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<font face="Calibri"><font size="+2"><i><b>March 17, 2023</b></i></font><br>
</font><br>
<i>[Mess and deaths from major storm that is setting records ]</i><br>
<b>Cyclone 'Freddy' batters Malawi and Mozambique</b><br>
Cai Nebe with reporting from Miriam Kaliza in Malawi<br>
March 16, 2023<br>
Hundreds of people have been killed as tropical cyclone Freddy
continues its trail of destruction.<br>
Authorities fear more casualities could emerge in the coming days as
residents in southern Malawi and Mozambique pick through the debris
caused by tropical cyclone Freddy.<br>
<br>
Close to 400 deaths have been reported in Mozambique, Malawi and
Madagascar. Officials believe at least 88,000 have been heavily
affected by the record-breaking storm. To shelter the displaced, 165
camps have been set up in Malawi.<br>
<br>
<b>Three days of hell</b><br>
The destruction was at its worst in the days since Monday and
especially so in southern Malawi which has seen power blackouts and
a shortage of running water. To make matters worse, damaged roads
and washed away bridges have hampered rescue efforts. <br>
<br>
The death toll in Malawi stands at at least 326, while Mozambique
said more than 50 people had died. Madagascan authorities reported
at least 27 deceased. The combined death toll is expected to rise...<br>
- -<br>
Over 35 days, it has travelled 8,000 kilometers over land and the
Indian Ocean, leaving a trail of destruction. It first hit land in
Madagascar, then moved on to Mozambique, before circling back over
the warm waters of the Mozambican Channel.<br>
<br>
It then gained even more strength and crashed back into southern
Africa, hitting Mozambique's Zambezia, Niassa and Sofala provinces
and Malawi with winds speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour.
Scientists say human-caused climate change has made cyclone activity
more intense and frequent over the past years...<br>
- -<br>
As the storm fades, disaster management services are concerned that
the prevalence of water-borne diseases could increase, as clean
water is scarce in the affected areas. Malawi was already battling a
cholera outbreak before the cyclone.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.dw.com/en/record-breaking-cyclone-freddy-batters-malawi-and-mozambique/a-64997827">https://www.dw.com/en/record-breaking-cyclone-freddy-batters-malawi-and-mozambique/a-64997827</a><br>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
<i>[ Record weather event is Cyclone Freddy - all sorts of records
smashed - it may not be done ]</i><br>
<b>Frigging Cyclone Freddy Blew Up Many Records - Duration;
Accumulated Energy, Intensification Cycles…</b><br>
Paul Beckwith<br>
Mar 16, 2023<br>
Believe it or not:<br>
<blockquote>- Cyclone Freddy was the longest duration cyclone in
history, running from Feb 6th to March 11th<br>
<br>
- Freddy had the largest Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) on
record. In fact if you add up all of the ACE values for all the
hurricanes in an average full season in the North Atlantic
together, the sum is less than Freddy’s ACE. What??? Yes, really…<br>
<br>
- Freddy broke the world record for the most bouts of rapid
intensification, defined as an increase in wind speed of 35 miles
per hour (30 knots) in a period of 24 hours. Freddy had seven
separate cycles of rapid intensification. The previous record was
4 in the northern hemisphere and 3 in the southern hemisphere<br>
<br>
- Freddy formed off the coast of Australia, crossed the entire
southern Indian Ocean and travelled more than 8000 km (4,970
miles) to make landfall in Madagascar and Mozambique.<br>
Only four storms have crossed the southern Indian Ocean from east
to west<br>
<br>
- Freddy is one of the deadliest storms in Southern Africa, and
the death toll is about 400 and rising (270 number in video has
been updated)<br>
<br>
- the sea surface temperature (SST) across the entire path of
Freddy was mostly over 28.5 C, and we know that anything over the
threshold of 26.5 C leads to amplification of tropical storms<br>
</blockquote>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYWFn68pMYM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYWFn68pMYM</a><br>
<p>- -</p>
<i>[ global tool for viewing weather ]</i><br>
<b>Earth Null School -- </b>a visualization of global weather
