June 1 - To the Editor:

A number of years ago I was given a T-shirt from New Hampshire Healthy Kids, which I wore proudly. On the back of the shirt was written, "A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I live in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be a different because I was important in the life of a child."

In a hundred years, but most likely much sooner, children will find out that the world they live in is quite different from that of their ancestors, unfortunately, not in a positive way. The actions and policies of Donald Trump's administration, supported by their accomplices in Congress will negatively impact the lives of today's children, and their children for generations to come.

In the short-term, children will be greatly harmed by the health care, educational, nutritional, environmental, economic, anti-science, gun violence and diplomatic policies of Mr. Trump and the Republicans. In almost every department of the federal government, policies have been initiated that will negatively impact the health and safety of children, as well as their economic futures. Polices that limit nutritional support, reduces control of toxins in our environment, cutting scientific research, cutting health care coverage, promoting more guns, even in schools, and cutting drug addition treatment services, to name some of the most obvious. Trump's proposed budget reflects a philosophy that is anti-child and only serves the interest of the very wealthy.

However, the most dangerous act of Mr. Trump was his decision to withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris Climate Accord. This action will place us in a class with the likes of Syria and Nicaragua, the only other non participants in the Paris Climate Accord. Trump and Republicans have long totally denied or have greatly minimized the reality and extent that human behavior is responsible for the warming of the planet, despite the overwhelming consensus of the world's scientific community that human behavior is causing climate change and immediate action is needed to slow the process. As one of the largest polluters in the world, the U.S. is doing huge harm to the planet by withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord. The message Trump is sending to our people and the world is that we do not believe in science, and we are wiling to gamble the future of our children and our planet for ideological political and destructive economic gains.

Obviously, Trump and his fellow Republicans care much more about the size of their bank accounts, the size of the house they live in and the type of car they drive, than what is important to the health and security of our children and future generations. Their short-term, immediate gratification self interest, "greed is good" mentality will have long-term destructive consequences for generations to follow. Shakespeare wrote, "The evil that men do oft lives after them, the good is interred with their bones." In Trump's and his allies case, their bones will be accompanied by little good, but the world's children will long suffer from the consequences of their evil actions that will live long after them. Their scornful place in history will be appropriately recorded.

Rich DiPentima

Portsmouth

Read the original:
Policies are hurting our children - Foster's Daily Democrat

(Above) Tom Steyer introduces a panel during the National Clean Energy Summit 6.0 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on August 13, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Below) Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. Isaac Brekken/Getty Images and Gage Skidmore/Flickr/Creative Commons

On June 1, KPCC produced a live on-air special on President Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. We interviewed U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher, R-Orange County, and investor and environmental philanthropist Tom Steyer about their views on the decision. Afterwards, we received many comments from listeners who felt we did not sufficiently challenge their claims. KPCC environment reporter Emily Guerin and correspondent Matt Bloom have this fact-check.

Rep. Dana RohrabacherI have no doubt that there are these climate cycles and we go through them and it's only been until recently that the politicians have tried to claim that we have to control people's behavior in order to control those climate cycles. And so I disagree with the theory that CO2, done by mankind, is a major cause for climate change.

KPCCNinety-seven percent of scientists are in agreement that human activities are responsible for global warming trends over the past 100 years. Most of the leading scientific organizations in the world have made public statements in support of this consensus, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union and the National Academy of Sciences.

Rohrabacher I think the CEOs [Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Disney CEO Bob Igner, who both condemned the President's decision], they don't have to worry about the unemployment the Paris agreement would cause.

The notion that the Paris climate agreement will cause anything is misleading, because the agreement is voluntary. Each country pledges to cut its emissions by a certain amount by a certain year. Every five years, each country reviews where its at and explains why it has or has not hit its targets. But the targets are not legally enforceable. Vox has a great explainer on this topic.

RohrabacherThe people of the Paris accord were insisting on things like the ending of frequent flyer miles, because they see the airplanes just the worst violators.

KPCC cannot find any evidence that the Paris accord mentions ending frequent flyer miles.

Rohrabacher We've had the most incredible, for the last 30 years, how do you say, political campaign to set a mindset in people's consciousness that some way every time there's some problem with the climate and you see a cycle going through, that that in some way has to do with human behavior, and thus there's an excuse to control human behavior. But I know a lot of people have looked into it who have come to this conclusion, and I certainly have, that there is a small impact of the manmade CO2 on the climate.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body of international scientists that regularly scrutinizes climate research, Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history. Recent climate changes have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems.

RohrabacherAl Gore said global warming was going to dramatically increase the sea level. And of course that never happened.

According to the IPCC, sea level rose seven inches between 1901 and 2010. Not only is the sea level rising, but its rising faster than at any time over the past two thousand years. And the rate is only expected to increase in the future.

Tom SteyerI think the president is attempting to make a winner out of the fossil fuel industry when it's in decline.

