Tag: U.S. environment

Rep. Phillips Makes The Case For Carbon Pricing In Testimony Before Select Committee On Climate Crisis

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) testified before the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis about the urgent need for climate action. In Congress, Phillips is member of the New Democrat Coalition Climate Change Task Force and is a strong advocate for H.R. 763, the bipartisan Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act.

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Click here to watch Rep. Phillips’s testimony before the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis

Below are Rep. Phillips’s remarks as prepared:

Thank you for the invitation to offer testimony this afternoon on this urgent problem. Continue reading “Rep. Phillips Makes The Case For Carbon Pricing In Testimony Before Select Committee On Climate Crisis”

Climate change is really about prosperity, peace, public health and posterity – not saving the environment

The story of climate change is one that people have struggled to tell convincingly for more than two decades. But it’s not for lack of trying.

The problem is emphatically not a lack of facts and figures. The world’s best scientific minds have produced blockbuster report after blockbuster report, setting out in ever more terrifying detail just how much of an impact we humans have had on the Earth since the dawn of the industrial revolution. Many people believe anthropogenic climate change – rapid and far-reaching shifts in the climate caused by human activity – is now the story that will define the 21st century, whether anyone’s good at telling it or not.

Nor is it merely a problem of delivery. The past decade has witnessed an explosion of climate change communication efforts spanning nearly every conceivable medium, channel and messenger. Documentaries, popular books and articles, interactive websites, immersive virtual reality, community events — all are being used in increasingly creative ways to communicate the story of climate change. Many of these efforts are beautifully designed and executed, visually and narratively engaging and careful to avoid common traps and shortcomings that have tripped up previous efforts.

View the complete September 27 article by Ezra Markowitz, Associate PRofessor of Environmental Decision-Making at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Adam Corner, Research Director at Climate Outreach & Honorary Research Fellow in Psychology, Cardiff University, on the Conversation website.

North America has lost 3 billion birds in 50 years

Washington Post logoSlowly, steadily and almost imperceptibly, North America’s bird population is dwindling.

The sparrows and finches that visit backyard feeders number fewer each year. The flutelike song of the western meadowlark — the official bird of six U.S. states — is growing more rare. The continent has lost nearly 3 billion birds representing hundreds of species over the past five decades, in an enormous loss that signals an “overlooked biodiversity crisis,” according to a study from top ornithologists and government agencies.

This is not an extinction crisis — yet. It is a more insidious decline in abundance as humans dramatically alter the landscape: There are 29 percent fewer birds in the United States and Canada today than in 1970, the study concludes. Grassland species have been hardest hit, probably because of agricultural intensification that has engulfed habitats and spread pesticides that kill the insects many birds eat. But the victims include warblers, thrushes, swallows and other familiar birds.

View the complete September 19 article by Karin Brulliard on The Washington Post website here.

It’s official: July was the hottest month ever

“July has re-written climate history.”

The world just lived through the hottest month of the year ever recorded in human history.

According to new data just released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), July 2019 has broken all records for the hottest month, with temperatures 1.71 degrees Fahrenheit (0.95 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average.

NOAA’s calculations confirm the findings of three other recently released data sets. Independent findings from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (a European climate agency), Japan Meteorological Agency, and Berkeley Earth all show that last month was the warmest on Earth since record-keeping began.

View the complete August 15 article by Kyla Mandel on the ThinkProgress website here.

Historic heat wave is double whammy for climate change

The Hill logoNearly two-thirds of the U.S. is expected to be hit by a massive weekend heat wave, forcing energy companies to brace for maxed out grids and potential blackouts.

It will also create a spike in carbon emissions, as the use of fossil fuels by people seeking to cool down expands.

In Texas, the Midwest, the mid-Atlantic and New England, states are facing historic heat advisories, with temperatures expected to reach into the 100s in some places.

View the complete July 19 article by Miranda Green on The Hill website here.

For the first time ever renewables beat coal in the US

For the first time ever renewables beat coal in the US.

In a remarkable sign of the shifting fortunes of dirty energy and clean energy, more renewable power was generated in April than coal power — something that’s never happened before in the United States.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced Wednesday that, in April, “U.S. monthly electricity generation from renewable sources exceeded coal-fired generation for the first time.”

While coal provided 20% of U.S. power in April, renewables — which include utility-scale hydropower, wind, s

View the complete June 26 article by Joe Romm on the ThinkProgress website here.

Renewables ‘have won the race’ against coal and are starting to beat natural gas

Meanwhile, the president remains clueless about the clean energy revolution.

The rapidly dropping cost of renewable energy has upended energy economics in recent years, with new solar and wind plants now significantly cheaper than coal power.

But new research shows another major change is afoot: The cost of batteries has been declining so unexpectedly rapidly that renewables plus battery storage are now cheaper than even natural gas plants in many applications, according to a report released this week by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

BNEF analyzed pricing data from almost 7,000 power projects in 46 countries that span 20 energy technologies, including coal, gas, nuclear, battery storage, solar photovoltaics (PV), and wind.

View the complete March 29 article by Joe Romm on the ThinkProgress website here.

By 2080, global warming will make New York City feel like Arkansas

“Heading south” will have a whole new meaning in a few decades.

New York City, welcome to Arkansas. Minneapolis, say hello to Kansas. And San Francisco, your new home is L.A.

Because of global warming, hundreds of millions of Americans will have to adapt to dramatically new climates by 2080, a study published Tuesday suggests.

View the complete February 12 article by Doyle Rice on The USA Today website here.