It was, instead, The Climate Report.
In what U.N. Secretary General António Guterres called “a code red for humanity,” scientists from around the world warned humans have fueled “unprecedented” climate change, with potentially catastrophic consequences.
My colleagues Brady Dennis and Sarah Kaplan reported on the stark choices the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment has laid before the world:
“The landmark report states that there is no remaining scientific doubt that humans are fueling climate change. That much is “unequivocal.” The only real uncertainty that remains, its authors say, is whether the world can muster the will to stave off a darker future than the one it already has carved in stone. …
But so far, the collective effort to slow climate change has proved gravely insufficient. Instead of the sort of emission cuts that scientists say must happen, global greenhouse gas pollution is still growing. Countries have failed to meet the targets they set under the 2015 Paris climate accord, and even the bolder pledges some nations recently have embraced still leave the world on a perilous path.”
It's the biggest political story in the world, a grinding global crisis in public view, bringing deadlier, more violent storms, larger, more wildfires, a promise of rising oceans that threaten to make coastal cities uninhabitable, dangerous heat waves, food and water shortages, and tropical diseases spreading beyond their traditional boundaries – crying out for action from leaders around the world.
But because it’s a political story, it’s not just about “action” but about trade-offs, about how, and how quickly, to retool economies to curb emissions that feed the climate crisis, and manage the pain to workers who stand to lose.
“We know what must be done to limit global warming — consign coal to history and shift to clean energy sources, protect nature and provide climate finance for countries on the frontline,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
The trade-offs have often stalled the action.
Johnson, for instance, has come under heavy public pressure to block a new coal mine in the Northwest England region of Cumbria. The UK government is also eyeing a new oil field near Shetland.
In three months, the prime minister will host other world leaders in Glasgow, Scotland, for a summit that bills itself as potentially “the world’s best last chance to get runaway climate change under control.”
COP26 (the “COP” stands for the diplomatic jargon “Conference of the Parties”) says curbing emissions will require countries to “accelerate the phase-out of coal,” “curtail deforestation,” “speed up the switch to electric vehicles,” and “encourage investment in renewables.”
At home, Democrats have included some of their climate proposals in a $3.5 trillion budget resolution.
The Associated Press’s indefatigable Alan Fram reports the proposal “would include a new tax on imported fuels that spew carbon emissions, federal aid for clean energy developers and investments in low-polluting vehicles.”
But, as Alan notes:
“In one illustration of hurdles ahead, around $198 billion of the blueprint’s climate proposals would have to move through the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. That panel is chaired by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a centrist and staunch defender of his state’s energy interests who has pointedly warned that he supports an energy policy that’s ‘not elimination, it’s innovation.’”
Brady and Sarah noted time “certainly is not” on our side:
“To find a time when the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere changed this much this fast, you’d need to rewind 66 million years to the meteor that killed the dinosaurs.
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen to levels not seen in 2 million years, the authors state. The oceans are turning acidic. Sea levels continue to rise. Arctic ice is disintegrating. Weather-related disasters are growing more extreme and affecting every region of the world.”
Brady and Sarah also warned:
“If the planet warms much more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels — a scenario all but certain at the current pace of emissions — such change could trigger the inexorable collapse of the Greenland ice sheet and more than six feet of sea-level rise that could swamp coastal communities. Coral reefs would virtually disappear.”
(My colleagues Jason Samenow and Kasha Patel reported: “The report also highlights a probable increase in ‘compound’ extreme events, when one type of weather disaster feeds into and intensifies another. As a sobering example of this in late June, the British Columbia village of Lytton set Canada’s national temperature record of 121 degrees and then burned to the ground in a wildfire the next day.”)
Closer to home, my colleagues Juliet Eilperin, Brady, and John Muyskens run a dashboard of sorts to track the Biden administration’s proposals and actions on climate, as they did under President Donald Trump. Check it out here.
My colleague Sarah Kaplan, meanwhile, found “crucial reasons for hope” in the IPCC report:
“It does not find evidence for a single temperature threshold beyond which climate change will spiral out of control. It suggests that the feedback loops that come with high levels of warming — such as melting permafrost that releases more carbon into the atmosphere — are dwarfed by the current human emissions. The scale of increasing temperatures and escalating extremes is directly related to the amount of greenhouse gases people choose to unleash.”
It is, in other words, a political story.
