October, 2021

Thanks

Much of my climate news comes from The Daily Climate, whose wonderful subscription service clues me in to what's going on each day. Another great source of stories (and commentaries) comes from my friend Jim Poyser, at Apocadocs. Unfortunately he and his pal Michael stopped collecting news at the election of U.S. Unindicted Co-conspirator Forty-Five, which was a frickin' party pooper of a day, I'll tell ya. Their recovery scenario is perhaps more progressive than the Green New Deal (and their book is darkly inspirational, and terribly funny — and free).

Quotes

  • James Baldwin:
    • "People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction…." — Notes of a Native Son
    • "It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." — No Name in the Street
    • "Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced." — As Much Truth As One Can Bear
  • "If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there's no progress. If you pull it all the way out that's not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they haven't even pulled the knife out much less heal the wound. They won't even admit the knife is there." — Malcolm X, TV interview, Mar. 1964
  • "… all you can talk about is money, and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!" — Greta Thunberg (address to the UN, 2019)
  • "Poverty is the worst form of violence." — Mahatma Gandhi
  • "The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands." — Genesis 9:2
  • "[Y]ou cannot postpone a rendezvous with reality forever." Nick Cohen, Observer columnist
  • “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” — Voltaire
  • "Any course in US history is inauthentic — worse, is a lie — if it doesn't teach the experiences of people like Fannie Lou Hamer." [ael: me, late to the game…:(]
  • "I want to be a great ancestor…." Overheard on an ACLU zoom call….
  • "A question ain't really a question if you know the answer too." John Prine (Far from me)

And Now for the News:

October, 2021

10/7/2021

  1. Biden administration releases alarming reports on climate change challenges: The reports from 23 federal agencies examine how climate change will disrupt nearly all aspects of life, including more traffic and disease.
    • Twenty-three agencies released climate-adaptation plans, including the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Homeland Security, Education and Transportation. Each report offers candid descriptions of how climate change is already affecting the federal government's work and what threats the country faces as climate change worsens. The reports outline solutions, including investing in more resilient infrastructure, ensuring that new buildings and facilities are green and educating employees about climate change.

10/6/2021

  1. ‘Eco-anxiety’: fear of environmental doom weighs on young people: Although not a diagnosable condition, experts says climate anxiety is on the rise worldwide
    • Although not yet considered a diagnosable condition, recognition of eco-anxiety and its complex psychological effects was increasing, they said, as was its “disproportionate” impact on children and young people.
    • A recent international survey of climate anxiety in young people aged 16 to 25 showed that the psychological burdens of climate crisis were “profoundly affecting huge numbers of these young people around the world”, they added.

