Arguments
2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #14
Posted on 6 April 2019 by John Hartz
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 31 through Sat, Apr 6, 2019
Editor's Pick
We’re gobbling up the Earth’s resources at an unsustainable rate
Petroleum Field at Moreni, Romania, 1920 Photo by Wikimedia Commons
George Monbiot, a correspondent for Britain’s The Guardian newspaper and known for his environmental and political activism, has made a surprising call for people in the United Kingdom to cut the use of cars by 90 per cent over the next decade.
Many will balk at this idea but it is perhaps sounding somewhat less bizarre after the release by the United Nations of a new report which paints a scary picture of the rate at which we are gobbling up the Earth’s resources.
The global automobile industry requires huge amounts of mined metals as well as other natural resources such as rubber, and the switch to electric vehicles, while a necessary move to curb air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, is not without some adverse environmental consequences: large-scale lithium mining for the batteries required to run electric vehicles could cause fresh environmental headaches.
UN Environment’s Global Resources Outlook 2019, prepared by the International Resource Panel, examines the trends in natural resources and their corresponding consumption patterns since the 1970s. Its main findings:
- The extraction and processing of materials, fuels and food contribute half of total global greenhouse gas emissions and over 90 per cent of biodiversity loss and water stress
- Resource extraction has more than tripled since 1970, including a fivefold increase in the use of non-metallic minerals and a 45 per cent increase in fossil fuel use
- By 2060, global material use could double to 190 billion tonnes (from 92 billion), while greenhouse gas emissions could increase by 43 per cent
We’re gobbling up the Earth’s resources at an unsustainable rate, News, UN Environment, Apr 3, 2019
Links posted on Facebook
Sun Mar 31, 2019
- Puerto Rico Passes 100% Clean Energy Bill. Will Natural Gas Imports Get in the Way? by Phil McKenna, InsideClimate News, Mar 28, 2019
- New research, March 18-24, 2019 by Ari Jokimäki, Skeptical Science, Mar 29, 2019
- Blaze article badly misrepresents study of Greenland’s Jakobshavn Glacier, Edited by Scott Johnson, Claim Reviews, Climate Feedback, Mar 29, 2019
- Ocasio-Cortez says Green New Deal critics are making 'fools of themselves' by Oliver Milman, Guardian, Mar 30, 2019
- Judge Blocks Trump's Arctic Offshore Drilling Expansion as Lawyers Ramp Up Legal Challenges by Sabrina Shankman, InsideClimate News, Mar 30. 2019
- The Generational Backlash to Europe’s Climate Activists by Josephine Hueltin, The New Republic, Mar 28, 2019
- This year’s snow melt in Anchorage is one of the earliest on record by Madeline McGee, Anchorage Daily News, Mar 30, 2019
- Declaring a Climate Change Emergency: Would It Be Legal? Would It Be Useful? by Dan Farber, The Revelator, Mar 29, 2019
Mon Apr 1, 2019
- The Carbon Brief Profile: Indonesia by Daisy Dunne, The Carbon Brief, Mar 27, 2019
- Climate change could melt decades worth of human poop at Denali National Park in Alaska by Elizabeth Weise, Nation, USA Today, Mar 31, 2019
- For a flooded Midwest, climate forecasts offer little comfort by Shuang-Ye Wu, Environment & Energy, The Conversation US, Mar 29, 2019
- Our Efforts to Moderate Extreme Weather Are Fueling a Climate Change 'Feedback Loop' by Katherine Dunn, Fortune Magazine, Mar 27, 2019
- Trump issues new permit for stalled Keystone XL pipeline by Matthew Daly, AP News, Mar 29, 2019
- Wall Street Embraces Weather Risk in New Era of Storms by Brian K Sullivan, Alexandra Semenova, & Eric Roston, Climate Changed, Bloomberg News, Apr 1, 2019
- These Lawyers Are Creating an ALEC for Climate Change by Jeremy Deaton, Nexus Media, Apr 1, 2019
- Rockefeller Foundation moves beyond cities in broader resilience push by Megan Rowlings, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Apr 1, 2019
