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<i><font size="+1"><b>February 20, 2020</b></font></i><br>
<br>
[Wildfire in politics]<br>
<b>Statements from five presidential candidates about wildland fire</b><br>
Author Bill Gabbert - Feb 19, 2020<br>
They were asked about how to break the cycle of more severe weather,
homes in fire-prone areas, and fire suppression that puts forests at
greater risk for more catastrophic fires in the future...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wildfiretoday.com/2020/02/19/statements-from-five-presidential-candidates-about-wildland-fire/">https://wildfiretoday.com/2020/02/19/statements-from-five-presidential-candidates-about-wildland-fire/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[influence]<br>
<b>Parents can't fix climate change with life hacks -- but here are
ways to make a real impact</b><br>
By Caitlin Gibson - Feb. 18, 2020<br>
The climate crisis is so monumental, its symptoms so horrific --
acidifying oceans, raging wildfires, vanishing wildlife -- that it's
easy to feel paralyzed in the face of it. For parents raising the
children who will inherit a damaged planet, the prospect can feel
particularly daunting...<br>
- - -<br>
How climate experts think about raising children who will inherit a
planet in crisis<br>
<br>
Individual consumer choices do matter (go for that bamboo toothbrush
over a plastic one; the sea turtles thank you), but they are not the
deciding factor in halting the current crisis, says Mary DeMocker,
an environmental activist and author of "The Parents' Guide to
Climate Revolution: 100 Ways to Build a Fossil-Free Future, Raise
Empowered Kids, and Still Get a Good Night's Sleep."<br>
<br>
"Busy parents -- along with everyone else -- have been told for
years that individual lifestyle changes can stop the climate from
spinning out of control, but the truth is they can't," she wrote in
her book. "Not by themselves, anyway."...<br>
- - -<br>
Focus time, energy on larger movement<br>
If you only have a little time to spare at the end of a busy week,
the best way to spend it is not by meticulously sorting every scrap
of recyclable material in your home, but rather by contributing to
bigger environmental efforts -- whether at the local, state or
national level, DeMocker says.<br>
<br>
"Spend 10 minutes looking at your local grass-roots climate group
online," she says. Are they protesting a proposed pipeline? Urging
residents to call their elected officials about pending legislation?
Advocating for the protection of a threatened park or waterway?<br>
<br>
"Understand your sphere of influence, where your interest is and
where the levers of power are. . . . Look up the important decisions
being made on the policy level in your own community," she says.<br>
<br>
This is especially critical in an election year, she says. "Now is
the time to plug into the electoral cycle, at whatever level parents
and families can," she says. "That might mean volunteering, it might
mean phone-banking or knocking on doors, it might mean just having
more water-cooler conversations about the climate champions who are
running for office."<br>
<br>
Moms Clean Air Force encourages its members to bring their kids with
them when they do advocacy work, Toney says. "There are kids who, I
swear, should be registered lobbyists because they know how to
advocate, they have been in the practice of speaking for
themselves," she says. If you don't have time to plan a trip to your
local representative's office, she adds, your child can help you
reach out in other ways.<br>
<br>
"Sign a petition, write an email, send a Facebook message with a
picture of a handmade sign," she says. "Find out what people in your
community are doing, and join in."<br>
<br>
Connect kids to the environment<br>
"This sounds really simple, but just getting outdoors is hugely
helpful for getting your children to have a connection with nature
and the environment," Toney says. That doesn't mean you have to take
them on a grand tour of every national park: "I don't mean, 'Go buy
$500 hiking boots and climb through the mountains,' " she says.
