Category: Veterans – Patriotism

The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity

YURI GRIPAS / REUTERS

Last week, Ralph Reed, the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s founder and chairman, told the group, “There has never been anyone who has defended us and who has fought for us, who we have loved more than Donald J. Trump. No one!”

Reed is partially right; for many evangelical Christians, there is no political figure whom they have loved more than Donald Trump.

I recently exchanged emails with a pro-Trump figure who attended the president’s reelection rally in Orlando, Florida, on June 18. (He spoke to me on the condition of anonymity, so as to avoid personal or professional repercussions.) He had interviewed scores of people, many of them evangelical Christians. “I have never witnessed the kind of excitement and enthusiasm for a political figure in my life,” he told me. “I honestly couldn’t believe the unwavering support they have. And to a person, it was all about ‘the fight.’ There is a very strong sense (I believe justified, you disagree) that he has been wronged. Wronged by Mueller, wronged by the media, wronged by the anti-Trump forces. A passionate belief that he never gets credit for anything.”

The rallygoers, he said, told him that Trump’s era “is spiritually driven.” When I asked whether he meant by this that Trump’s supporters believe God’s hand is on Trump, this moment and at the election—that Donald Trump is God’s man, in effect—he told me, “Yes—a number of people said they believe there is no other way to explain his victories. Starting with the election and continuing with the conclusion of the Mueller report. Many said God has chosen him and is protecting him.”

The enthusiastic, uncritical embrace of President Trump by white evangelicals is among the most mind-blowing development of the Trump era. How can a group that for decades—and especially during the Bill Clinton presidency—insisted that character counts and that personal integrity is an essential component of presidential leadership not only turn a blind eye to the ethical and moral transgressions of Donald Trump, but also constantly defend him? Why are those who have been on the vanguard of “family values” so eager to give a man with a sordid personal and sexual history a mulligan? 
 

Part of the answer is their belief that they are engaged in an existential struggle against a wicked enemy—not Russia, not North Korea, not Iran, but rather American liberals and the left. If you listen to Trump supporters who are evangelical (and non-evangelicals, like the radio talk-show host Mark Levin), you will hear adjectives applied to those on the left that could easily be used to describe a Stalinist regime. (Ask yourself how many evangelicals have publicly criticized Trump for his lavish praise of Kim Jong Un, the leader of perhaps the most savage regime in the world and the worst persecutor of Christians in the world.)

Many white evangelical Christians, then, are deeply fearful of what a Trump loss would mean for America, American culture, and American Christianity. If a Democrat is elected president, they believe, it might all come crashing down around us. During the 2016 election, for example, the influential evangelical author and radio talk-show host Eric Metaxas said, “In all of our years, we faced all kinds of struggles. The only time we faced an existential struggle like this was in the Civil War and in the Revolution when the nation began … We are on the verge of losing it as we could have lost it in the Civil War.” A friend of mine described that outlook to me this way: “It’s the Flight 93 election. FOREVER.”

Many evangelical Christians are also filled with grievances and resentments because they feel they have been mocked, scorned, and dishonored by the elite culture over the years. (Some of those feelings are understandable and warranted.) For them, Trump is a man who will not only push their agenda on issues such as the courts and abortion; he will be ruthless against those they view as threats to all they know and love. For a growing number of evangelicals, Trump’s dehumanizing tactics and cruelty aren’t a bug; they are a feature. Trump “owns the libs,” and they love it. He’ll bring a Glock to a cultural knife fight, and they relish that.

Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, one of the largest Christian universities in the world, put it this way: “Conservatives & Christians need to stop electing ‘nice guys.’ They might make great Christian leaders but the United States needs street fighters like @realDonaldTrump at every level of government b/c the liberal fascists Dems are playing for keeps & many Repub leaders are a bunch of wimps!”

There’s a very high cost to our politics for celebrating the Trump style, but what is most personally painful to me as a person of the Christian faith is the cost to the Christian witness. Nonchalantly jettisoning the ethic of Jesus in favor of a political leader who embraces the ethic of Thrasymachus and Nietzsche—might makes right, the strong should rule over the weak, justice has no intrinsic worth, moral values are socially constructed and subjective—is troubling enough.

But there is also the undeniable hypocrisy of people who once made moral character, and especially sexual fidelity, central to their political calculus and who are now embracing a man of boundless corruptions. Don’t forget: Trump was essentially named an unindicted co-conspirator (“Individual 1”) in a scheme to make hush-money payments to a porn star who alleged she’d had an affair with him while he was married to his third wife, who had just given birth to their son.

While on the Pacific Coast last week, I had lunch with Karel Coppock, whom I have known for many years and who has played an important role in my Christian pilgrimage. In speaking about the widespread, reflexive evangelical support for the president, Coppock—who is theologically orthodox and generally sympathetic to conservatism—lamented the effect this moral freak show is having, especially on the younger generation. With unusual passion, he told me, “We’re losing an entire generation. They’re just gone. It’s one of the worst things to happen to the Church.”

Coppock mentioned to me the powerful example of St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, who was willing to rebuke the Roman Emperor Theodosius for the latter’s role in massacring civilians as punishment for the murder of one of his generals. Ambrose refused to allow the Church to become a political prop, despite concerns that doing so might endanger him. Ambrose spoke truth to power. (Theodosius ended up seeking penance, and Ambrose went on to teach, convert, and baptize St. Augustine.) Proximity to power is fine for Christians, Coppock told me, but only so long as it does not corrupt their moral sense, only so long as they don’t allow their faith to become politically weaponized. Yet that is precisely what’s happening today.

Evangelical Christians need another model for cultural and political engagement, and one of the best I am aware of has been articulated by the artist Makoto Fujimura, who speaks about “culture care” instead of “culture war.”

Building on this theme, Mark Labberton, a colleague of Fujimura’s and the president of Fuller Theological Seminary, the largest multidenominational seminary in the world, has spoken about a distinct way for Christians to conceive of their calling, from seeing themselves as living in a Promised Land and “demanding it back” to living a “faithful, exilic life.”

Labberton speaks about what it means to live as people in exile, trying to find the capacity to love in unexpected ways; to see the enemy, the foreigner, the stranger, and the alien, and to go toward rather than away from them. He asks what a life of faithfulness looks like while one lives in a world of fear.

He adds, “The Church is in one of its deepest moments of crisis—not because of some election result or not, but because of what has been exposed to be the poverty of the American Church in its capacity to be able to see and love and serve and engage in ways in which we simply fail to do. And that vocation is the vocation that must be recovered and must be made real in tangible action.”

There are countless examples of how such tangible action can be manifest. But as a starting point, evangelical Christians should acknowledge the profound damage that’s being done to their movement by its braided political relationship—its love affair, to bring us back to the words of Ralph Reed—with a president who is an ethical and moral wreck. Until that is undone—until followers of Jesus are once again willing to speak truth to power rather than act like court pastors—the crisis in American Christianity will only deepen, its public testimony only dim, its effort to be a healing agent in a broken world only weaken.

At this point, I can’t help but wonder whether that really matters to many of Donald Trump’s besotted evangelical supporters.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Peter Wehner is a contributing editor at The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He writes widely on political, cultural, religious, and national-security issues, and he is the author of The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump.

July 4, 2019: What’s the Real American Story?

Robert Reich
July 4, 2019
What’s the Real American Story?

This July 4th let’s reject Trump’s false narrative for America and tell the real American story rooted in history, truth, and facts.

What's the Real American Story?

This July 4th let's reject Trump's false narrative for America and tell the real American story rooted in history, truth, and facts.

Posted by Robert Reich on Thursday, July 4, 2019

Trump could feed every homeless veteran for the cost of his parade!

By Ryan Sit     

President Donald Trump’s military parade is set to kick off on Veterans Day, but at a cost that even conservative estimates show could feed every homeless veteran for at least two weeks, a Newsweek analysis found.

The military showcase was initially estimated to cost $10 million and $30 million, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told the House Budget Committee in February. That cost accounted for Trump’s vision of tanks rolling through Washington DC—not unlike what he witnessed in France during its Bastille Day celebration, or what occurs in North Korea, China and Russia—though a Pentagon memo originally obtained by CNN on Friday nixed the use of heavy military vehicles.

Though not an exact science—parade cost estimates included using tanks et al., and it’s impossible to determine exact figures of homelessness by nature of their transience—these numbers provide a financial comparison and a look at the Trump administration’s priorities.

Using the most conservative estimates available from federal agencies and non-profit organizations, Newsweek found Trump could completely eliminate hunger among homeless veterans, serving them three meals a day, for at least 14 days.

GettyImages-814226372
The cost of President Donald Trump’s military parade on Veterans Day could pay for completely eliminating hunger among homeless veterans for at least two weeks, conservative estimates show, according to a Newsweek analysis.ALAIN JOCARD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

 

The Numbers

There were 40,056 homeless veterans in the United States in 2017, according to a Department of Housing and Urban Development report published last December. The finding marked a 1.5 percent increase from the 39,471 homeless veterans in 2016—the first such increase in seven years.

Feeding America, a non-profit organization and the nation’s largest hunger-relief and food rescue group, found the average cost-per-meal in the U.S. was $2.94 in 2015, the latest data available. The organization culled data from several organizations and agencies, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and found the cost-per-meal ranged from a low of $2.04 in Maverick County, Texas to a high of $5.61 in Crook County, Oregon.

A $10 million military parade—Mulvaney’s lowest estimate, granted it included tanks—could provide $249.65 for all 40,056 homeless veterans. That could provide each of those veterans 44.5 meals priced at $5.61 per meal—the highest national cost estimate, according to Feeding America—enough for three meals a day for 14.8 days.

Adjusting the cost per meal to the national average of $2.94, homeless veterans could eat three meals a day for nearly a month, 28.3 days.

RELATED STORIES

In February, Trump told Fox News he wouldn’t hold the parade if the cost was exorbitant.

“We’ll see if we can do it at a reasonable cost, and if we can’t, we won’t do it, but the generals would love to do it, I can tell you, and so would I,” he said.

On Thursday, the Pentagon sent the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff a memo saying the military showcase would be integrated with the annual Veterans Day parade in DC and have an “an emphasis on the price of freedom.”

This is why the ocean is key to protecting our planet against climate change

Climate Reality

This is why the ocean is key to protecting our planet against climate change

This is why the ocean is key to protecting our planet against climate change

This is why the ocean is key to protecting our planet against climate change

Posted by Climate Reality on Friday, May 17, 2019

Are parts of India becoming too hot for humans?

CNN

Are parts of India becoming too hot for humans?

By Shekhar Chandra, CNN       July 3, 2019

Shekhar Chandra is a Ph.D. Candidate in Public Policy, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dozens dead in one of India's longest heat waves

(CNN)Intense heat waves have killed more than 100 people in India this summer and are predicted to worsen in coming years, creating apossiblehumanitarian crisis as large parts of the country potentially become too hot to be inhabitable.

Heat waves in India usually take place between March and July and abate once the monsoon rains arrive. But in recent years these hot spells have become more intense, more frequent and longer.
India is among the countries expected to be worst affected by the impacts of climate crisis, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Experts at MIT say that even if the world succeeds in cutting carbon emissions, limiting the predicted rise in average global temperatures, parts of India will become so hot they will test the limits of human survivability.
“The future of heat waves is looking worse even with significant mitigation of climate change, and much worse without mitigation,” said Elfatih Eltahir, a professor of hydrology and climate at MIT.

A mirage shimmers in New Delhi on June 10, 2019.A mirage shimmers in New Delhi on June 10, 2019.

When the heat rises
The Indian government declares a heat wave when temperatures reach at least 4.5 degrees Celsius (8.1 Fahrenheit) above the “normal” temperature for that area for at least two days. A heat wave becomes “severe” when temperatures climb to 6.4 degrees Celsius (11.5 Fahrenheit) above normal for at least two days.
Thresholds for heat waves, therefore, differ across the country — in the capital New Delhi, a heat wave is declared after two consecutive days of temperatures of at least 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit).
Last year, there were 484 official heat waves across India, up from 21 in 2010. During that period, more than 5,000 people died.This year’s figures show little respite.
In June, Delhi hit temperatures of 48 degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit), the highest ever recorded in that month. West of the capital, Churu in Rajasthan nearly broke the country’s heat record with a high of 50.6 Celsius (123 Fahrenheit).
India’s poorest state, Bihar, closed all schools, colleges and coaching centers for five days after severe heat killed more than 100 people. The closures were accompanied by warnings to stay indoors during the hottest part of the day, an unrealistic order for millions of people who needed to work outdoors to earn money.
And forecasters believe it’s only going to get worse.
“In a nutshell, future heatwaves are likely to engulf in the whole of India,” said AK Sahai and Sushmita Joseph, of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, in Pune in an email.

Arctic ice faces trouble from above and below

Arctic ice faces trouble from above and below

Arctic ice faces trouble from above and below .

Survivability
India’s situation is not unique. Many places around the world have endured heat waves so far this year, including parts of Spain, China, Nepal and Zimbabwe.
To examine the question of future survivability of heat waves in South Asia, MIT researchers looked at two scenarios presented by the IPCC: The first is that global average surface temperatures will rise by 4.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. The second is the more optimistic prediction of an average increase of 2.25 degrees Celsius. Both exceed the Paris Agreement target to keep the global average temperature rise by 2100 to below 2 degrees Celsius.
Under the more optimistic prediction, researchers found that no parts of South Asia would exceed the limits of survivability by the year 2100.
However, it was a different story under the hotter scenario, which assumes global emissions continue on their current path.

 

An Indian man uses a towel to wipe the sweat on his face on a hot and humid summer day in Hyderabad, India, on June 3, 2019. An Indian man uses a towel to wipe the sweat on his face on a hot and humid summer day in Hyderabad, India, on June 3, 2019.

In that case, researchers found that the limits of survivability would be exceeded in a few locations in India’s Chota Nagpur Plateau, in the northeast of the country, and Bangladesh.
And they would come close to being exceeded in most of South Asia, including the fertile Ganges River valley, India’s northeast and eastern coast, northern Sri Lanka, and the Indus Valley of Pakistan.
Survivability was based on what is called “wet bulb temperature” — a combined metric of humidity and the outside temperature.
When the wet bulb reaches 35°C it becomes impossible for humans to cool their bodies through sweating, hence it indicates the survival temperature for humans. A few hours of exposure to these wet bulb conditions leads to death, even for the fittest of humans.
The places in India where it could become more difficult to survive overlap with already highly vulnerable areas, said Eun Soon, assistant professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who also took part in the MIT study.
That is, places with dense populations and poor economies that rely heavily on fishing and agriculture. They include cities like Patna and Lucknow in northeastern India, home to more than 4 million people combined.
“If we continue to produce the greenhouse gases at the current pace, one of the most populous regions in the world will not avoid the high risk of the deadly heat wave, facing an upper limit on human heat tolerance,” she said.

What is the government doing about it?
India is still in the initial stages of developing a robust nationwide Heat Action Plan.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) is working with state health departments to create an early warning system that would notify millions of people by text message about ways to stay cool, when heat waves hit.
The city of Ahmedabad, in Gujarat, introduced the country’s first action plan in 2013, and its text messages, extra drinking stations and advice to keep out of the sun are credited with saving more than 2,000 lives. At the same time, India is seeking long-term solutions.
A signatory to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, the country has pledged to cuts its carbon emissions by 33% to 35% below 2005 levels by 2030.
Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration announced plans to add 500 gigawatts of renewable energy to the country’s power grid by 2030. By that year, renewable energy should account for at least 40% of India’s installed power capacity. The country is also planting forests to help mop up carbon emissions.
Climate Action Tracker, a site that analyzes countries’ progress, says India is making good headway but could do more by reducing its reliance on coal power stations.
A report by India’s Central Electricity Authority released this week found that coal power could still account for half of India’s power generation in 2030, despite the country’s investments in solar power.
Given the more frequent heat waves and dire future predictions, capping a rise in global temperatures could very well turn out to be India’s most important challenge in decades ahead.
The survivability of more than a billion people is at stake.

 

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the correct temperature in Fahrenheit.

Patriotism vs. Nationalism – Happy 4th!

Patriotism vs. Nationalism
Robert Reich       July 3, 2019
Donald Trump and his enablers often equate nationalism with patriotism. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. This July 4th let’s reject Trump nationalism and reaffirm real patriotism.

 

Patriotism vs. Nationalism

Donald Trump and his enablers often equate nationalism with patriotism. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. This July 4th let's reject Trump nationalism and reaffirm real patriotism.

Posted by Robert Reich on Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Image may contain: one or more people and text

Maryland boy infected with flesh-eating bacteria. Be careful this holiday!

USA Today

Matthew Prensky, USA TODAY       July 2, 2019

 

SALISBURY, Md. – After a young boy was infected with Vibrio, a type of flesh-eating bacteria recently near Ocean City, health officials say this case is rare and local waterways are still safe to swim in.

The boy’s mother, Brittany Carey, described what happened to her son in a June 29 Facebook post. According to Carey, her son was swimming in the Sinepuxent Bay just north of the Harry Kelley Memorial Bridge between West Ocean City and downtown.

“He went swimming and was having a great time until about Monday evening when I started noticing little spots developing all over his body,” Carey wrote. “Tuesday morning there were open wounds developing but I had thought he was scratching them, making them worse.”

Boats travel from the bay to the ocean underneath the Route 50 bridge in Ocean City.

Carey said in the post Thursday that doctors at Peninsula Regional Medical Center diagnosed it as a Vibrio infection.

As of Tuesday, Carey’s post has been shared 17,000 times across Facebook.

Cases of vibriosis and other bacterial infections that infect people in bodies of water  have been reported up and down the eastern seaboard. There was also a woman infected in Florida in June.

Lynn Fleming, 77, was walking on the beach at Anna Maria Island in Florida when she fell and cut herself. She told Fox 13 in Tampa she had a “Little three-quarters-inch cut” on her leg.

Fleming’s condition worsened in a couple of days leading to her incident where she fell unconscious at her home. She was rushed to the hospital where she was later diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis.

Flesh-eating bacteria: She died of flesh-eating bacteria after a beach trip. Now her family wants to warn others

Who is most at-risk for Vibrio?

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there are approximately 80,000 cases of vibriosis each year, 52,000 of those coming from ingesting contaminated food, such as oysters.

Vibrio bacteria is a naturally occurring organism that can be found in coastal waterways, according to the CDC.

Eighty percent of those cases come between May and October each year because of warm waters. Most people who are contract vibriosis recover in approximately three days. But those who get sick with Vibrio vulnificus, can become seriously ill.

In some cases, Vibrio Vulnificus can require intensive medical treatment and amputation, and for about one in five cases can be deadly.

The CDC recommends people don’t eat undercooked or raw shellfish, like oysters. Those with cuts or wounds should also stay away from salt or brackish water or cover their wounds with waterproof bandages before swimming.

The Maryland Department of Health says Vibrio can be found in the Chesapeake Bay and waterways around it. People with weakened immune systems or who have liver disease are more at risk for contracting serious cases of Vibrio.

The state office recommends individuals carry hand sanitizer to clean wounds in case they happen while in the water. People are also recommended to shower after any contact with “natural waters.”

Infections on the rise: A rise in cases of flesh-eating bacteria may be linked to climate change, doctors say

Vibrio can infect people in multiple ways, said Debra Stevens, director of community health and emergency preparedness for the Worcester County Health Department.

Humans can either ingest Vibrio-infected shellfish or become sick through breaks in their skin.

Stevens said if humans ingest Vibrio, it can take 12-72 hours for symptoms to present themselves. After that, people may feel nauseous, and experience diarrhea or vomiting.

“If you already have an open wound, if Vibrio gets into that wound then it can cause an additional infection,” Stevens said. “It can make that wound get larger, get red, you typically may have fever, stomach ache. It’s going to get red and infected-looking.”

Steven said Vibrio bacteria is a natural part of the ecosystem and, in the same way people protect themselves from ticks, the same is needed to be safe from Vibrio.

“The most recent data we have listed is from 2017, and in Worcester County, there was one case of Vibrio that was reported and about 66 across the entire state so it’s not very common,” Stevens said.

Vibrio doesn’t always cause infection

There is some research going on into Vibrio, according to Robert Mitchell, director of the environment programs department for Worcester County. He said studying the bacteria may help people understand what causes it to infect people, what increases people’s risks and how it moves throughout the environment.

He added, “I would caution that presence does not equate to infection,” Mitchell said.

Roman Jesien, science coordinator for the Maryland Coastal Bays Program, says all of the different strains of Vibrio can be found in Maryland coastal waters.

Signs of infection: Minor cut leads to flesh-eating infection on Florida man’s hand. Black blisters were sign something was very wrong

“We do have Vibrio and we have a number of strains that are considered flesh-eating,” Jesien said. “We find them typically in low numbers, but they are present just like sharks are present in our coastal waters — so it’s just part of the system.”

Jesien said people should be cognizant of the bacteria in the water but it shouldn’t stop them. He said beachgoers should use common sense with bandaging up cuts or sores, but it’s something that shouldn’t stop people from going in the water.

Editor’s note: The next section of the article contains images that some readers may find graphic.

Brittany Carey, June 29, 2019: I thought long and hard about sharing this, but a friend of mine said it would be a great PSA for everyone to see. Last Sunday my parents took my son to the bay right by 50 bridge. He went swimming and was having a great time until about Monday evening when I started noticing little spots developing all over his body. Tuesday morning there were open wounds developing but I had thought he was scratching them, making them worse. Only to find when I picked him up Tuesday they were a lot bigger and a lot more. Off to the hospital we went to be told it was really nothing and an antibiotic that only made it worse. So doctors on Thursday and then PRMC to find out my little one now had VIBRIO a bacteria found in the bay and also in raw seafood. I know we’ve all seen these cases in the Delaware bay but now my little guy got this from being in the bay right by hoopers. Please be careful out there guys and if you start seeing wounds such as these please get somewhere fast!

UPDATE: Went to pediatrician this morning and she is really happy with the healing!

Image may contain: one or more people and closeup
Image may contain: one or more people and closeup

“It is unusual that we do have a real big issues with sores. We had a couple years ago a gentleman die up in Assawoman Bay, and just recently, we had a little boy that I understand had Vibrio,” Jesien said.

Jesien is referring to the case of Michael Funk, who contracted Vibrio when he was cleaning a crab pot on Sept. 11, 2016, in the Ocean City area.

With-in 36 hours of his symptoms first appearing, Funk died. He had been treated at Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, Maryland, where doctors removed the flesh from his knee to his ankle. He was then flown to the University of Maryland’s R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where his leg amputated. But the infection had already reached his bloodstream and organs.

He died Sept. 15, 2016.

‘Pathogen soup’: Mom files $1 million lawsuit after brain-eating amoeba at Texas water park kills son

There have also been multiple cases of Vibrio further north in New Jersey in years past.In 2017 and 2018, there were five different cases in which individuals became seriously ill.

Of the five south Jersey cases, one person was killed by the bacteria. Four of the cases came from crab fishing in the Delaware Bay, but a fifth got sick because of contaminated seafood.

In the more recent case, Carey says in her post her son is doing better after getting treated for the infection.

“I know we’ve all seen these cases in the Delaware bay but now my little guy got this from being in the bay right by Hoopers,” Carey wrote. “Please be careful out there guys and if you start seeing wounds such as these, please get somewhere fast!”

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: 

Dogs ‘think they’re going to die’ on the Fourth of July.

BP Says Some of Its Oil ‘Won’t See the Light of Day’

Bloomberg

BP Says Some of Its Oil ‘Won’t See the Light of Day’

Kelly Gilblom, Bloomberg         July 3, 2019 

(Bloomberg) — Oil companies are under increasing pressure to bring fuel to market faster and cheaper, leading BP Plc to conclude some of its resources “won’t see the light of day,” according to its head of strategy.

Some of the “more complicated to extract” resources in the British oil major’s portfolio may have to be sold or stay in the ground, said Dominic Emery, the company’s group head of strategy. They’re going to be too expensive and too time-consuming to get out, and the industry is under pressure to shorten the duration and size of projects, he said.

Part of the shift is due to climate change, which has caused investors to pressure BP to stick to lower-carbon projects. It’s also due to an oil price that’s half what it was five years ago, meaning some projects “simply don’t make money.”

“There are classes of resources that are kind of much further out and more complicated to extract,” Emery said in an interview. “There’s no doubt that some of those resources won’t come out the ground.”

Emery didn’t quantify the volume of BP’s resources that may stay put. The oil major said in an investor presentation last year it has 25 billion barrels of resources, 40% of which have been “booked and proved.” Emery said only unproved oil resources are at risk of being stranded.

While he also didn’t clarify which resources are the most complicated to extract, research from consultants Rystad Energy AS and Wood Mackenzie Ltd. tend to point to ultra-deepwater, remote or extremely carbon-heavy projects, such as oil sands, as the longest-term and most expensive.

A report from Wood Mackenzie showed that under a business-as-usual scenario, the call on oil that hasn’t yet been discovered will reach 16 million barrels a day by 2040. In that context, current spending on exploration “looks about right” to meet demand.

However, under a scenario where the world cuts carbon from the energy system faster, the adoption of electric vehicles, biofuels and other competing energy sources may cut two-thirds of that oil demand. The report recommended companies stick to projects with shorter time horizons.

To cope with the risk, BP has limited exploration spending and is mostly focused on investing in shale and fields near existing infrastructure, Emery said. He added that it isn’t necessarily the end for oil mega-projects, but there will probably be fewer of them in the future.

BP’s position reflects spending in the industry overall, which slowed down sharply after an oil-price crash in 2014 and has plateaued over the past three years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.

In May, BP agreed to a request from its shareholders for greater detail on how each new capital investment decision is in line with the Paris climate accord, an international agreement that seeks to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius. During its annual general meeting, some shareholders suggested they’re pushing behind-the-scenes for BP to stick to cheaper projects. Cost can be a proxy, albeit imperfect, for projects that have a lower carbon intensity.

Emery said BP “has been working on that over the last few months” to fulfill the request and will share some initial results later this year.

(Updates with information on industry spending in 10th paragraph.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Kelly Gilblom in London at kgilblom@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Helen Robertson, Alaric Nightingale

To defeat Trump in 2020, Democrats must stop playing his game

MarketWatch

Opinion: To defeat Trump in 2020, Democrats must stop playing his game

Hold this non-transparent president accountable for his actions

By Chris Edelson       July 1, 2019

Reuters

 

As attention focuses on the Democratic candidates vying to take on President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, it’s important that voters not give Trump a pass. Although he is president, Trump is also a candidate. The president’s record — both in and out of office — demands scrutiny.

At this point, many Americans have become numb to Trump’s persistent lies. But Trump’s preposterous claim to be the “most transparent…president in history” strikes at the core of what is dangerous about Trump, as we were reminded in June when he told George Stephanopolous that he is open to listening to representatives of foreign countries who offer damaging information about his political opponents.

Americans learned —  after the 2016 presidential election — that Trump and his campaign team had been lying about their contacts and business negotiations with Russia, even as Russia was using stolen material to help Trump win the election.

What will Trump try to cover up during the 2020 presidential campaign?

The obvious question to ask now is, what will Trump try to cover up during the 2020 presidential campaign?  This time, we need to know what is happening in real time — not months or years later.  We know that Trump will do his best to keep voters from having the information they need in order to assess his bid for re-election. Trump’s dishonest boast about his transparency is a reminder that we must insist on getting answers to central questions.

As a candidate and as president, Trump has broken with longstanding practice by denying voters and members of Congress access to even the most basic information needed to exercise due diligence. His tax returns remain secret.  His former doctor says Trump aides raided his office and seized Trump’s medical files. During the 2016 campaign, Trump made his supposed business acumen and success a centerpiece of his campaign, insisting that he was a self-made man.  After the election, we learned that Trump had received “the equivalent [in today’s dollars] of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire, starting when he was a toddler.”

Trump’s deceptions amounted to a fraud on the U.S. electorate.  In 2016, he presented himself as something he is not: an independently successful real estate mogul who had “nothing to do” with Russia (and we haven’t even talked about the secret payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal).

Having gotten away with this once (or really, for his entire life so far), Trump understandably believes he can get away with it again — that he can lie about his “transparency” even while he continues to stonewall voters and members of Congress.

These are the tactics of a would-be authoritarian — someone who does not believe in constitutional democracy and does not believe the ordinary rules that apply to us apply to him.

Fortunately, Trump has not yet succeeded in subverting American democracy. The institutions of our constitutional republic continue to function, at least in part. Unfortunately, there are signs of serious dysfunction. It is clear that nothing will be enough to move congressional Republicans to act. Even Trump’s public invitation to foreign countries interested in attacking the U.S. election again failed to rouse Republicans from their stupor.  But other central pillars in our system remain in place — most notably, elections and the press.

Those who believe in holding a president accountable must take advantage of the tools available. For journalists, that means refusing to allow Trump to avoid questions about his past — both his record before he ran for president and his record in office. There is a lot we still don’t know, ranging from the sources of his income to the details of his dealings with foreign actors who have been lining his pockets while he has been in office.

In light of Trump’s openly declared willingness to hear from foreign entities who would like to help him win re-election, it will be essential to know what his campaign is doing (or perhaps has already done) along these lines. For voters, it is necessary to see through the deceptions. Donald Trump is a con man — and so far, a successful con man.  Whether Americans keep falling for his game is ultimately up to us.

Chris Edelson is an assistant professor of government in American University’s School of Public Affairs. He has written two books on presidential power.