FIRST LOOK: 

Google Made Millions Of Dollars From Daily Wire Climate Denial Ads: Google helped Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire spread climate disinformation online by selling the outlet millions of dollars of advertising, revealed a new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate. By selling ads to the popular conservative disinformation site for searches like “climate change is a hoax” and "is global warming a scam," Google ensured the climate disinformation at the Daily Wire — founded with $4.7 million of fracking magnate and co-owner Farris Wilks' money — would be the top result for those searches. The report shows that yet again, Google's October 2021 policy announcement to prohibit ads "referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam" appears to be unenforced until researchers bring ads to the company's attention. “Google has rules against their search ads being used to spread disinformation," said CCDH head Imran Ahmed, "they should be enforcing them, even against people who give them lots of money.” The report, produced with the commercial analytics tool Semrush, found Google could have sold as much as $60 million of advertising to the Daily Wire over two years on searches for 150 climate search subjects and a range of others, from the “argument against reparations,” and “why does george soros hate america,” to "george floyd cause of death," linking to a Daily Wire page falsely claiming Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose instead of police violence. (The Guardian)

Filipino Workers Allege Offshore Oil Co. Abandoned Them To Hurricane Ida: An offshore oil company abandoned Filipino workers in inadequate bunkhouses as climate-fueled Hurricane Ida slammed into southeast Louisiana in August 2021, 10 employees allege in a lawsuit. “I could not think of anything to do but to pray and to pray,” Renato Decena, one of the plaintiffs — whose claims against Grand Isle Shipyard include violations like abusive behavior, discrimination, and violation of federal fair housing and human trafficking law — told the AP. (AP)

Renters, Public Housing Residents Worry About Gas Stoves, While Gas Industry Funds Its Own Science And Chefs Rave Over Induction: The recent increase in public awareness over the health dangers posed by gas stoves has left many renters, including those living in public housing, worried about the harms of air pollution released by an appliance (even when turned off) they are powerless to replace or effectively mitigate, The Guardian reports. “I remember my elementary school was heated throughout the winter by burning coal or heating oil,” Russell Taylor, a member of We Act for Environmental Justice, who has lived in New York City public housing since 1972, told The Guardian. After school, Taylor added, “I went home and was exposed to gas burning from my stove. … Because of inadequate heating and freezing temperatures during the winter, we used the stove to stay warm in our apartment." While methane gas industry-funded scientist-spokesperson Juile Goodman claims the numerous studies on the effects of air pollution released over the past 100 years by her employers' products are all flawed and/or unreliable, a tactic she uses on behalf of her other benefactors in the tobacco and plastic industries facing similar scientific scrutiny, a growing number of chefs are embracing electric alternatives for their sheer culinary superiority. “There was no altruistic intent in my decision to adopt induction. I use it because it’s better,” TikTok star Jon Kung, who first used induction stovetops in commercial kitchens in Macau, told The Guardian. They’re more responsive, and they are just as powerful, if not more powerful, than gas. My induction burner can boil eight quarts of water within 11 minutes – it’s super fast.” Not only can induction cooking dramatically lower kitchen temperatures, Commercial chef and head of Forward Dining Solutions Christopher Galarza added, they are also much easier to clean, protecting kitchen staff from exposure to potentially harmful cleaning chemicals and reducing restaurants' labor costs. (Renters & public housing: The Guardian; Goodman: New York Times $; Industry knowledge: Drilled; Culinary superiority: The Guardian)

ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Black communities have a water crisis, so why do white communities get more funding? (The Root)

TYRE NICHOLS: Tyre Nichols remembered as beautiful soul with creative eye (AP, The Guardian), To understand policing, politics and protest in Memphis, read this. (MLK50), CBC asks to meet Biden on police reform (The Hill), For Black Memphians, Tyre Nichols’s death opens new chapter of pain (Washington Post $), Grizzlies, other NBA teams speak out on Tyre Nichols' death (ESPN)

