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Hurricane Julia Kills Dozens Across Central America: At least 28 people are dead across Central America after Hurricane Julia dumped as much as 15 landslide-inducing inches of rain across multiple countries. The region is still recovering from the one-two punch of Hurricanes Eta and Iota two years ago. Julia made landfall early Sunday near Laguna de Perlas, Nicaragua, blowing roofs off houses and toppling trees. In Guatemala, five people died in Alta Verapaz, when a hillside collapsed and buried them alive in their home and another nine died in Huehuetenango. (AP, Washington Post $, Yale Climate Connections, New York Times $; Storm track: Washington Post $; Climate Signals background: Hurricanes)

Megadrought Threatens Navajo Lifeways, Drives Up Food Prices: The 23-year megadrought across what is now the Southwestern U.S. is driving up food prices, and threatening lifeways across the Navajo Nation. European colonizers took 99% of Indigenous nations' lands since arriving on the continent more than 500 years ago, and climate change, caused mainly by the industrialized world's extraction and combustion of fossil fuels — in some cases inflicting disproportionate harm directly on Indigenous populations — is further undermining traditional practices. Growing up, raising sheep, corn, beans, and squash on her family's ancestral lands, “We did not want for anything,” Candice Mendez told The Guardian. Once drought hit in the early 1990s, however, “All of sudden we were eating canned food … [t]he land could no longer provide for us.” Mendez, who now has to drive more than 100 miles per week to get water for her animals, worries, “At some point it may just get to be too hard and too expensive," but even more, "If we lose these animals, we lose a big part of our identity." (Megadrought: NPR, CNN; Navajo Nation: The Guardian; Food prices: Axios, Reuters, The Gazette; Water shortages: Washington Post $, The Independent; Climate Signals background: Western megadrought)

Oil Workers Strike, Join Protests In Iran: Iranian oil workers are striking and joining the anti-government protests in Iran. The protests, set off by the brutal murder of 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Amini while in police custody, have broadened beyond the regime's treatment and repression of women and girls to protesting the regime itself — chants of "death to the dictator" are common. The government has thus far reacted violently to the uprisings, but strikes at refineries and petrochemical facilities dramatically increase the threat to the sanction-squeezed, oil-dependent regime. (AP, Wall Street Journal $, Bloomberg $, The Hill, Reuters)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Jackson, Mississippi residents facing high water bills amid crisis (NBC)

HURRICANE IAN: ‘Nothing’s left’: Hurricane Ian leaves emotional toll behind (AP), Aerial images show alarming extent of Hurricane Ian's devastation in Florida (Gizmodo), As Ian's death toll rises, questions swirl on why more Floridians didn't evacuate (NPR), Hurricane Ian may have caused $67 billion in damage, a top 5 US storm (Axios), Hurricane Ian traumatized Floridians. It also erased their nest eggs. (Politico), Hurricane Ian’s exceptional death toll, explained (Vox), Hurricane Ian floods leave mess, insurance questions behind (AP), Lack of flood insurance in hard-hit Central Florida leaves families struggling after Hurricane Ian (CNN), Search for victims done, Florida coast aims for Ian recovery (AP), How a trusted weather model fumbled the forecast for Hurricane Ian (Washington Post $, AP, explains)

• FLORIDA: Florida commits $1 billion to climate resilience. But after Hurricane Ian, some question the state’s development practices (Inside Climate News), Fla. hasn’t spent billions in federal aid for past disasters (E&E News), Florida residents, insurers face heavy task of rebuilding after Hurricane Ian (Today Show)
• SPRAWL: Shutting an agency managing sprawl might have put more people in Hurricane Ian's way (NPR)
• SENIORS: Many of Hurricane Ian’s victims were older adults who drowned (New York Times $, AP), ‘Our bubble has been burst’: Older storm victims face an uncertain future (New York Times $)

PAKISTAN: Pakistan facing health emergency as climate change cause floods (Bloomberg $)

COP27: Biden will attend COP27 — the UN’s climate change summit — in Egypt (Washington Post $), How Pakistan’s flood crisis bends climate talks towards reparations (Bloomberg $, AP), Egypt finalizes details of global climate summit (Prensa Latina), Germany wants climate losses put on agenda at UN talks (AP), How could help for rising climate 'loss and damage' be funded? (Context), Young activists urge focus on cash for climate damage at COP27 (BBC)

