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<p><i><font size="+1"><b>July 21, 2021</b></font></i></p>
[floods in China]<br>
<b>Rescue efforts launched after record floods in central China
displace 1.2 million</b><br>
Washington Post<br>
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</p>
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</p>
[In the Atlantic, an obit for a policy ]<br>
<b>Carbon Tax, Beloved Policy to Fix Climate Change, Is Dead at 47</b><br>
It reshaped how the world thought about climate change. But its
prized trait—bloodless economic efficiency—won it few friends on the
right or left.<br>
<br>
By Robinson Meyer<br>
The death was confirmed by President Joe Biden’s utter lack of
interest in passing it.<br>
<br>
The carbon tax aimed to reduce carbon-dioxide pollution—which heats
the air, acidifies the ocean, and causes climate change—by applying
a commonsense idea: If you don’t want people to do something, charge
them money for it. The tax would have levied a fee—ranging from $5
to, in some estimates, more than $150—on every ton of carbon
released into the atmosphere. Such a cost would have percolated
through the economy, raising gasoline and jet-fuel prices, closing
coal-fired power plants, and encouraging consumers and companies to
adopt cleaner forms of energy.<br>
- -<br>
Today, cap-and-trade markets are by far the dominant form of carbon
pricing worldwide. Now that China has launched its cap-and-trade
system, carbon prices cover 20 percent of global emissions.
Forty-five countries are covered by some form of carbon price,
according to the World Bank. But relatively few of them use carbon
taxes.<br>
<br>
Advocates say they will cryogenically freeze the American carbon tax
in case it is needed in the future. Some supporters argue that the
tax is one of very few climate policies that can survive a
conservative Supreme Court, because the Constitution clearly
empowers Congress to levy taxes but may not allow other types of
regulation.<br>
<br>
Yet near-term prospects for the policy’s revival are dim.<br>
<br>
The American carbon tax leaves behind dozens of supportive
think-tank employees, thousands of politically engaged and
idealistic Americans, and 3,589 dejected economists.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/07/obituary-carbon-tax-beloved-climate-policy-dies-47/619507/">https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/07/obituary-carbon-tax-beloved-climate-policy-dies-47/619507/</a><br>
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[first famine from carbon emissions]<br>
<b>Climate, Not Conflict. Madagascar's Famine is the First in Modern
History to be Solely Caused by Global Warming</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://time.com/6081919/famine-climate-change-madagascar/">https://time.com/6081919/famine-climate-change-madagascar/</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
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[Academic studies]<br>
JULY 12, 2021<br>
<b>Stanford researchers map how sea-level rise adaptation strategies
impact economies and floodwaters</b><br>
By 2100, sea levels are expected to rise by almost seven feet in the
Bay Area. New research shows how traditional approaches to combating
sea-level rise can create a domino effect of environmental and
economic impacts for nearby communities...<br>
- -<br>
To understand the broader impacts of climate resilience decisions,
including investments in nature, the researchers plan to model how
sea-level rise adaptation strategies are connected with
infrastructure, employment, community dynamics and more.<br>
<br>
“Our plans should be as interconnected as our ecosystems,” said
Guerry.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://news.stanford.edu/2021/07/12/economic-impacts-combatting-sea-level-rise/">https://news.stanford.edu/2021/07/12/economic-impacts-combatting-sea-level-rise/</a><br>
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[WAPO]<br>
<b>"You should not be surprised that climate predictions may have
been too conservative"</b><br>
July 19m 2021<br>
“The IPCC’s reports tend to be both conservative and consensus,”
Bill McGuire, emeritus professor at University College London, told
the network. “They’re conservative, because insufficient attention
has been given to the importance of tipping points, feedback loops
and outlier predictions; consensus, because more extreme scenarios
have tended to be marginalized.”<br>
<br>
Speaking to Axios, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Michael
Wehner similarly argued that climate scientists had erred in favor
of less extreme predictions, in part out of concern that they might
seem alarmist. But for anyone who has been tracking the IPCC’s
reports over time, that the effects of climate change might extend
beyond the projected estimates was always clear.<br>
<br>
In 2003, John Houghton, then the IPCC co-chair, conceded that some
people believed the temperature projections included in the group’s
first report — released in 1991 and which informed the international
Kyoto climate accord — showed that “the IPCC was far too