• VIDEO: Reminder: You don't have to watch the brutal video showing Tyre Nichols' beating that led to his death (Blavity), Tyre Nichols’ brutal arrest video released, his mother doesn’t want children to watch (NewsOne), Video shows police kicking, pepper spraying, beating Tyre Nichols after traffic stop (Memphis Commercial Appeal)
• VIDEO REACTION: ‘A watershed moment for America’: Tyre Nichols’ family lawyer reacts to horrific video (CNN), Dear god! Body cam footage of Tyre Nichols arrest is as horrid as we expected (The Root, CNN, Business Insider, NBC, The Hill), Protesters demand the end of ‘police terror’ as Tyre Nichols footage sparks rage in metro cities across the nation (Atlanta Black Star), Biden, other politicians condemn savage Tyre Nichols beating in bodycam video (New York Post), Don Lemon and Memphis city councilman Martavius Jones' emotional conversation about Tyre Nichols' death goes viral (Blavity), Memphis police disband unit that fatally beat Tyre Nichols (AP, BBC), This must stop: Interfaith community vigil in Tulsa honors Tyre Nichols (Black Wall Street Times)
• PROTECTING AND SERVING WHITE SUPREMACY: How much does racial diversity on a police force actually matter? (Slate, BBC), Tyre Nichols case revives calls for change in police culture (AP), What Tyre Nichols’ death at the hands of Black officers says about race in policing (LA Times $), When the officers are Black: Tyre Nichols' death raises tough questions about race in policing (USA Today), The police folklore that helped kill Tyre Nichols (The New Yorker $), ‘The definition of excessive force’: Policing experts assess the beating of Tyre Nichols. (New York Times $), After Tyre Nichols death, officials’ moves reflect a shift in handling police violence (New York Times $), Tyre Nichols beating opens a complex conversation on race and policing (New York Times $), Ex-officers charged in the death of Tyre Nichols were not part of the national police union that typically defends these cases (WPLN)

COP CITY: Protesters: ‘Cop City’ activist’s killing doesn’t make sense (AP), ‘This has never happened in the US’: Atlanta forest defender shot and killed by police (EcoWatch), Documents show how 19 ‘Cop City’ activists got charged with terrorism (Grist), Gov. Kemp declares state of emergency amidst consistent Cop City protests [update] (The Root)

COP28: Climate groups decry selection of oil chief to oversee COP28 (AP, Democracy Now), US lawmakers press to remove oil boss from leading COP28 climate talks (Politico EU)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Western nations discuss price caps on Russian oil products (Wall Street Journal $)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Hawaii youth push climate claims in court (E&E $)

GREENWASHING & MONETIZED DELUSION: EU prepares to ban greenwashing op-ed (Energy Monitor), Why whale deaths are dividing environmentalists — and firing up Tucker Carlson (Politico Pro $)

OIL REFINERIES: Outdated EPA standards allow oil refineries to pollute waterways (Inside Climate News, Grist), With GOP in control, House moves to loosen restraints on oil and gas (Houston Chronicle), Texas regulators won’t stop an oilfield waste dump site next to wetlands, streams and wells (Inside Climate News)

GOP vs. ESG: Meet the group sharpening the GOP attack on ‘woke’ climate policies (Washington Post $), 25 red states sue Biden over 'woke' ESG rule (E&E $, Reuters), One Republican stands between the far right and ESG (E&E News), Politicians want to keep money out of ESG funds. Could it backfire? (New York Times $)

GAS STOVES: I measured pollution from my gas stove. There was a lot of it (Canary Media video)

LAND GRABS: Hantz tree farm falls short on solving East Side blight (Bridge Detroit)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: EU must answer US clean energy subsidies, commissioner says on Washington visit (Reuters), Small oil producer stands to win big from Biden’s climate bill (Wall Street Journal $), UK has some concerns over US green subsidy act, Hunt says (Reuters)

