[GWSG] CH4's name; NZ #33; leave big fish; bad planning; a losing war; health report

[Tilley, Al]

1. Reactions to the term “methane” are much more appropriately negative among both Democrats and Republicans than to the industry’s preferred appellation “natural gas.” “Natural gas” is around 90% methane. Let us resolve to cease doing p.r. for the corporations, even if we have to make people wonder for a moment what we are talking about.  Methane, on the time scale of a generation much more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, is obviously not a bridge to a future we might choose.  It is not even cheap any more. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/should-it-be-called-natural-gas-or-methane/

2. New Zealand has become the 33rd country to declare a climate emergency and has set a target of 2025 for its public sector to achieve carbon neutrality. https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-newzealand-climate/new-zealand-declares-climate-emergency-promises-carbon-neutral-government-by-2025-idUKKBN28C0CR?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_content=20201202&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20Daily

3. The bigger fish concentrate mercury and are wormier. If we leave them alone they will die and take the carbon they embody to the ocean bottom, sequestering the carbon for perhaps thousands of years. We also save the carbon we didn’t emit in catching them. Altogether the amount of carbon emissions avoided or sequestered amounts to a fifth of the recent emissions decline due to the covid. Sustainable fishing promises to be a significant sequestration opportunity.  https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2020/11/an-unexpected-climate-champion-big-fish/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=an-unexpected-climate-champion-big-fish&utm_source=Anthropocene&utm_campaign=17bff5c46f-Anthropocene+science+to+AM&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ececcea89a-17bff5c46f-294268545

4. To achieve the goal of limiting heating to 1.5C greenhouse gas emissions must drop by 6% a year in the coming decade. A UN report shows that countries are instead planning to increase fossil fuel use by 2% a year. The world’s largest economies, the G20, are planning to spend 50% more of covid recovery funds on fossil fuels than on clean energy. https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-fossilfuels/fossil-fuel-production-far-exceeds-climate-targets-u-n-says-idUKKBN28C22H?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_content=20201203&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20Daily

5. The UN secretary general Antonio Guterres warns that in our policies we are in effect making a war on nature “which is in danger of destroying our future before we have fully understood the risk.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/02/humanity-is-waging-war-on-nature-says-un-secretary-general-antonio-guterres

6. The annual Lancet Countdown on Climate Change and Public Health reports that climate crisis is already degrading public health. Extreme heat is contributing to a 50% increase in deaths of people over 65. 302 billion hours of labor were lost as workers were unable to continue in the heat. The areas at danger from such infectious diseases as dengue fever have expanded, and more people are at threat from wildfires. “Climate action is a prescription for health.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/climate/climate-change-health-risks.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20201203&instance_id=24621&nl=todaysheadlines&regi_id=43628374&segment_id=45944&user_id=8c547d53af6ff6fc7d49cb8612c07102

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