09/09/2020

Dubbed 'China's Greta Thunberg', Howey Ou Is Fighting For Climate Action In A Country Where Few Others Will

SBS - Rashida Yosufzai

For Howey Ou, described by some as the “Chinese Greta Thunberg”, raising awareness about climate change is a lonely challenge. But, as the 17-year-old tells SBS News, she's not ready to stop fighting.

Source: Instagram

 A teenager is interrogated for hours by police in China. Her metadata is searched. Later, she’s kicked out of school. Her parents are worried for her safety, so she leaves home.

But Howey Ou isn’t a spy or a criminal. She’s a climate change activist - and despite these challenges, she isn’t afraid to keep on protesting and raising awareness about a problem she feels most of her compatriots are apathetic about.

Howey, now 17, says attitudes in her country on climate change are “not up to date”, and there’s seldom any discussion on the news or at an official level.

“The country isn’t really treating this as a crisis,” she told SBS News.

When she was arrested in May 2019, Howey was on day seven of a protest outside a government building in her native Guilin, trying to warn people about climate change.

Police took her to a station before moving her to a different location. When she got here, she saw her parents were already being questioned.

Howey Ou outside the Guilin People’s Government building in May 2019. Twitter

Police interrogated Howey for three hours and searched her metadata. They asked her who she met, who she talked to during the protest, and whether she’d spoken to any foreigners.

She said the police later had dinner with her parents to “try and have good relations” with them.

In the fallout following her arrest, Howey’s parents confiscated her electronic devices and grounded her out of concern for her safety.

“I left home after that,” she said.

Greta’s influence

Howey is from the southern Chinese city of Guilin, which is known for its lush green hills, blue lakes and boasts some of world's most beautiful karst landscapes.

That may have influenced why she's always had a love for the environment and nature.

But it wasn’t until two years ago when she saw the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth that the threat of climate change became front and centre in her mind.

She was also inspired by a young Swedish girl who, at the time, was taking on the world with her message to reduce global emissions.

If Greta Thunberg could do it, so can I, Howey thought.

So, she went to see if there was a Chinese chapter of School Strike For Climate, the youth activist movement inspired by Ms Thunberg.

Howey Ou was rejected from her school for her activism. Twitter

To her shock, there wasn’t. So, like Ms Thunberg did during her first climate strikes, Howey decided to go it alone.

That's how she finds herself standing on busy streets every Friday holding up signs warning passers-by about the urgency of climate change action.

Usually she'll stand there for about three hours but some days it's six.

And while sometimes she'll have a friend with her, she's often alone.

Only a handful of people ever stop to ask her what she's doing, even though, she said, hundreds or even thousands of people will walk by ignoring her.

"Some glare and stop to see what happens, sometimes [they'll] ask [what I'm doing], but mostly I explain to them this is for social goods and environment (sic), so they understand," she said.

On rare occasions people ask for photos or encourage her from afar. Then there are those who think she's being unpatriotic.

"Some will think this is against [the] country, with some inconvenience and hate," she added.

Howey and Ms Thunberg haven't met in person, but the Swede has described her Chinese counterpart as a “true hero”.

'China needs more climate activists'

In May this year, Howey applied for school but was rejected.

“The principal … told me that if I continue (climate activism) then they will not accept me,” she said.

She is still hoping to go to university and take online courses. But her parents worry.

“They still think I should go back to school and study and to do this (activism) when I’m older,” Howey said.

“But I don’t agree with that."










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“China doesn’t need one more climate scientist … it needs more and more climate activists to [stress] this issue to the government.

“The [climate] emergency is getting more and more serious.”

There have been recent warnings China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is facing an increased risk of flooding amid rising temperatures.

The most recent floods in July across central and southern China killed at least 210 people.

“By the end of the current century, China is projected to be affected the most by flooding, with 40 million people affected and 110 billion Euros of damage per year,” a research paper by the Lancet revealed.

For now, Howey wants to raise awareness through non-violent, civil disobedience – in a country where such actions could get her into trouble with authorities.

“It is the only way to work in this kind of situation,” she said.

“Throughout history we know that this is [an] efficient way to make social change. We are aware of the possible risk and we will take the risk tenuously.

