FIRST LOOK:

Join multiple organizations for an online event on Solar Geoengineering: Warnings from Scientists, Indigenous Peoples, Youth, and Climate Activists. Wednesday, June 9, at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Big Three Money Managers Indirectly Finance Oil Extraction From The Amazon — Report: The world's three largest money managers hold at least $46 billion in debt and equity in 24 oil companies operating in the Amazon, according to a new report from Amazon Watch. Those firms — BlackRock, Vanguard Group, and State Street — repackage these holdings into financial products in which their clients invest. This effectively enables them to evade scrutiny for "indirectly financing and enabling" industries responsible for Amazonian oil extraction and what the report describes as the firms' complicity in "indigenous rights abuses, forest destruction, and climate chaos." All three firms say their hands are tied with regards to actually pulling their investments from carbon-intensive companies. All three firms also played a significant role in the election of three climate-conscious nominees to the ExxonMobil board of directors last week over the objections of management and have touted their ability to leverage major emitters in which they are invested to reduce their contribution to climate change. (E&E $)

'Like A Ton Of Bricks': NPS Draft Report Finds 1 In 10 Of The Planet's Monarch Sequoias Burned Last Year: Scientists have known last year's Castle Fire was probably the most destructive for California's famously fire-resilient sequoias in at least 700 years, but a draft National Park Service report obtained by the Visalia Times-Delta puts a quantitative measurement on that fire's climate-fueled toll. Between 7,500 and 10,000 monarch sequoias — about 10% to 14% of the world's mature sequoia population — perished in the fire. "I cannot overemphasize how mind-blowing this is for all of us. These trees have lived for thousands of years. They've survived dozens of wildfires already," Christy Brigham, chief of Resources Management and Science at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, told the Times-Delta. Redwood forests are some of the world's most efficient when it comes to removing carbon from the atmosphere, and also provide critical wildlife habitat and watershed protection for farmers and communities in the San Joaquin Valley. The loss numbers, derived from satellite data, will be confirmed visually when scientists are able to hike the high-elevation groves still covered in snow. “Not much in my life in the natural world has made me cry, but this did,” Nate Stephenson, a research ecologist for the U.S. Geological Survey who works in the park and has been studying sequoias for years, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It hit me like a ton of bricks.” (Visalia Times-Delta, San Francisco Chronicle, Earther, AP, The Guardian; Climate Signals background: Wildfires, 2020 Western Wildfire Season) 

Private Equity Firm Invested In Troubled Refinery, Lost Millions: Arclight Capital Partners, whose clients include NFL players, Maine teachers and Mayo Clinic doctors, lost hundreds of millions of dollars betting on a St. Croix oil refinery, Reuters reports. The Limetree Bay refinery was shut down for 60 days by the EPA last month after releasing a cloud of petroleum pollution that rained oil on nearby neighborhoods — for the second time since it reopened in February. The refinery was first shut down nearly 10 years ago after settling a multimillion-dollar lawsuit with the EPA for leaking more than 300,000 barrels of petrochemicals and polluting St. Croix's only aquifer. Linda Woods, a retired Maine school teacher, told Reuters she hopes the losses will "be a watershed moment" that pushes the state to limit oil and gas investments in the public pension plan. Last December and January, New York's state pension fund and three of New York Cities largest employee pension funds, respectively, announced they will divest from companies that contribute to climate change in order to protect their funds' long-term value. (Reuters)

LIABILITIES: European banks’ next big problem? The CO2 in their loan books (Bloomberg $) Climate change risks will affect U.S. bank capital in long-run (Reuters), ESG issues weigh on utility credit ratings, particularly PG&E, Edison and FirstEnergy: Moody's (Utility Dive)

BAILOUTS: Huge corporations are saving $10 billion on Texas taxes, and you’re paying for it (Houston Chronicle), G7 criticised for covid bailouts with no ‘green strings’ attached (FT $)

IT THINKS IT CAN, IT THINKS IT CAN: Engine No 1, the giant-killing hedge fund, has big plans (FT $)

INSURANCE: Insurers outline adaptation plan for Biden (E&E $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: The racist legacy many birds carry (Washington Post $)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Judge deals blow to Exxon in climate fight (E&E $), Connecticut climate suit against Exxon sent back to state court (Reuters, Politico Pro $)

WIN-WINS: How returning lands to native tribes is helping protect nature (Yale Environment 360)

NOT COOL: Smugglers undercut green targets for air conditioners, refrigerators in Europe (Wall Street Journal $)

AGENCIES: The suspension of Arctic refuge drilling leases (AP explainer), DOE raises gay pride flag at headquarters for first time (E&E $)

THE HILL: House Democrats unveil $547 billion transportation bill, a boost that highlights partisan divide (Washington Post $)

