Trump to face intense G-7 pressure on climate change
As U.S. Sec of Transportation Pete Buttigieg focuses on “every transportation decision” being a “climate decision”, China-made cars take over the world.
See: Net Zero’s Global Winner is — China! ‘US hasn’t noticed yet that China-Made cars are taking over the world’ – Poised to become No. 2 exporter of cars, surpassing US & S. Korea…
Trump ‘can’t escape climate change’ impacts says Fiji PM
Fiji’s Prime Minister has issued a coded warning to Donald Trump about the dangers of climate change.
The US leader is due to decide on future US participation in the Paris climate agreement after next week’s G7 meeting in Italy.
But Frank Bainimarama told delegates here that whether you lived in Miami or New York, you wouldn’t be able to escape the rising seas.
Fiji will lead the next key UN climate talks later this year.
This normally low-profile May meeting of UN delegates has been overshadowed to an extent by the ongoing question of future US involvement in the Paris accord.
While not addressing Mr Trump or the US directly, Mr Bainimarama told the negotiators that he would bring his own experience as a Pacific islander to his role as head of the Conference of Parties.
“We who are most vulnerable must be heard, whether we come from the Pacific or other Small Island Developing States, other low-lying nations and states or threatened cities in the developed world like Miami, New York, Venice or Rotterdam,” he told negotiators.
“But together we must speak out for the whole world – every global citizen – because no-one, no matter who they are or where they liv…
Trump Deputy Interior Pick Gets A Lashing On Climate Change From Sen. Al Franken
About an hour and a half into Deputy Interior Secretary nominee David Bernhardt’s Thursday confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, committee member Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) asked Bernhardt whether he believes climate change represents a “serious threat that requires aggressive action?”
In response, Bernhardt commented that “we need to take the science as it comes, whatever that is.”
After Franken interjected and stated, “I believe the science is pretty decided on this,” Bernhardt added, “I personally believe that the [human] contribution [to climate change] is significant, very significant. Now, that’s different that what we do with it, and here’s where people disagree.”
“My task will be to take the science, put it in the paradigm of the administration’s policy perspective which is [that] we’re not going to sacrifice jobs for this and then look at the legal rubric and say how do we apply the law there?” Bernhardt added.
Franken called his response “incredibly short-sighted” given job opportunities in the clean energy sector, and pressed Bernhardt on the matter again, saying “the science is in.”
“Policy decisions are made,” Bernhardt responded. “This president ran on a particular perspective. That perspective won’t change to the extent that we have the discretion under the law to follow it. In some instances we might not, but those that we do, we’re absolutely going to follow the policy perspective of the president. And here’s why: That’s the way our republic works and he is the president.”
Bernhardt, an attorney at the well-connected law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreckwho previously served as the Interior’s top lawyer under former President George W. Bush, also faced pointed questions on Thursday concerning potential conflicts of interest arising from Bernhardt’s connections to the firm’s current or former clients.
Vatican Confident Pope Will Change Trump’s View On ‘Global Warming’ At Upcoming Meeting
Via: http://www.ecowatch.com/pope-francis-trump-climate-change-2411311764.html
Vatican Bishop Confident Pope Will Change Trump’s View on Climate Change
Kill the Paris Treaty and Rip out its Roots.
http://theclimatescepticsparty.blogspot.com/2017/05/kill-paris-treaty-and-rip-out-its-roots.html
Media Release/Opinion Piece For Immediate Release 18 th May 2017 Kill the Paris Treaty and Rip out its Roots. By Viv Forbes , Secretary of the Clexit Coalition The Clexit Coalition today called on President Trump to keep his election promise to withdraw from the Paris Climate Treaty and stop US payments to all UN global warming programs.
No takers yet on French President Macron’s plea for climate scientists to move to France to Escape Trump
French President Emmanuel Macron urged U.S. climate scientists during his campaign to move to France, but so far it doesn’t appear that anyone has taken him up on his offer.
Mr. Macron posted a video in February taking a swipe at President Trump on global warming and welcoming to France “American researchers, entrepreneurs, engineers working on climate change.”
“The message for you guys: Please come to France. You are welcome. It’s your nation. We like innovation. We want innovative people. We want people working on climate change, energy, renewables and new technologies,” said Mr. Macron in English. “France is your nation.”
Even though Mr. Macron handily defeated Marine Le Pen in the May 7 presidential runoff, so far no U.S. climate researchers have declared their intention to flee to Paris.
“I have not heard of a single one taking up the offer as of yet,” said Climate Depot’s Marc Morano. “Perhaps the climate scientists here in the U.S. are still enjoying their academic perks, steady funding and endless media adoration. There does not seem to be too much of a reason they would want to leave.”
In the widely viewed video, Mr. Macron warned that Mr. Trump “has decided to jeopardize your budget, your initiatives, as he is extremely skeptical about climate change. I have no doubt about climate change and how committed we have to be regarding this issue.”
Prof. Roger Pielke Jr.: ‘Trump pulls out of Paris, Trump wins. Trump stays in, Trump wins’
Dr. Roger Pielke Jr.
Excerpts:
Will he or won’t he? There has been much discussion of whether President Trump keeps the US in the Paris Agreement. If we are having this debate then Trump has already won.
Much of climate debate (at least in the US) is about symbols, and Trump has roundly routed his opponents on this turf
So think of the Paris Agreement not as a policy framework, but rather as a potent political symbol.
