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For Immediate Release
March, 16 2018, 01:00pm EDT
Contact:
Lisa Nurnberger, Media Director, lnurnberger@ucs.org
Ignoring the Role Climate Change Plays in US Disasters Helps No One
Statement by Rachel Cleetus, Lead Economist and Climate Policy Manager, UCS
WASHINGTON
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)--the government's disaster first responder--has scrubbed references to "climate change" from its four-year strategic plan released late yesterday.
Below is a statement by Rachel Cleetus, lead economist and climate policy manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
"Removal of the term 'climate change' from FEMA's recently released strategic plan demonstrates the chilling effect the Trump administration's denialism is having on vital work of federal government agencies. You can't delete the reality of climate change or its impacts.
"FEMA's primary focus is helping states and communities prepare for and recover from disasters. Climate change is clearly contributing to the growing risks of many types of disasters, including extreme precipitation and flooding, drought, intensified storms and wildfires--a fact sadly underscored by 2017's record-breaking disasters. The federal government's Climate Science Special Report makes clear that these risks will only continue to grow in years to come.
"Even as FEMA is investing in actions to limit damage when future disasters strike and help affected communities recover when they do, it doesn't make sense to ignore the profound ways climate change is affecting all Americans.
"Now's the time for the administration and Congress to step up by providing more funding for communities to both become resilient ahead of disasters and to also rebuild in an equitable, more resilient way after disasters strike. They also need to ensure the nation's disaster planning and policies are robust and informed by the best available science. Muzzling agencies from speaking out about climate change and preventing them from planning for its impacts is a recipe for disaster."
The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.
LATEST NEWS
After Hochul’s Mamdani Endorsement, Trump Threatens New York Federal Funding
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"Threatening voters and cities over their elections is what authoritarians do," said one progressive organizer Monday after US President Donald Trump did just that—suggesting he would rip federal funding away from New York City, and possibly the state, if democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani wins the November election.
The president's threat came after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, announced her endorsement of Mamdani in an op-ed in The New York Times, after months of pressure from progressives.
Trump said Hochul had "Endorsed the 'Liddle Communist'" and called the governor's support "a rather shocking development."
"How can such a thing happen?" Trump asked of Hochul's endorsement of her own party's popular and charismatic nominee. "Washington will be watching this situation very closely. No reason to be sending good money after bad!"
The comments appeared to be a threat to state or city funding, said critics including Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health.
"Donald Trump is threatening to withhold money from NYC if they elect Zohran Mamdani, who [is] standing up to his billionaire donor buddies, instead of his friend [former Gov.] Andrew Cuomo who will roll over for them," said D'Arrigo, referring to reports that Trump has considered helping Cuomo, who lost the primary to Mamdani in June but is running as an independent in the general election, and to Cuomo's own comments about the positive relationship he would have with the president if elected mayor.
Another observer accused Trump of "using taxpayer money as a gun to voters' heads."
Mamdani, a Democratic member of the state Assembly, won the primary in June, decisively beating Cuomo—who had rapidly plummeted in the polls leading up to the primary vote as Mamdani promoted a policy agenda laser-focused on making the city more affordable and engaged directly with New Yorkers across the five boroughs.
Despite Mamdani's victory, Hochul has been among a number of powerful Democratic politicians who refused to endorse the party's nominee to lead the nation's largest city following the primary, leading to condemnation from progressive organizers and lawmakers including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).
New York Democrats House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand have all declined to endorse Mamdani thus far, with Jeffries falsely claiming Mamdani has not won over voters in the House leader's district and Gillibrand suggesting as recently as last week that Mamdani has fueled antisemitism by not condemning phrases associated with Palestinian resistance.
Hochul relented on Sunday, writing that she has had "disagreements" with Mamdani in conversations they've had in recent weeks, but that in their talks she has "heard a leader who shares my commitment to a New York where children can grow up safe in their neighborhoods and where opportunity is within reach for every family."
"I heard a leader who is focused on making New York City affordable—a goal I enthusiastically support," she added.
Trump also ran his reelection campaign last year on promises of lowering the cost of living for Americans—but while Mamdani has backed up his pledge of improving affordability with policy proposals like fare-free buses, a network of city-owned grocery stores, and no-cost universal childcare, the president has pushed a spending bill that's expected to increase the number of uninsured people by 14.2 million and has restarted student debt collection, ending a Biden-era program to make payments more affordable and threatening to garnish the wages of struggling borrowers.
The president previously threatened New York City's funding in June and said in July that his administration could take over the city's government if Mamdani wins the November election and enacts policies Trump doesn't support.
"If he does get in, I’m gonna be president and he’s gonna have to do the right thing or they’re not getting any money. He’s gotta do the right thing,” Trump said on Fox News. “If a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same... We have tremendous power at the White House to run places when we have to."
At The New Republic last week, Alex Shephard wrote that by refusing to throw their considerable influence behind Mamdani, Schumer, Jeffries, and Gillibrand are "suggesting that they will throw him—and the city he represents—to the wolves come 2026."
