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<p><font size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b>January</b></i></font><font
size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b> 31, 2024</b></i></font></p>
<i>[ Evidence found of clear risk ]</i><br>
<b>‘Smoking gun proof’: fossil fuel industry knew of climate danger
as early as 1954, documents show<br>
</b>Oliver Milman<br>
@olliemilman<br>
Tue 30 Jan 2024<b><i><br>
</i></b><b>Documents show industry-backed Air Pollution Foundation
uncovered the severe harm climate change would wreak<br>
</b><br>
The fossil fuel industry funded some of the world’s most
foundational climate science as early as 1954, newly unearthed
documents have shown, including the early research of Charles
Keeling, famous for the so-called “Keeling curve” that has charted
the upward march of the Earth’s carbon dioxide levels.<br>
<br>
A coalition of oil and car manufacturing interests provided $13,814
(about $158,000 in today’s money) in December 1954 to fund Keeling’s
earliest work in measuring CO2 levels across the western US, the
documents reveal.<br>
<br>
Keeling would go on to establish the continuous measurement of
global CO2 at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. This “Keeling
curve” has tracked the steady increase of the atmospheric carbon
that drives the climate crisis and has been hailed as one of the
most important scientific works of modern times.<b><i><br>
</i></b><br>
The fossil fuel interests backed a group, known as the Air Pollution
Foundation, that issued funding to Keeling to measure CO2 alongside
a related effort to research the smog that regularly blighted Los
Angeles at the time. This is earlier than any previously known
climate research funded by oil companies.<br>
<br>
In the research proposal for the money – uncovered by Rebecca John,
a researcher at the Climate Investigations Center, and published by
the climate website DeSmog – Keeling’s research director, Samuel
Epstein, wrote about a new carbon isotope analysis that could
identify “changes in the atmosphere” caused by the burning of coal
and petroleum.<br>
<br>
“The possible consequences of a changing concentration of the CO2 in
the atmosphere with reference to climate, rates of photosynthesis,
and rates of equilibration with carbonate of the oceans may
ultimately prove of considerable significance to civilization,”
Epstein, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology (or
Caltech), wrote to the group in November 1954.<br>
<br>
Experts say the documents show the fossil fuel industry had intimate
involvement in the inception of modern climate science, along with
its warnings of the severe harm climate change will wreak, only to
then publicly deny this science for decades and fund ongoing efforts
to delay action on the climate crisis.<br>
<br>
“They contain smoking gun proof that by at least 1954, the fossil
fuel industry was on notice about the potential for its products to
disrupt Earth’s climate on a scale significant to human
civilization,” said Geoffrey Supran, an expert in historic climate
disinformation at the University of Miami.<br>
<br>
“These findings are a startling confirmation that big oil has had
its finger on the pulse of academic climate science for 70 years –
for twice my lifetime – and a reminder that it continues to do so to
this day. They make a mockery of the oil industry’s denial of basic
climate science decades later.”<br>
<p>Previous investigations of public and private records have found
that major oil companies spent decades conducting their own
research into the consequences of burning their product, often to
an uncannily accurate degree – a study last year found that Exxon
scientists made “breathtakingly” accurate predictions of global
heating in the 1970s and 1980s.</p>
The newly discovered documents now show the industry knew of CO2’s
potential climate impact as early as 1954 via, strikingly, the work
of Keeling, then a 26-year-old Caltech researcher conducting
formative work measuring CO2 levels across California and the waters
of the Pacific ocean. There is no suggestion that oil and gas
funding distorted his research in any way.<br>
<br>
The findings of this work would lead the US scientist to further
experiments upon the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii that were to
provide a continual status report of the world’s dangerously-rising
carbon dioxide composition.<br>
<br>
Keeling died in 2005 but his seminal work lives on. Currently, the
Earth’s atmospheric CO2 level is 422 parts per million, which is
nearly a third higher than the first reading taken in 1958, and a
50% jump on pre-industrial levels.<br>
<br>
This essential tracking of the primary heat-trapping gas that has
pushed global temperatures to higher than ever previously
experienced in human civilization was born, in part, due to the
