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<i><font size="+1"><b>February 21, 2020</b></font></i><br>
<br>
[free weekly climate crisis newsletter]<br>
<b>The New Yorker's new weekly newsletter on climate change will try
to break through the daily noise</b><br>
"Climate is one of those big, overarching topics that feels
essential to understand and also very overwhelming. The newsletter
form seems like the right way to approach it because it narrows the
focus."<br>
By SARAH SCIRE <br>
What's the right pace for journalism about climate change to
maximize its impact?<br>
<br>
Hammering people with a constant torrent of stories can make some
people feel helpless and overwhelmed by the onslaught -- not to
mention the sheer scope of the problem. But checking in only
sporadically, like when there's a major new international report,
leaves the story too far off the public's agenda. A crisis many
years in the making -- with both its impacts and solutions often
measured in decades -- is hard to align with the rhythms of a
newsroom.<br>
<br>
The New Yorker is betting that weekly -- and in your inbox rather
than as just another link in your Twitter feed -- might be right.
The magazine announced this week that it's moving deeper into
newsletter-only content with a weekly email dedicated to climate
change -- written by perhaps the biggest name in environmental
journalism, Bill McKibben...<br>
- - -<br>
Each issue of The Climate Crisis will consist of a short essay,
links, and an interview section called "Pass the Mic" to highlight
emerging perspectives on climate change. The name is a nod to the
NAACP publication co-founded by W.E.B. Du Bois a little more than a
century ago.<br>
<br>
The Climate Crisis is hardly the first newsletter dedicated to
climate change. From established institutions, there's the weekly
Climate Fwd: from The New York Times. More 2020 is Emily Atkin's
HEATED, a subscriber-only daily on Substack...<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/02/the-new-yorkers-new-weekly-newsletter-on-climate-change-will-try-to-break-through-the-daily-noise/">https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/02/the-new-yorkers-new-weekly-newsletter-on-climate-change-will-try-to-break-through-the-daily-noise/</a><br>
<b>Sign Up for The New Yorker's Climate Crisis Newsletter</b><br>
Updates from inside the climate movement, from the activist and
author Bill McKibben.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.newyorker.com/home/newsletters/sign-up-for-the-new-yorkers-climate-crisis-newsletter">https://www.newyorker.com/home/newsletters/sign-up-for-the-new-yorkers-climate-crisis-newsletter</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Everyone has an idea]<br>
<b>How climate scientists, activists, and NGOs want to spend Jeff
Bezos' money</b><br>
Bezos pledged to give $10 billion to take action on climate change<br>
When Jeff Bezos -- Amazon's CEO and the richest person alive --
announced his new $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund on Tuesday, he said
he would start doling out that cash to scientists, NGOs, and
activists as early as this summer. There aren't a ton of details yet
about what kind of charitable giving the Bezos Earth Fund will be
focused on, but researchers and advocacy groups have a few ideas for
how all that green could be spent.<br>
<br>
The Verge spoke with leading environmental organizations and
scientists about what that $10 billion could accomplish. While it
represents just under 8 percent of Bezos' net worth, the sum alone
is 10 times as much as foundations across the globe gave in 2018 to
try to stop climate change. In the US, just $500 million in grants
is given to climate efforts each year, Noah Deich, executive
director of the nonprofit Carbon 180, told The Verge.<br>
- - -<br>
"Bezos is a tycoon whose company is inherently unsustainable and
damaging to the planet and people," Sen Oglesby, 17-year-old finance
coordinator for the activist group Extinction Rebellion Youth New
York, said in an email to The Verge. "While this sum of money is
huge, it comes with the caveat that Amazon continues to exacerbate
the issue Bezos is donating to fix."<br>
<b>Investing in science</b><b><br>
</b><br>
How much climate change can we handle? That's a central question to
the climate crisis, according to Duffy. Researchers need to
understand what the world will look like under differing degrees of
warming. Which cities will be underwater? How big of a punch will
future superstorms pack? The answers to those questions can help
people figure out how to adapt to the altered world.<br>
<br>
"UNDERSTANDING THE BIG, BIG THREATS"<br>
"The research should be aimed at understanding the big, big
threats," Duffy says. That includes extreme weather, vanishing ice
sheets pushing sea levels up, and greenhouse gases from melting
permafrost amplifying global warming...<br>
- - -<br>
Amazon employees and activists have long sought to hold Amazon
accountable for its environmental footprint. That includes the air
pollution it generates to get packages from distribution centers to
online shoppers' front doors. They've also criticized Amazon for
providing cloud services to fossil fuel companies. Environmental
organization 350.org and Amazon Employees for Climate Justice both
responded to Bezos' announcement by urging him to fulfill demands to
slash Amazon's greenhouse gas emissions and stop doing business with
Big Oil and Gas...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/19/21143044/jeff-bezos-climate-change-donation-scientists-earth-fund-activists-ngo">https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/19/21143044/jeff-bezos-climate-change-donation-scientists-earth-fund-activists-ngo</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Beckwith video talk #2]<br>
<b>How Southern Ocean Warming Drives Substantial Ice Mass Loss from
Antarctica; Part 2 of 3</b><br>
Feb 20, 2020<br>
Paul Beckwith<br>
I continue to discuss a new paper that examines how southern ocean
warming drove substantial ice mass loss from Antarctica early in the
last interglacial period (129 to 116 thousand years ago), and the
implications of this today. Back then, with warmer polar
temperatures, global mean sea level was +6 to 9 m (roughly 20 to 30
feet) higher than today. With Greenland ice sheet melt contributing
about 2 m, and ocean thermal expansion and melting mountain glaciers
contributing about 1 m; that means Antarctica would have contributed
between 3 to 6 m, mostly from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iam0hMEpEMo">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iam0hMEpEMo</a><br>
- - -<br>
[Beckwith video #3]<br>
How close are Southern Ocean Temperatures to a West Antarctic Ice
Sheet Tipping Point? Part 3 of 3<br>
Paul Beckwith<br>
I continue chatting on the new paper examining how southern ocean
warming drove substantial ice mass loss from Antarctica early in the
last interglacial period (129 to 116 thousand years ago), and the
implications for us today of accelerated melt and sea level rise.
