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<i><font size="+1"><b>April 27, 2020</b></font></i><br>
<br>
[video, commentary and questions]<br>
<b>Is Big Oil finally getting stranded?</b><br>
Apr 26, 2020<br>
Just Have a Think<br>
Thanks to Russia and Saudi Arabia, global oil production has not
decreased in reaction to the abrupt halt in our economies. That
means all the pipelines, all the oil tankers, all the refineries and
all the storage facilities are full to capacity with a commodity
that nobody can use right now. Oil producers large and small are
haemorrhaging money in a way that is genuinely threatening to their
existence, and people are learning how to work from home in a way
that may mean we choose to travel far less when the pandemic finally
ends. So is this a 'Perfect Storm' that spells the end for BIG OIL?<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibWcbk3ARd0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibWcbk3ARd0</a><br>
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</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[cognitive distancing]<br>
<b>Climate science deniers at forefront of downplaying coronavirus
pandemic</b><b><br>
</b>Vocal influencers such as the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and
the Heartland Institute are hitting back at a time when people's
trust in science is rising<br>
Fringe climate science deniers who spread online disinformation are
now downplaying the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic, according
to a new analysis.<br>
DeSmog, a blog and organization that tracks the culprits behind
false information about the climate crisis, identified about 70
individuals and groups questioning the deadliness of the coronavirus
and pushing for an end to social distancing, along with protesters
who have been encouraged by Donald Trump.<br>
<br>
From the conservative conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to the US-based
Heartland Institute and UK-based James Delingpole, the review
concludes that the same influencers trying to make the public
question the severity of global heating are also discounting the
science surrounding Covid-19.<br>
<br>
"The climate war has largely been about confusing the public and
making people trust in science and government less," said DeSmog's
executive director, Brendan DeMelle. "And here we are in a pandemic
where science and global cooperation are critical, and that's a
threat to the ideology of a lot of these … organizations.<br>
<br>
"You end up with this conspiracy theory about big government taking
over our lives, taking away our freedoms, subjecting us to
stay-at-home orders that we have to liberate ourselves from,"
DeMelle said.<br>
<br>
DeSmog also identified fossil fuel and chemical industry aligned
interests touting single-use plastics in personal protective gear,
food packaging and grocery bags.<br>
<br>
John Cook, who studies climate denial at the center for climate
change communication at George Mason University, said he expected
the overlap but was surprised by the extent of the parallels.<br>
<br>
"People who are politically conservative and who value individual
rights over collective responsibility are less supporting of social
distancing policies and also just have a lower understanding of the
dangers of Covid-19," Cook said, citing emerging polling data.<br>
Cook outlines five techniques of science denial that people should
watch for, including the cherry-picking of data.<br>
<br>
"The latest argument that we should relax social distancing because
the curve [of cases] is flattening is very much an example of
cherry-picking," Cook said.<br>
<br>
In the US, some of the same groups that have petitioned the Trump
administration to debate human-caused climate disruption and to roll
back climate standards are sowing distrust of epidemiological
research.<br>
<br>
Jay Lehr, science director of the Heartland Institute, on 30 March
said people have been "barraged on the 24/7 news cycle for years"
about climate change and now "face a more realistic fear of the most
contagious virus any of us have ever experienced" but "both,
however, suffer from questionable statistics and predictions that
make us wonder what is real and what is someone's best guess."<br>
Heartland's communications director, Jim Lakely, in a podcast about
the "Wuhan virus" on 15 March compared the virus to a bad flu season
and said that while "the panic is definitely more dangerous than the
flu - this has to be put in perspective.<br>
<br>
"We have to think about the economic damage this is doing to the
country. This is incalculable," Lakely said.<br>
<br>
The Heartland Institute also posted a piece by economics professor
Daniel Sutter arguing that alternative strategies to social
distancing - like sheltering vulnerable populations - "could have
mitigated the human toll at a significantly lower economic and
social cost".<br>
<br>
The Manhattan Institute, which calls itself a free-market thinktank,
ran an article from Heather MacDonald in which she wrote: "Even if
my odds of dying from coronavirus should suddenly jump
ten-thousand-fold, from the current rate of 0.000012 percent across
the U.S. population all the way up to 0.12 percent, I'd happily take
those odds over the destruction being wrought on the U.S. and global
economy from this unbridled panic."<br>
<br>
The Media Research Center in a video said: "This is exactly how they
incite mass panic: through lies and deception and exploiting
ignorance. It's how they convince people that we're all going to die
because Trump doesn't believe in science or something."<br>
