Climate Crisis AM Edition 1.16.24 Climate Deniers Move To YouTube
Despite global warming, extremely cold winters aren’t going away. The jet stream continues to affect (and may affect more in the future) the polar vortex, an extremely cold band of air that circulates above the Arctic region. As movements in the jet stream change, the vortex becomes unstable, which can send frigid air to the south. Will this situation persist well into the future? James Screen, professor of climate science at Exeter University, told CNN, “If you look at the data, we see that over the long term, global warming is leading to fewer and less severe cold extremes.”
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Can attendees of the annual World Economics Forum in Davos, Switzerland, expect snow in most years in the future? Probably not. A study in the journal Nature shows the number of snow days in the Alps has fallen more in the last 20 years than in the previous 600, the FT reports. Scientists from the Research Center for Alpine Ecosystems say that the Alpine region’s temperatures are rising more quickly than the global average.
Climate Deniers On YouTube
Climate deniers have taken their case to YouTube, a report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The study took text transcripts from 12,058 climate-related YouTube videos posted by 96 channels from January 1, 2018, and September 30, 2023. The authors of the report found that the case climate deniers make on YouTube is based on three factors–”climate solutions won’t work,” “climate science and the climate movement are unreliable,” and “The impacts of global warming are beneficial or harmless.” One effect of YouTube activity is that about a third of teenagers believe global warming is “harmless.”
Bill Gates’ Plans To Help Poor Nations
Bill Gates made his case for US aid to poor countries to help combat climate change. In an interview with Yahoo News, Gates, the head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said his organization is working with the Biden Administration to encourage this investment.
The Allianz Risk Barometer 2024 shows that among risk managers at major companies worldwide, climate change is a growing part of the concerns they have for their corporations. The study was based on a poll of 3,069 risk management experts from 92 countries and territories. Among the conclusions of the study:
The risk is threefold: physical, including loss or damage to assets and business interruption; transition-related, from moves towards a more sustainable economy and regulatory and stakeholder pressures; and liability-related, from climate litigation that could lead to reputational and financial damage.
