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2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #44
Posted on 31 October 2020 by John Hartz
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Oct 25, 2020 through Sat, Oct 31, 2020
Editor's Choice
On Climate Change, We’re Entirely Out of Margin
The U.S. government and the world have done far too little on climate change, and so now we must move far faster than is comfortable or convenient. Photograph by Manan Vatsyayana / AFP / Getty
In 1959, when humans began measuring the carbon-dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, there was still some margin. That first instrument, set up on the side of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano, showed that the air contained about three hundred and fifteen parts per million of CO2, up from two hundred and eighty ppm. before the Industrial Revolution. Worrisome, but not yet critical. In 1988, when the NASA scientist James Hansen first alerted the public to the climate crisis, that number had grown to three hundred and fifty ppm, which we’ve since learned is about the upper safe limit. Even then, though, we had a little margin, at least of time: the full effects of the heating had not yet begun to manifest in ways that altered our lives. If we’d acted swiftly, we could have limited the damage dramatically.
Click here to access the entire article as originally posted on The New Yorker website.
On Climate Change, We’re Entirely Out of Margin by Bill McKibben, Annals of Climate Change, The New Yorker Magazine, Oct 29, 2020
Articles Linked to on Facebook
Sun, Oct 25, 2020
- Clouds of Concern Linger as Wildfires Drag into Flu Season and Covid-19 Numbers Swell by Judy Fahys, InsideClimate News, Oct 24, 2020
- Senate 2020: In Mississippi, a Surprisingly Close Race For a Trump-Tied Promoter of Fossil Fuels by James Bruggers, InsideClimate News, Oct 20, 2020
- Alarm as Arctic sea ice not yet freezing at latest date on record by Jonathan Watts, Environment, The Guardian, Oct 22, 2020
- A Debate Pledge to ‘Transition’ From Oil Puts Climate at Center of Campaign Finale by Lisa Friedman, Climate, New York Times, Oct 23, 2020
Mon, Oct 26, 2020
- War on NOAA? A Climate Denier’s Arrival Raises Fears the Agency's Climate Mission Is Under Attack by Marianne Lavelle, InsideClimate News, Oct 25, 2020
- 70+ Climate Journalists Pen Open Letter Condemning Barrett for Enabling the 'Ecological Crisis of Our Times by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, Oct 25, 2020
- Tropical Storm Zeta, 27th Atlantic storm of the season, forms in western Caribbean by Jeff Masters, Eye on the Storm, Yale Climate Connections, Oct 25, 2020
- As Colorado wildfires burn, fears that climate change is causing “multi-level emergency” mount by Bruce Finley, Environment, Denver Post, Oct 25, 2020
- Silverado Fire in Southern California critically injures two firefighters as it doubles in size by Amir Vera, Eric Levenson, Stella Chan and Cheri Mossburg, CNN, Oct 26, 2020
Tue, Oct 27, 2020
- Dealing with climate change requires more fight and less flight by Dawn Stover, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Oct 26, 2020
- Japan’s New Leader Sets Ambitious Goal of Carbon Neutrality by 2050 by Ben Dooley, Makiko Inoue & Hikari Hida, Business, New York Times, Oct 26, 2020
- What Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation will mean for Joe Biden’s climate plan by Jody Freeman, Energy & Environment, Vox, Oct 26, 2020
- Tropical Storm Zeta makes its way toward the US coast after slamming into Mexico as a hurricane by Madeline Holcombe, CNN, Oct 27, 2020
- Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Volumes Video - 2020 edition by BaerbelW, Skeptical Science, Oct 27, 2020
Wed, Oct 28, 2020
- Trump’s pullback of pollution controls is even more hazardous than you think by Joe Wertz, Energy & Environment, Vox, Oct 27, 2020
- Africa is Warming Fast, and the Most Vulnerable Are Being Hit Hardest by Laura Millan Lombrana, Climate Adaption, Bloomberg News, Oct 26, 2020
- As Election Nears, Trump Makes a Final Push Against Climate Science by Christopher Flavelle & Lisa Friedman, Climate & Environment, New York Times, Oct 27, 2020
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #43, 2020 by Doug Bostrom, Skeptical Science, Oct 28, 2020
- Zeta strengthens into Category 2 hurricane and speeds up ahead of landfall on storm-weary Gulf Coast by Madeline Holcombe, Amara Walker and Eric Levenson, CNN, Oct 28, 2020
Thu, Oct 29, 2020
- Warmer climate and Arctic sea ice in a veritable suicide pact by Dana Nuccitelli, Article, Yale Climate Connections, Oct 28, 2020
- South Korea vows to go carbon neutral by 2050 to fight climate emergency by Justin McCurry, World, The Guardian, Oct 28, 2020
- Zeta leaves over 2 million customers without power and at least 3 dead after battering Gulf Coast by Susannah Cullinane & Joe Sutton, CNN, Oct 29, 2020
- Typhoon, landslides leave 35 dead, 59 missing in Vietnam, AP/kg, Channel News Asia (CNA), Oct 29, 2020
- No Matter Who Wins, the US Exits the Paris Climate Accord the Day After the Election by Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News, Oct 29, 2020
