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<i><font size="+1"><b>May 12, 2021</b></font></i>
<p>[Press release ]<br>
<b>Last week the Royal College of Psychiatrists declared a climate
and ecological emergency,</b> publishing a position statement
they termed a 'planetary diagnosis' of the ongoing climate and
ecological crises. As well as outlining how the climate crisis and
ecological crisis each are contributing to a mental health
emergency, RCPsych's position statement's details 'treatments',
i.e. the actions the college has pledged to take to reduce its own
contribution to the climate emergency and their recommendations
for action by others - including the NHS, research institutes and
Government.<br>
<br>
New research conducted by the college shows that more than
four-fifths (84%) of the UK public think the climate and
ecological emergencies will affect mental health in a decade at
least as much as unemployment (83%) and Covid 19 (84%). Three in
five (60%) respondents say that the climate and ecological
emergency is already affecting their mental health now and will
continue to do so in the future. Dr Lisa Page, Joint Associate
Registrar for sustainability in the College, and RCPsych's
representative to UKHACC, said:<br>
<br>
“The knock-on effects of climate change and biodiversity loss will
be felt on people’s mental health, we already see difficulties
during heat waves. Many patients with serious mental illness
experience worse physical and mental health on hotter days,
polluted air has been linked to excess deaths and flood events
with PTSD. If action isn’t taken the physical and psychological
consequences will manifest in poorer health outcomes in the UK and
overseas.”<br>
<br>
As a college the RCPsych has pledged to commit to an ambitious
plan for sustainability, including to reducie its own emissions to
net-zero by 2040. Its broader recommendations for tackling the
crisis demonstrate the possibilty for action to combat climate
change in every aspect of healthcare delivery, covering (amonst
other things):<br>
<br>
Creating sustainable mental health services, and supporting
the development of Green Plans<br>
Preventative psychiatry and a wellbeing approach <br>
The sustainable use of medication, and social prescribing <br>
Embedding planetary health in medical education<br>
<br>
To find out more about RCPsych's plans and recommendations, visit
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/latest-news/detail/2021/05/05/rcpsych-declares-a-climate-and-ecological-emergency">https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/latest-news/detail/2021/05/05/rcpsych-declares-a-climate-and-ecological-emergency</a><br>
</p>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
[Royal College of Psychiatrists]<br>
<b>RCPsych declares a climate and ecological emergency</b><br>
<br>
More than four-fifths (84%) of the UK public think the climate and
ecological emergencies will affect mental health in a decade at
least as much as unemployment (83%) and Covid 19 (84%), new research
from the Royal College of Psychiatrists has found.<br>
<br>
Three in five (60%) respondents say that the climate and ecological
emergencies are affecting their mental health now and will continue
to do so in the future. <br>
<br>
Alarmingly, many appear unaware that the climate and ecological
emergencies were a contributing factor to the global outbreak of
COVID-19. Just one fifth (22%) think so, whereas two fifths (40%) do
not, although a significant minority say ‘maybe’ (29%).<br>
<br>
The Royal College of Psychiatrists is calling for international
cooperation and urgent action by declaring a climate and ecological
emergency.<br>
<br>
The declaration is supported by a statement published today (6 May)
with recommendations for psychiatrists, the NHS, research institutes
and Government to tackle the crisis and promote more sustainable
clinical practices. <br>
<br>
Dr Adrian James, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
said:<br>
<blockquote>“The disruption to life posed by the climate and
ecological emergencies presents an unprecedented threat to our
health in the UK and worldwide. <br>
“The climate and ecological emergency is a mental health
emergency. Our mental health is entwined with the health of our
natural world.<br>
“We have no choice but to join the voices of those who are calling
for urgent action and declare a climate and ecological emergency
to avert a health and mental health catastrophe.” <br>
</blockquote>
Around the world, climate change and environmental degradation are
resulting in major repercussions on human health, including on
mental health, and an unprecedented loss of biodiversity. <br>
<br>
Human populations are already experiencing the health effects of
more severe storms, floods, air pollution, wildfires and droughts,
whilst food insecurities, extinction events and loss of habitats are