conservative and should have been bolder” even then. In 2005, he
adopted that position himself, telling a Senate committee that “IPCC
reports have consistently proved to be too conservative” in their
estimates.<br>
<br>
Over and over this crops up. James Hansen, the scientist whose 1988
testimony before Congress kick-started the focus on climate change,
described the IPCC as being overly cautious in a 2004 interview,
specifically referring to its consideration of the potential
ramifications of the collapse of the Arctic ice sheet. Michael
MacCracken, head of the Climate Institute in Washington, previewed
the IPCC’s 2007 report by noting that it had consistently erred on
the side of less-bad outcomes.<br>
<br>
“Scientists don’t like to be wrong, so they tend to discount the
most uncertain things,” MacCracken told USA Today. “And that’s good,
but policymakers and risk managers usually want to know the worst
case, as well as the middle one, when they plan for things.”<br>
<br>
In the aftermath of that report, the IPCC’s fourth, there was a
broad array of critics opining that its estimates may not have
accurately conveyed the dangers posed by warming. Some of that
feedback was certainly a function of an activist movement newly
empowered by the prominence of climate change in the political
debate (largely a function of the release of “An Inconvenient Truth”
the year prior), but much of the criticism came from scientists
themselves — including some familiar names.<br>
<br>
“At times it is frustratingly conservative,” University of Chicago
climatologist David Archer told Inter Press Service that year.<br>
<br>
In 2013, in advance of the fifth report, the New York Times
reported on the broad sense that the IPCC was overly cautious,
identifying two contentious issues — each of which was decided in
favor of the more conservative position. Research from MIT and
another group of American scientists found that the IPCC’s models
were overly optimistic or ignoring the possibility of negative
feedback loops, a situation in which one negative effect worsens
another negative effect. (Thawing permafrost from rising
temperatures in the Arctic, for example, can release more methane
that contributes to warming.)<br>
<br>
It’s also useful to note that most people don’t get their
understanding of the effects of climate change from closely parsing
the massive IPCC reports on the predicted effects. What’s at issue
here is less the accuracy of the report (though that is at issue)
than the point Hulme makes: What danger is there in being overly
alarmist on the subject?<br>
<br>
In that case, ironically, the IPCC appears to err in favor of the
outlier: An extreme position of alarm is the more dangerous path to
take.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/19/you-should-not-be-surprised-that-climate-predictions-may-have-been-too-conservative/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/19/you-should-not-be-surprised-that-climate-predictions-may-have-been-too-conservative/</a><br>
<br>
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[video interview. Better deadline would be noon tomorrow. ]<br>
<b>Climate Crisis: John Kerry says next 100 days could ‘save many
lives’ ahead of COP 26</b><br>
Jul 20, 2021<br>
Channel 4 News<br>
In the middle of the international politics, trying to marshal
countries towards a common goal, is the American elder statesmen
John Kerry - who's now the US envoy on climate change.<br>
I spoke to him earlier this afternoon, after his speech here at Kew,
and began by putting it to him that he gave an apocalyptic vision of
the world in a hundred years if Cop 26 is a failure. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQqZAmE8xSQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQqZAmE8xSQ</a><br>
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[Meat means high CO2]<br>
<b>Investigation: How the Meat Industry is Climate-Washing its
Polluting Business Model</b><br>
Growing global meat consumption threatens to derail the Paris
Agreement, but that hasn’t stopped the meat industry insisting it is
part of the solution to climate change.<br>
July 18, 2021<br>
DeSmog conducted a five-month investigation into the meat industry’s
PR and lobbying, reviewing hundreds of documents and statements by
companies and trade associations. Our research shows how the
industry seeks to portray itself as a climate leader by:<br>
<br>
Downplaying the impact of livestock farming on the climate;<br>
Casting doubt on the efficacy of alternatives to meat to combat
climate change;<br>
Promoting the health benefits of meat while overlooking the
industry’s environmental footprint;<br>
Exaggerating the potential of agricultural innovations to reduce the
livestock industry’s ecological impact.<br>
- -<br>
Today’s meat industry is dominated by a few multinational giants,
including JBS, Tyson Foods, Vion, and Danish Crown, with access to
markets across the world. In step with rising global demand, meat
production has more than quadrupled in the past sixty years. <br>
<br>
Despite this tremendous growth, forecasts indicate that the world is
