Climate Change

I do worry a lot about environmental laws becoming under attack by climate change activists – and politicians who see climate change as an excuse to build big projects with out careful consideration of impacts

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I do worry a lot about environmental laws becoming under attack by climate change activists – and politicians who see climate change as an excuse to build big projects with out careful consideration of impacts.

The risk only grows in the coming years – everybody at one level knows that when a doctor or scientist warns you – but you ignore their advice things might be okay for years until something truly awful happens. The power brokers are waiting in the sidelines for the bottom to drop out and they’ll be the hell with environmental laws or quite possibly even democracy when the climate crisis truly hits. 

Why Conservatives Who Believe Climate Science Won’t Speak Up

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Why Conservatives Who Believe Climate Science Won’t Speak Up

The Republican Party is the only major right-of-center party in the world that refuses to acknowledge the link between greenhouse-gas emissions and rising global temperatures. The major cause of this is one liberals are well aware of: The party’s climate stance is controlled by a combination of fossil-fuel interests and active cranks dissembling about the science. But there is a secondary cause of the GOP’s inability to confront reality that is less understood. Many leading conservatives do understand climate science, yet refuse to frontally challenge their party’s denialism.

The non-cranks of the right will admit that global warming is real, and usually concede as well that some policy solution other than allowing the free dumping of carbon pollution into the atmosphere is needed. But their main energies are reserved for attacking excesses of the left. This solution goes too far, that solution accomplishes too little; that social-media message oversimplifies. It is uncomfortable to linger on disagreements with their colleagues on the right. Much easier to linger on their shared resentment of environmentalists.

To be fair, I would say both sides have a lot of mutual resentment due to different lifestyles -- whether it's dirt and diesel or skyscrapers and city buses. And it's unfortunate and unproductive.

NPR

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In Australia Wildfires, Scenes Of Smoke, Sparks And Chaos : NPR

Wildfires are a regular occurrence in Australia, but on New Year's Eve, residents of the state of New South Wales experienced blazes stronger and more destructive than they had in years. In several of the southeastern towns, smoke blocked out the sky, houses were destroyed, and thousands of tourists and locals were forced to flee to nearby beaches. Seven people have died so far, and several others are unaccounted for.

Climate change is pretty scary stuff and we've been ignoring it for too long as it's a difficult thing to address politically -- it requires difficult choices and drastic changes in lifestyle of millions of Americans that nobody really wants to seriously. But everybody knows, this is the decade -- the 2020s -- when it's going to bite hard.

Europe threatens U.S. with carbon tariffs to combat climate change – POLITICO

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Europe threatens U.S. with carbon tariffs to combat climate change – POLITICO

MADRID — European countries frustrated by inaction on climate change are taking a lesson from President Donald Trump’s trade wars — and threatening carbon tariffs on laggards like the United States.

By imposing tariffs on goods from the U.S. and other countries that lack tough climate policies, the Europeans would help their own industries avoid being handicapped by the EU’s greenhouse gas efforts. But if they hit the U.S., they would risk a worsening trade war with the Trump administration, which has already threatened hefty tariffs on goods such as French champagne and German autos over a range of competition disputes.

NPR

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In A Warming Greenland, A Farming Family Adapts To Drought — And New Opportunities : NPR

The Nielsen family has owned and run Kangerluarsorujuk since 1972. The farm sits on a plateau at one end of a fjord. The barns for the sheep and two small, sturdy houses for the Nielsens are built to withstand Greenland's winter cold. Sign Up For The NPR Daily Newsletter

Kanuk has spent his entire life on this sheep farm. He says the summers are longer now than when he was a child — lasting from May to October — and drought has become a problem.