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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>June 24, 2021</b></font></i></p>
[leaks of harsh reality]<br>
<b>IPCC steps up warning on climate tipping points in leaked draft
report</b><br>
Scientists increasingly concerned about thresholds beyond which
recovery may become impossible<br>
<br>
Climate scientists are increasingly concerned that global heating
will trigger tipping points in Earth’s natural systems, which will
lead to widespread and possibly irrevocable disaster, unless action
is taken urgently.<br>
<br>
The impacts are likely to be much closer than most people realise, a
a draft report from the world’s leading climate scientists suggests,
and will fundamentally reshape life in the coming decades even if
greenhouse gas emissions are brought under some control.<br>
<br>
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is preparing a
landmark report to be published in stages this summer and next year.
Most of the report will not be published in time for consideration
by policymakers at Cop26, the UN climate talks taking place in
November in Glasgow.<br>
<br>
A draft of the IPCC report apparently from early this year was
leaked to Agence France-Presse, which reported on its findings on
Thursday. The draft warns of a series of thresholds beyond which
recovery from climate breakdown may become impossible. It warns:
“Life on Earth can recover from a drastic climate shift by evolving
into new species and creating new ecosystems … humans cannot.”<br>
<br>
Tipping points are triggered when temperatures reach a certain
level, whereby one impact rapidly leads to a series of cascading
events with vast repercussions. For instance, as rising temperatures
lead to the melting of Arctic permafrost, the unfreezing soil
releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that in turn causes more
heating...<br>
- -<br>
Other tipping points include the melting of polar ice sheets, which
once under way may be almost impossible to reverse even if carbon
emissions are rapidly reduced, and which would raise sea levels
catastrophically over many decades, and the possibility of the
Amazon rainforest switching suddenly to savannah, which scientists
have said could come quickly and with relatively small temperature
rises.<br>
<br>
Bob Ward, the policy and communications director at the Grantham
Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the
London School of Economics, said: “Scientists have identified
several potential regional and global thresholds or tipping points
in the climate beyond which impacts become unstoppable or
irreversible, or accelerate. They could create huge social and
economic responses, such as population displacements and conflict,
and so represent the largest potential risks of climate change.
Tipping points should be the climate change impacts about which
policymakers worry the most, but they are often left out of
assessments by scientists and economists because they are difficult
to quantify.”<br>
<br>
Previous work by the IPCC has been criticised for failing to take
account of tipping points. The new report is set to contain the
body’s strongest warnings yet on the subject.<br>
<br>
Simon Lewis, a professor of global change science at University
College London, said: “Nothing in the IPCC report should be a
surprise, as all the information comes from the scientific
literature. But put together, the stark message from the IPCC is
that increasingly severe heatwaves, fires, floods and droughts are
coming our way with dire impacts for many countries. On top of this
are some irreversible changes, often called tipping points, such as
where high temperatures and droughts mean parts of the Amazon
rainforest can’t persist. These tipping points may then link, like
toppling dominoes.”...<br>
- -<br>
He added: “The exact timing of tipping points and the links between
them is not well understood by scientists, so they have been
under-reported in past IPCC assessments. The blunter language from
the IPCC this time is welcome, as people need to know what is at
stake if society does not take action to immediately slash carbon
emissions.”...<br>
- -<br>
According to AFP, the IPCC draft details at least 12 potential
tipping points. “The worst is yet to come, affecting our children’s
and grandchildren’s lives much more than our own,” the report says.<br>
<br>
The reportmay be subject to minor changes in the coming months as
the IPCC shifts its focus to a key executive summary for
policymakers.<br>
<br>
It says that with 1.1C of warming above pre-industrial levels
clocked so far, the climate is already changing. A decade ago,
scientists believed that limiting global warming to 2C above
mid-19th-century levels would be enough to safeguard the future.<br>
<br>
That goal is enshrined in the 2015 Paris agreement, adopted by
nearly 200 nations who vowed to collectively cap warming at “well
below” 2C – and 1.5C if possible. On current trends the world is
heading for 3C at best.<br>
<br>
Earlier models predicted that Earth-altering climate change was not
likely before 2100. But the UN draft report says prolonged warming
even beyond 1.5C could produce “progressively serious,
centuries-long and, in some cases, irreversible consequences.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/23/climate-change-dangerous-thresholds-un-report">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/23/climate-change-dangerous-thresholds-un-report</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[nice notion]<br>
