Friday, January 24, 2020

Eye-popping climate headlines from 2018 and 2019

I have collected these links. Who knows what to do with them? You do. Go do it, please.

"Antarctica just registered its hottest temperature ever," Drew Kann, CNN, February 7, 2020.

"Bumblebees are going extinct in a time of ‘climate chaos’," Douglas Main, National Geographic, February 7, 2020.

"We may avoid the very worst climate scenario. But the next-worst is still pretty awful." Chris Mooney and Andrew Freedman, Washington Post, January 30, 2020.

"Unprecedented data confirms that Antarctica’s most dangerous glacier is melting from below," Chris Mooney, Washington Post, January 30, 2020.

"Nearly Half A Billion Animals Feared Dead In Australian Wildfires," Josie Harvey, Huffington Post, January 2, 2020

"The 2010s were a lost decade for climate. We can’t afford a repeat, scientists warn." Sarah Kaplan, Washington Post, January 1, 2020.

"'Okay, Merry Christmas Everyone,' Says McConnell After Admitting GOP Has Zero Plan to Address Climate Crisis," Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, December 24, 2019

"'Everything is Burning': Australian Inferno Continues, Choking Off Access to Cities Across Country," Eoin Higgins, Common Dreams, December 21, 2019

"Liberal senator doubles down on accusing BoM of changing records to fit climate agenda": A Liberal senator has again accused the weather bureau of deliberately changing temperature records to fit a global warming agenda. SBS News (Australia), November 12, 2019

"Rising Sea Levels To Affect 3 Times More People Than Once Feared: Study": Roughly 300 million people may lose their homes by 2050 due to coastal flooding, a new study examining land elevation finds. Nina Golgowski, October 30, 2019.

"A Forecast for a Warming World: Learn to Live With Fire," Thomas Fuller and Kendra Pierre-Louis, New York Times, October 24, 2019

"‘They should be allowed to cry’: Ecological disaster taking toll on scientists’ mental health," ‘We’re documenting destruction of world’s most beautiful ecosystems, it’s impossible to be detached’ Phoebe Weston, Independent, October 10, 2019

"Humans will perish in 31 years, warns latest climate change study: Cities like Mumbai, Florida, Shanghai will be reduced to swamps, 90% of mankind will be annihilated, says report released ahead of World Environment Day," Raj Aditya Chaudhuri, Condé Nast Traveller, June 4, 2019

"‘High likelihood of human civilisation coming to end’ by 2050, report finds," Harry Cockburn, Independent, June 4, 2019

"New Report Suggests ‘High Likelihood of Human Civilization Coming to an End’ Starting in 2050: The climate change analysis was written by a former fossil fuel executive and backed by the former chief of Australia's military," Nafeez Ahmed, Motherboard (Tech by Vice), June 3, 2019

"Central American Farmers Head to the U.S., Fleeing Climate Change," Kirk Semple, New York Times, April 13, 2019 (2023 follow-up: Not only is coffee affected, but also beer)

"Only rebellion will prevent an ecological apocalypse," George Monbiot, The Guardian, April 15, 2019

"'Dead corals don't make babies': Great Barrier Reef losing its ability to recover from bleaching,"Euan McKirdy, CNN, April 4, 2019.

"This Sci-Fi Plan To Beat Rising Seas Could Change The Way We Live – If It Works" Senay Boztas, Huffington Post, April 3, 2019

"Canada warming at twice the global rate, leaked report finds," CBC News, April 1, 2019

"While the rich world braces for future climate change, the poor world is already being devastated by it," Tara John, CNN, April 1, 2019

"Greenland's most critical glacier is suddenly gaining ice, but that might not be a good thing," Brandon Miller, CNN, March 28, 2019

"Temperatures in Alaska are toppling records," Mark Kaufman, Mashable, March 26, 2019

"Circular(s): Why conscious consumption isn't enough to combat climate change." Hosted by Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham. New York Times' "Still Processing" podcast. March 14, 2019.

