Posted on 28 March 2020 by John Hartz

Editor's Choice

The Nature of Crisis

Photograph by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / Getty 

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An idea beloved of the technorati is that we are actually living not on the earth we seem to inhabit but in a simulation. Elon Musk has said that it’s “most likely” the case, and Neil deGrasse Tyson has set the odds at fifty-fifty. If so, we’ve clearly reached the point where whoever is supervising the action has handed the game over to a bored supervillain who is wildly pressing buttons: Pandemics! Locusts! Firestorms!

The name of this newsletter is The Climate Crisis, but for the moment the emphasis is going to be on the last of those words. We need to understand how crises work, and, since I’ve been thinking about them for many years, I have a few thoughts to offer. This week’s reflection has to do with time, which is a variable we seriously underappreciate. We’re used to political debates that go on forever—when I was a high-school debater, in 1978, our topic for the year was “That the federal government should establish a comprehensive program to regulate the health care system in the United States.” We imagine that, if we don’t solve a political problem now, we’ll get around to it eventually. Meanwhile, we’ll chip away at it—delaying a solution extends suffering along the way, but it doesn’t necessarily make a problem ultimately harder to solve. Certain kinds of problems don’t work that way, however. Physical problems—climate change and the coronavirus being the pertinent examples—are all about time. And what’s striking to me is how similar these two examples are.

The Nature of Crisis by Bill McKibben Annals of a Warming Planet, New Yorker Magazine, Mar 26, 2020

Articles Linked to on Facebook

Sun, Mar 22, 2020

• In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, E&E News/Scientific American, Mar 20, 2020
• Climate change could reverse falling inequality between countries, Guest Post by Aurélie Méjean, Nicolas Taconet & Céline Guivarch, Carbon Brief, Mar 17, 2020
• Long Phased-Out Refrigeration and Insulation Chemicals Still Widely in Use and Warming the Climate by Phil McKenna, InsideClimate News, Mar 17, 2020
• 6 Ways Trump’s Denial of Science Has Delayed the Response to COVID-19 (and Climate Change) by Katelyn Weisbrod, InsideClimate News, Mar 19, 2010
• Holding back the tide - sea's advance threatens Tunisia's beaches by Layli Foroudi, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Mar 19, 2020
• Study: global banks 'failing miserably' on climate crisis by funneling trillions into fossil fuels by Patrick Greenfield and Kalyeena Makortoff, Environment, Guardian, Mar 18, 2020
• Locust Swarms, Some 3 Times the Size of New York City, Are Eating Their Way Across Two Continents by Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News, Mar 22, 2020
• The key ingredient to surviving both coronavirus and climate change: our shared sense of humanity by Yvette Cabrera, Grist, Mar 22, 2020

Mon, Mar 23, 2020

• Poor water infrastructure is greater risk than coronavirus, says UN by Fiona Harvey, Environment, Guardian, Mar 21, 2020
• International Forest Day: Experts highlight the impact of climate change on Belgium's forests by Greg Lory, euronews, Mar 21, 2020
• What would happen if the world reacted to climate change like it’s reacting to the coronavirus? by Adele Peters, Fast Company, Mar 10, 2020
• Coronavirus and climate change: How eco-activists can use this terrible moment to help save the planet by Reynard Loki, Independent Media Institute/Nation of Change, Mar 21, 2020
• Water is an under-used weapon in climate change fight, UN says by Megan Rowling, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Mar 22, 2020
• The good news about reforestation efforts by Martin Kuebler. Photo Essay, Deutsche Welle (DW), Mar 21, 2020
• Electroverse article incorrectly claims the Sun is behind climate change, Edited by Scott Johnson Climate Feedback, Mar 18, 2020
• Scientists just discovered a massive new vulnerability in the Antarctic ice sheet by Chris Mooney, Climate & Environment, Washington Post, Mar 23, 2020

