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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>April 19, 2020</b></font></i></p>
[New Yorker Radio Hour 33 mins]<br>
APRIL 17, 2020<br>
<b>Bill McKibben and Elizabeth Kolbert on the Pandemic and the
Environment</b><br>
Bill McKibben and Elizabeth Kolbert join David Remnick to talk about
the twin crises of our time: the coronavirus pandemic and the
climate emergency. During the COVID-19 national emergency, the Trump
Administration has loosened auto-emissions standards, and has
proposed easing the controls on mercury released by power plants,
among other actions. With protesters no longer able to gather,
construction on the controversial Keystone Pipeline has resumed.
Still, McKibben and Kolbert believe that the pandemic could remind
the public to take scientific fact seriously, and possibly might
change our values for the better. Plus: Carolyn Kormann speaks with
a disease ecologist who hunts for coronaviruses and other deadly
pathogens in the bat caves where they originate.<br>
download
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/audio.wnyc.org/tnyradiohour/tnyradiohour041720_podcast.mp3?siteplayer=true&dl=1">https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/audio.wnyc.org/tnyradiohour/tnyradiohour041720_podcast.mp3?siteplayer=true&dl=1</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.npr.org/podcasts/458929150/the-new-yorker-radio-hour">https://www.npr.org/podcasts/458929150/the-new-yorker-radio-hour</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[Delay is immoral]<br>
<b>Dr. Aaron Bernstein on Climate Change: Waiting to Act "is
Malpractice"</b><br>
Apr 17, 2020<br>
Climate One<br>
"If I have baby, that i'm taking care of...and that baby has a
fever, like the planet, I don't presume that everything is going to
be ok,", says Ari Bernstein, interim director of The Center for
Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan
School of Public Health (Harvard C-CHANGE).<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EluAwqpuIo">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EluAwqpuIo</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[Bloomberg warns]<br>
<b>Warmest Oceans on Record Could Set Off a Year of Extreme Weather</b><br>
By Brian K Sullivan - April 18, 2020<br>
<br>
The world's seas are simmering, with record high temperatures
spurring worry among forecasters that the global warming effect may
generate a chaotic year of extreme weather ahead.<br>
<br>
Parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans all hit the record
books for warmth last month, according to the U.S. National Centers
for Environmental Information. The high temperatures could offer
clues on the ferocity of the Atlantic hurricane season, the eruption
of wildfires from the Amazon region to Australia, and whether the
record heat and severe thunderstorms raking the southern U.S. will
continue.<br>
<br>
In the Gulf of Mexico, where offshore drilling accounts for about
17% of U.S. oil output, water temperatures were 76.3 degrees
Fahrenheit (24.6 Celsius), 1.7 degrees above the long-term average,
said Phil Klotzbach at Colorado State University. If Gulf waters
stay warm, it could be the fuel that intensifies any storm that
comes that way, Klotzbach said.<br>
<br>
"The entire tropical ocean is above average," said Michelle
L'Heureux, a forecaster at the U.S. Climate Prediction Center. "And
there is a global warming component to that. It is really amazing
when you look at all the tropical oceans and see how warm they are."<br>
The record warm water in the Gulf of Mexico spilled over into every
coastal community along the shoreline with all-time high
temperatures on land, said Deke Arndt, chief of the monitoring
section at the National Centers for Environmental Information in
Asheville, North Carolina. Florida recorded its warmest March on
record, and Miami reached 93 degrees Wednesday, a record for the
date and 10 degrees above normal, according to the National Weather
Service.<br>
<br>
While coronavirus has the nation's attention right now, global
warming continues to be a threat. Sea water "remembers and holds
onto heat" better than the atmosphere, Arndt said.<br>
<br>
Overall, the five warmest years in the world's seas, as measured by
modern instruments, have occurred over just the last half-dozen or
so years. It's "definitely climate-change related," said Jennifer
Francis, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center in
Massachusetts. "Oceans are absorbing about 90% of the heat trapped
by extra greenhouse gases,"<br>
<br>
Worldwide, sea temperatures were 1.49 degrees Fahrenheit above
average in March. That's the second highest level recorded since
1880 for the month of March, according to U.S. data. In 2016,
temperatures were 1.55 degrees above average.<br>
<br>
The first of Colorado State's 2020 storm reports, led by Klotzbach,
forecast this year that eight hurricanes could spin out of the
Atlantic with an above-average chance at least one will make
landfall in the U.S. during the six-month season starting June 1.
