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<i><font size="+1"><b>April 11, 2020</b></font></i><br>
<br>
[MIT Technology Review]<br>
<b>The unholy alliance of covid-19, nationalism, and climate change</b><br>
When the pandemic wanes, a poorer, more divided world will still
face the rapidly rising threat of global warming.<br>
by James Temple<br>
April 10, 2020...<br>
- - -<br>
One other casualty of the pandemic has been our faith in a global
supply chain. As countries shut down production and distribution,
first in China and then around the world, essential goods are in
short supply. It has become evident how vulnerable we are to trade
relationships and concentrated manufacturing centers.<br>
<br>
That too presents a challenge for climate change. China produces
about a third of the world's wind turbines, two-thirds of its solar
panels, and roughly 70% of its lithium-ion batteries, as Nahm
highlighted in an article in Science late last year. Even with
massive government support, it took decades of growth at "a
breakneck pace" for Chinese businesses to create the technologies,
supply chains, and manufacturing capacity to achieve that.<br>
<br>
"It is unrealistic to expect that another nation will be able to
rival China's capabilities ... in the time frame needed to limit
climate change to below 2C," Nahm and coauthor John Helveston of
George Washington University wrote. That means countries,
businesses, and researchers around the world need to figure out how
to forge closer relationships and collaborate more productively with
China--"the United States in particular," they said.<br>
<br>
<b>Climate fascism</b><br>
As the historian Nils Gilman argued in February in a persuasive
essay, "The Coming Avocado Politics," there are good reasons to
worry that rising anxieties over environmental emergencies will
justify a more hard-line set of solutions on the right, an
"ecologically justified neo-fascism" that includes militarizing
borders, hoarding resources, and bolstering national protections
against climate change.<br>
<br>
It could lead us into far darker places as well, potentially
justifying "neo-imperialist" responses "where we actively seek to
repress the development and ambitions of the rest of the world,"
Gilman says. Specifically, the US or other nations could turn to
extreme methods, from eliminating development financing to deploying
military force, to prevent the carbon bombs that would go off if
billions of poor people start consuming goods, services, and energy
at the same levels as Americans.<br>
<br>
The tragic trial run of the coronavirus outbreak certainly bolsters
fears that sentiments could rapidly turn in this direction. In
addition to Trump's efforts to inflame foreign resentments, there
have been widespread reports in recent weeks of hate crimes and
harassment against those of Asian descent around the world,
including brutal beatings on public streets, verbal attacks on
public transit, and racist memes online.<br>
<br>
As the virus spreads and the economic downturn deepens, people will,
rightfully, focus primarily on the immediate dangers: their health
and that of friends and family; the likelihood of losing work; and
the plunge in their retirement savings and home values. Enhancing
global cooperation and combating distant climate dangers just aren't
going to take priority for some time.<br>
<br>
The question, of course, is what happens as the pandemic recedes. In
theory, this presents a new opportunity to get climate progress back
on track. Stimulus packages designed to kick-start economic growth
could include funding and policies to accelerate clean energy and
climate adaptation projects, for example. The world will certainly
be better equipped to face both pandemics and climate catastrophes
if nations choose to more readily share resources, expertise, and
information.<br>
<br>
"That interconnectedness is quite apparent when it comes to getting
masks and medicine," says Jane Flegal, program officer with the
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Environment Program. "And
it's also apparent when you talk about the importance of making
clean energy cheap and the role of technology transfer in the
climate context."<br>
<br>
But in the end, whether people are left feeling that we need to
tighten international ties or erect higher walls may depend a lot on
how ugly things get in the coming weeks and months, and the
political narratives that take hold as we try to make sense of how
it all happened.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/04/10/998969/the-unholy-alliance-of-covid-19-nationalism-and-climate-change/">https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/04/10/998969/the-unholy-alliance-of-covid-19-nationalism-and-climate-change/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Scientific American Observations]<br>
<b>Climate Change and Infectious Diseases</b><br>
It isn't making COVID-19 worse than the pandemic otherwise would
have been--but we can't say the same for malaria, dengue and other
illnesses...<br>
- - -<br>
For example, climate change is causing widespread drought and
desertification in much of the world, threatening the availability
of water for consumption, food production, personal hygiene, and
medical care, including for infectious disease. In drought-prone
areas, medical facilities with water shortages will be ill-equipped
to deal with the outbreak. Similarly, COVID-19 outbreaks will
cripple already weakened health systems in regions that have seen an
increase in the frequency and severity of climate-induced extreme
weather events, such as Haiti or Mozambique...<br>
- - -<br>
