Somalia’s “mis-government” has turned a brutal drought into a horrific famine. But “if it weren’t in drought, it wouldn’t be in famine,” as Dr. Chris Funk, one of the world’s foremost authorities on East African drought explained to me in an exclusive interview today.

And Funk’s work provides strong evidence that global warming has exacerbated the drought.

Funk, a US Geological Survey scientist and founding member of UC Santa Barbara’s Climate Hazard Group, deserves our attention because he is “part of a group of scientists that successfully forecast the droughts behind the present crisis,” as he explained in an August article in Nature.

In Dadaab in northeastern Kenya, the IRC gives fortified food to malnourished young children whose families are fleeing drought and famine in Somalia.  Photo: Peter Biro/IRC

You might assume bloggers who write about East Africa — confusionists who falsely assert that “Those who are familiar with Somalia’s recent history and current state of affairs do not mention climate change as a relevant factor to the country’s latest tragedy” — would actually read the relevant scientific journals.  But I find again and again that many people writing on the subject just don’t know what they’re talking about or even bother to spend even a minute or two googling the subject.

I have been reviewing the literature on drought in the past few weeks for a major article on Dust-bowlification invited by a leading science journal.  It will be published next week!

It seems increasingly clear that global warming is exacerbating the East African drought in a number of ways.   As Funk explained to me, the sea surface temperature [SST] rise in the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific in recent decades are “well-correlated with global temperatures.”  This is an area where “models and observations agree.”

Funk examined the historical data to show that those rising SSTs have already had serious consequences for East Africa — in a 2010 journal article he co-authored, “A westward extension of the warm pool leads to a westward extension of the Walker circulation, drying eastern Africa.”  Here is how Nature summarized its findings in a January piece:

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House Republicans are on defense after their latest attacks on the EPA and clean air. The House recently passed two bills that would block the EPA from regulating toxic materials at cement kilns and power plants.

Now, legislators are feeling pressure from environmental groups, particularly in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The group Environment New Jersey has targeted three Republicans who represent one of the smoggiest states in the country. Meanwhile, the National Resources Defense Council has launched an ad campaign against Pennsylvania Reps. Tim Holden (D) and Lou Barletta (R) for supporting weakened rules. Their offices have responded, telling PoliticsPA they did not repeal “existing” regulation under the Clean Air Act, despite the fact they voted against cleaner standards. Holden responded:

I mean, if they would have said ‘Holden represents the … coal fields and he votes for coal,’ I deserve that. But I don’t deserve to have pictures of children, innocent children, with masks on like we’re hurting their health.

However, by preventing new measures, the representatives are hurting public health. For instance, new EPA rules would limit oversight of coal ash, which contain toxins like arsenic and lead. Spokesmen for the congressmen evade accusations by saying they did not roll back “existing” regulations. The EPA estimates the House’s actions would lead to more than 32,500 premature deaths.

These measures stand little chance of moving further than the House, with President Obama threatening to veto the bills. Legislators will continue to be put on the defense in coming months, with environmental groups reporting a financial boost from the House’s attacks.

Concerns about China’s support of domestic solar companies have been brewing for years. But they have finally come to a boiling point — and it’s causing some in the solar industry to feel burned.

The German solar manufacturer SolarWorld, along with six other unnamed companies, filed a petition to the U.S. Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission today, calling for America to challenge China’s “illegal” subsidies to solar companies and develop tariffs for Chinese products:

With a large number of subsidies and preferential treatments, the Chinese government and its state authorities have enabled its solar industry to make price cuts well beyond their own efficiency and to massively expand the export of its goods. Many documented cases of violations of social, quality and environmental standards that regulate production sites in the U.S. and Germany have also been discovered.

SolarWorld, which just laid off 66 people at a facility in California, says that China’s “unfair practices” make it nearly impossible for solar manufacturers to continue operations in the United States.  SolarWorld executives hosted an event on Capitol Hill in Washington today with two Democratic Senators from Oregon, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley. The company’s U.S. headquarters are based in Oregon.

Speaking to reporters at the event, Gordon Brisner, president of SolarWorld’s U.S. business, called China’s subsidies “no different than giving an athlete a bucket of steroids.”

But here’s the problem: No one really knows how potent those “steroids” are. Or if they’re illegal.

Climate Progress and other publications reported recently on the more than $30 billion in loans that the China Development Bank had offered Chinese companies in 2010. However, those are offers to take down the loans over a multi-year period. Many companies have not yet taken the full amount offered, so it’s difficult to make a direct comparison between loans to Chinese and U.S.-based firms.

The terms of the loans are also difficult to dissect. Suntech says it is getting a loan from the China Development Bank at 5% interest —far above what an American loan guarantee would provide. But in many cases, provincial governments will pay that interest for the company along with providing other perks. Take this example, from a very detailed investigative piece in the New York Times last year:

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During the Las Vegas GOP debate last night, one question turned to a more local issue for Nevadans when the candidates were asked about their position on the proposed nuclear waste-burial site planned to be in Yucca Mountain, 90 miles away from Las Vegas.

