Guest essay by Eric Worrall

NPR author and psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett thinks the reason people don’t care about climate change is most people can’t imagine what 120F feels like. But the reality is that Lisa is demonstrating her personal lack of insight.

Simulating The Bodily Pain Of Future Climate Change

September 23, 20179:03 AM ET
LISA FELDMAN BARRETT

Lisa Feldman Barrett is a professor of psychology at Northeastern University and the author of How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. You can keep up with Lisa on Twitter: @LFeldmanBarrett.

Close your eyes and imagine a beautiful spring day in the forest. In your mind’s eye, try to see tall, green trees and smell the aroma of blooming flowers. Can you hear the gentle breeze rustling the leaves above you?

Most people can conjure up this mental scene without much effort, at least for a few moments.

Now, imagine that the temperature rockets upward. It’s 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Try to produce, in your mind, the discomfort you’d experience under that scorching sun. I don’t mean just the idea of being hot — actually try to feel the physical sensations of stifling, smothering heat. Can you invoke these feelings on demand?

Most people cannot.

…

If the sensory consequences of climate change are unimaginable to our government officials, what can we do? Perhaps we can help them feel those consequences directly. The next time a city like Las Vegas has a record heat wave, as it did in June of this year (117 degrees F), we could petition President Trump to travel there. Perhaps a three-day stay at Trump International Hotel — with the air conditioning turned off — would be swelteringly educational. Or shall we ask Vice President Pence to visit Nuatambu, one of the Solomon Islands northeast of Australia, where rising ocean levels have washed away half the habitable land and forced families to flee? Let him live there for a month or two. Or maybe Scott Pruitt, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, should survive on minimal drinking water for a few days, so he can understand viscerally what a drought feels like.

…

What our leaders cannot simulate, they can make themselves feel. All it takes is the courage to do so.

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One of my first jobs was working in a poorly ventilated rubber factory, operating hydraulic hot plates to produce pressed plastic products. I don’t have to imagine what 120F feels like, because in Summer I used to experience 120F pretty much every work day. Some days the temperature inside the factory hit 130F.

My experience is hardly unique – anyone who has worked a factory job or mining job in a place with warm summers has likely experienced similar conditions.

My friends tell me that when they worked day shift in the mines in the scorching hot Marble Bar region, with outside air pumped straight in through the ventilation system, 120F would have been welcome relief.

120F simply isn’t terrifying, for anyone who ever experienced similar temperatures on a regular basis. Uncomfortable, moderately unpleasant, but not a reason for panic.

But Lisa obviously doesn’t know any of this. So she creates specious theories within the limits of her personal experience of the world, of why attempts to frighten people about the horrifying climate pain people will experience on a 120F day fall flat; especially I suspect with working class audiences.

via Watts Up With That?

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September 24, 2017 at 10:23AM

via The Deplorable Climate Science Blog

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September 24, 2017 at 08:09AM

Later today I’ll be posting on the result of Germany’s national elections, once it starts coming in this evening.

Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian CDU/CSU (Union) is expected to win easily. But what the new government will look like remains totally open. The latest opinion poll shows:

Latest opinion polls show CDU/CSU (Union) in the lead. Source: http://ift.tt/2jVuPEh.

Personally I think the result will be a bit different from what the above prognosis shows. Here’s what I’m projecting:

CDU/CSU (Union): 36.4%
SPD (Socialists): 21.7%
FDP (Free Democrats): 10.4%
Greens: 7.3%
Linke (Leftists) 9.1%
AfD (Hard Right) 10.3%

Overall a rather substantial shift to the right (Union, AfD, FDP) is expected as concerns over immigration, cultural transformation, crime and uncertainty over Germany as an industrial base have swept across the working class.

Tougher times for green energies

Such a shift to the right compared to the last election will likely mean tougher times for those pushing environmental, clean energy and climate issues.

Opinion polls, it needs to be pointed out, have shown an usually large number of undecided voters still remaining, and so there’s plenty of room for surprises.