“If we don’t do this, we will face social collapse and mass starvation.”

'The system is still running as usual'

Howey has more than ten thousand followers on social media, but has struggled to find wider support within China.

Grassroots social movements can be heavily suppressed by the government, and the climate change movement there is lacking in participants.

Last year, Howey travelled solo around the country on a shoestring budget, meeting with environmental organisations and activists. But she said many had little understanding of the climate crisis.

And last October, she faced criticism from millions online when a German media interview with her went viral on Chinese social media.

Many accused her of attention-seeking and "armchair activism", while others made unflattering comparisons to Ms Thunberg, who is herself a frequent object of ridicule on the Chinese internet.

When she’s asked if she’s worried for her safety, Howey replies: “I’m afraid that the world is in a very dangerous situation. The change is still nowhere in sight and all the people and the system is still running as usual. There is nothing happening in the world. And I’m worried about that.

“We need to use the science to let people know what is going on… inspire them and to protect them by our own sacrificing (sic).

“When they see protesters don’t fear anything, to like, sacrifice themselves for a better world, or a livable world, they will feel really important [and] respect the protesters”.

Additional reporting by AFP.

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(USA) 'This Is Crazy.' A Record 2 Million Acres Of California Has Burned This Year With Heat Conditions Predicted To Continue

TIME - Jasmine Aguilera

A firefighter fights against the Creek Fire which started Friday afternoon, blew up and grew to 73,278 acres on September 06, 2020, in Shaver Lake, Fresno County, California, United States. Photo by Neal Waters/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

More than 2 million acres of land have been burned by wildfires in California as of Monday, according to state fire agency Cal Fire, surpassing the all-time record of 1.9 million set in 2018.

Cal Fire and climate scientists predict that the number of acres burned this year will continue to grow with upcoming weather conditions, including continued heat and offshore winds.

“This is crazy. We haven’t even got into the October and November fire season and we’ve broken the all-time record,” Cal Fire Capt. Richard Cordova told CNN on Sunday.

A Monday statement by Cal Fire said it and fire departments across the state remain prepared for potentially more significant wildfires due to critical fire weather.

In a Friday tweet, climate scientist Daniel Swain of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, predicted Monday’s new record. He tells TIME the prediction was not very impressive “since we were 95% of the way there on Friday.”



The state is experiencing another wave of record-breaking heat this weekend, and offshore winds beginning around this time of year—the Santa Anna winds in the south, and the Diablo winds in the north—are expected to spread fires further towards the coast of California, according to Swain, where most people live.

“All indications are that this fire season is going to continue to be worse than average,” Swain says.

With the large number of fires burning already, stretching firefighting resources, and the combination of a heat wave and offshore winds, “you don’t even need new ignitions, new sparks,” Swain adds. “These winds will push those fires in places where we don’t want them to go, close to where people live.”

On late Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in five California counties, including Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. The largest un-contained fire, known as the Creek Fire near Fresno, Calif., has burned more than 78,000 acres as of Monday, according to Cal Fire.

Climate change has worsened fire conditions in the state, primarily by effecting the dryness of vegetation, Swain says.

One thing worth noting, Swain adds, is that huge numbers of acres burning isn’t inherently bad. “The problem is that the kinds of fires we’re seeing specifically right now are mostly bad fires because they’re occurring in close proximity to where people live,” he says.

Historically, the state of California has tried to completely suppress fires, creating unnaturally dense forests that then become susceptible to more extreme weather events caused by climate change.

“The growing concensus among climate scientists is that more fire on the landscape is inevitable in the 21st Century,” Swain says. “What we want to do is decrease the number of acres that are burning at an extremely high intensity and the ones that threaten people’s homes and lives…And the way to do that might actually be to allow more of the other kinds of good fire on the landscape.”

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(USA) California Wildfires Illustrate The Consequences Of Climate Change

PBS NewsHour - Amna Nawaz

 A record heat wave is scorching California, where about two dozen wildfires are currently burning.

Nearly 15,000 firefighters are battling steep terrain and extremely dry conditions as they struggle to control the raging infernos.

On Sunday, temperatures in Los Angeles County reached 121 degrees.

Amna Nawaz reports and talks to Leah Stokes of the University of California, Santa Barbara.


