Character & Competence | Cenozoic Park | Liberté, Egalité, Giléts Jaunés

“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.”

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

― Charles Darwin

We’re The Great Great Grandkids We Thought We’d Have To Save:After Thanksgiving most Americans focus on Black Friday deals, holiday decorations, and a turkey sandwich or two. This year little attention was paid to that Friday’s release of Volume II of the fourth National Climate Assessment. It really should have gotten more air time, because what it has to say is fundamental to continued life on earth. The report is the most comprehensive climate assessment ever done, the culmination of years of research and analysis by hundreds of top climate scientists, and so massive it had to be released in two parts. Its overall message, however, is quite simple: climate change is “an immediate threat, not a far-off possibility.” It is already causing more frequent and severe weather across the US—from hurricanes to wildfires to floods to drought—and if allowed to continue, every part of the country is poised to suffer massive damage to infrastructure, ecosystems, health and the economy.

Katowice, Poland is currently hosting the most important climate meetingsince the 2015 Paris agreement was signed. Naturalist Sir David Attenborough spoke at Sunday’s opening ceremony and he did not mince words. “Right now, we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale. [Climate change is] Our greatest threat in thousands of years,” he said. UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres said the world is “nowhere near where it needs to be” on the transition to a low-carbon economy. Last week the UN announced there’s an increasingly large gap between current efforts and what’s needed to protect the climate. Stunningly, leaders of two vital nations are thwarting those efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. President Trump announced in 2017 he would withdraw the US from the Paris agreement; he has also opened up protected areas to fossil fuel exploration and extraction while systematically trying to roll back national regulations that would keep the US on track to reduce emissions from power plants, cars and trucks. And newly-elected Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro opposes both the Paris agreement and protecting Brazil’s vast rainforest from future destruction.

Additional read: “The Baltic Sea offers a preview of what’s to come with global warming: Kiel, Germany — The herring here — both a symbol of the seaside region and a staple food that locals eat salted, pickled or fried — have plummeted to about a third of their population in the 1990s.” (WaPo) “Climate change: Where we are in seven charts and what you can do to help: Representatives from nearly 200 countries are gathering in Poland for talks on climate change – aimed at breathing new life into the Paris Agreement.” (BBC)

Qaxit: The small Persian Gulf nation of Qatar announced Monday that on January 1, 2019 it will leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the world’s leading oil producing bloc. Qatar’s Energy Minister said his country wanted to focus on natural gas. The move will no doubt heighten ongoing divisions between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the only country with which it shares a land border. (NPR)

Cheater Cheater Bratkartoffeln Eater: German Chancellor Angela Merkel met her Australian counterpart, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, on Saturday at the G-20 summit. As the two sat side-by-side before talks began, Morrison was smiling at the cameras, but Merkel was casually reaching for a stack of papers. Photographers were able to capture the front page — an apparent cheat sheet on the newest Aussie prime minister, complete with headshot. And why not? Australia’s had five prime ministers in five years — who can keep up? (WaPo)

The Vox Were Ready When The Music Stopped: Before elections on Sunday, Spain’s right-wing anti-Muslim Vox Party was only expected to win about five seats in the 109-member parliament. Instead it won 12 in what is considered a major blow to the country’s new socialist prime minister. Socialists still won a majority of seats but overall support dropped from a previous 47 to only 33 — far short of the 55 seats needed to take control of the chamber. (NPR)

Additional read: “‘Their ideas had no place here’: how Crete kicked out Golden Dawn. Teachers and activists in Heraklion explain how they drove the ultra-nationalist, far-right Greek party from the island.” (Guardian)

Will The Real Muhammadu Buhari Please Stand Up: Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari spent five months in a Britain hospital last year being treated for an undisclosed illness. Nobody knew what was happening so naturally theories got started. Now that Buhari’s facing reelection next February, he had to post a video of himself on Twitter denying the most widely circulated rumor that he’d died and been replaced by a Sudanese clone. (Guardian)