What’s happening now
All population growth in the U.S. was driven by minorities, the upcoming 2020 census data will likely reveal. “For the first time in the history of the country’s census taking, the number of White people in the United States is widely expected to show a decline when the first racial breakdowns from the 2020 Census are reported this week,” Tara Bahrampour and Ted Mellnik report. “The new census data, planned for release on Aug. 12, will show definitively how the ethnic, racial and voting-age makeup of neighborhoods shifted over the past decade, based on the national house-to-house canvass last year. It is the data most state legislatures and local governments use to redraw political districts for the next 10 years.
“If the White decline is confirmed by the new data, that benchmark will have come about eight years earlier than previously projected, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution... The United States is also expected to have passed two other milestones on its way to becoming a majority-minority society in a few decades: For the first time ever, the portion of White people could dip below 60 percent and the under-18 population is likely to be majority non-White. ... Estimates from 2016 to 2020 show that all of the country’s population growth during that period came from increases in people of color. The largest and most steady gains were among Hispanics, who have doubled their population share over the past three decades to almost 20 percent and who are believed to account for half of the nation’s growth since 2010.”
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Lunchtime reads from The Post
- “What really happened in Afghanistan,” an excerpt from “The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War,” by our colleague Craig Whitlock: “The suicide bomber arrived at Bagram air base in a Toyota Corolla late in the morning on Feb. 27, 2007. He maneuvered past the Afghan police at the first checkpoint and continued a quarter-mile down the road toward the main gate. There, the bomber approached a second checkpoint, this one staffed by U.S. soldiers. Amid mud puddles and a jumble of pedestrians and vehicle traffic, he triggered his vest of explosives. The blast killed 20 Afghan laborers who came to the base that day looking for work. It also claimed the lives of two Americans and a South Korean assigned to the international military coalition ... Unharmed by the explosion was a VIP guest at Bagram who had been trying to keep a low profile: Vice President Dick Cheney. ... Within hours of the bombing, the Taliban called journalists to claim responsibility and to say Cheney was the target. U.S. military officials scoffed and accused the insurgents of spreading lies. ... But the U.S. military officials were the ones hiding the truth.”
- “CNN must investigate Chris Cuomo,” writes Post media critic Erik Wemple: “The AG report, of course, focuses on Andrew Cuomo’s conduct, not Chris Cuomo’s. That’s why CNN needs to commission a report of its own to determine just how its star anchor fit into this sexual harassment pushback effort. What, precisely, did he say in the conference calls? Was he aware that the executive chamber had provided false information to the Albany Times-Union as the paper explored the predicament of ‘Trooper #1’? What role did he play in the governor’s denials?”
… and beyond
- “What Bobby McIlvaine left behind,” by the Atlantic’s Jennifer Senior: “When Bobby McIvaine died on September 11, 2001, his desk at home was a study in plate tectonics, coated in shifting piles of leather-bound diaries and yellow legal pads. He’d kept the diaries since he was a teenager, and they were filled with the usual diary things — longings, observations, frustrations — while the legal pads were marbled with more variety: aphoristic musings, quotes that spoke to him, stabs at fiction. ... Less than a week after his death, Bobby’s father had to contend with that pitiless still life of a desk. And so he began distributing the yellow legal pads, the perfect-bound diaries: to Bobby’s friends; to Bobby’s girlfriend, Jen, to whom he was about to propose. ... One object in that pile glowed with more meaning than all the others: Bobby’s very last diary. Jen took one look and quickly realized that her name was all over it. Could she keep it? Bobby’s father didn’t think. He simply said yes. It was a reflex that he almost instantly came to regret.”
- “The next face of the Democratic Party,” by the Atlantic’s Edward-Isaac Dovere: “Sometime in the not-so-distant future, probably after next year’s midterm elections, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will announce that she’s stepping down. Her top deputies, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, aspire to her job, but they’re also in their early 80s, and most Democrats in and out of Congress are counting on them to step aside too. Of course, they all have stock responses denying that anyone is ever going anywhere. But the day is coming.”
- “The world’s greatest soccer player moves on,” the New Yorker’s Daniel Alarcón: “The story of why the world’s greatest soccer player has no team right now is ultimately not about sports at all. It’s about money.”
On the Hill
The Senate is voting on the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill today.
- The vote “follows weeks of turbulent private talks and fierce public debates that sometimes teetered on collapse, as the White House labored alongside Democrats and Republicans to achieve the sort of deal that had eluded them for years,” Tony Romm reports. “Even though the proposal must still clear the House, where some Democrats recently have raised concerns that the measure falls short of what they seek, the Senate outcome is poised to move the bill one step closer to delivering President Biden his first major bipartisan win.”
