IPCC Policy Summary Report

October 2018, Posted by Wayne Morgenthaler

Keep in mind that this Summary for Policymakers is in itself a dumbed down version of the full report made more palatable for the ruling elite by leaving out many conclusions.

https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/

Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040

New York Times, Oct 2018, Posted by Wayne Morgenthaler

This article, on the release of the IPCC report is basically bad beltway journalism full policy insider quotes, misinformation and dangerous framing. It even contains quotes from coal executives.

The report “is quite a shock, and quite concerning,” said Bill Hare, an author of previous I.P.C.C. reports and a physicist with Climate Analytics, a nonprofit organization. “We were not aware of this just a few years ago.”

Mr. Hare must have had his eye closed as we have known were this goes for 30 years and we did not just find out. Even the Time has shown this in Losing Earth.

Petaluma Activists Gear Up For 'Climate Emergency

Argus Courier, Feb. 2019, Posted by Connie Madden

Matt, wanted to let you know reading your article made our day - and we'll be passing it along to those who came to DRAWDOWN DOWNTOWN, the first of a series to visit each SoCo city.

Big news!  SF is hearing a presentation of Climate Emergency Declaration at 2pm Tues. Jan 26.  its happening all around us and will happen here soon, we believe.

Again, thanks for all you do and more will come from us to you soon...

                     - Yours, Connie Madden

https://www.petaluma360.com/news/9285576-181/petaluma-activists-gear-up-for?sba=AAS  

Full text below:

No Room for Climate Deniers

Petaluma Argus Courier, Feb. 2019, Posted by Connie Madden

Excellent article by Argus Staff.  Whenever this happens it shoud be a call to action for our letters-to-the-editors writers. (we don't have this down yet but will soon.)

https://www.petaluma360.com/opinion/9250339-181/no-room-for-climate-deniers?sba=AAS  

COP24 Climate Protesters Must Get Radical and Challenge Economic Growth

Conversation, December 10, 2018, Posted by Wayne Morgenthaler

Decoupling economic growth from resource extraction is an obvious necessity for a sustainable world.  It is also true that this is the most under-assessed element in the climate emergency debate. The Green New Deal for instance promises jobs, education, healthcare and a better life especially for marginallized communities.  Although we support the initiative, at its core GND is nationalist and hence insufficient to the international challenge.  Truth about growth will eventually immerge but it is indisputable that given our current system we should fully expect a serious lowering of standards of living especially in the first world countries if we are to reduce emissions radically over 5-10 years especially and if we do so in a fair handed way with regards to actually increasing standards of living in the third world.

Wildfires in California pose crisis for human health and air quality, experts say

In local news, GUY KOVNER, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT February 13, 2019, Posted by Jorje

Notice how public officials talk about Climate Change as a fact of life that we can not do anything about. This is another argument for a Climate Change Emergency Declaration

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/9278656-181/wildfires-in-california-pose-crisis

The UN's Devastating Climate Change Report Was Too Optimistic

By Nafeez Ahmed, Medium, Oct 15 2018, Posted by Jorge

Here is again the article "The UN's devastating Climate Change report was too optimistic" that discusses how and why the IPCC Report underestimated the state of Climate Change and proposed changes that, even if implemented, will guarantee an unstoppable Climate Change. Even though it recognizes that the Earth and humanity are in deep trouble regarding Climate Change, it still proposes that there is still more time to pump GHG into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, most governments and non-profits (including the Center For Climate Protection) take the IPPC Report as the ultimate word on the state of Climate Change and solutions. That is why we have seen that almost everybody in Climate Change Action is talking about "making major reductions in GHG emissions within 12 years and stopping all emissions by 2050.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43e8yp/the-uns-devastating-climate-change-report-was-too-optimistic

The Transformative Power Of Climate Truth

Margaret Klein Salamon, Medium, Feb. 2019, Posted by Wayne Morgenthaler

Salamon is founder of Climate Mobilization. Her powerful article "The Transformative Power Of Climate Truth" quotes Philip Sutton (Climate Emergency Declaration - Australia) to summarize the alarming conflict within the Climate Change Action movement:

Over those last 27 years, while all the research, activism and negotiation has been going on, the climate has actually become dangerous. So, the key goal now must be to provide, at the 11th hour, real protection for the vulnerable people, species and ecosystems of the world. The principal struggle must shift, from the clash between no action and some action, to the crucial struggle between those who want to constrain reform to levels that are not too disruptive and those who want action that will provide highly effective and timely protection.