SCOTUS: Biden climate metric fight could land at Supreme Court (E&E $)

EPA: Appeals court signals EPA likely violated law in biofuels compliance program (Politico Pro $), EPA targets lead pipe replacement in 4 states (E&E $), Judges grill EPA on Chevron Doctrine in drinking water case (E&E $), US EPA administrator contemplating stepping down -sources (Reuters)

DOE: Climate law challenge: DOE staffing (E&E News), Biden administration awards $118 million for biofuel projects (The Hill), DOE: Eastern grid bottleneck spiking costs for renewables (E&E $)

DOI: Nobody is happy with the federal grazing program (Gizmodo)

• BWCAA: Twin Metals vows to fight for mine near Boundary Waters (E&E News)

TREASURY: Yellen says South Africa needs action to maintain energy transition momentum (Reuters)

WHITE HOUSE: Harris: Skilled workers key to clean energy, lead pipe goals (E&E $), Tesla's Musk meets top Biden officials on EVs in Washington (Reuters, The Hill, E&E $)

HOUSE: , House passes oil reserve bill on largely partisan vote (E&E $, AP, The Hill, Politico Pro $, Reuters), House GOP grits its teeth for the 'big lift': A budget battle (Politico Pro $), GOP-led House axes Oversight Subcommittee on Environment (E&E $), Lawmakers call for more NEPA review of massive Gulf sale (E&E $), Lawmakers introduce resolution against Biden solar waiver (E&E $), Zinke lands on Interior Appropriations Subcommittee (E&E News)

SENATE: Senate fails to fast-track Manchin EV bill. What's next? (E&E $), Manchin hearing to dissect infrastructure law spending (E&E $)

REVOLVING DOOR: Former Rep. Tim Ryan joins Landrieu at pro-natural gas group (The Hill)

POLITICS: Top 10 lobbying spenders on energy, the environment (E&E News), Top 5 takeaways from POLITICO Pro's briefing on the energy legislative outlook (Politico Pro $)

TRIBES: S. Dakota tribes seek disaster declaration in storm recovery (AP)

CITIES  & STATES & DISENFRANCHISED COLONIAL TERRITORIES: Maryland trashes recycling company whose sites became alleged dumps (Washington Post $), Minn. dismisses N.D. threats over 100% clean electricity (E&E $), Oregon pins hopes on mass timber to boost housing, jobs (AP), Texans can now sign up for virtual power plant to help grid, make money (Canary Media),  Puerto Rico’s southern region fights for cleaner air, water (AP)

• CALIFORNIA: California activists redouble efforts to hold the oil industry accountable on neighborhood drilling (Inside Climate News), California approves local plans to phase out gas appliances (E&E $), California regulator approves plan to cut smog in San Joaquin Valley (Politico Pro $), Climate credits may be issued early to help offset soaring California natural gas bills (KTLA)

FERC: Natural gas company's FERC request sparks oversight evasion claims (Politico Pro $), Phillips-led FERC streamlines environmental reviews for three natural gas projects (Politico Pro $)

IMPACTS: Texas heat-related deaths reached a two-decade high in 2022 amid extreme temperatures (Texas Tribune), 3 dead, 1 missing as rain pounds New Zealand’s largest city (AP, Reuters, Axios), ‘Everything’s gone’: Eerie silence on Enid Street provides a glimpse into Australia’s climate future (The Guardian), A warmer, wetter world could make ‘enhanced rock weathering’ a more useful tool to slow climate change (Inside Climate News), Asia has had a really cold month, courtesy of the polar vortex (New York Times $), Climate change is increasing the risk of a California megaflood (Yale Climate Connections), Death in the marshes: Environmental calamity hits Iraq’s unique wetlands (The Guardian), Snow no-show in NYC feels nice — but also a little unsettling (New York Times $), Where the hell is all the snow? (Gizmodo), Spellbinding polar night gets darker in warming Arctic (AP), Washington’s Hinman Glacier gone after thousands of years (AP)

