(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Minnesota State Patrol purged messages after Floyd protests (Black Wall Street Times)
(ENVIRONMENTAL) MISOGYNY: Risk of gender-based violence increases during natural disasters like Hurricane Ida. Better preparation is key (The 19th* News)
COP26: Activists push for delay of U.N. climate summit, citing vaccine inequity, travel costs and pandemic (Washington Post $, Bloomberg $), UK rejects campaigners’ call to postpone Cop26 climate talks again (Climate Home), as COP26 approaches, experts talk tech, carbon pricing and what governments should do next (CNBC), COP26 summit urged to prioritise adaptation as 'climate emergency' surges (Thomson Reuters Foundation), what is COP26 and why does it matter? Your guide to the Glasgow climate summit (Climate Home)
IDA: 'Human toll was tremendous': Ida's death count rises while 600,000 still lack power (Reuters, Axios, Washington Post $), descendants of the enslaved sheltered from Ida in a historic plantation's big house (NPR), her husband was in jail when Ida hit. She hasn’t heard from him since. (Mother Jones), indigenous communities feel like a ‘sacrifice zone’ in the wake of Ida’s destruction (Gizmodo), he survived Hurricane Katrina. Now he's dealing with Ida (NPR), Hurricane Ida and the coming eviction crisis (Grist), Ida’s impact from the Gulf Coast to Northeast — by the numbers (Washington Post $), Ida’s ravages force apartment complex tenants to pack, plan (AP)
- ACUTE COSTS OF CLIMATE INACTION: They put everything into their homes. Not one was spared in the flood. (New York Times $), the grinding cost of climate change on one street, in one house (Washington Post $)
- LOUISIANA: Hurricane Ida death toll in Louisiana rises to 12 (Reuters, Axios), 8 days after Ida, parts of Louisiana barely accessible (ABC), hurricanes can’t force this 66-year-old Black climate activist to abandon Louisiana (CNBC), Hurricane Ida turns spotlight on Louisiana power grid issues (AP), Ida reveals two Louisianas: one with storm walls, another without (New York Times $), Louisiana's Houma nation was devastated by Hurricane Ida (NPR)
- NOLA: A plea for help from New Orleans: curfew & cops are not aid for the poor after Ida, says Malik Rahim (Democracy Now), why Hurricane Ida crippled the New Orleans power grid (Reuters), a hurricane-hardened city coping ‘the New Orleans way’ (AP)
- CANCER ALLEY: What a hurricane means when you live in Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' (CNN), Hurricane Ida aftermath includes oil spill in the Gulf (Houston Chronicle), divers identify broken pipeline as source of Gulf oil spill (AP, Axios, Houston Chronicle, HuffPost), Ida’s aftermath shows the risks of petrochemical production in a hurricane zone (Grist), Coast Guard setting up pollution response team in Louisiana after reports of dozens of oil spills and sheens (NOLA.com)
- NORTHEAST: A mother, father and son drowned after more than a dozen feet of water drenched their apartment (CNN), Ida's remnants devastated the northeast. Climate scientists saw it coming (NPR), stunned by Ida, the northeast begins to recover and worry about the next storm (NPR, CBS)
- NYC: After Ida's remnants kill dozens in the East, NYC mayor says cities need to prepare differently for increasingly intense storms (CNN), as Hurricane Ida recovery begins, New Yorkers want a permanent solution (NPR), New York City was never built to withstand a deluge like the one Ida delivered. It showed. (CNN), most of the apartments where New Yorkers drowned were illegal residences. (New York Times $, CNN), the flooding in New York left weather experts with a dreadful feeling in the pit of their stomachs (CNN)
- NJ: New Jersey’s stunning storm toll includes many who drowned in cars (New York Times $), search resumes [in NJ] for 2 missing after car swept away in storm (AP), New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy says state facing "significant loss" from Ida (CBS)
- INFRASTRUCTURE: After Ida’s fury, infrastructure key in preventing misery (AP)
- BIDEN: Surveying storm damage, Biden vows to help Louisiana recover, promotes infrastructure plan (Reuters, AP), Biden to visit northeast flood zones as demand grows for climate action (New York Times $, The Hill, CNN, Axios, NBC), Biden directs federal aid to NY, NJ after deadly flooding (AP)
- COVID: Gatherings, evacuations during and after Ida worry epidemiologists as COVID delta surge continues (The Lens)
