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vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #650 on: August 13, 2020, 09:46:14 PM »
Trump Rolls Back Methane Climate Standards for Oil and Gas Industry
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/13/trump-rolls-back-methane-climate-standards-oil-gas-industry

The Trump administration is revoking rules that require oil and gas drillers to detect and fix leaks of methane, a greenhouse gas that heats the planet far faster than carbon dioxide.

The Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Andrew Wheeler, will announce the rollback from Pennsylvania, which has major oil and gas operations and is also a politically important swing state. The rule change is part of what Trump calls his “energy dominance” agenda.

Roughly a quarter of global warming the planet has experienced in recent decades has been due to methane, said Robert Howarth, a researcher who studies methane at Cornell University. The oil and gas industry is the biggest source of the pollutant.

US methane emissions have become more concerning as scientists have begun to better understand their prevalence and impacts, and as gas production has continued to grow rapidly, increasing 10% last year.

The world essentially cannot meet the near-term goals nations agreed to in an international climate agreement without reducing methane, Howarth said.

EPA to Rescind Methane Regulations for Oil and Gas
https://www.wsj.com/articles/epa-to-rescind-methane-regulations-for-oil-and-gas-11597051802

Agency would end requirements that the industry have systems and procedures to detect and fix greenhouse-gas emissions, sources say
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

morganism

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #651 on: August 19, 2020, 09:57:45 PM »
xpost from methane thread

Forget the Trump tweets. This is the Trump action that might actually kill us.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/forget-the-trump-tweets-this-is-the-trump-action-that-might-actually-kill-us/2020/08/17/e912c0ae-e0b8-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html

"It did this by using accounting gimmicks in its official regulatory cost-benefit analysis. In technical documents, the administration said it was no longer taking into account harms that climate change might have outside U.S. borders; and also that it was changing the “discount rate” — that is, reducing how much weight it placed upon future costs. It was Trump’s trademark isolationism and short-termism, made mathematically explicit.

The result? The Obama-era estimate of methane’s social costs were ratcheted down from about $1,400 per metric ton to just $55 under a Trump accounting scenario. Incidentally, the Trump administration was admonished for this same phony math in a court case blocking a related environmental rule last month."

morganism

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #652 on: September 01, 2020, 08:50:03 PM »
<Not on topic at all so i removed it. kassy>
« Last Edit: September 01, 2020, 09:59:19 PM by kassy »

longwalks1

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #653 on: September 04, 2020, 04:27:52 AM »
It does not actually have Trumps fingers on it,  not the EPA, but it is his comrades and part of The Assault on Science.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/09/03/the-savaging-of-detlev-helmig-citizen/

Quote
And what if on top of all this he cost the university nothing? What if, in fact, he was a cash cow, one who, as lead scientist or co-lead, had brought in over 90 projects and $30 million in grants to the university?

And what if not only his salary, but the salary of his associates, historically as many as 10 people, were paid from these grants?   In addition, what if the university demanded and received add-ons of up to 60 percent to cover its “administrative” costs?

Wouldn’t every reasonably sane university president with an ounce of business sense value this man not only for his accomplishments and the money he brings to the budget challenged university, but for the gild he added to the university’s escutcheon?

Such a man does exist.  His name is Dr. Detlev Helmig.  And so does such a university.  It is the University of Colorado.  It has a new president, Mark Kennedy, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota.  The university’s Board of Regents hired him last year, despite substantial student and faculty opposition, for his purported business acumen—acumen so great, in fact, that the regents awarded him a compensation package in excess of one million dollars annually.

Dr. Helmig worked at the University of Colorado-Boulder for 25 years as both a teacher and atmospheric scientist.  Never had he received anything but an above satisfactory performance review from his bosses.

Michelle Bachman took over from Mark Kennedy position in Washington.   Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dummer.

   
Quote
Yet, the university has cavalierly redistributed these funds to others, but some projects, such as the only global network for monitoring volatile organic compounds and the only continuous monitoring of these pollutants in the Arctic have come to a complete stop for a lack of the scientific leadership Helmig alone provided.

Quote
As knowledge of its existence grew, Boulder A.I.R. began to be asked by local communities such as Longmont and Broomfield to help them monitor their already severely compromised air quality.  They preferred to deal directly with Helmig rather than pay the university’s 60 percent overhead cost.  Helmig actually attempted to carry the university’s water, but the university’s bureaucratic labyrinth was simply impenetrable according to Salazar’s rebuttal.

