FIRST LOOK

The Asia Solidarity Lab, August 26 - 28, is an opportunity to reflect on how we can stand in solidarity with each other’s fights, uplift local struggles and solutions, and unite our calls towards regenerative movement-building for the good of all. 

Caldor Fire Explodes, Incinerates Most Of Grizzly Flats, California: The Caldor Fire, which ignited over the weekend, exploded nearly five-fold to roughly 30,000 acres Tuesday, incinerating much of the 1,200-person town of Grizzly Flats. At least two people with serious injuries were airlifted to hospitals from the Grizzly Flats area and about 22,000 residents have been forced to evacuate. “It’s a pile of ash,” Derek Shaves, who evacuated but was able to reenter the town after the fire had passed through, told the AP. “Everybody['s house] on my block is a pile of ash and every block that I visited — but for five separate homes that were safe — was totally devastated.” The only thing left of Walt Tyler Elementary School was a metal playground structure, save for the plastic slide melted away by the fire. Strong winds, and the underlying megadrought, fueled the conflagration and the National Weather Service has issued red flag warnings for much of North California and Nevada citing the perilous trifecta of low humidity, extremely dry vegetation, and strong wind. The Caldor Fire was 0% contained Tuesday evening. (Sacramento Bee $, The Guardian, NBC, AP, Sacramento Bee $, Mercury News, CNN, Daily Beast, Fox40, ABC10, CBS, Capital Public Radio; Climate Signals background: 2021 Western Wildfire Season, Drought)

(Vaccine) Inequities Threaten COP26 Inclusivity Claim: Delegates to COP26 from the countries most impacted by, and least responsible for, the climate crisis fear they will be excluded from the upcoming summit because of quarantine requirements, travel bans, and vaccine inequity in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic that has disproportionately ravaged their countries, the Washington Post reports. Such obstacles cut against vows by organizers to make the UN's 26th Conference of Parties on climate change both “safe and successful” and “the most inclusive ever.” For those coming from developing countries, “getting to Glasgow is already going to be an almost insurmountable endeavor,” Aubrey Webson, the ambassador to the UN from Antigua and Barbuda, and chair of the Alliance of Small Island States told the Post, “and adding this burden could well be a breaking point.” So far, with the deadline approaching rapidly, not a single negotiator, official observer and accredited journalist has received a vaccine to enable them to more easily and safely attend the conference, despite British PM Boris Johnson's promise to provide them. British officials expect 25,000 official attendees from more than 190 countries will have access to the UN-managed "blue zone" with many thousands more expected in Glasgow for side events and protests. (Washington Post $)

Administration Appeals Oil & Gas Lease Ruling, Will Continue Leasing: The Biden administration appealed a federal judge's ruling that blocked the Interior Department's pause on oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters on Monday, but said it will continue the leasing process during the appeal. The pause on oil and gas drilling on public lands and waters, implemented in the first weeks of the Biden administration is a significant piece of its efforts to reduce climate pollution. Federal lease sales have also come under congressional scrutiny. The Biden administration also said Monday it would review coal leasing on federal lands. (O&G leasing: Reuters, Bloomberg $, Politico Pro $; Coal leasing: The Hill)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Exxon Mobil ranks last out of all S&P 500 firms for racial justice, says corporate watchdog group (Dallas Morning News)

STOLEN LAND: At Fairy Creek, Indigenous land defenders are on the front lines of climate justice (Teen Vogue), how legal and cultural barriers keep Indigenous people from protecting sacred spaces off tribal land (USA Today)

CALIFORNIA FIRES: The Dixie fire nears communities in the Sierra Nevada foothills. (New York Times $, AP, Washington Post $), smoke blots out the sun as Canada’s wildfires worsen (Gizmodo), PG&E warns it may black out customers to reduce California risks (Wall Street Journal $)

A CARTOONISHLY HORRIBLE EXPRESSION OF A MORAL AND PRACTICAL ISSUE: Postcard from Thermal: surviving the climate gap in eastern Coachella Valley (ProPublica)

COLORADO RIVER WATER SHORTAGE: The water-shortage era has officially begun (Gizmodo), feds slash state water draws from Colorado River as drought intensifies (The Colorado Sun, NPR, Desert Sun, KUNC, AZ Central, Axios, Reuters), as Colorado River Basin states confront water shortages, it’s time to focus on reducing demand (The Conversation)

ON-THE-NOSE-METAPHORS: Turbulence ahead: climate change could make flying even worse (Politico Pro $)

WEST VIRGINIA: Energy plans will benefit West Virginia according to WVU College of Law (WBOY), WVU Study: Biden infrastructure plan to benefit West Virginia (WVNews)