HER NAME IS VANESSA NAKATE: Youth climate activist says US should help poorer nations to adapt (Bloomberg $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: World Bank chief says will keep 'intense' focus on addressing climate change (Reuters), UN seeks help for developing world hit by rising debt costs (AP)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Desperate Europeans return to the world’s oldest fuel for warmth (Bloomberg $), Energy crisis means a ‘very dark winter’ for Europe’s forests (Politico Pro $), EU leaders fail to reach deal to cut energy prices (Wall Street Journal $), France’s Le Maire warns against American gas ‘domination’ (Politico Pro $), Germany to pay December gas bills for households and businesses (The Guardian), Norway is portrayed as both hero and villain in Europe’s energy crisis (Washington Post $)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Climate change lawsuits filed by Annapolis and Anne Arundel County can proceed in Maryland courts, judge says (The Gazette)

DENIAL: Misleading claims downplay climate change’s effect on hurricanes (AP)

GOP vs. ESG: Texas 'anti-woke' fossil fuel law to be tested by BlackRock funds (Reuters), BlackRock expands defense against Republican ESG pushback (Washington Examiner), BlackRock walks a political tightrope on climate issues (Wall Street Journal $), Louisiana joins GOP protest, will divest from BlackRock (E&E $)

RIGHTS OF NATURE: A thousand miles in the Amazon, to change the way the world works (Inside Climate News), Give legal rights to animals, trees and rivers, say experts (The Guardian)

ACTIVISM: Can climate protests make a difference? (BBC), 99-year-old WWII refugee takes up battle against climate change (Today Show), Endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh in Red Sea swim to highlight climate coral crisis (The Independent)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: Climate bill positions big oil and gas companies to cash in (Washington Post $), The climate law — and its billions — changed everything (E&E News)

SCOTUS: The fate of protected wetlands are at stake in the Supreme Court’s first case of the term (Inside Climate News), What a Supreme Court case on pigs means for renewable energy (E&E News)

EPA: EPA launches initiative to speed review of new chemicals for electric vehicle, clean energy sectors (Utility Dive), EPA targets lead airplane fuel, citing children living near runways (Washington Post $, The Hill), Flush with cash, EPA could toughen methane rules (E&E News)

DOI: BLM employees unionize amid change, uncertainty (E&E $), Interior advances California floating wind project (E&E $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Why the Pentagon is the world’s biggest single greenhouse gas emitter (Mother Jones)

WHITE HOUSE: As Biden weighs ban on fuel exports to fight high gas prices, refineries make contingency plans (Houston Chronicle), Biden is blamed for downturn in new oil drilling, but fossil fuel companies are the ones hitting pause (CNN), Biden's 'unthinkable' options for punishing OPEC (Politico), Biden's new Arctic strategy foresees competition with Russia, China (Reuters)

TREASURY: OPEC output cut ‘unhelpful and unwise,’ US Treasury chief says (Politico EU), Yellen: OPEC production cuts will hurt economy (The Hill), Yellen: World Bank must evolve to tackle climate change (E&E $)

THE HILL: Meet the House Republican who could lead a key environmental committee (Washington Post $)

ELECTIONS: Fetterman and Oz at odds over natural gas, environmental concerns (The Hill), Greens launch $3.5M campaign to reelect Mich. Dems (E&E $), Half of voters say climate change is important in midterms, poll finds (Washington Post $), Shaped by gun violence and climate change, Gen Z weighs whether to vote (Washington Post $)

TRIBES: With renewables, Native communities chart a path to energy sovereignty (Canary Media), California tribes will manage, protect state coastal areas (AP)

CITIES AND STATES: Climate change means all cities are in the water-rescue business now (Bloomberg $), Boston celebrates 50th anniversary of Clean Water Act, looks back on harbor cleanup (Boston Globe $), Mayor de Blasio's record on climate change: It's com­pli­cated (NY1), New York is the latest state to ban sales of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035 (Grist), Researchers developing tools to help region plan for potential climate change-related population growth (Michigan Radio), 'Steam loops' under many cities could be a climate change solution (NPR), Texas regulators deny Sierra Club petition to bolster energy efficiency, but say improvements needed (Utility Dive, E&E $), Virginia Republicans vow to repeal Clean Cars law as interest grows in EVs (Energy News Network), Yellow cabs are struggling. Congestion pricing could deal a new blow. (New York Times $)

