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Climate Change Tag

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 27, 2016 7 Comments
My last report on California mentioned that Governor Jerry Brown was planning to introduce a ballot measure to extend AB-32, the state's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Despite the fact that the bottom has fallen out of the Cap & Trade permit market, the Assembly granted the rules an extension beyond the initial 2020 end date.
The Assembly approved sweeping climate-change legislation Tuesday that extends the state’s targets for reducing greenhouse gases from 2020 to 2030 in a controversial bill that saw White House officials and Gov. Jerry Brown privately urging lawmakers for support. Under SB32, the state would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The bill would piggyback on AB32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which calls for California to reduce greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 27, 2016 19 Comments
In a move that is being hailed as cementing his conservation legacy, Obama has, with the stroke of his pen, expanded a national marine monument off the coast of Hawaii to over 582,578 square miles.  This move will, however, destroy commercial fishing and potential drilling and mineral collection in a vast expanse of our waters. The Hill reports:
President Obama on Friday morning created a massive national monument off the coast of his native Hawaii, the world’s largest protected area. The declaration expands more than threefold the size of the Papahānaumokuāke Marine National Monument, surrounding the outlying northwestern Hawaiian islands. The move in Obama’s final months further cements his legacy of using unilateral executive authority to protect far more land and water as national monuments than any other president.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 20, 2016 34 Comments
Here at LI, we've been covering the various attempts by the left to use global warming climate change as an excuse for everything from a falsely predicted "bee-pocalypse" to #Brexit to the rise of ISIS (or is that vice versa?). Bored with pointing out how climate change is responsible for everything bad in the world, some progressives have switched over to urging population control in the name of their "settled" science.  This time it's not an intellectual exercise, it's being "taught" by Johns Hopkins' Travis Rieder. NPR reports:
Standing before several dozen students in a college classroom, Travis Rieder tries to convince them not to have children. Or at least not too many. He's at James Madison University in southwest Virginia to talk about a "small-family ethic" — to question the assumptions of a society that sees having children as good, throws parties for expecting parents, and in which parents then pressure their kids to "give them grandchildren." Why question such assumptions? The prospect of climate catastrophe.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 10, 2016 10 Comments
#Brexit, the British vote to leave the European Union, continues to inspire citizen activism. In the US, there has been calls for #Calexit to remove the state of California. The Democrats are experiencing the travails of #Demexit after the disclosure that the DNC intentionally hurt the Bernie Sanders campaign to promote Hillary Clinton. Now, an international organization has formed with the goal of preventing the ratification of the costly and dangerous Paris global warming treaty that is being promoted by the elites within the EU and US.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 01, 2016 17 Comments
About a week ago, Aleister reported Secretary of State John Kerry's assertion that air conditioners and refrigerators pose as big a threat to “life on the planet” as terrorism. Americans, taking Kerry at his word, and are now petitioning the State Department to remove their air conditioning.
WHEREAS, Secretary of State John F. Kerry has suggested that air conditioners are as big a threat as ISIS, and

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 24, 2016 56 Comments
This is one of the reasons Trump is getting so much support. Under this Democratic administration, the American people are lied to at every turn, as issues are constantly couched in progressive talking points. Every threat we face at home and abroad is explained away by climate change, income inequality, gender inequity and a constant reassurance that Islamic terror has nothing to do with Islam. In the latest instance, our Secretary of State tells us about a threat that rivals ISIS. The Washington Examiner reports:
Kerry: Refrigerator chemicals are just as bad as ISIS Air conditioners and refrigerators pose as big a threat to "life on the planet" as the threat of terrorism, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 20, 2016 23 Comments
One of the new pieces of good news coming from Europe last week was from Great Britain. In the wake of the #Brexit vote, U.K.'s new Prime Minister felt empowered to shut an entire government department.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has been facing criticism during her first few days in office over her decision to close the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change. The closure was reported on Thursday, May's first full day in office after the departure of David Cameron.
The unit will actually be folded into an expanded Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy under Greg Clark.
