'The Era of Global Boiling Has Arrived'-  Europe 'Like a Blowtorch,' US Parks 'An Oven,' Atlantic Like A Hot Tub During Hottest Month Ever: This July, residents of the planet Earth experienced the hottest July of at least the last 120,000 years, according to new analysis.  But unless fossil fuel use is curtailed, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service and the UN's World Meteorological Organization warned, this sort of brutal summer — in which heatwaves in Europe fuel "blowtorch"-like wildfires, will become common. What is currently, "unprecedented," like water temperatures off of Florida above 100°F, (ideal for hot tubs but not coral reefs bleaching in the heat) will perhaps be looked at fondly as a time when media stories about climate impacts on vacations were still pleasant diversions, and not punctuated by warnings about how U.S. National Parks are "like an oven." While announcing that this summer has been the hottest since the age of homo erectus, UN Secretary General António Guterres declared, "The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.” (Hottest month: AP, Axios, CBS, Scientific American, Scientific American, The Times, The Independent, Grist, Carbon Brief, Politico Pro $; U.S. heat: Reuters, AP; National parks and vacations:  The Guardian, CBS, The Independent; European heat: The Guardian;

Ocean heat: CNN, Washington Post $, AP, The Independent, New York Times $, AP, The Guardian, AP; Mediterranean fires, "like a blowtorch": The Guardian, Reuters, BBC; Other wildfires: Reuters, Forbes, Reuters; "Global boiling": Washington Post $)

Climate Deniers Doubledown On Disinfo To Deceive Public, But Litigation's Doubled Too: Despite July 2023 being the hottest month in the last 120,000 years, a portion of the general public capable of blocking equitable and meaningful action on climate continues to deny the reality that fossil fuel pollution is heating the climate. While social media algorithms facilitate the viral spread of climate disinformation online, with Google once again caught selling ads on climate disinformation on YouTube, the climate counter-movement is showing off its "Project 2025" plan to further dismantle climate policy, should Republicans win the White House in the 2024 election. The denial is hardly relegated to social media, either. There's the potential for ChatGPT-generated disinformation for the future-minded, Mike Huckabee's books of climate disinformation for kids, and right wing columnists for adults. But all that denial is apparently just providing fodder for litigation, as a new UN Environment Programme report found climate accountability lawsuits have doubled in number in just the last five years to over 2,000 cases filed over 65 jurisdictions worldwide. (Project 2025 and climate disinfo: Politico, The Guardian, DeSmog, BBC, Common Dreams, Sky News, NowThis Earth; Election disinfo: AP; Huckabee: Inside Climate News; ChatGPT: DeSmog; Right wing columns: Wall Street Journal, Allysia Finley column $, Washington Examiner, Christopher Tremoglie column; Litigation: Reuters, Vox, Inside Climate News, The Guardian, E&E $, Slate, Dharna Noor interview; Project2025 commentary: Philadelphia Inquirer, Will Bunch column)

Biden Announces Actions To Protect Workers From Heat: President Joe Biden called out climate deniers while announcing a new website for safety info, heat.gov, and new actions to protect U.S. workers from extreme heat on Friday. "Even those who deny we are in a climate crisis can’t deny the impact extreme heat is having on Americans,” Biden said. Biden didn't go so far as to declare a Climate Emergency, but instead instructed the Labor Department to do more inspections of overheated workplaces, boost spending on weather predictions, and send a hazard alert to employers to address the risk of extreme heat facing employees. “Worker protections and water access are vital in this deadly heat," Jean Su of the Center for Biological Diversity told the New York Times, "but incremental steps like these are the reason we’re suffering this record-shattering summer … real relief won’t come until Biden confronts the culprit of deadly fossil fuels.” (New York Times $, MSNBC, E&E $, AP)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Plagued by floods and kept in the dark, a Black Alabama community turns to a hometown hero for help (Inside Climate News), In a climate-ravaged Indian village, marginalised farmers sing about ‘floating in tears’ after years of erratic weather (South China Morning Post), Warming world 'brutalises' women as heatwaves deepen gender divide (Reuters), Climate change: the chilling reality of baking cities (FT $), The one-mile rule: Texas’ unwritten and arbitrary policy protects big polluters from citizen complaints (Inside Climate News), Mercury pollution is worsening a mental health crisis in this Indigenous community (Grist)

