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<font size="+1"><i>January 5, 2018</i></font><br>
<br>
[BostonGlobe]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/01/04/here-how-bad-coastal-flooding-was-during-thursday-storm/HCU6EZbtcN94FfScmuGM3M/story.html">Here's
how bad the flooding was during Thursday's storm</a></b><br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/01/04/here-how-bad-coastal-flooding-was-during-thursday-storm/HCU6EZbtcN94FfScmuGM3M/story.html">https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/01/04/here-how-bad-coastal-flooding-was-during-thursday-storm/HCU6EZbtcN94FfScmuGM3M/story.html</a></font><br>
-<br>
[Investors]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://jpratt27.wordpress.com/2018/01/04/a-clarion-call-from-industry-on-climatechange-auspol-qldpol-stopadani/">A
"CLARION CALL" FROM INDUSTRY ON #CLIMATECHANGE #AUSPOL #QLDPOL
#STOPADANI</a></b><br>
A clarion call from within the industry, and a costly taste of
climate reality, saw investors finally wake up to global warming in
2017.<br>
Aside from the principle that the owners of the economy should
shoulder some responsibility for its outcomes, a far more compelling
argument to investors took hold in 2017: climate risk.Whether for
moral reasons or sheer self-interest, investors have every reason to
kick climate risk out of the economy as quickly as possible.<br>
Julien Vincent is the executive director of <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.marketforces.org.au/about-us/">Market Forces</a>.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://jpratt27.wordpress.com/2018/01/04/a-clarion-call-from-industry-on-climatechange-auspol-qldpol-stopadani/">https://jpratt27.wordpress.com/2018/01/04/a-clarion-call-from-industry-on-climatechange-auspol-qldpol-stopadani/</a></font><br>
-<b><br>
</b><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/04/cold-weather-us-how-are-animals-coping-frozen-iguana-florida">Lizard
blizzard: iguanas rain from trees as animals struggle with US
cold snap</a></b><br>
Extreme temperatures across the east coast are causing cold-blooded
reptiles to 'shut down' in Florida, while elsewhere sharks and
penguins are feeling the chill<br>
That's the situation in Florida, where unusually cold temperatures
have sent the green lizards tumbling from their perches on trees - a
result of the cold-blooded creatures basically shutting down when it
gets too chilly. The iguanas are likely not dead, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/local/cold-florida-iguanas-are-falling-from-trees/cYvpBvawrh3iwntMANHR2I/">experts
say</a>, but merely stunned and will reanimate when they warm up.<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/04/cold-weather-us-how-are-animals-coping-frozen-iguana-florida">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/04/cold-weather-us-how-are-animals-coping-frozen-iguana-florida</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[VICE News]<br>
<b><a
href="https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/wjpgdm/scientists-can-now-quickly-link-extreme-weather-events-to-climate-change">Scientists
can now quickly link extreme weather events to climate change</a></b><br>
But beyond the misguided social media jabs lies a serious and
ongoing discussion about how scientists can connect individual
extreme weather events to underlying climate change, and more
importantly, how fast they can make now those connections. <br>
For example, a 2004 study on a 2003 European heat wave took a year
and a half to complete. In contrast, just three months after
Hurricane Harvey, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory were able to publish a study showing that Harvey dropped
38 percent more rain than it would have without underlying climate
change. In the same time, another group called World Weather
Attribution found that hurricanes that size have become three times
more probable<br>
VICE News spoke with Myles Allen, a climate scientist at the
University of Oxford and one of the researchers behind the first
climate attribution study, who explained why scientists are now able
to rapidly figure out if an event like Hurricane Harvey was more
devastating than it otherwise would have been because of climate
change. (Answer: it was.)<br>
"We are now looking at accelerating that whole process because once
you've agreed on the method you're using, you don't need to reinvent
the wheel every time you do a new study," Allen told VICE News. "The
actual time it takes to actually do the calculations is not that
