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One of the most famous analytical quips:

There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Stephen Colbert’s addition of Truthiness to the English lexicon provides an umbrella concept for that old adage. And @TeamTrump’s and the @GOP base’s allegiance to #AlternativeFacts before reality is taking this to a whole new level.

One aspect of such truthiness is to blast out a seemingly blow-the-mind number (statistic) without providing a context for that number — a context that would radically change the reader’s perspective.  An ever-reoccurring example about the US budget: OMFG … the United States sends (roughly) $40B (yes, Billion with a B!) in foreign assistance (military and non-military each year. Again, OMFG and all that … That is a lot of EFFing money, isn’t it?  Well, that $40B is less than 10% of the Pentagon budget, roughly 1% of the Federal Budget (not going to eliminate the deficit with that, will we?), and is less than 0.3% of the US gross domestic product. Foreign aid (non-military) is about $30B or under 0.2% of the US GDP. In context, not such a heart-attack creating number.  And, the United States is far behind most in the developing world as to share of GDP given in foreign aid. Providing the figure and discussing aid out of context is a core reason why so many Americans (incorrectly) believe that the foreign aid budget is in the range of 28% (rather than 1%) of the total Federal budget.  And, it is disinformatzia like that which the radical Republican extremist @TeamTrump is creating and leveraging on its path to devastate the government.

This little post was sparked by a clean-energy attack example this morning.  As part of their efforts to discredit renewable energy and undercut paths to a sustainable energy future, fossil fuel shills often exaggerate negative externalities related to clean energy — which, in reality, are a tiny fraction of fossil-fuel (coal, oil, natural gas) negative externalities which those shills routinely ignore and/or gloss over.  Wind turbines require steel and concrete for their manufacture and thus have a pollution footprint . Similarly, manufacturing solar systems has pollution.  For both wind and solar these externalitees are miniscule in comparison to burning coal (or gas or oil) for electricity. That comparison, however, isn’t one the fossil foolish want people to think about.

Taking us to today’s item sparking the post: right-wing embraced / promoted / thralled Judith Curry sharing of radical Republican extremist outlet Daily Caller‘s distorting ‘lies, damned lies, and STATISTICS’ item about solar panel production.

OMFG — “17,200 Times More Potent” certainly catches one’s attention.

Curry’s note came to my attention via this ‘corrective’ context tweet:

To reinforce that point, the core conclusion from those in the government who analyze climate forcing:

greenhouse gases are often used in products or by end-consumers. These gases include industrial sources of man-made compounds such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), and N2O. The present contribution of HFCs, PFCs, SF6, and NF3 gases to the radiative forcing effect of all anthropogenic greenhouse gases is small

Remember, as well, that 0.6% is for the entire semiconducter industry of which the solar panel production is only a portion.

Okay, NF3 pollution matters for climate change but, for the moment, this is a blip on the spectrum compared to Carbon Dioxide, Methane, etc … And, btw, that is a tiny, tiny blip.  Going back to the 6,586 MMT of CO2 equivalent, the entire NF3 (which is not just for solar) — weighted for its greater climate impact (that 1,700 more powerful) — puts it about 5 MMT equivalent or less than 1/1000th of total US emissions.

Hmmm … does some context change one’s perspective as to 1,700 more powerful?

Judith Curry chose to share around this #truthiness in what is far from the first occasion of practicing ‘lies, damned lies, and statistics’ to undermine public understanding of climate science and support for climate action.  Is it any surprise that she’s such a ‘darling’ of the Congressional GOP climate zombie coalition?

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Government programs impact people’s lives in uncountable ways. These range from those most highly visible firemen on the streets to the semi-hidden code developments that lower year after year the risks of fire in our homes. The extent to which government programs have enabled American prosperity — whether standards or legal system or technological development — is something that few actually think about on a daily lives.

How many, when pulling up Waze on their smart phone, consider that the decades-old Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) provided the conception and resources for core technology (such as ARPANET (now the Internet) and GPS) development that enables avoiding that traffic jam so they can make it to work on time?

