[TheClimate.Vote] March 16, 2019 - Daily Global Warming News Digest.

Sat Mar 16 10:32:15 EDT 2019

/March 16, 2019/

[Youth marches yesterday]
*Guardian videos from around the world*
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/15/its-our-time-to-rise-up-youth-climate-strikes-held-in-100-countries?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
- -
[personal account from NYC activist Susan Spieler]
"In Manhattan yesterday, there were 2 major battles being fought 
concurrently against the fossil fuel industry. One was a very large 
youth strike with support behind the scenes from several groups (mostly 
XR). The youth events began at Columbus Circle where I saw and spoke 
with Jay Inslee, who is Gov. of Washington State and a Democrat 
candidate for President with platform focussed on Climate Change. From 
there everyone marched north for 1.5 miles to the Museum of Natural 
History where a major event took place. XR, which mostly stayed in the 
background, provided the youth with a VERY LONG horizontal black banner 
saying "The Youth Have Spoken -- Are you Listening?". There was a person 
who wore a Trump mask speaking and being mocked.

At the same time that this was going on, another important 
climate-related event was going on downtown about stopping a huge 
pipeline that the FF industry is trying to build in lower Manhattan.

I was amazed to find that the NYC activist community was big enough to 
be in both places at the same time. But, I felt sad that youth are 
becoming the protagonists of this battle against the fossil fuel 
industry and the politicians who are supporting them. Will they become 
cynical/depressed if they don't see fast enough progress? " -- Susan 
Spieler NYC boardmember of climatepsychology.org
Visit our website www.climatepsychologyalliance.org

[legal victory]
*TransCanada Loses Again in Latest Attempt to Begin Keystone XL Pipeline 
Construction*
Ruling Deals Yet Another Setback to Proposed Dirty Tar Sands Project
Friday, March 15, 2019
San Francisco, CA -- Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the 
Ninth Circuit denied yet another attempt by TransCanada to begin 
construction on its proposed Keystone XL pipeline. The court left in 
place a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana 
that blocked construction on the controversial tar sands pipeline amid 
an ongoing legal challenge.

Late last year, the District Court ruled that the Trump administration 
violated bedrock environmental laws when approving a federal permit for 
the pipeline. The ruling blocked any construction while the government 
revises its environmental review.

TransCanada and the Trump administration have appealed that decision in 
the Ninth Circuit. Today's order leaves the injunction on construction 
in place while the court decides on the merits of the case.

TransCanada had argued that if the company could not begin construction 
by March 15, it would miss the 2019 construction season altogether. 
According to TransCanada, today's decision means the earliest 
TransCanada could start construction is 2020, if it ever starts at all...
- - -
"If implemented, the Keystone XL pipeline would threaten the drinking 
water for tens of thousands of Montanans not to mention important water 
sources for many agricultural communities. TransCanada should not be 
trying to force through a reckless project that does not currently meet 
legal standards."

"TransCanada keeps losing in the courts because facts matter," said Jane 
Kleeb, Bold Alliance president. "Farmers and ranchers will not turn over 
their land to a foreign corporation. It's way past time for TransCanada 
to pack it up and go home."

"Today's ruling is another important moment in our fight against the 
corporate polluters who have rushed to destroy our planet," said Marcie 
Keever, legal director at Friends of the Earth. "Environmental laws 
exist to protect people and our lands and waters. Today, the courts 
continued to show Trump and his corporate polluter friends that they 
cannot start work on this disastrous pipeline that would harm rural 
landowners, farmers, ecosystems and Native communities."
https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2019/03/transcanada-loses-again-latest-attempt-begin-keystone-xl-pipeline

[really good video from the Guardian]
*The Age of Stupid revisited: what's changed on climate change?**
*The Guardian
Published on Mar 15, 2019
Ten years after climate movie The Age of Stupid had its green-carpet, 
solar-powered premiere, we follow its director as she revisits people 
and places from the film and asks: are we still heading for the 
catastrophic future it depicted?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqHKYwxEIRA

[see video, link to full book online]
*This 9-Year-Old Is Mad at You for Failing on Climate Change*
Grown-ups, here's a story for you: Fix climate before it's too late.
By Zayne Cowie - Video by Kendall Ciesemier, Taige Jensen and Leah 
Varjacques
March 14, 2019
video https://nyti.ms/2UAJ18t
This 9-Year-Old Is Mad at You for Failing on Climate Change
By Zayn Cowie
Grown-ups, here's a story for you: Fix climate before it's too late.
In the video Op-Ed above, 9-year-old Zayne Cowie turns the table on 
grown-ups, reading a children's book written especially for them: 
"Goodbye, Earth." It calls out the adults who've failed at addressing 
climate change, leaving the consequences to be dealt with by younger 
generations.
You can browse the full book below:
Goodbye, Earth 
https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/669-goodbye-earth-climate-change-book/bbeb92cc314cbeb984bb/optimized/full.pdf#page=1
Zayne Cowie is 9 years old, and has a children's book for grown-ups: 
"Goodbye, Earth!" This book calls out the adults who've failed at 
addressing climate change, leaving the consequences to be dealt with by 
younger generations.
Zayne Cowie (@zaynecowie) is a 9-year-old climate activist. He's among a 
group of children and young adults leading the Global Youth Climate 
Strike on March 15 and will be striking at City Hall in New York.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/opinion/climate-change-march-goodbye-earth.html

[United Nations report]
*3 to 5C temperature rise is now 'locked-in' for the Arctic*
Photo: Pixabay
Even if Paris Agreement goals met, Arctic winter temperatures will 
increase 3-5°C by 2050 compared to 1986-2005 levels.
Thawing permafrost could wake 'sleeping giant' of more greenhouse gases, 
potentially derailing global climate goals.
Ocean acidification and pollution also posing major threats to Arctic
Nairobi, 13 March 2019 - Even if the world were to cut emissions in line 
with the Paris Agreement, winter temperatures in the Arctic would rise 
3-5C by 2050 and 5-9C by 2080, devastating the region and unleashing sea 
level rises worldwide, finds a new report by UN Environment.

Meanwhile, rapidly thawing permafrost could even accelerate climate 
change further and derail efforts to meet the Paris Agreement's 
long-term goal of limiting the rise in global temperature to 2C, warns 
Global Linkages - A graphic look at the changing Arctic.

Other environmental pressures on the Arctic identified by the paper - 
released at the United Nations Environment Assembly - include ocean 
acidification and plastic pollution.

"What happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic," said Joyce 
Msuya, UN Environment's Acting Executive Director. "We have the science; 
now more urgent climate action is needed to steer away from tipping 
points that could be even worse for our planet than we first thought."

Even if global emissions were to halt overnight, winter temperatures in 
the Arctic would still increase 4 to 5C by 2100 compared to the late 
20th century, the study finds. This increase is locked into the climate 
system by greenhouse gases already emitted and ocean heat storage.

Arctic societies now must respond to climate change through suitable 
adaptation actions. Arctic Indigenous Peoples already face increased 
food insecurity. By 2050, four million people, and around 70% of today's 
Arctic infrastructure, will be threatened by thawing permafrost, the 
report notes.

"The urgency to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement is clearly 
manifested in the Arctic, because it is one of the most vulnerable and 
rapidly changing regions in the world," said the Finnish Minister of the 
Environment, Energy and Housing, Kimmo Tiilikainen. "We need to make 
substantial near-term cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, black carbon and 
other so-called short-lived climate pollutants all over the world."

The impacts globally would also be huge. From 1979 to the present, 
Arctic sea ice is estimated to have declined by 40%. Climate models 
predict that, at the current rate of CO₂ emissions, Arctic summers will 
be ice-free by the 2030s. The melting of the Greenland ice cap and 
Arctic glaciers contribute to one third of sea level rise worldwide.

