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<p><font size="+2"><i><b>October 22, 2021</b></i></font><br>
</p>
<i>[ "If it's 25 years overdue, is it still intelligence? " - Ross
Gelbspan ]</i><br>
<b>White House, intelligence agencies, Pentagon issue reports
warning that climate change threatens global security</b><b><br>
</b>- -<br>
The Defense Department’s assessment of the strategic shifts forced
by climate change goes well beyond previous public analysis at the
Pentagon, which has more typically focused on immediate challenges
such as preparing U.S. military bases for more frequent floods and
rising sea levels.<br>
<br>
“It looks at how the missions will be shaped by climate hazards in
the years to come, which speaks to the strategic nature of the
threat,” Erin Sikorsky, the director of the Center for Climate and
Security and a former senior intelligence official focused on
climate issues, said of the new report...<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/intelligence-pentagon-climate-change-warnings/2021/10/21/ea3a2c84-31d3-11ec-a1e5-07223c50280a_story.html">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/intelligence-pentagon-climate-change-warnings/2021/10/21/ea3a2c84-31d3-11ec-a1e5-07223c50280a_story.html</a><br>
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<i>[ perhaps big money can make big change ]</i><br>
<b>U.S. Warns Climate Poses ‘Emerging Threat’ to Financial System</b><br>
A Financial Stability Oversight Council report could lead to more
regulatory action and disclosure requirements for banks...<br>
- -<br>
<blockquote>The report by the Financial Stability Oversight Council,
which is led by the Treasury secretary and includes leaders from
the major financial regulatory agencies, portrayed the financial
threat of climate change in stark terms. Higher temperatures are
leading to more natural disasters, such as hurricanes, wildfires
and floods. These, in turn, are resulting in damaged property,
lost income and disruptions to business activity that threaten to
alter how assets, such as real estate, are valued.<br>
<br>
At the same time, the move away from fossil fuels could cause a
sudden drop in the price of stocks and other assets tied to oil,
gas, coal and other energy companies, or sectors that rely on them
such as carmakers and heavy manufacturing. Such a shift could hurt
the stock market, retirement savings and other parts of the
financial sector...<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/us/politics/climate-change-cost-us.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/21/us/politics/climate-change-cost-us.html</a>
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<i>[ from Greta the Great ]</i><br>
<b>There are no real climate leaders yet – who will step up at
Cop26?</b><br>
Greta Thunberg<br>
Like other rich nations, the UK is more talk than action on the
climate crisis. Something needs to change in Glasgow<br>
- -<br>
The climate and ecological emergency is, of course, only a symptom
of a much larger sustainability crisis. A social crisis. A crisis of
inequality that dates back to colonialism and beyond. A crisis based
on the idea that some people are worth more than others and,
therefore have the right to exploit and steal other people’s land
and resources. It’s all interconnected. It’s a sustainability crisis
that everyone would benefit from tackling. But it’s naive to think
that we could solve this crisis without confronting the roots of it.<br>
Things may look very dark and hopeless, and given the torrent of
reports and escalating incidents, the feeling of despair is more
than understandable. But we need to remind ourselves that we can
still turn this around. It’s entirely possible if we are prepared to
change.<br>
<br>
Hope is all around us. Because all it would really take is one – one
world leader or one high-income nation or one major TV station or
leading newspaper who decides to be honest, to truly treat the
climate crisis as the crisis that it is. One leader who counts all
the numbers – and then takes brave action to reduce emissions at the
pace and scale the science demands. Then everything could be set in
motion towards action, hope, purpose and meaning.<br>
<br>
The clock is ticking. Summits keep happening. Emissions keep
growing. Who will that leader be?<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/21/climate-leaders-cop26-uk-climate-crisis-glasgow">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/21/climate-leaders-cop26-uk-climate-crisis-glasgow</a><br>
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[ from the Lancet ]<br>
<b>Inaction on climate change imperils millions of lives, doctors
say</b><br>
Top medical journal warns that rising temperatures will worsen heat