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), partially modeled after and developed with the lessons from DARPA, is less than a decade old but is showing its power in helping to leapfrog energy technologies in ways that could powerfully impact U.S. society, the US economy, and U.S. global competitiveness for decades to come.

This week, ARPA-E is holding its annual Energy Innovation Summit which provides a variety of windows on both ARPA-Es approaches to fostering leap-ahead (potentially disruptive) energy technology and programs along with the chance to kick the tires on many of these.

As to kicking tires in the Technology Showcase, the floor is filled with items to fascinate the ‘tech geek’ that provide windows on ways that could impact people’s lives in ways that few really consider.

Here are two examples from that tech showcase:

• Innovative ways to improve personal comfort
  • ARPAE is tackling the spectrum of energy challenges and opportunities including how to improve both the energy efficiency and comfort for people in the built space and, well, beyond.  Typically most would think of this as improving ‘the’ building (insulation (which ARPAE is working on), building controls (again), more efficient air conditioning (again), window glazings for upgrading single pane windows to greater efficiency (lots there, including a paint option) etc…) but how about doing things that target the individual?  Within the ARPAE program are companies developing air conditioning for shoes (so that you can have a building at higher temperature while people remain comfortable … or, by the way, making soldiers more effective on the battlefield in the Middle East during summer) and clothing that adapts to temperature changes.
  • Within Otherlab is Material Comforts, “a textile that gets thicker and increases its insulation vale in response to a drop in temperature”. Imagine the middle of winter … you put on your clothing in the house warmed to 68F and walk outside to that 25F frigid cold but you don’t need to pull on a coat since your sweater expands to provide greater insulation. You get in the car and the sweater contracts as the heat kicks in.  Within the office, as you wander around and have 5-10F differences in heat, your clothing adapts — to maintain you at your personal comfort level.  Imagine … This could directly save energy (relatively unused spaces in a building might not need to be heated as much, etc, etc …) but would enable productivity (people are more comfortable, spend less time putting on/taking off clothing) … and, well, enhance people’s lives.  Material Comforts won’t be showing on the clothing rack next year but, well, perhaps by 2020 or so this will become a clothing option and could have a real impact on real people’s lives.  ARPA-E’s program is enabling its development that, well, simply might not have occurred otherwise.
• Tobacco to Squelene
  • Squelene oil is throughout human life, especially in cosmetics. The primary squelene source: sharks.  Sharks are under global threat from overfishing — with squelene being potentially more important than the more commonly heard of ‘shark fin soup’ challenge.  Options exist other than shark livers for squelene and, despite their higher costs, many cosmetic firms use those options. But sharks are still dying for lipstick — and likely very few are aware of this as they stand in front of the mirror.
  • SynShark has developed a path to extract squalene from tobacco plants that will, on mass scale, undercut the price of squalene from shark livers.  This will enable creating alternative income paths (higher income likely) for the world’s tobacco farmers, reduce fishery devastation (from pollution to shark kills), and provide a path for lowering the cost of cosmetics around the world. The processing of the tobacco plants creates other potential value streams, including high-quality proteins and potentially materials for making biofuels.  Several years in development, Synshark is doing its first commercial demonstration (15 acres) this year with the potential for orders-of-magnitude growth over the coming few years.

Honestly, few people — even energy specialists — might have come up with the above as tangible examples of how ARPAE’s innovative approaches are opening the doors to changing lives for the better, creating US jobs, and improving US competitiveness.  However, spending a few minutes with the two firms mentioned above and the 100s of other innovators at ARPAE would convince anyone who truly cares about making America great that the ARPAE is leveraging relatively limited resources in powerful and valuable ways.

Wandering ARPAE’s Energy Innovation Summit provides chances to learn about (reasonably viable and shockingly low cost) paths toward small fusion power, coming spray painting of windows for energy efficiency without impacting visibility, transparent wood for construction (let in light without sacrificing solidity and energy efficiency), new materials technology, heating/generator combinations for the home, new wind turbine concepts (including one that could scale up to 130 megawatts, or roughly 13 times larger than the largest currently in the world), …

Wandering the Energy Innovation Summit, seeing the technologies, speaking to the innovators, and considering the possibilities can provide reasons to technological optimism for paths toward a prosperous, secure, climate-friendly future …

This is a prosperity that is there for us (for the U.S.) to seize … if we choose to do so.

