July, 24 2018, 12:00am EDT
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Press Call - New Study Exposes Dirty Renewable Energy System - With Mark Jacobson
Noted Climate/Energy Scientist Mark Jacobson Will Discuss “Cleanwashing” Study, Which Grades States on Cleanliness of Their Renewable Energy Programs
WASHINGTON
On a press call today, noted climate scientist Dr. Mark Jacobson will join the research and advocacy group Food & Water Watch to discuss the release of a new study that exposes the dirty reality of renewable energy in America today. The evaluation reveals that many states count filthy, polluting energy sources such as garbage and animal waste incineration as "renewable" under their respective renewable energy portfolio (RPS) initiatives. The study assigns a letter grade to each state evaluated, based on the cleanliness and quality of its RPS programs. Grades range from B- to F.
WHAT: Press call to discuss release of new "Cleanwashing" study on dirty renewable energy in America
WHO:
- Dr. Mark Jacobson, noted climate and renewable energy expert, Stanford University;
- Food & Water Watch report authors and policy experts;
- Local activists and community leaders fighting dirty "renewable" energy across the country.
WHEN: Today, Tues. July 24, Noon ET / 9 am PT
CALL-IN DETAILS:
Dial: (888) 466-9863
Passcode: 756-7908#
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
(202) 683-2500LATEST NEWS
Racist Donald Trump Says Kamala Harris 'Happened to Turn Black'
"This unhinged and shameful person should never be near the presidency again," said Congressman Robert Garcia. "He's a disgrace."
Jul 31, 2024
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's long and well-documented history of racism garnered fresh attention on Wednesday after the Republican nominee's comments about Vice President Kamala Harris, his presumptive Democratic opponent, at a convention for Black reporters.
During Trump's appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) event in Chicago, he was asked about racist claims from some Republicans that Harris is a "DEI hire," a reference to the diversity, equity, and inclusion policies targeted by the GOP.
"She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage," Trump said. "I didn't know she was Black, until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?"
Trump tells Black journalists that Kamala Harris "is of Indian heritage ... is she Indian or is she Black? ... she became a Black person." Note the audience laughing at him. pic.twitter.com/PAhmgr1yBS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 31, 2024
Harris, whose nomination process is set to begin Thursday, was born to an Indian mother and Jamaican father. As she recalled in a 2019 debate, she was "a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day." She went on to graduate from the historically Black Howard University.
Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah, who announced on social media Tuesday that she "decided to step down as co-chair from this year's #NABJ24 convention," reported Wednesday that "the crowd has actually been gasping and upset at Trump's attacks on NABJ, Kamala Harris' racial identity, etc."
While some right-wing figures celebrated Trump's comments about Harris' identity, there was also significant backlash beyond the convention.
Sharing a video on social media, Nebraska state Sen. Megan Hunt (D-8) said: "Unreal, racist, worth watching, and I have to say it's a good thing that he's out on the record in serious spaces talking about how he really feels. Keep it up, here’s your guy, conservatives."
Congressman Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) declared: "This unhinged and shameful person should never be near the presidency again. He's a disgrace."
Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement that "the hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president as he seeks to regain power and inflict his harmful Project 2025 agenda on the American people."
"Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency—while he failed Black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch he left us in," Tyler continued, echoing the campaign's comments ahead of the Wednesday event. "Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us."
"Today's tirade is simply a taste of the chaos and division that has been a hallmark of Trump's MAGA rallies this entire campaign. It's also exactly what the American people will see from across the debate stage as Vice President Harris offers a vision of opportunity and freedom for all Americans," he added. "All Donald Trump needs to do is stop playing games and actually show up to the debate on September 10."
Harris supporters and anti-racism advocates have anticipated such comments from Trump and his allies and expect them to continue. Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, wrote Monday in a Common Dreams opinion piece, "As a society, we cannot simply brush off verbal attacks and racist misogyny as acceptable speech."
"Working towards real systemic change in a world that recognizes and addresses the real harm caused by anti-Asian and racialized misogyny," she argued, "will take all of us speaking up against these kinds of attacks that have been allowed to go on for far too long."
