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<font size="+2"><i><b>December 13, 2021</b></i></font><br>
<br>
<i>[ Satellite images of extensive tornado damage ]</i><br>
<b>Photos: Before and after satellite images reveal the extent of
tornadoes' destruction</b><b><br>
</b><b>December 12, 2021</b><i><br>
</i><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2021/12/12/1063449899/tornado-damage-before-and-after-images">https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2021/12/12/1063449899/tornado-damage-before-and-after-images</a><i><br>
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<i>[ Clips from NYT review of 'the first good movie about climate
change' ] </i><br>
<b>A Comedy Nails the Media Apocalypse</b><br>
With “Don’t Look Up,” Adam McKay makes a star-studded allegorical
satire that shows the news media whistling past the climate-change
graveyard.<br>
By Ben Smith - - Dec. 12, 2021<br>
After the president, a former nude model, tries to cover up a major
discovery, two astronomers leak the news to a New York newspaper
known for its Gothic banner, which the new film “Don’t Look Up”
calls The New York Herald: A comet is going to destroy the earth in
six months.<br>
<br>
The journalists are sober and passionate as they get down to work in
a glass conference room. They publish the blockbuster, then send the
pair of scientists off to an influential morning news program, “The
Daily Rip” — think “Morning Joe,” with a dash of “Live With Kelly
and Ryan” — to promote the news. And that’s when things start to go
awry. “Keep it light, fun,” one producer tells the scientists, who
are played by Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio. As soon as
they sit down, the Joe Scarborough proxy, played by an irresistible
Tyler Perry, leans in to ask what’s really on his mind: Is there
life on other planets?<br>
<br>
After putting up with the morning-show-style banter for much of the
segment, Jennifer Lawrence’s character has had enough. “Maybe the
destruction of the entire planet isn’t supposed to be fun,” she
yells. “Maybe it’s supposed to be terrifying and unsettling and you
should stay up all night, every night, crying.”<br>
<br>
The clip of her losing it on the air earns wide attention — as a
meme that gets likes and laughs on social media. Her boyfriend, a
reporter for a sardonic news site called Autopsy, moves fast to make
the most of her outburst under a two-sentence headline that’s its
own kind of internet cliché: “You Know the Crazy Chick Who Thinks
We’re All Going to Die? I Actually Slept With Her.”...<br>
Back at The Herald, a social media specialist delivers a slick
PowerPoint presentation to show that the story isn’t driving much
traffic. The news cycle moves on.<br>
<br>
I’m a little hesitant to praise a political movie, because
Hollywood’s political statements tend to be vapid. Talk is cheap,
and an impassioned outburst at an awards show is free. True
spontaneous passion is usually reserved for, say, defending the
method acting involved in the show “Succession.” What makes “Don’t
Look Up” interesting is that its writer and director, Adam McKay, is
putting his money, and his career, where his mouth is...<br>
- -<br>
“Don’t Look Up” has a raft of stars — the president is played by
Meryl Streep — and the familiar arc of big-budget disaster flicks
like “Armageddon” or “The Day After Tomorrow.” But while all of Mr.
McKay’s films have been attuned to the intertwined roles of media
and politics, this is his first movie since “Anchorman” to put the
news media squarely in its sights...<br>
The new opus shows Mr. McKay as “one of America’s most incisive
media critics, even if he’s not necessarily recognized that way,”
said David Sirota, a co-producer of the film, who is better known as
a combative journalist who advised Senator Bernie Sanders during his
2020 presidential campaign and now runs The Daily Poster, an
investigative news site.<br>
<br>
Mr. McKay said he tried five different ideas that would allow him to
make a movie about the climate crisis, but nothing worked. “How do
you tell this story, the biggest story in 66 million years, without
exaggeration, since the Chicxulub comet, bigger than the Black
Plague, bigger than Krakatoa?” he said in an interview, describing
the question that kept him up at night.<br>
He hit on the solution while talking one night in January 2019 with
Mr. Sirota, who was venting about the news media’s passive reaction
to climate change, saying it was as though a meteor was headed for
earth and no one seemed to get it. Soon, the two were texting plot
points back and forth.<br>
“Don’t Look Up” is populated by politicians and Silicon Valley
madmen denying reality for their own reasons, behaving in ways that
are recognizably self-interested and deluded. But the real villain
is a news media that is forever chasing after a distracted audience
and, as a result, simply … cannot … focus...<br>
- -<br>
When the two scientists emphasize the reality of the coming
apocalypse during their appearance on “The Daily Rip,” the host
played by Mr. Perry is singularly focused on one thing: whether the
meteor will take out his ex-wife’s house in Florida. The other host,
played by Cate Blanchett as a charming, hyper-educated, amoral
stand-in for Mika Brzezinski, is more interested in the DiCaprio
character’s nerdy sex appeal...<br>
- -<br>
Good journalism is always a balance between telling people what they
want to hear and what they need to know. Mr. McKay’s contention is
that decades of a hyperactive media market, and years of Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, have thrown things out of whack...<br>
- -<br>
We don’t live, exactly, in the world of an Adam McKay satire. My
colleague Dennis Overbye wrote last week that when he brought word
of a dangerous asteroid to a New York Times news meeting in 1998,
the reaction was “purposeful pandemonium,” not denial. And “Morning
Joe” gets more criticism for doom-saying about American democracy
than for frivolity.<br>
<br>
When it comes to the climate story, the media’s failings are
undeniable, and there is still a wide gap between the urgency and
the attention it commands. However, the journalism on the topic has
grown more urgent in tone and more widely seen over the last few
years. It’s harder-edged, more numerate and more closely connected
to the floods, fires and December tornadoes that have upended
millions of people’s lives.<br>
<br>
But great satire amplifies obvious truths, and there’s no doubt that
“Don’t Look Up” contains those moments of recognition. David
Roberts, the author of the clean energy newsletter Volts, called it
“the first good movie about climate change.”<br>
<br>
The global failure to slow carbon emissions, like the failure to
control the Covid-19 pandemic, is partly a story about hard science.