It comes at a time when campaigners are urging the government to ratify the Paris climate change deal.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 04, 2016 14 Comments
I have been following the antics of "AG's United for Clean Power," a group of Democratic states attorneys general spearheaded by former Vice President Al Gore, who are threatening Big Oil and climate change skeptics with racketeering statutes. Despite scholarly reminders of this tactics' obvious constitutional abuses and outcries from proponents of First Amendment rights and sound science, the Democratic Party Platform Drafting Committee is keen to adopt the approach.
The committee unanimously adopted a “joint proposal calling on the Department of Justice to investigate alleged corporate fraud on the part of fossil fuel companies who have reportedly misled shareholders and the public on the scientific reality of climate change.” I.e., it wants to criminalize courageous people who still believe it’s okay to think independently, at least about allegedly dangerous manmade global warming.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 25, 2016 79 Comments
I must admit, few arguments related to the "settled science" of climate change astonish me anymore. But until today I failed to fully appreciate the extent of eco-activist creativity! Panicked progressives are now asserting the Britain's vote to leave the European Union will cause adverse effects on the environment. Yes....#Brexit will cause Climate Change.
Despite being an issue that knows no borders, affects all and is of vital interest to future generations, the environment was low on the agenda ahead of the UK’s historic vote to leave the European Union. The short answer to what happens next with pollution, wildlife, farming, green energy, climate change and more is we don’t know – we are in uncharted territory. But all the indications – from the “red-tape” slashing desires of the Brexiters to the judgment of environmental professionals – are that the protections for our environment will get weaker.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 22, 2016 6 Comments
Recently, I noted that climate change skeptics who also acted as their states' attorneys general warned their environmental activist counterparts that plans were being made to "fight fire with fire." Afterall, if the government's environmental activists begin targeting businesses and private organizations under racketeering statutes for denying progressive environmental science theories, then skeptics surely can go after eco-activists for their climate exaggerations and alarmist tactics. Goose, meet gander! In a way, the pushback has already begun. About one month ago, thirteen Republican members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee Republicans sent letters to 17 state attorneys general and eight environmental groups requesting documents related to the groups’ coordinated efforts to deprive companies, nonprofit organizations, scientists and scholars of their First Amendment rights and their ability to fund and conduct scientific research free from intimidation and threats of prosecution. This congressional committee has turned up the heat even more. It is now delving into eco-activism at the federal level by requesting records of the communications between employees for the state attorneys general and the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, or the White House.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 19, 2016 9 Comments
I have been following the antics of 17 state attorney generals who formed (AGs United for Clean Power), which intends to promote the progressive climate change agenda by targeting the fossil fuel industry using racketeering statutes. Recently, thirteen Republican members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee Republicans sent letters to 17 state attorneys general and eight environmental groups requesting documents related to the groups’ coordinated efforts to deprive companies, nonprofit organizations, scientists and scholars of their First Amendment rights and their ability to fund and conduct scientific research free from intimidation and threats of prosecution. Now, a coalition of Republican AGs, headed up by Alabama's top cop, Luther Strange, issued a letter promising retaliation in kind, directed at "AGs for Clean Power. Call this rebuke fighting fire with fire!

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on June 11, 2016 13 Comments
The House has voted to condemn a carbon tax as "detrimental to American families and businesses." The Hill reports:
The House voted Friday to condemn a potential carbon tax, closing the door on a climate change policy popular in some conservative circles. Lawmakers passed, by a 237-163 vote, a GOP-backed resolution listing pitfalls from a tax on carbon dioxide emissions and concluding that such a policy “would be detrimental to American families and businesses, and is not in the best interest of the United States.” Six Democrats voted with the GOP for the resolution. No Republicans dissented. The non-binding resolution is first and foremost a defensive measure, to get lawmakers on the record against a carbon tax, in case it’s part of a future proposal, perhaps part of a comprehensive tax reform package or in return for repealing certain regulations. President Obama has not proposed a carbon tax, and while many Democrats support the idea, it has not taken hold as a serious legislative proposal in years.
