Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Pope Visit Backfires On Republicans As Obama and Francis Team Up On Climate Change

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/09/23/pope-visit-backfires-republicans-obama-francis-team-climate-change.html
"Pope Francis spoke positively about President Obama’s proposed steps to combat climate change:

Mr. President, I find it encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution. Accepting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem which can no longer be left to our future generation. When it comes to the care of our common home, we are living at a critical moment of history. We still have time to make the change needed to bring about a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change.
Such change demands on our part a serious and responsible recognition not only of the kind of world we may be leaving to our children, but also to the millions of people living under a system which has overlooked them. Our common home has been part of this group of the excluded, which cries out to heaven and which today powerfully strikes our homes, our cities, our societies. To use a telling phrase of the Reverend Martin Luther King, we can say that we have defaulted on a promissory note, and now is the time to honor it.

Republicans are some of the few remaining holdouts in the world who have a stated public policy position that deny the reality of climate change."

The Arctic Sea Tumbles To A New Low

The Planet Set Three Major Heat Records In August

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/09/17/3702638/hottest-august-summer-year/
"Like a broken record, we are breaking records for temperature over and over and over again. NOAA’s latest monthly State of the Climate Report reports that the Earth just experienced the hottest August on record, the hottest summer (June to August) on record, and the hottest year to date."

Sounds Like Sci-Fi Horror, but It's Frighteningly Real: Giant Viruses May Be Unleashed by Arctic Thaw @alternet

Sounds Like Sci-Fi Horror, but It's Frighteningly Real: Giant Viruses May Be Unleashed by Arctic Thaw @alternet

"This newly discovered pathogen, named Mollivirus sibericum, is 0.6 microns long and has more than 500 genes. By contrast, the contemporary influenza A and B viruses each contain eight genes.

Viruses are classed as “giant” when they are longer than half a micron, or about 0.00002 inch."

Human Activity Pushing Marine Life to the Brink of Collapse

Human Activity Pushing Marine Life to the Brink of Collapse

"Human activity is pushing marine life to the brink of collapse, warned a leading international conservation group, which found that overfishing, destruction of marine habitats, and climate change has led to the loss of almost half the world's marine mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish within a single generation."

47 Republican Senators Want To Block The EPA’s Clean Water Rule

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/09/18/3703024/senate-republicans-disapprove-of-waters-rule/
"The rule, developed with the Army Corps of Engineers using what a White House spokesman called “the best science available” to determine how waterways are connected, protects two million miles of streams and 20 million acres of wetlands that the Clean Water Act did not clearly cover before. The EPA estimates that a third of Americans get their drinking water from sources connected to the added waterways." The pro pollution, pro poison party strikes again."

Exxon Doubled Down on Climate Denial and Deceit

Exxon Doubled Down on Climate Denial and Deceit

"ExxonMobil’s own scientists had secretly confirmed the science behind human-caused climate change as early as the late 1970s.

Yes—this is the same ExxonMobil that has funded efforts to attack the science of climate change for more than two decades."

Denying Science Will Make Republicans Lose The Youth Vote

Scientists Seek Prosecution Of Climate Change Deniers Under RICO Statutes

http://samuel-warde.com/2015/09/scientists-seek-prosecution-of-climate-change-deniers-under-rico-statutes/
"A RICO investigation (1999 to 2006) played an important role in stopping the tobacco industry from continuing to deceive the American people about the dangers of smoking. If corporations in the fossil fuel industry and their supporters are guilty of the misdeeds that have been documented in books and journal articles, it is imperative that these misdeeds be stopped as soon as possible so that America and the world can get on with the critically important business of finding effective ways to restabilize the Earth’s climate, before even more lasting damage is done."

Pope Francis Attacked By Climate Deniers Over Support For Accurate Science

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/09/21/3703544/climate-deniers-smear-pope-francis/
"From George Will to the Heartland Institute, climate science deniers are a one-trick pony when it comes to responding to effective climate change communicators: smear, smear, smear. They are at it again, shamelessly, on the eve of the U.S. visit by the widely-admired Pope Francis — who issued a ground-breaking Encyclical on the moral urgency of climate action back in June."