long."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/wjpgdm/scientists-can-now-quickly-link-extreme-weather-events-to-climate-change">https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/wjpgdm/scientists-can-now-quickly-link-extreme-weather-events-to-climate-change</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://thinkprogress.org/portland-fossil-fuel-infrastructure-ban-appeals-win-fd7fe4c758cd/">An
Oregon court just dealt local climate action a huge win</a></b><br>
The Oregon Court of Appeals found that Portland's groundbreaking
fossil fuel infrastructure ban does not violate the Constitution.<font
size="-1"><br>
</font>The ruling overturns an <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://thinkprogress.org/portland-fossil-fuel-infrastructure-ban-ruling-265dbc5e8052/">earlier
decision</a> by the state's Land Use Board of Appeals - an
administrative body charged with deciding land use conflicts - <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://columbiariverkeeper.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2017-001-Columbia-Pacific-BTC-v.-City-of-Portland.pdf">which
found</a> that the ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure within
city limits violated the Interstate Commerce Clause of the
Constitution.<br>
"We're thrilled," Regna Merritt, director of the Healthy Climate
Program at Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, said in a
statement. "Today's decision affirms that Portland and other
communities can implement innovative protections to counter threats
to human health and safety from dangerous fossil fuel
infrastructure.".. <br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://thinkprogress.org/portland-fossil-fuel-infrastructure-ban-appeals-win-fd7fe4c758cd/">https://thinkprogress.org/portland-fossil-fuel-infrastructure-ban-appeals-win-fd7fe4c758cd/</a></font><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://sustainable-economy.org/portlands-fossil-fuel-infrastructure-restrictions-not-violate-us-constitution/"><b>Portland's
Fossil Fuel Infrastructure Restrictions Do Not Violate the US
Constitution</b></a><br>
Oregon Court of Appeals Reverses Lower Court's Decision<br>
January 4, 2017 (Salem, OR) - Today, the Oregon Court of Appeals
reversed, in large part, a Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) decision
that invalidated Portland's landmark Fossil Fuel Terminal Zoning
Amendments, passed unanimously in December 2016. The Court ruled
that Portland did not violate the Dormant Commerce Clause of the
U.S. Constitution...<br>
"This is an important signal to other local governments that they
can protect their residents from the many dangers of the fossil fuel
industry," said Nicholas Caleb, the Staff Attorney at the Center for
Sustainable Economy. "Many other municipal governments were waiting
on this decision to follow Portland’s lead and continue to fight
together for a healthy climate system and truly sustainable
economy."...<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://sustainable-economy.org/portlands-fossil-fuel-infrastructure-restrictions-not-violate-us-constitution/">http://sustainable-economy.org/portlands-fossil-fuel-infrastructure-restrictions-not-violate-us-constitution/</a><br>
Read the opinion here - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/docs/A165618.pdf">http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/docs/A165618.pdf</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[Fear or Hope?]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/04/climate-fear-or-hope-change-debate">Which
works better: climate fear, or climate hope? Well, it's
complicated</a></b><br>
There's a debate in climate circles about whether you should try to
scare the living daylights out of people, or give them hope - think
images of starving polar bears on melting ice caps on the one hand,
and happy families on their bikes lined with flowers and
solar-powered lights on the other.<br>
The debate came to something of a head this year, after David
Wallace-Wells lit up the internet with his 7,000-word, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html">worst-case
scenario</a> published in New York magazine. It went viral almost
instantly, and soon was the best-read story in the magazine's
history. A writer in Slate called it "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/07/we_are_not_alarmed_enough_about_climate_change.html">the
Silent Spring of our time</a>". But it also <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://mashable.com/2017/07/10/new-york-mag-climate-story-inaccurate-doomsday-scenario/#y1.Qoyqp2Pqn">garnered</a>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/stop-scaring-people-about-climate-change-it-doesnt-work/">tremendous</a>
criticism and from more than the usual denier set.<br>
Beyond quibbles with the science, critics including the illustrious
climate scientist Michael Mann took issue with the piece's "doomist
