‘The best indication of the potency of I-1631 may be the fury with which Big Oil is attacking it. Petroleum companies have amassed a war chest of $28 million to defeat 1631—the largest ever for a Washington ballot measure. With BP and Phillips 66 leading the way, 99.5 percent of the No campaign budget is from Big Oil, according to the Washington state public-disclosure commission. What’s more, Big Oil’s lavish spending against 1631 climbed steeply after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent report calling for urgent climate action. In other words, Big Oil’s answer to the global alarm was to pour more fuel on the fire.’
‘The prospects for other negative emissions realities are just as discouraging.  Garden variety carbon capture and storage, the solution that would allow coal and natural gas to continue to be burned well into the future without sending carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, counts just one working scale example in the United States. NRG Energy’s Petra Nova coal power plant in Texas captures 1.4 million tons of CO2 per year. For perspective, that’s about four millionths (4 x 10-6) of the 37 gigatons of global yearly anthropogenic emissions.’
‘The other problem is that the technologies currently capable of sucking CO2 from the air are still being developed and are too expensive to be commercially viable, which leaves experts hamstrung as to whether this is the right approach to stall global warming. In a 2016 paper published in Science, Peters and Kevin Anderson, the deputy director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester, called the assumption that these technologies and concepts will work to scale in time a “moral hazard.”‘
‘The new report from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said existing government plans to “hold the line†in many places – building defences to keep shores in their current position – were unaffordable for a third of the country’s coast. Instead, the CCC said, discussions about the “hard choices†needed must be started with communities that will have to move inland.’
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders along with Barbara Lee energized a ‘Get Out the Vote’ Rally in Berkeley. His comments on climate change are featured in this video.
Transcription:
“Just last week… two weeks ago… I mean, it’s always hard to keep track of Trump’s lies, they come fast and furious. But a couple of weeks ago he told a lie that has not only consequences for our country but the whole world. And he said, you know, in terms of climate change, well, there are differences of opinion. Lie!”
“The scientific community is 99% united in telling us – now I understand that for a president who doesn’t believe in science, whose scientific information comes from Fox TV, it might be hard to appreciate, but 99% of the scientists believe, as is the case, that climate change is real, it is man-made, it is already causing devastating problems in our country and around the world.”
“And it really is unspeakably selfish that we have a President and a fossil fuel industry who are more concerned about their short term profits than the well-being of our kids and our grandchildren than the future of this planet, and if trump likes it or not, we are going to stand up to the fossil fuel industry.” ~Bernie Sanders
“And some of you may have seen, and I suspect Donald Trump did not, but there was a recent 700 page report from the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change. Did some of you see that? And what that report said – and this report was a summary of thousands of studies all over the world – and what this report stated should scare the bejesus out of every person around the world.”
“And what that report says is that we’ve got 12 years – 12 years is not a long period of time – 12 years to substantially reduce carbon emissions, 12 years to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, 12 years in order to make sure that we leave to our children and our grandchildren a planet that is healthy and is habitable.”
“And it really is unspeakably, unspeakably selfish that we have a President and a fossil fuel industry who are more concerned about their short-term profits, than the well-being of our kids and our grandchildren than the future of this planet. And whether Trump likes it or not, we are going to stand up to the fossil fuel industry.”
“And what that report says is that we’ve got 12 years – 12 years is not a long period of time – 12 years to substantially reduce carbon emissions, 12 years to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, 12 years in order to make sure that we leave to our children and our grandchildren a planet that is healthy and is habitable.” ~Senator Bernie Sanders
“We know that this issue is not only a climate change issue. You want low cost electricity? Let’s move to solar in a very aggressive way.
You want to create millions of good paying jobs, good paying union jobs? Then let’s move aggressively to renewable energy.”
“But our views, what you believe and I believe, don’t matter, unless we elect people who stand with us. Next week, the most important mid-term election in the modern history of this county is taking place. Please make sure you can do everything that you can to make sure we win it. Thank you all very much.†~Senator Sanders
“But our views, what you believe and I believe, don’t matter, unless we elect people who stand with us. Next week, the most important mid-term election in the modern history of this county is taking place. Please make sure you can do everything that you can to make sure we win it. Thank you all very much.”
‘The Trump administration’s unrelenting quest for Arctic oil and gas took a major step on Wednesday as it approved an energy company’s controversial production plan.’
‘A LAWSUIT accusing Exxon Mobil of defrauding investors about the costs of environmental regulation marks a shift in tactics for legal efforts seeking accountability for climate change, employing a strategy that not only promises to be easier to prove but which threatens to brand Exxon as a fraudster and seeks to compel the oil giant to change its ways.’
‘The litigation, which follows more than three years of investigation, represents the most significant legal effort yet to establish that a fossil fuel company misled the public on climate change and to hold it responsible. Not only does it pose a financial threat to Exxon that could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars or more, but it could also strike a blow to the reputation of a company that has worked to rehabilitate its image, framing itself as a leader on global warming.’
‘Research forecasts Iowa corn yields could drop in half within the next half-century thanks to extreme weather – yet it’s not part of the political conversation.’
‘Council members Kaplan and Kalb have introduced a climate emergency resolution, recognizing that we need to move to zero net emissions “as quickly as possible.†The City of Oakland climate emergency resolution does not alter the current Oakland City goals–56% reduction in greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 2030 and 83% by 205. We can testify at the hearing Tuesday to push for Oakland to adopt more aggressive goals for GHG reductions. Hopefully declaring a climate emergency will spur other Bay Area cities (Berkeley and Richmond have already done so) to follow suit. Of course, we want these resolutions to lead to dramatic actions necessary to avoid climate chaos.’
