November 3, 2020
In Uncategorized
Compiled and annotated by Yutaka Yokoyama (yokoyama10[at]gmail[dot]com)
October 19, 2020
MORAL HIGH GROUND
The Washington Post:
“China delivered a diatribe against U.S. climate policies on Monday [October 19] … ‘This seems like a reminder that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,’ Jason Bordoff, director of Columbia University’s global energy center, said of the Chinese report. ‘We put out a statement attacking their environmental record and they put out an even stronger one ….'”
“‘China’s fact sheet on U.S. damage to the environment is a slap in the face for a country that normally prides itself on its environmental leadership,’ said Joanna Lewis, director of Georgetown University’s science, technology and international affairs program. ‘It demonstrates how the U.S. has lost almost all of its moral high ground [emphasis added] when it comes to engaging with China and other emerging economies on the environment and climate change in particular.'”
Note: The Chinese “diatribe” and “fact sheet” in question (“Report on US Damage to Global Environmental Governance” and “Fact Sheet on Environmental Damage by the US“) plainly whitewashed the record of the Obama administration on climate issues as a contrast to Trump’s more famously horrendous record. However, in these documents the language regarding the UNFCCC’s central principle of equity remained basically unchanged from its original formulation in 1992. Compare:
2020
China’s 2020 “Report on US Damage to Global Environmental Governance“:
“… According to relevant treaty provisions, the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’ and historical responsibilities, the US, as a developed country, has the obligation to provide sufficient and sustained financial support to developing countries. But instead of doing so ….”
1992
UNFCCC 1992 (U.S. Treaty Document 102-38):
“… The Parties should protect the climate system … on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities … the developed country Parties should take the lead in combating climate change and the adverse effects thereof. … shall also provide such financial resources, including for the transfer of technology, needed by the developing country Parties …. to enable them to implement the provisions of the Convention. …”
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”)
October 19, 2020, CO2 411.15 ppm
October 19, 2019, CO2 408.72 ppm
October 19, 2018, CO2 406.01 ppm
October 19, 2017, CO2 404.09 ppm
October 19, 2016, CO2 401.48 ppm
October 19, 2015, CO2 398.47 ppm
October 19, 2010, CO2 387.29 ppm
October 19, 2000, CO2 366.66 ppm
October 19, 1992, CO2 352.46 ppm (UNFCCC signed)
MESSAGE FOR EUROPEANS
BIOSEC project (Sheffield University) on Twitter:
“New report @EUEnvironment on the State of Nature across Europe, shows UK has the worst record, yet the UK Government presents itself as a global leader on wildlife conservation ….”
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October 21, 2020
MESSAGE FOR VEGANS
Nutrition Facts/ Dr. Michael Greger, sounding like he got a solid eight hours of sleep, posted another good short video about “The Symptoms of Vitamin B12 Deficiency,” which can be very serious and include pretty much everything:
“Our fellow great apes like gorillas get all the B12 they need eating their own feces [emphasis added]. I prefer supplements. …”
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”)
October 21, 2020, CO2 411.85 ppm
October 21, 2019, CO2 408.68 ppm
October 21, 2018, CO2 406.72 ppm
October 21, 2017, CO2 404.24 ppm
October 21, 2016, CO2 401.97 ppm
October 21, 2015, CO2 397.85 ppm
October 21, 2014, CO2 395.78 ppm
October 21, 2013, CO2 394.20 ppm
October 21, 2012, CO2 391.24 ppm
October 21, 2011, CO2 388.97 ppm
October 21, 2010, CO2 387.45 ppm
October 21, 2000, CO2 366.54 ppm
October 21, 1992, CO2 353.61 ppm
The UNFCCC was signed on June 12, 1992.
(See: U.S. Treaty Document 102-38)
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October 22, 2020
WEATHER REPORT FROM UTQIAGVIK (USA)
Rick Thoman (climate specialist at University of Alaska Fairbanks) on Twitter:
“A new daily record high temperature at Utqiaġvik on Wednesday: 35F (+1.7C) nips the previous record for October 21 of 34F (+1.1C) set in 1949 and tied in 2005. Unbroken climate observations since October 1920.“
ANOTHER RISING TIDE
NEWS 95.7 (Halifax, Nova Scotia), October 22, 2020 / Amid escalating attacks by white people against indigenous Mi’kmaw “moderate livelihood” fisheries in Nova Scotia, local talk radio host Sheldon MacLeod interviewed Darryl Leroux, Associate Professor at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who spoke about some of the underlying racial dynamics:
“[T]here’s been this movement that’s slowly taken place … where Acadians in Nova Scotia – and in New Brunswick but to a lesser extent – have increasingly identified themselves as indigenous. So just to give you an example here I have some numbers from the census. So if we look at the 1991 census, there were 225 people in Nova Scotia who identified as Métis. So that’s 225. In 2016 there were over 23,000. So it went from 225 to over 23,000 in 25 years … a little bit less than a generation. And that means that there are more people in Nova Scotia today who identify as Métis … than there are Mi’kmaq people. And that’s a new development. … [H]ere in Nova Scotia we have at last count eight organizations that claim to represent ‘Métis people’ – essentially white French Canadians or white Acadians. … And they have tens of thousands of members. … And they lobby governments. They try to have their ‘rights’ recognized. They haven’t managed to do that, thankfully.”
