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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>February 6, 2021</b></font></i></p>
[Associated Press]<br>
<b>Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez seek ‘climate emergency’ declaration</b><br>
By MATTHEW DALY<br>
February 4, 2021<br>
A week after President Joe Biden signed executive orders intended to
combat the worst effects of global warming, Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez
and other lawmakers urged him to go even further and declare a
national emergency on climate change. Along with other liberal
lawmakers, the independent Vermont senator and the New York
Democratic congresswoman introduced legislation in the House and
Senate that would direct Biden to declare a national climate
emergency...<br>
Ocasio-Cortez, a co-sponsor of the sprawling Green New Deal and,
like Sanders, a hero of the progressive left, said in a statement
that the U.S. has made progress since lawmakers introduced the
emergency resolution nearly two years ago.<br>
<br>
“But now we have to meet the moment,″ she said. “We are out of time
and excuses. Our country is in crisis and to address it we will have
to mobilize our social and economic resources on a massive scale. We
have to start by calling this moment what it is: a national
emergency.”<br>
<br>
The legislation is supported by dozens of environmental groups that
have pushed Biden to act quickly and aggressively on climate change.<br>
<br>
“We are at a life-changing, civilization-altering moment in our
history, as we face a climate crisis that demands a thunderous voice
and a full mobilization of every sector to match its scale and its
urgency,″ said Varshini Prakash, executive director of the Sunrise
Movement, which helped draft the Green New Deal...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-climate-climate-change-legislation-41f233cca76605c82957b10c190287ec">https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-climate-climate-change-legislation-41f233cca76605c82957b10c190287ec</a><br>
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[it's our too-slow to die, petro-masculine culture, psychological
insight]<br>
<b>A Former Trump Adviser May Have Revealed What The Fossil Fuel
Bonanza Was Really About</b><br>
It’s NOT the economy, stupid.<br>
By Alexander C. Kaufman<br>
Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council under former
President Donald Trump, is seen here in 2018. He’s remained a
fixture on the increasingly political Fox Business Network since
leaving office.<br>
Ramping up fossil fuel production and shredding pollution rules, as
the Trump administration did for four years, largely defies economic
and scientific logic in an era of costly climate disasters. But
Larry Kudlow, who was director of the National Economic Council for
part of that time, may have indicated Wednesday that the
administration saw its policies on fossil fuels through another
lens: culture.<br>
<br>
During an interview with Fox Business star Maria Bartiromo, Kudlow
dismissed President Joe Biden as an ideologue whose approach to
climate change threatens to “wreck the whole energy sector.”<br>
<br>
“It turns out President Biden may be the most left-wing president
we’ve ever seen,” Kudlow said. “His actions on spending and taxing
and regulating, on immigration and fossil fuels and other cultural
issues... he may be the most left-wing.”<br>
<br>
It was only a split second, possibly even an unintentional slip of
the tongue. But the idea of defining fossil fuels as a “cultural
issue” gets at something that typically goes unacknowledged in
policy debates over how to deal with the industry most responsible
for destabilizing the planet’s ecosystems. For conservatives, fossil
fuel fights are just another front in the U.S. culture war that’s
been waged for decades over issues like same-sex marriage and
abortion.<br>
<br>
On the other hand, the economic logic of pumping and burning more
oil, gas and coal is difficult to square.<br>
<br>
Already, the planet has warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius above
pre-industrial averages, yielding biblically terrifying and
astronomically expensive results in the form of deadly floods and
fires, prolonged droughts and ravenous locust swarms. Last year, the
United States alone suffered a record-breaking 22 warming-fueled
disasters that each topped $1 billion in damages...<br>
- -<br>
If the adoption of renewable power and electric vehicles proves as
swift as leaders in the U.S., Europe and East Asia now say they want
it to be, new drilling projects ― which can take decades to pay off
― could become what financial experts call “stranded assets,”
virtually worthless money pits that will never make a profit but may
instead be costly to clean up.<br>
<br>
What, then, explains the political power of fossil fuels? Hefty
political donations and the long-term need for some supply of the
fuels, albeit paired with some kind of technology to capture
emissions, only tell part of the story. The industry, especially in
the U.S., also serves as an avatar for a certain kind of cultural
