The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: A Big Scientist Rebellion Leading Up to Earth Day
Dear Diary. Now this is more like it. We all need to be getting into John Lewis’ “good trouble.” Desperate times call for desperate measures. If you are anyone with a conscience writing about or researching climate, and you would like civilization of some sort to be sustainable for centuries to come, you should be willing to sacrifice both your body and reputation for the greater good. I know that the next time there is a big climate crisis protest in Atlanta, I’ll be out in my wheelchair in the streets, just like scientists from around the world in a recent protest, which is today’s main topic.
Most everyone, even those of us dealing with the climate issue, are still somewhat in denial about the ramifications of what will happen to society once systems break down as global average temperatures move past +1.5°C…even during our lifetimes as early as the 2030s. No one will be immune, and unlike COVID, there won’t be a vaccine for sea level rise, drought, widespread heatwaves leading to fires, and more severe hurricanes and storms. So, it is imperative that we become “Christlike,” willing to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of humanity, particularly if we know what horrors are coming down the old proverbial pipe if the powers that be don’t change.
For part two of this year’s Earth Day series of posts from yours truly, here is a Grist article describing how climate scientists got together recently for protests, even to the point of being arrested, to protect all of us against the ravages of a climate getting out of control:
https://grist.org/beacon/climate-scientists-refuse-to-be-ignored/
Climate Scientists Refuse to be Ignored
Joseph Winters Newsletter Reporter
Published Apr 19, 2022
It’s Tuesday, April 19, and climate scientists from around the world put their bodies on the line for climate action.
World leaders and business executives like to say they’re “listening to the science” when it comes to addressing climate change. Many climate scientists beg to differ — and have turned to activism to make their voices heard.
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More than 1,000 scientists from around the world participated in a series of climate protests last week, criticizing world governments for failing to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Since climate scientists first began sounding the alarm half a century ago, climate pollution has only continued to accumulate in the atmosphere, putting the planet on track for devastating temperature rise.
“We’ve been trying to warn you guys for so many decades that we’re heading towards a f—ing catastrophe, and we’ve been ignored,” said NASA scientist Peter Kalmus at a protest in Los Angeles. He and three others in LA were arrested after they chained themselves to a Chase Bank building in protest of the company’s support for fossil fuel projects. Protestors gathered in 24 other countries, throwing fake blood onto the Spanish National Congress, rallying outside the Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment, and engaging in other high-profile stunts.
The global protests were organized by Scientist Rebellion, a coalition of scientist-activists loosely affiliated with the advocacy group Extinction Rebellion. In sharp contrast to the political impartiality that many have come to expect from the scientific community, Scientist Rebellion has held a number of disruptions over the past two years with the goal of creating “a truly global and radical scientific movement.”
“Releasing reports is no longer enough,” Extinction Rebellion U.K. tweeted in support of a demonstration in London, where protesters glued scientific papers — and their own hands — onto a government building. One demonstrator said that such action was necessary because policymakers have not responded to “rational, normal, evidence-based policy approaches.”
Nate Rugh, an environmental science student at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia in Madrid who helped organize the global protests, said the growing movement has helped give him hope. When he first started organizing in 2018, he was disappointed that more scientists weren’t stepping up. “Now that they are, it’s just so much more powerful because people are much more inclined to listen,” he told Grist. “People are really paying attention.”
In the news
Biden plans to open more public lands to drilling
Coral Davenport, The New York Times
➤ Read more
Pence group to target vulnerable Democrats over gas prices
Brett Samuels, The Hill
➤ Read more
New Hampshire legislation aims to preempt state’s net-metering study
Lisa Prevost, Energy News Network
➤ Read more
CO2 pipelines are coming. A pipeline safety expert says we’re not ready.
Emily Pontecorvo, Grist
➤ Read more
The decline of Kentucky’s coal industry has produced hundreds of safety and environmental violations at strip mines
James Bruggers, Inside Climate News
➤ Read more
Related protesting:
Here are some “ET’s” recorded over the last couple of days plus some hot forecasts:
Here is more climate and weather news from Thursday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)
Now here are some of today’s articles and notes on the horrid war on Ukraine:
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Guy Walton “The Climate Guy”