How Can We Learn From COVID-19 To Mitigate Our Next Crisis: Climate Change

How Can We Learn From COVID-19 To Mitigate Our Next Crisis: Climate Change

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by Ankit Mishra The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has now touched nearly all parts of the world. For most of us, our daily lives have changed, and the downturn in the economy has left many unemployed. Since the first lockdown on January 22 in Wuhan, China, the number of positive cases has rapidly increased from 580 to over 2 million as of April 15. Although the global stock markets have somewhat recovered, the shock to the economy is expected to last several months. The IMF projects the global economy will contract by 3% this year with all major advanced economies expected to be in recession.  As this crisis unfolds, it highlights the importance of risk mitigation and the real cost of lives around the world when action is either half measured or poorly implemented. In the coming months,…
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COVID-19 and climate change: What can we learn about saving lives?

COVID-19 and climate change: What can we learn about saving lives?

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by Mona Sarfaty and Richard Carmona The novel coronavirus has exposed the dangers of ignoring experts and data. It is also abundantly clear that public health and health care delivery are the foundations upon which our social, cultural and economic lives are built and when the foundations are threatened, everyone must act.  This crisis also illuminates the importance of addressing another looming health emergency: climate change. The time frame is different but just as urgent. COVID-19 and climate change are real but different health emergencies. The novel coronavirus is a public health emergency caused by a new virus — COVID-19 — which has rapidly spread through communities across the world. Conversely, climate change is a slow-motion public health emergency, exacerbated by health crises associated with sudden events such as extreme weather and…
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Don’t Forget About Climate Action

Don’t Forget About Climate Action

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By Susan ShainIt can be hard to process any more bad news right now. But the climate fight won’t be over when this pandemic is. While you needn’t feel constantly productive in these stressful times, you might still be wondering how to stay environmentally engaged. If you’ve done what you can to support those affected by the coronavirus — and have the privilege of staying home with newfound time — why not tick a few items off your carbon-footprint-reduction checklist? Here are some ideas.Home Program your thermostat: Although an estimated 41 percent of Americans have programmable thermostats, just 12 percent actually program them. By setting yours to automatically change with the time and season, Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said you could reduce “heating and cooling emissions by 15 percent.”Get cleaner power: Research solar panels (some companies…
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How Google, Microsoft, and Big Tech Are Automating the Climate Crisis

How Google, Microsoft, and Big Tech Are Automating the Climate Crisis

Big Tech, Climate Change, Global Warming, Oil and Gas
  In a deal that made few ripples outside the energy industry, two very large but relatively obscure companies, Rockwell Automation and Schlumberger Limited, announced a joint venture called Sensia. The new company will “sell equipment and services to advance digital technology and automation in the oilfield,” according to the Houston Chronicle. Yet the partnership has ramifications far beyond Houston’s energy corridor: It’s part of a growing trend that sees major tech companies teaming with oil giants to use automation, AI, and big data services to enhance oil exploration, extraction, and production. Rockwell is the world’s largest company that is dedicated to industrial automation, and Schlumberger, a competitor of Halliburton, is the world’s largest oilfield services firm. Sensia will be, according to the press release, “the first fully integrated digital…
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3 clean energy myths that can lead to a productive climate conversation

3 clean energy myths that can lead to a productive climate conversation

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Renewable energy innovations symbolize what's great about America. Discussing them provides opportunities for climate dialogue. Energy use is the biggest cause of climate change, and it’s the first place we should look for solutions. It’s also a smart angle for talking about climate change, because it’s easy to find agreement on issues like improving energy efficiency, reducing pollution, cleaning up our energy supply, and reducing reliance on unstable foreign supplies. But energy can be a bit of a double-edged sword. The very reason that some people reject climate change is that they fear some of its solutions, such as regulations on carbon, or government subsidies for clean energy, pose risks to established fossil-fuel based ways of life. The good news is that it’s not hard to have positive conversations about…
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By the End of the Century, San Francisco’s Climate Could Feel Like LA

