Global warming?

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A wake-up call theory of climate change

Oct 9·4 min read

Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash

Recently within a week of each other China and Europe intensified their commitments on climate change. China surprisingly pledged to become carbon neutral by 2060. Europe undertook new legislation to increase its 2030 emission reduction target to 55%, up from 40%.

At the same time the United States remains on track to leave the Paris Agreement. Ironically, the government calls its policy “America First”. But it is governments that act on climate change that better serve their national interests.

To understand why, it is necessary to distinguish between two ways to see climate change.

One view all too common is of climate change as an isolated problem competing for limited societal resources. This perspective is at the core of the U.S.’s justification for withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. It is also how the issue is treated in basic economics: as an externality in an otherwise optimally functioning system. This framing presupposes that addressing climate change requires sacrifice. It predisposes us to focus on how much it will cost to solve and who will pay.

A better way to see climate change is as a wake-up call. This perspective asks us to reconsider whether the status quo is serving us well in the first place. Are the practices that have led to this moment ones we actually want to continue?

Investigating these question reveals that a low-carbon future is preferable with or without climate change. In many ways, the climate crisis is an opportunity to make changes we know are better for us but have put off for too long.

In 1957, the launch of Sputnik served as a similar wake-up call to Americans. The event signified the nation was losing the space race, falling behind in science, and exposing itself to national security threats like none before.

The following year, the U.S. founded NASA and the Advanced Research Projects Agency, and proceeded to dramatically increase science funding. These decisions not only won the space race, but also contributed to numerous technological advances, including GPS, personal computers, and the internet.

Today the climate crisis represents another opportunity to accelerate innovation. Rising to the challenge would not only mitigate climate change but also create scientific capital with long-lasting benefits. Research broadly suggests that innovation is the single largest contributor to economic growth, so climate policy may boost, rather than reduce, GDP.

The wisdom of the status quo becomes questionable when we consider it through the lens of technological development. Research in this area shows the prominence of fossil fuels has less to do with their desirability than we might otherwise assume and a lot to do with path dependence and network effects. As a result, these old energy sources remain entrenched even though modern alternatives are in many ways superior, a particularly harmful version of the Qwerty Syndrome.

The climate crisis is an opportunity to break such societal habits. Doing so is likely to confer a multitude of benefits.

Switching from coal and gas to wind and solar eliminates the many harmful side effects of the fossil fuel industry. Chief among these is air pollution which is associated with a host of diseases in children and adults, and millions of premature deaths every year. My research, as well as work by other scientists, shows that the benefits of clean air alone justify a transition toward renewables.

A cleaner grid could also reduce consumer bills as a number of recent studies show. This is because clean energy resources such as renewables and energy storage technologies are getting continually cheaper, far more so than traditional technologies. Getting the last bits of carbon out of the system does present a challenge but one which is surmountable.

Financial opportunity also lies in improving the energy efficiency of our homes and cars. California provides a historical example in this regard. The state responded to the 1970s energy crises by enacting smart policy that continues to pay off today.

Electric vehicles and home appliances draw their energy from the grid, which is inherently local. Freedom from fossil fuels decreases dependence on imports and insulates consumers from the volatility of fuel prices. A recent analysis also found that new all-electric homes are cheaper than building with natural gas.

The advantages of a low-carbon economy go beyond energy. Pedestrian-friendly streets promise healthier, thriving urban environments. A low-carbon diet is also healthier. So is more frequent bicycling and walking.

Protecting natural areas is likely to reduce the risk of pandemics like COVID-19. It also preserves “ecosystem services” on which we rely for water purification, erosion control, and dependable precipitation patterns.

How we frame climate change matters. Seeing it as a problem casts the present moment as a tragedy of the commons, which incentivizes countries to maintain course and free ride on efforts by others.

But seeing it as an opportunity turns the commons problem on its head. It shows countries have much to gain from being early movers.

A race is ongoing to determine the winners of the future clean economy. The current U.S. government i

anyone interested
survival paramount now,i geuss
one things for sure
biden wont be any better than trump,you can sort of tekll,theyre not interested

 

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BETTER,THAN SHOOTING THEM,usb pathetic human sub-species animals

Fences Can Cause 'Ecological Meltdown,' Study Finds
Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above,
Don't fence me in.
Cue up Gene Autry or the Andrews Sisters or Bing or Frank Sinatra or even Ella, they all sang about fences. They (the fences, not the singers!) are part of the mythology of America, and these days, part of the politics. Now Mary Jo shows how they are part of our ecosystems, how they "have measurable effects at every ecological scale, with both winners and losers." A fascinating interview.
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How To Design A Green Community
No fences, all open green walkable shared spaces. Fences do not necessarily make good neighbors.
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Your Clothes Are an Agricultural Choice
Every time you acquire an item of clothing, you are making a choice between the biosphere and the lithosphere.
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From Meat to Milk: Impossible Foods Doesn't Stop Innovating
Is this Kosher?
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Link Between Meat and Deforestation Revealed in Short Animated Film
Katherine is all about meat today.
READ MORE

How Beehive Fences Help Elephants and Farmers
Russell describes how to build fences out of bees. This would work on me too.
READ MORE

 

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Despite the plastic and fossil fuel industries’ best efforts, New York’s plastic bag ban lives on.