GAS EXPLOSIONS: Gas explosion levels evacuated house in Rahway [New Jersey], injures driver passing by during Ida storms (MSN), natural gas blast blows out walls of Brooklyn Park [Minnesota] duplex (Star Tribune $), video shows burning restaurant surrounded by floodwater in another NJ explosion (NBC New York)
SOLIDARITY FOREVER: A century ago, miners fought in a bloody uprising. Few know about it today. (New York Times $), 5 Black-led labor unions that have paved the way for Black workers’ rights (NewsOne)
LINE 3: Congresswomen urge Biden to stop pipeline in Minnesota visit (AP)
DENIAL: How the world’s biggest polluters are shifting the blame for climate change (MSNBC), Rupert Murdoch’s Australia news outlets to ease their climate denial (New York Times $, Sydney Morning Herald)
FAKE NEWS: Old fabricated Ocasio-Cortez tweet about hurricanes and electric cars (Reuters)
PROCRASTINATION: Europe to miss 2030 climate goal by 21 years at current pace - study (Reuters)
AGENCIES: FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell calls climate change the ‘crisis of our generation’ (Fox News), FEMA Administrator on Hurricane Ida 'devastation': more 'intense' storms could be coming (Fox News), Justice Department to protect women seeking an abortion in Texas (Washington Post $)
EXECUTIVE BRANCH: EPA, Corps ditch use of Trump WOTUS rule (Politico Pro $)
LAWSUITS: Republican AGs appeal social costs of greenhouse gas lawsuit (Reuters)
THE HILL: Rep. Neguse thinks we’re ‘at an inflection point’ on climate change (MSNBC), Senate Democrats float taxes on stock buybacks, plastics to pay for spending plan (The Hill)
WHITE HOUSE: Biden tries to keep $3.5tn budget alive after summer of bad news (FT $), 72 hours after Texas abortion ban, White House scrambling on federal response (The 19th* News)
INFRASTRUCTURE BILL(S): Overcoming America's resistance to climate-proof infrastructure (NPR)
POLITICS: Our summer from hell (Rolling Stone), will a summer of climate crises lead to climate action? it’s not looking good (InsideClimate News), fastest-growing cities paint dark picture for climate change deniers (NBC)
CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Why Trump's steel tariffs are now Biden's political headache (Politico), U.S.-China climate talks end without agreement (Politico Pro $), the US and China can't get along — even if the planet's future is at stake (CNN)
CITIES AND STATES: How Jersey City is preparing for the next climate disaster (NPR), this Northern Virginia city already needed to fix its storm pipes. But climate change is making it worse. (Washington Post $)
FERC: Advocates push White House to nominate energy regulator (The Hill), with FERC now split 2-2, clean energy advocates call for caution and urgency to fill vacant seat (Utility Dive)
IMPACTS: Climate change may have worsened deadly Texas cold wave, new study suggests (Washington Post $), ‘nowhere is perfectly safe’: a coastal expert on what comes after Ida (Gizmodo), floods, fires, and extreme heat: disaster pile-ups are the new norm (The Verge), New Zealand reports warmest recorded winter, scientists cite climate change (The Hill), UN climate chief: no country is safe from global warming (AP)
SECOND ORDER IMPACTS: Experts warn of financial cost of inaction on climate change (Today Show), climate disasters will strain our mental health system. It’s time to adapt. (Washington Post $), climate change risks and insurance policies (NPR, FT $)
HEAT: When hard jobs turn hazardous (New York Times $)
DROUGHT: An economic lifeline in South America, the Paraná River, is shriveling (New York Times $), as its rivers shrink, Iraq thirsts for regional cooperation (Reuters), drought forces North American ranchers to sell off their future (Reuters), prized trout streams shrink as heat, drought grip US West (AP)
- MADAGASCAR: Madagascar is suffering through catastrophic famine (Gizmodo)
WILDFIRES: Amazon fires surge anew in Brazil as cleared forest burns (Reuters), fire crews are strained as climate change sparks more extreme weather events (NPR), US to bolster firefighter ranks as wildfires burn year-round (AP), what’s causing California’s unprecedented wildfires (Vox), wildfires, smoke snuff out outdoor adventures across US (AP)
- CALDOR FIRE: Evacuations lifted for thousands in Tahoe as wildfire stalls (AP), while Caldor Fire slows and evacuation orders are lifted, three new wildfires erupt in California (CNN)
- MINNESOTA: Weekend rain helps contain northeast Minnesota wildfires (AP)
- GREECE: Greece creates climate crisis ministry after huge wildfires (AP)