<b>Some Republicans Find Failure to Grapple With Climate Change a
‘Political Liability’</b><br>
A small but growing number of Republicans say the G.O.P. needs a
coherent climate strategy and formed a “Conservative Climate Caucus”
on Capitol Hill.<br>
By Lisa Friedman - June 23, 2021<br>
WASHINGTON — When Representative John Curtis quietly approached
fellow Republicans to invite them to discuss climate change at a
clandestine meeting in his home state of Utah, he hoped a half dozen
members might attend...<br>
- -<br>
For four years under President Donald J. Trump, even uttering the
phrase “climate change” was verboten for many Republicans. His
administration scrubbed the words from federal websites, tried to
censor testimony to Congress and mocked the science linking rising
fossil fuel emissions to a warming planet.<br>
- -<br>
Now, many in the Republican Party are coming to terms with what
polls have been saying for years: independents, suburban voters and
especially young Republicans are worried about climate change and
want the government to take action.<br>
<br>
“There is a recognition within the G.O.P. that if the party is going
to be competitive in national elections, in purple states and purple
districts, there needs to be some type of credible position on
climate change,” said George David Banks, a former adviser to
President Trump and now a senior fellow at the nonprofit Bipartisan
Policy Center, a centrist Washington think tank. Republicans realize
it is now “a political liability” to dismiss or even avoid
discussing climate change, he said.<br>
- -<br>
“It’s my hope that any Republican that belongs to this caucus, if
asked about climate in a town-hall meeting, will feel very
comfortable talking about it,” Mr. Curtis said, adding, “I fear that
too often Republicans have simply said what they don’t like without
adding on ‘but here’s our ideas.’”...<br>
- -<br>
Meanwhile, Mr. McCarthy and other Republicans remain opposed to
President Biden’s climate proposals, which include a clean
electricity standard, which would require utilities to gradually
increase the amount of electricity they produce from wind, solar and
other renewable sources until they are no longer burning fossil
fuels. And leading Republicans continue to spread a lie that Mr.
Biden wants to force Americans to stop eating hamburgers, because of
the environmental harm caused by beef production.<br>
- -<br>
Still, the fact that a growing number of Republicans are crafting a
climate strategy is significant...<br>
- - <br>
The same event drew several young Republican activists from
different parts of the country who said they were eager to change
their party’s reputation as climate deniers...<br>
- -<br>
“For people our age, this is not a partisan issue,” said Maggie
Ambrose, 26, the membership director for a national Republican
political action committee. “This is the starting point. It’s people
saying ‘We’re young, this is where we want the party to go.’”<br>
- -<br>
“The conservative movement has to lean into this and it can’t be
behind closed doors anymore,” he said. He described the Utah meeting
as “almost like a ‘come to Jesus’ moment, where people started to
realize we could take the offensive on these issues and become
leaders, and we don’t have to keep being defensive.”<br>
- -<br>
Myron Ebell, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s
Center for Energy and Environment who has long attacked the science
of climate change, called the Republican moves “a way to win some
suburban voters. I don’t take it very seriously.”<br>
<br>
The proof is in behavior, not rhetoric, said Representative Kathy
Castor, the Democratic chairwoman of the House Select Committee on
the Climate Crisis.<br>
<br>
“All of this is just greenwashing until they start to align their
votes,” Ms. Castor said. “You can talk until the cows come home but
you have to follow it up with real action.”<br>
- -<br>
“If we’re not successful working with Democrats then we’ll fail,”
Mr. Curtis said. “If this is only about getting Republicans talking
about climate and it just increases the partisan nature of climate,
that’s a failure for me. We have to learn how to engage our
Democratic colleagues to move forward legislation.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/23/climate/climate-change-republicans.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/23/climate/climate-change-republicans.html</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[Everything goes to dust, or to melt water]<br>
<b>Antarctic nearing climate disaster despite landmark historic
treaty</b><br>
Burning fossil fuels threatens one of the last areas on Earth left
unspoiled by extractive human industries.<br>
<br>
When the Antarctic Treaty came into effect 60 years ago, its
signatories had little idea how successful it would be.<br>
<br>
World leaders agreed to leave an uninhabited continent twice the
size of Australia free from war, weapons and nuclear waste. They
declared that the southern polar region, which is 98% ice and does
not have an indigenous population, should belong to no country and
instead be devoted to collaborative science. In the following
decades, extra rules to stop companies mining minerals and drilling
for oil turned Antarctica into the biggest nature reserve in the
world.<br>
<br>
Now climate change is undermining that success story...<br>
- -<br>
A second study, published in June in the journal Science Advances,
found that an ice shelf that supports the 175,000-square-kilometer
(68,000-square-mile) Pine Island Glacier is breaking up into the
