98% Of Humanity Felt The Heat Of Fossil Fueled Climate Crisis This Summer: Nearly every person on planet Earth experienced hotter temperatures this summer because of climate change, a new peer-reviewed report from Climate Central finds. Almost 8 billion people across 180 countries and 22 territories, 98% of the global population, experienced higher temperatures that were at least twice as likely because of climate change. More than 6 billion people experienced heat during this meteorological summer that was five times more likely because of climate change. “Breaking heat records has become the norm in 2023,” Friederike Otto, of Imperial College London, said Thursday. “As long as we burn fossil fuels, these events will become more and more intense, providing ever greater barriers to adaptation,” she said. (Washington Post $, Reuters, Axios, National Geographic; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)

UN Gives 'Truly Damning Report Card' On (Lack Of) Fossil Fuel Phase Out: The world's governments are failing to phase out fossil fuels fast enough to meet the goals they set out eight years ago in the Paris Agreement, a major UN report shows. The "global stocktake" of climate efforts warns there is a "rapidly narrowing window" to meet the Paris goals of limiting global average temperature increase to 1.5°C (2.7°F) above preindustrial levels, which requires "phasing out of all unabated fossil fuels." Debates over "phasing out" versus "phasing down" fossil fuels have been controversial at previous COP meetings. WRI's Ani Dasgupta was not impressed. “The UN’s polite prose glosses over what is a truly damning report card for global climate efforts," he said. “Carbon emissions? Still climbing. Rich countries’ finance commitments? Delinquent. Adaptation support? Lagging woefully behind. This report is a wake-up call to the injustice of the climate crisis, and a pivotal opportunity to correct course.” (The Guardian, Washington Post $, AP, New York Times $, BBC, Wall Street Journal $, Bloomberg $, NPR, Politico EU, Vox, The Verge, TIME, E&E $, Reuters, Axios, CNN, FT $)

Fossil Fuel Front Group Once Again Caught In Fake Letter Scam: The Consumer Energy Alliance is a fossil fuel-backed front group that has been repeatedly caught submitting fake public comments in support of fossil fuel projects. Now, a batch of suspect submissions has appeared in Ohio, supporting fracking in the Salt Fork state park, like one supposedly signed by Briella Keep. But Briella has never been to Salt Fork state park, isn't pro-fracking and at nine years old, certainly didn't write the letter supporting "responsible" oil and gas fracking and submit it to the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission. “This is not OK,” Brittany Keep, Briella's mom, told Cleaveland.com. “She definitely did not submit that draft.” The letter, which touts “opportunities for economic development and the creation of family-sustaining jobs” in Ohio, includes the family's home address, Brittany's phone number, and Briella's email address. An investigation by Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer has found dozens of Ohio families like the Keeps who say their names were used without their permission to flood the OGLMC with public comments supporting fracking in state parks. “Wow, that’s sad to hear,” said Justin Watkins, of Columbus, after learning his name was used on a pro-fracking comment from the CEA. “I am not in support of fracking and have never pledged to be.” More than 1,000 form letters supporting drilling in state parks were submitted after being drafted by the Consumer Energy Alliance, a group previously accused of similar schemes in Wisconsin in 2014, South Carolina in 2018, and Ohio in 2016. Fracking is just "city boys exploiting the rural environment," said an infuriated Charles Leftwich of Cleveland, whose name was also put on a letter without his permission. “Fracking destroys the water table, the land, it destroys everything,” he added. “It doesn’t need to be taking place anywhere near a state park, that’s why it’s a state park.” (Cleveland.com)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Ohio disconnection data still lacks detail on racial disparities (Energy News Network)

COP28: Experts warn of ‘denialism comeback’ ahead of November’s global climate talks (Inside Climate News), Sunak to attend COP28 summit amid green policy balancing act (Bloomberg $), What is the world's first 'global stocktake' on climate change? (Reuters)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Sinking islands turn to court as they fight for climate survival (Bloomberg $, New York Times $), Small island nations take high-emitting countries to court to protect the ocean (The Guardian)

DAPL?: Feds leave future of Dakota Access pipeline’s controversial river crossing unclear in draft review (AP, Politico Pro $, Bloomberg $, Reuters, E&E News, The Hill)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: African Union asks IMF for $650 billion in special drawing rights for climate crisis (Bloomberg $), Biden, Modi, other leaders launch the Global Biofuels Alliance in clean energy effort  (The Hill), Coalition of world leaders calls for tripling renewable energy (Politico Pro $), Global push for commitment to phase out fossil fuels gathers pace ahead of COP28 (The Guardian), UK commits $2 billion to UN-backed climate fund (Reuters)

