FIRST LOOK:

Join the Lancet Countdown U.S. Policy Brief authors and the American Public Health Association for the 2021 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change launch event TODAY at 12 PM EDT to explore the global report and U.S. Brief. 

The Climate Crisis Is A Health Crisis And 'Lowering Greenhouse Gas Emissions Is A Prescription': Climate change will trigger food scarcity, extreme weather disasters, and disease outbreaks far worse than the current pandemic, UK medical journal The Lancet warned Wednesday. Since the last annual volume of its Countdown on health and climate change, threats to human health have grown worse on more than 12 metrics, and without aggressive action to slash greenhouse gas pollution the climate crisis will become the “defining narrative of human health,” the journal said. Extreme heat is the most deadly impact of climate change, followed by the spread of insect-carried diseases, risks of cholera and waterborne diseases following floods and storms, and respiratory dangers from everything from wildfire smoke to increased pollen in the air, which can exacerbate asthma and other conditions. Coming just weeks before COP26, the Countdown is far from the first warning by health professionals about the dangers posed by climate change and the need to rapidly cut methane and CO2 pollution. “Lowering greenhouse gas emissions is a prescription,” Renee Salas, an emergency medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and author of the report and its accompanying policy brief. “The oath I took as a doctor is to protect the health of my patients. Demanding action on climate change is how I can do that.” (Washington Post $, AP, USA Today, WBUR, Boston Globe $, CNN, Grist, Bloomberg Law, Gizmodo, The Guardian, Yahoo, NBC, The Verge)

Fossil Fuel Extraction Plans Far Beyond Paris Goals — UN Report: Current fossil fuel extraction plans are "dangerously out of sync" and on track to heat the planet to a point scientists say will see catastrophic impacts from the climate crisis, a new UN report shows. The mining and drilling plans of 15 major fossil fuel producing countries, including the U.S., would extract double the amount of fossil fuels than may be burned to hold global temperatures below 2.7°F (1.5°C) of warming above preindustrial levels — the goal set out in the Paris Agreement. "It's governments who can implement systemic economy-wide policies and actions, with the public interest in mind," Ploy Achakulwisut, lead author of the report and scientist with the Stockholm Environment Institute, told CNN. "The main message is that governments have a primary role to play in closing the production gap." (CNN, New York Times $, Axios, AP, Reuters, E&E $, CNBC, The Hill, The Guardian, S&P Global)

They TOTALly Knew: TotalEnergies, the French oil and gas conglomerate, knew fossil fuels were linked to rising global temperatures half a century ago, but colluded with other oil majors to obfuscate those risks and deceive the public, new research reveals. Formerly known as Total, the company has sought to rebrand itself and burnish its image as a company committed to addressing the climate crisis. The peer-reviewed study authored by three historians and published Wednesday in Global Environmental Change — and based on internal company documents and interviews with former executives — found Total employees knew about the potential for  “catastrophic global warming from its products” by at least 1971. (FT $)

PUERTO RICO: Nonprofit Barrio Electrico works to expand solar energy in Puerto Rico (Yale Climate Connections)

COP26: What is COP26? (Washington Post $), what's on the schedule at COP26? (The National), activists battle high costs, travel curbs to make climate talks (Reuters), Australia branded worst climate performer ahead of UN summit (AP), emerging economies slam COP26 net zero push as ‘anti-equity’ (Climate Home)

• FAIR SHARE: U.S. delays global plan to deliver $100B in climate finance (E&E $)
• ATTENDANCE: Individual leaders have constraints about attending COP26 -UK's Sharma (Reuters), Kremlin says Putin will not travel to UN climate summit (Axios, Washington Post $, New York Times $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Maldives minister: Failure to limit warming a death sentence (AP), document leak reveals nations lobbying to change key climate report (BBC), Poland threatens to block EU climate talks over access to funds (Bloomberg $)

SOUTH ASIA FLOODING: At least 150 dead in flooding and landslides in India and Nepal (The Guardian, New York Times $, AP)

ACTIVISM: ‘Tired of broken promises’: climate activists launch hunger strike outside White House (The Guardian, Democracy Now, TEEN VOGUE), scream like hell (Atmos), young climate activists vow to keep fighting despite UN setback (The Guardian)

