Green Group discussion

Human-induced weather - we know cities create their own weather patterns, raising the temperature and with more liquid runoff.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/geoengine...

Throwing reflective particles into space each year wouldn't stop, but would slow, the Greenland melt, according to this article.

A sobering article in Scientific American about climate questions in the new decade:

These Are the Biggest Climate Questions for the New Decade

The pressure is always on scientists to be exact. They are the true "conservatives." The sad part is that each new report seems to be more drastic than the last one.

Scientists are no longer are the guardians of anything. They have the same code of silence that corrupts every other organization. At best they are only helping to pick up the pieces of the mess we have all made. Every time I read a statement from a scientist that says it's worse than I thought, that scientist gave up being a true scientist a long time ago. Scientists should be the most observant people and they are not. There are too many blatant clues kicking around on the internet that anyone can read for them to think things are not as bad as they seem. I suppose after Australia finishes burning, we will hear about all the new marvelous economic activities that will be available for people with the resources to utilize them.

The climate deniers - for which, read people making money out of fossil fuel - have been setting bot accounts up to push lies about Australia's bushfires, claiming they are all the work of arsonists.

https://www.ecowatch.com/disinformati...

Fortunately for the rest of the world, journalists and computers can work on these bots and assess pretty well when a real person is doing something and when it's a robot account.

2019 was the second warmest year on record.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/2019-was-...

Reuters tells us the Swedish people are 'flight shaming' and reducing their air travel, particularly domestic flights.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ai...

Just in -
" Authorities sent emergency texts to 240,000 people in Victoria, telling them to leave. People in high-risk regions in New South Wales and South Australia were also urged to think about leaving, but officials did not say how many. "

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-au...

" BlackRock Inc. added its almost $7 trillion heft to a group of investors that’s pressing the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases to change their ways.

The addition of the world’s largest fund manager is a significant milestone for Climate Action 100+, bringing total assets under management by its members to more than $41 trillion. The group already has some notable victories in its campaign of engagement with corporate giants that account for more than two-thirds of global industrial emissions. "

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...

Valencia in Spain is determined to tackle the climate crisis.

https://www.costa-news.com/costa-blan...

Severe Weather in Afghanistan, Pakistan Leaves 43 Dead
Cold weather and heavy snowfalls for areas not accustomed to that type of weather is only going to increase until the climate stabilizes. If the area is acclimated to cold weather events, they will have problems when the precipitation comes down as excessive rainfall. What the weather stabilizes as is anyone's guess at this point in time. Several of the deaths were caused by roofs collapsing from the weight of the snow.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020...

The German engineering firm Siemens decided it has to fulfil contracts with an Australian coal-mining operation.
Despite knowing the harm coal mining is doing to Australia.
https://www.ecowatch.com/siemens-coal...

Last night, Sky News brought us a report that an Antarctic scientist has seen a massive crack a long way up the glacier that forms part of the West Antarctic ice Sheet.

When I typed the WAIS into Google it didn't know what I meant. Maybe we all need to post those initials with the words in lots of places so the computer web crawlers can pick up on them.

https://news.sky.com/story/crack-in-a...

The ocean temperatures held steady until a couple of years ago, because the heat was being sent into the deeps. Now that can't happen so easily anymore and the heat is showing up on the surface.
Warming at the rate of 5 atomic bombs per second.

https://www.theguardian.com/environme...

" The analysis, published in the journal Advances In Atmospheric Sciences, uses ocean data from every available source. Most data is from the 3,800 free-drifting Argo floats dispersed across the oceans, but also from torpedo-like bathythermographs dropped from ships in the past.

The results show heat increasing at an accelerating rate as greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere. The rate from 1987 to 2019 is four and a half times faster than that from 1955 to 1986. The vast majority of oceans regions are showing an increase in thermal energy.

This energy drives bigger storms and more extreme weather, said Abraham: “When the world and the oceans heat up, it changes the way rain falls and evaporates. There’s a general rule of thumb that drier areas are going to become drier and wetter areas are going to become wetter, and rainfall will happen in bigger downbursts.” "

World Economic Forum (WEF) has declared environmental issues as the world’s top long-term risks.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/teen-clim...

" For the first time ever, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has declared environmental issues as the world’s top long-term risks. The international organization isn’t just recognizing the deadly, terrifying climate crisis as a huge global threat, though.....

The Global Risks Report polls hundreds of experts around the world on the biggest threats to the world order. This year’s version lists extreme weather, climate action failure, natural disasters, biodiversity loss, and human-made environmental disasters as the world’s top five risks in terms of likelihood. In recent years, environmental issues have come to make up the majority on this list, but data fraud and cyberattacks have also made the list of risks. But this year’s report shows the world is finally at a point where nothing is more dangerous than the failure to act on climate. "

This extremely distressing consequence of the ocean warming may upset some readers.
Thousands of dead seabirds simply starved to death.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15...

