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<i><font size="+1"><b>February 22, 2020</b></font></i><br>
<br>
[BBC relays warning]<br>
<b>JP Morgan economists warn of 'catastrophic' climate change</b><br>
Human life "as we know it" could be threatened by climate change,
economists at JP Morgan have warned.<br>
<br>
In a hard-hitting report to clients, the economists said that
without action being taken there could be "catastrophic outcomes".<br>
<br>
The bank said the research came from a team that was "wholly
independent from the company as a whole".<br>
<br>
Climate campaigners have previously criticised JP Morgan for its
investments in fossil fuels.<br>
<br>
The firm's stark report was sent to clients and seen by BBC News.<br>
<br>
While JP Morgan economists have warned about unpredictability in
climate change before, the language used in the new report was very
forceful.<br>
<br>
"We cannot rule out catastrophic outcomes where human life as we
know it is threatened," JP Morgan economists David Mackie and
Jessica Murray said.<br>
- - -<br>
<br>
A JP Morgan spokesperson said the research team was "wholly
independent from the company as a whole, and not a commentary on it"
and declined to comment further.<br>
<br>
Mark Cutifani, chief executive of mining giant Anglo American, told
the BBC how the firm wants to reduce its carbon footprint, and ''can
see a pathway to creating carbon neutral mines''.<br>
<br>
Talking about a timeframe he added: "We are a bit concerned about
putting a date on it as yet because some of the technologies are
still evolving. We will get there, the only question is how quickly
we can get there.''<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51581098">https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51581098</a><br>
- - -<br>
[Similar message from the Financial Times]<br>
<b>Banks risk being caught off-guard by climate change</b><br>
Report finds institutions are not doing enough to make their balance
sheets more green<br>
Climate change is creating substantial, unrecognised risk in the
financial system as banks are failing to prepare for green
regulation and carbon taxes that will have an impact on the
companies they lend to...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.ft.com/content/7bfdb172-5364-11ea-90ad-25e377c0ee1f">https://www.ft.com/content/7bfdb172-5364-11ea-90ad-25e377c0ee1f</a><br>
- - -<br>
[comment on global warming and the economy]<br>
<b>Mark Blyth - Global Trumpism and the Future of the Global Economy</b><br>
Jul 16, 2019<br>
McMaster Humanities<br>
This lecture is part of the McMaster Department of Philosophy's
Summer School in Capitalism, democratic solidarity, and
Institutional design<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.solidaritydesign2019.com">https://www.solidaritydesign2019.com</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/KGuaoARJYU0?t=4154">https://youtu.be/KGuaoARJYU0?t=4154</a><br>
- - <br>
[a related report Time magazine]<br>
<b>Every Child on Earth Faces 'Existential Threats' From Climate
Change, Report Finds</b><br>
<blockquote>The findings, compiled by over 40 child and adolescent
health experts in a commission convened by the World Health
Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the medical journal The Lancet,
show that the health and future for every child and teen in the
world is under threat. Climate change, ecological degradation and
advertising practices that push harmful products toward youth are
just some factors that have created an uncertain future for
children, the report says.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://time.com/5786395/climate-change-children-threatened/">https://time.com/5786395/climate-change-children-threatened/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[important list from Yale Climate Connections]<br>
<b>New and recent books about hope in a time of climate change</b><br>
These books explore how people might sustain their optimism and hope
in the face of the often bleak news of a steadily warming world.<br>
warm day in winter used to be a rare and uplifting relief.<br>
<br>
Now such days are routine reminders of climate change - all the more
foreboding when they coincide with news stories about unprecedented
wildfires, record-breaking "rain bombs," or the accelerated melting
of polar ice sheets.<br>
<br>
Where, then, can one turn for hope in these dark months of the year?<br>
<br>
A diverse range of perspectives ... but all end on a note of hope
and how to better sustain it.<br>
- - -<br>
Many start by acknowledging our bitter, partisan politics. But all
