Posted on 18 August 2024 by BaerbelW, Doug Bostrom, John Hartz

Story of the week

At the risk of becoming monotonous, our Story of the Week yet again is Project 2025. This would be true if only by numbers alone; assessed by article count Project 2025 dominates this week's listing. Leaving that aside, Skeptical Science's mission is that of combating groundless skepticism over human-caused climate change, a constraint on our choices.

While we share a wide variety of climate-related stories each week, we'd be off-piste and ignoring our purpose if we didn't focus on Project 2025. Why? Because Project 2025's climate policy intentions and implications are what can be thought of as the whole point of the entire climate denial apparatus, the ultimate, ideal objective of filling people's heads with fantastic yarns about how Earth's climate functions— and can be made to malfunction. Without this synthetic ignorance and confusion, building the critical mass of support needed for imposing obviously lunatic policies on urgent matters of climate mitigation and adaptation would be impossible. 

In the case of dealing with climate change mitigation and adaptation, the heft and reach of government is a mandatory component. Project 2025's authors recognize this, understanding key to their policy formulation.

How about everybody else? We'd best keep up. Here's this week's coverage of the policy package intended for launch in 2025:

• Inside Project 2025’s Secret Training Videos
• Project 2025 promises billions of tonnes more carbon pollution – study
• Project 2025 Aims to Break US Government & Ignore Climate Crisis if Trump is Elected
• Revealed: Shell Oil Non-Profit Donated to Anti-Climate Groups Behind Project 2025

In the sense of "are we collectively keeping our feet grounded in reality" the upcoming US general election is a referendum of sorts, a choice over how to perceive the world. On the one hand, 2+2 still equals 4. On the other, "facts" are whatever people want them to be, whatever is most comforting or convenient. The latter path is an interesting approach in philosophical terms but surely disastrous when it comes to dealing with unforgiving physics, physics being serenely oblivious to political ideology. 

Stories we promoted this week, by publication date:

Before August 11

• IOC President Thomas Bach Says Climate Change Could Affect Timing of Future Olympics The Games appear prepared to adapt to a warming world. Patrick Andres | Aug 9, 2024, Sports Illustrated, Patrick Andres. "The Games appear prepared to adapt to a warming world."https://www.si.com/olympics/ioc-president-climate-change-future-olympics
• Warm Ocean Water Creates a Host of Problems, PBS North Carolina, Frank Graff.
• Can this ocean-based carbon plant help save the world? Some scientists are raising red flags, CNN, Paddison.
• 400-year-old corals reveal “tragic” temperature rise on reef, Earth, Cosmos Magazine, Ellen Phiddian.
• All the errors and fakery from “Climate: The Movie (The Cold Truth)” that I can fit in., potholer54 on Youtube, Peter Hadfield.
• Inside Project 2025’s Secret Training Videos, Pro Publica, Andy Kroll (ProPublica) & Nick Surgey (Documented).

August 11

• 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #32, Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler, Doug Bostrom & John Hartz. A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, August 4, 2024 thru Sat, August 10, 2024.
• The existential threat to the Olympics, Youtube, Simon Clark.
• Australian fossil fuel exports ranked second only to Russia for climate damage with ‘no plan’ for reduction, Environment, The Guardian, Adam Morton. "Coal and gas exports expected to remain roughly at current level until at least 2035 with 4.5% of emissions linked to Australia, report finds"
• It’s more important than ever to talk about how climate affects immigration, Climate 100, The Independent (UK), Andrew Gilmoare. "With large-scale migration due to explode over the next few decades, Andrew Gilmour explains the five steps which need to be taken to avoid misery and destabilisation for millions all over the world"
• How Close Are the Planet’s Climate Tipping Points?, Interactive, New York Times, , Raymond Zhong and Mira Rojanasakul. "Earth’s warming could trigger sweeping changes in the natural world that would be hard, if not impossible, to reverse."

August 12

• Gales, torrential rains headed for the northeast Caribbean, Eye On the Storm, Yale Climate Connections, Bob Henson & Jeff Masters. "Tropical Storm Ernesto will sweep through the region from Tuesday into Wednesday."
• If you want Americans to pay attention to climate change, just call it climate change, Environment & Energy, The Conversation US,, Wändi Bruine de Bruin & Gale Sinatra.
• Arctic ocean may absorb less CO2 than projected due to coastal erosion, Climate & Environment, Los Angeles Times, Haley Smith.
• Are climate models overestimating warming?, The Climate Brink, Andrew Dessler. A comforting graph suggesting climate models are "running warm" falls apart under detailed scrutiny.