still far from reaching “peak meat”. The Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD), which represents many of the
world’s biggest economies, and the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) predict that global meat production
will continue to rise in the coming decade as incomes increase in
developing countries.<br>
- -<br>
“Our strong belief, based on the science, is that livestock and
animal source food benefits people and the planet: livestock is a
valuable contribution to sustainability,” he said.<br>
<br>
But as it stands, there is a gap between what the meat industry is
reported to be doing and what it is actually doing to address its
environmental impact, Jacquet argues. For her, the amount of
positive media attention companies like JBS and Tyson receive just
for making commitments to reach net-zero emissions is “astonishing”.<br>
<br>
“Those words don’t seem to have associated actions as yet,” she
says. “We all have to demand more than just words. We need action as
well."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.desmog.com/2021/07/18/investigation-meat-industry-greenwash-climatewash/">https://www.desmog.com/2021/07/18/investigation-meat-industry-greenwash-climatewash/</a><br>
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[DW video news]<br>
<b>Are Germany's flood warning systems ready for more extreme
weather? | DW News</b><br>
Jul 20, 2021<br>
DW News<br>
00:00 The death toll from Germany's devastating flood disaster has
risen to more than 160, as emergency workers continue to search for
dozens of people still unaccounted for. German authorities insist
their flood warnings worked, even though there was massive loss of
life. Some experts say Germany's flood warning system failed and has
led to such widespread devastation. They say authorities knew what
was coming, but failed to prepare. <br>
02:28 DW reporter Giulia Saudelli is on the ground covering the
latest developments. She joins us from the town of Altenahr, in the
German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, which was especially hard hit
by the flooding.<br>
05:19 DW reporter Emily Gordine is covering the latest developments
in Schönau, in the southern German state of Bavaria. <br>
09:40 Jeff Da Costa, he's a researcher focusing on flood warning
systems at the University of Reading and has been personally
affected by events as his family's home in Luxembourg was flooded.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apiLNO_6ZfU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apiLNO_6ZfU</a><br>
<p><b>- -<br>
</b></p>
<b>Opinion: The climate crisis can't be stopped, we must adapt</b><br>
Most people should have realized by now that we're facing a climate
crisis. Curbing greenhouse gas emissions is just one side of the
problem. Adopting safety precautions is the other, says David Ehl.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-the-climate-crisis-cant-be-stopped-we-must-adapt/a-58294704">https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-the-climate-crisis-cant-be-stopped-we-must-adapt/a-58294704</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
[Says BBC]<br>
<b>How to cool your home in a warming world</b><br>
By Chris Vallance<br>
Technology Reporter<br>
A recent government report into climate risks warned that unless
homes can be kept cool in summer and warm in winter, health and
productivity will suffer.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57467776">https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57467776</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[video]<br>
<b>Fed Chair Powell grilled by grouchy senators over inflation and
climate change, even as economy rebounds</b><br>
UPDATED MON, JUL 19 2021<br>
<blockquote>“There’s no doubt that the banks are stronger today than
they were when they crashed the economy in 2008,” she added. “But
that’s the wrong standard: The question is whether or not they are
strong enough to withstand the next crisis and whether the Fed is
tough enough to protect the American economy and the American
taxpayer.”<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/15/fed-chair-powell-faces-grumpy-senators.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/15/fed-chair-powell-faces-grumpy-senators.html</a><br>
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[Video from Pecos Hank]<br>
<b>The Visual Beauty of Storms</b><br>
A STORM OF BEAUTY - Spectacular Phenomenon<br>
Pecos Hank<br>
Thunderstorm time lapse and spectacular phenomenon with facts and
information of where to witness these fascinating sights. Upward
lightning, mammatus, sprites, gustnadoes and of course, tornadoes. <br>
<br>
Copyright Pecos Hank, LLC. 2018<br>
To license storm video contact <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:hankschyma@gmail.com">hankschyma@gmail.com</a><br>
<br>
QLCS INFORMATION:<br>
A Quasi-Linear Convective System (QLCS), also known as a squall line
can harbor strong straight-line winds, heavy precipitation, hail, A
LOTTA lightning and possibly tornadoes… For me, squall lines
often provide spectacular storm scenery and other weird phenomenon.
