FIRST & FOREMOST:

Climate Nexus stands in solidarity with organizations fighting for abortion access and all reproductive freedoms. The battles for climate justice and reproductive justice are intertwined: Women and pregnant people disproportionately experience the harms associated with climate change, and the same people and organizations stand opposed to justice on both issues.

Please join Climate Nexus staff in contributing to your local abortion fund, and see the Denier Roundup below for further discussion.

SCOTUS Denies Human Rights, Overturn Precedent, Puts Environmental Law On Chopping Block: The Supreme Court ruled on Friday to strike down federal protection of the human right to control one's body and get an abortion. The alacrity with which the Court's conservative supermajority tossed aside nearly 50 years of precedent (and their own pledges to the U.S. Senate) in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health illustrates the threat these "numerical minority justices" pose to the foundations of climate and environmental law, as well as numerous other popular policies and Constitutional rights. “There was no need to overturn Roe to rule on the constitutionality of the Mississippi statute. … Yet the five-justice majority did so,” Robert Percival, director of the UMD environmental law program, told E&E News on Friday. “When we get the West Virginia decision next week, we may learn whether the court will take a similarly radical approach to weaken our nation’s most treasured environmental laws.” Vermont Law School professor Pat Parenteau concurred, telling E&E News, “No environmental precedent is safe.” Climate change and abortion rights — and the interests of polluting industries and those who seek to force birth and criminalize miscarriage — and are closely intertwined. Pollution caused by the combustion of fossil fuels and the unraveling of abortion rights both impose disproportionate harm on communities of color, and low income communities (and fossil fuel pollution is especially harmful to fetuses, infants, and children). The industrial and political alliances seeking to block climate action and deny bodily autonomy to pregnant people are also closely aligned, if not one in the same, while the climate and reproductive rights communities both work towards a world with more justice- and perhaps, four more Justices. (Climate action vulnerability: E&E News, The Hill, Winston-Salem Journal, Wall Street Journal $; Fossil fuel pollution harm: HuffPost; Other rights: NPR, Mother Jones; Justices' duplicity before Senate: NPR, Daily Beast, Washington Post $)

BART Train Derailed Due To Extreme Heat: A Bay Area Rapid Transit train derailed last week after scalding-hot tracks warped rail lines out of alignment, BART said. Built for heat up to 115°F, the rails hit 140°F last Tuesday. Extreme heat has blanketed much of the U.S. over the past weeks, with tens of millions under heat advisories. The East Bay derailment appears to be unprecedented — an agency spokesperson could not conclusively declare no train had ever derailed because of heat in the past, but a search of news archives found nothing since at least 2005. (San Francisco Chronicle $, LA Times $; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)

Ukrainian Coal Miners Risk Methane Explosions, Russian Bombs: As European countries prepare for a complete shutdown of methane gas imports from Russia, some are turning back to coal to generate electricity, and in the mines below Ukraine, coal miners are risking their lives to extract it. The buildup of methane gas can lead to explosions even in normal conditions, while Russia's bombing of civilian targets means miners could be left to die if an elevator shaft or ventilation system gets destroyed. European countries scrambling to secure fossil energy sources, including by burning more coal and importing more gas from the U.S., are undermining efforts to meet climate goals. (Ukraine coal mining: New York Times $, Wall Street Journal $, Reuters; Undermining climate goals: New York Times $, Wall Street Journal $); European fossil energy crisis: CNBC)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: Low-cost sensors are helping communities find gaps in air quality data (Grist)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: Energy prices are causing chaos in Asia. Here's why the rest of the world should worry (CNN), Russian gas crisis will test EU solidarity, warns German utility RWE (FT $), Why Germany is pushing for a ‘climate club’ (AP, explainer)

G-7: Biden meets with G7 to talk about Ukraine, inflation, food insecurity, climate change (NPR), G7 told not to ‘water down’ climate promises amid fears of shift back to fossil fuels (The Independent), Global CEOs urge G7 leaders to step up climate action (FT $), Thousands march in Munich to demand G7 action on poverty and climate (Reuters)

• BELT AND ROAD: G7 aims to raise $600 billion to counter China's Belt and Road (Reuters, NPR, Wall Street Journal $), Biden commits $200 billion to global infrastructure plan meant to counter China (The Hill, Bloomberg $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Energy treaty update fails to address climate crisis, activists say (The Guardian, Reuters), 'Not encouraging': UN climate chief on world leaders' COP27 commitments (CNN)

(CLIMATE) LITIGATION: Indigenous Ogiek win ‘landmark’ reparations ruling from African court (Grist)

