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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>August </b><b>9,</b><b> 2020</b></font></i></p>
[succinct message]<b><br>
</b><b>LAUDATO SI' ACTION PLATFORM</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.laudatosi.org/laudato-si/action-platform/">https://www.laudatosi.org/laudato-si/action-platform/</a><br>
- -<br>
[an EcoJesuit video]<br>
<b>Connecting Voices, Connecting Laudato Si': Action 2021</b><br>
Ecojesuit - Jul 7, 2020<br>
The message and the voice of Laudato Si' still continue to be a
consoling message of peace for everyone, from the margins to the
leaderships. Caring for our common home remains a relevant and
urgent message as the world locked down from the impact of the
global pandemic that laid bare more starkly the social and
ecological crisis. <br>
<br>
As people lived through the virus crisis in various forms of curfews
and lockdowns, far away from homes or inaccessible to their loved
ones, the human voice of compassion and concern is deeply
appreciated, and people are sustained in the conversations of hope
at a time of great suffering.<br>
<br>
Ecojesuit shares this brief video of the different voices that
expressed reflections on Laudato Si' celebrating the simplicity of
life, of nature, and the deep importance of community. Ways forward
and opportunities to establish a better normal are encouraging
meaningful action for the common good, for the #CommonHome.<br>
<br>
These reflections and comments come from various webinars during
Laudato Si' Week and show the unity in diversity that calls us to
action over the coming year. Listening to people, four steps emerged
in the effort to connect. First is learning from the Covid-19
experience, then second is recognizing we can act if we act
together. Third is that conversion makes the difference and gives
the perseverance, and finally, if we all act, the hope and the
change take place.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/cZPcQ3HRYao">https://youtu.be/cZPcQ3HRYao</a>
<p>- -</p>
[A dicastery is a department of the Roman Curia, sort of a court of
the Catholic Church]<br>
<b>The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has
announced a special Laudato Si' Anniversary Year.</b><br>
Laudato Si' Goals<br>
Like the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, the Laudato
Si' Goals are at once a vision and plan. They name the major
challenges of our times and point to an integrated program of action
to respond at all levels.<br>
The Laudato Si' Goals are:<br>
<blockquote><b>1. Response to the Cry of the Earth </b>(greater use
of clean renewable energy and reducing fossil fuels in order to
achieve carbon neutrality, efforts to protect and promote
biodiversity, guaranteeing access to clean water for all).<br>
<b>2. Response to the Cry of the Poor </b>(defence of human life
from conception to death and all forms of life on Earth, with
special attention to vulnerable groups such as indigenous
communities, migrants, children at risk through slavery).<br>
<b>3. Ecological Economics</b> (sustainable production,
Fair-trade, ethical consumption, ethical investments, divestment
from fossil fuels and any economic activity harmful to the planet
and the people, investment in renewable energy).<br>
<b>4. Adoption of Simple Lifestyles</b> (sobriety in the use of
resources and energy, avoid single-use plastic, adopt a more
plant-based diet and reduce meat consumption, greater use of
public transport and avoid polluting modes of transportation).<br>
<b>5. Ecological Education</b> (re-think and re-design educational
curricula and educational institution reform in the spirit of
integral ecology to create ecological awareness and action,
promoting the ecological vocation of young people, teachers and
leaders of education).<br>
<b>6. Ecological Spirituality</b> (recover a religious vision of
God's creation, encourage greater contact with the natural world
in a spirit of wonder, praise, joy and gratitude, promote
creation-centred liturgical celebrations, develop ecological
catechesis, prayer, retreats, formation).<br>
<b>7. Emphasis on Community Involvement and Participatory Action</b>
to care for creation at the local, regional, national and
international levels (promote advocacy and people's campaigns,
encourage rootedness in local territory and neighbourhood
ecosystems).<br>
Institutions on a Seven-year Journey<br>
</blockquote>
