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<p><font size="+2"><i><b>December 28 , 2022 </b></i><font
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<i>[ Cold air trends interview by Peter Sinclair - 5 min video ]</i><br>
<b>Weather Whiplash, Climate and Cold Air Outbreaks</b><br>
greenmanbucket<br>
2.59K subscribers<br>
Dec 27, 2022<br>
Martha Shulski PhD, State Climatologist for Nebraska, and Judah
Cohen PhD of MIT, interviewed separately, both mentioned, even in
the overall warming of winter months in North America, the
increased incidence of cold air outbreaks, especially during the
second half of February, such as caused the deadly Texas power
debacle of February 2021.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-zJ1TSHyxI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-zJ1TSHyxI</a><br>
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<i>[ 50 min audio podcast -- Setting pathways and setting roots for
change -- but doing little to cool or immeidaltly halt CO2
emissions - this is combining many efforts -- Democrats set policy
and define some admirable aspirations - doing something Congress
should have done decades ago. (We need global physical changes by
Tuesday.) ]</i><br>
<b>Reflecting on the work of the soon-to-retire House climate
committee</b><br>
A conversation with Rep. Kathy Castor, the chair of the House Select
Committee on the Climate Crisis.<br>
DEC 28<br>
David Roberts<br>
In 2019, in the wake of Democrats’ congressional victories, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she would be re-forming the
Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, which had been disbanded by
Republicans in the previous session. She appointed Florida
Representative Kathy Castor as chair.<br>
<br>
At the time, the decision caused considerable controversy in the
climate community. Climate activists were pushing for a more
ambitious committee, with the power to write a full Green New Deal
legislative package. Instead, the committee was to be an advisory
body only, meant to do research and develop policy suggestions.<br>
<br>
History is littered with congressional committees that busily
produce reports and whitepapers that no one reads. But the climate
committee proved much more potent than that.<br>
<br>
Castor set about gathering testimony from hundreds of witnesses —
scientists, policy wonks, and average citizens alike — and putting
her expert staff to work translating their testimony into policy
recommendations. But the recommendations did not simply decorate
reports. The Democrats on the committee, and the Democrats educated
by the committee's work, took those recommendations back to their
own committees, where they found their way into a wide variety of
bills. The bipartisan infrastructure bill, the CHIPS Act, and the
Inflation Reduction Act contained numerous policies that originated
in the climate committee.<br>
<br>
Altogether, hundreds of the recommendations made by the committee
found their way into law — a crazy-high success rate for a committee
with no real power. As the committee prepares to sunset — of course
Republicans are disbanding it again — it has put out a final report,
summarizing all its achievements and pointing to the work that
remains to be done.<br>
<br>
I called Rep. Castor to get her thoughts on the committee's work,
the achievements she is most proud of, and what progress she thinks
can be made in the next two years.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.volts.wtf/p/reflecting-on-the-work-of-the-soon?utm_source=podcast-email%2Csubstack&publication_id=193024&post_id=92217677&utm_medium=email#details">https://www.volts.wtf/p/reflecting-on-the-work-of-the-soon?utm_source=podcast-email%2Csubstack&publication_id=193024&post_id=92217677&utm_medium=email#details</a><i><br>
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<i>[ time to look back at the year 2022 ]</i><br>
<b>Biggest climate toll in year of ‘devastating’ disasters revealed</b><br>
Most expensive storm cost $100bn while deadliest floods killed 1,700
and displaced 7 million, report finds<br>
PA Media<br>
Tue 27 Dec 2022 <br>
The 10 most expensive storms, floods and droughts in 2022 each cost
at least $3bn (£2.5bn) in a “devastating” year on the frontline of
the climate crisis, a report shows.<br>
<br>
Christian Aid has highlighted the worst climate-related disasters of
the year asmore intense storms, heavy downpours and droughts are
driven by rising global temperatures as a result of human activity.<br>
<br>
They include storms and drought in the UK and Europe, along with
major events on every inhabited continent.<br>
<br>
Hurricane Ian caused the biggest financial impact – $100bn – when it
hit the US and Cuba in September.<br>
<br>
The toll included 130 deaths and the displacement of more than
40,000 people, a report from the aid agency said.<br>
<br>
The biggest impact in terms of human costs were the Pakistan floods
in June to September, which scientists found were significantly more
likely because of the climate crisis, causing 1,739 deaths and
displacing 7 million people.<br>
<br>
The financial costs were $5.6bn – though that was only insured
losses, and the true cost of the floods was estimated to be more
than $30bn, Christian Aid said.<br>
<br>
Alongside the 10 most costly events, the report from the charity
highlights other noteworthy climate-related incidents that also
