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<font size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b>February 18, 2023</b></i></font><font
face="Calibri"><br>
</font> <font face="Calibri"> </font> <i><br>
</i><i> [ as we may know already ]</i><br>
<b>World to face wars over food and water without climate action, EU
green deal chief says</b><br>
PUBLISHED FRI, FEB 17 2023<br>
Karen Gilchrist<br>
<blockquote><b>KEY POINTS</b><br>
- The European Commission’s climate chief warned Friday that
society will be “fighting wars” over food and water in the future,
if serious action is not taken on climate change.<br>
- Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Frans Timmermans
said global warming posed one of the greatest risks to security
worldwide.<br>
- Without action, Timmermans said that “there is no doubt in my
mind that my kids, my grandkids will be fighting wars over water
and food.”<br>
</blockquote>
Timmermans said that there was a “nascent” sense of urgency within
society, which needs to be harnessed by industry and government in
order to implement change.<br>
<br>
“If we don’t do this, there is no doubt in my mind that my kids, my
grandkids will be fighting wars over water and food,” said
Timmermans.<br>
<br>
“How many millions of refugees are we willing to take because some
parts of the planet become uninhabitable? How many hunger epidemics
will we tolerate because parts of the world can no longer cultivate
agriculture production? Think about that,” Timmermans said...<br>
<p> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/17/world-to-face-wars-over-food-and-water-without-climate-action-eu-green-deal-chief-says.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/17/world-to-face-wars-over-food-and-water-without-climate-action-eu-green-deal-chief-says.html</a></p>
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<i>[ Latest technology explained... video lecture with slides and
graphs 50 min ]</i><br>
<b>How to Use Big Data to Prevent Wildfires</b><br>
University of California Television (UCTV)<br>
Jan 30, 2023<br>
Increasingly frequent and intense wildfires in California and the
western US are impacting communities across the state. Even areas
not prone to fires suffer from degraded air and water quality –
direct consequences of these extreme events. ALERTCalifornia
combines a state-wide fire camera network with state-of-the-art
sensor technology to support data-driven decision making before,
during, and after wildfires. Join Dr. Neal Driscoll as he describes
the scientific and technological expertise at UCSD that is being
brought to bear on making California more resilient to climate
change. [2/2023] [Show ID: 38459]<br>
How to Use Big Data to Prevent Wildfires<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5_dgoaN1DU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5_dgoaN1DU</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.uctv.tv/shows/38459">https://www.uctv.tv/shows/38459</a><br>
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<i>[ Interview with Naomi Klein - update on her thinking ]</i><br>
<b>‘It’s inequality that kills’: Naomi Klein on the future of
climate justice</b><br>
Madeleine de Trenqualye<br>
Canadian author and professor of climate justice cautiously hails
loss and damage agreements at Cop27<br>
Mon 13 Feb 2023<br>
Naomi Klein published her first book on the climate crisis, This
Changes Everything, almost a decade ago. She was one of the
organisers and authors of Canada’s Leap manifesto, a blueprint for a
rapid and justice-based transition off fossil fuels. In 2021, she
joined the University of British Columbia as professor of climate
justice in the Department of Geography and co-director of Canada’s
first Centre for Climate Justice.<br>
<br>
<b>What is climate justice?</b><br>
<br>
I always think about climate justice as multitasking. We live in a
time of multiple overlapping crises: we have a health emergency; we
have a housing emergency; we have an inequality emergency; we have a
racial injustice emergency; and we have a climate emergency, so
we’re not going to get anywhere if we try to address them one at a
time. We need responses that are truly intersectional. So how about
as we decarbonise and create a less polluted world, we also build a
much fairer society on multiple fronts?...<br>
- -<br>
<b>So do you think evoking hope is ultimately more effective in
inspiring people to take climate action?</b><br>
<br>
I have an ambivalent relationship with the word hope these days. We
have to be realistic about the fact that we’ve locked in a very
difficult future for a lot of people. We’ve screwed things up badly
enough that even if we do everything right from here on out, we’re
still looking at a future of staccato climate disasters.<br>
<br>
But I don’t believe we have the luxury of throwing up our hands and
saying: “We’re doomed, let’s just go Mad Max on this.” I think there
are ways of preparing for those shocks, that build a way of living
with one another that is significantly kinder and more generous than
the way we currently live with one another, which is really quite
brutal. That requires investing in the labour of care at every
level, and guaranteeing basic economic rights, like the right to
housing, food and clean water. If we build out that infrastructure,
we can weather shocks with far greater grace. That’s where I place
my hope...<br>
- - <br>
<b>What are you watching out for in 2023 that will affect climate
justice?</b><br>
<br>
In Canada, I’m watching to see if Ottawa gives in to pressure from
Alberta to drop its nascent and long overdue just transition plans
for fossil fuel workers. Relatedly, I’m watching the ways that the
war in Ukraine is both accelerating renewable energy transitions and
making it more profitable to dig up the last remaining fossil fuels
(because the price is so high), with dire impact on Indigenous lands
and ways of life. I’m watching with growing concern the ways that
Covid denialism and climate change denialism are intersecting and
reinforcing each other. And I’m watching to see whether we, as a
climate movement, do a better job of connecting human rights with
climate action during the next Cop, which is scheduled to be held in
the highly repressive United Arab Emirates.<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>You’re co-teaching an undergraduate course this term on the
climate emergency. What advice do you give students and young
people who want to advance climate justice in their own lives and
work?</b><br>
<br>
I think the most important thing is to just find other people.
