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Macron Tries To Keep the Paris Agreement Alive
There was a moment last week—as television cameras showed dozens of heads of state, business leaders, and A-list celebrities filing off a riverboat into the newly completed Seine Musicale venue in Paris' suburbs—when it seemed as though the international climate process might get the financial help it desperately needs.
In the end, the December 12th event convened by French President Emmanuel Macron to mark the two-year anniversary of the landmark Paris Agreementproduced a flurry of new announcements and initiatives that could eventually shift the world's economy onto a greener, more sustainable pathway. But the new commitments fall far short of the hundreds of billions—some say trillions—of dollars that must be mobilized in order to achieve the Paris Agreement's goals of limiting climate change and helping poor countries survive its worst effects.
The big announcements at the summit included the unveiling of the Climate Action 100+ pledge, from 225 institutional investors managing more than $26 trillion, to pressure the world's 100 largest companies to implement more environmentally sustainable policies. A total of 16 countries, including Brazil and Norway, said they would start adopting policies to make their economies carbon-neutral by mid-century. And 36 countries, including Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, jointly called for the international shipping sector to take on binding climate commitments for the first time.
Macron Tries To Keep the Paris Agreement Alive by Eric J Lyman, Pacific Standard, Dec 19, 2017
Hat tip to Stop Climate Science Denial
Original cartoon by John Cook
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Climate Feedback asked its network of scientists to review the article, Jerry Brown Blames Climate Change for California Fires: ‘The New Normal’ by Joe Pollak, Breitbart, Dec 9, 2017
Five scientists analyzed the article and estimate its overall scientific credibility to be 'very low'.
A majority of reviewers tagged the article as: Biased, Cherry-picking, Flawed reasoning, Misleading.
Review Summary
This article in Breitbart criticizes a statement by California Governor Jerry Brown, who said that the recent dangerous fires are “the new normal” for the area. The article correctly lists a number of factors that contribute to wildfires, including weather patterns and the construction of homes in areas at risk of fire. The article represents the contribution of climate change to wildfire trends as unknown, and a matter of debate for climate scientists.
Scientists who reviewed the story found this to be misleading. The article fails to explain the ways in which climate change can clearly influence the factors that control wildfires. A number of published studies have found that climate change is an important contributing factor to wildfire behavior in the western United States.
See all the scientists’ annotations in context
Breitbart article on California fires misleads by omitting explanation of climate’s influence, Climate Feedback, Dec 19, 2017
Quote derived with author's permission from:
"Global warming refers to an increase in the planet's average temperature, and there's no question that that's happened over the last 100 years. Over the last 50 years, it's increasingly clear that that warming, the more recent warming, is because of human activities.And there are other associated changes with climate change, not just changes in temperature but also changes in rainfall patterns and so on that might happen."
High resolution JPEG (1024 pixels wide)
Posted by John Hartz on Sunday, 24 December, 2017
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