• G20: Group of 20 countries agree to increase clean energy but reach no deal on phasing out fossil fuels (AP, Reuters, Climate Home), Key takeaways from the 2023 G20 summit in New Delhi (Reuters), G20 rifts threaten global climate goals for warming, clean energy (Context), Climate impasses could undermine G20 meeting (E&E News), EU commission chief asks G20 to join global carbon pricing (Reuters), Fears that climate crisis will be ‘collateral damage’ of G20 as focus trained on Ukraine and US-China tensions (The Independent), G20 ‘missing in action’ on fossil fuels even as it boosts green energy goals (FT $), G20 leaders can stop climate breakdown, but rules must change, UN chief says (Reuters), India makes clean energy push at G20 with global biofuel alliance (Reuters), Rishi Sunak tells G20: UK will resist ‘hair shirt’ policies on net zero pledge (The Guardian), G-20 haggles over Russia’s war as block on climate action eases (Bloomberg $), UN secretary-general has urged the Group of 20 leaders to send a strong message on climate change (AP), G20 summit leaders agree on aid agenda, but soften stance on Ukraine war (New York Times $)

TEXAS GRID: Challenges from intense summer heat raise questions about Texas power grid’s reliability (AP explainer), Feds clear ERCOT to exceed emissions limits to avoid blackout (Houston Chronicle)

DENIAL: Follow the money: Fracking billionaires funding anti-renewable energy propaganda cartoons (MSNBC)

GOP vs. ESG: The Democratic battle plan on ESG (E&E News)

WORKERS' POWER: Carbon-free grid? There may not be enough workers to build it. (E&E News)

EPA: As EPA drowns in CCS applications, oil states want to take control (E&E News), D.C. Circuit skeptical of fired EPA advisers’ claims (E&E $), EPA bolsters staff ranks (E&E $), EPA inspector general calls for stricter enforcement of benzene emissions at Gulf Coast refineries (Houston Chronicle), EPA leader’s Alaska travels reveal myriad challenges (Indian Country Today)

DOE: Biden withdraws Energy nominee amid Manchin opposition over stove rule  (The Hill), DOE redeploys nominee blocked by Manchin (E&E $), Nuclear power could make direct air capture cheaper, DOE says (E&E $)

DOI: Haaland touts Biden admin work on missing, murdered Indigenous women (E&E $)

TREASURY: Treasury preps guidance for made-in-America credits (E&E $), US Treasury to issue more clean energy tax credit guidance by year-end (Reuters)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: How Biden officials are tackling the challenges of clean hydrogen (Washington Post $)

WHITE HOUSE: A big auto workers’ strike could hit next week — with Biden’s policies in the balance (Politico), Biden says climate change poses greater threat than nuclear war (Bloomberg $)

THE HILL: Lawmakers eye committee action on carbon tariff bill (E&E $)

SENATE: Manchin hints at permitting talks as panel mulls AI role (E&E $)

ELECTIONS: ‘Windmills rust’: Trump pledges fossil fuel boom in energy plan (E&E $), DeSantis, leading a state menaced by climate change, shrugs off the threat (New York Times $)

TRIBES: Why Native American tribes struggle to tap billions in clean energy incentives (Reuters)

CITIES AND STATES: How Florida's new immigration law could slow hurricane recovery efforts (Axios), As heat waves increase, Los Angeles is coating some streets with ‘cool pavement’ (LA Times $), Easton Park in New Orleans is both a playground and a flood-defense system (Yale Climate Connections)

• CALIFORNIA: California emissions-disclosure mandate awaits final passage, among other bills (Wall Street Journal $), Lawmakers approve plan to strengthen oversight of California water rights (LA Times $), Orphaned oil wells fuel end-of-session spat in California Legislature (Politico Pro $), Poll: California should do more to respond to extreme heat waves, voters say (LA Times $)

AIR POLLUTION: What to know about the link between air pollution and superbugs (NPR)

