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Author Topic: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️  (Read 116375 times)

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AGelbert

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January 10, 2020

SNIPPET:

😇 Trump Wants Clean Air, Clean Water , 😈 Rolls Back Regs:

President 🦀 Trump on Thursday denied calling climate change a "hoax" as he announced a significant overhaul of an important environmental rule. "Nothing’s a hoax about [climate change]. It’s a very serious subject,"  the president said in response to a reporter's question about his climate change beliefs, before launching into a meandering train of thought about clean air, clean water, and jobs in the wind industry.

The 🐘🦕🦖🐍 administration's proposed changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, one of the nation's bedrock environmental laws, would remove the need for allowing agencies to consider the "cumulative" impacts of projects on the environment, including major 🦕🦖 fossil fuel projects like pipelines, and shorten the time frame for environmental reviews. The proposed changes to NEPA garnered widespread and bipartisan opposition in Congress and from local leaders nationwide. (Trump: Washington Post $, Daily Beast, CNN. Rollback: New York Times $, WSJ $, Washington Post $, NBC, AP, The Guardian, CBS, NPR, New Republic, OPB, The Verge, Earther, Vox.

Full Nexus Newsletter:

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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Australian Wildfires Prove Denying Climate Change Won't Save You From It
9,565 views•Jan 9, 2020


The Real News Network
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Climate scientist Michael Mann is in Australia, where the bushfire crisis is unfolding in real time. He says voters there need to look for 'climate hawks' who can counteract the climate-denying policies of politicians like current prime minister Scott Morrison.

Producer: Steve Horn
Director/Video Editor: Taylor Hebden
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Category News & Politics
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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Breaking: 11 dead in Midwest storms
« Reply #2058 on: January 13, 2020, 12:48:05 pm »
Breaking: 11 dead in Midwest storms
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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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EcoWatch

Olivia Rosane Jan. 13, 2020 07:57AM EST

Agelbert NOTE: Yes Virginia, a rapidly warming atmosphere DOES warm the oceans and land enough to trigger volcanic activity sooner, rather than later (SEE BELOW: "Geological Havoc").

 
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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BLACK BEAR NEWS: A "megafire" measuring 1.5 million acres forms in Australia, as bushfires merge
978 views•Jan 12, 2020


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#FridayGasStrike #ExtinctionRebellion #ClimateStrike
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Unusual heat wave hits Boston and New York City, with record-breaking temps topping 68 degrees
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/unu...

Australia bushfires spark 'unprecedented' climate disinformation
https://phys.org/news/2020-01-austral...

A ‘megafire’ measuring 1.5 million acres forms in Australia as bushfires merge
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weathe...

Instagram says it's removing posts supporting Soleimani to comply with US sanctions
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/10/tech/i...

Howza 'bout this?
http://waypastwtf.blogspot.com/2020/0...

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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The “Malaise” Speech: When Jimmy Carter Humbly Told the Truth to Americans

July 16, 2018 | By The Conversation

Guest post by David Swartz of Asbury University/The Conversation


Employees at a gas station in Los Angeles watch President Jimmy Carter giving his energy speech over national television on July 15, 1979 (AP file photo)

Nearly 40 years ago, on July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter went on national television to share with millions of Americans his diagnosis of a nation in crisis. “All the legislation in the world,” he proclaimed, “can’t fix what’s wrong with America.” He went on to call upon American citizens to reflect on the meaning and purpose of their lives together.

Carter made several specific policy prescriptions. But in a presidency animated by spirituality perhaps more than any other in American history, this speech called more generally for national self-sacrifice and humility.

At a time when political strongmen, hypernationalism, and xenophobia have risen in the U.S. and the world, Carter’s speech offers a powerful counterexample to these trends.

A nation in ‘very serious trouble’

In 1979, Jimmy Carter was three years into his presidency. The burdens were many. Leading a divided Democratic Party, he faced a staunch and growing Republican opposition. The nation suffered from stagflation, a combination of economic stagnation and 12 percent inflation.

In 1973 the OPEC cartel, comprised mostly of Middle Eastern countries, had cut oil production and imposed an embargo against nations that supported Israel. In the late 1970s production declined again. Coupled with high global demand, this generated an energy crisis that increased gasoline prices by 55 percent in the first half of 1979.

In protest, truckers set bonfires in Pennsylvania, and Carter’s approval rating sank to 30 percent. An anxious Carter cut short his overseas trip to Vienna where he was holding nuclear-arms talks with the Soviet Union’s Leonid Brezhnev.

