FIRST LOOK:

This week, America is All In launched a TV ad to showcase the coalition of individuals, businesses, and institutions across the country who are committed to demonstrating America’s readiness for bold climate action.

Torrential Rain, Deadly Floods Wreak Devastation In Western Europe: More than 100 people are dead and about 1,300 still missing in the wake of extreme rain and flooding western Europe. The torrential rainfall — as much as two months' worth in two days, amounts not seen in the summer for at least a century — unleashed flooding that stacked cars like children's toys and drowned residents in their cellars. Electricity was also cut off for 165,000 in western Germany. Extreme precipitation is one of the clearest and most widespread impacts of climate change. Warmer air holds more water, and thus dumps more water when it rains — just as a bigger bucket can hold and dump more water. “Entire villages are flooded,” Malu Dreyer, the premier of Germany's Rhineland-Palatinate state, said in a speech to the local parliament. “Houses float away just like that.” The flooding is one in a recent series of events — including heatwaves in the Arctic and Western US — shocking climate scientists who say the climate impacts they have long predicted are coming sooner, and across a greater area than they expected. “I am surprised by how far [the rainfall] is above the previous record,” Dieter Gerten, who grew up in a village in the affected area and is now professor of global change climatology and hydrology at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told The Guardian. “We seem to be not just above normal but in domains we didn’t expect in terms of spatial extent and the speed it developed.” (Flooding: The Guardian, AP, Washington Post $, New York Times $, France24, AFP, NBC, Wall Street Journal $, NPR; Rain intensity: Axios; Power outages: Bloomberg $; Climate scientists: The Guardian, CNN; Photos: Politico EU; Climate Signals background: Extreme precipitation)

Work Injuries Caused By Heat Inequitably Suffered, More Frequent Than Official Stats: Official records dramatically fail to capture workplace injuries caused by extreme heat, new data described in congressional testimony Thursday shows. The dangers, which go beyond heat stroke and include injuries from falls or mishandled machinery, are concentrated among poor workers in yet another example of how climate change worsens societal inequities. “Most people still associate climate risk with sea-level rise, hurricanes and wildfires,” R. Jisung Park, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles and the lead author of the study, told the New York Times. “Heat is only beginning to creep into the consciousness as something that is immediately damaging.” (New York Times $; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)

Driven By Erratic Winds, Bootleg Fire Grows: The Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon grew erratically to more than 225,000 acres Thursday as officials issued more evacuation orders along the eastern edge of the inferno. The fire was expected to merge with the smaller Log Fire overnight. Unpredictable winds caused extremely dangerous conditions for firefighters as the blaze, fueled by heat and drought made worse by climate change, continues to grow. A megadrought and a drumbeat of heatwaves across the West have set the stage for a horrific fire season. Smoke from the wildfires is stretching all the way to Greenland, illustrating the global impacts of the blazes, while air quality sensors closer to the blaze are showing unhealthy levels of pollution. (Bootleg Fire: AP, Axios; Smoke: Gizmodo; Climate Signals background: 2021 Western wildfire season, drought, extreme heat and heatwaves)

INVESTING: Ex-BNP Paribas Banker Targets $1 Billion for Japanese ESG Fund (Bloomberg $)

FED: Powell says fed likely to require banks to test for climate risk (Bloomberg $)

CORPORATE GREENWASHING: Corporate climate efforts lack impact, say former sustainability executives (Bloomberg $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) INJUSTICE: Detroit’s prison population will soon be stuck living next to a toxic site (Grist), unearthing the horror of Native American boarding schools (The Real News)

CORONAVIRUS: Emissions from electricity on track for a record high (Politico Pro $), electricity demand rebound will require more fossil fuel generation -IEA (Reuters), trillions of dollars spent on Covid recovery in ways that harm environment (The Guardian)

MEDIA: Why TV is so bad at covering climate change (Gizmodo)

TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST: Biden administration proposes sweeping protections for Alaska’s Tongass National Forest (Washington Post $, E&E $, The Hill, Reuters)

CES: Clean electricity standard lands spot in $3.5 trillion Democratic-backed infrastructure deal (Utility Dive), what's a Clean Energy Standard? Democrats try carrots and sticks on climate change (NBC)

TEST VOTE: Schumer says he will force a test vote as early as wednesday on the infrastructure plan. (New York Times $, AP), Senate nears pivotal vote on bipartisan infrastructure deal that's still unwritten (Politico Pro $)