COP26: US states plot UK trade and climate missions as COP26 looms (Politico Pro $)

TERRIBLE POLLUTION, EXCELLENT WRITING: The Patriots aren't even Robert Kraft's grossest investment (Gizmodo)

DENIAL: Climate deniers and the phantom arsonists they can't get enough of (Gizmodo)

IMPACTS' IMPACTS: Climate migrants are ‘invisible’ to many South American countries (Grist)

PUBLIC OPINION: Three-quarters of people in G20 nations see climate, nature near tipping points (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

DOE: Solar could provide 40% of US power generation by 2035, Biden administration says (The Hill, Reuters)

THE HILL: House Dems plan budget vote next week, defying moderates (AP), senior House Dems launch pressure campaign ahead of key budget vote (Politico Pro $)

INFRASTRUCTURE BILL(S): Federal program to cut bus emissions gets a Senate mandate: some buses must pollute (Washington Post $), infrastructure bill contains less transmission funding than advertised (Canary Media)

POLITICS: Democrats ride trains, buses to spotlight spending push (Reuters)

CITIES AND STATES: Hawaii vs. fossil fuels (Canary Media), this town is the first in America to ban new gas stations – is the tide turning? (The Guardian), Annapolis, Anne Arundel look to a potential source of funding for flood mitigation: the fossil-fuel industry (Washington Post $)

IMPACTS: Disasters aren’t natural — they’re political, a new book argues (Grist), US communities say dire predictions in UN climate report already unfolding (The Hill), new research explores the costs of climate tipping points, and how they could compound one another (InsideClimate News), how new normals shift our perception of climate change (Yale Climate Connections), Sweden's once-highest peak loses 2 metres height in year as glacier melts (Reuters, The Guardian), with climate change, seemingly small shifts have big consequences (The Conversation)

COMPOUND IMPACTS: Historic rainfall on Flagstaff area burn scar spurs flooding (AP)

HEAT: Too hot to work: the dire impact of extreme heat on outdoor US jobs (The Guardian), unchecked climate change will be hell on outdoor workers (HuffPost), heat is killing workers in the US — and there are no federal rules to protect them (NPR)

DROUGHT: California drought takes toll on world’s top almond producer (AP), mustang roundups fuel deepening debate as drought grips West (AP)

WILDFIRES: Authorities attack Minnesota wildfire from air and ground (AP), Montana communities evacuated as wind pushes wildfire (AP), wildfire raging near French Riviera kills 1, injures 27 (AP, The Guardian) 

• GREECE: Major blaze continues northwest of Athens (AP)
• ALGERIA: Heartbroken and homeless: Algerian villagers grapples with wildfire aftermath (Reuters)

CYCLONIC STORMS: Mumbai fishermen: no shelter from this storm (Rural India Online)

• GRACE: Rescue effort underway after Haiti hit by earthquake, tropical storm (NBC), heavy rain halts rescue operations after Haiti quake (ABC), strengthening Tropical Storm Grace expected to become a hurricane (Yale Climate Connections), Tropical Storm Grace causes flooding in hard-hit Haiti, sets sights on Mexico (Axios), Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula under hurricane warning as Grace heads its way (CNN)
• FRED: Tropical Depression Fred to drench Appalachians, with tornado threat to the east (Washington Post $), wet and unwelcome, Fred spawns twisters and flooding in US (AP)

WATER: Global water crisis will intensify with climate breakdown, says report (The Guardian)

METHANE: Methane is the greenhouse gas we can no longer afford to ignore (Popular Science)

RENEWABLES: IKEA starts selling renewable energy to households in Sweden (Reuters)

OIL & GAS: UN climate report adds pressure on oil industry (Houston Chronicle), shale gas drillers keep spending down, rake in cash (S&P Global)

NSS: Exxon’s oil drilling gamble off Guyana coast ‘poses major environmental risk’ (The Guardian)

COAL: Five months into strike, Alabama coal miners aren’t backing down (The Real News), the coal miners' wives keeping a strike alive in Alabama (Elle), Finland's Fortum accelerates coal plant closures (Reuters)

HYDROGEN: Hydrogen could fill multiple gaps in the US energy system, but will energy regulations allow it to? (Utility Dive)

(ALLEGED) UTILITY CORRUPTION: FirstEnergy’s admissions feed critics’ call for big-picture regulatory oversight and review (Energy News Network)

EVs: Communities of color ask if they will be included in Biden push for electric cars (NBC)

