In an OP-ED in the New York Times, the director of the Rockefeller Family Fund states that EXXON systematically lied to the public and to its stockholders about the risks of climate change and EXXON's major contributions to the catastrophic damage climate change will inflict on humanity and on biodiversity.  

 

 To read the complete article, see:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/opinion/exxon-climate-change.html

CLICK HERE - LETTER - Mayors Support the Solar Investment Tax Credit (7 page .PDF document)

solarnovus.com - 22 October 2019

A bipartisan group of 231 mayors from Tacoma, Wash to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. sent a letter to Congress today urging them to pass the Renewable Energy Extension Act (HR 3961/S. 2289), a five-year extension of the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC).

“More than 200 mayors from 39 states are stepping up to defend the ITC,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). “Mayors are increasingly turning to solar energy to fight the effects of climate change and generate millions of dollars of private investment in their cities.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - HR 3961

AN EXPANDING LIST OF NEWS AND INFORMATION RESOURCES RELATED TO HURRICANE DORIAN . . .

CLICK HERE - NOAA - Watches, Warnings or Advisories for Florida

CLICK HERE - Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM)

CLICK HERE - FDEM - Emergency Info

CLICK HERE - FDEM - Open Shelters

CLICK HERE - Orange County Shelters

CLICK HERE - Red Cross - Find Open Shelters

CLICK HERE - Housing - Airbnb - Hurricane Dorian - Southeastern United States

CLICK HERE - Ready.gov - Hurricanes - Preparedness

CLICK HERE - CDC - Preparing for a Hurricane or Tropical Storm

Greta Thunberg addresses thousands of demonstrators in New York. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Young and old alike took to the streets in an estimated 185 countries to demand action

theguardian.com - by Sandra Laville and Jonathan Watts - September 20, 2019

Millions of people demonstrated across the world yesterday demanding urgent action to tackle global heating, as they united across timezones and cultures to take part in the biggest climate protest in history.

In an explosion of the youth movement started by the Swedish school striker Greta Thunberg just over 12 months ago, people protested from the Pacific islands, through Australia, across-south east Asia and Africa into Europe and onwards to the Americas . . .

 . . . Trade unions representing hundreds of millions of people around the world mobilised in support, employees left their workplaces, doctors and nurses marched and workers at firms like Amazon, Google and Facebook walked out to join the climate strikes . . . 

U.S. government researchers found that vibrio cases could increase with changing climate conditions.

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Warming Climate Could Increase Bacterial Impacts on Chesapeake Bay Shellfish, Recreation

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Impact of Climate Change on Vibrio vulnificus Abundance and Exposure Risk

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Vibrio vulnificus Infections From a Previously Nonendemic Area

khou.com - by Melissa Correa - August 27, 2019

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report vibriosis causes 80,000 illnesses and 100 deaths in the U.S. annually. People become infected one of two ways -- either by consuming raw or under-cooked seafood, or by exposing a wound to seawater. The CDC reports a majority of the infections happen from May to October when water temperatures are warmer.

The boom in fracking for shale gas has dramatically increased global methane emissions. Photograph: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Ideas and perspectives: is shale gas a major driver of recent increase in global atmospheric methane?

Researchers say boom in shale oil and gas major contributor to climate emergency

theguardian.com - by Jillian Ambrose - August 14, 2019

The boom in the US shale gas and oil may have ignited a significant global spike in methane emissions blamed for accelerating the pace of the climate crisis, according to research . . .

. . . Researchers had previously assumed the “non-traditional” methane was from biological sources such as cows and wetlands, but the latest research suggests unconventional oil and gas from fracking may be playing a significant part.

The theory would support a correlation in the rise of methane in the atmosphere and the boom in fracking across the US over the last decade . . .

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Killer Heat in the United States: Climate Choices and the Future of Dangerously Hot Days (2019)

CLICK HERE - PAPER - Increased frequency of and population exposure to extreme heat index days in the United States during the 21st century

time.com - by Jamie Ducharme - July 16, 2019

People all across the U.S. have been sweating through heat waves this summer, and new research suggests they should get used to it.

Over the next century, climate change will likely make extreme heat conditions—and their concordant health risks—much more frequent in nearly every part of the U.S., according to a paper published in the journal Environmental Research Communications. By the end of the century, it says, parts of the Gulf Coast states could experience more than 120 days per year that feel like they top 100°F.

