trump administration – handmaidens to fossil fuel

Associated Press

US says conserving oil is no longer an economic imperative

Ellen Knickmeyer, AP        August 19, 2018  

Scientists struggling to eradicate toxic ‘red tides’ from Florida’s coast

engadget

Scientists struggling to eradicate toxic ‘red tides’ from Florida’s coast

The latest outbreak has already killed thousands of marine animals.

By Andrew Tarantola      August 17, 2018

Joe Raedle via Getty Images
In 1793, Captain George Vancouver and his British surveying crew landed in a small cove and helped themselves to some of the nearby shellfish, despite the odd glow of the sea that day and despite the native peoples taboo against eating mussels during such occurrences. One of Vancouver’s crew subsequently became among the first people on record to die from paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) generated by the bioluminescent algal blooms of Alexandrium catenella. You’ll never guess what the inlet is named now.

HONGKONG-ENVIRONMENT/

The Gulf Coast of Florida is currently suffering from a similar form of algae-induced poisoning, and has been for almost 10 months. Since October, 2017, the nearly 150 miles of state coastline — from Anna Maria Island near Bradenton down south to Naples — has been inundated with a Red Tide, specifically a massive bloom of the Karenia brevis species.

While this outbreak is not the longest on record (a bloom near Miami back in 2005-2006 ran for nearly a year and a half), this one has proven especially deadly for marine life. What makes K. brevis so dangerous is that the dinoflagellates produce potent neurotoxic substances such as brevetoxin. So far, this substance has been linked to the death of (literally) tons of fish, more than two dozen manatees a number of dolphins and even a 26-foot juvenile whale shark. Sea turtles, including the endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, have been dying at triple the nominal annual rate throughout 2018. More than 300 have already died from ingesting the brevetoxin, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

No human deaths have been reported as of yet, though the toxin can become aerosolized when waves crash up onto the beach, causing or exacerbating breathing problems. As such, while you can technically go swimming during a Red Tide, health experts warn against it. However this bloom is hitting Florida’s tourism industry hard. Governor Rick Scott on Monday announced that he would be diverting half a million dollars to local communities and businesses impacted by the drop in tourist dollars during the outbreak as well as another $100,000 towards cleanup and mitigation efforts. The especially hard-hit Lee County is slated to receive additional $900,000 in emergency relief funds.

The unicellular algae that cause Red Tides are actually fairly common throughout the world’s oceans. Though many of these blooms are non-toxic — they cause more problems via the sheer girth of their biomass which can, for example, create anaerobic environments that suffocate other organisms (so-called “fish kills”) — around a dozen species are known to produce the deadly compounds.

Interestingly, we’re not really sure what purpose these toxins actually serve. They could be a feeding deterrent, Dr. Kathleen Rein of Florida International University’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, told Engadget, or they could simply be a natural byproduct of the algae’s metabolic process.

“This organism uses a lot of energy to make these molecules,” she said. “I think there’s some other physiological, biochemical function for these molecules. But that is an area that really needs more research.”

We do, however, very much understand how they work. These toxins are designed to latch onto specific proteins embedded on the cell’s excitable membrane. This causes the cell’s ion channels to open, depolarizing the cell. After the affected cell exhausts the sodium at its immediate disposal, it stops transmitting electrical impulses. You only need picomolar (.001 mole) concentrations of these toxins in your system to begin feeling the effects.

Toxic Red Tide On Florida's Southwest Coast Killing Hundreds Of Turtles And Fish

“People who have been poisoned with this have had gastrointestinal problems, disorientation, dizziness, they describe their lips tingling,” Rein explained. There is also something called a temperature reversal sensation, where hot feels cold, and cold feels hot. You have to have a pretty high dose to get that, though.”

What’s worrisome is that many of these algae species (toxic or not) are spreading into formerly foreign environments and upsetting the local food web balance. Aureococcus anophagefferens, for example, used to only be found in the northeastern US and South Africa is now being pulled out of nuclear power plant cooling intakes in China. Aureoumbra lagunensis has spread from a single locale to expand along the entire Gulf Coast and recently migrated to Cuba. Most troubling is the spread of Ostreopsis, the toxic species thought to cause ciguatera fish poisoning. With a readily-aerosolable toxin, cases of respiratory distress have increased wherever Ostreopsis has flourished.

Frustratingly, researchers have yet to pin down why these blooms occur in the first place.

“We’ve tried and tried to look for the causes of red tide,” Richard Pierce, a senior scientist at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium, told National Geographic. “And it just seems to be something that likes the coast of Florida.”

FLORIDA-REDTIDE/

Dinoflagellates like K. brevis exist in the ocean at concentrations of around 1,000 cells per liter of seawater. In fact natural algae blooms have occurred regularly throughout history (as British Columbia’s indigenous peoples can tell you), often when there is a seasonal upwelling of nutrients from the deep ocean or when a major storm or hurricane churns up the currents. This brings nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich waters to the surface where the algae can feast and reproduce. The natural balance can be upset by human activity near the coast, especially when nutrient-packed agricultural runoff reaches the sea to further feed the blooms.

Rising surface water temperatures resulting from climate change have also been linked to the blooms. Climate change may also play an indirect role in the formation of Red Tides by contributing to increasingly powerful hurricanes. That record-length 17-month Red Tide that bloomed between 2005 and 2006 was preceded by a pair of intense hurricane years off the coast of Florida. Those storms scoured the coastline, pouring nutrients into the local waters. Hurricane Irma in 2017 did the same in 2017 and is suspected as having helped cause this latest algae outbreak.

“The hurricane that went through there last year would have flushed huge amounts of nutrients into the coastal waters.,” Dr. Don Anderson, Senior Scientist in the Biology Department of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, explained to Engadget. “And then, that was months ago, but still some people are speculating that that would’ve been the hurricane effect. That it would have been just flushing the land out and washing all this nitrogen, phosphorus, and other things in to the coastal ocean, where it’s been available to fuel these kind of blooms.”

