81. CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS, #81, JUNE 27, 2022
Daurelle and Carliner. “You Can’t ‘Green’ the Military.”
Vijay Prashad. The US Mainly and Other Developed Countries Spend Money on Weapons Despite Planetary Catastrophe.
Kripa Jayaram, Chris Kay, and Dan Murtaugh. China Significantly Reduces Air Pollution.
Cranky Uncle Critical Thinking Case Studies
“You Can’t 'Green' The Military.”
By B.C. Daurelle and Sam Carliner, Left Voice. Popular Resistance.org (6-24-22). In 2021, the U.S. Department of Defense issued its Climate Adaptation Plan, which has been lauded by corporate media as a supposedly serious mobilization against climate change. More recently, the U.S. Army has followed suit with its own Climate Strategy. More and more frequently, Democratic politicians are learning to frame the eternal imperative of an eternally expanding military budget in the language of “greening” the military. Similar language is used by Pentagon higher-ups, and even more frequently by those from the “industry” side of the military-industrial complex. -more-
Vijay Prashad. “With Clenched Fists, They Spend Money on Weapons as the Planet Burns.” Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.
Two important reports were released last month, neither getting the kind of attention they deserve.
At COP26, the developed countries pledged to spend a modest $100 billion for the Adaptation Fund to assist developing countries adapt to climate change. On 4 April, 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group III report was published, evoking a strong reaction from the United Nations’ Secretary General António Guterres. The report, he said, ‘is a litany of broken climate promises. It is a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that put us firmly on track towards an unlivable world’.
Meanwhile, on 25 April, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) issued its annual report, finding that the world military spending surpassed $2 trillion in 2021, the first time it has exceeded the $2 trillion mark. The five largest spenders – the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom, and Russia – accounted for 62 percent of this amount; the United States, by itself, accounts for 40 percent of total arms expenditure.
There is an endless flow of money for weapons but less than a pittance to avert planetary disaster. MORE https://popularresistance.org/with-clenched-fists-they-spend-money-on-weapons-as-the-planet-burns/
June 13, 2022.
China has reduced air pollution nearly as much in seven years as the US did in three decades, helping to bring down average global smog levels in the process.The amount of harmful particulates in the air in China fell 40% from 2013 to 2020, according to the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute, which would add about two years to average life expectancy if sustained. While smog in large swathes of the country still significantly exceeds safe levels, its experience shows how quickly progress can be made, researchers including Professor Michael Greenstone said in a report published Tuesday….continued. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-14/china-s-clean-air-campaign-is-bringing-down-global-pollution#xj4y7vzkg
Cranky UncleCritical Thinking Case Studies.
We've just had a new paper approved at the journal Environmental Education Research who will soon be publishing a special edition on humor in environmental education. Our paper is titled "The Cranky Uncle game—Combining humor and gamification to build student resilience against climate misinformation". It's a case study paper describing three fascinating examples of using the Cranky Uncle game to educate and build critical thinking.
You can read a sneak preview of the pre-press version here.