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2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #09
Posted on 3 March 2024 by BaerbelW, Doug Bostrom
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, Feb 25, 2024 thru Sat, March 2, 2024.
Story of the week
This week's big news is close to home for Skeptical Science and comes via UNICEF: Seriously Cranky: the uncle we all have helps build the skills we all need to resist misinformation (pdf). It's a story spanning an arc of progress beginning with fundamental research by Skeptical Science founder John Cook and ending with operational application of findings from that investigation-- now in multiple arenas including and beyond Skeptical Science's core mission of promoting accurate understanding of the science of climate change.
We're speaking of Cranky Uncle, a game built on scientifically tested and verified methods of improving critical thinking skills, first deployed to help people avoid being mentally infected with climate bunk transmitted by a veritable zoo of grifters attached to the fossil fuel industry. The same techniques and delivery framework for boosting cognitive competency have now successfully been adopted and adapted for combating vaccination hesitancy and reluctance, by UNICEF and with the assistance of John Cook and Skeptical Science.
Conceptualization, exploration and funding for creating Cranky Uncle came thanks to and via Skeptical Science's own internal and external contributors. Without Skeptical Science in the picture UNICEF's successful project to help save lives wouldn't have been possible. All who assisted may share pleasure plus at least a little pride in this outcome. Our ripples of progress travel far. It's a great true story!
Stories we promoted this week, by publication date:
Before February 25
- Designing Impactful Climate Literacy Education for Emergency Management-and Beyond, State of the Planet, Olga Rukovets. Emergency managers are tasked with preparation, response, mitigation and recovery from natural hazards leading to disasters and other emergencies—a responsibility that has grown increasingly challenging as climate impacts become more frequent and less predictable.
- Does the 'drug dealer defence' still hold up in climate law cases?, Latest business news, Jo Lauder. The Australian federal government is using a ''drug dealer's defence'' and a ''drop in the ocean'' argument in its assessment of two coal mine expansions.
- CCS Redux: Capturing CO2 From Exhaust Pipes Is A Bad Idea That Won`t Die, CleanTechnica, Michael Barnard. So here’s an idea. A lot of CO2 comes from cars and light trucks, right? So why don’t we just capture it in the car itself?
- 'Climate contrarianism' is down but not out, expert says, Phys.org, Clay Bonnyman Evans, University of Colorado at Boulder. Researcher Max Boycoff finds climate science being added to a stew of reactionary causes.
- Climate books for Black History Month, Yale Climate Connections, Michael Svoboda. 'In this very political year, the fight for a sustainable future is also a fight for a fair and equitable society.''
- Thrown to the wind' — are wind farms really killing whales?, potholer54 on Youtube, Peter Hadfield. A video rebuttal to Michael Shellenberger's video 'Thrown to the Wind'. It looks at the issue of whether wind farms are killing whales, as the title suggests.
- ‘Blue’ Hydrogen Could Produce 50% More Warming than Burning Fossil Fuels, The Energy Mix, Mitchell Beer.
- Antarctica sea ice reaches alarming low for third year in a row, The Observer, Graham Readfearn. The extent of ice floating around the continent has contracted to below 2m sq km for three years in a row, indicating an ‘abrupt critical transition’
- Are food influencers wrong about climate change?, ClimateAdam on Youtube, Adam Levy. ClimateAdam talks about the connections between food and climate change in his latest video.
February 25
- 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #08, Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler. Last week's compilation of articles we found relevant
- Climate change is throwing the water cycle into chaos across the U.S., NBC News, Denise Chow and Evan Bush. As the planet continues to warm, this cycle is expected to be increasingly stretched, warped and broken.
- One of the world’s biggest cities may be just months away from running out of water, World/Climate, CNN, Laura Paddison, Jack Guy & Fidel Gutiérrez.
February 26
- UN member states are meeting to plan how to tackle the world’s environmental crises, Climate, AP News , Carlos Mureithi.
- The ‘Doomsday Glacier’ is rapidly melting. Scientists now have evidence for when it started and why, Climate/World, CNN, Laura Paddison.