Trying to think through this by yourself is a recipe for feeling
like a failure and getting dispirited very, very quickly. The
benefit of being part of a broader movement is knowing that some
people are doing some things, and other people are doing other
things, and nobody has to do everything.<br>
<br>
I always tell students to find a movement you feel comfortable in,
make sure it’s interlinked with other movements, and then work in
coalition as broadly as you possibly can.<br>
<br>
And then marry your passion with need. Whatever you want to do, find
a way to connect it with the climate crisis. Maybe it’s art, maybe
it’s engineering, maybe it’s planning – it’s all needed. I don’t
think people need to give up what they’re passionate about to tackle
climate change. I think they need to figure out how to connect what
they’re passionate about with the climate crisis. Because this is
the work of our lifetimes.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/13/its-inequality-that-kills-naomi-klein-on-the-future-of-climate-justice">https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/13/its-inequality-that-kills-naomi-klein-on-the-future-of-climate-justice</a><br>
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<font face="Calibri"><i>[brief animated cartoon - ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><b>Vega_Film_ClimateHealers</b><br>
</font><font face="Calibri">Introducing Vega, the Cow in the Room...</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://vimeo.com/639434716?cmid=0bfa8373-8141-4c28-a92f-7e3a6b7001da">https://vimeo.com/639434716?cmid=0bfa8373-8141-4c28-a92f-7e3a6b7001da</a><br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri">- - <br>
</font> </p>
<font face="Calibri"> <i>[ Specifics about what we can do - vimeo
3 min video ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font> <font face="Calibri"><b>Sailesh-Rao-Summit-Consciences</b><br>
</font><font face="Calibri">A 3-min speech to the assembled
delegates at the Summit of the Consciences in Paris, July 2014.<br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://vimeo.com/144873983">https://vimeo.com/144873983</a><br>
</font>
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<i>[ published in Salt Lake City Weekly ]</i><br>
<b>Time's Up </b><br>
<b>It's the End of the World, and We Know It.</b><br>
Commentary by Jim Catano<br>
September 15, 2021<br>
Picture six friends chatting about the environment.<br>
<br>
"There's no such thing as global warming," the first says. "Climate
change is fake news."<br>
<br>
"No, the planet is warming," says another, "but in a gradual,
natural cycle that's repeated itself throughout Earth's history.
Higher temperatures may even benefit some places."<br>
<br>
"What we're experiencing is not natural," counters a third. "It's
caused by human activity, specifically the burning of fossil fuels.