BHP: BHP bets on lower-carbon world with petroleum exit, $5.7 billion potash project (Wall Street Journal $, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal $)

AGRICULTURE: Meet the Black Owned agritech company on a mission to tackle climate change and food insecurity (Essence)

CARBON REMOVAL: Fossil fuel companies are quietly scoring big money for their preferred climate solution: carbon capture and storage (InsideClimate News)

FINANCE: ‘Paralysis by analysis’: financial sector focused on climate data instead of action, report says (The Guardian)

EDUCATION: The school culture wars: ‘you have brought division to US’ (New York Times $)

WILDLIFE: Will Klamath salmon outlast the dam removal process? (High Country News)

INTERNATIONAL: Amen to that: Norway's wealth fund boss preaches sustainable finance in church (Reuters), China state planner vows crackdown on projects with high energy use (Reuters), UK government sets out strategy for a hydrogen economy (Reuters)

GOOD PEOPLE ❤️ GOOD PEOPLE: How OkCupid matched people who love the climate (Yale Climate Connections)

• July was so hot it convinced Republicans climate change is real — but they're still getting it wrong (The Hill, Chip Fletcher op-ed)
• Utility regulators need to be a lot more proactive on climate resilience. Here's how they can start. (Utility Dive, Maria Bocanegra and Mishal Thadani op-ed)
• Who created the renewable-energy miracle? (New York Times, Paul Krugman column $)
• Carbon capture technology won’t solve our emissions problems (Philadelphia Inquirer, Wenonah Hauter op-ed)
• Big Oil’s next merger mania has an eye on its demise (Bloomberg, David Fickling column $)

Bjorn Lomborg’s Climate Policy: Just Give Buildings Legs So They Can Walk Away From Rising Seas

Bjorn Lomborg, professional climate disinformation agent, has been busy lately with his usual op-ed schtick, saying the IPCC report is “more chill than you have read” in the Financial Post, and tearing down a strawman in the WSJ with “climate change doesn’t cause all disasters.”

While we could rehash his genocidal climate policy preferences, Lomborg recently did something much more simple, and entertaining, that just as well shows the shallowness of his supposed climate policy advice. 

Because last Saturday, he tweeted an, admittedly pretty neat, clip of a building being moved, with a link to a short story about how it was shifted 50 feet and rotated 90° back in 1930, all while people inside continued to work uninterrupted. “Adaptation is simpler than many people think,” he added. 

Lomborg followed that with another tweet, saying it’s “similar to how central Chicago was lifted 10 feet up in the 1850s and 60s,” when “they jack-lifted one city block -- with everyone still working and shopping -- at a time to raise the city from the shoreline of Lake Michigan, improving the sewage system.” 

And finally, so you know these aren’t just flukes, a third example “from Alba Lulia in Romania, where 80 flats in one apartment building were moved in one go to make space for a boulevard (and many stayed in their apartments, watching from the balconies).” 

Wow! Very cool! Apparently it’s far from unheard-of for entire buildings to be moved around, for example, one historic school in Shanghai was fitted with hundreds of hydraulic robotic legs that walked the school 62 meters over the course of 10 days. 

Lomborg didn’t expand on his thoughts about what these examples are supposed to show, other than the first tweet’s mention that “adaptation is simpler than many people think.” He also didn’t happen to include any price tags for how much money it took to move these buildings, but apparently since it’s possible, we should chill about climate change, or something. He didn’t explain further. 

But that makes sense, because if you think for too long about the implication that we could just adapt buildings to climate change by moving them, without disruption, you end up a fantasy land. 

If the idea is to raise buildings to adapt to sea level rise, for example, then that makes sense and seems wise, assuming fossil fuel emissions are being reduced to stop the rising waters. But if you don’t reduce climate pollution, then raising a building will be a never-ending task. The waters will just keep rising, so you’ll keep having to raise your building. 

So yes, you could install hundreds of hydraulic legs on each and every one of the buildings on every coastline across the planet, and have them move out of the way of the rising seas. 

But where will they go? Are they just supposed to crawl on top of the buildings already there on higher ground? And more importantly, how long will they be able to stay at that new place? Will the legs also be fast enough to outrun other climate impacts, like wildfires? Are we bound for a world where, instead of just switching to cheap clean energy, we all live in — and presumably row, row, row our boats between — centipedal mobile homes powered by noxious fossil fuels? 

If, despite multiple embarrassing debunkings on sea level claims alone didn’t do it, anyone still believed Lomborg operated with even the smallest shred of good faith, that should be laid to rest now as he appears to endorse the Howl’s Moving Castle adaptation plan. (As exciting as that may sound…)

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