These cities were particularly concerned by the state’s approval of new fracking mega-pads right in their midst.  These approvals came despite a state law, SB 181, passed in the spring of 2019, requiring an evaluation process that promised protection of public health and the environment as a condition to be met before new wells were approved.  The Polis administration had effectively confounded, if not outright repealed, the law through a series of astonishingly muddle-headed implementation forays.  Indeed, after almost a year and half of being voted out of the legislature, no significant changes in Polis administration policy to protect the pubic and the environment have occurred, with over 3000 wells being approved since his administration took office in January of 2019.

Quote
There is also the ongoing disagreement between the climate scientists at CU and NOAA, which has a major climate office in Boulder, and the state’s Air Pollution Control Division, APCD.

I checked, nothing about him at DeSmogblog.     The search here yielded two hits of posts by AbruptSLR where Helvig was in papers.  The one was on the Cold Season Methane and CO2 fluxes in Arctic Tundra. 

Burnrate

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #654 on: September 13, 2020, 02:18:22 PM »
NOAA's new deputy assistant secretary of commerce for observation and prediction.
David Legates

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/12/912301325/longtime-climate-science-denier-hired-at-noaa


<merged threads. kassy>
« Last Edit: September 13, 2020, 08:35:05 PM by kassy »

vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #655 on: September 15, 2020, 08:23:06 PM »
In First, Scientific American Magazine Endorses Biden
https://phys.org/news/2020-09-scientific-american-magazine-endorses-biden.html

For the first time in its 175-year history, US magazine Scientific American has endorsed a White House candidate, saying Tuesday it wanted Democrat Joe Biden to prevail because President Donald Trump "rejects" science.

"We do not do this lightly," the editors wrote in a scathing anti-Trump editorial published online for the magazine's October issue.

"The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the US and its people—because he rejects evidence and science," they write.

The most devastating example, they say, is the president's "dishonest and inept response" to the COVID-19 pandemic that has cost nearly 200,000 American lives since late February, shortly before Trump announced a national emergency.

But coronavirus is just the first in a lengthy list of Trump trip-ups and alarming policy positions, say the editors, including his "ongoing denial of reality" regarding climate change that has "hobbled" US preparations for battling the crisis.

"He has also attacked environmental protections, medical care, and the researchers and public science agencies that help this country prepare for its greatest challenges," they add.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientific-american-endorses-joe-biden/
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Juan C. García

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #656 on: September 16, 2020, 03:57:31 AM »
Which is the best answer to Sep-2012 ASI lost (compared to 1979-2000)?
50% [NSIDC Extent] or
73% [PIOMAS Volume]

Volume is harder to measure than extent, but 3-dimensional space is real, 2D's hide ~50% thickness gone.
-> IPCC/NSIDC trends [based on extent] underestimate the real speed of ASI lost.

vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #657 on: September 18, 2020, 12:59:28 AM »
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #658 on: September 25, 2020, 10:08:10 AM »
Trump Administration Advances Plan to Cut Protections for Largest National Forest
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/24/tongass-national-forest-trump-administration-logging

The Trump administration has announced it will move forward with a plan to roll back regulations protecting millions of acres in America’s largest national forest from logging, sparking an outcry from environmental advocacy organizations, Alaskan tribal nations, and fishermen.

More than half of the Tongass national forest – a 16.7m-acre old-growth temperate rainforest in south-east Alaska – has been protected for the last two decades by the so-called “Roadless Area Conservation Rule”, which prohibits development in designated wild areas. The US Forest Service is expected to release a final environmental impact statement on Friday which would allow for the Tongass to be exempt from the rule, moving one step closer to ending the protections entirely.

Republican leaders in Alaska have lobbied the federal government to reverse the rule over the last two years.

The Tongass plays an important role in the battle against climate change, as its trees absorb roughly 8% of the carbon dioxide pollution coming from the US.
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Florifulgurator

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #659 on: October 09, 2020, 06:41:24 AM »
U.S. Covid history:

Whistleblower Rick Bright, the ousted director of the office involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine, explains why he is speaking out against the Trump administration.