caused deaths, displacement, devastation and environmental damage...<br>
- -<br>
Hugely expensive floods also hit China this year.<br>
<br>
Christian Aid’s chief executive, Patrick Watt, said: “Having 10
separate climate disasters in the last year that each cost more than
$3bn points to the financial cost of inaction on the climate crisis.<br>
<br>
“But behind the dollar figures lie millions of stories of human loss
and suffering. Without major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, this
human and financial toll will only increase.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/27/biggest-climate-toll-in-year-of-devastating-disasters-revealed">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/27/biggest-climate-toll-in-year-of-devastating-disasters-revealed</a><br>
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<i>[ call it carefully selection of climate tools ]</i><br>
<b>Climate change is forcing cities to rethink their tree mix</b><br>
by Alex Brown, Stateline.org<br>
DECEMBER 27, 2022<br>
Cities need to plant more trees. But not just any trees.<br>
As communities prepare for a massive influx of federal funding to
support urban forestry, their leaders say the tree canopy that grows
to maturity 50 years from now will need to be painted with a
different palette than the one that exists today.<br>
"You need a tree that's going to survive the weather of today and
the climate of the future," said Pete Smith, urban forestry program
manager with the Arbor Day Foundation, a Nebraska-based nonprofit
that supports tree planting and care.<br>
<br>
Forestry experts say trees are critical infrastructure that can help
cities withstand the effects of climate change by providing shade,
absorbing stormwater and filtering air pollution. But to do that,
the trees themselves need to be resilient.<br>
<br>
"We're developing planting lists that are diverse, that look at
tolerance to drought, storm events and flooding, heat, changes to
the highs and lows," said Kevin Sayers, urban forestry coordinator
with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. "The extremes in
the weather are really going to limit us."...<br>
- -<br>
While arborists look for trees that will thrive in the climate
conditions they're likely to face in the coming decades, scientists
say they can't simply count on a handful of climate "winners." Many
cities, for example, have lost vast amounts of their tree canopy
because they relied too heavily on one tree type that was later
wiped out by a pathogen or pest, such as Dutch elm disease or the
emerald ash borer.<br>
<br>
"Unless we start diversifying the urban forest, we're going to end
up losing quite a bit of it again," said John Ball, South Dakota
State University Extension forestry specialist and South Dakota
Department of Agriculture specialist on forest health....<br>
- -<br>
In Seattle, many of the city's bigleaf maples and western red cedars
are struggling in urbanized areas. Foresters are now careful to
plant them in favorable microclimates, with conditions such as good
soil moisture and north-facing slopes that remain cooler.<br>
<br>
"We're being a little more picky about where we put them on the
landscape," said Michael Yadrick Jr., plant ecologist with Seattle
Parks and Recreation.<br>
<br>
Meanwhile, the city is planting more Pacific madrone and Garry oaks
that tolerate hotter, drier conditions. And within individual tree
species, it's adding trees grown from seeds taken from further south
in their range, with the goal of adding resilient genotypes to the
mix...<br>
- -<br>
Scientists at the University of Florida are working to determine
which trees best withstand high winds. They're hoping to expand an
existing Florida-based classification system by looking at research
from hurricane-prone communities worldwide.<br>
<br>
"We'd like to see this list used to target wind-resistant species in
areas where a tree falling over could damage property or harm people
or infrastructure," said Allyson Salisbury, a researcher at the
university.<br>
<br>
Foresters say their preparations won't result in a complete makeover
of the trees they plant. They emphasize that such decisions are an
inexact science that could carry unintended consequences.<br>
<br>
"People say we should bring species up from Southern locations,"
said Lydia Scott, director of the Chicago Region Trees Initiative, a
partnership of organizations and agencies dedicated to improving the
area's urban canopy. "That's fine until we get a two-week cold snap
in the winter that kills off all those trees that are not adapted to
the cold."...<br>
- -<br>
Above all, experts say that diversity is the best way to ensure that
many trees survive the changes that are coming, rather than pinning
all their hopes on guesstimates of which trees might thrive. In most
communities, the existing tree canopy is far from that goal.<br>
- -<br>
Elm trees once were among the most prominent trees in America's
urban forests. When Dutch elm disease wiped out many of those trees,
many cities replanted with ash. Now they're taking down millions of
trees that have been ravaged by the emerald ash borer. Today, maples
proliferate in cities, and foresters are casting a wary eye toward
any threats to those trees.<br>
<br>
"You could plant elm and ash anywhere on any soil and grow them,"
said Ball, the South Dakota forestry specialist. "Now we're done
with the easy trees. You better know what your soils are like.