What’s more, this strengthening trend may have been going on since the 1950s. A 2008 study out of the University of Miami examined data on K. brevis from the past half century, finding that there were 13 to 18 times as many blooms in the 8 year span between 1994 and 2002 than there were between 1954 and 1963. The study’s authors blame increased human activity in Florida where nutrient-laden water from Lake Okeechobee (which is currently struggling with an algae bloom of its own) is diverted towards communities on the Gulf Coast. When the freshwater runoff comes into contact with seawater, “Those freshwater algae die, release all those nutrients, and that just feeds right into the [K. brevis] algae,” study author and University of Miami researcher Larry Brand wrote in the report.

Researchers from the Mote Lab are working on methods to minimize the effects of these blooms and mitigate the damage they cause to local ecosystems. One such device, which is currently in testing, injects ozone molecules into the water, destroying all organic compounds (including brevetoxins) present while aerating the fluid. The team has already completed small-scale testing using a 25,000 gallon tank and will soon attempt the experiment in a local 600,000-gallon canal.

While hosting the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese government took a decidedly low-tech approach towards minimizing the appearance of red tides: clay. “Uou disperse into the water, and the clay particles aggregate with each other, and with all the cells that are there, and they sink to the bottom,” Anderson explained. “And you can clear the water that way.”

Drones and autonomous underwater vehicles are also playing an increasingly large role in monitoring and modelling Red Tides. The “Brevebuster” AUV operated by the Mote Marine Lab, for example, is loaded with optical sensors which can identify the presence of K. brevis in the field based on the light absorbing characteristics of its collected water samples. Additionally the Imaging FlowCytobot from McLane Labs at the Woods Hole Oceanographic institute, incorporates an underwater flow cytometer to automatically photograph, count and even identify the kinds of cells that it collects in samples.

“Conscientious pursuit of goals for pollution reductions, including excess nutrients, could well prevent HABs in some locations,” Anderson wrote in his 2012 paper. “Careful assessment and precaution against species introductions via ballast water and aquaculture-related activities also can be effective preventative strategies.” However such strategies, he concedes, are more long-term solutions as it will take time for the excess nutrients in sediment are slowly flushed out.

Rein points to a number of other studies geared towards keeping red tides under control, including “using maybe a virus that’s specific for dinoflagellates, or seeding the bloom with another phytoplankton species that could out-compete K. brevis. Or even a parasitic dinoflagellate that infects other dinoflagellates.”

However, despite some studies initial successes, they’re not likely to be deployed in the near future. “Scientists are really, really wary of tinkering with the delicate ecological balance in the ocean,” she continued. “Because you start doing that, and you could end up with something worse.”

Even if we can’t beat back algae blooms any further than the tides themselves, perhaps we can at least exploit them. In 2004, researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Science in Florida were working to develop a defense against the irritating toxins produced by red tide algae. The researchers came up with a pair of “anti-toxins” — the manmade b-Naphthoyl-brevetoxin compound and brevenal, which is produced by the algae itself.

Not only did these anti-toxins prove to successfully mitigate irritating effects of getting aerosolized brevetoxin in the eye, nose and throat, the researchers also noticed that these compounds worked much in the same way as the current class of drugs used to treat cystic fibrosis — just far more effectively.

Chest X-ray of lungs with cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis is the most common fatal genetic disease for white people. An estimated 12 million people carry the defective gene and 30,000 actively suffer from the disease, which causes the lungs and airway to become clogged with thick mucus which serves as an idea breeding ground for bacteria.

“These compounds are excellent candidates for the development of an entirely new class of drugs targeted for the treatment of mucociliary disease,” Dr. Kenneth Olden, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, wrote in a statement at the time.

What’s more, they appear to be effective at doses magnitudes smaller — that is, you need a dose 1 million times lower — than what is currently required. “These agents can improve the clearance of mucus, and they may also work at concentrations that have no side effects,” Dr. William Abraham, pulmonary pharmacologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center and author of the study, said in the same statement.

These toxins are also being eyed for potential oncology applications as well. “One person’s toxin is the next person’s cancer drug,” Rein quipped.

No matter how we decide to tackle the red tide issue, we’re going to want to do it sooner than later. The Earth’s population is expected to hit 9 billion by the middle of the century and top 10 billion by the start of the next. With all those mouths to feed and thirsts to quench, humans will accelerate their exploitation of the planet’s shorelines while increasing the intensity of their agricultural efforts. Anderson estimates that we’ll need to boost food production by 30 percent by midcentury to keep up with humanity’s nutritional needs. That will be done, in the short term at least, through the liberal use of fertilizers, further complicating red tide mitigation efforts.

Images: Getty Images (bioluminescent waves, dead fish);Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission(map, algae cells); Getty Creative (lung X-ray)

Andrew has lived in San Francisco since 1982 and has been writing clever things about technology since 2011. When not arguing the finer points of portable vaporizers and military defense systems with strangers on the internet, he enjoys tooling around his garden, knitting and binge watching anime.

Ignore the climate change deniers. California’s hellish summer really is a grave warning

Los Angeles Times

Steve Lopez: Ignore the climate change deniers. California’s hellish summer really is a grave warning

By Steve Lopez       August 11, 2018 

Felipe Montiel fishes at Lake Elsinore as the Holy fire reflects across the water while burning in the Cleveland National Forest above homes in Lake Elsinore. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Wind-swept wildfires raging. Homes incinerated. Families displaced. Lives lost.

In the long, hot, smoky California summer of 2018, as we camp under ash-hued sunset skies, the scariest thought is that the future has arrived, and more intense weather extremes will continue to wreak havoc in years to come. Not just in summer, but with drought-deluge cycles and higher temperatures even in cooler months.

Last week, an 81-year-old Van Nuys resident told me that sure, summers have always been hot, but lately they seem to have been imported from Palm Springs.

Near Santa Cruz, a winery owner told me there are fewer foggy days and more high temperatures, shrinking what have long been prime grape-growing regions.

