[TheClimate.Vote] June 12, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*June 12, 2020*/

[campaigns - Data for Progress]
*MEMO: IN 2020, CLIMATE IS A WINNING ISSUE FOR DEMOCRATS*
By Ethan Winter, Julian Brave NoiseCat, and Marcela Mulholland
*Executive Summary*

    - - Voters have a positive impression of an agenda to tackle climate
    change. A Green New Deal, for instance, maintains a net favorable
    rating of eleven percentage points.

    - - Voters trust the Democratic Party more than the Republican Party
    when it comes to climate change by an 18 percentage point margin.

    - - Firm commitments on the part of former Vice President Joe Biden
    provide an avenue for winning increased support - especially with
    voters under forty-five.

As part of a May survey, Data for Progress sought to test attitudes 
around a series of issues surrounding climate change. We were especially 
interested in the way climate change is influencing the ongoing 
presidential campaign, general opinions towards climate-related 
individuals and organizations, and potential support for a host of 
proposals designed to combat climate change.

[Read the full memo]
http://filesforprogress.org/memos/climate-change-winning-issue-2020.pdf
https://www.dataforprogress.org/memos/climate-change-winning-issue-2020

- - -

[Campaign 2020]
*Trump's biggest weakness? The environment, polls show*
Scott Waldman, E&E News reporter -Thursday, June 11, 2020
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063366837
Recent polling has shown that U.S. voters are more split on 
environmental issues -- rather than health care, race relations or the 
economy -- when it comes to their impressions of Biden and Trump.

One of the widest gaps in how voters perceive the presidential 
candidates is on environmental policy, even as the nation reckons with a 
deadly pandemic and an eruption of protests over racial injustice.

Recent polls reveal broad mistrust of President Trump's handling of 
environmental issues, suggesting that Joe Biden, the presumptive 
Democratic nominee, has a large advantage on those issues less than five 
months before the election.

The gulf between Trump and Biden on the environment is larger than their 
perceived differences to voters over race relations, the economy and 
health care, according to recent polling. Those issues are nevertheless 
expected to be central themes of the November election.

"The president has earned his disadvantage on the environment," said 
former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.). "In many ways, the challenge of 
climate change is similar to the challenge posed to the world by the 
novel coronavirus. Climate change requires international cooperation, 
bold action, serious sober leadership, and the president doesn't do well 
in those scenarios."

Trump was 20 percentage points behind Biden on the environment, with 46% 
of respondents saying the former vice president would do a better job 
and 26% saying Trump was better, according to a poll released last week 
by Research Co. It was conducted as protests began across the country.

That suggests the candidates are further apart on the environment than 
on race relations (17-percentage-point difference), even though the 
survey was conducted as protests erupted in cities across the country. 
Forty-four percent of likely voters preferred Biden's handling of racial 
issues compared with 27% for Trump.

Those findings echo a Morning Consult poll released last month. It found 
a 19-percentage-point gap between the candidates on the environment. The 
survey said it "dwarfs that of all other issues."

Since Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee in March, he has 
led Trump on environmental issues by 17.2 percentage points on average, 
according to Morning Consult. That gap persisted as the biggest 
difference between the candidates through five Morning Consult polls 
conducted between March and May.

Voters trust Democrats to handle climate change better than Republicans 
by an 18-percentage-point margin, according to a memo released Monday by 
Data for Progress. The group's polling found that Biden could strengthen 
his support among young voters by developing a more aggressive climate 
platform.

Activists have been pushing him to be more aggressive in combating 
greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and to strengthen his 
policies toward helping communities of color grapple with rising 
temperatures.

"If we are able to turn the 2020 election into a referendum on President 
Trump and the Republican Party's very backwards stance on climate change 
... I really like the terms of that debate," said Julian Brave NoiseCat, 
vice president of policy and strategy for the progressive think tank 
Data for Progress.

The number of protests sparked by the death of George Floyd stands to 
increase the gap in voter preference between Trump and Biden on race, 
observers said.

That could mean voters who are focused on the environment may shift 
their focus to police reform, said Michael Fauntroy, a political science 
professor at Howard University and author of "Republicans and the Black 
Vote."

