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It’s doubtful that Donald Trump or the bloodthirsty armed supporters who invaded the US Capitol threatening to kidnap or kill Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi were thinking much about climate change at the time. Nevertheless, the mob Trump unleashed to try to overturn his election defeat was an assault not only on American democracy but also on humanity’s climate survival. If Trump’s attempted coup had succeeded in keeping him in power for a second term, it would have been, scientifically speaking, “game over for climate,” as Michael Mann of Penn State University put it: Four more years of the world’s biggest economy accelerating rather than ending fossil fuel development would have made limiting global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius impossible. Nevertheless, Trump’s insurrection, besides being an enduring stain on America’s reputation as a nation of law, also threatened climate survival in a second way, because a US democracy that works is vital to avoiding climate catastrophe.
Read Mark Hertsgaard’s full column, published in The Nation and available for republication, here…
New From CCNow
Talking Shop Rescheduled. Our upcoming webinar, Talking Shop: Countering Emotional Fatigue in Crisis Reporting, previously scheduled for today, is being rescheduled. Further details to come very soon. You can still RSVP here…
ICYMI, our New Year’s resolution. Last Wednesday, our Climate Beat column argued that in 2021 journalists must redouble their commitment to the climate story. With real climate action finally on the table — a proposition made more possible by Democrats’ wins last week in Georgia — journalists have an even greater responsibility to help the public understand what’s at stake. Read the full column, which is available for republication by CCNow partners, here…
Essential Climate News
- Democratic control of the Senate won’t clinch every climate goal of the incoming Biden administration, but it certainly will make things easier for the new team. Regarding Joe Biden’s announced intention to transition the US to clean power by 2035, Democrats might consider several options to establish a national standard, including clean electricity credits, regulating emissions intensity, and block grants. Bloomberg Green has more…
- Chevron is among the major American corporations that have denounced last week’s violence in the capital. Yet Chevron, Exxon, and the American Petroleum Institute, through their respective corporate PACs, have donated millions of dollars to the very politicians in the House and Senate who proliferated election conspiracies and helped foment insurrectionist sentiment. Earther asked if they would end their support for seditionist officials; their responses were noncommittal. From Earther…
- On the occasion of climate scientist Michael Mann’s just-released book, The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet, Scientific American has a Q&A with Mann, in which he describes the new tactics of climate denialists. Gone is the rampant misinformation on climate, he says, but here to stay is stubborn inaction by elites — inactivism, as Mann calls it. From Scientific American…
- Each year, NOAA issues a report on “billion-dollar weather and climate disasters,” events like hurricanes and wildfires that do more than their share of financial damage. In the past, there were about four such storms each year in the US. In 2020, it was 22, the most ever recorded, collectively totaling $95 billion in damage. It’s the sixth year in a row with more than 10 billion-dollar events, all “due to our changing climate,” Al Roker reports. From NBC’s Today Show…
- Bamboo may be derided as an invasive weed, but forests of the stuff make for outstanding carbon sinks: bamboo can sequester anywhere from double to six times the carbon that normal trees can. And some environmentalists have taken notice, arguing that bamboo forests should be grown across North America. By the journalist Audrey Gray, and available for republication (with photos), a vivid and stirring longform feature from Inside Climate News…
- In one small Minnesota town, residents and activists are protesting the development of an oil pipeline with the expected carbon impact of 50 coal-fired power plants. An on-the-ground report from the environmentalist Winona LaDuke details the local impacts of the project and the developers’ race against time to complete the pipeline before the world, preoccupied with the pandemic and politics, takes notice. “It looks like an occupation. It feels like an occupation,” LaDuke writes. “With all the violence that entails.” Available for republication, from The Nation…
Republication Recommendations
The following stories deserve special attention and consideration for republication by CCNow partners:
- The Southwest’s Race Against the Climate Clock | Capital & Main
- The Radical Case for Growing Huge Swaths of Bamboo in North America | Inside Climate News (photos in this story may also be used, with credit)
- We’re approaching critical climate tipping points, a Q&A with Tim Lenton | Mongabay
- Stopping Trump’s Last Pipeline Will Take All of Us | The Nation
For partners, to submit stories for sharing, please use this Google Form. As always, instructions for republishing and the full list of stories available for republication can be found in our Sharing Library.
CAPITAL & MAIN Launches Slick California
Congratulations to CCNow partner Capital & Main which yesterday launched the California edition of its vertical The Slick, which focuses on the fossil fuel industry’s spending and efforts to influence policy at the state level. “Our goal,” reads an editor’s note, “is to provide the public with real-time information on how, even in the face of catastrophic changes to the natural environment and human health, fossil fuel interests continue to advance their agenda in California.” The Slick California begins with a hard-hitting look at how the oil and gas industry is pushing back on new environmental safety regulations in Ventura County, outside of Los Angeles.
Also recent from Capital & Main: A look at the exceptionally precarious climate conditions in New Mexico, which this winter faces drier-than-normal conditions with reservoirs nearly tapped out, and also a story about warnings from economists that if New Mexico’s economy doesn’t evolve fast — more than 40% of the state’s economy relies on oil and gas — it could become a victim of the fossil fuel industry’s shifting fortunes. (Both stories are available for republication by CCNow partners.)
Science Moms
A group of climate scientists, including Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University, has launched Science Moms, a new nonpartisan group, in their words, “to help mothers who are concerned about their children’s planet, but aren’t confident in their knowledge about climate change or how they can help.” From CCNow’s vantage point, there’s an essential but undercovered connection between climate change and motherhood, and the advocacy of this group in particular might help journalists tell that story. Read more in this story from the Los Angeles Times…
Jobs
Capital & Main, an award-winning investigative outlet, is on the hunt for a new editor in chief. From Publisher Danny Feingold: We are looking for a highly experienced editor with deep knowledge of investigative reporting, strong skills in working with reporters and a commitment to coverage of inequality. The position is in Los Angeles, and the pay and benefits are very good. Women and people of color are strongly encouraged to apply. View the job listing here…
The Associated Press is hiring three reporters to cover water, with positions open in St. Louis, Denver, and Washington, D.C. The deadline to apply is January 17. View the job listings here…
E&E News is hiring an international climate reporter to identify and report on clean energy and climate trends around the world. View the job listings here…
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As we head into this next chapter of climate reporting, Covering Climate Now has modified our newsletter to better serve journalists’ needs. We’re going to treat these emails as a kind of “bulletin board” for climate journalists as well as other folks interested in learning more about climate change. We hope you find the new format helpful and digestible.
If you have any feedback, or know of another event or have news that should be included here, shoot us a note at editors@coveringclimatenow.org.