• CALIFORNIA: Despite promises, California doesn’t know how many people died in record summer heat wave (LA Times $), California Gov. Gavin Newsom to propose ‘windfall’ oil profit tax (Wall Street Journal $, The Hill), California offshore wind lease auction for up to 3 GW advances with BOEM assessment (Utility Dive), California repeatedly warned about spiking gas prices, fragile supply. But fixes never came (LA Times $), Oil industry moves to overturn historic California drilling protection law (Inside Climate News)

FERC: States press FERC for independent monitors on transmission planning, spending as Southern Co. balks (Utility Dive)

IMPACTS: Rain-fueled landslide sweeps through Venezuela town; 22 dead (AP), Dire climate impacts distract from even more dire warnings (Bloomberg $), A Caribbean coral catastrophe (Axios), Climate change washing away beaches in North Carolina’s Outer Banks (NBC), Extreme weather events fueling 'climate refugee' crisis (MSNBC), Historic homes may prove to be more resilient against floods (AP), Kentucky is getting wetter as climate change brings an era of extremes, data shows (The Courier Journal / St. Louis Post-Dispatch), New England's fall foliage harder to predict as the climate changes, biologists say (WBUR), Pakistan’s unseen climate-change survivors (The New Yorker $), Residents in an Alaska village try to outrun the effects of climate change (NPR), Warming winters could thaw frozen manure, polluting US waters (Gizmodo, E&E $, Grist), They’re ‘world champions’ of banishing water. Now, the Dutch need to keep it. (New York Times $), What will the world look like at 1.5 degrees Celsius? (Context), Fewer willows worry Kashmir’s cricket bat makers (AP, photos), In Delhi, migrants battered repeatedly by floods (AP, photos)

• DISPLACEMENT: To go or not to go (Axios)

HEAT: Phoenix could see deadliest year for heat deaths after sweltering summer (The Guardian), European countries face an air conditioning Catch-22 after its red hot, record-breaking summer (CNBC, CNBC), Heat waves set off record ice melt in Greenland last month (Gizmodo), This wearable device is helping workers beat extreme heat (CNN), UN, Red Cross seek better preparation for future heat waves (AP)

• UK HEATWAVE: Record excess deaths in UK's heatwave summer (BBC, The Times, Daily Mail), England's heatwaves see highest ever excess deaths among elderly (Reuters, The Guardian, Washington Post $)

WILDFIRES: Wildfire smoke affecting air quality in Oregon, Washington (AP)

DROUGHT: Shallow Mississippi River halts thousands of barges (Farm Progress), Drought kills tens of thousands of salmon in a single Canadian creek (Gizmodo), California farmers turn to growing agave amid drought (CBS), Drought takes toll on country’s largest cotton producer (AP)

WATER: Arizona's mixed reaction to California water conservation proposal (Axios)

BOOZE: French wineries are adapting to fires, climate change (Wall Street Journal $)

RENEWABLES: Beam me down: Can solar power from space help solve our energy needs? (The Guardian), GE begins restructuring its onshore wind unit to adjust for ‘market realities’ (Utility Dive), Greek renewables fully cover power demand for first time on record (Reuters), Maine farms could be ideal match for solar agrivoltaics, but more funding needed first (Energy News Network), Mayflower Wind pledges to employ unionized workers (Boston Globe $)

BUILDINGS: The most annoying barrier to getting your home off fossil fuels (Vox)

MINERALS: In Idaho, America's first, and only, cobalt mine in decades is opening (NPR)

LNG: The reason why your electricity bills are so high and other things to know about LNG (Houston Chronicle)

OIL & GAS: Biggest reinsurer limits support for new oil and gas drilling (E&E $), ISIS-linked militants are threatening huge natural gas reserves the world needs badly right now (CNN), The US is the world’s largest oil producer. You’ll still pay more for gas. (Washington Post $)

PIPELINES: Pressing safety concerns, opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline gear up for the next round of battle (Inside Climate News)

COAL: Judge says laws propping up Montana coal plant are illegal (AP)

UTILITIES: Duke Energy proposes green tariff for South Carolina customers seeking 24/7 renewables (Utility Dive)

(INSURRECTION BAD FOR) GRID: Grid operator prepped for emergency during Jan. 6 attack (E&E News), Texas designing 80 MW virtual power plant pilot spurred by Tesla desire to aggregate Powerwall batteries (Utility Dive), What runs a zero-carbon grid in a renewable energy slump? (E&E $)

