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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>January 3, 2021</b></font></i> <br>
</p>
[Senator Whitehouse visits Georgia]<br>
<b>Where Georgia Senate runoff candidates stand on climate issues --
and one Senator's big concern</b><br>
Mary Landers - Savannah Morning News<br>
<br>
Over the weeks leading up to the two Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, the
Georgia coast has been the focus of one U.S. Senator's interest and
activity. <br>
<br>
That Senator is not from the Peach State.<br>
<br>
He's Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island. Whitehouse has been
a champion of climate change awareness and action, addressing the
issue close to 300 times in speeches on the Senate floor.<br>
<br>
The Democrat toured the Georgia coast in 2014 and came back in
November and December to meet with coastal residents and nonprofits
working on the issue ahead of the Senate runoff on Tuesday.<br>
<br>
"Rhode Island and Georgia have a very important, common threat,
which is rising seas, driven by fossil fuel emissions," he said
Monday in an interview at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center.
"And worsening storms coming across those rising seas, also driven
by fossil fuel emissions. And those two dangers are creating
significant new risks for all of our coasts. But in order to protect
Rhode Island coasts, I need allies who will protect their own
coasts. So that's why I have come to Georgia."<br>
Honoring a Senate convention of keeping private conversations
private, Whitehouse declined to say what he's heard directly from
Sen. Kelly Loeffler or Sen. David Perdue about climate action. <br>
<br>
"Let's just say if I had gotten much interest or positive feedback
or had seen any effort I wouldn't be here," he said.<br>
Like Georgia, Rhode Island has about 100 miles of coastline. Unlike
Georgia, however, Rhode Island's tiny overall size means residents
are never more than about an hour's drive from the ocean. With
Georgia's population center more like four hours from the beach,
climate change and sea level rise remain backburner issues at best
for many Georgia politicians, even though Georgia has seen 10 inches
of sea level rise since 1935 and scientists predict another 1 to 6
feet of it before 2100. <br>
"Here we are in Tybee Island. And everybody knows that the road
floods," Whitehouse said. "You drive by a sign on the highway at the
Georgia Department of Transportation put up that says road may
flood, that the road may be underwater at high tide. So people along
the coasts understand the problem. What is different I think, is
that Rhode Island at the government level, the state government
level and at the federal delegation level, has taken this on as a
real priority. And voices of coastal Georgians don't seem to be
affecting much behavior at the state or federal level."<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>Perdue v. Ossoff</b><br>
Climate and sea level rise haven't been a major focus of either
runoff race.<br>
<br>
Even though Perdue owns a $1.3 million home not far from the water
on exclusive Sea Island, the sitting senator's campaign website
doesn't mention climate change. He earned a lifetime score of 3%
from the League of Conservation Voters based on his voting record.
<br>
<br>
When the issue of climate came up in the Atlanta Press Club debate
with Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff on Oct. 12 Perdue said, "we can
all agree the climate is changing." He didn't offer solutions but
criticized Ossoff and linked him to the Green New Deal.<br>
<br>
Perdue's campaign reiterated that criticism in a written statement
sent to the Savannah Morning News on Thursday.<br>
"Having grown up working on a farm in Middle Georgia, Senator Perdue
knows the value of being a good steward of our earth and resources.
Senator Perdue knows the importance of Georgia's coastal communities
in protecting our environment, he was proud to cosponsor legislation
like the Save our Seas 2.0 Act for that purpose," Communications
Director John Burke wrote.<br>
<br>
"He believes that we must continue President Trump's work to make
America a leader in all clean energy technologies from wind and
solar, to nuclear, to clean fossil fuels. This means we must use a
free market approach with more innovation and less regulation. This
does not mean we should impose socialist schemes like the Green New
Deal, which the Senator's opponent Jon Ossoff supports, that would
cost thousands of jobs, raise taxes, and do nothing to accomplish
its purported goal of helping our environment." <br>
Ossoff affirmed Thursday he does not support the Green New Deal. In
a phone interview Ossoff said he sees climate change as a "direct
threat to prosperity and health on Georgia's coast." <br>
<br>
"And it's not just a looming threat, it's already taking a toll.
