FIRST LOOK

Join the Uproot Project, NABJ Weather and Climate Task Force, and Climate Nexus for a panel on telling powerful climate stories through substantiated facts and explanatory visuals, on Thursday, August 19th, 2pm EDT. NABJ attendees can register HERE.

July Was Earth’s Hottest Month On Record: July 2021 was officially Earth’s hottest month in nearly 150 years of recordkeeping, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed on Friday. Combined land and ocean average temperatures were 1.67°F above the 20th century average, beating out by 0.02°F a previous record set in July 2016 and tied in 2019 and 2020. The past seven Julys, from 2015 to 2021, have been hotter than any previous July (often the hottest month of the year) going back through 1860. In particular, the Northern Hemisphere suffered from extreme heat, including at least five heat domes, leading to a land-surface temperature of 2.77°F (1.54°C) above the average – the largest anomaly on record, NOAA found. “In this case, first place is the worst place to be,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement. “July 2021 outdid itself as the hottest July and month ever recorded. This new record adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.” (NOAA, Washington Post $, AP, NPR, Gizmodo, Axios, Yale Climate Connections)

COVID Killed More People Exposed To Wildfire Pollution: Smoke from wildfires can make people more susceptible to catching COVID – and dying from it. Over 700 more people died and nearly 20,000 more were infected with the virus than would have been expected if they had not been exposed to air polluted with particulate matter from fires that burned during last summer’s record-breaking fire season, a new study from Harvard and published in the journal Scientific Advances on Friday found. Health experts have suspected since the early days of the pandemic that a link existed between air pollution and the likelihood of catching the disease and experiencing a more severe infection, because small particulate matter known as PM 2.5 in smoke can impair the ability of white blood cells in the lungs to combat respiratory infections. Historically, this has led to higher rates of health problems such as asthma for people – more likely people of color and low income – who live near polluting facilities.“We were not terribly surprised by the results as scientists,” co-author Kevin Josey told Gizmodo, “but as humans we are dismayed about the impacts.” (Gizmodo, New York Times $, San Francisco Chronicle)

Big Oil Underreporting Methane Emissions: Major oil and gas producers are emitting significantly more methane than disclosed, according to new research from Signal Climate Analytics and Geofiancial Analytics, in collaboration with a year-long Reuters examination of the world’s 250 biggest emitters. Using ultra-high-resolution satellites alongside global satellite data from January to July 2021, the study compared observed emissions with expected performance based on methane intensity reports, regulatory filings, commitment to transparent reporting, and safety incidents, making it the first to attribute methane emissions to individual companies and benchmark them to reported performance. Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron were found to be the worst performers, followed by ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil and ExxonMobil, among the top 15 producers. According to the International Energy Agency’s Methane Tracker, more than 70m tonnes of methane were emitted last year – equal to the entire energy-related carbon dioxide output from Europe. The IPCC report last week pointed to methane, a short-lived climate pollutant that degrades into carbon dioxide in the atmosphere within years but has more than 80 times greater warming effect over a two-decade period as CO₂, as a significant contributor to recent climate change. “Early action on methane emissions will be critical for avoiding the worst effects of climate change” IEA’s Executive Director Dr. Fatih Birol told Reuters. “There is no good reason to allow these harmful leaks to continue, and there is every reason for responsible operators to ensure that they are addressed.” (Reuters)

Grace Targets Haiti In Earthquake Aftermath: Tropical depression Grace is expected to pass over Haiti on Monday and Tuesday, just days after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake left nearly 1,300 dead and 5,700 injured, threatening to cause flooding and landslides and further hampering rescue efforts already contending with devastated infrastructure and the Covid-19 pandemic. Forecasters predict Grace will drop 5 to 10 inches of rain on Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic, with as much as 15 inches across southern portions of Hispaniola. Climate change is intensifying tropical storm systems, compounded with sea level rise and deforestation that worsens flooding and landslides that make Haiti particularly vulnerable. The nation, which has not yet fully recovered from the 7.0 quake in 2010 that leveled significant portions of the island’s infrastructure and killed as many as 300,000 people, has been hit by major storms in 2020, two in 2017, another in 2016 and four in 2008. (AP, NPR, FT $, Weather)

New blazes burning outside of AthensINDIGENOUS WISDOM: Hawaiians look to tradition to cope with climate change (Voice of America)

STIMULUS: UK can’t fight climate crisis with austerity, warns expert (The Guardian)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Rights of nature’ lawsuits hit a sweet spot (Indian Country Today)

DENIAL: The era of climate denial is over (The Intercept), amid extreme weather, a [supposed] shift among Republicans on climate change (New York Times $)