water faster and faster. The glacier is responsible for more than a
quarter of Antarctica's contribution to global sea level rise and
will melt faster if it collapses into warm waters.<br>
<br>
"If the ice shelf's rapid retreat continues, it could further
destabilize the glacier far sooner than would be expected," the
authors wrote...<br>
- - <br>
Keeping the peace<br>
The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by 12 countries whose
scientists had been active in the region, and entered into force two
years later. The parties agreed that the region should be "a natural
reserve, devoted to peace and science."<br>
<br>
For superpowers such as the US and the then USSR — who would go on
to fight proxy wars across Asia, Africa and South America over the
next three decades — the Antarctic became a place of cooperation
that offered a rare respite from the nuclear tensions of the Cold
War.<br>
<br>
In other diplomatic spaces, representatives from these countries
"would pound their chests and yell," said Sridhar Anandakrishnan, a
glaciologist at Penn State University in the US. But, in the
Antarctic Treaty meetings, "they could formally, officially and
openly talk."<br>
<br>
For scientists, cooperation meant refueling planes at bases of other
countries — essential in such a hostile landscape — and sharing
findings. Teams of scientists in the Antarctic have collected
climate data stretching back hundreds of thousands of years and in
1985 they discovered a dangerous hole in the ozone layer above it.<br>
<br>
Everybody in Antarctica is there for "altruistic reasons," said
Anandakrishnan, who has been on 23 scientific expeditions to the
region since 1985. "We're there for something that we hope is larger
than ourselves and is in service of society."...<br>
- -<br>
Earth's polar regions are warming faster than the rest of the
planet. But unlike the North Pole, which has become the focus of
geopolitical tensions as melting ice reveals rich resources, the
South Pole has few known minerals or fuels to exploit other than
some reserves of coal and oil. That has helped shield it from the
attention of extractive industries.<br>
<br>
Still, the Antarctic is big and similar enough to nearby geological
areas to likely be home to more resources. Together with the
region's inhospitable landscape — with thick ice and harsh weather
making any commercial extraction costly — the Treaty's 1991 ban on
mining and drilling has kept Antarctica free from anything other
than scientific exploration. The ban is indefinite and may first be
reviewed in 2048.<br>
<br>
But the picture is less rosy for the waters around it...<br>
- -<br>
Still, as an example of global cooperation, the Antarctic Treaty has
not been matched — though some experts are skeptical that it could
be replicated in today's political climate of rising populism. "It
would be seen as globalization, which it is," Anandakrishnan said.
"It wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being passed
today."<br>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.dw.com/en/antarctic-treaty-system-climate-change/a-57993681">https://www.dw.com/en/antarctic-treaty-system-climate-change/a-57993681</a></p>
<p>- -</p>
[Big concerns today]<br>
BY CAROL KONYN - POLAR REGIONS - JUL 20TH 2020<br>
<b>Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier is Deteriorating at an Alarming
Rate- What It Means</b><br>
Thwaites Glacier is losing ice faster and faster, and the process
seems to be accelerating; over the past three decades, the amount of
ice flowing out of Thwaites and its neighbouring glaciers has nearly
doubled. <br>
<br>
The glacier is more than 191 000 sq km and is particularly
susceptible to the climate crisis. Rob Larter, marine geophysicist
and UK principal investigator for the Thwaites Glacier Project at
the British Antarctic Survey, said “it is the most vulnerable place
in Antarctica,” with large portions deteriorating and breaking off.<br>
<br>
David Vaughan, director of science at the British Antarctic Survey,
stressed that if the Thwaites glacier continues to deteriorate at
its current rate, it could collapse and be responsible for tens of
centimetres of sea level rise by the end of the century. “That
doesn’t sound like much, but it is,” Vaughan noted, “it is not about
the sea coming up the beach slowly over 100 years – it is about one
morning you wake up, and an area that has never been flooded in
history is flooded.”<br>
<br>
As Thwaites melts, it could propagate a 65 centimetre rise in sea
levels, however if Thwaites fully deteriorates, the cascading effect
across the Western half of Antarctica would lead to a 2- to 3-meter
rise in sea levels, which would be ‘catastrophic’ for most coastal
cities. <br>
<br>
Paul Cutler, programme director for Antarctic glaciology at the
National Science Foundation in the US, explains how Thwaites glacier
“is a keystone for the other glaciers around it in West Antarctica …
If you remove it, other ice will potentially start draining into the
ocean too.” <br>
<br>
Current models estimate a 61- to 110-centimetre sea level rise by
the end of the century, assuming the world continues to emit the
same amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. <br>
<br>
The Cascading Effects of Melting Ice<br>
Antarctica holds around 90% of the ice on the planet- the
‘equivalent to a continent the size of Europe covered in a blanket
of ice 2 kilometres thick’. As temperatures rise, the Earth does not
heat up evenly everywhere: the polar regions warm much faster.
