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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>January 20, 2021</b></font></i> <br>
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[New POTUS]<br>
<b>Biden to 'hit ground running' as he rejoins Paris climate accords</b><br>
President-elect to block Keystone XL pipeline among other swift
environmental moves – but challenges lie ahead<br>
Joe Biden is set for a flurry of action to combat the climate crisis
on his first day as US president by immediately rejoining the Paris
climate agreement and blocking the Keystone XL pipeline, although
experts have warned lengthier, and harder, environmental battles lie
ahead in his presidency...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/19/biden-environment-paris-climate-agreement-keystone-xl-pipeline">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/19/biden-environment-paris-climate-agreement-keystone-xl-pipeline</a><br>
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[coal]<br>
<b>Court Voids a ‘Tortured’ Trump Climate Rollback</b><br>
The ruling strikes down weak rules for coal-burning power plants and
gives the Biden administration a freer hand to impose tighter
restrictions.<br>
Jan. 19, 2021, 2:13 p.m. ET<br>
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down the
Trump administration’s plan to relax restrictions on greenhouse gas
emissions from power plants, paving the way for President-elect
Joseph R. Biden Jr. to enact new and stronger restrictions on power
plants.<br>
<br>
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
called the Trump administration’s Affordable Clean Energy rule a
“fundamental misconstruction” of the nation’s environmental laws,
devised through a “tortured series of misreadings” of legal statute.<br>
<br>
On the last full day of the Trump presidency, it effectively ended
the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to weaken and
undermine climate change policies and capped a dismal string of
failures in which courts threw out one deregulation after another.
Experts have widely described the E.P.A.’s losing streak as one of
the worst legal records of the agency in modern history...<br>
- - <br>
Shortly after the election of President Trump, his E.P.A. repealed
the Clean Power Plan.<br>
<br>
Andrew Wheeler, the departing administrator of the E.P.A. and a
former coal lobbyist, replaced the plan with the weaker Affordable
Clean Energy rule, which maintained the law only allows the agency
to set guidelines to reduce emissions at individual power plants
with actions like increasing efficiency or upgrading boilers that do
not threaten an entire power sector, such as coal...<br>
- -<br>
Whether Mr. Biden will seek to again use regulation to curb power
plant emissions is still being debated. Tuesday’s ruling, legal
experts said, did not give him approval to do so, but it did give
him the leeway to try. Any new effort would certainly be challenged
by conservatives and would very likely face an uncertain future
before the Supreme Court.<br>
<br>
A spokesman for the Biden transition team did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/climate/trump-climate-change.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/climate/trump-climate-change.html</a><br>
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[SCOTUS]<b><br>
</b><b>Supreme Court Considers Baltimore Suit Against Oil Companies
Over Climate Change</b><br>
January 19, 2021<br>
REBECCA HERSHER<br>
The Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday in a case brought by
the city of Baltimore against more than a dozen major oil and gas
companies including BP, ExxonMobil and Shell. The city government
argued that the fossil fuel giants must pay for the costs of climate
change because they knew that their products cause potentially
catastrophic global warming.<br>
<br>
The Baltimore case is one of more than 20 similar suits brought by
cities, states and counties in recent years. The cases make a
variety of arguments about why fossil fuel companies bear
responsibility for the costs of climate change, including that
companies misled the public about the threat burning oil and gas
poses to the climate.<br>
<br>
The Supreme Court is considering a narrow jurisdictional question:
the Baltimore case was filed in state court, but during the
75-minute opening arguments on Tuesday, an attorney for the fossil
fuel companies contended that such cases should be tried in federal
court.<br>
<br>
"These cases have the potential to be quite powerful if they finally
see their day in court," says Karen Sokol, a law professor at Loyola
University of New Orleans who has written extensively about climate
liability cases. Sokol says state courts have a long history of
handling cases about consumer protection, including lawsuits
involving alleged corporate misinformation campaigns. If the Supreme
Court decides in Baltimore's favor, it would likely pave the way for
cases against oil and gas companies to proceed in state courts
across the country...<br>
- -<br>
But Karen Sokol of Loyola University New Orleans, who has spent much
of her career studying climate liability cases, says the new wave of
climate liability cases is different. In the last decade,
investigative reporting has revealed the extent to which companies
knew about the connection between climate change and burning fossil
fuels.<br>
<br>
Climate science has also matured. It's now possible to detect the
effects of global warming in individual weather events, including
extreme rain storms, hurricanes, droughts, heat waves and wildfires.