The U.S. is set to issue its hurricane forecast next month.<br>
<br>
<b>Arctic Systems</b><br>
The searing global temperatures this year can also be traced back to
intense climate systems around the Arctic that bottled up much of
that region's cold, preventing it from spilling south into temperate
regions. Combined with global warming, this was a one-two punch for
sea temperatures that's brought them to historic highs.<br>
<br>
One of the best-known examples of how oceans drive global weather
patterns is the development of the climate system known as El Nino.
It occurs when unusually warm waters in the equatorial Pacific
interact with the atmosphere to alter weather patterns worldwide. In
the Atlantic, for instance, El Ninos can cause severe wind shear
that can break up developing storms with the potential to become
dangerous hurricanes.<br>
<br>
This year, the chance of an El Nino developing are small, and
scientists are theorizing one reason could be that climate change is
warming all the world's oceans. El Nino "depends on contrasts, as
well as absolute values of sea-surface temperatures," according to
Kevin Trenberth, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research.<br>
<br>
<b>Strengthening Their Fury</b><br>
Meanwhile, if the Atlantic stays warm through the six-month storm
season that starts June 1, the tropical systems can use it as fuel
to strengthen their fury.<br>
<br>
The oceans also play a role in setting the stage for wildfires. In
the case of Australia and the Amazon, really warm areas of the ocean
can pull rain away from the land, causing drier conditions and, in
extreme cases, drought. Last year, for instance, the Indian Ocean
was really warm off Africa, so that is where all the storms went.
Australia was left high and dry.<br>
<br>
Back in the Atlantic, research by Katia Fernandes, a geosciences
professor at the University of Arkansas, has also shown a
correlation between sea surface temperatures in the northern
tropical Atlantic and drought and wildfires in the Amazon. The
warmer the water, the further north rainfall is pulled across South
America.<br>
<br>
According to Fernandes model, even Atlantic temperatures in March
can serve to predict if the Amazon will be dry and susceptible to
fires.<br>
<br>
For California, the outlook isn't as clear. Wildfires there depend
as much on how well vegetation grows, providing fuel for the flames,
as it does on the weather conditions coming off the Pacific.<br>
<br>
"Tricky question," said Mike Anderson, California state
climatologist. "Our weather outcomes are influenced by sea-surface
temperatures in the Pacific, but it depends on where and when the
warm waters appear and how long they persist. In the end we have a
highly variable climate that doesn't map in a statistically
convenient way to patterns of sea-surface temperatures."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-18/warmest-oceans-on-record-could-set-off-a-year-of-extreme-weather">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-18/warmest-oceans-on-record-could-set-off-a-year-of-extreme-weather</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
<br>
[49 minute video record of the briefing - note - <b>YouTube</b>
shut down the live recording of this presentation]<br>
<b>Climate change, migration and the coronavirus pandemic</b><br>
Apr 16, 2020<br>
Climate & Migration Coalition<br>
Roughly 15 million people are displaced every year by climate and
weather related disasters. This year much of that displacement
will take place against the backdrop of a pandemic. This talk
explores how the coronavirus pandemic collides with current
patterns of climate-linked migration and displacement, and what
this new situation means for the people most at risk. The session
will explore locations that are particularly at risk, and examine
the contexts in which these global crises coverage.<br>
<br>
Presenter - Alex Randall<br>
Alex is a leading specialist in the connections between climate
change, migration and conflict. He is programme manager at the
Climate and Migration Coalition. He has been working on issues
around climate, migration and human rights for 15 years. He
advises a number of key international agencies and governments on
their responses to climate-linked migration and displacement. Alex
has also served on the steering group of the Nansen Initiative and
Platform on Disaster Displacement.<br>
Alex has written extensively on climate change and migration for
the Guardian, Le Monde Diplomatique, New Internationalist,
Prospect and numerous other outlets. He is the author of a number
of book chapters focusing on the connections between climate
change and the rights of refugees and migrants.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XI0CvEHsfQ&feature=youtu.be">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XI0CvEHsfQ&feature=youtu.be</a><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[global warming as film MacGuffin]<br>
<b>Film Culture and climate change</b><br>
Why does cinema ignore climate change?<br>
Apocalyptic films feature disease, war or alien invasions - but
there's one thing they almost always avoid. Nicholas Barber asks why
Hollywood is still so squeamish about the real environmental crisis.<br>
<br>
By Nicholas Barber - 17 April 2020<br>
<br>
Whether you believe that art imitates life or life imitates art, it
often seems as if the 21st Century is imitating a Hollywood
blockbuster. At the moment, as many of us have observed, the current
