9th Circuit denies bid by environmentalists and tribes to block Nevada lithium mine


 Construction continues at the Lithium Nevada Corp. mine site Thacker Pass project on April 24, 2023, near Orovada, Nev. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, July 17, 2023, rejected the latest bid by conservationists and tribal leaders to block construction of a huge lithium mine already in the works along the Nevada-Oregon line. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

SCOTT SONNER
Mon, July 17, 2023

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The latest bid by conservationists and tribal leaders to block construction of a huge lithium mine already in the works along the Nevada-Oregon line was denied by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday.

A three-panel judge of the San Francisco-based appellate court rejected a half-dozen arguments the opponents had put forth in their appeal seeking to overturn federal land managers' approval of the project.

That included claims it violates multiple environmental laws and would destroy lands tribal members consider sacred because they say dozens of their ancestors were massacred there in 1865.

Lithium Nevada Corp.'s mine at Thacker Pass near the Oregon line, 200 miles (320 kilometers) northeast of Reno, has pitted environmentalists and Native Americans against President Joe Biden’s plans to combat climate change. The mine would involve extraction of the silvery-white metal used in electric vehicle batteries.


On Monday, the judges didn't specifically address the claims that the project fails to comply with a new opinion the 9th Circuit issued last year that blocked a copper mine in Arizona based on a more stringent interpretation of the 1872 Mining Law regarding the use of neighboring lands to dispose of waste.

Rather, they more generally differed to the expertise of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which approved the mine in 2021, and the decision by U.S. District Judge Miranda Du earlier this year to allow construction to go forward even though she concluded the mine was not in complete compliance with the new interpretation of the Civil War-era mining law.

The bureau's approval of the mine “was not arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with” the National Environmental Policy Act, the 11-page ruling said.

The bureau approved the mine in 2021 on an accelerated basis under Donald Trump's administration. The Biden administration has continued to embrace it in an effort to ramp up U.S. production of lithium needed for electric vehicles that are an integral part of his clean energy agenda.

Lithium Nevada officials say the Thacker Pass mine’s reserves would support lithium for more than 1.5 million electric vehicles per year for 40 years.

Conservationists say the open pit mine, deeper than the length of a football field, will pollute the groundwater and destroy precious habitat for sage grouse, pronghorn antelope and other species in violation of environmental laws.

Their lawyers had argued that Du illegally exceeded her authority when she refused to revoke the mine's operation plan in March despite her conclusion that federal land managers had violated the law in approving parts of it.

“This is the first time in public land history that we have a major project violating a number of provisions but is allowed to go forward,” Roger Flynn, the director of the Colorado-based Western Mining Action Project, told the 9th Circuit panel during oral arguments in Pasadena on June 27.

“In the meantime, thousands of acres of public land are essentially being clear-cut,” he said Tuesday about the high-desert sagebrush that serves as critical habitat for the imperiled bird species sage grouse.

The 9th Circuit ruling Monday said Du applied the proper legal standard and found the bureau's sole error in approving the project “weighed against” vacating the entire approval of the mine partly because “there was at least a serious possibility that the (agency would) be able to substantiate its decision on remand.”

Lithium Nevada, a subsidiary of the Canadian-based Lithium Americas, spent more than $8.7 million on the environmental analysis and permitting process, even altering the original plans to move it outside of environmentally sensitive areas, said Laura Granier, a lawyer for the company. She said investments in mitigation, legal costs and initial construction already have exceeded $150 million.

Government lawyers said much of the evidence the Western Shoshone and Paiute tribes presented about the sacred nature of the land came after a formal decision had been issued and that none of it clearly established the actual location of the massacre.

The 9th Circuit ruled Monday that bureau acted “reasonably and in good faith” in its consultation with tribes potentially affected by the mine.

Iran's morality police return after protests in a new campaign to impose Islamic dress on women


 Women shop in the old main bazaar of Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. Iranian police have announced a new campaign to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf. Morality police returned to the streets on Sunday, 10 months after the death of a woman in their custody sparked nationwide protests. 

(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

Updated Sun, July 16, 2023

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian authorities on Sunday announced a new campaign to force women to wear the Islamic headscarf and morality police returned to the streets 10 months after the death of a woman in their custody sparked nationwide protests.

The morality police had largely pulled back following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last September, as authorities struggled to contain mass protests calling for the overthrow of the theocracy that has ruled Iran for over four decades.

The protests largely died down earlier this year following a heavy crackdown in which over 500 protesters were killed and nearly 20,000 detained. But many women continued to flout the official dress code, especially in the capital, Tehran, and other cities.

The morality police were only rarely seen patrolling the streets, and in December, there were even some reports — later denied — that they had been disbanded.

Authorities insisted throughout the crisis that the rules had not changed. Iran's clerical rulers view the hijab as a key pillar of the Islamic revolution that brought them to power, and consider more casual dress a sign of Western decadence.