"There's a very limited capacity for the public in even calm times to 
pay attention to a lot of things at once, and so I'm worried from an 
environmental policy perspective that the issues that need to be 
considered in that regard, that candidates need to address, won't be 
called on to address because of these more important issues," he said.

Likely voters who tend to be involved in the protests -- younger people 
and people of color -- also tend to be involved in climate issues, 
according to researchers. And the prevalence of the environment as a 
wedge issue between the candidates has likely been reinforced by the 
pandemic, said Nathaniel Stinnett, executive director of the nonpartisan 
Environmental Voter Project.

As the country reveals divisions over following health experts with 
regard to self-quarantines versus reopening the economy, voters are more 
likely to see Biden and Trump in starkly different terms.

"It almost seems that the pandemic is actually further clarifying 
people's views on the climate crisis and environment issues because 
their struggle is similar in many ways," Stinnett said. "The pandemic is 
throwing into sharp relief what it means to create a society that can 
deal with these enormous public health challenges and accept scientific 
solutions."

There are still younger voters who can be persuaded to vote in the fall, 
since neither candidate has won over the younger-than-45 age group, 
observers said. And while progressives may be motivated to vote for 
Biden if he strengthens his climate platform, he could also pick up some 
Republicans, particularly in key states like Florida, where 
environmental issues are bipartisan, said Curbelo, who was among the 
most vocal Republican lawmakers on climate issues.

"The issue could make the difference among moderate Republicans, younger 
Republicans who feel strongly about the need for the government to 
address climate change meaningfully," he said. "So it's not just that 
this is a top issue, it could be the deciding issue in certain states."
Twitter: @scottpwaldmanEmail: swaldman at eenews.net
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063366837



[One more thing changing]
JUNE 11, 2020
*Extreme waves set to get bigger and more frequent due to climate change*
A warming planet will cause stronger storm winds triggering larger and 
more frequent extreme waves over the next 80 years, with largest 
increases shown in the Southern Ocean, according to new research.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne have simulated Earth's 
changing climate under different wind conditions, recreating thousands 
of simulated storms to evaluate the magnitude and frequency of extreme 
events.

The study found that if global emissions are not curbed there will be an 
increase of up to 10 percent in the frequency and magnitude of extreme 
waves in extensive ocean regions.

In contrast, researchers found there would be a significantly lower 
increase where effective steps are taken to reduce emissions and 
dependence on fossil fuels. In both scenarios, the largest increase in 
magnitude and frequency of extreme waves is in the Southern Ocean..
https://phys.org/news/2020-06-extreme-bigger-frequent-due-climate.html



[One candidate listening - video 3 mins]
*Town Hall: Candidate Jen Richardson (MI-6) and Peter Sinclair on 
Renewable Energy*
Selected Transcript:

    "It worries me to have two private monopolies taking all the money..."

    Here's the interesting thing about renewable energy -- by its nature
    it is distributed.
    and if history teaches us anything, is that political power follows
    money -- no big surprise there

    And the way you're generating electricity which is fundamental to
    your economy

    One of the fundamental pieces is based on big central power plants
    -- if I live in a small town or rural Michigan I turn on a light
    switch the money is
    going in a way -- it's going God knows where eventually -- I suppose
    to some bank in New York

    But if there are wind turbines in my community then every time I
    turn on the light, revenue is coming to my community

    It's going into the pockets of farmers, it's going into the tax
    rolls of townships and counties -- who are then spending it on
    things like schools and roads and teachers and sheriff's deputies
    and fire departments and libraries.

    It is creating, it is giving the opportunity for more political
    power, more political impetus
    for these bodies right down to the township level right that they
    that had been hollowed out that there had been

    These communities have been left behind but now they have the
    potential to see wind turbines, to see
    solar fields -- they have the potential for anybody with a
    good-sized flat roof or a parking lot is going to have the potential
    to put solar.

