Arguments
2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #7
Posted on 16 February 2019 by John Hartz
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 10 through Sat, Feb 16, 2019
Editor's Pick
What we can learn about climate change from the Titanic
Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio starred in the 1997 film Titanic. Credit: Paramount Pictures
I recently shared the latest news about climate change with my Facebook friends, writing this: “The five warmest years in recorded history have been the last five, and 18 of the 19 warmest years have occurred since 2001.” One of my friends commented that it reminded him of those people who were rearranging the deck chairs as the Titanicsank. Are climate deniers their modern equivalent?
The climate ship has definitely sailed: Even if we could eliminate all carbon emissions overnight, the planet’s average temperature and sea level would not decrease in the coming decades, because of the inertia built into the climate system. As with a massive ship, you can’t wait until the last minute to start steering away from disaster. But even on the doomed Titanic, there would have been many more survivors if the right actions had been promptly taken, and the same is true today for global warming.
As a matter of historical fact, the Titanic’s 614 wood-and-wicker chairs were probably tied up for the night when the ship began sinking. The first reference to “rearranging the deck chairs” did not appear in print until the late 1960s. Nevertheless, the expression has since come to describe futile actions taken in the face of impending catastrophe. Like, say, President Trump calling for “forest clearing” to address wildfire risks in California—where the deadliest recent fires, made worse by climate change, did not happen in forests. The phrase remains an all-too-accurate description of the little that is being done to stabilize our planet’s climate.
What we can learn about climate change from the Titanic by Dawn Stover, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Feb 15, 2019
Links posted on Facebook
Sun Feb 10, 2019
- Rising seas: to keep humans safe, let nature shape the coast by Iris Möller, The Conversation UK, Feb 7, 2019
- World's Driest Desert Floods as Extreme Weather Hits Chile by Daniela Guzman, Bloomberg News, Feb 8, 2019
- How Much Is The Government Spending On Climate Change? We Don’t Know, And Neither Do They by Maggie Koerth-Baker, Science & Health, FiveThirtyEight, Feb 8, 2019
- A ‘Green New Deal’ Is Far From Reality, but Climate Action Is Picking Up in the States by Brad Plumer, Climate, New York Times, Feb 8, 2019
- The False Choice Between Economic Growth and Combating Climate Change by Carolyn Kormann, The New Yorker, Feb 4, 2019
- Democrats Need an Ambitious Climate Plan. The Green New Deal Isn’t It. by Jonathan Chait, Intelligencer, New York Magazine, Feb 7, 2019
- Climate change is the deadliest legacy we will leave the young, Opinion by John Lanchester, Comment is Free, Guardian, Feb 6, 2019
- More Diverse Green Groups Push for More Ambitious Climate Policy by Jeremy Deaton, Nexus Media, Feb 8, 2019
Mon Feb 11, 2019
- Scientists Single Out a Suspect in Starfish Carnage: Warming Oceans by Kendra Pierre-Louis, Climate, New York Times, Jan 30, 2019
- Pupils’ climate change strike threat poses dilemma for heads by Jamie Doward, Observer/Guardian, Feb 10, 2019
- Climate change and deep adaptation by Rupert Read, Ecologist, Feb 8, 2019
- Plummeting insect numbers 'threaten collapse of nature' by Damian Carrington, Environment, Guardian, Feb 10, 2019
- Could climate change make it harder to get insurance in Australia? by Ange Lavoipierre & Stephen Smiley, ABC News (Australia), Feb 6, 2019
- Climate change is the overlooked driver of Central American migration by Adam Wernick, Living on Earth, PRI, Feb 6, 2019
- What is the Green New Deal and how would it benefit society? by Emily Holden, Guardian, Feb 11, 2019
- Kids Climate Case Plaintiffs Ask Court to Halt New Federal Fossil Fuel Leases by Marco Poggio, Climate Liability News, Feb 8, 2019
Tue Feb 12, 2019
- As ice melts, Greenland could become big sand exporter - study by Alister Doyle, Reuters, Feb 11, 2019
- Lonely, unfit and hooked on air-conditioning - is this the summer of the future? by Nicole Hasham, Sydney Morning Herald, Feb 9, 2019
- NSW Greens push for mandatory solar and batteries for all new homes by Peter Hannam, Sydney Morning Herald, Feb 11, 2019
- Putting the sun in Sunshine State? Florida’s about-face on solar power by Eva Botkin-Kowacki, The Christian Science Monitor, Feb 11, 2019
- What's Keeping Trump from Ratifying a Climate Treaty Even Republicans Support? by Phil McKenna, InsideClimate News, Feb 12, 2019
- On Buying Insurance, and Ignoring Cost-Benefit Analysis by Frank Ackerman, Triple Crisis, Feb 8, 3019
- Climate and economic risks 'threaten 2008-style systemic collapse' by Jonathan Watts, Environment, Guardian, Feb 12, 2019
- There's 'no place on the planet' – not even Hawaii – to escape climate change, experts say by Kristin Lam, USA Today, Feb 12, 2019
Wed Feb 13, 2019
- Flood-affected farmers witness entire cattle herds wiped out by catastrophic deluge by Natalie Wolf, news.com.au, Feb 11, 2019