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Consumer Reports calls latest Tesla best vehicle they've ever tested, right wing goes nuts

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/31/1417018/-Consumer-Reports-calls-latest-Tesla-best-vehicle-they-ve-ever-tested-right-wing-goes-nuts
"In other words, today's Tesla supercar is tomorrow's mid-range commuter. Tesla is building out technology for well-heeled early adopters that will (in three years, if anyone believes Tesla timetables anymore) soon be available in more affordable mass-market cars. For those of us hoping for a transition to clean transportation, this is pretty exciting stuff, and Tesla is proving that electric cars aren't golf-cart equivalents. Rather, they are better than the gas-powered supercars of today.
Which is all great news! Well, unless you are conservative and have a bug up your ass about clean air and renewable fuels that would eliminate dependence on petroleum from regressive regimes and lessen the need for wars. For those people, Consumer Reports now has a liberal agenda to destroy freedom."

Obama In Arctic Circle Speaks On Climate Change- Full Speech

More Bad News for Coal Country as Common Byproduct Found to be Radioactive

More Bad News for Coal Country as Common Byproduct Found to be Radioactive

"Coal ash, a common and unregulated byproduct of coal-fired power plants, has been found to contain high levels of radioactive contaminants, placing at great risk the countless number of people who live near such dumps—including the thousands of North Carolina residents affected by the 2014 Dan River spill."

'Big Moment' for California as Assembly Votes to Divest From Dirty Coal

'Big Moment' for California as Assembly Votes to Divest From Dirty Coal

"In a significant victory for the fossil fuel divestment movement, the California Assembly on Wednesday passed a bill requiring the state's two pension systems, CalPERS and CalSTRS, to release their holdings from coal investments."

General Mills Takes Climate Change Seriously Because You Can’t Make Wheaties Without Wheat

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/08/31/3696953/general-mills-climate-emissions-reduction-plan/
"On Monday, General Mills — the sixth-largest food company in the world — announced plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent by 2025.
The announcement comes at a time when a growing number of major food companies are pledging to take more steps to encourage sustainability throughout their businesses. But General Mills’ plan is slightly unique, because it seeks to reduce carbon emissions throughout the company’s entire supply chain, from farm to landfill — a first for major food companies."

Thomas Edison Was Right About Solar Power

On Taking Climate Action, Even Wall Street Asks: 'Why Would You Not?'

On Taking Climate Action, Even Wall Street Asks: 'Why Would You Not?'

"Fortunately, the report finds that taking action to cut carbon pollution and slow global warming by investing in energy efficiency and renewable power generation would result in a positive return on investment, ultimately saving trillions of dollars."

Thanks to Industrial Pollution, 90 Percent of Seabirds Have Plastic in Guts

Thanks to Industrial Pollution, 90 Percent of Seabirds Have Plastic in Guts

"Seabirds are particularly vulnerable to plastic ingestion due to their habits of eating floating particles that they mistake for fish eggs"

Big Bank Says It’s Going To Cost A Lot To Do Nothing On Global Warming

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/08/31/3696952/climate-action-costs-less-than-inaction-citibank-says/
"A new report from Citibank found that acting on climate change by investing in low-carbon energy would save the world $1.8 trillion through 2040, as compared to a business-as-usual scenario. In addition, not acting will cost an additional $44 trillion by 2060 from the “negative effects” of climate change."

Report: Extravagant CEO Pay Packages Are Fostering Planet's Destruction

Report: Extravagant CEO Pay Packages Are Fostering Planet's Destruction

"the complex cycle in which corporate bosses are given "enormous personal financial incentive" to promote the development of fossil fuels, which in turn allows them to donate ever-increasing funds to lobbyists and lawmakers who promote climate denial policies."

How Charles Koch Prevents Clean Energy Businesses From Succeeding

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32615-how-charles-koch-prevents-clean-energy-businesses-from-succeeding
"the Kochs use their political influence and funding for efforts to repeal laws designed to support the deployment of more renewable electricity. Specifically, their political network's agenda includes weakening renewable energy standards, preventing customers from installing solar panels (by charging fees on people that go solar), and protecting the government monopolized electric utilities.
The facts are indisputable."

How Koch Industries IS Undermining Renewables