conditions <br>
forecast by supercomputers<br>
updated every three hours<br>
ocean surface current estimates updated every five days<br>
ocean surface temperatures and anomaly from daily average
(1981-2011)<br>
updated daily<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://earth.nullschool.net/">https://earth.nullschool.net/</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[ Hollywood Reporter ]</i><br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><b>‘Extrapolations’ Review: Meryl Streep
and Kit Harington Lead Starry but Stodgy Apple TV+ Climate
Change Drama</b><br>
Edward Norton, Marion Cotillard and Daveed Diggs also appear in
these eight interconnected stories about the future of our
environment, from creator Scott Z. Burns ('Contagion').<br>
BY ANGIE HAN<br>
MARCH 15, 2023 8<br>
</font><font face="Calibri">In the opening minutes of Apple TV+’s
Extrapolations, a young environmental activist (Yara Shahidi)
prepares to make a speech about the need for action on climate
change. As she waits for the cameras to go live, an associate
casually asks if she needs anything. Her not-at-all casual
response: “For people to listen.”<br>
<br>
Thus the tone is set for the rest of the series: serious, heavy
and mostly lacking in nuance. The urgency of its message is
self-evidently important enough that no expense has been spared in
delivering it. The cast is star-studded, and the production design
lavish. But all this gravitas comes at the expense of the human
characters who should be at the center of its stories, turning the
series into a well-intentioned but mostly dry series of
discussions...</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">- -</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">But Extrapolations’ awareness of its own import
works against it more than for it, yielding characters who come
across less like human beings than mouthpieces for political
debates or mournful speeches. A storyline about Marshall, a rabbi
(Daveed Diggs) trying to save his Miami temple from rising water
levels, plays like an excuse for Marshall and an angry young
congregant (Neska Rose) to engage in lengthy philosophical
arguments about the sins of man. Another, about a scientist
(Sienna Miller) attempting to save what might be the last humpback
whale on Earth, threatens to buckle under the weight of its own
metaphors — though that one does at least drop in the incredible
detail that apparently, we’ll have the technology to casually chat
with whales by the year 2046...</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">- -<br>
</font><font face="Calibri">More often, though, Extrapolations seems
to work backwards, starting with a development it wants to show us
or a technology it wants to consider or conversation it wants to
have, and slapping together thinly conceived characters to act
them out. “The problem is us. Always has been,” a character muses
in the finale. “We did this to the planet, to ourselves, to each
other.” Extrapolations grasps perfectly well the mechanics of how
a world falls into ruin. It has a harder time understanding the
souls still stuck on it.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/extrapolations-review-meryl-streep-kit-harington-1235351106/">https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/extrapolations-review-meryl-streep-kit-harington-1235351106/</a><br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></p>
<font face="Calibri"><br>
</font> <font face="Calibri"><i>[ safe savings don't worry ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> <b>Silicon Valley Bank marketed itself as a
climate tech-friendly bank. How will its collapse impact the
industry?</b></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> Insiders are worried about a possible
"chilling effect" on investments.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font><font face="Calibri">By Kelly
Livingston</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> March 14, 2023</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font> <font face="Calibri">Silicon Valley
Bank's failure on Friday raises concerns over the potential
impacts on the climate technology industry, where SVB was heavily
involved.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> "They went out of their way to attract
entrepreneurs, to attract companies in the technology industry.
