<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p><font size="+2"><i><b>September 1, 2021</b></i></font><br>
</p>
[Shaming the misinformer]<br>
<b>Hey Exxon, Maybe Stop Tweeting</b><br>
The oil giant literally tweeted "thoughts and prayers" in the wake
of Hurricane Ida.<br>
Molly Taft<br>
Yesterday<br>
You quite literally can’t write this joke: Exxon, one of the
companies most responsible for the climate crisis, tweeted Monday
that it was keeping people in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast affected
by Hurricane Ida in its “thoughts and prayers.” Wow, where have we
heard that phrase before?<br>
<br>
Exxon has, in the grand scheme of oil companies, a somewhat
disorganized presence on social media. (Yes, I like to keep tabs on
this stuff. What of it?) The tweet—which has been ratioed straight
to hell—isn’t from Exxon’s official brand site, but rather from
ExxonMobil Beaumont, an outpost of the company based outside of Port
Arthur, Texas. That account isn’t the only Exxon-linked account that
had a response to Ida.<br>
<br>
The account for ExxonMobil’s Baytown operations in Texas tweeted a
nearly identical “thoughts and prayers” statement, opting for a
white background as opposed to red and adding some additional words
of encouragement to “look out for each other as you are able.”
Powerful! The ExxonMobil Baton Rouge account, meanwhile, really went
all out, tweeting regular updates on its hurricane-related flaring
activity and a link for people to build a disaster kit for hurricane
season.<br>
<br>
Exxon’s been going through a bit of a PR crisis this summer,
following a shareholder uprising and an embarrassing investigative
exposé; it’s natural that the company would want to put on a
sympathetic face to local communities hit by one of the most
powerful storms to ever make landfall in the U.S. But there’s that
one teeny, nagging fact: Exxon is one of the largest carbon emitters
in history and has spent decades lying about the climate crisis
while churning out profits...<br>
- -<br>
Exxon’s crucial role in suppressing climate science for literal
decades lends this tweet a deliciously, horribly ironic twist; it’s
reminiscent of the grand tradition of Republican politicians funded
by the NRA tweeting their “thoughts and prayers” following mass
shootings.<br>
<br>
And if we’re really rolling out these receipts, these particular
locations have a lot to answer for in terms of the impact they’ve
had on the communities they’re in. The Beaumont location is in the
majority-Black town of Port Arthur, which is surrounded by some of
the country’s biggest refineries and a hotspot of environmental
injustice. Cancer rates for Black residents in that county are
nearly 40% higher than they are for the rest of Texas, while 80% of
Black residents in one area of the city have heart and lung
problems. (The Beaumont location also happens to be run by
union-busters: Exxon locked out 650 workers in May in an attempt to
force a vote from their United Steelworkers local.)<br>
<br>
Meanwhile, a judge ordered the Baytown refinery in 2017 to pay
nearly $20 million for repeated violations of the Clean Air Act over
a period of eight years, which, according to legal documents, saved
the refinery more than $14 million by spewing toxic chemicals into
the air without a permit. (The fine has since been knocked down to
$14 million.) And though the company is mulling a net zero emissions
goal, earlier this summer, Exxon announced it would pour $240
million into upgrading its Baton Rouge refinery, the fifth-largest
oil refinery in the U.S. The oil industry is also responsible for
driving subsidence that sunk Louisiana’s marshland, leaving the
region more vulnerable to storm surge like Ida’s.<br>
<br>
It may be presumptuous, but I’d like to extend a little piece of
advice to one of the world’s biggest oil companies: If you’re going
to keep stalling on climate action, polluting communities, and
selling fossil fuels, maybe just don’t tweet through it.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://gizmodo.com/hey-exxon-maybe-stop-tweeting-1847592820">https://gizmodo.com/hey-exxon-maybe-stop-tweeting-1847592820</a>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
<p>For those who would like to do more than offer thoughts and
prayers for Hurricane Ida survivors, including multibillion-dollar
oil companies, here is a list of places to donate <br>
</p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://gizmodo.com/how-to-help-hurricane-ida-victims-right-now-1847581474">https://gizmodo.com/how-to-help-hurricane-ida-victims-right-now-1847581474</a><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[keep watch]<br>
<b>When Climate Change Comes to Your Doorstep</b><br>
Aug. 31, 2021<br>
By Alexandra Tempus<br>
<br>
Ms. Tempus is working on a book on climate migration.<br>
- -<br>
We are now at the dawn of America’s Great Climate Migration Era. For
now, it is piecemeal, and moves are often temporary. Brutalized by
hurricanes, flooding and a winter storm, Lake Charles, La.,
residents have been living with relatives for months. In early
August, the Dixie fire — the largest single fire in recorded
California history — claimed at least one entire town, and locals
