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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>March 28, 2020</b></font></i></p>
[FEWS NET Famine Early Warning Systems Network]<br>
Global Weather Hazards<br>
<b>Desert locust swarms continue to spread into the Horn of Africa
while parts of East Africa remain flooded</b><br>
March 27, 2020 to April 2, 2020<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://fews.net/global/global-weather-hazards/march-27-2020">https://fews.net/global/global-weather-hazards/march-27-2020</a>
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[NYTimes Opinion]<br>
<b>What the Coronavirus Means for Climate Change</b><br>
Lockdowns and distancing won't save the world from warming. But amid
this crisis, we have a chance to build a better future...<br>
By Meehan Crist<br>
- - -<br>
There is a world in which stimulus measures could outweigh
short-term impacts on energy and emissions, driving emissions up
over the long term. This is what happened in China after the 2008
global economic crisis. Already, China is indicating that it will
relax environmental supervision of companies to stimulate its
economy in response to coronavirus shutdowns, which means that
astonishing 25 percent cut in carbon emissions could evaporate,
followed by even more emissions than before.<br>
<br>
In the United States, we could see similarly shortsighted recovery
packages aiming to ramp up the economy to pre-pandemic levels that
double down on soaring carbon emissions. So far, the American
government's aid legislation has failed to address clean energy or
the climate. The $2 trillion stimulus bill passed by Congress this
week, the largest fiscal stimulus package in modern American
history, includes direct payments to individuals, expanded and
extended unemployment benefits, and $500 billion in loans to bail
out affected industries. It does not include relief for renewables,
such as crucial tax credit extensions for solar and wind.<br>
<br>
This isn't likely to be the last stimulus. Already, there is talk of
the next phase of economic relief, and climate and clean energy
advocates are looking to future legislation that might aim to
relieve specific industries.<br>
<br>
The two biggest wild cards for climate going forward are how
policymakers respond to the threat of a global recession and how the
pandemic changes political will for climate action around the world.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis of the Czech Republic has already said
that the European Green Deal, a new policy package that commits
European Union member states to zero emissions by 2050, should be
set aside so that countries can focus on fighting the pandemic.<br>
<br>
This week has seen a chilling shift in conservative rhetoric around
the virus that echoes all-too-familiar patterns of climate
denialism, suggesting that a more dangerous sort of transference is
taking place. As the climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe wrote on
Twitter, "The six stages of climate denial are: It's not real. It's
not us. It's not that bad. It's too expensive to fix. Aha, here's a
great solution (that actually does nothing). And -- oh no! Now it's
too late. You really should have warned us earlier."<br>
- -<br>
A best-case outcome might include a rethinking of the social
contract that helps protect and provide for the most vulnerable
members of society at a time of increasing risk. We need to ask:<br>
What does a government owe to its people? The climate crisis has
already demonstrated that the way our societies and economies are
organized is unsustainable on a planet of finite resources. And as
people face increasing and unevenly distributed climate risk, it is
reasonable to wonder what sort of support we can expect from our
government. When your community is in crisis, how will your
government respond? The pandemic is a gut-wrenching reality check.<br>
<br>
The crushing blows of the coronavirus pandemic, like those of the
climate crisis, will be felt hardest by our most vulnerable
populations -- the poor, the elderly, the homeless, the stateless,
the incarcerated, and the precariously employed -- while
international corporations driven by the logics of profit and
endless growth to seek new markets, cheap labor, and what the
sociologist Jason Moore has called "cheap nature," thereby
connecting the world and helping create the conditions for crisis,
will most likely remain relatively protected.<br>
<br>
The new coronavirus spread through the activity of global markets,
and it remains to be seen whether we can respond to this crisis
without relying on and reinforcing the same market logics that got
us into this mess. Rather, to face the profound challenges of
pandemics -- of which this coronavirus will not be the last -- as
well as the threat of climate change, to survive and even flourish
on this interconnected planet, we have to learn to subordinate the
needs of the market to our own needs.<br>
It is tempting to say that humans are a pox on the Earth. That where
we recede, nature rebounds. When images of dolphins and swans
supposedly appearing in newly clear Venice canals popped up on
social media, it was easy to believe (though it was not entirely
true) that the virus had forced people indoors and "nature" had
recovered in our absence. This is the wrong climate lesson to take
from the pandemic.<br>
<br>
Humans are part of nature, not separate from it, and human activity
that hurts the environment also hurts us. In China, just two months
of reduced pollution is likely to have saved the lives of 4,000
children under the age of 5 and 73,000 adults over the age of 70,
writes Marshall Burke, an assistant professor in Stanford's earth
system science department. Perhaps the real question is not whether
the virus is "good" or "bad" for climate, or whether rich people
will take fewer airplane flights, but whether we can create a
functioning economy that supports people without threatening life on
Earth, including our own.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-climate-change.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-climate-change.html</a>
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<p>[Fast Company]<br>
<b>Coronavirus shows how to fight disinformation about climate
change</b><br>
Americans have stayed vigilant against conspiracy theories about
coronavirus. Experts say there are lessons for how we deal with
climate change.<br>
BY JEREMY DEATON<br>
With both coronavirus and climate change, misconceptions abound.