and respiratory illness and spread infectious disease..<br>
- -<br>
Yet the death toll from climate change will outstrip that of the
coronavirus, the scientists warned — unless drastic action is taken
to avert further warming and adapt to changes underway.<br>
<br>
Already, climate change routinely threatens to overwhelm health
systems’ capacity to respond. When record-high temperatures scorched
the Pacific Northwest this summer, the rate of emergency room
admissions spiked to 69 times higher than the same period in 2019...<br>
- -<br>
But curbing emissions, investing in clean energy and funding
adaptation efforts could save money as well as lives, the report
says. The reduced air pollution that would result from eliminating
fossil fuels alone could deliver global health benefits in the
trillions of dollars. A 2019 study in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences found that deaths from fine-particle
pollution cost the United States more than $800 billion per year;
more than half of those costs were attributable to pollution from
the energy and transportation sectors.<br>
<br>
“We have an enormous opportunity to get to the root cause of health
harms from the burning of fossil fuels,” Salas said. “To me there is
no greater treatment that will have the widest health benefits for
my patients than reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/10/20/lancet-climate-inaction-threatens-millions/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/10/20/lancet-climate-inaction-threatens-millions/</a><br>
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<i>[ Washington Post journalism with strong images and words ] </i><br>
<b>Climate change is turning the cradle of civilization into a grave</b><br>
Between the Tigris and Euphrates, intense heat and drought are
poisoning the land and emptying the villages.<br>
By Louisa Loveluck and Mustafa Salim <br>
HADDAM, Iraq<br>
<br>
No one lives here anymore. The mud-brick buildings are empty, just
husks of the human life that became impossible on this land. Wind
whips through bone-dry reeds. For miles, there’s no water to be
seen.<br>
- -<br>
Years of below-average rainfall have left Iraqi farmers more
dependent than ever on the dwindling waters of the Tigris and
Euphrates. But upstream, Turkey and Iran have dammed their own
waterways in the past two years, further weakening the southern
flow, so a salty current from the Persian Gulf now pushes northward
and into Iraq’s rivers. The salt has reached as far as the northern
edge of Basra, some 85 miles inland.<br>
- -<br>
Researchers say migration has sparked tensions with longtime
residents, who blame the newcomers for shortages of water and
electricity. Summer blackouts are already frequent.<br>
<br>
And politicians use migration to deflect from their own failures.
“There’s now a narrative that says people who are emigrated to the
cities and living in unofficial neighborhoods are overburdening the
local water and power supplies,” said Maha Yassin, a researcher at
the Clingendael Institute’s Planetary Security Initiative.<br>
- -<br>
The intrusion of saltwater is poisoning lands that have been passed
for generations from fathers to sons.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/iraq-climate-change-tigris-euphrates/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/iraq-climate-change-tigris-euphrates/</a><br>
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<p><i> [ no mulligans allowed ]</i><br>
<b>Scottish Dunes Trump Promised To Protect On His Golf Course Are
Ruined</b><br>
Before and after photos of the course reveal dramatic change.<br>
By Mary Papenfuss<br>
10/15/2021<br>
Environmentally critical coastal sand dunes on Donald Trump’s
Scottish golf course in Aberdeenshire have been ruined, even
though Trump promised to protect them.<br>
<br>
The dunes “will be there forever,” Trump vowed in 2008 to quell
concerns about his new course. “This will be environmentally
better after [the course] is built than it is before.”<br>
<br>
But late last year officials announced that the dunes had lost
their status as a protected environmental site because they had
been partially destroyed.<br>
<br>
Following construction of the Trump International Golf Links north
of Aberdeen, the dunes no longer “merit being retained as part of
the site of special scientific interest,” declared Scotland’s
nature agency NatureScot.<br>
<br>
“There is now no longer a reason to protect the dunes ... as they
do not include enough of the special, natural features for which
they were designated,” said the agency.<br>
<br>
The drastic change was already vividly apparent in overhead photos
of the Foveran Links dunes in 2019 (see clip above).<br>
<br>
It’s even more dramatic in before and after photos of the dunes