Seven sets of institutions are being especially encouraged to embark
on a journey towards 'total sustainability'. They are:<br>
<blockquote>1. Families<br>
2. Dioceses and parishes<br>
3. Schools<br>
4. Universities and Colleges<br>
5. Hospitals and Health Care Centres<br>
6. Businesses and Agriculture / Farms<br>
7. Religious Orders.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://socialjustice.catholic.org.au/2020/05/22/laudato-si-action-platform/">https://socialjustice.catholic.org.au/2020/05/22/laudato-si-action-platform/</a><br>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
[clips from InsideClimateNews]<br>
<b>Five Years After Speaking Out on Climate Change, Pope Francis
Sounds an Urgent Alarm</b><br>
The encyclical 'Laudato Si' motivated many people to take action on
global warming, but governments, the pope said, have lagged far
behind.<br>
BY JAMES BRUGGERS - AUG 7, 2020..<br>
- -<br>
This summer, the Vatican announced the "Laudato Si' Action
Platform." It asks Catholics and Catholic institutions to achieve
sustainability within seven years. <br>
<br>
The Vatican itself continues to gather advice from high-level
scientists and other experts in working groups, with both climate
and Covid-19 in mind.<br>
<br>
"The Vatican is pulling expertise from all over the world to chart a
course for a post-Covid world," Tucker said. "This is a huge
commitment."<br>
<br>
<b>The Importance of Catholic Divestment</b><br>
Experts will argue over whether divestment campaigns actually
cripple the targeted industries. But to their supporters, the
campaigns hurt companies by diminishing their reputations and their
access to capital, the lifeblood of any corporation.<br>
<br>
In McKibben's mind, the Vatican's full support for divestment of
fossil fuel companies is "a big deal, since the Church is a serious
financial force."<br>
<br>
Various Catholic institutions have been divesting from fossil fuel
companies for several years, including the University of Dayton and
Georgetown University, with the pace picking up since Laudato Si',
though many still have not divested, he said.<br>
<br>
The author of more than 15 books, including The End of Nature,
published in 1989 as an early warning about global warming, McKibben
is also co-founder of the environmental group 350.org, which has run
its own divestment campaign since 2012. <br>
<br>
The environmental group counts more than 1,200 institutions and
local governments and thousands of individuals representing over $14
trillion as having pledged to divest their assets from fossil fuels,
including the Episcopal church, the Church of England, and the World
Council of Churches.<br>
<br>
S&P Global, a financial information and analysis company, has
said the movement is gaining traction, and reported a new sense of
clean-energy optimism in the market.<br>
<br>
And, the multinational oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell in its
2019 annual report described the divestment campaigns as a
significant enough risk that it felt it needed to warn investors.<br>
<br>
Divestment campaigns "could have a material adverse effect on the
price of our securities and our ability to access capital markets,"
the company disclosed. Shell also recently slashed the value of its
assets by up to $22 billion amid crashing oil prices, the global
pandemic and pressure to move away from fossil fuels.<br>
<br>
The Global Catholic Climate Movement called the new divestment
effort the first-ever endorsement of a fossil fuel divestment
campaign to come from the full Vatican and said it followed the
largest-ever announcement of divestment by faith institutions. In
May 2020, 42 institutions in 14 countries announced their commitment
to drop fossil fuels.<br>
<br>
"The more that banks and fossil fuel companies and insurance
companies see investment in fossil fuels is a losing strategy, the
more they are going to distance themselves from fossil fuel industry
projects and see them as a losing strategy in terms of finances and
risk," Wagner said. <br>
<br>
<b>Engaging Conservative Catholics </b><br>
The pope's renewed climate push this year comes as Americans face a
presidential election pitting two candidates with widely divergent
views on climate change. For nearly four years, President Donald
Trump has taken the country in the opposite direction from the
Vatican, working to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris
climate agreement, a global action to fight climate change.