Even if the Paris Agreement is met, Arctic permafrost is expected to 
shrink 45% compared to today. Globally, these frozen soils hold an 
estimated 1,672 billion metric tonnes of carbon. Increased thawing is 
expected to contribute significantly to carbon dioxide and methane 
emissions. The resulting warming will in turn lead to more thawing - an 
effect known as 'positive feedback'. This accelerated climate change 
could even throw the Paris Agreement's 2°C goal off track, the report 
underlines.

Ocean acidification and pollution taking their toll

Ocean acidification is disproportionately impacting Arctic marine 
species. This is because cold water can hold more dissolved CO2, while 
melting ice spreads the acidity further. Since the beginning of the 
industrial revolution, the world's ocean has become 30% more acidic. The 
more acidic the water, the more energy Arctic corals, molluscs, sea 
urchins and plankton must use to build their shells and skeletons.

Despite its pristine image, the Arctic's geographical characteristics 
and cold climate mean the region's ocean, seafloor and coastline are a 
sink for contaminants from around the globe. Only 1,000 out of the 
150,000 chemical substances in use worldwide are regularly monitored. A 
global approval system for new chemicals is therefore needed, the report 
argues. Alternative controls are also seen as necessary for chemicals 
that fall outside of existing treaties.

On a positive note, the amount of regulated chemicals in humans and 
animals living in the Arctic was found to be decreasing. These include 
some Persistent Organic Pollutants regulated under UN Environment's 
Stockholm Convention. However, the decrease could be due to changing diets.

The report is available for download electronically at:
UN Environment and Grid Arendal
https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/3-5degc-temperature-rise-now-locked-arctic
see also graphics 
https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/27687/Arctic_Graphics.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

[Data displayed in brief video]
*Global Warming 1900-2100 by Country*
UPFSI - Published on Mar 15, 2019
This animation gives another way of looking at climate change... by 
nation.  Yes, it's still 'global warming' at its core, and that is 
evident from this animation.  But the anomalous cold spells confuse 
people who expect the warming to be noticeable from one day to the next.
No nation will escape the ravages of a warming planet once the Arctic 
ice cap is gone.  The current erratic weather, with extreme cold in 
unusual places and at unusual times, is just the prelude to what lies ahead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4nKBLDOArE

[medical whack-a-mole]
*Stanford researchers explore the effects of climate change on disease*
As the globe warms, mosquitoes will roam beyond their current habitats, 
shifting the burden of diseases like malaria, dengue fever, chikungunya 
and West Nile virus. But researchers offer some hope if climate change 
is held in check.
BY ROB JORDAN - MARCH 15, 2019
Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
A major takeaway: wealthy, developed countries such as the United States 
are not immune.

"It's coming for you," Mordecai said. "If the climate is becoming more 
optimal for transmission, it's going to become harder and harder to do 
mosquito control."

Mosquitoes and other biting insects transmit many of the most important, 
devastating and neglected human infectious diseases, including malaria, 
dengue fever, chikungunya and West Nile virus. Economic development and 
cooler temperatures have largely kept mosquito-borne diseases out of 
wealthier Northern Hemisphere countries, but climate change promises to 
tip the scales in the other direction.

"As the planet warms, we need to be able to predict what populations 
will be at risk for infectious diseases because prevention is always 
superior to reaction," said Desiree LaBeaud, an associate professor of 
pediatrics in the Stanford Medical School who collaborates on research 
with Mordecai.
- - -
"If you're thinking about impacts of climate change, this tells you a 
few degrees of warming has a really different impact depending on where 
you start relative to the optimum," Mordecai said.

The good news: higher global temperatures will decrease the chance of 
most vector-borne disease spreading in places that are currently 
relatively warm. The bad news: warming will increase the chance that all 
diseases spread in places that are currently relatively cold.

