[TheClimate.Vote] Feb 23, 2017 - Daily Global Warming News for All -

[Richard Pauli]

/February 23, 2017       Emails show Scott Pruitt "very cozy" with 
fossil fuel industry

/**


      *The Pruitt Emails: E.P.A. Chief Was Arm-in-Arm With Industry *
      <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/us/politics/scott-pruitt-environmental-protection-agency.html>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/.../scott-*pruitt*-environmental-protection-agency.html
7 hours ago -Thousands of pages of/emails/show that Mr./Pruitt/, as 
Oklahoma attorney general, worked closely with companies to battle 
environmental ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/02/22/oklahoma-attorney-generals-office-releases-7500-pages-of-emails-between-scott-pruitt-and-fossil-fuel-industry/


    Thousands of emails detail EPA head's close ties to fossil fuel
    industry
    <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/02/22/oklahoma-attorney-generals-office-releases-7500-pages-of-emails-between-scott-pruitt-and-fossil-fuel-industry/>

Washington Post 	 -‎3 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

In another email chain on March 21, 2013, Whitsitt wrote to Pruitt's 
office offering a draft of a letter that state attorneys general might 
sign and send to the then-acting EPA administrator regarding limits on 
methane emissions. Devon, which has ...

    The emails highlight an often-chummy relationship between Pruitt's
    office and Devon Energy, a major oil and gas exploration and
    production company based in Oklahoma City. The correspondence makes
    clear that top officials at the company met often with Pruitt or
    people who worked for him. Devon representatives also helped draft —
    and redraft — letters for Pruitt to sign and send to federal
    officials in an effort to stave off new regulations...
    "Any suggestions?" a deputy solicitor general in Pruitt's office
    wrote to a Devon executive in early May 2013, including a draft of a
    letter the office was planning to send to the EPA regarding proposed
    regulations of methane emissions...
    "Here you go," the executive, Bill Whitsitt replied. "Please note
    that you could use just the red changes, or both red and blue (the
    latter being some further improvements from one of our experts) or
    none."..
    "I sent the letter today," the deputy solicitor general wrote the
    following day. "Thanks for all your help on this."..
    The emails show that Pruitt and his office were in touch with a
    network of conservative groups, many of which in the past have
    received backing from billionaire brothers Charles G. and David H.
    Koch, the libertarian owners of Koch Industries, a major oil
    company. The documents detail not only how Pruitt's office at times
    coordinated with industry officials to fight unwanted regulations
    from Washington, but also how he was a highly sought-after speaker
    at conferences and other gatherings for groups such as the American
    Legislative Exchange Council, which works with corporate interests
    and state legislators to shape key pieces of legislation.
    In one example, Pruitt was a speaker at an ALEC conference on May 3,
    2013, in Oklahoma City. He was part of a panel called, "Embracing
    American Energy Opportunities: From Wellheads to Pipelines." The
    event also featured a reception at the Petroleum Club and a luncheon
    sponsored by Koch Industries...
    The Oklahoma attorney general's office handed over the batch of
    emails — nearly 7,000 pages in all — this week in order to meet a
    deadline set by a judge who ordered the documents' release following
    more than two years of effort by CMD, a liberal watchdog
    organization. The group had sued to compel the state to release the
    documents under public records laws. (The emails can be viewed here
    <http://www.exposedbycmd.org/Scott-Pruitt-Missing-Emails>.)
    https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/02/22/scott-pruitt-emails-oklahoma-epa
    (text + clip) Thousands of Emails from Oklahoma Office of Trump EPA
    Administrator Scott Pruitt Published
    <https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/02/22/scott-pruitt-emails-oklahoma-epa>
    *Facebook*: https://www.facebook.com/DeSmogBlog/posts/10158347754425422
    *Twitter*: https://twitter.com/DeSmogBlog/status/834431312920444933


          Thousands of Scott Pruitt's Emails Just Hit the Internet. Here
          Are the ...
          <https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0ahUKEwjTzKnj36XSAhUY8WMKHdetAv0QFggrMAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.motherjones.com%2Fenvironment%2F2017%2F02%2Fnew-epa-head-scott-pruitts-emails-reveal-close-ties-fossil-fuel-interests&usg=AFQjCNEUptkPaO5GyF_pVOy6YzqP4RRY4Q&sig2=htAJwdiKuUeGYW4T5qvd6Q&bvm=bv.147448319,d.cGc&cad=rja>

    www.motherjones.com/.../new-epa-head-scott-*pruitts*-*emails*-reveal-close-ties-fossil-fu...