Democratic challenger and former Vice President Joe Biden, a
Catholic, has embraced the encyclical, as well as a $2 trillion
clean economy jobs program and timetable to achieve net-zero carbon
emissions no later than 2050.<br>
<br>
For some Catholics, Trump's fossil-fuel agenda has provided
motivation to act on their own, said Dan Misleh, executive director
of Catholic Climate Covenant, a national nonprofit based in
Washington, D.C. that includes 19 U.S. Catholic partner institutions
and works to incorporate the encyclical's message in education and
worship. "People were saying nothing is going to happen on the
national level, so we need to act at the local and state level," he
said.<br>
<br>
The encyclical has inspired actions across the country, he said. His
organization has encouraged the creation of dozens of so-called
Creation Care Teams to lead community action. It has started
Catholic Energies, focused on solar power and energy efficiency. And
it is encouraging advocacy in state capitals and Washington, D.C.
"It's made a difference and it's continued to unfold," Misleh said.<br>
<br>
The Atlanta climate action plan has been or is being used as a point
of reference for climate plans at the Archdiocese of Washington,
D.C., where Archbishop Gregory now serves, and at dioceses in
Boston, Columbus, Minneapolis, San Diego and elsewhere, Misleh and
other Catholic leaders said.<br>
<br>
But they acknowledged that there have been some dioceses and
parishes less willing to embrace the climate fight due to competing
priorities or resistance on political grounds. The Pew Research
Center finds that Catholics are evenly split between Republicans and
Democrats and polarized, generally. <br>
<br>
Still, Misleh and other Catholics who are deeply concerned about
climate change don't hesitate to engage Catholic conservatives who
oppose abortion and reject the urgency to act on climate--a position
not uncommon among Republicans.<br>
<br>
"One cannot be concerned about the unborn and not be concerned about
the world in which they are born into," said Michael Terrien, who
works on climate issues with the Archdiocese of Chicago, which
serves 2.2 million Catholics.<br>
<br>
In Atlanta, the climate action plan Varmaloff helped write directly
replies to the suggestion that the encyclical runs counter to
business, a common refrain in the South. Business is a "noble
vocation," the plan says, but it adds that Francis is asking for "is
a future in which 'all people can prosper personally and
economically in harmony with the gifts God has given us in nature.'"<br>
<br>
The Atlanta Archdiocese has been able to perform or schedule energy
audits on about two dozen of its 103 parishes so far. St. Mary's
Catholic School in Rome, Georgia, for example, has 1,500 new
energy-saving LED lights, cutting gym energy use in half, said Brian
J. Savoie, the archdiocese sustainability program coordinator.<br>
<br>
He said he has a simple message as he works with the parishes on
energy efficiency: "Stop wasting, save money and fix the
environmental burden."<br>
<br>
Spending less on heating, air conditioning and lighting leaves more
money to go toward social justice work, like feeding and clothing
the poor, said Kat Doyle, who heads up the Laudato Si' initiative
for the Atlanta Archdiocese.<br>
<br>
"We want to tie all of this climate and energy work into how we are
serving the least among us," she said. "We have to change hearts
first, then we have to change minds, and then we have to change
behaviors." <br>
<br>
And, she said, Catholics must answer the question, "What does our
faith call us to do?"<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06082020/climate-change-pope-francis">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06082020/climate-change-pope-francis</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Popular Science fundamentals]<br>
<b>This worst-case climate scenario might be the most realistic</b><br>
Climate scientists are still debating what's the most likely
outcome, though none of them are looking good.<br>
By Ula Chrobak - August 7, 2020<br>
With news every day of environmental protections being stripped
away, hotter summers, more powerful storms, and biodiversity in
crisis, it's perhaps easy to assume we're on a dangerous path for
climate change. However, among climate scientists, there's a
surprising amount of debate around the so-called "worst-case"
scenario and whether it's fair to say we're going down that route.<br>
<br>
The technical term for this worst-case scenario is Representative
Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5. The Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change first used the RCPs in preparing their Fifth