According to the paper, an early last-interglacial warning of
Sea-Surface Temperature (SST) of 1.6 C relative to present day
occurred; meanwhile SST temperatures bracketing coastlines of the
most vulnerable West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) increased as much as
1 C between 1981 and 2010. Not good; we may be very close to a
tipping point.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA1CjqNyBx0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA1CjqNyBx0</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Boston has been paying attention]<br>
<b>Boston harbor brings ashore a new enemy: Rising seas</b><br>
Facing climate change, Boston must gird itself for an era of rising
water -- or be inundated<br>
- - -<br>
They concluded that sea-level rise in Boston began to pick up speed
only after 1940. One-third of the 100 most extreme storm events have
taken place in the past dozen years, including in 2018, which saw
some of the highest water levels measured since European
colonization, they wrote. By the 2030s, the city will face an
"abruptly" elevated risk of coastal flooding when tides shift, the
scientists said.<br>
<br>
For many cities, floods that once occurred every 100 years are
expected to become annual events -- or even more frequent -- by
2050, said Princeton University's Michael Oppenheimer, a professor
of geosciences and international affairs.<br>
<br>
"Enough is known to start formulating policies to make the coast
more resilient and to adapt to anticipated sea-level rise," he said.<br>
<br>
Boston is one of 94 cities worldwide sharing information about how
to deal with climate change.<br>
<br>
In the end, Oppenheimer warned, retreat might be the only option.
"It is what a lot of cities will have to do because a lot of
neighborhoods are not defensible," he said. Sea levels will continue
to rise, no matter how high the coastal barriers might be, he said.<br>
<br>
"You either protect people or you get them out of the way," he said.
"There just isn't a choice."...<br>
more at -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/02/19/boston-prepares-rising-seas-climate-change/?arc404=true">https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/02/19/boston-prepares-rising-seas-climate-change/?arc404=true</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>[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>
<p><br>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p><br>
</p>
<b>[Two dramatic fire videos, one terrifying, one hilarious]</b><br>
[O]f all the videos of the fires, the one I was most compelled to
watch repeatedly was filmed by an inanimate object. Specifically, it
was recorded by a Garmin dashboard camera inside a fire truck
belonging to the Dunmore Rural Fire Brigade, one of the many local
volunteer teams left, amid the fecklessness of Prime Minister Scott
Morrison's government, to more or less single-handedly fight what
may well be the largest-yet climate catastrophe visited upon an
affluent, developed country. At the beginning of the video, we see a
fire engine and a light truck parked along a country road. The crew
members -- like volunteer fire crews everywhere, a mix of stocky
middle-aged men and farm-boy-looking youths -- are ambling around,
checking radios and finishing canned drinks. Then a plume of smoke
starts spreading from the upper right-hand corner of the screen.<br>
<br>
We see the firefighters climb into their trucks and retreat down the
road. The smoke is thickening now, faster than you would imagine if
you have not seen wildfires and are not acquainted with the
improbable, astonishing speed they can achieve, matching that of a
car on the highway. The last flashing lights vanish into the smoke,
and with them the last trace of humanity in view. Seconds later, the
trees alongside the road explode. The sky is gone. The landscape
recedes into its basic geometry -- the road, a driveway, telephone
poles -- and then even the geometry blurs into a directionless swirl
of fire, ember and smoke.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2435387696711232">https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2435387696711232</a><br>
-- -<br>
then the funny one from 2018:<br>
<b>Fire Tornado Sucks Fire Hose Into Air</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eWv3cUzJvA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eWv3cUzJvA</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 21, 2012 </b></font><br>
Conservative blogger Steven L. Taylor calls out GOP presidential
candidate Rick Santorum for his repeated denials of climate change:<br>
<blockquote> "[C]onservatives ultimately see any attempt at
environment regulation as really not about the environment anyway,
but about an excuse for increased government control. Not only
does this pay into general concerns about 'big government' but
this strand of the argument asserts that all this
researchy/sciencey talk is just a ruse: those guys aren't really
scientists interested in understanding the environment. No! They
are Marxists in lab coats looking to fool you all into socialism!<br>
<br>
"Now, understand: I do not consider myself an expert on climate
change. I do not even have especially strong views on the
subject, although I do accept the rather overwhelming scientific
consensus that we have a climate change problem. What this means
in terms of policy is another issue. However, I find it
problematic when politicians hand-wave over serious issues [due
to] some inherent belief that they understand topics that would
otherwise require a lifetime of study to understand...Further,
while I understand concerns over taxes and regulations, that
doesn't make issues like pollution go away.<br>
<br>
"In short: if one is going to make arguments on this topic (and
seek to influence policy in this arena) I would like to see more
than appeals to the Biblical creation story and fear mongering
about government control."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/santorum-and-climate-change-theology/">http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/santorum-and-climate-change-theology/</a><br>
<br>
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