end on a note of hope and how to better sustain it.<br>
<br>
<b>Happier People, Healthier Planet: How Putting Well-Being First
Would Help Sustain Life on Earth</b>, by Teresa Belton (Silverwood
Books 2014, 369 pages, $23.49 paperback)<br>
<br>
Happier People, Healthier Planet addresses the diametrically opposed
issues of personal wellbeing and ecological destruction as
inseparable concerns. It shows how attending to what really matters
for personal thriving will also protect the environment. Most human
beings are strongly attracted to material possessions, novelty, and
ever greater comfort and convenience. Yet paradoxically, for those
with a decent basic standard of living, growing affluence has not
resulted in increased subjective wellbeing: overconsumption does not
make us happy. It is perfectly possible to live a rewarding life
without consuming more than we need, and we must all find out how to
do so if we are to preserve the hospitality of the Earth. This book
investigates the factors that are likely to encourage a positive
preference for sustainable lifestyles.<br>
- - <br>
<b>Finntopia: What We Can Learn from the World's Happiest Country</b>,
by Danny Dorling and Annika Koljonen (Columbia University Press,
July 2020, 192 pages, $25.00 paperback)<br>
<br>
In 2018, the World Happiness Report ranked Finland the world's
happiest country. The Nordic Model has long been touted as the
aspiration for social and public policy in Europe and North America,
but what is it about Finland that makes the country so successful
and seemingly such a great place to live? Finland clearly has
problems of its own - for example, a high level of gun ownership and
rising rates of suicide - which can make Finns skeptical of their
ranking, but its consistently high performance across a range of
well-being indicators does raise fascinating questions. In the quest
for the best of all possible societies, Danny Dorling and Annika
Koljonen explore what we might learn from Finnish success and what
they might usefully learn from us.<br>
- - <br>
<b>The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go
from Here</b>, by Hope Jahren (Penguin/Random, March 2020, 224
pages, $14.99)<br>
<br>
Hope Jahren is an award-winning scientist, a brilliant writer, a
passionate teacher, and one of the seven billion people with whom we
share this earth. In The Story of More, she illuminates the link
between human habits and our imperiled planet. She takes us through
the science behind the key inventions - from electric power to
large-scale farming - that, even as they help us, release greenhouse
gases into the atmosphere like never before. She explains the
current and projected consequences of global warming - from
superstorms to rising sea levels - and the actions that we all can
take to fight back. Both a primer on the mechanisms of global change
and a personal narrative given to us in Jahren's inimitable voice,
The Story of More is the essential pocket primer on climate change
that will leave an indelible impact on everyone who reads it.<br>
<br>
<b>Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses and Citizens Can Save the
Planet</b>, by Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope (St. Martin's Press
2017, 272 pages, $26.99)<br>
<br>
The 2016 election left many people who are concerned about the
environment fearful that progress on climate change would come
screeching to a halt. But not Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope. In
Climate of Hope, Bloomberg, an entrepreneur and former mayor of New
York City, and Pope, a lifelong environmental leader offer an
optimistic look at the challenge of climate change, the solutions
they believe hold the greatest promise, and the practical steps that
are necessary to achieve them. Sharing their own stories from
government, business, and advocacy, Bloomberg and Pope provide a
road map for tackling the most complicated challenge the world has
ever faced. Along the way, they turn the usual way of thinking about
climate change on its head: from top down to bottom up, from costs
to benefits, and from fear to hope.<br>
- -<br>
See also: <b>Atmosphere of Hope: Searching for Solutions to Climate
Change</b>, by Tim Flannery (Harper Collins 2015/2016, 272 pages,
$16.00 paperback) and Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play
Itself Out?, by Bill McKibben (Henry Holt & Co. 2019, 304 pages
$28.00).<br>
- -<br>
<b>Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a
Sustainable Future</b>, by Mary Robinson (Bloomsbury 2018, 176
pages, $26.00)<br>
<br>
Holding her first grandchild in her arms in 2003, Mary Robinson,