worldview, one that resonates with tough-guy masculinity and
patriarchal families.<br>
- -<br>
In 2014, researchers in Sweden found that climate denial was
“intertwined with a masculinity of industrial modernity that is on
decline.” Those who defended the industries destabilizing the planet
were trying “to save an industrial society” that men like them had
built and dominated, argued the researchers, whose work appeared in
Norma: International Journal for Masculinity Studies.<br>
<br>
In 2018, Virginia Tech political scientist Cara Daggett gave the
concept a name: petro-masculinity.<br>
<br>
“The concept of petro-masculinity suggests that fossil fuels mean
more than profit,” Daggett wrote in the international studies
journal Millennium. “Fossil fuels also contribute to making
identities, which poses risks for post-carbon energy politics.” ..<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-fossil-fuels_n_601c626fc5b68e068fbccba6">https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-fossil-fuels_n_601c626fc5b68e068fbccba6</a><br>
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[video discussion]<br>
<b>RESET.21 | MATTERS OF FACTS: THE SCIENCE OF GETTING IT RIGHT</b><br>
Feb 3, 2021<br>
National Climate Emergency Summit<br>
How much do the scientific facts really matter in addressing the
climate emergency? <br>
<br>
Do we already know enough to set the right goals and timeframes for
action, and is the climate advocacy movement on the right track to
achieve climate justice and global protection? <br>
<br>
Resistance to closer analysis of the climate reality can lead to a
dangerous underestimation of the problem and jeopardise the
formation of sound strategies. Deep-seated fears about the extent of
the crisis, and concerns about complex solutions, can fuel serious
doubts about our ability to respond in time. Yet, to succeed we need
to reexamine the facts with fresh rigor and unrestrained honesty to
form action at a level that will give us our best chance of local
and global protection.<br>
<br>
Join some of the world’s leading climate scientists and expert
analysts for a deep dive into the depths of major impacts, risks,
and actions that will shape climate advocacy in the decade ahead.<br>
<br>
Sir David King – Former Chief Scientific Adviser for the United
Kingdom<br>
David Spratt – Research Director at Breakthrough National Centre For
Climate Restoration<br>
Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick – Climate Scientist, UNSW Sydney<br>
Moderated by Jo Chandler – Science Writer & Journalist<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V8pTQnCp40&feature=youtu.be">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V8pTQnCp40&feature=youtu.be</a><br>
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[Perspective Article]<br>
13 January 2021<br>
<b>Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future</b><br>
Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Paul R. Ehrlich, Andrew Beattie, Gerardo
Ceballos, Eileen Crist, Joan Diamond, Rodolfo Dirzo, Anne H.
Ehrlich, John Harte, Mary Ellen Harte, Graham Pyke, Peter H. Raven,
William J. Ripple, Frédérik Saltré, Christine Turnbull, Mathis
Wackernagel and Daniel T. Blumstein<br>
<br>
We report three major and confronting environmental issues that have
received little attention and require urgent action. First, we
review the evidence that future environmental conditions will be far
more dangerous than currently believed. The scale of the threats to
the biosphere and all its lifeforms—including humanity—is in fact so
great that it is difficult to grasp for even well-informed experts.
Second, we ask what political or economic system, or leadership, is
prepared to handle the predicted disasters, or even capable of such
action. Third, this dire situation places an extraordinary
responsibility on scientists to speak out candidly and accurately
when engaging with government, business, and the public. We
especially draw attention to the lack of appreciation of the
enormous challenges to creating a sustainable future. The added
stresses to human health, wealth, and well-being will perversely
diminish our political capacity to mitigate the erosion of ecosystem
services on which society depends. The science underlying these
issues is strong, but awareness is weak. Without fully appreciating
and broadcasting the scale of the problems and the enormity of the
solutions required, society will fail to achieve even modest
sustainability goals.<br>
<br>
<b>Introduction</b><br>
Humanity is causing a rapid loss of biodiversity and, with it,
Earth's ability to support complex life. But the mainstream is
having difficulty grasping the magnitude of this loss, despite the
steady erosion of the fabric of human civilization (Ceballos et al.,
2015; IPBES, 2019; Convention on Biological Diversity, 2020; WWF,
2020). While suggested solutions abound (Díaz et al., 2019), the
current scale of their implementation does not match the relentless
progression of biodiversity loss (Cumming et al., 2006) and other
existential threats tied to the continuous expansion of the human
enterprise (Rees, 2020). Time delays between ecological