On Sunday, Gen. Saeed Montazerolmahdi, a police spokesman, said the morality police would resume notifying and then detaining women not wearing hijab in public. In Tehran, the men and women of the morality police could be seen patrolling the streets in marked vans.

Late Saturday, police arrested Mohammed Sadeghi, a young and relatively unknown actor, in a raid on his home that he appears to have broadcast on social media. Earlier, he had posted a video in response to another online video showing a woman being detained by the morality police. “Believe me, if I see such a scene, I might commit murder,” he said.

The website of the semi-official Hamshahri daily, which is affiliated with the Tehran municipality, said he was arrested for encouraging people to use weapons against the police.

The battle over the hijab became a powerful rallying cry last fall, with women playing a leading role in the protests. The demonstrations quickly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran's clerical rulers, whom the mostly young protesters accuse of being corrupt, repressive and out of touch. Iran's government blamed the protests on a foreign conspiracy, without providing evidence.

Several Iranian celebrities joined the protests, including prominent directors and actors from the country's celebrated film industry. Several Iranian actresses were detained after appearing in public without the hijab or expressing support for the protests.

In a recent case, actress Azadeh Samadi was barred from social media and ordered by a court to seek psychological treatment for "antisocial personality disorder" after appearing at a funeral two months ago wearing a cap on her head.

Toshiba, General Electric to build offshore wind equipment supply chain in Japan-Nikkei


A wind turbine is seen behind a streetlamp in Yokohama

Reuters
Sat, July 15, 2023 at 3:31 AM MDT·1 min read

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba plans to establish a domestic supply chain for offshore wind power equipment together with U.S. manufacturer General Electric, Nikkei reported on Saturday, as Japan is expanding in renewable energy in a zero-carbon push.

Japan's offshore wind power market is set to grow as the government aims to install up to 10 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity by 2030, and up to 45 GW by 2040, as part of its decarbonisation push.

Last month, the government finished accepting bids for the second round of offshore wind power tenders to build 1.8 GW of capacity in four areas, with results yet to be announced. First round of 1.7 GW capacity was won by Mitsubishi in 2021.

According to Nikkei, the equipment supply chain would involve around 100 small and medium-sized companies with focus on the areas where offshore wind capacity should be installed.

Toshiba plans to start production in 2026, Nikkei added.

In 2021, Toshiba and GE announced a strategic partnership to localise GE's Haliade-X offshore wind turbines manufacturing in Japan, as the U.S. company wants its technology to be as competitive as possible in Japan's offshore wind auctions.

GE will manufacture a total of 134 wind turbines with 13 MW capacity each for the three offshore wind projects won by the Mitsubishi-led consortiums in the first round, which Toshiba will then assemble, according to Japan Wind Power Association.

(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Michael Perry)

Nike announces it will permanently end sponsorship of Hockey Canada

Story by Peter Zimonjic • 

"Nike is no longer a sponsor of Hockey Canada,” the company said Monday although it will continue to provide on-ice product for Hockey Canada athletes.

© Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

Nike announced Monday that it will permanently cease its sponsorship of Hockey Canada in the wake of its handling of a high-profile alleged group sexual assault case.

The sportswear giant first announced a temporary suspension of support in October of last year, at a time when corporate sponsors Chevrolet Canada, Scotiabank and Canadian Tire had also pulled their financial support.

"Nike is no longer a sponsor of Hockey Canada," a company statement issued Monday said.

"We will continue to provide on-ice product for Hockey Canada athletes as part of our partnership with the International Ice Hockey Federation, but our individual partnership with the federation has ended."

Hockey Canada has been embroiled in controversy for more than a year over its handling of a $3.5 million lawsuit.

A young woman filed a statement of claim last year alleging eight hockey players sexually assaulted her after a 2018 Hockey Canada gala in London, Ont.

The London Police Service is currently investigating after reopening the case amid significant public interest following an eight-month investigation that originally closed without charges in February 2019.

Unsealed court documents last year revealed London police said they had reasonable grounds to accuse five world junior players of sexual assault.

Using registration fees to settle complaints

The woman, who was 20 at the time, alleges eight unnamed CHL players — including some on Canada's U20 men's world junior hockey team — sexually assaulted her on June 19, 2018, according to her statement of claim filed in April 2022.

Hockey Canada was accused in the statement of claim of failing to address systemic abuse in its organization and condoning a "culture and environment that glorified the degradation and sexual exploitation of young women."

The claims have not been proven in court.

Last year the Globe and Mail reported that a senior employee at Nike Canada was seen buying drinks for national junior hockey players just before the alleged sexual assault, according to unsealed court records.

During the controversy, hockey parents were outraged to learn that Hockey Canada had quietly paid $8.9 million to 21 complainants since 1989 using the national equity fund made up of players' registration fees without them knowing.