But not everyone is alarmed, it turns out, which I’ve discovered since my July 18 column on climate change. Reaction has fallen into the following categories:

There is no climate change, and I’m a stooge to have fallen for a hoax.

Global warming exists, but it’s not man-made.

Climate change is real, but it’s silly to believe California’s environmental zealotry can measurably improve a global problem.

And lastly, if climate change is real and it’s here, what can we do about it legislatively and individually?

So let’s take a look at each one, beginning with those who believe — as does the president of the United States and a number of his key advisors and members of Congress — that climate change is a figment of our imaginations, or that we’re overreacting to what might simply be natural variations.

“You see, Steve, what you call global warming, we call summer,” wrote a reader named Jim.

“They say the temps are the highest recorded in 130 years,” wrote Joe. “What was the excuse for the soaring temps 130 years ago when there were no cars and very, very little industrialization … here’s a clue — it’s a HOAX swallowed whole by the rush of lemmings who want to believe they are doing gooooooooooood things for the planet.”

I responded by telling Joe what several climate scientists have painstakingly explained to me in recent weeks:

Yes, unusually high temperatures have always existed, but scientists have now documented more frequent and intense heat waves of longer duration. Also, nighttime temperatures have increased, record highs now outnumber record lows by a 5-1 ratio and atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased from 250 parts per million to 400 parts per million, all of which has altered climates around the world.

Joe called this information “crap” that can’t stand up to “REAL SCIENTIFIC SCRUTINY.” He suggested I look up the writings of climate scientist Judith Curry, who has long attacked the views of many climate scientists as alarmist. Curry has not challenged the notion of global warming, but has questioned the causes, and whether there has been a rush to judgment.

Ben Santer, a climate scientist with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, had this to say:

“Prof. Curry has argued (and continues to argue) that: 1) climate scientists routinely ignore important uncertainties in their efforts to quantify human influences on global climate; and 2) reality is too complex for us to comprehend; we will never understand the real-world climate system.”

Santer said he disagrees with Curry on both counts.

“In my line of research — climate fingerprinting — we routinely consider uncertainties in satellite temperature data, in model simulations of natural variability, and in model estimates of the climate response to human influences,” Santer said.

“Furthermore, we routinely look at other possible explanations for the observed changes in climate (such as changes in the Sun’s energy output and changes in volcanic activity). Uncertainty is an integral part of our work. We do not sweep it under the carpet, as Prof. Curry incorrectly asserts,” Santer said.

He added that despite imperfect observations, it is clear “beyond any reasonable doubt” that evidence points to a “human-caused warming signal” related to greenhouse gas increases. And if we wait for more perfect data before responding, Santer warned, “humanity is in trouble.”

California isn’t waiting. The state has long led the way on embracing renewable energysources and limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Then there’s the current legislation demanding better gas mileage in the near future, which is under attack by the Trump administration. But as a single state in a world of major polluters, can going green make a difference?

Alex Hall, a UCLA climate scientist, has no doubt.

“I think what’s happening in California is wonderful,” said Hall, who traded his gas-hungry car for a Chevy Bolt. “It’s a pathway forward.”

Environmentalism isn’t sacrifice, Hall said. It’s change. And in charting a course toward renewable energy and lower greenhouse gas emissions, California is setting an agenda.

“If you look at any transformation in history, it hasn’t happened all at once everywhere,” Hall said. “It’s been a small group of people committed to change. They’ve made change in their communities and it scaled up from there.”

Lynn Sosa of Mt. Washington emailed to say she wishes outdoor mall merchants would close their doors in the middle of summer, instead of throwing them open so shoppers might be lured in by air-conditioned blasts. Sosa and her husband, Jeffrey Parkin, suggested I visit Glendale’s Americana on Brand, and sure enough, more than half the shops had their doors open as the temperature hit 98 one afternoon.

The Apple store was one of them, and Tesla was another — a Tesla showroom with electric cars on display, along with a wall-mounted solar pitch: “Energy Security for Your Home.”

Maybe Tesla/Space X engineering guru Elon Musk has a plan to reverse global warming with air conditioning?

Actually, said the Tesla sales clerk, the AC was working so hard with the doors wide open, it had been on the fritz two or three times in recent weeks. He said that keeping the doors open was mall policy, but Americana owner Rick Caruso denied that and called it unacceptable, promising to look into it.

“We are adamant that we are environmentally sensitive,” Caruso said.

“Adaptation is survival, and we have to do it in our personal and professional lives,” said David Fink, a climate change policy consultant whose projects include updating the state’s Cal-Adapt.org website, which logs climate change data to aid in planning decisions.

We have to be smarter about how we get places, how much fuel we burn, where we clear brush and where we plant trees, where we allow new housing developments and what materials we use to build them, Fink said.

“Laying down black asphalt everywhere is one of the worst things we can be doing,” said Fink, who told me about light-colored coating materials that don’t retain as much heat.

The same concept is true, he added, for new roofing materials that reflect rather than absorb heat.

“A key to all of this is that a number of these things are either free or there are incentives or rebates available,” said Fink, who recommended going to LADWP.com and clicking on “rebates” for information.

There are, of course, ways to make an impact on a bigger scale, or to at least try. You can speak up for candidates who understand the threat to the planet, or you can scream about destructive environmental policy bought and paid for by fossil fuel barons.

As Santer said, one of the best things you can do is educate yourself. He suggested that I read “Climate Change Evidence & Causes,” a short summary that’s been neatly laid out by the Royal Society and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

I grew up in California, lived in the Bay Area for 30 years and in Southern California for 20 more, and yes, climate variations have always existed. I can recall many extremes of dry heat and steady rain.

But this looks and feels different. The hills are drier and more combustible, the heat is hotter and more stubborn, the fires are bigger and more frightening and I can only wonder what we’ll be passing on to my daughter and future generations.

However many naysayers there are, including a president who blames California’s catastrophe on everything but global warming, leading the way on educating, planning and adapting isn’t just possible, it’s a moral imperative.

