As we blunder toward the end of another work week, the climate of human society sucks through a way-small straw. If we can’t even get a portion of Americans to adopt way-obvious, life-saving methods to end/slow-down a horrible, deadly pandemic, how in the shit can we get these same assholes to help take action against climate change, humanity’s most-awesome, terrifying threat beyond all other shit. And with time of the essence.
Again, despite how conspicuous the problem and the clock ticking, it appears unlikely there’s going to be any real response to the calamity.

On Monday, first part of the UN’s IPCC sixth climate change assessment was released, and it was shit-shattering — I posted on it here. The report sounded a warning bell again as data showed we’re heading directly down a not-livable path without many options.
This morning, the third section was leaked (not due out until next year), which revealed time is beyond the essence:

Greenhouse gas emissions must peak within 4 years, says leaked UN report https://t.co/16LXsakDXV

— The Guardian (@guardian) August 12, 2021

One must remember, too, shit has always been worse than originally figured — at the Guardian this morning:

Global greenhouse gas emissions must peak in the next four years, coal and gas-fired power plants must close in the next decade and lifestyle and behavioural changes will be needed to avoid climate breakdown, according to the leaked draft of a report from the world’s leading authority on climate science.

Rich people in every country are overwhelmingly more responsible for global heating than the poor, with SUVs and meat-eating singled out for blame, and the high-carbon basis for future economic growth is also questioned.

The leak is from the forthcoming third part of the landmark report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the first part of which was published on Monday, warning of unprecedented changes to the climate, some of them irreversible. The document, called the sixth assessment report, is divided into three parts: the physical science of climate change; the impacts and ways of reducing human influence on the climate.

Part three is not scheduled to be released before next March, but a small group of scientists decided to leak the draft via the Spanish branch of Scientist Rebellion, an offshoot of the Extinction Rebellion movement.
It was first published by the journalist Juan Bordera in the Spanish online magazine CTXT.

Bordera told the Guardian that the leak reflected the concern of some of those involved in drawing up the document that their conclusions could be watered down before publication in 2022.
Governments have the right to make changes to the “summary for policymakers”.

The top 10-percent of emitters globally, who are the wealthiest 10-percent, contribute between 36-and-45-percent of emissions, which is 10 times as much as the poorest 10-percent, who are responsible for only about three-to-5-percent, the report finds.“
The consumption patterns of higher income consumers are associated with large carbon footprints.
Top emitters dominate emissions in key sectors, for example the top 1-percent account for 50-percent of emissions from aviation,” the summary says.

The report underlines the lifestyle changes that will be necessary, particularly in rich countries and among the wealthy globally.
Refraining from over-heating or over-cooling homes, walking and cycling, cutting air travel and using energy-consuming appliances less can all contribute significantly to the reductions in emissions needed, the report finds.

Eating patterns in many parts of the rich world will also need to change.
“A shift to diets with a higher share of plant-based protein in regions with excess consumption of calories and animal-source food can lead to substantial reductions in emissions, while also providing health benefits … Plant-based diets can reduce emissions by up to 50-percent compared to the average emission intensive western diet,” the report says.

Way down in the story, a nugget of shit-stink:

CTXT, the Spanish publication that leaked the draft, said it showed that the global economy must be shifted rapidly away from a reliance on conventional GDP growth, but that the report underplays this.
“The essential radical change in an economic system whose perverse operation of accumulation and reproduction of capital in perpetuity has brought us to the current critical point is not clearly mentioned,” CTXT wrote.

The economy, stupid. Not survival.

However, the glitch in responding is also the problem with a shitload of things — Republicans.
Yesterday, Politico reported on GQPers reaction to the IPCC assessment, which was to piss on it:

Despite the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report painting the starkest picture yet on how climate change will wreak havoc around the globe, Republicans brushed off the urgency and largely reiterated their view that efforts to rein in greenhouse gases would threaten the economy.
And though the report written by 230 international scientists warned that carbon emissions from fossil fuels need to be cut, GOP lawmakers continued to argue that developing new technological solutions to curb emissions was the proper way to address the problem in the coming decades.
…
“We clearly have an issue over climate change,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who said he had looked at the report.
“We clearly have to focus on it. But the way to do it is you grow your economy so you have money to invest.”
When asked if more needed to be done on capturing methane from the energy sector, Scott replied, “I don’t want to raise taxes on anybody.”
…
Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), co-chair of the Climate Solutions Caucus, hadn’t yet had time to read the report, but said his colleagues should digest the findings, even if only to keep up with Democrats on the issue.
“We gotta be in the game, make sure we’re engaged in the conversation,” Braun said in an interview.
“That’s why I formed the Climate Caucus. I think if they’re saying ‘No, I’m not interested,’ we’ll get outmaneuvered again on major issues.”
…
But at least one Republican lawmaker — Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who has long denied that humans have had any impact on climate — said he thought the rising number of reports actually made him less likely to pay attention to the new 1,300-page assessment or its 39-page summary for policymakers.
“Every time it comes out, it’s another crisis,” he said of the U.N. climate reports.
“Every time they’re wrong. I don’t know why people still take it seriously.”
…
Asked if the headlines he had seen were cause for concern, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) scoffed: “I always consider the source.”

Assholes all — no wonder they’re allowing people to get sick and possibly die from COVID.
And just to maximize the shit spread, Fox News this morning offered rebuttal:

“The whole notion is just built on this assumption that warming is bad to start with,” former Trump/Pence EPA Transition Team member and JunkScience.com founder Steve Milloy told Fox News on Wednesday, calling the report’s extreme weather claims “very unlikely.”

“This new report, number one, there’s nothing new in it. There’s no new science, the alarm is just, you know, it’s more ‘code red’ than it was five, six years ago — the last time they came out with one of these things,” the IPCC was “backing off their most extreme projections because none of that — obviously — is going to happen.”

So, anyway…

(Illustration out front by Handoko Tjung, found here).