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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>May 1, 2021</b></font></i></p>
[Follow the money]<br>
NY Times<br>
<b>In Opposing Climate and Diversity Proposals, Buffett Risks
Looking Out of Step</b><br>
The Berkshire chief opposes shareholder proposals on climate and
diversity.<br>
Berkshire bucks the trend<br>
Tomorrow is Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting, the
gathering known as “Woodstock for capitalists.” Like last year, the
company is bowing to the times by holding the meeting virtually. But
another aspect of the discussion may show that Warren Buffett is
increasingly out of step with the times, DealBook’s Michael de la
Merced reports.<br>
<br>
Investors are pressing Berkshire to disclose more about climate
change and work-force diversity. Shareholders, including the Calpers
public pension fund, argue that Buffett’s conglomerate isn’t doing
enough to disclose its portfolio companies’ progress in addressing
those issues. Buffett opposed these initiatives ahead of the
meeting, arguing that they cut against Berkshire’s philosophy of
letting its subsidiaries operate largely independently. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/business/dealbook/buffett-berkshire-climate-diversity.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/business/dealbook/buffett-berkshire-climate-diversity.html</a>
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[what of our future?]<br>
EMISSIONS 29 April 2021 <br>
<b>Explainer: Will global warming ‘stop’ as soon as net-zero
emissions are reached?</b><br>
Media reports frequently claim that the world is facing “committed
warming” in the future as a result of past emissions, meaning higher
temperatures are “locked in”, “in the pipeline” or “inevitable”,
regardless of the choices society takes today.<br>
<br>
The best available evidence shows that, on the contrary, warming is
likely to more or less stop once carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions
reach zero, meaning humans have the power to choose their climate
future.<br>
<br>
When scientists have pointed this out recently, it has been reported
as a new scientific finding. However, the scientific community has
recognised that zero CO2 emissions likely implied flat future
temperatures since at least 2008. The Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) 2018 special report on 1.5C also included a
specific focus on zero-emissions scenarios with similar findings.
...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-will-global-warming-stop-as-soon-as-net-zero-emissions-are-reached">https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-will-global-warming-stop-as-soon-as-net-zero-emissions-are-reached</a>
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[no two rivers flow the same]<br>
<b>Glacier mass decreasing across Arctic but at different rates,
says study</b><br>
Glacier mass is decreasing worldwide with an average total loss of
267 billion tonnes of mass per year, says a new study.<br>
By Eilís Quinn -April 30, 2021<br>
<br>
The period looked at was between 2000 and 2019. The loss of glacier
mass during this period also accounted for 21 per cent of the
observed sea-level rise, the authors said.<br>
<br>
The study, “Accelerated global glacier mass loss in the early
twenty-first century” was published in the journal Nature on
Wednesday.<br>
<br>
Glacier mass loss has been accelerating by about 50 billion tonnes
annually each decade since 2000, the study found...<br>
- -<br>
To do the study, the researchers used satellite and aerial imagery
to look at 217,175 glaciers around the world to estimate the mass
loss.<br>
<br>
A supercomputer, co-funded by the University of Northern British
Columbia and the Hakai Institute, a Canadian scientific research
institution, also located in British Columbia, created digital
elevation models from over 440,000 images.<br>
<br>
“The UNBC and Hakai Institute computer facilities allowed us to
generate time series of surface elevation, essentially time-varying
topographies, at 100-metre resolution for about one-half of a
billion individual locations over Earth’s glaciers and their
surroundings,” Romain Hugonnet said in a news release. Hugonnet is
the study’s lead author and is with the University of Toulouse in
France and ETH Zurich, a Swiss university.<br>
<br>
Creating the elevation models required the equivalent of 584 modern
computers running for a year. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/climate-crisis/2021/04/glacier-mass-decreasing-across-arctic-different-rates-says-study">https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/climate-crisis/2021/04/glacier-mass-decreasing-across-arctic-different-rates-says-study</a><br>