– “Dutch court rejects man’s request to be 20 years younger: Emile Ratelband, 69, argued that his age was causing him to struggle to find work and love” (Guardian)

Updates On Khashoggi: “Intercepts Solidify C.I.A. Assessment That Saudi Prince Ordered Khashoggi Killing” and “Israeli Software Helped Saudis Spy on Khashoggi, Lawsuit Says” (NYT)

Crossing Guards Riot In Paris: When French president Emmanuel Macron left the G-20 and returned to Paris Sunday to view the damage caused by weekend rioting, he instructed his prime minister to meet with “legitimate” protest groups in an effort to calm tensions and stop “professional” rioters from infiltrating street demonstrations. What’s unclear is whether Macron was referring to the masses of protesters wearing yellow vests as a “legitimate” protest group, or whether he meant they were the “professional” rioters. Overwhelmingly, participants in the now “Yellow Vest” movement are ordinary working people from France’s poorer rural regions, to whom Macron’s hike in gas taxes was simply the tipping point. For too many teachers and secretaries, factory workers and carpet-layers, money runs out before the month is up. It isn’t deep poverty, but an ever-present unease, a sense that their lives are eroding.

The movement began in early November as a grassroots citizen protest against a planned hike in the tax on diesel and petrol, part of Macron’s effort to transition the country to green energy. Fed by social media, it burgeoned and came to be called “gilets jaunes” (yellow vests), because protesters wear the fluorescent yellow high-visibility jackets that all motorists are required to carry in their cars. Now it has morphed into a wider anti-government protest — a venting of rage and resentment by everyday folk from small cities, towns and villages far outside the capital — aimed at the “president of the rich” and his glitzy Parisian boulevards that symbolize a mounting inequality of life in “the other France.” Pro-business Macron spent his first 18 months in office easing the tax burden for businesses and the very wealthy; but will he consider the gilets jaunes’ demands to scrap the eco tax and raise the minimum wage?

Spoiler Alert: It’s Going To End Poorly (And Poor): Congress has until Friday to extend the time, or approve, some $450 billion in government funding. If nothing happens several government agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, State Department and Department of Homeland Security, would have no money to pay employees and administer programs through the fiscal year ending next Sept. 30. President Trump has been feuding with Republicans over his $5 billion demand in funding this year for his border wall. Trump was scheduled to meet Tuesday with House of Representatives Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to discuss the impasse, but memorial observances for former President George H.W. Bush have postponed that meeting. (Reuters)

– “Amazon briefly edges out Apple for most valuable company: Amazon rose by 4.7 percent at one point, putting its market capitalization at $865.0 billion. At the same time, Apple traded up 2.1 percent, giving it a market capitalization of $864.8 billion.” Yesterday: IBM, GE, GM, Wal-Mart; today: Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon; in a few years to a decade: likely none of the above. Creative destruction. (Reuters)

– “Why Is It So Hard to Quit Amazon? Because Shopping Is Labor: Prime has helped overworked and underpaid Americans stretch their money and time. No wonder it’s so hard to quit.” (Slate)

– “How to Know If Your Partner Is Financially ‘Cheating’ in Your Relationship” (The Cut)

– “Why our sense of time speeds up as we age — and how to slow it down:We can’t slow time itself down, but we can do things to pace ourselves and create more lasting impressions of times past.” (NBC)

– “George H.W. Bush’s Life Has Plenty Of Lessons For Today’s Politics:Those who worked with him say that near the top of that list was how he conducted himself professionally and how he treated others, including political rivals.” What we really miss about Bush I was his decency and character. At West Point there’s a speech by General Schwarzkopf that every cadet has to read and the speech is essentially that we should become and respect leaders who have competence and character. (NPR)

– “Pictures of the year 2018” (Reuters)

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives,

not the most intelligent that survives.

It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

― Charles Darwin

Please consider making a donation to Daily Pnut, an independently operated and bootstrapped publication. Many thanks to everyone who already supports us!