Finally the big companies are waking up to the fact that climate change means losing money.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15...

This article contains an excellent simple graphic with data from NOOA.

Probably best to type it out, West Antarctic Ice sheet, instead of the initials. The testing company that uses the WAIS test has probably locked up the WAIS initials with a lifetime supply of advertising money. For all the good it's done, the type of intelligence it has measured over the last 50 years certainly wasn't the kind that understands the consequences of actions.

This energy drives bigger storms and more extreme weather, said Abraham: “When the world and the oceans heat up, it changes the way rain falls and evaporates. There’s a general rule of thumb that drier areas are going to become drier and wetter areas are going to become wetter, and rainfall will happen in bigger downbursts.” "

Finally the big companies are waking up to the fact that climate change means losing money. The ship has already sunk, sitting on low ground and still the pumps are bailing out water. Time for a new plan. The entire economy needs an "assisted living program" but somehow we still think we can do it on our own.

And now the weather is too big to fit into our box of managed natural resources. Now the question is how massive can the storms become? Thousands of miles wide is not out of the question. That could happen over the oceans but then the water stays in the oceans. Might as well call the weather report, the Godzilla Report.

Young people in Ireland call for us all to treat the earth sustainably.

https://www.independent.ie/news/envir...

Climate change is seen as a major issue they wish to tackle; the same age groups were just told about picking up litter when I was small.

https://www.independent.ie/news/envir...

"Peter Harris, International Sustainability Director with UPS, said the firm would support the idea of having carbon footprint information included in every parcel delivered.

"The trend towards advertisement of free shipping is questionable because there is no such thing as free shipping," he said.

"We think that the customer should be given true and comprehensive information about the impact of the decisions that they're making so that they can be helped to make the right decisions." "

If everything came with a label showing the past, immediate, and suspected long term impacts on the environment, people would have a better idea of what is happening. UPS is more than likely interested in getting rid of the label, "free shipping," for advertising purposes even though they deliver the products advertised as having free shipping. Their overnight and 2 day packages would have huge values if they included the jet fuel used to deliver those packages. They probably write off the fuel as a business expense.

I am sure some packages are delivered by air and then truck on a small individual scale, but Amazon has established a warehouse in Dublin so that many goods are stored here in bulk and shipped locally when purchased.

COP26 - this is from Radio Clyde which runs a podcast and associated press releases.

https://planetradio.co.uk/clyde/local...

Several hundred million pounds are going to be spent on security;

"The Scottish Government has previously said Westminster should pick up the tab, with Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf claiming the UK Government should fund the entire security provision.

It will be the largest summit the UK has held, with up to 200 world leaders expected for the final weekend of talks and around 30,000 delegates in total."

The Glasgow hotel room rates have just risen by 500% for period of COP 26. The Scotsman:

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politic...

From the Sun:
"Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said: "Glasgow has world-class facilities to host a prestigious conference like this, which will also provide a significant boost to the local economy and attract people from across the globe."
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news...

Aye, right.
We're looking at alternatives.

Its a nice idea, see what happens. Meanwhile jacking up prices for everything to make sure you get every last drop is how we got into this mess in the first place. Its more about changing our behavior than about what we are doing. We have to eat, we have to travel unless we are fortunate enough to live, shop, and work in reasonable proximity, we all need shelter, and and infrastructure to connect everything. We need energy and even if we cut back there are 2 billion people who definitely need more of it. Its all about how we do it, not what we are doing.

Viable, affordable solar car.

MethaneSat is a new initiative. They say:

"Reducing emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is the single fastest way to slow the pace of global warming."

https://www.methanesat.org/?fbclid=Iw...

" Sep 23, 2019

MethaneSAT LLC has signed an agreement with Ball Aerospace to design and build the advanced new sensing instrument at the heart of a unique mission to protect the Earth’s climate. The contract, which follows a 10-month competitive process, marks a key milestone in the development of MethaneSAT, a 350kg-class satellite, which will locate and measure methane emissions almost anywhere on Earth. "

The next problem is Then what?

The first judgements on climate refugee court cases are being made.

https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-refu...

"The UN Human Rights Committee ruling started from the case of Ioane Teitiota, who applied for refugee protection from New Zealand, claiming that his life was at risk in his home country of Kiribati, which is predicted to be one of the first countries lost due to sea-level rise, as CNN reported. "

The decision is allow people to claim that if they are immediately threatened is not legally binding which makes it pretty much useless. "It put countries on notice." Big deal, not. Everyone already knows what is happening. Anyone who doesn't believe it is happening or will happen, is not going to be impressed by a non legally binding toothless document.