- “In recent weeks, Biden has hailed the proposal, which the White House helped craft alongside its chief congressional sponsors, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio). The two for weeks shepherded a group of 10 lawmakers from both parties toward a compromise that could thread a needle — proffering the massive investments Biden initially sought without raising alarm among spending-wary Republicans.”
- “Lawmakers jettisoned Biden’s plan to raise taxes on corporations to finance the new infrastructure investments, a nonstarter for Republicans, who strained to protect the tax cuts they instituted under President Donald Trump four years ago. Instead, their new legislative effort relies on a mix of odd measures — and potential budgetary gimmicks — to try to offset the cost. An official analysis of the bill by the Congressional Budget Office on Thursday found that lawmakers fell short, threatening to add more than $250 billion to the deficit over the next decade.”
Senate Democrats outlined the $3.5 trillion antipoverty and climate plan, their next big move.
- “Democrats released an outline of the $3.5 trillion antipoverty and climate plan on Monday, further detailing their ambitions for a major overhaul of the nation’s education and healthcare systems that they hope to advance alongside a bipartisan infrastructure bill,” the Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Duehren and Kate Davidson report. “Democrats will turn to it after the roughly $1 trillion infrastructure package. which includes new spending on roads, bridges, transit and broadband internet and is expected to pass the Senate on Tuesday.”
- “To cover the cost, Democrats are seeking to raise taxes on corporations and high-income households. The plan outlined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) on Monday also includes offering a pathway to lawful permanent status for certain migrants to the U.S. and lowering the price of prescription drugs. It calls for a federal paid leave benefit, a series of energy tax incentives and a program to push the U.S. to receive 80% of its electricity from clean sources by 2030.”
- The op-eds are pouring in: The plan is “reckless” and an “unprecedented disaster for hardworking families,” opined Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) in the Washington Examiner. Meanwhile, over at Fox News, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) promoted the plan by saying “the time is long overdue for Congress to address the long-neglected needs of ordinary Americans and not just the 1% and wealthy campaign contributors.”
Quote of the day
“To my colleagues who are concerned that this does not do enough on climate, for families, and for making corporations and the rich pay their fair share, we are moving on to a second track, which will make generational transformation in these areas,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said this morning as the Senate prepared to vote on the infrastructure bill, referring to the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget resolution. “Democrats are prepared to move quickly and decisively through the amendment process, so we can finish what we set out to do during the work period.”
The Biden administration won’t turn over Trump’s tax returns from the IRS to House Democrats until at least November.
- “A federal judge will hear arguments then on whether Trump can block the tax returns' release. The scheduling development puts on ice for the foreseeable future one of two major ongoing court cases over access to Trump's tax returns,” CNN’s Katelyn Polantz reports. “The Biden administration told Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee on the DC District Court, last week that the Treasury Department believes it should turn over Trump's tax returns ‘promptly’ to the House Ways and Means Committee. But the agency also agreed to hold off and allow Trump to argue against releasing the documents.”
A judge asked why Capitol rioters are paying just $1.5 million for the attack, while U.S. taxpayers will pay more than $500 million.
- “Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of Washington challenged the toughness of the Justice Department’s stance in a plea hearing for a Colorado Springs man who admitted to one of four nonviolent misdemeanor counts of picketing in the U.S. Capitol,” Spencer Hsu reports. “On Monday, she pressed the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington on why it was seeking to require only $2,000 in each felony case and $500 in each misdemeanor case.”
The Biden agenda
The Justice Department pledged to review evidence related to the 9/11 attacks ahead of the 20th anniversaries. Families want further action.
- “An advocate for some of the families responded by criticizing the move as insufficient and calling for the Biden administration to ‘provide the information the 9/11 community has waited to receive for 20 years, so we can stand together with the president at Ground Zero on 9/11,’” Felicia Sonmez and Amy B Wang report. “The developments come days after the families sent a letter to the White House declaring that President Biden is not welcome at this year’s memorial events marking the 20th anniversary of the attacks unless he declassifies investigative evidence uncovered by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission that they say implicates Saudi Arabian government officials in supporting the attacks.”
The U.S. vowed to isolate the Taliban if they take power by force.
- “A U.S. peace envoy brought a warning to the Taliban on Tuesday that any government that comes to power through force in Afghanistan won’t be recognized internationally after a series of cities fell to the insurgent group in stunningly quick succession,” the AP’s Kathy Gannon and Tameem Akhgar report. “Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy, traveled to Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office, to tell the group that there was no point in pursuing victory on the battlefield because a military takeover of the capital of Kabul would guarantee they will be global pariahs. He and others hope to persuade Taliban leaders to return to peace talks with the Afghan government as American and NATO forces finish their pullout from the country.”
