Climate Related Excerpts from the July 30th CNN Democratic Presidential Debate

Here are climate related excerpts from the first Democratic presidential debate that took place in Detroit, Michigan on July 30, 2019. The 20 Democratic presidential candidates were randomly divided into two groups of ten, these excerpts are extracted from the debate between the first ten, the second group of ten will debate on July 31. The comments of progressives like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were contrasted by the more cautious approaches we saw from Governor Steve Bullock, Congressman John Delaney, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Congressman Tim Ryan, and Governor John Hickenlooper. The remaining three, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Congressman Beto O’Rourke and Marianne Williamson, seemed to try to have it both ways.  Here are comments made by the candidates on the subjects of climate, economics (green new deal), jobs, fossil fuels, renewable energy, electric vehicles, agriculture, science and Republican denial.

The Climate Crisis

Hickenlooper: [as as governor of Colorado] We attacked climate change head-on...we should have an international diplomatic approach where we're talking to everybody, because if we're going to deal with climate change and cyber security and nuclear proliferation, we've got to be talking to everybody.

O'Rourke: We will meet these challenges here at home, and we will lead the world in those that we face abroad, successfully confronting endless war and climate change...We had the courage of our convictions, talking about universal health care, comprehensive immigration reform, and confronting the challenge of climate before it is too late. We brought everyone in...

Buttigieg: I'm running for president because our country is running out of time. It is even bigger than the emergency of the Trump presidency. Ask yourself how somebody like Donald Trump ever gets within cheating distance of the Oval Office in the first place. It doesn't happen unless America is already in a crisis -- an economy that's not working for everyone, endless war, climate change. We have lived this in my industrial Midwestern hometown. My generation has lived this as long as we have been alive. And it's only accelerating. Science tells us we have 12 years before we reach the horizon of catastrophe when it comes to our climate.

Bullock: [Climate in] Washington, D.C., is captured by dark money, the Koch brothers, and others. That's been the fight of my career. Kicking the Koch brothers out of Montana, taking the first case after Citizens United up to the Supreme Court, making it so that elections are about people. That's the way we're actually going to make a change on this, Don, is by changing that system. And most of the things that folks are talking about on this stage we're not going to address until we kick dark money and the post-Citizens United corporate spending out of these elections...By 2030, we will have passed the point of no return on climate...But here's the good news: It's not too late. We can tell our kids that before we ran out of time, just before we ran out of time, in 2020, we did what it took to deliver a climate that we didn't have to wonder if it could support us...We can do this, if and only if we are ready to walk away from what hasn't worked with bold action and win, not only defeat this president, but defeat his congressional allies with a defeat so big that it reunites the Republican Party with its conscience as well as bringing Democrats to office...You know, all of us agree that we have address climate change. No one on this stage is talking about it. The Republicans won't even acknowledge that climate change is real, Dana, and that's because of the corrupting influence and money. That has been the fight of my career.

Klobuchar: [Trump's] taking us out of the climate change agreement, out of the Iran nuclear agreement, out of the Russian nuclear agreement, and I don't agree with that.

Delaney: We can fight climate change and reimagine our education system. But we have to do it with real solutions, not impossible promises.

Green New Deal

Delaney: [the reason the green new deal is not realistic is because] it ties its progress to other things that are completely unrelated to climate, like universal health care, guaranteed government jobs, and universal basic income. So that only makes it harder to do. My plan, which gets us to net zero by 2050, which we absolutely have to do for our kids and our grandkids, will get us there. I put a price on carbon, take all the money, give it back to the American people in a dividend. That was introduced by me on a bipartisan basis. It's the only significant bipartisan climate bill in the Congress. I'm going to increase the Department of Energy research budget by fivefold, because we fundamentally have to innovate our way out of this problem. I'm going to create a market for something called direct air capture, which are machines that actually take carbon out of the atmosphere, because I don't think we'll get to net zero by 2050 unless we have those things. I'm going to increase investment in renewables and I'm going to create something called the Climate Corps. That is a plan that's realistic. It's a bet on the U.S. private innovation economy and creates the incentives to get us to net zero by 2050 for our kids.

Hickenlooper: Well, I think the guarantee for a public job for everyone who wants one is a classic part of the problem. It's a distraction. I share the urgency of everyone up here. We have to recognize -- I mean, everyone's got good ideas. What we do in this country is no better than just a best practice, right? It's what we do here is a best practice and a template, but it's got to be done all over the world...We need every country working together if we're going to really deal with climate change in a realistic way.

Warren: So, climate crisis is the existential crisis for our world. It puts every living thing on this planet at risk. I have a plan for a green industrial policy that takes advantage of the fact that we do what we do best, and that is innovate and create. So I've proposed putting $2 trillion in so we do the research. We then say anyone in the world can use it, so long as you build it right here in America. That will produce about 1.2 million manufacturing jobs right here in Michigan, right here in Ohio, right here in the industrial Midwest. And the second thing we will do is we will then sell those products all around the world. Right now, for every $1 the United States...spends trying to market around the world... China is spending $100...Look, I put a real policy on the table to create 1.2 million new jobs in green manufacturing. There's going to be a $23 trillion worldwide market for this. This could revitalize huge cities across this country.

Sanders: We can create what the Green New Deal is about. It's a bold idea. We can create millions of good-paying jobs. We can rebuild communities in rural America that have been devastated. So we are not anti-worker. We are going to provide and make sure that those workers have a transition, new jobs, healthcare and education.

Fossil Fuels, Renewable Energy and Jobs

Warren: What you want to do instead is find the Republican talking point of a made-up piece of some other part and say, "Oh, we don't really have to do anything." That's the problem we've got in Washington right now. It continues to be a Washington that works great for oil companies, just not for people worried about climate change.

Sanders: I get a little bit tired of Democrats afraid of big ideas. Republicans are not afraid of big ideas. They could give $1 trillion in tax breaks to billionaires and profitable corporations. They could bail out the crooks on Wall Street. So please don't tell me that we cannot take on the fossil fuel industry. And nothing happens unless we do that. Here is the bottom line. We've got to ask ourselves a simple question, "What do you do with an industry that knowingly, for billions of dollars in short-term profits, is destroying this planet?" I say that is criminal activity that cannot be allowed to continue...On this issue, my friends, there is no choice. We have got to be super aggressive if we love our children and if we want to leave them a planet that is healthy and is habitable, so I don't disagree with Tim. What that means is we got to, A, take on the fossil fuel industry, B, it means we have to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, at a hell of a lot (ph) of good union jobs, as we do that. We got to transform our transportation... system, and we have to lead the world...because this is not just an American issue...there ain't nobody in the Congress who's more strongly pro-worker than I am. So when I talk about taking on the fossil fuel industry, what I am also talking about is a just transition. All right.