  • Amna Nawaz:

    California tonight is home to a record-shattering heat wave and about two dozen wildfires currently burning across the state.

    Nearly 15,000 firefighters are battling steep terrain and tinder-dry conditions, as they fight to control the raging infernos. This afternoon, the U.S. Forest Service announced it will temporarily close national forests in the southern and central regions of the state because of the fire risk.

    More than two million acres already scorched this year in California, record-breaking swathes of land burning under record-breaking temperatures. Governor Gavin Newsom last night declared a state of emergency in five counties, as some 20 fire conglomerates smolder across the state.

    The largest fire alone, Fresno's Creek Fire, has burned over 73,000 acres. A caravan of Labor Day weekend campers were surrounded by flames, and forced to flee to a nearby lake.

    Sisters Katelynn and McKenzie Meek escaped the fire's path.


  • Katelynn Meek:
    One minute you're just sitting in that camp, and, the next, you're driving through flames to save everything.


  • Amna Nawaz:

    Backpacker Juliana Park documented her drive out of Sierra National Forest, the road lined with flames.

    Rescue teams deployed to Fresno have already airlifted out more than 200 trapped campers.


  • David Hall:

    The crews were absolutely ecstatic when they came off the helicopters.


  • Amna Nawaz:

    Colonel David Hall of the California Army National Guard.


  • David Hall:

    All of the individuals that they rescued were greeting the crew members with hugs as they were boarding onto the helicopter, and then, again, after getting off the helicopter, a lot of high-fives.


  • Amna Nawaz:

    Several fires still burn completely uncontained, and state excessive heat warnings are in effect until tonight. Officials warn, the worst may be yet to come.

    Temperatures in Los Angeles County reached a record high of 121 degrees yesterday. While it's cooler there today, temperatures inland are expected to top 100.

    For a closer look at what's behind that heat wave and what's fueling these fires, I'm joined by Leah Stokes, she's a professor and researcher on climate, energy and political policy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She joins us this holiday from Ontario, Canada.

    Leah Stokes, welcome to the "NewsHour."

    Let's start with that warning. Why is it that authorities believe that this fire season could get even worse soon?


  • Leah Stokes:

    Well, unfortunately, climate change is happening right now in California.

    And we have been lengthening the fire season quite considerably as we warm up the planet.

    In California, our fire season is now two-and-a-half months longer than it used to be, which means that people are at risk all the time. And, as you mentioned, we're seeing record heat waves, not just in Los Angeles County, but also in Santa Barbara County, San Luis Obispo County. And all that heat is really increasing risk for fires.


  • Amna Nawaz:

    Now, you mentioned climate change, of course.

    How do we know that that connection is there? Because we should mention, some of the activities that spark the fires are in fact just related to human behavior. There was one fire started by a gender reveal party, in which someone used a smoke machine that sparked a fire.

    So, explain that connection to us.


  • Leah Stokes:

    Yes.

    It is true, of course, that we make decisions in our daily lives, such as the people who decided to have that gender reveal party. But it becomes so much more risky to actually have that spark light a fire under climate change.

    So, we know, because of research from scientists, that we have 500 percent more risk for wildfires during this climate changed world than we would have before. And that's because it's really hot and dry, because we have had droughts.

    And, of course, that drought, which is caused by climate change, has led to a lot of vegetation dying, meaning there's a lot of brush lying around that can easily light up. And a little spark from a gender reveal party or whatever it is can end up being a massive inferno very quickly.

    So, of course, people need to be careful and be held accountable when they light fires. But the fact is, climate change is the real culprit behind what we're seeing right now.


  • Amna Nawaz:

    We should mention, too, California's fire record goes back to 1932, but the 10 biggest fires on record there have all happened after 2000.

    Should we expect that trend to continue?


  • Leah Stokes:

    Unfortunately, we should.

    I have only lived in California for five years, and I have already been evacuated from my home for weeks on end. And what scientists are telling us is that we are entering a period of mega-fires, where the scale of burning is just beyond what we have seen before.

    So, as you mentioned, we're seeing really large fires. And there isn't any reason to believe that that will stop, because we are not taking the climate crisis seriously, and we are not reducing fossil fuel emissions around the world.

