FIRST AND FOREMOST: 

The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) released guidance for newsrooms on covering the murder of eight people in Atlanta, including six Asian women, as well as the rise of anti-Asian racism in the U.S. That guidance includes:  

• Take caution with language in news coverage that could fuel the hypersexualization of Asian women.
• Provide context. 
• Understand anti-Asian racism and invisibility.
• Diversify your sources by interviewing and quoting AAPI experts.
• Empower and support your AAPI journalists and colleagues.

COVID Pollution Drop No Match For Western Wildfires: Wildfires across the American West caused so much deadly air pollution in 2020 that they far more than overcame the drop in pollution caused by pandemic-responsive travel restrictions, according to a new air quality report. The findings, released Tuesday by IQAir Group, a Swiss-based air-quality technology company, show an overall 7% increase in fine particulate (PM2.5) pollution for the year nationwide despite a 13% drop between March and July from reduced fossil fuel combustion. Climate change worsens wildfires in multiple ways as heated temperatures and drought turn landscapes into proverbial tinder boxes. Of the world's 25 most polluted cities last September, 24 were in California and Oregon, with heavy smoke in Weed, California, driving PM2.5 levels to 471 times the WHO's target. (Washington Post $, Wall Street Journal $; Climate Signals background: Wildfires; 2020 Western wildfire season)

The Omega Of Greek Hurricane Names: The international body that names hurricanes and tropical storms will no longer name storms after Greek letters after the record-shattering 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. The World Meteorological Organization said too much focus was given to the Greek names themselves and not on the dangerous storms they represented and some sounded too similar, which caused confusion. The WMO decided not to change the start date of the official hurricane season (currently June 1), though its director said discussions will continue. The 2020 hurricane season included 30 named storms, one-third of which intensified rapidly before making landfall, a dangerous phenomenon made more likely as ocean waters are heated by climate change. (AP, Washington Post $, USA Today, Weather Channel, CNN; Climate Signals background: Hurricanes, 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season)

Vast Majority Of IDPs Displaced By Climate-triggered Disasters, IFRC Says: Approximately 10 million people were internally displaced by climate change-linked events in the last six months alone, Reuters reports. With 2.3 million people displaced over the same period by conflict, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies report, released Wednesday, indicates the vast majority of internal displacement is now triggered by climate change. “Things are getting worse as climate change aggravates existing factors like poverty, conflict, and political instability,” Helen Brunt, Asia Pacific Migration and Displacement Coordinator for the IFRC told Reuters. “The compounded impact makes recovery longer and more difficult: people barely have time to recover and they’re slammed with another disaster.” (Reuters)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Dems ask Biden to revoke permits for Louisiana plastics plant (E&E $), 'environmental racism'? Tennessee pipeline sparks uproar (E&E $), soaring prices spur miners' hunt for growth, fueling indigenous and investor ire (Reuters), White supremacist propaganda surged in 2020, report says (AP), [Atlanta-area] Cop who said spa shooter wasn’t racist against Asians had promoted racism himself (HuffPost, Washington Post $, Buzzfeed), Christian leaders wrestle with Atlanta shooting suspect’s Southern Baptist ties (Washington Post $)

OCEAN FISHING: Bottom trawling releases as much carbon as air travel, landmark study finds (The Guardian, Thomson Reuters Foundation, New York Times $, Climate Home)

DENIAL: Why a climate-denial coalition may be cracking apart (The Atlantic)

ACTIVISM: Unionizing showdown bedevils Audubon (E&E $), the ‘army of environmental super voters’ is growing, and marching on city hall (HuffPost), Mauritian climate activist holds underwater protest to protect seagrass (Reuters)

TEXAS: Texas utility commissioner resigns after leaked call pledging to help banks keep blackout profits (Earther, Texas Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Utility Dive, E&E $), Texas House rejects bill to reprice electricity sold during winter storm (Houston Chronicle), Texas officials say $29 million in electric bills to be forgiven (The Hill), NRG Energy estimates $750 million loss from Texas' deadly winter storm (Houston Chronicle)

YOU HATE TO SEE IT: ‘They aren't used to losing’: wealthy New York enclave battles over offshore windfarm (The Guardian)

YOU LOVE TO SEE IT: Solar farm will provide revenue stream in Jasper County, Indiana, as coal plant closes (Yale Climate Connections)

SOVEREIGN DEBT: UK, US and others face credit rating fall over CO2 emissions - study (The Guardian, Bloomberg $)

AGENCIES: With Trump gone, FEMA brass issues climate warning (E&E $), DOE's first task for loan guarantees: calming industry nerves (Politico Pro $), factbox: the [SEC]'s forays into climate change enforcement (Reuters), Yellen vows to use 'full power' of U.S. government to tackle climate change (Reuters) 

EPA: Dems warn of 'dangerously diminished' science workforce (E&E $), EPA asks court to vacate Trump's greenhouse gas threshold rule (Politico Pro $), whiff of the unthinkable at EPA: CO2 standards for states (E&E $)

DOI: Haaland to visit Utah to review national monument boundaries (Politico Pro $, E&E $), BLM rebukes Trump, advances large-scale Calif. solar project (E&E $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: CEQ asks court to remand Trump NEPA rule (Politico Pro $), Biden administration wants the financial sector to face up to climate risk (Washington Post $)

AGENDA: Biden's climate plan is also a union plan (E&E $), Biden presses automakers for emissions deal (E&E $)

THE HILL: Senate leader [Chuck Schumer] stalls climate overhaul of flood insurance program (New York Times $), Dems weigh assault on Trump rules, but time is short (E&E $), top Dems ask Biden to freeze Trump's revamped nationwide water permits (Politico Pro $), 12 Republicans opposed Congressional Gold Medals for police who protected them on Jan. 6 (Washington Post $, HuffPost), what’s doable if Democrats fly solo on infrastructure (Bloomberg $)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Katherine Tai confirmed by Senate as first woman of color to be U.S. trade chief (Reuters, Politico Pro $)

TRANSITION, PERSONNEL: Biden's big difference? Diversity (The Hill)

CITIES AND STATES: Invest in low-carbon cities to protect climate and boost jobs, governments urged (Thomson Reuters Foundation), its future water supply in doubt, [the city of] Colstrip turns to Montana Legislature (KPVI), Larimer County puts temporary halt on oil and gas, land use applications (Coloradoan, Colorado Politics)

CALIFORNIA: California AG challenges housing plans in wildfire areas (AP)

EXTREME WEATHER: The south faces dangerous 'high risk' weather and tornadoes (Earther, AP)

IMPACTS: The spooky rise of ‘ghost forests’ along the eastern seaboard (Earther)

METHANE: European gas is a long way from tackling methane leaks (Bloomberg $), why a powerful planet-warming gas is surging in Earth's atmosphere (Mashable)

STEEL: Steelmaker ArcelorMittal steps up carbon-neutral push (Reuters)

RENEWABLES: Solar makes up majority of new resource additions for 2nd year in a row, reaching record 19.2 GW (Utility Dive), solar project aims to deliver training and equity to North Minneapolis (Energy News Network), Southeast grid plan spurs backlash over renewables, cost (E&E $)

OIL & GAS: Alaska Native Corp. continues quest for seismic in ANWR (E&E $), ExxonMobil submits proposal for Colombia fracking pilot project (Reuters), gasoline use has probably topped out as consumer habits shift (New York Times $), global oil demand 'could exceed pre-COVID levels without clean energy moves' (The Guardian), oil's post-pandemic global future (Axios), telework shift will barely affect oil consumption, IEA says (Axios)

PLASTICS: Microplastics and algae tangle in the Great Lakes (Environmental Health News), Texas freeze triggers global plastics shortage (Wall Street Journal $), oil, climate and plastics: What's going on? (E&E $)

PIPELINES: Enbridge asks Canadian government to support [Line 5] oil pipeline in dispute with Michigan (Reuters, Politico Pro $), Enbridge warns of oil shortages if Michigan shuts key pipeline (Bloomberg $), Mountain Valley Pipeline's extension opposed by existing Transco pipeline (The Roanoke Times), states sue Biden in bid to revive Keystone XL pipeline (AP, Axios)

COAL: Bluestone Resources sues Greensill Capital for fraud (Wall Street Journal $, Bloomberg $), insurer AIA agrees to pull out of all coal investments by 2028 (The Guardian)

HYDROGEN: The race to scale up green hydrogen to help solve some of the world’s dirtiest energy problems (InsideClimate News)

UTILITIES: Renewables industry questions whether Duke, Southern SEEM proposal would limit competition (Utility Dive)

EVs: From Amazon to Fedex, the delivery truck is going electric (NPR), senators investigate electric vehicle supply chains (E&E $)

SHIPPING: Retail giants look to greener cargo ships to meet climate goals (The Verge)

CARBON CAPTURE: Carbon capture is key to companies’ net zero pledges (Wall Street Journal $)

GEOENGINEERING: Why cloud seeding won't reverse climate droughts (E&E $)

FINANCE: SEC official: companies avoiding ESG disclosures 'risk higher costs of capital' (Utility Dive)

INTERNATIONAL: Britain to spend $1.4 billion to cut carbon emissions from industry, hospitals (Reuters), China's climate pledge to create tectonic shift, enhance energy security: Woodmac (Reuters), factbox: Britain to shake up how companies are run and audited (Reuters), Mexico president threatens constitutional change if power bill struck down (Reuters), France is ready to save the planet. but not at the expense of meat (New York Times $), India considers 2050 net-zero target, a decade before China (Bloomberg $)

• Al Gore describes a ‘well-known playbook’ that fossil fuel companies employ to win community support (InsideClimate News, interview)
• Federal ‘brain drain’ threatens American scientific leadership, new report says (Washington Post, Joe Davidson column $)
• Government spending is a priority for young voters, not the national debt (Teen Vogue, Kate Taylor Mighty op-ed)
• Why Biden's securities regulator faces climate crackdown challenges (Reuters, Chris Prentice, Ross Kerber analysis)
• Goodbye and good riddance to the filibuster (Washington Post, E.J. Dionne Jr. column $)
• We can’t prevent tomorrow’s catastrophes unless we imagine them today (Washington Post, J. Peter Scoblic op-ed $)
• Is it too soon for America to adopt a comprehensive net-zero strategy? (The Independent, Stephen Lezak, Kate Cullen, Kaya Axelsson op-ed)

Condensation 'the Greatest Lie Ever Perpetrated,' Claims Geoengineering Conspiracy Video With Over 100k YouTube Views

Yesterday, we came across a post on “Health Impact News,” a website with COVID conspiracies in its “Top stories this week” column, with a double-coloned-headline that refused to be ignored: URGENT: New documentary proves climate engineering by controlling the weather (NOT ‘global warming’) is destroying life and the planet: immediate danger FAR greater than COVID-19.

The post itself is no less breathless, describing The Dimming as providing “conclusive evidence” that “earth is not being destroyed by global warming as defined by the Globalists, but it is being destroyed by the Globalists themselves through their weather modification efforts to dim the sun by spraying nanoparticles into the atmosphere and then using microwave transmissions such as 5G to weaponize the weather.” 

Oh no! That sounds awful! So with a fully open mind not at all biased by chemtrail conspiracy kooks because it doesn’t actually say 'chemtrails' anywhere, we fired up the almost 2-hour “documentary” to learn all about the Globalist threat. Behind the movie is Dane Wigington, the man behind GeoengineeringWatch.org, a website that will scratch any nostalgia itch you might have for crowded late-2000’s era website design.  

According to the video, Wigington was just your average climate-change-concerned Californian, until the solar panels powering his off-grid house began underperforming. Then, instead of blaming his own heightened expectations or an overzealous salesman for his situation, he found his culprit in the clouds and began his journey as The Man Who Knows The Secret who will Reveal the Truth about the unknown and unnamed elite secretly pulling the strings behind the scenes.  

We are "officially told" the contrails from planes are just “condensation,” but “the condensation trail narrative is perhaps the greatest lie ever perpetrated on populations all over the world.” And since geoengineering proposals exist, despite the fact that they’re just proposals, their existence and the existence of clouds covering Wigington’s solar panels, clearly proves that nefarious figures are using every jet in the world to control the weather. 

Yeah.

Now, is geoengineering an actual, real thing? Yes. There are pollutants we could pump into the atmosphere in order to block some sunlight and lessen some of the effects of atmospheric warming. So Wigington has plenty of material to use, with extended clips of actual scientists like David Keith and John Holdren talking about geoengineering as a way to buy some time to reduce carbon emissions, with Keith noting that it might potentially kill thousands of people, among other big obvious drawbacks of trying to use pollution to fix pollution. 

But academics talking theoretically about how particular chemicals in the atmosphere would change the weather is hardly proof that every jet plane in the world is “literally decimating Earth’s life support systems.” And wouldn't the scientists who study the atmosphere notice if there was something being artificially added to the climate system to the extent that it was being weaponized to cause drought or otherwise control the weather? Why haven’t any of the thousands of scientists measuring minutiae of the atmosphere noticed a massive scheme to change and control the natural world? 

Conspiracy, of course! “These programs are not being acknowledged by any official source” because of “the climate science community that has indeed betrayed the human race and the entire web of life by their denial of the ongoing climate engineering element in our skies.” 

Of course! The same people pulling their hair out to get people to understand the impacts of pollution are actually in denial and hiding pollution from the public. Makes total sense! 

Then there was a parade of mostly old veterans talking about things they can’t explain in the same way you see on TV shows about UFOs and ghosts, and one “geomicrobiologist” who showed his face uncensored and voice unchanged, but who apparently refused to give his name. (The 4 minute trailer says his “identity to be disclosed with ‘The Dimming’ film release”, but apparently the climate scientist cabal intimidated him out of it. Or something…) 

All of that got us to about 30 minutes in, which was about as much as we could stomach. Perhaps the nanoparticle and 5G energy beam stuff in the latter half of the video is more convincing. We skipped forward to the last 15 minutes and heard about how “half of the people listening to this talk will die with or of dementia, and the main cause” is the nanoparticles someone is spreading via all these jets, that could be stopped at any point. They don’t ever seem to name who is giving half the world this lethal dementia, but the video suggests “a legal approach” so apparently they’re going to sue the sky, or something.  

Anyway, despite being just a week old, the video has racked up over 100,000 views on YouTube. Which can only make us wonder WHO IS SPENDING TWO HOURS WATCHING MOSTLY JUST PICTURES OF CLOUDS IN THE SKY!??!??! JUST LOOK OUTSIDE!!! THERE’S ALREADY A MASSIVE CONSPIRACY TO POLLUTE THE ATMOSPHERE, IT’S CALLED THE FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY!!!!!!!

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