This video highlights an array of fascinating weather along with
storm relative locations of where you’re most likely to witness
these beautiful sights. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/the-visual-beauty-of-storms.1004731/">https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/the-visual-beauty-of-storms.1004731/</a><br>
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[criminal action- or just immorality?]<br>
<b>How a powerful US lobby group helps big oil to block climate
action</b><br>
The American Petroleum Institute receives millions from oil
companies – and works behinds the scenes to stall or weaken
legislation<br>
<br>
Chris McGreal - 19 Jul 2021 <br>
<br>
When Royal Dutch Shell published its annual environmental report in
April, it boasted that it was investing heavily in renewable energy.
The oil giant committed to installing hundreds of thousands of
charging stations for electric vehicles around the world to help
offset the harm caused by burning fossil fuels.<br>
<br>
On the same day, Shell issued a separate report revealing that its
single largest donation to political lobby groups last year was made
to the American Petroleum Institute, one of the US’s most powerful
trade organizations, which drives the oil industry’s relationship
with Congress.<br>
<br>
Contrary to Shell’s public statements in support of electric
vehicles, API’s chief executive, Mike Sommers, has pledged to resist
a raft of Joe Biden’s environmental measures, including proposals to
fund new charging points in the US. He claims a “rushed transition”
to electric vehicles is part of “government action to limit
Americans’ transportation choice”.<br>
<br>
Shell donated more than $10m to API last year alone.<br>
<br>
And it’s not just Shell. Most other oil conglomerates are also major
funders, including ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP, although they have
not made their contributions public.<br>
<br>
The deep financial ties underscore API’s power and influence across
the oil and gas industry, and what politicians describe as the trade
group’s defining role in setting major obstacles to new climate
policies and legislation.<br>
<br>
Critics accuse Shell and other major oil firms of using API as cover
for the industry. While companies run publicity campaigns claiming
to take the climate emergency seriously, the trade group works
behind the scenes in Congress to stall or weaken environmental
legislation.<br>
<p> Earlier this year, an Exxon lobbyist in Washington was secretly
recorded by Greenpeace describing API as the industry’s “whipping
boy” to direct public and political criticism away from individual
companies.</p>
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat and strident
critic of big oil’s public relations tactics, accused API of “lying
on a massive industrial scale” about the climate crisis in order to
stall legislation to combat global heating.<br>
<br>
“The major oil companies and API move very much together,” he said.<br>
<br>
Whitehouse said the oil and gas industry now recognizes it is no
longer “socially acceptable” to outright deny climate change, and
that companies are under pressure to claim they support new energy
solutions that are less harmful to the environment. But that does
not mean their claims should be taken at face value.<br>
<br>
“The question as to whether they’re even sincere about that, or
whether this is just ‘Climate is a hoax 2.0’, is an unknown at this
point,” he added.<br>
<br>
Shell has defended its funding by saying that while it is
“misaligned” with some of API’s policies, the company continues to
sit on the group’s board and executive committee in order to have “a
greater positive impact” from within. The petroleum firm claims that
its influence helped manoeuvre API, which represents about 600
drilling companies, refiners and other interests such as plastics
makers, toward finally supporting a tax on carbon earlier this year.<br>
<br>
With Biden in the White House and growing public awareness of global
heating, there are signs API’s influence may be weakening as its own
members become divided on how to respond.<br>
<br>
The French oil company Total quit the group earlier this year over
its climate policies. Shareholder rebellions are pressing Exxon and
Chevron to move away from dependence on oil. Top clean energy
executives at Shell quit in December over the pace of change by the
company.<br>
<br>
API is also fighting a growing number of lawsuits, led by the state
of Minnesota, alleging that the trade group was at the heart of a
decades-long “disinformation campaign” on behalf of big oil to deny
the threat from fossil fuels.<br>
<br>
But despite threats to API’s lasting influence, Whitehouse argues
the trade organization represents the true face of the industry.