As an example, a changing climate is aggravating the negative health
impacts of malaria by broadening the range of the Anopheles
mosquito, the vector that spreads it. It also lengthens the season
in which mosquitos reproduce and transmit the disease, thereby
increasing the number of people at risk. A similar escalation takes
place for diseases such as dengue fever, chikungunya, yellow fever
and Zika, which are spread by Aedes mosquitos.<br>
<br>
Lyme disease, which is spread by ticks, is also increasing its range
and seasonality in many parts of North America and Europe, while
waterborne cholera and cryptosporidiosis are increasing with more
frequent droughts and flooding.<br>
<br>
What can the global response to COVID-19 teach us about our response
to climate change?<br>
<br>
Both climate change and COVID-19 are public health threats, although
they are playing out across vastly different timescales. Both
require early action to save lives, as well as adequate health
systems that provide equitable access to the most vulnerable in
society.<br>
<br>
Just as with COVID-19, how well communities can cope with infectious
diseases and other health impacts that are intensified by climate
change ultimately depends on the underlying strength and resilience
of the health system, whether it ensures protection for the most
vulnerable in society, and the extent to which it protects the
public from both short and long-term health threats.<br>
<br>
Arthur Wyns is a climate change advisor to the World Health
Organization (WHO). He writes in a personal capacity; his views do
not necessarily represent those of WHO or any of its member states.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/climate-change-and-infectious-diseases/">https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/climate-change-and-infectious-diseases/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[NYT NONFICTION]<br>
<b>Facing the Climate Change Crisis, Three Books Offer Some
Ambitious Proposals</b><br>
- - <b><br>
</b><b>THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE</b><br>
Surviving the Crisis<br>
By Christina Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac<br>
- -<br>
<b>THE STORY OF MORE</b><br>
How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go From Here<br>
By Hope Jahren<br>
- - <br>
<b>THE 100% SOLUTION</b><br>
A Plan for Solving Climate Change<br>
By Solomon Goldstein-Rose<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/books/review/story-of-more-hope-jahren-future-we-choose.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/books/review/story-of-more-hope-jahren-future-we-choose.html</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Trumpism]<br>
<b>Leveraging a Pandemic to Lock in Fossil Fuel Dominance</b><br>
The weekly Drilled roundup of climate accountability news<br>
- - <br>
Climate Accountability News Roundup<br>
- Harvard Study shows a connection between even minimal exposure to
a particular type of air pollution--pm2.5, the particulate matter
found in car exhaust or coal and natural gas power plant
emissions--and risk of COVID-19 death.<br>
<br>
- Related: In Cancer Alley--predominantly Black neighborhoods along
the Mississippi from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, surrounded by
refineries, power plants and petrochemical plants--the COVID-19
death rate is sky high. (Vice News)<br>
<br>
- Reuters reports that banks holding a large amount of the shale gas
industry's debt will take over and operate some companies' assets.<br>
<br>
- In an unprecedented move the G20 and OPEC meet to agree on
production cuts to shore up the global oil market. (Financial Times)
[ update: final agreement is out]<br>
<br>
- Part of the OPEC agreement was a quid pro quo on shale. Politico
reports that The Trump administration rejected a Saudi request that
U.S. oil companies be barred from receiving business loans under the
third coronavirus relief package, H.R. 748 (116). But, the
administration instead agreed it would not waive royalty payments to
U.S. companies from oil and gas they produced on U.S. federal lands
-- something both congressional Republicans and industry groups have
pushed in recent days. "The president said no to royalty relief on
offshore and onshore federal land," one industry official briefed on
the matter said. "The president had a quid pro quo promise to the
Saudis. Saudi implicitly wants the shale guys to die on the vine of
natural causes." Wow, saying the quiet stuff out loud, all week
long. (Politico)<br>
<br>
- Gulf of Mexico offshore drillers are still holding out hope that
the nix on royalty relief won't apply to them.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://drillednews.substack.com/p/leveraging-a-pandemic-to-lock-in">https://drillednews.substack.com/p/leveraging-a-pandemic-to-lock-in</a>
<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 -
April 11, 1987 </b></font><br>
Reporting on Tennessee Sen. Al Gore's decision to run for the
Democratic presidential nomination, the Los Angeles Times notes:<br>
<br>
"Along with evoking the Kennedyesque image of vigor, Gore also
sought to revive the spirit of youthful idealism associated with the
New Frontier. He laid out a broad list of national objectives, from
combatting AIDS and Alzheimer's disease to curbing the 'greenhouse
effect'--the threat to the Earth's atmosphere from the burning of
oil, gas and coal."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://articles.latimes.com/1987-04-11/news/mn-639_1_albert-gore">http://articles.latimes.com/1987-04-11/news/mn-639_1_albert-gore</a><br>
<br>
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