Southern Bookman

Joe Biden and John Kerry seek to save planet for future generations

President Joe Biden and environmental envoy John Kerry led the global climate-change summit, two old men setting the economic course for future generations.

The 78-year-old Biden and 77-year-old Kerry called on world leaders to slash emissions and mitigate climate change's threat to the planet.

Biden pledged that the United States will cut CO2 discharges 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. That will bring a transformation in the U.S. economy, the New York Times reported.

Biden's administration is mobilizing the global campaign against climate change after years of inadequate response.

As U.S. senators and Democratic Party leaders since the 1960s, Biden and Kerry were members of a generation that refused to heed climate change warnings. Now, the world must act with urgency.

With carbon emissions soaring again as China and other Asian countries step up their demand for coal, even more drastic steps than Biden's plans will be needed, according to environmentalists.

The Biden effort to shift from a petroleum-based economy doesn't include a carbon tax, once considered essential in efforts to cut emissions.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said Friday that political opposition led to the shift away from the carbon tax. Krugman also claimed that technological innovation and lower costs for wind and solar power generation make the carbon tax less important, before conceding that the tax likely will be necessary in the future.

Claims that Biden didn't include a carbon-tax proposal because of political opposition are puzzling, since Biden didn't worry about the lack of GOP support in passing his massive Covid stimulus act. Petroleum companies now support a carbon tax, and even some Republicans might accept such a proposal.

Democratic Party progressives and environmentalists apparently have shifted away from the carbon tax, which would put a price on the production of carbon. Long supported by Times columnist Thomas Friedman, the carbon tax should remain a fundamental pillar of the campaign to reduce emissions. Under proposals by Friedman and others, the tax would not burden American households.

Democratic Party supporters hope Biden and Kerry remain active and witness the transformation of the U.S. economy they envision. But by 2030, a younger generation of Democratic leaders such as Vice President Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be in command. A younger, even more progressive generation will be emerging.

Perhaps the science-denying and reactionary Republican Party will by then shift course and join in the battle against climate change, along with conservative parties around the world. Once, GOP stalwart John McCain called for ambitious cap and trade legislation and a 60 percent reduction in emissions. That was in 2007, before the GOP turned to ignorance.

GOP intransigence on climate change and social reform makes the 2022 congressional election and 2024 presidential election vital for the nation and the world's future. Biden's climate change proposal is another ambitious effort to place the Democratic Party in the vanguard of the future, while the GOP remains mired in the past.

Both Biden and Kerry have overcome hardships and major political defeats to lead the world's efforts to survive climate change. They are atoning for decades of negligence, hoping to save the planet for unborn generations.

 

 

 

 

Globe returns to disastrous increase in carbon emissions

The gorgeous days of a late April cold snap counter the dire warnings of climate change.

Brisk wind, sunshine and a perfect blue sky mask our abuse of the Earth.

Last spring, during the worst days of the pandemic's lockdown, the sky appeared even bluer, as emissions plunged.

That progress has been washed away as the economic recovery accelerates.

Emissions will increase 5 percent this year, eliminating 80 percent of last year's carbon reduction, according to a report by the International Energy Agency. During 2021, a total of 33 billion tons of carbon will be spewed into the Earth's fragile atmosphere.

As emissions again rise to alarming levels, President Joe Biden on Thursday will lead a virtual climate change summit of world leaders, with a pledge for the United States to reduce carbon emissions 50 percent by 2030.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will participate. Biden's energy adviser John Kerry recently reached an agreement with China for joint action on climate change, a plan predictably blasted by the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

Rising coal demand in Xi's China, along with other Asian countries, is a major cause of the resurgence in climate emissions. At the same time, China is stepping up renewable energy production.

Biden's summit demonstrates a return to American leadership of global climate change efforts. A return of GOP control of Congress and the presidency would shatter that progress.

 

Declining sperm counts a threat to human survival, scientist warns

More threats to the human race: declining sperm counts and a weakening gulf stream.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof last Sunday sounded the alarm about epidemiologist Shanna H. Swan's findings that human sperm is disappearing.

That's just part of reproductive system disruptions caused by chemicals found in common household products and other environmental factors, Swan says.

Swan, a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, "warns that the impending fertility crisis poses a global threat comparable to that of the climate crisis," the Guardian said in an article Friday.

In a new book Swan co-authored, "Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race," she says “The current state of reproductive affairs can’t continue much longer without threatening human survival.”

Swan in a 2017 report released her disturbing findings that sperm counts in western countries had fallen by 59 percent between 1973 and 2011.

By 2045, the median sperm count could reach zero, she said in media reports, not elaborating how that could happen unless some males have a negative sperm count.

The plunging sperm count is just one reason for declining fertility rates.

Economic difficulties, changing gender roles and fears about the planet's future are also causing women to have fewer children.

If the reproductive apocalypse is not enough to worry about, the Atlantic Ocean's circulation system that underlies the gulf stream is at its weakest in a millennium, according to media reports.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation system moderates temperatures. The system's collapse because of warming ocean temperatures could exacerbate climate change's extreme weather and the flooding of coastal cities, according to media reports.

From moments of human intimacy to oceanic systems, the world's intricately connected. One part depends upon the other. The carbon-based economy threatens patterns of life that developed over millennia.

 

 

Louise Erdrich speaks for entire Mississippi River community in opposing oil sands pipeline

Writer Louise Erdrich in a New York Times article this week spoke about "the young Mississippi River."

She talked of visiting the sacred place where the river begins "in a stream of pure darkness" two hours north of Minneapolis, where indigenous people are protesting the imminent expansion of the Enbridge Line 3 oil sands pipeline.

Having grown up mesmerized by the "old Mississippi," near the river's end, I felt a kinship with Erdich's report.

By the time the river flows through my hometown of Baton Rouge and New Orleans headed to the Gulf of Mexico, it carries the nation's pollutants. A pipeline accident far upriver in Minnesota would also devastate communities downstream.

The Canadian energy company Enbridge's plan to expand the pipeline through Minnesota will pump oil sands and other forms of crude oil from Hardisty, Alberta to Superior, Wisc., crossing indigenous treaty lands, Erdrich said.

Distressingly, Tim Walz, the liberal Democratic governor of Minnesota, has approved final water permits for the expansion. Erdrich calls this a betrayal after indigenous tribes supported Joe Biden's election. The native people have also suffered disproportionately from Covid.

Although lawsuits have been filed by the White Earth, Red Lake and Mille Lacs nations and several environmental organizations, construction has begun. The indigenous tribes are mobilizing protests, chaining themselves to equipment and undergoing arrests.

The Canadian tar sands "are among the most carbon-intensive fuels on the planet," Erdrich said. The pipeline's carbon output could reach 193 million tons a year, she reports, citing Jim Doyle, a physicist at Macalester College who analyzed the pipleline's impact.

That much carbon would eventually be released into the atmosphere, exacerbating climate change, already bringing suffering to "the land of 10,000 lakes," she says.

Pure at its origins, the Mississippi is sadly ravaged by the time it reaches Louisiana. Agricultural chcmical runoff and industrial pollution lead to oxygen deterioration in the gulf, and loss of sealife. The pipeline's oil sands threaten the entire river. 

 

Jupiter and Saturn taking Christmas star turn

Jupiter and Saturn are coming together to make a Christmas star.

On Dec. 21, the winter's solstice, Jupiter and Saturn will align to their closest appearance in the night sky since 1226, according to an article by Daniella Medina in the Nashville Tennessean.

The planets' yuletide fusion will emit a brilliant beam of light resembling the star that led the Wise Men to Bethlehem.

Known as "the great conjunction," the event occurs every 20 years. But this year, Jupiter and Saturn will appear just 0.1 of a degree apart. The planets also drew that near to each other in 1623, but sunset likely blocked their visibility, the report said.

Youngsters who miss the planets' near embrace this year will have another chance in 2080.

Like shy lovers, the big, slow-moving gas planets are already coming together in the southwestern sky just after sunset. Last night, I walked outside to see them peeking through a tree's branches.

A telescope might reveal Saturn's rings and Jupiter's moons, but binoculars are fine, University of Texas astronomer Stephen Hummel told the Texas Monthly.The conjunction is visible for about 45 minutes after sunset.

The planets' alignment through the years has been considered an omen of momentous events. We have many to choose from: a new presidency, the pandemic vaccine, the Super Bowl.

In 1226, the world was a lot quieter than now. But the two planets' celestial show still brings wonder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wildfires sending smoke deep into space, WSJ science writer reports

A traveler through space can tell the earth is burning.

Super thunderstorms caused by massive wildfires send smoke clouds miles into the stratosphere, Wall Street Journal science writer Robert Lee Hotz reports in  his Science Journal column Tuesday.

While the long-term effects have not been determined, the smoke blocks sunlight on a planetary scale. The effect is similar to that of a volcano's erupting. Recent massive wildfires, of longer duration and intensity than in the past, are believed caused by climate change.

The Australian wildfires last January sent smoke 21 miles above the earth, Hotz reports. The smoke circled the globe twice before dissipating last April.

Despite such stories by the WSJ's reporters, the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper denies the reality of climate change on its editorial pages.

While not as long-lasting as carbon emissions into the atmosphere, wildifire smoke spewing into the stratosphere is an ominous sign of climate change.

As another hurricane stirs in the Gulf of Mexico, the Trump administration announced another final act of desecration, opening oil leasing in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. The oil companies can stake their claims to the pristine wilderness beginning Jan. 17, three days before the inauguration of Joe Biden. The Biden administration will have a difficult time reversing the action by the climate-denying, fossil fuel-supporting Trump administration.

Trump's plundering last days highlight the importance of the Senate runoff elections in Georgia. Victories by Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff will allow Biden to carry out his program to shift from a fossil fuel economy and eliminate carbon emissions. Republican control of the Senate will allow fossil fuel companies to continue ravaging the planet.

 

Random musings on Veterans Day

One more reason to worry: China's way ahead of the United States in rolling out 5G technology, according to a Wall Street Journal special report.

The Chinese can download a movie in 15 seconds, while it takes an American 15 minutes. Movies are censored in China, however.

China's huge lead in 5G technology seems like a major national security concern. But, as with climate change, there's no sense of urgency.

A strange Veterans Day, on the eve of the Masters beginning. A big story is how Augusta National's fall foliage compares with its usual April azaleas. Will players get a free drop from fallen leaves?

ESPN's College Game Day will broadcast Saturday morning from Augusta National's Par 3 course. Good the gang can talk about golf, with so many football games canceled because of Covid-19.

I never thought America would turn into Belarus. Trump in refusing to accept Joe Biden's election is acting more and more like Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

Following Saturday's spontaneous street celebrations of Biden's victory, Americans now need to stage massive protests as the people of Belarus did.

Christmas TV commercials have arrived again. I'm puzzled at car companies recycling last year's ads. Haven't the models changed?

World War I  ended on this day 102 years ago, followed by a global flu epidemic. Now, Covid-19 is resurgent throughout the world.

On this somber day, let's remember those lost to our 21st century pandemic and hope that an effective vaccine arrives soon.

 

 

An ominious turn: United States officially abandons climate change treaty

Overlooked in the chaotic battle for the White House, the United States on the day after the presidential election officially left the Paris climate change agreement.

With millions voting for climate-change denier Donald Trump, the United States abandoned the global commitment to reduce carbon emissions.

Trump announced in July 2017 that the United States would leave the 2015 pact that seeks to limit global temperatures. But the treaty required a three-year waiting period for a country to withdraw.

If Trump takes back the White House, the United States, with 15 percent of global greenhouse emissions, will commit itself further to promoting fossil fuels.

Trump has relentlessly reversed President Obama's climate change efforts, from weakening auto-emissions regulations to promoting the coal and petroleum industries.

He has also begun steps to open petroleum drilling in Alaska's Arctic Wildlife Refuge and other long protected wilderness areas.

Democratic candidate Joe Biden, near a presidential victory, promises to return to the Paris agreement. If Biden is elected, the country would have a month to rejoin the treaty.

Biden calls for a massive effort to make buildings more energy efficient and developing wind and solar power to shift from a carbon-based economy.

The treaty seeks to keep global temperature increases this century to under 2 degrees celsius above pre-industrial averages. It calls for additional efforts to reach a 1.5c threshold.

Climate change has already advanced further than earlier projections, with soaring temperatures, drought, melting arctic ice, fires and hurricanes. Rising ocean levels will threaten coastal nations and cities.

The United States must rejoin the effort to reduce emissions if the world is to have any chance to limit climate change's devastation.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking for hope as election day looms

Halloween came early with Amy Coney Barrett's seizure of a Supreme Court seat.

I'm trying to raise my hopes that my worst fears won't be realized. But I'm finding it difficult.

Perhaps we can go to the moon - they've found water on sunlit areas there. But just molecules, not ice or liquid. Doesn't sound like much of a beach.

Joe Biden's lead in the presidential race is encouraging, but Barrett's presence increases my paranoia that Trump can steal the election through a Supreme Court-engineered coup.

I'm also optimistic about the Democrats taking control of the Senate, passing legislation to reverse the reactionary court's bad decisions. But I remain uneasy.

Those long lines in early voting boost my faith in American democracy.

I hope the republic prevails.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas Friedman pushes another dubious corporate utopia

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman took a break from presidential politics Wednesday to fashion one of his fantasies about the brave new economic world.

Friedman once again served as the mouthpiece for one of his favorite corporate pals, Infosys President Ravi Kumar, who gave Friedman his "world is flat" theme.

Infosys, founded in India but now based in covid-19-staggered New York City, is one of those new age consulting companies that help other corporations squeeze out profits more efficiently by ramping up "worker productivity."

Kumar filled Friedman's mind with visions of the post-pandemic world, in which workers will need constant refurbishing of unnamed skills so that they can toil at home carrying out some kind of corporate "modular" projects. The column didn't say what kind of tasks would be done by these happy domestic workers.

Sounded like corporate feudalism. In other words, an expansion of the contract worker model, without corporate benefits. Presumably, government health care would replace private insurance plans.

Friedman quoted Kumar as saying that unidentified technical skills are now more valued than university degrees, and that Infosys and other companies are investing in their own education programs, bypassing colleges.

Sure, Infosys still hires plenty of university-trained engineers, but the company also likes some kind of self-taught savants. All you need is to push a button on the robot assembly line, I suppose. Those rosy scenarios were sweetened by vintage Friedman chestnuts like "adaptive coalitions."

After this endorsement of technical education, Friedman made the contradictory assertion that corporations still will need workers who possess the kind of creative thinking traditionally developed by college liberal arts educations.

Perhaps old-fashioned degrees will have a place after all. Left unsaid was what kind of role public education will play.

Nor did the column say anything about the future of artificial intelligence, one of Infosys' main consulting areas. With robots doing more and more jobs, what will humans do in their cozy home workplaces?

Also missing was any mention of climate change, a curious omission since that's become a major Friedman theme.

Friedman's acclamation of Kumar's corporate utopia left huge gaps. The vision of workers constantly learning new skills to carry out the corporate agenda sounded more oppressive than liberating.