CLICK HERE - A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales at a Reception for Commonwealth Foreign Ministers, Clarence House, London

princeofwales.gov.uk - July 11, 2019

. . . The next 18 months will see critical meetings that will collectively determine the global agenda for the coming decade. And these, again, as you know better than I, range from the UNSG’s Climate Action Summit this September, to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of Parties in China next October, to the UNFCCC Conference of Parties to be held, I hope, in London that Autumn. Next year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting stands of course at a pivotal point in the middle of these events and will be an absolutely vital moment to consolidate consensus on the way forward, not least of which, will be the deliberations on how to increase the amount of private sector finance flowing towards supporting sustainable development throughout the Commonwealth.

Jem Bendell - scientistswarning.org

CLICK HERE - Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy (36 page .PDF document)

. . . The paper, published in July of 2018, concludes “…recent research suggests that human societies will experience disruptions to their basic functioning within less than ten years due to climate stress.  Such disruptions include increased levels of malnutrition, starvation, disease, civil conflict and war – and will not avoid affluent nations. This situation makes redundant the reformist[2] approach to sustainable development and related fields of corporate sustainability. Instead, a new approach which explores how to reduce harm and not make matters worse is important to develop. In support of that challenging, and ultimately personal process, understanding a ‘deep adaptation agenda’ may be useful.”

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

cnn.com - by Ira Helfand - July 6, 2019

America confronts a long list of critical problems and they all require urgent attention. But among them, two issues stand out: catastrophic climate change and nuclear war are unique in the threat they pose to the very survival of human civilization. The enormity and imminence of these twin existential threats cannot be overstated and how to confront them must be the central issue of any presidential campaign.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Editor’s Note:  Ira Helfand, a medical doctor, is a member of the international steering group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the recipient of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. He is also co-president of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the founding partner organization of ICAN and itself the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. 

BARREN RIDGE, CA - APRIL 4: The new project will join the current large Barren Ridge solar panel array in Kern County, California. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)GETTY IMAGES

CLICK HERE - Kern County, CA - Eland 1 Solar Project

forbes.com - by Jeff McMahon - July 1, 2019

Los Angeles Power and Water officials have struck a deal on the largest and cheapest solar + battery-storage project in the world, at prices that leave fossil fuels in the dust and may relegate nuclear power to the dustbin.

Later this month the LA Board of Water and Power Commissioners is expected to approve a 25-year contract that will serve 7 percent of the city's electricity demand at 1.997¢/kwh for solar energy and 1.3¢ for power from batteries.

"This is the lowest solar-photovoltaic price in the United States," said James Barner, the agency's manager for strategic initiatives, "and it is the largest and lowest-cost solar and high-capacity battery-storage project in the U.S. and we believe in the world today. So this is, I believe, truly revolutionary in the industry."

The San Gorgonio wind farm near Rancho Mirage in California. The falling cost of renewables and gas causing coal to be dislodged as a favored energy source for utilities. Photograph: Xinhua/Barcroft Media

In April, renewables provided 23% compared to coal’s 20% - ‘The fate of coal has been sealed. The market has spoken’

theguardian.com - by Oliver Milman - June 26, 2019

The US generated more electricity from renewable sources than coal for the first time ever in April, new federal government data has shown.

Clean energy such as solar and wind provided 23% of US electricity generation during the month, compared with coal’s 20%, according to the Energy Information Administration.

This represents the first time coal has been surpassed by energy sources that do not release pollution such as planet-heating gases.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Lower Manhattan is vulnerable to flooding from storm surges and sea level rise.  John Taggart for The New York Times

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - High Tide Tax - The Price to Protect Coastal Communities from Rising Seas (27 page .PDF report)

nytimes.com - by Christopher Flavelle - June 19, 2019

As disaster costs keep rising nationwide, a troubling new debate has become urgent: If there’s not enough money to protect every coastal community from the effects of human-caused global warming, how should we decide which ones to save first?

After three years of brutal flooding and hurricanes in the United States, there is growing consensus among policymakers and scientists that coastal areas will require significant spending to ride out future storms and rising sea levels — not in decades, but now and in the very near future. There is also a growing realization that some communities, even sizable ones, will be left behind.

A boat moved by Hurricane Michael rests near a canal in May in Mexico Beach, Fla. Seven months after the hurricane made landfall, the town is still littered with heavily damaged or destroyed homes and businesses.  Scott Olson/Getty Images

npr.org - by Greg Allen - June 7, 2019

As another hurricane season begins, emergency managers and other officials throughout the Southeast and along the Gulf Coast are applying lessons they learned last year during Hurricane Michael. Those lessons include how they conduct evacuations . . .

 . . . we're going to start seeing a lot of things change . . . 

 . . . Among those likely changes: how people prepare for storms, how many evacuate and how strong new construction on Florida's Panhandle will need to be to survive hurricanes like Michael.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)