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<font size="+1"><i>August 31, 2017</i></font><br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/31/harveys-wrath-moves-across-the-louisiana-texas-border-as-water-recedes-in-houston/?utm_term=.74f5cd94b8bc">Blasts,
'chemical reactions' rock storm-crippled chemical plant in Texas
as Harvey flooding persists</a></b><br>
...growing threats that included <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/30/texas-town-under-emergency-evacuation-as-flooded-chemical-plant-nears-explosion/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_harveychemicalplant-955pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&tid=a_inl">blasts
and “black smoke”</a> at a crippled chemical plant and the
collapse of the drinking water system in a Texas city.<br>
While local officials described the blasts early Thursday at the
plant in Crosby as "chemical reactions" and not "massive
explosions," federal authorities used dire language to describe the
impact of the fumes from the plant.<br>
The chemical plume in Crosby is "incredibly dangerous," William
"Brock" Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, said at a briefing Thursday morning.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/31/harveys-wrath-moves-across-the-louisiana-texas-border-as-water-recedes-in-houston/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/31/harveys-wrath-moves-across-the-louisiana-texas-border-as-water-recedes-in-houston/</a></font><br>
.<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="CROSBY,+Tex.+%E2%80%94+The+operators+of+a+chemical+plant+left+without+power+by+floodwaters+said+Thursday+that+possible+explosions+have+been+reported+at+the+facility,+and+they+warned+that+more+problems+could+occur+as+rising+temperatures+make+the+highly+flammable+compounds+inside+volatile+and+dangerous.">'Pops,'
followed by smoke and fire, reported at storm-crippled Texas
chemical plant</a></b><br>
CROSBY, Tex. — The operators of a chemical plant left without power
by floodwaters said Thursday that possible explosions have been
reported at the facility, and they warned that more problems could
occur as rising temperatures make the highly flammable compounds
inside volatile and dangerous....<br>
Local authorities later said there weren’t explosions at the
facility, but rather "a series of pops" followed by smoke and fire.
But Arkema urged residents to stay clear of a temporary evacuation
zone set up Wednesday, and said in its statement that "a threat of
additional explosion remains."<br>
The Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office reported "a series of
chemical reactions" and "intermittent smoke" at the facility, about
25 miles northeast of Houston. <i>(confirmed Twitter <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/hcfmo/status/903195602644852737">https://twitter.com/hcfmo/status/903195602644852737</a>
)</i><br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/30/texas-town-under-emergency-evacuation-as-flooded-chemical-plant-nears-explosion/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/30/texas-town-under-emergency-evacuation-as-flooded-chemical-plant-nears-explosion/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.axios.com/first-harvey-damage-estimates-off-the-charts-2479652394.html">First
Harvey damage estimates off the charts</a></b><br>
Jeff Nesbit - <br>
A preliminary insurance analysis released Tuesday by RMS (which
advises hundreds of insurers and financial institutions on their
financial exposure from natural and human-made disasters and
catastrophes) puts the economic loss from Harvey as high as $90
billion.<br>
Why it matters: Because up to 80 percent of the homes and businesses
in Houston aren't insured for flood damage (either privately or
through federal flood insurance programs), the financial toll could
be catastrophic. "The majority of these losses will be uninsured,
given that private flood insurance is limited," said Michael Young,
who heads RMS' climate risk modeling in the Americas. This will
present a challenge to Congress and the Trump administration when it
begins work on aid for the area.<br>
RMS said Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of individual National
Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policies will almost certainly be
affected by the devastation in Houston. It could be the largest
event ever directed at the federal flood insurance program managed
by FEMA, the agency in charge of the program, RMS said. The majority
of the economic loss is likely to be in the metropolitan Houston
area, where there are more than 7 million properties worth $1.5
trillion.<br>
Harvey has broken all U.S. records for a single extreme-rainfall
event, with cumulative amounts in some regions as high as 51 inches.