HURRICANES: Climate scientist [Michael Mann] makes dire prediction about monster storms (CNN), ‘large Larry lumbering’ over Atlantic as forecasters keep close eye on tropics (Washington Post $, Yale Climate Connections, USA Today), Ida is finally gone. What’s next for the tropics? (Washington Post $)
REAL ESTATE: Homebuyers aren’t taking climate change seriously, says Redfin CEO (CNBC)
ORIGINAL AMAZON: Indigenous leaders push new target to protect Amazon from deforestation (Reuters), two years on, forest pact's 'good intentions' do little to protect Amazon (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
RENEWABLES: ‘Solar bond’ demand goes through the roof (Wall Street Journal $),
OIL & GAS: Chevron girds for activist challenge after exxon’s proxy battle defeat (Wall Street Journal $, Reuters), Chevron looks to sell Texas' Eagle Ford Basin assets - document (Reuters), Engine No. 1 takes climate fight to other big oil companies after underdog win at Exxon (CNBC), Netherlands officials tell shell to stop its ads greenwashing ‘carbon neutral' fuel (Gizmodo), Exxon borrows 1.5M barrels of crude from U.S. petroleum reserve to fuel Ida recovery efforts (Houston Chronicle), U.S. offshore oil output lags as Louisiana refiners restart after Ida (Reuters)
BITCOIN: Bitcoin miners and oil and gas execs mingled at a secretive meetup in Houston – here’s what they talked about (CNBC)
PIPELINES: Satellites spot methane plumes over US caused by 'routine work' (Bloomberg $)
COAL: UN urges Australia to speed up efforts to drop coal (Reuters, Bloomberg $), Australia stands by coal 'beyond 2030' after UN warns of economic havoc (CNN, Reuters), Australia's IFM Investors to end coal exposures by 2030 (Reuters), India asks "captive" coal mines to increase output as power demand rises (Reuters, Reuters), Prairie State coal plant at center of high-stakes Illinois energy debate (Energy News Network)
HYDROGEN: Heir to $10 billion JCB fortune forms fund for hydrogen bets (Bloomberg $)
UTILITIES: Pacificorp updated IRP includes 6.7 GW storage, 5.6 GW solar, but NGOs blast fossil fuel component (Utility Dive)
EVs: Automakers gear up for an all-electric future (Politico EU), Europe's electric car revolution risks job loss backlash, unions warn (Thomson Reuters Foundation), great reboot: Germany's auto show tries for more climate friendly image (Reuters), Volkswagen CEO: smart cars, not e-cars, are 'gamechanger' (Reuters)
OK BOOMERS: ‘Gray greens’: Grandparents are being arrested in London climate protests (Washington Post $, Video: Washington Post $)
RELIGION: During Rosh Hashanah, rabbi calls on Jews to commit to climate action (Yale Climate Connections)
BIG GREEN: EDF CEO says in-depth reform still key to group's future (Reuters)
SHIPPING: Shipping group submits plan to UN for global carbon tax (The Hill, Reuters)
AGRICULTURE: Europe wants to cultivate a new generation of sustainable farmers (Bloomberg $)
BUSINESS: Companies stay quiet on Texas’ new abortion law (New York Times $)
INDIVIDUAL ACTION: How you can help fight climate change in ways that really matter (CNBC)
FINANCE: Banks warn they’re not ready for ECB's historic climate test (Bloomberg $), investors set the pace on corporate climate action (Energy Monitor)
OMAR COMIN': Michael K. Williams, star of The Wire, dead at 54 (The Root, Ebony, The Grio, Rolling Stone, The Ringer, Blavity, NewsOne, Pitchfork, GQ, LA Times $, Hollywood Reporter, Daily Beast, Washington Post $, CBS, NBC, New York Times $, USA Today, Buzzfeed, LA Times $, Hollywood Reporter, Daily Beast, Washington Post $, CBS, NBC, New York Times $, USA Today, Buzzfeed)
WILDLIFE: Group says almost 30 percent of species on watch list face extinction (The Hill, CNN)
INTERNATIONAL: Black Sea Oil & Gas project a litmus test for Romanian offshore gas investment (Reuters), infrastructure giant in Australia maps out carbon reduction plan (Bloomberg $), Spain plans to raise 5 billion Euros from debut green bond deal (Bloomberg $), Kim Jong Un calls for ‘urgent action’ on climate change amid North Korean food shortage (New York Post, BBC, UPI)
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If You’re Going To Greentroll Marc Morano@ClimateDepot.com, At Least Be Creative, and Not Violent
Last week, the satirical Onion tweeted a piece written back in 2019, after the last big climate report, joking that “in a desperate, perhaps final attempt” to stop climate change, the report “includes nothing more than the whereabouts of top oil executives and directions to secret weapons caches.”
