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<p><font size="+2"><font face="Calibri"><i><b>May</b></i></font></font><font
size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b> 9, 2023</b></i></font></p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[ </i></font><font face="Calibri"><i>Sierra
Club's </i></font><font face="Calibri"><i>one minute video
animation - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/ytRJPzcyrNM">https://youtu.be/ytRJPzcyrNM</a> ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><b>Wall Street's Role in the Climate Crisis</b></font><br>
<font face="Calibri">NationalSierraClub</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Apr 18, 2023</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.sc.org/fossilfreefinance">http://www.sc.org/fossilfreefinance</a> Everyone
knows about the fossil fuel industry’s role in the climate crisis.
But there’s another, lesser-known culprit: Wall Street. Customers,
shareholders, and regulators all have a role to play in holding
big banks and money managers accountable for their cozy
relationship with fossil fuel companies. Join the growing movement
telling Wall Street to move money out of dirty energy projects and
scale up financing for clean energy instead:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.sc.org/fossilfreefinance">http://www.sc.org/fossilfreefinance</a></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytRJPzcyrNM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytRJPzcyrNM</a></font>
<p><font face="Calibri">- -</font></p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[ Bill McKibben general news ]</i><br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><b>Weather Permitting</b><br>
A few thoughts about 'reform.'<br>
BILL MCKIBBEN<br>
MAY 8, 2023<br>
</font><font face="Calibri">+Veteran pipeline fighter Barbara
Stamiris has a hard-hitting oped explaining her view that Line 5,
through the Great Lakes, is “the most dangerous pipeline in the
world,” arguing that “no other pipeline endangers 20 percent of
Earth’s freshwater, 700 miles of shoreline, and the drinking water
of 40 million.” She also provides a powerful illustration of the
pipeline’s route to help make her point<br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/weather-permitting">https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/weather-permitting</a><br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri">- -</font></p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[ don't pee in the water bucket, don't poop
in the soup ]</i><br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><b>SAVING THE GREAT LAKES</b><br>
GUEST OPINION<br>
BY BARBARA STAMIRIS | MAY 6, 2023<br>
If you visualize our water planet from afar, sending oil through
Earth’s largest freshwater system is unfathomable. Even in 1953,
using the Great Lakes as a shortcut for Canadian oil was
senseless, except to the oil company.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">- -</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">A 2,000-mile Enbridge pipeline carries Alberta
oil from western to eastern Canada, cutting through the U.S.
midway. The Line 5 section has leaked 33 times across Michigan
carrying oil to Sarnia. Now 70 years old, Line 5 is the world’s
most dangerous pipeline due to its degraded condition and its
position among our unique Great Lakes.<br>
<br>
At Senator Peters’ 2018 Anchor Strike Hearing, experts called the
Mackinac Straits “the worst location in the U.S. for an oil
pipeline.” Its condition in this sensitive location makes Line 5
the most dangerous pipeline in the U.S. and in the world. No other
pipeline endangers 20 percent of Earth’s freshwater, 700 miles of
shoreline, and the drinking water of 40 million. Yet Enbridge
chooses the 70-year-old Great Lakes route instead of its
seven-year-old land-based route to Sarnia.<br>
<br>
Why is Line 5 so dangerous? In a busy shipping lane, anchor
strikes are inevitable. Warnings are ineffective, since dropping
anchor is an emergency measure. In 2018, the anchor that struck
Line 5 was dragged unknowingly, and a blizzard delayed inspection.<br>
<br>
The Straits’ currents, 10 times stronger than Niagara Falls,
scoured away Line 5’s bottomland support. As a result, Line 5
requires 219 remedial supports which suspend it, causing new
problems. Line 5 now sways in the currents, causing bending and
vibrational stress. A suspended pipeline represents a completely
new design, requiring engineering review and approval that it
never got.<br>
<br>
When the pipeline rubbed against the supports, its safety coatings
were scraped off—damage Enbridge failed to report for three years.
