This is about climate change, but please read it anyway.
This is the November 5, 2015 edition of the quoted.news newsletter. The number in parenthesis represents how many times that quote was shared on Twitter.
“Nothing causes me to turn a page or click to another tab faster than an article about climate change” (7 shares), admits the author, Laura Hazard Owen.
Robinson Meyer, founder of the climate change newsletter “Not Doomed Yet” wants to take a different approach. “The vein in a lot of mainstream climate coverage is to intone anxiety and dread as intensely as possible” (14 shares), he said.
The Climate Change Conference starts in Paris on November 30th and runs until December 11th. So there are even more articles than usual in the press. Here’s a breakdown.
On a hopeful note, this Guardian article thinks the upcoming talks will be “the indisputable turning point of this century” (102 shares)
It better be. On a less hopeful note, another Guardian article thinks it will change our warming trajectory “from a 4°C catastrophe to a 3°C disaster” (4 shares).
It certainly doesn’t help when “fire is raging across the 5,000km length of Indonesia” (4 shares). “It looks as you might imagine Hell to be” (75). “In three weeks the fires have released more CO2 than the annual emissions of Germany” (23).
That’s especially bad for the Pacific Islands.
Pacific islands make last-ditch plea to world before Paris climate change talks by Oliver Milman for the Guardian (1,154 tweets, 18 unique quotes.)
“We in the Pacific are innocent bystanders in the greatest act of folly of any age” (17 shares), said Fijian prime minister Frank Bainimarama. “The Pacific as we know it is doomed” (137). He’s a man on a mission. “I fear that our interests are about to be sacrificed” (4), he said. “I won’t be going to Paris wearing the usual friendly, compliant Pacific smile” (125).
Dr Karen Allen, Unicef’s representative in 14 Pacific nations, said “Children here in the Pacific talk about climate change like children elsewhere talk about school or TV” (11 shares).
One island is the proverbial canary in the coal mine. “We say if you save Tuvalu you save the world” (9), said Satini Tulaga Manuella, health minister of Tuvalu.
Bill McKibben is on a national “Do the Math” tour, and says “we’re not going to win just fighting one pipeline at a time” (18 shares).
But what if oil is never piped out, or coal is never dug out? An article in the Atlantic discusses Matt Frost’s idea, which he calls the “coal retirement plan” (5 shares). Bill Gates is investing in clean energy, which is great, but he could also buy large tracks of land and not let them be exploited for energy. “Buying coal outright seems increasingly more efficient than trying to shape the debate over it” (2).
Bernie Sanders announced his support for a bill titled “Keep it in the Ground” (2 shares), which covers land controlled by the feds.
UN climate chief Christiana Figueres says “The United States is actually playing catch-up to China” (2 shares).
But are we really? “China has released much more carbon dioxide — almost a billion more tons a year according to initial calculations — than previously estimated.” (54 shares).
If you want to help, quit your job. “Countries with higher hours of work have higher carbon emissions” (2 shares)
The future of the human race may depend on it. “Just when you thought climate change policy couldn’t get any less sexy” (5 shares), a new report says hire temperatures means less sex.
Thanks for reading.
Originally published at tinyletter.com.