Assessment Report, published in 2014. There are four main RCPs: 2.6,
4.5, 6.0, 8.5. The numbers represent different values for radiative
forcing, a measure of how much of the sun's energy the atmosphere
traps. Starting with 2005, the RCPs project the trajectory of
greenhouses gas into 2100. Each projection has different assumptions
about future human population, economic activity, and fossil fuel
use. <br>
<br>
All except RCP 8.5 include climate change mitigation. For that
reason, it's sometimes also called a "business-as-usual"
scenario--in which we continue to pump carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere with abandon, including by increasing coal use by about
500 percent by 2100.<br>
<br>
On Monday, Christopher Schwalm and colleagues at the Woods Hole
Research Center published a report in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences that argues we are indeed in line with RCP 8.5′s
trajectory. But other scientists argue that RCP 8.5 doesn't provide
an accurate picture of what's happening now, and is especially
unlikely as a future scenario moving into 2100.<br>
<br>
Schwalm found that, since the RCPs were developed, we've been
closest to that worst-case pathway. For the past 15 years, our
greenhouse gas emissions have tracked most closely with those
projected under RCP 8.5. "It was designed to track the high end of
what might be plausible," says Schwalm. But it appears to match
what's happened since then and into the near future. "It is a very
good characterization of where we are going to be if current trends
are simply extrapolated out forward in time … And it tracks
historical emissions within 1 percent."<br>
<br>
Schwalm and his team also considered where we might be heading.
Putting together historical emissions, energy-related emissions
forecasts created by the International Energy Agency, and policy
commitments by countries, they projected where we might end up in
2030 and 2050. That pathway, it seems, is somewhere between the
emissions of RCP 4.5 and 8.5. The authors argue that if you consider
some of the factors the RCPs don't include--including complex
feedback loops like permafrost degradation that will probably result
in greater emissions--it's best to plan for an RCP 8.5 world. <br>
<br>
Schalm thinks that, considering how close we are to matching the RCP
8.5 path now and into the next couple decades, it's worth using it
as a tool in planning. If you're building a dam today that needs to
sustain the impacts of a warmer climate, it may be wise to consider
what an RCP 8.5 world will do to the intensity of storms in 2050
just in case. "The overall terms of the debate, in terms of trying
to understand what a useful scenario is, really have to be much more
focused on the near term as opposed to the end of the century," says
Schwalm. "That is much more important, both from a policy standpoint
and just from a standpoint of human relatability, than some
technical discussion about the level of coal use that may or may not
happen 80 years from now."<br>
<br>
Not all climate scientists agree with Schwalm. Some, including Zeke
Hausfather, director of climate and energy at the Breakthrough
Institute, have issues with describing RCP 8.5 as similar to our
current track because its underlying assumptions about energy use
don't match reality. For example, it projected that the world will
use five times as much coal as it did in 2005, due to a growing
population and weak market for alternative energy. As Hausfather
explains, global coal use peaked in 2013 and the especially-dirty
fossil fuel seems to be slowly losing steam. Although our emissions
on the surface are similar to the 8.5 track right now, we've already
started moving away from it's assumptions on fossil fuels. <br>
<br>
Hausfather says that framing this climate scenario as the one we're
on track for is misleading. He says that RCP 8.5 way underestimates
emissions that rise from changing land uses (think, a forest being
chopped down for use in agriculture), and conversely overestimates
energy emissions. Therefore, while total emissions so far match the
worst-case projection, it's not because we've been burning fossil
fuels at quite the rate projected by RCP 8.5. As Hausfather put it,
"It's the right answer for the wrong reason."<br>
<br>
The RCPs were formulated in 2005, and a lot has changed in energy
and policy since then. Experts have estimated that, based on the
policy commitments countries have made since then, we're most likely
on track to warm the planet by 3 at the end of century. RCP 8.5,
however, puts us at around 5. This is important because numerous