After a brief stop in Washington, the President retreated to Camp David for ten days. As he considered the severe and interlocking problems facing his administration, Carter read the Bible, historian Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism, and economist E.F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful, a meditation on the value of local community and the problems of excessive consumption.

He also invited representatives from many sectors of American life – business and labor leaders, teachers and preachers, and politicians and intellectuals – to consult with him. By the end of his retreat, Carter had concluded that the country faced more than a series of isolated problems. Collectively they comprised a fundamental cultural crisis.

The malaise speech


Having cloistered himself for an unprecedented length of time, the President emerged from Camp David with great drama on July 15, 1979. In a nationally televised speech that was watched by 65 million Americans, Carter intoned an evangelical-sounding lament about “a crisis of the American spirit.”

He said,

Quote
“In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities and our faith in God, too many of us now worship self-indulgence and consumption.”

Indeed, the President’s sermon expounded at length about excess. “Human identity is no longer defined by what one does but by what one owns,” he preached. But “owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning.”


It was a penetrating cultural critique that reflected Carter’s spiritual values. Like the writers of the New Testament, he called out sin. Like the prophets of the Old Testament, he confessed to personal and national pride.

In the mode of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, he noted the limits of human power and righteousness. In this moment of national chastening, he committed himself and the nation to rebirth and renewal.

As a scholar of American religious history, this so-called “malaise speech” (though Carter never actually used the word “malaise”) was, in my opinion, the most theologically profound speech by an American president since Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address.

A squandered opportunity

This articulation of economic and political humility sounded the perfect pitch for a nation whose confidence in civil institutions had been shaken. The Watergate scandal had revealed corruption in the nation’s highest political offices. The Vietnam War had ended with a Communist victory.

The “malaise speech” was a continuation of a long-running theme for Carter. In his 1977 inaugural address, he intoned, “We have learned that ‘more’ is not necessarily ‘better,’ that even our great nation has its recognized limits, and that we can neither answer all questions nor solve all problems … we must simply do our best.”

Popular memory suggests that the nation reacted negatively to his speech. In The Age of Reagan, historian Sean Wilentz writes that Carter appeared to be blaming the American citizens for their problems. Others panned Carter’s idealistic approach to the energy crisis as naïve.

Soon after the speech, Carter got a bump in his approval ratings. AP Photo/Harry Cabluck

But that was not how most Americans received the speech. In fact, Carter enjoyed an immediate 11 percent bump in his job approval rating in the days that followed. Clearly many agreed with Carter’s line that the nation was mired in a “moral and spiritual crisis.”

The President, however, failed to capitalize on the resonance with his meditation. Just two days after his speech, Carter fired his entire cabinet, which seemed to suggest that his government was in disarray.

The President’s poll numbers immediately melted. As Time magazine described it, “The President basked in the applause for a day and then set in motion his astounding purge, undoing much of the good he had done himself.” Ronald Reagan soon capitalized on the disillusionment. “I find no national malaise,” said Carter’s successor, who campaigned on a platform of America as “a shining city on a hill.

About to win the Cold War, America was ready for some exuberant nationalism, not a plain-style president who insisted on carrying his own garment bag aboard Air Force One.

New resonance

Forty years later, national jingoism pervades both political parties. Republicans and Democrats alike speak of the United States as a “city on a hill,” and Donald Trump’s “America first” rhetoric has lifted hubris to new heights and alienated allies around the world.

The Conversation Jimmy Carter’s sermon of humility speaks more than ever to crises of our times.

David Swartz is Associate Professor of History, Asbury University. This article was originally published on The Conversation.

https://www.who2.com/president-carter-national-malaise-speech-sermon-1979/

Quote
“The world says: "You have needs -- satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more." This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.” ― Fyodor Dostoyyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov


Tomorrow is Yesterday...





He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #2062 on: January 14, 2020, 04:15:03 pm »
Climate Change Denier Disorder (CCDD)
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

Surly1

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The Last Decade Was The Hottest On Record Thanks To Global Warming
"We are experiencing the impacts of global warming unfolding literally in real time."


NASA / Via data.giss.nasa.gov

NASA temperature map for December 2019 compared to the 1951–1980 timeframe.

Posted on January 15, 2020, at 11:40 a.m. ET

Last year was the world's second-warmest year, capping off the hottest decade on record, according to experts at NOAA and NASA.