They were one of the first banks to have a dedicated, clean energy
sustainable finance department," Mona Dajani, Global Head of
Energy & Infrastructure at the law firm Shearman and Sterling,
told ABC News. "They consciously developed this practice, and they
were a well-known source — that's where you could go because they
were willing to lend to higher-risk, new companies."</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> Silicon Valley Bank provided financing for
over 1,550 clients working on climate technology and
sustainability, according to its website. As of December 2021, SVB
had committed $3.2 billion to such projects. The bank also claimed
to have led or participated in 62% of community solar financings,
as of last March...</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">- -</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">In January 2022, the bank announced a
commitment to provide "at least $5 billion by 2027" in financing
for sustainability efforts.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> With SVB's failure, that commitment, and a
potential funding stream for climate tech projects is now void.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> "The ones that are going to be hurt the most
are the unsecured kind of start-ups," Dajani said. "But I do feel
that it will make the clean energy space as a whole come out
stronger because they've learned from this and they're trying to
strengthen their foundation to avoid another collapse and look at
other options for funding, for capital."</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font><font face="Calibri"><a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/silicon-valley-bank-marketed-climate-tech-friendly-bank/story?id=97850409">https://abcnews.go.com/Business/silicon-valley-bank-marketed-climate-tech-friendly-bank/story?id=97850409</a></font><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i><font face="Calibri">[ Activism -- small way to act now
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.votervoice.net/VAOrganizing/campaigns/102183/respond">https://www.votervoice.net/VAOrganizing/campaigns/102183/respond</a>
]</font></i><br>
<font face="Calibri"><b>Safeguard our Health: Tell the EPA to set
Strong Standards for Soot</b><br>
</font><font face="Calibri">On January 27th, 2023, the EPA issued an
updated soot standard, proposing to strengthen the national
ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) for fine particle pollution,
also known as particulate matter or PM2.5. However, this standard
does not go nearly far enough, leaving communities exposed to this
dangerous pollutant. A comment period, open<b> until March 28th</b>,
gives the public an opportunity to express the need for more
stringent soot standards. As a health professional, your voice is
essential to enacting strong standards. <br>
Soot consists of particulate matter produced as a result of
industrial manufacturing, car exhaust, and emissions from power
plants and often composed of organic chemicals, acidic substances,
and heavy metals. These particles enter the bloodstream through
the lungs, and can cause a host of dangerous health issues,
including asthma, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, low birth weight,
and heart disease, among others. It also increases the risk of
preterm birth and infant mortality. With more stringent standards,
the EPA could save 20,000 lives every year. <br>
<br>
<b>There is no such thing as a “safe” level of soot – the more
stringent our soot standards, the healthier we are.</b><br>
<br>
This is an issue of health inequity. Marginalized populations and
communities of color are more likely to be exposed to soot
pollution from nearly every major source, including power plants,
vehicles, and industrial manufacturing. Discriminatory policies
have forced communities of color into areas of industrial
manufacturing, who are therefore living with increased exposure to
particulate matter. The current EPA standard leaves vulnerable
communities behind, and without imposing the strictest limits,
communities of color will not see the essential reduction in
mortality rates. <br>
<b><br>
</b><b>Tell the EPA to act quickly, and to set the National
Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for particulate matter no
higher than 8 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) for the annual
standard and no higher than 25 µg/m3 for the 24-hour standard to
best protect the health of our patients and our communities.</b><b><br>
</b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.votervoice.net/VAOrganizing/campaigns/102183/respond">https://www.votervoice.net/VAOrganizing/campaigns/102183/respond</a><br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></p>
<br>
<p><font face="Calibri"><i>[ Talking about paleo-catastrophe at the
University of Washington. ]</i><br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><b>Peter Ward on CO2, Extinction
Events, and a Stagnant Ocean</b><b><br>
</b>Nate Hagens<br>
Mar 14, 2023 #thegreatsimplification #natehagens #Oceans<br>
Excerpted from The Great Simplification Episode #8 aired on
February 23rd, 2022<br>
Full Episode: <br>
• Peter Ward: Peter Ward: “Oceans - What’s the Worst that Can
Happen?” | The Great Simplification #08 <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eM1aakTzMw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eM1aakTzMw</a></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS4FIoOKKfc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS4FIoOKKfc</a></font></p>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font> </p>
<p><font face="Calibri"></font></p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[ see a movie may not fix things, it may be
a gentle way to look at the problem ]</i><br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><b>Extrapolations Review: Packed,
Powerful and Deep, Apple TV+’s Limited Series Cranks Up the
Creative Heat</b><br>
BY GREG ARCHER<br>
PUBLISHED March 16, 2023<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">To be sure, it is challenging to create an
eight-episode limited series on a subject that’s bound to trigger
people. Here’s to sobering truths. We’re talking about the decay
of the environment in Extrapolations and what’s at stake for
humanity. Does the new Apple TV+ environmental drama hit all the
right marks? Mostly. And the ones it does hit illuminate an issue
with great mindfulness and depth that it’s hard not to walk away
from it moved, even shaken. Roots, the award-winning miniseries
from the 1970s, successfully brought the nation to its knees and
its ripple effects—an impactful soul-search—was never really
forgotten. We haven’t often experienced something that struck such
a vibrant inner chord like that on our screens since.