Tue, Mar 24, 2020

• Corona stimulus plans overlook 'historic' chance for climate crisis by Martin Kuebler, Deutsche Welle (DW), Mar 23, 2020
• Coronavirus sparks soul-searching over travel-heavy climate diplomacy, Analysis by Meg Rowling, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Mar 23, 2020
• Women & Climate: Planting a Global Forest in a Connected World by Rita Ann Wallace & Cynthia S Reyes, Inter Press Service (IPS), Mar 23, 2020
• East Antarctica’s Denman Glacier Has Retreated Almost 3 Miles In 22 Years, Press Release, American Geophysical Union (AGU), Mar 23, 2020
• Electric cars produce less CO2 than petrol vehicles, study confirms by Fiona Harvey, Environment, Guardian, Mar 23, 2020
• Trump’s EPA Fast-Tracks a Controversial Rule That Would Restrict the Use of Health Science by Marraine Lavelle, InsideClimate News, Mar 23, 2020
• Coronavirus Holds Key Lessons on How to Fight Climate Change by Beth Gardiner, Yale Climate Connection, Mar 23, 2020
• Paris Climate Agreement Architects Make a Case for “Stubborn Optimism” by Andrea Thompson, Sustainability, Scientific American, Mar 24, 2020

Wed, Mar 25, 2020

• Greta Thunberg Says It’s ‘Extremely Likely’ That She Had Coronavirus by Somini Sengupta, Climate, New York Times, Mar 24, 2020
• Koalas vs climate change: Q&A with John Zichy-Woinarski by Romina Castagnino, Mongabay, Mar 24, 2020
• Electric cars help limit climate change despite blackspots in India, Poland by Alister Doyle, Politics, Climate Home News, Mar 23, 2020
• Ships’ Emissions Create Measurable Regional Change in Clouds, Joint Press Release, U of Washington & AGU, Mar 24, 2020
• Governments urged to attach green strings to long-term coronavirus recovery plans by Chloé Farand, Politics, Climate Home News, Mar 23, 2020
• Traffic and Pollution Plummet as U.S. Cities Shut Down for Coronavirus by Brad Plumer & Nadja Popovich, Climate, New York Times, Mar 22, 2020
• Coronavirus Is a Stress Test for Future Climate Shocks by Emily Chasan, Adaptation, Bloomberg Green News, Mar 25, 2020

Thu, Mar 26, 2020

• A history of FLICC: the 5 techniques of science denial by John Cook, Cranky Uncle, Mar 24 2020
• Help climate scientists understand past rainfall variations by Ed Hawkins, Rainfall Rescue, Mar 26, 2020
• Great Barrier Reef hit by third mass bleaching event in five years by Peter Hannam & Miki Perkins, The Sydney Morning Herald, March 26, 2020
• Coronavirus shows how to fight disinformation about climate change by Jeremy Deaton, Fast Company, Mar 26, 2020

Fri, Mar 27, 2020

• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #12, 2020 by Doug Bostrom, Skeptical Science, March 25, 2020
• Greta's World by Stephen Rodrick, Rolling Stone, March 26, 2020
• UK greenhouse gas emissions fall for seventh year in a row by Jillian Ambrose, The Guardian, March 26, 2020
• Coronavirus Already Hindering Climate Science, But the Worst Disruptions Are Likely Yet to Come by Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News, March 27, 2020
• Aggressive action to address climate change could save the world $145 trillion  by Dana Nuccitelli, Yale Climate Connections, Mar 26, 2020

Sat, Mar 28, 2020

• What Climate Grief Taught Me About the Coronavirus by Mary Annaïse Heglar, The New Republic, March 25, 2020
• Coronavirus and climate change: The pandemic is a fire drill for our planet's future by Adam Frank, NBC News, March 27, 2020
• We're in 'emergency mode' for coronavirus — we can do the same thing for climate by Margaret Klein Salamon, The Hill, March 25, 2020
• The Climate Crisis Will Be Just as Shockingly Abrupt  by Melody Schreiber, The New Republic, March 27, 2020