backing of the Air Pollution Foundation.<br>
<br>
A total of 18 automotive companies, including Ford, Chrysler and
General Motors, gave money to the foundation. Other entities,
including banks and retailers, also contributed funding.<br>
<br>
Separately, a 1959 memo identifies the American Petroleum Institute
(API), the US’s leading oil and gas lobbying body, and the Western
Oil and Gas Association, now known as the Western States Petroleum
Association, as “major contributors to the funds of the Air
Pollution Foundation”. It’s not clear exactly when API started
funding the foundation but it had a representative on a research
committee from mid-1955 onwards.<br>
<p>A policy statement of the Air Pollution Foundation from 1955
calls the problem of air pollution, which is caused by the
emissions of cars, trucks and industrial facilities, “one of the
most serious confronting urban areas in California and elsewhere”
and that the issue will be addressed via “diligent and honest fact
finding, by wise and effective action”.</p>
The unearthed documents come from the Caltech archives, the US
National Archives, the University of California at San Diego and Los
Angeles newspapers from the 1950s, and represent what may be the
first instance of the fossil fuel industry being informed of the
potentially dire consequences of its business model.<br>
<br>
The oil and gas industry was initially concerned with research
related to smog and other direct air pollutants before branching out
into related climate change impacts, according to Carroll Muffett,
chief executive of the Center for International Environmental Law.<br>
<br>
“You just come back to the oil and gas industry again and again,
they were omnipresent in this space,” he said. “The industry was not
just on notice but deeply aware of the potential climate
implications of its products for going on 70 years.”<br>
<br>
Muffett said the documents add further impetus to efforts in various
jurisdictions to hold oil and gas firms legally liable for the
damages caused by the climate crisis.<br>
<br>
“These documents talk about CO2 emissions having planetary
implications, meaning this industry understood extraordinarily early
on that fossil fuel combustion was profound on a planetary scale,”
he said.<br>
<br>
“There is overwhelming evidence the oil and gas industry has been
misleading the public and regulators around the climate risks of
their product for 70 years. Trusting them to be part of the
solutions is foolhardy. We’ve now moved into an era of
accountability.”<br>
<br>
API and Ralph Keeling, Charles’s son who is also a scientist, were
contacted for comment about the documents but did not respond.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/30/fossil-fuel-industry-air-pollution-fund-research-caltech-climate-change-denial">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/30/fossil-fuel-industry-air-pollution-fund-research-caltech-climate-change-denial</a><br>
<p><b><i><br>
</i></b></p>
<p><i><br>
</i></p>
<i>[ briefing on climate ]</i><br>
<b>Press Briefing: The Climate Story in 2024</b><br>
Covering Climate Now<br>
Jan 30, 2024<br>
To cover climate change well in 2024, journalists need clarity on
the most significant forces affecting the world’s ability to address
the climate emergency in time. Among them: the biggest election year
in history in which roughly 4 billion people have the chance to
vote; key factors hindering a phaseout of fossil fuels and expansion
of green energy; and the dangers of proliferating disinformation.<br>
PANELISTS:<br>
<blockquote>Mustafa Santiago Ali, Executive Vice President of
Conservation & Justice at the National Wildlife Federation<br>
Bill McKibben, journalist and activist<br>
Amy Westervelt, investigative climate journalist and founder of
Critical Frequency<br>
Mark Hertsgaard, CCNow's executive director, moderated.</blockquote>
Covering Climate Now is a global journalism collaboration,
co-founded by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation magazine,
encouraging more and better climate coverage. Learn more:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://coveringclimatenow.org">https://coveringclimatenow.org</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L25zi3D6CPc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L25zi3D6CPc</a>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ 104 years ago a January storm blew down more trees than the
eruption of Mt St Helens - winds of 150 mph ]</i><br>
<b>The "Big Blow" of 1921</b><br>
The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered<br>
Jan 29, 2024 #history #thehistoryguy #Weather<br>
The event called “The Big Blow” or “The Great Olympic Blowdown”
felled eight times as many trees as the eruption of Mount St Helens
in 1980. <br>
- -<br>
This is original content based on research by The History Guy.
Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide
illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available
in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used
for illustration. <br>
- -<br>
All events are portrayed in historical context and for educational
purposes. No images or content are primarily intended to shock and
disgust. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat
it. Non censuram.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEp9Rj2RfVY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEp9Rj2RfVY</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ Professor professes ]</i><br>
<b>Climate scientist Mark Maslin: ‘We have all the technology we
need to move to a cleaner, renewable world’</b><br>
Shaoni Bhattacharya<br>
The professor of Earth system science on the hottest year on record,
using humour – with a little help from Jo Brand – to get his message
across, and why there are reasons to be positive<br>
Sun 28 Jan 2024<br>
Prof Mark Maslin studies climate change and human impacts as
professor of Earth system science at University College London (UCL)
and the Natural History Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. He recently
partnered with the comedian Jo Brand in an online film to
“translate” climate science for a wider audience. He is one of the
lead organisers of Love Your Planet with Al Gore’s charity, the
Climate Reality Project, and the Climate Cafe at UCL on 14 February.<br>
<br>
<b>We’ve just heard officially that 2023 was the world’s hottest
year, and that we are likely to breach the temperature rise limit
of 1.5C warming above pre-industrial levels in the next 12 months.
What are your thoughts on that?</b><br>
Last year being the hottest on record was something we knew was
going to happen at the end of 2023. Two hundred of the 365 days last
year were the hottest ever recorded for that particular day, which
gives some idea of how huge this was. The temperature is 1.48C above
the pre-industrial – close to the 1.5C limit [for this century] that
was set up by the Paris agreement in 2016 – so we are worryingly
close to it. We also know that El Niño [a natural weather pattern]
is starting in the Pacific Ocean and always adds some warming. So in
2024, we could break the 1.5C limit temporarily.<br>
<b>Last year we saw many extreme weather events: heatwaves,
wildfires and floods – can we expect more of the same in 2024?</b><br>
In 2023, there were over 220 extreme climate events. There was a 30%
increase in fatalities caused by climate events on the previous
year. We saw massive heatwaves in North America, southern Europe,
China and Asia. We also saw wildfires. And lots of underreported
events. For example, east Africa had huge long droughts and
catastrophic flooding. There was no continent that was not affected
by extreme weather events – and our ability to cope with them is
getting less. A lot of people have said to me: “Oh it was a rubbish
summer in the UK.” We had the hottest July on record. We had a
slightly warmer than average August, and it was the second hottest
year ever recorded in the UK. But because people are now expecting
southern England to be like the French Riviera, if we don’t have 30C
weather in August they go: “Ooh it’s not a good summer.” No. We
shouldn’t be having summers like that. Ever. Two years ago we had a
40C heatwave in London, which had us climatologists with our jaws on
the ground. We were predicting [40C] for the 2040s… The expectation
of many climatologists, including myself, is that 2024 could be
hotter than 2023, and with more extreme weather events as El Niño
really takes hold.<br>
<b>You’re a professor of Earth system science at UCL – tell me about
your main research?</b><br>
I study climate change in the past, present and future. My research
is incredibly wide ranging: I study early human evolution in east
Africa, the evolution of the Anthropocene and how human impact has
changed through history, and the impacts of climate change on
society now and in the future. I also look at resource crises in the
future.<br>
<br>
<b>You and your colleagues released a study on private jet flights
and the carbon footprint estimates of travel to the Cop climate
meetings just before Cop28 in Dubai last month. What were your
findings?</b><br>
We looked at all private jet flights to Cop26 and 27. We are working
on Cop28 now and will be releasing that at the end of this year.
What we’re not trying to say is world leaders have to go on
commercial jets – because we want them to turn up to Cop meetings –
but what we are saying is maybe all 100,000 people at Cop28 didn’t
need to be there. Please don’t get me wrong: Cops are really
important. This is a place where 198 countries come together as
equals. So when you have a statement that says we are going to
transition away from fossil fuels – which is signed by everybody –
it has real weight.<br>
<b>You recently featured in a short online film for Climate Science
Breakthrough with comedian Jo Brand – who translated your words to
get the message across. For example, her interpretation of
governments giving subsidies to fossil fuel companies was: “Even
the dinosaurs didn’t subsidise their own extinctions; who’s the
stupid species now?”</b><br>
Jo Brand is an amazing person. We have very similar views and
backgrounds. She worked for the NHS; most of my family work in the
NHS… We have similar political views. When my mother was alive she
loved telling the story of when she was pregnant with me and she had
to drag the coal home because they couldn’t afford to have it
delivered. That tells you, one: that we were poor. And two: we had a
coal fire, not central heating. So growing up in that sort of
austerity means that Jo and I have a connection. There’s one point
in the film where we’d been chatting about how we could make Britain
better and Jo turned and said: “Oh Mark, I really think you should
be prime minister.” And I said: “Jo, do I really want that job?” And
she went: “Yeah, maybe not.” I said: “How about we do it together?”
