[MCN] Climate, society, politics

[Lance Olsen]

“I just want it to be clear that the mainstream environmental movement has been asking very little of people for decades.”

“There’s no element of, ‘We are in an emergency. We all need to do more than what we’re doing.” 

Extinction Rebellion’s radical philosophy
July 22 2019
https://thinkprogress.org/the-radical-philosophy-of-extinction-rebellion-5857d3955b57/ <https://thinkprogress.org/the-radical-philosophy-of-extinction-rebellion-5857d3955b57/>

—————————————————————————————

“During WWII, … we transformed our economy incredibly quickly in order to protect ourselves. All hands were on deck.

“Families including children were also mobilized — and 40 percent of vegetables were grown at home, in ‘victory gardens.’ 

“The government laid down strong regulations, such as a ban on the production of new consumer cars. More than 37 percent of our gross domestic product was spent on the war effort.  

“If the United States rises to the challenge of confronting the climate emergency, we can still “cancel the apocalypse” and begin restoring a safe climate and healthy society. The first step is telling the truth. We need a national acknowledgement that we face a climate emergency.”

https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/449079-moving-into-emergency-mode-on-climate-change <https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/449079-moving-into-emergency-mode-on-climate-change>

——————————————————————————

 Carbon Brief April 10, 2019

Analysis: Why children must emit eight times less CO2 than their grandparents
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-children-must-emit-eight-times-less-co2-than-their-grandparents <https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-children-must-emit-eight-times-less-co2-than-their-grandparents>

Opening paragraphs

“Global emissions of CO2 need to decline precipitously over the next few decades, if the world is to meet the Paris Agreement goals of limiting global warming to “well below 2C” and, ideally, below 1.5C. If these goals are to be met, young people would have to live the greater part of their lives without contributing significantly to global emissions. Essentially, they would have fewer “allowable” CO2 emissions during their lifetime, compared with older generations.

“To determine just how much smaller their personal CO2 limits would be, Carbon Brief has combined historical data on emissions and population with projections for the future. In a world where warming is limited to 1.5C, the average person born today can emit only an eighth of the lifetime emissions of someone born in 1950.

“The interactive tool, below, shows the size of each person’s “carbon budget” during their  lifetime – based on when and where they were born. It looks at two different scenarios: one where the world limits warming to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels by 2100; and one were warming is limited to 1.5C. 

It also considers two different ways of sharing future allowable emissions: one where each country tracks “optimal <https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-how-integrated-assessment-models-are-used-to-study-climate-change>” pathways taken from models; and another, focused on equality, where each person can use the same portion of future emissions, no matter where they live.

In all cases, younger generations will have to make do with substantially smaller lifetime carbon budgets than older generations, if the Paris limits are to be respected. This is because most of the allowable emissions <https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-how-much-carbon-budget-is-left-to-limit-global-warming-to-1-5c> have already been used up, meaning young people will not have the luxury of unmitigated emissions enjoyed by older generations.”

Full text
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-children-must-emit-eight-times-less-co2-than-their-grandparents <https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-children-must-emit-eight-times-less-co2-than-their-grandparents>

——————————————————————————

Fossil Fuel Firms Are Subsidized at a Rate of $11 Million Per Minute – Mother Jones <https://news.google.com/articles/CBMigwFodHRwczovL3d3dy5tb3RoZXJqb25lcy5jb20vZW52aXJvbm1lbnQvMjAyMS8xMC9mb3NzaWwtZnVlbC1pbmR1c3RyeS1zdWJzaWRpZXMtbWlsbGlvbnMtcGVyLW1pbnV0ZS1pbnRlcm5hdGlvbmFsLW1vbmV0YXJ5LWZ1bmQtaW1mL9IBAA?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen>
Mother Jones

——————————————————————————

“A death zone is creeping over the surface of Earth, gaining a little more ground each year. 

“As an analysis published this week in Nature Climate Change shows, since 1980, these temporary hells on Earth have opened up hundreds of times to take life (C. Mora et al. Nature Clim. Change http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3322 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3322>; 2017). 

“The analysis also reveals that even aggressive reductions in emissions will lead the number of deadly heatwaves to soar in the coming decades.”

Nature 546, 452 (22 June 2017) doi:10.1038/546452a

——————————————————————————

Even with current drive to renewables, CO2 emissions will grow through 2050, says U.S. government <https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiELXRb6N0mf2E9e_FMD75d5kqGQgEKhAIACoHCAow2Nb3CjDivdcCMOryngY?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen>
CNBC <https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMNjW9wow4r3XAg?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen>

——————————————————————————

“When collapse-anticipation does get discussed in the mainstream media, even now it is lampooned, or labelled as unhelpful ‘doomism’. In my most recent academic article <https://doi.org/10.9791/ajpanz.2021.05> I analyse the evidence-base of the claims that people who anticipate disruption and collapse are unhelpful for either enabling social change or public mental health. From both a sociological and psychological basis, I conclude those claims are not robust. 

