Welcome to Dr. Kate Brilakis' Learning Portal

Our post WWII globe saw a dramatic increase in industrialization, agriculture, and the 
consumption of resources. The emergence of "green politics" began in the 1970s.
In 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm
brought environmental issues on to the international stage. 

                                  1962
America started a national conversation about protecting the environment
after Rachel Carson published a book called Silent Spring which unveiled how the use of pesticides was harming natural ecosystems. As astronauts photographed
the Earth from space, we became aware of the finite resources we were exploiting.

                                                   1965
report from President Lyndon Johnson’s scientific advisory committee warned of CO2 emissions
 trapping heat in the atmosphere.

                                               1970
A
s the public voiced concerns about dangerous air/water quality,
President Nixon presented Congress a historic proposal including such
                                                measures as:
four billion dollars for the improvement of water treatment facilities;
 national air quality standards
strict guidelines to lower motor vehicle emissions
federally-funded research to reduce automobile pollution;
a clean-up of federal air/water polluters
end the dumping of wastes into the Great Lakes;
tax lead additives in gasoline;
 tighten safeguards on ocean going oil transportation of oil

                     then President Nixon created the 
            Environmental Protection Agency
                           EPA

                                        December 4, 1970

how does sea ice melting actually increase earth's temperature?

EPA

AAAS

as Earth's climate warms, sea ice melts making sea water warmer and less likely to sink. Without sinking cold water, the ocean currents could slow down or stop in some places.

Greenpeace
​demands that elected officials divest from systems of exploitation and extraction.

it's allll so much! what can I do about it...?

Climate Change Rsources

NOAA

A 2 degree warmer world will result in a profoundly disrupted climate...
"fiercer storms, higher seas, animal and plant extinctions, disappearing coral, melting ice and more people dying from heat, smog and infectious disease."
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/study-finds-nations-can-keep-global-warming-to-2-degrees-if-pledges-are-met#:~:text=This%202%20degree%20warmer%20world,heat%2C%20smog%20and%20infectious%20disease.

Our Climate Crisis

solid ice melting to
liquid water...
​flooding!

Scripps CO2 Program

The Independent  Insitute...

more totally BOGUS 

anti-science ​shlock

and not independent of fossil fuel money...

and what about temperature vs  
​levels of atmospheric CO2

also known as a greenhouse gas??

the IPCC released their 2023 report.

the IPCC is the
United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change whos 
objective is to provide governments
with scientific information they can use to develop climate policies.
Current membership = 195 countries
https://heatmap.news/climate/the-5-quotes-you-need-to-know-from-the-ipcc-report?utm_source=googlesearch&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=launchads&utm_term=climate&utm_content=un%20ipcc%20report&gclid=CjwKCAjw3POhBhBQEiwAqTCuBisUmbWQ5bvnEr9Aru6VW3UJ0qW0Opx6MynP962_PG7Q5Onq2XFdbRoCZSgQAvD_BwE​

                                                                                            2000
When Florida awarded GW Bush the 2000 election, the concerted campaign to portray Gore as left-wing environmentalist was cited as the reason for his defeat. 
                                                                                         
   2004
2nd GW Bush presidency: a revived and restructured Kyoto Protocol is rejected. Bush leaned heavily on oil industry "experts" to structure his environmental policy. 
                                                                                          
  2006
Al Gore’s book and documentary about climate change, An Inconvenient Truth, was published.
btw...in 1976, at just 28, Al Gore joined the US House of Representatives and sponsored the first congressional hearings on the climate change and global warming. 1976!  

go to the source...who are the very few
(<2% !!) 
scientists who reject the data 

and what are their motivations?

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a Harvard/Columbia/Princeton  educated astrophysicist and head of the Hayden Planetarium.

NCSE

AGW =
anthropogenic
​global warming

so what is happening  to our planet's climate?

you have a choice...

IPCC

ok, how is this warming affecting our planet?

Unfortunately there are more but I think you get my point
so no need to give these #*&% any more air time...

the bottom line...

Trust LEGIT sources defined as those supported by SCIENCE and the REAL scientific community at large! 

                                     some facts...
1. atmospheric CO2 levels have increased 40% since the industrial revolution/1870...
    2000
 gigatons of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere or 400 ppm which is the highest
    
level measured since humans have walked this planet. 
2. the C12 : C13 isotope ratio has changed dramatically due to the burning of fossil fuels
3. only the troposphere us warming , not upper atmospheric layers, hence not a solar anomaly
4. seas have risen 8 inches since 1901
5.  present levels tell us that the ocean pH will reach 7.8 in the next few decades eliminating
     30% of all marine species. (CO2 + H2H => H2CO3 =>  H  + HCO3
6. sea ice as decreased 40% since 1978
​7. projected sea rise = 1 meter by end of century
8. projected temps = 2.5 - 5 degrees hotter by end of century​     
9. frogs are often among the first species to die off when ecosystems are out of balance. they           are a canary in this coal mine of a warming planet and 
they’re dying off in huge numbers.

 3.14 Action works to elect more scientists to Congress, state legislatures, and local offices and promote scientific and evidence-based policy.

are there   
greenhouse gasses
besides carbon dioxide?

Data.gov

what's with science denial??
 money...

politics...

the science
proves it is
a crisis

NASA

Vote Climate U.S. PAC works to elect candidates to eliminate all human-made, greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

works to ensure that every level of government, from school boards to the White House, is led by climate and justice champions

how did this scientific issue become so politically polarized?
when did protecting the environment become synonymous with
"tree hugging"?

the nonprofit
 League of Conservation Voters (LCV)
has published a
National Environmental Scorecard
on every Congress since 1970.
this scorecard evaluates the environmental records of every member of Congress.