You've got to understand the micro-environments in your community
and fine-tune your plantings."<br>
<br>
Urban forestry leaders say they want to plant a greater diversity of
trees, but getting the seedlings they need has proven to be
challenging.<br>
<br>
"Nurseries have a shortage of the species diversity we're looking
for, and that's tough to crack because it's the private sector,"
said Keith Wood, a contractor with the National Association of State
Foresters who staffs the group's committee on urban and community
forestry.<br>
<br>
Arborists cite a feedback loop wherein nurseries grow only what
sells, and cities buy only what's available. Some have gotten around
that loop by contracting with nurseries in advance to grow the
seedlings they'll need in the coming years. The Chicago Region Trees
Initiative plants 54 tree species, some of which it pays for over a
five-year period as nurseries grow them.<br>
<br>
"We're getting the species we want, the sizes we want, the numbers
we want, all when we want them," said Scott, the Chicago-area
leader.<br>
<br>
Some cities are reluctant to contract for trees years in advance,
unwilling to take on inflexible cost obligations amid unpredictable
budget cycles.<br>
<br>
But nurseries need some certainty if they're going to grow
less-marketable and harder-to-cultivate species on a large scale,
said Nancy Buley, communications director with J. Frank Schmidt
& Son Co., a large nursery in Oregon that supplies many urban
planting efforts.<br>
<br>
"For the cities and nonprofits to get the more unusual trees to meet
their species diversity goals," she said, "they're really going to
need to contract in some way."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://phys.org/news/2022-12-climate-cities-rethink-tree.html">https://phys.org/news/2022-12-climate-cities-rethink-tree.html</a><br>
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<i>[ NPR report ] </i><br>
<b>Climate activists are fuming as Germany turns to coal to replace
Russian gas</b><br>
December 26, 2022...<br>
- -<br>
Germany, Europe's largest economy, is racing to replace Russian
natural gas after Moscow cut off a key pipeline over the summer. At
odds with the government's climate protection promises, German
Chancellor Olaf Scholz's governing coalition is investing more in
fossil fuels, not less. It's firing up old coal power plants and
investing in an entirely new liquefied natural gas infrastructure to
fill the void left by the now-defunct Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.<br>
As a result, climate activists like Johnsen are carrying out
increasingly disruptive protests on an almost daily basis. Some days
it's on a major city thoroughfare; on others, the runway at Munich
or Berlin airports...<br>
- -<br>
Burning fossil fuels is speeding up climate change that's already
causing catastrophic consequences in the world, and scientists warn
it will worsen as nations fail to make dramatic cuts to harmful gas
emissions.<br>
<br>
"If we would compare the situation to a war, we wouldn't go on as
normal," Schnarr says. "And we are in a desperate situation. So we
also should act like it and implement an emergency economy. This is
one of the things that the German government should do."...<br>
- -<br>
"Germany's constitutional court has already ruled that the previous
government's lack of action on climate change was unconstitutional,"
Bals says, referring to a decision in 2021. "So the same court may
well view these protests as legitimate because they aim to protect
greater interests, namely the fundamental rights of future
generations."<br>
As exchanges become curt, it's clear that a sense of urgency and
frustration is shared by all.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.npr.org/2022/12/26/1144709223/climate-activists-are-fuming-as-germany-turns-to-coal-to-replace-russian-gas">https://www.npr.org/2022/12/26/1144709223/climate-activists-are-fuming-as-germany-turns-to-coal-to-replace-russian-gas</a><i><br>
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<i>[ Michael Dowd - video <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/cLBJjBcSSnY">https://youtu.be/cLBJjBcSSnY</a> ]</i><b><i><br>
</i></b><b>Living Fully in an Age of Decline (Sanity 101: Cliff
Notes) Essential Wisdom for Hard Times</b><br>
thegreatstory<br>
Dec 27, 2022<br>
This 30-min "CLIFF NOTES" version of "Sanity 101: Living Fully in an
Age of Decline - Essential Wisdom for Hard Times" gives voice to a
decade of research into (1) the unstoppable nature of denial
regarding biospheric and civilizational collapse, and (2) how we can
live fully and contribute meaningfully even in the worst
circumstances. <br>
<br>
DESCRIPTION: No one needs convincing that we are living in hard
times and in an age of chaos and breakdowns. Even those with no
understanding of the runaway nature of biospheric and
civilizational decline feel the stress. Just to read or watch
today’s propaganda, formerly known as “the news”, is a sobering (or
un-sobering!) experience. So... How do we cope? How can we stay
positive? And, perhaps most importantly, how can we be of support to
others who are confused, angry, depressed, or filled with fear,
blame, or guilt? That's what this "basic training" in living life
fully and loving the life you live even in the worst of times is all
about. <br>
<br>
THESIS: The stability of the biosphere has been in decline for
centuries and in runaway (unstoppable) collapse for decades. This
“Great Acceleration” of technology- and market-driven ecocide is an
easily verifiable fact. The scientific evidence is overwhelming.