All the officials can pat themselves on the back for job well done, but that's about it. In response to then what, a team of UN volunteers should be sent to the area and live for a year where the petitioner lives. See if their lives are at stake, threatened, or worse. Since there is a team of people "living" the complaint, they would provide a respective average sampling for the situation. Just having one person might not show the true situation, as one person could slide through unharmed, but a group of 6 people would increase the odds of something happening to one of the group.

Another option would be to pick 6 inhabitants of the area and follow their lives for a year to see what happens. That situation could be made to pay for itself as people like to watch reality programs that follow people through ordinary situations. There are already unorganized collections of documentaries that follow people for a year as they face situations that are out of their control for any number of reasons and impact their living experiences.

Create a channel that lets people living comfortable lives see what is happening now without doing a whole of searching or just happen to stumble across a program while it is being shown. The collected programming might also make it easier for other people in those situations see what is happening to other people in similar situations, again without wasting time searching through all the documentaries.

I tried searching using for "documentary channel about people's lives in peril" but got No results found. Without the quotes, plenty of stuff comes up, but not a lot about people in peril, though a lot of other things in peril. Put in danger and you get different results, more about people but seemingly lacking environmental concerns. Added environmental, "documentary channel about people's lives in danger from environmental" but got little about ordinary people's lives for a year.

By observing we change the outcome. A camera crew might change the life of the people being followed.
The idea is a reasonable one, and you could pitch it to a producer, but they would ask, how many advertisers will like the idea?

I've just got an interesting book for review reading: Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood


Should cover some climate refugees.

I've seen some documentaries of a camera following people around on local Public TV stations that were made by the people themselves. Don't have cable so no easy access to documentary channels. Sometimes the people thought they were heading towards some other goals but something else happens instead, usually a setback, which is probably why it gets attention. The original goal could be anything from weight lifting to getting some sort of assistance.

I think, By observing we change the outcome, is an unintentional way of avoiding the situation. Imagine if every time we saw something out of whack going down we had to step in to help straighten out the situation. Perhaps we might come to realize that the ratio of bad outcome stories to good outcome stories is no where near one to one, and the good outcome is presented more often than it happens so it makes things look better than they are. Which is just another version of real news that promotes fake news.

Federal funding for climate change impacts - but mostly the documents don't want to mention climate change. The NYT read the documents so we don't have to.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/cl...

"Species moving on their own will likely be distinguishable from alien species introduced through global trade and travel."

The emergence of refugee species that are on the move because of climate change is putting the idea of alien species in a whole new light.

Mankind has been a participant in the movement of species from one location to another, resulting the appearance of so called invasive species. There is some disagreement as to why the invasive species are able to get a foothold in the first place.

The entire question of do "invasive" species always need to be removed from their new territories is about to become meaningless. The changing climate has been shifting entire populations of animals, plants and insects into brand new territories. The territory relocating is only going to get bigger and bigger, so the ideas of what can move where has to go out the window.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/native...

Positive plans for changes to how we heat our homes.

https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-frie...

Humans, because we are more populous than ever, are consuming more resources than ever. According to the report presented at Davos this is increasingly unsustainable.

https://www.ecowatch.com/consumption-...

But, we need to get real.
"A recent Oxfam report, for example, found that the average British citizen emits more greenhouse gasses in two weeks than the average citizen of seven different African nations emits in an entire year."

Those would certainly be the most impoverished, deprived nations, in which life expectancy is low for men and lower for women, bad teeth will kill you, water is dirty and carried home, children often die before ten, roads are appalling, nobody leaves the village except men going away to work and they can't communicate with home when they do; and tribal wars can start using any weapons, and people with any disabilities don't stand a chance.

If you want to live there and consume as few resources, be my guest.
I am all for bringing benefits of modern living to deprived nations. And I'm fine with more advanced nations being asked to live more sustainably. We should do both.

We really should to do both if we want to keep the rising temperatures down. Some impoverished people live in jungle or forested areas that are undeveloped and provide a great place to live, except for the lack of modern conveniences that do help people live healthier and better lives.

But a lot of impoverished people are living in areas where the land is being heavily used and the positive effects the land could offer to the total environment are whittled away to becoming negative global effects.

Its like our property lines don't exist and even though we don't own or manage the property past our legal boundary lines, if we don't help take care of the land that isn't ours it will harm us just as surely as if we burned our property to the ground for whatever reason.

