Note new section on Climate News and the November elections.
COVID 19
Coronavirus shutdowns have cut pollution, and that’s opened the door to a “giant, global environmental experiment” with potentially far-reaching consequences.
By Ted Glick
May more and more of us join this so-desperately-needed political and cultural revolution and keep the victories coming. Let’s seize the time!
Climate Policy – November elections
July 16, 2020
Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced on Tuesday a new plan to spend $2 trillion over four years to significantly escalate the use of clean energy in the transportation, electricity and building sectors, part of a suite of sweeping proposals designed to create economic opportunities and strengthen infrastructure while also tackling climate change.
Mr. Inslee called the proposal “visionary.”
Mr. Biden’s plan outlines specific and aggressive targets, including achieving an emissions-free power sector by 2035 and upgrading four million buildings over four years to meet the highest standards for energy efficiency.
By Lisa Friedman and Katie Glueck
They are polar opposites on almost everything to do with the environment but particularly climate change,” said Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey and administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under George W. Bush.
CRISIS MAJORITY STAFF REPORT 116TH CONGRESS DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE
NYT Opinion. His new plan bills itself as a “revolution,” going well beyond anything the Obama administration attempted. Is it enough?
Legislation, Politics, Regulations
The state is the latest on a growing list of local governments hoping to hold the fossil-fuel industry accountable for the climate crisis
Oil and gas companies are hurtling toward bankruptcy, raising fears that wells will be left leaking planet-warming pollutants, with cleanup cost left to taxpayers.
The Government Accountability Office has found that the Trump administration is undervaluing the cost of climate change to boost its deregulatory efforts.
Impacts
Overall, global methane emissions are up 9 percent from the early 2000s, according to the latest findings, and human activity is responsible for more than half of those emissions…. Methane also leaks from oil and gas wells, pipelines, distribution lines and even the gas stoves in our homes, and from landfills. The rest comes from natural sources, like wetlands.
The utility, which recently emerged from bankruptcy, is upgrading power lines, trimming trees and making other changes to prevent another big fire.
There is so much work to be done that the company’s recently departed chief executive said last year that it could take as long as 10 years.
“What keeps us up at night is the exposure, how many miles, how many things could go wrong,” said Matthew Pender, the director of PG&E’s community wildfire safety program. “It only takes one tree.”
Extreme Weather
By Kurtis Alexander, July 17, 2020
The findings, distilled from models of the weather phenomena known as atmospheric rivers, mean that a worst-case storm scenario, on par with the Great Flood of 1862 that turned the Central Valley into a raging sea and took countless lives, is a real possibility.
NEW LEGISLATION WOULD MAKE SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENTS FOR WILDFIRE RESILIENCY, PROVIDE ECONOMIC STIMULUS FOR THE OUTDOOR RECREATION INDUSTRY, AND CREATE JOBS IN CONSERVATION.
Wildfires are spreading. The mosquitoes are ravenous. People are shielding their windows from the midnight sun with foil and blankets.
By Carolyn Kormann
Anthropogenic climate change is causing the Arctic to heat up twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Climate models had predicted this phenomenon, known as Arctic amplification, but they did not predict how fast the warming would occur … Because of the coronavirus pandemic, they will also be more complicated to fight. The heat and fires are also hastening the dissolution of Siberian permafrost, perennially frozen ground that, when thawed, unleashes more greenhouse gases and dramatically destabilizes the land, with grave consequences.
Plastics
By Janice Brahney
A new study found plentiful evidence of these tiny particles in dust in the nation’s most remote places.
New Public Health Order on reusable bags in grocery stores.
Shoppers can bring their reusable bags again to shop. They just cannot place them on shared surfaces like counters and must fill their own bags.
Please let your grocers and others know.
Events
Upcoming Virtual Events
Friday, July 24: Climate Justice or Climate Chaos? Sustainable and Healthy Cities summit. 8:00 am - 12:30 pm. Information.
Fridays: Elders Climate Action Conversation. Weekly national Zoom convening. Noon - 1:00 pm. Information & link.