Canada and global warming: a state of denial 2

The record temperatures that saw Siberia hit 38 degrees Celsius, which is more than ten degrees above the previous record (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit), as global warming heats up the Arctic at three times the rate of the rest of the world is leading to the melting of permafrost that releases even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and gargantuan wildfires that now cover 1.7 million hectares, according to CBC National News. The smoke from these wildfires is now reaching the west coast of North America. Many Siberian forests are burning without any response from government because of their remoteness and the extensiveness of the blazes. 

As the following article notes, climate change models predicted these extreme temperatures in the Arctic were not expected for seven more decades, indicating that current models have greatly underestimated the rate of change created by climate change. 

A forest fire in central Yakutia (Sakha Republic). (evgeny Sofroneyev\TASS via Getty Images)

“Higher temperatures and drier surface conditions are providing ideal conditions for these fires to burn and to persist for so long over such a large area,” European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts fire specialist Mark Parrington says in a statement, per the New York Times. The smoke from the fires alone spans over 1,000 miles, per the Post, and is causing hazy skies the northwestern United States, as Nick Morgan reports for the Mail Tribune.

Permafrost is rich in organic material that froze before it could completely decompose. Melting permafrost releases greenhouse gases on top of the pollution released by the blazes themselves, per National Geographic. All of which could exacerbate further climate change. ...

After a month of blazes that released record-breaking amounts of polluting gases, smoke from Siberian wildfires are now making their way to the west coast of the United States.

The New York Times’ Somini Sengupta reports that Arctic wildfires in June released more pollution than in the previous 18 years that data had been collected. Seasonal wildfires are common in Siberia, but this year’s fires are unusually widespread in part because of a climate change-driven heatwave, as Madeleine Stone reports for National Geographic. The Arctic is experiencing climate change-driven warming faster than the rest of the Earth, which sets up the dry conditions that make blazes spread. While on average, the Earth’s temperature has risen by 1.71 degrees Fahrenheit, the Arctic has seen a rise of 5.6 degrees Fahrenheit, a discrepancy accounted for by Arctic amplification. ...

The current situation in the Arctic circle shows that previous predictions “underestimate what is going on in reality,” University of Alaska at Fairbanks earth scientist Vladimir Romanovsky, who studies permafrost, tells the Washington Post. Romanovsky adds that temperature observations in the High Arctic made in the last 15 years weren’t expected for another seven decades.

Millions of acres of land are ablaze this wildfire season, according to Russia’s Forestry Agency estimates. Most of the wildfires are located in Siberia’s Sakha Republic, which sees wildfires frequently, but fires are also spreading further north and into unusual ecosystems, like those that are characterized by a layer of frozen soil called permafrost.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/siberian-wildfires-cause-recor...

Warren Buffett’s decision to walk away from a proposed LNG terminal investment in Quebec reflects a growing consensus in the investment community that fossil fuel industry investments are not advantageous economically as well as environmentally.  Local protests, including by indigenous groups, in the region, and plunging prices that have fallen even further due to Covid-19's economic impact have hit the LNG industry hard.

A total of 13 LNG projects ranging from BC to Nova Scotia have been cancelled or suspended in recent years. Yet the Liberal Trudeau government, as well as many provincial ones, continue down the same sunset industry path that is destroying the planet while producing greatly reduced if any economic returns.

Warren Buffett decision shows LNG projects on shaky political, economic ground: report

Legendary investor Warren Buffett’s decision to walk away from a proposed export terminal for liquefied natural gas in Quebec is being held up in a new report as a sign that the LNG sector in Canada and elsewhere is on shaky ground.

The Global Energy Monitor report released Monday says Buffett’s move in March underscores the growing political and economic uncertainty that LNG projects are facing even as governments around the world tout liquefied natural gas as a clean alternative to coal power.

Canada has emerged as a major proponent of expanding liquefied natural gas as a way to fight climate change abroad and create jobs and revenue at home, with numerous multibillion-dollar projects to facilitate LNG exports to Asia and elsewhere in the works.

Yet Global Energy Monitor suggested Buffett’s decision to withdraw investment firm Berkshire Hathaway’s planned $4-billion investment in an LNG export terminal in Saguenay, Que., is a sign of things to come.

Neither Buffett nor Berkshire Hathaway explained their reasons for the move, but the company behind the terminal project blamed “the current Canadian context” — an apparent reference to countrywide rail blockades and protests against the Coastal GasLink pipeline in B.C. at the time.

“While many projects face opposition from local communities, the case of the Energie Saguenay LNG Terminal in Quebec shows the potential for a local protest to galvanize a national movement,” said the Global Energy Monitor report.

Global Energy Monitor is an international non-governmental organization that catalogues fossil-fuel infrastructure around the world and advocates for more investments in renewable energy.

Monday’s report goes on to suggest that political opposition is only one of many new challenges to the LNG sector, with another being a dramatic drop in the price of gas due to an oversupply at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has sent demand plummeting.

The result: plans to build pipelines, terminals and other infrastructure in Canada and around the world have been put on hold — or dropped entirely.

The report lists 13 LNG projects in Canada alone that have been cancelled or suspended in recent years. That includes a $10-billion LNG export facility in Nova Scotia, which is now in limbo as the company behind the project tries to decide whether to move ahead or not.

One of those apparently not affected is LNG Canada’s Coastal GasLink pipeline, which was the target of this year’s protests and blockades over a route that crosses traditional Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia. The company said last month that it plans to have 2,500 people working on the 670-kilometre pipeline from Dawson Creek to Kitimat by September.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/07/06/warren-buffett-decision-s...

A 2020 report draws the direct link between militarism and climate change.

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided us the opportunity to discard the old “normal” and start building a world without extractive economies and militarism, a new report says

In the aftermath of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a reduction in the burning of fossil fuels due to lockdowns and a decline in industrial activity. Some climate change activists have seen this as a silver lining to the current crisis. However, this will not last if we do not start building a new economy which will be non-extractive and non-militaristic.

A new report titled “No Warming, No War: How militarism fuels the climate crisis-and vice versa” points to the direct links between an extractive economy, the military and the increasingly deteriorating climate. The report was prepared by Lorah Steichen and Lindsay Koshgarian and published by the National Priorities Project at the Institute of Policy Studies in the US.

The US withdrawal from international climate negotiations under the Trump administration and its treating climate emergency as any other national security issue has diverted attention and resources away from the attempts of urgent mitigation of global warming in the country.

The report is critical of the so-called “armed lifeboat” approach according to which growing militarization is the solution to problems caused by climate change. “True climate solutions must have anti-militarism at their core,” the report underlines.

According to the authors of the report, our pre-COVID-19 “normal” was defined by unfettered capitalism thriving on the devastation of our planet, the devaluation of human life and the use of military force to perpetuate both. The US has used its military power to capture the world’s oil resources through war and forceful suppression of dissenting groups such as indigenous populations.

The extractive economy is based on racial discrimination where it is okay to kill others to take their resources to maintain the living standards of the rich. The fact that close to half of all interstate wars waged since 1973 have been linked to oil says a lot, the report says, highlighting the need to shift away from culture of war to a culture of care.

Growing militarism and the extractive economy does not just kill people; it also harms the environment, risking the future of humankind.  ...

According to the report, the Pentagon is the world’s largest institutional user of petroleum. With more than 800 bases in over 90 countries, a force of over 2 million personnel and an annual budget of more than USD 700 billion, the US military produces 59 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year which is more than what industrialized countries such as Portugal or Sweden produce.

