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<i><font size="+1"><b>July 29, 2020</b></font></i><br>
<br>
[FP - Foreign Policy]<br>
<b>It's Time to Put Climate Action at the Center of U.S. Foreign
Policy</b><br>
From the Pentagon to the White House Situation Room, climate change
must be considered in every decision.<br>
JASON BORDOFF - JULY 27, 2020<br>
First, the biggest shift from the current U.S. approach would be to
take climate change considerations into the mainstream of all
national-security and foreign-policy decision-making. If a meeting
in the White House Situation Room is not squarely focused on a
climate-related concern, it is unlikely any official in the room
will bring that perspective to how the issue is discussed.
Prioritizing climate change requires integrating its consideration
into foreign-policy strategies broadly, just as issues ranging from
counterterrorism to nonproliferation are treated today...<br>
- -<br>
Second, climate change obviously needs to be at the center of U.S.
energy diplomacy. For example, dialogue with OPEC nations or
cooperation on strategic oil stocks to address global supply shocks
should include discussion of how to prepare for an uncertain and
potentially volatile period of transition away from oil. Plans to
increase energy security for Eastern European countries dependent on
Russian natural gas must consider the carbon intensity of
alternatives, including U.S. exports of liquified natural gas, and
whether infrastructure investments to bolster security today may
stymie efforts to reach lower emissions tomorrow. Expanding energy
access for the 840 million people who lack access to electricity,
the majority of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa, is critical for
global health and development, yet support for efforts to achieve
this goal must avoid following the carbon-intensive paths of other
emerging economies such as India. At present, Africa's growth in oil
demand over the next two decades is projected to be larger than
China's and second only to India's.<br>
<br>
Prioritizing climate change in energy diplomacy also means attaching
an even greater weight to issues such as securing electricity grids
around the world against cyberattacks, since a decarbonized world
will depend even more on electrical power as many additional
sectors--such as buildings, cars, and trucks--are electrified. In
most countries today, the power grid is at greater risk of
cyberattack than the fossil fuel supply. Similarly, access to rare
earths and other critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt will
be even more important as raw materials for batteries, solar panels,
and other renewable energy technologies...<br>
- - <br>
The U.S. foreign-policy landscape is already complicated enough
without adding yet more decision criteria. But the stakes for
climate change are too high for it to be delegated to a marginal
role, where it is considered only by climate officials in
climate-specific policy contexts. To truly prioritize climate
change, foreign policy must go beyond climate and energy diplomacy
to make mainstream the consideration of climate change in all
foreign-policy decisions. It may not always prevail when weighed
against all other national security goals, but it is too important
to be ignored.<br>
<br>
Jason Bordoff, a former senior director on the staff of the U.S.
National Security Council and special assistant to President Barack
Obama, is a professor of professional practice in international and
public affairs and the founding director of the Center on Global
Energy Policy at Columbia University's School of International and
Public Affairs.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/27/climate-change-foreign-policy/">https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/27/climate-change-foreign-policy/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[The Barents Observer]<br>
<b>Ships moving in as Arctic sea ice level reaches record low</b><br>
The Northern Sea Route is now completely open.<br>
July 27, 2020...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2020/07/ships-moving-arctic-sea-ice-level-reaches-record-low">https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2020/07/ships-moving-arctic-sea-ice-level-reaches-record-low</a><br>
<p>- - <br>
</p>
[NSIDC]<br>
By July 15, 2020, Arctic sea ice extent was at a record low over the
period of satellite observations for this time of year. The Siberian
heat wave this past spring initiated early ice retreat along the
Russian coast, leading to very low sea ice extent in the Laptev and
Barents Seas. The Northern Sea route appears to be nearly open.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/">https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[for those who carefully attend to investments]<br>
<b>This unappreciated climate-change risk lurks in many portfolios
according to BlackRock</b><br>
By Rachel Koning Beals - July 27, 2020 <br>
In one chart: Within a decade, much of the world will lie in regions
of high water stress<br>
<br>
Water stress -- when demand for H20 exceeds supply -- is an
underappreciated investing risk that cuts across regions, asset
classes and sectors, the world's largest fund firm BlackRock warns.<br>
<br>
The hardship threatens public health, production facilities and
global supply chains and should be given as much attention as
growing climate-related risks such as hurricanes, wildfires and
flooding, said the firm, with some $7 trillion under management, in
a report.<br>
<br>
The analysts included a map that glares red in the most at-risk
regions.<br>
see the map -
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://ei.marketwatch.com/Multimedia/2020/07/27/Photos/NS/MW-IL239_BlackR_20200727125101_NS.png">https://ei.marketwatch.com/Multimedia/2020/07/27/Photos/NS/MW-IL239_BlackR_20200727125101_NS.png</a><br>
<br>
Large cities will need to strengthen their water infrastructure,
BlackRock says, citing World Resources Institute findings. WORLD
RESOURCES INSTITUTE/BLACKROCK<br>
Within a decade, much of the world will lie in regions of high water
stress, projections by the World Resources Institute show. Northern
Africa is one high-risk zone, as seen by the red tones in the chart
above. The risks also have geopolitical dimensions, as highlighted
by a recent spat over a large hydroelectric project in Ethiopia that
neighbors Egypt and Sudan fear could reduce water availability.<br>
