[GWSG] Local action; heating up; climate fallacies; no ice age; Keys adapt; doughnut econ; avg. or everyone?

[Tilley, Al]

1. The power of fossil fuel corporations in the US lies at the higher reaches of government, state and federal. Bill McKibben outlines a strategy of local climate action, already in progress. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/01/climate-change-action-trump



2. Global atmospheric heating increased 25% in 2014-16. https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/climatechange/global-warming-is-accelerating/70004041



3. A new paper maintains that arguments against the consensus on climate regularly violate logical rules. Further, people can be trained to detect the logical flaws; the authors have a video and an online lecture in critical thinking applied to climate claims. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/feb/06/humans-need-to-become-smarter-thinkers-to-beat-climate-denial

I used to set my students to find a logically sound argument in Michael Crichton's State of Fear. We never found an argument that did not violate one or more of a two-page list of common logical fallacies.



4. A grand minimum of solar radiation may be in prospect, but that only means a temporary drop in the rate of solar warming, not a mini-ice age as Fox News claims. Not all anti-science propaganda depends on logical fallacies. Some just misrepresents real stuff. https://climatecrocks.com/2018/02/06/like-spring-follows-winter-another-cooling-sun-crock-ariseth/



5. The plan to adapt to sea level rise by raising a road in the FL Keys is facing some challenges. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article197735369.html



6. Could we arrange a good life for all without exceeding the earth's resources? Doughnut economics arrives at an answer: no country is, but we could. http://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2018/02/does-a-good-life-have-to-come-at-the-expense-of-the-planet/



7. In guiding policy to provide a good life, it matters whether you are trying to provide for every person or for the average person. Such calculations are basic to determining the cost of carbon. Providing for the average person leads to an emphasis on population control (but risks increasing inequality). Thanks to Cherrill Heaton for the article. https://paw.princeton.edu/article/economics-population-less-more ?

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.unf.edu/pipermail/gwsg/attachments/20180207/3dcd1f98/attachment.html>