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<p><font size="+2"><i><b>October 21, 2021</b></i></font><i><br>
</i></p>
<i>[ Yikes, danger ]</i><br>
<b>COP26: Document leak reveals nations lobbying to change key
climate report</b><br>
By Justin Rowlatt & Tom Gerken<br>
BBC News - October 20, 2021<br>
The report will be used by governments to decide what action is
needed to tackle climate change and will be a crucial input to
negotiations at the Glasgow conference.<br>
<br>
The authority of these reports derives in part from the fact that
virtually all the governments of the world participate in the
process to reach consensus.<br>
<br>
The comments from governments the BBC has read are overwhelmingly
designed to be constructive and to improve the quality of the final
report.<br>
<br>
The cache of comments and the latest draft of the report were
released to Greenpeace UK's team of investigative journalists,
Unearthed, which passed it on to BBC News.<br>
<br>
<b>Fossil fuels</b><br>
The leak shows a number of countries and organisations arguing that
the world does not need to reduce the use of fossil fuels as quickly
as the current draft of the report recommends.<br>
<br>
An adviser to the Saudi oil ministry demands "phrases like 'the need
for urgent and accelerated mitigation actions at all scales…' should
be eliminated from the report".<br>
<br>
One senior Australian government official rejects the conclusion
that closing coal-fired power plants is necessary, even though
ending the use of coal is one of the stated objectives the COP26
conference.<br>
<br>
Saudi Arabia is the one of the largest oil producers in the world
and Australia is a major coal exporter.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58982445">https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58982445</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
<i>[Opinion]</i><br>
<b>Group of 20 faces a moral imperative on climate safety</b><br>
JEFFREY D. SACHS - -Oct 19, 2021<br>
At the group’s upcoming meeting in Rome, many member governments
will press for more ambitious action to address climate change. But
these governments must also be prepared to call out the climate
laggards, starting with the United States.<br>
<br>
NEW YORK – The philosopher Immanuel Kant famously said that,
“Whoever wills the end also wills…the indispensably necessary means
to it that is in his control.” Put simply, when we set a goal, we
ought to take the actions needed to achieve it. This is an essential
maxim for our governments, and it should guide G20 leaders when they
meet in Rome at the end of October to confront the climate crisis...<br>
<i>- -[comclusion]</i><br>
This track record of world-threatening inaction now looks set to
continue. In the past few days, the U.S. Senate has been busy
gutting Biden’s signature budget legislation of its most important
climate policies. All 50 Republican Senators and a handful of
Democrats led by Joe Manchin of West Virginia are opposing Biden’s
“clean-power plan” to decarbonize the U.S. energy sector.<br>
<br>
The remarkable thing about American corruption is how blatant it is.
The oil and gas industry spent $140.7 million on the 2020 elections
(donating 84% to Republicans) and $112 million on lobbying last
year. An ExxonMobil lobbyist was recorded confiding that Manchin is
the industry’s “kingmaker” in Congress. Biden’s hold on power is so
weak, and the corruption of the U.S. Congress so entrenched, that
the president cannot even face down a small-state senator from his
own party, who should be shamed and derided for his devotion to Big
Oil.<br>
<br>
The G20 governments have a moral imperative to adopt the means to
achieve the globally agreed goal of climate safety. Their countries
account for roughly 80% of global output and carbon dioxide
emissions. An agreement among these governments — followed by
specific actions, including facing down the corruption in their own
countries — can change the global trajectory on climate change.<br>
<br>
Many G20 governments are ready to act, and they should call out the
laggards. The U.S. should be put on notice that America’s failed
response is intolerable to the rest of the world. And the same
message should be conveyed to Australia, India and Saudi Arabia.