Hockey Canada's entire board of directors and CEO resigned last fall after months of public scrutiny, and calls from politicians of all stripes and the minister of sport for the organization to overhaul its leadership. Hockey Canada appointed Katherine Henderson as its new president and CEO earlier this month.

Hockey Canada told CBC that it respects Nike's decision to end their partnership.

"Hockey Canada is appreciative of the longstanding partnership we had with Nike for over two decades and respects their decision not to continue as a Hockey Canada partner," an emailed statement said.

ONTARIO
Ring of Fire stalled due to exclusion of First Nations, Guilbeault says

Story by Naimul Karim • 

The Ring of Fire development in Northwestern Ontario.

© Provided by Financial Post

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says the lack of progress in mining projects in the mineral-rich Ring of Fire region in Northern Ontario can likely be attributed to an exclusion of perspectives from Indigenous nations .

Both the federal government and province of Ontario believe the Ring of Fire, located about 500 kilometres from Thunder Bay, has the potential to produce minerals — such as nickel and copper — currently in high demand as countries look to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels.

But the region has also been described as a “ challenging space ” by Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson in December last year as a large portion of the region is made up of peat or wetlands, which act as carbon sinks. Some Indigenous nations have also raised concerns about development in the space, though two First Nations support the building of a road that will make it easier for companies to mine the region.

Guilbeault at a press conference on July 14 said more conversations with Indigenous nations are needed if mining of the region is to move forward.

“For any development to happen in the Ring of Fire, Indigenous nations will need to be part of the discussion in decision making process,” he said. “That hasn’t happened, which is why I think we are not seeing any development.”

The development of the Ring of Fire region is a component of Canada’s plan to build a new electric vehicle battery industry . Currently, the processing of battery minerals is controlled by China. Canada, along with the United States, has taken a number of steps in the last year to lessen its dependence on the Asian country for battery materials.

Guilbeault said the government has been working with Indigenous nations in Northern Ontario along with the province to agree to a framework on how to mine the region.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to agree yet,” Guilbeault said. “We are still working on a proposal for regional impact assessment and so far the Indigenous nations have agreed to move ahead with this. We are waiting on the Ontario government to tell us whether or not they want to proceed jointly.”

A response from Ontario’s Ministry of Mines wasn’t immediately available.

Premier Doug Ford’s government has been vocal in its support for mining in the region. It is currently working on building an all-season pathway to connect the Ring of Fire with manufacturers in the southern part of the province.

First Nations confront Doug Ford on mining claims at Queen's Park

Ontario accepts First Nations plan for Ring of Fire road

First Nations forge alliance over mining concerns

Federal minister Wilkinson however, has been more circumspect. In an interview in December he said there were proposals for many other mines in Ontario and other parts of Canada that are “far closer to realization” than the Ring of Fire.

The minister added that people “often get stuck” on the Ring of Fire because of its massive potential. However, from environmental assessments to the proposal of a mining project, there’s still a long way to go before mining can actually begin in the region, he said.

Vanishing whale's decline worse than previously thought, feds say


PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A review of the status of a vanishing species of whale found that the animal's population is in worse shape than previously thought, federal ocean regulators said Monday.

The North Atlantic right whale numbers less than 350, and it has been declining in population for several years. The federal government declared the whale's decline an “unusual mortality event,” which means an unexpected and significant die-off, in 2017.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released new data that 114 of the whales have been documented as dead, seriously injured or sub-lethally injured or sick since the start of the mortality event. That is an increase of 16 whales since the previous estimate released earlier this year.

The agency recently completed a review of the whales using photographs from researchers and surveys to create the new estimate, said Andrea Gomez, a spokesperson for NOAA.

“Additional cases will continue to be reviewed, and animals will be added if appropriate, as more information is obtained,” Gomez said.

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Thirty-six of the 114 whales included in the estimate had died, NOAA documents state. The agency cautioned that only about a third of right whale deaths are documented, so the total number of dead or injured animals could be much higher.

Right whales are found off the Atlantic coast of the U.S. They are vulnerable to collisions with large ships and entanglement in commercial fishing gear. The federal government has worked to craft stricter rules to protect the whales from both threats.

Commercial fishing and shipping interests have both vowed to fight stricter protections. A federal appeals court sided with fishermen last month after they filed a complaint that proposed new restrictions could put them out of business.

The new data illustrate how dire the situation is for the whales, said Sarah Sharp, an animal rescue veterinarian with International Fund for Animal Welfare. The number of injured animals is especially significant because injured whales are less likely to reproduce, Sharp said.

“If animals are putting energy into healing from a wound, they are not necessarily going to have those energy stores for other things,” Sharp said. “I think this just paints a much more accurate picture of the threats these whales are facing.”

The whales give birth off Florida and Georgia and feed off New England and Canada. They have been protected under the Endangered Species Act for decades, and federal authorities ruled in December that they must retain that protection.