FOSSIL PROFITEERING: How much money do gas tax holidays actually save drivers? What we know, based on 3 states that put temporary suspensions in place (CNBC)

SOUTH ASIA: ‘I’ve never seen a flood like this’: Bangladesh reels from heavy rains (New York Times $)

GAS LEAKS: A serious gas leak happens every 40 hours in the US (Gizmodo)

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN: Free online environmental justice courses available for middle, high school students (Yale Climate Connections)

DARREN WOODS HAS THOUGHTS: Every new passenger car sold in the world will be electric by 2040, says Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods (CNBC), Exxon Mobil CEO cautions against an abrupt energy transition, warning underinvestment leads to high gas prices (CNBC), Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods calls for a higher price on carbon (CNBC)

ABOUT HOW YOU'D EXPECT: How right-wing media reacted to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade (Media Matters)

COSTCO PATIO FURNITURE: More than 400,000 solar-powered umbrellas recalled over fire risk (New York Times $)

WHITE HOUSE: A ‘carbon bomb’ or desperately needed energy? Alaskan village holds key to Biden’s climate policy. (Washington Post $)

THE HILL: Congress quietly backed an ambitious climate project: sending CO2 to the ocean floor (HuffPost), Democrats cool to Biden’s proposed gas tax holiday (The Hill)

POLITICS: GOP's gas tax flip-flop (Axios)

CITIES AND STATES: Minnesota courts hear challenges to use of agricultural land for solar projects (Energy News Network), The living city: weaving nature back into the urban fabric (Yale Environment 360), When it comes to reducing New York City emissions, CUNY flunks the test (Inside Climate News), With increased nutrient pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, environmentalists hope a new law will cleanup wastewater treatment in Maryland (Inside Climate News)

• TEXAS: Conservative approach to Texas grid operations could cost consumers $1.5B this year, says market monitor (Utility Dive), Why Texas has the country’s worst corn (Gizmodo)

IMPACTS: Ice in the Arctic is melting even faster than scientists expected, study finds (NPR), 4 ways climate change is already taking a toll (Discover Magazine), How a flood from 100 years ago tested the government's ability to respond to climate change (Salon), The unique ways Filipinos are protecting their homes against floods (Washington Post $), Tick hunting: the prey are tiny, and the bait is human (New York Times $)

ATTRIBUTION: The era of real-time climate change attribution is here (Axios)

HEAT: Hotter summers, rising gun violence put vulnerable youth at risk. Can advocates keep them safe? (The Hill), Seville to name and classify heatwaves in effort to protect public (The Guardian), Heat waves around the world push people and nations ‘to the edge’ (New York Times $), Japan tops 104 degrees for first time in June amid record heat wave (Washington Post $), Should air conditioning be part of workers’ rights? (Quartz), Texas power use breaks record with more to come as heat wave lingers (Reuters), Weather tracker: Europe’s heatwave sends temperature records tumbling (The Guardian)

• WOMEN: In Jacobabad, the hottest city on earth, women bear the brunt of climate change (The Independent)
• PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS: Heat-associated deaths especially common for people without homes (Weather Channel)

DROUGHT: California’s largest reservoirs at critically low levels – signaling a dry summer ahead (The Guardian), Colorado’s drought is bad. Tree ring history shows it could get a lot worse. (The Colorado Sun)

• LAWN CARE: How to plant a tapestry lawn (and why you should) (Lifehacker)

WILDFIRES: How climate change is making fires worse (The Hill), Turkey wildfire largely under control, Erdogan says (AP)

• ALASKA: Historic wildfires rage across Alaska (Axios)

HURRICANES: Multiple tropical threats lurking in the Atlantic as July awaits offstage (Yale Climate Connections), Tropical storm could form in Atlantic next week and threaten Caribbean (Washington Post $), Unusual early-season threat in Atlantic’s main development region (Yale Climate Connections)

WATER: Early signs indicate Southern California finally using less water. But big test lies ahead (LA Times $), The water shortage in the American West (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver)

BOOZE: Full-bodied with notes of band-aid and medicine (The Atlantic)

INSURANCE: Insurers harness data to help clients weather storms, floods (Wall Street Journal $)

"RENEWABLES": Ethanol keeps climbing as gasoline prices stay high (Wall Street Journal $)

MINERALS: New US program targets rare minerals needed for EVs and solar panels (Bloomberg $)

SHIPPING: Startup Amogy raises $46M to fuel cargo ships with green ammonia (Canary Media)

OIL & GAS: Love it or hate it, natural gas is likely here to stay. (Houston Chronicle)