framing" because, as he wrote at the time, there's "a danger in
overstating the science in a way that presents the problem as
unsolvable, and feeds a sense of doom, inevitability and
hopelessness".<br>
To attempt to either scare or inspire people "simultaneously
oversimplifies the rich base of research on emotion while
overcomplicating the very real communications challenge advocates
face by demanding that each message have the right 'emotional
recipe' to maximize effectiveness", they write....<br>
Like a patient who's given both a diagnosis and a course of
treatment, people respond better to risks when given both a reason
and a way to act. In this sense, it seems the hope and fear camps of
the climate debate are each seeing only part of the puzzle...<br>
The overwhelming problem in climate communication, after all, isn't
how it's talked about so much as whether it's being talked about at
all. A <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-spiral-silence-america/">2016
report</a> from Yale's programme on climate communication found
one in four Americans say they "never" hear someone discussing it.<br>
Looked at that way, David Wallace-Wells' apocalyptic horror story
cum viral sensation is the best thing that's happened in climate
communication some time.<br>
Lucia Graves is a Guardian US columnist<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/04/climate-fear-or-hope-change-debate">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/04/climate-fear-or-hope-change-debate</a></font><br>
-<br>
[Nature $]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-017-0021-9.epdf">Reassessing
emotion in climate change communication</a></b><br>
Debate over effective climate change communication must be grounded
in rigorous affective science. Rather than treating emotions as
simple levers to be pulled to promote desired outcomes, emotions
should be viewed as one integral component of a cognitive feedback
system guiding responses to challenging decision-making
problems.Daniel A. Chapman, Brian Lickel and Ezra M. Markowitz<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-017-0021-9.epdf">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-017-0021-9.epdf</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[National Geographic]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/climate-change-suffocating-low-oxygen-zones-ocean/">Climate
Change Is Suffocating Large Parts of the Ocean</a></b><br>
A new study says warming has reduced the oxygen levels in large
swaths of the deep ocean, threatening marine life around the world.<br>
One day more than a decade ago, Eric Prince was studying the tracks
of tagged fish when he noticed something odd. Blue marlin off the
southeastern United States would dive a half-mile deep chasing prey.
The same species off Costa Rica and Guatemala stayed near the
surface, rarely dropping more than a few hundred feet.<br>
The billfish, it turns out, were trying to avoid suffocation. The
marlin near Guatemala and Costa Rica wouldn't plunge into the murky
depths because they were avoiding a deep, gigantic and expanding
swath of water that contained too little oxygen.<br>
"Loss of oxygen in many ways is the destruction of an ecosystem,"
Breitburg says. "If we were creating vast areas on land that were
uninhabitable by most animals, we'd notice. But we don't always see
things like this when they are happening in the water."<br>
Of course, declining oxygen isn't happening in isolation, Breitburg
says. Warming itself threatens marine food webs, as does the
acidification caused by increased carbon dioxide in the water. But
the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/oceans-warming-global-environment-climate/">threats
are worse when combined</a>.<br>
"We've been doing work in Chesapeake Bay and we've found that
acidification actually makes some fish more sensitive to low
oxygen," she says.<br>
What's more, areas with extremely low oxygen also seem to produce
their own greenhouse gas, which could further worsen climate change.<br>
"There's potential for a feedback, where warming increases
low-oxygen areas which produce nitrous oxide, which then causes more
warming," Breitburg says. "That's a real concern."<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/climate-change-suffocating-low-oxygen-zones-ocean/">https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/climate-change-suffocating-low-oxygen-zones-ocean/</a></font><br>
-<br>
[Science]<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6371/eaam7240">Declining
oxygen in the global ocean and coastal waters</a></b><b><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6371/eaam7240"><br>
</a></b><b>Structured Abstract</b><br>
<b>BACKGROUND</b><br>
<blockquote>Oxygen concentrations in both the open ocean and coastal