deterioration and socio-economic penalties, as with climate
disruption for example (IPCC, 2014), impede recognition of the
magnitude of the challenge and timely counteraction needed. In
addition, disciplinary specialization and insularity encourage
unfamiliarity with the complex adaptive systems (Levin, 1999) in
which problems and their potential solutions are embedded (Selby,
2006; Brand and Karvonen, 2007). Widespread ignorance of human
behavior (Van Bavel et al., 2020) and the incremental nature of
socio-political processes that plan and implement solutions further
delay effective action (Shanley and López, 2009; King, 2016).<br>
<br>
We summarize the state of the natural world in stark form here to
help clarify the gravity of the human predicament. We also outline
likely future trends in biodiversity decline (Díaz et al., 2019),
climate disruption (Ripple et al., 2020), and human consumption and
population growth to demonstrate the near certainty that these
problems will worsen over the coming decades, with negative impacts
for centuries to come. Finally, we discuss the ineffectiveness of
current and planned actions that are attempting to address the
ominous erosion of Earth's life-support system. Ours is not a call
to surrender—we aim to provide leaders with a realistic “cold
shower” of the state of the planet that is essential for planning to
avoid a ghastly future...<br>
- - clips --<br>
<b>Changing the Rules of the Game</b><br>
While it is neither our intention nor capacity in this short
Perspective to delve into the complexities and details of possible
solutions to the human predicament, there is no shortage of
evidence-based literature proposing ways to change human behavior
for the benefit of all extant life. The remaining questions are less
about what to do, and more about how, stimulating the genesis of
many organizations devoted to these pursuits (e.g., ipbes.org,
goodanthropocenes.net, overshootday.org, mahb.stanford.edu,
populationmatters.org, clubofrome.org, steadystate.org, to name a
few). The gravity of the situation requires fundamental changes to
global capitalism, education, and equality, which include inter alia
the abolition of perpetual economic growth, properly pricing
externalities, a rapid exit from fossil-fuel use, strict regulation
of markets and property acquisition, reigning in corporate lobbying,
and the empowerment of women. These choices will necessarily entail
difficult conversations about population growth and the necessity of
dwindling but more equitable standards of living.<br>
<br>
<b>Conclusions</b><br>
We have summarized predictions of a ghastly future of mass
extinction, declining health, and climate-disruption upheavals
(including looming massive migrations) and resource conflicts this
century. Yet, our goal is not to present a fatalist perspective,
because there are many examples of successful interventions to
prevent extinctions, restore ecosystems, and encourage more
sustainable economic activity at both local and regional scales.
Instead, we contend that only a realistic appreciation of the
colossal challenges facing the international community might allow
it to chart a less-ravaged future. While there have been more recent
calls for the scientific community in particular to be more vocal
about their warnings to humanity (Ripple et al., 2017; Cavicchioli
et al., 2019; Gardner and Wordley, 2019), these have been
insufficiently foreboding to match the scale of the crisis. Given
the existence of a human “optimism bias” that triggers some to
underestimate the severity of a crisis and ignore expert warnings, a
good communication strategy must ideally undercut this bias without
inducing disproportionate feelings of fear and despair (Pyke, 2017;
Van Bavel et al., 2020). It is therefore incumbent on experts in any
discipline that deals with the future of the biosphere and human
well-being to eschew reticence, avoid sugar-coating the overwhelming
challenges ahead and “tell it like it is.” Anything else is
misleading at best, or negligent and potentially lethal for the
human enterprise at worst.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2020.615419">https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2020.615419</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2020.615419/full">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2020.615419/full</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[BBC News]<br>
<b>Mark Carney: Climate crisis deaths 'will be worse than Covid'</b><br>
Sharanjit Leyl BBC News - Feb.5, 2021<br>
The world is heading for mortality rates equivalent to the Covid
crisis every year by mid-century unless action is taken, according
to Mark Carney.<br>
<br>
The former central banker said the investment needed to avert
millions of deaths was double current rates.<br>
<br>
But with governments ploughing billions into keeping economies
afloat, a question mark hangs over whether the recovery will be
green enough.<br>
<br>
The answer lies in smarter investment, Mr Carney said.<br>
<br>
'We cannot retreat'<br>
Mr Carney, who was the Bank of England governor up until last year,