While former Speaker Newt Gingrich said Yucca was a good location for it, former Gov. Mitt Romney said it was a states’ rights issue. “If Nevada says, ‘Look, we don’t want it,’ then let other states make bids and say, ‘Look, we’ll take it,’” he said.

And for once, Texas Gov. Rick Perry acknowledged that he agreed with Romney’s position:

“From time to time Mitt and I don’t agree, but on this one he’s hit the nail on the head,” Perry said.

“Allow the states to make the decision,” Perry added. “And some state out there will see the economic issue and they will have it in their state.”

Now Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who has endorsed Perry, is hoping that Perry will join him in supporting the Yucca Mountain project, which Nevadans strongly oppose:

Inhofe told reporters outside the Capitol Wednesday that he hopes to speak with the Perry camp on the matter.

“I am looking forward to that conversation,” Inhofe said. Inhofe also said he did not believe the question about Yucca was asked fairly in the debate.

“I think you will see a more modified answer next time,” Inhofe said.

The Obama administration has backed away from the Yucca Mountain proposal, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has consistently opposed the plan.

And during the GOP debate, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) also said he approached the issue from a states’ rights perspective, but he reached a different conclusion than Romney and Perry: “What right does 49 states have to punish one state and say we’re going to put our garbage in your state? [...] I think that’s wrong.”

Started by Former President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative helps direct money and human resources toward the world’s biggest problems — with climate change at the top of the priority list.

The Center for American Progress has been involved in a number of projects with CGI, recently working with the organization to help broker $1 billion in energy efficiency investments from public pension funds.

But what if Clinton decided to shake things up and employ the world’s most famous actors — Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Jack Black, Matt Damon, Sean Penn, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen & Kevin Spacey – to help brainstorm solutions to the world’s most pressing problems? The hilarious below video, produced by CGI and FunnyOrDie.com, helps imagine what might happen:

Clinton Foundation: Celebrity Brainstorm from President Bill Clinton

“We are earning the scorn and condemnation of history…. It is magical thinking to imagine that somehow we will be spared the plain and foreseeable consequences of our failure of duty.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) delivered a 23-minute stemwinder last week on the failure of the U.S. Senate to act on global warming pollution.  Here’s the remarkably blunt opening:

Mr. President, I am here to speak about what is currently an unpopular topic in this town. It has become no longer politically correct in certain circles in Washington to speak about climate change or carbon pollution or how carbon pollution is causing our climate to change.

This is a peculiar condition of Washington. If you go out into, say, our military and intelligence communities, they understand and are planning for the effects of carbon pollution on climate change. They see it as a national security risk. If you go out into our nonpolluting business and financial communities, they see this as a real and important problem. And, of course, it goes without saying our scientific community is all over this concern. But as I said, Washington is a peculiar place, and here it is getting very little traction.

Here in Washington we feel the dark hand of the polluters tapping so many shoulders. And where there is power and money behind that dark hand, therefore, a lot of attention is paid to that little tap on the shoulder. What we overlook is that nature — God’s Earth — is also tapping us all on the shoulder, with messages we ignore at our peril. We ignore the messages of nature of God’s Earthand we ignore the laws of nature of God’s Earth at our very grave peril.

I have little doubt future generations will curse our names if we keep listening to the “siren song of well-paying polluters.”  Whitehouse makes this point better than any national politician I’ve heard — by reviewing the science and the politics in a speech few of his fellow politicos have the guts or wisdom or conscience to deliver.

This is a speech Obama should have given — heck, he still can — but his spin-meisters (notably David Axelrod) and his own fecklessness prevent him.  And so his presidency is headed toward the (coal) ash-heap of history.

Here is the must-see video of the whole speech and the full transcript ( via TP Green):

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The U.S. energy secretary says the debate about climate change reminds him of the old argument that smoking isn’t bad for you.

Steven Chu also urged greater investment in clean energy as he spoke Tuesday in Paris to an International Energy Agency meeting of energy ministers and industry leaders.

He says that because the evidence of climate change is growing more compelling and the price is oil is likely to rise, countries must turn to clean-energy production.

Chu criticized attempts to “muddy the waters” on climate change science.

He said the debate in the U.S. reminds him of what he “heard as a young person growing up about how cigarette smoking was not really bad for your health.”

This isn’t the first time Chu has made this argument.  Last year he spelled it out in a little more detail that the AP does:

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In an op-ed today in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) expands upon how his energy policy fits into his jobs plan as part of his presidential campaign. Energy policy is at the center of the Republican race, he explains:

The United States is an energy-rich country living like an energy-poor country. We purchase hundreds of billions of dollars of energy from overseas while keeping many of our own energy resources locked up in the ground. Reversing this backward dynamic is a critical pathway to creating economic growth and jobs.