Extrapolations tries to and often does, and one can forgive some
of its misfires because of it.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Extrapolations is executive produced by Scott
Z. Burns (Contagion, An Inconvenient Truth), Michael Ellenberg,
Gregory Jacobs, Dorothy Fortenberry, and Lindsey Springer. The
star-studded cast includes Meryl Streep (Only Murders in the
Building), Sienna Miller, Daveed Diggs, Edward Norton, Diane Lane,
Tahar Rahim, Yara Shahidi, Matthew Rhys, Keri Russell, Marion
Cotillard, Forest Whitaker, and Game of Thrones’ Kit Harington.
That’s just a sampling of the huge cast.<br>
<br>
The series, which was extensively researched, spans 33 years (2037
to 2070) and delves into big-picture issues of climate change
through a vibrant lens of humanity’s shared experience. It reveals
what’s possible, maybe even probable, unless human beings change
course environmentally. Every episode dips into another part of
the planet and the consequences of our actions and our inactions.
All this to convey what’s at stake globally.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Extrapolations takes viewers from London to
Mumbai, and Miami to the Arctic Circle, and then some. Through an
array of different characters, this is a kind of good vs. evil
tale. Can the good folks triumph over the bad folks? All the
characters struggle with the challenges brought on by climate
change—from their intimate relationships to their health.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">There are some standout performances to note.
Nearly all the actors shine in their roles, however, I’m not sure
what happened in creative translation with Matthew Rhys’ character
in the first episode. Dubbed “Junior,” Rhys plays a pretentious
and narcissistic real estate developer who sees a money-making
opportunity in the Arctic. The region, now devoid of ice, gives
Junior hope to bloat his fortune by exploiting the mineral wealth
that’s now been exposed. That’s fine. We get it. A rich dude who
wants more wealth, however, Rhys’ plays the beast way over the
top. Perhaps that’s the point. Still, it doesn’t land well, and
comes across as cartoonish. How it all unfolds, however, feels
right. Savor that...<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Meanwhile, to reveal too many details about all
the plot points and characters would spoil the overall experience.
That said, viewers most likely will be moved by Sienna Miller and
Meryl Streep. Ah, Meryl. There’s always Meryl. Ms. Streep, while
not given much screen time here, figures in prominently to the
story, especially in the early episodes where we find her playing
the mother of researcher Rebecca Shearer—Miller at her finest.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">There’s something about Streep’s voice, her
calming presence, and, well, her Streepness, that viewers are
drawn to. In this case, it figures into the work Rebecca does as a
biologist and the decisions she must make to ensure her young
son’s safety. This is an episode two highlight, when the setting
is 2046, and things have drastically gone south on the planet.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Tahar Rahim, who told MovieWeb, he found
creator Scott Z Burns’ to be “imaginative” yet “concerned” for the
environment, plays two roles in the limited series. We first find
him as Omar, whose work is vital in an international climate
conference in Tel Aviv, where a crucial temperature target will be
set. But Omar’s wife, Rebecca, faces a tragedy. Will he stay or go
and be by her side? Look for Rahim in a pivotal episode six, too.
In it, the actor shows immense depth in his portrayal of a
tormented man pushed to the brink.<br>
<br>
Take note of Indira Varma (playing Gita Mishra), Edward Norton
(Jonathan Chopin), Cherry Jones (President Elizabeth Burdick),
Diane Lane (Martha Russell), and Michael Gandolfini (Rowan Chopin)
in the noteworthy fourth episode. Varma—she of Obi-Wan Kenobi and
Game of Thrones fame—delivers some of the greatest work I’ve seen
from the actress, and it pivots the limited series, showing the
lengths one person with power and money would do to fight for what
they believe in. No matter the cost...<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://movieweb.com/extrapolations-review/">https://movieweb.com/extrapolations-review/</a><br>
</font>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ Oh, no...Texas is rising up to change reality, should be satire
but is not ]</i><br>
<b>Texas officials target climate science in textbooks<br>
</b>By Scott Waldman | 03/16/2023 <br>
The Texas State Board of Education altered its internal guidance to
schools last month to emphasize the “positive” aspects of fossil
fuels in science textbooks.<br>
<p>The changes are raising concerns among scientists, education
experts and other board members that the panel is establishing
policies that could lead to the statewide purchase of textbooks
that undermine basic tenets of climate change for years to come.</p>
<p>The Republican-dominated board adopted a series of changes to its
operating rules last month that could influence school decisions
on book purchases. The board member who proposed the changes,
Patricia Hardy, has rejected mainstream climate science and argued
that current teachings about global warming are too “negative.”</p>
“If they’re going to tout how wonderful the alternative climate
change stuff is, then they need to also say all the things that are
not good about it and not just hit on the fossil fuel industry,”
Hardy said in an interview Wednesday. “Our schools are paid for by
the fossil fuel industry for the most part, so there’s a little bit
of disingenuousness.”<br>
<br>
The new guidelines also portray the Earth’s warming temperatures as
the result of natural fluctuations — flying in the face of the
consensus among climate researchers that humans are causing it by
burning fossil fuels.<br>
<br>
The impact of the board’s decision could ripple across the U.S.
