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
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