Evidence is also compelling that the vast majority of people will
deny this, especially those still benefitting from the existing
order, those legitimately concerned about the consequences of
collapse, those who fear that accepting reality means “giving up”.
The history of 80+ previous boom and bust societies clearly reveals
how and why Homo colossus (industrial civilization) is in terminal
decline and destined for near-term extinction. Paradoxically,
acceptance of collapse and its inevitable consequences may be the
single most important thing any of us can do to live fully,
fearlessly, and inspiringly in this Age of Decline: at TEOTWAWKI
(The-End-Of-The-World-As-We-Know-It).<br>
<blockquote>00:00:00 Introduction, Overview, Thesis<br>
00:05:22 Trust / Stages / Overshoot<br>
00:17:31 Denial / Universal Human Needs<br>
00:09:35 Collapse and Civiizations<br>
00:14:18 False Solutions / Hopium<br>
00:16:17 4 Drivers of Collapse, Ecocide, NTHE<br>
00:16:57 Calm Gratitude at TEOTWAWKI?<br>
00:17:38 Naming Reality for good or evil<br>
00:20:22 Acceptance, Trust, Post-doom No-gloom<br>
00:21:49 It's NOT too late... / It IS too late...<br>
00:22:32 Cultivating Calm Gratitude<br>
00:23:16 Benefits of Acceptance, Trust<br>
00:26:22 Final note of encouragement <br>
00:27:17 Feelings of acceptance and denial<br>
WEBSITE: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://postdoom.com">https://postdoom.com</a><br>
</blockquote>
RESOURCES: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://postdoom.com/resources/">https://postdoom.com/resources/</a><br>
CONVERSATIONS: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://postdoom.com/conversations/">https://postdoom.com/conversations/</a><br>
GALLOWS HUMOR, COPING, DISCUSSIONS:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://postdoom.com/discussions/">https://postdoom.com/discussions/</a><br>
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<i>[ More from Michael Dowd - YouTube channel ]</i><br>
<b>thegreatstory</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/@thegreatstory/featured">https://www.youtube.com/@thegreatstory/featured</a><br>
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<i>[ Dave Roberts famous talk - with some music added - his words
and graphics remain - 10 years ago ]</i><br>
<b>Climate Change Is Simple - David Roberts Remix</b><br>
Ryan Cooper<br>
76,317 views Oct 15, 2012<br>
This video is to promote general awareness of the science of climate
change. It features David Roberts of Grist, and short clips from
around the web. Edited by @ryanlcooper. Find more of my stuff at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ryanlouiscooper.com">http://www.ryanlouiscooper.com</a>. Find David at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://grist.org/author/david-roberts/">http://grist.org/author/david-roberts/</a> and @drgrist, and
documentation on the talk at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://grist.org/climate-change/climate-change-is-simple-we-do-something-or-were-screwed/">https://grist.org/climate-change/climate-change-is-simple-we-do-something-or-were-screwed/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pznsPkJy2x8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pznsPkJy2x8</a><i><br>
</i><br>
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<i> [ Inside Climate News is one of the most respected news outlets
]</i><br>
<b>Why the Language of Climate Change Matters</b><br>
New and borrowed words from the worlds of art, academia and activism
can help us to better “imagine how to adapt and flourish” amid the
challenges of the climate crisis.<br>
By Kiley Bense<br>
December 24, 2022<br>
In a 1920 edition of a local Pennsylvania newspaper, a brief article
appeared with a simple title: “The Chestnut.” Although this was a
story about a species of tree, it read more like an obituary for a
beloved relative. “All hope is abandoned of saving the American
chestnut from the blight,” the writer declared, predicting that
soon, the majestic and vital American chestnut would become nothing
more than a memory. The article ended with a lament for what had
been lost: “Schoolboys of the future will ask, ‘What is a chestnut
tree?’ and ‘What is a chestnut?’” <br>
<br>
The American chestnut once dominated vast stretches of Eastern
forests, including Pennsylvania’s. That changed beginning in 1904,
when a fungus, unwittingly imported from Asia, killed hundreds of
millions of trees in a few short decades. Today, the species is
classified as functionally extinct. <br>
<br>