and the head of the Bank of Canada before that, is now the United
Nations envoy for climate action and finance.<br>
He told the BBC that while there were parallels between the Covid-19
pandemic and climate change, damage to the environment and
ecosystems has the potential to cause many more deaths.<br>
<br>
"One of the biggest issues is you cannot self-isolate from climate,"
he said. "That is not an option. We cannot retreat in and wait out
climate change, it will just get worse," he told Talking Business
Asia: The Climate Change Challenge.<br>
- -<br>
Mr Carney said that as the US returns to the world stage in the
battle against climate change, there's renewed momentum to the
issue, especially as last year China, the world's largest polluter,
aimed to become carbon neutral by 2060.<br>
<br>
Although China continues to build coal-fired power plants, and draws
about 70% of its power from fossil fuel, the country is a crucial
part of the solution.<br>
<br>
"There clearly are issues in terms of coal in China, and the sooner
China moves on that, the better for them and for the world.<br>
<br>
"But China also produces 60% of the global solar photovoltaic
panels. It is also the largest producer of electric vehicles. So
China has many sides to this."<br>
<br>
The US has the "largest and most sophisticated financial sector"
along with the "engineering and technological expertise" to get to
net zero emissions, he said.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55944570">https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55944570</a>
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[Views by HotShots of wildfires in 2020]<br>
<b>Fire crews and organizations produce videos summarizing their
activities in 2020; Volume 4</b><br>
Bill Gabbert -- February 4, 2021<br>
White Earth Reservation, Midewin Hotshots, Iron Mountain Handcrew,
Folsom Lake Veterans Crew, & Del Rosa Hotshots<br>
Fire crews and organizations have produced some excellent videos
showing the highlights of their fire activities in 2020. We like to
post them each year, and we used to be able to do it with one
article, but so far this year we have found 28 — too many for one
article. So this year we will do it intermittently over a two-week
period.<br>
Here is Volume 4:<br>
<blockquote><b>White Earth Wildland Fire Season 2020</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/nB93hi_hdCM">https://youtu.be/nB93hi_hdCM</a><br>
==<br>
<b>Midewin 2020 Season VIdeo</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/jY7uwgsR1eM">https://youtu.be/jY7uwgsR1eM</a><br>
==<br>
<b>IRON MOUNTAIN HANDCREW 2020 Crew Video</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/NrCh3YY8g4I">https://youtu.be/NrCh3YY8g4I</a><br>
==<br>
<b>Folsom Lake Veterans Crew 2020 </b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/IH1dR6WkWcg">https://youtu.be/IH1dR6WkWcg</a><br>
==<br>
<b>Del Rosa Hotshots 2020 Fire Season -</b> <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/R8Qek59uRZ4">https://youtu.be/R8Qek59uRZ4</a></blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wildfiretoday.com/2021/02/04/fire-crews-and-organizations-produce-videos-summarizing-their-activities-in-2020-volume-4/">https://wildfiretoday.com/2021/02/04/fire-crews-and-organizations-produce-videos-summarizing-their-activities-in-2020-volume-4/</a><br>
<p>- - <br>
</p>
[professional documentary 2019]<br>
<b>Walking With Fire: A Wildfire Documentary</b><br>
Dec 5, 2019<br>
Justin Sullivan<br>
'Walking with Fire: A Wildfire Documentary' is an educational video
aimed at creating awareness and educating the public on the dangers
of wildfires. Video contracted by the Western Cape Provincial
Government Disaster and Fire & Rescue Services. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y0__CZI-Cw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y0__CZI-Cw</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>[harsh talk ]<br>
<b>Robert Hunziker: Post-doom with Michael Dowd</b><br>
Dec 14, 2020<br>
thegreatstory<br>
Title: "Abrupt Climate Change: The World Tour" -- Recorded in
October 2020, this conversation with award-winning, prophetic (my
word) journalist, Robert Hunziker, is a basic primer -- a
fundamental education -- on the exponential, runaway, out of our
control nature of Abrupt Climate Change...looking at the latest
evidence region-by-region: Antarctica, Australia, Amazon rain
forest, Oceans, Greenland, and Arctic. Warning: this is sobering
(perhaps un-sobering :-) stuff!<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfzWBNLTf6I">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfzWBNLTf6I</a><br>
</p>
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<br>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming -
February 6, 2005 </b></font><br>
<br>
February 6, 2005: Chris Mooney points out the numerous falsehoods in
the recently released Michael Crichton novel "State of Fear."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/02/06/checking_crichtons_footnotes">http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/02/06/checking_crichtons_footnotes</a>
<br>
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