Bangladesh Hit With Worst Dengue Fever Outbreak On Record As Pakistan Tallies Damage of Last Year's Floods: Bangladesh's medical system is being overwhelmed as it battles its worst recorded rash of dengue fever, leaving over 300 people dead. So far this year in Bangladesh, more than 63,000 people have been infected by the mosquito-vectored "breakbone fever". “Dengue is a problem linked mostly with climate change, and we need to find ways to mitigate its impacts on every country level,” the WHO's Raman Velayudhan said last week. On the other side of the Indian subcontinent, 1,200 miles west of Bangladesh, the toll of the massive flooding in Pakistan a year ago has been tallied in very human terms in a new report. Islamic Relief Worldwide calculated the floods last year, which killed more than 1,700 people, submerged a third of the country and set off a raft of water- and vector-borne diseases, also stunted the growth of 40% of children in affected areas, with women, girls, and especially pregnant women and new mothers particularly harmed. “No amount of financial aid can compensate those who have lost loved ones … and everything they own…. But we need to see climate justice, where the biggest polluters pay," Waseem Ahmad, of IRW, told reporters. “As climate-related catastrophes increase, it is the poorest and most vulnerable people who bear the brunt of the suffering. They are the ones most likely to live in fragile homes and least likely to have savings to fall back on, or assets to sell, or any kind of ‘Plan B’ when floods hit and crops and livestock are wiped out.” Among those "Plan Bs" is an increasing number of girls sold off as child brides. (Bangladesh: Washington Post $; Pakistan: The Guardian; Climate Signals background: Vector-borne disease risk increase)

LNG Export Facilities Struggle With Funding, Timelines: In an indication that demand may be less than their developers believed, proposed methane gas export facilities along the Gulf Coast are struggling, or failing, to secure funding and move forward, Nola.com reports. Six of the 14 methane gas export terminals built or planned in Louisiana are struggling to meet deadlines, secure licenses on schedule, and secure necessary funding, while backers of a proposed LNG export facility in Port St. Joe, Florida, also pulled the plug last month. The U.S. is the world's largest methane gas exporter and, in addition to the dangerous explosions and pollution foisted upon nearby communities of color , methane gas exports are raising methane gas prices for customers across the country while also undercutting the Biden administration's climate goals. (NOLA.com)

Texans Paying 800% More For Power As Gulf Heat Breaks Oil Refineries And Fossil Fuels Prove Unreliable And Expensive: As a result of extreme heat along the Gulf Coast, Texas's deregulated and largely methane-gas-driven electricity prices skyrocketed by 800% on Sunday, as the heat broke oil refineries incapable of operating at these temperatures. The concurrent impacts are both exacerbated by climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels. The Texas grid operator, ERCOT, has managed to keep the grid functioning by relying on renewable energy and asking customers to curtail their electricity use as the grid has broken all-time demand records multiple times this month alone and ERCOT projects it will set new all-time records every day this week. Solar installations in particular have been performing as or better than expected in the extreme heat, and without renewables, fossil- and nuclear-fueled power plants would have already failed to keep lights on and A/Cs running. The extreme heat is also too much for oil refineries in the region, contributing to higher gasoline prices nationwide. Six refineries in Texas and Louisiana are currently shut down because they can not reliably operate in this weather. “Refineries are outdoors and exposed to the elements,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told Spectrum News. “A lot of the equipment at refineries is designed for normal temperatures, not extremes.” (Texas Grid: Bloomberg $, Bloomberg $; Refineries: KXXV, OilPrice; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: On a ‘toxic tour’ of Curtis Bay in south Baltimore, visiting academics and activists see a hidden part of the city (Inside Climate News)

• COP CITY: As petition deadline looms, Stop Cop City organizers win more time and volunteers (Prism Reports)

WORKERS: ‘Death Star’ law will end water breaks for Texas workers (E&E News), ‘It was hell but the owner said, you have to work’: Dying from heat in Greece (The Guardian), ‘Metal box heated from the inside’: Food truck workers’ battle against heat (The Guardian), 130 degrees and rising: How kitchen workers are dealing with record heat (New York Times $)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: Ukrainians move to North Dakota for oil field jobs to help families facing war back home (AP)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Heat waves are killing older women. Are they also violating their rights? (New York Times $), Youth in Hawaii get court date for 2nd US climate trial (E&E $)

• MONTANA CLIMATE TRIAL: The Montana youths behind a historic climate lawsuit, and the places they love (Washington Post $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Governments are gathering to talk about the Amazon rainforest. Why is it so important to protect? (AP, Context), Amazon Indigenous chief Raoni warns of disaster if deforestation not stopped (Reuters)