EVs: Electric-vehicle makers and suppliers drive into a stormy IPO market (Wall Street Journal $), Majority of voters favor gasoline-car phaseout. But all-electric goal faces tough opposition (LA Times $)

TRAINS: How California’s bullet train went off the rails (New York Times $)

AVIATION: World aviation agrees 'aspirational' net zero plan (BBC, New York Times $, AP, Climate Home, Reuters, Airlines are misleading flyers with carbon-neutral claims, study says (Bloomberg $), Frequent fliers are a problem for the planet. Should they pay more?  (Washington Post $), United Airlines plans to use electric planes to fly some routes 200 miles or less by the end of the 2020s (Business Insider)

WOW: In California, where trees are king, one hardy pine has survived for 4,800 years (New York Times $)

AGRICULTURE: Cattle ranchers on high alert after longhorned tick found in Missouri (Modern Farmer)

BOOKS: 4 science fiction and fantasy books mine a real issue: Climate change (Washington Post $)

TV: TV shows are starting to reference climate change in plots and dialogue (Teen Vogue)

MIDDLE EARTH: "The Rings of Power" are here to fight climate change (Salon)

ART: Extinction Rebellion activists glue themselves to Picasso painting (CNN)

BUSINESSES: Amazon to invest $972M for electric vans, trucks in Europe (AP), PepsiCo to make Cheetos and Lay's chips using Dutch green electricity (Reuters)

FINANCE: A $900 million oil-bond rout is red flag for green push (Bloomberg $), Banks run by women lend less to big polluters, ECB study finds (Bloomberg $), European Commission aims to end secret system protecting fossil fuel holdings (The Guardian), Silicon Valley VC has been investing in climate tech for a decade — here’s what he’s into now (CNBC), Why this investor doesn’t back companies that use carbon offsets (CNBC)

INTERNATIONAL: IMF's new climate tool allows Rwanda to access $310 million (Bloomberg $), UK’s Truss doesn’t want solar panels built on farmland (Bloomberg $, The Guardian), Austria seeks allies for legal challenge to EU green investment rules (Reuters, AP), Is Charles’ climate fight over now he’s King? (CNN), Paris cuts the lights to save energy. Will it help? (Wall Street Journal $), Turn down the heating: France unveils ‘ambitious’ energy saving plan (Climate Home), UK offers new North Sea oil and gas licences despite climate concerns (The Guardian), New Zealand proposes taxing cow burps, angering farmers (AP)

• From blah, blah, blah to blood, blood, blood: holding the COP27 summit in Egypt’s police state creates a moral crisis for the climate movement (The Intercept, Naomi Klein commentary)
• Teenagers are telling us that something is wrong with America (New York Times, Jamieson Webster op-ed $)
• Permanent climate change on habitable planets (The Hill, Avi Loeb op-ed)
• Energy crisis? It isn’t that we have too little oil and gas. It’s that we have too much (The Guardian, Caroline Lucas op-ed)
• Ian was a warning to make flood insurance accessible to all (The Hill, Carolyn Kousky op-ed)
• Grassroots environmental groups must lead decarbonization policy (Energy News Network, Courtney Hanson, Yessenia Balcazar and Gina Ramirez op-ed)
• How an unlikely trio helped secure billions for rural electric cooperatives (Utility Dive, Duane Highley, Ramón Cruz and Erik Hatlestad op-ed)
• California wildfires to Florida hurricanes, how the rich game climate change (LA Times, Erika D. Smith and Anita Chabria Column $)
• Italy’s winemakers, and grapes, are adapting to climate change (Bloomberg, Francis Wilkinson op-ed $)
• Antarctica’s melting glaciers are no false alarm (The Hill, Gary Yohe op-ed)
• Behind the push to bring the climate crisis to court (The New Humanitarian, Georges Maniuri interview)
• Greta Thunberg on the climate delusion: ‘We’ve been greenwashed out of our senses. It’s time to stand our ground’ (The Guardian, Greta Thunberg op-ed)
• With climate change, we may witness sequoia forests convert to chaparral (LA Times, Jared Farmer op-ed $)
• China’s reliance on gas imports threatens security (Reuters, John Kemp Column)
• Mismanagement and ‘monster trains’ have wrecked American rail (New York Times, Justin Roczniak op-ed $)
• With so much untapped US oil, why does Biden beg dictators to add production? (Washington Post, Marc A. Thiessen op-ed $)
• Why the Saudis and Emiratis back Russia’s call for oil production cuts (The Hill, Mark N. Katz op-ed)
• How banks are defending their right to discriminate (American Prospect, Max Moran op-ed)
• Solar power’s continued success rests on diversifying its workforce (Grist, Neha Misra op-ed)
• Companies that focus on the human impact of the climate crisis can turn risks into opportunities (Fortune, Rishi Agarwal, Chirlie Felix and Laura Tilghman op-ed)
• Inner city schools must face up to rising heat, fast (Context, Sophie Davies op-ed)
• Will Biden embargo US oil? (Wall Street Journal Editorial Board $)
• Why must Puerto Ricans always be resilient? (New York Times, Yarimar Bonilla op-ed $)

