Audubon Keeps Name Tied To Enslaver Despite Calls From Staff To Change It: The Society’s namesake, John James Audubon, was an unrepentant opponent of the abolitionist movement who enslaved nine people at his Kentucky home in the early 1800s. In 1834, Audubon complained the British government acted “imprudently and too precipitously” when it freed enslaved people in the Caribbean. The move to keep the name raised internal strife, prompting three board members to resign and the condemnation from staff and birding groups across the country. “[The] decision to double down on celebrating a white supremacist and to continue to brand our good work with his name actively inflicts harm on marginalized communities,” the society’s staff union said in a statement. A number of local chapters changed their names in response as “the name is a barrier imposed upon historically excluded communities that suffer the impacts of environmental calamities first and disproportionately,” the Seattle chapter said. “We choose differently. We choose the antiracist path.” The society also announced a fund of $25 million for diversity, equity and inclusion work, vowing to promote awareness and understanding about Audubon’s “problematic legacy” and the inequalities “inherent in the conservation movement.” (The Hill, Washington Post $, New York Times $, E&E $)

EPA Finalizes Rule Requiring Power Plants To Clean Up Pollution Crossing State Lines: Coal and natural gas plants across 23 states are now covered by the final rule, which is aimed at cutting air pollution in downwind communities that suffer from elevated rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses. The “Good Neighbor” rule is estimated to give around 80 million people cleaner air. “We know air pollution doesn’t stop at the state line,” EPA Administrator Regan said in a statement. “Today’s action will help our state partners meet stronger air quality health standards beyond borders, saving lives and improving public health in impacted communities across the United States.” The rule will take effect in May, and has been largely celebrated by environmental and public health advocates, though the National Mining Association criticized the rule as part of an effort by President Biden to close coal-fired power plants across the country. The EPA’s previous plan on downwind smog is embroiled in a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, though it is unclear whether the lawsuit will continue now that the rule is final. (AP, Reuters, Utility Dive, The Hill, E&E $, Washington Post $, New York Times $, Politico Pro $)

Arctic Ice Undergoing Fundamental Change That Won’t Be Reversed: New research from scientists at the Norwegian Polar Institute finds that Arctic sea ice has never made a full recovery since suffering a big decline in 2007. The study published in Nature suggests that the sudden loss of ice 15 years ago marked a fundamental change unlikely to be fixed this century…or ever. The Arctic is now in a “new regime” according to the researchers, in which ice cover is thinner and younger. 19% of the sea ice in the Arctic was at least 13 feet thick in 2007, but now only about 9.3% of ice is at least that thick, and the average age of the Arctic ice has dropped by more than a third to just 2.7 years. Rising ocean temperatures and a fast warming Arctic are to blame, and the thinning ice could cause problems for Arctic sea life, which rely on thick sea ice for hunting and habitat. Sea ice thickness matters to areas even thousands of miles away, according to study lead author Hiroshi Sumata. “It will affect the entire Earth because the north and south pole is something like a radiator of the Earth, the air conditioning system of the Earth,” Sumata told the AP. “And the situation we observed indicates the air conditioner is not working well.” (AP, Nature, National Geographic $, Washington Post $) 

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Simple solutions could reduce heat inequities in Phoenix (Yale Climate Connections), First look: HUD invests billions in equitable disaster recovery (Axios), How state regulators allowed a fading west Texas town to go over four years without safe drinking water (Inside Climate News)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Lawsuit: Biden Willow approval violates NEPA (E&E $) 

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: EU closer to ending US trade spat, moves on Green Deal funds (AP)

DOE: DOE must push clean tech past ‘valley of death’ — report (E&E $)

DOI: Biden to hold conservation summit at Interior (E&E $)

THE HILL: House lawmakers join senators in rallying around Colorado River (The Hill), Climate hawks top list of Republican 2024 targets (E&E $), Schumer slams House GOP’s energy permitting bid (Politico)

HOUSE: House GOP leaders target climate rule for contractors (E&E $)

SENATE: Senators press Vilsack on USDA's role in pesticide dispute (E&E $)

WILLOW: Many indigenous Alaskans support Willow oil drilling project in the arctic (WBUR), Murkowski won big time with Biden’s oil project. She knows it, too. (Politico $)

CITIES AND STATES: Which cities and countries have the unhealthiest air? (EcoWatch), Tens of thousands without power after nor’easter dumps snow on Northeast US (The Hill), Late-winter storm pummels Northeast with heavy, wet snow (AP), Northeast digs out from winter storm, faces power outages (AP), Nevada approves first new gas plant in a decade (E&E $), New England digs out from Nor'easter; California braces for more floods (Reuters), Texas officials target climate science in textbooks (E&E $)

~CALIFORNIA: How rising temperatures are intensifying California’s atmospheric rivers (Grist), "Potent" atmospheric river hits California with flooding as thousands evacuate (Axios), Flooding, landslides as atmospheric river departs California (AP)

