'We've Fallen Off a Cliff' but 'We Still Have Time' You 'Damned Fools,' Climate Scientists Warn Humans In Latest 'Beyond Extreme' Science Nonfiction: The planet has recently experienced its hottest day on record (July 6th), its hottest June on record, marine heatwaves that are classified by NOAA as "beyond extreme," and Antarctic sea ice has melted an area about 10 times the size of the United Kingdom. While some El Niño heat is emerging, as expected, the Northern Atlantic is also far hotter than usual, and according to Professor Daniela Schmidt, "We've never ever had a marine heatwave in this part of the Atlantic." And in the Antarctic, Dr Caroline Holms of the British Antarctic Survey told the BBC the record low sea-ice "is nothing like anything we've seen before in July. It's 10% lower than the previous low, which is huge… You can say that we've fallen off a cliff, but we don't know what's at the bottom of the cliff here." Air temperatures are no less worrying, with 80 million Americans under heat warnings and the entire country facing above-average temperatures, some southern cities experiencing Temps over 100F for a full month, Sanbo China setting the record for highest temperature (126F) north of 40N latitude, and, not to be outshined, Europe's unrelenting "summer of hell" turning into wildfires and tennis ball-sized hail. “We quite possibly are already living in a climate that no human has lived through before and we are certainly living in a climate that no human has lived in since before the birth of agriculture,” according to Rutgers climate scientist Bob Kopp. “It means we are damned fools,” said James Hansen, whose prescient climate warnings in a 1988 US Senate testimony are both coming true and still vigorously denied. And as Russell Vose of NOAA told the AP, "it's not like we take great joy in saying it was the warmest year on record. Again." But by reducing the fossil fuel pollution driving climate change, "we still have time to secure a livable future for many," Dr. Friederike Otto reminded the BBC. In an interview with The Times, Dr. Otto said she's "not chaining myself to the road, but it's tempting."  Another record set this weekend? First three-day weekend where one movie (Barbie) earned over $100 million ($155m, the most for any movie directed by a woman), and another (Oppenheimer) earned over $50 million. (BBC, Guardian, Washington Post, AP, The Times $,  Hollywood Reporter)

One Year Later, IRA Making Some Progress On Emissions, Less on Racial Justice: The Inflation Reduction Act celebrates its one-year anniversary in August, after the hottest June on record and the more recent news that the administration’s Justice40 program will not be enough to close the racial gap in air quality. The bill is the biggest of its kind, promising never-before-seen investments in EVs, clean energy, and other climate-saving technologies. Among the law’s priorities is limiting the amount of greenhouse gas emissions spewed by the transportation industry, one of the largest sources of pollution in the country. “When the federal government makes an investment, we get to the tipping point faster,” said Barbara Humpton, CEO of Siemens USA, a producer of EV charging stations. A new analysis by researchers at Princeton found that the IRA will reduce the country’s GHG emissions by 41% by 2030. However, it should be pointed out that this is not enough to meet President Biden’s ambitious climate goals of cutting emissions by at least 50% by 2030. More must be done before we finish taking our victory lap, and with the US exporting more gas than ever, the road ahead won’t be easy. “It’s not going to be easy to meet the Paris target, and it’s not going to be easy to meet whatever the next target is after that. But there’s a path here,” said Rhodium analyst Ben King. (IRA: AP, CNBC, E&E News $; Justice40: New York Times $, Washington Post $,)

Reuters)

Climate Protesters Troll the Rich Fiddling With Golf While Planet Burns: Just Stop Oil protesters disrupted the Open Championship in the UK two weeks ago, and then Planet over Profit trolled wealthy golfers at the Sebonack Golf Club in NY's ritzy Hamptons last week. In the UK, Just Stop Oil lit an orange flare before being taken into police custody, calling it an "oil in one," and giving a quote that "there will be no more holes in one when our society collapses. We must stop our government's 100 new oil and gas licenses before they go on to cause more harm." Those approvals for drilling in the North Sea would produce the emissions of nearly 14 million cars, or about as much as the entire country of Denmark. In the US, Planet Over Profit protestors trolled golfers at a pricey country club, parading through the club carrying a pitchfork with someone dressed as an Orca, and chanting "Tax the rich, tax the motherfucking rich!" They got personal, too, criticizing the golfers' performance and hefty payments for membership: "That was terrible!," one protestor can be heard in the video, "That was the worst swing I've ever seen! You paid a million dollars to hit like that?!" (UK: Golf Digest, The Hill; US: Golf Digest; North Sea emissions: The Guardian) 