There can be no tolerance for climate corruption and impunity in a
world on fire.<br>
<br>
Jeffrey D. Sachs, University Professor at Columbia University, is
Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia
University and President of the U.N. Sustainable Development
Solutions Network. Project Syndicate, 2021<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/g20-rome-meeting-must-adopt-credible-climate-plan-by-jeffrey-d-sachs-2021-10">https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/g20-rome-meeting-must-adopt-credible-climate-plan-by-jeffrey-d-sachs-2021-10</a><br>
<br>
<p><i><br>
</i></p>
<i>[ ask your doctor ] </i><br>
<b>Inaction on climate change imperils millions of lives, doctors
say</b><br>
Top medical journal warns that rising temperatures will worsen heat
and respiratory illness and spread infectious disease<br>
- -<br>
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data,
at least 538 Americans have died in major climate disasters this
year. That doesn’t account for the less-direct deaths: people who
get sick from mold that forms after their home is deluged during a
hurricane and patients whose chronic conditions are exacerbated by
extreme temperatures. Studies suggest that smoke from wildfires led
to thousands more coronavirus cases out West, and in one county was
linked to 41 percent of deaths...<br>
- -<br>
By far the deadliest hazard comes from the act of burning fossil
fuels, which generates tiny, lung-irritating particles known as
PM2.5. One estimate published this February put the toll of this
pollution at more than 10 million excess deaths each year. The
Lancet study is more conservative, putting the figure closer to 1
million.<br>
<br>
When it comes to the consequences of warming, heat is the world’s
worst killer. Elderly people and infants younger than 1 — the groups
most vulnerable to heat — are exposed to roughly four more extremely
hot days per year now than a generation ago, the Lancet report
found. Almost 350,000 people died of heat-related illness in 2019.<br>
<br>
Steadily rising temperatures, combined with habitat disruption and
globalization, have also given infectious diseases a chance to
evolve and expand...<br>
- -<br>
Meanwhile, disease-carrying mosquitoes are moving to more temperate
areas and higher elevations, their life cycles accelerated and their
biting behaviors intensified. Shifting environmental factors have
raised the basic reproductive rates of illnesses like Zika and
chikungunya, enhancing their potential to explode into epidemics. A
study published by the Lancet Planetary Health this July found that
unabated carbon emissions would put almost 90 percent of the world’s
population at risk of malaria and dengue by the end of the
century...<br>
- -<br>
The Lancet “Countdown” argues that inaction will be even more
expensive.<br>
<br>
Last year, the direct costs of climate disasters totaled more than
$178 billion, the report says. Drought affected 19 percent of the
world’s total land surface area, damaging yields of crucial crops
such as wheat, corn and soy. Extreme heat harmed workers and shut
down operations at farms and factories, depriving the world of 295
billion potential work hours.<br>
<br>
But curbing emissions, investing in clean energy and funding
adaptation efforts could save money as well as lives, the report
says. The reduced air pollution that would result from eliminating
fossil fuels alone could deliver global health benefits in the
trillions of dollars. A 2019 study in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences found that deaths from fine-particle
pollution cost the United States more than $800 billion per year;
more than half of those costs were attributable to pollution from
the energy and transportation sectors.<br>
<br>
“We have an enormous opportunity to get to the root cause of health
harms from the burning of fossil fuels,” Salas said. “To me there is
no greater treatment that will have the widest health benefits for
my patients than reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/10/20/lancet-climate-inaction-threatens-millions/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/10/20/lancet-climate-inaction-threatens-millions/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[This man says, "Well, duh.." ]</i><br>
<b>Women do more to tackle climate change than men: Survey</b><br>
Many women report changing their behavior to reduce emissions, finds
Women’s Forum barometer.<br>
<br>
Women have made greater changes to their personal habits to tackle
climate change than men have, according to a survey released Monday
by the Women’s Forum.<br>
<br>
The barometer on gender equity, which surveyed nearly 10,000 people