But luckily, we've got time to get it under control."<br>
<br>
"On the contrary," the fourth person suggests, "climate change is
entering a critical stage. We need to keep lobbying Congress because
if we don't get emissions under control within the next couple of
decades, we may experience big problems."<br>
<br>
"Sorry, but Congress—or any other political entity—isn't doing
anything close to what could make a difference in time," the fifth
says. "There will be huge consequences in most parts of the world,
but hopefully our species will soon wake up and take drastic steps
to avert total environmental and societal collapse. We must end our
reliance on fossil fuels and pursue new technologies for removing
carbon from the air."<br>
<br>
The sixth friend lets out a heavy sigh, then speaks. "I hate to be
the bearer of bad news," he says, "but we've simply gone too far
down the hole. Rapid conversion to a renewably fueled society and
carbon capture are technologically and logistically impossible for
several reasons. Even if we were to immediately stop using fossil
fuels today—which we won't—there is already too much heat-trapping
greenhouse gas in the atmosphere to stop the rise in global
temperatures. A cascade of tipping points—many already in the
rear-view mirror—will almost certainly make the Earth's climate
inhospitable for humans and most mammals. The best, long-shot case
would be if small pockets of habitability can continue to sustain
human existence."<br>
<br>
That hypothetical conversation demonstrates what I consider to be
the six major schools of thought on climate change. And I should
know—over the past 30 years, I've personally enrolled in five of
those schools. But as updated information has poured in and times
have changed, however, so has my awareness of the threat humanity
faces.<br>
<br>
<b>The End is Near</b><br>
Recent environmental news reports have made the first two schools of
thought simply impossible to defend. Even the third—the idea that we
have lots of time to correct the problem—has seen its credibility
plummet in light of increasing record-setting extreme temperatures
worldwide, severe and destructive storms, massive flooding in some
areas, prolonged droughts in others, accelerating glacial and ice
cap melting, sea level rise and devastating wildfires. At long last,
public opinion is coming in line with what science has been warning
us about for decades.<br>
<br>
But as it is increasingly apparent that the way we've lived on this
planet has tragically altered its chemistry, biology and ecology,
the question then becomes how bad things will get. Is it possible
that our world could become uninhabitable for humans and most other
species? A growing number of scientists and laypersons who choose to
be guided by facts and observable trends—as opposed to forming their
opinions around hopes and wishes—say such a scenario is very likely,
if not inevitable.<br>
<br>
The end of the world as we know it has been debated, discussed and
predicted by intellectuals, mystics and prophets for millennia. What
will happen to our planet and its inhabitants has also been
considered by science, in fiction writing and cinema, and at
around-the-campfire discussions since time immemorial. Potential
catalysts bringing about the end have included plagues, asteroids,
super-volcanoes, alien invasions, nuclear war, an energy burst from
a quasar, a deity declaring "time's up" on the human drama or the
death of our sun in a few billion years. By comparison,
catastrophic, abrupt climate change is the relatively new kid on the
block.<br>
<br>
Mainstream science is gradually narrowing in on the final two
scenarios described by the six friends as possibilities. The United
Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a
chilling report in August that's far less hopeful than the previous
five assessments published by the IPCC since 1990.<br>
<br>
The organization has been criticized for being overly optimistic.
Its latest report, however, contains dire warnings of imminent,
catastrophic and irreversible climate impacts given the quantity of
greenhouse gasses (CO2, methane and others mostly released by
industrial activities) that are already in the atmosphere and oceans
and that continue to be released relatively unabated.<br>
<br>
Three terms are useful in discussions about abrupt climate change.