In 2020, extensive damage to one of the supports led to months of
shutdown. Enbridge said its own vessel caused the isolated
incident, yet forceful currents from record-high lake levels could
have caused the displacement and affected other supports.<br>
<br>
But most importantly, suspension makes Line 5 more vulnerable to
anchor strikes.<br>
<br>
When Gov. Whitmer ordered Line 5 shut down in 2020 to protect the
Great Lakes, Enbridge sued to keep it operating. While Enbridge
lawsuits drag on, Line 5—well beyond its 50-year design
life—continues to bring in billions by operating in defiance of
the state order.<br>
<br>
(An Enbridge pipeline around the lakes, rebuilt and expanded after
the Kalamazoo spill, reopened in 2015 with excess capacity, but
Enbridge chooses the Great Lakes route.)<br>
<br>
Another strategy that keeps Line 5 operating is promising a
tunnel. Knowing Line 5 is obsolete, Enbridge said a tunnel would
replace it by 2024, but the Army Corps has announced a delay in
its review which pushed tunnel completion to 2030. So if the
tunnel is approved, Line 5 would be nearing 80 years old. If the
tunnel is not approved, Enbridge has said it will continue to
operate old Line 5. Enbridge has no decommissioning date.<br>
<br>
Enbridge publicly promotes a tunnel as the solution for Line 5,
but its internal plans differ. In the 2018 tunnel agreement with
outgoing Gov. Snyder, Enbridge made sure it could back out without
penalty—a wise move since an oil tunnel is not a safe investment
today. This may explain why Enbridge’s Board of Directors has not
approved the tunnel and no money is allocated for a tunnel in its
annual Security & Exchange Commission Reports meant to inform
shareholders of upcoming projects.<br>
<br>
While Enbridge avoids risk, taxpayers must fund years of state and
federal review for a tunnel unlikely to be built.<br>
<br>
In Ottawa this past March, Biden told Trudeau we’re “two countries
with one heart.” If the Great Lakes are that heart, warnings of a
deteriorated anchor-struck pipeline, like warnings of a heart
attack, cannot be ignored. And yet mention of Line 5 was politely
avoided.<br>
<br>
Biden remained silent about Trudeau siding with Enbridge by
invoking a 1977 treaty. The treaty asserts that Line 5 can’t be
shut down by Michigan, that the U.S. must transport Canada’s oil
against our own environmental and economic interests.<br>
<br>
When Canada’s interests collide with U.S. interests, silence is
not an option. Doing nothing leaves Enbridge calling the shots.
Biden can revoke the permit for Line 5—and save the Great Lakes—if
he acts before it’s too late.<br>
<br>
National Geographic says the Great Lakes are “the irreplaceable
fragile ecosystem…that our planet needs to survive.” An oil spill
here would have global implications; yet, unlike other climate
threats, this one can be solved by turning off a valve. While the
fix itself is easy, the politics are not. One thing is certain,
Enbridge should not get to decide.<br>
<br>
From a planetary perspective, it’s a no-brainer. If the world’s
most dangerous pipeline has an easy solution, get the oil out of
the water. Now.<br>
Barbara Stamiris is an environmental activist living in Traverse
City.<br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.northernexpress.com/news/opinion/saving-the-great-lakes/">https://www.northernexpress.com/news/opinion/saving-the-great-lakes/</a><br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></p>
<i><font face="Calibri">[ Hayhoe in Foreign Policy ]</font></i><br>
<font face="Calibri"><b>Yeah, the Weather Has Been Weird</b></font><br>
<font face="Calibri">People already care about climate change – the
trick is getting them to realize it.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">BY KATHARINE HAYHOE</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">We see this attitude reflected in opinions
about climate change. In a recent Gallup poll, 68 percent of
Americans surveyed said they believe humans are causing climate
change, but only 42 percent agreed that global warming will pose a
serious threat in their lifetime. When asked if we think climate
change will affect us personally, fully 50 percent of us respond
with a resounding no.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">This is a bigger problem than whether we accept
the science of climate change. Even for many of us who acknowledge
that global warming is happening — and we should, because it is —
chances are we still see it as just one more item on our
overflowing list of priorities. News headlines are full of urgent
problems: refugees, immigration, and the threat of war; the
economy, energy, and finite resources. As individuals our daily
attention goes to our health, our safety, our jobs, and our
families....</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">- -</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">And here is where we need to alter our approach
if we’re going to tackle climate change successfully. It’s not a
question of moving climate change “up” our priority list. I don’t
think climate change needs to be an issue on our lists at all. We
care about a changing climate because it affects nearly every one
of those things that are already on our priority lists.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">Almost 7.5 billion of us have built our cities
and our countries under the implicit assumption that climate is
stable, and that the conditions we’ve experienced in the past are
reliable predictors of the future. Today, though, that assumption
is no longer true. Earth’s climate is changing far faster than at
any other time in human history. Two-thirds of the world’s largest
cities lie within a few feet of sea level. We can’t pick them up
and move them farther inland. We prepare for extreme events — the
drought of record, or the 100-year flood. What happens when a
stronger drought comes along, or much more frequent floods? When
