FIRST LOOK

Tropical Cyclone Batsirai Pummels Madagascar: Tropical Cyclone Batsirai blew homes apart and washed away whole villages in Madagascar where it made landfall near Mananjary late Saturday, with 20 deaths reported so far. The storm gained strength over the Indian Ocean and slammed into the island nation with 103mph winds, equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane, which ripped off roofs, and even cracked concrete foundations. "Despite not being responsible for causing climate change, it is Africans who are bearing both the brunt and the cost," Madagascar UNICEF representative Jean Benoit Manhes told AFP. Nearly the entire town of Nosy Varika (about 45 miles north of Mananjary) was destroyed, and looks "as if we had just been bombed," a local official told Al Jazeera. Batsirai's destruction compounds the devastation wrought by Tropical Cyclone Ana less than two weeks ago, when 55 people were killed in Madagascar and an additional 40 people lost their lives in Mozambique and Malawi. (AFP, Al Jazeera, AP, Reuters, AccuWeather, CNN, Weather Channel, BBC, The Guardian, Al Jazeera Photos; Climate Signals background: Cyclonic storms)

Just Because It Is In Your Head Doesn't Mean It Isn't Real: More than a decade ago, Thomas Doherty and Susan Clayton published a paper describing the growing issues regarding anxiety about climate change, felt not just by those directly impacted but also those who followed research and news on the crisis. The idea was met with skepticism, the New York Times reports, but has since become widely accepted. "Eco-" or "climate anxiety" is now just another part of youth activists' lexicon — it's "a reflection that we're awake but also that we're not conditioned to the status quo, that we're capable of thinking outside of the system,” 22-year-old Clover Hogan told Glamour UK. The concept has also gone mainstream. Last Friday, none other than Good Housekeeping offered tips on how to address "another pot of worry” that’s “moving off the back burner for many of us: anxiety about climate change." (New York Times $, Glamour UK, Good Housekeeping)

Biden Extends Trump Solar Tariffs With 2 Caveats: The Biden administration announced on Friday that it will extend import tariffs on solar panels enacted under the previous administration for four years, but with two key exemptions. Biden doubled an annual import quota for solar cells, and also excluded bifacial solar panels (widely used in utility-scale projects) from the tariffs. In his statement, Biden appeared to acknowledge the tariffs could limit the expansion of solar energy production in the U.S. The presidential proclamation stated, “I have determined that an extension of this safeguard measure will provide greater economic and social benefits than costs.” Reaction from the U.S. industry was mixed, though the Chinese government quickly criticized the tariff extensions. (AP, E&E News, Reuters, The Hill, CNBC, Bloomberg $, Wall Street Journal $, FT $, New York Times $; Chinese reaction: Bloomberg $, Reuters; Mexican response: Reuters)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM:  Communities of color get more gas leaks, slower repairs, says study (WBUR), Physicist ousted from research post after sending offensive tweet to Hispanic meteorologist (Washington Post $)

COP27: A surging population brings risks for next global climate talks host [Egypt] (Bloomberg $)

HAVES / HAVE NOTS: ‘Carbon footprint gap’ between rich and poor expanding, study finds (The Guardian), The rich emit way more C02 than the poor and the gap is growing bigger, a new study says (The Independent)

SEEMS IMPORTANT: Study ties environmental conservation to pandemic prevention (E&E News, The Guardian)

OLYMPICS: Climate experts worry warming temperatures could impact future Winter Games (NBC), All the Beijing snow is human-made -- a resource-intensive, 'dangerous' trend as planet warms (CNN, New York Times $), The Winterless Olympics (NY Mag), Climate change's effect on the Winter Olympics (WZZM13, Vox, Forbes infographic), China showcases low-carbon tech for 'green' Games (Reuters)

METHANE ULTRA POLLUTERS: Landmark study validates satellite tracking of giant methane leaks (Bloomberg $, NPR, New York Times $, The Hill, BBC, E&E News)

WINTER STORM LANDON: Texas power outages hit counties where people need electricity for medical devices (The Verge), Ice, tornadoes, and cracking trees: why Winter Storm Landon dragged a melee of weather across the US (Popular Science), After cutting power to thousands, winter storm to exit northeast on Friday night (Washington Post $), Defusing ‘bombogenesis’: don’t let weather buzzwords cloud the forecast (Washington Post $), Powerful winter storm drifting out to sea, but its effects will be felt for days (NPR), US grapples with another deadly winter storm (The Hill), The Texas power grid fares better in 2022’s winter storm (Texas Tribune), Icy road conditions lead to accidents, but no major blackouts (Texas Tribune), Austin residents warned to boil water before using it (Texas Tribune)