HELLUVA BUSINESS MODEL: How chemical companies avoid paying for pollution (New York Times $), why fossil fuel subsidies are so hard to kill (Nature)

EPA: EPA will finally regulate ‘forever chemicals.’ Experts say it’s not enough. (Grist)

DOE: DOE launches efficiency experiment at 7,000 buildings (E&E $)

DOI: Biden shields Boundary Waters, deals blow to copper mine (E&E News, Washington Post $, AP), Forest Service slashes Black Hills' logging targets (E&E $), Interior dings bipartisan offshore energy revenue sharing bill (E&E $)

DOT: Biden taps ex-Calif. regulator to lead highway safety agency (E&E $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Yellen, regulators soon to ‘set the agenda’ on climate risk (E&E News)

HOUSE: ‘No more time to waste,’ chair of House climate panel warns ahead of COP26 (The Guardian), House Democratic leaders still aiming for reconciliation framework this week (Politico Pro $)

SENATE: Biomass loses 'carbon neutral' crown in Senate spending bill (E&E $), Manchin tells associates he’s considering leaving the Democratic party and has an exit plan (Mother Jones, MSNBC), Sen. Joe Manchin uses expletive to dismiss report that he plans to leave the Democratic Party (Business Insider, Daily Mail, Reuters), Manchin has raked in $400K in fossil fuel donations (E&E $), What's driving Manchin's resistance to climate change legislation (CNN)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden heads to Scranton to sell a shrinking agenda (New York Times $, Reuters, Bloomberg $, AP, NBC), Harris takes central role in climate fight (The Hill), Buttigieg, McCarthy push Biden EV agenda (E&E $), new climate website touts Biden's actions (Axios), White House does not rule out carbon tax despite Manchin comment (Reuters), White House plays down CEPP importance to Biden climate goals (Politico Pro $), White House under pressure to act on voting rights, but it's not ready to blow up the filibuster (CNN)

INFRASTRUCTURE BILL(S): Biden focuses on climate, families in trimmed $2T plan (AP), Democrats set to cut free community college, climate program from Biden’s economic plan as they trim price tag (CNBC), Democrats warn against family leave cuts from spending bill (AP), the bleak outlook for two climate provisions (Washington Post $), ‘pace has picked up’: Dems eye deal by week’s end (E&E News), Dems seek to salvage climate goals with taxes, regs (E&E News), how Joe Manchin and Republicans could destroy the world (Gizmodo), if key climate policy is jettisoned, can the US still meet its climate targets? (Canary Media), state grants emerge as Democrats’ clean power plan fallback (Bloomberg $), U.S. Democrats scramble to hammer out climate legislation ahead of Glasgow talks (Reuters), Democrats back away from raising tax rates to pay for agenda (New York Times $), the Democrats have a lot of cutting to do (New York Times $)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: FERC nominee Phillips uses 3-legged stool analogy in outlining regulatory approach to senators (Utility Dive), FERC nominee pledges 'balanced approach' to regulation (E&E $), NPS nominee vows to improve employee morale, end harassment (E&E $)

CITIES AND STATES: North Carolina strikes a climate deal that eludes Washington (Bloomberg $), NYC public schools to get solar panels in green push (Bloomberg $)

• TEXAS: Ex-FERC chair joins Texas panel to address blackouts (E&E $), Texas regulators tee up market changes, weatherization standards in response to February crisis (Utility Dive)
• CALIFORNIA: UCI center will dig into environmental justice issues in Orange County’s vulnerable communities (LA Times $)

FERC: Glick fleshes out plans for new FERC grid rules (E&E News)

IMPACTS: Fears global energy crisis could lead to famine in vulnerable countries (The Guardian), Africa's breathtaking scenes are disappearing as climate crisis deepens (CNN), flooding in Venice worsens off-season amid climate change (AP), kids’ quality of life will depend on today’s climate choices (Yale Climate Connections), researchers warn of spiraling CO2 emissions from buildings (E&E $)

