Earth Matters: Critics nix Facebook’s climate hub; speculation soars over Tesla ‘Battery Day’

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Earth Matters is a Daily Kos compendium of amazing, upsetting, and horrible news briefs about the environment. 

Facebook starts Climate Science Information Center. Critics aren’t impressed: In a media release, Facebook announced it plans to fight disinformation with a new climate heartbeat designed “to link individuals with science-based info, and an ambitious new web zero emissions goal for our company’s value chain. ” Environmental advocates indicate this endeavor fails to bargain with Facebook’s & “climate loophole,” that gives climate science deniers a opportunity to disperse climate lies by tagging these “opinion. ” At Gizmodo, Brian Kahn flays the effort: “The whole issue is really a giant hand-wave to divert us from taking a look at the real answers to climate change and the role Facebook is playing in corroding them.  This is where I would normally say it is great Facebook is doing something about climate change. However, the era of corporate malfeasants getting belly rubs is over. Exactly what Facebook is doing is comparable to the National Rifle Association’s argument that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a great guy with a gun. In this case, Facebook is that the arms dealer handing out guns to both sides. ”

Democrats trash Trump regime’s NEPA rewrite and rules rollback: Led by Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva along with Vice Chair Deb Haaland, 61 House Democrats have signed a letter to the Council on Environmental Quality as a “proper comment in resistance to the NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] revisions proposed by this government. We all find them lacking in justification, driven by bad goals, and legally indefensible.” The new rules, which went into effect on Monday, are designed to”update” and”streamline” environmental inspection for major federal actions including highways, pipelines, terminals, and even bridges. This ’s Trump-speak for permitting companies overlook about the ecological impacts of the operations. Foes of the changes say the rewrite will create in more challenging for Americans, especially in communities of all people of colour and of reduced incometo oppose jobs. In the past, those communities have gotten the environmental burden in the siting of pollution-heavy jobs that skinnier and more affluent communities have managed to avoid. 

A succinct look at specifics of exactly what the switch away from fossil fuels may need:

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Climate activists expect Biden advisor Moniz doesn’t even become energy secretary: Ernest Moniz served as energy secretary at the Obama management. But a lot of climate activists aren’t keen on his good friend Joe Biden picking the 75-year-old atomic physicist to maintain his previous place should the former president win the presidency. Moniz is viewed as too close to the “most of the aforementioned ” energy approach of the Obama management that pushed renewables but also boosted fossil fuel extraction and growth. At a Sept. 1 letter to Biden, 145 progressive organizations composed: “Your direction on climate and environmental justice is why we recommend you to prohibit all fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, and agents from any official place in your effort, transition team, cabinet, and management. ” Moniz definitely fits that category. As Kate Aronoff writes, since leaving the authorities from 2018 Moniz has joined the board of the giant Southern Company, an integrated electric utility. Not merely did Southern lobby hard from Obama’s Clean Power Plan and also finance major climate science deniers, it received $407 million in the Department of Energy through Moniz’s dared to get a never-completed “wash irrigation ” plant life. Based on Southern’s proxy statements, Moniz accepted a joint $486,668 value of fees and stock awards in the company from 2018 and 2019.  “I do not agree with the characterization of the Southern Company as a fossil fuel firm,” he told Axios. In reality, Southern creates 72 percent  of its electricity from fossil fuels. The national average is 63%. Only 12% of its generation comes in renewables.

Expectations soar for Tesla’s Battery Day reveals: All types of speculation has been rife since the Tuesday, Sept. 22 date for Battery Day has been declared. A number of the guessing about what’s going to be declared is based on no real proof and is downright eccentric. But we can definitely expect that Elon Musk will considerably expand on his “He does not have any hint ” tweet reacting to Bill Gates’ assert on his blog that powering semi-trucks with batteries only won’t reduce it. In the event that you’d prefer to take a deep dive into what might be coming from Battery Day, here’s lengthy read on the topic out of Maximilian Holland in CleanTechnica.

• More than 160 ecological movement experts warn people to not vote for the Green Party nor stay at home: In an open letter, the longtime activists wrote: “We have discovered in the class of decades which militancy can build awareness of the ecological hazard to human life itself, and activists younger than we’ve motivated us with the Green brand new Deal, the Sunrise Movement, Greta Thunberg, and other leaders of a new generation. But in 50 decades of agitation, we have also discovered what the strong understood. Elections matter most in the conclusion. ” The signers all endorse Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris and warn folks about the perils in an already perilous period of voting Green or maybe not voting.  Diane MacEachern, known for her activism on climate change and against atomic weapons, informed Sam Stein in the Daily Beast: “There is no environmental problem we confronted when Donald Trump assumed the presidency three-and-a-half years ago that is in any way better today. If anything, they will get worse. We could either try and put out the fire or we could fan the flame. ” 

Rep. Liz Cheney needs Department of Justice to investigate eco-groups for possible Russian and Chinese influence: In a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr, the Wyoming congresswoman communicates “grave concern” regarding possible Russian and Chinese attempts to influence U.S. energy and environmental policies through nongovernmental organizations.  Along with “robust and political activism” through hundreds of lawsuits to advance their goals, Cheney composed, ecological classes “espouse views that align with those of our adversaries,” incorporating: “Environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the National Resources Defense Council, whose anti-fracking agendas align with the Kremlin’therefore are low-hanging berry to Russian influence. ” At last count, there were 30,000 Wyoming fracking operations in Wyoming, with associated problems. Four states have prohibited fracking: Vermont, Washington, Maryland, and New York.  

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