IMPACTS: Climate-linked ills threaten humanity (Washington Post $), Are the effects of extreme weather changing how we're thinking about climate change? (NPR), Four more bodies found after Greece storm, raising toll to 15 (Reuters), Hong Kong’s weather is getting hotter, wetter and wilder (Bloomberg $), How climate change is threatening a fishing community in coastal India (NPR), In photos: Flooding from heavy rain inundates China (Washington Post $), Storms deluge Hong Kong and other southern Chinese cities (New York Times $), Swiss weather data firm launches in US to boost renewables (E&E $)

• LET THEM BUILD THE GEOTHERMAL WELLS YOU DRUGGED OUT DORKS: Burning Man’s climate reckoning has begun (Grist)

HEAT: A deadly risk factor in extreme heat: Schizophrenia (Washington Post $), Employers turn to ice vests, sweat stickers to cope with extreme heat (Washington Post $), End may be in sight for Phoenix’s historic heat wave of 110-degree-plus weather (AP), Phoenix has set another heat record by hitting 110 degrees on 54 days this year (AP), Extreme heat is fast becoming a threat to global fuel security (Bloomberg $), Extreme heat is forcing America’s farmers to go nocturnal (Washington Post $), Hotter summers kill thousands in a Europe with scant air conditioning (Wall Street Journal $), How to tell if you are dehydrated in the extreme heat (Boston Globe $), NHS website records 552% surge in heat exhaustion queries (The Guardian), Scorching heat wave pushes US Open players to the brink (Axios), Temperature-related deaths in the US could jump fivefold by 2100, study finds (Gizmodo), The Southern Hemisphere, where it’s winter, has been really hot too (Vox)

• SCHOOL IS … NOT COOL: As school started in the US, so did the school closures for heat (Bloomberg $), Puerto Rico’s public schools clamor for air conditioning to get relief from record-breaking heat (AP), What high heat in the classroom is doing to millions of American children (Inside Climate News)

WILDFIRES: Alaska firefighters experiment with targeting blazes to save carbon (Washington Post $), How wildfires are threatening the Mediterranean way of life (Washington Post $), Most of West Maui will welcome back visitors next month under a new wildfire emergency proclamation (AP), Smoke from wildfires may increase risk of dementia, study finds (KTLA), The number of people missing following devastating Maui wildfires has dropped to 66, governor says (AP), Wildfires are only one of the threats ravaging Europe’s forests (Bloomberg $), Lahaina’s fire-stricken Filipino residents are key to tourism and local culture. Will they stay? (AP)

HURRICANES: A first: Category 5 storms have formed in every ocean basin this year (Washington Post $), Man struck by tree while cleaning hurricane debris is third Florida death from Hurricane Idalia (AP), President Biden declares 3 Georgia counties are eligible for disaster aid after Hurricane Idalia (AP)

• LEE: Hurricane Lee peaks as a Cat 5 with 165-mph winds (Yale Climate Connections, Gizmodo), Hurricane Lee restrengthens to category 3. Here’s what’s next. (Washington Post $, The Hill), Hurricane Lee strengthens back into Category 3 storm (Axios), Hurricane Lee is forecast to push dangerous surf along the East Coast (NPR), Could Hurricane Lee impact the US? Here’s when it’s supposed to turn (The Hill), Lee adds to a growing trend of intense hurricanes powered by warmer oceans (CNN), Hurricane Lee generates big swells along northern Caribbean while it churns through open waters (AP)

WATER: As the Colorado river declines, some upstream look to use it before they lose it (Inside Climate News), Can alfalfa survive a fight over Colorado River water? (E&E News). Can golf cure its water addiction? (Washington Post $), Water hookups come to Alaska Yup’ik village, and residents are thrilled to ditch their honey buckets (AP)

RENEWABLES: California central buyer proposal could boost Pacific offshore wind industry, advocates say (Utility Dive), Offshore wind giant’s credit outlook downgraded to ‘negative’ (E&E $), Solar is keeping the Texas grid running. Next month’s eclipse will be a new test (Bloomberg $), Southern Swiss region rejects a plan to fast-track big solar parks on Alpine mountainsides (AP), Virginia solar alliance hopeful after regulators suspend new interconnection rules (Energy News Network)

• UK: No bidders in British offshore wind auction (New York Times $, Bloomberg $, Reuters, The Guardian), Offshore wind drops out of UK auction on costs, risking climate goals (Reuters), What went wrong at UK government’s offshore wind auction? (The Guardian)

BATTERIES: Big batteries are booming. So are fears they'll catch fire (Wired)

