<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>October 21, 2022</b></i></font></p>
<i>[ It brought Seattle the worst air in the world - NPR radio news
-- text and audio ]</i><br>
<b>Why haven't firefighters 'put out' the Bolt Creek fire?</b><br>
OCT 19, 2022<br>
BY Paige Browning<br>
The Bolt Creek Fire continues to smolder 14,000 acres of forest near
Skykomish, on the northern edge of Highway 2. The exact cause of the
human-sparked fire remains under investigation.<br>
<br>
It's been 39 days since the fire started burning. Some residents are
asking firefighters: Why haven't they put it out?<br>
<br>
It's not so simple, officials say.<br>
<br>
It's been a rough, smoky five weeks for Skykomish residents. People
have had to cancel plans, schools and libraries have closed on and
off, and doctors offices have seen more visits due to wheezing — or
worse — from the smoke.<br>
<br>
It's also bad for business.<br>
<br>
Henry Sladek is the mayor of Skykomish. He also owns the historic
Cascadia Inn.<br>
<br>
"We're at about a quarter of the normal business we'd be doing this
time of year," he said.<br>
<br>
But despite the current outlook, things are going according to plan
for the 277 firefighters on the job.<br>
<br>
The goal is to stop the fire from spreading — not to put it out,
said Don Ferguson, the public information officer for the Southeast
Washington Interagency Incident Management Team, which is containing
the fire.<br>
<br>
"There have been a couple of fatalities in Western Oregon already
this year, people being hit by trees, and that would be a very
likely consequence of having people in the woods in those
conditions," he said. "So we don't want to put firefighters at risk
and where they're not going to be effective."<br>
<br>
Ferguson added that crews are meeting the two big goals of
containing wildland fires: protect people's lives and protect
buildings from damage. They are letting the wilderness burn, a
strategy widely adopted in the U.S.<br>
<br>
It's up to nature to do the rest.<br>
<br>
"We worked all day for two days to control seven acres," Ferguson
said. "So that just kind of shows you dumping water from the sky is
not a good way to put a fire out. What we need is season-ending
weather."<br>
<br>
They're also trying to keep the fire away from Highway 2 and towns,
which has been more of a struggle.<br>
<br>
The Bolt Creek fire is shaping up to be the fifth largest wildfire
in Western Washington in recorded history, according to Ferguson.<br>
<br>
For his part, Mayor Sladek said he's preparing himself for what fire
experts have been warning about: the west-side of Washington could
see more seasons like this.<br>
<br>
"It's much wetter and damper over here, so this is the first time
that that's really become and issue," Sladek said. "But it's
probably a good reminder that we are in that kind of an area and
increasingly so, probably, with climate change."<br>
<br>
Firefighters estimate they'll have the Bolt Creek fire contained by
Halloween.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://kuow.org/stories/why-haven-t-firefighters-put-out-the-bolt-creek-fire">https://kuow.org/stories/why-haven-t-firefighters-put-out-the-bolt-creek-fire</a><br>
<i></i>
<p><i><br>
</i></p>
<p><i><br>
</i></p>
<i>[ MIT Technology Review -- oh save us Bill, please. ]</i><br>
<b>At Bill Gates’s climate conference, “amazing” progress and
“depressing” trends</b><br>
Energy secretary Jennifer Granholm and climate czar John Kerry also
offered tempered optimism at the inaugural Breakthrough Energy
Summit this week.<br>
By James Temple<br>
October 19, 2022<br>
Bill Gates, John Kerry, and US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm
all struck positive notes at an energy summit in Seattle this week
hosted by Gates’s climate-focused venture fund, Breakthrough Energy.
With caveats.<br>
<br>
Government policy is accelerating clean energy projects. The cost of
renewables continues to fall. Huge sums of private and public
capital are pouring into climate technologies.<br>
<br>
And yet, this progress hasn’t translated into steep reductions in
greenhouse-gas pollution. Meanwhile, geopolitical conflicts and
global economic headwinds are complicating efforts to keep rising
global temperatures in check.<br>
<br>
Gates was largely focused on the promising investment and industry
trends he has seen. He said he and other investors in his initial $1
billion fund, which include the likes of Jeff Bezos and Kleiner
Perkins chairman John Doerr, were concerned when they launched in
2015 that they wouldn’t find enough promising startups to invest in.