O'Rourke: Those community college students that I met in Tucumcari, New Mexico understand that wind and solar jobs are the fastest-growing jobs in the country. And those farmers in Iowa say pay me for the environmental services of planting cover crops and keeping more land in conservation easements. That's how we meet the challenge. We do it with everyone in this country. We bring everyone in to the solution.

Ryan: ... cut the worker in on the deal. Make sure these are union jobs. And I will double union membership to make sure these new jobs pay what the old fossil fuel jobs pay.

Bullock: ...as we transition to this clean energy economy, you've got to recognize, there are folks that have spent their whole life powering our country, and far too often, Democrats sound like they're part of the problem. We got to make sure to aid in those transition as we get to a carbon neutral world, which I think we can do by 2020...I think Democrats often, when they're saying, oh, these fossil fuel industries, these workers, those coal miner workers. Look, the world's changing. We got to make a change, but I think Democrats often sound like the people that, as Congressman Ryan would say, shower at the end of the day, that they're part of the problem. And far too many communities are being left behind, as we make this transition.

Electric Vehicles

Ryan: my plan is to create a chief manufacturing officer so we could actually start making things in the United States again, that would pull the government, the Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, work with the private sector, work with investors, emerging tech companies, to dominate the electric vehicle market. China dominates it now, 50 percent to 60 percent. I want us to dominate the battery market, make those here in the United States and cut the workers in on the deal. The charging stations, solar panels, same thing; China dominates 60 percent of the solar panel market...if we're waiting for 2040 for a ban to come in on gasoline vehicles, we're screwed. So we better get busy now. And that's why I'm saying get a chief manufacturing officer, align the environmental incentives with the financial incentives, and make sure that people can actually make money off of the new technologies that are moving forward.

Agriculture

Ryan: But you cannot get there on climate unless we talk about agriculture. We need to convert our industrial agriculture system over to a sustainable and regenerative agriculture system... that actually sequesters carbon... into the soil. And you can go ask -- you can go ask Gabe Brown and Allen Williams, who actually make money off of regenerative agriculture. So we can move away... from all the subsidies that we're giving the farmers. They haven't made a profit in five years. And we could start getting good food into our schools and into our communities. And that's going to drive health care down. That's another part of the health care conversation...

Science and Republican denial

O'Rourke: I've listen to the sciences on this, and they're very clear. We don't have more than 10 years to get this right, and we won't meet that challenge with half-steps or half-measures or only half the country. We've got to bring everyone in. The people of Detroit and those that I listened to in Flint last week, they want the challenge. They want those jobs. They want to create the future for this country and the world.

Bullock: Are we going to actually address climate change? Fire seasons are 80 days longer in the west now. Or are we going to give people a better shot at a better life? You can do both, but let's actually have the scientists drive this. Let's not just talk about plans that are written for press releases that will go nowhere else if we can't get a Republican to acknowledge... that the climate's changing.

Buttigieg: We have all put out highly similar visions on climate. It is all theoretical. We will deal with climate, if and only if we win the presidency, if and only if we beat Donald Trump.

Related
Climate Related Excerpts from the July 31st CNN Democratic Presidential Debate

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The Obsession with Fossil Fuels is a Canadian Disease

While the ecological impacts of Canada's fossil fuel industry are well documented the possible adverse economic impacts associated with natural resource booms have received little attention. Despite popular perceptions there are reasons to believe that Canada's long history as a resource exporter to countries like Britain and more recently the United States have been harmful rather than helpful.

Reducing carbon and other forms of air pollution involves significantly reducing our reliance on fossil fuels as a source of energy. This is one of the central pillars of managing the climate crisis. This is particularly relevant for the tar sands, one of the most carbon intensive forms of energy on Earth.

A comment piece by Jonathan Sas titled The Tar-Sands Trap suggests natural-resource booms are actually bad for the Canadian economy.  Former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair's dismissed the economic benefits of bitumen pipelines and he expressed concern that Alberta’s tar sands are causing Dutch disease.*

Most tend to think that fossil fuel exports are good for Canada. Ramping up oil exports was a major driving force in the Harper government and it appears to remain an important Conservative policy plank in Andrew Scheer's bid to become Prime Minister in 2019. Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper environmental realities, aboriginal issues and foreign affairs were all subservient to the tar sands.

The control that the fossil fuel industry has over government is a legitimate concern and there are dangers associated with a single minded reliance on fossil fuels. As SAS says:

"Our policymakers’ focus on re-source exports risks trapping us in a precarious economic situation—one in which Canada not only becomes more vulnerable to volatile fluctuations in the price of oil, but in which we sacrifice innovation and the development of other areas of the economy at the altar of short-term profits from the bitumen rush."

Political economist Mel Watkins has referred to "Canadian disease" to describe the country's resource booms. In 1963 Watkins published an article called, "A Staple Theory of Economic Growth" in which he used the term "staples trap" to refer to the inability of a resource-based economy to mature into a diverse, industrialized one. Over-specialization in the export of unprocessed commodities, he argued, meant depending on foreign direct investment.

The environmental impacts of previous resource booms include adverse impacts on wildlife, agriculture and forests. The near extirpation of cod and beaver, the grain monoculture, and clear cutting, are powerful reminders that resource booms have highly undesirable side effects.

Harold Innis is well known for his work examining how the exploitation of resources creates blockages through-out the economy. Canada's resource focused economy has a wide range of impacts that include issues related to land settlement including lands appropriated from indigenous peoples. It also impacts transportation and communication networks. Carleton University political economist Brendan Haley, used Innis’ work to study how the fur trade helped to define Canada’s borders, and how wheat development led to the rise of the railroad system.

Haley concludes that this resource based economy has impeded the development of Canada's domestic manufacturing sector. Haley notes that revenue from staple exports is vulnerable to unpredictable forces including technological innovations and changing demand.

While resources exports are not necessarily bad, the problem arises when we become over-reliant on these exports. The real problem is when resource concerns become over-represented in our political and business lives. Canada’s energy sector, accounts for less than 5 percent of our Gross Domestic Product, however, many argue that they wield undue influence.

Kari Levitt, the author of Canadian political economy, 1970’s Silent Surrender, says the close ties between Canadian finance and resource sectors have led to capital intensive transportation networks resulting in "an indigenous capitalist class with a short-term view to profitability."

York University political scientist Daniel Drache adds that this shortsighted resource based profit chasing is worsened by the "fragmentation and balkanization" of Canada into competing economies. Drache expresses concern that this has augured a crisis of federalism as provinces compete with each other at the expense of national strategies.

Haley says the issue is whether reliance on staples impedes policymakers' ability to create more resilient, transformative economies. The Canadian-disease thesis was corroborated in a 2012 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development report.