- -<br>
[source is the Journal nature]<br>
Published: 28 April 2021<br>
<b>Accelerated global glacier mass loss in the early twenty-first
century</b><br>
<blockquote><b>Abstract</b><br>
Glaciers distinct from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are
shrinking rapidly, altering regional hydrology1, raising global
sea level2 and elevating natural hazards3. Yet, owing to the
scarcity of constrained mass loss observations, glacier evolution
during the satellite era is known only partially, as a geographic
and temporal patchwork4,5. Here we reveal the accelerated, albeit
contrasting, patterns of glacier mass loss during the early
twenty-first century. Using largely untapped satellite archives,
we chart surface elevation changes at a high spatiotemporal
resolution over all of Earth’s glaciers. We extensively validate
our estimates against independent, high-precision measurements and
present a globally complete and consistent estimate of glacier
mass change. We show that during 2000–2019, glaciers lost a mass
of 267 ± 16 gigatonnes per year, equivalent to 21 ± 3 per cent of
the observed sea-level rise6. We identify a mass loss acceleration
of 48 ± 16 gigatonnes per year per decade, explaining 6 to 19 per
cent of the observed acceleration of sea-level rise. Particularly,
thinning rates of glaciers outside ice sheet peripheries doubled
over the past two decades. Glaciers currently lose more mass, and
at similar or larger acceleration rates, than the Greenland or
Antarctic ice sheets taken separately7,8,9. By uncovering the
patterns of mass change in many regions, we find contrasting
glacier fluctuations that agree with the decadal variability in
precipitation and temperature. These include a North Atlantic
anomaly of decelerated mass loss, a strongly accelerated loss from
northwestern American glaciers, and the apparent end of the
Karakoram anomaly of mass gain10. We anticipate our highly
resolved estimates to advance the understanding of drivers that
govern the distribution of glacier change, and to extend our
capabilities of predicting these changes at all scales.
Predictions robustly benchmarked against observations are
critically needed to design adaptive policies for the local- and
regional-scale management of water resources and cryospheric
risks, as well as for the global-scale mitigation of sea-level
rise.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03436-z">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03436-z</a><br>
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[video observation and commentary]<br>
<b>Climate and Ecological Emergency. Can you really make a
difference??</b><br>
Apr 30, 2021<br>
<b>Just Have a Think</b><br>
251K subscribers<br>
<br>
Climate and ecology are inextricably linked. Both are now in great
peril. If we do not tackle those challenges with co-ordinated
efforts then we stand far less chance of solving either of them.
This holistic approach forms the basis of the Climate and Ecological
Emergency Bill, recently tabled in the UK Parliament by the MP
Caroline Lucas. The paper is a blueprint for how all national
governments will need to legislate in the coming years. And it
contains clauses that ensure ordinary folks like you and me can be
fully involved in the decision making process.<br>
<br>
About the CEE Bill Alliance<br>
<br>
The CEE Bill Alliance campaign aims to create the magnitude of
grassroots' momentum that will activate/force the levers of
government power to legislate for dual emergency climate- nature
legislation through the CEE Bill. The CEE Bill - developed in
collaboration with experts across the science and legal disciplines
- provides the framework and principles, and an embedded citizens'
assembly, to produce a climate-nature law fit to address our 21st
century planetary crisis. <br>
You can be part of making this Bill law by signing up to support the
campaign and writing to your MP and councillors. <br>
Please visit our website:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.ceebill.uk">https://www.ceebill.uk</a> <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhuuVIj9FoU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhuuVIj9FoU</a><br>
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[Better keep an eye on this one]<br>
<b>Antarctic ‘doomsday glacier’ may be melting faster than was
thought</b><br>
Study finds more relatively warm water is reaching Thwaites glacier
than was previously understood<br>
An Antarctic glacier larger than the UK is at risk of breaking up
after scientists discovered more warm water flowing underneath it
than previously thought.<br>
<br>
The fate of Thwaites – nicknamed the doomsday glacier – and the