But the firm has now backed more than 100 companies working on
long-duration energy storage, meat alternatives, efficient
buildings, clean steel, and other means of driving down emissions. <br>
Gates says he is “amazed” by the progress he’s seen on some of the
hardest technical challenges of climate change in the past seven
years. <br>
<br>
Breakthrough Energy closed a second $1 billion fund in 2021, and
Gates said the firm plans to “do several more.” It has also expanded
its mission beyond investments by pushing policies, creating
fellowships, and supporting other climate efforts.<br>
<br>
Gates noted that venture capital investments in clean energy, which
were close to their ebb around 2015, have come roaring back and that
wind, solar, and lithium-ion batteries have continued to plummet in
cost...<br>
- -<br>
But for all the progress that’s occurred, there are still major
obstacles to slashing emissions rapidly enough to avoid the worst
dangers of climate change.<br>
<br>
Gates said that a hard look at nations’ progress toward near-term
emissions targets under the Paris climate agreement would leave
people “very depressed.” Indeed, global emissions set a new record
last year and have continued to rise through much of 2022. <br>
<br>
Gates also called it “very laughable” to think that the US will
build out a clean electricity grid by 2035, despite the tens of
billions of dollars earmarked for wind and solar projects, and the
fact that it’s a stated goal of the Biden administration...<br>
- -<br>
A recent federal bill that included provisions to streamline such
approvals failed to move forward in Congress.<br>
<br>
John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, echoed
these concerns at a media briefing at the end of the day on Tuesday,
stressing the need to pass permitting reform when Congress is back
in session.<br>
<br>
“There is no way we can meet our goals if it takes 10 years” to
approve such projects, he said.<br>
<br>
When asked how rising inflation, a weakening global economy, and the
energy crisis sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine are
complicating efforts for nations to meet and raise emissions targets
ahead of the UN climate conference next month in Egypt, Kerry said:
“Putin’s illegal invasion of another county has had an impact on the
overall economic situation, globally.” That has boosted energy
prices and exacerbated rising inflation, putting nations in a “tough
spot,” he said...<br>
- - <br>
“I’m convinced we will get to a low carbon/no carbon economy, a
clean energy economy,” Kerry said. “But I’m not convinced that we
will get there in time to avoid the worst consequences of what may
take place on our planet as a result of the climate crisis.”<br>
<br>
Gates ended on a more squarely positive note. <br>
<br>
He remains hopeful, he says, that the world will begin to
significantly accelerate emissions reductions in the coming years,
as the private sector and government continue to drive down the cost
of clean technologies. He added that to keep activists,
entrepreneurs, researchers, and others engaged in solving big
problems, it’s crucial to point out the progress we are making in
areas that will pay off in real ways for the climate.<br>
<br>
“You can’t have people giving up,” he said.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/10/19/1061910/at-bill-gates-climate-conference-amazing-progress-and-depressing-trends/">https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/10/19/1061910/at-bill-gates-climate-conference-amazing-progress-and-depressing-trends/</a><i><br>
</i>
<p><i><br>
</i></p>
<p><i><br>
</i></p>
<i>[ COP report from Reuters ]</i><br>
<b>'Massive gaps' seen in countries' plans to tackle climate change
-study</b><br>
By Timothy Gardner<br>
WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - The latest pledges by countries to
tackle global warming under the Paris Agreement are "woefully
inadequate" to avert a rise in global temperatures that scientists
say will worsen droughts, storms and floods, a report said on
Wednesday.<br>
<br>
The 2015 pact launched at a U.N. global climate summit requires 194
countries to detail their plans to fight climate change in what are
known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs.<br>
In pledges made through September, the NDCs would reduce global
emissions of greenhouse gases only 7% from 2019 levels by 2030, said
the report titled "The State of NDCs: 2022." It was written by the
World Resources Institute (WRI) global nonprofit research group.<br>
<br>
Countries must strengthen their targets by about six times that, or
at least 43%, to align with what the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change says is enough to reach the Paris Agreement's goal of
limiting the global temperature rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7
degrees F), it said.<br>
"It really looks like we're hitting a bit of a plateau," Taryn
Fransen, a senior fellow at WRI and author of the report said in an
interview. She added that the COVID-19 pandemic and economic woes
may have mostly capped countries' ambitions to boost their NDCs
since 2021.<br>
<br>
Current NDCs propose to reduce emissions by 5.5 gigatonnes compared
with the initial NDCs from 2015, nearly equal to eliminating the
annual emissions of the United States. But only 10% of that planned
reduction has been pledged since 2021.<br>
On the bright side, Australia and Indonesia did boost their NDCs
this year. "That got us some progress," Fransen said, "but there
hasn't been a lot beyond that." Countries in the Paris Agreement are
required to update their NDCs by 2025.<br>
<br>
"If the pace of improvement from 2016 to today continues, the world
will not only miss the Paris Agreement goals, but it will miss them
by a long shot," the report said.<br>
