Texas Progressives talk IPCC, climate change, Texas media

(The Dixie Fire, above, was already surging nearly three weeks ago, as seen by yours truly while climbing Lassen Peak.)

I pulled this out from the rest of the Texas Progressives roundup because I wanted to.

SocraticGadfly has a two-fer on some recent major climate change-related news. First, he explains what the Lake Mead water cuts will mean — and should mean for Arizona, and beyond that, eventually the whole Colorado basin. Second, he calls out some Texas media for pulling punches on matters related to the new IPCC report.

 

Counterpunch agrees that there's still too much hopey-dopey in such reporting.

Christopher Collins has a measure of redemption for the Observer this week by calling out a book on a West Texas solar plant for assuming that capitalism will be key to addressing climate change. (One of Gadfly's spankees was the Observer.)

Earthworks has the goods on how oil companies in the Permian are not only continuing to flare natural gas, but often doing so illegally by not even bothering to get a cheap permit from the toothless Railroad Commission.

 

Pro Publica reminds us that climate change is already hammering farmworkers. 

New Mexico energy watchdog and public power advocate Mariel Nanasi shows why big environmental organizations can't always be trusted on the details of pathways to increasing renewable energy. (Sidebar: This is another thing Yale Climate Connections won't tell you when it touts the wonderfulness of "green jobs." The first I thought of and told it is that many environmental orgs still aren't that labor-friendly.)

 

He's not closely connected to climate change issues, but he was VERY closely connected to the Southwest, notably the Anasazi. RIP David Roberts.