waters have been declining since at least the middle of the 20th
century. This oxygen loss, or deoxygenation, is one of the most
important changes occurring in an ocean increasingly modified by
human activities that have raised temperatures, CO2 levels, and
nutrient inputs and have altered the abundances and distributions
of marine species. Oxygen is fundamental to biological and
biogeochemical processes in the ocean. Its decline can cause major
changes in ocean productivity, biodiversity, and biogeochemical
cycles. Analyses of direct measurements at sites around the world
indicate that oxygen-minimum zones in the open ocean have expanded
by several million square kilometers and that hundreds of coastal
sites now have oxygen concentrations low enough to limit the
distribution and abundance of animal populations and alter the
cycling of important nutrients.<br>
</blockquote>
<b>ADVANCES</b><br>
<blockquote>In the open ocean, global warming, which is primarily
caused by increased greenhouse gas emissions, is considered the
primary cause of ongoing deoxygenation. Numerical models project
further oxygen declines during the 21st century, even with
ambitious emission reductions. Rising global temperatures decrease
oxygen solubility in water, increase the rate of oxygen
consumption via respiration, and are predicted to reduce the
introduction of oxygen from the atmosphere and surface waters into
the ocean interior by increasing stratification and weakening
ocean overturning circulation.<br>
In estuaries and other coastal systems strongly influenced by
their watershed, oxygen declines have been caused by increased
loadings of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and organic
matter, primarily from agriculture; sewage; and the combustion of
fossil fuels. In many regions, further increases in nitrogen
discharges to coastal waters are projected as human populations
and agricultural production rise. Climate change exacerbates
oxygen decline in coastal systems through similar mechanisms as
those in the open ocean, as well as by increasing nutrient
delivery from watersheds that will experience increased
precipitation.<br>
Expansion of low-oxygen zones can increase production of N2O, a
potent greenhouse gas; reduce eukaryote biodiversity; alter the
structure of food webs; and negatively affect food security and
livelihoods. Both acidification and increasing temperature are
mechanistically linked with the process of deoxygenation and
combine with low-oxygen conditions to affect biogeochemical,
physiological, and ecological processes. However, an important
paradox to consider in predicting large-scale effects of future
deoxygenation is that high levels of productivity in
nutrient-enriched coastal systems and upwelling areas associated
with oxygen-minimum zones also support some of the world's most
prolific fisheries.<br>
</blockquote>
<b>OUTLOOK</b><br>
<blockquote>Major advances have been made toward understanding
patterns, drivers, and consequences of ocean deoxygenation, but
there is a need to improve predictions at large spatial and
temporal scales important to ecosystem services provided by the
ocean. Improved numerical models of oceanographic processes that
control oxygen depletion and the large-scale influence of altered
biogeochemical cycles are needed to better predict the magnitude
and spatial patterns of deoxygenation in the open ocean, as well
as feedbacks to climate. Developing and verifying the next
generation of these models will require increased in situ
observations and improved mechanistic understanding on a variety
of scales. Models useful for managing nutrient loads can simulate
oxygen loss in coastal waters with some skill, but their ability
to project future oxygen loss is often hampered by insufficient
data and climate model projections on drivers at appropriate
temporal and spatial scales. Predicting deoxygenation-induced
changes in ecosystem services and human welfare requires scaling
effects that are measured on individual organisms to populations,
food webs, and fisheries stocks; considering combined effects of
deoxygenation and other ocean stressors; and placing an increased
research emphasis on developing nations. Reducing the impacts of
other stressors may provide some protection to species negatively
affected by low-oxygen conditions. Ultimately, though, limiting
deoxygenation and its negative effects will necessitate a
substantial global decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, as well
as reductions in nutrient discharges to coastal waters.<br>
</blockquote>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6371/eaam7240">http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6371/eaam7240</a></font><br>
<br>
<br>
[MIT Technology Review]<br>