“‘It may not seem like a lot on its own,’” a supposed excerpt reads, “‘but if everyone comes together and does their part, we can make a tremendous difference.’”
While it may be funny to turn Big Oil’s propaganda that climate change is a problem that can be solved by personal sacrifice and individual action on its head, by taking some personal action and making them sacrifice, in all seriousness the Onion should be ashamed.
Because it’s not just oil executives who may need to do some sacrificing, but also coal executives, lobbyists, billionaires who have funded anti-regulatory think tanks, and of course those who staff said think tanks and peddle deadly disinformation for a living, who are responsible for the climate crisis we’re in.
Okay, okay, really seriously, while the idea of bad things happening to bad people may be appealing and cathartic, it’s not healthy to dwell on violent fantasies, and violence is of course not the answer to climate change.
And to be clear, neither are threats of violence. For example, Marc Morano recently posted a message he’d gotten on Climate Depot, where someone said they hoped he and his family would die, and then wrote “I WISH YOU DEAD.” 53 times. (Not to be glib but wishing someone dead x53 seems like... overkill?)
This isn’t the first time someone’s been mean to Marc, and we get it. For over a decade, Morano’s whole job has been to sabotage climate action on behalf of his billionaire benefactors, even though he won’t put his own money where his mouth is. And sending him hatemail might be considered fitting, since one of his tactics has long been publishing scientist’s email addresses to subject them to a torrent of hate and abuse from his followers.
But not only is violence, and threats or celebrations (even coming from Morano) wrong morally and of questionable legality, they’re also just fodder for Marc’s persecution complex, as evidenced by how he always posts the emails under his “hatemail” tag.
So we condemn in the strongest possible terms the sending of hate mail to Marc’s email address, morano@climatedepot.com, available publicly at his Heartland page.
That said, we are still fans of greentrolling, so we’ll just point out that there are plenty of alternatives to violence that can be much more effective at sabotaging online disinformation. For example, reddit users recently took it upon themselves to render the subreddit for people looking to eat horse deworming paste instead of getting a COVID-19 vaccine totally inoperable by flooding it with horse-themed pornography. Most drawn, some real, all of it extremely graphic, and enough of it to basically make the subreddit unusable for those who wanted to read up on how to take deworming medicine for horses instead of a COVID-19 vaccine for humans.
And after the Supreme Court let Texas essentially overturn Roe v Wade (which is not at all funny) and set up a website to put bounties on people seeking abortions, TikTokers flooded the website with fake submissions, Rickrolling, excerpts from “Twilight,” and, for some reason, Shrek porn. Gen Z activist-troll Olivia Juliana told NBC that she “found out about this website and thought, ‘We have to do whatever we can if they’re going to use the internet against us -- the very people who were raised on the internet.”
Surely, though, dear readers, you are all much too mature to flood Morano’s email with the most disgusting content the internet has to offer. (And probably much less likely than redditors to have a catalog of disturbing pornography at your disposal to unleash upon his unsuspecting inbox.) (And if you actually go look up those images, then the joke’s kinda on you, too.)
But it just goes to show that there are much more entertaining ways to blow off steam than with threatening violence or sending intimidating messages, like sending Marc Morano graphic and disturbing content that will make it difficult and painful for him to sort through his email every day because he doesn’t know if he’s about to open an email with an offer for more dirty money, or with a dirty picture he’ll never be able to unsee.
Not that we’d ever encourage such juvenile and uncouth tactics. That’d be (debatably) below us, and (certainly) below your dignity as well.
And given how scared Marc is of wearing a mask for COVID-19, maybe that’s all you need to send?
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