- All this climate data is wild, Yale Climate Connections, Kristen Pope. Animals wearing sensors gather tremendous amounts of data from forbidding regions such as high altitudes, ocean depths, and frozen areas near the poles.
- `A Trojan horse of legitimacy`: Shell launches a `climate tech` startup advertising jobs in oil and gas, The Guardian, Molly Taft. Onward touts a vision of a ‘clean energy future’, but experts say ventures like this are part of fossil fuel firms’ greenwashing plan
February 27
- At a glance - Is Greenland gaining or losing ice?, Skeptical Science, John Mason. Highlighting our 54th updated rebuttal since we started the project about a year ago!
- How to recycle the giant magnets inside wind turbines? These scientists have a few ideas., Grist, Maddie Stone. Many turbines rely on high-demand rare-earth minerals. A new Department of Energy program aims to keep them out of landfills.
- How psychology can help people live more climate-friendly lives – lessons from around the world, The Conversation Europe, Chiara Longoni & Kimberly Doell. Different climate policies will work in different places, communities and contexts, so new research that highlights the nuances could be a vital tool.
- Trump's Green-Bashing and Europe's Right Put Climate Goals at Risk, Bloomberg Green, Laura Millan, Zahra Hirji, Olivia Rudgard, & Jonathan Gilbert. "Climate policy has become a political flash point in the US and Europe, risking to slow down the energy transition when it needs to speed up."
February 28
- Explained: Carbon credits, MIT News, David L. Chandler. Can carbon trading systems reduce global emissions, or are they little more than greenwashing? Clear, enforceable standards may make the difference.
- Climate change could cause 'generational trauma' in great apes, CBC Technology News, Anand Ram. They’re just like us — and wildfires, floods and droughts could drive them to extinction
- Michael Mann beat his defamers. But climate scientists are still under attack., Yale Climate Connections, Lauren Kurtz. Climate scientists report that death threats and online harassment are causing anxiety, sleeping problems, and loss of productivity .
- Exxon CEO blames public for failure to fix climate change, TheHill, Saul Elbein.
- Anti-Renewable Group Says It Met Privately with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, DeSmog, Geoff Dembicki. Wind Concerns founder has called CO2 the ‘gas of life’ and praised the province’s ban on new wind and solar projects.
- Q&A: What does the EU `nature restoration` law mean for climate and biodiversity?, Carbon Brief, Carbon Brief Staff. The EU’s law to restore nature was given the green light by the European parliament this week.
February 29
- The human cost of climate-related disasters is acutely undercounted, new study says, NPR, Alejandra Borunda.
- Has Antarctic sea ice shifted into a new state?, Dr. Gilbz on Youtube, Ella Gilbert. Ella Gilbert gives a brief summary about the state of the Antarctic sea ice.
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #9 2024, Skeptical Science, Doug Bostrom & Marc Kodack. Our weekly easy-access listing of the latest in climate research
- Seriously Cranky: the uncle we all have helps build the skills we all need to resist misinformation, Unicef, Unicef Press Center. Cranky Uncle Vaccine leverages cutting-edge science to protect against misinformation, with promising results.
- Climate deniers don't deny climate change any more, YouTube, Simon Clark.
March 1
- `Two worlds colliding`: Berlin transport workers and climate activists unite over rights, The Guardian, Kate Connolly. Two groups are striking for better working conditions and investment in Germany’s underfunded public transport
- Zombie climate myths that refuse to die (feat. Bob Henson), Yale Climate Connections, YCC Team. Meteorologist Alexandra Steele breaks down the undead myths about climate change — so you can recognize them when they come for you.
- Clean energy is growing, but so is planet-heating pollution, The Verge, Justine Calma. Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions hit a new high in 2023.
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!
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The term "climate change" is an Orwellian BENIGN and VAGUE term for a civilization threatening DISEASE.
A medical approach to naming this disease would result in a term such as "Atmospheric Carbon Poisoning".
Atmospheric is the LOCATION of the POISON
Carbon Gases (CO2 and CH4) are the NAME of the primary POISONS.
Poisoning is an unequivocal declaration of dangerous toxicity.