“Therefore, they may reflect the desire of the authors to negatively frame and marginalise people with opinions that make them feel uncomfortable. That’s something worth naming to make it easier to discuss - adaptation delayism <http://iflas.blogspot.com/2021/10/adaptation-delayism-preventing-urgently.html>. The paper is also available in a 1 hour audio format here <https://soundcloud.com/michael-dowd-grace-limits/jem-bendell-psychological-insights-on-discussing-societal-disruption-and-collapse>. 

“Reviewing the paper, the former financial coordinator of Extinction Rebellion (XR), Andrew Medhurst explains how his own acceptance that massive disruption had become inevitable shook him out of his day job <https://andmed.medium.com/contemplating-collapse-should-we-speak-about-it-more-and-if-so-how-b835e32cd13c> and into full time activism. Something similar happened for XR founder member Skeena Rathor, who, yesterday, shared her reflections on a summer of bad climate news. She argues that we need more people in the public eye talking about compassionate responses to disaster, to offer an alternative to the rise of authoritarianism <https://www.resilience.org/stories/2021-10-06/its-meant-to-hurt-allowing-our-feelings-on-climate-will-promote-action-and-reduce-conflict/>. 

“It is an important invitation for the environmental movement to consider,  articulate and uphold key values, as more people in both national and intergovernmental processes wake up to the peril (at COP26 and beyond).”

https://mailchi.mp/deepadaptation/deep-adaptation-quarterly-8?

———————————————————————

How the American Right Lost Its Chance to Get Sane on Climate Change <https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEPn_7UcehMpnaMY65Wkj268qGQgEKhAIACoHCAowi_yDCzDblYADMKD-9QU?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen>
New York Magazine <https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMIv8gwsw25WAAw?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen>

———————————————————————

Millions of Americans say they'd support violence to restore Trump to power <https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiECSlHVrsyygbHSAg3dK3ozoqFAgEKgsIACoFCAowgGAwADDklYsG?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen>
Salon <https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBQgKMIBgMAA?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen>

———————————————————————

GOP lawmaker  : COVID deaths are Vatican plot — and vaccines contain "living organisms with tentacles" <https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEOclm6XNtR-cD035FG_9bj8qFAgEKgsIACoFCAowgGAwADDklYsG?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen>
Salon <https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBQgKMIBgMAA?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen>


GOP Lawmaker Pushes Insane Claim 'Octopus-Like Creatures' Are in Vax <https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEPpVsED-SiJGuex2YfnybkYqFggEKg0IACoGCAow7s8BMNBIMLi-lgc?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen>
The Daily Beast <https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBggKMO7PATDQSA?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen>



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Book review : Under the Sky We Make. Kimberly Nicholas, PhD

Excerpt : Individual responsibility has become something of a flashpoint in the climate discourse. 

On the one hand, oil companies love to harp on about <https://grist.org/energy/footprint-fantasy/> personal carbon footprints as a way of distracting from their much larger contributions to the climate crisis, both through the fossil fuel products they make and their longstanding, ongoing efforts to delay climate action and misinform the public. 

At the same time, prominent journalists and scientists have waved off individual climate actions as a distraction from the systemic changes that are needed to solve the crisis — changes like overhauling our electricity and transit systems through governmental investments in clean energy, better regulation, and carbon pricing. 

They’re joined by a growing chorus of climate justice advocates who rightly point out that asking poor people to make difficult dietary shifts or give up the car they need to get to work is completely unfair.

That’s not what Nicholas is doing. Her message isn’t aimed at folks struggling to make ends meet, but at people making a middle-class income or higher who live in a wealthy country like the United States, Germany, or France. Far from a distraction, Nicholas argues that the climate impact of the carbon elite is something we need to focus on — individually    and systematically. She points out that globally, more than two-thirds of climate pollution can be attributed to household consumption <https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/es803496a>, and that the richest 10 percent of the world population — those making more than $38,000 a year <https://wedocs.unep.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/34432/EGR20ch6.pdf?sequence=3> — is responsible for about half of those emissions. 

https://grist.org/culture/cutting-your-carbon-footprint-matters-a-lot-if-youre-rich/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://bigskynet.org/pipermail/missoula-community-news_bigskynet.org/attachments/20211009/8d67e5a4/attachment.html>