THE SET-UP: Today’s stories highlight the negative feedback loops that come with denying anthropogenic changes to the climate.
Trump was elected in no small part by Sun Belt voters in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina who bore the brunt of a climate change-stoked hurricane that was so big it actually “unleashed powerful gravity waves.” Ironically, Trump says climate change is a “hoax” … and he ran on an oft-stated plan to dismantle windpower and to pump megatons of climate pollution into the rapidly heating atmosphere.
But Hurricane Helene’s victims hey voted for him anyway … just like tens of millions of Americans who voted to expel millions of migrants who, as you’ll see, are fleeing the changing climate Trump not only denies, but also plans on stoking with hydrocarbons.
Meanwhile, back in the Sun Belt … it is American taxpayers who’ll foot the bill through FEMA and a variety of state and federal relief efforts. But instead of doing something to stop climate pollution or to prepare communities through “climate resilience,” Helene’s victims elected a man who plans on cutting taxes and spending billions to deport people who might’ve come to the US because of a changing climate reality he refuses to accept.
TITLE: Weather extremes influence illegal migration and return between the U.S. and Mexico, study finds
https://phys.org/news/2024-11-weather-extremes-illegal-migration-mexico.html
EXCERPT: Extreme weather is contributing to undocumented migration and return between Mexico and the United States, suggesting that more migrants could risk their lives crossing the border as climate change fuels droughts, storms and other hardships, according to a new study.
People from agricultural areas in Mexico were more likely to cross the border illegally after droughts and were less likely to return to their original communities when extreme weather continued, according to research this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Across the globe, climate change—caused by burning fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas—is exacerbating extreme weather. Droughts are longer and drier, heat is deadlier and storms are rapidly intensifying and dumping record-breaking rain.
In Mexico, a country of nearly 130 million people, drought has drained reservoirs dry, created severe water shortages and drastically reduced corn production, threatening livelihoods.
Researchers said Mexico is a notable country for studying the links between migration, return and weather stressors. Its mean annual temperature is projected to increase up to 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2060, and extreme weather is likely to economically devastate rural communities dependent on rain-fed agriculture. The U.S. and Mexico also have the largest international migration flow in the world.
Scientists predict migration will grow as the planet gets hotter. Over the next 30 years, 143 million people worldwide are likely to be uprooted by rising seas, drought, searing temperatures and other climate catastrophes, according to a U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.
The new migration research comes as Republican Donald Trump was reelected to the U.S. presidency this week. Trump has called climate change a "hoax" and promised mass deportations of an estimated 11 million people in the U.S. illegally.
Researchers said their findings highlight how extreme weather drives migration.
Filiz Garip, a study researcher and professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University, said advanced nations have contributed far more to climate change than developing countries that are bearing the brunt.
Migration "is not a decision that people take up lightly ... and yet they're being forced to make it more, and they're being forced to stay longer in the United States" as a result of weather extremes, Garip said.
"So much of our focus has been, in a way, on the border and securing the border," said Kerilyn Schewel, codirector of Duke University's Program on Climate, Resilience and Mobility. "But we need much more attention to not only the reasons why people are leaving, but also the demand for immigrant workers within the U.S."
TITLE: Climate Skeptics See Trump Opportunity to Reverse U.S. Policies
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Climate-Skeptics-See-Trump-Opportunity-to-Reverse-US-Policies.html
EXCERPT: Organizations and activists skeptical of climate change have sent a memo to Trump’s transition team to call for gutting most of the science behind EPA’s regulations and reversing President Biden’s “anti-coal policies,” Bloomberg reports.
The groups include Illinois-based think tank Heartland Institute, Virginia-based Energy & Environment Legal Institute, and the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, which runs a website that promotes climate change skepticism.
Donald Trump’s win in last week’s presidential election “is a tremendous opportunity” to reverse most of President Biden’s climate and environmental protection policies, James Taylor, the president of the Heartland Institute, told Bloomberg.
“Donald Trump has demonstrated during his first four years in office that he will not be misled by the climate crisis myth,” Taylor said.
The groups are urging the president-elect to support coal for electricity production and gut the science behind the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rules on pollution.
They are also seeking “delisting” of areas designated by the current administration for offshore wind, and preventing the U.S. grid from becoming too reliant on “variable” wind and solar power generation as a matter of national security.
Trump himself has vowed to scrap offshore wind, on day one.
“They destroy everything, they’re horrible, the most expensive energy there is. They ruin the environment, they kill the birds, they kill the whales,” Trump said on the campaign trail.