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Why American stopped building public pools (CNN), Climate change is pushing people in Honduras to leave farming and migrate (NPR), California's largest school district is spending millions to protect kids from climate change (The 19th*), A catastrophic flood on California's central coast has plunged already marginalized Indigenous farmworkers into crisis (Inside Climate News)

WATCH IT!: Big Oil's decades-long gaslighting campaign (MSNBC), Broken records leave Earth in 'uncharted territory (BBC), Climate change to take an increasing toll on air travel, United CEO warns (NBC News), Record low levels of Antarctic sea ice likely a product of climate change, scientists say (ABC Australia), World hits record land, sea temperatures as climate change fuels 2023 extremes (WION Fineprint), Climate change and heatwaves (Al Jazeera)

• ON ABC: Impacts of climate change getting ‘worse and worse’: Mayor Grace Elena Garner (ABC News, This Week, The Hill), Severe heat forecast: Where scorching temperatures will persist over the next week (ABC News), More than 80 million Americans remain under heat alerts (ABC News), 'Strikingly warm' ocean heat wave off Florida coasts could decimate corals, other marine life, experts say (ABC News), 'The Earth is screaming at us': Gov. Inslee calls for climate action amid record heat (ABC News This Week; Video; Transcript, Politico, The Hill)
• ON CBS: Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego on the measures her city is taking to deal with the extreme temperatures (CBS News, Face the Nation, Transcript), How is climate change impacting Minnesota's lakes? (CBS News), Rewilding: Letting nature take over (CBS Sunday Morning), Bill Gates on next-generation nuclear power technology (CBS Sunday Morning), How electric flying taxis could help fight climate change (CBS News) 
• ON CNN: The cost of climate change (CNN), 'The road itself was moving': Witness describes 'toad-mageddon' on highway (CNN), Climate change could be affecting the color of Earth's oceans (CNN)

LISTEN UP:  Climate change goes to court (Slate), 16 MT youths challenge state in groundbreaking climate-change trial: 5 Things podcast (USA Today), Uprooted: How climate change is reshaping migration from Honduras (NPR), Actions to combat climate change, from hydropanels to climate-smart trees (NPR, All Things Considered), How to protect ourselves from extreme heat– and our planet from climate change (NPR, Consider This), Scientists say extreme heat should inspire more aggressive action on climate change (NPR, Morning Edition) 

NOPE(TRO): After litigation and local outcry, [Nopetro Energy] says it will not move forward with LNG plant in Florida panhandle (Inside Climate News)

POPE: Pope urges world leaders to do more to tackle climate change (Reuters)

DOPES: House Republicans want to plant trees to combat climate change, but will it work? (Yahoo News), UK's Gove warns against making tackling climate change 'religious crusade' (Reuters), Yes, climate change is real. But the prophets of doom ignore some very inconvenient truths (Daily Mail, Ross Clark column), Why climate change activists have failed to score public support (NY Post, Kevin Williamson op-ed), Greg Gutfeld: Late-night hosts are 'sad sack' climate-change hypocrites (NY Post), 'The misinformation is coming from oil companies' argues Donnachadh McCarthy on climate change (TalkTV)

HOPE: 'It's positive, not apocalyptic': can climate change art help save the planet? (The Guardian), Climate change and hope (Arizona Daily Star, Rev Edward Weisenberger op-ed), Hops for beer flourish under solar panels. They’re not the only crop thriving in the shade. (AP), Climate change lures rare bird to Kent marshland (BBC), Maine governor raches offshore wind deal with labor unions (Washington Post $)

