Climate Festival at John Dam Plaza on Saturday

Citizens’ Climate Education is hosting the Peoples’ Climate Festival at John Dam Plaza in Richland on Saturday, April 29th, beginning at 2:00 p.m. The family friendly festival will help people of all ages understand climate change, how it affects us, and what actions we can take. Attendees may also wear nature-based costumes and create signs to carry along George Washington Way during a “Species Climate March or Procession” to conclude the festival. 

The event will include a variety of speakers, music, and educational and hands-on activities.  The notable speakers will share scientific, public health, and faith-based perspectives about climate change and climate action. Children’s activities include sign and mask making, rope labyrinth, play parachute, puppet show. There will also be food vendors and face painting.

Speakers Include: 

2:00 Opening Words and Blessing (Shannon Truex and Doak Mansfield, CUUC)

2:15 Jessie Dye,  Program and Outreach Director for Earth Ministry, Seattle, will discuss climate change from a faith perspective. 

2:30  Music by Mary Hartman

2:45 Dr. Rick Smith, Associate Professor of Environmental Science at Columbia Basin College, will discuss responding to climate change in the Tri-Cities. 

3:00 Music (CUUC choir?)

3:15 Dr. Noel Hubbs, Naturopathic Doctor with Stellar You Wellness Center will present the connections between human health and the health of the planet. 

3:30 Music (Mike and Shannon?)

3:45 Dr. James Conca, Senior Scientist, UFA Ventures, Inc., Richland,  will talk about the role of nuclear power in the mitigation of climate change. 

4:00 Music (Reg Unterseher and others)

4:15 Dr. Amy Persons, District Health Officer for the Benton-Franklin Health District, will focus on climate change as a public health concern. 

4:30 Dr. Richard Badalamente, will touch on policy approaches to addressing climate change.

4:45 Closing Words and prep for March  (Shannon)

5:00 Species Climate Procession/March – dress up, bring signs and join others!

Tables:

Faith Action Network and Earth Ministries

Friends of Mid-Columbia Wildlife Refuges

Go Green Tri-Cities and SEENet (Sustainable Energy and Environmental Network)

Tri-Cities Citizen’s Climate Lobby

Solar WA

Stellar You Wellness Center

WA Environmental Council (WEC)

WA Native Plant Society

Electric Vehicle show

John Dam Plaza is located at 815 George Washington Way in Richland. Parking is available at the Federal Building, City Hall and around the downtown area. 

For more information, visit Tri-Cities Citizens’ Climate Lobby on Facebook or  www.facebook.com/events/603493363173714/

EPA Withdraws "Unnecessary and Onerous" Methane Rule

From: info@climatenexus.org

Global methane emissions from oil production between 1980 and 2012 were far higher than previously thought – in some cases, as much as double the amount previously estimated, according to a new scientific study

The EPA will not require oil and gas producers to provide information on methane emissions at drilling sites, withdrawing a late Obama-era request that was meant to be a first step in a larger crackdown on methane emissions. The EPA withdrew the request a day after receiving a letter from 11 state attorneys general  - including Scott Pruitt's successor in Oklahoma - alleging that the request amounted to "harassment" of fossil fuel companies and asking the EPA to withdraw the "unnecessary and onerous burden" on oil and gas producers. Methane regulations may come under friendly fire during the administration's budgetary bloodbath as well: a source tells Reuters that the EPA's budget plan currently includes a 70 percent budget reduction in a climate program intended to reduce "emissions of greenhouse gases like methane."

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas − the most important contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide. There is now international agreement that methane is 34 times more potent than CO2 over a century, but 84 times more over a much shorter timespan – just 20 years.

Hope on Climate Change Action -- from Republicans!

GOP All-Stars Present Carbon Tax Plan to Trump Team: A coalition of top Republican leaders - including James Baker, Hank Paulson, George Shultz, Martin Feldstein, and Greg Mankiw - will present a comprehensive plan to establish a carbon tax and combat the causes of climate change to White House senior leadership today. The plan, which marks a rare instance of the GOP taking the lead on proposing climate solutions, will be accompanied by an economy-wide analysis showing how the plan would lower carbon emissions twice as fast as all of the Obama-era climate regulations combined by 2025 and meet the Paris climate agreement targets. The plan includes jettisoning of significant regulations, including the Clean Power Plan, and earned a quick endorsement from Mitt Romney. A copy of the plan is available here; the leadership team will host a press conference at the National Press Club at 9:30 AM this morning. (New York Times $, Washington Post $, CNN, AP, Bloomberg, Axios, FT $. Commentary: New York Times, Martin Feldstein, Gregory Mankiw, and Ted Halstead op-ed $, WSJ, George Shultz and James Baker op-ed $)

Trump Energy + Enviro Team Moves Closer to Confirmation

This was published in Climate Nexus 'Hot News'

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will vote on the nominations of both Rick Perry for Energy Secretary and Rep Ryan Zinke for Interior Secretary today. Both relatively non-controversial nominees expected to pass committee, despite Democratic concerns over their shaky positions on climate change and worries over funding cuts and suppression of science in both departments under a Trump administration. Zinke and Perry provided written answers to committee members' follow-up questions earlier this week, with Perry reassuring senators that he would not politicize scientific research at DOE and expressing nonspecific support for renewables programs, while Zinke looked forward to "reviewing" the work of the DOI's Climate Centers. In the Senate, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson's nomination for Secretary of State cleared a procedural vote, with a final confirmation vote possible as early as Wednesday. (Perry + Zinke: The Hill. Written answers, all Politico Pro $: Perry, Perry, Zinke. Tillerson: The Hill, USA Today)

A Plea from the Climate Scientists Who Write for Real Climate

Dear US voters:

The world is holding its breath. The stakes are high in the upcoming US elections. At stake is a million times more than which email server one candidate used, or how another treated women. The future of humanity will be profoundly affected by your choice, for many generations to come

The coming four years is the last term during which a US government still has the chance, jointly with the rest of the world, to do what is needed to stop global warming well below 2°C and closer to 1.5°C, as was unanimously decided by 195 nations in the Paris Agreement last December. The total amount of carbon dioxide the world can still emit in order to have at least a 50% chance to stop warming at 1.5 °C will, at the current rate of emissions, be all used up in under ten years! This time can only be stretched out by making emissions fall rapidly.