• FAKE SNOW: Ski resorts can now make fake snow in 80 degrees. here’s why that’s a problem. (Washington Post $), Alps ski resorts brace for a future with less snow (Wall Street Journal $)

DROUGHT: Storms dumped snow on California. Will it bring a reprieve from the drought? (The Guardian)

WATER: Could a river finally run through the Glen Canyon Dam? (E&E News), Emails reveal tensions in Colorado River talks (AP)

DEFORESTATION: How forest guards in Liberia protect the sacred rainforests (NPR), Human activities have degraded a third of the Amazon (E&E $), Listening to the endangered sounds of the Amazon rainforest (Inside Climate News)

RENEWABLES: N.Y. offshore wind auction draws a crowd (E&E $), Equinor, BP bid to expand offshore wind project off New York (Reuters), Vestas expects slower year ahead after 2022 sales disappoint (Reuters), ‘Recession resilient’ climate start-ups shine in tech downturn (New York Times $), Taxes slow India's solar power rollout but boost manufacture (AP)

BATTERIES: How one company is hoping to build a major lithium production site in Nevada (Utility Dive)

STORAGE: Xcel plans to install Form Energy’s multiday storage at retired coal plant sites, eyes green hydrogen pilots (Utility Dive, Canary Media)

MINERALS: Can mining clean up its act to meet soaring demand for green metals? (Context), Study: Enough rare earth minerals to fuel green energy shift (AP)

LNG: Philippines greenlights seventh LNG project, gears up for gas imports (Reuters)

METHANE: Mexican energy companies lag methane emission rules, investigators say (Reuters)

OIL & GAS: A decade later, deadly Allentown gas explosion continues to spur safety changes, haunt neighbors (Allentown Morning Call), Italy's Eni signs $8 billion Libya gas deal as PM Meloni visits Tripoli (Reuters), New Petrobras CEO says to drive energy shift while expanding oil and gas (Reuters), The outlook for diesel: Supply woes aren’t going away soon (Wall Street Journal $)

• EARTHQUAKE COUNTRY: In Texas oil country, an unfamiliar threat: Earthquakes (New York Times $)
• TOO MUCH(?) MONEY: Chevron more than doubled its profits last year as gas prices squeezed wallets (Truthout, Democracy Now), Shell and BP face tough job of keeping customers and investors happy as profits roll in (The Guardian)
• COLOMBIA: Oil-exporting Colombia says no to oil exploration (Wall Street Journal $), Colombia oil sector could see investment, output fall 30% by 2030 -report (Reuters), 

PLASTICS: France is facing a mysterious 'nightmare' of tiny plastic pellets (Gizmodo)

PIPELINES: North Dakota landowners at odds in carbon pipeline plans (AP)

COAL: Norway's last Arctic miners struggle with coal mine's end (AP)

HYDROGEN: Australia and Germany to invest $90 mln for joint hydrogen supply chain projects (Reuters), Gas utility’s Minnesota hydrogen pilot ‘good news’ so far, but questions remain (Energy News Network)

NUKES: Taiwan is retreating from nuclear energy. At what cost? (HuffPost)

GRID: ISO-NE to begin dispatching growing fleet of ‘front-of-meter’ solar resources in boost to reliability (Utility Dive)

EVs: Can EVs meet the needs of rural drivers? Increasingly, the answer is yes. (Yale Climate Connections), Hey EV owners: It’d take a fraction of you to prop up the grid (Wired), The hidden environmental costs of the transitioning to electric vehicles (NPR), Toyota rethinks EV strategy with new CEO (Wall Street Journal $, Reuters)

STEEL: Green steel startup Boston Metal raises $120M for its fossil-free tech (Canary Media)

ACTIVISM: Dutch police arrest climate activists ahead of planned peaceful protests (Democracy Now)