water resources dry up, in many places there isn’t a new source to
move on to; it’s already taken. By assuming that the climate will
continue to be stable, we have built our vulnerability to climate
change into the very foundation of our infrastructure and
socioeconomic systems...</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">- -</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">By following this train of thought, we arrive
at a simple yet potentially revolutionary understanding: Getting
people to care about a changing climate doesn’t require adopting
“new” values. Gone is the burden of inspiring people to “care”
about deforestation and melting ice caps. No need to teach them to
hug a tree, respect a polar bear (hugging not advisable), or throw
themselves into land conservation. Most remarkably, the
implication of this new perspective is that imparting urgency and
concern is just a matter of showing people how to connect the dots
among the issues they already care about, and how those issues are
affected by — and in many cases are threatened by — a changing
climate.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">I’ve seen it work. I’ve watched people’s
attitudes change, going from flat denial of global warming to
jumping into the fight to prepare for it or even stop it. I’ve
seen farmers talk about why they prefer wind turbines to oil pump
jacks. Water planners who work for an organization that doesn’t
officially acknowledge climate change have asked me for future
projections. And all this has happened in the most unlikely of
places — the place I call home...</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">- -</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">VI.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">When I saw the polar bears in Churchill with
Steven Amstrup, Hudson Bay didn’t freeze until December. “The
ice-free season is nearly a month longer than it was three decades
ago,” he said, which means the bears’ time to hunt and feed is
considerably — and detrimentally — shorter. There are many
important research questions to answer. But, he said, we know what
we need to do to save the bears. If sea ice continues to shrink,
the bear population on Hudson Bay could be gone by the middle of
the century.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">As the polar bears see their world changing
around them, so do we, but with one big difference: We have the
capacity to recognize why this is happening, how it’s affecting
us, and how we can respond. Since the Industrial Revolution, we
have been conducting an unprecedented experiment with our planet.
We can’t guarantee a safe future if we don’t bring it to a close.
Now’s the time to pull the plug and finally heed the warning
scientists delivered to LBJ on that day in November 1965.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">I traveled to Paris a few weeks after Hudson
Bay to witness a very different event — the world negotiating a
plan to keep global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius. Two
degrees isn’t a magic number that will avert all negative
consequences, but it puts a limit on this experiment we’ve been
conducting inadvertently. The Paris Agreement on climate change
gives us a viable target, and 145 countries have ratified it
(though 41 of the original signers still need to do so).</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">The link between human warming of the world and
polar bear welfare makes these animals an iconic messenger for the
risks of climate change, but it’s one that’s entirely consistent
with humans as messengers, too. Both of our fates hinge on living
in a safe, secure place that provides access to the resources we
need. This is why Amstrup and his team are so focused on telling
people about the threats posed by global warming and what we can
do about it. And this is why I’m so focused on communicating the
risks of a changing climate. Together, we confront both a
challenge and a hope. Although some impacts are inevitable, by
acting now it’s possible to save the polar bears — and ourselves.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/31/everyone-believes-in-global-warming-they-just-dont-realize-it/">https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/31/everyone-believes-in-global-warming-they-just-dont-realize-it/</a></font><br>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font> </p>
<font face="Calibri"> </font> <font face="Calibri"><i>{ Ethics
shakeup in trusted sources of information ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><b>‘Too greedy’: mass walkout at global science
journal over ‘unethical’ fees</b><br>
Entire board resigns over actions of academic publisher whose
profit margins outstrip even Google and Amazon<br>
</font><font face="Calibri">Anna Fazackerley<br>
Sun 7 May 2023 <br>
</font><font face="Calibri">More than 40 leading scientists have
resigned en masse from the editorial board of a top science
journal in protest at what they describe as the “greed” of
publishing giant Elsevier.<br>
<br>
The entire academic board of the journal Neuroimage, including
professors from Oxford University, King’s College London and
Cardiff University resigned after Elsevier refused to reduce
publication charges.<br>
<br>
Academics around the world have applauded what many hope is the
start of a rebellion against the huge profit margins in academic
publishing, which outstrip those made by Apple, Google and
Amazon...</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">- -</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Meanwhile, university libraries are angry about
the cost of the online textbooks they say students now
overwhelmingly want to read – often many times more expensive than
their paper equivalent. Professor Chris Pressler, director of
Manchester University Library, said: “We are facing a sustained
onslaught of exploitative price models in both teaching and
