2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #26

Skeptical Science –

Editor’s Pick

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: ‘Hope is contagious’

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Greta Thunberg. Photograph: Stephen Voss, Anna Schori/The Guardian

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez enters a boardroom at her constituency office in Queens, New York, after a short delay which, a political aide hopes, hasn’t been caused by a constituent waylaying her in the corridor. (“They can get really excited to meet her.”) Greta Thunberg is in her home in Sweden, her father testing the technology for the video link while the teenager waits in the background. The activists have never met nor spoken but, as two of the most visible climate campaigners in the world, they are keenly aware of each other.

Thunberg, now 16, catapulted to fame last year for skipping school every Friday to stand outside the Swedish parliament, protesting against political inaction over the climate crisis and sparking an international movement, the school strike for climate, in which millions of other children followed suit. Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic Representative for New York’s 14th congressional district is, at 29, the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress, whose election over a well-funded incumbent in 2018 was a huge upset to politics-as-usual. She has been in office for less than a year, which seems extraordinary given the amount of coverage she has generated. In February, Ocasio-Cortez submitted the Green New Deal to the US House of Representatives, calling for, among other things, the achievement of “net-zero” greenhouse gases within a decade and “a full transition off fossil fuels”, as well as retrofitting all buildings in the US to meet new energy efficient standards.

The Green New Deal, while garnering support from Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar, was mocked by speaker Nancy Pelosi (“the green dream or whatever they call it”), and defeated in the Senate by Republicans. Like Thunberg, however, Ocasio-Cortez gives every appearance of being galvanised by opposition, and has the kind of energy that has won her 4.41 million Twitter followers and makes establishment politicians in her path very nervous.

In the course of their conversation, Ocasio-Cortez and Thunberg discuss what it is like to be dismissed for their age, how depressed we should be about the future, and what tactics, as an activist, really work. Ocasio-Cortez speaks with her customary snap and brilliance that, held up against the general waffle of political discourse, seems startlingly direct. Thunberg, meanwhile, is phenomenally articulate, well-informed and self-assured, holding her own in conversation with an elected official nearly twice her age and speaking in deliberate, thoughtful English. They are, in some ways, as different as two campaigners can get – the politician working the system with Washington polish, and the teenager in her socks and leggings, working from her bedroom to reach the rest of the world. There is something very moving about the conversation between these young women, a sense of generational rise that, as we know from every precedent from the Renaissance onwards, has the power to ignite movements and change history.

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: ‘Hope is contagious’ by Emma Brockes, Environment, Guardian, June 29, 2019

Links posted on Facebook

Sun June 23 2019

• Sydney to Declare a Climate Emergency in Face of National Inaction by Isabella Kwai, Australia, New York Times, June 21, 2019
• Why environmentalists are taking their climate fight to Canadian courtrooms by Duncan McCue, CBC News, June 21, 2019
• Frank Luntz vs. Grover Norquist: the GOP’s climate change dilemma in a nutshell by David Roberts, Energy & Environment, Vox, June 21, 2019
• A Degree of Concern: Why Global Temperatures Matter (Part2) by Alan Buis, NASA Global Climate Change, Vital Signs of the Planet, June 19, 2019
• A Democratic Think Tank, the Progressive Policy Institute, Is Promoting Pushback Against Climate Lawsuits by Itai Vardi, DeSmog, June 20, 2019
• The rise of eco-anxiety and how to come to terms with climate change by Phoebe Weston, Environment, The Independent (UK), June 22, 2019
• Can The Climate Crisis Continue To Go Begging? by David Introcaso, 3 Quarks Daily, June 17, 2019
• Senate gavels in, gavels out Sunday as protesters gather after militia threats by Connor Radnovich, Salem Statesman Journal, June 23, 2019

Mon June 24 2019

• Europe’s youth want climate action. Elected leaders should give it to them, Opinion by Caio Koch-Weser, EURACTIV, June 19, 2019
• Eastern European states block bid for EU climate change 2050 decarbonisation target by Jon Ston, The Independent (UK), June 21, 2019
• Mike Pence repeatedly refuses to say climate crisis is a threat to US by Martin Pengelly, US Politics, Guardian, June 23, 2019
• Trump’s impeachable offense: Ignoring climate change, Opinion by Dan Rodricks, Baltimore Sun, June 21, 2019
• The Trump EPA strategy to undo Clean Power Plan by Dana Nuccitelli, Yale Climate Connections, June 21, 2019
• The climate change lawsuit that could stop the US government from supporting fossil fuels by Steve Croft, 60 Minutes, CBS, June 23, 2019
• ‘Hell is coming’: week-long heatwave begins across Europe by Jon Henley, World, Guardian, June 24, 2019
• Medical groups warn climate change is a ‘health emergency’ by Elana Schor, AP News, June 24, 2019