studies use the 8.5 trajectory to predict the resulting impacts of a
world warmed under that scenario. Hausfather thinks researchers
should use less-extreme climate scenarios than RCP 8.5 to provide a
clearer picture of what we're potentially in store for. <br>
<br>
Where the two scientists agree is that we should not just throw away
this worst-case pathway. As Hausfather explains, there are certainly
scenarios in which we could reach an RCP 8.5 level of warming by
2100, or at least close to it. And it's probably best not to ignore
a worst-case scenario with something as profoundly impactful as
climate change. <br>
<br>
Adding another dimension to the RCP projections could help. As part
of its next assessment, the IPCC has developed Shared Socioeconomic
Pathways, or SSPs, which interact with the RCP scenarios to
influence the pathways of our emissions. For example, in a world of
"resurgent nationalism," as one SSP describes, countries may fail to
cooperate on climate agreements, and spiral toward a future of 4
warming in 2100. Considering these SSPs, which also include
information about land use change, will help scientists make better
predictions.<br>
<br>
Even as climate scientists improve these projections, though their
main message hasn't shifted much over the decades. "The overall
narrative that was articulated some 30, 40 years ago, is really the
exact same one that we have today, which is we have to wean
ourselves off of fossil fuels," says Schwalm. "And the sooner we do
that, the better."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.popsci.com/story/environment/worst-case-climate-scenario-realistic/">https://www.popsci.com/story/environment/worst-case-climate-scenario-realistic/</a><br>
<br>
- - <br>
<p> </p>
[Source material]<br>
<b>RCP8.5 tracks cumulative CO2 emissions</b><br>
<blockquote><b>Abstract</b><br>
Climate simulation-based scenarios are routinely used to
characterize a range of plausible climate futures. Despite some
recent progress on bending the emissions curve, RCP8.5, the most
aggressive scenario in assumed fossil fuel use for global climate
models, will continue to serve as a useful tool for quantifying
physical climate risk, especially over near- to midterm
policy-relevant time horizons. Not only are the emissions
consistent with RCP8.5 in close agreement with historical total
cumulative CO2 emissions (within 1%), but RCP8.5 is also the best
match out to midcentury under current and stated policies with
still highly plausible levels of CO2 emissions in 2100.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/07/30/2007117117">https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/07/30/2007117117</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[6 min video report explains it well]<br>
<b>Melting arctic ice fuels climate change and extreme weather
events | DW News</b><br>
Aug 7, 2020<br>
DW News<br>
Global climate change is perhaps most clearly visible at the cold
top and bottom of the globe. The arctic has been warming up for
years - and now, the warnings of experts and scientists are clear
for everyone to see - the poles are melting. <br>
As the differences in temperature between the poles and the equatore
reduce, the jetstream winds, which move weather around the globe -
are slowing down. The result - extreme weather. High- and low
pressure systems remain at the same spot for longer, creating floods
and droughts.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjhj7lEVFZU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjhj7lEVFZU</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p> </p>
<br>
[Rains explained on the West Coast]<br>
<b>Extreme atmospheric rivers: what will California's strongest
storms look like in a warming climate?</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://weatherwest.com/archives/7364">https://weatherwest.com/archives/7364</a><br>
[Twitter]<br>
<b>THE CLIMATE GROUP'S TOP 100 TWITTER ACCOUNTS 2020</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.climateweeknyc.org/climate-groups-top-100-twitter-accounts-2020">https://www.climateweeknyc.org/climate-groups-top-100-twitter-accounts-2020</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
August 9, 2010 </b></font><br>
August 9, 2010: NASA scientist Jay Zwally appears on MSNBC's
"Countdown with Keith Olbermann" to discuss Greenland's ice melt
and the political dysfunction that has prevented legislative action
on climate change in the US.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/5vmupjRkgmU">http://youtu.be/5vmupjRkgmU</a><br>
<p>/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/</p>
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