fbpx

Climate Week En Review May 11, 2018

by | May 11, 2018

Welcome to Week En Review, Mother’s Day edition. Don’t forget to honor your favorite mother figures for all they do to keep the world spinning.

This week’s must read: Informed, not brainwashed (Texas Tribune) Check out republicEn.org spokesperson Chris Casey’s piece (in response to our climate jester post) debunking the claim by Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian that millennials are brainwashed on climate change. “What Christian denies,” Casey writes. “But Millennials accept in droves — is that the science of climate change is indeed valid. Even the CEOs most of the major fossil fuel giants accept climate science and support a carbon tax, a plan also supported by the vast majority of economists. I wonder if Christian believes the executives at ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP likewise have been brainwashed?”

This week’s other must read: Lawsuits are a costly—and misguided—approach to fixing climate change. (The Hill) Josiah Neely and William Murray explore the trend of suing for climate damages, describe the possible repercussions of those lawsuits, and propose a more efficient path forward (hint: it’s free-market based). “Climate damage lawsuits are a sign that this issue will persist. The question now is whether we will deal with climate change in a logical, economically-efficient way or in a haphazard, costly one.”

Republican voters warming up to climate: A new Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication report on Politics and Global Warming found the so-called “Trump effect”—a downward shift in Republican views on climate change since the 2016 election—has cooled. Since Fall 2017, Republican registered voters have become more convinced that human-caused global warming is happening, are more worried about the problem, and are more supportive of climate policies. With this change in opinion comes a nine percent increase in support for limited carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and a seven percent increase in support for a revenue neutral carbon tax. Only 18 percent of registered Republicans voters think the United States should use more coal and only 16 percent think the U.S. should use more oil in the future. By contrast, a solid majority of registered Republicans believe the U.S. should use more solar energy (75 percent) and wind energy (62 percent) moving forward. Sixty percent of Republicans think the U.S. should stay in the Paris Climate Accord and a strong majority of registered voters think the U.S. should reduce carbon emissions regardless of what steps other countries are taking. Be sure to check out the full report for methodology and more interesting results.

Arnold slams Pruitt: California’s former governor and the world’s perpetual terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger criticized the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to roll back fuel efficiency standards. “Scott Pruitt is stuck in the polluting past, and California is showing the way to a cleaner, profitable future—we are ahead of the rest of the nation in economic growth and in lowering emissions,” Schwarzenegger said, taking on the EPA Administrator. “In the United States, we have a long history of instituting emissions standards to clean our air that goes back to when Richard Nixon was president and Ronald Reagan was governor of California. Those aren’t the most liberal guys around, let me remind you.”

“We also have a long history of the federal government respecting California’s right, as a state, to regulate our own air. When I was governor, the EPA thought they could stop us, and we won. The EPA even tried to claim that greenhouse gases were not a pollutant, and we took them all the way to the Supreme Court and we won that. Mr. Pruitt, I can assure you that California, and those who believe in a cleaner future, will win again,” he added. The Governator is an avid supporter of climate action.

Curbelo salutes awareness effort: Rep.Carlos Curbelo praised the unprecedented partnership of the editorial boards of the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun Sentinel, and Palm Beach Post for raising awareness on sea level rise in South Florida. “South Florida needs all hands on deck—now.”

Hug a mom! Enjoy your weekend!