🐦🗑️🔥: Twitter threatens legal action against nonprofit that tracks hate speech (New York Times $)

BEARS AND THE BEES: Beloved grizzly Otis was again late for salmon season. Blame climate change. (Washington Post $), Wild bees are rapidly shrinking due to global warming (New Scientist)

FUNGUS AMONGUS: Sudden explosion of dangerous fungus Candida auris may be because of climate change, scientists say (CBS), A brain-eating killer amoeba: what to know about naegleria fowleri (Washington Post $), Dangerous fungus is becoming more prevalent. Scientists believe climate change could be to blame (ABC)

HOT NEWS: What climate change is doing to our sex lives (New Republic), This beetle’s sex is on fire. Literally. (Vox)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Summer heat contributing to rising gas prices (NBC)

HOUSING: As floods worsen, US mobile home parks get help - and recognition (Reuters) 

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: UN body assessing climate change science elects Jim Skea as new chair (Reuters), Germany plans to keep funding new gas projects overseas despite pledge (Climate Home), An American energy giant sees Israel as a springboard to Europe (New York Times $), G20 ministers reach agreement on most, but not all, climate issues (AP), China accused of using ‘wrecking tactics’ at climate talks (FT $), EU to squeeze carbon market cap in 2024 as new climate policies kick in (Reuters)

DENIAL: This lawyer is a thorn in Ohio green energy’s side. Who’s paying the bills? (Cleveland Plain-Dealer), Sunak orders review of low traffic neighbourhoods in pro-motorist message (BBC), Energy groups mount campaign against tough US clean hydrogen rules (FT $), Why Republicans can’t get out of their climate bind, even as extreme heat overwhelms the US (CNN), How the bush administration hid the dangers posed by climate change (LitHub)

GOP vs. ESG: The demonisation of BlackRock’s Larry Fink (Economist $), Anti-ESG bills clear House Financial Services Committee (E&E $)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: Infrastructure and green energy spending are powering the economy (Washington Post $), States siphoned away $750 million in infrastructure law climate funds (Washington Post $), First Solar banks on IRA with plans to build new US manufacturing plant (Politico Pro $)

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Climate change causing a sense of despair? Here are some ways to combat it (PBS NewsHour)

SCOTUS: Federal appeals court questions Manchin’s Mountain Valley Pipeline approval (Politico Pro $), Supreme Court allows work on Mountain Valley Pipeline to resume (Wall Street Journal $)(New York Times $)(Politico Pro $), Supreme Court pipeline order leaves legal questions unanswered (E&E $)

NOT SO PFAS-T: Bipartisan group of AGs oppose major proposed PFAS settlement (Politico Pro $)

DOE: DOE announces $27 million for clean energy plans for disadvantaged communities (PV Magazine), Feds’ latest fuel efficiency standards would cut 900m tons of CO2 (Grist), Energy Department tees up $8.5B in state home energy rebates (Politico Pro $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Texas lawmaker urges federal government to mandate water breaks for outdoor workers (ABC)

WHITE HOUSE: White House unveils proposed reforms to speed clean energy permitting (Reuters), Adding clean energy to the US power grid just got a lot easier (The Verge), A left-right alliance puts Iowa’s CO2 pipelines on the presidential agenda (New York Times $)

THE HILL: Lawmakers seek to limit corporate and foreign ownership of US farmland (Reuters), Knowledge is power: 13 tips for lobbying your elected officials about climate change (Yale Climate Connections), Senate appropriators advance EPA, Interior funding bill (Politico Pro $)

ELECTIONS: Where did it all go right for Biden? Facts blunt Republican attack lines (The Guardian)

CITIES AND STATES: Maine plans to use offshore wind for half its energy needs by 2040 (AP), These US cities are adapting to effects of climate change (CBS), Study: Pittsburgh will face $520 million in adaptation costs due to climate change (CBS), Amid climate change, Colorado mountain towns are warming with rest of the planet (Durango Herald), Record-breaking rains in Chicago underscore the urgency of flood resiliency projects, city officials say (Inside Climate News), Minneapolis sets ambitious climate plan, with fee hikes to pay for it (E&E $)

FERC: FERC approves 'historic' rule to address renewables backlog (E&E $), A bottleneck on the grid threatens clean energy. New rules aim to help. (New York Times $)