As a symbol, here is how the politics works: Trump pulls out of Paris, Trump wins. Trump stays in, Trump wins. Fun game, huh?
In a perceptive piece @jmcurtin writes: “The only White House climate debate is between those who want to use the Paris climate agreement as a branding and lobbying opportunity, and those who favour leaving it altogether.”
Similarly, President Trump has made a big deal of reversing Obama’s Clan Power Plan. This too is a symbolic action. According to EIA, the impact of the CPP is pretty marginal:
- In fact, its projected impact of the CPP is far less than market prices for fossil fuels, again according to EIA:
- Consider that the CPP would likely have been tied up in the courts during a Hilary Clinton administration and you get … symbolism.
- Advocates for more aggressive climate action should use the opportunity afforded by the Trump presidency to fundamentally rethink climate policy in a way that would be politically robust.
- Did the recent Science March help to bring people together? Early evidence says: probably not.
- After failing to get Bret Stephens fired from the New York Times, the nation’s leading climate scientist, Michael Mann (@MichaelEMann) has focused his vitriol on cartoonist Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame (@ScottAdamsSays).
- I can’t believe I just wrote that. (Seriously, if you are not yet blocked by Mann, go over and read his Twitter feed for a glimpse into the world view of the nation’s most important climate scientist.)
- Pro tip: If you don’t want to be viewed as analogous to a religious fundamentalist, don’t go after cartoonists.
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- Here is an interesting paper on how science assessments treat minority or divergent views (not well).
- Are low-energy light bulbs now in such wide use that they are influencing total US energy use? These guys think so.
- A new paper in Science suggests that the notion of
EPA Science Advisers Resign After Trump Dismisses Top Board Member
…Sec. of State Rex Tillerson sows confusion over Trump’s climate policy
http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/15/trump-needs-to-get-a-grip-on-his-communications-and-cabinet/
What is President Donald Trump’s policy on climate change and does he think the United States should be encouraged — or even obliged — to follow the dictates of the Paris climate accord? Well, truly it depends who you talk to and no issue better illustrates the cleavage in the Trump administration between liberal progressives and conservatives who are ardently opposed to big government solutions.
So what was Tillerson up to this week? Well, he journeyed to Alaska to have a summit with something called the Arctic partners. While there he signed the Fairbanks Declaration: a document that explicitly endorses the objectives of the Paris Accord. Tillerson was not just complicit in the declaration, nor was his participation reluctant or somehow coerced; no, Tillerson led the discussion and enthusiastically forged unity among those present.
It always concerns me when a U.S. secretary of state earns the unbridled praise of a member of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet. But Foreign Affairs Minsiter Chystia Freeland was absolutely effusive in her praise of Tillerson’s tremendous efforts on behalf of the climate change cause, clearly believing that he was not only exhibiting his own environmental fervor but that of his government.
Trump needs to clarify his environmental position with the same speed and zest that he applies to his Twitter activities. The climate change movement does not just represent an utterly unrealistic political objective but it remains potentially the largest tax grab in history as we are expected to somehow reduce carbon emissions by paying more for gas. The objective of course is to reduce the population to a stone-age lifestyle that is bereft of any carbon-producing modern convenience or warmth-emitting fuel.
Of course, even if this transformation is achieved, it will not offset the increasing industrialization of China and India but we in the West will certainly feel the pain of doing our part. It is not so much a climate change war as …
Watch: French president calls U.S. climate scientists to move to France to escape Trump
On Monday, France elected former Socialist Party member Emmanuel Macron to be the nation’s next president, pushing Macron’s past promise to offer a home to all climate change scientists in America to the forefront of the ongoing debate over global warming.
Macron, who has been described by many European and American news outlets as a “centrist,” is a noted believer in the theory humans are primarily responsible for climate change. In February, Macron posted a video on his Facebook page in which he invited all U.S. climate researchers to France to escape the Trump administration.
“I do know how your new president now has decided to jeopardize your budget, your initiatives, as he is extremely skeptical of climate change,” Macron said in the video. “I have no doubt about climate change, and how committed we have to be regarding this issue.”
Macron said to U.S. scientists France will be their “new homeland.”
“I want all those who today embody innovation and excellence in the United States to hear what we say: From now on, from next May, you will have a new homeland, France,” Macron said.
Since Macron’s victory, the video has received massive attention. As of Sunday morning, it had been viewed more than 19.4 million times and shared more than 200,000 times.
Many climate change scientists have expressed their displeasure at President Donald Trump’s plans to roll back climate-change-related regulations and policies imposed by the Obama administration.
In April, thousands of protesters gathered in Washington, D.C., and in cities across the United States in opposition to Trump’s skepticism about man-caused climate change. One of the primary leaders of the march, pop scientist Bill Nye, who is not a climate expert, repeatedly called out politicians and Trump for rejecting what he believes to be settled science.
“Today, we have a great many lawmakers, not just here, but around the world, deliberately ignoring and actively surpassing science,” Nye said. “Their inclination is misguided, and in no one’s best interest.”
Some climate change skeptics are hoping Nye and other climate alarmists take up Macron on his offer to allow climate change researchers to move to France. In an article for the popular climate change website Watts Up With That?, Eric Worrall wrote, “Speculation is mounting about whether President Macron will keep his promise to take all our climate scientists, and offer them a new home in France. … President Macron,
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