"scary" ... "absolutely horrifying" ... "I found out that I was moving light speed ahead of this administration" ... "before they were willing to admit we had a problem, I had plans in place to [1)... 2)... ...]" ... "When I sounded the alarm [...] they resisted [...] they resisted"

"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or committed communist, but rather people for whom the difference between facts and fiction, true and false, no longer exists." ~ Hannah Arendt
"Вчи українську це тобі ще знадобиться" ~ Internet

gerontocrat

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #660 on: October 20, 2020, 02:47:27 PM »
Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment - count the ways... This Guardian article gets up to 75.. If you are into depression give it a read.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2020/oct/20/trump-us-dirtier-planet-warmer-75-ways
75 ways Trump made America dirtier and the planet warmer
In the past four years, Trump has shredded environmental protections for American lands, animals and people

Quote
"I want crystal clean water and air."

That's what Donald Trump said in the first chaotic presidential debate with Joe Biden. But there is scant evidence of that desire in the actions of his administration, which has spent nearly four years systematically dismantling core environmental protections, some of which stretch back decades.

Experts agree that the climate crisis's most destructive manifestations, on display in a particularly difficult year for the US, barely scratch the surface of the catastrophes to come. Yet the president appears unmoved by the enormous wildfires, devastating hurricanes, widespread water problems and persistent air pollution that disproportionately blights black and Latino communities. His administration has scrapped climate regulations, rolled back clean water rules and loosened pollution standards. Protections for public land and threatened species have been shrunk while new oil pipelines and coal mining have been encouraged.

then follows a list of ever-increasing stupidity and recklessness and (words fail me).
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

nanning

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #661 on: October 21, 2020, 06:14:44 AM »
Thanks gero.

I've just re-read the first chapter of "The Unnatural History of the Sea" by Callum Roberts and it sketches the living nature that Europeans found in North-America when they first got there.

The descriptions from sailors at that time show a living nature so mind-bogglingly rich as to be hardly believable. Those Europeans couldn't believe their eyes, literally. Already the native american 'indians' lived there for thousands of years of course and living nature was not in any way visibly disturbed.
The Europeans/Settlers destroyed all the riches in about 200 years by taking as much as they could, and then some.

The 'Garden of Eden'.

Gone. Everywhere. Even under water. Wetiko's total destruction.
Such an immense grief comes over me.

 :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #662 on: October 21, 2020, 12:06:18 PM »
The Native Americans had agriculture (Corn) so that wasn’t the problem. What made Europe so depleted so early? I thought the Industrial Revolution was the mistake but the first explorers got here before it started. Where did Europe go wrong?

nanning

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #663 on: October 21, 2020, 12:43:29 PM »
Tom, you should read the book I mentioned and it will become clearer.
Remember that there were once lions in Europe. It was not climate change that did it.

Taking more than you need...
Commerce... Profit...
Complete supremacy and disregard for all other life...
People long ago wrote an important book that said that everything belongs to humans...  For the taking...
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

be cause

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #664 on: October 21, 2020, 06:13:57 PM »
the consequences of ending natural birth control .. it came with religion , Tom ... b.c.
Conflict is the root of all evil , for being blind it does not see whom it attacks . Yet it always attacks the Son Of God , and the Son of God is you .

FrostKing70

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #665 on: October 21, 2020, 06:59:12 PM »
Let's not forget his influence on millions of US citizens through tweets like this:


vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #666 on: October 28, 2020, 04:45:33 PM »
... NOAA's going 'dark' ...

As Election Nears, Trump Makes a Final Push Against Climate Science
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/27/climate/trump-election-climate-noaa.html

“The Trump administration has recently removed the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the nation’s premier scientific agency, installed new political staff who have questioned accepted facts about climate change and imposed stricter controls on communications at the agency.”

The moves threaten to stifle a major source of objective United States government information about climate change that underpins federal rules on greenhouse gas emissions and offer an indication of the direction the agency will take if President Trump wins re-election.

An early sign of the shift came last month, when Erik Noble, a former White House policy adviser who had just been appointed NOAA’s chief of staff, removed Craig McLean, the agency’s acting chief scientist.

Mr. McLean had sent some of the new political appointees a message that asked them to acknowledge the agency’s scientific integrity policy, which prohibits manipulating research or presenting ideologically driven findings.

The request prompted a sharp response from Dr. Noble. “Respectfully, by what authority are you sending this to me?” he wrote, according to a person who received a copy of the exchange after it was circulated within NOAA.

Mr. McLean answered that his role as acting chief scientist made him responsible for ensuring that the agency’s rules on scientific integrity were followed.