As a result, RMS estimates the economic losses caused by a
combination of wind, storm surge and inland flooding could be as
high as $70-90 billion. But the losses could be even higher. RMS
won't issue its official insurance loss estimate for several weeks.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.axios.com/first-harvey-damage-estimates-off-the-charts-2479652394.html">https://www.axios.com/first-harvey-damage-estimates-off-the-charts-2479652394.html</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2017/08/30/daunting-damage-estimates-for-harvey/">https://climatecrocks.com/2017/08/30/daunting-damage-estimates-for-harvey/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2017/08/30/harvey-forces-new-conversation-on-climate/">(videos)
Harvey Forces New Conversation on Climate</a></b><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/FiB2_pShfkE">Did
climate change make recent extreme storms worse?</a><br>
Nature is taking a devastating toll in both the U.S. mainland and in
countries like India, Bangladesh and Nepal, where monsoons rains are
causing floods and hundreds of casualties. Directly attributing
these individual weather events to global warming is a tricky
undertaking for scientists. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien
reports on what data suggests about the connection.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://youtu.be/FiB2_pShfkE">https://youtu.be/FiB2_pShfkE</a><br>
And it's not just Harvey – severe flooding events are dominating
news across the planet.<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://youtu.be/uw9p8g4q-sE">Worst
monsoon in years kills more than 1,200 across South Asia</a><br>
Images from Nepal, India and Bangladesh show the devastation
inflicted on the region.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://youtu.be/uw9p8g4q-sE">https://youtu.be/uw9p8g4q-sE</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climatecrocks.com/2017/08/30/harvey-forces-new-conversation-on-climate/">https://climatecrocks.com/2017/08/30/harvey-forces-new-conversation-on-climate/</a></font><br>
.<br>
(text + video)<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/8/30/ex_nasa_scientist_james_hansen_there#transcript">Ex-NASA
Scientist James Hansen: There is a Clear Link Between Climate
Change & Stronger Hurricanes</a></b><br>
...the location and timing of each storm is, of course, very
chaotic; however, you know, there's even research that shows that
the likelihood of the kind of event where we had here, where things
stalled and we had continued rainfall for several days-the chance of
that happening is actually probably increasing. That's a research
topic now. But because the Arctic is warming faster than the planet,
on average, it does affect the jet stream and the chance of having
blocking events, where the storms stall. So, that is very likely
also influenced. The chance of that happening has been increased by
global warming.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/8/30/ex_nasa_scientist_james_hansen_there#transcript">https://www.democracynow.org/2017/8/30/ex_nasa_scientist_james_hansen_there#transcript</a></font><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.texastribune.org/boomtown-floodtown/"><br>
<b>Boomtown, Flood Town</b></a><br>
Climate change will bring more frequent and fierce rainstorms to
cities like Houston. But unchecked development remains a priority in
the famously un-zoned city, creating short-term economic gains for
some while increasing flood risks for everyone.<br>
They couldn't get in the beds because the beds were wet. They
couldn't go to the bathroom because the water was over the toilet
bowl," Hammond recalled.<br>
"We were in there, well, trapped."<br>
The storm that pummeled Hammond's modest brick home - nicknamed the
"Tax Day" flood because it fell on the deadline to file federal
income taxes - came just 11 months after another, on Memorial Day
2015, that also crippled the city. Together, the floods killed 16
people, inflicted well over $1 billion in damage and provoked an
unprecedented uproar from Houstonians, some of whom are now suing
the city over chronic flooding problems. A month after the Tax Day
flood, another mega-storm hit the city, dumping well over a foot of
rain on parts of Harris County, home to Houston, in 24 hours.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.texastribune.org/boomtown-floodtown/">https://www.texastribune.org/boomtown-floodtown/</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://projects.propublica.org/houston/">(Interactive
graphics) Hell and High Water</a><br>
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the country. It's home to the
nation's largest refining and petrochemical complex, where billions
of gallons of oil and dangerous chemicals are stored. And it's a
sitting duck for the next big hurricane. Learn why Texas isn't
ready.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://projects.propublica.org/houston/">https://projects.propublica.org/houston/</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-did-donald-trump-learn-in-texas">What
Has Hurricane Harvey Taught Donald Trump in Texas?</a></b><br>
It will be hard to persuade Trump and the Republicans that Hurricane
Harvey involves major policy issues that reach beyond the borders of
the storm.<br>
Here the problem is not just Trump, or his tweets, or his
seriousness. The leaders of the Republican Party-along with too many
other Americans-continue to deny what has become obvious: that,
although it is hard to connect climate change to any one storm,
climate change has increased, and will continue to increase, the
number of extreme weather events. As the storm approached, Trump
tweeted repeatedly about what a surprise it was. The only logic by
which the devastation of Houston is a surprise is the logic of
reality television, with twists that come out of nowhere and serve
no human purpose but to move the plot along. Such twists are not
meant to provide a basis for changing behavior. As for whether they
will change Donald Trump-we're still waiting.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-did-donald-trump-learn-in-texas">https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/what-did-donald-trump-learn-in-texas</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<div>Here is a fully-annotated summary and round-up of all the