    So, California really is the canary in the coal mine here, and we need to be waking up. And just as the bird was dying from coal, we too are dying from burning coal, oil and fossil gas.


  • Amna Nawaz:

    We should mention also we are mid-fire season now.

    Are there steps that residents or local authorities and state authorities can be taking to mitigate damage for the rest of the season and prepare for next year?


  • Leah Stokes:

    Absolutely.

    Our firefighters and our cities are doing the best that they can. They do all kinds of things like suggest that residents make small retrofits to their home that can dramatically reduce fire risk. They do things like create fuel breaks, which sometimes are controversial, for good reason.

    So, people are trying. But the really big solution here is taking on the climate crisis. And that means that we need new leadership, particularly in Washington. We need somebody who actually believes that climate change is real.

    And, unfortunately, we don't have that right now.


  • Amna Nawaz:

    That is Leah Stokes from the University of California, Santa Barbara, joining us tonight. Thank you so much for your time.


  • Leah Stokes:

    Thanks for having me on.


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08/09/2020

Land In Russia’s Arctic Blows ‘Like a Bottle Of Champagne’

New York Times - Andrew E. Kramer

Since finding the first crater in 2014, Russian scientists have documented 16 more explosions in the Arctic caused by gas trapped in thawing permafrost.

A crater that was discovered in 2014 on the Yamal Peninsula in northern Siberia. Credit...Vladimir Pushkarev/Russian Centre of Arctic Exploration, via Reuters

MOSCOW — A natural phenomenon first observed by scientists just six years ago and now recurring with alarming frequency in Siberia is causing the ground to explode spontaneously and with tremendous force, leaving craters up to 100 feet deep.

When Yevgeny Chuvilin, a Moscow-based geologist with the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, arrived this summer at the rim of the latest blast site, called Crater 17, “it left quite an impression,” he said.

The pit plunged into darkness, surrounded by the table-flat, featureless tundra. As Mr. Chuvilin stood looking in, he said, slabs of dirt and ice occasionally peeled off the permafrost of the crater wall and tumbled in.

“It was making noises. It was like something alive,” Mr. Chuvilin said.

While initially a mystery, scientists have established that the craters appearing in the far north of western Siberia are caused by subterranean gases, and the recent flurry of explosions is possibly related to global warming, Mr. Chuvilin said.

Since the first site was found in 2014, Russian geologists have located 16 more on the Yamal and Gydansk peninsulas, two slender fingers of land stretching into the Arctic Ocean.

Mr. Chuvilin said the conditions causing the explosions, which are still not fully understood, are probably specific to the geology of the area, as similar craters have not appeared elsewhere in Siberia or in permafrost zones in Canada and Alaska that are also affected by global warming.

The explosions occur underneath small hills or hummocks on the tundra where gas from decaying organic matter is trapped underground.

Contained beneath a layer of ice above and permafrost all around, the gas creates pressure that elevates the overlying soil. The explosions occur when the pressure rises or the ice layer thaws and breaks suddenly.

Where the gas comes from is a matter of debate, said Mr. Chuvilin, one of Russia’s leading experts on permafrost, the jumbled layer of soil, ice, prehistoric plants and the occasional frozen mammoth that covers 67 percent of Russia’s land surface. Permafrost also extends under the Arctic Ocean in some place.

The loss of permafrost has transformed the terrain in Yakutia, Russia, leaving an obstacle course of hummocks and craters caused by shifting temperatures underground. Credit...Emile Ducke for The New York Times

“In Russia, we have a lot of experience studying permafrost,” said Mr. Chuvilin, who graduated from the Department of Permafrost at Moscow State University, one of the few universities to have such a specialty.

From this icebox of the Arctic, bits or even whole frozen mammoths, musk ox, woolly rhinoceroses, prehistoric horses, wolves and other ancient beasts wash out from the banks of rivers. But Mr. Chuvilin said he found no animal parts in the debris field of frozen mud the explosions threw out.

The strata of perpetually frozen soil are usually a few hundreds of yards deep, but they go down almost a mile in some places in Siberia. Each summer, a portion near the surface, known as the active layer, thaws.

With warmer summers, the active layer is deepening, potentially melting and weakening the ice over the gas deposits.

