“We have bigger problems than that. We’ll have a little more beachfront property. That’s not the worst thing in the world.”
— Donald Trump, at a campaign rally in Alaska, dismissing climate change and rising sea levels.
“We have bigger problems than that. We’ll have a little more beachfront property. That’s not the worst thing in the world.”
— Donald Trump, at a campaign rally in Alaska, dismissing climate change and rising sea levels.
“Democratic leaders are racing to finalize a revised proposal to tackle climate change and jump-start the nation’s transition to clean energy, part of a larger sprint to strike a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on their stalled spending bill this month,” the Washington Post reports.
“The frenzied deliberations reflect weeks of private talks between Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Manchin, a centrist who scuttled negotiations over the party’s last attempt at a broader spending package in December. A climate agreement would help the country meet President Biden’s ambitious clean-energy goals, even as Manchin pursues policies that would still promote fossil fuels.”
“While top Manchin aides say they are far from a deal, some Democrats are still hoping to finalize a retooled climate proposal as soon as next week, when lawmakers are set to return from recess.”
Bill Nye — “The Science Guy” — told the Aspen Ideas Festival that the main says the main thing you can do about climate change isn’t recycling — it’s voting.
Said Nye: “To be sure, recycling the bottles, don’t throw the plastic away [and] compost your compostable things … Start there. But if you want to do one thing about climate change: Vote.”
This is what Sara Goddard has been saying for years.
You are reading the free version of Political Wire.
Sara Goddard offers 7 ways to make it a plastic free July.
The Economist: “America’s Supreme Court is on a roll. After a week in which it scrapped women’s constitutional right to an abortion and gave an expansive interpretation of gun rights, it has issued yet another momentous ruling—one that will have far-reaching consequences for the government’s ability to curb the greenhouse-gas emissions that are heating the planet.”
“On June 30th, in West Virginia v Environmental Protection Agency, the court sharply limited the epa’s power to regulate the millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases discharged by coal-burning power plants each year. The Clean Air Act, the majority ruled, does not permit the agency to reshape the power grid by relying more heavily on cleaner sources like solar and wind power.”
“The Supreme Court issued a decision limiting the power of regulatory agencies within the federal government, saying the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority in 2015 when it tried to limit greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The EPA powers at issue are central to Mr. Biden’s climate agenda. With fragile majorities in the Senate and House, Democrats have limited ability to advance their platform through new legislation.”
HuffPost: Supreme Court delivers big blow to climate crisis.
“An ongoing La Niña event that has contributed to flooding in eastern Australia and exacerbated droughts in the United States and East Africa could persist into 2023, according to the latest forecasts,” Nature reports.
“The occurrence of two consecutive La Niña winters in the Northern Hemisphere is common, but having three in a row is relatively rare. A ‘triple dip’ La Niña — lasting three years in a row — has happened only twice since 1950.”
Iran soared up to a scorching 126°F yesterday.
That’s the hottest temperature recorded on Earth this year and one of the highest “pre-solstice” temperatures ever recorded.
“Canada will ban the manufacture and importation of harmful single-use plastics by the end of the year, the government said, in a sweeping effort to fight pollution and climate change,” the Washington Post reports.
“Most plastic grocery bags, cutlery and straws would come under the ban, with a few exceptions for medical needs.”
“The Environmental Protection Agency warned Wednesday that a group of human-made chemicals found in the drinking water, cosmetics and food packaging used by millions of Americans pose a greater danger to human health than regulators previously thought,” the Washington Post reports.
Green That Life: What are forever chemicals?
Denver Post: “Parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah are drying out due to climate-driven changes in stream flows, and these states will shift to become more like the most arid states of the Southwest, federal researchers found in a scientific study published last week.”
“In an attempt to mobilize voters around the climate crisis, six climate advocacy groups are readying for the midterms with an arsenal of $100 million — the first coordinated spending of its kind,” CNN reports.
“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) plans to unveil a strategy on Thursday outlining how Republicans would address climate change, energy and environmental issues if the party gains control of the House in the midterm elections,“ the Washington Post reports.
“The strategy calls for streamlining the permitting process for large infrastructure projects, increasing domestic fossil fuel production and boosting exports of U.S. liquefied natural gas, which proponents say is cleaner than gas produced in other countries.”
“The plan is expected to take a much more modest approach to slashing planet-warming emissions than proposals from President Biden and congressional Democrats, who have focused on accelerating the nation’s transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Leading scientists have said the world must rapidly phase out fossil fuels to stave off the consequences of unchecked climate change.”
The Atlantic: “Americans support recycling. We do too. But although some materials can be effectively recycled and safely made from recycled content, plastics cannot. Plastic recycling does not work and will never work. The United States in 2021 had a dismal recycling rate of about 5 percent for post-consumer plastic waste, down from a high of 9.5 percent in 2014, when the U.S. exported millions of tons of plastic waste to China and counted it as recycled—even though much of it wasn’t.”
“Recycling in general can be an effective way to reclaim natural material resources. The U.S.’s high recycling rate of paper, 68 percent, proves this point. The problem with recycling plastic lies not with the concept or process but with the material itself.”
Sara Goddard: 6 Myths About Plastic Debunked.
“Bonefish off the coast of Florida have tested positive for a cocktail of pharmaceutical drugs, including anti-depressants and blood pressure medications,” CNN reports.
Financial Times: “The ‘megadrought’ gripping the southwestern US has driven water levels at the two largest reservoirs to record lows, forcing unprecedented government intervention to protect water and power supplies across seven states”
“Millions of Americans already contending with critical water shortages now face the prospect of black outs as energy demand grows during heatwaves just as hydroelectric power supply is strained. A US power regulator this week warned that a big swath of the US was at risk of blackouts, partly as a result of drought conditions curtailing hydroelectric supplies.”
“US government climate scientists have said more than half the country is enduring drought conditions, while a separate study estimated that the drought affecting southwestern states was the worst to hit the region for 1,200 years after being exacerbated by human activity.”
President Joe Biden warned that the country will likely see “another tough hurricane season” this year, and he pledged that his administration was prepared to respond to the storms and help Americans recover from them, the AP reports.
Said Biden: “We know hurricanes are coming our way. They grow more extreme every season.”
David Wallace-Wells: “For a few years, I’ve startled people by pointing out that over half of all of the emissions from the burning of fossil fuels that have ever been produced in the history of humanity have been produced in the past 30 years — since Al Gore published his first book on warming; since the U.N. established its climate-change body, the I.P.C.C.; since the premiere of ‘Friends.’”
“But it is perhaps even more astonishing to consider just how fast the temperature is rising. As recently as 2015, the 10-year average of global temperatures showed, according to the I.P.C.C., warming of 0.87 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average. Just five years later, it had jumped to 1.09 — 25 percent higher in half a decade.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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