Before I learned its tragic history, the American chestnut was like
a mythical creature to me, encountered only in Christmas song lyrics
and on the grids of city maps. But the more I read about the
chestnut, the more I mourned its passing. I paged through
photographs of dying and dead American chestnuts in Valley Forge
National Park, where I spent so many barefoot summers as a kid. I
saw huge stands of diseased trees, their bark blistered with
blight-inflicted cankers.<br>
It didn’t matter, somehow, that I didn’t have any memories of
gathering chestnuts at the first frost, climbing a chestnut’s leafy
limbs or eating sweet roasted chestnuts from a street cart. The
sight of those doomed trees filled me with a particular sorrow I
couldn’t explain except as grief for something that came and went
before I was born. If there was an English word for this feeling, I
didn’t know it.<br>
<br>
I thought about this nameless emotion when I read about the Collins
Dictionary 2022 selection for the Word of the Year, “permacrisis,”
chosen to reflect what it means to live through “an extended period
of instability and insecurity” because of multiple, overlapping and
incessant crises or “catastrophic events.” “Permacrisis” is one more
entry in the ongoing effort to better name the cultural,
technological, psychological and meteorological effects of climate
change and its environmental and political fallout. <br>
<br>
“Permacrisis” joins kindred words like “polycrisis,” “ecoanxiety,”
“hopium” and the related “copium” and “doomerism,” a lexicon created
or borrowed to capture the shifting complexities of a planetary
emergency. There’s also “Anthropocene,” coined in 2000 and under
consideration for official adoption as a geologic epoch; the poetic
“solastalgia” and the legal “ecocide”; and “global heating” and
“climate crisis,” both meant to more forcefully telegraph urgency. <br>
<br>
Why does the vocabulary of climate change matter? “It’s pretty
established that the words we use reflect the reality that we
inhabit, not just the material reality, but the cultural and social
and political worlds that we inhabit,” said Matthew
Schneider-Mayerson, the co-editor of “An Ecotopian Lexicon,” a
collection of 30 “ecologically productive” terms meant to aid in
processing and adjusting to the uncertainties of climate change.
“It’s often been hypothesized that language also affects the way
that we think and perceive the world,” he said. “And as a result of
that, to some extent, the way that we act on the world.” <br>
<br>
This is the concept of linguistic relativity, also known as the
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which posits that the language we speak
informs and influences our perception of reality. Naming a novel
concept or object can be a powerful act, “crystallizing” and
sharpening our understanding of the new as well as “establishing”
that behavior or feeling as normal–as a collective experience rather
than an individual one. “Things that might have seemed embarrassing
can become intelligible and acceptable,” Schneider-Mayerson said,
giving the examples of “selfie” and “binge-watch.” <br>
<br>
“An Ecotopian Lexicon” offers its neologisms and loanwords, which
come from other languages as well as subcultures like science
fiction and activism, as “conceptual tools to help us imagine how to
adapt and flourish in the face of socioecological adversity.” The
Ancient Mayan salutation of “in lak’ech,” a greeting meaning “I’m
another you” that is answered with “a la k’in,” meaning “you’re
another me” opens a window into what a wholesale reimagining of the
English language in light of the climate crisis might look like. “I
like it because greetings are things we use without thinking twice,”
Schneider-Mayerson said. “And this is one that establishes radical
interdependence and empathy as a basis for human interaction.”<br>
<br>
In part because of projects like “An Ecotopian Lexicon,” the
language of climate, like English as a whole, is constantly
evolving. “Anthropocene” may be on the verge of more formal
acceptance, but it’s fallen out of favor with some activists and
scholars. “It’s seen as universalizing both responsibility and
vulnerability” of climate change, Schneider-Mayerson said. Some
prefer “Capitalocene,” specifying capitalism as the catalyst and
cause. You can also call our era the “Plantationocene,” the
“Urbanocene” or the “Eremocene,” the Age of Loneliness.<br>
<br>
“It’s quite possible that we need to keep changing the terms, just
so the problem stays fresh in our mind,” Schneider-Mayerson said.