This morning, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPAE) Energy Innovations Summit will begin. This annual three-day event brings together many of the world’s leading thinkers, scientists, tinkerers, business-process gurus when it comes to leap-frogging the United States (and the world) into a new (cleaner, efficient, effective, less expensive, …) energy future.  Not unreasonably, the conference subtitle:

The premier event dedicated to transformational energy solutions.

Wandering the Summit’s ‘trade-show’ (“Showcase“) is enough to blow even the most brilliant mind — with many booths manned by PhDs working at the leading edge of opportunities to move 21st laboratory work into the real world. From building energy information management systems to better drill bits to plant-based chemicals for displacing highly-polluting ones to solar-based liquid fuels to …, the possibilities for transforming the world just from these booths can (at least for this author) take the breath away. That’s the trade-show — easy to have conversations with top-tier investors providing insights on the hows and whys of leaping the innovators’ Valley of Death to top bureaucrats managing programs to university researchers to listening to speakers like the Terminator can give hope for opportunities to move into a prosperous, Climate-Friendly future.

The Summit occurs each year at National Harbor, just outside DC in Prince George’s County, MD.  What just finished there?  A dystopian window on the ‘intellectual’ world of the nepotistic, kleptocratic Trump-ista kakistocracy*.  Dominated by fossil fools who falsely state (either simply based on outdated information or a passion for #AlternativeFacts deceit) that solar (pv), wind, and other clean energy options are unaffordable (too costly) and who don’t just ignore fossil fuel externalities but assert that we should subsidize them (with deceptive statements about  CO2 as ‘plant food‘ and ‘CO2 not a pollutant‘), CPAC has seemingly — in the words of @TeamTrump’s KellyAnne Conway — transformed into a North Korean autocratic-like environment of TPAC:  Trump Political Action Conference.  In stark contrast to ARPAE’s incredibly science rich environment, CPAC is dominated by (climate) science disdain and denial — #AltTruth and #AlternativeFacts dominate. This dark space, with Trump advisor Steve Bannon arguing that core to the Trump regime will be ‘deconstruction’ of government agencies, makes clear that the agenda is to be turning the United States back to the 19th century not just when it comes to polluting energy but across a much broader space.

As I now head out to the ARPAE Summit, what are some expectations:

• Amazing opportunity to learn about new technologies, business processes, opportunities that boost economic performance (and national security and …) while helping to address (reduce, mitigate, …) climate change and other environmental impacts.
• Will leave with stories to share (look to the blog in coming days) and many new contacts for the years to come (sources, collaborators, …).
• That the halls will be filled with uncertainty as to ARPAE’s (and, well, the nation’s) future under the Trump team.

* If you are not aware of the term, kakistocracy is one of the most important terms for understanding Team Trump;

#KAKISTOCRACY: Word of next four years? kak·is·toc·ra·cies. Govt. by least qualified/most unprincipled citizens. #NotNormal @RealDonaldTrump https://t.co/abRwR8A5NX

— A Siegel (@A_Siegel) December 4, 2016

From Donald Trump to Sean Hannity to Harold Hamm
to Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Exxon), one of the favorite global warming science denial idiocies is “Ha … if there’s so much warming, why’s there snow outside.”  Jim Inhofe famously had his grandchildren make an igloo mocking Al Gore and more famously wanted to start a snowball fight in the Senate.

It is now February 2017, just less than two years after the above video and this prominent example of Jim Inhofe’s anti-science mania. (As Alec Baldwin put it about Inhofe, “Is there a bigger oil whore than Jim Inhofe?“) In those two years, we had 2015 hotter than 2014 and then 2016 hotter than 2015.  The world is warming — despite Inhofe’s big snowball.