IMPACTS: Floods kill 14 in Turkish earthquake-battered provinces (AP)

HEAT: ‘Endless, brutal heat’: Argentina’s late-season heatwave has ‘no similarities in history’ (CNN)

AH-CHOO: US allergy season starting earlier due to global temperature rising, scientists say (The Guardian)

FREDDY: Malawi death toll from Cyclone Freddy rises to 190 (CNN), Africa's deadly Cyclone Freddy unleashes power equal to an entire hurricane season (TIME), Desperate Cyclone Freddy survivors dig with bare hands to search for survivors in rubble (CNN), Storm with power of entire hurricane season kills 308 in Africa (Bloomberg $), Cyclone Freddy wanes after battering Malawi, Mozambique (AP), Cyclone Freddy points to urgent need for climate-smart solutions in Malawi (The New Humanitarian)

SOLAR: Do solar farms lower property values? A new study has some answers (Inside Climate News), Why booming rooftop solar may ultimately be doomed (Energy Monitor), Floating solar panels could power thousands of cities entirely, new study finds (EcoWatch)

WATER: Fines for breaking US pollution laws can vary widely among states – that may violate the Constitution (The Conversation)

OIL & GAS: Russia’s oil revenues fall sharply as the West’s price cap starts to bite, IEA says (CNBC), Oil tumbles to lowest level since December 2021 as banking crisis routs markets (CNBC), Oil plunge is bad for energy stocks but actually good for other areas of our portfolio (CNBC)

PFAS: You probably have “forever chemicals” in your body. Here’s what that means. (Vox), PFAS rule sets up sprawling legal war (E&E $), Lawmakers praise PFAS plan, but cost questions remain (E&E $)

MINING: Mongolia looks to copper to transform stagnant economy (AP)

WIND: Texas drove out Chinese firm, not the wind farm it planned (AP)

COAL: Colombia coal mine gas blast kills at least 11 (Reuters), Britain considers coal power back-up for next winter (Reuters)

ETHANOL: Klobuchar, Fischer introduce bill to make higher-ethanol fuel available year-round (The Hill)

HYDROGEN: DOE launches $750M funding opportunity for clean hydrogen (Politico Pro $)

DISINFO: How conspiracy theorists made air pollution the latest front in the culture war (Novara Media)

CCS: EPA's slow approval of CO2 wells impedes CCS, businesses say (E&E $)

HOLLYWOOD: Kit Harington on making a “‘Black Mirror’ of a climate change show” with ‘extrapolations’ (Hollywood Reporter), In ‘extrapolations,’ Scott Z. Burns dramatizes some inconvenient truths (New York Times $)

HYDRO: DOE and TVA team up to develop and deploy hydropower tech (E&E $)

UTILITIES: Utilities’ push to extend monopolies may shape grid’s future (E&E $), Why gas bills are going crazy—with no end in sight (Wall Street Journal $)

TRANSMISSION: The bitter 17-year saga to build a power line critical to US climate action (Bloomberg $), The commodities billionaire betting on power lines for the energy transition (Bloomberg $)

EVs: What it’s like to own an electric car (Yale Climate Connections), $700 million for community EV charging now available from federal grant program (Utility Dive)

ACTIVISM: This conservative group is advocating for renewable energy (Bloomberg $), Lawyers and activists build pressure on Korean court to rule on climate (Climate Home)

BATTERIES: A Hungarian town seethes over a giant Chinese battery plant (New York Times $)

PAPACY: How 10 years of Pope Francis has changed climate action (TIME)

GNAR: Going beyond “green,” activism new standard in ski industry (AP)

CARS: War, transport weigh on Germany’s efforts to curb emissions (AP), House bill would block Calif. clean car waivers (E&E $), Europe lurches into civil war over car engine ban (E&E $)

FINANCE: Goldman sachs eyes a big payout from Silicon Valley Bank deal (New York Times $), SVB collapse unlikely to hit funding for climate tech hard (Reuters), IMF approves first batch of climate resilience loans (Climate Home), Silicon Valley Bank seizure leaves a massive hole — and a large opportunity — in the world of climate finance (CNBC)

YUM: Seaweed is having its moment in the sun (New York Times $), Climate crisis threatens truffle production but could put UK species back on the menu (The Conversation)

INTERNATIONAL: Britain to announce energy security measures by month-end (Reuters), Russia is vital to the clean energy transition. That's a problem (TIME), China to let power prices turn negative in solar-rich province (Bloomberg $), UK budget risks slowing the energy transition, green groups say (Bloomberg $), As climate woes worsen, Africa’s economies suffer, UN says (AP), Germany introduces national water strategy as climate change forces action (Reuters), Germany's greenhouse gasses emissions fell 1.9% in 2022 (Reuters)

