br>
[Jem Bendell paper that started this conversation]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/07/new-paper-on-deep-adaptation-to-climate.html">New
Paper on Deep Adaptation to Climate Chaos</a></b><br>
July 25, 2018<br>
Today IFLAS releases its 2nd Occasional Paper on themes of
leadership and sustainability. "Deep Adaptation: A map for
navigating the climate tragedy" addresses in depth some implications
of the most recent climate measurements and science.<br>
<br>
Sadly, the analysis leads the author to conclude that
climate-induced collapse is now inevitable. Professor Bendell
studied climate science as part of his degree at the University of
Cambridge in the 1990s, and only returned to the primary studies
this year after seeing the increasingly worrying news about current
changes to our atmosphere and its impacts on our ecosystems at sea
and on land. "For the past decades I had relied on the assessments
and guidance from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -
which was worrying enough" said Bendell, a full Professor of
Sustainability Leadership. "But the measured changes in our current
environment have outpaced even the worst predictions of the IPCC
over the past decades. The leading climate scientists are reporting
a much worse situation than the IPCC." The paper looks at peer
reviewed journals and supplements that with the latest data direct
from research institutes on climate. "The whole field of sustainable
development research, policy and education, and sustainable business
in particular, is based on the view that we can halt climate change
and avert catastrophe" explains Bendell. "By returning to the
science, I discovered that view is no longer tenable. I then
explored why people who work in this field, whether as researcher,
activists or policy makers, may have been ignoring this difficult
truth. It is understandable - none of us want to suffer, none of us
want to think years of work has been futile, and none of us want to
be admonished by colleagues or ridiculed online."...<br>
- - - -<br>
The paper "Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy" is
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf">downloadable as
a pdf from here</a>. <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf">http://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf</a>
<br>
- - - -<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/07/new-paper-on-deep-adaptation-to-climate.html">http://iflas.blogspot.com/2018/07/new-paper-on-deep-adaptation-to-climate.html</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.msnbc.com/now/watch/kentucky--ground-zero-for-war-on-coal-338770499970#">This
Day in Climate History - October 6, 2014</a> - from D.R.
Tucker</b></font><br>
October 6, 2014: MSNBC's Chris Hayes airs the first part of a series
on the politics of coal in the US.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/the-war-on-the-war-on-coal-338458691505#">http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/the-war-on-the-war-on-coal-338458691505#</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/united-mine-workers-prez-and-chris-hayes-spar-338418755664#">http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/united-mine-workers-prez-and-chris-hayes-spar-338418755664#</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.msnbc.com/now/watch/kentucky--ground-zero-for-war-on-coal-338770499970#">http://www.msnbc.com/now/watch/kentucky--ground-zero-for-war-on-coal-338770499970#</a><br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><i>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
</i></font><font size="+1"><i><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html">Archive
of Daily Global Warming News</a> </i></font><i><br>
</i><span class="moz-txt-link-freetext"><a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote">https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote</a></span><font
size="+1"><i><font size="+1"><i><br>
</i></font></i></font><font size="+1"><i> <br>
</i></font><font size="+1"><i><font size="+1"><i>To receive daily
mailings - <a
href="mailto:subscribe@theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request">click
to Subscribe</a> </i></font>to news digest. </i></font>
<blockquote>
<blockquote><small> </small><small><b>** Privacy and Security: </b>
This is a text-only mailing that carries no images which may
originate from remote servers. </small><small> Text-only
messages provide greater privacy to the receiver and sender.
</small><small> </small><br>
<small> By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain must be used
for democratic and election purposes and cannot be used for
commercial purposes. </small><br>
<small>To subscribe, email: <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:contact@theclimate.vote">contact@theclimate.vote</a>
with subject: subscribe, To Unsubscribe, subject:
unsubscribe</small><br>
<small> Also you</small><font size="-1"> may
subscribe/unsubscribe at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote">https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote</a></font><small>
</small><br>
<small> </small><small>Links and headlines assembled and
curated by Richard Pauli</small><small> for <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://TheClimate.Vote">http://TheClimate.Vote</a>
delivering succinct information for citizens and responsible
governments of all levels.</small><small> L</small><small>ist
membership is confidential and records are scrupulously
restricted to this mailing list. <br>
</small></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>