former president of Ireland and the UN's Special Envoy on Climate
Change, was struck by the uncertainty of the world he had been born
into. The faceless, shadowy menace of climate change had become, in
an instant, deeply personal. Mary Robinson's new mission would lead
her all over the world and to a heartening revelation: that an
irrepressible driving force in the battle for climate justice could
be found at the grassroots level, mainly among women, many of them
mothers and grandmothers like herself. Powerful and deeply humane,
Climate Justice is a stirring manifesto on one of the most pressing
issues of our time, and a lucid, affirmative, and well-argued case
for hope.<br>
- -<br>
<b>The Archipelago of Hope: Wisdom and Resilience from the Edge of
Climate Change</b>, by Gleb Raygorodetsky (Pegasus Books
2017/2018, 336 pages, $17.95 paperback)<br>
<br>
Climate change is already here. Nobody knows this better than
Indigenous peoples who, having developed an intimate relationship
with ecosystems over generations, have observed these changes for
decades. Gleb Raygorodetsky shows how these communities are actually
islands of biological and cultural diversity in the ever-rising sea
of development and urbanization. They are an "archipelago of hope"
as we enter the Anthropocene, for here lies humankind's best chance
to remember our roots and how to take care of the Earth. These
communities are implementing creative solutions to meet these modern
challenges. Raygorodetsky's prose resonates with their positive,
adaptive, and spiritual hope.<br>
- -<br>
<b>The Climate Swerve: Reflections on Mind, Hope, and Survival</b>,
by Robert Jay Lifton (The New Press 2017, 192 pages, $22.95)<br>
<br>
Over his long career, National Book Award-winning psychiatrist
Robert Jay Lifton has grappled with the profound effects of nuclear
war, terrorism, and genocide. Now he shifts to climate change,
which, Lifton writes, "presents us with what may be the most
demanding and unique psychological task ever required of humankind."
Yet a large swathe of humanity has numbed themselves to this
reality. In this lucid and moving book that recalls the works of
Rachel Carson and Jonathan Schell, Lifton explains how we might call
upon the human mind - "our greatest evolutionary asset" - to
translate a growing species awareness, or "climate swerve," into
action to sustain our selves, our plant and our civilization.<br>
- -<br>
<b>The Hard Work of Hope: Climate Change in the Age of Trump,</b> by
Robert William Sandford and Jon O'Riordan (Rocky Mountain Books
2017, 168 pages, $16.00)<br>
<br>
Building on events that have transpired since the Paris climate
conference in December 2015, The Hard Work of Hope, Rocky Mountain
Books' latest manifesto, emphasizes three themes: the growing
urgency for global action regarding climate change; the fact that
future development must not just avoid causing damage but strive to
be ecologically and socially restorative; and the reality that
effective solutions require changes to technology, restoration of
biodiversity and increased public awareness. Though contemporary
politics and the state of the environment seem grim in this
"post-truth world," there will always be hope. But that hope will
require hard work by everyone if our planet is to remain a desirable
place to live in a warming world.<br>
- -<br>
<b>Where Is the Hope? An Anthology of Short Climate Change Plays</b>,
edited by Chantal Bilodeau (Climate Change Theatre Action 2018,
pages, $35.00 paperback)<br>
<br>
Where is the Hope? An Anthology of Short Climate Change Plays is a
collection of 50 short plays by writers from all over the world,
commissioned for Climate Change Theatre Action 2017. A creative
response to the question "How can we inspire people and turn the
challenges of climate change into opportunities?" the plays offer a
diversity of perspectives and artistic approaches in telling stories
that may point to a just and sustainable future.<br>
- -<br>
Religious Perspectives<br>
<b>We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast</b>, by
Jonathan Safran Foer (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 2019, 288 pages,
$25.00)<br>
<br>
Some people reject the fact, overwhelmingly supported by scientists,
that our planet is warming because of human activity. But do those
of us who accept the reality of human-caused climate change truly
believe it? In We Are the Weather, Jonathan Safran Foer [explains
that] the task of saving the planet will involve a great reckoning
with ourselves - a reckoning Foer illustrates by relating his Jewish
grandmother's experience of the Holocaust, taking great personal