We're already seeing impacts on aquaculture and fisheries and the
shrimping industry," Ossoff said. "We're already seeing damage to
Georgia's barrier islands and erosion of coastal features, damage to
marshlands. We're already seeing coastal cities, towns and
settlements having to invest in mitigation as storm surge and high
wind events become more frequent and severe.<br>
<br>
"The warming of the oceans is already causing tropical storms to
become more frequent and more severe, and that means more flooding,
more wind damage, and it means more damage to inland agriculture as
well."<br>
<br>
He said he would address climate change at its root, with energy
production.<br>
"The solution is to transition to energy production that does not
emit carbon pollution," Ossoff said. "And the path to that future is
massive investment in clean energy research and development and
clean energy generation. And I want Georgia to be the number one
producer of clean energy in the American South and for the United
States to be the number one producer of clean energy in the world.<br>
<br>
"And this is a great economic opportunity for our state. We have
abundant sunshine. We can create tens of thousands of good paying
jobs with benefits in the clean energy sector."<br>
<b>Loeffler v. Warnock</b><br>
The Rev. Raphael Warnock, running against Loeffler, has also not
endorsed the Green New Deal, but sees a need to act on climate
change issues, especially in coastal cities like Savannah, where he
grew up.<br>
<br>
"Unlike his opponent, Reverend Warnock has acknowledged the climate
crisis and the urgent need for action," Ralph Jones, strategic
communications director for the campaign said in a telephone
interview Thursday. "He actually speaks at length on this, about
climate change as a moral issue that he believes that we can act on
with good policy. It's notable that that policy consensus already
exists among Americans."<br>
<br>
A Pew Research Center study from April reported that a majority of
Americans think the federal government is doing too little to reduce
the effects of global climate change.<br>
<br>
"In Georgia, this means protecting Georgia's coastline from rising
sea levels, investing in climate science and provide resources for
frontline communities most affected by climate change," Jones said.<br>
At a campaign stop at a south side parking lot in Savannah on
Wednesday, Loeffler cited her support of the Great American Outdoors
Act as evidence of action she's taken on climate change. The bill,
which passed with bipartisan support that included every Democratic
senator, is considered a victory for the environment, mainly for the
funding it provides to restore and maintain national parks and other
federal land. <br>
<br>
The Natural Resources Defense Fund indicated that funding would
assist in several climate goals like keeping forests intact to
sequester carbon preserve wetlands which can buffer communities from
the more intense storms expected as the climate changes.<br>
<br>
Like President Donald Trump, Loeffler pivots to "clean" air and
water and to the economy when asked about climate change.<br>
"Look, I grew up on a farm, I know the importance of clean air and
clean water, and we have to protect our environment," she said. "But
we can't do it at the expense of hardworking Georgians. We can't
solve the problems that China creates with hardworking Georgians'
funds. We know that would cost every Georgia family $75,000 to fund
the Green New Deal. And so we have to strike that balance with being
responsible. And one of the things that I learned in the private
sector is they are working hard to solve problems in in our economy,
including environmental issues."<br>
Loeffler said the efforts to attain clean air and water are
multi-faceted.<br>
<br>
"Look, clean has many metrics, and we have to look at any number of
metrics," she said. "Clean water, clean air, those are fundamental,
and certainly initiatives, you know, that's being solved in the
private sector, too. So we have to look at the entire spectrum of
options here to help protect our environment but also to protect our
economy and jobs."<br>
<br>
A win for both Democrats would allow their party to set the agenda
on climate in the Senate, Whitehouse said. <br>
<br>
"And that means that we can have a conversation and with any luck,
some action on the underlying problem that is causing this whole
mess, which is the emissions from our fossil fuel burning,"
Whitehouse said. "And once we can force the question, we can then