For COP26 in Glasgow,


"Within a so-called Blue Zone local law will be suspended and a form of diplomatic immunity will apply.

Police Scotland will have no jurisdiction over the Scottish Events Campus |(SEC) for the 12-day 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) in November.

Officers will be allowed to enter this area only with the agreement of the UN Secretary-General and anyone committing an offence within the zone will not be prosecuted in a Scottish court.

A similar ruling is permanently imposed at various locations around the world used by the UN.

The revelation came yesterday at a meeting of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA).

COP26 will be attended by around 200 world leaders and up to 90,000 other people between Monday, November 9, and Friday, November 20.

It is expected to cost around £200million to police with accommodation costs for police running into “tens of millions of pounds”."

https://infosurhoy.com/news-summary/u...

Food insecurity includes plagues of locusts, swarming due to extra rain across East Africa.

https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2020...

If they were putting up buildings and making other community changes it would seem like the Olympics, a lose lose situation for the local community. Does that mean that the diplomatic immunity covers the 90,000 people or just the 200 leaders, the UN representatives and their entourages.

Planting trees is more successful by involving small farmers.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...

I am sure there is a better way to read this article than the one I saw, but I don't have time to mess around with their cookie notices.

Robert wrote: "If they were putting up buildings and making other community changes it would seem like the Olympics, a lose lose situation for the local community. Does that mean that the diplomatic immunity cove..."

We shall have to see.

Sophie-Luise Karson, a fellow student, has written an excellent article on the climate impact of the music touring industry.

https://creativedbs.squarespace.com/h...

You will probably have to be a member of Squarespace to read it.

"Coldplay is probably the most famous example of artists stepping down from their routine in order to ensure sustainable tours. They won’t tour their new album ‘Everyday Life’ until they will be able to organise a tour that is carbon neutral. Furthermore, lead singer Chris Martin told the BBC that their next tour should not use any single-use plastics and be largely solar-powered. “We're taking time over the next year or two, to work out how our tour can not only be sustainable [but] how can it be actively beneficial.”, Martin told BBC news. "

However, she says the biggest emitter of carbon is the fans' travel to the stadium.

A coastal city in Spain is facing a large repair bill due to storms.

https://www.costa-news.com/latest-new...

In related news, the plan to address climate change - even though it will cost - was announced in Spain.

https://www.costa-news.com/costa-blan...

The easy to get money for repairs is going to dry up very fast as it is only available based on the assumption that it is needed on a random infrequent basis.

There needs to be a global list that shows every week how much storm damage was done and how much has been repaired so far. One hundred percent repaired hasn't been achieved for a long time.

Trump has told New York that they can take their multi billion dollar keep the ocean/storm surge out wall and stuff it down the drain. Ironic how things work.

Thank you, Editor in chief of the Guardian, Katharine Viner. Also Anna Bateson, the acting chief executive, and Hamish Nicklin, the chief revenue officer.

"The Guardian became the first major international newspaper to put an outright ban on accepting money from the fossil fuel industry, citing the industry's "decades-long effort" to subvert, undermine and prevent action to stop the climate crisis, according to The Hill.

The move was announced on Wednesday and went into effect immediately. It is the latest step in the Guardian Media Group's effort to reduce its carbon footprint, according to The Guardian. The Guardian has pledged to get its emissions down to net zero by 2030.

The new policy extends to all its publications, including the newspaper's British edition digital versions in the U.S. and Australia, print editions of The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, and The Guardian's digital apps, as The Hill reported.

"Our decision is based on the decades-long efforts by many in that industry to prevent meaningful climate action by governments around the world," said Anna Bateson, the acting chief executive, and Hamish Nicklin, the chief revenue officer, in a statement on Wednesday.

The Guardian has some of the most robust and comprehensive policies regarding the climate crisis in the newspaper industry. It was one of the first to challenge the nebulous term "climate change" and replace it with language that expresses the urgency of the topic: "climate crisis" and "climate urgency."

"We need to tackle it now, and every day matters," Katharine Viner, the editor in chief, said when the policy on their language became official, as The New York Times reported."

Full story at Ecowatch:
https://www.ecowatch.com/the-guardian...

And if you feel like asking Reuters to follow suit:
https://act.350.org/sign/reuters

Robert wrote: "The easy to get money for repairs is going to dry up very fast as it is only available based on the assumption that it is needed on a random infrequent basis.

There needs to be a global list that ..."

KSR refers to the tyranny of sunk costs in his book New York 2140.

The UK government is getting sued for approving a monster gas-powered station, against the advice of the planning authority which referred to its carbon footprint.

https://www.theguardian.com/environme...