The connection between burning fossil fuels and specific damage from
extreme weather has never been more verifiable...<br>
- -<br>
Lastly, Sokol says, the new wave of lawsuits have a completely new
set of allegations. The first wave of cases, which included the
Connecticut case, alleged that companies were liable for greenhouse
emissions. The new wave of lawsuits allege deceptive marketing
practices by oil and gas companies that billed their products as
safe. "That's a very, very different claim," Sokol says.<br>
The Supreme Court will announce its decision later this year on the
narrow question of whether the Baltimore case should be considered
in state or federal court. If the justices decide in favor of the
companies and the case proceeds in federal court, it's possible that
the lawsuit will be eventually dismissed without a trial.<br>
<br>
However, if the justices decide in favor of Baltimore, it is likely
that the case will proceed in Maryland state court, which could
require the companies in the case to turn over vast troves of
documents about their businesses and marketing practices over the
decades.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/19/956005206/supreme-court-considers-baltimore-suit-against-oil-companies">https://www.npr.org/2021/01/19/956005206/supreme-court-considers-baltimore-suit-against-oil-companies</a><br>
- -<br>
[read the transcript]<br>
<b>IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES </b><br>
BP P.L.C., ET AL., Petitioners, <br>
v. <br>
MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, Respondent. <br>
No. 19-1189<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2020/19-1189_b97c.pdf">https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2020/19-1189_b97c.pdf</a><br>
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[part of the Davos Agenda of the World Economic Forum]<br>
<b>Climate change will be sudden and cataclysmic. We need to act
fast</b><br>
-- Tipping points could fundamentally disrupt the planet and produce
abrupt change in the climate.<br>
-- A mass methane release could put us on an irreversible path to
full land-ice melt, causing sea levels to rise by up to 30 metres.<br>
-- We must take immediate action to reduce global warming and build
resilience with these tipping points in mind.<br>
The speed and scale of the response to COVID-19 by governments,
businesses and individuals seems to provide hope that we can react
to the climate change crisis in a similarly decisive manner - but
history tells us that humans do not react to slow-moving and distant
threats. Our evolution has selected the “fight or flight” instinct
to deal with environmental change, so rather like the metaphor of
the frog in boiling water, we tend to react too little and too late
to gradual change.<br>
- -<br>
Climate change is often described as global warming, with the
implication of gradual changes caused by a steady increase in
temperatures; from heatwaves to melting glaciers.<br>
<br>
But we know from multidisciplinary scientific evidence - from
geology, anthropology and archaeology - that climate change is not
incremental. Even in pre-human times, it is episodic, when it isn’t
forced by a human-induced acceleration of greenhouse gas emissions
and warming.<br>
<br>
There are parts of our planet’s carbon cycle, the ways that the
earth and the biosphere store and release carbon, that could trigger
suddenly in response to gradual warming. These are tipping points
that once passed could fundamentally disrupt the planet and produce
abrupt, non-linear change in the climate.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/climate-change-sudden-cataclysmic-need-act-fast/">https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/climate-change-sudden-cataclysmic-need-act-fast/</a><br>
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[Ooops, from WIRED]<br>
MATT SIMON - 1.19.2021<br>
<b>The Ongoing Collapse of the World's Aquifers</b><br>
When humans over-exploit underground water supplies, the ground
collapses like a huge empty water bottle. It's called subsidence,
and it could affect 1.6 billion people by 2040.<br>
AS CALIFORNIA’S ECONOMY skyrocketed during the 20th century, its
land headed in the opposite direction. A booming agricultural
industry in the state’s San Joaquin Valley, combined with punishing
droughts, led to the over-extraction of water from aquifers. Like
huge, empty water bottles, the aquifers crumpled, a phenomenon
geologists call subsidence. By 1970, the land had sunk as much as 28
feet in the valley, with less-than-ideal consequences for the humans
and infrastructure above the aquifers.<br>
<br>
The San Joaquin Valley was geologically primed for collapse, but its
plight is not unique. All over the world—from the Netherlands to
Indonesia to Mexico City—geology is conspiring with climate change
to sink the ground under humanity’s feet. More punishing droughts
mean the increased draining of aquifers, and rising seas make
sinking land all the more vulnerable to flooding. According to a
recent study published in the journal Science, in the next two
decades, 1.6 billion people could be affected by subsidence, with
potential loses in the trillions of dollars.<br>
<br>
“Subsidence has been neglected in a lot of ways because it is slow
moving. You don't recognize it until you start seeing damage,” says
Michelle Sneed, a land subsidence specialist at the U.S. Geological
Survey and coauthor on the paper. “The land sinking itself is not a
problem. But if you're on the coast, it's a big problem. If you have
infrastructure that crosses long areas, it's a big problem. If you
have deep wells, they're collapsing because of subsidence. That's a
problem.”...<br>
- -<br>
Really, the only way humanity will be able to stave off subsidence
is to stop over-exploiting aquifers, a tall order on a rapidly
warming planet. “Aquifers will be depleted, one way or another,”
says Shirzaei. “It's not possible to ask people who are in need of
fresh water to stop using groundwater because it causes subsidence.
