[✔️] September 16, 2022 - Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*September 16, 2022*/

/[powerful revealing report - a PDF 100 pages - yesterday  ]/
*Today the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight released a 
report on misinformation by ad and PR companies on behalf of fossil fuels.*

It includes never before seen documents describing the strategy of these 
campaigns submitted to award shows: 
https://cleancreatives.org/s/20220914-Hearing-Report_PR-Firms-Preventing-Action-on-Climate-Change.pdf
*The Role of Public Relations Firms in Preventing Action on Climate Change*
NOTE: THIS REPORT WAS PREPARED BY THE MAJORITY STAFF OF THE HOUSE
COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES. IT HAS NOT BEEN OFFICIALLY ADOPTED BY THE
COMMITTEE AND MAY NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF ITS MEMBERS.
September 14, 2022
The oil and gas industry’s role in spreading climate misinformation to 
prevent action on climate
change has been extensively studied, but less is known about the 
critical role of public relations
(PR) firms in that process. The House Natural Resources Committee 
(Committee) has been
investigating the sophisticated and varied ways in which some PR firms 
use their considerable
public-influence expertise to help industry mislead the public and block 
climate change policy
proposals. This report summarizes the investigative findings to date.
The Committee has jurisdiction over management of federal fossil fuel 
resources with the potential
to drive climate change, and conservation of public lands, public 
waters, and species harmed by
climate change. Public perception of climate change influences 
implementation of current federal
policy and informs development of potential legislation within the 
Committee’s authority.
PUBLIC RELATIONS FIRMS’ DISINFORMATION AND OBSTRUCTION TACTICS
PR firms go far beyond typical marketing techniques to get results for 
the fossil fuel industry.
These tactics are misleading or deceptive by design, often making it 
difficult for outsiders to
discern the full breadth of a PR firm’s campaign.
The Committee’s ongoing investigation into the role of PR firms has 
uncovered new details about
the inner workings of their campaigns. Documents obtained by the 
Committee (attached as
appendices) detail a sampling of the strategies and techniques PR firms 
use to successfully sway
public opinion and stymie climate action. The documents show in raw, 
clinical detail how the firms
evaluate whether they were successful in helping oil and gas companies 
avoid having to take real
action on the climate crisis, or stop others from doing so. Their 
strategies fall into three major
categories: 1) corporate image promotion, 2) third-party mobilization, 
and 3) delegitimization of
opposition.1
https://cleancreatives.org/s/20220914-Hearing-Report_PR-Firms-Preventing-Action-on-Climate-Change.pdf



/[ Video interviews from Democracy Now - - video ]/
*“Infuriating”: A Third of Pakistan Is Underwater. Calls Grow for 
Climate Reparations and Debt Cancellation*
SEPTEMBER 15, 2022
Nearly 1,500 people have died and tens of millions have been displaced 
in Pakistan, where catastrophic flooding has left a third of the country 
underwater, washing away homes, farmlands, bridges, hospitals and 
schools. “People have lost everything,” says Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a 
Pakistani artist and the grandson of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister 
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto says the flooding has caused an epidemic of 
malaria and dengue fever, and calls on the International Monetary Fund 
to cancel the country’s debts and commit to climate reparations...
https://www.democracynow.org/2022/9/15/pakistan_catastrophic_flooding_climate_change_flood



/[New King of a Carbon Empire ]/
*Stop calling Charles the "climate king"*
The new British monarch has not earned such a title, say climate 
activists from colonized nations
Emily Atkin - Sep 14
- -
We’ll also discuss the inseparable link between British colonialism and 
climate change, and the tragic irony of Charles’ ascension coinciding 
with climate devastation in Pakistan, a former British colony...
- -
“Regardless of what King Charles may have done for the environment in 
his personal capacity, he is an inheritor of the legacy of the British 
monarchy and the British empire.”...
- -
Not only was the British empire an oppressive colonial entity, it was 
also quite literally the one political power that started the 
fossil-fueled Industrial Revolution, the driving force behind climate 
change.

The fact that the Industrial Revolution originated in Britain is not 
merely an accident of circumstances, or because of some uniquely British 
inventiveness. It was, above all, attributable to the colonial plunder 
of other parts of the world, which provided much of the capital 
investment for the large-scale buildout of manufacturing facilities and 
machinery.

In other words, the only reason the monarchy had the money to kick off 
the Industrial Revolution was because it took that money from other 
countries through colonization. And while that revolution continued, and 
carbon started pouring into the atmosphere, the monarchy grew its 
wealth, while the countries it colonized were left destabilized.

The destabilization from colonization is a big reason why today, so many 
current and former British colonies do not have the resources for 
mitigating, adapting to, or recovering from the effects of climate 
change, advocates say. The present-day apocalyptic flooding in Pakistan 
is a prime example...
- -
Indeed, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has explicitly 
named colonialism as a past and present driver of climate injustice. In 
its last report, the international consortium of the world’s top climate 
scientists said that high vulnerability is driven by “historical and 
ongoing patterns of inequity such as colonialism, especially for many 
Indigenous Peoples and local communities.”