risks to flee Poland before it was too late to do so. Now we have
turned our planet into a farm for growing animal products, and the
consequences are similarly catastrophic. Only collective action will
save our home and way of life. And it all starts with what we eat -
and don't eat - for breakfast.<br>
- -<br>
<b>Caring for Creation: Inspiring Words from Pope Francis</b>,
edited by Alice Stamwitz (Franciscan Media 2016, 192 pages, $22.99)<br>
<br>
Since his inaugural Mass in March 2013, Pope Francis has frequently
reminded a global audience that care for creation is among his
highest priorities. The writings, homilies, prayers, talks, and even
tweets of Pope Francis in this book gather his most important and
inspiring words about our shared responsibility to protect, nurture,
and care for "our common home." The planet is in peril, the pope is
telling us, along with the well being of the poor who depend on the
earth's natural resources. Still, his message is always ultimately
one of hope. In Caring for Creation, Pope Francis's words reveal
that he believes we can move towards a new kind of conversion - a
higher level of consciousness, action, and advocacy that will spark
"a bold cultural revolution."<br>
<br>
See also: <b>Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality: On Care
for Our Common Home</b>, by Pope Francis, with an Introduction by
Naomi Oreskes (Melville House 2015, 192 pages, $20.00 paperback)<br>
- - <br>
<b>Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for
Change</b>, by Jim Antal (Rowman & Littlefield 2018, 242
pages, $25.00)<br>
<br>
Climate Church, Climate World argues that climate change is the
greatest moral challenge humanity has ever faced. Hunger, refugees,
poverty, inequality, deadly viruses, war - climate change multiplies
all forms of global social injustice. Environmental leader Reverend
Jim Antal presents a compelling case that it's time for the church
to meet this moral challenge, just as the church addressed previous
moral challenges. After describing how we have created the dangers
our planet now faces, Antal urges the church to embrace a new
vocation, one focused on collective salvation and an expanded
understanding of the Golden Rule (Golden Rule 2.0). He suggests ways
people of faith can reorient what they prize through new approaches
to worship, preaching, witnessing and other spiritual practices that
honor creation and cultivate hope.<br>
<br>
In a similar vein, see also the following religious titles:<br>
<br>
<b>Down to Earth: Christian Hope and Climate Change</b>, by Richard
A. Floyd (Wipf and Stock 2015, 144 pages, $17.00 paperback)<br>
<br>
<b>Eco-Reformation: Grace and Hope for a Planet in Peril</b>, edited
by Lisa E. Dahill and Jim B. Martin-Schramm (Cascade Books 2016, 306
pages, $36.00 paperback)<br>
<br>
<b>Hope in the Age of Climate Change: Creation Care this Side of the
Resurrection</b>, by Chris Doran (Cascade Books 2017, 258 pages,
$31.00)<br>
<br>
<b>Love in a Time of Climate Change: Honoring Creation</b>,
Establishing Justice, by Sharon Delgado (Fortress Press 2017, 226
pages, $29.00 paperback)<br>
<br>
<b>The Spirit of Hope: Theology for a World in Peril</b>, by Jurgen
Moltman (Westminster/John Knox Press 2019, 232 pages, $30.00
paperback)<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/02/new-and-recent-books-about-hope-in-a-time-of-climate-change/">https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/02/new-and-recent-books-about-hope-in-a-time-of-climate-change/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[API is the ogre]<br>
<b>The Oil Industry Is Quietly Winning Local Climate Fights</b><br>
In the past few years, the American Petroleum Institute and its
allies have fought against climate-friendly policies in at least 16
different states.<br>
ROBINSON MEYER - FEBRUARY 20, 2020<br>
Some of the most important fights over climate change aren't being
waged in Washington. They're happening state by state, in a melee of
utilities, fossil-fuel companies, state legislators, and persuaded
voters.<br>
<br>
To see one in action, visit Beaver, Pennsylvania, where two
Westinghouse nuclear reactors produce roughly a fifth of the
Keystone State's zero-carbon electricity. Three years ago,
FirstEnergy Corporation, a private utility worth $28 billion,
announced that it would soon have to sell the nuclear plants or shut
them down. Even though the reactors were supposed to operate for
another few decades, the plunging cost of natural gas had made them
noncompetitive. Only direct subsidies could keep the plants alive,
the utility warned.<br>
- - -<br>
