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''The only way EPA can escape that core legal obligation is to overturn the Endangerment Finding. Some conservative denialist groups, recognizing that fact, are [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/climate/scott-pruitt-epa-endangerment-finding.html pressuring Pruitt] to attempt just that. Doing so, however, would likely prove impossible. It would have to pass legal review, and the simple fact is that the science overwhelmingly supports the EPA’s case.''
 
''The only way EPA can escape that core legal obligation is to overturn the Endangerment Finding. Some conservative denialist groups, recognizing that fact, are [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/climate/scott-pruitt-epa-endangerment-finding.html pressuring Pruitt] to attempt just that. Doing so, however, would likely prove impossible. It would have to pass legal review, and the simple fact is that the science overwhelmingly supports the EPA’s case.''
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[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-epa-rips-up-the-clean-power-plan/2017/10/11/3e08f38e-adf5-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html '''''The EPA rips up the Clean Power Plan''''']
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[https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/scott-pruitt-and-donald-trump-further-endanger-the-planet '''''Scott Pruitt and Donald Trump Further Endanger the Planet''''']
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[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/opinion/trump-coal-climate-emissions.html '''''Mr. Trump Nails Shut the Coffin on Climate Relief''''']
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[https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/10/11/trump-epas-4-year-strategic-plan-doesnt-mention-climate-not-once '''''Trump EPA's 4-Year Strategic Plan Doesn't Mention 'Climate.' Not Once.''''']
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[https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10102017/trump-coal-clean-power-plan-epa-renewable-energy-wind-solar-pruitt-perry '''''Inside the Coal War Games''''']
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[https://cleantechnica.com/2017/10/11/withdrawing-clean-power-plan-wont-bring-back-coal-states-unite/ '''''Withdrawing Clean Power Plan Won’t Bring Back Coal, States Unite''''']
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[http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article178193601.html '''''EPA rollbacks are bad for our planet''''']
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'''''Oil Change International Statement on Clean Power Plan Repeal'''''
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''WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to repeal the Clean Power Plan. In response, Janet Redman, U.S. Policy Director at Oil Change International issued the following statement:''
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''“Pruitt’s move to repeal the Clean Power Plan shouldn’t come as any surprise. He’s repeatedly partnered with fossil fuel companies to sue the EPA for regulating the industry’s air, water, and climate pollution. This kind of cronyism is exactly what happens when government agencies are captured by the corporations they’re supposed to oversee.''
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''“According to Pruitt, this is just another way to even the playing field for coal, oil, and gas - but he knows as well as anyone that fossil fuels already get massive government giveaways. In fact, permanent tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry are seven times higher than those for renewable energy.''
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''“The fight to curb the worst abuses of the fossil fuel energy industry won’t stop here. Federal legislation, the courts, and millions of voters have made it clear that the federal government is obligated to protect American workers and families from the deadly impacts of dirty energy, not hand polluters taxpayer dollars.''
  
  

Revision as of 10:38, 12 October 2017

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○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○


Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s budget director:

“Regarding the question as to climate change, I think the President was fairly straightforward —

We’re not spending money on that anymore; we consider that to be a waste of your money to go out and do that.”


Mulvaney: We're Not Spending Money On Climate Change Anymore, "Waste Of Your Money" (Video)
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___________________________________________________________________________________________



October 2017


The GOP wants to repeal Obama's climate plan. It's going to be a fiasco.

Via Vox

October 10

Today, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is expected to issue a proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan, Obama’s program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from US power plants. This will kick off a legal and regulatory process that will grind on for many years, likely longer than Trump’s first term.

While there is public support for fighting climate change (about 61 percent of Americans, in one recent poll) and specifically for regulating carbon emissions (even a majority of Trump voters, in one poll), the CPP does not rest on voter expectations, but on a legal expectation.

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled, in Massachusetts v. EPA, that carbon dioxide qualifies as an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act. If the EPA determines that carbon is a danger to public health, the court said, it must regulate carbon to reduce that danger.

In 2009, the EPA issued its Endangerment Finding, demonstrating (based on intensive research and documentation) that greenhouse gases are in fact a danger to public health.

The Supreme Court ruling plus the Endangerment Finding mean that the EPA is legally obligated to regulate carbon in such a way as to meliorate the danger it poses to public health.

The only way EPA can escape that core legal obligation is to overturn the Endangerment Finding. Some conservative denialist groups, recognizing that fact, are pressuring Pruitt to attempt just that. Doing so, however, would likely prove impossible. It would have to pass legal review, and the simple fact is that the science overwhelmingly supports the EPA’s case.


The EPA rips up the Clean Power Plan

Scott Pruitt and Donald Trump Further Endanger the Planet

Mr. Trump Nails Shut the Coffin on Climate Relief

Trump EPA's 4-Year Strategic Plan Doesn't Mention 'Climate.' Not Once.

Inside the Coal War Games

Withdrawing Clean Power Plan Won’t Bring Back Coal, States Unite

EPA rollbacks are bad for our planet


Oil Change International Statement on Clean Power Plan Repeal

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to repeal the Clean Power Plan. In response, Janet Redman, U.S. Policy Director at Oil Change International issued the following statement:

“Pruitt’s move to repeal the Clean Power Plan shouldn’t come as any surprise. He’s repeatedly partnered with fossil fuel companies to sue the EPA for regulating the industry’s air, water, and climate pollution. This kind of cronyism is exactly what happens when government agencies are captured by the corporations they’re supposed to oversee.

“According to Pruitt, this is just another way to even the playing field for coal, oil, and gas - but he knows as well as anyone that fossil fuels already get massive government giveaways. In fact, permanent tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry are seven times higher than those for renewable energy.

“The fight to curb the worst abuses of the fossil fuel energy industry won’t stop here. Federal legislation, the courts, and millions of voters have made it clear that the federal government is obligated to protect American workers and families from the deadly impacts of dirty energy, not hand polluters taxpayer dollars.



#ClimateAction Is a Race Against Time

https://twitter.com/UNFCCC/status/910376712030052357


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Earth Science Deep Budget Cuts at NASA


What Could We Lose if a NASA Climate Mission Goes Dark?
Threat to the NASA Mission and Environmental Security


The current array of American earth science satellites, comprising dozens of NOAA and NASA missions, is the product of some 40 years of experimentation and investment on the part of the federal government.

The satellites go by acronyms like GOES-13, Modis, SMAP and OCO-2... We are in a "golden age" of earth science research from space.

Multiple programs and missions are now being placed in danger by a 'deconstruction' agenda by some in the US Congress, in particular by several Congressmen from oil/gas states like Texas and Oklahoma. House science and environment chair Lamar Smith and environment committee chair Senator Jim Inhofe have taken positions to severely cut earth science programs. It is not a move, as GreenPolicy has argued, that advances the nation's security nor does it build a vital position of the US within the global community of nations.

The political debate continues, but the physics and data, the science, the facts have their own momentum that if denied or hidden, if databases are scrubbed with data lost as a result ("data gaps") of precipitous actions, this will deliver serious costs to future generations. The conclusions of most all current climate scientists are, without doubt, serious science at work and if the science and scientists warnings are ignored it will be at the peril of today's generations and those of the future.

Much is at stake. Many speak of existential questions that are now in human hands. Humanity is entering a new era, an Anthropocene Era where new challenges and new responsibilities are coming into view. Our challenges are local, national and global. It is for us to rise to the challenge.


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Climate Science Denier to Head Up NASA?

US President to Nominate a Political Voice from Inhofe's Oklahoma...


September 2, 2017 Report by Joe Romm

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-names-climate-science-denier-to-run-nasa-c9a46a6f4a52/


More from Joe Romm at GreenPolicy "Stories of the Day"

Dr. Joseph Romm, creator of climateprogress.org -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6ag3b1WCYc -- http://www.climateprogress.org
Joe Romm -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_J._Romm -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_and_High_Water_(book)


More on Jim Bridenstine from Think Progress/Climate

Bridenstine is a politician without any scientific credentials, unlike previous NASA chiefs ... NASA scientists have led the way in documenting the scientific reality of climate change. But in 2013, Bridenstine not only gave a speech on the House floor filled with standard denier talking points, he actually ended his remarks with a demand that President Obama apologize for funding research into climate science.

The truth is that while “planetary warming does not care about the election,” humanity very much cares that the Trump Administration is doing everything it can to undermine climate science and climate action. Bridenstine’s nomination deserves widespread opposition.


A Quick Look Back at Bridenstein in the US Congress

Just as extreme weather season kicks off, freshman Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) demanded that President Obama apologize to Oklahoma for allocating funding to climate change research. Bridenstine, a climate denier who serves on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, plans to introduce a bill that defunds climate change research.

See Hurricane Harvey, Houston, Texas, August 2017
https://youtu.be/GUcsAFnwC7k


Tracking an Anti-Science Faction in the US Congress

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Earth_and_Space,_Politics


The nomination of Jim Bridenstine brings a new level of threat to US national security ...

GreenPolicy360 re-visits our associate Strategic Demands' Op-Ed in July 2016 -- Republicans in Congress, A Vote to Block National Security?

http://strategicdemands.com/republicans-vote-to-block-national-security/



Texas, Louisiana, Florida -- and the National Flood Insurance Program


Read more at Sea-Level Rise -- https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Sea-Level_Rise



Hurricane Harvey Devastates Texas


https://www.greenpolicy360.net/mw/images/Hurricane_Harvey_a_sign%2C_or_not_a_sign_of_things_to_come.pdf

Hurricane Harvey 800x450.jpg


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Over Texas / August 29
Harvey marks the most extreme rain event in U.S. history
https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Harvey_Houston.png


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Monitoring the Global Climate Accord

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Intended_Nationally_Determined_Contributions
https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:INDC


Donald Trump ends IPCC funding and 'abandons global science leadership'

The US has ended its funding to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change despite the serious national security implications for the country ... and security impacts internationally.

