Posted on 3 October 2020 by John Hartz

Editor's Choice

Anxiety Mounts Abroad About Climate Leadership and the Volatile U.S. Election

“The outcome will have profound consequences for the future of Earth’s climate.

Protesters gather outside the U.S. embassy in Vienna in June. Credit: Martin Juen/SEPA Media /Getty Images

VIENNA, Austria—Whenever artist Michael Aschauer returns home after an extended stay in the United States, people here pepper him with questions about the direction America is heading. 

With gallows humor typical of the city, they often ask, "Will it fall apart slowly, or very fast?" he said, adding that Vienna has plenty of experience with how rising and falling empires can destabilize global systems.

Aschauer is married to an American and keenly watches climate and energy politics on both sides of the Atlantic while trying to imagine a post-carbon future. In an informal social media art project, he documents gas stations that have been abandoned or converted to other uses. 

He said it's hard to imagine that Americans would re-elect the incumbent president, but that it can't be ruled out, either, given the current volatility of U.S. politics. "The outcome  will have profound consequences for the future of Earth's climate," he added.

Click here to access the entire article originally posted on the InsideClimate News website.  

Anxiety Mounts Abroad About Climate Leadership and the Volatile U.S. Election by Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News, Oct 3, 2020

Articles Linked to on Facebook

Sun, Sep 27, 2020

• At Climate Week, America’s Cascading Disasters Dominate by Somini Sengupta. Climate & Environment, New York Times, Sep 25, 2020
• The Warming Climates of the Arctic and the Tropics Squeeze the Mid-latitudes, Where Most People Live by Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News, Sep 23, 2020
• California Plans to Ban Sales of New Gas-Powered Cars in 15 Years by Brad Plumer & Jill Cowan, Climate & Environment, New York Times, Sep 26, 2020
• Battered, Flooded and Submerged: Many Superfund Sites are Dangerously Threatened by Climate Change by David Hasmyer & Lise Olsen, Super Threats, InsideClimate News/Texas Observer/NBC News, Sep 24, 2020
• Heat wave, dry winds stoke existing wildfires and raise threat of new blazes in fire-weary California by Andrew Freedman & Diana Leonard, Capital Weather Gang, Washington Post, Sep 27, 2020

Mon, Sep 28, 2020

• Scientists fear the Western wildfires could lead to long-term lung damage by Umair Irfan, Energy & Environment, Vox, Sep 24, 2020
• World leaders pledge to halt Earth’s destruction ahead of UN summit by Patrick Greenfield, Environment, The Guardian, Sep 27, 2020
• Fires rampage through wine country, destroying numerous homes in Santa Rosa by Kent Nishimura , Alex Wigglesworth & Rong-Gong Lin II, California, Los Angeles Times, Sep 27, 2020
• Young people resume global climate strikes calling for urgent action by Fiona Harvey, Environment, The Guardian, Sep 25, 2020

Tue, Sep 29, 2020

• Priced Out by Shannon Osaka, Grist, Sep 23, 2020
• Climate change "increases the risk of wildfires", World Meteorlogical Organization (WMO) News, Sep 28, 2020
• White House recruited climate critics for NOAA by Scott Weldman, E&E News, Sep 28, 2020
• Climate primer: How to talk about climate change by Laurie Goering, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Sep 25, 2020
• Two Enormous California Fires Rage Unchecked in State’s Northern Counties by Heather Murphy, New York Times, Sep 29, 2020

Wed, Sep 30, 2020

• Exxon Touts Carbon Capture as a Climate Fix, but Uses It to Maximize Profit and Keep Oil Flowing by Nicholas Kusnetz, InsideClimate News, Sep 27, 2020
• New Study Shows a Vicious Circle of Climate Change Building on Thickening Layers of Warm Ocean Water by Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News, Sep 28, 2020
• Ninety Percent of U.S. Cars Must Be Electric by 2050 to Meet Climate Goals by David Iaconangelo, Scientific American/E&E News, Sep 29, 2020
• Trump and Biden Diverged Widely and Wildly During the Debate’s Donnybrook on Climate Change by Marianne Lavelle, InsideClimate News, Sep 30, 2020

Thu, Oct 1, 2020

• Why we’re more confident than ever that climate change is driving disasters by Umair Irfan, Energy & Environment, Vox, Sep 30, 2020
• Greenland's ice sheet is melting as fast as at any time in the last 12,000 years, study shows by Drew Kahn, CNN, Sep 30, 2020
• New Global Report Warns Nearly 40% of Plants at Risk of Extinction by Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams, Sep 30, 2020
• Proud Boys and petro-masculinity by Emily Atkin, Heated, Oct 1, 2020

Fri, Oct 2, 2020

• California wildfires prompt new warnings amid record heat, erratic winds by Andrew Freedman, Capital Weather Gang, Washington Post, Oct 1, 2020
• How ‘urban heat islands’ will intensify heatwaves in UK cities by, Guest Post by Euncie Lo & Dann Mitchell, Carbon Brief, Oct 1, 2020
• Will California have enough electricity for all its EVs? Yes — but it will take work, Opinion by Michael Hiltzig, Business, Los Angeles Times, Oct 1, 2020
• ‘A big firefight’: Risk of Glass Fire threatening to spike as Bay Area braces for heat and wind by Jill Tucker, J.D. Morris, Michael Williams & John King, California Wildfires, San Francisco Chronicle, Oct 2, 2020
• Inside Clean Energy: Net Zero by 2050 Has Quickly Become the New Normal for the Largest U.S. Utilities by Dan Gearino, InsidClimate News, Oct 1, 2020

Sat, Oct 3, 2020

• A second Trump term would be 'game over' for the climate, says top scientist by Mike Hertsgaard, Climate Countdown, The Guardian, Oct 2, 2020
• Hotter tropics may worsen climate change, reforestation could lessen it: Studies by Taran Volckhausen, Mongobay, Oct 2, 2020
• Anxiety Mounts Abroad About Climate Leadership and the Volatile U.S. Election by Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News, Oct 3, 2020
• Climate Change and COVID Threaten to Sink Small Island Nations by Nathanial Gronewold, E&E News/Scientific American, Oct 2, 2020
• 2 California wildfires remain out of control by Gisela Crespo & Mallika Kallingal, CNN, Oct 3, 2020