research.”<br>
<br>
According to a spreadsheet of costs quoted to university
librarians, Manchester University gave a recent example of being
quoted £75 for a popular plant biology textbook in print, but £975
for a three-user ebook licence. Meanwhile Learning to Read
Mathematics in the Secondary School, a textbook for trainee
teachers published by Routledge, was £35.99 in print and £560 for
a single user ebook.<br>
<br>
A spokesperson for Taylor and Francis, which owns Routledge, said:
“We strive to ensure that book prices are both affordable and a
fair representation of their value.” He said a print book could be
checked out for weeks at a time whereas ebooks could be checked in
and out rapidly and had a much wider distribution.<br>
<br>
He added: “Academic publishers provide services that are essential
to a well-functioning research and scholarly communication
ecosystem, and most researchers recognise this is a valuable
service worth paying for. “<br>
<br>
Caroline Ball, librarian at Derby University and co-founder of the
academic campaign EbookSOS, said: “This is creating a digital
hierarchy of haves and have-nots. There are institutions that just
can’t afford these prices for texts.”<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/may/07/too-greedy-mass-walkout-at-global-science-journal-over-unethical-fees">https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/may/07/too-greedy-mass-walkout-at-global-science-journal-over-unethical-fees</a></font>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><font face="Calibri"><i><br>
</i></font></p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[ Population, the parallel predicament ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><b>Matters of Population</b><br>
Climate Emergency Forum<br>
</font>May 7, 2023<br>
Join Robin Maynard in a discussion with Dr. Peter Carter, Paul
Beckwith and Regina Valdez on ‘Matters of Population.’ <br>
<br>
This video was recorded on April 14th, 2023, and published on May
7th, 2023. <br>
Some of the topics discussed: <br>
<blockquote>- How it is critical to talk about population, because
without it we will not be able to enable our children to live that
wonderful future that should be available to everybody, and we
will not protect our environment and our ecosystems from collapse.<br>
- How, as of April 2023, India is on track to surpass the
population of China.<br>
- How humanity has been an incredibly successful species and how
we've overcome all sorts of challenges, not the least of which are
sanitation, energy, warmth, shelter, modern medicine, leading to a
surge in our population.<br>
- How according to the latest reports from the Worldwide Fund for
Nature and the Zoological Society of London there has been a 69%
decline in wild populations over the past 50 years.<br>
- How girls in the global North have the basic right of education
however this hasn’t been the case for girls living in the global
south.<br>
- How those living in the global North need to ease the burden on
the planet by reducing their consumption.<br>
- How honouring the next generation is crucial but also we need to
value human life in the future.<br>
- How humans generally fail to understand the concept of
exponential growth.<br>
- and much more. . .<br>
</blockquote>
Links:<br>
<blockquote>- Population Matters <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://populationmatters.org/">https://populationmatters.org/</a><br>
<br>
- Bhopal Disaster <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster</a><br>
<br>
- India to overtake China as world’s most populous country in
April 2023, United Nations projects<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.un.org/en/desa/india-overtake-china-world-most-populous-country-april-2023-united-nations-projects">https://www.un.org/en/desa/india-overtake-china-world-most-populous-country-april-2023-united-nations-projects</a><br>
<br>
- World Wildlife Fund for Nature <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/">https://www.worldwildlife.org/</a><br>
<br>
- The Zoological Society of London <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.zsl.org/">https://www.zsl.org/</a><br>
<br>
- Raffi Foundation - Child Honouring
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://raffifoundation.org/">https://raffifoundation.org/</a><br>
<br>
- Domestic violence in India
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_violence_in_India">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_violence_in_India</a><br>
<br>
- Minister says Canada needs more immigration as targets get mixed
reviews<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/sean-fraser-immigration-numbers-1.6712766">https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/sean-fraser-immigration-numbers-1.6712766</a><br>
<br>
- Dandelion Africa <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://dandelionafrica.org/">https://dandelionafrica.org/</a><br>
<br>
- Boys for Change <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://dandelionafrica.net/boys-for-change-2/">http://dandelionafrica.net/boys-for-change-2/</a><br>
<br>
- Eco-Migration (CEF Video) <br>
</blockquote>
Special Guest:<br>
Robin Maynard - Director of Population Matters - A longstanding and
passionate supporter of the population cause, Robin began his
environmental career more than 30 years ago, joining Friends of the
Earth as a volunteer just before the Chernobyl disaster. That grim
event led to his first paid job, tasked with tracking radioactive
fall-out across the UK and securing compensation for affected
farmers.<br>
Panelists: <br>
<blockquote>Dr. Peter Carter - MD, Expert IPCC Reviewer and the
director of the Climate Emergency Institute <br>
<br>
Paul Beckwith - Climate Systems Scientist. Professor at the
University of Ottawa in the Paleoclimatology Laboratory as well as
at Carleton University <br>
<br>
Regina Valdez - Program Director, Climate Reality Project, NYC.