Hence, militarism and climate change are fundamentally at odds, the report concludes. The military cannot deal with climate change because it is the cause of it. The security-based approach to climate change mitigation is racist and classist because it is designed keeping the interests of the rich in mind, and leaves the black, brown and indigenous populations, and the poor out.

The report says that the climate-changed world will see more cross border migration when poor countries face the withering away of their natural resources and agriculture. The security-based approach will create more militarization. We are already witnessing the growing militarization of borders across the world. In the US, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has continued its raids, detention and deportation of migrants even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Demilitarization and simultaneously working for a climate just society needs a diversion of focus and resources to develop the green economy. According to the report, if we divert the existing military budget in the US, we can create 40% more jobs which will be better in terms of wages and in quality. In brief, “energy efficiency retrofits create nearly twice the number of jobs.”

In 2020, the military budget was 272 times higher than the federal budget for energy efficiency and renewable energy. “Compared to the $6.4 trillion spent on war in the past two decades, the cost of shifting the US power grid to 100% renewable is an estimated $4.5 trillion.”

The report highlights that the current crisis demonstrates the necessity of a just transition from a “bank and tank” economy to one rooted in “cooperation and care.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/26/report-highlights-direct-link-bet...

Following the release of data showing that 400 sq km of the Amazon, a record, were burned in June, thereby threatening indigenous and other Amazon residents, wildlife and increasing enormously the amount of carbon dioxide released into the air from burning vegetation, the Bolsinaro government's Trumpian solution to the problem was to fire the person responsible for releasing the information. Destruction of the Amazon has global implications because of the amount of carbon dioxide released and the fact that its loss would change wind and weather patterns around the world. 

Inpe figures published on Friday showed 400 square miles (1,034 square kilometers) of deforestation in the Amazon in June, a new record the month since data started being gathered in 2015.

Brazil’s government on Monday fired an official at the national space agency Inpe whose department is responsible for satellite monitoring of the Amazon rainforest, just three days after the release of June deforestation data reflected a continued increase in degradation.

Lubia Vinhas was the general-coordinator of Brazilian space agency Inpe’s Earth Observation Institute, which is an umbrella for divisions that monitor the Amazon and panels to debate climate change with civil society organizations. ...

the timing of the dismissal — coming on the heels of June data — drew an outcry from environmentalists who claim it may be an echo of a high-profile firing at the same agency last year. President Jair Bolsonaro is a critic of environmentalists and defends fostering more economic development in the Amazon, which many adversaries see as a nod to illegal miners and loggers.

Ms. Vinhas was picked in 2018 for a four-year term but Science and Technology Minister Marcos Pontes decided to remove her after 2 years and 3 months on the job. 

Inpe said in its statement that Ms. Vinhas’ former department will be merged with others, and she will oversee implementation of a new georeferencing database.

Inpe figures published on Friday showed 400 square miles (1,034 square kilometers) of deforestation in the Amazon in June, a new record the month since data started being gathered in 2015.

Total deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon from January to June was 1,890 square miles (3,069 square kilometers), up 25% from the same six-month period last year. ...

Mr. Bolsonaro also put the Army in charge of efforts to curb deforestation in May after last year’s fires pushed destruction to the highest level in 11 years. Yet data from Inpe show that it kept climbing.

Marcio Astrini, the executive-secretary of the Brazilian Climate Observatory, a coalition of civil society groups, alleged that the government has previously made clear its desire to intervene in Inpe.

The removal of Lubia Vinhas could be an indication that the plan was never abandoned. This is happening as deforestation accelerates, when the administration needs to stop threats of divestment, Mr. Astrini said in a statement.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/brazil-sacks-official-after-...

 The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) has just issued a report which states that if Canada met "its climate change targets, Canada could save 100,000 lives and create more than one million jobs over the next few decades." However, the vast sums of money being spent during the Covid-19 crisis needs to be directed at building a new green economy, not rebuilding the old fossil fuel economy for this to happen. So far this is no evidence of the Trudeau Liberals doing this, as they continue their fossil fuel subsidies and pipeline building. 

The kind of economy Canada needs to move away from. 

In an interview with CTV Morning Live Wednesday, Robin Edger with the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) said the report lays out a roadmap where the government could invest in renewable energy, sustainable transport, homes and health care, and meet its climate targets.

The federal government is spending at a level not seen since the Second World War to help get the country out of the economic "doldrums" caused by the pandemic, Edger said. And his group hopes to see the government take action on climate change to help in that recovery.

"The choices that they make in these investments are going to determine whether or not we can transition to a sustainable economy," he said.

During the pandemic, many countries have seen a reduction in air pollution because people weren't leaving their homes. If Canada were to meet its climate targets, the report found 112,081 lives in Canada could be saved between 2030 and 2050 from improvements to air quality alone.

"Of course, we can't expect everyone's going to stay at home into the future," Edger said. "So our report lays out a roadmap for how we can have those sustained air quality improvements while getting our lives going again."

The report made 25 recommendations for federal stimulus spending that would help Canada meets its 2030 and 2050 emission reduction targets.

It also found 1.3 million "clean" full-time jobs could be created if Canada hits its climate targets.

"We're talking getting where the puck is going rather than were it's been," Edger said. He added many industries have been hit hard during the pandemic, but the fossil fuel industry has been "decimated. It was important to us to make recommendations to the federal government to invest in job training programs that allow former fossil fuel workers to transition their very flexible skills into spaces like renewable energy," he said.

The World Health Organization has called climate change the greatest threat to global health. CAPE doctors noted increases in extreme weather events, Lyme disease, heat stroke and cardiorespiratory issues are all ways climate change has already harmed Canadians' health.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/physicians-group-calls-on-government-to-meet-clima...

A recent study has found that global warming is changing our weather through a weakening of the jetstream that has led to summer droughts, floods and wildfires in the Northern Hemisphere and to a lesser extent in the southern hemisphere. This involves a process called blocking that tends to weather systems in place and therefore results in more extreme heat, such as seen in the 100 degree Fahrenheit temperatures reached in Siberia, as well as droughts and wildfires. Weather systems stay in place because of the weakening jetstream, brought on by global warming. The jetstream historically tended to move weather systems along. 

The speed and waviness of the northern jet stream, a river of wind across the Northern Hemisphere, is affected by the temperature difference between the Arctic and mid-latitudes. Credit: NASA

The past few months have seen some remarkable weather, from the UK’s sunniest spring on record to Siberia’s dramatic heatwave and “zombie wildfires”.

Key to this unseasonable weather are persistent high-pressure “blocking” weather systems, which bring clear, dry conditions on the ground below for many days or weeks.

Blocking events bat away oncoming low-pressure systems that would bring the prospect of clouds and rain. They are particularly synonymous with heatwaves and drought in summer and bitterly cold conditions in winter. ...

Around the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere, low-pressure weather fronts, which bring cloudy, windy and potentially wet weather, generally move from west to east. These are carried along by the jet stream – a current of fast-flowing air high up in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. (Jet streams encircle the mid-latitudes of both the northern and southern hemispheres.)

The jet generally keeps a steady stream of weather systems moving across the Earth’s surface. This means that any low-pressure system – or intervening high-pressure system that brings clear, still and sunny conditions – will generally only linger for a matter of days before being shunted on by the next system. ...

However, sometimes weather systems can get stuck in place for an extended period of time. This is known as “blocking”, explains Prof Tim Woollings. ... 

“Blocking is a stationary and persistent weather pattern, most often an anticyclone [high-pressure system], that blocks the oncoming jet stream and storms.” With a high-pressure weather system in the way, the oncoming weather is either deflected  away or it, too, stays put. This can bring extended periods of consistent weather. ...