Steve Lopez is a California native who has been an L.A. Times columnist since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards for his reporting and column writing at seven newspapers and four news magazines, and is a three-time Pulitzer finalist for commentary – in 2012, for his columns on elder care; in 2016, for his columns on income inequality in California; and in 2018, for his columns on housing and homelessness. He is the author of three novels, two collections of columns and a non-fiction work called “The Soloist,” which was a Los Angeles Times and New York Times best-seller, winner of the PEN USA Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and the subject of a Dream Works movie by the same name. Lopez’s television reporting for public station KCET has won three local news Emmys, three Golden Mike awards and a share of the Columbia University DuPont Award.

Related:

L.A. Times

Climate change deniers aren’t worth any news coverage

Climate change deniers aren't worth any news coverage
Firefighters take care of hot spots from the Holy Fire near Lake Elsinore. (Los Angeles Times)

To the editor: Steve Lopez writes effectively about climate change. But I have a question: Why does he feel he must give any ink, screen space or time to the deniers? These people make no valid arguments; there is no need to counter them. It’s time just to stop covering them.

It’s clear the deniers have scientists over a barrel. Of course no ethical scientist will be able to say, “This particular event is a result of climate change.” They have to talk about trends over time. That’s not a powerful way to counter the deniers. But why feel any need, anymore, to counter them? It’s all too clear, and there’s close to unanimous agreement among the ethical scientists. Countering the deniers makes their arguments seem legitimate.

I agree that leading the way on educating, planning and adapting is a moral imperative. But I’m sad that Lopez doesn’t include the word “preventing.” Obviously we are already in it, and we can’t prevent some of the effects of climate change. But are we really ready to stop talking about preventing the worst effects? I say no.

Mary Byrd, Santa Barbara

To the editor: The climate change debate reminds me of my youth, when I did some technical rock climbing.

The decision to use a safety rope was not based on the likelihood of a fall, but instead on the consequences of a fall. If a fall would be a disaster, we would rope up, even though it was inconvenient and a fall was unlikely. It seems the same logic applies to climate change.

Even if there was a lack of scientific consensus, the consequences of failing to respond to climate change would still demand action. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions will also reduce other forms of pollution, leading to a large decrease in preventable premature deaths.

If our civilization lasts long enough, we will run out of economically viable fossil fuels. It may be decades or it may be centuries, but the earlier we transition to a low-carbon lifestyle, the greater the benefit to mankind.

Tom Hazelleaf, Seal Beach

To the editor: Isn’t it time we stop arguing about what is causing climate change and start figuring out ways to adapt? It’s here. It’s real.

Switching to cleaner, greener energy may slow the exponential speed with which this planet is warming, but it will not stop or reverse it. The time is now (if it’s not already too late) to figure out how to live in this new reality.

Do we just wait around for the next inevitable disaster and shake our heads and shrug our shoulders and say “this is the way it is”? Do we continue to argue about what is causing this? Or do we try to adapt and learn how to survive and live with this new reality?

Roselee Packham, Santa Monica

To the editor: Lopez is correct when he agrees there is indeed global warming. However, he is wrong to concentrate only on summer temperatures. In Southern California, the winters are also getting warmer.

“Winter chill” is the number of hours temperatures reach 45 degrees or lower. In my community adjacent to Agoura Hills and Thousand Oaks, we had 544 hours of winter chill in 2000-01; last winter, we had only 191 hours. Only the winter of 2013-14 was warmer, with 127 hours of chill.

This means my peach tree — a variety specially developed for the mild winters of southern California — produces only two peaches this year instead of a tree full. More important, commercial orchards of peaches, almonds and cherries are struggling because of a lack of winter chill.

Warm winters can be as damaging to food crops as torrid summers.

David E. Ross, Oak Park

Dem opponent leads Scott Walker by 5 points

The Hill

Poll: Dem opponent leads Scott Walker by 5 points

By Jacqueline Thomsen       August 17, 2018

© Greg Nash

Democratic challenger Tony Evers holds a 5-point lead over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) in the state’s gubernatorial race, according to a new poll.

The survey from the left-leaning firm Public Policy Polling (PPP) found that 49 percent of Wisconsin voters backed Evers, compared to the 44 percent who supported Walker.

The poll was the first to be conducted after the state’s gubernatorial primaries this week, Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) reported Friday.

“I think Scott Walker is in trouble,” Jim Williams, an analyst at the polling firm, told WPR.

“I think we have a nominee (in Tony Evers) who is in strong position, relative to Scott Walker, and is potentially looking to get stronger as his party coalesces behind him.”

Evers, the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, won the Democratic primary for governor on Tuesday while Walker is running for reelection to a third term this year.

WPR reported that respondents in the poll were split in their support in the 2016 presidential election, with 45 percent voting for President Trumpand 45 percent voting for Hillary Clinton.

The outlet noted that the poll was slightly skewed toward Democrats, with 36 percent of respondents aligning themselves with the party compared to the 29 percent who said they were Republicans. Another 35 percent said they were Independent voters.

Maggie Gau, Evers’s campaign manager, told WPR that the results show that Wisconsin is “ready for a change” and that voters “already embrace Tony Evers’ positive agenda to fix our roads, improve our schools, and lower the cost of health care.”

Walker campaign spokesman Brian Reisinger said that the incumbent is “preparing for a tough campaign where he’ll have to earn every vote to withstand a flood of money from big government special interests from Washington.”

The PPP survey of nearly 600 Wisconsin voters was conducted Aug. 15-16 via telephone, according to WPR. The margin of error was 4 percentage points.

Related Update:

Orlando Sentinel

Report: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker used state plane for 869 flights since 2015

Associated Press      August 20, 2018

A liberal advocacy group says Republican Gov. Scott Walker used the state airplane to make 869 flights since he dropped out of the presidential race in September 2015, including 11 trips of less than 64 miles.

One Wisconsin Now compiled public records on flight data to release the findings Monday. The flights cost taxpayers about $818,000.