There is a 4A weather / climate emergency

• The Arctic is experiencing massive temperature fluctuations, with record high temperatures.
• Australia and much of the Americas are experiencing record heat.
• The Antarctic has ice missing in action and what might be the largest ice shaving in world history.

When it comes to America, for example, Oklahoma is experience record heat for Valentines Day and this has nothing to do with Oklahomans romantic passion. It is the middle of February and the thermometer is hitting 100F.

Oklahoma hits 100 ° in the dead of winter, because climate change is real https://t.co/hKGSndccru pic.twitter.com/aZU9svJrW7

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 15, 2017

TO REPEAT:

IT IS THE MIDDLE OF FEBRUARY.

OKLAHOMA is 100F.

THIS IS A SERIOUS SIGN OF CLIMATE CHANGE.

Oklahoma is represented by one of the loudest climate science denialists in the U.S. Senate, a Senator who has received more fossil fuel contributions to his campaign than almost any other Member of Congress. The products of these firms are a serious contributor to humanity’s ever-mounting greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions. And, continued denial of basic climate science (and of the scientific consensus about climate change) is inhibiting action to slow (and reverse) the warming fostering 100F days in Oklahoma in the middle of winter.

In the interim, Oklahoma needs Jim Inhofe’s snowball a lot more than the Senate floor.

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Just as occurred (and, sigh, still occurs) with the tobacco industry, a key target of fossil fuel promoters is to sow confusion about the science related to fossil fuel pollution impacts (from climate change to mercury poisoning to …), the strength of the scientific consensus, and about the work of scientists (as individuals and as groups).  These Merchants of Doubt work diligently to undermine science — from astroturf organizations, to lobbyists, to campaign contributions, to attacking scientists, to funding and distributing misleading books, to working to undermine science education in the classroom.

An excellent (sad) example was the coal industry’s funding of Scholastic to put pro-coal misinformation into elementary school classrooms across the country, with the clear hope/intent that the quality Scholastic brand would enable this to go through under the radar scope of (the vast majority) of school administrators, teachers, and parents.  As one analysis concluded, this was simply “lies through omission“.

Scholastic makes a lot of money off our children.

It’s offensive that they promote curriculum that misleads those children about the world’s most polluting source of energy: coal.

Just as occurred with evolution (in some school districts), part of this effort seeks to make teaching climate change science too controversial to do without ‘telling the other side’, creating a sense of a ‘debate’ that exists in politics and polemics but not in the scientific community.

Too often, the efforts to foster political controversy drive those involved in education — such as textbook publishers — to self censor and provide subtly misleading (if not outright dishonest) material for the educational system.

This plagues the United States of America, with frequent battles over textbook material and distortions of climate science, evolution, history, etc … to meet political agendas with the cost of fostering “Alternative Facts”-based eduction. While a serious problem in the U.S. educational system (and likely to worsen amid the Trump regime, including the ideological dogma of Secretary of (mis)Education Devos), sadly, this is not only an American problem

Distorting climate science for all ages: a UK example

Considering this KS3 science book from the key UK textbook publisher, CGP Books. The photo is from the section on “the Earth and The Atmosphere”. As you can see, this is splattered with caveating and unscientific terms when it comes to climate change science:

• “some scientists believe”…
  • “the long-term trend of temperature increases is due to rising carbon dioxide levels”
• “could have some serious effects”…
• “could cause sea levels to rise”

As to the first, “some scientists believe”, there are two serious items:

• Essentially ALL not ‘some’ relevant scientists.
  • As to ‘some’, the climate science consensus is quite strong, with roughly 97+% of the relevant scientific experts linking climate change to human activity (primarily, but not solely, carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels) — associating human activity with the vast majority (and, more likely, all) of observed temperature increase.
• Science is about EVIDENCE not belief.
  • As discussed by UK scientist Dr. Vicky Pope

“When climate scientists like me explain to people what we do for a living we are increasingly asked whether we “believe in climate change”. Quite simply it is not a matter of belief.

