More Exxon Double-Dealing

With a decades long head start in awareness of the reality of global warming and climate change Exxon has done little to protect some of its facilities and the communities they reside in from the impact.  While it insures its oil rigs are protected, it leaves the communities around its MysticRiver terminal unprotected.

“This is a stunning example of how ExxonMobil’s climate deceit hits home, where their repeated sworn, but false, statements to regulators that this facility was prepared for climate conditions put the surrounding communities that have hosted the facility for years in danger,” Brad Campbell, president of the Conservation Law Foundation, told ThinkProgress.

According to investigative reports published last year by both InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times, ExxonMobil’s internal scientists knew about the role of fossil fuels in driving global warming as early as 1977, and yet publicly continued to fuel doubt about climate science.

Exxon also built oil rigs in the North Sea to withstand projected climate impacts like sea level rise and rising temperatures.

Yet the company failed to make the same structural improvements to its terminal in Massachusetts, the lawsuit claims, leaving surrounding communities at risk of toxic pollution during severe storm events or floods. According to the complaint, the Everett Terminal is especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change predicted to hit New England in the coming years: sea level rise, increased precipitation, increased magnitude and frequency of storm events, and increased magnitude and frequency of storm surges.

DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 1, 2016

Foreign Invaders Killing ‘Ohi’a Trees

As if Hawaii’s extinction crisis didn’t need more fuel on the fire, imported plant diseases are threatening a tree critical to many bird species.

The tree, with its iron-hard wood, is almost impossible to imagine without its signature spray of vibrant orange-red or yellow flowers with long, slender stamens.

'Ohi'a is so critical to the survival of Hawai'i's native birds that it is hard to imagine a vibrant avifauna without it. But the tree is increasingly threatened by plant diseases. 'Ohi'a rust, imported to Hawai'i in decorative flower and foliage shipments from California, is established in Hawai'i and has the potential to devastate the state's one million acres of 'ohi'a. Meanwhile, an aggressive fungus, Ceratocystis fimbriata, also known as rapid 'ohi'a death, has been identified as the cause of death of hundreds of thousands of 'ohi'a trees on over 34,000 acres on Hawai‘i Island.

Hawai'i's native birds face an uncertain future if disease overcomes the legendary 'ohi'a. So, it is essential that state and federal agencies increase the resources available to understand and deal with these disease threats, while at the same time ramping up currently inadequate biosecurity measures to prevent new diseases from getting to Hawai'i in the first place.

Exxon Invokes Their Right To Lie

Exxon Mobil claims the right to lie about what they knew and what they covered up regarding the impact of fossil fuel driven CO2 increase on climate change.  It’s a novel defense.

Does Exxon Mobil have a constitutional right to sow doubt about climate science? That’s the subject of a high-stakes legal battle playing out between dozens of state attorneys general, members of Congress, corporate executives, and activists.

Last fall, investigations by Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times revealed that the oil giant has decades of internal documents showing that its own scientists and executives knew fossil fuels contributed to climate change. Publicly, the company argued that the threats posed by global warming were far from certain, presumably as part of an effort to fight off regulations.

The revelations have sparked a barrage of legal actions. The attorney generals of Massachusetts, California, and New York launched investigations of Exxon, while Democratic AGs from other states have expressed their support. Some have drawn parallels to the tobacco industry’s deception on the dangers of smoking. Exxon has countered that the investigations are unconstitutional and has filed motions asking courts to block the subpoenas. “This…is about freedom of political speech,” the company recently argued in the Massachusetts case.

Have We Gone To Far?

Has global warming reached the point where we can’t stop it or do we have a chance to reverse or mitigate the effects?  We are at the last minute of the last hour.

But are the good records enough to help us deal with the bad? Global average temperatures are hitting record highs every recent month and year and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are rising steadily, to levels unheard of in human history. Arctic sea ice is vanishing at unprecedented levels, mass bleaching is killing the Great Barrier Reef and record-setting droughts, floods, heat waves and extreme weather are happening around the world.

As Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf of Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research told the Guardian: “These are very worrying signs and I think it shows we are on a crash course with the Paris targets unless we change course very, very fast. I hope people realize that global warming is not something down the road, but it is here now and is affecting us now.”

Despite overwhelming evidence for human-caused climate change, the fossil fuel industry continues to employ shady people and organizations to fool fearful and apparently blind followers into believing the problem doesn’t exist or isn’t serious enough to worry about. Their messaging follows a pattern: Spread a simplistic lie until it becomes so discredited that few people accept it and then move on to another simplistic lie.

A bit light on reading today.  Blame an early start to the 4th of July weekend.

Before Hamilton, there was 1776.