- -<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-unappreciated-climate-change-risk-lurks-in-many-portfolios-according-to-blackrock-2020-07-27">https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-unappreciated-climate-change-risk-lurks-in-many-portfolios-according-to-blackrock-2020-07-27</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[activism]<br>
<b>Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace Campaign for a Breakup Between
Big Tech and Big Oil</b><br>
Employing disparate tactics, the activist organizations want Amazon,
Google and Microsoft to stop helping the fossil fuel industry
extract more oil and gas.<br>
BY ILANA COHEN - JUL 24, 2020...<br>
- -<br>
Geoffrey Cann, an author, speaker and trainer for digital
transformation in oil and gas, argued that achieving a less
carbon-intensive system required a focus on reducing fossil fuel
demand, rather than attacking production. Cann said that making the
oil and gas industry more efficient wasn't "necessarily a bad
thing." <br>
<br>
Cann said he would much rather fossil fuel companies devote
themselves to "optimizing their existing business model to buy time
for the energy transition," than "simply stop" their operations at a
moment lacking clean energy alternatives to meet the scale of the
world's energy demand. <br>
<br>
"Let's set out a long-term roadmap that lets us work our way off of
[fossil fuel] products and onto cleaner, more sustainable products,"
said Cann, "without putting at risk the societies that we've built
for the past 100 years." And if people can "apply the smarts that
we've got today in Big Tech" to support that process, he said, "that
has to be the agenda."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23072020/extinction-rebellion-greenpeace-google-microsoft-apple-tech-oil">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23072020/extinction-rebellion-greenpeace-google-microsoft-apple-tech-oil</a><br>
<p>- - - -</p>
[Oct 2019]<br>
<b>Big Tech's eco-pledges aren't slowing its pursuit of Big Oil</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://apnews.com/deff37576c1140feb3727dee483d223b">https://apnews.com/deff37576c1140feb3727dee483d223b</a><br>
<p>- - -<b><br>
</b></p>
[of course, big clients]<b><br>
</b><b>Big Tech Loves Big Oil</b><br>
They promised us a brighter future. They lied.<br>
<blockquote><b>Big Tech wants you to think they take climate change
seriously</b>. Google says they are carbon neutral! Microsoft
says they are going carbon negative! Amazon is even naming a
stadium the "Climate Pledge" arena! <br>
<b>But they also want to help Big Oil's business, which is
DESTROYING our planet.</b> Amazon Web Services has an Oil and
Gas division (1). Google uses AI and machine learning to discover
oil reserves (2). Microsoft hosts conferences called "Empowering
Oil and Gas with A.I," proudly pursuing "the future health of oil
and gas companies" <br>
<b>These companies are vulnerable to public pressure. </b>In the
midst of a global reckoning on race, Big Tech is calling for new
regulations on the facial recognition technologies that subjugate
Black People, Indigenous People, and People of Color (5). These
are the same groups whose lives Big Tech dismisses by accelerating
climate change.<br>
<b>If you take action, they'll take action.</b> For the next three
weeks, we're going to use humor to embarrass Big Tech into action.
We, technology's workers and users, must claim our rights and
voice the truth.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.bigtechlovesbigoil.com/">https://www.bigtechlovesbigoil.com/</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>[ClimateOne]<br>
<b>Flooding in America's Heartland</b><br>
Streamed July 28, 2020<br>
Climate One<br>
Miami may be the poster child of rising waters in the U.S., but
further inland, states are grappling with torrential flooding that
is becoming the new norm. Last year, flooding in the southeast
killed 12 people and caused $20 billion in damages. This year's
rains have already driven Mississippi into a state emergency, and
Missouri is bracing itself with a levee system still in disrepair
from last year's storms.<br>
<br>
Can infrastructure like floodplains, wetlands, and engineered
barriers save riverside states from their new, saturated norm? How
are communities adapting to a changing, wetter climate in some of
the most conservative parts of the country? Join us for a
conversation with Julia Kumari Drapkin, CEO and founder of
ISeeChange and Martha Shulski, director of the Nebraska state
climate office, for a conversation on flooding in America.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Ieb5M-wTI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Ieb5M-wTI</a></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[what happened to our world 12,900 years ago - can we survive and
recover from our similar condition]<br>
<b>The Younger Dryas impact research debate: Part 19a - wildfires</b><br>
Jul 28, 2020<br>
From the YouTube channel of <b>Prehistory Decoded</b> <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx11KXwumf5w8J-GdBGKNVA">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx11KXwumf5w8J-GdBGKNVA</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY4XrwS1o6c">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY4XrwS1o6c</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 -
July 29, 2008 </b></font><br>
<p>MSNBC's Keith Olbermann covers "...the headlines breaking in the
administration's 50 running scandals--Bushed.<br>
<br>
"Number three: Blood for oil-gate. Remember when the people who
said the Iraq war was designed to benefit the oil industry? The
Republicans responded by calling those people 'tinfoil hat'
conspiracy theorists. And then the Republicans started saying we
have to stay in Iraq because otherwise al Qaeda might get the oil
and raise the price of gas.<br>
<br>
"Well, the pretext is officially at an end! Richard Perle, one of
the architects of the invasion of Iraq is, according to the
Murdoch Street Journal, trying to invest in an oil drilling deal
with the Kurds of Iraq even though the Bush administration is on
record opposing any oil deals with the Kurds until the Iraq
government straightens out which group owns what oil fields in
Iraq."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78ro5f7x4cM">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78ro5f7x4cM</a><br>
</p>
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