2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #38

Story of the Week 

Opinion: Let’s free ourselves from the story of economic growth

A relentless focus on economic growth has ushered in the climate crisis. We need a better definition of well-being.

Growth rules the world. Presidents succeed or fail, companies soar and crash, and countries are invited to the table on the basis of their growth percentage.

Economic growth by the common definition is that GDP — gross domestic product — keeps getting bigger over time. GDP is an idea, and it was created to measure exports, consumption, investments, profits, wages — the total value of goods and services within a country’s borders. The current economic order uses GDP as a marker of national performance, and its growth is synonymous with a country’s financial wealth, worth, and power. For that reason, policymakers, political pundits, and economists love to propose, plan, and debate the best path for economic growth.

Nothing on Earth or in our known universe grows and lives forever. The economy and endless growth are an imagined machine-like system, unbounded by the laws that govern the rest of us. I imagine the growth-based economy beet-faced, with clenched, pounding fists, demanding more, faster, and now. A bottomless pit for a stomach, it eats with an insatiable appetite anything and everything within reach. This machine has grown so massive and powerful, I’m uncertain if it belongs to us, or if we belong to it. The machine eats and grows for the sake of its growth, with little consideration to the moral, social, or ecological costs. Though the machine and its rules are imaginary, the consequences are not: Land, resources, and life are consumed, extreme wealth and poverty, pollution, mass extinction, human death and displacement, and climate crisis are produced.

I write of growth like a story because it is: Humans imagined the growth-based economy and continue to tell a tale of its value and functions, achievements and superiority — economic growth like a God who endowed us with the power of the market, the tools of capitalism, and helped us build the modern world. Perhaps economic growth once served a rightful purpose: expanded trade networks, novel inventions, more efficient innovations, a raised standard for the quality of human life. Maybe — it depends who you ask and which story is told. Slavery and colonization are chapters in the story of economic growth too. 

Click here to access the entire article as originally posted on the Yale Climate Connections website.

Opinion: Let’s free ourselves from the story of economic growth A relentless focus on economic growth has ushered in the climate crisis. We need a better definition of well-being. by Nikayla Jefferson, Commentary by Yale Climate Connections, Sep 22, 2023 

Articles posted on Facebook

Sunday, Sep 17, 2023

• 'Young people are freaked out': Weekend climate change protests planned around US, globe by Elizabeth Weise, Nation, USA Today, Sep 15, 2023
• Marching for a Livable Planet: an Urgent Call to End the Fossil Fuel Era Our global leaders are either with us, or the fossil fuel industry. Opinion by Kelly Trout (Oil Change International), Common Dreams, Sep 13, 2023
• Summer of Deadly Climate Breakdown Spurs Mass Protests Worldwide "We deserve a world free from fossil fuels." by Jake Johnson, News, Common Dreams, Sep 17, 2023
• Ice cores reveal Antarctica is warming twice as fast as global average As the world heats up in response to human-caused carbon emissions, scientists expect that the Earth’s poles will experience the largest increases in temperature. Guest post by Dr Mathieu Casado, Dr Raphael Hébert, Dr Amaelle Landais &  Dr Davide Faranda, Carbon Brief, Sep 13, 2023
• New 'Make Polluters Pay' Campaign Pushes States—and Biden DOJ—to Sue Big Oil "It's time to come together and finally hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the damage they've done." by Jake Johnson, News, Common Dreams, Sep 17, 2023

Monday, Sep 18, 2023

• What are medicanes? The ‘supercharged’ Mediterranean storms that could become more frequent The flash flood that has killed thousands of people in Libya this week followed the ‘medicane’ storm Daniel by Agence France-Presse, The Guardian, Sep 14, 2023
• Climate Protesters March on New York, Calling for End to Fossil Fuels Ahead of U.N. meetings this week, thousands gathered in Midtown to demand that President Biden and other world leaders stop new oil and gas drilling. by Somini Sengupta, Hilary Howard & Delger Erdenesanaa, Climate, New York Times, Sep 17, 2023
• ‘No left-wing indoctrination’: Climate science under attack in classrooms by Scott Waldman, ClimateWire, E&E News, Sep 12, 2023
• This is Canada’s worst wildfire season on record, researchers say by Dan Stillman, Weather, Washington Post, Sep 13, 2023
• The Brainwashing Of America's Children by ClimateTown, YouTube, Sep 12, 2023

Tuesday, Sep 19, 2023

• How hurricanes keep Earth’s energy in balance by Kasha Patel, Climate, Washington Post, Sep 14, 2023 
• Debunking Vivek Ramaswamy's climate claims by Andrew Dressler, The Climate Brink Blog, Sep 4, 2023
• U.N. Chief’s Test: Shaming Without Naming the World’s Climate Delinquents António Guterres has spoken sharply of “planet wreckers” ahead of this week’s United Nations climate summit, but politics makes it tricky to get specific. by Somini Sengupta, Climate, New York Times, Sep 19, 2023
• At a glance - Do volcanoes emit more CO2 than humans? by John Mason & Baerbel Winkler, Skeptical Science, Sep 19, 2023
• The terrible paradox of air pollution and climate change Some types of air pollution slow global warming — but at the cost of millions of deaths a year by Rachel DuRose, Climate, Vox, Sep 17, 2023

