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November 12, 2018
Democrats will take over the House in 2019, paving the way for numerous priority shifts in congressional committees. Image courtesy of BLM.
The Trump administration's interference and obstruction of science conducted by the federal government has been largely overlooked, according to a new entry in the journal Science. The administration has tried to disguise its meddling in agency science as necessary steps to improve transparency and integrity. One of the actions that most alarmed experts is the EPA's so-called "scientific-transparency rule," which would ban the agency from using any research that relies on private medical records in the development of its regulations. The proposed rule would apply retroactively, meaning it could weaken or force the revision of many past EPA regulations on public health, clean air and water, and toxins. Article co-author Wendy Wagner, a law professor at the University of Texas, cautioned, "People who are not scientists are telling us how scientific synthesis and analysis should be done. Politics has gone to a place that should be off limits, and no one is noticing and calling them on that fact."
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The Atlantic, Science
Democratic Leader and presumptive Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (CA) hopes to bring back a select committee on climate change for the next session of Congress. Pelosi created the first iteration of the committee 11 years ago, but it was disbanded when Republicans took back the House in January 2011. The committee's return would require a vote of approval by lawmakers. The body would provide a forum for members to raise concerns about climate change, highlight the latest findings, and examine the Trump administration's actions on the issue. The original version, called the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, did not have the power to advance bills, but did hold dozens of hearings on renewable energy and climate priorities. The committee also helped create a path for the 2009 cap and trade legislation that passed the House and failed in the Senate. The next iteration of the committee would continue to serve largely as a messaging tool for the Democrats.
Bloomberg
Numerous statewide ballot measures on clean energy and climate change fell short in the 2018 mid-terms, despite the successful election of many candidates in favor of such measures. In Colorado, Proposition 112 would have required new oil and gas wells to be located at least 2,500 feet from occupied buildings, parks, canals, and other "vulnerable" areas. Advocates of the failed measure said it would reduce health risks and reduce noise for residents near drilling sites. The state's oil and gas industry pumped millions of dollars into the race to oppose the measure. In Arizona, a defeated measure would have required electric utilities to generate half of their power from renewable sources by 2035. Despite abundant sunlight, Arizona currently draws just six percent of its energy from solar power. While 29 states and the District of Columbia have similar Renewable Portfolio Standards, few have set goals as ambitious as the Arizona measure. Washington State's latest attempt at implementing a price on carbon also failed. Fossil fuel interests spent more than $31 million opposing Initiative 1631.
Washington Post
The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology will undergo a major shift in focus after having Republican climate-deniers at the helm since 2011. Retiring chair Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) used the powers of the committee to undercut climate science, intimidate scientists, and attack a so-called "extreme climate agenda." Under a Democrat-controlled House, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) is widely expected to ascend from ranking member to committee chair. Johnson, a former chief psychiatric nurse, would be the first House science committee chair with a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) background since the 1990s. Among Johnson's priorities are to acknowledge the threat of climate change and to "[work] to understand the ways we can mitigate it." She would also seek to "restore the credibility of the Science Committee as a place where science is respected and recognized as a crucial input to good policymaking." Investigations into how the EPA has altered its use of science in developing regulations are likely to move forward.
Mother Jones
A study appearing in the journal PLoS One concluded that people of color face a disproportionate degree of risk from wildfires compared to whites. The study's lead author, Ian Davies at the University of Washington, said although floods, hurricanes, and wildfires occur naturally, "what makes them dangerous, what turns them into the disaster, is the social and political factors." Davies and his team identified the regions of the United States that were at the greatest risk of wildfires (predominately in the west and some parts of the Southeast) and found 29 million people living there. Twelve million people within that sample had characteristics that made them especially vulnerable to wildfire impacts due to a lack of "adaptive capacity" to such an event. Those with a low adaptive capacity were disproportionately people of color. Factors went far beyond living in a location likely to burn, but also included things like access to transportation in order to evacuate and fluency in English for receiving emergency alerts.