Walker had no immediate comment.

During his first term, Walker and members of his cabinet spent a little more than $250,000 a year to travel on state planes. The past three years the average is about $273,000.

When the issue was raised in 2014, the Walker administration released records from former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle‘s last two years in office. Those years, 2009 and 2010, he averaged $240,000 a year on state planes.

Trump warnings grow from forgotten Republicans

Yahoo News

Trump warnings grow from forgotten Republicans

Steve Peoples, Associated Press        August 18, 2018 

In this Dec. 8, 2017, file photo, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty speaks after a Chamber of Commerce breakfast in St. Louis Park, Minn. The ranks of the forgotten Republicans are growing. They are members of Congress, governors and state party leaders who have been left behind by President Donald Trump’s Republican Party. Some, like former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, were forced out. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — The ranks of forgotten Republicans are growing.

Some were forced out, such as Tim Pawlenty, a former two-term Minnesota governor who lost this week’s bid for a political comeback. Some, such as the retiring Republican Sen. Bob Corker, chose to leave on their own. Others still serve, but with a muted voice.

Whether members of Congress, governors or state party leaders, they are struggling to fit into President Donald Trump’s Republican Party.

The expanding list of marginalized GOP leaders underscores how thoroughly Trump has dominated — and changed — the Republican Party in the nearly two years since he seized the presidency. The overwhelming majority of elected officials, candidates and rank-and-file voters now follow the president with extraordinary loyalty, even if he strays far from the values and traditions many know and love.

The Republicans left behind are warning their party with increasing urgency, though it’s unclear whether anyone’s listening.

“I hope this is a very temporary place for the Republican Party,” said Corker. “I hope that very soon we will return to our roots as a party that’s very different, especially in tone, from what we’ve seen coming out of the White House.”

The forgotten Republicans — people like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — have been unwilling to sit quietly as Trump steers the GOP away from free trade, fiscal responsibility, consistent foreign policy and civility.

Isolation and political exile have been their rewards.

Their diminished roles leave fewer Republican leaders willing to challenge Trump under any circumstances, even in his darkest moments.

Fact checkers have recorded an extraordinary level of false and misleading statements flowing out of the White House. And beyond dishonesty, some of the forgotten have decried a disturbing pattern of racially charged rhetoric on issues like immigration, NFL anthem protests and Confederate monuments.

“White nationalism isn’t something I’m ever going to be comfortable with. But it is embraced by, or simply doesn’t bother, a lot of Republicans,” said former Ohio Republican Party chairman Matt Borges, once a Trump confidant who was forced from his leadership post after criticizing Trump in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election.

After Trump’s victory, Borges returned to practicing law, while he continues to play a modest role in local politics.

“To me, it became a matter of how much of your soul are you willing to sell. I would be the wrong person to be leading this party right now,” Borges said.

Trump remains popular among rank-and-file Republicans. And the vast majority of Republican candidates across the country this midterm season are pledging unconditional loyalty — and being rewarded with primary victories.

Gallup found that 82 percent of Republicans approved of the president’s job performance earlier this month. That’s compared to just 34 percent of independents and 7 percent of Democrats.

Kasich, who has not ruled out a primary bid against Trump in 2020, said the president’s approval is misleading because the universe of people identifying as Republican is shrinking.

“We’re dealing with a remnant of the Republican Party. The party is not what it was,” Kasich said in an interview.

The term-limited governor said he’s content to focus quietly on addressing issues like the opioid epidemic and urban violence on a bipartisan basis while the Trump-led GOP focuses on partisan squabbling.

“Let those in the Republican Party who want to be ideological and partisan, let them wallow in their own failures,” said Kasich.

Other GOP leaders aren’t feeling quite so emboldened.

Pawlenty’s quest for a third term collapsed after Republican primary voters determined his experience — and his years-old description of Trump as “unfit and unhinged” — weren’t welcome.

Pawlenty politely declined to be interviewed, but a former aide, Alex Conant, said this week’s result, like those of other primary elections this year, sent a clear message about the modern GOP.

“There’s not a lot of room for dissent in the Republican Party right now,” Conant said. “Moderates don’t feel welcome. And if you’re not loyal to Trump, there’s not necessarily room for you.”

The details may be different, but Pawlenty’s unexpected exit is reminiscent of that of other public officials who have struggled to find their footing in the Trump era.

Bush, another Trump critic, declined to comment for this story. He has been forced into silence, at least in part, for fear of hurting his son’s political career. In June, Donald Trump Jr. withdrew from a fundraiser for Texas land commissioner George P. Bush after Jeb Bush criticized the president’s policy of separating immigrant children from their families at the border.

Another periodic Trump critic, former House Speaker John Boehner, is in the midst of a 20-stop bus tour to help raise money for vulnerable House Republicans.

Just don’t ask whom he’s raising money for.

Spokesman David Schnittger said it was up to each of the campaigns involved to disclose Boehner’s help. “I’m not sure anyone has exercised that option to date,” he said.

Boehner’s successor, Paul Ryan, has seen his once sky-high career prospects flounder in the Trump era. The 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee has occasionally criticized Trump, but he is retiring at the end of the year.

In South Carolina, Republican Rep. Mark Sanford narrowly lost his June primary hours after Trump tweeted he had been “very unhelpful” and highlighted the congressman’s extramarital affair.

Days later, Sanford described Trumpism as “a cancerous growth.” As he prepares to leave Congress, he’s warning the GOP the cancer is spreading.

“We have a president that will tell numerous dis-truths in the course of a day, yet that’s not challenged,” Sanford said in an interview. “What’s cancerous here is in an open political system, there has to be some measure of objective truth.”

“I’m baffled by the way so many people have looked the other way,” he said.

Asked whether he feels like he fits in today’s GOP, Sanford said simply, “No.”

Back in Ohio, Borges vowed that his departure from politics was only temporary.