    Michigan state has a parking lot solar ten megawatt solar array that
    is fantastically successful they're going to triple it in size so
    we're gonna see
    the the devolution of power to the periphery to to to from states
    down to counties down to townships down to communities down to small
    businesses and
    farmers and individuals yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn-3J2bEkec



[terrible, but not surprising]
*'Exceptionally Troubling': Researchers Show Hack-for-Hire Operation 
Targeted Groups Fighting for Climate Action and Net Neutrality*
"If the investigation demonstrates that Exxon is behind these attacks, 
it only shows how far the fossil fuel industry will go to silence critics."
by Julia Conley, staff writer
The Canadian digital watchdog group Citizen Lab reported Tuesday that a 
hack-for-hire group targeted thousands of organizations around the 
world, including climate advocacy groups involved in the #ExxonKnew 
campaign.

Groups that have asserted ExxonMobil knew about and hid data linking 
fossil fuel extraction to the climate crisis for years were among those 
that faced phishing attempts by a group dubbed "Dark Basin" by Citizen 
Lab. According to the research, numerous progressive groups--including 
Public Citizen, Greenpeace, 350.org, and Oil Change International--were 
among those targeted.

After an extensive multi-year investigation, Citizen Lab reported that 
it has linked Dark Basin "with high confidence" to BellTroX InfoTech 
Services, a technology company based in India which has publicly stated 
its hacking capabilities.
In 2017 when Citizen Lab began its investigation, the group believed 
Dark Basin could be state-sponsored, but soon determined it was likely a 
hack-for-hire operation. Its targets--which also included journalists, 
elected officials, and digital rights groups that have lobbied for net 
neutrality--"were often on only one side of a contested legal 
proceeding, advocacy issue, or business deal."

The watchdog has not been able to definitively link Dark Basin's 
phishing efforts to particular entities which would have an interest in 
threatening the #ExxonKnew campaign and net neutrality advocates.

"That said, the extensive targeting of American nonprofits exercising 
their First Amendment rights is exceptionally troubling," wrote Citizen 
Lab in its report...
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/10/exceptionally-troubling-researchers-show-hack-hire-operation-targeted-groups



[Yale Climate Connections audio 1:30]
*Retreat from rising seas may require more than moving homes*
When people relocate, they will also need jobs, schools, community 
centers, hospitals - and each other.
Rising seas and erosion are putting many low-lying coastal communities 
in jeopardy.

"Some of the places become essentially uninhabitable after a while. Some 
of the islands in the South Pacific, off the Coast of Alaska, and other 
places … really don't have a chance of existing 50 years from now," says 
Andrew Dannenberg of the University of Washington.

He says the risks are forcing some small communities to relocate, which 
can be traumatic.

"Many of these communities are indigenous communities they have lived 
there for centuries," he says. "And the idea of abandoning your land and 
moving is culturally and socially and mentally very difficult."

So he says to support vulnerable people, relocation may need to include 
more than moving homes. To thrive, people also need jobs, schools, 
community centers, hospitals, and each other.

"It's the culture and resources around you," Dannenberg says. "It's 
everything from having transportation systems, having sanitation 
systems, it's having the social support of people in the community."

Making this all part of a community's relocation plan can be 
challenging, and funding is often scarce. But Dannenberg says that a 
holistic approach is important to people's health and wellbeing.
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/06/retreat-from-rising-seas-may-require-more-than-moving-homes/



[leaving Weather Underground now to Yale]
*Jeff Masters, Bob Henson to post regularly for YCC*
Two respected meteorologists to provide regular analyses, commentary, 
insights on extreme weather and climate change issues.
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/06/jeff-masters-bob-henson-to-post-regularly-for-ycc/
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/end-of-an-era-category-6-to-close-shop-this-month



[Digging back into the internet news archive - this is an important mark 
in history]
*On this day in the history of global warming - June 12, 1996 *
Unrepentant professional climate-change denialist Frederick Seitz 
wrongfully accuses climate scientist Ben Santer of fraud in a Wall 
Street Journal op-ed. Seitz's claims are quickly debunked, but the op-ed 
forms the centerpiece of a years-long effort by the fossil fuel industry 
to destroy Santer's life, reputation and career.

http://www.odlt.org/dcd/docs/Seitz%20-%20A%20Major%20Deception%20on%20Global%20Warming.pdf
http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Publications/PDF_Papers/WSJ_June25.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py2XVILHUjQ *32000 Scientists *[This such 
an important video]

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