<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<font size="+1"><i>October 30, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[defining heros and zeros]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.vox.com/2018/10/29/18022736/2018-midterm-elections-climate-change-voters-guide">This
group is helping voters make sense of which candidates take
climate change seriously</a></b><br>
The guide to House and Senate races scores candidates on their
positions on climate change and a carbon price.<br>
By Umair Irfan Oct 29, 2018,<br>
- - - <br>
Yet despite mounting concerns about climate, there aren't a whole
lot of tools out there to help voters figure out where candidates
actually stand on climate change and related issues.<br>
<br>
A group called <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://voteclimatepac.org/voters-guide/">Vote Climate US
PAC</a> has taken a stab at this. They put together a climate
change voter's guide for House and Senate races, ranking what
candidates in House and Senate races have said and plan to do about
rising average temperatures.<br>
<br>
Karyn Strickler, president of Vote Climate US PAC, told Vox that
what's unique about her guide is not only that it focuses on climate
change, but that it scores both incumbents and challengers. (The
PAC, she added, is not funded by any billionaires but "a few small
funders who care" but did not say whom.)<br>
<br>
For incumbents, the guide scores their votes on climate-related
bills, their stated positions on climate change, any leadership
roles they've taken on the issue, and their position on a carbon
price. Challengers, who may not have a voting record on climate
change, are graded on their views of climate change and their
position on a carbon price...<br>
- - -<br>
The League of Conservation Voters has its own <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://scorecard.lcv.org/sites/scorecard.lcv.org/files/LCV_Scorecard-2017-Full.pdf">scorecard</a>,
but it focuses only on officials in office and covers environmental
issues writ large rather than climate change in particular. The <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.sierraclubindependentaction.org/endorsements">Sierra
Club has a similar guide</a>.<br>
<font size="-1">more at - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.vox.com/2018/10/29/18022736/2018-midterm-elections-climate-change-voters-guide">https://www.vox.com/2018/10/29/18022736/2018-midterm-elections-climate-change-voters-guide</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[revolt starting in England]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/26/we-have-a-duty-to-act-hundreds-ready-to-go-to-jail-over-climate-crisis">'We
have a duty to act': hundreds ready to go to jail over climate
crisis</a></b><br>
Rowan Williams backs call for mass civil disobedience 'to bypass the
government's inaction and defend life itself'<br>
Letter: Facts about our ecological crisis are incontrovertible. We
must take action<br>
Matthew Taylor Environment correspondent<br>
Fri 26 Oct 2018 <br>
Roger Hallam<br>
A new group of "concerned citizens" is planning a campaign of mass
civil disobedience starting next month and promises it has hundreds
of people – from teenagers to pensioners – ready to get arrested in
an effort to draw attention to the unfolding climate emergency.<br>
<br>
The group, called Extinction Rebellion, is today backed by almost
100 senior academics from across the UK, including the former
archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.<br>
<br>
In a letter published in the Guardian they say the failure of
politicians to tackle climate breakdown and the growing extinction
crisis means "the 'social contract' has been broken…[and] it is
therefore not only our right, but our moral duty to bypass the
government's inaction and flagrant dereliction of duty, and to rebel
to defend life itself."<br>
- - -<br>
"I've taken part in civil disobedience before but not for the last
15 years. I've been prompted to again by the dire stakes of the
climate breakdown we are now in the early throes of, and by the dire
failure of our government (or any government, for that matter) to
take these stakes seriously.<br>
<br>
The way that climate chaos has manifested in the last three years,
with our weather systems perhaps beginning to spiral out of control,
and especially the overheating of the Arctic, has been a big factor
for me. The situation in the Arctic is now genuinely terrifying,
because of the risk of huge-scale methane release.<br>
<br>
This is an emergency, an unprecedented emergency. It dwarfs any
other emergency we've known, including even World War II. And we
will be judged by our children by how we respond in this emergency.
Not by what are, in comparison, just distractions: such as Brexit.