The following morning, Dr. Noble responded. “You no longer serve as the acting chief scientist for NOAA,” he informed Mr. McLean, adding that a new chief scientist had already been appointed. “Thank you for your service.”

Replacing Mr. McLean, who remains at the agency, was Ryan Maue, a former researcher for the libertarian Cato Institute who has criticized climate scientists for what he has called unnecessarily dire predictions.

Dr. Maue, a research meteorologist, and Dr. Noble were joined at NOAA by David Legates, a professor at the University of Delaware’s geography department who has questioned human-caused global warming. Dr. Legates was appointed to the position of deputy assistant secretary, a role that did not previously exist.

... “The real issue at play is the National Climate Assessment,” said Judith Curry, a former chairwoman of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology who said she has been in contact with Dr. Maue, the new chief scientist. “That’s what the powers that be are trying to influence.”

Ms. Curry and the others said that, if Mr. Trump wins re-election, further changes at NOAA would include removing longtime authors of the climate assessment and adding new ones who challenge the degree to which warming is occurring, the extent to which it is caused by human activities and the danger it poses to human health, national security and the economy.

... Other changes could include shifting NOAA funding to researchers who reject the established scientific consensus on climate change and eliminating the use of certain scientific models that project dire consequences for the planet if countries do little to reduce carbon dioxide pollution.

Dr. Noble, the new chief of staff, has already pushed to install a new layer of scrutiny on grants that NOAA awards for climate research, according to people familiar with those discussions.
« Last Edit: October 28, 2020, 04:54:44 PM by vox_mundi »
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #667 on: October 29, 2020, 10:15:33 PM »
Trump Administration Ends Gray Wolf's Endangered Species Protections
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/29/gray-wolf-endangered-species-trump-administration

The Trump administration has removed endangered species protections from the gray wolf, a species once persecuted to near-extinction in the US, in a move that has been condemned as premature by conservationists.

The wolves have been provided federal protection for more than 45 years but this is no longer needed according to David Bernhardt, the US interior secretary, who announced the decision in Minnesota on Thursday.

... With no federal safeguards, gray wolves will be subject to a patchwork of state and local laws, some of which will allow the trapping and killing of the animals. Many ranchers still view wolves as a threat to livestock, while hunters consider them unhelpful competition for deer and elk. William Perry Pendley, the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, once wrote to Disney to complain that its movie White Fang was too kind to wolves.

Protections for wolves have already been lifted in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, leading to the deaths of more than 500 wolves in Idaho just in the past year, according to analysis by environment groups.

---------------------------------------------

Trump Administration Strips Protection from US’s Largest Forest
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/29/trump-administration-strips-protections-from-uss-largest-forest

The Trump administration has lifted environmental protection in Tongass National Forest, opening up more than three million hectares in the United States’s largest forest to logging despite opposition from environmental groups and Indigenous leaders.

In an official notice of the decision on Thursday, the US Department of Agriculture said Tongass would be exempt from a 2001 federal law known as the “Roadless Rule” that prohibits timber harvest and road construction in specific areas.

The Tongass – sometimes referred to as “America’s Amazon” – spans nearly seven million hectares (17 million acres) across southeast Alaska, including the capital, Juneau, and is home to diverse wildlife and trees. It is considered the largest contiguous temperate rainforest in the world.

Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, welcomed the Trump administration’s decision, which opens up 55 percent of the forest (3.9 million hectares/9.6 million acres) to timber harvest activities and road-building.

In August, the Trump administration opened up part of another key ecological site in Alaska, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to oil and gas exploration.
« Last Edit: October 29, 2020, 10:52:59 PM by vox_mundi »
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #668 on: November 04, 2020, 02:49:30 AM »
Trump's latest order spreads fear among government scientists
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03063-0
Quote
An executive order issued by US President Donald Trump has sown confusion and fear among government scientists in the country. Announced by the White House on 21 October, the order creates a job category for government workers — such as scientists — that makes it easier to fire people shifted into these positions. Researchers fear that this is yet another attack in a four-year war on science waged by the Trump administration.

“I've read it over a few times, and it’s pretty frightening,” says one senior scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who wished to remain anonymous to protect their job. The broadness of the order is of particular concern, the scientist says, noting that it appears to make it easier to “get rid of people who don’t toe the right political line”.