"Figure out what you have right in your space, and just go outside."<br>
<br>
When you're out there, help your children learn how to pay attention
to their surroundings. Even with very young kids, this is something
that sets the stage for a deeper environmental awareness, Toney
says.<br>
<br>
"When we walk from the front door to the car, which is just down a
little sidewalk, we take note of what's outside. 'There's the grass,
and the trees, and is that a flower? What color is the tree? Is that
a rabbit?' " she says. "It creates a relationship. Now when my
little one gets out of the car at night, he immediately looks up. He
says, 'Oh, stars! The sky! Clouds!' We're trying to create, at a
very young age, this connection with the natural things around us."<br>
<br>
Ways to help kids cope with -- and help combat -- climate change<br>
<br>
Pick one thing to champion or to give up<br>
If the eco-parenting "to-do" lists are feeling like too much,
DeMocker suggests finding just one thing that feels reasonable for
your family to give up, such as eating red meat, buying tropical
wood, taking vacations that involve plane travel or using a bank
with ties to the fossil fuel industry...<br>
- - -<br>
Empower kids to be agents of change<br>
Is your community debating an environmental policy or pondering the
possibility of adding more pedestrian- or bicycle-friendly
infrastructure? If there's a public hearing coming up, let your
child be the one who addresses your elected leaders. Planning to
attend a pro-environment demonstration? Bring the kids, and let them
make their own signs.<br>
<br>
Not every young climate activist is Greta Thunberg, but any child
can carry her message forward, DeMocker says. "A child can make a
sign to display on your car or the bike or the front lawn," she
says. "They can knock on doors, help you write a letter or an
email."<br>
<br>
For younger kids, this sense of initiative can start at the
household level. When Toney's daughter was 7, the family's community
did not provide recycling bins. She was determined that the family
should recycle anyway, so she created her own container, decorating
a big cardboard box with crayon drawings, Toney says.<br>
<br>
"We kept that box until it was soaked through with God knows what,
and that was our recycling container, and that was initiated by my
child," Toney says. "It's important to find things that they can
initiate themselves, and support them in that."<br>
<br>
Don't give in to despair<br>
For Christmas 2016, DeMocker asked her family to create a "wall of
kindred spirits" in their home, complete with portraits of
inspirational figures, climate heroes and creative icons -- among
them Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Honduran environmentalist<br>
Berta Caceres and Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai,
who was honored for leading an effort to plant 30 million trees. The
point of this display, DeMocker says, is to offer encouragement in
moments when optimism feels hard to come by.<br>
<br>
"When I'm ragged and without the strength to go on, my heroes
silently say, You've got this, dear. Keep on fighting," she writes
in her book.<br>
<br>
The climate crisis can be frightening and heartbreaking, and we must
make space to process those emotions, DeMocker says; cry, vent, go
for a run -- but then rally, because it's not too late. And kids
need to see determination and optimism modeled for them, too.<br>
<br>
"We have hope; scientists are telling us that we are not doomed, and
this is really an important conversation because so many people
think we're a lost cause already," DeMocker says. "And we have to
work hard to address that, because I think it's the biggest issue we
face -- the emotional response that people have to the climate
crisis. And I understand why; it's big, it's daunting. But it is not
a lost cause, and we must remember that."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/parents-cant-fix-climate-change-with-life-hacks--but-here-are-ways-to-make-a-real-impact/2020/02/17/291d23ce-42a8-11ea-b5fc-eefa848cde99_story.html">https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/parents-cant-fix-climate-change-with-life-hacks--but-here-are-ways-to-make-a-real-impact/2020/02/17/291d23ce-42a8-11ea-b5fc-eefa848cde99_story.html</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[WHO is World Health Organization]<br>
<b>World failing to provide children with a healthy life and a
climate fit for their future: WHO-UNICEF-Lancet</b><br>
19 February 2020 News release <br>
As climate and commercial threats intensify, WHO-UNICEF-Lancet
Commission presses for radical rethink on child health<br>
No single country is adequately protecting children's health, their
environment and their futures, finds a landmark report released
today by a Commission of over 40 child and adolescent health experts
from around the world. The Commission was convened by the World
Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and The Lancet. <br>
<br>
The report, A Future for the World's Children?, finds that the
health and future of every child and adolescent worldwide is under
immediate threat from ecological degradation, climate change and
exploitative marketing practices that push heavily processed fast
food, sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco at children. <br>
<br>
"Despite improvements in child and adolescent health over the past
20 years, progress has stalled, and is set to reverse," said former
Prime Minister of New Zealand and Co-Chair of the Commission, Helen
Clark. "It has been estimated that around 250 million children under
five years old in low- and middle-income countries are at risk of
not reaching their developmental potential, based on proxy measures
of stunting and poverty. But of even greater concern, every child
worldwide now faces existential threats from climate change and
commercial pressures.<br>
<b>A manifesto for immediate action on child and adolescent health </b><br>
To protect children, the independent Commission authors call for a
new global movement driven by and for children. Specific
recommendations include:<br>
<blockquote>1. Stop CO2 emissions with the utmost urgency, to ensure
