Arguments
2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #10
Posted on 10 March 2024 by BaerbelW, Doug Bostrom
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 3, 2024 thru Sat, March 9, 2024.
Story(s) of the week
Two stories on one topic inexorably lead to a third story.
Fury after Exxon chief says public to blame for climate failures in The Guardian provides straight journalistic coverage of Exxon CEO Darren Woods' remarkable implication that consumers are too stupid to understand or want sustainable energy supplies, and that anyway permanent, modernized energy is not profitable enough for Exxon or its shareholders. Backlash ensued. Bill McKibben's The most epic (and literal) gaslighting of all time is exemplary of critical analysis catalyzed by the Exxon top dog's clumsy speech, a surgical dissection of Woods' anachronistic and strikingly antisocial thinking and expression.
Where's this fracas going to end? Ultimately the whole travesty of industry procrastination, deceit and naked unheeding self-interest is headed to courts of law, of course— as always happens in cases of reckless endangerment. A tidal wave of accountability for fossil fuel industry intransigence is beginning to pile up in the shoaling waters of our and the fossil fuel industry's immediate future, as described in Grist and Big Oil faces a flood of climate lawsuits - and they`re moving closer to trial. Meanwhile, Darren Woods seems to be helping set the mood in the room when it comes to judgment of a track record of industry alienation from broader human society and its interests. It's a puzzling posture.
Stories we promoted this week, by publication date:
Before March 3
- Planetary boundary pioneer Johan Rockstroem awarded 2024 Tyler Prize, Mongaby, Glenn Scherer. The 2024 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement will go to Johan Rockstroem who led the team of international researchers who originated the planetary boundary framework in 2009.
- Psychology month: moving past climate change disinformation, CPA Podcasts, Eric Bollman. A 45-minute podcast produced by the Canadian Psychological Association about climate science misinformation.
- How to Navigate the Complex World of Climate Disinformation, Climate Nexus, ClimeNexus Staff. Five Tips for Addressing Climate Disinformation
- This chart of ocean temperatures should really scare you, Climate, Vox, Benji Jones. "The Atlantic Ocean is unusually warm right now. Here’s why scientists say that’s 'deeply troubling.' "
- Scientists Investigate Drying out the Stratosphere to Reduce Warming, AAAS News, Nailoa Husain.
- Brown University Study Documents Links Between National & Local Offshore Wind Opponents, CleanTechnica, Steve Hanley.
- TCB quick hit: Wildfire risk is increasing in a warming world, The Climate Brink, Andrew Dessler. Humanity is playing with fire
- He Wants Oil Money Off Campus. She’s Funded by Exxon. They’re Friends., New York Times, Hiroko Tabuchi. The two friends, both climate researchers, recently spent hours confronting the choices that will shape their careers, and the world. Their ideas are very different.
March 3
- 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #09, Skeptical Science, Baerbel Winkler & Doug Bostrom. Links to 34 articles shared during week 9 of 2024.
- How a warming climate is setting the stage for fast-spreading, destructive wildfires, Climate, CNN World, Laura Paddison.
- How can 0.04% carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have an effect on climate? This video explains how., Youtube, Science and Climate channel.
March 4
- How to normalize the climate conversation, Yale Climate Connections, SueEllen Campbell. It can be hard to talk to our loved ones about climate change and not ‘give a talk.’
- Fury after Exxon chief says public to blame for climate failures, The Guardian, Dharna Noor and Oliver Milman. Darren Woods tells Fortune consumers not willing to pay for clean-energy transition, prompting backlash from climate experts
- Interview with Foolproof author Dr Sander van der Linden, "Thinking is Power" on Youtube, Melanie Trecek-King. A one hour long interview by Melanie Trecek-King with Sander van der Linden about misinformation, debunking and inoculation
- The Geoengineering Question, The Climate Brink, Zeke Hausfather.
- New satellite will track elusive methane pollution from oil and gas industry globally, CBC Technology News, Jill English. MethaneSAT mission to fill 'critical data gap' for identifying potent greenhouse gas emissions, expert says
- Exclusive: EU wants fossil fuel sector to help pay to combat climate change, draft shows, Climate & Enegy, Reuters, Kate Abnett.
March 5
- The most epic (and literal) gaslighting of all time, The Crucial Years, Bill McKibben. Exxon--is it possible?--hits a new low
- Are We in the ‘Anthropocene,’ the Human Age? Nope, Scientists Say., Climate, New York Times, Raymond Zhong. A panel of experts voted down a proposal to officially declare the start of a new interval of geologic time, one defined by humanity’s changes to the planet.
- The worst wildfire in Texas' history has a complex link with climate change, BBC News, Lucy Sherriff. The worst wildfire in Texas' history is leaving wide scars on the landscape. Why is the blaze so extreme?
March 6
- At a glance - Human activity is driving retreat of arctic sea ice, Skeptical Science, John Mason. Rebuttal #55 to get a face lift and an at-a-glance section since we started the project in February 2023.
