‘…One of his most important contributions is related to the recently released 4th National Climate Assessment. President Bush was a central figure in this activity. In fact, some have asked me why the Trump administration would release a report that the current president says he doesn’t believe. The short answer: It’s the law. George H.W. Bush’s Administration and the Congress of that time period deserve credit.’

Source: The Surprising Climate And Environmental Legacy Of President George H. W. Bush | Forbes

‘Trump officials are minimizing warnings from scientists by arguing they are exaggerated and based on the worst-case scenario. They say the National Climate Assessment (NCA) – an expansive federal government report on the dangers of climate change in the US – considers only the highest possible levels of greenhouse gas emissions.’

Source: Trump officials argue climate change warnings based on ‘worst-case scenario’ | The Nation

‘Marine mammals, many of which are already under threat, are now at greater risk, as the Trump administration issued permits today allowing seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean—a disruptive practice used to search for oil and gas deposits underneath the ocean floor.’

Source: In a Blow to Marine Life, Trump Administration Greenlights Seismic Blasting in Atlantic | NRDC

‘Approximately 8,000 barrels (336,000 gallons) of crude oil spilled from a severed pipeline into the Peruvian Amazon on Tuesday night, according to state-owned oil company Petroperu.’

Source: Oil Pipeline Spills 8,000 Barrels of Crude in Peruvian Amazon | EcoWatch

‘RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil this week pulled out of hosting next year’s United Nations global summit meeting on climate change, the latest signal that Latin America’s largest nation no longer aspires to be an influential player in efforts to mitigate the effects of a warming planet.’

Source: Brazil Backs Out of Hosting 2019 Climate Change Meeting | The New York Times

‘…Most significantly, the National Climate Assessment—which is endorsed by nasa, noaa, the Department of Defense, and 10 other federal scientific agencies—contradicts nearly every position taken on the issue by President Donald Trump. Where the president has insisted that fighting global warming will harm the economy, the report responds: Climate change, if left unchecked, could eventually cost the economy hundreds of billions of dollars per year, and kill thousands of Americans to boot.’

Source: A Grave Climate Warning, Buried on Black Friday | The Atlantic

‘…Home to half the world’s population, Asia accounts for three-fourths of global coal consumption today. More important, it accounts for more than three-fourths of coal plants that are either under construction or in the planning stages — a whopping 1,200 of them, according to Urgewald, a German advocacy group that tracks coal development. Heffa Schücking, who heads Urgewald, called those plants “an assault on the Paris goals.”’

Source:  The World Needs to Quit Coal. Why Is It So Hard? | The New York Times

‘…But in direct language, the 1,656-page assessment lays out the devastating effects of a changing climate on the economy, health and environment, including record wildfires in California, crop failures in the Midwest and crumbling infrastructure in the South. Going forward, American exports and supply chains could be disrupted, agricultural yields could fall to 1980s levels by midcentury and fire season could spread to the Southeast, the report finds.’

Source: U.S. Climate Report Warns of Damaged Environment and Shrinking Economy | The New York Times

‘The National Climate Assessment was written long before the deadly fires in California this month and before Hurricanes Florence and Michael raked the East Coast and Florida. It says warming-charged extremes “have already become more frequent, intense, widespread or of long duration.” The report notes the last few years have smashed U.S. records for damaging weather, costing nearly $400 billion since 2015.’

Source: Government Climate Report Warns of Worsening US Disasters | The New York Times

‘A new government report—1,600 pages, two and a half years of work, hundreds of authors, 13 participating agencies—warns that by the end of the century, unchecked climate change could cause tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of billions of dollars in losses and damage. All the evidence points to human emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide as the cause.’

A Government Climate Study Contradicts the President | Wired