More than seven months after a statewide law banning most single-use plastic bags technically went into effect, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is now able to enforce it. As of last week, retailers that continue to hand out plastic bags could face fines of up to $500. Paper bags are still allowed, but in some stores come with a 5-cent surcharge.

Enforcement of the law, enacted on March 1, was delayed all summer by a lawsuit brought by — wait for it — a plastic bag manufacturer. In a formal complaint to the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Poly-Pak Industries Inc. claimed that the ban lacked “any sound or rational basis.” The court disagreed, striking down the lawsuit in late August and allowing the ban to move forward. On October 19, bodega workers began settling in to a new, mostly plastic-less normal.

Environmental advocates celebrated the beginning of the enforcement. “It’s going to have a huge impact on the amount of plastic waste we produce,” said Liz Moran, environmental policy director for the New York Public Interest Research Group. Prior to the ban, according to DEC estimates, New Yorkers were going through about 23 billion plastic bags each year.

— Joseph Winters

THE SMOG
Need-to-know basis

California’s devastating wildfire season rages on. Two new blazes in Orange County — the Silverado Fire and the Blue Ridge Fire — nearly doubled in size overnight, injuring firefighters and forcing nearly 91,000 Irvine residents to evacuate. Meanwhile, more than 360,000 Californians have had their power shut off due to “extreme fire weather conditions.”

Hurricane Zeta — the 27th named storm of the season — pummeled Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula late Monday, bringing 80 mile per hour winds and heavy rainfall. It was downgraded to a tropical storm Tuesday morning, but experts predict it will gain strength as it moves north, with landfall along the Gulf coast of the U.S. expected late Wednesday.

According to a new study, long-term exposure to air pollution may be a contributing factor to as many as 15 percent of worldwide COVID-19 deaths. Particles in the air that damage the heart and lungs can lead to “enhanced uptake of the virus,” the researchers said.

— Joseph Winters

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New York state’s plastic bag ban is finally being enforced

Empire State residents used to go through 23 billion plastic bags each year. Not anymore.

Climate justice is at the center of the Biden-Harris plan for tribal nations

The plan promises to “immediately and ambitiously” tackle the unique effects that climate change will have on Indigenous communities.

The Trump administration is burying dozens of studies detailing the promise of renewable energy

“It just goes into a black hole,” said a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Lab.

 

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wondering,just how important everything else in life is going to be'
cant see any govt usa,doing any better/different than the other
unfortunsately,the worls countries,look for leadership,in most things

Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, vowed on Monday to become carbon neutral by 2050 — joining China and the European Union, which have made similar commitments in the past year.

Yoshihide Suga, the country’s new prime minister, made the announcement at his first official policy address. “Responding to climate change is no longer a constraint on economic growth,” Suga, who replaced Shinzo Abe in September, told Japan’s parliament.

The plan, which currently lacks a detailed roadmap, raised eyebrows among the international community, as some questioned whether Japan would be able to transition its economy to renewables and other pollution-free power sources so quickly. The country currently gets more than a third of its electricity generation from burning coal. It’s also the third-largest oil consumer in the world, after the U.S. and China.

According to analysis from the International Energy Agency, Japan would have to quadruple the pace at which it is retiring coal plants in order to hit the 2050 target. The country would also likely have to ramp up the use of nuclear power, which has shrunk dramatically since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011.

This is all possible — but Japan will have to put its money where its mouth is. The island nation currently plans to get about quarter of its power from coal in 2030, a discouraging sign.

— Shannon Osaka

THE SMOG
Need-to-know basis

The Arctic Ocean’s frozen methane deposits are starting to thaw and be released into the atmosphere, according to a team of international scientists. They observed bubbles of the potent greenhouse gas rising from the sediment off the eastern coast of Siberia, raising fears that a key tipping point for global warming has been activated.

The Trump administration continues to undermine climate science at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Last month, the agency’s chief scientist was removed, and a new team of political staffers have questioned the science of climate change. Now, the installation of climate denier David Legates as a top manager has prompted concerns that the agency’s climate mission is “under attack.”

Hurricane Zeta, which weakened into a tropical storm on Tuesday, is gaining strength as it approaches the northern U.S. Gulf Coast. Forecasters say it could make landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi late Wednesday as a Category 2 hurricane, bringing “life-threatening” storm surge flooding to the two states’ coastlines and causing power outages throughout the South.

— Joseph Winters

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These youth climate activists are voting — and think you should, too

First-time voters Jerome Foster II, Delaney Reynolds, and Jamie Margolin on why the youth climate vote could help decide the presidential election.

Climate change is on the ballot in 7 cities and states

Here's where.

Introducing Temperature Check: Grist’s new podcast

Grist's Andrew Simon hosts Temperature Check, a new weekly podcast about climate, race, and culture.