Instead of using its considerable power to push for environmentally
friendly energy laws, API is still lobbying to stall progress with
the oil industry’s blessing.<br>
<br>
“Their political effort at this point is purely negative, purely
against serious climate legislation. And many of them continue to
fund the fraudulent climate denialists that have been their
mouthpieces for a decade or more,” Whitehouse said.<br>
<br>
Since API was founded in 1919 out of an oil industry cooperation
with the government during the first world war, it has evolved into
a major political force with nearly $240m in annual revenue.<br>
<br>
Its board has been dominated by heavyweights from big oil, such as
Rex Tillerson, the Exxon chief who went on to become Donald Trump’s
secretary of state, and Tofiq Al Gabsani, the chief of Saudi
Refining, a subsidiary of the giant state-owned Aramco oil giant. Al
Gabsani was also registered as a lobbyist for the Saudi government.<br>
<br>
API also hired professional lobbyists, including Philip Cooney, who
went on to serve under George W Bush as chief of staff of the
Council on Environmental Quality until he was forced to resign in
2005 after tampering with government climate assessments to downplay
scientific evidence of global heating and to emphasise doubts.
Shortly afterward, Cooney was hired by Exxon.<br>
<br>
API came into its own as the realities of the climate crisis crept
into public and political discourse, and the industry found itself
on the defensive. The trade group, which claimed to represent
companies supporting 10m jobs and nearly 8% of the US economy,
played a central role in efforts to combat new environmental
regulations.<br>
<br>
In many cases, API was prepared to carry out the dirty work that
individual companies did not want to be held responsible for. In
1998, after countries signed the Kyoto Protocol to help curb carbon
emissions, API drew up a multimillion-dollar disinformation campaign
to ensure that “climate change becomes a non-issue”. The plan said
“victory will be achieved” when “recognition of uncertainties become
part of the ‘conventional wisdom’”.<br>
<br>
Much of this is the basis of several lawsuits against API. The first
was filed last year by the Minnesota attorney general, Keith
Ellison, who accuses the group of working alongside ExxonMobil and
Koch Industries to lie about the scale of the climate crisis. The
suit alleges that “previously unknown internal documents” show that
API and the others well understood the dangers for decades but
“engaged in a public-relations campaign that was not only false, but
also highly effective” to undermine climate science.<br>
<br>
The city of Hoboken in New Jersey is also suing API, claiming that
it engaged in a conspiracy by joining and funding “front groups”
that ran “deceptive advertising and communications campaigns that
promote climate disinformation and denialism”.<br>
The lawsuits allege that API funded scientists known to deny or
underplay climate changes, and gave millions of dollars to
ostensibly independent organisations, such as the Cato Institute and
the George C Marshall Institute, which denied or downplayed the
growing environmental crisis.<br>
<br>
“API has been a member of at least five organizations that have
promoted disinformation about fossil-fuel products to consumers,”
Ellison alleges in Minnesota’s lawsuit. “These front groups were
formed to provide climate disinformation and advocacy from a
seemingly objective source, when, in fact, they were financed and
controlled by ExxonMobil and other sellers of fossil-fuel products.”<br>
<br>
When Terry Yosie joined API in 1988 as vice-president for health and
environment, the trade group had spent years funding scientists to
research climate issues after hearing repeated warnings. In 1979,
API and its members formed the Climate and Energy Task Force of oil
and gas company scientists to share research.<br>
<br>
Yosie, who moved to API from the Environmental Protection Agency,
controlled a $15m budget, part of which he used to give workshops on
climate change by EPA officials and other specialists.<br>
<br>
“I brought them together in front of oil industry senior level
executives for the sole purpose of making sure this industry had
some understanding as to what other significant stakeholders thought
about climate change, where they saw the issue evolving, what
information they were relying on,” he said.<br>
<br>
When Yosie left API in 1992, he believed oil the lobby group was
still serious about addressing the growing evidence of climate
change. But a year later, it disbanded the task force at the same
time that Exxon abandoned one of the industry’s biggest research
programmes to measure climate change.<br>
<br>
Yosie believes that confronted with the true extent of the looming
disaster, API and the oil companies ran scared, choosing instead to
pursue an agenda informed by climate denialism.<br>
<br>
“As the climate issue began to move from the periphery to the centre
stage, I think there was a collective loss of confidence in the
entire industry, a fear that this was not a debate that was
winnable,” he said.<br>
<br>
API and its financial backers founded a front organisation, the
deceptively named Global Climate Coalition, to drum up purported
evidence that the climate crisis was a hoax. In the late 1990s, the
GCC’s chairman, William O’Keefe, was also API’s executive
vice-president, a man who falsely claimed that “climate scientists
don’t say that burning oil, gas and coal is steadily warming the
