December 10, 2020
In News Uncategorized
November 18, 2020
UNFASHIONABLE NEWS
New York Times reporter Sarah Kliff (on Twitter):
“Astounding: a woman giving birth in the United States is ten times more likely to die than a woman giving birth in New Zealand.”
See: Commonwealth Fund (U.S.), Maternal Mortality and Maternity Care in the United States Compared to 10 Other Developed Countries, November 18, 2020.
MORAL SENSIBILITIES OF THE RICH
Amitav Ghosh, interviewed by Rut Elliot Blomqvist for Libraries in Gothenburg, Sweden (transcribed from Nov 18 YouTube video titled “Amitav Ghosh gästar Internationell författarscen Göteborg”):
“… For a long time, climate activists have made the argument that poor people will be more badly hit. And they made this argument, I think, because they felt that they would appeal to the moral sensibilities of the rich. But if the rich had such great moral sensibilities the world wouldn’t be where it is. In fact this whole message, what it put across to the world’s privileged is just that, you know, ‘I don’t have to worry. Let them go and die.’ That was literally the upshot of what this message was. And this message is actually completely wrong. … The idea that anyone is safe is a delusion. …”
MEMORY LANE
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
November 18, 2020, CO2 412.14 ppm
November 18, 2019, CO2 409.82 ppm
November 18, 2018, CO2 408.61 ppm
November 18, 2017, CO2 405.71 ppm
November 18, 2016, CO2 404.23 ppm
November 18, 2015, CO2 400.62 ppm
November 18, 2014, CO2 397.38 ppm
November 18, 2013, CO2 394.69 ppm
November 18, 2012, CO2 393.26 ppm
November 18, 2011, CO2 390.38 ppm
November 18, 2010, CO2 388.74 ppm
November 18, 2000, CO2 368.51 ppm
November 18, 1992, CO2 354.34 ppm (year of UNFCCC)
November 18, 1990, CO2 353.12 ppm
November 18, 1980, CO2 337.37 ppm
November 18, 1970, CO2 324.34 ppm
November 18, 1960, CO2 314.96 ppm
November 19, 2020
POOR USA!
Seymour Hersh to Afshin Rattansi (Going Underground, “Seymour Hersh on US War Crimes in Vietnam,” November 19, 2020):
“They did things like throwing up babies and catching them alive on bayonets, I mean, and raping like crazy.”
Note: In this latest recounting, Hersh characteristically rushed straight from the catching of babies on bayonets to the “trouble” he had reporting the story, “the horror and shame I felt for my country,” surely a terrible burden. Readers may be reassured to watch the interview themselves and see that he’s still okay, a real patriot. In fact, Hersh is so patriotic that in 2018, in conversation with Robert Scheer, he was emphatic about having sanitized official records to protect the reputation of his country from “people who basically don’t have much of a grievance against the Americans. [The] Vietnamese, they could start killing [U.S.] soldiers at random [if I told the truth].” What was the terrible truth that he scrubbed? He took out the word “Oriental.”
MORDECAI OGADA
Ecologist Mordecai Ogada, speaking at the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 conference:
“… Prince William is one of those who talks a lot about impacts of populations, etc., on natural environments … in Africa. It’s never about the U.K. … There’s lots of wealthy people and foundations in the West now running to invest in conservation in Africa. … This neoliberal approach to conservation is akin to what happened in the Berlin Conference … when a group of Europeans sat around a table and decided how to divide Africa amongst themselves. If we move forward to the present day, we have what we call the Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation. This again is a group of people from the West sitting around tables … allocating conservation areas and priorities in Africa amongst themselves. … [But] you cannot plan for Africa without Africans at the table. Or for Asia without Asians at the table. … We have to entrench local livelihoods and aspirations in the discourse, and tourism is not a local livelihood. … [I]f the locals have to stop what they’re doing, we don’t need that kind of tourism. … We cannot have someone coming to Africa and complaining that he saw too many Africans. I never see people going to China and claiming they saw too many Chinese people, or going to Europe and saying they saw too many European people. …”
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
November 19, 2020, CO2 413.47 ppm
November 19, 2019, CO2 410.17 ppm
November 19, 2018, CO2 410.13 ppm
November 19, 2017, CO2 405.56 ppm
November 19, 2016, CO2 403.94 ppm
November 19, 2015, CO2 400.83 ppm
November 19, 2014, CO2 397.60 ppm
November 19, 2013, CO2 394.66 ppm
November 19, 2012, CO2 393.10 ppm
November 19, 2011, CO2 390.56 ppm
November 19, 2010, CO2 388.90 ppm
November 19, 2009, CO2 386.30 ppm
November 19, 2008, CO2 384.20 ppm
November 19, 1980, CO2 337.35 ppm
November 19, 1970, CO2 324.37 ppm
November 19, 1960, CO2 315.18 ppm
November 23, 2020
WHO CARES WHAT THE W.H.O. SAYS?*
World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme Executive Director Dr Michael Ryan, “Media Briefing on COVID-19”:
“… [W]ith regard to the Wuhan seafood market, in fact, one of the interesting findings was that while there was most certainly a temporal and geographic cluster associated with the market, not all of the cases in that initial cluster can be linked directly to the market. So the market is likely to have been a point of amplification …. [C]ertainly it’s clear that there were cases that preceded that event at the Wuhan market.”