IMPACTS: The skyrocketing toll of the billion-dollar climate disaster (Bloomberg $), Smoky skies could become more common during future New England summers as climate changes (WMUR), Climate-change pain is finally hitting home – by way of our wallets (The Globe and Mail)

HEAT: Heat is costing the US economy billions in lost productivity (New York Times $), With climate change, health care providers should be more mindful of heat-related illness, doctors say (CNN), It’s the summer of changed climate. Get used to it (CNN), An overheating planet requires extreme climate solutions (Bloomberg $), Phoenix is enduring its hottest month on record, but mitigations could make the city’s heat waves less unbearable (Inside Climate News), Delivery workers feel the heat of climate change (FT $),  Climate change: Last year's UK heatwave 'a sign of things to come' (BBC), Author Jeff Goodell talks about his timely new book "The Heat Will Kill You"  (CBS)

A/C:  Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning (AP), ‘Vicious cycle’: heat waves ramp up US burning of fossil fuels (Washington Post $), Air conditioning: the benefits, problems and alternatives (The Guardian), Don’t crank down your thermostat when it’s hot out. Do this instead. (Washington Post $), Air conditioning: the benefits, problems and alternatives (The Guardian), News poll on how people are coping with the heat (CBS ),

UHHH…: Antarctica is missing an Argentina-sized amount of sea ice – and scientists are scrambling to figure out why (CNN), Why it's so important to figure out when a vital Atlantic ocean current might collapse (NPR), Extreme rain from atmospheric rivers and ice-heating micro-cracks are ominous new threats to the Greenland ice sheet (Inside Climate News), Is a mega-ocean current about to shut down? 4 things to know. (E&E $)

WILDFIRES: The ingenious tricks animals use to survive wildfires (Vox)

WATER: Public interest vs. private homes: Climate change and erosion fuel disputes along Lake Michigan’s shoreline (Chicago Tribune), Colorado River losing vast amounts of water due to warming climate, study finds (LA Times $), Southwest states facing tough choices about water as Colorado River diminishes (CBS), Old nightmares and new dreams mark the year since Kentucky’s devastating flood (Grist), The great Arizona water grab (Reveal)

RENEWABLES: Sunrun CEO Mary Powell loves big problems (Wall Street Journal $), NextEra seeing signs of wider renewable energy recovery, company leaders say (Utility Dive), Underwater robots could usher in a high-tech future for deep sea mining (CBS), Will there be enough cables for the clean energy transition? (FT $), Cold War-era atomic bomb site could host largest US solar development (Reuters), WA program allows local control over siting wind turbines (Tri-City Herald), First Solar moves toward becoming a made-in-America behemoth (E&E $), Energize Ventures raises $300M for new climate fund, changes name (E&E $)

BATTERIES: Why e-bikes, EVs and laptops are catching fire (Wall Street Journal $), California embraces distributed resources as temperatures soar (E&E $)

OIL & GAS: Gasoline prices rise amid record heat, OPEC cuts (E&E $), Weaker energy prices temper Shell’s profit, but not cash payouts for investors (Wall Street Journal $), Exxon, Chevron remain money gushers (Wall Street Journal $), Exxon and Chevron signal they are still shopping for deals (Wall Street Journal $), Oak Park authorities investigating cause of explosion, fire in residential building that injured 1 (WLS-Chicago), Exxon profit misses estimates as natural gas, refining slip (Bloomberg $)

COAL: US railroads say heatwave to reignite coal shipments this year (Reuters)

GRID: Scorching heat stresses US power grids, prices soar (Reuters)

EVs: Volkswagen’s EV gambit in China makes sense (Wall Street Journal $), EV sales continue to soar, but a surge in production could lead to a glut for some models (Inside Climate News), Combustion era sunsets as EV sales boom — report (E&E $), Why one federal EV calculation is making automakers sweat (E&E $)

ACTIVISM: Professor Robert Verchick on climate resiliency and the damaging side effects of climate change (MSNBC)

AGRICULTURE: The microbes that could protect grapevines from climate change (BBC), Pig cooling pads and weather forecasts for cows are high-tech ways to make meat in a warming world (AP)

FINANCE: Property owners ignore climate risk amid insurance meltdown (Bloomberg $)

PLANTS: Mauricio Diazgranados is a botanist in a hurry (New York Times $)

IN MEMORIAM: Remains of missing climber found 36 years later in melting Alps glacier (Washington Post $)

TRASH: Elon Musk’s latest mission: rev up the electricity industry (Wall Street Journal $), Uber’s grand plan to go all-electric in London ran into gridlock (Wall Street Journal $), Radical ways to fix the Earth: are they magic bullets or just band-aids? (The Guardian), NY bracing for gas and electric bill shock amid green push: ‘Very aware’ of the ‘burden,’ Con Ed says (Fox Business)

INTERNATIONAL: Greece wildfires under control but strong winds still a threat, say officials (The Guardian), Greece PM says climate change 'not an excuse' as wildfires burn (Reuters), Effects of climate change increasing in Asia, WMO says (Reuters), It’s been a hellish summer for the mediterranean. And it’s not over. (New York Times $), India's ban on rice export triggers panic buying across the US (NBC)

UK: New North Sea oil and gas licences will send ‘wrecking ball’ through climate commitments (The Guardian), Nature groups prepared to ‘mobilise’ 20m members over UK climate policy (The Guardian), ‘I realise how serious it is’: voters in England support action on climate crisis (The Guardian), Forest for Cornwall marks milestone of 600,000 trees (BBC), Could global warming benefit the UK as Lord Frost claims? We check the facts (The Guardian)

• We can’t afford to be climate doomers (The Guardian, Rebecca Solnit column)
• Warming oceans are a warning of the chaos ahead (The Guardian editorial)
• Aliens are among US — and they want to impeach Biden (Washington Post, Dana Milbank column $)
• It's time to throw shade at climate change (Houston Chronicle, Anne Whitlock, Marcus Martinez and Jamie Gonzalez op-ed)
• The climate crisis requires a wartime footing (FT, Camilla Cavendish column $)
• Extreme weather events are exactly the time to talk about climate change – here’s why (The Conversation, Josh Ettinger)
• In the fight for climate justice, litigation is taking the lead (The Hill, Inger Andersen)
• In face of climate emergency, don’t despair, mobilize! (Common Dreams, Manish Bapna)
• How the Farm Bill can help solve climate change (Portland Press Herald, John Fitzgerald op-ed)
• As the world boils, a backlash to climate action gains strength (Washington Post, Ishaan Tharoor column $)
• The lesson from the Greece wildfires? The climate crisis is coming for us all (The Guardian, Nesrine Malik column)
• Zac Goldsmith: Michael Gove must be a monster to attack green policies (The Guardian)
• The Conservative war on Big Everything (FT, Robert Shrimsley $)
• We bailed out the banks but we’re not prepared to bail out the planet (The Guardian, Larry Elliott column)
• Europe burns while the Tories’ net zero plans are set to go up in smoke (The Guardian, Stewart Lee)
• Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer should take courage from Joe Biden – green energy for all is the only way forward (The Guardian, Joss Garman)
• The cost of living crisis can only be beaten by tackling the climate crisis (The Guardian, Ed Miliband)

Go Say Something Nice To A Climate Person (Because You Know Trolls Are Being Mean) 

Hi friends. If you're reading this, you're probably (hopefully) also reading a bunch of other climate publications. Do us a favor and go say something nice to them, please?  

Not us, we're fine. (Thanks, though!) But maybe if you have a few bucks, go subscribe to your local newspaper if you haven't, then sign up for HEATED, and stick around to read the latest on Chris Gloninger, the Iowa meteorologist essentially hounded out of his job by deniers and bosses pressuring him to talk less about the changed climate in which all weather now takes shape. 

But then something different happened after he announced he was quitting: "he received 262 emails" Atkin reported, "from viewers expressing positive feedback for his work." 

Not from diehard bleeding-heart liberal activists  but from "the average person at home who wanted to learn." According to Gloninger, these folks were appreciating his work, even though they hadn’t previously written in, "Because when you like something, typically you don't follow up with feedback, versus if you hate something, you're going to push back." 

Atkin asked if he would have stayed on air had he known: "One million percent. One million percent."  

Then he issued a "call to action for everyone who wants to see more climate coverage on local news: If you hear somebody talking about climate change, follow them. Call the station. Write in. Do what the 11 percent [of climate deniers] are really good at doing, because there are people doing it, and when you get that satisfaction and gratitude from people, more people would be encouraged to do it. Less people would be afraid to talk about it." 

It's not a lot to send a thank you, but the chance that it could mean quite a lot to the recipient? One million percent. 

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