This is a remarkable departure considering the previous high regard for the IPCC, including the fact it was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”


IPCC logo.jpg


More on IPCC from GreenPolicy360

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/IPCC_Report_Nov_2014
https://www.greenpolicy360.net/mw/images/IPCC_Fifth_Assessment_Report_11022014_syr_copenhagen.pdf



NYT / Scott Pruitt Is Carrying Out His E.P.A. Agenda in Secret


(A)s he works to roll back regulations, close offices and eliminate staff at the agency charged with protecting the nation’s environment and public health, Mr. Pruitt is taking extraordinary measures to conceal his actions, according to interviews with more than 20 current and former agency employees.


WASHINGTON — When career employees of the Environmental Protection Agency are summoned to a meeting with the agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt, at agency headquarters, they no longer can count on easy access to the floor where his office is, according to interviews with employees of the federal agency.

Doors to the floor are now frequently locked, and employees have to have an escort to gain entrance.

Some employees say they are also told to leave behind their cellphones when they meet with Mr. Pruitt, and are sometimes told not to take notes.

Mr. Pruitt, according to the employees, who requested anonymity out of fear of losing their jobs, often makes important phone calls from other offices rather than use the phone in his office, and he is accompanied, even at E.P.A. headquarters, by armed guards, the first head of the agency to ever request round-the-clock security.

A former Oklahoma attorney general who built his career suing the E.P.A., and whose LinkedIn profile still describes him as “a leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda,” Mr. Pruitt has made it clear that he sees his mission to be dismantling the agency’s policies — and even portions of the institution itself.



Climate Science, Special Report / Key Findings

The 673 page report represents a massive body of the latest scientific findings on climate change.

Full Version / News on Release -- https://www.greenpolicy360.net/mw/images/Climate-Science-Special-Report-TOD-US_2017.pdf


The report carries with it a monumental scientific gravitas. A level of credibility that Trump, even in his wildest fantasies, couldn’t hope to achieve. It includes a culmination of research coming from thousands of peer-reviewed studies resulting in the accumulated work of tens of thousands of scientists. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) served as the lead government agency conducting the report. Representatives from three other federal agencies joined with NOAA along with a team of 54 scientist authors and reviewers drawing from both public and private sector institutional knowledge in compiling the report.

https://robertscribbler.com/tag/climate-science-special-report/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/03/15/obama-left-trump-a-major-climate-change-report-and-independent-scientists-just-said-its-accurate/



Via Politico / Pruitt climate science challenge splits conservative allies

There is concern the GOP and its policies will suffer if the EPA chief reopens a losing argument about whether global warming is real

Via China News Xinhua / 'Official' US Notice of Withdrawal from International Climate Agreement

National Public Radio - Fresh Air / Al Gore Warns That Trump Is A 'Distraction' From The Issue Of Climate Change

"I have no illusions about the possibility of changing Donald Trump's mind," Gore says. "I think he has made it abundantly clear that he's throwing his lot in with the climate deniers."

Gore spoke with the president multiple times prior to Trump's announcement about the Paris accord. Gore is now focused on building a bipartisan consensus to address the climate crisis.

Part of creating that consensus is spreading awareness of an issue that Gore has been following for decades. His 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which was basically an adaption of his Power Point presentation about the effects of global warming, was a surprise box office success. Now he has a new documentary, called An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.


https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/A_Day_with_Al_Gore
Inconvenient sequel-front outside cover.jpg


Interview Highlights

On conversations he's had with Trump about climate change

I have taken the old-school view that conversations with a president should be kept confidential, but I will tell you that my simple focus was to convince him to stay in the Paris Agreement, and I had reason to believe that there was a real chance that he might. Previously, before his presidential campaign, he had signed a full page newspaper ad demanding that President Obama take bolder action to solve the climate crisis, so I felt there might be something to work with, and there are some people in his inner circle who certainly do believe that we have to solve the climate crisis. But he has surrounded himself with a rogues' gallery of climate deniers, coming out of the fossil fuel industry, and I think it's rather obvious that they've gained control of his thought process on this issue.


On why he believes Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement

I think he felt it was another way to throw a bone to his hardcore base. He's adopted the strategy of ignoring any effort to reach out to those who did not support him or to build broader coalitions across party and ideological lines, and seems to be counting on the fervor and passion of his shrinking base to keep him and his presidency afloat. I think that a part of his base has been particularly passionate in trying to deny the existence of a climate crisis.


On the "distracting quality" of the Trump presidency

One of the many problems he's posing for our country is the endless series of distractions — the new round of tweets, the new absurdities every day. When there's a new outrage I feel as if I have to download some existing outrage onto a hard drive so I can make room for the new outrage. The distracting quality of what he says and does is very harmful to our country's ability to sustain our focus on the most important challenges we have. ...

I have no interest in access to the Trump White House. I have no interest in any further dialogue with him. I wouldn't rule it out, because who knows what circumstances could develop, but I have no reservation about withholding criticism of him on those grounds. I just don't want to contribute to the constant distraction that takes us away from what we ought to be focused on.


On how big money is playing more of a role in the denial of climate change

[The fossil fuel industry] financed a major cottage industry of climate denial with pseudo scientists who crank out these phony pseudo-scientific reports. Their principal product is doubt. They know they don't have to win the argument, they just have to create enough doubt to lead people to lose any sense of urgency about solving this crisis. They have made some headway. But again, because Mother Nature has a more persuasive voice than any of us, they're losing this battle. The Paris Agreement was truly a historic breakthrough, illustrating that all around the world opinions are getting stronger and stronger in favor of solving the climate crisis. We're the only country with a major conservative party wedded to provable idiocy on climate science.


On how technological advancements can help combat climate change

Electricity from the sun and the wind is now in many regions much cheaper than electricity from dirty fossil fuels. Electric cars are becoming affordable. Batteries are coming down very quickly in cost, and coupled with renewable energy will utterly transform the world's energy systems, along with sustainable agriculture and forestry, we now have a chance to use these tools to really solve the climate crisis in time to avoid the catastrophic consequences that would otherwise fall upon us.


On if he ever imagined a reality TV star could be president

I did envision that someone with the skills of an actor on the screen might become president, and it was not long thereafter that Ronald Reagan was elected. I think it's not coincidental that someone like Donald Trump with not only the skill set of a reality TV star and the social media skills of what he has become, the tweeter in chief, was successful in today's media environment.

I do think that we need to reclaim the integrity and functionality of our constitutional system, and I hope that we'll see continued progress in moving the forms and patterns of democracy onto the Internet — which, with all of its many problems, the echo chambers and all the rest, nevertheless [restores] the ability of individuals with command of the facts and the ability to express themselves clearly to attract those who agree with their point of view and use knowledge as a form of power that substitutes for great wealth or force of arms.



July / June 2017


Head of the US House Committee on Science: Climate Change is "Beneficial"


Lamar Smith Goes to Greenland


Lamar Smith Returns from Greenland


Don't Believe Lamar's Line

WASHINGTON — Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) — who has spent his career cozying up to fossil fuel interests, dismissing the threat of climate change and harassing federal climate scientists — is now arguing that pumping the atmosphere full of carbon dioxide is “beneficial” to global trade, crop production and the lushness of the planet.

Rather than buying into “hysteria,” Americans should be celebrating the plus sides of a changing climate, Smith argues in an op-ed published July 24th in The Daily Signal, a news website published by the conservative Heritage Foundation.



How California Plans to Go Far Beyond Any Other State on Climate


NYT / Just How Far Can California Possibly Go on Climate?

GreenPolicy360 / California out in front in a Green future


Over the past decade, California has passed a sweeping set of climate laws to test a contentious theory: that it’s possible to cut greenhouse gas emissions far beyond what any other state has done and still enjoy robust economic growth.

If California prevails, it could provide a model for other policy makers, even as President Trump scales back the federal government’s efforts on climate change. The state may also develop new technologies that the rest of the world can use to cut emissions.



Voice of the People, via Vox


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News from the UK and Europe


UK banning all new petrol and diesel cars by 2040

Government's air quality plan is headline-grabbing
UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove’s pledge to ban new petrol and diesel cars in 23 years is not enough to tackle health crisis now, say campaigners
Britain to ban sale of all diesel and petrol cars and vans
Plans follow French commitment to take polluting vehicles off the road by 2040 owing to effect of poor air quality on people’s health


~


Environmental progress on common quality of life issues, building on the precedents of the US Clean Air Act of 1963 and the 1967 Air Quality Act to confront air pollution problems.

Air Pollution, emissions/externalities, measuring the costs to health and environmental security, acting to mitigate the threat, the consequences, local and global...


The Commons


https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Air_Pollution

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Air_Quality

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Environmental_full-cost_accounting

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Externalities



New US Communication Office Chief Changes His Tune (Update: Scaramucci Resigns)

Scaramucci now says he is "subordinate" and that his belief on climate change has changed


Scaramucci once accepted warming. No more

Via E&E News

President Trump's new messaging tactician, Anthony Scaramucci, has said he's "really not an ideological guy."

That appears to be the case on climate change, about which he's expressed sharply shifting views in short periods of time. Scaramucci has criticized people for calling global warming a hoax. Then, within a year, he compared mainstream climate science to a consensus that "the Earth was flat."

When it comes to global warming, Scaramucci's recent comments offer a glimpse of how the new communications director is likely to approach the issue: Play up scientific uncertainties, question the extent of humanity's role and emphasize the costs of regulations.

That approach has been guiding the administration's climate messaging since Trump took office, and Cabinet officials have been doubling down in recent months to emphasize the limits of scientists' knowledge. U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Energy Secretary Rick Perry have called for a so-called red-team, blue-team exercise to poke holes in the consensus on global warming.