Our concerns about climate change arise from the scientific evidence that humanity’s activities are leading to changes in our climate.

The scientific evidence is overwhelming.”

(As so often, XKCD provides path to understanding truth …)

Using “could” similarly distorts.

• Serious impacts already are occurring — from disrupted weather patterns, to movement of flora & fauna, to species extinctions, to (see below) land threatened by rising seas, to …
  • Reasonable debate can occur as to ‘how serious’ the impacts already are and will be, how fast the impacts will occur, and what can be done to mitigate/adapt to those impacts — but it is simple distortion of science to state that climate change ‘could have serious impacts’.
• Sea levels are rising. This is associated with rising temperatures — both due to thermal expansion of the seas (basic science, people, heat ==> expansion) and melting (land-based, eg glaciers) ice.

In the face of Team Trump’s climate-science denial and active-intent to promote polluting energy, such minor elementary school science distortion can seem unworthy of attention. It is, however, this very sort of seemingly minor distorting material that helps foster electorates susceptible to ‘Post Truth’/#AlternativeFacts polemics.  Such hedging material undermines societal ability to understand science and engage in truthful, fact-based policy formulation.

Yesterday, in Washington, DC, the temperature hit 74F and this morning it was below 30F with snow flurries.

While I thought #DC had #wildweater (40F drop in <24 hours), #Arctic shift insane #climate impact. https://t.co/ml67MwRvgt

— A Siegel (@A_Siegel) February 9, 2017

And, we expect to see 70F over the weekend.

The North Pole, in the same time frame, saw an over 60F increase in temperatures.

So Long, La Niña; Arctic Temperatures Soar 63°F in 24 Hours
via @wundergroundhttps://t.co/Y5uiYZAyCY pic.twitter.com/YHLQdlTdmx

— Gary (@Gary_Composer1) February 9, 2017

We are living through real “serious” climate change impacts … even as science distortion continue from UK elementary school classrooms to Donald Trump’s tweeting thumbs.

Amid the (mounting) fears that @RealDonaldTrump has utter contempt for the Constitution and is intent on a drive toward an authoritarian Kakistocracy*, powerful voices are emerging.

Rep. Donald McEachin, D-VA-04

Below is a portion of an interview with one of these, Rep. Donald McEachin, VA-04, who was elected to the House of Representatives last November.  The more I get exposed to McEachin, the more that he impresses me and the more that I want to hear from him.

This interview section focuses on McEachin and the environment for the environment in the House. Some key comments.

• Republicans “are going to go full tilt [against] the environment…they’re going to wage war on the environment.”
• “we don’t have a lot of time … don’t have time for the nonsense that Republicans are about to bring forward”
• “have to depend on the Senate to stop [@HouseGOP anti-science/anti-environment measures], because we’ll just get steamrolled here.”

Take a look at the interview below, crossposted from Blue Virginia courtesy of Lowell Feld.

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As Donald Trump continues to drive news cycles with #AlternativeFacts and installs perhaps the most anti-#science government that modern human history has seen in a major government (and this comment re ‘perhaps’ is that jury is out in comparison with Stalin’s Soviet Union and Hitler’s Nazi Germany: both of which had serious anti-science elements (lunacies) but yet had major elements of policy and investments based on serious science), physical reality exists and the physical world in which humanity exists continues to change.

As the U.S. 2016 election essentially ignored climate change — with, for example, zero questions in any Presidential debate on what was perhaps the most significant policy issue with the starkest contrast between the candidates and the parties — the real world passed a threshold that far, far too few Americans realized: the atmosphere passed the 400 parts per million (ppm) concentration of carbon dioxide (C02) with near certainty that no human alive will ever see concentrations below that figure (outside an oxygen tent or other artificial environment).

My thoughts turned to that yesterday as I saw the following:

408.05 parts per million (ppm) CO2 in air 25-Jan-2017 https://t.co/5Q2FLbb4ix

— Keeling_Curve (@Keeling_curve) January 28, 2017

With the Oval Office dominated by (neo)Nazi (climate) science deniers, climate-denial political appointees spreading through the government, warnings of purges to come of government employees who understand climate science, and spreading blackouts on sharing of basic information on the climate, the real world exists … and the climate situation worsens.