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: Gen Zers say they're rejecting job offers over a company's climate credentials, survey finds (Business Insider), Students prod colleges to let campus greens grow wild (Axios)

FOOD: James Beard foundation shows love to Black restaurants and chefs with 2023 award semifinalists (The Root)

PHILANTHROPY: Funders are calling for more support of Black feminist organizations and we're here for it (The Root)

• THERE'S A 60% JOKE HERE SOMEWHERE: Anchorman director to sell Sex Panther prop in climate fund auction (The Guardian)

MOTOR RACING: IMSA takes North American sports cars into hybrid era (AP)

AGRICULTURE: How to grow a food forest (New York Times $), We need Native seeds in order to respond to climate change, but there aren't enough (NPR)

DIRECT ACTION: Climate activists block main road into The Hague (AP)

BOOKS: You don’t have to be complicit in our culture of destruction (New York Times, Robin Wall Kimmerer interview $), Hanna Pylvainen on her new novel 'The End Of Drum-Time' (NPR), Want to take action on climate change? These books can help. (Yale Climate Connections)

GAME NIGHT: Can board games teach us about the climate crisis? Game creators say yes (The Guardian)

GRETA: Thunberg, UN urge quick action on climate migration (The Hill)

WILDLIFE: Meet the black bear that took 400 selfies (The Verge, HuffPost), Elusive wildcat found to be living on Mount Everest (HuffPost)

INTERNATIONAL: Colombia’s Arhuacos strive for harmony with Mother Nature (AP), Azerbaijan weaponises conservation law in conflict with Armenia (Climate Home), Climate activists guilty of smashing Barclays HQ windows spared jail (The Guardian), Farmers’ union called UK environment targets ‘irrational’ and ‘unachievable’ (The Guardian), Key dates on Canada’s 2023 climate calendar (Politico Pro $), On the global stage, Jacinda Arden was a climate champion, but victories were hard to come by at home (Inside Climate News)

IT'S NOT JUST THE DREGS OF BIG OIL: When private equity came for the toddler gyms (New York Times $)

• Clean energy is national security (The Hill, Gen. Ron Keys, USAF (Ret.), Lyston Lea, and Erin Sikorsky op-ed)
• The world loses when Big Oil holds all the cards (The Hill, William Becker op-ed)
• In the wake of hurricane destruction, Biden is supporting Puerto Rico’s clean energy transition (The Hill, Ramón Luis Nieves op-ed)
• Moms Demand Action founder on gun laws, stepping away and why women can force change (The 19th* News, Errin Haines analysis)
• The Fed is out of touch on climate (The Hill, Akiksha Chatterji and Jennie Stephens op-ed)
• Russia can’t replace the energy market Putin broke (Bloomberg, Julian Lee column $)
• India’s low coal stocks threaten electricity supply (Reuters, John Kemp column)
• EVs are more popular than ever. They’re also extremely prone to cyberattacks. (Utility Dive, Shahid Mahdi op-ed)
• Why gas prices may be set to spike again (TIME, Why Gas[oline] Prices May Be Set to Spike Again)
• Partisan ‘fact checkers’ spread climate-change misinformation (Wall Street Journal, Bjorn Lomborg column $)
• Indiana’s cornfields could be gone with the wind farm (Wall Street Journal, Daniel Lee op-ed $)

TYRE NICHOLS: 

• Tyre Nichols’ death shows Black cops can also be ‘faces of white supremacy’ (NewsOne, Anoa Changa op-ed)
• The Tyre Nichols videos demand solemnity, not sensationalism (TIME, Janell Ross op-ed)
• Black officers can fall prey to American savagery. Tyre Nichols beating [is] proof (Columbus Dispatch, Judson Jeffries op-ed)
• Why you absolutely should not watch the Tyre Nichols police killing video (San Francisco Chronicle, Julie Scelfo op-ed)
• Why police reform utterly failed to protect Tyre Nichols (CNN, Sonia Pruitt op-ed)
• Tyre Nichols and the culture of toxic policing (Boston Globe, Svante Myrick op-ed $)