explore what the bipartisan solutions are. But if Mitch McConnell
remains, as has been his practice, as a human blockade against any
serious climate legislation coming to the floor, then we're stuck."<br>
<br>
Mary Landers is the environment and health reporter at the Savannah
Morning News. Contact her at 912-655-8295. Twitter: @MaryLandersSMN<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.savannahnow.com/story/news/2021/01/01/what-georgia-senate-candidates-say-coastal-georgia-sea-level-rise/4080717001/">https://www.savannahnow.com/story/news/2021/01/01/what-georgia-senate-candidates-say-coastal-georgia-sea-level-rise/4080717001/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[important book review]<br>
<b>A resolution for 2021: Be a better ancestor</b><br>
By Kate Yoder on Dec 30, 2020<br>
Who needs the arrow of time, anyway? Roman Krznaric, an author and
philosopher, is in search of unconventional ways of thinking about
time, ones that aren’t tied directly to the clocks ticking all
around us. In one exercise, he imagines his young daughter as a
90-year-old, cradling her first great-granddaughter in her arms.<br>
<br>
“I look at her face, her old face, and I walk over to the window and
look at the world outside, and see what kind of world that is,” he
said. “I think of my daughter, or her great-grandchild, living well
into the 22nd century — a time which is not science fiction, but an
intimate family fact.”<br>
<br>
It’s a sobering experiment for Krznaric, who, like a lot of us, has
a “pretty dark” vision of the future. But most people don’t lose
sleep over the fate of people who aren’t alive yet. More pressing
concerns — the global pandemic, for example — have lodged themselves
into our anxious brainspaces. The people of the future are merely
hazy abstractions. But billions of real people will likely be born
in the coming centuries, and depending on what we do next, they
might be very disappointed with us. “Empathising with future
generations may be one of the greatest of all moral challenges,”
Krznaric writes in his recent book,<b> The Good Ancestor: A Radical
Prescription for Long-Term Thinking.</b><br>
<br>
A broad, loose movement offering a new way of thinking about time
has emerged in the last decade or so. Its goal is to preserve the
Earth for its future inhabitants. Krznaric calls this a “time
rebellion” in The Good Ancestor. These “time rebels” include the
plaintiffs of youth climate lawsuits, who demand legal rights to a
stable climate; the global climate strike movement founded by
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, which inspired millions of young
people to skip class to call for climate action in the streets; and
various artists, economists, and entrepreneurs who embrace “deep
time” — the concept of expanding our temporal imagination to
encompass geologic and cosmic timescales, from the fossil fuel
record to the unfathomable expanse of the distant future.<br>
<br>
Deep time is an antidote to the shortsightedness that has made
governments so reluctant to act boldly to address the climate
crisis. After all, the worst effects of our overheating planet will
occur in the future, not the present. In his book, Krznaric looks to
indigenous traditions, artistic projects, and new philosophies that
seek to overcome this empathy barrier and fold the future into
present concerns. One way to do this is by prompting people to think
about the legacies they will leave, as Krznaric did when he imagined
his daughter as a nonagenarian.<br>
<br>
“What I’ve found is that the language of legacy seems to motivate
people across different social realms with different backgrounds,”
he said. (A small study from 2015 found that prompting people to
think about how they’ll be remembered made them more likely to
support personal and political action to cut carbon emissions.)<br>
<br>
Krznaric has been interested in these questions for more than a
decade. In a 2008 report, he argued that empathy is the most
powerful tool we have to motivate people to take action on the
climate crisis, an idea echoed in his 2014 book Empathy: Why It
Matters, and How to Get It.<br>
<br>
As Jamil Zaki, a professor of psychology at Stanford, writes in The
War on Kindness, empathy is not a fixed trait: It’s a muscle that
can be stretched and strengthened. With the new year just days away,
it’s a good time to reflect on your legacy and how to be kinder to
Earth’s inhabitants-to-be. If you want to try to be a better
ancestor in 2021, here are a few ideas from Krznaric’s new book.