August 13

• Does Donald Trump understand how the ocean works?, Politics, Washington Post, Phillip Bump. "Once again Monday night, he claimed that rising sea levels would create 'more oceanfront property.' ”
• Ernesto strengthens on approach to Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Eye on the Storm, Yale Climate Connection, Bob Henson & Jeff Masters. "The sprawling storm is on track to be a long-lived Atlantic hurricane"
• This oil tycoon brings in millions for Trump, and may set his agenda, Politics, Washington Post, Josh Dawsey & Maxine Joselow. "Harold Hamm has become Trump’s point person in raising funds from oil industry donors and relaying to the ex-president what the industry wants."
• ‘The dumbest climate conversation of all time’: experts on the Musk-Trump interview, Environment, The Guardian, Oliver Milman. "Trump talked about 'nuclear warming’ while Musk said the only reason to quit fossil fuels is that their supply is finite"
• Why turning cities into ‘sponges’ could help fight flooding, Style/Architecture, CNN, Christy Choi.

August 14

• Project 2025 promises billions of tonnes more carbon pollution – study, Environment, The Guardian, Oliver Milman. "Experts say climate policies contained within rightwing manifesto would wreck US climate targets and cost jobs"
• Project 2025 Aims to Break US Government & Ignore Climate Crisis if Trump is Elected, CleanTechnica, Zachary Shahan.
• Texas Likely Undercounting Heat-Related Deaths, Justice & Health, Inside Climate News, Yuriko Schumacher, Emily Foxhall, Alejandra Martinez, Martha Pskowski & Dylan Baddour. "Deaths from heat are notoriously difficult to quantify because of how complex and subjective the process is. It leaves officials with an incomplete picture of who heat kills.
• How Wharton and Other Top Business Schools Are Training MBAs for the Climate Economy, Science, Inside Climate News , Mathilde Augustin . "As corporate America reckons with the climate crisis, business schools are adapting MBAs to focus on climate and sustainability."

August 15

• Hurricane Ernesto turns its attention to Bermuda, will churn up dangerous beach conditions for East Coast, Weather, CNN, Mary Gilbert.
• Revealed: Shell Oil Non-Profit Donated to Anti-Climate Groups Behind Project 2025, DeSmog, Geoff Dembicki. Foundation says it ‘does not endorse any organizations’ while funneling hundreds of thousands to rightwing causes.
• `We should have better answers by now`: climate scientists baffled by unexpected pace of heating, The Guardian, Jonathan Watts. The leap in temperatures over the past 13 months has exceeded the global heating forecasts – is this just a blip or a systemic shift?
• Climinator' vs. greenwashers: Researcher develops AI tool to debate climate on a factual basis, University of Zürich, Andres Eberhard. Companies like to act “green” by publishing thick environmental sustainability reports replete with photography of pristine landscapes, but precious few of them keep their promises. Finance professor Markus Leippold is using AI-based tools to fight greenwashing.
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #33 2024, Skeptical Science, Doug Bostrom & Marc Kodack. Skeptical Science's weekly survey of climate research.

August 16

• Sea level rise, explained, Yale Climate Connections, Samantha Harrington. It’s already straining coastal communities. And it’s set to get worse.
• Heat inequality `causing thousands of unreported deaths in poor countries`, World news The Guardian, Jonathan Watts and Isabella Kaminski. Friederike Otto of World Weather Attribution says poor people and outdoor workers are dying around the world
• Chair of Nuclear for Australia denies that calling CO2 `plant food` means he is a climate denier, The Guardian, Graham Readfearn. Dr Adi Paterson’s statements are apparently at odds with the group’s official position, which says nuclear is needed to tackle the climate crisis
• What to expect on climate at the Democratic convention, Politico Energy & Environment, Emma Dumain. Stark differences between US political parties on matters of climate change, by empirical evidence.

August 17

• Fact brief - Does CO2 correlate with global temperature long-term?, Skeptical Science, Sue Bin Park.