from 2010 and 2021 obtained by Business Insider that can be seen
here.<br>
<br>
NatureScot once called the dunes “a very high-quality example of a
sand dune system characteristic of northeast Scotland, and was of
exceptional importance for the wide variety of coastal landforms
and processes.”<br>
<br>
When the dunes lost their special designation, Bob Ward, the
policy and communications director at the London School of
Economics’ Climate Change Research Institute, told The Guardian:
“This is a bitterly disappointing decision, which shows that golf
still trumps the environment when it comes to Scotland’s natural
heritage.”<br>
<br>
Trump claimed he would “stabilize” the dunes, which apparently
meant building on them. But that stopped the natural movement of
the dunes as they respond to environmental fluctuations, Ward told
Business Insider. “Essentially what they’ve done is they’ve just
killed it as a natural environment,” he said...<br>
- -<br>
Trump’s vow that his Aberdeenshire course and a second one at
Turnberry would bring welcome economic benefits to the area have
also fallen flat.<br>
<br>
The Trump Organization’s financial filings early this year
reported a $4.6 million annual loss at the Scottish courses, which
boosted the total red ink for the operations over eight years to
an eye-popping $75 million. Trump hasn’t paid a penny in tax on
the properties. In fact, the courses collected $800,000 in
taxpayer subsidies during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect jobs,
then cut workers, union officials complained.<br>
<br>
The filings, covering 2019, didn’t yet reflect the
business-downturn toll of the COVID-19 pandemic.<br>
<br>
Despite the losses, the Trump Organization has reported massive
outlays at the properties over the years. It also has won approval
to build a 500-unit housing development at a cost of $185 million
next to the club in Aberdeenshire, which it intended to pursue,
according to the latest filing.<br>
<br>
The resort losses are so astronomical that the operations have
raised suspicions of money laundering. Those suspicions have
landed the courses at the center of an ongoing Scottish legal
battle.<br>
<br>
Global activist organization Avaaz has filed a court action to
press the Scottish government to wield its popularly known
“McMafia” law to force Trump to reveal the mysterious sources for
his all-cash purchases and development of his Scottish golf
resorts. At the time of Trump’s purchases, he was heavily in debt
and banks were reluctant to loan money to him.<br>
<br>
Accounting for the president’s Scottish resorts is unusual because
Trump is the creditor for his own businesses, which means payment
for many of the resorts’ costs flow to the Trump Organization.<br>
<br>
The circular flow of money in the Trump companies provides an
opportunity for money laundering, The New Yorker business writer
Adam Davidson has suggested. He called the resorts “money
disappearing” operations.<br>
<br>
Trump “owns the asset, lends the money, owes the money, is owed
the money,” Davidson explained. “Every year, Trump lends millions
to himself, spends all that money on something, and claims the
asset is worth all the money he spent.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-scottish-coastal-dunes-golf-course_n_616a320ce4b005b245bd4da9">https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-scottish-coastal-dunes-golf-course_n_616a320ce4b005b245bd4da9</a><br>
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<i>[ Discussion Bee ] </i><br>
<b>A progress report on saving the bees and how it connects with
climate change</b><br>
Oct 13, 2021<br>
Canadian Association for the Club of Rome<br>
Keywords: climate, climate change, bees, wild bees<br>
Summary:<br>
For many people, campaigns to “save the bees” trigger thoughts of
honey bees and what life would be like without their sweet
products. However, the most important pollinators are wild, native
bees, with some 900 species in Canada, and they are stressed by
habitat loss, pesticide poisoning, disease, and climate change.
Recent research is revealing that climate change is a significant
threat to the welfare of wild bees. This presentation provides an
overview of work underway to protect wild, native bees and comment
on action still needed to address the welfare of these important
species.<br>
<br>
Biography: <br>
Bea has spent more than 40 years as an environmentalist and 25 years
leading Friends of the Earth Canada. The organization now works
with 74 other national Friends of the Earth groups around the
world. Bea develops and oversees delivery of Friends of the Earth’s
campaigns and legal action currently addressing Climate,
Environmental Justice, and Biodiversity, including Saving the Bees.