Scaramucci now appears eager to ditch some of his old viewpoints in order to fall in line with the Trump administration's messaging.

"I want to subordinate my political views to the views of the president and his agenda," he said yesterday (July 23) on CBS's "Face the Nation."


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What Is the Cost of One Meter of Sea-Level Rise?


At the G-20 Meeting in Germany: The US Equation, 19+1

Attempting to Find "a text that can be tolerated" - by James Robbins, BBC Diplomatic Correspondent

For many hours, draft versions of the summit conclusions were causing deep concern to most G20 members. On climate change, it was effectively a G19 plus the United States.

Part of the final text will apparently recognise Donald Trump's rejection of the global Paris agreement to limit rising temperatures. But language the US was insisting on, which seemed to endorse the use of coal and oil long into the future, has now apparently reached a form others can tolerate, because they are not directly associated with it.

While this deadlock has apparently been resolved, it reflects a very divisive summit in which the rest of the world has been struggling to come to terms with the US president's "America first" policy: his suspicion or rejection of the whole concept of worldwide agreements designed to encourage free trade as well as collective action against global warming.


'World Aligns Against Trump' ... G-20_19+1

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/at-g-20-eu-warns-of-trade-war-if-trump-imposes-restrictions-on-steel/2017/07/07/0ffae390-62f4-11e7-a6c7-f769fa1d5691_story.html
https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Climate_News
http://time.com/4850421/g20-trump-paris-agreement-climate-change/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/angela-merkel-donald-trump-paris-agreement-i-deplore-this/
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-against-the-world-g20-paris-climate
http://www.dw.com/en/g20-usa-abandons-climate-consensus/a-39612962



World Leaders Move Forward on Climate, Without U.S.

At the G-20 summit meeting, 19 other members broke decisively with President Trump by signing a policy blueprint for meeting their goals in the Paris accord...

https://nyti.ms/2uWoRsi


G-20 19+1.png



Continuing News / Scroll


The US President Attempts to Squelch the Science

White House Science Office Shut Down

EPA’s Scott Pruitt is Trump’s most adept and dangerous hatchet man

Pruitt launching program to 'critique' #climatechange science

U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is leading a formal initiative to challenge mainstream climate science ... The disclosure follows the administration's suggestions over several days that it supports reviewing climate science outside the normal peer-review process used by scientists ... The source said Energy Secretary Rick Perry also favors the review. Executives in the coal industry interpret the move as a step toward challenging the endangerment finding, the agency's legal foundation for regulating greenhouse gases from cars, power plants and other sources ... If Pruitt somehow succeeded in rolling back the finding — an outcome that many Republicans say is far-fetched — the federal government would no longer be required to restrict greenhouse gas emissions.

Trump Time: Taking Down the EPA

Word: No renegotiation for Trump rejectionists

US G7 Climate 'Footnote'

German Environmental Ministry Fact Checks Trump's Abandoning Global Climate Treaty

Trump’s Pick for DOJ Top Environmental Attorney Has a Vast Anti-Climate Record

Trump Names BP Oil Spill Lawyer, Climate Policy Foe as Top DOJ Environment Attorney


What About the Facts, the Science, the Future, the Common Good?


DJT: You want facts? Fact is, I'm PRESIDENT. What don't you understand, I am the PRESIDENT, I know the facts. I decide your future.

(Insert tagline Make America Great Again in all CAPS here)

What "Common Good"? There is no "global community".


DJT - US message to world.jpg



The data, atmospheric and earth science continue...

Update via NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies

NEWS | May 15, 2017 | April 2017 was second-warmest April on record


Earth gets hotter May2016.jpg


AP FACT CHECK: A blast of hot air with Trump's climate move


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/06/01/fact-checking-president-trumps-claims-on-the-paris-climate-change-deal

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/6/2/15727984/deceptions-trump-paris-speech



The consequences start now / June 1


The US will be judged, this day will be long remembered.

National Security & Global Security are interrelated. He doesn't know this. There's so much he doesn't know & so much he doesn't know that he doesn't know.

Trump just betrayed the world. Now the world will fight back

Brown: The Rest of the World Is Against Trump / Governor Brown Statement on White House Paris Climate Agreement Announcement

“This current departure from reality in Washington will be very short-lived, that I promise you,” Brown told POLITICO in an interview. “I’ve spoken with Republicans here in the Legislature, and they’re beginning to get very serious about climate action, so the momentum is all the other way. And I think Trump, paradoxically, is giving climate denial such a bad name that he’s actually building the very movement that he is [purporting] to undermine...”


Eurasian response strategy rolls out, aka US acts to turn the world against the US -- http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/335901-european-chinese-leaders-unite-after-reports-trump-may-withdraw-from


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/world/europe/climate-paris-agreement-trump-china.html

Premier Li Keqiang of China said on Thursday that his country remained committed to the fight against climate change and to participating in international efforts for a greener world.
“China will continue to uphold its commitments to the Paris climate agreement,” Mr. Li said, confirming a position his country agreed to alongside the United States in 2014, in what proved to be a watershed moment for the ultimate passage of the landmark accord the following year.
“Step by step, and very arduously, together with other countries, we will work toward the goals set” by global leaders in 2015, Mr. Li said, standing beside Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in Berlin.
Ms. Merkel, who welcomed the Chinese commitment as “encouraging,” has been a leader in the global push for climate action since 1992, when she played a crucial international role in passage of the world’s first climate treaty, the Kyoto Protocol.


US business leaders point at downside -- http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/big-business-urges-trump-stick-paris-climate-accord-n766641 -- http://lowcarbonusa.org/business

“If you have to go to a board of directors and say, ‘I have to make a multibillion-dollar investment that is multi-year,’ are you going to base it on two or four years in the political cycle or … on long-term economic, technological, and consumer trends?” -- Melissa Lavinson / The Atlantic

The GOP must own the consequences.


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The Future of Humanity, or Crime Against / May 31

Forward or back? -- https://www.axios.com/scoop-trump-is-pulling-u-s-out-of-paris-climate-deal-2427773025.html
Backwards looking -- "The 22" -- https://www.axios.com/scoop-top-republican-senators-urge-trump-to-exit-paris-climate-deal-2421530161.html


A policy direction from the US president that will live up to the challenges or deliver economic, environmental disasters.
“I’ve always made more money in bad markets than in good markets.” -- DJ Trump, Quoted 05/23/16 - MSNBC


More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/05/31/trump-nearing-a-decision-on-whether-to-pull-u-s-from-paris-climate-deal-breaking-ranks-with-more-than-190-countries/
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-trump-paris-climate-change-20170531-story.html


The Trump administration: A bump on the road.
Remember that a future president can rejoin the Paris global climate agreement with a 'flick of a pen'.


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Musk Says He'll Leave Trump's Business Councils If U.S. Exits Paris Deal. June 1: Musk departs ...


http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/05/donald-trump-paris-agreement
https://cleantechnica.com/2017/05/31/breaking-donald-trump-set-pull-america-paris-climate-agreement-probably/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/05/31/the-planet-loses-but-u-s-is-bigger-loser-if-it-withdraws-from-paris-climate-agreement/


"The noose tightens," Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer, co-editor of the peer-reviewed journal Climatic Change, told The Independent. The US withdrawing from the Paris Agreement would only aggravate the climate change problem and make it much more difficult to prevent the crossing of a global temperature to a dangerous threshold. Three billion tonnes of additional carbon dioxide could be released into the air every year...



Little Big Politics / May 30
http://billmoyers.com/topics/democracy-government/
"America’s Little Big Man -- http://billmoyers.com/story/little-big-man/
Trump is teaching us how deeply disturbed our American world actually is"



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https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/05/07/world-worries-trump-set-dump-paris-climate-deal

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Climate_Change_Summit_Paris

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/World_map


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Change the EPA Regulations? Public Comment a LOUD NO

Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency put out a call for comments about what regulations are in need of repeal, replacement or modification. The effort stemmed from an executive order issued by President Trump earlier this year instructing agencies to reexamine regulations that “eliminate jobs, or inhibit job creation” and/or “impose costs that exceed benefits.”

More than 55,100 responses rolled in by the time the comment period closed on Monday — but they were full of Americans sharing their experiences of growing up with dirty air and water, and with pleas for the agency not to undo safeguards that could return the country to more a more polluted era.

“Know your history or you’ll be doomed to repeat it,” one person wrote. “Environmental regulations came about for a reason.



Money Talks: Pruitt Listens

Conservative Group Led By EPA Chief Pruitt Received Dark Money To Battle Environmental Regulations

June 2017 / Via MapLight-Fast Company

Donors include group affiliated with the Koch brothers, whose companies are now lobbying the EPA and the Trump administration


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After Years in Development

Project Drawdown's Climate Book Is Published

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:GreenBiz_Drawdown_story_cover.png


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How Money in Politics Blocks Action on Climate Change

Climate Science Graphically Explained

March for Science

#ClimateMarch 2017


Fighting Back

How the Greens will Fight the Trump Rollback of Environmental Regulations

Opposition Beginning in the Courts


(Via Forbes - April 15, 2017)

No matter who's in office, every major EPA rule ends up in court. It's inevitable. Industry groups and many Republican-run states fought every major EPA rule under President Obama, and Democrat-led states and green groups will do the same with President Trump. This type of partisan litigation has been commonplace since the EPA was created almost fifty years ago.

This time around, however, the environmental groups will have to rely even more heavily on litigation than in the past. That's because, of the three branches of the federal government, the Democrats now only hold a majority of one portion of one branch: the lower courts. The federal district and appellate courts are packed with Clinton and Obama appointees. Although the balance on the U.S. Supreme Court is now likely 5-4 in favor of conservatives, there are 13 intermediate appeals courts; according to Russell Wheeler, a scholar at the Brookings Institution, nine of these appeals courts have a majority of Democratic appointees. The lower federal district courts are also filled with Democratic appointees.