Antarctica and Greenland are at the frontline of receiving much of
global warming’s negative effects, more so than the rest of the
world. Unfortunately, these high temperatures are being fuelled not
just by a rise in greenhouse gases, but also by natural weather
shifts in the tropics.<br>
<br>
A recent study found that the South Pole, the most remote place on
Earth, has warmed at three times the global rate since 1989, with
temperatures rising 0.6 degrees per decade- a worrying figure that
reveals the stark and rapid progression of global warming. <br>
<br>
You might also like: The South Pole is Warming Three Times Faster
Than the Global Rate<br>
<br>
Warming Oceans <br>
Currently, the Antarctic continent contributes about 1 millimetre
per year to sea level rise, which is a third of the annual global
increase. <br>
<br>
There is a lot yet to understand about the physical properties of
ice sheets and how they deteriorate with time- researching the
Thwaites glacier is therefore pivotal. Anders Levermann, a professor
at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact, says, “it is very
difficult to say how fast sea level is rising, but it is not very
difficult to say how much ice can survive on a planet that is 1C or
2C or 3C warmer, and how much the ocean will expand.” <br>
<br>
Despite reports demonstrating a decrease in carbon dioxide emissions
amidst COVID-19 due to worldwide lockdowns, the long-term projection
remains unsettling as carbon dioxide can remain in the atmosphere
for long periods of time, and its levels are still increasing.<br>
<br>
Additionally, the Earth’s core temperature is continuing to rise:
last month was the hottest June on record, and in July a heatwave
swept the Russian Arctic near Siberia resulting in temperatures of
38 degrees Celsius, which triggered the escalation of the Arctic
wildfires. <br>
<br>
Many of the observable effects of the climate crisis are
irreversible, and continuous research is needed to understand what
the future of rising sea levels holds and what it would mean for
Earth’s inhabitants. Reversing these effects entirely is out of the
question, scientists protest, but stopping them in their tracks by
slowing the rate of global warming would help prevent further
damage.<br>
<br>
Tackling the Problem <br>
<br>
The challenge lies in tackling the rapid rate of rising sea levels.
If infrastructure planners prepare for a 60 or 70 centimeter rise in
sea level, then an unprecedented rate of, say, twice as much, would
diminish their efforts- making such plans ineffective in
accommodating for a potential higher, unpredicted sea level rise. In
light of this, research that aims to develop a greater understanding
of Thwaites will help experts better plan and prepare for the future
of Earth’s climate. <br>
<br>
With higher sea levels comes coastal flooding, damaged
infrastructure, heightened storms during typhoons, and destruction
to agricultural land due to salty seawater invasion. Coastal cities
have already begun preparing for the worst. San Francisco is
building defences around its airport, which sits three metres above
sea level, and London is considering increasing the height of the
Thames barrier. <br>
<br>
According to a study published in the journal Environmental Research
Communications, the economic cost of such infrastructure aimed at
accommodating rising seas will be as much as 4% of global GDP by the
end of the century. <br>
<br>
Thomas Schinko, author of a study published in Nature Climate Change
and a researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems
Analysis, says that if we don’t adapt we will experience ‘huge
losses’, stressing that it would be more cost-effective to prepare
for the worst than to deal with the aftermath of rising sea levels<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://earth.org/antarcticas-thwaites-glacier-is-deteriorating-at-an-alarming-rate/">https://earth.org/antarcticas-thwaites-glacier-is-deteriorating-at-an-alarming-rate/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[is collapse or extinction possible? partial transcript of video
interview]<br>
<b>Julia Steinberger: Can we avoid ecological collapse?</b> <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HwQqUVPo2E">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HwQqUVPo2E</a><br>
<blockquote>"I think the notion of one single collapse is -- it's
a bit too much like the movies.<br>
<br>
So if you think about collapse -- Puerto Rico had a collapse, New
Orleans had a collapse and I'm just talking about places in
America -- Paradise, California pretty sure collapsed and places
in Bangladesh right now, in Mozambique, you know after the
hurricanes there last summer. Some parts of Australia have
collapsed.<br>
<br>
<br>
I would guess I'm just trying to think through the these places<br>
So we have places that have been hit by mega typhoons in the