situation seems to be echoing Contagion and 28 Days Later. Before
that, the climate crisis - with its news reports about hurricanes,
tidal waves and wildfires - felt like every mega-budget movie about
a world-shaking apocalypse.<br>
<br>
The strange thing is, though, that despite the uneasy connection
between environmental news reports and apocalyptic films, climate
change is mentioned in hardly any of them. On the big screen, the
threats to civilisation as we know it are war (The Book of Eli; Mad
Max: Fury Road; Alita: Battle Angel), disease (Zombieland; World War
Z; Contagion; Inferno), drugs that were intended to counteract
disease (I Am Legend; Rise of the Planet of the Apes), alien
invasions (Oblivion; Edge of Tomorrow; A Quiet Place), and demons
(This Is The End). Clearly, this glut of doom-laden entertainment
was responding to our anxieties about the state of the planet. But
the idea that our carbon footprints might have something to do with
it doesn't get a look-in.<br>
<br>
In The Core (2003), the Earth's core has stopped rotating, and
nuclear explosions are required to jump start it. In Danny Boyle's
Sunshine (2007), it's the Sun which is almost defunct, and again,
nuclear explosions are what's needed to bring it back to life. In
Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014), the problem is crop
blights. In Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men (2006), it's
infertility. Then there is Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer (2013), which
the Korean director made a few years before the Oscar-winning
Parasite. His dystopian action movie is set during a new ice age,
but rather than being brought about by climate change per se, the
catastrophe was caused by a misguided attempt to reverse it by
"dispersing CW7 into the upper levels of the atmosphere"...<br>
The only major Hollywood feature film to have the opposite message
is Roland Emmerich's The Day After Tomorrow (2004). The German
writer-director is best known for Independence Day and Godzilla,
both of which gloried in mass destruction, but his interest in
extreme weather conditions and ecological issues was evident decades
earlier. The student film he made in 1984, The Noah's Ark Principle
(Das Arche Noah Prinzip), was set aboard a space station that could
whip up torrential storms. In 1990, he released another
science-fiction thriller, Moon 44, in which corporations were mining
for minerals all across the galaxy, having used up the Earth's
natural resources. Then, once he was established in Hollywood,
Emmerich used Art Bell and Whitley Strieber's book, The Coming
Global Superstorm, as the basis of his star-studded, 1970s-style
disaster movie.<br>
Like his other films, The Day After Tomorrow is about as stupid and
cliched as cinema gets. But parts of it hold up remarkably well. The
panic-buying scenes are all too prescient (although no one appears
to be stockpiling toilet paper), and the satire has sharpened with
age. When the US become largely uninhabitable, refugees pile south
across the Rio Grande, but are not allowed into Mexico until all
Latin American debt is cancelled. This conceit was bold enough in
2004, but today, in the 'Build the Wall' era, it seems
revolutionary.<br>
<br>
<b>Hollywood's bad habits</b><br>
More importantly, at least as far as Hollywood was concerned, The
Day After Tomorrow was a box-office smash. The sixth highest
grossing release of 2004 - just one place behind The Passion of the
Christ - it proved that a film could have prominent environmental
themes and still rake in several hundred million dollars. And yet it
didn't set a trend for climate-conscious eco-thrillers. The subject
cropped up in documentaries, such as the Oscar-winning adaptation of
Al Gore's slide show, An Inconvenient Truth (2006). But directors of
fictional films continued to shy away from climate change, and even
Emmerich retreated from it. When he made another global disaster
move, 2012 (2009), he blamed the worldwide floods in the film on...
errr... neutrinos from a solar flare, as opposed to anything that
human beings might have done.<br>
Perhaps the structure of The Day After Tomorrow can offer some clues
as to why it is such a one-off. The film starts well, with a climate
researcher, Professor Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), nearly plummeting to
his doom in the Antarctic when a mile-long crack splits the ice
shelf beneath his feet. Soon afterwards, he explains how the North
Atlantic Current works to the US's sceptical vice president (Kenneth
Welsh, a Dick Cheney lookalike), but Emmerich doesn't keep things
theoretical for long. Hailstones the size of tennis balls batter
Tokyo. Tornadoes rip Los Angeles to pieces. Helicopters fall from
the sky when their fuel lines freeze in Scotland. A frighteningly
convincing tsunami sloshes through Manhattan, submerging its streets
and turning its skyscrapers into islands. New York is then buried
under metres of snow and ice. The science may be iffy, but these
scenes are vivid enough to make anyone think twice about ordering a
gas-guzzling new car.<br>
Once you've shown civilisation being flattened, though, where do you
go next? Much of the film's second half is given over to Jack's
teenage son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) trying to stave off frostbite in
The New York Public Library, while Jack hikes through the snow to
find him. These scenes are fine, but they can't help but seem
insignificant compared to the devastation we've just witnessed.
