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2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #35

Posted on 1 September 2024 by BaerbelW, Doug Bostrom, John Hartz

A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, August 25, 2024 thru Sat, August 31, 2024.

Story of the week

After another crammed week of climate news including updates on climate tipping points, increasing threats from rising seas, burgeoning disease threats and tropical storms juiced by too much warmth, Our Story of the Week is about root cause and excacerbator for all of the above.

Writing for Jacobin, former Rhode Island state representative Aaron Regenburg delivers a critique and rebuttal of a previous essay in the same publication. Regenburg's target is a sincerely delivered but incorrect argument that climate disinformation is not a matter of priority when talking to the general public about solving our climate mishap, an ill-conceived premise that we should save our words by ignoring climate disinformation and instead forcus on climate solutions.

As Regenburg points  out, choosing a single frame in this way is a false choice, a misindentification of mutual exclusivity. Following this advice would only prolong the disastrous outcome we're now living. After all, the problems listed in this edition of Climate News of the Week are much worse thanks to a decades long, concerted, pervasive and well-funded campaign of disinformaton on behalf of the fossil fuel industry.

Downplaying or ignoring intentional deceit delivered on an industrial scale is a bit like thinking that wishing hard enough to stay dry is as good as an umbrella when encountering a rainstorm. Climate remedy will happen via effective public policy, public policy is an outcome of politics and hence systematic climate mitigation is an inherently political matter. Electorates confused by disinformation into flaccid support for or even hostile reactions against useful climate policy cut the legs from beneath our ability to confront and solve our climate problem. 

Writes Regenburg, "The climate movement can walk and chew gum at the same time." Perfectly true, and it's equally true that people can be told and understand both how they're being misled and what they can do to help fix our problem. Doubt and uncertainty over the very existence of climate change as a matter of concern clearly preempts impetus to act, so if there were an attention or communications resource shortage, we'd better be looking to first clear up climate confusion. In reality there is no inherent dilemma or condundrum in simultaneous delivery, and it's even arguably a bit insulting to suggest that average people can't cope with full information. 

Stories we promoted this week, by publication date:

Before August 25

August 25

August 26

August 27

August 28

August 29

August 30

August 31

If you happen upon high quality climate-science and/or climate-myth busting articles from reliable sources while surfing the web, please feel free to submit them via this Google form so that we may share them widely. Thanks!

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Comments

Comments 1 to 2:

  1. It's undoubtedly true that we need to both face denial and how to create solutions ( both at government/ national level and at the individual level). Sceptical science does a superb job at rebutting denial. I also think denial is part of the continual procrastination process and many of those such as the GWFP that have played a huge role in denial of climate change have changed their procrastination strategies. It seems that they will make political gain by accepting long term strategies for climate action giving us "world leading targets"which they will then make further political gain by reneging on them when the time comes to implement them. Another strategy is raising false hopes that are completely unrealistic to delay implementing existing strategies such as implying that our boilers and cars in the future will have hydrogen delivered along pipes. This they know will make people delay personal changes that would otherwise reduce their fossil fuel consumption. So we not only need to face denial of the climate science but also the denial of solutions that could be presently implemented. I personally arrange regularly visits to my home by small groups of individuals to address the myths about heat pumps for example that the procrastinators have been successful in flooding social media with in the same way they spread climate denial.

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  2. The mantra is dont worry about climate change because when it gets bad we will find great technical solutions. To me its like saying don't worry about smoking tobacco because by the time you get sick, there will be excellent treatments. Yeah sure there will be. Its 100% guaranteed.

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