because the state is one of the nation’s largest markets for
textbooks and publishers pay close attention to Texas standards,
according to Texas State Board of Education member Rebecca
Bell-Metereau, a Democrat who opposed the changes.<br>
<br>
She said her Republican colleagues on the board are “badly educated”
about climate change.<br>
<br>
“They don’t really believe in the geological record; they don’t
believe in science,” Bell-Metereau said.<br>
<br>
The state board’s operating rules do not carry legal weight, but
they are an authoritative designation of the state’s educational
priorities. That means they can influence how school districts
approach classroom curriculum and textbook selection, said Carisa
Lopez, political director for the Texas Freedom Network, a
left-leaning watchdog group involved in school issues.<br>
<br>
For example, the new operating rules could deter school districts
from using textbooks that teach about climate change in a meaningful
way, Lopez said. School districts that choose to use more rigorous
science lessons could face challenges from parents who point to the
operating rules and argue that teaching climate science is a form of
political indoctrination.<br>
<br>
“It certainly deters school districts. You give school districts an
unofficial opinion, they’re going to try to play it safe,” Lopez
said. “School districts don’t want to weigh into politics generally.
It certainly politicizes, deeply, climate change. It politicizes
science.”<br>
<p>The State Board of Education did not respond to requests for
comment.</p>
Hardy inserted language into the rules indicating that instructional
materials must “present positive aspects of the United States and
Texas and its heritage and abundant natural resources.”<br>
<br>
The subtle rule changes don’t explicitly reject the science showing
that humans are warming the Earth in ways that are already wreaking
havoc, but Bell-Metereau said they can steer schools toward buying
books that emphasize baseless climate change theories.<br>
<br>
Hardy also inserted language to “recognize the ongoing process of
scientific discovery and change over time in the natural world.”
That echoes a common climate denial talking point that incorrectly
asserts that natural climate cycles are to blame for temperature
increases over the last century, rather than the use of fossil
fuels.<br>
<br>
Critics of the changes also found reason for concern in language
that says books should “present factual information, avoid bias, and
encourage discussion.”<br>
<br>
Hardy said at the board meeting that teaching children about fossil
fuels and naturally occurring climatic changes would avoid bias by
presenting “both sides” of climate science.<br>
<br>
“You avoid bias by — if it’s a controversial subject — giving both
sides of it,” she said. “You wouldn’t just be presenting one side.”<br>
<br>
Scientists have published peer-reviewed research for decades showing
that people’s use of fossil fuels have rapidly warmed the planet.