<b><a
href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609642/the-year-climate-change-began-to-spin-out-of-control/">The
Year Climate Change Began to Spin Out of Control</a></b><br>
After three relatively flat years, greenhouse-gas emissions from
fossil fuels and industry picked up again in 2017, rising an
estimated 2 percent, according to the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-017-0013-9.epdf?referrer_access_token=cIvITR7fMhcwgE0bx8PB7NRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MPTCfJUE3ksFmZmzoQEYcQk-1mQqwS7BiPlUuAOmIcmWrf4Loxm_sqSthlI7wnuZT3tBaPiMLg_hIXEbcChC614jflyI-jR8pr0erVruunVyBRj5r6KtGAd6xIbEEBQmmx-DBYsgbv1xKaUHTGvXDforC0xAi3q2rlTm7L3n3BzRi1I3OszqqgWK244uO3GpEtebT5xE1EtBrdUV_H8A2-_1r40VNnfEIzlReWbcY_lP-bw5fn7TUapKGDqyS2xrs%3D&tracking_referrer=www.technologyreview.com">Global
Carbon Project...</a> <br>
The most alarming projections for global warming this century also
seem to be the most reliable, according to a December study in
Nature that compared climate models against what’s already happening
in the atmosphere (see "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609620/global-warmings-worst-case-projections-look-increasingly-likely/">Global
Warming’s Worst-Case Projections Look Increasingly Likely</a>")...<br>
Hurricane Harvey crossed the shorelines of southern Texas on August
25, marking the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United
States in a dozen years. The storm hovered over the coast for days,
dumping more than 60 inches of rain in some areas, killing more than
80 people and displacing thousands (see "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608800/our-hurricane-risk-models-are-dangerously-out-of-date/">Our
Hurricane Risk Models Are Dangerously Out of Date</a>").<br>
In December, NOAA released an unsettling Arctic report card
declaring that the North Pole had reached a "new normal," with no
sign of returning to a "reliably frozen region." Rising temperatures
have locked in a long-term trend of shrinking glaciers, receding sea
ice, and warming permafrost...<br>
...another cause for concern is that permafrost is warming,
approaching thawing temperatures in parts of the Alaskan interior.
The problem there is that permafrost traps massive amounts of
greenhouse gases beneath the surface. As it melts, those gases are
released, forming a separate self-reinforcing cycle...<br>
In early December, Lawrence Livermore National Lab researchers <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.llnl.gov/news/arctic-sea-ice-loss-could-dry-out-california">highlighted</a>
yet another potential effect of declining Arctic sea ice, concluding
it may have played a crucial role in California's extended drought
this decade and could exacerbate future ones. Finally, though it
seems counterintuitive, the warming Arctic could also <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/609881/the-science-linking-arctic-warming-to-this-crazy-cold-winter/">amplify
cold spells</a>, much like the winter storm now enveloping the
East Coast...<br>
Human-influenced climate change has doubled the area affected by
forest fires during the last 30 years across the American West,
scorching an additional 16,000 square miles, according to a 2016
study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...<br>
Higher temperatures suck moisture out of soil, trees, and plants,
turning forests into tinderboxes. In California, the added heat has
been compounded by the prolonged drought from 2012 to 2016, which
dried out vast swaths of wilderness and opened the door to a
devastating beetle bark infestation. The twin forces have killed
some 129 million trees across nearly nine million acres, building up
a massive amount of fuel and significantly raising wildfire risks,
according to the state fire department...<br>
The added danger of wildfires is that they can convert forests from
sponges to sources of carbon dioxide, forming yet another climate
feedback cycle. In fact, California's forests emitted more carbon
than they absorbed between 2001 and 2010, and two-thirds of the loss
was attributable to wildfires, according to a 2015 <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.patrickgonzalez.net/images/Gonzalez_et_al_2015.pdf">study
</a>by researchers at the National Park Service and the University
of California, Berkeley.<br>
Tracing through this list, it becomes increasingly clear how the
links between distant events lock into self-reinforcing loops:
rising emissions, higher temperatures, shrinking sea ice, additional
warming, extended droughts, bigger wildfires, and higher emissions
still. That means it will become increasingly difficult to pull out
of this spiral, making it increasingly urgent that we begin serious