children have a future on this planet;<br>
2. Place children and adolescents at the centre of our efforts to
achieve sustainable development;<br>
3. New policies and investment in all sectors to work towards
child health and rights;<br>
4. Incorporate children's voices into policy decisions;<br>
5. Tighten national regulation of harmful commercial marketing,
supported by a new Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/19-02-2020-world-failing-to-provide-children-with-a-healthy-life-and-a-climate-fit-for-their-future-who-unicef-lancet">https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/19-02-2020-world-failing-to-provide-children-with-a-healthy-life-and-a-climate-fit-for-their-future-who-unicef-lancet</a><br>
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[Paul Beckwith video lecture]<b><br>
</b><b>West Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt Expected to Greatly Accelerate
as Southern Ocean Warms: Part 1 of 3</b><br>
Feb 19, 2020<br>
Paul Beckwith<br>
An island off the northernmost tip of Antarctica reached a record
breaking temperature of 20.75 C (69.35 F) for the first time, after
setting a record the previous week of 18.3 C (65 F), besting the
previous record of 17.5 C (63.5 F) in March 2015. I show on Earth
Nullschool how a dip in the Southern Hemisphere jet stream let warm
air penetrate the Antarctica Peninsula; temperatures over this
region in the last 50 years have increased by 3 C (5.4 F), which is
4 to 5 times the global average rise. However it is the temperature
rise in the Southern Oceans that greatly accelerates West Antarctic
Ice Sheet melt.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60aOaOYU8YQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60aOaOYU8YQ</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Rare for to scientists to use the term "evil"]<br>
Energy Research & Social Science<br>
Volume 61, March 2020, 101361<br>
<b>Power, evil and resistance in social structure: A sociology for
energy research in a climate emergency</b><br>
<blockquote> The climate emergency demands a radical rethink of
sociology for energy research.<br>
Giddens' structuration theory can be rejuvenated for this project.<br>
Powerful, self-serving actors construct and maintain
climate-damaging social structure.<br>
Moral argument will not persuade such actors to surrender their
power.<br>
The notion of "evil" is useful for theorizing how their power can
be dislodged.<br>
</blockquote>
A new paper in Energy Research & Social Science by Cambridge's
Ray Galvin seeks to reinvigorate the social science of climate and
energy as the general assumption that humans tackle political issues
in good faith creates a hole in our understanding of behavior, which
means "the notion of human evil needs to be better theorized."
Galvin's work is steeped in sociology references and theory, but
here's an attempt to present it in plain language that we're hoping
doesn't stupidly misrepresent it like deniers did to Zeppetello. <br>
After the abstract, the first line is: "We find ourselves in a
climate emergency." Why is that? Galvin proposes that sociology
"might help explain" why we're "bent on wrecking earth's Holocene
climate" and what "daring, obstinate actions would be needed to halt
this rush to destruction." <br>
<br>
At the core of the framework Galvin presents is that "powerful
people who know their actions are harming millions" and "whose
actions are shaping social structure in their own interests and
against the interests of humanity are not likely to be persuaded to
give up their destructive power by the force of moral argument." <br>
<br>
"Evil (whatever it is ontologically)," Galvin writes, "is not only
in their actions, it is also in their tenacious clinging to these
actions despite good moral argument." These "people who behave
selfishly, maliciously, or with other 'evil' intent often know very
well that these behaviours contravene basic moral codes of conduct,
not only within their own culture but even universally." <br>
<br>
So while each of us can individually choose more climate-friendly
options, like electric vehicles, that can only go so far to mitigate
the problem in the absence of larger, structural changes. And those
changes will only come with the exercising of political force,
because "we are not dealing only with kind-hearted, well-intentioned
people of goodwill, but also with 'evil'" in the selfish
preservation of vast fortunes or use of political power to benefit
only one's self. <br>
<br>
This kind of evil "can only be neutralised by force of power, by
citizens' determined and carefully crafted resistance." Ultimately,
"people of goodwill need to increase their power so as to work
actively to wrest power from those who control social structure for
their own gain at the expense of others and the climate." <br>
<br>
There are a lot of different names and words used to describe
various shapes of denial. But really two words will suffice. For
those who are innocently deceived by those who promote denial, the
nicest descriptor would be that they are merely "misled" deniers.<br>
<br>
As for those doing the misleading, that greed, that indifference to
human suffering, that willingness to deceive others and distort
social structures to suit one's personal aims at the expense of the
public? <br>
<br>
That can only truly be described as evil.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221462961930876X">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221462961930876X</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
February 20, 2013</b></font><br>
In his first major policy speech as Secretary of State, John Kerry
directly addresses the risks of climate change.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqJt_WSGoVI">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqJt_WSGoVI</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/02/21/1620201/speech-kerry-climate-hawk-courage-reject-dirty-keystone-xl-pipeline/">http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/02/21/1620201/speech-kerry-climate-hawk-courage-reject-dirty-keystone-xl-pipeline/</a><br>
<br>
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