Before joining Friends of the Earth, she worked with several
international organizations on UN processes, such as the Earth
Summit, environmentally sound technology, and citizen action.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99t5cLUuNUw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99t5cLUuNUw</a>
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<i>[ The answer is obvious, but new, and the details are not
pleasant ] </i><br>
<b>Extreme heat can kill or cause long-term health problems – but
for many unendurable temperatures are the new normal</b><br>
Harmed by heat is supported by Humanity United <br>
Natalie Grover - @NatalieGrover - Wed 20 Oct 2021 <br>
<br>
The impact of extreme heat on the human body is not unlike what
happens when a car overheats. Failure starts in one or two systems,
and eventually it takes over the whole engine until the car stops...<br>
- -<br>
“When the body can no longer cool itself it immediately impacts the
circulatory system. The heart, the kidneys, and the body become more
and more heated and eventually our cognitive abilities begin to
desert us – and that’s when people begin fainting, eventually going
into a coma and dying.”...<br>
- -<br>
For many people, unendurable heat is becoming the new normal. It is
most likely to disproportionately affect the poor, the sick – those
with chronic conditions, or heart and kidney disease in particular –
and older people.<br>
Each organ responds differently to extreme heat exposure, with
symptoms that quickly become fatal or cause lingering damage from
which the body may never fully recover.<br>
<br>
“Every human being is at risk from extreme heat – it’s a fact of
life, your body needs to function in a certain environment,” says
McGeehin. “And when that environment becomes extreme then you are at
risk.”<br>
<br>
<b>Heart</b><br>
<p>To sweat and cool off, blood flow shifts from the central organs
to the periphery of the body, causing a fall in blood pressure in
these vital organs. The heart starts to beat faster to compensate,
but if the person does not replenish their water reserves, blood
pressure can drop dangerously and cause fainting, explains Dr
Pieter Vancamp, post-doctoral researcher at the Centre National de
la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. Vancamp published a book this
year about how the human body deals with external challenges, such
as extreme heat. <br>
</p>
<p>In the worst-case scenario, it can lead to heart failure if left
untreated. In the last decade, 384 people died in the US while
working in extreme heat, including farm workers and waste
collectors, according to a recent investigation. University of
Edinburgh researchers found exposure to extreme heat increases the
risk of heart disease in firefighters.<b><br>
</b></p>
<p><b>Brain</b></p>
The hypothalamus is our in-house thermostat. Located in the brain,
it regulates body temperature using information passed to it by
temperature sensors in our skin, muscles, and other organs.<br>
<br>
When high temperatures are detected, the brain initiates a cascade
of responses to help us cool down, such as sweating, increased
respiration and the impulse to seek water and cooler environments.
But when the system overheats, these responses start to fail, and
miscommunication can occur in the brain, contributing to confusion,
dizziness and altered behaviour, says Vancamp.<br>
<br>
“A normal cell works best at around 37C. When you increase the
temperature even by a few degrees … the communication between nerve
cells starts to malfunction. And that’s the moment when
communication with the body starts to deteriorate,” he says.<br>
<br>
In about 20% of people who survive heatstroke, the brain may never
fully recover, “leaving a person with personality changes,
clumsiness, or poor coordination”, according to research by UCLA’s
School of Medicine.<br>
<p><b>Kidneys</b></p>
Kidneys regulate blood concentrations of water and salt. So, the
organs are the immediate interface between us and the climate crisis
– because when it starts getting hot, we lose a lot of water and
salt through sweat, says Dr Richard Johnson, professor of medicine
and head of renal diseases and hypertension at the University of
Colorado.<br>
<br>
Hormones produced in the brain are required by the kidneys to do
their job, but when the heat affects the brain and disrupts the
normal level of these chemicals, the kidneys (and other organs)
suffer, he says. Johnson says that his research and others also show
that recurrent heat stress and dehydration could cause chronic
kidney disease. A report last year described an “epidemic of chronic
kidney disease as non-traditional origin in Nicaragua, El Salvador,
Costa Rica and Guatemala,” and that “chronic kidney disease has been
reported on sugar cane farms as well as cotton, corn and rice
farms,” in working-age people.<br>
<br>
<b>Liver</b><br>
<p>The liver is susceptible to extreme heat. During heatstroke –
when the body’s internal temperature crosses 40C – damage to liver
cells can be seen by the increased levels of liver enzymes in the
