Another week is in the books! It was a little slow on the ecoright news side, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t working behind the scenes to make the world a better place.
This week’s must read: Check out the Weather Channel’s post, 50 States, 50 Stories. Climate change is already here
This week’s must watch: Is a warmer world a better world? “Who knows? Maybe a warmer world will be better for us?”
Caucus scores big: Michigan’s Rep. Fred Upton, the former chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, joined the House Climate Solutions Caucus. “When it comes to climate change we must take an economically realistic and pragmatic approach,” Upton said in a statement, adding that the caucus provides a “tremendous opportunity” to work bipartisanly. Pointing to his work on the energy committee to “lower emissions, keep electricity and energy prices low” he cited the need to continue to “promote climate strategies that champion conservation, innovation, and competition.” He and his democratic partner, Illinois’s Rep. Jan Schakowsky, bring the group’s total membership up to 68.
Climate priority: Phyllis Beyer, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Navy’s Department of Facilities, told the Senate Armed Services Committee climate change and sea level rise are her “top priorities if confirmed in the job.”
“It’s affecting the infrastructure and it’s adding to the expense of the department’s infrastructure costs and maintenance,” she said, assuring Sen. Angus King from Maine that she’d commit to contributing to the climate report required by the National Defense Authorization Act. Beyer is is a graduate of the National Defense University and was most recently chief of staff for the assistant secretary of defense for readiness.
The original jester: Climate denier extraordinaire, Oklahoman Sen. Jim Inhofe spoke about his continued dispute of the consensus scientific view that human activity is contributing to global climate change. “The science is not settled,” he said. “The climate is changing. The climate always has changed.”
A week from today, people who ignore climate science will put faith in a groundhog to predict the rest of winter. Until then…