The gases causing the explosions, said Mr. Chuvilin, may have built up to their current pressure tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago as the organic components of the permafrost partially decayed, before freezing.

Another possibility is that methane trapped in deeper layers of the permafrost in a crystalline, ice-like form known as methane hydrates is reverting to its gaseous state, possibly because of effects of global warming. In this theory, rising pressure rather than thawing on the surface is causing the gas pockets to burst.

“It goes off like a bottle of champagne,” Mr. Chuvilin said.

The most recent to blow, at Crater 17 site on the Yamal Peninsula, was one of the more dramatic.

A reindeer herder was near enough to hear the blast but was unhurt. The Russian scientific expedition arrived by helicopter about a month later, in August. The crater was at least 100 feet deep.

A road leading to the Bovanenkovo gas field on the Yamal peninsula. The area is still too sparsely populated for the explosions to pose much risk. Credit...Alexander Nemenov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Though the Russian government is encouraging oil, natural gas and mining ventures in the far north, the area is still too sparsely populated for the explosions to pose much risk, Mr. Chuvilin said. 

Reindeer herder communities had passed along tales of such eruptions before 2014, said Mr. Chuvilin, but Soviet and later Russian scientists had not documented any instances in earlier years. They have likely been rare occurrences until recently.

Global warming is heating the Arctic faster than the rest of Earth.

“The permafrost is actually not very permanent, and it never was,” Mr. Chuvilin said.

Within a year or two of erupting, the craters fill with water and appear no more suspicious than small lakes.

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Q&A: Why Women Leading The Climate Movement Are Underappreciated And Sometimes Invisible

InsideClimate News - Ilana Cohen

A new anthology co-edited by two women climate leaders helps make the point that “the climate crisis is not gender neutral.” 

Students in New York demonstrate during the Climate Strike, part of a worldwide day of climate strikes on Sept. 20, 2019. Credit: Barbara Alper/Getty Images

The American scientist Eunice Newton Foote theorized in 1856 that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could produce global warming three years before similar work by the Irish physicist John Tyndall, whose research on warming is often cited as the beginning of climate science. 

Foote was also an early women's rights campaigner, signing the 1848 Seneca Falls "Declaration of Sentiments," a manifesto produced during the nation's first women's rights convention. 

She is, thus, a fitting historic figure for Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson to cite in opening their new book, "All We Can Save," an anthology of essays, poetry and original illustrations on climate change by a diverse range of women, to be published Sept. 22.

"Foote arrived at her breakthrough idea through experimentation," the co-editors write. "With an air pump, two glass cylinders, and four thermometers, she tested the impact of 'carbonic acid gas' (the term for carbon dioxide in her day) against 'common air'... From a simple experiment, she drew a profound conclusion: 'An atmosphere of that gas would give to our earth a high temperature...'"

Among 41 contributors to the book is Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University who is now working with other scholars to ensure that Foote receives the credit and recognition she deserves.

Other contributors include Jacqui Patterson, senior director of the NAACP's Environmental and Climate Justice Program; U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo; writer Alice Walker; Jainey K. Bavishi, director of the New York Mayor's Office of Resiliency; Christine E. Nieves Rodriguez, co-founder and executive director of Emerge Puerto Rico, and Tara Houska-Zhaabowekwe, an attorney, environmental and indigenous rights advocate and founder of the Giniw Collective.

"The climate crisis is not gender neutral," Johnson and Wilkinson write in the book's preface. "Climate change is a powerful 'threat multiplier,' making existing vulnerabilities and injustices worse. Especially under conditions of poverty, women and girls face greater risk of displacement or death from extreme weather disasters."

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (left) and Katharine K. Wilkinson co-edited a book coming out later this month collecting diverse voices of women in the climate conversation. Credit: Laurel Graefe

Johnson, a Brooklyn native and marine biologist who is CEO of the Ocean Collectiv, a consulting firm, and Wilkinson, an author and teacher from Atlanta who is the editor-in-chief at Project Drawdown, a climate nonprofit, originally conceived of the book at about 65,000 words. It has ballooned to about 130,000 words, with 41 essays and 16 poems, selected quotes and artwork. 

In a recent interview, Johnson and Wilkinson spoke about their book process, how climate fits into a national reckoning over systemic racism, electoral politics and the Covid-19 pandemic. 