GreenFaith Fellow and LEED Green Associate <br>
<br>
Video Production: <br>
Charles Gregoire - Electrical Engineer, Webmaster and IT prime for
FacingFuture.Earth & the Climate Emergency Forum; Climate
Reality Leader <br>
<br>
Heidi Brault - Video production and website assistant, Organizer
and convener, Metadata technician, COP28 team lead for
FacingFuture.Earth and the Climate Emergency Forum; BA
(Psychology); Climate Reality Leader <br>
<br>
Our Website: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://climateemergencyforum.org/">https://climateemergencyforum.org/</a> <br>
</blockquote>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4tHjYa76Z0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4tHjYa76Z0</a><br>
</font> <br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font> </p>
<font face="Calibri"> <i>[ Arctic ice area shrinking ]</i></font><br>
APRIL 7, 2023<br>
Editors' notes<br>
<b>Arctic's peak ice cover has shrunk by an area larger than Egypt</b><br>
by Danielle Bochove, Bloomberg News<br>
- -<br>
The fact that the Arctic is warming much more quickly than the rest
of the planet is changing that temperature gradient. "If we do that,
the atmosphere has to respond, in one way or another," said Serreze.<br>
<br>
Warmer, more open waters absorb heat that ice would reflect,
accelerating the melting process, and also mean bigger waves that
cause thermal and mechanical erosion of coastlines. Sea mammals that
depend on ice are losing their habitat. The livelihoods of
Indigenous communities, which hunt the animals and use the ice for
transportation, are threatened. "The question becomes what level of
adaptability is there," said Serreze.<br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://phys.org/news/2023-04-arctic-peak-ice-shrunk-area.html">https://phys.org/news/2023-04-arctic-peak-ice-shrunk-area.html</a><br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri">- -</font></p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[ one of the more popular informational
videos - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/BbE2TcaxgxY">https://youtu.be/BbE2TcaxgxY</a> ] </i><br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><b>Sea Level Rise Seminar, 2022-10-18:
Paul Winberry</b><br>
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies<br>
Nov 14, 2022 Sea Level Rise Seminars<br>
Sea Level Rise Seminar, 2022-10-18:<br>
Speaker: Paul Winberry (Central Washington University) <br>
<b><br>
</b><b>Title: Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf: Ongoing Changes,
Potential for Breakup, and Implications</b><br>
</font>
<blockquote><font face="Calibri">Abstract: Evolution of the
Antarctic ice sheet is significantly influenced by processes
occurring at both its margins, where it meets the ocean, and the
subglacial environment. However, our understanding of processes
and conditions at each of these locations remains incomplete,
due in part to the significant challenge of observing each of
these locations. In this presentation, I will highlight two
recent studies that illustrate how geophysics can be used to
illuminate processes occurring in each these environments.
First, we will show an example of Antarctic iceberg calving
generating seismic waves observable at great distances (up to
1000 km). These waves can then be used to study the calving
processes. Second, will report on a recent study revealing a
dynamic groundwater system beneath an Antarctic ice stream and
its potential impact on glacier sliding. Each of these examples
highlight how geophysics is enabling the glaciological community
to better understand Antarctica’s ice sheets.</font><br>
</blockquote>
<p><font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbE2TcaxgxY&list=PLpMmnV3HS7r1zEsdKRnKOpmhy7vaB2Bz1&index=8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbE2TcaxgxY&list=PLpMmnV3HS7r1zEsdKRnKOpmhy7vaB2Bz1&index=8</a><br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/BbE2TcaxgxY">https://youtu.be/BbE2TcaxgxY</a></font></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<br>
<font face="Calibri"> <i>[ Goes around, comes around on a globe,
where there are no corners, and no exits. ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><b>Denial Doesn’t Change Our Climate Reality:
Earth Is Becoming a Sacrifice Zone</b><br>
Communities that have contributed little to the climate crisis are
bearing its brunt — but nowhere on Earth is safe.<br>
By JP Sottile, TRUTHOUT<br>
Published May 7, 2023<br>
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<br>
The people of Madagascar are suffering. Battered by two cyclones
last year, they’ve been fighting through a perfect storm of
pandemic-related food supply disruptions and climate-stoked damage
to local agriculture. That confluence was made worse by a