Stephan

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #669 on: November 07, 2020, 10:38:39 PM »
I just hope that Joe Biden will fix all this soon...
It is too late just to be concerned about Climate Change

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #670 on: November 07, 2020, 11:36:08 PM »
I just hope that Joe Biden will fix all this soon...
But will he fix covid first?
The Parable of Mr. Smith

Mr. Smith is in his early thirties. He lives in the small house he inherited a few years ago when his parents were killed in an auto accident. He works at a full time minimum wage job.
In the spring he feels an ache somewhere in his body, but the water heater broke and he has to have it replaced. He takes a temporary part-time moonlight job to pay for it. In the summer the ache is worse, but the air conditioner breaks so he buys a new one...part time job continues. Then fall comes and his car breaks down. He continues working 60 hours a week even though the pain is getting severe. By winter the heater breaks down and what with other things he is working 60 hour weeks while in excruciating agony. Finally he cannot stand it anymore and takes time off for the doctor.
The doctor says to him "I believe in doing this quickly. If you had come to me a year ago, maybe even six months ago you could have been cured, and have a normal life expectancy. Now maybe a month or two. I have a list of hospices..."

Understand, with the narrowness of the election and covid preferentially killing Trump's elderly base and further showing up his incompetence I believe Trump would have won a narrow victory if Patient Zero had never contacted covid. So Biden probably owes his election to a SARS-CoV-2 virion particle somewhere in China last year. But if short term problems distract him we may lose a chance to solve a big long term one. And AGW is a high hanging fruit on the tree. It is easy to get people upset when the air stinks and colors clothing while the river burns (The Flats and Cuyahoga River in Cleveland), but GHGs are colorless and odorless and harder to get out of the industrial economy.

J Cartmill

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #671 on: November 10, 2020, 03:25:01 AM »
Washington Post and New York Times are reporting Trump has removed Michael Kuperburg as Director of the US Global Research Program which produces the National Climate Assessment. Speculation is that he will be replaced by climate denier David Legates.

vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #672 on: November 15, 2020, 12:09:22 AM »
Trump to Rush Drilling Leases in Arctic Before Biden Takes Over
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-13/trump-to-rush-drilling-leases-in-arctic-before-biden-takes-over

(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration is advancing plans to auction drilling rights in the U.S. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who has vowed to block oil exploration in the rugged Alaska wilderness.

The Interior Department is set to issue a formal “call for nominations” as soon as Monday, kick-starting a final effort to get input on what tracts to auction inside the refuge’s 1.56-million-acre coastal plain. The plans were described by two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named detailing administration strategy.

The Trump administration is also fast-tracking a proposal to conduct 3-D seismic surveys inside the refuge before Jan. 20. The surveys can help pinpoint possible underground oil reserves, but environmentalists warn they are large industrial operations that threaten polar bears hidden in snow-covered dens.

Biden has pledged to permanently protect the refuge, saying drilling there would be a “big disaster.” But those efforts could be complicated if the Trump administration sells drilling rights first. Formally issued oil and gas leases on federal land are government contracts that can’t be easily yanked.

The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated the refuge’s coastal plain might hold between 4.3 billion and 11.8 billion barrels of technically recoverable crude. Yet it’s unclear how many oil companies would have the appetite to mount costly operations in the remote Arctic wilderness amid low crude prices, steep public opposition, and regulatory uncertainty. Major U.S. banks have sworn off financing Arctic drilling projects, and conservationists are also pressuring oil executives to rule out work in the region.
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #673 on: November 23, 2020, 04:53:50 PM »
Major Regulator Makes 11th-hour Move to Sink Banks' Oil Limits
https://www.axios.com/banks-oil-limits-regulator-4fdb88a1-5a48-4cbc-a68e-8cfccddec000.html

A major regulator is racing to thwart big banks' refusal to lend and service certain industries and projects — including Arctic oil drilling and new coal mining.

Why it matters: America's biggest banks are increasingly scaling back ties with fossil fuel, prison and gun-manufacturing businesses amid public pressure and changing investment preferences.

Driving the news: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — one of three key banking regulators — floated draft rules Friday that say banks can't turn away entire industries. Rather, they have to prove that they decided not to lend because applicants didn’t meet "quantitative, impartial risk-based standards."

"Politically controversial but lawful businesses" deserve "fair access to financial services under the law," the proposal says.

