October, 13 2020, 12:00am EDT
![Climate Power](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012573/origin.jpg)
What They Are Saying: Record Number Of Storms, The Climate Crisis, And Hurricane Delta
As the Atlantic ocean saw its 25th named storm of the year, the second-highest since 2005, Hurricane Delta made landfall this weekend on the Gulf Coast. This marked the 10th tropical storm or hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland this year, and it was the sixth major storm that had Louisiana in its path.
WASHINGTON
As the Atlantic ocean saw its 25th named storm of the year, the second-highest since 2005, Hurricane Delta made landfall this weekend on the Gulf Coast. This marked the 10th tropical storm or hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland this year, and it was the sixth major storm that had Louisiana in its path.
Americans continue to feel the catastrophic effects of the climate crisis, and they are demanding bold action from the presidential candidates to address climate change. Still, President Trump continues to deny the effects of climate change while Joe Biden promises to "take urgent action to tackle the undeniable, accelerating cost of climate change."
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:
- Vice President Joe Biden: "When it made landfall last night, Hurricane Delta became the tenth named storm to strike the continental United States in 2020 -- the largest number in a single year since we began keeping records. The rise in the water temperature of the Gulf of Mexico has caused destructive storms' intensity to dramatically accelerate as they get closer to our shores. As with the unprecedented sweep of fires along our Pacific Coast and the scourge of floods and droughts afflicting the Midwest, these horrors are not a matter of coincidence. The wrath of climate change is here, now, in America." [JoeBiden.com, 10/8/2020]
- Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards: "This was a very serious and a very large storm that produced significant amounts of damage. We already know that there will be damage in southwest Louisiana that will be very difficult to differentiate between what was caused by Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta... About 680,000 people in the state were left without power, more than were affected by Hurricane Laura." [Bloomberg, 10/10/2020]
- Pete Buttigieg: "Science can develop a vaccine, but we have to have enough trust in the process to get it. And by the way, I'd be the first in line to get a safe and effective vaccine for covid-19. And what is true for the pandemic is also true for things like climate change and even just coming together to invest in better infrastructure and education and health and the things that we'll need as a country." [MSNBC, AM Joy, 10/11/2020]
- Frm. Vice President Al Gore: "It gives us obvious evidence that when the leading scientists, in this case, virologists and epidemiologists, start warning of impending danger, we best listen to them and prepare. In the same way, climate scientists have been warning, and in even more dire terms about the danger we are facing with the climate crisis." [CNN, Fareed Zakaria GPD, 10/11/2020]
- Dan Rather: "Make no mistake, I think climate change is a very important component of that because climate change ties into unemployment, our national security, how we deal with future pandemics, and is on the ballot this time. So one of the things that unites us at the moment is the determination to defeat the coronavirus, and to do so by maintaining the leadership in science despite the effort of national leadership to be anti-science." [CNN, Reliable Sources, 10/11/2020]
- Tom Steyer: "The Biden campaign and Joe Biden personally have a very strong climate plan. It directly addresses our climate crisis, and in doing so, it creates $4 trillion of federal spending -- excuse me -- $2 trillion over four years that will create the millions of good-paying union jobs that senator Harris was referring to. It also specifically addresses environmental justice: Cleaning up the air pollution, water pollution toxins in underserved black and brown communities. This plan is aggressive. It is necessary."
EXPERTS AGREE:
- Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University, Michael Mann: "We've had so many storms that we've exhausted the alphabet and were onto Greek letters. So, there is a clear increase in the number of these storms. We know that's caused by climate change, but we also know that the intensity of these storms' intensity is growing because of climate change; that's the real issue, the flooding. You have warmer oceans and more moisture in the atmosphere. So you get more flooding rains and you get compound flooding where you've got the storm surge because of those strong winds." [MSNBC, 10/9/2020]
- Meteorologist Michelle Grossman: "You have to look at the fact that science is inherently based in fact, so we have some facts that we can give you. 2020 will be the hottest year on record for our planet. The last five years will be the hottest on record for our planet. We have sea waters that are at record levels. We have the West with dramatic and damaging and destructive wildfires because of a record drought and record warmth. You put that together and you're going to see destruction and that's what we're seeing with this [hurricane]." [MSNBC,The Week with Joshua Johnson, 10/11/2020]
- NOAA Climatologist Adam Smith: "This is the sixth year in a row we've had 10 or more separate billion-dollar disasters. Extremes have always happened, but climate change is making some of these extremes certainly more frequent and more intense." [Yahoo Finance, 10/8/2020]
- NOAA Climate and Hurricane Scientist Jim Kossin: "We've certainly been seeing a lot of that in the last few years, It's more likely that a storm will rapidly intensify now than it did in the 1980s ... A lot of that has to do with human-caused climate change." [AP, 10/8/2020]
- MIT hurricane scientist Kerry Emanuel: "This is not only happening more often; it is more dangerous. If you go to bed and there's a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico and you wake up the next morning with a Category 4 about to make landfall, there's no time to evacuate. It's a very worrying trend." [AP, 10/8/2020]
ADDITIONAL REPORTING:
Bloomberg News : Delta Caused Major Damage; Thousands Without Power: Storm Update
"It's the record 10th tropical storm or hurricane to hit the nation this year, the latest in a string of natural disasters in the U.S. as climate change fuels extreme weather more frequently. In California, wildfires have burned an unprecedented 4 million acres (1.62 million hectares). Democratic nominee Joe Biden said he'd take "urgent action" to tackle the cost of climate change if he becomes president...The Atlantic, meanwhile, has spawned 25 storms this year, the second most after 2005. So many have formed that the hurricane center used up all the names on its official list in September, and has resorted to the Greek alphabet to designate new storms."