THEY SAID WHAT THEY SAID: Republicans seek full tape behind Exxon sting (The Hill)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden’s pro-car, pro-gasoline moves leave green allies fuming (Politico)

POLITICS: As the climate crisis worsens in the US, pressure for action from Biden and Kerry grows (CNN), is the U.S. doing enough about climate change? (CNN)

IPCC REPORT: It’s now or never: Scientists warn time of reckoning has come for the planet (The Guardian), computer models of civilization offer routes to ending global warming (NPR), after UN climate report, individuals seek to do their part (AP), the repercussions of a changing climate, in 5 devastating charts (InsideClimate News)

• METHANE: The other greenhouse gas: UN report sets the record straight on methane (Grist, The Economist $)

CITIES AND STATES: Climate change is bringing higher heat to Boston, more so in some neighborhoods than others. We went to see for ourselves (Boston Globe $), for toxic algal blooms, website gives real-time forecasts of them along Gulf of Mexico, Florida coasts (Washington Post $), the long, slow drowning of the New Jersey shore (New York Times $)

IMPACTS: Heat waves, wildfires & drought: How this summer is a ‘preview’ of Earth’s coming climate crisis (NBC)

CLIMATE MIGRATION: ‘Where else will I go?’: California’s ‘climate migrants’ search for home a year after Santa Cruz Mountains lightning fires (Monterey Herald), they lost their home to a wildfire. They moved on. Then came the Dixie Fire (San Francisco Chronicle)

FLOODS: Turkey evacuates flood victims as death toll hits 62 (Al Jazeera), heavy rain, floods force evacuation of more than 1,500 people in Russia (The Hill), torrential rains lash wide areas of Japan, three feared dead after landslide (Reuters)

ESCARG-OH NO! It’s been so hot in Sicily that snails cooked alive in their shells (HuffPost)

DROUGHT: Small towns grow desperate for water in California (New York Times $), the Colorado river basin’s daunting new math (Circle of Blue)

• HYDROPOWER: Severe drought could threaten power supply in West for years to come (Wall Street Journal $, Reuters)

WILDFIRES:

• WESTERN US: Forest Service maxed out as wildfires break across US West (AP), thousands evacuate as wildfires ravage Utah and Northern California (New York Times $, LA Times $, ABC)
• MEDITERRANEAN: Tears and anger as Greek island residents face wildfire aftermath (Reuters), new blazes burning outside Athens (AP), Jerusalem covered in smoke as wildfire rages outside city (AP), Hundreds are evacuated as tinderbox Spain tackles wildfires (AP), Photos: wildfires and flooding ravage some countries of the Mediterranean (NPR)
• RUSSIA: Forest fire forces Russia to evacuate 830 from summer camp (AP)
• PACIFIC: Climate-fueled wildfires take toll on tropical Pacific isles (AP)

SCOT FREE: No criminal charges in fatal 2018 California wildfire (AP)

HURRICANES: Fred regains tropical storm status en route to Florida as Haiti braces for Grace (CNN), schools close throughout the Florida Panhandle ahead of Tropical Storm Fred (CNN)

EFFICIENCY: Warmth from the earth and air: could heat pumps replace our gas boilers? (The Guardian, The Guardian)

WE GOT A BRIDGE FUEL TO SELL YOU: After bankruptcy, shale pioneer Chesapeake touts natural gas again (Wall Street Journal $), U.S. natural gas dominance may be coming to an end (OilPrice)

MINING: For 150 years, miners came to the Stibnite Mine to dig their fortune. A plan to reopen it has stirred an environmental debate. (CBS)

💨🔥: Woman severely burned after large gas line fire near Coolidge (ABC15), gas leak prompts evacuations in Oakland neighborhood (San Francisco Chronicle)

LINE 3: First new oil sands pipeline in years could start next month (Bloomberg $)

PIPELINES: Judge says she can’t halt Virginia mountain pipeline blasts (AP)

COAL: U.S. coal consumption falls to 60-year low (Forbes)

GREENWASHING: Oil giants turn to startups for low-carbon energy ideas (Wall Street Journal $)

AVIATION: Turbulence continues to cause most flight injuries — and climate change might be making it worse (Seattle Times)

BIG GREEN: Sierra Club executive director Brune to step down (Politico)

BOOKS: ‘Paradise' explores a previous record breaking wildfire season (NPR, Buzzfeed)

CARBON REMOVAL: Activists call it a ‘false solution.’ but UN scientists say we need to suck up CO2. (HuffPost), cost to bury carbon near tipping point as emissions price soars (Bloomberg $)