Despite youth unemployment, skills deficits, lagging innovation and slowing productivity, there is no evidence to suggest that Canadian Conservatives are serious about looking beyond finding new markets for its fossil fuels.

Many economists support the idea of investing in industries that add value to resources rather than exporting them in their raw form. However, when it comes to fossil fuels Haley is quick to point out that this is a dangerous investments in light of the climate crisis. As we transition to a low-carbon economy it will become increasingly difficult for both economic and ecological reasons to extract tar-sands oil.

"You can add value to the horse and buggy," Haley says, "but if no one wants to use the horse and buggy anymore, it doesn’t matter."

Sass concludes by asking if it is prudent to tie our future growth and prosperity to a twentieth-century staple like oil. He suggests that it may be wiser to build a green economy, but before we do that we will need to find a cure for our national illness.

*Dutch Disease refers to the decline of manufacturing due to a currency over-valued by a natural-resource boom.

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Webinar: The Power of Effective Communication in Environmental Consultancy

This training webinar will take place on 29 August 2019 at 13:00 BST. Virginia Cinquemani will discuss key components of successful communication.

Excellent two-way communication is the starting point for any successful business endeavour. Building a relationship based on trust and clarity with your clients is essential for a positive and lasting outcome.

This webinar will look at the key components of successful communication, and specifically at how to improve your listening and communication skills in a business meeting, or in other business situations, like networking, for maximum impact and best outcomes.

The speaker is Virginia Cinquemani, Director, Green Gorilla Consultants. Virginia is a qualified architect, project manager and environmental consultant. She is the director and founder of Green Gorilla Consultants ltd, a training and coaching company focusing on empowering sustainability professionals to make their voices heard and make an impact. Virginia has a deep passion for sustainability and she is an advocate of bridging the soft skill gap in technical fields for maximum impact and lasting change. In her spare time, Virginia loves creating, in particular through illustration and photography. Other webinars in the series include:

• The Power of Effective Communication in Environmental Consultancy - 29 August, 13:00 BST
• Making an Impact as an Environmental Consultant - 24 October, 13:00 BST
• How to Sell Sustainability Ethically - 21 November, 13:00 BST
• The Importance of Managing People and Projects Effectively - 23 January, 13:00 BST

This webinar series is free for corporate members of the Market Intelligence and Development + Infrastructure Services. Corporate members can also download the recordings of previous premium webinars. If you are a corporate member please call +44 (0)20 3637 2191 or email sales@environment-analyst.com to register your free place.

For non-corporate members the cost is £99

For more information and to register click here.

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Environmental Law Toolkit Webinar: Common Law Tools for Protecting the Environment

The Environmental Law Toolkit Webinar Series presents Richard Lindgren of CELA on Common Law Tools for Protecting the Environment. This webinar will take place online on Tuesday July 30, 2019 at 1:00pm EDT. For those who cannot make it a recording of the webinar will be made available to all those who register (available until September 30, 2019).

If Canadians suffer harm, loss or injury from pollution, civil litigation may be undertaken to obtain compensation, injunctions or other appropriate relief. In such cases, plaintiffs may rely upon various “torts” (civil wrongs) that have been developed by judges at common law. In addition, it may be open to plaintiffs to utilize statutory rights to sue that have been enacted by legislatures. The webinar will review the legal basis for suing polluters, discuss the types of court orders that may be requested, and examine the pros/cons of using civil actions to safeguard environmental and public health.

Richard Lindgren is a staff lawyer with the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA). He represents citizens’ groups in the courts and before tribunals on various environmental issues, including air and water pollution, waste management, and natural heritage protection. He served as co-counsel for Walkerton residents at the Walkerton Inquiry, and has been a member of the Environment Minister’s Advisory Panel on Environmental Assessment; Environment Minister’s Task Force on the Environmental Bill of Rights; Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on Class Action Reform; and Environmental Review Tribunal’s Client Advisory Committee. He is an editor of the Canadian Environmental Law Reports, and has taught environmental law at Queen’s Faculty of Law and Trent University. 

The cost of this webinar is $25.00

For more information and to register click here.

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Arctic Heatwaves are a Final Warning

When the coldest place on Earth is regularly breaking heat records it may be time to concede that the end may indeed be nigh. The world is heating up but nowhere is this warming trend more pronounced than in the Arctic. The Arctic is getting hotter three times as fast as the rest of the world. This year (2019) was the second or third warmest Arctic spring on record. At the end of March temperatures in parts of the Arctic were 22° C above seasonal norms smashing the all time temperature record for the month. In May it hit  29° C (84° F) in Arkhangelsk, Russia which is situated near the Arctic Ocean. In Koynas, an area east of Arkhangelsk, temperature exceeded 30.6° C (87° F).

In July temperatures reached a record 69.8° F in Alert, which is situated in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, in Nunavut, Canada. Located less than less 600 miles from the North Pole, this is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world. Heatwaves and heat records are becoming the new Arctic norm. In recent years there have been a slew of days when the mercury has climbed above 15° C (60° F). This is way above the seasonal average of 3° C (38° F).

Armel Castellan, a meteorologist at the Canadian environment ministry told AFP that these temperatures are "completely staggering" adding that this is only one data point among many.. "It’s quite phenomenal as a statistic, it’s just one example among hundreds and hundreds of other records established by global warming," Castellan said.

There is no end in sight as Canadian government models predict that the warm weather will continue in the Arctic throughout the rest of the summer.

The Arctic is critical for a number of reasons including its impact on the world's climate. A 2018 study indicated that Arctic warming interferes with the jet stream and increases the likelihood of heatwaves. The heatwaves in the Arctic have been attributed to irregular fluctuations in the jet stream. The wandering jet stream has also been implicated in this year's heatwaves in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Asia.

It is no coincidence that these heatwaves are taking place against the backdrop of rising greenhouse gas emissions. At 415 parts per million this is the highest level of atmospheric carbon in at least 800,000 years.

While this is bad enough there are even more cataclysmic implications of Arctic warming. There are at least 1.5 trillion tons of carbon frozen in the permafrost of the far north, if warming continues and the ice keeps melting, these gases could be released into the atmosphere canceling out even our most ambitious mitigation efforts. This could push the climate beyond tipping points from which we may not be able to recover.

We are faced with a stark choice, drastically slash greenhouse gas emissions or continue with business as usual and destroy civilization as we know it.

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Alaska is Warming Faster than the Rest of the U.S.

Record breaking heat is plaguing Alaska. According to NOAA the winter of 2019 in Alaska was the third-warmest on record. This spring there were unseasonably warm temperatures in the frontier state. March temperatures averaged 11° Celsius (C) above normal. On March 30, the Alaskan Arctic recorded temperatures that were 22° C above normal. On March 31 a mass of high pressure in the atmosphere called an "upper-level ridge" in Alaska set records for the month with temperatures in excess of 70° Fahrenheit (F). The so called "omega block" is an area of high pressure that forces the jet-stream to flow around it. Klawock reached 71° F on March 31 and at least five other locations in Alaska set monthly high temperature records.