EPA: EPA chemicals office tries to fight scientific misconduct (E&E $), 'jaw-dropping': EPA issues rare lead order in W.Va. (E&E $), EPA plan to revamp clean water rule draws bipartisan fire (E&E $)

DOE: Report: create DOE transmission agency to fight climate threat (E&E $), DOE picks nuclear, environmental justice officials (E&E $)

DOI: Haaland to mark N.M wilderness expansion (E&E $), retired investigator: Biden nominee stonewalled 1989 probe (AP)

HOUSE: NY progressive Bowman introducing $446B 'Green New Deal for Public Schools' (The Hill)

SENATE: Panel approves Manchin energy package after hours of debate (E&E $)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Biden’s BLM pick hit with new allegations from former investigator in tree-spiking case (Politico, E&E $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Developing nations put numbers on the table for the next climate finance goal (Climate Home, The Guardian), Kerry, Russian counterpart vow to tackle increasing climate change with 'seriousness and urgency' (The Hill), No deal reached on Nord Stream pipeline as Merkel visits Biden (Axios)

CITIES AND STATES: New York officials are souring on gas power (The River), Virginia finally has its first C-PACE success story, a decade after initial law (Energy News Network)

CALIFORNIA: California has embraced clean energy, so why is it still building natural gas infrastructure? (Canary Media)

FERC: Senators clash over policy to increase FERC transmission siting authority (Utility Dive), FERC launches notice for transmission planning rulemaking (Politico Pro $)

IMPACTS: The Dust Bowl offers key climate change lessons for the US (Teen Vogue), there's not a cloud in the sky, but your house could still be underwater (NPR, The Verge), in pursuit of Hurricane Laura disaster relief, Lake Charles mayor goes to Washington (The Advocate)

Lake Charles mayor heads to Washington to seek hurricane aid (AP), more warming a threat to the Hajj – and human habitation – in the Middle East (Yale Climate Connections)

HEAT: These cities have the most stifling heat islands in the United States (Washington Post $)

DROUGHT: Colorado’s monsoon season is struggling to bring relief to rivers, ranchers and wildfires as the climate warms (Colorado Public Radio), drought to last through October, worsening fire risk, NOAA says (Politico Pro $), thousands of flamingos die in drought in central Turkey (Reuters), coalition blasts plans to divert Colorado River amid drought (AP)

WILDFIRES: Wildfires in the West affect Tribal communities (Black Wall Street Times), monsoon storms moving into Southwest as heat wave fuels wildfires in the West (ABC), Montana faces scarce firefighting resources amid drought (AP)

FORESTS: The Amazon rainforest is the world’s carbon sink. Parts of it now release more carbon than can be absorbed. (Washington Post $), will Russia’s forests be an asset or an obstacle in climate fight? (Yale Environment 360)

ELECTRIFICATION: Massachusetts cities try new legal path toward banning new fossil fuel hookups (Energy News Network), Solar United Neighbors report makes the case for prioritizing local rooftop solar (Solar Power World)

RENEWABLES: Maine picks site of 1st U.S. offshore floating wind project (E&E $), U.S. seeks to speed rooftop solar growth with instant permits (Reuters), building solar farms may not build the middle class (New York Times $), Microsoft is changing the way it buys renewable energy (The Verge)

OIL & GAS: Investors balk as bankrupt St. Croix refinery needs $1 bln to be viable (Reuters), Greenland suspends oil exploration because of climate change (AP)

PLASTICS: House panel backs new excise tax on single-use plastics (E&E $)

COAL: Black lung, a scourge of the past, still plagues Illinois mines (Energy News Network), US coal production hit 55-year low (E&E $, Houston Chronicle), surging electricity demand to boost emissions as coal use climbs (Bloomberg $)

HYDROGEN: Developers enter largest green hydrogen PPA in US with 345 MW of wind to power facility (Utility Dive)

EVs: Underserved communities could miss out on access to electric vehicles (Yale Climate Connections), Why is it so hard to find chargers for electric cars? Utility regulations are partly to blame. (CBS)

RECYCLING: Metals recycling to be a key plank for cutting emissions (Reuters)

AGRICULTURE: The health and climate consequences of the American food system cost three times as much as the food itself (Washington Post $)

CARBON PRICING: EU bets big on its flagship carbon marke (Energy Monitor)