10/5/2021

  1. ‘Greta is right’: climate pledges must be matched by action, say Mars executives: The company will tie executive pay to emissions reduction and eliminate deforestation through its supply chain
    • The chief executive of Mars, one of the world’s largest consumer products companies, has warned that “all too often” corporate commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions fall short and threaten to undermine their credibility and necessary change on climate action. Grant Reid’s comments, and those of Mars’s chief sustainability and procurement officer, Barry Parkin, come after the climate activist Greta Thunberg condemned many of the climate actions promised by global leaders as so much “blah, blah, blah”.
    • On Tuesday Mars, whose products include M&Ms, Twix, Royal Canin pet food and Wrigley’s chewing gum, set out new science-based climate targets to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its business by 2050, including all those created by its suppliers and emissions from consumers using its brands.
    • In an op-ed for the Guardian, Reid said too many corporations were making “net zero” promises that do not cover the whole of their emissions and this state of affairs threatened to undermine the concept of net zero – which he believes is vital if the world is to deal with climate change.
    • Parkin said Mars was seeing the impact of climate change across its business – droughts in west Africa, for example, affecting cocoa production.
    • Mars has been criticized by some environmental groups for failing to reach its own climate goals. In 2020 Rainforest Action Network accused the company of “greenwashing”, arguing plans to stop deforestation by palm oil suppliers were failing and ignored the rights of indigenous people.
    • A Mars survey of the company’s top 200 suppliers found that only 10% set science-based targets a year ago. “That’s indicative of the world, of our challenge, we need every company to step up,” he said. He added that Mars was working with other companies and its suppliers to speed up that process.
  2. To truly reach net zero emissions, we need to transform the business supply chain (Grant Reid, the CEO of Mars): The old ways of doing business will not deliver change – suppliers, retailers and consumers must all take responsibility
    • The global fight against the impacts of climate change is a generational challenge like no other. This is a shared mission, but it is increasingly clear that levels of distrust and scepticism are running high.
    • After all, few consumers probably realise the incredible journey that goes into bringing Royal Canin to their dog’s food bowl, M&Ms to their corner store, veterinary services to thousands of our clinics or Ben’s Original to their dinner table. Because to truly deliver net zero, we must eliminate or offset GHG emissions across the entire breadth of our value chain – from the farms that provide our ingredients all the way to the end use of our product with consumers.
    • Unfortunately, I can see some serious risks with the recent flurry of net zero announcements. All too often, key components are missing, and that will create a meaningful shortfall in our collective effort to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. So, how do we fill these gaps and put ourselves on a real path to net zero? First, I believe that any credible net zero claim must cover the associated emissions across the business’s entire GHG footprint, including all scope 3 emissions. These are emissions for which you have some responsibility, but which might be beyond your control such as emissions from our suppliers or retailers. It means going as far as how consumers use your products. For us, that includes how our products are transported to stores, as well as how consumers use them at home. All too often, these emissions are left out of net zero plans entirely.
    • But I don’t underestimate the size and complexity of our own commitment to get to net zero across the breadth of our entire supply chain, or what it means for others that have committed to do the same. The old ways of doing business will not deliver the changes required, and it’s clear that a transformational redesign of business supply chains will be critical. This will require a mix of approaches including a shift to renewable energy, stopping deforestation and conversion of natural ecosystems in how we source materials, and embedding climate action at the core of business operations – including tying executive compensation to GHG emission reduction targets. And we can’t achieve our goals without also challenging suppliers to set their own climate targets and take action.
  3. Revealed: pipeline company paid Minnesota police for arresting and surveilling protesters: Enbridge picked up the tab for police wages, training and equipment – and let county police know when it wanted demonstrators arrested
    • Enbridge is replacing the Line 3 pipeline through Minnesota to carry oil from Alberta to the tip of Lake Superior in Wisconsin. The new pipeline carries a heavy oil called bitumen, doubles the capacity of the original to 760,000 barrels a day and carves a new route through pristine wetlands. A report by the climate action group MN350 says the expanded pipeline will emit the equivalent greenhouse gases of 50 coal power plants.
    • The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, which regulates pipelines, decided rural police should not have to pay for increased strain from Line 3 protests. As a condition of granting Line 3 permits, the commission required Enbridge to set up an escrow account to reimburse police for responding to demonstrations. Enbridge told the Guardian an independent account manager allocates the funds, and police decide when protesters are breaking the law. But records obtained by the Guardian show the company meets daily with police to discuss intelligence gathering and patrols. And when Enbridge wants protesters removed, it calls police or sends letters.
  4. Biomass is promoted as a carbon neutral fuel. But is burning wood a step in the wrong direction? Many scientists and environmental campaigners question the industry’s claims to offer a clean, renewable energy source that the planet desperately needs
    • Biomass has been promoted as a carbon-neutral energy source by industry, some countries and lawmakers on the basis that the emissions released by burning wood can be offset by the carbon dioxide taken up by trees grown to replace those burned. Yet there remain serious doubts among many scientists about its carbon-neutral credentials, especially when wood pellets are made by cutting down whole trees, rather than using waste wood products. It can take as much as a century for trees to grow enough to offset the carbon released. [ael: So 100 trees growing for a year can offset the carbon of burning one tree, on average (trees at different stages of maturity). This is saying that the integral of a tree's carbon uptake over its lifespan. Some trees don't live 100 years.]
    • Burning wood for energy is also inefficient – biomass has been found to release more carbon dioxide per unit of energy than coal or gas, according to a 2018 study and an open letter to the EU signed by nearly 800 scientists.
      • But burning wood to produce electricity is a relatively inefficient process. In generating exactly the same amount of electricity, wood will release four times as much carbon into the atmosphere as gas would do, and one and half times as much as coal. In addition, energy is used in harvesting and transport while vast stretches of land are needed to create the forests to supply generating stations with the wood they need. This also has profound environmental impacts for a world that will soon be home to more than 10 billion humans who will need every scrap of productive land to provide food.
      • In the middle of the 19th century, wood burning rose to such levels that western Europe was almost completely deforested. Ironically, the rise of coal burning saved the situation. Now that coal is being phased out, it should not be an excuse to return to widespread tree burning, say researchers. Instead we should concentrate our efforts to boost solar and wind projects and other less harmful sources of renewable energy.

What went on: 2021

What went on: 2020

What went on: 2019

What went on: 2018

What went on: 2017

What went on: 2016

What went on: 2015

What went on: 2014

RClimate Examples

  • Here's the 10-day weather forecast for Mattawa, Ontario, where we have a farm, away from the noise of that blowhard tRump, the once-and-always-liar-in-chief. I try to spend as much time as I can on the farm.
  • Public News Service - Environment
  • More quotes:
    • Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it and by the same token save it from ruin which, except for renewal, except for the coming of the new and young, would be inevitable. And education, too, is where we decide whether we love our children enough not to expel them from our world and leave them to their own devices, nor to strike from their hands their chance of undertaking something new, something unforeseen by us, but to prepare them in advance for the task of renewing a common world. HANNAH ARENDT. From the Introduction to “Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism”, by Henry Giroux.
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License