“The path of the good ancestor lies before us,” he writes. “It is
our choice whether or not to take it.”<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>Think about the seventh generation</b><br>
Imagine if every time a politician made a decision, they considered
what it would mean for the well-being of people who will live 200
years from now, rather than worrying about what it’ll take to win
the next election. It’s contrary to a lot of decision-making in the
United States, but this kind of long-term thinking is a tradition in
many indigenous cultures around the world, Krznaric writes. The
Māori — the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand — have a
concept called whakapapa (akin to “genealogy”), an expression
describing a long, unbroken chain of humanity that connects the
deceased, the living, and the yet-to-be-born.<br>
<br>
Native cultures are full of cautionary tales about the long-term
consequences of taking too much, writes Robin Wall Kimmerer, a
biologist and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, in the book
Braiding Sweetgrass. These principles — called the Honorable Harvest
— “govern our taking, shape our relationships with the natural
world, and rein in our tendency to consume — that the world might be
as rich for the seventh generation as it is for our own,” Kimmerer
writes.<br>
<br>
In the last couple of decades, “seventh-generation thinking” has
been adopted in sustainability circles. One of the goals of the
global youth organization Earth Guardians is to “protect our planet
and its people for the next seven generations.” In a 2008 speech,
the Nobel Prize-winning economist Elinor Ostrom raised the question
of how to preserve resources for the future, saying, “I think we
should all reinstate in our mind the seven-generation rule.” You
might have even seen a nod to this idea in the dish soap aisle: The
Vermont-based cleaning product company Seventh Generation was
founded on this same principle.<br>
<br>
<b>Pretend you’re living in 2060</b><br>
The idea of the seventh generation also inspired a Japanese
political movement called “Future Design.” From small towns like
Yahaba to major cities like Kyoto, Japanese cities have instituted
an unusual type of city-planning meeting. One group of citizens at
the meeting advocates for current residents, while another group
dons special ceremonial robes and conceives itself as “future
residents” from 2060. Studies have shown that these future residents
advocate for more transformative changes in urban planning,
especially around health and environmental action.<br>
<br>
Ultimately, Krznaric writes, the movement wants to establish a
“Ministry of the Future” for the central government in addition to
local ones. It’s a growing trend: Over the past 30 years, Finland,
Hungary, Malta, Tunisia, Sweden, Wales, and the United Arab Emirates
have all created positions, committees, councils, or commissions
that advocate for future generations’ interests.<br>
<br>
<b>Give a gift to future generations</b><br>
Six years ago, Scottish artist Katie Paterson created the Future
Library, a century-long art project. Each year, a famous writer (the
first two were Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell) donates a new
work to the project — one that no one else has ever read. At the end
of the project, in 2114, the 100 books will be printed on paper from
a forest outside Oslo that’s been planted for this express purpose,
to be enjoyed by the readers of the 22nd century.<br>
<br>
Another project, the website DearTomorrow, allows you to write a
letter to someone of your choosing — your child, perhaps, or your
future self — to be delivered in the year 2050. The project was
started by Kubit and Trisha Shrum, two alums of the Grist 50. The
founders say that DearTomorrow is meant to close the gap between the
far-off years referenced in climate reports (2050 is a common one)
and make a personal connection to the future.<br>
<br>
Krznaric says that an “intergenerational Golden Rule” drives these
kinds of projects: a “basic empathic principle” that we should treat
others as we’d want to be treated, including people who might be
distant from us in space and time.<br>
<br>
“When you think about the legacies we’ve inherited from the past,
some of those are very positive legacies,” Krznaric said. “We are
the beneficiaries of the people who planted the first seeds in
Mesopotamia 10,000 years ago, who built the cities we live in, and
who made the medical discoveries we benefit from. But we also are
the inheritors of colonialism, slavery, and racism…. So do we want
to pass on that stuff as well? No! Let’s pass on a different legacy
to the next generation.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://grist.org/climate/a-resolution-for-2021-be-a-better-ancestor/">https://grist.org/climate/a-resolution-for-2021-be-a-better-ancestor/</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
[buy or ask your library]<br>
<b>The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long-Term Thinking</b><br>
Hardcover – November 3, 2020<br>
by Roman Krznaric (Author)<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.amazon.com/Good-Ancestor-Think-Long-Term-Short-Term/dp/1615197303/ref=sr_1_1">https://www.amazon.com/Good-Ancestor-Think-Long-Term-Short-Term/dp/1615197303/ref=sr_1_1</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[because we're ready to change]<br>
<b>Why 2021 could be turning point for tackling climate change</b><br>
By Justin Rowlatt - Chief environment correspondent<br>
Countries only have only a limited time in which to act if the world
is to stave off the worst effects of climate change. Here are five