two-year-long drought in the south, which laid the groundwork for
a terrible famine. And that was all before Cyclone Freddy came
calling this year… twice.<br>
<br>
Although Freddy barely broke through the U.S. mainstream media’s
navel-gazing news bubble, the cyclone grew to become the most
“energetic” storm in recorded history. So energetic, in fact, that
it pummeled Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique two separate times
over the course of 37 excruciating days, topping out at a Category
5 storm on February 21, 2023. Then it literally grew “off the
chart” the following day. And that wasn’t even Freddy’s halfway
point. Ultimately, the swirling vortex incubated and recharged in
an increasingly warmer Indian Ocean, pouring its rain and
destruction down on three nations that have done almost nothing to
earn the wrath of our carbon-polluted planet.<br>
<br>
The situation is so dire in Madagascar that, as France 24 recently
reported, families are “forced to abandon or, worse still, sell
their children.” Gilles Grandclement, project manager for Médecins
Sans Frontières, says the organization’s staff has been approached
by locals looking to sell children in a desperate effort to feed
themselves. The government denied it, refusing to hear from locals
who’ve been approached by beleaguered parents or from those who’ve
found or taken in abandoned children. Their denial doesn’t change
the reality. And the reality is that the people of Madagascar are
trapped in a climate sacrifice zone.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><b>The Rise of Sacrifice Zones</b><br>
The term “sacrifice zone” is often associated with the urban decay
and economic desperation wrought by the profit-obsessed paradigm
of neoliberal economics. Based on the revelatory reporting of the
Philadelphia Inquirer’s Matt Katz in 2009, the hollowed-out city
of Camden, New Jersey, became the poster child for the concept of
the economic sacrifice zone. Camden’s well-documented plight was
linked to corporate America’s wholesale abandonment of the working
class in favor of cheaper labor and lax regulations overseas. Back
home, many Camdenites found themselves struggling to survive in an
economic sacrifice zone — a place where disempowered people pay
the price for other people’s cult-like devotion to the bottom
line.<br>
<br>
But the term “sacrifice zone” has a long, all-too trenchant
history that predates its more recent application. In fact, the
concept has evolved over time from a “livestock and land
management concept” into a “critical energy concept during the
1970s,” and then from an “Indigenous political ecology concept in
the 1980s” to an “environmental justice concept in the 1990s.”
That evolution is detailed by Ryan Juskus of Princeton
University’s Meadows Environmental Institute in an extensive
article published this year in the journal Environmental
Humanities. What emerged from the original term “sacrifice area”
is, according to Juskus, a “critical concept for opposing the
human and environmental costs of abstract collective projects like
development, consumerism, and militarism.”<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">In animal agriculture, “sacrifice areas” are
natural spaces “sacrificed” to the irreparable consequences of
heavy grazing by hoofed animals that trample the land and strip
away the foliage, breaking down vital topsoil in the process. It’s
a given that those lands are lost to other uses. That’s why areas
decimated by topsoil-stripping herds of grazing animals were
dubbed “sacrifice areas” in a 1970 Bureau of Land Management
report cited by Juskus. And still today, you can find instructions
on how to “Construct a Sacrifice Area for Horse Operations” on the
website for Fairfax County, Virginia. In fact, there are dozens of
resources available to help animal agriculturists build sacrifice
areas and, in turn, “protect pastures” from the land-altering
consequences of keeping hoofed animals.<br>
<br>
<b>Expanding the Zone</b><br>
The concept’s wider application was aptly spurred by the Energy
Crisis of 1973. Responding to an Arab-Israeli War-sparked OPEC
embargo, then-President Richard Nixon launched a coal-fired energy
plan he called “Project Independence.” This familiar-sounding push
for “energy independence” included building 1,000 nuclear plants,
finishing the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, reducing the speed limit to
55 mph and, most controversially, converting oil-fueled plants to
coal. It meant, notes Juskus, that eastern-based coal companies
heading to coal-rich western states would be bringing destructive
strip-mining practices with them.<br>
<br>
This was quickly labeled “Appalachianization” by an alliance of
“ranchers, Native Americans, and environmentalists” and, Juskus