"In cooperation with API's state petroleum councils, allied
organizations, and partner trade associations, energy advocates sign
up through social media [or through its website] to receive
customized content to make their voice known by contacting or
engaging elected officials. API facilitates the grassroots website
and supports events to connect those who might be interested in
energy issues in their state," she said.<br>
<br>
Yet the extent and intensity of API's work at the local level is a
significant break with the past, experts say. "This is a new
development," Leah Stokes, a political scientist at UC Santa
Barbara, told me. She studies how state governments have adopted
climate policy—or not adopted it—over the past few decades.<br>
<br>
Historically, it's been rare for API to fight against nuclear plants
or block electricity infrastructure, she said. But it has gotten
more involved in electricity policy since 2016, when it absorbed the
American Natural Gas Alliance, the gas industry's main trade group.
While oil makes up a small share of the American power mix, natural
gas plays a dominant role.<br>
<br>
But even if that merger had not gone through, oil and gas have
unified interests right now, Stokes said. Both oil and natural gas
are now extracted by the same companies, using the same fracking
techniques, drilling in the same places. "Gas is coming up because
of fracking, but oil is too. It's possible [API] views electricity
infrastructure as an important avenue for oil and gas in the
future," she said.<br>
<br>
That future is nearly a reality in Pennsylvania. State lawmakers and
public-utility commissioners both rejected new subsidies for the two
nuclear reactors in Beaver. The plants are due to close in 2021.
They will join in the dustheap the state's infamous Three Mile
Island plant, which also closed last year. The electricity once
generated by both nuclear plants will now likely come from natural
gas. And thus the heat-trapping climate pollution emitted by
Pennsylvanians will increase.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/oil-industry-fighting-climate-policy-states/606640/">https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/oil-industry-fighting-climate-policy-states/606640/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[The Center for Media and Democracy warns]<br>
<b>YouTube Is Promoting Koch's Climate Change Denial Network</b><br>
Alex Kotch on February 20, 2020<br>
YouTube's two billion monthly users are being subjected to climate
change denial, even after its parent company, Google, committed to
fighting harmful misinformation about science.<br>
<br>
A report published by the nonprofit activist network Avaaz details
the wide reach of this climate disinformation and points to dozens
of companies and even multiple environmental organizations that
advertise on videos that deny the existence of manmade climate
change. Money from these ads goes to the videos' creators,
incentivizing the production of climate disinformation.<br>
<br>
YouTube's algorithms promote videos that feature climate change
denial, most prominently by way of its "Up Next" feature. Seventy
percent of the time users spend on YouTube is driven by the
company's recommendations. Climate misinformation content pops up in
YouTube searches for the terms "global warming," "climate change,"
and "climate manipulation."<br>
<br>
Of the four egregious anti-climate science videos analyzed in depth
by Avaaz, three feature men who are, or have been, part of the
climate change denial network spearheaded by billionaire oil magnate
Charles Koch. This Koch network, which includes think tanks such as
the Heritage Foundation, the Property and Environment Research
Center, and the CO2 Coalition, has been the subject of much
reporting, but its reach into YouTube, the preferred platform for
U.S. teenagers, has been less thoroughly examined.<br>
<br>
Multiple videos highlighted by Avaaz were created by PragerU, a
right-wing content producer that publishes disinformation on an
array of topics including climate science, racism, and free-market
capitalism and is funded by the 501(c)(3) Prager University
Foundation. The group itself has not received direct donations from
Koch's family foundations in the past several years, but it has
gotten money from DonorsTrust, a donor-advised fund sponsor used by
Koch to disperse donations (over $55,000 since 2017), and larger
amounts from foundations run by Koch network donors the Wilks
brothers (close to $3.3 million from two family foundations since
2015), and from Koch network donors the Bradley Foundation and
Bradley Impact Fund (nearly $1.1 million since 2015).<br>