 

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Thursday, October 29, 2020

Scientists Discover Massive Coral Reef Taller Than Empire State Building

Deadly Hurricane Zeta Breaks Records as Fifth Named Storm to Hit Louisiana

Dicamba Weed Killer Linked to Cancer Is Reapproved by EPA

New Report Shows Banks Loaned $2.6 Trillion Linked to Biodiversity Loss in 2019

Sea Ice Still Hasn't Formed off of Siberia and Scientists Are Worried

As U.S. Election Nears, Polling Shows 82 Percent of Voters Support 100 Percent Clean Energy Transition

 

[rbkwp]

keep the faith,likely many wont,thinkinmg authorities willb be worse

because they can/will

It’s Thursday, October 29, and South Korea is the latest country to promise to go carbon neutral by 2050.

Last month, China pledged to zero out its carbon emissions by 2060. Earlier this week, Japan promised to do the same by 2050. Now, South Korea has jumped on the net-zero bandwagon, pledging to become carbon neutral by 2050.

“Together with the international community, we will actively respond to climate change and target carbon neutrality by 2050,” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a speech on Wednesday.

The path to carbon neutrality for the country includes putting more than 1 million electric vehicles and about 200,000 hydrogen cars on the road by 2025. Moon’s plan also includes creating urban forests, boosting recycling, and remodeling public buildings to run on renewable energy.

Moon was reelected in April on a platform that included a Green New Deal to slash emissions and create jobs. Moon unveiled the details of his $35 billion Green New Deal in July, but that proposal fell short of setting a deadline for phasing out emissions.

Currently, South Korea generates less than 6 percentof its electricity from renewable sources and 40 percent from coal. The country declared pollution a “social disaster” last year, and youth activists sued the South Korean government for inaction on climate change in March.

— Angely Mercado

THE SMOG
Need-to-know basis

Hurricane Zeta made landfall as a Category 2 storm about 65 miles southwest of New Orleans on Wednesday afternoon, packing maximum sustained winds of 110 miles per hour. The storm killed three people and knocked out power for more than 2.5 million people in Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama.

On Thursday, the Trump administration officially opened the door to logging and road construction in 9 million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. Alaskans largely opposed eliminating Clinton-era protections for the nation’s largest national forest, but Alaskan elected officials have been needling the federal government to lift restrictions on Tongass for years.

A study published this week in Science Advances contradicts the long-held assumption that a sturdy layer of permafrost underpins much of Alaska. The study found that there’s hardly any permafrost under the seafloor on the state’s northeastern coast, which means that the permafrost that is there could melt, and release its carbon into the atmosphere, much faster than previously assumed.

—Zoya Teirstein

MORE GRIST FOR YOUR MILL

Next week, the US leaves the Paris Agreement. How do we get back in?

Even if Biden wins, rejoining Paris won't be easy.

I am having trouble thinking about next week and not losing my mind

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This year is proving to be a transformative one for public transportation, despite more Americans staying at home.

Why is Michael Bloomberg giving $2.6 million to elect a railroad commissioner in Texas?

Hint: It's not about trains. “The most important climate election in the nation” may be at stake.

Support Grist’s work

Donate to Grist

 

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FEATURED

Philanthropist Wendy Schmidt: ‘Solutions are always local’ by Rhett A. Butler[10/29/2020]

- Coming from respective backgrounds of design and technology, Wendy Schmidt and her husband, Eric, are the driving force behind some of the charitable organizations and investment vehicles working to address the challenges of climate change, clean energy, ocean health, and more.
- Wendy Schmidt says they bring a systems-thinking approach to these challenges, to allow stakeholders to see connections that may not be obvious on the surface and work toward more resilient solutions.
- “Humans need to develop new systems that work in harmony with the natural world, that are resilient in the face of a changing planet,” she says.
- In this interview with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler, Schmidt advocates for the role of technology, but also explains why the idea that technology can be “scaled” to meet any challenge is problematic.


Breaking: Deaths of 2 more Indonesian crew uncovered on board Chinese tuna fleet by Basten Gokkon, Philip Jacobson [10/29/2020]

- Official documents show the deaths of two Indonesian crew members of a Chinese fishing fleet went unreported amid an outcry over the deaths of four other men and allegations of forced labor and illegal fishing.
- Saleh Anakota, 22, died on Aug. 10, three months after the deaths of four of his compatriots aboard the same boat, the Long Xing 629, drew international condemnation; Rudi Ardianto, 30, died on Aug. 8 aboard another boat, the Tian Xiang 16, in the same fleet.
- Both deaths, attributed to an unknown “sickness,” are mentioned in Indonesian Foreign Ministry documents seen by Mongabay.
- The documents also show Indonesia and China are working to bring home 155 Indonesian crew members from the Long Xing 629 and 11 other vessels owned by Dalian Ocean Fishing (DOF), a major Chinese tuna-fishing company that supplies Japanese and Chinese markets.