blood, says Dr Edward Walter, a consultant and anaesthetist at the
Royal Surrey county hospital.</p>
<p>“The liver requires highly regulated temperature – and we found
that recurrent heat stress caused low-grade liver damage that was
quite noticeable, but … it’s not known at this time is if that can
lead to chronic liver disease,” adds Johnson. “But it’s an area
that probably should be investigated.”<b><br>
</b></p>
<p><b>Gut</b></p>
As blood flows away from central organs to deal with heat, the
limited oxygen can impede normal functioning. In the
gastrointestinal tract this can cause inflammation and, in extreme
cases, nausea and vomiting.<br>
<br>
In 2013, researchers at University hospital Zurich found an
increased risk of inflammatory bowel disease flare-ups during
heatwaves, in what they described as the first study to link the
climate crisis to bowel disease.<br>
<br>
Extreme heat can also cause “leaky gut”, in which toxins and
pathogenic bacteria to seep in to the blood, increasing the
likelihood of infections, says Walter. It is almost possible to
develop a kind of sepsis infection by being hot, he says. “Gut
permeability seems to be a big, big problem.”<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/oct/20/too-hot-to-handle-can-our-bodies-withstand-global-heating">https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/oct/20/too-hot-to-handle-can-our-bodies-withstand-global-heating</a><br>
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<i>[ "because that's where the money is"] </i><br>
<b>The real reason Joe Manchin is sabotaging the US clean energy
plan</b><br>
Michelle Lewis - Oct. 20th 2021 <br>
The real reason why Manchin won’t back clean energy?<br>
<br>
Greed.<br>
<br>
Manchin gets a lot of money from fossil fuel companies that aren’t
even in West Virginia. They own him.<br>
<br>
The Charleston Gazette-Mail sums it up:<br>
<br>
Employees and political action committees for out-of-state oil and
gas companies — most of which are based in Texas — dwarfed
contributions from in-state [West Virginia] individuals and
political action committees by more than tenfold, according to the
senator’s newly filed quarterly campaign finance report.<br>
<br>
You can read the full list of examples reported by energy and
environment reporter Mike Tony of the Gazette-Mail, but here are a
couple of standout examples:<br>
<br>
Manchin for West Virginia, the senator’s campaign committee,
reported drawing just under $1.6 million in contributions in the
quarter, leaving it with $5.38 million in cash on hand.<br>
<br>
More than a quarter of that roughly $1.6 million came from the oil
and gas industry. Just over $30,000 came from individuals and
political action committees in West Virginia.<br>
…<br>
Manchin has made $4.35 million since 2012 from stock he owns in
Enersystems Inc., the Fairmont-based coal brokerage he founded in
1988, according to his U.S. Senate financial disclosures. He has
denied that his vested coal interests have influenced his
policymaking that affects the coal industry. But he has declined to
divest his holdings, saying his ownership is held in a blind trust
and, therefore, avoids a conflict of interest.<br>
<br>
So, that’s $400,000 coming from fossil fuels in just one quarter.
And guess who the top recipient is overall of oil and gas, mining,
and coal money, not just in the Senate, but in all of Congress?
Manchin. (He’s No. 2 for utilities.)<br>
<br>
Electrek’s Take<br>
I am mad as hell about this, and more than just a little bit scared.
I don’t want to be dramatic, but it’s not good.<br>
<br>
Let’s drill it down a bit (no pun intended): We are in the midst of
a global climate emergency. China may be the No. 1 polluter overall,
but the US is No. 2, and each person in America emits twice as much
carbon as each person in China. Plus, the US has emitted more carbon
than any other country – so this is the US’s problem to solve.<br>
<br>
When Biden was elected, he immediately signed an executive order to
have the US rejoin the Paris Agreement. He has stressed the
importance of decarbonizing and has a plan. He vowed that the US
will cut its emissions to 50% of 2005 levels by 2030.<br>
<br>
Hope sprung from those declarations for those of us who know that
the future of humanity is hanging in the balance. The infrastructure
bill has me holding my breath. It’s hard for me to even look at the
negotiation process.<br>
<br>
The Biden clean energy program is fundamental to that plan. The
whole world, not just the US, needs it. We can wait no longer.<br>
<br>
And just weeks before the do-or-die COP26 summit in Glasgow, that
plan is about to be derailed by one man.<br>
<br>
One man’s greed is going to hurt the world’s entire population of
7.75 billion people. That’s not hyperbole: The respected medical
journal the Lancet says “climate change is the greatest global
health threat facing the world in the 21st century.”<br>
<br>
Hope for a miracle.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://electrek.co/2021/10/20/the-real-reason-joe-manchin-is-sabotaging-the-us-clean-energy-plan/">https://electrek.co/2021/10/20/the-real-reason-joe-manchin-is-sabotaging-the-us-clean-energy-plan/</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