BUILDINGS: As Google, Meta eye clean energy buys, researchers find widely used strategy has scant carbon benefits (Utility Dive)

LNG: Chevron workers begin industrial action at Australian natural-gas plants (Wall Street Journal $), European gas prices jump 10% as strikes get underway at major LNG facilities in Australia (CNBC)

OIL & GAS: Oil refineries are leaking cancer-causing benzene into residential neighborhoods (Truthout), Oil demand to remain strong despite Biden’s EV push: expert (Washington Examiner), The oil industry’s cynical gamble on Arctic drilling (Vox), The race to drill America’s longest oil and gas wells (Wall Street Journal $)

NUKES: Nuclear startup Oklo looks to rebound with backing from Sam Altman (Canary Media)

GRID: Extremists keep trying to trigger mass blackouts — and that’s not even the scariest part (Politico), The power grid needs repairs. These companies stand to benefit (CNBC)

EVs: Electric cars have a road trip problem, even for the Secretary of Energy (NPR), Toyota, a hybrid pioneer, struggles to master electric vehicles (New York Times $)

ACTIVISM: Stopping tennis to call attention to climate change (New York Times $)

(PBS NewsHour, Reuters), Climate activists disrupt US Open (The Hill, Truthout), Climate protesters were coming, so the gardner museum locked down (New York Times $), Dutch police cleared out climate protesters blocking a highway over fossil fuel subsidies (AP), Gauff sticks up for activists after US Open protest (Reuters)

AGRICULTURE: Withering crops and parched pastures have farmers ‘praying for rain’ (Washington Post $)

FOOD: 'Climate-friendly' meat is a myth (TIME)

BUSINESSES: Microsoft is paying $20 million to carbon-capture 0.25% of its annual CO2 emissions (Quartz)

CARBON CAPTURE: As federal money flows to carbon capture and storage, Texas bets on an undersea bonanza (Inside Climate News)

CARBON REMOVAL: A world renowned chemist wants to suck water, and carbon, out of the air (TIME)

FINANCE: Private equity giant KKR is funding environmental racism, new report finds (Inside Climate News), Private equity profits from climate disaster clean-up – while investing in fossil fuels (Grist), Bangladesh's Summit Group to invest $3 billion in clean-energy push (Reuters), Barclays seeks climate director after protests over fossil fuel finance (The Guardian), Scandinavian firms show large ESG gaps on cusp of new rules (Bloomberg $)

WILDLIFE: Endangered species and climate change (NPR), What's causing massive seabird die-offs? Warming oceans part of ecosystem challenges (USA Today), Why Trump’s tax law could limit Biden’s efforts to protect Arctic wildlife from drilling (The Hill), Toys, CCTV and a ‘Darth Vader’ suit: the lengths rescuers go to save baby otters (Washington Post $)

INTERNATIONAL: ‘Biggest clean energy disaster in years’: UK auction secures no offshore windfarms (The Guardian), Does the UK government still have an offshore wind strategy? (The Guardian), Polish main opposition seeks green push after October election (Reuters), German lawmakers approve a contentious plan to replace fossil-fuel heating (AP), Greek premier to request EU support for country’s flood damage (Bloomberg $), In search of cool green spaces, Paris turns to an old rail line (New York Times $), India forges global biofuel alliance in push toward net zero aim (Bloomberg $), India hopes to lead on climate, but coal still powers its economic growth (LA Times $), Investors and unions press Labor to invest $100bn to compete in global green economy (The Guardian), Sweltering Dubai stays cool with indoor skiing and snow cinemas (Washington Post $)

