America Finally Acting on Climate Change

After years of neglect, and at times overt destruction, of the environment by the federal government in the USA is finally doing something about climate change. It’s acknowledged by scientist and average people that the greatest threat to humanity is climate change. Arguably the States have been the greatest contributors to the dire state of the climate.

The Trump administration in the USA didn’t understand science and welcomed policies which helped corporations get short term profits while saddling future generations with massive environmental debt.

It’s great to see that in Biden’s first week as President he is taking climate change seriously.

“It’s about coming to the moment to deal with this maximum threat that is with us now, facing us, climate change, with a greater sense of urgency. In my view, we’ve already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis,” Biden said in a statement prior to signing the executive orders. “We can’t wait any longer.”

He emphasized in his statement, “Environmental justice will be at the center of all we do.”

Gina McCarthy, who Biden appointed as the first ever White House National Climate Advisor, told reporters at a press briefing that the United States would announce its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) — or each country’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions, a stipulation that is required in the Paris Climate Accord which Biden rejoined — prior to a climate summit on Earth Day, April 22.

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Yellowknife Twitter Bot Spreads Global Warming Knowledge

Climate change is occurring at a faster pace with every passing year. The rate of change is hard for us to comprehend and think rationally about. An engineer with Ecology North in Yellowknife decided to help us all understand how quickly things are changing by making a twitter bot – @ykclimatewatch that compares temperatures of the past with those of today.

“The more you act on climate, the less likely you are going to be anxious about it,” said Gagnon.
His solution was to create bot that compares each day’s temperature to average temperatures in the community on that date, so people can see the trend for themselves.

Ecology North’s YK Climate Watch Twitter bot is still in its infancy. Its official tweets started in January.
The bot automatically calculates the mean, or average, temperature of the day between 1971 and 2000. It then compares the historical average — or the “climate normal” which is the three-decade averages — to the average temperature of the day on Environment Canada.

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Students Don’t Want the Planet as-is

The kids these days aren’t alright with the world they’re inheriting. Many of the homes kids are growing up in will be under water if climate change continues at its current pace. Students who aren’t on the coast will still face extreme weather and crop shortages. Understandably, kids these days aren’t happy about this and want the situation to change. Inspired by reality, and the very determined Greta Thunberg, students are taking to the streets to let their parents, the olds, and politicians that this generation isn’t going to take it.

The posters students held up advertised statistics about the environmental impact of consumerism (including the grim fact that just 100 companies are to blame for large portions of global emissions), as well as slogans conveying their frustrations with inheriting a mess. “You mind if I breathe?” one read; “All we want is a future” said another.

“The onus is being placed on young people who don’t even have that much money or power to do things,” Rubin said. “People in power are the ones who should be doing something not regular kids – it shouldn’t be up to us to save the world, but it is.”

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Today: Students Striking for the Climate

Around the world students are taking the streets today to let people know that they want to live on a planet without cataclysmic climate change. Previous generations neglected to act to prevent global warming and it’s the current youth who are going to have to deal with the destruction of the global ecosystem. They are demanding all of us, particularly those in power, to change the destructive course we are presently on.

Good for these students for getting out there and making sure that adults everywhere know that these kids aren’t going to let the planet be killed through negligence.

By 10.30am a steady stream of schoolchildren were pouring into London’s Parliament Square brandishing homemade banners declaring “coral not coal”, “Stop denying the earth is dying” and “why the actual fuck are we studying for a future we won’t even have?”

Among were a group of 12 and 13 year old girls from Waldergrave School for girls. Lourdes, 13, who was with her dad Leif Cid said they felt they had no choice but to come. “The world is getting hotter and hotter but the adults, the politicians aren’t doing anything about it … we have to do something.”

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Deny Climate Deniers Political Opportunity

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Should we mock and deride people who lie about climate change? Yes, according to a recent op-ed in the Washington Post. At the very least it’s time to stop listening to people who deny reality. The rationale for denying deniers is that they are legitimate threats to our wellbeing. It’s time we get to improving our world instead of listening to people who are trying to hold us back.

In both the Cold War and the debate over climate change, ideology has won out over empirical reality, and those opposed to spending any time or money on either problem have preferred to wish it away rather than engage in good-faith arguments that entail policy trade-offs. Deniers have disqualified themselves from holding power since willful blindness puts Americans at risk, and their propensity to disregard reality makes one question both their judgment and honesty.

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