<br>
"No significant warming in the 21st century"<br>
PragerU's video, "What They Haven't Told You about Climate Change,"
features a climate change denier who is affiliated with Koch-funded
think tanks. Patrick Moore, who has been an energy and climate
adviser at the Heartland Institute and chairman of the board of the
CO2 Coalition, falsely claims in the video that there has been "no
significant warming in the 21st century."<br>
<br>
The Heartland Institute, which once received funding from ExxonMobil
and the American Petroleum Institute, hasn't gotten direct donations
from Koch's family foundations in recent years, but DonorsTrust and
sister nonprofit Donors Capital Fund combined to give the institute
over $10.6 million from 2014-18. The family foundation of
billionaire GOP mega-donor Robert Mercer gave close to $2.6 million
during that time period, and other Koch network donors such as the
Ed Uihlein Family Foundation ($354,000), the Bradley Impact Fund
($211,000), and the Searle Freedom Trust($150,000) also contributed.<br>
<br>
The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, a lobbying group
for oil makers including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Koch Industries,
donated $75,000 to the Heartland Institute in 2017. Two executives
of Flint Hills Resources, a subsidiary of Koch Industries that
produces oil and petrochemicals, are members of the group's board.<br>
<br>
The Heartland Institute's climate disinformation campaign does not
stop at the U.S. border. A new investigation by the European
investigative nonprofit Correctiv reveals that the Heartland
Institute is supporting climate change deniers in Germany and is
working with a YouTube personality affiliated with the far-right
political party Alternative für Deutschland.<br>
<br>
The CO2 Coalition received over $50,000 from the Charles Koch
Foundation and the Charles Koch Institute from 2016-18. Three other
Koch network foundations have contributed larger sums since 2016:
the Sarah Scaife Foundation($417,000), the Mercer Family Foundation
($320,000), and the Thomas W. Smith Foundation ($175,000).<br>
<br>
U.N. climate models "flawed by design"<br>
Patrick Michaels, previously the longtime director of the
libertarian Cato Institute's Center for the Study of Science, is
currently a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute
(CEI), where he focuses on climate at its Center for Energy and
Environment. Cato shuttered its Center for the Study of Science in
May 2019 after Michaels left. According to Michaels, "They informed
me that they didn't think their vision of a think tank was in the
science business."<br>
<br>
In a clip from a Fox News interview, titled on YouTube as "The truth
about global warming," Michaels claims that all but one of the
United Nations' 32 climate models are "flawed by design to vastly
over-predict warming," a statement Avaaz says is misinformation.<br>
<br>
The Cato Institute, which was co-founded by Charles Koch and had the
late David Koch on its board of directors, is funded by numerous
Koch network donors, including the two Koch foundations, which gave
$9.3 million from 2014-18. Since 2014, Cato's donors include:<br>
<blockquote>Adolph Coors Foundation: $300,000<br>
Atlas Economic Research Foundation: $111,545<br>
Bradley Impact Fund: $521,000<br>
Charles Koch Foundation: $9,084,937<br>
Charles Koch Institute : $240,450<br>
Donors Capital Fund: $655,000<br>
DonorsTrust: $4,579,150<br>
Dunn Foundation: $2,250,000<br>
F.M. Kirby Foundation: $82,500<br>
John William Pope Foundation: $270,175<br>
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation: $1,125,000<br>
Mercer Family Foundation: $1,200,000<br>
Pierre F. and Enid Goodrich Foundation: $220,000<br>
Sarah Scaife Foundation: $515,000<br>
Searle Freedom Trust: $1,410,000<br>
Thomas D. Klingenstein Fund: $20,422<br>
Thomas W. Smith Foundation: $20,000<br>
William H. Donner Foundation: $85,000<br>
</blockquote>
The two Koch foundations gave CEI $288,000 from 2014-17. DonorsTrust
and Donors Capital Fund combined to give nearly $3.9 million to CEI
since 2014, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Sarah
Scaife Foundation, and the Searle Freedom Trust have all contributed
over $1 million since then.<br>
The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers gave $95,000 to
CEI from 2015-17, and another industry trade group, the American
Petroleum Institute, has donated $70,000 to CEI since 2015.<br>
<br>
"No evidence that CO2 emissions are the dominant factor" in climate
change<br>
Another PragerU video, "Climate Change: What Do Scientists Say?"
