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<i><font size="+1"><b>March 5, 2020</b></font></i><br>
<br>
[Similar problems, different time frame]<br>
<b>Focus on coronavirus shows need for climate law, says EU official</b><br>
Frans Timmermans calls for bloc to legislate so it does not lose
track of net zero target<br>
<br>
Tensions at the Greek-Turkish border and the coronavirus show why
the European Union needs a climate law that binds member states to
net zero emissions by 2050, the EU's top official on climate action
has said.<br>
<br>
Frans Timmermans, a European commission vice-president who leads on
the climate emergency, said the different crises facing Europe
underscored the need for a climate law in order not to lose track of
reducing emissions.<br>
<br>
The long-awaited climate law unveiled on Wednesday is the
centrepiece of the European Green Deal, a plan to transform Europe's
economy, promised by the European commission president, Ursula von
der Leyen, within her first 100 days.<br>
"It will be our compass for the next 30 years and it will guide us
every step as we build a sustainable new growth model," Von der
Leyen said announcing the law.<br>
<br>
Some political leaders have argued that the commission needs to
focus on the protection of the EU's external border, rather than the
climate crisis – arguments that Timmermans rejected. "The focus this
week should be completely on the happening in Syria, in Turkey and
what is happening in Greece, should be on containing the coronavirus
and solving it. That's absolutely a priority," he said. The climate
law was "so important", because "it allows you to focus on other
things without losing track of what you need to do to reach climate
neutrality".<br>
<br>
"Even if the Eye of Sauron is on something else for a bit, the
trajectory to 2050 will be clear," he said, in a reference to the
dark forces in the Lord of the Rings. "Because we discipline
ourselves with the climate law."<br>
<br>
Speaking to the Guardian and six other European newspapers shortly
before the law was published, Timmermans said the proposal was
revolutionary because all EU legislation would have to be in line
with net zero emissions by the mid-century.<br>
<br>
Even before the text was officially released, the climate activist
Greta Thunberg and teenage school strike leaders across Europe gave
a blistering verdict, accusing the commission of ignoring climate
science.<br>
<br>
Thunberg, who is meeting Von der Leyen, Timmermans and the rest of
the commission's top team, described the law as "surrender". In an
open letter, she said it failed to respect the goal of capping
global heating at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – an aspiration
the EU signed up to in the 2015 Paris agreement.<br>
<br>
She repeated that message at a meeting with MEPs on the European
parliament's environment committee on Wednesday. "In November 2019
the European parliament declared a climate and environment
emergency," she said. "You stated that yes, the house is actually
burning, this was no false alarm, but then you went back inside,
finished your dinner and watched your movie and went to bed without
even calling the fire department.<br>
<br>
"When your house is on fire you don't wait a few more years to start
putting it out, and yet this is what the commission are proposing
today."<br>
<br>
Earlier at a private meeting with EU commissioners the teenage
activist was told by Timmermans that the movement she started was
the reason the European Green Deal and climate law exists.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/04/focus-coronavirus-shows-need-climate-law-says-eu-official-frans-timmermans">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/04/focus-coronavirus-shows-need-climate-law-says-eu-official-frans-timmermans</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[practice session]<b><br>
</b> <b>The Psychology of Coronavirus vs. Climate Change: Why We
Mobilize for One, Not the Other</b><br>
Patty Wetli | March 2, 2020 2:57 pm<br>
Humans are arguably the best problem-solving species that ever
walked the Earth, behavioral scientists say.<br>
<br>
Give us a coronavirus and we'll have a vaccine within the year. And
in the meantime, we'll stock up on disinfectant wipes, walk around
in surgical masks and wash the heck out of our hands. <br>
<br>
But throw climate change at us and we're curiously inert.<br>
<br>
The difference between the two crises, and our response to them, is
that humans prefer to tackle things that are proximate and urgent,
said Kevin Green, vice president of Rare and head of the
organization's Center for Behavior and the Environment.<br>
<br>
"Climate change feels distant. Our human brains aren't perfectly
equipped for a challenge like this," Green said, speaking in Chicago
at a recent climate change forum hosted by Spertus Institute.<br>
<br>
Warning people about the end of nature, or ticking off statistics
about melting glaciers and disappearing species of insects in the
Amazon doesn't play to our strengths, he said. "Facts often don't
change people's minds."<br>
<br>
Then there's the issue of "present bias."<br>
<br>
Behavioral economist Katherine Milkman, also a panelist at the
Spertus forum, described this as humans' tendency to make decisions
in the moment, focusing on "what will bring me pleasure right now."
It's an instinct that keeps people from opting for choices that
could help combat climate change in the long-term, but are
inconvenient in the here and now. Think: Hailing Uber/Lyft instead
of waiting for a bus, or using and tossing paper napkins versus
spending more money on cloth, and having to launder them. <br>
<br>
So are we doomed by our own neurology to destroy the planet?<br>
<br>
Not necessarily.<br>
<br>
As self-centered as humans are, we're also really social creatures
and are wired to care a lot about what other people do, and what
other people think of us, said Milkman, who hosts the podcast
"Choiceology."<br>
<br>
The same sort of peer pressure that gets us to cough into our elbows
instead of our hands could also be marshaled for climate change.
