Climate Links

Exxon’s Sitting on Key Records Subpoenaed in Climate Fraud Investigation, N.Y. Says
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22062018/exxon-climate-investor-fraud-investigation-new-york-attorney-general-proxy-costs-subpoena


Oil and Gas Fields Leak Far More Methane than EPA Reports, Study Finds
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21062018/methane-leaks-oil-gas-climate-change-risks-natural-gas-slcp-global-warming-pollution-science-edf-study


A new directive from the Trump administration instructs federal scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey to get approval from its parent agency before agreeing to most interview requests from reporters, according to employees and emails from officials with the Department of the Interior and USGS.
USGS employees who spoke with The Times on condition of anonymity because they were unauthorized to do so say the new protocol represents a dramatic change in decades of past media practices at the scientific agency and will interfere with scientists’ ability to quickly respond to reporters’ questions. They expected that taxpayers would see less of the USGS’ scientific expertise as reporters seek scientific comment elsewhere.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-trump-policy-usgs-scientists-20180621-story.html


Sinking Land and Climate Change Are Worsening Tidal Floods on the Texas Coast
More than 10,000 homes along the Texas coast will flood at least 26 times a year by 2045, researchers say.
https://www.texasobserver.org/sinking-land-and-climate-change-are-worsening-tidal-floods-on-texas-coast/


Deadly Tensions Rise as India’s Water Supply Runs Dangerously Low
A government report released on Thursday said that India was experiencing the worst water crisis in its history, threatening millions of lives and livelihoods. Some 600 million Indians, about half the population, face high to extreme water scarcity conditions, with about 200,000 dying every year from inadequate access to safe water, according to the report. By 2030, it said, the country’s demand for water is likely to be twice the available supply.
In Shimla, rising annual temperatures and dwindling rain and snowfall — the city’s main water sources — have been major factors in the crisis.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/17/world/asia/shimla-india-drought-water.html?auth=login-email&login=facebook


President Donald Trump has nominated Daniel Simmons, a former fossil fuel lobbyist who has questioned climate science, to head the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/trump-nominates-climate-doubter-simmons-to-head-doe-renewables-office/525827/


How Georgia Became a Top 10 Solar State
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14062018/georgia-solar-power-renewable-utility-scale-clean-energy-investments-2018-election


Since 2008, an average of 24 million people have been displaced by catastrophic weather disasters each year. As climate change worsens storms and droughts, climate scientists and migration experts expect that number to rise.
Meanwhile, climate impacts that unravel over time, like desert expansion and sea level rise, are also forcing people from their homes: A World Bank report in March projects that within three of the most vulnerable regions — sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America — 143 million people could be displaced by these impacts by 2050.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/06/20/621782275/the-refugees-that-the-world-barely-pays-attention-to


Scott Pruitt Has Spent More Than $4.6 Million on Security, New Disclosures Show — Including $1,500 on “Tactical Pants”
The expenses eclipsed spending by Pruitt’s predecessors. Former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who served during President Barack Obama’s first term, averaged less than a third of the travel and security costs accrued by Pruitt in his first fiscal year, according to records.
The profligate public spending is a far cry from Pruitt’s political rhetoric. Announcing his bid for lieutenant governor of Oklahoma in 2006, Pruitt asked supporters to join him to “reverse our course and embrace fiscal conservative principles.”
https://theintercept.com/2018/06/20/scott-pruitt-epa-security-total-expenses-foia/