By the End of the Century, San Francisco’s Climate Could Feel Like LA

Climate Change, Global Warming
When your grandchildren plan a trip to Denver later this century, they’ll need to leave the winter hat at home and instead plan like they’re going to the Texas Panhandle. That’s according to a new study published on Tuesday in Nature Communications, which looked at the future climate of 540 cities in North America and drew comparisons with cities of today. The results show that cities’ climates will, at the end of the century, look more like cities 528 miles south do today if emissions continue rising in line with current trends. That will rearrange more than vacation plans as city residents will be forced to cope with more intense heat and the dangerous impacts that came with it. The study also shows that if we begin to cut emissions,…
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A Surge of Climate Lawsuits Targets Human Rights, Damage from Fossil Fuels

A Surge of Climate Lawsuits Targets Human Rights, Damage from Fossil Fuels

Climate Change, Global Warming
[caption id="attachment_599" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Rhode Island in 2018 became the first state to sue the fossil fuel industry over climate change, citing the growing risks from sea level rise and extreme weather. Credit: John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images[/caption] Cities, states and the fishing industry want courts to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for global warming. Others argue government inaction violates rights. A climate denier is in the White House, pushing policies that will boost emissions. Congress is doing nothing to stop him. So citizens and local governments who are facing the impacts of rising seas, worsening heat waves and extreme weather are increasingly looking to the courts for help. The past year saw a surge in new lawsuits filed against fossil fuel companies, and major developments in cases pressing governments…
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The Story of 2018 Was Climate Change: Future generations may ask why we were distracted by lesser matters.

The Story of 2018 Was Climate Change: Future generations may ask why we were distracted by lesser matters.

Climate Change, Global Warming
[caption id="attachment_594" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] In Lynn Haven, Fla., trees were upended by a hurricane in October.CreditCreditJohnny Milano for The New York Times[/caption] Our best hope may be the weather. For a long time, many people thought that it was a mistake to use the weather as evidence of climate change. Weather patterns contain a lot of randomness. Even as the earth warms and extreme weather becomes more common, some years are colder and calmer than others. If you argue that climate change is causing some weather trend, a climate denier may respond by making grand claims about a recent snowfall. And yet the weather still has one big advantage over every other argument about the urgency of climate change: We experience the weather. We see it and feel it. It…
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‘1,000 little steps’: Global climate talks end in progress but fail to address the galloping pace of climate change

‘1,000 little steps’: Global climate talks end in progress but fail to address the galloping pace of climate change

Climate Change, Global Warming
“In the climate emergency we’re in, slow success is no success." [caption id="attachment_586" align="aligncenter" width="1484"] Participants leave town on Friday, even as negotiations drag on at the end of the two-week United Nations summit on climate change in Katowice, Poland. (Czarek Sokolowski/AP)[/caption] KATOWICE, Poland — Weary climate negotiators limped across the finish line Saturday night after days of round-the-clock talks, striking a deal that keeps the world moving forward with plans to curb carbon emissions. But the agreement fell well short of the breakthrough that scientists — and many of the conference’s own participants — say is needed to avoid the cataclysmic impacts of a warming planet. The deal struck Saturday at a global conference in the heart of Polish coal country, where some 25,000 delegates had gathered, adds legal…
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The Trump Administration Is Spinning Its Latest Pro-Coal Policy as Good for People of Color

The Trump Administration Is Spinning Its Latest Pro-Coal Policy as Good for People of Color

Climate Change, Global Warming
[caption id="attachment_580" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Nothing to see here, just your local coal-fired power plant.Photo: AP[/caption]   The Environmental Protection Agency is using energy affordability among low-income communities and people of color as an argument to bring back coal. Yes, the same coal responsible for an estimated 3,000 American deaths a year. Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced a new proposal Thursday that would repeal Obama-era regulations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. The EPA is doing so under the guise of advancing “clean coal,” a term typically used to describe emerging technologies that capture carbon on site from coal plants. Trouble is, that technology hasn’t advanced quickly enough for the market to make it affordable, and the EPA’s new proposal calls actually for doing away with Obama-era…
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