Summary
In today’s edition, we will travel with President Obama to Alaska. He will be there today to urge aggressive climate action. In the meantime, negotiations toward a new global climate agreement resume Monday in Bonn amid growing concern that time is running short. Finally, in the Water section, China faces a “formidable task” to clean up its rivers and lakes and needs a fundamental change in attitudes to prioritize the environment over economic development at all cost, said vice premier Wang Yang.
Quote of the day
“It’s inconsistent on the one hand for President Obama to lead the world toward comprehensive action on climate change, while on the other allowing companies to pursue difficult, expensive oil in dangerous and remote places.”
Michael LeVine, Pacific senior counsel for Oceana, an environmental group, in the New York Times’ story Obama to Urge Aggressive Climate Action in Visit to Arctic Alaska
Lead stories
Obama to Urge Aggressive Climate Action in Visit to Arctic Alaska
By Julie Hirschfeld – New York Times
President Obama will travel to Alaska on Monday to call for urgent and aggressive action to tackle climate change, capitalizing on a poignant tableau of melting glaciers, crumbling permafrost and rising sea levels to illustrate the immediacy of an issue he hopes to make a central element of his legacy.
http://jlne.ws/1JuCUIb
Barack Obama defends decision to allow Shell to drill for oil in Arctic – video
Reuters
US president Barack Obama defends the decision to allow the oil company Shell to drill in the Arctic Ocean.
http://jlne.ws/1Vp4Tyo
We wish you were here, Mr. President
Juneau Empire (Editorial)
Welcome to Alaska, President Obama! We wish you were here. Sure, we’re happy to send a reporter and photographer to welcome you to Anchorage, but we think you’d be much happier here in Juneau. After all, you’ve said your goal is to experience the effects of climate change firsthand, and the Mendenhall Glacier is one of the finest examples of that in Alaska.
http://jlne.ws/1UfLy5r
POTUS and Climate Change: Four Steps Forward, One Step Back, but Still Missing a KEY Step
By Betsy Rosenberg – Huff Post
Barack Obama is about to leave on a historic journey that could affect Americans for generations to come – he’ll become the first sitting American President to visit the Arctic to observe Alaska’s rapidly melting glaciers.
http://jlne.ws/1Q1MLaL
The Paris Talks: Looking Behind The Scenes
By Elliot Diringer – C2ES (Center for Climate and Energy Solutions)
Negotiations toward a new global climate agreement resume Monday in Bonn amid growing concern that time is running short – the agreement is due this December in Paris – and that the remaining task is monumental.
http://jlne.ws/1LE0YZP
Paris prepares to rid its streets of cars for one day
By Francesca Perry – The Guardian
The best city stories from around the web this week see Paris gearing up to get rid of cars (for one day only), vacant homes spreading across Tokyo’s satellite cities, a floating food forest in New York and a skyscraper made of shipping containers in Mumbai’s Dharavi slum.
http://jlne.ws/1Kw443o
Events
EMA Annual Meeting
October 28-30, 2015
Omni Parker House Hotel
Boston, MA
http://bit.ly/192w3CR
2015 Rising Seas Summit
Association of Climate Change Officers
November 12-13, 2015, Cambridge, MA
http://jlne.ws/1Uxkext
Carbon
Climate models may misjudge soils’ carbon emissions
By Alex Kirby – Climate News Network
Some of the microscopic creatures which live in the soil are able to digest dead plants and trees, turning their contents into gas and minerals.
http://jlne.ws/1IwfGgR
Obama may back Louisiana use of offshore oil revenue for coastal restoration, state official says
By Mark Schleifstein – The Times-Picayune
President Barack Obama held out hope to state officials on Thursday (Aug. 27) in New Orleans that his administration might back down from plans to redirect 35 percent of federal offshore oil and gas revenue from Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states to the general budget, according to a news release issued late Thursday by the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
http://jlne.ws/1X2CtvG
Natural gas / coal
World’s biggest coal port joins fossil fuel divestment push
By Amanda Saunders – Sydney Morning Herald (part of the Climate Publishers Network)
Newcastle city council in Australia has voted to exit holdings in the big four banks if they continue to fund fossil fuel projects.
http://jlne.ws/1Kw4k2q
Eni Discovers Massive Gas Field in the Mediterranean
By Anthony Dipaola – Bloomberg
Eni SpA discovered a “super giant” natural gas field offshore Egypt in what the Italian oil company said is the largest find in the Mediterranean Sea.
http://jlne.ws/1Kw5bjP
Water
Middle East, Israel to be water scarce by 2040 — report
The Times of Israel
Israel and the Palestinian territories are projected to be among the countries most prone to acute water shortages and resultant conflict in the coming decades, according to a new report published this week.
http://jlne.ws/1EruySJ
As the need for power surges, are small – or big – dams the answer?
By Stella Paul – Thomson Reuters Foundation
To provide more clean energy, particularly in fast-growing Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the world needs more hydropower dams, energy experts say.
http://jlne.ws/1F9PQ2h
EPA water rule takes effect in some states
By Timothy Cama – The Hill
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) started enforcing its controversial water pollution jurisdiction rule Friday in all but 13 states.
http://jlne.ws/1UmB66V
China needs further action to stop water pollution: vice premier
By Dominique Patton – Reuters
China faces a “formidable task” to clean up its rivers and lakes and needs a fundamental change in attitudes to prioritize the environment over economic development at all cost, vice premier Wang Yang said.
http://jlne.ws/1UmCdDQ