[Charlston newspaper spells it out]<br>
<b>Manchin campaign finances show oil and gas industry dwarfing
in-state and renewable energy contributions</b><br>
By Mike Tony <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:mtony@hdmediallc.com">mtony@hdmediallc.com</a> Oct 19, 2021 <br>
- -<br>
But a specific category of out-of-staters accounted for more than 10
times as much in Manchin campaign contributions than in-state
sources did from July 1 through Sept. 30.<br>
<br>
Employees and political action committees for out-of-state oil and
gas companies — most of which are based in Texas — dwarfed
contributions from in-state individuals and political action
committees by more than tenfold, according to the senator’s newly
filed quarterly campaign finance report.<br>
Manchin for West Virginia, the senator’s campaign committee,
reported drawing just under $1.6 million in contributions in the
quarter, leaving it with $5.38 million in cash on hand.<br>
<br>
More than a quarter of that roughly $1.6 million came from the oil
and gas industry. Just over $30,000 came from individuals and
political action committees in West Virginia.<br>
<br>
The quarterly campaign finance report lands with Manchin at the
center of the national political universe for withholding a key vote
in the evenly divided Senate for Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget
bill, aimed at strengthening the nation’s social safety net.<br>
<br>
Manchin has drawn intense scrutiny from climate advocates for his
pushback against what they say is the most critical measure in the
budget bill to address the climate crisis. That’s the Clean
Electricity Performance Program, a $150 billion program that would
authorize grants for electricity providers that increase clean
electricity use by 4% or more annually from 2023 through 2030 and
penalties for those that don’t.<br>
<br>
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman has
pushed an “innovation, not elimination” energy policy approach that
keeps coal, oil and gas in the nation’s energy mix, even as
scientists urge immediate and large-scale reductions in greenhouse
gas emissions needed to avoid the most devastating, irreversible
effects of climate change.<br>
<br>
Manchin has made $4.35 million since 2012 from stock he owns in
Enersystems Inc., the Fairmont-based coal brokerage he founded in
1988, according to his U.S. Senate financial disclosures. He has
denied that his vested coal interests have influenced his
policymaking that affects the coal industry. But he has declined to
divest his holdings, saying his ownership is held in a blind trust
and, therefore, avoids a conflict of interest.<br>
<br>
The Manchin campaign’s more than $400,000 in campaign contributions
from the oil and gas industry are nearly 10 times as much as the
campaign received from renewable energy and conservation
organizations.<br>
<br>
Manchin’s campaign committee received $74,600 from employees and the
political action committee for the Texas-based midstream energy
company Energy Transfer, whose CEO, Kelcy Warren, contributed $10
million to Donald Trump super PAC America First Action in August
2020.<br>
<br>
A super PAC is an independent political action committee that may
raise unlimited amounts of money but is not permitted to contribute
to a federal candidate or committee, whether directly or in kind.<br>
<br>
Manchin’s campaign committee received $3,950 from Continental
Resources CEO Harold Hamm, who contributed $500,000 to America First
Action in January 2018 and $2,700 to West Virginia Attorney General
Patrick Morrisey’s campaign committee during Morrisey’s failed 2018
bid to unseat Manchin as senator.<br>
<br>
Many of the political action committees for the nation’s most
prominent electric and gas utilities contributed to Manchin’s
campaign committee, including Duke Energy Corp. ($5,000), Dominion
Energy Inc. ($2,500) and Pacific Gas and Electric Corp. ($1,000).<br>
<br>
The political action committee for American Electric Power, whose
subsidiary, Appalachian Power, has 1 million customers in West
Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee (as AEP Appalachian Power in the
latter state), contributed $2,500 to Manchin’s campaign.<br>
<br>
Manchin has been “listening closely” to American Electric Power CEO
Nick Akins amid Congress’ infrastructure investment negotiations,
according to a New York Times report from last month.<br>
<br>
In a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, AEP Senior
Vice President of Governmental Affairs Tony Kavanagh said the Clean
Electricity Performance Program “is forcing clean energy development
too rapidly.”<br>
<br>
AEP subsidiaries Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power angered West
Virginia clean energy and consumer advocates with their request for
state ratepayers to pick up a burden of nearly $22 million a year
from Virginia and Kentucky customers to pay for environmental
upgrades federally required to keep three in-state coal-fired power