This persistent weather can cause extreme conditions. The UK has just experienced its  sunniest and fifth driest spring on record, an extraordinary about-turn after the wettest February on record just months earlier. ...

At the same time, the usually chilly expanse of Siberia has been simmering in unseasonable heat. Average temperatures during May, for example, were 10C above the norm – reigniting wildfires still simmering from last year. This extended period of heat was also the result of a blocking weather pattern.  ...

For example, blocking was a driver of the heat and drought of the UK’s 1976 summer, the deadly European summer heatwave of 2003, Siberia’s heatwaves and wildfires in the summer of 2013, and Europe’s extreme cold winter of 2009-10. A blocking pattern – in different positions – brought the US a record-breaking warm March in 2012 and record-breaking cold March in 2013. ...

The Arctic is warming more than twice as quickly than the global surface average. This phenomenon is known as “Arctic amplification”. In part, this stems from the rapid loss of sea ice cover in the region – as the ice diminishes, energy from the sun that would have been reflected away by the bright white ice is instead absorbed by the ocean, causing further warming. ...

There are some theories that these rapid changes in the Arctic “might influence the frequency of blocking events”, explains Shaffrey: “The theories suggest that as the Arctic warms, changes in the strength and position of the northern hemisphere jet stream will allow blocking events to become more frequent.”  ...

Greenland, Woollings notes, which has seen an increase in summer blocks since the 1990s.

It is worth noting that blocking happens in the southern hemisphere, too, adds Woollings: “[Blocking] tends to be less persistent in the southern hemisphere as the westerly jets are stronger. Despite this, they do have some important impacts, such as over Australia, New Zealand and southern South America.” ...

For example, blocking events were behind the record hot, dry weather that saw devastating bushfires during Australia’s 2019-20 summer, and a major drought in southeastern Brazil in 2014-15.

 

Greenhouse gases are increasingly disrupting the jet stream, a powerful river of winds that steers weather systems in the Northern Hemisphere. That's causing more frequent summer droughts, floods and wildfires, a new study says.

The findings suggest that summers like 2018, when the jet stream drove extreme weather on an unprecedented scale across the Northern Hemisphere, will be 50 percent more frequent by the end of the century if emissions of carbon dioxide and other climate pollutants from industry, agriculture and the burning of fossil fuels continue at a high rate.

In a worst-case scenario, there could be a near-tripling of such extreme jet stream events, but other factors, like aerosol emissions, are a wild card, according to the research, published today in the journal Science Advances. ...

The study identifies how the faster warming of the Arctic twists the jet stream into an extreme pattern that leads to persistent heat and drought extremes in some regions, with flooding in other areas.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/jet-stream-is-climate-change-causing-more-bl...

The auditor general (AG) has concluded that Ford government broke the law when it failed to failed to consult the public on major environmental changes before passing legislation affecting the issue, after the Ontario NDP environmental critic wrote the AG about this violation of environmental legislation.

Ontario NDP environment critic Ian Arthur questions Environment Minister Jeff Yurek at Queen's Park on July 21, 2020 about changes to environmental assessments. 

The Ford government broke the law by passing its omnibus economic recovery bill Tuesday without consulting the public on major environmental changes, auditor general Bonnie Lysyk said.

The government used its majority to pass the legislation, Bill 197, on Tuesday night over the objections of opposition parties. The omnibus bill makes sweeping changes to 20 pieces of legislation, including major rewrites of environmental law. 

Under Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights, the Progressive Conservative government is required to post measures that impact the environment on the Environmental Registry and consult the public for 30 days. The government posted notices on the registry but did not hold consultations about Bill 197, which was introduced in early July.

“We did give (the government) a heads up indicating that we had concerns on Friday,” Lysyk said in a phone interview with Canada’s National Observer. "We indicated that the bill, before it passes third reading, should be posted on the Environmental Registry (for a full 30 day consultation).” ...

Green advocates have said measures in the bill amount to a rollback of environmental protections.

It includes a rewrite of environmental assessment rules — the government will now decide which projects get environmental assessments, rather than reviewing most public sector projects by default. It also streamlines assessments for projects that do need them, and removes a mechanism that allows the public to ask the environment minister to require a full review of a project. 

The government has said it’s working on more regulations to decide which projects should get assessments, and to define what streamlined assessments would look like. 

The bill also expands the government’s power to override the normal land planning process and potential opposition to projects through Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZOs). 

Premier Doug Ford has previously said the proposed rewrite would be used to speed up infrastructure projects that would help Ontario recover from the financial hit it has taken during COVID-19.

Ontario NDP environment critic Ian Arthur wrote to the province's auditor general to ask for an investigation into Bill 197, which Arthur said may be a violation of the Environmental Bill of Rights. ...

The government previously told National Observer it included a measure in the bill to exempt it from public consultation requirements under the Environmental Bill of Rights.

Lysyk said only the portion of the bill that deals with environmental assessments included that exception, not the one about MZOs. And either way, the government still needs to consult the public, she said, adding that it would be “precedent-setting” to allow the government to retroactively give itself an exception to the rules. “It could undermine public confidence,” she said. 

NDP environment critic Ian Arthur said the legislative process doesn’t work the way government was attempting to use it. “You can’t embed a change that affects legislation being tabled in the legislation itself,” he said.

Arthur said he hopes the bill will be challenged in court. “(The Ford government is) on a mission and it’s to run roughshod over environmental protections, and they’ll do that at any cost,” Arthur said in a phone interview. “I certainly hope that they’re not allowed to do this without some sort of pushback.” ...

In a letter to Lysyk earlier Tuesday, Arthur asked that she and Jerry Demarco, assistant auditor general and commissioner of the environment, review the government’s push to pass the environmental changes in the economic recovery bill. Not only did the government not hold public consultations, he said, it was also using its majority to skip the committee stage and fast-track the bill. ...

Lysyk said late Tuesday that she had not yet received Arthur’s letter, but said her office is already done assessing the issue. “We already concluded on that,” she said. “We will issue a report on compliance or noncompliance with the Environmental Bill of Rights this fall. And we’ll address it in that.”

During question period at Queen’s Park Tuesday, Arthur asked the government to withdraw the “potentially illegal” changes.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/07/21/news/ford-governments-propos...

WA State King County Council Unanimously Adopts Bold Regulations to Stop New Fossil Fuel Projects Before They Start

Last year, thousands of King County residents came together to win a moratorium on new fossil fuel development. Today, King County Council voted unanimously to make that moratorium permanent, by passing a comprehensive suite of regulations that protect local communities from fossil fuel threats.

“The first step to getting out of a hole is to stop digging. When it comes to the climate crisis, that means we need to stop building new fossil fuel infrastructure which would lock us into decades of climate pollution and injustice,” said Jess Wallach, 350 Seattle Campaigns Co-Director.

Fossil fuel infrastructure poses an unacceptable risk to the health and safety of people living in King County. Fracked gas pipelines, oil-by-rail, and coal extraction (and the toxic messes these projects leave behind when abandoned) are linked to cancer-causing air and water pollution, respiratory illness, heart attacks, birth defects, stroke, and premature death.

“Low-income and communities of color in King County already bear the brunt of negative health outcomes from exposure to the burning of fossil fuels and this will only be exacerbated with the deepening climate crisis” said Matt Remle (Lakota), co-founder of Mazaska Talks. “The first step in addressing the climate crisis is by not making it worse. With today’s vote, King County is showing that all communities deserve clean air, water, neighborhoods and futures.”