Patrick Whittle, The Associated Press

Mysterious giant metal cylinder washes up on Australian beach

Story by Sarah Do Couto • July 17, 2023

A mysterious, copper-coloured cylindrical object was discovered on a beach in Western Australia on July 16, 2023, puzzling local residents and internet sleuths alike.

© Twitter @AusSpaceAgency

Everyone loves a good mystery, so when a huge, unidentified metal object washed up on a Western Australian beach, locals and internet sleuths alike couldn't contain their curiosity.

Residents near Green Head beach reported the massive copper-coloured cylinder to police on Sunday. The object, which is still on the beach, was discovered visibly damaged and appears to be partially covered by barnacles.

According to the BBC, the object is roughly 2.5 metres wide and over 2.5 metres long.

Western Australian police initially asked locals to keep their distance from the object in case it was hazardous. On Monday evening, authorities said a chemical analysis of the cylinder "determined the object is safe and there is no current risk to the community."

The investigation into the cylinder's origin is ongoing, though police have said the object is likely not from a commercial aircraft.

The Australian Space Agency said the object "could be from a foreign space launch vehicle," as many eagle-eyed internet sleuths had already hypothesized.

Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas told the BBC the cylinder is possibly a detached portion of an Indian space rocket launched in the last 12 months. Thomas suggested the object may be a fuel tank. Many on social media have made the same suggestion, proposing the cylinder is likely space junk from India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which successfully launched in April.

If the object is indeed a fuel tank, Alice Gorman, a leading space archaeologist, told The Guardian the cylinder would have once held toxic materials used in rocket fuel. She hypothesized the cylinder is from some point within the last decade and would be now filled with dirt and sand. Still, she encouraged beachgoers to keep their distance.

Some residents were seen crowding the object and building sandcastles around it when it was first discovered on Sunday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The state broadcaster interviewed a local resident who said another woman first spotted the cylinder at the water's edge. The unidentified woman reportedly pulled the object from the water using a vehicle with four-wheel drive.

Officials have urged people "to refrain from drawing conclusions" about the object while state and federal authorities continue to gather information.

Western Australian police have since established a guard rotation to protect the cylinder and keep curious onlookers at bay while their investigation continues. Authorities said the cylinder would be removed from the beach once it is identified.

If the object is space debris, the UN's Outer Space Treaty would require the cylinder to be returned to its country of origin.

First troops in B.C. for wildfire fight, as helicopters and Hercules plane readied

Story by The Canadian Press • 


The Canadian Armed Forces says the first troops to help in British Columbia's wildfire fight have arrived in the province, with more soldiers, helicopters and a Hercules plane poised for deployment.

The forces said in a statement that a reconnaissance team is on the ground in Prince George in central B.C. and is working with local authorities including the BC Wildfire Service to strategize.

The arrival of the personnel and equipment will be welcomed by firefighters and communities, said the province's Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth.

"We also know we can count on the Canadian Armed Forces to be able to assist in terms of a lot of the work that needs to be done," he said.

"While they don't necessarily fight the fires on the front lines, they can provide important work to be able to allow the firefighters to do the work they need to be doing on the ground."

Farnworth said the federal and B.C. governments, including his ministry, the military and the BC Wildfire Service are currently developing a deployment plan "in terms of where is the best place and where the need is required."

The statement issued by the armed forces says that in addition to the reconnaissance team deployed on Sunday, two companies of soldiers from 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group based in Edmonton will be available "to assist and enable firefighting."

"The first company will likely be deploying to the Burns Lake area, at the Northwest Fire Centre, and the second will likely deploy to Vanderhoof, at the Prince George Fire Centre," the statement says.

It says Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft will support firefighting mobility and logistics, as well as emergency evacuations.

The deployment will include two CH-146 Griffon Helicopters from 408 Squadron, and, if needed, a CC-130J Hercules from 8 Wing Trenton.

Defence Minister Anita Anand said the Canadian Coast Guard will also provide two helicopters to transport firefighters and equipment to remote locations and provide supports to remote coastal communities facing restricted access due to wildfires.

Canada's Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair announced on Friday that military help had been approved after his counterpart in B.C., Bowinn Ma, made a request for federal help amid an eruption of fire activity.

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The BC Wildfire Service lists more than 360 wildfires burning in the province, with 23 listed as fires of note, where they are a threat to safety or are especially visible to the public.

Recent data has prompted the federal government and B.C. Premier David Eby to say that Canada and B.C. are on track to record their worst wildfire seasons in 100 years.

Wildfires have consumed more than 12,900 square kilometres of land so far this year in B.C., already nearing the record of just over 13,500 square kilometres set in 2018.

A working group comprised of members of Public Safety Canada, the Canadian Armed Forces, and B.C. emergency management and wildfire officials met over the weekend to focus on deploying the federal resources.