When it comes to Climate Change (science), the GOP & Trump path is clear: Ignoring, denying, & suppressing discussion of reality: https://www.askideas.com/see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil-skull-designs/

At the best, when it comes to climate science, Trump flings #AlternativeFacts dung like a monkey and the GOP machine operates on a bastardized version of the three monkeys admonishing to ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’.

As the nation watches the Trumpian GOP anti-science agenda go into action and the momentum to a Scientists March on Washington accelerates, the climate situation worsens.

Seeing that 408ppm figure yesterday struck me … reminded me that physical reality marches on even as #WomensMarch brought millions of Americans to the streets with 100s of marches in what might have been the largest US political demonstration in history (to date … we do not know what will come as the resistance to the Trump regime mounts).

It also reminded me of the below, when some of the world’s top supermodels ‘took it off’ for climate action — stripped to the bare basics with a promise of more — back in fall 2009 in a symbolic showing of the necessity to start stripping down the excess human-added layers of greenhouse gas (GHG) in the atmosphere.

The video, as you will see, ends with this line:

So this is what 352 parts per million looks like. If you want to see 350 parts per million, our natural state, then you have to get your politicians to act now.

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Core to #MAGA, @TeamTrump encompasses many of the worst anti-science pontificators and activists not just in the United States, but globally.  Core to this is climate science denial. Thus, as Trump (falsely) took the Oath of Office (and immediately became in violation of it due to the Emoluments Clause), the Trumpist White House website replace President Obama’s and the words “climate change” disappeared from it. (That is, until I put up Boost the American Economy Through Climate Action petition.)

Science denial has quickly been spreading through the Administration, with orders squelching government agencies’ and employees’ abilities/rights to engage with the public, posted tweets ordered deleted, threats to programs, and now a quite explicit directive to remove basic science from government websites.

A Siegel @A_Siegel

Humanity-hating @TeamTrump/@RealDonaldTrump rushes forward w/#NewSpeak, orders @EPA to erase #Climate#sciencehttp://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN15906G …

8:03 AM – 25 Jan 2017

Trump administration tells EPA to cut climate page from website: sources

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the climate change page from its website, two agency employees told Reuters, the latest move…

mobile.reuters.com

As is being reported, Team Trump has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to eliminate climate change and climate change science from its communications with the public.

employees were notified by EPA officials on Tuesday that the administration had instructed EPA’s communications team to remove the website’s climate change page, which contains links to scientific global warming research, as well as detailed data on emissions. The page could go down as early as Wednesday, the sources said.

Perhaps the most significant environmental threat and issue … and the EPA will soon go dark on it.

Myron Ebell, an anti-climate change activist [climate-science denier] who led Trump’s transition efforts at the EPA is quoted as saying, “My guess is the web pages will be taken down, but the links and information will be available,” implying that the individual resources might be buried within the EPA web directory when the climate change landing page is deleted.

Ahh … so all won’t be lost totally even if one might get lost searching for the material.

The anonymous sources aren’t very sanguine.

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The Keystone XL pipeline debate has been a preeminent space for that old analytical adage of “Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics”.  Truly, the debate adds a fourth category: “Statistical Claims about KXL Job Creation“. While Republican politicians made claims sometimes over 1 million jobs and industry advocates regularly pontificated about 100,000, TransCanada came down to the creation of 13,000 temporary construction jobs (for two years), State Department analysis concluded roughly 5,000-6,000 jobs (over a three-year period), and independent analysis questioned whether even that number would be reached.  When serious systems analysis occurred, looking at potential impacts of gas price increases in the upper Midwest and other negative (such as due to pollution) implications, the results questioned whether — on net — there would be any US job creation.

