TICK TOCK THE CLIMATE CLOCK PART TWENTY-FOUR

We haven’t talked about the elephant in the room for a while, and I don't mean the Republican Party.  I’m talking about the climate crisis.  So here's what's been happening on that front since we last took a look.  By the way, the man pictured above is cleaning oil off a crab he caught in Lake Maracaibo, from which it will be exported to the US.  More on that below.

Serves 'Em Right!  Right-wing majority parties in the Veneto regional council in Italy rejected amendments to fight the climate crisis in the 2020 budget proposed by the center-left Democratic party.  Moments later their offices on the Grand Canal in Venice were flooded with sea water.  Flooding topped six feet above sea level in Venice, the highest recorded since 1966.

Sail Away, Sail Away.  On November 4, President Trump submitted the paperwork to officially withdraw the United States from the Paris agreement on climate change, which every other country on Earth has signed.  The withdrawal is effective November 4, 2020.  That’s the day after the 2020 election.  Get it?  Then get out and vote!

Another Leak!  At the end of October, the Keystone XL Pipeline experienced a leak of at least 383,000 gallons of crude oil in North Dakota.  “Some wetlands” were damaged, but not drinking water.  That’s supposed to be comforting, I guess.  It’s not the first leak, either, and it won’t be the last.  In 2011, 14,000 gallons of crude spilled onto South Dakota at the North Dakota border.  And in 2017, South Dakota was again blackened by 210,000 gallons of crude spilling onto agricultural land.  Yum!

What’s That Smell?!  Siberia has warmed by more than 3° Celsius since pre-industrial times, almost triple the global average.  The permafrost is melting, causing structural damage to buildings, making land unsuitable for farming and grazing, and exposing animals and plants frozen for thousands of years.  As they decompose, they send carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.  And they smell like rotting flesh.

Is That the Smell of Money?  Per The Guardian:  

The governor of the Bank of England has warned that the global financial system is backing carbon-producing projects that will raise the temperature of the planet by over 4C – more than double the pledge to limit increases to well below 2C contained in the Paris Agreement.

And Speaking of Money… Qatar is a small country with a big pile of money from liquefied natural gas exports.  It’s also a country where summer temperatures can hit 50° Celsius.  Nonetheless, Qatar won the bid to host the 2022 World Cup.  The games will be played in November, rather than during the usual summer months, but to keep things comfy, Doha will air condition the outdoors.  Yep.  They’ll air condition the stadiums with cold air vents under the seats like the ones pictured above, as well as outdoor malls like the one pictured below.  Ingenious engineering.  Insane waste of energy.  You can read about it here:  WaPo Qatar.

Still on the Money Thing.  As we might have predicted, those with the most money emit the most "life style" carbon emissions.  From The New York Times:

The Paris-based economists Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty, based on national G.D.P. and emissions data for 1998-2013, found that the world’s top 10 percent of emitters contributed about 45 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, while the bottom 50 percent contributed 13 percent. (They point out that the world’s top 10 percent of emitters are not just in heavily industrialized countries; a third of them are from developing countries.)

They argued, though, that taxes alone would not affect consumption patterns — the wealthy quite likely can afford to continue polluting. But more aggressive policies, like restricting household or individual emissions, or imposing renewable energy requirements, might do the job, they said. Other authors have proposed an inheritance tax that could be funneled to climate action.

Darwinism at Work?  The Guardian recently did a series on fishing in the oil-polluted waters of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, providing yet another reason to leave it in the ground.  Here is the link:  Guardian Venezuela Above is a shocking photo from that series, and here is a quote:

 

Crab fishermen whose clothing and equipment are soaked with oil take a smoking break [Yikes!  Seriously?!] near Punta Gorda beach. Danger due to the environmental pollution is never far: an explosion recently burned three fishermen when they fired up their boat’s motor near a natural gas leak bubbling up from the bottom of the lake, engulfing them in flames.

Nuremberg, Schmuremberg.  Oil doesn’t play a major role only in pipeline leaks, fires, and climate change.  It also plays a role in US foreign policy.  Witness this from President Trump on the “complete” evacuation of US troops from Syria ahead of the Turkish invasion, “We want to bring our soldiers home.  But we did leave soldiers because we’re keeping the oil.  I like oil. We’re keeping the oil.” Again per The Guardian:

The president suggested that taking possession of Syrian natural resources would be fair “reimbursement” for the cost of going to war there.  The problem for military planners is such pillage of a foreign country is a violation of the laws of war as applied in the Nuremberg trials and commonly accepted since.

 

Bye Bye, Ho Chi Minh City!  This article from The New York Times will put a severe damper on things for countries with low-lying coastal cities, like Vietnam pictured above.   Times Coastal Cities: 

Rising seas could affect three times more people by 2050 than previously thought, according to new research, threatening to all but erase some of the world’s great coastal cities. The authors of a paper published Tuesday developed a more accurate way of calculating land elevation based on satellite readings, a standard way of estimating the effects of sea level rise over large areas, and found that the previous numbers were far too optimistic. The new research shows that some 150 million people are now living on land that will be below the high-tide line by mid-century. 

Life’s a Beach!  The Trump Administration upended a 25-year-old environmental policy in order to make it cheaper for some of the wealthiest coastal communities in the country to dredge sand from environmentally protected areas.  Why?  To replenish their beach fronts, which are increasingly being eroded by more frequent and intense storms and rising seas.  Critics like the Audubon Society say that policy change comes at the expense of vulnerable coastal ecosystems. 

 

We End on a Somber Note.  A guardian of the Amazon, Paulo Paulino Guajajara of the Indigenous Guajajara, above, was shot in the face and killed by illegal loggers at the end of October.   As The New York Times reports:

The murder of Mr. Guajajara comes at a time when a spike in rainforest fires in the Brazilian Amazon drew a global outcry. As deforestation increases, the forest is approaching a tipping point at which it would begin to self-destruct, instead of self-sustain, which could frustrate worldwide efforts to fight climate change.

While a task force that included Brazilian military was able to reduce the number of fires in October to a record low, research shows Indigenous people are some of the most important agents of environmental protection in the forest.

Keep it real!

Marilyn