The first is "overshoot," when a society surpasses in population and
consumption the capacity of its environment to sustainably support
it. The second is "tipping point," which is when a condition reaches
a critical stage and can no longer be stopped. The third is
"feedback loop," which is when a condition deepens as a result of
itself. (One example is how Arctic ice shrinks each year, allowing
more sunlight to penetrate ocean water instead of reflecting back
into space, which heats the oceans and contributes to further ice
melt.)<br>
<br>
Humans began leaving a carbon footprint about 10,000 years ago with
the dawn of agriculture. Things went into overdrive three centuries
ago when societies started mining large quantities of carbon that
had been deposited over hundreds of millions of years as decaying
plant and animal life sank to the bottoms of oceans, seas and
swamps, becoming oil, coal and natural gas.<br>
<br>
Our ancestors started burning these fossil fuels to power their
lives, and carbon dioxide was released as its waste. Since the
Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, we've spewed more than a
half-trillion tons of CO2 into the air. By weight, that amount of
carbon dioxide would roughly equal two Mount Everests.<br>
<br>
<b>An Invisible Killer</b><br>
Unfortunately, carbon dioxide appears "clean." Despite coming from
mostly pitch-black sources, CO2 is invisible, odorless and toxic to
humans only in high concentrations. Unlike soot and other emissions
that exit smokestacks and tailpipes—and which humanity has done a
better job capturing—excess CO2 gave the appearance of being
relatively harmless until quite recently. Even though CO2 was
identified as a heat-trapping atmospheric gas in 1859 by Irish
physicist John Tyndall, the cheap, concentrated energy that burning
fossil fuels provides has been too tempting and too addictive to
spark the motivation to adequately address its downsides.<br>
<br>
Carbon dioxide's cousin, methane or CH4, is initially 84 times more
potent as a heat-holding greenhouse gas, and billions of tons of it
lie just below the Earth's surface in the frozen northern tundra and
seabed. As temperatures climb, this natural gas is being released in
ever-increasing amounts to the point that there is now more than
twice as much in the atmosphere as there was in pre-industrial
times. Some scholars predict that an upcoming, rapid release of
methane will be the trigger for a large and catastrophic spike in
global temperatures.<br>
<br>
We've created an entire society and economy based on fossil-fuel use
and, so far, our species has shown little resolve to significantly
change its ways, due in large part to centuries of self-centered
thinking and decades of misinformation disseminated by fossil-fuel
companies and the government officials who back them. Many
individuals in industrialized societies simply resist change.<br>
<br>
"I can't give up my [big house/car/RV/boat/motorized
toys/vacations/cruises or even a clothes dryer]," the First World
opines, while at the same time, less-wealthy societies aspire to our
profligate lifestyle. Our lack of will to abandon biosphere-killing
ways is why a growing number of experts see humanity as simply too
addicted to have ever averted disaster.<br>
<br>
There's also a world population that has swelled from 2.5 billion
when I was born in 1950 to nearly 8 billion today. The global
population could reach 10 billion, but some researchers have
calculated that even if humans were doing everything right in terms
of living simply and using alternative and renewable energy, the
planet could support, at most, about 2 billion of us in perpetuity.<br>
<br>
<b>In This Together</b><br>
I'm aware this may be the biggest downer that City Weekly readers
have ever encountered in these pages. Many will reject it as
inaccurate and overly pessimistic, and that's a perfectly normal
human response. Denial is the first of psychiatrist Elizabeth
Kubler-Ross's classic five stages of grief, and some never move
beyond denial even when contemplating their own death—let alone that
of all of humankind within a relatively short time frame.<br>
<br>
As I've passed backward and forward through Kubler-Ross's five
stages while contemplating what all this means for me, my partner,
children, grandchildren and recently-arrived first great grandchild,
I've mostly carried the burden alone without asking others to help
shoulder it. Fortunately, resources and support groups exist to help
people first get their minds around these horrific possibilities and
then turn anxiety and fear about them into courage and resolve to
live nobly and well in whatever time we have left.<br>
<br>
I reached out to four thought leaders on abrupt climate change. As
you will see, these scholars differ in their views, but each wishes
they were wrong about what they see coming. So do I.<br>
<br>
The following responses were provided individually via email, but
are presented in the form of a panel discussion.<br>
<br>
Climate change scientist Guy McPherson believes humanity’s days are
numbered.<br>
<br>
<b>When did you realize climate change would be inevitably
catastrophic?</b><b><br>
</b><b>Guy McPherson</b> (an internationally recognized speaker and
award-winning scientist who specializes in abrupt climate change):
In 2002, it seemed we had already triggered self-reinforcing
feedback loops, any one of which make climate change irreversible.