Ultimately, who cares about Jack and Sam? Blockbuster movies tend to
be about the heroes' efforts to save thousands or millions of lives.
They concoct a cure for a virus or they disarm a bomb. In Emmerich's
own canon, they topple a humungous mutant lizard (Godzilla) and they
blow up a squadron of alien spacecraft (Independence Day). In
contrast, all Jack does is reunite with his son; society at large is
still in tatters.<br>
Could that be why climate change is so often overlooked by
filmmakers? Because it's just too big and overwhelming for a
two-hour adventure? And because it can't be fixed by a hero
defeating a villain? In a way, almost every one of us is the villain
of the story, due to our own small daily choices to take that
flight, to eat that steak, and to upgrade that phone. It's
understandable that Hollywood studios don't want to alienate
audiences by reminding them of that inconvenient truth. Commercially
speaking, it's more sensible to blame the apocalypse instead on some
mad scientist's experiments or some foreign dictator's nuclear
missiles. <br>
<br>
It's also true that Hollywood can't complain about our environmental
unfriendliness without drawing attention to its own. The average
film is a paean to conspicuous consumption: an invitation to covet
private jets, luxurious apartments, and designer outfits. And The
Day After Tomorrow itself has its share of product placement. Behind
the scenes, the industry isn't much better. It relies on countless
people flying all over the world, first to make a film and then to
promote it in the most opulent possible fashion. In January, Stella
McCartney boasted on Twitter that Joaquin Phoenix would be doing his
bit for "the future of the planet" by wearing one dinner suit "for
the entire award season", ie, a couple of months. The tweet was
roundly mocked, especially by those of us who have worn the same
dinner suit for 20 years.<br>
Still, the statement was at least a sign that Hollywood is aware of
its own bad habits. Other signs include the Producers Guild of
America's new Green Production Guide, and Sony's move to install
solar panels on its soundstages. But will James Bond ever swap his
Aston Martin for a bicycle? Will Phoenix wear his Stella McCartney
suit next award season? And, when the film business gets up and
running again, will Hollywood start greenlighting some more disaster
movies which face the climate crisis head on, as The Day After
Tomorrow did?<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20200416-why-does-cinema-ignore-climate-change">http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20200416-why-does-cinema-ignore-climate-change</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[battles]<br>
<b>Climate Science Deniers Turn to Attacking Coronavirus Models</b><br>
Vocal critics have cited perceived flaws in both climate and virus
modeling, despite scientific evidence to the contrary<br>
E&E News on April 15, 2020<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-science-deniers-turn-to-attacking-coronavirus-models/">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-science-deniers-turn-to-attacking-coronavirus-models/</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 -
April 19, 1990 </b></font><br>
<br>
The New York Times reports:<br>
"President Bush, responding to criticism that the United States had<br>
delayed taking concrete steps to address the threat of global
warming<br>
linked to pollution, said today, 'We have never considered research
a<br>
substitute for action.'<br>
<br>
"Closing a two-day White House conference on the issue, Mr. Bush
said:<br>
'To those who suggest we're only trying to balance economic growth
and<br>
environmental protection, I say they miss the point. We are calling<br>
for an entirely new way of thinking, to achieve both while<br>
compromising neither, by applying the power of the marketplace in
the<br>
service of the environment.'<br>
<br>
"Mr. Bush also proposed a series of steps for integrating<br>
international responses to the issue of global climate change. They<br>
included an international 'charter' for cooperation in science and<br>
economics related to global change, a statement of principles to
guide<br>
such research, the creation of international research institutes and
a<br>
communications network to monitor global changes."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/19/us/bush-denies-putting-off-action-on-averting-global-climate-shift.html">http://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/19/us/bush-denies-putting-off-action-on-averting-global-climate-shift.html</a><br>
<br>
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