Obama has, in fact, proposed carbon taxes, the most recent being the $10 per barrel tax on oil; a fact noted in this Hill article: "The House also voted 253-144 to condemn Obama’s proposal from earlier this year to impose a $10.25 tax on each barrel of oil, an idea that never got much support in Congress."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 09, 2016 19 Comments
In February, President Obama said we should not "panic over Zika." At the same time, he asked Congress for $1.8 billion in funding for the resources to combat the Zika virus, the pathogen spreading rapidly through the Americas that can cause birth defects and neurological problems. In a rare display of fiscal restraint, Congress granted $622 million (mainly from unused Ebola response money). However, as negotiations continue for even more Zika funding between these two branches of government, it seems that $500 million of those taxpayer dollars initially allotted now sits in the coffers of the United Nations.
The Obama administration siphoned $500 million that could have gone toward combating the Zika virus into a United Nations effort aimed at mitigating climate change. Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.) wrote in an op-ed published in the Daily Signal that the Senate last year granted Obama the authority to pay for a response to Zika, but his administration chose instead to allocate those funds toward the U.N.’s Green Climate Fund.
As a reminder, that $500 million is the first installment of $3 billion that Obama agreed to turn over as part of the UN Paris climate conference deal.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 04, 2016 21 Comments
As a proponent of serious scientific review of environmental policies, I have been blessed to share news related to climate change with Legal Insurrection readers. Little did I realize this might have made me a criminal in my home state! Fortunately, it looks like I have dodged a bullet...legally. California Senate just sidelined a bill to prosecute climate change skeptics.
Senate Bill 1161, or the California Climate Science Truth and Accountability Act of 2016, would have authorized prosecutors to sue fossil fuel companies, think tanks and others that have “deceived or misled the public on the risks of climate change.” The measure, which cleared two Senate committees, provided a four-year window in the statute of limitations on violations of the state’s Unfair Competition Law, allowing legal action to be brought until Jan. 1 on charges of climate change “fraud” extending back indefinitely. “This bill explicitly authorizes district attorneys and the Attorney General to pursue UCL claims alleging that a business or organization has directly or indirectly engaged in unfair competition with respect to scientific evidence regarding the existence, extent, or current or future impacts of anthropogenic induced climate change,” said the state Senate Rules Committee’s floor analysis of the bill.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 21, 2016 20 Comments
State attorneys general aren't the only ones engaging in climate justice thuggery. The board for Portland Public Schools unanimously approved a resolution to eliminate materials that question on the existence of climate change and mankind's impact on the global environment.
"A lot of the text materials are kind of thick with the language of doubt, and obviously the science says otherwise," Bill Bigelow, a former Portland Public Schools teacher who was involved in working to present the resolution, told the Portland Tribune. "We don't want kids in Portland learning material courtesy of the fossil fuel industry."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 20, 2016 10 Comments
I have previously reported that a coalition of 17 state attorney generals has formed (AGs United for Clean Power), which intends to promote the climate change agenda by targeting the fossil fuel industry. The first victim of the Climate Change purge was the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a non-profit organization that has assisted businesses in countering climate justice activism, when Attorney General Claude E. Walker of the U.S. Virgin Islands issued a subpoena in an attempt uncover the content of CEI’s comprehensive work on climate change policy.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 11, 2016 14 Comments
I must admit, I have seen a lot of crack-pot theories about Climate Change/Global Warming in the past two decades. However, Ghassan Hage (a Lebanese-Australian academic serving as Future Generation Professor of Anthropology and Social Theory at the University of Melbourne in Australia) has hit the motherlode of social justice nuttiness. Three Massachusetts Institute of Technology entities (Global Studies and Languages, Global Borders Research Collaboration, and Anthropology) sponsored his presentation, which answered the burning question: Is Islmabopbia Accelerating Global Warming?
This talk examines the relation between Islamophobia as the dominant form of racism today and the ecological crisis. It looks at the three common ways in which the two phenomena are seen to be linked: as an entanglement of two crises, metaphorically related with one being a source of imagery for the other and both originating in colonial forms of capitalist accumulation. The talk proposes a fourth way of linking the two: an argument that they are both emanating from a similar mode of being, or enmeshment, in the world, what is referred to as ‘generalised domestication.’
As an environmental health and safety professional, I assess that the only way Islamophobia contributed to global warming is from the hot air Hage emitted while presenting this lecture, which was given May 9.
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