2020 fires endangering uncontacted Amazon Indigenous groups by Liz Kimbrough [10/28/2020]

- Amazon fires this year are seriously threatening Indigenous territories in which isolated uncontacted Indigenous groups make their homes. Brazil has an estimated 100+ isolated Indigenous groups living within its borders, more than any other Amazonian nation.
- Particularly threatened by fires in 2020 are the isolated Ãwa people who live on Bananal Island in Tocantins state; the uncontacted Awá inhabiting the Arariboia Indigenous Reserve in Maranhão state; and uncontacted groups in the Uru Eu Wau Wau Indigenous territory in Rondônia and Ituna Itatá Indigenous territory in Pará, the Brazilian state with the highest deforestation and land conflicts rates.
- All of these Indigenous territories are under intense pressure from land grabbers, illegal loggers and ranchers, with many of this year’s fires thought to have been set intentionally as a means of converting protected rainforest to pasture and cropland.
- Meanwhile, the Jair Bolsonaro government has hobbled IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, defunding it and preventing it from fighting fires, causing one critic to accuse the administration of having “waged war against Indigenous peoples” and of “an ongoing genocide.”


American Forests CEO Jad Daley: ‘We are one nation under trees’ by Rhett A. Butler [10/28/2020]

- For nearly 150 years, the group American Forests has been at the forefront of efforts to protect woodlands across the U.S., institute sustainable forestry management, and, more recently, mitigate against increasingly severe wildfires.
- Its president and CEO, Jad Daley, says forests remain a viable solution to contemporary problems ranging from the pandemic-induced economic crisis to social injustice to climate change.
- Investing in forest restoration and urban forestry generates jobs, Daley says, while also contributing to carbon sequestration and providing sustainable timber.
- In this interview with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler, Daley says he wants the forest movement to be “a place that feels relevant and welcoming for everyone.”


‘Potentially lethal’ police assault on Indigenous Papuan man was caught on camera by The Gecko Project and Mongabay [10/27/2020]

- Marius Betera was allegedly assaulted by a police officer in May in Papua, Indonesia. Though he died some two hours later, authorities moved quickly to attribute his death to a heart attack.
- Mongabay and The Gecko Project have learned that the alleged assault was caught on CCTV camera belonging to a palm oil company, the Korindo Group. The video has yet to be released to the public.
- Indonesian police and the National Commission on Human Rights have cited a post-mortem report to dismiss the possibility that Marius’ death was linked to the assault, but a forensic pathologist points to a “realistic possibility” of a connection.


Amazon botanist Sir Ghillean Prance: ‘The environmental crisis is a moral one’by Rhett A. Butler [10/27/2020]

- Sir Ghillean Prance first visited the Amazon in 1963 as a budding botanist, going on to describe more than 200 plant species and becoming a leading expert on the rainforest’s flora.
- But his studies coincided with a period of massive deforestation, prompting him to turn his focus toward generating data that would help inform more sustainable practices.
- Devoutly religious, Prance says Christians have a duty of care for “the creation on which our future depends.”
- In this interview with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler, Prance calls the ongoing environmental crisis “a moral, religious and ethical one.”


Despite COVID, political divides, conservation can advance: Hansjörg Wyss byRhett A. Butler [10/26/2020]

- 2020 was supposed to be the year that the world assessed progress on a decade’s worth of effort to stave off the sixth mass extinction and set ambitious new targets for conservation. But the COVID-19 pandemic intervened, leading to postponement of key high-level meetings.
- Nonetheless, conservationists have continued to press forward with initiatives aiming to preserve habitat for wildlife, including the “30×30” target, which aims to conserve 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030.
- One of the biggest champions for the 30×30 goal is the Wyss Campaign for Nature, which launched two years ago thanks to a billion dollar commitment from Hansjörg Wyss, a medical device entrepreneur and philanthropist. Since its inception, the Wyss Campaign for Nature has put more that $350 million into projects that have protected nearly 18 million acres of land and over 160,000 square kilometers of the ocean.
- Wyss talked about the campaign, the impact of COVID on biodiversity conservation goals, and broad public support for wild places and wildlife during an October 2020 interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.


Camila Chindoy, the Indigenous daughter poised to lead her Amazon communityby Nicolas Bustamante Hernandez [10/22/2020]

- Her mother previously served as governor of the reserve; if Chindoy is elected, community leaders and supporters say, it will be thanks to her selfless commitment to bettering the lives of the residents while being a responsible steward of the environment.
- Chindoy currently leads the reserve’s team in charge of implementing a territorial environmental management plan, a road map for the sustainable use of resources in the reserve.
- If elected, the 25-year-old would be one of the youngest matriarchs of her reserve.


FEATURED VIDEO

Mongabay Explains: How does palm oil affect communities living nearby?
Travel alongside journalists and watch the latest news from nature's frontline by subscribing to Mongabay's YouTube channel.
Subscribe Now

 

[ActionBuddy]

Analysis | The Energy 202: Biden seeks youth vote on climate change with animated ad on Adult Swim
By Dino Grandoni/Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...h-climate-change-with-animated-ad-adult-swim/

Trump to strip protections from Tongass National Forest, one of the biggest intact temperate rainforests
By Juliet Eilperin

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/10/28/trump-tongass-national-forest-alaska/

VOTE!