<br>
Much of the focus of this year's global climate talks, to be held
next month in Egypt, will center on reducing emissions of methane, a
greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide during its first
20 years in the atmosphere. In an example of the work yet to be
done, WRI found that only 15 of the 119 countries that signed a
Global Methane Pledge launched last year included a specific,
quantified methane reduction target in their NDCs.<br>
<br>
Fransen said economic and health benefits of reducing emissions,
such as the build-out of the energy transition and reduced air
pollution, can help build momentum to deeper cuts. "Seeing those
benefits can only help drive more ambitions, but it is a bit of a
chicken-and-egg problem," she said.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/massive-gaps-seen-countries-plans-tackle-climate-change-study-2022-10-19/">https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/massive-gaps-seen-countries-plans-tackle-climate-change-study-2022-10-19/</a><br>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
<i>[ UN Climate Change ]</i><br>
<b> "A wonderful recovery"</b><br>
As #COP27 in Egypt approaches, take a look back to the powerful
speech Sir David Attenborough delivered in Glasgow last year.<br>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://twitter.com/UNFCCC/status/1583052254504169473">https://twitter.com/UNFCCC/status/1583052254504169473</a><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ more from AP ]</i><br>
<b>Florida sees rise in flesh-eating bacteria amid Ian concerns</b><br>
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Florida has seen an increase in cases of
flesh-eating bacteria this year driven largely by a surge in the
county hit hardest by Hurricane Ian.<br>
<br>
The state Department of Health reports that as of Friday there have
been 65 cases of vibrio vulnificus infections and 11 deaths in
Florida this year. That compares with 34 cases and 10 deaths
reported during all of 2021.<br>
<br>
In Lee County, where Ian stormed ashore last month, the health
department reports 29 cases this year and four deaths...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://apnews.com/article/hurricanes-health-florida-storms-hurricane-ian-6785d07506378030d50305c9d8ed928a">https://apnews.com/article/hurricanes-health-florida-storms-hurricane-ian-6785d07506378030d50305c9d8ed928a</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[The news archive - looking back at 1984 ]</i><br>
<font size="+2"><i><b>October 21, 1984</b></i></font> <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>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF73k5-Hiqg"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF73k5-Hiqg</a>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<p>======================================= <br>
<b class="moz-txt-star"><span class="moz-txt-tag">*Mass media is
lacking, here are a few </span>daily summaries<span
class="moz-txt-tag"> of global warming news - email delivered*</span></b>
<br>
<br>
=========================================================<br>
<b>*Inside Climate News</b><br>
Newsletters<br>
We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day
or once a week, our original stories and digest of the web’s top
headlines deliver the full story, for free.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/" moz-do-not-send="true">https://insideclimatenews.org/</a><br>
--------------------------------------- <br>
*<b>Climate Nexus</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/*"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/*</a> <br>
Delivered straight to your inbox every morning, Hot News
summarizes the most important climate and energy news of the day,
delivering an unmatched aggregation of timely, relevant reporting.
It also provides original reporting and commentary on climate
denial and pro-polluter activity that would otherwise remain
largely unexposed. 5 weekday <br>
================================= <br>
<b class="moz-txt-star"><span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span>Carbon
Brief Daily <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/newsletter-sign-up"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.carbonbrief.org/newsletter-sign-up</a><span
class="moz-txt-tag">*</span></b> <br>
Every weekday morning, in time for your morning coffee, Carbon
Brief sends out a free email known as the “Daily Briefing” to
thousands of subscribers around the world. The email is a digest
of the past 24 hours of media coverage related to climate change
and energy, as well as our pick of the key studies published in
the peer-reviewed journals. <br>
more at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.getrevue.co/publisher/carbon-brief"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.getrevue.co/publisher/carbon-brief</a>
<br>
================================== <br>
*T<b>he Daily Climate </b>Subscribe <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://ehsciences.activehosted.com/f/61*"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://ehsciences.activehosted.com/f/61*</a>
<br>
Get The Daily Climate in your inbox - FREE! Top news on climate
impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered week days. Better
than coffee. <br>
Other newsletters at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.dailyclimate.org/originals/"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.dailyclimate.org/originals/</a>
<br>
<br>
</p>
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
<br>
/Archive of Daily Global Warming News <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>
<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
moz-txt-link-freetext" 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>
</body>
</html>