• How to kick coal and finally start living the good life (Washington Post, Drew Goins $)
• A rush to mine the deep sea is underway. It must be stopped. (New York Times, Diva Amon $)
• Filling the hole Silicon Valley Bank left in the climate tech ecosystem (The Hill, Brad Handler and Morgan Bazilian)
• Climate bright spot: Building sector decarbonization is well underway (The Hill, Edward Mazria)
• Fire, then ice: are the mountains around my California town going to collapse? (New York Times, Suzanne Roberts $)
• Restore California's floodplains to capture more stormwater, protect human life (LA Times, Editorial)

Daily Caller: Jeffrey Epstein, China, And JPMorgan Are Using TikTok For '5G non-Kinetic Warfare' As Part of Climate 

We pick on The Daily Caller quite a lot, but that's only because they deserve it. They run so much dreck that is so very awful, it's hard to resist. Heck, even its Wikipedia entry has both a "journalistic standards" section about instances demonstrating their lack of journalistic standards, and a "controversies" section for its climate disinfo, election conspiracies, non-profit sketchiness, and white nationalist hires. 

The latest contender for the "controversies" section is from Michele Gama Sosa, the Daily Caller's opinion editor who brings a take that we're surprised to see outside one of the white nationalist blogs that The Daily Caller's has a history of hiring writers from.

It's hard to even describe or paraphrase Gama Sosa's diatribe, which is summarized, sort of, by the headline: "America's biggest enemies are in the boardroom, not abroad." Michele says China isn't the US’s biggest problem, while also ginning up anti-Chinese hate. For example, he describes TikTok as "part of Beijing’s 5G non-kinetic warfare operation" that "corrupts our youth with liberal propaganda" and claims that "JPMorgan is happy to help them get it done" (unclear how), which is apparently "little surprise, considering the bank's alleged Epstein ties." 

…What? Banking giant JPMorgan is helping "communist China" use TikTok to liberalize Americans because… Jeffrey Epstein, presumably? Gama Sosa does not explain or expand as he gish gallops his way through the rest of the piece.

It doesn't get any more coherent from there, as Gama Sosa attempts to convince readers that because American businesses wanted to make money in China in the 1960s, today they're "undermining American sovereignty" by "destroying industry, pushing poison to our children and cooperating with the Chinese and the WEF to create a global digital prison." 

According to Gama Sosa's version of history, the opening of China to capitalism has now become "ESG, as the likes of BlackRock and Vanguard call for America's deindustrialization in the name of saving the planet," as though Wall Street was actually more interested in saving the world than making a buck while it burns. But supposedly those capitalists and "their friends" at WEF, "for all their alleged climate and justice concerns, are no different, telling us we need to eat the bugs while looking the other way for China – and themselves, of course." 

A big-business-backed conservative disinformation outlet like The Daily Caller (that more or less exists to appease its funders with nice coverage about them) railing against Big Business may be unexpected. Unfortunately, the anti-Chinese COVID lab leak conspiracy paragraph is not. Joining in the rising anti-China rhetoric taking over Congress and disinfo outlets, Gama Sosa also foments hate against Chinese students conducting research in the United States and dismisses all allegations of anti-Asian racism as a tactic of deflecting scrutiny.

For those playing along at home, you're right to start counting, because between the anti-ESG, anti-WEF, anti-climate, and anti-China boxes checked, Gama Sosa almost has a completed Conspiracy Theory Bingo card! He just needs one more, and sure enough, he uses the standby of so many conspiracies that it could be the center free square: antisemitism. 

Laced throughout Gama Sosa's tirade are the standard dog whistles of the dangerous conspiracy theories that Jewish people are a shadowy force secretly controlling world events. He invokes the Great Reset conspiracy, refers to "unelected oligarchs and their pawns like Dr. Fauci," and suggests that "Klaus Schwab and his corporate buddies at the WEF" infiltrate governments, "ensuring people like Joe Biden are just their puppets."

Gama Sosa complains about "Disney rewrites" to make "Western literature and American films" more "inclusive," by which he means they "cut out white/European characters." (Are there no Black Americans? Why is "white" synonymous with European?) 

In the conclusion, Gama Sosa doesn't say who the enemy "behind China" is, that's supposedly "much more powerful and organized" than the world's most populous country, a shadowy force that "answers to no government or authority other than itself" and is "out to destroy us." He implicates a vague Big Business type conspiracy, but anyone who's seen or heard a standard antisemitic conspiracy theory will certainly hear the dog whistles loud and clear. 

He doesn't have to say that Jewish people are out to “replace us" outright, because after centuries of hate-mongering propagandists separating a good white "us" from a bad non-"white/European" group of people who are secretly pulling the strings for their own greedy purposes, his rightwing audience knows exactly who he's talking about. That's the whole point of dog whistles. 

This article serves as a chilling reminder of the fact that climate disinformation doesn’t exist in a vacuum: it is inextricably intertwined with white supremacy, and it is a threat not only to the future of human life on this planet but also to Jewish people and people of color right now.

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