NYC Revs Up Composting: New York City’s composting program is set to significantly expand this week, as 2.6 million people in Brooklyn now have a way to dispose of food scraps and yard waste after city collection in the borough started Monday. The largest city in the U.S. is implementing a program that will hopefully get all of its 8.8 million residents on board with diverting compostable waste from the landfill: residents of Queens got access to the program this spring, and composting will be available in the Bronx, Staten Island, and Manhattan next year. While New Yorkers are currently required to separate yard waste from regular trash, an ambitious bill passed by the City Council earlier this summer would make it mandatory for all New Yorkers to also separate their food waste from their trash by 2025. "I think it's going to become one of the hallmarks of modern cities," New York City sanitation commissioner Jessica Tisch told Axios. (Gothamist, Axios, New York Times $, InsideClimate News, Fast Company)

Don’t Put Those Shorts Away Just Yet: The heat just won’t stop. Parts of the U.S. are set to experience unseasonably warm temperatures this week as parts of Europe are reeling from scorching September heat. In the U.S., millions of Americans began feeling temperatures as much as 25 degrees Fahrenheit above October averages this week. Minneapolis hit a record high of 92 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday, far above its seasonal average of 66 degrees Fahrenheit, and organizers on Sunday canceled the city’s annual marathon due to record heat. Meanwhile, Spain set a national heat record on Sunday as temperatures soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. On the heels of the world’s hottest summer on record, September was also record-breaking across the globe: countries and cities from Austria to Moscow to Japan to New Zealand to Abilene, Texas all set records for their warmest Septembers. “The El Niño won’t peak until later this year and there is plenty more heat waiting in the wings,” Michael McPhaden, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the Washington Post. “So expect more records to be set in the coming months.” (U.S. heatwave: Axios, Washington Post $. Marathon: CNN. Europe heatwave: The Guardian, France24. September heat: Washington Post $. September records: Phys.org, RNZ, BBC, Moscow Times, KTXS)

Microplastics Are Literally Everywhere: It’s getting harder and harder to avoid plastics. In a study published in Environmental Chemistry Letters last month, scientists in Japan documented how they collected water from clouds at the top of both Mount Fuji and Mount Oyama to perform a first-of-its kind study on airborne microplastics in clouds. The team observed concentrations of microplastic between 6.7 and 13.9 pieces per liter of cloud water. In two separate studies out of St. Louis, Missouri, researchers found large amounts of microplastics in the water and sediment of a cave that has been closed to humans for decades. "If the issue of 'plastic air pollution' is not addressed proactively, climate change and ecological risks may become a reality, causing irreversible and serious environmental damage in the future," the lead author of the cloud study, Hiroshi Okochi of Waseda University, said in a statement. (Clouds: Yale360, Gizmodo, Al Jazeera, Futurism. Cave: STLPR, Vice, Futurism)

CLIMATE JUSTICE: In the ambitious bid to reinvent south Baltimore, justice concerns remain (Inside Climate News), Vietnam detains energy thinktank chief in latest arrest of environmental expert (The Guardian), What will justice for climate change culprits look like? (Nautilus Magazine)

CONGRESS: Congress OKs billions for disasters, extends flood insurance (E&E News), Newsom taps Emily’s List leader to fill feinstein’s Senate seat (Washington Post $)

THE COURTS: Montana is appealing a landmark climate change ruling that favored youth plaintiffs (LA Times $), Supreme Court flooding case could ripple across the energy sector (E&E News)

AGENCIES: Climate change could impose ‘substantial financial costs’ on U.S. household finances, Treasury warns (CNBC)

TIME’S UP: Mammals’ time on earth is half over, scientists predict (New York Times $)

FOSSIL FUELS: ‘We are not in the business of ice cream’: Big Oil CEOs defend themselves against climate criticism (CNBC), Climate target walk-backs highlight ‘overzealous’ policy pledges, OPEC chief says (CNBC), Global coal, oil, natural gas consumption may peak before 2030 -IEA (Reuters), How South Africa botched its first coal power-plant transition (Bloomberg $), Turkey says to re-start operations of Iraq oil pipeline this week (Reuters), Spain, IEA back Dutch call to phase out fossil fuel subsidies (Reuters), Environmental groups file complaint against France's TotalEnergies over climate impact (Reuters), New leasing policy shows Biden's delicate balancing act on oil drilling (Axios), Nearly 2.5 million barrels a day of US refining capacity to shut for fall maintenance (Bloomberg $)

RENEWABLES: Wind power project in New Jersey would be among farthest off East Coast, company says (AP), Facing increasing pressure from customers, some miners are switching to renewable energy (AP), In shipping, a push to slash emissions by harnessing the wind (New York Times $), In Michigan, not-so-sunny prospects for solar farms (Grist)

CITIES & STATES: MTA falls short of climate change plan goals, audit says (Gothamist), State comptroller report faults MTA for lack of climate change plans (The City)

IPCC: Slow route to net zero will worsen global climate crisis, IPCC chief warns (The Guardian)

TECH: Key player in nascent carbon removal industry says no to oil money (Axios), The secret behind the first $1 billion green hydrogen startup (Wall Street Journal $), AI can help fight climate change, but it also adds to it (Wall Street Journal $), Apple goes a step too far in claiming a carbon neutral product, a new report concludes (Inside Climate News)

UTILITIES: PG&E’s $6 billion plan to prevent wildfires is in peril (Wall Street Journal $), New Minnesota law aims to lower barrier for participating in public utility cases (Energy News Network)