As a typically conservative academic, I kept my conclusion to
myself. I finally went fully public with an essay I posted on my
blog in June of 2012.<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>Max Wilbert</b> (an organizer, wilderness guide and author of
"Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and
What We Can Do About It"): In 2010, I traveled to the Russian Arctic
to document a National Science Foundation climate science
expedition. In Siberia, we walked on thawing permafrost and saw
"drunken forests," which look like a game of pick-up-sticks as the
soil melts underneath the trees. That year was the hottest year on
record in Russia at the time.<br>
<br>
<b>Michael Dowd </b>(a bestselling eco-theologian, TEDx speaker and
environmental advocate): It was in 2012 after watching David
Roberts' TEDx talk, "Climate Change Is Simple (Remix)"<br>
<b>When will the climate disaster become so intense nobody will deny
it?</b><b><br>
</b><b>McPherson: </b>Denying reality will continue until the last
person draws his or her last breath. COVID-19 serves as a recent
example.<br>
<br>
<b>Wilbert: </b>It's already that way. If you live in a small
island nation, or in New York, or along the Gulf Coast, or in the
wildfire-ravaged West, climate crisis is not something in the
future.<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>Dowd:</b> Most will go to their grave in one form of denial
or another.<br>
<br>
<b>Erik Michaels</b> (a researcher of ecological overshoot, its
symptoms and the human denial of them): Those who deny it now will
most likely continue denying it. Facts don't often change people's
beliefs, unfortunately.<br>
<b>Will civilizational collapse occur?</b><br>
<b>Wilbert: </b>Every civilization that has ever existed has
destroyed its own ecological foundations and then collapsed.
Collapse is not an event, it's a process. We're already in the early
stages of collapse. Aquifers are shrinking, increasing disease and
civil conflict, droughts and extreme weather. It's here.<br>
<br>
And in places like Syria, or Pakistan, or Columbia, collapse is
already well underway. It's well underway here in the United States,
too. Just look at the homeless encampments in your city. The
consumerist "prosperity" of the post-war 1950s is gone and is never
coming back.<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>Michaels: </b>Civilizational collapse is already happening
and deepening—it's a very slow process, however, and it really
affects the most complex societies first.<br>
<br>
<b>Will humans survive?</b><br>
<b>McPherson:</b> No life on Earth will survive abrupt, irreversible
climate change.<br>
<br>
<b>Wilbert: </b>Humans will eventually go extinct, but who knows
when? With nearly 8 billion of us on the planet, we're nowhere close
to extinction now. I'm more concerned about the 100-200 other
species that are being driven extinct every day. If we can't halt
that trend, the future for humanity is bleak.<br>
<br>
<b>Dowd:</b> The stability of the biosphere has been in decline for
centuries and in unstoppable, out-of-control mode for decades. This
"Great Acceleration"—just Google it—of biospheric collapse is an
easily verifiable fact. The scientific evidence is overwhelming, but
the vast majority of people will deny this, especially those still
benefiting from the existing order, those understandably concerned
about the effects of collapse, and those who fear that "accepting
reality" means "giving up." And, yes, that means most of us.<br>
<br>
<b>Michaels: </b>A quote from Carl Sagan: "Extinction is the rule.
Survival is the exception." So, yes, we will go extinct—the only
question is when, not if. I find it hard to believe that humans will
still populate the planet by 2100. If there are still groups alive
at that point, the likelihood that they will be functionally extinct
is very high. Most likely, six or seven people out of every eight
will die over the next two decades as energy and resource decline
deepens.<br>
<br>
<b>As conditions deteriorate and social institutions breakdown, will
individuals and groups be able to offer assistance to others?</b><b><br>
</b><b>Wilbert: </b>We've already seen governments increasingly
unable to provide meaningful aid in disasters, whether they be
economic or natural. The future—if there is going to be one—is
local.<br>
<br>
<b>Dowd: </b>There will always be compassionate and generous
people, especially in super hard times. Nevertheless, I think half
or more of the human population—3 to 5 billion—will likely starve
within 16 months of the first multi-bread-basket failure, most
likely this decade.<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>Michaels:</b> One will see all ranges of social responses
unfolding as time moves forward. People will do good things to help
and to provide assistance where they can and people will do nasty,
selfish and brutish things as well as everything in between. Fewer
people will have the resources and abilities to help as time moves
forward and resiliency is removed from location after location.<br>
<br>
As collapse deepens and unfolds, fewer people will be able to help
as their own conditions deteriorate. There will also be those who
decide to be competitive and take whatever they can. So, there will
be moments of beauty and moments of depravity.<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>Will American climate refugees from flooded coasts or
drought-plagued areas be welcomed elsewhere?</b><br>
<b>Michaels: </b>Many of us suffer greatly from a sense of
privilege and what the Indigenous Americans call "wetiko," a form of
colonialism. Because everyone alive today grew up with the culture
of always having "more," very few people will know how to handle a
life of constantly having less.<br>
<br>
<b>Do some religious millennialists see catastrophic climate change
as fulfillment of the prophesied, fiery end of the world and even
welcome it?</b><b><br>
</b><b>Dowd:</b> Yes, of course! Fundamentalist and evangelical
Christians are likely to interpret all this as God's will, not
climate change.<br>
<b><br>
</b><b>Michaels: </b>I have met individuals who talked about these
claims. They are troubled by their beliefs and denial of reality.