AMERICAN JOBS PLAN: Biden narrows infrastructure request, but hurdles remain for bipartisan deal (New York Times $), Biden offers tax concession in infrastructure talks with key Republican (Washington Post $), Biden can’t quit infrastructure talks and progressives are losing their minds (Politico), progress remains elusive after Biden-Capito meeting (E&E $), GOP mulls throwing Biden more infrastructure money (Politico Pro $), 

POLITICS: Granholm joins Manchin in West Virginia to tout clean energy (Washington Post $)

G7: Nobel laureates urge climate, biodiversity focus at G-7 (E&E $), G7 nations committing billions more to fossil fuel than green energy (Grist)

CITIES AND STATES: Analysis suggests climate policy in Ohio could save the world as much as $1 trillion (Energy News Network), Pennsylvania carbon pricing fight devolves into 'all-out' partisan warfare (Politico Pro $), study suggests pollution plays an outsized role in western Pennsylvania cancer rates (Environmental Health News), whose streets? The next New York mayor will have to decide. (New York Times $)

CALIFORNIA: California PUC proposes rules to accelerate near-term EV charger deployment (Utility Dive), California lawmakers reject bill slashing rooftop solar rewards (Politico Pro $), California utilities highlight reliability, cost concerns as state charts path to 100% clean power (Utility Dive)

TEXAS: Everyday Texans overlooked in state lawmakers’ response to power outages during winter storm (Energy News Network), new report by former PUC commissioners offers proposals to fix the Texas power grid (Houston Chronicle)

JUSTICE IN A COURT OF LAW: West Virginia governor sues bank for ‘stonewalling’ on business loans (Wall Street Journal $)

FERC: FERC should expand organized markets across the US, former chairs and commissioners say (Utility Dive)

IMPACTS: This Louisiana neighborhood is retreating in the face of climate change (Grist), as floods become more frequent, climate change threatens Seminole Tribe of Florida (Native News Online), climate tipping points could topple like dominoes, warn scientists (The Guardian), pests on the march as climate change fans spread of crop destroyers (Thomson Reuters Foundation), this scientist shoots trees to study how they migrate (The Verge), how the Earth’s tumultuous history gave the Mid-Atlantic its beloved destinations (Washington Post $)

HEAT: Record daily temperatures bake drought-stricken West (E&E $), Record heat worsens California's already punishing drought (Earther), Arizona’s Maricopa County announces year’s first heat death (AP)

DROUGHT: Battle lines blur on the Klamath as protests escalate  (E&E $), another drought looms. Is Afghanistan better prepared? (The New Humanitarian), worsening drought in the west weighs on farmers’ mental health (Cronkite News/AZPBS)

WILDFIRES: Wildfires are getting worse, so why is the U.S. still building homes with wood? (TIME), Oregon fall firestorms cautionary tale in worsening drought (AP)

IMPACTS' IMPACTS: Poverty, climate change drive Guatemala’s poor to migrate (AP)

ELECTRIFICATION: The case for up-front incentives to electrify everything in U.S. homes (Canary Media)

EMISSIONS: 5 things to know about the global race to net zero (E&E $)

RENEWABLES: Biden bolsters push for offshore wind (The Hill), Ørsted seeks green supermajor role with $57B plan (E&E $)

BATTERIES: U.S. to list Nevada flower as endangered, dealing blow to lithium mine (Reuters, AP)

OIL & GAS: China's CNPC cuts methane emission intensity by 6% in 2020 (Reuters)

EXXON: New Exxon board member Hietala brings business transformation experience (Reuters), Exxon Mobil activist victory isn’t really all about climate (Wall Street Journal $), Exxon’s newest activist investor is a 'space cowboy' (Earther)

COAL: World's coal producers now planning more than 400 new mines -research (Reuters)

HYDROGEN: 'Mission Innovation' returns with plans for DOE, hydrogen (E&E $)

UTILITIES: Vermont clean energy jobs board aims to net more resumes from women (Energy News Network)

GRID: Biggest grid market [PJM] sees costs plunge, nuclear rise (E&E $), western states look to regional transmission organizations to boost clean energy's pathways to market (Canary Media)

EVs: What the electric bus industry could do with a multibillion-dollar federal investment (Canary Media), Tesla failed to oversee Elon Musk’s tweets, SEC argued in letters (Wall Street Journal $, The Hill), should I go into debt to buy an electric vehicle? (Grist)

COMMODITIES: Copper boom has BHP, Freeport picking through waste (Wall Street Journal $)

WHAT'S IN A NAME: Petrostates see dire consequences if world rejects oil too fast (Bloomberg $)

THINKING BIG: Restore land the size of China to meet climate and nature goals, UN says (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

AVIATION: United Airlines signs deal to buy supersonic planes (Today Show)

BUSINESS: Major companies unite to push climate solutions (Axios)

CARBON PRICING: Why European carbon prices could be higher for good (Energy Monitor)

CARBON CAPTURE: Audubon study links bird habitat with carbon capture (E&E $)