To future generations I would say that we are trying. Those of us
who are joining this rebellion, and the many who support us, are
really trying. If we fail you, it wasn't for lack of effort."<font
size="-1"><br>
more at - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/26/we-have-a-duty-to-act-hundreds-ready-to-go-to-jail-over-climate-crisis">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/26/we-have-a-duty-to-act-hundreds-ready-to-go-to-jail-over-climate-crisis</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Letter to the Guardian]<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/26/facts-about-our-ecological-crisis-are-incontrovertible-we-must-take-action">Facts
about our ecological crisis are incontrovertible. We must take
action</a></b><br>
Humans cannot continue to violate the fundamental laws of nature or
science with impunity, say 94 signatories including Dr Alison Green
and Molly Scott Cato MEP <br>
<blockquote>Our government is complicit in ignoring the
precautionary principle, and in failing to acknowledge that
infinite economic growth on a planet with finite resources is
non-viable. Instead, the government irresponsibly promotes rampant
consumerism and free-market fundamentalism, and allows greenhouse
gas emissions to rise. Earth Overshoot Day (the date when humans
have used up more resources from nature than the planet can renew
in the entire year) falls ever earlier each year (1 August in
2018).<br>
<br>
When a government wilfully abrogates its responsibility to protect
its citizens from harm and to secure the future for generations to
come, it has failed in its most essential duty of stewardship. The
"social contract" has been broken, and it is therefore not only
our right, but our moral duty to bypass the government's inaction
and flagrant dereliction of duty, and to rebel to defend life
itself.<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/26/facts-about-our-ecological-crisis-are-incontrovertible-we-must-take-action">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/26/facts-about-our-ecological-crisis-are-incontrovertible-we-must-take-action</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[extinction rebellion]<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://risingup.org.uk/">HOPE DIES
ACTION BEGINS</a><br>
We are facing an unprecedented global emergency. Our children and
our nation face grave risk.<br>
The planet is in ecological crisis, we are in the midst of the sixth
mass extinction event this planet has experienced. Scientists
believe we may have entered a period of abrupt climate breakdown.<br>
The earth's atmosphere is already over 1C warmer than pre-industrial
levels. The chance of staying below the 2C warming agreed upon in
the Paris agreement are tiny.<br>
Recent projections show we are on course for 3 degrees of warming
and potentially much higher.<br>
Children alive today in the UK will face unimaginable horrors as a
result of floods, wildfires, extreme weather, crop failures and the
inevitable breakdown of society when the pressures are so great.<br>
We are unprepared for the danger our future holds.<br>
The time for denial is over - we know the truth about climate change
and we know the truth about current biological annihilation.<br>
It's time to act like that truth is real.<br>
What does living with this truth call us to do? Will you die knowing
you did all you were able to?<br>
<font size="-1">more at - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://risingup.org.uk/XR/">https://risingup.org.uk/XR/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Vote]<br>
<b><a
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29102018/election-2018-washington-carbon-fee-ballot-initiative-price-carbon-big-oil-opposition">These
Voters Could Approve the First U.S. Carbon Fee. Big Oil Is
Spending Millions to Defeat It.</a></b><br>
If the Washington state measure wins, it could begin a U.S. movement
to make the price of fossil fuels reflect their cost to the planet.<br>
Marianne Lavelle<br>
BY MARIANNE LAVELLE<br>
Washington state voters will decide this November whether to approve
the nation's first carbon fee in what has become the most expensive
ballot initiative fight in the state's history and a referendum on
the oil industry's political clout.<br>
<br>
If the measure passes, it will show that even as the federal
government turns its back on the climate crisis, one state's voters
can make a difference.<br>
<br>
If it is defeated, that will affirm the oil industry's ability to
marshal money for advertising and support to deflect challenges to
its continued dominant role in fueling the nation's economy...<br>
- - - -<br>
KC Golden, a longtime Washington activist, said he believes the
carbon price fight will reverberate beyond the state's borders--not
because the plan will be a model or template for others, but because
of what it says about climate advocates' ability to face off against
the measure's powerful and well-funded foes.<br>
<br>
"It's less about the particulars of the policy design, and more
about the ability to overcome the single biggest obstacle to climate
policy, which is the concentrated economic and political power of
the fossil fuel incumbents," Golden said.<br>
<br>
"We have all these elaborate psychological explanations about why we
have failed these past 30 years to respond to the climate crisis,"
he said. "We'd commit ourselves to the transition in a minute, if
there wasn't something stopping us, and that something is now
spending $29 million to try to stop us in Washington State.<font
size="-1"><br>
More at - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29102018/election-2018-washington-carbon-fee-ballot-initiative-price-carbon-big-oil-opposition">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29102018/election-2018-washington-carbon-fee-ballot-initiative-price-carbon-big-oil-opposition</a><br>
</font><br>
<br>
[fear of youth and self]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/10/29/us-government-kids-climate-case/">Why
Is the U.S. Government So Motivated to Avoid the Kids' Climate
Case?</a></b><br>
By Karen Savage<br>
Although their case remains on hold while the Supreme Court reviews
a last-ditch, extraordinary motion by the Trump Administration, the
21 young plaintiffs in the landmark climate suit Juliana v. United
States have already taken climate litigation into previously
uncharted territory.<br>
<br>
The plaintiffs, who come from communities around the country already
dealing with debilitating effects of climate change, allege that the
federal government is violating their Constitutional rights to life,
liberty and property by promoting a fossil fuel-based energy system
that exacerbates climate change. Their suit, filed in 2015,
successfully convinced a U.S. District Court judge to order the case
to trial and until two weeks ago, had dodged every effort by the
federal government to halt the case.<br>
<br>
