Extreme Temperature Diary-Monday January 15, 2024/ Main Topic: Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr… The State of Social and Climate Justice as of 2024

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The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track global 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: Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr… The State of Social and Climate Justice as of 2024

Dear Diary. Every anniversary of the Dr. Martin Luther King Holiday I honor him with this annual report on climate and social justice. I’m proud to be from Atlanta, which was the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement, where Dr. King preached. Here is a link to last year’s report:

Extreme Temperature Diary-Monday January 16, 2023/ Main Topic: Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr… The State of Social and Climate Justice as of 2023 – Guy On Climate

After another year I’m so glad to report that policy made by the Inflation Reduction Act, which is a decent version of the Green New Deal, continues to help transform energy and transportation sectors across the United States towards sustainability. Republicans in the House will do everything in their power to defund the Inflation Reduction Act and will scuttle it if Trump becomes President again if our election goes south after this crucial election year. Also as anticipated from last year’s report, unfortunately, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act has not passed Congress since the House of Representatives remains in conservative Republican Control. We must fight back through peaceful protests and other means, as MLK would have done, to keep hope alive for a sustainable, just world.

Here is an updated version of my essay posted from last year for this special day:

As a student of history, I know that progression happens with two steps forward and one step back. I keep writing that the inventions of the 19th and 20th century, which began to lift billions out of drudgery and poverty, were two steps forward. Jim Crow racism, fascism and authoritarian communism of the mid 20th century were one big step back, which took decades to overcome, but we did. Racism and these other worldviews were never totally overcome though, as attested by the galvanization of many followers of Trump, so we must always be vigilant go defeat them. The inventions of the past had the side effect of polluting the atmosphere with too much carbon, threatening our very civilization and affecting the poor among us with ill health. The poor more than any other group are affected by this pollution. I ask the ghost of Dr. King…Can We Overcome?

We have a scant six years to reign in carbon pollution such that we can avoid the 1.5°C and 2.0°C above preindustrial conditions thresholds of not being able to fix our climate according to some experts with the deadline for a substantial course correction being 2030. It’s not too late, as Dr. Michael Mann attests, but the advent of the Inflation Reduction Act, gives me hope. One group of impoverished, mostly African American people, living along the polluted petrol chemical producing Gulf Coast comes to mind. Will they ever see climate justice with us moving towards a green, sustainable future?

The year 2024 will be a year in which fascistic Republicans try to investigate the Biden Administration to death much like during 2023, so our cause will be on defense. Most importantly, if the Make America Great Again crowd gets Trump back in office, all hope for our climate may be lost, because drill baby drill policy will be back in effect. We should take heart that forecasts by most pundits during 2022 for a Republican red wave did not come true, so Democrats retained control of the Senate, with my favorite Senator, Reverend Rafael Warnock, retaining his seat. Dr. King would be so proud that this pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church where he presided will be a U.S. Senator for at least seven more years.

As stated from my posts from 2021 and 2022, MLK to my knowledge had no scientific idea that the issue of climate would become humongous later in the 20th and in the early 21st century. He would be horrified about the scientific truths that the Industrial Revolution have wrought. If he were alive today, knowing that we have a very hard road ahead, he would still believe that we shall overcome. This year we need to be optimistic and believe that indeed, we shall eventually come to the end of a hard, long road, our journey ending at the sight of a green, sustainable city on a hill of much justice and peace.

Related content and notes:

Here are more “ET’s” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:

Here is more brand-new December and 2023 climatology:

Here is More Climate News from Monday:

(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.)

More from the Weather Department:

Today’s News on Sustainable Energy, Traditional Polluting Energy from Fossil Fuel, and the Green Revolution:

More on the Environment and Nature:

More on Other Science and the Beauty of Earth and this Universe:

If you like these posts and my work on record temperature ratios, please contribute via my PayPal widget on this site. Thanks in advance for any support. 

Guy Walton… “The Climate Guy”

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