FIRST LOOK:

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Unhoused People Especially Vulnerable To Heat: Unhoused people in Phoenix are struggling to survive extreme heat as climate change pushes temperatures higher and police harassment makes it harder to find a place to sleep, the AP reports. Heat contributes to about 1,500 deaths in the U.S. every year (more than hurricanes, flooding, and tornadoes combined) and approximately half the people who die heat-related deaths are experiencing homelessness. “During the summer, it’s pretty hard to find a place at night that’s cool enough to sleep without the police running you off,” Chris Medlock, an unhoused Phoenix resident, told the AP. Climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme heat and heatwaves, and is especially increasing overnight temperatures, which can present heightened dangers to human health. Temperatures have already hit 114°F in Phoenix, where at least 130 people living outside died from heat-associated causes last year. “If 130 homeless people were dying in any other way it would be considered a mass casualty event,” Kristie L. Ebi, a professor of global health at the University of Washington, said. (AP)

White House Releases Unified Regulatory Agenda: The White House released its Unified Agenda for administrative actions on climate and a host of other issues on Tuesday. The more than 2,650 planned regulations include rules to improve household appliance and furnace efficiency, as well as an FDA rule to dramatically reduce the level of nicotine in cigarettes. The release of the administration's regulatory agenda follows more than a year of start-and-stop Senate negotiations on major climate legislation. The latest reports suggest talks are stalled over incentives for renewable energy development. (E&E News, Bloomberg Law; Senate Talks: E&E News; Cigarettes: Washington Post $)

Millions Stranded By South Asian Flooding: Scientists say Climate change has contributed to the extreme rains that have caused unprecedented flooding in Bangladesh and northeast India this year, the AP reports. Widespread downpours and flooding have killed at least 155 people in the region, displacing millions, washing away bridges, and stranding close to 10 million with little food and potable water. “We have not been able to get out of our house,” Dewan Uddus Choudhury, a 44-year-old farmer in Assam’s Barpeta district in northeast India, told the Washington Post. “There is six to eight feet of water outside.” Waterborne diseases are also a major concern. “This is something that we have never heard of and never seen,” he said. Heavy rains and flooding — both clear signals of climate change — are becoming more frequent in South Asia, along with other forms of extreme weather and climate-fueled disasters. (Climate link: AP; Flooding: Washington Post $, Reuters; Climate Signals background: Extreme precipitation increase)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: Coastal gentrification in Puerto Rico is displacing people and damaging mangroves and wetlands (The Conversation), In Ecuador's Amazon, Indigenous forest defense gains legal ground (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' residents in clean air fight (ABC), Olúfémi O. Táíwò’s theory of everything (Grist), The demographics of disaster (US News & World Report)

MISSISSIPPI METHANE: Every hour, this gas storage station sends half a ton of methane into the atmosphere (Mississippi Today and Inside Climate News)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: Germany prepares to trigger next stage of emergency gas plan (Bloomberg $), Germany risks recession as Russian gas crisis deepens (Reuters), Investment in African energy needed to aid quitting Russian supply - EIB (Reuters), Italy unveils measures to boost gas storage after drop in Russian flows (Reuters), Smugglers’ secrets: How Russia can beat EU sanctions (Politico Pro $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Fight over climate damages threatens to derail COP 27 (E&E $), Crunch UN talks face pressure to land global nature pact in 2022 (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Finance, geopolitics cast shadow over climate talks (Energy Monitor)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Appeals court mulls Delaware, Hoboken climate lawsuits (Politico Pro $), Canadian enviros seek to replicate US climate lawsuits (E&E News), Young people go to European court to stop treaty that aids fossil fuel investors (The Guardian, Reuters)

GREEN GROUPS: Citizens' Climate Lobby looks beyond carbon pricing (E&E $), Environmental group [Defenders of Wildlife] staffers say it's a ‘nightmare’ to go to work (Politico)

SCOTUS: 167 lawmakers urge Supreme Court to back EPA in wetland case (E&E $), Here are the biggest Supreme Court decisions we're still waiting for this term (NPR)