The King County regulations adopted today:

• Explicitly prohibit certain types of fossil fuel infrastructure, such as coal mines and large-scale oil and gas storage facilities (like the dirty and dangerous Tacoma LNG facility currently being built at the Port of Tacoma).

• Strengthen permitting criteria for new and expanded fossil fuel infrastructure, to ensure the well-being of current and future King County residents is prioritized in any project review.

• Require comprehensive review and mitigation of the full scope of environmental impacts of any fossil fuel project, including lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, threats to air and water quality, and public health risks.

• Establish demonstrated, early, and meaningful consultation with tribes.

The County also took steps today to ensure local taxpayers aren’t on the hook for the costs when fossil fuel infrastructure inevitably leaks, explodes, and pollutes:

“As fossil fuel companies teeter on the edge of bankruptcy in the age of COVID19, they are leaving potentially gargantuan cleanup costs in their wake,” said Daphne Wysham with Center for Sustainable Economy in Portland, ORG. “We’re glad to see King County, WA, join Multnomah County, OR, in exploring fossil fuel risk bond programs as an innovative way to force the polluter to pay — before they declare bankruptcy or before a major accident occurs — while minimizing costs to the taxpayer and risks to frontline communities and the environment.”

“The longer we wait to act on pollution and climate change, the more dire and wide-spread the impacts on people will be,” adds Dr. Ken Lans, with WA Physicians for Social Responsibility. “We should be doing everything we can to reduce our fossil fuel use, rather than enabling it — so we’re thrilled that the county has taken this critically important action to protect the health and safety of all its residents.”.....

While I really don't want to get into semantics and definitions, rather than the problems created by greenhouse gas emissions and therefore will not engage in a long debate about what to call the problem, I will explain my choice of global warming in the title and many comments. 

I chose global warming over climate change because the latter was pushed by the right with the implication being that the climate could change in either direction and is always changing  to help them mask the effects of fossil fuel use. 

There are articles since at least 2013 in which scientists that argue global heating should replace global warming because “Global heating is technically more correct because we are talking about changes in the energy balance of the planet,” the scientist Richard Betts said at the UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland in 2018. “We should be talking about risk rather than uncertainty.” (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/13/global-heating-more-...)

On the other hand, that same year as Professor Betts made this comment the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which gets more coverage of the problem than any other organization put out a report entitled "Global Warming of 1.5ºC". The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) which collects and analyzes much of the United States and global data has data up to and including this year under the website title "NASA: Climate Change and Global Warming", while the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which also collects this kind of data has a website entitled "Global Warming". If you type "Global Warming" into Wikipedia you get a thread with that title, but you don't if you type "Global Heating". 

Therefore, because of its more frequent use, I will continue to use global warming, without getting into technical arguments about terminology. 

Canada, despite all of the promises of the Trudeau Liberals, continues to be a global leader in emissions. 

Despite decades of promises to prevent a climate crisis, the primary cause of it, global fossil fuel burning, continues to increase rapidly. Last year's fossil burn broke all records. ...

To illustrate humanity's relentless acceleration off the climate cliff, and Canadians' role as top one-percenters, I've dug into the latest BP energy report and created the “missing charts” that show fossil burning trends — both here at home and worldwide. ...

The BP data shows that Canada is one of the world's top-10 fossil burners — both in total amount and per person. So, our actions and leadership in the fight for a safe climate matter more than those of nearly every other country. And Canada also has what it takes to help lead the world toward a safe climate future. We are one of the world's wealthiest, most tech-savvy, get-it-done countries. And we pride ourselves on doing the right thing and being a force for good in the world.

Plus, politically, both Liberal and Conservative federal governments over the years have stated that Canada aims to be a global climate leader and have collectively pledged to reduce our climate pollution — nine times.

So, how are we doing?

My chart on the right shows Canada's annual fossil burn since 1990. You can see that we haven't been cutting back as promised. We keep burning more.

One bright spot is that our coal burning has declined. But that relatively small bit of climate progress has been wiped out many times over by our increases in both fossil oil and fossil gas burning. At this point, eliminating coal won't even get us to back to our starting line. As the chart shows, our rising fossil oil and gas burn is now higher than all our fossil burning (including coal) was in 2005. That's the baseline year we promised to make big cuts from in our Copenhagen and Paris Agreement climate targets.

If we want to start making climate progress in Canada, we'll need to start making significant and sustained reductions in the amount of fossil oil and gas we burn, as well. ...

How does our fossil burn in Canada compare to our global peers? My chart below compiles the BP data for fossil burning per person in the world's top eight economies — which includes Canada. Combined, this group accounts for around 80 per cent of global GDP. Obviously, any solution to the climate crisis will require the action and leadership from all these countries.

Two things immediately jump out at me about Canada. First, Canada burns the most per person. We now burn even more than the Americans; twice as much as the Europeans; and three times the global average.

Second, Canadians are still burning as much as we did back in 1990. In fact, we burn a bit more per person now.

In contrast, the Americans cut their fossil burn by 15 per cent per person. The Europeans now burn 22 per cent less. And the U.K. burns 37 per cent less per person than they did in 1990. So, clearly it is possible for wealthy, technologically advanced countries to turn down the fossil burner — at least at the per-person level.

My final chart expands the scope to include the entire world. In this chart, the x-axis shows the running total of the global population. For example, it shows that half the world lives in countries that burn less than 33 GJ per person. While 90 per cent of humanity burns less than 135 GJ per year.

If Canadians want to finally get started in the right direction in the climate fight, where could we start? Here are a few options:

• Create a plan. Canada is great at setting climate targets. Nine federal targets have been pledged so far. But we've never once taken the next step of creating a plan to fully achieve them. Zero for nine. No wonder we keep failing to meet them. We need a plan.
• Adopt a climate policy framework that has worked elsewhere. For example, our Commonwealth peer, the U.K., cut their climate pollution by 42 per cent since 1990. In contrast, we've increased ours by 21 per cent. We could adopt the key parts of their innovative Carbon Budget law that has worked so well for them.
• Require proposed new mega-projects prove they are compatible with our climate targets. We often don't. Just a few examples: oilsands, LNG, bio-energy.
• Choose cleaner transport. One of the biggest climate polluting decisions Canadians ever make is the vehicles we buy. Sadly, Canadians are currently choosing to buy the world's dirtiestnew passenger vehicles. On average, each one sold locks in future demand to burn 21 more tonnes of gasoline and emit 66 tonnes of CO2. In most of Canada, however, choosing an electric vehicle instead will reduce those fuel emissions by 98 per cent. As a bonus, switching to electric transportation will dramatically reduce air pollution in our cities and our lungs. And, of course, there is that other hugely climate polluting transportation problem: jet-setting. Canadians have plenty of transportation options that will turn down our crazy-high fossil burn. If we want climate progress, we all need to start choosing options that are compatible with a safe climate future.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/07/16/opinion/global-fossil-burnin...

Biden has struggled to attract young voters, so his adoption of much of the Green New Deal comes with question marks about whether he would push it forward once in office. His proposal goes far beyond Trudeau's tinkering with carbon taxes while buying pipelines and redefining greenhouse gas emissions so that they look lower than under previous definitions, while actual emissions continue to grow. He simply continued on using Harper's greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, but has even failed to meet those according to the Auditor General in March 2018 and the Environmental Commissioner in April 2019.   

Biden rode a wave of establishment endorsements to the nomination this spring. But it’s progressive ideas that might carry him to the presidency ‘Climate change is a strong mobilization issue for the young voters Biden has struggled to attract to his campaign.’ 