<br>
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who founded Infowars, has called the
virus a "hoax" and appeared at a "You Can't Close America" rally in
Austin on Saturday, where he shook hands with unmasked supporters.<br>
<br>
Fossil fuel supporters have also capitalized on the pandemic to warn
of the costs of climate action.<br>
<br>
Alex Epstein, the founder of the Center for Industrial Progress
which DeSmog cites as associated with various groups connected to
the rightwing billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, called
the current recession a "mild preview of the Green New Deal", and
said that "our biggest ally in the fight against coronavirus is the
fossil fuel industry."<br>
<br>
The links between climate science denial and Covid-19 downplaying
reach outside the US. In the UK, Delingpole, a rightwing
commentator, has reposted calls to rapidly return to regular life.<br>
<br>
In a recent podcast, he called doubters of quarantining measures
"lockdown skeptics", and referred to those who support social
distancing as "hysterical bedwetters". He accused the media of
promoting panic in "hysterical tabloids".<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/25/climate-science-deniers-downplaying-coronavirus-pandemic">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/25/climate-science-deniers-downplaying-coronavirus-pandemic</a><br>
- - -<br>
[Series of Climate and Covid denial]<br>
<b>COVIDeniers: Anti-Science Coronavirus Denial Overlaps with
Climate Denial</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.desmogblog.com/covideniers-anti-science-covid-19-denial-overlaps-climate-denial">https://www.desmogblog.com/covideniers-anti-science-covid-19-denial-overlaps-climate-denial</a><br>
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<p><br>
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[Eric Rignot's daughter makes a pretty video for Vice]<br>
<b>Making Sense of the End of the World with my Dad</b><br>
Apr 22, 2020<br>
VICE<br>
How much trouble is humanity in as Earth's ancient glaciers melt?<br>
<br>
One of the world's foremost glaciologists, Dr. Eric Rignot, returns
to Greenland hoping to go the furthest north he's ever been on a
boat - a perilous journey fraught with sea ice and no radio signal -
to for the first time ever survey the Humboldt glacier, one of the
big potential contributors to global sea level rise. He brings his
filmmaker-daughter Julia along for this 10-day journey to the end of
the world. The findings from this mission will help scientists
globally with their climate change projections.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z33VctxsjQw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z33VctxsjQw</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
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[news]<br>
<b>The Lab That Discovered Global Warming Has Good News and Bad News</b><br>
The good news is that the pandemic shows "science works." The bad
news? Global warming may be far more dangerous than a pandemic.<br>
- - -<br>
One thing that keeps public health officials up at night: the deadly
combination of extreme heat and humidity, which can push humans
beyond our biological limit.<br>
<br>
"There are places like the Persian Gulf, where we are already
beginning to see these lethal combinations emerge, where it is
thermodynamically impossible to sweat fast enough to stay cool," Dr.
Horton said. "Climate models need to be better designed to help
communities around the world prepare for previously underappreciated
risks like this."<br>
<br>
Dr. Horton is consulting with New York's power company, Con Edison,
which is upgrading its infrastructure to prepare for anticipated
spikes in peak demand from air-conditioner use during the projected
hotter summers ahead. He is also working with the city as it plans
an eventual "managed retreat" from some low-lying neighborhoods like
coastal Staten Island and the Rockaways, Queens.<br>
<br>
Lamont scientists discovered that New York City (along with much of
the Eastern Seaboard) is actually sinking nearly as quickly as the
sea around it is rising -- a double threat that suggests that
America's largest city will have a far different shoreline in the
not-so-distant future.<br>
<br>
In the past, climate scientists mostly steered clear of the
political controversies that swirled around their work. Things have
changed. "Fewer researchers," Dr. Horton said, "are just sitting in
the ivory tower." The younger ones, in particular, are speaking
publicly about the need to act, even challenging Columbia University
to do more to curb its own emissions.<br>
<br>
But just as Lamont scientists are feeling more energized, the lab
continues losing the financial support of the government, which was
once its largest source of financing.<br>
<br>
"The existing federal funding model is not well suited to this
unfolding disaster," Dr. de Menocal said. "We need a vastly
accelerated and vastly better-funded research program if we are
going to find the answers in time to do something about it."<br>
<br>
"We've watched the Covid-19 situation unfold at incredible speed,"
Dr. de Menocal said. He worries that environmental threats are not
being felt as viscerally. "The climate crisis is playing out on a
much slower time frame. We know roughly what to expect and when to
expect it, and we should be preparing with the same level of
urgency."<br>
<br>
There is little time to waste, he said, though he admitted that he
had no idea when scientists might return to the laboratory itself.