MOUNT EVEREST: Human-induced climate change is causing Mount Everest's glaciers to melt rapidly (The Hill, Yale Environment 360, CBS, BBC)

MEDIA: Cate Blanchett climate-change podcast gets two-season order at Audible (Variety)

SPOILER ALERT, THEY DON'T: Checking a claim that Facebook oversells the accuracy of climate change models (PolitiFact)

ENERGY GEOPOLITICS: German economy minister calls for less dependence on Russian gas (Reuters), Former German Chancellor Schröder nominated for Gazprom board (Politico Pro $), US asks Japan to divert some LNG imports to Europe if supplies disrupted (Reuters)

FALLING SHORT OF NET ZERO: Top corporations have vowed to fight climate change. Researchers say their plans fall short. (Washington Post $, The Guardian, FT $), Science Based Targets initiative accused of providing a “platform for greenwashing” (Climate Home)

BROOKLYN GAS EXPLOSION: 2 homes destroyed, 3rd damaged in fire, gas explosion in Brooklyn, FDNY says (WLNY)

AGENCIES: Federal officials open push for 24/7 clean power (Axios), The Biden administration rethinks its approach to drilling on public lands in Alaska, soliciting further review (Inside Climate News)

• USPS: Postal service says it could buy more EVs if congress funded it (Bloomberg $), Democratic senator [Tom Carper] presses Postal Service on electric vehicle purchasing plans (The Hill)

EPA: EPA clashes with Fla. over use of Trump WOTUS rule (E&E News)

DOE: Report finds no DOE research overlap, despite GOP attacks (E&E $)

DOI: Biden administration sides with tribes over North Dakota in mineral dispute (The Hill, E&E $)

FEDERAL RESERVE: The Fed's climate work is facing unprecedented scrutiny (Axios), Biden's Fed pick rejects Republican climate attacks (E&E $), Fed nominee hits back at GOP climate attacks. Will it work? (E&E News)

HOUSE: House OKs China bill packed with energy, enviro spending (E&E News), House sets up Senate showdown with vote on partisan China bill (Politico Pro $), [Rep. Michael Waltz] calls Chinese takeover of Canadian lithium firm ‘very alarming’ (Politico Pro $), GOP lawmakers warn Biden of Kerry's investment, US dependence on Uyghur-made solar panels (Washington Examiner)

• BIG OIL OVERSIGHT: Big Oil board members decline to testify before Congress on climate crisis and disinformation (The Independent)

SENATE: Evoking Biden, Sen. Tom Carper says bipartisanship isn't dead (Washington Post $), Jake Tapper asks Manchin about future of Biden's bill (CNN)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden admin, Western governors launch conservation task force (E&E News), White House: Looking at options to lower gas prices for Americans (Reuters)

POLITICS: How Big Oil used Facebook to push Joe Manchin to kill build back better (Vice), How states could topple Biden’s Justice40 goals (E&E News), A climate opportunity (New York Times $)

ELECTIONS: Will climate action this year matter in the midterms? (E&E News)

FERC: D.C. Circuit pauses FERC order against Connecticut gas plant (Politico Pro $)

CITIES AND STATES: Colorado lawmakers reject bill to protect natural gas use (AP), City of Asheville aims to incorporate climate justice into policies, procedures (Asheville Citizen-Times), 4 things to know about Connecticut’s new energy storage incentive program (Energy News Network), [Pennsylvania] governor sues to force carbon-pricing plan to take effect (AP), Massachusetts approves $4B efficiency plan. Is it 'transformational' or a 'missed opportunity' on equity? (Utility Dive), NYC mayor faces climate ‘litmus test’ on buildings law (Bloomberg Law), Massachusetts provides $13M for 300 EV charging stations (AP)

CALIFORNIA: California subsidies for dairy cows’ biogas are a lose-lose, campaigners say (The Guardian), Calif. punts decision on rooftop solar crackdown (E&E $), California rooftop solar proposal sparks firestorm (The Hill), California urged to keep nuclear plant open to meet climate goals (Reuters), A California water board assures the public that oil wastewater is safe for irrigation, but experts say the evidence is scant (Inside Climate News)

TERF WARS: How a fight over transgender rights derailed environmentalists in Nevada (Politico)

IMPACTS: A third of Americans are already facing above-average warming (The Guardian), Blizzard-like 'bomb cyclones' get boost from warming oceans (The Hill), Explaining climate change and its impacts (WCNC), Climate scientists encounter limits of computer models, bedeviling policy (Wall Street Journal $), Understanding the clear indicators of human-induced climate change (Discover Magazine)

SECOND ORDER IMPACTS: Extreme weather and rising insurance rates squeeze retirees (New York Times $), As Colorado warms, dry soil sucks up more water. That’s bad news for rivers and farmers. (The Colorado Sun), Flood insurance premiums are about to rise steeply for thousands of Louisianans (The Advocate)