But it’s more about society’s ability or inability to take action,
and the news media had played a large role in that willful turning
away from a difficult truth. “Don’t Look Up” ends — spoiler alert! —
badly for humanity, but before it does, a Fox News-style host
whistles manically past the grave. We’ll be moving on, he tells his
viewers as the world is ending, to “the story that everyone is
talking about tonight — topless urgent care centers.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/12/business/media/dont-look-up-news-media.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/12/business/media/dont-look-up-news-media.html</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
[ compared to the greatest, realistic nuclear war satire ]<br>
<b>“DON’T LOOK UP” IS AS FUNNY AND TERRIFYING ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING
AS “DR. STRANGELOVE” WAS ABOUT NUCLEAR WAR</b><br>
Adam McKay’s new movie may be the first film in 57 years to equal
the comedy and horror of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece.<br>
Jon Schwarz<br>
December 12 2021<br>
<b>IF YOU’RE WONDERING</b> whether we’ll do anything about global
warming before it destroys civilization, think about this ominous
fact: It occupies barely any space in popular culture.<br>
<br>
This contrasts with the gusher of movies and books in the 1960s,
’70s, and ’80s about nuclear war. Anyone old will remember “The Day
After,” “War Games,” “The Planet of the Apes,” “99 Luftballons,” and
many, many more in which nuclear terror was the central subject or
background.<br>
<br>
All of this helped generate a worldwide anti-nuclear movement, which
in turn generated a larger audience for anti-nuclear culture, which
in turn strengthened the movement — all in a virtuous circle. In
other words, we avoided atomic Armageddon in part because we spent
lots of time imagining it and so were motivated not to experience it
in reality. But with global warming, there are few indications that
we’re imagining it at all. We’re blithely stumbling forward in a
fog, with little comprehension of the catastrophe we’re stumbling
toward.-<br>
Like most comedies, “Don’t Look Up” is probably best seen in
theaters. But be prepared: As in “Dr. Strangelove,” the depth of
comedy of “Don’t Look Up” is matched by a subtle, profound grief.
The end of the movie is unbearably poignant; in particular, Lawrence
delivers one line that is clearly the filmmakers explaining why they
made this, even if it turns out to be completely futile. There may
be a few movies that will make you laugh more and some that make you
cry more, but if you add the laughing and crying together, it’s hard
to think of anything that puts more emotional points on the board.<br>
<br>
The good news, if there is any, is that when the lights come up at
the end, you’ll realize that in reality we’re only half an hour into
this story. We can still save ourselves if we want to. And part of
that will have to be much more human creativity like this, in
service of understanding the horrifying destination toward which
we’re heading.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://theintercept.com/2021/12/12/dont-look-up-review-adam-mckay-dr-strangelove/">https://theintercept.com/2021/12/12/dont-look-up-review-adam-mckay-dr-strangelove/</a><br>
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<br>
<i>[ Opinion, can we attribute all confusion and despair to Madison
Avenue? ]</i><br>
<b>Why Isn't Washington Merry?</b><br>
Dec 7, 2021<br>
ELIZABETH DREW<br>
With yet another new viral strain threatening the recovery, US
President Joe Biden's honeymoon period is long over, as evidenced by
his falling approval ratings. But, in fact, morale is declining on
both sides of the aisle as politicians navigate the no man's land
between ineffectiveness and extremism....<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/us-politics-declining-morale-by-elizabeth-drew-2021-12">https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/us-politics-declining-morale-by-elizabeth-drew-2021-12</a><br>
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<i> [ Video discussion -- "Change management and entrepreneurial
theory - beware the fallacy of evil people" ] </i><br>
<b>Author Tom Rosenstiel Discusses New Political Climate Thriller:
The Days To Come</b><br>
Nick Breeze - ClimateGenn<br>
Dec 12. 2021<br>
In this ClimateGenn episode, I am speaking with author Tom
Rosenstiel about his new political thriller, <u>The Days To Come</u>.