Blair said last week the federal help could include military assistance for airlift evacuations from remote locations, as well as troops trained as firefighters who can "mop up" to keep blazes from reigniting.

Transport Canada, Parks Canada, Public Services and Procurement Canada, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are standing by to provide assistance.

Surinderpal Rathor, the mayor of Williams Lake, B.C., said Monday the arrival of the military will serve as a morale boost for firefighters and communities facing the wildfires.

Williams Lake, a community of about 10,000 people in B.C.'s central Interior, was evacuated in July 2017 due to encroaching wildfires.

"They were welcomed by the people, by the organizations, by the community, by the city, by the authorities, and they were the greatest help," Rathor said in an interview on Monday. "It was the best thing that could have ever happened to Williams Lake. Without their help, we would not have been able to survive."

B.C.'s current wildfire situation includes an "aggressive" fire that exploded in size over the weekend and cut off highway access near the Central Coast, while more than a dozen new blazes have been sparked since Sunday, says the BC Wildfire Service.

The service says Highway 20 east of Bella Coola was closed Sunday evening as the fire that was discovered near Young Creek just the day before swelled to 22-square kilometres in size.

The service says no evacuation orders have been issued for the fire.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District says the Bush Creek East fire near Kamloops is "highly visible," but no evacuation orders or alerts have been issued even as gusty winds have fanned wildfires around the city.

Environment Canada's forecast for Kamloops called for a chance of rain and a risk of thunderstorms on Monday, with many regions in the province under cloudy skies with possible rain on the way, breaking a weeks-long drought.

B.C. has also made a request for 1,000 international firefighters through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, which co-ordinates firefighting resources across the country.

Firefighting personnel from the United States, Mexico and New Zealand are already in the province, and teams were set to arrive from Australia over the weekend.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 17, 2023.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

Wildfires have now burned 10M hectares of Canadian land

Story by Aaron D'Andrea • Yesterday 

The Donnie Creek wildfire burns in an area between Fort Nelson and Fort St. John, B.C., in this undated handout photo provided by the BC Wildfire Service. Canada has passed a milestone in hectares burned as the worst wildfire season on record continues.

© BC Wildfire Service/The Canadian Press

Canadian wildfires so far this year have burned 10 million hectares of land and counting, data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre shows.

The stark milestone comes as the nation deals with its worst wildfire season on record, which historically runs between April and September.

The previous record was set in 1989, when 7.6 million hectares were burned.

Officials have warned that in many parts of the country, fire seasons are starting earlier and are becoming longer. Earlier this month, government officials said Canada’s fire season is still far from over, with projections showing potential for higher-than-normal fire activity right across the country throughout the month and into August.

Video: Heat, dry conditions and lightning strikes fuel B.C. wildfire season

Conditions are being driven by drought and above-normal temperatures, officials said in a presentation to reporters on July 6. Fires are burning across the nation, which is also unprecedented, they added.

Canada’s wildfire season has gotten so dire that the country needs an “unprecedented level of international support” to fight them.

“The firefighting effort has now truly become a global effort,” officials said during the presentation.

The government has signed several agreements with nations on wildfire assistance, and recently inked resource-sharing deals with Portugal and the United States.

Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair told reporters on July 6 that much of Canada will remain at high risk for wildfires throughout July, though in August the risk to some areas will decrease.

Blair did not have a figure to provide when it comes to the cost of the wildfire response.

“I want to encourage all Canadians in high-risk areas to look out for one another, to follow the guidance of your local authorities and stay prepared,” he said.

“While there is serious fire risk in several parts of the country, I want to assure Canadians that there are sufficient resources to respond and to keep Canadians safe.”

David Suzuki on how the environmental movement has failed fighting climate change | Ask Me Anything

Former host of The Nature of Things David Suzuki joins Cross Country Checkup to take your questions about the need for action in the climate change fight, cutting through 'hopeium' and the new normal stemming from wildfire smoke.

 

Extreme weather a direct consequence of climate change, climatologist says

CBC News: The National
 3 days ago 
Extreme weather is happening worldwide with floods, tornadoes and heat waves. Experts say it really all comes back to climate change, and it's a race against time to cool down global temperatures and mitigate the effects.

Five non-climate reasons why danger of extreme heat is rising



Saul Elbein
Sat, July 15, 2023 

Heat waves are the most deadly climate disaster, killing far more people every year than wildfires, hurricanes and floods combined.

But rising temperatures aren’t the only reason that extreme heat is becoming a bigger risk.

Other important reasons include discriminatory urban planning, the insidious nature of heat illness itself and the decade-long federal tug of war over how to respond to heat waves.

Here are five reasons — aside from climate change — why heat risk is worsening.
The US spent years ‘moving backward’ on heat

In 2013, President Barack Obama issued a sweeping executive order that aimed to make U.S. communities more resilient in the face of the impacts of climate change — from rising seas to rising temperatures.