drastically changing people’s lives especially in the global South.<br>
<br>
The ramifications of climate and ecological emergencies are
increasingly noticeable in the UK as well. Flooding which is
associated with anxiety, depression and PTSD in survivors is the
most common disaster in the UK. Due to climate change floods are
increasing in frequency and severity. <br>
<br>
Between 28,000-36,000 deaths a year in the UK, are due to air
pollution exposure, while research points to the link between
childhood exposure and mental illness in adulthood.<br>
<br>
Dr Lisa Page, Joint Associate Registrar for sustainability of the
Royal College of Psychiatrists, said:<br>
<blockquote>“The knock-on effects of climate change and biodiversity
loss will be felt on people’s mental health, we already see
difficulties during heat waves. <br>
“Many patients with serious mental illness experience worse
physical and mental health on hotter days, polluted air has been
linked to excess deaths and flood events with PTSD. <br>
“If action isn’t taken the physical and psychological consequences
will manifest in poorer health outcomes in the UK and overseas.”<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/latest-news/detail/2021/05/05/rcpsych-declares-a-climate-and-ecological-emergency">https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/latest-news/detail/2021/05/05/rcpsych-declares-a-climate-and-ecological-emergency</a><br>
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<p><br>
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MAR 25, 2020<br>
<b>How to breathe easier during allergy season</b><br>
DR. AARON BERNSTEIN<br>
A pediatrician's perspective on surviving longer pollen seasons on a
warming planet<br>
DR. AARON BERNSTEIN | NEWS SERVICE OF BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF
MASSACHUSETTS<br>
<br>
Fifty years ago, New England’s pollen season started, on average, a
week later than it does today, and ended a week earlier. What’s
changed? The climate. <br>
<br>
A warming planet doesn’t just make for hotter summers; it makes
spring start earlier and winter start later, and that means longer
pollen seasons.<br>
The climate has changed primarily because we’ve flooded the
atmosphere with carbon dioxide from fossil fuels like oil, gas, and
coal. This higher concentration of carbon dioxide causes plants like
ragweed to make more pollen. A ragweed plant grown today may make
twice as much pollen per plant as it would have in the 19th century
when carbon dioxide levels were much lower. <br>
<br>
Burning fossil fuels — especially from cars and trucks — also
releases air pollutants that can worsen children's allergies and
even trigger asthma. <br>
<br>
Your allergies may be especially active if you live in a city, where
carbon dioxide levels can be 30% higher and temperatures 3+ degrees
warmer than in surrounding areas. Cities are hotter than suburbs or
nearby rural areas because of the “urban heat island effect.” Cities
have more dark roofs, paved roads, and lack cooler and greener
surfaces in comparison to surrounding areas, which all leads to more
heat absorption. The warmer temperatures and higher carbon dioxide
levels mean that ragweed plants thrive in cities—they flower
earlier, make more pollen and live longer than their rural
counterparts.<br>
<br>
A first line of medication defense against seasonal allergies are
antihistamines, such as loratadine (Claritin), fexofenadine
(Allegra), cetirizine (Zyrtec) and diphenhydramine (Benadryl). These
medications can work wonders for people with allergies. At the same
time, they are often paired with other medications, such as
decongestants, that can affect how our bodies sweat and regulate
temperature. (Diphenhydramine may do this on its own as well). <br>
This matters because climate change is causing more severe heatwaves
and taking certain medications, including those taken for allergies,
may increase your risk for fainting, over-heating, or getting
dehydrated, among other problems. If you take allergy medications,
and especially if you take other medications regularly, make sure to
pay attention to how hot it is outside as summer approaches, which
for many of us is now.<br>
<br>
Beyond taking antihistamines, we can all take important actions to
make pollen season more bearable: <br>
<br>
Keep an eye on the pollen forecast. If it looks bad, try to stay
indoors in a room that has good air filtration to take out pollen. <br>
If you have forced heating and cooling, replace the air filter on
your furnace at least twice a year, and more if you have pets or
smoke. <br>
If you live in a city, maximize your green space, whether inside or
outside, with plants that make little or no allergenic pollen (like
these). Think about a green roof. More plants can help cool things
down and suck up carbon dioxide, too. <br>
Driving less and walking, bicycling and taking public transit more
will mean less fossil fuel is burned and less carbon dioxide and
other air pollutants are produced. <br>
Allergies are never fun, but climate actions can clean our air and
shorten pollen seasons, and that means we can all breathe a little
easier.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://coverage.bluecrossma.com/article/how-breathe-easier-during-allergy-season">https://coverage.bluecrossma.com/article/how-breathe-easier-during-allergy-season</a><br>
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</p>
<p><br>
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[New data visualization]<br>
<b>Climate Lab Book</b><br>
Open climate science<br>
Climate spirals<br>
Warming stripes<br>
Visualisation resources<br>
Comparing CMIP5 & observations<br>
Global warming does not mean the same amount of warming over the
whole globe. There is a distinct spatial pattern to the long-term
changes.<br>
<br>
The first map below shows the total change in temperature since the
early-industrial era, and the second map removes the global average
warming to highlight regions of above and below average warming.<br>
<br>
The largest warming is seen in the Arctic, and the land regions are
clearly warming faster than the ocean. The striking blue area in the
North Atlantic is a region of very little warming, and this is due
to a decline in the strength of the Atlantic overturning circulation
which brings warm water from the tropics to the northern latitudes.<br>
<br>
All these features of the warming have been long predicted in
climate model simulations, for example in IPCC AR4 and IPCC AR5.<br>
<br>
Technical details: spatial pattern of warming uses approach
described in Hawkins et al. (2020) using Berkeley Earth dataset, and
the changes are relative to 1850-1900.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/2021/warming-patterns/">http://www.climate-lab-book.ac.uk/2021/warming-patterns/</a><br>
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</p>
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[Young authors in video conversation]<br>
<b>Nathaniel Rich with Claire Vaye Watkins: What Does It Mean to
Live in a Post-Natural World?</b><br>
Apr 5, 2021<br>
Town Hall Seattle<br>
We live at a time in which scientists race to reanimate extinct
beasts, our most essential ecosystems require monumental engineering
projects to survive, chicken breasts grow in test tubes, and
multinational corporations conspire to poison the blood of every
living creature. No rock, leaf, or cubic foot of air on Earth has
escaped humanity's clumsy signature. The old distinctions—between
natural and artificial, dystopia and utopia, science fiction and
science fact—have blurred, losing all meaning. So author Nathaniel
Rich argues in his book Second Nature: Scenes from a World Remade.<br>
<br>
With intimate stories from ordinary people making desperate efforts
to preserve their humanity in a world that seems increasingly alien,
Rich joins us to share from this deeply reported book. In
conversation with fellow author Claire Vaye Watkins, he presents a
beautifully told exploration of our post-natural world, one that
helps us understand our place in a reality that resembles nothing
human beings have known. Together, they wonder what it means to live
in an era of terrible ecological responsibility. The question is no
longer, How do we return to the world that we’ve lost?, they
express, but rather What world do we want to create in its place?<br>
<br>
Nathaniel Rich is the author of Losing Earth: A Recent History and
the novels King Zeno, Odds Against Tomorrow, and The Mayor’s Tongue.
He is a writer at large for The New York Times Magazine and a
regular contributor to The Atlantic, Harper's, and The New York
Review of Books.<br>
<br>
Claire Vaye Watkins is the author of the novel Gold Fame Citrusand
the short story collection Battleborn. A National Book Foundation 5
Under 35 honoree, Watkins is a professor at the University of
California Irvine.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GLnczzJCf0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GLnczzJCf0</a><br>
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<p><br>
</p>
[turnabout - book review - <u>Crude Britannia: How Oil Shaped a
Nation</u>]<br>
<b>Big Oil’s malign influence is waning at last</b><br>
May 12th, 2021, by Paul Brown<br>
It has enriched us, even dictated our politics, but now we know Big
Oil’s malign influence we want no more of this black gold.<br>
<br>
LONDON, 12 May, 2021 − Despite the hold that oil has had on our
lives for the last century through cars, chemicals, plastics,
pesticides and almost every facet of daily life, including keeping
millions of people in employment, it is something few of us ever
think about. Big Oil’s malign influence has left us unaware.<br>
<br>
But oil has a remarkable story to tell: its rise, its ascendancy in
all our lives, and now, if civilisation is to survive, its fall.
