[GWSG] The urgency for action; a steep challenge; we knew in 2000; we want to act; we've been bought; our trial approaches

[Tilley, Al]

1. Johan Rockstrom, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, explains why we no longer have the luxury of gradual or indirect approaches to the climate crisis. Consumer capitalism may be part of the problem, but it is what we have to work with, and there’s no time to develop alternatives. We don’t even have time to work on divestment from fossil fuels or to begin such market solutions as cap and trade. We simply need to cease emissions in time to avoid irreversible positive feedbacks from forming. https://phys.org/news/2019-12-dont-button-irreversible-climate-scientist.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter



2. The MIT Technology Review summarizes the steep challenge we face with a set of graphs displaying the contrast between the situations in 2010 and in 2020. https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614843/the-2010s-were-another-lost-decade-on-climate-change/



3. Our projections in 2000 of what we were in for today were pretty accurate. We underestimated the pace of sea level rise because we did not (and still don’t) know enough about the stability of the polar ice sheets. We did not foresee that today’s violent weather patterns would develop as quickly as they did. We accurately predicted the rise in greenhouse gas emissions and the rise in global heating, and had a general idea of the consequences. https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/were-the-predictions-we-made-about-climate-change-20-years-ago-accurate-heres-a-look/ar-BBYicF1



4. The public will for climate action has developed, but governments have not yet broken through counterpressure from fossil fuel interests. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/23/climate-crisis-action-2019-politicians-public-poll



5. In the past 30 years (a generation), big oil has spent $3.6 billion convincing us that they meant well. They did not. https://grist.org/energy/big-oil-spent-3-6-billion-on-climate-ads-and-its-working/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily



6. Senator Patrick Leahy calls for an honest trial of Donald Trump in the Senate. Indeed, we do not have time to amused any longer by Trump, or by Pence, or by the Republican party as it has come to be led. I imagine a country which turns away from the leadership the fossil fuel corporations have bought and gets to the task at hand. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/23/opinion/senate-impeachment-trial.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_191224?campaign_id=2&instance_id=14777&segment_id=19847&user_id=8c547d53af6ff6fc7d49cb8612c07102&regi_id=436283741224
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