earth”.<br>
<br>
API and the GCC led attacks on Bill Clinton’s support for the Kyoto
protocol with a “global climate science communications plan” that
misrepresented the facts about global heating.<br>
<br>
The relationship between API and big oil remained exceptionally
close throughout. Exxon’s chief executive served on the lobby
group’s executive committee for most of the past three decades, and
the two worked together in promoting denialism over the climate
crisis.<br>
<br>
The focus of API’s efforts were on Congress, where it led the
industry’s opposition to policies, such as the 2009 cap-and-trade
legislation to control carbon emissions.<br>
<br>
“Most of the funding for the Republican party, and probably a very
considerable amount of the big dark money funding behind the
Republican party, comes out of the fossil fuel industry,” said
Whitehouse. Last year, API indirectly gave $5m to the conservative
Senate Leadership Fund to back Republican election candidates (many
of whom question climate science), and to the campaigns of members
of the energy committees in both houses of Congress.<br>
<br>
Growing public disquiet, and the departure of oil-friendly Donald
Trump from the White House, shifted the ground for API. In March it
launched a Climate Action Framework, which for the first time
endorsed policies such as carbon pricing. It also stated its support
for the Paris climate agreement.<br>
<br>
API called the plan “robust” but others noted the lack of specifics
and its sincerity was called into question when an Exxon lobbyist
was caught on camera earlier this year saying that a carbon tax will
never happen and that support for the measure was a public relations
ploy intended to stall more serious measures.<br>
<br>
And between API’s lost support from Total, and the Shell executives
who resigned in December over what they regarded as the company’s
foot-dragging on greener fuels, there are signs of shifting
attitudes within the industry itself.<br>
<br>
Shell and BP have said they will continue to review their support
for API. Shell said that where it disagrees with API’s position, the
company “will pursue advocacy separately”.<br>
<br>
However, Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy at the Union
of Concerned Scientists, is sceptical that there has been any
significant change in direction.<br>
<br>
“I think it’s fair to say that API and its prominent member
companies have have a broadly shared goal, which is to keep the
social licence of the oil and gas industry operating, and therefore
enabling them to continue to extract oil and gas for as long as
possible, as profitably as possible,” he said.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/19/big-oil-climate-crisis-lobby-group-api">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/19/big-oil-climate-crisis-lobby-group-api</a><br>
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</p>
<p><br>
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[DW]<br>
<b>Opinion: The climate crisis can't be stopped, we must adapt</b><br>
Most people should have realized by now that we're facing a climate
crisis. Curbing greenhouse gas emissions is just one side of the
problem. Adopting safety precautions is the other, says David
Ehl....<br>
RECORD TEMPERATURES FELT ACROSS THE WORLD<br>
<blockquote><b>Lytton, Canada: Fire and extreme temperatures</b><br>
The Canadian town of Lytton saw record-breaking heat on July 2
when temperatures hit nearly 50 degrees Celcius. A few days later,
the village was all but destroyed in a wildfire. Experts warn that
heat domes like those in North America are becoming more likely
due to global warming, which has slowed down the jet stream. This
is why such extreme conditions tend to sometimes last for weeks.<br>
- -<br>
<b>Kevo, Finland: Record heat in northern Europe</b><br>
It’s been the hottest July since 1914 in Lapland with 33.6 C
recorded in northern Finland. Parts of Scandinavia have also been
experiencing temperatures that are 10-15 degrees above average.
Meteorologists say that the record heat in northern Europe is
linked to the heat dome above North America.<br>
- -<br>
<b>New Delhi, India: Heat-related deaths and irregular monsoons</b><br>
India has also been unusually hot this year. At the beginning of
July, the capital New Delhi saw temperatures hit 43C, the hottest
ever in nine years. The start of the monsoon season has also been
delayed by about a week this year. India has seen at least 6,500
heat-related deaths since 2010.<br>
- -<br>
<b>Nizhnyaya Pesha, Russia: Permafrost releases methane</b><br>
Siberia has also seen sweltering heat this year, with temperatures
of over 30C in May, making this region north of the Arctic Circle
warmer than many parts of Europe. Drought and high temperatures
are also leading to large-scale fires in densely forested Northern
Russia. And its permafrost is melting, releasing more and more Co2
and methane into the atmosphere.<br>
<b>- -</b><br>
<b>New Zealand: A warm winter</b><br>
Winter in the Southern Hemisphere is also unusually warm this
year. Hastings, New Zealand saw temperatures rise to 22C last
month. It was the warmest June in 110 years, according to the
National Meteorological Agency (NIWA). Average temperatures
increased by about 2C. Warmer winters pose a problem for
agriculture and, of course, ski resorts.<br>
- -<br>
<b>Mexicali, Mexico: Dramatic drought</b><br>
At a sizzling 51.4C, Mexico recorded its hottest-ever temperature
in June. Mexico is going through its worst drought in 30 years.
