Category: Climate Change

From the guy who runs the U.S. when nobody from Ukraine is available to act as the hidden power behind our government (NY Post):

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday took aim at teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, telling an energy forum he did not share the excitement about her United Nations speech last month.

Putin, chairing a session at an energy forum in Moscow, said: “I may disappoint you but I don’t share the common excitement about the speech by Greta Thunberg.

“No one has explained to Greta that the modern world is complex and different and … people in Africa or in many Asian countries want to live at the same wealth level as in Sweden.”

Why not implement an exchange program around this? People in poor countries that have low per-capita carbon output can swap with those in rich high-carbon countries who want to reduce their personal footprints. Thus the person from the poor country can immediately enjoy the more lavish material lifestyle within there being any net increase in carbon consumption (try to do the exchange via a standby flight reservation so that there is no extra carbon output from the airline trips).

It could also be a fun TV show depicting the adaptions of those who agree to participate in the swap, in the artistic tradition of Trading Places.

Readers: What to call this? The “Putin-Thunberg Shuffle”?

Related:

• “What tiny Bhutan can teach the world about being carbon negative” (CNN), which neglects to mention that deporting one-sixth of the population likely cut Bhutan’s carbon output considerably
• “Jane Fonda: The Climate Emergency Is a Political Emergency” (nytimes)… but the emergency is perhaps not so dire that it would require the successful divorce plaintiff to fly commercial (see the Telegraph for “Fonda filed for divorce from Turner in 2001, a decision spurred on by Fonda’s conversion to a ‘feminist, spiritual interpretation of Christianity,’ with the actress apparently pocketing $70 million in their settlement.”)

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“World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency“ is signed by 11,258 scientists worldwide.

Let’s have a look at principal author Thomas Newsome’s conference papers, indicating travel from his Sydney, Australia base. In 2018 alone, he visited at least Cleveland, Minneapolis, Brisbane, and Hobart. How about principal author Phoebe Barnard? In addition to organizing and attending conferences around the world, she splits her time among Namibia, South Africa, and the U.S.

When will the climate emergency become so dire that these authors decide to use Skype rather than take transcontinental airline trips every few months?

Related only in the reference to United Premier 1K:

• https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2018/10/05/new-version-of-the-boeing-787-announced/
• https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2018/10/11/if-christine-blasey-ford-was-permanently-damaged-by-brett-kavanaugh-what-hope-is-there-for-the-refugees-that-the-u-s-admits/ : “Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified that she was permanently damaged by Brett Kavanaugh, suffering from reduced academic performance, an inability to tolerate airline travel (except cross the Pacific to surf destinations in French Polynesia because driving to a California beach would be even more intolerable?), and various other maladies of PTSD…”
• https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2018/10/05/why-didnt-christine-blasey-ford-drive-to-manchester-new-hampshire/

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Today is the big day for protesting climate change. Our virtuous neighbors will abandon their pavement-melting SUVs and ride the commuter rail (service ever two hours, whether you need it or not!):

This Friday, September 20, many members of the Lincoln community plan to attend the Boston Youth Climate Strike at Boston City Hall. We will board the 9:09 am train at Lincoln Station. Around the country and around the globe, young people and their adult allies will be leaving school and work to raise their voices to protect the Earth’s climate from further damage by human caused fossil fuel emissions.

St. Anne’s in-the-Fields Episcopal Church, Lincoln, invites anyone who is planning to take the 9:09 train to join us for a brief Liturgy for the Climate at Lincoln Station beginning at 8:45 am. Join our clergy and members of our congregation as we offer prayers of blessing for the Earth and acknowledge the climate emergency threatening the future of humanity. All are welcome!

You can find information about the Boston Youth Climate Strike on the web site for Massachusetts Mothers Out Front.

The school strike for climate, also known variously as Fridays for Future (FFF), Youth for Climate and Youth Strike 4 Climate is an international movement of school students who take time off from class to participate in demonstrations to demand action to prevent further global warming and climate change. Publicity and widespread organizing began after Swedish schoolgirl, Greta Thunberg, staged a protest in August 2018 outside the Swedish Riksdag.

If you have not experienced Greta’s eloquence, please watch her Ted Talk. Greta recently took a sailboat trip from Sweden to New York City to be present for the strike with youth from New York prior to the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Greta Thunberg was the object of derision among Scandinavians on our recent Northwest Passage cruise. She traveled to New York on an “emissions-free yacht” (New York Times) or “zero-emissions sailboat” (CNN). If you read unsanctioned news outlets, however, you’ll learn that eliminating one transatlantic flight required about $5 million in construction cost for the yacht (imagine how many trees could have been planted!) and multiple transatlantic flights for the crew (The Sun and Voice of Europe and Spectator).

Readers: What are your neighbors doing for the climate strike?

Update: Gridlock from all of the climate protesters trying to get home in their SUVs…

Related:

• betterlincolnschools.wordpress.com: Our climate-conscious neighbors vote to bulldoze a school (newly built or renovated 24 years earlier) and spend $110 million on a same-size replacement (the market verdict on this project seems to be negative; neighbors trying to sell their houses are failing and prices are falling relative to other Boston-area towns)

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