EPA: What are PFAS, and why is the EPA warning about them in drinking water? An environmental health scientist explains (The Conversation)

DOE: Biden energy chief to meet with oil executives on Thursday (The Hill), Oil CEOs will visit White House for emergency meeting (E&E $)

DOI: Agreement with native American tribes could set precedent (Washington Post $), Native American tribes to co-manage national monument for first time (Washington Post $), After winter drilling permit slump, BLM approvals back up (E&E News), Interior announces almost $75M for mineral mapping (E&E $), Interior Department devotes nearly $26 million to water efficiency (Axios), NPS creating its first LGBTQ visitor center at Stonewall Inn (E&E $)

SEC: SEC climate rule draws comment cacophony (E&E News)

WHITE HOUSE: Here’s how to meet Biden’s 2030 climate goals and dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions – with today’s technology (The Conversation)

• FIREFIGHTERS: Biden raises pay for firefighters battling 'increasingly destructive' blazes (Reuters, AP, Axios, Washington Post $, The Hill, E&E $)

• GAS TAX: Biden expected to call for temporary federal gasoline tax suspension (Wall Street Journal $, E&E $)

HOUSE: Clean energy, water projects get boost in spending bill (E&E News), House appropriators release bill to bolster EPA, Interior (E&E News), House to release NOAA, State, Transportation spending bills (E&E $)

SENATE: Senators reach final bipartisan agreement on a gun safety bill (NPR)

• JOE MANCHIN: Biden eyes deal as Manchin resists clean energy incentive (E&E News), AARP ad buy urges Manchin to support Medicare drug negotiation in reconciliation bill (The Hill)

ELECTIONS: Va. hosts top House primaries; Ala. to hold Senate runoff (E&E $)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Biden picks first woman, person of color as science adviser (AP, E&E $)

TRIBES: Skiing on a sacred mountain: Indigenous Americans stand against a resort’s expansion (The Guardian), In New Jersey, Ford faces lawsuit over polluting tribal land (Grist)

CITIES AND STATES: A ‘living shoreline’ takes root in New York’s Jamaica Bay (Inside Climate News), New York regulators approve new transmission cost analysis approach, bill credits, 135 MW battery facility (Utility Dive), The failure to ban gas in new construction is a bad sign for New York’s climate law (New York Focus), Virginia governor rolls back plastics phase-out, seeking to court recycling (Energy News Network), New Jersey’s landmark environmental justice law one step closer to reality (Grist)

FERC: Appeals court partly strikes down FERC approval of ISO New England winter reliability program (Utility Dive)

IMPACTS: 78% of adults in US report being affected by severe weather caused by climate change: Report (ABC), Majority of households have been affected by extreme weather events, leading to health, financial problems for some (The Hill), How Georgia’s undeveloped barrier islands are adapting to sea-level rise (Yale Climate Connections), Scientists probe link between 'snow blood' and climate change (Reuters), Southern China hit by severe rains, floods as 'dragon boat water' peaks (Reuters)

• STAY OUT OF SLOT CANYONS: ‘Mixed blessing’: fire-plagued new Mexico faces excessive monsoon rain (Washington Post $)
• GATHER THEM NOW: the documents you’d need to file a FEMA claim (Yale Climate Connections)

HEAT: Heat waves shattered records on 2 continents before summer began (Axios), UAE records highest temperature at 50.7°C near Abu Dhabi (Gulf Today, Gulf News), Excessive heat swelling from Midwest toward the South (Washington Post $), In Jacobabad [Pakistan], one of the hottest cities on the planet, a heat wave is pushing the limits of human livability (Inside Climate News), How pregnant people can prepare for a summer of heat waves (The 19th* News explainer), Americans connect extreme heat and climate change to their health, a survey finds (NPR)

• TEXAS GRID: Texas power use breaks record again, more to come as heatwave lingers (Reuters)

DROUGHT: Sunken WWII ship reappears in Italian river amid drought (Gizmodo), Ten stories on drought and disaster risk reduction (The New Humanitarian)

WILDFIRES: 'Baddest one I've ever seen': New Jersey wildfire may become state's largest in 15 years (Gizmodo), Fire near Arctic Circle sign prompts campground evacuations (AP), Wildfire near Arizona’s Kitt Peak observatory 50% contained (AP), Wildfire destroys buildings at Arizona observatory, images show telescopes intact (Gizmodo)

• EUROPE: Europe wildfire risk heightened by early heat waves, drought (AP), Wildfire in southwest Turkey evokes memories of last year's blazes (Reuters), Firefighters battle wildfire near Turkish resort of Marmaris (AP)
• NEW MEXICO: Forest Service says it failed to account for climate change in New Mexico blaze (Washington Post $, CNN)

HURRICANES: Celia again a tropical storm off Mexico’s Pacific coast (AP)

WATER: Beyond boundaries: Earth’s water cycle is being bent to breaking point (Mongabay), Monterrey [Mexico] suffers weeks-long water cutoff amid drought (AP)

DEFORESTATION: 2 forests, 2 futures (New York Times $), Brazil's Lula sets out 'net zero deforestation' aim in election bid (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

RENEWABLES: Are wind, solar lulls a challenge for a zero-carbon grid? (E&E News), Oil majors plan world’s largest floating offshore wind farm (E&E News)

• SOLAR: Is US solar ready to prove its panels aren’t made with forced labor? (Canary Media), Solar developers just made a major commitment to buy American-made panels (Protocol, Reuters, Washington Examiner), US 'rallying' allies against Xinjiang forced labor as import ban begins (Reuters, New York Times $)

BUILDINGS: 8 ways renters can make their homes greener (Washington Post $), There’s never been a better time for a heat pump revolution (Protocol)

LNG: Tankers bound for Freeport LNG divert after blast to Trinidad, Maryland -data (Reuters), US natural-gas exporter completes first deal with German buyer (Wall Street Journal $)

OIL & GAS: European gas gains as traders weigh supply curbs, weaker demand (Bloomberg $)

PLASTICS: Canada banning single-use plastics to combat pollution, climate change (Washington Post $)

PIPELINES: DC Circuit upholds dismissal of landowner suit against Mountain Valley Pipeline (Politico Pro $)

COAL: Bankruptcy filing complicates outlook for Western coal giant (E&E News)

STEEL: Steel emissions could rise with China, India building booms (E&E $)

UTILITIES: DC Circuit nixes part of New England energy stockpile plan (E&E $), Power co-op invokes $8.1B cost limit on share of Vogtle (E&E $)

NUKES: A big step toward fusion energy is hailed by a Seattle start-up (New York Times $)

EVs: FedEx shifts from EV delivery truck testing to adoption (Reuters), Schneider Electric buys EV Connect to open up its EV-charging options (Canary Media), The EV revolution could spur a used car catastrophe abroad (Protocol)

CRYPTO: Bitcoin’s intensive energy demands are sparking a crypto backlash (Yale Environment 360)

WORKER PROTECTIONS: Business groups sue over heat and smoke worker protections (AP)

AGRICULTURE: How 'vertical farming' could fight food deserts, greenhouse gas emissions in Colorado (ABC)

CARBON CAPTURE: Gulf carbon capture projects hang in balance, as Democrats weigh increase in clean energy payments (Houston Chronicle)

FINANCE: Climate tech stocks are surviving, if not quite thriving (Protocol)

INTERNATIONAL: Gustavo Petro promised a 'new progressivism.' Now he’s set to be Colombia’s first leftist president (Democracy Now), Investor groups call on UK to exclude natural gas from 'green taxonomy' (Reuters), Spain withdraws bid for 2030 Winter Games due to political row (Reuters), Sunny Spain's green energy plan leaves needy feeling cold (Reuters)

MONEY WELL SPENT: Police response to Uvalde school massacre was worse than originally reported (The Root), Texas public safety chief calls Uvalde response an 'abject failure' (Black Wall Street Times), Uvalde coverup: Black people have warned against trusting police narratives for a long time (NewsOne), Uvalde officials are using a legal loophole to block the release of shooting records (NPR)

• FEMA isn’t the only solution to climate disaster. Government must fund mutual aid. (Truthout, Ashley Shelton op-ed)
• Our shared climate responsibility (The Hill, Ben Santer op-ed)
• Hurricane hell and climate punishment (The Hill, Durwood Zaelke and Gabrielle Dreyfus op-ed)
• On a divided Mount Everest, climate cooperation is being tested (New York Times, Freddie Wilkinson op-ed $)
• China’s lockdowns and heavy rains ease coal shortage: Kemp (Reuters, John Kemp column)
• ‘All hands on deck’ for the energy storage industry (Utility Dive, Kelly Sarber op-ed)
• Cities are banning new gas stations. More should join them (The Guardian, Nathan Taft op-ed)
• Is it just me, or is it really hot again? (The Hill, Noah Diffenbaugh and Marshall Burke op-ed)
• Did Russian hackers blow up a Texas LNG pipeline on June 8? (Washington Examiner, Tom Rogan op-ed)
• Indoor farming is a ‘no-brainer.’ Except for the carbon footprint. (New York Times, William Alexander op-ed $)

Deniers Recognize Logic Inherent to Climate Action Against Disinformation

Earlier this month a major report on digital climate disinformation called for institutions like the UN and Big Tech to do more to rein in the spread of harmful climate disinformation due to the harm it causes and obstacle it poses to climate action. Now, a new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) finds that while accurate climate coverage makes people more amenable to climate policy, disinformation in the form of false opinion content erases that gain, demonstrating how disinformation is used to undercut public demand for climate action. 

Although some Very Serious People may remain unconvinced about the need to address the hundreds of millions of dollars Big Oil billionaires spend every year on a network of front groups to fight climate policy using disinformation, even deniers are reluctantly catching on to the undeniable logic for deplatforming disinformers. 

WattsUpWithThat guest blogger Eric Worrall reacted to a recent Guardian story by Kate Lyons, reporting on a Vanuatu-led call for the UN to recognize climate harm and the International Court of Justice to write an advisory on climate change with the headline claim: the court ruling which could outlaw climate skepticism.

The Guardian story makes zero mention of outlawing climate denial, so why is Worrall "concerned by the push for the United Nations to recognise climate harm under the no harm rule? The wording of the law." 

Since it calls for countries "to use all the means at its disposal to avoid activities… causing significant damage to the environment of another State," then it only stands to reason, Worrall wonders, that if adopted, "could this 'use all means' principle extend to silencing skeptics?"

Well we hadn't thought of that yet, but great idea! He stops to "make it clear at this point, [he's] not a lawyer. So [his] interpretation could be wrong." But for once, we're inclined to agree with him, and think he's pretty much gotten it right. 

"There are limits" to the First Amendment's protection of free speech in the U.S., he writes, in that you can't call for violence against others, can be held accountable "for the harm their public speech causes, such as yelling 'fire' in a crowded theatre where there is no fire." 

Therefore, Worrall's "concern is, if climate change is recognised under the no harm principle, then telling people there is no problem, when the ICJ has recognised there is a problem, could be interpreted as spreading falsehoods to deliberately put people in harm[']s way. Just as yelling 'fire' in a crowded theatre puts people in harm[']s way if there is no fire, so telling people there is no fire when the court has recognised the fire is real, could equally be interpreted as placing people in harm[']s way." 

Well when you put it like that Eric, it sure does make a lot of sense! 

He wrote that "those who would crush dissent" (by stopping social media algorithms from unduly amplifying climate disinformation) "are continuously looking for a loophole, a way to silence opponents" and that "legal recognition of climate harm is a potential route to regulation and suppression of climate speech," which means "an abuse of the ICJ No Harm Rule could be just what they are looking for." 

Well we weren't looking for the loophole or anything, but since you were so kind as to bring it to everyone's attention, maybe now we will.

And if all goes according to the plan he so neatly laid out, maybe one day we can thank Mr. Worrall for the idea in person, at The Hague!

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