One Nation senator joins new world order of climate change denial

 One Nation’s Queensland senator Malcolm
Roberts  attended a gathering with an
attendee list that reads like a who’s
who of the climate science denial world.

A key figure picked to prepare the US federal environment agency for life under a Donald Trump administration has met in Washington DC with some of the world’s most notorious and longest-serving climate science deniers, including One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts.

Myron Ebell, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), was picked by the now president-elect to lead the Environmental Protection Agency “transition team” back in September.

Trump has pledged to strip many powers from the EPA to boost fossil fuel production.

Ebell has spent two decades trying to undermine the science linking dangerous climate change to fossil fuel burning.

E&E News reported that Ebell was at one meeting hosted by the CEI and held in the hearing room of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee.

The EPW committee is chaired by Senator James Inhofe who, like Trump, has described human-caused climate change as a hoax.

The meeting was not open to the public or the press, E&E News reported, with Ebell refusing to give any details.

Read Graham Readfearn’s story in The Guardian - “One Nation senator joins new world order of climate change denial.”

On climate change policy, neither time nor Trump are on Turnbull's side

 A Climate Analytics report has found that
developed countries will have
to stop burning coal for electricity by 2030.

When Malcolm Turnbull was dumped by the Liberal party in 2009 because he refused to renounce support for emissions trading, the man now about to assume responsibility for implementing Donald Trump’s evisceration of US climate change policy was elated.

Myron Ebell, a veteran warrior against action on global warming, wrote on his “competitive enterprise institute” blog that “toppling Turnbull was a necessary step” in defeating Australia’s cap and trade scheme. And he understood exactly who deserved credit.

“A number of Liberal members have risked their careers to stop cap-and-trade, including Cory Bernardi and Nick Minchin as well as Tony Abbott. They should all be honored for their courageous stand,” Ebell enthused.

Trump, who has claimed the “concept” of global warming was concocted by the Chinese to hurt American manufacturing, has vowed to withdraw from the Paris climate change treaty, abolish the Environment Protection Authority’s climate policy role, scrap Barack Obama’s centrepiece Clean Power Plan and dismantle any curbs on fossil fuel developments.

Read Lenore Taylor’s report on The Guardian - “On climate change policy, neither time nor Trump are on Turnbull's side.”

Myron Ebell, the Climate Contrarian Now Plotting the EPA's Precarious Future

Myron Ebell, chosen by Donald Trump to lead his transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency, traces a long history as a determined conservative firebrand.

He rose through the ranks of the "wise-use" movement to land at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, pushing an ideology of private property and free markets reigning supreme. He led activists calling themselves the Cooler Heads Coalition, pushing a brand of no-holds-barred climate denial, putting himself at the center of divisive advocacy wars over fossil fuels and the environment.

For decades, he has pushed the radical insistence that the environmental left has it all wrong: the science, the ideology, the economics and the politics of climate change.

Read the Inside Climate News story - “Myron Ebell, the Climate Contrarian Now Plotting the EPA's Precarious Future.”

Trump begins filling environmental posts with clowns

 American students protest outside the UN
 climate talks during the COP22 international
 climate conference in Marrakesh in
reaction to Donald Trump’s victory in
the US presidential election. 

Come on, you can admit it. I admit it. I admit that after Trump’s election victory, I secretly hoped and even though that his rhetoric was worse than its bite. He only said those crazy things during the campaign to get elected. He wouldn’t really follow through on his plans to completely gut the US commitment to keeping the Earth habitable. Oh how naive we were. Trump’s plan to fill positions in his administration shows things are worse than we could have ever feared.

According to recent reports, Trump has picked long-time climate denier and spokesperson for the fossil fuel industry Myron Ebell to head the Environmental Protection Agency transition. This basically means the EPA will either cease to function or cease to exist. It also appears that the US will pull out of any agreements to limit greenhouse emissions.

It means we have missed our last off-ramp on the road to catastrophic climate change. That may sound hyperbolic, but I study the rate that climate change is happening – the amount of heat accumulating in the Earth’s system. We didn’t have any time to waste in implementing Obama’s aggressive plans, and Trump will result in a decade of time lost.

Read The Guardian story - “Trump begins filling environmental posts with clowns.”

'Everyone is vulnerable': Trump presidency a risk to Australia's climate science

A Trump presidency in the US could have serious impacts on Australia's climate science and other research, with fears the cuts could be "CSIRO times 50".

Donald Trump's pledge to end US participation in the Paris climate agreement and expectations he will appoint climate change denier Myron Ebell to a key environment role has scientists bracing for fallout.

Australia's climate research relies on many US programs, some of which have been targeted by the Republican-controlled Congress. President Barack Obama resisted cuts to agencies such as NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration but he will leave office on January 20.

At the extreme end, a Trump administration could jeopardise global climate efforts by withholding access to data that underpins climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said David Karoly, an atmospheric scientist at Melbourne University.

Read Peter Hannam’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “'Everyone is vulnerable': Trump presidency a risk to Australia's climate science.”

Trump Picks Top Climate Skeptic to Lead EPA Transition

Donald Trump wants to dismantle America's
climate infrastructure and has already
moved on that.

Donald Trump has selected one of the best-known climate skeptics to lead his U.S. EPA transition team, according to two sources close to the campaign.

Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, is spearheading Trump’s transition plans for EPA, the sources said.

The Trump team has also lined up leaders for its Energy Department and Interior Department teams. Republican energy lobbyist Mike McKenna is heading the DOE team; former Interior Department solicitor David Bernhardt is leading the effort for that agency, according to sources close to the campaign.

Ebell is a well-known and polarizing figure in the energy and environment realm. His participation in the EPA transition signals that the Trump team is looking to drastically reshape the climate policies the agency has pursued under the Obama administration. Ebell’s role is likely to infuriate environmentalists and Democrats but buoy critics of Obama’s climate rules.

Read The Scientific American story - “Trump Picks Top Climate Skeptic to Lead EPA Transition.”