“It’s quite possible that in five years we will be inured to
‘climate emergency.’ And we might need another term that can speak
anew to the gravity of the situation.”<br>
Another project seeking to meet that need is the Bureau of
Linguistical Reality, founded in 2014 by Heidi Quante and Alicia
Escott as a “public participatory artwork…focused on creating new
language as an innovative way to better understand our rapidly
changing world due to manmade climate change.” The Bureau invites
people to submit their own neologisms to express nebulous ideas like
“shadowtime,” defined as “a parallel timescale that follows one
around throughout day-to-day experience of regular time,” a
simultaneous awareness of the already unstable present and the
potential for a “drastically different” future.<br>
<br>
The Bureau of Linguistical Reality inspired me to take a stab at
coining a term for my chestnut tree-shaped heartache. I tried out a
few combinations of Ancient Greek roots connoting “sadness” and
“past,” landing on “propenthos,” a compound made of “pro,” meaning
“before,” and “penthos,” meaning “sorrow” or “mourning,” which also
carries a sense of repentance for sin. Penthos is not “despair” or
“self-pity”; it’s a grief of contrition, a “pricking of conscience”
that can lead to spiritual restoration. <br>
<br>
This seemed apt, especially in the context of environmental loss
caused by human beings, and I felt like I had arrived at a clearer
understanding of my own hazy emotions. Whether or not anyone else
ever uses my word is beside the point. In defining and delineating
the feeling, it became easier to hold. <br>
<br>
Kiley Bense is a writer and journalist whose work has previously
been published in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Believer,
and elsewhere.<br>
Inside Climate News<br>
Pulitzer Prize-winning, nonpartisan reporting on the biggest crisis
facing our planet.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24122022/warming-trends-climate-language/">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24122022/warming-trends-climate-language/</a><br>
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<i>[ found the word Ennuipocalypse ] </i><br>
<b>The Bureau of Linguistical Reality</b><br>
The Bureau of Linguistical Reality is a public participatory artwork
by Heidi Quante and Alicia Escott focused on creating new language
as an innovative way to better understand our rapidly changing world
due to manmade climate change and other Anthropocenic events. The
vision of the artwork is to provide new words to express what people
are feeling and experiencing as our world changes as climate change
accelerates. We will be using these new words to facilitate
conversations about the greater experiences these words are seeking
to express with the view to facilitate a greater cultural shift
around climate change.<br>
<br>
This project was inspired by moments that both Heidi and Alicia had
where they literally were at a loss for words to describe emotions,
ideas or situations they found themselves experiencing because of
climate change.<br>
<br>
Heidi and Alicia discovered they were not alone – friends,
colleagues and people they met in their respective professions were
also experiencing this loss for words.<br>
<br>
For centuries philosophers, linguists, psychologists and others have
noted the power of words to influence people’s thoughts and actions
and vice versa. A principal called linguistic relativity (also known
as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis), holds that language affects the very
ways in which its respective speakers conceptualize their entire
world, in short their cognitive processes which often inform their
actions. It is from the term, linguistic relativity, that The Bureau
of Linguistical Reality takes its name.<br>
<br>
We reference this term playfully but believe sincerely that until we
have the language to describe the changing world around us, we will
not be able to fully grasp what is happening.<br>
<br>
Here are some examples of the power of words:<br>
The word genocide was created by the lawyer Raphael Lemkin in the
1940s to describe “the destruction of a nation or an ethnic group.”
He created the word by combining Greek genos γένος, “race, people”
and Latin cīdere “to kill”. Once this word was created a phenomena
became real. When people now hear this word, they call up a whole
understanding of this tragic human phenomena. They are able to use
the word in conversations and debates and those who hear it
understand it to be a real thing.<br>
<br>
In 2002 at a meeting of geologists, Paul Crutzen a Nobel Prize
winning Atmospheric Chemist, was fed up with people using the word
Holocene to describe present times. He introduced the neologism
Anthropocene. Anthropocene is a new geologic chronological term for
the proposed epoch that began when human activities had a
significant global impact on the Earth’s ecosystems, many cite the
Anthropocene era as beginning with the industrial revolution, others
with the advent of farming. Anthropocene is now widely used in
academia and the art world and is making its way into press
articles.<br>
<br>
Our words need to reflect our current realities, to help us codify
things we are experiencing, such as a world that is rapidly changing
due to climate change.<br>
<br>
We appreciate that not all the words generated via this creative
endeavor will make it into global lexicons. That’s ok. Our goal is
to spark deep conversations and reflections about how our cultures
can better reflect our new global reality. To inspire cultural
shifts to better tackle a world rapidly changing due to climate
change.<br>
To submit a new word
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://bureauoflinguisticalreality.com/submit-a-new-word/">https://bureauoflinguisticalreality.com/submit-a-new-word/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://bureauoflinguisticalreality.com/">https://bureauoflinguisticalreality.com/</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ in the </i><i><u>Daily Hampshire Gazette</u></i><i> how one
community decides to act ]</i><br>
<b>Leading by example: Northampton’s climate change mitigation work
years in the making</b><br>
By BRIAN STEELE and ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL<br>
Staff Writers<br>
Published: 12/26/2022 <br>
NORTHAMPTON — As the region continues to rack up new temperature
records, the city’s far-reaching, all-hands-on-deck approach to
battling climate change has altered streetscapes and citizens’ daily
routines, as well as the scope and role of government.<br>
<br>
To fight what they believe is an existential threat to the planet,
city leaders have worked for years to lower carbon emissions by
diversifying transportation options and infrastructure, reducing the
carbon impact of existing buildings and new construction, planting
and maintaining trees, improving stormwater and flood control, and a
long list of other priorities that involve every arm of local
government.<br>
- -<br>
The targets set by Northampton are more ambitious than the state’s
goals, as is made clear in a series of documents that lay out a path
to total carbon neutrality in the city by 2050, the date that
Massachusetts is seeking neutrality only for the building sector.