The trial had been scheduled to begin on Monday. The Supreme Court
still has not ruled on the Trump administration's request for a writ
of mandamus, a rarely granted legal maneuver that overrules a lower
court before a trial has even occurred.<br>
<br>
That request was part of a persistent government effort to stop the
case's momentum to trial. It was its sixth mandamus request and
second to the Supreme Court.<br>
<br>
Why the government appears so frantic to avoid the trial has been an
overriding, and unanswered, question. But part of the reason could
be that the case puts the government in an uncomfortable legal
position. Much of the evidence used by the young people to prove
they are being harmed by climate change comes from the government
itself.<br>
<br>
In a recent motion to exclude expert testimony, the Trump
administration admitted that climate change is causing "polar ice
melt, earlier annual snow melt, reduced snowpack, sea-level rise,
sea temperature increases, threats to coastal cities, adverse
impacts to coral reefs and the life they support, more powerful
storms and hurricanes, wildfires, drought, floods, and a variety of
other impacts."...<br>
- - -<br>
The plaintiffs' unique, overarching narrative would likely help them
in a trial, said Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin
Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.<br>
<br>
"That this government--and its various departments and agencies--has
long known about the extraordinary risks that climate change poses
both to individuals living today and to future generations," Burger
said. "[It] has fundamentally failed to take adequate actions to
address those harms and has in fact made affirmative decisions that
have made the problem worse. And the law provides a means to
constrain government and to force action. I think that's a very
powerful narrative."<br>
<br>
Carlson said it was smart for the plaintiffs to frame the case as
not so much about protecting the wilderness or something the
plaintiffs have, but about protecting the livelihood and lives of
future generations.<br>
<br>
"I think what's unique about how the plaintiffs have framed this
case is that it's really not 'we have a right to a clean
environment,' but 'we have a right to health and life,'" Carlson
said.<br>
- - -<br>
"I am in the firm view that there is no irreparable harm to the
government in conducting a trial. The government conducts trials all
the time--that argument strikes me as absurd and that Justice
Roberts is willing to entertain it is extraordinary," Burger said.<br>
<br>
He said the Trump administration's efforts to continually seek
interlocutory appeals from the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court
over a trial court's treatment and management of a case is an
aggressive strategy.<br>
<br>
"In the appeals process, there would be the opportunity for the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and then possibly the Supreme Court
to rule on the legal questions on whether or not there is a
constitutional right to a stable climate system and whether the
public trust doctrine does apply to the federal government in this
context, which are the key arguments that the federal government is
contesting here," said Burger, who added that he thinks it's
extraordinary that Justice Roberts has essentially reversed
Kennedy's decision based on no new information and no change in
circumstance...<br>
- - -<br>
If the case proceeds, Carlson said it's possible the Trump
administration will argue that it would be very unusual for a court
to force the government to adopt policies that stop subsidizing
fossil fuel use and cut greenhouse gas emissions.<br>
<br>
"Whether that's the role for a court, I think is a fundamental
question that the government is asking and I think higher courts are
going to have a hard time with. It's not clear that that's a good
role for the judiciary," Carlson said.<br>
<br>
She also predicts the Trump administration will argue that it's the
role of Congress to enact laws that require emissions reductions.<br>
<br>
"This is kind of an ancillary argument to the court argument--that
this is not the place for a court to be deciding, that this is a
political question," Carlson said...<br>
- - - <br>
"Since the early days of the Republic, our judiciary has grown to be
the last line of defense against governance that threatens the
public good and destroys the lives of our people. It has even been
strong enough to reckon with big entrenched systems of government
that deprive the people of their rights, though not always getting
it right on the first try; it has been a place to shine the light on
truth and justice," Olson said.<br>
<br>
Hazel Van Ommersen, a 14-year-old plaintiff from Eugene, Ore., said
she and her co-plaintiffs have been waiting for three years for
their voices to be heard in court.<br>
<br>
"The U.S. government is doing everything it can to silence us, all
while we watch it continue to make the climate crisis worse," Van
Ommersen said.<br>
<br>
"It just goes to show how nervous our government is about our
stories and the science getting their day in court. We're going to
show the government that we are not giving up, and we need this
country to come together behind us."<br>
<font size="-1">more at - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/10/29/us-government-kids-climate-case/">https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/10/29/us-government-kids-climate-case/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[courts]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/10/28/germany-climate-promises-greenpeace/">German
Government Faces Lawsuit Over Its Failure Meet Climate Goals</a></b><br>
Three families in Germany are suing their government hoping to
compel it to cut carbon emissions as it has promised, joining a
growing trend of citizens worldwide taking legal action against
national governments over insufficient climate policies.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/10/28/germany-climate-promises-greenpeace/">https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/10/28/germany-climate-promises-greenpeace/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://youtu.be/eJFZ88EH6i4">This Day in Climate History
- October 30, 2003</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
October 30, 2003: <br>
<blockquote>The US Senate rejects the McCain-Lieberman Climate
Stewardship Act of 2003 in a 55-43 vote. The bill failed after an
all-out assault on the legislation aided by ExxonMobil-funded
"researcher" Willie Soon. <br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/31/us/senate-defeats-climate-bill-but-proponents-see-silver-lining.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/31/us/senate-defeats-climate-bill-but-proponents-see-silver-lining.html</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/eJFZ88EH6i4">http://youtu.be/eJFZ88EH6i4</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>