The new IPCC report is dire. Anyone care?

Buried beneath news of COVID, a past president, and a soon-to-be ex-governor, America barely seems aware of the dire new climate report.

By Peter Dykstra Environmental Health News

The 2021 report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) went well beyond the relatively sedate tones of its prior assessments.

Impacts of climate change are already here, and some are “irreversible” for centuries, or even millennia, to come.

The IPCC counsels that strong actions – i.e., the kind we seem unwilling to take – are imperative, and the need for action immediately.

America’s print leaders are largely waking, with the New York Times regularly giving up page one real estate for more climate coverage. The Washington Post and the Associated Press are not far behind.

But American TV news? Not so much. On Monday, when the report was released, the CBS Evening News played the story fourth from the top, after COVID-19. The other news developments—Trump’s continuing travails and Cuomo’s potential resignation—topped the show. There’s no doubt that all three are lead-story-worthy, as were the monumental wildfires in the U.S. West, Arctic Siberia, Greece, and Turkey, and the epic rain and flooding in Germany, particularly since such weather calamities are a part of the climate outlook. A week earlier, temperate Portland, Oregon, hit an otherworldly 118°F, while Canada hit its all-time high.

The other networks were only slightly better. Then, by Tuesday, Andrew Cuomo’s resignation dominated. By Wednesday, climate news had vanished from the networks.

Well, not all of them.

If a world without more floods, droughts, and lethal heat waves does not sound like the world you want to live in, Fox News has its own take. Fox’s in-house comic, Greg Gutfeld, gifted us with ten minutes of climate mirth.

His hallucinatory conclusion? Since a recent report said that more Americans die from excessive cold than excessive heat, we should welcome global warming as a lifesaver.

So, where does this leave us?

Well, we should acknowledge that we are screwed. Partly. The IPCC tells us that we’re too late to stop many of the long-predicted impacts, but not all. Pushing the long-promoted remedies – clean energy, EVs, and so much more – can steer us away from the worst case. But pair that optimism with a steely pushback against climate deniers, who still hold sway with too many in office.

Read the full story here

If you liked this post you’ll love our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.

The new IPCC report is dire. Anyone care? Read More »

Cuomo begins to move out of Executive Mansion

By Joshua Solomon Times Union

ALBANY — Moving trucks were being loaded up outside the residence of outgoing Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Friday morning. 

The governor’s resignation is expected to go into effect at 11:59 p.m. Monday. He issued two weeks’ notice for his job as the state’s chief executive last week, amid mounting scandals and a looming impeachment proceeding. 

A U-Haul truck was spotted outside of the governor’s mansion, attended by workers to help move Cuomo’s things. 

The governor moved into the executive mansion full-time after his 2019 breakup with TV personality Sandra Lee, his partner of more than a decade. Her former home in Westchester County had served as his primary residence for most of their relationship.

It’s unclear where Cuomo is going to live — short- or long-term — after Monday; he does not own any property under his name, according to his most recent financial disclosure forms.  

If you liked this post you’ll love our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.

Cuomo begins to move out of Executive Mansion Read More »

Maine businesses and conservationists sparring over the relicensing of a dam on the Kennebec River


By Fred Bever, Maine Public

Regional businesses are squaring off against conservation groups over the federal relicensing of a 100-year-old dam on the Kennebec River in Benton.

The Shawmut hydroelectric dam is seen as an economic lifeline by some, and by others as a barrier to the recovery of endangered Atlantic salmon.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is soliciting comments on potential environmental consequences of relicensing the dam for the next 30 years, and conservation groups said FERC’s assessment is cursory at best.

“FERC’s analysis falls woefully short of what good science requires,” said Sean Mahoney, who directs the Maine chapter of the Conservation Law Foundation.

That’s one of several organizations that believe the Shawmut and three other dams owned by Brookfield Renewables taken together pose an insurmountable challenge for salmon trying to make it upstream to spawning grounds.

Mahoney points out that even federal scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service say that FERC’s analysis is inadequate.

“And where it falls short, writ large, is the acceptance that fish passage is going to be enough to meet the requirements of not only the Federal Power Act but also the Endangered Species Act,” he said.

The conservation groups said a more rigorous analysis — a full environmental impact statement — would demonstrate that all four dams should be removed.

It’s a prospect that’s uniting opposition from the upper Kennebec River Valley businesses community.

“We are not anti-fish — we are pro-fish as well,” said Kimberly Lindlof, president of the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce.

Lindlof said that the Shawmut dam can be modified to allow passage for salmon and aid their recovery. And that can be done, she said, without draining an impoundment just upstream that a Sappi paper mill — and its hundreds of jobs — depend on for water supply.

Read the full story here

If you liked this post you’ll love our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.

Maine businesses and conservationists sparring over the relicensing of a dam on the Kennebec River Read More »

Two tornadoes confirmed in eastern Pa overnight Wednesday

The latest extreme weather in the Philadelphia region ripped off pieces of roofs and took down wires and trees in the overnight hours.|

By Justin Heinze Patch Staff

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — Two tornadoes touched down in eastern Pennsylvania overnight Wednesday into Thursday, National Weather Service survey teams have confirmed. It’s the latest in a series of tornadoes, flooding, and extreme weather events in the region.

One tornado was confirmed in Souderton at around 12:30 a.m. Thursday. While details are still being investigated, the storm was an EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, indicating winds between 86 and 110 miles per hour.

From Souderton, the tornado continued in a line to the Silverdale and Perkasie area in Bucks County, the National Weather Service said.

A second tornado occurred earlier in the evening Wednesday, at around 9 p.m., in Hamburg, Berks County. Its Enhanced Fujita rating has not yet been released.

Many residents around the borderline of Bucks and Montgomery counties received blaring tornado warning alerts on their phones in the early morning hours as the last remnants of Tropical Storm Fred made it through the region.

Specifically, some of the heaviest damage was reported at the Hidden Springs community in Souderton, located just off of County Line Road.

Video captured by CBS from Hidden Springs shows roofs ripped off, sheds partially destroyed, and debris scattered around the area.

Don’t miss environmental news like this Click for updates

Two tornadoes confirmed in eastern Pa overnight Wednesday Read More »

Federal judge rejects Trump-era permits for major Alaska oil project

Wednesday’s decision is a setback for ConocoPhillips’s Willow project, which aims to produce more than 100,000 barrels a day on the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

By Joshua Partlow Washington Post

A federal judge threw out the permits Wednesday for a controversial oil project planned for Alaska’s North Slope, faulting the way the federal government had assessed its environmental impact, including how it might harm polar bears.

ConocoPhillips’s Willow project had been backed by both the Trump and Biden administrations, despite a host of concerns environmentalists and others raised about how the large operation might affect wildlife and Indigenous communities.

Don’t miss environmental news like this Click for updates

U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason — an Obama appointee — wrote in her ruling that the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service incorrectly approved the project because they failed to adequately analyze its climate impact and other possible development plans, and didn’t specify how polar bears would be protected.

The decision is a major blow to the project, which has been touted by Alaska’s congressional delegation and industry as an important source of jobs for the state. The project, west of Prudhoe Bay in the Alaskan Arctic, could produce up to 160,000 barrels of oil per day.

Read the full story here

Federal judge rejects Trump-era permits for major Alaska oil project Read More »