So the bigger picture is: What are the adaptation strategies?” That
could mean elevating buildings on lands that are subsiding and
flooding. It could mean relying more on desalinating seawater,
though that remains highly energy intensive, and therefore
expensive. Or cities might follow in the footsteps of Los Angeles,
which is modifying its streets to collect precious rainwater.<br>
<br>
At the end of the day, subsiding cities are up against unstoppable
physical forces. “Geology is geology,” says Sneed. “We can't do
anything about that.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-ongoing-collapse-of-the-worlds-aquifers/">https://www.wired.com/story/the-ongoing-collapse-of-the-worlds-aquifers/</a><br>
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<br>
[James Hansen on increasing global heating]<br>
<b>Global Warming Acceleration</b><br>
14 December 2020<br>
James Hansen and Makiko Sato<br>
Abstract. Record global temperature in 2020, despite a strong La
Niña in recent months, reaffirms a global warming acceleration that
is too large to be unforced noise – it implies an increased growth
rate of the total global climate forcing and Earth’s energy
imbalance. Growth of measured forcings (greenhouse gases plus solar
irradiance) decreased during the period of increased warming,
implying that atmospheric aerosols probably decreased in the past
decade. There is a need for accurate aerosol measurements and
improved monitoring of Earth’s energy imbalance.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://mailchi.mp/caa/global-warming-acceleration?e=c4e20a3850">https://mailchi.mp/caa/global-warming-acceleration?e=c4e20a3850</a><br>
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<p><b><br>
</b></p>
[Ethics]<b><br>
</b> <b>Moral injury, the culture of uncare and the climate bubble</b><br>
Sally Weintrobe <br>
Published online: 17 Dec 2020<br>
Download citation <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2020.1844167">https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2020.1844167</a><br>
<blockquote> ABSTRACT<br>
The logic of living in a neoliberal economy conflicts with many
peoples’ sense of moral decency. Neoliberal economic framing means
that life is generally lived in ways that harm the planet, people
and animals. To know at a feeling level that one has participated
exposes one to moral injury, a violation of what is right and
fair. Participating in the neoliberal economy generates conflict
between more self-serving and more socially responsible values.
Covid 19 has clearly exposed neoliberal framing and the underlying
mindset that drives it, involving political and cultural
Exceptionalism and the culture of uncare it maintains, generating
fraud bubbles which are kept afloat by encouraging omnipotent
thinking as a magical ‘solution’ to transgression of limits. The
climate bubble, the most consequential fraud bubble ever seeded,
is beginning to burst, and with that comes the sense of traumatic
shock and moral injury at having been caught up in it.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02650533.2020.1844167">https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02650533.2020.1844167</a><br>
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Business and Human Rights Resource Centre<br>
<b>Australia: Judge says corporate lawyers should advocate for
climate and environmental consciousness</b><br>
Mon, January 18, 2021<br>
'Top judge urges lawyers to take stand on climate change', 17
January 2021<br>
<blockquote>Lawyers have an obligation to follow the lead of
"climate-conscious" practitioners and help repair a "wounded"
planet, according to the nation's leading environment law judge.
Justice Brian Preston, chief judge of the NSW Land and Environment
Court, says that on top of advising their clients on legal issues,
there are myriad ways for lawyers to follow "the path of climate
consciousness"... Justice Preston says this could involve "moral
counselling with clients", in which lawyers might "discuss the
rightness or wrongness of the client’s projects or business
activities and the impact of those projects or activities on
people and the planet, including the climate change consequences
of different courses of action"... The judge, who helped found the
NSW Environmental Defenders Office in 1985, says lawyers "need to
integrate ethical thinking and ethical action into their
day-to-day legal practice"... "The courts of the future will be
asked to determine the legality of present action and inaction of
governments and enterprises in relation to climate change." He
cites the example of Gloucester Resources, which appealed the
minister’s refusal of consent to the Land and Environment Court,
in warning against a "climate blind" approach. "Neither party
initially raised the impact of the mine on climate change as an
issue in the proceedings"...<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/australia-judge-says-corporate-lawyers-should-advocate-for-climate-and-environmental-consciousness/">https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/australia-judge-says-corporate-lawyers-should-advocate-for-climate-and-environmental-consciousness/</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 -
January 20, 1993 </b></font><br>
<p>In his first inaugural address, President Clinton declares: "To
renew America, we must meet challenges abroad as well as at home.
There is no longer a clear division between what is foreign and
what is domestic. The world economy, the world environment, the
world AIDS crisis, the world arms race: they affect us all."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/2SWjIPwm954">http://youtu.be/2SWjIPwm954</a> <br>
<br>
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