Today, Trump reopened the Keystone XL battle with a (yet to be published) Executive Order (or perhaps a memorandum … things are murky at the moment) calling for a fast-track re-evaluation of the project.  In promoting this, Trump remained true to his inner core — blustering with #AlternativeFacts to gain support for the project. Trump trumpeting that the pipeline would create a “lot of jobs, 28,000 jobs, great construction jobs.” As Business Insider headlined this:  Trump claims the Keystone XL pipeline will create 7 times more construction jobs than it actually will.

The project would create approximately 3,900 construction jobs in Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas during the one or two years it takes to build the pipeline, the report suggests.

That number is seven times less than the one Trump suggested earlier today …

The number of permanent employees the pipeline would require after construction ends is dismally low: just 35.

Just like Trump’s hands, in Trump’s mind, Keystone XL job creation will be YUGE!

Regretfully, this announcement has garnered some union support which repeats the erroneous job creation figures.  The Teamsters, actually, went higher than Trump: claiming 42,000 jobs or an order-of-magnitude higher than likely.

Now as for some context:

• The state of oil prices calls into question whether Keystone XL would be built even if approved.  Tar Sands requires significantly higher prices than today’s oil market to justify expansion such that Keystone XL would be necessary.
• Rather than focusing on projects designed to blow the carbon bubble up, the United States could (should) invest in projects like interstate transmission lines, improving water tunnels, 21st century water treatment, clean energy projects (like wind turbines) that would generate greater prosperity and far more well-paying jobs.  Skilled union labor could help strengthen America for the 21st century rather than helping dig the fossil-fuel hole deeper.
  • And, let’s be clear, clean energy has been one of the greatest US job creators and creating living wage jobs.  Solar energy, alone, is accountable for about 1/8oth of total US job creation since the Great Recession. Wind technician is the fastest growing job category. Etc …
  • Rather than #alternativefacts, here is fact: Clean energy creates lots of good paying jobs and could create even more if Trump decided to boost the American economy through climate action.

Reactions to Trump’s move include:

• Keystone XL: Still a bad idea
• Trump & Keystone Steel

In its opening minutes, the Trump White House website went up.

The White House Effect: Science Denial Propaganda (“Fake News”) from @TeamTrump/@RealDonaldTrump

Should it surprise any that truth was one of the victims in this transfer from President Barack Obama to Team Trump?

As part of that, science — in particular, climate science?

Along with nearly 1,000,000 of my fellow citizens, I spent 21 January 2017 in democratic engagement on the streets of Washington, DC, at the Women’s March.  Along with so many other Americans, hard to count the reasons for dedicating myself ‘to the streets’ for the first day of the Trump Regime and the first full day of #TheResistance to this illegitimate President.

I took the opportunity, along with so many others and even as I wore a pink Planned Parenthood hat, to make my statement (no surprise from me) focus on climate change and climate science.

Thus, to the right is the shirt from yesterday.

• The back emphasizes the science denial and propaganda (#FakeNews) that
  

  Climate Science reality: The Greenhouse Effect

  we already see and expect to see from the Trump Administration. They are dominated by Fossil Fools and seek to take the nation backwards toward a more polluting and less economically valuable fossil fuel past.

• The front points to reality: the climate is changing, humanity is driving this change, and this is creating serious — and ever-mounting-risks.  Climate chaos isn’t interested in the Fake News — alt-right (neo-Nazi) ‘alt-reality’ in social media doesn’t negate science.

Many people commented positively on the shirt through the day — more than a few pictures taken.

And, in response to comments & photo taking, an explanation:

• Three Rs critical: reduce, reuse, and recycle.
• This shirt exemplifies all three:
  • Reduce: this shirt has been around awhile, been worn quite a bit, and (perhaps) contributed to a few fewer shirt purchases.
  • Reuse: been used at more than a few rallies and protests.
  • Recycle: recycling from Administrations, as this shirt has now been used for rallies of four Presidents.
• As to that last, this shirt is now more than 25 years old and something produced by the Union of Concerned Scientists for Earth Day 1990 — as part of pressure on the George H.W. Bush Administration to engage honestly with the mounting scientific evidence of the seriousness of Global Warming and the necessity for government action to mitigate those risks.

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