FIRST LOOK:

Environmental journalism has long upheld incomplete and white-dominated narratives about our planet. Uproot, a network of and for environmental journalists of color, seeks to change that and invite a generation of new voices to make the beat their own. Interested journalists can complete a survey and become a member here.

Atmospheric CO2 Reaches New High At Over 420 PPM: The concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere hit more than 420 parts per million for the first time in human history on Saturday. The daily average of 421.21 ppm at Hawaii's benchmark Mauna Loa Observatory means human activities like burning fossil fuels have produced so much CO2 pollution that the atmospheric concentration of CO2 is more than halfway to double preindustrial levels. “I’m even more certain CO2 causes global heating than I am that smoking causes cancer," Kate Marvel, a research scientist at Columbia University told the Washington Post. "The world is already more than 2 [degrees Fahrenheit] warmer than it was before the Industrial Revolution.” (Washington Post $)

Tropical Cyclone Seroja Kills More Than 150 In Indonesia, East Timor: More than 150 people are now dead, Al Jazeera reports, with thousands homeless and more than 10,000 evacuated as Category 2 Tropical Cyclone Seroja dumped torrential rain on Indonesia and East Timor (also known as Timor-Leste) Tuesday. Indonesian weather agency head Dwikorita Karnawati told reporters climate change could be to blame for the appearance of otherwise rare tropical cyclones making landfall in Indonesia. “Seroja is the first time we’re seeing tremendous impact because it hit the land. It’s not common,” she told a news conference. Landslides and flash flooding uprooted trees and swept buildings down mountainsides on Lembata island, forcing residents to flee "with just wet clothes on their backs and nothing else,” said the area’s Deputy Mayor Thomas Ola Longaday. Climate change increases the atmosphere's capacity to hold moisture, making cyclones and extreme precipitation worse. Deforestation also increases communities' vulnerability to landslides. The effects of Tropical Cyclone Seroja are expected to remain through the week. (Al Jazeera, Reuters, AFP, NPR, BBC, AP; Climate Signals background: Extreme precipitation; Cyclonic storms)

Amazon’s Prime Example of Labor Law Violations: Amazon illegally fired two employees after they publicly criticized the company for its lack of action on climate change and its failure to protect warehouse workers from the novel coronavirus, the National Labor Relations Board determined. Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa were highly visible members of the small group of Amazon employees who in 2018 called for Amazon to do more to address climate change, and eventually got 8,700 colleagues to sign on to their efforts. They were fired last April, not long after their group of about 400 employees spoke out, in intentional and public violation of Amazon's tightened down internal policies clamping down on employee criticism. Cunningham and Costa allege they were fired in retaliation for their activism. If they and Amazon do not settle the case, the NLRB will accuse Amazon of unfair labor practices and the case will go before an administrative law judge. Also this week, the NLRB will be counting votes to see if Amazon’s 6,000 Alabama warehouse employees will unionize, a potentially major change for the company’s notoriously exploitative labor practices. (NLRB determination: New York Times $, AP, Reuters; Amazon policy change: Earther; Union vote: New York Times $, AL.com)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: How Biden's environmental justice plan could backfire (E&E $), Minneapolis police chief says Chauvin violated policy (NewsOne), former cop arrested for storming capitol was once named 'officer of the year' after falsely accusing Black man of murder (The Root)

VOTER SUPPRESSION: Bernice King weighs in on Georgia boycotts amid controversial voting law (The Grio), corporations gave over $50M to voting restriction backers (AP), GOP sharpens criticism of corporate pushback on GOP voting laws (Wall Street Journal $)

MEDIA: Inside a stealth ‘persuasion machine’ promising Republican victories in 2022 (Washington Post $), [Dakota Access] pipeline company issues broad subpoena to news site that covered protests against it (The Intercept)

CORONAVIRUS: Tracking how the world’s ‘green recovery’ plans aim to cut emissions (Carbon Brief)

IMPACTS' IMPACTS: Former Obama official on the surge at the border: 'this is a refugee crisis' (NPR)

FLORIDA: The crisis at a Florida wastewater reservoir show the risks of our weak infrastructure (Earther), possible second breach at Florida reservoir is investigated and ruled out (New York Times $)

ICMYI: Here’s all the climate science you missed so far this year (Bloomberg $)

OFFSETS: A top U.S. seller of carbon offsets [The Nature Conservancy] starts investigating its own projects (Bloomberg $)

AGENCIES:​ DOE begins 'repairing damage' done by Trump to energy efficiency program, say advocates (Utility Dive), DOE labs unveil blueprint for fast EV charging (E&E $), EPA chief highlights water improvement provisions in infrastructure bill (The Hill), meet [EPA] chief of staff Dan Utech (E&E $)

LAWSUITS: Appeals court agrees to pause lawsuit over Trump-era [car] emissions rule (The Hill, E&E $), court tosses Trump's surprise climate threshold rule (Politico Pro $, The Hill), court vacates Trump-era landfill methane deadline rule (Politico Pro $), US state officials urge Garland to reverse Trump positions on climate deception cases (Reuters), lawsuit foreshadows feud over Biden's social cost of carbon (E&E $)

THE HILL: Democrats can use unprecedented move for an extra filibuster-proof bill, Schumer aide says (Politico Pro $), for Republicans, pipes are infrastructure only if they carry oil (HuffPost), progressives, moderates push back on Biden plan (E&E $), Senate Democrats release international tax framework as lawmakers start to tweak Biden's plan (Politico Pro $)

JOE MANCHIN: Citing his ‘leverage,’ Manchin says White House tax plan must change (Washington Post $)

WHITE HOUSE: [White House] budget proposal coming soon (E&E $)

AMERICAN JOBS PLAN: “You need water to live”: Pete Buttigieg explains infrastructure to Republicans (Mother Jones), Biden clean electricity standard faces high hurdles (The Hill), Biden wants to tackle warming with a long shopping list (E&E $), the wage gap that threatens Biden's climate plan (Politico), Yellen calls for a global minimum corporate tax rate. (New York Times $), fossil fuels get too many government handouts. Biden wants to cut them off. (Vox)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: U.S., UAE pledge joint effort to finance decarbonisation (Reuters), John kerry to push India on net zero target ahead of global meet (Bloomberg $)

CITIES AND STATES: Louisville's super-polluting chemical plant emits not one, but two potent greenhouse gases (InsideClimate News)

CALIFORNIA: How California stands to benefit from the $2.2 trillion infrastructure proposal (New York Times $)

TEXAS: As Texas freeze gas bills come due, cue up the lawsuits (Wall Street Journal $), when the power went out, Texas oil and gas regulators rushed to defend the industry’s image (Texas Tribune)

FERC: FERC names enviro lawyer, ex-Manchin aide to top roles (Reuters, E&E $)

IMPACTS: [California] megadrought: 'Climate change starting to hammer home' (E&E $), Hawaii study offers design changes to fight climate change (AP)

WILDFIRES: Projected surge of lightning spells more wildfire trouble for the arctic (InsideClimate News), wildfire in Theodore Roosevelt National Park triples in size (AP), Wisconsin governor declares emergency because of wildfires (AP)

ALLERGY SEASON: Achoo! Climate change boosts pollen, worsens allergies (E&E $)

RENEWABLES: Weekly data: renewables overtake nuclear in global electricity mix (Energy Monitor)

EFFICIENCY: Minneapolis program puts energy audits into hands of potential homebuyers (Energy News Network)

OIL & GAS: Tipping point for Big Oil? Shareholders ramp up climate push (E&E $)

PIPELINES: ‘An unstoppable force’: Memphis gears up to stop a proposed oil pipeline (Atmos), Police ask Enbridge to pay for 7,500 hours of pipeline patrol (Heated)

COAL: More U.S. coal power retired under Trump than in Obama's second term (Earther)

GRID: Biden’s grid proposal may be a square peg in a round hole (Wall Street Journal $)

EVs: Biden proposal to add EV charging stations faces bumpy road (Wall Street Journal $), Tesla delivers another record in Q1/2021 (Electrive)

AIR CONDITIONING: Cooling industry lags in fight against warming — report (E&E $)

TRAINS: Amtrak’s long-range plan would add new routes across South (AP)

ACTIVISM: Extinction Rebellion to step up campaign against banking system (The Guardian), with stories and puppets, environmentalist battles to save Indonesia's mangroves (Reuters)

CARBON CAPTURE: 12 factors will make or break CCS projects — study (E&E $)

WILDLIFE: Algal blooms target sea otter hearts (Environmental Health News), climate change shrinks marine life richness near equator: study (Reuters)

GOOD NEWS: Arkansas governor vetoes ban on gender-affirming medical care for youth (The 19th* News, Advocate)

• Fossil fuel companies are job killers (New Republic, Kate Aronoff column)
• Concerns about clean water shouldn’t stop with Twin Metals (MinnPost, Arne H. Carlson, Siena Leone-Getten, and Maya Stovall op-ed)
• Biden’s ‘infrastructure’ bill signals a death sentence for natural gas (Forbes, David Blackmon op-ed)
• The GOP claim that only 5 to 7 percent of Biden’s plan is for ‘real infrastructure’ [gets 3 pinocchios] (Washington Post, Fact Checker $)
• Cities and states must lead as window of opportunity shrinks for climate action (The Hill, Mayor Kate Gallego and Jon Goldin-Dubois op-ed)
• Embracing the softer side of infrastructure (New York Times, Paul Krugman column $)
• The collapse of 'big steel' should be a warning for climate skeptics (The Hill, R. David Harden and Eric Haxthausen op-ed)
• Cascading Disasters on the Gulf Coast Clarify the Need for a Green New Deal (A Resilience, Zef Egan, Claudia Tomateo and Karim Ahmed, op-ed)

‘Don’t Be Socialist, Just Be Like Denmark’, Confused Conservative Climate Activist Advises in AIER

April Fool’s Day is supposed to be on the first, but apparently the Koch-y, COVID-deniers at AIER are running a few days behind, because on the 4th they published something that has got to be a gag. 

“Stop greenwashing socialism,” the headline read for the piece by the American Conservation Coalition’s National Policy Director, Christopher Barnard. While ACC is one of the pro-carbon-price conservative climate groups, this was certainly not a piece of good faith debate.

Instead, Barnard deliberately conflates the support of American youth for (eco-)socialism — as exemplified by the Green New Deal and the Democratic Socialists of America — with the totalitarian communism of the Soviet Union, which did extract an incredibly heavy toll on the environment. 

But Barnard claims “socialist governments have been both environmental and economic disasters” and instead “environmental progress is most advanced in richer, developed countries.” Now, yes, more developed countries can afford more advanced pollution controls and clean-up, and yes the communist Soviet block was hardly green, but Barnard claims tha “the countries with the most economic freedom also have the best environmental outcomes, metric by metric.” 

To make such a claim, he cites a global environmental performance index ranking from Yale and Columbia, “overlaid with” the Heritage Foundation's “economic freedom index”, a mostly-meaningless measure the industry front group cooks up every year as part of their efforts to roll back regulations.  

There’s one little problem with Barnard’s thesis that socialism is bad because economic freedom leads to environmental progress: the #1 country on the environmental performance list is Denmark. The other countries on the top 10 list are all the other European nations people like Barnard would decry as socialist hellholes in any other context: nordic model-socialist nations Finland (7), Sweden(8) and Norway(9) round out the top 10 list with Denmark. Consummate conservative punching bag and epitome of all things lefty, France, comes in at number 5 on the environment list, but way down at 64 on Heritage’s. 

The US is #24 on the environment and #20 to Heritage, while Singapore, the country Heritage rated as #1 most free-est despite the fact that chewing gum is illegal, clocks in at #39 on the environmental progress list.  

At #19 on the environmental list is the country Heritage ranked as second-most-free: New Zealand. That country is currently led by social democrat Prime Minister Jacinda Arden, who was a former president of the International Union of Socialist Youth. 

So apparently, according to Barnard, kids today enthralled by eco-socialism shouldn’t look to communist USSR for climate policy inspiration, instead they should look to places that are making environmental progress and that the free market fanatics at the Heritage Foundation rank highly, like Denmark and New Zealand. 

You know what? 

We agree!

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