A skeptical scientist should think about telling the public the TRUTH and not shy away from naming the disease like a good scientist would. Climate change is clearly vague and inadequate. The generally public is woefully ignorant about this DISEASE.
https://www.change.org/p/change-name-of-climate-change-to-atmospheric-carbon-poisoning?recruiter=261487266&recruited_by_id=d2d62b10-d0fa-11e4-b3f4-bd4f0f527c9b&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=petition_dashboard_share_modal&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_37915781_en-US%3A3
[BL] When you signed up for an account here at SkS, you were expected to read and follow the Comments Policy. Two of the items in that policy are:
SkS has a post about the use of the terms "climate change" and "global warming". It would serve you well to read that post and reflect upon the meaning of the various terms.
The wording of your post and your suggested terminology represents a level of hyperbole and rhetoric that is neither scientific nor constructive.
Efforts to fight disinformation and the resulting tragic popularity of harmful misunderstanding, especially the application of Cranky Uncle beyond the important climate science matters (as highlighted in The Story of the Week), are highly valuable (tragically not valued by all leadership competitors). They help promote learning to improve the future for all children on this amazing planet which may be the only viable place for children to continue to be born to live on as sustainable parts of an amazing robust diversity of life. (tragically not the objective of all leadership competitors)
This new CBC News article: After Mulroney, being a 'green' PM got a lot tougher presents a history lesson about the need for the development of Cranky Uncle, and more like it, to try to counter-act tragically popular and profitable harmful developments and resistance to correction of damaging unsustainable misunderstandings over the past 30 years.
The CBC story is about a major political group in Canada, a nation that many people would currently mistakenly consider to be quite advanced. Before the early-1990s the group that Mulroney led pursued ‘learning to develop improvements for all children, including leadership actions to limit Canada’s ghg emissions’. But the group was rapidly captured (taken-over) by interests that oppose leadership actions that are being learned to be required to ‘develop sustainable improvements for all children’. (Note that the related concern about ‘harmful capture’ of potentially helpful learning institutions is highlighted in Academic capture in the Anthropocene: a framework to assess climate action in higher education, Lachapelle et al., Climatic Change:, the 3rd open access notable item on Skeptical Science New Research for Week #9 2024.)
The following quote from the CBC article highlights this tragic transition:
Mulroney's Progressive Conservative government also enacted the Canadian Environmental Protection Act to manage toxic substances in the environment, and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act to review the environmental impacts of major projects.
It established the International Institute for Sustainable Development — still a leading voice on global environmental policy — and launched the National Roundtable on the Economy and the Environment (NRTEE), an expert advisory body that published analysis until Stephen Harper's Conservative government abolished it in 2013.
The Harper Conservatives were what the Mulroney PCs had transformed into. And the opposition to learning to be less harmful and more helpful has increased in the Conservative Party of Canada since Harper stopped being its leader. See the following string of quotes from the article:
In 1990, the federal government released "Canada's Green Plan," a 174-page statement of intent to deal with a host of environmental problems, including global warming. That plan set a lofty goal of stabilizing Canada's greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by 2000 — the first of several targets Canada would announce and fail to pursue seriously between 1990 and 2015.
...
The Green Plan touted the possibility of pursuing an emissions "trading" program — what we would now call a cap-and-trade system, one of two primary methods for establishing a price on harmful emissions.
"There is evidence that a market-based approach to the problem can be quicker, more efficient and more effective in reducing emissions and the costs of achieving these reductions," the PC government wrote.
...
It would be another 29 years before the federal government [Liberal-led] finally applied a "market-based" approach to carbon emissions, through the current government's carbon tax. But now the future of that policy is very much in doubt — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, Mulroney's [and Harper’s] political heir, has loudly and repeatedly vowed that a government led by him will "axe the tax."
This tragic transition of a major political group that was ‘striving to be more helpful and less harmful’ into ‘harmful disinformation producers’ trying to ‘oppose and delay learning to develop improvements for all children’ can be seen to have happened (still happening) in many other nations.
The undeniably high-value leadership goal of ‘Learning to improve the future for all children’ is tragically opposed by special interest groups with ‘Other interests they consider to be important enough (to them) to justify being damaging rather than improving the future for all children’.