WILDFIRES: How much did ancient land-clearing fires in New Zealand affect the climate? (InsideClimate News)

HURRICANES: Louisiana House leader: Ida housing help moving too slowly (AP)

RENEWABLES: Meet the rogue birding group blocking wind energy at every turn (Grist), ‘bloody expensive.’ Major U.S. offshore wind plan hits obstacles (E&E News), China on verge of a solar power tipping point, study finds (The Hill), 'we don't have water': South American dam faces energy crunch as river ebbs (Reuters)

BATTERIES: Spain’s rush for lithium falls foul of local opposition (FT $)

METHANE: Turkmenistan’s dirty secret (Bloomberg $)

OIL & GAS: Exxon debates abandoning some of its biggest oil and gas projects (Wall Street Journal $, Reuters), groups want US to suspend oil leases off California coast (AP), Saudi energy minister sees demand from gas-to-oil switch at up to 600,000 bpd (Reuters)

COAL: Coal-fired electricity rebounds in 2021, but resurgence could be short-lived (Utility Dive), in Australia, it’s ‘long live king coal’ (New York Times $)

HYDROGEN: ‘No commercial case for green hydrogen’ yet: Siemens Energy CEO (CNBC)

UTILITIES: NextEra beats profit estimates on beefing up clean energy projects (Reuters, Bloomberg $)

EVs: Carmakers rush to build batteries for electric vehicles (Axios), Telsa on track for strong Q3 earnings report following record deliveries (Axios)

AGRICULTURE: Climate change fuels drive toward cleaner tractors (E&E News), U.K. researchers study genetic link to methane emissions in cattle, key to reducing greenhouse gases (CBS)

BUSINESS: 30 business leaders are promoting sustainable investments (AP), Rio Tinto aims to spend $7.5bn in push to halve carbon emissions by 2030 (FT $, Reuters)

CARBON REMOVAL: Can carbon-capture startups make it big with small-scale tech? (Canary Media), ‘world’s most sustainable spirit’: the vodka made with CO2 captured from air (The Guardian), the world is banking on giant carbon-sucking fans to clean our climate mess. It's a big risk. (CNN)

SHIPPING: Amazon, Ikea, others commit to zero-carbon shipping by 2040 (E&E News, Reuters, The Verge)

MUSIC: The inscrutable, emotional sound of Bartees Strange (Mic)

FINANCE: BlackRock backs new hub for company climate data (E&E $)

BITCOIN: Crypto miners struggle to cut carbon emissions (Wall Street Journal $)

INTERNATIONAL: Euro zone banks should be legally bound to climate transition plans, ECB says (Reuters), UK meat tax and frequent-flyer levy proposals briefly published then deleted (The Guardian)

• Climate Chaos Helped Spark the French Revolution—and Holds a Dire Warning for Today (TIME, Mike Duncan history lesson)
• Europe’s energy price crisis shows urgency of building renovation (Energy Monitor, Dave Keating op-ed)
• Young people will be key to climate jUStice at COP26 (Nature, Editorial)
• ‘Forever chemicals’ are everywhere. It’s time to rein them in (LA Times, Editorial Board $)
• The world needs a plan for stranded assets (Bloomberg, Editorial Board $)
• Steel markets follow the same path as fossil fuels (FT, George Cheveley op-ed $)
• Think big on climate: the transformation of society in months has been done before (The Guardian, George Monbiot column)
• Harvard and Dartmouth just divested — what will it take for Princeton to finally take bold climate action? (Energy News Network, Hannah Reynolds op-ed)
• Democrats May pass their agenda after all (Bloomberg, Jonathan Bernstein op-ed $)
• We don’t have time to dismiss carbon markets as a climate solution (Climate Home, Owen Hewlett op-ed)
• The chain effect: why companies must broaden the fight against emissions (FT, Peggy Hollinger op-ed $)
• The UK’s net zero strategy still avoids what is needed to avert climate catastrophe (The Guardian, Rebecca Newsom op-ed)
• Joe Manchin gonna Joe Manchin (New York Times, Michelle Cottle column $)

Someone’s Learning From History. Unfortunately, it’s Police Departments, and They’re Using Climate as an Excuse to buy Military Vehicles

A “scorching summer gave way to an equally extreme winter of severe freezing, followed by a warm spring that rapidly melted the snow and ice which caused extensive flooding.” 