New York Times: In the Path of Six Major Storms Since June, Louisiana Braces for Delta
"Louisiana has been in the path of six major storms since June, and along with the wildfires in the West, they have brought fresh attention to the effects of climate change, which has likely contributed to the intensity of the storms and the persistence and size of the fires.
"On Thursday, Suzana J. Camargo, a research professor in the division of ocean and climate physics at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said that judging hurricane seasons by the mere number of storms misses the point. Besides the fact that the actual number of storms could not be precisely tallied before the satellite era, "just talking about numbers is a little naive," she said, because of the issues of storm intensity, rainfall and surge."
Fortune: The next President must tackle the intertwined crises of racial injustice and climate change
"This election season climate change and environmental justice have become a flashpoint of debate, as storms and wildfires have raged across the country leaving orange skies and destroyed communities in their wake. While Donald Trump continues to waffle on whether he believes the science of the climate crisis, Joe Biden's climate policy proposals include a commitment to pollution monitoring and investments in frontline communities. He has come out in support of ending fossil fuel subsidies, yet he also has stated his opposition to a ban on fracking."
New York Times: Hurricane Delta Brings Floods and Destruction to an Already Battered Louisiana
"Delta, the 10th named storm to make landfall in the United States this year, arrived in the final weeks of an Atlantic hurricane season so busy that forecasters ran through an alphabet of names and moved on to calling storms by Greek letters. It had been 15 years since a season, which runs from June to November, has been this active."
Climate Power 2020 is putting the Trump administration on defense every single day for ignoring experts, refusing to believe in science, surrendering our government to big oil executives, and gutting public health protections, all at the expense of future generations. The 2020 presidential election is the defining moment for how our nation addresses the climate crisis--our leaders must be emboldened to take immediate action on climate change and to build a just and equitable economy. The time to act is now. Learn more: climatepower2020.org
LATEST NEWS
US Voter Registrations Surge as Republicans Try to Limit Ballot Access
One group said it has registered over 100,000 new voters since U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.
Jul 26, 2024
The group behind a popular get-out-the-vote technology platform said Friday that it's registered more than 100,000 new U.S. voters since President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race, a surge that came amid mounting Republican efforts to make it harder to register and vote.
Vote.org said that 84% of voters registered in the new wave are under age 35. Nearly 1 in 5 new registrees is 18 years old. Andrea Hailey, the group's CEO, said that "since 2020, we have led the largest voter registration drive in U.S. history," with more than 7.8 million people registered.
After dropping out, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to face former Republican President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) in the November election. The new presumptive Democratic candidate has already earned endorsements from many Democrats in Congress and groups advocating on issues including climate, labor, and reproductive rights.
Vote.org's success comes as Republicans at the federal level are proposing and passing legislation creating obstacles to the ballot box.
Earlier this month, U.S. House Republicans passed Rep. Chip Roy's (R-Texas)
Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require proof of American citizenship to vote in federal elections. Republicans claim the bill is meant to fix the virtually nonexistent "problem" of noncitizen voter fraud.
However, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.)
slammed the bill as a "xenophobic attack" meant to silence "Black voices, brown voices, LBGTQIA+ voices, [and] young voices."
Lee said the SAVE Act underscores the need to pass her recently introduced Right to Vote Act, "which would establish the first-ever affirmative federal voting rights guarantee, ensuring every citizen may exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot."
Earlier this year, U.S. Senate Democrats also reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, legislation its sponsors say will "update and restore critical safeguards of the original Voting Rights Act."