That order sought to coordinate actions by federal agencies to protect populations from climate risk — and to ensure that infrastructure spending wasn’t inadvertently making the country less safe.

It was specifically intended to begin the process, using science, to ensure cities and infrastructure were strengthened in the face of climate change.

Systems to “pay attention to vulnerable communities in particular” were also a part of the order, said Robert Verchick, who served in the Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama administration and now serves as president of the Center for Progressive Reform.

For communities, Verchick said, “you could do simple things like get more tree cover and put in more awnings. Or if you’re living in Phoenix or Las Vegas, we’ve got issues where people just standing outside waiting for a bus can end up in the emergency room — so some of it is about rebuilding bus stops or making sure that buses run more regularly.”

But that rule won’t be out until late this year at the earliest — about a decade after the original Obama executive order.

Heat is a quiet killer

While heat danger — and deaths — are rising, the public sense of that risk hasn’t kept up with its actual magnitude.

Repeated studies have shown that people’s sense of heat risk — even among those most vulnerable — often doesn’t correspond to its actual risk.

Heat’s tendency to fly under the radar has serious impacts for both individual behavior and public policy.

One reason is that unlike other threats from extreme weather, heat waves don’t create the kind of visually dramatic moments that characterize floods or wildfires.

“Even if there’s record-breaking temperatures, there’s still usually less to see than when something dramatic happens — like the flooding that was happening in New England just a couple of days ago,” said Ladd Keith, who studies heat and urban planning at the University of Arizona.

While heat’s impacts are subtle, its death toll isn’t.

In Arizona’s Maricopa County alone, at least 12 people died from heat this year, compared with a single death in the Vermont floods.

Last year, 425 people died in the county from heat — an increase of 25 percent over the prior year, and nearly five times the number of U.S. residents that died during Hurricane Ida.

But because those populations “tend to fall off the radar” for policymakers, Keith said, the rising toll hasn’t caused much political action.

Housing is getting less affordable

Because access to water and air conditioning largely eliminates the risk of death from heat, those who die from heat tend to be those who struggle to secure shelter — or to keep the power on.

There is no county in the United States where a person working a full-time, minimum-wage job can earn enough for a two-bedroom apartment, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

And in June, researchers published the results of a survey of thousands of people living without housing in California about how they had lost housing — with most saying that high costs had forced them out.

Due to health crises, rent hikes, layoffs or simple bad luck, “people just ran out of the ability to pay, whether it happened quickly or slowly,” lead author Margot Kushel of the University of California, San Francisco, told National Public Radio.

In Maricopa County, exposure to the elements was the biggest risk factor for dying of heat: 80 percent of those killed in 2022 died of heat injuries they sustained outdoors — and the rise in outdoor deaths was the largest component.

Most of those outdoor deaths — and the largest single cadre of fatalities — were the 178 people experiencing homelessness who died in Maricopa last year.

Energy prices are rising

Even those who have housing may be at risk. Most of those who died indoors in 2022 in the Phoenix area lived in houses with air conditioning — but in nearly 80 percent of those cases, it didn’t work.

Keith of the University of Arizona said that’s another factor of housing prices.

Rents or mortgages “also strain the resources available to upkeep homes,” he added.

When air conditioners break, many don’t have the money to repair or replace them.

According to a report by the Federal Reserve, 37 percent of Americans in 2022 couldn’t have come up with $500 in cash to deal with an emergency. That sum is about ten percent of the price of a new air conditioner, which costs an average of $5,000.

Energy prices also rose 14 percent in 2022, twice as fast as inflation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The main driver behind that rise was “global calamities,” Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen told Utility Dive.

Slocum noted that high electricity prices are disproportionately borne by poorer Americans, who tend to rent their homes. Slocum told Utility Dive that this caused a paradox, because “to cut costs, consumers must improve efficiency. But renters can’t make the investments needed to boost energy efficiency.”

That helps explain the people who died in houses with air conditioning units that were functional but not turned on, Keith said. “If you’re spending more money on housing, less money is available to go towards the utility bill — which may lead you to turn on the air conditioner less.”
Urban fixes don’t target those who need them most

Especially when the air conditioning fails, heat risk tends to be less a function of abstract temperature and more a function of urban design, which can drive up urban heat indexes faster than climate change itself.

The science on how to confront this risk is simple to state, if tough to implement, Keith said. He called for targeting projects so that they prioritize reducing heat risk areas where that risk is most serious.

But in a study of five major cities carrying out pilot projects to reduce heat, Keith and his collaborators found that only Boston had done so.

The others — Ft. Lauderdale, Houston, Seattle and Baltimore — had no discernible relationship between the areas where people were most at risk and the projects they funded.

There is a common blind spot around heat interventions, Keith said: Many cities set generic benchmarks, rather than targeted ones. “You say, ‘You’re going to plant a million trees’ — but you don’t specify where or say that it has to go to the places that need it most.”

