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<i><font size="+1"><b>December 21, 2020</b></font></i>
<p>[video and text from CNBC - disinformation battles,
misinformation wars]<br>
<b>The money funding climate change denial</b><br>
PUBLISHED SUN, DEC 20 2020<br>
<b>Why climate change denial still exists in the U.S. </b><a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/12/20/why-climate-change-denial-still-exists-in-the-us.html">https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/12/20/why-climate-change-denial-still-exists-in-the-us.html</a><br>
<br>
Despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, some
American politicians continue to deny that climate change exists,
while others question the severity of its impact. And among the
general public, climate change denial is higher in the U.S. today
than almost anywhere else in the world.<br>
<br>
This is largely the result of the oil and gas industry’s financial
interests colliding with a powerful libertarian strain in U.S.
politics. Fossil fuel companies, hoping to prolong the world’s
reliance on their products, have made common cause with
conservative and libertarian think tanks that promote free market
economics, and therefore oppose fossil fuel regulation on
ideological grounds.<br>
<br>
This combination of money and deep-seated ideology has helped
prevent the U.S. from taking bolder climate action for decades.
But public opinion is shifting, and today even oil and gas
companies publicly admit that climate change is a serious problem.<br>
<br>
So as the public and corporations change, what does the climate
denial landscape look like today? Who exactly still funds this
movement? And why is denial mainly a U.S. problem?<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/20/the-big-business-of-climate-change-denial-.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/20/the-big-business-of-climate-change-denial-.html</a>
</p>
<p>- - <br>
</p>
[20 min video explains]<br>
<b>Why Climate Change Denial Still Exists In The U.S.</b><br>
Dec 20, 2020<br>
CNBC<br>
Despite overwhelming scientific evidence, some American politicians
continue to deny that climate change exists, while others question
the severity of its impact. But public opinion is shifting, and
today even oil and gas companies publicly admit that climate change
demands action. So why does climate denialism continue to influence
U.S. politics? Here's a look into who is funding the movement, and
why denial is mainly a U.S. problem.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1rxv1yPQrc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1rxv1yPQrc</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Journal STAT pediatrics]<br>
<b>New pediatrician network puts spotlight on climate change’s
effects on children</b><br>
By SHRADDHA CHAKRADHAR @scchak DECEMBER 18, 2020<br>
As the effects of climate change play out worldwide, pediatricians
see the evidence in their offices.<br>
<br>
There are the children with asthma who experience more frequent
attacks as a result of excess heat and longer allergy seasons. And
then there are kids who have missed vaccinations or other routine
care because more frequent hurricanes or other natural disasters
have displaced their families.<br>
<br>
Now a new network of pediatricians nationwide is working on a
grassroots effort to raise awareness of the effects of climate
change on children’s health. Pediatricians participating in the
all-volunteer initiative, known as American Academy of Pediatrics’
Chapter Climate Advocates Program, told STAT that the impact is
clear, and will become more serious.<br>
<br>
Just this week, in a historic ruling, a coroner in the U.K.
announced that a 9-year-old girl’s death was the first in the
country in which air pollution — which can be made worse by climate
change — was listed as a cause. The girl, who lived close to a major
circular road in London, had a series of seizures, asthma attacks,
and other complications in the years leading to her death in 2013.<br>
<br>
“AAP advocates underscore the idea that if only every parent in
America knew that climate action was essential to the well-being of
their child and family, we would have no political discourse, no
debates about the science, no concerns about the course of action,”
said Aaron Bernstein, a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital
and interim director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the
Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
“The AAP deserves a lot of credit for backing them and enabling this
network.”<br>
<br>
The network — whose work extends beyond a medical setting and
includes lobbying for local laws to combat a warming planet — is the
brainchild of Lori Byron, a semi-retired pediatrician in Harding,
Mont., who said heavy flooding in the state in 2011 was really the
turning point for her advocacy on climate change’s impact on health.<br>
<br>
At the time she was working as a general pediatrician under the
Indian Health Service on the Crow Tribe reservation. “There were
people that had been just barely making it just living on the edge,
with minimum-wage jobs and not much money to spare,” she said.<br>
<br>
But when the floods hit, Byron said, “it took away everything.” Even
years after the floods, “we still had families that were living in
FEMA trailers or living in the spare bedroom of somebody’s house or
even living in their car. And it just hits you, the environmental
injustice of the whole situation.”<br>
<br>
Your home situation is one of the most important social determinants
of health, Byron explained, so when that is threatened by floods or
other disasters, that “is a huge factor for parents’ health and
children’s health.”<br>
<br>
After doing climate advocacy work in Washington, D.C., Byron said
she realized that local groups — as constituents — seemed to have
more sway with lawmakers than national groups, and wondered if local
AAP chapters, who were already lobbying on behalf of children’s
health issues, could be leveraged to also become involved in climate
advocacy. In 2018, the AAP chapter in Montana became the first to
adopt a climate change resolution in the country, and she began
pushing for a broader network of climate advocates in AAP chapters
across the country.<br>
<br>
“Lori has been an incredible leader of convening and identifying
these chapter advocates — climate change reform does need to happen
in multiple contexts and health advocates are important for that,”
said Aparna Bole, a pediatrician at Case Western Reserve University
in Cleveland, Ohio and a fellow AAP chapter climate advocate.<br>
<br>
The network now has at least 101 chapter climate advocates — with at
least one for each state — across 59 AAP chapters, many of whom had
long been active in climate change advocacy. Several of the chapters
have adopted climate resolutions, which acknowledge and outline the
