Spotlight on green news & views: Humanitarian disaster brews in Chico; headed for a 5°C world
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This is the 580th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue). Here is the November 10 edition. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.Spotlight on green news & views: Humanitarian disaster brews in Chico; headed for a 5°C world
This is the 580th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue). Here is the November 10 edition. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it. OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES Haricot Blue writes—The Speech That Saved The Planet: “One month ago, I received a report from the world’s leading climate scientists. The report states that we have only twelve years to drastically curtail our emissions of greenhouse gasses or risk calamities ranging from drought and crop failures, wildfires, water shortages, the death of ocean ecosystems, and sea level rise that would inundate our coastal cities. This nightmare will unfold, not in thousands or hundreds of years, but in the lifetime of our own children and grandchildren. Some of it is happening now. Indeed, it may already be too late to prevent this catastrophe. But there may still be time. My fellow Americans, we must take this last, best chance to preserve a habitable planet for children and theirs. We must act boldly. We must act selflessly. But above all, we must act now.” FishOutofWater writes—Top Firefighters Rip Trump for his Reckless, Insulting & Demeaning Response to Fires: “Twenty five people have been killed by the most destructive wildfires in California history. Firefighters, law enforcement and search and rescue teams are continuing to search for the missing and assess the destruction, while firefighters are valiantly attempting to contain the fires. A new episode of hot, bone-dry winds, intensifying this morning, will make firefighting across California extremely dangerous today. Extremely critical fire weather conditions are forecast for the next 3 days in southern California. The threat of new fires will be very high from southern California to northern Baja California for the next 5 days. Firefighters from California, Arizona and western states are mobilizing to reinforce the exhausted firefighters who were first to respond to these deadly fires. [...] That was why it was so shockingly inappropriate when Donald Trump threatened to cut support for fighting California’s fires. Our firefighters and law enforcement officers have risked their lives to protect us while their own properties were at risk of destruction.” Another lost contact lens OceanDiver writes—Dawn Chorus: “...And the bays are full of ducks, and geese, and swans...!” “Imagine that feeling of awe that washes over you when there are vast numbers of something of the natural world wherever you look. The quote above is a version of one you may remember at the end of Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: Space Odyssey, Bowman’s reaction to the ineffable mystery of the universe, ‘Oh god...It’s full of stars!’ I’ve apparently conflated that with the mindblown reactions of the characters in Isaac Asimov’s stunning short story ‘Nightfall,’ wherein a planet with multiple suns always in daylight for once experiences the darkness of an eclipse, revealing stars stars and more stars thickly scattered across a night sky in the crowded galactic center: The sky is full of stars! I have morphed these sentiments into a similar expression to evoke the awesome feeling of looking up and all around while scuba diving, seeing gazillions of fish swimming every which way: ‘The sky is full of fish!’ Well, that sense of glorious awe is what I’m feeling these days — no exaggeration — now the winter water birds are returning to my local bays and wetlands… And the bays are full of ducks and geese and swans!” Read more