Meanwhile, Republican-controlled state legislatures and red-state governors are enacting laws imposing tough restrictions on voter registration, with violations punishable by stiff fines that critics say are meant to dissuade people from registration drives and similar efforts.
Again under the guise of preventing fraud, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year signed legislation limiting voter registration drives, with fines of up to $250,000 for violators.
"These draconian laws and rules are like taking a sledgehammer to hit a flea," Cecile Scoon, an attorney and president of the Florida chapter of the League of Women Voters,
toldThe New York Times in an article published Friday.
Three years after Kansas passed a law making "false representation" of an election official a crime, campaigners say it's become extremely difficult to sign up new voters.
"In 2020, even with the pandemic, we had registered nearly 10,000 Kansans to vote. Now, we haven't been able to register anyone," Davis Hammet, president of the youth voter mobilization group Loud Light, told the Times.
In Louisiana, Republican state lawmakers quietly passed legislation making it easier for election officials to toss out absentee ballots with missing details, limiting how people can mail in other voters' ballots, and restricting the ability to assist people with disabilities with their ballots.
"What we've found is that these measures have a disproportionate impact on voters with disabilities, both Black and white," NAACP Legal Defense Fund senior policy counsel Jared Evans
toldNola.com earlier this week.
"It's clear that their goal is to make it harder to vote, harder for specific communities to vote especially," Evans added. "What they don't realize is that these laws hurt white voters, too."
In Nebraska, Republican Secretary of State Bob Evnen last week
ordered county election offices to stop registering voters with past felony convictions who have not received official pardons. The move came after the state's unicameral Legislature passed a bill granting voting eligibility to felons immediately after they have completed their sentences instead of waiting two years.
"We refuse to accept thousands of Nebraskans having their voting rights stripped away," ACLU of Nebraska legal and policy fellow Jane Seu said in a statement. "We are confident in the constitutionality of these laws, and we are exploring every option to ensure that Nebraskans who have done their time can vote."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Critics Warn Manchin-Barrasso Permitting Bill 'Is Taken Straight From Project 2025'
"You thought Project 2025 was just a threat after the election? It's actually happening *right now,*" said one climate campaigner.
Jul 26, 2024
Climate and environmental defenders on this week implored U.S. senators to block a permitting reform bill introduced this week by Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso that campaigners linked to Project 2025, a conservative coalition's agenda for a far-right overhaul of the federal government.
Common Dreamsreported Monday that Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Barrasso (R-Wyo.)—respectively the chair and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee—introduced the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) noted that although the proposal "includes several positive reforms for the accelerated development of transmission projects," it also advocates "limiting opportunities for communities to challenge projects, loosening oversight for drilling and mining projects, extending drilling permits and fast-tracking [liquified natural gas] permits, and several other provisions friendly to fossil fuel giants."
"This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
These are nearly identical policies to what's proposed in Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership. The plan, which was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, calls for "unleashing all of America's energy resources," including by ending federal restrictions on fossil fuel drilling on public lands; limiting investments in renewable energy; and rolling back environmental permitting restrictions for new oil, gas, and coal projects, including power plants.
While Manchin has been trying—and failing—to pass fossil fuel-friendly permitting reform legislation for years, Brett Hartl, director of public affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that his "Frankenstein legislation is taken straight from Project 2025, and it's the biggest giveaway in decades to the fossil fuel industry."
Hartl said the bill "deprives communities of the power to defend themselves and gives that power to Big Oil by making it harder for communities to challenge polluting projects in court," and "prioritizes the profits of coal barons over public health."
"And it mandates oil and gas extraction in our oceans," he continued. "The insignificant crumbs thrown at renewable energy do nothing to address the climate emergency."
"Monday was the hottest day in recorded history," Hartl noted. "It's shocking that as the climate emergency continues to break records around us, the Senate continues to fast-track the fossil fuel expansion that is killing us. This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
Hartl added that "to preserve a livable planet," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "must squash this legislation now."
Manchin—who has said this will be his last term in office—has been a steadfast supporter of the fossil fuel industry, partly because his family owns a coal company. The senator says his permitting reform bill "will advance American energy once again to bring down prices, create domestic jobs, and allow us to continue in our role as a global energy leader."
However, Allie Rosenbluth, Oil Change International's U.S. manager, warned Thursday that "this bill is yet another dangerous attempt by Sen. Manchin to line the pockets of his fossil fuel donors, sacrificing communities and our climate along the way."