massive west Antarctic ice sheet it supports are the biggest unknown
factors in future global sea level rise.<br>
<br>
Over the past few years, teams of scientists have been crisscrossing
the remote and inaccessible region on Antarctica’s western edge to
try to understand how fast the ice is melting and what the
consequences for the rest of the world might be.<br>
<br>
“What happens in west Antarctica is of great societal importance,”
said Dr Robert Larter, a scientist with the British Antarctic Survey
and principal investigator with the International Thwaites Glacier
Collaboration, the most ambitious research project ever carried out
in Antarctica. “This is the biggest uncertainty in future sea level
rise.”...<br>
- -<br>
The worst-case scenarios for Thwaites are grim. It is the widest
glacier on the planet, more than 1km deep and holds enough ice to
raise the sea level by 65cm.<br>
<br>
Ice loss has accelerated in the last 30 years and it now contributes
about 4% of all global sea level rise. Experts say this could
increase dramatically if the ice at the front of Thwaites breaks up,
with knock-on effects for other glaciers in the area.<br>
<br>
To heighten scientists’ concerns, west Antarctica has been one of
the fastest-warming place on Earth in the past 30 years, and since
2000 it has lost more than 1tn tons of ice.<br>
<br>
Last year, a team of British scientists discovered cavities half the
size of the Grand Canyon under Thwaites that, like decay in a tooth,
allow warm ocean water to erode the glacier, internally accelerating
melting. And because a lot of the ground on which the glacier sits
is below sea level, it is thought to be particularly vulnerable to
melting as warmer water encroaches further under the ice inland.<br>
<br>
Larter said: “The bed gets deeper upstream and there is a
glaciological theory that says this is potentially a very unstable
situation … it is a very scary scenario when you first hear it, but
there are various negative feedback scenarios that might counter
it.”<br>
<br>
He said if the glacier’s “pinning points” were lost in the next few
years it would start to flow faster “and put more ice into the sea”.
But he said the question no one could currently answer was exactly
how much extra ice will go into the sea if the glacier begins to
break up.<br>
<br>
“That is a tricky question,” said Larter. “I think I would have to
say come back in a couple of years.”<br>
<br>
He added: “Nobody knows how it is going to respond to persistent
warming – we don’t know because in human history we have never seen
it happen. We are trying in every way we can to get a handle on what
is going to happen.”<br>
<br>
Ella Gilbert, a research scientist at the University of Reading,
said what was happening in the polar regions demanded an urgent
response from the international community.<br>
<br>
“The polar regions are the canary in the coalmine – they are the
symbol of climate change,” said Gilbert, who was a joint author of a
recent study warning of the catastrophic impact of global heating on
Antarctic ice.<br>
<br>
“We really do need to minimise our emissions because if we lose the
polar regions, not only are we going to amplify climate change … it
will contribute to sea level rise which affects everyone around the
globe.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/30/antarctic-doomsday-glacier-may-be-melting-faster-than-was-thought">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/30/antarctic-doomsday-glacier-may-be-melting-faster-than-was-thought</a><br>
<br>
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[need for more wildfire fighters]<b><br>
</b> <b>Wildland firefighter speaks truth to Congressional power</b><br>
Bill Gabbert - April 29, 2021<br>
“I have grown impatient with inaction”<br>
Riva Duncan testifies fire Congressional hearing<br>
Riva Duncan testifies remotely during Congressional hearing, April
29, 2021. Still image from live video.<br>
In the oversight hearing today before the House of Representatives
Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands a former
U.S. Forest Service firefighter spoke truth to power.<br>
<br>
Riva Duncan, who recently retired from the Fire Staff Officer
position on the Umpqua National Forest in Oregon, testified remotely
about job classification, pay disparity, employee health and
wellbeing, recruitment, size of the workforce, and fire seasons
transforming into fire years...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wildfiretoday.com/2021/04/29/wildland-firefighter-speaks-truth-to-congressional-power/">https://wildfiretoday.com/2021/04/29/wildland-firefighter-speaks-truth-to-congressional-power/</a><br>
- -<br>
[powerful video testimony]<br>
<b>Wildfire in a Warming World</b><br>