DENIAL & DISINFO: False Pope Francis quote about euthanizing to fight climate change (Reuters Fact Check), Misleading posts compare weather maps from different sources (Reuters Fact Check)

PARENTING: They’re not like regular dads. They’re climate dads. (Bloomberg $)

IRAN: A wildfire near Iran’s capital triggers an explosion of mines planted around a high-security prison (AP)

INSURANCE: How Florida let a top insurer abandon homeowners in their time of greatest need (Washington Post $), Extreme heat is here. Can insurance help protect us? (Grist)

AGENCIES: Biden’s climate science test: Proving green ag program actually works (Politico Pro $), Federal agencies often neglect US territories. New legislation aims to fix that. (Grist), NOAA, NASA go big in study of US air quality (E&E $)

EPA: EPA smog plan takes hold — with a big asterisk (E&E News), The EPA’s ambitious plan to cut auto emissions to slow climate change runs into skepticism (AP)

DOE: The US government will pay to remove carbon from atmosphere (Heatmap $)

DOI: BLM orders cleanup of Calif. monument oil wells (E&E $), BLM proposes end to new oil leases on 1.6M acres in Colorado (E&E News)

TREASURY: Treasury issues guidance on tax credit for home energy audits (Politico Pro $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: As climate change worsens, military eyes base of the future on Gulf Coast (Washington Post $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden expected to create Grand Canyon National Monument to block new mining, sources say (Washington Post $, E&E News, New York Times $, CNN)

THE HILL: America is heavily reliant on Russia for nuclear fuel. Congress might change that. (Washington Post $)

HOUSE: House GOP launches new attack on contractor climate rule (E&E $)

POLITICS: A Republican 2024 climate strategy: more drilling, less clean energy (New York Times $), At dueling youth conferences, differing messages on 2024 (Washington Post $), Labor and environmental groups have learned to get along. Here’s the organization in the middle (Inside Climate News), Most disapprove of Biden’s handling of climate change, Post-UMD poll finds (Washington Post $)

ELECTIONS: Justin Jones, Justin Pearson win reelection following Tennessee Three expulsion vote (The Tennessean, AP, Blavity, NBC, Washington Post $, WBUR, TIME, The Hill, Forbes, Salon), ‘The Justins’ seem like civil rights-era throwbacks. But 2023 isn’t 1968. (Washington Post $)

CITIES AND STATES: More Massachusetts cities seek to ban gas, citing lack of diversity in pilot and urgency of climate crisis (Energy News Network), GAO: Most states don't track car emissions (E&E $), Alaska capital weighs tourism, melting glacier (AP), California and New York could miss their 2030 climate targets. Could permitting reform help? (Inside Climate News), Federal court overturns Mississippi’s lifetime voting ban (Black Wall Street Times), Gov. Carney signs package of environmental protection bills into law (Delaware Public Radio), 

• CALIFORNIA: What happens when California clears its homeless encampments? (New York Times $)

FERC: FERC interconnection rule may not speed process in much of US: experts (Utility Dive), FERC to weigh EPA carbon rule's impact on grid (E&E $)

IMPACTS: ‘The extreme events scare me the most’: Climatologist warns of Italy’s vulnerability to climate crisis (The Guardian), Toll from landslide in Georgia mountain resort up to 17 dead, 18 missing (AP), As the climate changes, how doctors treat patients, and medical program curricula, are evolving (AP), Bark beetles are eating through Germany’s Harz forest. Climate change is making matters worse (AP), Crammed with tourists, Alaska’s capital wonders what will happen as its magnificent glacier recedes (AP), Heat and wildfires put southern Europe’s vital tourism earnings at risk (AP), July's "startling" heat puts climate change in focus (Axios), Still dreaming of retirement in the sun belt? (New York Times $), World has first real taste of life at 1.5 degrees celsius above preindustrial times (Washington Post $), Climate change is hitting close to home for nearly 2 out of 3 Americans, poll finds (PBS NewsHour), Facing the surge (Washington Post $)

• EAST ASIA: More than a million displaced and dozens dead after record rain drenches northeastern China (CNN, AP), China boosts aid efforts to rain-hit areas as storms kill six (Bloomberg $), Anger in China over plan to use cities as ‘moat’ to save Beijing from floods (The Guardian), Meandering Typhoon Khanun targets Japan again amid record heat (Reuters), Tropical storm hits Japan’s Okinawa islands again, unleashing torrential rain (AP)

FLOODING: After a flood, saving Appalachia’s history piece by piece (New York Times $), Vermont’s flood-wracked capital city ponders a rebuild with one eye on climate change (AP)