Those city plans, however, were developed under previous Mayor David
Narkewicz and incumbent Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra has chosen to aim
for full carbon neutrality by 2030 instead.<br>
<br>
“We heard from the public that the goals we were setting weren’t
aggressive enough,” said Sarah LaValley, the assistant director at
the Planning & Sustainability office for the city. “They wanted
to be carbon neutral even sooner.”<br>
<br>
Carbon neutrality means that any carbon dioxide emissions are offset
by reductions elsewhere, such as through planting trees that will
remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it. According to the
Environmental Protection Agency, carbon dioxide accounted for about
79% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in
2020.<br>
<br>
Thinking holistically<br>
In an interview in her City Hall office, Sciarra said the local
government is “working really hard to just have a citywide
conversation about this and have us all be doing all of our work
through that lens” of climate change mitigation.<br>
<br>
She said city leaders and department heads are “trying to think more
holistically. For example, some of these projects, maybe people
wouldn’t automatically connect it to how it helps meet our energy
goals, but there are connections (like) doing sidewalk repairs.”<br>
- -<br>
The 2021 Northampton Climate Resilience & Regeneration Plan —
one element of the broader Sustainable Northampton Comprehensive
Plan — urged 2030 as the carbon neutrality target date.<br>
<br>
“More frequent higher temperatures, storm intensity, drought risk,
and flooding will increasingly take a toll on our infrastructure,
ecosystems, agriculture, and health,” the plan reads. “Northampton
needs to move forward as aggressively as we can, as we collectively
work towards limiting global climate warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius
above preindustrial levels (the accepted target used by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2018, and others).”<br>
<br>
With an average temperature of 62.4 degrees Fahrenheit, September
2022 was the 25th warmest month on record dating back 128 years,
according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. Of
the top 10 warmest Septembers on record, eight were in the past two
decades.<br>
<br>
The average temperature in August was 74.1 degrees, the warmest on
record and 6.5 degrees warmer than the average monthly temperature.<br>
- -<br>
“As a result of climate change, Northampton is experiencing
increasing mean temperatures and more intense storms,” the climate
plan states. “These changes are taking a toll on our infrastructure,
ecosystems, and health, including more frequent flood events, wear
and tear on our roads, spread of new invasive species, disruptions
to farming, and increasing vector-borne disease.”<br>
<br>
Local resources<br>
But the plan acknowledges its own limited impact on a global problem
and the city’s reliance on policy decisions from state and federal
officials. It also calls for strategies like more cooling centers
and the creation of a Community Resilience Hub that, among other
functions, would help people get through high-temperature days and
climate emergencies like flooding and ice storms during the winter
months.<br>
<br>
“Our region has definitely seen more ice storms rather than snow,
and increasing power outages,” said LaValley. “There’s definitely
more flooding potential, not only from really big storms focused on
the Connecticut River, but also more localized street flooding that
could present issues as well.”<br>
<br>
After months of searching, a Community Resilience Hub seems to have
finally found its home – the former First Baptist Church located at
289 Main St. The city executed an option to purchase the building at
the beginning of December, for a price of $3.3 million. The city
held a first reading of a financial order to appropriate $1 million
from the Northampton’s general fund to help purchase the property,
and is scheduled to vote on whether to approve the order on its next
meeting on Jan. 5.<br>
<br>
As she crafts her latest Capital Improvement Program — a five-year
proposal for physical projects and items that cost more than $10,000
and can be funded by available cash or through borrowing — Sciarra
has instructed all department heads to submit spending requests that
lower, offset or eliminate the use of greenhouse gases.<br>
- -<br>
The City Council authorizes spending for each project individually
and the plan is updated every year as work is completed and new
proposals are submitted. Sciarra unveiled the first iteration last
year, asking for new hybrid and electric city vehicles along with
money to finish an ongoing net-zero emissions planning study of
every government building and school.<br>
<br>
Net-zero emission means that no greenhouse gases are burned, keeping
them out of the atmosphere altogether.<br>
<br>
Northampton is a member of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate
& Energy, which describes itself as “the largest global alliance
for city climate leadership, built upon the commitment of over
11,500 cities and local governments” representing more than 1
billion people. According to the organization, 70% of Northampton’s
greenhouse gas emissions come from its buildings, 26% come from
transportation and 4% come from waste management.<br>