    <https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1GGGE_enUS439US439&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#>


     1.


    13 hours ago -Thousands of Scott/Pruitt's Emails/Just Hit the
    Internet. Here Are the Wildest, Scariest Bits. The new EPA chief had
    a “very cozy” relationship ...


https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic/catholics-continue-press-trump-climate-change


    Catholics continue to press Trump on*climate change*
    <https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic/catholics-continue-press-trump-climate-change>

National Catholic Reporter (blog) 	 -‎9 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

    In separate letters last week, more than 100 Catholic leaders, among
    them bishops and university presidents, continued to voice their
    conviction that the Trump administration maintain three signature
    climate change policies reached under former President Barack Obama.
    One letter from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops addressed
    the Paris climate accord and the international Green Climate Fund.
    Another, organized by Catholic Climate Covenant, sought protection
    of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan...
    "Adaptation policy is fundamentally concerned with helping God's
    creatures and all human beings, especially those who are poor, to
    adapt to the effects of climate change, regardless of the causes,"
    the letter stated. "From the perspective of Catholic social
    teaching, adaptation ranks among the most important actions we can
    take," listing hurricanes, floods, droughts, famines and water
    shortages as weather disasters that hit the poor and most vulnerable
    of society the hardest....
    On the Paris Agreement, the deal struck in December 2015 binding 195
    nations to limit global temperature rise between 1.5 and 2 degrees
    Celsius, the bishops and CRS president said the deal "is a key step"
    toward supporting not only adaptation and mitigation efforts in
    other countries, but also in cutting U.S. carbon emissions...
    More generally, the letter appealed to Tillerson to lead the country
    beyond a narrow, politicized and ideologically driven debate on
    climate change, citing Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si', on
    Care for Our Common Home," in which he affirmed the view that while
    natural causes and other factors have contributed to climate change,
    the vast scientific consensus indicates it has mainly resulted from
    human activity, specifically the burning of fossil fuels...

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39055524


    (text + video) Plane flies along Antarctica's giant Larsen crack
    <http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39055524>

BBC News 	 -‎7 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has released new footage of the ice 
crack that promises to produce a giant berg. The 175km-long fissure runs 
through the Larsen C Ice Shelf on the eastern side of the Antarctic 
Peninsula.

    The 175km-long fissure runs through the Larsen C Ice Shelf on the
    eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula.
    If it propagates just 20km more, a block of ice a quarter the size
    of Wales will break away into the Weddell Sea.
    Scientists gathered the new video while recovering instrumentation
    that had been placed on the ice shelf.
    Uncertainty about the stability of the region means researchers
    cannot set up camp as they would normally do, and instead make short
    visits in a Twin Otter plane...
    The most recent sortie enabled the researchers also to fly along the
    length of the crack, which is 400-500m wide in places, to assess its
    status.


https://thebaffler.com/blog/category/war-of-nerves
*The Slow Confiscation of Everything  How to think about climate 
apocalypse <https://thebaffler.com/blog/category/war-of-nerves>*
Laurie Penny  February 17, 2017

    There will be no definite moment can say that yes, today we are
    fucked, and yesterday we were unfucked. Instead the fuckery
    increases incrementally year on year, until this is the way the
    world ends: not with a bang, not with a bonfire, but with the slow
    and savage confiscation of every little thing that made you human,
    starting with hope.
    ... The topic of apocalypse comes up a lot these days. It's slipped
    into conversation as compulsively as you might mention any other
    potentially distressing disruption to your life plans, such as a
    family member's illness, or a tax audit. And yet the substance of
    the conversation has shifted in recent weeks and months from an
    atmosphere of chronic to acute crisis. The end seems to be slightly
    more nigh than it was last year; we talk about the Trumpocalypse
    with less and less irony as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
    moves the Doomsday clock half a minute closer to midnight.
    Of all the despicable things the runaway ghost train of the Trump
    administration has done in its first ferocious weeks, the attempt to
    utterly destroy every instrument of environmental protection is
    perhaps the most permanent. The appointment of fossil fuel tycoons
    and fanatical climate change deniers to key positions in energy and
    foreign policy, the immediate reinstitution of the Dakota Access and
    Keystone pipelines, the promise to pull out of the Paris Climate
    Pact—all moves crafted to please the oil magnates who helped put him
    in power—these are changes that will hasten the tick of the time
    bomb under civilization as we know it. Racist laws can eventually be
    overthrown, and even a cultural backslide toward bigotry and
    nationalism can be slowly, painfully reversed. We don't get a
    do-over on climate change. The vested interests agitating to strip
    the planet for parts know that, too—and they plan to profit from
    this particular apocalypse as hard as they can...
    A great many modern political currents, especially the new right and
    the alt-right, are swept along by the fantasy of a great
    civilizational collapse which will wash away whichever injustice
    most bothers you, whether that be unfettered corporate influence,
    women getting above themselves, or both—any and every humiliation
    heaped on the otherwise empty tables of men who had expected more
    from their lives, economic humiliations that are served up and spat
    back out as racism, sexism, and bigotry. For these men, the end of
    the world sounds like a pretty good deal. More and more, it is only
    by imagining the end of the world that we can imagine the end of
    capitalism in its current form. This remains true even when it is
    patently obvious that civilizational collapse might only be
    survivable by the elite...
    "Every ruthless criticism of current politics should be tied in some
    way to an example of how we could do things better," said Newitz. "I
    realize that's a tall order, especially when positive visions often
    feel like wishful thinking rather than direct action. Nevertheless
    we need to know what we are fighting for to retain our sense of
    hope. We need maps of where we are going, not just fire to burn it
    all down."


https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/scotland/374581/global-warming-will-speed-up-as-world-drought-hits-say-scots-researchers/


    *Global warming*will speed up as world drought hits, say Scots
    researchers
    <https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/scotland/374581/global-warming-will-speed-up-as-world-drought-hits-say-scots-researchers/>

The Courier 	 -‎13 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

Scots researchers are predicting a significant acceleration in*global 
warming*as a result of a major threat to the world's forests.

https://boingboing.net/2017/02/22/climate-change-apocalypse-by.html


    *Climate change*: Apocalypse by 1000 cuts
    <https://boingboing.net/2017/02/22/climate-change-apocalypse-by.html>

Boing Boing 	 -‎5 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

Not since the Reagan era cold war with Russia has apocalyptic awareness 
been so forefront in the public's mind. Disturbing incidents ranging 
from nuclear football Facebook selfies to alarming North Korean military 
activity now accrue weekly.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gene-catalogues-aim-to-help-crops-survive-climate-change/


    Gene Catalogues Aim to Help Crops Survive*Climate Change*
    <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gene-catalogues-aim-to-help-crops-survive-climate-change/>

Scientific American 	 -‎7 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

*Climate change*poses a variety of risks to agricultural produce, 
including starving crops of water and preventing them from growing in 
traditional regions.

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/320630-climate-change-tied-to-nations-infrastructure-needs


    *Climate change*tied to nation's infrastructure needs
    <http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/320630-climate-change-tied-to-nations-infrastructure-needs>

The Hill (blog) 	 -‎7 hours ago‎ 	

	
	
	

13, "drought,*climate change*, and aging infrastructure combined to 
create a looming catastrophe." Nearly 200,000 residents were forced to 
flee their homes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201455.html
*This Day in Climate History  February 23, 2007 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20998-2004Dec22.html> -  
from D.R. Tucker*

    Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) declares himself "a conservative and a
    conservationist" in a Washington Post article:
    "For the past 20 years, I have seen the ever-so-gradual effects of
    rising sea levels at our farm on the South Carolina coast. I've had
    to watch once-thriving pine trees die in that fragile zone between
    uplands and salt marshes. I know the climate change debate isn't
    over, but I believe human activity is having a measurable effect on
    the environment."
    "The real "inconvenient truth" about climate change is that some
    people are losing their rights and freedoms because of the actions
    of others -- in either the quality of the air they breathe, the
    geography they hold dear, the insurance costs they bear or the
    future environment of the children they love. "
      "I am a conservative conservationist who worries that sea levels
    and government intervention may end up rising together. My earnest
    hope going forward is that we can find conservative solutions to the
    climate change problem -- ecologically responsible solutions based
    on free-market principles that both improve our quality of life and
    safeguard our freedoms."
    "For if conservatives cannot reframe, reclaim and respond to climate
    change with our principles intact, government will undoubtedly
    provide a solution, no matter how taxing it may be. "

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