And here’s another record to add to the pile: The past five years were collectively the warmest since record-keeping began about 140 years ago. 2019's temperatures were second only to 2016, coming in around 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, per NOAA.

“The decade that just ended is clearly the warmest decade on record,” NASA's Gavin Schmidt said in a statement. “Every decade since the 1960s clearly has been warmer than the one before.”

This warming trend, scientists say, is undoubtedly the result of human-made climate change.

“We are experiencing the impacts of global warming unfolding literally in real time,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, an earth science professor at Stanford University not involved in the newly released analyses. “We now have clear evidence that people and ecosystems are being impacted across the world, from the equator to the poles, from both in the ocean and on land, from the coastal areas to the high elevations.”

The twin government analyses, released Wednesday, come on the heels of a new study in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences concluding that the world’s oceans in 2019 were the warmest since record-keeping began around the 1950s, capping off an exceptionally warm 10-year streak for the oceans.

Meanwhile, Australia continues to struggle with unprecedented bushfires that have destroyed thousands of homes, shrouded large swaths of the country in unhealthy smoke levels, and killed more than a dozen people and thousands and thousands of animals.

“We know that the climatic conditions that enable dangerous fires are increasing globally,” Colin Beale, a biology professor at the University of York who has studied climate and fire impacts, told BuzzFeed News in an email. “We also know that the current fire season is exceptional (a product primarily of the Indian Ocean Dipole, a weather phenomenon that has now ended, probably exacerbated by underlying climate change) and is unlikely to be repeated again very soon — but could become normal if climate change is not tackled adequately.”


AGelbert

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I'll say one thing for 🦀 Trump; he is consistent.
« Reply #2064 on: January 15, 2020, 03:11:10 pm »
"We are experiencing the impacts of global warming unfolding literally in real time."

NASA / Via data.giss.nasa.gov

NASA temperature map for December 2019 compared to the 1951–1980 timeframe.

Posted on January 15, 2020, at 11:40 a.m. ET

Last year was the world's second-warmest year, capping off the hottest decade on record, according to experts at NOAA and NASA.

And here’s another record to add to the pile: The past five years were collectively the warmest since record-keeping began about 140 years ago. 2019's temperatures were second only to 2016, coming in around 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, per NOAA.

“The decade that just ended is clearly the warmest decade on record,” NASA's Gavin Schmidt said in a statement. “Every decade since the 1960s clearly has been warmer than the one before.”

This warming trend, scientists say, is undoubtedly the result of human-made climate change.

“We are experiencing the impacts of global warming unfolding literally in real time,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, an earth science professor at Stanford University not involved in the newly released analyses. “We now have clear evidence that people and ecosystems are being impacted across the world, from the equator to the poles, from both in the ocean and on land, from the coastal areas to the high elevations.”

The twin government analyses, released Wednesday, come on the heels of a new study in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences concluding that the world’s oceans in 2019 were the warmest since record-keeping began around the 1950s, capping off an exceptionally warm 10-year streak for the oceans.

Meanwhile, Australia continues to struggle with unprecedented bushfires that have destroyed thousands of homes, shrouded large swaths of the country in unhealthy smoke levels, and killed more than a dozen people and thousands and thousands of animals.

“We know that the climatic conditions that enable dangerous fires are increasing globally,” Colin Beale, a biology professor at the University of York who has studied climate and fire impacts, told BuzzFeed News in an email. “We also know that the current fire season is exceptional (a product primarily of the Indian Ocean Dipole, a weather phenomenon that has now ended, probably exacerbated by underlying climate change) and is unlikely to be repeated again very soon — but could become normal if climate change is not tackled adequately.”


Well, that certainly explains why Trump , who was undoubtedly informed of this Catastrophic Climate Change EVIDENCE which threatens the bottom line of his 🦕🦖 Hydrocarbon Hellspawn OWNERS, rushed to claim it was "snowing" in D.C. on a day that the temperature was above 50 degrees F. I'll say one thing for 🦀 Trump; he is consistent.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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BLACK BEAR NEWS: The 🦕🦖 people in power will let your country burn
1,151 views•Jan 15, 2020


Black Bear News
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#FridayGasStrike #ExtinctionRebellion #ClimateStrike
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The people in power will let your country burn
https://theoutline.com/post/8508/australia-fires-climate-change-response?zd=1&zi=shvcpunn

‘The Models Are Too Conservative’: Paleontologist Peter Ward on What Past Mass Extinctions Can Teach Us About Climate Change Today
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/what-mass-extinctions-teach-us-about-climate-change-today.html
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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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🚩 Breaking: 45 million need food aid in So Africa
511 views•Streamed live 6 hours ago