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7 Green Groups That Didn't Back Biden Just Endorsed Harris as 'Our Only Choice'
"With a President Harris, we will have a chance to build the political power to move the bold climate initiatives we need."
Jul 31, 2024
Progressive climate and environmental advocacy groups on Wednesday stressed the threat posed by the Republican presidential ticket and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the November election.
One coalition of six groups—350 Action, Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, Clean Water Action, Climate Hawks Vote, Food and Water Action, and Friends of the Earth Action—cited Harris' record as vice president and a U.S. senator from California.
Despite his months as the presumptive Democratic nominee, none of the organizations had endorsed President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the race and backed Harris earlier this month.
"Vice President Harris is a visible leader in the Biden-Harris administration's successful work to address environmental injustice, tackle the climate crisis, hold polluters accountable, reduce water pollution, and ensure clean drinking water for all," said Clean Water Action president and CEO Jeff Carter, emphasizing that her actions "have made a real difference in people's lives."
Jeff Ordower of 350 Action highlighted that in addition to being "part of the administration that invested in renewable energy through the historic Inflation Reduction Act," Harris "has a history of taking on Big Oil and advocating for environmental justice."
"As a global climate movement, we know Harris represents not just the ability to make progress in the U.S., but globally as well," he added. "For those... who care about democracy, climate, and decreased corporate capture of our government, Kamala Harris is our only choice."
"For those... who care about democracy, climate, and decreased corporate capture of our government, Kamala Harris is our only choice."
Kierán Suckling, president of the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, similarly urged "everyone who cares about our planet, environmental justice, women's rights, civil rights, and our democracy to get out and vote for Kamala Harris to be our next president."
Suckling also took aim at former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, declaring that "Harris will lead us toward a brighter future for our children and grandchildren, and put the nightmare of Trump behind us."
Trump—who earlier this month announced Big Oil-backed Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate—has vowed to "drill, baby, drill" and roll back the Biden-Harris administration climate policies if fossil fuel executives pour money into his campaign.
Although the U.S. is among five wealthy countries that have led a global surge in oil and gas development this year, Harris' campaign has warned that "oil barons are salivating" over Trump's potential return to the White House.
A March study found that Trump's plans for a second term would lead to 4 billion more tons of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere by 2030 when compared with the policies of Biden—who has passed the torch to Harris, whose online nomination process is set to start on Thursday.
"Kamala Harris' record provides a stark contrast with Donald Trump and the far-right, pro-polluter Project 2025," said Wenonah Hauter, founder and executive director of Food and Water Action. "Of course, much more needs to be done, and Harris' positions do not yet go far enough to tackle the existential threats to our food, water, and climate."
"But with a President Harris, we will have a chance to build the political power to move the bold climate initiatives we need," Hauter emphasized. "Four more years of Trump and Project 2025 will further accelerate an already escalating climate crisis and eviscerate important protections for our food and water."
The six groups that backed Harris but not Biden were among the campaigners and scientists angered by the president supporting the Willow project and Mountain Valley Pipeline, continuing fossil fuel lease sales, skipping last year's United Nations summit, and declining to declare a national climate emergency.
As HEATED, which scooped the endorsement news, reported late Tuesday:
Harris has already received endorsements from the so-called "Big Green" groups—the political arms of the League of Conservation Voters, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, and Clean Energy for America. But those weren't much of a surprise, as each group had already backed Biden's reelection bid, and are traditionally loyal to Democratic Party politicians.
The groups endorsing Harris on Wednesday, however, had so far held off on throwing their support behind Biden while he was running for reelection—in part because of the sitting president's mixed record on climate policy.
"It was very much a debate" on whether to endorse Biden, said one of the group's staffers, who spoke on background because the Harris announcement is not yet public. But with Harris, the calculus has changed.
"Because of her work in California and when she was a senator—a lot of us worked with her on creating the Environmental Justice for All Act—it gives us hope," the staffer said. "She's just a different person [than Biden], and has a stronger track record."
"Friends of the Earth Action is excited to endorse Kamala Harris for president of the United States," the group's president, Erich Pica said Wednesday. "We are not going back to an era dominated by fossil fuel interests, corporate greed, and disenfranchisement. Instead, we're looking forward to building a healthy and just future with Vice President Harris."