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Infectious Disease Epidemiologist, during the same briefing:
“… [T]here are a lot of studies that need to be underway to find the initial cases wherever they may be, and look at the conditions in which they were infected. So this case zero [in Wuhan] that you mentioned may not be in fact case zero. There could have been other cases that existed that weren’t detected because they weren’t picked up through a current surveillance system. … We’re … working with a large number of people across the world, looking at retrospective analyses in different countries- You’ve heard [about] studies of waste water, studies that have looked at samples from 2019. … [A]ll of these really help us to piece together how this unfolds. …”
* These remarks went unreported in English and un-indexed by Google. They are transcribed here from the November 23, 2020, video titled “Media briefing on COVID-19” posted to the WHO’s YouTube channel (see: around the 43 min 24 sec mark, for example). Some of the points seemed to follow from news reports about Italy. A November 15 article in The Independent (UK) reported:
“Coronavirus was present in Italy months before its outbreak is known to have started, according to new research. Scientists have found Covid-19 antibodies in blood samples from as early as September last year. … Traces of coronavirus have also shown up in Italy’s water from December last year ….”
Although the WHO’s comments were not deemed fit to print, they were worth contradicting. On November 27, 2020, for example, Newsweek readers may have wondered why it was necessary to publish an article titled “WHO Health Emergencies Executive Director Says There Is ‘No Evidence That Mammals in Europe’ Were Source of COVID-19.”
WEATHER REPORT
CBS News (Nov 23):
“According to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanlayzer, this weekend the Arctic Circle was an average 12 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. This is not just one location, but the average of all 7.7 million square miles … nearly double the size of the entire United States … 12 degrees above normal.”
November 24, 2020
MINI-USA
Declassified UK:
“REVEALED: The UK military’s overseas base network involves 145 sites in 42 countries / Britain’s armed forces have a far more extensive base network than ever presented by the Ministry of Defence. New research by Declassified reveals the extent of this global military presence for the first time … [including] in Saudi Arabia. In the capital, Riyadh, British armed forces are spread out over half a dozen locations, including the air operations centres where RAF officers observe Saudi-led coalition air operations in Yemen. …”
MEMORY LANE
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
November 24, 2020, CO2 413.40 ppm
November 24, 2019, CO2 411.13 ppm
November 24, 2018, CO2 408.53 ppm
November 24, 2017, CO2 406.70 ppm
November 24, 2016, CO2 403.63 ppm
November 24, 2015, CO2 400.53 ppm
November 24, 2014, CO2 397.19 ppm
November 24, 2013, CO2 396.11 ppm
November 24, 2012, CO2 393.13 ppm
November 24, 2011, CO2 390.55 ppm
November 24, 2010, CO2 389.29 ppm
November 24, 2000, CO2 368.23 ppm
November 24, 1992, CO2 355.08 ppm (year of UNFCCC)
November 24, 1990, CO2 353.13 ppm
November 24, 1980, CO2 337.58 ppm
November 24, 1970, CO2 324.46 ppm
November 24, 1960, CO2 315.37 ppm
November 25, 2020
“THERE IS NO PATHWAY TO SUCCESSFUL GLOBAL COOPERATION WITH THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR”
Brandon Wu, Director of Policy and Campaigns for ActionAid USA:
“… [T]he Obama State Department negotiating team – including while Mr. Kerry was at the helm – trumpeted ‘U.S. climate leadership’ while undermining core principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The principles that especially came under fire from U.S. negotiators were those around equity and fairness – the idea that the U.S. and other historically industrialized countries should do more, faster, than poorer countries.”
“So what did U.S. climate leadership look like with Secretary Kerry’s negotiation team? The U.S. commitment for emissions reductions under the Paris Agreement was 5-6 times weaker than our fair share. The U.S. was a perpetual roadblock to progress on key negotiations around financial support for poorer countries. The U.S. tried to ensure that it could never be held liable for the damage caused by climate impacts in vulnerable countries and has no obligation to support them – a hard-line position that nearly torpedoed negotiations on multiple occasions. …”
“There is no pathway to successful global cooperation with this kind of behavior. The only U.S. climate diplomacy that gives us a chance at solving the climate crisis is a completely new version – one in which the U.S. recognizes its true responsibility and commits to urgent action at a huge scale. …”
29 FATEFUL YEARS OF THIS
Pakistani PM Imran Khan (on November 25, ’20):
“Climate action in developing countries must be grounded in established principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capacities (CBDRRC) – as agreed under the [1992] United Nations Framework Convention … (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement. It is also essential that developing countries are supported through improved climate finance, appropriate technology transfer and supportive capacity building.”
THOMAN REPORT
Rick Thoman, climate specialist at University of Alaska Fairbanks (on Twitter, Nov 25, ’20):
“Bering Sea ice extent at this point in the season has always been quite variable, but the trend is dramatic. The typical #seaice extent for November 23rd nowadays has declined by 75% since the early 1980s based on @NSIDC [National Snow and Ice Data Center] data.”
WHAT AMERICANS GET
The Hill:
“26M Americans now say they don’t have enough to eat / … The number of Americans reporting not having enough to eat has hit an all-time high since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The data indicate nearly 26 million adults do not have enough food. Among households with children, the number was as high as 1 in 6 adults.”
MEMORY LANE
NOAA-ESRL/Scripps (“In-situ CO2 Data”):
November 25, 2020, CO2 413.12 ppm
November 25, 2019, CO2 410.46 ppm
November 25, 2018, CO2 408.53 ppm
November 25, 2017, CO2 406.69 ppm
November 25, 2016, CO2 405.52 ppm
November 25, 2015, CO2 400.94 ppm
November 25, 2014, CO2 – no data –
November 25, 2013, CO2 396.23 ppm
November 25, 2012, CO2 392.87 ppm
November 25, 2011, CO2 390.47 ppm
November 25, 2010, CO2 389.67 ppm
November 25, 2000, CO2 368.36 ppm
November 25, 1990, CO2 353.20 ppm
November 25, 1980, CO2 337.51 ppm
November 25, 1970, CO2 324.60 ppm
November 25, 1960, CO2 315.16 ppm
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