By Terry Hansen, Hales Corners WI
(July 2, 2021)
In his opening remarks to the security panel at the April 22 Leaders Summit on Climate, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated:“Today, no nation can find lasting security without addressing the climate crisis. … (R)ising temperatures and more frequent and intense extreme weather events in Africa and Central America threaten millions with drought, hunger, and displacement. As families risk their lives in search of safety and security, mass migration leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and radicalization, all of which undermine stability.”
In the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, warming oceans are damaging coral reefs and fisheries, while severe drought is causing families to abandon their farms. To quote climate scientist Edwin Castellanos of the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala: “Extreme poverty may be the primary reason people leave. But climate change is intensifying all the existing factors.”
Many of the consequences of our carbon dioxide emissions were foreseen. In a 1977 presentation to Exxon management on the greenhouse effect, company science advisor J.F. Black warned that warming the planet would be likely to affect the distribution of the world’s rainfall. According to Black, “Some countries would benefit, but others could have their agricultural output reduced or destroyed.”
And in a 2012 interview, then Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson claimed: “Changes to weather patterns that move crop production areas around — we’ll adapt to that.” However, when people leave a place that global warming is rendering uninhabitable, moving is their adaptation. And desperate migrants are often demonized for this.
The United States stands at a crossroads. As the greatest cumulative emitter, what role will our nation play in helping to heal our increasingly hotter and inhospitable world?
Defense Secretary Austin’s quotes (paragraphs 4, 5 and 18)
https://www.defense.gov/
Leaders Summit on Climate
https://www.state.gov/leaders-
Iraqi Defense Minister Enad’s statement (7:09:30 mark)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Daesh is a synonym for Islamic State
https://www.dictionary.com/
Damage to Coral Reefs Hurts Fishing Communities in Central America
http://www.ipsnews.net/2021/
Drought and Central American migration
https://www.bloomberg.com/
Edwin Castellanos biography
http://www.iai.int/admin/site/
Castellanos quote (5th paragraph from the bottom)
https://www.newyorker.com/
J.F. Black quote (bottom of page 1)
http://www.climatefiles.com/
Rex Tillerson quote
https://www.theatlantic.com/
Text of Tillerson interview (See question from David Fenton.)
https://www.cfr.org/event/ceo-
Cumulative CO2 emissions by country
https://ourworldindata.org/
3 Comments
The climate is very complex. CO2 greens the planet, and the planet since 1980 is substantially greener according to NASA. A greener planet creates O2 which has a cooling effect. The CO2 level a 100 of million years ago during the Cretaceous Period was1000 to 2000 ppm, and global temperature was inverse of CO2. During the Jurassic period it ranged from 1200 ppm to 2500 ppm. Temperature was constant at 22c. Today average temp is closer to 15c and CO2 about 415 ppm. Man wasn’t around 100 million years ago.
Warm seems to be good, things grow, we have oil from all the bio material during those years 100 to 200 million years ago. And from a survival standpoint, it’s easier to stay alive in the warm than the cold as proven by the Mediaeval warming period where there was an abundance of crops and humans flourished. Mother nature is mean and will kill you; cheap and plentiful energy keeps humans alive and productive.
For 4.2 billion years the climate has been changing. It will continue to do so with or without us. Let’s work on keeping things clean.
https://phys.org/news/2020-01-planet-greener-global.html
The sad part is, that none of this needed to happen….Jimmy Carter had solar panels on the White House in the 70s….They were taken off by an oil man Reagan….
Then the oil industry decided to sent out false information for their greed….Like we didnt learn anything from the cigarette companies?
So for 40 years now the best way to not fix anything is divide them politically! and here we are.
As I have always said, what the hell is wrong with fresh air and clean water?
That is the point in the end.
Fresh Air and clean water. Absolutely and for the most part we do it batter than anyone else.