"The oceans are warming faster than scientists thought," Jen Christensen, CNN, January 10, 2019

"An Optimist’s Guide to Climate Change," Lynn Scarlett, Project Syndicate, January 8, 2019

"For Climate Safety, Call in the Engineers: At the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland, diplomats delivered a "rulebook" to guide all countries in combating global warming. When world leaders convene at the UN next September to advance climate safety further, the world’s leading engineers should greet them with a global framework for action." Jeffrey D. Sachs, Project Syndicate, December 20, 2018

"David Attenborough: 'The collapse of our civilizations is on the horizon'," Mark Tutton, CNN, December 4, 2018

"Trump administration sees a 7-degree rise in global temperatures by 2100," Juliet Eilperin, Brady Dennis and Chris Mooney, Washington Post, September 28, 2018

"Hurricane Florence may reshape the climate change debate," editorial board, Baltimore Sun, September 11, 2018

"The Arctic's 'last bastion' of sea ice is breaking up for the first time on record," Drew Kann, CNN, August 23, 2018

"Australia is devastated by drought, yet it won't budge on climate change," Angela Dewan, CNN, August 22, 2018

"Great Barrier Reef headed for ‘massive death’" The ‘Godfather of Coral’ predicts a ‘planetary catastrophe’ Rebecca Wright and Ivan Watson, CNN, August 2018

"Deadly wildfires burn in Greece," Meg Wagner, Veronica Rocha and Brian Ries, CNN, July 26, 2018

"Record-breaking summer marches on to the beat of climate change," Brandon Miller, CNN, July 24, 2018

" Scientists lay out how to save a melting Antarctica — and the grim future if we don't," Jen Christensen, CNN, June 28, 2018

"Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Melting Way Faster Than Expected, Scientists Warn," Dominique Mosbergen, Huffington Post, June 14, 2018

"Pediatricians are concerned about climate change, and here's why," Jacqueline Howard, CNN, May 8, 2018

"Mosquito- And Tick-Borne Diseases Have Tripled, But The CDC Won’t Say It’s Climate Change" We’re totally unprepared to address what comes next. Lauren Weber, Huffington Post, May 3, 2018

"Former UN Secretary-General Kicks Off BU Think Tank," Megan Woolhouse, BU Today, March 1, 2018

"Rising Waters Are Drowning Amtrak's Northeast Corridor," Bloomberg, 2018

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

January 2020: Misrepresentations of North Korean denuclearization

At the first Trump-Kim summit in Singapore in June 2018, the leaders signed what Fox News described as "a vague statement" with a vision of "a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing when or how it would occur." On December 8, 2019, Trump tweeted that Kim had "signed a strong Denuclearization Agreement with me in Singapore" and that Kim has "far too much to lose" to throw away this agreement. A North Korean official, Kim Yong Chol, responded with the correction that they feel that they "have nothing more to lose."

(Meanwhile, National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien referred to Kim Jong-un as "Chairman Un," rather than Chairman Kim.)

North Korea foreign ministry adviser Kim Kye Gwan said on 11 January 2020 that Donald Trump's birthday greeting to Kim Jong-Un was an insufficient basis on which to resume denuclearization talks.

The adviser referenced the second round of Trump-Kim talks, held in Vietnam in February 2019, at which Trump refused to lift sanctions on North Korea. The complete lifting of sanctions had been Kim's non-negotiable prerequisite for dismantling the Yongbyon nuclear complex. As "we know well that the US is neither ready nor able" to meet Kim's demands on this issue, the adviser explained, there will "never be such negotiations as that in Vietnam" again unless Trump changes his position. The year-and-a-half spent in dialogue was "lost time for us," the adviser said, because "we have been deceived by the US."

He warned that North Korea would no longer adhere to its own self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests. He announced that the world would soon hear of a "new strategic weapon."

Reuters quoted Prof Mason Richey at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul as explaining that "the US and North Korea have fundamentally different strategic interests with almost no meaningful overlap."

In an interview with Fox News host Bret Baier, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeated the White House line that Kim Jong-un "made a commitment that he would denuclearize. He has not walked back that commitment." This is not a complete, accurate picture.

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