Climate skeptics are also urging Trump to repeal the so-called “endangerment finding” of the EPA, which found that rising emissions endanger public health and which underpins many EPA regulations.
Another Trump pullout from the 2015 Paris climate agreement should be accompanied by a Senate vote to prevent a future president from rejoining, the organizations say.
TITLE: Meet the ‘great deregulator’ Trump chose to lead EPA
https://www.eenews.net/articles/meet-the-great-deregulator-trump-chose-to-lead-epa/
EXCERPTS: A Trump ally with a limited environmental record will have the task of undoing President Joe Biden’s climate legacy.
Former President Donald Trump announced Monday that he had chosen former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) to head EPA in his second term. In doing so, Trump opted for a personal ally, fierce defender and frequent visitor to Mar-a-Lago over a policy wonk with deep knowledge of regulatory policy.
Industry advocates and conservatives applauded the choice, arguing that Zeldin — who ran a competitive race two years ago against New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul — is a seasoned political operator capable both of leading Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda and of selling it to the American public.
“I think he has all the ability and political savvy to be a great deregulator,” said Myron Ebell, who led Trump’s EPA transition team eight years ago. “I think he’s capable of mastering the technical side of it, but he also will be a great advocate in public for what they’re trying to do.”
Ebell praised Zeldin for running a “straight MAGA” race for governor in deep blue New York, where he targeted the state’s ambitious climate laws as bad for Empire State manufacturing interests. Hochul defeated him by five points.
Frank Maisano, a senior principal at lobbying firm Bracewell, also spoke approvingly of Zeldin as a fixture in “Trump World” who is “totally with the president’s agenda.”
“The EPA Administrator last time … you had somebody who wasn’t politically savvy and was an attorney general who just ramrodded his policy through and didn’t have any real political acumen in the space,” said Maisano, referring to Trump’s first EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt.
“The agenda, I believe, needs to be radical, and there will be a lot of opposition from the mainstream media, environmental groups, the Democrats in Congress,” said Maisano. “The job of deregulation is going to need someone who can also be a good defender and explainer of what they’re trying to do and what it will accomplish, and why it’s important and why it’s not wrecking the environment.”
The Trump EPA is expected to roll back a host of Biden-era climate regulations for power plants, oil and gas, vehicles and refrigerants. Most of those will have to be replaced with laxer standards. It’s a work plan that takes time and requires the agency to build a regulatory record that will stand up in court.
On Monday, Zeldin made it clear that his primary mission will be deregulation. In a Fox News interview shortly after he was announced as Trump’s EPA pick, Zeldin said he would side with industry over public health protections.
Zeldin has little background in energy or environmental regulations but has long been critical of Democrats’ climate policy.
When Zeldin served in Congress from 2015 to 2023, he served on the House Foreign Affairs and Financial Service committees. Zeldin was part of the Climate Solutions Caucus and Conservative Climate Caucus but put forth no policy that would have meaningfully cut carbon emissions.
SEE ALSO:
The aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton begs the validity of climate change across the nation
https://www.ballstatedailynews.com/article/2024/11/the-aftermath-of-hurricanes-helene-and-milton-begs-the-validity-of-climate-change-across-the-nation
A group of St. Charles County friends watched helplessly as Hurricane Helene made landfall. Within weeks, they headed south to help.
https://www.firstalert4.com/2024/11/12/group-st-charles-county-friends-watched-helplessly-hurricane-helene-made-landfall-within-weeks-they-headed-south-help/
North Carolina residents still struggle with Hurricane Helene recovery
https://www.voanews.com/a/north-carolina-residents-still-struggle-with-hurricane-helene-recovery/7860990.html
Brand-new RVs donated to western North Carolina families ravaged by Helene
https://myfox8.com/weather/hurricane-helene/brand-new-rvs-donated-to-western-north-carolina-families-ravaged-by-helene/
Restaurant workers face hard decisions after Hurricane Helene: stay or leave?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/12/asheville-north-carolina-restaurants-losing-workers-after-hurricane
USDOT Sends $43 Million in Emergency Relief Funding for Hurricane Helene Recovery
https://www.roadsbridges.com/funding/news/55242139/usdot-sends-43-million-in-emergency-relief-funding-for-hurricane-helene-recovery
Florida insurance claims from Hurricanes Helene and Milton climb by $169M in past week
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/707343-florida-insurance-claims-from-hurricanes-helene-and-milton-climb-by-169m-in-past-week/
How to apply for D-SNAP in Florida. Getting help after Hurricanes Helene, Milton
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/2024/11/12/dsnap-florida-hurricane-milton-helene-phase/76216505007/