A/B

 

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Monday, October 26, 2020

Zeta, Earliest 27th Named Storm on Record, Could Hit Gulf Coast as a Hurricane

While We Focus on COVID-19, Trump’s EPA Is Quietly Killing Us

Pandemic Threatens Food Security for Many College Students

How Air Pollution, Food Delivery and Plastic Waste Are Connected

Will a $26M Robot Dolphin Replace Captive Animals in Aquariums and Theme Parks?

World's Largest Solar Farm in Australia Will Also Supply 20% of Singapore's Electricity

 

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Analysis | The Energy 202: Biden seeks youth vote on climate change with animated ad on Adult Swim
VOTE!

A/B

COOL,YOU FOLK
LOVE YOUR ENCOURAGEMENT TO VOTE
think they /some need to be encouraged

admit i neveer last week,only because i was confident enough not to
plus we are different here

 

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CLIMATE HOME NEWS

Coal peaked long ago in the west, but continued to hold out growth prospects in Asia. This week was a turning point.

With Japan and South Korea pledging to reach net zero emissions by 2050, a coal phaseout is the logical next step – along with an end to their substantial financing of coal plants abroad.

Meanwhile the Philippines declared a moratorium on new coal plants, affecting some 8GW of planned capacity.

Australia looks increasingly isolated, with prime minister Scott Morrison insisting coal exports will not be affected and refusing to join the net zero club.

While hundreds of coal plants are still in planning worldwide, with a shrinking number of financial institutions willing to back them, many are likely to be scrapped. Joe Lo asked the experts: who will build the world’s last coal plant? Place your bets.

This week’s stories

• Asian net zero wave leaves Australia’s Scott Morrison isolated
• UK negotiator: Countries must resolve carbon market dispute to step up ambition
• EU tries to stop fossil fuel companies suing states over climate action
• South Korea formally commits to cutting emissions to net zero by 2050
• Philippines declares moratorium on new coal power plants
• Who will build the world’s last coal plant?
• Vietnam braces for Typhoon Molave, in worst tropical storm season for decades
• Japan net zero emissions pledge puts coal in the spotlight
• Mayan communities are suing the Mexican government over a million solar panel megaproject

*** Insights from the We Mean Business Coalition: Green recovery plans boost income, employment and GDP

New analysis from Cambridge Econometrics and the We Mean Business coalition shows that green recovery plans boost income, employment and GDP better than return-to-normal stimulus measures, with the added benefit of reducing emissions. As part of the research, recovery plans were modelled globally and for the EU, Germany, Poland, Spain, the UK, US, Japan and India. Learn about the key findings of the report here. ***

Relentless storms

For a reminder of why it matters, look to central Vietnam, where scores of people have died in flooding and landslides, amid the worst series of storms in decades.

Typhoon Molave hit the coast as a category three storm, following three others in as many weeks.

Global warming is making storms wetter and more intense, and experts say the geography of the region makes it particularly hard to adapt.

Your move, America

In case it needs saying, Climate Home backs Joe Biden for US president. You know, the candidate who accepts climate science and has a plan to address the crisis.

If, as we dare to hope based on the polls, Biden wins next week’s election, he has his work cut out to restore US credibility on the world stage.

In the event of another four years of Donald Trump, there may be a crumb of comfort in this journal article, which argues free-riding is not as big a drag on climate action as commonly assumed. Discuss.

 

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keep ocenic/the planet alive HAKAI,NO ONE ELSE WIL RE POLITICIANS

Where Wolf, Which House, and Bottles of Blood

Larry Pynn is one of the finest reporters I know. He’s also one of the most gracious. When news outlets reported that Takaya—the celebrity lone wolf that lived on Vancouver Island, British Columbia—had died, Larry knew there was a story there. He could see that so many details—and nuance—were missing from the reports. But before pitching he reached out to Hakai Magazine writer, J. B. MacKinnon.

J. B. had written a story for us about another wolf that had become too comfortable around humans and their dogs. The Takaya story was a natural sequel to MacKinnon’s “Death of a Modern Wolf.” Larry checked with J. B. to see if he planned on writing a follow-up article. J. B. was deep into another project, so Larry pitched us the idea.

“The Lone Wolf That Was Loved to Death” offers readers a clear-eyed assessment of an ongoing problem: conflicting attitudes toward wildlife. Wild animals are the ultimate losers in a culture where it’s okay to both habituate and hunt them. As the animal with the most robust sense of foresight, we’re also remarkably myopic.