This article is long, detailed and clear thinking

https://medium.com/@margaretkleinsalamon/the-transformative-power-of-climate-truth-6e5622ce84fe 

​It's Possible to Face Climate Horrors and Still Find Hope

MARGARET KLEIN SALAMON, TRUTHOUT, Feb. 2019, Posted by Wayne Morgenthaler

This is an important assessment as we enter the new era of "It is just too late unless we mobilize". People will be asked to sacrifice. The time for talking is past.

For decades, the climate movement suffered from a self-imposed "lead by hope, not fear" dictum, which hindered a real understanding of the crisis. Author David Wallace-Wells broke through that barrier with his New York Magazine article, "The Uninhabitable Earth." In his new book of that name, Wallace-Wells expands the conversation by examining likely outcomes of the climate crisis but fails to discuss a major source of hope: the sudden surge in climate activism, which his article helped catalyze

COP24 climate talks end in agreement -- barely

Katowice, Poland (CNN), Dec. 2018, Posted by Wayne Morgenthaler

COP24 climate change conference in Polish coal country was not a bright spot.  If we are to put our survival as a species in the hand of these rulers perhaps we should think again about who will fix this.  I suggest you read this and the take to the streets.

"We regret what happened last Saturday, but we need to remember it was just a handful of countries that contested this report ... What matters is what you do about it."
The what-to-do-about-it is what concerns Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University in New York. The fight over how to treat the IPCC report, which is regarded as the premier science on this issue, is a massive distraction, he said.

How Regenerative Agriculture Could Be Key to the Green New Deal

Organic Consumer Association, Dec. 2018, Posted by Wayne Morgenthaler

As part of a New Food Deal, we could erase these inequities by shifting land use, investment, and subsidy patterns away from corporate giants and towards regenerative agriculture’s local networks of farmers and food growers. Building food security across the country region-by-region will better address future climate disruption than expecting unresponsive monopolies with cheap food and expensive advertising to do it. Rural economic development has the added benefit of putting a safety net under rural populations maligned and rendered invisible by neoliberal policies and politicians

https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/regenerative-agriculture-green-deal

What a Climate Emergency Act (or Green New Deal) could look like

From Austrailian Climate Mobilization July 2016, Posted by Wayne Morgenthaler

Currently there is no legislation under which Parliament could declare a Climate Emergency and mobilise resources accordingly. The Model Act drafted by Philip Sutton, the 40-page ‘Climate Emergency (Restructuring & Mobilisation) Act’, is an example of the type of legislation that would be required in order to declare a Climate Emergency and establish the mechanisms necessary for an orderly and effective restructuring of the economy.

There has been much talk about the Green New Deal but what will be in it?  I provide this here as a jumping off point for ideas and dream of what could be in our future and to illustrate that this will be the most fundamental shift in human economic in many centuries

http://www.green-innovations.asn.au/RSTI/Climate-Emergency_(Restructuring-&-Mobilisation)-Act_National.pdf

Shell’s vision of a zero carbon world by 2070, explained

From Vox, March 13, 2018, Posted by Wayne Morgenthaler

Shell Oil is dead serious but dead wrong and yet they say “trust us, we are the experts”. I include this here simply as a counter example of the work of fossil fuel vested interest's on climate change -- Shell and others are at the table as a valid stake holder positions in most government agencies including the IPCC and hence influences consensus in those processes and their findings.  Thus the consensus is clearly not unbiased.

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/3/30/17171370/shell-oil-climate-change-carbon-2070

TALKING POINTS ON THE AOC-MARKEY GREEN NEW DEAL (GND) RESOLUTION

​​From The Indigenous Environmental Network, Dec. 2018, Posted by Wayne Morgenthaler

One obvious conclusion in this assessment is that there is just too much opportunity for subsidies for industry including carbon pricing.

The Indigenous Environmental Network applauds the Green New Deal resolution for its vision, intention, and scope. With this resolution, Representative Ocasio-Cortez (Resolution House of Representatives) and Senator Markey (Resolution US Senate) have begun a critical process to change the national conversation in regards to addressing the climate crisis at hand. From sea level rise to loss of land to food insecurities, Indigenous frontline communities and Tribal nations are already experiencing the direct impacts of climate change, and we are encouraged to see these congressional leaders take charge to help Indigenous communities and Tribal nations protect their homelands, rights, sacred sites, waters, air, and bodies from further destruction.

The Climate Emergency and the Election: A Pathway to WWII-Scale Mobilization

From Common Dreams, October 2016, Posted by Wayne Morgenthaler

Our team at Drawdown event

Two years ago before the election of Trump, Ezra Silks from Climate Mobilization wrote this article. It was very critical of the the Americans. He said "We are a broken people, destroyed by our own cynicism, desperate for quick fixes, obsessed with our imagined victim hood and helplessness, and totally at a loss for how to save ourselves."