Studies have shown, for example, that if people are aware of how
much energy their neighbors are conserving, they'll follow suit. <br>
<br>
The key, Green said, is to make these behaviors observable. Because
if no one sees you turn down your thermostat, did it even happen? <br>
<br>
We also really like to brag, Milkman said, so it helps to give
people opportunities to show off.<br>
<br>
She cited an experiment conducted to encourage people to cut energy
usage during peak hours. Researchers posted a sign-up sheet in a
building's lobby and lo, when people could broadcast their
participation, more opted in. <br>
<br>
Another difference between coronavirus and climate change, Milkman
said, is the way we respond to "exemplars." It's more powerful, she
said, to have identifiable victims; we're far more likely to be
moved by humans being infected with and dying from a virus than
caring about an ice shield in Antarctica.<br>
<br>
"We have to think about how to make [climate change] more vivid,
more real," she said. <br>
Contact Patty Wetli: @pattywetli | (773) 509-5623 | <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pwetli@wttw.com">pwetli@wttw.com</a>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://news.wttw.com/2020/03/02/psychology-coronavirus-vs-climate-change-why-we-mobilize-one-not-other">https://news.wttw.com/2020/03/02/psychology-coronavirus-vs-climate-change-why-we-mobilize-one-not-other</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[More]<br>
<b>Coronavirus and Climate Change</b><br>
By ROBBIE HARRIS - FEB 6, 2020<br>
Scientists say we can expect more viruses from the corona family,
like the one currently afflicting thousands of people primarily in
China.<br>
<br>
And one of the reasons for that is climate change. <br>
<blockquote> ListenListening...<br>
0:19 / 1:36 Robbie Harris reports - <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://cpa.ds.npr.org/wvtf/audio/2020/02/Coronavirus.mp3">https://cpa.ds.npr.org/wvtf/audio/2020/02/Coronavirus.mp3</a>
<br>
</blockquote>
Luis Escobar is a disease ecologist at Virginia Tech. He says,
climate change and deforestation have an impact on the movement of
viruses.<br>
<br>
"So, it's, specific conditions like, de- forestation or increase of
urbanization or agriculture, that put people closer to wildlife and
that makes us more at risk or more exposed to these viruses that are
natural in wildlife. "<br>
<br>
Escobar says most viruses have been co- existing just fine with
their animal hosts for centuries, even millennia.<br>
<br>
"So they have co-evolved to the point that they don't harm the
natural host. They live with them. They need the host to be alive in
order for them to perpetuate another generation of the virus. " <br>
<br>
But when these viruses move from animals to humans, they can cause
serious harm to people quickly. And it's not only climate, but it's
subset, the weather, that has an effect on how much a virus spreads.<br>
<br>
"What we know for the flu for example, is that humidity in the air
can allow the virus to survive longer in the air, once somebody
sneezes, for example, as compared with drier air. So, the climatic
conditions definitely facilitate the transmission .<br>
<br>
Escobar published a paper this week in the journal, EcoHealth that
found that the response to this current corona virus has actually
been faster than in previous outbreaks and that this time, China is
sharing its data more freely. But the paper suggests China and the
U.S. need to lead a world wide effort to be more proactive instead
of reactive to these outbreaks.<br>
<br>
Dr. Anthony Boffo-Bonnie is Medical Director for Infection
Prevention and Control at Carillion Clinic in Roanoke. He says the
risk to people in this country is, at this point, extremely low, but
nonetheless, Carillion is preparing in case a local person comes
down with, or even thinks he or she is coming down with, the virus.<br>
<blockquote> Listen Listening...0:18 <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://cpa.ds.npr.org/wvtf/audio/2020/02/Selection.mp3">https://cpa.ds.npr.org/wvtf/audio/2020/02/Selection.mp3</a><br>
</blockquote>
"So, the suspect patient would have to have the symptoms and the
appropriate risk of exposure, meaning travel or around somebody who
has been diagnosed with that condition or being investigated for the
condition. So that would be a fast way to screen and bring them up
as suspect. "<br>
<br>
He says, the next step, called a P-C-R Test, looks at genetic
sequences. It's being done only at the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC).<br>
<br>
"It's not 100% sensitive, but it's good enough. And that gives us an
idea whether somebody is truly positive or not. Even though there is
a small number of cases confirmed in the U.S. The possibility that
someone could show no symptoms, could, nonetheless, transmit the
virus."<br>
<blockquote> Listen Listening...0:22 <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://cpa.ds.npr.org/wvtf/audio/2020/02/2.mp3">https://cpa.ds.npr.org/wvtf/audio/2020/02/2.mp3</a><br>
</blockquote>
The Coronavirus that is cause for concern, is part of a family of
viruses related to the common cold. But this virulent strain is so
new it has not yet been formally named. Tradition is, these kinds of
infectious diseases are named for the place they're discovered, so
it will ultimately be deemed 'The Wuhan" virus for its origin in
that Chinese province. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.wvtf.org/post/coronavirus-and-climate-change#stream/0">https://www.wvtf.org/post/coronavirus-and-climate-change#stream/0</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
March 5, 2020 </b></font><br>
March 5, 2015 - The New York Times reports:<br>
<blockquote> "Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and
majority leader, is urging governors to defy President Obama by
refusing to implement the administration's global warming
regulations."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/us/politics/mcconnell-urges-states-to-defy-us-plan-to-cut-greenhouse-gas.html?mwrsm=Email">http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/us/politics/mcconnell-urges-states-to-defy-us-plan-to-cut-greenhouse-gas.html?mwrsm=Email</a><br>
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