took to living in tents. Apartment dwellers in Lynn Haven, Fla.,
were forced from their homes to slosh through streets flooded by
Tropical Storm Fred. The evacuee tally has continued to rise, from
New Englanders in the path of Hurricane Henri to flood survivors in
North Carolina and Tennessee to people escaping fire in Montana and
Minnesota...<br>
But permanent relocations, by individuals and eventually whole
communities, are increasingly becoming unavoidable.<br>
- -<br>
Moving safely and efficiently from vulnerable areas more than
temporarily remains a steep challenge for most Americans. As the
U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded in a 2020 report,
“Unclear federal leadership is the key challenge to climate
migration as a resilience strategy.”<br>
<br>
Increasingly, Indigenous peoples, community organizations, local
governments, universities and others have stepped in to fill this
void in leadership. They’ve developed innovative relocation plans
and tools for towns and cities scrambling for solutions. In the wake
of Ida, tied as the fifth-most-powerful hurricane to lash the United
States, the federal government must make climate migration a viable
option for all.<br>
<br>
Right now it’s not — nor is it the choice everyone would make. Newly
released Census Bureau data shows that Americans are largely moving
into risky areas: the drought-riddled West, the hurricane-prone
coastal South. In this crucible of poorly informed decision making
and an inflamed climate, experts have begun to insist on a
coordinated, justice-minded effort to facilitate voluntary climate
migration and relocation.<br>
<br>
In its report, the Government Accountability Office recommended a
“community led” federal climate migration pilot program. On this
front, the Biden administration could take cues from creative local
approaches already underway and add its support...<br>
- -<br>
Some community advocates around the country have suggested that the
Civilian Climate Corps that the Biden administration promised as
part of its jobs plan — modeled after the New Deal’s Civilian
Conservation Corps, which installed thousands of infrastructure and
parks projects — could build housing for climate-displaced people.<br>
<br>
On Monday, grass-roots leaders called for the president to establish
a climate migration agency. The leaders — from low-income, Black,
Latinx and Indigenous communities from South Carolina to California
— have been meeting throughout 2021 to discuss how climate change is
shaping the uncertain places they call home. They hope that federal
relocation money and information will be easily accessible to all,
so that leaving home and finding a new one is no more a disaster
than it has to be.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/opinion/when-climate-change-comes-to-your-doorstep.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/opinion/when-climate-change-comes-to-your-doorstep.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
[deep thinking about taking action -- interview
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/VVslwDOO5kM">https://youtu.be/VVslwDOO5kM</a> ]<br>
<b>Paul Slovic | Confronting the Deadly Arithmetic of Compassion |
Talks at Google</b><br>
Aug 28, 2021<br>
Talks at Google<br>
Paul Slovic discusses human perception towards mass tragedies and
losses at scale.<br>
<br>
We as a global society value individual lives greatly and respond
strongly to protect a single person in need, but often ignore mass
tragedies and fail to take appropriate measures to reduce their
losses. As the numbers grow larger, we become insensitive; the data
fail to trigger the emotion or feeling necessary to motivate action.
In some cases, large numbers convey a false sense of inefficacy,
discouraging us from taking valuable actions. Understanding how our
minds deceive us in the face of large losses of life is essential to
motivating actions needed to reduce the harm from catastrophic
consequences such as those associated with poverty, disease, climate
disasters, and violence.<br>
<br>
Paul Slovic received his B.A. degree from Stanford University, and
his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in psychology from the University of
Michigan. In 1976, Dr. Slovic founded the research institute
Decision Research with Sarah Lichtenstein and Baruch Fischhoff,
where he currently serves as President. He has also been a professor
of psychology at the University of Oregon since 1986. He and his
colleagues worldwide have developed methods to describe risk
perceptions and measure their impacts on individuals, industry, and
society. His most recent work examines “psychic numbing” and the
failure to respond to global threats from genocide and nuclear war.
He publishes extensively and serves as a consultant to industry and
government. <br>
<br>
Dr. Slovic is a past President of the Society for Risk Analysis and
in 1991 received its Distinguished Contribution Award. In 1993 he
received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the
American Psychological Association. In 1995 he received the
Outstanding Contribution to Science Award from the Oregon Academy of
Science. He has received honorary doctorates from the Stockholm
School of Economics (1996) and the University of East Anglia (2005).