The bottom line is that the world is not really ending. A new world
will unfold and new species will fill niches once held by species
going extinct.<br>
<b>Between now and the end, what's the best way to live?</b><b><br>
</b><b>McPherson: </b>Treat family, friends, and others with whom
you interact frequently as you would treat your beloved, dying
grandmother. Would you lie to your grandmother as she is dying?
Would you disrespect her?<br>
<br>
Once you've mastered this way of treating your friends and family,
extend the relevant behaviors to everyone. Work in your community to
overcome the ills associated with every civilization, including
racism, misogyny and monetary disparity. And work to safely
decommission all nuclear facilities. Failure to do so likely spells
the loss of all life on Earth.<br>
<br>
<b>Wilbert:</b> It's not too late. Yes, a lot of change is already
baked into the climate and ecological system. A lot of bad things
are going to happen. But the Earth is incredibly resilient, and so
are human beings. If you're in love with your family, your partner,
your kids, how can you give up?<br>
<br>
When you see a wild river, or an old-growth forest, or an alpine
meadow, or a herd of elk, how could you not want to protect the
future? Resisting the destruction of the planet is the most normal
and natural thing we could do.<br>
<br>
<b>Dowd:</b> Live fully, trustingly, courageously, compassionately
and with deep and profound gratitude for the gift of being alive and
conscious and in love with life.<br>
<br>
<b>Michaels:</b> Live now. It sounds so simple but can be quite
difficult for many people because of our cultural programming and
indoctrination.<br>
<br>
<i>Jim Catano lives and fights for the environment in Salt Lake
City. Readers looking for support dealing with the emotional
impact of abrupt climate change can find resources through the
Good Grief Network.</i><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.cityweekly.net/utah/times-up/Content?oid=17298723">https://www.cityweekly.net/utah/times-up/Content?oid=17298723</a>
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<i>[ This short video was popular 8 years ago ]</i><br>
<b>Toby ruins it for everyone</b><br>
Mickey Charley<br>
1,408,687 views Nov 24, 2014<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc1vrO6iL0U">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc1vrO6iL0U</a><br>
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<i>[ dis-information, Mis-information technology for lease ]</i><br>
<b>‘Aims’: the software for hire that can control 30,000 fake online
profiles</b><br>
Exclusive: Team Jorge disinformation unit controls vast army of
avatars with fake profiles on Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Instagram,
Amazon and Airbnb<br>
<br>
Revealed: the hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections<br>
Manisha Ganguly<br>
@manisha_bot<br>
Tue 14 Feb 2023 <br>
At first glance, the Twitter user “Canaelan” looks ordinary enough.
