Mon. Oct. 3rd Leonardo DiCaprio (actor-producer-activist), President Obama and Katherine Hayhoe (acclaimed evangelical-atmospheric scientist) will discuss Climate Change at “South by South Lawn (SXSL): A White House Festival of Ideas, Art and Action”. Will this be an exercise in what Mychal Denzel Smith characterizes as a “sweet spot between affable and standoffish”? Will there be even one policy proposal about Climate Change articulated? Will it foreshadow some Tuesday, Oct. 4th, lone 2016 Vice Presidential Debate moderator asking anything substantive of Tim Kaine & Mike Pence about their positions on Climate Change impacts on National Security? Will Millennial Voters including but not limited to those who are part of The Longwood Story give any attention to the SXSL Climate Change discussion before the Kaine-Pence political extravaganza Tuesday at Longwood University or will it all be just so much French to them?
SXSL festival stream live on White House website, on Facebook and on sxsw.com/.… You can join the conversation now through Oct. 3rd by using #SXSL to share your ideas. Find more SXSL info. here (at www.whitehouse.gov/...).
Katherine Hayhoe hosts the new PBS Digital Series "Global Weirding" (from Sept, 28th every other Wednesday, 10 am CT —YouTube: globalweirdingseries.com). I believe Katharine will discuss importance of protecting our planet for future generations. After the South Lawn interview-panel-discussion DiCaprio's new documentary film "Before the Flood " will premiere and then be in theaters on Oct. 21st.
Hayhoe answers questions about the Global Weirding show beginning at 8E/7C on her Facebook page and on Twitter at @KHayhoe with the hashtag #globalweirding.
For more on Hayhoe, see: “Climate, Politics, and Religion” (June 2015) by Katharine Hayhoe in Prairie Fire monthly regional journal of public policy and the arts … the progressive voice of the Great Plains.
Elsewhere, on Sept. 16th Re: Donald Trump, Climate Change, and Grading on a Curve:
A bipartisan group of 25 military and national security experts issued a forceful 8 bullet-point statement generally saying “the effects of climate change present a strategically-significant risk to U.S. national security”, i.e. “Climate change increases stress on water, food and energy security both in the U.S. and globally, resulting in unique and hard-to-predict security risks, based on a combination of rapidly changing physical, environmental, economic, social and political conditions” with 7 other main points.
“The national security community has focused on the intersection of climate risk and security for over a decade. The conclusions are clear: climate risks are accelerating in their likelihood and severity. The next administration, whomever is elected, has the duty and obligation as Commander in Chief to manage this risk in a comprehensive manner.” —Rear Admiral David W Titley, PhD, US Navy (ret) Former Oceanographer, US Navy; Professor of Practice, Pennsylvania State University in Sept. 14, 2016 Climate and Security Advisory Group (CSAG): Briefing Book for a New Administration
Days later in Implications for US National Security of Anticipated Climate Change —Sept. 21st came a memo prepared by the National Intelligence Council (NIC), coordinated with the US Intelligence Community.
Also on Sept. 21st the Presidential Memorandum (PM): Climate Change & National Security established an organizational framework to be be run by the National Security Adviser and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) for managing climate change risks to national security.
On Sept. 22nd Francesco Femia & Caitlin Werrell, Co-Founders and Presidents of Center for Climate and Security said:
Though there are other immediate security risks the U.S. must pay close attention to, including terrorism and North Korea’s nuclear weapons capability, we need to walk and chew gum at the same time. The intelligence community is telling us that climate change is already impacting our security in a very significant way, and will continue to make the U.S. less secure over the next twenty years.
The Presidential Memorandum, which closely tracks our recent recommendations from senior national security and defense leaders, is an important step towards better organizing our government to deal with that risk.
Elsewhere there appeared in July 2016: NextGen Climate/Project New America Battleground Millennial Survey —report of first major survey this cycle conducted exclusively among millennials (aged 18 to 34) in battleground states.