The summer of 2019 has been unusually hot marked by at least three heatwaves and Alaska, the northernmost point of the U.S. is no exception. Early in July, the US state of Alaska, part of which lies inside the Arctic Circle, registered record high temperatures. The Independence day holiday was marked by a record breaking heatwave in Alaska.

In fact the heat in Alaska has set a number of records in 2019. "The magnitude and persistence of the warmth is particularly striking to me this winter in parts of Alaska," said Zack Labe, a climate scientist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of California at Irvine.

The warm weather has thinned ice and this has claimed lives. People have fallen through the thinner ice and others are prevented from using ice which is traditionally an important means of transport in the colder months. To illustrate in late March when Bering Sea ice is usually at its maximum, it had largely disappeared. As of April the ice coverage was even lower than the unprecedented low in 2018 and by mid may it was almost entirely gone when it usually persists until June.

The disappearing sea ice and melting permafrost are making life impossible in some villages including Kivalina, Newtok and Shishmaref. Climate change is wreaking havoc on subsistence hunting and fishing both in terms of using ice as a transportation medium and the changing location of fish and game.

In addition to these local impacts, declining sea ice may also have implications for global weather patterns. It is clear that open water creates warmer air temperatures and this leads to more evaporation which fuels storms.

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United States Rocked by Summer Heat

Heatwaves are increasingly common and increasingly intense and long lasting in the U.S.  June was hot in the U.S. and so was July. The month of July started with a heatwave that enveloped almost half the country and just past the middle of the same month another heatwave saw even hotter temperatures.

While the June heatwave saw temperatures exceed 90 Fahrenheit (32° Celsius) in one third of the country, the second July heatwave saw more than half of the country enduring temperatures surpassing 100° F (38° C) when the humidity was factored.

On Saturday, July 20th new one-day temperature records were recorded in more than a half a dozen places including New York and Michigan. In this heatwave two-thirds of the Lower 48 states stifled under some of the hottest hottest weather in the U.S. since 2012.

These heatwaves are being compounded by high humidity which make it feel even hotter. In some places the combination of heat and humidity pushed heat indexes as high as 115° F (46° C). This heatwave was also notable for its warm overnight temperatures which NOAA data indicates has increased at twice the rate of summer days.

On the periphery of these heat domes is an area being described by meteorologists as the ring of fire. This is a zone where severe storms can develop. The heatwave and related storms caused power outages in areas ranging from Michigan to New York.

A slew of studies indicate these heatwaves are more likely due to global warming. The cause of the recent heatwaves in the U.S. and elsewhere is the jet-stream. A warmer world has caused the jet-stream to meander and slow down. According to a 2016 study in Nature Scientific Reports, led by climatologist Michael Mann, record temperature years are 600 to 130,000 times more likely thanks to anthropogenic climate change. Studies also show they are also longer and more intense.  Some of the most dire predictions indicate that by the end of the century the combination of of heat and humidity could push the heat index past a potentially fatal 131° F (55° C).

They will only get worse if we fail to do what common sense dictates. We must significantly reduce our greenhouse gases if we are to keep temperatures from increasing above the upper threshold limit. According to a recently published study, if we do not succeed in reigning in our greenhouse gases, parts of Florida and Texas could see temperatures over 100 F (38° C) for almost half the year.

A U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA) report states that under a high emissions scenario temperatures in the country will increase by 9° F in the last quarter of this century. The NCA report also states that temperature extremes are rising at an even faster rate than average temperatures. In a couple of decades five day heat waves could be 12° F warmer.

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Where Does Boris Johnson Stand on Climate Change?

New UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been compared to Donald Trump because of his climate denial, racism and penchant for lying. The two men also share similar stances on immigration and a common disdain for journalists. Johnson is a conservative who is best known for his populist antics. His support for brexit helped to get him elected by an underwhelming 0.2 percent of the population.

Like the populist leader in the US, Johnson has a track record of rejecting climate science. The column he penned for the Daily Telegraph in the wake of the signing of the Paris Climate agreement will haunt him for the rest of his political career.

"Whatever is happening to the weather at the moment" Johnson wrote, "it is nothing to do with the conventional doctrine of climate change."

His voting record in 2016 says a great deal. He voted against setting a carbon reduction target and he also voted against a measure to require the energy industry to adopt a strategy for carbon capture and storage.

Since then Johnson claims to have changed his tune and he has recently come out in support of Theressa May's net zero emissions target. When he was Foreign Secretary, he even indicated that he would, "continue to lobby the U.S. at all levels to continue to take climate change extremely seriously."

Despite this apparent change of heart, Desmog reports that Johnson maintains close ties to the UK's climate science denial network.

Like Trump, Johnson commonly speaks out of both sides of his mouth. He has claimed to be sympathetic to the objectives of the Extinction Rebellion while at the same time calling activists "smug" and suggested they should be lecturing China not the UK.

A panel of Guardian analysts seem to share the view that Johnson will not be able to follow his talk with action.  Hannah Jane Parkinson may have got it right when she said Johnson is, "a man who makes Machiavelli look misunderstood and Pinocchio button-nosed."

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How Global Warming has Increased Precipitation in the U.S.

The period from January to May of this year was the wettest 12 months period on record in the United States. This is part of a wider trend which has seen substantial increases in rainfall in the eastern part of the country. Climate Central reports that rainfall in the Eastern US is now between 29 and 55 percent heavier than it used to be. According to NOAA annual precipitation has increased by about 7 percent across the contiguous US during the past Century.

Flooding was commonplace this year but it was not that long ago that multi-year droughts were plaguing Central and Eastern US. This is exactly the kind of extremes that can be expected from a warmer world.

We have seen flooding in the Midwest, the High Plains, and the South. In March Midwestern states experienced devastating flooding along the Missouri River and its tributaries in Nebraska, Missouri, South Dakota, Iowa, and Kansas. At the end of May into the month of June heavy rain in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri caused sites on Mississippi River to record a top-five crest. At least three people are known to have died in Iowa and Nebraska. On July 8th there was intense flooding in Washington DC and this was followed by a storm and flooding in New Orleans.

More heat means more evaporation and this is related to more precipitation. Atmospheric moisture increases by 6-8 percent for every degree (Celsius) of warming.  Soil moisture in much of the eastern United States was above the 99th percentile this spring and when the ground can no longer absorb water flooding is often the result. However, more moisture does not always mean that soils hold more moisture as rising temperatures increase the rate at which soils dry. Floods in the US have caused at least 3 billion in damages this spring and eroded valuable top soil.

