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CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL

Biden to Fund California Power Grid Upgrade in Climate Change Push

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President Joe Biden is making a campaign stop Monday in Palo Alto, where he is expected to announce $67 million in funding to upgrade California’s power grid.

Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) provides power to most of California and is one of the largest energy companies in the United States. However, PG&E’s equipment has been linked to several major wildfires, including two of the worst in the state’s history.

In November 2018, the Camp Fire—the deadliest fire in the state’s history—killed at least 86 people and destroyed 14,000 homes. The California Public Utilities Commission’s Safety and Enforcement Division (SED) report on the fire blamed poor maintenance practices at a PG&E tower. The C-hooks meant to support an insulator assembly showed “significant wear that was not detected as part of PG&E’s transmission infrastructure patrol and inspection program,” according to the SED. One of the C-hooks failed, causing the assembly to fall to the ground and start the fire.

READ MORE: Exxon Knew Its Fuels Cause Climate Change Since 1977 & It Did Nothing

The state’s second-largest wildfire, the 2021 Dixie Fire, was also the result of PG&E equipment, CNN reported. Investigators said the fire started when PG&E power lines came into contact with a tree. At the time, the power company said that over 8 million trees were close enough to power lines that they could come in contact. In response, PG&E promised to bury 10,000 miles of power lines. Another fire, the 2020 Zogg Fire, was also started by a tree coming into contact with power lines, and PG&E’s lines were also linked to the 2019 Kincade Fire.

Though there have been a number of major fires in years past, experts predict that 2023 will be an average year for wildfires due to a wet winter, according to KGO.

“We shouldn’t expect large fires in July which is different than previous years,” said Dr. Craig Clements, Director of the San Jose State University Wildfire Research Center, told the station, but warned that fire danger will increase in the autumn, as it’s the “driest time of year.”

In addition to the money earmarked for the power grid, Biden is also expected to announce $575 million in funding for a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) project devoted to helping communities on the nation’s coasts as the severity of major storms increases.

 

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CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL

Greta Thunberg Suffered from Depression for Years Before Climate Activism

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5 years ago

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December 31, 2019

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Time magazine named teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg their 2019 “Person of the Year,” but all heroes have superhuman hurdles that make them who they become. For Thunberg, that hurdle was a years-long depression.

Her father, Svante Thunberg, spoke to BBC Radio 4 Today.

“I can see Greta is very happy from doing this, and I saw where she was before,” the elder Thunberg said. “You think she’s not ordinary now, because she’s special, and she’s very famous and all these things, but, to me, she’s now an ordinary child. She can do all the things like other people can. She’s happy.”

Thunberg’s years-long depression was spurred by her concern for climate change. Her father said she wouldn’t speak to children her own age – or anyone else for that matter. She eventually spoke with her parents, sister and one teacher about her internal struggles. This lasted “three or four years.”

She was so depressed, she stopped eating, “which of course was the ultimate nightmare as a parent,” he said.

Even though Thunberg was on a food strike and not communicating to her peers, something soon shifted. She started talking to journalists – and eat vegan Paid Thai that was offered to her. She was finally talking – and eating. This explains why her parents allowed her to continue with her climate change and social justice endeavors – a spark had returned.

According to the interview, the elder Thunberg said they prepared their daughter more than most might – because they knew she would be on the frontlines and would most likely take some hits publicly and on social media. Never could they have imagined this:

Following her Time designation, President Donald Trump jealously tweeted: “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”

Thunberg had the perfect response. She changed her Twitter bio to read, “A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.”

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CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL

Tomlin Arrested at Climate Protest While Fonda Avoids Sixth Visit to the Slammer

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5 years ago

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December 27, 2019

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Veteran actress Jane Fonda might not be alone in her repeated jail cell for much longer if her Grace and Frankie co-star Lily Tomlin has anything to do with it.

Youth activists took to the streets globally for the final #FridaysForFuture protests of 2019. The Washington, DC #FireDrillFriday demonstration was organized by 82-year-old Fonda and her pal, 80-year-old Tomlin, was along for the ride.

Fonda skipped her sixth arrest this time around, but Tomlin had no such luck.

In her best Big Business throwback to date, Tomlin reportedly told the crowd, “We have got to stop hugging and start saving the trees.” She also blasted the company BlackRock for investing in deforestation firms and immigration detention camps.

“These corporations are making oodles of money on the front end, oodles of money on the back end,” Tomlin said. “It is beyond reprehensible.”

Doing what the comedienne does best, Tomlin joked that Christmas trees should be replaced with artificial. Fonda saved the Christmas spirit when she jumped in to say that real Christmas trees weren’t the end of the world, no pun intended.

“Tree farms for the most part are out in kind of degraded land,” she said. “What happened? You’re wrong. I love when Frankie is wrong.”

Tomlin is among one of many celebrity friends supporting Fonda in her climate relief efforts. Sally Field, Ted Danson, Rosanna Arquette, Catherine Keener, Diane Lane, Paul Scheer, and fellow Grace and Frankie stars Sam Waterston and June Diane Raphael have all participated in the past.

Look for these spunky women to continue their global relief efforts on January 3 and January 10 where their focus is said to be “shaming the companies that are underwriting the fossil fuel industry.”

Image via Fire Drill Friday.

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CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL

Sarah Sanders: You Just Can’t Trust ‘Radical’ Climate Change Report Because Science Is ‘Extremely Hard’

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6 years ago

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November 27, 2018

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Asked about the federal government’s bombshell report on climate change, Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended President’s Trump’s belief that it’s false. “I don’t believe it,” Trump announced. The White House press secretary also tried to delegitimize Friday’s damning report, insisting science is hard.

Tuesday afternoon at a rare press conference, Huckabee Sanders sneered when asked why the president is not leading on or preventing climate change, both nationally and around the world.

“The president is certainly leading on what matters most in this process, and that’s on having clean air, clean water – in fact the United States continues to be a leader on that front,” Huckabee Sanders claimed.

In January the EPA blocked an Obama-era rule to help ensure clean water.  And on Tuesday The New York Times reported on “How Trump Is Ensuring That Greenhouse Gas Emissions Will Rise.”

“Even Obama’s undersecretary for science didn’t believe the radical conclusions of the report that was released,” she insisted. (NCRM has not been able to confirm this claim.)

“You have to look at the fact that this report is based on the most extreme modeled scenario, which contradicts long-established trends,” she continued. (NCRM has not been able to confirm this claim.)

“Modeling the climate is an extremely complicated science that is never exact,” Huckabee Sanders, who is not a scientist, claimed. She later again said modeling “is extremely hard to do.”

“The biggest thing that we can do is make sure that we have the cleanest air, the cleanest water, and the president is certainly doing that,” she said, falsely.

She also falsely insisted the climate report is “not based on facts,” and that it’s “not data-driven.”

The climate change report, officially the Fourth National Assessment of Climate Change, states climate change will lead to thousands of deaths and cost billions of dollars as it goes unchecked.

Watch:

Rolling Stone’s Jeff Goodell reports, “what makes this climate assessment particularly brilliant and subversive is that it comes from U.S. government scientists. The people who wrote the report are not tree-hugger activists or left-wing socialists. They are men and women who work at NOAA and USGS and the Army Corps. I have met many of these people. And they are about as radical as your uncle Fred. They are men and women who wear fleece jackets to work and live in modest homes and have devoted their lives to grinding out science at the agencies where they work.”

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