... "Contrary to the claims of oil-backed politicians, banks don't want to finance more drilling in the Arctic not because of some vast liberal conspiracy, but because it's bad business," Sierra Club's Ben Cushing says.

The big picture: It's the latest effort under the Trump administration to whittle away at investments that factor in industries' societal impact.

Earlier this month, the Labor Department finalized a rule that put a high burden on retirement funds that want to include investments that strip out fossil fuel companies and other non-sustainable businesses.

... The OCC is taking public comments until Jan. 4, and then would have a fast turnaround to complete the rule before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

The Biden administration — by installing its preferred OCC head — could unwind a completed rule, but that's complicated and slow compared to abandoning an incomplete proposal.


... so, he likes oil ... à votre santé!
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #674 on: November 24, 2020, 12:46:15 AM »
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #675 on: November 27, 2020, 11:30:23 PM »
Trump Administration Moves Ahead On Gutting Bird Protections
https://apnews.com/article/politics-wildlife-birds-56b812df9c278f5e2b9be9541378892b

The Trump administration moved forward Friday on gutting a longstanding federal protection for the nation’s birds, over objections from former federal officials and many scientists that billions more birds will likely perish as a result.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published its take on the proposed rollback in the Federal Register. It’s a final step that means the change — greatly limiting federal authority to prosecute industries for practices that kill migratory birds — could be made official within 30 days.

The wildlife service acknowledged in its findings that the rollback would have a “negative” effect on the many bird species covered by the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which range from hawks and eagles to seabirds, storks, songbirds and sparrows.

The move scales back federal prosecution authority for the deadly threats migratory birds face from industry — from electrocution on power lines, to wind turbines that knock them from the air and oil field waste pits where landing birds perish in toxic water.

Industry operations kill an estimated 450 million to 1.1 billion birds annually, out of roughly 7 billion birds in North America, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and recent studies.

The Trump administration maintains that the Act should apply only to birds killed or harmed intentionally, and is putting that “clarifying” change into regulation. The change would “improve consistency and efficiency in enforcement,” the Fish and Wildlife Service said.

The administration has continued to push the migratory bird regulation even after a federal judge in New York in August rejected the administration’s legal rationale.

Two days after news organizations announced President Donald Trump’s defeat by Democrat Joe Biden, federal officials advanced the bird treaty changes to the White House, one of the final steps before adoption.
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #676 on: December 03, 2020, 05:35:13 PM »
Trump Rushes To Lock In Oil Drilling In Arctic Wildlife Refuge Before Biden's Term
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/03/942052004/trump-administration-sets-last-minute-oil-lease-sale-for-arctic-wildlife-refuge

In a last-minute push, the Trump administration announced Thursday that it will auction off drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in just over a month, setting up a final showdown with opponents before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

The announcement of a lease sale comes sooner than some expected: The Bureau of Land Management did not wait for the comment and nominations period to officially end before scheduling a sale date.

The Trump administration started the formal process of selling oil rights in the coastal plain on Nov. 17, when it launched the "call for nominations," a 30-day window for oil companies to confidentiality tell the government which pieces of land they would like included in a lease sale. That comment period ends Dec. 17.

Under a lease-sale agreement, the company would lease the land from the government and purchase it at the end of the lease term.

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“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

gerontocrat

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #677 on: January 13, 2021, 01:39:01 PM »
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biden-climate-team-says-it-underestimated-trumps-damage/
Biden Climate Team Says It Underestimated Trump’s Damage

Agency reviews have found greater budget cuts, staff losses and elimination of climate programs than initially thought
Quote
President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team says the Trump administration has done more damage than anticipated to the government’s ability to address climate change.

Potentially lowering expectations for the incoming president’s early climate efforts, Biden officials say their agency review teams have found deeper budget cuts, wider staff losses and more systematic elimination of climate programs and research than they realized.

Some climate moves can’t happen until Biden officials remedy those deficiencies, a senior transition official said, because “those have been very carefully directed budget cuts to the very parts of the [EPA] that are going to be necessary to get rid of [Trump’s] outrageous rollbacks.”
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #678 on: January 14, 2021, 04:08:56 PM »
Interior Dept. Strips Protections for Owl Species On Decline
https://phys.org/news/2021-01-interior-owl-species-decline.html

The Interior Department said it will eliminate from federal protection more than 3 million acres in California, Oregon and Washington vital to the northern spotted owl, a species considered endangered under federal law.