"Trump has made it clear that he hopes to target New York City just as he's done to Los Angeles and Washington, DC—with deployed National Guard troops and ICE agents running rampant," wrote Shephard.
Democrats including Schumer and Jeffries, he added, "are shooting their party in the foot... Predominantly renters, Mamdani’s voters were also disproportionately young, Asian, and Hispanic—all groups that moved toward Trump in last year’s election, and that Democrats will need if they want to take back Congress and the White House."
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Oxfam International on Monday announced a new boycott campaign aimed at companies that do business with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The campaign, called "Stop Trade With Settlements," is being sponsored by more than 80 civil society organizations and it names multiple companies including Barclays Bank, Siemens, and Carrefour as firms that are benefiting from selling goods and services to the settlements.
In a statement announcing the boycott campaign, Oxfam explained why "ending trade with settlements is a necessary step to uphold human rights, protect Palestinian livelihoods, stop Israel’s settlement expansion, and end the unlawful occupation" of the West Bank.
"Over the last four years, Israel has significantly accelerated its settlement activities in the West Bank," the organization said. "Most of these approvals were granted for settlements located 'deep into the West Bank,' further fragmenting Palestinian territory and imposing new movement restrictions on Palestinians."
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Oxfam then walked through how these firms are profiting from doing business in the West Bank.
German travel conglomerate TUI, for example, offers a bus tour through the West Bank for tourists to meet with settlers who are illegally living on Palestinians' land.
Siemens, meanwhile, was found to have provided "equipment and services for settlement-linked transportation infrastructure including a rail deal worth over €1 billion."
The report singled out Barclays for providing $18.1 billion in loans to settlement-linked firms over a three-and-a-half-year period, which the report said made it "the third largest creditor of corporations complicit in settlement trade."
Anne-Marie Clements, engagement officer at the Catholic charity Justice and Peace Scotland, spoke of her recent trip to the occupied West Bank, where she met Palestinians who "told me of land confiscation, settler violence, home demolitions, military checkpoints and the denial of water: all daily realities of the occupation that make life unbearable."
Clements said the reality on the ground in the West Bank made it imperative for her organization to support the boycott campaign.
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A Democratic US senator over the weekend issued an ominous warning about Republicans using the murder of Charlie Kirk as a pretense to clamp down on political speech.
In a lengthy social media post on Sunday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) outlined how President Donald Trump and his allies look set to wage a campaign of retribution against political adversaries by framing them as accomplices in Kirk's murder.
"Pay attention," he began. "Something dark might be coming. The murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence. Instead, Trump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent."
Murphy then contrasted the recent statements by Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who accurately stated that political violence is not confined to a single political ideology, with those of Trump and his allies, who have said such violence is only a problem on the left.
Murphy highlighted a statement from Trump ally and informal adviser Laura Loomer, who said that she wanted "Trump to be the 'dictator' the left thinks he is" and that she wanted "the right to be as devoted to locking up and silencing our violent political enemies as they pretend we are."
He then pointed to Trump saying that progressive billionaire financier George Soros should face racketeering charges even though there is no evidence linking Soros to Kirk's murder or any other kind of political violence.
"The Trump/Loomer/Miller narrative that Dems are cheering Kirk's murder or that left groups are fomenting violence is also made up," he added. "There are always going to be online trolls, but Dem leaders are united (as opposed to Trump who continues to cheer the January 6 violence)."
Murphy claimed that the president and his allies have long been seeking a "pretext to destroy their opposition" and that Kirk's murder gave them an opening.
"That's why it was so important for Trump sycophants to take over the DoJ and FBI, so that if a pretext arose, Trump could orchestrate a dizzying campaign to shut down political opposition groups and lock up or harass its leaders," he said. "This is what could be coming—now."
Early in his second term, the president fired FBI prosecutors who were involved in an earlier political violence case—the prosecution of people involved in the violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 by Trump supporters who aimed to stop the certification of the 2020 election.
A top ethics official and a lawyer who spoke out against the president’s anti-immigration policy are among those who have been fired from the DOJ.
Murphy ended his post with a call for action from supporters.
"I hope I'm wrong. But we need to be prepared if I'm right," he said. "That means everyone who cares about democracy has to join the fight—right now. Join a mobilization or protest group. Start showing up to actions more. Write a check to a progressive media operation."
One day after Murphy's warning, columnist Karen Attiah announced that she had been fired from the Washington Post over social media posts in the wake of Kirk's death that were critical of his legacy but in no way endorsed or celebrated any form of political violence.
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Attiah only directly referenced Kirk once in her posts and said she had condemned the deadly attack on him “without engaging in excessive, false mourning for a man who routinely attacked Black women as a group, put academics in danger by putting them on watch lists, claimed falsely that Black people were better off in the era of Jim Crow, said that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake, and favorably reviewed a book that called liberals 'Unhumans.'"
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