From JSTOR, a wonderful and rich collection of climate-adjacent articles. Climate Change: A Syllabus (JSTOR, November 9, 2021)
I also enjoyed this science-based and rather lyrical article about ocean waves and the Gulf Stream. It is rather information-dense, even as a refresher on the oceanography course I took last fall, but it may still serve as readable, carefully explained context for how the ocean and the atmosphere interact. The Power of the Waves (Nautilus, November 2021)
Climate politics
You may have read or heard about the climate disinformation hearings in November. HEATED is always a good source on this topic, but sometimes your best coping strategy is humor or satire, so please scroll down and enjoy the little parody at the end of this newsletter. A strategy memo from Big Oil to Republicans (HEATED, November 3, 2021)
It isn’t surprising that Big Oil companies have known about the climate impacts of burning fossil fuels for decades, but it is still very satisfying to read the receipts. The oil and gas industry knew about climate change in the 1950s (Popular Science, October 29, 2021)
You probably also heard about COP26 in Glasgow last month. The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international conference that historically has set some of the global policies toward climate change; for example, the Paris Agreement of 2015, for which parties (including the United States under the Obama administration) committed to do what they could to reduce emissions and keep the average global temperature from increasing more than 2 degrees past pre-industrial levels. Since the last six years haven’t seen sufficient changes to meet that goal, COP26 has its work cut out for it–and response has been mixed.
For an overview, see 5 things to know about the big climate conference in Glasgow (Vox, November 9, 2021)
COP26: Carbon footprint of COP26 in Glasgow more than double that of COP25 (The Scotsman, November 11, 2021)
One Weird Trick World Leaders Have to Stop Climate Change–spoiler, it’s ending fossil fuel use! (Earther, November 2, 2021)
Climate crises
Goodbye 1.5 degrees? Here’s how hot scientists believe the world will get (Grist, November 3, 2021)
The Migrant Workers Who Follow Climate Disasters (New Yorker, November 8, 2021)
Blast from the past: Coal sends global emissions to pre-pandemic highs (Grist, November 5, 2021)
I will never get tired of stories about how different parts of the world are coping with climate crises. In the States, we need this reminder that climate change has been impacting vulnerable communities for much longer than we’ve been paying attention to it, and those communities are already implementing mitigation and adaptation strategies we can learn from. Four ways Mozambique is adapting to the climate crisis (The New Humanitarian, November 1, 2021)
Thanks, New Humanitarian, I would like another. How Bangladesh is beating the odds on climate disaster deaths (December 2, 2021)
Climate Scientists on the Most Shocking Thing They’ve Seen (Vice, November 30, 2021)
As a Tree Tender who has had to pull some fast-growing multiflora roses and Virginia creeper out of a broad-leaved tree they were choking, I think we do have to have some sort of categorization for noxious plants that exploit a niche in the ecosystem to the detriment of other species. But I’m open to dialogue about how “invasive” ain’t it–especially, as this article points out, climate change is forcing species migration. It’s time to stop demonizing “invasive” species (Vox, November 28, 2021)
Consumer choices
Coffee as we know it is in danger. Can we breed a better cup? (Vox, November 9, 2021)
Can We Still Ethically Vacation During a Climate Crisis? (Vice, October 28, 2021)
6 habits of highly effective climate-conscious travelers (Grist, November 22, 2021)
How to save Christmas from consumerism (Grist, November 22, 2021)
Recycling looks different in every US city–which is itself a problem! Imagine a world in which recycling was a fully public service and not partly a private business!–but this brief overview of the state of Philadelphia recycling in 2021 may give a glimpse of why recycling, while important, is only a partial solution. It’s America Recycles Day. Here’s the state of Philadelphia Recycling (Green Philly, November 15, 2021)
What’s the climate equivalent of gallows humor?
The Dune Movie Flushed Away a Chance to Talk About Wastewater (Verge, November 5, 2021)
I know it doesn’t sound humorous, but there are some pretty funny scenes of future archaeologists trying to make sense of the artifacts of 1970s culture. One Good Thing: The 1970s children’s book that envisions an America overrun by trash (Vox, November 16, 2021)
This video is not wrong, but I did post it to the “humor” channel of my eco-fiction Discord.
On this site
I did a little fall cleaning of the drive where I keep my homework from the online courses I take via tuition benefits. Some of my climate change homework was written in the style of blog posts and news items, so posted and backdated them. Don’t judge the writing and analysis too harshly–these assignments weren’t originally intended to be public-facing, and I posted them primarily for my own reference. I have a couple of slightly longer papers I intend to tidy up and post, perhaps by the next roundup; the bibliographies had some great resources in them.
Fast-moving Antarctic ice loss redefines ‘glacial pace’ (March 23, 2020)
The future of the climate movement is intersectional (October 6, 2020)
Philly Thrive prepares for its next environmental campaign: keep history from repeating (October 23, 2020)
Sara Davis 