Jude Isabella
Editor in chief



This Week’s Stories

The Lone Wolf That Was Loved to Death

The question of who killed Takaya, British Columbia’s famous solitary wolf, goes far beyond who pulled the trigger.

by Larry Pynn • 4,000 words / 20 mins

Coastal Job: Sea Turtle Protector

Not long ago, Doyinsola Ogunye didn’t know Nigeria had sea turtles—now she’s their most dedicated savior.

as told to Wana Udobang • 600 words / 3 mins

Researchers See Signs of Chronic Stress in Polar Bears’ Blood

Abnormally long fasts linked to melting sea ice may be pushing polar bears to their limits.

by Katarina Zimmer • 550 words / 2 mins

Designing a House Fit for a Fish

By exposing fish to experimental constructions, scientists hope to find out what they really want in a home.

by Emily Cataneo • 700 words / 3 mins

When Deinosuchus Ruled the Earth

As long as T. rex but twice as heavy, this ancient alligator makes for terrifying nightmares. Now, a new study reveals there wasn’t just one Deinosuchus species, but three.

by Riley Black • 650 words / 3 mins




What We’re Reading

Stopping plastic trash from washing into the ocean often starts far inland, where it’s hard to convince people to care about coastal concerns. But a push in Cheyenne, Wyoming, to get rid of plastic pollution has found traction among some ranchers, in part because plastic trash can also wreak havoc on cattle if ingested. (Sierra Magazine)

If you’re over news coverage of election rhetoric or pandemic panic, here are some galloping sea stars. (KQED)

In 2016, the United Nations Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources protected a huge swath of Antarctica’s Ross Sea from commercial fishing. Now, it’s considering creating three new marine protected areas that would span four million square kilometers in the Southern Ocean. But given their fishing interests in the region, will Russia and China support the proposals? (Hakai Magazine, Mongabay)

Kidnappings in the Gulf of Guinea are up 40 percent this year, making the waters off West Africa the epicenter of global maritime abductions. Victims range from fishers to cargo ship crews to oil rig workers, and many of the pirates hail from Nigeria’s oil-and-gas-producing Niger Delta, which has seen recent economic downturns. (Reuters)

British Columbia’s got a lot of seafood on ice—over 1.36 million kilograms of spot prawns, to be exact. The province’s prawn fishers have put much of this year’s catch in cold storage after demand from China, their biggest buyer, was cratered by COVID-19. (Northern View)

Hear how one of the first women to work on an offshore oil rig in Mexico navigated relationships with coworkers, networked with other women, and supported her family. (Narratively)

Understanding all of the complexities of Pacific salmon in British Columbia is, well, complicated. But help is at hand. The Pacific Salmon Foundation has launched an online data visualization portal that takes users deep into the province’s salmon stocks. The Pacific Salmon Explorer provides data on runs, counts, stocks, and threats, broken out by region and watershed. (Prince George Citizen)

After years of locals raising concerns, there’s legislation on the table to ban freighters from anchoring off British Columbia’s Gulf Islands. (Hakai Magazine, Vancouver Sun)

For decades, the Montrose Chemical Company in Los Angeles, California, regularly dumped barrels of sludge from their DDT manufacturing plant into the ocean. Those barrels of the now-banned chemical are still down there, and they’re leaking. (Los Angeles Times)

Behind the Story

Larry Pynn, the author of “The Lone Wolf That Was Loved to Death,” seen here on a logging road close to where Takaya the wolf was shot, on the culture of cougar hunting in British Columbia.

When I began to investigate the death of Takaya, the lone wolf of British Columbia’s Discovery and Chatham Islands, I didn’t expect to be drawn into the shadowy world of cougar hunting. But that’s exactly where Takaya’s trail led me.

Turns out that a cougar hunter lost his hounds on a private logging road west of Shawnigan Lake. It happens; hounds outpace their masters, and can be so driven in pursuit of their prey that their owners lose them for days.

So a friend of the dogs’ owner—a cougar hunter himself—went out looking for the hounds. When he happened upon Takaya, he shot the wolf—a kill of opportunity.

Cougar hunters are a close-knit community, and members can be reluctant to talk publicly about their activities. The man who owned the hounds in this case declined to speak with me.

I went on to discover that cougar hunts occur in winter when it is easier to spot tracks. Hounds are released to follow a cougar’s scent, eventually leading it to climb a tree for safety. When the hunter shows up, he shoots the cougar—a proverbial fish in a barrel.

As you can imagine, the sport can be controversial. California banned cougar hunting in 1990, though scores of the animal continue to be shot for preying on livestock and pets.

Since 2018, cougar hunters in British Columbia have been required to remove certain edible parts of the kill. That doesn’t change the fact that cougars are primarily hunted as trophies. The annual bag limit is two per hunter.

Most people will never see a cougar—or a wolf, for that matter—which make the details of Takaya’s life and death all the more remarkable.

Hear more about Pynn’s investigation on our YouTube channel.



A Bit of Fun, Just for the Halibut

by Liz Climo • thelittleworldofliz.com • www.facebook.com/LizClimo

 

[rbkwp]

allowing ourslves a Halloween joke,for this weekend

How can we tackle climate change, kick our fossil fuel habit, and create millions of jobs — and do it all on the cheap? A new initiative with U.N. bona fides shows the way.

