As our friends and loved ones in Florida brace for Hurricane Irma, the ecoright offers thoughts and prayers to all impacted by this storm.
Utah students unite: In the Bee Hive State, college students are uniting behind the Climate Campaign, a nonprofit group founded by Nick Huey, a Brigham Young University senior, to advocate for climate awareness. “This is the one thing we can unite on,” he said. “We want to creatively say this is something we should care about so the public takes notice and Utah becomes a safe environment for political leaders to do something about climate.”
Senate cools the tea: Senate Appropriators, led by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) defied President Donald Trump by voting to support $10 million for the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change as part of the State Department’s annual funding measure. Trump eliminated spending for the international climate program in his budget proposal. “We’re not spending money on that anymore,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney said of the program when rolling out the president’s budget request in the spring.
Perry can wait: Energy Secretary Rick Perry said conversations on the impacts climate change has on storms will have to wait. “No one has ever seen flooding like this,” Perry said, referring to Hurricane Harvey’s impacts on the Houston region. He declined to comment on whether the White House would change its stance on climate change. “We can line up scientists on both sides of this,” he said, but “this is not the time to be having this conversation.”
Wyoming’s coal future: Gov. Matt Mead presides over the largest coal producing state, but that’s not limiting their efforts to consider the impacts of carbon dioxide emissions. “We need to recognize that the market believes in climate change partially being man-made, that the banks believe in it. And around the planet, we see countries that we could sell coal to, who strongly believe in concerns around CO2,” he said. “Regardless of personal beliefs or skepticism, if you are the leading coal producer, you also have an opportunity, an obligation, to address this issue.” He has asked the Wyoming legislature to fund a program to test different CO2 use and capture technologies.
Stay safe, generous, and kind through the weekend and beyond.