Tue Apr 2, 2019
- Canada says global carbon pollution must be reduced to 'near zero' to limit harsh impacts by Carl Meyer, National Observer, Apr 1, 2019
- Breaches Everywhere’: Flooding Bursts Midwest Levees, and Tough Questions Follow by Mitch Smith & John Schwartz, New York Times, Mar 31, 2019
- ‘It’s no longer free to pollute’: Canada imposes carbon tax on four provinces, Reuter/Guardian, Apr 1, 2019
- Saving the planet: The next move by Kevin Keane, BBC News, Apr 1, 2019
- Insects have ‘no place to hide’ from climate change, study warns by Damian Carrington, Environment, Guardian, Apr 2, 2019
- Greenland's most critical glacier is suddenly gaining ice, but that might not be a good thing by Brandon Miller, CNN, Mar 28, 2019
- Trump's Budget Could Have Chilling Effect on U.S. Clean Energy Leadership by Dan Gearino, InsideClimate News, Apr 2, 2019
- Did climate change cause the flooding in the Midwest and Plains? by Samantha Harrington, Yale Climate Connections, Apr 2, 2019
Wed Apr 3, 2019
- Warming seas are devastating to survival of dolphins by Doyle Rice, USA Today, Apr 1, 2019
- Canada warming at twice the global rate, leaked report finds, CBC news, Apr 1, 2019
- A record share of Australians say humans cause climate change: poll by Matt Wade, Sydney Morning Herald, Apr 1, 2019
- Global CO2 Emissions Hit an All-Time High in 2018; is a Hothouse Earth in our Future? by Jeff Masters, Category 6, Weather Underground, Apr 2, 2019
- The natural world can help save us from climate catastrophe, Opinion by George Monbiot, Comment is Free, Guardian, Apr 3, 2019
- Trump campaign seeks a list of ‘climate change victories’ to tout on 2020 trail by Michael Wilner, McClatchy DC Bureau, Apr 2, 2019
- Last time CO2 levels were this high, there were trees at the South Pole by Damian Carrington, Environment, Guardian, Apr 3, 2019
- North Atlantic Circulation Patterns Reveal Seas of Change by Mary Caperton Morton. EOS/AGU, Apr 2, 2019
Thu Apr 4, 2019
- Journey to Antarctica: Is This What a Climate Catastrophe Looks Like in Real Time? by Jeff Goodell, Politics, Rolling Stone, Mar 20, 2019
- March was Australia's hottest on record, with temperatures 2C above average by Michael McGowan, Guardian, Apr 1, 2019
- Canada says global carbon pollution must be reduced to 'near zero' to limit harsh impacts by Carl Meyer, News, National Observer, Apr 1, 2019
- The problem with ignoring people's emotions about climate change by Jeffrey T. Kiehl, Yale Climate Connections, Apr 4, 2019
- The UN just unveiled a design for a new floating city that can withstand Category 5 hurricanes by Aria Bendix, Business Insider India, Apr 4, 2019
- What If "Toxic Masculinity" Is The Reason For Climate Change? by Carolyn Centeno Milton, Forbes, Apr 3, 2019
- Climate change group scrapped by Trump reassembles to issue warning by Oliver Milman, Environment, Guardian, Apr 4, 2019
- Utilities Starting to See Green in the EV Charging Business — and Competition by James Bruggers, InsideClimate News, Apr 4, 2019
Fri Apr 5, 2019
- Climate Change Unleashes Giant Wave of Landslides on Canadian Island by Brian Kahn, Climate Change, Earther, Apr 2, 2019
- Canada's sea levels are rising — and that's got British Columbians in coastal cities concerned by Clare Hennig, CBC News, Apr 3, 2019
- 7 American cities that could disappear by 2100 by Aria Bendix, Business Insider, Apr 3, 2019
- Climate change helped destroy these four ancient civilisations by Sean Fleming, Agenda, World Economic Forum (WEF), Mar 29, 2019
- How State Power Regulators Are Making Utilities Account for the Costs of Climate Change by Iliana Paul & Denise Grab, DeSmog, Apr 3, 2019
- Mosquito-borne diseases could reach extra ‘one billion people’ as climate warms by Daisy Dunne, Carbon Brief, Mar 28, 2019
- Fight against climate change and poverty will fail without overhaul of global financial system, says major UN report, UN News, Apr 4, 2019
- Batteries are key to clean energy — and they just got much cheaper by Eric Holthaus, Grist, Apr 3, 2019
