2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #4
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jan 19, 2020 through Sat, Jan 25, 2020
Editor's Pick
The companies that have contributed most to climate change
Thought-provoking readings on those most responsible for the pollution.
Sometimes, in our struggle to address climate change, we need to see ourselves as facing not an incredibly complex (or “wicked”) problem (and one to which most of us contribute) but a clear-cut adversary. The world’s biggest fossil fuel companies inevitably make good candidates for that role, partly because they have done so much to delay political action, but also because they are literally the biggest source of the problem.
To learn more, an excellent place to begin is with a recent series from The Guardian. Starting on October 9, 2019, that paper published a significant cluster of stories in conjunction with the Climate Accountability Institute. The lead story is “Revealed: The 20 Firms behind a Third of All Carbon Emissions“; here is the first of three pages of links to the complete series (and a few later pieces).
Still, even identifying a clearly responsible party to blame might not make the climate problem look tractable: Getting off fossil fuels is a truly daunting challenge. Chris Turner’s essay “We’re Doomed. Now What?: An Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisis” (The Walrus, November 2019) is more about its subtitle than its title. This thoughtful and thought-provoking look at some realistic but encouraging practicalities of converting the energy system makes a stimulating counterpart to the Guardian series. These stories update the 2017 Carbon Majors Report about the 100 most-carbon-polluting companies.
An important element in getting the world off fossil fuels involves how best to address the attendant, and fully understandable, concerns of all those who have been involved in the carbon economy, through employment or investments – including through retirement funds and pensions. A good starting place to learn about “stranded assets” is again in The Guardian.
The companies that have contributed most to climate change by SueEllen Campbell, Yale Climate Connections, Jan 24, 2020
Articles Linked to on Facebook
Sun, Jan 19, 2020
- 'Our Planet Is Seriously Burning and the Adults Keep Letting Us Down': Ninth Circuit Throws Out Youth Climate Case by John Queally, Common Dreams, Jan 18, 2020
- Citing Climate Change, BlackRock Will Start Moving Away from Fossil Fuels by Bill Mckibben, Daily Comment, The New Yorker Magazine, Jan 16, 2020
- Germany Goes Greener With $95 Billion Push for Train Over Plane by Arne Delfs & Brian Parkin, Climate Adaptation, Bloomberg News, Jan 14, 2020
- How people came to believe that individual choices could save the Earth by Kate Yoder, Grist, Jan 16, 2020
- 'It's heart-wrenching': 80% of Blue Mountains and 50% of Gondwana rainforests burn in bushfires by Lisa Cox & Nick Evershed, Environment, Guardian, Jan 16, 2020
- Court Throws Hurdle in Front of Washington State’s Drive to Reduce Carbon Emissions by Kristoffer Tigue, InsideClimate News, Jan 17, 2020
- Grief, frustration, guilt: the bushfires show the far-reaching mental health impacts of climate change, Opinion by Fiona Charlson, Comment is Free, Guardian, Jan 16, 2020
- The I-told-you-so heard ‘round the world by Peter Dykstra, Environmental Health News, Jan 18, 2019
Mon, Jan 20, 2020
- Hundreds of thousands of fish dead in NSW as bushfire ash washed into river by Graham Readfearn, Guardian, Jan 17, 2020
- 'Brink of extinction': Steep drop in platypus numbers as drought bites by Catriona Stirrat, Environment, Sydney Morning Herald, Jan 19, 2020
- Colombian farmers under pressure from frosts linked to climate change by Oliver Griffin, Reuters, Jan 17, 2019
- Climate refugees can't be returned home, says landmark UN human rights ruling by Kate Lyons, The Pacific Project, Guardian, Jan 20, 2020
- On a hotter planet, we are all Australians by David Spratt, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Jan 16, 2020
- Adani's coal mine plans, and why coal is still so lucrative by Jeannette Cwienk, Environment, Deutsche Welle (DW), Jan 16, 2020
- Climate Change Takes Center Stage in Davos by Stanley Reed, Energy & Environment, New York Times, Jan 20, 2020
- Fossil Fuels on Trial: Where the Major Climate Change Lawsuits Stand Today by David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, Jan 17, 2020
Tue, Jan 21, 2020
- Warning: Climate change will bring major new health risks for kids by Kathleen E Bachynski, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Jan 17, 2020
- Nuclear power ‘cannot rival renewable energy’ by Paul Brown, Climate News Network, Jan 14, 2020
- Climate change pushes investors to take their temperature by Simon Jessop & Matthew Green, Reuters, Jan 20, 2020