efforts to do so soon.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609642/the-year-climate-change-began-to-spin-out-of-control/">https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609642/the-year-climate-change-began-to-spin-out-of-control/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
[Running for Governor MA]<b><br>
</b><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.bobmassie2018.com/policy/">Candidate Bob
Massie policy statement - Our Common Future Energy</a></b><font
size="-1"> </font><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://twitter.com/wenstephenson/status/948967647064088578">https://twitter.com/wenstephenson/status/948967647064088578</a><br>
Wen Stephenson @wenstephenson<br>
For context on the <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://twitter.com/bobmass">@bobmass</a> energy plan, and
the centrality of <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/climatejustice?src=hash">#climatejustice</a>
and just-transition to Bob's thinking, read my interview with him
for <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="https://twitter.com/thenation">@thenation</a>
back in June:<br>
<font size="-1"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://issuu.com/bobmassie2018/docs/bobmassieforgovernor_energyplan/28">https://issuu.com/bobmassie2018/docs/bobmassieforgovernor_energyplan/28</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.bobmassie2018.com/policy/">https://www.bobmassie2018.com/policy/</a><br>
</font> <br>
<br>
<b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="THE%20MOST%20CONSEQUENTIAL%20ENVIRONMENTAL%20STORIES%20OF%202017..">THE
MOST CONSEQUENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL STORIES OF 2017</a></b><br>
Meanwhile, extreme weather nationwide wrought devastation.
Hurricanes leveled homes, triggered floods and upended lives from
Puerto Rico to Texas. Wildfires ravaged California, burning entire
neighborhoods to ashes. It was a tumultuous year. Here are some of
the most consequential environmental stories we covered along the
way.<br>
<b>1. Withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. </b>"I was elected
to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," Trump
proclaimed from the Rose Garden in June. ..<br>
<b>2. A sea change at the Environmental Protection Agency.</b> "The
future ain't what it used to be at the EPA," the agency's
administrator, Scott Pruitt, is fond of saying. That's certainly
true. In nominating Pruitt to head the agency that Trump once
promised to reduce to "little tidbits," the president chose a man
who had long been one of its most outspoken adversaries. As Oklahoma
attorney general, Pruitt sued the EPA 14 times, challenging its
authority to regulate toxic mercury pollution, smog, carbon
emissions from power plants and the quality of wetlands and other
waters....<br>
<b>3. The fight over national monuments.</b> Trump issued an
executive order in April to review 27 land and marine monuments. But
it was clear that two particular monuments were in his crosshairs:
Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Utah's congressional
delegation and its governor had lobbied Trump's inner circle to
reverse the monument designations of these parks in their state even
before he was elected...<br>
Native American groups that had requested a Bears Ears designation
are leading a wave of lawsuits against the Trump administration's
decision.<br>
<b>4. Drill, baby, drill.</b> Drilling platforms already dot the
Gulf of Mexico, where the fossil fuel industry has extracted oil and
gas for decades. But the Trump administration wanted to make
history. In early November, it did so by announcing the largest gulf
lease offering for oil and gas exploration in U.S. history: 77
million acres.... But let the buyer beware. Royal Dutch Shell
drilled a $7 billion hole in the Chukchi Sea in 2014 and has nothing
to show for it.<br>
<b>5. Action on the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines.</b> As
winter began to fade, it became clear that camps of protesters in
Canon Ball, N.D., who for months had fought a pipeline that they
argued could threaten the drinking water and cultural sites of the
Standing Rock Sioux tribe, had lost this particular battle. Days
after Trump took office, he signed executive orders to revive two
controversial pipelines that the Obama administration had put on
hold - the 1,172-mile Dakota Access and the 1,700-mile Keystone XL
oil pipeline, which would extend from the Canadian tar sands region
to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.<br>
<b>6. Attacks on the Endangered Species Act. </b>It is arguably one
of the most powerful environmental laws in the world, credited with
saving at least a dozen animal and plant species from extinction.