Wednesday, Sep 20, 2023

• Rich countries ‘confident’ $100bn climate finance delivered in 2023 Data won’t be confirmed until 2025 and developing countries say the rich world must make up for earlier shortfalls from the target by Joe Lo, Finance, Climate Home News, Sep 19, 2023
• California Governor to Sign Landmark Climate Disclosure Bill The first-in-the-nation law will compel major companies to publicly disclose their carbon dioxide emissions and could have national repercussions. by Coral Davenport, Climate, New York Times, Sep 17, 2023
• Climate action must respond to extreme weather driving health crisis, says WHO Melting ice cps and rising sea levels are urgent but people care more about the floods, wildfires and droughts that are here now, New York summit hears by Max Benato, Global Development, The Guardian, Sep 19, 2023
• Exxon working on direct air capture of CO2, stays out of EV charging stations by Nia Williams, Sustainability, Reuters, Dec 19, 2023
• Humanity has ‘opened gates to hell’ by letting climate crisis worsen, UN secretary warns Antonio Guterres opened United Nations climate ambition summit with attack on wealthy countries and the fossil fuel industry by Oliver Milman, World, The Guardian, Sep 20, 2023

Thursday, Sep 21, 2023

• The Reach of Wildfire Smoke Is Going Global and Undoing Progress on Clean Air In the United States, smoke from wildfires is undoing progress from the Clean Air Act. In poorer countries, the situation is even worse. by Delger Erdenesanaa & Noah Weiland, Climate, New York Times, Sep 20, 2023 
• Insurance premiums could surge in these American cities because of climate disasters, new data shows by Ella Nilsen,&Krystina Shveda, Business, CNN, Sep 20, 2023
• ‘First movers’ only: US, China, UK left off UN climate guestlist Only five of the G20 major economies made the cut for Antonio Guterres’ Climate Action Summit in New York, despite pressure from big powers by Joe Lo & Sebastian Rodriguez, Political, Climate Home News, Sep 20, 2023
• Crop insurance costs are rising, fueled by climate change. Yet little has changed in federal program by Frank Morris, Nebraska Public Media, Sep 18, 2023
• Clean energy investing loses lustre despite climate crises by Gavin McGuire, Business, Reuters, Sep 20, 2023

Friday, Sep 22, 2023

• Exclude fossil fuel firms from Cop28 if they only want to obstruct, says ex-UN chief ‘My patience ran out,’ said Christiana Figueres, who for years had advocated oil companies should be involved in policymaking talks by Dharna Noor, Environment, The Guardian, Sep 21, 2023
• Hope and Despair on a Boiling Planet As efforts to control climate change are on the rise across the globe, the challenges are steeper than ever. by David Gelles, Climate, New York Times, Sep 23, 2023
• Wind opponents spread myth about dead whales They claim the offshore wind is responsible for a spike in whale deaths. Experts don’t buy it, but interest groups backed by fossil fuel money are spreading false information. by Pearl Marvell, Yale Climate Connections, Sep 19, 2023
• Sunak’s bold climate plan? Wait until 2047 – then push the panic button Close to implosion on Radio 4, the PM insists to Nick Robinson that he is not watering anything down. Even though he is by John Crace, Guardian, Sept 21, 2023
• Opinion: Let’s free ourselves from the story of economic growth A relentless focus on economic growth has ushered in the climate crisis. We need a better definition of well-being. by Nikayla Jefferson, Commentary by Yale Climate Connections, Sep 22, 2023

Saturday, Sep 23, 2023

• China opposes ‘not realistic’ global fossil fuel phase-out From Beijing, climate envoy Xie Zhenhua stood firm against stronger rhetoric against coal, oil and gas deployed at UN headquarters by Joe Lo, Climate Home News, Sep 21, 2023
• Tropical Storm Warnings flying as Potential Tropical Cyclone 16 heads for North Carolina And in the far eastern Atlantic, a tropical wave that is expected to develop into a tropical depression by next week could be a long-range threat to the Caribbean. by Jeff Masters & Bob Henson, Eye on the Storm, Yale Climate Connections, Sep 21, 2023
• UAE oil company executives working with Cop28 team, leak reveals Exclusive: two PR professionals from national oil firm listed as providing ‘support’ to team running UN climate summit by Ben Stockton, Environment, The Guardian, Sep 22, 2023
• Five climate announcements from UNGA & Climate Week NYC In a relatively low powered year for climate leadership, a handful of government, climate finance and corporate initiatives are worth noting by Matteo Civillini & Joe Lo, Climate Home News, Sep 22, 2023
• They moved to Vermont for climate safety. Then came floods. by Millie Brigaud, Environment, The Christian Science Monitor, Sep 15, 2023

Posted by John Hartz on Saturday, 23 September, 2023

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