<br>
An April report from the Central Services department analyzed seven
city buildings and recommended creating a centralized geothermal
system for City Hall, Memorial Hall, the Academy of Music and the
Puchalski Municipal Building. More studies are planned on buildings
including public schools.<br>
<br>
A geothermal system should be installed at City Hall, the Central
Services report found, to avoid the need to replace the boiler. The
Puchalski building behind City Hall, according to the report, is
“highly problematic and may be worth replacing.”<br>
<br>
Sciarra said she wants to be “very aggressive” in addressing the
city’s goals, but as the steward of a $126 million budget, she needs
to make “smart choices” about prioritizing large, expensive
projects.<br>
<br>
Smith College, which is not a city entity, is in the midst of
installing a geothermal system. A $200 million project to replace
heating and cooling systems campus-wide is designed to lower carbon
emissions by 90% and make the college carbon neutral by 2030.<br>
<br>
Central Services also suggested modifications to Forbes Library and
the fire and police departments. In total, the improvements to the
seven buildings would cost $13.38 million and reduce the aggregate
carbon output by about 86% over 30 years. In recent years, a new
Police Department headquarters and Senior Center were built to high
standards of energy efficiency.<br>
- -<br>
The City Council in October authorized Sciarra to ask the state for
special legislation that would require all new construction or
substantial remodeling in the city to be done without the use of
fossil fuels. At this point, there is no indication when such a bill
could be drafted or considered.<br>
<br>
Sciarra said that planning is intricately entwined with climate
change mitigation and the relevant city department “is called
‘planning and sustainability’ for a reason.” Officials in the
Department of Planning and Sustainability, led by Carolyn Misch and
LaValley, are “the long-term thinkers,” she said, about the city’s
future.<br>
<br>
“Northampton alone is not going to be able to reverse the climate
crisis in this country or the world, but, one, we all have to do
absolutely everything we possibly can, no matter where we are, and
two, we should lead by example,” Sciarra said. “If we all do that,
we can start turning the ship around.”<br>
<br>
Alexander MacDougall can be reached at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:amacdougall@gazettenet.com">amacdougall@gazettenet.com</a>.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.gazettenet.com/Northampton-s-holistic-all-hands-climate-change-response-aims-for-ambitious-target-48465748">https://www.gazettenet.com/Northampton-s-holistic-all-hands-climate-change-response-aims-for-ambitious-target-48465748</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[ A video interview from July of this year -- should be repeated ]<br>
<b>Expert Warns of Rise in “Mass Casualty” Events as a Result of
Climate Change | Amanpour and Company</b><br>
Amanpour and Company<br>
128,900 views Jul 1, 2022 #amanpourpbs<br>
The Supreme Court has voted to curb the Environmental Protection
Agency’s ability to regulate carbon emissions. This comes amid a
period of increasingly extreme weather around the world. More than
40 million Americans were under heat advisory last week. Kristie Ebi
has been researching the health risks of climate change for decades,
and she tells Hari Sreenivasan that death rates will increase unless
response systems are improved. Their conversation is part of the
ongoing public media initiative Peril and Promise, on the challenges
and the solutions to climate change. <br>
Originally aired on July 1, 2022<br>
<blockquote>"I encourage people to look sub-nationally at all the
cities that have set their<br>
goals for adaptation and for mitigation all that's going on so
nationally all<br>
that's going on in our businesses. There is so much change
positive change<br>
going on and to pay attention to that positive change and
contribute to it.<br>
(It) is going to help move our politicians at the national level
further forward."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Np-fg8hnY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Np-fg8hnY</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<i>[The news archive - looking back at the creation of an impossible
goal - we are now 419 ppm ]</i><br>
<font size="+2"><i><b>December 28, 2007</b></i></font> <br>
December 28, 2007: In a Washington Post op-ed, Bill McKibben,
citing a recent speech by NASA scientist James Hansen, states that
the worldwide CO2 level must remain below 350 parts per million to
avoid catastrophic global warming. Further, McKibben writes: "Hansen
[has] called for an immediate ban on new coal-fired power plants
that don't capture carbon, the phaseout of old coal-fired
generators, and a tax on carbon high enough to make sure that we
leave tar sands and oil shale in the ground. To use the medical
analogy, we're not talking statins to drop your cholesterol; we're
talking huge changes in every aspect of your daily life."<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/27/AR2007122701942.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/27/AR2007122701942.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
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