IMPACTS: Even India’s monsoon season is wetter than normal (Christian Science Monitor), California’s prescribed fire window could shrink with warming climate, study says (San Francisco Chronicle), India’s devastating monsoon season is a sign of things to come, as climate and poor planning combine (AP)

NUCLEAR: Germany eyes options to end impasse with France on nuclear power (Bloomberg $)

UAW: Green groups to demonstrate alongside striking UAW workers (E&E News)

INT’L: As the 'water tower of Asia' dries out, villagers learn to recharge their springs (NPR), China is gaining long-coveted role in Arctic, as Russia yields (Wall Street Journal $), Report claiming net zero will cost UK trillions retracted due to ‘factual errors’ (The Guardian)

MILITARY: The military is turning to microgrids to fight global threats — and global warming (NPR)

TREES: As cities swelter, urban shade trees fall by the millions (E&E News), Why palm trees make less sense in a warming world (LA Times $)

CRITTERS: Environmental groups demand emergency rules to protect rare whales from ship collisions (AP), Climate change is likely influencing the migration of armadillos (USA Today), Underwater archaeologists find climate lessons in Florida’s past (Miami Herald)

PLASTICS: How your shrimp cocktail can reduce the plastic waste tied to global warming (CNBC)

BUILDINGS: White House defines ‘zero-emission’ buildings, hoping more get built (Washington Post $)

HEALTH: Health care has a massive carbon footprint. these doctors are trying to change that (NPR)

RICH PEOPLE: Private jet service for rich dog owners condemned by climate campaigners (The Guardian)

FAITH: Young Evangelicals fight climate change from inside the church: "We can solve this crisis in multiple ways" (CBS)

• Many scientists don’t want to tell the truth about climate change. Here’s why (WBUR, Barbara Moran essay)
• Bob Marshall: Jeff Landry’s skepticism of climate change threatens Louisiana’s future (NOLA.com, Bob Marshall op-ed)
• Why wait? Get renewable energy projects connected to the power grid (Chicago Sun-Times, editorial)
• Extreme talk is drowning out the facts of push for renewable energy (Buffalo News editorial)
• Climate change is forcing families into a new kind of indefinite hell (New York Times, Matthew Wolfe and Malcolm Araos op-ed $)
• The climate fight will be won in the appliance aisle (New York Times, Robinson Meyer column $)
• Denial of climate change may be a party deal-breaker for young conservatives (Chicago Tribune, Susan Atkinson op-ed)
• Wildfires: stay safe in a warming world (New York Times, Megan McCrea op-ed $)

New Report Finds Spanish-Language Conspiracy Theories Now Influencing English-Speaking Kooks

The fossil fuel industry's propaganda machine began, and historically operates most heavily in English. For the past decade as social media became the last thriving vector for climate denial—for example, we saw that Spanish-language social media disinfo was often a translation of false claims from English. Not always, but often enough that it meant that if we could reduce the production of English-language disinformation, it would go a long way toward cleaning up digital information ecosystems outside the Anglosphere, because the professional denial would no longer be readily available to translate. 

Now, though, a new report from Green Latinos, Graphika, and Friends of the Earth found that (just a year after confirming the English-to-Spanish pattern) the reverse has begun to happen. Aided by social media companies’ misinformation-amplifying algorithms, English-speaking conspiracy theorists are now reaching beyond the language barrier to amplify conspiracy theories in other languages, giving us yet another headache. 

The report specifically points to the false narrative that wildfires are being started intentionally in order to clear the way for wind farms. That combination of the old "arson not climate change" denial with the new "elites are pulling the strings to make room for renewable energy projects" conspiracy theory proved attractive enough for English-speaking deniers to co-opt. 

According to Graphika's network analysis, Greek-speaking Twitter accounts first spread the conspiracy theory back in 2018 during Greece's devastating wildfires. Then, Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking digital conspiracy theory accounts adopted the misinformation in response to the wildfires in Chile and then Spain. Finally, English-speaking communities caught on to this conspiracy theory trend, putting this false narrative to good use in June with the Canadian wildfires, in July with the Greek wildfires, and in August with the Hawai’i wildfires.. 

It was the Hawai’i wildfires that spurred the biggest spike in misinformation, which is no surprise seeing as there was a wider surge of false claims, including, for example, that arsonists were after lithium deposits. One trick, used by pop culture clickbait accounts, involved falsely claiming that internet-beloved celebrities supposedly revealed other celebs' conspiracy involvement. For example, Snopes fact-checked a multitude of misinformation including a video claiming that Keanu Reeves accused Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson of embezzling wildfire relief money, a similar video involving Jason Mamoa, an AI-generated clip in which Tom Hanks appears to accuse Oprah of having "orchestrated" the fires, another false claim targeting Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, yet another video where this time Tom Hanks is accused of wrongdoing by his son Chet, and even a false rumor pulling Dolly Parton into the mix. 

So now, thanks to social media companies’ insistence that terrible people should be able to spread lies and chaos because stopping them would mean fewer targets for ad sales, local public servants tasked with the already-difficult job of keeping communities safe from wildfires also have to worry about being attacked by conspiracy-theory-believing neighbors blaming global elites for wildfires – instead of climate change.

Or, as NBC quoted Green Latinos' Edder Díaz-Martínez saying, “A small, radical minority is spreading lies in vulnerable communities, capitalizing on extreme weather events to sow doubt in renewable energy, a critical energy source that can save us from future climate disasters." 

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