explains, “Don’t Appalachianize the West” quickly became “a
rallying cry that [sought] to prevent the energy companies from
ravaging with strip mines such coal-rich states as Montana and
Wyoming,” writing them off as “national sacrifice areas” where
“little of the vast mineral wealth [is] returned to the citizens.”<br>
<br>
That same year, the National Research Council completed a report
on the rehabilitation of western coal lands, and its publication
in 1974 firmly established “sacrifice areas” as an energy concept
by designating coal-extracted lands as “national sacrifice areas,”
essentially adapting the agricultural concept to match the
catastrophic reality of strip mining. Writing a year later in The
Washington Post, Helena Huntington-Smith called the report’s use
of “National Sacrifice Areas” a “verbal bombshell” that was
“seized upon by a people who felt themselves being served up as
‘national sacrifices.’”<br>
<br>
The metaphorical horse was out of the barn (or the fenced-in
sacrifice area) and it gained traction wherever lives and
landscapes were trampled by extractive, polluting and
waste-intensive industries. From coal and uranium mining on Native
reservations in the ‘80s, to toxic industrial pollution in
predominantly Black neighborhoods in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the
concept of a “sacrifice area” or “zone” readily explained the
brutal logic of sacrificing the health, welfare and the lives of
those living on lands that, essentially, were written off to
protect and/or enrich others living on the equivalent of protected
pastures.<br>
<br>
Sadly, the concept has taken on a terrible new significance in the
carbon-polluted 2020s. Not only do we see traditional notions of
sacrifice zones still applied to people who live near oil
drilling, next to heavy industry or amid chemically treated
agriculture, but almost daily we see, as predicted by climate and
oil company scientists alike, the sacrifice zones being created by
decades of flippantly burning megatons of hydrocarbons.<br>
<br>
The key difference is that our anthropomorphically altered climate
exacts its toll on a global scale. It’s not as simple as building
a fence to contain the damage, or locating a petrochemical plant
in an economically disempowered town. Instead, climate sacrifice
zones emerge within the context of an interdependent,
macro-ecological system that sustains everything we know. And that
system is a closed system. Externalities are a null concept. Much
like the misnomer about throwing “away” garbage, there is no
“away” for climate pollution.<br>
<br>
You can think of it like the conservation of energy. It’s a basic
principle of physics and chemistry stating that the “energy of a
closed system must remain constant,” and that energy “cannot be
created or destroyed, but it can be transferred and transformed”
from one form to another. That basic truth can also be applied to
the sacrifices connected to the closed system of climate change.
The sacrifices we refuse to make can “only be transformed or
transferred” from one place or person to another. Like plastic
trash, carbon or methane doesn’t just go “away” simply because we
refuse to take responsibility for it.<br>
<b><br>
</b><b> And therein lies the rub.</b><br>
Just as climate pollution is tallied daily and in the aggregate on
the Great Balance Sheet in the Sky, so too are the mounting costs
of climate pollution imposed daily and in the aggregate on “we
humans,” regardless of the relative contributions we make to the
problem. And all too often it seems to be imposed, or
“transferred,” in spite of those contributions, like the price
currently being paid by low carbon-emitting Madagascans. Or by
Pakistanis who, despite producing one of the world’s smallest per
capita carbon footprints, still find themselves wading through the
hunger-inducing aftereffects of last year’s climate-stoked deluge.
Or by the Panamanian tribe that long lived on an island free of
cars and motorcycles, but is now forced to relocate to the
mainland to avoid being swallowed by the rapidly rising sea. There
are easily a dozen other countries like these that have
contributed little to the climate crisis, but now find themselves
facing a bleak near-term future of sacrifice for a problem they
did not create.<br>
<br>
<b>Zoned Out</b><br>
Meanwhile, politicians argue over the inherent “unfairness” of the
U.S. taking “unilateral” action on climate, while “communists” in
Beijing build coal-fired power plants with a capitalism-inspired
impunity. These callow protestations, though, wither under
scrutiny. One obvious problem with their argument is that China’s
massive emissions are largely made in America. The Chinese
industrial juggernaut was built in no small part to service the
U.S. consumer market, and to serve the bottom lines of U.S.