To help mitigate against flooding we need nature-based solutions including natural barriers like mangrove swamps, forests and wetlands. First and foremost we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that will minimize warming and reduce the amount of moisture that evaporates and ends up in the atmosphere.

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The Deadly Collusion of Heat and Poverty

The combination of heat and poverty threatens the lives of millions of people in countries like India, China, Nepal, Zimbabwe.  If we do not substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, it will get much worse for everyone but a warmer planet will be particularly brutal for the world's poor.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) India is among the countries that will suffer the most from climate change. That is not only because of an increasing frequency and duration of heatwaves it is also because India is one of the most populace countries in the world with with one of the highest incidences of poverty. More than 86 percent of the country lives on less than $5.50 per day.

The plight of the poor in India is being made impossible by extreme heat. During the deadly heatwave in Bihar, India's most economically disadvantaged state, schools and colleges were closed for almost a week. The government urged people to stay indoors, however, that is difficult for those who need to work to survive.

According to MIT research much of South Asia may soon become unlivable. As explained by one of the researchers who took part in the research, the places in India where survivability may be difficult overlap with already highly vulnerable areas. This view was expressed by Eun Soon, assistant professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Asia is especially vulnerable because of its dense population and low incomes. People that rely on fishing and agriculture may not be able to earn a living.

"If we continue to produce the greenhouse gases at the current pace, one of the most populous regions in the world will not avoid the high risk of the deadly heat wave, facing an upper limit on human heat tolerance," Eun Soon said.

In poorer countries the average person may have no way of escaping the heat. This represents a serious threat to human health and for many people it may prove fatal. A 2018 World Health Organisation (WHO) report suggests that 38,000 people could die each year between 2030 and 2050 due to heat exposure. The report says the people in developing countries are among the most vulnerable.

Extreme heat is a serious problem in many ways. Some, like heatstroke and respiratory ailments are obvious, however, other lesser known impacts have been far more deadly. Water born illnesses due to a shortage of potable water is one of the biggest killers in the world. Since World War II, contaminated water has killed more people around the globe than all wars and other forms of violence combined.

Heat is also related to drought which directly impacts subsistence agriculture. More than 1 billion people have suffered from drought in the last decade. In 2017 the World Bank reported that since 2001 drought has wiped out enough produce to feed 81 million people every day for a year.

According to research, more than 1.3 billion people live on deteriorating agricultural land. Seventy-five percent of people living in poverty rely on agriculture and natural resources to survive. Two and a half billion smallholder farmers, herders and fisheries are vulnerable to climate change.

The lack of refrigeration in some areas means that things like food and medicine will spoil more quickly compounding the problems of hunger and health.

Extreme weather is on the rise due to global warming. The number of people affected by extreme weather has increased from 102 million in 2015 to 204 million in 2016. In 2017 extreme weather events cost a total of $335 billion and drove a 49 percent increase in economic losses over the previous decade. Such events are especially devastating for people who are already struggling with poverty.

The world's poor are on a collision course with an increasingly deadly climate. The sad irony is that those who did the least to cause this crisis are the ones who suffer the most. This is a social justice issue and the authors of this calamity are complicit.

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Event - Ivey Sustainability Research Conference 2019

The Centre for Building Sustainable Value Ivey Sustainability Research Conference 2019 will take place on December 5th 1:00 PM - December 6th 5:00 PM at the Ivey Business School, London, Ontario. The purpose of the Ivey Sustainability Conference is to create an inclusive community of scholars who are eager to push the frontiers of knowledge towards sustainable development. Researchers from all disciplines and career stages are welcome to attend and participate in the conference. At a time when intellectual discourse seems to be divisive, we hope that, through this conference, we can build safe, stimulating arenas for the scientific community to engage and grow intellectually, in order to assure the prosperity for all.

Speakers

Daniel Beunza (Cass Business School)
Kevin Dooley (Arizona State University)
Wendy Espeland (Northwestern University)
Klaus Weber (Northwestern University)

Centre for Building Sustainable Value

The Centre provides practitioners and students with the knowledge, tools, and capabilities to manage both private and public interests through organizational actions.

Sustainable Finance

The Centre has focused on three critical levers that we believe will catalyze sustainable development: finance, supply chains, and innovation.

Capital markets are an important catalyst for businesses to incorporate progressive environmental, social and governance criteria in decision-making. We investigate new ways to invest and manage capital, inclusive measures of ROI, and the implications of short- and long-term time horizons. This work is led by Diane-Laure Arjaliès.

Sustainable Supply Chains

The Centre has focused on three critical levers that we believe will catalyze sustainable development: finance, supply chains, and innovation.

The ways in which products are designed, manufactured, transported, consumed, re-used and recycled have a profound impact on our society and the natural environment. Over the years, supply chains have become complex, adaptive networks that generate serious negative externalities. We investigate how businesses, regulators and non-governmental organizations can jointly develop supply chains that function capably within social and natural thresholds. Particularly, our focus remains on discovering what innovative processes and structures enable transparency, accountability and circularity within ever changing supply chain networks. This work is led by Jury Gualandris.

Sustainable Innovation

The Centre has focused on three critical levers that we believe will catalyze sustainable development: finance, supply chains, and innovation.

Innovation is the heart of effective organizations across industries and sectors. We investigate how organizations unlock new ways of creating financial and societal value through human-centred processes, design-thinking, and collaboration. This work is led by Tima Bansal.

Network for Business Sustainability

The Network for Business Sustainability (NBS), founded within the Centre for Building Sustainable Value, is a growing network of more than 7,000 researchers and managers committed to advancing sustainable business. Businesses need access to rigorous, relevant research to support their decisions and actions, and researchers need to understand real-world business challenges to ask relevant questions. NBS aims to shape management practice and research with the resources it produces and the dialogue it facilitates.

For more details on the Network for Business Sustainability, and to learn more about how its work can benefit your research or your business, visit it at its website here.

For questions about NBS, contact info@nbs.net.
For further information about the conference, contact Diane-Laure Arjalies at darjalies@ivey.ca.

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Asia is Heating Up and the South May Soon be Uninhabitable

Asia is one of the world's hottest continents and it is also the most populated continent in the world with 60 percent of the total population of the Earth. Like many other places around the world many of the 50 countries in Asia are suffering from heatwaves in 2019. In the period between April and June of this year India was hit with protracted heatwaves as was neighboring Pakistan and a number of other Asian countries including Vietnam, Kuwait, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.

Vietnam was hit with a heatwave in April that included setting a record for the hottest day ever in the country. The Vietnam national weather service reported that Ha Tinh, a town about 320km south of Hanoi, recorded a high temperature of 43.4°C. This new national heat record breaks the record that was set just four years ago. What makes this particularly anomalous is the fact that the hottest months in Vietnam are usually in June and July.

By far the hottest place in Asia is Kuwait which recorded a temperature of 52.2°C in June. This temperature reading occurred in the region of Matraba in North Kuwait on June 9th. A recent study confirmed that Kuwait earns the unwanted distinction of Asia's hottest ever temperature with readings of 53.9°C. Pakistan came in second with a reading of 53.7°C in 2017.

More frequent and more intense heatwaves are part of a troubling global trend and countries in Asia are expected to be among the most adversely impacted.

According to research from MIT, in the worst case scenario temperature increases will soon breech the limits of survivability or come very close to it in most of South Asia. India's Chota Nagpur Plateau, in the northeast of the country, and Bangladesh are expected to be the worst hit. The Ganges River valley, India's northeast and eastern coast, northern Sri Lanka, and the Indus Valley of Pakistan may come close to surpassing these thresholds.

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Worsening Deadly Heatwaves in India

One of India's longest and most intense heatwaves has killed at least one hundred people and on July 17th at least 100 more died due to monsoon flooding and mudslides. The pre-monsoon heatwave lasted for more than a month and it was compounded by severe drought that has caused major water shortages. At its worst temperatures exceeded 50°C.

In April, central and northwestern India were suffering from a heatwave that was 6°C above the average. At the beginning of June Delhi hit temperatures of 48°C, the highest temperature ever recorded in that city for that month. The temperatures in Churu, set a new Indian record as they climbed above 50°C and helped to precipitate water shortages. The 9 million residents in the city of Chennai also faced water shortages. Some villages went without water for days. Approximately 40 percent of India has endured drought conditions in 2019.

Droughts are becoming more frequent and they are commonly being followed by sudden storms and floods. There have been radical changes to rainfall patterns in India over the course of the last ten years.

The situation in India is dire and getting worse. This has prompted questions about whether some parts of India will soon be incapable of supporting life.

An CNN article by Shekhar Chandra, a Ph.D. Candidate in Public Policy, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggests that the worsening heat will cause a humanitarian crisis as "large parts of the country potentially become too hot to be inhabitable".

Even if we do what we must to reduce emissions and minimize the impact of global warming, parts of India may still be uninhabitable as a certain amount of warming is baked into the system.

"Experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say that even if the world succeeds in cutting carbon emissions, limiting the predicted rise in average global temperatures, parts of India will become so hot they will test the limits of human survivability," Chandra said.

The rate at which warming is increasing in India is troubling. Chandra reports that in 2010 there were 21 official heatwaves across India, in 2018 there were 484. This represents a 23 fold increase in less than a decade.

According to AK Sahai and Sushmita Joseph, of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, the situation is destined to get worse as heatwaves are expected to engulf the whole of India.

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Heat Waves and the Climate Crisis

The climate crisis is here and its hot. If you think things are bad today they will get a lot worse if we continue with business as usual. Heatwaves are being amplified by a rise in global temperatures. They are already becoming more frequent and severe and they will only get worse if we fail to act. We have amassed a vast store of data that proves conclusively that the world is getting warmer. Heatwaves are 4 degrees Celsius hotter than they were a century ago and the heatwaves hitting Europe are more frequent and more severe.

On average the 20 warmest years since 1880 have all been within the past 22 years. The years 2015-2018 make up the top four, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This was a record breaking Spring and early summer in Canada. Globally, last month was the hottest month of June in recorded history and Europe suffered through a record breaking heatwave at end of June.

Dr Friederike Otto, of the University of Oxford, said: "This is a strong reminder again that climate change is happening here and now. It is not a problem for our kids only."

As reported by the Guardian, attribution studies suggest heat waves are much more likely and severe due to climate change. "There have been more than 230 attribution studies to date around the world and these have found that 95% of heatwaves were made more more likely or worse by climate change. For droughts, 65% were definitely affected climate change, while the figure for floods was 57%."

Global heat records are being set five times as often today as they would in a stable climate. "Heat waves are on the rise," Stefan Rahmstorf, a climatologist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said. "This increase in heat extremes is just as predicted by climate science as a consequence of global warming caused by the increasing greenhouse gases from burning coal, oil, and gas," Rahmstorf, told the Associated Press.

In about three decades, London's climate will feel a lot like Barcelona's, including severe droughts, Madrid will feel more like Marrakesh, Morocco; Seattle will feel like San Francisco; and New York will feel like Virginia Beach, Virginia. These predictions come from a study that estimated 77 percent. of cities around the world will see their climate conditions change drastically.

Scientist Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, said: "If the observed trend in heatwaves continues, [even] at the Paris goal of 2C of warming a heatwave like this will be the norm in June. Both observations and models show a strong trend towards stronger heatwaves. However, the observed trend is stronger than the modeled one, and we do not yet know why." We have already seen warming of 1 degree Celsius.

Europe's heatwave at the end of June 2019 was caused by a mass of hot air coming from the Sahara Desert and as with the extreme heat recorded in Canada an anomalous jet stream is being implicated.

The increasing prevalence and severity is heat waves is a direct corollary of climate change. Studies predict that deadly heat waves are going to become far more common and far more serious than they are today. As reported by NBC News, Steve Vavrus, a senior scientist at the Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said that although the situation is perilous there is still time to do something about it.

"Everywhere is vulnerable and we’re starting to load the dice more with slow-moving and meandering jet stream patterns," Vavrus said. "Extreme weather events are becoming the new normal and they are lasting longer than they have in the past."

Vavrus explained that reducing the world’s carbon emissions would slow global warming and return the jet stream to its more typical speed and pattern. In the absence of consorted action to reduce emissions, extreme weather like heat waves may prove to be among the biggest problems we face in the coming decades.

Related
Warming Temperatures are an Urgent Warning
The Warming Temperature Trend Continues Despite Trump
Decades of Hot Data: The Harbingers of an Impending Climate Catastrophe

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What is Causing Europe's Heatwaves?

The recent heatwave in Europe included the hottest day ever in France. The new hottest single day temperature in France is now 45.9C (114.6F). Germany, Poland and Czech Republic also set records at the end of June. Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Italy also experienced heat waves. Europe's intense heat waves and record setting temperatures are noteworthy because we can now say with a degree of confidence that this warming is at least five times more likely due to global warming. Europe's five hottest summers since 1500 have all been in this Century.

Using data from Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), the European satellite agency said the average temperatures on the continent at the end of June were more than 2C above normal. Temperatures were 6-10C above normal over most of France, Germany and northern Spain.

While linking a single event to global warming is complicated, the World Weather Attribution group reports that average temperatures in France between 26-28 June were very likely happening as a result of anthropogenic climate change.

"We knew June was hot in Europe, but this study shows that temperature records haven’t just been broken. They have been obliterated," University of Reading's Professor Hannah Cloke, said. "This is the hottest June on record in Europe by a country mile, and the warmest June we have ever seen globally."

Heatwaves cause a host of problems. In parts of France water restrictions were imposed and Paris closed schools and postponed exams. Combustion engine vehicles were prevented from entering the city to decrease smog and fire hydrants were opened to help people cool down.

Health Minister Agnès Buzyn warned that "everyone is at risk" and France's weather service issued an unprecedented red alert for four areas with the rest of the country on orange alert. The Italian ministry of health has reported emergency levels of heat in 16 cities.

In Germany, the extreme heat caused highway surfaces to start to melt and all across Europe there has been a spike in electricity consumption as people turn on their fans and their air conditioners. Poland  set two records, one for high temperatures and one for energy consumption.

Heatwaves can be also be both expensive and deadly. The 2003 heatwave caused financial losses of almost $15 billion and killed over 30,000 people in Europe.

Europe's heatwave at the end of June 2019 was caused by a mass of hot air coming from the Sahara Desert. As with the extreme heat recorded in Canada an anomalous jet stream is being blamed.

"Although this was exceptional, we are likely to see more of these events in the future due to climate change," Jean-Noel Thepaut, head of C3S said.

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Record Breaking Heat in the Great White North

Image credit: The Weather Channel

We have seen heat records broken across Canada in the first half of 2019. Extreme heat has been present from the west coast to the east coast and the far north. The start of spring 2019 smashed 79 Canadian heat records including an all time record for Yoho Lake in the Northwest Territories. Environment Canada pointed to anomalies in the jet stream and said this kind of widespread heat in March hasn’t been seen in a quarter century.

In June Victoria shattered a 121-year-old heat record and Kelowna broke a 145-year-old temperature record in BC. All together Surging temperatures broke a total of 20 heat records in southern BC.

In July most of Eastern Canada was suffering from extreme heat and in the Maritimes this heat wave broke records. Moncton, Fredericton and Halifax all broke records. PEI also smashed a heat record. Even Nunavut, the world's most northerly community, is experiencing a record-breaking heat wave.

As reported by CBC, records have been falling by large margins. "That's what we're seeing more often," said David Phillips, Environment Canada's chief climatologist. "It's not just half a degree or a 10th of a millimeter. It's like hitting a ball out of the ballpark. It is so different than what the previous record was...It's really quite spectacular, This is unprecedented." Phillips said the models predict that there is more to come. More is to come.

Phillips also suggests the record heat may be related to anomalies in the jet stream. "With temperatures you've never seen before, you can't dismiss it as not having a climate change component," Philips said. Although individual weather recordings should not be confused with climate, decades of hot data are making an irrefutable case for a warming world.

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The Ocean / Climate Nexus

Our oceans provide two-thirds of the planet's atmospheric oxygen, absorb more than 90 percent of the Earth's excess heat energy and more than a quarter of the globe's anthropogenic carbon emissions. Warmer and more acidic oceans are decimating marine ecosystems, killing coral, kelp, shellfish starfish and plankton. Warmer oceans also have adverse implications for global weather including more intense storms.

Balmy sea-surface temperatures expedite terrestrial warming and reduce the time we have to reign in climate change causing greenhouse gas emissions. If we do not stop spewing carbon and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere we are on track to see anywhere from five to seven degrees of warming in the coming decades.

Warmer seas mean less ice and this can further contribute to the warming trend. According to National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), the monthly June ice extent over the last 20 years shows a decline of 4.08 percent per decade. The average extent for June 2019 was the second lowest in the satellite record. One of the implications of melting sea ice is a weakened jet stream which wreaks havoc with the weather in much of the world.

One of the most troubling corrolaries of warmer seas involves the breakdown of the ocean food chain.  Plankton, the basis of the oceans food chain, is dying and this is causing low oxygen dead zones where nothing can survive.

According to research published in the journal Bulletin of Mathematical Biology from the University of Leicester in the UK, rising ocean temperatures is causing massive reductions in plankton populations. Since plankton is responsible for two-thirds of atmospheric oxygen, this could cause the Earth’s oxygen levels to fall dramatically, and this in turn could kill massive numbers of people and animals.

The policy implications are clear, governments need to take unprecedented action to keep ocean temperatures as low as possible.

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Event - Clean Cities Renewable Energy Procurement

Clean Cities Renewable Energy Procurement will take place on July 24-25, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. This event answers the question, what does it take for cities to buy their own renewable energy? It will showcase the stories of pioneering cities who are developing and executing a successful game plan for renewable power procurement. Profit from their experience and learn the most sophisticated approaches to accomplishing your environmental goals.

Across the nation, citizens are demanding clean energy, and cities have responded by making commitments to 100% renewable or clean power. Delivering on these commitments, however, is a complex undertaking, and many cities find themselves challenged to find the right strategies and solutions to meet their ambitious public targets. The process can also be very different depending on whether a city is located in a de-regulated or traditional electric power market.

The Clean Cities Renewable Power Procurement Summit, hosted by the City of Denver, has been organized to help cities navigate the many complex considerations involved in procuring renewable power. Bringing together executives from cities across the country who are actively involved in the process, procurement consultants and renewable energy suppliers, the meeting will provide guidance and discussion of how cities should weigh their available options, formulate priorities and strategies, evaluate the economics and risks, and gain political and legal support.

Because cities need to develop an informed understanding of renewable power procurement, the meeting has been designed in conjunction with the Planning Committee to be of maximal educational value. This is a unique opportunity to engage with the most sophisticated thinking about renewable energy procurement as well as profiting from the real world experience of your peers. You will gain valuable insights and best practices to implement as you pursue own city’s environmental goals.

To see the agenda click here.
For more information or to register click here. 

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Faith Leaders Called to Confront Climate Denial by Telling the Truth

On June 9th, the World Council of Churches issued a Pentecost message that reads as follows: "To prophesy is to tell the truth". Religious leaders have declared a climate emergencies and others are engaged in acts meant to raise awareness.

Barbara Glasson, President of the Methodist Conference, walked 133 miles to raise funds for communities across the world affected by climate change. "As a Church we believe in the possibility of transformation. Our church has heard the voice of communities around the world that are already suffering severe consequences of climate change." Barbara said. "Our response must be both individual and corporate to do all we can to tread more lightly on the earth."

We also have a model of faith in action from the former Anglican Bishop of Quebec.  As covered in the Anglican Journal, Dennis Drainville, the retired Bishop of Quebec announced that he is running for the Green Party of Canada in the forthcoming federal election. Dennis hopes to become the representative for the riding of Gaspésie-Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine. Many of us remember that Dennis was a candidate in the episcopal election in the Diocese of Montreal in 2015.

Denis describes his return to politics (he served under Bob Rae’s NDP government in Ontario 1990-93)as being spurred by the realization that the October 21st vote, will be "an election like no other," because Canadians will have to decide how to deal with both climate change and unethical government. In addition to the two issues mentioned above Dennis wants to address the political over-representation of the one percent. 