The Hill.

‘We are not prepared’: Disasters spread as climate change strikes


Charles Krupa/AP Photo

Zack Colman
Sat, July 15, 2023

The floods, droughts, wildfires and extreme heat sweeping the globe are offering a dose of the climate future that scientists have warned about for decades — and all the ways the world is not ready.

From a nearly depleted federal disaster fund to state insurance markets that are faltering under the weight of multiple catastrophes, extreme weather is testing the ability of even a rich nation like the United States to withstand the warming that has arrived faster than many scientists expected. So are the torrential rains flooding Northeastern states like Vermont, the shriveling Colorado River that has prompted a multistate brawl over dividing the water, the record temperatures that have raised worries about the stability of the electric grid, and the Canadian wildfire smoke that has repeatedly blanketed D.C. and other parts of the U.S. in recent weeks.

Still ahead is the August-through-September peak of the Atlantic hurricane season, at a time when ocean temperatures — a crucial fuel source for the storms — are already at levels that European scientists called “off the charts.”

Even worse threats to life, property and nature are coming, scientists say.

“If you don’t like what you’re seeing today, stick around — it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” said Michael Oppenheimer, a climate scientist at Princeton University.

The Biden administration’s responses to the problem include a $369 billion climate package enacted last year that seeks to slash U.S. climate pollution — though that task will take decades — along with more than $50 billion that the 2021 infrastructure law coping with and limiting damage from climate disasters.

It’s unclear whether those measures will yield results fast enough to avoid the worst of climate change or withstand its growing impacts. And even that agenda faces political attacks from Republicans, who have not offered a unified climate strategy but plan to make repealing his signature climate law a prime part of their 2024 message to voters. But President Joe Biden has vowed to defend his legislative wins as the climate signals blare ever louder.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” the president said this week in Vilnius, Lithuania, calling climate change “the single greatest threat to humanity.”

Meanwhile, milestones keep tumbling.

Last week brought the hottest global temperatures in 143 years of record-keeping, which may well mark the highest since the last interglacial period 125,000 years ago.

That has put the planet on a pace to likely set a new temperature record for the year, some experts say, surpassing a previous peak that’s only seven years old. It also jeopardizes the already slim hopes of meeting the temperature targets that the U.S. and more than 190 other countries agreed to under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

The climate research group Berkeley Earth said Tuesday that global average temperatures in June were 1.47 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, just a shade under a stretch target in the Paris climate agreement to limit warming to 1.5 degrees of warming. Missing that target would spell doom for many small island nations at risk from the rising sea levels, scientists say.

The World Meteorological Organization said there is a 66 percent chance the annual global average temperature rise will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius at least once between now and 2027.

The world has already seen 1.2 degrees of warming since the dawn of the industrial revolution, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Meanwhile, federal scientists say levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are higher than they’ve been in more than 3 million years.

Even with the U.S. and European climate pollution on a downswing, those cuts are not enough to offset increases in other nations, particularly China and several midsize economies.

“The chances of avoiding 1.5 degrees is nil. It’s too hard to get there,” Oppenheimer said. “We’re not getting our act together fast enough to avoid it at this point.”

The climate disasters unfolding now are largely as predicted: rising temperatures, stronger cyclones, deeper droughts, enduring wildfires. But the speed of their arrival has stunned some experts.

“How quickly the onset has occurred and the pace at which these impacts are accelerating — I think even the most seasoned climate scientists are pretty surprised about that,” said Kathy Jacobs, a University of Arizona climate scientist who ran the National Climate Assessment, a sweeping federal agency review of climate science, during the Obama administration.

No relief from the heat

The heat wave that sent temperatures in Phoenix as high as 111 degrees Fahrenheit are expected to persist in many places in the U.S through next week. The peak reached on July 6 contributed to the global surge that marked the world’s hottest days ever recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organization. With an El Niño weather cycle expected to bring warmer than average waters to the Pacific Ocean, on top of decades of accumulating global warming, it’s likely this year will rank as the hottest of all time.

There's a growing recognition among public officials that heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe, posing dangerous health threats, said Morgan Zabow, a NOAA official who works on efforts to map heat. As of Friday, nearly 114 million Americans were under heat alerts, according to Heat.gov.

Zabow noted that heat is the nation’s top weather-related killer.

“It's only going to get worse and worse. And so if people aren't thinking about it, especially regularly, that's when it gets even deadlier,” she said.

That is true across the globe. Researchers concluded in a study published Monday that last summer’s heatwave in Europe killed 61,000 people. Many of those deaths occurred in southern Europe, which the WMO said is now in a drought.

