An Intercontinental Heat Wave, Sponsored by Senator Joe Manchin’s Donors
After more than a year of playing footsie with West Virginia Joe Manchin, Democrats on Capitol Hill have conceded that passing any meaningful legislation concerning climate change is a non-starter.
I don’t think Senator Manchin ever intended to sign on to any bill with significant measures addressing climate change.
After all, with roughly a half million dirty energy dollars already in the bank for his 2024 campaign and three times his congressional salary annually coming in from his investments in coal, he had everything to gain and nothing to lose by dragging the process out.
As Senator Bernie Sanders told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz on Sunday:
“If you check the record, six months ago, I made it clear that you have people like Manchin … who are intentionally sabotaging the president’s agenda, what the American people want, what a majority of us in the Democratic caucus want.,The problem was that we continued to talk to Manchin like he was serious. He was not.”
So it’s over for this session of Congress, and the slew of executive orders President Biden had on hold will be issued. For some reason the question of whether or not to declare a climate emergency (which would expand the scope of executive actions) is still being debated within the White House walls.
A much smaller bill placing some limits on drug prices and (probably–the GOP plans to object because it would be inflation relief) extending health care subsidies will pass, which is a good thing...
Here’s Dan Pfeiffer at Message Box:
Allowing Medicare to negotiate Rx prices is consistently the highest testing policy proposal in polling. In a recent Data for Progress poll, 81 percent of voters — including eight in 10 Republicans — support the idea.
This is not a consolation prize. Without Build Back Better or expectations for an FDR-sized agenda, passage of a bill to lower prescription drug costs is a BFD in the parlance of Joe Biden. Temporary extension of the ACA subsidies kicks the can down the road, but prevents an election eve increase in premiums that would have been one of the greatest unforced errors in political history. The extension is a huge relief for consumers (and politicians).
The political power of this accomplishment is magnified in an election season dominated by concerns about inflation. If and when this bill is signed into law, it will be real, tangible action to address the strains inflation is putting on family budgets. It is something to run on and a powerful point of comparison with Republicans whose response to inflation is tax cuts for the corporations profiting off our pain and banning abortion.
… but it ain’t gonna save the planet.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued an ominous warning Monday, saying humanity faces "collective suicide" from the impact of extreme climate events, including wildfires and heatwaves that are currently wreaking havoc around the world.
Guterres' declaration came as Britain declared a national emergency in bracing for the hottest day ever on record, with temperatures possibly soaring to as high as 106 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Evening Standard.
"Half of humanity is in the danger zone, from floods, droughts, extreme storms and wildfires," Guterres said at the Petersburg Climate Dialogue in Berlin, according to The Guardian.
Speaking of the planet, things really are looking mighty grim this week. We on the left coast are in the midst of the worst drought in over a millennium. Our fire season is now year round, and the really bad part of the year is still to come. Those masks we bought for COVID might also end up being used to filter out smoke.
Just shy of 60 million people — 17% of the population of the US mainland — live in the areas expected to have dangerous levels of heat this week. Heat waves in this country are lasting longer and becoming more frequent and intense, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Texas is a bellwether for what’s ahead. San Antonio, Houston, Waco and Austin are all having their hottest summers on record, with average highs between 98 and 102 degrees, or about 5 to 8 degrees above normal. The forecast calls for all of these locations to keep racking up triple-digit highs for the rest of the month, further separating the heat in 2022 from anything previously observed.
Things look bad for Europeans this week, with 26 all-time records smashed Monday in the UK and France. It will be hotter Tuesday & Wednesday for many. Temperatures have risen as high as 107° in France and expected to near 100° in London.
On Monday, Britain's Royal Air Force said aircraft were using alternative airfields to its Brize Norton air base due to extreme temperatures, after Sky News reported the hot weather had melted the runway at the Oxfordshire base.
There are forest fires burning in Portugal, Spain, France, Greece, Croatia and Hungary and Morocco, with tens of thousands of people being evacuated.
The last of the three exceptional heat waves affecting the Northern Hemisphere is in Central Asia. Temperatures are 20° Fahrenheit more than average or greater over the Plateau of Tibet.
China and Japan are experiencing higher temperatures and more volatile weather. In Japan, authorities have warned of greater than usual stress on the power grid and urged citizens to conserve energy.
Scientists almost always say when asked about specific weather events that they can’t be sure human induced climate change is the cause of that particular heat wave, flood, or drought.
But they can say that collectively these events are induced by the ever increasing amount of CO2 in the atmosphere related to our consumption of fossil fuels.
The concept of keeping the planet habitable started out a half century ago as something that was doable. With each passing year it is becoming more difficult, thanks in part to some well-crafted propaganda campaigns paid for by the purveyors of dirty energy.
Now we’re approaching the “oh, shit, it’s an emergency” phase. Slowing and then reversing the damage done to the atmosphere has become a herculean task. And, frankly, I don’t think the world is up for it.
The name of the game now in wealthier areas is mitigation. This means private firefighters for the one percent, buildings on stilts, and flood walls, etc.
There are grand plans locally for climate change, but no plan to convince the populace to give up their God-given right to drive (by themselves much of the time).
Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com