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED: How climate change could cause a home insurance meltdown (NPR), A vital industry is fleeing California, Florida due to climate change (Young Turks), Punishing heat, flooding, wildfire: Does it seem like weather extremes are everywhere? You're right. (Boston Globe), Climate collapse could happen fast (The Atlantic), Climate change has made '100-year storms' four times more likely in Nashville (WPLN), 'I'll take the grackle': Racing to save birds in Phoenix's heat wave (Washington Post $) 

• THE UNEXPECTED: Vermont was supposed to be a climate haven. Then the rain came. (The Atlantic), Climate change severely impacting Disney theme park attendance (Inside the Magic), Underground climate change exists– here's how cities should prepare for it (FastCompany), Chicago may be slowly sinking because of 'underground climate change' (Smithsonian), Baked Alaska: Climate change's extreme heat is warming the state, and creating national security problems (USA Today), It's even hot underwater (Vox), Marine heatwave off north-east Australia sets off alarm over health of Great Barrier Reef (The Guardian), 'Gateway to underworld': World's biggest permafrost crater thaws due to climate change (WION)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Montana's climate kids should adopt wildlife as their mascot (Mountain Journal), In Hokkaido, an Ainu group's lawsuit and climate change converge on salmon fishing (Japan Times), ClimateEarth loses high court fight with Shell over climate strategy (Reuters), Lawsuits spawned by Winter Storm Uri grid crisis bury Texas (E&E News $)

DENIAL: Populists are feeding the climate crisis to culture wars (The Lead), Human greenhouse gas emissions, not El Niño, drive climate change (USA Today), Dropping green pledges would be 'political suicide', Sunak and Starmer warned (The Guardian), Tucker Carlson spread lots of climate misinformation. His replacement isn't much better (Inside Climate News), Is Big Oil turning on Big Auto? (New Republic)

GOP vs. ESG: DeSantis calls for state investment manager to consider action against Bud Light's parent company (CNN), Greenhushing, explained: Why companies have stopped talking about their climate pledges (Grist)

GOP vs. A LIVABLE CLIMATE: The GOP darling who claims fossil fuels are good for humanity (New Republic), How NEPA rulemaking could upend permitting talks (E&E News $), House GOP committee chairs launch probe into Ford-China battery deal (Politico), Small-town GOP officials are torn over Biden's clean energy cash (Washington Post $)

FOSSIL VOLATILITY: Investigation: Texas failed to crack down on gas after grid crisis (E&E News), Why this heat isn’t cranking up your gas bill (Wall Street Journal $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Russia, Saudi oppose G20 proposal to triple green energy capacity (Reuters), G20 bloc fails to reach agreement on cutting fossil fuels (Reuters), Climate change: which countries will foot the bill? (Reuters), Which countries are paying their 'fair share' to fight climate change? (Reuters), EU climate chief Frans Timmermans quits to run in Dutch elections (The Guardian)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: South Korea emerges as key partner for America's energy transition (Inside Climate News), The biggest winners in America’s climate law: foreign companies (Wall Street Journal $)

SCOTUS: FERC Chevron doctrine fight arrives at Supreme Court (E&E News $)

AGENCIES: New rule aims to make outdated home water heaters cheaper and greener (Washington Post $, The Hill, E&E News $), BLM picks satellites over lithium on Nevada lands (E&E News $), FEMA: Urban drainage 'not built to handle' climate flooding (E&E News $), Deep-sea mining regulations to remain at sea until 2025 (E&E News $), NOAA chief urges record spending to fight climate change (E&E News $), New federal report on research into sun-dimming technologies delivers more questions than answers (Inside Climate News), 3 things to know about Bidfen's oil regs (E&E News $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden wants oil companies to pay much more to drill on federal lands (Washington Post $)

THE HILL: Record temperatures kindle interest in heat legislation (Politico), Congress unlikely to replenish disaster funds anytime soon (E&E News $)

HOUSE: House OKs aviation bill with climate, fuel mandates (E&E News $)

SENATE: Senate approves NDAA amendment to limit oil reserve sales (E&E News $), Senate committee launches work on water projects bill (E&E News $)

ELECTIONS: Ky. governor's reelection gambit: the climate 'dog whistle' (E&E News $), Trump vows to undo Biden's electric vehicle policies (Politico)

CITIES AND STATES: Colorado adopts groundbreaking methane emissions measurement requirements for oil and gas (Denver Business Journal), Portland begins to check things off its 47-item action plan to slow climate change, report says (OPB)

FERC: D.C. Circuit sides with FERC on Massachusetts gas project (E&E News $)

EU (NOT YET) OUT OF THE FRYING PAN…: How long is the heatwave in Europe expected to last? [Weeks.] (Independent), Extreme weather continues across Europe as further heatwave looms (The Guardian), Heatwave set to be Greece's longest as extreme weather continues in Europe (The Guardian), 'It's brutal': Europeans tell of sleepless nights and dizzy spells in heatwave (The Guardian)   

BUT INTO THE FIRE: Greece: thousands evacuated as wildfires ravage Rhodes (The Guardian), From scorching heat to deadly storms, Europe has no rest from 'summer of hell' (PoliticoEU), 'Summer of extremes': Is climate change to blame for heatwaves and flooding? [Yes.] (Euronews)

…WITH LIONS AND TENNIS BALL-SIZED HAIL: Europe's heatwave gives way to wildfire, tennis ball-size hail (Bloomberg), Fire! Beasts! It’s getting hot and biblical in Europe. (Slate)

(MENTAL) HEALTH: The invisible consequences of heat on the body and mind (Vox), The effects of climate change on mental health (Psychology Today)

HEAT: A 24-year-old died laying cable in the Texas heat. His mom is suing. (Washington Post $), Deadly extreme heat is on the rise in national parks - a growing risk for America's great outdoors (CNN), 'It comes up on you fast:' Scorching heat is crushing American businesses (CNN), With this summer’s record temperatures, the simplest, best form of exercise is under threat. (Slate), America's deadly heat isn't (officially) a major disaster (New Republic)

WILDFIRES: How to fight Canada's wildfires in the era of climate change (New York Times $), Wildfires are exposing Canada's willed ignorance of the realities of climate change (Jacobin), Calif. requires more home sellers to disclose wildfire risk (E&E News $) 

RENEWABLES: PPAs rejected for Avangrid, Orsted-Eversource offshore wind projects (Utility Dive), This Arkansas town could become the epicenter of a U.S. lithium boom (Wall Street Journal $), America’s rise as an energy export powerhouse hinges on one town (Wall Street Journal $), Wind power without giant turbines? Some startups are thinking smaller and quieter (Wall Street Journal $), Permits in hand, Ørsted looks to raise money for N.J. and R.I. projects (E&E News $)

BATTERIES: Pacific seabed mining delayed as international agency finalizes rules (New York Times $)

OIL & GAS: New North Sea oil and gas licenses could produce emissions equivalent to 14m cars (The Guardian)

I MEAN…ZERO?: What is an acceptable methane leakage rate? (CleanTechnica)

GRID:The U.S. power grid withstands the heat, so far (WSJ $)

EVs: Rich lode of EV metals could boost Taliban and its new Chinese partners (Washington Post $), Amazon's clean energy shines, while EVs prove trickier (Axios), Commercial trucks are a key part of EV adoption. What’s holding them back? (Wall Street Journal $), EVs thrive in warm temps– and degrade in extreme ones (E&E News $)

ACTIVISM: Jamie Lee Curtis warns Comic-Con crowd about climate: 'We're fucking the world' (HuffPost), The Eagles sent Philly students to Ghana to learn about and help combat effects of climate change (WHYY), Union square climate clock passes dire milestone (NY1, The Verge)

AGRICULTURE: Seaweed farmers in eastern Indonesia struggle in a changing climate (Mongabay)

FINANCE: How a 'hidden pipeline' of finance enables fossil fuel expansion (E&E News $), The financial sector is failing to estimate climate risk, say two groups in the UK (Inside Climate News)

HEALTH: Mass. General totes up its waste in a move to tackle climate change (STAT)

WILDLIFE: Washington scientist says climate change is creating 'a world with fewer seabirds' (OPB), Scientists identify which butterflies are most at risk as the climate warms (CNN)

ROCK ON: Malaysia cuts short music fest after British band [The 1975] slams anti-gay laws, singer kisses male bandmate (AP, Video)

GET A JOB: Hiring to flourish in these fields as humans fight climate change (USA Today)

• Is climate change making Colorado's weather crazier? Yes. (Colorado Sun, Andrew Hoell interview)
• Hot enough for you? Climate change is making daily life more unbearable (Idaho Statesman editorial) 
• Why California and Florida have become almost uninsurable (New York Times $)
• We're marching steadily toward an uninsurable future (Barron's, Dave Jones op-ed)
• As my home city of Athens burns, I can only watch in amazement as sunseekers fly in (The Guardian, Helena Smith op-ed)
• As Greece burns, we see the existential climate crisis dragged into shoddy UK party politics. That can't happen. (The Guardian, John Harris column) 
• Methane is a big greenhouse gas problem & we leak a lot of it before it gets anywhere near end uses (Clean Technica, Michael Barnard column)
• Climate change turns up the heat on supply chains (Financial Times, Emiliya Mychasuk column $)
• I used to ride private planes. Now I'd rather get arrested protesting them. (The Guardian, Abigail Disney op-ed)
• Climate change is at our door. We must confront it now (Suffolk Times, editorial)
• Would an occasional blackout help solve climate change? (LA Times, Sammy Roth column $)
• It's time to rethink grid reliability (Utility Dive, Michelle Solomon column) 
• Climate change has made air conditioning a necessity (The Hill, Ashley Ward op-ed)
• As the planet bakes, political agendas stall progress on climate change (The Hill, Stuart P.M. Mackintosh op-ed)
• Tories and big business are in the driver's seat on climate action. Here's what the left must do (The Guardian, Richard Power Sayeed column)
• Is it really hotter now than any time in 100,000 years? (Conversation, Darrell Kaufman op-ed)
• The five things keeping us from going all-electric (Wall Street Journal, Amy Myers Jaffee column $)

RealClear's Not Just Running Climate Disinfo, It's Also At The Center Of A Disinfo Ad Network!

For the past three years, we've been really clear about RealClear's Koch-funded climate disinformation, but apparently, that's just a tip of the grift-berg! According to new reporting from Nandini Jammi and Claire Atkin at Check My Ads, it appears that RealClear is also running some shady advertising schemes. 

It's a complicated story, so you'll really have to go read it there, but here's the lede: 

"At the end of 2022, The_Donald quietly started running ads.

The_Donald, a MAGA forum banned by Reddit for its role in organizing the January 6 riots, had not only found new life on its self-hosted website patriots(.)win, it was being financially propped up with ad revenue.

The question is: Who would do that? Who would be audacious enough to bring one of the most universally toxic websites in America into the advertising supply chain?" 

Though there's not necessarily conclusive evidence, "All signs point to Anand Ramanujan, co-founder of Publir and the once longtime chief technical officer of RealClearPolitics, owned by Real Clear Holdings, LLC." 

Check My Ads then presents evidence showing that "Anand is monetizing his own websites (both personally and through RealClearPolitics) on an ad network he owns, and expanding both businesses through monetizing undisclosed disinformation rings." 

Those rings aren't just limited to climate disinfo, either, as the ad tech data shows Publir is "funneling money to The_Donald, where at least 20 forum accounts were linked to likely Russian state-backed disinformation actors, according to two separate reports by network analysis firm Graphika and cybersecurity research group Recorded Future." 

From there things get really technical, with json files and dark pools, and, we really can't do it justice here, so go check out Claire and Nandini's incredible findings! 

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