April 29, 2021<br>
<blockquote>"I have watched many Congressional hearings about
wildland fire and the agencies that manage them, and this is the
first time I can remember that a firefighter who had worked their
way up from an entry level position and had not been tainted by
serving time in the Washington Office, testified about
firefighting conditions. In 2016 Kelly Martin, then Yosemite
National Park’s Chief of Fire and Aviation Management, testified
about sexual harassment, but she was not asked questions about
pay, hiring, and retention.<br>
<br>
Ms. Duncan, now the Executive Secretary of the Grassroots Wildland
Firefighters, submitted 13-pages of testimony, but the last
portion of her five-minute opening oral remarks had a memorable
impact on the politicians. Toward the end she choked up a little —
you can probably guess which section provoked that response.<br>
House Natural Resources Committee Democrats"<br>
</blockquote>
The video of the hearing below should be cued up to begin about 10
seconds before Ms. Duncan’s opening remarks. If it does not start
there, you can skip to 36:00.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpBxfI8kJ3g&t=2166s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpBxfI8kJ3g&t=2166s</a><br>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
[supply and demand - plus fire and bark beatles]<br>
<b>Why Dead Trees Are ‘the Hottest Commodity on the Planet’</b><br>
Blame climate change, wildfires, hungry beetles … and Millennial
home buyers.<br>
ROBINSON MEYER - APRIL 27, 2021...<br>
- -<br>
Since 2018, a one-two punch of environmental harms worsened by
climate change has devastated the lumber industry in Canada, the
largest lumber exporter to the United States. A catastrophic and
multi-decade outbreak of bark-eating beetles, followed by a series
of historic wildfire seasons, have led to lasting economic damage in
British Columbia, a crucial lumber-providing province. Americans
have, in effect, made a mad dash for lumber at the exact moment
Canada is least able to supply it.<br>
Climate change, which has long threatened to overturn dependable
facts about the world, is now starting to make itself known in
commodities markets, the exchanges that keep staple goods flowing to
companies and their customers. For years, scientists and
agricultural forecasters have warned that climate change could
result in devastating failures among luxury goods, such as fine
chocolate and wine. Others have speculated about several
grain-producing regions slipping into a simultaneous drought, a
phenomenon dubbed “multiple breadbasket failures.” But for now, a
climate-change-induced shortage is showing up more subtly, dampening
supply during a historic demand crunch.<br>
<br>
“There are people who say, ‘Climate change isn’t affecting me,’”
Janice Cooke, a forest-industry veteran and biology professor at the
University of Alberta, told me. “But they’re going to go to the
hardware store and say, ‘Holy cow, the price of lumber has gone
up.’”<br>
- -<br>
“That was all fine. Salvage was going along,” Cooke said. “And then
we had the forest fires.”<br>
<br>
In 2017, British Columbia recorded the worst wildfire season in its
history. Fires cleared 1.2 million hectares of land, or more than 1
percent of the province’s area, and forced 65,000 people to
evacuate. That record was surpassed the following year, when 1.3
million hectares burned. Worst of all, the fires struck with awful
efficiency, consuming exactly the forest that the salvage plan had
saved for last. They “burnt the last-standing dead supply,” Cooke
said. British Columbia’s lean time had arrived early.<br>
<br>
The fires were made more likely by climate change, but—in an ugly
feedback loop—the beetle outbreak also contributed. When conifers
are attacked by pests, they secrete more pitch in self-defense,
Cooke said. Pitch is extremely flammable. When trees are
drought-prone and filled with pitch, it’s like “fire starter on the
landscape,” she said. (Nor is wildfire the only risk of pitch:
British Columbia sawmills and pulp mills have exploded while
processing pitch-loaded wood, Cooke said.)...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/04/climate-origins-massive-lumber-shortage/618727/">https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/04/climate-origins-massive-lumber-shortage/618727/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
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[rise above the waters]<br>
<b>House lifting is big business following a record year of storms</b><br>
Diana Olick - APR 19 2021<br>
KEY POINTS<br>
<blockquote>- With storms intensifying, rainfall increasing and sea
levels rising, waterfront property owners have to get more