- Shell Faces Lawsuit in the Netherlands, a New Legal Front in the Climate Battle by Dana Drugmand, Climate Liability News, Feb 12, 2019
- China and India help make planet leafier by Roger Harriban, BBC News, Feb 12, 2019
- Electric cars are already cheaper to own and run, says study by Damian Carrington, Environment, Guardian, Feb 12, 2019
- Methane hydrates: Why scientists worry less than you might think by Bud Ward, Yale Climate Connections, Feb 7, 2019
- How to Cut U.S. Emissions Faster? Do What These Countries Are Doing. by Brad Plumer & Blacki Migliozzi, Climate, Feb 13, 2019
- America’s trains are a drag. The Green New Deal wants to fix that. by Umair Irfan, Energy & Environment, Vox, Feb 13, 2019
- The Energy 202: ‘There’s no reason for us to wait.' Four more Dem governors join alliance to uphold Paris climate goals, Analysis by Pauline Friozi, PowerPost, Washington Post, Feb 12, 2019
Thu Feb 14, 2019
- Asking oil firms to help pay for climate change is good economics, Opinion by Andrew Gage, Edmonton Journal, Feb 7, 2019
- Polluter-backed misinformers are trying to kill carbon-pricing plans in the states by Evlondo Cooper, Media Matters for America, Feb 11, 2019
- In Germany, the Green New Deal Actually Works, Opinion by Leonid Bershidsky, Politics & Policy, Bloomberg News, Feb 13, 2019
- Here's what the Green New Deal actually says., Analysis by Zachary B Wolf, CNN, Feb 14, 2019
- With Democrats in Charge, House Science Committee Talks About Climate Science by Neela Banerjee, InsideClimate News, Feb 14, 2019
- Politicians are complicit in the killing of our insec
- ts – we will be next, Opinion by Molly Scott Cato, Opinion is Free, Guardian, Feb 12, 2019
- Mudslides, snow, and flash floods: an atmospheric river is soaking California by Umair Irfan, Energy & Environment, Vox, Feb 14, 2019
- The Northeast is poised to regain momentum on clean energy by Jan Ellen Spiegel, Yale Climate Connections, Feb 14, 2019
Fri Feb 15, 2019
- Australia’s Burning, Flooding, Disastrous New Normal, Opinion by Kim Mahood, New York Times, Feb 14, 2018
- California has 149 million dead, dry trees ready to ignite like a matchbook by Umair Irfan, Energy & Environment, Vox, Feb 13, 2019
- New Report Warns Geoengineering the Climate Is a 'Risky Distraction' by Justin Mikulka, DeSmog, Feb 13, 2019
- Six Reasons to Be Hopeful About Fighting Climate Change by Renee Cho, Lamont -Doherty Earth Observatory, Earth Institute, Columbia University, Feb 13, 2019
- School pupils call for radical climate action in UK-wide strike by Matthew Taylor, Sandra Laville, Amy Walker & Poppy Noor, Environment, Guardian, Feb 15, 2019
- ‘If not us, who?’ Failure of representation drives youth climate strike by Natalie Sauer, Climate Home News, Feb 14, 2019
- The Carbon Brief Interview: Prof Jonathan Bamber by Daisy Dunne, Carbon Brief, Feb 14, 2019
- It’s official: El Niño is back. Now what? by Eric Holthaus, Grist, Feb 14, 2019
Sat Feb 16, 2019
- Climate change denial not about the science, Opinion by Neal Curtis, futurelearning, newsroom (New Zealand), Feb 14, 2019
- TVA defies Trump, votes to shut down two aging coal-fired power plants by Steven Mufson, Health & Science, Washington Post, Feb 14, 2019
- The permafrost bomb is ticking by Raj Saha, Yale Climate Connections, Feb 12, 2019
- What we can learn about climate change from the Titanic by Dawn Stover, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Feb 15, 2019
- 6 Compelling Reasons Climate Change Might Be A National Emergency by Marshall Shepherd, Forbes, Feb 15, 2019
- Florida is drowning. Condos are still being built. Can't humans see the writing on the wall? by Megan Mayhew Bergman, Environment, Guardian, Feb 15, 2019
- Climate Damages: Uncertain but Ominous, or $51 per Ton? by Frank, Ackerman, Triple Cross, Feb 12, 2019
- New research, February 4-10, 2019 by Ari Jokimäki, Skeptical Science, Feb 15, 2019
"The lion’s share of the blame must be assigned not to the passengers, however, but rather to the ship’s owners, managers, and captain—along with the shipping industry’s government regulators. In their wanton disregard for risk, the responsible parties are not unlike today’s climate deniers.'
Yes especially as the passengers would have expected sufficient numbers of lifeboats at the very least.
The climate issue could be slightly different because politicans take their lead from opinion polls. Americans are not particularly concerned about climate change. This might partly explain the weak climate policies.
Europeans are much more concerned. And their climate policies are stronger.
Latin Americans are very concerned, but their governments do not have strong policies, but this could be partly explained by their governments being authoritarian and generally ignoring public sentiment.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_opinion_by_country
None of this absolves governments and corporate interests, who are not responding strongly enough even in europe where public concern is generally high. I'm still left with a strong sense politicians are not listening to voters enough in most countries even europe, and its probably due to pressure on politicans from lobby groups, wealthy libertarians and similar people who resent government regulations, and campaign funders.
“We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe, warns UN “