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<font size="+1"><i>July 21, 2017</i></font><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/20/this-could-be-the-next-big-strategy-for-suing-over-climate-change/"><br>
<b>This could be the next big strategy for suing over climate
change</b></a><br>
Two California coastal counties and one beach-side city touched off
a possible new legal front in the climate change battle this week,
suing dozens of major oil, coal, and other fossil fuel companies for
the damages they say they will incur due to rising seas.<br>
The three cases, which target firms such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP
and Royal Dutch Shell, assert that the fossil fuel producers are
collectively responsible for about 20 percent of global carbon
dioxide emissions between 1965 and 2015. They claim that industry
“knew or should have known” decades ago about the threat of climate
change, and want companies to pay the costs of communities forced to
adapt to rising seas.<br>
In 2009, the vulnerable Alaskan coastal village of Kivalina used
similar logic to sue a string of fossil fuel companies. The case
failed when an appellate court ruled that federal action by the
Environmental Protection Agency “displaces” their claim.<br>
An even bigger setback came in 2011 when the Supreme Court decided
against a public nuisance suit brought by eight states and New York
City against a group of electric utilities — ruling, once again,
that since EPA had begun to take action on climate change, the claim
had been displaced.<br>
The California cases are also proceeding under a legal doctrine
called “public nuisance” (among other claims), which charges that
under California common law, the companies have injured the counties
and city by contributing to rising seas, and more frequent and
severe flooding as a result.<br>
But the difference is that this time, they are making state level
nuisance claims rather than federal ones, which have already failed
as courts pointed out that those worried about climate change had
other recourses, such as EPA action.<br>
A strength of the lawsuit, note some legal observers, lies in the
fact that sea level rise is easily measurable, constant (unlike
climate-affected weather events), and very strongly linked to a
warming planet. Moreover, analyses have become more and more precise
when it comes to mapping which locations will be inundated, or
subjected to greater flooding risks, for a given level of rising
seas.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/20/this-could-be-the-next-big-strategy-for-suing-over-climate-change/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/20/this-could-be-the-next-big-strategy-for-suing-over-climate-change/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-family:helvetica
neue,helvetica,arial,verdana,sans-serif"><strong><a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://climatenexus.org/">(ClimateNexus)</a>
Trump Nominates Non-Scientist to Top Science Post: </strong>President
Trump on Wednesday nominated Sam Clovis, a former economics
professor and conservative talk show radio host, to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's top scientific position. Clovis, an
early advisor to the Trump campaign, has a master’s in business
administration and a doctoral degree in public administration, and
appears to have no published scientific or academic work to his
name. The position he is nominated for, which is tasked to provide
scientific direction and uphold "scientific integrity" at USDA,
has previously been held by distinguished scientists with deep
expertise in certain issue areas. In a 2014 interview, Clovis
called evidence of climate change "junk science," claiming that he
has "enough of a science background to know when I’m being
boofed." (<a
href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=095568d5b9&e=95b355344d"
target="_blank" style="word-wrap:
break-word;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #709ab9;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">Washington Post</a> $, <a
href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=b8ad789d6a&e=95b355344d"
target="_blank" style="word-wrap:
break-word;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #709ab9;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">Gizmodo</a>, <a
href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=cdfd954a08&e=95b355344d"
target="_blank" style="word-wrap:
break-word;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #709ab9;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">Science</a>)<br>
<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://climatenexus.org/"><b>(ClimateNexus)</b></a>
<strong>Methane Leaking Out of Tundra: </strong>Thawing tundra
may be allowing long-buried pockets of methane to be released into
the atmosphere, new research suggests. A study surveying the
Mackenzie Delta in Canada, published Wednesday in the journal
Scientific Reports, suggests that these methane "seeps" on the
tundra may be more problematic than previously thought. The study
finds that 17 percent of methane emissions in the area came from
these seeps, despite emissions hotspots only covering 1 percent of
the tundra's surface area. The authors write that warming will
"increase emissions of geologic methane that is currently still
trapped under thick, continuous permafrost, as new emission
pathways open due to thawing permafrost." (<a
href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=5d09063c9f&e=95b355344d"
target="_blank" style="word-wrap:
break-word;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #709ab9;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">InsideClimate News</a>, <a
href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=9f296c97c4&e=95b355344d"
target="_blank" style="word-wrap:
break-word;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #709ab9;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">The Independent</a>, <a
href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=2b55e1c4d2&e=95b355344d"
target="_blank" style="word-wrap:
break-word;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:
100%;color: #709ab9;font-weight: normal;text-decoration:
underline;">Phys.org</a>)</span><br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/07/20/emails-bush-iraq-war-pr-delve-off-the-record-strategies-dakota-access-pipeline"><br>
Emails Show Iraq War PR Alums Led Attempt to Discredit Dakota
Access Protesters</a></b><br>
By Steve Horn and Curtis Waltman, MuckRock<br>
Behind the scenes, as law enforcement officials tried to stem
protests against the Dakota Access pipeline, alumni from the George
W. Bush White House were leading a crisis communications effort to
discredit pipeline protesters.<br>
Emails show that the firms Delve and Off the Record Strategies,
apparently working on contract with the National Sheriffs’
Association, worked in secret on talking points, media outreach, and
communications training for law enforcement dealing with Dakota
Access opponents mobilized at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in
Cannon Ball, North Dakota. This revelation comes from documents
obtained via an open records request from the Laramie County
Sheriff's Department in Wyoming.<br>
As previously reported by DeSmog, the GOP-connected firm DCI Group
led the forward-facing public relations efforts for Dakota Access
via a front group called Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now
(MAIN). Today MAIN has morphed into a national effort known as Grow
America’s Infrastructure Now (GAIN)....<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/07/20/emails-bush-iraq-war-pr-delve-off-the-record-strategies-dakota-access-pipeline">https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/07/20/emails-bush-iraq-war-pr-delve-off-the-record-strategies-dakota-access-pipeline</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/science/earth/22clim.html?_r=0">This
Day in Climate History July 21, 2008 </a>- from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
July 21, 2008: The UK Office of Communication criticizes Britain's
Channel 4 for running the 2007 denialism doc "The Great Global
Warming Swindle." Below, Peter Sinclair of ClimateCrocks.com debunks
the doc.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/science/earth/22clim.html?_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/science/earth/22clim.html?_r=0</a></font><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/boj9ccV9htk">http://youtu.be/boj9ccV9htk</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://youtu.be/8nrvrkVBt24">http://youtu.be/8nrvrkVBt24</a><br>
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