In each instance, people have downplayed the impact or blamed
China, and many believe that news outlets are exaggerating the
threat.<br>
<br>
But with coronavirus, news outlets and tech companies have done a
much better job of quashing misinformation, experts say, which
could provide lessons on how to fight conspiracy theories about
climate change.<br>
We're responding to this rapidly evolving situation, and we'll
continue to review the Twitter Rules in the context of COVID-19
and make changes as necessary. <br>
"The big difference between coronavirus and climate change is that
people's bullshit detectors are on high alert on this issue
compared to climate change," says John Cook, a cognitive
psychologist at the George Mason University Center for Climate
Change Communication and co-author of a new handbook on how to
debunk conspiracy theories. "They just have a much lower tolerance
for misinformation--both the public and the media."<br>
<br>
Here are the big takeaways.<br>
<br>
<b>CORONAVIRUS IS AN URGENT CRISIS. CLIMATE CHANGE HAS TO FEEL THE
SAME WAY FOR PEOPLE TO TAKE MISINFORMATION SERIOUSLY.</b><br>
With coronavirus rapidly spreading through the United States,
correcting misinformation has become a matter of life and death.
Climate change doesn't share the same sense of urgency.<br>
<br>
"The media have been clamping down on misinformation much harder
than they normally would. The difference is that with coronavirus,
it's a much more immediate threat," Cook says. "It's like climate
change on fast-forward."<br>
<br>
Thus, while brand-name news outlets like The New York Times have
been willing to run op-eds skeptical of climate science, they
wouldn't do the same with coronavirus, says Cook's collaborator
Stephen Lewandowksy.<br>
<br>
"People in The New York Times might develop some edifice inside
their heads that justifies their denial--by appealing to
uncertainty or whatever--but that's very different from saying,
'No one is dying of coronavirus.' There is a qualitative
difference there," says Lewandowsky, a cognitive psychologist at
the University of Bristol and co-author of the handbook. "That
makes it much harder for well-adjusted people to engage in this
nonsense."<br>
<br>
With coronavirus, round-the-clock reporting has made the
extraordinary stakes of the pandemic clear, spurring people to be
more skeptical of conspiracy theories. Experts say that news
outlets have to do the same thing with climate change. We take
their cues on the scale and urgency of a problem from the volume
of news coverage.<br>
<br>
We also learn from the people around us. In response to the grim
news about the coronavirus, Americans are donning masks,
stockpiling food and canceling dinner plans, creating a new norm
around the illness, says Margaret Klein-Solomon, a trained
clinical psychologist who now heads The Climate Mobilization
Project. She says we need to take a similar approach with climate
change, treating the issue with the seriousness it deserves, while
staying watchful for misinformation.<br>
<br>
"How we evaluate risks is by looking to each other," says
Klein-Solomon, author of Facing the Climate Emergency. "With
coronavirus, the social signaling has been so strong."<br>
<b>PEOPLE EMBRACE CONSPIRACY THEORIES BECAUSE THEY'RE AFRAID. THE
REMEDY IS TO MAKE THEM FEEL EMPOWERED.</b><br>
Where people have bought into conspiracy theories about
coronavirus, it may simply be a defense mechanism, Lewandowsky
says. It's easier to believe the crisis has been orchestrated by a
cadre of mustache-twirling ne'er-do-wells than to accept that it's
the result of a chance or some broader systemic failure. That is
true of any vast, unwieldy problem, be it a quickly spreading
virus or a rapidly warming planet.<br>
<br>
"Whenever there's a huge, threatening event, some people will
resort to conspiracy theories because--if you can blame this on
some evil people like the Chinese government developing biological
weapons--it gives you a greater sense of control in some funny
way," he says.<br>
<br>
Crucially, he says, conspiracy theories don't have to be coherent.
