CLIMATE

CLIMATE CHANGE - The scale of the destruction defies the imagination.

CLIMATE WATCH - Global Warming is no longer a thought exercise or academic paper trying to predict its existence, it is here, now, with burning temperatures in Los Angeles, and horrendous flooding in some places of the world.

CLIMATE POLITICS - California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s last-minute legislative plan for tackling the climate crisis was largely victorious as lawmakers approved laws to set interim targets for 100% clean energy, regulate projects to remove carbon from the atmosphere and smokestacks, and end new oil drilling near communities.

CLIMATE WATCH - In preparation for the extended heat wave that is forecast to affect Southern California through Labor Day weekend, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP) is urging all customers to stay safe with tips for what to do to navigate the heat, including if a power outage occurs.

ENVIRONMENT - A leading environmental group on Wednesday condemned the Biden administration's attempt to overturn a court ruling that blocked offshore fracking in public waters off the coast of California.

STUDENT DEBT - President Joe Biden has just launched a plan to forgive a portion of federal college loan debt for millions of Americans.

CA CLIMATE POLITICS - Climate hawks in California’s Legislature are taking up Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposals to accelerate the state’s emissions reduction targets, protect communities from poisonous oil and gas wells and build out enough renewable energy to completely wean the state off fossil fuel electricity by 2045.

CLIMATE WATCH - Bill McGuire is a volcanologist and Emeritus Professor of Geophysical & Climate Hazards at University College London.

FOSSIL FUELS - The short answer: No, not even close! 

CLEAN AIR WATCH - California is expected to implement a groundbreaking measure on Thursday that will ban sales of all new gas-powered cars by 2035, The New York Times reports.

LA AIR QUALITY - Southern California’s petroleum refineries have a long history of dodging regulation.

CLIMATE WATCH - Scientists are working on a plan to go beyond the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) recently signed by President Biden, which is supposed to tackle global warming, which, in turn, is tearing the planet apart, piece-by-piece.

ENVIRONMENT - Irvine provides a solution for transportation, energy and diversity issues bedeviling the country.

CLIMATE WATCH - In his message launching the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on April 4, 2022, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres offered the following chilling observation:

THE CLIMATE - Several major oil companies, including BP and Shell, periodically publish scenarios forecasting the future of the energy sector.

CLIMATE WATCH - The climate emergency intensifies daily as the planet warms.

CLIMATE POLITICS - Assuming that the Democratic majority in the House passes the massive climate bill this week, the next round for federal climate action will come when Congress returns after its August recess, and it will center on something euphemistically called ‘permitting reform.’

CLIMATE WATCH - Hoover Dam’s Lake Mead is dangerously close to dead pool status for the first time since construction in the mid 1930s.

CLIMATE WATCH - Our planet is burning up – at least that is what it seems.

OIL INDUSTRY WATCH - Oil giant Shell has just posted record profits for a second consecutive quarter, smashing its previous record from earlier this year.

GREENFLATION - Global policy and politics, particularly in the high-income world, have been obsessed with dreams of a green economy.

CLIMATE & WAR - It may seem hard to believe, but only 15 years ago many of us were talking confidently about “peak oil” — the moment of maximum global oil output after which, with world reserves dwindling, its use would begin an irreversible decline.

CLIMATE CRISIS - The last time prices rose this fast was 41 years ago.

CLIMATE WATCH - As the UK suffered its hottest-ever temperatures only recently, Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now, interviewed Britain’s erudite environmental journalist George Monbiot July 21, 2022 about his most recent article in The Guardian: 

CA OIL PRODUCTION - A bill that has quietly slipped through the legislature purports to serve a sensible goal — increase transparency on emissions data for the transportation of oil imported to California.

CLIMATE WATCH - The Independent reported this week on a massive ice melt in Greenland, with on the order of 6 billion tons of ice lost in three days.

CLIMATE WATCH - Climate scientists have long warned of the impending crises as human pollutants create an ever-warming planet.

ENVIRONMENT - Devil Incarnate.  Certain things we can stipulate:

ECOSYSTEM - “With 35% loss globally since 1970, wetlands are our most threatened ecosystem, disappearing three times faster than forests.

FOSSIL FUEL ADDICTION - Civilization has benefited from more than 6,000 products made from the oil derivatives manufactured out of raw crude oil at refineries.