“The Trump phenomenon is going to end at some point in time. That might be six years, that might be two years, that might be sooner. No one knows,” the former Ohio GOP chairman said. “When it does end, it’s the job of a lot of us … to make sure that the party is still populated by good, honest, decent candidates and officeholders who we can continue to be proud of.”

AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.

Fracking is destroying U.S. water supply, warns shocking new study

ThinkProgress

Fracking is destroying U.S. water supply, warns shocking new study

Toxic wastewater from fracking jumps 14-fold from 2011 to 2016 — and it may get 50 times bigger by 2030.

By Joe Romm     August 17, 2018

THE MONTEREY SHALE FORMATION IN CALIFORNIA, WHERE FRACKING IS USED TO EXTRACT GAS AND OIL DURING ONE OF THE WORST DROUGHTS IN STATE HISTORY, MARCH 2014. CREDIT: DAVID MCNEW/GETTY IMAGES

An alarming new study reveals fracking is quite simply destroying America’s water supply.

That means we are losing potable water forever in many semi-arid regions of the country, while simultaneously producing more carbon pollution that in turn is driving ever-worsening droughts in those same regions, as fracking expert Anthony Ingraffea, a professor at Cornell University, explained to ThinkProgress.

The game-changing study from Duke University found that “from 2011 to 2016, the water use per well increased up to 770 percent.” In addition, the toxic wastewater produced in the first year of production jumped up to 1440 percent.

Previous studies suggested hydraulic fracturing does not use significantly more water than other energy sources, but those findings were based only on aggregated data from the early years of fracking,” explained co-author Avner Vengosh, a professor of geochemistry and water quality at Duke.

“After more than a decade of fracking operation, we now have more years of data to draw upon from multiple verifiable sources,” said Vengosh. The researchers looked at data on water used — and oil, gas, and wastewater produced — for over 12,000 wells from 2011 to 2016.

Fracking Is Already Straining U.S. Water Supplies

Ingraffea, who was not involved in the study, explained that while first generation wells used 3 to 5 millions gallons of water, current third generation wells use 10 to 30 million gallons. Ingraffea — who worked with the fossil fuel industry for three decades and has been co-editor-in-chief of the journal Engineering Fracture Mechanics since 2005 — noted that the federal government “forecasts a million more such wells in the next 20 years.”

That would mean trillions of gallons of water used.

The Duke study warns that the water footprint of fracking could jump as much as 50-fold in some areas by 2030, “raising concerns about its sustainability, particularly in arid or semi-arid regions in western states, or other areas where groundwater supplies are stressed.”

As their analysis shows, some of the fracking sites that are seeing the biggest jump in water footprint per well — like the Permian and Eagle Ford Basins — are also located in highly water-stressed areas (see chart below).

SOME OF THE BIGGEST FRACKING SITES — LIKE THE PERMIAN AND EAGLE FORD BASINS — ARE IN HIGHLY WATER STRESSED AREAS. CREDIT: DUKE UNIVERSITY.

One key point the study makes is that, unlike other energy sources, much of the water fracking uses is essentially lost to humanity. Either the water doesn’t escape the shale formation or, when it does come back to the surface, it “is highly saline, is difficult to treat, and is often disposed through deep injection wells.”

Therefore, even though other forms of energy have a higher intensity of water use, “the permanent loss of water use for hydraulic fracturing from the hydrosphere” may still be higher.

The study also points out that the world has seen “rapidly diminishing global water resources due to population growth and climate change.”

Yet countless studies show that because the fracking process leaks so much methane —  a highly potent greenhouse gas — fracked gas isn’t a climate solution. In fact, “natural gas could warm the planet as much as coal in the short term,” one major 24-author study from June concluded. So those who continue touting fracked gas as a bridge to a low-carbon future are not keeping up with the latest science.

The argument for fracking as a climate solution just went down in flames

And so we have the tragic situation where we are using up one of our most precious non-renewable resources, water, to produce oil and gas, which worsens the stress on our water system.

As Ingraffea put it, “shale gas/oil is exchanging absurd volumes of water for absurd volumes of fossil fuels at a time where using the latter is jeopardizing the availability of the former.” At the same time, fracking “is exchanging precious volumes of water usable for drinking and farming for toxic volumes of wastewater most of which has to be transported and injected underground,” at grave risk to underground sources of drinking water. Finally, “most of what is not transported and injected stays underground, an exchange of H2O for CO2.” Therefore, almost all of what arrives at a well is forever lost to the water cycle.”

Fracking is truly a Faustian bargain.

Cheers to Whoever Just Saved Us $92 Million on Trump’s Farce of a Parade

Esquire

Cheers to Whoever Just Saved Us $92 Million on Trump’s Farce of a Parade

Helping to shut down the president*’s ode to himself is truly a patriotic endeavor.

By Charles P. Pierce      August 17, 2018

Nicholas Kamm

Somewhere in that five-sided mystery cabinet along the Potomac is a genuine American hero. We may never know this person’s name, but this person did the country a great service, in addition to making El Caudillo Del Mar-A-Lago an occasion for further mockery, which is always a worthwhile patriotic endeavor. Sometime on Wednesday night, this person—or persons—got in touch with Amanda Macias of CNBC, and this is what Macias was told:

“The Department of Defense and its interagency partners have updated their prospective cost estimates for the parade, according to a U.S. defense official with firsthand knowledge of the assessment. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity. The parade, originally slated for Nov. 10 but now potentially set for 2019, is estimated to cost $92 million, the official said. The figure consists of $50 million from the Pentagon and $42 million from interagency partners such as the Department of Homeland Security. An initial estimate last month pegged the prospective cost for the parade at $12 million.”

The whole idea of this parade was a farce from the start, but it was a farce to which much of official Washington seemed resigned to suffer; a costly two-hour demonstration of armed presidential* onanism is no way to spend an holiday afternoon, but it looked like it was going to happen anyway. Then the real price of the impending wank-a-thon was leaked and, within an hour, the White House had yet another PR catastrophe on its hands. What happened next was inevitable. From Reuters:

“We originally targeted November 10, 2018 for this event but have now agreed to explore opportunities in 2019,” Defense Department Spokesman Colonel Rob Manning said in a statement. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unclear exactly what caused the postponement but the increased cost of the event had caused concern and could be one reason. The parade to honor U.S. military veterans and commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One could cost more than $90 million, the U.S. official said, citing provisional planning figures that were nearly three times an earlier White House estimate.”