WILDLIFE: How carbon-absorbing kelp forests that fight climate change could regrow along California coast with reintroduction of sea otters – they prey on pests that eat the algae (South China Morning Post)

INTERNATIONAL: Study: German emissions to grow by largest amount since 1990 (AP), deforestation in Brazil's Amazon edges down, still high under Bolsonaro (Reuters), India aims to spend $1.4 trillion building infrastructure (Bloomberg $)

• Infrastructure deal helps WV, shows Senate isn't broken (Charleston Gazette-Mail, Sen. Joe Manchin op-ed)
• Finding the will to stave off a darker future (New York Times, Editorial Board column $)
• Biden can have cheap gas or fight climate change — not both (Washington Post, Editorial Board column $)
• You should be concerned about climate change but big oil should be terrified (Boston Globe, Michael E. Mann op-ed $)
• Defeating environmental racism, one pipeline at a time (New York Times, Margaret Renkl op-ed $)
• Let’s face it, Texas: natural gas let us down. Again (Dallas Morning News, Michael E. Webber op-ed)
• The IPCC’s latest climate report is dire. But it also included some prospects for hope (The Guardian, Rebecca Solnit op-ed)
• Focus on adapting to climate change grows along with efforts to slow it down (San Diego Union-Tribune, Michael Smolens column)
• The UN report on climate change is 4,000 pages. Here's what it means for Louisiana. (Times-Picayune, Bob Marshall op-ed)
• How investors, and everybody, should think about climate change (Yahoo Finance, Andy Serwer op-ed)

Convergence: Holocaust Denier Peter Sweden Starts Appealing to Climate Deniers

Of the many Steve Koonin debunkings of we shared Friday was one by Mark Boslough, who, among other things, criticized Koonin’s complaint that calling climate change deniers, well, “deniers” is only used to associate them with Holocaust denial. Obviously that’s false, but then again, what happens when Holocaust denial and climate denial do overlap? 

This isn’t a theoretical or hypothetical question. Last week, climate denial bellwether Tom Nelson followed up a retweet promoting Roger Pielke Jr.’s work equivocating on the unequivocal IPCC report with a retweet of one from Peter Sweden claiming the “next steps” for a feared global climate regime would be Digital IDs, meat rationing (and reduced meat rations “for mean words on social media”) and finally, “now you have a credit score.” 

Turns out Peter Sweden’s twitter feed was on a tear. In one, he got worked up about the possibility of a scary new vehicle miles traveled tax only to take credit for his “predictions ... turning true…” when he was clued in that such a fee already exists (and has been around for over a decade, and despite, you know, other professional deniers already complaining two days prior to his “prediction” about a pilot version in the infrastructure bill). 

Sweden’s interest in the issue seemed to spike not with the IPCC report on August 9th, but three days earlier in reference to Britain's proposal to switch to electric vehicles by 2030, which he claimed was climate change being used “as an excuse to introduce Communism.” The next day he glommed on to the Obama birthday news cycle with a bunch of tweets about John Kerry and “the elite” taking private jets but “keep[ing] you in lockdown” and “the elite din[ing] on fine meat while telling you to eat bugs.” 

By the 9th, he was back to the electric car stuff, tweeting that the “push for electric cars is about taking away your freedom. Electric cars are useless if you want to travel any meaningful distance. In Communism they limit your freedom of movement by forcing you to use busses [sic]. It’s basically the same thing.” 

Of course! Personally owned electric vehicles capable of travelling hundreds of miles are definitely “basically the same thing” as communist buses. 

As you can see, Peter’s not tweeting anything especially far-fetched for Denial World. 

At least not recently. 

But for those who didn’t immediately recognize his (pseudo)name, Peter Sweden’s real name is Peter Imanuelsen, who is perhaps best-known for being an anti-immigrant white supremacist and Holocaust denier who once tweeted that “the holocaust is a lie to further the agenda of the NWO” and that while he is “not a nazi :)” he does “think hitler had some good points.” 

There’s plenty more out there on Peter’s far-right hate speech, but that’s basically the gist. (His, uh, hilarious attempt to defend against “white male privilege” by pointing out that “we gave women the right to vote “and “we ended slavery,” though, are worth a dishonorable mention.)

So while it is apparently egregiously slanderous to use the term “climate denier” because of its apparent Holocaust connotation, here we see that, whether it’s pseudo-sophisticated equivocating like Pielke Jr. who thinks billionaires corrupted climate science or alt-right racists ranting about “the elites,” to the average climate denier like Tom Nelson, they’re “basically the same thing.”

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