reasons why 2021 could be a crucial year in the fight against global
warming.<br>
<br>
Covid-19 was the big issue of 2020, there is no question about that.<br>
<br>
But I'm hoping that, by the end of 2021, the vaccines will have
kicked in and we'll be talking more about climate than the
coronavirus.<br>
<br>
2021 will certainly be a crunch year for tackling climate change.<br>
<br>
Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, told me he thinks it is
a "make or break" moment for the issue.<br>
<br>
So, in the spirit of New Year's optimism, here's why I believe 2021
could confound the doomsters and see a breakthrough in global
ambition on climate.<br>
<br>
Have countries kept their climate change promises?<br>
Snowy UK winters could become thing of the past<br>
How hot could it get where you live?<br>
<b>1. The crucial climate conference</b><br>
In November 2021, world leaders will be gathering in Glasgow for the
successor to the landmark Paris meeting of 2015.<br>
<br>
Paris was important because it was the first time virtually all the
nations of the world came together to agree they all needed to help
tackle the issue....<br>
- -<br>
<b>2. Countries are already signing up to deep carbon cuts</b><br>
And there has already been progress.<br>
<br>
The most important announcement on climate change last year came
completely out of the blue.<br>
<br>
At the UN General Assembly in September, the Chinese President, Xi
Jinping, announced that China aimed to go carbon neutral by 2060...<br>
- - <br>
<b>3. Renewables are now the cheapest energy ever</b><br>
There is a good reason why so many countries are now saying they
plan to go net zero: the collapsing cost of renewables is completely
changing the calculus of decarbonisation.<br>
<br>
In October 2020, the International Energy Agency, an
intergovernmental organisation, concluded that the best solar power
schemes now offer "the cheapest source of electricity in history".<br>
<br>
Renewables are already often cheaper than fossil fuel power in much
of the world when it comes to building new power stations... <br>
- - <br>
<b>4. Covid changes everything</b><br>
The coronavirus pandemic has shaken our sense of invulnerability and
reminded us that it is possible for our world to be upended in ways
we cannot control.<br>
<br>
It has also delivered the most significant economic shock since the
Great Depression.<br>
<br>
In response, governments are stepping forward with stimulus packages
designed to reboot their economies...<br>
- -<br>
<b>5. Business is going green too</b><br>
The falling cost of renewable and the growing public pressure for
action on climate is also transforming attitudes in business.<br>
<br>
There are sound financial reasons for this. Why invest in new oil
wells or coal power stations that will become obsolete before they
can repay themselves over their 20-30-year life?<br>
<br>
Indeed, why carry carbon risk in their portfolios at all?...<br>
- -<br>
The truth is lots of countries have expressed lofty ambitions for
cutting carbon but few have yet got strategies in place to meet
those goals.<br>
<br>
The challenge for Glasgow will be getting the nations of the world
to sign up to policies that will start reducing emissions now. The
UN says it wants to see coal phased out completely, an end to all
fossil fuel subsidies and a global coalition to reach net zero by
2050.<br>
<br>
That remains a very tall order, even if global sentiments on
tackling global warming are beginning to change.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55498657">https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55498657</a><br>
<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 -
January 3, 2011 </b></font><br>
<br>
Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly notes that<br>
Republican presidential candidates who now try to deny the existence<br>
of human-caused climate change will have to figure out a way to<br>
rewrite history:<br>
<blockquote>"Yes, in Republican circles in 2011, those who don't
reject the<br>
scientific consensus on the climate crisis will be rejected out of<br>
hand. Those who've been even somewhat reasonable on the issue in<br>
recent years should expect to grovel shamelessly -- a trait that's<br>
always attractive in presidential candidates.<br>
<br>
"The number of likely GOP candidates who've actually said out loud<br>
that the planet is warming and that human activity is responsible
is,<br>
oddly enough, larger than the number of consistent climate
deniers.<br>
Sarah Palin has said pollution contributes to global warming and<br>
'we've got to do something about it.' Romney has said he believes
the<br>
planet is warming and at least used to support cap-and-trade.
Huckabee<br>
and Pawlenty have backed cap-and-trade -- which was, originally, a<br>
Republican idea, by the way -- in recent years. Even Newt Gingrich<br>
used to demand 'action to address climate change,' and
participated<br>
briefly with Al Gore's Repower America campaign.<br>
<br>
"This wasn't a problem up until very recently. John McCain's 2008<br>
presidential platform not only acknowledged climate change, it<br>
included a call for a cap-and-trade plan -- and he won the
nomination<br>
fairly easily. As recently as 2006, rank-and-file Republican
voters,<br>
by and large, believed what the mainstream believed when it came
to<br>
climate science: global warming is real, it's a problem, and it<br>
requires attention.<br>
<br>
"But that was before the GOP fell off the right-wing cliff."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_01/027356.php">http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_01/027356.php</a><br>
<br>
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