Reaction from the president* was not long in coming, and it was every bit as petty, incoherent, and untruthful as you can expect from someone who doesn’t know anything about anything and who lies about it anyway.

Donald J. Trump: The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it. Never let someone hold you up! I will instead…

….attend the big parade already scheduled at Andrews Air Force Base on a different date, & go to the Paris parade, celebrating the end of the War, on November 11th. Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters!

Zoom!

While D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had been pushing back against this grandiose monstrosity almost from the moment it was proposed, it was that anonymous Pentagon spokesperson who blew the whistle the loudest. A grateful nation sends its thanks.

RELATED STORY

Newspapers Have Faced Down Worse Than This Clown

Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page here.

Healthy Soil is Ground Zero for Environmental Justice in Farm Communities

Healthy Soil is Ground Zero for Environmental Justice in Farm Communities

Protecting the health and diversity of soil microbes in California’s Central Valley is also the first step to protecting the health and diversity of the region’s inhabitants.

Janaki Jagannath, Agroecology, Food Justice, Pesticides – August 17, 2018

Migrant workers harvesting sweet potatoes in Mechanicsville, Va. (Photo credit: USDA)

In California’s San Joaquin Valley—home to many of the nation’s largest fruit, nut, and vegetable operations—agricultural soils have been sterilized and depleted of natural fertility. This trend in agricultural soil management is standard practice for industrial farming, and while it’s still possible to turn the trend around and begin managing soils to improve the health of the region, doing so requires an examination of the history of environmental justice (and injustice) in California.

In 1994, President Clinton signed Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations, a set of policies that required federal agencies to ensure the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the environmental impacts of the development, implementation, and enforcement of federal programs and policies.

Among other state programs and policies that have been advocated for and created by environmentally burdened communities of color, the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) has released CalEnviroScreen, a mapping tool depicting communities that are affected by cumulative environmental impacts such as groundwater pollution, ozone, particulate matter, pesticide exposure, and other toxic pollution. Under Senate Bill 535, California directs 25 percent of the proceeds from its cap and trade program to climate investment funding in the state’s most affected areas.

May Young Vu a Hmong farmer harvesting cherry tomatoes on her farm May's Flower's in Sanger, California. (Photo credit: USDA)

May Young Vu, a Hmong farmer, harvesting cherry tomatoes on her farm May’s Flower’s in Sanger, California. (Photo credit: USDA)

These communities suffer the problems that arise from historic land-use policy in California, which has essentially been created by and for large agribusiness, and rarely prioritizes soil health or community health. Rather than building carbon and organic matter, the soil has been stripped of most of its life, and nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen get added back in through synthetic fertilizers.

As a result, over 1 million California residents are exposed every year to water that is unsafe to drink by state standards. In addition, many communities lack adequate wastewater infrastructure, housing, and perhaps the most importantly, a lack of governance. Many environmental justice communities were settled during the migration that took place when the Dust Bowl arose from Midwestern agriculture practices that pushed the land to its limit. A period of dramatic expansion of the fruit and specialty crop economy in California led thousands of migrants from across the country to move to California as field workers and packers.

During World War II, and with the implementation of the Bracero program, Mexican farmworkers and other communities of color moved into and continued to build these small California communities. They dug their wells by hand, and if electrification took place it was often done without proper oversight. The land-use policies in these communities were historically discriminatory, and in the decades since, larger municipalities haven’t annexed them to provide basic protections for their drinking water and air quality. These rural, unincorporated communities face a lack of local governance and some of the most acute environmental and climate impacts in the state.

Migrant workers harvesting sweet potatoes in Mechanicsville, VA, on Sep. 20, 2013. (Photo credit: USDA)

Migrant workers harvesting sweet potatoes in Mechanicsville, VA. (Photo credit: USDA)

In unincorporated farmworker communities, residents deal directly with the harmful impacts of agriculture. Parents send their kids to school knowing they’re going to get exposed to pesticide drift. They are dealing with chronic disease, asthma, valley fever—a deadly infection caused by a fungus found in soil—on a regular basis.

Drinking water in the San Joaquin Valley primarily comes from groundwater wells. The area’s groundwater is often contaminated with nitrates, selenium, arsenic, and 123-TCP—a carcinogenic chemical that was recently regulated for the first time. These water contaminants are byproducts of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, or simply the products themselves, washed into the aquifer. This is a direct result of the way the soil in the area has been treated over time by chemical-heavy farming practices.

Crops in the region are mainly irrigated with surface water. The agriculture industry is constantly lobbying for access to more surface water because groundwater is expensive to pump and often contains large quantities of salt, which is the primary concern for farmers.

Meanwhile, 95 percent of the water going to people’s homes is ground water.

There has also been an enormous loss of native vegetation in the San Joaquin Valley because the agriculture industry has removed most of what was left of the native plants, animals, and people. We have lost nearly all ecological memory of the area to privatized industrial scale agricultural landholding.

A few important examples of alternative agriculture stand out. In Tulare County, an area known for its conservative approach to large-scale agriculture, Steven Lee of Quaker Oaks Farm is working to educate the local community on the importance of building soil carbon as a foundation to achieve environmental justice priorities. A recent recipient of funding through the Healthy Soils Initiative, Lee is planning to pilot a number of soil improvement practices on his land and gauge their ecological benefits. Quaker Oaks Farm shares historic ground with the Wukchumni Indian tribe of the region, and also with farmworking families of Oaxacan origin who use a portion of the land for subsistence farming.