In Pennsylvania and neighboring states, we are seeing the tremendous benefits that domestic energy development can confer. Tapping the Marcellus shale deposits promises not only to supply clean and inexpensive energy to our country for the next century but also to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. [...]

[My plan] dramatically streamlines regulation so that government facilitates production instead of interfering. It opens up vast new swaths of territory, on- and off-shore, for development.

And while Romney concedes in the Tribune-Review that Energy Development alone will not fix the economy, he fails to consider the dangers of expanding oil drilling or the risks associated with fracking, the process used to tap natural gas deposits in the Marcellus shale. But considering that Romney received energy policy guidance from pollution lobbyist Jeffrey Holmstead, his apologies to the industry are not surprising.

In May, ThinkProgress reported that Romney was seeking advice from Holmstead, a top industry lobbyist who worked to corrupt air pollution laws at the Environmental Protection Agency during the George W. Bush administration. He has a long history of lobbying for energy companies and ties to the Koch group Citizens for the Environment.

The policies Romney is pushing along with whom he has leaned on for advice only go to show that his loyalties lie with the energy companies rather than protecting the environment and health of Americans.

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

by Pete Altman, in an NRDC Switchboard cross-post

It was bad enough that Pennsylvania congressmen Tim Holden (PA-17) and Lou Barletta (PA-11) voted for a bill that the American Lung Association called “The single greatest roll-back of Clean Air Act protections in history.”

Now, they are misleading their constituents about those votes.

NRDC took out television ads criticizing both members’ support for supporting dirty air legislation. Now Holden and Barletta are insisting that that their votes have done nothing to repeal or remove existing environmental protection agency regulations.

For the record, PoliticsPA reported:

“Holden told PoliticsPA that he did not vote to repeal any existing anti-pollution regulations…”

and that a spokesman for Barletta said:

““Every single vote cited keeps current EPA regulations in place and allows the EPA to continue to regulate pollutants.”

There are a few problems with these statements. First of all, NRDC’s ad says that the members

“voted to let polluters dump mercury, soot, smog and arsenic into the air. Toxic pollution that causes thousands of hospital visits, asthma-related illnesses and even deaths.”

Tellingly, neither member denied that assertion.

Instead, they resorted to misdirection — answering charges that no one has made. By framing their votes as doing nothing to “existing” or “in place” regulations, perhaps they think it will sound like they took nothing away from their constituents.

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Delaying action climate change would be economically and environmentally disastrous, adding hundreds of billions of dollars in new costs per year. But taking aggressive steps to solve the problem could be one of the greatest wealth opportunities ever presented.

By putting a value on greenhouse gas emissions, businesses can better leverage new investments in infrastructure, innovate new technologies, and develop energy management systems to unlock the value of efficiency and conservation.

That is all happening today. But not at a fast enough pace to meet the problem.

And the world’s largest investors agree. Today, in the lead-up to the COP 17 climate talks in Durban, South Africa, 285 of the top investors representing $20 trillion in assets signed a letter of support for policy action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:

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Other big story below: Top Ten Clean Energy Breakthroughs?

Image: DeSmogBlog

36 Lawmakers Berate State Department on Keystone Pipeline

With a decision expected by the end of the year from the Obama administration on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, members of Congress have sent two letters to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raising concerns over the State Department’s handling of a critical environmental review of the project.

A letter sent late last week by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and two Vermont senators, Patrick Leahy and Bernard Sanders, criticized the State Department for assigning the review of Keystone XL to a consulting firm with financial ties to the pipeline’s operator and urged the federal government to start the process all over again.

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Yesterday, Republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry issued a “positive” video highlighting his environmentally disastrous energy policy: Drill more, mine more, burn more. Michele Bachmann, another candidate who has proposed opening the Florida Everglades to offshore oil drilling, said of Perry’s plan: “I appreciate you endorsing my energy ideas.”

All the leading Republican candidates might as well be endorsing each others’ plans. Except for centrist John Huntsman, they are all calling for a shut-down of the Environmental Protection Agency, a rollback of environmental regulations, a repeal of renewable energy programs, and a drill-everywhere-burn-everything-under-the-ground approach.

Where’s the vision from these so-called “leaders?”

If you’re looking for some inspiration on the energy front during these dark political times, you can always find some from the Rocky Mountain Institute (where Climate Progress editor Joe Romm worked for 2 years in the early 1990s). The organization, which focuses on profitable, market-based solutions to our energy challenges, is about to release its latest project: Reinventing Fire.

The promo video below offers a teaser to RMI’s Reinventing Fire project, a detailed plan showing how to transition to a mostly renewable energy-based country by 2050 — all while growing the economy by 158%. This is the conversation we should be having. Why don’t we see more videos like this from leading politicians?

Here are some great factoids from RMI’s plan:

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