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Capital Region Climate News & Resources: November 20, 2019
Collaborative Update
News
To survive climate change, we’ll need a better story
For those without backgrounds in climate science, it can be hard to connect a planet-scale atmospheric calamity with the reality of daily life. An ambitious new project in Sweden is developing an unexpected tool that could enable the public to grasp the practical steps that would lead to more sustainable societies: storytelling. “We need storytellers because generally when scientists come up with conclusions, they are very non-personalized. When you take research out into the public and you want people to connect with it, you have to involve an ‘I,’ a ‘we.’ My job is helping people to emotionally connect. When they emotionally connect with an issue, then they engage.” (CityLab)
Technology will not save us from climate change, but imagining new forms of society will
Challenge and disruption is important in prompting change. But it’s also key that we consider—and show—how a zero carbon future could work in practice. This is where the field of social innovation – the development of new ideas that meet social needs—is coming of age. The key message of social innovation is that the scale of change needed in the next few years simply can’t be achieved just by top-down government policy or by grassroots action. Social innovation has a central role to play in mobilizing society as a partner in this work. (Phys.org)
Climate crisis: 11,000 scientists warn of ‘untold suffering’
The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists. “We declare clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency,” it states. “To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live. [This] entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems.” There is no time to lose: “The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity.” (Guardian)
How Sacramento’s urban forest divides the city, in health and in wealth
Communities with a higher-than-average number of trees are places like Land Park, East Sacramento and the Pocket also have the largest concentrations of high-income households, data shows. Meanwhile, low- to moderate-income areas like Meadowview, Del Paso Heights, Parkway and Valley Hi have fewer trees and less shade. In Land Park, for example, the canopy covers 43 percent — more than double the city-wide average. Now compare that with the 12 percent tree canopy coverage found in Meadowview in south Sacramento. (SacBee)
They’ve managed the forest forever. It’s why they’re key to the climate change fight
More than 600 indigenous communities live in Canada’s boreal forest, one of the last great swaths of intact wilderness on Earth. But every year, a million acres fall to logging to make timber and tissue products, including toilet paper sold in the US. That’s seven hockey rinks’ worth of forest every minute. Canada’s First Nations, with help from groups such as the NRDC and Greenpeace, want to stanch the losses and protect the lands their ancestors have depended upon for centuries — or longer. (LA Times)
Invasive plants escalate wildfires in US landscapes
Iconic landscapes of the western United States are more likely to burn if they are overrun by invasive grasses. Scientists found that habitats with eight non-native grass species had higher areas burned than habitats free of invaders. The authors suggest that the presence of invasive grasses should be considered more prominently in future land-management plans. (Nature)
Psychologists from 40 countries pledged to use their jobs to address climate change
The leaders of psychological associations from more than 40 countries signed a proclamation pledging to use their expertise to “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.” The proclamation, as well as a draft resolution set to be finalized this week, expresses a commitment to “inform our respective members and the public about climate crisis,” to advocate for programs to minimize the psychological harm of climate change, advocate for “those most susceptible” to “mental health impacts of climate crisis,” and encourage policymakers to “use more psychological science” in addressing climate change. The American Psychological Association, one of the signatories, made history in 2017 by throwing its weight behind a body of research that pointed to “eco anxiety” as a legitimate affliction. (Quartz)
As disasters worsen, cities and researchers eye social resilience
As climate change makes natural disasters more common and more extreme, cities and communities are working to improve their resilience. But disasters don’t just cause physical damage; they can leave communities struggling mentally and emotionally, as well. “If a community can’t stand on its own two feet psychologically, all the work on having stronger buildings isn’t going to get you anywhere.” (CityLab)
For firefighters, how ‘mindfulness’ can ease the deadly stress of their jobs
As California’s firefighters confront one deadly wildfire after another around the state, the flames and the noxious fumes are not the only perilous threats awaiting them. Rather, stress and trauma also mount vicious assaults on first responders’ bodies and brains. When the so-called flight-or-fight mechanism “is repeatedly activated, when people have these neurochemicals being constantly released in their bodies because of chronic stress, then it can ultimately damage…the blood vessels, the cells, the brain and cause all kinds of symptoms.” (SacBee)
Life on thin ice: Mental health at the heart of the climate crisis
Greenland’s melting has been adopted by the world as its own problem. But for the islanders grieving their dissolving world, the crisis is personal, and dangerous. The climate crisis is causing unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety to people in Greenland who are struggling to reconcile the traumatic impact of global heating with their traditional way of life. The article gives Greenland’s most remote and inaccessible communities a voice on the climate crisis: “We are searching for terms to capture this deep feeling of pain in Arctic nations – words like eco-anxiety or ecological grief – but for me, something called ‘solastalgia’ perfectly sums up how people living on the frontline of climate change feel….It means feeling homesick when you are home. Many of these islanders are in mourning for a disappearing way of life.” (Guardian)
It’s the end of the world as they know It: The distinct burden of being a climate scientist
It’s hardly surprising that researchers who spend their lives exploring the dire effects of climate change might experience emotional consequences from their work. Yet, increasingly, scientists have begun publicly discussing the psychological impact of contending with data pointing to a looming catastrophe, dealing with denialism and attacks on science, and observing government inaction in the face of climate change. Scientists have been coping with this troubling data for decades—and the grinding emotional effects from that research are another cost of global warming that the public has yet to fully confront. (Mother Jones)
Has your doctor asked you about climate change?
For Dr. Mary Rice, connecting climate-change consequences — heat waves, more pollen, longer allergy seasons — to her patients’ health is becoming routine. She is among a small but growing number of doctors and nurses who discuss those connections with patients. In June, the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and American Heart Association were among a long list of medical and public health groups that issued a call to action asking the U.S. government, business and leaders to recognize climate change as a health emergency. (KHN)