Why Is The UN Letting Big Ag's Front Groups Influence Effort To Reduce Ag Emissions? 

At the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow last year, the US and United Arab Emirates launched a new initiative to fund research into solutions to agricultural emissions, called the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (Aim4C). Among its some 200 partners are plenty of nations and even more agricultural-oriented non profits, and for-profit companies. 

Unfortunately, as Rachel Sherrington revealed at DeSmog last week as part of their new series on the issue, one of those groups is the North American Meat Institute. And they have some questionable views on climate change, with a "fact" sheet claiming the "degree" to which people are causing climate change (by burning fossil fuels and eating meat) is "unknown," despite their supposed Paris agreement pledge. 

And it's not just NAMI. Sherrington also points to the Animal Agriculture Alliance and US Farmers and Ranchers in Action, both Aim4C "knowledge partners" and both featuring members of the American Farm Bureau Federation on their board, and both running off of funding from the industrial agriculture sector. 

For those blissfully unaware of what goes on in the weeds of farm politics, AFBF is a long-time opponent of climate action, essentially the agriculture industry's version of the American Petroleum Institute. Inside Climate News called it "Big Oil's unnoticed ally" back in 2018, and more recently, reported on how the AFBF has led "a Charge Against SEC Rules Aimed at Corporate Climate Transparency." 

The Farm lobby didn't let the fact that a rule applied to publicly traded companies and not farms (because "not a single farm in America is listed with the SEC") distract it from lobbying against climate action.

What sort of "knowledge" are these groups bringing to the "partnership" with Aim4C? 

Likely not the kind that will be useful for farmers struggling to cope with climate change, pointed out Anne Maina of the Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya. She told Sherrington for another DeSmog story that “A focus on ag-tech is often hinged on profits for multinational corporations and not sustainable. Africa has workable alternatives right here at home, for resilient agriculture that works with nature.” 

But “When the voice of African farmers and communities is not brought to the negotiating table, we end up with flawed initiatives like Aim4C." 

Specifically, Sherrington writes, "Aim4C argues that technology can increase productivity, help farmers adapt to the climate crisis, and cut emissions" with "climate-smart" solutions which sounds well and good- that's the point. The problem is that "climate-smart" can be used "to promote contested practices including the use of pesticides and big data in farming have led to concerns that the concept could be used to “greenwash” polluting forms of agriculture." 

And even if things like the "Greener Cattle Initiative" were successful, "it would only reduce methane emissions from the cattle. It doesn’t address the climate impacts of land use change, biodiversity loss, or deforestation associated with cattle production. And it doesn’t take into account the nutrient pollution from the pesticides you use to grow the rest of their feed, corn and soy.” 

That's why Jennifer Jacquet, author of a book on industrial disinformation, likened "Green cattle" to "clean coal", saying that there's "no getting around" the fact that "beef is the coal of animal ag." 

What works? Again, back to Maina: “We need to focus on agroecological solutions: Support resilient agriculture that works with nature, builds crop and diet diversity, and empowers marginalised farmers." 

Instead, as Molly Anderson of IPES-Food said, "the kind of technology pursued by Aim4C is proprietary. It’s going into digitalization, it’s going into artificial intelligence. This technology is not available to low-income people. The technology being promoted are things that basically bolster the existing industrialised food system.”

In other words, if BigAg is allowed to steer Aim4C, what they may be aiming for is 4C of warming.

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