For Climate Hawks Vote, this is the organization's first presidential endorsement since its founding over a decade ago.
"We're breaking our usual rule of not endorsing in presidential elections, given our strong history with Kamala Harris (we endorsed her in her 2016 Senate race), her track record in taking on Big Oil and holding polluters accountable, and the extraordinary moment of this election," explained RL Miller, the group's president. "We are climate hawks who vote, and we'll be flocking together for Kamala Harris."
The Green New Deal Network—which also never endorsed Biden—separately threw its support behind Harris on Wednesday.
"What the Green New Deal really is, is understanding that everything's connected," the network's national director, Kaniela Ing, toldInside Climate News. "Making sure our tax dollars aren't just going to kill children abroad, but to build schools and hospitals here at home… Local control of resources, self-determination of our communities. That's the vision Kamala Harris, given her background—being bused to schools, really being a product of a lot of our social programs—really understands."
One group that has not yet endorsed Harris but has certainly been attentive to both major party tickets is the youth-led Sunrise Movement. The organization warned earlier this month that the Republicans would cause "catastrophic and irreversible damage" to the climate if elected, and some members were arrested for a Monday protest Vance's Senate office on Capitol Hill.
That same day, Sunrise rallied outside of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C. to urge Harris "to put forward a comprehensive plan on the economy and climate."
Sunrise is also part of a youth-led coalition—which includes Gen-Z for Change, March for Our Lives, and United We Dream Action—that wrote to Harris last week, "This is your chance to energize young people and our communities to vote, mount one of the greatest political comebacks in decades, and deliver a resounding defeat to the far-right agenda of Trump and Vance."
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Study Links Processed Red Meat to Dementia Risk
"This is really consistent with a larger body of science that tells us that diets that are lower in fat, lower in sugar, higher in vegetables overall, are what's really better for our brain health," said one expert.
Jul 31, 2024
Replacing one serving of processed red meat per day with healthier foods was linked to a 20% drop in dementia risk, preliminary research presented Wednesday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Philadelphia revealed.
The research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, tracked more than 130,000 participants in a pair of related medical studies for more than 40 years. It found that people who consumed more than two weekly servings of processed red meats—which include bacon, lunch meats, sausages, and other cured, salted, smoked, or preserved meats—had a 14% increased risk of dementia compared with those who ate less than three servings per month.
"We found that eating processed red meat could be a significant risk factor for dementia."
The study also linked each additional daily serving of processed red meat to more than 1.6 years of cognitive aging for overall cognitive function and nearly 1.7 years for verbal memory.
"Study results have been mixed on whether there is a relationship between cognitive decline and meat consumption in general, so we took a closer look at how eating different amounts of both processed and unprocessed meat affects cognitive risk and function," lead researcher Yuhan Li, an assistant professor at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said in a statement.
"By studying people over a long period of time, we found that eating processed red meat could be a significant risk factor for dementia," she added.
Heather Snyder, the Alzheimer's Association vice president of medical and scientific relations, toldNBC News that "this is really consistent with a larger body of science that tells us that diets that are lower in fat, lower in sugar, higher in vegetables overall, are what's really better for our brain health."
Li recommends including recommendations to limit processed red meat consumption in official dietary guidelines.
"Processed red meat has also been shown to raise the risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes," she said. "It may affect the brain because it has high levels of harmful substances such as nitrites and sodium."
The good news is that the researchers found that replacing one daily serving of processed red meat with foods including beans, nuts, and tofu could result in a 20% lower risk of dementia.
Furthermore, some experts said that while the new study showed more people who consumed processed red meat developed dementia, the research does not show cause and effect.
"It's important to remember that this doesn't mean that eating processed red meat is directly related to developing dementia," Richard Oakley of the U.K. Alzheimer's Association toldThe Guardian. "It may be that people who avoid processed red meat are generally more health conscious and avoid other unhealthy habits that increase dementia risk."
In addition to the health risks of eating both processed and unprocessed meats, animal agriculture also exacerbates the climate emergency. A 2020 study by researchers at the University of Michigan and Tulane University commissioned by the Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group, found that if Americans halved their consumption of animal products, it could prevent 1.6 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions within a decade.
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