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
October 22, 2020, CO2 411.88 ppm
October 22, 2019, CO2 409.09 ppm
October 22, 2018, CO2 406.66 ppm
October 22, 2017, CO2 403.85 ppm
October 22, 2016, CO2 401.77 ppm
October 22, 2015, CO2 398.47 ppm
October 22, 2014, CO2 396.01 ppm
October 22, 2013, CO2 394.04 ppm
October 22, 2012, CO2 391.29 ppm
October 22, 2011, CO2 389.27 ppm
October 22, 2010, CO2 387.99 ppm
October 22, 2000, CO2 367.05 ppm
October 22, 1992, CO2 353.98 ppm (year of UNFCCC)
October 22, 1990, CO2 351.67 ppm
October 22, 1980, CO2 336.36 ppm
October 22, 1970, CO2 322.87 ppm
October 22, 1960, CO2 314.87 ppm
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“[N]ot only can people like me sit at home and work and even earn money sometimes by doing Zooms or whatever …. Every time we look at our retirement portfolio, you know, there’s another huge increase in the funds we have available. And why is that huge increase happening? Because the stock market thinks we’re going to screw the workers even more in the future.”
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“Arctic Sea Ice Fails to Refreeze by Late October, Setting a New Record“
“The number of Indigenous women in Nova Scotia jails doubled last year / Newly released data shows Indigenous women vastly overrepresented in provincial corrections system”
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
October 26, 2020, CO2 411.25 ppm
October 26, 2019, CO2 408.71 ppm
October 26, 2018, CO2 406.60 ppm
October 26, 2017, CO2 404.45 ppm
October 26, 2016, CO2 401.70 ppm
October 26, 2015, CO2 398.26 ppm
October 26, 2010, CO2 387.75 ppm
October 26, 2000, CO2 367.48 ppm
October 26, 1992, CO2 353.20 ppm (year of UNFCCC)
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October 27, 2020
SOME PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
The Guardian (UK):
“Scientists have found evidence that frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean – known as the ‘sleeping giants of the carbon cycle’ – have started to be released over a large area of the continental slope off the East Siberian coast, the Guardian can reveal. … The scientists … stressed their findings were preliminary. …”
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
October 27, 2020, CO2 411.00 ppm
October 27, 2019, CO2 408.66 ppm
October 27, 2018, CO2 406.16 ppm
October 27, 2017, CO2 404.28 ppm
October 27, 2008, CO2 383.02 ppm
October 27, 1992, CO2 353.00 ppm (year of UNFCCC)
October 27, 1960, CO2 314.98 ppm
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“Large Chinese land carbon sink* estimated from atmospheric carbon dioxide data … [W]e estimate a … Chinese land biosphere sink … during 2010 to 2016, equivalent to about 45 per cent of … annual Chinese anthropogenic emissions over that period. … These provinces have established a pattern of rapid afforestation** of progressively larger regions … over the past 10 to 15 years. … Space-borne observations of vegetation greenness show a large increase ….”
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
October 28, 2020, CO2 411.53 ppm
October 28, 2019, CO2 408.58 ppm
October 28, 2018, CO2 406.90 ppm
October 28, 2017, CO2 403.96 ppm
October 28, 2008, CO2 383.12 ppm
October 28, 1992, CO2 353.30 ppm (year of UNFCCC)
October 28, 1960, CO2 314.58 ppm
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October 29, 2020
NOSFERATU HITS THE JACKPOT
CNN:
“The US announced Thursday that it has sold petroleum from its largest-ever seizure of Iranian fuel for more than $40 million …. [Nosferatu, also known as] Elliott Abrams, the State Department’s special representative for Iran and Venezuela, estimated that since May 2018 … Iran has been deprived of ‘some $70 billion that it could have used for [combating vampirism].'”
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