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Category: Climate Change

Federal Reserve official: Climate change is an ‘international market failure’

Federal Reserve official: Climate change is an ‘international market failure’

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Eric Holthaus writes: Climate change was already worrying enough — now a report from the U.S. central bank cautions that rising temperatures and extreme storms could eventually trigger a financial collapse. A Federal Reserve researcher warned in a report on Monday that “climate-based risk could threaten the stability of the financial system as a whole.” But possible fixes — using the Fed’s buying power to green the economy — are currently against the law. Glenn Rudebusch, the San Francisco Fed’s…

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Senate’s phony vote on a Green New Deal

Senate’s phony vote on a Green New Deal

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Inside Climate News reports: Before U.S. lawmakers have even come up with the details of the Green New Deal, they’re facing a vote on it Tuesday in the Senate. It’s a procedural vote—a preemptive roll call engineered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky in an attempt to embarrass the Democrats and tamp down talk of climate policy. Democrats, in turn, will try to use the occasion to highlight the GOP’s inaction on climate change. That sets the stage…

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Global coal use up by third as greenhouse gas emissions rise

Global coal use up by third as greenhouse gas emissions rise

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The Guardian reports: Greenhouse gas emissions from energy production rose strongly again last year, according to new data from the International Energy Agency, with a young fleet of coal-fired power plants in Asia accounting for a large proportion of the increase. Energy demand grew at its fastest pace this decade, with a 2.3% increase globally driving rises in fossil fuel consumption. Coal use in power stations was up by nearly a third, and together gas and coal were responsible for…

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Oil and gas majors have spent $1 billion undermining climate action since 2015, report says

Oil and gas majors have spent $1 billion undermining climate action since 2015, report says

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National Observer reports: In the three years since world leaders signed the Paris Agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the world’s five largest oil and gas companies have spent more than $1 billion on misleading branding and lobbying related to climate change, according to a new report. While the oil majors — ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, BP and Total — have publicly supported carbon pricing and other efforts to mitigate climate change, they have also lobbied against effective policy,…

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Cyclone Idai shows the deadly reality of climate change in Africa

Cyclone Idai shows the deadly reality of climate change in Africa

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Landry Ninteretse writes: As Africa climate week unfurls in Ghana, the countries of Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe count the costs of Cyclone Idai, which ripped through villages and towns, taking hundreds of lives and leaving a trail of destruction. For a continent already racked by the effects of the climate crisis, Idai is another chilling reminder of the destructive power of the kind of storms that will become more common as the world warms up. The cyclone made landfall on…

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‘Reduced consumption is going to have to be a part of the equation’ for climate action, J.P. Morgan executive warns

‘Reduced consumption is going to have to be a part of the equation’ for climate action, J.P. Morgan executive warns

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Bloomberg reports: The world isn’t cutting carbon emissions anywhere near quickly enough, a senior executive at J.P. Morgan Asset Management told clients this week — and changing that will require far harder choices than most people realize. In his annual “Energy Outlook” report, Michael Cembalest, chairman of market investment and strategy for the asset management group, wrote that the U.S. needs to reduce its use of carbon much faster — a view he shares with the authors of the Green…

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Federal judge demands Trump administration reveal how its drilling plans will fuel climate change

Federal judge demands Trump administration reveal how its drilling plans will fuel climate change

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The Washington Post reports: A federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the Interior Department violated federal law by failing to take into account the climate impact of its oil and gas leasing in the West. The decision by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras of Washington could force the Trump administration to account for the full climate impact of its energy-dominance agenda, and it could signal trouble for the president’s plan to boost fossil fuel production across the country. Contreras concluded…

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Protecting indigenous lands protects the environment. Trump and Bolsonaro threaten both

Protecting indigenous lands protects the environment. Trump and Bolsonaro threaten both

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Deb Haaland and Joênia Wapichana write: On Tuesday, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will meet with President Trump at the White House. Both administrations are pushing a host of policies that are detrimental to the rights of indigenous people. As two of the first female indigenous members of Congress in the United States and Brazil, respectively, we are concerned about these policies and the mounting threats facing our communities. We must stand up against toxic rhetoric and brutal attacks on the…

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I am an immigrant. Someday you might be one, too

I am an immigrant. Someday you might be one, too

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Laila Lalami writes: Like other species on this planet, human beings are a migratory type. When they suddenly find themselves in desperate need of physical safety or economic opportunity, they leave home and start over somewhere new. It has always been this way. The earliest stories we tell ourselves are stories of displacement: Adam’s fall from Eden, Moses’ flight from Egypt, Muhammad’s hegira to Medina. Trying to stop this process through the building of walls strikes me as both ineffective…

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‘No Planet B’: Tens of thousands join global youth demo for climate

‘No Planet B’: Tens of thousands join global youth demo for climate

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We face the greatest threat that humanity has ever faced: climate change. Today, I had the honor of introducing my daughter, one of the organizers of the student climate strike. ✊🏽 pic.twitter.com/skNjgWQjd7 — Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) March 15, 2019 AFP reports: Tens of thousands of young people skipped school across the globe on Friday to march through the streets for an international day of student protests aimed at pushing world leaders into action on climate change. Classrooms in capitals…

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Wettest winter on record in U.S. is a ‘glimpse of the future under climate change’

Wettest winter on record in U.S. is a ‘glimpse of the future under climate change’

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Joe Romm reports: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported Wednesday that “coast-to-coast extreme weather” from December to February resulted in the wettest winter on record in the United States. Wetter winters are precisely what scientists have predicted as climate change intensifies, Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe told ThinkProgress in an email. Similarly, climatologist Kevin Trenberth pointed out, “a consequence of global warming is that the extremes around the world increase.” NOAA reported that despite some frigid weather…

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Climate change: Rain melting Greenland ice sheet ‘even in winter’

Climate change: Rain melting Greenland ice sheet ‘even in winter’

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BBC News reports: Rain is becoming more frequent in Greenland and accelerating the melting of its ice, a new study has found. Scientists say they’re “surprised” to discover rain falling even during the long Arctic winter. The massive Greenland ice-sheet is being watched closely because it holds a huge store of frozen water. And if all of that ice melted, the sea level would rise by seven metres, threatening coastal population centres around the world. Precipitation usually falls as snow…

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Donald Trump ‘has become an agent of climate change’

Donald Trump ‘has become an agent of climate change’

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Think Progress reports: The Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to weaken or dismantle climate efforts would increase CO2 emissions by more than 200 million tons annually, taking a severe toll on public health, according to a new report released Tuesday by the nonpartisan State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at New York University’s (NYU) law school. Sectors responsible for nearly half of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are benefiting from rollbacks and weakened regulations at the expense of U.S. residents, according…

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Global warming has already raised the risk of more severe droughts in Cape Town

Global warming has already raised the risk of more severe droughts in Cape Town

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Cape Town residents queuing for water during the water crisis. Shutterstock Mark New, University of Cape Town; Friederike Otto, University of Oxford, and Piotr Wolski, University of Cape Town Between 2015 and 2017 South Africa’s South Western Cape region experienced three of its lowest rainfall years on record. This led to the progressive depletion of water supply reservoirs and by the summer of 2017/18 there was a real danger that – without drastic reductions in water use – the region,…

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