• ALASKA: Glacial break causes major flooding in Alaska, officials issue emergency declaration (ABC), Record glacial flooding swept away two homes in Alaska’s capital (Washington Post $, Reuters, Fox Weather)
• SLOVENIA: Slovenia has suffered its worst-ever floods. Damage could top 500 million euros, its leader says (AP),  Slovenia asks for support from EU and NATO after devastating floods (FT $), 3 people killed in Slovenia by torrential storms and flash floods (AP)

HEAT: Scientists are releasing disease-resistant mosquitoes. But heat waves could kill them. (E&E $), Argentina experienced its hottest winter day in over 100 years (Gizmodo), Is this the end of the summer vacation as we know it? (New York Times $), Parts of South America sweltering under heat wave - and it’s the middle of winter (CNN), Winter heatwave in Andes is sign of things to come, scientists warn (The Guardian), The science behind heat domes (CBS)

TREAT: A Greek zoo serves up frozen meals to animals to help them beat the heat (AP)

NEAT: As Florida heats up, architects go back to the past for ‘passive cooling’ home designs (Miami Herald)

NOT MEAT: What happened to the thrill of plant-based meat? (Grist)

OCEANS: Ocean surface hits highest ever recorded temperature and set to rise further (The Guardian, CNN), Blazing ocean temperatures threaten critical coral reefs in the Florida keys (Gizmodo), Florida corals in hotter water than first thought. Scientists blame ‘weird phenomenon’ (Miami Herald), What this year’s ‘astonishing’ ocean heat means for the planet (New York Times $)

WILDFIRES: Compensation for New Mexico wildfire victims tops $14 million and is climbing (AP), Lightning-caused wildfire burning uncontained in northern Arizona near the Utah line (AP), The Mediterranean fires offer lessons — and warnings — for Europe (Washington Post $), Canada’s wildfire smoke smashes annual pollution record in just seven months (Gizmodo, Washington Post $)

HURRICANES: How bad could hurricanes get with climate change? (Yale Climate Connections)

DROUGHT: Lake Titicaca drying up as heat wave turns winter upside down (Reuters)

DEFORESTATION: Amazon deforestation drops to six-year low (The Hill), 'People of the forest': Indigenous Indonesians stake claim to land (Context)

RENEWABLES: 4 new offshore wind power projects proposed for New Jersey Shore; 2 would be far out to sea (AP), Atlantic’s biggest offshore wind turbine to rise next week in US (Bloomberg $), China expands eligible project types for domestic renewable energy certificates (S&P Global), Community solar programs can make green energy more accessible (Yale Climate Connections), Court says renewable firms can seize Spain’s property after subsidy cuts (Climate Home), Floating solar panels turn old industrial sites into green energy goldmines (Bloomberg $), How offshore wind can supply 25% of US electricity by 2050 (TIME), Rivian backs massive solar plant atop old coal mine in Kentucky (Canary Media), UK offshore wind at ‘tipping point’ as funding crisis threatens industry (The Guardian), World Bank to help fund 1,000 mini solar power grids in Nigeria (Reuters), The dream of geothermal energy is alive in Utah (Wired)

BATTERIES: Conservationists are uneasy with a lithium mining plan on public land near Moab (KUER), Chinese maker of 1,000 kilometer EV battery plans IPO by 2025 (Bloomberg $)

EFFICIENCY: The case for paying to scrap polluting stuff (Axios)

OIL & GAS: The unholy alliance between ‘certified’ clean natural gas producers and the certifying companies (American Prospect), ‘Halliburton Loophole’ allows fracking companies to avoid chemical regulation (Inside Climate News), Weather and Wall Street conspire to push up gas prices (Wall Street Journal $), Heat wave partly to blame for surge in gas prices (CBS)

PLASTICS: Did plastic straw bans work? Yes, but not in the way you’d think. (Grist)

PIPELINES: Canada bolsters debt guarantees to oil pipeline Trans Mountain (Bloomberg $), North Dakota regulators deny siting permit for Summit carbon dioxide pipeline; company will reapply (AP)

COAL: ‘We became activists by necessity’: The fight to close the UK’s largest opencast mine (The Guardian)

HYDROGEN: The green hydrogen debate is much bigger than hydrogen (Heatmap $)

NUKES: Southern Co. eyes renewables surge after Vogtle milestone (E&E $)

FUSION: US scientists achieve net energy gain for second time in nuclear fusion reaction (The Guardian, Reuters, Washington Post $)

UTILITIES: A proposed gas rate hike in Chicago sparks debate amid shift to renewable energy (Inside Climate News), Chattanooga Gas switches to lower emission fuel (Chattanooga Times Free Press), Minnesota Power, Great River Energy plan new transmission line with at least $970M price tag (Star Tribune $), Minnesota regulators blast Xcel for halting projects after rate case decision (Star Tribune $)

(ALLEGED) UTILITY CORRUPTION: FirstEnergy investigated by Ohio organized crime commission over bribes on energy bill (Utility Dive)