He has tweeted on everything from basketball to Taylor Swift,
Tottenham Hotspur football club to the price of a KitKat. The
profile shows a friendly-looking blond man with a stubbly beard and
glasses who, it indicates, lives in Sheffield. The background: a
winking owl.<br>
<br>
Canaelan is, in fact, a non-human bot linked to a vast army of fake
social media profiles controlled by a software designed to spread
“propaganda”.<br>
<br>
Advanced Impact Media Solutions, or Aims, which controls more than
30,000 fake social media profiles, can be used to spread
disinformation at scale and at speed. It is sold by “Team Jorge”, a
unit of disinformation operatives based in Israel.<br>
<br>
Tal Hanan, who runs the covert group using the pseudonym “Jorge”,
told undercover reporters that they sold access to their software to
unnamed intelligence agencies, political parties and corporate
clients. One appears to have been sold to a client who wanted to
discredit the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), a
statutory watchdog.<br>
<br>
On 18 October 2020, the ICO ruled that the government should reveal
which companies were awarded multimillion-pound contracts to supply
PPE after being entered into a “VIP” lane for politically connected
companies. “This is politically motivated, it’s clear!” Canaelan
lamented on Twitter two days later...<br>
<blockquote>'Team Jorge' unmasked: the secret disinformation team
who distort reality – video<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/UheOilps2zQ">https://youtu.be/UheOilps2zQ</a>
<br>
“The difference between fiction and reality?’ Fiction has to make
sense.”<br>
</blockquote>
That comment was part of a chorus of disapproval generated by the
bots, who seemed aghast. “Information Commissioner tries everything
to destroy the government,” one said, while another described the
ruling as a “desperate act”...<br>
<br>
All of the “replies” under that and other tweets were united in
their outrage at the ICO, which they described as “a waste of time”
and “lame”. As the replies continued, they became more trenchant,
making wild and false accusations against the ICO about bribes,
corruption and links to the far right.<br>
<br>
Others just seemed nonplussed by the ICO’s insistence on
transparency over the government’s pandemic procurement. “This is so
typical from the UK …” one bot opined, “focusing on the wrong
things.”<br>
<br>
It is not known who commissioned Team Jorge to unleash the bots on
the ICO, or why. Hanan did not respond to detailed requests for
comment but said: “To be clear, I deny any wrongdoing.”<br>
<br>
The ICO campaign appears to have been relatively short-lived
compared with others around the world that reporters have been able
to link to Team Jorge’s Aims software, which is much more than a
bot-controlling programme.<br>
<br>
Each avatar, according to a demonstration Hanan gave the undercover
reporters, is given a multifaceted digital backstory.<br>
<br>
Aims enables the creation of accounts on Twitter, LinkedIn,
Facebook, Telegram, Gmail, Instagram and YouTube. Some even have
Amazon accounts with credit cards, bitcoin wallets and Airbnb
accounts.<br>
<br>
Hanan told the undercover reporters his avatars mimicked human
behaviour and their posts were powered by artificial intelligence.<br>
<br>
Using the Aims-linked avatars revealed by Team Jorge in
presentations and videos, reporters at the Guardian, Le Monde and
Der Spiegel were able to identify a much wider network of 2,000
Aims-linked bots on Facebook and Twitter.<br>
<br>
We then traced their activity across the internet, identifying their
involvement in what appeared to be mostly commercial disputes in
about 20 countries including the UK, US, Canada, Germany,
Switzerland, Greece, Panama, Senegal, Mexico, Morocco, India, the
United Arab Emirates, Zimbabwe, Belarus and Ecuador.<br>
<br>
The analysis revealed a vast array of bot activity, with Aims’ fake
social media profiles getting involved in a dispute in California
over nuclear power; a #MeToo controversy in Canada; a campaign in
France involving a Qatari UN official; and an election in Senegal.<br>
<br>
One of the Aims-backed campaigns targeted a Monaco-based superyacht
company, accusing it of having direct links to several Russian
oligarchs who were subject to sanctions.<br>
<br>
We also identified real-world events that appeared to have been
staged to provide ammunition that could be leveraged in social media
campaigns. One case involved a fake protest staged outside a company
headquarters on Regent Street, central London.<br>
<br>
Three masked activists in baseball caps, sunglasses and masks filmed
themselves waving placards. A similar leafletting campaign was
staged near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, before being circulated on
social media by Aims bots. It is not possible to know who the
clients were in any of the campaigns, or even what their objective
was.<br>
<br>
However, what seems clear is that the avatars peddling propaganda
are doing so with the help of stolen photographs of real people.<br>
<br>
The photo of a beaming man on Canaelan’s Twitter bio, the Guardian
has established, was taken from the real Twitter page of Tom Van
Rooijen, 25, a freelance Dutch journalist living in the Netherlands.<br>
<br>
“This latest activity is an attempt by some of the same individuals
to come back and we removed them for violating our policies,” the
spokesperson said. “The group’s latest activity appears to have
centred around running fake petitions on the internet or seeding
fabricated stories in mainstream media outlets.”<br>
<br>
For all of their apparent sophistication, some Aims avatars betrayed
giveaways. One of the Twitter bots involved in UK campaigns
alongside Canaelan was “Alexander”, whose profile picture showed a
young man with a sculpted beard in a white beanie hat. The
background: orange tulips beside a chirpy slogan “Be happy”.<br>
<br>
And his profile bio consisted of two short sentences that hinted at
an interest in falsehoods – and how to make them convincing: “The
difference between fiction and reality?’ Fiction has to make sense.”<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/15/aims-software-avatars-team-jorge-disinformation-fake-profiles">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/15/aims-software-avatars-team-jorge-disinformation-fake-profiles</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><i><br>
</i><i>[ a classic AOC shares her breathless positivism - video ]</i><br>
<b>A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</b><br>
The Intercept<br>
980,223 views Apr 17, 2019<br>
What if we actually pulled off a Green New Deal? What would the
future look like? The Intercept presents a film narrated by
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and illustrated by Molly Crabapple.<br>
<br>
Set a couple of decades from now, the film is a flat-out rejection
of the idea that a dystopian future is a forgone conclusion.