Dr. Slovic was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 2015 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2016. <br>
Moderated by Ozgen Dundar.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVslwDOO5kM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVslwDOO5kM</a><br>
- -<br>
[How our feelings can cripple action]<br>
<b>Decision Research is dedicated to helping individuals and
organizations understand and cope with the complex and often risky
decisions of modern life. </b><br>
Decision Research (DR) investigates human judgment, decision-making,
and risk. Our research scientists and associated research staff have
a wide range of expertise and work on basic research and in a
variety of applied areas including aviation, business, environmental
issues, finance, healthcare, intelligence analysis, and terrorism.
We work with private companies, non-profit organizations, and
federal and international agencies.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.decisionresearch.org/">https://www.decisionresearch.org/</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
[Decision Education]<br>
<b>OVERCOMING OBSTACLES TO ACTION IN THE FACE OF THE WORLD’S MOST
URGENT PROBLEMS</b><br>
The mission of the Arithmetic of Compassion Website is to raise
awareness of psychological obstacles to compassion, including
psychic numbing, pseudoinefficacy, and the prominence effect. These
cognitive biases lead to inaction in the face of some of the world’s
largest humanitarian challenges, including genocide, famine, and
climate change.<br>
We also discuss how writers and artists can use their talents to
overcome these obstacles to compassion in our Environmental
Humanities page.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.arithmeticofcompassion.org/">https://www.arithmeticofcompassion.org/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<p>[The news archive - looking back]</p>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming
September 1, 2013</b></font><br>
<p>Discussing the logic to a federal carbon tax to combat carbon
pollution, Republican economist Greg Mankiw observes:<br>
<br>
"If the government charged a fee for each emission of carbon, that
fee would be built into the prices of products and lifestyles.
When making everyday decisions, people would naturally look at the
prices they face and, in effect, take into account the global
impact of their choices. In economics jargon, a price on carbon
would induce people to 'internalize the externality.'<br>
<br>
"A bill introduced this year by Representatives Henry A. Waxman
and Earl Blumenauer and Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Brian
Schatz does exactly that. Their proposed carbon fee — or carbon
tax, if you prefer — is more effective and less invasive than the
regulatory approach that the federal government has traditionally
pursued.<br>
<br>
"The four sponsors are all Democrats, which raises the question of
whether such legislation could ever make its way through the
Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The crucial point
is what is done with the revenue raised by the carbon fee. If it’s
used to finance larger government, Republicans would have every
reason to balk. But if the Democratic sponsors conceded to using
the new revenue to reduce personal and corporate income tax rates,
a bipartisan compromise is possible to imagine."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/business/a-carbon-tax-that-america-could-live-with.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/business/a-carbon-tax-that-america-could-live-with.html</a><br>
<br>
</p>
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
<br>
/Archive of Daily Global Warming News <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html"
moz-do-not-send="true"><https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote/2017-October/date.html></a>
/<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://pairlist10.pair.net/pipermail/theclimate.vote</a><br>
<br>
/To receive daily mailings - click to Subscribe <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:subscribe@theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request"
moz-do-not-send="true"><mailto:subscribe@theClimate.Vote?subject=Click%20SEND%20to%20process%20your%20request></a>
to news digest./<br>
<br>
- Privacy and Security:*This mailing is text-only. It does not
carry images or attachments which may originate from remote
servers. A text-only message can provide greater privacy to the
receiver and sender. This is a hobby production curated by Richard
Pauli<br>
By regulation, the .VOTE top-level domain cannot be used for
commercial purposes. Messages have no tracking software.<br>
To subscribe, email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:contact@theclimate.vote" moz-do-not-send="true">contact@theclimate.vote</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href="mailto:contact@theclimate.vote" moz-do-not-send="true"><mailto:contact@theclimate.vote></a>
with subject subscribe, To Unsubscribe, subject: unsubscribe<br>
Also you may subscribe/unsubscribe at <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/theclimate.vote</a><br>
Links and headlines assembled and curated by Richard Pauli for <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://TheClimate.Vote"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://TheClimate.Vote</a> <a
class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://TheClimate.Vote/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><http://TheClimate.Vote/></a>
delivering succinct information for citizens and responsible
governments of all levels. List membership is confidential and
records are scrupulously restricted to this mailing list.<br>
<br>
<br>
</body>
</html>