But who will save the Endangered Species Act, which is under attack
by political conservatives inside and outside Washington? Led by
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the House Natural Resources
Committee, who said he wants to "invalidate" the 44-year-old act,
some Republicans say the law interferes with commercial development,
private landowner rights and excavation of natural resources such as
coal and natural gas...<br>
<b>7. Epic hurricanes and wildfires.</b> Last year around this time,
a strange wildfire rushed through the Tennessee mountains, killing
14 people, destroying homes and apartment buildings, and threatening
a major recreation area in Gatlinburg. The 2017 fire disasters, some
of which are still burning, were much more monstrous than that Great
Smoky Mountain inferno. Two California fires, the Sonoma fire that
burned north of San Francisco and the Thomas fire that burned north
of Los Angeles, driven by fierce Santa Ana winds, have combined to
kill 45 people, burn more than a half-million acres, destroy nearly
2,000 structures and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to fight.
The Thomas fire appears to be finally contained near Santa Barbara
after burning the second-most acreage in state history...<br>
<b>8. Criminal charges mount in the Flint water crisis.</b> In June,
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette charged the director of the
state's health department and four other public officials with
involuntary manslaughter for their roles in the Flint water crisis,
which has stretched into its fourth year.<br>
<b>9. Climate march on Washington</b>. It didn't draw nearly the
crowd that the Women's March did in January. And it didn't get as
much national attention as the March for Science that came only a
week earlier. Even so, on a sweltering Saturday in April, tens of
thousands of demonstrators descended on Washington to mark Trump's
first 100 days in office. Their plea: Stop the rollback of
environmental protections and take climate change seriously...<br>
By Brady Dennis and Darryl Fears<br>
Brady Dennis is a national reporter for The Washington Post,
focusing on the environment and public health issues.<br>
Follow @brady_dennis<br>
Darryl Fears has worked at The Washington Post for more than a
decade, mostly as a reporter on the National staff. He currently
covers the environment, focusing on the Chesapeake Bay and issues
affecting wildlife.<br>
Follow @bydarrylfears<br>
source: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/the_most_consequential_environmental_stories_of_2017">http://www.joboneforhumanity.org/the_most_consequential_environmental_stories_of_2017</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWIXbdd1yOQ">This Day in
Climate History January 5, 2009</a> - from D.R. Tucker</b></font><br>
January 5, 2009: In his segment on scandals involving the outgoing<br>
George W. Bush administration, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann observes:<br>
<blockquote>"...John Bolton and John Yoo, two of the architects of
Mr. Bush‘s<br>
foreign policy of shoot first, ask questions second, mention it to<br>
Congress last...have written an op-ed for the New York Times
titled<br>
'Restore the Senate‘s Treaty Power.' They are arguing that now
the<br>
Senate needs to reassert its right to slam the brakes on
unilateral<br>
international actions by the President. Their concern: that Obama
may<br>
go for a Kyoto-style climate accord without Senate ratification.<br>
<br>
"[Attacking] the closest thing to an innocent bystander nation and<br>
getting 4,000 of our troops killed without Senate consent, that‘s<br>
fine. Try to save the atmosphere, and suddenly John freaking
Bolton<br>
is demanding checks and balances.<br>
<br>
"To Mr. Yoo and Mr. Bolton, this question: do you take your
hypocrisy<br>
orally or intravenously?"<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWIXbdd1yOQ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWIXbdd1yOQ</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/opinion/05bolton.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/opinion/05bolton.html</a><br>
<br>
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