Joe Biden did something unprecedented for a Democratic candidate assured of nomination: he moved left. In a speech delivered from Wilmington in his home state of Delaware, Biden unveiled the most ambitious clean energy and environmental justice plans ever proposed by the nominee of a major American political party. The plans, which the Biden campaign described to reporters as “the legislation he goes up to [Capitol Hill] immediately to get done,” outline $2tn in investments in clean energy, jobs and infrastructure that would be carried out over the four years of his first term.

Forty percent of these investments would be directed to communities of color living on the toxic edge of the fossil fuel economy – communities that have also been among the most devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. Biden proposes to pair these investments with new performance standards, most notably a clean electricity standard that would transition the United States to a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035.

Part of Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda, these plans are a Green New Deal in all but name. If you set aside the most attention-grabbing left-wing programs included in New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2019 Green New Deal resolution, like Medicare for All and a federal job guarantee, Biden’s plans broadly align with an approach advocated by the left-wing of the Democratic party. Firstly, like the Green New Deal, Biden’s plans reframe climate action as a jobs, infrastructure and clean energy stimulus.

After three decades of economic elites failing to pitch a carbon tax as a solution to the supposed “market failure” of greenhouse gas emissions, Biden has elected to focus instead on economy-wide performance standards as the cutting edge of decarbonization. And while earlier generations of Democrats wanted consumers to foot the bill for that clean energy transition at the gas pump, a position shared by Milton Friedman, Biden takes Keynesand Franklin Roosevelt as his intellectual and political forebears. Perhaps most encouragingly, Biden views the workers, unions and communities of color most impacted by the fossil fuel economy and the potential shift away from it as deserving special attention. In his view, climate action cannot be separated from economic, environmental and social justice. ...

Biden’s plans draw upon the Green New Deal-inflected recommendations issued by the joint taskforce convened by surrogates of the Biden and Bernie Sanders campaigns, including Ocasio-Cortez. They also crib heavily from plans devised by Washington governor Jay Inslee’s climate-focused presidential campaign. ...

ver recent months, public opinion research from Data for Progress has shown that climate change is a uniquely favorable general election issue for Biden and Democrats. When it comes to climate and clean energy priorities, voters trust the Democratic party more than the Republican party by an 18% margin. Climate change is a strong mobilization issue for the young voters Biden has struggled to attract to his campaign.

In a May survey, 61% of voters under 45 said they would be more likely to vote for Biden if he committed to a platform that would move the United States to a 100% clean energy economy, with just 14% reporting that such a platform would make them less likely to support the Democratic nominee. A more recent survey fielded in late June by Climate Power, the Global Strategies Group and Data for Progress found that bold climate action was also persuasive for middle-of-the-road and Latino voters. Even after survey respondents were shown strong messaging attacks from Trump and Republicans claiming that Democrats wanted to pass a $100tn Green New Deal that would increase taxes – as well as more outlandish arguments that Democrats were going to take away hamburgers, pickup trucks and airplanes – voters moved even further in Democrats’ direction. Middle partisans shifted two percentage points further in favor of Biden, while Latinos leaned a further four points towards him.

These findings show that one of Trump and Republicans’ favorite act: that “Venezuela-style socialists are going to take away the American way of life” – doesn’t work. In fact, an analysis of the 2019 Cooperative Congressional Election Study published by Data for Progress found that 2016 Trump voters who are unsure how they will vote in 2020 are uniquely cross-pressured on climate issues. They view climate change as being much more important than other 2016 Trump voters and side with Biden and Democrats on key policy issues, like the Paris Climate Agreement and Clean Power Plan. Crucially, they also tend to be young, meaning that if Democrats can attract these voters in 2020, they could grow their base for years to come. ...

The most recent polling from Data for Progress shows that 44% of voters would be more likely to support a candidate who doesn’t take money from fossil fuel companies, executives and lobbyists and that 49% would be opposed to industry representatives receiving appointments to government agencies and the White House.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/20/joe-biden-has-endo...

Thawing Arctic Permafrost

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/07/24/thawing-arctic-permafrost/

"...Humanity is playing with fire in a very big way by allowing anthropogenic green house gas emissions (cars, planes, trains etc.) to run wild, increasing by the month, by the year, by the decade with absolutely no end in sight, none whatsoever. At some point in time all those billions of tons of carbon storied in frozen permafrost will start breaking lose beyond normal background rates and humanity will find its goose cooked maybe well done.

And here's the distressing part (one of many): Fieldwork by scientists proved that permafrost is already a 'net emitter of CO2,' this after thousands of years as a 'carbon sink', but no longer! As such, thousands of years of one of the largest carbon sinks on Earth erased by recklessness of human-generated over-heating ecosystems. Meaning there's a very nasty surprise down the line for the rah-rah climate mitigation crowd. Meanwhile, after years of handwringing and gushing teardrops of green sympathizers, the world is still 80% dependent on fossil fuels. That's the same 80% as 50 years ago and a clear sign of absolute failure by governments around the world. It's disgraceful!"

Meanwhile, it's full speed ahead for Canada's TMX!

While Alberta's $17.5 billion Heritage Fund from government oil revenues is less than 2% of Norways trillion dollar soverign wealth fund. This is the case despite the fact that Alberta has much larger reserves because of its low royalty prices. Norway, on the other hand, has used to start diversifying away from fossil fuels since 2017 in recognition of fossil fuel trends while the Alberta and Trudeau governments have been pushing for more fossil fuel production and pipelines. 

The 5m-odd Norwegians own more than 1% of all the shares in the world

Norway's $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund is expected to sell some of its oil and gas holdings. The world's largest sovereign wealth fund owns $37bn of shares in oil companies such as BP, Shell and France's Total.

Selling the shares means it would not be as reliant on oil prices, it says. ...

The move is being positioned as a way to diversify the nation's wealth away from oil. ...

However, it said: "A permanent reduction in the oil price will have long-term implications for public finances."

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47494239

In a just released report, Global Witness identified a record number of land and environmental activists totalling more than 200 who were murdered last year.

"Canada is home to almost 1,300 mining companies, constituting 75 percent of all the mining companies in the world. Non-profit advocacy organization Mining Watch Canada has been monitoring Canadian mining companies' global actions since its founding in 1999." (https://globaljournalist.org/2013/10/when-canadian-mining-companies-take...)

A MINING FACILITY IN CHIAPAS, MEXICO OWNED BY CALGARY-BASED COMPANY, BLACKFIRE EXPLORATION, LTD. IMAGE VIA WIKIMEDIA. 

An employee of a Canadian-owned gold mine in Cocula, Mexico is among two people still missing days after local police freed ten others said to be victims of a kidnapping. The group was travelling in an SUV about 30 minutes outside of Coculaon Friday when kidnappers dressed as police or military personnel abducted them. 

Global Witness today revealed the highest number of land and environmental defenders murdered on record in a single year, with 212 people killed in 2019 for peacefully defending their homes and standing up to the destruction of nature.

The NGO’s annual report also shed a light on the urgent role land and environmental defenders play in fighting climate breakdown, opposing carbon intensive and unsustainable industries that are accelerating global warming and environmental damage. It points to how, under increased crackdown and surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, the protection of these activists is all the more vital for rebuilding a safer and greener planet.

On average, four defenders have been killed every week since the creation of the Paris Climate agreement in December 2015. Countless more are silenced by violent attacks, arrests, death threats or lawsuits. 

Shockingly, over half of all reported killings last year occurred in just two countries: Colombia (peaking at 64) and the Philippines (rising from 30 in 2018 to 43 in 2019). Globally, the true number of killings was likely much higher, as cases often go undocumented.