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Category People & Blogs
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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BLACK BEAR NEWS: The $119 Billion Sea Wall That Could Defend New York … or Not
480 views•Jan 20, 2020


Black Bear News
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#FridayGasStrike #ExtinctionRebellion #ClimateStrike
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Could Humans Go Extinct Within Years?
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2020/01/could-humans-go-extinct-within-years.html

Canada is losing a war against feral pigs that are infesting the Prairies

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/canada-is-losing-a-war-against-feral-pigs-that-are-infesting-the-prairies/ar-AADmaLV

US dumps huge amounts of sand on Miami Beach to tackle climate change erosion
https://news.yahoo.com/us-dumps-huge-amounts-sand-miami-beach-tackle-211421724.html

The $119 Billion Sea Wall That Could Defend New York … or Not
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/nyregion/sea-wall-nyc.html

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Quote
"The rich executed a coup d’état that transformed the three branches of the U.S. government and nearly all institutions, including the mass media, into wholly owned subsidiaries of the corporate state." -- Chris Hedges

There are three legs to the fascism stool:
1) A melding of corporate and civil governance.
2) A foreign policy predicated on an aggressive nationalistic worldview.
3) An authoritarian government.
A political system that recognizes corporations as individual persons certainly provides one of those legs . 🦀 Trump just completed the last two legs.

🦀 Trump has put 🦕🦖 oilmen in charge of much of the government from the State Dept to the EPA. They are ruthlessly out to protect America from the threats of peace and prosperity, clean air and clean water. The oil business and the war business will thrive under Trump. America, not so much.

Declaring war on science will not end well. Declaring war on NASA’s earth sciences won’t end well. Declaring war on the earth is a war we cannot win. 🦀 Trump will do what he does and the waters will keep on rising. The coast of Florida will disappear and there’s nothing anyone can do to bring it back once its gone.

"The fossil fuel industry swallows up $5.3 trillion a year worldwide in hidden costs to keep burning fossil fuels, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
 
This money, the IMF noted, is in addition to the $492 billion in direct subsidies offered by governments around the world through write-offs and write-downs and land-use loopholes.

In a sane world these subsidies would be invested to free us from the deadly effects of carbon emissions caused by fossil fuels, but we do not live in a sane world. "  -- Chris Hedges

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #2068 on: January 21, 2020, 01:07:07 pm »
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January 21, 2020

Court tosses youth climate case , fire smoke slows down coal production in Australia, & more

Court Throws Out Kids' Climate Suit: An appeals court Friday threw out a landmark case brought by a group of 21 young people charging the federal government with not taking sufficient action on climate change. The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to dismiss the Juliana vs. United States suit, which was originally brought against the Obama administration in 2015, saying that "the plaintiffs’ case must be made to the political branches or to the electorate at large" rather than decided in the courts. Our Children’s Trust, the nonprofit backing the suit, has vowed to appeal the decision, with the Trust's lead lawyer Julia Olson telling the New York Times that the case is "far from over." (New York Times $, Washington Post $, Reuters, AP, Vox, Politico Pro $)


Fossil Fuels' Radioactive Problem: Oil and gas production releases certain radioactive waste products that have led to a slew of cancer cases in workers, according to a new investigation from Rolling Stone. The investigation lays out how runoff from oil and gas wells, known as brine, can contain high levels of radionuclide, which may be an understudied public health risk to workers and communities across the country. The industry claims that radioactivity in the waste is harmless, so workers continue to be unprotected and brine storage facilities largely unregulated. "If I had a beaker of that on my desk and accidentally dropped it on the floor, they would shut the place down," Yuri Gorby, a former radioactivity expert at the Department of Energy, told Rolling Stone about high levels of radioactivity found in brine from the Marcellus shale. "And if I dumped it down the sink, I could go to jail.” (Rolling Stone)
 

Bush Fires Screwing Up Coal Production ;D: Smoke from bush fires in Australia is slowing coal production at mines owned by the country's biggest coal company. Mining giant BHP said Tuesday that production in its mines was down 11 percent partially due to poor air quality in the state of New South Wales making visibility low and equipment harder to operate. The company also noted that some of its employees had taken leave to fight the fires that have pushed areas of Australia, the world's largest coal producer, into a state of crisis. "I did roll my eyes" at BHP's announcement, Bill Hare, chief executive of Climate Analytics, told the New York Times. "...You can see the mood is changing in Australia. Sooner or later, the companies are going to run out of social license." (New York Times $, Reuters, SBS)





Taking A Peek At Upcoming Fossil Fuel Propaganda and Policy on Methane, Gas Bans, Coal and Protests

We hit the ground running this year, so today we’re going to do a bit of stock-taking about what 2020 is going to bring us from the 🦕👹🦖 fossil fuel industry.