Instead, it offers a thought experiment: What if we decided not to
drive off the climate cliff? What if we chose to radically change
course and save both our habitat and ourselves?<br>
<br>
We realized that the biggest obstacle to the kind of
transformative change the Green New Deal envisions is overcoming
the skepticism that humanity could ever pull off something at this
scale and speed. That’s the message we’ve been hearing from the
“serious” center for four months straight: that it’s too big, too
ambitious, that our Twitter-addled brains are incapable of it, and
that we are destined to just watch walruses fall to their deaths
on Netflix until it’s too late.<br>
<br>
This film flips the script. It’s about how, in the nick of time, a
critical mass of humanity in the largest economy on earth came to
believe that we were actually worth saving. Because, as
Ocasio-Cortez says in the film, our future has not been written
yet and “we can be whatever we have the courage to see.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9uTH0iprVQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9uTH0iprVQ</a><br>
<br>
<br>
</p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[The news archive - looking back]</i><br>
<font size="+2"><i><b>February 18, 2004</b></i></font> <br>
February 18, 2004: Sixty scientists, including several Nobel
laureates, issue a joint statement denouncing the George W. Bush
administration for distorting, downplaying and disregarding
scientific findings on such issues as human-caused climate change.<br>
</font>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Across a broad range of policy areas, the administration has
undermined the quality and independence of the scientific
advisory system and the morale of the government’s outstanding
scientific personnel:<br>
<br>
Highly qualified scientists have been dropped from advisory
committees dealing with childhood lead poisoning,
environmental and reproductive health, and drug abuse, while
individuals associated with or working for industries subject
to regulation have been appointed to these bodies.<br>
Censorship and political oversight of government scientists is
not restricted to the EPA, but has also occurred at the
Departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, and
Interior, when scientific findings are in conflict with the
administration's policies or with the views of its political
supporters.<br>
The administration is supporting revisions to the Endangered
Species Act that would greatly constrain scientific input into
the process of identifying endangered species and critical
habitats for their protection.<br>
Existing scientific advisory committees to the Department of
Energy on nuclear weapons, and to the State Department on arms
control, have been disbanded.<br>
In making the invalid claim that Iraq had sought to acquire
aluminum tubes for uranium enrichment centrifuges, the
administration disregarded the contrary assessment by experts
at Livermore, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.<br>
The distortion of scientific knowledge for partisan political
ends must cease if the public is to be properly informed about
issues central to its well being, and the nation is to benefit
fully from its heavy investment in scientific research and
education. To elevate the ethic that governs the relationship
between science and government, Congress and the Executive
should establish legislation and regulations that would:<br>
<br>
Forbid censorship of scientific studies unless there is a
reasonable national security concern;<br>
Require all scientists on scientific advisory panels to meet
high professional standards; and<br>
Ensure public access to government studies and the findings of
scientific advisory panels.<br>
To maintain public trust in the credibility of the scientific,
engineering and medical professions, and to restore scientific
integrity in the formation and implementation of public
policy, we call on our colleagues to:<br>
<br>
Bring the current situation to public attention;<br>
Request that the government return to the ethic and code of
conduct which once fostered independent and objective
scientific input into policy formation; and<br>
Advocate legislative, regulatory and administrative reforms
that would ensure the acquisition and dissemination of
independent and objective scientific analysis and advice.<br>
Statement signers included 52 Nobel laureates, 63 National
Medal of Science recipients, and 195 members of the National
Academies.<br>
</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/abuses_of_science/scientists-sign-on-statement.html">http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/abuses_of_science/scientists-sign-on-statement.html</a>
<br>
<br>
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