These killings include the murder of Datu Kaylo Bontolan, murdered in the Philippines after opposing illegal mining in the area. A Manobo leader, he was one of many indigenous people killed in 2019, asserting their right to self-determination and protecting their ancestral lands from those looking to exploit their natural resources.

Mining was the deadliest sector globally with 50 defenders killed in 2019, with agribusiness remaining a threat, particularly in Asia – where 80% of agribusiness-related attacks took place.

There have also been increasing threats and attacks in Romania, including the killing of Liviu Pop. A ranger working to protect one of Europe’s largest, primeval climate-critical forests, Liviu was shot and killed after protecting trees in a country where organised criminal gangs are decimating these forests.

Activists still campaigning and under threat include Angelica Ortiz, one of the prominent Wayuu women defenders from La Guajira, who for years has opposed the largest coal mine in Latin America, as part of efforts to protect water rights for communities living in one of Colombia’s poorest regions. Throughout this campaign, she was threatened and harassed. ...

“Agribusiness and oil, gas and mining have been consistently the biggest drivers of attacks against land and environmental defenders – and they are also the industries pushing us further into runaway climate change through deforestation and increasing carbon emissions. 

“Many of the world’s worst environmental and human rights abuses are driven by the exploitation of natural resources and corruption in the global political and economic system. Land and environmental defenders are the people who take a stand against this. 

“If we really want to make plans for a green recovery that puts the safety, health and well-being of people at its heart, we must tackle the root causes of attacks on defenders, and follow their lead in protecting the environment and halting climate breakdown.”  ...

Key stats: 

• Over half of those killed were from mining-affected communities in Latin America. The Philippines was the country with most mining-related deaths, with 16 people killed.
• Logging was the sector with the highest increase in killings globally since 2018, with 85% more attacks recorded against defenders opposing the industry.
• Over two thirds of killings took place in Latin America, which has been consistently ranked the worst affected continent since Global Witness began to publish data in 2012.
• Asia has consistently been one of the worst regions for attacks related to agribusiness - a long-time driver of attacks against defenders. In 2019, over 85% of agribusiness related attacks recorded were in Asia. Of these, almost 90% of these were documented in the Philippines. 

https://www.globalwitness.org/en/press-releases/global-witness-records-t...

Northern Saskatchewan is facing near record water levels from heavy rainfall that is closely correlated with the increased variability and extreme weather assciated with climate change. 

Water levels near record high in northern Saskatchewan

Precipitation in northern Saskatchewan is approaching record highs as water rises.

High river and lake water will be a concern for the rest of summer, and in some cases — such as the main-stem of the Churchill River — into the fall and winter, analysts say.

“The Churchill River system is full … We certainly haven’t seen many years like this where the whole basin is filled up,” Saskatchewan Water Security Agency spokesperson Ron Podbielski told Canada’s National Observer on Friday.

According to the agency, northern Saskatchewan has seen extremely high cumulative precipitation (rainfall and runoff) since April 1, resulting in high flows and lake water across the Churchill River and Lower Saskatchewan River basins. ...

Podbielski said an increased variability in weather patterns, and more extreme conditions caused by climate change, will mean the province will have to adapt to a new normal.

“We’re seeing that climate variability that we’ve acknowledged in the province is happening in terms of both drought and flood,” Podbielski said. “It looks like the province is going to have to focus on adaptation because of some of these extremes.” ...

Flows and levels in the Lower Churchill River, including Reindeer River and Churchill River near Sandy Bay, have exceeded these highs. ...

About 10 to 20 millimetres of rain is expected over the weekend in the central part of the Churchill River drainage basin, with localized higher amounts in thunderstorms. ...

Podbielski said the heavy rainfall means Lac La Ronge and Sandy Bay could peak at a later date — and at a higher volume.

“Lac La Ronge is under the risk of handling those higher levels for a longer period of time with the wild card of additional wet weather,” Podbielski said.

“If we go over to Cumberland house lots of the community there, the people in the Cumberland delta, some of those individuals got flooded. The outfitters for example. But we’re not anticipating the town proper to actually be in the flooding situation.” ...

“In addition to recreation, people in the north are using boats for their daily business, and there’s always a personal safety risk when water levels are extremely high.” he said.

Although he said northerners are experienced dealing with high water, he said residents should “practise safety and good awareness.”

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/07/25/water-levels-near-record-...

German headquartered Deutsche Bank announced this week it will no longer finance any new oilsands or Arctic oil and gas projects and end all of its coal industry business by 2025. 

“This is just the beginning of the end for the fossil fuel industry,” says Frederic Hauge, head of the Bellona Foundation in Norway. He described this decision by Deutsche Bank as “a signal to all investors that conversion to clean energy can’t start soon enough.” (https://www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-arctic/2020/07/28/deutsche-bank-wont-fi...)

An oil sands extraction facility is reflected in a tailings pond near the city of Fort McMurray, Alta.

Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank is joining a lengthening list of European lenders and insurance companies that say they won't back new oilsands projects.

The German bank said Monday its new fossil fuels policy will also prohibit investing in projects that use hydraulic fracturing or fracking in countries with scarce water supplies, and all new oil and gas projects in the Arctic region. ...

It says its ban on oilsands financing, effective immediately, will include exploration, production, transport or processing, seemingly including oilsands pipelines and upgraders or refineries.

It says it will stop financing and capital markets transactions involving coal mining by 2025 at the latest after achieving a goal last year to reduce its loan exposure to coal-fired power plants by 20 per cent. It says it won't finance any new coal power plants.

Deutsche Bank says the moves are part of a commitment to align its credit portfolios with the greenhouse gas reduction goals of the Paris Agreement. ...

Two years ago, Europe's largest bank, HSBC Holdings plc, announced it would no longer offer financial services for new oilsands projects or pipelines, a move that led to producer Suncor Energy Inc. vowing to end all business with HSBC, including in its conventional oil operations in Europe.

"Deutsche Bank's updated fossil fuel policy is the latest warning shot telling us that doubling down on coal, oil and gas will sink our economy while destabilizing the climate," said Greenpeace Canada campaigner Keith Stewart on Monday. We still have time to protect the workers, communities and regions currently dependent on oil as we navigate this shift and ensure that all Canadians prosper in the new low-carbon economy."

https://www.burnabynow.com/deutsche-bank-says-it-won-t-back-any-new-oils...

Here's more from the article about "The Current State of Liability & Security" diagram about the revenue and costs of the Alberta oilpatch used in the last post created in response to the revelation by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), a government agency captured by the fossil fuel sector, that allowed $260 billion in oilpatch clean-up costs to be shifted from the fossil fuel companies to the taxpayers. Incidentally, the actual costs of oilpatch clean-up is likely greater than the $260 billion estimate of the oilpatch beholden Alberta Engergy Regulator, as noted in the article below. 

The Alberta Energy Regulator efforts at damage control this week are nonsensical. It’s difficult to overstate the consequences of the predicament that the regulator – assumed to guard the public interest, but long since captured to serve industry – has plunged the province.

For months its top experts have known that the financial liabilities accumulated by the oilpatch are staggering figures that are far higher than any the industry and government have told the public. While industry has pocketed hundreds of billions in profits from public resources, complicit regulators have enabled $260 billion in unfunded cleanup to accumulate, as National Observer, Global News and the Toronto Star reported this week. Most of these liabilities have been kept off the balance sheets of government and industry.

After National Observer obtained these estimates and sought explanations from the regulator, it stalled for days, as its spin doctors tried to come up with explanations to downplay the financial catastrophe on the horizon.