The Zero Carbon Action Plan (ZCAP) — released on Tuesday by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, a group of academics, policy wonks, and other experts led by Jeffrey Sachs — is a how-to guide for the low-carbon energy transition. In 315 pages (excluding endnotes!), it draws an exceedingly thorough roadmap to help the United States meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and zero out its carbon emissions by 2050. The best part? The plan would only cost 0.4 percent more of the country’s gross domestic product than sticking with the fossil fuel–powered status quo — and it would create 2.5 million new jobs by midcentury.

ZCAP’s strategy is based on four key pillars: increasing energy efficiency, decarbonizing electricity, phasing out fossil fuels, and implementing carbon capture and storage. It includes recommendations for the federal government but also gets quite granular, with a suite of recommendations for states and municipalities (e.g., start retrofitting older buildings).

Of course, ZCAP’s future hinges on the outcome of the election. The authors hope that a future administration will incorporate ZCAP’s ideas into its climate plan, but how likely that is depends on Tuesday’s victor.

— Joseph Winters

The Smog
Need-to-know basis

Gray wolves are no longer protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Trump administration announced Thursday that management of the species would be transferred to states and tribes, a move that could allow wolf hunting to resume in key battleground states that Trump hopes to win on Tuesday, including Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

After battering coastal Louisiana with 110 mile per hour winds, Hurricane Zeta left widespread destruction throughout the Southeast — including at least six deaths and ongoing power outages for some 2 million people. The outages have raised concerns about voting logistics ahead of Election Day.

Even as extreme weather events become stronger and more frequent, cities and states are failing to insure public buildings against these disasters. According to a new report from the Rand Corporation, officials tend to rely on the promise of repair funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency rather than invest in climate adaptation and resiliency for the long term.

— Joseph Winters

More Grist for your mill

Listen: What Wakanda can teach us about climate change

Find out what Wakanda has to do with climate change in the first episode of Temperature Check, Grist’s new podcast on climate, race, and culture.

Can you save the earth after Election 2020? Play this game and find out.

Find the path to crafting a climate bill -- no matter who wins the election

Could this ‘army of environmental super voters’ sway swing states?

Exclusive data shows a surge of climate-conscious voters turning out in Arizona, Florida, and other key states.

In a boon for the climate, philanthropists are making it rain for cleantech innovators

Securing funding for market-based climate solutions used to be a tough sell. Then Sarah Kearney stepped in.

Can climate change win Florida Latinos for Biden?

A fusion of bread-and-butter issues with environmental messaging could sway enough Latinos to secure a Biden victory.

Support Grist’s work

 

[ActionBuddy]

Trump rolled back more than 125 environmental safeguards. Here’s how.
The administration has allowed more pollution, drilling and logging
while weakening protections for animals such as bees, bears and birds

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/climate-environment/trump-climate-environment-protections/?

A/B

 

[rbkwp]

will always be nasty countries lead by nasty uncaring leaders
how can they justify culture,in this age
would think survival of all,more appropriate
not sorry for you Japan or Norway

PHOTOGRAPH BY SIGTRYGGUR JOHANNSSON, REUTERS
Commercial whaling may be over in Iceland
Citing the pandemic, whale watching, and a lack of exports, one of the three largest whaling countries may be calling it quits.

READ MORE

 

[rbkwp]

Joe Biden makes a final pitch to Americans in 2 new climate ads

It’s officially the 11th hour -- the candidates’ final opportunity to relay their thesis statements to voters.

Voter suppression is a climate justice issue — and 2020 is the tipping point

It’s going to take everyone to address the systemic racism that enables voter suppression tactics.
Listen: What Wakanda can teach us about climate change

Find out what Wakanda has to do with climate change in the first episode of Temperature Check, Grist’s new podcast on climate, race, and culture.

Can you pass climate legislation in post-election America?

Find the path to crafting a climate policy -- no matter who wins the election

Could this ‘army of environmental super voters’ sway swing states?

Exclusive data shows a surge of climate-conscious voters turning out in Arizona, Florida, and other key states.

Dig it? If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here.

In a boon for the climate, philanthropists are making it rain for cleantech innovators

Securing funding for market-based climate solutions used to be a tough sell. Then Sarah Kearney stepped in.

Can climate change win Florida Latinos for Biden?

A fusion of bread-and-butter issues with environmental messaging could sway enough Latinos to secure a Biden victory.


Saturday, October 31, 2020

U.S. Coronavirus Case Count Passes 9 Million

NASA Spacecraft Successfully Collects Asteroid Samples

In 'Road Map for a More Sustainable Future,' NY Regulator Tells Banks to Consider Climate Risks in Planning

Exxon to Slash 14,000 Jobs Worldwide as Oil Demand Drops

Ogre-Faced Spiders Can Hear With Their Legs, Study Finds

 

[rbkwp]

NEWS OF THE DAY
Thursday, October 22, 2020

This Beetle Can Survive Being Run Over by a Car. Could It Lead to Crash-Proof Human Designs?

Air Pollution Responsible for Over 6.6 Million Deaths Worldwide in 2020, Study Finds

Promise or Peril? Importing Hydropower to Fuel the Clean Energy Transition

House Democrats Introduce Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act

Dogs Detect Coronavirus Fast and Reliably — Why Not Use Them Everywhere?