A theorist might say that coronavirus is both a hoax and that it
was created by the Chinese. And hardcore believers are happy to
brush off evidence that challenges their theory--if the CDC says
that China isn't responsible for the pandemic, they will say that
it must be because the CDC is in on the conspiracy, Lewandowsky
says.<br>
<br>
That's why challenging the facts or logic of a conspiracy theory
doesn't always work. In some cases, the best way to fight
misinformation is to empower people, Cook says. For coronavirus,
that means telling people that they can slow the spread of the
illness by washing their hands and staying indoors. For climate
change, it could mean encouraging people to call their
congressperson or join a protest.<br>
<br>
"If you just talk about a problem without the solutions, people
tend to lose hope. It can paralyze people," he says...<br>
<b>MISINFORMATION ERODES TRUST IN OFFICIAL ACCOUNTS. DEBUNK
CONSPIRACY THEORIES EARLY AND OFTEN.</b><br>
It is crucial to stop conspiracy theories before they spread
because, even when they are debunked, they can have a pernicious
effect, Lewandowsky says.<br>
<br>
"What conspiracy theories do demonstrably--that's been shown in
experiments over and over again--is they reduce peoples' trust in
an official account," he says. He points to one study in which
people exposed to a conspiracy theory about the federal government
manipulating unemployment data were less likely to trust local
police and local schools. "You can't run a democracy unless people
trust the government, at least to some extent," he says.<br>
<br>
Misinformation can also affect policymaking. Despite warnings from
health experts, elected officials downplayed the extent of the
coronavirus crisis, as did conservative news media. President
Trump even called it a "hoax." Unsurprisingly, the government has
been slow to roll out tests and supply ventilators.<br>
<br>
The same can be seen with climate change, where political leaders
have dismissed the warnings of scientists for years. The problem,
Lewandowsky says, is that you can only dismiss the facts for so
long. Eventually, the truth catches up.<br>
<br>
"Within the next three weeks, there will be such a massive
disaster unfolding in the U.S., I really don't see how you can
avoid that," he says. "The epidemiologists have been warning us
for months about this."<br>
<br>
On a more hopeful note, debunking conspiracy theories about
coronavirus may help weaken other conspiracy theories, Cook says,
including theories about climate change. Some public figures are
already connecting the dots...<br>
- - -<br>
"If you can debunk one, and a person all of a sudden realizes that
it's wrong, then yes, I would expect them also be responsive to
corrections of other conspiracy theories," Lewandowsky says. "The
underlying theme is that the scientists told us this ahead of
time, and if we had listened we could have done something about
it."<br>
<br>
Jeremy Deaton writes for Nexus Media, a nonprofit climate change
news service. You can follow him @deaton_jeremy.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90482197/coronavirus-shows-how-to-fight-disinformation-about-climate-change?partner=rss">https://www.fastcompany.com/90482197/coronavirus-shows-how-to-fight-disinformation-about-climate-change?partner=rss</a>
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[PBS video of the science]<b><br>
</b><b>PBS Report on the 'Doomsday Glacier'</b><br>
Mar 26, 2020<br>
Scientists Warning<br>
Lest we forget in the face of the #Coronavirus #pandemic,
#ClimateChange is still happening, and accelerating. It's been
predicted for many years that increased occurrence and rapid spread
of pandemics would be one of the many results of climate change.
This one may not have been that, but it's a taste of things to come.
<br>
We are being given a 'wake-up call'. Will we hear it? Will we heed
it? Ordinary people seem to be 'getting it', but governments, and
their primary clients (banks and large corporations) are trying to
get us back to Business As Usual, with its destructive 'growth
economic' system that was put in place by bankers a century ago, and
still is manipulated to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the
Earth and human survival.<br>
<br>
Worth a watch and a share. We thank the PBS News Hour for their
allowing us to republish this report for the common welfare of all.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/F_iYB18jlxQ?t=52">https://youtu.be/F_iYB18jlxQ?t=52</a><br>
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[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
March 28, 2001 </b></font><br>
President George W. Bush says his administration will not honor the
Kyoto Protocol.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/flatview?cuecard=238">http://archives.nbclearn.com/portal/site/k-12/flatview?cuecard=238</a><br>
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