across the G20 countries, found that women — more often than men —
have changed their behavior to decrease their carbon dioxide
emissions by recycling, buying local, and reducing water and meat
consumption.<br>
<br>
Women are also more easily motivated than men to decrease their CO2
emissions, the Women’s Forum concluded — including because it will
improve the planet and because of the knock-on benefits for future
generations...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.politico.eu/article/women-men-climate-change-survey/">https://www.politico.eu/article/women-men-climate-change-survey/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[What's with the law?]</i><br>
<b>Human Rights Attorney Sentenced to Prison After Winning Case
Against Chevron</b><br>
In a move calculated to shield Chevron and deter other lawyers from
suing giant corporate polluters, U.S. human rights attorney Steven
Donziger was sentenced on October 1 to the maximum of six months in
prison for criminal contempt. Donziger, who had won a $9.5 billion
judgement for his Indigenous clients against the oil giant for
polluting the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador, refused to provide
Chevron with his confidential client communications. Before his
sentencing, Donziger spent two years on house arrest wearing an
ankle bracelet and confined to his home.<br>
<br>
“When the next book is written touting the American judicial system
as one built on the rule of law, that shows the ways in which the
rule of law prevailed over powerful and moneyed interests,” Donziger
attorney Ron Kuby told Truthout after the sentencing, “I can assure
you the Donziger case will not be included.”<br>
<br>
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska — a leader of the Federalist
Society, a group dedicated to getting conservatives on the bench and
promoting a radical right-wing ideology (and which is financially
backed by Chevron) — was hand-picked to try the contempt case. She
found Donziger guilty of six counts of criminal contempt. As Preska
sentenced Donziger, she stated, “It seems that only the proverbial
two-by-four between the eyes will instill in him any respect for the
law.”<br>
- -<br>
When Truthout asked attorney Martin Garbus, who also represents
Donziger, for his reaction to the judge’s six-month sentence and
threatening words, he replied: “Outrageous. Predictable. Very sad.”<br>
<br>
Donziger is the only lawyer who has been held in criminal contempt
for trying to appeal orders which he believed violated the rights of
his clients to enforce the judgment.<br>
<br>
Chevron Responsible for Pouring of Billions of Gallons of Oil Waste
Onto Indigenous Ancestral Lands<br>
Donziger has spent over two decades trying to hold Chevron
accountable for pollution of the Ecuadorian rainforest. In 2000,
Chevron acquired Texaco, which had contaminated the water and soil
in Ecuador’s Lago Agrio region between 1964 and 1992. Lago Agrio is
the ancestral homeland of more 30,000 people. Texaco deliberately
drained its toxic waste into rivers and streams whose water was
critical to the survival of five Indigenous groups and dozens of
farm communities. Texaco created what is known as the “Amazon
Chernobyl.”<br>
<br>
In 2011, an Ecuadorian court found Chevron liable for serious
environmental and health damage to the Amazon rainforest and the
communities in the region. The court concluded that Chevron
deliberately discharged billions of gallons of oil waste onto
Indigenous ancestral lands.<br>
<br>
Chevron was ordered to pay $19 billion to remediate the damages but
an appellate court reduced the judgement to $9.5 billion, which was
affirmed by the Ecuadorian Supreme Court<br>
<br>
“I, with other lawyers, helped Indigenous peoples in Ecuador win a
historic $9.5bn pollution judgement against Chevron for the
deliberate dumping of billions of gallons of cancer-causing waste
into the Amazon,” Donziger told Al Jazeera before his sentencing.
“That’s an historical fact. That case has been affirmed on appeal by
28 appellate judges, including the highest courts of Ecuador and
Canada for enforcement purposes. So why am I the one being locked
up? I helped hold them accountable.”<br>
<br>
Judge Lewis Kaplan Manipulates Case to Benefit Chevron<br>
“Judge Kaplan picked the charges, picked the private prosecutors,
picked the judge, and remained a judge on the case,” Kuby and Garbus
wrote in their sentencing memorandum.<br>
<br>
“Our L[ong] T[erm] strategy is to demonize Donziger,” Chevron stated
in 2009. Aided and abetted by Judge Lewis Kaplan, Chevron made good
on its promise.<br>
<br>
In 2011, at Kaplan’s suggestion, Chevron sued the Indigenous
plaintiffs and their lawyers, including Donziger, in the U.S.