PLASTICS: The oyster farmers working to address aquaculture’s big plastics problem (Modern Farmer)

COAL: France may restart coal-fired power plant in Lorraine this winter (Reuters)

HYDROGEN: Hydrogen startup raises $198 million for plants to produce green fuel (Bloomberg $), Hydrogen’s spark gets swamped by rising interest rates (Wall Street Journal $), Namibia stakes its future on the green hydrogen market (Energy Monitor), The race to make green hydrogen competitive is on. And Europe is building industrial-scale electrolyzers to help (CNBC), Tokyo Gas begins synthetic methane trial using green hydrogen (Reuters)

UTILITIES: Alliant, We Energies walk back Wisconsin coal retirement plans in light of MISO’s expected capacity shortfalls (Utility Dive)

POWER LINES: Fierce local battles over power lines are a bottleneck for clean energy (CNBC)

EVs: ‘It keeps on going’: driving the world’s first production-ready solar car (The Guardian), Amid electric vehicle boom, US seeks to flood 'charging deserts' (Thomson Reuters Foundation), An electric Mercedes-Benz drove 747 miles without recharging, nearly twice the range of Tesla's Model S (Business Insider), Cadillac plans to price its future Celestiq EV around $300,000 (Wall Street Journal $), Tesla, Ford and GM raise EV prices as costs, demand grow (Wall Street Journal $), Hyundai quietly climbs the EV sales charts and Elon Musk notices (Bloomberg $), Toyota issues recall for its flagship electric SUV following concerns about wheels coming off (CNBC)

CRYPTO: Bitcoin’s energy use drops following price plunge (The Verge), Electricity used to mine bitcoin plummets as crypto crisis widens (The Guardian)

AGRICULTURE: Scientists are pursuing flood-resistant crops, thanks to climate-induced heavy rains and other extreme weather (Inside Climate News)

CARS: Five countries seek to delay EU fossil fuel car phase-out (Reuters)

FINANCE: EU and UK will end investment protection for fossil fuels in 10 years (Climate Home)

GRETA: Greta Thunberg delivers a climate warning at Glastonbury (BBC)

WILDLIFE: A ‘stock’ market for animals? Idea aims to protect threatened species. (Washington Post $), New Zealand sea sponge populations 'dying by the millions' due to climate change (CNN)

INTERNATIONAL: After pressure from Toyota chief, Japan emphasized support for hybrids (Reuters), Indonesia is learning lessons from South Africa’s tough energy transition deal talks (Climate Home), The Netherlands, facing energy and climate crises, bets on a nuclear revival (HuffPost)

• CHINA: China’s clean energy growth outlook for 2022 keeps getting bigger (Bloomberg $), China’s leaders mull banning solar panels from farmland (Bloomberg $), Chinese premier calls for more coal production as electricity demand soars (The Guardian)

COLONIAL LEGACIES: Commonwealth ends summit with call for action on climate change, trade (Reuters)

• Why we must nationalize Big Oil (The Hill, William S. Becker op-ed)
• How the universal language of music can help us solve our planetary problem (TIME, Adam Met and Dana R. Fisher op-ed)
• We can protect consumers from high energy costs and mitigate the climate crisis (The Hill, Bob Taylor and Craig B. Smith op-ed)
• ‘The biggest uncertainty is us’ (New York Times, Katharine Hayhoe interview $)
• Biden wants a gas tax holiday. Here are a few better ideas (CNN, Charlie Dent op-ed)
• Biden’s gas tax gimmick avoids real solutions (The Hill, David Ditch op-ed)
• Setting higher standards for the G-7 infrastructure (re)launch (The Hill, Elizabeth Losos and Robert Fetter op-ed)
• There’s a simple way to unite everyone behind climate justice – and it’s within our power (The Guardian, George Monbiot op-ed)
• The Supreme Court declares war on modern America (Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin op-ed $)
• Gov. Newsom’s plan to prevent power outages has a big downside: fossil fuels (LA Times, Los Angeles Times Editorial Board $)
• Our self-imposed water crisis signals a need for change (Nevada Independent, Michael Schaus op-ed)
• Biden’s gas tax holiday wouldn’t make much difference (New York Times, Peter Coy op-ed $)
• The facts on what’s behind our energy crunch and high gas prices (The Hill, Simon Henderson op-ed)
• Electric cars are unaffordable for many Americans. Biden is trying to impose them anyway (The Hill, Justin Haskins op-ed)

For More Justice, 4 More Justices: Dark Money SCOTUS Revoked Right to Abortion. Climate Action Is Next, and Gay Rights Are On the Horizon. Unless They're Stopped. 