And she said: “Oh that’s a good idea!” And it was that comedy gold,
that lovely rapport, which I think comes over.<br>
<br>
<b>Might you be looking at a career in comedy?</b><br>
No, I’m very happy to be the straight man! This communication of
climate change, human impact on the world etc is incredibly
depressing and can make people feel powerless. So there is always a
little bit of humour running through everything I do. Also I try to
talk about positives. Because in climate change there are so many
solutions: things that we should be doing anyway. So renewable
energy, guess what? We get much cleaner air, which means that we
have less loss of life due to things like asthma and chest
infections. Yes, tick, tick, tick. We have energy security because
it’s our own energy so we don’t have all these incredible price
rises. Fossil fuels are 19th- and 20th-century technologies. We have
incredible technology now. Therefore, why don’t we move into the
21st century and make things better?<br>
<br>
<b>Is there room for climate optimism then?</b><br>
We have all the technology we need to move to a cleaner, renewable
world. All the stats are showing incredible growth: we have
exponential growth in solar, wind, EV batteries, which is all
fantastic. We also have politics – 90% of the world’s economy says
it will be net zero some time this century. That’s huge. We are
transitioning away from fossil fuels. It should have been 30 years
ago, but it’s now. The signalling is great, but we have to do it
faster.<br>
<br>
<b>You’re organising a “Love Your Planet” event at UCL next month.
What does it involve?</b><br>
The Climate Reality Project has got together with UCL to produce a
day of panels, talks and networking on the green transition. How do
we get business, politicians, academics and activists all working
together to make this happen quicker? We also have hopefully a few
positive words from Al Gore himself, in a short video introduction.
It’s on Valentine’s Day. If you have a loved one and you’ve
forgotten, I will be reminding you that you should at least text –
even without Jo Brand, I’m using humour to try to engage people, and
to think about their relationship with their loved ones, but also
with their planet, which is their home. And it’s the only one we
have. Just like we nurture our relationships with other people, we
really should be nurturing our relationship with our own planet.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/28/climate-scientist-mark-maslin-we-have-all-the-technology-we-need-to-move-to-a-cleaner-renewable-world">https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/28/climate-scientist-mark-maslin-we-have-all-the-technology-we-need-to-move-to-a-cleaner-renewable-world</a><br>
-- -<br>
<i>[ Here they are -- YouTube videos ]</i><br>
<b>Jo Brand translates Prof Mark Maslin's climate speak</b><br>
Mark Maslin<br>
Dec 3, 2023 #climatechange #environment #greenhousegases<br>
Climate Science Breakthrough presents Jo Brand, famous comedian,
traslating Prof. Mark Maslin's climate change science for the masses<br>
#climatechange #environment #greenhousegases<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyrJzWVefpQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyrJzWVefpQ</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
<p><b>Mark Maslin x Jo Brand | Climate Science Translated NSFW</b><br>
Climate Science Breakthrough<br>
Nov 23, 2023<br>
Comedian Jo Brand helps Professor Mark Maslin spell out the actual
risks of climate change, pulling zero punches, and using highly
unscientific language throughout. The film is part of an ongoing
project to help the climate science cut through to the public.<br>
climatesciencebreakthrough.com<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxLvTF_9jv4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxLvTF_9jv4</a><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[The news archive - President Clinton ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> <font size="+2"><i><b>January 31, 1998 </b></i></font>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font> January 31, 1998: In his weekly radio
address, President Clinton declares:<br>
<blockquote>"The world's leading climate scientists have concluded,
unequivocally, that if we don't reduce the emissions of greenhouse
gases into the atmosphere all across the Earth, then the
temperature of the Earth will heat up, seas will rise, and
increasingly severe floods and droughts will occur, disrupting
life in low coastal areas, disrupting agricultural production, and
causing other difficulties for the generations of the 21st
century. Fortunately, we can avert these dangers and do it while
keeping our economy going strong."<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?99478-1/PresidentialRadioAddress172">http://www.c-span.org/video/?99478-1/PresidentialRadioAddress172</a>
<br>
<br>
<p><font face="Calibri"> </font><font face="Calibri"><br>
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