Once they could no longer keep the numbers secret, they made a comical apology that suggested their top executive in charge of the file, vice president of closure and liability Robert Wadsworth, had made a mistake by telling people about their internal estimates during a private presentation that was prepared in advance with a slide show and speaking notes and which were never meant to be revealed to the public. ...

Were they apologizing because Wadsworth had dared to challenge the industry and embarrass the oilpatch?

Of course, it’s also worth noting that his presentation mentioned several times that the AER’s internal $260 billion estimate was likely lower than the actual liabilities that are hanging over Albertan and Canadian taxpayers.

At the heart of the problem is a regulatory system that Wadsworth admitted was “flawed.” The AER will soon tweak rules governing the cleanup of aging and expired oilfield infrastructure. But the changes were developed in close collaboration with industry and will almost certainly fail to address the true scale, urgency or cost of the crisis. ...

The starkest example is the scandalous mismanagement of aging and expired oilfield infrastructure and the accumulation of $260 billion in cleanup liabilities while hiding the true amount from the public. It puts the scale of off-balance sheet liabilities on a shocking level. Liabilities not recorded on a company’s balance sheet are hidden from investors and lenders. Such hidden liabilities can become a significant concern when trying to assess a firm’s financial health. This scale of unaccounted for liability also has the potential to seriously affect the province’s credit rating.

A screenshot from a private presentation delivered by Alberta Energy Regulator vice-president Robert Wadsworth in Calgary on Feb. 28, 2018 outlining the financial liabilities in the province’s oilpatch. Image from AER presentation ...

Regulators have failed to impose meaningful cleanup deadlines. Another central reason that industry has failed to fulfill a legal obligation to return sites to near their original state is this: accountants simply make the problem disappear.

Accountants do so in three ways. First, they begin with absurdly low estimates of the actual cost of reclamation. Then, the schedule of payments necessary to fund cleanup is drawn far into the future with unrealistically long well lives. Finally, the underestimated costs are discounted over too many years to arrive at the “net present value” that is recorded on a company’s balance sheet....

The province currently holds a mere 0.6 per cent of the internally estimated $260 billion in cleanup costs as security deposits, leaving the Alberta public at severe risk of inheriting tens or even hundreds of billions in environmental liabilities from an industry with an uncertain future.

The bitumen and coal mining liabilities managed under the AER’s Mining Financial Security Program (MFSP) are publicly reported as $27.8 billion, while the regulator privately estimates reclamation will cost $130 billion. The crude oil, natural gas, and in-situ oilsands liabilities managed under the AER’s Licensee Liability Rating (LLR) program are publicly reported as $30.2 billion, while the regulator privately estimates reclamation will cost another $100 billion. ...

The low-ball liabilities publicly reported under the MFSP are supplied by industry without verification by the regulator. And almost all oil and gas producers use the public LLR numbers, shown to be gross underestimates, to state cleanup costs.

What’s more, a case currently before the Supreme Court of Canada could effectively render polluters and their bankers immune from the environmental consequences of their profit. This is the RedWater Energy case in which lower courts in Alberta accepted an extreme interpretation of bankruptcy law that allows bankrupt companies to disown liabilities, dealing a huge blow to regulators’ ability to force polluters to clean up their mess. 

The days of hiding this crisis under a rug are over. Absent dramatic reforms, the Alberta public could inherit hundreds of billions in environmental liabilities while industry and their enablers escape with their pockets stuffed full of profit from our natural resources.

And, as the AER recognized internally, even that is an underestimate. There was less than 1/30th of the old estimate held as security and now there is barely more than 1/200th held by the regulator. Where is industry going to get an extra quarter trillion dollars?

We should be very worried about that, even if our captured energy regulator isn’t. 

http://www.reclaimalberta.ca/the-damage-control-from-albertas-oilpatch-w...

In a stunning upset, a Black single mom environmental justice activist, Marquita Bradshaw, who had only $20,000 beat the Democratic establishment candidate in the Tennessee primary who was a military veteran attorney who had a $2,000,000 camaign warchest, sending another message about the changing nature of the Democratic base. By the way the establishment candidate finished third. 

I included this under the US election but also put it here because the post here because it shows what can be done with virtually no money when one attacks the issue head on, instead of attacking the opponent. An issue that has impact not only in the United States and Canada, but around the world. When asked about beating her November election opponent she replied "“I don't have an opponent. We have issues to solve." 

The url below has a video interview of Bradshaw. 

Marquita Bradshaw (Photo: Submitted)

Memphis environmentalist, Black activist and single mom Marquita Bradshaw has won the Democratic primary for an open U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee. 

In the November election, Bradshaw will face former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty, who defeated Nashville trauma surgeon Manny Sethi in the Republican primary.

Bradshaw defeated Nashville attorney and former Army helicopter pilot James Mackler, who had snagged an endorsement from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and others.

“I am so appreciative of the movement we have built across Tennessee of hardworking families,” Bradshaw said outside her home Thursday night. “This is not just Marquita right now. You are looking at hardworking families across Tennessee who want healthy and safe communities.”

https://www.wmcactionnews5.com/2020/08/06/marquita-bradshaw-wins-democra...

"The progressive movement is undeniable," Bradshaw tweeted to her followers. "Thank you all so much for your support and this victory. It’s time to put hardworking people first."

The Memphis Democrat faced four challengers: Robin Kimbrough, James Mackler, Gary Davis and Mark Pickrell. Bradshaw won the race with 35.5% of the vote. Kimbrough had 26.6% and Mackler had 23.8%. Davis and Pickrell trailed with each winning less than 10% of the vote. 

Bradshaw beat out a better-known and better-funded challenger. Previously, Mackler ran briefly in 2018 for former U.S. Sen. Bob Corker's seat until former Gov. Phil Bredesen joined the race. He bowed out and endorsed Bredesen. ...

This time around, Mackler received Bredesen's endorsement and had already been running a campaign aimed at the two leading Republican candidates. He had the backing of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. 

Bradshaw's mother, and a network of people in the environmental justice movement, prepared her for the run and inspired her to do it, she said.

"We have been campaigning since September," Bradshaw said. "We called everyone and they called everyone they knew. It's organizing and building a network of people working together." ...

Bradshaw is an organizer for and involved with local and statewide efforts of the environmental group Sierra Club. Through those efforts she has focused much of her attention on environmental justice, and how, she said, people of color are disproportionately impacted by environmental policy. It’s something she would focus on in the Senate....

Since she announced her campaign, Bradshaw raised $8,420, according to her most recent Federal Election Commission filing. Comparatively, Mackler raised $2.1 million to run in the race. In that time, he has spent $1.5 million. 

“Let me tell you what we did with less than $25,000 ... we beat out $1 million. So just imagine (what we can do) with a $3 million budget, utilizing organizing principles to bring people back into this process, so they can have faith that they will have true representation in Washington, D.C.,” Bradshaw said.

“This is a network that has reached across Tennessee. Now it's time to move forward to flip this U.S. Senate seat. And we can do it by working together, by staying true to the principles ... by listening to voters.”

Bradshaw, when asked about the prospect of running against Hagerty in deep-red Tennessee, said: “I don't have an opponent. We have issues to solve. And that's the reason why we're leading in the state right now. And that's how we're going to flip this U.S. Senate seat.”

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/06/tennessee-us-s...

"Satellite animation  from July 30 to Aug 4, shows the collapse of the last fully intact ice shelf in Canada. The Milne Ice Shelf, located on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut has now reduced in territory by 43%."

https://twitter.com/ECCC_CIS/status/1290740808170307584

Develop those oil sands, build those pipelines, 'Support PM Trudeau's bold action plan on climate change'.