Fox Follows @LibsofTikTok to Attack Black Climate Scientist who Dared to Discuss White Supremacy

Last week, Fox News (and The New York Post) ran a piece about "a TikToker… who claims to be an 'intersectional climate scientist'" and who made a video last year about climate, capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy. But Dr. Chandler Puritty isn't just "a TikToker," and she doesn't just claim to be a climate scientist, she definitely is one! 

Dr. Puritty has a PHD in Biological Sciences from UC San Diego, she completed her bachelor’s degree at Howard University (one of the top universities in the country, with other distinguished alumni including Thurgood Marshall and Kamala Harris), and she is the first author of multiple articles in peer-reviewed journals. Not only that, but she also understands what many others apparently do not: Climate change is rooted in the intertwined and mutually-reinforcing evils of capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy.

All the way back in April 2022, Dr. Puritty posted an educational TikTok in which she made this complex topic more accessible. Referencing the popular book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, she likens capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy to the three heads of a monstrous dog guarding a trap door, behind which lies the mystical philosopher’s stone. In Dr. Puritty’s analogy, “the fart of this dog” symbolizes carbon dioxide, and the philosopher’s stone represents the solution to climate change.

Dr. Puritty states, “White scientists are telling us that the reason that every time we send someone in to get the Sorcerer’s Stone, the cure to climate change, from under the trap door, is to make the room smell less like farts, instead of to get rid of the dog entirely.” In other words, we should be focusing on the source of the issue, which is capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy, rather than making futile efforts to somehow eliminate climate change without addressing these oppressive systems that constitute the inequitable, fossil-fueled status quo.

Dr. Puritty’s TikTok is whimsical and fun to be sure, but she also concisely explains this difficult topic. “Capitalism cannot exist without the exploitation of land and labor. Colonialism created almost every single invasive species issue that we have now, not to mention the extreme destruction of peoples and land. There has never been a time where land was destroyed that people weren’t also harmed. White supremacy: The idea of most of our modern environmental efforts– all of those ideas were linked with white supremacy…”

You don’t have to take her word for it, though! There’s a large body of work analyzing the connections among climate change, capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy to back up what Dr. Puritty is saying.

Dr. Puritty’s TikTok went viral, collecting over 45 thousand likes. But why is Heritage Foundation alum and current Fox News reporter Josh Nelson making a story out of the clip now, in January 2023, almost a year after the TikTok was posted?

We don't have any inside access to Fox News's editorial process, but Nelson does give readers a hint about his motivations. "The video on Puritty's TikTok account has over 180,000 views," he reports, "which have also been shared on Libs of TikTok." We’ll have to take Nelson’s word for that, because we couldn’t find evidence of LibsofTikTok posting this particular video (though the account has posted other content from Dr. Puritty). However, it’s clear that the hateful Twitter account and Fox News share the same motive: To incite harassment.

LibsofTikTok regularly directs digital harassment and real-world violence at children's hospitals, the LGBTQ+ community, and basically anyone who would ever dare to say or do anything that would make the most uptight old lady in Victorian England say "well I never!" in mild disapproval.

Similarly, Fox News also provides a breeding ground for hateful comments. The article adds no context, no additional quotes from other sources, and no additional value, instead merely repeating what's in Dr. Puritty’s various TikToks (which the article doesn't link to) and letting Fox's racist, climate-denying audience fill in the blanks for why it should be outraged that a talented, Black female scientist dared to state some facts.

But we’re not here to tell you what to think! Take your pick of who you’d rather listen to: A PHD-holding scientist with robust scholarship to back her up or Fox News and a hateful social media troll who attended the Jan 6 insurrection.

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