    Presidential nominee George H.W. Bush was a self-proclaimed environmentalist.
His campaign promised to address acid rain and deforestation and he brought to the debate stage this 
new issue called global warming. He stated environmental issues "know no ideology, no political boundaries.
                         
  It’s not a liberal or conservative thing we’re talking about.”

But as the years went by, the scientific evidence supporting the reality of man-made global warming grew
considerably while climate change morphed from a bipartisan concern to a polarizing political issue.
 
                                                                                           
 1981
 Climate change made the front page of the New York Times.
                                                                                       
   1988
 NASA scientist James Hansen told the Senate it was “time to stop waffling” on the issue.
“Global warming has reached a level such that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause and effect relationship between the greenhouse effect and observed warming. It is already happening now.”

G H W Bush and Michael Dukakis, his opponent, both promised aggressively addressing global warming.
Bush helped launch the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

At the same time, the implications of addressing climate change was being realized by the the energy industry as Exxon, who had studied climate change in the 1970s, cut funding for its climate research program.
                                                                                         
 1990s
The energy industry had pumped massive amounts of cash to back a huge public-relations campaign including the Global Climate Coalition who's mission was strictly to spread misinformation and doubt about the science behind climate change. Elected officials were heavily lobbied with loads of money donated to campaigns. Their actions were successful as the false narrative that climate science was up for debate became a key political talking point. The industry de-regulation reputation of Republicans embraced this narrative.
The United States under President Clinton signed the Kyoto Protocol (an international agreement on global warming) in 1998 but disagreements over compliance, enforcement, and who would cover what costs led to the collapse of the Kyoto negotiations with a rejection by both Democrats and Republicans.
                                                                                            2000
 During the presidential election, climate change was solidly a partisan issue.

and all of this is all very well and good BUT...
the number one thing you can do to make a difference is
VOTE! 

below are some seriously ILLEGIT
"resources" that deny the reality of climate  change

The Heartland Insitute...

totally BOGUS 

anti-science

​shlock!

a shift in extremes...

Climate change IS
a national security issue

the public accepts
the media's 
false equivalencies

as the climate changes, how is weather affected?

Below are (seriously legit) resources for you to access as you explore the reality of climate change. Click on each picture to access the resource.

2021
Joe Biden is president. President Biden initiates the Green New Deal as a framework for addressing climate change and recognizing that the environment and our economy are connected. This includes:
regulation aimed to cut total greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030
 updated the nationally determined contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement
passing a major climate-smart economic stimulus package
passing the Inflation Reduction Act (2022) = the largest piece of climate legislation in U.S. history
regulating super pollutants like hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and methane
launched the Global Methane Pledge at the 2021 UN climate summit with 150 signatories
and is working on:
requiring all new passenger vehicles sold after 2035 to produce zero emissions
 approving plans to build a national electric vehicle (EV) charging network supported by $5 billion in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
scaling up carbon dioxide removal via both natural (e.g. trees) and technological (e.g. chemical scrubbers) means including significant investments in wildfire risk reduction and ecosystem restoration to protect and promote natural carbon removal. 
ramping up clean electricity standards to 55% by 2025, 75% by 2030 and 100% by 2035
signing an executive order requiring federal agencies to procure 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2030. 

In 2019, Berkeley, CA became the first U.S. city to ban the use of natural gas in new buildings in order to fight climate change. Since then, dozens of urban centers have followed suit, including major cities such as San Jose and New York. New York State plans to ban fossil fuels in all new buildings no later than 2027. California’s most recent building code update requires new buildings to be wired for all-electric operation.

President Biden rejoined the international Paris Agreement on climate change on his first day in office
He held the Leaders Summit on Climate in April 2021.
U.S. engagement in international climate policy has increased considerably.
Formal bilateral climate discussions between the U.S. and China
(the two largest green house gas producers)
were reestablished during COP27.


                                                                                               2007
GW Bush issues higher fuel-economy standards and set a target to slow carbon dioxide emissions.
                                                                                               2008
GW Bush states he is concerned about both climate  change...and the effect of climate change
policies on the economy. 
                                                                                                    2009
Barack Obama tries to pass meaningful legislation addressing climate change. Growing polarization and the rise of the Tea Party sets up a wave of opposition. The House passes legislation to cap industry emissions
but does not pass the Senate. 
                                                                                                  
2016
the EPA issues nearly 4,000 rules including the Clean Power Plan which functions as a cap-and-trade program in the energy industry. 
                                                                              2017
Donald Trump is president. During his campaign he railed against numerous regulations he said hurt American businesses. During his presidency, Donald Trump would eliminate numerous regulations designed to protect clean water and clean air and would promote the notion that the scientists warning of the dire effects of climate change were funded by a deep state conspiracy.

He withdraws the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.
He instructs the EPA 
to purge all mention of climate change from its site.
He pits mainstream climate scientists against climate change skeptics
in a false equivalency applauded by his MAGA supporters and the fossil fuel industry. 

you have a choice...

the media 
​ says it's
a hoax or
a debate

how do we know our planet's
climate
​ is changing?

where to get information on which legislators  support 
climate initiatives...

cause it does!

first...
weather
refers to short term atmospheric conditions.
climate is the weather of a specific region averaged over a long period of time...

so when politicians or pundits mock climate change when it's snowing out, they're either idiots or intentionally misleading you. 

Rainforest Alliance

NatGeo

how are  
greenhouse gasses
warming of our planet?
and why are they called greenhouse gasses...?