science:</div>
<div><a
href="http://www.climatesignals.org/headlines/events/atlantic-hurricane-season-2017">http://www.climatesignals.org/headlines/events/atlantic-hurricane-season-2017</a></div>
Naomi Klein: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://theintercept.com/2017/08/28/harvey-didnt-come-out-of-the-blue-now-is-the-time-to-talk-about-climate-change/">https://theintercept.com/2017/08/28/harvey-didnt-come-out-of-the-blue-now-is-the-time-to-talk-about-climate-change/</a>
<br>
Joe Romm: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://thinkprogress.org/climate-change-made-harvey-worse-09957">https://thinkprogress.org/climate-change-made-harvey-worse-09957</a>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/houstons-human-catastrophe-started-long-before-the-storm/">Decades
of neglect, inequality, and disenfranchisement mean that all
Houstonians, but especially the poorest and most vulnerable,
have been left utterly undefended.</a></b><br>
By Wen Stephenson<br>
...Houston is the belly of the beast when it comes to both
fossil-fuel pollution and Big Oil's political choke hold, only
tightening under Trump. My friend Liana Lopez lives on Houston's
east side and organizes with the local grassroots Texas
Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (TEJAS) and the national
Climate Justice Alliance. Since the storm hit, TEJAS has reported
overpowering chemical odors in the communities near the Ship
Channel, coming from the direction of the refineries. Justified
fears of a long-anticipated toxic disaster run high. Still, as she
told me in an e-mail, "The corporations have been warned for decades
by communities and scientists, through legal and bureaucratic means,
that this type of flooding event was possible. They not only ignored
but fought the requests to upgrade their refineries to address
climate impacts." Now, she points out, "the cost to clean up the
chemical spills in the aftermath of Harvey will not be billed to
corporations." The cost will be borne by taxpayers, an
unconscionable corporate handout to the polluters themselves.<br>
There's no such thing as adaptation to fifty inches of rain-and if
we don't transform our entire energy system, making fossil fuels
obsolete, floods like Harvey brought will come to be seen as
unexceptional on a catastrophically warming planet.<br>
Nor is it likely those same corporations will be required to prepare
for the next record-breaking storm-and the one after that. Under the
Obama administration, the federal government began taking the first
baby steps toward preparing the nation's infrastructure for climate
change. Earlier this month, Trump blew up the Obama order requiring
new infrastructure projects to account for climate impacts such as
sea-level rise. Suffice to say, it is unlikely that
Republican-controlled governments in Austin and Washington will
impose new climate-resilience regulations on their corporate
benefactors.<br>
But the truth is, national Democrats have given us little more
reason to believe they're ready and willing to face our climate
reality. Because there's no such thing as adaptation to 50 inches of
rain in one storm-and without a society-wide mobilization to
transform our entire energy system, making fossil fuels obsolete,
floods like Harvey brought will come to be seen as unexceptional on
a catastrophically warming planet. In fact, they already are. As
Harvey approached Texas, yet another epic flood pummeled South Asia,
as a ferocious monsoon put a third of Bangladesh underwater and left
more than 1200 people dead across that country, India, and Nepal,
with millions homeless.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/houstons-human-catastrophe-started-long-before-the-storm/">https://www.thenation.com/article/houstons-human-catastrophe-started-long-before-the-storm/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/29/hurricane-harvey-climate-change-real-estate-florida"><b>How
climate change could turn US real estate prices upside down</b></a><br>
"The question is whether people are going to be basing their real
estate decisions on climate change futures," said Hugh Gladwin,
professor of anthropology at Florida International University, who
says his research suggests higher-standing areas of Miami are
becoming increasingly gentrified as a result of sea level rise.<br>
"In any coastal area there's extra value in property, [but] climate
change, insofar as it increases risks for those properties from any
specific set of hazards – like flooding and storm surge – will
decrease value."<br>
"Will there be a massive decline in the property values of the
flooded areas in Houston? Common sense would say yes. And if that's
combined with new legislation that's going to require full
disclosure, then wow."<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/29/hurricane-harvey-climate-change-real-estate-florida">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/29/hurricane-harvey-climate-change-real-estate-florida</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/08/30/25383434/climate-changes-means-socialism-is-inevitable">(opinion)</a><b><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/08/30/25383434/climate-changes-means-socialism-is-inevitable">
Climate Change Means Socialism Is Inevitable - Slog - The
Stranger</a></b><br>
Texans are in for a big shock. The market cannot handle this and
future climate change-related catastrophes. Private insurance
companies plainly see the writing on the wall. The storms have been
increasing in frequency and force over the past 6 years and
diminishing their precocious revenues. This summer, they got the
governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, to sign a law that removes penalties
for stalling or not responding to claims. This law goes into effect
on September 1. (The insurance companies are certainly wondering why
Harvey could not wait one week more.) But if you own a home whose
roof was destroyed by Harvey's winds, and JPMorgan or State Farm or
Allstate or Farmers Insurance is your insurer, you have to file the
claim by Friday or you risk not getting paid for the damage....<br>
...Expect the socialism of the Depression years to be called back
into existence to ease the ever increasing political pressure from
climate-related misery and disenchantment. But it won't end there.
