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The Week In Climate 18-24 November
Lots of ground to cover this week including carbon offsets, the koala reports from Australia, politics on climate change in the US & UK and the Harvard vs Yale football match protest.
Let's dig deep
THE SCIENCE 
1) Piggy backing off last week's IEA report, @hausfath points out that it's very likely we are on target to be at or under RCP 4.5 levels (which means somewhere around 2.6C warming by 2100) due to lower costs of green energy https://twitter.com/hausfath/status/1196497062763716609
2) Here's a more detailed thread on the above from @jritch https://twitter.com/jritch/status/1196482571443425280
3) If you wanted to better understand what RCP 4.5, RCP 6 and RCP 8.5 mean, here's a look at the worst-case scenario done by the IPCC explained in-depth by @CarbonBrief https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-the-high-emissions-rcp8-5-global-warming-scenario
4) @tveitdal brings to light an interesting infographic from @wef showing the evolution of sea ice since 1984 https://twitter.com/tveitdal/status/1198499573955809282
5) A deeper dive into extreme phenomena caused by climate change in California by @YaleE360
https://e360.yale.edu/features/climate-whiplash-wild-swings-in-extreme-weather-are-on-the-rise
"abrupt shifts in weather patterns â droughts followed by severe floods, or sudden and unseasonable fluctuations in temperature are intensifying"
https://e360.yale.edu/features/climate-whiplash-wild-swings-in-extreme-weather-are-on-the-rise
"abrupt shifts in weather patterns â droughts followed by severe floods, or sudden and unseasonable fluctuations in temperature are intensifying"
6) An interactive piece by @washingtonpost on how scientists are trying to save coral reefs. As a reminder, most scientists estimate that 99% of the coral reefs will disappear at 2C warming. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/climate-solutions/amp-stories/scientists-save-coral-reefs-climate-change/
7) An article on Koalas made the rounds this week on Twitter, with some associations in Australia declaring them "functionally extinct" after wildfires destroyed 80% of their habitats. https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2019/11/23/koalas-functionally-extinct-after-australia-bushfires-destroy-80-of-their-habitat/#542073097bad
8) However, the Australian Koala Foundation has claimed that Koalas are functionally extinct back in May (before the recent wildifres).
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2203655-no-koalas-are-not-functionally-extinct-but-they-are-in-trouble/
Although not as severe, it is still an extremely serious situation caused to a large extent by climate change.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2203655-no-koalas-are-not-functionally-extinct-but-they-are-in-trouble/
Although not as severe, it is still an extremely serious situation caused to a large extent by climate change.
9) @MikeHudema with a few more interesting videos on the impact that humans have on climate change https://twitter.com/MikeHudema/status/1197855909646651393
10) Here's another one on the impact we have on our oceans https://twitter.com/MikeHudema/status/1198259766293868546
THE BUSINESS 
11) Some great news on the business front, where Saudi Aramco cancelled their international roadshow for their IPO. This is a testament to the growing awareness to the need to keep fossil fuels in the ground and prioritise clean energy. https://www.ft.com/content/a83add8a-09ec-11ea-bb52-34c8d9dc6d84?sharetype=blocked
12) However, we're still on track to burn way more fossil fuels than the Paris Agreement recommends. (UN Report)
"The combined oil, gas and coal production is on pace to be 50% higher than would be consistent with a goal to limit global warming to 2C" https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fossil-fuel-production-beyond-climate-goals_n_5dd45cdae4b0fc53f20a2cdd
"The combined oil, gas and coal production is on pace to be 50% higher than would be consistent with a goal to limit global warming to 2C" https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fossil-fuel-production-beyond-climate-goals_n_5dd45cdae4b0fc53f20a2cdd
13) @easyJet pledges to offset all its carbon emissions and is set to become the first airline to operate net-zero carbon flights across its entire network. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/nov/19/easyjet-offset-carbon-emissions-flights-thomas-cook-collapse
14) However, many climate activists accuse them of greenwashing stating that they are more focused on purchasing offsets rather than try to reduce their actual emissions https://www.ft.com/content/1081c524-0c73-11ea-bb52-34c8d9dc6d84