The green groups will almost certainly look to exploit these majorities over the next two years. As David Doniger, Director of the Climate and Clean Air Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council said recently: “Scott Pruitt has to tear down our climate and clean air regulations the same way they were built up, following all the steps required by law. We’ll fight at every step, and we’ll see them in court.”

What’s more, virtually every major environmental statute (like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act) includes a citizen suit provision. These provisions allow citizens (including environmental groups) to sue the EPA, state agencies, and companies that fail to comply with environmental mandates. Courts can order offenders to comply and even impose hefty penalties. In addition to challenging rules that are made (or more likely, repealed) under a Pruitt-led EPA, expect to see environmental groups filing more citizen suits than usual over the next few years.


EPA Chief, Scott Pruitt, Calls for ‘Exit’ from the Paris International Climate Accord

It is far from clear how the Trump administration could actually “exit” the Paris agreement, assuming that the Pruitt line wins and the administration determines that it wants to. Now that the agreement has entered into force, it takes three years under its terms for a party to withdraw, followed by a one-year waiting period — a length roughly equal to Trump’s first term in office.


Pruitt says he does not believe carbon dioxide is “a primary contributor to the global warming that we see”, even though NASA and the EPA itself agree it is

Pruitt and Carbon Dioxide (Video)Pruitt Plays Fast and Loose with Facts. China, India? He's Not Close to the Facts


Former NOAA Chief Scientist Warns of Threats to Science

"There’s a strong antiscience attitude within this administration. I have heard nothing that suggests support for a scientific agenda."


White House Budget Plan Slams Climate and Environmental Programs: Democrats declared the newly released plan "dead on arrival."



CO2 / 400 PPM, Science Facts and Global Risks

As Scott Pruitt Denies Climate Science, Atmospheric CO2 Rises At A Record Rate

CO2 / Carbon Clock


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Latest CO2 Data Reports from Mauna Loa


https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/


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https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/carbon-clock/BLOOMBERG-CARBON-CLOCK-TECHNICAL-WORKING-PAPER.pdf


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Research Report: We are heading for the warmest climate in half a billion years. So what’s the big deal?

From GreenPolicy friend Andrew Revkin: "The following ProPublica article just scrapes the surface on why there's no easy answer in deciding how much to invest now to limit downside risk to future generations ... there’s probably no more consequential and contentious a target for the incoming administration than an arcane metric called the “social cost of carbon."


Will Trump’s Climate Team Accept Any ‘Social Cost of Carbon’?

https://www.propublica.org/article/will-trumps-climate-team-accept-any-social-cost-of-carbon

The nation’s top science panel has just sketched a clearer way to set a fair price today for cutting tomorrow’s climate risks. Some of Trump’s advisers say the price should be zero.

Currently set at $36 per ton of carbon dioxide, the metric is produced using a complex, and contentious, set of models estimating a host of future costs to society related to rising temperatures and seas, then using a longstanding economic tool, a discount rate, to gauge how much it is worth today to limit those harms generations hence. (For context, the United States emitted about 5.1 billion tons of CO2 in 2015, out of a global total of 36 billion.)

... the social cost of carbon underpins justifications for policies dealing with everything from power plants to car mileage to refrigerator efficiency. The carbon valuation has already helped shape 79 regulations.

The strongest sign of a coming challenge to the social cost calculation came in a post-election memorandum from Thomas Pyle, who was then president of the industry-funded American Energy Alliance and Institute for Energy Research and who now leads the Trump transition team for the Department of Energy. In the memo, he predicted policies resulting in “ending the use of the social cost of carbon in federal rule makings.”



March 30, 2017


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March 29, 2017


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Chair of House Science Committee Says the Journal ‘Science’ Is Not Objective


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March 28, 2017


Trump signs order sweeping away Obama-era climate policies


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5:23 PM ET - CNN / Trump dramatically changes US approach to climate change


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-puts-the-planet-on-a-dangerous-path/2017/03/28/fcb3564e-13d6-11e7-833c-503e1f6394c9_story.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/donald-trump-war-climate-underway-article-1.3011887

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/28/climate/trumps-executive-order-pushes-the-us-climate-pledge-further-out-of-reach.html

http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/3/28/15097628/sean-spicer-climate-change-hoax-trump

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2017/03/scorched-earth-0

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/us-politics/trump-signs-order-dismantling-obama-era-climate-policies/article34450304/

http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/326188-dem-states-pledge-climate-action-in-face-of-trump-roll-back

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-epa-coal-20170328-story.html


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Trump to hire major coal lobbyist to be deputy administrator at EPA

Trump's reported pick, Andrew Wheeler, to help lead the EPA is a former senior staffer of climate change denier Sen. James Inhofe



Environmental Legal Actions Are Just the Beginning

Youth Climate Lawsuit Shifts Focus to Trump

"What's likely the highest-stakes climate lawsuit on the planet?"

Climate lawsuit to stop Trump administration 'destruction of documents'

Shortly after President Trump’s inauguration, the plaintiffs submitted a request that the Department of Justice preserve all documents that could be relevant to the lawsuit, including information on climate change, energy and emissions, and cease any destruction of such documents that may otherwise occur during the presidential transition. The request came just days after reports began to surface of climate information disappearing from White House and certain federal agency websites.
“We are concerned with the new administration’s immediate maneuver to remove important climate change information from the public domain and, based on recent media reports, we are concerned about how deep the scrubbing effort will go,”Julia Olson, chief legal counsel for the plaintiffs and executive director of the advocacy group Our Children’s Trust, said in a statement at the time. “Destroying evidence is illegal and we just put these new U.S. Defendants and the Industry Defendants on notice that they are barred from doing so.”
The Trump administration is combating this request in its motion to stay litigation, along with its motion to appeal. The administration charges that the United States could be “irreparably harmed” if the case’s proceedings are not halted pending consideration of its appeal, claiming that “the extraordinary scope of this litigation and the concomitant scope of discovery that Plaintiffs appear to be seeking set this case apart.”
“One of the things that the government argues is that the preservation of documents itself represents a burden on the government,” said Michael Burger, executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School. “What they’re arguing is that they’ll be irreparably injured by having to go through discovery here.”
This, he added, “sends kind of the wrong signal, or at least a very dangerous signal, in terms of what the government’s priorities are or what it’s thinking of doing. It shouldn’t be any kind of burden for the government to preserve documents that are already in existence.”
But given the broad implications of the case for U.S. climate action, especially if the plaintiffs prevail, “it’s not surprising that the Trump administration would want to quash it,” said Gallagher, the Sierra Club legal director.
If the case were successful, the federal government would be obligated to take meaningful action against climate change, probably through a planned reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. This type of order would run counter to the current administration’s priorities. On Thursday, Scott Pruitt, the EPA chief, rejected the underlying science of climate change, and the administration has indicated its intent to cancel a number of Obama-era climate and environmental regulations, including the Clean Power Plan, and withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.



Environmental Protection Agency's New Chief Rejects Core Mission of the EPA

E.P.A. Head Stacks Agency With Climate Change Skeptics

Who needs “science” in an EPA Office of Science and Technology mission statement anyway?

Who Is Scott Pruitt (Wikipedia)
"It’s not about Pruitt, it’s about the Republican Party.
"The GOP’s goal is to block or reverse any policy that would negatively affect its donors and supporters, who are drawn disproportionately from carbon-intensive industries and regions... That means, effectively, blocking any efficacious climate policy (which, almost by definition, will diminish fossil fuels).
"Alone among major parties in the developed world, the GOP rejects the need to act on climate change. That’s the outrage. Pruitt is an epiphenomenon."


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THAW in the Arctic

https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Arctic
https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Arctic1_by_Timo_Lieber_800x480.jpg


New US Secretary of State Tillerson and Climate Change

Arctic Thaws -- US and Russia Prepare for Historic Gas/Oil Development in the North


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Via Katharine Hayhoe

Here’s what happens when you try to replicate climate contrarian papers

https://www.facebook.com/katharine.hayhoe/videos/1823744504517095/


January 2017



'Trump is at war with science and knowledge'

-- Via the Los Angeles Times

Nearly every day brings a new report of a federal agency told to shut down communications with the public or even members of Congress; tweets about important topics such as climate change removed from the public record; bans on talking to the press...

Researchers in government and elsewhere are concerned that shutting down outside communications is merely the first step in a campaign to undermine the credibility of established science. As Alex Parker, an astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., observed in a tweet this week: “Barring public communication from science agencies reduces their visibility, which masks their value, which makes them easier to dismantle.”

Carl Pope: The REINS Act ... a bill which would effectively repeal future standard setting under every important environmental, public health, consumer protection, labor standards, occupational safety and civil rights law on the books.


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Former Chief of ExxonMobil Testifies Before US Congress

  • President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said he believes the risks of climate change "could be serious enough that action should be taken,” but he did not elaborate on what that action should be.

Tillerson testified that he formed his views “over about 20 years as an engineer and a scientist, understanding the evolution of the science.” Ultimately, he said, he concluded that increasing greenhouse-gas concentrations in the atmosphere are having an effect on the earth’s climate. But he added, “Our ability to predict that effect is very limited,” and precisely what actions nations should take “seems to be the largest area of debate existing in the public discourse.”


Former General in Charge of US Central Command Appears Before Congress

General Mattis' pre-hearing written remarks line up with the ex Exxon chief executive, Rex Tillerson, nominee for Secretary of State. We agree that international alliances must be stressed as strategic goals, but alliances have to be mutual with core values that go beyond theaters of war and continued conflict. The geopolitics of today extend far beyond the interests of the new US administration preparing to take office in opposition to critical international alliances. The recently achieved climate accord is a key element in national/global security. Although the US Deparment of Defense has promolgated policies that acknowledge and take into account the 'threat multiplier' of global climate change, the new administration and allies in Congress have announced efforts to pushback climate cooperation internationally and rollback renewable energy goals. The realpolilitik of a multilateral world with energy and climate policies that the new administration opposes is about to play out politically and, in the case of General Mattis, militarily. He will soon face challenges from many of the industrial democracies in opposition to the Trumpian view of the world.



A New Year Arrives as New Challenges Arise


Trump and the Climate: His Hot Air on Warming Is Far From the Greatest Threat

(From Andy Revkin, his second article on his new Beat at ProPublica)
Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, has frightened many with his embrace of fossil fuels.
What’s truly scary, scientists and others say, is how much larger the problem is than one American president.


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December 14th, 2016

Governor Jerry Brown Calls On Scientists to Deliver Truth Telling

The American Geophysical Union meet up in California is the largest Earth and space science meeting in the world
The AGU promotes discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity


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On the Election of Donald Trump as US President


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'The List', aka, beginnings of a purge


Trump transition team for Energy Department seeks names of employees involved in climate meetings

Trump Team Memo Hints at Big Shake-Up of U.S. Energy Policy

Trump team letter sparks 'witch hunt' fears at Energy Department

Trump team wants 'lists' of Energy Department climate researchers



Trump to scrap Nasa climate research in crackdown on ‘politicized science’

  • NASA’s Earth Science division is set to be stripped of funding... Via The Guardian



GreenPolicy360 addresses the upcoming Earth Science debate and decisions to be determined in Congress and by the incoming President.

The consequences -- and legacy -- of this generation's actions, the president-elect's actions, the US Congress actions and its votes, the corporate interests and lobbying will be felt -- and judged -- for decades going forward.


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Continuing Post-election News

Trump elected, Trump administration plans to dismantle environmental policy and protection...
http://www.eenews.net/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-picks-top-climate-skeptic-to-lead-epa-transition/
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/11/09/trump-left-just-lost-war-climate-change/


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Standing Rock, Water, Oil and Taking a Stand


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https://steemit.com/dapl/@thirdeye/the-great-bison-spirit-and-the-dakota-access-pipeline

Standing Rock Arrival of Wild Buffalo
https://youtu.be/fetub0FvEwk


Remember and Respect Indigenous Rights

http://www.yesmagazine.org/how-to-talk-about-standing-rock-20161028

More on the Resistance

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/10/31/dapl-construction-approaches-missouri-river-water-protectors-stay-strong

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/maori-facebook-haka-standing-rock-sioux-dakota-access-pipeline_us_58177018e4b0990edc325e0f

http://usuncut.com/resistance/thousands-wild-buffalo-appear-nowhere-standing-rock/

https://youtu.be/Ae6_vdlTGKk


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CANNON BALL, ND - The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has released a statement regarding law enforcement escalation today at Dakota Access Pipeline protest sites.

The statement below is from Dave Archambault II, Chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe:

"Militarized law enforcement agencies moved in on water protectors with tanks and riot gear today. We continue to pray for peace. We call on the state of North Dakota to oversee the actions of local law enforcement to, first and foremost, ensure everyone’s safety. The Department of Justice must send overseers immediately to ensure the protection of First Amendment rights and the safety of thousands here at Standing Rock. DOJ can no longer ignore our requests. If harm comes to any who come here to stand in solidarity with us, it is on their watch. They must step in and hold the state of North Dakota and Morton County accountable for their acts of violence against innocent, prayerful people.

The Obama administration has asked DAPL to voluntarily halt construction until the review process has been completed, but DAPL has ignored these repeated requests. By deploying law enforcement to support DAPL construction, the State of North Dakota is collaborating with Energy Transfer Partners and escalating tensions. We need our state and federal governments to bring justice and peace to our lands, not the force of armored vehicles.

We have repeatedly seen a disproportionate response from law enforcement to water protectors’ nonviolent exercise of their constitutional rights. Today we have witnessed people praying in peace, yet attacked with pepper spray, rubber bullets, sound and concussion cannons. We urge state and federal government agencies to give this tense situation their immediate and close attention.

We also call on the thousands of water protectors who stand in solidarity with us against DAPL to remain in peace and prayer. Any act of violence hurts our cause and is not welcome here. We invite all supporters to join us in prayer that, ultimately, the right decision—the moral decision—is made to protect our people, our sacred places, our land and our resources. We won't step down from this fight. As peoples of this earth, we all need water. This is about our water, our rights, and our dignity as human beings."


#StandingRock


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Earth Science 360°

Countries Climate Action/INDC Plans

October 4, 2016: EU votes to affirm the #ParisAgreement
The most comprehensive international agreement ever to combat man-made climate change will take effect next month, less than a year after negotiators from more than 190 countries reached international accord.
October 5, 2016 / The European Parliament yesterday approved ratification of the Paris climate accord by the European Union (EU).
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: "There are two requirements for the Paris Agreement to enter into force. Fifty-five parties to the Agreement, and fifty-five percent of greenhouse gas emissions accounted for... With the action taken by the EU Parliament, we will achieve both thresholds."
Step Up the Fight -- Now! / LA Times


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GreenPolicy continues listing and updating climate plans and climate plan actions from countries across the globe...

Follow Nearly 200 Nations as Climate Action Plans (INDCs) Are Announced & Implemented


Earth Day / April 22, 2016 / Countries Signing Climate Action Plans

Paris Agreement Signatures
175 Nations Sign on Earth Day


As of January 1, 2016, GreenPolicy has updated 189 country climate plans
http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:Country
http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Intended_Nationally_Determined_Contributions


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First Cruise Ship Crossing the Ice-Free Arctic Passage


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Seward - August 17, 2016

Ulukhaktok - August 27, 2016

Arrival in New York City - September 16, 2016


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Clinton vs. Trump: A Sharp Divide Over Energy and the Environment

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"A Hoax", Human-Caused Climate Change is a Hoax claims a US Candidate for President, while International Climate Agreements Make History

Donald Trump and the Climate-Change Countdown

September 29 -- Elizabeth Kolbert: Donald Trump, who has very publicly called climate change a “hoax” (despite very publicly denying having done so, in Monday’s debate), has said that he will “rescind” the Clean Power Plan. Hillary Clinton, in contrast, has said that she will carry it out. Whoever is elected will, it seems, have the chance to nominate the deciding Justice to the Supreme Court. This could be seen as yet another reason to be terrified of a Trump victory. Or it could be seen as the reason to be terrified of a Trump victory.

September 2 -- There they go again, a follow-up monumental agreement between China and the US, although Republican candidate Trump calls climate change a "Chinese hoax". Sure Donald, whatever...

U.S. and China ratify sweeping climate deal and urge other nations to follow their lead

The swift action is likely to spur other nations to move with more dispatch, both to formalize the deal and to cut emissions, said Jake Schmidt, director of international programs for the NRDC - Natural Resources Defense Council.

“It creates a momentum,” Schmidt said. “If you want to be a good global citizen, you need to act on climate change, and you need to do it now.”


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FYI GreenPolicy readers, no, your Siterunner Steven Schmidt isn't related to Jake Schmidt of NRDC or, for that matter, related to NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt, but ...

"Brother Gavin" from NASA Goddard is on message again here as he reports the data ...


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NASA: Earth is warming at a pace 'unprecedented in 1,000 years'

Via The Guardian

August 30, 2016

The planet is warming at a pace not experienced within the past 1,000 years, at least, making it “very unlikely” that the world will stay within a crucial temperature limit agreed by nations just last year, according to Nasa’s top climate scientist.

This year has already seen scorching heat around the world, with the average global temperature peaking at 1.38C above levels experienced in the 19th century, perilously close to the 1.5C limit agreed in the landmark Paris climate accord. July was the warmest month since modern record keeping began in 1880, with each month since October 2015 setting a new high mark for heat.

But Nasa said that records of temperature that go back far further, taken via analysis of ice cores and sediments, suggest that the warming of recent decades is out of step with any period over the past millennium.

“In the last 30 years we’ve really moved into exceptional territory,” Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said. “It’s unprecedented in 1,000 years. There’s no period that has the trend seen in the 20th century in terms of the inclination (of temperatures).”

“Maintaining temperatures below the 1.5C guardrail requires significant and very rapid cuts in carbon dioxide emissions or co-ordinated geo-engineering. That is very unlikely. We are not even yet making emissions cuts commensurate with keeping warming below 2C.”


Global temp anomaly record NASA-2016.png


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More Climate News from GreenPolicy

US House Science Committee Acts to Defend ExxonMobile Against Attorneys General

Exxon Investigation Proceeds Despite Committee Action

US House Committee Grills EPA

Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH) notably called the EPA rules “un-American” during a July 6th hearing of the Energy and Power subcommittee held to review the EPA’s regulations, especially regarding coal-generated power.

“It's draining the lifeblood out of our businesses... you are sucking out of our economy... I think it’s absurd, I think it’s irresponsible. Quite frankly, Ms. McCabe, I think it’s un-American.”

“It's like a dad-gum permission slip to do business in America... doesn't produce a product, doesn't pay a salary, it doesn't go to any company's bottom line. It's like going to the movie theater and buying a ticket but you don't get the popcorn or the diet Coke, you gotta pay extra to get that stuff, and the projector doesn't work. It's a ripoff!”


Mr Johnson from Ohio.png


Just Another Hot Air Day

CCI-June29,2016.png


June 2016

Republicans in US Congress Vote to Block National & Global Security

Attempt to Defund and Block Defense Dept. Studies and Work Related to Impacts of Climate Change

Sanders campaign energizes young voters; Democratic Party adopts a slate of 'Sanders-like' platform planks

Going forward, questions remain re: progressive follow-through or 'pivot to the donor-class'
Update: Democratic Party environmental positions voted into platform, Sanders endorses 'most progressive' platform

Thirty-One Top Scientific Societies Speak with One Voice on Global Climate Change

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/mw/images/Letter_to_Congress_June_28%2C_2016.pdf

Milky Way no longer visible to one third of humanity

Via the Guardian

Milky Way Night Sky Black Rock Desert Nevada.jpg

May 26 / Trump v the World of Science: US Republican Presidential Candidate Announces His Energy Policy

'Presumptive Nominee' Says Cancel the Paris agreement, More fossil fuels, Less Clean/Renewable Energy

U.S. Presidential Campaign: Environmental Threats

Trump v the World: Announces his Energy policy

Republican presidential candidate -- Cancel the Paris agreement, More fossil fuels, Less Clean/Renewable Energy
In a speech laying out his energy agenda for the United States, Trump promised to undo essentially every major policy developed in last decade intended to slow human-caused global warming.

Trump declares he doesn't believe the science, believes climate change a hoax and 'BS'

Trump tweet: This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. 'Environmentalists are the problem', acc to the Republican candidate for president
Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice

Clinton on Climate Change -- Campaign
Sanders Climate Plan -- Campaign

May 31, Stephen Hawking interviewed by ITV on science, global threats and... the US presidential election:

Stephen Hawking / ITV: The world-famous theorist has made no secret of his disdain for the likely Republican Party presidential nominee. But asked if his knowledge of the universe meant he could explain the popular appeal of the billionaire tycoon, he told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "I can't. He is a demagogue, who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator". In the same interview, Hawking also said he didn’t believe Trump was the greatest threat facing America, or even the world. The greatest threat, he said, is human-caused climate change.

“A more immediate danger is runaway climate change,” Hawking said. "Runaway climate change... A rise in ocean temperature would melt the ice-caps, and cause a release of large amounts of carbon dioxide from the ocean floor." "We are changing our climate for the worse. That would have catastrophic effects."


Stephen Hawking Genius on PBS 1.jpg


May 20, Another scholar speaks out, Noam Chomsky addresses the US presidential election: ... "(W)e haven’t even talked about the worst problems: the economic problems are bad enough, as are the social problems, but far worse than these are the major threats to the survival of the human species – the threat of nuclear war and environmental catastrophe. Here, if you look at the US primaries, you have to be impressed and appalled by the utter irrationality of the species. Here are two enormous problems that have to be faced right now, and they are almost absent from the primaries." And Trump? "(T)here are some pretty stable elements of his ideology, if you can even grant him that concept. One of them is: “Climate change is not taking place.” As he puts it: “Forget it.” And that’s almost a death knell for the species – not tomorrow, but the decisions we take now are going to affect things in a couple of decades, and in a couple of generations it could be catastrophic."

Anthropogenic Global Warming #AGW / http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/

Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming #CAGW / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_climate_change


Earth gets hotter May2016.jpg

“Another month, another record. The extraordinary heat that was recorded in 2015 pales by comparison to 2016.”


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Kidscelebrateclimatelawsuit.jpg


Youth Climate Advocates Secure Victory in Massachusetts Climate Change Lawsuit

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts rules that state must impose comprehensive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions
Must comply with the 'Global Warming Solutions Act'
Youth Climate Lawsuit Moves Forward in Massachusetts Climate Change Lawsuit.


See Related Lawsuit Update: March 2017


Youth Climate Lawsuit Shifts Focus to Trump


It's Donald Trump vs. 21 young people armed with global consensus on climate change

What's likely the highest-stakes climate lawsuit on the planet

Earlier this month, not long after the plaintiffs' lawyers replaced President Obama with Trump in the suit, the administration filed a request for interlocutory appeal – a rare request since appeals are usually filed after a trial judgment, not before. Trump's lawyers also objected to a letter sent to federal agencies demanding that they preserve climate data and emails between the administration and the fossil-fuel industry that might prove the government has known since the 1960s about the dangers to public health posed by fossil fuels.

Lawyers for Trump are responding quickly and aggressively to a case that will embarrass and interfere with the administration's efforts to roll back environmental regulations and kneecap the EPA...


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Global Warming: New Global Monthly Temp Records


Global Warming spiral2016-2.png



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April 22 -- Earth Day: Countries Signing the Paris Agreement at the UN

The R's on the Science Com't act -- by surveilling scientists

130 countries have committed to sign the Paris climate change deal during a kickoff ceremony on April 22, Earth Day
175 Nations Sign on Earth Day
http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Category:INDC


World Bank Group Climate Change Action Plan 2016.png


April 2016

Fracking etc, one day in the life of the US energy mix 'n mash

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Sea-Level Rise Twice as High as Previously Predicted.png


March 2016

Great Barrier Reef bleaching may be 'last wake-up call', marine scientists say

Coral bleaching Great Barrier Reef 2016.jpeg


Coral as a canary, a sentinel species

Coral reefs in peril as ocean environment is transformed
NYT: Climate-Related Death of Coral Around World Alarms Scientists
Great Barrier Reef: Half of natural wonder is ‘dead or dying’ and it is on the brink of extinction, scientists say


Great Barrier Reef May 2016.png


Underwater Heat Wave Devastates Great Barrier Reef

Hardest-hit area includes some of Australia’s most remote and pristine coral

March 29, 2016

CANBERRA, Australia — An underwater heat wave is devastating huge swaths of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, marine researchers have found.

A Nightmare is Unfolding in the Great Barrier Reef

Extensive bleaching has been caused by higher ocean temperatures

To prevent further damage, governments should commit to lowering emissions, an Australian team says


A Wake-Up Call

"This has been the saddest research trip of my life," James Cook University professor Terry Hughes, the convener of the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce, said in a press release after the team aerially surveyed almost 2,500 miles of the northern Australia reefs.

Coral bleaching is a modern phenomenon, marine scientists say; Over the past 400 years, there's no evidence of bleaching events until the late 20th century. Changing environmental factors like rising sea temperatures can cause the coral to expel their photosynthetic algae, called zooxanthellae, making many turn stark white. Others remain vivid, but have lost the green and brown hues that signal health. Without the symbiotic algae to process sunlight into oxygen and other nutrients, the coral dies.

Sydney, Australia - The Worst Bleaching Event

Great Barrier Reef in Danger

"What we're seeing now is unequivocally to do with climate change," Prof Justin Martin Univ of Queensland tells the ABC


Visit Latest Ocean Science at www.TinyBlueGreen.com


Australia's Great Barrier Reef hit by severe bleaching - Video


Great Barrier Reef severe bleaching die-off.png


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March 28, 2016 / Truthout

Anthropogenic Climate Disruption: The Debate, Updates, and the Money Behind Much of the Debate

"Apparently, impending catastrophe doesn't mean much to some of the United States' wealthiest people. Once again a report has arisen documenting how fossil fuel millionaires pumped more than $100 million into Republican presidential super PACs last year. That means that $1 out of every $3 donated to Republican candidates coming from hyper-rich individuals came from people who made their fortunes from fossil fuels. In boosting GOP politicians, these funders were simply acting to protect their cash cows from those of us who happen to give a damn about the planet.

"A recent report by the Center for American Progress Action Fund shows that more than six out of every 10 Americans are represented by someone in Congress who denies the reality of ACD. According to the report, 59 percent of the Republican House caucus and an amazing 70 percent of the Republicans in the Senate deny ACD is real. The report also reveals that, according to the US Census, 202,803,591 Americans are represented by an ACD denier."


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Threat Environment

ExxonMobil Under Investigation

"Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power"
NYT: "ExxonMobil: A Well-Oiled Machine"
Guardian: "Thorough and accessible portrait of a secretive corporation is fascinating and deeply disturbing"

NY's State Attorney and Calif's AG Go After ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil Bkrd

Exxon, the Road Not Taken

FBI Probe, More AGs Support Investigation of ExxonMobil

Money-in-Politics: Giants of the oil and gas industry spend millions in 2015 to manipulate lawmakers and public discourse on climate change


Big oil lobbying spend.jpg


Oil Change International ... "Exposing the true costs of fossil fuels"

Markets Are Spooked ... Oil Slide Continues

70 percent drop in oil prices over the last 18 months

ExxonMobil predicts "long-term demand growth" and profits in investor report

~

Bloomberg: Big Oil's Climate Obstruction Efforts

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Wall Street Journal Editorial Board Meltsdown with Bizarre Accusation: Like Cromwell Did Catholics?

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island Democrat who is the Senate's leading voice on climate change, is locked in a bitter brawl with the Wall Street Journal editorial page over his proposal to sue fossil fuel companies for fraud


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March 15th: Not Good News

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The Presidential campaign comes to the 'Sunshine State'

Sunshine state pol updates -- Some environmental Carl Hiaasen riffing on Florida's Gov Scott, and an e-bit of Clinton & Sanders from today's Miami Herald & TampaBay Times.

Clinton "mocked the Scott administration's directive to state employees not to use the words "climate change" and pledged to support renewable energy in Florida."

"Of Scott's order to state employees, she said: "I found this one hard to believe. I mean, you've just got to shake your head at that."

"When Republicans say they can't talk about climate change because they're not scientists, Clinston said, there's a cure for that: "Go talk to a scientist."

Sanders "also criticized Republicans for their obstinance on climate change, which he said is holding Florida back from becoming a leader in renewable energy."

"The state of Florida has an extraordinary natural resource: its called sunlight," Sanders said, "and this state should be a leader in the world in producing solar energy."

And from Florida, an Editorial re: political moves in the 'Sunshine State'... misnaming a constitutional amendment that would, in effect, *prevent sunshine/solar energy* from competing w/ the fossil fuel industry. The issue is now before the Court. Ivan Penn formerly w/ the St Pete Times, now w/ the LA Times, wrote extensively about energy issues in Florida. What a long-running story it is. Today's Tampa Bay Times Editorial speaks of the latest chapter of public good v energy industry-lobbying power...


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http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Energy_Storage_-_Batteries_and_Grid


Energy Innovation: Shift Away from Fossil Fuels to Renewables

Our Generational Challenge: Transformative Eco-nomics

NextGen Batteries, Grid-Scale Storage, Metering & Efficiencies

Elon Musk & Tesla
Elon's thinking, a planet citizen's thinking:
From GrnPolicy: Elon Musk spoke of how the iconic whole earth "Blue Marble" photo of Earth had inspired him to dream and to move his technology plans toward a space & earth connection...
Elon speaks of the danger to Earth's atmosphere, our planet's 'thin blue layer': "We’re running the most dangerous experiment in history right now, which is to see how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere can handle before there is an environmental catastrophe.”
"The greater the change to the chemical composition of the physical, chemical makeup of the oceans and atmosphere [due to increased carbon emissions], the greater the long-term effect will be... [W]hy would you run this crazy experiment to see how bad it'll be? We know it's at least some bad, and the overwhelming scientific consensus is that it'll be 'really bad'."
"As far as Earth is concerned, I think the biggest problem that humanity faces is one of sustainable energy. If we don’t solve that problem this century, independent of any environmental concerns, we will face economic collapse… This is obvious."
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Obvious security threats that go un-acknowledged...

None of the Republican Candidates for US President Support Action Against Climate Change

What Problems, We See No Problems

Environmental Scorecard: Cruz and Rubio voted against every green bill,
and opposed every pro-environment, anti-pollution piece of legislation

Trump has taken things further, even as he declares his concern over nuclear weapons

Trump "Not a Big Believer" in Climate Change
'BS'?
Trump tweet: This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop.
Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice
More from DeSmog/Desmog Blog
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Florida's Senator, Marco Rubio, campaigns for president denying human activity's connection to climate change. Yet his home state feels the impacts even as the Senator and most of Republican leadership in the State looks away: “Florida is ground zero for sea level effects in the United States, and the debate here still seems to be whether this is happening – not what to do to prepare for it,” said Jay Famiglietti, a senior water scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Given our current rates of rise, we can expect some rather severe consequences, and I’m not sure we’re ready to deal with the consequences of what’s going on.”

Read more about Florida and climate change here

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February 2016

Breaking News/Feb. 14: The sudden death of US Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia sets up "an evenly divided bench", as commentators report on Feb. 13th on the news of the Justice's death in Texas. This change in the Court has wide-ranging consequence, including the Court's critically important vote on President Obama’s most ambitious effort to fight climate change, the Clean Power Plan. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit now has to finish hearing the case and rule before the Supreme Court takes up the climate plan again. The Court now will be divided and visibly a "deadlocked" judiciary until a new Supreme Court justice is appointed and confirmed.

The Supreme Court's Feb. 9th Stay Order to halt implementation of the President's Clean Power Plan, a large part of the US climate plan put forward at the international climate summit in Paris in December, came on what was described as an "unprecedented" decision by the Court on a 5-4 vote. Without Scalia's vote on environmental issues, the Court's reach will be limited to block Presidential powers addressing environmental and climate issues. The balance of power has shifted. On climate and energy policy, and many upcoming important and historic cases before the Court, the future decisions of the Court are more than ever in question. The presidential campaign has much more at stake now impacting the future of the country -- and planet. The next Supreme Court justice will, no doubt, be a swing vote with real power.

Next Supreme Court Justice Will Be Crucial to US Climate Policy
Supreme Court’s Action Threatens Vital Climate Policies
The US Supreme Court order blocking President Obama’s plan to cut emissions from coal-burning power plants is an unprecedented step and one of the most environmentally harmful decisions ever made by the nation’s highest court
Consequences if the US Quits Climate Agreement

US Supreme Court Deals Blow to Obama’s Efforts to Regulate Coal Emissions

WASHINGTON — NYT/Feb 9, 2016 — In a major setback for President Obama’s climate change agenda, the Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the administration’s effort to combat global warming by regulating emissions from coal-fired power plants.

A stunning development,” Jody Freeman, a Harvard law professor and former environmental legal counsel to the Obama administration, said in an email. She added that “the order certainly indicates a high degree of initial judicial skepticism from five justices on the court,” and that the ruling would raise serious questions from nations that signed on to the landmark Paris climate change pact in December."

Related Coverage of Supreme Court Climate Vote

'Washington DC and World Around DC'

January 2016 Was the Most Abnormally Warm Month Ever Recorded, NASA Says

NASA's analysis found this was the largest monthly warm temperature anomaly in their database dating to 1880

2015: Hottest in modern times

Not new news, it's hotter -- NASA Data

It's Hot: Is It Deniable? Ask the US Congress

Man-made heat put in oceans has doubled since 1997, study finds
The Oceans: This is where 90% of global warming is going
Ocean heat study @ Nature Climate Change Journal
Hot and hotter, earth science data reports


Globally-averaged temps thru 2015 via NASA Goddard.gif

Predictions: Climate change to speed up

Climate scientists say human impacts are adding up faster than reported...
Business-as-usual forces argue "not to worry", that the consensus of science is wrong...
Looking back & looking forward... what if's / NASA Asks: "Is a Sleeping Giant Stirring in the Arctic?"

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"Watch 25 years of Arctic Sea Ice disappear"

Arctic sea ice watch 25 yrs of ice cover change.png

Action Agenda

Via Climate Reality Project

FOLLOW THE LEADER: HOW 11 COUNTRIES ARE SHIFTING TO RENEWABLE ENERGY

SWEDEN / COSTA RICA / NICARAGUA / SCOTLAND / GERMANY / URUGUAY / DENMARK / CHINA (Wondering how the world's largest carbon emitter can also be a leader in renewable energy? It may seem counter-intuitive, but in 2014 China had the most installed wind energy capacity – by a longshot – and the second-highest installed solar PV capacity) / MOROCCO / UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (In the US, a new solar energy system was installed every two minutes and 30 seconds in 2014, earning the US fifth place on the installed solar PV capacity global rankings. America also has the second-highest installed wind energy capacity in the world (after China). Unfortunately, the energy demand in the States far outpaces the renewable capacity) / KENYA (geo-thermal)

Snapshot — January 2016

The sands of time shift and the hydrocarbon era begins to fade

2016: Reddit AMA: Science-Sea Level Rise

Update: Jason-3 in Orbit - http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/jason-3-launches-to-monitor-global-sea-level-rise

https://blogs.nasa.gov/Jason-3/

Jason-3 Mission -- Jason-3 to launch Jan 17, 2016

Earth science/measurements provide critical information about ocean circulation patterns and about both global and regional changes in sea level and the climate implications of a warming world

For over 20 years, the Jason series of satellites (and their predecessor TOPEX/Poseidon), have helped to track global sea level rise, one of the main symptoms of climate change, and other climate phenomena such as El Niño. Data from Jason-3 will be added to this record and will be vital in helping to improve climate prediction models

US Congress attempts to deny the security threat

Feb 3, 2016 / House Science Com't Meets Again: Focus on why we shouldn’t do anything about climate change

Looking back at 2015, Green Progress and GOP Buffoonery

Washington Post editorial, January 3, 2016

15 Ridiculous Things Far Out Media Said About Climate Change In 2015

Media Matters, End of Year wrap up

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US House Science Com't Chair Climate/Security Disaster

Obama Vetoes GOP Attempt to Kill Climate Rules

Going Global Renewables Is the Challenge

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The Adoption of the Paris Agreement; the final draft

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, said the talks were the most complicated and difficult negotiations he had ever been involved in.

“I have been attending many difficult multilateral negotiations, but by any standard, this negotiation is most complicated, most difficult, but most important for humanity...”


Paris Climate Summit: Moments

Paris 1.5.jpg


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"Let's Get to Work": President Obama's Climate Speech in Paris

Paris Obama Nov30,2015.png


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Visit GreenPolicy's International List of National Climate Plans

Update of INDC plans by GreenPolicy360 as of Jan 1, 2016

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Climate Action Plans

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Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)

Submitted plans -- http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/INDC/Submission%20Pages/submissions.aspx

INDC portal -- http://unfccc.int/focus/indc_portal/items/8766.php

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Quoted re: the Paris Climate Summit

Union of Concerned Scientists: "It's very important that we not lock into place the initial offers (INDCs) that countries have put on the table... We need to have, by the end of this decade, an initial review of where we are at and what more can be done to lift ambition... and countries need to be prepared to review and revise upward their initial offers."
''NY Times Editorial Board: "So far, more than 170 countries, accounting for over 90 percent of global greenhouse emissions, have submitted pledges, and more may emerge in Paris. Will these pledges be enough to ward off the worst consequences of global warming? No."
The Paris Agreement: Unresolved Questions

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December 2015

*NASA Earth Sciences 2016 Budget No Longer Cut $500 Million

Final budget bill provides $1.92 billion for Earth Science research

The final budget bill provides $1.92 billion for Earth Science research, just $20 million less than the President's original budget request. The cut is slight compared to initial GOP budget cuts proposed in the House and Senate which had slashed as much as $500 million from the President's request.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden argued before Congress this summer and fall that it was critical to increase the size of NASA's Earth Science programs.

Under the newly passed Fiscal Year 2016 NASA Budget, virtually all of the agency’s programs benefit with either full or added funding. -- http://www.universetoday.com/123937/nasa-receives-significant-budget-boost-fiscal-year-2016

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Congress Committee Cuts Earth Science research

Smith - Science Com't sm 2015.jpg

Committee Chair Smith/R-TX After Hearing on NASA/NOAA Budget

U.S. Congress/Science Committee News (Not Good News)

Via Vox -- U.S. House Science Committee Talks Conspiracy and Subpoenas

Earth Science Politics

From a bully pulpit, Ted Cruz offers his take on climate change / Dec 9
Cruz 'cherry-picks' from the climate record; Texas oil Senator's debate strategy
Cruz: I learned to debate in college and I'm right
Letter to Science Committee re: integrity / Nov 24
More from American science organizations
Science Orgs respond to attacks by Science Committee

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Opposition Clips

December

Via New Republic/Dec 15 -- What Climate Agreement? GOP Candidates Ignore the International Agreement

Via NY Times/Dec 4 -- Republicans' Climate Change Denial Denial

Krugman: Future historians will almost surely say that the most important thing happening in the world during December 2015 was the climate talks in Paris. True, nothing agreed to in Paris will be enough, by itself, to solve the problem of global warming. But the talks could mark a turning point, the beginning of the kind of international action needed to avert catastrophe....
I’d urge everyone outside the climate-denial bubble to frankly acknowledge the awesome, terrifying reality. We’re looking at a [Republican] party that has turned its back on science at a time when doing so puts the very future of civilization at risk. That’s the truth, and it needs to be faced head-on.

GreenPolicy360: Time to Pressure Congress: Environmental Security Delivers National Security

Via New Yorker/Dec 4 -- Congress Moves to Sabotage the Paris Climate Summit

Via Mother Jones/Dec 4 -- Chris Christie: "Hell No," America Shouldn't Lead on Climate Change

Via CommonDreams-PR Watch/Dec 3 -- Corporate Lobby Group ALEC Works to Scuttle Global Climate Agreement

Via Bloomberg Politics/Dec 2 -- Obama's Climate Plans to Survive Republican Foes

Via Think Progress/Dec 2 -- House votes to kill clean power plan

Via Bloomberg Business/Dec 1 -- "Unearthing America's Deep Network of Climate Change Deniers":

"New study attempts the first tally of those driving the peculiarly American strain of climate change denial"

November

Via Climate Progress -- U.S. Senate Republicans Say 'No' to Paris Climate Accord

Via The Atlantic -- Republican Attempt to Derail the Paris Climate Talks

Via Politico -- "Republicans seek to strangle Paris climate pact"

Via Washington Post -- "Amid record global temperatures, Senate votes to block Obama’s Clean Power Plan"


John Barrasso - R-Wyoming - 2015 Photo credit Getty.jpg


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Important: Legal forms for Paris climate agreement

March and demonstrations in Paris will go on

2000+ Climate Events/Locations #ClimateMarch

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Paris Climate Mtgs, Opening Nov 30 - Information Hub

Climate Meetings-Schedule

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U.S. Congress/Science Committee News (Not Good News)

Environmental Security

Syria, War, Climate Connection

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On Point

What critics of the Keystone campaign misunderstand / Vox

Nov 6, 2015

"Win for Greens" / "No to Keystone, Yes to the Planet"

Goodbye Keystone XL: President Obama/US State Dept Reject Pipeline

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It's Your Breathing Planet

BreathingEarth.gif


Join In, Act, Follow, Be Out in Front

UN / Climate Plans "Synthesis Report"

#climateaction
#COP21
#INDCs
#climatechange

Christiana Figueres @CFigueres

Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
Figueres - REDDIT AMA -- Oct 28

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#ADP2

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UN Climate Action @UNFCCC

Oct. 19, 2015
Opening plenary of the latest @UN climate negotiations kicks off today in Bonn
http://bit.ly/1OObz76 #ADP2

Christiana Figueres (@CFigueres)

Opening plenary of resumed #ADP2 session starts. Last few steps toward Paris. Focus!
pic.twitter.com/A63Cyfds2N

Climate Plans/INDCs in Preparation for December UNFCCC Conference in Paris


Climate Plan pledges as Oct6,2015.png


Intended Nationally Determined Contributions

Progress Reports on Climate Action Plans (INDCs) as Submitted to the UN

#INDC / INDCs defined at Wikipedia


Conference of Parties 21, UN Climate Change Conference[1][2][3][4][5]


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Pope pushes world leaders at UN to protect environment

Pope Francis called on world leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York on Sept. 25th to take firm action on the environment, blaming a "selfish and boundless thirst for power and material" for its destruction.

"We human beings are part of the environment," Francis said. "We live in communion with it, since the environment itself entails ethical limits which human activity must acknowledge and respect. ... Any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity."

Pope Francis again ​made history a day after his address to a joint session of Congress, delivering a speech before the largest-ever gathering of world leaders at the United Nations​.In his address to the General Assembly, the popular ​"people’s ​pope​"​ critiqued the current “culture of waste” and urged government leaders to do more to combat poverty and address environmental abuses. Climate change, he reiterated, could “threaten the very existence of the human species.”

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Star Solar Renewable Power.JPG

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OCO-2 carbon dioxide Sept2014-Sept2015.gif


I am OCO-2 -- reporting home Climate deniers blame global warming on nature. This NASA data begs to differ


More from OCO-2 -- https://youtu.be/8YsoVWxR9-w

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NASA Climate News...
NASA Missions / Earth Right Now

EarthRightNow Earth Science @work via 2014-2015 NASA launches m.png

Jason 3
Jason-3 Launches to Monitor Global Sea Level Rise
Jason-3 Launched: January 2016
GPM - Next-generation measurements of global snow and rain
OCO-2 - Measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide
OCO-2 / (TW)
ISS - Rapidscat - Monitoring ocean winds
CATS - Observing pollution, dust and smoke in the atmosphere
SMAP - Studying soil moisture

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NASA MISR.png

https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/ --- https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/projects-supported

The Atmospheric Science Data Center (ASDC) at NASA Langley Research Center responsible for processing, archiving, and distribution of NASA Earth science data


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News Highlights --- 2015


California out in front modeling and sharing green best practices

http://www.bioneers.org/bioneers-e-book-california-climate-leadership/

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/California_out_in_front_in_a_Green_future

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/California_is_ahead_of_the_game_as_Obama_releases_Clean_Power_Plan

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Time for a Global Apollo Initiative

Global Apollo Program, a 10 year project to make renewable energy cheaper than fossil fuels through internationally coordinated and publicly funded research into renewable energy technology...

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Watching Game-Changing Players Like Elon Musk

TED2013 - The mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity...
SpaceX Joins NASA Earth Science Launch Program
New Space, Earth Science

SpaceX.jpg

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Jason-2 and Jason-3

Update January 2016:

Jason-3 Mission -- Jason-3 -- Launched Jan 17, 2016

Ocean circulation patterns, global and regional changes in sea level, and climate implications of a warming world

What's up with sea level rise?

In a series of media opportunities through Aug. 28, NASA experts present up-to-date global outlook on current conditions and future projections of sea level rise

Why NASA’s worried that Greenland’s melting could speed up

@EarthVitalSigns #EarthRightNow InsideClimate News (TW)


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Planet Citizens
Planet Citizen
Planet Citizens, Planet Scientists
EarthPOV

Earth360°, the 'Big Picture
#HelloEarth
Earth Right Now
Earth Science, Vital Signs
From the Vantage Point of Space
A "Thin Blue Layer"

Environmental Security ↔ National Security
New Definitions of National Security


https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Overview_planet_earth1.jpg


Overview planet earth1.jpg


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Earth Science from Space, Politics

Earth and Space, Politics 2015

Environmental Security, the Challenge and the Missions

Earth Observing Science, NASA Space Fleet, as of 2015

Earth Observing NASA Space Fleet, as of 2014

Carbon Brief's Infographic of Earth Climate Science Satellites

Satellites in operation (2016) that are adding to scientists’ understanding of climate change

http://www.carbonbrief.org/interactive-satellites-used-monitor-climate-change

How satellites monitor climate change circa 2016.png


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References - Climate News


CD2X2UsUUAANuYf.jpg


Climate Change News / more @ GreenLinks

350.org Dispatches & Climate Science News

Berkeley Earth Science News

BusinessGreen / UK - Blogs

E&E ClimateWire / Climate Digest

GreenAllianceUK (TW)

Guardian Environment / UK

Inside Climate News

Inside Climate (TW)

New York Times 'Dot Earth'

Revkin List / Green Blog Voices

The Conversation / Climate-Environment

United Nations/UNFCCC Climate Change Negotiations and Related News

UN Climate Change Newsroom

Yale Climate Connections

Carbon Dioxide Facts


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NASAEarth 437x246.jpg


Follow GreenPolicy's Climate Science/News
Daily/Weekly / Install Feedly as a News Aggregator
https://feedly.com/i/welcome


GHG emissions 1970-2010.jpg

Earth Right Now
http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Earth_Right_Now
http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Earth_Science_Research_from_Space Earth Science from Space


February 2015 - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4487
Over the past 12 months NASA has added five missions to its orbiting Earth-observing fleet
- the biggest one-year increase in more than a decade....


NASA orbiting fleet 2015 m.jpg


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Archive

Earth Observations/Climate News Archive

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Look_at_how_thin_our_atmosphere_is
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http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Environmental_movement
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http://www.greenpolicy360.net/mw/images/National_Climate_Program_Act_Public_Law_95-367_Sept_1978.pdf
http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/File:Congressman_george.e.brown.gif


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Visit Your Terrestrial Location Here

https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic/

Visit Climate News Science Terms Here

http://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Climate_Change_-_Global_Warming_Keyword-Terms


Global Warming / Climate Change Denier Database

https://www.desmogblog.com/global-warming-denier-database


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