KPCCSteyer lumps all fossil fuels together here, but its a bit more complicated than that. Coal production is in decline, in part due to the lower costs of natural gas generation and growing market share of wind and solar power, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Last year, the EIA said natural gas provided 33 percent of U.S. energy generation while coals share fell to 32 percent, making 2016 the first year that natural gas-fired generation exceeded coal generation on an annual basis.

Meantime, EIA says production of both natural gas and oil in the U.S. is booming. Since 2012, the U.S. has pumped more oil and gas than any other country in the world.

SteyerI think what we've seen in the marketplace is that renewables plus storage is cheaper than fossil fuels.

When Steyer says "storage," he means the ability to store the electricity produced by solar or wind generation in massive batteries so that the energy is available later, when the wind is no longer blowing or it's cloudy.

The REN21 Renewables Global Futures Report from the United Nations says that renewables are now the least expensive option for new power generation in almost all countries. Butthe limitations of existing infrastructure are abarrier to further expansion.

Steyer It's unrealistic to think that the federal government doesn't have a role to play in our economy. For one thing, they fund an awful lot of research.

A lot of federal research and development grants jump start businesses here in Southern California. For example, the Department of Energys Advance Research Projects Agency-Energy, also known as ARPA-E, gave $2 million to Marine BioEnergy Inc. in La Caada to develop a system for turning kelp into fuel. Other federally funded programs include $1 million for UCLAs effort to build a better battery for electric vehicles. The Trump administration has signaled that it wants to eliminate ARPA-E funding next year.

SteyerBut the fact of the matter is number one, you have to acknowledge the problem (climate change) before you talk about solving it. And number two, we believe that solving it will create better jobs, better paying jobs, and will help the health of Americans. So we not only solve a huge threat to America but we make ourselves better off and healthier.

A 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Energy found that California was home to 40 percent of the country's solar energy jobs, a number that could rise as the state moves toward ambitious renewable energy goals. Since 2004, greenhouse gas emissions in California declined over nine percent while the state's GDP grew 28 percent, according to the California Air Resources Board.

Follow this link:
KPCC reporters fact-check Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Tom Steyer's climate claims - 89.3 KPCC

Invisibilia, Latin for "the invisible things," explores the invisible forces that shape human behavior things like ideas, beliefs, assumptions and emotions. In Season 3 premiering in June hosts Alix and Hanna will delve into the ways our concepts shape our worldviews and how we mold our own reality. You can hear the new season of InvisibiliaThursday nights in June at 8:00 PM, starting June 1, 2017.

Episode 1: Emotion(airing Thursday, June 1) How real and inevitable are our emotions? In the first stories of the new season, we're giving emotions a similar treatment to the one we gave to thoughts in the very first episode of Invisibilia (The Secret History of Thoughts). Where do our emotions come from? How seriously should we take them? Do they tell us truths about the world that should guide our behavior or should we be more skeptical about them? To explore these questions, we look at an unusual case in the American justice system. Then we follow a man as he discovers a new emotion that no one in western culture has experienced before.

Episode 2: Reality Check(airing Thursday, June 8) How real is our own reality? What happens when people can't agree on reality? Many in our increasingly polarized society confront this question every day. In this episode we meet Umpires in training who have a lock on what's really happening and visit a small town in Minnesota, called Eagle's Nest, that has a unique experience with the reality divide: some of the people in the town believe that wild black bears are gentle animals to be fed and befriended, while many others take a more traditional view on the human-bear relationship. This leads to conflict and, ultimately, a tragic death. Then we meet a young man who is taking extraordinary steps to break himself out of his own reality bubble.

Episode 3: The Other Self(airing Thursday, June 15) How does the culture help shape the reality each of us lives in? In this episode we explore a theory about prejudice that has taken hold in recent years: implicit bias. The rise of this concept was facilitated by the public release of a psychological test that can be done online called the Implicit Association Test, which purports to measure a secret, hidden part of ourselves that most of us can't directly access: our racism. Although embraced by many as an incredible breakthrough in our understanding of the human psyche, it has also received pushback from groups and individuals who don't believe that it is accurately measuring bias. In this story we follow the development of the test and theory of implicit bias and talk to several people who are trying to confront and change their other self.

Episode 4: True You(airing on Thursday, June 22) What realities should we entertain for ourselves? In this episode we pose one of our favorite questions to ask children: What do you want to be when you grow up? Many people have these visions of their future selves; fantasies of a smarter, better, richer, more successful version of the people they are today. In many ways these future selves motivate us, pushing us to improve ourselves as we seek to achieve our dreams. But they can also be dangerous, mocking us for everything we have failed to become. Our stories take us into the life of a Syrian orphan who forged a new identity and life despite all odds and we go to North Port, Florida, where the principal of a high school did something unusual, and pretty extreme, to try and help his students reach their full potential, in an experiment that went horribly wrong. Then we travel to another world entirely; the dream world, where a woman is seeking answers from within.

Visit link:
New Season Three Of Invisibilia - Thursday Nights In June 2017 - Valley Public Radio