GRID: How a grid rule change could derail Texas renewables (E&E News), Illinois weighs shifting utility's Midwest grid membership (E&E $), Microgrids are giving power to the people (New York Times $)

EVs: Chart: EV ranges are growing, but at a cost (Canary Media), Despite reforms, mining for EV metals in Congo exacts steep cost on workers (Washington Post $), US casts a wary eye on surging Chinese EV industry (E&E $)

ICEs: Hyundai, Kia recall nearly 92,000 vehicles over fire risk (Axios)

ACTIVISM: New York activists descend on the Hamptons to protest the super rich fueling the climate crisis (Inside Climate News)

METEOROLOGY: Improving weather forecasts by one degree could slash heat wave deaths (Washington Post $)

BOOKS: Racism at heart of US failure to tackle deadly heatwaves, expert warns (The Guardian), Fire Weather by John Vaillant review – apocalypse in Alberta (The Guardian review), 

BUSINESSES: Business of measuring company emissions booms despite data flaws (FT $)

CARBON OFFSETS: Are carbon offsets all they’re cracked up to be? We tracked one from Kenya to England to find out. (Vox)

CARBON CAPTURE: Louisiana residents ask state to halt next phase of carbon capture project (Louisiana Illuminator), ‘We’re a world that’s built on fossil fuels and emissions are our enemy’: Carbon engineering talks direct air capture (Energy Monitor)

FINANCE: Climate groups push for tougher regulation of financial firms (E&E $)

GRETA: Greta Thunberg accuses Edinburgh book festival sponsor of ‘greenwashing’ (The Guardian)

WELL, BYE: Myron Ebell, vocal critic of climate science, heads for exit (E&E $)

INTERNATIONAL: A shrinking footprint in Africa for France, the former colonizer that stayed (New York Times $), EU blindsided by ‘spectacular’ solar rollout (Politico Pro $), Europe blinks in its commitment to a great green transition (Washington Post $), UK experts fear losing access to ice age mammoths Cotswolds site to UAE (The Guardian), Green backlash? U.K.’s leader fuels battle over driving — which could signal a coming climate fight (NBC)

• The terrible climate hypocrisy at the top of Southern California Edison (LA Times, Leah Stokes op-ed $)
• As the planet bakes, Big Oil’s support for clean energy is still well short of what’s needed (New York Times, Jason Bordoff op-ed $)
• Earth cries! We are the gods that must step up to the biggest crisis in history (The Guardian, Ben Okri op-ed)
• Even conspiracy theorists are alarmed by what they’ve seen (New York Times, Annie Kelly op-ed $)
• Why international support for Haiti must include climate security (The New Humanitarian, Beatrice Mosello, Spencer McMurray and Laís Pereira op-ed)
• Antarctica’s heatwaves are a warning to humanity – and we have only a narrow window to save the planet (The Guardian, S. Craig Cary, Steven Chown, Sharon Robinson, Charles Lee, and Cassandra Brooks op-ed)
• Industry cries wolf yet again over EPA’s power plant carbon rules (Utility Dive, Sophia Ahmed op-ed)
• Your summer vacation has changed forever (Bloomberg, Brooke Sample op-ed $)
• It’s August. Californians are still skiing. Don’t ask. (New York Times, Daniel Duane op-ed $)
• Echoes of Australia’s gas ban will ring across four continents (Bloomberg, David Fickling column $)
• What our beech tree teaches us about the possibility of the future (New York Times, Elizabeth Rush op-ed $)
• Xi will not be pushed on climate by Biden, but a deal is possible (The Hill, Li Shuo op-ed)
• Surging US crude oil exports disrupt European, Asian prices (Reuters, Muyu Xu, Alex Lawler and Arathy Somasekhar analysis)
• Five factors that signal headwinds for long-term investors (FT, Philip Coggan op-ed $)

Abbie Richards Breaks Down 'Great Reset' And 15-Minute City Conspiracy Theories (In Just 12 Minutes!) 

Is the Great Reset a bunch of boring bloviating or a sinister conspiracy to create an authoritarian global government in the name of COVID and climate change? 

Are 15-minute cities a nice way of allowing people to walk to essential locations without needing to drive, or are they a plot to control the public and lock us into tiny prison-like compounds? 

Are global bureaucrats going to make you eat bugs, and are you confused about why we're even asking these bizarre questions?  

Well, we have good news for you! Misinformation researcher Abbie Richards has a great new video out, and it’s a solid 12-minute explanation of the 15-minute cities, Great Reset, and Agenda 21 conspiracy theories. 

So if you're wondering why you're seeing people online take up arms against urban planning, give it a watch and find out how conspiracy theories are obstructing action on climate change! 

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