Perhaps more distressing is the heat in the oceans. The Atlantic is experiencing bathtub-like conditions around Florida, and forecasters have readjusted their predictions for the current hurricane season upward. Besides fostering stronger tropical storms and hurricanes, the warmer waters can whiplash West Africa between extreme rains and punishing droughts, said Omar Baddour, head of the WMO’s climate monitoring and policy services division.

Flooding is already hitting parts of the U.S., where torrential rainfall inundated much of the Northeast last weekend deluging hundreds of homes and killing one person. With many rural residents trapped and major roads closed, people waited days for rescues. Republican Vermont Gov. Phil Scott trekked to safety via snowmobile trail to circumnavigate “completely impassable” roads, he wrote in a tweet.

Adding to the problem: The U.S. has long been massively undercounting its flood risk from heavy rains, which are happening more frequently because of climate change, according to recent research by the climate risk modeling firm First Street Foundation. That means that people are continuing to move — and build — in harm’s way, while overly optimistic federal maps of flood risk prompt many homeowners to forgo insurance coverage against deluges.

In Vermont, less than 1 percent of homes statewide had taken out federally backed flood insurance policies. In New York state, less than 2 percent of housing units are covered for flood, according to private flood insurer Neptune Flood Insurance. Those who lost their homes in the recent floods probably face dire financial consequences.

Another danger from a warming planet is smoke from wildfires, like those in Canada that have burned nearly 24 million acres of land this year, according to the country’s interagency fire service. Smoke, which triggers heart- and lung-related illnesses, has plagued parts of the Midwest and East Coast throughout the summer.

Most people have thought of climate change as bringing manageable “incremental effects,” said Jacobs, who is now director for the Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions at the University of Arizona.

But “it's never like a small incremental effect,” she said. “It's a combined effect of heat and drought, or wildfires and air quality and health.”

Other dangers offer a slower burn. The rising ocean temperatures coupled with El Niño threaten to kill aquatic life and diminish fisheries, depleting food supplies, said Michael Sparrow, head of the climate research division at the WMO.

The harm from these extremes is not divided equally — either among or within nations. Many public housing units in the U.S. do not come with air conditioning, nor can many residents afford to add it, Oppenheimer said. Public officials in states like Arizona and Illinois advise those without air conditioning to visit cooling centers during heatwaves, but many are inaccessible to people most vulnerable to heat, such as the elderly, chronically ill or low-income people without reliable transportation, he said.

Some communities are trying to address those shortfalls. Officials in Miami-Dade County in Florida found out which ZIP codes have the highest rates of heat-related hospitalizations and emergency room visits, then launched a public awareness campaign with bus stop advertisements in specific neighborhoods and radio spots on Creole- and Spanish-speaking stations. It is also making those ZIP codes the priority for planting new trees to provide more shade and ensuring county-run public housing has new air conditioning and energy efficiency investments.

“We like our heat in general, but the heat starts to become dangerous with temperatures over 90 degrees,” Miami-Dade Chief Heat Officer Jane Gilbert said.

The rising financial toll

Climate change already inflicts staggering costs on the economy. Without addressing it, the tab will grow.

Heat, for example, costs the U.S. more than $100 billion in lost worker productivity annually, according to the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center and modeling firm Vivid Economics. Local health departments get stretched, adding to expenses, or do not know how to properly document heat illness. Many who die from heat also have comorbidities like old age, complicating the role hotter temperatures played in deaths.

Warming temperatures also spell more agony for air travelers because of worsening storms, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said during a POLITICO policy forum this week.

The rapid onset of consistently hot and deadly temperatures is catching people off guard.

“The human brain can’t keep up with the acceleration and the perception of your own risk,” said Kathy Baughman McLeod, senior vice president at the Atlantic Council and director of Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center.

Some impacts are more straightforward. The combination of drought, climate change and rapid development has imposed a clear economic cost in Arizona: Water supplies fell to a point that triggered a rule forbidding some new home construction permits near Phoenix last month. Those guardrails have held even despite the Sun Belt’s propensity to build.

“I always feared when push came to shove that there would be backpedaling — and that may happen,” said Jacobs, who led the team that wrote Arizona’s water use rules in the late 1980s and 1990s. “But essentially, what we're seeing is a water management program that's working. And I'm very excited about that part.”

Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has pivoted from one crisis to the next, draining its coffers.

In addition to coordinating disaster response, FEMA also runs the U.S. federal flood insurance program. And it simply is not ready to juggle the myriad perils that climate change is spitting out, said A.R. Siders, an assistant professor at the University of Delaware who focuses on disasters.

“I think as a whole in the United States we are not prepared to deal with the effects of a changing climate,” she said. “We are doing too much in the reaction mode rather than the preparation mode.”

FEMA spokesman Jeremy Edwards said the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2022 had included $7 billion to improve communities' resilience, “resulting in the expansion of FEMA programs like Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, and our Flood Mitigation Assistance, which will ultimately help reduce disaster loss and suffering.”

Zia Weise contributed to this report.