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Where did the inspiration for your book originate, and how did you two come together to co-edit it? 

Wilkinson: The inspiration for this book came from the women who are in it. Ayana and I were in Aspen together for a conference and [felt] a bit of frustration about how much the public discourse on climate is still dominated by primarily older white male voices, and how many brilliant innovative, hardworking, committed women are not getting the megaphone. We went on what Ayana has now deemed a "rage hike" in Aspen, really putting our heads together on, "How can we get women in climate the attention and resources they need to really be able to have the change that they're capable of making?"

Johnson: We knew that these women who were leading climate work were out there. They just weren't visible. They weren't household names, and because of that, they weren't getting the resources or support they needed. And we know that a lot of the way that people become considered as thought leaders is through writing books, and there haven't been nearly enough best-sellers on climate. But we knew that a lot of these women were not going to stop doing their work to write a book about their work—which is actually fine, because we want them doing the work—and so in lieu of that, we thought we could bring the book to them and use it as an opportunity to shine this spotlight on dozens of women climate leaders at once, and show the chorus and the mosaic of voices that is needed in this moment.

We have not been shown the full spectrum of climate work that is being done and very much needs doing. So this book contains Indigenous wisdom, writings on agriculture, on mothering and nurturing and the psychology of how we deal with a challenge this big, about frontline activism, and the science and policy. I had not appreciated how much I was missing these narratives and approaches that are not technocratic or techno-utopian. Climate change is not an engineering problem. It's a problem of how we live on this planet and interact with each other. 

How did you go about selecting the voices included in the book? And how does the range of women contributors, who vary in age, identity, and expertise, shape the book? 

Johnson: We really do think of this as like 41 different doors into climate work. We had some pretty amazing spreadsheets as we tried to track all of this, and make sure that we really were thinking about diversity in the broadest possible sense ... to make sure that we could create a book that would welcome people in, and that everyone would be able to see at least a glimmer of themselves among the essayists.

Wilkinson: I think that "quilting" is a good metaphor for how we put the book together. And one of the things we wanted to be super intentional about was not just pulling in women who write in some capacity for a living. ... We also wanted to work with folks who maybe had never written about their work before in this way—they haven't told their story. And that was a particularly exciting part of the project for us, supporting folks in doing that writing for the first time.

The spirit that brought us into collaboration to begin with was around community-building, and so we really wanted this book to be a community-building effort in some way. So we're working on designing what we're calling "All We Can Save" circles ... [to facilitate] 10 weeks of small group dialogue that helps folks kind of dig into the content of the book and the questions that it raises together.

Many people can feel overwhelmed by the scale of the climate crisis and experience a kind of "ecological grief." How do you grapple with these feelings and keep yourselves motivated to keep fighting for climate action, and how can others do the same? 

Wilkinson: The only way that I really have been able to kind of hold that grief and keep moving forward is to hold it with others. I think the "All We Can Save" circles will be more than just grief circles, but certainly, that will be a piece of it—having a space for conversation with people who may be having a bunch of the same "feels" that you're having.

How did the confluence of the Covid-19 pandemic and a surging racial justice movement impact your editing process, given that you started working on the book before then? 

Johnson: I think it's an opportunity to connect the crisis of racial injustice, the economic crisis that's been instigated by coronavirus, [and] the inequality crisis more broadly with the climate crisis because they are connected. As much as it would be simpler to deal with them alone, it's just not possible—it simply won't work. A lot of the essays in the book talk directly about those intersections. ... And also the climate crisis doesn't stop because of these other things—it's not going away. And so it's more important than ever to understand the interconnections so that we can collaborate across movements that have been far too disparate to this point.

Wilkinson: My observation is that it tends to be a strength of women in the movement to be able to hold multiple things at the same time—to understand that this is about health, and this is about justice, and this is about good jobs, and this is about science, and it's also about story and the kaleidoscope through which we need to see and try to understand the climate crisis. ... That comes through in lots of different ways in these pieces.