Fri, Oct 30, 2020
- The absurd controversy over Joe Biden’s “transition away from the oil industry” by David Roberts, Energy & Environment, Vox, Oct 27, 2020
- Ford and GM knew about climate change — and covered it up for decades by Joseph Winters, Climate, Grist, Oct 27, 2020
- On Climate Change, We’re Entirely Out of Margin by Bill McKibben, Annals of Climate Change, The New Yorker Magazine, Oct 29, 2020
- Climate Adaptation Center Launches Website on Oct. 30 by Susan Burns, Climate, Sarasota, Oct 29, 2020
- Trump rolled back more than 125 environmental safeguards. Here’s how. by Juliet Eilperin, Brady Dennis & John Muyskens, Climate & Environment, Washington Post, Oct 30, 2020
- Super Typhoon Goni explodes into 2020’s strongest storm on Earth, moves toward Philippines by Jason Samenow, Capital Weather Gang, Washington Post, Oct 30, 2020
Sat, Oct 31, 2020
- Why the record low Arctic sea ice this October is so alarming by Lili Pike, Energy & Environment, Vox, Oct 28, 2020
- Mapped: How climate change disproportionately affects women’s health by Daisy Dunne, Carbon Brief, Oct 29, 2020
- Seven Ways the Election Will Shape the Future of Science, Health and the Environment by Andrea Thompson, Tanya Lewis, Lee Billings, Sophie Bushwick, Clara Moskowitz & Kate Wong, Policy & Ethics, Scientific American, Oct 30, 2020
- Philippines orders evacuation as world's strongest typhoon of 2020 approaches, Reuters/CNN. Oct 31, 2020
- Inaction on the climate threat is NOT an option by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels & Ben Santer, Climate Explained, Yale Climate Connections, Oct 30, 2020
If Bill McKibben thinks Joe Biden and the DNC are ever going to put the Green New Deal into a bill and put it up for a vote, he must be on some serious mind-altering drugs.
The Democrats conspired to destroy the one Democratic candidate who was pushing the GND, not once but twice. To think a Democratic administration would even be mildly interested in saving our climate is wildly delusional.
[BL] Accusations of this sort really aren't appropriate.
Thank you for taking the time to share with us. Skeptical Science is a user forum wherein the science of climate change can be discussed from the standpoint of the science itself. Ideology and politics get checked at the keyboard.
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Prometheus @1,
you might care to check this website's Comments Policy.
IIRC, the Comments Policy was somewhat against Concern Trolling.
Besides ~ "concern trolling" is very boring, doncha think?
[BL] Please think twice before responding to baiting, and leave the moderation to the moderators.
"If Bill McKibben thinks Joe Biden and the DNC are ever going to put the Green New Deal into a bill and put it up for a vote, he must be...."
Forgive me I dont live in America so may have this all wrong, but I do recall the democrats did actually put a version of the GND to a senate vote here but sadly it lost. This may have been because of the socioeconomic content, as opposed to the climate content.
However it does show the democrats are interested in advancing this GND, so its not clear why it wouldnt happen again with Biden. Only time will tell of course. If we want him to advance the issue, encouragement and some nagging might be better than implying hes a useless fool
Prometheus 1962@1 said "To think a Democratic administration would... be... interested in saving our climate..." They've already expressed that interest, and the GOP has just as firmly expressed its disinterest. So the only thing we really know, is that no solution will come from the GOP (because interest is a necessary, incomplete condition for solution). Meanwhile, here's a quote from the guy who wants to lead the Democratic Party, speaking of the climate challenge: "A time of real peril but also a time of extraordinary possibilities. We've seen the light through the dark smoke. We never give up. Always, without exception, we succeed... when we try."
Prometheus 1962 appears to be a victim of, or perpetrator of, attempts to 'raise doubt about and smear the Other Leaders' by claiming they are just like the 'type of Leader they like' - a version of the False Equivalency scam.
The full set of evidence differentiating the Leadership candidates makes it hard for them to defend what they like. That can be especially true if the general population is becoming more aware that Leaders should be pursuing increased awareness and understanding applied to help develop sustainable improvements for the part of humanity they lead that does not negatively impact any other parts of global humanity (and understanding that the global future generations are the biggest part of humanity to avoid harming).
Those harmfuly selfish people, liking harmful actions they hope to benefit from, have to claim the Others are the same, are equally bad. They even try to create the appearance that the Others are worse by making-up scandalous gossip where there is little evidence or where they fabricate the evidence and the story by Cherry-Picking or taking bits out of context.