"Governments today are becoming dangerous" Denis said. "We should be electing leaders who care about the common good. They say they do, of course. The rhetoric is all there, but in fact when you see what they do and how they do it, they are not supporting the needs and aspirations of all Canadians. They have their own political and economic agenda and they pursue it, at times even ruthlessly."

Faith groups have extraordinary reach as 84 percent of the global population identifies with a religious group. However, faith leaders have their work cut out for them as powerful political forces are actively, and effectively denying reality.

"I don’t believe it," American President Donald Trump said when asked a question about the federal government’s latest report reiterating the veracity of climate change. It’s "not based on facts," former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders erroneously stated.

This brings us back to the Pentecost message: "To prophesy is to tell the truth".  We must tell the truth because the lie of climate denial imperils life on Earth and deprives future generations of their right to be born on a livable planet. Theologian Stanley Hauerwas challenges the church to be a counterpoint to mendacity. In a 'post-truth' world, Stanley, said "perhaps the Church can become known as the community that tells the truth."

As reviewed in a Religious News article titled, "A Religious Opening for Climate Change" this type of denial is "a species of faith—the non-evidence of things seen, as the author of Hebrews might have said. The GOP has made it a doctrine, and the party faithful have increasingly embraced it...At the same time, the Democrats’ contrary faith in the evidence of things seen has gotten stronger."

Although views on the climate crisis are commonly divided along party lines this is not about partisan politics, it is about accepting reality. It is important to note that being a conservative does not necessarily preclude environmental action.

The question that faith communities must ask is whether they are doing their part to help people address the reality of the climate crisis? They must simultaneously consider the possibility that by not openly acknowledging the facts and actively supporting action they may be contributing to the crisis.

Many have argued that our faith demands that we act to prevent a global calamity. A total of 150 Australian religious leaders including Anglicans sent an open letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison calling him to show moral leadership on the issue of climate change "for the sake of generations to come".

Federation of Australian Buddhist Councils Spokesperson Gawaine Powell Davies said climate change is driven by "human foolishness". "We have a very sharp analysis of human foolishness which has led us to put greed and short-term benefit ahead of the long-term interests of ourselves and our children, and our grandchildren," Gawain said.

The UNpoints out that when it comes to the environment there is widespread agreement between science and religion.  Secular society and the diverse array of faith communities share a common interest in environmental stewardship.

As explored in a Stararticle, in a world rife with divisions climate action can be something that brings us together.

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More Hot Data Contributes to Existential Concerns

The heat records being set around the globe foreshadow a world where new record setting high temperatures are commonplace. According to the EU‘s satellite agency, last month was the hottest June ever recorded.

Europe has been suffering through excruciating heat waves and countries including France have set all time heat records exceeding 45C. In parts of Asia including Kuwait and India temperatures are exceeding 50 Celsius.

While seasonal temperature spikes are not evidence of global warming, they are part of a clear and unmistakable trend. There have been a succession of hot months in 2019 including the Earth's fourth-hottest May, and the second-hottest April and March. February's global average temperature was the fifth hottest on record and January was the third hottest.

In the period between December 2018 and February 2019 there was record heat in much of Australia, parts of northeastern Brazil, the Southern Ocean, East China and the Barents Seas and southeastern Pacific Ocean. It is not just that we have seen hot temperatures in 2019, this is part of a decades long warming trend.

The last time be saw monthly temperatures that fell below the mean was February 1985. Decades of hot data including 35 years or more than 410 months of above average temperatures makes the warming trend impossible to refute. We are breaking temperature records with increasing regularity with the 10 warmest years on record having occurred since 1998.

Warmer weather also causes more precipitation, more storms and more flooding. The United States has had to deal with some intense flooding in 2019. We have seen protracted floods in the Midwest, and more recently flash flooding in Washington and Louisiana. Heatwaves have even grounded planes, buckled train tracks, and led to school closures.

It is not accurate to say that this is the new normal as it will likely get worse. According to new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change we can expect to see more temperature records being broken in fact we can expect a succession of record breaking heatwaves in most of the world.

These researchers also make it clear that these temperature increases are directly tied to rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions associated with human activity. They also indicate that these higher temperatures make air pollution worse and make water more scarce leading to agricultural failures, malnutrition and starvation.

The scientists conclude that their modeling predicts high monthly mean temperature records will be set in 58 percent of the world every year. The highest monthly mean temperature increases will occur in developing countries and small island states.  Low lying countries like the Marshall Islands are already facing existential threats as they are fighting to stay above the waves having faced repeated inundations in 2019.

Climate change is is contributing to species extinction and represents a significant threat to human life. Extreme heat fuels both drought and wildfires but heatwaves are the most deadly form of extreme weather and this summer's heatwaves are no exception. People have succumbed to heat stroke, breathing issues, heart attacks, and kidney problems. According to conservative estimates from the W.H.O. a quarter of a million people are expected to die annually between 2030 and 2050 due to climate change.

Current temperatures show a 1.3 C global average temperature increase. The upper threshold limit agreed to in the Paris Climate Accord is between 1.5C and 2C. Other studies show that even if we keep temperatures from rising beyond 2C. more than a billion people will be forced to relocate and at least two billion more will suffer from food and water scarcity. At 3C. coastal cities would be inundated and as much as 90 percent of humanity could die.

Related
Warming Temperatures are an Urgent Warning
The Warming Temperature Trend Continues Despite Trump
Decades of Hot Data: The Harbingers of an Impending Climate Catastrophe
Slowing Emissions to Beat the Heat

Read More»

Companies in the UN Global Compact Outperform their Peers in Sustainability Assessments

A report released earlier this year found that companies committed to the UN Global Compact perform better across their supply chains than those who have not made such a commitment. Sustainability performance assessment themes included environment, labor and human rights, business ethics and sustainable procurement. The report assessed 20,000 companies and was conducted by EcoVadis, a provider of business sustainability ratings.

Companies participating in the UN Global Compact are correlated with efforts to mitigate corporate social responsibility (CSR) risks. This is especially true for small and medium-sized companies because compared to larger companies they are able to act more quickly. The study found that participation in the UN Global Compact outperformed non-participants by the widest margins in the sustainable procurement and environment themes. This may be due to executive level involvement which is part of the Compact. Participating companies have also indicated that there are reputational benefits.

"We must achieve the Sustainable Development Goals — for our own sake and for future generations," said the CEO and & Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Lise Kingo. "More and more businesses are supporting the Global Goals, and now we must drive for the tipping points that will make sustainability a mainstream reality for small and large businesses everywhere. It is encouraging to see that our Ten Principles on human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption are helping companies to improve their sustainability performance."

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