There’s been quite a hit of grumbling among German voters, and many may opt to express their discontent by secretly voting for the AfD. There’s potential of the party coming close to the 15% mark. Such a result would send shock waves across Europe, and force the established mainstream parties to do a quite a bit of rethinking.

More later today!

via NoTricksZone

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September 24, 2017 at 07:46AM

By Paul Homewood

h/t stewgreen

The latest electric car technology is being trialled in Lincolnshire as part of a drive by the police and crime commissioner to create the “greenest” police force in the UK.

PCC Marc Jones has already instigated a project to change lighting at Lincolnshire Police headquarters to LEDs – saving the equivalent of two officers’ salaries a year.

And he has commissioned a full report on the latest sustainable technologies available to the force, which will form the basis of a new environmental strategy.

The first step for Lincolnshire Police is to trial electric cars and officers are currently testing the Nissan LEAF. Initially the force is looking at electric vehicles for community roles rather than pursuit. The Nissan LEAF is said by the force to have a range of up to 155 miles and is fitted with a braking system which converts some of the energy lost from braking into extra charge for the battery and stores it for later. Mr Jones said: “I’m ambitious for Lincolnshire Police to become the ‘greenest’ most sustainable force in the UK.

“I have requested a full assessment of opportunities to develop this aim. I want to see our buildings assessed for opportunities to be more efficient and to embrace new technologies to reduce carbon footprint and cost to the taxpayers of Lincolnshire. “I want to see the vehicles used by the force keeping pace with operational requirements but also with changing technology to ensure pollution and fuel use is kept to a minimum.

“Challenges around charging points for electric vehicles and the distances involved to cover Lincolnshire will present a huge challenge but one that we can and will meet.” This would require charging points installed at all the county’s police stations, as currently there are barely any public charging point anywhere on the eastern side of Lincolnshire.

The trial and drive for a sustainable force is backed by Chief Constable Bill Skelly. “I want Lincolnshire Police to make a positive contribution to the county, providing excellent policing, but we also need to look at how we deliver that service. To that end, I want to explore all options for improving our energy efficiency,” he said. “This trial of a single electric vehicle will be a pre-cursor to a much broader plan for using electric vehicles. Alongside this I support a review of energy efficiency across the whole estate to highlight opportunities for reducing energy usage and maximising our ability to utilise renewable energy sources.”

The LED project, which cost £350,000, has been paid for using a Government backed funding scheme which means the force pay back the cost of the work from the savings made. The force has some way to go to catch up with the likes of Gloucestershire Police who have been using a fleet of seven Nissan LEAF electric cars since the summer of 2016. Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Gloucestershire Chris Brierley said: “We love them.” He said they are committed to environmentalism and have been awarded for their drive to reduce energy consumption.

Mr Brierley said: “We use them mainly in urban areas and PCSOs use them a lot. We have made sure all our stations have charging points.” He and the Police and Crime Commissioner went to a low carbon conference and discovered zero emission motorcycles being trialled in London and hybrid engine police vans, fitting in line with EU rulings on emissions. Mr Brierley admitted: “Range is still an issue with some of them and we are quite rural so it makes you conscious of your range and the lack of charging points, but our pool car at the office is a Nissan LEAF with a range of about 90 miles. Whenever we look at replacing vehicles we will look at if it can be electric, or a hybrid or petrol – diesel is the last resort.”

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It goes without saying that the police, and all public bodies, should continually strive to keep costs to a minimum.

Regardless of the specific costs of running electric cars, including the provision of charging points, there are other more fundamental issues.

As they admit, the Nissan Leafs only have a very short range. While this may be enough for limited, daytime urban use by PCSOs, all police cars should be available for use on a 24-hour basis.

If the Leafs are out of action overnight, either more cars are needed or the provision of police support is reduced.

The prime role of the police force is to help enforce the law and protect the public, and nothing else should be allowed to detract from that.

It is certainly not their job to save the planet. Pursuing a green strategy can only divert resources, both time and money, from their proper job.

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

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September 24, 2017 at 06:39AM