Tue June 25 2019

• Chennai’s the latest city to have almost run out of water, and other cities could follow suit, ABC News (AU), June 21, 2019
• Canada’s military feeling the strain responding to climate change by Darren Major & Salimah Shivji, In Our Backyard, CBC News, June 24, 2019
• Four countries have declared climate emergencies. But give billions to fossil fuels by Chloé Farand, Climate Home News, June 24, 2019
• Emissions need to be halved to avoid 3C warming: scientists by Nina Chestney, Sustainable Business, Reuters, June 19, 2019
• Agriculture Department buries studies showing dangers of climate change by Helena Bottemiller Evich, Investigations, Politico, June 23, 2019
• How to Debate a Science Denier by Diana Kwon, Scientific American, June 25, 2019
• Zurich Insurance Takes Action Against Global Warming, finews.com, June 25, 2019
• G20 countries triple coal power subsidies despite climate crisis by Damian Carrington, Environment, Guardian, June 24, 2019

Wed June 26 2019

• Cognitive dissonance: Canada declares a national climate emergency and approves a pipeline by Warren Mabee, The Conversation Canada, June 20, 2019
• Women of Faith: Millennial Christians say loving God means protecting creation by Kerri Miller & Kelly Gordon, MPR News (Minnesota), June 24, 2019
• Shell is not a green saviour. It’s a planetary death machine, Opinion by George Monbiot, Comment is Free, Guardian, June 26, 2019
• Oregon Climate Bill Appears Dead After Some Ridiculous Bullshit You Can’t Make Up by Brian Kahn, Earther, Gizmodo, June 25, 2019
• Debate 2020: The Candidates’ Climate Positions & What They’ve Actually Done by John H Cushman Jr. InsideClimate News, June 16, 2019
• To tackle the climate crisis we need more democracy, not less by Rebecca Willis, The Conversation UK. June 21, 2019

Thu June 27 2019

• As Coal Fades in the U.S., Natural Gas Becomes the Climate Battleground by Brad Plumer, Climate, New York Times, June 26, 2019
• The climate crisis and the end of the golden era of food choice by Sean Illing, The Highlight, Vox, June 24, 2019
• The First Democratic Debate Failed The Planet by Emily Atkin, The New Republic Magazine, June 26, 2019
• Climate change: What 10 presidents have known by Brit McCandless Farmer, 60 Minutes Overtime, CBS News, June 23, 2019
• Canada Signals a Willingness to Challenge Trump on His Clean-Car Rollback by Coral Davenport, Climate, New York Times, June 26, 2019
• I Am a Carbon Abolitionist by Eric Beinhocker, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, June 24, 2019
• Airplane Contrails’ Climate Impact to Triple by 2050, Study Says by Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News, June 27, 2019
• 105 degrees in France: why Europe is so vulnerable to extreme heat by Umair Irfan, Energy & Environment, Vox, June 27, 2019

Fri June 28 2019

• The Fossil Fuel Industry Is Quietly Undermining Global Climate Talks by Luke McGrath, Climate Changed, Bloomberg News, June 24, 2019
• Majority of Americans Know Fossil Fuel Companies Drive Climate Change, Should Pay for Damages by Karen Savage, Climate Liability News, June 19, 2019
• In “climate apartheid”, rich will save themselves while poor suffer – UN report by Tom Miles, Reuters, June 25, 2019
• European heatwave: France hits record temperature of 45.8C, BBC News, June 28, 2019
• The biggest loser in the presidential debates: Planet Earth by James Temple, Climate Change/Clean Energy, MIT Technology Review, June 28, 2019
• Temperature records are melting away in Miami by Brian McNoldy, Capital Weather Gang, Washington Post, June 27, 2019
• Amidst ‘high political tension’, UN chief appeals to G20 leaders for stronger commitment to climate action, economic cooperation, UN News, June 28, 2019
• Japan aims for ‘harmony’ at G-20. Is it sidestepping climate change? by Simon Denyer & Damian Paletta, World, Washington Post, June 28, 2019

Sat June 29 2019

• Bonn climate talks end with Saudis and Brazil defiant by Natalie Sauer & Megan Darby, Politics, Climate Home News, June 27, 2019
• Europe has had five 500-year summers in 15 years. And now this by Stephen Leahy, Environment, National Geographic, June 28, 2019
• Wildfires and power cuts plague Europe as heatwave breaks records by Gus Trompiz & Joan Faus, Reuters, June 29, 2019
• First 2020 Debates Spent 15 Minutes on Climate Change. What Did We Learn? by Marianne Lavelle, InsideClimate News, June 28, 2019
• When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: ‘Hope is contagious’ by Emma Brockes, Environment, Guardian, June 29, 2019
• Denmark’s new government raises climate change to highest priority by Chloé Farand, Politics, Climate Home News, June 26, 2019

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