Philippines or probably facing collapse, places that have suffered
horrific drought in India.<br>
<br>
So I think that collapse is not one thing in some places, Some
ecosystems some communities have already collapsed...you think
partners after the storm,...there was just, it was just nothing.<br>
There was no help, there was nothing. So also think that we have
the wrong idea of what it looks like -- collapse.<br>
Because when it happens at that level we don't hear the voices of
the people. You know either the people succeed in leaving and
rejoining other communities or their conditions become completely
miserable and you just don't you don't hear from them. And Mary
Annaïse Heglar - a climate journalist and writer and one of the
things she says - she's always looking for first person testimony
from climate events happening around the world and how rare that
is for journalists to be able to make it there, to be able to talk
to those people to get first person accounts. <br>
So in terms of collapse, collapse is already happening driven by
environmental degradation. In terms of mega events. I think
things are going to get worse but i think we're also learning to
struggle against them<br>
<br>
So I'm trying to think about social tipping points. I'm trying to
think about how we've had this idea that the transition to
sustainability would be smooth. This idea of transition is a
smooth one right where we go smoothly in one direction for the
good stuff and smoothing in one direction for the bad stuff and I
think that this will not be a transition, (it) will be a
transformation... it'll be transformation that happens some places
first, other places later, and it will be sudden.<br>
It will be, you know, finally we managed to get to that point
where this industry does not know. - no longer have traction, no
longer get subsidies. We can throw cars out of our cities - you
know this is going to happen some places first -- then other
places then everywhere very fast. <br>
<br>
So the good stuff is going to happen suddenly, the bad stuff is
going to happen suddenly, and it's going to happen in different
ways across across the world.<br>
<br>
I would think the thing that worries me the most in all of this is
probably the rise of fascism and anti-democracy.<br>
So for all the people who always say "oh you're Stalinist" -
"you're anti-democratic" or totalitarian socialist of some<br>
very specific description. The totalitarian governments are fossil
fueled. They are very much tied in with existing<br>
industrial powerhouses of fossil fuel industries, automotive
industries and so on..."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/9HwQqUVPo2E?t=1322">https://youtu.be/9HwQqUVPo2E?t=1322</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<p>[in the disinformation battleground - is this revelatory art?, or
is this weaponry?]<br>
<b>This Bot Clicking Ads on Climate Articles Shows the News Is
Broken</b><br>
Synthetic Messenger, a project from artists Tega Brain and Sam
Lavigne, makes climate news stories more visible with clicks.<br>
Dharna Noor - June 18, 2021<br>
Watching Synthetic Messenger is a somewhat dissociative
experience. It operates in a Zoom call with 100 participants, all
of whom are bots. Observers can watch these bots—which are
strangely anthropomorphized with images of disembodied hands and
voices that say “scroll” and “click” repeatedly—methodically
scroll through news articles about climate change and click every
ad on each page.<br>
<br>
The project, created by two New York artist-cum-engineers,
launched earlier this month. In its first week and a half online,
its bots visited 2 million climate articles—you can see them
listed here—and clicked on 6 million ads.<br>
<br>
If this all seems like a bizarre, trippy art project, it
definitely is. But it’s also a piece of criticism about how
narratives about the climate crisis are shaped by the media.<br>
<br>
Most online outlets are funded by advertisers. Stories that garner
more ad clicks can also become more visible in Google’s search
algorithms, drawing more eyes to the page. When certain stories
garner more views and engagement, news organizations are more
likely to publish similar articles. Absurdly, this means
advertising mechanisms and algorithms can play an outsized role in
determining what news people see rather than other factors like,
um, how important the story is.<br>
“With this project, we wanted to see how that media ecology
affects our actual ecology, how narrative affects our material
realm,” Sam Lavigne, an artist and assistant professor in the
Department of Design at the University of Texas, said.<br>
Of course, conflicting narratives have always played a role in the
climate crisis, as Lavigne was quick to note. Polluters know that
controlling how people talk and think about the climate crisis is