POLLUTION: Urban air pollution affects 2.5 billion people worldwide, study says (Washington Post $)

GEEZ LOUISE: As glaciers melt, some of Canada’s alpine lakes lose their turquoise hue (Yale Climate Connections)

THERE'SNOW ESCAPING IT: Climate change is altering the smell of snow (Washington Post $)

OCEANS: Climate change will deplete ocean oxygen, kill fish, studies show (Yahoo), Sounds of a healthy ocean can bring degraded marine ecosystems back to life (Washington Post $)

FLOODING: US flood risk is about to explode — but not for the reasons you think (Grist), In worst case climate, rain and storm surge combine often for extreme flooding (NBC), The future of hurricanes is full of floods—a lot of them (Popular Science)

WILDFIRES: Hurricane Ida makes Top 10 for costliest storms in US history (NOLA.com)

SOLUTIONS: 12 reports identify small but steady steps forward in 2022 (Yale Climate Connections)

WINTER STORM URI: One year later: the Texas freeze revealed a fragile energy system and inspired lasting misinformation (Inside Climate News)

RENEWABLES: Chart: How 11 states are building the US offshore wind industry from scratch (Canary Media), WA wind power farms may conflict with habitat preservation projects (Crosscut)

EVs: Cutting-edge gallium nitride tech could help EVs charge three times faster (CNBC), Electric cars are as green as you think and don’t produce more polluting particles (Forbes), Electric vehicles bring down CO2 emissions of new cars in UK to lowest level ever (The Guardian), Ford’s CEO just made a convincing case to break his company up and go full EV (Fortune), Electric vehicles will shake up gas stations (Axios), Phasing out gas cars could save Calif. residents $49B (E&E $), Uber calls for greater inner-city electric vehicle investment (The Hill)

• TESLA: Tesla’s latest US recall is the carmaker’s ninth since October (Bloomberg $), Tesla’s call for tax breaks rejected by India in fresh blow (Bloomberg $)
• GIVE HOT NEWS AN eS-10 FOR TESTING, YOU COWARDS: GM strikes deal that will bring medium-duty electric trucks to market (Detroit Free Press)

ELECTRIFY EVERYTHING: Electric Monaros and hotted-up skateboards : the ‘genius’ who wants to electrify our world (The Guardian)

BATTERIES: Where is there more lithium to power cars and phones? Beneath a California lake. (Wall Street Journal $)

OIL & GAS: Gas prices climb to highest level in more than 7 years as oil surges above $90 (CNBC)

PLASTICS: NGOs petition Biden administration to stop buying single-use plastics (The Hill)

PIPELINES: Carbon dioxide pipelines planned for Minnesota fall into regulatory black hole (Minneapolis Star Tribune $), Court scraps key Mountain Valley pipeline permit (E&E $), NTSB: 2020 Kentucky pipeline blast caused by welding defects (AP)

NUKES: Nuclear power: CO2 fix or cost disaster? (E&E News), The nuclear power dilemma: where to put the lethal waste (FT $)

COAL: India's state coal giant plans bulk exports for first time (Reuters), France coal-fired power plants get short-term right to burn more (Bloomberg $)

UTILITIES: Entergy asks FEMA for $450M for more resilient electric grid (AP)

GRID: New England delays elimination of market rule harming renewables for 2 years (Politico Pro $)

MOVIES & VIDEO GAMES: 'Rewilding' asks players: what will you do after the climate apocalypse? (Wired), The 'Last Winter's' dire eco-horror warning is more terrifying than ever (Gizmodo)

AVIATION: EU with other countries and aviation industry agrees to 2050 decarbonization target (Politico Pro $)

AGRICULTURE: Climate change means Alaska will be able to grow more food—now is the time to start planning (Fast Company)

BUSINESS: Lululemon’s olympic challenge to reduce its emissions (Inside Climate News)

CARBON PRICING: Europe's carbon price nears the 100 euro milestone (Reuters)

FINANCE: Banks get ESG upgrades despite lending billions for fossil fuels (Bloomberg $), BlackRock tells clients to embrace global energy transition (E&E $), This is how Citigroup defends lending money to oil companies (Quartz)

INTERNATIONAL: ‘We need politicians and experts’: how Chile is putting the climate crisis first (The Guardian), Emissions from new cars reach record low in the UK (The Verge), EU: 2022 must see action on oceans, biodiversity, plastics (AP), Indian village banks on tree mortgages in bid to go carbon-neutral (Thomson Reuters Foundation), UK rejects fresh calls for a windfall tax on oil and gas profits despite soaring energy bills (CNBC)