FINANCE: Bank of England aims for net-zero emissions before 2050 (Reuters), carbon price boom attracts investors to emissions-trading market (Wall Street Journal $), new blood at Wall Street’s old guard rattles Corporate America (Reuters), oil and gas stocks carry $126 bln cost for Norway's sovereign fund - research (Reuters)

WEEKEND VIEWING: ‘Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet’ review: a dire warning (New York Times $, The Guardian)

WILDLIFE: These whales are shrinking, and it’s our fault (Earther, New York Times $, AP)

INTERNATIONAL: The first constitutional fight over oil drilling in the Caribbean ramps up in Guyana (Earther), Sri lanka faces an environmental disaster as a ship full of chemicals starts sinking (NPR, AP), Brazil’s Supreme Court authorizes criminal probe into environment minister (Reuters), China farmers push back the desert - one tree at a time (Reuters), Congo agrees $100 million solar-hybrid power deal for three cities (Reuters), Germany to speed up wind and solar energy expansion - draft (Reuters), top EU court: Germany 'persistently' broke air pollution rules (The Hill), UK climate tsar urges companies to join 'Race to Zero' campaign (Reuters)

• Call it what it is: a climate emergency (Covering Climate Now, Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope op-ed published in The Guardian, Teen Vogue, Gizmodo, and Columbia Journalism Review)
• Who’s paying the human costs of plastic pollution? (Prism Reports, Yvette Arellano and Mariana Del Valle Prieto Cervantes op-ed)
• The U.S. should swear off drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge once and for all (Washington Post, Editorial Board $)
• Sunrise Movement’s Gulf Coast trek highlights need for a Civilian Climate Corps (Teen Vogue, Chanté Davis op-ed)
• What the Affordable Care Act can teach Democrats about climate-change policy (Washington Post, Daniel J. Hopkins and David Masur op-ed $)
• What US policymakers can glean from Iceland's clean energy evolution (The Hill, Einar Hansen Tomasson op-ed)
• Immigrants need the safety that asylum can provide — not temporary work visas (The Hill, Rachel Micah-Jones op-ed)

When Facebook Said Trump Posts Were Misleading, Users Shared Them Twice As Much

Media Matters has a new report that makes it clear Facebook is more concerned with looking like it’s acting on misinformation than it is actually doing something about it. 

The report looks at just over 6,000 posts from President Donald Trump over the course of 2020, and found the 506 posts Facebook put a fact-check label on generated over 200 million interactions-— roughly 400,000 per post. The rest of the posts tended to get much less engagement, with an average of 152,000 and a total of 927 million interactions. 

But of course it wasn’t just Trump himself making false claims. There’s a whole network of conservative media who use the former reality TV star for clicks, and who he would use for fodder. In 2020, Trump cited regularly-wrong-for-political-purposes outlets 868 times, but only 147 of those posts ignominiously earned labels from Facebook. But like the larger sample, those posts citing rightwing media that were flagged by Facebook averaged twice as many interactions as the others. More than 86% of the flagged posts, 127 of 147, were about election integrity. 

Trump is now banned from basically every social media platform, but Media Matters found dozens of posts from accounts eagerly posting Trump statements of anti-election propaganda, with little apparent recourse from Facebook. That explicitly anti-democracy disinformation is what Facebook has deemed the most deserving of labeling, which is why it’s such a problem that the labels appear to backfire. 

Because while the average Trump post got 152,000 interactions, and ones citing right-wing media slightly less than that, the ones citing fake news sites that were flagged got 291,000 interactions. Even worse, the posts that cite right-wing sources, and include the phrase “stop the steal,” a rallying cry of the Jan 6 attack on Congress, and were labeled as misleading saw an incredible average of 640,000 interactions. 

Now, one might be tempted to defend Facebook in this instance by pointing out that things that got flagged are the ones that were most egregiously wrong, and that type of incendiary content always tends to perform better, so the labels may not be backfiring. 

But debating the relative efficacy of labeling false information, for example by diving into Facebook’s claim that the labels limit Trump posts by a measly 8%, simply distracts from the point that Facebook doesn’t need to label things it knows are misleading, and therefore shouldn’t be shared. 

If it’s clear the post isn’t true, they can just remove it. That way no one else can be tempted to share it! 

And if it’s clear the person posting it is repeatedly sharing things that aren’t true, their account can be removed, too. As the data here shows, instead of chasing various posts citing those supposed “news” outlets that just so coincidentally seem to repeatedly publish stories that are false but make conservatives feel good, Facebook could decide that such toxic content is not welcome on its platform at all. 

It doesn’t seem to want to do that though. Instead, according to a recent post, they’ve decided to double down on this labeling approach that apparently doubles engagement, putting up warnings when users go to pages that have repeatedly shared false info, further reducing how widely serial liars’ posts will spread (but still letting them post), and telling users when they share something that’s been fact-checked. 

Which all seems like a lot more work, and allows for a lot more lies to spread, than simply banning the people who abuse the platform in the first place.

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