important, so they’ve spent fortunes on all sorts of
misinformation campaigns, including on shaping narratives in
media.<br>
“The narrative around climate change has been so controlled by the
fossil fuel industry and lobby groups,” Lavigne said.<br>
<br>
Algorthims have further distorted how news—or, increasingly,
misinformation—reaches people. YouTube’s algorithm for
recommending videos, for instance, has encouraged viewers to watch
videos full of climate denial. YouTube also sold against those
videos, profiting off misinformation while incentivizing viewers
to consume ever-more of it.<br>
<br>
As historically damaging wildfires spread across Australia a
year-and-a-half ago, a narrative sprung up that they were sparked
by arsonists, not by the climate crisis. That misinformation, a
group of researchers found, was spread with the use of online
trolling bots. Conservative media then turned around and amplified
those claims, creating a feedback loop where everyone was
debunking lies rather than talking about how to address the
climate crisis. (The same scenario played out in the U.S. last
year.) Yet as Tega Brain, who co-created the project, noted, these
aren’t the only ways that algorithms have colored the media
landscape.<br>
<br>
“All news, and therefore all public opinion is being shaped [by]
algorithms,” Brain, an assistant professor of digital media at New
York University whose background is in environmental engineering,
said. “And the algorithmic systems that shape news are these
blackbox algorithms,” she added, referring to tech companies’
practice of hiding how their code and priorities from the public.<br>
Synthetic Messenger, then, looks to game the system by showing
bot-fed interest in climate stories. While it could play a small
role in amplifying climate coverage, there are some complications.
For one, since its algorithm is imprecise and based on
climate-related keywords, it also clicks ads on climate-denying
media. Its creators have tried to get around that by blacklisting
denialist websites like those owned by Rupert Murdoch, but it’s
not a perfect system.<br>
<br>
If this project were primarily designed as a tool for political
organizing, those might be big sticking points. But Brain and
Lavigne are clear that they know their project won’t change the
media landscape or fight the climate crisis itself.<br>
<br>
“We don’t intend for it to be read as like, ‘here is this really
effective new activist strategy to deal with climate change,’”
said Brain. “Essentially, with this project we’re doing what’s
called ‘click fraud,’ and if we did it for a long enough time and
at a large enough scale, it wouldn’t work, because obviously ad
networks are doing everything they can to sort of protect against
automated behavior. They’d stop it.”<br>
<br>
Rather, the purpose is to call attention to the screwed-up
incentive structures that determine what climate stories get told
and amplified by advertisers and search algorithms.<br>
<br>
“It’s not like we are offering this as a solution to this problem
that we have. The solution is meaningful climate policy, effective
policy,” said Brain. “But we’re trying to open up a conversation
and reveal the way that our media landscape is currently
operating.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://gizmodo.com/this-bot-clicking-ads-on-climate-articles-shows-the-new-1847123170">https://gizmodo.com/this-bot-clicking-ads-on-climate-articles-shows-the-new-1847123170</a><br>
</p>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
[video art or information weapon? -- I wish someone would tell me
what I was looking at] <br>
Carbon and Medial Cycle Dynamics<br>
<b>Synthetic Messenger Performance 4</b><br>
Streamed live on Jun 5, 2021<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlFW1gL6AGU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlFW1gL6AGU</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
[Web site of the artists]<br>
<b>SYNTHETIC MESSENGER</b><br>
A BOTNET SCHEME FOR CLIMATE NEWS<br>
Synthetic Messenger is a botnet that artificially inflates the value
of climate news. Everyday it searches the internet for news articles
covering climate change. Then 100 bots visit each article and click
on every ad they can find.<br>
<br>
In an algorithmic media landscape the value of news is determined by
engagement statistics. Media outlets rely on advertising revenue
earned through page visits and ad clicks. These engagement signals
produce patterns of value that influence what stories and topics get
future coverage. Public narratives around existential issues like
climate change are shaped by these interwoven algorithmic and
economic logics, logics that are presently leveraged by the fossil
fuel industry.<br>
<br>
Synthetic Messenger is a second-order climate engineering scheme to
manipulate the algorithmic systems that shape these narratives.
