JULY 29, 2019 KRISTY DAHL, SENIOR CLIMATE SCIENTIST at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today writes “My Written Testimony on Transportation Infrastructure and Climate Change” . (Aside: UCS puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet’s most pressing problems. Joining with people across the country, UCS combines technical analysis and effective advocacy to create innovative, practical solutions for a healthy, safe, and sustainable future.)
Dahl provides links to her full testimony to Congress and to this scarifying interactive map series, “Property at Risk from Rising Seas, by Congressional District” a great device that should help as you go down to the nearest District Office [with a friend or two for your own comfortable moral support] to meet or ask to meet with your Senator or Representative as your single most effective action to fight climate chaos legislatively. You can bring along for your Senator and Representatives this new July, 2019 report, “Killer Heat in the United States; Climate Choices and the Future of Dangerously Hot Days”. To push the envelope further, take along this tool: “The Future of Extreme Heat, by Congressional District“ interactive map allowing you to download district-specific fact sheets for all 433 Congressional districts in the contiguous U.S. [With Fact Sheets also available in Spanish, You can move and zoom the map to your area of interest which is really helpful in mega-urban areas where districts can change in the middle of a specific zip code. By example, Lake Michigan-cooled 60402 splits between Rep’s. “Chuy” Garcia and Dan Lipinski. An example future is Lipinski’s Lake Michigan-cooled IL-4, showing 30 days of heat index above 105 ℉. ] Just Click on any district to access the download link.
This interactive mapping tool shows the rapid, widespread increases in extreme heat projected to occur across the United States due to climate change. Information is presented by county and includes all 3,109 counties in the contiguous US. Four different heat index thresholds are featured, each of which brings increasingly dangerous health risks: above 90°F, above 100°F, above 105°F, and “off the charts.” (Off-the-charts days are so extreme they exceed the upper limits of the National Weather Service heat index scale, which starts topping out at or above a heat index of 127°F, depending on the combination of temperature and humidity.)
In Dec. 2018 Scientific American published a piece, “The Best Technology for Fighting Climate Change Isn't a Technology; Forests are the most powerful and efficient carbon-capture system on the planet“ that’s also instructive. It says, in part:
So far, advocates and politicians have tended to focus on reducing fossil fuel consumption through technology and/or policy, such as a steep carbon tax, as climate solutions. These proposals are, of course, essential to reducing man-made carbon emissions—71 percent of which are generated by just 100 fossil fuel companies. For this reason, fossil-fuel–related emissions reductions rightly figure heavily in the national climate commitments of the 181 nations that signed the global Paris Agreement.
Yet the international focus on fossil fuels has overshadowed the most powerful and cost-efficient carbon-capture technology the world has yet seen: forests. Recent scientific research confirms that forests and other “natural climate solutions” are absolutely essential in mitigating climate change, thanks to their carbon sequestering and storage capabilities. In fact, natural climate solutions can help us achieve 37 percent of our climate target, even though they currently receive only 2.5 percent of public climate financing.
...[...]… Not only do all the world’s people depend on forests to provide clean air, clean water, oxygen, and medicines, but 1.6 billion people rely on them directly for their livelihoods.
...[...]… we are fighting a crisis of deforestation, much of it driven by conversion to agricultural lands to produce a handful of resource-intensive commodities, despite zero-deforestation commitments from companies and governments.
...[...]… the time is ripe for concrete action on forests and natural climate solutions. World leaders now have the opportunity to make big gains on climate by dramatically ramping up their investment in proven, natural solutions. More trees in the ground. More reforestation projects. More sustainable forestry. More avoided deforestation through sustainable agriculture and certified crops.
Action Item:
Focusing on one clear, legislative ask, let’s try broadening the support for S.1974 → Renewable Electricity Standard Act, Tom Udall [NM; Committees on Appropriations; Foreign Relations; Commerce, Science and Transportation; Indian Affairs; Rules and Administration; and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe] — Introduced 06-26-19, now with 5 cosponsors, to achieve at least 50 percent renewable electricity nation-wide in 15 years, putting the U.S. on a trajectory to de-carbonize the power sector by 2050 [meeting standards set in the UN's recent IPCC report that lays out benchmarks we must achieve to address climate change's existential threat]….. Congressional staff say visits to congressional offices in states and districts for even 5 or 10 minutes can have a lasting impact. You can be an effective advocate, no matter your background, schedule or location. Science says there really is An adaptability limit to climate change due to heat stress; reminding legislators of those facts is a way to personalize your legislative ask of them.
So, you’re going down to the nearest District Office with a friend or two for your moral support to meet or ask to meet with your Senator or Representative as your single most effective action.
Here’s help from FCNL, A Quaker lobby in the public interest —
- Learn how to lobby: Use this step-by-step guide to meet with your members of Congress
- Congress will be home for the entire month of August – from August 2-September 7 (8th is travel day). There’s no better time to drop-by local congressional offices to talk about the policy issues that you care about.
Here’s help from NETWORK, Advocates for Justice Inspired by Catholic Sisters — Home of #NunsOnTheBus and Sister-Spirit giving us a great Tool here —Educate, Organize, Lobby— Try it!
on the horizon:
GENEVA, July 29 – Following the upcoming press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, to present the Summary for Policymakers of the Special Report on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the IPCC authors and officials will be available for interviews.
Where: World Meteorological Organization (WMO) headquarters Geneva,
— 10:00 a.m. CEST (Geneva) 8 August 2019 { 04:00 EDT (New York) , 08:00 GMT, 09:00 BST (London), 11:00 EAT (Nairobi), 15:00 ICT (Bangkok) }
SRCCL will be from more than 100 scientists of 52 countries who are assessing the latest scientific knowledge about climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. Their inter-linkages as well as synergies, trade-offs and integrated response options will be presented. The SRCCL is being prepared under the joint scientific leadership of Working Groups I, II, III and the Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, and supported by the WG III Technical Support Unit.
Huelgas del clima global - التعبئة من أجل المناخ - Greves globais pelo clima - Jeda untuk iklim - Movilización global por el clima - Globaler klimastreik - 全球气候罢工 —
Our house is on fire—let's act like it participating in Friday(s), Sept. 20th and 27th global climate strikes demanding rapid end to business as usual, plus a swift start to climate justice. If not you, then who? If not now, then when? Anticipate additional actions slated for the days in between—being planned in over 150 countries thus far, in which over 6,000 people have already pledged to take part.
p.s.
Friday was James Lovelock's 100th Birthday and 40th anniversary of his classic work, "Gaia: a New Look at Life on Earth", by which he changed our contemporary perspectives of life on this planet as much as did Charles Darwin 160 years ago on 24 Nov. 1859 by publishing "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life". It seems fitting to honor Lovelock as he celebrates his Hundredth by Making the PLEDGE TO JOIN THE CLIMATE STRIKES THIS SEPTEMBER: "I will join young people in the streets for global climate strikes and a week of actions to demand an end to the age of fossil fuels and climate justice for everyone." ... https://globalclimatestrike.net