The socialism of the Second World War, with its mass mobilization of
action and the displacement and tight management of the market
economy has to be next. But global warming is not something that
ends in victory. This is what made 20th-century American socialism
so brief (30 years)-the war was not long and bad enough. By the
1970s, the class that was decimated by two wars and a market crash
(read Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century on this
head), the rentiers (those who make money from financial assets),
and whose decimation expanded the American middle class at a scale
never before seen in history, returned to power. It has been their
world since the 1980s.<br>
Climate change, however, is the limit that capitalism cannot
transform into a barrier. There is no getting over or under it.
Catastrophe, rather than euthanasia, will extirpate the rentier
class. The very violence of this extinction (its terrific size and
force) is in fact the source of leftist melancholy. As with the
great wars, the destruction of the rentier class shall be the blood
of the poor. A sad socialism is inevitable.<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/08/30/25383434/climate-changes-means-socialism-is-inevitable">http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/08/30/25383434/climate-changes-means-socialism-is-inevitable</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/kellyanne-conway-scolds-chris-cuomo-for-daring-to-ask-about-climate-change">(video)
Kellyanne Conway Scolds Chris Cuomo for Daring to Ask About
Climate Change</a></b><br>
With a look of disgust on her face, Conway replied, "Chris, we're
trying to help the people whose lives are literally underwater, and
you want to have a conversation about climate change?" Rolling her
eyes, she added, "I mean, that is - I'm not going to engage in that
right now."<br>
When Cuomo said he "assumed" that meant the answer to his question
was no, Conway said, "No, I didn't say that, Chris, you don't need
to put words in my mouth."<br>
Then why, he replied, did she "berate" him for even asking the
question, making it seem as though he didn't care about the victims.<br>
In turn, Conway said she was simply "exposing the irony" of the
conversation and accused Cuomo of playing "amateur climatologist"
while she said she would play "professional helper of those in
need."<br>
<font size="-1" color="#666666"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/kellyanne-conway-scolds-chris-cuomo-for-daring-to-ask-about-climate-change">http://www.thedailybeast.com/kellyanne-conway-scolds-chris-cuomo-for-daring-to-ask-about-climate-change</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.theonion.com/">(sarcastic
Onion headline)</a></b> <br>
<b>ConocoPhillips Employee Clings To Years Of Climate Change Denial
Reports To Stay Afloat Amid Rising Waters</b><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.theonion.com/">http://www.theonion.com/</a><br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/08/30/the-decline-republican-environmentalism/P6lEmA4exWFamGnkQLOQlL/story.html"><br>
</a><font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/08/30/the-decline-republican-environmentalism/P6lEmA4exWFamGnkQLOQlL/story.html">This
Day in Climate History August 31, 2013 </a> - from D.R.
Tucker</b></font><br>
August 31, 2013: In the Boston Globe, Paul Sabin documents the shift
from bipartisan concern for the environment to Republican disavowal
of climate science over the course of 25 years.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/08/30/the-decline-republican-environmentalism/P6lEmA4exWFamGnkQLOQlL/story.html">http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/08/30/the-decline-republican-environmentalism/P6lEmA4exWFamGnkQLOQlL/story.html</a><br>
<br>
August 31, 2014: <br>
The New York Times reports on the consequences of Charles and David
Koch's takeover of the GOP. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/us/politics/kochs-network-wrestles-with-expectations-for-presidential-primaries.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/us/politics/kochs-network-wrestles-with-expectations-for-presidential-primaries.html</a><br>
<br>
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