Baja California is particularly affected and the Colorado River
there has partially dried up. Water levels in the reservoirs near
Mexico City are also falling.<br>
- -<br>
<b>Ghadames, Libya: Desert heat in North Africa</b><br>
The Arabian Peninsula and North Africa have also been particularly
hot this year. The Sahara Desert saw the mercury rise to 50C last
month. Meanwhile, in western Libya, it was 10 degrees warmer than
usual at the end of June, according to the National Center for
Meterology. In the oasis city of Ghadames, the heat rose to 46C,
with the capital Tripoli not far behind at 43C.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-the-climate-crisis-cant-be-stopped-we-must-adapt/a-58294704">https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-the-climate-crisis-cant-be-stopped-we-must-adapt/a-58294704</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[but can I send in my CD collection?]<br>
<b>Doomsday Music Vault to be built on Svalbard</b><br>
The vault will be located 1000 feet below the ground into the
permafrost and will be able to withstand the most catastrophic of
events.<br>
Polina Leganger Bronder - July 16, 2021<br>
The project will be headed by Elire Management Group, which is an
Oslo-based commercial venture group. A case in point of exactly how
unique the commercial venture group’s approaches can be is their
Global Music Vault project. <br>
<br>
The Global Music Vault is intended to be buried 1000 feet beneath
the ground in an Arctic mountain on the Svalbard archipelago in the
case of doomsday so that irreplicable music will not be wiped out
alongside a majority of life on the surface.<br>
<br>
The vault will be specifically designed to be able to withstand both
natural and manmade catastrophes. To accomplish this, the site will
be built to be unaffected by electromagnetic pulses from potential
nuclear explosions. The vault is estimated to last for at least 1000
years.<br>
<br>
The vault was selected to be buried in Svalbard due to the island’s
relative security and geographical remoteness. One of the reasons
the region was the perfect location for the vault is due to a
general international consensus of it being a demilitarized zone. 42
nations have already declared Svalbard as an official demilitarized
zone. Thereby, the vault is expected to be located far from any
major future battlegrounds or bomb sites.<br>
<br>
Additionally, due to Svalbard’s high Arctic climate, a cool and dry
permafrost underlies approximately 90% of the island. It is expected
the region’s permafrost will add an extra layer of security to the
vault, which will make it even less likely to be affected by any
major catastrophic events, due to the ground’s density.<br>
<br>
According to Billboard, the music in the doomsday vault will be
stored using special technology developed by Piql, a Norwegian firm
specializing in the storage of analog and digital information. Piql
will use binary coding alongside high-density QR codes written on
durable optical film.<br>
<br>
The vault is planned to be operational by the early months of 2022.
The prioritized focus of the song selection in the vault will be
indigenous music styles from across the world. However, the vault
will store more than solely that.<br>
<br>
Luke Jenkinson, the managing director of the Global Music Vault,
explained that the goal of the project is not “to just protect a
certain genre and certain era”. He went on to state that to
preserve as many music genres as possible, individual nations will
be able to submit their own ideas as to what songs, compositions or
tracks should make the final cut to be stored in the vault. Such an
election procedure could even take the form of a formal domestic
vote.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2021/07/doomsday-music-vault-be-built-svalbard">https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2021/07/doomsday-music-vault-be-built-svalbard</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
[Essay opinion]<br>
<b>Why people don’t care about global warming</b><br>
Tim Andersen, Ph.D. - Jul 14, 2021<br>
The phrase “public apathy” was coined in the 1940s by marketing
researchers. The idea is that if the public doesn’t care about what
you are trying to market to them, then they are “apathetic”.<br>
This term is wrongly applied to groups of people who are — on the
contrary — experiencing complex and wide ranging emotions about what
is happening to them, the outcome of which is inaction.<br>
Dr. Renée Lertzman, a psychologist and social scientist who studies
the connection between psychology and ecological degradation, heads
Project Inside-Out devoted to developing a new way of doing public
outreach. Her Ph.D. thesis and book chapter on the Myth of Apathy
were based on interviews with residents about local pollution and
the resulting ecological devastation in Green Bay, Wisconsin but
have wide ranging applications to climate change apathy.<br>
The key result of her research is that so-called apathy is largely a
defense mechanism against underlying anxieties and a sense of
powerlessness against the inevitable.<br>
It turns out that when faced with environmental catastrophe, whether
local or global, people tend to cope with their anxieties by
pretending not to care...<br>
- -<br>
People have a psychological need to explain why they aren’t doing
more in order to offset their feelings. People are full of excuses.