Global surface temperatures have risen about 1.1 degrees Celsius
since 1900, more than half of the warming that scientists say is
needed to trigger catastrophic changes. A small number of
scientists, many of whom are connected to energy companies, argue
that the scientific community is exaggerating the risks.<br>
<br>
The sheer size of Texas gives it remarkable sway over the national
textbook market because publishers want their books to be approved
for use there. About 10 percent of the nation’s 50 million public
school students live in Texas, according to national statistics. The
Texas school board has worked for years to ensure that conservative
ideology is reflected in textbooks used in Texas, including on
evolution and climate.<br>
<br>
The move in Texas comes as prominent Republicans such as Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis are using education to advance conservative
culture war issues by banning curriculum on Black history, LBGTQ and
climate change science.<br>
<p>Members of the Texas State Board of Education include a Shell Oil
Co. lawyer and an oil-field service company CEO who have both been
critical of the way climate science is taught. The 15-member board
is composed of 10 Republicans and five Democrats...</p>
<p>The oil and gas industry has long had its thumb on the scale of
how Texas children are taught about climate change and fossil
fuels, said Katie Worth, author of the book “Miseducation: How
Climate Change Is Taught in America,” published by Columbia
University.<br>
<br>
“There’s a real red, blue divide when it comes to what kids are
learning in classrooms,” Worth said. “If you’re a kid, what you’re
likely to learn about climate change is likely going to depend on
who is running the state legislature and the state board of
education in your states. What’s messy about that is climate
change doesn’t stop at the border.”<br>
<br>
The changes threaten to influence a generation of children who
could be “profoundly miseducated about a severe risk,” said Andrew
Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University.<br>
<br>
“It seems to me that they have reached the conclusion that a
well-educated populace is in opposition to their goals and they’re
doing whatever they can to degrade the educational system so they
can push their policies through,” he said, referring to members of
the state education board.<br>
<br>
A 2020 analysis from the National Center for Science Education, a
nonprofit that advocates for education on climate change and
evolution, gave Texas an F when grading its climate science
standards because the state didn’t require the teaching of basic
climate science in classrooms.<br>
<br>
Texas later changed its policies to allow basic climate science to
be taught.<br>
<br>
The rules that the State Board of Education adopted last month
could reverse those moves by allowing the board to disapprove of
textbooks that teach climate science accurately, said Glenn
Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science
Education.<br>
<br>
“Texas is an outlier and it’s because the State Board of Education
has a long history of using the state’s clout when it comes to
textbook purchase to lean on publishers to try to compromise
scientific accuracy in the favor of some ideology, whether that’s
going to creationism in regard to evolution or climate change,” he
said.<br>
<br>
The rules are already guiding outside reviewers examining Texas’
textbooks, Hardy said in the interview. Books that fall outside
the new guidelines will receive lower scores and will likely not
be used in the classroom, she said. Because Texas buys so much
instructional material, she hopes that the changes have a national
influence.<br>
<br>
Hardy told E&E News that she worked on the changes with the
Texas Energy Council, a coalition of oil and gas companies, as
well as newly elected board member Aaron Kinsey, CEO of American
Patrols, an aviation oil-field services company.<br>
<br>
The goal of the group was to eliminate “textbooks written by
people not from Texas who have a negative view of fossil fuels and
a positive view of electric cars.”<br>
<br>
“The climate people, the ones who’ve made climate change their
religion, if you don’t believe what they do, they don’t want you
to be heard,” she said. “There are any number of excellent
writings that would back up my position on the climate, and we
need to look at both sides of the issue.”<br>
<br>
Another member of the Texas State Board of Education, Will
Hickman, who works as an in-house attorney for Shell, previously
blocked the implementation of proposed science standards that
would teach students about the benefits of cutting carbon dioxide.<br>
<br>
The board’s priorities are in line with the state Republican Party
platform, which calls for climate change and evolution to be
taught as “theories.”<br>
<br>
“We support objective teaching of scientific theories, such as
life origins and climate change,” the platform reads. “These shall
be taught as challengeable scientific theories subject to change
as new data is produced.”<br>
<br>
Bell-Metereau, the board member who opposed last month’s changes,
said her colleagues on the board have invited oil and gas
officials and energy groups to testify about climate science,
sometimes for hours, while scientists and citizens are often given
two minutes to speak.<br>
<br>
“The operating rules are important because it gives more of a
legal avenue for parents to object and that’s really where a lot
of it is coming from,” Bell-Metereau said. “It’s a very organized
minority of people who have extreme views, and they’re learning
how to lobby the board members and the legislators with a very
strict line on every possible subject in science, in history.”<br>
<br>
She added that this small group of vocal people who reject climate
science is influencing the educational opportunities of millions
of children. And their ideas are spreading to other states.<br>
<br>
“These states are models for other states, and they are
coordinating their efforts,” said Bell-Metereau.<br>
</p>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/texas-officials-target-climate-science-in-textbooks/">https://www.eenews.net/articles/texas-officials-target-climate-science-in-textbooks/</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<font face="Calibri"> <i>[The news archive - looking back]</i><br>
<font size="+2"><i><b>March 17, 2014</b></i></font> <br>
March 17, 2014: The New York Times reports:<br>
"Across the parched American West, the long drought has set off a
series of fierce legal and political battles over who controls an
increasingly dear treasure — water."<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/us/wests-drought-and-growth-intensify-conflict-over-water-rights.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/us/wests-drought-and-growth-intensify-conflict-over-water-rights.html</a><br>
<br>
<br>
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