Johnson: When we re-read the full manuscript in this new world, we were so nervous that it was not going to hit the right tone because the world had changed so much—turns out, all these women have been thinking about these issues that were just coming to the fore in a new way. ... One of the things that the pandemic and everyone sort of staying at home has shown us is that individual behavioral change is not enough to lower emissions. This is a collective problem; this is going to require government and transformation of our energy system and agriculture and manufacturing and all of it.

What is the significance of your book coming out so close to the 2020 election, given the larger role climate now seems to be playing in U.S. electoral politics? 

Johnson: We specifically made sure the book was coming out before the election in the hopes that it would be able to seed some conversations around the importance of the candidates' climate platforms at all state and federal levels and in the upcoming election. So that timing was deliberate. In fact, it was a total sprint to get the book done in time to make that possible.

There is a lot of writing about policy in this book—how it's shaped, how it should be shaped, a behind-the-scenes look at the Green New Deal and how the candidates' climate platforms are developed and iterated on. Maggie Thomas, who was an advisor to Jay Inslee's campaign and then became Elizabeth Warren's climate advisor, wrote a piece a week after Warren dropped out of the race, describing her experience in this Democratic primary, which is the first time climate has become a major issue in the history of our elections. ... And Varshini Prakash [wrote] about her work leading Sunrise Movement and how that ended up having a huge impact on the way that we're talking about climate policy in the United States—the fact that any candidate now has to have essentially a climate platform and stance. 

Wilkinson: It was also really important to us to make sure we had truly youth voices—the opening essay is by a youth climate leader, and there's another essay by a youth climate leader in the closing section—making sure that the perspectives of really intergenerational justice are coming through and to give a sense of the spirit that the youth movement is bringing. That whole notion of "the climate crisis is a leadership crisis," so much of that is about how we are showing up as leaders—not just who, but how—in a spirit of collaboration and creativity and deep commitment to justice and frankly, just doing things differently than the mainstream climate movement had been doing them.

Finally, what are your personal next steps, and do you plan to collaborate further?

Johnson: We have seen so much interest in the book that we are actually building an organization around it called the "All We Can Save" project, a non-profit that will carry this work forward of supporting women climate leaders and deepening the conversations about the work that needs to be done by everyone. This idea of reading circles to engage with the book is one element that we'll be supporting through the "All We Can Save" project. Another is making sure the book is used as an educational tool, more in academic settings. Another is creating an award for women climate leaders, named after Eunice Newton Foote, who actually discovered that carbon dioxide would cause planetary warming in 1856 and has basically not been recognized by the Ministry of Science. And then more generally, [we'll be] just supporting women climate leaders.

Wilkinson: There's this upwelling that's happening. ... How do we help it upwell more wholly and fully and quickly and to greatest possible effect?

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(US) California's Record-Breaking Heatwave Sparks Wildfires And Raises Health Concerns

The Guardian - 
  • Triple-digit temperatures spread over much of the state
  • Heat sparks new wildfires and one hiker dies on trail
Heatwave amid coronavirus pandemic in Venice Beach, California Photograph: Étienne Laurent/EPA

California is sweltering under a record-breaking heatwave this holiday weekend, with dangerous conditions that have sparked several new wildfires and raised widespread public health concerns.

Triple-digit temperatures have spread over much of the state, including a record-high of 125F (52C) in Death Valley on Saturday. Los Angeles County registered 121 degrees F (49 C) on Sunday afternoon, a record for the National Weather Service office that covers the metropolitan area. Temperatures in inland parts of the San Francisco Bay Area were soaring to the low 100s.

The heat, coupled with a forecast of possible dry, gusty winds, has made for dangerous weekend fire weather, at a time when nearly 13,000 firefighters are currently battling to contain nearly two dozen major fires around California.

A wildfire that broke out near Shaver Lake in the Sierra National Forest prompted evacuation orders Saturday as authorities urged people seeking relief from the heat wave to stay away from the popular lake. That blaze, called the Creek fire, has burned 45,000 acres, trapping at least 150 people near a reservoir in Fresno county and injuring dozens who had to be airlifted to the hospital.

In San Bernardino county east of Los Angeles, a fast-moving fire in the foothills of Yucaipa forced the evacuation of Oak Glen, a farm community that just opened its apple-picking season this weekend. .