Meanwhile, many influential global health initiatives focus on cell and 
molecular biology rather than disease transmission. "I think they're 
missing a big area," Mordecai said. "If you have an ecological change 
that results in 96 million dengue cases a year, you should target that 
causal relationship even as you try to find a dengue vaccine and get it 
to as many people as possible."

It's crucial to understand and predict the rise and spread of diseases 
and to factor related health costs into public policy, according to 
Mordecai. "Otherwise, we're not going to be able to get a handle on 
this. We're going to be constantly playing whack-a-mole with whatever 
the new emerging disease is."
https://news.stanford.edu/2019/03/15/effect-climate-change-disease/

[aggressive ignorance]
*Freak-O-Nomics Indeed. Trump Ignorant of Solar Job Realities*
March 14, 2019
Gary Cohn was a Chief Economic Advisor to President Trump from 2017 to 
2018. He was the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs 
from 2006 to 2017.
He was recently interviewed for the Freakonomics podcast. 
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/cohn/
Freakonomics:

COHN: The president ran on coal and coal jobs. I remember vividly
having a conversation with the president on coal jobs versus
solar-panel installers. We ended up putting tariffs on solar panels,
which I didn't understand either. And I did turn to him one day and
I said, "Mr. President, how many coal miners do we have in the
United States and how many solar-panel installers do we have?" And I
said, "I'm not here to trick you up -- the answer's -- I'll make it
simple: less than 50,000 coal miners in the United States and more
than 350,000 solar-panel installers. And by the way, 10 years ago we
had no solar-panels installers. It's a growth industry in the United
States. In fact in California now, you cannot build a house without
solar panels. It's an industry that's going to continue to grow. And
we have to recognize where this country is going, not where this
country has been."

DUBNER: And was his connection to that, what most people would
consider an outdated belief, was that political, was it
intellectual, was it just kind of spiritual?

COHN: I think it was all the above. I think during his formative
years growing up, coal might have been an integral part in thinking
about the energy sectors, but clearly in states like West Virginia
and parts of Pennsylvania, he understood, and he was a bit of a
marketing genius on this. He understood in West Virginia, and
southern Ohio and Pennsylvania, you better go talk about coal. And
he understood in certain steel towns, when he looked at the empty
steel mills, he should talk about bringing back steel jobs.

The Trump plan to bring back steel jobs included placing tariffs on
foreign steel and aluminum -- along with solar panels and washing
machines and hundreds of other imported goods, especially those made
in China.

COHN: And when you put tariffs on goods that people in the United
States consume every day, it's a consumption tax. So all the tariffs
did is they made products that Americans were going to buy more
expensive. And in fact we got the final trade data numbers this
morning for what trade deficit looked like for last year in the
United States. And lo and behold, we hit an all-time record-high
trade deficit globally, and with China.

DUBNER: Despite the best efforts of the White House.

COHN: Tariffs don't work. If anything, they hurt the economy because
if you're a typical American worker, you have a finite amount of
income to spend. If you have to spend more on the necessity products
that you need to live, you have less to spend on the services that
you want to buy. And you definitely don't have anything left over to
save. So we should try and make the goods as cheap as possible. And
we don't produce the goods in the United States; we import the goods
from other countries. And if we could produce the goods as cheaply
as other countries do, we would produce them in the United States.
https://climatecrocks.com/2019/03/14/freak-o-nomics-indeed-trump-ignorant-of-solar-job-realities/

[video of candidate Beto O'Rourke talking global warming]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psjlHSSgMbc
--
[an overheard comment on Beto]
"it's not corporate PAC money (the campaign didn't accept PAC money).
Several oil & gas execs maxed out to Beto. He was pro-fracking in his 
campaign.
OpenSecrets website, counts $430,000 that O'Rourke's Senate campaign 
received from individuals who work in the oil and gas industry, 75 
percent has come in the form of "large" donations over $200. The donors 
include more than two dozen oil and gas executives. More than 30 
donations were the maximum allowed amount of $2,700."
https://readsludge.com/2018/12/10/beto-orourke-oil-and-gas-contributions-2018/

[Promoting Carbon Fuels PR budget for last decade = $1.4 Billion]
*Trade Associations and the Public Relations Industry*
How much money have the corporate and fossil fuel industry's powerful 
trade association allies spent to convince the American public that its 
products are beneficial and necessary - and to stymie progress on 
climate change that could harm its financial interests?

To find out, Climate Investigations Center researchers analyzed the 
public relations expenditures of these trade associations going back to 
2008, using data from publicly-available federal Form 990 tax records. 
The expenditures provide unique insight into trade association 
priorities and the willingness of public relations firms to represent 
socially harmful industries.

Between 2008 and 2017, these trade associations spent almost $1.4 
billion on public relations, advertising, and communications 
contractors. The American Petroleum Institute eclipses all spenders at 
$663 million over this time period, accounting for nearly half the total 
trackable spending from all trade associations. The US Chamber of 
Commerce ranked second at $244 million spent. We found that the public 
relations firms with the most lucrative contracts over the time period 
of our dataset were Edelman, DDC Advocacy, FleishmanHillard, and Blue 
Advertising (once part of Edelman).

Many of the trade associations we analyzed are fossil fuel associated 
but represent different sectors of the industry, such as oil, gas, coal, 
petrochemical, mining, and utility companies. Trade associations spend 
their revenue, from members' dues, on salaries, rent, and services such 
as lobbying and legal counsel, to forward the goals of the industry they 
represent.

Trade associations routinely utilize the advertising and front group -- 
astroturf -- services that public relations firms can provide. Top trade 
associations spend millions on public relations work each year, often 
targeting the Washington DC media market and political decision makers.  
Some prominent PR campaigns are launched nationwide,  while others 
create front groups that will intentionally never bear the trade 
association's name...

Trade Associations and the Public Relations Industry
How much money have the corporate and fossil fuel industry's powerful 
trade association allies spent to convince the American public that its 
products are beneficial and necessary - and to stymie progress on 
climate change that could harm its financial interests?

To find out, Climate Investigations Center researchers analyzed the 
public relations expenditures of these trade associations going back to 
2008, using data from publicly-available federal Form 990 tax records. 
The expenditures provide unique insight into trade association 
priorities and the willingness of public relations firms to represent 
socially harmful industries.

The trade associations we analyzed spent almost $1.4 billion on 
contracts with public relations, advertising, and communications 
contractors since 2008.
Between 2008 and 2017, these trade associations spent almost $1.4 
billion on public relations, advertising, and communications 
contractors. The American Petroleum Institute eclipses all spenders at 
$663 million over this time period, accounting for nearly half the total 
trackable spending from all trade associations. The US Chamber of 
Commerce ranked second at $244 million spent. We found that the public 
relations firms with the most lucrative contracts over the time period 
of our dataset were Edelman, DDC Advocacy, FleishmanHillard, and Blue 
Advertising (once part of Edelman).

Many of the trade associations we analyzed are fossil fuel associated 
but represent different sectors of the industry, such as oil, gas, coal, 
petrochemical, mining, and utility companies. Trade associations spend 
their revenue, from members' dues, on salaries, rent, and services such 
as lobbying and legal counsel, to forward the goals of the industry they 
represent.

Trade associations routinely utilize the advertising and front group -- 
astroturf -- services that public relations firms can provide. Top trade 
associations spend millions on public relations work each year, often 
targeting the Washington DC media market and political decision makers.  
Some prominent PR campaigns are launched nationwide,  while others 
create front groups that will intentionally never bear the trade 
association's name.
- - -
In addition to a comprehensive analysis of how industry utilizes these 
sizable contracts, CIC has made available all the IRS 990 tax forms used 
in this analysis, and produced interactive data visualizations and 
downloadable spreadsheets with the raw data.

In this report, the Climate Investigations Center has extended and 
updated the Center for Public Integrity's groundbreaking 2015 report on 
public relations spending by trade associations. Spending data we have 
compiled since the CPI analysis confirms that public relations firms 
remain in a lucrative and influential partnership with big business and 
energy trade associations.

The Center for Public Integrity published "Who needs lobbyists? See what 
big business spends to win American minds," which was the most thorough 
analysis of trade association spending to date in January 2015. The 
report compiled IRS 990 data from 2008 through 2012 to reveal that trade 
associations were often spending more on public relations firms than 
lobbyists. For some industries, advertising and front groups seemed to 
be the most powerful chosen means of achieving policy goals, putting 
public relations firms at the center of the policy debate over clean 
air, climate solutions, and good governance.

https://climateinvestigations.org/trade-association-pr-spending/
First media coverage at HuffPo, many stories to write:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/industry-trade-groups-public-relations-spending_n_5c89aa69e4b0fbd76620a0a3
There are pages for every trade association and PR company we covered, 
such as:
https://climateinvestigations.org/trade-association-pr-spending/united-states-chamber-of-commerce/
...where you will find interactive graphics and downloadable IRS 990s 
going back to 2008.  There are about 10 more good stories to write from 
this data and the survey.

Background:
We hit the PR industry pretty hard in 2014, asking a few simple 
questions about their climate change policies that many struggled to answer.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/04/worlds-top-pr-companies-rule-out-working-with-climate-deniers
wherein I was accidentally CC'ed on an email from Edelman executive 
telling staff, "there are only wrong answers for this guy."

We went back to the PR companies again in 2018 for statements on their 
climate policies:
https://climateinvestigations.org/public_relations-industry-climate-survey/

In 2014, Edelman freaked out being called out on climate denial:
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/78x4kg/the-worlds-biggest-pr-firm-is-in-denial-about-its-climate-change-denial

Eventually Edelman senior executives were fired or quit over this dust up:
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/jul/07/pr-edelman-climate-change-lost-executives-clients

and Edelman had to end its contract with API and clove off its 
advertising wing Blue after negative press
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/19/edelman-public-relations-ends-relationship-american-petroleum-institute
https://www.holmesreport.com/latest/article/edelman's-american-petroleum-institute-assignment-set-to-end

The data compilation extends by 5 years a report done in Jan 2015 by the 
Center for Public Integrity
https://publicintegrity.org/federal-politics/who-needs-lobbyists-see-what-big-business-spends-to-win-american-minds/
Please share. More to come.

[Oprah speaks]
*7 Books That Provocatively Tackle Climate Change*
They each fit into a new genre: cli-fi.
List of 7 novels in the new genre
https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/books/a26811549/climate-change-books/

[Christian Parenti]
*Climate Madness and the Nature of American Politics*
Earth101
Published on Dec 17, 2018
In this short Christian Parenti discusses the dangerous climate policies 
pursued by Donald Trump, a president who was elected by a minority. 
Parenti argues that the US Right does not need the popular vote. They 
have the machinery of the ever-more depopulated interior states, 
operationalized in the electoral college, gerrymandering, vote 
suppression, and the Senate. The US right may be able to maintain 
minority rule for the foreseeable future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlSq609fnVE

[Arctic News]*
**Accelerating Rise In Greenhouse Gas Levels*
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2019/03/accelerating-rise-in-greenhouse-gas-levels.html

[public disruption in a New England gathering]
Climate change lecture heats up, warranting police presence
*Andover Climate Change Lecture Gets Heated*
Some audience members began yelling "liar" and said the speaker was "not 
a real scientist."
By Dave Copeland, Patch Staff | Mar 8, 2019 3:52 pm ET
Boston University Prof. Anthony Janetos was called a "liar" during a 
talk in Andover. (Boston University)
ANDOVER, MA -- The moderator of a lecture on climate change at Memorial 
Hall Library had to end the talk early and call police after some 
attendees began heckling the speaker. Boston University Prof. Anthony 
Janetos was giving a talk on his own research, as well as the most 
recent U.S. National Climate Change Assessment that he co-wrote, when 
some audience members began yelling "liar" and saying he was "not a real 
scientist."

"One member in the audience was so adamant that climate change
science is a farce that he accused Janetos of being 'a liar,'"
lecture attendee Alison Page, 34, wrote in a letter to the
Eagle-Tribune, which first reported this story. "This caused a woman
in the back of the room to erupt in anger and start name calling."

https://www.eagletribune.com/news/merrimack_valley/climate-change-lecture-heats-up-warranting-police-presence/article_1f1610f6-b024-5a66-a3dc-870ea74a43a0.html
https://patch.com/massachusetts/andover/andover-climate-change-lecture-gets-heated

[a better example of New England civility]
N.H. Town Passes Law Recognizing Right to a Healthy Climate
By Dana Drugmand
The town of Exeter, N.H. passed an ordinance recognizing the right to a 
healthy climate, the second ordinance of its kind to be passed in the U.S,.

The law, dubbed the Right to Healthy Climate Ordinance, recognizes the 
"right to a healthy climate system capable of sustaining human 
societies." Exeter residents voted 1176 to 1007 to pass the ordinance at 
the annual town meeting on Tuesday.

It follows a similar law passed by the town of Lafayette, Colo., which 
enacted a "Climate Bill of Rights" ordinance in 2017. These local 
right-to-climate laws are part of a growing movement by communities 
across the country to ban corporate activities that threaten residents' 
health, safety and welfare. With assistance from the Community 
Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), more than 200 communities have 
passed community rights ordinances securing rights to water, a healthy 
environment, sustainable energy and other issues. They prohibit an array 
of industrial activities from factory farms and dumping of sewage sludge 
to fracking and building fossil fuel pipelines.

Exeter, home to about 15,000 residents, is one of eight towns in New 
Hampshire fighting  a proposed pipeline project that would transport 
fracked gas across the Piscataqua River Watershed, an ecosystem that 
hundreds of thousands of people and countless species depend upon for 
clean air and water. The 27-mile Granite Bridge pipeline, a project of 
Liberty Utility, is not specifically mentioned in Exeter's ordinance, 
which instead asserts the broader right to "be free from all corporate 
activities that release toxic contaminants into the air, water, and 
soil," including from fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure.

"Our right to a healthy climate is an unalienable right. Any new energy 
infrastructure in our town must align with that right. We live here, and 
what we envision for our community comes before what any project 
developer and state government envision if it threatens our rights," 
said Maura Fay, co-founder of the community group Citizen Action for 
Exeter's Environment.

Exeter joins nearly a dozen other communities across New Hampshire that 
have enacted rights-based ordinances, according to Michelle Sanborn, New 
Hampshire community organizer with CELDF.  The town of Nottingham is set 
to vote Saturday on a community rights ordinance that includes a 
provision establishing the right to a healthy climate.

The effort to establish this right at the local level represents a new 
avenue for challenging the fossil fuel industry and the government 
agencies that approve its infrastructure projects. A handful of cities 
and counties are suing the fossil fuel industry demanding it pay for 
costly climate adaptation measures. And a youth climate lawsuit against 
the federal government is currently pending in the Ninth Circuit Court 
of Appeals. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken acknowledged the plausibility 
of a constitutional climate right, writing in her motion that ordered 
Juliana v. United States to trial in November 2016, "I have no doubt 
that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is 
fundamental to a free and ordered society."
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2019/03/14/exeter-new-hampshire-right-healthy-climate/

*This Day in Climate History - March 16, 2007- from D.R. Tucker*
March 16, 2007: On "ABC World News Tonight," correspondent Bill 
Blakemore explains the risks of rising worldwide temperatures.
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/difference-degree-makes-2958041
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