• Biden's opportunity to end diesel pollution of port communities (The Hill, Angelo Logan op-ed)
• Call it ‘codger power.’ We’re older but fighting for a better America. (New York Times, Bill McKibben and Akaya Windwood op-ed $)
• Political TV shows have never been worse. Sitcoms are the exception. (Politico, Joanna Weiss op-ed)
• Trump failed fossil fuel-reliant communities — Build Back Better invests in them (The Hill, Shanti Gamper-Rabindran op-ed)
• Distributed energy is poised to take center stage in 2022, but policymakers and regulators must step up (Utility Dive, Ben Hertz-Shargel op-ed)
• Record numbers of people enjoying public lands is a good thing — if we fund them (The Hill, David Feinman op-ed)
• Our government must legislate to end new fossil fuel investments – for good (The Independent, Donnachadh McCarthy op-ed)
• As the need to act on climate is more apparent, are the world's democracies up to the task? (The Hill, Frederick “Fritz” Mayer op-ed)
• In the energy transition, you cannot have your cake and eat it, too (Bloomberg, Javier Blas op-ed $)
• Late to the climate fight, Houston aims to change the strategy and slow the pace (The Hill, Jim Krane op-ed)
• Climate change conference underplayed the threat to our world from warming (Fresno Bee, Ken Wall op-ed)
• California can’t enact a ‘solar tax’ and still be a climate leader (LA Times, Los Angeles Times Editorial Board $)
• The future is electric. So why is the Postal Service buying gas-guzzling trucks? (LA Times, Los Angeles Times Editorial Board $)
• Why aren’t investors piling in to build new LNG projects? (Energy Monitor, Seb Kennedy op-ed)
• BlackRock’s climate-crusade doubletalk (Wall Street Journal, Vivek Ramaswamy op-ed $)

NFTs Kill 8,326 People A Year, Yet Two Wildlife Conservation Groups Embrace Them 

One of the many, many indicators that the conservative “media” system is more purely political propaganda and disinformation machine than it is journalistic endeavors is the fact that it often fails to offer fact-based criticisms of its opposition when the opportunity arrives. 

Case in point is a recent move by two wildlife conservation organizations to embrace NFTs as a digital version of the classic “adopt a zebra” type fundraising campaigns. Beyond the obvious ponzi scheme aspects of NFTs, and more because of the environmental impacts of blockchains and NFTs as we’ve discussed before, the move has garnered plenty of backlash, like Kate Aronoff’s great New Republic piece asking Why the Hell Is the World Wildlife Fund Selling Animal NFTs?, for example.

From the noted and long-time liberal prestige New Republic, Aronoff offers a criticism of the larger commodification of nature approach, but the even more cutting response would be to simply point to recent research showing that NFTs can be expected to kill people. 

Flagged by Skeptical Science, instead of some hypothetical legitimate conservative media outlet that operates in reality instead of in the realm of alternative facts, the study explains that based on how much energy creating NFTs requires on the blockchain: “the mining devices verifying NFT sales in one month in 2021 would be responsible for approximately 18 unnecessary future deaths from carbon emissions.” 

And it’s only getting worse. Operating the Ethereum blockchain (one type of many) for one year produces 4,434 metric tonnes of CO2, which “projects an unnecessary future death rate of 8,326 people.” 

Over 8,000 deaths from one year of one network of blockchain operation. One that happens to be 10 times cleaner than the bigger Bitcoin network, a transaction on which causes almost 10 times more emissions than Ethereum’s. Overall, “Bitcoin is responsible for an estimated 18,818 unnecessary future deaths per annum as of October 2021.” 

Here we have a case where rightwing media could rightfully skewer liberal animal-huggers for seemingly protecting wildlife at a very human cost. And given that this is, if anything, an underestimation of NFTs damage as fossil fuel pollution also hurts animals whose lives lost to air pollution and climate damages are a bit more difficult to quantify, some conservative data wiz could no doubt put together a studious argument that the NFTs these wildlife groups are selling to conserve wildlife are actively contributing to the destruction of ecosystems and deaths of the very animals they’re trying to save. 

But that would require someone, anyone in rightwing media to actually acknowledge real science (that they otherwise denigrate) and actually care about other people (that they otherwise sacrifice to corporate profits the economy) and actually do some real reporting instead of just airing grievances to rile up their base. 

But of course riling up their base is about all they every want to do. 

Tomorrow, by way of example, we’ll take a look at a trio of stories from The Federalist that offer a tidy encapsulation of their real priorities: angrily policing (cartoon) women’s bodies, preaching ignorance by attacking colleges, and, of course, spreading climate disinformation. 

But hey, at least they’re not trying to entice their audience to support them by buying into a digital ponzi scheme with thousands of deaths already at its emerging technology doorstep! (Yet…)

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