Right now, the industry is not exactly in a happy place. Public polling from Yale shows that the “alarmed” portion of Americans is now the largest of the six segments at 31% of the population (compared to just 10% who are doubtful or dismissive of climate concerns). Last week, TIME’s Justin Worland published a piece based on an interview with Shell’s CEO, who’s feeling the pressure from climate activists and the realities of climate science. (Makes sense, given that last week Extinction Rebellion blockaded Shell offices.) The industry certainly has a problem with public perception, particularly but not solely among the youth, as protests from Harvard Law and Oxford, among others, show.   

Step one, then, for the fossil fuel industry is to make it harder for those pesky protestors to shine a spotlight on companies. As the Heartland Institute gratefully reminded us with a timely post last week, back in November of 2019 Wisconsin became the 17th state to criminalize protests with new stronger penalties including a $10,000 fine and six years in jail if protests trespass on energy company property. 

Step two is to pretend like the industry is doing something about pollution, to undercut calls for regulation. That’s the approach the American Gas Association and the Edison Electric Institute are taking for their new Natural Gas Sustainability Initiative, a draft of which E&E obtained. To address the fact that methane emissions are a powerful greenhouse gas, the initiative is completely voluntary, and only working on a reporting protocol. Drillers can choose to report how much they’re polluting, but won’t actually be pressured to do anything. 

But what about policies that are already being rolled out? To see how the industry is responding to the emerging trend of local municipalities banning natural gas use all together, check out this post from the oil industry’s Energy in Depth. It lays out the four narrative responses the industry will use to these local decisions. 

The first is an implicit admission that they’re a problem, in that they allege that gas bans won’t reduce emissions as much as efficiency measures or methane capture in landfills. (But obviously banning gas hardly means cities can’t also take efficiency measures or capture methane from garbage!) After that, cry crocodile tears for low-income populations by pointing out that electric heat can be more expensive than a natural gas furnace, that consumers appear to prefer gas to electric heat, and that gas is more efficient than electric.

None of this changes the simple fact that natural gas use is incompatible with fighting climate change. 

That’s why the industry is making last-ditch efforts to use their political sway to protect their business. The latest comes from Indiana, which introduced a bill last week to make it illegal to close down a coal plant unless the federal government (but NOT the EPA) gives a direct mandate to do so. The hypocrisy the party of free market worship and “not picking winners and losers” picking the losing coal industry to win legal protection from economic competition could not be more palpable. 

Even if it is eventually signed into law, eventually those plants will close. And when they do, surely the industry will be good neighbors and clean up the mess they left behind, right? 

Obviously not. In Ohio, a new analysis shows that while drilling companies are required to set aside either $5,000 to clean up a spent well, or $15,000 for all of their wells, the average cost of plugging one well is $110,000. Even worse, once the well is plugged, the companies get that money back, leaving the public to pay the rest. That is, if they even bother to clean it themselves. Ohio alone has a confirmed 900 orphaned wells, with potentially another 18,000 hiding away in homes or school gyms or farm fields or basements or anywhere else. When one considers what the costs would be if Ohio was representative of the whole country, it’d mean a price tag of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Which of course begs a question the industry is desperate to keep the public from asking: How are we going to pay for that?
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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BLACK BEAR NEWS: The Reason Fossil Fuel Companies Are Finally Reckoning With Climate Change
324 views•Jan 21, 2020


Black Bear News
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The Reason Fossil Fuel Companies Are Finally Reckoning With Climate Change
https://time.com/5766188/shell-oil-companies-fossil-fuels-climate-change/

Welcome to the 2020’s, the Final Decade of the Failed Human Experiment 😱
https://kevinhester.live/2020/01/01/welcome-to-the-2020s-the-final-decade-of-the-failed-human-experiment/

👹 Hillary Clinton on Bernie Sanders: "Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him"
https://www.axios.com/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-nobody-likes-him-f570ec0d-9ded-4966-9037-68dbf9abe931.html

T-SHIRTS - http://redllamamusic.com/BlackBear.htm

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