(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Suicide over Climate Change Linked to AI Chatbot [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-01 After talking for six weeks about climate change with Eliza, an AI chatbot, a Belgian man committed suicide after the bot suggested he sacrifice himself for the ailing planet, Euronews reported yesterday. The young father, a healthcare worker in his thirties, was leading a normal life until his obsession with climate change led to his relationship with the chatbot from the Chai app. "He proposes the idea of sacrificing himself if Eliza agrees to take care of the planet and save humanity through artificial intelligence," the woman said. In a series of consecutive events, Eliza not only failed to dissuade Pierre from committing suicide but encouraged him to act on his suicidal thoughts to “join” her so they could “live together, as one person, in paradise”. While the notion of sacrificing oneself for the health of the planet is a novel one, a Stanford study in Nature Climate Change determined that by 2050 we can expect 21,000 additional suicides due to climate change in both Mexico and the United States. “One claim you often hear is that it’s the socioeconomically disadvantaged that are going to be affected by climate change. Our results suggest that at least in the case of mental health, impacts are going to cut across the income distribution and could affect any of us,” [economist Marshall] Burke said. Socioeconomic status had little if any impact on suicide rates linked to climate change, the research found. Burke and other researchers utilized climate model projections in determining how a rise in global temperatures could impact suicide rates, concluding they would increase by 1.4 percent in the US and 2.3 in Mexico by the year 2050. Last year, a Buddhist climate activist from Colorado set himself on fire in Washington, D.C. Four years previously, a civil rights lawyer in New York entered Prospect Park, New York, doused himself with oil, and lit a match. Prior to his death, he emailed a two-page note to the media which stated “my early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves.” “Living in climate truth is like living in a nightmare. It’s absolutely horrible and I can understand why the vast majority of Americans don’t do it,” said Margaret Klein Salamon, a clinical psychologist turned climate activist. “But the worst part is that everyone’s acting normal – it’s like we are zombies. The sense of helplessness and hopelessness is holding back conversations and political action.” x Mental stress due to climate change is a form of non-economic @LossandDamage that can affect rich people in rich countries as well as poor people in poor countries ‘Terrified for my future’: climate crisis takes heavy toll on young people’s mental health https://t.co/4vxLSz61Kc — Saleemul Huq (@SaleemulHuq) April 1, 2023 In other news, CNN reports The oceans just reached their hottest temperature on record as El Niño looms. Here are 6 things to watch for. Climate scientists found that as the cooling properties of La Niña abate, global sea level temperatures are at an all-time high. “Right now, the atmosphere and the ocean are both in sync and screaming ‘El Niño rapid development’ over the next few months,” [Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles] said. It’s possible that El Niño could push global temperature rise above 1.5 degrees Celsius. The 190 signatories to the 2015 Paris Agreement pledged to ensure global heating remained below 2 degrees Celsius, as scientists suggest 1.5 to be the tipping point at which extreme weather events, food shortages, wildfires, and drought would significantly impact the planet. “We will probably have, in 2024, the warmest year globally on record,” Josef Ludescher a senior scientist at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told CNN. The hottest year on record is currently 2016, which followed a very strong El Niño. Climate Shorts Harris Peaks at Farm with Climate Change in Mind LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday traveled down a dirt road to tour a farm outside Zambia’s capital that’s using new techniques and technology to boost its vegetable crop as she highlighted ways to secure food supplies in an age of global warming. “It’s an example of what can be done around the world,” she said after walking past rows of peppers and inspecting a drip irrigation system. Unlike in the United States, where conversations about climate change usually revolve around replacing fossil fuels with clean energy, the focus in Africa is on expanding access to food. Rising prices stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine have been damaging to poor countries, and global warming is expected to bring more challenges in the coming years. Climate activists dye Spanish Steps fountain water black A group called Ultima Generazione or Last Generation have poured what they described as a charcoal-based black liquid into the water of the Barcaccia fountain at the base of the Spanish Steps in central Rome. The group posted a video on Twitter, showing three men and a woman inside the fountain opening paper bags of a black powder. “It is absurd that this gesture should shock you, when we are experiencing a drought emergency that is putting agriculture, energy production in crisis,” the group said in the tweet. The Leadership Superpower For Positive Change In The Climate Crisis Gail Hochachka knows climate science well. Her professional research has been around ways to communicate climate change and she’s one of the experts speaking at the One Earth, One Health, One With online summit being held this month. The purpose of the summit is to help leaders who care about the healing of people, planet and the future to better sense their own place in the work and develop further relationships and practices to do it well. Dr. Hochachka speaks on how climate communication needs to change to move people to positive action. As she observes, “We face an extraordinarily complex problem that we do have technology to bring to bear on, and we do have policymakers willing to create climate action targets and to use various push and pull mechanisms to get people to change their behaviors, and yet we’re still somehow missing the mark.” Hochachka shares an encounter with a colleague, for example, who had recently chaired a session evaluating regional climate action plans and progress. C40 releases 2022 Annual Report From São Paulo to Seoul, Accra to Ahmedabad, Beijing to Bogotá, and Milan to Montréal, C40 cities are stepping up and showing that ambitious climate action is possible. Three quarters of C40 cities are now decreasing their per capita emissions at a faster rate than their own countries, while high-impact actions delivered by C40 cities – such as introducing low-emission zones, increasing green spaces and planting more trees to improve air quality and to reduce urban heat risk, and achieving universal waste collection – have tripled in the past decade, which is vital if global heating is to be kept under 1.5˚C. x You may have seen the news that the UN passed a resolution for an ICJ advisory opinion on climate change in a momentous occasion. But what happens next? Here's what you need to know 👇 #ICJAO4Climate pic.twitter.com/ZSFNZ6ealK — Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change (@pisfcc) March 31, 2023 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/1/2161510/-Suicide-over-Climate-Change-Linked-to-AI-Chatbot Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/