15) @KevinClimate chimed in to this discussion as well, pointing to an article he wrote in 2012 on why climate offsets are misleading - they "weaken present-day drivers for change and reduce innovation towards a lower-carbon future" https://www.nature.com/news/the-inconvenient-truth-of-carbon-offsets-1.10373
16) Fantastic thread by @BenFranta on how important "climate language" is and how we're experiencing "linguistic manipulation for the purpose of psychological reframing" https://twitter.com/benfranta/status/1196645659207618560
17) @HuffPostGreen reports on new a journal from 1966 that suggests the coal industry had fairly good insights as to how much their industry would damage the environment. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coal-industry-climate-change_n_5dd6bbebe4b0e29d7280984f?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004
18) Heliogen announced a breakthrough in temperatures achieved from concentrated sunlight - touting this could be a game changer for industrial processes https://twitter.com/bill_gross/status/1196904427140988929
19) However, @cleantechnica came out with a thorough takedown on why Heliogen's technology is not as revolutionary as claimed due to very narrow use-cases https://cleantechnica.com/2019/11/22/heliogen-is-bill-gates-latest-venture-that-is-only-good-for-oil-gas-part-1/
20) For contest, this article from @grist explains why cement & industrial processes are such heavy polluters and showcases some concrete (pun intended) solutions https://grist.org/article/cement-has-a-carbon-problem-here-are-some-concrete-solutions/
21) Companies such as @SeventhGen have comprehensive plans to reduce their carbon footprint. Thanks @jjacobs22 for highlighting this one & having them on your podcast https://www.seventhgeneration.com/blog/seventh-generations-carbon-reduction-journey
THE POLITICS 22) Interesting take by @leashless on how none of the historical political models are adept at tackling climate change
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1196602650999115783
23) An in-depth article about the importance of activism & how it helps tackle climate change, with a focus on activists fighting the fossil fuel industries in Ireland http://www.universitytimes.ie/2019/11/meet-the-activists-fighting-fossil-fuels-here-and-everywhere/
24) Not surprisingly, under Bolsonaro, Amazon deforestation has risen sharply due to scaling back efforts to fight illegal logging, mining & farming https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/18/world/americas/brazil-amazon-deforestation.html
25) Let's switch to the US where we got some great news from California - where Gov. @GavinNewsom banned new fracking initiatives until an independent board of scientists can review the project https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-11-19/california-fracking-permits-scientific-review-gavin-newsom
26) In a great newsletter episode, @emorwee explores the ties between one of @PeteButtigieg's climate advisors - David Victor - and the fossil fuel industry https://heated.world/p/is-pete-buttigiegs-climate-adviser
27) Meanwhile, US House leaders created new legislation to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 https://www.ceres.org/news-center/press-releases/us-house-leaders-call-nationwide-goal-achieve-100-clean-energy-2050
28) While in the UK, with the December elections looming, Labour announced the Green New Deal as part of their political manifesto in a huge victory for climate activists https://jacobinmag.com/2019/11/labour-party-green-new-deal-manifesto-environment-climate-change
THE SOCIETY
29) Fascinating article on how the gap between scientists' work on climate change and their individual actions to mitigate it is shrinking https://climatenewsnetwork.net/scientists-climate-gap-is-narrowing/
30) This goes hand in hand with a recent study that shows individual actions to tackle climate change go hand-in-hand with systemic climate action https://twitter.com/michaelemann/status/1196815643376603137
31) As a testament to the growing awareness of our damage to the planet, the Oxford Dictionary has declared 'climate emergency' the word of 2019 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/21/oxford-dictionaries-declares-climate-emergency-the-word-of-2019
32) Finally, Harvard & Yale students led a protest over the weekend to demand divestment from fossil fuels & paused an ongoing football game https://twitter.com/divestharvard/status/1198316176688009223
33) And a great article by @voxdotcom on why the divestment movement is so important (and why it's just getting started!) https://www.vox.com/2019/5/13/18282438/harvard-yale-football-game-climate-change-fossil-fuel-divestment-finance
That's it for this week! Let me know what you think & what I should include in next editions. Hope this helps!