creative. For some, that means moving to higher ground, but for
others, it’s just moving the house higher.<br>
- New Jersey tops the list of states with the most homes that are
expected to see at least one major flood per year by 2050. More
than 74,000 homes will be affected, according to Climate Central.<br>
- New Jersey is followed by Florida (57,865), California (36,845),
Louisiana (33,372) and North Carolina (33,334).<br>
House lifting has long been a strategy for waterfront real
estate, but it is now becoming a far bigger business due to
climate change.<br>
</blockquote>
“The more that things flood, the more there’s going to be a need for
it,” said Mike Brovont of Wolfe House and Building Movers. He’s been
in the house-lifting business for more than two decades.<br>
<br>
Brovont points to flooding hot spots like Houston, Louisiana,
Alabama and Mississippi. “Of course, New Jersey and Connecticut
shoreline are always susceptible to that as well,” he added. “And
then you get those high tides, what they call king tides in some
areas. You get that combined with a storm coming in, and that can
just do tremendous damage.”<br>
<br>
New Jersey tops the list of states with the most homes that are
expected to see at least one major flood per year by 2050, based on
projected sea-level rise. Some 74,165 homes in the state will be
affected, according to Climate Central. Next are Florida (57,865),
California (36,845), Louisiana (33,372) and North Carolina (33,334).<br>
<br>
Santo Siciliano and his wife adore living by the water. “I grew up
on the shore. So for me, it’s a no-brainer,” he said.<br>
<br>
The flood risk to their Oceanport, New Jersey, home is increasing,
however, so to stay in their home, they had to lift it...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/19/house-lifting-is-big-business-following-a-record-year-of-storms.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/19/house-lifting-is-big-business-following-a-record-year-of-storms.html</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[German youth ruling]<br>
<b>Delaying Climate Action Harms Youth, German High Court Rules in
'Huge Win for the Climate Movement'</b><br>
Climate Nexus - Apr. 30, 2021 <br>
Germany's highest court ruled Thursday that the country's 2019
climate law unconstitutionally saddles young people with the burden
of fighting climate change by "irreversibly offload[ing] major
emission reductions burdens onto periods after 2030."<br>
<br>
Olaf Scholz, Germany's finance minister, said the government would
rapidly propose legislation to comply with the ruling. The case was
brought by young people who argued the German plan to reach net-zero
carbon pollution by 2050 backloaded too much of the required
emissions cuts until after 2030.<br>
"We are super happy with the court's decision," 22-year-old
plaintiff Sophie Backsen, who fears sea level rise will engulf her
family's farm, told reporters. "Effective climate protection has to
be implemented now and not in 10 years' time, when it'll be too
late."<br>
<br>
As reported by The Guardian:<br>
<blockquote>One of the complainants, Luisa Neubauer, an activist
from Fridays for Future, welcomed the ruling, saying: "This is
huge. Climate protection is not nice to have; climate protection
is our basic right and that's official now. This is a huge win for
the climate movement, it changes a lot."<br>
---<br>
Neubauer said the climate lobby's success at Karlsruhe was only
the beginning, emphasising that the five months leading up to the
federal elections in September, in which the pro-environmental
Greens have a good chance of entering government, would be
crucial.<br>
"We will continue to fight for a 1.5 degree policy which protects
our future freedoms, instead of endangering them," she said,
adding, "gone are the days when we were called ignorant for
demanding climate action."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-action-germany-youth-2652835439.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-action-germany-youth-2652835439.html</a><br>
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[The news archive - famous hoax exposed on May 1st]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming May
1, 1998 </b></font><br>
<p>May 1, 1998: The AP reports on a bogus petition allegedly
claiming that 15,000 scientists reject the evidence of
human-caused climate change.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?slug=2748308&date=19980501">http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?slug=2748308&date=19980501</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py2XVILHUjQ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py2XVILHUjQ</a><br>
</p>
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