New York Times
The race for Texas's 7th congressional district offered insight into how climate and natural disasters may factor into future elections. The Houston-area district is 14 months removed from the severe flooding brought by Hurricane Harvey, elevating hurricane recovery and preparedness as a political priority for local voters. Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher defeated long-time Republican incumbent John Culberson with 52.3 percent of the vote. Hurricane recovery was a leading topic of debate when the candidates faced off in October. Fletcher argued that the effects of Hurricane Harvey could have been lessened if her opponent had done more to advocate for adequate flood prevention. Culberson raised his record of delivering federal disaster relief after the hurricane. Fletcher countered, "It shouldn’t take a Hurricane Harvey to get our member of Congress to act and to work to build our flooding infrastructure. We have known that flooding is a problem since [Tropical Storm Allison in] 2001."
City Lab
According to a new study appearing in the journal Nature Sustainability, the amount of energy required to "mine" one dollar's worth of bitcoin is more than twice that used to extract an equivalent value of copper, gold, or platinum. A dollar's worth of the digital bitcoin uses about 17 megajoules (MJ) of energy, versus 4-7 MJ to mine the actual materials evaluated. Although the energy demand still pales in comparison to the 122 MJ used to mine a dollar's worth of aluminum ore, the report authors assert bitcoin and other digital currency mining operations are having an outsized impact on energy emissions. Digital currency mining refers to the system used to acquire and verify new units (be it bitcoin or another currency), where miners run arithmetic calculations quintillions of times a second. Previous studies have tried to quantify the electricity use of the bitcoin network, with one equating it to the power consumption of the nation of Ireland. The latest paper is the first to look at currency mining from an "energy cost per dollar benefit" perspective.
Guardian
According to a new four-year assessment by the United Nations, the manmade holes in the ozone layer could fully heal over the next few decades. The ozone layer has gradually been restored at a rate of 1-3 percent a decade since 2000. The hole over the northern hemisphere and mid-latitudes is projected to heal by the 2030s, while the southern hemisphere and polar regions will take until 2060. The steps taken to repair the ozone layer have also brought co-benefits for reducing global warming. The phase-out of some of the gases that contributed to the layer's thinning could help avoid as much as 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 C) of warming this century. Scientists first presented evidence of the ozone damage in 1985, leading to the signing of the Montreal Protocol in 1987 to phase out the chemicals causing the degradation. Atmospheric ozone protects the earth's surface from most of the sun's ultraviolet rays, which can contribute to skin cancer.
Scientists were surprised to observe sperm whales in the northerly waters of the High Arctic ecosystem this past September. The siting was only the second such event on record, with the first occurring in 2014. Sperm whales lack the proper adaptations for icy Arctic conditions and are more commonly associated with southerly waters. World Wildlife Fund scientist Brandon Laforest explained, "When we think about the whales that live in the Arctic year-round, they all have a bony ridge [on their head]. When the ice is forming, that fin [on sperm whales] will get in the way, whereas narwhal and bowheads can actually break ice and continue breathing." Laforest said the presence of sperm whales in Canada's Pond Inlet region is a sign the Arctic is becoming easier for the whales to access as they search for food. The influx of new species could be detrimental to resident species like the bowhead whale. In addition, the ill-adapted southerly species could end up getting trapped under ice if they continue to venture north.
CBC News
Newly Elected Democratic Legislators Tout "Green New Deal" for Infrastructure
Incoming Governors Could Change Clean Energy Policy Landscape
U.S. District Judge Pauses Construction of Keystone XL Pipeline in Montana
Presidential Warnings About Climate Change Date Back to 1961
United Nations Weighs Official Action on China's Production of Banned CFC-11 Chemical
Australian School Students Plan National Walkout Over Climate Inaction
Top-Rated Climate Nonprofit – 4-Star Charity