A political system in which “aristocratic families” get to “enjoy exemption from most taxes,” which fall instead to the middle class. 

A suite of policies to fix a financial crisis gets proposed, but “met with intransigent hostility from the privileged elite, who refused to accept new taxes unless” there were “equally meaningful political concessions,” resulting in a “deadlock [that] ensured the crisis remained unaddressed.” 

No, Mike Duncan’s recent TIME op-ed isn’t describing the entire Republican party, or coal millionaire and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin’s refusal of meaningful climate action in the midst of the ongoing fossil-fueled climate crisis. He’s instead describing the lead-up to the French Revolution. Of course, the French Revolution “was not caused by climate disruptions alone,” but that chaotic extreme weather “ravaged the economy, destabilized the social order and traumatized the population,” who were abused and exploited to the point of violent revolution by “a broken political system unable and unwilling to address the effects.” 

“As we enter a new epoch of a human-created climate emergency,” Duncan concludes, “we have it in our power to mitigate the ecological consequences, but it will not be enough to simply lower emissions or convert to green energy. We must also ensure our political structures can respond to the inevitable social crises caused by global warming and are flexible and resilient enough to weather the coming storm.” 

Well Congress may not be up to the task, but worry not, because there are some local authorities who are increasingly taking climate risk seriously!

Just kidding, you should be worried, because it’s the police, and they’re using climate disasters as an excuse to get ahold of the Pentagon’s spare war machines. Why does a police chief overseeing 14 officers need a mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle? According to some impressive reporting by Molly Redden and Alex Kaufman at HuffPost, Malden Missouri’s police chief “noted that the region was one of the hardest-hit by the historic flooding of 2017”, and “requested an up-armored Humvee to check on residents stranded by future storms — and to carry out drug raids.”    

While the “1033 Program” that supplies police departments with surplus military supplies has, since 1996, been equipping police to control and subdue the citizenry they’re supposed to protect and serve with the same gear our military uses for enemy combatants, a “little-noticed tweak” Congress made to the program last year gave priority access to “applications that request vehicles used for disaster-related emergency preparedness, such as high-water rescue vehicles.”

And in the past few years, as climate disasters have rolled across every corner of the country, “the Defense Department has also started to cue local police and sheriffs to make a big deal out of their role in disaster response” and “within the past few years” the application form offered by “the Pentagon began to list natural disasters as an example justification.” 

Sure, these vehicles are very sturdy and can be used to rescue people during emergencies like floods and ice storms. But so can duckboats and snow-mobiles. For some reason, though, police departments aren’t scrambling to get ahold of dorky touristy boat-car combos to get around during flooding, whereas HuffPost obtained documents of hundreds of police departments requesting military gear. And “an obvious consequence”, they write “of giving police militarized equipment under the auspices of preparing for natural disasters is that police are free to use it for more pernicious purposes.” 

For example, “in an ugly irony, law enforcement agencies have even used military-style vehicles to brutalize people protesting climate destruction, such as at the 2016 assault in Standing Rock, North Dakota, on Native American pipeline protesters.” 

Whoopsies! We gave police the equipment to wage a war, and to no one’s surprise, they’re using it to wage war on behalf of whichever oil company will pay them! 

But why aren’t any of the budget-minded Congresspeople balking at the size of the reconciliation package and not the Defense budget, which is literally twice that size? Why no concern about waste at the Pentagon? After all, it’s apparently so full of fraud it couldn’t even be audited fully when Congress mandated it, though what Ernst & Young could find was that the DoD lost at least $800 million in its “$35 trillion accounting black hole,” of which at least $125 billion was wasted according it’s own internal study it buried.

We spend so much on war the Pentagon can afford to dole out armored vehicles like matchbox cars, but apparently keeping children safe from climate change, hunger and poverty would create too much of an entitlement mentality for Joe “my son runs my coal company and my daughter hiked the price of life-saving EpiPens” Manchin. 

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