In San Diego County, the sheriff’s department issued a voluntary evacuation order on Sunday afternoon as the 5,350-square acre Valley Fire there raged unchecked on the eastern edge of the metropolitan area of more than 3 million people.

Throughout the weekend, families flocked to the beaches across southern California, where authorities closed parking lots after they filled to capacity, and lifeguards reported massive crowds. Health authorities warned that beaches could be closed if they become too crowded, due to concerns about the spread of coronavirus, which the state continues to battle.

Gatherings during the Fourth of July weekend were blamed in part for Covid-19 spikes earlier this summer, and authorities have urged people to continue practicing social distancing and mask-wearing this weekend. Indoor gatherings are more dangerous, though the heat and poor air quality has made it difficult to be outside in some parts of California this weekend.

Campgrounds in the popular San Bernardino national forest east of LA were also full, and rangers were out in force on “marshmallow patrols” – keeping an especially close watch for campfires and barbecues outside of designated sites that pose a potential risk of setting a wildfire.

“On a day like today I’m glad I work inside and I can eat ice cream all day,” said Mai Emami, who said a steady number of customers were coming to the Cup & Cone Ice Cream shop in Woodland Hills to pick up their orders.

Malibu authorities reported that one hiker died due to heat while on a trail in the Santa Monica mountains.

The heatwave has also raised concerns about power outages, with officials urging people to conserve electricity to ease strain on the state’s power grid.

The weather service predicted “brutally hot” temperatures through Monday as a high pressure system perches over the western US. Heat warnings were also in effect in Arizona and Nevada.

The extreme weather can also be brutal for people in California prisons, which have suffered major Covid outbreaks as well as terrible air quality from nearby fires.

The heatwave also poses significant challenges for the state’s large homeless population, with thousands living outside in encampments and cars and other makeshift living quarters.

The Rev Andy Bales, president and CEO of Union Rescue Mission at Skid Row, the epicenter of LA’s homeless epidemic, said he told staff to hand out “the coldest of cold water bottles” to those coming by for to-go lunches over the weekend. “And I said if anyone comes to the door overheated and in peril, welcome them in,“ he said. “We do have an air-conditioned chapel.”

Volunteers with the CHAM Deliverance Ministry in San Jose planned to deliver bottled water and sports drinks to homeless people in Silicon Valley.

“When it’s 105F and you’re living in a creek bed in a tent, it’s a lot of health issues out there. It’s a formula for disaster,” pastor and founder Scott Wagers said.

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07/09/2020

Rupert Murdoch's British Papers Delayed As Climate Protesters Stop The Presses

Sydney Morning Herald - Reuters

The distribution of several British newspapers was disrupted on Saturday after Extinction Rebellion climate change activists blockaded printing presses used by Rupert Murdoch's News UK, the publisher of The Times and The Sun.

The group said late on Friday that nearly 80 people had blocked roads leading to two printworks, at Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, north east of London, and at Knowsley, near Liverpool. The protests continued through to Saturday.

Extinction Rebellion protesters blockade Murdoch printing sites

Hertfordshire police said they had made 13 arrests.

The Murdoch-owned Newsprinters works also print the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times.

Extinction Rebellion said it took the action to highlight what it regards as the newspapers' failure to accurately report on climate change.

A Newsprinters spokeswoman said the disruption meant printing had to be transferred to other sites.

Two protesters attached to bamboo and two sitting on the roof of a van block the road, outside Broxbourne newsprinters. Credit: PA via AP

"We apologise sincerely to any readers of The Sun, The Times, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times who may be unable to buy their usual newspaper this morning due to late deliveries," she said.

"This attack on all of the free press impacted many workers going about their jobs. Overnight print workers, delivery drivers, wholesale workers and retail newsagents have faced delays and financial penalty. This is a matter for the Police and the Home Office."

An Extinction Rebellion climate activist attends a rally highlighting the plight of indigenous peoples and the natural environment in the Amazonian area, at Trafalgar Square in London, Britain September 5, 2020. REUTERS/Toby Melville

The blockade is part of a week of protests by Extinction Rebellion, including on Wednesday in Parliament Square where demonstrators lay under white sheets to represent corpses.

The group says an emergency response and mass move away from polluting industries and behaviours is needed to avert a looming climate cataclysm.

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Lethal Heating is a citizens' initiative