plants open past 2028.<br>
<br>
The West Virginia Public Service Commission approved that request
last week.<br>
<br>
Kentucky and Virginia state utility regulators, who share
jurisdiction over the plants, already rejected the subsidiaries’
proposal as uneconomic. Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power
previously estimated that shutting down the Mitchell plant in
Marshall County in 2028 — 12 years ahead of schedule — could save
ratepayers more than $300 million.<br>
<br>
Out-of-state contributions have become increasingly common for
members of Congress.<br>
<br>
Manchin’s in-state campaign contributors included former West
Virginia Senate president Bill Cole, R-Mercer, the Republican
nominee for governor in 2016 ($2,900), and Terrance Rusin, president
and CEO of Charleston-based behavioral health management company
PsiMed Inc. ($1,000).<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/manchin-campaign-finances-show-oil-and-gas-industry-dwarfing-in-state-and-renewable-energy-contributions/article_b91703bf-eeb6-5905-8494-5b1dabf7b237.html">https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/manchin-campaign-finances-show-oil-and-gas-industry-dwarfing-in-state-and-renewable-energy-contributions/article_b91703bf-eeb6-5905-8494-5b1dabf7b237.html</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
[Some video humor from Samantha Bee - segments on global warming]<br>
<b>Full Frontal Presents: Climate Night 2021</b><br>
Oct 21, 2021<br>
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee<br>
<br>
Did you know that we were proud participants in #ClimateNight? We
care about the environment all the time—not just Wednesday nights at
10:30 PM. To show we mean it, you can watch it right here! <br>
<br>
Watch Full Frontal with Samantha Bee all new Wednesdays at 10:30/
9:30c on TBS!<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plzIjmFfsZA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plzIjmFfsZA</a><br>
<p><br>
<br>
</p>
<br>
<i>[The news archive - looking back at apologies for a famous media
mistake]</i><br>
<font size="+1"><b>On this day in the history of global warming
October 22, 2006</b></font><br>
October 22, 2006: Newsweek's Jerry Adler acknowledges that his
magazine dropped the ball in April 1975 when it ran a story claiming
that global cooling was on the horizon--a story that went against
the scientific evidence of the era pointing to global warming.
<blockquote>As late as 1992, in a story that for some reason has
gotten far less attention, NEWSWEEK revisited the Ice Age threat,
this time posing it as a perverse consequence of the greenhouse
effect. Citing the theories of an "amateur scientist and
professional prophet of doom named John Hamaker," the article
raised the specter that a small increase in air temperature could
cause more snow to fall in places like northern Greenland, where
the ground is often bare. (Extremely cold air doesn't hold enough
moisture for a good snowfall.) Increased snow cover, by reflecting
more sunlight back into space, could trigger a return of the
glaciers to North America. Although the intricate web of positive
and negative feedbacks that control climate are still not fully
understood, that particular scenario hasn't gotten much attention
in the last decade.<br>
<br>
The point to remember, says Connolley, is that predictions of
global cooling never approached the kind of widespread scientific
consensus that supports the greenhouse effect today. And for good
reason: the tools scientists have at their disposal now—vastly
more data, incomparably faster computers and infinitely more
sophisticated mathematical models—render any forecasts from 1975
as inoperative as the predictions being made around the same time
about the inevitable triumph of communism. Astronomers have been
warning for decades that life on Earth could be wiped out by a
collision with a giant meteorite; it hasn't happened yet, but that
doesn't mean that journalists have been dupes or alarmists for
reporting this news. Citizens can judge for themselves what
constitutes a prudent response-which, indeed, is what occurred 30
years ago. All in all, it's probably just as well that society
elected not to follow one of the possible solutions mentioned in
the NEWSWEEK article: to pour soot over the Arctic ice cap, to
help it melt.<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.newsweek.com/climate-change-prediction-perils-111927">http://www.newsweek.com/climate-change-prediction-perils-111927</a><br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB3S0fnOr0M">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB3S0fnOr0M</a><br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2008/11/10/203320/killing-the-myth-of-the-1970s-global-cooling-scientific-consensus/">http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2008/11/10/203320/killing-the-myth-of-the-1970s-global-cooling-scientific-consensus/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<p>/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------/</p>
<br>
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