CO2 Emissions Caused Earth’s Largest Mass Extinction, Study Confirms

How did we get here? Four years of climate change in eight minutes

One presidential term, as told through climate change.

The cheapest climate solution? Return half of the planet to nature, this scientist says.

Visionary conservationist Eric Dinerstein on why a bold proposal to protect half the earth’s landmass is totally doable.

More indigenous land victories like ours will cool the warming planet

"When communities like mine get full rights to our forests, we protect them, preserve huge stores of carbon, and help mitigate climate change."

Tackling climate change seemed expensive. Then COVID happened.

A new study finds that just one-tenth of COVID stimulus spending would be enough to limit global warming.

Dig it? If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here.

With the world on fire, climate fiction no longer looks like fantasy

Cli-fi got studied, and it looks like you book nerds were onto something.

The biggest fight over cap and trade isn’t about what you think it is

Did California's landmark legislation help or hurt the state's most vulnerable?

 

[rbkwp]

The Plastic Myth and the Misunderstood Triangle

Mysterious Oil Spill Spreads Along 11 Miles of Delaware Beach

This White Paint Could Reduce the Need for Air Conditioning

How Air Pollution, Food Delivery and Plastic Waste Are Connected

Only 366 Endangered Right Whales Are Alive: New NOAA Report

Exxon to Slash 14,000 Jobs Worldwide as Oil Demand Drops

14-Year-Old Girl Wins $25,000 for Work on Possible COVID Cure

‘My Octopus Teacher’ Stuns Audiences, Reinforces Power of Nature

Turtle Doves: Bringing Back the UK's Fastest Declining Bird

While We Focus on COVID-19, Trump’s EPA Is Quietly Killing Us

 

[rbkwp]

Meet Germany's 'bee-master' from Sierra Leone
In response to restrictive COVID-19 measures, a Sierra Leonean man in Germany's Bad Belzig has become a beekeeper — and won the hearts of the townsfolk. He has already turned his venture into a sweet success.

who says immigrants/refugees dont have a place in other countries

 

[rbkwp]

have a feeling thee wikl be absolutely no changesv re GW/CC if dems get in


It’s Tuesday, November 3, and environmentalists are flocking to the polls.

Take a deep breath. It’s Election Day.

Almost 100 million Americans cast their votes early in one of the most consequential elections in a generation. One group in particular has turned out in droves: voters who care a whole lot about climate and the environment.

According to data from the nonpartisan Environmental Voter Project, almost 580,000 ballots already cast in key swing states have come from first-time or infrequent voters likely to identify climate or the environment as their number one election priority.

In Florida alone, 198,000 previously disengaged environmentalists have voted; Trump won that state in 2016 by around 131,000 votes. In Pennsylvania, which Trump won by 44,000 votes, more than 51,000 environmentalists who rarely or never vote have already turned out.

“These numbers are starting to get too big to ignore,” said Nathaniel Stinnett, the Environmental Voter Project’s founder and director (and a member of the 2016 Grist 50). “It’s the cresting of a green wave.”

The group maintains a database of voters who, based on polling and modeling, it considers likely to put the environment or climate change as their top priority — but who neglect to vote in most elections. Volunteers drop off flyers, send text messages, or knock on doors, encouraging people to vote without ever mentioning the environment.

“If we start showing up,” Stinnett said, “it will be impossible to stop the climate movement.”

— Shannon Osaka

THE SMOG
Need-to-know basis

Violent, 145 mile-per-hour winds from Hurricane Eta, the 28th named storm of Atlantic hurricane season, began wreaking havoc in Nicaragua on Tuesday morning, pulling roofs off of houses and knocking down trees. The National Hurricane Center expects the slow-moving storm to continue battering Central America through Friday, delivering up to 3 feet of rain and a storm surge of up to 21 feet.

A new study looking at “plumbing poverty” found that more than 1 million people in America lack a piped water connection in their homes, with the majority of these households located in major cities like New York and Los Angeles. The researchers also found that households headed by people of color are almost 35 percent more likely to lack indoor plumbing than white, non-Hispanic households.

There was back-patting and self-congratulation when President Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act, a major conservation bill, back in August. But Trump’s Interior Department has missed a key deadline to comply with it. The agency was supposed to submit a list of priority projects for the new $900 million fund by November 2, but the list is nowhere to be found, and officials did not say why or when it would be submitted.

— Emily Pontecorvo

MORE GRIST FOR YOUR MILL

Moby Dick is a perfect parable for what’s at stake in the 2020 election

Can the United States uphold its democratic values?

In swing states, Biden voters have climate anxiety. Trump voters don’t.

11th-hour polling found that concerns about extreme heat and flooding are deeply polarized.

Shell’s Twitter fail: We want YOU to solve climate change!

Oil companies love hearing about your plans to save the planet.

Typhoon Goni: The year’s strongest storm slams into the Philippines

"This is the human face of climate change."

Which countries are responsible for all that ocean plastic?

A new study gives the U.S. the bronze medal.