NDPP wrote:

"Satellite animation  from July 30 to Aug 4, shows the collapse of the last fully intact ice shelf in Canada. The Milne Ice Shelf, located on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut has now reduced in territory by 43%."

https://twitter.com/ECCC_CIS/status/1290740808170307584

Here's more on the signifigance of the collapse of the the Milne ice shelf off Ellesmere Island. 

Massive Chunk of Canada's Last Ice Shelf Reduced by More Than Half Creating a Manhattan-Iceberg

A massive chunk of Canada's last fully intact ice shelf, some 4,000 years old, has broken off, reducing the shelf by more than half, scientists reported last Sunday. After separating from the shelf, the piece split in two, forming an iceberg almost the size of Manhattan. ...

Climate change likely fuelled the collapse of the shelf, researchers said. This summer, the region's temperature was 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1980 to 2010 average, Luke Copland, a glaciology professor at the University of Ottawa, told the Associated Press.

"Above normal air temperatures, offshore winds, and open water in front of the ice shelf are all part of the recipe for ice shelf break up," the Canadian Ice Service said on Twitter.

A research camp was lost when the shelf broke apart, as was the Northern Hemisphere's last known epishelf, a kind of freshwater lake, flanked by ice, that sits on top of ocean water. ...

Satellite imagery shows that about 43 percent of the shelf broke off, forming pieces that were up to 260 feet (80 metres) thick. ...

"Entire cities are that size," Copland told Reuters. "This was the largest remaining intact ice shelf, and it's disintegrated, basically."...

The Arctic is warming much faster than the rest of the world, a phenomenon known as polar amplification, and those hot temperatures are causing ice to melt. Today, for example, polar ice caps are melting six times faster than in the 1990s.

In Canada, there used to be a continuous ice shelf spanning the northern coast of Ellesmere, but human-made warming has caused it to break apart, White said.

By 2005, Milne was "really the last complete ice shelf," she told the Associated Press.

https://www.sciencealert.com/canada-s-last-fully-intact-ice-shelf-has-su...

Lennox Island, which is a First Nations reserve that is part of the province of Prince Edward Island, is losing its battle with sea level rise created by climate change. This is also happening to PEI, but at half the rate of Lennox Island. The photo of the sacred First Nations cemetery, which has had to had to have a wall built around it, is just one example of the problems already created by climate change on Lennox Island. 

​

© Provided by Guardian News The community spent tens of thousands of dollars to build a rock wall to shore up Lennox Island’s cemetery against the rising waters.

On Lennox Island, the signs of climate change are everywhere.

The coastal cave where Gilbert Sark played as a child has disappeared. The beachside location where his family used to have cookouts has shrunk, and the area where they once set up the firepit is now underwater. And the sacred burial grounds of his ancestors have had to be relocated, to protect them from erosion.

Eventually, he worries his entire community may have to follow suit. "This is my home," he said. "And we're losing it."

Sark grew up on this 540 hectare island on the north shore of Prince Edward Island, the home of the Lennox Island First Nation. ...

In his lifetime, he's seen the low-lying island steadily erode, jeopardizing homes and critical infrastructure, and prompting some to wonder if the future of Lennox Island lies on the mainland.

"For Lennox Island, I hope we actually figure out how we can slow down the erosion," he said. "And that, further down in the future, we figure out how to actually start relocating, and just get ready for that." ...

The composition of the land on P.E.I. — there are no rocky shores, only sand and sandstone — makes the whole island vulnerable to erosion and sea level rise, but Lennox Island is eroding twice as fast as the mainland, according to research from the University of Prince Edward Island. ...

In some places, such as the graveyard for Lennox Island's Catholic church, the community has stopped erosion by armouring the shore with small boulders and cages of rocks....

A similar approach has been taken elsewhere, including at the causeway and bridge connecting Lennox Island to the mainland. Work is in the planning stages to protect other vulnerable spots in the community, with adaptations such as shoreline armouring or sacrificial reefs.

One spot that Sark hopes is protected is the community's powwow grounds, which he said has lost roughly a metre of land to erosion this year....

"Now that will only work for so long," he said. "If it's going to erode, you can slow it down and plan for it, but at the end of the day, you can't stop water." ...

Sark said the community's youth are well aware of the impending threat. When asked at a community meeting where they saw Lennox Island in 50 years, "they all put up their hands and said 'underwater.'"

Sark said that as a solution, the youth suggested building houses on land the community has purchased on the mainland.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/nowornever/get-up-go-outside-and-experience-lif...

Since Brazil's President Bolsinaro denies climate change exists, it is not surprising that he now denies that there are wildfires in the Amazon, despite a record number of fires there this month. Since the Amazon is "the lungs of the world", taking in so much carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen, its destruction is a major contributor to global warming. 

2019 was already a record year for Amazonian. A study that year warned that "as the climate becomes hotter and drier, future fires could be far more damaging.They project that the amount of forest burned could double by 2050 and consume 16 percent of the rainforest." The study concluded that " fires could imperil its ability to fight climate change, the study found, to the point that the forest actually could begin contributing more planet-warming gases to the air than it absorbs by 2050 -- or sooner." (https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/10/world/amazon-rainforest-wildfires-climate...)

 

A photo from Brazil in August 2019 shows one of the many fires that scorched the Amazon last year.

The Amazon has seen the worst start to the fire season in a decade, with 10,136 fires spotted in the first 10 days of August, a 17% rise on last year.

Analysis of Brazilian government figures by Greenpeace showed fires increasing by 81% in federal reserves compared with the same period last year. Coming a year after soaring Amazon fires caused an international crisis, the new figures raised fears this year’s fire season could be even worse than last year’s.

“This is the direct result of this government’s lack of an environment policy,” said Romulo Batista, senior forest campaigner for Greenpeace Brasil. “We had more fires than last year.”

The numbers are likely to add to the rising sense of alarm among business leaders and investors over the negative impact caused by the ongoing destruction of Brazil’s Amazon forest. ...

Fires in July were 28% up on a year ago, according to Brazil’s Space Research Institute (INPE), in charge of satellite monitoring. Deforestation from August 2019 to July 2020 is up 34%. And nobody has been charged over last year’s coordinated “Fire Day”, when fires tripled in the state of Pará alone on 10-11 August, especially around the Novo Progresso area, where 638 fires were spotted in the first 10 days of August. ...

“This story that the Amazon is going up in flames is a lie and we must combat it with true numbers,” Bolsonaro said, according to Reuters, which published photos of forest devastated by fire in Apuí municipality in Amazonas state.

Fires in the Amazon dry season are mainly caused by people either clearing land, or burning felled trees or forest from which valuable woods have already been removed, Batista said.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/13/brazil-experiences-w...

'Canary in the Coal Mine': Greenland Ice Has Shrunk Beyond Return, Study Finds

https://portside.org/2020-08-16/canary-coal-mine-greenland-ice-has-shrun...

"Greenland's ice sheet may have shrunk past the point of no return, with the ice likely to melt away no matter how quickly the world reduces climate warming emissions,* new research suggests..."

There doesn't appear to be any rush unfortunately.

BC Indigenous Leaders Call For Emergency Closure of Fraser River Fishing, Saying Stocks Have Collapsed

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-indigenous-leaders-c...

"First Nation groups in British Columbia are calling on the federal fisheries minister to issue an emergency order to close all sockeye fisheries on the Fraser River. A joint news release of the three groups that make up the First Nations Leadership Council says Bernadette Jordan should also declare the stock collapsed while their groups come together to create a strategy to save the fish..."

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/114771490483339443

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