• Donors tied to pipelines accused of triggering blackouts gave $6.3M to Texas officials (Houston Chronicle, Chris Tomlinson op-ed)
• COP28: A chance to course-correct on the global clean energy transition (Politico EU, Ursula von der Leyen, Sultan Al-Jaber, William Ruto, Mia Mottley, Fatih Birol, Francesco La Camera op-ed)
• The 2023 Farm Bbill must follow through on the IRA’s historic investment in conservation (Agri-Pulse, Harry Huntley op-ed)
• There’s one climate narrative we need to debunk (Bloomberg, Brooke Sample op-ed $)
• The climate crisis is a crisis of inequality (Science, Rohini Pande op-ed)
• Don’t let ‘degrowth’ fanaticism derail serious climate policy (The Hill, Chris Yoko op-ed)
• Can the hated Trump be correct about the ‘madness’ of electric vehicles — or any other policy? (The Hill, Douglas MacKinnon op-ed)
• We’re very far off course in meeting global climate goals. Get ready for Plan B (LA Times, Edwin Chen op-ed $)
• What happens when renewable energy isn’t so cheap? (Bloomberg, Matthew Yglesias op-ed $)
• We need to build on the Inflation Reduction Act, not reverse it (The Hill, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, Mayor Kate Gallego, and Mayor Justin Bibb op-ed)
• Young Republicans want action on climate change — so why is the party ignoring them? (The Hill, Richard Richels, Henry Jacoby, Benjamin Santer and Gary Yohe op-ed)
• Price over performance: Why green energy is different from previous technology revolutions (Utility Dive, Robin Gaster op-ed)
• Labeling innovation as ‘greenwashing’ diminishes the climate fight (The Hill, Sarah E. Hunt op-ed)
• Our environmental laws are failing us in the face of the climate crisis (The Guardian, Tim Flannery op-ed)
• Biden freezes Alaskan oil (Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board $)
• Congress takes on California’s car ban (Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board $)

Learning Science Now A 'Radical Agenda' When It Comes To Climate Change

Should schools teach science? Should journalists report on it? Not according to a pair of op-eds published last week, both gasping and clutching pearls at the idea of people becoming better informed about an issue of global consequence.

On Thursday, The Daily Caller ran Larry Behrens' op-ed headlined, "Inside Climate Alarmists' 'Blueprint For Media Transformation.'" 

Behrens’ supposedly "inside" information is a very public posting about a two-day event on reporting on climate change that Covering Climate Now is hosting with the Columbia Journalism Review, The Nation, The Guardian, and Solutions Journalism Network. The invitation, Behrens cites, invites reporters "from around the world for an unprecedented conversation about how to cover a world on fire." Apparently uncomfortable with figures of speech, Behrens claims "nothing says dispassionate objectivity like the phrase 'world on fire.'" Again, the headline to his piece includes the phrase "climate alarmists," so clearly he knows a thing or two about dispassionate objectivity… 

But since it's being held at the Columbia Journalism School, that's the institution Behrens targets, neglecting to mention the range of media organizations participating in the event. He calls the school, where students learn to be reporters, "one of the institutions leftist journalists strive to impress. It's like a gated country club for the liberal elite who are hosting a big party for reporters to learn how to write on climate." 

It's hardly a gated country club, given that the invite page he links to clearly has a note saying, "By popular demand, we will livestream the event, for those not able to attend in person, and recordings will remain available after the conference concludes." 

Livestreaming is pretty much the opposite of gatekeeping, but if Behrens were honest, he'd have a real job, instead of being a propagandist for Power the Future, a climate denial-spreading dirty energy lobbying operation that denied even its own lobbying status. 

Similarly, Fox News ran an op-ed by Betsy McCaughey, "a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths." According to its latest tax filing, CRID received $37,716 in the Covid-19 Paycheck Protection Program to cover its single paid employee, Betsy McCaughey, who earned $118,800 in 2020, a year in which the organization received $377,269 in contributions. What does CRID even do, you ask? Well, it produces a whole lot of rabidly partisan disinfo-filled op-eds.

Case in point, McCaughey Fox op-ed is headlined, “Climate crazies want to use schools to brainwash your kids with this radical agenda.”

What's so radical about the agenda? "Lessons link urban heat islands to tree placement inequities, redlining and racism." Oh no! Not the truth!

But in true science denier fashion, McCaughey argues, "the scientific community is divided about the urgency of eliminating fossil fuels" and cites a poll claiming that 41% of "400 geologists, climatologists, meteorologists and other scientists" don't think climate change will cause significant harm in our lifetimes. 

McCaughey doesn't actually link to the "poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University." That’s probably because, as Glenn Branch pointed out in DeSmog last year, "the survey report reveals that 96% of the respondents to the Heartland-commissioned survey accept that global climate change is occurring." Oh! So it's not a University survey; it's a Heartland product. You know, the think tank run by climate denying nuts that only finally apparently deleted its smoking page in the months after we last pointed it out earlier this year. 

McCaughey claims teaching kids about climate change is "child abuse" and the best piece of evidence she can cite to back up her false claim undermining the science is a survey that actually confirmed the scientific consensus on climate change! 

McCaughey's "radical agenda" is, it turns out, simply reality. Even according to her own source!

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