- The Maori climate activist breaking legal barriers to bring corporate giants to court, The Guardian, Eva Corlett. In a landmark case, Mike Smith has won the right to sue seven of the country’s biggest companies over their alleged contributions to climate change
- Analysis: Trump election win could add 4bn tonnes to US emissions by 2030, Carbon Brief, Carbon Brief Staff. A victory for Donald Trump in November’s presidential election could lead to an additional 4bn tonnes of US emissions by 2030 compared with Joe Biden’s plans, Carbon Brief analysis reveals.
- Big Meat is lying about sustainability. These media outlets are helping., HEATED, Emily Atkin and Arielle Samuelson. Can newsrooms really expect people to trust their reporting if they fund it by spreading misinformation?
- More climate records fall in world's warmest February, Science, BBC News, Mark Poynting. Last month was the world's warmest February in modern times, the EU's climate service says, extending the run of monthly records to nine in a row.
- S.E.C. Approves New Climate Rules Far Weaker Than Originally Proposed, Climate, New York Times, Hiroko Tabuchi, Ephrat Livni & David Gelles. The rules, designed to inform investors of business risks from climate change, were rolled back amid opposition from the G.O.P., fossil fuel producers, farmers and others.
- Arctic sea could be `ice-free` by the 2030s, new study warns, TheHill, Lauren Irwin.
March 7
- I’m a climate scientist. If you knew what I know, you’d be terrified too, CNN, Bill McGuire.
- AI likely to increase energy use and accelerate climate misinformation - report, The Guardian, Oliver Milman. Claims that artificial intelligence will help solve the climate crisis are misguided, warns a coalition of environmental groups
- How climate change primed Texas to burn, Grist, Naveena Sadasivam. The state's high plains get a month more fire weather now than they did in the 1970s.
- What Americans Need to Hear About Biden's Climate Record, Distilled, Michael Thomas. Biden has done more to fight climate change than any president. But most people don't know that.
- `No drilling! No drilling!`: climate choir sings truth to power in Palace of Westminster, The Guardian, Amelia Hill. ‘No drilling! No drilling!’: climate choir sings truth to power in Palace of Westminster
March 8
- Big Oil faces a flood of climate lawsuits - and they`re moving closer to trial, Grist, Kate Yoder. A quarter of Americans now live in cities and states taking companies to court over lying to the public.
- `Insure Our Future:` A Global Movement Says the Insurance Industry Could Be the Key to Ending Fossil Fuels, Inside Climate News, Keerti Gopal. As insurers cancel policies in regions threatened by sea level rise and wildfires, activists around the world rallied for a week of actions pressuring the companies to drop oil, gas and coal projects driving climate disasters.
March 9
- Film studio from Oscar-winning director aims to stir up `populist anger` over climate crisis, The Guardian, Dharna Noor. Yellow Dot Studios produces short-form videos to inform with ‘genuine, righteous anger’ and ‘laugh-out-loud comedy’
If you happen upon high quality climate-science and/or climate-myth busting articles from reliable sources while surfing the web, please feel free to submit them via this Google form so that we may share them widely. Thanks!
Sorry, but actually Exxon CEO Darren Woods may be right that consumers are too stupid to understand or want sustainable energy supplies, or at least too uninterested or too unself-aware.
If you want evidence you just need to get out more.
I wish I had a dollar for every small p**** in a big black tricked-out pickup truck that I've seen floor it to get around my hybrid EV just to beat me to the red light, and then floor it again when the light turns green, or push that 3 1/2 ton behemoth along at 80 on the highway.
You want consumers to understand or want sustainable energy supplies?
Double or even triple gasoline prices and maybe, just maybe it will get their attention.
Not that this absolves Exxon's Woods and his ilk one iota, mind you.
Jim Eager.
I agree, with a slightly different perspective.
A better question is: How much of the harmful public misunderstanding and lack of care about the future is due to the deliberate development and dissemination of disinformation by the likes of Exxon anti-leadership and the political misleaders who chose to join the anti-leadership team effort?
I use the term anti-leadership because, from an ethical perspective, leadership obviously needs to responsibly pursue and promote improved awareness and understanding of what is harmful and unsustainable, learning and teaching how to be less harmful and more helpful. As justification for that perspective I would suggest that any organization that does not have that type of leadership may temporarily appear to be successful. But it will ultimately be unsustainable.
I learned that understanding in the marketing course of my MBA education in the 1980s. That course began with the professor stating we would learn about the science of marketing . We would learn about the powerful ability to fool many people some of the time by being misleading. But we would also learn that abusing that 'marketing science knowledge' should not be done because it would ultimately be unsustainable. (Also, the Ethics course started with the professor stating that there would be a lack of case study examples of 'ethical business behaviours'. Admittedly some case study examples of ethical leadership have developed since the 1980s).
[PS] Slight edit to fix an unfortunate typo.