Janaki Jagannath. (Photo credit: Jan Mangan)

Janaki Jagannath. (Photo credit: Jan Mangan)

Community Alliance for Agroecology has built a framework based on ecology that prioritizes the protection of the water and air in addition to building political power because we believe the historically underserved communities who have built our agricultural economy should have a say in how agriculture moves forward in the state. Healthy soil brings both short- and long-term benefits by protecting our waterways, our local air quality, and displacing chemical fertilizers and pesticides if built as a part of a natural soil fertility regimen.

We are at a point in California history where we need to be linking arms around soil protection. We have a state water board, and a state pesticide department, but we don’t have any direct oversight of our soils at the state level; soil health has been largely left to the discretion of private landowners.

Soil is the basis of our food system and we need to protect it—especially in areas like the San Joaquin Valley. To do that right, we must also include the voices of rural people of color and others who have been historically left out of the decision-making process around farming and land ownership.

A version of this article was originally published by Bioneers as part of their series on carbon farming.

Aretha Franklin’s Most Unforgettable Vocal Performances

Esquire

Aretha Franklin’s Most Unforgettable Vocal Performances

Her voice inspired social change and brought world leaders to tears.

By Justin Kirkland       August 16, 2018

Aretha Franklin performs at the Lincoln Memorial

Mark Reinstein

Aretha Franklin is impossible to define. In a time when everything is iconic and stunning and must-see, none of those words seem to do her justice because Franklin’s legacy transcends vocabulary words. Instead, maybe the best way to remember her is simply by listening to the stories she’s already told us. Over the course of seven decades, Aretha Franklin’s voice has had the power to bring world leaders to tears, to fuel the Civil Rights movement, and change the very fabric of music. Franklin, The Queen of Soul, died on Thursday at the age of 76. These are her performances that will remain among the greatest in history.

“AMAZING GRACE,” NEW TEMPLE MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH, 1972

Franklin’s voice transcended religion. As an artist, she contributed to the secularization of gospel music—echoes of which are still heard today on pop and hip-hop radio. Her performance of “Amazing Grace” went on to sell over two million copies, becoming the highest selling gospel album of all time. But this performance? Even if you don’t believe in a higher power, after listening to Aretha work her way through the hymn, you’d be hard pressed not to wonder if she has some kind of connection up there.

“(YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE A) NATURAL WOMAN,” KENNEDY CENTER HONORS, 2015

After receiving her own Kennedy Center Honor 21 years before, the Queen of Soul returned to the stage to honor Carole King, the writer of one of her most recognizable hits. King immediately leapt to her feet as Aretha started the song. By the time the song ended, Franklin had shed her fur coat, President Obama was wiping tears, and every person in the place was on their feet.

“NESSUN DORMA,” GRAMMY AWARDS, 1998

After legendary opera singer Luciano Pavarotti had to pull out of the 40th annual Grammy Awards following throat problems, the Grammys had to make a quick move. Two hours before the performance, Aretha stepped up to the challenge. What resulted was a performance for the ages. Moving back and forth between Italian and English, Aretha’s soul-infused rendition of the aria from the opera Turnadot was one of the most surprising moments in Grammy, and music, history.

“PRECIOUS LORD, TAKE MY HAND,”HER FATHER’S FUNERAL, 1984

Having originally released the song in 1956, “Precious Lord” had a long history in Aretha’s life. Her mentor, Mahalia Jackson, sang it at Martin Luther King, Jr’s funeral. Four years later, Franklin would sing it at Jackson’s, as well as the dedication of the MLK memorial in Washington D.C.

“MY COUNTRY ‘TIS OF THEE,” BARACK OBAMA’S INAUGURATION, 2009

For President Obama’s first inauguration, his choice to have Aretha sing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” was a powerful moment in American history. Here was one of the greatest singers in history—one who’s made great strides for women and people of color—singing at the inauguration of the first black president. No matter what comes next, her performance of the patriotic 1831 song will remain a proud moment in this country’s history.

“I DREAMED A DREAM,” BILL CLINTON’S INAUGURATION GALA, 1994

President Obama wasn’t the first Commander in Chief with the good idea to pull in the talents of Aretha Franklin. The Les Misérables showstopper is admittedly a strange choice for a presidential inauguration, but if anyone has the ability to make it work, it’s Aretha Franklin. The giant Broadway number grows even bigger with her raspy voice and soulful infusion, ending in yet another standing ovation.

“(I CAN’T GET NO) SATISFACTION,” AMSTERDAM, 1968

A voice like this can do any genre. And as the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she absolutely covered rock music, too. Her cover of The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” highlights the blues roots of the hit, connecting it to the origins of rock music and Franklin’s own training as a gospel musician.

“SAY A LITTLE PRAYER,” ‘THIS IS TOM JONES,’ 1970

Recorded a year before by Dionne Warwick, Aretha revamped Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Say a Little Prayer” with a burst of energy that set it apart from the original recording. As a guest on This Is Tom Jones, she performed the song effortlessly, cementing it as another single in a long list of successes.

“RESPECT,” ANTIBES, FRANCE, 1967

If Aretha Franklin had to be summed up into one song, there’s a pretty good chance it would be “Respect.” While recorded versions and later live performances were a bit slower, the original live performances turned “Respect” up several notches. This performance came right as Aretha’s career was hitting meteoric status. The breakdown after the bridge is just one example of why Aretha is and always will be a live performance master.

“BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER,” LIVE AT THE FILLMORE WEST, 1971

Choosing a favorite performance from her concert at Fillmore West is nearly impossible. But alongside covers of “You’re All I Need To Get By” and “Eleanor Rigby,” it always comes back to the most-soul driven performance of the bunch. Taking to the piano and slowing the song down a bit to really tear into those big notes, Aretha’s performance of the Simon & Garfunkel classic is proof that even the most well-known songs can benefit from the gift that is Aretha’s voice.

Scientists seek new ways to combat Florida’s growing ‘red tide’

Reuters

Scientists seek new ways to combat Florida’s growing ‘red tide’

By Steve Gorman,    Reuters        August 16, 2018