Climate engineering describes deliberate, large-scale interventions
in the Earth's climate system, typically referring to speculative
methods such as solar radiation management or carbon dioxide removal
(either by machine or biophysical processes like tree-planting and
soil management). At a time when our action or inaction has distinct
atmospheric effects, the news we see and the narratives that shape
our beliefs also directly shape the climate. What if media itself
were a form of climate engineering, a space where narrative becomes
ecology?<br>
see the artwork of Carbon and Media Cycle Dynamics <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://syntheticmessenger.labr.io/assets/cycle-animation.bb9af9fb.gif">https://syntheticmessenger.labr.io/assets/cycle-animation.bb9af9fb.gif</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://syntheticmessenger.labr.io/">https://syntheticmessenger.labr.io/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p> </p>
[great maps and graphics in this video]<br>
<b>Prof. Paul A. Berkman: Struggles Over The Melting Arctic</b><br>
May 1, 2021<br>
GBH Forum Network<br>
Professor Paul Arthur Berkman is a science diplomat, applying,
training and refining informed decision making.<br>
<br>
U.S. President Donald Trump left many scratching their heads when it
was rumored that he was looking to purchase the large island nation
of Greenland from Denmark. While any potential deal seems highly
unlikely, the event shows the changing opinion within the U.S.
government toward engagement with the Arctic region. Because of
climate change, large sheets of arctic ice are melting, exposing
vast stores of natural gas and oil. With Russia and China already
miles ahead with their Arctic strategies, can the U.S. catch up?<br>
<br>
In 2010, Berkman co-directed the first formal dialogue between NATO
and Russia regarding environmental security in the Arctic Ocean.
Most recently, he was awarded the Fulbright Arctic Chair 2021-2022
by the US Department of State with funding from the US Congress and
support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Professor
Berkman built international networks at Tufts University from
2015-2020 at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He founded
the first Science Diplomacy Center in the world in an academic
institution, now directed through EvREsearch LTD, where he is the
Chief Executive Officer. In addition to coordinating the Arctic
Options/Pan-Arctic Options projects from 2013-2021, Professor
Berkman is a Faculty Associate with the Program on Negotiation (PON)
at the Harvard Law School and an Associate Director of Science
Diplomacy in the Harvard-MIT Public Disputes Program. He also works
as an Associated Fellow with the United Nations Institute for
Training and Research (UNITAR), developing global initiatives with
science diplomacy and its engine of informed decision making.<br>
<br>
GBH Forum Network ~ Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM_irWt0K9s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM_irWt0K9s</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[interviewing Russian scientists]<br>
<b>Sources of Arctic Methane | Igor Semiletov | Unseen footage of
methane plumes from 2020 voyage | pt1</b><br>
May 12, 2021<br>
Nick Breeze<br>
The whole series and transcript will be available at <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://genn.cc">https://genn.cc</a><br>
<br>
This is part 1 in series of three posts on methane releases from the
East Siberian Arctic Shelf recorded in 2021.<br>
<br>
This is the first in a miniseries discussing the ongoing work in the
Russian Arctic talking to Dr Igor Semiletov, one of the lead
scientists who has been studying the region for over twenty years. <br>
<br>
Old deep thermogenic pool<br>
<br>
In assessing whether the potential for increased climate warming is
a significant risk, scientists look at the size of the carbon pool
and also the origin of the methane. <br>
<br>
In many cases where methane is produced from biogenic sources, such
as animals and plants, it is created by microbes and although has
the same global warming potential, it is created very slowly and is
often broken down to CO2 before it reaches the atmosphere. <br>
<br>
The other source is thermogenic methane that occurs due to the decay
of organic matter at high pressure and temperature. For these
conditions to occur, the sediments where they are found are older
and deeper.<br>
<br>
In terms of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, many scientists have
believed that the methane emissions are from biogenic sources. This
means they would be slower to form and overall a lesser risk to the
global climate.<br>
<br>
This article has been created using extracts from recent interviews
with Dr Semiletov. In part 2 I speak to Professor Orjan Gustafsson
from the Department of Environmental Science at Stockholm
University. <br>
<br>
Orjan has been visiting the East Siberian Shelf for many years
working alongside an international group of scientists including the
Russians. He discusses how research into the escaping methane and
thawing permafrost in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf should be
greatly expanded considering the magnitude and changing stability of
the carbon pool. He also suggests that this research could have
enormous ramifications for how carbon budgets that inform policy,
are calculated.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGgcUSJbAqE">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGgcUSJbAqE</a><br>
<br>
- -<br>
<br>
[methane scientist]<br>