Sat Apr 6, 2019
- Climate Change Drives Collapse Of Baby Corals In Great Barrier Reef by Chris D’Angelo, Environment, HuffPost, Apr 3, 2019
- Indonesia should not quit climate pact over palm-oil spat - UN official by Michael Taylor, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Apr 5, 2019
- A Virtual Solar Power Plant for L.A.? ‘It Will Happen’ by Jill Cowan, California Today, New York Times, Apr 3, 2019
- We’re gobbling up the Earth’s resources at an unsustainable rate, News, UN Environment, Apr 3, 2019
- South Korea wildfires: Deadly blaze declared a national emergency, BBC News, Apr 5, 2019
- How climate change is pushing Central American migrants to the US, Opinion by Lauren Markham, Comment is Free, Guardian, Apr 6, 2019
- Humans are the villain in Netflix’s new series ‘Our Planet’ by Kate Yoder, Grist, Apr 5, 2019
- Climate change could deliver a $4 trillion hit to the financial system by Irina Ivanova, CBS News, Apr 5, 2019
We are indeed "gobbling up the earth's resources at an unsustainable rate" and its pretty darned serious, but I feel solutions need to also be realistic as well. Expecting people to reduce use of their use of cars by "90% this decade" and other drastic changes in consumption are not realistic to me. 25% might be a more realistic goal. Public transport is desirable, but cities are spread out and its hard making it work for everyone.
While land based lithium reserves are limited, there are billions of tons dissolved in sea water (along with most other metals) and numerous other battery technologies under development not reliant on lithium here.
More realistic solutions to looming resource scarcity problems would include this generation of people aiming for zero rates of population and economic growth, recyling, and wasting less, although poor countries have to be allowed economic growth.
Like another character named Don, US President Donald Trump is tilting at windmills. The president disparaged wind farms this week while spinning his arm like a turbine and making an unpleasant whirring sound. TRUMP: "If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations. Your house just went down 75 per cent of value."And they say the noise causes cancer." - remarks at Republican fundraising dinner Tuesday.
The facts. The sound from wind farms has not been proved to cause cancer. Trump has had it out for wind power since turbines were proposed off the coast of Scotland within sight of his golf resort near Aberdeen.
(America by electing this guy you make yourselves look incredibly stupid, just in case you don't know by now)
nigelj,
The fact that decades of 'deliberate lack of correction, particularly by the wealthy and powerful' have over-developed human activity to the current degree is a very poor excuse to 'reduce the rate of correction'.
The continued 'diminished amount of correction, because of concerns regarding lost perceptions of prosperity and superiority' only develops a bigger future problem. And knowingly participating in creating more harm is almost criminal (should be limited by criminal penalty).
This cycle of making problems so big that catastrophe is the result has to be broken. And every current generation is 'the only ones' who can 'break the cycle of harm'. And every current generation, particularly the wealthier and more powerful, that does not act aggressively to break the cycle of moral corruption is complicit in the increased future harm done.
As Attenborough says in his latest program, since we first went into space 50 years ago, the population of the world has more than doubled. We are in the last phase of an exponential growt curve. Exponential curves are not bell curves with a smooth rise and then smooth decline. In the real world they rise and then go vertical......straight down. It may already be too late with our friend Trump giving the final nudge over the edge of the cliff. Even with Bernie we my not have been able to save ourselves from our sorry selves. At least we would have had a chance.