The virus, Dr. de Menocal said, has shown us how vulnerable we are
as a society.<br>
<br>
"The laws of nature don't care whether we believe in them or not,"
he said. "The tragedy and inconvenience we've seen from this
pandemic pale in comparison to what's in store from climate change.
There is a much bigger crisis knocking on our door and we have to
remember the big lesson from this pandemic: Science saves lives."<br>
<br>
A version of this article appears in print on April 26, 2020,
Section <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/nyregion/lamont-doherty-earth-observatory-global-warming.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/nyregion/lamont-doherty-earth-observatory-global-warming.html</a><br>
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<p><br>
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[Radical Robert Reich]<br>
<b>The Solutions to the Climate Crisis No One is Talking About</b><br>
Make no mistake: the simultaneous crisis of inequality and climate
is no fluke. Both are the result of decades of deliberate choices
made, and policies enacted, by ultra-wealthy and powerful
corporations.<br>
<b>First, create green jobs...</b><br>
- -<br>
<b>Second, stop dirty energy..</b>.<br>
- -<br>
<b>Third, kick fossil fuel companies out of our politics..</b>.<br>
- - <br>
<b>Fourth, require the fossil fuel companies that have profited from
environmental injustice compensate the communities they've
harmed...</b><br>
- -<br>
<b>If these solutions sound drastic to you, it's because they are.
They have to be if we have any hope of keeping our planet
habitable. The climate crisis is not a far-off apocalyptic
nightmare -- it is our present day.</b><br>
Australia's bushfires wiped out a billion animals, California's fire
season wreaks more havoc every year, and record-setting storms are
tearing through our communities like never before. <br>
<br>
Scientists tell us we have 10 years left to dramatically reduce
emissions. We have no room for meek half-measures wrapped up inside
giant handouts to the fossil fuel industry. <br>
<br>
We deserve a world without fossil fuels. A world in which workers
and communities thrive and our shared climate comes before industry
profits. Working together, I know we can make it happen. We have no
time to waste.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
[the first part]<br>
<b>
</b> <b>Scientist reacts to YouTube climate change comments</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb84nmXNBqg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb84nmXNBqg</a> <br>
- - <br>
[A little bit more science]<br>
<b>Scientist reacts to YouTube climate change comments #2</b><br>
Apr 21, 2020<br>
Simon Clark<br>
What emits more CO2 - volcanoes or humans? Find out (and get 20%
off) at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://brilliant.org/simonclark">https://brilliant.org/simonclark</a><br>
In this video I read through and react to comments on my YouTube
videos about climate change. There's some interesting stuff...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzVV2fbkKtk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzVV2fbkKtk</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
April 27, 2009 </b></font><br>
NPR reports:<br>
<blockquote>"Sixteen nations are responsible for 80 percent of the
world's<br>
greenhouse gas emissions. Now those nations, dubbed the 'major<br>
emitters,' are sending representatives to a conference beginning<br>
Monday in Washington, D.C., to see if they can work together to
slow<br>
the pace of climate change.<br>
<br>
"The Obama administration has moved quickly to deal with climate<br>
change in the international arena. It has joined the United
Nations<br>
talks that will take place in Copenhagen later this year and are
aimed<br>
at developing a climate-change treaty. It is working one-on-one
with<br>
China -- which recently surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest<br>
carbon emitter.<br>
<br>
"And in the meetings that start Monday, the Obama administration
is<br>
convening the 16 nations that contribute most to climate change."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103465542">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103465542</a><br>
<br>
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