These phases are all described in a new book, Crude Britannia: How
Oil Shaped a Nation.<br>
<br>
Although the book is specifically about oil’s role in shaping the
United Kingdom, it is also concerned with the way oil changes the
politics and national economies of the rest of the world.<br>
<br>
This is because, more than with any other industry, the scramble to
own and distribute oil is a multi-national business controlled by
some of the world’s biggest and most powerful companies, which have
frequently influenced the destiny of nations.<br>
<br>
The authors, James Marriott, a writer who has been studying the
industry for 35 years and Terry Macalister, former energy editor of
the Guardian, detail just how pervasive oil is in our lives. They
visit towns that were once thriving hubs of industry, places of full
employment which are now hollowed-out relics.<br>
<br>
“ . . . they are hidden and largely closed to scrutiny, except by
their own public presentations. They are privately owned, often by
individuals tax-domiciled abroad . . . ”<br>
<br>
More illuminating though is their series of interviews with former
and current oil executives, speculators, politicians and civil
servants. Some of them have been all of those things at different
times in their lives.<br>
<br>
They have managed this because, as the book demonstrates, there has
always been a revolving door between governments and the oil
industry that allows powerful individuals to shape policy and wield
undue influence.<br>
<br>
The history of the industry and its effect on our lives is
fascinating. We are reminded that it is the reason for the existence
of many products we use and benefit from daily. Then there is the
downside: the wars fought over oil, the way that the industry has
used its influence to protect its position and its profits,
undermining democracy and ruining many thousands of lives.<br>
<br>
Perhaps, for those involved in the battle over climate change who
want to see the back of Big Oil, it is the last part of the book
that is most illuminating. It describes how the multi-nationals BP
and Shell have striven to brush up and green their image.<br>
<br>
This is partly because of pressure from shareholders and environment
groups, but also because the companies themselves realise that the
game will soon be up for fossil fuels and they will need to invest
elsewhere.<br>
<br>
An era ends?<br>
<br>
Although the book explains that it may be a case of too little, too
late for both the planet and the companies, Shell and BP are
currently reducing their exploration in sensitive and expensive
areas and selling oil assets to hedge funds and shadowy offshore
companies. At the same time, they are beginning to invest heavily in
renewables.<br>
<br>
This diversification may help some oil majors survive, but according
to the authors the new oil barons who buy their assets face none of
the pressures that steer the companies to go green. The barons’ sole
aim is to squeeze every drop of oil and dollar they can from the
industry as it gradually winds down.<br>
<br>
This change signifies a new kind of institution in the industry. It
has scant need of journalists, unlike the traditional corporations
which used the media to build a positive profile as they lobbied
ministers, largely behind the scenes.<br>
<br>
“Instead they are hidden and largely closed to scrutiny, except by
their own public presentations. They are privately owned, often by
individuals tax-domiciled abroad,” the authors say.<br>
<br>
In a final chapter, entitled rather hopefully Heading for
Extinction, the book concludes that the era of oil is over, or at
least rapidly fading. It charts the rise of Extinction Rebellion,
the school strikes, and the growing awareness of the danger the
human race is in. It is an optimistic end to a fascinating and
detailed account of how we have all let oil dominate our lives. −
Climate News Network<br>
<br>
<u>Crude Britannia: How Oil Shaped a Nation</u>. Pluto Press,
hardback £20.00: to be published on 20 May, 2021. By James Marriott
& Terry Macalister<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/big-oils-malign-influence-is-waning-at-last/">https://climatenewsnetwork.net/big-oils-malign-influence-is-waning-at-last/</a><br>
<br>
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<p> </p>
<br>
[Digging back into the internet news archive]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming May
12, 2008 </b></font><br>
<p>May 12, 2008: GOP presidential candidate John McCain lays out his
plans to address climate change in Portland, Oregon. The speech
receives a tepid reaction, as McCain is widely faulted for
adopting an energy plan that would not reduce carbon emissions
enough to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/JZsmQzOT1oo">http://youtu.be/JZsmQzOT1oo</a><br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2008/05/12/172199/mccain-climate-speech/">http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2008/05/12/172199/mccain-climate-speech/</a><br>
</p>
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</p>
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