US government reports humans cause climate change, contradicting Trump officials

Washington: Directly contradicting much of the Trump administration's position on climate change, 13 federal agencies have unveiled an exhaustive scientific report that says humans are the dominant cause of the global temperature rise that has occurred since the start of the 20th century, creating the warmest period in the history of civilisation.

Protesters gather outside a meeting where an EPA
 climate change report was to be released last month.

Over the past 115 years, global average temperatures have increased 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, leading to record-breaking weather events and temperature extremes, the report says.

The global, long-term warming trend is "unambiguous," it says, and there is "no convincing alternative explanation" that anything other than humans - the cars we drive, the power plants we operate, the forests we destroy - are to blame.

The report was approved for release by the White House, but the findings come as the Trump administration is defending its climate change policies on several fronts, with US President Donald Trump having declared the "war on coal" to be over.

Read Lisa Friedman’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “US government reports humans cause climate change, contradicting Trump officials.”

Liberals have a responsibility too: make climate change a top issue

(In a brutal news sense, this story is a little dated, but the topic is as current as tomorrow - Robert McLean)

On Thursday when the announcement hit that Trump was taking America out of the Paris Climate Accord, my social media feed predictably blew up. As an environmental journalist with a lot of left-leaning friends, you can imagine what it looked like: anger, frustration, shock, sadness, another outrage from the world’s most outrageous leader. All of a sudden every one I knew was talking about climate change; I’ll admit it was a nice change of pace, but after nearly ten years of covering climate change I also knew it would be fleeting.

A firefighter carries a woman from her car after it was caught in street
flooding as a powerful storm moves across Southern California on
February 17, 2017 in Sun Valley, California. After years of severe drought,
 heavy winter rains have come to the state and the evacuation of hundreds
of residents from Duarte, California for fear of flash flooding from areas
denuded by a wildfire last year. Research has shown that California’s
drought was likely worsened by climate change. And climate change,
 as well, is also leading to heavier, more extreme rainfalls worldwide.

Liberals have been the champions of climate action for decades, but they’ve largely championed it as an afterthought, something that comes near the end of a long to-do list, like the brussels sprouts you conveniently forget to pick up at the grocery store (polling bears this out). When I bring up climate change during chats with left-leaning friends, I often get that pause – that suspended moment – when I can see someone in the group look askance. I can see what they’re thinking, “Again, Jeremy, with the climate change?”

Read the story on The Guardian by Jeremy Hance - "Liberals have a responsibility too: make climate change a top issue.”

Trump repealed Paris insurance

From The Washington Post.

Trump just gutted U.S. policies to fight climate change

Three months into President Donald Trump’s first term, one thing has become increasingly clear: Trump has no interest in maintaining the environmental protections ushered in by President Barack Obama.

A coal-fired power plant in Juliette, America.

Trump looks to solidify that intention on Tuesday, releasing a sweeping executive order that touches nearly every environmental action taken by the previous administration.

“There are a number of policies from the Obama administration that the president believes should be reviewed,” a senior White House official said during a press call on Monday night. “Some of them should be taken off the books immediately, to the extent that we can.”

Read Natasha Geiling’s ThinkProgress story - “Trump just gutted U.S. policies to fight climate change.”