On Friday, a Supreme Court that polluters packed with "numerical minority justices," the only five in the history of the Supreme Court to be appointed and represent the views of a minority of voters, of whom three were named by a president who lost a majority of the popular vote, and four who misled Senators during their confirmation hearings about their respect for precedent, threw fifty years of precedent out the window to overturn the Constitutional right to access a safe and legal abortion, ruling that states can regulate wombs, but not guns. 

Not that this will stop abortions, there are still options, we'll just need to be much more careful about it because of mass surveillence, and more supportive of abortion funds. Indigenous Women Rising put it to ICT: “We will never, ever stop having abortions. We will always be in control of our bodies. We will never succumb to a fascist, white supremacist government, no matter the cost. We will continue to help our communities access the care they need."  

Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement:

"The Supreme Court has now officially given politicians permission to control what we do with our bodies, deciding that we can no longer be trusted to determine the course for our own lives. Due to centuries of racism and systemic discrimination, we already know who will feel the consequences of this horrific decision most acutely: Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities, people with disabilities, those living in rural areas, young people, immigrants, and those having difficulties making ends meet. Make no mistake – if they can take away the right to abortion, a right we’ve held for nearly 50 years, they won’t stop here: All of our freedoms are on the line." 

If you're morbidly or professionally curious, for the record, (climate) disinfo outlets and organizations handled the news that the judicial activists on the Supreme Court just cast aside decades of precedent and revoked a basic freedom with a mix of celebrating this culmination of their decades-long plan to take over the Court and talking about their plans for more, stoking fears of antifa violence to justify police crackdowns on First Amendment rights too, and literally just mocking women who are upset about this affront to bodily autonomy.

All signs point to the Supreme Court ruling against the Federal government's authority to regulate fossil fuels this week or next, if not today, in the West Virginia v. EPA case, the culmination of the concerted polluter-driven campaign to destroy federal environmental policy that recruited the Christian right and anti-abortion extremism to provide the emotional heft to the Koch et al's now-quite-successful takeover of the Republican party. 

The industry's money and the Christian extremist's fervor need each other, because a wide majority of Americans support regulating carbon pollution, and wide majorities support the right to legal abortion. That does not matter to this Supreme Court, which is wildly unbalanced relative to the views of the public. Nor do the minoritarian justices care that this country's systemic racism means that both decisions will individually and together cause compounding disproportionate harm for millions, especially Black women. Or, perhaps, they do care and, like an elected white supremacist/Republican congresswoman, see that as a benefit of their extremism.

Our freedoms and our safety are being dismantled by a federal judiciary and Supreme Court fashioned out of an overpowered white minority. The system has been corrupted. It has been carefully, strategically sabotaged by decades of polluter disinfo and Republican campaign contributions. Asking people to trust this broken system's institutions to fix these problems defies credibility. A broken system can't fix itself, particularly not when there's zero accountability for the political party that's very intentionally and consistently breaking it.  

If we are to have any hope of spending the next fifty years fighting climate change, and righting the wrongs of extractive capitalism, racism, and patriarchy inlaid into America's founding, we can't let a stolen SCOTUS continue to drag us back to the days of dangerous abortions, rampant racism, and unchecked pollution. 

The harm isn't a byproduct, or unintended consequence of a strict adherence to principle and precedent, but the opposite. Principles and precedent have been repeatedly cast aside by these justices in order to go out of their way to cause harm on communities long targeted by rich patriarchal white supremacists. 

So don't be surprised when you start hearing more and more calls for expanding and reforming the Supreme Court. There are 13 District Courts now, after all, not just 9. The last time a conservative SCOTUS invoked the doctrines at play in West Virginia v. EPA, they only backed off when FDR threatened to pack the court and dilute their power to stop the New Deal. 

For example, The League of Conservation Voters issued this statement from their President Gene Karpinski and Board Chair Carol M. Browner: "Today’s decision is the result of a concerted decades-long right-wing effort to capture our courts and roll back the rights of women, girls, and all people who can become pregnant. We can’t wait to correct this captured Court – Congress must act immediately to rebalance the scales for a more just, honorable, and equitable judiciary, and expand the number of justices who serve on our nation’s highest Court.”

As this SCOTUS has made painfully clear, they have no intention of respecting the sanctity of the Supreme Court and all its pomp and precedent. This is their first slate of rulings as a super- majority, and election-stealing conspiracy theorist Ginni Thomas's husband is already drawing targets around contraception and gay marriage protections. 

How many more rights will this Supreme Court strip away?

As many as we let them, apparently. 

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