They say all recycling just ends up in the trash, so don’t recycle.
Renewable power is an eyesore or impractical, so use fossil fuel.
Electric cars take too long to charge (depends on the battery and
charging station) or just use fossil fuels from powerplants (not if
those powerplants use renewables) or don’t last (neither do ordinary
cars) or only the rich can afford them (not if manufacturers get on
board), so buy gas ones. Environmental organizations are only
interested in money or full of “tree huggers”, so don’t support
them. All of these reasons are defenses coming from a much deeper
awareness of the problem than a truly apathetic person would have...<br>
- -<br>
Lertzmann argues that the central feature of engaging people with
the environment such as climate change is creativity. That is, if
people can participate creatively, they can avoid their
psychological barriers because they are no longer subject to the
guilt and conflict of not being able to do the “right things” that
they believe are expected of them. When people do find ways to
contribute and feel that they are contributing (have agency), their
sense of loss and anxiety melts into pride and joy...<br>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://medium.com/the-infinite-universe/people-are-too-scared-of-climate-change-to-do-anything-about-it-8dc8f51f86ed">https://medium.com/the-infinite-universe/people-are-too-scared-of-climate-change-to-do-anything-about-it-8dc8f51f86ed</a><br>
</p>
<br>
<br>
<br>
[Wet bulbism explained by a comic cartoon]<br>
<b>Why do we care about wet bulb temperature and could they have
given it a better name?</b><br>
First Dog on the Moon<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/16/why-do-we-care-about-wet-bulb-temperature-and-could-they-have-given-it-a-better-name">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/16/why-do-we-care-about-wet-bulb-temperature-and-could-they-have-given-it-a-better-name</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>[Noam Chomsky]<br>
<b>Julianna Interviews Noam Chomsky On The Darkest Of Times And
His Hopeful New Book</b><br>
Jul 14, 2021<br>
act.tv<br>
Host and Professor Julianna Forlano speaks at length with
Professor and longtime activist, Noam Chomsky to discuss the new
book Chomsky For Activists, which, in itself, is a hopeful
collection of Professor Chomsky's essays, speeches, interviews,
alongside other activists writings' about their working directly
with this icon of the peace and justice. Professor Chomsky lays
bare the dire situation we face with the environment, the economy,
the fall of the united states democracy, wars and more. You can
buy the book here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.amazon.com/Chomsky-Activi">https://www.amazon.com/Chomsky-Activi</a>...<br>
Noam Chomsky is the author of more than 100 books; the most recent
include Requiem for the American Dream, and The 10 Principles of
Concentration of Wealth and Power, Before coming to the University
of Arizona as Laureate Professor of Linguistics in 2017, Chomsky
taught linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology for 50 years. <br>
For info on Noam go to: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://chomsky.info/">https://chomsky.info/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Ennk8STHk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Ennk8STHk</a><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<font size="+1">[The news archive - looking back]</font><br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming July
21, 2008</b></font><br>
The UK Office of Communication criticizes Britain's Channel 4 for
running the 2007 denialism doc "The Great Global Warming Swindle."
Below, Peter Sinclair of ClimateCrocks.com debunks the doc.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/science/earth/22clim.html?_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/science/earth/22clim.html?_r=0</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/boj9ccV9htk">http://youtu.be/boj9ccV9htk</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/8nrvrkVBt24">http://youtu.be/8nrvrkVBt24</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<p>/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/</p>
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