In a draft rule published Wednesday as much of the nation was glued to impeachment proceedings, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a division of Interior, said it was excluding about 3.5 million acres of "critical habitat" established for the owls. Environmental groups warned that the move could spell the extinction of the species and immediately threatened lawsuits to block the action.

The excluded habitat is more than 16 times larger than the 205,000 acres the administration proposed in August 2020.

About 42 percent of the species' critical habitat will be excluded under the rule, according to the Western Environmental Law Center. The decision ignores research from federal scientists, placing the northern spotted owl on the precipice of extinction, according to Susan Jane Brown, an attorney at the center.

Included in a flurry of deregulatory steps the Trump administration has taken before it gives up power, the move runs counter to advice from federal biologists who warned last year that lost habitat is driving the decline of the raptors.

Last week, Interior said it would no longer hold petroleum and other industries legally liable for killing migratory birds as long as they did not mean to.
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

kassy

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #679 on: January 14, 2021, 04:32:09 PM »
Things like EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should be walled off from political appointees.
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #680 on: August 19, 2021, 08:36:12 PM »
Common Pesticide to be Banned Over Links to Problems in Children
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-08-common-pesticide-links-toproblems-children.html

The Biden Administration said Wednesday that a widely used pesticide will be banned because it's been linked to neurological damage in children.

The new rule to block the use of chlorpyrifos on food will take effect in six months, the Environmental Protection Agency said.

Available since the mid-1960s and among the most widely used pesticides, chlorpyrifos is routinely applied to corn, soybeans, apples, broccoli, asparagus and other produce, The New York Times reported.

Studies have linked exposure to the pesticide with lower birth weights, reduced IQs and other developmental problems in children, and a wide range of groups have long fought for a ban on chlorpyrifos, the Times reported.

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and the reason it took so long ...

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See also: https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,2180.msg309226.html#msg309226

https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,1858.msg193049.html#msg193049

... Fish and Wildlife Service analysis found that two of the pesticides, malathion and chlorpyrifos, were so toxic that they “jeopardize the continued existence” of more than 1,200 endangered birds, fish and other animals and plants, a conclusion that could lead to tighter restrictions on use of the chemicals.

But just before the team planned to make its findings public in November 2017, something unexpected happened: Top political appointees of the Interior Department, which oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service, blocked the release
and set in motion a new process intended to apply a much narrower standard to determine the risks from the pesticides.

Leading that intervention was David Bernhardt, then the deputy secretary of the interior and a former lobbyist and oil-industry lawyer. In October 2017, he abruptly summoned staff members to the first of a rapid series of meetings in which the Fish and Wildlife Service was directed to take the new approach, one that pesticide makers and users had lobbied intensively to promote.

Mr. Bernhardt is now President Trump’s nominee to become interior secretary. The Senate is scheduled to hold a hearing on his confirmation Thursday.

... A Dow spokesman said the shift in policy was unrelated to the $1 million contribution to Trump’s inauguration committee.


https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,434.msg181274.html#msg181274
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

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vox_mundi

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Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« Reply #681 on: August 31, 2021, 09:01:59 AM »
Federal judge strikes down Trump-era rule reducing waterways protections
https://www.axios.com/trump-environment-protections-waterways-judge-2d914f44-47c3-413c-a286-dbbb2110e789.html

A federal judge on Monday tossed out a Trump administration rule that rolled back protections for streams, marshes and wetlands across the U.S.

Why it matters: Environmental and tribal groups have pushed the court to vacate the rule, which the Biden administration has kept in place while coming up with its own protections policy. The new ruling will expand protections for drinking water supplies for millions of Americans and thousands of wildlife species, per the Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/30/water-rule-trump/

What they're saying: U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez wrote in the ruling that Trump officials made serious errors while formulating the policy, which replaced Obama-era standards for dredging or filling waterways.

"The concerns identified ... are not mere procedural errors or problems that could be remedied through further explanation," Márquez noted. "Rather, they involve fundamental, substantive flaws."

Approximately 76% of water bodies reviewed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers between June 22, 2020 and April 15, 2021 did not qualify for federal protection under the new rule, according to Márquez.

Federal agencies reported 333 projects that would've required a permit before draining or filling under the Obama rule but did not under Trump's, per the ruling.

Leaving it in place would risk "serious environmental harm," Márquez said.
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late