<br>
<br>
Tom has switched hats from journalist to fiction writer, possessing
a depth of insight into how both disciplines interact with the
public and our experience of reality?<br>
The Days To Come is a thriller with a climate change theme that
touches on many of the complex factors that can either accelerate or
undermine our progress in tackling the climate crisis.<br>
<p>In this interview, we discuss how the book intersects with
contemporary reality and also how fiction and journalism
contribute to shaping the narrative we internalize that helps us
envision the future.<br>
Visit: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://genn.cc">https://genn.cc</a> to view the series or
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://patreon.com/genncc">https://patreon.com/genncc</a> to support my work.</p>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR-cmqBjQc0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR-cmqBjQc0</a><br>
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<i>[ Activist answers -- book blurb ]</i><br>
<b>The Pivot</b><br>
<b>Addressing Global Problems Through Local Action</b><br>
Steve Hamm<br>
Columbia Business School Publishing<br>
November 2021 -- ISBN: 9780231200905 -- 304 pages<br>
<br>
Can societies already reeling from climate change, income
inequality, and structural racism change for the better? Does the
shock of the pandemic offer an opportunity to pivot to a more
sustainable way of life?<br>
<br>
Early in the crisis, a global volunteer collaboration called Pivot
Projects was formed to rethink how the world works. Some members are
experts in the sciences and the humanities; others are environmental
activists or regular people who see themselves as world citizens. In
The Pivot, the journalist Steve Hamm—who embedded in the enterprise
from the start—explores their efforts and shows how their approach
provides a model for achieving systemic change. Chronicling the
group’s progress along an uncharted path, he shows how people with a
variety of skills and personalities collaborate to get things done.<br>
<br>
Through their work, Hamm examines some of today’s most important
technologies and concepts, such as systems thinking and modeling,
complexity theory, artificial intelligence, and new thinking about
resilience. The book features vivid, informal profiles of a number
of the group’s members and brings to life the excitement and energy
of dynamic, smart people trying to change the world.<br>
<br>
Part journal of a plague year and part call to action, The Pivot
tells the remarkable story of a collaborative experiment seeking to
make the world more sustainable and resilient.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-pivot/9780231200905">https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-pivot/9780231200905</a><br>
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<i>[ Political lobbying manages to skips over discussion ] </i><br>
<b>Mapped: The Network of Powerful Agribusiness Groups Lobbying to
Water Down the EU’s Sustainable Farming Targets</b><br>
Agrochemical and pesticide giants like Bayer and BASF are pushing
for weaker action on harmful chemicals and climate goals.<br>
By Daniela De Lorenzo and Rachel Sherringtonon -- Dec 9, 202<br>
- -<br>
Leading industry associations and agrochemical companies have used
their lobbying might to push back against core European measures
aiming to lead the transition to a more sustainable way of farming.
These companies are connected through their various trade group
memberships, and have deployed many tools — from networking events
to lawsuits — in order to counter Europe’s push to phase-out
pesticides and reduce fertilizer use...<br>
- -<br>
“Clearly industry has been very smart at organizing confusion around
both concepts of science and innovation for their own interests.
From a societal point of view, the real important question to be
asked is: for what purposes do we want to use science and
innovation?” said Cingotti. “The moment you start approaching these
concepts this way, then you allow bringing in the defining
challenges of humanity – such as health and environment protection
in a changing climate and eroding biodiversity – and you realise
that precaution might actually be an important driver to tomorrow’s
scientific approaches to innovation.”<br>
<br>
DeSmog reached out to all companies and trade groups analyzed in
this research for comment.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.desmog.com/2021/12/09/network-agribusiness-chemicals-pesticides-lobbying-eu-sustainable-climate-farming/">https://www.desmog.com/2021/12/09/network-agribusiness-chemicals-pesticides-lobbying-eu-sustainable-climate-farming/</a><br>
<p><br>
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<br>
<i>[ The news archive - looking back - really? only 5 votes? ]</i><br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming
December 13, 2000</b></font><br>
Having lost the Presidential election by only five votes, Vice
President Al Gore delivers a gracious concession speech, noting: "As
for the battle that ends tonight, I do believe as my father once
said, that no matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well
as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/U4BZcH8bqRk">http://youtu.be/U4BZcH8bqRk</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<p>/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/</p>
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