Greenland and parts of neighboring Canada have experienced some of the most extreme warming since 1979, at a rate of about 1 degree Celsius per decade, or several times the global average.

Even 2°C of global warming is very likely to spell the end of most coral reefs on Earth. 2°C would mean a largely ice-free Arctic ocean in summer, right up to the North Pole. Even 2°C of warming is likely to destabilize continental ice sheets and commit the world to many meters of sea-level rise, lasting for millennia. Further global warming will likely lead to increasing extreme weather, droughts, harvest failures, and the risk of armed conflict and mass migration

In case you have any doubts about the science: in the scientific community there is a long-standing consensus that humans are causing dangerous global warming, reflected in the clear statements of many scientific academies and societies from around the world. None of the 195 governments that signed the Paris Agreement saw any reasons for doubting the underlying scientific facts; doubts about the science that you see in some media are largely manufactured by interest groups trying to fool you

You have a fateful choice to make. The policies of candidates and parties on climate change could hardly be more different. Hillary Clinton would continue to work with the international community to tackle the global warming crisis and help the transition to modern clean and renewable energies. Donald Trump denies that the problem even exists and has promised to go back to coal and to undo the Paris Agreement, which comes into force today, November 4, 2016, as culmination of over twenty years of negotiations

Please consider this carefully. This is not an election about personalities, it is about policies that will determine our future for a long time to come. While the presidential race has gotten the most attention, voters should consider climate not just at the ‘top of the ticket’, but all the way down the ballot. Don’t make a choice that you, your children and your children’s children will regret forever

David Archer, Rasmus Benestad, Ray Bradley, Michael Mann, Ray Pierrehumbert, Stefan Rahmstorf and Eric Steig

Initiative 732 Forum

PCOs Richard Badalamente and Lora Rathbone were key players in arranging a forum on I-732, the initiative sponsored by CarbonWA designed to lower CO2 emissions in Washington State. The forum took place last Friday, September 30th, at WSU-Tri-Cities. An estimated 60 to 70 people turned out to hear panelists representing CarbonWA, Audubon-WA, Labor, and Latino Progress discuss the pros and cons of the initiative.

The Benton-Franklin League of Women Voters moderated the forum. The event was co-hosted by the WSU-Tri-Cities Environmental Club. The club's student president, Elinor Lake did yeoman's work arranging the venue, and assisting in the conduct of the forum. Northwest Public TV recorded the forum and will televise it soon.

A critical element of the ever increasing concentration of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere is the unprecendated rate of change we're witnessing since the Industrial Revolution.

 I-732 is patterned after the proven and highly successful carbon tax in British Columbia and will:

1.  Establish a 25 dollar per ton tax on carbon emissions associated with fossil fuels.
2.  Reduce the sales tax by a full percent.
3.  Provide a Working Families Tax Rebate to provide up to $1,500 a year for 460,000 low-income households
4.  Lower the Business & Occupation tax on manufacturing to 0.001 percent of gross receipts, effectively eliminating the tax.


I-732 is designed to be revenue neutral, so that the money collected by the carbon tax is used to reduce other taxes. Government will not grow as a result, but CO2 will decline.

Benton County Democrats will discuss endorsing I-732 at the October monthly meeting.

Climate Change Matters in the 2016 Election

Presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump hold radically different views on climate change and how - if at all, in Trump’s case - the issue should be addressed. The Earth has had three record hot years in a row with deadly heat waves scorching cities, sea level rise swamping coastlines and diseases threatening public health. Government action can make a difference on climate issues, as evidenced by the Reagan-approved Montreal Protocol and George H.W. Bush’s campaign to reduce acid rain. For not just America but the world, climate change matters in this election. (AP)

The Striking Difference Between Democrats and Republicans on Climate Change

Massive fires in California have forced thousands of evacuations (Photo: AP)

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times compared the Democratic and Republican platforms. The difference on climate change was particularly striking.

Democrats describe climate change as a “real and urgent threat,” and they call for setting a price on greenhouse gas emissions. “Climate change is too important to wait for climate deniers and defeatists in Congress to start listening to science,” and government officials must take any steps they can to reduce pollution, the platform says. It calls for the country to generate half of its electricity from clean sources in the next decade and for cleaner transportation fuels, more public transit and a tax code that creates incentives for renewable energy. The platform also beats back suggestions that protecting the environment would be bad for business. “Democrats reject the notion that we have to choose between protecting our planet and creating good-paying jobs,” it says.

Republicans say “climate change is far from this nation’s most pressing national security issue,” as Democrats have labeled it. They oppose international accords like the agreement crafted in Paris last year that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to slow the climb in global temperatures. The platform also blasts President Obama’s “clean power plan,” which would cut emissions by shifting away from coal-powered power plants. The initiative has been put on hold by the Supreme Court; Republicans vow to do away with it entirely. They also pointedly describe coal as a “clean” energy resource, a description environmentalists have roundly rejected.

To learn more about climate change, go to the Climate Change Primer on the Benton County Democratic Central Committee website.