North Korea is threatening to boost its nuclear program ahead of drills between the U.S. and South Korea.
- “The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Tuesday that Pyongyang could move to bolster its nuclear and conventional weapons program in response to a major joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea set for this month,” Min Joo Kim and Simon Denyer report. “North Korea has complained for decades about the twice yearly joint exercises between South Korea and the United States, calling them a war rehearsal. The two democracies say their actions are defensive in nature.”
The pandemic
As the delta variant surges, indecision is along for the ride (again).
- “After a couple of glorious months with diminished concern about the coronavirus, the delta variant has imposed a deja vu of risk-reward calculations on Americans, a throwback to the early months of the pandemic when every decision was preceded by a mental run through the positives and negatives,” Carissa Wolf, Douglas Moser, Roxana Popescu and Lenny Bernstein report. “The speed and sheer number of changes in the pandemic have whipsawed a weary and sometimes confused public. The seven-day average number of daily infections, which sank to 11,254 on June 21, hit 114,688 Monday, a more than tenfold increase in seven weeks. ... It’s a lot to deal with.”
- “Elizabeth Whittington, 43, of Southaven, Miss., attended a child’s school open house Tuesday night, and ‘the place was just packed,’ with half the people in the crowded hallways not wearing masks. ‘They may have been vaccinated, I don’t know,’ she said. ‘It’s hard to keep up with the ever-changing recommendations but even if you’ve been vaccinated now, if you’re going out in public and you’re inside, you should be wearing a mask.’”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) wants to withhold the salaries of superintendents and school board members who implement mask mandates.
- “Education funding is intended to benefit students first and foremost, not systems. The Governor’s priorities are protecting parents’ rights and ensuring that every student has access to a high-quality education that meets their unique needs,” DeSantis’s office said in a statement. In response, Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who runs the fourth largest school district in the nation said, “At no point shall I allow my decision to be influenced by a threat to my paycheck; a small price to pay considering the gravity of this issue and the potential impact to the health and well-being of our students and dedicated employees.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is facing legal challenges on the mask mandate ban as hospitalizations soar.
- “Abbott (R) is asking hospitals to stop non-emergency medical procedures to free up space for covid-19 patients as a rise in new infections limits the availability of hospital beds to treat them. Yet as Abbott touted the move as ‘taking action’ to combat coronavirus cases that are now averaging more than 10,000 each day in the state, his order to ban mask mandates is facing challenges,” Bryan Pietsch, Adela Suliman, Hannah Knowles and Derek Hawkins report. “Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, a Democrat and elected official, said Monday evening he is seeking a temporary restraining order against the ban, declaring that the governor lacks the legal authority to impose it.”
Hot on the left
“The bipartisan bill is step one of many,” by the American Prospect’s David Dayen: “There is a lot of internal pressure among Democrats to deliver on campaign promises and come up with something they can sell that way. The reconciliation bill is key to whether tomorrow’s historians and today’s public assess the months of bipartisan negotiation as a fool’s errand or a prelude to a historic victory. With the barest of majorities, it’s going to take the rest of summer and some of autumn to answer that question.”
Hot on the right
“Voting machine tampering is coming from inside the MAGA house,” the Bulwark’s Tim Miller reports: “After months of being promised by the former President and his stooges that Dominion Voting Systems had RIGGED the election, we finally have our first credible investigation into voting machine tampering. The lede in Monday’s Grand Junction Sentinel brings the Kraken: ‘The Mesa County Clerk’s Office is under investigation … for a breach in security over its election system.’ A breach! It’s Happening!!! But no, the breach wasn’t coming from the anti-Trump deep state. Instead, the clerk who is under investigation for tampering with the county election system is Tina Peters, a fervent supporter of Donald Trump and amateur vaccine science aficionado, who appears to have executed a self-own of historic proportion.”
Rising wages, visualized
$15 an hour is suddenly the rule, not the exception, for U.S. workers. It’s a major shift from pre-pandemic norms.
Today in Washington
Biden returned to D.C. from Delaware this morning. He will receive a briefing from FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, the DHS and coronavirus response teams on how the pandemic is affecting hurricane preparedness at 3:45 p.m.
In closing
Stephen Colbert clarified that he did not attend former president Barack Obama's birthday party: