[TheClimate.Vote] July 15, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

Wed Jul 15 09:08:59 EDT 2020

/*July 15, 2020*/

[July 14, 2020]
*Biden Announces $2 Trillion Climate Plan*
Katie Glueck and Lisa Friedman
Joe Biden's plan connects tackling climate change with the economic 
recovery from the coronavirus crisis, while also addressing racism. The 
proposal drew praise from his onetime critics...
- -
"These are the most critical investments we can make for the long-term 
health and vitality of both the American economy and the physical health 
and safety of the American people," he said. "When Donald Trump thinks 
about climate change, the only word he can muster is 'hoax.' When I 
think about climate change, the word I think of is 'jobs.'"...
- -
The new plan does appear to have made some inroads with a different 
constituency: progressive Democrats.
"This is not a status quo plan," said Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, a 
prominent environmentalist who ran a climate-focused campaign for the 
Democratic presidential nomination and later endorsed Mr. Biden...
- -
And he offered a vision for "new, clean, made-in-America vehicles" to be 
made more accessible to American consumers as well.

He also pressed the need to link environmental advocacy to racial 
justice, describing pollution and other toxic harms that 
disproportionately affect communities of color. His plan calls for 
establishing an office of environmental and climate justice at the 
Justice Department and developing a broad set of tools to address how 
"environmental policy decisions of the past have failed communities of 
color."...
- -
In a call with reporters on Tuesday morning, senior Biden campaign 
officials said the proposal was the product of discussions with climate 
activists and experts; union officials and representatives from the 
private sector; and mayors and governors. Evergreen Action, an 
organization that advocates far-reaching climate goals and is led by a 
number of former Inslee staff members, also discussed ideas with Mr. 
Biden's staff in recent months, the organization said.

Mr. Biden's original plan called for spending $1.7 trillion over 10 
years with a goal of achieving net-zero emissions before 2050. The new 
blueprint significantly increases the amount of money and accelerates 
the timetable.

Paying for it, campaign officials said, will come from a mix of 
increasing the corporate income tax rate from 21 to 28 percent, "asking 
the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share" and some 
still-undetermined amount of stimulus money...
- -
By late Tuesday afternoon, the Trump campaign had called the proposal a 
"socialist manifesto" and said Mr. Biden was "pushing extreme policies 
that would smother the economy."

Mr. Biden insisted that "these aren't pie-in-the-sky dreams," saying, 
"These are actionable policies."

One major element of the announcement will include charting a path to 
zero carbon pollution from the U.S. electricity sector by 2035. 
According to the Energy Information Association, coal and natural gas 
still account for more than 60 percent of the sector.

Campaign officials said they expected to achieve the goal by encouraging 
the installation of "millions of new solar panels and tens of thousands 
of wind turbines," but also keeping in place existing nuclear energy 
plants. The plan also will call for investing in carbon capture and 
storage technology for natural gas.
- -
Kathleen Sgamma, the president of the Western Energy Alliance, which 
represents oil and gas companies, said Mr. Biden's goals were 
"unrealistic" and would hurt energy producers.

"We'll focus on moderating these policies once Biden moves from 
appeasing the left during the campaign to potentially governing," she said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/biden-climate-plan.html

- - -

[Two plans in one]
*Biden's New Climate Plan Is Also His Stimulus Plan*
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/biden-new-climate-change-plan-coronavirus-stimulus-green-new-deal.html

[House Democrats task force]
*National Security Task Force Outlines Climate Crisis Threats*
Streamed live 10 hours ago
House Democrats
Join us as we discuss ways to tackle the climate crisis risks to 
America's national security.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIh7wvSZTKM

[facts verses opinion]
*How Facebook Handles Climate Disinformation*
Critics say a company policy that exempts opinion articles from 
fact-checking amounts to a huge loophole for climate change deniers.
Veronica Penney - July 14, 2020
As Covid-19 spread across the globe early this year, Facebook went into 
action to combat potentially dangerous disinformation on its site. The 
company labeled and suppressed misleading content, removed 
disinformation and directed users to reputable sources, including the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

This swift action stood in sharp contrast to Facebook's stance on 
another divisive and complex danger: climate change. That's because, 
under the company's guidelines, climate content can be classified as 
opinion and therefore exempted from fact-checking procedures.
The policy means that peer-reviewed science can be lumped into the same 
category as industry statements and even blatant disinformation. In 
September, for example, the CO2 Coalition, a nonprofit group that says 
increased carbon emissions are good for the planet, successfully 
overturned a fact-check when Facebook quietly labeled its post as 
"opinion."...
- -
All opinion content on the platform -- including op-ed articles or posts 
that express the views or agendas of politicians, businesses, and 
nongovernmental organizations -- is exempt from fact-checking. This 
policy has been in place since 2016, according to said Andy Stone, 
Facebook's policy communications director...
- -
Deciding what's opinion is at the discretion of Facebook, not the fact 
checkers.

In August, that policy attracted attention when the CO2 Coalition shared 
a Washington Examiner op-ed article that disputed the accuracy of 
climate change models. Climate Feedback labeled the post as "false."

The CO2 Coalition appealed the decision and, according to Climate 
Feedback, Facebook responded by informing the fact checkers that the 
post was opinion content, and thus exempt from scrutiny by outside fact 
checkers.

"Placing statements that are verifiably false in an opinion section 
shouldn't grant immunity from fact-checking," Mr. Johnson said.

According to Climate Feedback, the op-ed cherry-picked facts and 
compiled them in a deliberately misleading manner. You can read the full 
fact-check here.

John Podesta, an adviser to President Barack Obama who coordinated the 
administration's climate policy, called Facebook's opinion policy "a 
loophole that you can drive a Mack truck through."

*Loophole or free speech? *
According to Mr. Stone, Facebook is most concerned with flagging or 
removing content that poses an immediate threat to human health and 
safety, including disinformation about the coronavirus or hate speech 
that incites violence. Climate change content, he said, does not fall 
within that category.
Mr. Stone said that The Washington Examiner post, originally published 
as an op-ed, clearly aligned with Facebook's definition of opinion 
content and added that fact checkers should have been aware of that 
classification.

Mr. Podesta asserted that the policy amounts to a loophole for 
disinformation. He said some opinion pieces are "full of factual lies."

"We're not objecting to people having opinions," he said. "We're 
objecting to the spread of disinformation and lies under the cover of 
opinion."

Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric science at Texas A&M who 
helped fact-check the Washington Examiner item, agreed. He said he 
supports debate around policy questions, like how much carbon emissions 
should be reduced, but not about the decades of peer-reviewed research 
that have established scientific facts about climate change. "They 
aren't up for debate," Mr. Dessler said. "Not everybody's opinion is 
equal on that."

When pressed to combat disinformation, Facebook often points to its 
policy of protecting free speech and freedom of opinion. In May, the 
company founder, Mark Zuckerberg, told Fox News that the platform should 
not become the "arbiter of truth of everything people say online."...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/climate/climate-facebook-fact-checking.html

[NYTimes]
*G.A.O.: Trump Boosts Deregulation by Undervaluing Cost of Climate Change*
The Government Accountability Office has found that the Trump 
administration is undervaluing the cost of climate change to boost its 
deregulatory efforts...
- -
The report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress's 
nonpartisan investigative arm, said the Trump administration estimated 
the harm that global warming will cause future generations to be seven 
times lower than previous federal estimates. Reducing that metric, known 
as the "social cost of carbon," has helped the administration massage 
cost-benefit analyses, particularly for rules that allow power plants 
and automobiles to emit more planet-warming carbon dioxide...
- -
By 2050, under the estimates developed by the Obama administration, the 
social cost of carbon should be about $82 a ton, the report found. Under 
the Trump administration's calculations, the damages would be around $11 
a ton.

"This really parallels the mismanagement of coronavirus," said Michael 
K. Dorsey, a limited partner with IberSun, a renewable energy company, 
and a climate expert who has testified before Congress on the social 
cost of carbon.

"There's this belief that by doing this you will have some effect of 
helping the fossil fuel industry," he said of the administration's low 
carbon cost. "The only thing it does, unfortunately, is undermine the 
ability of the government to make prudent decisions about moving 
critical resources to communities that are experiencing the unfolding 
climate crisis."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/climate/trump-climate-change-carbon-cost.html

[Interesting, and not bad news]
*Incredible Sahara Dust Plume Sweeping Across The Atlantic Is Largest on 
Record*
EVAN GOUGH, UNIVERSE TODAY 14 JULY 2020
Records of the Saharan dust plume go back about 20 years, and this one 
ranks as one of the biggest. It's common for these dust plume to reach 
the US, but this one is extraordinarily large. The NOAA says that the 
plume is about 60 percent to 70 percent larger than average.
- -
Keen satellite eyes have been watching the plume as it developed and 
headed out to sea. The ESA's Copernicus Sentinel and Aeolus satellites 
have tracked the plume's progress. The plume is so big, it's earned the 
nick-name Godzilla.

The meteorological name for the plume is the Saharan Air Layer (SAL). 
The SAL forms between late Spring and early Autumn. Strong surface winds 
pick up the dust and carry it into the air and over the Atlantic Ocean....
- -
Though its appearance in satellite imagery is foreboding, the dust plume 
might actually be good news. According to the NOAA, these plumes can 
actually inhibit the formation of hurricanes. And it can also prevent 
the ones that do form from becoming more powerful and destructive.

The dust is also a nutrient source for phytoplankton, the tiny marine 
plants that float near the surface of the ocean. Phytoplankton is 
critical to the food web, providing food for animals higher up the food 
chain. Phytoplankton is also photosynthetic, creating oxygen for the 
biosphere...
- -
The dust plumes also replenish nutrients as far away as the Amazon rain 
forest. The heavy and frequent rains there can deplete essential 
nutrients. Without these plumes, the Amazon likely wouldn't exhibit such 
stunning biodiversity and may not have such an intricate food web.

But there is bad news associated with the dust plume. The haze can 
trigger air quality alerts, and can be a health risk, especially for 
people with underlying health conditions. That's partly because the dust 
has travelled so far that many of the larger particles have fallen to 
the surface. What's left is the smaller particles, which are most 
dangerous to people.

But for many people in the path of the plume, the part they'll remember 
is the sunsets. With all that dust in the air, the sunsets and sunrises 
will look stunning.
https://www.sciencealert.com/watch-this-incredible-plume-of-dust-from-africa-cross-the-entire-atlantic-ocean

[Superb, positive conversation]
*What Could Possibly Go Right? | Episode 8 with Heather Cox Richardson*
Jul 9, 2020
postcarboninstitute

Heather Cox Richardson addresses the question of What Could Possibly Go 
Right? with a political focus. Her insights include:

That the current condition is waking people up from autopilot and 
creating the realization they need to pursue change personally to create 
the society in which they want to live.

A reminder that the beauty of a democratic system is getting to choose 
which direction to go.

That the desire for equality of opportunity and access should no longer 
be pushed to the narrative of special interest in politics.

The potential to innovate and create change through crowdsourcing 
government and society.

That the American dream needs to be rewritten and move away from the 
heteronormative nuclear family as its centerpiece, to a more 
community-centered and diverse view.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhplj1ZmQtk

[Important lesson in media]
*Astroturfing: How To Spot A Fake Movement*
May 29, 2020
Second Thought
If the Reopen America protests seem a little off to you, that's because 
they are. In this video we're going to talk about astroturfing and how 
insidious it is.
Astroturfing: How To Spot A Fake Movement – Second Thought
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3hFfbIXpg4

[year old video summarizes situation]
*The New UN Climate Report: We're Screwed*
Aug 16, 2019
Second Thought
Last year's IPCC report was scary, and it got some decent attention, but 
of course everyone has forgotten by now. The recent UN climate report 
should jog your memory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHdcpxmJ6vg

[Science Friday Podcast 34 mins]
*The Climate Is Changing--But Can We?*
- -
But beyond the graphs and figures, how do you get people to actually 
take action? And are small changes in behavior enough--or is a reshaping 
of society needed to deal with the climate crisis?

Climate journalist Eric Holthaus and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, founder of 
the Urban Ocean Lab, talk with Ira about creating a climate revolution, 
the parallels between the climate crisis and other conversations about 
social structures like Black Lives Matter, and the challenges of working 
towards a better future in the midst of the chaos of 2020. Then Matthew 
Goldberg, a researcher at the Yale Project on Climate Communication, 
shares some tips for having difficult climate conversations with friends 
and family...
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/changing-climate-behaviors/

[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - July 15, 2007 *
The Prince album "Planet Earth" is released. The title track tackles 
both climate change and the Iraq War, with Prince pointedly observing:

    "50 years from now what will they say about us here?/
    Did we care for the water and the fragile atmosphere?/
    There are only 2 kinds of folk/
    And the difference they make/
    The ones that give/
    And the ones that take."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/arts/music/22pare.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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