<b>Russian Arctic Methane Releases & Subsea Permafrost
Degradation | Prof Örjan Gustafsson (Pt 2)</b><br>
May 26, 2021<br>
Nick Breeze<br>
Support on Patreon: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://patreon.com/genncc">https://patreon.com/genncc</a><br>
<br>
Visit & subscribe to genn.cc: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://genn.cc">https://genn.cc</a><br>
<br>
This episode has been published and can be heard everywhere your
podcast is available.<br>
In this second episode of the methane miniseries, I speak to
Professor Orjan Gustafsson from Stockholm University about his
team's ongoing collaboration with the Russian research team, led by
Professor Igor Semiletov, investigating the Siberian Arctic.<br>
<br>
Orjan has published over 80 research papers jointly with his Russian
colleagues on their findings in the Russian Arctic over the course
of more than a decade. In this episode, he highlights why
understanding this region is among one of the most important
research areas in climate change today.<br>
<br>
Despite the complexity of geopolitics that often infects peoples
thinking in dealing with Russia, the opportunities for scientific
collaboration in pursuit of critical knowledge can, in the long run,
prove more beneficial than any short term political aims.<br>
<br>
Thank you for listening to Shaping The Future. More interviews and
podcasts can be found on climateseries.com, GENN.CC and on all major
podcast channels and Youtube.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsplufI48Ik">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsplufI48Ik</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[deployment to the Arctic ]<br>
<b>On the Deployment of Ocean Spraying Vessels to Brighten Marine
Clouds to Cool the Planet: 4 of 4</b><br>
Jun 23, 2021<br>
Paul Beckwith<br>
I was recently in a great video discussion with Peter Wadhams and
Stephen Salter, hosted by Metta Spencer, to hash out the cloud
brightening technique as conceptualized by Emeritus Professor
Stephen Salter in the Engineering and Design Department at the
University of Edinburgh over the last couple of decades.<br>
<br>
Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) has the potential to cool the planet
in a highly controllable fashion. Essentially, sea water is pumped
to high pressure through nozzles where it generates water jets that
then break apart (via Rayleigh instability) to form tiny water
droplets. The nozzle size, number of nozzles, water pressure, etc…
are engineered to produce water droplets of 800 nm size (0.8 micron)
so that when the water evaporates we are left with 200 nm salt
crystals. These salt crystals are then transported within the
turbulent boundary layer above the surface of the ocean up to
heights about 1 km to 1.5 km where they act as cloud condensation
nuclei, ensuring that the clouds that do form are of extremely high
albedo (reflectivity) and thus can reflect enough incoming sunlight
to cool the surface of the Earth. <br>
<br>
The spray nozzles are transported around the oceans of the planet by
hydrofoil ships powered by the wind using so-called Flettner Rotors.
The ships are sailed to specific areas of the ocean at specific
times of the year to brighten the clouds in specific regions to get
the desired regional cooling, for example to reduce Atlantic Basin
hurricane strength, protect coral reefs, cool the Arctic enough to
restore Arctic Sea Ice, and!or modify monsoons or redistribute
rainfall to reduce droughts or torrential rainfalls.<br>
<br>
This technology has enormous potential to cool the planet enough to
buy us time to slash fossil fuel emissions and deploy carbon removal
technologies.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8Ko60kXk6w">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8Ko60kXk6w</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[The news archive - looking back]<br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming June
24, 2004</b></font><br>
<p>June 24, 2004: NYTimes.com reports: <br>
<br>
"The Supreme Court handed a major political victory to the Bush
administration today, ruling 7 to 2 that Vice President Dick
Cheney is not obligated, at least for now, to release secret
details of his energy task force.<br>
<br>
"The majority of the justices agreed with the administration's
arguments that private deliberations among a president, vice
president and their close advisers are indeed entitled to special
treatment — arising from the constitutional principle known as
executive privilege — although they said the administration must
still prove the specifics of its case in the lower courts.<br>
<br>
"'A president's communications and activities encompass a vastly
wider range of sensitive material than would be true of any
ordinary individual,' the court said in a summary of the majority
opinion written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.<br>
<br>
"By sending the case back to the lower federal courts, the
majority removed a significant political headache for President
Bush and Vice President Cheney. As a practical matter, the outcome
today means that the final resolution will not come until well
after the November elections."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/politics/24CND-CHEN.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/politics/24CND-CHEN.html</a>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/cheney062404.pdf">https://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/cheney062404.pdf</a>
<br>
</p>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/</p>
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