corporations that have shown no compunction about exploiting cheap
Chinese labor and lax Chinese environmental regulations to feed
their ever-expanding profit margins. Frankly, it’s a serious
ethical mistake to predicate one’s bad behavior on the bad
behavior of someone else. In this case, it’s doubly fallacious to
defiantly pump pollutants into the atmosphere because China’s
“getting away with it.” The bitter truth is that nobody is getting
away with anything.<br>
<br>
It’s a fact highlighted by a recent Associated Press report. The
author consulted climate scientists after a terrifying winter of
extreme weather rocked the U.S., and it turns out that the same
geography often touted as an “exceptional” advantage also
functions as a set of force multipliers exacerbating the impact of
climate change across North America. Scientists say the U.S. is
“getting hit by stronger, costlier, more varied and frequent
extreme weather than anywhere on the planet” because “two oceans,
the Gulf of Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, jutting peninsulas like
Florida, clashing storm fronts and the jet stream combine to
naturally brew the nastiest of weather.”<br>
<br>
It’s a fact manifested in the recent growth of extreme weather
events to previously unseen proportions — from the barrage of
“Atmospheric Rivers” that slammed the West Coast to a tornado so
big, its trail of destruction across Mississippi could be seen
from space. And then there’s the state of Kentucky, which late
last summer found itself drowning in its own unique experience of
becoming a climate sacrifice zone.<br>
<b><br>
</b><b> In the Zone</b><br>
A full six months after “biblical floods” decimated eastern
Kentucky, The Washington Post detailed the continuing struggles of
low-income folks without “the means to repair damaged homes [or]
obtain mortgages or scrape together rent,” while others “are
living in homes without electricity or running water, doubling up
with relatives, staying in camping trailers or even tents.” Citing
an analysis by the Ohio River Valley Institute, the Post notes
that “6 in 10 Kentucky families with homes damaged in the floods
have annual incomes of $30,000 or less” and, in a preview of
climate refugees to come, explains that some have simply “moved
away.” It also portends a replay of the much-feared
“Appalachianization” that catalyzed the evolution of the concept
of “sacrifice areas” in the first place.<br>
<br>
To wit, Axios cited U.S. Census data which shows that “roughly 3.4
million Americans were displaced by a hurricane, flood or other
disaster event in 2022” and, per E&E News, approximately “16%
of those displaced never returned home — and 12% didn’t return for
more than six months.” For those that do return to rebuild, like a
group of fire-displaced Coloradans, progress rebuilding their
homes correlated with household’s income — the lower the income,
the slower the rebuilding. And the kinds of immediate relief from
FEMA or HUD available to those fleeing a “single disaster event”
are not available to refugees who are “forced to eventually leave
an area following compounding pressures from a series of
climate-related hazards.”<br>
<br>
Unfortunately, as Spectrum News 1 reported, Kentucky may find
itself in both categories simultaneously. Kentuckians not only
face a cycle of floods and “blistering temperatures, dryness and
long dry spells,” but the state’s sunbaked soils “can start
shrinking, cracking and pulling away from” home foundations and,
in turn, lead not only to “thousands of dollars of foundation
damage,” but also “increase the pathways for radon gas” to leak
into homes.<br>
<br>
Carcinogenic radon gas is a big issue in Kentucky. In a January
2023 story to mark “Radon Awareness Month,” WKYT talked to the
University of Kentucky’s Ellen Hahn, who pointed out that Kentucky
leads “the nation in new lung cancer cases, as well as death from
lung cancer.” The story noted that Kentucky’s “higher radon
exposure” is due to “the nature of our bedrock.” It’s a sad,
“full-circle” moment for a state so deeply associated with the
sacrifice areas created by extracting hydrocarbons, to now be
mired in the sacrifice zone created by the burning of
hydrocarbons.<br>
<br>
It’s also why connecting the dots on sacrifices being made today
by starving Madagascans or deluged Kentuckians is so crucial.
Faced with both the irrefutable science and the lived experience
of human beings drowning in or fleeing from climate sacrifice
zones, the question of climate pollution becomes far more than a
problem of economics; it is a matter of ethics.<br>
<br>
If it were just a matter of economics, all we’d have to do is
switch to a new, shiny industrial infrastructure that purports to
allow us to have our cake and eat it with both hands while our
self-driving electric vehicles haul us into a carbon-neutral
future. But in our hurry to find one-for-one consumer replacements
instead of making real sacrifices, we run the risk of remaking the
same mistakes that got us here in the first place, thereby
creating new sacrifice zones in places like Myanmar, Guinea and
the Democratic Republic of Congo as we busily build our own
protected pastures.<br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCqDniAuZRM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCqDniAuZRM</a><br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri"></font></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<font face="Calibri"> <i>[The news archive - looking back at the
year when CO2 levels passed 400 ]</i><br>
<font size="+2"><i><b>May 9, 2013</b></i></font> <br>
May 9, 2013: NOAA announces that the amount of CO2 in the
atmosphere has now passed 400 parts per million.<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/7992">https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/7992</a><br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/science/earth/carbon-dioxide-level-passes-long-feared-milestone.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/science/earth/carbon-dioxide-level-passes-long-feared-milestone.html</a><br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/historically-high-levels-of-carbon-dioxide-recorded-in-hawaii/">http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/historically-high-levels-of-carbon-dioxide-recorded-in-hawaii/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
</font>
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