District Court for the Southern District of New York under the
Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a law designed to
target the mafia. Two weeks before trial in 2014, Chevron dropped
its demand for $60 billion damages to prevent Donziger from
receiving a jury trial.<br>
<br>
Kaplan, who did nothing to hide his explicit bias in favor of
Chevron throughout the proceedings, presided over the RICO case.
Kaplan ruled that the $9.5 billion judgment the Indigenous
plaintiffs had won against Chevron could not be enforced in the
United States...<br>
- -<br>
37 Organizations Representing 500,000 Lawyers File Judicial
Complaint Against Kaplan for Violating Duty of Impartiality<br>
In September 2020, 37 organizations collectively representing
500,000 lawyers worldwide, including this writer, filed a judicial
complaint against Kaplan for unethically targeting Donziger for the
benefit of Chevron.<br>
<br>
Formally filed by the National Lawyers Guild and the International
Association of Democratic Lawyers, the complaint alleges that the
“statements and actions of Judge Kaplan over the last ten years show
him to have taken on the role of counsel for Chevron … rather than
that of a judge adjudicating a live controversy before him.” It
added, “By these standards, he has violated his duty of impartiality
under the canons of judicial conduct.” The complainants were
concerned that the “persecution” of Donziger by Kaplan and Chevron
“will have a chilling effect on the work of other human rights
lawyers” and will act “as a warning of the consequences they will
suffer” if “they try to hold major corporations accountable for
their human rights violations.”<br>
<br>
Donziger is appealing his six-month sentence, but he remains under
house arrest since Preska denied his request for bail. “Chevron is
now using me as a foil to distract from the plight of Indigenous
peoples in Ecuador who are suffering massive health problems because
of the company’s planet and people-destroying practices,” Donziger
wrote in a group email I received. “I am the most convenient target
to try to scare future environmental lawyers from seeking
accountability for the industry’s destructive operational practices.
If I didn’t exist, Chevron probably would have invented me.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://truthout.org/articles/human-rights-attorney-sentenced-to-prison-after-winning-case-against-chevron">https://truthout.org/articles/human-rights-attorney-sentenced-to-prison-after-winning-case-against-chevron</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<i>[ travel trek </i><i>by the BBC across Mauritania ]</i><br>
<b>Fleeing the shifting sands of the Sahara desert, due to climate
change - BBC News</b><br>
Oct 16, 2021<br>
BBC News<br>
In northern Mauritania, people are seeing first-hand the impact of
climate change. <br>
Rising temperatures and desertification are wiping out communities
and many are being forced to leave their ancestral homes in search
of a better life.<br>
BBC Life at 50C looks at the impact of extreme weather, on
communities, across the globe.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx8wm8ulk0c">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx8wm8ulk0c</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<i>[The news archive - looking back]</i><br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming
October 21, 1984</b></font><br>
<br>
October 21, 1984: In the second presidential debate between
President Ronald Reagan and Democratic challenger Walter Mondale,
Reagan is asked by panelist Marvin Kalb:<br>
<br>
"Mr. President, perhaps the other side of the coin, a related
question, sir. Since World War II, the vital interests of the United
States have always been defined by treaty commitments and by
Presidential proclamations. Aside from what is obvious, such as
NATO, for example, which countries, which regions in the world do
you regard as vital national interests of this country, meaning that
you would send American troops to fight there if they were in
danger?"<br>
<br>
Reagan responds:<br>
<br>
"Ah, well, now you've added a hypothetical there at the end, Mr.
Kalb, about where we would send troops in to fight. I am not going
to make the decision as to what the tactics could be, but obviously
there are a number of areas in the world that are of importance to
us. One is the Middle East, and that is of interest to the whole
Western World and the industrialized nations, because of the great
supply of energy upon which so many depend there."<br>
<br>
(15:00-15:52)<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF73k5-Hiqg">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF73k5-Hiqg</a><br>
<br>
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