NO Climate change meeting April 7th 2020

Hi folks

There will be no meeting of the climate change group in April 7^th, or on May 5^th. Beyond that we will have to see. Let us resume as soon as it is safe. This virus will pass although it will take a while. Climate change will still be with us. We understand better now how fragile our infrastructure is and how quickly things can change.

Our guest for April 7^th CC and TG was to be Brenna Doheny from HPHC (Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate) to talk about the public health aspects of climate change. Thanks Brenna for planning to come, we hope we can eventually get you scheduled again. Thanks also to VCC for offering to host us for both months.

In the news recently note that the feds are rolling back Obama’s mileage standards for cars and pickups, and that the EPA is relaxing enforcement of rules on pollution. Presumably to help industry – but hurting climate. With so much shut down, emissions will be down this year. But efforts to address climate change are also on hold as we deal with the current emergency.

As you spend time at home here are some interesting links.

A new modelling and teaching tool has been released by Climate Interactive and MIT called En-ROADS. It is free, has training tutorials and is amazingly sophisticated. It is user friendly and has easy to run scenarios you might find interesting. This blurb comes from their website: “En-ROADS is a transparent, freely-available policy simulation model that provides policymakers, educators, businesses, the media, and the public with the ability to explore, for themselves, the likely consequences of energy, economic growth, land use, and other policies and uncertainties, with the goal of improving their understanding.”

https://www.climateinteractive.org/tools/en-roads/

Ranae refers us to a proposal to help us escape the “triple threat” of virus, climate change and inequality. This is posted on medium.com which was established by Evan Williams (who co-founded twitter) as a site for articles longer than 280 characters. Maybe you want to sign it!

https://medium.com/@green_stimulus_now/a-green-stimulus-to-rebuild-our-economy-1e7030a1d9ee

This article in the LA Times asks what a coronavirus-like response to the climate crisis would look like:

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-03-24/what-coronavirus-like-response-to-climate-crisis-would-look-like?

Richard found this piece of good news about bacteria that consume methane released from permafrost:

https://newatlas.com/environment/soil-microbes-methane-release-thawing-permafrost/?utm_source=New+Atlas+Subscribers&utm_campaign=1560761232-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_03_31_01_50&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-1560761232-92837241

Does the group want to try to meet by skype or zoom? Email me if you are interested.

Be well. Wash your hands.

Barb