features Richard Lindzen, a former senior fellow at the Cato
Institute's Center for the Study of Science. Lindzen claims, "There
is no evidence that CO2 emissions are the dominant factor [in
climate change]," which is decidedly false.<br>
<br>
In 2017, Lindzen wrote a letter to Trump urging him to back out of
the Paris Climate Agreement, claiming that carbon dioxide is not a
pollutant. Twenty-two current and former faculty members at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Lindzen had been a
professor, then wrote to the president to make it clear they did not
share Lindzen's views.<br>
<br>
The Advertisers<br>
Avaaz found over 100 advertisers on climate disinformation videos.
Many are major brands such as Samsung, L'Oréal, Decathlon, Danone,
Warner Bros. One in five ads came from green or ethical brands
including Greenpeace International, WWF and Save the Children. A
number of the advertisers told Avaaz that they were unaware their
ads were running on these videos and financially supporting their
creators.<br>
<br>
To stem the spread of falsehoods and misinformation around climate
change, Avaaz recommends that YouTube:<br>
<blockquote>"Detox the YouTube algorithm" by ending its "free
promotion of misinformation and disinformation videos."<br>
"Demonetize disinformation" by including disinformation and
misinformation in YouTube's monetization policies so that
advertisers cannot advertise on such videos and content creators
can't make money from them.<br>
"Correct the record" by using fact-checkers to let users know when
they've watched false or misleading videos and issue corrections
along with them.<br>
</blockquote>
"Avaaz believes that YouTube has the opportunity to be a trailblazer
in the fight against misinformation..." reads the report. "Now is
the time for YouTube to act more systematically and more urgently to
implement solutions, like the recommendations described above, to
ensure this new decade is not plagued by the disinformation problems
started in the last one."<br>
<br>
"Similarly, advertisers must both ensure that they follow through on
their own corporate social responsibility commitments and track what
kind of content their advertising revenue is inadvertently funding."<br>
<br>
YouTube says that to combat misinformation, it removes content that
violates the company's Community Guidelines. However, false
information doesn't violate the guidelines unless it includes hate
speech or harassment, incites violence, or is a scam.<br>
<br>
The following statement from a YouTube spokesperson to CMD explains
other ways it attempts to reduce the spread of misinformation:<br>
<br>
We can't speak to Avaaz's methodology or results, and our
recommendations systems are not designed to filter or demote videos
or channels based on specific perspectives. We've significantly
invested in reducing recommendations of borderline content and
harmful misinformation, and raising up authoritative voices on
YouTube. In 2019 alone, the consumption on authoritative news
publishers' channels grew by 60%. As our systems appear to have done
in the majority of cases in this report, we prioritize authoritative
voices for millions of news and information queries, and surface
information panels on topics prone to misinformation--including
climate change--to provide users with context alongside their
content. We continue to expand these efforts to more topics and
countries.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2020/02/13542/youtube-promoting-koch%E2%80%99s-climate-change-denial-network">https://www.prwatch.org/news/2020/02/13542/youtube-promoting-koch%E2%80%99s-climate-change-denial-network</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[rarely do science papers discuss evil]<br>
<b>Power, evil and resistance in social structure: A sociology for
energy research in a climate emergency</b><br>
The climate emergency demands a radical rethink of sociology for
energy research.<br>
<br>
Giddens' structuration theory can be rejuvenated for this project.<br>
<br>
Powerful, self-serving actors construct and maintain
climate-damaging social structure.<br>
<br>
Moral argument will not persuade such actors to surrender their
power.<br>
<br>
The notion of "evil" is useful for theorizing how their power can be
dislodged.<br>
<blockquote> Abstract<br>
Sociology has provided useful insights, especially in this
journal, into energy consumption trends and practices and how
their climate-damaging effects can be mitigated. But in a climate
emergency a bolder and more focused sociology is required,
firstly, to help us understand why humanity continues to plunge
toward climate catastrophe despite heightened scientific knowledge
and moral awareness, and secondly, how this can be arrested. In
this essay I suggest a useful approach is to revisit and
revitalise Giddens' structuration theory. Climate damaging
policies and practices can be seen as facilitated through specific
social structures. For Giddens, certain actors have immense power
to shape social structures for their own ends due to the resources
they control, such as money, political power and public discourse.