In addition, research published in the journal PNAS in 2020 found that 
colonization “disrupted livelihoods, reshaped land- and seascapes, 
threatened intergenerational ecological knowledge transfer, and led to 
increased inequality and climate vulnerability” on islands in the 
Caribbean and southwestern Indian Ocean...
- -
There’s also the fact that the King is traditionally a non-political 
figure. The main purpose of his position is to defend and uphold the 
monarchy. He’s now expected to bite his tongue far more than he did as 
Prince. If he were ever going to criticize the monarchy—and, on top of 
that, call for its partial dissolution—the time has probably passed.

But the biggest indicator that Charles will never earn the title of 
“climate king” is the nature of monarchy itself. The fact is, kings are 
not in the business of giving power back to the people they rule over. 
The business of kings amounts to hoarding power; to hoarding wealth; and 
to believing that you know what is best for the poor. Monarchy itself is 
antithetical to climate justice, which calls for giving power back to 
the people most harmed by the climate crisis.

Anthony Rogers-Wright, a Sierra Leonean and environmental justice 
director at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, puts it this way:

The idea of a ‘climate king’ reinforces the idea that only people with 
immense power can create change. And that’s just false. Greta Thunberg 
was just a teenager, but she had more impact on the global climate 
discussion than King Charles ever had. People have to know they have 
that power too, and that this movement has to be grassroots, and 
bottom-up. So I think it's harmful, actually, to continue this 
narrative. Not only wealthy, rich white men can get us out of this crisis.
https://heated.world/p/stop-calling-charles-the-climate

/
/

/[ watch out for a disappearing tax base 
CC_Sinking_Tax_Base_20220908a.pdf ]/
*Sinking Tax Base**
**Land & Property at Risk from Rising Seas*
A new analysis by Climate Central delivers an assessment of sea level rise
impact on the tax base of hundreds of coastal U.S. counties—specifically,
the potential loss of taxable properties caused by shifting tidal 
boundaries.
Publish Date: 9/8/2022

    Summary
    A new analysis by Climate Central delivers an assessment of sea
    level rise impact on the tax base of hundreds of
    coastal U.S. counties—specifically, the potential loss of taxable
    properties caused by shifting tidal boundaries.
    Coastal flooding caused by sea level rise is shifting the tide lines
    that many coastal states use to delineate
    boundaries between public and private property. Changes in property
    boundaries can have significant
    implications for both property owners and local property tax
    revenues—a primary source of funding for
    schools and services provided by local governments.

    The analysis takes into account the state-specific boundary
    definitions, allowing for a clearer assessment of
    the potential loss of private (taxable) property in the coastal U.S.
    Climate Central generated this national-level
    report as well as more than 250 individual county-level reports
    providing data on the acreage, improvements,
    and number of parcels potentially affected by rising seas.
    This summary of key findings reveals what’s at risk for coastal
    counties and their tax bases:

    -  By mid-century, more than 648,000 individual tax parcels,
    totaling as many as 4.4 million acres, are
    projected to be at least partly below the relevant tidal boundary
    level. Of those, more than 48,000
    properties may be entirely below the relevant boundary level.
    Florida, Louisiana, and Texas have the
    largest number of affected parcels.

    -- Buildings may be concentrated at historically-safe elevations
    along the coast; when rising seas breach
    a certain threshold, these densely-developed elevation bands reach a
    tipping point and the number of
    affected buildings sharply increases.

    -- At least $108 billion of assessed value is at risk from rising
    seas by 2100, and because complete values
    were not available for all counties, the actual total is likely to
    be far higher.
    Coastal flooding is an increasingly severe problem in much of the
    United States, with consequences for the
    value of coastal properties–and on the local property tax base that
    funds schools, emergency services, and
    more. Property lost to coastal flooding also risks the tax revenue
    it represents.

    Flooding is worsened by climate change, which is accelerating the
    rates of sea level rise as ocean waters warm
    (warmer water occupies more volume) and as melting glaciers and ice
    sheets flow into the sea. Major floods,
    such as those resulting from hurricanes, and smaller ones that occur
    more frequently are occurring on top of
    the rising sea.
    As a result, properties and buildings that experienced floods in the
    past are likely to experience more severe
    floods in the future. It also means that higher flood waters are
    reaching further inland, flooding properties and
    buildings that have never flooded before.
    Coastal flooding can be devastating to homeowners, particularly
    where homes represent a significant fraction
    of their net worth. As sea level rise accelerates the increase in
    coastal floods, property values are impacted–
    exposing homeowners and businesses to financial risk from eroding
    property values.1 That risk extends to the
    cities, counties, and school systems that rely on property taxes for
    funding.
    This report summarizes the risks for individual coastal properties
    in the U.S.–and to the local tax base that
    those properties comprise—due to essentially permanent coastal
    floodings.

https://assets.ctfassets.net/cxgxgstp8r5d/2KKeTjnqbFelWrZalnPeRR/9a28719038f3a1dddbdd2e8b78b8455b/CC_Sinking_Tax_Base_20220908a.pdf



/[The news archive - looking back at a good idea that will never happen ]/
/*September 16, 2007*/
September 16, 2007: In a New York Times article, economist and GOP 
advisor Gregory Mankiw advocates a federal carbon tax as the best way to 
stem emissions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/business/16view.html?_r=1&


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