global warming
On Earth Day 2021, ‘a complicated dance between hope and despair’
Environmentalist Tia Nelson, daughter of Earth Day’s founder, reflects on what it will take to save the planet On Thursday, the 51st anniversary of the first annual Earth Day on April 22, 1970, Tia Nelson will be speaking to a classroom full of fourth graders in the school named after her father in the town […]
Biden yanks Keystone XL permit in first-day order, citing climate change
In one of his first official acts after taking office, President Joe Biden revoked the federal permit for the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline that would have traversed eastern Montana on its way from the Alberta oilfields to the Gulf of Mexico. The Wednesday move at least temporarily halts the construction on the highly contentious […]
The most important editorial of the weekend
This week’s entry was actually published last evening by the Winston-Salem Journal, but its blunt and terrifying message is one that needs to be heard and repeated over and over in the weeks, months and years ahead. The headline is “We are destroying our future” and the editorial that follows calls on all of us […]
Mark Meadows – climate policy champion?
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican and the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, suggested this week that he might be willing to support climate change legislation. During a House oversight hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Meadows accused former Secretary of State and onetime Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry for […]
Gov. Cooper talks to our reporter about climate change: “We have to move”
As reported over on the main NC Policy Watch website this morning, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper testified on Capitol Hill yesterday about the need for government action to combat the effects of climate change. Afterward, Cooper engaged in a brief exchange with reporters — including Tony Pugh, a reporter for the Newsroom network, of […]
The best editorial of the weekend: Wake up, North Carolina!
This weekend’s best editorial comes from the Winston-Salem Journal. In “North Carolina must take climate change seriously,” the Journal calls on all of us to take immediate action in the aftermath of Hurricanes Florence and Michael: “It’s folly to ignore solid science about climate change when warming is already having noticeable effects, as the recent […]
Tillis continues to obfuscate on climate change…but it’s probably better than it could be
North Carolina’s junior senator Thom Tillis sat down with Spectrum News reporter Tim Boyum the other day for a discussion of climate change (plus some other issues) and, as is so often the case with Tillis, watching the video provides for a maddening experience. On the one hand — hallelujah!! — Tillis actually concedes that […]
Coalition of groups calls on OSHA to save worker lives, adopt heat stress rules
In recent years, largely due to global warming, there has been an increase in days of “extreme” heat and record-breaking summers. In fact, 17 of the 18 hottest summers have all taken place after 2001, with 2016 and 2017 being the two hottest summers on record. With the hike in temperatures there has also been […]
As conservative legislators ignore sea level rise, locals move ahead without them
There is a somewhat encouraging story on sea level rise that’s worth your time this week in a Wilmington-based Port City Daily. In “How the Wilmington area deals with rising seas and an increasing number of floods,” reporter Benjamin Schachtman explains how local officials are planning and preparing for the inevitable rising waters that will […]
AFL-CIO formally joins fight against climate change
Good news from the good folks at the NC League of Conservation Voters: Climate change action gains key ally Thanks to collaboration between citizen conservationists, labor, and other progressive voices, action to address climate change has just gained a very important ally. At its annual national convention in late October, the AFL-CIO, the nation’s leading […]
Weekend editorials agree: NC must stop denying climate change and sea-level rise
Enough is enough: that’s the obvious conclusion of multiple weekend editorials from around North Carolina when it comes to conservative, head-in-the-sand denials of climate change and sea-level rise. With yet another major hurricane brewing in the Atlantic basin, the message delivered by the editorials is clear. It’s time to stop denying and staring doing something. […]
Editorials: NC got lucky on Irma, but more are coming
Hurricane Irma is finally spinning itself into a tropical depression today and none too soon. Sadly, Irma’s demise comes after several days of horrific destruction in the Caribbean and parts of Florida and Georgia. But, of course, it could have been much worse. A lucky break in timing and wind patterns spared Florida’s Tampa Bay […]