Niebuhr argued that we are mistaken if we think these actors will
obligingly surrender their power when good moral and scientific
arguments are put before them. Alexander, Bauman and others
suggest the notion of "evil" helps clarify why such actors
fiercely resist such challenges. Sociology needs to theorise the
role of "evil" in social structure to inform us how destructive
power can be wrested from those whose moral indifference brings
them short-term rewards for destroying our life-friendly climate.<br>
Giddens' structuration theory<br>
</blockquote>
<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>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
February 22, 2015 </b></font><br>
The New York Times reports:<br>
<blockquote>"For years, politicians wanting to block legislation on
climate change have bolstered their arguments by pointing to the
work of a handful of scientists who claim that greenhouse gases
pose little risk to humanity.<br>
<br>
"One of the names they invoke most often is Wei-Hock Soon, known
as Willie, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics who claims that variations in the sun's energy can
largely explain recent global warming. He has often appeared on
conservative news programs, testified before Congress and in state
capitals, and starred at conferences of people who deny the risks
of global warming.<br>
<br>
"But newly released documents show the extent to which Dr. Soon's
work has been tied to funding he received from corporate
interests.<br>
<br>
"He has accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the
fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to
disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific
papers. At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted
such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he
appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that
published his work."<br>
<br>
"The documents show that Dr. Soon, in correspondence with his
corporate funders, described many of his scientific papers as
'deliverables' that he completed in exchange for their money. He
used the same term to describe testimony he prepared for
Congress...<br>
<br>
"The documents were obtained by Greenpeace, the environmental
group, under the Freedom of Information Act. Greenpeace and an
allied group, the Climate Investigations Center, shared them with
several news organizations last week.<br>
<br>
"The documents shed light on the role of scientists like Dr. Soon
in fostering public debate over whether human activity is causing
global warming. The vast majority of experts have concluded that
it is and that greenhouse emissions pose long-term risks to
civilization.<br>
<br>
"Historians and sociologists of science say that since the tobacco
wars of the 1960s, corporations trying to block legislation that
hurts their interests have employed a strategy of creating the
appearance of scientific doubt, usually with the help of
ostensibly independent researchers who accept industry funding.<br>
<br>
"Fossil-fuel interests have followed this approach for years, but
the mechanics of their activities remained largely hidden.<br>
<br>
"'The whole doubt-mongering strategy relies on creating the
impression of scientific debate,' said Naomi Oreskes, a historian
of science at Harvard University and the co-author of "Merchants
of Doubt," a book about such campaigns. 'Willie Soon is playing a
role in a certain kind of political theater.'<br>
<br>
"Environmentalists have long questioned Dr. Soon's work, and his
acceptance of funding from the fossil-fuel industry was previously
known. But the full extent of the links was not; the documents
show that corporate contributions were tied to specific papers and
were not disclosed, as required by modern standards of
publishing."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html?_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html?_r=0</a><br>
<p>/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/</p>
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