"Don't be fooled: The Energy Permitting Reform Act is another dirty deal to fast-track fossil fuels above all else," she continued. "It would unleash more drilling on federal lands and waters, unnecessarily rush the review of proposed oil and gas export projects, and lift the Biden administration's pause on new LNG exports."
"We urge Congress to reject this proposal and commit to action that protects frontline communities from the impacts of fossil fuel development and the climate crisis," Rosenbluth added.
"Don't be fooled: The Energy Permitting Reform Act is another dirty deal to fast-track fossil fuels above all else."
NRDC managing director of government affairs Alexandra Adams said Wednesday that "this bill is a giveaway for the oil and gas industry that will ramp up drilling and environmental destruction at a time when we need to be putting a hard stop to fossil fuels."
"We cannot afford to roll back so many of our bedrock environmental and community legal protections and offer a blank check to the oil and gas industry," she stressed. "We need new solutions for permitting if we are going to meet our clean energy potential and address the climate challenge. But this is not it."
"This bill would altogether be a leap backward on climate, health, and justice if passed into law," Adams added. "The Senate should reject it and look toward alternative solutions already being considered."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Nothing To Eat': War-Torn Sudan Faces Mass Famine as Military Delays Aid
Both parties in Sudan's civil war are to blame for a looming mass famine, experts say, and the military's blocking of U.N. aid at a border crossing with Chad exacerbates the problem.
Jul 26, 2024
Sudan's military is blocking United Nations aid trucks from entering at a key border crossing, causing severe disruptions in aid in a country that experts fear may be on the brink of one of the worst famines the world has seen in decades, The New York Timesreported Friday.
The border city of Adré in eastern Chad is the main international crossing into the Darfur region of Sudan, but the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the state's official military, which is engaged in a civil war with a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has refused to issue permits for U.N. trucks to enter there, as it's an RSF-controlled area.
U.S. and international officials have issued increasingly alarmed calls for steady aid access to help feed the millions of severely malnourished people in Darfur and other areas of Sudan.
Last week, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the U.N., said that the SAF's obstruction of the border was "completely unacceptable."
Both warring parties in Sudan continue to perpetrate brazen atrocities, including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. This piece focuses on the SAF's ongoing obstruction of essential aid. The situation is catastrophic. The policy is criminal. https://t.co/FKhqQh3EI9.
— Tom Dannenbaum (@tomdannenbaum) July 26, 2024
The Sudanese who've made it out of the country and into Adré reported dire and unsafe conditions in their home country.
"We had nothing to eat," Bahja Muhakar, a Sudenese mother of three, told the Times after she crossed into Chad, following a harrowing six-day journey from Al-Fashir, a major city in Darfur. She said the family often had to live off of one shared pancake per day.
Another mother, Dahabaya Ibet, said that her 20-month-old boy had to bear witness to his grandfather being shot and killed in front of his eyes when the family home in Darfur was attacked by gunmen late last year.
Now the mothers and their families are refugees in Adré, where 200,000 Sudanese are living in an overcrowded, under-resourced transit camp.
In addition to those that have made it out of the country, there are 11 million people internally displaced within Sudan, most of whom have become displaced since the civil war began in April 2023.
An unnamed senior American official told the Times that the looming famine in Sudan could be as bad as the 2011 famine in Somalia or even the great Ethiopian famine of the 1980s.
In April, Reutersreported that people in Sudan were eating soil and leaves to survive, and The Washington Postcalled it a nation in "chaos," reporting that World Food Program trucks had been "blocked, hijacked, attacked, looted, and detained."
In late June, a coalition of U.N. agencies, aid groups, and governments warned that 755,000 people in Sudan faced famine in the coming months.
The U.S. last week announced $203 million in additional aid to Sudan—part of a $2.1 billion pledge that world leaders made in April, which some countries have not yet delivered on.
Some officials including Thomas-Greenfield, who has dubbed the situation in Sudan "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world," have called for the U.N. Security Council to allow aid delivery into the country even in the absence of SAF approval; it's believed that Russia would veto such a measure.
Sudan's civil war has seen a great deal of international interference. Amnesty International on Thursday published an investigatory briefing showing that weapons from Russia, China, Serbia, Turkey, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had been identified in the country. And The Guardian on Friday reported that the passports of Emirati citizens had been found among wreckage in Sudan, indicating the UAE may have troops or intelligence officers on the ground, though the UAE denied the accusation.
The International Service for Human Rights on Friday warned that both the SAF and RSF were engaged in wrongful killings and arrests, especially targeted at lawyers, doctors, and activists. The group called for an immediate cease-fire.
The SAF and Sudanese government figures have cast doubt on international experts' claims about famine in the country.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular