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GR: The Final draft of U. S. Congress mandated climate report by 13 agencies is complete. Probably fearing suppression by the Trump administration, anonymous sources leaked the final draft of the report. I introduce the New York Times story on the report below. You can download the full PDF report here: Final-Draft-of-the-Climate-Science-Special-Report.

The report is detailed and factual, but agonizingly indirect in its warnings. Nevertheless, the report does state that harmful climate impacts have begun. One danger that the report makes clear is that there is much uncertainty about responses to the increasing extreme weather events, and about how many positive feedbacks–self-perpetuating cycles–might develop.

The coal-burning Plant Scherer in Juliette, Ga., is one of the top emitters of carbon dioxide in the United States. A draft report by government scientists concludes that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right now. Credit Branden Camp/Associated Press

Lisa Friedman– “The…

Opinion:

¶ “The red state with an energy blueprint” • Iowa didn’t become an energy powerhouse by accident. Back in the 1980s, the state enacted the nation’s first law incentivizing utilities that bought more renewable power. Last year, nearly 37% of Iowa’s power came from wind. It has given the state jobs and the country’s most reliable and inexpensive energy. [The Hill]

Wind turbines (Getty Images)

¶ “Censoring climate change won’t stop global warming” • The United States Department of Agriculture has decided to combat the threat of global warming by forbidding the use of the words. The terms “climate change” and “climate change adaptation,” are to be replaced by “weather extremes” and “resilience to weather extremes.” [The Guardian]

World:

¶ Potent, climate warming gases are being emitted into the atmosphere but are not being recorded in official inventories, a BBC investigation has found. In just one…

The climate change related impacts from continued fossil fuel burning just keep on ramping up.

Last Thursday, the mercury struck 106 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland, Oregon. The reading, just one degree shy of the hottest temperature ever recorded for the city, came after the thermometer soared to the 103 F mark on Wednesday. The extreme heat prompted some locals to re-name the typically wet and cool city — ‘Hotlandia’ — even as a broader severe heatwave blanketed most of the U.S. West.

(Smoke covers large portions of the U.S. West following record heat in many locales. Image source: NASA Worldview.)

During the weekend, the heat shifted north and east — thrusting 90+ degree (F) temperatures into British Columbia where severe wildfires have been raging throughout the summer. As a result, fire intensity spiked once again and great plumes of smoke today blanketed hundreds of miles of western…

GR: The name is acceptable since there will be no single place to name thus giving future visitors the wrong impression that Trump  contributed.

“Environmental activists have created a worldwide reforestation project called “Trump Forest” to help offset the potential environmental destruction caused by President Trump’s anti-climate agenda.

“We wanted something tangible that people could do that would actually have a physical impact on what the U.S. government is doing,” Dr. Daniel Price, a climate scientist and glaciologist and one of the three founders behind the effort, told the Huffington Post.

“Here’s the simple reasoning behind the effort, as stated by the group’s website:

• US President Donald Trump doesn’t believe in the science of human-caused climate change. He wants to ignore one of the greatest threats to healthy life on Earth.
• Trump wants to bring back coal despite scientists telling us we cannot afford to burn it, and despite economists…

“Cummings, Conyers, Connolly, Cicilline Request Documents about President Trump’s Regulatory Task Forces’ Secret Meetings and Conflicts of Interest
Aug 7, 2017 Press Release
Cummings, Conyers, Connolly, Cicilline Request Documents about
President Trump’s Regulatory Task Forces’ Secret Meetings and Conflicts of Interest
 
Washington, D.C. (August 7, 2017)—Today, Reps. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, Gerry Connolly, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, and David Cicilline, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law, sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator Neomi Rao expressing grave concerns about the secrecy of the Regulatory Reform Task Forces and requesting information about the nature of their meetings.
 
“We write to express our…