FINANCE: Wall Street opens back up to oil and gas—but not for drilling (Wall Street Journal $), why climate change threatens your retirement savings (CBS)

INFRASTRUCTURE: NYC subway seen likely to flood as storms rise on climate change (Bloomberg $)

INTERNATIONAL: EU, China unveil sweeping plans to cut greenhouse-gas emissions (Wall Street Journal $), European officials unveil a sweeping plan to tackle climate change (NPR, E&E $), many nations receive failing scores on climate change and health (InsideClimate News), China opened a national carbon market. here’s why it matters. (New York Times $), China, moving cautiously, starts carbon trading market (AP)

TGIF: Black-owned ice cream makers you should support (NewsOne)

• The media’s climate blind spot is geographic (The Nation, Saleemul Huq and Mark Hertsgaard op-ed)
• Electricity storage technology is not a luxury line item (The Hill, Amy Myers Jaffe op-ed)
• We need the “whole-of-government” climate fight that Biden promised (The New Yorker, Bill McKibben column $)
• Is your town threatened by floods or fires? Consider a ‘managed retreat.’ (New York Times, Katharine J. Mach and A.R. Siders op-ed $)
• Europe’s climate awe and shock (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)
• The climate is boiling. Why has Harvard still not fully divested from fossil fuels yet? (The Guardian, Kim Heacox op-ed)
• Carbon markets are helping reduce landfill methane emissions (The Hill, Margaret Williams op-ed)
• Climate Mayors are building back better — now Congress must act (The Hill, Sylvester Turner op-ed)

Conservatives Confused Why No Liberals Want To Join Their Echo Chambers To Get Dunked On

A perennial claim from those who oppose deplatforming disinformation is that if liars and bigots are removed from the big social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) then they’ll just cultivate more extremist audiences on the fringe platforms to which they migrate. Supposedly trying to appeal to a mainstream audience has a moderating effect, so kicking them to the curb would only let them build their ranks in secret. And of course, one of the fears inside Silicon Valley C-suites has been that if they crack down too hard on conservatives, they’ll take their business elsewhere. 

For example, Twitter user JWSpry was regularly one of the most viral climate deniers, but was recently banned. Not for his years of climate disinformation, but because of COVID-19 vaccine disinformation. He’s already back with an alt account, in which he’s also added a link to his newest account at a site called GETTR, which is basically a conservative clone of Twitter. 

When we looked yesterday, the top item in his feed was a July 7 repost from devout UK racist Tommy Robinson. Next was a broken link to his Climatism blog about how the UN “wants to ban private property,” from July 4th. Seems like he’s already given up on GETTR, and it’s hard to blame him, because there’s not much there. 

We created an account, and the suggested follows quickly devolved from D-list political figures like the site’s creator and former Trump advisor Jason Miller, and Trump-pardoned (revisionist) historian Dinesh D’Souza to obvious spam accounts. Not exactly a thriving community. 

Turns out they’re having trouble attracting users, according to a Washington Examiner story about how conservative social alternatives like Parler, GETTR and MeWe “could be doomed to niche status” as “echo chambers that are no fun without liberals to debate with and troll.” 

To replicate their success in using Twitter and Facebook for their hateful, violent and anti-democracy conservative rhetoric, these platforms need mainstream users, otherwise there’s no one to persuade or terrorize. Miller said they’re “making aggressive outreach efforts to Democrats by hiring folks from the 2020 campaigns and reaching out to left-leaning influencers.”

To do so, the platforms are toning down the fact that they are a conservative echo chamber that wants liberals to join to serve as targets, and instead are focusing on free speech and privacy in their pitch to new users.  

And they do seem to be recruiting lots of big-name new users! Their “Popular User” tab included such luminaries as Natalie Harp, of the far-right OAN news (pinned post: “TRUMP WON”, from July 4th) and Natalie Winters, of the so-far-right-even-we’ve-never-heard-of-it National Pulse. (Apparently it’s the pet project of Steve Bannon’s UK counterpart Raheem Kassam.) 

If Fox News wannabes are your thing, GETTR may be the app for you. For everyone else who doesn’t want to sign up to get trolled by the jerks too toxic for mainstream social media, then it’s probably not worth it. Judging by the short-lived popularity of its predecessors Gab and Parler, it won’t be long until GETTR’s gone.

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