- How did climate change get so controversial? by John Cook, Skeptical Science, Jan 20, 2020
- Greta Thunberg calls for end to all fossil fuel investment "now" at Davos forum, CBS News, Jan 21, 2020
- State of the climate: How the world warmed in 2019 by Zeke Hausfather, Carbon Brief, Jan 20, 2020
- Trump blasts 'prophets of doom' in attack on climate activism by Larry Elliott & Graeme Wearden, Davos 2020, Guardian, Jan 21, 2020
- Conservative States Seek Billions to Brace for Disaster. (Just Don’t Call It Climate Change.) by Christopher Flavelle, Climate, New York Times, Jan 20, 2020
Wed, Jan 22, 2020
- You Need To Act Now': Meet 4 Girls Working To Save The Warming World by Anya Kamenetz, Morning Edition, NPR, Jan 19, 2020
- After Spain Declares Climate Emergency, Activists Demand 'Concrete and Immediate' Action by Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams, Jan 21, 2020
- Explainer: How ‘Atlantification’ is making the Arctic Ocean saltier and warmer by Daisy Dunne, Carbon Brief, Jan 16, 2020
- Newly-formed Canadian Institute for Climate Choices calls on Canada to prepare for change by Carl Meyer, Race Against Climate Change, National Observer, Jan 21, 2020
- Thunberg says only ‘eight years left’ to avert 1.5°C warming by Alister Doyle, Climate Home News, Jan 21, 2020
- Emissions from Chinese aviation ‘could quadruple by 2050' by Josh Gabbatiss, Carbon Brief, Jan 21, 2020
- Reporter’s Toolbox: New Resources Help Improve Climate Coverage by Susan Joy Hassol, Society of Environmental Journalists, Jan 22, 2020
- Guatemala's children bear brunt of prolonged drought and rising heat by Anastasia Moloney , Thomson Reuters Foundation, Jan 21, 2020
Thu, Jan 23, 2020
- Thunberg v Trump: A trillion trees is 'not enough' by Dmitry Zhdannikov & Simon Robinson. Reuters, Jan 22, 2020
- As Australia Burns, a Climate-Change Denier Rallies the Troops by Damien Cave, Australia, New York Times, Jan 22, 2020
- Australia faces falling inflows even as demand for water grows by Peter Hannam, Environment, Sydney Morning Herald, Jan 22, 2020
- UK must cut land use emissions by two thirds to meet 2050 goal, advisers warn by Chloé Farand, Climate Home News, Jan 23, 2020
- Closing the Ozone Hole Helped Slow Arctic Warming by Chelsea Harvey, E&E News/Scientific American, Jan 22, 2020
- Scientists hate to say ‘I told you so’. But Australia, you were warned by Will Steffen, The Conversation AU, Jan 22, 2020
- At Davos, the Greta-Donald Dust-Up Was Hardly a Fair Fight by Marianne Lavelle, InsideClimate News, Jan 22, 2020
- Ancient never-before-seen viruses discovered locked up in Tibetan glacier by Laura Geggel, Live Science, Jan 21, 2020
Fri, Jan 24, 2020
- The lessons from historic preservation councils blocking solar panels by David Roberts, Energy & Environment, Vox, Jan 23, 2020
- China’s economic woes threaten to derail climate actions by Ashutosh Pandey, Business, Deutsche Welle (DW), Jan 23, 2020
- Australia's bushfires to push global emissions to new high: Met Office by Peter Hannam, Environment, Sydney Morning Herald, Jan 24, 2020
- Federal study links climate change, giant sequoia deaths by Rob Hotakainen, E&E News, Jan 22, 2020
- On climate change, American voters sound more like Team Greta than Team Donald Trump, Opinion by Editorial Board, USA Today, Jan 24, 2020
- Will 2020 World Economic Forum Deliver on Combating Climate Change? by Eco Master, International Press Service (IPS), Jan 22, 2020
- Climate change is scary. Talking about it productively doesn't have to be., Opinion by Karin Kirk, USA Today, Jan 24, 2020
- Exclusive Poll: 80% of Young Voters Think ‘Global Warming Is a Major Threat to Life as We Know It’ by Daniel Newhauser, Vice News, Jan 23, 2020
Sat, Jan 25, 2020
- ‘Blatant manipulation’: Trump administration exploited wildfire science to promote logging by Emily Holden & Jimmy Tobias, Environment, Guardian, Jan 24, 2020
- At Davos, UN chief urges ‘big emitters’ to take climate action, UN News, Jan 23, 2020
- ANALYSIS-Tree planting extends an olive branch across the climate divide by Matt Lavietes, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Jan 23, 2020
- Education Is Crucial to Tackle the Climate Crisis, UN Climate Change News, Jan 24, 2020
- Republican and Democratic voters actually agree on many climate change fixes. So why no action? by Elizabeth Weise, Nation, USA Today, Jan 24, 2020
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #3, 2020 by Doug Bostrom, Skeptical Science, Jan 22, 2020
- Plastics Plants Are Poised to Be the Next Big Carbon Superpolluters by Benjamin Storrow, E&E News/Scientific American, Jan 24, 2020
- The companies that have contributed most to climate change by SueEllen Campbell, Yale Climate Connections, Jan 24, 2020
Posted by John Hartz on Saturday, 25 January, 2020