impact of climate change on children’s health, and others are in the
process of passing similar measures.<br>
<br>
The chapters vary in their makeup and the work that they do. Some
have academic researchers in addition to practicing physicians. And
what each chapter undertakes depends on the unique environmental
challenges facing their local communities.<br>
<br>
In Virginia, for example, a recent report from a partner
organization known as the Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action
found that pollution from transportation causes 2,600 asthma attacks
in children per year, and more than 3,300 cases of bronchitis and
related symptoms in kids. Samantha Ahdoot, a pediatrician in
Alexandria, Va., and one of the state’s AAP chapter climate
advocates, said pushing to reform the transportation system is a top
priority, while there are also critical issues along the coast.<br>
<br>
“Virginia’s coastal communities are experiencing the highest rate of
sea rise along the eastern seaboard,” she said.<br>
<br>
Earlier this year, Virginia became the first state in the South to
pass a law committing to have all of its electricity come from
renewable sources by 2045, a law that the local AAP chapter lobbied
for. The group also plans to lobby in the upcoming state legislative
session for Virginia to adopt California’s low-emission and
greenhouse gas emission standards, which at least a dozen other
states have done.<br>
<br>
“There’s no controversy that burning fossil fuels has health
effects, and clearly policies that dictate the use of these fuels
also have to have a health aspect,” Ahdoot said.<br>
<br>
Over on the West Coast, Lisa Patel, a pediatric hospitalist based in
Pleasanton, Calif., and a former Environmental Protection Agency
scientist, said that she saw in her practice this fall the health
effects of the devastating wildfires that hit the region.<br>
<br>
“It was a quiet summer, but then in September and October, I started
seeing a lot of premature labor,” she said, explaining that research
has shown that air pollution and heat are risk factors for going
into premature labor and also heighten the risk for stillbirth.
“These are women that were a month or two early in delivering their
babies.”<br>
<br>
Patel and her AAP colleagues have also been leading an effort to
make climate change-related courses available to pediatricians who
are going through their licensure recertification process through
the American Board of Pediatrics.<br>
<br>
“As doctors, it is our duty to understand all of the ways in which
our patients’ health might be harmed,” Patel said. “And the ABP and
AAP have seen the evolution of our understanding on climate change
and health in that regard.”<br>
<br>
In Ohio, air quality and extreme rainfall or snowfall can alter
water quality, according to Case Western Reserve’s Bole, especially
as toxic algal blooms and the rising water temperature of Lake Erie
in northern Ohio can cause sewage and stormwater overflow.<br>
<br>
And like other places around the U.S., extreme heat continues to be
a problem for allergies, asthma, and preterm births. “All of those
issues are not a one-time illness,” Bole said. “This is why a lot of
us say that climate solutions are health solutions.”<br>
<br>
As part of her work with the AAP climate advocacy group, Bole
testified this year in the Ohio Congress against controversial House
Bill 6. Allegations swirled that an Akron-based electric utility
company paid $60 million to a nonprofit run by the speaker of Ohio’s
House of Representatives in exchange for more than $1 billion in
bailout funds — through H.B. 6 — to help the utility company with
its struggling nuclear power wing.<br>
<br>
“It can be surprising to politicians that pediatricians want to
speak up about [energy issues], and I don’t think a politician on
either side of the aisle would say they don’t care about children’s
health,” Bole said.<br>
<br>
The AAP network has also provided an avenue for newcomers to get
involved.<br>
<br>
“Prior to joining this group, I didn’t see how connected climate
change is to health,” said Hayley Guilkey, a pediatrician in Myrtle
Beach, S.C. “It’s not something that I learned about in residency or
medical school.” Since becoming an AAP advocate, Guilkey has also
founded a statewide group for other health professionals interested
in combating climate change.<br>
<br>
Few of these advocates reported getting pushback from their
patients’ families or others asking them to “stay in their lane,” as
has happened when doctors have promoted gun control and immigration
policy reform. Even if they did face backlash, these physicians say
are ready with a response. “What can you say to a pediatrician who
sees a child suffocate in front of their eyes?” Patel said.<br>
<br>
These pediatricians also say it’s only natural that their specialty
is leading the charge on climate change.<br>
<br>
“We never think of kids in a vacuum,” Bole said. “Pediatricians are
used to thinking about kids in context about their families, homes,
and environments, and extending our purview of children beyond the
15 minutes we spend with them.”<br>
<br>
She added: “Nobody is going to bear the brunt of the effects of
climate change more than kids.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/18/new-pediatrician-network-puts-spotlight-on-climate-changes-effects-on-children/">https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/18/new-pediatrician-network-puts-spotlight-on-climate-changes-effects-on-children/</a>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
[Manual]<br>
<b>Eco distress: for parents and carers</b><br>
This webpage is for parents and carers, as well as teachers and
others who support children and young people, to help you understand
what eco distress is, how to recognise if your child is experiencing
eco distress, and provide some suggestions to help them cope with
their feelings. <br>
<blockquote>About this information<br>
This information reflects the best available evidence at the time
of writing. This mental health information for young people was
written in 2020.<br>
November 2020 Royal College of Psychiatrists<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/parents-and-young-people/information-for-parents-and-carers/eco-distress---for-parents-and-carers">https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/parents-and-young-people/information-for-parents-and-carers/eco-distress---for-parents-and-carers</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
December 21, 2013</b></font><br>
On MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry," guest host Joy Reid discusses the
ecological leadership of Pope Francis.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/watch/pope-francis-places-focus-on-environment-97805379704#">http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/watch/pope-francis-places-focus-on-environment-97805379704#</a><br>
<br>
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